title: German Reich

text: However, originating from the North German Confederation, the Empire never comprised all "German" lands; as it excluded Luxembourg, and those Cisleithanian crown lands of Austria-Hungary which had been part of the former German Confederation until 1865. Moreover, it included the whole of the Kingdom of Prussia, the eastern parts of which had never been included in historic German lands. The unification under Prussian leadership manifested Bismarck's "Lesser German" solution of the German question after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, realised with the support of his national liberal allies. On the other hand, the German Reich of 1871 comprised extended Prussian territories with large non-German sections of the population, like Posen, West Prussia or Schleswig, and also territories with predominantly German populations which had never been constitutionally "German" (Holy Roman), such as East Prussia.


title: German Reich

text: Bismarck was otherwise unable, however, to avoid the term "German Reich" acquiring connotations from the English term "empire" or the Dutch term "rijk" in the context of German colonial expansion during the New Imperialism period. Following in the example of other European colonial empires, Imperial Germany (against Bismarck's intentions) started to rapidly acquire overseas colonies, including possessions in Africa, Oceania and China; the Imperial German Navy underwent a rapid expansion concurrently to protect these new colonies. At the same time strong Pan-Germanic political forces emerged, pressing for the borders of the "Reich" to be extended into a multiethnic German-led Central European empire, emulating and rivalling Imperial Russia to the east.


title: German Reich

text: Before and during the events of World War I, the German state was called an "empire" in English and Wilhelm II was titled "His Imperial and Royal Majesty the German Emperor." After the War and the abolition of the monarchy during the German Revolution of 1918–19, however, when Wilhelm was forced to abdicate, the official English name for Germany was the "German Reich": "Reich" was left untranslated and no longer referred to an "empire" but, instead, took on the connotation of "Realm" or "State", its original (1871) definition. "German Reich" was used in legal documents and English-language international treaties—for example, the Kellogg–Briand Pact and the Geneva Conventions.


title: German Reich

text: Apart from official documents, post-World War I Germany was referred to as the "German Reich"—never as the "German Empire"—for example, by British politicians—and in the aftermath of World War II the word "Reich" was used untranslated by Allied prosecutors throughout the Nuremberg Trials, with "German Empire" only used to describe Germany before it became a federal republic in 1918.


title: German Reich

text: At the 1871 Unification of Germany (aside from Austria), the Reich was established constitutionally as a federation of monarchies, each having entered the federation with a defined territory; and consequently the unitary nationalism of the 'German Reich' was initially specified (at Article 1 of the 1871 constitution) in territorial terms, as the lands within the former boundaries of this particular subset of German monarchies. This geographical understanding of the Reich became steadily superseded in the period up to the first World War by an understanding of the German Reich as a unitary nation state identified with the German national people according to the principle of "jus sanguinis", and drawing on the rhetoric of "the sovereignty of the nation" in the Frankfurt Constitution—albeit that many ethnic "Germans" (as with the German-speaking peoples of Austria) remained outside the national people constituting the German Empire of 1871 and also that the Empire of 1871 included extensive territories (such as Posen) with predominantly non-German populations. This transition became formalised in the constitution of the Weimar Republic, where Article 1 identifies the Reich as deriving its authority from the German national people, while Article 2 identifies the state territory under the Reich as the lands which, at the time of the constitution's adoption, were within the authority of the German state. The identity of Reich and people ran both ways—not only did the institutions of the German state derive their legitimacy from the German people, so, too, the German people derived their inherent identity and patriotic duties from their being collectively constituted as an organ and institution of the German Reich. Subsequently the term "German Reich" continued to be applied both as identifying with the national people, and also with the state territory; but increasingly, the application of the term to the German national people came to be seen as primary. Following the Second World War, the term "German Reich" fell out of use in constitutional formulations, being replaced by the term "nation as a whole", as applied to denote the state as a totality of the German national people; and the term "Germany as a whole", as applied to denote the state as a totality of German national territory.


title: German Reich

text: The 1918–1933 republic, which was also called the German Reich, was ignored and denounced by the Nazis as a historical aberration. The name "Weimar Republic" was first used in 1929 after Hitler referred to the period as the ""Republik von Weimar"" (Republic of Weimar, after the city (Weimar) which held its constitutional assembly) at a rally in Munich with the term later becoming mainstream during the 1930s both within and outside Germany. The Nazis also contemptuously referred to it as "the System".


title: German Reich

text: On 8 May 1945, with the capitulation of the German armed forces, the supreme command of the Wehrmacht was handed over to the Allies. The Allies refused to recognise Karl Dönitz as "Reichspräsident" or to recognise the legitimacy of his Flensburg Government (so-called because it was based at Flensburg and controlled only a small area around the town) and, on 5 June 1945, the four powers signed the Berlin Declaration and assumed de jure supreme authority with respect to Germany. The declaration asserted the complete legal extinction of the Third Reich following death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945, but the continued subsequent existence of a German people and a German national territory; although subject to the four signatory powers also asserting their authority to determine the future boundaries of Germany.


title: German Reich

text: At the Potsdam Conference, Allied-occupied Germany was defined as comprising "Germany as a whole"; and was divided into British, French, American and Soviet occupation zones; while the Allied Powers exercised the state authority assumed by the Berlin Declaration in transferring the former eastern territories of the German Reich east of the Oder–Neisse line to the Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union.


title: German Reich

text: In 1973, in a review of the previous year's Basic Treaty between East and West Germany, the German Federal Constitutional Court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") ruled that according to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany the German "Reich" had outlasted the collapse in 1945, and hence had continued to exist as an “overall state”, albeit one not itself capable of action. The court ruled that since 1949 the Federal Republic (FRG) had been partially identical with the German "Reich" and not merely its successor. The court further elaborated that the 'partial identity' of the FRG was limited to apply only within its current "de facto" territory; and hence the Federal Republic could not claim an exclusive mandate for the territory of the "Reich" then under the "de facto" government of the German Democratic Republic; "identity does not require exclusivity". This was explained as being because the German Democratic Republic was beyond FRG authority and because the Allied powers still had jurisdiction where "Germany as a whole" was concerned. Nevertheless, the Court insisted that within the territory of the Federal Republic, the GDR could only be considered as one "de jure" German state amongst others, on the analogy of the pre-existing "de jure" German states that in 1949 had come together as the Federal Republic; and hence, like them, could never be accorded by the organs of the Federal Republic full recognition as a state in international law; even though the Federal Constitutional Court recognised that, within international law, the GDR was indeed an independent sovereign state. The constitutional status of the GDR under the Basic Law still differed from that of the "Länder" of the Federal Republic, in that the GDR had not declared its accession to the Basic Law; but the Constitutional Court maintained that the Basic Treaty was consistent with the GDR declaring its accession at some time in the future in accordance with its own constitution; and hence the Court determined that in recognising the GDR as a "de jure" German State, the Basic Treaty could be interpreted as facilitating the reunification of the German "Reich" (as indeed it eventually did). So long as any "de jure" German state remained separated from the rest, the German "Reich" could continue to exist only in suspension; but should the GDR be reunited with the Federal Republic, the "Reich" would once more be fully capable of action as a sovereign state.


title: German Reich

text: After 1973, however, the claimed identity of the Federal Republic with the German "Reich" was not recognised by most other countries of the world. The Soviet Union, the three Western allies, and most other Western countries regarded the German "Reich" as still being one nation—not synonymous with either the West or East German state but rather the two states in collective. Other countries tended to regard the German "Reich" as having been divided into two distinct states in international law, and accordingly accorded both states full diplomatic recognition. As of 1974, East Germany's official stance was that the GDR was a new state that is German in nature, a successor of the German Reich, and that there were then two German states that were different nations.


title: German Reich

text: When the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany between Germany and the wartime Allies was signed on 12 September 1990, there was no mention of the term "Deutsches Reich", however the Allies paraphrased the international legal personality of Germany as "Germany as a whole" in the English version of the text. Instead the states of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, GDR) agreed to be bound by certain conditions which they had to ratify, one of which was the recognising the reunification of East Germany, West Germany and Berlin as constituting the full achievement of a united Germany. On meeting these conditions under Article 7.2 "The United Germany [has] accordingly full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs."


title: German Reich

text: Under Article 1 of the Treaty on Final Settlement, the new united Germany committed itself to renouncing any further territorial claims beyond the boundaries of East Germany, West Germany and Berlin; "The united Germany has no territorial claims whatsoever against other states and shall not assert any in the future." Furthermore the Basic Law of the Federal Republic was required to be amended to state explicitly that full German unification had now been achieved, such that the new German state comprised the entirety of Germany, and that all constitutional mechanisms should be removed by which any territories outside those boundaries could otherwise subsequently be admitted; these amendments being bound by treaty not to be revoked. Article 23 of the Basic Law was repealed, closing off the possibility for any further states to apply for membership of the Federal Republic; while Article 146 was amended to state explicitly that the territory of the newly unified republic comprised the entirety of the German people; "This Basic Law, which since the achievement of the unity and freedom of Germany applies to the entire German people, shall cease to apply on the day on which a constitution freely adopted by the German people takes effect". This was confirmed in the 1990 rewording of the preamble; "Germans..have achieved the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination. This Basic Law thus applies to the entire German people." In place of the former Article 23 under which the former GDR had declared its accession to the Federal Republic, a new Article 23 embedded the accession of the Federal Republic to the European Union within the Basic Law; hence with the subsequent accession of Poland to the EU, the constitutional bar on pursuing any claim to territories beyond the Oder–Neisse line was reinforced. Insofar as the German Reich may be claimed to continue in existence as 'Germany as a whole', the former eastern territories of Germany in Poland or Russia, and the western territories, such as the East Cantons or Alsace-Lorraine, are now definitively and permanently excluded from ever again being united within this Reich under the Basic Law.


title: German Reich

text: Hence, although the GDR had by the Volkskammer's declaration of accession to the Federal Republic, initiated the process of reunification; the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms and conditions; including the fundamental amendments to the Basic Law required by the Treaty of Final Settlement) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990; that is through a binding agreement between the former GDR and the Federal Republic now recognising each another as separate sovereign states in international law. This treaty was then voted into effect by both the Volkskammer and the Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities; effecting on the one hand, the extinction of the GDR, and on the other, the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic. Hence, although the GDR had nominally declared its accession the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, this did not imply its acceptance of the Basic Law as it then stood; but rather of the Basic Law as subsequently amended in line with the Unification Treaty and the Treaty of Final Settlement. These amendments had the effect of removing all those clauses by which the Federal Constitutional Court had formerly maintained the identity of the Federal Republic with the historic 'German Reich', specifically including the very Article 23 that had provided the basis for the Volkskammer's declaration of accession.


title: Shinigami

text: In Buddhism, there is the Mara that is concerned with death, the Mrtyu-mara. It is a demon that makes humans want to die, and it is said that upon being possessed by it, in a shock, one should suddenly want to die by suicide, so it is sometimes explained to be a . Also, in the Yogacarabhumi-sastra, a writing on Yogacara, a demon decided the time of people's deaths. Yama, the king of the Underworld, as well as such as the Ox-Head and Horse-Face are also considered a type of .


title: Shinigami

text: In Shinto and Japanese mythology, Izanami gave humans death, so Izanami is sometimes seen as a . However, Izanami and Yama are also thought to be different from the death gods in Western mythology. Some forms of Buddhism do not involve believing in any deities, so it is sometimes thought that the concept of a death god does not exist to begin with. Even though the and of Japanese Buddhist faith have taken humans' lives, there is the opinion that there is no "death god" that merely leads people into the world of the dead. After the war, however, the Western notion of a death god entered Japan, and started to become mentioned as an existence with a human nature.


title: Shinigami

text: Generally the word does not appear to be used in Japanese classical literature, and there are not many writings about them, but going into the Edo period, the word can be seen in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's works of and classical literature that had themes on double suicides.


title: Shinigami

text: In Hōei 3 (1706), in a performance of , concerning men and women who were invited towards death, it was written "the road the god of death leads towards", and in Hōei 6 (1709), in , a woman who was about to commit double suicide with a man said, "the fleetingness of a life lured by a god of death". It never became clear whether the man and woman came to commit double suicide due to the existence of a , or if a was given as an example for their situation of double suicide, and there are also interpretations that the word is an expression for the fleetingness of life.


title: Shinigami

text: Other than that, in Kyōhō 5 (1720), in a performance of "The Love Suicides at Amijima", there was the expression, "of one possessed by a god of death". Since the character was seller of paper, the character who confronted death wrote as , but there are also interpretations that Chikamatsu himself did not think about the existence of a .


title: Shinigami

text: In the classical literature of the Edo period, that would possess humans are mentioned. In the from Tenpō 12 (1841), there was a story titled . In this one, however, the was the spirit of a deceased person and had bad intent. Acting jointly with the malicious intent already within people who were living, those people were led on bad paths, which caused repeat incidents to occur at places where there was previously a murder incident (for example by causing the same suicide at places where people have hanged themselves before), and thus these are somewhat like a possession that would cause people to want to die. Similar to this, according to the essay of the Bakumatsu period titled , there were the that made people want to commit suicide through various means, namely hanging, as well as things told through folk religion such as and .


title: Shinigami

text: In the later Edo Period, the essay in Kaei 3 (1850) by the essayist Miyoshi Shōzan, the one titled "upon possession by a shinigami, it becomes difficult to speak, or easier to tell lies" was a story where a prostitute possessed by a invites a man to commit double suicide, and in the kabuki by Kawatake Mokuami in Meiji 19 (1886), a enters into people's thoughts, making them think about bad things they have done and want to die. These are, rather than gods, more like (meaning ghosts and ), or evil spirits.


title: Shinigami

text: In the of classical , there was a programme titled , but this was something that was not thought of independently in Japan, but rather from adaptions of the Italian opera the and the Grimm Fairy Tale "Godfather Death".


title: Shinigami

text: are also spoken about in folk religion after the war. According to the mores of Miyajima, Kumamoto Prefecture, those who go out and return to attend to someone through the night must drink tea or eat a bowl of rice before sleeping, and it is said that a would visit if this was ignored.


title: Shinigami

text: In the Hamamatsu area, Shizuoka Prefecture, a would possess people and lead them to mountains, seas, and railroads where people have died. In those places, the dead would have a "death turn" (), and as long as there is nobody to die there next, they shall never ascend even if they were given a service, and it was said that people who were alive would be invited by the dead to come next. Also, it is ordinary to visit graves for the sake of Higan during noon or when the sun sets, but in the Okayama Prefecture, visiting the grave for Higan during sunrise without a previous time would result in being possessed by a . However, once one has visited the grave in sunset, then it would become necessary to visit the grave again during sunrise, to avoid a possessing one's body. With this background of folk belief, it is also thought that sometimes people would consider the ghosts of the deceased, who have nobody to deify them, to be seeking companions and inviting people to join them.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Gone Girl is a 2012 crime thriller novel by American writer Gillian Flynn. It was published by Crown Publishing Group in June 2012. The novel was popular and made the "New York Times" Best Seller list. The sense of suspense in the novel comes from whether Nick Dunne is responsible for the disappearance of his wife Amy.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Critics in the United States positively received and reviewed the novel, noting the author's use of unreliable narration, plot twists, and suspense.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: A film adaptation was released on 3 October 2014, with screenplay by Flynn herself. It was directed by David Fincher, with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in lead roles. The film enjoyed commercial success and widespread critical acclaim.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: The narrative alternates between the point of view of Nick and Amy Dunne (née Elliott). Nick's narration begins shortly after arriving home on his fifth wedding anniversary to find Amy is missing from their home; there are signs of a struggle. Amy's narration comes in the form of her diaries and follows the earlier stages of their relationship.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: The diary entries describe how Amy met Nick in New York City, where they both worked as writers. Nick was a journalist who wrote movie and TV reviews, while Amy wrote personality quizzes for women's magazines. After two years of dating, they married. The couple lived in a beautiful brownstone home in Brooklyn where they were happy.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: In 2009, both Nick and Amy lost their jobs following the Great Recession. Amy's parents Rand and Marybeth, meanwhile, had written a successful children's book series called "Amazing Amy," based on Amy's life experiences. However, when sales from the books declined and Rand and Marybeth didn't curb their spending, they also started facing financial issues. Their solution was to ask Amy for money from her trust fund, which made Nick unhappy.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Eventually, Amy and Nick relocate to Nick's hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to care for Nick's sick mother, Maureen. With permission, Nick uses what remained of Amy's trust fund to open a bar with his twin sister, Margo or "Go". Nick also finds work teaching journalism at a local college. Their marriage deteriorates; Amy describes how she hates being a housewife in the suburbs and resents Nick for making her move. Her diary comes to portray Nick as an aggressive, moody, idle, and threatening husband, and indicates that she fears for her life.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: In Nick's narrative, he views Amy as a needlessly difficult, antisocial, controlling perfectionist, and an unwelcome obligation, but he is concerned about her disappearance. Nick becomes a suspect in the investigation, led by Detectives Rhonda Boney and Jim Gilpin, and Nick downplays their relationship issues. During the investigation, Nick faces intense media scrutiny, exacerbated by his lack of obvious emotion and apparent flippant attitude. It is also revealed by Amy's supposed best friend from the neighborhood, Noelle Hawthorne, that Amy was pregnant, which Nick was unaware of. Nick has serious credit card debt, which he claims to have been unaware of, and Amy's life insurance was recently increased by Nick, which he claims was her idea. It becomes apparent to Nick that his wife had secrets from him.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: It is revealed that Nick and Amy are unreliable narrators. Nick has admitted that he is cheating on his wife with Andie, his former college student, and intended to divorce Amy; he hid this from investigators to avoid suspicion. Amy's narration shifts to the present day, revealing that she is alive and staged her own disappearance to go into hiding. After discovering Nick's affair, she became angry at his disregard for her and planned extensively for a year to fake her death and frame Nick as revenge for wasting her life. Her pregnancy, years of diary entries, and other evidence were fabricated in order to incriminate Nick.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Nick becomes aware of Amy's plan based on vague clues that she has left under the guise of their traditional anniversary treasure hunt. He is led to Go's woodshed where he discovers exorbitant purchases that Amy made with credit cards in his name to further incriminate him. The shed also contains Amy's anniversary gift of Punch and Judy puppets (one missing a handle), indicating that she expects Nick to receive the death penalty for her murder.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Amy's plan to monitor the investigation through the news media is foiled when she is robbed at the motel where she has holed up. Desperate, she seeks help from her wealthy ex-boyfriend, Desi Collings, whom she had a manipulative relationship with in her youth. Desi, still enamored, hides her in his lake house but becomes possessive and controlling, making Amy feel trapped.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Nick and his new lawyer, Tanner Bolt, work to change public perception of Nick through an interview with a popular talk show host, during which Nick pretends to be apologetic about his infidelity and failings as a husband. He is well-received, but the police have discovered the woodshed, which also contains violent porn videos and Amy's faked diary chronicling abuse from Nick. The police find the missing handle from the puppets, bearing Amy's blood. Nick is arrested.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: At Desi's house, Amy sees the TV interview and is impressed by Nick's performance of a perfect husband, and is convinced that the two of them uniquely understand and are matched to each other. She mutilates her own body so that it appears Desi has been holding her captive, then seduces him and murders him.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Amy returns to North Carthage, where Nick is recently out on bond. She fabricates a story for investigators that she was kidnapped from home and imprisoned by Desi before killing him to escape; her diary entries were melodramatic and she is glad to be back with Nick. Nick, Detective Boney, and Go know she is lying but have no proof. Nick is forced to return to married life with Amy as the media storm dies down.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Amy begins writing her memoir of the fabricated events, and Nick privately begins writing an exposé of Amy's deceptions. Amy uses Nick's semen, which they had saved at a fertility clinic, to inseminate herself, and forces him to delete his book by threatening to keep him from their unborn child. Nick complies, dedicating himself to the role of a perfect husband.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: A main theme of the novel is dishonesty and the superficial nature of appearance, particularly within marriage and romantic relationships. The characters lie to each other and to the reader about affairs and disappearances. Amy fabricates a fake diary to implicate her husband for her disappearance and murder. Flynn says that, in writing the book, she wanted to examine how people within a marriage lie to each other: "Marriage is sort of like a long con, because you put on display your very best self during courtship, yet at the same time the person you marry is supposed to love you warts and all. But your spouse never sees those warts really until you get deeper into the marriage and let yourself unwind a bit."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Reviewers noted the novel's portrayal of the effects of media representation and the blood thirst of the news industry. Nick seems guilty due to media coverage before a trial occurs. Salon.com notes that "Flynn, a former staff writer for "Entertainment Weekly", is especially good on the infiltration of the media into every aspect of the missing-person investigation, from Nick's cop-show-based awareness that the husband is always the primary suspect to a raving tabloid-TV Fury, who is out to avenge all wronged women and obviously patterned on Nancy Grace." Entertainment writer Jeff Giles notes that the novel plays on reader expectations that the husband will be the murderer, expectations that have been shaped by the media: "The first half of "Gone Girl" is a nimble, caustic riff on our Nancy Grace culture and the way in which 'The butler did it' has morphed into 'The husband did it.'" A "New York Daily News" review notes the novel's interest in how quickly a husband can be convicted in the media: "In a media society informed by Nancy Grace, when a wife goes missing, the husband murdered her. There's no need for a body to arrive at a verdict." A "San Francisco Chronicle" review notes the book's recurring commentary on media influence: "Flynn pokes smart fun at cable news, our collective obsession with social media and reality TV."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Characters in the novel are strongly affected by the Great Recession and the troubled economy. Flynn said that she wanted this novel to capture the sense of bankruptcy that both individuals and communities feel when the economy spirals. Not only have both her main characters lost their jobs, they have also moved to a town that is blighted by unsold houses and failed businesses. "I wanted the whole thing to feel bankrupt ... I wanted it to really feel like a marriage that had been hollowed out in a city that had been hollowed out and a country that was increasingly hollowed out," said Flynn.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: An underlying theme is feminism, most notably represented in Amy's "Cool Girl" speech. Despite her otherwise villainous character, this monologue has been praised for articulating the pressure that women face to morph into the male's ideal. Flynn is a self-identified feminist and has stated that Amy's "just pragmatically evil" character and non-conformity to the traditional perception of women as innately good characters are the embodiment of feminism, which she defined as "the ability to have women who are bad characters."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Amy's "Cool Girl" speech, and Nick's performing for his media spectators, highlight the importance of establishing and maintaining public appearances, however false. Flynn said: "The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn't keep it up, so they destroy each other". Amy creates her plan to frame her husband when Nick fails to maintain the false image that Amy married, which she feels she is owed for keeping her side of the bargain by pretending to be his "cool girl" fantasy. She only returns to him after he gives a convincing public performance in the role of perfect husband. However, it is not his sincerity she is attracted to; she knows he is putting on an act, but the appearance of it. Amy views Nick as her ideal husband in the end because she knows he must appear to be her ideal husband, permanently, due to her blackmail and the risk of public condemnation. In exchange, she will appear as an ideal wife and mother, a trade which Nick accepts. Both prefer the appearance projected by the other over the reality of the person they married.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: "Gone Girl" is an example of mystery, suspense, and crime genres. A "Reader's Digest" review noted that the book is "more than just a crime novel"; the reviewer describes it as a "masterful psychological thriller" which offers "an astute and thought-provoking look into two complex personalities". A "Chicago Tribune" review notes that "Gone Girl" uses many of the devices common to thrillers—a cast of viable suspects, unfolding secrets, and red herrings. However, the novel does more with these devices than the thriller genre requires: "While serving their usual functions, they also do much more, launching us into an unnerving dissection of the fallout of failed dreams."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: In her "New York Times" review, Janet Maslin writes that the elements of "Gone Girl" that "sound like standard-issue crime story machinations" are not, because both narrators are also consummate liars and cannot be trusted to convey the truth about their own stories. Salon.com writes that "Gone Girl" has literary features that enhance the crime genre features, adding that Flynn is "kicking the genre into high gear." Flynn herself says that, in writing "Gone Girl", she employed the mystery genre as a "thru-lane" to explore what she was really interested in: relationships.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Gillian Flynn is a former writer for "Entertainment Weekly" who wrote two popular novels prior to "Gone Girl" — "Sharp Objects", and "Dark Places". "Gone Girl" is her best selling book to date. Her other two books were about people incapable of making commitments, but in this novel, she tried to depict the ultimate commitment, marriage: "I liked the idea of marriage told as a he-said, she-said story, and told by two narrators who were perhaps not to be trusted." Flynn has also described marriage as "the ultimate mystery."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Flynn admits to putting some of herself in the character of Nick Dunne. Like Dunne, she was a popular culture writer. Also, like Dunne, she was laid off after many years at the same job. Flynn said, "I certainly wove that experience, that sense of having something that you were going to do for the rest of your life and seeing that possibility taken away... I definitely wove that sense of unrest and nervousness into Nick's character."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Asked how she can write so believably about a man's inner life, Flynn says, "I'm kind of part guy myself." When she needs to understand something about how men think, she asks her husband or a male friend. Flynn's autobiographical essay "I Was Not a Nice Little Girl..." invites readers to believe she took inspiration for Amy Dunne from her own interior monologue. In that essay, Flynn confesses to sadistic childhood impulses like "stunning ants and feeding them to spiders." A favorite indoor game called "Mean Aunt Rosie" allowed Flynn to cast herself as a "witchy caregiver" who exercised malevolent influence over her cousins. The same essay argues that women fail to acknowledge their own violent impulses and incorporate them into their personal narratives, though men tend to cherish stories of their childhood meanness.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Flynn identified Zoë Heller's "Notes on a Scandal" and Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" as influences on her writing and, in particular, on the plot and themes of "Gone Girl". Flynn said she admired the "ominous" ending of "Notes on a Scandal" and the pathology of a bad marriage from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". For the conclusion of "Gone Girl", Flynn drew from "Rosemary's Baby"; she said: "I love that it just ends with, you know, 'Hey, the devil's in the world, and guess what? Mom kind of likes him!'".


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Flynn said that she was influenced by mystery writers Laura Lippman, Karin Slaughter, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, and Harlan Coben. However, she tries not to read any one genre exclusively, and she also admires Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, T.C. Boyle, and Arthur Phillips, who are better known as realistic contemporary writers.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: "Gone Girl" is also the title of a Lew Archer story, in the 1955 collection "The Name is Archer", by Ross Macdonald, whom Flynn has also cited as a favorite author.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Flynn has refuted the notion that she was inspired to write the novel by the 2002 murder of Laci Peterson in California, saying that although she saw parallels between that real-life case and her story, she makes a point not to rely on specific true accounts for her stories. Portraying her principal characters as out-of-work writers, she made use of her own experience being laid off from her job as a writer for "Entertainment Weekly".


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: "Gone Girl" was No. 1 on the "New York Times" Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list for eight weeks. It was also twenty-six weeks on National Public Radio's hardcover fiction bestseller list. Culture writer Dave Itzkoff wrote that the novel was, excepting books in the "Fifty Shades" trilogy, the biggest literary phenomenon of 2012. By the end of its first year in publication, "Gone Girl" had sold over two million copies in print and digital editions, according to the book's publisher. In 2016, the book had sold more than 15 million copies. In 2019, it was reported that the book had sold 20 million copies.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: "Gone Girl" has been widely praised in numerous publications including the "New Yorker", "The New York Times", "Time", "Publishers Weekly", "Entertainment Weekly", "Chatelaine", "People", and "USA Today". Reviewers express admiration for the novel's suspense, a plot twist involving an unreliable narrator, its psychological dimension, and its examination of a marriage that has become corrosive. "Entertainment Weekly" describes it as "an ingenious and viperish thriller." "The New Yorker" describes it as a "mostly well-crafted novel," praising its depiction of an "unraveling" marriage and a "recession-hit Midwest," while finding its conclusion somewhat "outlandish."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: "The New York Times" likens Gillian Flynn to suspense novelist Patricia Highsmith: ""Gone Girl" is Flynn's dazzling breakthrough; the novel is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they're hard to part with." A "USA Today" review focuses on bookseller enthusiasm for the book, quoting a Jackson, Mississippi store manager saying, "It will make your head spin off." "People Magazine"'s review found the novel "a delectable summer read" that burrows "deep into the murkiest corners of the human psyche." A "Chatelaine" review commends the novel's suspense, its intricately detailed plot and the way it keeps the reader "unnervingly off balance."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: Many reviewers have noted the difficulty of writing about "Gone Girl", because so little in the first half of the novel is what it seems to be. In his "Time" review, Lev Grossman describes the novel as a "house of mirrors." He said "Its content may be postmodern, but it takes the form of a thoroughbred thriller about the nature of identity and the terrible secrets that can survive and thrive in even the most intimate relationships."


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: In an article in "Salon", Laura Miller laments that "Gone Girl" was conspicuously absent from the winning ranks of prestigious literary awards, like the National Book Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. The same article argues that "Gone Girl" was snubbed because it belongs to the mystery genre. Judges awarding top literary prizes "have all refrained from honoring any title published within the major genres." "Gone Girl" was No. 7 on the inaugural "Salon" What To Read Awards in 2012. The novel has also been short-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Natasha Walter, one of the Women's Prize judges in 2013, told the "Independent" that there was considerable debate among the judges about the inclusion of "Gone Girl" in the finalists' circle. Walter indicated that crime fiction is often "overlooked" by those in a position to make literary commendations.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: "Gone Girl" was recorded as a Random House audiobook, featuring the voices of Julia Whelan as Amy Dunne and Kirby Heyborne as Nick Dunne. It is an unabridged edition on fifteen compact discs and takes 19.25 hours to listen to in its entirety.


title: Gone Girl (novel)

text: American actress Reese Witherspoon's film production company and 20th Century Fox bought the screen rights to "Gone Girl", for which they paid US$1.5 million. The novel's author Gillian Flynn was engaged to write the screenplay. Witherspoon produced the film version along with Leslie Dixon, Bruna Papandrea, and Ceán Chaffin. Witherspoon was drawn to the script because of its strong female character and its use of multiple perspectives and non-linear structure. In May 2013, it was announced that David Fincher was brought on as director, with Ben Affleck cast as Nick and Rosamund Pike in the role of Amy. New Regency and Fox agreed to co-finance the film. The film was released on 3 October 2014.


title: Samsung Galaxy Tab series

text: The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a line of Android-based and Windows-based tablet computers produced by Samsung Electronics. The first model in the series, the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, was presented to the public on 2 September 2010 at the IFA in Berlin and was available on 5 November 2010. Since then several models have been released, including models with 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1-inch displays. The Wi-Fi versions of the tablet all include a GPS system, and the 3G/4G/5G tablets add cellular capability.


title: Samsung Galaxy Tab series

text: The original Samsung Galaxy Tab series was the original line of Samsung tablets. It was later split into three separate lines: the Galaxy Tab S series for high-end tablets, the Galaxy Tab A series for mid-range tablets, and the Galaxy Tab E series for entry-level tablets.


title: Samsung Galaxy Tab series

text: The original Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro devices, released in 2014, were a series of three high-end tablets running the Android operating system. These tablets would be succeeded by the Galaxy Tab S series. In 2016, Samsung released another device in the Tab Pro line, the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S, although that tablet ran Windows 10 instead of Android. It was succeeded by the Samsung Galaxy Book the following year.


title: Samsung Galaxy Tab series

text: The Galaxy Tab S series is Samsung's high-end tablet line, running the Android operating system and mirroring the Galaxy S series of smartphones.


title: Samsung Galaxy Tab series

text: The Galaxy Tab A series is a mid-range to low-end tablet line, mirroring the Galaxy A series of smartphones.


title: Yazidism

text: Yazidism, alternatively Sharfadin is a monotheistic ethnic religion that has roots in a western Iranic pre-Zoroastrian religion directly derived from the Indo-Iranian tradition. It is followed by the mainly Kurmanji-speaking Yazidis and is based on belief in one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy Beings, known as Angels. Preeminent among these Angels is Tawûsê Melek (also spelled as "Melek Taûs"), who is the leader of the Angels and who has authority over the world.


title: Yazidism

text: Yazidis believe in one God, whom they refer to as ', , ', and ' ('King'), and, less commonly, ' and "". According to some Yazidi hymns (known as "Qewls"), God has 1,001 names, or 3,003 names according to other Qewls. In Yazidism, fire, water, air, and the earth are sacred elements that are not to be polluted. During prayer Yazidis face towards the sun, for which they were often called "sun worshippers". The Yazidi myth of creation begins with the description of the emptiness and the absence of order in the Universe. Prior to the World's creation, God created a (white pearl) in the spiritual form from his own pure Light and alone dwelt in it. First there was an esoteric world, and after that an exoteric world was created. Before the creation of this world God created seven Divine Beings (often called "Angels" in Yazidi literature) to whom he assigned all the world's affairs; the leader of the Seven Angels was appointed Tawûsî Melek ("Peacock Angel"). The end of Creation is closely connected with the creation of mankind and the transition from mythological to historical time.


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidis believe in a divine Triad. The original, hidden God of the Yazidis is considered to be remote and inactive in relation to his creation, except to contain and bind it together within his essence. His first emanation is Melek Taûs (), who functions as the ruler of the world. The second hypostasis of the divine Triad is the Sheikh 'Adī ibn Musafir. The third is Sultan Ezid. These are the three hypostases of the one God. The identity of these three is sometimes blurred, with Sheikh 'Adī considered to be a manifestation of Tawûsê Melek and vice versa; the same also applies to Sultan Ezid. Yazidis are called "" ("the nation of Tawûsê Melek").


title: Yazidism

text: In the Yazidi myth of creation, Tawûsê Melek refused to bow before Adam, the first human, when God ordered the Seven Angels to do so. The command was actually a test, meant to determine which of these angels was most loyal to God by not prostrating themselves to someone other than their creator. This belief has been linked by some people to the Islamic mythological narrative on Iblis, who also refused to prostrate to Adam, despite God's express command to do so. Because of this similarity to the Islamic tradition of Iblis, Muslims and followers of other Abrahamic religions have erroneously associated and identified the Peacock Angel with their own conception of the unredeemed evil spirit Satan, a misconception which has incited centuries of violent religious persecution of the Yazidis as "devil-worshippers". Persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq.


title: Yazidism

text: Yazidis, however, believe Tawûsê Melek is not a source of evil or wickedness. They consider him to be the leader of the archangels, not a fallen angel. Yazidis argue that the order to bow to Adam was only a test for Tawûsê Melek, since if God commands anything then it must happen. In other words, God could have made him submit to Adam, but gave Tawûsê Melek the choice as a test: God had directed him not to bow to any other being, and his refusal of the later order to bow to Adam was thus obedience to God's original command.


title: Yazidism

text: Yezidis believe in Seven Angels, considered the emanations of God, who, In Yazidi creation stories, were created by God from his own light (') before the creation of this world. God assigned all of the world's affairs to these seven Angels and Tawûsê Melek was appointed as the leader. The angels are also referred to as "Heft Sirr" ("the Seven Mysteries"). In this context, they have, so to speak, a part of God in themselves. Another word that is used for this is ' or ' (literally: 'mystery'), which denotes a divine essence that the angels were created from. This pure divine essence called "Sur" or "Sirr" has its own personality and will and is also called ' ('the Sur of God'). This term refers to the essence of the Divine itself, that is, God. The Angels share this essence from their creator who is God. In religious literature, these Angels are sometimes referred to as Cibrayîl, Ezrayîl, Mîkayîl, Şifqayîl, Derdayîl, Ezafîl, and Ezazîl. The leader of these Angels is known as Tawûsê Melek, and the others are better known by the names of their earthly incarnations/representations: Fexreddin, Sheikh Shems, Nasirdin, Sejadin, Sheikh Obekr, and Shex Hesen (Şêxsin).


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidi pantheon contains a total of 365 holy figures venerated by Yazidis, designated by various special terms including "Xudan", "Xas", "Mêr" and "Babçak." According to Yazidi beliefs, God is almighty and absolute, and the "Xudans" are a part of His power, moreover, in relation to nature, Yazidis believe in Xudans for most of natural elements and phenomena and they are regarded as divine powers that have control over these phenomena. In Yazidi mythology, the Xudans appeared after the creation of the world for the four elements of nature and their manifestations.""


title: Yazidism

text: One of the important figures of Yazidism is Sheikh 'Adī ibn Musafir. Sheikh 'Adī ibn Musafir settled in the valley of Laliş (some northeast of Mosul) in the Yazidi mountains in the early 12th century and founded the 'Adawiyya Sufi order. He died in 1162, and his tomb at Laliş is a focal point of Yazidi pilgrimage and the principal Yazidi holy site. Yazidism has many influences: Sufi influence and imagery (especially taken from Mansur al-Hallaj) can be seen in the religious vocabulary, especially in the terminology of the Yazidis' esoteric literature, but most of the theology, rituals, traditions, and festivals remains non-Islamic. Its cosmogony for instance has many points in common with those of ancient Iranian religions.


title: Yazidism

text: Yazidis believe in the rebirth of the soul. Like the Ahl-e Haqq, the Yazidis use the metaphor of a change of garment to describe the process, which plays an exceptional role in Yazidi religiosity and is called the "change of [one's] shirt" ("). There is also a belief that some of the events from the time of creation repeat themselves in cycles of history. In Yazidism, different concepts of time coexist:


title: Yazidism

text: In Yazidism, the older original concept of metempsychosis and the cyclic perception of the course of time is harmonised and coexists with the younger idea of a collective eschatology.


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidi cosmogony is recorded in several sacred texts and traditions. It can therefore only be inferred and understood through an overall view of the sacred texts and traditions. The cosmogony can be divided into three stages:


title: Yazidism

text: The term "Enzel" is one of the frequently mentioned terms in the religious vocabulary and it comes up numerous times in the religious hymns, known as "Qewls". For instance, in Qewlê Tawisî Melek:"" (English: Oh, Creator of the Enzel, you are infinite)And Dûa Razanê:


title: Yazidism

text: (English: I am "a" follower of God, I come "from an "enzelî" pearl)"Thus, the term "Enzel" can also be referred to as a "pure, spiritual, immaterial and infinite world", "the Beyond" or "the sphere beyond the profane world". The "Enzel" stage describes a spaceless and timeless state and therefore illustrates a supernatural state. In this stage, initially there is only a God, who creates a pearl out of his own light, in which his shining throne (")" is located."Qewlê Bê Elif:"


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidi qewls mention the universe as having originated from a white pearl that existed in pre-eternity. At the beginning of the time prior to the creation, God emerged from the cosmic pearl, which rested on the horns of a bull that stood on the back of a fish. After God and the pearl separated, the universe burst out of the pearl and became visible as waves rippled across from pearl to form the primeval Cosmic Ocean. As the pearl burst open, the beginning of the material universe was set in motion. "" (meaning 'love') came into being and was laid as the original foundation, colours began to form, and red, yellow and white began to shine from the burst pearl.


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidi religion has its own perception of the colours, which is seen in the mythology and shown through clothing taboos, in religious ceremonies, customs and rituals. Colours are perceived as the symbolizations of nature and the beginning of life, thus the emphasis of colours can be found in the creation myth. The colors white, red, green and yellow in particular are frequently emphasized. White is considered the color of purity and peace and is the main colour of the religious clothing of the Yazidis.


title: Yazidism

text: Yazidi accounts of the creation differ significantly from those of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), since they are derived from the Ancient Mesopotamian and Indo-Iranian traditions; therefore, Yazidi cosmogony is closer to those of Ancient Iranian religions, Yarsanism, and Zoroastrianism.


title: Yazidism

text: The religious literature of Yazidis is composed mostly of poetry which is orally transmitted in mainly Kurmanji and includes numerous genres, such as ' (religious hymn), ' (poem), "Du‛a" (prayer), ' (another kind of prayer), ' (the Declaration of the Faith), ' (prayer for after a sacrifice), ' (literally 'under the veil', another genre), ' (Qasida), "‛" (literally 'listening'), ' and '. The poetic literature is composed in an advanced and archaic language where more complex terms are used, which may be difficult to understand for those who are not trained in religious knowledge. Therefore, they are accompanied by some prosaic genres of the Yazidi literature that often interpret the contents of the poems and provide explanations of their contexts in the spoken language comprehensible among the common population. The prosaic genres include ' and ' (legends and myths), and ' and 's (interpretations of religious hymns). Yazidis also possess some written texts, such as the sacred manuscripts called 's and individual collections of religious texts called ' and ', although they are rarer and often safekept among Yazidis. Yazidis are also said to have two holy books, Book of Revelation and Black Book whose authenticities are debated among scholars.


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidi holy books are claimed to be the Book of Revelation and Black Book. Scholars generally agree that the manuscripts of both books published in 1911 and 1913 were forgeries written by non-Yazidis in response to Western travellers' and scholars' interest in the Yazidi religion; however, the material in them is consistent with authentic Yazidi traditions True texts of those names may have existed, but remain obscure. The real core texts of the religion that exist today are the hymns known as "qawls"; they have also been orally transmitted during most of their history, but are now being collected with the assent of the community, effectively transforming Yazidism into a scriptural religion. The sacred texts had already been translated into English by the early 20th century.


title: Yazidism

text: A very important genre of oral literature of the Yazidi community consists of religious hymns, called ""s, which literally means 'word, speech' (from Arabic ). The performers of these hymns, called the "Qewwal", constitute a distinct class within the Yazidi society. They are a veritable source of ancient Yazidi lore and are traditionally recruited from the non-religious members of other Kurdish tribes, principally the Dimli and Hekkaris. The "qewls" are full of cryptic allusions and usually need to be accompanied by "čirōks" ('stories') that explain their context.


title: Yazidism

text: "Mishurs" are a type of sacred manuscripts that were written down in the 13th century and handed down to each lineage ("") of the Pirs; each of the manuscripts contain descriptions of the founder of the Pir lineage that they were distributed to, along with a list of Kurdish tribes and other priestly lineages that were affiliated with the founder. The "mishurs" are safekept among the families of Pirs in particular places that are designated for their safekeeping; these places are referred to as in Kurmanji. According to the Yazidi tradition, there are a total of 40 "mishurs" which were distributed to the 40 lineages of Pirs.


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidi New Year (') is called ' ("Red Wednesday") or " ("Wednesday at the beginning of April"). It falls in spring, on the first Wednesday of the April and Nîsan months in the Julian and Seleucid calendars, i.e. the first Wednesday on or after 14 April according to the Gregorian calendar.


title: Yazidism

text: One of the most important Yazidi festivals is ' ("Feast of Êzî"), which is celebrated in commemoration of the divine figure Sultan Ezid. Which every year takes place on the first Friday on or after the 14th of December. Before this festival, the Yazidis fast for three days, where nothing is eaten from sunrise to sunset. The ' festival is celebrated in honor of God and the three days of fasting before are also associated with the ever shorter days before the winter solstice, when the sun is less and less visible. With the " festival, the fasting time is ended. The festival is often celebrated with music, food, drinks and dance.


title: Yazidism

text: Another important festival is the "Tawûsgeran", where Qewals and other religious dignitaries visit Yazidi villages, bringing the "", sacred images of a peacock symbolizing Tawûsê Melek. These are venerated, fees are collected from the pious, sermons are preached and holy water and "berat" (small stones from Lalish) distributed.


title: Yazidism

text: The greatest festival of the year is the "" ('Feast of the Assembly'), which includes an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Sheikh 'Adī' ("Şêx Adî") in Lalish, northern Iraq. The festival is celebrated from 6 October to 13 October, in honor of the Sheikh Adi. It is an important time for cohesion.


title: Yazidism

text: If possible, Yazidis make at least one pilgrimage to Lalish during their lifetime, and those living in the region try to attend at least once a year for the "Feast of the Assembly" in autumn.


title: Yazidism

text: Tiwafs are yearly feasts of shrines and their holy beings which constitute an important part of Yazidi religious and communal life. Every village that contains a shrine holds annual tiwafs in the name of the holy being to which the shrine is dedicated.


title: Yazidism

text: Prayers occupy a special status in Yazidi literature. They contain important symbols and religious knowledge connected with the Holy Men, God, and daily situations. The prayers are mostly private and as a rule they are not performed in public. Yazidis pray towards the sun, usually privately, or the prayers are recited by one person during a gathering. The prayers are classified according to their own content. There are:


title: Yazidism

text: Many Yazidis consider pork to be prohibited. However, many Yazidis living in Germany began to view this taboo as a foreign belief from Judaism or Islam and not part of Yazidism, and therefore abandoned this rule. Furthermore, in a BBC interview in April 2010, Baba Sheikh, the spiritual leader of all Yazidis, stated that ordinary Yazidis may eat what they want, but the religious clergy refrain from certain vegetables (including cabbage) because "they cause gases".


title: Yazidism

text: Some Yazidis in Armenia and Georgia who converted to Christianity, still identify as Yazidis even after converting, but are not accepted by the other Yazidis as Yazidis.


title: Yazidism

text: Children are baptised at birth and circumcision is not required, but is practised by some due to regional customs. The Yazidi baptism is called ' (literally: 'to seal'). Traditionally, Yazidi children are baptised at birth with water from the ' ('White Spring') at Lalish. It involves pouring holy water from the spring on the child's head three times.


title: Yazidism

text: The Yazidis are strictly endogamous; members of the three Yazidi castes, the murids, sheikhs, and pirs, marry only within their group.


title: Yazidism

text: There are several religious duties that are performed by several dignitaries, such as the Mir Hejj (Prince of the Pilgrimage), Sheikh el-Wazir (who oversees the sanctuary of Sheikh Shems at Lalish), Pire Esbiya (treasurer of the sanctuary of Sheikh Shems at Lalish), Mijewir (local shrine custodian), Baba Chawush (guardian of the sanctuary of Sheikh Adi), and others.


title: Hackathon

text: A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of hacking and marathon) is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. They are often run using agile software development practices, such as sprint-like design wherein computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, product managers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on engineering projects, such as software engineering.


title: Hackathon

text: The goal of a hackathon is to create functioning software or hardware by the end of the event. Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, or the subject and the demographic group of the programmers. In other cases, there is no restriction on the type of software being created or the design of the new system.


title: Hackathon

text: The word "hackathon" is a portmanteau of the words "hack" and "marathon", where "hack" is used in the sense of exploratory programming, not its alternate meaning as a reference to breaching computer security.


title: Hackathon

text: OpenBSD's apparent first use of the term referred to a cryptographic development event held in Calgary on June 4, 1999, where ten developers came together to avoid legal problems caused due to export regulations of cryptographic software from the United States. Since then, a further three to six events per year have occurred around the world to advance development, generally on university campuses.


title: Hackathon

text: For Sun Microsystems, the usage referred to an event at the JavaOne conference from June 15 to June 19, 1999; there John Gage challenged attendees to write a program in Java for the new Palm V using the infrared port to communicate with other people who are using Palm and register it on the Internet.


title: Hackathon

text: Starting in the mid to late 2000s, hackathons became significantly more widespread and began to be increasingly viewed by companies and venture capitalists as a way to quickly develop new software technologies, and to locate new areas for innovation and funding. Some major companies were born from these hackathons, such as GroupMe, which began as a project at a hackathon at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 conference; in 2011 it was acquired by Skype for $85 million. The software PhoneGap began as a project at the iPhoneDevCamp (later renamed iOSDevCamp) in 2008; the company whose engineers developed PhoneGap, Nitobi, refocused itself around PhoneGap, and Nitobi was bought by Adobe in 2011 for an undisclosed amount.


title: Hackathon

text: Hackathons typically start with communication via a presentation or a web page from the hosting organization that mentions the objectives, terms, and details of the hackathon. Developers register to participate in the hackathon and are qualified after the organization screens their background and skills.


title: Hackathon

text: When the hackathon event begins, the participating individuals or teams start their programming work. The administrator of the hackathon is typically able to answer questions and offer help when their issues come up in the event.


title: Hackathon

text: Hackathons can last several hours to several days. For hackathons that last 24 hours or longer, especially competitive ones, eating is often informal, with participants often subsisting on food like pizza and energy drinks. Sometimes sleeping is informal as well, with participants sleeping on-site with sleeping bags.


title: Hackathon

text: At the end of hackathons, there are usually a series of demonstrations in which each group presents their results. To capture the great ideas and work-in-progress often people post a video of the demonstrations, blog about results with screenshots and details, share links and progress on social media, suggest a place for open source code and generally make it possible for people to share, learn from and possibly build from the ideas generated and initial work completed.


title: Hackathon

text: There is sometimes a contest element as well, in which a panel of judges select the winning teams, and prizes are given. At many hackathons, the judges are made up of organisers and sponsors. At BarCamp-style hackathons, that are organised by the development community, such as iOSDevCamp, the judges are usually made up of peers and colleagues in the field. Such prizes are sometimes a substantial amount of money: a social gaming hackathon at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference offered $250,000 in funding to the winners, while a controversial 2013 hackathon run by Salesforce.com had a payout of $1 million to the winners, billed as the largest-ever prize.


title: Hackathon

text: Some hackathons focus on a particular platform such as mobile apps, a desktop operating system, web development or video game development.


title: Hackathon

text: Mobile app hackathons like Over the Air, held at Phoenix Park, Ireland, can see a large amount of corporate sponsorship and interest.


title: Hackathon

text: Music Hack Day, a hackathon for music-related software and hardware applications, is a popular event, having been held over 30 times around the world since 2009. Also Music Tech Fest, a three-day interdisciplinary festival for music ideas bringing together musicians with hackers, researchers and industry, features a hackathon. Similarly, Science Hack Day, a hackathon for making things with science, has been held over 45 times in over 15 countries around the world since 2010.


title: Hackathon

text: Hackathons have been held to develop applications that run on various mobile device operating systems, such as Android, iOS and MeeGo. Hackathons have also been held to develop video-based applications and computer games. Hackathons where video games are developed are sometimes called game jams.


title: Hackathon

text: "TV Hackfest" events have been held in both London and San Francisco, focusing mainly on social television and second screen technologies. In TV Hackfests, challenge briefs are typically submitted by content producers and brands, in the form of broadcast industry metadata or video content, while sponsors supply APIs, SDKs and pre-existing open source software code.


title: Hackathon

text: Hackathons have also been used in the life sciences to advance the informatics infrastructure that supports research. The Open Bioinformatics Foundation ran two hackathons for its member projects in 2002 and 2003, and since 2010 has held 2-day "codefests" preceding its annual conference. The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center has co-organized and sponsored hackathons for evolutionary bioinformatics since 2006. BioHackathon is an annual event that started in 2008 targeted at advancing standards to enable interoperable bioinformatics tools and Web services. Neuroscientists have also used hackathons to bring developers and scientists together to address issues that range from focusing on a specific information system (e.g., Neurosynth Hackathon and the Allen Brain Atlas Hackathon) and providing reserved time for broad scientific inquiry (e.g., Brainhack), to using specific challenges that focus hacking activity (e.g., HBM Hackathon).


title: Hackathon

text: There has been an emergence of 'datathons' or data-focused hackathons in recent years. These events challenge data scientists working with others attending to together use creativity and data analysis skills and platforms to build, test and explore solutions and dashboards which analyse huge datasets in a limited amount of time. These are increasingly being used to deliver insights in big public and private datasets in various disciplines including business, health care news media and for social causes.


title: Hackathon

text: There have been hackathons devoted to creating applications that use a specific language or framework, like JavaScript, Node.js, HTML5 and Ruby on Rails.


title: Hackathon

text: Some hackathons focus on applications that make use of the application programming interface, or API, from a single company or data source. Open Hack, an event run publicly by Yahoo! since 2006 (originally known as "Hack Day", then "Open Hack Day"), has focused on usage of the Yahoo! API, in addition to APIs of websites owned by Yahoo!, like Flickr. The company's Open Hack India event in 2012 had over 700 attendees. Google has run similar events for their APIs, as has the travel guide company Lonely Planet.


title: Hackathon

text: The website Foursquare notably held a large, global hackathon in 2011, in which over 500 developers at over 30 sites around the world competed to create applications using the Foursquare API. A second Foursquare hackathon, in 2013, had around 200 developers. The IETF organizes Hackathons for each IETF meetings which are focused on IETF Internet Draft and IETF RFC implementation for better inter-operability and improved Internet Standards.


title: Hackathon

text: There have been a number of hackathons devoted to improving government, and specifically to the cause of open government. One such event, in 2011, was hosted by the United States Congress. Starting in 2012, NASA has been annually hosting the International Space Apps Challenge.


title: Hackathon

text: In 2014, the British government and HackerNest ran DementiaHack, the world's first hackathon dedicated to improving the lives of people living with dementia and their caregivers. The series continues in 2015, adding the Canadian government and Facebook as major sponsors.


title: Hackathon

text: The Global Game Jam, the largest video game development hackathon, often includes optional requirements called 'diversifiers' that aim to promote game accessibility and other causes.


title: Hackathon

text: VanHacks is an annual hackathon that is part of Vancouver Startup Week. The focus of the hackathon is creating solutions for local non-profit organizations from the Vancouver area over the course of 36 hours. VanHacks was created in 2016 by TTT Studios.


title: Hackathon

text: Various hackathons have been held to improve city transit systems. Hackathons aimed at improvements to city local services are increasing, with one of the London Councils (Hackney) creating a number of successful local solutions with a two-day Hackney-thon. There have also been a number of hackathons devoted to improving education, including Education Hack Day and on a smaller scale, looking specifically at the challenges of field work based geography education, the Field Studies Council hosted FSCHackday. Random Hacks of Kindness is another popular hackathon, devoted to disaster management and crisis response.


title: Hackathon

text: ThePort instead is a hackathon devoted to solving humanitarian, social and public interest challenges. It's hosted by CERN with partners from other non-governmental organizations such as ICRC and UNDP.


title: Hackathon

text: In March 2020, numerous world-wide initiatives led by entrepreneurs and governmental representatives from European countries resulted in a series of anti-crisis hackathons Hack the Crisis, with first to happen in Estonia, followed up by Poland, Latvia, and Ukraine. Beginning in 2020, the Michal Sela Forum has run hackathons to develop technology to help prevent domestic violence.


title: Hackathon

text: A number of hackathons around the world have been planned in memory of computer programmer and internet activist Aaron Swartz, who died in 2013.


title: Hackathon

text: Some hackathons are intended only for programmers within a certain demographic group, like teenagers, college students, or women.


title: Hackathon

text: Hackathons at colleges have become increasingly popular, in the United States and elsewhere. These are usually annual or semiannual events that are open to college students at all universities. They are often competitive, with awards provided by the University or programming-related sponsors. Many of them are supported by the organization Major League Hacking, which was founded in 2013 to assist with the running of collegiate hackathons.


title: Hackathon

text: PennApps at the University of Pennsylvania was the first student-run college hackathon; in 2015 it became the largest college hackathon with its 12th iteration hosting over 2000 people and offering over $60k in prizes. The University of Mauritius Computer Club and Cyberstorm.mu organized a Hackathon dubbed "Code Wars" focused on implementing an IETF RFC in Lynx in 2017.


title: Hackathon

text: ShamHacks at Missouri University of Science and Technology is held annually as an outreach activity of the campus's Curtis Laws Wilson Library. ShamHacks 2018 focused on problem statements to better quality of life factors for US veterans, by pairing with veteran-owned company sponsors.


title: Hackathon

text: Some companies hold internal hackathons to promote new product innovation by the engineering staff. For example, Facebook's Like button was conceived as part of a hackathon.


title: Hackathon

text: Some hackathons (such as StartupBus, founded in 2010 in Australia) combine the competitive element with a road trip, to connect local tech communities in multiple cities along the bus routes. This is now taking place across North America, Europe, Africa and Australasia.


title: Hackathon

text: In some hackathons, all work is on a single application, such as an operating system, programming language, or content management system. Such events are often known as "code sprints", and are especially popular for open source software projects, where such events are sometimes the only opportunity for developers to meet face-to-face.


title: Hackathon

text: Code sprints typically last from one week to three weeks and often take place near conferences at which most of the team attend. Unlike other hackathons, these events rarely include a competitive element.


title: Hackathon

text: The annual hackathon to work on the operating system OpenBSD, held since 1999, is one such event; it may have originated the word "hackathon".


title: Hackathon

text: Over the years hackathons have come under severe criticism, with multiple observers questioning the adequacy of hackathons to deliver impactful technological solutions. A major part of the reserve towards hackathons has to do with the lack of viability and sustainability of solutions they develop, as clearly shown by recent empirical research. A study examining 11,889 U.S. based events revealed that only seven percent of projects had any activity six months after the hackathon ended. Another global study found that only about five percent of all projects developed during hackathons continued for more than five months. Hackathons have been thus associated with the production of short-lived software products often denominated as vaporware. Hackathons have been equally criticized for their failure to contemplate the complexity of issues that they seek to solve, developing technologies that do not address underlining societal and political causes of a problem. The use of hackathon participants as "de facto" unpaid laborers by some commercial ventures has been criticized as exploitative.


title: Hackathon

text: High-profile hackathons have also been the object of controversies. A team at the September 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon presented the TitStare app, which allowed users to post and view pictures of men staring at women's cleavage. TechCrunch issued an apology later that day. A November 2013 hackathon run by Salesforce.com, billed as having the largest-ever grand prize at $1 million, was accused of impropriety after it emerged that the winning entrants, a two-person startup called Upshot, had been developing the technology that they demoed for over a year and that one of the two was a former Salesforce employee. Major League Hacking expelled a pair of hackers from the September 2015 hackathon Hack the North at the University of Waterloo for making jokes that were interpreted as bomb threats, leading many hackers to criticize the organization. As a result of the controversy, Victor Vucicevich resigned from the Hack the North organizing team.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Palermo Football Club, more simply known as Palermo F.C. or Palermo (; , ), is an Italian football club based in the Sicilian city of Palermo, conventionally founded for the first time on 1 November 1900.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Among the club’s accomplishments are a Coppa Italia Serie C, won in the 1992–93, and five Serie B league titles. It also appeared in three Italian Cup finals: in 1973-74, in 1978-79 and in 2010-11.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: There is some debate and uncertainty about the exact date the club was founded. Some authorities believe that it may have been founded as early as 1898 due to the existence of papers addressed to Joseph Whitaker, English ornithologist in Palermo and originally believed to be first club president, about a Palermo football team founded in the month of April of that year. Conversely, another source cites that in April 1897, the future founders of Palemo Calcio founded the association "Sport Club". The most common and officially stated foundation date is November 1, 1900, as the Anglo Palermitan Athletic and Football Club. The club is thought to have been founded by Ignazio Majo Pagano, a young Palermitan colleague of Whitaker who had discovered football while at college in London in the UK, where the modern game of Association Football originated. The initial staff comprised three Englishmen and nine natives of Palermo, with Whitaker as honorary chairman, Edward De Garston as inaugural president and with red and blue as the original team colours. The first recorded football match, played by the team on December 30, 1900, ended in a 5–0 defeat to an unidentified amateur English team. The club’s first official match, played on April 18, 1901 against Messina Football Club, ended in a 3–2 victory for the Palermitan side.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 1907, the club changed its name to Palermo Foot-Ball Club, and the team colours were changed to the current pink and black. From 1908 until Italy’s entry in World War I in 1915, Palermo was featured in the Lipton Challenge Cup, organised by Scottish businessman Sir Thomas Lipton. The competition saw them face off against Naples FBC; Palermo won the competition three times, including a 6–0 victory in 1912.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: After a gap during the First World War, the club was refounded in 1919 as Unione Sportiva Palermo, by a committee of young university students and sportsmen. During the early 1920s, the club mainly competed in the "Campionato Lega Sud", a football league in Southern Italy, reaching the semi-finals in 1924 before being knocked out by Audace Taranto, Alba Roma and Internaples. The club was dissolved in 1927 due to financial problems, but was reformed one year later following a merger with Vigor Palermo under the name Palermo FootBall Club. Originally admitted to "Prima Divisione" (First Division), the equivalent of today's Serie C1, the team was promoted to Serie B in 1930 and finally reached Serie A in 1932. From its debut season in Italy's top division, Palermo relocated to a new home, the "Stadio Littorio" (Lictorian Stadium) in the Favorita neighbourhood, today known as Stadio Renzo Barbera. The club played in Serie A until 1936, when they were relegated to Serie B and first played Catania in the Sicilian derby.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 1936, Palermo was forced by the fascist regime to change its colours to yellow and red, after the official colours of the local municipality. Meanwhile, economic difficulties arose, and in 1940 the club was expelled by the Italian Football Federation because of financial problems. A merger with Unione Sportiva Juventina Palermo brought the foundation of Unione Sportiva Palermo-Juventina, which joined Serie C in 1941 and Serie B in 1942.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The club could not finish the 1942–43 season due to the outbreak of World War II. At the same time the pink-and-black colors were chosen because Sicily became a "war zone". After the conflict, the club changed its name to US Palermo.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: After World War II, the team returned to Serie A by winning the Serie B championship of 1947–48. The new Palermo squad featured players such as Czechoslovakian legend Čestmír Vycpálek who signed from Juventus alongside Conti, Carmelo Di Bella and Pavesi. Palermo played Serie A until they were relegated in 1954. Massive changes in the board, as well as the manager's job and the squad, proved successful and the club returned to Serie A in 1956. Palermo became a "yo-yo club", bouncing up and down between the top two Italian leagues. Several stars played for Palermo during this period, such as Argentine striker Santiago Vernazza (51 goals in 115 games with the "Rosanero"), goalkeepers Roberto Anzolin and Carlo Mattrel, Giuseppe Furino and Franco Causio. Palermo marked its best campaign in 1961–62 season, finishing in eighth place in Serie A. In 1963, however, they were relegated to Serie B, where they played for five seasons. Palermo played again in Serie A between 1968 and 1970.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 1970, Renzo Barbera took over the club as the new chairman. After 1973, Palermo FBC remained firmly rooted in Serie B. Despite this, Palermo reached two Italian Cup finals, both of which they narrowly lost: in 1974 to Bologna on penalty shoot-outs, and in 1979 to Juventus after extra time. Barbera left the club in 1980 and Palermo were relegated to Serie C1 four years later. The 1985–86 season, however, which ended in the summer was the last for Palermo FBC as having just saved themselves from relegation, the club was expelled by the football federation due to financial problems. In the summer of 1987, after a year without professional football in Palermo, the club was re-founded bearing a new name, and began to play in Serie C2, which it promptly won.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In the 1990s, Palermo played between Serie B and Serie C1 with a few highs, such as its 1995–96 Serie B and Coppa Italia campaign, the latter ending in the quarter-finals, and a number of lows such as the 1998 relegation to Serie C2 after defeat in the play-offs to Battipagliese, later revoked by the federation to fill a vacant league slot.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In March 2000, Roma chairman Franco Sensi led a holding company to purchase Palermo and Sergio D'Antoni became the president of Palermo and Palermo were promoted to Serie B one year later after a dramatic final week of the season, with Palermo coming back from behind to take first place from league-toppers Sicilian rivals Messina. The first comeback season in the Serie B, with Bortolo Mutti as head coach, was an eventless one, with Palermo ending in a mid-table placement.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In the summer of 2002, Friulian businessman and Venezia owner Maurizio Zamparini acquired the club from Franco Sensi in a €15 million bid, with the clear intention to bring Palermo back to Serie A and establish the club as a Serie A regular with aims of participations to European competitions. Palermo failed in its first attempt to reach the Serie A in 2002–03 on the final week of the season, but later managed to achieve it after a hard but successful 2003–04 campaign which saw Palermo crowned as Serie B champions and promoted to Serie A after 31 years, under head coach Francesco Guidolin, who was hired in January 2004 as replacement for dismissed Silvio Baldini.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The 2004–05 season, the first in Serie A for the Palermo club since 1973, ended with an excellent sixth place, securing qualification for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup for the first time in its history. Luca Toni broke the Palermo Serie A scoring record by notching up 20 league goals. In the following season, despite an unimpressive eighth place in the Serie A table, Palermo reached the last 16 in the UEFA Cup as well as the Coppa Italia semi-finals. The club was however admitted to play UEFA Cup again due to the 2006 "Calciopoli" scandal, with Palermo players Andrea Barzagli, Cristian Zaccardo, Simone Barone and Fabio Grosso being crowned 2006 World Cup winners. A number of impressive signings were made to establish an ambitious team, and a good beginning in the 2006–07 campaign appeared initially to confirm this. An 11-game winless streak, however, forced Palermo to fall down from third to seventh place, ending the season in fifth place and ensuring another UEFA Cup qualification. The club successively established as a force in the mid-table part of the Serie A league, also winning a Campionato Nazionale Primavera national title in 2009.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The following season started with new manager Walter Zenga, whose appointment from Sicilian arch-rivals Catania was greeted with surprise and dismay from supporters of both parties; Zenga's reign, however, lasted only 13 games, as he was dismissed on 23 November 2009 due to poor performances, ironically after a 1–1 home tie to Sicilian rivals and Zenga's former team, Catania, with former Lazio boss Delio Rossi being appointed at his place. Under the tutelage of Delio Rossi, results dramatically improved, and Palermo established a record of seven consecutive home wins, including wins against Italian giants Milan and Juventus, and emerging as serious contenders for a Champions League spot, which they ultimately lost to Sampdoria by only one point. Such season also launched new emerging stars such as midfielder Javier Pastore and goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu, who went on to become integral part of their respective international teams.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The 2010–11 season started with Delio Rossi still in charge of the club, and also marked Palermo's return into continental football in the form of the UEFA Europa League. Palermo reached their third Coppa Italia finals after defeating Milan 4–3 on aggregate on 10 May 2011, losing 3–1 to Internazionale in the final, in what is considered one of the peak moments of Zamparini's period at the club.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: For the 2011–12 season, Delio Rossi was replaced by former Chievo boss Stefano Pioli, who was, however, sacked before the Serie A kickoff after being eliminated by Swiss minnows FC Thun in the Europa League third preliminary round; new head coach Devis Mangia, with no managerial experience other than at youth team and minor league level; despite that, Mangia turned Palermo fortunes by leading the "Rosanero" in fifth place thanks to an impressive string of six consecutive home wins, thus deserving a long-term deal at the club. A string of poor results, however, led Palermo to three consecutive defeats, including elimination from the Coppa Italia and a disappointing loss in the Sicilian derby, persuading Zamparini to replace Mangia with the more experienced Bortolo Mutti. Palermo arrived 16th in that season.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: For the 2012–13 season, Zamparini came with another staff revolution, appointing Giorgio Perinetti as the new director of football and Giuseppe Sannino as the manager, both coming from Siena. A complete squad restructuring, a total five managerial changes and some staff changes (including a short stint with Pietro Lo Monaco as sports director) did not help, and Palermo ended its season in 18th place, being thus relegated to Serie B after nine consecutive seasons in the top flight.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: For the new Serie B campaign, Zamparini appointed former Milan and Italy international star Gennaro Gattuso as the new manager, despite him having little prior managerial experience; he was sacked in September 2013, the 28th sacked manager in 11 years. Fortune was reversed rather rapidly, however, as Palermo regained promotion back to Serie A for the 2014–15 season under the guidance of new head coach Giuseppe Iachini, with the "Rosanero" completing a record-breaking Serie B season with 86 points, one more than previous record holders Juventus, Chievo and Sassuolo (all of them in the 22-team Serie B format).


title: Palermo F.C.

text: With Iachini confirmed in charge, Palermo played a rather successful 2014–15 Serie A season, narrowly missing on a UEFA Europa League spot also thanks to the all-Argentine striking force of Paulo Dybala and Franco Vázquez.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 2015–16 season, Palermo started their season without Dybala after the youngster moved to Juventus; the "Rosanero" therefore relied on senior striker Alberto Gilardino to play as a partner of Vázquez. Another long list of managerial changes during the season (seven in total, with Davide Ballardini as the final one) marked a very troublesome season, during which Palermo escaped relegation on the last day of the league with the necessary win over Hellas Verona 3–2, securing 16th place.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: For the 2016–17 season, Zamparini re-appointed Rino Foschi as director of football; he however resigned after just a month in charge and was replaced by former Trapani director Daniele Faggiano. Most senior players such as Gilardino, Sorrentino, Vázquez and Maresca were sold and mostly replaced with Alessandro Diamanti plus a number of young and quasi-unknown foreign players. Ballardini, who was originally confirmed as head coach, left his position after a draw at Inter Milan at the second matchday of the season and was replaced with Serie A newbie Roberto De Zerbi who ended his stay after seven league losses in a row, with former club captain Eugenio Corini taking over. More managerial and staff changes followed with little luck and, on 27 February 2017, Zamparini stepped down as chairman of Palermo after 15 years in charge, announcing he had agreed in principle to sell his controlling stake to an unspecified Anglo-American fund, led by Italian-American Paul Baccaglini who was named new club president on 6 March.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Palermo ended the season in 19th place, being relegated to Serie B. The takeover, originally scheduled to be finalized by 30 April 2017 and then delayed by 30 June, eventually collapsed after Zamparini, who in the meantime had appointed Bruno Tedino as new head coach for the 2017–18 Serie B campaign, rejected the final offer he received from Baccaglini. On 4 July 2017, Baccaglini resigned as Palermo chairman, falling back into the hands of Zamparini, after the necessary funds were not in place.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Palermo's campaign in the 2017–18 Serie B aimed for an immediate return to the top flight, with Bruno Tedino as head coach and Fabio Lupo as director of football. Initially, the team's form was good and the "Rosanero" ended the first half of the season in first place; however, a string of negative results led to the appointment of new manager Roberto Stellone, who was ultimately unable to win promotion, ending the regular season in fourth place and eventually losing the playoff finals to Frosinone.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: For the 2018–19 Serie B season, Palermo (with Rino Foschi back for a third time as sporting director) found themselves having to sell a number of players for financial reasons. On 22 November 2018, the club formally confirmed a takeover agreement between Zamparini and an undisclosed investor, later confirmed to be the London based Sport Capital Group Investments Ltd., with English businessman Clive Richardson, head of the new group, being named as new club chairman. Following a January 2019 transfer window with no signings at all and serious tensions within the board, Clive Richardson (chairman) and John Treacy (director) both resigned from the club with immediate effect on 4 February 2019, citing that the full nature of the serious financial situation at the club had not been fully disclosed to them at the time of their purchase. Days later, the club was acquired for a nominal fee by Daniela De Angeli (former managing director from the Zamparini days) and Rino Foschi (appointed as chairman), only for them to sell it again to hotel and tourism company Arkus Network S.r.l. later in May. The new owner, Sporting Network S.r.l., subscribed a €5 million capital increase to the club.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: At the end of the 2018–19 Serie B, Palermo finished in third place with 63 points but was demoted by FIGC to last place in Serie B on 13 May due to serious financial irregularities, which meant relegation to Serie C for the following season. The club appealed to FIGC against this ruling and were successful in having the penalty revised; rather than automatic demotion, the club was merely docked 20 points instead, which consequently placed them in a comfortable mid-table eleventh position. However, on 24 June 2019, Palermo incorrectly submitted to FIGC their standard application for the following 2019–20 Serie B season, by failing to provide evidence of a valid insurance policy for the new season. A club trading with no insurance is an extremely serious breach of Italian company law, and as such FIGC had no alternative but to formally exclude the club not only from Serie B, but indeed all professional leagues, on 12 July 2019.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: On 23 July 2019, in compliance of Article 52 of N.O.I.F., Mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando confirmed six declarations of interests had been presented for a new phoenix club to be admitted in Serie D, the highest level of non-professional football in Italy, for the 2019–20 season. The next day, Orlando announced his choice of a bid by a company named "Hera Hora srl", jointly owned by entrepreneurs Dario Mirri (a Palermo native, and Renzo Barbera's nephew) and a Sicilian-American, Tony DiPiazza. Palermo completed their Serie D campaign in first place, and was awarded promotion to Serie C by the Italian Football Federation after all the amateur leagues were stopped in March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 July 2020, the club changed its name to Palermo Football Club.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Palermo, under the guidance of Silvio Baldini, concluded the 2021–22 Serie C campaign in third place in the Group C, behind Bari and Catanzaro, and then made it to the promotion playoff final after eliminating Triestina, Virtus Entella and Feralpisalò in the process. On 12 June 2022, Palermo were promoted to Serie B after defeating Padova 2–0 on aggregate, thus returning to the Italian second division just three years after having been excluded from the league. On 4 July 2022, at the presence of Manchester City F.C. CEO Ferran Soriano, the club was formally announced to have been acquired by City Football Group, with outgoing owner Dario Mirri (who was confirmed as club chairman) keeping a 20% of the quotes.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The new official badge as of 2019 is a white eagle's head and three pink/black feathers within a black stylized letter 'P'. The eagle represents the city of Palermo, as it is also part of the city's official coat of arms. This new badge replaced the long-standing badge of the previous formation of the club, an escutcheon with an eagle poised for flight within it, and the previous official club denomination "U.S. Città di Palermo" in capital letters on the top.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: From its foundation, Palermo originally played with a red and blue shirt as its official colours, but decided to switch to the unusual current choice of pink and black on 27 February 1907, contemporaneously with the change of denomination to "Palermo FootBall Club".


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The colour choice of pink and black was suggested by Count Giuseppe Airoldi, a prominent founding member of the club. In a personal letter Airoldi wrote on 2 February 1905 to English club councillor Joseph Whitaker, he defined pink and black poetically as "colours of the sad and the sweet", a choice he amusingly asserted to be suited for a team characterised by "results as up and down as a Swiss clock", noting also the fact that red and blue were a very commonly used choice of colours around Italy at the time.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The club had to wait for their new jerseys for three months, because no pink cotton flannel material was available in Palermo and the appointed tailoring company could only find suitable material from England and had to import it from there. The vivid new shirts were first worn in a friendly match against Sir Thomas Lipton's crew team; the match ended in a 2–1 win for Palermo. From 1936 to 1940, the team were forced to play in red and yellow jerseys due to an imposition by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (red and yellow being the official colours of the municipality of Palermo.) When the club was refounded in 1941 following a merger with Juventina Palermo, they started dressing in light blue shirts on the pitch, but switched back to the very popular pink and black only one year later.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Palermo plays its home matches at Stadio Renzo Barbera. The stadium was opened in 1932, during the fascist regime, with the name "Stadio Littorio" (after the Italian name for the fasces symbol). The inaugural match, won by Palermo 5–1, was played on 24 January 1932 against Atalanta. In 1936, the Littorio was renamed "Stadio Michele Marrone" after a fascist soldier who died in the Spanish Civil War.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Initially the stadium featured a running track and no spectator space behind the goals, only terraces and a stand along the side. In 1948, following the end of World War II and the fall of the fascist regime, the stadium was renamed "Stadio La Favorita", after the Favorita neighbourhood where it was located. It was also restructured to remove the running track and add two curved end sections, increasing its capacity to 30,000. In 1984 it was enlarged to 50,000. The new capacity was reached only twice: for a Serie C1 league match against Sicilian rivals Messina and for a friendly match against Juventus. On the occasion of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the stadium was renovated, some new seats added, but the overall capacity reduced to 37,619. During the 1989 renovation works, five employees died following the collapse of a section of the stadium. In 2002 the stadium was renamed in honour of Renzo Barbera, legendary Palermo chairman in the 1970s.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: In 2007 Palermo chairman and owner Maurizio Zamparini announced plans to move the club to a new state-of-the-art stadium possibly to be located in the "ZEN" neighbourhood of Palermo not far from the Velodromo Paolo Borsellino, a smaller stadium which had previously hosted some Palermo matches.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: The majority of Palermo supporters come from the city and its neighbourhood. However, Palermo is also widely popular throughout Western Sicily, as well as among Sicilian immigrants in northern Italy, For example, a number of Palermo fans living in and around the German city of Solingen have even founded a club named "FC Rosaneri" in honour of Palermo which, as of 2007, plays in the Kreisliga B league.


title: Palermo F.C.

text: Support for Palermo is traditionally closely associated with a strong sense of Sicilian identity; indeed, it is not uncommon to see Sicilian flags waved by fans and ultras during Palermo matches. Palermo fans are also twinned with Lecce ultras. This friendship was strengthened by the acquisition of Fabrizio Miccoli, who is originally from the city of Lecce and a well-known Lecce supporter who went on to become captain of Palermo and also the club's most prolific player, setting records for: most Serie A league goals (74, from 2007 to 2013); most goals in all competitions (81, from 2007 to 2013); and most Serie A league appearances (165, from 2007 to 2013).