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Bacs

Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs), previously known as Bankers' Automated Clearing System, is responsible for the clearing and settlement of UK automated direct debit and Bacs Direct Credit and the provision of third-party services. Bacs became a subsidiary of Pay.UK (formerly known as New Payment System Operator (NPSO)) on 1 May 2018, and responsibility for direct debit, Bacs Direct Credit, the Current Account Switch Service, Cash ISA Transfer Service and the Industry Sort Code Directory was given to Pay.UK.

More than 140 billion transactions have been debited or credited to British bank accounts via Bacs since its inception; in 2019, 6.5 billion UK payments, worth £5 trillion, were made. At the end of November 2019, the number of single-day transactions processed by Bacs reached a high of 124 million; a monthly record was set in August 2018, when 580 million payments were processed.

History
The Electronics Sub-Committee of the Committee of London Clearing Bankers was formed in the late 1950s to consider the automation of cheque-clearing. The committee set up a New Services Working Party in 1965 to examine the possibility of exchanging data between banks without using paper – specifically, the automated exchange of standing order credits. This led to the creation of the Inter-Bank Computer Bureau (IBCB) within the Bankers Clearing House, which was tasked with setting up a computer facility and led by Dennis Gladwell to steer the creation and development of what would become the Bankers Automated Clearing Services.

The electronic transfer of funds began in 1968 in BCH's (Bankers Clearing House) computer room. A new location was found in 1971: a converted warehouse in Edgware on a site used by Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison on their solo flights to Australia. Plans for a purpose-built computer centre were drawn up early that year. The building was completed in June 1972, with ICL equipment delivered in July. Full computer service was established after the relocation in October 1972. Dennis Gladwell officially opened the fully operational site alongside E. O. Faulkner on Wednesday, 22nd November 1972.

The IBCB was initially controlled by BCH's Systems and Development Committee before it was controlled by its own managing committee. The committee decided that a separate limited company should be created, and Bankers Automated Clearing Services was registered on 10 September 1971. Adopting BACS as its name, the company registered the acronym as a trademark on 1 December 1971. It was renamed BACS Limited on 20 March 1986.

On 1 December 2003, Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (BPSL) was split from Bacs Limited as a nonprofit organisation with members of the banking industry promoting the use of (and setting the rules for) automated-payment schemes and Bacs Limited owning the infrastructure to operate them. Bacs Limited used that name for one year, becoming Voca Limited on 12 October 2004. Voca Limited merged with the UK national switch provider LINK Interchange Network on 2 July 2007, and became Vocalink. Vocalink owns the infrastructure on which payment schemes operate, and BPSL maintains the schemes.

Bacs users began moving from the telephone dial-up BACSTEL service (introduced in 1983 to replace magnetic media) to BACSTEL-IP, a faster, more secure Internet-based service, in 2003. All Bacs users, including businesses that make payments to their suppliers or operate their staff payroll electronically, were required to move to BACSTEL-IP by the end of December 2005 or return to using cheques. When BACSTEL-IP was introduced, all software used to make a connection to Bacs required approval; it is only possible to connect with software from the list of Bacs Approved Solution Suppliers (BASS) or an approved bureau.

New service users were required to use AUDDIS, a more efficient system for organizations to send new direct-debit instructions to their customers' bank or building society electronically instead of on paper, in 2008. That year, annual direct-debit volume surpassed three billion; volumee reached 3.5 billion by 2013, with 100 billion payments processed since 1968.

Direct debit
A direct debit is an instruction from a customer to a bank (or building society) to authorize a third party to collect an amount from an account, often for regular payments. Over 4.5 billion direct debits were processed in 2019.

Bacs Direct Credit
Bacs Direct Credit is a service which enables organizations of all sizes to make payments direct into a bank or building society account. There are more than 150,000 organizations in the UK using Bacs Direct Credit and it has been widely adopted to pay benefits, wages and salaries – nearly 90 per cent of the country's workforce is paid this way and one billion benefit payments are made via Bacs Direct Credit – it is also the payment method used for a range of other applications such as pension payments, employee expenses, insurance settlements, dividends and refunds.

Current Account Switch Service
Since its September 2013 introduction, more than six million UK current accounts have been switched; the service reported a seven-day switching success rate of 99.4 per cent. It offers consumers, small businesses, trusts and small charities a way of switching current accounts to increase competition and support the entry of new banks in the current-account marketplace. The service is offered by 49 banks and building societies.

When a current account is opened with a new bank or building society, the Current Account Switch Service will transfer the old-account activity to the new one: moving incoming and outgoing payments, transferring the account balance, and closing the old account. Although the process takes place over seven working days, the account is transferred on the final day; customers use the old account until the agreed switch day, and then use the new account with no loss of service. It is backed by the Current Account Switch Guarantee, which promises to reimburse account holders if they incur fees or charges as a result of the switchover.

Other services
The Cash ISA Transfer Service, introduced in October 2012, offers a quicker and easier transfer process while reducing paper flow and increasing efficiency. The Biller Update Service was introduced in June 2013.

Further developments
Bacs processed a record 5.8 billion transactions in 2014 for a total of £4.4 trillion, including 3.6 billion direct debits. The number of payments passing through the Bacs system topped six billion for the first time the following year, with a value of £4.6 trillion. The number of direct debits processed in 2015 increased by 239 million over the 2014 total.

A record 103 million transactions were processed in a single July 2015 day. That year, it was announced that the number of payments handled by Bacs since 1968 had exceeded 110 billion.

In 2016, 6.22 billion transactions were processed with a value of £4.8 trillion; the number of direct-debit payments exceeded four billion. Daily processing records were set twice that year: 109.3 million payments on one day at the end of September, surpassing the April high of 103.7 million. A record 6.34 billion payments were processed in 2017, totalling £4.9 trillion.

At the end of November 2018, the number of daily transactions processed by Bacs reached a new high of 123 million; a monthly record of 580 million payments was set in August of that year. In January 2019, it was announced that Bacs had processed a record 6.4 billion UK payments, totalling just under £5 trillion, the previous year. Bacs processed 6.5 billion UK payments totalling £5 trillion in 2019, setting a single-day record of 124 million transactions at the end of November.

Bacs' scope has expanded to include third-party services (such as the Cash ISA Transfer Service) and the development, management and ownership of the Current Account Switch Service, which began in September 2013. The guaranteed service has reduced the time it takes for consumers, small businesses, and small charities to switch current accounts to seven working days, and has facilitated over six million switches. On 1 May 2018, Bacs became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pay.UK (formerly known as the New Payment System Operator).

title: Bacs


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Tarzan (1999 film)

Tarzan is a 1999 American animated coming-of-age adventure comedy drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the 1912 story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, being the first animated major motion picture version of the story. The film was directed by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Bonnie Arnold, from a screenplay by Tab Murphy and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White. It stars the voices of Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Glenn Close, Rosie O'Donnell, Brian Blessed, Lance Henriksen, Wayne Knight, and Nigel Hawthorne.

Pre-production of Tarzan began in 1995, with Lima selected as director and Buck joining him the same year. Following Murphy's first draft, Tzudiker, White, Dave Reynolds, and Jeffrey Stepakoff (the latter two of whom received additional screenplay credits in the final cut), were brought in to reconstruct the third act and add additional material to the screenplay. English recording artist Phil Collins was recruited to compose and record songs integrated with a score by Mark Mancina. Meanwhile, the production team embarked on a research trip to Uganda and Kenya to study the gorillas. The animation of the film combines 2D hand-drawn animation with the extensive use of computer-generated imagery, and it was done in California, Orlando, and Paris, with the pioneering computer animation software system Deep Canvas being predominantly used to create three-dimensional backgrounds.

Tarzan premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 12, 1999, and was released in the United States on June 18. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its voice performances, music, animation, and action sequences. Against a production budget of $130 million (then the most expensive traditionally animated film ever made until Treasure Planet in 2002), the film grossed $448.2 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 1999, the second highest-grossing animated film of 1999 behind Toy Story 2, and the first Disney animated feature to open at first place at the North American box office since Pocahontas (1995). It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song ("You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins). The film has led to many derived works, such as a Broadway adaptation, a television series, and two direct-to-video followups, Tarzan & Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005). Due to licensing issues with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., the use of these characters are limited.

Plot
In the 1880s, a British couple and their infant son are shipwrecked in Equatorial Africa. The adults build a treehouse but are killed by a leopard named Sabor. Kala, a local gorilla who lost her son to Sabor, adopts the human infant and names him Tarzan despite the protestations of Kerchak, her mate and the gorilla leader.

After growing into a child, Tarzan begins to befriend other animals, including Kala's niece Terk and the paranoid elephant, Tantor. Tarzan finds himself treated differently because of his different physique, so he makes valiant efforts to improve himself. Several years later, an adult Tarzan rescues the gorillas by spearing Sabor, gaining Kerchak's reluctant approval.

Meanwhile, a team of English human explorers, consisting of Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, his daughter Jane, and their hunter escort Clayton, arrive on the island to study the gorillas. Jane accidentally becomes separated from the group and is chased by a baboon troop, until a curious Tarzan rescues her. After comparing her to himself, he realizes their similarities. Jane leads Tarzan back to their camp, where Porter and Clayton both take interest in him; the former in terms of scientific progress, while the latter hopes to have Tarzan lead the group to the gorillas. Despite Kerchak's warnings to avoid the strangers, Tarzan repeatedly returns to the camp. Porter, Clayton, and Jane teach him how to speak English properly, and tell him what the human world is like. Tarzan and Jane begin a romantic relationship; however, she has difficulty convincing Tarzan to lead the humans to the gorillas, as Tarzan fears Kerchak's fury.

With the explorers' ship returning to retrieve them, Jane asks Tarzan to return with them to England, but Tarzan, in turn, asks Jane to stay with him when Jane says it is unlikely that they will ever return. Clayton convinces Tarzan to lead the humans to the gorillas in exchange for Jane staying with him forever. Tarzan persuades Terk and Tantor to lure Kerchak away, and leads the trio to the nesting grounds. Porter and Jane are excited to mingle with the gorillas, but Kerchak returns to attack the humans. Tarzan restrains Kerchak while the humans escape, disappointing Kerchak. Taking Tarzan to the treehouse where she found him, Kala reveals his true past, and says she wants him to be happy whatever he decides.

In the morning, Tarzan boards the ship, accompanied by Jane and Porter, but the three are ambushed by Clayton and his traitorous band of stowaway thugs. Now aware of the location of the nesting grounds, Clayton plans to capture and sell the gorillas for a fortune, and imprisons Tarzan, Jane, and Porter to prevent them from interfering. Tarzan escapes with the help of Terk and Tantor, and he rallies the other animals to help the gorillas fight the thugs. Clayton grazes Tarzan's arm, and mortally wounds Kerchak and pursues Tarzan across the treetops. The ensuing battle leads to Clayton inadvertently hanging himself with a vine. Before Kerchak dies, he accepts Tarzan as his son and names him the gorilla troop's leader.

The next day, Porter and Jane prepare to leave on the ship, while Tarzan stays behind with the gorillas. As the ship's rowboat leaves shore, Porter encourages his daughter to stay with the man she loves, and Jane jumps overboard, followed soon after by her father. The Porters reunite with Tarzan and his family, and embark on their new life together.

Voice cast

 * Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan, a 20-year-old man raised by gorillas who finds his human roots. Glen Keane served as the supervising animator for Tarzan as an adult, while John Ripa animated Tarzan as an infant and a 6-year-old child. John Ripa studied the movements of young chimpanzees to use for young Tarzan's animation, while Glen Keane used movements of a gibbon and used it for the animation of adult Tarzan. Keane also watched his son Max Keane do his skateboarding and snowboarding and used surfers moves in the scenes where Tarzan is sliding through the trees. Brendan Fraser auditioned twice for the title character before portraying the lead role in George of the Jungle (1997). Tony Goldwyn auditioned for the title role as well, and according to co-director Kevin Lima, Goldwyn landed it because of "the animal sense" in his readings, along with some "killer baboon imitations".
 * Alex D. Linz as young Tarzan

 * Minnie Driver as Jane Porter, the eccentric, feisty, benevolent, and intelligent daughter of Professor Porter. She is the first of the group to encounter Tarzan and becomes his love interest. Ken Duncan served as the supervising animator for Jane. Many of Driver's mannerisms and characteristics were incorporated into Jane's animation. The scene where Jane describes meeting Tarzan for the first time to her father and Clayton was improvised by Driver, resulting in Duncan animating one of the longest animated scenes on record. The scene took 7 weeks to animate and 73 feet of film.
 * Glenn Close as Kala, Tarzan's adoptive mother, who found and raised him after losing her biological son to Sabor. She is also Kerchak's mate. Russ Edmonds served as the supervising animator for Kala.
 * Rosie O'Donnell as Terk (short for Terkina, a feminization of Terkoz merged with Teeka), Tarzan's best friend, a wisecracking gorilla. She is also Kala and Kerchak's niece, making her and Tarzan adoptive cousins. Michael Surrey served as the supervising animator for Terk. The character was originally written as a male gorilla, but after O'Donnell's audition, Terk was re-characterized as a female. Prior to changing Terk to a female Chris Rock was offered the role, but turned it down.
 * Brian Blessed as William Cecil Clayton, an intelligent and suave yet arrogant and treacherous hunter, who assists the Porters on their quest. Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Clayton, basing his design on Clark Gable and other film stars of the 1930s and 40s. Blessed also provided the iconic Tarzan yell for the title character.
 * Nigel Hawthorne as Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, an eccentric, short-statured scientist and Jane's father. Dave Burgess served as the supervising animator for Porter. This was one of Hawthorne's two final acting roles before his death in 2001.
 * Lance Henriksen as Kerchak, Kala's mate and Tarzan's (reluctant) adoptive father, a silverback and leader of the gorilla troop, who struggles to accept Tarzan since he is a human. Bruce W. Smith served as the supervising animator for Kerchak.
 * Wayne Knight as Tantor, a paranoid and submissive elephant, and Tarzan and Terk's close friend. Sergio Pablos served as the supervising animator for Tantor. Woody Allen was initially cast as Tantor, but Jeffrey Katzenberg persuaded Allen to leave the project and join DreamWorks' Antz (1998).
 * Taylor Dempsey as young Tantor.

Development
Disney's Tarzan was the first Tarzan film to be animated. Thomas Schumacher, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, expressed surprise there hadn't been any previous attempts to animate a Tarzan film, saying, "Here is a book that cries out to be animated. Yet we're the first filmmakers to have ever taken Tarzan from page to screen and presented the character as Burroughs intended." He noted that in animated form, Tarzan can connect to the animals on a deeper level than he can in live-action versions.

In 1994, when A Goofy Movie (1995) was nearly finished, Kevin Lima was approached to direct Tarzan by then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. He had desired to have the film animated through the Disney Television Animation division with a new animation studio established in Canada. Lima was reluctant to the idea because of the animation complexities being done by inexperienced animators. Following Katzenberg's resignation from the Walt Disney Company, Lima was again contacted about the project by Michael Eisner, who decided to have the film produced through the Feature Animation division, by which Lima signed on.

Following this, Lima decided to read Tarzan of the Apes where he began to visualize the theme of two hands being held up against each other. That image became an important symbol of the relationships between characters in the film, and a metaphor of Tarzan's search for identity. "I was looking for something that would underscore Tarzan's sense of being alike, yet different from his ape family", Lima said, "The image of touching hands was first conceived as an idea for how Tarzan realizes he and Jane are physically the same."

Following his two-month study of the book, Lima approached his friend, Chris Buck, who had just wrapped up work as a supervising animator on Pocahontas (1995), to ask if he would be interested in serving as co-director. Buck was initially skeptical but accepted after hearing Lima's ideas for the film. By April 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported that the film was in its preliminary stages with Lima and Buck directing after Disney had obtained the story rights from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Writing
Tab Murphy, who had just finished work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), was attracted to the theme of man-versus-nature in Tarzan, and began developing a treatment in January 1995. For the third act, Murphy suggested that Tarzan should leave for England, as he did in the book, but the directors felt that it was incompatible with their central theme of what defines a family. In order to keep Tarzan in the jungle, the third act needed to be restructured by redefining the role of the villain and inventing a way to endanger the gorillas. In this departure from Burroughs' novel, a villain named Clayton was created to serve as a guide for Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his daughter, Jane. In addition to this, Kerchak was re-characterized from a savage silverback into the protector of the gorilla tribe.

In January 1997, husband-and-wife screenwriting duo Bob Tzudiker and Noni White were hired to help refocus and add humor to the script as a way to balance the emotional weight of the film. Comedy writer Dave Reynolds was also brought on to write humorous dialogue for the film. "I was initially hired on for six weeks of rewriting and punch-up", Reynolds said, "A year and a half later, I finished. Either they liked my work, or I was very bad at time management." One challenge the writers faced was how Tarzan should learn about his past. "When Kala takes Tarzan back to the tree house, she is essentially telling him that he was adopted", Bonnie Arnold, the producer for Tarzan, said, "This is necessitated by him encountering humans and recognizing he is one of them." As a way to explore the feelings in that scene, Arnold brought in adoptive parents to talk with the story team.

Animation
The animators were split into two teams, one in Paris and one in Burbank. The 6000-mile distance and difference in time zones posed challenges for collaboration, especially for scenes with Tarzan and Jane. Glen Keane was the supervising animator for Tarzan at the Paris studio, while Ken Duncan was the supervising animator for Jane at the studio in Burbank. To make coordinating scenes with multiple characters easier, the animators used a system called a "scene machine" that could send rough drawings between the two animation studios. Meanwhile, following production on Mulan (1998), two hundred animators at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida provided character animation and special effects animation where the filmmakers had to discuss their work through daily video conferences among the three studios.

Keane was inspired to make Tarzan "surf" through the trees because of his son's interest in extreme sports, and he began working on a test scene. The directors expressed concern that Tarzan would be made into a "surfer dude". In October 1996, Keane revealed the test animation to them, which they liked it enough that it was used during the "Son of Man" sequence, with movements inspired by skateboarder Tony Hawk. Although Keane initially thought that Tarzan would be easy to animate because he only wears a loincloth, he realized that he would need a fully working human musculature while still being able to move like an animal. To figure out Tarzan's movements, the Paris animation team studied different animals in order to transpose their movements onto him. They also consulted with a professor of anatomy. This resulted in Tarzan being the first Disney character to accurately display working muscles.

To prepare for animating the gorillas, the animation team attended lectures on primates, made trips to zoos, and studied nature documentaries, with a group of animators also witnessing a gorilla dissection to learn about their musculature. In March 1996, the production team began a two-week safari in Kenya to take reference photographs and observe the animals. On the trip, they visited Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda to view mountain gorillas in the wild, and get inspiration for the setting. In 2000, Chris Buck repeated the journey accompanied by journalists to promote the film's home video release.

To create the sweeping 3D backgrounds, Tarzan's production team developed a 3D painting and rendering technique known as Deep Canvas (a term coined by artist/engineer Eric Daniels). This technique allows artists to produce CGI backgrounds that look like a traditional painting, according to art director Daniel St. Pierre. (The software keeps track of brushstrokes applied in 3D space.) For this advancement, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the creators of Deep Canvas a Technical Achievement Award in 2003. After Tarzan, Deep Canvas was used for a number of sequences in Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), particularly large panoramic shots of the island and several action sequences. Expanded to support moving objects as part of the background, Deep Canvas was used to create about 75 percent of the environments in Disney's next major animated action film, Treasure Planet (2002).

Music
In 1995, Phil Collins was initially brought onto the project as a songwriter following a recommendation by Disney music executive Chris Montan. Early into production, directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck decided not to follow Disney's musical tradition by having the characters sing. "I did not want Tarzan to sing", Lima stated, "I just couldn't see this half-naked man sitting on a branch breaking out in song. I thought it would be ridiculous." Instead, Collins would perform the songs in the film serving as the narrator. The choice of Collins, a popular and well established adult contemporary artist, led to comparisons with Elton John's earlier music for The Lion King (1994). Tarzan was dubbed in thirty-five languages—the most for any Disney movie at the time, and Collins recorded his songs in French, Italian, German, and Spanish for the dubbed versions of the film's soundtrack. According to Collins, most of the songs he wrote for Tarzan came from improvisation sessions and his reactions while reading the treatment. Three of the songs he wrote—"Son of Man", "Trashin' the Camp", and "Strangers Like Me"—were based on his initial impressions after he read the source material. The other two songs were "You'll Be in My Heart", a lullaby sung to Tarzan by Kala (voiced by Glenn Close), and "Two Worlds", a song Collins wrote to serve as the anthem for Tarzan.

The instrumental scoring for the film was composed by Mark Mancina, who had previously produced music for The Lion King (1994), and the musical of the same name. Mancina and Collins worked closely to create music that would complement the film's setting and used many obscure instruments from Mancina's personal collection in the score. "The idea of score and song arrangement came together as one entity, as Phil and I worked in tandem to create what's heard in the film", Mancina said.

Release
On June 12, 1999, the film premiered at the El Capitan Theater with the cast and filmmakers as attendees followed by a forty-minute concert with Phil Collins performing songs from the film. On July 23, 1999, Disney launched a digital projection release of Tarzan released only in three theatrical venues including Walt Disney World's Pleasure Island multiplex for three weeks. Although Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and An Ideal Husband had been given earlier digital projection releases despite being shot on photographic film, Tarzan was notable for being the first major feature release to have been produced, mastered, and projected digitally.

Marketing
Disney Consumer Products released a series of toys, books, and stuffed animals for Tarzan, partnering with Mattel to produce a line of plush toys and action figures. Mattel also produced the Rad Repeatin' Tarzan action figure, but discontinued it after complaints regarding the toy's onanistic arm motions. Continuing its advertising alliance with McDonald's, its promotional campaign began on the film's opening day with several toys accompanied with Happy Meals and soda straws that replicated the Tarzan yell. Disney also worked with Nestle to create Tarzan themed candies, including a banana-flavored chocolate bar. In early 2000, Disney partnered again with McDonald's to release a set of eight Happy Meal toys as a tie-in for the film's home video. They also offered Tarzan themed food options, such as banana sundaes and jungle burgers.

Home media
On February 1, 2000, the film was released on VHS and DVD, as well as on LaserDisc on June 23, 2000, only in Japan, making Tarzan the last Disney animated feature to be released on the latter format. The DVD version contained bonus material, including the "Strangers Like Me" music video, the making of "Trashin' the Camp" featuring Collins and 'N Sync, and an interactive trivia game. A 2-Disc Collector's Edition was released on April 18, 2000. It included an audio commentary track recorded by the filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, and supplements that detailed the legacy of Tarzan and the film's development. These THX certified DVD releases featured the same bonus features, a sneak peek for Dinosaur (2000), and a DVD-ROM. Both editions were placed in moratorium on January 31, 2002, and placed back into the Disney Vault. By January 2001, the film was the most successful home video release of 2000, earning retail revenues of $268 million.

On October 18, 2005, Disney released the Tarzan Special Edition on DVD. Tarzan's first Blu-ray edition was released throughout Europe in early 2012, and on August 12, 2014, Disney released the Tarzan Special Edition on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

Box office
Pre-release box office tracking indicated that Tarzan was appealing to all four major demographics noticeably for the first time for a Disney animated film since The Lion King (1994). The film was given a limited release on June 16, 1999, and its wide release followed two days later in 3,005 screens. During the weekend of June 18–21, Tarzan grossed $34.1 million ranking first at the box office, beating out Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and The General's Daughter (1999). At the time, it also ranked second behind The Lion King (1994), which had earned $40.9 million, as the highest-earning box office opening for a Disney animated film. By August 1999, the domestic gross was projected to approach $170 million. Ultimately, the film closed its box office run earning $448.2 million worldwide.

Critical reaction
Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics gave the film a positive review based on  reviews, with an average score of. The critical consensus reads that "Disney's Tarzan takes the well-known story to a new level with spirited animation, a brisk pace, and some thrilling action set-pieces." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 79 based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Entertainment Weekly compared the film's advancement in visual effects to that of The Matrix, stating that it had "the neatest computer-generated background work since Keanu Reeves did the backstroke in slow motion". They elaborate by describing how the characters moved seamlessly through the backgrounds themselves, giving the film a unique three-dimensional feel that far surpassed the quality of previous live-action attempts. Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, and he had similar comments about the film, describing it as representing "another attempt by Disney to push the envelope of animation", with scenes that "move through space with a freedom undreamed of in older animated films, and unattainable by any live-action process". Awarding the film three stars, James Berardinelli wrote: "From a purely visual standpoint, this may be the most impressive of all of Disney's traditionally animated features. The backdrops are lush, the characters are well realized, and the action sequences are dizzying, with frequent changes of perspectives and camera angles. No conventional animated film has been this ambitious before." Desson Howe, writing for The Washington Post, claimed the film "isn't up there with Aladdin, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, but it's easily above the riffraff ranks of Hercules and Pocahontas". Todd McCarthy of Variety proved to be less amused by the animation, claiming it was "richly detailed and colorfully conceived, but the computer animation and graphics are often intermingled and combined in ways that are more distracting in their differences than helpful in their vividness".

Lisa Schwarzbaum, who graded the film an A−, applauded the film as "a thrilling saga about a natural man, untainted by the complications of 'civilized' life, who can anticipate changes in the air by sniffing the wind — swings because the Disney team, having sniffed the wind, went out on a limb and kept things simple". Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle admired the film for tackling "meanings of family relationships and ideas about society, guardianship and compassion" and "cunning and greed and the ultimate evil", as well as remaining faithful to Burroughs's original novel. Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times wrote that the "story unfolds with dangers as well as warm humor; a jungle jam session called 'Trashin' the Camp' is especially hard to resist. We may have seen it all before, but when it's done up like this, experiencing it all over again is a pleasure." Janet Maslin, reviewing for The New York Times, similarly opined that "Tarzan initially looks and sounds like more of the same, to the point where Phil Collins is singing the words 'trust your heart' by the third line of his opening song. But it proves to be one of the more exotic blooms in the Disney hothouse, what with voluptuous flora, hordes of fauna, charming characters and excitingly kinetic animation that gracefully incorporates computer-generated motion."

The Radio Times review was not positive, stating the film "falls way short of Disney's best output" and featured "weak comic relief". The review concluded, "Lacking the epic sweep of Mulan or The Lion King, and laced with feeble background songs from Phil Collins (inexplicably awarded an Oscar), this King of the Swingers may be merchandise-friendly, but it's no jungle VIP." Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune, while giving the film three stars, wrote that Tarzan "lacks that special pizazz that the string of Disney cartoon features from The Little Mermaid through The Lion King all had". He found faults in the film's removal of all African characters, lack of romantic tension between Tarzan and Jane, and the songs by Phil Collins, comparing them unfavorably with Elton John's "showstoppers" for The Lion King. He wrote "depriving the characters of big numbers weakens the movie".

Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly gave the soundtrack a B−, stating that it was awkwardly split between Collins's songs and the traditional score, was burdened by too many alternate versions of the tracks, and in some instances bore similarities to the scores of The Lion King and Star Wars.

Accolades
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 * 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
 * "You'll Be in My Heart" – Nominated
 * 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
 * Nominated Animation Film

Television series
A spin-off animated series, The Legend of Tarzan, ran from 2001 to 2003. The series picks up where the film left off, with Tarzan adjusting to his new role as leader of the apes following Kerchak's death, and Jane (whom he has since married) adjusting to life in the jungle.

Direct-to-video followups
In July 1999, Disney announced that they were planning a sequel for Tarzan. In 2002, Tarzan & Jane was released as a direct-to-video sequel, with Michael T. Weiss replacing Goldwyn as the voice of Tarzan. Tarzan II, a direct-to-video follow-up, was released in 2005.

Broadway musical
A Broadway musical produced by Disney Theatrical, also titled Tarzan, began previews on March 24, 2006. It had an official opening night on May 10 of the same year. After running for over a year on Broadway, the show closed on July 8, 2007.

Video games
Five Tarzan video games have been released on various platforms. Tarzan's home is also featured as a playable world, "Deep Jungle", in the 2002 game Kingdom Hearts, and in the 2013 HD remaster Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, in which Goldwyn and Blessed were the only actors from the film to reprise their roles, while Jane was voiced by Naia Kelly and Audrey Wasilewski reprised her role as Terk from the 1999 video game based on the film; Kerchak and Kala appeared, but were silent, while Tantor and Professor Porter were absent. The world was originally meant to return in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, but ultimately did not appear and has not appeared in any subsequent Kingdom Hearts games.

Legal issues
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. holds the rights of Tarzan as the use of these characters are since limited. During the production of House of Mouse episodes, crew members, Roberts "Bobs" Gannaway and Tony Craig, were forbidden to use these characters in the show, alongside restricting the use of other characters by different owners except only allowing Disney characters from the original source material. Also regarding Burroughs' ownership, the characters are omitted from Disney Emoji Blitz (app run by Jam City).

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

title: Tarzan (1999 film)


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Toerag/Archive1

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was no consensus. Tony Sidaway|Talk 20:23, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Toerag
dicdef. Has already been transwikied to wiktionary, so it canm just be deleted. Jonathan Christensen 13:07, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I can't find the article on wikictionary, so I vote move to wikictionary and replace with soft redirect
 * Oops, forgot to sign. SeventyThree 00:16, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, already in wiktionary. Megan1967 04:48, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
All England Law Reports

The All England Law Reports (abbreviated in citations to All ER) are a long-running series of law reports covering cases from the court system in England and Wales.

Established in 1936, the All England Law Reports are a commercially produced alternative to the "official" reports produced by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (under the title The Law Reports). The reports encompass judgments with headnotes and catchwords from the House of Lords, both divisions of the Court of Appeal and all divisions of the High Court. The series contains cross-references and hypertext links to both other All England cases and legislation cited in the Report.

The All England reports are published by LexisNexis Butterworths. A second set of reports, titled The All England Law Reports Reprint (All ER Reprints), has been published to cover around six thousand key cases from between 1558 and when the publication of the All England series began in 1936. A further three thousand important cases from the period 1861–1935 is available in a complementary series The All England Reprints Extension. The latter series is published by LexisNexis Australia, while the former two are published by the company's UK division.

Two further sets of reports – the All England Commercial Reports and the All England Law Reports (European Cases) – have also been released. The European series was discontinued in 2005.

title: All England Law Reports


text:
H3

H3, H03 or H-3 may refer to:

Entertainment

 * Happy Hustle High, a manga series by Rie Takada, originally titled "H3 School!"
 * H3 (film), a 2001 film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike
 * h3h3Productions, styled "[h3]", a satirical YouTube channel

Science

 * Triatomic hydrogen (H3), an unstable molecule
 * Trihydrogen cation (H3+), one of the most abundant ions in the universe
 * Tritium (Hydrogen-3, or H-3), an isotope of hydrogen
 * ATC code H03 Thyroid therapy, a subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System
 * British NVC community H3, a heath community of the British National Vegetation Classification system
 * Histamine H3 receptor, a human gene
 * Histone H3, a component of DNA higher structure in eukaryotic cells
 * *h3, one of the three laryngeals in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language
 * Hekla 3 eruption, a huge volcanic eruption around 1000 BC

Computing

 * , the level-3 HTML heading markup element
 * HTTP/3, the third revision of a protocol for the World Wide Web
 * Socket H3, the common name of the LGA 1150 CPU socket

Air and space

 * H3 (rocket), an expendable launch system under development by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
 * Harbour Air Seaplanes (IATA code), a Canadian charter airline
 * H-3 Air Base, former Iraqi Air Force base in western Iraq
 * H-3 Sea King, a United States Navy helicopter
 * Standard H-3, an improved version of the 1916 Standard H-2 aircraft

Automobiles

 * Brilliance H3, a Chinese compact sedan
 * Haval H3, a Chinese compact SUV
 * Huansu H3, a Chinese compact MPV
 * Hummer H3, an American mid-size SUV

Ships

 * USS H-3 (SS-30), a 1914 United States Navy H-class submarine
 * HMS Grenville (H03), a 1935 British Royal Navy destroyer
 * HMS H3, a 1915 British Royal Navy H-class submarine
 * H3, a yacht build by Oceanco

Rail

 * H3 series of METRORail tramways in Houston
 * GNR Class H3, a class of British steam locomotives

Roads

 * H3 Monks Way, a road part of the Milton Keynes grid road system, United Kingdom
 * Interstate H-3, a highway in Hawaii

Other uses

 * H3 (classification), a para-cycling classification
 * H3, an 18th-century marine chronometer by John Harrison
 * H3, a type of automotive halogen lamp
 * H3 (pyrotechnics), a pyrotechnic composition
 * H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, a firm started by Hugh Hardy
 * H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry, an advanced subject for GCE A-level students in Singapore
 * DSC-H3, a 2008 Sony Cyber-shot camera
 * Hash House Harriers, an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs
 * H3 (Kuwait), an archaeological site
 * H3 Entertainment, a subsidiary of the film industry company The H Collective

title: H3


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Flight (comics)

Flight is an American comics anthology series edited by Kazu Kibuishi, showcasing young and innovative artists and writers. Image Comics published the first two volumes. In June 2005 Kibuishi announced that the series would move from Image to Ballantine Books from Volume Three on in an attempt to increase sales through mainstream bookstores. Kibuishi also stated that subsequent volumes would be released twice-yearly.

Publication history
Volume One was published in July 2004 and contains 23 stories, totalling approximately 208 (unnumbered) pages. Volume Two, published in March 2005, is 432 pages long and contains 33 stories with a greater average length. The increase in size is almost certainly due to the interest generated in prospective contributors by the first volume. Volume Three was released in June 2006 and contains 26 stories over 352 pages. Volume Four was released in July 2007, with 344 pages, Volume Five in July 2008, with 368 pages, Volume Six in July 2009 with 283 pages, and Volume Seven in July 2010 with 288 pages. The final volume, Volume Eight, was published in June 2011, with 288 pages.

Kibuishi has denied that Flight is a themed anthology, or that the title has any significance besides being short and memorable. Nevertheless, many of the strips do feature flight in one or more sense of the word. Other than that there is no unifying style or theme; the strips exhibit a wide variety of art techniques from the conventional to the experimental, and storylines include comedy, tragedy, macabre, adventure and romance. The art typically has a surreal quality.

The series ended with Volume 8, but will be continued by a new anthology called Explorer.

Volumes
There have been eight volumes of Flight published to date, all edited by Kibuishi.

title: Flight (comics)


text:
Talk:Basra Governorate

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title: Talk:Basra Governorate


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User:Marsve

I'm user Marsve form Swedish Wikipedia

Things
WikiProject Astronomical objects

title: User:Marsve


text:
Talk:Accidie

This should not be deleted because deadly sins are inherently notable and encyclopedic. Kappa 13:12, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Accidie


text:
Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban (坂 茂) is a Japanese architect, known for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims. Many of his notable designs are structures which are temporary, prefabricated, or incorporate inexpensive and unconventional materials in innovative ways. He was profiled by Time magazine in their projection of 21st-century innovators in the field of architecture and design.

In 2014, Ban was named the 37th recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious prize in modern architecture. The Pritzker Jury cited Ban for his innovative use of material and his dedication to humanitarian efforts around the world, calling him "a committed teacher who is not only a role model for younger generation, but also an inspiration."

Early life and education
Ban was born in Tokyo Alepo. He studied at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Later he went to Cooper Union's School of Architecture, where he studied under John Hejduk and graduated in 1984. From Hejduk (who was a part of the New York Five), Ban gained an interest in "architectonic poetics" or the creation of "three-dimensional poetry". Hejduk, the most experimentally minded of the New York Five, had a lasting influence on Ban, whose work reflects continuing explorations into basic geometric elements. Ban's formal explorations with basic building materials helped to lead him into unique structural solutions.

Design approach
For Ban, one of the most important themes in his work is the "invisible structure". That is, he does not overly express his structural elements, but rather chooses to incorporate them into the design. Ban is not interested in the newest materials and techniques, but rather the expression of the concept behind his building. He deliberately chooses materials to further this expression.

Ban's work encompasses several schools of architecture. First he is a Japanese architect, and uses many themes and methods found in traditional Japanese architecture (such as shōji) and the idea of a "universal floor" to allow continuity between all rooms in a house. In his buildings, this translates to a floor without change in elevation. By choosing to study under Hejduk, Ban opted to do something different. Hejduk's rationalist views on architecture provided a way of revisiting Western modernism and gaining a richer appreciation than the reductive vision of it as a rationalized version of the traditionalist—yet ultra-modern—Japanese space. With his Western education and influences, Ban has become one of the forerunning Japanese architects who embrace the expression of Western and Eastern building forms and methods. Perhaps most influential from Hejduk was the study of the structure of architectural systems. Ban is most famous now for his innovative work with paper and cardboard tubing as a building material. He was the first architect in Japan to construct a building primarily out of paper with his paper house, and required special approval for his building to pass Japan's building code. Ban is attracted to using paper because it is low cost, recyclable, low-tech and replaceable. The last aspect of Ban's influences is his humanitarianism and his attraction to ecological architecture. Ban's work with paper and other materials is heavily based on its sustainability and because it produces very little waste. As a result of this, Ban's DIY refugee shelters (used in Japan after the Kobe earthquake, in Turkey, Rwanda and around the world) are very popular and effective for low-cost disaster relief-housing.

Ban created the Japanese pavilion building at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany in collaboration with the architect Frei Otto and structural engineers Buro Happold. The 72-metre-long gridshell structure was made with paper tubes. But due to stringent building laws in Germany, the roof had to be reinforced with a substructure. After the exhibition the structure was recycled and returned to paper pulp.

Ban fits well into the category of "Ecological Architects" but he also can make solid claims for being modernist, a Japanese experimentalist, as well as a rationalist. Natias Neutert, German thinker, critic, and poet, marks Ban in his essay as "a gentle revolutionary ... guiding contemporary architecture towards transparency, the spherical and the open". Ban himself quotes: "I don't like waste", summing up his philosophy and practice, known as "Paper Architecture".

In June 2020, he and other architects, as well as chefs, Nobel laureates in Economics and leaders of international organizations, signed the appeal in favour of the purple economy (“Towards a cultural renaissance of the economy”), published in Corriere della Sera, El País and Le Monde.

Use of paper as a building material
Ban's experimental development of paper tubing structures came in 1986, before any of his programmatic commissions. He found paper's structural integrity to be much better than expected and noted that it is also available all around the world. The structures are most commonly available from manufacturers providing paper tubes for use in textile factories, as in the case with the disaster relief shelters project in Ahmedabad, India. pg29

Limited material availability during times of disaster relief reconstruction is a major concern and involves increased market prices. Paper tubing on the other hand, not being a typical building material, is comparatively inexpensive and very accessible. In a special case in Turkey in 1999, Ban was able to get paper tubing for free. Paper tubing also proved advantageous for building emergency shelters during the Rwanda refugee crisis in 1994, where the use of trees for framing was creating deforestation problems, and alternative construction materials were difficult to find. The United Nations supplemented wood with aluminum piping but this was very expensive, and in the end the refugees sold off the aluminum for money. The refugees then reverted to cutting trees for building materials. pg30 Switching to paper tubing for frames helped save money, prevent theft and conserve the local trees. Ban's paper tube shelter design from Rwanda's Byumba Refugee Camp was featured in a PBS NewsHour story.

In 1995, the magnitude 7.2 Great Hanshin earthquake devastated Kobe, Japan, which offered a reconstruction project to Ban. pg173 Not only are the temporary shelters very cheap and easy to develop as they incorporate community participation, but they offer more versatile living conditions compared to traditionally used tents. The 172 sqft modules have paper tubing for walls, with small ventilation gaps between the members, which can also be taped up to insulate. pg174The roof was made from a waterproof tenting material while the foundation consisted of donated beer crates filled with sandbags. pg107

Ban's interest in using existing materials aligned with his minimalist ideology. There was never a question of manufacturing a different paper material as current technologies such as waterproofing films, polyurethane and acrylic paints can be used to improve its material properties. pg31 In the design of "The Paper Dome" in 1998, paper as an innovative building material had to meet the rigorous construction codes, so a great deal of structural engineering data was submitted to the government. In this project straight paper tube joists were connected by laminated timber joints. Although the joints were expensive, the low price of the paper tubing made for an inexpensive overall budget. pg32 In addition, the 6 ft paper tubes were waterproofed with liquid urethane to minimize expansion and contraction due to humidity variances found in Osaka-Cho Japan. pg93

Another project, the Expo 2000 Japanese Pavilion, in Hannover, Germany, also used paper tubing but at much longer dimensions of 67 ft with 4.75 inch diameters, at a less than 1 in thickness. It was also waterproofed both inside and out by a coating of polyurethane to meet testing requirements for extreme weather conditions and fire protection. Surprisingly, the paper tubes are very difficult to burn due to the high density of the material. Ban's design allowed for full recyclability of the Japanese Pavilion, in keeping with Expo 2000's theme of environmental awareness. Fabric tape was used instead of mechanical joinery. The fabric tape allowed for complicated movement, and also naturally post tensioned the structure. pg32 The main tunnel of the pavilion was designed as an incredibly large space, at 242 x (L × W × H). pg135 The fabric tape was used with a buckle system which allowed for manual construction and dismantling. Due to the strict building codes in Germany and the unconventional use of paper as a revolutionary building material, the Japanese Pavilion had to be over-designed and incorporate wooden elements, thus, becoming more of a hybrid structure. An innovative design feature was Ban's use of recyclable wooden boxes filled with sand instead of a concrete foundation. pg33

Nepal Project
In July 2015, Ban began a project to rebuild homes for the victims of that year's Nepal earthquake. The structures of the homes are wood framed for flexibility and built fully with brick walls. The homes are thus quickly and easily built. Also, the Nepalese can use them for many other purposes, such as schools.

Teaching
Ban is currently a professor at Keio University. Previously, he taught at institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Nihon University, Tama Art University, and Yokohama National University.

Selected works

 * Shutter House, Manhattan, New York City, USA
 * Curtain Wall House (1995), Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan
 * Naked House (2000), Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture, Japan
 * Japanese Pavilion (2000) at Hannover World Exhibition Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany
 * Nomadic Museum (2005–present), built to house Gregory Colbert's video/photo work "Ashes and Snow"
 * Takatori Catholic Church, Kobe, Japan
 * Paper Dome, Nantou, Taiwan
 * Centre Pompidou-Metz museum, Metz, France
 * Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch, New Zealand (2012–2013)
 * Aspen Art Museum, US
 * Bamboo Furniture House, Great Wall, China
 * Ōita Prefectural Art Museum, Ōita-shi, Japan
 * Onagawa Station, Onagawa, Miyagi, Japan
 * La Seine Musicale, Cultural complex and concert-halls on the Ile Seguin Boulogne-Billancourt, France
 * Villa Vista, Weligama Sri Lanka
 * Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan

Awards and recognitions

 * The JIA Prize for the Best Young Architect of the Year, Japan (1997)
 * Time magazine Innovator of the Year, US (2001)
 * Prix de l'Académie d'Architecture de France (2004)
 * Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters, US (2005)
 * Honorary doctorate degree of Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany (2009)
 * Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2010)
 * Honorary Doctorate from The New School, US (2011)
 * National Order of Merit, France (2011)
 * Auguste Perret Prize for Technology Applied to Architecture (2011)
 * Mainich Design Prize, Japan (2012)
 * Pritzker Architecture Prize (2014)
 * Asia Game Changer Award (2014)
 * World Economic Forum Crystal Award (2015)
 * Princess of Asturias Award for Concord (2022)

title: Shigeru Ban


text:
Scott Rasmussen

Scott William Rasmussen (born March 30, 1956) is an American public opinion pollster and political analyst. He previously produced the ScottRasmussen.com Daily Tracking Poll, a gauge of American voters' political sentiment. He is editor-at-large for Ballotpedia, where he writes the Number of the Day Feature, and is a host for the podcast entitled "Just the Polls," a podcast series from Just the News.

Rasmussen founded Rasmussen Reports in 2003, where he was pollster and president for ten years until leaving the company in 2013. Earlier in his professional life, Rasmussen co-founded the sports network ESPN. After leaving Rasmussen Reports, Rasmussen founded Rasmussen Media Group, working as a political analyst, author, public speaker and columnist.

Rasmussen is a New York Times bestselling author and speaker, and he writes a weekly column for the Deseret News. His most recent book publication is entitled The Sun is Still Rising: Politics Has Failed But America Will Not and was released in 2018.

Early life and education
Rasmussen was born on Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso, Florida to Lois Ann and Bill Rasmussen. Scott's father was from Chicago, Illinois and attended DePauw University in Indiana, where he met Scott's mother.

From an early age, Rasmussen was exposed to the broadcasting business through his father, who had worked for radio stations and was a communications director for the New England Whalers ice hockey team. With the help of his father, Rasmussen taped his first radio commercial at the age of seven.

Rasmussen grew up spending summers in Ocean Grove, New Jersey with his grandparents. He got his first job at age 14 as an umbrella boy. He later was an announcer for the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association. Rasmussen's childhood idol was hockey legend Gordie Howe. Around that time he was emcee for Howe's 50th birthday celebration in 1978, which Rasmussen cites as a highlight of his life: "nothing in my professional career will ever equal the thrill of celebrating [his] birthday."

Rasmussen graduated from Minnechaug Regional High School in 1974 and was goaltender for the high school hockey team. He started college at the University of Connecticut, taking a class from professor Everett Ladd, a pollster and political scientist.

Rasmussen earned a bachelor's degree in history at his father's alma mater, DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, graduating in 1986, and later an executive MBA from the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University.

ESPN
In 1978, Rasmussen partnered with his father, Bill Rasmussen, to form an exclusively sports-devoted 24-hour cable television network. The network was initially named "Entertainment and Sports Programming Network," but was changed to "ESPN" to shorten its length. Five years later, the Rasmussens' ownership stake in ESPN was bought out by Texaco, who thereafter sold ESPN to ABC for $237 million. They went on to found the Enterprise Radio Network. Rasmussen and his father later had a falling out over what Rasmussen called unspecified "differences."

Polling
Rasmussen first became known for his public opinion polling work. In the 1990s, he volunteered as a pollster for friends who were attempting to impose congressional term limits. In 1995, he founded a polling company called GrassRoots Research. In 1999, after changing the name to Rasmussen Research, the company was bought by TownPagesNet.com for about $4.5 million in ordinary shares.

Rasmussen Reports
In 2003, Rasmussen founded Rasmussen Reports, LLC, a U.S.-based public opinion polling company, to track consumer confidence, investor confidence, and presidential approval. Rasmussen Reports has been called "one of the most consistently interesting polling and analytics companies," generating a daily cycle of news reports based on original survey results as well as political, business, economic and lifestyle content. Unlike traditional pollsters whose polls are often influenced by partisanship, the company's business model relies on website advertising and paid subscriptions for premium content. Rasmussen Reports' polls are notable for their use of automated public opinion polling, involving pre-recorded telephone inquiries, which have been shown to produce accurate results at low cost.

In 2009, Noson Lawen Partners provided a significant investment in Rasmussen Reports to help expand its daily, automated tracking polls, noting the "rock solid credibility and market-leading accuracy of the Rasmussen Reports product suite." In 2010, Rasmussen Reports was one of two firms providing daily tracking updates of the president's job approval ratings as well as consumer confidence. By 2012, Rasmussen Reports had garnered a national reputation for providing "reliable, newsworthy and actionable public opinion data," receiving over one million visits per day during the presidential election that year.

In July 2013, Rasmussen left his position as president of Rasmussen Reports following disagreements with investors over business strategies. In a press release from Rasmussen Reports, the company confirmed Rasmussen's departure and said, "[i]n part, the move reflects disagreements over company business strategies .... The Company emphasized that Mr. Rasmussen's legacy remains intact. His polling methodologies and protocols, widely acknowledged as among the most accurate and reliable in the industry, continue to guide and inform the company’s public opinion survey techniques. In addition, the editorial culture of excellence that he built is still very much in place."

The Washington Post referred to Rasmussen as "a driving force in American politics" and "an articulate and frequent guest on Fox News and other outlets, where his nominally nonpartisan data is often cited to support Republican talking points." In the Wall Street Journal, political journalist John Fund called him "America's insurgent pollster".

Susan Estrich, the first female campaign manager of a major presidential campaign, said of him, "If you really want to know what people in America think, you can't find a smarter guy to ask than Scott Rasmussen."

Rasmussen has described himself as "an independent pollster" who "[l]ike the company he started, [...] maintains his independence and has never been a campaign pollster or consultant for candidates seeking office." Speaking about the use of his polling data by Republicans, in 2009 Rasmussen said, "Republicans right now are citing our polls more than Democrats because it’s in their interest to do so. I would not consider myself a political conservative — that implies an alignment with Washington politics that I don’t think I have."

In 2010, some Democrats criticized Rasmussen's polling methodology. Democratic pollster Mark Mellman said Rasmussen Reports polls "tend to be among the worst polls for Democrats." Tom Jensen, a pollster for Democratic firm Public Policy Polling said: "The way [Rasmussen] does polls is that he's more likely to get high-energy voters. I think Rasmussen favors Republicans this year, but I don't think he inherently favors Republicans."

Rasmussen Media Group
After his departure from Rasmussen Reports in 2013, Rasmussen announced the creation of Rasmussen Media Group to "develop and invest in digital media opportunities." Rasmussen Media Group said that the "new venture reflects a transition from Rasmussen's role as a scorekeeper in the nation's political dialogue to becoming a more active participant," especially in critiquing "crony capitalism and the unholy alliance between big government and big business."

ScottRasmussen.com
In August 2018, Rasmussen released his new public opinion website, ScottRasmussen.com. The website debuted in conjunction with the announcement of a partnership between ScottRasmussen.com and HarrisX, an online research company under The Stagwell Group, which was founded by former pollster and adviser to President Bill Clinton, Mark Penn. Beyond polling and analysis regarding approval ratings and congressional races, the venture also focuses on public sentiment and awareness of other issues, such as socialism and immigration. According to an August 2018 press release, ScottRasmussen.com and HarrisX produce a Daily Tracking Poll that seeks to "zero in on foundational public attitudes rather than the partisan politics that frequently define Washington discourse."

Since the launch, Rasmussen and ScottRasmussen.com have been cited for their polling insights by Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The Hill, among others.

Styrk.com
In 2014, Rasmussen launched Styrk.com, a digital news service which functioned as a multi-channel news platform and social network. Former Miss America Kirsten Haglund served as Styrk.com's lead anchor. Styrk.com's tagline was "news in the language of everyday Americans." Styrk.com ceased operations on March 16, 2016.

Books
In 2010, Rasmussen co-authored a book with pollster Douglas Schoen, Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System, explaining the causes of Tea Party movement's frustrations, namely excessive federal spending, high taxes, and a failure of politicians in Washington to listening to the people.

In his 2010 book titled In Search of Self-Governance, Rasmussen argued that Americans would rather govern themselves rather than being governed from the left, the right, or even center and this desire for self-governance is under assault by elites in Washington, D.C. and Wall Street."

Rasmussen's 2012 book, "The People's Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt," argues through polling data, that the federal government does not have the consent of the governed. The book reached number 17 on the New York Times Bestseller List in March 2012.

In 2018, Rasmussen authored a book entitled The Sun is Still Rising: Politics Has Failed But America Will Not. While expressing a general sense of pessimism as to the political process in America, Rasmussen makes a case for the "legitimacy" of optimism in the virtual and psychical communities outside of Washington, D.C. that allow the talents of individuals flourish. Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said of the book: "in this optimistic, open-hearted book, Scott Rasmussen delivers a spirited and timely reminder that civic groups, innovative businesses, and personal networks are where the real action will be in the 21st century—and that their potential to improve our lives and our country is vast."

Columns
Rasmussen's work has appeared in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Investor's Business Daily, the Christian Science Monitor and other major publications. Rasmussen also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column through Creators Syndicate and gives daily syndicated news updates through WOR Radio Network. Rasmussen's columns incorporate public opinion polling data and public policy issues. He is also regularly quoted in print and online publications, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times.

Rasmussen has independently authored several Wall Street Journal columns, including a piece on how Obama won the White House by campaigning like Ronald Reagan and an overview of the healthcare reform debate.

Television
In 2010 he made an appearance on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report.

From 2012 through 2013, Rasmussen hosted a syndicated television show called What America Thinks With Scott Rasmussen with WCBS-TV. An episode of the show titled What New Hampshire Thinks won a 2012 Granite Mike Award from the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters.

In February 2018, Rasmussen participated as a panelist in a televised discussion moderated by former Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, discussing the implications and impact of the recently enacted tax reform package.

Radio
In April 2012, WOR Radio Network began syndicating three different one-minute daily news updates by Rasmussen.

Personal life
Rasmussen lives in Florida with his wife, Laura.

Speaking about his political views, Rasmussen said, "I was brought up loosely as a Republican, but at our family dinner table we talked about the important politics of the New York Giants and the New York Yankees. There was no political discussion in my life growing up. I became a Democrat after Richard Nixon and into the Jimmy Carter era and have been an Independent ever since. I spoke today about how the American people were skeptical about politicians—well, I'm more skeptical. I really do see the core issue as the political class versus mainstream voters. I think that is a much bigger gap than Republican, Democrat, conservative, or liberal."

In March 2010, Rasmussen's home was destroyed by a fire. Rasmussen noted thereafter that his local community—the "local government, our insurance company, our church, local businesses, our neighbors and the kindness of strangers"—were instrumental in the recovery process. Rasmussen also cited this experience as an inspiration for the "upbeat message" in his book, Politics Has Failed: America Will Not.

From 2006–2011, Rasmussen was volunteer president of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA), "a ministry organization whose mission is to provide opportunities for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal in a Christian seaside setting." OGCMA is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

title: Scott Rasmussen


text:
Sports sedan

A sports sedan (also known as super saloon or sports saloon in British English) is a subjective term for a sedan car that is designed to have sporting performance or handling characteristics.

History

The term was initially introduced in the 1930s. Early examples include the Sports Saloon versions of the Rover 14 and Rover 16.

From the 1960s, the term sports sedan was increasingly applied by manufacturers to special versions of their vehicles that allowed them to enter production cars in motor races. These cars contained modifications not usually permitted by the regulations, which therefore required cars to be homologated typically by selling them in minimum numbers to the public. Some of the earlier examples were the Alfa Romeo 1900, Renault R8 Gordini, Triumph Dolomite, and Lotus Cortina.

In the twentieth century, sports sedans used a manual transmission and rear-wheel drive. However, as other transmission types and drivetrain layouts have become more widespread for sedans in general, sports sedans have also used these.

North American usage

The term "sport sedan" was initially used in North America for luxury import sedans (i.e. BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz). These cars prioritized handling more than the domestic luxury sedans (i.e. Cadillac and Lincoln), which were more focused on comfort. However, since the 2000s, the domestic brands have begun producing sports sedan models such as the Cadillac CTS and Lincoln LS.

Another term sometimes used to describe sports sedans in the US is muscle car, but that normally refers to V8-powered two-door coupe American cars.

Examples

 * Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio (2017)
 * Audi RS 4
 * BMW M5
 * Cadillac CTS-V
 * Chrysler 300M
 * Dodge Charger SRT-8
 * Ford Taurus SHO
 * Jaguar XJ
 * Kia Stinger
 * Maserati Quattroporte
 * Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
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Meads

Meads is an area of the town of Eastbourne in the English county of East Sussex. It is situated at the westerly end of the town below the South Downs.

Boundaries
The local government ward of Meads is extensive, stretching from Birling Gap in the west to almost the pier in the east; it encompasses the famous cliffs of Beachy Head and the former fishing hamlet of Holywell. In recent years, the unofficial terms 'Upper Meads' and 'Lower Meads' have been coined to differentiate between that section of the ward on higher ground to the west, and the lower part nearer to the town centre. Although there are no official boundaries, it can be said that 'Upper Meads' (the part originally known to locals as Meads) lies approximately within the bounds of the Meads Conservation Area.

Councillors
The ward is currently represented on Eastbourne Borough Council by three councillors – all of whom are Conservative. One of the councillors also represents the Meads division on East Sussex County Council.

History
A 1783 map of Eastbourne shows but a couple of farms in what was then the hamlet of Meads. However, it is known that there were three in the 19th century: Place Farm, whose farmhouse survives as the listed building now known as Meads Place in Gaudick Road, Colstocks Farm, which stood on the site of St Andrew’s School and Sprays Farm, which was at the corner of Meads Street and Matlock Road. In 1859, Henry Currey, the agent of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, drew up plans for large residences with gardens of commensurate proportions. In 1871, the population of the town having trebled to 11,000, the Eastbourne Chronicle describes Meads as ‘the unrivalled Belgravia of a salubrious and flourishing health resort'. The spiritual needs of the inhabitants were catered for with the consecration of the parish church dedicated to St John the Evangelist in 1869.

By 1890, imposing houses in neat tree-lined roads stood on what had been grazing land and cornfields – Meads had become the smart end of town. Its residents were the well to do, and included professionals, self-made men, retired officers and former members of the Colonial Civil Service.

The absence today of street directories, makes it hard to determine the social standing of householders but even the 1940 street directory of Eastbourne (prepared in 1939) lists Lady Foley, Sir John Alexander Hammerton and Admiral Sir Robert John Prendergast KCB all living within 100 metres of each other at the top of Meads hill.

Many domestic servants lived in; others made their way to work from other parts of the town, or occupied cottages clustered around the three pubs – the Pilot, the Ship and the Blacksmith’s Arms, the latter demolished before the turn of the century.

In 1894, a small square of cottages was built for working class occupation. Originally known as Wallis’s Cottages, the square was subsequently named The Village. Coachmen and grooms, followed in due course by chauffeurs, lived above the stables of De Walden Mews, the property of Lady Howard de Walden. Her mansion, De Walden Court (1884), in Meads Road is now a listed building. The inhabitants of Meads were traditionally known as ‘Meadsites’, the term remaining in current use until at least the 1950s.

All Saints Hospital was built between 1867 and 1869 on land given by the 7th Duke of Devonshire; its chapel was added in 1874. All Saints was built as an Anglo-Catholic nunnery and convalescent home and designed by Henry Woodyer. The listed chapel in the style of High Victorian Gothic Revival is noted for polychrome effects, geometric tiling and an unusual gallery, supported on marble pillars.

The street names of Meads

Many of the roads in Meads owe their names to towns and villages in Derbyshire around Chatsworth House, the seat of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, who developed the town in the 19th century. One obvious example is Chatsworth Gardens, the terrace of houses erected in 1891 on King Edward's Parade. Baslow Road dates from 1907 and is named after a village just north of Chatsworth House. Chesterfield Road (1888) owes its name to the important coal and iron town in Derbyshire, and Derwent Road (1895) is a reminder of the River Derwent which flows through the grounds of the Duke's residence. Others in the same category include: Bolsover (1891), Buxton, (1891), Darley (1890), Edensor (1906), Matlock (1897), Rowsley (1903) and Staveley (1890) Roads. Meads Road and Meads Street derive from the name of the original hamlet whose earlier spellings include 'Mades' (1196) and 'Medese' (1316). The hamlet developed around a manor house later known as Colstocks.

Meads during World War Two
Little of significance occurred in Meads during the period of the Phoney War, but with the fall of France in June 1940, many people departed for safety further north. Large houses were shut up as their owners left the anticipated invasion zone and schools were closed. Eastbourne College was evacuated to Radley College in Oxfordshire on 20 June.

Air raids
At about 5.30 pm on Friday 16 August 1940, the first German aircraft to be brought down within what was then the County Borough of Eastbourne crashed in Meads. A Messerschmitt Bf 110 of the Luftwaffe unit known as ZG 2 had left the former French aerodrome at Guyancourt as part of an escort for bombers raiding RAF airfields at Feltham, Heston and Heathrow. Over the South Downs, the Messerschmitt was engaged by a British fighter – almost certainly the Hurricane flown by Pilot Officer H N E Salmon of No. 1 Squadron. The German aircraft broke up in the air, and the pilot, Hauptmann Ernst Hollekamp, was killed when he fell on the roof of Hill Brow School in Gaudick Road, his parachute unopened. Part of the nose fell onto the Royal Eastbourne golf course, close to the end of Gaudick Road. The rear gunner, Feldwebel Richard Schurk, came down in the sea off Holywell and was drowned. The bulk of the aircraft crashed in the grounds of Aldro School in Darley Road — the wreckage was incorrectly identified in the local press as being that of a Heinkel He 111. At the same time, a lorry was hit in Hampden Park by a bomb which had probably been jettisoned by one of the German bombers returning from the raid on RAF airfields. Three Council workmen were killed – two instantly, the other dying the following day from burns.

On 4 May 1942, the first raid on Eastbourne by fighter-bombers took place. One of the casualties was the Meads parish church of St John, which was set ablaze and severely damaged. Until the church was rebuilt in 1957, services were held at the parish hall in Meads Street. The tower, which originally had a steeple, survived the raid but was not attached to the nave when the latter was rebuilt.

At lunchtime on Sunday 7 March 1943, a raid by Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft caught Eastbourne unawares. In what is now known as ‘Upper Meads’, a bomb destroyed 22 - 28 Meads Street and others fell in the gardens of 3 Staveley Road and 41 St John’s Road. There were 14 civilian fatalities; 50 persons were injured. Houses used as billets by the Canadian army were damaged in Milnthorpe Road. The following evening, the German Home Service (not the broadcasts in English by Lord Haw Haw) carried interviews with two pilots who had taken part in the raid. The aircrew vividly described the effects of a bomb on a large block of buildings (“it seemed to disintegrate into a cloud of blue-black smoke”) as they were making for the town.

Canucks in Meads
The first major influx of Canadian troops to the Eastbourne area was in July 1941 with the arrival of three regiments of the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade: The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, Le Regiment de Maisonneuve, and the Calgary Highlanders. During the course of the war, thousands of Canadians from scores of units would pass through the town.

As far as Meads was concerned, The Black Watch arrived from Willingdon on 18 December 1941. It was, however, a brief stay for they returned to Willingdon in February 1942. Canadian light anti-aircraft units were based in Meads at various times, setting up fixed and mobile gun positions on the Downs and seafront. August 1943 saw the arrival of The 23rd Field Regiment, RCA of the Royal Canadian Artillery with their Sexton self-propelled guns. There were three gun batteries: the 31st was centred on Milnthorpe Road, the 36th and 83rd were around Edensor Road. The HQ battery was located behind the Grand Hotel. The regiment stayed in Meads until it moved to Pippingford Park in March 1944 in preparation for Operation Overlord.

The Canadians were welcomed by the locals, who invited them into their homes and organised entertainment. By the same token, the troops left with happy memories. Approximately 150 Eastbourne girls sailed to Canada as war brides, some of them from Meads.

Conservation and change
Meads Street still has its shops, but there have been considerable changes to the trades in recent years. The sub-post office has returned to the premises it formerly occupied in the 1950s when the shop was a traditional grocer's — today it is a self-service store. For comparison, the 1940 street directory lists 21 types of business premises in Meads Street: a baker, three banks, two boot repairers, two builders, two butchers, three garages, two grocers (one with sub-post office), a car hire firm, a chemist, a confectioner, two dairies, a fishmonger, a fruiterer, a greengrocer, a hairdresser, an ironmonger, two pubs, a stationer, a tobacconist, a wine merchant and a wool shop.

In 1965, the 19-storey South Cliff Tower was built on the seafront at the junction of Bolsover Road and South Cliff. The storm of protest which followed led to the formation of The Eastbourne and District Preservation Committee, which in due course became Eastbourne Civic Society and has subsequently been renamed The Eastbourne Society.

Despite demolitions over the years, Meads still retains many of its large Victorian and Edwardian houses, most of which have been converted into flats. A powerful lobby in the latter regard is The Meads Community Association, which was created in 1990. With some 700 members, its two principal aims are ‘to preserve the unique character of the Meads area of Eastbourne consistent with change which does not interfere with this aim’, and ‘to alert the residents of Meads to plans for development or redevelopment of property which the Committee are of the opinion should be resisted’. The association also organizes social activities to foster a community spirit and liaises with local traders.

The former All Saints Hospital, a Grade II listed building, was converted into 53 flats, with a further 52 newly built apartments within three separate buildings in the grounds. The listed chapel, however, was retained.

Population
The total population of Meads is 11,769.

Demographics
Meads has an average age of 54.1 and the national average is 39.8, that is a difference of 14.3 years.

University of Brighton
In 1947, a teacher training college opened in Meads, the first students being troops who had recently returned to civilian life. The college was centred on Darley Road at two schools which had evacuated because of the war — Queenwood Ladies' College and Aldro. Also in 1947, Chelsea College of Physical Education moved from London, establishing itself at the former Hill Brow School in Denton Road. In 1966, a new building was opened on the site by the Queen. The buildings and grounds of both the above colleges now form part of the Eastbourne campus (in Meads — Darley Road Site, Hillbrow and Welkin Site) of the University of Brighton.

Private sector
In Victorian times, Meads became a favoured area for private boarding schools — a tradition which persisted until economic factors brought about their gradual demise. Examples of the latter include Clovelly-Kepplestone girls' school which closed in Meads in 1934 and St. Christopher's Girls School which closed the same year.

Pike's Eastbourne Directory of 1911-12 shows five 'Ladies' Schools located in Bolsover Road, together with Hill Brow boys' school which subsequently took over the premises of St. Christopher's girls school in Denton Road when that school closed in 1934.

A street directory for 1940 (prepared in 1939) lists ten private schools in 'Upper Meads' alone. However, the war signalled the final phase for private schools, and only eight of those which evacuated from the town returned to Eastbourne. One of the post-war returners was Ascham St Vincent's School, a preparatory school for boys in Meads which subsequently closed in 1977. The site was sold for property development and a merger with St. Andrew's took place. The 'Ascham Memorial Arch' in Carlisle Road commemorates former pupils who lost their lives in the First World War.

Two independent schools now remain in 'Upper Meads' - St Andrew's Prep and St Bede's Preparatory School (now called Bede's Prep School). The public school, Eastbourne College is in 'Lower Meads'.

State sector
St. John's Meads is a Church of England Aided Primary School, with approximately 215 children on its roll. Undergoing many additions and changes over the years, the school has been located on its present site for over a century.

title: Meads