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Venus (Shocking Blue song)

"Venus" is a song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, released as a single in the Netherlands in the summer of 1969. Written by Robbie van Leeuwen, the song topped the charts in nine countries.

The song has been covered dozens of times by many artists. In 1986, English girl group Bananarama covered "Venus" for their third studio album, True Confessions, with the single reaching number one in six countries. The composition has been featured in numerous films, television shows, and commercials.

Composition and recording
The song was written by Robbie van Leeuwen, Shocking Blue's guitarist, sitarist, and background vocalist. Van Leeuwen wrote new lyrics set to music based on "The Banjo Song" by Tim Rose and the Big 3, which is in turn lyrically a modification of the 19th century song "Oh! Susanna" by Stephen Foster. Influences from other songs include the opening guitar riff that is similar to The Who's "Pinball Wizard".

The song was recorded on a two-track machine in Soundpush Studio in Blaricum, the Netherlands. Van Leeuwen also produced the song.

In the Shocking Blue original version, the song's lead vocals were performed by Mariska Veres. The lyrics, however, contained a typo in the line "A goddess on a mountain top", with "goddess" written as "godness", which was how Veres, who was at the time not perfectly fluent in English, sang it on the record and on television. Later recordings by other artists corrected the word.

Release and reception
"Venus" was issued in the Netherlands in July 1969 as a single, backed with "Hot Sand", on the Pink Elephant label, a label specially created for Shocking Blue by Dureco. The song initially peaked at number three on the Dutch Top 40 on 12 July 1969, and remained at that position for a total of five weeks. It also reached No. 1 in Belgium, France, and Germany.

Jerry Ross, who was in Europe in the autumn of 1969 looking for European hits for release in the United States, was offered the song. He signed The Shocking Blue to his newly-created Colossus Records, and chose the record for release in the United States later that year. "Venus" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 7 February 1970, the first song by a Dutch band to reach No. 1 on that chart. On 28 January 1970, it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of one million copies in the United States. Its success in the United States prompted further interest in other markets around the world in 1970, and it reached No. 3 again in the Netherlands, as well as the top 10 in the UK. The popularity of the song also spurred interests in other Dutch groups. Worldwide, the single has sold over 5 million copies.

In 1981, it was used to open the "Stars on 45" medley. "Venus" was included as a bonus track on the 1989 CD reissue of Shocking Blue's second studio album, At Home, originally released in 1969.

Stereogum said, "It's so clean and propulsive: that strum, that dinky organ riff, the Teutonic sneer in Veres' voice. Veres snarls hard enough that it ultimately doesn't matter whether or not she has any idea what she's singing. The yelp on the hook — 'She’s got it! Yeah, baby, she’s got it!' — means nothing, but it sticks in your head all the same. The song works like a hook-delivery machine."

Background
"Venus" had been a part of Bananarama's repertoire for several years before they actually recorded it. The group's three members, Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward, had the idea of turning the song into a dance tune, but they were met with resistance from their producers at the time, Steven Jolley and Tony Swain. The group brought the idea to the production trio of Stock Aitken Waterman, and it became Bananarama's first collaboration with them.

The group had nearly completed recording their third studio album, True Confessions, with Jolley & Swain. Stock, Aitken and Waterman also resisted the idea because they believed that "Venus" would not make a good dance record. After persistence by the group, SAW relented. The track was initially produced in an arrangement more faithful to the Shocking Blue original, but was reworked in hi-NRG style after Fahey suggested that their version should sound similar to Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".

The collaboration on "Venus" led Bananarama and SAW to work together on the group's follow-up album, Wow!, the following year. A new mix of the song appeared as the B-side to the 1989 limited release "Megarama '89" in Germany and France. Bananarama has since re-recorded "Venus" for their eighth album Exotica (2001). It was later remixed by Marc Almond, with re-recorded vocals and included on their ninth album Drama (2005).

Initial response
Jerry Smith of the Music Week magazine considered Bananarama's cover as a "lively version" of the original song, "catchy enough for minor success" but "lacking substance" with its SAW production. Michael Pilgrim of Record Mirror was not enthusiastic, wondering why the Bananaramas needed to record another song, describing it like this: "There's beefy DOA-style hi-NRG electronics, the odd male vocal and at one point the girls go 'Wooaarrlll!'". In a review published in Smash Hits, Martin Degville and Neal X of Sigue Sigue Sputnik criticized this cover version, saying about Bananarama that "they've destroyed it" and "They're completely boring and they've got boring hair".

Impact and legacy
In 2014, Matt Dunn of WhatCulture ranked the song at number five in his "15 unforgettable Stock Aitken Waterman singles" list, describing it as a "timeless classic of 80s synth pop, an instantly recognisable foot-tapping gem", while underlining the "provocative video and all its fire, sexy choreography, coffin dancing and red patent-leather devil outfits". In 2021, British magazine Classic Pop ranked "Venus" number two in their list of "Top 40 Stock Aitken Waterman songs". In 2023, Tom Eames of Smooth Radio ranked the song at number two in his "Bananarama's 10 greatest songs, ranked" list.

Chart performance
Bananarama's version of "Venus" peaked at number one in the United States, Australia, Finland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Switzerland, while reaching number two in Germany and the top-ten in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom (number eight on the UK Singles Chart, matching the same peak of Shocking Blue's version). It also topped the US Dance Club Songs chart for two weeks.

Music video
The accompanying music video, directed by Peter Care and choreographed by Bruno Tonioli, was extensively aired on MTV and video channels across the world, and presented the trio in various costumes, including a she-devil, a French temptress, a vampiress and several Greek goddesses. In one sequence of the video, Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus is adapted as a tableau vivant. The video marked a pivotal shift towards a more glamorous and sexual image for the group that contrasted with the tomboyish style of their earlier work. In the music video there's a cameo of the Polish-German dancer Andreas Wisniewski, who appears as a dancer during the synth solo.

Track listings
UK: London Records NANA 10 / US: London Records 886-056-7 / Canada: London Records LDS 227 / Australia: Liberation Records LS 1789 + some copies released in picture disc format NANPD 10
 * UK / US / Canadian 7-inch vinyl single
 * 1) "Venus" – 3:30
 * 2) "White Train" – 3:50
 * S.Dallin/S. Fahey/K. Woodward/P. Bishop/P. Seymour

UK: London Records NANX 10 / Australia: Liberation Records LMD 474
 * UK / Australian 12-inch vinyl single
 * 1) "Venus" (extended version) – 7:23
 * 2) "Venus" (dub) – 8:15
 * 3) "White Train" – 3:50

London Records NANXR 10
 * UK 12-inch vinyl single #2
 * 1) "Venus" (the Hellfire mix) – 9:20 #: remixed by Ian Levine
 * 2) "Venus" (Hellfire dub) – 6:55
 * 3) "White Train" – 3:50

London Records NAXRR 10
 * UK 12-inch vinyl single #3
 * 1) "Venus" (the Fire And Brimstone mix) – 6:35 #: remixed by Stock, Aitken & Waterman
 * 2) "Venus" (Hellfire dub) – 6:55
 * 3) "White Train" – 3:50

London Records 886 088-1
 * US 12-inch maxi single
 * 1) "Venus" (the Hellfire mix) – 9:20
 * 2) "Venus" (the Fire & Brimstone mix) – 6:55
 * 3) "Venus" (extended version) – 7:23
 * 4) "Venus" (dub) – 8:25

 * CD video single
 * 1) "Venus" (extended version) – 7:23
 * 2) "True Confessions" (edit) – 4:09
 * 3) "A Trick of the Night" (edit) – 4:07
 * 4) "More Than Physical" (U.K. single version) – 3:40

 * Other versions
 * 1) "Venus" (the Greatest Remix edit) – 3:40
 * Included on the 1989 U.K. CD single "Cruel Summer '89", remixed by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow
 * 1) "Venus" (the Greatest Remix) 7:43
 * Included on the 1989 German CD single "Megarama '89", remixed by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow
 * 1) "Venus" (2001 version)
 * Included on the album Exotica
 * 1) "Venus" (Marc Almond's Hi-NRG Showgirls mix) 6:02
 * Included on the 2005 album Drama, remixed by Marc Almond
 * 1) "Venus" (from the soundtrack Sugar & Spice: Stuck in the 80's)
 * 2) "Venus" (Leo Zero Remix)
 * Included on the EP Bananarama Remixed: Vol 1
 * 1) Venus (Leo Zero Disco Remix)
 * Included on the EP Bananarama Remixed: Vol 1
 * 1) "Venus" (Boys Noize Remix edit)
 * 2) "Venus" (Boys Noize Remix)
 * 3) "Venus" (Boys Noize Remix - Instrumental)
 * 1) "Venus" (Boys Noize Remix - Instrumental)
 * 1) "Venus" (Boys Noize Remix - Instrumental)

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of True Confessions.

 * Stock Aitken Waterman – production, Linn 9000 programming (credited as "A. Lin")
 * Matt Aitken – guitar
 * Mike Stock – keyboards
 * Garry Hughes – keyboards
 * Tim Young – mastering

BHF/Don Pablo's Animals remixes
"Venus" was remixed and re-released by dance producers The BHF (Bisiach Hornbostel Ferrucci) Team in May 1990. Titled "Venus '90", the remix featured a hip house rhythm and samples. "Venus '90" reached number 78 on the UK Singles Chart and number 49 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. An instrumental version was also released independently under the producer's alias, Don Pablo's Animals, without referencing Shocking Blue. The instrumental version became the highest-charting version of the song, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart.

Other versions
Dutch DJ Pieter Gabriel remixed the song for the opening ceremony of The Grand Final of The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 held in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The remix was used as a backdrop for the 26 finalists being introduced onto the stage in a flag ceremony.

Popular media
Shocking Blue's "Venus" was featured in the sixth episode of the 2020 Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit. The protagonist Beth (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) dances and sings to the music video. The scene takes place in 1967, well before the song was released in 1969.

Bananarama's cover of "Venus" was featured in the 2011 video game Just Dance 3.

The song has been used in commercials for Gillette Venus Women's Razor since c. 2001.

In 2023, the song appeared as part of the soundtrack of the comedy-drama film, The Holdovers.

title: Venus (Shocking Blue song)


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Radio KoL

 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 MERGE. Marked for deletion, not deleted due to block compression errors. Jinian 12:34, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Radio KoL
Ok, so it gets a few thousand Google hits, but this is an internet radio station. I doubt it is notable. The article itself is quite poor, and needs cleanup, and the fact it includes a list of (presumably) forum user names isn't very promising. Internet radio stations generally aren't notable and I think this one isn't notable enough for it's own article. As it is part of a MMORPG, I think it should be merged in to Kingdom of Loathing or deleted. Hedley 02:41, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. 66.91.63.100
 * I've formatted the above IP vote properly, it was inserted as 'delete anon ip'. Hedley 02:53, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Radio KoL is run seperatly to the main Kingdom of Loathing site. The radio station is paid for by donations to itself and out of the pocket of (I think) artsychick and SeveredToe. Its only connection to KoL is its recognition as the Radio Station for KoL. Yes, the article is poor. In fact, ive noticed the link to the featured stations is broken (though, the replacement page fails to work, which is why im not going to update it just yet). Im hoping on improving the contents of this article. I dont think the article should be deleted. I would prefer if it was maintained as its own seperate entry. but if the need be, I wont argue about merging it into the Kingdom of Loathing thread. DaCyclops 02:54, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Users only contributions have been to Radio KoL, an article related to Radio KoL and this VfD. Hedley 02:58, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * If you wish to improve the article now is the best time. I don't think the fact it is not ran on the Kingdom of Loathing site is relevant, it is the KoL station and hence is best placed in the KoL article, otherwise I can't see the encyclopaedic notability. Hedley 02:58, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Strong keep This radiostation is extremely notable. We have a lot of poor stubs on webstations and I don't know why you decided to choose this particular article. I'll quote myself one more time. "I could explain in many ways, why the station is notable, I'd just say it's THE ONLY radiostation based around a MMORPG, not even Everquest has something similar. It works 24 hours a day, all djs are people who play the game and they waste up to 4 hours a day on the radio. A truly notable radiostation.". radio "kingdom of loathing" gets 5000 hits. The station is fully independent from the KoL, it is not part of the game and it's real, working and popular radiostation. It shouldn't be merged, but rather stay on it's own. Please research before proposing such ridiculous deletion requests. Grue 04:33, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I'd hardly say it was ridiculous. Web stations generally aren't notable, I did some research, and nothing came my way to show why this is notable. If this stays, the show articles should definetly go, or be merged. As you are the writer, i'd say strong keep is a bit POV, because its a 'Keep' at best. I'm perfectly justified in listing this VfD. Hedley 16:48, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Your Google search is unfair, and brings up too many Kingdom of Loathing results. The search "Radio" "Kingdom of Loathing" brings up the same amount, although less than 5,000 hits is hardly notability.
 * Keep but needs revision, if it's a popular radio station, then it's a popular radio station. The language is poor though, so I say keep&revise. Asriel86 05:27, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep Notable. --Fuzzball! (talk) 05:58, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge. I think this is important enough within the KoL community to deserve a section in the KoL article, but I would be shocked to learn that it had any signifigance outside of said community. Indrian 15:19, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep per the above. Radiant_* 15:56, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC) convinced now. Merge per the below.  Radiant_* 09:22, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete No better than any of the millions of Internet radio stations.  If this stays, then every real station with an actual radio-frequency output must stay, and a good deal of those don't make the cut either. Chris 00:55, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Exactly. Furthermore, this station isn't one of the most popular ones - None of Shoutcast's front page stations have an article, bar Virgin Radio, as it is an FM feed. The fact Radio KoL only has 200 slots on a 24kbps mono stream means it could never be as notable as any of those stations - Why should this be an exception? The fact it is the only known MMORPG station is irrelevant, it can be explained in Kingdom of Loathing. Hedley 01:30, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * So how many radiostations can you name that have 24/7 of live shows, without replays or hour-long music sequences. I bet only a few. If there is one web-based radiostation that deserves its own article, it's that one. Grue 04:54, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * See, theres a lot there with five times or more the listeners of Radio KoL. To my knowledge, only stations like Digitally Imported deserve an article. Thats on Wikipedia and it is one of few that deserve inclusion. If this survives theres no way you can VfD any station with more than 120 listeners, which is just above what KoL had when I checked last night. Hedley 17:18, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * You know, these with thousands of listeners are commercial radiostations. As far as indie radios go, they couldn't be much more popular than rkol. However I was not talking about popularity here. You could have a bland dj-less top 40 radiostation, and it could be very popular. Or you could have an adfree radiostation with ~20 djs, each having his/her own unique personality, working for free, playing music that you won't hear anywhere else. Which of these deserves an article more? Grue 18:15, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Note User originated Radio KoL article, and has most contributions to it. Chris 15:43, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The notable one, which is the Top 40 radio station with a lot of popular. A lot of those stations are not commercial. I've worked for non-commercial, 'indie' stations more popular than 'KoL'. One of our rivals was deleted; They picked up five times as many listeners as KoL. KoL doesn't need its own article, it should be merged. Hedley 18:24, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * For the info of both of you, I've worked on what Gure would call an "indie" radio station. We easily have loads more than 200 listeners while on FM, not to mention several national industry awards over the year.  If this keeps up, I'll have to write an article about it. 131.251.0.8 15:28, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC) (This is me forgetting to sign in. Chris 15:43, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC))
 * Merge and redirect. Not inherently notable.  -Sean Curtin 22:18, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect. Meelar (talk) 22:19, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect to where ? You don't have to be a Kingdom of Loathing player to listen to this radiostation, which is notable by itself, and is independent from the Kingdom of Loathing creators. Grue 06:06, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * If it isn't merged into Kingdom of Loathing it should be deleted. That is the only place it could be reasonably put. Hedley 16:55, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Does the delete include the presenters that have pages? Things such as Inari-chan feel more like vanity pages, and I don't feel that they are notable. - Estel (talk) 13:04, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * Most of them are already listed. Since this one wasn't linked from the main page, it slipped through. Grue 14:08, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I think this situation should be handled in the same way that any other article would. It is possible that someone might search of the phrase "Radio KoL". Would this search go to the appropriate page if it was merged with the "Kingdom of Loathing" page? If so, maybe they should be merged. yawgm8th
 * Keep but needs revision. RKoL is unique. I don't really feel that comparisons to other streaming radio stations is fair, since it's not remarkable for being a radio station, but rather for being the only MMO-related, player run station. It's like comparing Koeberg to a lot of the US reactors. The only reason Koeberg has an article while they don't is because Koeberg is South Africa's only commercial Nuke power plant. Same with RKoL, it's the only MMO station. And yes I am a South African KoL player Synkronos 13:09, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)
 * (Above user has 10 edits, of which 5 are to the KoL page.) Being the only commercial nuclear power station in South Africa is a convergence of three general qualities - there are loads of commercial power stations, loads of nuclear power stations, and loads of power stations in South Africa, but only one which is all three.  "MMORPG-connected", however, is verging on the trivial.  OK, there are lots of radio stations, and lots of Internet sites.  Most netradio operations are run by amateurs with no experience of broadcasting for real, so "player-run" doesn't really say anything.  But while there are lots of MMORPGs, there are few things which you can say are MMORPG-related.  It's like saying I'm notable for being the only DJ on my small station to recycle TV presentation elements from the 1980s on a music quiz show (which I do, to great effect).  131.251.0.8 15:28, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC) (This is me forgetting to sign in first. Chris 15:36, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC))

 * Keep and possibly merge. I have edited the entry at great length - and yes, this is the first time I've contributed to Wikipedia, but hopefully that does not count against me in some nebulous manner (considering the point of a wiki is for people with knowledge of an article to edit it, even if it's the first time they've done so or even stumbled upon the page.)  Hopefully the new entry describes the uniqueness of the station a bit better.  That being said, I don't believe there's a problem with making it a sub-section of Kingdom of Loathing as long as that does not obstruct a search for Radio KoL - and the personality pages that have popped up should definitely be sub-sections of Radio KoL. 155.41.112.1 15:44, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I have edited above users signature to direct to the IP, as Haplo3k signed with the link Haplo3k . Hedley 16:53, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Darn - I guess I didn't get it all right on my first try after all. I assumed that would be the correct format, due to the others I was seeing. How's this instead? Thanks.  155.41.112.1 (Haplo3k) 17:39, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * You sign by typing four tildes, like this: ~ . When you do that, it'll automatically change. I changed your signature as IP votes don't count often. Hedley 21:15, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, I understand the use of four tildes as a signature, and used that originally. However, I wished to indicate that I did have a name beyond an IP address, so I assumed a change that would still point to the IP but with different link text was valid.  This is where I was apparently wrong, and I'm fine with admitting that.  Especially as it's not really an issue anymore, as I have gone ahead and registered. Haplo3k 02:20, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Comment What happened to the vote for deletion template? --Randolph 16:29, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Looks ok to me. Hedley 16:53, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Delete. This is not notable or encyclopedic. --Randolph 16:29, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete While I see conceed that it does appear to have a fair listenership, the bar of noteability for radio stations, like tv stations, is set fairly high. --InShaneee 16:31, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Request for Clarification. Is that bar set similarly high for games? If so, I am curious why Kingdom of Loathing itself ranks worthy of an article but its radio station doesn't rank worthy of a sub-article (since this user voted for deletion and not merge).  Haplo3k 02:20, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * This would be based on Grue's claims that the station doesn't belong in Kingdom of Loathing, which I think it does. As for games, they are published material, but again games get deleted often if they aren't notable. In this case the MMORPG is just about above the line of notability, but 'just another internet radio station' isn't notable. The fact it is the only one attached to a MMORPG doesn't change that fact. Hedley 15:36, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Right, I know your stance and I agree with it - add the article to Kingdom of Loathing. As I said, I was commenting on the fact that the above user voted for deletion, not merge, indicating the game is worthy of note but the station is not (in fact, I'm sure you'd find many people to argue that one of the reasons the game is notable is because of the station). Haplo3k 17:06, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment On Shoutcast.com, Radio KoL is currently ranked 323 by number of listeners. Even with their capacity filled the station could not enter the top 200. This removes any suggestion of 'popular radio station', because by wide standards, it isn't 'up there' with the notable stations. Hedley 15:43, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I was under the impression that sometimes things are notable because they are unique, no matter how popular they are. Radio KoL caters to a specific group of people, and is the first internet radio station to be created with that purpose.  There's no way we could increase our listener numbers without losing our individuality (not to mention the fact that we couldn't afford it).  The reason I, and others, think that Radio KoL is worthy of note (whether as article or subarticle) is because of this uniqueness.  I completely understand that this is a slippery slope, that you don't want to be forced to include every internet radio station with 5 listeners that pops up claiming to be unique - but please note that I am arguing here against votes for deletion and completely support a merge. Haplo3k 17:06, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The above was a note to counter 'keep' comments suggesting it is a popular radio station. Increasing the capacity would be irrelevant, the station listener number fluctuates inbetween 100 and 130 daily. As for uniqueness, everything that is unique does not warrant an article. Stations for online gaming (MMORPG goes under that on a wider scale) are common - a lot of clans have small stations, like Radio KoL. None are notable. Hedley 18:33, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Wow, 323. It is actually much higher than I expected. Certainly very high for a non-commercial station. Grue 18:49, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Most of those in front of you aren't commercial. Theres about 75 commercial stations in the top 300, i'd estimate. Hedley 15:29, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep for several reasons. 1) It's pretty notable 2) So that the individual show/DJ articles can have someplace to be merged to and 3) if merged into the main KoL article it would eventually be merged right back out when that gets too big. Andrew Lenahan - St ar bli nd  20:58, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
 * I'd like you to explain the notability more. How is it any more notable than any other random 150 listener internet station? The argument presented is that it is the only MMORPG station, which contradicts the argument for not merging that it isn't an MMORPG station directly. It doesn't seem to be any more notable than your typical clan station or IRC radio. As for the article getting too big, that doesn't seem to be the case. The individual DJ articles can easily go into Kingdom of Loathing under a Radio KoL section. Hedley 21:33, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge or keep, prefer "keep", based on size. Kappa 22:27, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. I voted to merge the DJs and content writers to this article, but after reading a few more days of postings and asking some friends with interest in MMORPGs or independent broadcasting, I still think RKoL is sufficiently pioneering to be worth keeping an article.  In a year or two, there will be dozens of these, and most won't have notability worth WP inclusion, but RKoL seems to have begun something more significant (technologically and socially) than "your typical clan station" or radio-game-chat.  Barno 14:30, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge or Keep -- If kept, it needs some work. For starters the specific DJ names should be removed, and some note of the station's interactive nature with respect to the game should be included. The inclusion of DJ names makes this sound less like a presentation of interesting information so much as self-congratulatory back patting. If that's the point, then e2 might be a better place for this. As a DJ on said radio station, I feel it's unique enough to warrant its own article, but only if it's written in a way that explains why it's unique (24/7 live staffing, its interactive nature, the back-and-forth with the game, etc.), but I don't really have an issue with merging it either. Chungkuo 15:38, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * As mentioned, user is biased for station as is a member. I'm looking forward to adding the two hundred or so stations more notable than KoL.Hedley 15:53, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * "More notable" in which sense: innovation, listener count, Google hits, or what? I agree with Chungkuo that the most noteworthy bits need to be added or expanded so the article establishes the notability that some voters don't see, but how many of those "two hundred or so" stations have done some substantially new thing like RKoL seems to have done?  I write this as someone not associated with KoL or RKoL, and as someone who doesn't do any similar form of online gaming.

 * 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.

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


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Talk:Street Fighter II

Verification fails?
In § Impact, it says: "Its success inspired a wave of other fighting games, which were initially often labeled as "clones",[147][154] including popular franchises such as Mortal Kombat[155] and Killer Instinct." The [155] ref is an article in The New York Times. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think verification fails. The article does not state that the success of Street Fighter II inspired the Mortal Kombat franchise. I'm not saying it didn't, just that I think verification fails. Or am I overlooking something? --143.176.30.65 (talk) 10:43, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

Why is Akuma mentioned in the article?
AFAIK he is not mentioned in the first 3 SF2 games. Apokrif (talk) 22:46, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Street Fighter II


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KLCC Property Holdings

KLCC Property Holdings Berhad (KLCCP; myx: 5235SS) is a Malaysian property investment company which owns and manages office, retail and hotel properties in Kuala Lumpur, mainly in the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) area. Among the properties owned or managed by the company and its stapled real estate investment trust are the Petronas Twin Towers (the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004), Suria KLCC, the Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur and Menara Maxis.

The company, along with KLCC Real Estate Investment Trust (KLCC REIT) – which it manages – form the KLCCP Stapled Group. KLCCP shares are stapled with KLCC REIT units; the stapled securities are listed on Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad. The group is 75%-owned by Petronas through direct and indirect interests.

KLCCP was incorporated in 2004 as a vehicle to offer a portion of Petronas's property holdings to the public. In 2013, the company undertook a corporate restructuring, which involved the transfer of three prime real estate office properties, including the Petronas Towers, into the newly formed KLCC REIT. KLCCP Stapled Group is the largest REIT in Malaysia with a net asset value of RM12 billion in June 2015.

History
KLCC Property Holdings is the property investment arm of Malaysia's national oil company, Petronas. In 2004, Petronas sold a 46% interest in KLCCP in one of the largest initial public offerings in Malaysia that year.

In 2013, the company undertook a corporate restructuring in which it injected the Petronas Twin Towers, Petronas Tower 3 and Menara ExxonMobil into the newly created KLCC REIT. Consequently, the shares of KLCCP and units of KLCC REIT were stapled (at a ratio of 1 share for every 1.8 million units) to create the KLCCP Stapled Group. The transfer of the properties was done to take advantage of income tax exemption for earnings by a real estate investment trust in Malaysia. The stapled securities were re-listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad in May 2013. The REIT – which is sharia-compliant – is managed by KLCC REIT Management Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of KLCCP.

The group has first right of refusal to acquiring future developments by its majority shareholder, KLCC Holdings Sdn Bhd (the 100%-owned property development subsidiary of Petronas). KLCC Holdings is currently developing an office building and Fairmont Hotel with Qatari Diar REIT (Lot 185) and an office building on Lot 91 with Sapura Resources Berhad. Both are located in the KLCC area.

It is also looking to redevelop the area surrounding the Dayabumi Complex, including constructing a 60-storey hotel, office and retail building known as Dayabumi.

Portfolio
KLCCP Stapled Group has four main business segments: Property investment - Office, Property investment - Retail, Hotel operations, and Management services.

KLCC REIT's portfolio comprises Petronas Twin Towers, Petronas Tower 3 and Menara ExxonMobil, with a combined net lettable area of 4.5 million square feet.

Other properties held by KLCCP include the Dayabumi Complex on Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, the Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur (75%), the Suria KLCC shopping centre (60%) and Menara Maxis (33%).

title: KLCC Property Holdings


text:
Category talk:Computer algebra systems

KFormula is looking for a relevant category to go in. Any suggestions? Ojw 17:27, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Category talk:Computer algebra systems


text:
Astika Brewery

Astika is a brewery making a blond pilsner with an alcohol content of 5% ABV in the city of Haskovo, in southern Bulgaria.

The brand has a leading position in the Bulgarian premium segment. The brewery draws on the best deep-lying water in Thrace. Astika is characterised by a pale golden hue, a long-lasting white foam, and a taste which balances a slightly honey like flavour with a soft bitterness.

Astika, together with market leader Kamenitza, was one of many Bulgarian breweries owned by InBev. In mid-October 2009, private equity fund CVC Capital Partners bought all of Anheuser–Busch InBev's holdings in Central Europe for €2.23 billion. They renamed the operations StarBev. In 2012, the Molson Coors Brewing Company bought StarBev.

title: Astika Brewery


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User:Cheetah1~enwiki

A PRIME MINISTER OF ALL TIME. ( THE HONOURABLE LAISENIA QARASE) I've been following the type and quality of leadership that our Prime Minister in Fiji have and I'm pleased to say that we are really lucky to have a Man of his calibre to lead a (once known as a paradise) multiracial country like Fiji.

I'm pretty sure that the leader of opposition Mahendre Chaudry should by now knows Mr Qarase really well that he doesn't wnat to continue a Talanoa session with him any more.

Mr Qarase is a man of principle and from observing him from the last few years ,the only thing iI can say is that he is a man who always stick to his words. A very hard man to convince once he is set his mind on any mission that has to be accomplish.

I'm really proud of you Mr Prime Minister and looking forward for you're next term as a Prime Minister after the election next year.

title: User:Cheetah1~enwiki


text: User talk:64.242.1.3

title: User talk:64.242.1.3


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Jonas Budde

Jonas Budde or Jonas Olufsen Bude, (23 January 1644 – 1710) served a distinguished career in the Norwegian Army, including service at various Norwegian fortresses during the extended period of hostility between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. He served as an officer of Fredrikstad Fortress garrison from 1676 through 1681 (including the period of the Gyldenløve War), was the commanding officer of Christiansfjeld fortress from October 24, 1684, to February 2, 1688, and was lieutenant colonel (Oberstløjtnant) and commanding officer of Stavern Fortress from November 3, 1689, until his death in 1710 at sixty six years of age.

Family
Jonas Budde was married in 1670 in Fredericia, Denmark with Alhed Wiborg, born 29 September 1633 in Malmø, Denmark (modern Sweden), daughter of mayor (borgermester) Niels Wiborg and Karen Hendrichsdatter Franche. She died 19 April 1701 in Stavern with no surviving children.

title: Jonas Budde


text: User talk:24.94.176.63

title: User talk:24.94.176.63


text: User talk:69.198.26.98

title: User talk:69.198.26.98


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Erica Kane

 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 Keep. Mike H 03:58, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Erica Kane
Delete: CopyVio http://www.amcpages.com/amc/whoswho/erica.php 67.101.9.98 02:50, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep - changing vote for copyvio revert 67.101.9.98 05:16, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and revert to pre-copyvio (10:41, Nov 5, 2004) version (which I've done). In general, you want to mark these copyvio and list them on WP:CP, not here. —Korath (Talk) 06:08, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * My bad. Thanks.  67.101.9.98 05:18, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep pre-copyvio version. Mgm|(talk) 08:17, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, concur. Definitely revert to earlier version and expand. Megan1967 10:55, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Now that it's reverted to pre-copyvio, it should be kept and taken off VFD. She is Erica Kane! Mike H 12:43, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm not even a soap opera fan, yet I vote keep for this. 23skidoo 14:47, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Clear keep. Antandrus 03:53, 12 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.


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List of NP-complete problems

This is a list of some of the more commonly known problems that are NP-complete when expressed as decision problems. As there are hundreds of such problems known, this list is in no way comprehensive. Many problems of this type can be found in.

Graphs and hypergraphs
Graphs occur frequently in everyday applications. Examples include biological or social networks, which contain hundreds, thousands and even billions of nodes in some cases (e.g. Facebook or LinkedIn).
 * 1-planarity
 * 3-dimensional matching
 * Bandwidth problem
 * Bipartite dimension
 * Capacitated minimum spanning tree
 * Route inspection problem (also called Chinese postman problem) for mixed graphs (having both directed and undirected edges). The program is solvable in polynomial time if the graph has all undirected or all directed edges. Variants include the rural postman problem.
 * Clique cover problem
 * Clique problem
 * Complete coloring, a.k.a. achromatic number
 * Cycle rank
 * Degree-constrained spanning tree
 * Domatic number
 * Dominating set, a.k.a. domination number
 * NP-complete special cases include the edge dominating set problem, i.e., the dominating set problem in line graphs. NP-complete variants include the connected dominating set problem and the maximum leaf spanning tree problem.

 * Feedback vertex set
 * Feedback arc set
 * Graph coloring
 * Graph homomorphism problem
 * Graph partition into subgraphs of specific types (triangles, isomorphic subgraphs, Hamiltonian subgraphs, forests, perfect matchings) are known NP-complete. Partition into cliques is the same problem as coloring the complement of the given graph. A related problem is to find a partition that is optimal terms of the number of edges between parts.
 * Grundy number of a directed graph.
 * Hamiltonian completion
 * Hamiltonian path problem, directed and undirected.
 * Induced subgraph isomorphism problem
 * Graph intersection number
 * Longest path problem
 * Maximum bipartite subgraph or (especially with weighted edges) maximum cut.
 * Maximum common subgraph isomorphism problem
 * Maximum independent set
 * Maximum Induced path
 * Minimum maximal independent set a.k.a. minimum independent dominating set
 * NP-complete special cases include the minimum maximal matching problem, which is essentially equal to the edge dominating set problem (see above).

 * Metric dimension of a graph
 * Metric k-center
 * Minimum degree spanning tree
 * Minimum k-cut
 * Minimum k-spanning tree
 * Minor testing (checking whether an input graph $$G$$ contains an input graph $$H$$ as a minor); the same holds with topological minors
 * Steiner tree, or Minimum spanning tree for a subset of the vertices of a graph. (The minimum spanning tree for an entire graph is solvable in polynomial time.)
 * Modularity maximization
 * Monochromatic triangle
 * Pathwidth, or, equivalently, interval thickness, and vertex separation number
 * Rank coloring
 * k-Chinese postman
 * Shortest total path length spanning tree
 * Slope number two testing
 * Recognizing string graphs
 * Subgraph isomorphism problem
 * Treewidth
 * Testing whether a tree may be represented as Euclidean minimum spanning tree
 * Vertex cover

Mathematical programming

 * 3-partition problem
 * Bin packing problem
 * Bottleneck traveling salesman
 * Uncapacitated facility location problem
 * Flow Shop Scheduling Problem
 * Generalized assignment problem
 * Integer programming. The variant where variables are required to be 0 or 1, called zero-one linear programming, and several other variants are also NP-complete
 * Some problems related to Job-shop scheduling
 * Knapsack problem, quadratic knapsack problem, and several variants
 * Some problems related to Multiprocessor scheduling
 * Numerical 3-dimensional matching
 * Open-shop scheduling
 * Partition problem
 * Quadratic assignment problem
 * Quadratic programming (NP-hard in some cases, P if convex)
 * Subset sum problem
 * Variations on the Traveling salesman problem. The problem for graphs is NP-complete if the edge lengths are assumed integers. The problem for points on the plane is NP-complete with the discretized Euclidean metric and rectilinear metric. The problem is known to be NP-hard with the (non-discretized) Euclidean metric.
 * Vehicle routing problem

Formal languages and string processing

 * Closest string
 * Longest common subsequence problem over multiple sequences
 * The bounded variant of the Post correspondence problem
 * Shortest common supersequence over multiple sequences
 * Extension of the string-to-string correction problem

Games and puzzles

 * Bag (Corral)
 * Battleship
 * Bulls and Cows, marketed as Master Mind: certain optimisation problems but not the game itself.
 * Edge-matching puzzles
 * Fillomino
 * (Generalized) FreeCell
 * Goishi Hiroi
 * Hashiwokakero
 * Heyawake
 * (Generalized) Instant Insanity
 * Kakuro (Cross Sums)
 * Kingdomino
 * Kuromasu (also known as Kurodoko)
 * LaserTank
 * Lemmings (with a polynomial time limit)
 * Light Up
 * Mahjong solitaire (with looking below tiles)
 * Masyu
 * Minesweeper Consistency Problem (but see Scott, Stege, & van Rooij )
 * Nonograms
 * Numberlink
 * Nurikabe
 * (Generalized) Pandemic
 * Peg solitaire
 * n-Queens completion
 * Optimal solution for the $N×N×N$ Rubik's Cube
 * SameGame
 * Shakashaka
 * Slither Link on a variety of grids
 * (Generalized) Sudoku
 * Tatamibari
 * Tentai Show
 * Problems related to Tetris
 * Verbal arithmetic

Other

 * Berth allocation problem
 * Betweenness
 * Assembling an optimal Bitcoin block.
 * Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT).  There are many variations that are also NP-complete. An important variant is where each clause has exactly three literals (3SAT), since it is used in the proof of many other NP-completeness results.
 * Circuit satisfiability problem
 * Conjunctive Boolean query
 * Cyclic ordering
 * Exact cover problem. Remains NP-complete for 3-sets. Solvable in polynomial time for 2-sets (this is a matching).
 * Finding the global minimum solution of a Hartree-Fock problem
 * Upward planarity testing
 * Hospitals-and-residents problem with couples
 * Knot genus
 * Latin square completion (the problem of determining if a partially filled square can be completed)
 * Maximum 2-satisfiability
 * Maximum volume submatrix – Problem of selecting the best conditioned subset of a larger $$m\times n$$ matrix. This class of problem is associated with Rank revealing QR factorizations and D optimal experimental design.
 * Minimal addition chains for sequences. The complexity of minimal addition chains for individual numbers is unknown.
 * Modal logic S5-Satisfiability
 * Pancake sorting distance problem for strings
 * Solubility of two-variable quadratic polynomials over the integers. Given positive integers $$\textstyle A,B,C$$, decide existence of positive integers $$x,y$$ such that $$Ax^2+By-C=0$$
 * By the same article existence of bounded modular square roots with arbitrarily composite modulus. Given positive integers $$\textstyle A,B,C \geq 0$$, decide existence of an integer $$x\in[0,C]$$ such that $$x^2\equiv A\bmod B$$. The problem remains NP-complete even if a prime factorization of $$B$$ is provided.
 * Serializability of database histories
 * Set cover (also called minimum cover problem) This is equivalent, by transposing the incidence matrix, to the hitting set problem.
 * Set packing
 * Set splitting problem
 * Scheduling to minimize weighted completion time
 * Block Sorting (Sorting by Block Moves)
 * Sparse approximation
 * Variations of the Steiner tree problem. Specifically, with the discretized Euclidean metric, rectilinear metric. The problem is known to be NP-hard with the (non-discretized) Euclidean metric.
 * Three-dimensional Ising model

title: List of NP-complete problems


text: User talk:71.96.227.219

title: User talk:71.96.227.219


text:
Mapping cone (topology)

In mathematics, especially homotopy theory, the mapping cone is a construction $$C_f$$ of topology, analogous to a quotient space. It is also called the homotopy cofiber, and also notated $$Cf$$. Its dual, a fibration, is called the mapping fibre. The mapping cone can be understood to be a mapping cylinder $$Mf$$ with the initial end of the cylinder collapsed to a point. Thus, mapping cones are frequently applied in the homotopy theory of pointed spaces.

Definition
Given a map $$f\colon X \to Y$$, the mapping cone $$C_f$$ is defined to be the quotient space of the mapping cylinder $$(X \times I) \sqcup_f Y$$ with respect to the equivalence relation $$ \forall x,x' \in X, (x, 0) \sim \left(x', 0\right)\,$$, $$(x, 1) \sim f(x)$$. Here $$I$$ denotes the unit interval [0, 1] with its standard topology. Note that some authors (like J. Peter May) use the opposite convention, switching 0 and 1.

Visually, one takes the cone on X (the cylinder $$X \times I$$ with one end (the 0 end) identified to a point), and glues the other end onto Y via the map f (the identification of the 1 end).

Coarsely, one is taking the quotient space by the image of X, so $$C_f = Y/f(X)$$; this is not precisely correct because of point-set issues, but is the philosophy, and is made precise by such results as the homology of a pair and the notion of an n-connected map.

The above is the definition for a map of unpointed spaces; for a map of pointed spaces $$f\colon (X, x_0) \to (Y, y_0),$$ (so $$f\colon x_0 \mapsto y_0$$), one also identifies all of $$x_0 \times I$$; formally, $$(x_0, t) \sim \left(x_0, t'\right)\,.$$ Thus one end and the "seam" are all identified with $$y_0.$$

Example of circle
If $$X$$ is the circle $$S^1$$, the mapping cone $$C_f$$ can be considered as the quotient space of the disjoint union of Y with the disk $$D^2$$ formed by identifying each point x on the boundary of $$D^2$$ to the point $$f(x)$$ in Y.

Consider, for example, the case where Y is the disk $$D^2$$, and $$f\colon S^1 \to Y = D^2$$ is the standard inclusion of the circle $$S^1$$ as the boundary of $$D^2$$. Then the mapping cone $$C_f$$ is homeomorphic to two disks joined on their boundary, which is topologically the sphere $$S^2$$.

Double mapping cylinder
The mapping cone is a special case of the double mapping cylinder. This is basically a cylinder $$X \times I$$ joined on one end to a space $$Y_1$$ via a map

 * $$f_1: X \to Y_1$$

and joined on the other end to a space $$Y_2$$ via a map

 * $$f_2: X \to Y_2$$

The mapping cone is the degenerate case of the double mapping cylinder (also known as the homotopy pushout), in which one of $$Y_1, Y_2$$ is a single point.

Dual construction: the mapping fibre
The dual to the mapping cone is the mapping fibre $$F_f$$. Given the pointed map $$f\colon (X, x_0) \to (Y, y_0),$$ one defines the mapping fiber as

 * $$F_f = \left\{(x, \omega) \in X \times Y^I : \omega(0) = y_0 \mbox{ and } \omega(1) = f(x)\right\}$$.

Here, I is the unit interval and $$\omega$$ is a continuous path in the space (the exponential object) $$Y^I$$. The mapping fiber is sometimes denoted as $$Mf$$; however this conflicts with the same notation for the mapping cylinder.

It is dual to the mapping cone in the sense that the product above is essentially the fibered product or pullback $$X\times_f Y$$ which is dual to the pushout $$X\sqcup_f Y$$ used to construct the mapping cone. In this particular case, the duality is essentially that of currying, in that the mapping cone $$(X\times I)\sqcup_f Y$$ has the curried form $$X \times_f (I\to Y)$$ where $$I\to Y$$ is simply an alternate notation for the space $$Y^I$$ of all continuous maps from the unit interval to $$Y$$. The two variants are related by an adjoint functor. Observe that the currying preserves the reduced nature of the maps: in the one case, to the tip of the cone, and in the other case, paths to the basepoint.

CW-complexes
Attaching a cell.

Effect on fundamental group
Given a space X and a loop $$\alpha\colon S^1 \to X$$ representing an element of the fundamental group of X, we can form the mapping cone $$C_\alpha$$. The effect of this is to make the loop $$\alpha$$ contractible in $$C_\alpha$$, and therefore the equivalence class of $$\alpha$$ in the fundamental group of $$C_\alpha$$ will be simply the identity element.

Given a group presentation by generators and relations, one gets a 2-complex with that fundamental group.

Homology of a pair
The mapping cone lets one interpret the homology of a pair as the reduced homology of the quotient. Namely, if E is a homology theory, and $$i\colon A \to X$$ is a cofibration, then

 * $$E_*(X,A) = E_*(X/A,*) = \tilde E_*(X/A)$$,

which follows by applying excision to the mapping cone.

Relation to homotopy (homology) equivalences
A map $$ f\colon X\rightarrow Y$$ between simply-connected CW complexes is a homotopy equivalence if and only if its mapping cone is contractible.

More generally, a map is called n-connected (as a map) if its mapping cone is n-connected (as a space), plus a little more.

Let $$ \mathbb{}H_*$$ be a fixed homology theory. The map $$ f\colon X\rightarrow Y$$ induces isomorphisms on $$H_*$$, if and only if the map $$ \{pt\}\hookrightarrow C_f$$ induces an isomorphism on $$H_*$$, i.e., $$H_*(C_f,pt)=0$$.

Mapping cones are famously used to construct the long coexact Puppe sequences, from which long exact sequences of homotopy and relative homotopy groups can be obtained.

title: Mapping cone (topology)


text:
Devil May Cry 2

Devil May Cry 2 (デビル メイ クライ2) is a 2003 action-adventure game developed and published by Capcom. It was released from January to March, originally for the PlayStation 2. In terms of chronological order, the game's events are set after Devil May Cry and prior to Devil May Cry 4.

Set in modern times, in the fictional Vie de Marli island, the story centers on demon hunter Dante and island guardian Lucia in their fight to stop a businessman named Arius from raising the demon Argosax and achieving supreme power. The story is told primarily through a mixture of cutscenes using the game engine, with several pre-rendered full motion videos.

Handled by a different team that lacked experience, Devil May Cry 2 had a troubled production which was reflected in its reception. The game received mixed reviews and has been criticized for a variety of decisions, which made it considerably different from its predecessor; chief among these were the lowered difficulty and changes to Dante's personality. Despite that, Devil May Cry 2 was a commercial success, established a number of series conventions, and motivated its development team to improve their work, staying with the franchise for future entries.

Gameplay
In Devil May Cry 2, the player guides either Dante or Lucia through a number of environments, fighting groups of monsters in fast-paced combat. The game consists of missions with specific goals in the play area of the game itself. The player's performance in each mission is ranked from D (poor/"Don't Worry") to S (excellent/"Showtime") based on the time taken to complete the mission, the amount of Red Orbs collected, the overall "style" displayed during fights, item usage, and damage taken. In contrast to the rest of the gameplay, the style judging system used in the game has been cited as being the harshest in terms of how it judges the player's performance.

Combat itself is based on the "style" the player demonstrates during a fight. The rating the player gains for style is improved by hitting enemies continuously while avoiding damage. This ranges from "Don't Worry", progressing to "Come On!", "Bingo", "Are You Ready?" and peaking at "Showtime". If the character takes damage, the style rating falls back to "Don't Worry".

The game's controls convert short sequences of button presses into complex on-screen actions. New to the series is an evasion button, which allows Dante or Lucia to roll, dodge enemy attacks, or run along walls. Another new feature is a weapon-change button, which allows the player to cycle through ranged weapons without switching to the inventory screen.

The game also features puzzle-solving and exploration elements. Gameplay involves the player examining their surroundings to find items and orbs. Red Orbs are used to acquire new combat powers and abilities for the characters. These Red Orbs are "the blood of demons"; enemies drop them when they are defeated. Dante and Lucia can also purchase items, which allow them to restore their damaged health or even instantly revive should they be killed by an enemy's attack.

The Devil Trigger ability enables Dante and Lucia to transform into a demon form. This changes their appearance, increases their strength and defense, slowly restores health, and enables them to use special attacks and other passive and movement abilities, including increased speed and the power to fly. The Devil Trigger state lasts as long as there is power in the Devil Trigger Gauge, which increases by attacking or taunting enemies in the normal state and decreases by attacking in the Devil Trigger state or using Devil Trigger-only attacks. Unique to this game is the Desperation Devil Trigger — an enhanced form of the Devil Trigger — available to Dante when he is low on health.

Players can also use Trish after beating the Hard Mode with Dante. Trish's gameplay is heavily different than Dante, while retaining some of his moves, but she has her own gimmick of her sword combat. Trish can also switch between Sword of Sparda and a hand-to-hand combat. Unlike Dante and Lucia, Trish uses a power-up aura for her "Devil Trigger".

Plot
At a museum, an item on display called the Medaglia attracts Lucia, a gaggle of demons and Dante. After defeating their foes, Lucia invites Dante to her homeland. An island existing outside the mainstream in the outskirts of the New World, Vie de Marli became a sanctuary for refugees of different races, beliefs and languages; as well as runaway slaves; in the distant past. Despite different cultural roots, all belonged to sects of the same ancient religion—which originated in the Mediterranean then spread to neighboring regions—and were branded as heretics in their places of origin. Over time, these groups blended into one, the syncretism leading to new religions that worshipped demons. For divine conflicts, the people called for protection by the priests of their cults, who were known as "guardians".

At Vie de Marli, Dante meets another one, Lucia's mother Matier who, centuries earlier, exorcised Argosax (the evilest idolized demon) with the aid of his father, Sparda. She asks Dante to fight Arius, an international businessman whose Uroboros corporation installed itself on the island. Outwardly interested in "special ores" found there and developing the place, his true intent is to transcend mortality by absorbing Argosax's power after summoning the demon with Arcanas, holy relics hidden throughout Vie de Marli. Dante flips a coin in answer, and decides to help when the coin lands on heads. He heads off to exterminate demons and find Arius, while Lucia collects the Arcanas.

Both fighters spot and chase a Uroboros helicopter flying from headquarters towards an oil platform. Lucia reaches it first and faces Arius, who reveals her origin as his rejected artificial creation. He claims that she is bound to turn on humans someday, then warps her away. Shortly afterward, Dante meets up with Lucia, who gives him the last of the Arcana and leaves. She infiltrates the Uroboros tower to kill Arius, but fails and is held hostage. Dante then encounters Matier, who asks him to take the Arcanas to save Lucia. Dante flips the coin again to decide if he will help; it lands on heads, and he departs to aid Lucia. Dante arrives and trades the Arcana for Lucia, then attacks Arius. To escape, Arius forces Dante to decide between saving Lucia or killing him.

Lucia, worried about the ritual and conflicted about herself, wonders how they will stop Arius. Dante waves her off, stating he will find a way. Dante leaves Lucia to think as he departs to defeat Arius. Matier arrives a short time later, reaffirms their mother-daughter bond as stronger than blood ties, and persuades her to rejoin the fight against Arius. Dante arrives at the tower to find Arius in the middle of his immortality-inducing ritual. However, Dante is not worried as he switched the Medaglia with a non-sacred coin. Another fight ensues, in which Dante finishes Arius off with his pistols. Outside, Lucia confronts Dante and demands that he kill her because she fears she will become a demon herself. Before the issue can be resolved, a large stream of energy strikes the tower and a portal to the demon world is opened. Dante and Lucia argue over who will enter and close it from the inside; Dante offers to leave the issue up to fate. He flips the coin and it once again lands on heads, leaving Dante to enter the portal to deal with the partially summoned Argosax, after leaving the coin with Lucia.

After Dante departs, Arius returns to life bearing demonic power. While Lucia fights Arius, he finds himself injured and attempts to distract her, a tactic which fails, and Lucia goes on to defeat him. Within the portal, Dante fights and defeats Argosax. Finding the portal closed behind him, Dante instead drives further into the demon realm on a motorcycle. In the aftermath of the battle, Matier attempts to reassure Lucia about Dante's fate, insisting that Sparda returned from a similar trip. Lucia examines the coin Dante left with her and discovers that both sides are identical. Sometime later, in Dante's shop, Lucia muses about Dante. Outside the sound of a motorcycle echoes, and Lucia leaves to investigate. The player is not shown whether or not Dante has returned.

Background
Throughout the turn of the millennium, Team Little Devils—a group within Capcom Production Studio 4 helmed by Hideki Kamiya, who previously lead the successful Resident Evil 2—developed Devil May Cry. As production on that title wound down in the summer of 2001, company management greenlit a sequel, to be made by the arcade-centric Capcom Production Studio 1, for release soon after the original to capitalize on its high awareness and popularity.

The first director of Team Devil was a planner who had worked under Studio 1 General Manager Noritaka Funamizu. That crew ultimately contained many people who had mostly worked on fighting games, as well as some Team Little Devils members, and industry newcomers like producer Tsuyoshi Tanaka (producer) and planner Bingo Morihashi, totalling around 40 to 50 developers. Kamiya believes the change happened due to a lack of consciousness over directors' influence on game style, and an attempt to balance profits due to a company attitude against concentrating major titles in a single division.

Capcom management at the time was disappointed with the financial performance of Studio 1's output, the change of teams for Devil May Cry 2 part of a pivot reflecting industry trends. Daigo Ikeno—a former Studio 1 member hired to join Team Devil for character, monster and stage design as a contract worker—described the situation thus:

Studio 4 General Manager Shinji Mikami agreed to the switch due to headcount: the game would require a large crew, but he wanted the freedom to work on multiple titles, and felt Kamiya lacked experience working with small teams, assigning him to what became Viewtiful Joe. While working on the localization and finishing touches of Devil May Cry, Kamiya first heard about the sequel from its original director, who asked him to share that game's screenplay and design document so they could develop the sequel. Since Mikami didn't inform him of the change, and both his directorial efforts faced partial reboots and delays, Kamiya at first thought it was a sign of an imminent firing. Team Devil would communicate regularly with Team Little Devils members for feedback on their work.

Production
Devil May Cry 2 was conceived as happening 10 years after the events of the original. Since a producer didn't like the "joke-cracking wiseass" Dante of Devil May Cry, he was re-envisioned as grown-up and taciturn. Morihashi believes the game's story was outsourced to a non-company writer. Katsuya Akitomo, a veteran of both Studio 1 and the series, was asked to make Dante's lines and behavior in a tentative screenplay funnier, as he was found to be too serious. Morihashi—who juggled his Capcom job with a career as a professional novelist—only made small dialogue augmentations and wrote subtitles, cautious of limits due to newness. By the point he got to work on its writing, the script was in the translation process, while bosses and stages were already done. So when the finalized scenario was submitted, he was asked to not make big changes.

The game's entire cast has few lines of dialogue and never takes drastic action. To Ikeno, "[Dante's] sudden silence almost seemed to imply that something terrible had happened between the events of 1 and 2". Both Ikeno and Morihashi feel the lack of any warm moments from Lucia hurt her likeability, the latter also thinking the same of Matier. Multiple Team Devil members were fond of Arius because "it was neat to have a CEO as a villain"; as "a symbol of high contemporary culture", he became the precedent that allowed writing opportunities in sequels beyond the "fantasy world" setting of the original. To Morihashi, who sees "love" as the central theme of the series, Devil May Cry 2 "is about Dante's love for his father. He follows in his father's footsteps by protecting something that his father once protected".

Ikeno sees the series' visual style as aligned with action-packed Hollywood B movies, as such approaching it like a live-action adaptation of a comic book. He made the main cast's wardrobe aiming for clothing that real people would wear. The new characters' designs were made to complement and contrast Dante's, with Lucia's also working as a counterpoint to Trish's design while fitting a Capcom tradition of prioritizing fighting ability over attractiveness in female characters. Arius' face is an homage to Colonel Douglas Mortimer, a character played by Lee Van Cleef in For a Few Dollars More; his noble look and palette "imply that he's compensating for a deep, dark evil that he harbors within".

Despite fluffier hair, Dante's redesign emphasized his elegance, but the accompanying personality change did not endear all: future series character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa couldn't play the game because "Dante's face was a little too scary". Capcom Design Room illustrator Naru Omori created four cover images for Devil May Cry 2, which he found unsatisfactory due to a short three week deadline, though content with one used on the packaging; as well as the logo pose render, made during an all-nighter. Cutscenes were outsourced near the end of production to the CG animation and motion capture studio Links DigiWorks, who'd contributed to games by other Capcom divisions. Their work impressed Tanaka, which led to a television commercial blending pre-rendered CG with live-action.

Besides playing a role in the contrast, Lucia's skin color, as well the accent she shares with Matier, reflect Vie de Marli's multicultural origins. That factor also played a part in the creation of demons, whose names are derived from languages such as Latin, Greek and archaic Japanese. Ikeno turned to the roots when crafting their designs: "Ancient portrayals of demons rarely incorporated elements that weren't already known to people at the time, so they might have the head of a lion but the body of a human, for instance. It was in this spirit that we decided to make most of our monsters proper chimeras". Inspiration derived from western imagery includes woodblock illustrations of the brazen bull, Norse mythology, the Bible, alchemical symbolism, and rituals with pagan roots. Eastern imagery came from yōkai and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Possessed Arius was partly based on deep sea lifeforms and Arius-Argosax on east asian dragons because Ikeno thinks that "the strongest-looking demons tend to be humanoid dragon ones". In his estimate, Argosax the Chaos—an amalgamation that recycles resources and attacks from previous bosses—"probably received more time and effort than anything else in the game", with peculiar coloring because he "really just wanted to make it look weird". Team Devil's arcade background was reflected in the approach to texture mapping: the lack of experience with realistic resources meant most of their textures were handmade, which made its visuals and essence more drawing-like in comparison with Devil May Cry, whose modelers tackled realism by making textures out of photographs.

The option of running through Devil May Cry 2 with Lucia was a result of player feedback per Tanaka:

Global player surveys about the original influenced the sequel's design: "people complained of the locked camera viewpoint being disorienting. A lot of effort has been put into addressing this issue and making scene transitions smoother. [...] The two areas people seemed most pleased with in the first game were how cool a character Dante was and the level of action. So we upped the action and made him even slicker". Puzzles were reduced in size and scope in the process of improving combat flow. Weapon switching happens in the moment. Attempts were made to give players flexibility due to complaints about the original's difficulty. Devil May Cry 2 was set up for an easy first playthrough, with an increasing degree of challenge as the player goes through its unlockables. Combo charts for Dante and Lucia were printed on the obverse of the Japanese and Korean releases' case inlay.

Both characters received new, more acrobatic moves to achieve high action possibilities in wide spaces. Team Devil pursued a wider variety in stage design. Missions take place both outdoors and indoors, in a multitude of settings; Tanaka estimated that the environments were approximately nine times as large as the first. This approach was matched by a diversification in atmosphere: "In the original DMC, there were quite a few dark areas [...] This time, we are trying to make sure that players can easily recognize the player character, enemies and items during the game". The first game's engine was used as a base, which by the end of development the staff had altered 98% of, implementing better visual effects and what he claimed was double the resolution of its predecessor, something only perceptible on certain televisions.

Motion animator Hiroyuki Nara was "drafted" into Team Devil near the end of development to work on two unlockables: Dante's Devil May Cry model and Trish, the latter featuring the former's playstyle. He originally planned to port over data from that game's source code backup, but it was useless. Team Little Devils' software crew had great influence and freedom over animations; their constant tinkering meant the backup did not reflect how the retail release behaved, with completely different speed on top of final motions being programmed separately. With help from Team Devil's coders, Nara recreated the animations by eyeballing them on a television running Devil May Cry side by side with his work monitor. The original release lacked flame effects for the "Kick 13" and "Magma Dive" moves, but they were implemented in re-releases.

Director change
Funamizu gave Team Devil complete creative freedom; since Devil May Cry tells a complete story, they opted to explore various directions. Devil May Cry 2 was originally set in New York City and starred a man in a green jacket instead of Dante, but that was changed due to a number of factors, including the September 11 attacks. Ikeno found the team's approach wrong-headed:

The production of Devil May Cry 2 was a very difficult process, with the staff struggling against its lack of both know-how in 3D action games and manpower due to other titles concurrently in the works within the division. By the point they had around six months left before the deadline, Studio 1 director Hideaki Itsuno had finished work on Capcom vs. SNK 2 and was doing the early conception of what became Dragon's Dogma. Since he appeared to be "idle", his boss ordered his entrance into Team Devil. Itsuno was asked to "reorganize the project" in a supplementary role, which effectively meant taking over leadership, as upper management saw it as director-less. In exchange, he would go uncredited, but ended up the only director listed in the final version of the game. He joined under poor conditions:

Itsuno was angered at his assignment and took on the job in a "burning [his] own bridges" way; he originally planned a complete overhaul which would detach the game from the Devil May Cry intellectual property: "part of me was dissatisfied because I hadn't started with the project from day one. As far as I was concerned, that didn't amount to a proper level of involvement with DMC". According to Nara:

Morihashi, who handled a multitude of odd jobs, found the toil taxing, to the point of coughing blood: "I was living close to the company, so I'd get home around dawn, bathe, change clothes, and then head right back. I was practically sleeping at work so I wouldn't be late. (laughs) I'd even take naps during lunch breaks". Despite the situation, he was still invested in the series, and asked for Kamiya's advice on how to tackle a sequel featuring Vergil. When he joined Team Devil in February 2002; the story, characters and designs were largely finished; with much to do about gameplay: "The stages were mostly there, but not the missions. [...] It was like we had all the trappings done, but not the filling, which made things very hard". At some point, the game's release date was moved up four months.

Devil May Cry 2 was revealed at a quarterly financial presentation on 13 May, to be released on the second half of fiscal year 2002. A trailer was showcased later that month at E3. Tanaka was vague in disclosing many of the game's features; no concrete information could be given about the orb system because Team Devil was still working on it. Enemy voices and sound effects were recorded at Soundelux in July. Capcom pegged its launch window in early September, Devil May Cry 2 was 65% complete around then. It was showcased with a two-mission long playable demo at the end of the month at Tokyo Game Show, where it was the most popular game at the Capcom booth. With a combination of media and visitor votes, it was one of fifteen titles that won the Award for Excellece of the inaugural Game Awards Future category at the CESA Game Awards; Tanaka stated Team Devil were in the final stages of development during his victory speech. That demo was released on a Dengeki PS2 bundled disc.

Three features emphasized on previews as bringing accessibility to both casual and dedicated players—but cut from the final game—are automatically scaling difficulty, fully customizable controls and multiple paths for all missions; Tanaka felt the uneven mission lengths of Devil May Cry was an issue, and saw the last feature as a way for players to pace playthroughs out to match their preferences. Ikeno's early boss drafts depicted Jokatgulm as either a conventional demon or a humanoid woman whose body is composed of multiple giant skulls with tentacles coming through them; while Nefasturris was based on buddhist art. Among unused foes are a plant demon, masses of bodies and spirits, a rival with abilities similar to Dante's who could shoot energy balls and fly at any time, and a boss would've been a huge dragon with fire attacks. A Bloody Palace floor with four Orangguerra was scrapped because their large size and attack range meant they easily killed one another. Dante's motorcycle would have played a larger part through driving missions and as a weapon, something Itsuno personally proposed to the programmers. Pre-release stills showcased him brandishing Alastor. He was also intended to vocally react as his style rating changes during combat.

Itsuno did everything he could while struggling to release a quality finished product in the conditions the game was. He accomplished everything his superiors wanted from him, but wasn't satisfied. He didn't want Devil May Cry 2 to be his legacy within the series, so before development had wrapped, Itsuno asked his higher-ups for Devil May Cry 3, with himself as director from the start of the project. He rallied Team Devil to stay for it; some members shared his sentiment, with many wanting to work with what they learned making Devil May Cry 2. With regards to player reception, Devil May Cry 2 pleased those who found the original too difficult, but drove much of the player base away, which made Team Devil's goal to win them back.

In November 2020, Capcom was targeted by a ransomware attack, which led to a file batch containing the source code backup for Devil May Cry 2 leaking on the internet.

Marketing
Due to the focus of Devil May Cry 2 on style, Capcom partnered with the Diesel clothing company, which has a history of working with game developers. Per Ikeno, the collaboration happened via Tanaka, who was an ex-Diesel employee: "People on both sides talked at the time and felt that DMC 2 and Diesel's visual styles would work well together and could be quite appealing to the casual audience". Three costumes (one for Dante, two for Lucia) made of pieces from Diesel's 2002 Autumn/Winter collection—which were almost entirely sold out by the point the game came out— and a belt designed by Team Devil's visual staff, were featured as unlockables for players. Devil May Cry 2 posters and kiosks showcasing a demo and trailer were placed in Diesel stores across Japan.

In Japan, a charm bracelet with a detachable steel miniature of Dante's sword Rebellion was distributed in a first come first served basis to people who preordered Devil May Cry 2 through participating retailers. The South Korea-exclusive limited edition contained both the bracelet and a black blouson emblazoned with the game's logo.

One year after the game's release, Dante—sporting the design and some of the personality he has in Devil May Cry 2—was featured as a boss and summonable ally in the Atlus RPG Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax. He is also available in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster by purchashing the "Maniax Pack" downloadable content.

Initially, Capcom was very reluctant to release an officially sanctioned soundtrack for Devil May Cry 2. After a test period during which Capcom sought 1,000 pre-orders as a proof of demand, the Devil May Cry 2 soundtrack was released to the public on October 15, 2004, as a two-disc set, with Masato Kohda, Tetsuya Shibata and Satoshi Ise credited as producers.

Critical reception
The game received mixed reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Chief among the complaints was that the difficulty was lower than in the first game. The combat system was also criticized as being less refined, with individual weapons being weaker or stronger variants of the same weapon instead of different weapons with their own advantages and disadvantages. Boss battles were criticized for requiring less strategy than the original. The environment was less detailed than the environments of the first game, trading detail for open space which also made stringing moves and combos together more difficult since enemies were more spaced out, nullifying one of the primary attractions of the first game. Furthermore, Dante's personality change did not sit well with reviewers. The addition of a second disc was seen as a cheap way for the developers to increase replay value since Lucia's missions are simply recycled material from Dante's own missions, with only minor variations. GameSpot chose Devil May Cry 2 as the Most Disappointing Game of 2003. UGO Networks ranked Devil May Cry 2 19th on its list of "The Biggest Disappointments in Video Games", adding "Devil May Cry was so good [...] There was no way Devil May Cry 2 could've lived up to the hype, but it didn't have to fail so spectacularly."

However, the game received some positive reviews. PSXextreme, for example, countered arguments by many critics, stating that the environments only looked worse due to their range, and that the only reason Devil May Cry 2 failed to surpass its origins was due to the lack of challenge. Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's control scheme and new ideas, as well as the idea of featuring the two protagonists on separate discs. Play called Lucia's side of the story "a cruel sonnet of self-realization wrapped in a story steeped in religious overtones", stating that the story alone was reason to purchase the game.

Sales
Capcom positioned Devil May Cry 2 as a blockbuster title for the fiscal year. It sold well, becoming one of the top ten best-selling games in the United Kingdom for the first half of 2003. It earned the 500,000 yen Gold Prize at the 2003 PlayStation Awards for selling between 500,000 and 1 million copies in Japan by July. However, it did not meet corporate expectations: sales totalled 1.4 million copies worldwide by the end of March 2003, slightly below their 1.66 million forecast, itself a reduced estimate from initial projections. The game's market shortcomings and troubled creation reflected wider struggles within the company: the cancellation of 18 titles in concurrent development with it led Capcom to undertake mid-production evaluations and stronger pre-development project vetting. As of 31 March 2022, over 2.9 million units have been sold.

title: Devil May Cry 2


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/David bejar

 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 delete. - Mailer Diablo 16:31, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

David bejar

 * Non-notable. Student who is not even in university yet. Delete. - Marcika 02:56, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete vanity. Anonymous Cow 03:04, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete with extreme prejudice. Quickly, if possible. - Lucky 6.9 03:33, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, reads like an entrance résumé. Asriel86 05:24, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete NN. --Fuzzball! (talk) 06:00, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, vanity. Megan1967 10:56, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * delete NN DavidWBrooks 20:32, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Speedy Delete Pavel Vozenilek 00:46, 13 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:
Shukan Jitsuwa

Shukan Jitsuwa (週刊実話) is a Japanese weekly tabloid magazine for men published by Nihon Journal Shuppan, first issued in September 1958. It contains stories of popular interest and nude photographs.

In September 2003, journalist Leo Lewis noted that Japan's weekly news magazines (including Shukan Jitsuwa) were "the last bastion of serious investigative journalism in Japan" and further states that the lurid covers with semi-naked girls may entice "but the real action between the covers is very often deadly serious journalism.". Lewis' report was also noticed in the 2004 Annual Report of the international organization Reporters sans frontières.

title: Shukan Jitsuwa


text: Category:Magazines published in Japan

title: Category:Magazines published in Japan


text:
Charles Laval

Charles Laval (17 March 1862 – 27 April 1894) was a French painter associated with the Synthetic movement and Pont-Aven School.

Laval was born in Paris, and was a contemporary and friend of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Gauguin created a portrait of him in 1886 looking at one of Gauguin's ceramic sculptures, entitled Still Life with Profile of Laval.

Charles Laval and Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin and Laval both came to Pension Gloanec in Pont-Aven in 1886 and became friends. In search of an exoticism that could provide the key to art, Gauguin and Laval went to Panama in 1887. To gain some subsidies, Laval performs academic portraits (all lost), using his experience received from Leon Bonnat. A series of mishaps caused Laval and Gauguin to leave Central America for the island of Martinique. There he made a small series of landscapes speckled with bright colors, that have been erroneously attributed to Gauguin in the past. Laval died of an illness complicated by tuberculosis in 1894 at the age of 32.

Charles Laval and Van Gogh
Laval’s self-portrait came about because of an agreement between Van Gogh and several of his friends. Van Gogh asked Laval, Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard to send him a portrait, in exchange for one of his own self-portraits.

Van Gogh was impressed by Laval's contribution. He included a small drawing of the Laval portrait in a letter to Theo, in order to give his brother an idea of the painting. He described Laval's painting as powerful, distinguished and precisely one of the paintings that you talk about: that one has in one's possession before others have recognized the talent.

Selected bibliography

 * John Rewald, Post-Impressionism, from Van Gogh to Gauguin, Paris, 1961
 * Wladyslawa Jaworska, Gauguin and the School of Pont-Aven, Neuchatel, 1971
 * Sophie Monneret, Impressionism and his era, vol. 1, Paris, 1978 1, Paris, 1978
 * Karen Pope, Gauguin and Martinique, Austin, 1980
 * Welsh-Bogomila Ovsharov, Vincent van Gogh & the Birth of Cloisonism, Toronto, 1981
 * Victor Merlhes, Correspondence of Paul Gauguin 1872-1888, Paris, 1984
 * John Loiza, How Gauguin made a wonderful discovery of Martinique, Le Carbet, 1990
 * Émile Bernard, Commentaries on Art, Volume I, Paris, 1994
 * Daniel Wildenstein, Sylvie Crussard, Catalogue raisonné of the work of Paul Gauguin 1873-1888, Paris, 2001

title: Charles Laval


text:
Jimmy Destri

Jimmy Destri (born James Mollica, April 13, 1954) is an American musician.

Background
Destri is of Italian descent. His father was a novelist who also wrote screenplays and eventually advertising copy to support his family while his mother was a housewife. He has a sister, Donna Destri, who is also a singer and did backing vocals for Blondie and Jimmy's own solo record. Destri grew up in Boro Park and was raised in his grandmother's house. His uncle played drums for Joey Dee and the Starlighters. He attended Catholic schools and went to Bishop Ford High School. Destri dropped out of high school to form his first band. He played keyboards in the rock band Blondie, and was one of the principal songwriters for the band along with Chris Stein and Deborah Harry. He rejoined Blondie in 1997. Destri ceased touring with the band in 2004, but remained an official member for several more years. After he stopped playing with Blondie he worked full time as a drug counselor/therapist at the outpatient recovery center Carnegie Hill Institute in New York City. In April 2020, he went back to practice as a drug counselor/therapist at Seabrook in New Jersey.

Career
Destri became interested in music in the late 1950s and early 1960s due to his uncle's being a drummer with Joey Dee and the Starlighters. He formed his first band, the 86 Proof, in high school and they performed in local schools. He played in a group named Milk and Cookies in the early 1970s, but was dismissed from the band just before they relocated to the UK. He joined Blondie in 1975, using the Farfisa organ as his main instrument.

As Blondie's career progressed, Destri became increasingly interested in synthesizers, and added them with his Farfisa to the overall band's sound. His sister, Donna Destri, sang backing vocals on the 1979 Blondie song "Living in the Real World" and on the album No Exit.

Destri produced Going Up by Joey Wilson for Modern Records, released in October 1980.

As Blondie members took a break from both recording and touring as a group, Destri released the solo album Heart on a Wall in 1981. Heart on a Wall was produced by Michael Kamen, then regarded mainly as a film composer/arranger; Kamen also played keyboards and sang backup vocals. The album also featured numerous renowned musicians, including guitarists Carlos Alomar (David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop), Tommy Morrongiello (Bob Dylan, Blue Öyster Cult) and Earl Slick (Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono), along with bassist John Siegler (Todd Rundgren's Utopia). In addition, Blondie's Clem Burke appeared on drums, with guest appearances by fellow Blondie members Chris Stein and Debbie Harry.

Heart on a Wall was released in the US, the UK and France (Chrysalis CHR-1368) as well as Australia and New Zealand (L-37774), West Germany (204 425–320) and the Netherlands (204 425). "Living In Your Heart" backed with "Don't Look Around" was also released as a 7" single in France (PB-8865).

Any digital release of the album remains highly unlikely, as the original master tapes have been lost.[3]

After Blondie's break-up in 1982, Destri ran a company that bought, renovated, and sold old buildings. He also produced and remixed material for artists such as Prince and INXS. Blondie reunited in 1997, and released two further albums (1999's No Exit and 2003's The Curse of Blondie) with Destri as keyboard player. By 2004, Destri retired from touring with the band, but he intended to keep working with them in the studio. However, he played no part in the writing or recording of their next album (2011's Panic of Girls), effectively ending his tenure in the band.

After leaving Blondie, Destri has worked as an alcohol and addictions counselor in New York City. He took the decision to go into this line of work after recovering from a 25-year cocaine addiction in 2003.

Destri composed or co-wrote several songs for Blondie, including:
 * "Look Good in Blue", "A Shark in Jet's Clothing" and "Kung Fu Girls" for debut album Blondie (1976)
 * "Fan Mail", "Contact in Red Square", "No Imagination", "Kidnapper", "Detroit 442" and "Poets Problem" for album Plastic Letters (1977)
 * "Picture This" and "11:59" for Parallel Lines (1978)
 * "Accidents Never Happen", "Slow Motion", "Atomic" and "Living in the Real World" for Eat to the Beat (1979)
 * "Angels on the Balcony", "Do the Dark" and "Walk Like Me" for Autoamerican (1980)
 * "Danceway" and "(Can I) Find the Right Words (to Say)" for The Hunter (1982)
 * "Maria", "Nothing Is Real but the Girl", "No Exit" and "Dig Up the Conjo" for No Exit (1998)
 * "Rules for Living", "Background Melody (The Only One)", "Last One in the World" and "Diamond Bridge" for The Curse of Blondie (2003)

In 2012, Destri formed the band Jimmy Destri and The Sound Grenade.

title: Jimmy Destri


text:
Talk:Hitachi

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 12:22, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Hitachi.svg

Hitachi espionage.
Hi, I was wondering if information on Hitachi espionage on IBM could be included within the article? In the early 1980s, the FBI arrested several Hitachi executives in a sting operation and all plead guilty. IBM also won a civil case against Hitachi and was allowed to inspect Hitachi products for a 5 year period to detect design infringements.

Here are some sources on this:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hitachi-Ltd

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/09/business/hitachi-guilty-in-ibm-case.html

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/02/09/Hitachi-pleads-guilty-apologizes-in-industrial-espionage/4801413614800/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/06/23/plot-to-steal-ibm-data-is-charged-to-japanese/8e8ba4f5-d1a9-4e5f-8184-b18a4438c73d/ Donutatwar (talk) 20:52, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

Overview Page Currently Doesn’t Have an Objective Tone
The first few sentences of the Overview section read like marketing statements for Hitachi. It does not have the objective tone that is typical and expected of most Wikipedia articles. Bortorini (talk) 18:23, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hitachi


text:
User talk:Demon4354

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Hyacinth 02:59, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * How to edit a page
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title: User talk:Demon4354


text:
Golden Hope

Golden Hope Plantations Berhad (GHPB) was an estate and plantations company in Malaysia.

History
In 1905 Harrisons and Crosfield, a British tea and coffee trading company purchased several small estates in Malaysia for £50,000 and amalgamated them to form the Golden Hope Rubber Estate.

In 1982 Harrisons and Crosfield sold three large plantation groups - Golden Hope, Pataling, and London Asiatic - to Malaysian concerns for £146 million.

The business was renamed GHPB in 1990 after Pemodalan Nasional Berhad took majority equity of the company. Its interests originally were in tropical agriculture but, while plantations have remained a core business interest, the company has diversified into other areas including glycerine manufacture, fruit juices and real estate. The group now has 83 subsidiaries based in seven countries. The main estate and plantations are Carey Island and Banting in Selangor.

In May 1990, Golden Hope signed a memorandum with the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS) for designing an industrial control system for the automation of palm oil mills; the system's project began in 1988. The control system was meant to be better than the existing ones which were forty years old.

In late November 2006, Synergy Drive Sdn Berhad, a special purpose entity with financing from CIMB Investment Bank Berhad, offered to acquire Golden Hope and seven others PLCs "to create the world's largest listed oil palm plantation" company. The merger, the largest to take place in Southeast Asia, was intended to consolidate over 6,000 km2 of plantation land.

In November 2007, shares of Golden Hope was de-listed, and the company merged with Sime Darby and Guthrie. The shares were then re-listed on the Bursa Malaysia on 29 November 2007 as Sime Darby. With the merger complete, Sime Darby was the largest company in Malaysia by market capitalisation.

title: Golden Hope


text:
File:DMC2FrontCover.jpg

Summary
Cover art for Devil May Cry 2. Source:

Fair use rationale
It is believed that the use of this image qualifies as fair use in the article Devil May Cry 2 because:

 * Capcom has released no such images into the public domain, and a replacement image could not be created that would adequately provide the same information
 * The image is being used for no purpose other than to identify the subject of the article
 * The image resolution has been significantly decreased from the original, so copies made from it would be of inferior quality
 * The use of this image neither detracts from the game nor inhibits its salability in any way

title: File:DMC2FrontCover.jpg


text:
Talk:Ostrander, Ohio

Untitled
Is anyone in Ostrander reading this page????

title: Talk:Ostrander, Ohio


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/14/7

 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 delete. - Mailer Diablo 16:31, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

14/7
I find this lack of music notability disturbing. Zzyzx11 | Talk 03:05, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Hedley 03:07, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Besides, they've stopped practicing for lack of a drummer. Delete —Wahoofive | Talk 06:31, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Not notable, I wonder if the previous drummer spontaneously combusted. Dsmdgold 09:37, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, band vanity. Megan1967 10:57, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, insufficiently notable band. Not all drummers spontaneously combust; actually a majority die of drug overdoses.  Barno 15:00, 8 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.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/14/7