The Miseducation of Cameron Post (film)

# The Miseducation of Cameron Post (film)

## Abstract

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a 2018 coming-of-age drama film directed by Desiree Akhavan and written by Akhavan and Cecilia Frugiuele, based on the 2012 novel by Emily M. Danforth. It stars Chloë Grace Moretz, John Gallagher Jr., Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck, Marin Ireland, Owen Campbell, Kerry Butler, Quinn Shephard, Emily Skeggs, Melanie Ehrlich, and Jennifer Ehle. Moretz plays a teenager sent to a gay conversion therapy centre. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2018. It was released in the United States on August 3, 2018, by FilmRise, and United Kingdom on September 7, 2018, by Vertigo Releasing. It received positive reviews and has grossed $2 million globally.

## Plot

In 1993, teenager Cameron Post is secretly involved in a romantic same-sex relationship with her girlfriend, Coley Taylor. On homecoming night, Cameron's boyfriend comes upon them having sex in Coley's car, and ultimately outs them both.

Cameron's aunt Ruth is raising the girl and is a devout Christian. She sends Cameron to God's Promise, a gay conversion therapy center for teenagers, who are called "disciples" there. It is run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh and her brother Reverend Rick, who claims that his sister's methods cured him of his own homosexuality; two members of his church had "rescued" him from a gay bar. Cameron's roommate Erin is repressing her homosexuality and earnestly believes in the camp's program.

Cameron befriends two fellow "disciples," Jane Fonda, who was raised in a hippie commune, and Adam Red Eagle, a Lakota two-spirit youth whose father has converted to Christianity and believes Adam should be "cured". The three teenagers bond over their mutual rebelliousness and skepticism of the camp's purpose.

During a group session, Cameron says that she thinks Coley is "perfect". Dr. Marsh says that the girl's homosexuality comes from a misplaced urge to be like Coley. Cameron covertly phones Coley during a visit to a restaurant and apologizes for how things turned out. Coley says she sent Cameron a letter, but the call is interrupted. After disrupting a kitchen chore session, Cameron has her mail privileges unexpectedly granted by Dr. Marsh.

She reads Coley's letter, learning that Coley blames her for "seducing" her and that she outed Cameron. Jane reads the letter with Cameron and destroys it, calling Coley weak-willed and treacherous. Crying, Cameron calls her aunt Ruth and asks to be brought home. Ruth turns her down, saying she is doing this because she loves the girl.

Cameron tries to adapt better to the center routine, exercising with Erin to Christian work-out tapes. One night while Cameron is having a sexual dream, Erin wakes her up and both girls kiss. Erin puts her hand in Cameron's sheets and pants to make love to her. Cameron has an orgasm but Erin regrets it and asks Cameron not to tell anyone because she wants to change.

Mark, a disciple who had been expecting to return home shortly, is informed by letter that he must remain at the camp because his father still considers him effeminate. In a group session, Mark recites a passage from 2 Corinthians 12. He begins to break down, shouting, "When I am weak, I am strong!" until he is forcibly restrained by Dr. Marsh. That night, Cameron sees large quantities of blood in one of the bathrooms.

The next morning, Dr. Marsh and Reverend Rick call a meeting, saying that Mark was badly injured during the night and is stable in a hospital. They do not explain what happened. After two of the "disciples" disrupt the group meeting, the adults hold a series of one-to-one meetings instead.

During their meeting, Rick tells Cameron that Mark mutilated his own genitals and nearly died before Adam found him. Cameron asks why the staff wasn't monitoring Mark more closely; she asks Rick if he and Dr. Marsh have any idea what they are doing. Rick does not answer and bursts into tears. A government inquiry is launched into Mark's self-mutilation, but the investigator is unwilling to accept Cameron's assertion that God's Promise is inherently emotionally abusive.

Disillusioned, Cameron, Jane and Adam decide to run away from the camp under cover of an early morning hike. They walk to a nearby road and hitchhike away.

## Cast

- Chloë Grace Moretz as Cameron Post

- John Gallagher Jr. as Reverend Rick

- Sasha Lane as Jane Fonda

- Forrest Goodluck as Adam Red Eagle

- Marin Ireland as Bethany

- Owen Campbell as Mark

- Kerry Butler as Ruth Post

- Quinn Shephard as Coley Taylor

- Emily Skeggs as Erin

- Melanie Ehrlich as Helen Showalter

- Isaac Jin Solstein as Steve Cromps

- Dalton Harrod as Jamie

- Jennifer Ehle as Dr. Lydia Marsh

- Christopher Dylan White as Dane Bunsky

- Steven Hauck as Pastor Crawford

- McCabe Slye as Brett

- Dale Soules as Grandma

## Production

In November 2016, it was announced Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, John Gallagher Jr., Forrest Goodluck and Jennifer Ehle had all been cast in the film, with Desiree Akhavan directing the film, from a screenplay co-written with Cecilia Frugiuele.

Michael B. Clark, Alex Turtletaub, Jonathan Montepare and Frugiuele served as producers, with Akhavan and Olivier Kaempfer as executive producers, under their Beachside and Parkville Pictures banners.

### Filming

Principal photography began in November 2016 in New York State.

## Release

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2018, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for US Drama, the festival's highest honor. Shortly after, FilmRise and Vertigo Releasing acquired US and UK distribution rights to the film, respectively. The film went onto screen at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2018.

It was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on August 10, 2018, at the Kaleidoscope Film Festival in Arkansas, however it was pushed forward by a week to August 3, 2018. It was scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2018, but was pushed back to September 7, 2018.

## Reception

The Miseducation of Cameron Post has received positive reviews from film critics. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes it has a score of 86% based on 188 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, " The Miseducation of Cameron Post tells its timely coming-of-age story with wit, compassion, and an affecting overall generosity of spirit." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 69 out of 100, based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


The Moderns

# The Moderns

## Abstract

The Moderns is a 1988 film by Alan Rudolph, which takes place in 1926 Paris during the period of the Lost Generation and at the height of modernist literature. The film stars Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, John Lone, and Geneviève Bujold among others.

## Plot

Nick Hart (Keith Carradine) is an expatriate American artist living in Paris among some of the noted artists and writers of the time, including Ernest Hemingway (Kevin J. O'Connor), Gertrude Stein (Elsa Raven), and Alice B. Toklas (Ali Giron). Nick is torn between his ex-wife Rachel (Linda Fiorentino) and Nathalie de Ville (Geraldine Chaplin), who hires him to forge her paintings. He must also contend with Rachel's current husband, Bertram Stone (John Lone), who does not know that his wife is still married to another man.

## Cast

- Keith Carradine as Nick Hart

- Linda Fiorentino as Rachel Stone

- John Lone as Bertram Stone

- Wallace Shawn as Oiseau

- Geneviève Bujold as Libby Valentin

- Geraldine Chaplin as Nathalie de Ville

- Kevin J. O'Connor as Ernest Hemingway

## Production

Meg Tilly was set to play the part of Rachel Stone, but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts. Linda Fiorentino eventually signed on to replace her. Mick Jagger and Sam Shepard were considered to play Bertram Stone, before John Lone was cast. Isabella Rossellini screen-tested for the role of Nathalie de Ville, but lost to Geraldine Chaplin.

The film was originally planned to be shot in 1977, and it was set to be produced by Alive Enterprises, but the film was stuck in development hell, and it was not properly filmed until 1987.

## Reception

The film received fairly positive reviews from critics, and it holds an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews. It was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Supporting Male for John Lone, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.

American film critic, Roger Ebert, in his review stated that The Moderns is:


CAMM (missile family)

# CAMM (missile family)

## Abstract

The CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile) is a family of surface-to-air missiles developed by MBDA UK for the United Kingdom. CAMM is derived from, and shares some common features and components with, the Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), but with updated electronics, a soft vertical launch system, and an active radar homing seeker. The CAMM family is either currently in-use or has been ordered by ten nations.

In the Royal Navy, CAMM, the point and local area defence variant with a range of greater than 25 kilometres (16 mi), is part of the Sea Ceptor air defence system which replaced the Sea Wolf missiles on Type 23 frigates starting from 2018. It will also equip both the forthcoming Type 26 and Type 31 frigates, and is intended to replace Aster 15 on the Type 45 destroyers. In the British Army, CAMM forms the interceptor component of the Sky Sabre / Land Ceptor air defence system, which replaced the Rapier missile from 2021. The development of CAMM is also contributing to the updating of ASRAAM in service with the Royal Air Force.

An extended-range version of the CAMM (CAMM-ER) is in the final stages of development by the UK and Italy and is capable of reaching targets over 45 kilometres (28 mi) away. Brazil is independently developing the similar 40 kilometres (25 mi) + ranged MV-AMA (AVibras Medium Altitude Missile) for its Astros 2020 MLRS and naval platforms. A larger CAMM-MR (medium-range) missile with a range of over 100 kilometres (62 mi) is being developed by the UK and Poland and this will equip Polish Miecznik -class frigates and Wisła air defence systems.

## Development

The Common Anti-Air Modular Missile has its roots in a Technology Demonstration Programme (TDP), jointly funded by MBDA and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as part of the United Kingdom's Future Local Area Air Defence System (FLAADS). FLAADS is part of a wider UK "Team Complex Weapons" (UK Industrial partnership of companies such as MBDA and Thales UK) programme to deliver a variety of weapons and maintain UK sovereign capability in this area. FLAADS is intended to deliver a common weapons platform, CAMM, to equip forces in the air, land and maritime environments. During the early stages of the FLAADS programme, requirements were identified for the new missile to meet both current and anticipated threats, namely "airborne targets which are typified by high speed, rapid evasive manoeuvres, low signatures and advanced countermeasure."

Phase 1 of the TDP worked on technologies for soft vertical launch, the low-cost active radar seeker, a dual-band two-way data link and a programmable open systems architecture. Phase 2 began in 2008 and covered the manufacture of flight-worthy subsystems, mid-course guidance firings and captive airborne seeker trials on a Qinetiq Andover experimental aircraft. The Soft Vertical Launch was proven over a series of trials starting from 2003, culminating in a successful soft launch of a complete missile in May 2011. In January 2012 the MoD awarded MBDA a £483 million contract to develop FLAADS (Maritime) to replace Sea Wolf missiles on Type 23 frigates now known as Sea Ceptor.

In 2013, MBDA and Thales UK outlined in a press release the scale of their cooperation on the development of both CAMM and FLAADS. Manufacturing work valuing £1 million had been placed at Thales' Belfast site, including for elements such as internal thermal management modelling, structural analysis, and precision manufacturing of a number of missile components. MBDA and Thales were also exploring on other areas such as the provision of in-service support to CAMM users. Thales' Basingstoke site were also exploring two pilot programs covering missile safety and arming units and intelligent fuzes, in cooperation with MBDA. The Basingstoke site had already been contracted in 2012 to supply CAMM with laser proximity fuzes under an £11 million contract.

Throughout this development, ASRAAM was used as the base design for the future missile but with new software, a turnover pack, folding fins, an RF seeker, and data-link added to facilitate the required capabilities. Other components beyond those directly from ASRAAM were reused from other programs such as the command and control software which reuses around 70% of that developed for the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) on board the Type 45 destroyers as well as some internal electronic components from the Sea Wolf Block 2 missiles. In return, some of the technologies and components developed for CAMM were used to upgrade ASRAAM as part of the Block 6 upgrade. Overall, development costs were reduced by a using modular design and minimised complexity.

In January 2015, the MoD announced that it had signed a development and manufacturing deal with MBDA in late December 2014.

In September 2017, the first successful Sea Ceptor (CAMM) firing occurred at sea from the Type 23 frigate, HMS Argyll.

On 24 June 2021, MBDA announced that CAMM-ER had completed its first successful live-firing in late 2020 from a range in Italy.

On 13 March 2024, it was announced that MBDA was seeking to triple the monthly production rate of the CAMM family of missiles from 2022 to 2026. Furthermore, MBDA would double production capacity of its Bolton facility in the UK and create a second final assembly line for CAMM-ER in Italy.

## Characteristics

The main variants of the CAMM family utilise a number of common features.

The missiles' guidance system uses a combination of two-way data link for in-flight guidance and retargeting, and an active RF seeker, reportedly incorporating gallium nitride (GaN), for terminal guidance (Lock-on after launch) providing high performance in all weather conditions. As missiles can receive guidance inputs over data link, targeting data through to the missile's terminal phase can be provided by the fire-control channel(s) present on modern 3D radar systems removing any requirement for a ship or ground-based air-defence system (GBAD) to incorporate dedicated fire-control or radar illuminator systems, helping to reduce system cost, weight, and maintenance requirements. This also allows the usage of targeting data from a much greater variety of sources, for instance, if a ship's combat management system or a GBAD's command post is compatible with wider battlefield data-link systems (e.g. NATO's Link 16) then connected assets including aircraft or other air defence systems can contribute targeting data. This guidance combination reportedly allows for a high rate of fire against multiple simultaneous targets (saturation attacks) and against a "wide target set" with missiles also described as having a "modest" surface-to-surface capability. However, there are concerns that the increased usage of data link may make the system more vulnerable to electronic warfare measures.

CAMM also incorporates a cold launch system referred to as Soft Vertical Launch (SVL). Unlike the more traditional hot launch method whereby a missile would use its own rocket motor to leave its launch cell, SVL uses a gas generator to pneumatically eject the missile from its canister while a turn-over pack on the missile body orients the missile directly towards the target before engaging its rocket motor and accelerating for interception. Whilst still providing 360° coverage around the launch system, the unique benefits of this launch method include:

- Increased maximum interception range by saving all the rocket motor's energy to power the intercept.

- Reduced minimum intercept range by reducing the turn-over arc required of the missile after launch which would otherwise bleed valuable energy (reportedly saving 30% of launch weight).

- Reduced stress on launch platforms and the removal of most efflux management concerns which allows for both reduced launcher maintenance, lighter and more compact launcher options, and greater freedom of launching locations, for instance, the increased feasibility of firing the missiles from wooded or urban areas.

- Reduced risks from missile malfunction as there is little risk of the missile being stuck in the launcher with a burning rocket motor and damage the launcher and surrounding missiles.

- Reduced launch signature (visual / infrared) for better launch platform concealment (also potentially enables the physical camouflaging of the launcher) and reduced sensor obstruction post-firing.

The CAMM family are described as having a maintenance-free design throughout the missile's shelf life of reportedly 10 or 20 years, with munitions remaining safely sealed in their launch canisters until firing. CAMM's software utilises open-systems architecture allowing for both easier integration with new sensors and combat management systems but also general upgrades throughout its service life. Additionally, all CAMM munitions are rated as Insensitive munition compliant for improved platform survivability in the event of damage.

The missiles of the CAMM family can be used interchangeably by both naval and ground-based air defence systems allowing for common usage and shared munition stockpiles between military branches.

### Ground-based air defence (Land Ceptor)

The land application of CAMM is marketed as the "Enhanced Modular Air Defence Solutions" (EMADS) package or "Land Ceptor".

The system utilises MBDA's Intelligent Launcher (iLauncher), a scalable, palletised erector launcher for up to eight CAMM or CAMM-ER missiles and mounted to an 8x8 vehicle of choice. iLauncher provides the two-way data link for the missiles in-flight and can also optionally integrate an electro-optical targeting system for passive target acquisition within line of sight of the launcher. Additionally, iLauncher is capable of self-loading/unloading missile racks via a hook system or change individual missile canisters with the assistance of a crane (This reportedly allows for missiles to be loaded in half the time as required for Rapier). It is also fitted with its own power supply allowing it to be dismounted from the parent vehicle and operated remotely if necessary, as well as mounting onboard test-equipment for streamlined maintenance. iLauncher has evolved considerably from its initial concept in the early 2010s. The first iterations of the system were seen mounted on MAN 4x4 trucks, loaded with two racks of six missiles (12 missiles total), a small crane, an early version of the data link mast and considerably fewer auxiliary components compared to the final product.

As part of EMADS, CAMM and iLauncher are designed to be integrated with a customer's choice of command and radar systems, as well as wider battlespace management systems such as Northrop Grumman 's Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS). Additionally, by using data link, the various component systems of EMADS (launchers, sensors, command systems) do not required physical connectors such as cables to be established between them, allowing a battery or fire-group to deploy and redeploy more rapidly but also allowing for components to be spaced apart out to a reported distance of 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) for improved survivability.

### Naval-based air defence (Sea Ceptor)

The naval application of CAMM is marketed as "Sea Ceptor". CAMM can be integrated on vessels as small as 50 metres (160 ft) such as in/offshore patrol vessels or on larger surface combatants (Destroyers / Frigates), only requiring the internal installation of the necessary computing systems as well as above-deck aerials for the two-way data link for the missiles and is designed to be easily integrated with a ship's combat management system.

CAMM's soft vertical launch capability and its resulting removal of most efflux management concerns aboard ships, enables the use of variety of shipborne launching options.

The low cost, low weight, option is CAMM's own vertical launch canisters (colloquially known as "mushroom farms" due to their capped appearance as a protective cover is used to protect the protruding cells when not in combat) which use a lengthened and modified version of the existing vertical launch cells found on the Type 23 frigates. A more modular version of this launcher arrangement has since been developed which utilises six-cell launch modules.

Alternately, following integration with the Host Extensible Launching System (ExLS), CAMM, CAMM-ER and CAMM-MR can be packed into the larger multi-role Mark 41 or Mark 57 vertical launching systems, providing a heavier and more expensive, but much more space efficient launching option with greater missile capacity as multiple missiles can be packed into each individual launch cell. Similarly, the French Sylver vertical launching system can be used. The ExLS product line also has a standalone three-cell launch module that can provide tactical-length launch capabilities comparable to that of the Mark 41, but in a lighter and smaller package for as a middle-ground launcher option for CAMM and CAMM-ER.

## Variants

### Main variants

#### CAMM

The point defence and local-area defence variant. CAMM weighs 99 kg (218 lb), is 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) in length, and is 166 mm (6.5 in) in diameter. Incorporating the same rocket motor from ASRAAM, CAMM has a flight altitude of 10 km (6.2 mi) and reported minimum operational range of less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) and a maximum range greater than 25 km (16 mi), although IHS Jane's reported that trials had shown the missile having a capability of traveling up to 60 km (37 mi). These ranges are significantly greater than both the 1–10 kilometres (0.62–6.21 mi) range of Sea Wolf and the 8.2 kilometres (5.1 mi) range of Rapier that CAMM would replace. Can be quad-packed.

#### CAMM-ER (Extended-Range)

The extended-range point and local-area defence variant. Under development with MBDA and Avio for the Italian Ministry of Defence since 2013. CAMM-ER weighs 160 kg (350 lb), is 4.2 metres (14 feet) in length, and is 190 mm (7.5 in) diameter. Other than the increased dimensions and alongside the addition of strakes and fins to the body as well as a slightly redesigned seeker radome, CAMM-ER utilises a new Avio rocket motor enabling a range in excess of 40–45 kilometres (25–28 mi), although these ranges are reported as conservative, and a flight altitude of 10 km (6.2 mi). Can be quad-packed.

#### CAMM-MR (Medium-Range)

An area defence variant with a range in excess of 100 kilometres (62 mi) being developed in partnership between MBDA UK and PGZ as of 2023 as part of the wider 2030 UK-Poland Strategic Partnership. The missile is being primarily developed for Polish requirements as a lower-cost, locally producible missile to complement the existing PAC-3 MSE within the Wisła system, as well as to have a single medium-range missile that can be used by both ground based air defence assets and the Polish Navy 's Miecznik -class frigates. Whilst there is currently little information on the missile's overall characteristics aside range, official images of the munition shows two missiles loaded into a single Mark 41 cell making CAMM-MR the first munition of this range class capable of being dual-packed into the Mark 41 Vertical Launching System, enabling 16 missiles to be carried by a single Mk 41 eight-cell launch module.

### Additional variants

The MV-AMA (AVibras Medium-Altitude Missile) is a Brazilian variant of CAMM under development since 2014 to meet the needs of the Brazilian Army 's 'Strategic Anti-Aircraft Defence Program'. The missile is expected to have a range of 40 kilometres (25 mi), up to an altitude of 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) and designed to be compatible with the Astros 2020 multiple rocket launcher as well as naval platforms. The program is expected to have 70% sovereign Brazilian industrial contribution.

### Related developments

Technologies derived from both CAMM and Brimstone are also being used in the development of the Land Precision Strike Missile for the British Army, an 80–150 kilometres (50–93 mi) ranged surface-to-surface missile designed to complement the GMLRS-ER for use against high-value and moving targets. Marketing material shows that missile is also expected to be compatible with iLauncher among other potential launch platforms.

## Operational history

### United Kingdom

#### Royal Navy

MBDA, as lead contractor, received an £851 million contract to integrate CAMM on the Type 23 frigates with a planned in-service date of November 2016. Sea Ceptor entered operational service in May 2018, with HMS Argyll being the first Type 23 frigate to deploy with the system. The Type 23 has de-risked the integration of Sea Ceptor (also referred to as GWS-35) by retaining a modified version of its existing 32-cell vertical launch system for Sea Wolf which is lengthened to accommodate the longer CAMM; this was opposed to MBDA's alternate proposal of introducing a new 12-cell ExLS complex for 48 quad-packed missiles.

The Anti-Air-Warfare Officer of the Type 23 Frigate HMS Westminster said after test firings " Westminster managed to explore the real potential of the system during her training and to say it is a real game changer is an understatement. Unlike its predecessor, the system is capable of defending ships other than Westminster herself. Whether it's engaging multiple air threats or fast incoming attack craft, Sea Ceptor represents a massive capability upgrade for the Type 23 frigate."

The Royal Navy's future Type 26 and Type 31 frigates (replacing the Type 23s) will be fitted with Sea Ceptor when they enter service in the late 2020s. A £128 million contract was signed with MBDA to integrate CAMM on to the Type 26 frigates with a planned completion date of December 2019. The Type 26 had previously been shown as having 2x24-cell mushroom farm launch complexes for CAMM located forward and amidships (four 6-cell modules each) for a total 48x Sea Ceptors; however, the Royal Navy's website now describes the Type 26 as being fitted with a 12-cell vertical launch system and 24 Mk41 launcher cells.

The Type 31 has had a number of revisions to its vertical launch system. Initially the Arrowhead 140 design (which would later be selected for the Type 31) was depicted being fitted with a single bulk mushroom farm for 24 missiles. In 2020 this arrangement was revised for the modular mushroom farm launcher with two 6-cell modules for a total of 12 missiles, with the noticeable reduction of missiles possibly being a cost-saving measure. On 21 May 2023, First Sea Lord Sir Ben Key announced that Royal Navy intends to fit the Type 31s with their previously fitted-for-but-not-with 32-cell Mark 41 vertical launch systems to provide them additional firepower and will likely see ships hosting at least 32x missiles quad-packed into one of their four eight-cell launch modules.

In July 2021, MBDA was awarded a contract to integrate Sea Ceptor onto the six Type 45 destroyers between 2026 and 2032. 24x CAMM cells (four 6-cell modules) are expected to be mounted forward of the existing 48-cell Sylver launcher to fulfil the short-range air defence role currently performed by Aster 15 missiles. This will allow a total of 48 long-ranged Aster 30s to be carried in their place and bring a 50% increase in the ship's overall missile capacity.

CAMM saw its first official combat use with the Royal Navy on the morning of 9 March 2024 when HMS Richmond destroyed two Houthi drones during the Red Sea crisis with an unspecified number of missiles.

#### British Army

The British Army's CAMM-based air defence system is known as Sky Sabre. Rafael, the lead contractor for the programme, was awarded a £618 million contract in 2016 for the delivery of the system with a planned in-service date of March 2020.

Sky Sabre consists of three main components: MBDA iLaunchers loaded with CAMM, the Surface to Air Missile Centre (SAMOC) which runs on Rafael's Modular Integrated C4I Air & Missile Defence System (MIC4AD) as used on Israel's Iron Dome, and Saab 's Giraffe Agile Multi-Beam (GAMB) passive-electronically scanned array radar. GAMB operates in the C-band and provides Sky Sabre with 360° radar coverage at up to 70° elevation and out 120 kilometres (75 mi) range. The radar itself is raised 12 metres (39 ft) above its parent vehicle to give better detection of low level threats and greater freedom in system deployment by allowing the array to look over obstacles such as buildings or treelines. All of these components are mounted on MAN HX77 8x8 heavy utility trucks and can all be dismounted from their parent vehicles if required. Reportedly a Sky Sabre battery consists of one SAMOC, one GAMB, and four to six iLaunchers.

Sky Sabre is operated by 16th Regiment Royal Artillery under the command of the 7th Air Defence Group. Land Ceptor provides Sky Sabre and the British Army with over three times the range of the preceding Rapier system. Major Tim Oakes, Senior Training Officer for the Sky Sabre training programme is quoted as saying: "Sky Sabre is so accurate and agile that it is capable of hitting a tennis ball-sized object travelling at the speed of sound. In fact, it can control the flight of 24 missiles simultaneously whilst in flight, guiding them to intercept 24 separate targets. It is an amazing capability."

On 1 July 2021, it was revealed that Sky Sabre had started acceptance trials and training with the Royal Artillery and that it would be deployed to the Falkland Islands would occur "late summer/early autumn ". Sky Sabre had its initial operating capability declared on 8 October 2021 with the first systems delivered by the Defence Equipment & Support Agency (DE&S) to the 7th Air Defence Group in December 2021 before being formally declared operational in January 2022. During the same month, Sky Sabre's first deployment was announced to the Falklands replacing the existing Rapier missile deployment.

In March 2022, the UK announced it would be deploying a Sky Sabre fire group to Poland to bolster NATO 's Eastern flank following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine dubbed Operation STIFFTAIL. On 13 March 2024, Minister of Defence Grant Shapps announced on social media that Operation STIFFTAIL would formally be extended.

### Poland

The Polish Armed Forces had begun modernisation efforts for its air-defence capability in the 2010s with the development of its domestic Pilica system for short-range air defence, and the procurement of Patriot (known as Wisła in Polish service) with PAC-3 MSE missiles for medium-range capabilities from 2017. The gap between these two systems would be filled by the new Narew system which would make up the bulk of Polish air defence assets.

The CAMM family was selected to equip Narew in November 2021 with the intention being to equip the system with CAMM-ER. An urgent operational requirement and interim solution known as Mała Narew (small/little Narew) was created in 2022 and would be equipped with the already in-production CAMM variant whilst also marking the beginning of both a technology transfer from MBDA to PGZ and the development of a CAMM training program. Mała Narew saw iLaunchers equipped with CAMM mounted onto Polish Jelcz vehicles, guided by SOŁA radar stations and integrated with a Polish command system. On 4 October 2022, the first fully operational unit of Mała Narew was handed over to the soldiers of the 18th Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Zamość. Mała Narew saw the first live-firing of CAMM in June 2023.

In April 2023, Poland signed a £1.9 billion contract with MBDA to manufacture of a total of 22 Pilica+ air defence batteries, which at the time was the largest European short-range air defence acquisition programme in NATO. Pilica+ would see the existing SHORAD missile and gunnery components of Pilica combined with a similar launcher arrangement as Mała Narew with CAMM to expand Pilica into a triple-layer system. The contract includes 44 launchers and 750 missiles, to be delivered from 2025 to 2029. MBDA's press release also confirmed that the CAMM family would equip the Polish Navy's Miecznik -class frigates, although there was at the time no mention as to which missile variant(s) (CAMM / CAMM-ER) would be integrated.

In July 2023, the UK and Poland with MBDA and PGZ signed agreements that formally began the joint development of the CAMM-MR which would be known as the "Joint/Future Common Missile" with the intention that it would be used by both British and Polish platforms such as on the Miecznik -class frigates and possibly Wisła batteries.

In November 2023, a more than £4 billion ($4.9 billion) contract was signed between MBDA and PGZ for the procurement of over 1,000 CAMM-ER missiles and over 100 iLaunchers to equip the forthcoming Narew batteries, in addition to further technology transfers agreements enabling licensed production of both the missiles and launchers within Poland. It also confirmed that Narew would be integrated with the US's Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) as was already the case with Wisła. This is the biggest export contract for MBDA as well as between Poland and the UK.

on 14 December 2023, the PGZ- PILICA+ consortium signed a $139 million contract for the provision 44 iLaunchers and their parent Jelcz vehicles that will equip the 22 Pilica+ batteries (two launchers per battery).

On 20 December 2023, Poland signed a $782.5 million deal with the PGZ- NAREW consortium for 24 mobile P-18PL long-range radars for use within both Narew and Wisła with the delivery of all systems expected to be complete by 2035.

In late December 2023, while reporting on developments with the Miecznik-class frigates, Naval News confirmed that both CAMM and CAMM-ER would equip the three ship class.

On 29 February 2024, The Polish Armaments Agency announced a $2.53 billion agreement for the delivery and formal integration of IBCS into both the Narew and Wisła systems.

## Operators

### Current operators

#### Ground-based air defence (Land Ceptor)

- Polish Armed Forces – The CAMM family was selected as the effector of Poland's domestic Narew short-range air defence system in November 2021. In April 2022, due to the deterioration of security caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crisis on the border with Belarus, Poland purchased a small number of CAMMs for two air defence batteries as an interim solution known as Mała Narew (Little Narew). In April 2023, it was announced that CAMM would be integrated into the existing PSR-A Pilica very short-range system to create the triple-layer Pilica+ (22 batteries with two launchers each). In November 2023, the Polish PGZ signed an agreement with the British MBDA to launch the production of CAMM-ER missiles in Poland with an order for over 1,000 missiles.

- British Army – The Sky Sabre air defence system armed with CAMM began entering service with the Royal Artillery in January 2022 replacing Rapier.

#### Naval-based air defence (Sea Ceptor)

- Brazilian Navy – in 2014, Sea Ceptor was selected to equip the new Tamandaré- class frigates using a 12-cell mushroom farm.

- Chilean Navy – in 2014, Sea Ceptor was selected to replace Sea Wolf on the Type 23 frigates (32-missiles). As of 2022, all three Frigates had been successfully upgraded with Sea Ceptor.

- Royal New Zealand Navy – In 2013, Sea Ceptor was selected to replace the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow as part of a Anzac -class frigate system upgrade for HMNZS Te Kaha and HMNZS Te Mana. The eight-cell Mark 41 launcher has been replaced by a 20-cell mushroom farm (20 missiles). The first live firing of Sea Ceptor occurred during HMNZS Te Mana's deployment between July and December 2023.

- Pakistan Navy – Latest naval variant Albatros NG system (CAMM-ER) was selected to equip its new Babur -class corvette in March 2021, although this was not officially disclosed until April. Two 6-cell mushroom farm modules (12 missiles) are located just aft of the main gun.

- Royal Navy – Sea Ceptor was officially declared "in service" with the Royal Navy in May 2018, replacing Sea Wolf on the Type 23 frigate (32-missiles). Sea Ceptor will also equip the Type 26 (48 missiles) and Type 31 frigates (at least 32 missiles), and is to be integrated in 24 new silos on the Type 45 destroyers, replacing Aster 15 on the destroyers in the process.

### Future operators

#### Ground-based air defence (Land Ceptor)

- Brazilian Marine Corps – AV-MMA is a Brazilian localised version of the CAMM originally envisaged to equip all three service branches via a common canister container, will equip the anti-aircraft version of the Astros II MLRS.

- Italian Army – CAMM-ER along with PCMI/X-TAR radar selected as Grifo (Griffin) to replace the Skyguard (Aspide).

- Italian Air Force – CAMM-ER along with Kronos radar selected as MAADS (Medium Advanced Air Defence System) to replace the SPADA (Aspide missiles) batteries.

#### Naval-based air defence (Sea Ceptor)

- Royal Canadian Navy – Sea Ceptor was selected to equip the Canadian Surface Combatant as a Close-In Air Defence System (CIADS) utilising a six cell ExLS complex (24 missiles).

- Italian Navy – Albatross-NG (CAMM-ER) selected to replace the Aspide (Albatross) missiles.

- Polish Navy – The Projekt 106 (Miecznik-class) frigates will be armed with CAMM and CAMM-ER missiles quad-packed into their 32-cell Mark 41 complex, with CAMM-MR expected to follow in the future.

- Royal Saudi Navy – in February 2023, CAMM was selected to equip the Aegis Combat System on the Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) over the RIM-162 ESSM. 32 missiles will be quad-packed into the 8-cell Mark 41 complex. Janes reported that alongside the development of an in-country missile maintenance centre, Saudi Arabia was also looking at plans to locally produce both CAMM and CAMM-ER missiles.

Sweden

- Swedish Navy – On 16 November 2023, the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) signed a contract with MBDA to supply Sea Ceptor for the five Visby -class corvettes, with installation beginning in 2025 with the first upgraded vessel expected in 2026. Neither party disclosed contract value or the anticipated configuration of the system, however, the artist impression accompanying MBDA's press release appears to show intentions to fit a 9-cell ExLS complex forward of the flight deck for 36 missiles.

### Potential operators

Egypt

- Egyptian Armed Forces – As of 13 March 2023, Egypt was reportedly in talks with MBDA regarding a purchase of CAMM.

Malaysia

- Malaysian Army / Royal Malaysian Air Force - During the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2024 exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, MBDA revealed that it was offering both EMADS and MICA-NG to meet a forthcoming Malaysian short-range air-defence requirement.

### Failed bids

Finland

- Finish Army – MBDA pitched CAMM and CAMM-ER for the ITSUKO ground-based air defence program with iLauncher mounted onto a Volvo FMX 8x8, and integrated with a Saab Giraffe radar. Rafael and Raytheon 's David's Sling system was instead selected in 2023.

- Finish Navy – MBDA pitched Sea Ceptor for the air defence requirements (ITO20) of the Squadron 2020 Corvette Program, later known as the four ships of the Pohjanmaa-class corvettes. MBDA lost to Raytheon with the RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM).

Spain

- Spanish Navy – In May 2016, CAMM-ER was selected to equip the future F110-class frigates. However, in 2018 this decision was overridden and Raytheon's ESSM Block II was instead chosen.

Switzerland

- Swiss Air Force – On 30 April 2024, Switzerland's Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse) requested offers from three manufacturers, including MBDA, for a medium range air defence system for the Bodluv MR Programme. MBDA is reportedly offering CAMM-ER in competition against Diehl with a variant of the IRIS-T SL and Kongsberg / Raytheon with the NASAMS NG. All offers were to be provided by July 2024 with a decision expected in the third quarter 2024 and the financing and order to be planned with the armament program by 2025. As of July 2024, Kongsberg / Raytheon and MBDA made the decision to not submit an offer for the Bodluv MR Programme. Diehl therefore won the tender. Armasuisse will now enter in negotiation for the purchase of the system.


The Mule (2014 film)

# The Mule (2014 film)

## Abstract

The Mule is a 2014 Australian black comedy crime drama film directed by Tony Mahony and Angus Sampson. It stars Sampson, Hugo Weaving, Leigh Whannell, Ewen Leslie, and John Noble, and was released directly to iTunes and other digital platforms simultaneously in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States on 21 November 2014.

## Plot

In 1983 Australia, television repairman Ray Jenkins (Angus Sampson) and his football team celebrate the end of their season by spending the weekend in Thailand. Ray's best friend Gavin (Leigh Whannell), a small-time criminal working for local property owner/crime lord Pat Shepherd (John Noble), asks Ray to transport heroin on his return flight. Ray initially refuses, but after learning his stepfather is deeply in gambling debt, and his mother will be targeted if he does not pay up, he agrees to transport the heroin. In Thailand, while wandering through the markets, Gavin goes to pick up half a kilogram of heroin to bring back to Pat. Before he leaves, he purchases an extra half kilogram to sell on his own. At the hotel, Gavin hides the heroin in condoms and coerces Ray to swallow them.

Upon their arrival at Melbourne Airport, Ray begins to panic and is eventually detained by customs officials. Believing Ray is a drug trafficker, Australian Federal Police agents Croft (Hugo Weaving) and Paris (Ewen Leslie) arrest him. Ray's lawyer Jasmine Griffiths (Georgina Haig) tells Ray that he can only be held in a hotel room for four days.

During the four days, Ray tries to hold back his bodily functions to prevent himself from being convicted, aided by codeine, which constipates him. Gavin returns to tell Ray's mother Judy (Noni Hazlehurst) and stepfather John (Geoff Morrell) that Ray has been arrested. They plan to head to the hotel to visit him, but John has a discussion with Gavin, revealing his participation in the drug scheme to get Pat to get rid of his debts.

Paris arrives at the hotel room to find Ray being tormented by Croft and a police guard. He kicks them out of the room, comforts Ray, and gives him more codeine.

Gavin hides from Pat but is found and beaten savagely for botching the heroin transport. Pat tells Gavin that Ray must be killed to prevent him from giving information to the police. Gavin heads to the hotel, where he persuades the guard to let him visit Ray, whom he intends to stab, but finds he cannot bring himself to do so. He is caught by Paris, who follows him to the rooftop. Paris reveals himself to be a cop out to make money from drugs, while Gavin explains the whole situation. Paris pushes Gavin from the rooftop. Gavin hits the car of Ziggy, Pat's Lithuanian guard, and dies on impact. Ziggy dumps Gavin's body by the side of the road and leaves town.

Having witnessed Gavin falling off the building, Ray realizes that Paris is corrupt. He tries to tell Croft, but Croft doesn't believe it.

Croft goes to the judge and extends the sentence to ten days, despite Jasmine's pleas. She visits Ray and tells him that if he is ever released, he should testify against Croft and Paris for holding him against his will and their cruel behavior. She has reported the extended detention to a newspaper, but the newspaper is busy reporting the 1983 America's Cup race.

After Pat steals his car, John drunkenly admits to Judy his part in the scheme, and she kicks him out. John heads to Pat's bar, where he threatens to expose him to the police. Pat has John strangled by his Thai chef, Phuk.

In the middle of the night, Ray is unable to stop himself from defecating in his bed. After making sure the guard is asleep, Ray ingests the condoms again, gagging profusely and trying not to vomit, before the guard wakes.

Still insisting that Ray is hiding the drugs, Croft goes to the judge and finally extends the sentence to the maximum of 14 days. On the 12th night, Ray puts his plan into action. He excretes one of the condoms and places some of the heroin in the beer of the police officer guarding him, putting him to sleep. He then excretes the rest of the condoms, and using a coin taken from the police officer's wallet, starts to unscrew the back panel of the television.

Pat sings at Gavin's funeral. Judy, fearful for Ray's health, attempts to force-feed Ray his favourite meal cooked with heavy laxatives. Ray refuses to eat it, and the police have to pull his mother away from him. The police eat the meal and are struck with intense diarrhea.

On the last night, the police officers are trying to watch the 1983 America's Cup, but the television is displaying static, so they call reception to have it repaired. On the morning of the last day, Paris furiously attempts to make Ray finally go to the toilet, but Paris discovers there are no drugs in his stomach contents. He attacks Ray, but Croft and another officer arrive before Paris can force Ray to swallow glass. An ambulance is called, and Ray hands Croft a photograph of Pat. A furious Paris trashes the hotel room looking for the drugs and finds a hidden microphone in a flower vase. Paris realizes his threats and confession to Ray have been recorded, revealing his corruption, and Croft enters the room and arrests him while berating him, admitting that he bent the rules, but Paris broke them by killing Gavin. Croft has also sent police to arrest Pat, but the Thai heroin boss instructs Phuk not to permit the police to take Pat alive, and he is beaten to death as the police arrive. At the television repair shop where he works, Ray smiles as he looks at the televisions in the window where he hid the heroin.

## Cast

- Hugo Weaving as Tom Croft

- Angus Sampson as Ray Jenkins

- Leigh Whannell as Gavin

- Ewen Leslie as Detective Les Paris

- Georgina Haig as Jasmine Griffiths

- John Noble as Pat Shepherd

- Geoff Morrell as John

- Noni Hazlehurst as Judy Jenkins

- Chris Pang as Phuk

- Lasarus Ratuere as Josh

- David Argue as Keith Rutherford (voice)

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 6.54/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Smarter than its scatological premise might suggest, The Mule offers solidly explosive laughs for fans of dark comedy." It has a score of 57 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on six reviews citing "mixed or average reviews".

IGN awarded it a score of 8.5 out of 10, saying, "Less black comedy and more brown drama, The Mule goes to some seriously dark places but is still full of laughs."


The Mule (2014 film)


Prince Daddy & the Hyena

# Prince Daddy & the Hyena

## Abstract

Prince Daddy & the Hyena is an American punk rock band from Albany, New York, formed in 2014. They have released three full-length albums and four extended plays.

## History

### Formation and early years

Prince Daddy and the Hyena was formed in 2014 when Kory Gregory, Alex Ziembiec and Zakariya Houacine were inspired to start a band after seeing Rozwell Kid live. According to Gregory, Rozwell Kid was a substantial influence on much of his early songwriting. The origin of the band's name is obscure; Gregory has stated that he "would make up a different dumbass story each time". He has variously explained that it was derived from a game that Gregory played with the band's TM & merch person – Luis Wiest – at recess in elementary school, that it was the name of Gregory's childhood guinea pig, or that it is his parents' anniversary. He has also tweeted that there is a comma missing between Prince and Daddy, due to a grammatical error.

The band met lead guitarist Cameron Handford through house shows and mutual friends eventually leading up to his joining of the band. Prince Daddy & the Hyena began in 2014 with the release of an extended play titled Skip Cutscenes! Blow Loud!.

The band released the EP Adult Summers in 2015 through Broken World Media and again in 2017 through Counter Intuitive Records.

Their first full-length album I Thought You Didn't Even Like Leaving was finally released in 2016 on Broken World Media.

In 2017, Ziembiec left the band and was replaced by Daniel Gorham from Pictures of Vernon.

### Cosmic Thrill Seekers

In 2019, the band released its second full-length album titled Cosmic Thrill Seekers on Counter Intuitive Records, and embarked on several extensive tours in support of the album. This tour would prove difficult for the band, as they were involved in a traffic accident which left the band and members of their team temporarily unable to walk. After recovering from this incident, the band's tour van was broken into, leading to the loss of $7,500 worth of equipment.

The band toured Europe with Oso Oso in support of the album in the fall of 2019, and in 2020, the band embarked on a co-headlining tour with Oso Oso, with support from Just Friends.

### Self-titled album

In 2021, the band signed to Pure Noise Records and released the single "Curly Q.", which Gregory wrote for his nephew.

In 2022, they announced their forthcoming third album, Prince Daddy & the Hyena, to release on April 15. The album is conceptually about the fear of death, and was inspired by a van crash the band experienced. The album was also supported by the singles "A Random Exercise In Impermanence (The Collector)," "El Dorado," and "Shoelaces," as well as a headlining tour throughout the United States with Macseal, Insignificant Other, and California Cousins.

Original drummer Alex Ziembiec died in November 2022.

In February 2023, they embarked on a co-headlining tour with Drug Church, with support from Anxious and Webbed Wing.

## Musical style

The band has self-identified themselves as a punk rock band in an interview with The Fader. Critically, the band has been described as "smartly crafted slacker punk" with elements of power pop, post-hardcore, and emo by AllMusic. Pitchfork has identified the band as both punk rock and emo.

Frontman Kory Gregory has cited Weezer, the Strokes, Jeff Rosenstock, and Green Day as major influences on the sound. In an interview with The Fader, Gregory described the sound on the band's second album Cosmic Thrill Seekers as "the soundtrack to a Disney film played by a punk rock band."

## Band members

Current

- Korneilious "Kory" Jophus Gregory – lead vocals, guitar (2014–present)

- Cameron "Cambo" Hanford – guitar (2014–present)

- Daniel "Podwick" Gorham – drums, backing vocals (2018–present)

- Jordan "J Nasty" Chmielowski – bass (2024–present; touring 2022–2023)

Past

- Zakariya "Hardly Knew Yee" Houacine – bass (2014–2019)

- Alex "Al Al Bean" Ziembiec – drums (2014–2017; died 2022)

- Adam Dasilva – bass (2020–2022)

Touring

- Jake Sulzer – drums (2017), bass (2023)

- James Ringness – drums (2017)

- Cole Syzilagyi – bass (2022)

### Timeline

## Discography

Studio albums

- I Thought You Didn't Even Like Leaving (2016, Broken World Media/2017, Counter Intuitive Records)

- Cosmic Thrill Seekers (2019, Counter Intuitive Records)

- Prince Daddy & the Hyena (2022, Pure Noise Records)

EPs

- Skip Cutscenes! Blow Loud! (2014, Wallflower Records)

- Adult Summers (2015, Broken World Media, 2017 Counter Intuitive Records)

Splits

- Prince Daddy & The Hyena/Just Friends (2016, Broken World Media)

- Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 420 (2017, Counter Intuitive Records)

Singles

- Adult Summers Pt. 2 (2015, Broken World Media) HIDDEN TRACK* (2015, Broken World Media)

- HIDDEN TRACK* (2015, Broken World Media)

- I Thought You Didn't Even Like Leaving (2016, Broken World Media)

- Hundo Pos (2016, Broken World Media)

- I Forgot To Take My Meds Today (2017, Broken World Media)

- I Lost My Life (2019, Counter Intuitive Records)

- Lauren (Track 2) (2019, Counter Intuitive Records)

- Fuckin' A (2019, Counter Intuitive Records)

- Prototype of The Ultimate Life-form (2019, Counter Intuitive Records)

- Curly Q (2021, Pure Noise Records)

- A Random Exercise in Impermanence (The Collector) (2022, Pure Noise Records)

- El Dorado (2022, Pure Noise Records)

- Shoelaces (2022, Pure Noise Records)


Ostovar

# Ostovar

## Abstract

Ostovar may refer to:

- Ostovar, a ranking in the Iranian military

- Houshang Ostovar or Hoochang Ostovar (1927–2016), Persian symphonic music composer and instructor


Come In on This

# Come In on This

## Abstract

Come In on This was an Australian television series which aired during 1959 on Melbourne station ABV-2. Compered by Robert Peach, the series aired at 9:30PM on Mondays. It aired fortnightly and was broadcast live. Competition in the timeslot consisted of U.S. western series Trackdown on HSV-7 and the locally produced live variety series In Melbourne Tonight on GTV-9.

## Format

Robert Peach would ask members of the studio audience for their opinions on various subjects. The audience would be members of a particular organisation or group.


# 49th Legislature of the Chamber of Senators of Uruguay

## Abstract

The Forty-Ninth Legislature of the Chamber of Senators of Uruguay is the session of the upper house of the Uruguayan General Assembly from February 15, 2020 to February 15, 2025, during the Presidency of Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou. It meets in Montevideo. Senators were elected in the 2019 general election in a single constituency.

## Major events

- 15 February 2020: The Chamber of Senators was chaired by José Mujica as the new vice president had not yet taken office.

- 1 March 2020: Vice President Beatriz Argimón, who serves as President of the Senate, took office.

- 1 April 2020: A bill presented by President Lacalle Pou to soften the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was unanimously approved; Law No. 19,874 created the "Coronavirus Fund".

- 23 April 2020: A package of measures is presented by the Government through a "law of urgent consideration" to be legislated.

- 20 October 2020: Two former Presidents, Julio María Sanguinetti (1980–1985, 1995–2000) and José Mujica (2010–2015) retired from the Senate due to their advanced age.

- 15 December 2020: The General Assembly met to close the first session of the Legislature.

- 16 December 2020: Vice President Beatriz Argimón summoned Parliament for a special session to legislate the measures announced by President Lacalle Pou due to the exponential growth of cases of COVID-19.

- 19 December 2020: The Senate, in an all-night session, approved a law that regulates Article 38 of the Constitution, limiting the right of assembly for 60 days. Closure of the country's border was also legislated, framed in Article 37.


Tom Dearden

# Tom Dearden

## Abstract

Thomas Dearden (born 13 March 2001) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who captains and plays as a halfback for the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL.

He previously played for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL as a halfback. He has played at representative level for Queensland in the State of Origin series.

## Background

Dearden was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

He settled in Mackay and attended Mackay State High School until grade 10. He played junior rugby league for the Brothers Bulldogs Mackay before moving to the Gold Coast, where he played for the Currumbin Eagles and attended Palm Beach Currumbin State High School.

## Career

### Early career

In 2016, Dearden played for the Mackay Cutters Cyril Connell Cup side. In 2017, he moved to the Gold Coast to play at the Currumbin Eagles in their undefeated U16 premiership winning side under the guise of ex Melbourne Storm player and now coach Matt Geyer. in the Currumbin U16 side, Dearden played alongside fellow Queensland team mate Xavier Coates and current Bulldogs half, Toby Sexton. Dearden represented the Queensland under-16 side.

In 2018, he played for the Tweed Heads Seagulls Mal Meninga Cup side, who made it to the semi-finals of the competition, and later represented the Queensland under-18 team. Later that season, he was a member of Palm Beach Currumbin State High School 's ARL Schoolboy Cup winning side, receiving the Peter Sterling Medal for player of the tournament. In November and December 2018, he was a member of the Australian Schoolboys tour of England.

### 2019

In Round 8 of the 2019 NRL season, Dearden made his NRL debut for the Brisbane Broncos against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

### 2020

Dearden made 12 appearances for Brisbane in the 2020 NRL season as the club suffered their worst ever year both on and off the field culminating in the club's first Wooden Spoon.

### 2021

Dearden began the 2021 season playing for the Souths Logan Magpies in the Queensland Cup, before being recalled into the Brisbane side in Round 3.

On 26 April, he signed a three-year contract with the North Queensland Cowboys, starting in 2022. On 29 May, he secured an immediate release from the Brisbane Broncos to join the North Queensland Cowboys for the remainder of the 2021 NRL season.

Dearden made his North Queensland debut in round 14 against Manly-Warringah in a 50-18 defeat.

In Round 20, Dearden played his first game against his ex club Brisbane Broncos, Dearden scored a try in the 37-18 loss. In round 24, North Queensland defeated St. George Illawarra 38-26. It was Dearden's first win at the club and first win in any NRL match since round 3 when he was at Brisbane, ending 14 losses in a row as a player.

### 2022

Following a strong start to the season for North Queensland, Dearden was selected in the extended Queensland Maroons squad for Game 1 of State of Origin in Sydney. In Game 2, he was named 18th man before making his debut at Five-Eighth in the decider for Game 3 where Queensland emerged victorious 22-12. On May 16 during Magic round, Dearden famously got into a physical altercation with Alex Twal resulting in both players being sin binned. Dearden played 23 matches for North Queensland in the 2022 NRL season as the club finished third on the table and qualified for the finals. He played in both finals matches including their preliminary final loss to Parramatta.

### 2023

In round 11 of the 2023 NRL season, Dearden scored two tries for North Queensland in their 42-22 victory over St. George Illawarra. He was 18th Man for the Queensland Maroons in Game I of the 2023 State of Origin series. Dearden played 23 games for North Queensland in the 2023 NRL season as the club finished 11th on the table. On 19 December, Dearden signed a contract extension to remain at North Queensland until the end of 2029.

### 2024

In round 11 of the 2024 NRL season, Dearden scored two tries for North Queensland in their 28-22 victory over the bottom placed South Sydney side.

With Cameron Munster injured, Dearden was named as five-eighth for Queensland ahead of game one in the 2024 State of Origin series.


The Neighborhood Watch

# The Neighborhood Watch

## Abstract

The Neighborhood Watch is a 2014 American drama, adventure short film written by Christopher Langer. It went on to the 2015 Ohio Independent Film Festival.

## Plot

A kid named Elijah meets a young boy named Sam at block party with his father. Sam tells him about his neighborhood watch and about the training ground for it. Elijah doesn't seem to care until he visits it with Sam and Lucy. Lucy likes Sam and goes missing. Elijah then goes after her by himself.

## Cast

- Andrew Mittelo as Elijah

- Elliot Lockshine as Sam

- Anna Jaffe as Lucy

- Anthony T. Mittelo as Don

- Chris Bohan as John

- Lauren Rhodes as Susan

- Nick Farrell as Nick

- Logan Roberts as Logan


Russian language

# Russian language

## Abstract

Russian is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians. It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union. Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.

Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe, the most spoken Slavic language, as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia. It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers, and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers. Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station, one of the six official languages of the United Nations, as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet.

Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has a hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically, though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к and за́мок), or to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names.

## Classification

Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family. It is a descendant of Old East Slavic, a language used in Kievan Rus', which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn, the other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian.

Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin, Polish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, and English, and to a lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic, Turkic, Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew.

According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency.

## Standard Russian

Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between the Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from the government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and the broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages.

The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language (современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter the Great and developed from the Moscow (Middle or Central Russian) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language.

Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However, the peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky, who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or the syntax of Russian dialects."

After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930:

The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to the factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry, a qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society.

## Geographic distribution

In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in the Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese.

Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics.

### Europe

In Belarus, Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus. 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census, out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in the Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%.

In Estonia, Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022, the parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year.

In Latvia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in the final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian. From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM) should be only in Latvian or a language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service.

In Lithuania, Russian has no official or legal status, but the use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to the 2011 Lithuanian census, Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population.

In Moldova, Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census, Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian.

According to the 2010 census in Russia, Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of the respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents).

In Ukraine, Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed a new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to the Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration, media, education, science, culture, advertising, services. The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On the other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east. But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion, their number dropped by almost half. According to the survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language.

In the 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries.

### Asia

In Armenia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.

In Azerbaijan, Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work.

In China, Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964.

In Georgia, Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.

In Kazakhstan, Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of the population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025.

In Kyrgyzstan, Russian is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan. The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group.

In Tajikistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under the Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business.

In Turkmenistan, Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in the Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent.

In Uzbekistan, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.

In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006.

Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in the country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus. See also Russian language in Israel.

Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan.

In Vietnam, Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English.

### North America

The Russian language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska, Russian is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Calgary, Baltimore, Miami, Portland, Chicago, Denver, and Cleveland. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to the United States Census, in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States.

## As an international language

Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following:

- United Nations

- International Atomic Energy Agency

- World Health Organization

- International Civil Aviation Organization

- UNESCO

- World Intellectual Property Organization

- International Telecommunication Union

- World Meteorological Organization

- Food and Agriculture Organization

- International Fund for Agricultural Development

- International Criminal Court

- International Olympic Committee

- Universal Postal Union

- World Bank

- Commonwealth of Independent States

- Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

- Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

- Eurasian Economic Community

- Collective Security Treaty Organization

- Antarctic Treaty Secretariat

- International Organization for Standardization

- International Mathematical Olympiad

The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to the Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975.

In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of.ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain.su. Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese.

## Dialects

Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central (or Middle), and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region.

The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye (оканье). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/, respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature is a post-posed definite article -to, -ta, -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian.

In the Southern Russian dialects, instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced, not) – this is called yakanye (яканье). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/, a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/, whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/, /v/, and final /l/ and /f/, respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects).

## Comparison with other Slavic languages

During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level.

## Derived languages

- Balachka, a Ukrainian dialect spoken in Krasnodar region, Don, Kuban, and Terek, brought by relocated Cossacks in 1793 and is based on the so-called "southwest Russian" dialect (Ukrainian dialect). During the Russification of the aforementioned regions in the 1920s to 1950s, it was replaced by the Russian language.

- Esperanto has some words of Russian and Slavic origin and some features of its grammar could be derived from Russian.

- Fenya, a criminal argot of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary

- Lojban, Russian is one of its six source languages, weighed for the number of Russian speakers in 1985.

- Medny Aleut language, an extinct mixed language that was spoken on Bering Island and is characterized by its Aleut nouns and Russian verbs

- Padonkaffsky jargon, a slang language developed by padonki of Runet

- Quelia, a macaronic language with Russian-derived basic structure and part of the lexicon (mainly nouns and verbs) borrowed from German

- Runglish, a Russian-English pidgin. This word is also used by English speakers to describe the way in which Russians attempt to speak English using Russian morphology or syntax.

- Russenorsk, an extinct pidgin language with mostly Russian vocabulary and mostly Norwegian grammar, used for communication between Russians and Norwegian traders in the Pomor trade in Finnmark and the Kola Peninsula

- Surzhyk, a range of mixed (macaronic) sociolects of Ukrainian and Russian languages used in certain regions of Ukraine and adjacent lands.

- Trasianka, a heavily russified variety of Belarusian used by a large portion of the rural population in Belarus

- Taimyr Pidgin Russian, spoken by the Nganasan on the Taimyr Peninsula

## Alphabet

Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound:

Older letters of the Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ (/je/ or /ʲe/); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩, which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ (/i/); ⟨ ѳ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ (/f/); ⟨ ѫ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ (/u/); ⟨ ѭ ⟩, which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ (/ju/ or /ʲu/); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩, which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/. While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated the pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/, /ĭ/.

### Transliteration

Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz, and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš'. Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding, which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards.

### Computing

The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1, and MESM models were produced in 1951.

### Orthography

According to the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent (знак ударения) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress. For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к (zamók – "lock") – за́мок (zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий (stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий (stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ (chudnó – "this is odd") – чу́дно (chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц (molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец (mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю (uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ (uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть (otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать (otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра (aféra, "scandal, affair"), гу́ру (gúru, "guru"), Гарси́я (García), Оле́ша (Olésha), Фе́рми (Fermi), and to show which is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? (Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? (Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? (Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners.

## Phonology

The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows:

(C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

### Consonants

Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of its consonants. The phoneme / ts / is generally considered to be always hard; however, loan words such as Цюрих and some other neologisms contain / tsʲ / through the word-building processes (e.g. фрицёнок, шпицята). Palatalization means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. In the case of /tʲ/ and /dʲ/, the tongue is raised enough to produce slight frication (affricate sounds; cf. Belarusian ць, дзь, or Polish ć, dź). The sounds /t, d, ts, s, z, n, rʲ/ are dental, that is, pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth rather than against the alveolar ridge. According to some linguists, the "plain" consonants are velarized as in Irish, something which is most noticeable when it involves a labial before a hard vowel, such as мы, /mˠɨː/, "we", or бэ, /bˠɛ/, "the letter Б".

### Vowels

Russian has five or six vowels in stressed syllables, /i, u, e, o, a/, and in some analyses /ɨ/, but in most cases these vowels have merged to only two to four vowels when unstressed: /i, u, a/ (or /ɨ, u, a/) after hard consonants and /i, u/ after soft ones. These vowels have several allophones, which are displayed on the diagram to the right.

## Grammar

Russian has preserved an Indo-European synthetic - inflectional structure, although considerable leveling has occurred.Russian grammar encompasses:

- a highly fusional morphology

- a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements: a polished vernacular foundation; a Church Slavonic inheritance; a Western European style.

- a polished vernacular foundation;

- a Church Slavonic inheritance;

- a Western European style.

The spoken language has been influenced by the literary one but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features.

In terms of actual grammar, there are three tenses in Russian – past, present, and future – and each verb has two aspects (perfective and imperfective). Russian nouns each have a gender – either feminine, masculine, or neuter, chiefly indicated by spelling at the end of the word. Words change depending on both their gender and function in the sentence. Russian has six cases: Nominative (for the grammatical subject), Accusative (for direct objects), Dative (for indirect objects), Genitive (to indicate possession or relation), Instrumental (to indicate 'with' or 'by means of'), and Prepositional (used after the locative prepositions в "in", на "on", о "about", при "in the presence of"). Verbs of motion in Russian – such as 'go', 'walk', 'run', 'swim', and 'fly' – use the imperfective or perfective form to indicate a single or return trip, and also use a multitude of prefixes to add shades of meaning to the verb. Such verbs also take on different forms to distinguish between concrete and abstract motion.

## Vocabulary

The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the past two centuries, are as follows:

## History and literary language

No single periodization is universally accepted, but the history of the Russian language is sometimes divided into the following periods:

- Old Russian or Old East Slavic (until the 14th or 15th century)

- Middle Russian (14th or 15th century until the 17th or 18th century)

- Modern Russian (17th century or 18th century to the present)

The history of the Russian language is also divided into Old Russian from the 11th to 17th centuries, followed by Modern Russian.

The political reforms of Peter the Great (Пётр Вели́кий, Pyótr Velíky) were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French daily, and German sometimes. Many Russian novels of the 19th century, e.g. Leo Tolstoy 's (Лев Толсто́й) War and Peace, contain entire paragraphs and even pages in French with no translation given, with an assumption that educated readers would not need one.

The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin (Алекса́ндр Пу́шкин) in the first third of the 19th century. Pushkin revolutionized Russian literature by rejecting archaic grammar and vocabulary (so-called высо́кий стиль — "high style") in favor of grammar and vocabulary found in the spoken language of the time. Even modern readers of younger age may only experience slight difficulties understanding some words in Pushkin's texts, since relatively few words used by Pushkin have become archaic or changed meaning. In fact, many expressions used by Russian writers of the early 19th century, in particular Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov (Михаи́л Ле́рмонтов), Nikolai Gogol (Никола́й Го́голь), Aleksander Griboyedov (Алекса́ндр Грибое́дов), became proverbs or sayings which can be frequently found even in modern Russian colloquial speech.

During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian, although it was declared the official language only in 1990. Following the break-up of the USSR in 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national discourse throughout the region has continued.

The Russian language in the world declined after 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and decrease in the number of Russians in the world and diminution of the total population in Russia (where Russian is an official language), however this has since been reversed.

According to figures published in 2006 in the journal " Demoskop Weekly " research deputy director of Research Center for Sociological Research of the Ministry of Education and Science (Russia) Arefyev A. L., the Russian language is gradually losing its position in the world in general, and in Russia in particular. In 2012, A. L. Arefyev published a new study "Russian language at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries", in which he confirmed his conclusion about the trend of weakening of the Russian language after the Soviet Union's collapse in various regions of the world (findings published in 2013 in the journal " Demoskop Weekly "). In the countries of the former Soviet Union the Russian language was being replaced or used in conjunction with local languages. Currently, the number of speakers of Russian in the world depends on the number of Russians in the world and total population in Russia.

## Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Russian:

Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

The romanization of the text into Latin alphabet:

Vse lyudi rozhdayutsya svobodnymi i ravnymi v svoyem dostoinstve i pravakh. Oni nadeleny razumom i sovest'yu i dolzhny postupat' v otnoshenii drug druga v dukhe bratstva.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.


Leon Sterling

# Leon Sterling

## Abstract

Professor Leon Sterling is a career academic with a distinguished academic record. After completing a PhD at the Australian National University, he worked for 15 years at universities in the UK, Israel and the United States. He returned to Australia as Professor of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne in 1995. He served as Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering for 6 years. After stepping down as Head, he took up an industry-sponsored chair becoming the Adacel Professor of Software Innovation and Engineering. In 2010, he moved to Swinburne where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies for 4 years and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Digital Frontiers) for two years. He returned to the University of Melbourne in 2019 where he is a part-time Professor of Software Engineering. He has been a prominent figure in IT in Australia, serving as Head of the Council of Deans of ICT from 2012 to 2014, been on a number of national committees, and been a strong advocate for coding in schools through public lectures, blogs, and committee memberships. His current research is in incorporating emotions in technology development, where motivational models are an essential element.

Professor Sterling is the co-author, along with Ehud Shapiro, of the computer science textbook The Art of Prolog.