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Lou Pearlman

Louis Jay Pearlman (June 19, 1954 – August 19, 2016) was an American talent manager and scam artist. He was the person behind many successful 1990s boy bands, having formed and funded the Backstreet Boys. After their massive success, he then developed NSYNC.

In 2006, he was accused of running one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in United States history, leaving more than $300 million in debts. After attempting to evade capture, Pearlman was apprehended in Bali, Indonesia in June 2007. He pled guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during bankruptcy proceedings. In 2008, Pearlman was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died in federal custody in 2016.

Early life
Lou Pearlman was born and raised in New York City, New York, the only child of Jewish parents Hy Pearlman, who ran a dry cleaning business, and Reenie Pearlman, a school lunchroom aide.

He was a first cousin of the musician Art Garfunkel.

Pearlman's home at Mitchell Gardens Apartments was located across from Flushing Airport, where he and childhood friend Alan Gross would watch blimps take off and land. According to his autobiography, Bands, Brands, & Billions, it was during this period that he used his position on his school newspaper to earn credentials and get his first ride in a blimp. This is disputed by Gross, who claims he was the school reporter, and allowed Pearlman to tag along.

Garfunkel's fame and wealth helped inspire Pearlman's own interest in the music business. As a teenager he managed a band, but when success in music proved elusive, he turned his attention to aviation. During his first year as a student at Queens College, Pearlman wrote a business plan for a class project based on the idea of a helicopter taxi service in New York City. By the late 1970s, he had launched the business based on his business plan, starting with one helicopter. He persuaded German businessman Theodor Wüllenkemper to train him on blimps and subsequently spent some time at Wüllenkemper's facilities in West Germany learning about the airships.

Suspicions of insurance fraud and pump and dump
Returning to the U.S., Pearlman formed Airship Enterprises Ltd, which leased a blimp to Jordache before actually owning one. He used the funds from Jordache to construct a blimp, which promptly crashed. The two parties sued each other, and seven years later Pearlman was awarded $2.5 million in damages.

On the advice of a friend, Pearlman started a new company, Airship International, taking it public to raise the $3 million he needed to purchase a blimp, falsely claiming that he had a partnership with Wüllenkemper. He leased the blimp to McDonald's for advertising.

Pearlman then relocated Airship International to Orlando, Florida, in July 1991, where he signed MetLife and SeaWorld as clients for his blimps.

Airship International suffered when one of its clients left and three of the aircraft crashed. The company's stock, which had once been pumped up to $6 a share, dropped to a price of three cents a share, and the company was shut down.

After he took the company public in 1985, Pearlman became personally and professionally close to Jerome Rosen, a partner at small-cap trading firm Norbay Securities. Based in Bayside, Queens, and frequently in trouble with regulators, Norbay actively traded Airship stock. This sent Airship's stock price consistently higher, enabling Pearlman to sell hundreds of thousands of shares and warrants at ever-higher prices. However, Airship was reporting little revenue, cash flow or net income. In return for keeping his penny stock liquid, Pearlman allegedly paid Rosen handsome commissions, according to a mutual friend, that reached into 'the tens of thousands of dollars' per trade.

Entertainment industry career
Pearlman became fascinated with the success of the New Kids on the Block, who had made hundreds of millions of dollars in record, tour and merchandise sales. He started Trans Continental Records with the intent of mimicking their boy band business model. The record label's first band, the Backstreet Boys, consisted of five unknown performers selected by Pearlman in a $3 million talent search.

Management duties were assigned to a former New Kids on the Block manager, Johnny Wright, and his wife Donna. The Backstreet Boys became the best-selling boy band of all time, with record sales of 130 million, hitting gold, platinum, and diamond in 45 countries. Pearlman and the Wrights were then introduced to NSYNC, which was formed by Chris Kirkpatrick. Pearlman and the Wrights funded and managed NSYNC in a very similar fashion, selling over 70 million records globally.

With these two major successes under his belt, Pearlman had become a music mogul. Other boy bands managed by Pearlman were O-Town (created during the ABC–MTV reality television series Making the Band), LFO, Take 5, Natural, Marshall Dyllon (co-created with country music artist Kenny Rogers) and US5, as well as the girl groups Solid HarmoniE and Innosense, co-managed with Lynn Harless (the mother of NSYNC band member Justin Timberlake). Other artists on the Trans Continental label included Aaron Carter, Jordan Knight, Smilez & Southstar and C-Note.

Pearlman also owned the Church Street Station entertainment complex in Orlando, including a recording studio he called Trans Continental Studios, and a dance studio near Disney World named O-Town.

In 2002, Pearlman and Wes Smith co-wrote Bands, Brands and Billions: My Top 10 Rules for Making Any Business Go Platinum.

Band lawsuits
With the exceptions of US5 and Marshall Dyllon, all of the musical acts that worked with Pearlman sued him in federal court for misrepresentation and fraud. All cases against Pearlman either have been won by those who have brought lawsuits against him or have been settled out of court.

The members of Backstreet Boys were the first to file a lawsuit against Pearlman, feeling that their contract—under which Pearlman collected as both manager and producer—was unfair, because Pearlman was also paid as a sixth member of the Backstreet Boys (i.e., one-sixth of the band's own income). The band's dissatisfaction began when member Brian Littrell hired a lawyer to determine why the group had received only $300,000 for all of their work while Pearlman and his record label had made millions. Fellow boy band NSYNC was having similar issues with Pearlman, and its members soon followed suit.

At the age of 14, Aaron Carter filed a lawsuit in 2002 that accused Pearlman and Trans Continental of cheating him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and of racketeering in a deliberate pattern of criminal activity. This suit was later settled out of court.

Talent scouting scam scandal
In September 2002, Pearlman purchased Mark Tolner's internet-based talent company, Options Talent Group (formerly Emodel and Studio 58), which would subsequently go through several names, including Trans Continental Talent (TCT), Wilhelmina Talent Scouting (WSN), Web Style Network, Fashion Rock, and Talent Rock. Regardless of the name, all incarnations were based on the business model used by Emodel founder Ayman "Alec" Difrawi, himself a convicted con artist, who played a principal role in running Options/TCT/WSN and setting up Fashion Rock. The companies received unfavorable press attention, ranging from questions about their business practices to outright declarations that they were scams. - -  -  -  -  -  - "I Am Not a Model". Jane. March 2003. After Hotjobs and Monster.com pulled over a thousand of the company's job ads from their boards, they were further advertised on the Difrawi-founded "Industry Magazine" website.

The Better Business Bureau's opinion about Options/TCT/WSN was negative, citing a "pattern of complaints concerning misrepresentation in selling practices". The New York State Consumer Protection Board issued an alert, naming it the largest example they had found of a photo mill scam. San Francisco's labor commissioner declared Options/TCT/WSN in violation of California law, and several state agencies were reported to be investigating the company. In Florida, around 2,000 complaints were filed with the then-Attorney General Charlie Crist and the BBB, and an investigation was started by Assistant Attorney General Dowd. However, as the newly appointed Assistant AG MacGregor was unable to find "any substantial violations", no charges were filed. Further complicating matters was the fact that the company had since declared bankruptcy, "leaving no deep pockets from which to collect damages."

By June 2004, Fashion Rock, LLC had filed a civil suit for defamation against some who had criticized Pearlman's talent businesses. The case was dismissed and closed in 2006. One of the accused, a Canadian consumer-fraud expert Les Henderson, successfully pursued a libel lawsuit against Pearlman, Tolner, El-Difrawi and several others.

Fashion Rock, LLC lived on until February 2, 2007, when its assets were sold in Pearlman's bankruptcy proceeding. Difrawi continued filing lawsuits that were all dismissed and was most recently running Expand, Inc. dba Softrock.org aka Employer Network, from the same address as former TCT.

Ponzi scheme
In 2006, investigators discovered Pearlman had perpetrated what was then thought to be the longest-running Ponzi scheme in American history and had defrauded investors out of more than $1 billion, out of which $300 million is still missing. For more than 20 years, Pearlman had enticed individuals and banks to invest in Trans Continental Airlines Inc., TransCon Records, and both companies' parent, Trans Continental International Inc. All three companies existed only on paper—at least until Lou Pearlman's boy bands took off and TransCon Records was profiting from signed acts. After the success of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, he turned the groups and their fame into the engine to further expand his Ponzi scheme. Pearlman used falsified Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, AIG and Lloyd's of London documents to win investors' confidence in his program titled Employee Investment Savings Account, and he used fake financial statements created by the fictitious accounting firm Cohen and Siegel to secure bank loans.

Investigation and arrest
In February 2007, Florida regulators announced that Pearlman's Trans Continental Savings Program was indeed a massive fraud, and the state took possession of the company. Most of the at least $95 million which had been collected from investors was gone. Orange County Circuit Judge Renee Roche ordered Pearlman and two of his associates, Robert Fischetti and Michael Crudelle, to bring back to the United States "any assets taken abroad which were derived from illegal transactions."

Following a flight from officials, over the course of which he reportedly had been seen in Israel and Germany, Pearlman was arrested in Indonesia on June 14, 2007, after being spotted by a tourist couple from Germany. He was living in a tourist hotel in Nusa Dua in Bali. Pearlman had been seen in Orlando in late January 2007, in early February in Germany, including an appearance on German television on February 1. Reportedly he was seen in Russia, Belarus, Israel, Spain, Panama, and Brazil. In early February, an attorney in Florida received a letter from Pearlman sent from Bali. Pearlman was then indicted by a federal grand jury on June 27, 2007. Specifically, he was charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and filing false bankruptcy.

Conviction and sentencing
Five days before his sentencing in May 2008, Pearlman requested a telephone and an Internet connection two days a week to continue to promote bands. Federal judge G. Kendall Sharp of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida rejected the request.

On May 21, 2008, Sharp sentenced Pearlman to 25 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements during a bankruptcy proceeding. Pearlman could reduce his prison time by one month for every million dollars he helped a bankruptcy trustee recover. He also ordered individual investors to be paid before institutions in distributing any eventual assets.

Bankruptcy
Pearlman and his companies were forced into involuntary bankruptcy in March 2007. Trustees and lenders intended to auction off Pearlman's assets and personal belongings, including a mansion full of well-known works of art and priceless memorabilia. They quickly discovered the art and memorabilia was mostly fake. What could be sold was auctioned through eBay and a traditional bankruptcy auction house.

Church Street Station, a historic train station in downtown Orlando which Pearlman had purchased in 2002, was sold at a bankruptcy auction in April 2007 for $34 million. Several of Pearlman's belongings, including his college degrees, were purchased by The A.V. Club journalist and film critic Nathan Rabin during the eBay auction.

Cronin claim
In a 2009 interview with Howard Stern, Rich Cronin, the former lead singer of LFO, said that he had only received a fraction of the money owed to him from record sales. Cronin also claimed that Pearlman had "wanted to bang everyone" and had attempted to seduce him multiple times. (Cronin was of age.)

Fellow LFO band member Brad Fischetti, however, continued to refer to Pearlman as a friend, and expressed sadness at the news of his arrest, imprisonment, and death.

Nick Carter, when asked if the claim was true, suggested that bitterness might be a motivating factor for the claim.

In an interview conducted by the Orlando Sentinel, former NSYNC member Lance Bass, when asked about the claim, stated that Pearlman had never behaved inappropriately with them.

Death
In 2008, Pearlman began his prison sentence with a projected release date of March 24, 2029. However, he suffered a stroke in 2010 while incarcerated. He was diagnosed with an infection of a heart valve. Pearlman had surgery to replace a heart valve a few weeks before his death. The prison took him to a hospital where he was scheduled for another surgery.

Pearlman ultimately died while still in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, Florida, on August 19, 2016, from cardiac arrest. He was buried ten days later on August 29, 2016, in the family burial area. He was 62 years old.

Documentaries
Pearlman was featured in the third season of American Greed in the episode called "Boy Band Mogul" in 2009.

The documentary The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story, produced by Lance Bass; member of Pearlman's boy band NSYNC, premiered at SXSW on March 13, 2019. It was released on YouTube Premium in April 2019.

On December 13, 2019, Pearlman was the subject of an episode of ABC's 20/20 titled "The Hitman: From Pop to Prison".

In 2024, Pearlman's story was featured on Netflix's documentary series "Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam".

title: Lou Pearlman


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Half Past Human

Half Past Human is a fixup science fiction novel by American author T. J. Bass, published in 1971. Two short stories were combined and fleshed out to form this novel: "Half Past Human", first published in Galaxy Science Fiction in December 1969, and "G.I.T.A.R.", first published in If in November and December 1970. The novel belongs to the Hive series, which also includes The Godwhale.

Bass' Hive series of stories are replete with obvious and not-so-obvious references to nomenclature commonly used in pathology, including eponymic puns (note a male character's observation of a female character's attractive "Howell-Jolly body").

Half Past Human was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1971.

Plot summary
Bass' future Earth is an environment in which the sum of the biota serves as its food chain. Human science has created the four-toed Nebish, a pallid, short-lived and highly programmable humanoid who has had the elements that do not facilitate an underground Hive existence (aggression, curiosity, etc.) bred out of it. The five-toed humans (called buckeyes) wander the biofarms that keep the trillions of Earth's Nebish population fed. All vertebrates other than man and rat are extinct, so meat comes from other humans (and the occasional rat). The conflict between the Hives and the roving bands of five-toed original Humans, who are reduced to savagery and hunted like vermin by Hive Security, forms the backdrop of this novel.

The story begins as Old Man Moon and his dog Dan wander the fields. They are genetic experiments with their biological clocks stopped. They encounter Toothpick, a companion cyber from the days when technology was more advanced before the hive decline. Toothpick urges Moon to pick him up, but Moon does not like cybers—they work for the Hive. Toothpick promises food and when he makes good on his promise that an electrical storm will short circuit the agromecks from reporting his pilfering of the gardens, Moon considers Toothpick's offer of companionship. Toothpick explains he is a companion cyber, and when he promises new teeth for Moon and Dan, Moon agrees and the three set off on Toothpick's unstated mission.

Something strange is happening, as the primitive buckeyes are showing signs of a purpose whose goal is unclear and probably dangerous to the balance of the Hive. There seems to be a third party stirring the pot, campaigning in a relentlessly successful battle with the computer minds that keep this "brave new world" in balance. Agendas beyond the ken of their protagonists begin to come into play, and an epic battle between the Four- and the Five-toed is looming.

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

title: Half Past Human


text:
List of radio stations in Florida

The following is a list of FCC-licensed radio stations in the U.S. state of Florida, which can be sorted by their call signs, frequencies, cities of license, licensees, and programming formats.

Defunct

 * WAGE
 * WAXA
 * WBFT-LP
 * WCFI
 * WCFQ-LP
 * WCNU
 * WDDV
 * WDSP
 * WEAG
 * WEKJ-LP
 * WFAB
 * WFBO-LP
 * WFDM
 * WFHA-LP
 * WFJV-LP
 * WFLA (Boca Raton, Florida)
 * WFLP-LP
 * WFLU-LP
 * WFSH
 * WFSX
 * WFTI-FM
 * WGAG-FM
 * WGOT-LP
 * WGRO
 * WGRV-LP
 * WHBT
 * WHTR-LP
 * WINV
 * WKGC
 * WKIZ
 * WKJO-LP
 * WLAS-LP
 * WLMS
 * WLVF (AM)
 * WMJX
 * WNOG
 * WNPL
 * WNRG-LP
 * WORZ-LP
 * WPCU-LP
 * WPLP
 * WRAP
 * WREH
 * WSBR
 * WSUN
 * WSVE
 * WTHA-LP
 * WTKP
 * WVFP-LP
 * WVOI
 * WVST
 * WWSD
 * WYFR
 * WZRO-LP

title: List of radio stations in Florida


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Talk:Karaite Judaism/Archive 1

Karaite Judaism Page
What should we add to this page? I'm thinking about adding information on "Tefillin", the New Moon Sightings, as practiced (or not practiced) in Karaism. Any thoughts from anyone?

 * Why is the section on Ben Asher an identical copy to the main article bearing his name? JFW | T@lk  20:59, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

 * I would guess that it was copied from this page. I don't know. --Yoshiah ap 07:17, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Nah. Just describe the practices as they are practiced. (In other words, there is no need to talk about tefillin.) --Ami hertz 22:30, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

famous Karaites and Yehudi Menuhin
In his autobiography, "Unfinished Journey", the late violinist and music educator Yehudi Menuhin claims Karaite descent on his mother's side.

 * Thanks for the information. Do you know what he affiliated with? (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Karaite?)--Yoshiah ap 23:20, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Dates.
This article doesn't have any dates, could we have some? For example dates of foundation of the sect, and major events in it's history. Births and deaths of major figures and so on.

 * I'll see about getting some dates of significant leaders in Karaite history, however Karaism really didn't have a "founding". Some of us are descendants of the ancient Saducees. The common misunderstanding was that we were founded by Anan ben David, but he wasn't a Karaite. He used PaRDes, while Karaites only use Peshat. I could gather dates of when Anan ben David convinced the Muslim authorities to allow Jews to practice Non-Rabbinic Judaism. Would that work? --Yoshiah ap 21:27, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Anan ben David
"his own followers" was changed to "non-orthodox jews" because there were other groups that benefited his actions who were around at that time. The Isunians and the Yudganites, which existed before Anan, benifitted from his actions though they were not affiliated with him. Groups that came into existence after Anan, such as the Mishawites and the Ramlites similarly beniffited from Anan's actions.

 * While many believe that the Ananites merged with other groups to form Karaite Judaism, I've never seen a historian who suggested that Ananism merged with Rabbinic Judaism. Jayjg 14:44, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I've heard the suggestion before - but there's also a possiblity that they assimilated into other sects (like the ones mentioned above). To make it NPOV to any of the possiblities, I changed it to " which later assimilated into other existing sects, or perhaps dispersed altogether.", which would be accurate either way. Is that alright with you?--Josiah 02:40, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * No, because it is pretty widely (though not universally) believed that the Ananites were either a founding part of Karaism, or merged with other groups to form Karaism, but there is no historian that I am aware of who suggest that the Ananite movement merged with Rabbinic Judaism. If you have evidence of a historical school that believes the latter happened, please bring it forward.

 * I understand your desire to distance Karaism from Anan, but this stems from your own religious beliefs, which are not even those of all Karaites. Just as it would be inappropriate to write an article on Orthodox Judaism purely from the perspective of (say) a Modern Orthodox Jew, so to it is inappropriate to write and article about Karaism purely from your particular perspective. Jayjg 16:43, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Hi, I don't disagree that some of the Ananites merged into Karaism. However, I disagree with the idea that's the *only* place they merged into. Would you re-word it so that it doesn't imply that all ananites are the modern day Karaites?--Josiah 17:12, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I think it already says that, when it says they may have merged with Karaism, or dispersed, doesn't it? Jayjg 21:48, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Perhaps it's because of my POV, but when I read "which later assimilated into Karaism, or perhaps dispersed altogether." it registers "either they became karaites or simply died out", eliminating the possiblity of the other sects that existed in those time periods. That's why I had "which later assimilated into other sects".--Josiah 06:08, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * How about "which later assimilated into Karaism or other non-Rabbinic sects, or perhaps dispersed altogether". Jayjg 16:23, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * In all of your edits, you have explicitly dis-counted the possiblity that any of the Ananites returned to Rabbinical/Orthodox Judaism. Is there anything wrong with this, especially since they used PaRDeS? Ya'acov Al-Kirkisana wrote that, with exception to the Oral Tora, The Redemption of the Firstborn, and something else (I'm not reading from his writings, but grabbing my memory), that all of their beliefs could be traced to Rabbinical Lore. For these reasons, I believe "which later assimilated into sects, or perhaps dispersed altogether" would be more accurate.--Josiah 01:40, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * I have not discounted the possibility, but I have simply never seen any evidence for it, not any historians who suggest that it happened. Perhaps they merged with Muslims; perhaps they converted to Christianity.  Perhaps they migrated to North America and created the legends the Mormons now follow.  I suppose anything is possible, but the fact remains that there are many historians who say Anan founded Karaism, or that his followers merged with other groups to form Karaism.  There are none that I am aware of who say his followers merged with his foes, the Rabbinic Jews.  Al-Kirkisani's views on the Ananites are one valuable source, but not particularly more reliable than the Rabbinic sources on Anan and his followers, particularly as al-Kirkisani was hardly less hostile to the Ananites than the Rabbis were.  al-Kirkisani's views on Anan's methods of Biblical interpretation are interesting, but with the rejection of Oral Torah the Ananites had far more in common with later Karaites than with Rabbinic Jews. In any event, one cannot create history based on al-Kirkisani's view that Anan used Rabbinic Biblical methods of interpretation. Also, I think it is unreasonable to ignore or suppress the view that the Ananites were an important part of Karaism, particularly as so many historians and Karaites believe he was.  Jayjg 02:51, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Al-Kirkisani was not the only one who shared that view. However, I took down the article on my site about Anan because I needed to reword my position on him, and the "origins" of Karaism. I changed it into "other groups" - is that ok?--Josiah 23:50, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * No, because it (again) deliberately leaves out Karaism, which is where most scholars and Karaites believe the Ananites ended up. Jayjg 15:37, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * Your latest edit works for me.--Josiah 20:02, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Karaite Judaism and Jesus
What do Karaites believe about Jesus?

 * Hi, in Etz Hayim by Aaron ben Eliyahu, Aaron wrote that "At the time of the second Temple when the authority of the Greeks ruled the people of Israel, the former, as a result of their contact with the Jews, their religion and its true teachings, upon the advent of Jesus the son of Mary, immediately adopted his false teachings in order not to accept the faith of Israel, thus demonstrating their envy and hatred." Ya'acov Al-Kirkisani wrote that (paraphrasing from memory) "some say that Jesus was a good man, and was one of the first to reject the Rabbinite Traditions". I'd directly quote it, but the writings I have of his are currently packed. (I'm getting ready to move)--Josiah 23:42, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Misconceptions section possibly confusing
The section about common misconceptions regarding Karaism confused me at first. It features a bulleted list, not of the misconceptions themselves, but their denials. When I read "Karaites do not wear tefillin", I could not tell whether this was itself a misconception, and that Karaites did wear tefillin, or whether the misconception was that they did when in fact they don't. It was only when I got down to the misconception about belief in Jesus that I figured out the intended reading, because I was pretty sure that a group like the Karaites would not believe in Jesus. But my ignorance on the subject had me on the fence up to that point.

I suggest a wording something like this, before the bulleted list:

"There are many common misconceptions about Karaite beliefs and practices. For example, it has been incorrectly asserted that Karaites venerate Jesus.  But in fact:"

On second thought, this suggestion is not the masterpiece of clarity I was hoping for. But something should be inserted to make it clear that the bulleted statements are not themselves misconceptions, but rather authoritative assertions intended to counter misconceptions. I have no doubt some skilful encyclopedist will have exactly the correct phrasing at the ready.

 * I've re-worded it; hope it's clearer now. Jayjg 02:57, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Karaite Judaism/Archive 1


text:
Nielsen Holdings

Nielsen Holdings plc (or Nielsen) is an American information, data and market measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide.

Two major subsidiaries are Nielsen Media Research, which was responsible for TV ratings, and AC Nielsen, which was responsible for consumer shopping trends and box-office data.

The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and used to be a component of the S&P 500.

Formation
Nielsen was founded in 1923 by Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr., who invented an approach to measuring competitive sales results that made the concept of "market share" a practical management tool. The company was originally incorporated in the Netherlands and later was purchased on May 24, 2006, by a consortium of private equity firms.

Merger and listing
In January 2011, Nielsen consummated an initial public offering of common stock and, subsequently, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NLSN". On August 31, 2015, Nielsen N.V., a Dutch public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, merged with Nielsen Holdings plc, by way of a cross-border merger under the European Cross-Border Merger Directive, with Nielsen Holdings plc being the surviving company. The merger effectively changed the place of incorporation of Nielsen's publicly traded parent holding company from the Netherlands to England and Wales, with no changes made to the business being conducted by Nielsen prior to the merger.

2022 buyout
In March 2022, Nielsen announced that it had accepted a $16 billion offer from a group of private equity investors led by Elliott Investment Management subsidiary Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., and Brookfield Business Partners. The Nielsen board of directors had turned down an initial $9 billion offer from the investment consortium. The transaction was completed in October 2022.

Company information
Nielsen is a global, independent measurement and data company for fast-moving consumer goods, consumer behavior, and media. With a presence in more than 100 countries and services covering more than 90% of the globe's GDP and population, Nielsen provides clients with data about what consumers watch (programming, advertising) and what they buy (categories, brands, products) on a global and local basis and how those choices intersect.

The company's operations span developing and emerging markets worldwide, in more than 100 countries. According to SEC records, on February 26, 2015, Nielsen N.V., announced that its board of directors unanimously approved a proposal that resulted in a change in the company's legal domicile, from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. Upon approval, the company became incorporated under English law and was registered as a public limited company to be named Nielsen Holdings PLC.

Up to 2022, James Attwood Jr. was Nielsen's non-executive chairman, who succeeded Dave Calhoun as Executive Chairman in January 2016. Prior to joining Nielsen as CEO in 2006, Dave Calhoun served as Vice Chairman of the General Electric Company and President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Infrastructure, the largest of six GE business units. He served as Nielsen CEO from 2006 to 2014, when he was succeeded by Mitch Barns. Barns joined Nielsen in 1997, and has held various roles in Europe, Asia, and North America leading major parts of the business.

On December 3, 2018, David Kenny was named CEO of Nielsen, succeeding Mitch Barns.

In September 2023, Karthik Rao was named CEO of Nielsen, succeeding David Kenny who became Executive Chairman.

While the Nielsen brand is most often associated with television ratings, those TV rating services comprise approximately one-quarter of the company's business and revenues. After substantial work to simplify the company over the last several years, Nielsen today aligns its business into two reporting segments: Buy (consumer purchasing measurement and analytics) and Watch (media audience measurement and analytics).

What consumers buy
Nielsen's Buy segment (approx. 45% of global revenues) primarily helps packaged goods companies, retailers, and Wall Street analysts understand what consumers are buying in terms of categories, brands and products. The company's aim is to measure all consumer purchases as buying behavior continues to fragment across channels and segments. For example, it is Nielsen's data that measures how much Diet Coke vs. Diet Pepsi is sold in stores, or how much Crest versus Colgate toothpaste is sold. Nielsen accomplishes this by purchasing and analyzing huge amounts of retail data that measures what is being sold in the store, and then combines it with household panel data that captures everything that is brought into the home. These measures of sales performance also fuel a range of forward-looking analytics to help clients improve the precision and efficiency of their advertising spending, maximize the impact of their promotion budgets and optimize their product assortment. They also can provide insights into how changes in product offerings, pricing or marketing would change sales. Major clients include The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé S.A., The Procter & Gamble Company, Unilever Group, and Walmart. While the United States is the company's largest market, Nielsen is a global company. In the Buy business, it covers 106 countries representing more than 90% of the world's population.

What consumers watch
Nielsen's Watch segment (approx. 55% of global revenues) primarily measures what consumers are watching (and listening to) across most devices: TV, radio, computers, mobile, over-the-top, etc. The company measures consumption of programming and advertising across all distribution points. Nielsen's ratings are used by advertisers and networks to shape the buying and selling of advertising. Major clients include CBS, NBC Universal, News Corporation, and The Walt Disney Company. Nielsen's Watch business measures media in 47 countries that together represent approximately 80% of global advertising spending. Nielsen's digital audience measurement capability is a rapidly growing part of this footprint.

Arthur C. Nielsen and the invention of "Market Share"
Arthur C. Nielsen founded the AC Nielsen Company in August 1923 with the idea of selling engineering performance surveys. It was the first company to offer market research. The company expanded its business in 1932 by creating a retail index that tracked the flow of food and drug purchases. This was the first retail measurement of its kind and for the first time allowed a company to determine its "share" of the market—the origination of the concept of "market share" Arthur C. Nielsen is credited with coining this business term.

Radio and television
In 1936, Arthur C. Nielsen acquired the Audimeter, which measured which radio stations a radio had been tuned to during the day. After tinkering with the device for a few years, the company created a national radio rating service in 1942. The company collected information on which stations radios were tuned to in one thousand homes. Then, this survey data was sold to manufacturers who were interested in the popularity of programs and demographic information about listeners for advertising purposes. This was the birth of audience measurement that would become the most well-known part of Nielsen's business when applied to television. Today, these are commonly referred to as "Nielsen ratings".

The company began measuring television audiences in 1950, at a time when the medium was just getting off the ground. Just as with radio, a sampling of homes across the U.S. was used to develop ratings. This information was collected on a device that was attached to a television that recorded what was being watched. In 1953, the company began sending out diaries to a smaller sample of homes ("Nielsen families") within the survey to have them record what they had watched. This data was put together with information from the devices. This combination of data allowed the company to statistically estimate the number of Americans watching TV and the demographic breakdown of viewers. This became an important tool for advertisers and networks.

In the 1980s, the company launched a new measurement device known as the "people meter". The device resembles a remote control with buttons for each individual family member and extras for guests. Viewers push a button to signify when they are in the room and push it again when they leave, even if the TV is still on. This form of measurement was intended to provide a more accurate picture of who was watching and when.

In July 2008, Nielsen released the first in a series of quarterly reports, detailing video and TV usage across the 'three screens' – Television, Internet and Mobile devices. The A2/M2 Three Screen Report also includes trends in timeshifted viewing behavior and its relationship to online video viewing, a demographic breakdown of mobile video viewers and DVR penetration.

On September 30, 2016, Nielsen made its Digital Content Ratings available in full syndication for clients.

On September 9, 2016, Nielsen announced that it would retire its paper TV diaries by mid-2017 and provide all electronic measurement in its local television ratings.

Private equity
Nielsen was acquired by the Dun & Bradstreet Company in 1984. In 1996, D&B divided the company into two separate companies: Nielsen Media Research, which was responsible for TV ratings, and AC Nielsen, which was responsible for consumer shopping trends and box-office data. In 1999, Nielsen Media Research was acquired by the Dutch publishing company VNU (Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen). VNU later acquired AC Nielsen and recombined the two businesses in 2001. In between, VNU sold off its newspaper properties to Wegener and its consumer magazines to Sanoma. The company's publishing arm also owned several publications including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard magazine. VNU combined the Nielsen properties with other research and data collection units including BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra. VNU also acquired companies that added to its measurement capabilities.

Becoming a public company
Nielsen was a private company from 2006 through 2011. On January 25, 2011, the company listed itself on the New York Stock Exchange and issued an initial public offering (IPO) that raised $1.8 billion in the largest private equity-backed U.S. IPO since 2006.

2004
Nielsen began a joint venture called AGB Nielsen Media Research with WPP Group's AGB Group, a European competitor which provides similar services.

2006
VNU acquired a majority stake in Buzzmetrics, a company which measures consumer-generated media online. Under the new ownership, Nielsen bought the remaining shares of the company in 2007. In the same year, Nielsen acquired Telephia, which measures mobile media, and Bilesim Medya, a Turkish advertising intelligence firm. VNU was acquired by a group of six private equity firms: the American Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman, and Dutch equity firm AlpInvest Partners for £5bn. In the same year, the group hired David L. Calhoun, formerly of General Electric, as CEO. He renamed VNU as The Nielsen Company in 2007. VNU sold its business publications division for €320m (£210m) to venture capital group 3i, which then sold the UK division (VNU Business Publications Ltd) to Incisive Media.

2007
In June, Nielsen acquired Telephia, a provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets.

2008
Nielsen acquired IAG Research which measures viewer engagement with TV commercials. The same year, Nielsen made a strategic investment in NeuroFocus, a California firm applying neuroscience brainwave techniques for consumer research. The firm was later fully acquired by Nielsen in 2011 In 2009 and 2010, Nielsen sold its business magazines; its well-known entertainment properties went to the new company e5 Global Media.

2009
Nielsen acquired The Cambridge Group, a management consulting firm headquartered in Chicago. The firm researches latent and emerging consumer demand.

2010
In June, Nielsen paired with McKinsey & Company to create the social media consulting company NM Incite. NM Incite had operations in 13 global markets, including: US, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Canada and Korea.

2011
In August, Nielsen acquired Marketing Analytics, Inc.

2012
In February, Nielsen launched The Demand Institute in collaboration with The Conference Board. The Demand Institute is a non-profit, non-advocacy organization. In July, Nielsen acquired the advertising tech company Vizu. The acquisition was made so that Nielsen can better analyze the effectiveness of online advertisement. In November, Nielsen acquired SocialGuide, a provider of social TV measurement, analytics and audience engagement solutions. On December 17, 2012, Nielsen disclosed that it would acquire Arbitron, a company primarily involved in radio audience measurement, for $1.3 billion. The successful acquisition was completed on September 30, 2013.

2013
On June 17, 2013, Nielsen announced that Onex Corp (TSX: OCX) had completed the acquisition of Nielsen Expositions for $950 million in cash consideration. Nielsen Expositions operated tradeshows in the United States. The company was renamed Emerald Expositions Inc. after the transaction.

2014
On February 3, 2014, Nielsen announced the acquisition of Harris Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ:HPOL). This allowed Nielsen to take ownership of The Harris Poll. Later on February 26, 2014, Nielsen acquired Nexium, a retail in-store execution and sales analytics company. On September 18, 2014 Nielsen announced the acquisition of Indicus Analytics Pvt Ltd. On October 8, 2014, Nielsen acquired Affinnova, an international media and marketing research firm. The Affinnova team joins Nielsen's legacy BASES team to form Nielsen's Innovation Practice area.

2015
On January 22, 2015, Nielsen acquires Brandbank, specialized in the process of digitally collecting, managing and distributing FMCG product and brand image content for retail syndication across in-store, print promotional and e-commerce platforms. On March 4, 2015, Nielsen announced the acquisition of Exelate, a provider of data and technology to facilitate the buying and selling of advertising across programmatic platforms. On May 27, 2015, Nielsen acquired Innerscope Research, which specialized in consumer neuroscience using biometrics, eye tracking and facial coding. Nielsen renamed its combined offering as Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience, and named Carl Marci as Chief Neuroscientist.

2016
On March 3, 2016, Nielsen acquired Pointlogic, in marketing decision support systems. On March 10, 2016, Nielsen acquired Mumbai-based mobile usage measurer Informate Mobile Intelligence for an undisclosed amount. On June 21, 2016, Nielsen acquired Repucom, a sports measurement, evaluation and intelligence company based in Stamford, Connecticut. On December 20, 2016, Nielsen announced its agreement with Tribune Media Company to purchase Gracenote, a provider of media and entertainment metadata.

2017
On January 5, 2017, The Carlyle Group acquired Claritas from Nielsen. On January 23, 2017, the Stagwell Group announced that it acquired Nielsen's Harris brand and the Harris Poll through its Stagwell Media LLC. On February 1, 2017, Nielsen completed its acquisition of Gracenote. On February 23, 2017, Nielsen acquired Rhiza, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based media and consumer analytics software firm.

2021
On July 8, 2021, Nielsen acquired TVTY, a TV attribution provider and ad monitoring company based in Paris, France, for an undisclosed amount.

Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen
Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU, literally "United Dutch Publishers", founded 1964) was a Dutch publishing company with products including European consumer magazines, Dutch regional newspapers, business publications in the European and North American markets, and educational publications.

In 1997, VNU acquired the directory publishing business of ITT Sheraton (ITT World Directories) for $2.1 billion; the business was renamed VNU World Directories.

VNU acquired Nielsen Media Research, part of the former AC Nielsen Company, in 1999. It was the owner of the Hungarian business magazine Figyelő in the 1990s.

In 2000, VNU acquired Miller Freeman, Inc. from United News & Media for a reported price of $650 million. VNU merged much of the purchased Miller Freeman assets into VNU Expositions. VNU subsequently divested themselves of a few former Miller Freeman assets.

VNU announced a heavy restructuring of its technology news portal, VNUNet, in February 2001. Ten employees were laid off due to the plan. The company disposed of its entire magazine publishing arm later in 2001 to Sanoma for €1.25 million, and sold its newspaper properties to Wegener. Focusing instead on market research and data collection, it acquired AC Nielsen in 2001, recombining the two halves of the former Nielsen business, and added other research and data collection units including BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra. In 2006, the company was acquired by a consortium of six investors for €28.75 per share, a sum of €7.5 billion. In the same year, the group hired David L. Calhoun, formerly of General Electric, as CEO.

In 2004, VNU World Directories was sold to Apax Partners and Cinven. VNU sold its business publications division in 2006 for €320m (£210m) to venture capital group 3i, which then sold the UK division (VNU Business Publications Ltd) to Incisive Media.

The company was renamed The Nielsen Company in 2007.

Corporate affairs and culture
FIFA has signed up with Nielsen to provide official market research for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

title: Nielsen Holdings


text:
List of Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island launch sites

Cape Canaveral and adjacent Merritt Island on Florida's Atlantic coast are home to the USA's Eastern Range, the most active rocket range and spaceport in the country. The Eastern Range hosts two groundside operators: the military Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the civilian Kennedy Space Center. Between them are dozens of launch pads, with several currently in active service and more in planning for activation.

Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center, operated by NASA, has two launch complexes on Merritt Island comprising four pads—two active, one under lease, and one inactive. From 1967 to 1975, it was the site of 13 Saturn V launches, three crewed Skylab flights and the Apollo–Soyuz; all Space Shuttle flights from 1981 to 2011, and one Ares 1-X flight in 2009. Since 2017, SpaceX uses Launch Complex 39A to launch their launch vehicles.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), operated by Space Launch Delta 45 of the U.S. Space Force, was the site of all U.S. crewed launches before Apollo 8, as well as many other early Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA launches. For the DoD, it plays a secondary role to Vandenberg SFB in California, but is the launch site for many NASA uncrewed space probes, as those spacecraft are typically launched on United States Space Force launchers. Much of the support activity for CCSFS occurs at Patrick Space Force Base to the south, its reporting base.

Active launch vehicles are in bold.

Spaceport Florida
, Air Force Space Command committed to lease Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 36 to Space Florida for future use by the Athena III launch system. It is not known if the plan was subsequently implemented. Blue Origin leased Complex 36 in 2015, with plans to launch its reusable orbital vehicle from there by 2020 though as of early 2022 the launch is planned for the end of this year.


text:
Chantilly

Chantilly may refer to:

France

 * Chantilly, Oise, a city
 * US Chantilly, a football club
 * Château de Chantilly

United States

 * Chantilly, Missouri, an unincorporated community
 * Chantilly (Charlotte neighborhood), North Carolina
 * Chantilly, Virginia, an unincorporated area in Fairfax County
 * Chantilly High School
 * Chantilly (Montross, Virginia), a historic archaeological site

Other

 * Battle of Chantilly, in Virginia during the American Civil War
 * Chantilly Codex, a medieval manuscript
 * Chantilly Conferences, during World War I
 * Chantilly cream, a synonym for whipped cream
 * Chantilly lace, from Chantilly, Oise
 * Chantilly Lace (film), 1993

 * "Chantilly Lace" (song), 1958, by The Big Bopper

 * Chantilly porcelain, made at the château from 1730
 * Chantilly Racecourse, for horse racing, in Oise
 * Chantilly-Tiffany, a breed of domestic cat
 * Chantilly cake

title: Chantilly


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/St Edwards School

This article received a strong consensus for deletion; however, this decision violated current Wikipedia policies. The page in question has thus been listed on VfD decisions not backed by current policies, and this debate remains in hiatus until a policy change is made. If a policy change permitting this page to be deleted is enacted this vote may be used to immediately delete the article.

St Edwards School
Non notable school. -- Graham ☺ | Talk 20:54, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * NB It is also worth noting that this and the other five schools I have listed here today are all orphans. -- Graham ☺ | Talk 21:19, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * D School substubs I can live with as "non-notable", but this, if anything, is a pseudo-ad. Chris 21:27, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Non-notable.  RickK 23:02, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * D. Joe D 01:26, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: Non-notable. Geogre 03:34, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Not notable. --Improv 06:00, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, non-notable school. Fire Star 17:36, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. A school. Mark Richards 18:01, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Del, along with anything whose only justification is "a school". --Jerzy(t) 06:20, 2004 Oct 21 (UTC)


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/St Andrew's High School, Kirkcaldy, Scotland

This article received a strong consensus for deletion; however, this decision violated current Wikipedia policies. The page in question has thus been listed on VfD decisions not backed by current policies, and this debate remains in hiatus until a policy change is made. If a policy change permitting this page to be deleted is enacted this vote may be used to immediately delete the article.

St Andrew's High School, Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Non notable school. -- Graham ☺ | Talk 20:54, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * D It's a Catholic comprehensive serving in a wide community, as if there wasn't at least one in every major town in the UK. Chris 21:29, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Non-notable. Delete.  RickK 23:02, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: Non-notable, though not horrible. Geogre 03:36, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Fails to meet the high standards for notability for schools. --Improv 06:00, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, non-notable school. Fire Star 17:35, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. A school. Mark Richards 18:01, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Del, along with anything whose only justification is "a school". --Jerzy(t) 06:21, 2004 Oct 21 (UTC)


text: File:C64 Impossible Mission.png

title: File:C64 Impossible Mission.png


text: File:C64 Archon.png

title: File:C64 Archon.png


text:
Talk:Christian Science Board of Directors

How are Board members chosen? This is not in the article, and I think important to any discussion of a church that is run according to a "rule of law." --Dablaze 20:56, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)

Merge
As suggested, this "article" should be merged with First Church of Christ, Scientist article. --Do go be man 17:00, 19 September 2006 (UTC)


text:
Burberry

Burberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry and headquartered in London, England. It designs and distributes ready to wear, including trench coats, leather accessories, and footwear.

19th century
Burberry was founded in 1856 when 21-year-old Thomas Burberry, a former draper's apprentice, opened his own store in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. By 1870, the business had established itself by focusing on the development of outdoors attire. In 1879, Burberry introduced gabardine to his brand, a hardwearing, water-resistant yet breathable fabric, in which the yarn is waterproofed before weaving. In 1891, Burberry opened a shop in the Haymarket, London.

20th century
In 1901, the Burberry Equestrian Knight logo was developed containing the Latin word "Prorsum", meaning "forwards", and it was registered as a trademark in 1909. In 1911, the company became the outfitters for Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole, and Ernest Shackleton, who led a 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica. A Burberry gabardine jacket was worn by George Mallory on his attempt on Mount Everest in 1924.

Adapted to meet the needs of military personnel, the "trench coat" was born during the First World War; it was worn by British officers in the trenches. After the war, it became popular with civilians.

The Burberry check has been in use since at least the 1920s, primarily as a lining in its trench coats. The celebrity motorcycling sisters Betty and Nancy Debenham wore their trench coats for travelling and racing in the 1920s and recommeded the garment in their 1928 book Motor-Cycling for Women. Burberry also specially designed aviation garments. They outfitted Mrs Victor Bruce for her 1930 round the world flight and her one woman flight to Japan. She wore a reversible coat with waterproof gabardine outside for flying and with a tweed inner side which could be turned outside to create a smart look for disembarking under the glare of the publicity her exploites attracted. In 1937, A. E. Clouston and Betty Kirby-Green broke the world record for the fastest return flight from London to Cape Town in The Burberry airplane that was sponsored by the brand. Burberry was an independent family-controlled company until 1955, when Great Universal Stores (GUS) assumed ownership.

Influences and rise to prominence
During the 1970s and 1980s, Burberry signed agreements with worldwide manufacturers to produce goods complementary to the existing British collection, such as suits, trousers, shirts, sportswear and accessories, for men, women, and children. These products, designed under the strict control of headquarters in London, were produced and distributed through independent retail stores worldwide as well as through the Burberry stores, and contributed to the growth of the brand in sales and profits through to the late 90s, although the full extent of sales was not apparent in the parent company accounts since much was done through licensed agreements. The company had signed Lord Lichfield as photographer, Lord (Leonard) Wolfson was Chairman and Stanley Peacock OBE Managing Director. In 1997, GUS director Victor Barnett became chairman of Burberry, hiring Rose Marie Bravo to execute a corporate reorganization and restoration of the brand as a luxury fashion house. Barnett led the company up to its successful IPO in 2001.

21st century
In May 2001, Christopher Bailey joined Burberry as creative director. Bailey was the chief creative officer from 2014, as well as chief executive (CEO) from 2014 until November 2017. Bailey stepped down as chief creative officer in March 2018 and had departed the brand completely by the end of 2018.

Between 2001 and 2005, Burberry became associated with "chav" and football hooligan culture. This change in the brand reputation was attributed to lower priced products, the proliferation of counterfeit goods adopting Burberry's trademark check pattern, and adoption by celebrities prominently identified with "chav" culture. The association with football hooliganism led to the wearing of Burberry check garments being banned at some venues.

Burberry Group plc was initially floated on the London Stock Exchange in July 2002. GUS divested its remaining interest in Burberry in December 2005. In 2005, Sanyo-shokai was the Burberry ready-to-wear licence holder in Japan, with retail value of €435 million.

In 2006, Rose Marie Bravo, who as chief executive had led Burberry to mass market success through licensing, retired. She was replaced by another American, Angela Ahrendts, who joined from Liz Claiborne in January 2006, and took up the position of CEO on 1 July 2006. Ahrendts and Bailey successfully turned around the then chav-like reputation that the brand had acquired at the end of Bravo's tenure and the cheapening effect of the brand's omnipresence, by removing the brand's check-pattern from all but 10% of the company's products, taking the fragrance and beauty product licenses back in-house and buying out the Spanish franchise that was worth 20% of group revenues. Burberry first sold on line in the US, then in the UK in October 2006, and in the rest of the EU in 2007.

2010s
It was reported in 2012 that Ahrendts was the highest paid CEO in the UK, making £16.9m.

In October 2013, it was announced that Ahrendts would take up the position of Senior Vice President of retail and online at Apple, Inc. from April 2014, and would be replaced as CEO by Bailey. During her tenure, sales increased to over £2 billion, and the market capitalization more than tripled to £7 billion. Burberry promotes its British origins; as of July 2012, Burberry maintained two production facilities in Great Britain, one in Castleford producing raincoats, and one in Keighley. In spring 2014, Bailey became CEO of Burberry and retained the role of chief creative officer. His basic salary was £1.1m, with total compensation of up to £10m a year depending on sales targets being met.

In July 2016, it was announced that Celine boss Marco Gobbetti would become CEO of Burberry plc, while Bailey became the Creative Director with the title of President. In 2016, the label launched its "Mr Burberry" fragrance.

In early May 2017, the store announced it was moving 300 employees from London to Leeds. In July 2017, Gobbetti replaced Bailey as CEO. In March 2018, Burberry named Riccardo Tisci, creative director at Givenchy from 2005 to 2017, as the brand's chief creative officer. He said: "I am honoured and delighted to be joining Burberry as its new chief creative officer and reuniting with Marco Gobbetti. I have an enormous respect for Burberry’s British heritage and global appeal and I am excited about the potential of this exceptional brand."

A few months later, Tisci presented a new logo and monogram for the brand, designed by the English graphic designer Peter Saville.

In April 2018, it was announced that Sir John Peace would be stepping down as chairman of the board and would be replaced by as chairman by Gerry Murphy. Murphy said: "Burberry is a unique British brand that I have admired for a long time and I am looking forward to working with Marco Gobbetti and the Board to guide the company through its next phase of growth."

Murphy had been CEO of Kingfisher plc, as well as being current chairman of Tate and Lyle and Blackstone Group International Partners LLP. Peace's departure marked a change in leadership for the group, with Gobetti and Ahrends having left in the previous years.

In May 2018, it was reported that Burberry had filed a lawsuit against Target Corporation, claiming that Target had copied its check print designs and was seeking an amount of $2 million, in addition to its legal costs.

In July 2018, it was reported that in the previous five years Burberry had destroyed unsold clothes, accessories, and perfume worth over £90m in order to protect its brand and prevent the items being stolen or sold cheaply. While a representative of Greenpeace criticised the decision, Burberry claimed that the energy generated from burning its products was captured, making it environmentally friendly. According to Burberry's annual report, by the end of the financial year 2018, the company had destroyed goods worth £28.6m, an increase on the £26.9m from its financial year 2017. In September 2018, Burberry reported that it would stop the practice of burning unsold goods, with immediate effect. Burberry also announced it would stop using real fur in its products, and would phase out existing fur items.

In February 2019, Burberry apologized for showcasing a hoodie with a noose around the neck in its show at the London Fashion Week. Burberry said it had removed the item from its collection, after criticism from one of its own models led to an online backlash.

2020s
In February 2020 Burberry was forced to close 24 of its 64 Chinese mainland stores because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By July 2020, the company announced it would cut 500 jobs worldwide, including 150 in its UK head offices, in an effort to save £55 million following a reduction in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Burberry announced that it would become a "climate positive" company by 2040. The fashion brand also announced that it would commit to a new target to reduce supply chain emissions (i.e. assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organisation) by 46% by 2030, an increase from an earlier pledge of a 30% reduction. In March 2021, Burberry was the first luxury brand to be targeted in China as part of the backlash regarding sanctions against the alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Brand ambassador and Actress Zhou Dongyu terminated her contract with Burberry.

In April 2022, after the departure of Marco Gobbetti, the Versace boss Jonathan Akeroyd took over Burberry as the next chief executive in a deal including a £6m golden hello to cover the loss of bonus and share awards for leaving his previous position.

In July, 2022, Burberry announced Thai artist Vachirawit Chivaaree as their first Global Brand Ambassador from the South Asia-Pacific Region.

Later in 2022, the company's chief operating and financial officer announced a ban on the use of exotic skins—such as alligator and snake—in its collections. In September 2022, Burberry announced designer Daniel Lee, former creative director of Bottega Veneta, as Riccardo Tisci's replacement as the company's chief creative officer.

In February 2023 a new logo and branding was introduced: this brought back the Equestrian Knight logo. The advertising campaign features British models and musicians Shygirl, Liberty Ross and Skepta.

In April 2023, rapper Kano fronted a Burberry marketing campaign introduced by Lee in February 2023. The new direction was phrased as "a modern take on British luxury".

In October 2023, Burberry collaborated with Vestiaire Collective on a new circular style project. This partnership would allow customers to exchange their second-hand Burberry clothing and handbags for a Burberry gift card, which they could reinvest in the brand, with the aim of promoting resale and reducing clothing waste.

Research by the social democratic party in the European Parliament, the Sheffield Hallam University and other groups accused Burberry in 2023 of using Uyghur forced labour camps provided by the Sunrise Manufacture Group Co. for production of clothing.

In July 2024, the company announced a profit warning and the departure of its chief executive Jonathan Akeroyd, to be replaced by Joshua Schulman. The company also reported significant sales declines across its markets in the first quarter, with store sales dropping 23% in the Americas and Asia Pacific, and 16% in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. The company's shares fell 15% following the announcement, and it suspended dividend payments. Burberry also revealed plans for job cuts, primarily in its UK corporate office.

In popular culture
On 29 March 2023, a Burberry tote was used in an episode from Succession. Google searches for Burberry and the "Burberry tote bag" rose by more than 310% after the episode aired.

title: Burberry


text:
Beijing dialect

The Beijing dialect, also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of China and one of the official languages of Singapore and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Despite the similarity to Standard Chinese, it is characterized by some "iconic" differences, including the addition of a final rhotic to some words (e.g. ). During the Ming, southern dialectal influences were also introduced into the dialect.

Status as prestige dialect
As the political and cultural capital of China, Beijing has held much historical significance as a city, and its speech has held sway as a lingua franca. Being officially selected to form the basis of the phonology of Standard Mandarin has further contributed to its status as a prestige dialect, or sometimes the prestige dialect of Chinese.

Other scholars have referred to it as the "elite Beijing accent."

Until at least the late eighteenth century, the standard language of the Chinese elite had been the Nanjing dialect, despite political power having already been located in Beijing. Through the nineteenth century, evidence from Western dictionaries suggests that a shift occurred in the court from a Nanjing-based standard to a more local Beijing-based one.

During the Qing dynasty it was used alongside the Manchu language as the official court language.

The establishment of phonology of Standard Chinese dates from a 1913 decision by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, which took the Beijing dialect as its base but retained a lot of phonology from other varieties of Mandarin, resulting in the Old National Pronunciation. This was overturned in 1926, resulting in the "pronunciation of the educated natives of Beijing" officially adopted as the basis for the phonology of Standard Chinese (Guoyu) in 1926.

In 1955, the People's Republic of China declared that Standard Chinese was to be "modeled on the pronunciation of Beijing, draws on Northern Chinese as its base dialect, and receives its syntactic norms from exemplary works of vernacular literature".

The Beijing dialect has been described as carrying a lot of "cultural heft." According to Zhang Shifang, professor at Beijing Language and Culture University,"'As China's ancient and modern capital, Beijing and thus its linguistic culture as well are representative of our entire nation's civilization... For Beijing people themselves, the Beijing dialect is an important symbol of identity.'"

Some argue that Cantonese is the "only dialect which has attained a level of prestige that rivals that of the standard national language."

The dialect has been described as "the official language of the entertainment industry", making it also the "showbiz accent."

Even within Beijing the dialect varies. Those north of the Forbidden City spoke with a more "refined" accent than the poorer people, craftsmen, and performers of the south.

Younger generation
Some fear that the vernacular Beijing dialect will disappear. According to a 2010 study by Beijing Union University, 49% of young Beijingers born after 1980 prefer to speak standard Mandarin rather than the Beijing dialect. According to a UN report, nearly 100 Chinese dialects, especially those spoken by the 55 ethnic minorities in China, are endangered.

Mutual intelligibility
The Beijing dialect is generally mutually intelligible with other Mandarin dialects, including Standard Chinese. However it is not intelligible with other Sino-Tibetan languages or even other Chinese languages including Cantonese, Hokkien, and Wu Chinese.

The Dungan language is a Sinitic language derived from Mandarin spoken throughout Central Asia, particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Speakers like Dungan poet and scholar Iasyr Shivaza and others have reported that Chinese who speak the Beijing dialect could understand Dungan, but Dungans could not understand Beijing Mandarin.

Phonology
In fundamental structure, the phonology of the Beijing dialect and Standard Chinese are almost identical. In part, this is because the pronunciation of Standard Chinese was based on Beijing pronunciation. However, the Beijing dialect also has vernacular readings of characters which are not only different, but have initial and final combinations that are not present in Standard Chinese, such as, , , , and.

Other differences exist, including the proliferation of rhotic vowels. All rhotic vowels are the result of the use of the, a noun suffix, except for a few words pronounced  that do not have this suffix. In Standard Chinese, these also occur but much less often than they appear in the Beijing dialect. This phenomenon is known as, or rhotacization, as is considered one of the iconic characteristics of Beijing Mandarin.

When /w/ occurs in syllable-initial position, many speakers use [ʋ] before vowels other than [o] as in, and [u] as in , e.g..

When occurs before a glide or vowel it is often eliminated along with any following glides so  is pronounced  and  as.

Sibilant initials differ significantly between Standard Chinese and the Beijing dialect. The initials  are pronounced as  in Beijing. $\langlez c s\rangle$ are pronounced as  by some female speakers, a feature known as.

Moreover, the Beijing dialect has a few phonetic reductions that are usually considered too "colloquial" for use in Standard Chinese. These are often dependent on which syllables are stressed and unstressed. For example, in fast speech, initial consonants go through lenition if they are in an unstressed syllable: pinyin] ⟨⟩ before  ⟨⟩ become ⟨r⟩, so  can sound like ;  can sound like , resulting in a "swallowing of consonants", or.

⟨j q x⟩ become ⟨y⟩, so  can sound like ; pinyin ⟨b d g⟩  go through voicing to become ; intervocalic ⟨p t k⟩  also lose aspiration and can be voiced, sounding identical to ⟨b d g⟩; similar changes also occur on other consonants.

⟨f⟩ is voiced and relaxed in intervocalic positions, resulting in [ʋ].

Affricates are elided into fricatives when not word initial, such as becoming

Some of these changes yield syllables that violate the syllable structure of Standard Chinese, such as Street, which locals pronounce as.

The literary tones of the Beijing dialect tend to be more exaggerated than Standard Chinese. In Standard Chinese, the four tones are high flat, high rising, low dipping, and falling; in the Beijing dialect, the first two tones are higher, the third one dips more prominently, and the fourth one falls more. However, toneless syllables are incredibly common in the vernacular Beijing dialect and the third tone is realized as a low tone instead of a dipping tone, known as a "half third tone".

Influence on Manchu
The Chinese Northern Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing had a major impact on the phonology of the dialect of Manchu spoken in Beijing, and since Manchu phonology was transcribed into Chinese and European sources based on the sinified pronunciation of Manchus from Beijing, the original authentic Manchu pronunciation is unknown to scholars.

The Manchus that lived in Beijing were influenced by the Beijing dialect insofar as pronouncing Manchu sounds was hard for them, and they pronounced Manchu according to Chinese phonetics. In contrast, the Manchus of Aigun, Heilongjiang could both pronounce Manchu sounds properly and mimic the sinified pronunciation of Manchus in Beijing. This was because they learned the Beijing pronunciation from either studying in Beijing or from officials sent to Aigun from Beijing. They could also tell them apart, using the Chinese influenced pronunciation of Beijing to demonstrate that they were better educated and had "superior stature" in society.

Influence on Mongolian
A substantial proportion of the loanwords in Mongolian are derived from Chinese, with the oldest layer of loanwords in Written Mongolian being Chinese in origin. Much of Mongolian spoken in Inner Mongolia has been affected by Mandarin: lexical influence is claimed to be strong in Khorchin Mongolian, whilst there have been claims of phonetic influence from Mandarin Chinese in the Kharchin variety of Mongolian. The aspirated bilabial stop /pʰ/ and the labial approximant /w/ are phonemes only found in loanwords from Chinese and Tibetan, evident in their limited distribution in Mongolian. Substantial diglossia can also be observed in Inner Mongolia.

Vocabulary
The Beijing dialect typically uses many words that are considered slang, and therefore occur much less or not at all in Standard Chinese. Speakers not native to Beijing may have trouble understanding many or most of these. Many of such slang words employ the rhotic suffix "-r", which is known as erhua. Examples include:

 * (referring to manner or attribute)
 * , usually followed by if used as an imperative, usually used when rejecting a favor or politeness from close friends
 * , equivalent to Standard Chinese
 * , especially things to do
 * , often used in place of.
 * , often used in place of.
 * , equivalent to Standard Chinese
 * , especially things to do
 * , often used in place of.
 * , often used in place of.
 * , often used in place of.
 * , often used in place of.

Some Beijing phrases may be somewhat disseminated outside Beijing:
 * , now used outside Beijing
 * , heard often on public transportation, from Classical Chinese
 * , equivalent to Standard Chinese or
 * , a stronger version of Standard Chinese and believed to derive from

Note that some of the slang are considered to be, that are carry-overs from an older generation and are no longer used amongst more educated speakers, for example:
 * , similar to, which is more often used by the younger generation

Others may be viewed as neologisms used among younger speakers and in "trendier" circles:
 * ) when describing a person
 * , used in basketball
 * , with a negative connotation
 * , with a negative connotation

Manchu and Mongol loanwords
The dialect also contains both Manchu and Mongol loanwords:
 * , from Middle Mongolian quddug 'water well' (cf. modern Mongolian худаг) or ɣudum 'passage' (modern Mongolian гудам), possibly with influence from Chinese and.
 * , from Middle Mongolian ǰamči 'post station' (cf. modern Mongolian замч 'guide').
 * , from Manchu hendu

Grammar
There are syntactic differences between Standard Mandarin and the Beijing dialect. Both southern Chinese and southern Mandarin syntactic features were incorporated into Standard Mandarin, while the Beijing dialect retains features of northern Mandarin. The Beijing dialect also uses colloquial expressions differently.

There is a conditional loss of the classifier under certain circumstances after the numeral, usually pronounced as with the second tone, as if undergoing tone sandhi with the classifier  after it.

In general, Standard Chinese is influenced by Classical Chinese, which makes it more condense and concise. The Beijing dialect can therefore seem more longwinded; but this is sometime balanced by the generally faster speaking rate and phonetic reductions of colloquial Beijing speech.

Examples

 * Standard Chinese:

 * Beijing dialect:

title: Beijing dialect


text:
Bayamón Central University

The Bayamón Central University—or Universidad Central de Bayamón (UCB) in Spanish—is a private, Catholic university in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Its predecessor began in 1961 by the Dominican Order as a community college of the Catholic University of Puerto Rico (today known as the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico). Universidad Católica de Bayamón was incorporated in 1964.

The university became autonomous on September 1, 1970, and is currently accredited by the Council of Higher Education of Puerto Rico, the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and by the Congregation for Catholic Education.

In October 1982 a multi-use sports complex inaugurated and was dedicated in honor of Rafael Pont Flores and it bears his name.

In October 2019, US federal funds were earmarked for the university.

title: Bayamón Central University


text: Category:Paleo-Siberian languages

title: Category:Paleo-Siberian languages


text:
Well test

In hydrology, a well test is conducted to evaluate the amount of water that can be pumped from a particular water well. More specifically, a well test will allow prediction of the maximum rate at which water can be pumped from a well, and the distance that the water level in the well will fall for a given pumping rate and duration of pumping.

Well testing differs from aquifer testing in that the behaviour of the well is primarily of concern in the former, while the characteristics of the aquifer (the geological formation or unit that supplies water to the well) are quantified in the latter.

When water is pumped from a well the water level in the well falls. This fall is called drawdown. The amount of water that can be pumped is limited by the drawdown produced. Typically, drawdown also increases with the length of time that the pumping continues.

Well losses vs. aquifer losses
The components of observed drawdown in a pumping well were first described by Jacob (1947), and the test was refined independently by Hantush (1964) and Bierschenk (1963) as consisting of two related components,
 * $$ s = BQ + CQ^2 $$,

where s is drawdown (units of length e.g., m), $$Q$$ is the pumping rate (units of volume flowrate e.g., m³/day), $$B$$ is the aquifer loss coefficient (which increases with time — as predicted by the Theis solution) and $$C$$ is the well loss coefficient (which is constant for a given flow rate).

The first term of the equation ($$BQ$$) describes the linear component of the drawdown; i.e., the part in which doubling the pumping rate doubles the drawdown.

The second term ($$CQ^2$$) describes what is often called the 'well losses'; the non-linear component of the drawdown. To quantify this it is necessary to pump the well at several different flow rates (commonly called steps). Rorabaugh (1953) added to this analysis by making the exponent an arbitrary power (usually between 1.5 and 3.5).

To analyze this equation, both sides are divided by the discharge rate ($$Q$$), leaving $$s/Q$$ on the left side, which is commonly referred to as specific drawdown. The right hand side of the equation becomes that of a straight line. Plotting the specific drawdown after a set amount of time ($$\Delta t$$) since the beginning of each step of the test (since drawdown will continue to increase with time) versus pumping rate should produce a straight line.
 * $$ \frac{s}{Q} = B + CQ $$

Fitting a straight line through the observed data, the slope of the best fit line will be $$C$$ (well losses) and the intercept of this line with $$Q=0$$ will be $$B$$ (aquifer losses). This process is fitting an idealized model to real world data, and seeing what parameters in the model make it fit reality best. The assumption is then made that these fitted parameters best represent reality (given the assumptions that went into the model are true).

The relationship above is for fully penetrating wells in confined aquifers (the same assumptions used in the Theis solution for determining aquifer characteristics in an aquifer test).

Well efficiency
Often the well efficiency is determined from this sort of test, this is a percentage indicating the fraction of total observed drawdown in a pumping well which is due to aquifer losses (as opposed to being due to flow through the well screen and inside the borehole). A perfectly efficient well, with perfect well screen and where the water flows inside the well in a frictionless manner would have 100% efficiency. Unfortunately well efficiency is hard to compare between wells because it depends on the characteristics of the aquifer too (the same amount of well losses compared to a more transmissive aquifer would give a lower efficiency).

Specific capacity
Specific capacity is a quantity that which a water well can produce per unit of drawdown. It is normally obtained from a step drawdown test. Specific capacity is expressed as:
 * $$S_c=\frac{Q}{h_0 - h}$$

where
 * $$S_c$$ is the specific capacity ([L2T−1]; m²/day or USgal/day/ft)
 * $$Q$$ is the pumping rate ([L3T−1]; m³/day or USgal/day), and
 * $$h_0 - h$$ is the drawdown ([L]; m or ft)

The specific capacity of a well is also a function of the pumping rate it is determined at. Due to non-linear well losses the specific capacity will decrease with higher pumping rates. This complication makes the absolute value of specific capacity of little use; though it is useful for comparing the efficiency of the same well through time (e.g., to see if the well requires rehabilitation).

title: Well test


text:
Category:Music videos

This category contains articles about and relating to music videos.

For home videos and DVDs released by musicians, see Category:Video albums by artist.

title: Category:Music videos


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Einstein's Mistake

Einstein's Mistake
The page begins:

 * Einstein defined all matter in the total universe as infinity divided by the imaginary number (i)...

Is there any need to say more? Actually, yes: this might be a candidate for speedy delete instead.

Well, ok, I did it. I speedy deleted it, but, uh, it wasn't really a proper candidate. I wouldn't lift a finger on VfU. (I did mention that math isn't a strong suit, didn't I? I can count to 20 if I take off my shoes.) Geogre 03:46, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * delete -- William M. Connolley 21:06, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * speedy delete before the mirror sites pick it up. Wolfman 23:45, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * DELETE ARGH! --Asmodai 00:25, Oct 17, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Taco Deposit | Talk-o Deposit 00:54, Oct 17, 2004 (UTC)
 * D. Joe D 00:58, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Why, whatever is wrong with you people? This is a lovely article. Haha. (D) Pinkfud 02:45, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Postdlf 03:30, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Well done. Not a moment too soon. Thanks for dividing this article by infinity.--NathanHawking 08:25, 2004 Oct 17 (UTC)

 * Again, what was the article's content? It might have been a BJAODN candidate. - Mike Rosoft 12:26, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * It might have been, but it was pretty long. I can post over the material, if you'd like, but it was a bit dull and not actually funny -- at least to me. Geogre 13:30, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * All right. I guess not every nonsense belongs to BJAODN, right? - Mike Rosoft 09:00, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The title was meant to get people's attention, not to be arrogant; I have failed. I will fix this problem. JeD


text:
Category talk:Middlesex

Untitled
Why is this category about old Middlesex and not the current boundries? Surely they should be split up to avoid confusion. I came from a page about Whitechapel and saw "Category: Middlesex, London Locations" and thought "What the heck? Whitechapel isn't in Middlesex".
 * I don't think this category should exist, but so long as no attempt is made to place articles solely in it, it won't do too much harm. Oliver Chettle 21:03, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * There is a somewhat random selection of articles in this category. I think it should be thinned down to things like Middlesex University, Middlesex Guildhall and Middlesex County Cricket Club and to wholly historical articles about Middlesex such as History of Edgware. Mrsteviec 11:56, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I've cleaned this category up to only include those places listed above but have retained those places still colloqually referred to as being in Middlesex like Feltham. Mrsteviec 10:01, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: Category talk:Middlesex


text: Category:People from Ohio

title: Category:People from Ohio


text: Category:Peloponnesian War

title: Category:Peloponnesian War


text: Category:People from Oregon

title: Category:People from Oregon


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kelly Hayes

Kelly Hayes
Substub created for member of Allele (band) (see above). Added by same contributor. Taco Deposit | Talk-o Deposit 21:11, Oct 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * delete. not notable -R. S. Shaw 00:25, 2004 Oct 17 (UTC)
 * Delete: I really lose my cool when band vanity is compounded by wikilinking every member of the band and then creating an article like this one that says, "Kelly Hayes --- plays guitar for Vfd band." I propose we create a supergroup:  the VfD All Stars. Geogre 03:41, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)