title: "Hurricane Diane" content: to the state. Governor Ribicoff requested $34 million in funds to rebuild and produce future flood mitigation projects; the state's funding was paid by a combination of bonds and tax increases. Including subsequent storms, the 1955 floods cumulatively killed 91 people and left 1,100 families homeless. Flooding occurred in 67 towns, resulting in damage to 20,000 families. About 86,000 people were left unemployed after the floods. In Winsted, the buildings that were washed away along the south side of Main Street were never rebuilt. Massachusetts Governor Christian Herter also issued a state of emergency, due to the widespread flooding damage.


title: "Hwa Chong Junior College" content: been recognized as one of the top junior colleges in Singapore, alongside others such as Raffles Junior College. Hwa Chong was also the first junior college to introduce the Humanities Scholarship Programme for students. As at the time of merger with The Chinese High School in 2005, Hwa Chong Junior College had produced the second highest number of President's Scholars (second only to Raffles Junior College). In addition, Hwa Chong graduates take an impressive share of government and private organization undergraduate scholarships annually. More than 15% of each graduating cohort move on to study in renowned universities worldwide, such as


title: "Sarai (city)" content: lower Volga River, near the contemporary village of Selitrennoye in Kharabali District, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, about 120 km north from Astrakhan. Sarai was the seat of Batu and his successor Berke. Under them Sarai was the capital of a great empire. The various Rus' princes came to Sarai to pledge allegiance to the Khan and receive his patent of authority ("yarlyk"). "New Sarai" or "Sarai Berke" (called "Sarai-al-Jadid" on coins) was at modern Kolobovka, formerly Tsarev, an archeological site also on the Akhtuba channel 85 km east of Volgograd, and about 180 km northwest of Old Sarai; or possibly on


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: King John's Castle (Limerick) King John's Castle () is a 13th-century castle located on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland, next to the River Shannon. Although the site dates back to 922 when the Vikings lived on the Island, the castle itself was built on the orders of King John in 1200. One of the best preserved Norman castles in Europe, the walls, towers and fortifications remain today and are visitor attractions. The remains of a Viking settlement were uncovered during archaeological excavations at the site in 1900. The Viking sea-king, Thormodr Helgason, built the first permanent Viking stronghold on Inis


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: Sibhtonn (King's Island) in 922. He used the base to raid the length of the River Shannon from Lough Derg to Lough Ree, pillaging ecclesiastical settlements. In 937 the Limerick Vikings clashed with those of Dublin on Lough Ree and were defeated. In 943 they were defeated again when the chief of the local Dalcassian clan joined with Ceallachán, king of Munster and the Limerick Vikings were forced to pay tribute to the clans. The power of the Vikings never recovered, and they were reduced to the level of a minor clan, however often playing pivotal parts in the endless


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: power struggles of the next few centuries. The arrival of the Anglo-Normans to the area in 1172 changed everything. Domhnall Mór Ó Briain burned the city to the ground in 1174 in a bid to keep it from the hands of the new invaders. After he died in 1194, the Anglo-Normans finally captured the area in 1195 under John, Lord of Ireland. In 1197, Limerick was given its first charter and its first Mayor, Adam Sarvant. A castle, built on the orders of King John and bearing his name, was completed around 1210. The castle was built on the boundary


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: of the River Shannon in order to protect the city from the Gaelic kingdoms to the west and from any rebellion by Norman lords to the east and south. Under the general peace imposed by the Norman rule, Limerick prospered as both a port and a trading centre, partly due to the castle acting as a watchdog on any cargo passing through the port of Limerick. By this time the city was divided into an area became known as "English Town" on King's Island, while another settlement, named "Irish Town" had grown on the south bank of the river. The


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: town of Limerick became so wealthy during this era King John set up a mint in the North West corner of the castle, with pennies and half pennies from this time available to see in Limerick museum today. A 1574 document prepared for the Spanish ambassador attests to its wealth: Luke Gernon, an English-born judge and resident of Limerick, wrote an equally flattering account of the city in 1620: "" a lofty building of marble; in the high street it is built from one gate to the other in one form, like the colleges in Oxford, so magnificent that at


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: my first entrance it did amaze me". The walls of the castle were severely damaged in the 1642 Siege of Limerick, the first of five sieges of the city in the 17th century. In 1642, the castle was occupied by Protestants fleeing the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and was besieged by an Irish Confederate force under Garret Barry. Barry had no siege artillery so he undermined the walls of King John's Castle by digging away their foundations. Those inside surrendered just before Barry collapsed the walls. However, such was the damage done to the wall's foundations that a section of


title: "King John's Castle (Limerick)" content: them had to be pulled down afterward. Between 2011 and 2013, the castle underwent a massive redevelopment, with €5.7 million spent to improve the visitor facilities of the castle. Among the improvements were a brand new visitor centre, interactive exhibitions with computer generated animations, and a cafe with views onto the courtyard and the river. King John's Castle (Limerick) King John's Castle () is a 13th-century castle located on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland, next to the River Shannon. Although the site dates back to 922 when the Vikings lived on the Island, the castle itself was built on the


title: "Constantine (Briton)" content: Daniel and Revelation, and apparently also a slur directed at his mother. This "Damnonia" is generally identified as the kingdom of Dumnonia in Southwestern Britain. Scholars such as Lloyd Laing and Leslie Alcock note the possibility that Gildas may have instead intended the territory of the Damnonii, a tribe in present-day Scotland mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century, but others such as Thomas D. O'Sullivan consider this unlikely. Gildas says that despite swearing an oath against deceit and tyranny, Constantine disguised himself in an abbot's robes and attacked two "royal youths" praying before a church altar, killing them and


title: "National Learning Network" content: a variety of formats and delivery platforms, including within a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). To facilitate this, all NLN materials have been packaged as Scorm Learning Objects, with metadata. Most of the LOs can be disaggregated into multiple Shareable Content Objects, and to varying degrees modified and repurposed by practitioners. In total, the NLN Materials consist of 2251 Learning Objects, 800 hours of learning, and have been used in around a third of UK FE institutions, as well as commercial and offender learning contexts. Xtensis ltd. originally took a consultancy role in the project, gradually increasing their role to hosting


title: "Panzerjäger" content: of armor meant little until the self-propelled guns began to take on more and more of the offensive duties of tanks as the war progressed and production lagged. From 1943, the Type 44 infantry divisions included the following divisional "Panzerjäger-Abteilung": Panzerjäger units were either assigned as the 14th companies in infantry regiments, or as a whole "Abteilung" (battalion) within Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions, in both the SS and the "Heer" (regular army). Independent battalions and regiments were used by corps to protect the most likely avenues of tank attacks, while divisions would often position their "Panzerjäger" on the flanks, or


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: Grey crowned crane The grey crowned crane ("Balearica regulorum") is a bird in the crane family, Gruidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa, and is the national bird of Uganda. The grey crowned crane is closely related to the black crowned crane, and the two species have sometimes been treated as the same species. The two are separable on the basis of genetic evidence, calls, plumage and bare parts, and all authorities treat them as different species today. There are two subspecies. The East African "B. r. gibbericeps" (crested crane) occurs in the east of the Democratic Republic


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: of the Congo and in Uganda, of which it is the national bird represented in its national flag, and Kenya to eastern South Africa. It has a larger area of bare red facial skin above the white patch than the smaller nominate species, "B. r. regulorum" (South African crowned crane), which breeds from Angola south to South Africa. The grey crowned crane is about 1 m (3.3 ft) tall, weighs 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs), and has a wingspan of 2 m (6.5 ft). Its body plumage is mainly grey. The wings are predominantly white, but contain feathers with a range


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: of colours, with a distinctive black patch at the very top. The head has a crown of stiff golden feathers. The sides of the face are white, and there is a bright red inflatable throat pouch. The bill is relatively short and grey, and the legs are black. They have long legs for wading through the grasses. The feet are large, yet slender, adapted for balance rather than defence or grasping. The sexes are similar, although males tend to be slightly larger. Young birds are greyer than adults, with a feathered buff face. This species and the black-crowned crane are


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. This trait is assumed to be an ancestral trait among the cranes, which has been lost in the other subfamily. Crowned cranes also lack a coiled trachea and have loose plumage compared to the other cranes. It occurs in dry savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats. They can also be found in marshes, cultivated lands and grassy flatlands near rivers and lakes in Uganda and Kenya and as far south as South Africa. This


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: animal does not have set migration patterns, and birds nearer the tropics are typically sedentary. Birds in more arid areas, particularly Namibia, make localised seasonal movements during drier periods. The grey crowned crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping. It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species. Both sexes dance, and immature birds join the adults. Dancing is an integral part of courtship, but also may be done at any time of the year. Flocks of 30-150


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: birds are not uncommon. These cranes are omnivores, eating plants, seeds, grain, insects, frogs, worms, snakes, small fish and the eggs of aquatic animals. Stamping their feet as they walk, they flush out insects which are quickly caught and eaten. The birds also associate with grazing herbivores, benefiting from the ability to grab prey items disturbed by antelopes and gazelles. They spend their entire day looking for food. At night, the crowned crane spends its time in the trees sleeping and resting. Grey crowned cranes time their breeding season around the rains, although the effect varies geographically. In East Africa


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: the species breeds year-round, but most frequently during the drier periods, whereas in Southern Africa the breeding season is timed to coincide with the rains. During the breeding season, pairs of cranes construct a large nest; a platform of grass and other plants in tall wetland vegetation. The grey crowned crane lays a clutch of 2-5 glossy, dirty-white eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for 28–31 days. Chicks are precocial, can run as soon as they hatch, and fledge in 56–100 days. Although the grey crowned crane remains common over some of its range, it faces threats to its


title: "Grey crowned crane" content: habitat due to drainage, overgrazing, and pesticide pollution. Their global population is estimated to be between 58,000 and 77,000 individuals. In 2012 it was uplisted from vulnerable to endangered by the IUCN. The grey crowned crane is the national bird of Uganda and features in the country's flag and coat of arms. Grey crowned crane The grey crowned crane ("Balearica regulorum") is a bird in the crane family, Gruidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa, and is the national bird of Uganda. The grey crowned crane is closely related to the black crowned crane, and the two species


title: "Lille OSC" content: Vahid Halilhodžić was soon promoted back to the elite, in the same year the French Football League was privatised. In just its first season back in the top flight 2000–01 French Division 1, Lille qualified for Europe for the first time in the club's history, booking its place in the 2000–01 Champions League. On the back of the club's new status, Lille entered into a decisive new era under the guidance of chairman and Chief executive officer Michel Seydoux and coach Claude Puel. The club left the historical Stade Grimonprez-Jooris to join the Stadium Lille Métropole and became a regular


title: "Where's Charley?" content: butler, Brassett, making sure that luncheon will be ready for later that afternoon. He is so excited because his roommate, Charley Wykeham, has gone to the train station to meet his aunt, Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez, who is coming in from Brazil for a visit. Having Charley's aunt there as chaperone will make it quite easy for their two girl friends, Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue, to come for a visit. Charley does return - but without his aunt. Apparently, she never was on the train. After reading her letter more carefully, Charley realizes that he made a mistake - she


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: The Castle, Newcastle The Castle, Newcastle is a medieval fortification in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, built on the site of the fortress that gave the City of Newcastle its name. The most prominent remaining structures on the site are the Castle Keep, the castle's main fortified stone tower, and the Black Gate, its fortified gatehouse. Use of the site for defensive purposes dates from Roman times, when it housed a fort and settlement called Pons Aelius, guarding a bridge over the River Tyne. Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, in 1080 built a wooden motte and bailey style


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: castle on the site of the Roman fort. Curthose built this 'New Castle upon Tyne' after he returned south from a campaign against Malcolm III of Scotland. Henry II built the stone Castle Keep was built between 1172 and 1177 on the site of Curthose's castle. Henry III added the Black Gate between 1247 and 1250. Nothing remains of the Roman fort or the original motte and bailey castle. The Keep is a Grade I listed building, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The Castle Keep and Black Gate pre-date the construction of the Newcastle town wall, construction of which started


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: around 1265, and did not include it. The site of the keep is in the centre of Newcastle and lies to the east of Newcastle station. The gap between the Keep and the Gatehouse is almost entirely filled by the railway viaduct that carries the East Coast Main Line from Newcastle to Scotland. The Keep and Black Gate are now managed by the Old Newcastle Project under the Heart of the City Partnership as one combined visitor attraction, "Newcastle Castle". In the mid-2nd century, the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at the place where Newcastle


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: now stands. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or ‘Bridge of Aelius’, Aelius being the family name of Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built along Tyne-Solway Gap. The Romans built a fort to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge. At some unknown time in the Anglo-Saxon age, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. In the late 7th century, a cemetery was established on the site of the Roman castle. In 1080, the Norman


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: king, William I, sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a ‘New Castle’. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). In 1095, the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against William Rufus and Rufus sent an army north to crush the revolt and to capture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: from which the king could control the northern barons. Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The master mason or architect, Maurice, also built Dover Castle. The great outer gateway to the castle, called ‘the Black Gate’, was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. During the civil wars at the


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: end of King John's reign, it was under the control of Philip of Oldcoates. Additional protection to the castle was provided late in the 13th century when stone walls were constructed, with towers, to enclose the town. The safety provided by the town walls led to the neglect of the fabric of the castle. In 1589, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the castle was described as being ruinous. From the early 17th century onward, this situation was made worse by the construction of shops and houses on much of the site. In 1643, during the English Civil War, the


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: Royalist Mayor of Newcastle, Sir John Marley, repaired the keep and probably also refortified the castle. In 1644 the Scottish army crossed the border in support of the Parliamentarians and the Scottish troops besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison surrendered. The town walls were extensively damaged and the final forces to surrender on 19 October 1644 did so from the Castle keep. During the 16th to the 18th century, the keep was used as a prison. By 1800, there were a large number of houses within the boundaries of the castle. In 1809, Newcastle Corporation bought the keep


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: and provided it with a roof and battlements. In addition the private dwellings within the castle boundaries were demolished. The keep was restored in 1810, 1812 and 1848. In the mid 19th century the arrival of the railway in Newcastle led to a viaduct to be constructed to the north of the keep and crossing the site of the castle. As a result, only the keep and the Black Gate now remain. The keep was restored between the 1960s and 1980s when crumbling outside stonework was replaced and the interior cleaned. The "Black Gate" was added to Newcastle Castle between


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: 1247 and 1250, forming an additional barbican in front of the earlier north gate of the castle. It consisted of two towers with a passage running between them. On either side of the passage was a vaulted guardroom. There was a drawbridge at the front (facing west) and another at the rear. There was also a portcullis which could be raised and lowered to seal the entrance passage. The original building would probably have had a flat roof, but in 1618 James I leased the gatehouse to a courtier, Alexander Stephenson. Stephenson substantially altered the gatehouse, rebuilding the upper floors.


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: Stephenson then let the Black Gate out to various tenants, one of whom was a merchant, named Patrick Black. It was he who gave his name to the Black Gate. Eventually houses were built along both sides of the passageway, and one part of the building became a public house. By the early part of the nineteenth century, the Black Gate had become a slum tenement, housing up to sixty people. Blackgate was leased to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1880s, which extensively restored it between 1883 and 1885. It was the Society that added


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: the top floor and pitched roof. The Society has held regular meetings there ever since. The drawbridges to the front and rear have been replaced by wooden footbridges. The Keep is a Grade I listed building, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is a roughly square building, measuring by and tall. The entrance leads via flights of stairs to the second floor and into the Great Hall, the largest room in the keep, measuring by . The Black Gate was approached via a drawbridge across a moat. A wooden bridge has replaced the drawbridge. The original gate had a portcullis,


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: and the recesses where this fitted can still be seen. The keep is currently owned by Newcastle City Council and managed by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, one of the world's oldest antiquarian societies. The Castle Keep can be visited today. The keep is also notable in having the main East Coast railway line running through the centre of the grounds. In particular, the battlements offer fine views over the River Tyne quayside, the cathedral and Newcastle station. The castle is reputedly haunted, and has been subject to many paranormal investigations. It featured in an episode of


title: "The Castle, Newcastle" content: "Most Haunted". The Castle Keep and the Black Gate have recently been refurbished by the Heart of the City partnership and reopened on 21 March 2015 as Newcastle Castle. In addition to improved accessibility, new additions include an education centre, reception/gift shop and museum room in the Black Gate and audio-visual installations in the Castle Keep, telling the story of the site and the people who have lived there over the years. The Castle, Newcastle The Castle, Newcastle is a medieval fortification in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, built on the site of the fortress that gave the City of Newcastle


title: "Yasmeen Lari" content: father Zafarul Ahsan, an ICS officer, was working on major development projects in Lahore and other cities, through which Lari was exposed to architecture. Her sister is Pakistani politician Nasreen Jalil. When she was 15 years old, she first left Pakistan to go to London with her family. Initially there for a vacation, she and her siblings ended up enrolling in school in London. Upon her rejection from architecture school, Yasmeen Lari studied two years of arts in London before being accepted into the Oxford Brookes University School of Architecture. After graduating from the Oxford School of Architecture in 1964,


title: "The Return of the Native" content: reappears; he has unexpectedly inherited a large sum of money, and is now in a better position to fulfill Eustacia's hopes. He comes calling on the Yeobrights in the middle of one hot August day and, although Clym is at home, he is fast asleep on the hearth after a gruelling session of furze-cutting. While Eustacia and Wildeve are talking, Mrs. Yeobright knocks on the door; she has decided to pay a courtesy call in the hopes of healing the estrangement between herself and her son. Eustacia looks out at her and then, in some alarm, ushers her visitor out


title: "West Side Highway" content: do about the rest of the highway. Vollmer Associates was contracted for the highway replacement project in September 1986. There were four alternatives: three at-grade options with a varying number of lanes and quality of roadway, and one option with grade-separated ramps over busy intersections. By November, a commission was set up to discuss the alternatives. Four days later, several sections of the highway were agreed on. It would be an elevated highway north of 49th Street; an at-grade roadway between 44th and 25th Streets, including a depressed northbound roadway from 32nd to 42nd Streets; a tunnel under a park


title: "Obstruction (baseball)" content: Game 3 of the 2013 World Series was that, in the 2013 game, Allen Craig got up after he tripped over Middlebrooks and ran hard toward home plate, where he was tagged by catcher Saltalamacchia just before he slid into the plate. Home plate umpire Dana DeMuth then made the final call that Craig was safe because he would have scored if Middlebrooks's obstruction had not occurred. According to David Smith, baseball historian and founder of Retrosheet, as of October 2013, the 2004 and 2013 games described above were the only games that ever ended on an obstruction call. The


title: "Lauren Harris" content: singing in pubs and bars with a friend; after one of the performances, she was invited to Russ Ballard's house and studio to record a demo. From 2005 to 2008, Harris worked with Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Tom McWilliams, who assisted with song arrangement and composition. McWilliams also toured with Harris, performing as the band's drummer. Harris toured Europe, playing outdoor festivals such as the German Rock Am Ring, Rock Am Park and UK Download festivals. Harris supported Iron Maiden on their "A Matter of Life and Death" world tour, playing at Dubai and the Brixton Academy, London, amongst other


title: "Dave Berry (presenter)" content: to online men's lifestyle magazine Blokely and began regularly blogging for the news website Huffington Post UK in July 2012., He has also contributed to "The Daily Telegraph". Berry married charity Communications and Marketing Consultant Sarah-Jane Davies in March 2018. He was engaged to Sugababes singer Heidi Range. In 2012 he was appointed ambassador for the Charlton Athletic Community Trust. He is ambassador for YouCan Youth Cancer Support which operates in London, Kent and the south east, and Balls To Cancer - a Midland's based charity raising awareness for male cancer. He stated in The Guardian that a disastrous, bleeding


title: "Sparks (band)" content: movie actor Peter Franzén and American actress Ann Magnuson portrayed the role of Greta Garbo. The show was held at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. The group showcased at the film festival in their quest for funding for the feature film version. The performance garnered glowing reviews from journals such as The Huffington Post, the LA Times, the LA Weekly, and LA Record. In 2010, Sparks remixed Yoko Ono's song "Give Me Something". In July they contributed a remix of sorts to singer Katie Melua's single, A Happy Place, calling it "Sparks VS. Melua." September 2 marked the


title: VMFA-232 content: 1986, the Red Devils completed their sixth, and last six-month tour of the Western Pacific in the venerable F-4 Phantom. In December 1988, VMFA-232 turned in their last F-4 Phantom II to the National Air and Space Museum. In early 1989, the Red Devils began their transition to the F/A-18 Hornet. Aircrew trained at VMFAT-101 at MCAS El Toro and the maintenance department at FRAMP at NAS Lemoore, California. In June 1989, with return of aircrew and maintenance personnel to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and receipt of their twelfth Hornet, the Red Devils had completed the transition. In December 1990, with


title: "History of the Balkans" content: shared the commonality of having been assimilated in language and culture of the Roman Empire with the Roman colonists settled in their areas. Anna Comnene relates in Alexiade about Dacians (instead of Vlachs) from Balkans and from the North side of Danube and they were identified as Romanians. Romance-speaking populations survived on the Adriatic, and the Albanians are believed by some to be descending from partially Romanized Illyrians. In the 7th century the First Bulgarian Empire was established. It greatly increased in strength in the coming centuries stretching from Dnieper to Budapest and the Mediterranean. Bulgaria dominated the Balkans for


title: "A Hole in My Heart" content: a 41% approval percentage based on 17 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. A Hole in My Heart A Hole in My Heart () is a 2004 Swedish experimental drama film written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, starring Thorsten Flinck, Sanna Bråding, Björn Almroth and Goran Marjanovic. The story revolves around a man who makes a pornographic film in his apartment with a friend and an attention-seeking starlet, while his teenage son stays in his room and listens to ambient noise music. The film is notable for its explicit imagery, including close-ups of vaginal reconstruction surgery, an anal sex scene without the


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: Vasquez Rocks Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is located in the town of Agua Dulce, between the suburbs of Santa Clarita and Palmdale. The area is also visible from the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14). These rock formations were formed by rapid erosion during uplift about 25 million years ago, and then later exposed by uplift activity along the San Andreas Fault. The Tataviam people were living here when the Spanish arrived. Their language was most likely a Takic Uto-Aztecan language. They lived


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: in grass huts within villages. With the coming of the Spanish missions, some members of this people were forced to work there. They eventually began speaking Spanish and inter-marrying with other tribes. The last of the Tataviam people died in 1916. In 1874, Tiburcio Vásquez, one of California's most notorious bandits, used these rocks to elude capture by law enforcement. His name has since been associated with this geologic feature. The land and rock formations were acquired gradually by Los Angeles County, beginning with a donation of 40 acres in 1971, with more parcels being added through 2001. The Pacific


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: Crest Trail crosses through the park. Vasquez Rocks was added to the National Register of Historic Places (site #72000228) in 1972 because of its significance as a prehistoric site for the Shoshone and Tataviam peoples. Literature reviews have dated the earliest sedimentation of the Vasquez Formation occurring between the later portion of the Oligocene Epoch to the lower Miocene Epoch, each respectively 33.9-23 million years ago and 23.03-5.3 million years ago. The Vasquez Formation is located just east of the city of Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County, California. It resides within the Soledad Basin, an orthogonal rift between the Sierra


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: Pelona Mountains to the northwest and the San Gabriel Mountains to the east, which are both within the province of the Transverse Mountain Range of Southern California. The San Andreas Fault runs parallel behind the Sierra Pelona Mountains and separates the formation from the North American Plate. The Vasquez Formation consists of alluvial sediments eroded from the Sierra Pelona and San Gabriel Mountains and were deposited in alluvial fans on both sides of the Soledad Basin. Erosion of the sediment included processes like rain, floods, wind, and earthquakes. Over the course of millions of years, the sediment was laid down


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: under alternating lacustrine and fluviatile conditions. Once laid flat across the basin floor, immense pressure converted the layers into sandstone, which became covered with younger sediment deposits. The sediment beds reside in a sharply-folded syncline. Due to its proximity to the San Andreas Fault, tectonic activity has been an important factor in the reshaping, uplift, and exposure of the buried sandstone. The Elkhorn Fault, an offshoot of the San Andreas Fault, runs through the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park. Other faults, such as the Pelona, Vasquez Canyon, Soledad, and San Gabriel Faults, are all within proximity of the formation. The


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: most exposed portion of the Vasquez Formation is the oldest tertiary formation within the east portion of the Ventura Basin. The Vasquez Rocks consist mainly of coarse-grained conglomerate and breccia sediments, which were deposited adjacent to active faults during rapid uplift and consequent erosion of the San Gabriel Mountains. Approximately 25 million years ago (late Oligocene time), the collision of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates uplifted the area along the Elkhorn Fault. Energetic erosion of the highland along with uplift and volcanism caused debris flow sediments to be distributed in alluvial fans into a rapidly subsiding rift known


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: as the Soledad Basin. These sediments were buried and lithified through the Miocene and became exposed more recently via activity along the San Andreas fault system. The strata are now highly tilted and disconnected from their source area. The strata was deformed and offset by the later fault activity. The distinctive hogback ridges of steeply inclined strata serve to graphically demonstrate the significant fault activity in the area. It is possible to see the extreme variance in grain size between layers of sediment where the strata is exposed. These sedimentary rocks, named the Mint Canyon Formation, were laid down about


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: 8-15 million years ago. In the upper layers, many animal fossils have been found, including camels, horses and rodents. In 1935, Universal Pictures assigned Stanley Bergerman as executive producer on the film "Werewolf of London". Bergerman suggested Vasquez Rocks as the filming location used to portray Tibet. Since then, its location inside the Thirty-mile studio zone has ensured Vasquez Rocks'repeated usage in motion pictures, television series, and advertising. The site once held the exterior façade of the fort featured in the 1950s television series "Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers". Even after the series ended, the façade could still be


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: seen there until around 1964-65. It was finally torn down because the rickety wooden stairs leading up to a rampart posed a danger to those that attempted to climb them. Vazquez Rocks is prominently featured in a 1963 episode of "Outer Limits" called "The Zanti Misfits". The rocks are also in several television westerns, including the 1959 "Whipsaw" episode of "Tombstone Territory," the "Bonanza" episode "Between Heaven and Earth", "The Wild Wild West" episode "The Night of the Cadre", and the opening credits of the TV Western "Laramie" as Slim Sherman and Jess Harper come riding down, each from one


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: side. The rock formations are also seen in the Michael Jackson music video "Black or White" when he dances with Plains Native Americans, and in an original series "" episode "", where Captain Kirk rolls a boulder onto a reptiloid alien called a Gorn. The prominent rock formation has been nicknamed "Kirk's Rock" due to being featured in several "Star Trek" episodes, each time representing a different planet. Vazquez Rocks is also present on the cover of Village People's 1978 album "Cruisin'", which includes the group's all-times greatest smash hit "Y.M.C.A.". The use of the rock as a place to


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: struggle with an enemy was echoed in the film "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" twice, once replaying the Gorn-themed "Star Trek" episode on the TV, and again when the title characters are murdered by their doubles at the same location. A scene at a diner in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" was filmed in front of the rocks, and in homage to the Star Trek episode, the diner is called The Arena Diner. Feature films shot at Vasquez Rocks include "Dante's Peak", "Hot Shots! Part Deux", "Rustlers' Rhapsody", "The Flintstones", "Blazing Saddles", "", "Free Enterprise", and "Hail, Caesar!". Television


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: shows include "The Fugitive", "F Troop", "The A-Team", and "MacGyver". Commercials for Taco Bell, Bank of America, Pacific Bell, Pepsi, and Nike have also been filmed at the rocks. In addition to Michael Jackson, Greta Van Fleet, 311, Eddie Money, Sammy Kershaw, and Lee Tae-min, member of the Korean Boy Band Shinee, also shot music videos here. Vasquez Rocks was also used prominently throughout all three seasons of the science-fiction television series "Roswell" as an important location for the main characters and their story. The area is also featured as the location of the Command Center/Power Chamber for "Mighty Morphin


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: Power Rangers" throughout "Power Rangers Turbo". In a season-five episode of "Friends", "The One with Joey's Big Break", Joey lands the lead role in a movie being filmed at the Vasquez Rocks (stand in for Las Vegas, though the peaks are not seen on camera). It is also featured in the movie "Paul", and in the 2009 "South by Southwest" episode of "NCIS". The final episode of "New Girl" season 1 is primarily set here with the Rocks prominent in the background. In the "Big Bang Theory" episode "The Bakersfield Expedition", which aired in 2013, the four male protagonists appear


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: to stop here, thanks to green screen, on their road trip to San Diego Comic-Con in Bakersfield, CA. Since they have ""-themed costumes for the costume contest at ComicCon, they decide to have a brief photoshoot at the Star Trek filming site. Their stop goes horribly wrong when someone steals their car as they are taking pictures. In the episode "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency", the characters attempt to observe a meteor shower from "34.48° N, 118.31°W", the map coordinates of the Vasquez Rocks formation, to make it appear as if they were there. The same formations can clearly be seen


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: in the TV series "Teen Wolf" (2011), during season 5, episode 13 titled "Codominance" when character Kira and her mother Noshiko set out to seek help from the Skinwalkers. Kira performs the Skinwalker's test on site as well, just before Scott and Stiles arrive to aide their escape. The same rock formations are also visible in episode 20 of the same season when Kira returns to make a deal with the Skinwalkers. Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is open from sunrise to sunset for outdoor activities. The park has equestrian areas, picnic areas, hiking trails, and rock climbing. The Pacific


title: "Vasquez Rocks" content: Crest Trail passes through Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park and can be used for short as well as lengthy hikes.Special events can also be hosted here, such as Star Parties and weddings. Vasquez Rocks Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a park located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is located in the town of Agua Dulce, between the suburbs of Santa Clarita and Palmdale. The area is also visible from the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14). These rock formations were formed by rapid erosion during uplift about 25 million years ago, and


title: "Primula veris" content: Primula veris Primula veris (cowslip, common cowslip, cowslip primrose; syn. "Primula officinalis" Hill) is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae. The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia. This species frequently hybridizes with other "Primulas" such as "Primula vulgaris" to form false oxlip ("Primula" × "polyantha") which is often confused with true oxlip ("Primula elatior"), a much rarer plant. The common name "cowslip" may derive from the old English for


title: "Primula veris" content: cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures. An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground; again, a typical habitat for this plant. The species name "veris" (of spring) is the genitive case form of Latin "ver" (spring). However, primrose "P. vulgaris", flowers earlier, from December to May in the British isles. Other common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, plumrocks, tittypines. "Primula veris" is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and


title: "Primula veris" content: broad, with a rosette of leaves 5–15 cm long and 2–6 cm broad. The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 10-30 blooms together on a single stem. Each flower is 9–15 mm broad. Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip enabling cross-pollination. The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes and clifftops. The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s


title: "Primula veris" content: in Britain. It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant. Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands. This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes. In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The cowslip may be confused with the closely related "Primula elatior" (oxlip) which has a similar general appearance and habitat, although the oxlip has larger, pale yellow flowers more like a


title: "Primula veris" content: primrose, and a corolla tube without folds. The roots of "Primula veris" contain several glycosides of 5-methoxysalicylic methyl ester, such as primeverin and primulaverin. In the dried crude root, their phenolic aglycones are responsible for the typical odor reminiscent of methyl salicylate or anethole. The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids. Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions. The subspecies


title: "Primula veris" content: "macrocalyx", growing in Siberia, contains the phenolic compound riccardin C. Cowslip leaves have been traditionally used in Spanish cooking as a salad green. Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars; sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying. The close cousin of the cowslip, the primrose "P. vulgaris" has often been confused with the cowslip and its uses in cuisine are similar with the addition of its flowers being used as a colouring agent in


title: "Primula veris" content: desserts. English children's writer Alison Uttley in her story "The Country Child" (1931) of family life on an English farm from the perspective of a 9-year-old farmer's daughter Susan describes cowslips among the favourite flowers of her heroine and mentions her participation in preparing them for making cowslip wine, a locally important process. After its initial preparation, cowslip wine "would change to sparkling yellow wine" offered in "little fluted glasses" with a biscuit to important "morning visitors" of the farm: such as the curate coming for subscriptions, the local squire (landowner) and an occasional dealer (of their produce). This wine


title: "Primula veris" content: "was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet". This herb was already mentioned by Pliny the Elder for its early blooming attributes. Species from the genus "Primula" along with other ritual plants played a significant role in the pharmacy and mythology of the Celtic druids, likely as an ingredient of magical potions to increase the absorption of other herbal constituents. In the Middle-Ages it was also known as St. Peter's herb or Petrella and was sought after by Florentine apothecaries. Hildegard von Bingen recommended the medicinal parts only for topical use


title: "Primula veris" content: but the leaves were also consumed as food. Other common names at the time were 'Herba paralysis', 'Verbascum', primrose or mullein leaves. It was frequently misidentified as or confused with similar species from the genus "Primula". Primula veris Primula veris (cowslip, common cowslip, cowslip primrose; syn. "Primula officinalis" Hill) is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae. The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia. This species frequently hybridizes with other


title: "Caltha palustris" content: Caltha palustris Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times. "Caltha palustris" is a 10–80 cm high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant, that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil. The plants have many, 2–3 mm thick strongly branching roots. Its flowering stems are hollow, erect


title: "Caltha palustris" content: or more or less decumbent. The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, each of which consist of a leaf stem that is about 4× as long as the kidney-shaped leaf blade, itself between 3–25 cm long and 3–20 cm wide, with a hart-shaped foot, a blunt tip, and a scalloped to toothed, sometime almost entire margin particularly towards the tip. In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to 3 cm long in fully grown plants. The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to 80 cm long, carrying –


title: "Caltha palustris" content: mostly several – seated leaflike stipules – or the lower ones may be on a short petiole -, and between four and six (but occasionally as few as one or as many as twenty five) flowers. The flowers are approximately 4 (2–5½) cm in diameter. There are four to nine (mostly five) petal-like, brightly colored – yolk yellow, white or magenta -, inverted egg-shaped sepals, each about 1¾ (1–2½) cm long and 1⅓ (¾–1¾) cm wide with a blunt or sometimes acute tip. Real petals and nectaries are lacking. Between fifty and hundred-twenty stamens with flattened yellow filaments and yellow


title: "Caltha palustris" content: tricolpate or sometimes pantoporate pollen encircle between five and twenty-five free, flattened, linear-oblong, yellow to green carpels, with a two-lobed, obliquely positioned stigma, and each with many seedbuds. This later on develops into a seated, funnel-shaped fruit (a so-called follicle) of ¾–2 cm long and ¼–½ cm wide, that opens with one suture at the side of the axis and contains seven to twenty ovoid, brown to black seeds of about 2½×1⅓ mm. The oldest description that is generally acknowledged in the botanical literature dates from 1700 under the name "Populago" by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in part 1 of


title: "Caltha palustris" content: his Institutiones rei herbariae. He distinguished between "P. flore major", "P. flore minor" and "P. flore plena", and already says all of these are synonymous to "Caltha palustris", without mentioning any previous author. As a plant name published before 1 May 1753, "Populago" is invalid. And so is the first description as "Caltha palustris" by Carl Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum of 1737. But Linnaeus re-describes the species under the same name in Species Plantarum of 1 May 1753, thus providing the correct name. The generic name "Caltha" is derived from the Ancient Greek (), meaning "goblet", and is said


title: "Caltha palustris" content: to refer to the shape of the flower. The species epithet "palustris" is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat. In the UK, "Caltha palustris" is known by a variety of vernacular names, varying by geographical region. These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds,


title: "Caltha palustris" content: and publicans-and-sinners. The common name "marigold" refers to its use in medieval churches at Easter as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in "Mary gold". In North America "Caltha palustris" is sometimes known as cowslip. However, cowslip more often refers to "Primula veris", the original plant to go by that name. Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but "Primula veris" is much smaller. "Caltha palustris" is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare: It also appears in Charlotte Brontë's "Shirley": and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour': "Kingcup Cottage" by Racey Helps is a children's


title: "Caltha palustris" content: book which features the plant. In Latvia Caltha palustris is also known as , which is also used as a girls name and symbolizes fire. The word is made from 2 words – ("fire") and ("burned"). This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with "Caltha" sap. "Caltha palustris" is a very variable species. Since most character states occur in almost any combination, this provides little basis for subdivisions. The following varieties are nevertheless widely recognised. They are listed with their respective synonyms. If an epithet based on the same type specimen is used at different


title: "Caltha palustris" content: levels, only the use at the highest taxonomic rank is listed, so as "C. himalensis" is already listed, "C. palustris" var. "himalensis" is not. The 2006–2007 edition of the Royal Horticultural Society "Plant Finder", a British publication which lists over 70,000 plants available in nurseries in the United Kingdom, lists in addition to these varieties the following cultivars: Single flowered: "Marilyn", "Trotter's form", "Yellow Giant". Double flowered: "Flore Pleno" (RHS's Award of Garden Merit), "Multiplex", "Plena", "Semiplena". The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil. It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer


title: "Caltha palustris" content: and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water. It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants. The resulting insoluble mineral appears as "rusty" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants. Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests. When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.


title: "Caltha palustris" content: It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches. It is a component of Purple moor grass and rush pastures – a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe. In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth "Micropterix calthella" bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen. The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.


title: "Caltha palustris" content: Another visitor of "Caltha palustris" in western Europe is the leaf beetle "Prasocuris phellandrii", which is black with four orange stripes and around ½ cm and eats the sepals. Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family. In the USA (Illinois) two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha: "Plateumaris nitida" and "Hydrothassa vittata". The maggots of some "Phytomyza" species (Agromyzidae) are miners in "Caltha" leaves. Flowers produce both nectar and copious amounts of pollen which attract many insect visitors. They may be most commonly pollinated by hoverflies (Syrphidae). In Canada, beetles (Cantharidae, Nitidulidae,


title: "Caltha palustris" content: Coccinellidae, Chrysomelidae, Cerambycidae), thrips (Thripidae), bugs (Miridae), butterflies (Pieridae), sawflies (Tenthredinidae), bees (Apidae, Halictidae, Andrenidae), ants (Formicidae) and flies (Sepsidae, Sciomyzidae, Ephydridae, Syrphidae, Anthomyiidae, Tachinidae and Muscidae) have been observed to visit the leaves or flowers, many of which were found carrying "Caltha" pollen. In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-pollination "Caltha palustris" is infertile when self-pollinated. Rather high fertility in crosses between sibling plants suggest that this phenomenon is genetically regulated by several genes. This regulation mechanism also occurs in "Ranunculus" and as far as known only in these two genera. In "Caltha


title: "Caltha palustris" content: palustris" up to two hundred seeds may be produced by each flower. When the follicles open, they form a "splash cup". When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the seeds are expelled. The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow. The marsh-marigold is affected by the rust species "Puccinia calthea" and "P. calthicola". Early spring greens and buds of "Caltha palustris" are edible when cooked. Young leaves or buds should be


title: "Caltha palustris" content: submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar. Very young flowerbuds have been prepared like capers and used as a spice. The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens. "Caltha" contains several active substances of which the most important from a toxicological point of view is protoanemonin. Larger quantities of the plant may cause convulsions, burning of the throat, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dizziness and fainting. Contact of the skin


title: "Caltha palustris" content: or mucous membranes with the juices can cause blistering or inflammation, and gastric illness if ingested. Younger parts seem to contain less toxics and heating breaks these substances down. Small amounts of "Caltha" in hay do not cause problems when fed to husbandry, but larger quantities lead to gastric illness. Caltha palustris Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional


title: "Mark Lenard" content: Mark Lenard Mark Lenard (born Leonard Rosenson, October 15, 1924 – November 22, 1996) was an American actor, primarily in television. His most famous role was as Sarek, father of the popular character Spock, in the science fiction "Star Trek" franchise, in both and , as well as three films and two episodes of "". He also played a Klingon in "Star Trek The Motion Picture", and a Romulan in an episode of "". Lenard was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Abraham, and his wife, Bessie, but was raised in the small town of


title: "Three Mills" content: Britain located their main working offices at Three Mills. Here, Bacardi was bottled and a large portfolio of wines and spirits was marketed. The House Mill remains the largest tidal mill in the world, although the water wheels are currently not in operation. The building is owned by The River Lea Tidal Mill Trust Ltd and is open to visitors on Sunday afternoons during the summer. It is one of only four Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham. The creation of the Three Mills Lock on the Prescott Channel and the Three Mills Wall River Weir,


title: Autofocus content: Autofocus An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication. Autofocus methods are distinguished by their type as being either active, passive or hybrid variants. Autofocus systems rely on one or more sensors to determine correct focus. Some AF systems rely on a single sensor, while others use an array of sensors. Most modern SLR cameras use through-the-lens optical sensors,


title: Autofocus content: with a separate sensor array providing light metering, although the latter can be programmed to prioritize its metering to the same area as one or more of the AF sensors. Through-the-lens optical autofocusing is now often speedier and more precise than can be achieved manually with an ordinary viewfinder, although more precise manual focus can be achieved with special accessories such as focusing magnifiers. Autofocus accuracy within 1/3 of the depth of field (DOF) at the widest aperture of the lens is common in professional AF SLR cameras. Most multi-sensor AF cameras allow manual selection of the active sensor, and


title: Autofocus content: many offer automatic selection of the sensor using algorithms which attempt to discern the location of the subject. Some AF cameras are able to detect whether the subject is moving towards or away from the camera, including speed and acceleration data, and keep focus on the subject — a function used mainly in sports and other action photography; on Canon cameras this is known as AI servo, while on Nikon cameras it is known as "continuous focus". The data collected from AF sensors is used to control an electromechanical system that adjusts the focus of the optical system. A variation


title: Autofocus content: of autofocus is an "electronic rangefinder", a system in which focus data are provided to the operator, but adjustment of the optical system is still performed manually. The speed of the AF system is highly dependent on the widest aperture offered by the lens. F-stops of around 2 to 2.8 are generally considered optimal in terms of focusing speed and accuracy. Faster lenses than this (e.g.: 1.4 or 1.8) typically have very low depth of field, meaning that it takes longer to achieve correct focus, despite the increased amount of light. Most consumer camera systems will only autofocus reliably with


title: Autofocus content: lenses that have a widest aperture of at least 5.6, while professional models can often cope with lenses that have a widest aperture of 8, which is particularly useful for lenses used in conjunction with teleconverters. Between 1960 and 1973, Leitz (Leica) patented an array of autofocus and corresponding sensor technologies. At photokina 1976, Leica had presented a camera based on their previous development, named Correfot, and in 1978 they displayed an SLR camera with fully operational autofocus. The first mass-produced autofocus camera was the Konica C35 AF, a simple point and shoot model released in 1977. The Polaroid SX-70


title: Autofocus content: Sonar OneStep was the first autofocus single-lens reflex camera, released in 1978. The Pentax ME-F, which used focus sensors in the camera body coupled with a motorized lens, became the first autofocus 35 mm SLR in 1981. In 1983 Nikon released the F3AF, their first autofocus camera, which was based on a similar concept to the ME-F. The Minolta 7000, released in 1985, was the first SLR with an integrated autofocus system, meaning both the AF sensors and the drive motor were housed in the camera body, as well as an integrated film advance winder — which was to become


title: Autofocus content: the standard configuration for SLR cameras from this manufacturer, and also Nikon abandoned their F3AF system and integrated the autofocus-motor and sensors in the body. Canon, however, elected to develop their EOS system with motorised lenses instead. In 1992, Nikon changed back to lens integrated motors with their AF-I and AF-S range of lenses; today their entry-level DSLRs do not have a focus motor in the body due to a broad range of available lenses with internal focus motors. Active AF systems measure distance to the subject independently of the optical system, and subsequently adjust the optical system for correct


title: Autofocus content: focus. There are various ways to measure distance, including ultrasonic sound waves and infrared light. In the first case, sound waves are emitted from the camera, and by measuring the delay in their reflection, distance to the subject is calculated. Polaroid cameras including the Spectra and SX-70 were known for successfully applying this system. In the latter case, infrared light is usually used to triangulate the distance to the subject. Compact cameras including the Nikon 35TiQD and 28TiQD, the Canon AF35M, and the Contax T2 and T3, as well as early video cameras, used this system. A newer approach included


title: Autofocus content: in some consumer electronic devices, like mobile phones, is based on the time-of-flight principle, which involves shining a laser or LED light to the subject and calculating the distance based on the time it takes for the light to travel to the subject and back. This technique is sometimes called "laser autofocus", and is present in many mobile phone models from several vendors. An exception to the two-step approach is the mechanical autofocus provided in some enlargers, which adjust the lens directly. Passive AF systems determine correct focus by performing passive analysis of the image that is entering the optical


title: Autofocus content: system. They generally do not direct any energy, such as ultrasonic sound or infrared light waves, toward the subject. (However, an autofocus assist beam of usually infrared light is required when there is not enough light to take passive measurements.) Passive autofocusing can be achieved by phase detection or contrast measurement. Phase detection (PD) is achieved by dividing the incoming light into pairs of images and comparing them. Through-the-lens secondary image registration (TTL SIR) passive phase detection is often used in film and digital SLR cameras. The system uses a beam splitter (implemented as a small semi-transparent area of the


title: Autofocus content: main reflex mirror, coupled with a small secondary mirror) to direct light to an AF sensor at the bottom of the camera. Two micro-lenses capture the light rays coming from the opposite sides of the lens and divert it to the AF sensor, creating a simple rangefinder with a base within the lens's diameter. The two images are then analysed for similar light intensity patterns (peaks and valleys) and the separation error is calculated in order to find whether the object is in front focus or back focus position. This gives the direction and an estimate of the required amount


title: Autofocus content: of focus-ring movement. PD AF in a continuously focusing mode (e.g. "AI Servo" for Canon, "AF-C" for Nikon, Pentax and Sony) is a closed-loop control process. PD AF in a focus-locking mode (e.g. "One-Shot" for Canon, "AF-S" for Nikon and Sony) is widely believed to be a "one measurement, one movement" open-loop control process, but focus is confirmed only when the AF sensor sees an in-focus subject. The only apparent differences between the two modes are that a focus-locking mode halts on focus confirmation, and a continuously focusing mode has predictive elements to work with moving targets, which suggests they


title: Autofocus content: are the same closed-loop process. Although AF sensors are typically one-dimensional photosensitive strips (only a few pixels high and a few dozen wide), some modern cameras (Canon EOS-1V, Canon EOS-1D, Nikon D2X) feature TTL area SIR sensors that are rectangular in shape and provide two-dimensional intensity patterns for a finer-grain analysis. Cross-type focus points have a pair of sensors oriented at 90° to one another, although one sensor typically requires a larger aperture to operate than the other. Some cameras (Minolta 7, Canon EOS-1V, 1D, 30D/40D, Sony DSLR-A700, DSLR-A850, DSLR-A900) also have a few "high-precision" focus points with an additional


title: Autofocus content: set of prisms and sensors; they are only active with "fast lenses" with certain geometrical apertures (typically f-number 2.8 and faster). Extended precision comes from the wider effective measurement base of the "range finder". Contrast-detection autofocus is achieved by measuring contrast within a sensor field through the lens. The intensity difference between adjacent pixels of the sensor naturally increases with correct image focus. The optical system can thereby be adjusted until the maximal contrast is detected. In this method, AF does not involve actual distance measurement at all. This creates significant challenges when tracking moving subjects, since a loss of


title: Autofocus content: contrast gives no indication of the direction of motion towards or away from the camera. Contrast-detect autofocus is a common method in digital cameras that lack shutters and reflex mirrors. Most DSLRs use this method (or a hybrid of both contrast and phase-detection autofocus) when focusing in their live-view modes. A notable exception is Canon digital cameras with Dual Pixel CMOS AF. Mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras typically used contrast-measurement autofocus, although phase detection has become the norm on most mirrorless cameras giving them significantly better AF tracking performance compared to contrast detection. Contrast detection places different constraints on lens design when


title: Autofocus content: compared with phase detection. While phase detection requires the lens to move its focus point quickly and directly to a new position, contrast-detection autofocus instead employs lenses that can quickly sweep through the focal range, stopping precisely at the point where maximal contrast is detected. This means that lenses designed for phase detection often perform poorly on camera bodies that use contrast detection. The assist light (also known as AF illuminator) "activates" passive autofocus systems in low-light and low-contrast situations in some cameras. The lamp projects visible or IR light onto the subject, which the camera's autofocus system uses to


title: Autofocus content: achieve focus. Many cameras that do not have a dedicated autofocus assist lamp instead use their built-in flash, illuminating the subject with stroboscopic bursts of light. The strobe bursts aid the autofocus system in the same fashion as a dedicated assist light, but have the disadvantage of startling or annoying living subjects. Another disadvantage is that if the camera uses flash focus assist and is set to an operation mode that overrides the flash, it may also disable the focus assist and autofocus may fail to acquire the subject. Similar stroboscopic flashing is sometime used to reduce the red-eye effect,


title: Autofocus content: but this method is only intended to constrict the subject's eye pupils prior to the actual shot being taken, and thus reduce retinal reflections. In some cases, external flash guns have integrated autofocus assist lamps that replace the stroboscopic on-camera flash. Another way to assist contrast based AF systems in low light is to beam a laser pattern on to the subject. The laser method is commercially called Hologram AF Laser and was used in Sony Cybershot cameras around the year 2003, including Sony's F707, F717 and F828 models. In a hybrid autofocus system, focus is achieved by combining two


title: Autofocus content: or more methods, such as: The double effort is typically used to mutually compensate for the intrinsical weaknesses of the various methods in order to increase the overall reliability and accuracy or to speed up AF function. A rare example of an early hybrid system is the combination of an active IR or ultrasonic auto-focus system with a passive phase-detection system. An IR or ultrasonic system based on timed reflection will work regardless of the light conditions, but can be easily fooled by obstacles like window glasses, and the accuracy is typically restricted to a rather limited number of steps.


title: Autofocus content: Phase-detection autofocus "sees" through window glasses without problems and is much more accurate, but it does not work in low-light conditions or on surfaces without contrasts or with repeating patterns. A very common example of combined usage is the phase-detection auto-focus system used in single-lens reflex cameras since the 1985s. The passive phase-detection auto-focus needs some contrast to work with, making it difficult to use in low-light scenarios or on even surfaces. An AF illuminator will illuminate the scene and project contrast patterns onto even surfaces, so that phase-detection auto-focus can work under these conditions as well. A newer form


title: Autofocus content: of a hybrid system is the combination of passive phase-detection auto-focus and passive contrast auto-focus, sometimes assisted by active methods, as both methods need some visible contrast to work with. Under their operational conditions, phase-detection auto-focusing is very fast, since the measurement method provides both information, the amount of offset and the direction, so that the focusing motor can move the lens right into (or close to) focus without additional measurements. Additional measurements on the fly, however, can improve accuracy or help keep track of moving objects. However, the accuracy of phase-detection auto-focus depends on its effective measurement basis. If


title: Autofocus content: the measurement basis is large, measurements are very accurate, but can only work with lenses with a large geometrical aperture (e.g. 1:2.8 or larger). Even with high contrasty objects, phase-detection AF cannot work at all with lenses slower than its effective measurement basis. In order to work with most lenses, the effective measurement basis is typically set to between 1:5.6 and 1:6.7, so that AF continues to work with slow lenses (at least for as long as they are not stopped down). This, however, reduces the intrinsical accuracy of the autofocus system, even if fast lenses are used. Since the


title: Autofocus content: effective measurement basis is an optical property of the actual implementation, it cannot be changed easily. Very few cameras provide multi-PD-AF systems with several switchable measurement bases depending on the lens used in order to allow normal auto-focusing with most lenses, and more accurate focusing with fast lenses. Contrast AF does not have this inherit design limitation on accuracy as it only needs a minimal object contrast to work with. Once this is available, it can work with high accuracy regardless of the speed of a lens; in fact, for as long as this condition is met, it can even


title: Autofocus content: work with the lens stopped down. Also, since contrast AF continues to work in stopped-down mode rather than only in open-aperture mode, it is immune to aperture-based focus shift errors phase-detection AF systems suffer since they cannot work in stopped-down mode. Thereby, contrast AF makes arbitrary fine-focus adjustments by the user unnecessary. Also, contrast AF is immune to focusing errors due to surfaces with repeating patterns and they can work over the whole frame, not just near the center of the frame, as phase-detection AF does. The down-side, however, is that contrast AF is a closed-loop iterative process of shifting


title: Autofocus content: the focus back and forth in rapid succession. Compared to phase-detection AF, contrast AF is slow, since the speed of the focus iteration process is mechanically limited and this measurement method does not provide any directional information. Combining both measurement methods, the phase-detection AF can assist a contrast AF system to be fast and accurate at the same time, to compensate aperture-based focus-shift errors, and to continue to work with lenses stopped down, as, for example, in stopped-down measuring or video mode. Recent developments towards mirrorless cameras seek to integrate the phase-detection AF sensors into the image sensor itself. Typically,


title: Autofocus content: these phase-detection sensors are not as accurate as the more sophisticated stand-alone sensors, but since the fine focusing is now carried out through contrast focusing, the phase-detection AF sensors are only need to provide coarse directional information in order to speed up the contrast auto-focusing process. In July, 2010, Fujifilm announced a compact camera, the F300EXR, which included a hybrid autofocus system consisting of both phase-detection and contrast-based elements. The sensors implementing the phase-detection AF in this camera are integrated into the camera's Super CCD EXR. Currently it is used by Fujifilm FinePix Series, Fujifilm X100S, Ricoh, Nikon 1 series,


title: Autofocus content: Canon EOS 650D/Rebel T4i and Samsung NX300. Active systems will typically not focus through windows, since sound waves and infrared light are reflected by the glass. With passive systems this will generally not be a problem, unless the window is stained. Accuracy of active autofocus systems is often considerably less than that of passive systems. Active systems may also fail to focus a subject that is very close to the camera (e.g., macro photography). Passive systems may not find focus when the contrast is low, notably on large single-colored surfaces (walls, blue sky, etc.) or in low-light conditions. Passive systems


title: Autofocus content: are dependent on a certain degree of illumination to the subject (whether natural or otherwise), while active systems may focus correctly even in total darkness when necessary. Some cameras and external flash units have a special low-level illumination mode (usually orange/red light) which can be activated during auto-focus operation to allow the camera to focus. A method variously referred to as "trap focus", "focus trap", or "catch-in-focus" uses autofocus to take a shot when a subject moves into the focal plane (at the relevant focal point); this can be used to get a focused shot of a rapidly moving object,


title: Autofocus content: particularly in sports or wildlife photography, or alternatively to set a "trap" so that a shot can automatically be taken without a person present. This is done by using AF to "detect" but not "set" focus – using manual focus to set focus (or switching to manual after focus has been set) but then using "focus priority" to detect focus and only release the shutter when an object is in focus. The technique works by choosing the focus adjustment (turning AF off), then setting the shooting mode to "Single" (AF-S), or more specifically focus priority, then depressing the shutter –


title: Autofocus content: when the subject moves into focus, the AF detects this (though it does not change the focus), and a shot is taken. The first SLR to implement trap focusing was the Yashica 230 AF. Trap focus is also possible on some Pentax (e.g. K-x and K-5), Nikon, and Canon EOS cameras. The EOS 1D can do it using software on an attached computer, whereas cameras like the EOS 40D and 7D have a custom function (III-1 and III-4 respectively) which can stop the camera trying to focus after it fails. On EOS cameras without genuine trap focus, a hack called


title: Autofocus content: "almost trap focus" can be used, which achieves some of the effects of trap focus. By using the custom firmware Magic Lantern, some Canon DSLRs can perform trap focus. AI Servo is an autofocus mode found on Canon SLR cameras. The same principle is used by other brands such as Nikon, Sony, and Pentax, called "continuous focus" (AF-C). Also referred to as "focus tracking", it is used to track a subject as it moves around the frame, or toward and away from the camera. When in use, the lens will constantly maintain its focus on the subject, hence it is


title: Autofocus content: commonly used for sports and action photography. AI refers to artificial intelligence: algorithms that constantly predict where a subject is about to be based on its speed and acceleration data from the autofocus sensor. Modern autofocus is done through one of two mechanisms; either a motor in the camera body and gears in the lens ("screw drive") or through electronic transmission of the drive instruction through contacts in the mount plate to a motor in the lens. Lens-based motors can be of a number of different types, but are often ultrasonic motors or stepper motors. Some camera bodies, including all


title: Autofocus content: Canon EOS bodies and the more budget-oriented among Nikon's DX models, do not include an autofocus motor and therefore cannot autofocus with lenses that lack an inbuilt motor. Some lenses, such as Pentax' DA* designated models, although normally using an inbuilt motor, can fall back to screwdrive operation when the camera body does not support the necessary contact pins. Autofocus An autofocus (or AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the


title: "The Champaign–Urbana Sessions" content: The Champaign–Urbana Sessions The Champaign–Urbana Sessions is an album of studio sessions and rehearsals by the band King Crimson, released through the King Crimson Collectors' Club in December 2002. These were originally intended for their album "Three of a Perfect Pair", but the material was scrapped and the group would re-convene at several later dates. "On (and off) The Road" included this disc along with two new tracks, under the new title "Fragmented". The tracks "Yoli Yoli" and "Adrian and Robert" were added for release on "On (and off) The Road" in 2016. "Yoli Yoli" is a complete song with


title: "John Stanier (drummer)" content: became a professional DJ for a year and a half. The length of his drumming inactivity was in part due to a broken wrist, as well as the fact that he simply could not find a band he wanted to play with. Since 2000, Stanier has been much more active with drumming. He is currently a member of three bands: Battles, Tomahawk, and The Mark of Cain. John Stanier (drummer) John Stanier is an American drummer who is currently the drummer of experimental rock band Battles. He has previously played in Helmet, Tomahawk and The Mark of Cain, as well


title: "2004 in tennis" content: the 2004 WTA Tour Championships by repeating her Wimbledon victory over Serena Williams in the final, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4, after coming from 0–4 down in the final set. Houston, United States Los Angeles, USA Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan Pacicic Life Open, Indian Wells, United States NASDAQ-100 Open, Miami, United States Family Circle Cup, Charleston, United States Qatar Total German Open, Berlin, Germany Telecom Italia Masters Roma, Rome, Italy Acura Classic, San Diego, United States Rogers Cup presented by American Express, Montreal, Canada Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia Zurich Open, Zürich, Switzerland 2004 in tennis This page covers all the


title: "Jan Zábrana" content: Jan Zábrana Jan Zábrana (4 July 1931, in Herálec (Havlíčkův Brod District) – 3 September 1984, in Prague) was a Czech writer and translator. His parents were teachers and politicians persecuted by the communist regime after the communist revolution of 1948: his mother, a member of the regional parliament, was arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison; his father, mayor of Humpolec before the communist coup, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison. All property of the Zábrana family was confiscated when Zábrana was nineteen. University studies were prohibited to non-communists, so he tried to study in a


title: "Vowel length" content: if long vowels are vowel clusters; poems written in the Kalevala meter often syllabicate between the vowels, and an (etymologically original) intervocalic "-h-" is seen in that and some modern dialects ("taivaan" vs. "taivahan" "of the sky"). Morphological treatment of diphthongs is essentially similar to long vowels. Some old Finnish long vowels have developed into diphthongs, but successive layers of borrowing have introduced the same long vowels again so the diphthong and the long vowel now again contrast ("nuotti" "musical note" vs. "nootti" "diplomatic note"). In Japanese, most long vowels are the results of the phonetic change of diphthongs; "au"


title: "Vowel length" content: and "ou" became "ō", "iu" became "yū", "eu" became "yō", and now "ei" is becoming "ē". The change also occurred after the loss of intervocalic phoneme . For example, modern "Kyōto" (Kyoto) has undergone a shift: /kjauto/ → /kjoːto/. Another example is "shōnen" ("boy"): /seuneɴ/ → /sjoːneɴ/ [ɕoːneɴ]. Many languages make a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels: Arabic, Sanskrit, Japanese, Biblical Hebrew, Finnish, Hungarian, Kannada, etc. Long vowels may or may not be analyzed as separate phonemes. In Latin and Hungarian, long vowels are analyzed as separate phonemes from short vowels, which doubles the number of vowel phonemes.


title: "Magnocellular cell" content: Magnocellular cell Magnocellular cells, also called M-cells, are neurons located within the Adina magnocellular layer of the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus. The cells are part of the visual system. They are termed "magnocellular" since they are characterized by their relatively large size compared to parvocellular cells. Details of the flow of signaling from the eye to the visual cortex of the brain that result in the experience of vision are not fully understood and many aspects are subject to active controversy and the disruption of new evidence. In the visual system, signals for the most part travel from


title: "Ram Pickup" content: than 30 years old (or 15 years old if registered in Western Australia) cannot be legally driven on Australian public roads unless they are granted a diplomatic or a research and development exception to the rule. In the United Kingdom there is no such restriction, so a stock LHD Ram (or any other LHD vehicle) is not required to undergo the costly and time-consuming process of an RHD conversion in order to be compliant with EU regulations. Following the collapse of Nissan Titan sales in 2008, there were talks that the next generation of Nissan's full-sized pickup would be outsourced


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: Dodge Dakota The Dodge Dakota, known as the Ram Dakota for the final two years of production, is a mid-size pickup truck from Chrysler's Ram (formerly Dodge Truck) division. From its introduction through 2009, it was marketed by Dodge. The first Dakota was introduced in 1986 as a 1987 model alongside the redesigned Dodge Ram 50. The Dakota was nominated for the North American Truck of the Year award for 2000. The Dakota has always been sized above the compact Ford Ranger and Chevrolet S-10, but below the full-sized pickups such as Dodge's own Ram. It is a conventional design


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: with body-on-frame construction and a leaf spring/live axle rear end. The Dakota is the first mid-size pickup with an optional V8 engine. One notable feature was the Dakota's rack and pinion steering which was added as a part of the 1997 re-design, a first for work trucks. Dakotas have been used by police and fire departments, as off-road vehicles, patrol trucks, or even brush trucks. The Dodge Dakota was developed by Chrysler as a mid-sized pickup. To keep investment low, many components were shared with existing Chrysler products and the manufacturing plant was shared with the full-sized Dodge D-Model. The


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: first generation of the Dakota was produced from 1986 through 1996 (for the 1987 to 1996 model years). It was slightly updated for the 1991 model year. Inline-four and V6 engines were offered along with either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission. Four-wheel drive was available only with the V6. Both six- and eight-foot beds were offered. Fuel injection was added to the 3.9 L V6 for 1988, but the output remained the same. In 1988, the Sport package was added as a mid-year release. Exterior colors came in Black, Bright White, and Graphic Red. Available in both 2WD


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: and 4x4, the Sport included: The N-body platform was the result of operational efforts by Harold K. Sperlich, who was in charge of Chrysler's Product Planning in the early 1980s, in which Japanese-inspired compact pickups of the time lacked the size and features necessary to meet the demands of American buyers. In the late-1970s, Chrysler was still recovering from their near-bankruptcy and resources were in short supply. Sperlich challenged the N-Body team to search for all opportunities to reuse existing components to create the Dakota. The resulting highly investment-efficient program enabled Chrysler to create an all-new market segment at low


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: cost. Key individuals involved in making this product a reality included Glenn Gardner, Glen House, Robert Burnham, Don Sebert, Jim Hackstedde, and Clark Ewing. The basic Dakota vehicle was ultimately used as a foundation to create the Dakota extended cab version and the Dodge Durango SUV. Additional options found in first-generation trucks: In 1989, the unusual Dakota convertible was rolled out. The first American convertible pickup since the Ford Model A, it featured a fixed roll bar and a simple manual top. Roughly 2,482 were sold that first year. The idea came from Jerry York and they were manufactured by


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: ASC (American Sunroof Company, now known as American Specialty Cars). Another important addition that year was Carroll Shelby's V8-powered Shelby Dakota, his first rear-wheel drive vehicle in two decades. An extended "Club Cab" model was added for 1990, still with two doors. This model allowed the Dakota to boast capacity for six passengers, though the rear seat was best suited for cargo, children, and shorter adults. In 1991, the front of the Dakota received a new grille and hood which extended the engine compartment to better fit the optional 5.2 L V8, which was inspired by the earlier Shelby Dakota


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: V8 option. By 1992, the standard square sealed-beam glass headlamps were phased out for the aerodynamic-style molded plastic headlamps attached to the grill components. It was equipped with halogen lights, making 1991 the only year for a unique front-end for the Dakota, though it is mechanically possible to fit sealed beams on 1992 to 1996 model years, as this model year was an overlap between new grille introduction and new headlamp introduction. Also debuting in 1991 were six-bolt wheels (replacing the earlier five-bolt wheels) based on Dodge's marketing attempting to differentiate the Dakota from competing manufacturers' trucks and the upcoming


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: introduction of the redesigned Ram, and 1991 was also the first year for an optional driver-side airbag (made standard in 1994) and the last year for the Dakota convertible. To fulfill the Dodge division's commitment to the American Sunroof Company (which was responsible for the modifications to these trucks), production of the "drop top" Dakota was extended into the 1991 model year. Production was extremely limited, with just eight produced in total, making them the most rare of all Dakotas. Unlike the previous years, colors and options varied more than before, as the manufacturer picked each of these trucks in


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: a somewhat random fashion. No advertising was given to these trucks, and they do not appear in sales literature. This is most likely because the majority of them were sold before getting to their dealer lots. Both of the V-configuration engines were updated to Magnum specs the next year, providing a tremendous power boost. Along with the introduction of the Magnum engine came multiport electronic fuel injection (EFI). The EFI computer (called a PCM by Chrysler) was partially responsible for the improved performance. The new engine/computer combination produced about The 1994 model year had a few minor changes, with the


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: most notable being the addition of a driver's-side airbag, located in a new, two-spoke design steering wheel (also found in the Ram). Other changes included the discontinuation of the "SE" and "LE" trims. In following with the all-new Ram full-sized pickups, the top-end trim was renamed to "SLT", with these models (along with select others) wearing the new chrome finished, styled six-bolt steel wheels styled similar to the five-bolt type found on the larger Ram. Other changes included revisions to color and overall trim options. SRS airbags were also added for 1994. A CD player became optional, as did a


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: combination cassette player and CD player unit. Leather seats were also available on LE models. New alloy wheels were available. In 1996, the first generation's final year, the base K-based 2.5 L SOHC I4 engine option was out of production and had been considered vastly underpowered compared to the competition, so Dodge replaced it with another 2.5 L I4 engine; this being of American Motors heritage with an OHV valvetrain and rated at . This was the only major change for 1996, and the AMC 2.5 L would also be carried over as the base engine in the new, larger


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: 1997 model. Two special editions of the first were constructed with step-side beds. Both were constructed by L.E.R. Industries of Edwardsburg, Michigan. The step-side beds were constructed out of fiberglass and galvineel. Wooden bed rails were also available. The Li'l Red Express Dakota was made to resemble the original Express, which was based on the Dodge D-Series. It featured the classic-looking step-side bed and also had dual vertical exhaust stacks just behind the cab, which were purely cosmetic (though they could be made to be functional). The Dakota Warrior was made to resemble the Warlock trucks of the late 1970s.


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: Warriors featured the same custom bed as the Dakota Express, but lacked the vertical exhaust stacks. Both the Express and Warrior Dakotas had a graphics package made to resemble those of the original Express and Warlock, respectively. Production numbers for the Expresses and Warriors were very low, in the hundreds. The rarest of those came with the 5.2 L Magnum V8 engine, which was only an option during 1992, the final year of Express and Warrior production. The 1987-1996 Dodge Dakota came in three basic models: The Dakota was the base trim level. It included the following features: base vinyl


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: seating surfaces, radio delete package and audio system delete package (later, an A/M-F/M stereo with a two-speaker audio system became standard equipment on the Dakota model with a two-speaker audio system), a heater with fan control, vinyl flooring, a black front grille and front and rear bumpers, full-faced steel wheels, all-season tires, and manual "roll-up" windows and door locks. This model wasn't typically seen as a Club Cab model, and also wasn't available with a V8 engine option like the other Dakota models were available with. The Sport was the mid-range trim level. It added features such as vinyl-and-cloth-trimmed seating


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: surfaces, an A/M-F/M stereo with a two-speaker audio system, sport-styled steel wheels, body side cladding delete, a tilt-adjustable steering column and wheel, and "sport" interior accents to the base Dakota model. Later, it also added chrome-clad steel wheels, as well as a color-keyed front fascia and front grille, and Sport decals that adorned the doors and pickup bed sides of the Dakota. V6 and V8 engines were available on the Sport model. The Sport Convertible was the only convertible Dakota available, and was only available until the early 1990s, when it was finally discontinued. It added the following features to


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: the mid-range Sport trim level: sport-styled alloy wheels, cloth seating surfaces with vinyl inserts and accents, an A/M-F/M stereo with cassette player and a four-speaker audio system, air conditioning, a manual-folding vinyl convertible roof, and Sport decals on the doors of the Dakota. The V6 engine and two-door regular cab was the only available configuration of the Sport Convertible, which had all drivetrains available. The LE, later renamed SLT was the top-of-the-line trim level. It added features such as cloth seating surfaces, air conditioning, an A/M-F/M stereo with cassette player and a four-speaker audio system, alloy wheels, body side cladding,


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: a leather-wrapped premium steering wheel, carpeted flooring, and power windows and door locks to the mid-range Sport model. V6 and V8 engines were available on the LE or SLT model. The second-generation Dakota began development in 1991, with an exterior design proposal by Dennis Myles under design director John R. Starr being approved in mid-1993 and frozen for production in January 1994, 30 months ahead of Job 1. Design patents were filed on May 20, 1994 under D373,979 at the USPTO. The 1997 model year Dakota was unveiled via press release in the summer of 1996 and built from July


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: 1996 through July 2004. It inherited the semi truck look of the larger Ram, but remained largely the same underneath although steering was updated to rack and pinion as a part of the re-design. That year had the introduction of the 'R/T' model with the big 5.9 L Magnum V8. At the time of its introduction, it was seen as one of the most radical in its class, not only for its styling, but also because it remained the only truck in its class with an available V8 engine that rivaled many V8s found in full-sized trucks with payloads up


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: to . Four-door "Quad-Cab" models were added for 2000 with a slightly shorter bed, 63.1 in (160.2 cm), but riding on the Club Cab's 130.9 in (332.5 cm) wheelbase. The aging 5.2 L Magnum V8 was replaced by a new high-tech 4.7 L SOHC PowerTech V8. The Quad-Cab featured a full-sized flip up rear seat to provide room for three passengers in the back or lots of dry, interior room for cargo. In spring of 1998, a New limited-edition R/T package was available as an option on the Dakota Sport model from 1998 -2003. This version is considered a true


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: street/sport truck, only available in RWD. Factory modifications such as a 360 cid/5.9-liter V8 which produced at 4,400 rpm and 345 foot-pounds of torque at 3,200 rpm. The only transmission choice available was the heavy-duty, 46RE four-speed automatic, performance axle, limited-slip differential, sport suspension and steering, upgraded brakes, performance exhaust, special 17x9" cast aluminum wheels, monotone paint, bucket seats with R/T in the headrests, and many other standard options came with the package. Chrome wheels were available on 2002 & 2003 models. Some of the last models made in 2003 came with the new stampede lower body cladding package and


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: chromed version of the original cast 17x9 aluminum wheels at no extra charge. This version of the R/T Dakota was produced through 2003, with the newer 2003 R/T trucks designated as their own trimline and no longer as part of an option package on the Dakota Sport trim. The Dakota R/T could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 6.9 seconds and complete a quarter-mile sprint in just a hair over 15 seconds. It had a maximum towing capacity of and a maximum payload capacity of . The RT Package: While the Magnum 360 V-8 under the hood


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: was the clear star of the show, the R/T package also included a host of additional upgrades. It came with a performance-tuned suspension, quicker steering gear, thicker stabilizer bars front and rear, sticky P255/55R17 tires and a ride height that was 1 inch lower than the standard Dakota. Also in 1998, the Dakota R1 was released for production in Brazil through the efforts of a small team known as Truck Special Programs and featured a base four-cylinder engine and offered a 2.5L VMI turbodiesel along with a V8, all designed around a reinforced four-wheel drive chassis used on both two-


title: "Dodge Dakota" content: and four-wheel drive models. Altogether, 28 roll-in-chassis R1 configurations were designed for the Brazil market to be built at the Curitiba assembly facility as CKDs. This program was cancelled when Chrysler was purchased by Daimler. The 4.7-liter V8 and 45RFE automatic transmission were introduced in 2000. A fairly extensive revision of the Dakota's interior was made in 2000 for 2001 year models, including a completely redesigned dash, door panels, and revised seats. Other minor trim revisions were made, including redesigned aluminum wheels on various models. All vehicles also got new radio options. Only the standard AM/FM radio (with no cassette