Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.

Based primarily around the Sunnyvale, California, area in the center of Silicon Valley, the company was initially formed to develop arcade games, launching with Pong in 1972. As computer technology matured with low-cost integrated circuits, Atari ventured into the consumer market, first with dedicated home versions of Pong and other arcade successes around 1975, and into programmable consoles using game cartridges with the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later branded as the Atari 2600) in 1977. To bring the Atari VCS to market, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976. In 1978, Warner brought in Ray Kassar to help run the company, but over the next few years, gave Kassar more of a leadership role in the company. Bushnell was fired in 1978, with Kassar named CEO in 1979.

From 1978 through 1982, Atari continued to expand at a great pace and was the leading company in the growing video game industry. Its arcade games such as Asteroids helped to usher in a golden age of arcade games from 1979 to 1983, while the arcade conversion of Taito's Space Invaders for the VCS became the console's system seller and killer application. Atari's success brought new console manufacturers to the market including Mattel Electronics and Coleco, as well as the creation of third-party developers such as Activision and Imagic.

Facing new competition heading into 1982, Atari made a number of poor decisions to try to maintain their leadership position. These decisions resulted in overproduction of units and games that did not meet sales expectations and eroded consumer confidence in Atari. Atari had also ventured into the home computer market with their first 8-bit computers, but their products did not fare as well as their competitors'. The once-profitable Atari began a string of quarters of losses throughout 1983, with the company losing more than  over 1983. Kassar resigned as CEO in mid-1983 amid mounting losses and was replaced by James J. Morgan who instituted a number of cost-cutting procedures to turn Atari around, including a large number of layoffs. However, Atari's financial hardships had already reverberated through the industry, leading to the 1983 video game crash that devastated the video game market in the United States.

Warner Communications sold the home console and computer division of Atari to Jack Tramiel in July 1984, who then renamed his company Atari Corporation. Atari, Inc. was renamed Atari Games, Inc. after the sale. In 1985, Warner formed a new corporation jointly with Namco, AT Games, Inc., which acquired the coin-operated assets of Atari Games, Inc.  AT Games was subsequently renamed Atari Games Corporation. Atari Games, Inc. was then renamed Atari Holdings, Inc. and remained a non-operating subsidiary of Warner Communications and its successor, Time Warner, before being merged back into the parent company in 1992.

Origins

While studying at the University of Utah, electrical engineering student Nolan Bushnell had a part-time job at an amusement arcade, where he became familiar with arcade electro-mechanical games. He watched customers play and helped maintain the machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates.

In 1968, Bushnell graduated, became an employee of Ampex in San Francisco and worked alongside Ted Dabney. The two found they had shared interests and became friends.  Bushnell shared with Dabney his gaming-pizza parlor idea, and had taken him to the computer lab at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to see the games on those systems. They jointly developed the concept of using a standalone computer system with a monitor and attaching a coin slot to it to play games on.

To create the game, Bushnell and Dabney decided to start a partnership called Syzygy Engineering, each putting in  of their own funds to support it. They had also asked fellow Ampex employee Larry Bryan to participate, and while he had been on board with their ideas, he backed out when asked to contribute financially to starting the company.

Bushnell and Dabney worked with Nutting Associates to manufacture their product. Dabney developed a method of using video circuitry components to mimic functions of a computer for a much cheaper cost and a smaller space. Bushnell and Dabney used this to develop a variation on Spacewar! called Computer Space where the player shot at two UFOs. Nutting manufactured the game. While they were developing this, they joined Nutting as engineers, but they also made sure that Nutting placed a "Syzygy Engineered" label on the control panel of each Computer Space game sold to reflect their work in the game. Computer Space did not fare well commercially when it was placed in Nutting's customary market: bars. Feeling that the game was simply too complex for the average customer unfamiliar and unsure with the new technology, Bushnell started looking for new ideas. About 1,500 Computer Space cabinets were made, but were a difficult product to sell. While Bushnell blamed Nutting for its poor marketing, he later recognized that Computer Space was too complex of a game as players had to read the instructions on the cabinet before they could play. Bushnell said: "To be successful, I had to come up with a game people already knew how to play; something so simple that any drunk at any bar could play."

As a private company

Founding and Pong (1972)

Bushnell began seeking other partners outside of Nutting, and approached pinball game manufacturer Bally Manufacturing, who indicated interest in funding future efforts in arcade games by Bushnell and Dabney if Nutting was not involved. The two quit Nutting and established offices for Syzygy in Santa Clara; at that point not taking a salary yet since they had no products. Bally then offered them a  a month for six months to design a new video game and a new pinball machine. With those funds, they hired Al Alcorn, a former co-worker at Ampex, as their first design engineer. Initially wanting to start Syzygy off with a driving game, Bushnell had concerns that it might be too complicated for Alcorn's first game.

In May 1972, Bushnell had seen a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey, which included a tennis game. According to Alcorn, Bushnell decided to have him produce an arcade version of the Odyssey's Tennis game, which would go on to be named Pong. Bushnell had Alcorn use Dabney's video circuit concepts to help develop the game, believing it would be a first prototype, but Alcorn's success impressed both Bushnell and Dabney, leading them to believe they had a major success on hand and prepared to offer the game to Bally as part of the contract.

Meanwhile, Bushnell and Dabney had gone to incorporate the firm, but found that Syzygy (an astronomical term) already existed in California.  Bushnell enjoyed the strategy board game Go, and in considering various terms from the game, they chose to name the company atari, a Japanese term  that in the context of the game means a state where a stone or group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent (equivalent to the concept of check in chess). Other terms Bushnell had offer included sente (when a Go player has the initiative; Bushnell would use this term years later to name another company of his) and hane (a Go move to go around an opponent's pieces). Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972.

Bushnell and Dabney offered to license Pong to both Bally and its Midway subsidiary, but both companies rejected it because it required two players. Instead, Bushnell and Dabney opted to create a test unit themselves and see how it was received at a local establishment. By August 1972, the first Pong was completed. It consisted of a black and white television from Walgreens, the special game hardware, and a coin mechanism from a laundromat on the side which featured a milk carton inside to catch coins. It was placed in a Sunnyvale tavern by the name of Andy Capp's to test its viability. The test was extremely successful, so the company created twelve more test units, ten which were distributed across other local bars. They found that the machines were averaging around  a week each; in several cases, when bar owners reported that the machines were malfunctioning, Alcorn found that it was due to the coin collector had been overflowing with quarters, shorting out the coin slot mechanism. They reported these numbers to Bally, who still had not decided on taking the license. Bushnell and Dabney realized that they needed to expand on the game but formally needed to get out of their contract with Bally. Bushnell told Bally that they could offer to make another game for them, but only if they rejected Pong; Bally agreed, letting Atari off the hook for the pinball machine design as well.

After talks to release Pong through Nutting and several other companies broke down, Bushnell and Dabney decided to release Pong on their own, and Atari, Inc. transformed into a coin-op design and production company. Using investments and funds from a coin-operated machine route, they leased a former concert hall and roller rink in Santa Clara to produce Pong cabinets on their own with hired help for the production line. Bushnell had also set up arrangements with local coin-op-game distributors to help move units. Atari shipped their first commercial Pong unit in November 1972. Over 2,500 Pong cabinets were made in 1973, and by the end of its production in 1974, Atari had made over 8,000 Pong cabinets.

Atari could not produce Pong cabinets fast enough to meet the new demand, leading to a number of existing companies in the electro-mechanical games industry and new ventures to produce their own versions of Pong. Ralph H. Baer, who had patented the concepts behind the Odyssey through his employer Sanders Associates, felt Pong and these other games infringed on his ideas. Magnavox filed suit against Atari and others in April 1974 for patent infringement. Under legal counsel's advice, Bushnell opted to have Atari settle out of court with Magnavox by June 1976, agreeing to pay  in eight installments for a perpetual license for Baer's patents and to share technical information and grant a license to use the technology found in all current Atari products and any new products announced between June 1, 1976, and June 1, 1977.

Early arcade and home games (1973–1976)
Around 1973, Bushnell began to expand out the company, moving their corporate headquarters to Los Gatos. Bushnell contracted graphic design artist George Opperman, who ran his own design firm, to create a logo for Atari. Opperman has stated that the logo that was selected was based on the letter "A" but considering Atari's success with Pong, created the logo to fit the "A" shape, with two players on opposite sides of a center line. However, some within Atari at this time dispute this, stating that Opperman had provided several different possible designs and this was the one selected by Bushnell and others. The logo first appeared on Atari's arcade game Space Race in 1973, and had become known as the "Fuji" due to its resemblance to Mount Fuji. Opperman was later hired directly into Atari to establish the company's own art and design division in 1976.

From late 1972 to early 1973, a rift in the business relationship between Bushnell and Dabney began to develop, with Dabney feeling he was being pushed to the side by Bushnell while Bushnell saw Dabney as a potential roadblock to his larger plans for Atari. By March 1973, Dabney formally left Atari, selling his portion of the company for . While Dabney would continue to work for Bushnell on other ventures, including Pizza Time Theaters, he had a falling out with Bushnell and ultimately left the video game industry.

In mid-1973, Atari acquired Cyan Engineering, a computer engineering firm founded by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons, following a consulting contract with Atari. Bushnell established Atari's internal Grass Valley Think Tank at Cyan to promote research & development of new games and products.

Atari secretly spawned a "competitor" called Kee Games in September 1973, headed by Bushnell's next door neighbor Joe Keenan, to circumvent pinball distributors' insistence on exclusive distribution deals; both Atari and Kee could market (virtually) the same game to different distributors, with each getting an "exclusive" deal. Kee was further led by Atari employees: Steve Bristow, a developer that worked under Alcorn on arcade games, Bill White, and Gil Williams. While early Kee games were near-copies of Atari's own games, Kee began developing their own titles such as that drew distributor interest to Kee and effectively helping Bushnell to realize the disruption of the exclusive distribution deals.

In 1974, Atari began to see financial struggles and Bushnell was forced to lay off half the staff. Atari was facing increased competition from new arcade game producers, many which made clones of Pong and other Atari games. An accounting mistake caused them to lose money on the release of Gran Trak 10. Atari also tried to open a division in Japan as Atari Japan to sell their games through, but the venture had several roadblocks. In a 2018 interview Alcorn described the situation as "an utter disaster beyond recognition". Bushnell said "We didn't realize that Japan was a closed market, and so we were in violation of all kinds of rules and regulations of the Japanese, and they were starting to give us a real bad time." Gordon "fixed all that for us for a huge commission" according to Bushnell. Atari sold Atari Japan to Namco for , through which Namco would be the exclusive distributor of Atari's games in Japan. Bushnell has claimed that deals arranged by Gordon saved Atari. Gordon further suggested that Atari merge Kee Games into Atari in September 1974, just ahead of the release of Tank in November 1974. Tank was a success in the arcade, and Atari was able to reestablish its financial stability by the end of the year. In the merger, Joe Keenan was kept on as president of Atari while Bushnell stayed at CEO.

Having avoided bankruptcy, Atari continued to expand on its arcade game offerings in 1975. The additional financial stability also allowed Atari to pursue new product ideas. One of these was the idea of a home version of Pong, a concept they had first considered as early as 1973. The cost of integrated circuits to support a home version had fallen enough to be suitable for a home console by 1974, and initial design work on console began in earnest in late 1974 by Alcorn, Harold Lee and Bob Brown. Atari struggled to find a distributor for the console but eventually arranged a deal with Sears to make 150,000 units by the end of 1975 for the holiday season. Atari was able to meet Sears' order with additional  investments during 1975. The home Pong console (branded as Sears Tele-Game) was high-demand product that season, and established Atari with a viable home console division in addition to their arcade division. By 1976, Atari began releasing home Pong consoles, including Pong variants, under their own brand name. The success of home Pong drew a similar range of competitors to this market, including Coleco with their Telstar series of consoles.

In 1975, Bushnell started an effort to produce a flexible video game console that was capable of playing all four of Atari's then-current games. Bushnell was concerned that arcade games took about  to develop and had about a 10% chance of being successful. Similarly, dedicated home consoles had cost about  to design but with increased competition, had a limited practical shelf-life of a few months. Instead, a programmable console with swappable games would be far more lucrative. Development took place at Cyan Engineering, which initially had serious difficulties trying to produce such a machine. However, in early 1976, MOS Technology released the first inexpensive microprocessor, the 6502, which had sufficient performance for Atari's needs. Atari hired Joe Decuir and Jay Miner to develop the hardware and custom Television Interface Adaptor for this new console. Their project, under the codename of "Stella", would become the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS).

Workplace culture
Atari, as a private company under Bushnell, gained a reputation for relaxed employee policies in areas such as formal hours and dress codes, and company-sponsored recreational activities involving alcohol, marijuana, and hot tubs. Board and management meetings to discuss new ideas moved from formal events at hotel meeting rooms to more casual gatherings at Bushnell's home, Cyan Engineering, and a coastal resort in Pajaro Dunes. Dress codes were considered atypical for a professional setting, with most working in jeans and tee shirts. Many of the workers hired early on to construct games were hippies who knew enough to help to solder components together and took minimal wages. Several former employees, speaking in years that followed, described this as the common culture of the 1970s and not unique to Atari.

This approach changed in 1978 after Ray Kassar was brought on from Warner initially to help with marketing but eventually took on a larger role in the company, displacing Bushnell and Keenan, and instituting more formal employee policies for the company.

As a subsidiary of Warner Communications

Under Nolan Bushnell (1976–1978)
Ahead of entering the home console market, Atari recognized they needed additional capital to support this market, and though they had acquired smaller investments through 1975, they needed a larger infusion of funds. Bushnell had considered going public, then tried to sell the company to MCA and Disney but they passed. Instead, after at least six months of negotiations in 1976, Atari took an acquisition offer from Warner Communications for  that was completed in November 1976, of which Bushnell received . Bushnell was kept as chairman and CEO while Keenan was retained as president. For Warner, the deal represented an opportunity to buoy their underperforming film and music business divisions. Along with Warner's purchase, Atari had established its new headquarters in the Moffett Park area in Sunnyvale, California.

During Atari's negotiations with Warner, Fairchild Camera and Instrument announced the Fairchild Channel F. The Channel F was the first programmable home console that used cartridges to play different games. Following Warner's acquisition, they provided  into Stella's development, allowing Atari to complete the console by early 1977. Its announcement on June 4, 1977, may have been delayed until after June 1, 1977, to wait out the terms of the Magnavox settlement from the earlier Pong patent lawsuit so they would not have to disclose information on it. The Atari VCS was released in September 1977. Most of the launch titles for the console were games based on Atari's success arcade games, such as Combat that incorporated elements of both Tank and Jet Fighter. The company made around 400,000 Atari VCS units for the 1977 holiday season, most which were sold but the company had lost around  due to production problems that caused some units to be delivered late to retailers.

In addition to the VCS, Atari continued to manufacture dedicated home console units through 1977 though discontinued these by 1978 and destroyed their unsold stock. Another one-off device from the consumer products division released in 1977 was Atari Video Music, a computerized device that took in audio input and created graphics displays to a monitor. The unit did not sell well and was discontinued in 1978.

Atari continued its arcade game line as it built up its consumer division. Breakout in 1976 was one of Atari's last games based on transistor–transistor logic (TTL) discrete logic design before the company transitioned to microprocessors. It was engineered by Steve Wozniak based on Bushnell's concept of a single-player Pong, and using as few TTL chips as possible from an informal challenge given to Wozniak by fellow Atari employee Steve Jobs. Breakout was successful, selling around 11,000 units, and Atari still struggled to meet demand. Atari exported a limited number of units to Namco via its prior Atari Japan venture, and led Namco to create its own clone of the game to meet demand in Japan, and helped to establish Namco as a major company in the Japanese video game industry.  Subsequently, Atari moved to microprocessors for its arcade games such as Cops 'N Robbers, Sprint 2, Tank 8, and Night Driver.

Alongside continuing work in arcade game development and their preparations to launch the Atari VCS, Atari launched two more products in 1977. The first was their Atari Pinball division, which included Steve Ritchie and Eugene Jarvis. Around 1976, Atari had been concerned that arcade operators were getting nervous on the prospects of future arcade games, and thus launched their own pinball machines to accompany their arcade games. Atari's pinball machines were built following the technology principles they had learned from arcade and home console games, using solid-state electronics over electro-mechanical components to make them easier to design and repair. The division released about ten different pinball units between 1977 and 1979. Many of the machines were considered to be innovative for their time but were difficult to produce and meet distributors' demand. The second new venture in 1977 was the first of the Pizza Time Theatre (later known as Chuck E. Cheese), based on the pizza arcade concept that Bushnell had from the start. At this stage, the concept also allowed Atari to bypass problems with getting their arcade games placed into arcades by effectively controlling the arcade itself, while also creating a family-friendly environment. The first restaurant/arcade launched in San Jose, California in May 1977.

Atari hired in more programmers after releasing the VCS to start a second wave of games for release in 1978. In contrast to the launch titles that were inspired by Atari's arcade games, the second batch of games released in 1978 were more novel ideas including some based on board games, and were more difficult to sell. Warner's Manny Gerard, who oversaw Atari, brought in Ray Kassar, formerly a vice president at Burlington Industries, to help market Atari's products. Kassar was hired in February 1978 as president of the Atari consumer division. Kassar helped to develop a commercialization strategy for these games through 1978, and oversaw the creation of a new marketing campaign featuring multiple celebrities unified under the slogan "Don't Watch TV Tonight, Play It", and bringing in celebrities to help advertise these games. Kassar also instituted programs to increase production of the VCS and improve quality assurance of the console and games. As they approached the end of 1978, Atari had prepared 800,000 VCS units, but sales were languishing ahead of the holiday sales period.

Kassar's influence on Atari grew throughout 1978, leading to conflict between Bushnell and Warner Communications. Among other concerns about the direction Kassar was taking the company, Bushnell cautioned Warner that they needed to continue to innovate on the home console and could not simply release games for the VCS indefinitely like a music business. In a November 1978 meeting with Warner Communications, Bushnell said to Gerard that they had produced far too many VCS units to be sold that season and Atari's consumer division would suffer a major loss. However, Kassar's marketing plan, alongside the influence of the arcade hit Space Invaders from Taito, led to a large surge in VCS sales, and Atari's consumer division ended the year with  in sales.  Warner removed Bushnell as chairman and co-CEO of the company, but offered to let him stay on as a director and creative consultant. Bushnell refused and left the company.  Bushnell purchased the rights for Pizza Time Theatre for  from Warner before leaving. Keenan was moved to Atari's chairman and Kassar assigned as president after Bushnell's departure; Keenan left the company a few months later to join Bushnell in managing Pizza Time Theatre, and Kassar was promoted to CEO and chairman of Atari.

Under Ray Kassar (1979-1982)
With Bushnell's departure, Kassar implemented significant changes in the workplace culture in early 1979 to make it more professional, and cancelled several of the engineering programs that Bushnell had established. Kassar also had expressed some frustration with the programmers at Atari, and was known to have called them "spoiled brats" and "prima donnas" at times.

The changes in management style led to rising tensions from the game developers at Atari who had been used to freedom in developing their titles. One example was Superman in 1979, one of the first movie tie-ins that had been sought by Warner to accompany the release of the 1978 film. Warner, through Kassar, had pressured Warren Robinett to convert his game-in-progress Adventure from a generic adventure game to the Superman-themed title. Robinett refused, but did help fellow programmer John Dunn to make the conversion after he volunteered. Further, after Warner refused to include programmer credits into game manuals over concern that competitors may try to hire them away, Robinett secretly stuck his name into Adventure in one of the first known Easter eggs as to bypass this issue. The transition from Bushnell to Kassar led to a large number of departures from the company over the next few years. Four of Atari's programmers—David Crane, Bob Whitehead, Larry Kaplan, and Alan Miller—whose games had contributed collectively to over 60% of the company's game sales in 1978, left Atari in mid-1979 after requesting and being denied additional compensation for their performance, and formed Activision in October of that year to make their own Atari VCS games based on their knowledge of the console. Similarly, Rob Fulop, who programmed the arcade conversion of Missile Command for the VCS in 1981 that sold over 2.5 million units, received only a minimal bonus that year, and left with other disgruntled Atari programmers to form Imagic in 1981.

Beginning in 1979, the Atari coin-operated games division started releasing cabinets incorporating vector graphics displays after the success of the Cinematronics game Space Wars in 1977–78. Their first vector graphics game, Lunar Lander, was a modest success, but their second arcade title, Asteroids, was highly popular, displacing Space Invaders as the most popular game in the United States. Atari produced over 70,000 Asteroids cabinets, and made an estimated  from sales. Asteroids along with Space Invaders helped to usher in the golden age of arcade video games that lasted until around 1983; Atari contributed several more games that were considered part of this golden age, including Missile Command, Centipede, and Tempest.

A project to design a successor to the VCS started as soon as the system shipped in mid-1977. The original development team, including Meyer, Miner and Decuir, estimated the VCS had a lifespan of about three years, and decided to build the most powerful machine they could given that time frame. They set a goal to be able to support 1978-vintage arcade games, as well as features of the upcoming personal computer such as the Apple II. The project resulted in the first home computers from Atari, the Atari 800 and Atari 400, both launched in 1979. These computer systems were mostly closed systems, and most of the initial games were developed by Atari, drawing from programmers from the VCS line. Sales into early 1980 were poor and there was little to distinguish the computer line from the current console products. In March 1980, the company released Star Raiders, a space combat game developed by Doug Neubauer based on Star Trek game that had been popular on mainframe computers. Star Raiders became the Atari 400/800 system seller, but quickly emphasized the lack of software for the computers due to the system's closed nature and the limited rate that Atari's programmers could produce titles. Third-party programmers found means to get technical information about the computer specifications either directly from Atari employees or from reverse engineering, and by late 1980, third-party applications and games began to emerge for the 8-bit computer family, and the specialized magazine ANALOG Computing was established for Atari computer programmers to share programming information. While Atari did not formally release development information, they supported this external community by launching the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981, a mail-order service that programmers could offer their applications and games to other users of Atari's 8-bit computers. By this point, Atari's computers were facing new competition from the VIC-20.

A short-lived Atari Electronics division was created to make electronic games that ran from 1979 to 1981. They successfully released one product, a handheld version of Atari's arcade Touch Me game, which played similar to Simon, in 1979. The division began work on Cosmos, a system that was to combine LED lights and a holographic screen. Atari had promoted the game at the 1981 CES, but following Alcorn's departure in 1981, opted not to follow through on making it and closed down the Electronics division.

Moving into 1980, the VCS still lacked a system-selling game. After Space Invaders had hit arcades in 1979, Warner instructed Kassar to try to get the rights to an arcade conversion for the game from Taito, while prototype work had already been started on a possible game by Rick Maurer on his own. Once Kassar has secured the rights, Maurer was able to take his work to a form for the VCS, and Space Invaders for the VCS was released in March 1980. The game became the VCS's "killer app", helping to sell the console alongside the game, and made Atari an estimated . It also set a roadmap for future game releases on the VCS under Kassar, with more scheduled release plans throughout the year and looking for more licensed arcade conversions and tie-in media.

Until 1980, the Atari VCS was the only major programmable console on the market and Atari the only supplier for its games, but that year is when Atari began to experience its first major competition as Mattel Electronics brought the Intellivision to market. Activision also released its first set of third-party games for the Atari VCS. Atari took action against Activision starting 1980, first by trying to tarnish the company's reputation, then by taking legal action accusing the four programmers of stealing trade secrets and violating non-disclosure agreements. This lawsuit was eventually settled out of court in 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay a small license fee to Atari for every game sold. This effectively validated Activision's development model and made them the first third-party developer in the industry.

In 1980, Namco produced the arcade game Pac-Man, and it reached the United States market by the end of the year. Pac-Man soon became a nationwide success, surpassing the popularity of Asteroids and creating a wave of "Pac-Mania". Atari was able to secure an exclusive deal with Namco to be able to convert Pac-Man to home arcade systems, starting with the Atari VCS version. Atari's management believed that the game would be a sure-fire hit in the same manner as Space Invaders. However, little attention was devoted to the game itself which was being developed solely by Tod Frye. While Frye was able to get a version of Pac-Man on the VCS within the system's limitations, the resulting game was critically panned for many technical issues such as excessive flickering of the on-screen characters. Pac-Man was released in March 1982, with Atari running several promotions to increase sales. It sold over seven million units and ultimately was the best-selling VCS game, bringing in over . However, because of the poor technical implementation, Pac-Man caused consumers to become more cautious on rushing to purchase new games in the future, and tarnished Atari's image given that the company was trying to compete against low-quality third-party titles that were starting to flood the market.

Atari discovered in 1981 that General Computer Corporation (GCC) had developed hardware that could be installed onto arcade games to give operators additional options to modify the game, such as their Super Missile Attack board that modified Atari's Missile Command. Atari initially filed suit to stop GCC's products but as they learned more about their products, recognized that GCC had talented engineers, as one of their other products, a modification board for Pac-Man was sold back to Midway and eventually became the basis of Ms. Pac-Man. Atari settled with GCC out of court and brought the company on in a consulting position. GCC developed arcade and VCS games for Atari, and also programmed most of the games for the upcoming Atari 5200 system.

Atari launched its second major programmable console, the Atari 5200, in late 1982. The unit was based on the same design features that had gone into the Atari 800 and Atari 400 computers, but repackaged as a home console. Alongside the 5200's release, Atari announced it was rebranding the Atari VCS as the Atari 2600 to create a more consist product naming system. The Atari 5200 did not do well on the market as it lacked backward compatibility with Atari VCS/2600 cartridges, a feature offered by the Colecovision. The Atari 5200 only sold about one million units before it was discontinued in 1984.

By the end of 1982, Atari had hired 4,000 additional employees for a total of 10,000 across its three divisions of arcade games, consumer home consoles, and home computers. The company had more than fifty facilities in the Silicon Valley area. For the first nine months of 1982, Atari contributed half of Warner's  revenue and one-third of their  operating profit. However, at the same time, the company was seeing a high rate of turnover in management positions, which Kassar attributed to the rapid growth of the company. As an industry, the video game market reached about  in 1982 and was expected to reach  in 1984, rivalling revenues of the film industry, and making the video game industry an overall lucrative prospect.

The video game crash of 1983
To try to remain competitive against Mattel's Intellivision, Atari requested all of its distributors to commit to orders for home console games in 1982 in October 1981, as to allow Atari to anticipate production numbers and meet the expected demand. Distributors expected Atari's games to do well and ordered in large volumes, placing more orders than expected given Atari's past failures to meet demand. By the middle of 1982, a new home console marketplace had appeared, which one distributor called "a totally different business". In addition to Mattel, Coleco had introduced the Colecovision, which shipped in August 1982 with an arcade conversion of the popular Donkey Kong as a pack-in game and add-ons that could play Atari 2600 games. Further, Activision, Imagic, and other third-party game developers like Parker Brothers had started releasing Atari 2600 titles that rivaled Atari's own games, reducing Atari's market share of games to 40%. Distributors started to cancel the Atari orders they had placed the prior year, which Gerard said they were "blind-sided" by, having never faced this type of competition before.

Additionally around October 1981, Atari looked to other licensed properties for games. They secured the rights for Raiders of the Lost Ark in late 1981 shortly after the release of the blockbuster film that was released earlier that year. Similarly, after the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in June 1982, Atari was able to quickly negotiate a license, estimated to have cost Atari , to make a video game based on the film, which was programmed by Howard Scott Warshaw over a period of five weeks to be able to produce the game for the 1982 holiday seasons. Raiders and E.T. were released in November and December 1982, respectively. As distributors had already cancelled orders, these and other games started to stockpile in Atari's warehouses without any sellers. Neither game sold as much as Atari had expected; notably, E.T. was critically panned and later became known as one of the worst games ever made, though it sold 2.6 million copies in 1982, in 1983 suffered massive returns making it a financial failure.

In December 1982, Warner Communications announced that it was expecting significant decline in investor earnings of about 40% for the fourth quarter of the year mostly as a result of slower game cartridge sales from Atari. Warner still remained confident that overall it would see a 10 to 15% growth through 1982, which it considered fair given the current recession. However, earlier in 1982, Warner had expected a 50% growth and using Atari's profits to help support Warner's other media industries, and analysts were less confident in Warner's current outlook; one asked "Why did it happen so quickly? And why were they not in tune with it while it was building?" Later that month, Warner announced that Kassar along with one other Atari executive had sold numerous shares of Warner stock prior to the investor announcement and were engaged with insider trading. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated Kassar's sale and in September 1983, fined Kassar about . Kassar signed a consent agreement neither admitting nor denying the charges.

Atari's financial troubles continued into the first quarter of 1983, with an operating loss of  compared to an operating profit of  in the same quarter in 1982. Atari was still struggling with excess inventory of its Atari 2600 games, and the Atari 5200 had not been as successful as the 2600. The golden age of the arcade was waning, and the arcade division was failing to turn a profit. Further, Atari's venture into home computers was not as successful, as they were losing a price war with Commodore International.

Atari had gained a poor reputation in the industry. One dealer told InfoWorld in early 1984 that "It has totally ruined my business ... Atari has ruined all the independents." A non-Atari executive stated: "There were so many screaming, shouting, threatening dialogues, it's unbelievable that any company in America could conduct itself the way Atari conducted itself. Atari used threats, intimidation and bullying. It's incredible that anything could be accomplished. Many people left Atari. There was incredible belittling and humiliation of people. We'll never do business with them again." Stating that "Atari has never made a dime in microcomputers", John J. Anderson wrote in early 1984, "Many of the people I spoke to at Atari between 1980 and 1983 had little or no idea what the products they were selling were all about, or who if anyone would care. In one case, we were fed mis- and disinformation on a frighteningly regular basis, from a highly-placed someone supposedly in charge of all publicity concerning the computer systems. And chilling as the individual happenstance was, it seems to have been endemic at Atari at the time.":

Despite losses, Atari remained the number one console maker in every market except Japan. Nintendo, a Japanese video game company, planned to release its first programmable video game console, the Famicom (later branded as Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)) in Japan in July 1983. Looking to sell the console in international markets that same year, Nintendo offered a licensing deal whereby Atari would build and sell the system, paying Nintendo a royalty. The deal was in the works throughout 1983, and the two companies tentatively decided to sign the agreement at the June 1983 CES. However, Coleco demonstrated its new Adam computer with Nintendo's Donkey Kong. Kassar was furious, as Atari owned the rights to publish Donkey Kong for computers, which he accused Nintendo of violating. Nintendo, in turn, criticized Coleco, which only owned the console rights to the game. Coleco had legal grounds to challenge the claim though since Atari had only purchased the floppy disk rights to the game, while the Adam version was cartridge-based. Negotiations became protracted after Kassar's departure in mid-1983, and with any deal unlikely to be realized before year-end sales, Nintendo dropped out. Instead, Nintendo worked through their Nintendo of America subsidiary to release the system on their own in 1985.

In 1983, the company set up a partnership with MCA Videogames, a division of MCA Inc. to set up a joint venture Studio Games, whereas the venture gave them access to properties handled by MCA's sister studio Universal Pictures.

Kassar eventually resigned as CEO of Atari in July 1983 over mounting financial losses, and Warner replaced him with James J. Morgan, a vice president from Philip Morris Inc. Stating "one company can't have seven presidents", Morgan stated a goal of more closely integrating the company's divisions to end "the fiefdoms and the politics and all the things that caused the problems". Morgan implemented processes to reduce operating costs at Atari, including laying off about 3,000 jobs and moving 4,000 more manufacturing positions to Asia.

Atari's financial problems continued throughout the rest of 1983, with second quarter losses of . The company discreetly buried more 700,000 units of its unsold stock in a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico in September 1983, though this had become an urban legend that millions of unsold cartridges were buried there.

Atari's problems reverberated across the entire video game industry in the United States as consumer confidence in video games had weakened significantly, contributing significantly to the video game crash of 1983. Retailers became wary of selling video games, making it difficult for console and video game manufacturers to sell their products.  Further, the rising popularity of home computers drove sales away from game consoles. To clear stock as to make way to new games, retailers also heavily discounted consoles and games which also hurt these companies financially. Many of the new companies that had sprung up to take advantage of the rising growth of video games prior to 1983 shut down, liquidating their assets and further contributing to the excess unsold stock. Established companies like Atari faced difficulty in selling their products against these volumes, which further contributed to their losses. By the end of 1983, Atari reported a total loss for the year of , compared to the  operating profit in 1982.

Despite its financial issues, Atari continued to innovate. In March 1983, it established an Ataritel division to develop telephones with screens and computer features with consumer-ready products to reach market by 1984. In October 1983, Atari created its Atarisoft division, producing software from its own library to work on its rival systems including for computers from Commodore, Apple, Texas Instruments, and IBM, as well as console games for Colecovision. GCC, inspired by the Atari 2600 add-ons available for the Colecovision and for the Atari 5200, start working on the design of a new console, one that would be more advanced than the 2600 but would support direct compatibility with Atari 2600 games. Their project resulted in the Atari 7800 ProSystem, which had been announced in early 1984. Morgan had shut down the Atari 5200 production towards Atari 7800 manufacturing for its mid-1984 release, but with Warner's sale of the company in June 1984, the launch was cancelled. The Atari 7800 was later introduced under the Atari Corporation branding in May 1986.

Breakup and sale (1984)
By the end of 1983, Warner's stock price slid from $60 to $20, and the company began searching for a buyer for Atari. When Texas Instruments exited the home-computer market in November 1983 because of the price war with Commodore, many believed that Atari would be next. Its Atarisoft games for rival computers sold well, and a rumor stated that Atari planned to discontinue hardware and only sell software. Morgan stated that he expected to bring the company back to profitability by mid-1984, though warned he was expecting more losses for the first six months of the year.

On July 3, 1984, in a surprise announcement, Warner announced that they had sold off the consumer products division of Atari, which included the console and computer production, game development, and Atarisoft divisions, to former Commodore International CEO Jack Tramiel in exchange for taking on roughly  in debt held by Warner. Tramiel merged these assets into his own Tramel Technology Limited, which he renamed Atari Corporation. In the transition, Morgan was given "a leave of several months", with Tramiel's son Sam Tramiel and other of his aides already taking leadership of the company. Warner renamed Atari, Inc. to Atari Games, which now primarily consisted of the coin-operated games, arcade operations, and Ataritel divisions. Ataritel was sold to Mitsubishi later in 1984; Mitsubishi released one of the first digital videophones based on Atari's original designs under the brand Lumaphone by 1986.

Under Tramiel, the Atari Corporation initially focused heavily on home computers before it revisited game consoles, including a revised design of the Atari 2600, the Atari 2600 Jr., but eventually dropped out of the hardware market by 1996 following the failure of the Atari Jaguar console. In 1998 the Atari Corporation properties were acquired by Hasbro Interactive, which was subsequently sold to Infogrames in 2001, with Infogrames rebranding itself as Atari SA and holding most of the intellectual property rights to the console games developed by Atari, Inc.

Warner sold a majority stake in Atari Games to Namco in 1985 while retaining a 40% share. Namco later lost interest in operating Atari Games and sold 33% of its shares to a group of employees led by then-president Hideyuki Nakajima in 1986. As the company was now split between three entities, Warner (40%), Namco (40%), and the employees (20%), and none of them held a controlling share, Atari Games effectively became an independent company. The company re-entered home console publishing as well, but unable to use the Atari name in the home market as the rights were held by Atari Corporation, they created a subsidiary called Tengen for console publishing. In 1994, Time Warner, as the company had become known following its merger with Time Inc., bought out Namco's share of the company, placing it under their new Time Warner Interactive label. After only two years, it was sold again to WMS Industries in 1996, and made part of Midway Games when that company was spun off as an independent company in 1998 as the Midway Games West studio. The studio was disbanded in 2003, marking the end of continuous operations of the last remaining part of the original Atari. The Atari Games library was retained by Midway until 2009, when amidst financial troubles, the company was sold to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Products

Hardware products
Home Pong (1975)
Stunt Cycle (1976)
Atari Video Music (1977)
Video Pinball (1977)
Atari 2600 (1977)
Atari 8-bit family (1979)
Atari 2700 (cancelled)
Atari Cosmos (cancelled)
Atari 5200 (1982)

Arcade and other amusement games

Arcade games
Anti-Aircraft
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Atari Baseball
Atari Basketball
Atari Football
Atari Soccer
Avalanche
Battlezone
Black Widow
Breakout
Canyon Bomber
Centipede
Cloak & Dagger
Cops N Robbers
Crash 'N Score
Crystal Castles
Destroyer
Dominos
Drag Race
Fire Truck
Firefox
Flyball
Food Fight
Goal IV
Gotcha
Gran Trak 10
Gran Trak 20
Gravitar
Hi-way
I, Robot
Indy 4
Indy 800
Jet Fighter
LeMans
Liberator
Lunar Lander
Major Havoc
Marble Madness
Millipede
Missile Command
Monte Carlo
Night Driver
Orbit
Outlaw
Pin-Pong
Pong
Pong Doubles
Pool Shark
Pursuit
Quadrapong
Quantum
Quiz Show
Qwak!
Rebound
Red Baron
Return of the Jedi
Shark Jaws
Sky Diver
Sky Raider
Space Duel
Space Race
Sprint 1
Sprint 2
Sprint 4
Sprint 8
Star Wars
Starship 1
Steeplechase
Stunt Cycle
Subs
Super Breakout
Super Bug
Super Pong
Tank
Tank II
Tank 8
Tempest
Tournament Table
Triple Hunt
Tunnel Hunt
Ultra Tank
Video Pinball
Warlords
Unreleased arcade prototypes
Akka Arrh
Atari Mini Golf
Cannonball
Cloud 9
Firebeast
Maze Invaders
Missile Command 2
Runaway
Sebring
Solar War
Wolf Pack
Pinball machines
Airborne Avenger
The Atarians
Hercules
Middle Earth
Road Runner
Space Riders
Superman
Time 2000

Software
Atari's software is organized by platform:
 List of Atari 2600 games
 List of Atari 5200 games
 Atari 8-bit family software
 List of Atarisoft titles

See also

 History of video games

References

Further reading

External links
 The Atari History Museum - Atari historical archive site.
 Atari Times, supporting all Atari consoles.
 AtariAge.com
 Atari entry at MobyGames
 Atari Gaming Headquarters - Atari historical archive site.
 Atari On Film - List of Atari products in films.
 The Dot Eaters - Comprehensive history of videogames, extensive info on Atari offerings and history
 History of Atari from 1978 to 1981
 A History of Syzygy / Atari  / Atari Games  / Atari Holdings
 Nob6.com

Atari
American companies established in 1972
Companies based in Sunnyvale, California
Computer companies established in 1972
Video game companies established in 1972
American companies disestablished in 1992
Computer companies disestablished in 1992
Video game companies disestablished in 1992
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies
Video game publishers
Pinball manufacturers
1972 establishments in California
1992 disestablishments in California

Atari, Inc.


Bebo was a social networking website. Bebo stands for "Blog early, blog often". It started in January 2005 but was closed in 2022. It was mostly used by teenagers. It used to be one of the main social networking sites on the Internet.

About
Bebo had many features that were available for its users, such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and AOL Mail, and media recommendations with these functions the individual had more choices for searching information on one website.

The platform "Lifestream" automatically let the user see updates from their friends and family, all profiles from Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter were synced together. Which was a convenient tool to get instant updates, which included being able to share: photos, videos, stories, records, and scheduled appointments.

Bebo.com was available on a mobile device, which the user could log into their account to find out what new material has been posted by their friends and family. They could receive SMS updates and alerts, update their Bebo profile, add photos to their gallery, send virtual gifts and access exclusive mobile content.

References

 */StaticPage.jsp?StaticPageId=2517103831

Websites established in 2005
Social networking

Bebo


Ferguson plc (formerly Wolseley plc) is a British multinational plumbing and heating products distributor with its head office in Wokingham, England. Its brands include Ferguson Enterprises (in the United States).

Wolseley plc changed its name to Ferguson plc in March 2017, to reflect the primacy of its operations in the United States. Ferguson plc is listed primarily on the New York Stock Exchange and secondarily on the London Stock Exchange. The company is registered in Jersey. The company continued to trade as Wolseley in the United Kingdom and Canada, until 2021 when Wolseley UK was sold to a private equity firm.

History

Wolseley
The Wolseley business began in 1887 making sheep shearing machinery. Herbert Austin, who had worked on Wolseley's shearing machinery development in Melbourne, Australia from 1887, when he was aged just 20, was appointed its manager and received a share of its equity.

Seeking other suitable products, Austin designed his first car in 1896, and for the next four years, continued to develop and improve his designs. Though the board did allow Austin to purchase some machinery to build cars, they decided around 1900, it was unlikely to be a profitable industry. In 1901, Wolseley's embryo car business was acquired by Vickers, Sons and Maxim.

The postwar rise of synthetic textiles sharply reduced the demand for wool and the necessary machinery, and in 1960, Wolseley diversified activities, by buying Nu Way Heating. Nu Way Burners was founded in 1932 in Vines Lane, Droitwich Spa, Oil Burner Components was founded by Nu Way in 1959, as a national spares organisation. Out of that grew O.B.C. Limited, and then Wolseley Centers Limited, the major distributor of plumbing and central heating equipment.

In 1965, Wolseley purchased Granville Controls and Yorkshire Heating Supplies.

Ferguson
Wolseley continued to expand buying both manufacturing and distribution businesses. In 1982, it entered the market in the United States by acquiring Ferguson Enterprises, a distributor of plumbing supplies, with around fifty branches on the East Coast of the United States. In 1984, some of the manufacturing businesses were sold off, and since that time Wolseley has been mainly a distribution business.

There were further acquisitions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. Wolseley moved into Europe, by buying French plumbing supplies business Brossette in February 1992. Acquisition of many more distribution businesses followed. In April 2000, Wolseley sold most of its remaining manufacturing businesses to Cinven for £215 million.

Wolseley issued a profit warning in July 2008, after the credit crunch, and announced 6,000 job losses. It sold Build Center and Brossete to Saint-Gobain in July 2011, and ISB (Importation et Solution Bois) Group in April 2015. Bois & Matériaux went to OpenGate Capital in November 2015.

Following a 2016 restructuring of the UK business (based in Warwick in Warwickshire), most of the trading brands were renamed, and brought under the single brand of Wolseley. In Scotland, it was a supplier of plumbing, heating and bathroom products, branded William Wilson. In January 2021, Wolseley UK was acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, for £308 million.

Ferguson plc
Wolseley announced it would rebrand as Ferguson effective 31 July 2017, because almost all of its business was now in the United States, in the name of Ferguson Enterprises. It continued to use the name Wolseley in the United Kingdom and Canada, for its brand recognition. The stock listing switched to new holding company Ferguson plc on 1 August 2017. In January 2021, Wolseley UK's sale to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice completed Ferguson plc's shift to north America.

The company moved its primary listing to the US and consequently ceased to be a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index on 12 May 2022.

Operations
Ferguson is organised geographically as follows:
United States (trading as Ferguson Enterprises) including Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Caribbean
Canada (trading as Wolseley Canada) and central Europe. In Canada, it is organised into the following businesses: Plumbing, Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC/R), Waterworks and Industrial (Pipe, Valves and Fittings).

See also

 Bathstore

References

External links

Wholesalers of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Berkshire
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Business services companies established in 1887
Building materials companies of the United Kingdom
Dual-listed companies

Ferguson plc


The history of life on Earth is closely associated with environmental change on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth's local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term. Climate change is any significant long term change in the expected pattern, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. Predicting the effects that climate change will have on plant biodiversity can be achieved using various models, however bioclimatic models are most commonly used.

Environmental conditions play a key role in defining the function and geographic distributions of plants, in combination with other factors, thereby modifying patterns of biodiversity. Changes in long term environmental conditions that can be collectively coined climate change are known to have had enormous impacts on current plant diversity patterns; further impacts are expected in the future. It is predicted that climate change will remain one of the major drivers of biodiversity patterns in the future. Climate change is thought to be one of several factors causing the currently ongoing human-triggered mass extinction, which is changing the distribution and abundance of many plants.

Palaeo context

The Earth has experienced a constantly changing climate in the time since plants first evolved. In comparison to the present day, this history has seen Earth as cooler, warmer, drier and wetter, and  (carbon dioxide) concentrations have been both higher and lower. These changes have been reflected by constantly shifting vegetation, for example forest communities dominating most areas in interglacial periods, and herbaceous communities dominating during glacial periods. It has been shown through fossil records that past climatic change has been a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction. The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago. This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles.

Modern context
There is significant current interest and research focus on the phenomenon of recent anthropogenic climate changes, or global warming. Focus is on identifying the current impacts of climate change on biodiversity, and predicting these effects into the future.

Changing climatic variables relevant to the function and distribution of plants include increasing  concentrations, increasing global temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and changes in the pattern of 'extreme weather events such as cyclones, fires or storms. Highly variable species distribution has resulted from different models with variable bioclimatic changes.

Because individual plants and therefore species can only function physiologically, and successfully complete their life cycles under specific environmental conditions (ideally within a subset of these), changes to climate are likely to have significant impacts on plants from the level of the individual right through to the level of the ecosystem or biome.

Effects of

 concentrations have been steadily rising for more than two centuries. Increases in atmospheric  concentration affect how plants photosynthesise, resulting in increases in plant water use efficiency, enhanced photosynthetic capacity and increased growth. Increased CO2 has been implicated in 'vegetation thickening' which affects plant community structure and function. Depending on environment, there are differential responses to elevated atmospheric CO2 between major 'functional types' of plant, such as  and  plants, or more or less woody species; which has the potential among other things to alter competition between these groups. Increased CO2 can also lead to increased Carbon : Nitrogen ratios in the leaves of plants or in other aspects of leaf chemistry, possibly changing herbivore nutrition. Studies show that doubled concentrations of CO2 will show an increase in photosynthesis in C3 plants but not in C4 plants. However, it is also shown that  plants are able to persist in drought better than the  plants.

Effects of temperature

Increases in temperature raise the rate of many physiological processes such as photosynthesis in plants, to an upper limit, depending on the type of plant. These increases in photosynthesis and other physiological processes are driven by increased rates of chemical reactions and roughly a doubling of enzymatic product conversion rates for every 10 °C increase in temperature. Extreme temperatures can be harmful when beyond the physiological limits of a plant which will eventually lead to higher desiccation rates.

One common hypothesis among scientists is that the warmer an area is, the higher the plant diversity. This hypothesis can be observed in nature, where higher plant biodiversity is often located at certain latitudes (which often correlates with a specific climate/temperature). Plant species in montane and snowy ecosystems are at greater risk for habitat loss due to climate change. The effects of climate change are predicted to be more severe in mountains of northern latitude.

Emissions continue to rise and a result, the Earth is now about 1.1 °C warmer than it was in the late 1800s. The decade 2011-2020 was the warmest on record up to that point. Beyond temperature rise, because the Earth is an interconnected system where changes in one area can influence changes in all others the consequences of climate change now include, among others, intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.

Effects of water

As water supply is critical for plant growth, it plays a key role in determining the distribution of plants. Changes in precipitation are predicted to be less consistent than for temperature and more variable between regions, with predictions for some areas to become much wetter, and some much drier. A change in water availability would show a direct correlation to the growth rates and persistence of plant species in that region.

With less consistent, more intense rainfall events the water availability will have a direct impact on the soil moisture in an area. A decrease in soil moisture will have negative impacts on plant's growth, changing the dynamics of the ecosystem as a whole. Plants rely not only on the total rainfall during the growing season, but also the intensity and magnitude of each rainfall event. In addition, drought-like conditions seen more frequently with climate change leave many plant and tree communities vulnerable to fires with a lower chance of survival, significantly decreasing diversity.

General effects
Environmental variables act not in isolation, but in combination with other pressures such as habitat degradation, habitat loss, and the introduction of exotic species that can potentially be invasive. It is suggested that these other drivers of biodiversity change will act in synergy with climate change to increase the pressure on species to survive. As these changes add up, Earth's overall ecosystems are predicted to look much different than they do today. More biologically diverse ecosystems (biodiversity hotspots) such as Mediterranean-type ecosystems are most at risk and sensitive to changes induced by global warming.

Direct impacts

Changes in distributions

If climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation change in a region beyond the tolerance of a species phenotypic plasticity, then distribution changes of the species may be inevitable. There is already evidence that plant species are shifting their ranges in altitude and latitude as a response to changing regional climates. Yet it is difficult to predict how species ranges will change in response to climate and separate these changes from all the other man-made environmental changes such as eutrophication, acid rain and habitat destruction.

When compared to the reported past migration rates of plant species, the rapid pace of current change has the potential to not only alter species distributions, but also render many species as unable to follow the climate to which they are adapted. The environmental conditions required by some species, such as those in alpine regions may disappear altogether. The result of these changes is likely to be a rapid increase in extinction risk. Adaptation to new conditions may also be of great importance in the response of plants.

Predicting the extinction risk of plant species is not easy however. Estimations from particular periods of rapid climatic change in the past have shown relatively little species extinction in some regions, for example. Knowledge of how species may adapt or persist in the face of rapid change is still relatively limited.

It is clear now that the loss of some species will be very dangerous for humans because they will stop providing services. Some of them have unique characteristics that cannot be replaced by any other.

Distributions of species and plant species will narrow following the effects of climate change. Climate change can affect areas such as wintering and breeding grounds to birds. Migratory birds use wintering and breeding grounds as a place to feed and recharge after migrating for long hours. If these areas are damaged due to climate change, it will eventually affect them as well.

Lowland forest have gotten smaller during the last glacial period and those small areas became island which are made up of drought resisting plants. In those small refugee areas there are also a lot of shade dependent plants. As an example , the dynamics of the calcareous grassland were significantly impacted due to the climate factors.

Changes in the suitability of a habitat for a species drive distributional changes by not only changing the area that a species can physiologically tolerate, but how effectively it can compete with other plants within this area. Changes in community composition are therefore also an expected product of climate change.

Changes in life-cycles

The timing of phenological events such as flowering are often related to environmental variables such as temperature. Changing environments are therefore expected to lead to changes in life cycle events, and these have been recorded for many species of plants. These changes have the potential to lead to the asynchrony between species, or to change competition between plants. Both the insect pollinators and plant populations will eventually become extinct due to the uneven and confusing connection that is caused by the change of climate. Flowering times in British plants for example have changed, leading to annual plants flowering earlier than perennials, and insect pollinated plants flowering earlier than wind pollinated plants; with potential ecological consequences. A recently published study has used data recorded by the writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau to confirm effects of climate change on the phenology of some species in the area of Concord, Massachusetts. Another life-cycle change is warmer winter which can be leads to summer rainfall or summer drought.

Genetic diversity
Species richness and species evenness play a key role in how quickly and productively an ecosystem can adapt to change. By increasing the possibility of a population bottleneck through more extreme weather events, genetic diversity in the population would drastically decrease. Since genetic diversity is a main contributor of how an ecosystem can evolve, the ecosystem would be much more susceptible to getting wiped out since each individual would be similar to the next. An absence of genetic mutations and decrease in species richness greatly enhances the possibility of extinction.

Altering the environment puts stress on a plant to increase its phenotypic plasticity, causing species to change faster than predicted. These plastic responses will help the plants respond to a fast changing environment. Understanding how native species change in response to the environment will help gather conclusions of how mutualistic relationships will react.

Indirect impacts
All species are likely to be directly impacted by the changes in environmental conditions discussed above, and also indirectly through their interactions with other species. While direct impacts may be easier to predict and conceptualise, it is likely that indirect impacts are equally important in determining the response of plants to climate change. A species whose distribution changes as a direct result of climate change may invade the range of another species or be invaded, for example, introducing a new competitive relationship or altering other processes such as carbon sequestration.

In Europe, the temperature and precipitation effects due to climate change can indirectly affect certain populations of people.  The rise of temperatures and lack of precipitation results in different river floodplains, which reduce the populations of people sensitive to flood risk.

Climate change can have an impact on medicinal plants by altering the environmental conditions of where they grow, to the point where the conditions are no longer ideal and habitable.

The range of a symbiotic fungi associated with plant roots (i.e., mycorrhizae) may directly change as a result of altered climate, resulting in a change in the plant's distribution.

A new grass may spread into a region, altering the fire regime and greatly changing the species composition.

A pathogen or parasite may change its interactions with a plant, such as a pathogenic fungus becoming more common in an area where rainfall increases.

Increased temperatures may allow herbivores to expand further into alpine regions, significantly impacting the composition of alpine herbfields.

Coupled natural and human systems work as systems that influence change over broad spatial and temporal extents that are usually seen as indirect effects of climate change. This is especially true when analyzing spillover systems. Environmental factor#Socioeconomic Drivers

Higher level changes
Species respond in very different ways to climate change. Variation in the distribution, phenology and abundance of species will lead to inevitable changes in the relative abundance of species and their interactions. These changes will flow on to affect the structure and function of ecosystems. Bird migration patterns are already showing a change in flying south sooner, and returning sooner, this could over time affect the overall ecosystem. If birds are leaving sooner this would decrease the pollination rates of some plants over time. The observation of bird migrations is more evidence of the climate changing, which would result in plants flowering at different times.

With certain species of plants having a disadvantage with a warmer climate, their insect herbivores may also be taking a hit. Temperature will directly affect diversity, persistence and survival in both the plants and their insect herbivores. As these insect herbivores decrease, so will the higher levels of species that eat those insects. This cascading event would be detrimental to our earth and how we view nature today.

Challenges of modeling future impacts
Accurate predictions of the future impacts of climate change on plant diversity are critical to the development of conservation strategies. These predictions have come largely from bioinformatic strategies, involving modeling individual species, groups of species such as 'functional types', communities, ecosystems or biomes. They can also involve modeling species observed environmental niches, or observed physiological processes. The velocity of climate change can also be involved in modelling future impacts as well.

Although useful, modeling has many limitations. Firstly, there is uncertainty about the future levels of greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change  and considerable uncertainty in modeling how this will affect other aspects of climate such as local rainfall or temperatures. For most species the importance of specific climatic variables in defining distribution (e.g. minimum rainfall or maximum temperature) is unknown. It is also difficult to know which aspects of a particular climatic variable are most biologically relevant, such as average vs. maximum or minimum temperatures. Ecological processes such as interactions between species and dispersal rates and distances are also inherently complex, further complicating predictions.

Improvement of models is an active area of research, with new models attempting to take factors such as life-history traits of species or processes such as migration into account when predicting distribution changes; though possible trade-offs between regional accuracy and generality are recognised.

Climate change is also predicted to interact with other drivers of biodiversity change such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, or the introduction of foreign species. These threats may possibly act in synergy to increase extinction risk from that seen in periods of rapid climate change in the past. Global warming and climate change are becoming a greater threat the longer we resist doing something about it on a massive scale.Though we're already seeing its effects in droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, and unprecedented temperature extremes both high and low, it's not too late to slow it down and mitigate the effects.

See also
 Biogeochemistry
 Desertification
 Extinction risk from climate change
 Effects of climate change
 Effects of climate change on ecosystems
 Mycorrhizae and changing climate
 Systems ecology

References

Further reading

External links
(2008) Government report on the effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity in the United States.
(2003) Summary report from an international conference on Global Climate Change and Biodiversity, Joint Nature Conservation Committee
(2008) Discussion on the future of modeling climate change impacts on plant species distributions. on wilfried thuiller's website
(2005) The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, including discussion of the effects of climate change on biodiversity
Global Change Biology - a scientific journal with articles relating to the interaction between global changes such as climate, and biological systems
(2011) After the birds vanish, the plants are next to go - New Scientist

Biodiversity
Effects of climate change

Effects of climate change on plant biodiversity


Jaclyn Roxane Chan (born December 2, 1980), also known simply as Jacki R. Chan or Jacki Chan, is an American actress and model.

She has appeared in various magazines, calendars and print ads, as well as several motion pictures, television shows, and commercials. She is niece to Hollywood stuntman Darryl Chan.

Formerly under the Universal Music Group label, she is also an experienced drummer who has been featured in several films, commercials, television spots, and music videos.

Background
Jaclyn Roxanne Chan was born in San Francisco, California, and raised as the oldest of three siblings in Daly City, California. She is Chinese but has British and Portuguese ancestors. From an early age she was drawn to the performing arts and participated in several after-school programs and functions. She graduated from Westmoor High School in Daly City, where she took an active role in drama and music. These included taking major roles in numerous plays, membership in the International Thespian Society, being the only female drummer and percussionist in the school's jazz and symphonic bands, and being one of the leads in the school's drill/streetdancing team. Chan was a salutatorian of her 1998 graduating class and voted "most dramatic" in the yearbook.

Her ambitions continued at San Francisco State University. Chan took part in more than 20 of the university's drama/theatre programs and was a member of the student-led "Brown Bag Theatre Company", taking major roles in productions such as The Balcony and M. Butterfly. Frequently attaining "Dean's List" she graduated cum laude in 2002 with a B.A. in drama. She returned as a post-graduate in 2003 to obtain a minor in business.

Straight out of college, she was amongst the first Hooters Girls at its new San Francisco franchise in the city's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood, and later became a key trainer at the sister store in Dublin, just east of Oakland. She appeared in a number of pictorials for the franchise, including a spot in Hooters' Official 2005 Swimsuit Calendar, which gave her the opportunity to pursue a career in modeling. She also began to pursue a career as a screen actress, achieving SAG certification with a brief appearance in the film Rent.

She soon moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time, but has also been recognized for stunt performances, hosting, and print work. She has appeared on The Sopranos, Freddie, and the film Waist Deep. She can be seen as a stunt player in the 2006 action film Crank.

In 2009, she enrolled into Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Orange County, California. She then received her Juris Doctor degree when she graduated in 2012 with a dual concentration in trial advocacy and criminal law. She is currently a licensed attorney, and a member in good standing of the State Bar of California.

References

External links

1980 births
Female models from California
American film actresses
American television actresses
American drummers
Living people
Actresses from San Francisco
San Francisco State University alumni
21st-century American actresses
American actresses of Chinese descent
American people of British descent
American people of Portuguese descent
21st-century American drummers

Jacki R. Chan


Pyoderma means any skin disease that is pyogenic (has pus). These include superficial bacterial infections such as impetigo, impetigo contagiosa, ecthyma, folliculitis, Bockhart's impetigo, furuncle, carbuncle, tropical ulcer, etc. Autoimmune conditions include pyoderma gangrenosum. Pyoderma affects more than 111 million children worldwide, making it one of the three most common skin disorders in children along with scabies and tinea.

See also
 List of cutaneous conditions

References

External links

Dermatologic terminology

Pyoderma


Arminio (HWV 36) is an opera composed by George Frideric Handel. The libretto is based on a libretto of the same name by Antonio Salvi, which had been set to music by Alessandro Scarlatti. It is a fictionalisation of events surrounding the Germanic leader Arminius, who defeated the Romans under Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9, and his wife Thusnelda. The opera was performed for the first time at the Covent Garden Theatre  on 12 January 1737.

Background

The German-born Handel had brought Italian opera to London stages for the first time in 1711 with his opera Rinaldo. An enormous success, Rinaldo created a craze in London for Italian opera seria, a form focused overwhelmingly on solo arias for the star virtuoso singers. Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success. One of the major attractions in Handel's operas was the star castrato Senesino whose relationship with the composer was often stormy and who eventually left Handel's company to appear with the rival Opera of the Nobility, set up in 1733 and with the Prince of Wales as a major sponsor. Handel moved to another theatre, Covent Garden, and engaged different singers, but there was not enough of an audience for opera in London, or aristocratic supporters to back it, for two opera houses at once, and both opera companies found themselves in difficulty.

Together with Giustino and Berenice, Arminio is one of three operas Handel wrote within a period of half a year in 1736. He began with the composition of Giustino on 14 August 1736, followed by that of Arminio on 15 September. Having finished Arminio he resumed work on Giustino, which he finished on 20 October. In mid-December, he went on to compose Berenice. Giustino followed Arminio on to the stage in February.

Reception and performance history
The opera was esteemed by Handel's admirers but not by the ticket-buying public.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in a letter that he found Arminio to be "rather grave but correct and labour'd" (well worked-out) "to the highest degree & is a favourite one with Handel.... But I fear 'twill not be acted very long. The Town dont much admire it."
Arminio  only saw six performances, the last one on 12 February. It was not performed again until it was revived in 1935, at Leipzig.

With the revival of interest in Baroque music and historically informed musical performance since the 1960s, Arminio, like all Handel operas, is performed at festivals and opera houses today. Among other productions, the opera was staged by the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe in 2016.

Roles

Synopsis
Place:Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Time: 9 A.D.

Act 1

Arminio, chieftain of a Germanic tribe who has taken up arms to fight against the Roman invasion of his country, yields to his wife Tusnelda's entreaties to retire from the field of battle lest they should both be taken prisoner. (Duet: Non è tema).

They leave as Varo and Tullio enter. Tullio informs the Roman general Varo that Arminio has retreated and Varo reveals that he is in love with Arminio's wife Tusnelda. Tullio advises him to forget about such an unworthy passion and fight for Rome's triumph instead (Aria: Non deve Roman petto) but Varo responds that love can inspire great feats of glory (Aria: Al lume di due rai).

Arminio appears, in chains, captured by Segeste, a Germanic chieftain who is collaborating with the Romans and is also Arminio's father-in-law. Arminio denounces Segeste for his treachery and Tusnelda is torn between loyalty to her husband and her father (Aria:  Scagliano Amore). Varo demands that Arminio accept subjugation to Rome, but Arminio insists he would rather die and is taken away. Segeste advises that Arminio must be killed to ensure peace with Rome (Aria: Fiaccherò quel fiero orgoglio).

The scene changes to the castle of Segeste, where Sigismondo, his son, has been dreaming of Ramise, Arminio's sister, with whom he is madly in love (Aria: Non sono sempre vane larve). She and Tusnelda appear on the scene and Tusnelda informs them that her father Segeste has handed Arminio over to the Romans. Ramise is greatly distressed by the threat to her brother's life (Aria: Sento il cor per ogni lato). When Sigismondo asks Tusnelda for sympathy in this situation, she points out that his dilemma is nothing as to hers, torn as she is between loyalty to her husband and her father (Aria: E vil segno).

Segeste commands his son to abandon any hope of wedding Ramise but Sigismondo asserts that he would prefer to die (Aria: Posso morir).

Act 2

Tullio informs Segeste that the Roman general Varo is in love with his daughter and Arminio's wife Tusnelda (Aria: Con quel sangue).
Segeste is happy to hear it and looks forward to Varo becoming his new son-in-law once Arminio is dead. Varo appears with a letter from Caesar ordering Arminio's execution and Segeste is eager for this to occur. Arminio once again breathes defiance to Rome (Aria: Sì, cadrò) and is thrown into prison under sentence of death. Tusnelda is beside herself with grief;her father Segeste advises her to tell her husband to submit to Rome and save himself, but she will not (Aria: Al furor).

Ramise denounces Segeste for collaborating with the Romans and sending her brother Arminio to execution and attempts to stab him. Sigismondo intervenes however and saves his father's life, whereupon Ramise bitterly upbraids him. Sigismondo attempts to kill himself but Ramise prevents him from doing so. Ramise is also suffering from divided loyalties between her lover and her brother (Aria: Niente spero) and Sigismondo is likewise torn (Aria: Quella fiamma).

Arminio, in prison, tells Varo that he knows that he loves his wife and gives his blessing for their marriage after his death, which he accepts (Aria: Vado a morir). Tusnelda however tells Varo that the only way he can make her happy is by saving her husband. Varo pledges to do this and Tusnelda swears to be grateful (Aria: Rendimi il dolce sposo).

Act 3

Arminio is brought to his place of execution but still breathes defiance to Rome (Aria: Ritorno alle ritorte). Segeste is astonished when Varo appears and releases Arminio from his chains so he can die in battle (Aria: Mira il Ciel). However Tullio enters with news that another German chieftain has defeated the Romans and Arminio is returned to prison.

In another room, Tusnelda is contemplating suicide with her husband's sword, but decides to poison herself instead (Aria: Ho veleno).
Ramise enters just in time to prevent her and the two ladies agree that they must save Arminio (Duet: Quando più minacci). They appeal to Sigismondo to release Arminio, but he says he cannot, whereupon both ladies threaten to kill themselves. Sigismondo is in despair at his conflicting loyalties (Aria: Il Sangue al cor favella). Tusnelda expresses her anguish (Aria: Tra speme) but is surprised by Arminio, who has been freed from prison, and dashes off to fight the Romans with his sword which has been restored to him by Sigismondo.(Aria: Fatto scorta al sentier ).

Ramise is afraid of Segeste's reaction to what his son has done and urges him to flee but Sigismondo refuses. When Segeste appears, furious at his son's action, Ramise lies that she was the person who restored Arminio's sword to him. Segeste has both his son and Ramise thrown into prison as Sigismondo breathes defiance to his father (Aria: Impara a non temer). Ramise is happy to share her lover's tribulations (Aria: Voglio seguir lo sposo).

Tullio informs Segeste that Arminio has killed Varo, defeated the Romans, and occupied his castle. Tullio thinks they should escape while they can, but Segeste instead denounces his son as a traitor and attempts to kill him. Arminio enters just in time to prevent this; he and Sigismondo implore Segeste to relent in his anger and promise to forgive him if he does. Segeste, overwhelmed by their kindness, agrees. Arminio and Tusnelda rejoice in their reunion (Duet: Ritorna nel core vezzosa) and all celebrate the fortunate turn of events (Chorus: A capir tante dolcezze).

Recordings

Audio recordings

Video recording

See also
 Arminius (Bruch)
 Hermann und Thusnelda

Sources
 The second of the two volume definitive reference on the operas of Handel
 Hogwood, Christopher, Händel
 Lang, Paul Henry, George Frideric Handel
 Scheibler, Albert, Sämtliche 53 Bühnenwerke des Georg Friedrich Händel

References

External links
Italian libretto
 Score of Arminio

Operas by George Frideric Handel
Italian-language operas
1736 operas
Operas
Operas based on real people
Operas set in antiquity
Operas set in Germany
German patriotic songs
Opera world premieres at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden
Cultural depictions of Arminius

Arminio


Robert Knight "Bob" Andras  (21 February 1921 – 17 November 1982) was a Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Canada from 1965 to 1980. He was a part of the Liberal Party during this time. He represented two electoral areas in Ontario. They were Port Arthur and Thunder Bay—Nipigon. Andras was from Lachine, Quebec. He moved to Port Arthur, Ontario to work in a car dealership.

As a politician, Andras was a part of the cabinet of Canada many different times. Most of the time, this was when Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister. He was Minister without Portfolio from 1968 to 1971, Minister of State for Urban Affairs from 1971 to 1972, the Minister of Status of Women from 1971 to 1974, Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs in 1972, Minister of Manpower and Immigration from 1972 to 1976, President of the Treasury Board from 1976 to 1978, and Minister of State for Economic Development from 1978 to 1979. For the 1980 federal election, he said he wouldn't try to be elected again.

One of the most important things Andras did was help the Immigration Act, 1976 become a law. This was when he was the Minister of Manpower and Immigration. The law replaced the Immigration Act of 1952. The law made sure that there was a minimum amount of immigrants Canada let in, and that immigrants would be let in without discriminating on their ethnicity, gender, or country they came from. Andras also tried to work with Jean Chrétien to help with making public policy of the First Nations people.

Andras died on 17 November 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia. This is after he fought cancer for a year.

References

Other websites

1921 births
1982 deaths
Privy Councillors (Canada)
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
Cancer deaths in British Columbia
Politicians from Ontario

Bob Andras


Shane Christie (born 23 September 1985) is a New Zealand rugby union player.

Early career

Born in the city of Palmerston North on New Zealand's North Island, Christie was raised in the town of Nelson, on the northern tip of South Island before moving to Wellington during his schooldays and attending school at Upper Hutt College just outside of Wellington. He headed back to Nelson after school and began working as a builder, a job he would have for 6 years prior to his rugby career really taking off in 2010. During this time, he played rugby for Nelson in Tasman's club rugby competition and also played Heartland Championship rugby with Buller in 2009.

Senior career

Christie first played senior provincial rugby with the Tasman Mako during the 2010 ITM Cup and scored 2 tries in 5 games as the men from Nelson finished 12th out of 14 teams on the log in the final season before the competition was rejigged to feature two divisions of 7 teams. He played all 10 games the following year as the Mako finished last in the Championship.

2012 was a more positive year for Tasman and it saw them finish 3rd in the Championship before going down 41–34 to  in the playoff semi-finals. Christie was again an ever-present, starting in 10 of 11 appearances and scoring 1 try. Following a promising season in 2012, the Makos gained promotion to the Premiership in 2013, finishing with 8 wins out of 10 regular season games before defeating  and  in the semi-finals and final with Christie captaining the side and contributing 3 tries in 11 matches.

Tasman's upward trajectory continued through 2014 as they reached the Premiership final at the first time of asking before being defeated 36-32 by  in the final. Christie played 10 times and scored 1 try which saw him nominated for the ITM Cup Player of the Season award before going on to score 5 tries in 21 games across the 2015 and 2016 seasons as the Makos finished as losing semi-finalists and runners-up respectively.

Super Rugby

After several seasons of hard graft in New Zealand domestic rugby with Tasman, Christie finally earned a Super Rugby contract at the age of 28 with 7 times champions, the  ahead of the 2013 Super Rugby season. Unfortunately, due to fierce competition among a loose forward group that included Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and Matt Todd, he was only able to make a solitary appearance in what was to be his only season in Christchurch.

He headed south to Dunedin to join the  for 2014 and quickly established himself as a key component in their side, starting 14 times and scoring 2 tries as they reached the tournament quarter-finals before going down 31–27 to the  in Durban.
 2015 was to be a historic season for the franchise as they lifted the Super Rugby title for the first time in their history, defeating the  21–14 in the final. Christie missed a large chunk of the campaign because of a hamstring injury and had to kick his heels on the sidelines as his teammates achieved their success, playing only twice.

The Highlanders were unable to hold on to their Super Rugby crown in 2016, going down to the  42–30 in Johannesburg in the quarter-finals, however a fit again Christie was named as the franchise's co-captain along with All Black Ben Smith and was able to feature 11 times through the year.

Tony Brown replaced the  bound Jamie Joseph as Highlanders head-coach ahead of the 2017 season and he retained Christie in the squad for his first season in charge.

International

Christie represented the All Blacks Sevens twice during the 2010–11 IRB Sevens World Series and has also turned out for the Māori All Blacks since 2012. He received his first call up for the Māori ahead of their UK tour in November 2012 and debuted in a 32–24 defeat to Leicester Tigers on 13 November 2012. He started the match and played the entire 80 minutes before earning a second cap 4 days later as a second-half replacement for Nick Crosswell in a 52-21 demolition of an RFU Championship XV while on 23 November he saw his first action against test match opposition in the shape of  who were overcome 32–19 in Oxford, England. He once again played the whole match in the blindside flanker position.

2013 saw him earn 2 more caps for the Māori in their North American tour victories over Canada and the , appearing as a second-half replacement for Luke Braid in the match against Canada in Toronto and playing the entire 80 minutes in the number 6 shirt against the US in Pennsylvania.

Christie was again called up by the Māori ahead of their 2014 tour of  but had to withdraw due to injury, so it was after a gap of 3 years before he next pulled on the Black jersey, playing in matches against the US, Munster and Harlequins and scoring his first international try in the 22nd minute of the 26–10 win over Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop.

Career honours

All Blacks Sevens

 IRB Sevens World Series 2010–11

Highlanders

Super Rugby – 2015

Tasman

ITM Cup Championship – 2013

References

Living people
1985 births
New Zealand rugby union players
Rugby union flankers
Māori All Blacks players
Buller rugby union players
Tasman rugby union players
Crusaders (rugby union) players
Rugby union players from Palmerston North
Highlanders (rugby union) players
New Zealand international rugby sevens players
People educated at Upper Hutt College
Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi people

Shane Christie


Bath treatments are easy to carry out disease treatments that originated since the earliest days of goldfish culture.  One of the most effective procedure is called the salt bath which is quite effective in eradicating ciliated parasites from the fish.  However, there are also useless, thus not recommended, bath treatments such as the use of certain antibiotics or vitamins in the bath. Bath treatment can either be short-term (a "dip") or long-term (from a few hours to 12 or 24 hours or longer).

A number of medications and water treatments are used in this way. Salt is the most effective bath treatment, and is used to eliminate ciliated protozoan parasites (including ich in small fish); also used to curb the absorption of nitrite, and to reduce the osmotic pressure exerted by fresh-water on any hole in the skin or gill. Potassium permanganate and ionic copper are used to treat similar ailments.

Various antibiotics, such as metronidazole and furan are used in aquarium care. Formalin, formaldehyde gas in water, is used to as a fungicide and treatment against some bacterial infections, ciliated protozoans and flukes.

Synthetic antiparasitics such as Lufenuron, Praziquantel, and Chloramine-T are sometimes used in bath treatments, as are insecticides like Diflubenzuron. Organic dyes such as malachite green, methylene blue and acriflavine are also used to treat parasites and fungal infections.

References

Fishkeeping
Fish medicine

Bath treatment (fishkeeping)


Rein Aidma (born 28 September 1950, in Sälliksaare) is an Estonian politician and pedagogue who was a member of the Riigikogu, representing the Estonian Reform Party from 2003 to 2015.

Education and work
Aidma graduated from Nõo Secondary School in 1970 and earned a degree in physics from the University of Tartu in 1975. He worked as a director and teacher at Iisaku Secondary School from 1975 to 1989. From 1991 to 1993, he worked at Ontika Adult Training Center.

Political career
Aidma was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1990, and was a member of the Congress of Estonia from 1990 to 1992. He was the deputy chairman of the executive committee of Ida-Viru County from 1989 to 1991 and the governor of Ida-Viru County from 1994 to 2003, where he was succeeded by Ago Silde. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Estonian Reform Party.

In 2007, Aidma paid a total of 5,223 kr to Saka Cliff Hotel and Spa at a cost of living from December 27, indicating that the event was an annual summing up with voters. He said, "They are my constituents, and this is not the issue of journalism with whom I meet. This is not publicly available to other parties. Point: This is my circle of voters!"

Aidma was a member of the Riigikogu from 2003 to 2011. He applied for the 2011 Riigikogu elections and received 1250 votes, but was not elected. He was a part of the Riigikogu again from 2011 to 2015, despite not being elected, when Kristiina Ojuland, a Member of the European Parliament, withdrew from the Riigikogu.

In selecting the municipal elections in 2013, Aidma applied for running in Avinurme Parish but was not elected, as he only got 7 votes.

In the 2015 Riigikogu elections, Aidma ran again in Ida-Viru County, but only received 655 votes and was not elected.

Awards
 3rd class of the Order of the White Star (received 23 February 2001)
 Ida-Virumaa Order (2003)
 Border Guard, Rescue Board and National Defense League decorations
 Order of the Defense Forces
 Cross of Special Services of the Defense Forces

References

1950 births
Living people
People from Mustvee Parish
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Estonian Reform Party politicians
Members of the Riigikogu, 2003–2007
Members of the Riigikogu, 2007–2011
Members of the Riigikogu, 2011–2015
University of Tartu alumni
Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class

Rein Aidma