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Golf ball

A golf ball is a ball designed to be used in golf. Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than 1.620 oz, has a diameter not less than 1.680 in, and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like golf clubs, golf balls are subject to testing and approval by The R&A (formerly part of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews) and the United States Golf Association, and those that do not conform with regulations may not be used in competitions (Rule 5–1).

Early balls
It is commonly believed that hard wooden, round balls, made from hardwoods such as beech and box, were used for golf from the 14th through the 17th centuries. Though wooden balls were no doubt used for other similar contemporary stick and ball games, there is no definite evidence that they were actually used in golf in Scotland. It is equally likely, if not more so, that leather balls filled with cows' hair were used, imported from the Netherlands from at least 1486 onward.

Featherie
Then or later, the featherie ball was developed and introduced. A featherie, or feathery, is a hand-sewn round leather pouch stuffed with chicken or goose feathers and coated with paint, usually white in color. A standard featherie used a gentleman's top hat full of feathers. The feathers were boiled and softened before they were stuffed into the leather pouch. Making a featherie was a tedious and time-consuming process. An experienced ball maker could only make a few balls in one day, so they were expensive. A single ball would cost 2–5 shillings, which is equivalent to US$10–20 today.

Guttie
In 1848, the Rev. Dr. Robert Adams Paterson (sometimes spelled Patterson) invented the gutta-percha ball (or guttie, gutty). The guttie was made from dried sap of the Malaysian sapodilla tree. The sap had a rubber-like feel and could be made spherical by heating and shaping it in a mold. Because gutties were cheaper to produce, could be re-formed if they became out-of-round or damaged, and had improved aerodynamic qualities, they soon became the preferred ball for use.

Accidentally, it was discovered that nicks in the guttie from normal use actually provided a ball with a more consistent ball flight than a guttie with a perfectly smooth surface. Thus, makers began intentionally making indentations into the surface of new balls using either a knife or hammer and chisel, giving the guttie a textured surface. Many patterns were tried and used. These new gutties, with protruding nubs left by carving patterned paths across the ball's surface, became known as "brambles" due to their resemblance to bramble fruit (blackberries).

Wound golf ball
The next major breakthrough in golf ball development came in 1898. Coburn Haskell of Cleveland, Ohio, had driven to nearby Akron, Ohio, for a golf date with Bertram Work, the superintendent of the B.F. Goodrich Company. While he waited in the plant for Work, Haskell picked up some rubber thread and wound it into a ball. When he bounced the ball, it flew almost to the ceiling. Work suggested Haskell put a cover on the creation, and that was the birth of the 20th-century wound golf ball that would soon replace the guttie bramble ball. The new design became known as the rubber Haskell golf ball.

For decades, the wound rubber ball consisted of a liquid-filled or solid round core that was wound with a layer of rubber thread into a larger round inner core and then covered with a thin outer shell made of balatá sap. The balatá is a tree native to Central and South America and the Caribbean. The tree is tapped and the soft, viscous fluid released is a rubber-like material similar to gutta-percha, which was found to make an ideal cover for a golf ball. Balatá, however, is relatively soft. If the leading edge of a highly lofted short iron contacts a balatá-covered ball in a location other than the bottom of the ball a cut or "smile" will often be the result, rendering the ball unfit for play.

Addition of dimples
In the early 1900s, it was found that dimpling the ball provided even more control of the ball's trajectory, flight, and spin. David Stanley Froy, James McHardy, and Peter G. Fernie received a patent in 1897 for a ball with indentations; Froy played in the Open in 1900 at the Old Course at St. Andrews with the first prototype.

Players were able to put additional backspin on the new wound, dimpled balls when using more lofted clubs, thus inducing the ball to stop more quickly on the green. Manufacturers soon began selling various types of golf balls with various dimple patterns to improve the length, trajectory, spin, and overall "feel" characteristics of the new wound golf balls. Wound, balatá-covered golf balls were used into the late 20th century.

Modern resin and polyurethane covered balls
In the mid-1960s, a new synthetic resin, an ionomer of ethylene acid named Surlyn was introduced by DuPont as were new urethane blends for golf ball covers, and these new materials soon displaced balatá as they proved more durable and more resistant to cutting.

Along with various other materials that came into use to replace the rubber-wound internal sphere, golf balls came to be classified as either two-piece, three-piece, or four-piece balls, according to the number of layered components. These basic materials continue to be used in modern balls, with further advances in technology creating balls that can be customized to a player's strengths and weaknesses, and even allowing for the combination of characteristics that were formerly mutually-exclusive.

Titleist's Pro V1, Taylormade TP5, and Callaway Supersoft exemplify modern advancements in golf ball aerodynamics. The Titleist Pro V1 boasts a tightly wound 388-dimple design, minimizing gaps between dimples for better aerodynamics. On the other hand, the Taylormade TP5 features a combination of circular and hexagonal dimples to reduce drag. Lastly, Callaway balls showcase a sleek, completely hexagonal design for straighter ball flights.

Liquid cores were commonly used in golf balls as early as 1917. The liquid cores in many of the early balls contained a caustic liquid, typically an alkali, causing eye injuries to children who happened to dissect a golf ball out of curiosity. By the 1920s, golf ball manufacturers had stopped using caustic liquids, but into the 1970s and 1980s golf balls were still at times exploding when dissected and were causing injuries due to the presence of crushed crystalline material present in the liquid cores.

In 1967, Spalding purchased a patent for a solid golf ball from Jim Bartsch. His original patent defined a ball devoid of the layers in earlier designs, but Bartsch's patent lacked the chemical properties needed for manufacturing. Spalding's chemical engineering team developed a chemical resin that eliminated the need for the layered components entirely. Since then, the majority of non-professional golfers have transitioned to using solid core (or "2-piece") golf balls.

The specifications for the golf ball continue to be governed by the ruling bodies of the game; namely, The R&A, and the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Biodegradable Golf Balls

The early wood, featherie and guttie balls were made from biodegradable materials. However, due to the industrial revolution and the invention of vulcanization, balls increasingly became made from non-biodegradable materials. During the late 2000's a few new biodegradable golf balls came into the market, including some made from wood, lobster shells or cornstarch.

Regulations
The Rules of Golf, jointly governed by the R&A and the USGA, state in Appendix III that the diameter of a "conforming" golf ball cannot be any smaller than 1.680 in, and the weight of the ball may not exceed 1.620 oz. The ball must also have the basic properties of a spherically symmetrical ball, generally meaning that the ball itself must be spherical and must have a symmetrical arrangement of dimples on its surface. While the ball's dimples must be symmetrical, there is no limit to the number of dimples allowed on a golf ball. Additional rules direct players and manufacturers to other technical documents published by the R&A and USGA with additional restrictions, such as radius and depth of dimples, maximum launch speed from test apparatus (generally defining the coefficient of restitution) and maximum total distance when launched from the test equipment.

In general, the governing bodies and their regulations seek to provide a relatively level playing field and maintain the traditional form of the game and its equipment, while not completely halting the use of new technology in equipment design.

Until 1990, it was permissible to use balls of less than 1.68 inches in diameter in tournaments under the jurisdiction of the R&A, which differed in its ball specifications rules from those of the USGA. This ball was commonly called a "British" ball, while the golf ball approved by the USGA was simply the "American ball". The smaller diameter gave the player a distance advantage, especially in high winds, as the smaller ball created a similarly smaller "wake" behind it.

Aerodynamics
When a golf ball is hit, the impact, which lasts less than a millisecond, determines the ball's velocity, launch angle and spin rate, all of which influence its trajectory and its behavior when it hits the ground.

A ball moving through air experiences two major aerodynamic forces: lift, and drag. Dimpled balls fly farther than non-dimpled balls due to the combination of these two effects.

Drag coefficient on a sphere vs. Reynolds number - main trends.svg Cd for a sphere as a function of Reynolds number Re, as obtained from laboratory experiments. The dark line is for a sphere with a smooth surface, while the lighter line is for the case of a rough surface (e.g. with small dimples). There is a range of fluid velocities where a rough-surfaced golf ball experiences less drag than a smooth ball. The numbers along the line indicate several flow regimes and associated changes in the drag coefficient:

•2: attached flow (Stokes flow) and steady separated flow,

•3: separated unsteady flow, having a laminar flow boundary layer upstream of the separation, and producing a vortex street,

•4: separated unsteady flow with a laminar boundary layer at the upstream side, before flow separation, with downstream of the sphere a chaotic turbulent wake,

•5: post-critical separated flow, with a turbulent boundary layer.]] First, the dimples on the surface of a golf ball cause the boundary layer on the upstream side of the ball to transition from laminar to turbulent. The turbulent boundary layer is able to remain attached to the surface of the ball much longer than a laminar boundary with fewer eddies and so creates a narrower low-pressure wake and hence less pressure drag. The reduction in pressure drag causes the ball to travel further.

Second, backspin generates lift by deforming the airflow around the ball, in a similar manner to an airplane wing. This is called the Magnus effect. The dimples on a golf ball deform the air around the ball quickly causing a turbulent airflow that results in more Magnus lift than a smooth ball would experience.

Backspin is imparted in almost every shot due to the golf club's loft (i.e., angle between the clubface and a vertical plane). A backspinning ball experiences an upward lift force which makes it fly higher and longer than a ball without spin.

Curvature of the ball flight occurs when the clubface is not aligned perpendicularly to the club direction at impact, leading to an angled spin axis that causes the ball to curve to one side or the other based on difference between the face angle and swing path at impact. Because the ball's spin during flight is angled, and because of the Magnus effect, the ball will take on a curved path during its flight. Some dimple designs claim to reduce the sidespin effects to provide a straighter ball flight.

Other effects can change the flight behaviour of the ball. Factors such as dynamic lie (the angle of the shaft at impact relative to the ground and its manufactured neutral angle), strike location if the player is using a wood due to the curved face, and external factors such as wind and debris.

To keep the aerodynamics optimal, the golf ball needs to be clean, including all dimples. Thus, it is advisable that golfers wash their balls whenever permissible by the rules of golf. Golfers can wash their balls manually using a wet towel or using a ball washer of some type.

Design

Dimples first became a feature of golf balls when English engineer and manufacturer William Taylor, co-founder of the Taylor-Hobson company, registered a patent for a dimple design in 1905. William Taylor had realized that golf players were trying to make irregularities on their balls, noticing that used balls were going further than new ones. Hence he decided to make systematic tests to determine what surface formation would give the best flight. He then developed a pattern consisting of regularly spaced indentations over the entire surface, and later tools to help produce such balls in series. Other types of patterned covers were in use at about the same time, including one called a "mesh" and another named the "bramble", but the dimple became the dominant design due to "the superiority of the dimpled cover in flight".

Most modern golf balls have about 300–500 dimples, though there have been balls with more than 1000 dimples. The record holder was a ball with 1,070 dimples—414 larger ones (in four different sizes) and 656 pinhead-sized ones.

Officially sanctioned balls are designed to be as symmetrical as possible. This symmetry is the result of a dispute that stemmed from the Polara, a ball sold in the late 1970s that had six rows of normal dimples on its equator but very shallow dimples elsewhere. This asymmetrical design helped the ball self-adjust its spin axis during the flight. The USGA refused to sanction it for tournament play and, in 1981, changed the rules to ban aerodynamic asymmetrical balls. Polara's producer sued the USGA and the association paid US$1.375 million in a 1985 out-of-court settlement.

Golf balls are traditionally white, but are commonly available in other colors, some of which may assist with finding the ball when lost or when playing in low-light or frosty conditions. As well as bearing the maker's name or logo, balls are usually printed with numbers or other symbols to help players identify their ball.

Behavior
Today, golf balls are manufactured using a variety of different materials, offering a range of playing characteristics to suit the player's abilities and desired flight and landing behaviours.

A key consideration is "compression", typically determined by the hardness of the ball's core layers. A harder "high-compression" ball will fly further because of the more efficient transfer of energy into the ball, but will also transmit more of a shock through the club to the player's hands (a "hard feel"). A softer "low-compression" ball will do just the opposite. Golfers typically prefer a softer feel, especially in the "short game", as the softer ball typically also has greater backspin with lofted irons. However, a softer ball reduces drive distance, as it wastes more energy in compression. This makes it more difficult for players to get a birdie or eagle, as it can take more strokes to get on the green.

Another consideration is "spin", affected by compression and by the cover material – a "high-spin" ball allows more of the ball's surface to contact the clubface at impact, allowing the grooves of the clubface to "grip" the ball and induce more backspin at launch. Backspin creates lift that can increase carry distance, and also provides "bite" which allows a ball to arrest its forward motion at the initial point of impact, bouncing straight up or even backwards, allowing for precision placement of the ball on the green with an approach shot. However, high-spin cover materials, typically being softer, are less durable which shortens the useful life of the ball, and backspin is not desirable on most long-distance shots, such as with the driver, as it causes the shot to "balloon" and then to bite on the fairway, when additional rolling distance is usually desired.

Lastly, the pattern of dimples plays a role. By regulation, the arrangement of the dimples on the ball must be as symmetrical as possible. However, the dimples do not all have to be the same size, nor be in a uniform distribution. This allows designers to arrange the dimple patterns in such a way that the resistance to spinning is lower along certain axes of rotation and higher along others. This causes the ball to "settle" into one of these low-resistance axes that (golfers hope) is close to parallel with the ground and perpendicular to the direction of travel, thereby eliminating "sidespin" induced by a slight mishit, which will cause the ball to curve off its intended flight path. A badly mishit ball will still curve, as the ball will settle into a spin axis that is not parallel with the ground which, much like an aircraft's wings, will cause the shot to bank either to the left or to the right.

Selection
There are many types of golf balls on the market, and customers often face a difficult decision. Golf balls are divided into two categories: recreational and advanced balls. Recreational balls are oriented toward the ordinary golfer, who generally have low swing speeds (80 mph or lower) and lose golf balls on the course easily. These balls are made of two layers, with the cover firmer than the core. Their low compression and side spin reduction characteristics suit the lower swing speeds of average golfers quite well. Furthermore, they generally have lower prices than the advanced balls, lessening the financial impact of losing a ball to a hazard or out of bounds.

Advanced balls are made of multiple layers (three or more), with a soft cover and firm core. They induce a greater amount of spin from lofted shots (wedges especially), as well as a sensation of softness in the hands in short-range shots. However, these balls require a much greater swing speed and thus greater physical strength to properly compress at impact. If the compression of a golf ball does not match a golfer's swing speed, either a lack of compression or over-compression will occur, resulting in loss of distance. Other choices consumers must make include brand and color, with colored balls and better brands generally being more expensive.

Practice/range balls
A practice ball or range ball is similar to a recreational golf ball, but is designed to be inexpensive, durable and have a shorter flight distance, while still retaining the principal behaviors of a "real" golf ball and so providing useful feedback to players. All of these are desirable qualities for use in an environment like a driving range, which may be limited in maximum distance, and must have many thousands of balls on-hand at any time that are each hit and mis-hit hundreds of times during their useful life.

To accomplish these ends, practice balls are typically harder-cored than even recreational balls, have a firmer, more durable cover to withstand the normal abrasion caused by a club's hitting surface, and are made as cheaply as possible while maintaining a durable, quality product. Practice balls are typically labelled with "PRACTICE" in bold lettering, and often also have one or more bars or lines printed on them, which allow players (and high-speed imaging aids) to see the ball's spin more easily as it leaves the tee or hitting turf.

Practice balls conform to all applicable requirements of the Rules of Golf, and as such are legal for use on the course, but as the hitting characteristics are not ideal, players usually opt for a better-quality ball for actual play.

Recycled balls
Players, especially novice and casual players, lose a large number of balls during the play of a round. Balls hit into water hazards, penalty areas, buried deeply in sand, and otherwise lost or abandoned during play are a constant source of litter that groundskeepers must contend with, and can confuse players during a round who may hit an abandoned ball (incurring a penalty by strict rules). An estimated 1.2 billion balls are manufactured every year and an estimated 300 million are lost in the US alone.

A variety of devices such as nets, harrows, sand rakes etc. have been developed that aid the groundskeeping staff in efficiently collecting these balls from the course as they accumulate. Once collected, they may be discarded, kept by the groundskeeping staff for their own use, repurposed on the club's driving range, or sold in bulk to a recycling firm. These firms clean and resurface the balls to remove abrasions and stains, grade them according to their resulting quality, and sell the various grades of playable balls back to golfers through retailers at a discount.

Used or recycled balls with obvious surface deformation, abrasion or other degradation are known informally as "shags", and while they remain useful for various forms of practice drills such as chipping, putting and driving, and can be used for casual play, players usually opt for used balls of higher quality, or for new balls, when playing in serious competition. Other grades are typically assigned letters or proprietary terms, and are typically differentiated by the cost and quality of the ball when new and the ability of the firm to restore the ball to "like-new" condition. The "top grade" balls are typically balls that are considered the current state of the art and, after cleaning and surfacing, are indistinguishable externally from a new ball sold by the manufacturer.

Markouts/X-outs
In addition to recycled balls, casual golfers wishing to procure quality balls at a discount price can often purchase "X-outs". These are "factory seconds" – balls which have failed the manufacturer's quality control testing standards and which the manufacturer therefore does not wish to sell under its brand name. To avoid a loss of money on materials and labor, however, the balls which still generally conform to the Rules are marked to obscure the brand name (usually with a series of "X"s, hence the most common term "X-out"), packaged in generic boxes and sold at a deep discount.

Typically, the flaw that caused the ball to fail QC does not have a significant effect on its flight characteristics (balls with serious flaws are usually discarded outright at the manufacturing plant), and so these "X-outs" will often perform identically to their counterparts that have passed the company's QC. They are thus a good choice for casual play. However, because the balls have been effectively "disowned" for practical and legal purposes by their manufacturer, they are not considered to be the same as the brand-name balls on the USGA's published Conforming Golf Ball List. Therefore, when playing in a tournament or other event that requires the ball used by the player to appear on this list as a "condition of competition", X-outs of any kind are illegal.

Marking and personalization
Golfers need to distinguish their ball from other players' to ensure that they do not play the wrong ball. This is often done by making a mark on the ball using a permanent marker pen such as a Sharpie. A wide number of markings are used; a majority of players either simply write their initial in a particular color, or color in a particular arrangement of the dimples on the ball. Many players make multiple markings so that at least one can be seen without having to lift the ball. Marking tools such as stamps and stencils are available to speed the marking process.

Alternatively, balls are usually sold pre-marked with the brand and model of golf ball, and also with a letter, number or symbol. This combination can usually (but not always) be used to distinguish a player's ball from other balls in play and from lost or abandoned balls on the course. Companies, country clubs and event organizers commonly have balls printed with their logo as a promotional tool, and some professional players are supplied with balls by their sponsors which have been custom-printed with something unique to that player (their name, signature, or a personal symbol).

Radio location
Golf balls with embedded radio transmitters to allow lost balls to be located were first introduced in 1973, only to be rapidly banned for use in competition. More recently RFID transponders have been used for this purpose, though these are also illegal in tournaments. This technology can however be found in some computerized driving ranges. In this format, each ball used at the range has an RFID with its own unique transponder code. When dispensed, the range registers each dispensed ball to the player, who then hits them towards targets in the range. When the player hits a ball into a target, they receive distance and accuracy information calculated by the computer. The use of this technology was first commercialized by World Golf Systems Group to create TopGolf, a brand and chain of computerized ranges now owned by Callaway Golf.

World records
Canadian long drive champion Jason Zuback broke the world ball speed record on an episode of Sport Science with a golf ball speed of 328 km/h. The previous record of 302 km/h was held by José Ramón Areitio, a Jai Alai player.

History

 * A history of the golf ball
 * All about Golf Balls

title: Golf ball


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Remixes 81–04

Remixes 81–04 is a remix album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 25 October 2004. It was the band's first release since Daniel Miller's independent label Mute Records was acquired by industry major EMI in 2002. It features well-known remixes from the band's back catalogue, as well as previously unavailable mixes.

There are three versions of Remixes 81–04. The main version has two CDs. The limited-edition version has the same two CDs, plus a bonus CD with mostly new remixes. There is also a one-CD release with selections from all three discs.

The booklet, found in all three versions, features an essay by Paul Morley. A special "Secret Website" (now offline) could be unlocked with the CDs.

During the promotion of the limited three-CD edition of Remixes 81–04, the above-mentioned site was launched for fans who bought the bundle, which featured exclusive goodies. There was a special digital download-only bundle titled Remixes 81···04 Rare Tracks, which is now offline for all songs. It was accompanied with official artwork (also download-only). Users who bought the entire bundle could burn the tracks to a 90-minute CD-R (the whole album lasts 88:32) and print the artwork.

It was followed by a second remix album, Remixes 2: 81–11, released on 3 June 2011.

Track listing
All songs written by Martin L. Gore, except "Shout!", "Just Can't Get Enough" and "Photographic" by Vince Clarke, and "Route 66" by Bobby Troup.

Remixes 81·04

 * LCDMUTEL8 – one-disc edition

 * 1) "Never Let Me Down Again" (Split Mix) – 9:32
 * 2) "Personal Jesus" (Pump Mix) – 7:47
 * 3) "Barrel of a Gun" (Underworld Hard Mix) – 9:36
 * 4) "Route 66" (Beatmasters Mix) – 6:18
 * 5) "Useless" (The Kruder + Dorfmeister Session™) – 9:06
 * 6) "In Your Room" (The Jeep Rock Mix) – 6:19
 * 7) "Home" (Air 'Around the Golf' Remix) – 3:55
 * 8) "Strangelove" (Blind Mix) – 6:32
 * 9) "I Feel You" (Renegade Soundwave Afghan Surgery Mix) – 4:57
 * 10) "Just Can't Get Enough" (Schizo Mix) – 6:45
 * 11) "Halo" (Goldfrapp Remix) – 4:22
 * 12) "Enjoy the Silence" (Reinterpreted) – 3:32

Remixes 81··04

 * CDMUTEL8 – two-disc edition

 * Disc one
 * 1) "Never Let Me Down Again" (Split Mix) – 9:31 (Depeche Mode & Dave Bascombe, 1987)
 * 2) "Policy of Truth" (Capitol Mix) – 8:00 (François Kevorkian, 1990)
 * 3) "Shout!" (Rio Remix) – 7:29 (Depeche Mode & Daniel Miller, 1981)
 * 4) "Home" (Air 'Around the Golf' Remix) – 3:55 (Air, 1997)
 * 5) "Strangelove" (Blind Mix) – 6:32 (Daniel Miller & Rico Conning, 1987)
 * 6) "Rush" (Spiritual Guidance Mix) – 5:27 (Jack Dangers, 1993)
 * 7) "I Feel You" (Renegade Soundwave Afghan Surgery Mix) – 4:57 (Renegade Soundwave, 1993)
 * 8) "Barrel of a Gun" (Underworld Hard Mix) – 9:36 (Underworld, 1997)
 * 9) "Route 66" (Beatmasters Mix) – 6:18 (Beatmasters, 1987)
 * 10) "Freelove" (DJ Muggs Remix) – 4:24 (DJ Muggs, 2001)
 * 11) "I Feel Loved" (Chamber's Remix) – 6:17 (Chamber, 2001)
 * 12) "Just Can't Get Enough" (Schizo Mix) – 6:45 (Depeche Mode & Daniel Miller, 1981)

 * Disc two
 * 1) "Personal Jesus" (Pump Mix) – 7:47 (François Kevorkian, 1989)
 * 2) "World in My Eyes" (Mode to Joy) – 6:28 (Jon Marsh, 1990)
 * 3) "Get the Balance Right!" (Combination Mix) – 7:56 (Depeche Mode & Daniel Miller, 1983)
 * 4) "Everything Counts" (Absolut Mix) – 6:02 (Alan Moulder, 1989)
 * 5) "Breathing in Fumes" – 6:05 (Depeche Mode, Daniel Miller & Gareth Jones, 1986)
 * 6) "Painkiller" (Kill the Pain DJ Shadow vs. Depeche Mode) – 6:29 (DJ Shadow, 1998)
 * 7) "Useless" (The Kruder + Dorfmeister Session™) – 9:06 (Kruder & Dorfmeister, 1997)
 * 8) "In Your Room" (The Jeep Rock Mix) – 6:19 (Jonny Dollar with Portishead, 1994)
 * 9) "Dream On" (Dave Clarke Acoustic Version) – 4:23 (Dave Clarke, 2001)
 * 10) "It's No Good" (Speedy J Mix) – 5:02 (Speedy J, 1997)
 * 11) "Master and Servant" (An ON-USound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic) – 4:35 (Adrian Sherwood, 1984)
 * 12) "Enjoy the Silence" (Timo Maas Extended Mix) – 8:41 (Timo Maas, 2004)

Remixes 81···04

 * XLCDMUTEL8 – three-disc edition
 * Discs one and two are the same as the two-disc edition

 * Disc three
 * 1) "A Question of Lust" (Remix) – 5:08 (Flood, 1986)
 * 2) "Walking in My Shoes" (Random Carpet Mix (Full Length)) – 8:37 (William Orbit, 1993)
 * 3) "Are People People?" – 4:28 (Adrian Sherwood, 1984)
 * 4) "World in My Eyes" (Daniel Miller Mix) – 4:37 (Daniel Miller, 1990)
 * 5) "I Feel Loved" (Danny Tenaglia's Labor of Love Dub (Edit)) – 11:21 (Danny Tenaglia, 2001)
 * 6) "It's No Good" (Club 69 Future Mix) – 8:50 (Club 69, 1997)
 * 7) "Photographic" (Rex the Dog Dubb Mix) – 6:20 (Rex the Dog, 2004)
 * 8) "Little 15" (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) – 4:52 (Ulrich Schnauss, 2004)
 * 9) "Nothing" (Headcleanr Rock Mix) – 3:30 (Headcleanr, 2004)
 * 10) "Lie to Me" ('The Pleasure of Her Private Shame' Remix by LFO) – 6:33 (LFO, 2004)
 * 11) "Clean" (Colder Version) – 7:09 (Colder, 2004)
 * 12) "Halo" (Goldfrapp Remix) – 4:22 (Goldfrapp, 2004)
 * 13) "Enjoy the Silence" (Reinterpreted) – 3:32 (Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, 2004)

 * A promotional version of the 3-disc edition has the full 12:10 version of "I Feel Loved (Danny Tenaglia's Labor of Love Dub)" but omits "Lie to Me ('The Pleasure of Her Private Shame' Remix by LFO)".

Remixes 81····04

 * MUTEL8 – six-LP edition
 * Has the same tracks as the three-disc edition (XLCDMUTEL8), in slightly different order, except it has the full 12:10 version of "I Feel Loved" (Danny Tenaglia's Labor of Love Dub)
 * Limited edition of 12,000 machine-numbered copies worldwide

Remixes 81···04 Rare Tracks

 * ZMUTEL8 – digital download

 * 1) "Behind the Wheel/Route 66" (Megamix) – 7:51 (Ivan Ivan, 1987)
 * 2) "Dream On" (Morel's Pink Noise Club Mix) – 7:45 (Richard Morel, 2001)
 * 3) "Master and Servant" (U.S. Black and Blue Version) – 8:04 (Joseph Watt, 1984)
 * 4) "Nothing" (Justin Strauss Mix) – 7:05 (Justin Strauss, 1989)
 * 5) "People Are People" (Special Edition ON-USound Remix) – 7:33 (Adrian Sherwood, 1984)
 * 6) "Little 15" (Bogus Brothers Mix) – 6:11 (Bogus Brothers, 2004)
 * 7) "Freelove" (Josh Wink Dub) – 8:51 (Josh Wink, 2001)
 * 8) "Personal Jesus" (Kazan Cathedral Mix) – 4:18 (François Kevorkian, 1989)
 * 9) "But Not Tonight" (Extended Remix) – 5:15 (Robert Margouleff, 1986)
 * 10) "But Not Tonight" (Margouleff Dance Mix) – 6:08 (Robert Margouleff, 1986)
 * 11) "Freelove" (Powder Productions Remix) – 7:58 (Powder Productions, 2001)
 * 12) "Slowblow" (Mad Professor Mix) – 5:25 (Mad Professor, 1997)
 * 13) "Rush" (Black Sun Mix) – 6:02 (Coil, 1994)

Remixes 81–04 A Continuous Mix by Mount Sims

 * PRO-CD-101442 – promotional only
 * 1) "Megamix (A Continuous Mix)" – 10:19 (Mount Sims, 2004)

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

title: Remixes 81–04


text: Category:Nootropics

title: Category:Nootropics


text:
User:Mark yehha

hello my first time(dated:10/20/04).i stiil dont know anything about dis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!that's all!

title: User:Mark yehha


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Towa Tei

Towa Tei (鄭 東和) is a Japanese artist, record producer, and DJ. Born in Yokohama, Japan, Towa was a member of Deee-Lite, from the US label Elektra Records in 1990 and shot to fame via their international hit single, "Groove Is In the Heart". He made his solo debut with the album Future Listening! in 1994. He has since relocated from New York to rural Nagano prefecture in Japan.

Towa's second studio album, Sound Museum (1997), became his highest charting effort at number 17 on the Oricon charts. Its single, "GBI (German Bold Italic)" featuring Kylie Minogue and Haruomi Hosono, reached number 50 and 63 in Australia and the United Kingdom, respectively. He saw continued success with 1999's Last Century Modern as its single, "Let Me Know" featuring Chara, peaked at number 34 in Japan, his highest entry.

Towa has collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yukihiro Takahashi, Akiko Yano, Ringo Sheena, and Arto Lindsay, among others. His concept party, "Hotel H", started in 2009 as a social spot for music industry people in Tokyo.

Biography
Towa is a third-generation Korean-Japanese.

Towa began making demo tapes at the age of 16 having bought his first synthesizer, a Korg MS-10. While studying at Musashino Art University Junior College of Art and Design, he sent his tape to a radio program of Ryuichi Sakamoto titled Sound Street.

In 1987, Towa moved to the U.S. to study graphic design and joined house act Deee-Lite, a trio with Supa DJ Dimitry and Lady Miss Kier, enjoying almost instant success after debuting in 1990 with their album World Clique and the single "Groove Is In the Heart".

In 1991, Towa collaborated with his idol Ryuichi Sakamoto on Sakamoto's album Heartbeat. He also appeared on Sakamoto's follow up album Sweet Revenge.

In 1994, Towa returned to Japan after seven years in New York. He sustained a back injury falling from a stage during a performance with Deee-Lite in Brazil. While recovering, he began to drift toward other musical styles. He debuted as a solo act with Future Listening! that same year, incorporating an array of styles, including electronic, bossa nova, house, jazz and pop. It featured collaborations with Joi Cardwell, Bebel Gilberto, MC Kinky, Hiroshi Takano, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Toshihiko Mori, Satoshi Tomiie, Yuichi Oki of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Pizzicato Five vocalist Maki Nomiya.

Sound Museum followed in 1997, then Last Century Modern in 1999. 2002 brought the album Towa Tei, under the pseudonym Sweet Robots Against the Machine. Flash surfaced in 2005 by which time Towa was DJing regularly in Japan. He has admitted, though, that he does not enjoy performing and prefers producing and using computers.

Big Fun, featuring Verbal and Mademoiselle Yulia, was released in 2009 and was the third album to feature the artwork of San Franciscan painter and graffiti artist Barry McGee. For the album, Towa utilized MySpace to collaborate with artists from around the world, even if he didn't know them, such as with German act Taprikk Sweezee. Another collaborator he worked with for Big Fun was Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, though they also met only on MySpace.

Towa has established his own creative company, hug inc, which, among other things, manufactures his trademark sunglasses.

Discography

 * Future Listening! (1994)
 * Sweet Robots Against the Machine (as Sweet Robots Against the Machine) (1997)
 * Sound Museum (1997)
 * Last Century Modern (1999)
 * Towa Tei (as Sweet Robots Against the Machine) (2002)
 * Flash (2005)
 * Big Fun (2009)
 * Sunny (2011)
 * Lucky (2013)
 * Cute (2015)
 * Emo (2017)
 * 3 (as Sweet Robots Against the Machine) (2018)
 * LP (2021)
 * Zoundtracks (2023)
 * Touch (2023)
 * Metallic Rouge (2023)

title: Towa Tei


text:
Clomifene

Clomifene, also known as clomiphene, is a medication used to treat infertility in women who do not ovulate, including those with polycystic ovary syndrome. It is taken by mouth.

Common side effects include pelvic pain and hot flashes. Other side effects can include changes in vision, vomiting, trouble sleeping, ovarian cancer, and seizures. It is not recommended in people with liver disease or abnormal vaginal bleeding of unknown cause or who are pregnant. Clomifene is in the selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) family of medication and is a nonsteroidal medication. It works by causing the release of GnRH by the hypothalamus, and subsequently gonadotropin from the anterior pituitary.

Clomifene was approved for medical use in the United States in 1967. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, under the category "Ovulation inducers" (Complementary List). Its introduction began the era of assisted reproductive technology.

Clomifene (particularly the purified enclomiphene isomer) has also been found to have a powerful ability to boost or restore testosterone levels in hypogonadal men.

Ovulation induction
Clomifene is one of several alternatives for ovulation induction in those who are infertile due to anovulation or oligoovulation. Evidence is lacking for the use of clomifene in those who are infertile without a known reason. In such cases, studies have observed a clinical pregnancy rate 5.6% per cycle with clomifene treatment vs. 1.3%–4.2% per cycle without treatment.

Other uses
Clomifene has also been used with other assisted reproductive technology to increase success rates of these other modalities.

Testosterone replacement therapy
Clomifene is sometimes used in the treatment of male hypogonadism as an alternative to testosterone replacement therapy. It has been found to increase testosterone levels by 2- to 2.5-times in hypogonadal men at such dosages. Despite the use of questionnaires in testosterone replacement comparator trials being called into question, clomifene's lower cost, therapeutic benefits, and greater value towards hypogonadism improvement have been noted.

Clomifene consists of two stereoisomers in equal proportion: enclomifene and zuclomifene. Zuclomifene has pro-estrogenic properties, whereas enclomifene is pro-androgenic, i.e. it promotes testosterone production through stimulation of the HPG axis. For this reason, purified enclomifene isomer has been found to be twice as effective in boosting testosterone compared to the standard mix of both isomers. Additionally, enclomifene has a half-life of just 10 hours, but zuclomifene has a half-life on the order of several days to a week, so if the goal is to boost testosterone, taking regular clomifene may produce far longer-lasting pro-estrogenic effects than pro-androgenic effects.

Gynecomastia
Clomifene has been used in the treatment of gynecomastia. It has been found to be useful in the treatment of some cases of gynecomastia but it is not as effective as tamoxifen or raloxifene for this indication. It has shown variable results for gynecomastia (probably because the zuclomifene isomer is estrogenic), and hence is not recommended for treatment of the condition. Pure enclomifene isomer is likely to be more effective than clomifene at treating gynecomastia, because of the lack of the zuclomifene isomer (as noted above).

Due to its long half-life, zuclomifene can be detected in urine for at least 261 days after discontinuation (261 days after discontinuation with a half-life of 30 days, there is still 0.24% of the peak level of zuclomifene being excreted, whereas with a half-life of 10 hours, enclomifene reaches the same 0.24% level in less than 4 days).

Because of its potential for boosting testosterone, clomifene is listed as banned for use by competitive sportsmen, both in and out of competition, by the World Anti-Doping Agency, absent an organic etiology of primary hypogonadism.

Fertility restoration in transgender women
Clomifene has been effectively used to restore spermatogenesis in transwomen looking to have biological children. The effect of feminizing hormone therapy on fertility is not clear, but it is known that it can prevent sperm production.

Contraindications
Contraindications include an allergy to the medication, pregnancy, prior liver problems, abnormal vaginal bleeding of unclear cause, ovarian cysts other than those due to polycystic ovarian syndrome, unmanaged adrenal or thyroid problems, and pituitary tumors.

Side effects
The most common adverse drug reaction associated with the use of clomifene (>10% of people) is reversible ovarian enlargement.

Less common effects (1–10% of people) include visual symptoms (blurred vision, double vision, floaters, eye sensitivity to light, scotomata), headaches, vasomotor flushes (or hot flashes), light sensitivity and pupil constriction, abnormal uterine bleeding and/or abdominal discomfort.

Rare adverse events (<1% of people) include: high blood level of triglycerides, liver inflammation, reversible baldness and/or ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

Clomifene can lead to multiple ovulation, hence increasing the chance of twins (10% of births instead of ~1% in the general population) and triplets.

Rates of birth defects and miscarriages do not appear to change with the use of clomifene for fertility. Clomifene has been associated with liver abnormalities and a couple of cases of hepatotoxicity.

Cancer risk
Some studies have suggested that clomifene if used for more than a year may increase the risk of ovarian cancer. This may only be the case in those who have never been and do not become pregnant. Subsequent studies have failed to support those findings.

Clomifene has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of malignant melanomas and thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer risk was not associated with the number of pregnancies carried to viability.

Selective estrogen receptor modulator activity
Clomifene is a nonsteroidal triphenylethylene derivative that acts as a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). It consists of a non-racemic mixture of zuclomifene (~38%) and enclomifene (~62%), each of which has unique pharmacologic properties. It is a mixed agonist and antagonist of the estrogen receptor (ER). Clomifene activates the ERα in the setting of low baseline estrogen levels and partially blocks the receptor in the context of high baseline estrogen levels. Conversely, it is an antagonist of the ERβ. Clomifene has antiestrogenic effects in the uterus. There is little clinical research on the influence of clomifene in many target tissues, such as lipids, the cardiovascular system, and the breasts. Positive effects of clomifene on bone have been observed. Clomifene has been found to decrease insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels in women.

Clomifene is a long-acting ER ligand, with a nuclear retention of greater than 48 hours. Clomifene is a prodrug being activated via similar metabolic pathways as the related triphenylethylene SERMs tamoxifen and toremifene. The affinity of clomifene for the ER relative to estradiol ranges from 0.1 to 12% in different studies, which is similar to the range for tamoxifen (0.06–16%). 4-Hydroxyclomifene, a major active metabolite of clomifene, and afimoxifene (4-hydroxytamoxifen), a major active metabolite of tamoxifen, show 89–251% and 41–246% of the affinity of estradiol for the ER in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells, respectively. The ER affinities of the isomers of 4-hydroxyclomifene were 285% for (E)-4-hydroxyclomifene and 16% for (Z)-4-hydroxyclomifene relative to estradiol. 4-Hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene has similar affinity to 4-hydroxyclomifene for the ER. In one study, the affinities of clomifene and its metabolites for the ERα were ~100 nM for clomifene, ~2.4 nM for 4-hydroxyclomifene, ~125 nM for N-desmethylclomifene, and ~1.4 nM for 4-hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene.

Even though clomifene has some estrogenic effect, the antiestrogenic property is believed to be the primary source for stimulating ovulation. Clomifene appears to act mostly in the hypothalamus where it depletes hypothalamic ERs and blocks the negative feedback effect of circulating endogenous estradiol, which in turn results in an increase in hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulse frequency and circulating concentrations of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).

In normal physiologic female hormonal cycling, at seven days past ovulation, high levels of estrogen and progesterone produced from the corpus luteum inhibit GnRH, FSH, and LH at the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary. If fertilization does not occur in the post-ovulation period the corpus luteum disintegrates due to a lack of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). This would normally be produced by the embryo in the effort of maintaining progesterone and estrogen levels during pregnancy.

Therapeutically, clomifene is given early in the menstrual cycle to produce follicles. Follicles, in turn, produce the estrogen, which circulates in serum. In the presence of clomifene, the body perceives a low level of estrogen, similar to day 22 in the previous cycle. Since estrogen can no longer effectively exert negative feedback on the hypothalamus, GnRH secretion becomes more rapidly pulsatile, which results in increased pituitary gonadotropin release. (More rapid, lower amplitude pulses of GnRH lead to increased LH and FSH secretion, while more irregular, larger amplitude pulses of GnRH leads to a decrease in the ratio of LH to FSH.) Increased FSH levels cause the growth of more ovarian follicles, and subsequently rupture of follicles resulting in ovulation. Ovulation occurs most often 6 to 7 days after a course of clomifene.

In normal men, 50 mg/day clomifene for 8 months has been found to increase testosterone levels by around 870 ng/dL in younger men and by around 490 ng/dL in elderly men. Estradiol levels increased by 62 pg/mL in younger men and by 40 pg/mL in elderly men. These findings suggest that the progonadotropic effects of clomifene are stronger in younger men than in older men. In men with hypogonadism, clomifene has been found to increase testosterone levels by 293 to 362 ng/dL and estradiol levels by 5.5 to 13 pg/mL. In a large clinical study of men with low testosterone levels (<400 ng/dL), 25 mg/day clomifene increased testosterone levels from 309 ng/dL to 642 ng/dL after 3 months of therapy. No significant changes in HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, or prolactin levels were observed, although total cholesterol levels decreased significantly.

Other activities
Clomifene is an inhibitor of the conversion of desmosterol into cholesterol by the enzyme 24-dehydrocholesterol reductase. Concerns about possible induction of desmosterolosis and associated symptoms such as cataracts and ichthyosis with extended exposure precluded the use of clomifene in the treatment of breast cancer. Continuous use of clomifene has been found to increase desmosterol levels by 10% and continuous high doses of clomifene (200 mg/day) have been reported to produce visual disturbances.

Pharmacokinetics
Clomifene produces N-desmethylclomifene, clomifenoxide (clomifene N-oxide), 4-hydroxyclomifene, and 4-hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene as metabolites. Clomifene is a prodrug most importantly of 4-hydroxyclomifene and 4-hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene, which are the most active of its metabolites. In one study, the peak levels after a single 50 mg dose of clomifene were 20.37 nmol/L for clomifene, 0.95 nmol/L for 4-hydroxyclomifene, and 1.15 nmol/L for 4-hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene.

Clomifene has an onset of action of 5 to 10 days following course of treatment and an elimination half-life about 4 - 7days. In one study, after a single 50 mg dose of clomifene, the half-life of clomifene was 128 hours (5.3 days), of 4-hydroxyclomifene was 13 hours, and of 4-hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene was 15 hours. Individuals with the CYP2D6*10 allele showed longer half-lives for 4-hydroxyclomifene and 4-hydroxy-N-desmethylclomifene. Primarily due to differences in CYP2D6 genetics, steady state concentrations and individual response to clomifene are highly variable.

Most clomifene metabolism occurs in the liver, where it undergoes enterohepatic recirculation. Clomifene and its metabolites are excreted primarily through feces (42%), and excretion can occur up to 6 weeks after discontinuation.

Chemistry
Clomifene is a triphenylethylene derivative. It is a mixture of two geometric isomers, the cis enclomifene ((E)-clomifene) form and trans zuclomifene ((Z)-clomifene) form. These two isomers contribute to the mixed estrogenic and antiestrogenic properties of clomifene. The typical ratio of these isomers after synthesis is 38% zuclomiphene and 62% enclomiphene. The United States Pharmacopeia specifies that clomifene preparations must contain between 30% and 50% zuclomiphene.

History
A team at William S. Merrell Chemical Company led by Frank Palopoli synthesized clomifene in 1956; after its biological activity was confirmed a patent was filed and issued in November 1959. Scientists at Merrell had previously synthesized chlorotrianisene and ethamoxytriphetol. Clomifene was studied in the treatment of advanced breast cancer during the period of 1964 to 1974 and was found to be effective but was abandoned due to concerns about desmosterolosis with extended use. Short-term use (e.g. days to months) did not raise the same concerns and clomifene continued to be studied for other indications.

Clinical studies were conducted under an Investigational New Drug Application; clomifene was third drug for which an IND had been filed under the 1962 Kefauver Harris Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that had been passed in response to the thalidomide tragedy. It was approved for marketing in 1967 under the brand name Clomid. It was first used to treat cases of oligomenorrhea but was expanded to include treatment of anovulation when women undergoing treatment had higher than expected rates of pregnancy.

The drug is widely considered to have been a revolution in the treatment of female infertility, the beginning of the modern era of assisted reproductive technology, and the beginning of what in the words of Eli Y. Adashi, was "the onset of the US multiple births epidemic".

The company was acquired by Dow Chemical in 1980, and in 1989 Dow Chemical acquired 67 percent interest of Marion Laboratories, which was renamed Marion Merrell Dow. In 1995 Hoechst AG acquired the pharmaceutical business of Marion Merrell Dow. Hoechst in turn became part of Aventis in 1999, and subsequently a part of Sanofi. It became the most widely prescribed drug for ovulation induction to reverse anovulation or oligoovulation.

Brand names
Clomifene is marketed under many brand names worldwide, including Beclom, Bemot, Biogen, Blesifen, Chloramiphene, Clofert, Clomene, ClomHEXAL, Clomi, Clomid, Clomidac, Clomifen, Clomifencitrat, Clomifene, Clomifène, Clomifene citrate, Clomifeni citras, Clomifeno, Clomifert, Clomihexal, Clomiphen, Clomiphene, Clomiphene Citrate, Cloninn, Clostil, Clostilbegyt, Clovertil, Clovul, Dipthen, Dufine, Duinum, Fensipros, Fertab, Fertec, Fertex, Ferticlo, Fertil, Fertilan, Fertilphen, Fertin, Fertomid, Ferton, Fertotab, Fertyl, Fetrop, Folistim, Genoclom, Genozym, Hete, I-Clom, Ikaclomin, Klofit, Klomen, Klomifen, Lomifen, MER 41, Milophene, Ofertil, Omifin, Ova-mit, Ovamit, Ovinum, Ovipreg, Ovofar, Ovuclon, Ovulet, Pergotime, Pinfetil, Profertil, Prolifen, Provula, Reomen, Serofene, Serophene, Serpafar, Serpafar, Surole, Tocofeno, and Zimaquin.

Regulation
Clomifene is included on the World Anti-Doping Agency list of illegal doping agents in sport. It is listed because it is an "anti-estrogenic substance".

Research
Clomifene has been used almost exclusively for ovulation induction in premenopausal women, and has been studied very limitedly in postmenopausal women.

Clomifene was studied for treatment and prevention of breast cancer, but issues with toxicity led to abandonment of this indication, as did the discovery of tamoxifen. Like the structurally related drug triparanol, clomifene is known to inhibit the enzyme 24-dehydrocholesterol reductase and increase circulating desmosterol levels, making it unfavorable for extended use in breast cancer due to risk of side effects like irreversible cataracts.

title: Clomifene


text:
Taco (disambiguation)

A taco is a traditional Mexican dish

Taco may also refer to:

People

 * Taco (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname
 * Taco (musician), Indonesian-born Dutch singer Taco Ockerse (born 1955)
 * Taco Hemingway, stage name of Polish rapper, songwriter, and musician Filip Tadeusz Szcześniak (born 1990)
 * Travis "Taco" Bennett, American actor, DJ, and member of the music collective Odd Future
 * "Taco", an alias of Harry Joseph Bowman (1949–2019), American criminal and former international president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club

Arts and entertainment

 * Taco, a character on American television sitcom The League
 * "Tacos" (The Balham Alligators song)

Other uses

 * Transfusion associated circulatory overload (TACO), a transfusion medicine complication
 * Bete-ombro, also known as taco, a Brazilian game related to cricket
 * 14917 Taco, an asteroid

title: Taco (disambiguation)


text:
Category:Selective estrogen receptor modulators

Selective estrogen receptor modulators have varying effects on different isoforms of the estrogen receptor. Their use is in infertility, osteoporosis and menopause symptoms.


text:
User:Alib

The end is near.

Anyway, in case you want to contact me, it is a good idea to use my German discussion page – I check it more frequently.

bar:Benutzer:Alib de:Benutzer:Alib fr:Utilisateur:Alib it:Utente:Alib sl:Uporabnik:Alib

title: User:Alib


text: Category:1596 deaths

title: Category:1596 deaths


text:
Romance copula

In some of the Romance languages the copula, the equivalent of the verb to be in English, is relatively complex compared to its counterparts in other languages. A copula is a word that links the subject of a sentence with a predicate (a subject complement). Whereas English has one main copula verb (and some languages like Russian mostly express the copula implicitly) some Romance languages have more complex forms.

Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and some other Romance languages have more than one copula verb. Conversely, French and certain others have only one. The development of copula verbs in Romance languages is explained by the fact that these are ultimately derived from three Latin verbs:
 *  "to be" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ', as in English is). The verb esse was an irregular, suppletive verb, with some of its forms (e.g. fuī "I was/I have been") taken from the Proto-Indo-European root ' meaning "to become" (as in English be).
 * ' "to stand" or "to stay" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ', as in English stand and German stehen'').
 * ' "to sit" (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ', as in English sit'').

As the Romance languages developed over time, the three separate Latin verbs became just one or two verbs in the Romance languages.

The reduction of three separate verbs into just one or two appears to have occurred as follows:
 * The irregular infinitive was remodeled into.
 * and forms sounded similar in Latin once the latter reduced to, and sounded even more similar after stress shifted in Spanish infinitives to the penultimate vowel.  As a result, parts of the conjugations of erstwhile  were subject to being integrated into conjugation paradigms associated with , eventually.
 * itself remained a separate verb, but (later ) and  were similar in some meanings, so that, especially in the Western Romance languages,  evolved into a second copula, with a meaning of "to be (temporarily or incidentally)";  was then narrowed to mean "to be (permanently or essentially)".

The development of two copular verbs in this manner occurred most completely in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. In other languages, most usages of English "to be" are still translated by :
 * In Italian, the infinitive essere continues Latin as existential 'to be', while stare has the primary meaning "to stay" and is used as a copula only in a few situations: to express one's state of physical health (sto bene "I am well"); to form progressive aspects (sto parlando "I am speaking"); and (especially in the south of Italy) with the meaning of "to be located", although a distinction can be expressed in most varieties of Italian: è in cucina 'it's in the kitchen (where it usually is)' versus sta in cucina 'it's in the kitchen (where it isn't usually located)'.
 * In Old French, the verb ester < maintained the Proto-Romance meaning of "to stand, stay, stop".  In modern French, this verb has almost totally disappeared (see below for the one exception), although the derivative verb of rester ("to remain") exists, and some parts of the conjugation of ester have become incorporated into être "to be" < . As a result of this complex evolution, even though French has a single verb for "to be" (être), its conjugation is highly irregular.

History
In English, it is possible to say "there stands..." instead of "there is..." in certain contexts. In Latin, too, it became common to eschew  in favour of  and say where things "stood" instead of where they "were". With time, it became common to use this verb to express other states.

Today, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Catalan, and (to a lesser extent) Italian commonly use two copulas, one from each of the Latin verbs. The others use just one main copula, from.

There is also a notable tendency for a derivative of the supine of  to replace the past participle of verbs deriving from  (which in Latin had no supine). Examples:
 * Italian has stato as the past participle of not only stare but also essere, instead of the expected essuto (which, along with suto, we encounter only in mediaeval texts).
 * Standard Catalan has estat as the past participle of not only estar but also ésser. However, many people use forms such as sigut or sét, which are considered also standard for colloquial speech.
 * French has été as the past participle of être, which had a complex phonetic development like many words of the language: → /sˈtatu/ (Vulgar Latin) > /esˈtæðo/ (Proto-Gallo-Romance) > /esˈteθ/ (early Old French) > /ehˈte/ (late Old French) > /eːˈte/ (Middle French) > /ete/ (Modern French).
 * Notes
 * Following the standard practice, Latin verbs are quoted here in the first person singular of the present indicative. In other words, is literally "I am", rather than "to be". Their infinitives were  and.
 * Although it is normal to use lower case when writing Latin in modern times, this article, dealing as it does with etymology, presents Latin in the capital letters used by the Romans, and modern innovations such as, , ligatures, macrons, and breves have been avoided.
 * Only the basic simple tenses are given in the conjugation tables, but all languages below have also numerous compound tenses.
 * The asterisk (*) indicates an incorrect or unattested form.

Spanish copulas
The Spanish copulas are ser and estar. The latter developed as follows:
 * → *estare → estar

The copula ser developed from two Latin verbs. Thus its inflectional paradigm is a combination: most of it derives from (to be) but the present subjunctive appears to come from  (to sit) via the Old Spanish verb seer.

E.g. derivation from :

 * → sea (1st person singular, present tense, subjunctive mood)

Derivation from :

 * → somos (1st person plural, present tense, indicative mood)

The infinitive (on which the modern future and conditional are based) could have derived from either or both:

 * → èssere (as in Italian) → ésser (as in Catalan) → ser
 * → *seder → seer → ser

In the early part of the second millennium, in texts such as the Cantar de Mio Cid, ser was still used mostly as in Latin, and there was little place for estar; sentences like Es pagado, e davos su amor, "He is satisfied, and he gives you his favour" are found, where modern Spanish might have Queda contento, or Está satisfecho, y le da su favor.

As the centuries went by, estar spread in use. Today, ser is used to express the fundamental nature, identity, essence, or characteristics of something – what it really is, while estar expresses the state or condition something happens to be in. Indeed, ser is etymologically related to the English words "essence" and "is", and estar with "state", "status", "standing", "stance" and "stay". The distinction is parallel with the concept of essence versus accident.

The verb quedar (which also has the specific meanings of "to remain", "to be as a result" and others) is often used in a similar way to estar. It derives from the Latin ( in the infinitive), "to rest".

 * Ser

† Archaic.
 * Estar

†† Estar is usually made reflexive in the imperative.

Nuance

 * Él es sucio = "He is dirty" (i.e. "He is a dirty person" – characteristic)
 * Él está sucio = "He is dirty" (i.e. "He has some dirt on him" – state)

 * Es abierta = "She is open" (i.e. "She is an open sort of person" – characteristic)
 * Está abierta = "It is open" (probably referring to a door or window – state)

 * Es triste = "[It/he/she] is sad" (i.e. gloomy – characteristic)
 * Está triste = "[It/he/she] is sad" (i.e. feeling down – state)

 * ¿Cómo eres? = "What are you like?" (i.e. "describe yourself" – characteristics)
 * ¿Cómo estás? = "How are you?" (i.e. "how are you doing?" – state)

With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".
 * ¡Qué bonita es! = "Wow, she is so beautiful" (characteristic)
 * ¡Qué bonita está! = "Wow, she is looking so beautiful / she is done up so nicely" (state)

The differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Él está vivo (He is alive), Él está muerto (He is dead). Estar is used for both alive and dead, since they are both states, although being dead is considered a permanent state.

Ser is used when stating the stage of life at which a person is. The old, the young, etc. are seen as groups that one can belong to. It is a question of identity:
 * Él es viejo = "He is old"
 * Él es un viejo = "He is an old man"
 * Cuando ella era niñita = "When she was a little girl"

However, age can also be presented not as a matter of identity but a state:
 * Él está viejo = "He is looking old" / "He got old"

The use of estar gives a certain special nuance to some verbs. For example, estar guapa, though it has the sense of "to be beautiful", also emphasizes the use of make-up and clothes to create a beautiful look. Ser sucio instead of the more usual estar sucio means to be the sort of person who is likely to be dirty.

The adjective loco ("mad", "crazy", "insane") is always used with estar in Spain, as the implication is that the person "has gone mad" (i.e. a change of state). It is possible to give it a permanent nuance, but only by using it as a noun: Él es un loco, "He is a madman". Ser loco is used in certain regions in Latin America, however, meaning a permanent insanity as opposed to estar loco meaning have gone mad or acting crazy.

The expression como una cabra (with the implied loco omitted) is used with estar to mean "mad as a hatter", "crazy as a loon". Ser como una cabra would literally mean, "to be like a goat".

Ser is used with adjectives of fundamental belief, nationality, sex, intelligence, etc. The use of estar with francés ("French") would sound quite odd to native Spanish speakers, as though it meant, "to feel a bit French". Similarly, no estar católico does not mean, "to no longer be Catholic", but is a colloquial expression meaning "to feel under the weather".

It is often stated that the difference between the two verbs corresponds to "permanent" versus "temporary", but it is more accurate to describe the distinction as one of "essential nature" versus "state or condition". The "essential nature" of things does sometimes change, and this is reflected in the language. For example, someone who had been depressed for a prolonged period, and then had a life changing experience like a new career or long-term relationship, might say ahora yo soy feliz, meaning, "now I am happy".

Specific constructions requiring ser
A special use of ser, which expresses neither a nature nor a state but an action, is the formation of the passive voice:
 * Ellos han sido asesinados = "They have been murdered"
 * Tú serás juzgada = "You will be judged"

Past participles
Estar is usually used with adjectives that derive from past participles of verbs since the use of ser would sound like a verb in the passive voice. Such adjectives in any case generally refer to states:
 * La frontera está cerrada = "The border is closed"
 * Estoy casado = "I am married" (Soy casado is also possible; "I am single", "I am widowed", etc. can use ser or estar as well)

A special example of this tendency is what happens with words indicating prohibition and suchlike. If an adjective not deriving from a verb were used, then the meaning would definitely require ser. To say the same thing with a past participle, estar (or quedar) is required, in order to differentiate it from the use of ser with a past participle implying an action expressed in the passive voice:
 * Es ilegal fumar en este vuelo = "It is illegal to smoke on this flight" (straightforward case of ser)
 * Está prohibido fumar en este vuelo = "It is prohibited to smoke on this flight" (estar necessary to distinguish the sentence from the following one)
 * Ha sido prohibido fumar en este vuelo = "It has been prohibited (i.e. made against the rules) to smoke on this flight" (This is an example of the passive voice. This use of ser in the perfect tense is similar to the use of estar in the present tense; the former expressing an event in the past, the latter expressing its current effect.)

This fine nuance is not encountered in other Romance languages, which do not go to such lengths to distinguish between passives and similar-sounding phrases.

Location
Estar is used to refer to physical location. In Spanish, location is regarded as a state, and therefore is indicated with estar, even in those cases (e.g. Madrid está en España "Madrid is in Spain") when one might think that it is something so permanent and fundamental that it could be logical to use ser. The use of estar for location may be easier for English speakers to grasp if they recall that it is derived from Latin, "to stand."

With immobile things, quedar is sometimes used instead of estar, especially when there is a reference to a length of time, or a remaining distance, e.g.:
 * ¿A cuánto queda la playa? / ¿A qué distancia queda la playa? = "How far away is the beach?"
 * Aún queda lejos = "There is still quite some way" / "It is still far"
 * El bar queda a cinco minutitos = "The bar is five minutes away"

However, ser can sometimes occur with words such as aquí, which can mislead learners into thinking that physical location can be expressed with ser. In fact, the verb in this case identifies the place rather than expressing where it is. For example, one might say to a taxi driver the following phrases, to indicate that one has arrived:
 * Está aquí = "It is here"
 * Es aquí = "It is here"

The difference becomes clear if aquí is changed to esta calle:
 * Está en esta calle = "It is in this street"
 * Es esta calle = "It is this street"

Es aquí and es esta calle express the idea that "this is the place", a concept quite different from what is expressed by estar.

The only case in which true location is expressed by ser is when an event rather than a physical thing is referred to:
 * ¿Dónde es la fiesta? = "Where is the party?"
 * ¿Dónde está la discoteca? = "Where is the nightclub?"

Words requiring ser
Ser is always used when the complement is a noun or pronoun, regardless of whether the speaker intended to express a fundamental essence (though in practice speakers do tend to express this):
 * Él es una persona sucia = "He is a dirty person"
 * Ella es una persona abierta = "She is an open person"
 * Yo soy la víctima = "I am the victim"

However, it is not always easy to know what is a noun. For example, pez is a noun meaning "fish", but estar pez is a colloquial expression meaning "not to have a clue" or "to be at sea" at a given activity.

Words requiring estar
Estar must be used when the complement is bien or mal, no matter what meaning is intended.
 * Este libro está muy bien = Este libro es muy bueno = "This book is very good" (nature)
 * Estoy muy mal = Estoy muy malo = "I am feeling terrible, ill" (state)

Total change of meaning with specific adjectives
Many adjectives change in meaning entirely depending on the verb used, sometimes meaning almost the opposite. In each case, the meaning which is more of a "nature" goes with ser and the meaning which is more of a "state" goes with estar.

Happiness
Although "sadness" is expressed straightforwardly with estar triste, "happiness" is a little trickier. The quality of being joyous, lively and happy is expressed with ser alegre. This can describe people, music, colours, etc. Estar alegre expresses the state of being merry, which in practice may sometimes mean "drunk", "tipsy".

A person who is fundamentally happy in life is said to ser feliz; indeed la felicidad is that "happiness" for which humans strive. This happiness often turns out to be a transitory state, a person may nevertheless declare yo soy feliz as a statement of optimism that goes beyond the description of today's mood that is expressed by any phrase with estar. As for such moods, they can be expressed with estar feliz.

When not a state but a change of state is referred to, the expression is quedar contento or alegrarse: Ella quedó muy contenta cuando yo le dije que ella había ganado = "she was very glad when I told her that she had won"; Yo me alegro de que vosotros hayáis llegado = "I am glad that you (plural) have come".

In the excerpt from the Cantar de Mio Cid above, one can see that "to be happy" a thousand years ago was ser pagado (meaning "to be paid" in current Spanish).

Portuguese copulas
The Portuguese copulas are ser and estar. As in Spanish, estar derived from Latin / :
 * → *estare → estar

The copula ser developed both from and. Thus its inflectional paradigm is a combination of these two Latin verbs: most tenses derive from and a few from. E.g. derivation from :
 * → seer → ser (infinitive)
 * → seja (1st person singular, present tense, subjunctive mood)

E.g. derivation from :
 * → som → sou (1st pers. sing., present tense, indicative mood)
 * → era (1st pers. sing., imperfect past tense, indicative mood)
 * → fui (1st pers. sing., preterite tense, indicative mood)

 * Ser

† Mostly literary.
 * Estar

†† Some authors regard the conditional as a tense of the indicative mood.

Usage
The distinction between the two verbs is very similar to that of Catalan. Compared to Spanish, estar is a little less used. The main difference between Spanish and Portuguese lies in the interpretation of the concept of state versus essence and in the generalisations in some constructions. There is perhaps a little more of a concept of permanent versus temporary, rather than essence versus state. For example, unlike Spanish, Portuguese does not require estar with past participles; in this case, it follows the general rule regarding state/essence.
 * A cadeira é [feita] de madeira = "The chair is made of wood".

The word feita, "made", is usually omitted.
 * Eu sou casado = "I am married".

The same applies to sentences expressing interdictions:
 * É proibido fumar neste voo "Smoking is forbidden on this flight".

However, there are some nuances in these verbs in the passive voice. In this case, the use of ser or estar depends on the tense of the verb. E.g.: to say that somebody is not allowed to smoke, only estar can be used in the present tense:
 * Está proibido de fumar [pelo pai] = "He has been forbidden from smoking [by his father]"; literally "He is forbidden to smoke [by the father]".

In past tenses, both ser and estar can be used, conveying a different meaning:
 * Foi proibido de fumar = "He was forbidden from smoking" [action].
 * Estava proibido de fumar = "He was forbidden from smoking" [result].

Portuguese counts location as permanent and fundamental, and accordingly uses ser, or the more specific secondary copula ficar (to stay), from Latin, "to place/set":
 * Lisboa fica em Portugal "Lisbon is [located] in Portugal".
 * Onde é/fica o apartamento dela? "Where is her flat/apartment?"

but:
 * A cidade está (situada) a 10 quilômetros da capital. "The city is (situated) 10 km from the capital."

Nuance

 * Como és? = "What are you like?" (i.e. "Describe yourself" – characteristics).
 * Como estás? = "How are you?" (i.e. "How are you doing?" – state).

 * Ele é triste = "He is sad" (i.e. gloomy – characteristic).
 * (Ele) está triste = "He is [feeling] sad" (i.e. feeling down – state).

 * Ela é aberta = "She is open" (i.e. "She is an open-minded sort of person" – characteristic; this sentence can also have a pejorative meaning).
 * Ela está aberta = "It is open" (probably referring to a door or window – state).

 * É sujo = "It is dirty" (i.e. "It is a dirty place/thing" – characteristic).
 * Está sujo = "It is dirty" (i.e. "The place is/looks dirty [now]" – state).

With adjectives referring to beauty and the like, ser means "to be", and estar means "to look".
 * Que linda ela é! = "She is so beautiful!" (characteristic).
 * Que linda ela está! = "She looks so beautiful!" (state).

As in Spanish, the differentiation between "nature" and "state" makes sense when talking about the states of life and death: Está vivo (He is alive); Está morto (He is dead). Notice the important difference between ser morto (to be killed) and estar morto (to be dead):
 * Ele foi morto [por um ladrão] = "He was killed [by a burglar]".

Louco (mad) can be used with ser or estar, giving different connotations:

 * És louco! = "You are mad!" (characteristic).
 * Estás louco! = "You have gone mad!"/ "You are acting crazy" (state).

Ser is used with adjectives expressing:
 * fundamental belief: Não sou católico "I am not a Catholic";
 * nationality: És português "You are Portuguese";
 * gender: É um homem "He is a man";
 * intelligence: Somos espertos "We are clever", etc.

Estar católico is used with the same sense as in Spanish:

 * Eu não estou muito católico = "I am not feeling very well" (perhaps mean-spirited or ill or drunk).
 * O tempo hoje não está muito católico = "The weather is not very reliable today".

Apart from this exception, due to its different meanings, estar cannot be used for nationality, gender, or intelligence, but one can say Estou abrasileirado (I have acquired Brazilian ways – state) or Estás americanizado (You have been Americanised – state). The same applies for the difference between É um homem "He is a man" and Está um homem, meaning, "He has grown up to be a man".

Ficar, apart from its use as "to stay", and the use mentioned above as a copula translated as "to be located", is extensively used for a change of state (sometimes quite sudden), being translated as "to get" or "to become":
 * Fiquei rico = "I got rich."
 * Ficou triste = "He became sad."

Catalan copulas
The Catalan copulas developed as follows:
 * → éssere → ésser → esser → ser
 * → *estare → estar
 * → seure

The last three forms of the first verb survive in modern Catalan. Ésser is considered the most standard, followed by ser and, distantly, esser. The verb seure remains as a distinct verb and is not considered a copula.

 * (És)ser

 * Estar

Usage
In Catalan, ésser and estar work in a way intermediate between those of Italian and Portuguese. A complete description of its rules of usage is as follows:

 * When referring to inanimate objects, ser is used to tell about either permanent conditions inherent to the object (for example és vermell, "it is red"), unfinished qualities, or non-permanent conditions when there is no implication that there has been or there will be a change in state (for example, la sopa és calenta, "the soup is hot.") Ser is used to talk about a quality of an inanimate object in a given moment (without paying attention to other moments) or exactly the opposite: a quality of an inanimate object which is expected to be true in all moments of the existence of said object. Most uses of past participles as adjectives fall into this category when referring to inanimate objects.
 * When referring to inanimate objects, estar is used to tell about non-permanent conditions when there is an implication of a finished change of state, an implication of a state in a known point of an evolution, or a temporal condition which is expected to change. In some way, estar introduces an adverbial sense to adjectives (for example, la sopa està calenta, "the soup is hot", as in "it has come to be hot.") Thus, both using ser and estar is correct in many contexts, but there is a difference in nuance.
 * When referring to animate objects, ser is only used to tell about permanent conditions (for example és boig, "he is insane"; és mort, "he is dead.") Things traditionally thought of as permanent conditions also fall under this category, most notably ser casat/da, "to be married", and related terms. Ser is also used with the past participle of some unaccusative verbs such as néixer, which in medieval and dialectal Catalan made their compound tenses with ser.
 * When referring to animate objects, estar is only used to tell about non-permanent conditions (for example estàs molt guapa, "you look good" as in "better than usual.")
 * With fixed prepositional locutions, estar is most often used (for example, està en perill, "he/she/it is in danger"; està a punt, "he/she/it is ready.")
 * When referring to location, ser is used when no time context is given (for example, els llibres són als prestatges, "the books are on the shelves.")
 * When referring to location, estar is used when there is a sense of permanence (for example estic a Barcelona, "I live in Barcelona") or of a concrete time lapse (for example hi vam estar dues hores, "we were there for two hours.") In this case, pronominal particles might be added to the verb to emphasise the sentence (for example, ens hi vam estar dues hores.)
 * Estar is always used with modal adverbs (for example estic bé, "I am all right").
 * Estar is used to form the present continuous form estar + gerund, although some linguists think this is not a genuinely Catalan form, even though it is found on Medieval literature, for example that of Ausiàs March. Another undoubtedly genuine but perhaps too literary form is ser a + infinitive.
 * Estat is used as the past participle of not only estar but also èsser/ser by many speakers, and this is considered the universal form. However, many other speakers use a traditional regular past participle of èsser/ser: sigut, which is also accepted as standard in Central Catalan, although many linguists and speakers see it as colloquial. Another accepted form is sét, unlike the Valencian form segut, which causes confusion with the past participle of the verb seure, "to sit."

This can be summed up in five simple rules:

 * 1) Ser is always used to apply adjectives to inanimate objects except if there is a cause or a time lapse given for the condition of the adjective.
 * 2) Estar is always used to apply adjectives to animate objects if it is not a permanent state or characteristic of such animate object. However, there are some things that nowadays can be changed but before could not (or were not expected to), which work like permanent characteristics (for example, nationality, beliefs, sex, looks, being married, degree of intelligence and degree of sanity.) Of course, even those can be expressed with estar if the animate object is acting as if they were his characteristics but they are not, or if the characteristics are more emphasised than usual. For example, és molt socialista, "she/he's a convinced socialist" vs. estàs molt socialista!, "you are being very socialist!"; és molt maca, "she is very beautiful" vs. està molt maca, "she looks very beautiful", as in "better than usual"; és mort, "he is dead" vs. està com mort, "he is acting as if he were dead."
 * 3) Ser is always used for locations except if there is a time lapse given or if the location actually means that someone works or lives in the indicated place.
 * 4) Estar is always used with modal adverbs and equivalents like fixed prepositional locutions.
 * 5) Estar is always used to express a point of an evolution or scale (for example, els termòmetres estan a 20 graus, "thermometers are at 20 degrees.")

"Animate objects" refers mainly to people, animals, and whatever is thought to be sentient (for example, a child playing with a doll will probably treat it as an animate object).

Italian copulas
The Italian copulas did not undergo the same development as in other languages, having preserved the Vulgar Latin forms essere and stare.

 * Essere

 * Stare

Usage
Essere is the main copula. Stare refers to state rather than essence, but more narrowly than in Spanish. Essere is used for almost all cases in which English uses "to be". It therefore makes sense to concentrate on the few uses of stare.
 * Stare means "to be", "to be feeling", or "to appear" with bene, male, meglio, come?, etc.: Come stai? "How are you?", Sto bene "I am well."
 * Stare is used to form continuous forms of tenses: sto aspettando "I am waiting", Stavo parlando con... "I was speaking with..."
 * Stare's past participle stato has replaced that of essere, and so stato is used for "been" in all senses.
 * Starci (lit. To stay in it) means "to fit" or "to assent to a proposal."
 * Stare can be an alternative to restare "to stay."
 * Stare is occasionally "to be located." This is very common in the south of Italy for both transient and durable location, but only for durable location in the North. "Sta a Napoli" means "He/she is in Naples" in the South but "He/she lives in Naples" in the North.

Like the Spanish quedar, Italian uses rimanere, from Latin (both meaning "to remain"), in the sense of "to be as a result"; e.g. È rimasta incinta = "she became pregnant (as a result)".

Sicilian copulas
The Sicilian copulas developed as follows:
 * → èssere → (es)sere → siri
 * → stare → stari

 * Siri

 * Stari
 * Notes

 * 1) The simple future is no longer in use.
 * 2) The conditional tense of stari has also fallen into disuse.

Usage
In Sicilian, the meanings and usages of these two copulas are not as broad as in the other languages. Siri is the dominant copula, even more so than in the other Romance languages and is used for almost all cases in which English uses “to be”. Stari has been relegated to only a few common uses:

 * Stari is used in combination with the gerund to form the progressive aspect: staiu parrannu = "I am speaking".
 * Stari’s past participle, statu, replaced that of siri and thus statu is used for “been” in all senses.
 * Stari has also replaced all other words meaning, "to reside": staiu nnê Stati Uniti = "I live in the United States".
 * Stari, in combination with addritta, is also used to mean, “to stand up”.
 * Stari in combination with the preposition pi can comport two meanings,
 * 1) when followed by a verb it means “about to” or “ready to”: staiu pi jiri = "I am about to go", "I am leaving"; and
 * 2) in reference to an abbreviation, it means, “to stand for”: «USA» sta pi Stati Uniti di Mèrica = "'USA' stands for United States of America."
 * Stari-cci, most likely an Italianism, is sometimes used to mean, “to fit”: stu vistutu mi sta? = "does this suit fit me [well]?" (cf. Italian non ci sto 'I don't fit in here/there').

Siri is no longer in use as an auxiliary verb. Aviri has completely replaced it in all verbs.

Occitan
Occitan has just one copula, estre; which is also written èsser, ester, estar in diverse dialects.

 * Estre

French
Modern French has only one copula. Old French, however, had estre ( → essere → *essre → estre) and ester ( → *estare → estar → ester). The latter meant to ‘stand’, ‘stay’ or ‘stop’, and might have been used as a copula in a similar way to other Romance languages. With phonetic evolution, the forms of each verb tended to be confused with one another, with the result that estre finally absorbed ester; around the same time, most words beginning with est- changed to ét- or êt-. The modern form of the verb is être.

The only clear traces of ester (or éter if we bear in mind the loss of the s) in the modern copula are the past participle and the imperfect. Instead of the *étu one would expect, we find été – just what we would expect from ester/éter. The same tendency to use past participles derived from (the supine of ) to replace the past participles of the main copula is also seen in Italian and Catalan. The Old French imperfect was iere (from Latin ); this was replaced in Middle French by the imperfect of ester, which was estois (from Vulgar Latin *estaba, Latin ).

The present participle and all imperfect forms of être are regular and correspond to what one would expect for a verb with the stem êt-; however, they could also be considered as deriving from éter since the forms coincide.

All other forms of être are from rather than.

Ester also survives in the infinitive in the set phrases ester en justice and ester en jugement, which translate the Latin term meaning "to appear in court", "to stand before the court". Ester en justice has come to mean, "to act in a lawsuit", i.e. to appear in court as a party. This is a highly defective verb and mostly exists in the infinitive, although present and past participle are infrequently used as well.

† Literary.
 * Être

Romansh
Romansh has just one copula, esser. Star means, "to reside".

 * Esser

Romanian
A fi, fire is the copula in Romanian. These infinitive forms evolved from the passive verb, "to become", "to be made":

 * → fiere → fire → *fir → fi (fire)

In Latin was used suppletively as the passive voice of  "to do", "to make". However, in the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in modern-day Romania, its evolved form fiere replaced essere, maybe due to the similarity between the stems fi- of and fu- of  (which is not coincidental, as both stems descend from the Proto-Indo-European verb *bʰuH-).

Other forms of the verb a fi are derived from : sunt, ești, e(ste), suntem, sunteți, sunt in the present tense and eram, erai, era, eram, erați, erau in the imperfect.

A sta (stare) ( → sta) means "to stay" or even "to stand", "to stand still" or "to dwell/reside" e.g. a sta in picioare, as in Italian stare in piedi or unde stai? – "where do you live/reside?"

 * A fi

† Demonstratives used when necessary.

For information on the morphological evolution of the Romance copula, see Romance verbs.

title: Romance copula


text: Category:Computer hacking

title: Category:Computer hacking


text: User talk:68.55.249.207

title: User talk:68.55.249.207


text:
Nikki Cox

Nikki Cox is a former American actress, known mostly for her roles on the television series Unhappily Ever After, Las Vegas, The Norm Show, and Nikki.

Career
Cox began her career at the age of four, when she appeared as a dancer in several ballet productions and TV specials. She began acting at the age of ten, making appearances in several movies and guest-starring on shows such as Baywatch, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mama's Family, Eerie, Indiana, and Blossom. She also appeared in General Hospital from 1993 to 1995, and had a recurring role on the Saturday morning program California Dreams.

Her appearances on various TV shows led to her first prime-time role as Tiffany Malloy on the sitcom Unhappily Ever After, which ran on The WB from 1995 to 1999 for a total of five seasons. Her brother Matthew guest-starred on a handful of episodes, including one where he wore a "Ghostface" mask (the type of mask featured in Scream).

After Unhappily Ever After was cancelled (she appeared in all 100 episodes), Cox went on to portray Taylor Clayton, a former call-girl turned social worker on the ABC television sitcom The Norm Show which lasted for three seasons (she appeared in 27 of its 54 episodes). Next she starred as Nikki White in Nikki, another sitcom vehicle that lasted for two seasons on The WB (2000–2002).

The most successful show Cox co-starred in following her time on Unhappily Ever After was on the NBC TV drama Las Vegas from 2003 to 2007 for a total of four seasons. She played Mary Connell for 88 episodes. However, Cox would not appear on the fifth and final season of the show. On May 20 and 23, 2005, her Las Vegas character crossed over to NBC's soap opera Passions to coincide with the arrival of two new characters introduced on Las Vegas.

In 2006, she became the spokesmodel for the online gaming website Sportsbook.com. In 2009, she provided the voice of Jenna in Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust. That same year, she also appeared in Lonely Street, a comedy, starring Robert Patrick, Jay Mohr, Ernie Hudson, and Lindsay Price. In 2016, Cox was nominated as the sole writer for Mohr's album ''Happy. And A Lot'' for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.

Personal life
Cox dated co-star Kevin Connolly from Unhappily Ever After while the two were on the show. In 1997, she was engaged to Bobcat Goldthwait, 16 years her senior, who voiced the character of Mr. Floppy on that same show.

On December 29, 2006, she married comedian/actor Jay Mohr in Los Angeles. The two met on the set of Las Vegas. In December 2008, Mohr petitioned a Los Angeles court to allow him to legally add her last name to his, changing his name to Jon Ferguson Cox Mohr. Cox and Mohr have a son. On the May 16, 2017, episode of The Adam Carolla Show, Mohr confirmed that he and Cox were "in the middle" of a divorce. Their divorce was finalized in August 2018.

title: Nikki Cox


text:
Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1996–1998

This is a list of members of the Australian House of Representatives from 1996 to 1998, as elected at the 1996 federal election.

 * The Labor member for Blaxland, Paul Keating resigned before the swearing in of parliament, after losing the election and thus, the position of Prime Minister. The resulting by-election held on 15 June 1996 was won by Labor's Michael Hatton.
 * The election of Jackie Kelly in Lindsay was declared invalid by the High Court of Australia, but she was subsequently re-elected in a by-election on 19 October 1996.
 * Labor member John Langmore, member for Fraser, resigned. At the resulting by-election on 1 February 1997, Labor candidate Steve Dargavel was elected.
 * Pauline Hanson, the member for Oxley, was elected as a Liberal, though she had been disendorsed during the campaign. She subsequently sat in Parliament as an independent, until forming her own party, One Nation, later in her term.
 * John Bradford, member for the Gold Coast seat of McPherson, resigned from the Liberal Party in 1998 and joined the Christian Democratic Party, serving as their only representative in the parliament. He was defeated at the subsequent general election.
 * Paul Zammit, member for the inner western Sydney seat of Lowe, resigned from the Liberal Party in 1998 over a dispute about Sydney Airport. He served the remainder of his term as an independent.
 * Tony Smith, the member for Dickson, resigned from the Liberal Party in 1998 and sat as an independent.


text:
Ouse Bridge (M62)

The Ouse Bridge is a reinforced concrete plate girder bridge that spans River Ouse between Goole and Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It carries the M62 and is situated between junctions 36 and 37. It was built between 1973 and 1976 by Costain and was designed by Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners. The bridge was officially opened to traffic on 24 May 1976 by nine-year-old Martin Brigham.

History
Traffic to and from Hull to the A1 historically went over Boothferry Bridge, on the A614, which was a swing bridge.

The position of the bridge and the M62 resulted from a study carried out in 1964 by Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners. They would also design the bridge. It is a haunched girder bridge.

Regional position
The extension of the M18 (from the current M180), the M62, and the first part of (what would become) the M180 (to Scunthorpe only) was announced in Hull in September 1965. At that time, it would be five years before the M62 would cross the Pennines, and the Humber Bridge would not be given firm funding until the 1966 Kingston upon Hull North by-election in January 1966. The extension of the M180 would also require a similar bridge over the Trent which, like the Ouse Bridge, was the final part of that motorway section to open (in 1979, three years later). The Humber Bridge began construction (on the south-side embankment) in July 1972, and the Ouse Bridge followed only six months later; both were being built at the same time, and the Humber Bridge opened five years after the Ouse Bridge. Costain built the 2.5 km southern approach road from the Humber Bridge to the A1077 at the same time as the Ouse Bridge, including a 320 m viaduct with seven concrete box spans. Both sides of the Humber and Ouse would be linked in February 1977. At the time of opening of the Ouse Bridge, the Humber Bridge was projected to cost £40 million, and to be completed by 1978. The M18 was projected, at the time, to open by mid-1978, but opened in February 1979.

Design
In the early stages an immersed tube tunnel was considered, which was thought to be too expensive. The superstructure was designed by Redpath Dorman Long and G Maunsell & Partners. 1310 m of the River Ouse had to be bridged. The area was in the Boothferry district of Humberside. The gradient of the road on the approach to the bridge is 1 in 33.

Construction
The Ouse Bridge Contract for £6.75 million (£ million in ) was awarded in January 1973 to a consortium of Costain Civil Engineering and Redpath Dorman Long.

There were 120 large steel cylinder piles of 1.5 m diameter and 20 m long driven into the ground by a self-elevating platform barge with a steam hammer. These were carried out by Raymond International.

The steelwork was fabricated at RDL works in Teesside. There were steel supply problems. In July 1975 there was a partial collapse of a military trestle on pier 15.

Opening
It was opened on 24 May 1976 by nine-year-old Martin Brigham, who had been handed the scissors at the last moment by Minister of Transport John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert, who was to have opened it. It was the last section of the main part of the M62 to open, comprising 109 mi. The M62 had taken 15 years and cost £190 million. The A63 Caves Bypass and M62 Balkholme sections (built by Clugston Construction) had opened on 19 February 1976. The Balkholme to Caves section was the first use on a UK motorway of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP), which has no transverse joints.

Repair
In 2022, a partial failure of a joint on the eastbound carriageway was identified after it was discovered that increased vibration from traffic had started to damage the concrete under lane three and a bridge joint, which allows the carriageway to expand and contract with the weather. Temporary bridging plates were installed over the damaged bridge joints as a temporary mitigation measure, followed by the critically damaged joints on the eastbound carriageway being replaced by spring 2023.

title: Ouse Bridge (M62)