title: Powerlifting content: BAWLA and, in order to fall into line with the American lifts, the biceps curl was dropped and replaced with the deadlift. The first British Championship was held in 1966. During the late 1960s and at the beginning of the 1970s, various friendly international contests were held. At the same time, in early November of each year and to commemorate Hoffman's birthday, a prestigious lifting contest was held. In 1971, it was decided to make this event the "World Weightlifting Championships". The event was held on the morning of November 6, 1971, in York, Pennsylvania. There was no such thing


title: Powerlifting content: as teams and thus the event consisted of a large group of American lifters, four British lifters, and one lifter from the West Indies. All of the referees were American. Weights were in pounds. Lifting order was "rising bar", and the first lift was the bench press. There was no such thing as a bench shirt or squat suit, and various interpretations were held regarding the use and length of knee wraps and weightlifting belts. The IPF rules system did not exist yet, nor had world records been established. Because of the lack of formalized rules, some disputes occurred. There


title: Powerlifting content: was no 52 kg class, 100 kg class, or 125 kg class. At the first World Championships, one of the American super-heavyweights, Jim Williams, benched 660 lbs on his second attempt (no shirt), and almost locked out 680 lbs on a third attempt. Some other notable lifts were Larry Pacifico benching 515 lbs in the 90 kg class, John Kuc deadlifting 820 lbs, and Vince Anello attempting 800 lbs at 90 kg. Hugh Cassidy and Williams both totaled 2,160 lbs, but Cassidy got the win because of a lower bodyweight in the Super heavyweight division. In 1972 the 'second' AAU


title: Powerlifting content: World Championships were held, this time over two days – 10 and 11 November. This time there were 8 lifters from Great Britain (two of whom, Ron Collins and John Pegler, did stints as Referees), six Canadians, two Puerto Ricans, three Zambians, and one from the West Indies. With 67 lifters in all, the other 47 were Americans. Lifts were still measured in pounds, the bench press was the first lift, and there were still no suits, power belts, or fancy wraps. New Zealand's Precious McKenzie won his 'second' world title with 550 kg at 56. Mike Shaw 'lost' his


title: Powerlifting content: world title, won the previous year, to American Jack Keammerer. Ron Collins made up for his 'bomb' on the bench in 1971 and stormed to the 75 kg title. Pacifico just won against another American, Mel Hennessey, at 110 kg, both with enormous benches of 260 kg and 255 kg. At Super (over 110 kg) John Kuc beat Jim Williams with an incredible 2,350 lbs total (raw). Kuc squatting 905 lbs for a record squat and attempting a 397½ (875 lbs) deadlift again, and Williams benching a massive 307½ (675 lbs) – the greatest bench press ever at the time,


title: Powerlifting content: before just missing with 317½ (700 lbs). Jon Cole, the Super heavyweight winner of the US Senior Championships 1972 and holder of the greatest total at that time with 1,075 kg (2,370 lbs), didn't show up to take on Kuc. The International Powerlifting Federation was formed immediately after the contest, and so none of the lifts could be yet registered as official world records. The 1973 Worlds was also held in York. This time there were only 47 entrants: one Swedish, one Puerto Rican (Peter Fiore, who was lifting for Zambia), two Canadians, one West Indian, eight British, and the


title: Powerlifting content: rest Americans. The officiating became more international and included Tony Fitton and Terry Jordan from Britain, a Canadian, and a Zambian. American Bob Crist was the IPF President, and another American, Clarence Johnson, was Vice-President. 1973 was the first time that the lifts were done in the order now recognized – squat, bench press, deadlift (although still lifting in pounds). Precious Mackenzie won his third World title, easily beating American teenager Lamar Gant. 1974 was the first time that teams had to be selected in advance. With 74 entrants, this was the largest Worlds so far. The 52 kg class


title: Powerlifting content: was introduced, and nine lifters entered. In 1975, the World Championships was held outside America for the first time, at the town hall in Birmingham, hosted by Vic Mercer. 82 lifters entered. Unusually for a competition, the super-heavyweights lifted first. This was because the television company filming the event was only interested in filming the "big guys". Hoffman sent over tons of equipment for this contest and did not take it back, and local legend says it is all still being used in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region. The establishment of the IPF in 1973 spurred the establishment


title: Powerlifting content: of the EPF (European Powerlifting Federation) in 1974. Since it was closely associated with bodybuilding and women had been competing as bodybuilders for years, the new sport was opened to them very quickly. The first U. S. national championships for women were held in 1978 and the IPF added women's competition in 1979. In the USA, the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 required that each Olympic or potential Olympic sport must have its own national governing body by November 1980. As a result, the AAU lost control of virtually every amateur sport. The USPF was founded in 1980 as the


title: Powerlifting content: new national governing body for American powerlifting. Soon, controversy over drug testing would cause powerlifting to splinter into multiple federations. In 1981, the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association (ADFPA), led by Brother Bennett, became the first federation to break away from the USPF, citing the need to implement effective drug testing in the sport. Meanwhile, the IPF was moving towards adopting drug testing at international meets, and requiring member nations to implement drug testing at national meets as well. In 1982, drug testing was introduced to the IPF men's international championship, although the USPF championships that year did not have


title: Powerlifting content: drug testing. The IPF's push for drug testing was resisted by some American lifters, and in 1982 Larry Pacifico and Ernie Frantz founded the American Powerlifting Federation (APF), which advertised its categorical opposition to all drug testing. In 1987, the American Powerlifting Association (APA) and World Powerlifting Alliance (WPA) were formed by Scott Taylor. The APA and WPA offer both drug tested and non-tested categories in most of their competitions. Ultimately, the USPF failed to conform to IPF demands and was expelled from the international body in 1997, with the ADFPA, now named USA Powerlifting (USAPL), taking its place. Despite


title: Powerlifting content: the trend towards more and more federations, each with their own rules and standards of performance, some powerlifters have attempted to bring greater unity to the sport. For example, 100% RAW promoted unequipped competition and merged with another federation, Anti-Drug Athletes United (ADAU), in 2013. The Revolution Powerlifting Syndicate (RPS), founded by Gene Rychlak in 2011, might also be considered a move towards greater unity, as the RPS breaks the tradition of charging lifters membership fees to a specific federation in addition to entry fees for each competition. Also, some meet promoters have sought to bring together top lifters from


title: Powerlifting content: different federations, outside existing federations' hierarchy of local, regional, national and international meets; a prominent example of this is the Raw Unity Meet (RUM), held annually since 2007. As new equipment was developed, it came to distinguish powerlifting federations from one another. Weight belts and knee wraps (originally simple Ace bandages) predated powerlifting, but in 1983 John Inzer invented the first piece of equipment distinct to powerlifters—the bench shirt. Bench shirts and squat/deadlift suits (operating on the same principle) became ubiquitous in powerlifting, but only some federations adopted the latest and most supportive canvas, denim, and multiply polyester designs, while


title: Powerlifting content: others such as the IPF maintained more restrictive rules on which supportive equipment could be used. The Monolift, a rack in which the bar catches swing out and eliminate the walkout portion of the squat, was invented by Ray Madden and first used in competition in 1992. This innovation was adopted by some federations and forbidden in others. Other inventions included specialized squat bars and deadlift bars, moving away from the IPF standard of using the same bar for all three lifts. The rules of powerlifting have also evolved and differentiated. For example, in ADFPA/USAPL competition, the "press" command on


title: Powerlifting content: the bench press was used, not used, and then used again, following a 2006 IPF motion to reinstate this rule. IPF rules also mandate a "start" command at the beginning of the bench press. Many other federations, for example the Natural Athlete Strength Association (NASA), have never used the "start" command. As a further example of diversifying rules of performance, in 2011 the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) eliminated the "squat" command at the beginning of the squat. Some federations also now allow the sumo variation of the deadlift, which varies with the feet being considerably wider apart and some tension


title: Powerlifting content: taken off the lower spine being taken up by the legs. Many communities and federations do not class the sumo variation as a technical deadlift. In powerlifting, supportive equipment refers to supportive shirts, briefs, suits, and sometimes knee wraps made of materials that store elastic potential energy and thereby assist the three lifts contested in the sport: squat, bench press and deadlift. Some federations allow single ply knee sleeves, which contestant can put on and off by himself, and wraps for wrists in raw competition, while some don't and there are also some federations that hold raw records with and


title: Powerlifting content: without wraps like GPA. Straps are also used, as help with deadlift in case of a weak grip but are not allowed by any federations in official competitions. Belt is the only supportive equipment that is allowed by all federations in raw competition. The use of supportive equipment distinguishes 'equipped' and 'un-equipped' or 'raw' divisions in the sport, and 'equipped' and 'unequipped' records in the competition lifts. The wide differences between equipped and unequipped records in the squat and bench suggest that supportive equipment confers a substantial advantage to lifters in these disciplines. This is less evident in the case


title: Powerlifting content: of the deadlift, where the lack of an eccentric component to the lift minimizes how much elastic energy can be stored in a supportive suit. Supportive equipment should not be confused with the equipment on which the lifts are performed, such as a bench press bench, conventional or monolift stand for squat or the barbell and discs; nor with personal accessories such as a weightlifting belt that may allow greater weight to be lifted, but by mechanisms other than storing elastic energy. Supportive equipment is used to increase the weight lifted in powerlifting exercises. A snug garment is worn over


title: Powerlifting content: a joint or joints (such as the shoulders or hips). This garment deforms during the downward portion of a bench press or squat, or the descent to the bar in the deadlift, storing elastic potential energy. On the upward portion of each lift, the elastic potential energy is transferred to the barbell as kinetic energy, aiding in the completion of the lift. Some claim that supportive equipment prevents injuries by compressing and stabilizing the joints over which it worn. For example, the bench shirt is claimed to support and protect the shoulders. Critics point out that the greater weights used


title: Powerlifting content: with supportive equipment and the equipment's tendency to change the pattern of the movement may compromise safety, as in the case of the bar moving towards the head during the upward portion of the shirted bench press. Different materials are used in the construction of supportive equipment. Squat suits may be made of varying types of polyester, or of canvas. The latter fabric is less elastic, and therefore considered to provide greater 'stopping power' at the bottom of the movement but less assistance with the ascent. Bench shirts may be made of polyester or denim, where the denim again provides


title: Powerlifting content: a less-elastic alternative to the polyester. Knee wraps are made of varying combinations of cotton and elastic. Supportive equipment can be constructed in different ways to suit lifters' preferences. A squat or deadlift suit may be constructed for a wide or a narrow stance; and a bench shirt may be constructed with 'straight' sleeves (perpendicular to the trunk of the lifter) or sleeves that are angled towards the abdomen. The back of the bench shirt may be closed or open, and the back panel may or may not be of the same material as the front of the shirt. Similarly,


title: Powerlifting content: 'hybrid' squat suits can include panels made from canvas and polyester, in an effort to combine the strengths of each material. When two or more panels overlay one another in a piece of supportive equipment, that equipment is described as 'multi-ply', in contrast to 'single-ply' equipment made of one layer of material throughout. Unequipped or "raw" (often styled as RAW) or classic powerlifting has been codified in response to the proliferation and advancement of bench shirts and squat/deadlift suits. The AAU first began its raw division in 1994 and the term "raw" was coined by Al Siegal who later formed


title: Powerlifting content: the ADAU in 1996. The 100% RAW federation was founded in 1999; within a decade, many established federations came to recognize "raw" divisions in addition to their traditional (open) divisions permitting single-ply or multi-ply equipment. RAW during this time frame however was looked upon as a beginners stage by the elite lifters in powerlifting. In January 2008 the Raw Unity Meet (simply known as "RUM") was formed by Eric Talmant and Johnny Vasquez. This contest became the turning point in raw lifting. It was a crucial contest that gathered the best lifters under one roof regardless of gear worn to


title: Powerlifting content: compete without equipment. Brian Schwab, Amy Weisberger, Beau Moore, Tony Conyers, Arnold Coleman and Dave Ricks were among the first Elite lifters to remove their equipment and compete raw. RUM spearheaded raw lifting into what it has become today. United Powerlifting Association (UPA) established a standard for raw powerlifting in 2008 and USAPL held the first Raw Nationals in the same year. Eventually, IPF recognized raw lifting with the sanction of a "Classic 'Unequipped' World Cup" in 2012, and published its own set of standards for raw lifting. By this time, the popularity of raw lifting has surged to the


title: Powerlifting content: point where raw lifters came to predominate over equipped lifters in local meets. Note that the IPF's use of the word 'classic' to describe raw powerlifting is differentiated from most other powerlifting federations' use of the word to differentiate between 'classic raw' and 'modern raw': classic raw is still unequipped but allows the use of knee wraps while modern raw allows knee sleeves at most. The IPF does not allow knee wraps in its unequipped competitions and would thus be considered 'modern raw' but the IPF does not recognize the word 'raw.' The use of knee sleeves in unequipped powerlifting


title: Powerlifting content: has brought about much debate as to whether certain neoprene knee sleeves can actually assist a lifter during the squat. Some lifters purposely wear knee sleeves which are excessively tight and have been known to use plastic bags and have others to assist them get their knee sleeves on. This led to the IPF mandating that lifters put on their knee sleeves unassisted. Equipped lifters compete separately from raw lifters. Equipped lifters will wear a squat suit, knee wraps, a bench shirt, and a deadlift suit. These four things are what separate equipped lifters and raw lifters. A squat suit


title: Powerlifting content: is made of an elastic-like material, and a single-ply polyester layer. This allows a competitor to spring out of the bottom of a squat (called "pop out of the hole" in Powerlifting circles) by maintaining rigidity, keeping him or her upright and encouraging their hips to remain parallel with the floor. This allows lifters to lift more weight than would normally be possible without the suit. There are also multi-ply suits giving the lifter even more rigidity, like that of a traditional canvas suit, with the same pop as a single-ply suit or briefs. During the squat, lifters also tend


title: Powerlifting content: to wear knee wraps. Even though knee wraps will be a sub-classification of raw lifting it will still be worn by equipped lifters. A raw lifter who would squat in knee wraps will have the weight lifted noted as "in wraps" to distinguish this from the other raw lifters. Knee wraps are made out of the same, or very similar, elastic material as wrist wraps are made out of. They are wrapped around the lifters knees very tightly with the lifter usually not being able to do it himself and needing someone to assist them in doing so. The knee


title: Powerlifting content: wraps are wrapped in a spiral or diagonal method. The knee wraps build elastic energy during the eccentric part of the squat and once the lifter has hit proper depth the lifter will start the concentric part of the movement releasing this elastic energy and using it to help them move the weight upwards. It gives the lifter more spring, or pop out of the hole of the squat resulting in a heavier and faster squat. For the bench press, there are also single-ply and multi-ply bench shirts that work similarly to a squat suit. It acts as artificial pectoral


title: Powerlifting content: muscles and shoulder muscles for the lifter. It resists the movement of the bench press by compressing and building elastic energy. When the bar is still and the official gives the command to press the compression and elastic energy of the suit aids in the speed of the lift, and support of the weight that the lifter would not be able to provide for himself without the bench shirt. In order to achieve proper tightness and fitting the lifter must be assisted when putting the bench shirt on for it is not possible to be done alone. For the deadlift


title: Powerlifting content: suit, there is single-ply and multi-ply as well. The elastic energy is built when the lifter goes down to set up and place their grip on the bar before lifting even starts. The deadlift suit aids in getting the weight off the floor, considered to be the first part of the movement, but not very helpful on the lockout portion of the deadlift, known as the second part of the movement. Weight Classes: Most powerlifting federations use the following weight classes: Men: 52 kg, 56 kg, 60 kg, 67.5 kg, 75 kg, 82.5 kg, 90 kg, 100 kg, 110 kg,


title: Powerlifting content: 125 kg, 140 kg, 140 kg+ Women: 44 kg, 48 kg, 52 kg, 56 kg, 60 kg, 67.5 kg, 75 kg, 82.5 kg, 90 kg, 90 kg + However, in 2011, the IPF introduced the following new weight classes: IPF Weight Classes: Men: up to 53 kg (Sub-Junior/Junior), 59 kg, 66 kg, 74 kg, 83 kg, 93 kg, 105 kg, 120 kg, 120 kg+ Women: up to 43 kg (Sub-Junior/Junior), 47 kg, 52 kg, 57 kg, 63 kg, 72 kg, 84 kg, 84 kg + Age categories This depends on the federation generally but averages are as follows: 15-18 (Sub-Jr),


title: Powerlifting content: 19-23 (Jr), Any age(Open), 40+(Masters) The IPF uses the following age categories: sub-junior (18 and under), junior (19-23), open (24-39), masters 1 (40-49), masters 2 (50-59), masters 3 (60-69), masters 4 (70+). Age category is dependent on the year of the participant's birth. For example, if the participant turns 18 years old in January, he or she is still considered a Sub-junior until the end of that calendar year. Other federations typically break the Masters' categories down to 5-year increments, for example, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, etc. Some federations also include a sub-master class from 35-39. There are multiple types of


title: Powerlifting content: grip in powerlifting. Not all are allowed in competitions. There are couple of classifications: A powerlifting competition takes place as follows: Each competitor is allowed three attempts on each of the squat, bench press, and deadlift, depending on their standing and the organization they are lifting in. The lifter's best valid attempt on each lift counts toward the competition total. For each weightclass, the lifter with the highest total wins. In many meets, the lifter with the highest total relative to their weight class also wins. If two or more lifters achieve the same total, the lighter lifter ranks above


title: Powerlifting content: the heavier lifter. Competitors are judged against other lifters of the same gender, weight class, and age. This helps to ensure that the accomplishments of lifters like Lamar Gant, who has deadlifted 5 times his bodyweight, are recognized alongside those of Eddie Hall, the current All-time deadlift world record holder. Comparisons of lifters and scores across different weight classes can also be made using handicapping systems. World federations use the following ones: Wilks (IPF), Glossbrenner (WPC), Reshel (APF, GPC, GPA, WUAP, IRP), Outstanding Lifter (aka OL or NASA) (NASA), Schwartz/Malone, Siff; for cadet and junior categories Foster coefficient is mostly


title: Powerlifting content: used, while for master categories (above 40 years old) McCulloch or Reshel coefficients. Winner of a competition based on a official coefficient used by presiding world federation is called "best lifter". During the 2016 World Open Powerlifting Championships, the three best competitors were Fedosienko Sergey, Summer Blaine, and Olech Jaroslaw. The country with the most combined points was the Ukraine, who beat the next best team United States by close to 100 points. The 2016 championships did not see the same athletic stand out that the 2015 championships did by athlete Samuel Ogden from Ohio. In a powerlifting competition, sometimes


title: Powerlifting content: referred to as standard competition, there are three events: bench press, squat, and deadlift. Placing is achieved via combined total. Some variations of this are found at some meets such as "push-pull only" meets where lifters only compete in the bench press and deadlift, with the bench press coming first and the deadlift after. Single lift meets (or full meets) are often held, sometimes alongside a normal 3-lift event. This is most common in the bench press. At a meet the events will follow in order: squat, then bench press, and the deadlift will be the final lift of the


title: Powerlifting content: meet. If the federation also has an event for strict curls this will normally occur before the squat event. There are also, though very rarely, endurance meets (or "for repetitions" meets) where lifters compete in number of repetitions of exercise with the same weight (most often bench press and most often the weight is equal to lifter's weight). WDFPF held such competitions. There are two types depending on equipment used: conventional stand and monolift stand. In case of the former lift is called "walked out squat" and in case of the latter lift is called "monolift squat". Very few federations


title: Powerlifting content: allow monolift stand and one such is GPC. The lift starts with the lifter standing erect and the bar loaded with weights resting on the lifter's shoulders. At the referee's command the lift begins. The lifter creates a break in the hips, bends his knees and drops into a squatting position with the hip crease (the top surface of the leg at the hip crease) below the top of the knee. The lifter then returns to an erect position. At the referee's command the bar is returned to the rack and the lift is completed. With her or his back


title: Powerlifting content: resting on the bench, the lifter takes the loaded bar at arm's length. The lifter lowers the bar to the chest. When the bar becomes motionless on the chest, the referee gives a press command. Then the referee will call 'Rack' and the lift is completed as the weight is returned to the rack. In the deadlift the athlete grasps the loaded bar which is resting on the platform floor. The lifter pulls the weights off the floor and assumes an erect position. The knees must be locked and the shoulders back, with the weight held in the lifter's grip.


title: Powerlifting content: At the referee's command the bar will be returned to the floor under the control of the lifter. Powerlifters practice weight training to improve performance in the three competitive lifts—the squat, bench press and deadlift. Weight training routines used in powerlifting are extremely varied. For example, some methods call for the use of many variations on the contest lifts, while others call for a more limited selection of exercises and an emphasis on mastering the contest lifts through repetition. While many powerlifting routines invoke principles of sports science, such as specific adaptation to imposed demand (SAID principle), there is some


title: Powerlifting content: controversy around the scientific foundations of particular training methods, as exemplified by the debate over the merits of "speed work," or training to attain maximum acceleration of submaximal weights. In addition to weight training, powerlifters may pursue other forms of training to improve their performance. For example, aerobic exercise may be used to improve endurance during drawn-out competitions and support recovery from weight training sessions. Common set & rep schemes are based on a percentage of the lifter's 1RM (one rep maximum--meaning the most weight they are capable of lifting one time). For example, 5 sets of 5 reps (5x5)


title: Powerlifting content: at 75% of the 1RM. Rest periods between sets range from 2–5 minutes based on the lifter's ability to recover fully for the next set. Prominent international federations include: Of these federations, the oldest and most prominent is the IPF. It comprises federations from over 100 countries located on six continents. The IPF is the federation responsible for coordinating participation in the World Games, an international event affiliated with the International Olympic Committee.The IPF has many affiliates, one of these being USAPL. Specifically, the USAPL regulates all ages of lifters from the high school level to ages 40+ within the


title: Powerlifting content: United States. The next-oldest federation is the WPC, formed as the international companion to the APF after its split from the USPF. Different federations have different rules and different interpretations of the rules, leading to a myriad of variations. Differences arise on the equipment eligible, clothing, drug testing and aspects of allowable technique. The 100% Raw Federation allows no supportive gear to be worn by the lifter while the IPF, AAU, NASA, USAPL and the ADFPF only allow a single-ply tight polyester squat suit, deadlift suit and bench shirt, wraps for knees and wrists, and a belt in the equipped


title: Powerlifting content: divisions. Other federations, such as the APF, APA, IPA, SPF, WPC, AWPC and WPO, allow opened or closed back bench shirts, multi-ply gear, and a wide array of gear materials such as canvas, denim, polyester etc. The USPA was founded in 2010 by Steve Denison based on a lifter friendly environment. It's explosive growth (holding over 225 competitions each year worldwide) has been attributed to a strict adherence to the rules, without the politics. Both the USPA, and the IPL (International Powerlifting League) now rank among the largest, and most respected Organizations in both the US, and World, in the


title: Powerlifting content: sport of powerlifting. The IPF has suspended entire member nations' federations, including the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Iran, India and Uzbekistan, for repeated violations of the IPF's anti-doping policies. However Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan did not serve their full suspension. There are several classifications in powerlifting determining rank. These typically include Elite, Master, Class I,II,III,IV. The Elite standard is considered to be within the top 1% of competing powerlifters. Several standards exist, including the United States Powerlifting Association classifications, the IPF/USAPL (single-ply) classifications, the APF (multi-ply) classifications, and the Anti-Drug Athletes United (ADAU, raw) classifications. Countries in the former Soviet


title: Powerlifting content: Union use a somewhat different nomenclature for the top classes, distinguishing among Masters of sport, International Class; Masters of Sport; and Candidates for Master of Sport. The "Master" classification should not be confused with the Master age division, which refers to athletes who are at least 40 years old. In the United States, powerlifting is not a popular sport in schools, although relatively more popular in the South and in the Upper Midwest. Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Louisiana and Ohio have the most successful programs. Powerlifting gyms range from commercial fitness centers to private clubs. Some gyms gain fame due


title: Powerlifting content: to their association with a training methodology (e.g., Westside Barbell), federation (e.g., Lexen Xtreme and the Xtreme Power Coalition [XPC]), or publication (e.g., SuperTraining Gym and "Power" magazine). Other gyms are notable for their association with champion powerlifters, for example Quads Gym and Ed Coan. Other notable powerlifters operate their own gyms, such as Scot Mendelson's F.I.T., Dan Green's Boss Barbell and Žydrūnas Savickas. The global meet results are available in a searchable web database. See: "List of world championships medalists in powerlifting (men) or List of world championships medalists in powerlifting (women)" Powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that


title: Llobregat content: largest stretch follows the valley of the Llobregat. The river ends in the Mediterranean Sea forming the Llobregat Delta, in the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. The delta provided a large extension of fertile land close to the city of Barcelona, but is now largely paved, urbanized or covered by infrastructure such as the Barcelona–El Prat Airport. The Llobregat is heavily managed in its lower course and water that was previously lost to the sea is now pumped upstream to increase the natural flow, recharge the river delta wetlands and control seawater incursion. The main tributaries of


title: "Maggie Simpson" content: scene required. Maggie's comedic hallmarks include her tendency to stumble and land on her face while attempting to walk, and a penchant for sucking on her pacifier, the sound of which has become the equivalent of her catchphrase and was originally created by Groening during the Tracey Ullman period. In the early seasons of the show, Maggie would suck her pacifier over other characters' dialogue, but this was discontinued because the producers found it too distracting. With few exceptions, Maggie never speaks but participates in the events around her, emoting with subtle gestures and facial expressions. Maggie's first lines were


title: Hilt content: was called in German. The military output of the artisans called "passementiers" (ornamental braid, lace, cord, or trimmings makers) is evident in catalogs of various military uniform and regalia makers of centuries past. The broader art form of "passementerie", with its divisions of Decor, Clergy and Nobility, Upholstery, Coaches and Livery, and Military, is covered in a few books on that subject, none of which are in English. Indian swords had the tassel attached through an eyelet at the end of the pommel. Chinese swords, both "jian" and "dao", often have lanyards or tassels attached. As with Western sword knots,


title: "New Spain" content: Spain lived. These valleys were linked trunk lines, or main routes, facilitating the movement of vital goods and people to get to key areas. However, even in this relatively richly endowed region of Mexico, the difficulty of transit of people and goods in the absence of rivers and level terrain remained a major challenge to the economy of New Spain. This challenge persisted during the post-independence years until the late nineteenth-century construction of railroads. In the colonial era and up until the railroads were built in key areas, mule trains were the main mode of transporting goods. Mules were used


title: Poverty content: of what is substandard." In 1965 Rose Friedman argued for the use of relative poverty claiming that the definition of poverty changes with general living standards. Those labeled as poor in 1995 would have had "a higher standard of living than many labeled not poor" in 1965. In 1979, British sociologist, Peter Townsend published his famous definition, "individuals ... can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or are at least widely encouraged or approved, in


title: Damselfly content: Damselfly Damselflies are insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller, have slimmer bodies, and most species fold the wings along the body when at rest. An ancient group, damselflies have existed since at least the Lower Permian, and are found on every continent except Antarctica. All damselflies are predatory; both nymphs and adults eat other insects. The nymphs are aquatic, with different species living in a variety of freshwater habitats including acid bogs, ponds, lakes and rivers. The nymphs moult repeatedly, at the


title: Damselfly content: last moult climbing out of the water to undergo metamorphosis. The skin splits down the back, they emerge and inflate their wings and abdomen to gain their adult form. Their presence on a body of water indicates that it is relatively unpolluted, but their dependence on freshwater makes them vulnerable to damage to their wetland habitats. Some species of damselfly have elaborate courtship behaviours. Many species are sexually dimorphic, the males often being more brightly coloured than the females. Like dragonflies, they reproduce using indirect insemination and delayed fertilisation. A mating pair form a shape known as a "heart" or


title: Damselfly content: "wheel", the male clasping the female at the back of the head, the female curling her abdomen down to pick up sperm from secondary genitalia at the base of the male's abdomen. The pair often remain together with the male still clasping the female while she lays eggs within the tissue of plants in or near water using a robust ovipositor. Fishing flies that mimic damselfly nymphs are used in wet-fly fishing. Damselflies sometimes provide the subject for personal jewellery such as brooches. The Zygoptera are an ancient group, with fossils known from the lower Permian, at least 250 million


title: Damselfly content: years ago. All the fossils of that age are of adults, similar in structure to modern damselflies, so it is not known whether their larvae were aquatic at that time. The earliest larval odonate fossils are from the Mesozoic. Fossils of damselfly-like Protozygoptera date back further to 311–30 Mya. Well-preserved Eocene damselfly larvae and exuviae are known from fossils preserved in amber in the Baltic region. Molecular analysis in 2013 confirms that most of the traditional families are monophyletic, but shows that the Amphipterygidae, Megapodagrionidae and Protoneuridae are paraphyletic and will need to be reorganised. The Protoneuridae in particular is


title: Damselfly content: shown to be composed of six clades from five families. The result so far is 27 damselfly families, with 7 more likely to be created. The discovered clades did not agree well with traditional characteristics used to classify living and fossil Zygoptera such as wing venation, so fossil taxa will need to be revisited. The 18 extant traditional families are provisionally rearranged as follows (the 3 paraphyletic families disappearing, and many details not resolved): Dashed lines indicate unresolved relationships. The general body plan of a damselfly is similar to that of a dragonfly. The compound eyes are large but are


title: Damselfly content: more widely separated and relatively smaller than those of a dragonfly. Above the eyes is the frons or forehead, below this the clypeus, and on the upper lip the labrum, an extensible organ used in the capture of prey. The top of the head bears three simple eyes (ocelli), which may measure light intensity, and a tiny pair of antennae that serve no olfactory function but may measure air speed. Many species are sexually dimorphic; the males are often brightly coloured and distinctive, while the females are plainer, cryptically coloured, and harder to identify to species. For example, in "Coenagrion",


title: Damselfly content: the Eurasian bluets, the males are bright blue with black markings, while the females are usually predominantly green or brown with black. A few dimorphic species show female-limited polymorphism, the females being in two forms, one form distinct and the other with the patterning as in males. The ones that look like males, andromorphs, are usually under a third of the female population but the proportion can rise significantly and a theory that explains this response suggests that it helps overcome harassment by males. Some Coenagrionid damselflies show male-limited polymorphism, an even less understood phenomenon. In general, damselflies are smaller


title: Damselfly content: than dragonflies, the smallest being members of the genus "Agriocnemis" (wisps). However, members of the Pseudostigmatidae (helicopter damselflies or forest giants) are exceptionally large for the group, with wingspans as much as in "Megaloprepus" and body length up to in "Pseudostigma aberrans". The first thoracic segment is the prothorax, bearing the front pair of legs. The joint between head and prothorax is slender and flexible, which enables the damselfly to swivel its head and to manoeuvre more freely when flying. The remaining thoracic segments are the fused mesothorax and metathorax (together termed the synthorax), each with a pair of wings


title: Damselfly content: and a pair of legs. A dark stripe known as the humeral stripe runs from the base of the front wings to the second pair of legs, and just in front of this is the pale-coloured, antehumeral stripe. The forewings and hindwings are similar in appearance and are membranous, being strengthened and supported by longitudinal veins that are linked by many cross-veins and that are filled with haemolymph. Species markers include quadrangular markings on the wings known as the pterostigma or stigma, and in almost all species, there is a nodus near the leading edge. The thorax houses the flight


title: Damselfly content: muscles. Many damselflies (e.g. Lestidae, Platycnemidae, Coenagrionidae) have clear wings, but some (Calopterygidae, Euphaeidae) have coloured wings, whether uniformly suffused with colour or boldly marked with a coloured patch. In species such as the banded demoiselle, "Calopteryx splendens" the males have both a darker green body and large dark violet-blue patches on all four wings, which flicker conspicuously in their aerial courtship dances; the females have pale translucent greenish wings. The abdomen is long and slender and consists of ten segments. The secondary genitalia in males are on the undersides of segments two and three and are conspicuous, making it


title: Damselfly content: easy to tell the sex of the damselfly when viewed from the side. The female genital opening is on the underside between segments eight and nine. It may be covered by a subgenital plate, or extended into a complex ovipositor that helps them lay eggs within plant tissue. The tenth segment in both sexes bears cerci and in males, its underside bears a pair of paraprocts. Damselflies (except spreadwings, Lestidae) rest their wings together, above their bodies, whereas dragonflies rest with their wings spread diametrically apart; the spreadwings rest with their wings slightly apart. Damselflies have slenderer bodies than dragonflies,


title: Damselfly content: and their eyes do not overlap. Damselfly nymphs differ from dragonflies nymphs in that they possess caudal gills (on the abdomen) whereas dragonflies breathe through the rectum. Damselfly nymphs swim by fish-like undulations, the gills functioning like a tail. Dragonfly nymphs can forcibly expel water in their rectum for rapid escape. Odonates are found on all the continents except Antarctica. Although some species of dragonfly have wide distributions, damselflies tend to have smaller ranges. Most odonates breed in fresh-water; a few damselflies in the family Caenagrionidae breed in brackish water (and a single dragonfly species breeds in seawater). Dragonflies are


title: Damselfly content: more affected by pollution than are damselflies. The presence of odonates indicates that an ecosystem is of good quality. The most species-rich environments have a range of suitable microhabitats, providing suitable water bodies for breeding. Although most damselflies live out their lives within a short distance of where they were hatched, some species, and some individuals within species, disperse more widely. Forktails in the family Coenagrionidae seem particularly prone to do this, large male boreal bluets ("Enallagma boreale") in British Columbia often migrating, while smaller ones do not. These are known to leave their waterside habitats, flying upwards till lost


title: Damselfly content: from view, and presumably being dispersed to far off places by the stronger winds found at high altitudes. In this way they may appear in a locality where no damselflies were to be seen the day before. Rambur's forktail ("Ischnura ramburii") has been found, for example, on oil rigs far out in the Gulf of Mexico. The distribution and diversity of damselfly species in the biogeographical regions is summarized here. (There are no damselflies in the Antarctic.) Note that some species are widespread and occur in multiple regions. Overall, there are about 2942 extant species of damselflies placed in 309


title: Damselfly content: genera. Adult damselflies catch and eat flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects. Often they hover among grasses and low vegetation, picking prey off stems and leaves with their spiny legs. Although predominantly using vision to locate their prey, adults may also make use of olfactory cues. No species are known to hunt at night, but some are crepuscular, perhaps taking advantage of newly hatched flies and other aquatic insects at a time when larger dragonflies are roosting. In tropical South America, helicopter damselflies (Pseudostigmatidae) feed on spiders, hovering near an orb web and plucking the spider, or its entangled prey,


title: Damselfly content: from the web. There are few pools and lakes in these habitats, and these damselflies breed in temporary water bodies in holes in trees, the rosettes of bromeliads and even the hollow stems of bamboos. The nymphs of damselflies have been less researched than their dragonfly counterparts, and many have not even been identified. They choose their prey according to size and seem less able to overpower larger prey than can dragonfly nymphs. The major part of the diet of most species appears to be crustaceans such as water fleas. Damselflies exist in a range of habitats in and around


title: Damselfly content: the wetlands needed for their larval development; these include open spaces for finding mates, suitable perches, open aspect, roosting sites, suitable plant species for ovipositing and suitable water quality, and odontates have been used for bio-indication purposes regarding the quality of the ecosystem. Different species have different requirements for their larvae with regard to water depth, water movement and pH. The European common blue damselfly ("Enallagma cyathigerum") for example can occur at high densities in acid waters where fish are absent, such as in bog pools. The scarce blue-tailed damselfly ("Ischnura pumilio") in contrast requires base-rich habitats and water with


title: Damselfly content: a slow flow-rate. It is found in ditches, quarries, seeps, flushes, marshes and pools. It tolerates high levels of zinc and copper in the sediment but requires suitable emergent plants for egg-laying without the water being choked by plants. Damselflies' dependence on freshwater habitats makes them very vulnerable to damage to wetlands through drainage for agriculture or urban growth. In the tropics, the helicopter damselfly "Mecistogaster modesta" (Pseudostigmatidae) breeds in phytotelmata, the small bodies of water trapped by bromeliads, epiphytic plants of the rainforest of northwest Costa Rica, at the high density of some 6000 larvae per hectare in patches


title: Damselfly content: of secondary forest. Another tropical species, the cascade damselfly "Thaumatoneura inopinata" (Megapodagrionidae), inhabits waterfalls in Costa Rica and Panama. Damselflies, both nymphs and adults, are eaten by a range of predators including birds, fish, frogs, dragonflies, other damselflies, water spiders, water beetles, backswimmers and giant water bugs. Damselflies have a variety of internal and external parasites. Particularly prevalent are the gregarine protozoans found in the gut. In a study of the European common blue damselfly, every adult insect was infected at the height of the flying season. When present in large numbers, these parasites can cause death by blocking the


title: Damselfly content: gut. Bright red water mites Hydracarina are often seen on the outside of both nymphs and adults, and can move from one to the other at metamorphosis. They suck the body fluids and may actually kill young nymphs, but adults are relatively unaffected, it being necessary for the completion of the mite's life cycle that it returns to water, a feat accomplished when the adult damselfly breeds. Many damselflies have elaborate courtship behaviours. These are designed to show off the male's distinctive characteristics, bright colouring or flying abilities, thus demonstrating his fitness. "Calopteryx" males will hover in front of a


title: Damselfly content: female with alternating fast and slow wingbeats; if she is receptive she will remain perched, otherwise she will fly off. The male river jewelwing ("Calopteryx aequabilis") performs display flights in front of the female, fluttering his forewings while keeping his hindwings still, and raising his abdomen to reveal the white spots on his wings. "Platycypha" males will hover in front of a female, thrusting their bright white legs forward in front of their heads. "Rhinocypha" will bob up and down, often low over fast-flowing streams, displaying their bright-coloured bodies and wings. Male members of the family Protoneuridae with vividly coloured


title: Damselfly content: wings display these to visiting females. Swift forktail ("Ischnura erratica") males display to each other with their blue-tipped abdomens raised. Other behaviours observed in damselflies include wing-warning, wing-clapping, flights of attrition and abdominal bobbing. Wing-warning is a rapid opening and closing of the wings and is aggressive, while wing-clapping involves a slower opening of the wings followed by a rapid closure, up to eight times in quick succession, and often follows flight; it may serve a thermo-regulatory function. Flights of attrition are engaged in by the ebony jewelwing ("Calopteryx maculata") and involve males bouncing around each other while flying laterally


title: Damselfly content: and continuing to do so, sometimes over a considerable distance, until one insect is presumably exhausted and gives up. At night, damselflies usually roost in dense vegetation, perching with the abdomen alongside a stem. If disturbed they will move around to the other side of the stem but will not fly off. Spreadwings fully fold their wings when roosting. The desert shadowdamsel ("Palaemnema domina") aggregates to roost in thick places near streams in the heat of the day. While there it engages in wing-clapping, the exact function of which is unknown. Some species such as the rubyspot damselfly, "Hetairina americana",


title: Damselfly content: form night roosting aggregations, with a preponderance of males; this may have an anti-predator function or may be simply the outcome of choosing safe roosting sites. Mating in damselflies, as in dragonflies, is a complex, precisely choreographed process involving both indirect insemination and delayed fertilisation. The male first has to attract a female to his territory, continually driving off rival males. When he is ready to mate, he transfers a packet of sperm from his primary genital opening on segment 9, near the end of his abdomen, to his secondary genitalia on segments 2–3, near the base of his abdomen.


title: Damselfly content: The male then grasps the female by the head with the claspers at the end of his abdomen; the structure of the claspers varies between species, and may help to prevent interspecific mating. The pair fly in tandem with the male in front, typically perching on a twig or plant stem. The female then curls her abdomen downwards and forwards under her body to pick up the sperm from the male's secondary genitalia, while the male uses his "tail" claspers to grip the female behind the head: this distinctive posture is called the "heart" or "wheel"; the pair may also


title: Damselfly content: be described as being "in cop". Males may transfer the sperm to their secondary genitalia either before a female is held, in the early stage when the female is held by the legs or after the female is held between the terminal claspers. This can lead to variations in the tandem postures. The spermatophore may also have nutrition in addition to sperms as a "nuptial gift". Some cases of sexual cannibalism exist where females (of "Ischnura graellsii") eat males while in copula. Parthenogenesis (reproduction from unfertilised eggs) is exceptional, and has only been recorded in nature in female "Ischnura hastata"


title: Damselfly content: on the Azores Islands. Egg-laying (ovipositing) involves not only the female darting over floating or waterside vegetation to deposit eggs on a suitable substrate, but the male hovering above her, mate-guarding, or in some species continuing to clasp her and flying in tandem. The male attempts to prevent rivals from removing his sperm and inserting their own, a form of sperm competition (the sperms of the last mated male have the greatest chance of fertilizing the eggs, also known as sperm precedence) made possible by delayed fertilisation and driven by sexual selection. If successful, a rival male uses his penis


title: Damselfly content: to compress or scrape out the sperm inserted previously; this activity takes up much of the time that a copulating pair remain in the heart posture. Flying in tandem has the advantage that less effort is needed by the female for flight and more can be expended on egg-laying, and when the female submerges to deposit eggs, the male may help to pull her out of the water. All damselflies lay their eggs inside plant tissues; those that lay eggs underwater may submerge themselves for 30 minutes at a time, climbing along the stems of aquatic plants and laying eggs


title: Damselfly content: at intervals. For example, the red-eyed damselfly "Erythromma najas" lays eggs, in tandem, into leaves or stems of floating or sometimes emergent plants; in contrast, the scarce bluetail "Ischnura pumilio" oviposits alone, the female choosing mostly emergent grasses and rushes, and laying her eggs in their stems either above or just below the waterline. The willow emerald "Chalcolestes viridis" (a spreadwing) is unusual in laying eggs only in woody plant tissue, choosing thin twigs of trees that hang over water, and scarring the bark in the process. A possible exception is an apparent instance of ovo-viviparity, in which "Heliocypha perforata"


title: Damselfly content: was filmed in western China depositing young larvae (presumably hatched from eggs inside the female's body) onto a partly submerged branch of a tree. Many damselflies are able to produce more than one brood per year (voltinism); this is negatively correlated with latitude, becoming more common towards the equator, except in the Lestidae. Damselflies are hemimetabolous insects that have no pupal stage in their development. The female inserts the eggs by means of her ovipositor into slits made in water plants or other underwater substrates and the larvae, known as naiads or nymphs, are almost all completely aquatic. Exceptions include


title: Damselfly content: the Hawaiian "Mealagrion oahuense" and an unidentified Megapodagrionid from New Caledonia, which are terrestrial in their early stages. The spreadwings lay eggs above the waterline late in the year and the eggs overwinter, often covered by snow. In spring they hatch out in the meltwater pools and the nymphs complete their development before these temporary pools dry up. The nymphs are voracious predators and feed by means of a flat labium (a toothed mouthpart on the lower jaw) that forms the so-called mask; it is rapidly extended to seize and pierce the "Daphnia" (water fleas), mosquito larvae, and other small


title: Damselfly content: aquatic organisms on which damselfly nymphs feed. They breathe by means of three large external, fin-like gills on the tip of the abdomen, and these may also serve for locomotion in the same manner as a fish's tail. Compared to dragonfly larvae, the nymphs show little variation in form. They tend to be slender and elongate, many having morphological adaptations for holding their position in fast flowing water. They are more sensitive than dragonfly nymphs to oxygen levels and suspended fine particulate matter, and do not bury themselves in the mud. The nymphs proceed through about a dozen moults as


title: Damselfly content: they grow. In the later stages, the wing pads become visible. When fully developed, the nymphs climb out of the water and take up a firm stance, the skin on the thorax splits and the adult form wriggles out. This has a soft body at first and hangs or stands on its empty larval case. It pumps haemolymph into its small limp wings, which expand to their full extent. The haemolymph is then pumped back into the abdomen, which also expands fully. The exoskeleton hardens and the colours become more vivid over the course of the next few days. Most


title: Damselfly content: damselflies emerge in daytime and in cool conditions the process takes several hours. On a hot day, the cuticle hardens rapidly and the adult can be flying away within half an hour. Conservation of Odonata has usually concentrated on the more iconic suborder Anisoptera, the dragonflies. However, the two suborders largely have the same needs, and what is good for dragonflies is also good for damselflies. The main threats experienced by odonates are the clearance of forests, the pollution of waterways, the lowering of groundwater levels, the damming of rivers for hydroelectric schemes and the general degradation of wetlands and


title: Damselfly content: marshes. The clearance of tropical rainforests is of importance because the rate of erosion increases, streams and pools dry up and waterways become clogged with silt. The presence of alien species can also have unintended consequences. In Hawaii, the introduction of the mosquitofish ("Gambusia affinis") was effective in controlling mosquitoes but nearly exterminated the island's endemic damselflies. The ancient greenling "Hemiphlebia mirabilis" has been an important flagship species for conservation action in preserving its habitat in Australia. "Damselfly" is a 2005 short film directed by Ben O'Connor. "Damselfly" is also the title of a 2012 novel in the "Faeble" series


title: Damselfly content: by S. L. Naeole, and of a 1994 poem by August Kleinzahler, which contains the lines "And that blue there, cobalt / a moment, then iridescent, / fragile as a lady's pin / hovering above the nasturtium?" The poet John Engels published "Damselfly, Trout, Heron" in his 1983 collection "Weather-Fear: New and Selected Poems". Fishing flies that mimic damselfly nymphs are sometimes used in wet-fly fishing, where the hook and line are allowed to sink below the surface. Damselflies have formed subjects for personal jewellery such as brooches since at least 1880. Damselfly Damselflies are insects of the suborder Zygoptera


title: Monster content: or science fiction (where the monsters are often extraterrestrial in nature). There is also a burgeoning subgenre of erotic fiction involving monsters, monster erotica. During the age of silent films, monsters tended to be human-sized, e.g. Frankenstein's monster, the Golem, werewolves and vampires. The film "Siegfried" featured a dragon that consisted of stop-motion animated models, as in RKO's "King Kong", the first giant monster film of the sound era. Universal Studios specialized in monsters, with Bela Lugosi's reprisal of his stage role, Dracula, and Boris Karloff playing Frankenstein's monster. The studio also made several lesser films, such as "Man-Made Monster",


title: "Hávamál" content: versa, may have occurred, is a complex question on which scholarly opinions vary. The last section, the Ljóðatal enumerates eighteen songs ("ljóð"), sometimes called "charms", prefaced with The songs themselves are not given, just their application or effect described. They are explicitly counted from "the first" in stanza 147, and "a second" to "an eighteenth" in stanzas 148 to 165, given in Roman numerals in the manuscript. There is no explicit mention of runes or runic magic in the "Ljóðatal" excepting in the twelfth song (stanza 158), which takes up the motif of Odin hanging on the tree and its


title: "Maurice (emperor)" content: Maurice. Petrus married Anastasia Aerobinda (born c. 570), daughter of Areobindus (born c. 550), and had female issue. The first legendary accounts of Maurice's life are recorded in the ninth century, in the work of the Byzantine historian Theophanes the Confessor. According to his chronicle "Chronographia", the death of the imperial family is due to divine intervention: Christ asked the Emperor to choose between a long reign or death and acceptance in the kingdom of heaven. Maurice preferred the second choice. The same story has been recorded in a short Syriac hagiography on the life of the Emperor, which was


title: "Professor Frink" content: and he has appeared on many reviewers' listings of their favorite supporting characters from "The Simpsons". Frink has been featured in other media relating to the show, such as comics, video games, and a simulator ride at Universal Studios Florida. The character's popularity has led to him giving the name to the computer programming language Frink. John Frink is generally depicted as Springfield's stereotypical nerdy, mad, and socially inept scientist, inventor, and mathematician. He wears thick glasses, a white lab coat, pink pants, and has buckteeth. Frink is a college professor at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology and runs his


title: "Geography of Iran" content: Iran and the United Arab Emirates have a territorial dispute over the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa islands, which are administered by Iran. Iran currently insists on dividing the Caspian Sea resources equally among the five littoral states, after the Russian-backed former soviet breakaway republics refused to respect the 50-50 agreements between Iran and the Soviet Union (despite their international obligation). Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan continue to claim territorial waters thus regarding the Caspian Sea as open international body of water, dismissing its geographically lake nature. Geography of Iran Geographically, Iran is located in West Asia and


title: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" content: moment" amid the year's culturally important music that had "dated in the sense that it speaks with unusually specific eloquence of a single point in history". Christgau said of the album's "dozen good songs and true", "Perhaps they're too precisely performed, but I'm not going to complain." Writing in 1981, Lester Bangs – the so-called "godfather" of punk rock journalism – said that "Goldstein was right in his much-vilified review ... predicting that this record had the power to almost singlehandedly destroy rock and roll." He added: "In the sixties rock and roll began to think of itself as an


title: "Graham Greene" content: the makings of a suspense film about Yugoslav spies in postwar Venice. Upon Soldati's prompting, Greene continued writing the story as the basis for a film script. Apparently he lost interest in the project, leaving it as a substantial fragment that was published posthumously in "The Graham Greene Film Reader" (1993) and "No Man's Land" (2005). A script for "The Stranger's Hand" was written by Guy Elmes on the basis of Greene's unfinished story, and filmed by Soldati in 1954. In 1965 Greene again entered a similar "New Statesman" competition pseudonymously, and won an honourable mention. Greene is regarded as


title: "Business model" content: comprehensive literature review and surveyed managers to understand how they perceived the components of a business model. In that analysis these authors show that there is a design logic behind how entrepreneurs and managers perceive and explain their business model. In further extensions to the design logic, George and Bock (2012) use case studies and the IBM survey data on business models in large companies, to describe how CEOs and entrepreneurs create narratives or stories in a coherent manner to move the business from one opportunity to another. They also show that when the narrative is incoherent or the components


title: "Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga" content: Midway and the carriers , , and . Dive bombers from "Enterprise" severely damaged "Kaga"; when it became obvious she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. The loss of four large attack carriers, including "Kaga" at Midway, was a crucial setback for Japan, and contributed significantly to Japan's ultimate defeat. In 1999, debris from "Kaga" including a large section of the hull was located on the ocean floor at a depth in excess of ; northwest of Midway Island. The main part of the carrier's wreck has not


title: "Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan" content: It was first located at Burgos Street by the former St. Augustine Parochial School, and began with 17 first-year high school students. Cagayan de Oro, then "Cagayan de Misamis" with a population of around 50,000, was a principal port and fast-growing town. The school grew with the community and opened college courses in June 1938 and grades 5 to 7 in June 1940, accommodating students from Mindanao and Visayas. Ateneo de Cagayan moved to its present location on Corrales Avenue and grew into a college, offering courses in Liberal Arts, Education, and Commerce. On December 9, 1941, with only 614


title: "Cassette tape" content: Cassette tape The Compact Audio Cassette (CAC) or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the cassette tape or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. It was developed by Philips in Hasselt, Belgium, and released in 1962. Compact cassettes come in two forms, either already containing content as a prerecorded cassette, or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms are reversible by the user. The compact cassette technology was originally designed for dictation machines, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel tape


title: "Cassette tape" content: recording in most non-professional applications. Its uses ranged from portable audio to home recording to data storage for early microcomputers. The first cassette player (although mono) designed for use in car dashboards was introduced in 1968. Between the early 1970s and the early 2000s, the cassette was one of the two most common formats for prerecorded music, first alongside the LP record and later the compact disc (CD). Compact Cassettes contain two miniature spools, between which the magnetically coated, polyester-type plastic film (magnetic tape) is passed and wound. These spools and their attendant parts are held inside a protective plastic


title: "Cassette tape" content: shell which is at its largest dimensions. The tape itself was commonly referred to as "eighth-inch" tape, supposedly inches wide, but it was slightly larger: . Two stereo pairs of tracks (four total) or two monaural audio tracks are available on the tape; one stereo pair or one monophonic track is played or recorded when the tape is moving in one direction and the second (pair) when moving in the other direction. This reversal is achieved either by flipping the cassette, or by the reversal of tape movement ("auto-reverse") when the mechanism detects that the tape has come to an


title: "Cassette tape" content: end. In 1935, decades before the introduction of the Compact Cassette, AEG released the first reel-to-reel tape recorder (in German: "Tonbandgerät"), with the commercial name "Magnetophon". It was based on the invention of the magnetic tape (1928) by Fritz Pfleumer, which used similar technology but with open reels (for which the tape was manufactured by BASF). These instruments were very expensive and relatively difficult to use and were therefore used mostly by professionals in radio stations and recording studios. In 1958, following four years of development, RCA Victor introduced the stereo, quarter-inch, reversible, reel-to-reel RCA tape cartridge. However, it was


title: "Cassette tape" content: a large cassette (5 × 7 in, or 13 × 18 cm), and offered few pre-recorded tapes. Despite the multiple versions, it failed. Consumer use of magnetic tape machines only took off in the early 1960s, after playback machines reached a comfortable, user-friendly design. This was achieved primarily by the introduction of transistors which replaced the bulky, fragile, and costly vacuum tubes of earlier designs. Reel-to-reel tape then became more suitable to household use, but still remained an esoteric product. In 1962, Philips invented the Compact Cassette medium for audio storage, introducing it in Europe on 30 August 1963 at


title: "Cassette tape" content: the Berlin Radio Show, and in the United States (under the "Norelco" brand) in November 1964, with the trademark name "Compact Cassette". The team at Philips was led by Lou Ottens in Hasselt, Belgium. "Philips was competing with Telefunken and Grundig in a race to establish its cassette tape as the worldwide standard, and it wanted support from Japanese electronics manufacturers." However, the Philips' Compact Cassette became dominant as a result of Philips' decision (under pressure from Sony) to license the format free of charge. Philips also released the Norelco "Carry-Corder 150" recorder/player in the US in November 1964. By


title: "Cassette tape" content: 1966 over 250,000 recorders had been sold in the US alone and Japan soon became the major source of recorders. By 1968, 85 manufacturers had sold over 2.4 million players. By the end of the 1960s, the cassette business was worth an estimated 150 million dollars. In the early years sound quality was mediocre, but it improved dramatically by the early 1970s when it caught up with the quality of 8-track tape and kept improving. The Compact Cassette went on to become a popular (and re-recordable) alternative to the 12-inch vinyl LP during the late 1970s. The mass production of


title: "Cassette tape" content: blank (recordable) Compact Cassettes began in 1964 in Hanover, Germany. Prerecorded music cassettes (also known as "Music-Cassettes", and later just Musicassettes; M.C. for short) were launched in Europe in late 1965. The Mercury Record Company, a US affiliate of Philips, introduced M.C. to the US in July 1966. The initial offering consisted of 49 titles. However, the system had been designed initially for dictation and portable use, with the audio quality of early players not well suited for music. Some early models also had an unreliable mechanical design. In 1971, the Advent Corporation introduced their Model 201 tape deck that


title: "Cassette tape" content: combined Dolby type B noise reduction and chromium(IV) oxide (CrO) tape, with a commercial-grade tape transport mechanism supplied by the Wollensak camera division of 3M Corporation. This resulted in the format being taken more seriously for musical use, and started the era of high fidelity cassettes and players. Although the birth and growth of the cassette began in the 1960s, its cultural moment took place during the 1970s and 1980s. The cassette's popularity grew during these years as a result of being a more effective, convenient and portable way of listening to music. Stereo tape decks and boom boxes became


title: "Cassette tape" content: some of the most highly sought-after consumer products of both decades. Portable pocket recorders and high-fidelity ("hi-fi") players, such as Sony's Walkman (1979), also enabled users to take their music with them anywhere with ease. The increasing user-friendliness of the cassette led to its popularity around the globe. The body of the Walkman was not much larger than the cassette tape itself, with mechanical keys on one side, or electronic buttons or a display on the face. Sony's WM-10 was even smaller than the cassette itself, and expanded to hold and play a cassette. Like the transistor radio in the


title: "Cassette tape" content: 1950s and 1960s, the portable CD player in the 1990s, and the MP3 player in the 2000s, the Walkman defined the portable music market for the decade of the '80s, with cassette sales overtaking those of LPs. Total vinyl record sales remained higher well into the 1980s due to greater sales of singles, although cassette singles achieved popularity for a period in the 1990s. Another barrier to cassettes overtaking vinyl in sales was shoplifting; compact cassettes were small enough that a thief could easily place one inside a pocket and walk out of a store without being noticed. To prevent


title: "Cassette tape" content: this, retailers would place cassettes inside oversized "spaghetti box" containers or locked display cases, either of which would significantly inhibit browsing, thus reducing cassette sales. During the early 1980s some record labels sought to solve this problem by introducing new, larger packages for cassettes which would allow them to be displayed alongside vinyl records and compact discs, or giving them a further market advantage over vinyl by adding bonus tracks. Willem Andriessen wrote that the development in technology allowed "hardware designers to [...] discover and satisfy one of the collective desires of human beings all over the world, independent of


title: "Cassette tape" content: region, climate, religion, culture, race, sex, age and education: the desire to enjoy music at any time, at any place, [...] in any desired sound quality and almost at any wanted price. Apart from the purely technological advances cassettes brought, they also served as catalysts for social change. Their durability and ease of copying helped bring underground rock and punk music behind the Iron Curtain, creating a foothold for Western culture among the younger generations. For similar reasons, cassettes became popular in developing nations. One of the most famous political uses of cassette tapes was the dissemination of sermons by


title: "Cassette tape" content: the Ayatollah Khomeini throughout Iran before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, in which Khomeini urged the overthrow of the regime of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1970s India, cassettes were blamed for bringing unwanted Christian and Islamic influences into traditionally Sikh and Hindu areas. Cassette technology was a booming market for pop music in India, drawing criticism from conservatives while at the same time creating a huge market for legitimate recording companies, as well as pirated tapes. Between 1985 and 1992, the cassette tape was the most popular format in the UK and wealthy record labels experimented with innovative packaging


title: "Cassette tape" content: designs. A designer during the era explained: "There was so much money in the industry at the time, we could try anything with design." The introduction of the cassette single, called a "cassingle", was also part of this era and featured a music single in Compact Cassette form. Until 2005, cassettes remained the dominant medium for purchasing and listening to music in some developing countries, but compact disc (CD) technology had superseded the Compact Cassette in the vast majority of music markets throughout the world by this time. In Western Europe and North America, the market for cassettes declined sharply


title: "Cassette tape" content: after its peak in the late 1980s. This was particularly noticeable with pre-recorded cassettes, the sales of which were overtaken by those of CDs during the early 1990s. By 1993, annual shipments of CD players had reached 5 million, up 21% from the year before; while cassette player shipments had dropped 7% to approximately 3.4 million. The decline continued, and in 2001 cassettes accounted for only 4% of all music sold. Since then, further decline occurred, with very few retailers stocking them because they are no longer issued by the major music labels. Sales of pre-recorded music cassettes in the


title: "Cassette tape" content: U.S. dropped from 442 million in 1990 to 274,000 by 2007. Another record low was registered in 2009, with 34,000 cassettes sold. Most of the major U.S. music companies had discontinued production of cassette tapes by 2003. However, , blank cassettes were still being produced and are still sold at some retail stores, while facilities for cassette duplication remain available. Cassette recorders and players are gradually becoming more scarce, but are still available and featured in some hi-fi systems. Cassettes remained popular for specific applications, such as car audio and telephone answering machines, well into the 1990s. Cassettes and their


title: "Cassette tape" content: players were typically more rugged and resistant to dust, heat, and shocks than the main digital competitor, the CD. Their lower fidelity was not considered a serious drawback. However, the advent of "shock proof" buffering technology in CD players, the general heightening of consumer expectations, and the introduction of CD auto-changers meant that, by the early 2000s, the CD player rapidly replaced the cassette player as the default audio component in the majority of new vehicles in Europe and America. The last new car with an available cassette player was a 2010 Lexus SC 430. While digital voice recorders are


title: "Cassette tape" content: now common, microcassette recorders may be cheaper and of sufficient quality to serve as adjuncts or substitutes for note taking in business and educational settings. Audiobooks, church services, and other spoken word material are still frequently sold on cassette, as lower fidelity generally is not a drawback for such content, and some people prefer the convenience of the tape controls for rewinding to repeat a missed passage. While most publishers sell CD audiobooks, they usually also offered a cassette version at the same price well into the 2000s. In the audiobooks application, where recordings may span several hours, cassettes also


title: "Cassette tape" content: have the advantage of holding up to 150 minutes of material, whereas the average CD holds less than 80. Although portable digital recorders are most common today, analog tape remains a desirable option for certain artists and consumers. Older genres like "dansband" may favor the format most familiar to their fans. Some musicians and DJs in the independent music community maintain a tradition of using and releasing cassettes due to its low cost and ease of use. Underground and DIY communities release regularly, and sometimes exclusively, on cassette format, particularly in experimental music circles and to a lesser extent in


title: "Cassette tape" content: hardcore punk, death metal, and black metal circles, out of a fondness for the format. Even among major label stars, the form has its devotees: Eminem has made his favor known, and Thurston Moore claimed in 2009, "I only listen to cassettes." In 2010, Botswana-based Diamond Studios announced plans for establishing a plant to mass-produce cassettes in a bid to combat piracy. In South Korea, the early English education boom for toddlers encourages a continuous demand for English language cassettes, , due to the affordable cost. In 2011, the Oxford English Dictionary removed the word "cassette player" from its 12th


title: "Cassette tape" content: edition Concise version. Some media sources mistakenly claimed that the word "cassette tape" was being removed and this caused some media backlash. The term was removed to help make room for more than 400 new words being added to the dictionary. In India, film and devotional music continued to be released in the cassette format due to its low cost until 2009. National Audio Company in Missouri, the largest of the few remaining manufacturers of audiocassettes in the U.S., oversaw the mass production of the "Awesome Mix #1" cassette from the film "Guardians of the Galaxy" in 2014. They reported


title: "Cassette tape" content: that they had produced more than 10 million tapes in 2014 and that sales were up 20 percent the following year, their best year since they opened in 1969. In 2016, cassette sales in the United States rose by 74% to 129,000. In January 2018, following several years of shortage, National Audio Company began producing their own magnetic tape, becoming the world's only manufacturer of new tape stock. In other countries like Japan and South Korea, pop acts like Matsuda Seiko, SHINee, and NCT 127 have released their recent material on limited-run cassette tapes. In 2016, retail chain Urban Outfitters,


title: "Cassette tape" content: which had long carried Vinyl LPs, started carrying a line of new pre-recorded cassette tapes along with blank cassettes and players featuring both new and vintage albums. Since 2016, cassette tape sales have seen a modest resurgence, with 2016, 2017 and 2018 all showing increased sales. The cassette was a great step forward in convenience from reel-to-reel audio tape recording, although, because of the limitations of the cassette's size and speed, it initially compared poorly in quality. Unlike the 4-track stereo open-reel format, the two stereo tracks of each side lie adjacent to each other, rather than being interleaved with


title: "Cassette tape" content: the tracks of the other side. This permitted monaural cassette players to play stereo recordings "summed" as mono tracks and permitted stereo players to play mono recordings through both speakers. The tape is wide, with each mono track wide, plus an unrecorded guard band between each track. In stereo, each track is further divided into a left and a right channel of each, with a gap of . The tape moves past the playback head at , the speed being a continuation of the increasingly slower speed series in open-reel machines operating at 30, 15, , or inches per second.


title: "Cassette tape" content: For comparison, the typical open-reel -inch 4-track consumer format used tape that was wide, each track wide, and running at either twice or four times the speed of a cassette. Cassette tapes are made of a polyester type plastic film with a magnetic coating. The original magnetic material was based on gamma ferric oxide (FeO). Circa 1970, 3M Company developed a cobalt "volume-doping" process combined with a double-coating technique to enhance overall tape output levels. This product was marketed as "High Energy" under its Scotch brand of recording tapes. Inexpensive cassettes commonly are labeled "low-noise," but typically are not optimized


title: "Cassette tape" content: for high frequency response. For this reason, some low-grade IEC Type I tapes have been marketed specifically as better suited for data storage than for sound recording. At about the same time, chromium dioxide (CrO) tape, later designated Type II, was introduced by DuPont, the inventor of the particle, and BASF, the inventor and longtime manufacturer of magnetic recording tape. Next, coatings using magnetite (FeO) such as TDK's Audua were produced in an attempt to approach or exceed the sound quality of vinyl records. Cobalt-"absorbed" iron oxide (Avilyn) was introduced by TDK in 1974 and proved very successful. "Type IV"


title: "Cassette tape" content: tapes using pure metal particles (as opposed to oxide formulations) were introduced in 1979 by 3M under the trade name Metafine. The tape coating on most cassettes sold today as either "normal" or "chrome" consists of ferric oxide and cobalt mixed in varying ratios (and using various processes); there are very few cassettes on the market that use a pure (CrO) coating. Simple voice recorders and earlier cassette decks are designed to work with standard ferric formulations. Newer tape decks usually are built with switches and later detectors for the different bias and equalization requirements for higher grade tapes. The


title: "Cassette tape" content: most common, iron oxide tapes (defined by the IEC 60094 standard, as "Type I") use 120 µs equalization, while chrome and cobalt-absorbed tapes (IEC Type II) require 70 µs equalization. The recording bias levels also were different. BASF and Sony tried a dual layer tape with both ferric oxide and chrome dioxide known as 'ferrichrome' (FeCr) (IEC Type III), but these were available for only a short time in the 1970s. These also use 70 µs, just like Type II did. Metal cassettes (IEC Type IV) also use 70 µs equalization, and provide still further improvement in sound quality as


title: "Cassette tape" content: well as durability. The quality normally is reflected in the price; Type I cassettes generally are the cheapest, and Type IV are usually the most expensive. BASF chrome tape used in commercially pre-recorded cassettes used type I equalization to allow greater high-frequency dynamic range for better sound quality, but the greater selling point for the music labels was that the Type I cassette shell could be used for both ferric and for chrome music cassettes. Notches on top of the cassette shell indicate the type of tape. Type I cassettes have only write-protect notches, Type II have an additional pair


title: "Cassette tape" content: next to the write protection ones, and Type IV (metal) have a third set near the middle of the top of the cassette shell. These allow later cassette decks to detect the tape type automatically and select the proper bias and equalization. Virtually all recent hi-fi systems (with cassette decks) lack this feature; only a small niche of cassette decks (hi-fi separates) have the tape type selector. Playing Type II and IV tapes on a player without detection will produce exaggerated treble, but it may not be noticeable because such devices typically have amplifiers that lack extended high-frequency output. Recording


title: "Cassette tape" content: on these units, however, results in very low sound reproduction, and sometimes distortion and noise is heard. Also, these cheaper units cannot erase high bias or metal bias tapes. Attempting to do so will result in an incomplete erasure. This is due to the fact that the bias levels for high and metal position require greater levels. An exception to this standard were mechanical storytelling dolls from the 1980s (e.g. Teddy Ruxpin) which used the Type IV metal configuration cassette shell but had normal Type I voice grade tape inside. These toys used the Type IV notches to detect that


title: "Cassette tape" content: a specially coded tape had been inserted, where the audio of the story is stored on the left channel and various cue tones to tell the doll's servos how and when to move along with the story on the right channel. Most pre-recorded chrome cassettes require 120 µs equalisation and are treated as Type I (with notches as Type I ferric cassettes), to ensure compatibility with budget equipment. Tape length usually is measured in minutes of total playing time. The most popular varieties (always marketed with a capital letter 'C' prefix) are C46 (23 minutes per side), C60 (30 minutes


title: "Cassette tape" content: per side), C90, and C120. The C46 and C60 lengths typically are thick, but C90s are and (the less common) C120s are just thick, rendering them more susceptible to stretching or breakage. Some vendors are more generous than others, providing rather than of tape for a C90 cassette. Even C180 tapes were available at one time, but these were extremely thin and fragile and suffered from such effects as print-through, which made them unsuitable for general use. 150 minute length is still available from Maxell (UR 150), Sony (CDixI 150) and TDK (TDK AE 150). Although the TDK-D C180 was


title: "Cassette tape" content: produced for a decade (1972–82), it is very rare, because of several technical flaws. The tape had to be so thin that it was nearly transparent and therefore had fewer particles to magnetize, resulting in a poor sound quality and even worse durability. It required a strong motor to be driven, and had high wow-and-flutter. Lastly, these tapes took a relatively long time to rewind. Other lengths are (or were) also available from some vendors, including C10 and C15 (useful for saving data from early home computers and in telephone answering machines), C30, C40, C50, C54, C64, C70, C74, C80,


title: "Cassette tape" content: C84, C100, C105, and C110. As late as 2010, Thomann still offered C10, C20, C30 and C40 IEC Type II tape cassettes for use with 4- and 8-track portastudios. Some companies included a complimentary blank cassette with their portable cassette recorders in the early 1980s. Panasonic's was a C14 and came with a song recorded on side one, and a blank side two. Except for C74 and C100, such non-standard lengths always have been hard to find, and tend to be more expensive than the more popular lengths. Home taping enthusiasts may have found certain lengths useful for fitting an


title: "Cassette tape" content: album neatly on one or both sides of a tape. For instance, the initial maximum playback time of Compact Discs was 74 minutes, explaining the relative popularity of C74 cassettes. The full tape width is 3.8 mm. For mono recording the track width is 1.5 mm. In stereo mode each channel has width of 0.6 mm with a 0.3 mm separation to avoid crosstalk. The "head gap" of a tape recorder refers to the space, in the direction of tape movement, between the ends of the pole pieces of the head. Without a gap the head would produce a "closed"


title: "Cassette tape" content: magnetic field and so would not interact sufficiently with the magnetic domains on the tape. The head gap width is 2 µm which gives a theoretical maximum frequency of about 12 kHz (at the standard speed of 1 7/8 ips or 4.76 cm/s). A narrower gap would give a higher frequency limit but also weaker magnetization. However, such limitations can be corrected through equalization in the recording and playback amplification sections, and narrower gaps were quite common, particularly in more expensive cassette machines. For example, the RP-2 series combined record/playback head (used in many Nakamichi cassette decks from the 1980s


title: "Cassette tape" content: and 1990s) had a 1.2 µm gap, which allows for a playback frequency range of up to 20 kHz. A narrower gap width makes it harder to magnetize the tape, but is less important to the frequency range during recording than during playback, so a two-head solution can be applied: a dedicated recording head with a wide gap allowing effective magnetization of the tape and a dedicated playback head with a specific width narrow gap, possibly facilitating very high playback frequency ranges well above 20 kHz. Separate record and playback heads were already a standard feature of more expensive reel-to-reel


title: "Cassette tape" content: tape machines when cassettes were introduced, but their application to cassette recorders had to wait until demand developed for higher quality reproduction, and for sufficiently small heads to be produced. All cassettes include a write protection mechanism to prevent re-recording and accidental erasure of important material. Each side of the cassette has a plastic tab on the top that may be broken off, leaving a small indentation in the shell. This indentation allows the entry of a sensing lever that prevents the operation of the recording function when the cassette is inserted into a cassette deck. If the cassette is


title: "Cassette tape" content: held with one of the labels facing the user and the tape opening at the bottom, the write-protect tab for the corresponding side is at the top-left. Occasionally, manufacturers provided a movable panel that could be used to enable or disable write-protect on tapes. If later required, a piece of adhesive tape can be placed over the indentation to bypass the protection, or (on some decks), the lever can be manually depressed to record on a protected tape. Extra care is required to avoid covering the additional indents on high bias or metal bias tape cassettes adjacent to the write-protect


title: "Cassette tape" content: tabs. In most cassettes, the magnetic tape is attached to each spool with a leader, usually made of strong plastic. This leader protects the weaker magnetic tape from the shock occurring when the tape reaches the end. Leaders can be complex: a plastic slide-in wedge anchors a short fully opaque plastic tape to the take-up hub; one or more tinted semi-opaque plastic segments follow; the clear leader (a tintless semi-opaque plastic segment) follows, which wraps almost all the way around the supply reel, before splicing to the magnetic tape itself. The clear leader spreads the shock load to a long


title: "Cassette tape" content: stretch of tape instead of to the microscopic splice. Various patents have been issued detailing leader construction and associated tape player mechanisms to detect leaders. Cassette tape users would also use spare leaders to repair broken tapes. The disadvantage with tape leaders was that the sound recording or playback did not start at the beginning of the tape, forcing the user to cue forward to the start of the magnetic section. For certain applications, such as dictation, special cassettes containing leaderless tapes were made, typically with stronger material and for use in machines that had more sophisticated end-of-tape prediction. Home


title: "Cassette tape" content: computers that made use of cassettes as a more affordable alternative to floppy discs (e.g. Apple II, Commodore PET) were designed to not start writing or reading data until leaders had spooled past. Some cassettes were made to play a continuous loop of tape without stopping. Lengths available are from around 30 seconds to a standard full length. They are used in situations where a short message or musical jingle is to be played, either continuously or whenever a device is triggered, or whenever continuous recording or playing is needed. Some include a sensing foil on the tape to allow


title: "Cassette tape" content: tape players to re-cue. From as early as 1969 various patents have been issued, covering such uses as uni-directional, bi-directional, and compatibility with auto-shut-off and anti-tape-eating mechanisms. One variant has a half-width loop of tape for an answering machine outgoing message, and another half-width tape on spools to record incoming messages. In order to wind up the tape more reliably, the former BASF (from 1998 EMTEC) patented the Special Mechanism or Security Mechanism advertised with the abbreviation SM in the early 1970s, which was temporarily taken over by Agfa under license. This feature each includes a rail to guide the


title: "Cassette tape" content: tape to the spool and prevent an unclean roll from forming. The competition responded by inserting additional deflector pins closer to the coils in the lower plastic case half. Some low-priced and pre-recorded compact cassettes were made without pulleys; The tape is pulled directly over the capstan drive. For the pressure of the tape to the head there is a thinner felt on a glued foam block instead of the usual felt on a leaf spring. Cassette playback suffered from some flaws frustrating to both professionals and home recording enthusiasts. Tape speed could vary between devices, resulting in pitch that


title: "Cassette tape" content: was too low or too high. Speed often was calibrated at the factory, and could not be changed by users. The slow tape speed increased tape hiss and noise, and in practice delivered higher values of wow and flutter. Different tape formulation and noise reduction schemes artificially boosted or cut high frequencies and inadvertently elevated noise levels. Noise reduction also adds some artifacts to the sound, which a trained ear can hear sometimes quite easily. A common mechanical problem occurred when a worn-out or dirty player rotated the supply spool faster than the take-up spool or failed to release the


title: "Cassette tape" content: heads from the tape upon ejection. This would cause the magnetic tape to be fed out through the bottom of the cassette and become tangled in the mechanism of the player. In these cases the player was said to have "eaten" or "chewed" the tape, often destroying the playability of the cassette. Splicing blocks, analogous to those used for open-reel 1/4" tape, were available and could be used to remove the damaged portion or repair the break in the tape. The first cassette machines (e.g. the Philips EL 3300, introduced in August 1963) were simple mono-record and -playback units. Early


title: "Cassette tape" content: machines required attaching an external dynamic microphone. Most units from the 1980s onwards also incorporated built-in condenser microphones, which have extended high-frequency response, but may also pick up noises from the recorder's motor. A portable recorder format still common today is a long box, the width of a cassette, with a speaker at the top, a cassette bay in the middle, and "piano key" controls at the bottom edge. Another format is only slightly larger than the cassette, known popularly as the "Walkman" (a Sony trademark). The markings of "piano key" controls soon were standardized, and are a legacy still


title: "Cassette tape" content: emulated on many software control panels. These symbols are commonly a square for "stop", a vertically pointed triangle with a line under it for "eject", a right-pointing triangle for "play", double triangles for "fast-forward" and "rewind", a red dot for "record", and a vertically divided square (two rectangles side-by-side) for "pause". Stereo recorders eventually evolved into high fidelity and were known as cassette decks, after the reel-to-reel decks. Hi-Fi cassette decks, in contrast to cassette recorders and cassette players, often didn't have built-in amplification or speakers. Many formats of cassette players and recorders have evolved over the years. Initially all


title: "Cassette tape" content: were top loading, usually with cassette on one side, and VU meters and recording level controls on the other side. Older models used combinations of levers and sliding buttons for control. A major innovation was the front-loading arrangement. Pioneer's angled cassette bay and the exposed bays of some Sansui models eventually were standardized as a front-loading door into which a cassette would be loaded. Later models would adopt electronic buttons, and replace conventional meters (which could be "pegged" when overloaded) with electronic LED or vacuum fluorescent displays, with level controls typically being controlled by either rotary controls or side-by-side sliders.


title: "Cassette tape" content: BIC and Marantz briefly offered models that could be run at double speeds, but Nakamichi was widely recognized as one of the first companies to create decks that rivaled reel-to-reel decks with frequency response from the full 20–20,000 Hz range, low noise, and very low wow and flutter. The 3-head closed-loop dual capstan Nakamichi 1000 (1973) is one early example. Unlike typical cassette decks that use a single head for both record and playback plus a second head for erasing, the Nakamichi 1000, like the better reel-to-reel recorders, used three separate heads to optimize these functions. Other contenders for the


title: "Cassette tape" content: highest "HiFi" quality on this medium were two companies already widely known for their excellent quality reel-to-reel tape recorders: Tandberg and Revox (consumer brand of the Swiss professional Studer company for studio equipment). Tandberg started with combi-head machines, such as the TCD 300, and continued with the TCD 3x0 series with separate playback and recording heads. All TCD-models possessed dual-capstan drives, belt-driven from a single capstan motor and two separate reel motors. Frequency range extended to 18 kHz. After a disastrous overinvestment in colour television production, Tandberg folded and revived without the HiFi-branch these came from. Revox went one step


title: "Cassette tape" content: further: after much hesitation about whether to accept cassettes as a medium capable for meeting their strict standards from reel-to-reel recorders at all, they produced their B710MK I (Dolby B) and MK II (Dolby B&C) machines. Both cassette units possessed double capstan drives, but with two independent, electronically controlled capstan motors and two separate reel motors. The head assembly moved by actuating a damped solenoid movement, eliminating all belt drives and other wearable parts. These machines rivaled the Nakamichi in frequency and dynamic range. The B710MKII also achieved 20–20,000 Hz and dynamics of over 72 dB with Dolby C on