Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland. He co-created the Rutles, a Beatles parody/pastiche project, with Python Eric Idle, and wrote the band's songs. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s ITV children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls.

Early life
Innes was born in Danbury in Essex. His Scottish father was a warrant officer in the British Army, and Innes spent his childhood in West Germany where his father was deployed with the British Army of the Rhine. He took piano lessons from age 7 to 14 and taught himself to play guitar. His parents were supportive of their children's artistic leanings, and his father also drew and painted. After returning to the United Kingdom, Innes received his formal education at Thorpe Grammar School, the Norwich School of Art and Goldsmiths College, London, where he studied fine art. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 1966.

Career

The Bonzo Dog (Doo-Dah) Band
While still at Goldsmiths, Innes joined a semi-professional college band originally called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band (after Bonzo the dog, an illustrated cartoon character from the 1920s, and the art movement Dada), which was later renamed the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band after the group tired of constantly explaining the concept of Dada to confused onlookers (and later still the band name was officially shortened to the Bonzo Dog Band). At this point the band, which then had a revolving membership of anything up to a dozen players at a time, largely performed a dada-influenced, deliberately shambolic, comedic repertoire of trad-jazz cover versions at local public houses and college events, to the delight and occasional bemusement of audiences.

Innes had met the band's co-founders Vivian Stanshall and Rodney Slater some time earlier when they and bandmate "Legs" Larry Smith were studying at the Central School of Art,  but Innes' official entry into the band was actually facilitated by his then-landlord and college tutor, Vernon Dudley Bohay Nowell, who happened to be the band's bass guitarist at the time. Innes' induction into the band proved to be fundamental to their eventual success when he brought a more focused and disciplined musical direction to their efforts, with his talents as a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist. At the band's creative peak in 1968 and 1969, Innes, alone and together with Stanshall, composed most of the band's original material, including his solo composition (and sole Bonzos hit) "I'm the Urban Spaceman", (produced by Apollo C. Vermouth, a collective alias for Paul McCartney and Gus Dudgeon), and "Death Cab for Cutie" (with lyrics by Stanshall), which featured in the Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour (1967). Innes won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Novel(ty) Song in 1968 for "I'm the Urban Spaceman".

During the same creatively-fertile 1968/69 period, Innes and the Bonzo Dog Band also appeared each week in both seasons of the British children's television series Do Not Adjust Your Set which also featured future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam. Although initially intended to appeal solely to children, the show's surreal and absurdist nature soon also attracted a large adult following.

After the break-up of the Bonzo Dog Band in early 1970, Innes joined with former Dog Band bassist Dennis Cowan, drummer Ian Wallace and guitarist Roger McKew to form The World, a band hoping for "more commercial" success with music ranging from rock to pure pop, yet still retaining some Doo-Dah style and even some of the humour. However, by the time their first and only album, Lucky Planet, was released in late 1970 the members had already disbanded and were moving on to other projects.

GRIMMS and Monty Python
The 1970s proved to be a highly prolific decade for Innes as a solo artist, band member and live stage and television performer.

In 1971, Innes briefly reunited with most of his former Bonzo Dog Band colleagues to record their reunion/contractual obligation album Let's Make Up and Be Friendly, and he, Vivian Stanshall and Dennis Cowan also formed a short-lived touring band named Freaks with Keith Moon on drums. This in turn led Innes and Stanshall to a union with The Scaffold and other musicians, poets and performers later that year as GRIMMS. While Stanshall effectively bowed out of this group soon after its formation, Innes remained as one of the permanent core members for the next five years, working with Andy Roberts, Roger McGough, John Gorman, Mike McGear, Dave Richards, Brian Patten, Adrian Henri, John Megginson, future Rutles bandmates Ollie Halsall and John Halsey, and Gerry Conway (among many others). Although GRIMMS was initially conceived purely as a touring revue-type ensemble, early 1973 saw the release of their self-titled live album, followed by a second studio-recorded album Rockin' Duck at the end of the same year.  GRIMMS remained an informal enough setup throughout this period to allow the various members to come and go as they pleased and continue with their own outside musical, performing and literary careers, and in 1973 Innes also recorded his debut solo album How Sweet To Be An Idiot, aided and abetted by various GRIMMS. The group also undertook regular and extensive tours of the UK university and theatre circuit throughout its existence, releasing a book of humorous poetry, lyrics and photographs in 1974 entitled Clowns On The Road detailing some of their experiences. The final GRIMMS studio LP Sleepers was released in 1976, after which their activities as a group ceased.

In the mid-1970s, Innes became closely associated with the Monty Python team, having first worked with Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle on the 1960s television show Do Not Adjust Your Set. He contributed music to the Monty Python albums Monty Python's Previous Record (1972) and The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973), and played a major role in performing and writing songs and sketches for their final TV series in 1974, after John Cleese temporarily left the troupe. He wrote a squib of a song called "George III" for the episode "The Golden Age of Ballooning", which was sung by the Flirtations but billed onscreen as the Ronettes. He also wrote the song "When Does a Dream Begin?", used in "Anything Goes: The Light Entertainment War". He co-wrote the "Most Awful Family in Britain" sketch and played a humorous stilted guitar version of the theme song, "The Liberty Bell" march, during the credits of the last episode, "Party Political Broadcast". He is one of only two non-Pythons ever to be credited writers for the TV series, the other being Douglas Adams (who co-wrote the "Patient Abuse" sketch, also featured in "Party Political Broadcast").

He appeared on stage with the Pythons in the UK and Canada in 1973, in London in 1974 and in New York City in 1976, performing the Bob Dylanesque "Protest Song" (complete with harmonica) on the album Monty Python Live at City Center. He was introduced as Raymond Scum. After his introduction he told the audience, "I've suffered for my music. Now it's your turn." In 1980, he travelled to the States with the Pythons again, subsequently appearing in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. He performed the songs "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" and "I'm the Urban Spaceman". He also appeared as one of the singing "Bruces" in the Philosopher Sketch and as a Church Policeman in the "Salvation Fuzz" sketch.

Innes wrote original songs for the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), such as "Knights of the Round Table" and "Brave Sir Robin". He appeared in the film as a head-bashing monk, the serf crushed by the giant wooden rabbit, and the leader of Sir Robin's minstrels. He also had small roles in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky (1977) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), and performed the whistling on the latter's hit song, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". His collaborations with Monty Python and other artists were documented in the musical film The Seventh Python (2008), which premiered at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival on 26 June 2008.

Rutland Weekend Television, The Rutles, and The Innes Book of Records
After Monty Python finished its original run on UK television, Innes joined Eric Idle on the series Rutland Weekend Television. This was a Pythonesque sketch show based in a fictional low-budget regional television station, which ran for two seasons in 1975–76. Songs and sketches from the series appeared on a 1976 BBC LP, The Rutland Weekend Songbook. One short sketch on the show spawned the Rutles (the "prefab four"), which was an affectionate pastiche of the Beatles. In the sketch Innes portrayed the character of Ron Nasty, a character based on John Lennon, while Idle portrayed Dirk McQuickly (a character based on Paul McCartney), and the fictional group briefly performed 'I Must Be In Love', a suitably Beatlesque pastiche written by Innes.

Eric Idle later played a videotape of the Rutles sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1976 during an appearance as guest host, and the favourable response led to a 1978 American-made spin-off TV movie, All You Need Is Cash, with Innes and Idle again playing Nasty and McQuickly.  While Idle and Innes co-created the original Rutles sketch concept, Idle wrote the screenplay for the film on his own, and Innes composed all of the songs for the project without any input from Idle (Dirk McQuickly's musical contributions on the soundtrack were performed by guitarist/vocalist Ollie Halsall while Idle lip-synched them in the film). Innes' songs consequently appeared on the soundtrack album The Rutles, released by Warner Bros in 1978.

The songs written by Innes so closely pastiched the original source material that he was taken to court by the owners of the Beatles' catalogue. Innes had to testify under oath that he had not listened to the songs at all while composing the Rutles' songs, but had created them completely originally based on what he remembered various songs by the Beatles sounding like at different times. However the court ruled in favour of ATV music and imposed co-writing credits and royalties. Many years later, Innes' own music publisher demanded a co-writing credit for Innes from Beatles-influenced band Oasis, for their 1994 song "Whatever", as it directly lifted parts of its melody from Innes' 1973 song "How Sweet to Be an Idiot". This event was subsequently referenced in the Rutles' song "Shangri-La" on their 1996 reunion album The Rutles Archaeology, which was itself a parody of The Beatles Anthology.

After Rutland Weekend Television, Innes made a solo series in 1979 on BBC television, The Innes Book of Records, which ran for three series until 1981. The series offered an early example of music-video presentation, albeit on a shoestring BBC budget, centred around new recordings and alternate versions of many of Innes' older compositions along with new material written specially for the show. In keeping with Innes' usual whimsically surreal style, each episode was linked by a loose and often absurdist theme and also featured an eccentric guest performer (such as Stanley Unwin or Percy Edwards) or musician (such as Ivor Cutler or Jake Thackray). Innes' former bandmate Vivian Stanshall also appeared in one episode, reciting his own surrealist monologue about the English seaside.

Other television work

During the 1980s, Innes delved into children's entertainment. This new career path began when he took over from Tom Baker as host of Yorkshire TV's The Book Tower for the ITV network. He went on to play the role of the Magician in the live-action children's television series Puddle Lane, also made by Yorkshire Television. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls, a motley collection of "rejects" from a toy factory. The 65 episodes for Yorkshire Television included the characters Sad Sack, Hi-Fi, Lucy, Dotty, Back-to-Front, Princess and Claude.

He also composed and performed original music and songs for children's television, including Puddle Lane, The Raggy Dolls, The Riddlers and Tumbledown Farm. He brought Monty Python's Terry Jones's book Fairy Tales to television as East of the Moon. He contributed all the stories and music on this production. He was also involved with the popular children's show Tiswas.

Also, during the 1980s, Innes wrote and performed incidental music and songs for the BBC TV series, Jane. Jane was a short-form drama series which was shown nightly in 10-minute segments. The weekly episodes were edited together and broadcast in a 50-minute version on Saturday evening.

Reunion concerts

At the time of The Beatles Anthology CDs, there was a revival of interest in the Rutles and a new album was released in 1996 entitled Archaeology.

In 1998, Innes hosted a 13-episode television series for Anglia Television, called Away with Words, in which he travelled to different areas of Britain to explore the origins of well-known words and phrases.

Innes took part, along with the remaining Monty Python members, in the 2002 Concert for George, in memory of George Harrison.

Innes was occasionally heard (often as the butt of jokes) standing in as the pianist for the BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Innes toured the UK in 2006 and produced a new Bonzo CD as part of the Bonzo Dog Band's 40th Anniversary tour. In 2008 he undertook the Neil Innes and Fatso 30th Anniversary tour, playing predominantly Rutles numbers with a few Bonzos and Python items.

The Idiot Bastard Band
In late 2010, Innes announced the formation of the Idiot Bastard Band, a comedy musical collective featuring himself, Adrian Edmondson, Phill Jupitus, Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron. The band debuted, with an 8-week residency, at the Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell, London in December, playing a range of comedy songs old and new, with deliberately little rehearsal.

New concerts were scheduled in 2011. Jupitus was unable to attend due to prior commitments and was replaced by several special guests, including Paul Whitehouse, Barry Cryer and Nigel Planer. Following the death of Brint, the band performed a further tour in 2012. The band's name is a play on Frank Zappa's song The Idiot Bastard Son.

Personal life and death

While a student at Goldsmiths College, London, in the mid-1960s Innes met Yvonne Catherine Hilton; they married on 3 March 1966. The couple had three sons, Miles (b. 1967), Luke (b. 1971), and Barney (b. 1978).

Innes died of a heart attack on 29 December 2019 at Montcuq, Lot, France, where he had lived for several years. Fellow entertainers, including John Cleese and Stephen Fry, paid tribute to him. The League of Gentlemen star Mark Gatiss also paid tribute to Innes. Comedian Diane Morgan called him "one of the nicest people I've ever met and a towering talent," and director Edgar Wright said he was "forever a fan" of Innes.

Discography
Singles

Solo albums

How Sweet to Be an Idiot (1973)
The Rutland Weekend Songbook (with Eric Idle) (1976)
Taking Off (1977)
The Innes Book of Records (1979)
Off the Record (1982)
Erik the Viking (soundtrack) (1989)
Re-Cycled Vinyl Blues (compilation LP, 1994)
Recollections 1 (2000)
Recollections 2 (2001)
Recollections 3 (2001)
Works in Progress (2005)
Dogman (A Comedy Musical Story For Children) (2005)
Innes Own World – Best Bits Part One (2010)
Innes Own World – Best Bits Part Two (2010)
Back Catalogue: Silly Songs (2010)
Back Catalogue: Love Songs (2010)
Back Catalogue: Protest Songs (2010)
Back Catalogue: Party Songs (2010)
Farewell Posterity Tour (with Fatso) (2014)
Nearly Really (2019)

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Gorilla (1967)
The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (1968)
Tadpoles (1969)
Keynsham (1969)
Let's Make Up and Be Friendly (1972)
Pour l'Amour des Chiens (2007)

The World
Lucky Planet (1970)

GRIMMS

Grimms (1973)
Rockin' Duck (1973)
Sleepers (1976)

The Rutles

 The Rutles (1978)
 Archaeology (1996)
 Live + Raw (2014)
 The Wheat Album (2018)

Filmography

 Tiswas
 Rutland Weekend Television (1975–76) as himself
 All You Need Is Cash (1978) as Ron Nasty
 The Innes Book of Records (1979-1981) as himself
 Jane (1982, 1984)
 Concert for George (2002) as himself

Books
"Gloom, Doom & Very Funny Money: Economics For Half-wits"
published:29 October 1992 (Hardback & Paperback)
publisher:Piccadilly Press Ltd.

with GRIMMS:

"Clowns On The Road"
published: 3 October 1974 (Paperback)
publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd.

The Raggy Dolls series with Melvyn Jacobsen:

"Hot Air Balloon" (25 January 1990)
"Moving House" (25 January 1990)
"Royal Tour" (25 January 1990)
"A Trip To The Sea" (25 January 1990)
"In Days Of Old" (18 October 1990)
"Stolen Parrot" (18 October 1990)
"Treehouse" (18 October 1990)
"We Are Not Amused" (18 October 1990)
"The Raggy Dolls Activity Book" (30 November 1990)
all published in paperback
all published by:Boxtree Ltd.

with John Dowie:

"Dogman: A Comedy Musical Story For Children"
published:4 April 2007 ( Audio book with paperback book edition)
published by:Laughing Stock Productions Ltd.
story by John Dowie, narrated by Phil Jupitus, with songs by Neil innes

References
Citations

Sources

External links

 NeilinnesOrg channel at YouTube
 The Rutles website
 Doo Dah Diaries – The project to compile the complete history of the Bonzos

  - 2011
 "Neil Innes, 1944-2019: A ninja of comedy and melody who touched Python, The Beatles, Oasis and beyond" at nme.com

1944 births
2019 deaths
20th-century English comedians
20th-century English writers
21st-century English comedians
21st-century English writers
Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
Alumni of Norwich University of the Arts
Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band members
British novelty song performers
British surrealist artists
English comedy musicians
English expatriates in France
English male comedians
English people of Scottish descent
English pianists
English male songwriters
Ivor Novello Award winners
Monty Python
British parodists
Parody musicians
People from Danbury, Essex
The Rutles members
Writers from Essex
Grimms members
Comedians from Essex

Neil Innes


Donald Alexander MacKinnon (22 February 1863 – 20 April 1928) was a Canadian teacher, lawyer, politician, author, and the eighth  Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island from 1904 to 1910.

Born in Uigg, Prince Edward Island, the son of William and Catherine Nicholson Mackinnon, MacKinnon attended Uigg grammar school and started teaching when he was 14. He later received a first-class teaching licence from the Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. In 1882, he started articling with the Charlottetown barrister Malcolm McLeod. From 1885 to 1887, he attended Dalhousie Law School where he received a Bachelor of Laws degree. He was called to the Bar an attorney in 1887 and a barrister in 1888. He was created a Queen's Counsel in 1899. He opened a practice in Georgetown, Prince Edward Island in 1887 where he remained until moving to Charlottetown in 1897. In 1900, he became president of the Law Society of Prince Edward Island.

From 1893 to 1900, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island for the electoral district of 4th Kings. In 1899, he was chosen as attorney general in the cabinet of Donald Farquharson; however, as a result of the appointment, he was required to run for reelection and he was defeated.

He was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as the Liberal candidate for the electoral district of East Queen's in the 1900 federal election. In 1901, the election was declared void and MacKinnon was re-elected in the resulting 1901 by-election. In 1904, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island and served until 1910. He returned to federal politics when he was elected to the House of Commons for electoral district of Queen's in the 1921 federal election. MacKinnon died in Charlottetown in 1928.

References

External links

1863 births
1928 deaths
People from Queens County, Prince Edward Island
Liberal Party of Canada MPs
Lieutenant Governors of Prince Edward Island
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island Liberal Party MLAs
Canadian King's Counsel

Donald Alexander MacKinnon


Jeff Shoate (born March 23, 1981) is a former American football cornerback. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the fifth round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at San Diego State.

Shoate has also been a member of the Baltimore Ravens, New York Giants, New England Patriots and Detroit Lions. He earned a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Giants' practice squad in Super Bowl XLII.

Early years
Shoate attended Junípero Serra High School in San Diego, California where he played football as a quarterback and defensive back. Shoate also lettered in basketball and track and field as a hurdler.

College career
Shoate played at the University of Montana in 1999 and San Diego State University from 2001-2003, recording 157 career tackles, seven interceptions, 28 pass breakups and five forced fumbles.

Professional career

Denver Broncos
Shoate was drafted by the Broncos in the fifth round of the 2004 NFL Draft and was on the Broncos' roster for the entire 2004 season. Shoate then missed all of the 2005 season while on injured reserve before being waived by the Broncos after the 2006 preseason. He was re-signed to the Broncos' practice squad, where he spent the whole 2006 season until being re-signed to a futures contract on January 6, 2007. Shoate began the 2007 season on the Broncos' roster but was released on December 4, 2007.

Baltimore Ravens
On December 12, 2007, Shoate was signed to the Ravens' practice squad and spent the remainder of the regular season with the team.

New York Giants
The Giants signed Shoate to their practice squad on January 8, 2008, where he stayed until his contract expired following Super Bowl XLII.

New England Patriots
Shoate was signed by the Patriots on August 9, 2008 after safety Tank Williams was placed on injured reserve.

Detroit Lions
Shoate was signed to the practice squad of the Detroit Lions on December 18, 2008.

References

External links
Denver Broncos bio
New England Patriots bio
New York Giants bio

1981 births
Living people
Players of American football from San Diego
American football cornerbacks
American football safeties
Montana Grizzlies football players
San Diego State Aztecs football players
Denver Broncos players
Baltimore Ravens players
New York Giants players
New England Patriots players
Detroit Lions players

Jeff Shoate


A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are considered some of the finest instruments ever made, and are extremely valuable collector's items.

According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. The many blind experiments from 1817 to as recently as 2014 have found no difference in sound between Stradivari's violins and high-quality violins in comparable style of other makers and periods, nor has acoustic analysis.

The fame of Stradivarius instruments is widespread, appearing in numerous works of fiction.

Construction

Stradivari made his instruments using an inner form, unlike the French copyists, such as Vuillaume, who employed an outer form. It is clear from the number of forms throughout his career that he experimented with some of the dimensions of his instruments. The woods used included spruce for the top, willow for the internal blocks and linings, and maple for the back, ribs, and neck. Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri's violins differ in their tonal quality, like red or white wine. The Stradivari's sound is described as more "direct and precise", responding to the slightest touch with refined direction and elegance.

There has been conjecture that the wood used may have been treated with several types of minerals, both before and after construction of a violin. Scientists at National Taiwan University have detected trace amounts of aluminum, copper, and calcium in wood from Stradivari violins. The traces may have come from chemical preservatives applied by loggers to the wood they sold. As well, the violin makers applied varnishes to their instruments. Potassium borate (borax) may have been used to protect against woodworm. Sodium and potassium silicate may have been used to prevent mildew, rotting and insect damage. Simone Fernando Sacconi suggested that Vernice bianca, an egg tempera varnish composed of gum arabic, honey, and egg white, may have been used.

French chemist Jean-Philippe Echard and his co-workers have studied varnishes on Stradivarius violins. He reported in 2010 that even when varnish is no longer visible to the human eye on the surface of older violins, it can be detected within the top layers of cells. A lower layer of varnish is found within the topmost wood cells while an upper rests upon the wood. Echard's findings suggest that Stradivari used a mixture of common Cremonese resin, oil, and pigment as a varnish, rather than making his own. Echard did not find traces of specialized ingredients such as protein materials, gums, or fossil amber.

A comparative study published in PLOS One in 2008 found no significant differences in median densities between modern and classical violins, or between classical violins from different origins; instead the survey of several modern and classical examples of violins highlighted a notable distinction when comparing density differentials.  These results suggest that differences in density differentials in the material may have played a significant role in the sound production of classical violins. A later survey, focused on comparing median densities in both classical and modern violin examples, questioned the role available materials may have played in sound production differences, though it made no comment on variations in density differentials. The content of copper and aluminium is higher than current instruments.

Market value

A Stradivarius made in the 1680s, or during Stradivari's "Long Pattern" period from 1690 to 1700, could be worth hundreds of thousands to several million U.S. dollars at today's prices. The 1697 "Molitor" Stradivarius, once rumored to have belonged to Napoleon (it actually belonged to a general in his army, Marshal Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor, 1er Comte Molitor), sold in 2010 at Tarisio Auctions to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for $3,600,000, at the time a world record.

Depending on condition, instruments made during Stradivari's "golden period" from 1700 to about 1725 can be worth millions of dollars. In 2011, his "Lady Blunt" violin from 1721, which is in pristine condition, was sold in London for $15.9 million (it is named after Lord Byron's granddaughter Lady Anne Blunt, who owned it for 30 years). It was sold by the Nippon Music Foundation in aid of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami appeal. In Spring 2014 the "Macdonald" viola was put up for auction through the musical instrument auction house Ingles & Hayday in conjunction with Sotheby's via silent auction with a minimum bid of $45 million. The auction failed to reach its minimum bid by 25 June 2014, and the viola was not sold.

Vice magazine reported in May 2013 that "in recent years, Stradivarius investment funds have started to appear, pushing already astronomical prices even higher".

Stradivarius instruments are at risk of theft. Stolen instruments are often recovered, even after being missing for many years. They are difficult to sell illicitly, as dealers will typically call the police if approached by a seller with a Stradivarius known to have been stolen. The General Kyd Stradivarius was stolen in 2004. It was returned three weeks later by a woman who found it and handed it over to the police. The Sinsheimer/Iselin was stolen in Hanover, Germany in 2008 and recovered in 2009. The Lipinski Stradivarius was stolen in an armed robbery on 27 January 2014 and subsequently recovered. The Ames Stradivarius was stolen in 1981 and recovered in 2015.

A number of stolen instruments remain missing, such as the Karpilowsky, stolen in 1953. the Davidoff-Morini, stolen in 1995, and the Le Maurien, stolen in 2002.

Comparisons in sound quality
The Stradivarius instruments are famous for the quality of sound they produce. However, the many blind experiments from 1817 to as recent as 2014 have never found any difference in sound between Stradivari's violins and high-quality violins in comparable style of other makers and periods, nor has acoustic analysis. In a particularly famous test on a BBC Radio 3 programme in 1977, the violinists Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman and the violin expert and dealer Charles Beare tried to distinguish between the "Chaconne" Stradivarius, a 1739 Guarneri del Gesú, an 1846 Vuillaume, and a 1976 British violin played behind a screen by a professional soloist. The two violinists were allowed to play all the instruments first. None of the listeners identified more than two of the four instruments. Two of the listeners identified the 20th-century violin as the Stradivarius. Violinists and others have criticized these tests on various grounds such as that they are not double-blind (in most cases), the judges are often not experts, and the sounds of violins are hard to evaluate objectively and reproducibly.

In a test in 2009, the British violinist Matthew Trusler played his 1711 Stradivarius, said to be worth two million U.S. dollars, and four modern violins made by the Swiss violin-maker . One of Rhonheimer's violins, made with wood that the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology researcher Francis Schwarze had treated with fungi, received 90 of the 180 votes for the best tone, while the Stradivarius came second with 39 votes. The majority (113) of the listeners misidentified the winning violin as the Stradivarius. Analysis of the treated wood revealed a  accompanied by relatively little change in the speed of sound. According to this analysis, treatment improves the sound radiation ratio to the level of cold-climate wood considered to have superior resonance.

In a double-blind test in 2012 published in the study "Player preferences among new and old violins", expert players could not distinguish old from new instruments by playing them for a short time in a small room. In an additional test, performed in a concert hall, one of the Stradivarius violins placed first, but one of the participants stated that "the audience in the concert hall were essentially equivocal on which instruments were better in each of the pair-wise instrument comparisons" and "I could tell slight differences in the instruments... but overall they were all great. None of them sounded substantially weaker than the others." Modern violins were rated as having better sound-carrying qualities and were preferred again in a study in 2017.

While many world-class soloists play violins by Antonio Stradivari, there are notable exceptions. For example, Christian Tetzlaff formerly played "a quite famous Strad", but switched to a violin made in 2002 by Stefan-Peter Greiner. He states that the listener cannot tell that his instrument is modern, and he regards it as excellent for Bach and better than a Stradivarius for "the big Romantic and 20th-century concertos."

Theories and reproduction attempts
Some maintain that the very best Stradivari have unique superiorities. Various attempts at explaining these supposed qualities have been undertaken, most results being unsuccessful or inconclusive. Over the centuries, numerous theories have been presented – and debunked – including an assertion that the wood was salvaged from old cathedrals.

A more modern theory attributes tree growth during a time of global low temperatures during the Little Ice Age associated with unusually low solar activity of the Maunder Minimum, circa 1645 to 1750, during which cooler temperatures throughout Europe are believed to have caused stunted and slowed tree growth, resulting in unusually dense wood. Further evidence for this "Little Ice Age theory" comes from a simple examination of the dense growth rings in the wood used in Stradivari's instruments. Two researchers – University of Tennessee tree-ring scientist Henri Grissino-Mayer and Lloyd Burckle, a Columbia University climatologist – published their conclusions supporting the theory on increased wood density in the journal Dendrochronologia.

In 2008, researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, announced further evidence that wood density caused the claimed high quality of these instruments. After examining the violins with X-rays, the researchers found that these violins all have extremely consistent density, with relatively low variation in the apparent growth patterns of the trees that produced this wood.

Yet another possible explanation is that maple wood used was sourced from the forests of northern Croatia. This wood is known for its extreme density resulting from the slow growth caused by harsh Croatian winters. Croatian wood was traded by Venetian merchants of the era, and is still used today by local luthiers and craftsfolk for musical instruments.

Some research points to wood preservatives used in that day as contributing to the resonant qualities. Joseph Nagyvary reveals that he has always held the belief that there are a wide range of chemicals that will improve the violin's sound. In a 2009 study co-authored with Renald Guillemette and Clifford Spiegelman, Nagyvary obtained shavings from a Stradivarius violin and examined them, and analysis indicated they contained "borax, fluorides, chromium and iron salts." He also found that the wood had decayed a little, to the extent that the filter plates in the pores between the wood's component tracheids had rotted away, perhaps while the wood was stored in or under water in the Venice lagoon before Stradivarius used it.

Steven Sirr, a radiologist, worked with researchers to perform a CT scan of a Stradivari known as the "Betts". Data regarding the differing densities of woods used were then used to create a reproduction instrument.

Instruments

Stradivari made mainly violins but also violas, cellos and some plucked string instruments (five guitars, two mandolins and one harp are known). About 650 original Stradivarius instruments have survived. Thousands of violins have been made in tribute to Stradivari, copying his model and bearing labels that read "Stradivarius". The presence of a Stradivarius label does not confirm that the instrument is a genuine work of Stradivari.

Sound preservation

According to a 2019 article in The New York Times, the Museo del Violino in the city of Cremona, Italy is undertaking a landmark project to preserve the sound of Stradivarius instruments. In January 2019, four musicians recorded an extensive set of scales and arpeggios in different techniques to showcase the sounds produced by two violins, a viola, and a cello. These recordings, known as the "Stradivarius Sound Bank", have since become part of a permanent collection at the Museo del Violino that will allow future generations to hear Stradivarius instruments. To facilitate these recordings, "the city's mayor, Gianluca Galimberti, implored Cremona's citizens to avoid any sudden and unnecessary sounds."

See also

References

Further reading
 How Many Strads?, Ernest N. Doring, William Lewis & Son, Chicago, 1945

 Violin Iconography of Antonio Stradivari 1644–1737, Herbert K. Goodkind, Larchmont, New York, 1972.

External links

 A FourDoc (short on-line documentary) about a group of violin makers making a violin in the original spec of the maurin Stradivarius in just five days
 Cozio.com Online database of instruments by Antonio Stradivari.
 Instruments by Antonio Stradivari on the MIMO online database

String instruments
Stradivari instruments

de:Antonio Stradivari#Stradivaris Instrumente

Stradivarius


MTV Philippines was a 24-hour music/entertainment television network owned by All Youth Channels, Inc., through a partnership with MTV Networks Asia Pacific. The network originally started its broadcast on January 1, 2001. Two other MTV-branded networks carrying domestic its final broadcast on March 20, 2011, content have since struggled to stay on the air through the 2010s, neither lasting more than four years.

Prior to its last incarnation, MTV Philippines was a corporate venture between MTV Networks Asia and Nation Broadcasting Corporation. MTV Networks Asia provided much of the broadcast content, while NBC provided the infrastructure.

MTV Philippines' facilities were located at the Citibank Center (now BDO Towers Valero) in Makati, The Richmonde Hotel in Ortigas Center, Pasig, The Fort in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, and Silver City in Frontera Verde, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig.

History

MTV Asia in the Philippines on UHF Channel 23
MTV started in the Philippines in May 1992 as MTV Asia. It started as one of the channels of the STAR group—a partnership of Viacom, MTV's parent company, and STAR TV. It began airing on UHF Channel 23 licensed to Ermita Electronics Corporation, the country's first UHF TV station fully devoted to re-broadcasting from a foreign satellite channel. In 1994, the partnership suffered a conflict of interest when STAR launched its own music channel, Channel V. After UHF 23 was put off-air in July 1996, the frequency was reassigned to ABS-CBN through a subsidiary, AMCARA Broadcasting Network, and has been rebranded as Studio 23. However, Studio 23 had to deal with the then-active agreement between Ermita Electronics and MTV Asia (whose main broadcast headquarters is located in Singapore).

Studio 23
By October 12, 1996, MTV was being aired on Studio 23 (now known as ABS-CBN Sports+Action in 2014) during daytime hours, while original Studio 23 programming aired on primetime. The partnership with Studio 23 ended on December 31, 2000, and moved to a new channel frequency, UHF 41. ABS-CBN earlier launched its own music channel, Myx on November 20, 2000, and later became Studio 23's daytime block on January 1, 2001.

MTV UHF Channel 41 / MTV Philippines
Before 2000 was about to end, MTV Networks Asia and Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) signed a joint-venture agreement to form Music Source, and acquired the rights to air MTV 24 hours a day on UHF Channel 41, which was licensed to NBC.

MTV Philippines showcased local Filipino talent through videos and shows presented in-between numbers featuring international pop and rock superstars. The channel did not promote a pan-Asian format. However, MTV Southeast Asia presented Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean artists on their network, alternating with international pop and rock talents. Within six months from its inception on January 1, 2001, it immediately won the hearts of pop-culturally conscious young Filipino viewers. It was said that the presence of this channel eventually caused the demise of Channel V Philippines simply due to intense competition.

After six years of partnership, UHF Channel 41 ceased broadcasting on December 31, 2006, following the dissolution of the joint venture. Soon, it was returned on TV broadcasting with a brand new channel co-owned by TV5 as Aksyon TV Channel 41, an all-news channel, which would then become 5 Plus in 2019 and now One Sports in 2020.

All Youth Channels, Inc. and the final incarnation of MTV Philippines
After the dissolution of its joint venture with NBC, MTV Networks Asia signed a licensing agreement with All Youth Channels, Inc. (AYC), which is run by some of the members of Music Source, including Lumen, to control both MTV Philippines and its sister channel, Nickelodeon. AYC owned and operated 100% of then-new MTV Philippines.

MTV Philippines was an exclusive channel on cable and satellite television systems. However, Lumen decided not to renew the contract (except Nickelodeon Philippines, which is MTV Philippines's sister channel). There were also some posts claiming that instead of funding for MTV Philippines, they would support TV5 instead which they planned to be the next big thing on TV. 11 minutes before midnight of February 16, 2010, a final music video: "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, (which was the very first music video played in MTV USA back in 1981) was played and afterwards, MTV Philippines officially signed off. After the closure, it had reverted to its original channel, MTV Asia.

MTV Pinoy

On February 14, 2014, MTV returned to the country as MTV Pinoy with a new logo and name.  At exactly 04:00 P.M., MTV Pinoy started its commercial operations with its first program MTV Halo-Halo with VJ Sam. "Dear Lonely" performed by Zia Quizon is the first music video to air on the relaunched channel. MTV Pinoy was co-owned by MTV Networks Asia Pacific and Viva Communications, with the latter providing the infrastructure.

However, unlike its MTV Philippines format, MTV Pinoy was a domestic network focused on Filipino pop music, with programs aligned with the Viva-produced content. It struggled against the dominant network Myx, and shutdown on December 31, 2016, after a New Year's Eve countdown.

MTV ph

On August 1, 2017,  MTV returned for the third time as MTVph, a joint venture between MTVNAP and new partner Solar. Like the original networks, it was wholly unsuccessful, and the domestic feed ended on January 1, 2019, replaced by MTV Asia.

Key people
Bill Roedy - President, MTV Networks International
 Frank Brown - President, MTV Networks Asia Pacific
Steven Tan - Executive Vice President, MTV Networks Asia
Francis Lumen - President and CEO, All Youth Channel, Inc.

Programming
Most of the programming consists of music/music-related shows, mainly broadcasting programming from the US-based MTV and VH1. The network also acquired original content from MTV Southeast Asia, as well as its own localized content.

Events
MTV Philippines became the official music media channel of the big-name concerts to the Philippines since their re-launch.

International artists
Christina Aguilera
George Benson
Chris Brown
Duran Duran
Fall Out Boy
Josh Groban
Incubus
Alicia Keys
Beyoncé Knowles
Lady Gaga*
M2M
Ziggy Marley
My Chemical Romance
Nine Inch Nails
Katy Perry*
Pussycat Dolls
Marion Raven
Rihanna
Tortured Soul
Vertical Horizon

Local artists
Eraserheads
Sarah Geronimo
Imago
Kyla
Martin Nievera
Moonstar88
Sinosikat?
Spongecola
Urbandub
Gary Valenciano
Ogie Alcasid
Regine Velasquez

* - MTV Philippines was only the official music channel of the concert.

MTV Philippines also announced that an awards show would be in the works. In the upcoming years, the network hopes to relaunch the MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards to continue its tradition of recognizing the best of Pinoy music and video making.

MTV Philippines' past VJs
Marc Abaya
Kat Alano (2007–2009)
Bianca Araneta
Victor Basa (2007–2008)
Paolo Bediones
Reema Chanco
KC Concepcion
Anne Curtis (2007)
Johan Ekedum (2003–2004)
Maike Evers
Nicole Fonacier (2005–2006)
John Joe Joseph (2004–2006)
Cindy Kurleto
Patty Laurel (2003–2004)
Cesca Litton
Francis Magalona †
Andi Manzano (2007–2009)
Sarah Meier (2001–2005)
Colby Miller (2005–2007)
KC Montero (1999–2007)
Rex Navarrete
Claire Olivar
Belinda Panelo
Don Puno
Derek Ramsay (2001–2002)
Mariel Rodriguez
Eiffelene Salvador
Anna Shier (2001–2003)
Sib Sibulo
Chase Tinio
Giselle Toengi-Walters
Regine Tolentino
Shannen Torres (1997–2002)
Donita Rose
Jamie Wilson (1997–1998)
Maggie Wilson (2007–2010)

Shows

Partnerships/affiliations
ABS-CBN Corporation
All Youth Channels, Inc.
Ermita Electronics Corporation
Globe Telecom
GMA Network Inc.
Music Management International
Nation Broadcasting Corporation
Paramount Networks EMEAA
Smart Communications
Solar Entertainment Corporation
Viva Communications

See also
 Viacom
 MTV Networks Asia Pacific
 MTV
 MTV Southeast Asia
 MTV Pinoy
 U92 (Now Radyo5 92.3 News FM)
 AksyonTV (defunct)
 5 Plus (defunct)
 One Sports
 Myx
 Channel V Philippines (defunct)

References

Official website
 MTV Philippines official website (defunct)
 MTV Asia official website

Nation Broadcasting Corporation
MTV channels
Defunct television networks in the Philippines
Television channels and stations established in 1992
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2010
Music organizations based in the Philippines
Defunct music video networks

MTV (Philippine TV channel)


Palynology is the study of microorganisms and microscopic fragments of mega-organisms that are composed of acid-resistant organic material and occur in sediments, sedimentary rocks, and even some metasedimentary rocks. Palynomorphs are the microscopic, acid-resistant organic remains and debris produced by a wide variety plants, animals, and Protista that have existed since the late Proterozoic.

It is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs (paleopalynology), including pollen, spores, orbicules, dinocysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter (POM) and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks and sediments. Palynology does not include diatoms, foraminiferans or other organisms with siliceous or calcareous tests. The name of the science and organisms is derived from the Greek , "strew, sprinkle" and -logy) or of "particles that are strewn".

Palynology is an interdisciplinary science that stands at the intersection of earth science (geology or geological science) and biological science (biology), particularly plant science (botany). In Biostratigraphy, a branch of paleontology and paleobotany, it involves fossil palynomorphs from the Precambrian to the Holocene for their usefulness in the relative dating and correlation of sedimentary strata. Palynology is also used to date and understand the evolution of many kinds of plants and animals. In paleoclimatology, fossil palynomorphs are studied for their usefullness in understanding ancient Earth history in terms of reconstructing paleoenvironments and paleoclimates.

Palynology is quite useful in disciplines such as Archeology, in honey production, and criminal and civil law. In archaeology, palynology is widely used to reconstruct ancient paleoenvironments and environmental shifts that significantly influenced past human societies and reconstruct the diet of prehistoric and historic humans. Melissopalynology, the study of pollen and other palynomorphs in honey, identifies the sources of pollen in terms of geographical location(s) and genera of plants. This not only provides important information on the ecology of honey bees, it also an important tool in discovering and policing the criminal adultriation and mislabeling of honey and its products. Forensic palynology uses palynomorphs as evidence in criminal and civil law to prove or disprove a physical link between objects, people, and places.

Palynomorphs
Palynomorphs are broadly defined as the study of organic remains, including microfossils, and microscopic fragments of mega-organisms that are composed of acid-resistant organic material and range in size between 5 and 500 micrometres. They are extracted from soils, sedimentary rocks and sediment cores, and other materials by a combination of physical (ultrasonic treatment and wet sieving) and chemical (acid digestion) procedures to remove the non-organic fraction. Palynomorphs may be composed of organic material such as chitin, pseudochitin and sporopollenin.

Palynomorphs form a geological record of importance in determining the type of prehistoric life that existed at the time the sedimentary strata was laid down. As a result, these microfossils give important clues to the prevailing climatic conditions of the time. Their paleontological utility derives from an abundance numbering in millions of palymorphs per gram in organic marine deposits, even when such deposits are generally not fossiliferous. Palynomorphs, however, generally have been destroyed in metamorphic or recrystallized rocks.

Typical palynomorphs include dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, spores, pollen, plant tissue, fungi, scolecodonts (scleroprotein teeth, jaws, and associated features of polychaete annelid worms), arthropod organs (such as insect mouthparts), and chitinozoans. Palynomorph microscopic structures that are abundant in most sediments are resistant to routine pollen extraction.

Palynofacies
A palynofacies is the complete assemblage of organic matter and palynomorphs in a fossil deposit. The term was introduced by the French geologist  in 1964. Palynofacies studies are often linked to investigations of the organic geochemistry of sedimentary rocks. The study of the palynofacies of a  sedimentary depositional environment can be used to learn about the depositional palaeoenvironments of sedimentary rocks in exploration geology, often in conjunction with palynological analysis and vitrinite reflectance.

Palynofacies can be used in two ways:
 Organic palynofacies considers all the acid insoluble particulate organic matter (POM), including kerogen and palynomorphs in sediments and palynological preparations of sedimentary rocks. The sieved or unsieved preparations may be examined using strew mounts on microscope slides that may be examined using a transmitted light biological microscope or ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence microscope. The abundance, composition and preservation of the various components, together with the thermal alteration of the organic matter is considered.
 Palynomorph palynofacies considers the abundance, composition and diversity of palynomorphs in a sieved palynological preparation of sediments or palynological preparation of sedimentary rocks. The ratio of marine fossil phytoplankton (acritarchs and dinoflagellate cysts), together with chitinozoans, to terrestrial palynomorphs (pollen and spores) can be used to derive a terrestrial input index in marine sediments.

History

Early history
The earliest reported observations of pollen under a microscope are likely to have been in the 1640s by the English botanist Nehemiah Grew, who described pollen and the stamen, and concluded that pollen is required for sexual reproduction in flowering plants.

By the late 1870s, as optical microscopes improved and the principles of stratigraphy were worked out, Robert Kidston and P. Reinsch were able to examine the presence of fossil spores in the Devonian and Carboniferous coal seams and make comparisons between the living spores and the ancient fossil spores. Early investigators include Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (radiolarians, diatoms and dinoflagellate cysts), Gideon Mantell (desmids) and Henry Hopley White (dinoflagellate cysts).

1890s to 1940s
Quantitative analysis of pollen began with Lennart von Post's published work. Although he published in the Swedish language, his methodology gained a wide audience through his lectures. In particular, his Kristiania lecture of 1916 was important in gaining a wider audience. Because the early investigations were published in the Nordic languages (Scandinavian languages), the field of pollen analysis was confined to those countries. The isolation ended with the German publication of Gunnar Erdtman's 1921 thesis. The methodology of pollen analysis became widespread throughout Europe and North America and revolutionized Quaternary vegetation and climate change research.

Earlier pollen researchers include Früh (1885), who enumerated many common tree pollen types, and a considerable number of spores and herb pollen grains. There is a study of pollen samples taken from sediments of Swedish lakes by Trybom (1888); pine and spruce pollen was found in such profusion that he considered them to be serviceable as "index fossils". Georg F. L. Sarauw studied fossil pollen of middle Pleistocene age (Cromerian) from the harbour of Copenhagen. Lagerheim (in Witte 1905) and C. A.Weber (in H. A. Weber 1918) appear to be among the first to undertake 'percentage frequency' calculations.

1940s to 1989

The term palynology was introduced by Hyde and Williams in 1944, following correspondence with the Swedish geologist Ernst Antevs, in the pages of the Pollen Analysis Circular (one of the first journals devoted to pollen analysis, produced by Paul Sears in North America). Hyde and Williams chose palynology on the basis of the Greek words paluno meaning 'to sprinkle' and pale meaning 'dust' (and thus similar to the Latin word pollen).

Pollen analysis in North America stemmed from Phyllis Draper, an MS student under Sears at the University of Oklahoma. During her time as a student, she developed the first pollen diagram from a sample that depicted the percentage of several species at different depths at Curtis Bog. This was the introduction of pollen analysis in North America; pollen diagrams today still often remain in the same format with depth on the y-axis and abundances of species on the x-axis.

1990s to the 21st century
Pollen analysis advanced rapidly in this period due to advances in optics and computers. Much of the science was revised by Johannes Iversen and Knut Fægri in their textbook on the subject.

Methods of studying palynomorphs

Chemical preparation
Chemical digestion follows a number of steps.  Initially the only chemical treatment used by researchers was treatment with Potassium hydroxide (KOH) to remove humic substances; defloculation was accomplished through surface treatment or ultra-sonic treatment, although sonification may cause the pollen exine to rupture. In 1924, the use of hydrofluoric acid (HF) to digest silicate minerals was introduced by Assarson and Granlund, greatly reducing the amount of time required to scan slides for palynomorphs. Palynological studies using peats presented a particular challenge because of the presence of well-preserved organic material, including fine rootlets, moss leaflets and organic litter. This was the last major challenge in the chemical preparation of materials for palynological study. Acetolysis was developed by Gunnar Erdtman and his brother to remove these fine cellulose materials by dissolving them. In acetolysis the specimen is treated with acetic anhydride and sulfuric acid, dissolving cellulistic materials and thus providing better visibility for palynomorphs.

Some steps of the chemical treatments require special care for safety reasons, in particular the use of HF which diffuses very fast through the skin and, causes severe chemical burns, and can be fatal.

Another treatment includes kerosene flotation for chitinous materials.

Analysis
Once samples have been prepared chemically, they are mounted on microscope slides using silicon oil, glycerol or glycerol-jelly and examined using light microscopy or mounted on a stub for scanning electron microscopy.

Researchers will often study either modern samples from a number of unique sites within a given area, or samples from a single site with a record through time, such as samples obtained from peat or lake sediments. More recent studies have used the modern analog technique in which paleo-samples are compared to modern samples for which the parent vegetation is known.

When the slides are observed under a microscope, the researcher counts the number of grains of each pollen taxon.  This record is next used to produce a pollen diagram. These data can be used to detect anthropogenic effects, such as logging, traditional patterns of land use or long term changes in regional climate

Applications
Palynology can be applied to problems in many scientific disciplines including geology, botany, paleontology, archaeology, pedology (soil study), and physical geography:

 Biostratigraphy and geochronology. Geologists use palynological studies in biostratigraphy to correlate strata and determine the relative age of a given bed, horizon, formation or stratigraphical sequence.
Because the distribution of acritarchs, chitinozoans, dinoflagellate cysts, pollen and spores provides evidence of stratigraphical correlation through biostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, one common and lucrative application of palynology is in oil and gas exploration.
 Paleoecology and climate change. Palynology can be used to reconstruct past vegetation (land plants) and marine and Freshwater phytoplankton communities, and so infer past environmental (palaeoenvironmental) and palaeoclimatic conditions in an area thousands or millions of years ago, a fundamental part of research into climate change.
 Organic palynofacies studies, which examine the preservation of the particulate organic matter and palynomorphs provides information on the depositional environment of sediments and depositional palaeoenvironments of sedimentary rocks.
 Geothermal alteration studies examine the colour of palynomorphs extracted from rocks to give the thermal alteration and maturation of sedimentary sequences, which provides estimates of maximum palaeotemperatures.
 Limnology studies. Freshwater palynomorphs and animal and plant fragments, including the prasinophytes and desmids (green algae) can be used to study past lake levels and long term climate change.
 Taxonomy and evolutionary studies. Involving the use of pollen morphological characters as source of taxonomic data to delimit plant species under same family or genus. Pollen apertural status is frequently used for differential sorting or finding similarities between species of the same taxa. This is also called Palynotaxonomy.
 Forensic palynology: the study of pollen and other palynomorphs for evidence at a crime scene.
 Allergy studies and pollen counting. Studies of the geographic distribution and seasonal production of pollen, can be used to forecast pollen conditions, helping sufferers of allergies such as hay fever.
 Melissopalynology: the study of pollen and spores found in honey.
 Archaeological palynology examines human uses of plants in the past. This can help determine seasonality of site occupation, presence or absence of agricultural practices or products, and 'plant-related activity areas' within an archaeological context.  Bonfire Shelter is one such example of this application.

See also

References

Sources
Moore, P.D., et al. (1991), Pollen Analysis (Second Edition). Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Traverse, A. (1988), Paleopalynology. Unwin Hyman.
Roberts, N. (1998), The Holocene an environmental history, Blackwell Publishing.

External links
 The AASP - The Palynological Society
 International Federation of Palynological Societies
Palynology Laboratory, French Institute of Pondicherry, India
 The Palynology Unit, Kew Gardens, UK
 PalDat, palynological database hosted by the University of Vienna, Austria
 The Micropalaeontological Society
 Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paléozoique (CIMP), International Commission for Palaeozoic Palynology
 Centre for Palynology, University of Sheffield, UK
 Linnean Society Palynology Specialist Group (LSPSG)
 Canadian Association of Palynologists
 Pollen and Spore Identification Literature
 Palynologische Kring, The Netherlands and Belgium
 Palynofacies, an annotated link directory.
 Acosta et al., 2018. Climate change and peopling of the Neotropics during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana. http://boletinsgm.igeolcu.unam.mx/bsgm/index.php/component/content/article/368-sitio/articulos/cuarta-epoca/7001/1857-7001-1-Acosta

Earth sciences
Archaeological science
Subfields of paleontology
Microfossils
Branches of botany
Sedimentology

Palynology


Rajinder Singh Bedi (1 September 1915 – 11 November 1984) was an Indian Urdu writer of the progressive writers' movement and a playwright, who later worked in Hindi cinema as a film director, screenwriter and dialogue writer and he is grandfather Rajat Bedi an Manek Bedi.

As a screenwriter and dialogue writer, he is best known for Hrishikesh Mukherjee's films , Anupama and Satyakam; and Bimal Roy's Madhumati. As a director he is known for  Dastak (1970), starring Sanjeev Kumar and Rehana Sultan and Phagun (1973), starring Dharmendra, Waheeda Rehman, Jaya Bhaduri and Vijay Arora. He wrote his scripts in Urdu, like a number of other prominent screenwriters at the time.

Bedi is considered one of the leading 20th century progressive writers of Urdu fiction, and one of the most prominent Urdu fiction writers. He is most known for 'disturbing' Partition of India tales.

Biography

Early life
Bedi was born in village Dhallewali in Sialkot district, Punjab, now in Pakistan, to Hira Singh Bedi and Seva Dai. He spent his early years in Lahore, where he received his education in Urdu, as it was common to most Punjabi families, though he never graduated from a college.

Career

His first collection of short stories, Daan-O-Daam (The Catch), featuring his prominent story "Garam Coat" (Warm Coat) was published in 1940. In 1942, he published his second collection of short stories, Grehan (The Eclipse).

In 1943, he joined Maheshwari Films, a small Lahore film studio, although after one and half years he returned to All India Radio and was posted to Jammu, where he worked until 1947, and became the Director of Jammu and Kashmir Broadcasting Service.
By the time of Partition Rajinder Singh Bedi had published numerous more short stories, and had made a name for himself as a prolific writer. His Urdu novel, Ek Chadar Maili Si, translated into English as I Take This Woman, by Khushwant Singh received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1965. The book was later translated into Hindi, Kashmiri and Bengali.

His later collections of short stories were Kokh Jali and Apne Dukh Mujhe Dedo and a collection of plays, Saat Khel.

Films
After the partition of India in 1947, he moved to Bombay, and started working with D. D. Kashyap and got his first screen credit for dialogue, in the 1949 film Badi Bahen, although he received greater recognition for his second film Daag, a 1952 film.

In 1954, he joined with Amar Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Geeta Bali and others to create a new company called Cine Cooperative. In 1955, it produced its first film, Garam Coat. Based on Bedi's short story Garam Coat, starring Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy, and directed by Aman Kumar, the film gave Bedi the chance to write an entire screenplay.

Their second film, Rangoli (1962), starring Kishore Kumar, Vyjayantimala, and Durga Khote, was also directed by Amar Kumar.

He continued to display his range in dialogue writing styles in many classic Hindi films, starting with Sohrab Modi's Mirza Ghalib (1954), Bimal Roy's Devdas (1955), and Madhumati (1958); Amar Kumar and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's films, Anuradha (1960), Anupama (1966), Satyakam (1969) and  (1973).

He made his directorial debut with Hindi classic Dastak (1970), starring Sanjeev Kumar and Rehana Sultan, with music by Madan Mohan, and in the following decade he directed three more films: Phagun (1973), Nawab Sahib (1978) and Aankhin Dekhi (1978).

His novella Ek Chadar Maili Si was made into a film in Pakistan, Mutthi Bhar Chawal (1978) and later in India, as Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986).

His son Narender Bedi was also a film director and the maker of films including Jawani Diwani (1972), Benaam (1974), Rafoo Chakkar (1975), and Sanam Teri Kasam (1982). He died in 1982, a few years after Bedi's wife. Thereafter, Bedi's health consistently deteriorated. He suffered paralysis in 1982 and died in Bombay two years later.

His short story 'Lajwanti' was made into a telefilm, by Neena Gupta in 2006.

Legacy
In his memory, the Government of Punjab has started a "Rajinder Singh Bedi Award" in the field of Urdu Literature.

Filmography
 Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986) – Story
 Aankhon Dekhi (1978) – Director
 Mutthi Bhar Chawal (1978) – Story
 Nawab Sahib (1978) – Director
 Phagun (1973) – Director, producer
 Abhimaan (1973) – Dialogue
 Grahan (1972) – Story
 Dastak (1970)- Direction, screenwriter
 Satyakam (1969) – Dialogue
 Mere Hamdam Mere Dost (1968) – Screenwriter
 Baharon Ke Sapne (1967) – Dialogue
 Anupama (1966) – Dialogue
 Mere Sanam (1965) – Screenwriter, Dialogue
 Rangoli (1962) – Dialogue, screenwriter, Producer
 Aas Ka Panchhi (1961) – Screenwriter
 Mem-Didi (1961) - Screenwriter
 Anuradha (1960) – Dialogue
 Bombai Ka Baboo (1960) – Dialogue
 Madhumati (1958)- Dialogue
 Musafir (1957) _ Dialogue
 Basant Bahar (1956) – Dialogue
 Milap (1955) – Dialogue
 Garam Coat (1955)  – Dialogue, screenwriter, producer
 Devdas (1955) – Dialogue
 Mirza Ghalib (1954)- Dialogue
 Daag (1952) – Dialogue
 Aaram  - Dialogue (1951)
 Badi Bahen (1949) – Dialogue

Awards

Films
 1956 Filmfare Best Story Award: Garam Coat (1955)
 1959 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award: Madhumati (1958)
 1971 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award:Satyakam (1969)

Literary awards
 1965 Sahitya Akademi Award Urdu :Ek Chadar Maili Si ('I Take This Woman')
 1978 Ghalib Award – Urdu Drama.

Bibliography
 I Take This Woman. Penguin India. .
 Rajinder Singh Bedi: Selected Short Stories (In English). New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1989.
 Give Me Your Sorrows trans. Leonard, Karen, Indian Literature, Delhi, 1968.
 Grahan (Urdu). Maktaba Jamia, 1992.
 Garam Kot (Urdu). Sang-e-Meel Publications.
 Majmua Rajindar Singh Bedi. Sang-e-Meel Publications.
 Sat Khel. Maktaba Jamia, 1982.
 Dastak. Hind Pocket Book, 1971.
 The Penguin Book of Classic Urdu Stories. Penguin, 2006. .
 Lajwanti, Land of five rivers. Orient Paperbacks Delhi, 1956.

Work on Rajinder Singh Bedi
 Rajinder Singh Bedi: Shakhsiyat aur Fan by Jagdish Chander Wadhawan, 1999, Educational Publishing House, .
Rajinder Singh Bedi: A Study, by Varis Hussain Alvi. 2006.
 Rajinder Singh Bedi Sounds and Whispers: Reflections on the Literary Scene, 1984–86, by Abulkhair Kashfi, Syed Abu Ahmad Akif. Asasa Books, 1991. Chapter 25 – "Rajinder Singh Bedi:The Last Pillar Of Modem Urdu Short Story", page 111.
 Progressive Filmmaker: Films of Rajinder Singh Bedi – Annual of Urdu Studies
 India Partitioned: The Other Face of Freedom, edited by Mushirul Hasan. New Delhi, Roli Books, 1995
 Shadow Lives: Writings on Widowhood, edited by Uma Chakravarti and Preeti Gill. Kali for Women, New Delhi. 2002.

See also
 Urdu literature

References

External links

 Lajwanti – a short story by Rajinder Singh Bedi
 Japanese students stage Urdu drama:- Nakl-i-Makaani
 'A Woman' by Rajinder Singh Bedi
 Prabodh and Maitriya, an article by Rajinder Singh Bedi
 Reclaiming the Past: Rediscovery of the Primary Self in Two Novellas by Rajinder Singh Bedi and Qurratulain Hyder. Byer, Corinna, 2001 – The Annual of Urdu Studies.

1915 births
1984 deaths
Urdu-language writers from India
Indian male dramatists and playwrights
Indian male screenwriters
Film directors from Punjab, India
Hindi-language film directors
Filmfare Awards winners
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu
People from Sialkot District
Indian Sikhs
Punjabi people
All India Radio people
20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights
Screenwriters from Punjab, India
20th-century Indian film directors
Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education
Recipients of Ghalib Award
Urdu-language short story writers
Novelists from Punjab, India
20th-century Indian male writers
20th-century Indian screenwriters

Rajinder Singh Bedi


System and Organization Controls (SOC), (also sometimes referred to as service organizations controls) as defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), is the name of a suite of reports produced during an audit. It is intended for use by service organizations (organizations that provide information systems as a service to other organizations) to issue validated reports of internal controls over those information systems to the users of those services. The reports focus on controls grouped into five categories called Trust Service Criteria. The Trust Services Criteria were established by The AICPA through its Assurance Services Executive Committee (ASEC) in 2017 (2017 TSC). These control criteria are to be used by the practitioner/examiner (Certified Public Accountant, CPA) in attestation or consulting engagements to evaluate and report on controls of information systems offered as a service. The engagements can be done on an entity wide, subsidiary, division, operating unit, product line or functional area basis. The Trust Services Criteria were modeled in conformity to The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) Internal Control - Integrated Framework (COSO Framework). In addition, the Trust Services Criteria can be mapped to NIST SP 800 - 53 criteria and to EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Articles. The AICPA  auditing standard  Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements no. 18 (SSAE 18), section 320, "Reporting on an Examination of Controls at a Service Organization Relevant to User Entities' Internal Control Over Financial Reporting", defines two levels of reporting, type 1 and type 2. Additional AICPA guidance materials specify three types of reporting: SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3.

Trust Service Criteria
Trust Services Criteria were designed such that they can provide flexibility in application to better suit the unique controls implemented by an organization to address its unique risks and threats it faces. This is in contrast to other control frameworks that mandate specific controls whether applicable or not. Trust Services Criteria application in actual situations requires judgement as to suitability. The Trust Services Criteria are used when "evaluating the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of controls relevant to the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality or privacy of information and systems used to provide product or services" - AICPA - ASEC.

Organization of the Trust Services Criteria are aligned to the COSO framework's 17 principles with additional supplemental criteria organized into logical and physical access controls, system operations, change management and risk mitigation. Further, the additional supplemental criteria are shared among the Trust Services Criteria - Common Criteria (CC) and additional specific criteria for availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.

Common criteria are labeled as, Control environment (CC1.x), Information and communication (CC2.x), Risk assessment (CC3.x), Monitoring of controls (CC4.x) and Control activities related to the design and implementation of controls (CC5.x). Common criteria are suitable and complete for evaluation security criteria. However, there additional category specific criteria for Availability (A.x), Processing integrity (PI.x), Confidentiality (C.x) and Privacy (P.x). Criteria for each trust services categories addressed in an engagement are considered complete when all criterial associated with that category are addressed.

SOC 2 reports focus on controls addressed by five semi-overlapping categories called Trust Service Criteria which also support the CIA triad of information security:
Security - information and systems are protected against unauthorized access and disclosure, and damage to the system that could compromise the availability, confidentiality, integrity and privacy of the system.
Firewalls
Intrusion detection
Multi-factor authentication
Availability - information and systems are available for operational use.
Performance monitoring
Disaster recovery
Incident handling
Confidentiality - information is protected and available on a legitimate need to know basis. Applies to various types of sensitive information.
Encryption
Access controls
Firewalls
Processing Integrity - system processing is complete, valid, accurate, timely and authorized.
Quality assurance
Process monitoring
Adherence to principle
Privacy - personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed and disposed according to policy. Privacy applies only to personal information.
Access control
Multi-factor authentication
Encryption

Reporting

Levels
There are two levels of SOC reports which are also specified by SSAE 18:
Type I, which describes a service organization's systems and whether the design of specified controls meet the relevant trust principles. (Are the design and documentation likely to accomplish the goals defined in the report?)
Type II, which also addresses the operational effectiveness of the specified controls over a period of time (usually 9 to 12 months). (Is the implementation appropriate?)

Types
There are three types of SOC reports.

SOC 1 – Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR)
SOC 2 – Trust Services Criteria
SOC 3 – Trust Services Criteria for General Use Report

Additionally, there are specialized SOC reports for Cybersecurity and Supply Chain.

SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports are intended for a limited audience – specifically, users with an adequate understanding of the system in question. SOC 3 reports contain less specific information and can be distributed to the general public.

Audits
SOC 2 Audits can be carried out only by either a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or a certified technical expert belonging to an audit firm licensed by the AICPA.

The SOC 2 Audit provides the organization's detailed internal controls report made in compliance with the 5 trust service criteria. It shows how well the organization safeguards customer data and assures them that the organization provides services in a secure and reliable way. SOC 2 reports are therefore intended to be made available for the customers and other stakeholders only.

References

External links
"Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements 18, Attestation Standards: Clarification and Recodification", AICPA
"Professional Standards", section AT-C 320, AICPA
Auditing
Auditing standards
Sarbanes–Oxley Act
Standards

System and Organization Controls


CME Group Inc., headquartered in Chicago, operates financial derivatives exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, and The Commodity Exchange. The company also owns 27% of S&P Dow Jones Indices. It is the world's largest operator of financial derivatives exchanges. Its exchanges are platforms for trading in agricultural products, currencies, energy, interest rates, metals, futures contracts, options, stock indexes, and cryptocurrencies futures.

In addition to its headquarters in Chicago, the company also has offices in New York, Washington, and Houston in the U.S., as well as abroad in London, Bangalore, Beijing, Belfast, Calgary, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo.

History
CME Group's origins began with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which was founded in 1898 as a nonprofit corporation. In 1919, it established its clearing house. In 2000, CME demutualized. In 2002, CME became a public company via an initial public offering.

On July 12, 2007, CME completed a merger with its historical rival the Chicago Board of Trade in an $8 billion deal that created the world's largest financial market. The overarching holding company then launched as CME Group.

In 2012, Phupinder Gill, then CME Group's president and COO, became the company's CEO.

In November 2016, Gill retired from his role and Terrence A. Duffy, then executive chairman and president of the company, took on an expanded role as its CEO.

In 2021, the firm struck a partnership with Google to build its cloud strategy, which saw the tech giant investing $1 billion in CME Group.

In 2022, CME Group futures and options reached a record average daily volume of 23.3 million contracts.

Mergers and acquisitions
On August 22, 2008, CME Group acquired  New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), owner of both the NYMEX exchange and the Commodity Exchange (COMEX), for $8.9 billion in cash and CME Group stock.

On February 10, 2010, CME Group agreed to purchase 90% of Dow Jones & Co.'s financial-indexes business, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average. CME Group subsequently contributed Dow Jones Indexes to the formation of S&P Dow Jones Indices in exchange for a 24.4% ownership interest. In April 2013, CME Group purchased the remaining 10% interest in Dow Jones Indexes for $80.0 million. As a result, CME Group's interest in S&P Dow Jones Indices increased from 24.4% to 27.0%.

On December 3, 2012, CME Group acquired the Kansas City Board of Trade, the dominant venue for the sale of hard red winter wheat, for $126 million in cash.

On March 15, 2016, the firm announced the sale of its suburban Chicago data center in Aurora, IL to CyrusOne for $130 million, in a leaseback transaction.

On November 2, 2018, CME Group acquired the London-based NEX Group for $5.5 billion.

Operations
CME Group operates a global derivatives marketplace that allows institutions and individuals to trade futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, metals, and agricultural commodities. The company runs an electronic trading platform, CME Globex, which allows customers in approximately 150 countries to trade futures and options contracts.

The company also operates two cash market businesses: BrokerTec, which facilitates dealer-to-dealer trading for fixed-income markets, and EBS, which provides foreign exchange spot trading.

In addition, CME Group operates CME Clearing, which serves as a counterparty to every cleared transaction, including both listed and OTC derivatives, within the company's marketplace. CME Group is a member of CCP Global, a trade group of central counterparty clearinghouses from around the globe.

Board governance
CME Group's history as a member-owned exchange and acquisition of rivals have led to an unconventionally large board size for a publicly-traded company. In 2018, six of its 20 sitting board directors were elected by holders of Class B shares, representing owners of exchange seats, as opposed to that of publicly-traded Class A shares. In comparison, the average company in the S&P 500 had no more than 11 board directors.

On August 23 2018, the company offered holders of Class B shares about $10 million to relinquish control of their six board seats. The move was subsequently rejected.

Notable events

2010 flash crash
CME Group was at the center of the 2010 flash crash, which took place on May 6, 2010. According to a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) 2014 report, a significant cause of the event was the use of spoofing algorithms by Navinder Singh Sarao, a British financial trader; just prior to the flash crash, he placed orders for thousands of E-mini S&P 500 stock index futures contracts — which traded on CME Group's Globex platform — and later replaced or modified those orders at least 19,000 times before they were cancelled. The event led to the modern day implementation of coordinated cross-market circuit breakers, as the CME's Globex platform halted trading in an automated response to the activity, while the New York Stock Exchange did not.

Awards and honors
 CME Group earned a score of 100% on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

 CME Group was named to the Forbes Blockchain 50 list in 2021 and 2022.

 In 2022, the company won WatersTechnology's IMD & IRD Awards for Best market data in the exchange category.

See also
 CME Group Tour Championship, the season-ending tournament of the LPGA Tour of women's golf, sponsored by CME Group

References

External links

 The CME Group Collections at University of Illinois at Chicago

1898 establishments in Illinois
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies based in Chicago

Derivatives (finance)
Electronic trading platforms
Financial services companies established in 2007
Financial services companies based in Illinois
Futures exchanges
Market data

CME Group


Burchard II or Burkhard II, also Purcard, was the son of Burchard I of Moosburg and elder brother of Burchard III. He was created Margrave of Istria sometime before 1093, when he first appears in a charter of the Emperor Henry IV along with other nobles of his native land of Bavaria.

He was appointed vogt of Aquileia in 1101. He died between 1106 and 13 February 1107. He left by his wife Acica a daughter named Matilda. His son-in-law Conrad di Manzano exercised his authority in Aquileia after his death.

References

1100s deaths
Margraves of Istria
Year of birth unknown

Burchard, Margrave of Istria


YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming produced in collaboration with the site's creators, downloading videos and background playback of videos on mobile devices, and access to the music streaming service, YouTube Music.

The service was originally launched on November 14, 2014, as Music Key, offering advertisement-free streaming of music videos from participating labels on YouTube and Google Play Music. The service was then revised and relaunched as YouTube Red on October 31, 2015, expanding its scope to offer advertisement-free access to all YouTube videos, as opposed to just music.

YouTube announced the rebranding of the service as YouTube Premium on May 17, 2018, alongside the return of a separate, YouTube Music subscription service. Later in the year, it was reported that YouTube was planning to make some of the original content associated with the service available on an ad-supported basis.

History

The service was first unveiled in November 2014 as Music Key, serving as a collaboration between YouTube and Google Play Music, and meant to succeed the former's own subscription service. Music Key offered ad-free playback of music videos from participating labels hosted on YouTube, as well as background and offline playback of music videos on mobile devices from within the YouTube app. The service also included access to Google Play Music All Access, which provides ad-free audio streaming of a library of music. Alongside Music Key, Google also introduced tighter integration between Play Music and YouTube's apps, including the sharing of music recommendations, and access to YouTube's music videos from within the Play Music app. Music Key was not YouTube's first foray into premium content, having launched film rentals in 2010, and premium, subscription-based channels in 2013.

During its invite-only beta, Music Key faced mixed reception due to the limited scope of the offering; YouTube's chief business officer Robert Kyncl explained that his daughter was confused over why videos of songs from Frozen were not "music" in the scope of the service, and thus not advertisement-free. These concerns and others led to a revamping of the Music Key concept to create YouTube Red; unlike Music Key, YouTube Red was designed to provide ad-free streaming to all videos, rather than just music content. This shift required YouTube to seek permission from its content creators and rights holders to allow their content to be part of the ad-free service; under the new contract terms, partners would receive a share of the total revenue from YouTube Red subscriptions, as determined by how much their content is viewed by subscribers.

YouTube also sought to compete against sites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu by offering original content (YouTube Originals) as part of the subscription service, leveraging prominent YouTube personalities in combination with professional producers. Robert Kyncl acknowledged that many of YouTube's prominent personalities had built their followings and created content while operating on a "shoestring budget", but he maintained that "in order to scale up, it takes a different kind of enterprise, a different kind of skill set" such as story-telling and "showrunning". Prominent YouTube personality PewDiePie, who was involved in one of the planned originals for the service, explained that the service was meant to mitigate profit loss from the use of ad blocking.

YouTube Red was officially unveiled on October 21, 2015. On May 18, 2016, YouTube Red and YouTube Music launched in Australia and New Zealand, the first countries to gain access to the service outside the United States.
On August 3, 2016, YouTube Red support was added to the YouTube Kids app. On December 6, 2016, YouTube Red expanded to South Korea. On August 17, 2017, the service launched in Mexico.

As YouTube Premium
On June 18, 2018, YouTube rebranded the service as YouTube Premium. The price of the service also changed from US$9.99 to US$11.99 per month for new subscribers. The existing pricing, as well as bundling of YouTube Premium with Google Play Music, was grandfathered in some countries for those who subscribed prior to the rebranding. Alongside the rebranding, the service also expanded into Canada, and 11 European countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom).

The rebranding came alongside the re-launch of YouTube Music as a music streaming service, which reintroduced a music-oriented subscription option (YouTube Music Premium) slotted below YouTube Premium at a US$9.99 pricing, competing primarily with Apple Music and Spotify. The rebranding also came amid internal concerns that the previous "YouTube Red" name could be confused with internet pornography website RedTube.

By July 2019, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium were available in approximately 60 countries and territories with a subscription price difference. On April 20, 2020, support was added for Unified Payments Interface for subscribers in India.

In August 2021, YouTube began piloting a second subscription tier, "YouTube Premium Lite" in European markets such as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden, at a price point of €6.99. It contains only the ad-free viewing benefit.

In September 2022, YouTube tested paywalling 4K resolution streaming of any YouTube video behind YouTube Premium. Amid criticism, this pilot ended in mid-October 2022. In April 2023, YouTube began to pilot a variant of this concept under which some videos offer an enhanced bitrate 1080p option.

Features
A YouTube Premium subscription allows users to watch videos on YouTube without advertisements across the website and its mobile apps, including the dedicated YouTube Music and YouTube Kids apps and services. Through the apps, users can also save videos to their device for offline viewing, play their audio in the background, and in picture-in-picture mode on Android Oreo and newer. YouTube Premium also offers original content that is exclusive to subscribers, which is created and published by YouTube's largest creators.

Content

YouTube Premium offers original films and series produced in collaboration with professional studios and YouTube personalities, under the banner YouTube Originals. For multi-episode series, the first episode of a YouTube Originals series is available free. In selected countries where the service is not yet available, individual episodes can also be purchased through YouTube or Google TV. Access to YouTube Originals is also included in YouTube's separate streaming television service YouTube TV, but a YouTube Premium subscription is still required for the service's other benefits.

In November 2018, it was reported that YouTube was planning to offer some of its premium shows available for free on an ad-supported basis by 2020. The Premium subscription would still cover ad-free access, timed exclusivity windows for original content, and content that is not made freely available.

Reception
Reception to YouTube Premium has been mixed amongst consumers and journalists alike. David Nield of Wired argues that the premium service is worth it for consumers, saying that in addition to including a music streaming service, the lack of ads and the ability to download videos and having videos played in the background is useful for consumers. YouTube releasing experimental features as well to subscribers was a benefit to Nield, which as of writing included the rollout of pinch to zoom in videos. Ashley Maready of The Motley Fool concurred with Nield in her review, while additionally noting that the benefits also extend out to YouTube Kids.

Adamya Sharma of Android Authority argued that the service is only worth it for avid YouTube viewers and that a YouTube Premium subscription would not be worth it if the user did not use all of its features. Additionally, Sharma strongly criticized the manner in which YouTube nagged its viewers to subscribe to Premium and claimed that its attempts have driven users to competitor TikTok. Some have additionally noted that YouTube Premium's paid features can easily also be replicated with free online tools, particularly with YouTube video downloader tools replacing Premium's downloading feature and Adblock removing the need to pay to remove ads.

Licensing terms for channels
In May 2014, prior to the official unveiling of the Music Key service, the independent music trade organization Worldwide Independent Network alleged that YouTube was using non-negotiable contracts with independent labels that were "undervalued" in comparison to other streaming services, and stated that YouTube threatened to block a label's videos from public access if they did not agree to the new terms. In a statement to the Financial Times in June 2014, Robert Kyncl confirmed that these measures were "to ensure that all content on the platform is governed by its new contractual terms". Stating that 90% of labels had reached deals, he went on to say that "while we wish that we had [a] 100% success rate, we understand that is not likely an achievable goal and therefore it is our responsibility to our users and the industry to launch the enhanced music experience". The Financial Times later reported that YouTube had reached an aggregate deal with Merlin Network—a trade group representing over 20,000 independent labels, for their inclusion in the service. However, YouTube itself has not confirmed the deal.

Following the unveiling of YouTube Red, it was stated that these same contractual requirements would now apply to all YouTube Partner Program members; partners who do not accept the new terms and revenue sharing agreements related to the YouTube Red service will have their videos blocked entirely in regions where YouTube Red is available. The YouTube channels of ESPN were a notable party affected by the change; a representative of ESPN's parent, The Walt Disney Company, stated that conflicts with third-party rights holders in regard to sports footage contained in ESPN's YouTube videos prevented them from being offered under the new terms. A limited number of older videos remain on ESPN's main channel.

Similarly, a large amount of content licensed by Japanese record labels became unavailable in regions where YouTube Red is available. It was believed that the ability to download videos for offline viewing in YouTube Red was a subject of hesitation for Japanese media companies due to the need to monitor when, where, and how content is being used in accordance with Japanese copyright laws, hence their content was blocked under the new requirements.

See also
 Subscription video on demand
 List of streaming media services

References

External links

2014 establishments in California
Internet properties established in 2015
Subscription video on demand services
Mass media companies

YouTube Premium


Andronikos Komnenos () ( – 1142), Latinized as Andronicus Comnenus, was a Byzantine prince of the Komnenian dynasty.

Biography
Andronikos Komnenos was born in , as the third child and second son of the Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos and his Hungarian wife, Piroska (Irene). Probably in 1122, when his elder brother Alexios was raised to co-emperor, he received the rank of sebastokratōr along with his younger brothers Isaac and Manuel.

Komnenos became early on involved in military affairs. His first campaign was when he accompanied his father in his decisive victory against the Hungarians in 1129. Like his other brothers, he then accompanied John II during his successive campaigns against the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. The court poets Michael Italikos and Theodore Prodromos praised Andronikos' military ability, the former comparing him to the mythical heroes of the Iliad. He died in August 1142, shortly after his elder brother Alexios. The brothers had once again followed their father, who campaigned against the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, but at Attaleia Alexios suddenly fell ill and died. Andronikos, who thus became the heir-apparent, outlived him a short while, before succumbing as well. While John II continued his campaign, the third brother Isaac finally brought the corpses of his two brothers back to Constantinople, where they were entombed in the Pantokrator Monastery.

Family
Komnenos was married around 1124 a woman named Irene, whose family and origin are unknown, except for a reference by an unknown poet who claimed in an encomiastic poem of her that she descended from the Aeneads. The couple had several children:
 Maria Komnene, who married Theodoros Dasiotes, then John Kantakouzenos.
 John Doukas Komnenos (died c. 17 September 1176), who married (first name unknown) Taronitissa, and had a daughter Maria.
 Theodora Komnene (died 2 January 1184), who married Henry II Jasomirgott.
 Eudokia Komnene, who married an unknown first husband and then Michael Gabras. She was also one of the mistresses of Andronikos I Komnenos.
 Alexios Komnenos, who was married to Maria Doukaina, and had a daughter, Eudokia, and two short-lived sons. He is believed to have had Maria of Antioch (widow of Manuel I) as a mistress. He headed the regency council for her son, Alexios II.

Footnotes

References
 , pp. 357–379

1100s births
1142 deaths
12th-century Byzantine people
Andronikos Komnenos
Sebastokrators
Year of birth uncertain
Sons of Byzantine emperors

Andronikos Komnenos (son of John II)


Anders Hjalmar Linder (born 27 August 1941 in Solna, Sweden) is a Swedish actor and jazz musician. His father is Erik Hjalmar Linder and his son is Olle Linder. He is mainly known from the children's programs Ville, Valle och Viktor, Vintergatan, Björnes magasin and Kapten Zoom.

Linder is a trained architect from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, but only worked half-time as an architect for two years before his stage career took over entirely.

References

External links

Swedish male actors
Swedish architects
KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni
1941 births
Living people
Swedish jazz musicians

Anders Linder