Samani Pulepule (13 October 1923 – 4 June 2013), formally His Eminence and Most Reverend, Chief Apostle Dr. Samani Pulepule was a Samoan Minister from the early 1950s in the Assemblies of God movement. Dr Pulepule was also the Chief Apostle of the Samoan Assemblies of God in New Zealand for over 40 years and was elected as the World Chairman of the Samoan Assemblies of God International. Also the Tokelauan Assemblies of God and Tuvaluan Assemblies of God came under his leadership.

He was the Senior Pastor for the Grey Lynn Samoan Assemblies of God congregation in Auckland. It was one of the fastest growing and largest Samoan congregations in the world. Pulepule also planted over 100 churches throughout New Zealand, and was a leading force in the establishment of the Samoan Assemblies of God around the world where Samoan communities were present. In Australia he planted over 60 Samoan Assemblies of God Congregations.

He was heavily involved in mission work, especially in Samoa and American Samoa, where almost 200 congregations make up the District Council of the Assemblies of God in Samoa. His leadership reached mainland USA which currently has over 90 Samoan congregations mainly in states along the west coast. Pulepule also administered the establishment of the Samoan Assemblies of God in Hawaii and Alaska where together over 50 congregations thrive. In the 1990s Pulepule assisted in the establishing of the Samoan Assemblies of God in England and Germany. The World Tongan Assemblies of God fellowship began when the Tongan leaders sought assistance from Pulepule who helped establish a worldwide movement. In 2005, the New Zealand Samoan movement he led went through a phase of division where 40 churches stayed under the Assemblies of God in New Zealand umbrella, and 45 churches left and became an autonomous fellowship under his direction.

Since 2005 the church under his direction has grown from 45 to over 80 at this present time, and the church continues to grow and is still known to be the fastest growing Pentecostal movement in New Zealand.

On 25 September 2011, Pulepule officially resigned from all his posts of Chief Apostle, General Superintendent and World Chairman in the Samoan Assemblies of God movement. In attendance were the former General Superintendents of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand, Assemblies of God leaders around the world, the mayor of Auckland, the Auckland City Council and Members of Parliament as well as leaders of all the other Pentecostal denominations who all paid tribute to Pulepule and the First Lady.

Since the beginning of the Samoan Assemblies of God in New Zealand, the church group have rejected many traditional Samoan cultural practices.

Pulepule was known as one of the eldest serving pastors in the Southern Hemisphere.

His wife, First Lady Sapapali'i Pulepule, died on 21 May 2013. Pulepule died two weeks later on 4 June 2013.  Thousands attended both memorial services for two great pioneers in the Assemblies of God movement. The New Zealand Government also presented gifts, and the National flag of New Zealand was draped over their coffins.

Early life and history
Pulepule was born on October 13, 1923, in the village of Solosolo, Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) to Tupolesava Pulepule Matu'u II and Aimama Tuala Tagaloa of Saluafata who were members of the L.M.S. in Solosolo. He has 9 siblings and is the second eldest child.

He became a teacher at Avele College, and later met his wife Sapapali'i, both were members of the CCCS (Congregational Christian Church of Samoa or L.M.S.). By then the Assemblies of God from American Samoa had already begun missions in the Samoan islands.

In 1963, Makisua and Mauosamoa Fatialofa were holding revival meetings in Lotopa. It was at these meetings that Samani and Sapapalii were saved. Barry Smith, a school teacher at that time who worked with Samani at Samoa College, had brought them to the meetings, and it was from that day on, Pulepule decided to devote the rest of his life to the church and its purposes. (Pentecost to the uttermost: History of the Assemblies of God: Dr. Tavita Pagaialii, Pg.53)

In 1965 he was appointed to lead Faleasi'u Assembly of God (the first Assemblies of God church in Samoa). In 1967 he moved to New Zealand.  In New Zealand, there were already a few Samoan Pentecostal churches, the first one starting in Wellington by the late Fred Ama.

Pulepule and his wife planted a church in the Grey Lynn area in Auckland, and the church grew rapidly, having to extend their church more than 5 times just to cater to the 500 plus strong congregation. In 1967, Grey Lynn Samoan A/G was the first ethnic church to align with the Assemblies of God in New Zealand. The 20 or so Samoan Pentecostal churches thought their church would become more effective if they all came together, and at that time these Pentecostal churches had united and officially became the Samoan Assemblies of God in New Zealand under the leadership of Pulepule, there he was elected as the superintendent of the Samoan movement in New Zealand, and it soon became the fastest growing church in New Zealand.

In 1992 the Samoan Assemblies of God Convention Centre officially opened. The center was named the "Samani Pulepule Convention/Community Centre" and it seats up to 4,000 people.

In 1999 the Grey Lynn church relocated to Mt. Roskill where it purchased an old factory building for NZ$1.6  million, and renamed their church from Grey Lynn to Auckland Samoan Assembly of God, which has been the church of the General Superintendent for over 40 years.

In September 2011, Pulepule resigned as the superintendent for the Samoan Assemblies of God fellowship around the World.

Family and Heritage
During their time in ministry, Pulepule and his wife had 3 children, Onesemo, Sera and Talalelei. Onesemo moved to Australia and founded the Melbourne Samoan Assembly of God church, and in 2001 was elected as the General Superintendent of the Samoan Assemblies of God in Australia.  All are Samoan-born.  His brother Taulapapa Mama Pulepule is also currently pastor for the Falefa Assembly of God in Samoa and has been for several years, His younger brother Ieti is also a pastor for the Paraparaumu church.  His other brother Tautiaga (who holds the Magele of Lufilufi & Lemusu of Solosolo titles) and sisters Masina, Tivalo & Lanuola.  Other siblings who died at a young age were Niu, Levao, Momoemaluapia.

Homegoing Celebration

A three-day homegoing celebration was held from 13 to 15 June 2013. The first celebration service was a pastor's celebration service held at the church he founded, Grey Lynn Auckland Samoan Assembly of God, eulogies were made by local pastors, as well as the executive council of the Samoan Assemblies of God in New Zealand. The second celebration service was held at the Samani Pulepule Convention Centre, a complex which seats 4,000 people, eulogies were made by family members, and a special musical from the Auckland Samoan A/G church. In attendance were the Tongan Assemblies of God, a church that Pulepule had helped with becoming a worldwide fellowship, also in attendance were the former Assemblies of God Leaders from around the world, local members of Parliament, and leaders of other major denominations. The third service was the Assemblies of God National/International service. This was held at the Auckland Samoan Assemblies of God, and a special presentation from the New Zealand Government, the National and Labour Parties were made to Pulepule's family. Tagata Pasifika, a well-known television news broadcast had special coverage of the homegoing services.  Pulepule was buried next to his wife, who had died two weeks earlier.  Thousands of people from all over the world gathered to celebrate a life of devotion and faithfulness. Sunday services the following day were spread out across the Auckland metropolitan area to cater to the thousands of dignitaries and pastors from around the world. Over 4,000 people gathered every night of the three-day celebration.

Leadership
From between 1962 and 1963 Pulepule became the 3rd Pastor of Faleasi'u Assembly of God, he then moved to New Zealand in 1963 and founded the Grey Lynn Samoan A/G and in 1999  Pulepule founded the Auckland Samoan Assembly of God, a church that grew from 4 families to over 500 adherents in 10 years.

Since 1967 he was elected as the general superintendent at one of the Camp Meetings in Wellington, and recently resigned from this post in September 2011.

He was also elected as chairman of the Worldwide Fellowship following the death of Pastor Max Haleck, Jr. in 2006. From 2006 and 2011 Pulepule held the post of world chairman, until he resigned in September 2011. Succeeding him on this role is his son, Onesemo Pulepule, who was called into office at the resignation of his father.

Cultural reformation
In an interview with ABC Australia presenter Geraldine Coutts, New Zealand MP William Sio said that Dr. Pulepule  had genuine concern for the people he led. In a question asked by Coutts mentioning the way the church went about things with traditional Samoan practices and the pioneering role he had had in the change, she asked about the practices in particular were rejected. Sio replied that in the case of weddings and funerals etc., it was the exchange of fine mats. And often money and food which puts a burden on the extended family. He found that even though the practice still exists, it has been somewhat modified without the extravagance they were accustomed to and making it more in line with what the communities could afford.

This played a key role in the church's rapid growth. People were drawn to his genuine concern for their wellbeing spiritually and physically. His message to the worldwide fellowship was received with a rousing support. Dr. Pulepule will be remembered because he was simply a servant. The Samoan congregations will never forget the time where the Te Puke Samoan A/G church were preparing to bless their new church when a few members of the church were in a fatal car accident, a father and two sons died leaving a widow and their youngest child. During the service where a love offering was collected for Dr. Pulepule, he stopped the service and collected a love offering for the widow and her child. These were one of many great things Pulepule had done, and one of the many reasons he was admired and known as the spiritual father of the movement.

References

Samoan expatriates in New Zealand
Samoan Assemblies of God pastors
1923 births
2013 deaths

Samani Pulepule


The New England College of Optometry is a  private optometry college in Boston, Massachusetts. It enrolls over 500 students and is one of the oldest continually operating college of optometry in the United States.

History
It was originally established as the Klein School of Optics in 1894 by Dr. August Andreas Klein, an ophthalmologist. The college moved to several locations around Boston, and was known as the Massachusetts School of Optometry and the Massachusetts College of Optometry until it came to reside in its current location in the Back Bay section of Boston.

The college offers both Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) and Master of Science in Vision Science degrees. Special emphasis is placed on direct contact with patients, and to this end students make use of the College's owned and operated clinics, NECO Center for Eye Care Commonwealth and Roslindale, as well as the NECO Clinical Network of eye care centers.

External links

Official website

Optometry schools in the United States
Universities and colleges in Boston
1894 establishments in Massachusetts
Private universities and colleges in Massachusetts

New England College of Optometry


A donkey vote is when someone puts numbers on an election ballot paper in the same order that the candidates are listed. For example, if a ballot paper had J. Smith on the top line, M. Doe on the middle line and N. Citizen on the bottom line, and the voter put a 1 beside J. Smith, a 2 beside M. Doe and a 3 beside N. Citizen, that would be called a donkey vote. Donkey votes are counted in election results because a person could have wanted to vote in that way, the votes are formal, a number is placed in all boxes.

Related pages
 Preferential voting

Voting systems

Donkey vote


Egil Johan Marius Eriksen (20 April 1909 – 2 November 1996) was a Norwegian educator and politician for the Labour Party.

He was born in Solum as a son of mason Kristian Eriksen (1873–1935) and housewife Birgitte Syse (1867–1933). He finished his secondary education in 1927 and graduated from the University of Oslo with the cand.real. degree in 1934. While studying he was a teacher at Skotfoss primary school from 1931 to 1932. After graduation, he was a teacher at Vahl Upper Secondary School in Oslo from 1935 to 1936, and then worked at the upper secondary school in Mandal from 1936 to 1946. He was acting principal in two periods. During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany he was arrested in June 1944. He was held in Arkivet until 11 November 1944, then in Berg concentration camp to the occupation's end in May 1945. He was later a principal in Bø, Telemark from 1948 to 1953 and in Mandal from 1953 to 1976.

He was a member of Mandal city council from 1945 to 1948, and also a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from the Market towns of Vest-Agder and Rogaland counties during the term 1945–1949. As Sven Oftedal was named to Gerhardsen's Second Cabinet in December 1945, Eriksen filled his seat. This would become permanent in June 1948, as Oftedal died and Eriksen advanced to being a full representative. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Education and Church Affairs. While living in Bø he chaired the local party chapter from 1951 to 1953. He was later a member of Mandal city council from 1955 to 1963 and 1967 to 1971.

References

1909 births
1996 deaths
Politicians from Skien
People from Mandal, Norway
Heads of schools in Norway
Berg concentration camp survivors
Vest-Agder politicians
Politicians from Telemark
Labour Party (Norway) politicians
Members of the Storting
20th-century Norwegian politicians

Egil Eriksen


Slatnik (; ) is a village in the Municipality of Ribnica in southern Slovenia. It lies just north of the town of Ribnica. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region.

A small chapel-shrine in the settlement is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and dates to the early 20th century.

References

External links
Slatnik on Geopedia

Populated places in the Municipality of Ribnica

Slatnik


Exodus: Gods and Kings is a 2014 biblical epic film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine, and Steven Zaillian. The film stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley. It is inspired by the biblical episode of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt led by Moses and related in the Book of Exodus. Development on the film was first announced by Scott in June 2012. Filming occurred primarily in Spain beginning in October 2013, with additional filming at Pinewood Studios in England.

The film was released on December 12, 2014 by 20th Century Fox, to mixed reviews; critics praised the visual effects and cast performances, but criticized its pacing, screenplay, lack of emotional heft, and inaccuracy to the source material. The film also received accusations of whitewashing for its primarily Caucasian cast, and was banned in Egypt and in the United Arab Emirates for "historical inaccuracies". It was considered a financial disappointment, earning $268 million worldwide on a budget of $140–200 million.

Plot

In 1300 BC, Moses, a general and accepted member of the Egyptian royal family, prepares to attack an encamped Hittite army with Prince Ramesses at Kadesh. A High Priestess divines a prophecy from animal intestines, which she relates to Ramesses's father, Seti I. He tells the two men of the prophecy, in which one (either Moses or Ramesses) will save the other and become a leader. During the battle, Moses saves Ramesses' life, leaving both men troubled. Later, Moses volunteers to go to the city of Pithom in place of his cousin to meet with the Viceroy Hegep, who oversees the Hebrew slaves. Upon his arrival, he encounters the slave Joshua being lashed and is appalled by the conditions of the slaves. Moses meets with the slave elders to see if the slaves are planning on sedition as claimed by the Viceroy. After said meetings, Moses receives a message via Joshua that Nun is looking for him. Moses finds Nun in the prayer house where Nun informs him of his true lineage; he is the child of Hebrew parents who was sent by his sister Miriam to be raised by Pharaoh's daughter (he was born during the extermination of the Jewish heirs). Moses is stunned at the revelation and leaves angrily; during which he is attacked by two guards whom he quickly kills. However, two Hebrews overhear Nun's story and report it to the Viceroy.

Moses returns home where soon after Seti dies, and Ramesses becomes the new Pharaoh (Ramesses II). Hegep reveals Moses's true lineage to Ramesses, but Ramesses is unconvinced. At the urging of Queen Tuya, he interrogates the servant Miriam, who denies being Moses's sister. When Ramesses threatens to cut off her arm, Moses intervenes and confirms he is a Hebrew. Although Tuya wants Moses killed, Ramesses, still unwilling to believe the story, exiles him instead. Before leaving Egypt, Moses meets with his adopted mother and Miriam, who refer to him by his birth name of Moshe. Following a journey into the desert, Moses comes to Midian where he meets Zipporah and her father, Jethro. Moses becomes a shepherd, marries Zipporah, and has a son, Gershom.

Years later, Moses is injured in a rockslide. He encounters a burning bush and a boy, a messenger of the God of Abraham. While recovering, Moses reveals his past to Zipporah and reveals what God has asked him to do. This drives a wedge between the couple, but Moses leaves anyway. In Egypt, Moses reunites with Nun and Joshua, and meets his brother Aaron for the first time. Moses confronts Ramesses, demanding the Hebrews be released from servitude. Ramesses refuses to listen, insisting that freeing them is economically impossible. Upon Moses threatening Ramesses's life, Ramesses orders Moses's death, and the killing of random Hebrew families until Moses is found. Using his military skills, Moses trains the slaves and leads them in an insurgency, prompting Ramesses to retaliate harshly. God's messenger appears to Moses and explains that ten plagues will affect Egypt. The first nine plagues deal massive damage to Egypt and its people, but Ramesses does not back down, even oppressing his own people to maintain his position. Moses is horrified to learn from God that the tenth plague will be the death of all firstborn children but follows through with the plan, instructing the Hebrews to protect themselves by covering their doors with lambs' blood. That night, all of Egypt's firstborn children die, including Ramesses's infant son. Ramesses, devastated, surrenders, allowing the Hebrews to leave.

During the Exodus, the Hebrews follow Moses's original path through the desert towards the Red Sea. Still grieving his son, Ramesses assembles his army and gives chase. After making their way through a dangerous mountain pass, Moses and the Hebrews arrive at the edge of the sea, uncertain about what to do. In despair, Moses flings his sword into the sea, which recedes and clears a path to the opposite side. Ramesses and his army continue the pursuit, but Moses stays behind to confront them. The Red Sea reverts, drowning the majority of the Egyptians who are still crossing. Moses survives and rejoins the Hebrews. Ramesses also survives, distraught over the destruction of his army. Moses leads the Hebrews back to Midian, where he reunites with Zipporah and Gershom. At Mount Sinai, Moses transcribes the Ten Commandments. Years later, an elderly Moses riding with the Ark of the Covenant sees God's messenger walking with the Hebrews through the desert.

Cast
 Christian Bale as Moses
 Joel Edgerton as Ramses II
 John Turturro as Seti I
 Aaron Paul as Joshua
 Ben Mendelsohn as Viceroy Hegep
 María Valverde as Zipporah
 Sigourney Weaver as Tuya
 Ben Kingsley as Nun
 Isaac Andrews as Malak
 Hiam Abbass as Bithiah
 Indira Varma as High Priestess
 Ewen Bremner as Expert
 Golshifteh Farahani as Nefertari
 Ghassan Massoud as Ramses' Grand Vizier, Paser
 Tara Fitzgerald as Miriam
 Dar Salim as Commander Khyan
 Andrew Tarbet as Aaron
 Ken Bones as Ramses' Scribe
 Philip Arditti as Viceroy Hegep's Aide

Anton Alexander has a small role as the Israelite Dathan, while Kevork Malikyan appears as Zipporah's father, Jethro.

Production

Development and writing
In June 2012, Ridley Scott announced that he was developing an adaptation of the Book of Exodus, tentatively titled Moses. On March 27, 2014, the studio changed the title of the film from Exodus to Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Some controversy and criticism arose concerning biblical accuracy of the script and its portrayal. Ridley Scott publicly stated that he would be looking to natural causes for the miracles, including drainage from a tsunami for the parting of the Red Sea. According to Scott, the parting of the Red Sea was caused by a tsunami believed to have been triggered by an underwater earthquake off the Italian coast around 3000 BC. Christian Bale said of Moses, whom he portrayed, "I think the man was likely schizophrenic and was one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life." Author Brian Godawa responded, "It's accurate to portray Moses as an imperfect hero, so Christians won't take issue with that, but to be so extreme as to call him one of the most barbaric people in history, that sounds like he's going out of his way to distance himself from the very people you'd think he wants to appeal to." The CEO of Faith-Driven Consumer, Chris Stone, criticized Bale's comments, "There's nothing in the biblical history that supports that. It's an indication that there will be a tremendous disconnect between Bale's interpretation and the expectations of the market" and suggested that Christians would not go to cinemas to see the film.

Casting

On March 15, 2013, Deadline Hollywood reported Scott wanted Christian Bale to star in the film; in August he confirmed the role to be Moses. On the same day, Joel Edgerton joined the cast to play Ramses after Oscar Isaac turned down the role. The studio announced the casting calls in Spain's Almería and Pechina for 3,000 to 4,000 extras, and on the island of Fuerteventura for another 1,000 to 2,000 extras. On August 27, Aaron Paul joined the film to play Joshua. Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and John Turturro were then still negotiating about joining the cast.

The Sydney Morning Herald and Christian Today reported that the casting of white actors in the lead roles was being criticized. Four white actors were cast to play the Hebrew and Egyptian lead characters: Christian Bale as Moses, Joel Edgerton as Ramses II, Sigourney Weaver as Queen Tuya, and Aaron Paul as Joshua. The Sydney Morning Herald also reported the online community's observations that the film gives a European profile to the Great Sphinx of Giza. Christian Today reported that an online petition was underway. It also compared Exodus to the 1956 film The Ten Commandments with its all-white cast and said, "The racial climate, number of black actors, and opportunities provided to them were very different in 1956, however." Some Twitter users called for a boycott of the film.

More so, Forbes Scott Mendelson said that the film did not need to be "whitewashed" and stated that "Even if we accept the argument that Moses had to be played by a world-renowned movie star and that in all likelihood that meant a white actor, I do not accept the idea that the rest of the main cast needed to be filled out with Caucasian actors of varying recognizability."

Scott responded that without the casting of big-name actors, the film would never have been approved by the studio. He said, "I can't mount a film of this budget...and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such...I'm just not going to get financed," and that those seeking to boycott the film on such grounds should "get a life". Bale also defended the casting of the film, suggesting audiences need to support big budgeted films starring people of color and stating, "The change will come from independent filmmaking, but audiences have to be there. Because once that happens, financiers of bigger and bigger budget films will say, 'We can actually do business here.

Filming and post-production

Shooting of the film began in October 2013 in Almería, Spain. Additional filming was scheduled at Pinewood Studios, England. Shooting began on October 22 in Tabernas as the first and main location was Ouarzazate (Morocco), and in Sierra Alhamilla. The Red Sea scene was filmed at a beach on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. Shooting lasted 74 days.

VFX supervisor Peter Chiang supervised the film's visual effects. He said that "Ridley wanted to convey the sense that everything could be natural phenomenon, like an eclipse or tsunami, not just someone waving a stick at the sea."

More than 1,500 visual effects shots were created to digitally bolster the ranks of the Hebrews and to help authentically render plagues of hail, locusts, and frogs, although 400 live frogs were used on the set. There were 400,000 humans depicted in total, with 30 to 40 people accompanying Bale while crossing the Red Sea and the rest being computer generated. CGI produced the 180-foot wave, the horses, and the chariots. In close-up shots of people fleeing across the sea bed, the filmmakers used the beach's real waters. For the hailstorm scene, the special effects team built 30 special cannons that would fire polymer balls to bounce and shatter with the same characteristics as an ice ball. The distant hail is a computer simulation.

In an interview for Access Hollywood, Scott claimed there is a "final" version of the film 4 hours long.

Music

On July 8, 2014, it was announced that Alberto Iglesias would be scoring the music for the film with additional music by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Release
The film was released on the first weekend of December 4 and 5 on 6,462 screens and in markets such as South Korea, Mexico, Hong Kong, India. Nationwide release in North America was on December 12 in 3,503 theaters. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 26. It was released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.

Exodus was banned in Egypt. The Egyptian culture minister described it as "a Zionist film", and said it was banned because of "historical inaccuracies", such as creating a false impression that Moses and the Jews built the pyramids.

In Morocco, the state-run Moroccan Cinema Centre (CCM) initially approved the film's screening, but officials banned it on the day before its premiere because of the personification of the voice of God. After some of the film's dialogue had been edited, the film was subsequently approved for screening.

The film was also denied release in the United Arab Emirates. Authorities said they had found "many mistakes" in the story. The director of Media Content Tracking at the National Media Council explained: "This movie is under our review and we found that there are many mistakes not only about Islam but other religions too. So, we will not release it in the UAE."

The film was dedicated to director Ridley Scott's brother Tony Scott, who died on August 19, 2012.

Reception

Box office
Exodus: Gods and Kings grossed $65 million in the U.S. and Canada and $203 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $268.2 million. The film earned $8.7 million on its opening day (including previews) in the United States. The film topped the box office during its opening weekend with $24.1 million.

Outside North America, the film was released in 10 markets on December 4–5 and earned $23.1 million from 6,462 screens on its opening weekend. The following week it earned $17.8 million from 27 international markets, coming at second place at the box office behind The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The film was number one in 13 markets. In its third week, the film added $30.9 million from 39 markets and was still halted at number two behind The Battle of the Five Armies.

The highest openings came from Russia ($8 million), Brazil ($6.68 million), South Korea ($6.2 million), Mexico ($5.4 million), France ($5.35 million), the UK ($4.25 million), Spain ($3.7 million), and Germany ($3.64 million). At the end of its theatrical run, Spain proved to be the most successful country with $18.1 million followed by Russia, Brazil, France, and the UK.

Critical response
Exodus: Gods and Kings received mixed reviews reviews from critics. They praised its acting performances and technical achievements, but criticized its pacing, thin screenwriting, and lack of character development. The film veered creatively from the Bible, and Scott's honesty about his own atheism did not help its potential appeal to a religious audience. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 30% based on 210 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The critic's consensus reads: "While sporadically stirring, and suitably epic in its ambitions, Exodus: Gods and Kings can't quite live up to its classic source material." Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.

Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review and said, "Scott did a great job reviving the Roman sand-and-sandals epic when he made the Oscar-winning Gladiator. This Egyptian saga is not quite in the same league, but it confirms the director's flair for widescreen imagery. Exodus has the added kick of 3D technology, and it has enough eye-popping set pieces to please adventure fans." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was positive toward the film and said, "Exodus is a biblical epic that comes at you at maximum velocity but stays stirringly, inspiringly human." Reagan Gavin Rasquinha of The Times of India gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, "Exodus: Gods and Kings is 'spectacle' with a capital 'S' and in more ways than one, definitely epic." Catherine Shoard of The Guardian gave 3 out of 5 stars and said, "It's impossible not to feel some awe at the spectacle, but more shocks would have helped see you through the two-and-a-half hour running time." Phillips Hawker of The Sydney Morning Herald gave a mixed review and awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "Exodus: Gods And Kings... lacks Gladiator's full-on intensity and committed central performances, however; it's a mixture of the grand and the bland, and when it's not spectacular it's a little plodding." Justin Chang of Variety said, "Some may well desire a purer, fuller version of the story, one more faithful to the text and less clearly shaped by the demands of the Hollywood blockbuster. But on its own grand, imperfect terms, Exodus: Gods and Kings is undeniably transporting, marked by a free-flowing visual splendor that plays to its creator's unique strengths: Given how many faith-based movies are content to tell their audiences what to think or feel, it's satisfying to see one whose images alone are enough to compel awestruck belief." Jim Vejvoda of IGN said, "Director Ridley Scott gets lost in the desert at times in Exodus: Gods and Kings, his epic, but not entirely effective take on the story of Moses's journey from an Egyptian Royal to Hebrew leader."

On the negative side, Scott Mendelson of Forbes criticized the film for being too "dark" and "gritty", saying that the film lacked in humor and excitement, offering little nuance and little artistic interpretation beyond hitting the expected goal posts. He added, "Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings is a terrible film. It is a badly acted and badly written melodrama that takes what should be a passionate and emotionally wrenching story and drains it of all life and all dramatic interest." Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood said, "Ridley Scott [can] do a plague well, and here, he gets to do 10 of them. But is this oh-so-familiar tale still fresh enough to get people into theaters in the droves needed to make back the very high production values that we see on screen?" Alonso Duralde of The Wrap also gave a negative review and said, "If you're going into Exodus: Gods and Kings thinking that director Ridley Scott is going to give the Moses story anything we didn't already get from Cecil B. DeMille in two versions of The Ten Commandments, prepare to be disappointed."

See also
 Gods of Egypt
 The Ten Commandments (1956) and The Prince of Egypt (1998, animated), the two previous major Hollywood blockbuster films based on the Book of Exodus.
 List of films featuring slavery
 Whitewashing in film

References

External links

2014 films
2014 3D films
2010s adventure drama films
20th Century Fox films
American 3D films
American adventure drama films
American epic films
British 3D films
French epic films
Portrayals of Moses in film
English-language French films
English-language Spanish films
Films about Christianity
Films about Jews and Judaism
Films about slavery
Films about the ten plagues of Egypt
Films based on the Book of Exodus
Films directed by Ridley Scott
Films produced by Peter Chernin
Films produced by Ridley Scott
Films set in ancient Egypt
Films set in the 13th century BC
Films shot in the Canary Islands
Films shot at Pinewood Studios
IMAX films
Religious epic films
Scott Free Productions films
Films with screenplays by Steven Zaillian
Films scored by Alberto Iglesias
Films shot in Almería
Films with screenplays by Jeffrey Caine
Cultural depictions of Nefertari
Religious controversies in film
Race-related controversies in film
Casting controversies in film
Chernin Entertainment films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
2010s French films

Exodus: Gods and Kings


Flora Londinensis is a folio sized book that described the flora found in the London region of the mid 18th century.  The Flora was published by William Curtis in six large volumes. The descriptions of the plants included hand-coloured copperplate plates by botanical artists such as James Sowerby, Sydenham Edwards and William Kilburn.

The full title is Flora Londinensis: or, plates and descriptions of such plants as grow wild in the environs of London: with their places of growth, and times of flowering, their several names according to Linnæus and other authors: with a particular description of each plant in Latin and English. To which are added, their several uses in medicine, agriculture, rural œconomy and other arts.

The first volume was produced in 1777 and the final one, containing a title and an index, was published in 1798. A binary name is given for each species in the survey; common and other names are also provided.  Previous works on the flora of Britain had been intended for scientists, apothecaries, and herbalists, while Flora Londinensis was written for the general reader. The appealing plates also provided botanical details which could assist in the identification of a species.

Curtis was praefectus horti (Director, Society of Apothecaries) at the Chelsea Physic Garden and a botanist with a broad knowledge of exotic species. However, Flora Londinensis covered the territory most familiar to him -- the flowering species within a 10-mile radius of London. He commissioned several painters to produce hand-coloured copper engravings to accompany the pages. Curtis wrote the descriptions and managed the publishing and sales of the volumes, producing six fascicles of twelve issues, each containing six plates.  The final survey eventually came to include many species found in southern England and a few others.

The Subscriber's List in Volume I records 321 names who between them subscribed for 331 complete copies. Plates were also sold individually, either coloured or plain. For such an expensive and high quality work this was a surprisingly large output, a reflection of the esteem in which William Curtis was held. His The Botanical Magazine would be a greater financial success. James Sowerby, who helped to publish this work and provided over 70 of the plates, went on to produce natural history publications in a similar format, most notably, English Botany comprising 36 volumes published over 23 years commencing in November 1790.

The work was effectively enlarged by the botanical illustrator William Hooker (1779-1832) (sometimes confused with Sir William Jackson Hooker) who from 1805 to 1807 published The Paradisus Londinensis: or coloured figures of plants cultivated in the vicinity of the metropolis.

References

External links

 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/62570#/summary Flora Londinensis at the BioDiversity Heritage Library

See also
English Botany

Florae (publication)
Botanical art
Botany in Europe
Flora of Great Britain

Flora Londinensis


The American pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyi) is a type of shrew. It found in Northern Alaska, Canada, and the northern and southern United States.

It is found in northern coniferous and deciduous forests of North America. It is believed to be the second-smallest mammal in the world. Because of its fast metabolism, it is always eating.

Description
The American pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal native to North America. Its is about 5 cm (2 in) long. It weighs about 2.0 to 4.5 g (0.07 to 0.16 oz). Its fur is reddish or grayish brown during the summer. It is white-gray during the winter. It molts about two times a year. It has a narrow head with a pointed nose, and whiskers. The eyes are small.

Distribution
They are found from Northern Alaska, to the Rocky Mountains. They are also found from the Great Lakes region, to the Appalachians, to the eastern side of Canada. Even though the American pygmy shrew prefers wet habitats, it has been seen in places with both wet and dry soil.

Feeding
It mainly eats insects and insect larvae, and worms. To stay alive, the American pygmy shrew has to eat every 15 to 30 minutes, day and night.

Predators
Predators of the American pygmy shrew include hawks, brook trout, owls, snakes, and domestic cats.

Reproduction
Little is known about the reproduction of American pygmy shrews. They appear to mate all year round. The gestation period is estimated to be 18 days. Females give birth to three to eight young ones. They usually leave the family at the age of 25 days. The maximum lifespan of an American pygmy shrew is believed to be about 16–17 months.

Behavior
Pygmy shrews dig through soil to look for food. They can use tunnel made by other animals to help them look for food. They do not sleep or rest for a long time. They have great senses of smell and hearing to help them find their food.

References

Sorex
Mammals of North America

American pygmy shrew


The Battle of the Kasserine Pass was a battle fought in Tunisia. It was part of the Tunisia Campaign. The battle took place from 19 February 1943 to 24 February 1943.

The Axis forces were commanded by Erwin Rommel. They were mostly made from the Afrika Korps and The Italian Centauro Armoured Division. They also included some divisions from the German 5th Panzer Army. The Americans and the II Corps of the U.S Army were led by Lloyd Fredendall. The British 1st Army was led by Kenneth Anderson.

This battle is remembered for being the first major battle between the Americans and Germans in World War Two.

It was the first battle in which the Americans soldiers fought an enemy with better organization and experienced soldiers. The battle at the beginning was very costly for the Americans. They were forced to retreat  from their starting position at the Faid Pass. The Americans were soon reinforced with both American and British reinforcements. They forced Rommel to retreat to better positions.

This battle caused a change in American military organization, to better prepare the army for the war in North Africa. Major General Lloyd Fredendal was sent home to the United States. When Rommel and the Americans fought again weeks later, the American improvements were seen in battle.

References

1943
North African battles of World War II
20th century in Tunisia

Battle of Kasserine Pass


The Pioneer plaques were a pair of plaques that were launched into deep space on Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, and information about our place in the galaxy are drawn in case any aliens find it. The same image is on both plaques. The image is made up of many parts.

There is a drawing of a nude human female and a nude human male. Behind them is the Pioneer spacecraft to compare their sizes.

There is a diagram of the change in spin of the electron of a hydrogen particle. This diagram is meant to set up a universal unit of length and a universal unit of time for the rest of the image.

There is a map of our solar system showing a spacecraft leaving the third planet, Earth. There have been negative reactions about the arrow showing the trajectory of the spacecraft. Alien species may not understand the human concept of a line and arrow.

There is pattern of lines that looks like a star burst design. This is a map. There are 15 lines. 14 of the lines have a long binary number engraved along it. The binary numbers are distances. The distances are not in meters or kilometers, but in the universal unit of distance given by the hydrogen particle diagram. The 14 lines give the distance from the sun to 14 pulsars. The 15th line gives the distance from the sun to the center of the galaxy.

Pioneer program

Pioneer plaque


Arendal Heliport, Hospital (; ) is a heliport situated on the premises of Arendal Hospital in the Heimdal neighborhood of Arendal, Norway. Used exclusively for air ambulance services, it is home to a Eurocopter EC-135P2+ operated by Norsk Luftambulanse (NLA) on contract with the National Air Ambulance Service. The base is owned by Sørlandet Hospital Trust.

NLA started operating a summer base in Moland outside Arendal in 1986. Local actions to receive a permanent base started in 1990, and the heliport opened the following year.

History
Norsk Luftambulanse carried out a trial operation in Arendal during the summer of 1986. The south coast filled with holiday-goers during the summer months, increasing the demand for medical treatment. NLA was at the time funded through donations and needed to find new ways to promote itself. They found a suitable natural helipad at the former director mansion of Arendal Smelteverk, situated on the island of Buøya in the then municipality of Moland. NLA lacked sufficient funding for the project, so they made an agreement where the employees could bring themselves and their families for a free vacation at the mansion in exchange for duty time. NLA continued to operate a summer base in Arendal every summer.

A government commission looked into the air ambulance organization in 1982. This resulted in the National Air Ambulance Service being established in 1988, under the auspice of the National Insurance Service. Through this arrangement, Agder and Telemark were covered by helicopter ambulances based at Lørenskog Heliport, Central Hospital and Stavanger Heliport, Central Hospital.

The government decision spurred local campaigning to establish a permanent base in Agder. They argued that Stavanger and Oslo were too far away to give an adequate coverage of Agder and Telemark. The activism increased rapidly in 1990. Two petitions were established, the one gathering 33,000 signatures. A common petition was written and signed by both county councils, 34 mayors and various organizations. There was also some opposition, based on that the ambulance service would in total be better off if the extra funding was used on strengthening the conventional ambulance service.

Although there was agreement that a base should be established, there was far from local consensus regarding its location. Vest-Agder County Municipality argued that the base should be situated at Vest-Agder Central Hospital in Kristiansand, while Aust-Agder County Municipality wanted it at Aust-Agder Central Hospital in Arendal. The issue was decided by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The main argument was the Arendal was about of equal distance between Stavanger and Lørenskog and that a helicopter there could cover both Vest-Agder and Telemark, unlike one based in Kristiansand.

Parliament approved the heliport, allowing it to start operations in 1991. This was met by protests from neighbors of the hospital, who complained about the noise pollution. They demanded the relocation of the heliport. This was the most extensive conflict of any regarding the location of an ambulance heliport in the country. After several years of measuring and other considerations, about fifty home-owners received compensation. Arendal was one of three heliports opened between 1991 and 1994, bringing the total number of ambulance helicopter bases to eleven.

The original tender to operate the helicopter was awarded to NLA. The contract was from 2001 won by Airlift. NLA reclaimed the operating rights in the 2006 tender.

Facilities
The heliport is located centrally within the facilities of Arendal Hospital, located in the Heimdal neighborhood of Arendal. The base consists of an integrated office and hangar situated next to the helipad. It measures  in diameter and can carry 10 tonnes. The heliport has direct access to the emergency department,  away, through a skywalk. The facility is owned by Sørlandet Hospital Trust, part of Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority.

Operations
The ambulance helicopters are operated by Norsk Luftambulanse on contract with the National Air Ambulance Service. They have a Eurocopter EC-135P2+ stationed at the heliport. It has room for a crew of three, consisting of a pilot, rescue swimming and an anesthesiologist, as well as two stretchers. Medical staff are provided by Arendal Hospital. The helicopter flew 916 missions lasting 845 hours in 2013.

The heliport is occasionally used by the Westland Sea King of the 330 Squadron and the police helicopter. The 300 Squadron had one average annual landing in the period from 2005 to 2011.

References

Bibliography

Heliports in Norway
Airports in Agder
Buildings and structures in Arendal
Airports established in 1991
1991 establishments in Norway

Arendal Heliport, Hospital


Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour is the national anthem of Dominica. The words were written and the music were both made in 1967. It became the national anthem in 1978.

Lyrics
Isle of beauty, isle of splendour,
Isle to all so sweet and fair,
All must surely gaze in wonder
At thy gifts so rich and rare.
Rivers, valleys, hills and mountains,
All these gifts we do extol.
Healthy land, so like all fountains,
Giving cheer that warms the soul.

Dominica, God hath blest thee
With a clime benign and bright,
Pastures green and flowers of beauty
Filling all with pure delight,
And a people strong and healthy,
Full of godly reverent fear.
May we ever seek to praise Thee
For these gifts so rich and rare.

Come ye forward, sons and daughters
Of this gem beyond compare.
Strive for honour, sons and daughters,
Do the right, be firm, be fair.
Toil with hearts and hands and voices.
We must prosper! Sound the call,
In which everyone rejoices,
"All for Each and Each for All."

References

1967 songs
Dominica
North American anthems

Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour


Admiral Farragut Academy, established in 1933, is a private, college-prep school serving students in grades K-12. Farragut is located in St. Petersburg, Florida in Pinellas County and is surrounded by the communities of Treasure Island, Gulfport, Pasadena, Tierra Verde, and Seminole. Farragut also serves North Pinellas County, which includes the communities of Clearwater, Belleair, and Palm Harbor.

History
Founded in 1933 on the banks of the Toms River in Pine Beach, New Jersey, Admiral Farragut Academy was a college prep school named after Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, the first American naval officer to rise to that rank. Over Farragut's first 12 years, the school became so popular that a second campus was purchased in 1945 on the shores of Boca Ciega Bay in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since then, the school has undergone many changes, such as accepting day students, becoming co-ed, and adding an elementary school.

The school's New Jersey campus in Pine Beach closed at the end of the 1994 school year after financial difficulties.

Notable alumni

Two of the 12 men who walked on the Moon graduated from Admiral Farragut:
 Rear Admiral Alan Shepard, USN, was the first American in space and, in 1971, became the fifth person to walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission. Shepard graduated in 1941 from the New Jersey campus.
 Brigadier General Charles Duke, USAF, was a 1953 graduate of the St. Petersburg campus and, in 1972, became the tenth person to walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 16 mission. In the spring of 2006, NASA presented a Moon rock to General Duke, who then donated it to the school. It is displayed in a showcase in front of the Quarter-Deck at the entrance to the main building, Farragut Hall.
Other notable alumni:
 William Colepaugh, who defected to the Nazis during World War II, and returned to spy for Germany against the United States.
 Actor Lorenzo Lamas graduated in 1975 from the New Jersey campus.
 Actor Casper Van Dien graduated from the St. Petersburg, FL campus and later performed in many films, of which Starship Troopers is the most notable.
 Chef Spike Mendelsohn, class of 2000, competed on both Top Chef and Top Chef: All Stars. Spike is the owner of "Good Stuff Eatery," a restaurant with locations on Capitol Hill and in Georgetown in the District of Columbia, as well as in the Crystal City business neighborhood of northern Virginia.
 Major Megan McClung, one of the first female students at the Academy in 1990 and the first female United States Marine Corps officer killed in combat during the Iraq War
 Animator/Producer Andy Luckey attended from 1980-'81 at St. Petersburg but transferred before graduation.
 Lieutenant General Sidney "Tom" Weinstein, '52N, was the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence during the 1980s. He is recognized as the principal architect of the modern service intelligence corps, and was the crucial player in its expansion and professionalization.
 Richard W. Fisher '67N, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas since 2005
 William N. Small, New Jersey campus; United States Navy Admiral, former Vice Chief of Naval Operations
 Stephen Stills attended as child, before he left for Woodrow Wilson Junior High in nearby Tampa.
 Tom Thompson '68S, NCAA football record holder.
 Paul F. Gleason, served as Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts from 2017 to 2019.
 Robert A. Jensen, 1983 graduate, an American writer and crisis management expert.

The NJROTC Program
An integral part of an education at Admiral Farragut Academy is the required involvement in NJROTC. Every eighth-grade student in the Upper School takes one year of Naval Science–an in-depth study of the history, operation and core concepts of the United States Navy. Upper School students may join the NJROTC program and continue taking Naval Science courses.

Student body
There are approximately 500 students in K-12th grade with a 3:1 ratio of boys to girls. There are 330 students in the Upper School and approximately 50% of the Upper School students are boarding students.

References

Academy
Alan Shepard
Charles Duke
Preparatory schools in Florida
Educational institutions established in 1933
High schools in Pinellas County, Florida
Private high schools in Florida
Private middle schools in Florida
Private elementary schools in Florida
1945 establishments in Florida

Admiral Farragut Academy


Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate. This is commonly known as the spoiler effect, which can discourage minor party candidacies.

Vote splitting most easily occurs in plurality voting (also called first-past-the-post) in which each voter indicates a single choice and the candidate with the most votes wins, even if the winner does not have majority support. For example, if candidate A1 receives 30% of the votes, similar candidate A2 receives another 30% of the votes, and dissimilar candidate B receives the remaining 40% of the votes, plurality voting declares candidate B as the winner, even though 60% of the voters prefer either candidate A1 or A2.

Spoiler effect

The spoiler effect is the effect of vote splitting between candidates or ballot questions who often have similar ideologies.  One spoiler candidate's presence in the election draws votes from a major candidate with similar politics, thereby causing a strong opponent of both or several to win.  The minor candidate causing this effect is referred to as a spoiler.

The problem also exists in two-round system and instant-runoff voting though it is reduced, because weaker spoilers are eliminated. However, a candidate that can win head-to-head against all rivals (Condorcet winner) can still lose from third place in a 3-way vote split, a phenomenon known as the center squeeze. This occurred in the 2009 Burlington Vermont mayoral election and the 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election. Some ranked voting systems satisfy the Condorcet winner criterion. Other preferential voting systems also suffer from variations of the spoiler effect, as they fail the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) criterion (see ).

Some argue the problem is reduced in cardinal voting methods like approval voting, score voting, or majority judgment, since the rating of each candidate is independent of the ratings of other candidates, however this argument requires that some voters having meaningful preferences in an election with only two alternatives necessarily casting votes which has little or no voting power, or necessarily abstaining. If it is assumed to be at least possible that any voter having preferences might not abstain, or vote their favorite and least favorite candidates at the top and bottom ratings respectively, then these systems may not be immune to vote splitting. It can be claimed that cardinal ballots themselves are immune to vote splitting (i.e. altering the ballot after they have been cast), but not the internal voter preferences (i.e. changing the context in which the ballots were created). Cardinal voting methods also fail the independence of irrelevant alternatives criterion.

Relationship with other effects
The spoiler candidate may alter an election result if they cause voters to switch their votes away from those seen as more electable and thus more politically viable, a common effect called vote splitting. If one opposing candidate is ideologically or politically similar and therefore receives far fewer votes than other opposing candidates to the spoiler candidate, vote splitting has a spoiler effect.

In some cases, even though spoiler candidates cannot win themselves, their influence upon the voters may enable the candidate to determine deliberately the more viable candidate who wins the election, a situation known as a kingmaker scenario.  With a first-past-the-post voting system, that is particularly feasible when spoiler candidates recommend tactical voting or run on a false manifesto to bolster the prospects for another candidate to win.

In a preferential voting system, voters can feel more inclined to vote for a minor party or independent as their first choice and can record a preference between the remaining candidates, whether they are in a major or established party or not. For example, voters for a minor left-wing candidate might select a major left-wing candidate as their second choice, thus minimizing the probability that their vote will result in the election of a right-wing candidate, or voters for an independent candidate perceived as libertarian, or simply as the voter prefers that ideology might select a particular libertarian candidate as their second choice, thus minimizing the probability of an authoritarian candidate being elected. Approval voting and proportional representation systems can also reduce the spoiler effect.

One of the main functions of political parties is to mitigate the effect of spoiler-prone voting methods by winnowing on a local level the contenders before the election. Each party nominates at most one candidate per office since each party expects to lose if they nominate more than one. In some cases, a party can expect to "lose" by "suffering a rival elected opponent" if they nominate more than zero, where two opponents exist and one is considered a candidate they can "work with" — a party may prefer the candidate who would win if the party nominates zero.

Thus, empirical observations of the frequency of spoiled elections do not provide a good measure of how prone to spoiling a particular voting method is, since the observations omit the relevant information about potential candidates who did not run because of not wanting to spoil the election.

Mathematical definitions

Possible mathematical definitions for the spoiler effect include failure of the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) axiom, and vote splitting.

Arrow's impossibility theorem states that rank-voting systems are unable to satisfy the independence of irrelevant alternatives criterion without exhibiting other undesirable properties as a consequence. Gibbard's theorem shows that the same is true of cardinal voting systems like approval and score voting. However, different voting systems are affected to a greater or lesser extent by IIA failure. For example, instant runoff voting is considered to have less frequent IIA failure than First Past the Post (also known as Plurality Rule). The independence of Smith-dominated alternatives (ISDA) criterion is much weaker than IIA; unlike IIA, some ranked-ballot voting methods can pass ISDA.

A possible definition of spoiling based on vote splitting is as follows: Let W denote the candidate who wins the election, and let X and S denote two other candidates. If X would have won had S not been one of the nominees, and if (most of) the voters who prefer S over W also prefer X over W (either S>X>W or X>S>W), then S is a spoiler. Here is an example to illustrate: Suppose the voters' orders of preference are as follows:

The voters who prefer S over W also prefer X over W. W is the winner under Plurality Rule, Top Two Runoff, and Instant Runoff. If S is deleted from the votes (so that the 33% who ranked S on top now rank X on top) then X would be the winner (by 65% landslide majority). Thus S is a spoiler with these three voting methods.

By electoral system

Different electoral systems have different levels of vulnerability to vote splitting. All voting systems have some degree of inherent susceptibility to strategic nomination considerations. Strategic nomination takes advantage of vote splitting to defeat a popular candidate by supporting another similar candidate. Vote splitting is one possible cause for an electoral system failing the independence of clones or independence of irrelevant alternatives fairness criteria.

Plurality-runoff voting methods (like exhaustive ballot, two-round system/top-two primary, instant-runoff voting, supplementary vote, and contingent vote) still suffer from vote-splitting in each round, but can somewhat reduce its effects compared to single-round plurality voting.

Cardinal voting methods are immune to vote splitting if it is assumed that voters rate candidates individually and independently of knowing the available alternatives in the election, using their own absolute scale, since each candidate is rated independently of each other. This assumption implies that some voters having meaningful preferences in an election with only two alternatives will necessarily cast a vote which has little or no voting power, or necessarily abstain. If it is assumed to be at least possible that any voter having preferences might not abstain, or vote their favorite and least favorite candidates at the top and bottom ratings respectively, then these systems are not immune to vote splitting.

Vote pairing (also called vote swapping, co-voting or peer to peer voting) can mitigate the effect, but it requires two voters in different districts to agree, and identifying probabilities of candidates winning in those districts.  A vote swap effectively preserves the total support for each party but moved it to where it is most effective.  It is legal and practiced in US, Canadian and especially UK elections, as well as in some Australian state elections. Pairwise-counting Condorcet methods minimize vote splitting effects.

Plurality voting

Vote splitting most easily occurs in plurality voting because the ballots gather only the least bad preference of the voter. In the United States vote splitting commonly occurs in primary elections. The purpose of primary elections is to eliminate vote splitting among candidates in the same party before the general election. If primary elections or party nominations are not used to identify a single candidate from each party, the party that has more candidates is more likely to lose because of vote splitting among the candidates from the same party. Primary elections occur only within each party and so vote splitting can still occur between parties in the secondary election. In open primaries, vote splitting occurs between all candidates.

In addition to applying to single-winner voting systems (such as used in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada), a split vote can occur in proportional representation methods that use election thresholds, such as in Germany, New Zealand and Turkey. In those cases, "fringe" parties that do not meet the threshold can take away votes from larger parties with similar ideologies.

Ordinal voting methods

When ranked ballots are used, voters can vote for a minor party candidate as their first choice and indicate their order of preference for the remaining candidates, without regard to whether a candidate is in a major political party. For example, voters who support a very conservative candidate can select a somewhat-conservative candidate as their second choice, thus minimizing the chance that their vote will result in the election of a liberal candidate.

Runoff voting is less vulnerable to vote splitting than is plurality voting, but vote splitting can occur in any round of runoff voting.

Vote splitting rarely occurs when the chosen electoral system uses ranked ballots and a pairwise-counting method, such as a Condorcet method. Pairwise counting methods do not involve distributing each voter's vote between the candidates. Instead, pairwise counting methods separately consider each possible pair of candidates for all possible pairs. For each pair of candidates, there is a count for how many voters prefer the first candidate (in the pair) to the second candidate and how many voters have the opposite preference. The resulting table of pairwise counts eliminates the step-by-step distribution of votes, which facilitates vote splitting in other voting methods.

Voting methods that are vulnerable to strategic nomination, especially those that fail independence of clones, are vulnerable to vote splitting. Vote splitting also can occur in situations that do not involve strategic nomination, such as talent contests (such as American Idol) in which earlier rounds of voting determine the current contestants.

Cardinal voting methods

Cardinal voting methods require an independent score to be given to candidates, as opposed to a ranking. The three primary methods are approval voting, with a range between 0–1, score voting with an arbitrary range, and STAR voting.

Cardinal voting methods are immune to vote splitting if it is assumed that voters rate candidates individually and independently of knowing the available alternatives in the election, using their own absolute scale, since each candidate is rated independently of each other. This assumption implies that some voters having meaningful preferences in an election with only two alternatives will necessarily cast a vote which has little or no voting power, or necessarily abstain. If it is assumed to be at least possible that any voter having preferences might not abstain, or vote their favorite and least favorite candidates at the top and bottom ratings respectively, then these systems are not immune to vote splitting.

An alternative interpretation for the cardinal case is that the ballots themselves are immune to vote splitting (i.e. altering the ballot after they have been cast), but not the internal voter preferences (i.e. changing the context in which the ballots were created).

Election examples by country

Australia
In Australia, seats where vote splitting occurs are called "three-corned contests". While the vote is split in a three-cornered contest, it is not always a disadvantage as Australia uses preferential voting. However, depending on the level of government it can still act as a disadvantage due to the different forms of preferential voting used in Australia; full preferential voting (FPV) is used on a federal level and in some states and territories while optional preferential voting (OPV) is used in New South Wales. Due to this, three-cornered contests are rare in New South Wales (on both a state and federal level) as well as in the federal Senate.

Three-cornered contests generally occur with the centre-right Liberal-National Coalition. However, the frequency of these contests varies in different states and it does not occur in the Queensland, Tasmania or the two territories, due to the fact that the Nationals do not exist in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and they do not currently contest elections in Tasmania, while in Queensland and the Northern Territory the two Coalition parties merged to become the Liberal National Party (LNP) and the CLP, respectively. While they are rare in New South Wales, three-cornered contests do often occur in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia.

Federal politics

Federally, three-cornered contests are uncommon in most seats. However, they do occur in certain regional seats. At the 2022 federal election, both Coalition parties ran candidates in four seats; two in Victoria (Division of Indi, Nicholls), one in Western Australia (Durack) and one in South Australia (Barker). The number of federal seats with three-cornered contests has dropped over the years. In fact, there was a significantly low number of three-cornered contests in 2022, even when compared to the previous federal election, which was held in 2019. In that election, both Coalition parties ran candidates in ten seats; two in New South Wales (Eden-Monaro and Gilmore), two in Victoria (Indi and Mallee), two in Western Australia (Durack and O'Connor), one in South Australia (Barker) and three in Tasmania (Bass, Braddon and Lyons).

State politics
In New South Wales (the only state where the Coalition has never been broken), three-cornered contests are rare as most Coalition voters exhaust their preferences (meaning they only number one candidate, thus being a disadvantage except in conservative strongholds on the Mid North Coast and in central and western parts of the state). However, at the 2023 state election, this phenomenon did occur in two regional seats: Port Macquarie (a conservative seat held by National-turned-Liberal MP Leslie Williams) and Wagga Wagga (a traditionally conservative seat, despite being held by independent MP Joe McGirr). In Port Macquarie, Williams was the Liberal candidate and Peta Pinson, the Mayor of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, was the Nationals candidate. Williams won the seat, which despite having a three-cornered contest remained a safe seat on both two-candidate-preferred (TCP) and two-party-preferred (TPP) margin. In Wagga Wagga, the Nationals candidate was Adrianna Benjamin and the Liberal candidate was Julia Ham. McGirr retained the seat with an increased TCP margin against Benjamin, although the Nationals still won the TPP count. It is unlikely that a three-cornered contest will occur in either of these seats at the next state election, which will be held in 2027.

In Victoria, three-cornered contests occur in some seats, despite the Coalition existing in Victoria (although it has previously been broken). At the 2022 state election, both Coalition parties ran candidates in five seats (Bass, Euroa, Mildura, Morwell and Shepparton). The Nationals intended to run a candidate in the Narracan, but the candidate they preselected died before the election, forcing a supplementary by-election in that seat, in which the Liberal candidate was re-elected and the Nationals did not run a candidate.

In Western Australia, three-cornered contests do commonly occur. This is due to the fact that the Coalition agreement is different in that both parties are independent of each other and each party can vote differently if they believe that their decision it is in the best interests of the people and areas they represent. The Nationals can also opt-out of Cabinet and when a Coalition government is elected, the leader of the Liberal Party becomes the state Premier, but the leader of the Nationals does not always become the Deputy Premier, unlike in New South Wales and Victoria where in the event of a Coalition government, the Liberal leader becomes the Premier and the Nationals leader becomes the Deputy Premier. For example, following the 2008 state election, which saw a Coalition government elected, the Liberal leader (Colin Barnett) became the Premier, but the Nationals leader (Brendon Grylls) did not become the Deputy Premier, an office that the deputy Liberal leader (Kim Hames) was given instead.

In South Australia, three-cornered-contests do occur in some seats, due to the absence of the Coalition. In most states, the Liberal Party holds seats in cities while the Nationals hold seats in regional, rural and remote areas, but in South Australia and Tasmania, the Nationals have limited activity and thus the Liberals hold both metropolitan and non-metropolitan seats in these states. At the 2022 state election, both the Liberals and the Nationals ran candidates in eight seats (Chaffey, Finniss, Flinders, Frome, Hammond, MacKillop, Narungga and Schubert). Due to the limited activity of the party, the Nationals finished last or close-to-last in all of these seats, even being outvoted by some minor parties and winning a statewide vote of just 0.48%, the lowest in the country on a state level (excluding states the party does not contest elections in).

In Australia, the 1918 Swan by-election saw the conservative vote split between the Country Party and Nationalist Party, which allowed the Australian Labor Party to win the seat. That led the Nationalist government to implement preferential voting in federal elections to allow Country and Nationalist voters to transfer preferences to the other party and to avoid vote splitting. Today, the Liberal Party and National Party rarely run candidates in the same seats, which are known as three-cornered contests. When three-cornered contests do occur the Labor Party would usually direct preferences to the Liberals ahead of the Nationals as they considered the Liberal Party to be less conservative than the Nationals. The 1996 Southern Highlands state by-election in New South Wales is an example of this when the Nationals candidate Katrina Hodgkinson won the primary vote but was defeated after preferences to Liberal candidate Peta Seaton when Seaton received Labor Party preferences.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 2006, the HDZ 1990 broke away from the HDZ BiH this allowed Željko Komšić to gain the Croat membership in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina with less than 40% which mainly came from Bosniak areas.

Canada
When the cities of Fort William and Port Arthur merged and (in 1969) voted on a name for the new town, the vote was split between the popular choices of "Lakehead" and "The Lakehead", allowing the third option to win, creating the town of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

From 1993 to 2004, the conservative vote in Canada was split between the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform (later the Alliance) Party. That allowed the Liberal Party to win almost all seats in Ontario and to win three successive majority governments.

The 2015 provincial election in Alberta saw the left-wing New Democratic Party win 62% of the seats with 40.6% of the province's popular vote after a division within the right-wing Progressive Conservative Party, which left it with only 27.8% of the vote, and its breakaway movement, the Wildrose Party, with 24.2% of the vote. In 2008, the last election in which the Progressive Conservative Party had been unified, it won 52.72% of the popular vote.  The Progressive Conservatives had won every provincial election since the 1971 election, making them the longest-serving provincial government in Canadian history—being in office for 44 years. This was only the fourth change of government in Alberta since Alberta became a province in 1905, and one of the worst defeats a provincial government has suffered in Canada. It also marked the first time in almost 80 years that a left-of-centre political party had formed government in Alberta since the defeat of the United Farmers of Alberta in 1935 and the Depression-era radical monetary reform policies of William Aberhart's Social Credit government. During the 2021 Canadian federal election, it is speculated that the People's Party of Canada might have coast the CPC up to 24 seats.

In Canada, vote splits between the two major left-of-centre parties (Liberals and NDP) assisted the Conservative Party in winning the 2006, 2008, and 2011 federal elections, despite most of the popular vote going to left-wing parties in each race. During the 2022 Ontario General Election, Progressive Conservative Doug Ford won a second term as Premier of the Province of Ontario. The Progressive Conservatives won several ridings due to vote splitting. ONDP and Liberal Party voters combined for 47.8% of votes, whereas Ford emerged victorious with only 40.82% of total votes.

Similarly, in Quebec, it is argued that the success of the Bloc Québécois in elections from 1993 to 2008 was because of the federalist vote being split between the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Egypt
In the 2012 Egyptian presidential election, the two candidates who qualified for the runoff election, Freedom and Justice Party candidate Mohamed Morsi (24.8%) and the independent candidate Ahmed Shafik (23.7%), each received more votes than any other candidate, but they failed to get enough votes to prove that each winning candidate was actually more popular than the Dignity Party candidate Hamdeen Sabahi (20.7%), the independent candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh (17.5%), or the independent candidate Amr Moussa (11.1%).

France
In France, the 2002 presidential elections have been cited as a case of the spoiler effect: the numerous left-wing candidates, such as Christiane Taubira and Jean-Pierre Chevènement, both from political parties allied to the French Socialist Party, or the three candidates from Trotskyist parties, which altogether totalled around 20%, have been charged with making Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Party candidate, lose the two-round election in the first round to the benefit of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was separated from Jospin by only 0.68%. Some also cite the case of some districts in which the moderate right and the far right had more than half of the votes together, but the left still won the election; they accuse the left of profiting from the split. Also in the presidential elections 1969 (with five left-wing candidates which combined had 32%), in 2017 (split between four candidates which had 27% combined) and in 2022 (six left-wing candidates with 32% combined), the left failed to reach the run-off which may be traced back the amount of left-of-centre candidates. Similarly in the 1993 parliamentary election, where the green parties ran against the parties of the presidential majority. This led to many right-wing run-offs and the most right-wing dominated parliament since 1968.

In the 2023 French Polynesian legislative election, the anti-separatist A here ia Porinetia did not form an alliance with the Tāpura Huiraʻatira allowing the separatist Tāvini Huiraʻatira to win the run-off with just 44%.

Germany
In the German presidential election of 1925, Communist Ernst Thälmann refused to withdraw his candidacy although it was extremely unlikely that he would have won, and the leadership of the Communist International urged him not to run. In the second (and final) round of balloting, Thälmann shared 1,931,151 votes (6.4%). Centre Party candidate Wilhelm Marx, backed by pro-republican parties, won 13,751,605 (45.3%). The right-wing candidate Paul von Hindenburg won 14,655,641 votes (48.3%). If most of Thälmann's supporters had voted for Marx, Marx likely would have won the election. That election had great significance because after 1930, Hindenburg increasingly favoured authoritarian means of government, and in 1933, he appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor. Hindenburg's death the following year gave Hitler unchecked control of the German government.

Klimaliste has been accused of splitting the vote which would have gone to Alliance 90/The Greens. For example, in the 2021 Baden-Württemberg state election a Red-Green coalition was just a single seat short of a majority while Klimaliste missed the threshold with receiving 0.9% of the vote.

Greece
In Greece, Antonis Samaras was the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the liberal conservative government of New Democracy under Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis but ended up leaving and founding the national conservative Political Spring in response to the Macedonia naming dispute, resulting in the 1993 Greek legislative election where PASOK won with its leader Andreas Papandreou making a successful political comeback, which was considered to be responsible for the Greek government debt crisis.

Guatemala
In 2019 the different parties to the left of National Unity of Hope (Semilla, Winaq, MLP, URNG, EG, CPO-CRD and Libre) ran with their own lists and presidential candidates. Their highest candidates Thelma Cabrera and Manuel Villacorta archived 10.3% and 5.2% respectively, combined stronger than the main conservative candidate Alejandro Giammattei 13.9% (who was elected in the run-off). If they ran together there wont have been any conservative candidate in the run-off. A similar scenario happened in the 2023 election, in which four right-of-centre candidates (Manuel Conde, Armando Castillo, Edmond Mulet and Zury Ríos) gained just below 11% each, all behind Semilla's candidate Bernardo Arévalo with around 16%.

Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, vote splitting is very common for the pro-democracy camp, which caused it to suffer greatly in many elections, including the 2016 Hong Kong legislative election and the 2015 Hong Kong local elections. Pro-democracy supporters typically have different ideologies and suffer from factional disputes that are exacerbated after the advent of localist camp. However, many have wider aggregate support fewer seats are earned than the pro-Beijing camp, an example being in Kowloon East in which pro-democracy parties got over 55% of cast ballots but won only 2 seats out of 5.

Italy
Sicily is traditionally dominated by the centre-right but in the 2012 Sicilian regional election the centre-right was split between Nello Musumeci, Gianfranco Micciché, Mariano Ferro and Cateno De Luca allowing the centre-left Rosario Crocetta to win the election with just 30.5%.

New Zealand
In New Zealand, there have been two notable cases of the spoiler effect. In the 1984 general election, the free-market New Zealand Party deliberately ran for office to weaken support former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, the incumbent. The 1993 general election saw the New Zealand Labour Party's vote split by The Alliance, which has been attributed to the vagaries of the plurality vote. In response to these problems, New Zealand has since adopted mixed-member proportional representation.

Nicaragua
Before the 2006 Nicaraguan presidential election, the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance broke away from the Constitutionalist Liberal Party. This allowed Daniel Ortega to win the election with 38%, his two liberal opponents got 51% combined.

Paraguay
In the 2008 Paraguayan presidential election, the candidate of the opposition alliance Fernando Lugo won the election with just 42% because Lino Oviedo ran on his own. The two right-wing candidates had 54% together but due to the split of the Colorado Party went into opposition for the first time since 1947.

Philippines
In the 2004 Philippine presidential election, those who were opposed to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's presidency had their vote split into the four candidates, thereby allowing Arroyo to win. The opposition had film actor Fernando Poe, Jr. as its candidate, but Panfilo Lacson refused to give way and ran as a candidate of a breakaway faction of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino. Arroyo was later accused of vote-rigging.

South Korea
In 1987, Roh Tae-woo won the South Korean presidential election with just under 36% of the popular vote because his two main liberal rivals split the vote. A similar scenario happened when in 1997 won by just Kim Dae-jung 40.3% because his two main conservative rivals split the vote.

Taiwan
In the 2000 presidential election in Taiwan, James Soong left Kuomintang (KMT) party and ran as an independent against KMT's candidate Lien Chan. This caused vote-splitting among KMT voters and resulted in victory for Democratic Progressive Party's candidate, Chen Shui-bian. It is the first time in Taiwan history that the KMT did not win a presidential election, and it became the opposition party.

United Kingdom
In the 1994 European Elections, Richard Huggett stood as a "Literal Democrat" candidate for the Devon and East Plymouth seat, with the name playing on that of the much larger Liberal Democrats. Huggett took over 10,000 votes, and the Liberal Democrats lost by 700 votes to the Conservative Party. The Registration of Political Parties Act 1998, brought in after the election, introduced a register of political parties and ended the practice of deliberately confusing party descriptions.

In the run up to 2019 UK General Election, the Brexit Party, led by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, initially put up candidates in 600 seats after a strong showing for the newly formed party in the 2019 European Elections, but days later, he reversed his position after Conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated that he would not consider an electoral pact with the Brexit Party. That was seen as benefiting the Conservative Party and disadvantaging the Labour Party. Farage later encouraged voters not to vote for the Labour Party in areas that traditionally favoured it but voted to leave in the 2016 EU Membership Referendum but instead to vote tactically. After the Conservatives' decisive victory, it was suggested by some media outlets and political analysts that Farage had acted as "kingmaker" and stalking horse and effectively won the election for the Tories, as Farage's decision avoided splitting the vote.

United States

Since 1990, the Republican Party's presidential ticket, according to the research cited below, has benefited most from the spoiler effect of the plurality voting system that chooses electors for the electoral college. The year 2000 was an especially clear case when Al Gore would likely have won without vote splitting by one or more of the third-party tickets on the ballot. Which party benefits from a third-party ticket depends on the election and the candidates.

President (since 1990)

 For the 2016 United States presidential election and 2020 United States presidential election, some analyses have found the impact of third party candidates only on the margin of victory. Some attribute Biden's election in 2020 to the lack of vote splitting, with studies of 2016 third-party voters showing them much more likely to vote for Biden in 2020.
 In 2000, Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, lost to George W. Bush due to a difference of 537 votes in the state of Florida. Green Party candidate and progressive Ralph Nader received 97,421 votes in Florida on a platform most similar to Gore's. Exit polling and surveys have estimated that around 47% of Nader supporters said they would have voted for Gore if Nader didn't run (21% Bush and 32% neither). Vote splitting has also been called the "Nader Effect" as a result.
 Analysis of surveys and exit poll data from the 1992 presidential election predicts Bill Clinton winning regardless of Ross Perot's campaign but disagreements remain on which candidate lost more votes to Perot.

President (before 1970)

 In 1968, George Wallace ran for president as the American Independent Party's nominee and was the most recent third-party candidate to win a state.
 In 1912, Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt won almost 700,000 votes more than did the Republican incumbent, William Howard Taft. Republicans, who, after Woodrow Wilson won the 1912 election, became concerned that Roosevelt might return to split the Republican vote again.
 In the 1884 presidential election, the Prohibition Party's presidential nominee, former Republican Governor John St. John, took 147,482 votes, with 25,006 votes coming from New York, where Grover Cleveland defeated James G. Blaine by just 1,149 votes, allowing Cleveland to defeat Blaine in a very close contest (219-182 in the electoral college and a margin of 0.57% in the popular vote). Republicans were so angered by St. John's party switch, which caused their first presidential election defeat since 1856, that on November 27, 1884, an effigy of St. John was burned in Topeka, Kansas in front of a crowd of three thousand people.

Other races
 In the 1934 Oregon gubernatorial election, Republican Peter Zimmerman ran as an independent, receiving 31.7% of the vote compared to Democratic victor Charles Martin's 38.6% and Republican nominee Joe Dunne's 28.7%. Altogether, the Republicans received 60.4% of the vote.
In the special 2003 California gubernatorial race won by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, which did not involve a primary election and which listed 135 candidates on the ballot, concerns about vote splitting caused the Democrats to withdraw all but one of their major candidates and the Republicans to withdraw most of their candidates. Likewise, many supporters of Republican Tom McClintock changed their mind at the last minute and voted for Schwarzenegger for fear of the Democratic candidate, Cruz Bustamante, winning.
An analysis of 2006 to 2012 general election races in the U.S. found 1.5% were spoiled by third-party candidates, according to Philip Bump.
 In 2008, Democrat Al Franken was elected the junior senator from Minnesota, defeating Norm Coleman by only 0.1%. Independent candidate Dean Barkley received over 15% of the vote, and a 2014 analysis by Time found that without Barkley in the race, Franken would have lost the election to Coleman.
 As a result of the 2011 Wisconsin protests and subsequent recall elections, the Wisconsin Republican Party has encouraged spoiler candidates to run in the recall elections on the Democrat ticket in order to force the Democrats into a primary election. Republicans argued that this would even the playing field in the recalls, as incumbents facing recall did not have the time to campaign due to their work load in the state senate.
 In Maine's 2010 and 2014 gubernatorial elections, Eliot Cutler ran as a left-wing independent. In the 2010 election Paul LePage narrowly defeated him with 218,065 votes to 208,270 votes with the Democratic nominee Libby Mitchell receiving 109,387 votes and possibly spoiling the election for Cutler. However, in 2014 Cutler performed worse and only received 51,518 votes, but it was still greater than the difference between LePage and Mike Michaud causing a possible spoiler effect. These elections lead to an increase support in ranked choice voting leading to Maine adopting the voting system due to LePage's unpopularity and him winning twice only with pluralities.
 In both the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election and the 2014 Virginia US Senate Election, Libertarian Robert Sarvis received a number of votes greater than the difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates.
 Several races in the 2014 election cycle were allegedly influenced by spoiler candidates, most notably Hawaii's gubernatorial elections and the Kansas senatorial race. In the Mississippi senatorial Republican primary, a paper candidate, Thomas Carey, who received less than two percent of the vote prevented both top contenders, incumbent Thad Cochran and challenger Chris McDaniel, from avoiding a runoff. Had Carey not run, the race between McDaniel and Cochran would have avoided a runoff.

See also

 Electoral threshold
 Independence of clones
 Independence of irrelevant alternatives
 Instant-runoff voting
 Strategic nomination
 Tactical voting

Notes

References

Psephology
Splitting

Vote splitting