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Money creation

Money creation, or money issuance, is the process by which the money supply of a country, or an economic or monetary region, is increased. In most modern economies, money is created by both central banks and commercial banks. Money issued by central banks is a liability, typically called reserve deposits, and is only available for use by central bank account holders, which are generally large commercial banks and foreign central banks. Central banks can increase the quantity of reserve deposits directly, by making loans to account holders, purchasing assets from account holders, or by recording an asset, such as a deferred asset, and directly increasing liabilities. However, the majority of the money supply used by the public for conducting transactions is created by the commercial banking system in the form of commercial bank deposits. Bank loans issued by commercial banks expand the quantity of bank deposits.

Money creation occurs when the amount of loans issued by banks increases relative to the repayment and default of existing loans. Governmental authorities, including central banks and other bank regulators, can use various policies, mainly setting short-term interest rates, to influence the amount of bank deposits commercial banks create.

Monetary policy
The monetary authority of a nation—typically its central bank—influences the economy by creating and destroying liabilities on its balance sheet with the intent to change the supply of money available for conducting transactions and generating income. The policy which defines how the central bank changes its ledger to reduce or increase the amount of money in the economy available for banks to conduct transactions is known as monetary policy. If the central bank is charged with maintaining price or employment levels in the economy by law, monetary policy may include reducing the money supply during times of high inflation in order to increase unemployment, in the hopes that reducing employment also reduces spending on goods and services which exhibit increasing prices. Monetary policy directly impacts the availability and the cost of commercial bank deposits in the economy, which in turn impacts investment, stock prices, private consumption, demand for money, and overall economic activity. The exchange rate of a country's currency impacts the value of its net exports.

In most developed countries, central banks conduct their monetary policy within an inflation targeting framework, whereas the monetary policies of most developing countries' central banks target some kind of a fixed exchange rate system. Central banks operate in practically every nation in the world, with few exceptions. There are also groups of countries for which a single entity acts as their central bank, such as the organization of states of Central Africa, which have a common central bank (the Bank of Central African States); or monetary unions, such as the Eurozone, whereby nations retain their respective central bank yet submit to the policies of a central entity, the European Central Bank.

Central banks conduct monetary policy by setting a rate of interest paid on central bank deposit liabilities, directly purchasing or selling assets in order to change the amount of deposits on their balance sheet, or by signaling to the market through speeches and written guidance an intent to change the rate of interest on deposits or purchase or sell assets in the future.

Lowering interest rates by reducing the amount of interest paid on central bank liabilities or purchasing assets like bank loans and government bonds for higher prices (resulting in an increase in bank reserve deposits on the central bank ledger) is called monetary expansion or monetary easing, whereas raising rates by paying more interest on central bank liabilities is known as monetary contraction or tightening (resulting in a decrease of bank reserve deposits on the central bank ledger). An extraordinary process of monetary easing (keeping rates low) is denoted as quantitative easing, which involves the central bank purchasing large amounts of assets for high prices over an extended period of time.

Money supply

The term "money supply" commonly denotes the total, safe, financial assets that households and businesses can use to make payments or to hold as short-term investment. The money supply is measured using the so-called "monetary aggregates", defined based on their respective level of liquidity. In the United States, for example:

 * M0: The total of all physical currency including coinage. Using the United States dollar as an example, M0 = Federal Reserve notes + US notes + coins. It is not relevant whether the currency is held inside or outside of the private banking system as reserves.
 * M1: The total amount of M0 (cash/coin) outside of the private banking system plus the amount of demand deposits, travelers checks and other checkable deposits
 * M2: M1 + most savings accounts, money market accounts, retail money market mutual funds, and small denomination time deposits (certificates of deposit of under $100,000).

In most countries the central bank, treasury, or other designated state authority is empowered to mint new physical currency, usually taking the form of metal coinage or paper banknotes. While the value of major currencies was once backed by the gold standard, the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 led to all major currencies becoming fiat money — backed by a mutual agreement of value rather than a commodity.

Various measures are taken to prevent counterfeiting, including the use of serial numbers on banknotes and the minting of coinage using an alloy at or above its face value. Currency may be demonetized for a variety of reasons, including loss of value over time due to inflation, redenomination of its face value due to hyperinflation, or its replacement as legal tender by another currency. The currency-issuing government agency typically work with commercial banks to distribute freshly-minted currency and retrieve worn currency for destruction, enabling the reuse of serial numbers on new banknotes.

In modern economies, physical currency consists only of a fraction of the broad money supply. In the United Kingdom, gross bank deposits outweigh the physical currency issued by the central bank by a factor of more than 30 to 1. The United States, with a currency used substantially in legal and illicit international transactions, has a lower ratio of 8 to 1.

Debt monetization
Debt monetization is a term used to describe central bank money creation for use by government fiscal authorities, like the U.S. Treasury. In many states, such as Great Britain, all government spending is always financed by central bank money creation. Debt monetization as a concept is often based on a misunderstanding of modern financial systems compared to fixed exchange rate systems like the gold standard.

Historically, in a fixed exchanged rate financial system, central bank money creation directly for government spending by the fiscal authority was prohibited by law in many countries. However, in modern financial systems central banks and fiscal authorities work closely together to manage interest rates and economic stability. This involves the creation and destruction of deposits on the central bank ledger to ensure transactions can settle such that short term interest rates don't exceed specified targets.

In the Eurozone, Article 123 of the Lisbon Treaty explicitly prohibits the European Central Bank from financing public institutions and state governments. In Japan, the nation's central bank "routinely" purchases approximately 70% of state debt issued each month, and owns, as of Oct 2018, approximately 440 trillion JP¥ (approx. $4trillion) or over 40% of all outstanding government bonds. In the United States, the 1913 Federal Reserve Act allowed federal banks to purchase short-term securities directly from the Treasury, in order to facilitate its cash-management operations. The Banking Act of 1935 prohibited the central bank from directly purchasing Treasury securities, and permitted their purchase and sale only "in the open market". In 1942, during wartime, Congress amended the Banking Act's provisions to allow purchases of government debt by the federal banks, with the total amount they'd hold "not [to] exceed $5 billion". After the war, the exemption was renewed, with time limitations, until it was allowed to expire in June 1981. Today, primary dealers in the United States are required to purchase all Treasuries at auction, and the U.S. central bank will create any quantity of reserve deposits necessary to settle the auction transaction.

Open market operations
Central banks can purchase or sell assets in the market, which is referred to as open market operations. When a central bank purchases assets from market participants, such as commercial banks who hold an account at the central bank, reserve deposits are deleted from their account and asset ownership is transferred to the commercial bank. In this way the central bank can modulate the amount of reserve deposits in the financial system, by exchanging financial assets like bonds for reserve deposits. For example, in the United States, when the Federal Reserve permanently purchases a security, the office responsible for implementing purchases and sales (The New York Fed's Open Market Trading Desk) buys eligible securities from primary dealers at prices determined in a competitive auction. The Federal Reserve pays for those securities by crediting the reserve accounts of the correspondent banks of the primary dealers. (The correspondent banks, in turn, credit the dealers’ bank accounts.) In this way, the open market purchase leads to an increase in reserve balances. Conversely, sales of assets by the US central bank reduces reserve balances, which reduces the amount of money available in the financial system for settling transactions between member banks. Central banks also engage in short term contracts to 'sell-assets-now, repurchase-later' to manage short term reserve deposit balances. These contracts, known as Repo (Repurchase) contracts, are short term (often overnight) contracts that are continually rolled over until some desired result in the financial system is achieved. Operations conducted by central banks can either address short-term goals on its agenda or long-term factors such as maintaining financial stability or maintaining a floor and/or ceiling around a targeted interest rate for reserve deposits.

Money multiplier
Historical explanations of money creation often focused on the concept of a money multiplier, where reserve deposits or an underlying commodity such as gold were multiplied by bank lending of those deposits or gold balances to a maximum limit defined by the reserve requirement for money lenders. Thus the total money supply was a function of the reserve requirement. Many states today, however, have no reserve requirement. The money multiplier has thus largely been abandoned as an explanatory tool for the money creation process.

When commercial banks lend money today, they expand the amount of bank deposits in the economy. The banking system can expand the money supply of a country far beyond the amount of reserve deposits created by the central bank, meaning contrary to popular belief, most money is not created by central banks. Some argue that banks are limited in the total amount they can lend by their capital adequacy ratios and, in countries that impose required reserve ratios, by required reserves.

Bank capital, used for calculating the capital adequacy ratio, is assets on the bank balance sheet in excess of liabilities, with values further refined by regulation such as the international regulatory framework for banks, Basel III. Banks create capital by creating loans (assets) and destroying bank liabilities, which occurs when loans are repaid. This process increases bank equity, enabling banks to create commercial bank deposit liabilities (money) for their own use. In this way, banks create and manage their own capital levels. Because accounting conventions define the value of any given asset or liability, bank capital is a subjective measure which many argue is open to manipulation and may be a poor method for regulating money creation.

Reserve requirements oblige commercial banks to keep a minimum, predetermined, percentage of their deposits at an account at the central bank. Countries with no reserve requirement include the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which means no minimum reserve requirement is imposed on banks. The constraining factor on bank lending recognized today is largely the number of available borrowers willing to create loan contracts.

Degree of control
Whereas central banks can directly control the issuance of physical currency, the question to what extent they can control broad monetary aggregates like M2 by also indirectly controlling the money creation of commercial banks is more controversial. According to the money multiplier theory, which is often cited in macroeconomics textbooks, the central bank controls the money multiplier because it can impose reserve requirements, and consequently via this mechanism also governs the amount of money created by commercial banks. Most central banks in developed countries, however, have ceased to rely on this theory and stopped shaping their monetary policy through required reserves Benjamin Friedman explains in his chapter on the money supply in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics that the money multiplier representation is a short-hand simplification of a more complex equilibrium of supply and demand in the markets for both reserves (outside money) and inside money. Friedman adds that the simplification will work well or badly "depending on the strength of the relevant interest elasticities and the extent of variation in interest rates and the many other factors involved". David Romer notes in his graduate textbook "Advanced Macroeconomics" that it is difficult for central banks to control broad monetary aggregates like M2.

Monetarist theory, which was prominent during the 1970s and 1980s, argued that the central bank should concentrate on controlling the money supply through its monetary operations. The strategy did not work well for the central banks like the Federal Reserve who tried it, however, and it was abandoned after some years, central banks turning to steer interest rates to obtain their monetary policy goals rather than holding the quantity of base money fixed in order to steer money growth. Interest rates influence commercial bank issuance of credit indirectly, so the ceiling implied by the money multiplier does not impose a limit on money creation in practice. By setting interest rates, central-bank operations will affect, but not control the money supply.

Credit theory of money
The fractional reserve theory of money creation where the money supply is limited by the money multiplier has been abandoned since the financial crisis of 2007–2008. It has been observed that bank reserves are not a limiting factor because the central banks supply more reserves than necessary (excess reserves). Economists and bankers now understand that the amount of money in circulation is limited only by the demand for loans.

The credit theory of money, initiated by Joseph Schumpeter, asserts the central role of banks as creators and allocators of the money supply, and distinguishes between "productive credit creation" (allowing non-inflationary economic growth even at full employment, in the presence of technological progress) and "unproductive credit creation" (resulting in inflation of either the consumer- or asset-price variety).

The model of bank lending stimulated through central-bank operations (such as "monetary easing") has been rejected by Neo-Keynesian and Post-Keynesian analysis as well as central banks. The major argument offered by dissident analysis is that any bank balance-sheet expansion (e.g. through a new loan) that leaves the bank short of the required reserves may affect the return it can expect on the loan, because of the extra cost the bank will undertake to return within the ratios limits – but this does not and "will never impede the bank's capacity to give the loan in the first place". Banks first lend and then cover their reserve ratios: The decision whether or not to lend is generally independent of their reserves with the central bank or their deposits from customers; banks are not lending out deposits or reserves, anyway. Banks lend on the basis of lending criteria, such as the status of the customer's business, the loan's prospects, and/or the overall economic situation.

title: Money creation


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César Milstein

César Milstein, CH, FRS (8 October 1927 – 24 March 2002) was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler for developing the hybridoma technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies.

Biography
Milstein was born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. His parents were Máxima (Vanarks) and Lázaro Milstein, a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and obtained a PhD under Professor Stopani (Professor of Biochemistry). Later he became a member of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England; he acquired British citizenship and had dual British-Argentinian nationality. In 1956, he received an award from the Sociedad Argentina de Investigation eon Bio Quimica (SAIB) for his work on enzyme kinetics with the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase. In 1958, funded by the British Council, he joined the Biochemistry Department at the University of Cambridge to work for a PhD under Malcolm Dixon on the mechanism of metal activation of the enzyme phosphoglucomutase. During this work, he collaborated with Frederick Sanger, whose group he joined with a short-term Medical Research Council appointment.

Career
"Science will only fulfill its promises when the benefits are equally shared by the really poor of the world"

- César Milstein

The major part of Milstein's research career was devoted to studying the structure of antibodies and the mechanism by which antibody diversity is generated. It was as part of this quest that, in 1975, he worked with Georges Köhler (a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory) to develop the hybridoma technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies—a discovery recognized by the award of the 1984 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This discovery led to an enormous expansion in the exploitation of antibodies in science and medicine. The term hybridoma was coined by Leonard Herzenberg during his sabbatical in Milstein's laboratory between 1976 and 1977.

Milstein himself made many major contributions to improvements and developments in monoclonal antibody technology—especially in the use of monoclonal antibodies to provide markers that allow distinction between different cell types. In collaboration with Claudio Cuello, he helped lay the foundation for the use of monoclonal antibodies as probes for the investigation of the pathological pathways in neurological disorders as well as many other diseases. Milstein and Cuello's work also enabled the use of monoclonal antibodies to enhance the power of immuno-based diagnostic tests. In addition, Milstein foresaw the potential wealth of ligand-binding reagents that could result from applying recombinant DNA technology to monoclonal antibodies and inspired the development of the field of antibody engineering, which was to lead to safer and more powerful monoclonal antibodies for use as therapeutics.

Milstein's early work on antibodies focused on their diversity at the amino acid level, as well as on the disulfide bonds by which they were held together. Part of this work was done in collaboration with his wife, Celia. The emphasis of his research then shifted towards the mRNA encoding antibodies, where he was able to provide the first evidence for the existence of a precursor for these secreted polypeptides that contained a signal sequence. The development of the hybridoma technology coupled to advances in nucleic acid sequencing allowed Milstein to chart the changes that occurred in antibodies following antigen encounter. He demonstrated the importance of somatic hypermutation of immunoglobulin V genes in antibody affinity maturation. In this process, localized mutation of the immunoglobulin genes allows the production of improved antibodies, which make a major contribution to protective immunity and immunological memory. Much of his work in later years was devoted to characterizing this mutational process with a view to understanding its mechanism. He contributed a manuscript for publication on this topic less than a week before he died.

Quite apart from his own achievements, Milstein acted as a guide and inspiration to many in the antibody field, as well as devoting himself to assisting science and scientists in less developed countries. Milstein patented the production of monoclonal antibodies, and held three other patents.

Awards and honours
In addition to the Nobel Prize in 1984, Milstein was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1975, was a fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, from 1980 to 2002, awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1980, won the Copley Medal in 1989, and became a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1995. In 1993, the Argentinian Konex Foundation granted him the Diamond Konex Award, one of the most prestigious cultural awards of Argentina, as the most important scientist in the last decade of his country.

Personal life
Milstein married Celia Prilleltensky in 1953.

Milstein died early on 24 March 2002, in Cambridge, England, at age 74, as a result of a heart condition that he had suffered from for many years. His wife died in 2020 aged 92.

The film "Un fueguito, la historia de César Milstein" was released in 2010. Directed by Ana Fraile, the film was awarded Best Documentary by the Academy of Film in Argentina.

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

title: César Milstein


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Interstate 384

Interstate 384 (I-384) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway located entirely within the state of Connecticut. It runs 8.2 mi east to west, going from I-84 and I-291 in East Hartford to US Route 6 (US 6) and US 44 in Bolton.

Route description
I-384 officially begins at I-84 eastbound exit 59 at the East Hartford–Manchester town line, as the right two lanes of traffic split from the I-84 mainline. The highway can also be accessed from the I-84 eastbound high-occupancy vehicle lane (HOV lane), and westbound I-384 traffic can also access the HOV lane on westbound I-84. Westbound I-84 access to I-384 is provided through a complex interchange that also provides access from Pleasant Valley Road near The Shoppes at Buckland Hills and from I-291. I-384's first exit is for Spencer Street. The eastbound ramp is on the I-384 mainline, while the westbound ramp comes from a split in the I-84 interchange ramp. Just east of the Spencer Street overpass, the ramp from westbound I-84 joins the I-384 mainline and the HOV lane becomes a conventional lane. I-384 continues along the southern part of Manchester. It has one interchange before it intersects Route 83, which provides access to Manchester Center. After one more interchange in Manchester, it crosses into Bolton, where it has a partial interchange with Route 85. Shortly after the interchange, I-384 ends as it meets the US 6/US 44 concurrency just west of its eastern split at Bolton Notch.

The highway is eight lanes wide west of Route 83, six lanes wide to Route 85, and four lanes wide for the rest of the highway's duration.

Special designations
Since May 31, 1996, the segment of I-384 "running from the junction of Interstate Route 84 in Manchester in a general easterly direction to Route 6 in Bolton" has been officially known as the State Trooper Russell A. Bagshaw Highway, in memory of a Connecticut State Police trooper who was killed in the line of duty in 1991.

History
Prior to 1984, I-384 was designated I-84. During that time, current I-84 east of the East Hartford junction was I-86. Originally, the freeway was supposed to end in Johnston, Rhode Island, at the I-95/I-195 connector (now the Route 6-10 Connector). The freeway was built to Bolton where it abruptly ends at the intersection with US 6 and US 44. A 5.7 mi segment from Columbia to Windham was also built, forming the present-day US 6 bypass around Willimantic, and would have connected to the Connecticut Turnpike at what is now I-395 exit 35, following the last few miles of the turnpike into Rhode Island.

Crossing into Rhode Island, the proposed I-84 freeway was to parallel US 6 to I-295, where it would have tied into the existing US 6/Rhode Island Route 10 freeway. In 1982, Rhode Island canceled their plans because of community backlash and possible impacts to the Scituate Reservoir. In 1986, Connecticut canceled their plans and changed I-86 back to I-84 and I-84 was renumbered I-384. Even after cancelling I-84, various proposals were made to complete the highway between Bolton and the Willimantic bypass or between the bypass and I-395.

Future
For more than 30 years since the cancelation of the Hartford–Providence leg of I-84, elected officials in Connecticut proposed to extend I-384 from Bolton to Willimantic along the US 6 corridor, connecting the existing I-384 with the US 6 Windham Bypass, which would have likely included an extension of the I-384 designation to include the new freeway and the Windham Bypass. The corresponding stretch of US 6 is known as "Suicide 6" because of sharp turns and intersections had been the site of numerous fatal accidents and was the main reason supporting construction of the bypass. It is unlikely the 11 mi freeway between I-384 and the Windham Bypass will ever be built because of irresolvable disagreements over the routing of the freeway: state and local officials prefer more northerly alignment that minimizes disruption to developed areas along US 6, while federal officials insist on a more southerly alignment that minimizes environmental impacts to the Hop River ecosystem. After studying more than 200 potential alignments with no agreement among stakeholders, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) abandoned further study of the US 6 freeway in 2005 and instead focused on completing safety upgrades on the existing US 6 corridor between Bolton and Willimantic to reduce congestion and accidents.

A proposed extension of the CTfastrak bus rapid transit line would run in the HOV lanes in I-84 and I-384.

title: Interstate 384


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Diltor Opromolla

Diltor Vladimir Araújo Opromolla (13 April 1934, São Paulo – 15 December 2004, Bauru) was a Brazilian physician and dermatologist respected due to his lifetime work with leprosy patients and leprosy research. Opromolla performed all his work at Lauro de Souza Lima Institute in Bauru, São Paulo, a WHO reference hospital for dermatology. He taught dermatology and leprosy to doctors, nurses, and other health workers. Among other things, he was the first to introduce rifamycin in the treatment of leprosy, in 1963.

Opromolla battled gastric cancer for the whole year of 2004 and died on December 15, 2004.

title: Diltor Opromolla


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Morris (electoral district)

Morris is a former provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by redistribution in 1879 and named after the town and municipality of Morris, which in turn are named after Alexander Morris, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba from 1872 to 1877.

Following the redistribution of Manitoba electoral districts in 2011, the riding was bordered to the south by Emerson, to the north by Lakeside, to the west by Midland and Portage la Prairie, and to the east by Steinbach, Dawson Trail, Assiniboia, Kirkfield Park and Charleswood.

The largest communities in the riding were Morris, Niverville, and La Salle. Other communities included Elie, Oak Bluff, Sanford, Starbuck, Ste. Agathe,  St. Eustache and St. Francois Xavier.

In 1999, the average family income was $53,719, and the unemployment rate was 3.90%. Agriculture accounted for 23% of the riding's industry, followed by the retail trade at 10%. Eighteen per cent of Morris's residents were of German background, and a further 17% were French. The riding had the third-highest percentage of Francophones in Manitoba.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba represented Morris from 1954 to 2019, and the riding was generally regarded as safe for the party.

The Morris riding was eliminated ahead of the 2019 Manitoba general election and its territory was redistributed to the Midland, La Verendrye, and newly-formed Springfield-Ritchot ridings.

title: Morris (electoral district)


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Sandy Martínez

Angel Sandy Martínez Martínez (born October 8, 1970) is a Dominican former professional baseball player, and current Manager for the DSL Nationals. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays (1995-1997), Chicago Cubs (1998-1999), Florida Marlins (2000), Montreal Expos (2001), Cleveland Indians (2004), and Boston Red Sox (2004). He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.

Baseball career
Martínez was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as an amateur free agent in 1990 and made his Major League Baseball debut at the age of 24 on June 24, 1995. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs on December 11, 1997, for minor leaguer Trevor Schaffer. Martínez was the battery-mate for Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood on May 6, 1998, when Wood struck out 20 batters to tie Roger Clemens for the major league single-game strikeout record in a 9 inning game. He posted a career-high batting average of .264 and made the only post-season appearance of his career where, he had one hit in one at bat and scored a run in Game 3 of the 1998 National League Division Series.

Martínez became a free agent after the 1999 season and signed with the Florida Marlins on December 6, 1999. A free agent at the end of the 2000 season, Martínez signed with the Montreal Expos on November 17, 2000. Martínez played one game for the Expos in 2001 and played for their Triple-A affiliate, the Ottawa Lynx, in 2002. For the 2003 season, Martínez signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but was released in spring training.

On April 8, 2003, he signed with the Kansas City Royals and played for their Triple-A affiliate, the Omaha Royals. After being released on June 8, 2003, Martínez signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates on January 20, 2004, but before playing a game for the Pirates, Martínez was traded to the Indians. He spent most of the season with Cleveland's Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons, playing one game for the Indians major league team. On August 31, 2004, Martínez's contract was purchased by the Boston Red Sox, where he played three games before being granted free agency at the end of the season. He played in his final major league game on October 3, 2004, at the age of 33.

On January 15, 2005, he signed with the Detroit Tigers, playing 81 games for their Triple-A affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens. On December 14, 2005, Martínez signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets, playing 85 games for their Triple-A affiliate, the Norfolk Tides, and becoming a free agent at the end of the season. On November 16, 2006, Martínez signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but did not play in any games for their organization before being released and signed by the Florida Marlins. Martínez played three games for their Triple-A affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes, and became a free agent at the end of the 2007 season.

Career statistics
In an eight-year major league career, Martínez played in 218 games, accumulating 130 hits in 564 at bats for a .230 career batting average along with 6 home runs, 51 runs batted in and a .284 on-base percentage. He ended his career with a .988 fielding percentage.

Managerial career
Martinez managed the Washington Nationals' affiliate in the Dominican Summer League during the 2010 season and was re-appointed manager of the DSL Nationals for 2011, and has managed the team since then, currently through 2023.

title: Sandy Martínez


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Young Chang

HDC YoungChang (Hangul: HDC영창) is a South Korean manufacturer of pianos and industrial wood working machinery, headquartered in Incheon, South Korea. Young Chang currently holds 50% of the South Korean piano market. The company is among the largest and most automated of the world's piano manufacturers.

Operations
Young Chang had four manufacturing facilities as of 1999, three producing pianos and the fourth a sawmill producing wood for export from the United States. The sawmill was located in Tacoma, Washington and was established in 1991. Piano manufacturing took place in plants in Seoul and Incheon, South Korea, both established in 1964, and Tianjin, China, established in 1995. The company also maintained a research and development facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company's Tianjin manufacturing site is run through subsidiary Tianjin Young Chang Akki Company, Limited, while the Tacoma sawmill is managed through subsidiary Young Chang America Timber, Incorporated.

As of the late 1990s, Young Chang, at the time known as Young Chang Akki Company, was among the largest of the world's manufacturers of pianos, alongside Samick, Yamaha and Kawai,  and one of five multinationals producing pianos. Young Chang reported sales in the United States, China, Canada, Korea and the European Union under its own brand.

The company also produces pianos for other companies. For instance, it began producing Cline pianos for Cline Piano Company of Belmont, California in 1992; and began producing Knabe pianos for Music Systems Research of Sacaramento, California in the late 1990s. Young Chang produced pianos for Nakamichi of Hamamatsu, Japan until 1998; the units were modified by Nakamichi before export to the United States. The company had at one time produced Wurlitzer pianos for United States-distribution by Baldwin Piano & Organ, but this relationship was terminated prior to the late 1990s.

The company also markets under an alternative brand, Weber, held by subsidiary Weber Piano Company established in 1986. This brand was established specifically for English-speaking markets where a Korean brand name, as opposed to a German or American name, might be a disincentive to purchase.

History
Young Chang was founded in 1956 as a distributor of Yamaha pianos for Korea and other parts of Asia. The company was founded by three brothers, Jai-Young Kim, Jai-Chang Kim and Jai-Sup Kim, as South Korea emerged as a major economy and producer of high quality goods. The first Young Chang factory was built in Seoul in 1964.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Young Chang manufactured Squier electric guitars and basses for Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and also manufactured acoustic, acoustic/electric, electric guitars and basses under their own "Fenix" brand. However, because of the similarities to the Fender brand and instruments, Young Chang could not sell the Fenix instruments due to licensing issues with Fender, and production stopped.In addition to guitars and pianos (vertical and grand varieties), Young Chang produced in the late 1990s harmonicas, reed organs and industrial woodworking machinery.

In 1986, the company established Weber Piano Company, which sells pianos under the Weber brand name, which it had purchased rights to use after the demise of the Aeolian Piano Company in 1985. Young Chang subsequently sold this subsidiary to Samsung America in 1987.

From 1987-1988 Young Chang manufactured and supplied electric guitars to U.S musical instrument chain store Samuel Music Company. These were sold under Samuel Music's house brand "Vester". The guitars were imported into the United States by Midco Music (now Musicorp.) After 1988 Samuel Music used other Korean musical instrument factories to build acoustic and electric guitars.

In 1988, Young Chang established a foundry for production of piano plates in Tianjin, China, to supplement production of this key component, also produced in Korea. The success of this facility was one factor leading to the 1995 establishment of a piano manufacturing facility in Tianjin.

In 1990, Young Chang purchased Kurzweil Music Systems, a maker of high end electronic and digital musical instruments.

In 1991, Young Chang invested US$32 million to establish a subsidiary in Tacoma, Washington, Young Chang (America) Timber, to cut and process North American spruce and maple for export to its Asian manufacturing sites.

In 1995, Young Chang opened a new US$40 million factory in Tianjin. The Chinese facility allowed Young Chang to start serving the low-end markets, part of a long-term strategy involving shifting production from Korea to China. The quality of pianos produced by this new plant was initially high, but dropped sharply after technicians who had helped set up the production returned to Korea, which had a significant impact on their ability to complete sales.

Joseph Pramberger, a former vice president from Steinway & Sons (head of manufacturing) and an experienced piano designer, joined the company in 1995. Pramberger brought many innovations to piano design, including the "Platinum Touch Action" and the patented asymmetrically tapered soundboard. The Pramberger Platinum series, introduced in 2001, was Young Chang's top-of-the-line for three years. These models incorporated some German materials including Renner action parts. Joseph Pramberger died in 2003, and the following year, his estate sold the Pramberger name to Samick, but his patents and innovations are still exclusive to Young Chang.

The year following the opening of the Tianjin, China factory, in October 1996, Young Chang entered into bankruptcy, emerging in August 1998. Young Chang has more than 2,000 full-time workers, designing and building its upright and grand pianos, and also the electronic Kurzweil Music Systems.

In 2004, Samick Musical Instrument Co. acquired a 48.13% stake in Young Chang, gained a controlling interest through a capital increase, and took control over management of the company. However, the Korea Fair Trade Commission blocked the acquisition as it would create a monopoly and ordered Samick to dispose of its shares in Young Chang. Following the Fair Trade Commission's decision, Young Chang went bankrupt on September 21, 2004.

Hyundai Development Company acquired Young Chang in 2006. The company was renamed to HDC Young Chang in 2018.

title: Young Chang


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Talk:Link (The Legend of Zelda)/Archive 2

Regarding Link's Romantic Intrests
Was he not engaged to marry Princess Ruto in Orcarina of Time? I belive this deserves special mention. I made a small edit about it but it was deleted.
 * He was but Ruto later complained that sages couldn't marry (which also puts Zelda out of the running for Ocarina of Time). Axem Titanium 02:59, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I think that only applies to the six sages. Zelda is the special seventh sage, leader of Hyrule. Besides, after the timeline was restored, none of them were sages anymore. Jaxad0127 03:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
 * If the thing about the timeline is true then wouldn't Link be able to be with Princess Ruto then? I don't belive they ever clearly explained it.
 * Rember at the end where Link goes back to Zelda. But then again, in WW, the Zora had become the Rito. Maybe Link helped out. Jaxad0127 04:55, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't think he was, but maybe I'm just forgetful WikiSlasher 11:51, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe link helped out.. HEHE.. thats funny. I think he and Malon went the chinga chinga. Besides, links part of the royal family, and so is zelda, see a problem? But since that did'nt matter in those times... Links still some kid from the woods with no proof of his linking to the royal family, would the king approve of them getting together? I don't think so. Same thing with Ruto, not to mention a speices difference. Wesz 07:51, 16 June 2006 (UTC)]]

When you talk about Link being engaged to Princess Ruto, I guess that he technically was, but I don't know that it was intentional. When he is given the Zora's Sapphire, it is stated that "you have no idea what she is talking about...". Also, when she says that she gave it to the man she wanted to marry in the Water Temple, Link moves backwards like he's shocked. However, this is only speculation.

Regarding Princess Zelda
Actually, if you still have the booklet to A Link to the Past, you can see that what Link's uncle meant to say is "Zelda is your destiny." Unsigned comment from IP 70.34.70.238 06:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC) The article mentioned a romantic relationship between Link and Zelda. Now I know there have been many incarnations of Link and Zelda, but I though that in Link to the Past it was revealed that Zelda and Link were cousins. I might be wrong. It's been quite a while since I've played the game. --Ignis33 16:34, August 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * Nope. In the SNES version, the text goes this way...
 * "Link, you can do it!
 * Save the Princess...
 * Zelda is your... ... ... "
 * And in the GBA version, it goes this way...
 * Link...you must rescue Princess Zelda. Our people are fated to do so.
 * But do not fall victim... to fate... Link... I shall always remember... our time...together..."
 * Ever since the SNES version was released, people have speculated about Link being related to Zelda, but that's all it ever was- speculation. Probably owing to Star Wars allusions.  But since the GBA gets rid of this ambiguity, it's generally thought that the ellipsis in the SNES version cuts off the word "Destiny" since the GBA version more or less says it straight out. Fieari 18:00, August 8, 2005 (UTC)

 * Yeah, it's assumed to be "destiny" by most. Andre ( talk ) 20:47, August 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * The booklet does not make any reference to Link's uncle trying to say "Zelda is your destiny.". Which page does it say? I have the USA one, maybe it is in the japanese version? -- ReyBrujo 18:09, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I never talked about the booklet at all. I'm saying that the SNES version says "Zelda is your..." and the GBA, which was also translated from the same original source, says a lot more and blathers on about fate and such.  This suggests strongly that the best possible word to put in the ellipsis would be "destiny". Fieari 22:05, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I was referring to the first post in this section. Just wanting to clarify there is no such paragraph in the SNES booklet, unless I have missed it (or it is in the japanese version, in example). -- ReyBrujo 01:52, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

Trivia
Is winning a GameFAQs poll really noteworthy? Fieari 03:21, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I was wondering the same, particularly in the context of this article. But GameFAQs is a pretty big gaming site, and people seem to keep putting it it. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 16:43, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Cheating is involved. - A Link to the Past (talk) 13:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Link's parents
After anonymous IP 71.50.232.46 changed a paragraph from "No Zelda'' game mentions any Link's parents at all. Even when a Link has other family, the subject is never addressed." to "The only Zelda game to mention Link's parents in any way is Oracle of Ages for Game Boy Color.", A Link to the Past removed the paragraph as "Not true.". WikidSmaht replaced the original text. A Link to the Past removed it again, making an excellent point in the edit summary: "So, how did he get to Kokiri Village?"[ in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where the Deku Tree Sprout reveals that a dying Hylian mother stumbled into the forest with her baby, who would grow up to become Link, the Hero of Time]. WikidSmaht re-wrote the paragraph for accuracy and to reflect this. Many comments in the following exchange are copied inwhole or in part from the edit summaries of these changes and ensuing revert war.''
 * So, how did he get to Kokiri Village? - A Link to the Past (talk) 08:55, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Good point, but how about making *constructive* edits. Stop taking your odd little grudge towards me out on the articles/talk pages. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 19:30, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's a grudge. It couldn't be the fact that the statement is just wrong. - A Link to the Past (talk) 20:23, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Well how else do you explain the utterly disrespectful attitude you display on talk pages and in edit summaries, or your failure to notice that I corrected the paragraph when replacing it last time? -- WikidSmaht (talk) 22:18, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Um, the fact that he has parents invalidates the statement. Can I put in "No games uses the Boomerang, with the exception of almost every Zelda"? The statement is irrelevant. - A Link to the Past (talk) 22:43, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Except that the statement isn't "Link doesn't have parents.". It's that no game *names* his parents and only one mentions them( and then just his mother). Practically and stylistically, it explains to someone not familiar with the games( which is who the article is meant to be written for) what the truth is in contrast to the fanon belief– just as there is a similar explanation for the other fanon "fact" above it. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 23:31, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The reason I cite your apparent grude, which I interpret to be the meaning of the increasingly rude and hostile comments you've directed at me on various talk pages, is that the statement( in the incorrect original form) was there for months and didn't seem to be bothering you or anyone until 71.50.232.46 drew your attention to it following our spat at Talk:The Legend of Zelda series. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 23:36, 2 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Two examples are enough to make the statement irrelevant. - A Link to the Past (talk) 01:06, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The second example (commented out) may not even refer to Link, I found it in the text dump and can't figure out the context. A total of 3 sentences in 2 games, all vague references, from a series of 12 massive games, their instruction books, and other offical sources, renders the original statement( "No Zelda game mentions any Link's parents at all."), incorrect, but hardly makes "No Zelda game names Link's parents; aside from fleeting comments about his mother in OoT they are hardly mentioned at all. Even when a Link has other family, the subject is never addressed." incorrect or irrelevant to the topic at hand. And either way, the statement that no game *names* them is indisputable. This marks 3 reverts each, we have 24 change-free hours to settle this. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 02:30, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

 * It was previously expressed in OoT that his mother sought the refuge of the Great Deku Tree in Kokiri Forest. Whether or not he has adoptive parents in TP is a completely different issue. I don't understand how this is such an issue.  Ereinion  [[Image:Hiveneo.gif|14px|]] 00:21, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Huh? That's not the issue in question... No one even mentioned LoZ:TP. I must admit, I'm not sure whether you're confused or just joking. What is or was in question is/was whether the assertion( that Link's parents being named Arn and Medilia is fanon rather than canon) should be followed by the clarifying statement "No Zelda game names Link's parents; aside from fleeting comments about his mother in OoT they are hardly mentioned at all. Even when a Link has other family, the subject is never addressed.". -- WikidSmaht (talk) 00:57, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * This fact is irrelevant, and does not need mention. - A Link to the Past (talk) 01:04, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * It's not irrelevant. It explains the contrast between fanon and canon, as is done with the other statement, the one about Link's origins. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 02:30, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't know if you're just being belligerent, or asinine. Let me try to help you out. His (Link's) parents, not being named in a game, does NOT mean that they are NOT named elsewhere by some other canon medium, i.e. comics. Just because it hasn't been confirmed by someone "official" doesn't mean it hasn't been refuted either. It just means a place-holder has been set for this particular piece of information that developers could choose to either use, or ignore, at their discretion. Such as in TP he is raised by a family, assumably not his own, although his father may still be alive and thusly could be named Arn. It then would no longer be arcanely defined as "fanon" if this is the case, which has happened before in several fandoms. But, my initial point is, if you're going to complain that it isn't named or backed up in-game, then don't list anything other than what is and move on. Deligate a little bit. Ereinion  [[Image:Hiveneo.gif|14px|]] 02:36, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Excuse me, I was the one who inserted the reference to Arn and Medilia in the first place[1 ], along with the original, incorrect version of the statement in quesion, which is equivalent to the preceding statement that Link's origin in LoZ and AoL was never canonically clarified. If you read the disputed passage in context, you'll see that the Valiant comics are licensed, but no more canon than the TV show with which they share settings and characters. The disputed passage does not assert that Link does not have parents, nor does it assert that they are nameless; it merely states that no game has named them, which is true; and that there is only one fleeting reference to his mother, possibly one unconfirmed one to his father– and neither case gives a name or background information. It is very possible he will have named parents, natural or adoptive, in TP, and the passage will change to reflect that when the game is released or the information becomes publicly available. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 03:08, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Okay then. Link's parents' eye color is never stated. Are we going to list that? Or their height? Weight? Age? Health? IQ? Occupation? How are they less important than name? You're desperately grasping for straws with this. You want to have the idea that his parents are mysterious, but we do know the actions of one his his parents, and thusly, their existence is not mysterious, he's not an act of Mary. So, you go for the next best thing, pointing out the fact that they have no name. - A Link to the Past (talk) 02:44, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't bother stating that their eye color and other trivia are uncertain because there is no codified belief suggesting otherwise. Their is, however, a persisting belief in the fan community, especially among fan-fiction writers, that Link's parents were named Arn and Medilia. I'm not trying to "make them mysterious", when I originally inserted the reference to Arn and Medilia, I contrasted this with confirmed information by saying "No Zelda game mentions any Link's parents at all.". When you pointed out that this is incorrect, I modified the sentence to the more accurate statement "No Zelda game names Link's parents".-- WikidSmaht (talk) 03:08, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Does that make it any less of a pointless, trivial fact? Lots of people believe lots of things, and I heavily doubt this is much of a popular theory at all. - A Link to the Past (talk) 03:45, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Then I'll remove both entries altogether, although I think if you read a lot of Zelda fan-fiction you'd find the beliefs are more prevalent than you realize. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 04:13, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * The Calia content is NOT your property. - A Link to the Past (talk) 05:10, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Also, it's not 3RR if someone legitimately disagrees and isn't coerced to revert. - A Link to the Past (talk) 02:46, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
 * That's true. If someone else revert it without being coerced, 3RR does not apply to him or her. It only applies to us. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 03:08, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

I apologize to all concerned for my inappropriate edit summary on the main article edit at the end of this discussion; however, I do feel the best solution in this case is to leave the section as it is now. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 06:40, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

A Note regarding my edit
In this edit[] I think TP shouldn't be mentioned, TP didn't exist when Miyamoto said that. - Zero1328 11:37, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Claim about LTTP yell vs OoT yell
I have removed this statement, added by an anonymous user:

 * The young Link's yells in Ocarina of Time are identica; to the yells in Link to the Past, further reinforcing the fact that the older Link is not the "usual" Link.

I don't personally recall Link yelling at all in LttP. Even if it's true, I find it sketchy evidence at best of the claim made here. Deco 00:06, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

 * He didn't in the original SNES version. He just made small "oof" sounds when hit, but they didn't sound like OoT Young Link. In the GBA version, though, he had the OoT voice. Agent CH 00:44, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Smash Bros. category
Hi. Random question. I thought I'd make a category for Smash Bros. fighters, so I included Link. I would like to inlcude Young Link, too, since the game treats them like seperate characters, but I can't figure out how to make a link so that the category page says "Young Link," too. Right now it just has Link. Any ideas? Kidicarus222 08:16, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

Young Link

a note on Link's personality
Does anyone remember the old LoZ cartoons they used to show in the early '90s? I do. In those cartoons Link is indeed brave, but he is also obnoctious. He is constantly hitting on Zelda. This is in stark contrast to the personality that all the later games try to portray. I think this should be mintioned in the article if it hasn't already.
 * From the article: Based loosely on the first game, the series presented Link as a rude, lovesick teenager, an image many find at odds with his silent persona from the video games. Constantly pursuing Zelda and pursued by the fairy princess Spryte, this Link was known to beg kisses from Zelda, and, famously, to burst out "Well excuuuuuse me, Princess!" when fed up with Zelda's attitude.. Phil s 23:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
 * That's just the kiddy cartoon though. I highly doubt anyone considers it canon, and if they did they shouldn't. It was made for kids and therefore keyed for that kind of audience. Eluchil  23:48, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Link's tomb
Don't know where to bring this up, but here seems to be as good place as any. Correct me if I'm wrong: the article says Link's tomb can be found in Elfland in DoS version of Final Fantasy I, while NES version has Erdrick's tomb. Yet, I seem to recall reading somewhere Link's name specifically appears in all versions of FF1, except for the US NES version - in other words, not limited to DoS in any way. Correct or not? --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 02:26, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I know of no evidence to support or refute this. I'd have to get my hands on the appropriate ROMs and play through to the appropriate point without the benefit of knowing Japanese. :-) Deco 02:37, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I remember that too. This page is an archive of an issue of the letters column from The Gaming Intelligence Agency. There's some letters that say exactly that. Unfortunately, it's not solid enough to use as a reference, but at least it lets you know you're probably on the right track. --Pagrashtak 03:52, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Giant's Knife durability
So I just tried it on Master Quest twice and it broke after 8 hits both times. I don't know if it should be changed to 8 or just left as a few but it is definitely not 100. — Ian Moody (talk) 12:28, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
 * The Giant's Knife has endured eighty hits for me. Would that be considered unusual? —Eternal Equinox | talk 19:57, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I think each hit has some percentage chance of breaking it. Let's just say that it lasts longer than the other knife. And I really think some of these fine details of weapons more properly belongs in the weapons and items article. Deco 23:16, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Soul Calibur unique weapons
Obviously, Soul Calibur II is the only game in which Link wields the Soul Calibur, but is it worth mentioning that all weapons Link uses in that game come from previous Zelda franchise games EXCEPT for the Armos Blade and Armos Shield? I always thought that was an interesting addition. - Kevingarcia 07:07, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
 * It might be interesting to include. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 23:29, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I apologize for the nit-picking, but Link never uses Soul Calibur; he and every other character (at least all of them with multiple weapons) uses Soul Edge (Complete), but in the slot where certain characters have Soul Calibur, Link has the Great Fairy's Sword. -Unknownwarrior33 05:20, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Alternate Ending
Can anyone verify that "If the game is completed in less than three hours an alternate ending implies that Marin still exists, and her wish to fly away as a seagull has been granted." in Link's Awakening is true? JQF 21:51, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
 * If you beat the game without dying, then after the credit roll when it says The End, Marin flies across the screen, in human form but with wings. That's the only "alternate ending" Link's Awakening has. Agent CH 22:30, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
 * You’re right, of course, about the condition. Wasn’t thinking. However, she’s not in human form in the DX version, which would theoretically replace the original as canon. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 23:29, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

HELP-SSBM YOUNG LINK
I need help on Young Link's Target Test. How do I get past the second Target?

H-BOMB 15:36, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Watch this amazing video of a guy breaking all the targets in 5 seconds. Deco 22:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

(In case the 5 second video did not help) You need to wall jump to the top of the pit. I can't remember if you only need to press left or right to wall jump or if you need to press left+jump and right+jump to do so. 216.238.203.19 06:22, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Need the jump. Jaxad0127 06:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

HOLY SH*T!!! Sorry, just that video really surprised me.--DarkHero 16:47, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Wow. That video was...wow. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.114.108.197 (talk • contribs).

Caption to Twilight Princess Art
Couldn't a better descriptor be used for Link than "a fierce fighter"? It's true enough, to be sure; but his fierce fighting isn't quite his most distinguishing characteristic. Something to do with his courage might be more appropriate, since he's often associated with the Triforce of Courage.
 * So change it. Fierce to courageous, perhaps? -- WikidSmaht (talk) 23:41, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Removed this sentence from Swords and shields
However there is the possibilty that some Links are right-handed, due to the fact that, in medieval times, it was tradition to hold the shield in the favored hand.

I removed this sentence, as I'm fairly sure (as a student of history, and occasional dabbler in swordplay) it's not true. FiggyBee 19:16, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Actually, it is true. The reason that in the UK people drive on the right stems back, apparently, to when people travelled about on horses. They would hold the reins in their left hand, and their sword in their right, in order to be able to attack any one they would pass. Zooba 07:58, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * That may or may not be true, but in that case they fight with their SWORD in their favoured (right) hand, with whatever else (reins, shield, etc) in the other. FiggyBee 12:01, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

 * We in the UK drive on the left, but with the driver's seat on the right side of the car. Setokaiba✌≝ 13:20, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Indeed - I meant that the stearing wheel is on the right. Stupid mistake on my part. :/ Zooba 17:04, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Note: we've just recieved a new partial interview, in which Miyamoto states that Link is left-handed because he's left handed. Which should probably clear up the issue. 68.33.140.175 05:05, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Whats up with all the abrieviations
In zelda/link related articles there is a lot of abbreviations used such as OoT and TWW. I myself was confused what these meant for quite a while, and though strong fans can pick theseup rather quickly, the abrieviations are annoying and dificult for non fans, or non dedicated fans to pick up. Im sure if any of you use friends/family members to check it out, you will see how hard it is to understand what they mean. thanks. 81.129.157.237 16:12, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. I think we should stick with abbreviated subtitles, such as Wind Waker, Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time. This is what Brittanica would do. Deco 22:15, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * That’s fine, but in this usage context, we shouldn’t leave off the initial articles. -- WikidSmaht (talk) 23:29, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Weasel words
"The GameCube version of Soul Calibur II is said to have been more popular than its PlayStation 2 and Xbox counterparts; many believe that this was due to Link's presence, since the GCN did not have the highest market share of its generation in general, nor among fighting-game fans, judging from sales of other multiplatform titles"

Very speculative sentence with not even a refernce to back it up. Weasel words all over. Someone should change it, and when re-worded provide a relevant reference to back the point up. Or pereferably, delete it,. Really a weasel word tag should go up in this section, but i'm sure it will be rectified soon. Thanks.

 * I'm adding a weasel words tag to this section, its clearly misguiding and does not cite a reference to back its point. Davinche 16:00, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

 * The aforementioned text has been taken out of the SCII section, and there's nothing else misleading about the article, so I'm removing the tag. -Thores 04:35, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I have reinstated a tweaked version of the sales data, with source. It now reads:

"The GameCube version of Soul Calibur II was more popular than its PlayStation 2 and Xbox counterparts (copies sold through December 2003: 500,685 vs. 447,138 and 320,991 respectively); many attribte this to Link’s inclusion as a GameCube-exclusive character. (source: NPD, see http://cube.ign.com/articles/475/475106p1.html)"

Please feel free to reformat the source citation to make it Wikipedia-friendly. -R

As long as it has some viable proof to back it uo, then it's okay.75.10.103.144

cameo appearances
The list of Link's cameo appearances seems to be identical to the list presented in The_Legend_of_Zelda_series save for the Animal Crossing mention. Axem Titanium 16:59, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Is there a reason two closely related articles can’t have some of the same information? -- WikidSmaht (talk) 01:12, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah. Creates a maintenance problem. I suggest that The_Legend_of_Zelda_series link to this article's section and add any references to TLoZ that aren't refs to Link (are there any?) Alternatively, we can create a template that is transcluded into both pages. Deco 22:09, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Xandir/Link comparison
Statements that Xandir from Drawn Together is apparently a parody on Link have been added to and later removed from the article countless times. I've seen a single episode of the (absolutely unbearable) show, and I must confess that Xandir does indeed share a number of common traits with Link. As an avid player of the series however, I can understand that some would prefer not to see the effeminate and simple-minded Xandir compared to Link ;), but for the sake of NPOV, we must admit that many people view Xandir as a parody of Link. So, if someone can dig up an acceptable source (show review likening Xandir to Link, for example), I'd say we can keep it in the article. What do others think? Phil s 17:30, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
 * This statement seems ludicrous to me. I've seen several episodes of DT and played through nearly every Zelda game and it's evident that Xandir is intended to parody D&D-style RPG characters, not Link. Pointy ears are a characteristic element of fictional elves. Without a more persuasive comparison I would strongly suggest eliding such an impulsive comparison. But if you can dig up a reputable source I'd be okay with it. Deco 20:19, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I also don't see a true comparison between the two characters. There are virtually no similarities in appearance and personality. The only visual similarity that I can see are the pointy ears, and there are countless fictional characters that have pointy ears. --Stardust6000 23:02, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh come on, Xandir looks everything like Link. Here are some examples: He has elf ears, he has beach blonde hair, he is left-handed, he has blue eyes, his girlfriend looks alot like Princess Zelda, he wears green, he wears boots, he has a flute that transports him to other locations (like in the original Legend of Zelda) and he mentions the 'Quad-Forces'. The evidence is overwhelming, the Wikipedia page on Xandir even says he is a parody of Link.

I suppose that is your personal opinion. Besides the color green there is no similarity in their clothes at all. Link's hair is also not always blonde and his eyes are not always blue. In Twilight Princess his hair seems to be more of a brownish color. The flute argument also doesn't work, because Mario has also used the flute that summons a transporting tornado. Overall, it appears that this character is more a parody of many video game heros rather than just Link. I am going to add this to the article.Stardust6000 01:24, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

While I thought of Link when I first saw that character, I relate nearly everything to video games, especially The Legend of Zelda. I really don't see any similarity between the characters other than the elf ears, although if you can give a reference for the "Quad-Forces" thing that might make a difference. As a side note, I'm pretty sure (though not positive) one Wikipedia article shouldn't be used as verification for another, because if the first one had verification for the fact then that same verification could be used for the second article, and if not, it's not a good source anyway. -Unknownwarrior33 05:26, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

If you look at the two, some people may see lots of similarities and others will see none. But to put in the article that they look similar is completley opinion, which dosen't belong on Wikipedia. Besides, Legolas from lord of the rings is an elf character who might resemble Link as well, but obviously that won't be stated. My point is that we can't gp around stating who we think Link may look like 'cause it has no bearing.

 * Reliable sources specifically talks about not using WP as a source. Deco 23:54, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Link/links in German
I've noticed a few edits where contributors change link to links in the trivia section about the German word. Both links (adverb) and link (adjective) exist in German, so neither is wrong. Just to clear things up. Phil s 09:40, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Wind Waker Lineage
(Note: I have also posted this in the Princess Zelda comments section, as the issue is also mentioned there.)

I might be alone in this, but I would like to dispute the call on Link's lineage in The Wind Waker. I personally feel that the game (as have some games before it) is playing off the idea that much of what was known about the Hero has been lost, and that the King was depending purely on legend. (Triumph Forks anyone?)

Some stuff to note:

1. "Link to the Past" appears to set the stage for all Links being of the same bloodline. At the same time, they are revered as if they were a single, returning entity. (Think something along the lines of the second coming of Christ....only in this case, we have the 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc...)

2. Outset island appears to have many traditions specifically involving the Hero of Time, or possible successors. They are also the only remaining "culture" that appears to believe in the triforce. With this in mind, it is not too hard to believe that the family shield did indeed belong to a past Link.

3. The King's information and knowledge is not infallible, and this is made freakishly clear by the story itself. He has, on occasion, sent Link unknowingly into unnecessary danger, due to lack of information, or misinformation.

It is very obvious, due to the King's interactions with the assorted deities of the ocean, that he was sent on a mission to find the Hero of Time himself. Obviously, the guy is thousands of years dead, and if Link to the Past's idea of a "returning entity of a single bloodline" is true, then no Link was alive during the King's time either. So he picked the next-best thing. An extremely brave kid floating in the ocean. He found the next Hero by pure coincidence.

My high school literature teachers would have called it dramatic irony. The fact that the viewer/player/reader knows something that a main character does not.

For the record, I find it odd that some fans take it for granted that Link is a descendant, and that others take it for granted that he is not.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Princess_Zelda"

 * The king also says that the hero of winds does not descend from the hero of time. Jaxad0127 17:47, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

The hero's sheild is his family sheild...

OOT/MM Link uses the hero's sheild in majoras mask...

There.. realated? Yes. Wesz 08:04, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

 * You're basing that on a game that takes place far from Hyrule. No one knows whether that Link ever returned (Although signs point to no.)
 * The shields look completely different.
 * Different items with the same name have existed before. For example, MM's Hookshot and OoT's, or the LA boomerang and the WW boomerang. They cannot possibly be the same item.
 * I think that rather dents your point. Setokaiba✌≝ 12:40, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Not really. This actually takes place in (above) Hyrule. The gods flooded the area (to hide the Triforce, I think), and that's why Hyrule Castle, Hyrule, and Ganon's tower are all underwater. I think that the best places to look for information is in the opening video and Ganondorf's speech(es) at the end. — SheeEttin {T/C} 19:07, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I was actually referring to MM in 1. Setokaiba✌≝ 19:59, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
 * The Hero's Shield was only "in" The Wind Waker Link's family, as a family heirloom, but it never directly states the Hero of Time was of the same bloodline as the Hero of Winds - the statement that an object is in your family's posession does not meet the criteria for causality - There is time order and correlation, but you do not prove non-spurriousness. There are other explanations for why the shield is in their family - it could have been a gift, they could have found it and kept it. Then again, this statement also does not prove the Hero of Winds is not related to the Hero of Time.  In both versions of A Link to the past (1992,2002), the Maiden says Link is perhaps the "last of the bloodline" of the Knights of Hyrule from the Imprisoning War.  If the Imprisoning War was Ocarina of Time, and it is proven Link was "a Knight of Hyrule" fighting in that war, then you never know...all the Links could be related, but we have no conclusive evidence that the Hero of Time or the Hero of Winds are related one way or another. --TSA 18:42, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

 * True as that may be, I think enough people believe there's enough of an implication that it's at least worth mentioning as a possibility. If nothing else we should try to find some consensus. -Unknownwarrior33 05:28, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Hundred or hundreds of years
I'll find it somewhere these days, but in a later interview, Aonuma commented on it that it was hundreds instead of hundred. Besides, it also makes sense, since all that stuff in the intro of The Wind Waker could have never happened in a few decades (remember TP also fits in ebtween, which already takes place decades after Oot) JackSparrow Ninja 21:01, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, as it stands, the article cannot state a definate fact like that without a source. If you do find the interview, and it is in Japanese somewhere, that would clarify the issue. As far as I know, however, it has been a bone of contention among fans for several years now, and I would have thought that I would have heard about this before now, if it existed. Any move we make before getting a source must count as speculation, however. Setokaiba✌≝ 21:37, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I remember that it's been restated indeed. But I think when something is common sense, it is beyond speculation. He has got a point that there is no way that hundred years can be correct. I'll look for it as well. Hyrule 21:55, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Note that the japanese language has no plural. The same word is used for both "One hundred" and "Hundreds".  So a translator hearing the word could translate it either way, even though it only means one of the two. Fieari 23:46, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
 * My point exactly. Setokaiba✌≝ 09:00, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
 * But there's still the "one" in that phrase. Was it added by the translators, or was it in the original Japanese? Jaxad0127 16:38, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The only way to know that is to find a transcription of the interview untranslated. Since I've never seen one, and don't know where to look, so unless someone else has any ideas, this is as far as we can go. Setokaiba✌≝ 17:15, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The interview with Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto was done at Nintendo of America, Inc. in October of 2002, and was translated on-the-fly by Bill Trinen, an NOA localizer and personal translator for NCL VIPs while in North America. There is no audio record of the interview, and there was no transcription made public, so the English-only interview, still online at Zelda.com (TWW area), is the only thing we have.  However, the in-game text of The Wind Waker clearly states "hundreds" of years after the flood (King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule - The Wind Waker - 2003) that sank Hyrule, and that flood takes place after Ocarina of Time.  It would be great to have the interview in Japanese, but in-game materials solved this issue. --TSA 18:37, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Magic
I've said this in some other Link thing, but I think they got combined. I think there should be descriptions of the magic attacks you can do in all games, not just Ocarina of Time which is the only thing on the page. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.150.51.151 (talk • contribs).

Images: Breach of fair use rules
Currently, 18 (!) - mostly decorative (!) - images of the same company are used under a fair use rationale. This is a breach of the fair use rules. See: WP:FUC: #3: "The amount of copyrighted work used should be as little as possible. (...) Do not use multiple images (...) if one will serve the purpose adequately." We can all agree (I think) that these 18 images are not "as little as possible". Moreover, most images mostly serve a decorative purpose as they are not necessary or the necessity could be removed by altering/improving the text. See: WP:FUC: #8: "The material must contribute significantly to the article (...) and must not serve a purely decorative purpose." Perhaps a "purely decorative purpose" is exaggerated, but most images do not contribute significantly. I would recommend to trim the number of images down to 2 or 3. Sijo Ripa 00:14, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Personally, I think many of these images serve an illustrative, not decorative, purpose. They are used to show the reader what many aspects of the character are like and do so in a concise way, impossible to render with words. They all contribute to the article and emphasize the point that Link has had many different incarnations over the years, even without considering the chronology. Also, please realize that many of the images currently on the page were also on the page when this article became a featured article (15 images). Axem Titanium 04:42, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
 * The standards of a FA have risen substantially over the years, which means that this article should keep up with the new standards. (Just like in-line citations are needed now, while many old articles didn't have them). Sijo Ripa 08:45, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
 * You seem to have some sort of vendetta against Fair Use images. Personally, I'd rather see an expansion of fair use, rather than a contraction.  There are limits on copyright for a reason, and those limits keep getting pushed farther out by copyright holders, beyond where it should go. Fieari 03:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree the number of images on this article could and should be reduced. However, I think people will probably keep adding images as we remove them. Phil s 03:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

A small, but logical edit
"Although the GameCube had the smallest market share, the GCN version of Soul Calibur II..."

The GameCube's market share has nothing to do with the character Link or the game Soul Calibur II. Also, The GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 are still being sold, so using the past tense regarding market share is incorrect. I am editing this sentence back to its previously neutral, correct state. -R —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.86.93.196 (talk • contribs).

 * I reverted your edits. The paragraph makes much more sense with it. And the past tense refers to when the game was still being made/sold. Jaxad0127 23:16, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Frankly, I think this paragraph contains quite a bit of speculation. Nobody has any idea why Soul Calibur for GCN sold more units. For all we know it was just the lack of good fighting games on that platform. Deco 01:35, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

 * First off, I agree with the revert because the Gamecube's low market share is what makes the fact about it having the best-selling version of SC2 worth mentioning. Second, The importance of stating sources doesn't necessarily oppose the inclusion of things that can't logically be verified at all (we can't ask every single person who bought the game why they chose the version they did).  We can't measure the sun either, but that doesn't mean we should take out estimated figures of its size.  I'll bet there are enough rationalizations out there in various reputable gaming websites and magazines to warrant the inclusion of the information.  I agree that there need to be sources, but that doesn't always mean indisputable proof.  As long as it remains clear that such proof doesn't exist (I personally think the current version does it well), I support its inclusion. -Unknownwarrior33 05:35, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Merge with Young Link?
Just a heads up. Axem Titanium 21:30, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Good idea JackSparrow Ninja 05:18, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
 * This was already discussed last year and we decided to merge. I just redirected Young Link here. All the relevant info is in this article. Phil s 20:11, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Someone apparently didn't get the memo and changed it on the 10th. I reverted it to the last redirect version, but I can't say how long that will last. -Unknownwarrior33 05:39, 13 August 2006 (UTC)


text:
Vera Drake

Vera Drake is a 2004 British period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Daniel Mays and Eddie Marsan. It tells the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal abortions. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and it was nominated for three Academy Awards and won three BAFTAs.

Plot
Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) is devoted to her family, looking after her husband and children, her elderly mother, and a sick neighbour. Her shy daughter, Ethel (Alex Kelly), works in a lightbulb factory, and her son, Sid (Daniel Mays), tailors men's suits. Her husband, Stanley (Phil Davis), is a car mechanic. Although Vera and her family are poor, their strong family bonds hold them together. During her working day as a house cleaner, Vera performs constant small acts of kindness for the many people she encounters.

She is a kindly person who is eager to help others. Unknown to her family, she also works secretly, providing abortions for young women. She receives no money for providing this service because she believes that her help is an act of charity to women in trouble. However, her partner Lily (Ruth Sheen), who also carries on a black-market trade in scarce postwar foodstuffs, charges two guineas (two pounds and two shillings: ) for arranging the abortions, without Vera's knowledge.

The film also contains a subplot about an upper-class young woman, Susan (Sally Hawkins), the daughter of one of Vera's employers. Susan is raped by a suitor, becomes pregnant, and asks a friend to put her in contact with a doctor, through whom she can obtain an abortion. The doctor refers her to a psychiatrist, who prompts her to answer questions in a certain way, so that he can legally recommend an abortion on therapeutic psychiatric grounds: that she has a family history of mental illness and that she may commit suicide if not allowed to terminate the pregnancy. The abortion costs her a hundred guineas.

After one of her patients nearly dies, Vera is arrested by the police and taken into custody for questioning. She is held overnight and appears before a magistrate the next morning. Sid is shocked by his mother's secret activities and tells his father that he does not think that he can forgive her. However, in a later conversation with Vera, he expresses fear for what could happen to her in prison, before finally telling Vera that he loves her.

Vera is bailed to appear at the Old Bailey. None of Vera's employers will give her a character reference. Her solicitor thinks she will receive the minimum sentence of 18 months in jail; the judge sentences her to two-and-a-half years' imprisonment "as a deterrent to others." This affects all the people who previously depended on Vera's kindness.

While in prison, Vera meets others who have been convicted of performing illegal abortions. They discuss their sentences, explaining that it's not their first time in prison for performing illegal abortions, and that she'll probably only serve half her sentence. Vera tearfully leaves to go to her cell.

Main cast

 * Imelda Staunton as Vera Drake
 * Phil Davis as Stan Drake
 * Daniel Mays as Sid Drake
 * Alex Kelly as Ethel Drake
 * Sandra Voe as Vera's Mother
 * Eddie Marsan as Reg
 * Adrian Scarborough as Frank Drake
 * Heather Craney as Joyce Drake
 * Sally Hawkins as Susan
 * Ruth Sheen as Lily
 * Lesley Sharp as Jessie Barnes
 * Liz White as Pamela Barnes
 * Peter Wight as Det. Inspector Webster
 * Martin Savage as Det. Sergeant Vickers
 * Jim Broadbent as Judge
 * Simon Chandler as Mr. Wells
 * Lesley Manville as Mrs. Wells
 * Marion Bailey as Mrs. Fowler

Background
In Vera Drake, Leigh incorporated elements of his own childhood. He grew up in north Salford, Lancashire, and experienced a very ordinary but socio-economically mixed life as the son of a doctor and a midwife. In the book The Cinema of Mike Leigh: A Sense of the Real, Leigh said, "I lived in this particular kind of working-class district with some relations living in slightly leafier districts up the road. So there was always a tension, or at least a duality: those two worlds were forever colliding. So you constantly get the one world and its relationship with the other going on in my films."

Production
Mike Leigh is known to use unusual methods to achieve realism in his films. "Leigh's actors literally have to find their characters through improvisation and research the ways people in specific communities speak and behave. Leigh and his cast immerse themselves in the local life before creating the story" (1994: 7: Watson 29). Critic Roger Ebert explains:

"His method is to gather a cast for weeks or months of improvisation in which they create and explore their characters. I don't think the technique has ever worked better than here; the family life in those cramped little rooms is so palpably real that as the others wait around the dining table while Vera speaks to policeman behind the kitchen door, I felt as if I were waiting there with them. It's not that we 'identify' so much as that the film quietly and firmly includes us."

Leigh often uses improvisation to capture his actors' unscripted emotions. When filming Vera Drake, only Imelda Staunton knew ahead of time that the subject of the film was abortion. None of the cast members playing the family members, including Staunton, knew that Vera was to be arrested until the moment the actors playing the police knocked on the door of the house they were using for rehearsals. Their genuine reactions of shock and confusion provided the raw material for their dialogue and actions.

In addition to these methods utilised by Mike Leigh, the director is also admired for his preference of English actors to Hollywood stars. This has led to criticism of Leigh as being a patroniser of the working class. However, using Dickens in his defence, he rebuts these accusations outright proclaiming that the last thing he seeks in his actors is a stereotype. This stereotype was fiercely criticised in the film, Vera Drake: "These abiding quibbles aside, Vera Drake is a compelling and complex film. Though much has been made of the controversial subject matter—back street abortion—its main theme is the buried family secret, the ticking time bomb that can lurk underneath even the most stable marriage. Much of the film's cumulative power lies in its delineation of a rock solid family suddenly rocked to the core by a revelation that is literally beyond their comprehension: the fact that their beloved, and loving, mother is an abortionist. Why, I ask Leigh, does she keep her secret for so long?"Leigh wanted to shoot in 35mm but, after being denied by the producers, the film was shot on 16mm film stock.

Box office
As of 9 April 2006, Vera Drake had grossed $12,941,817 at the box office worldwide, including over $3.7 million in the US.

Critical response
The film has attracted some criticism from those who worked in midwifery during the 1950s. The chief concern is the method of abortion used by Vera Drake in the film. This involves using a Higginson bulb, which is a type of enema syringe, to introduce a warm, dilute solution of carbolic soap and an unspecified liquid disinfectant into the woman's uterus. This method is claimed by Jennifer Worth, a nurse and midwife in the 1950s and 1960s and author of the book Call the Midwife, to be invariably fatal. She called the film itself "dangerous", as it could be shown in countries where abortion is illegal and the method depicted copied by desperate women. In reply Leigh told interviewer Amy Raphael that Worth's criticism overlooked several factors, such as how the film undoubtedly highlights the risk of infection by exploring such misadventure as a means to ultimately curtail Drake's work and the fact that it was based on many testimonies from women who once had such abortions, thereby proving that the procedure did not almost always result in death.

The website Metacritic, which compiles and averages reviews from leading film critics, gave it a score of 83 out of 100 from 40 reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 93% based on 161 reviews, with a rating average of 7.9/10. The site's consensus is that "with a piercingly powerful performance by Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the controversial subject of abortion."

Home media
Vera Drake was released on DVD on March 29, 2005.

Awards and nominations

 * 2004 European Film Awards – won Best Actress and nominated for Best Film
 * 2004 Venice Film Festival – won Golden Lion for Best Film & Volpi Cup for Best Actress
 * 2004 Camerimage – won Golden Frog for Best Cinematography
 * 2004 British Independent Film Awards – won Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Achievement in Production
 * 2004 London Film Critics Circle Awards – won British Film of the Year, British Director of the Year, British Screenwriter of the Year, Actress of the Year, British Supporting Actor of the Year
 * 2005 Golden Globes – nominated for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
 * 2005 BAFTAs – won Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Costume Design. Nominated for Best Film, Best British Film, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay – Original, Best Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup/Hair
 * 2005 Academy Awards – nominated for Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay

title: Vera Drake


text:
Worldwide Underground

Worldwide Underground is the third studio album by American singer Erykah Badu, released September 16, 2003, by Motown Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2003, following Badu's period of writer's block, and her performances during the Frustrated Artist Tour. Production was handled primarily by the production group  Freakquency , consisting of Badu, Rashad Smith, James Poyser, and RC Williams. Prominently influenced by old-school 1970s and 80s hip hop, soul, R&B and funk elements, the album features an unconventional musical structure; the songwriting took a path of somewhat less subliminal, metaphorical lyrics than Badu’s previous work, expressing more lighthearted (but sincere) feelings, instead. The album’s content mainly focused on the general state of hip hop culture, reminiscing on good times, friends, partying, young love, “hood life”, and some references to gang culture. The album features appearances from artists Dead Prez, Common, Queen Latifah, Bahamadia, and singer Angie Stone.

The album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 143,561 copies in its first week. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and produced three singles that achieved moderate chart success, while the album was underpromoted and sold less than her previous albums. Upon its release, Worldwide Underground received generally lukewarm reviews from critics. The album has sold 609,000 copies in the United States.

Background
After taking some time off to raise her child, Badu returned in 2000 with Mama's Gun. The album was characterized as more organic in sound than her previous studio album, and primarily produced by the Soulquarians and noted bassist Pino Palladino. A remix of one of the album's songs, "Bag Lady", was issued as the first single and topped the R&B charts for seven weeks. The album was well-received, with the lyrical content winning notices from many publications. Reviewers found some of her lyrics hard to decipher on her initial releases. Despite not charting as high as her first two albums, Mama's Gun was another platinum-selling success, and "Bag Lady" was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2001 Badu embarked on the Mama's Gun World Tour. The tour started in North America on February 10 in Cleveland, Ohio at the Allen Theatre. Badu will perform two nights in Washington, D.C. and Chicago. After the release of Mama's Gun and "Love of My Life", Badu suffered writer's block.

Release and reception
Worldwide Underground was released on September 16, 2003, by Motown Records. It debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart in the week of October 4, selling 143,561 copies in its first week. Ultimately spending 11 weeks on the Billboard 200, it also entered at number two on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and spent 30 weeks on the chart. By December 2003, the album had sold 394,000 copies domestically. Its first single, "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)", peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The second single "Danger" reached number 82 on the Hot 100 and number 27 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, while the third single "Back in the Day (Puff)" peaked at number 62 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. On October 28, 2003, Worldwide Underground was certified gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America, following sales in excess of 500,000 copies in the United States. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album has sold 609,000 copies in the United States.

Worldwide Underground received generally lukewarm reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on 14 reviews. Andy Kellman from AllMusic said the record sounded "more like a weekend jam session than an endlessly labored-over, polished project. For the most part, this is a good thing". PopMatters critic Mark Anthony Neal commended Badu for her themes relating to hip hop culture and for her musical direction, writing that "it finds the artist Stepping into Tomorrow, with a new production collective in tow and some straight-up, free-floating, funky-ass R&B. And for the first time in her career, Badu is wearing her own voice and it is unmistakably Badu". Georgia Christgau from The Village Voice wrote that "although sometimes her reliance on mood threatens to get the better of Worldwide Underground, Badu remains faithful to the old school of flow, a blend of drums and rhythm designed to service soul's best instruments: its vocalists." Slant Magazine ranked the record number 90 on its list of the Best Albums of the Aughts.

In a less enthusiastic review, Uncut deemed Worldwide Underground oft-interesting but too groove-oriented music, while Blender observed "rambling, digital fiddling and self-indulgent sprawl here, but a sense of purpose, too, even as her lips move on autopilot." Jon Caramanica from Rolling Stone was more critical and said apart from "Danger" and "Love of My Life Worldwide", most of the songs sounded aimless, "variations on some atmospheric theme ... slither[ing] along unthreateningly".

Tour
Badu embarked on the Worldwide Underground Tour in 2004. The US trek kicked off on February 3 in New Orleans. and ran through the winter and spring with supporting act Floetry joining the tour February 5 in Houston. The Roots made a special opening act appearance at the February 11, show in Los Angeles. Badu resumed the tour during the fall with additional dates in America and Europe.

Badu founded the Sugar Water Festival, a music festival co-found by Badu, Queen Latifah and Jill Scott. The trek played to amphitheaters and arenas in the United States during the summer of 2005 and 2006. It began in 2005 as an event to bring awareness to health issues to African-American women. British duo Floetry opened shows during the 2005 run. The festival was relaunched briefly in 2006 with Kelis opening the show and comedian Mo'Nique hosting the festival. 2006 was the final year for the outing.

The festival was to expand into Europe and Asia, however, this did not come to fruition. The Summer Tour was a concert tour in 2006 by Badu. The tour started on June 10, in Knoxville, TN, with three shows in the U.S. and resumed in July for several shows in Europe. In August, Badu co-headlined dates with Jill Scott and Queen Latifah at the "Sugar Water Festival".

Musicians
Freakquency
 * Erykah Badu - vocals, arrangements, funk box (track 2, 5), drum programming (6)
 * James Poyser - keyboards (2-4, 6-9, 11), additional programming (2), drums (11)
 * Rashad "Ringo" Smith - drum programming (except 1, 4, 10), "funk cuts" (5), "cuts, spices and herbs" (11)
 * R.C. Williams - keyboards (5, 7), additional programming (3)

with

 * Braylon "Brother B." Lacy – bass (2-5, 7-9), handclaps (5)
 * Doc Gibbs – percussion (2-4)
 * Zap Mama, Caron Wheeler – vocals (2)
 * Chinah Blac - background vocals (2, 7)
 * Lenny Kravitz – electric guitar (4 [not 3 as stated in album credits])
 * Dwayne Kerr – flute (5, 11, 12)
 * Jazz Bell, Sam Bell, Tisha Creer, Alfredo Gray, Robert Pack, A. Pérez - background vocals (5)
 * Eevin Wright, Rod Rice – handclaps (5)
 * M-1, Stic.man – vocals (6)
 * Dead Prez - rap, drum programming (6)
 * Roy Hargrove – trumpet, vocals (8)
 * Queen Latifah, Angie Stone, Bahamadia - vocals (9)
 * Common - vocals (11)
 * Raphael Saadiq - bass guitar (11)

Production

 * Producers: Freakquency, Dead Prez, Raphael Saadiq
 * Executive producers: Erykah Badu, Kedar Massenburg
 * Co-executive producers: James Poyser, Rashad Smith, Tom Soares, R.C. Williams
 * Recording Engineer: Tom Soares
 * Assistant engineers: Shinobu Mitsuoka (4), Tim Olmstead (5)
 * Mixing: Tom Soares, Leslie Brathwaite (7), Brian Stanley (8)
 * Mastering: Chris Athens (exc. 7), Robert Wechsler (7)
 * Creative director: Sandy Brummels
 * Vocal Coaching: Erykah Badu, Lis Lewis, David Angerstein
 * Art direction: Erykah Badu, Kenny J. Gravillis
 * Drawing: Erykah Badu
 * Photography: Marc Baptiste
 * Make-up: Melanie Harris
 * Stylist: Carlton Jones

title: Worldwide Underground