Unusual types of gramophone records

The overwhelming majority of records manufactured have been of certain sizes (7, 10, or 12 inches), playback speeds (33, 45, or 78 RPM), and appearance (round black discs). However, since the commercial adoption of the gramophone record (called a phonograph record in the U.S., where both cylinder records and disc records were invented), a wide variety of records have also been produced that do not fall into these categories, and they have served a variety of purposes.
Unusual sizes.
The most common diameter sizes for gramophone records are 12-inch, 10-inch, and 7-inch. Early American shellac records were all 7-inch until 1901, when 10-inch records were introduced. 12-inch records joined them in 1903. By 1910, other sizes were retired and nearly all discs were either 10-inch or 12-inch, although both sizes were normally a bit smaller than their official diameter. In Europe, early 10-inch and 12-inch shellac records were produced in the first three decades of the twentieth century. 7-inch children's records were sold before World War II but nearly all were made of fragile shellac, not an ideal material for use by children. In the late 1940s, small plastic records, including some small picture discs, replaced them. Ten-inch children's records were made as well, but the 7-inch size was more compatible with small hands. The 7-inch size was also used for flexi discs which were popular in Japan where they were known as sound-sheets and were often in traditional round format. In other areas, flexi discs were usually square and often included in a magazine (see Unusual materials and uses below).
Numerous unusual diameters have been produced since the early 1900s ranging from 2 to 19.7 inches. Oddly shaped discs were also produced (see Unusually shaped discs below).
Unusual speeds.
The most common rotational speeds for gramophone records are 33 revolutions per minute (RPM), 45 RPM, and 78 RPM. Established as the only common rotational speed prior to the 1940s, the 78 became increasingly less common throughout the 1950s and into more modern decades as the 33 and the 45 became established as the new standards for albums and singles respectively. Throughout the history of the recording industry, however, numerous unusual turn-speeds ranging from 3 to 130 RPM have been utilized for a variety of purposes.
Varying and variable play-speeds.
In the early 1920s, the World Record Company in the U.K. introduced longer-playing records with speeds measured in inches per second (but specified on the label by a letter from A to D) rather than revolutions per minute. If the sound quality near the label of an ordinary record was considered acceptable, then playing time could be greatly increased by using that same groove-to-needle velocity throughout the recording. This is known as the CLV (constant linear velocity) format, as opposed to the usual CAV (constant angular velocity) format. The World Record Controller was an attachment for ordinary record players that slowed the turntable down when playing the outside of the record and allowed it to gradually speed up as the needle was carried inward by the groove. Of course, only special World records could be used. The World system was a commercial failure. The principle, first proposed in a fundamental U.S. sound recording patent in 1886, was briefly revived in 1939–1940 for the unusual "Cinematone Penny Phono" jukebox (price to play one selection: one cent), which used it to squeeze ten short recordings of current pop songs onto each side of one 12-inch record. Compact discs and DVDs use the CLV format to make efficient use of their surface areas.
The CLV format would reemerge in the 1940s and 1950s in office dictation machines known as the Gray Audograph and the CGS/Memovox, which combined it with the flexible-disc format and the inside-out recording format used by CDs today. Both machines recorded at a fixed pitch, but the Grey Audograph could only record at one linear speed allowing 15 minutes per side of a 7-inch disc. The CGS or Memovox, on the other hand, had a High Fidelity speed as well as a Speech speed, allowing over two hours of recording time per side on a 12-inch disc.
In the 1970s, Atlantic Records started producing a series of albums later designated on a label known as Syntonic Research. Each album consisted of two full-side tracks, usually at least half an hour long per side, of sounds recorded of various locations. For example, one side would have ocean waves crashing against the shore and the other would have the sounds of birds chattering away in an aviary; another record might have frogs, crickets and birds making their usual vocalizations that were heard in the early morning hours of a swamp or lake. There were a few dozen made. These were mostly used for soundscape or relaxation purposes. The first album in the series noted on its back cover that either side could be enjoyed in stereo at any playing speed (from 45 RPM to 16 RPM) depending on the effect desired by the person playing the record.
Microgrooved 78s.
A small number of 78 RPM microgroove vinyl recordings have been issued by smaller and underground performers, mainly as novelty items, from the 1970s to the present. In 2006, the Belfast singer Duke Special released a number of ten inch EPs in 78 RPM. A series of 78 RPM microgroove records was issued by the "Audiophile" label during the early LP era. They were supposed to provide higher quality sound than 33 RPM by virtue of their faster rotation speed combined while also providing significantly longer playing time than standard groove 78 RPM records.
Unusually long playing times.
LP records rarely exceeded 45 minutes per disc (both sides combined), with a limit in the early years of 52 minutes, due to mastering issues. By the 1960s–1970s, some records began to exceed the 52-minute limitation, with single albums going to as long as 90 minutes in some cases. However, such records had to be cut with much narrower spacing between the grooves, which allowed for a much smaller amount of dynamic range on the records, and meant that playing the record with a worn needle could damage the record. It also resulted in a much quieter sound. Spoken word, comedy and sound effects albums, not having a wide range of musical instrumentation to reproduce, can be cut with much narrower spacing between the grooves resulting in lengths considerably in excess of 52 minutes. Materials distributed on 10-inch discs by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the 1960s, for instance, commonly reached 90 minutes per disc at 16 RPM and 180 minutes per disc at 8 RPM.
A few examples of unusually long albums are listed below:
Unusual holes.
The vast majority of records used a standard small spindle hole slightly more than " in diameter. The only common exception to this is the 7-inch 45 RPM record, which was designed with a center hole slightly more than 1.5" in diameter both for convenience in handling and to accommodate a very fast record-changing mechanism contained inside a correspondingly large spindle, as implemented in RCA Victor's early stand-alone "45" players. The spindle and any records stacked on it rotated with the turntable, so that each waiting disc was already up to speed before it dropped. Large mechanized spindle adaptors were supplied with most multi-speed automatic record changers sold in the 1950s and 1960s, but they were not as fast and efficient. The large hole also facilitates use in jukeboxes, which mechanically place the "45" onto a turntable with a conical spindle having a matching diameter at its base, making the placement operation easier, safer, and surer than it was with the small-diameter holes and spindles in 78 RPM jukeboxes. Most 7-inch records in the USA continue to be pressed with a large hole, requiring an adapter to be used on standard turntables. In other territories such as Europe, 7-inch records intended for home use have standard-sized holes. Many such 7-inch records had a center which could be easily snapped out, yielding a record with a larger hole to be used in jukeboxes or certain record-stacking players; this approach was common in the United Kingdom from the 1950s until the early 1980s, with standard, solid centres becoming gradually more common. Some 7-inch singles in the early-mid-1990s had large holes also, but this was a rarity.
Early on, some 78 RPM records had larger holes in freebie marketing schemes that sold a phonograph cheaply, but required purchase of compatible discs at full-price.
Multi-hole records.
Some records had more than one hole in the label area. Busy Bee, in a marketing scheme similar to Standard "et al." would employ a second cut-out area. This allowed the Busy Bee disc to also be played on a standard phonograph in addition to the proprietary format sold by the O'Neill-James Company.
Many blank acetate discs have multiple holes (usually three or four) intended to prevent slippage during cutting.
NON's "Pagan Muzak" (Gray Beat, 1978) is a one-sided 7-inch with multiple locked grooves and two center holes, meaning each locked groove can be played at two different trajectories as well as any number of speeds. The original release came with instructions for the listener to drill more holes in the record as they saw appropriate. Later pressings of the release were made only with one standard center spindle hole.
Unusual grooves.
"Trimicron" discs.
Developed in the mid-1970s by the firm MDR (Magnetic Disc Recording), the Trimicron record enjoyed a brief success. The principle was to remove the empty space between each groove. On average, this empty space is as wide as two grooves, and because of this, its removal effectively triples the duration of the recording that could be engraved (on average, 55 minutes on a 33 RPM record). The Trimicron process was created by Dr. Rabe, a music lover in his spare time, and was originally intended for classical music listeners who could not stand having to flip a record in the middle of a piece. For example, all six Brandenburg concertos could fit on one Trimicron record.
However, this process suffered from a major problem: the finer groove decreased the dynamics and the level of recorded signal by nearly 40 percent. It is therefore necessary to play Trimicron records on silent, high performance turntables, equipped with new diamond styluses and very high performance. Almost 30 Trimicron records were released, though copies are nowadays rare, especially in good condition.
Multiple bands.
Some records are cut with completely independent bands on the same side. In this case, the bands appear as separate tracks on the record and are not intertwined as with parallel grooves (see below). This has most often been used on educational records but is also sometimes used on discs of commercial pop and rock music. These individual bands need not be cut at the same speed. The second Moby Grape album "Wow/Grape Jam" (1968) has this setup. Following the fourth song on side one there is a spoken announcement telling the listener to change the speed from 33 to 78 RPM to play the next band of the disc. To play the last song on the side the listener must pick up the stylus from the record, change the speed, then put the stylus at the start of the fifth and final song on side one.
The Gorillaz debut album, like the CD release, features the remix of "Clint Eastwood" as a bonus track but the LP has a recorded locked groove after what is meant to be the final track of the album so the needle has to be physically lifted and moved to play the bonus track.
This concept has been extended to the production of records consisting entirely of circular multiple bands to provide collections of infinite loop sound samples of duration limited to one revolution of the disc. Notable examples of this are the releases from RRRecords of the 7-inch RRR-100 (with 100 individual bands) and the 12-inch RRR-500 (with 500 bands) and RRR-1000 (with 1000 bands.)
Sound recorded in locked grooves.
Most records have a locked groove at the end of each side or individual band. It is usually a silent loop that keeps the needle and tonearm from drifting into the label area. However, it is possible to record sound in this groove, and some artists have included looping audio in the locked groove.
One of the best-known examples of this technique was The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967). Many UK copies featured a multi-layered collage of randomized chatter in their run-off loops. However, two variations were made: the original British pressing (black label with gold logo) has the "inner groove" play through the entire locked groove and does not include the laughter at the beginning of the piece. The re-issue of the British pressing (black label with silver logo) starts playing the "inner groove" long before the needle reaches the locked groove, includes the laughter and, once the needle hits the locked groove, the listener only hears the last two seconds of the piece played over and over again. The Who responded by putting a musical locked groove at the end of their 1967 album "The Who Sell Out".
On ABBA's album "Super Trouper", there is cheering and applause recorded before and on the locked groove of the B side, after "The Way Old Friends Do". On The Format's album "Dog Problems", the feedback at the end of "If Work Permits" continues into the lock-groove, which repeats. Early copies of Pink Floyd's album "Atom Heart Mother" have the sound of a dripping tap repeating at the end of side two. The B-side of The Damned's single "Love Song" ends the song "Suicide" with an eternal yell in the lock-groove. Peter Gabriel's second album (also known as "Scratch"), The Boomtown Rats's album "The Fine Art of Surfacing", and the Dead Kennedys album "Plastic Surgery Disasters" also utilize the technique. Sonic Youth's 1986 album "Evol" contains a locked groove at the end of the final track, "Expressway to yr. Skull (Madonna, Sean, and Me)" and the track's length is indicated on the label as "∞".
British rock band Squeeze released their "Packet of Three" EP in 1977. On the original 7 inch, the A-side track "Cat on a Wall" ends with sustained guitar feedback repeating in the lock-groove.
English new wave band The Look released their single "I Am the Beat" in 1980, which ended with the distinctive drum beat and vocal being repeated in the lock-groove.
The electro act Planet Patrol released the single "Play At Your Own Risk" in 1982. The original 12" release sees the A-side repeating its persistent echoed vocal in the lock-groove.
San Francisco noise-punk band Flipper released a track on the B-side of their "Sex Bomb" single, called "Brainwash" which includes a use of the lock-groove concept. The song is a simple punk groove, with barely audible singing, lasting less than 30 seconds, over which one of the vocalists apparently attempts to tell a story, reciting the following: "Umm ... okay, like. see there was this ... and ... w-and then the- ... nevermind, forget it, you wouldn't understand anyway." The music stops at the end of the "story," only to start up again. This process is repeated for a total of 12 times. The last repetition ends with the loop groove endlessly repeating the phrase "forget it, you wouldn't understa— forget it, you wouldn't understa—."
"Yer' Album", the debut album by the James Gang has a locked groove at the end of each side, with the inner spiral on side one leading to the inner groove with the spoken phrase "Turn me over," and the inner spiral of side two leading to the inner groove with the spoken phrase "Play me again."
On the Ralph Records release "Songs for Swinging Larvae" by Renaldo and the Loaf, the last song on side one continues into the inner spiral and into the inner groove with a loop of a male voice providing a spoken percussion effect of "boom boom crash crash," which, however, when it reaches the inner groove is not strictly in the same 4/4 rhythm, being more in 5/8 ("boom boom crash crash [crash]") This motif reappears (in strict 4/4 rhythm again) in the lead-in groove opening Side Two of the album, which then leads to the first selection on that side.
The 12" vinyl reissue of Kid A by Radiohead includes a locked groove at the end of side A (AKA "side alpha") which repeats the sound heard at the beginning of the song "the national anthem"
On the original vinyl release of "Fly by Night" by Rush, the chimes heard at the end of "By-Tor & the Snow Dog" continue into the locked groove.
Another example of recorded locked groove record is Godspeed You! Black Emperor's debut album "F#A#∞" (pronounced "F-sharp, A-sharp, Infinity"). On the vinyl release of this album, at the end of the song "Bleak, Uncertain, Beautiful ..." there is a string phrase recorded on the locked groove. The title's "infinity" refers to this phrase. The Stereolab album "Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements" ends with the song "Lock Groove Lullaby" which, as the name suggests, extends into the locked groove. "Nail" by Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel (1985) features a recorded lock groove on the final song ("Anything") which results in the final note of the album slowly repeating itself. Portugal. The Man's 2008 album "Censored Colors" contains a locked groove at the end of the first disc repeating the words "turn me over." The second side of the live King Crimson album "USA" has a locked groove that contains the first few seconds of applause after they finish playing "21st Century Schizoid Man." The first Kissing the Pink album, "Naked", features a recorded locked groove at the end of side one which continuously plays the last note of "The Last Film." The Otto von Schirach album "Pukology" is pressed on two 7-inch colored discs (one yellow, one transparent brown), all four sides end in recorded locked grooves. One side ends with repeated burping, one side ends with repeated toilet flushing, one side ends with what sounds like tape/record scratching, and one side ends with repeated vomiting.
The Arcade Fire album "The Suburbs" ends side 3 with a continuous loop of the repeated piano chord heard throughout "We Used to Wait."
Welsh band Super Furry Animals released the album "Rings Around The World" as a 3-record set on Epic Records. Sides 1, 2 and 4 played normally. Side 3 played from the inside out and side 5 was on a 7-inch single. The side consisted of one recorded groove in the center of the record and was a perfectly timed loop of the music of a non-album song called "All the Shit U Do."
An example of a live album with a locked groove is "Eagles Live": The applause at the end of side 4 would continue into the locked groove, rather than fading out like on the other sides.
On the 12 inch single of "Spice" released in 1990 by Eon, the locked groove at the end of the disc continues the instrumental lead-out of the track indefinitely as long as the DJ wished to let it play.
There are also many techno records featuring loops as recorded locked grooves, which will continuously repeat the beats and musical phrases, which can then be utilized by a DJ. "Warp20", the 20th anniversary box set from Warp Records, features two 10-inch locked groove albums, each containing 20 looped tracks from the record label's most popular artists. Both album sleeves contain correct turntable pitch speed settings for each track. Another example is Luke Slater's "Diesel Drudge," from his 1994 EP "Planetary Funk Vol 4", which also ends in a locked groove. Speedy J's 2002 album "Loudboxer" was released on CD with 15 songs segued together, but the double LP version consists of 200 locked grooves, each with its own four-letter title.
The first known hit single to have a recorded locked groove is "Muskrat Love" by Captain & Tennille. A few years later, in December 1975, a British artist known as Chris Hill did a break-in record (see Dickie Goodman or Bill Buchanan) called, "Renta Santa" on Philips 6006-491 that included a recorded locked groove at the end of the side.
Sound recorded in lead-in grooves.
When automatic record changers, auto replay adapters and jukeboxes began appearing in the 1920s the need arose to find a more reliable and forgiving way to accurately direct the stylus to the start of the recorded area as well as signal the end of a performance. Appearing near the outer edge of the record and leading the stylus inward to the performance, Decca introduced the lead-in groove in 1935 in the US, with the industry following soon thereafter. Lead-in groove length, positioning, and motion varied by manufacturer and era, with some moving slower (some requiring several revolutions before encountering audio) and others being very short and jerky. As with the recorded locked groove at the end, it is possible to record sound into the lead-in groove. King Crimson's "USA" (mentioned above) has this feature. George Harrison's "Wonderwall Music" and the Dead Kennedys' "Plastic Surgery Disasters" also start in the lead-in groove.
Parallel grooves.
Also known as concentric grooves, it is possible to master recordings with two or more separate, interlaced spiral grooves on a side. Such records have occasionally been made as novelties. Victor made one as early as 1901. Depending on where the needle is dropped in the lead-in area, it will catch more or less randomly in one of the grooves. Each groove can contain a different recording, so the record "magically" plays one of several different recordings. Victor marketed a few 10-inch 78s with two concentric grooves (called "Puzzle Record"). Columbia also issued a few 10-inch 78s in 1931 with concentric grooves for their cheap Harmony, Clarion, and Velvet Tone labels. In the blank edge of the record, there was a stamp 'A' and 'B', which indicated where each of the concentric grooves started.
A 1950s RCA Victor 45 rpm single by The Fontane Sisters, "The Fortune Teller Song" offered a song with four different "fortunes" as endings. Due to the space consumed by the multiple grooves, the song itself played for only about one minute. In the 1960s, promoter George Garabedian of Mark 56 Records created a "Magic Record" which would randomly play a tune by Arthur Lyman, The Marathons' novelty song "Peanut Butter," or an imitation Tijuana Brass number. Garabedian's records were made to be given away as premiums, usually by potato chip manufacturers. The opening track of Zacherle's 1962 LP "Scary Tales" consisted of three parallel grooves of the same song, each containing different lyrics (an assortment of humorous, macabre retellings of Mother Goose rhymes).
A more recent example is Monty Python's "Matching Tie and Handkerchief". A promotional EP by Rush, "Rush 'n Roulette" (mentioned in the book "Rare Rock: A Collector's Guide" by Tony Rees) had "six" parallel grooves of different Rush songs. Also Tool's 1992 EP release "Opiate" featured on the second side a double groove that would either play the first track of side two or the hidden song that was found at the end of the CD version. The Marillion "Brave" vinyl has a double groove on side four, ending the album either happily with the track "Made Again" or less so with water noise. In 2005 a 7-inch single titled "The Road Leads Where It's Led" by The Secret Machines was released in UK that contained both tracks on one side on parallel grooves. The Summer 1980 "Mad" magazine Super Special included a one-sided sound sheet (see "flexidisc" above), playable on a standard turntable. It had eight interlaced grooves, each track starts with the same happy and upbeat "Super Spectacular Day" beginning of the song but have eight different dark and gloomy endings. In the 1980s, Rhino Records re-released the Henny Youngman comedy album "128 Greatest Jokes" as a series of concentric grooves, which they call a "Trick-Track Master". Each side of the album has four grooves. In the 1980s, the band Pink Slip Daddy released a 10-inch single called "LSD" on clear pink vinyl with pink glitter inside the vinyl. One side of the single had one song that played from inside out and, on the other side, there were two songs that were pressed as concentric grooves. Many of The Shins' 7-inch records have parallel grooves (such as their 2007 single "Phantom Limb," which has "Nothing at All" and "Split Needles (Alt. Version)" on the b-side.) The band None of Your Fucking Business released a one-sided 7-inch called "NOYFB Escapes from Hell" (side 2 has a groove, but there is no audio encoded in the groove), with 2 grooves that started from the center and ended on the outside of the disc. One groove ran at 45 RPM, while the other ran at 33 RPM. UK punk rocker Johnny Moped's debut album "Cycledelic" has a lead track with a parallel groove listed on the label as "0. Mystery Track," which runs parallel to the track. The 12-inch single for rap group De La Soul's 1989 song "Me Myself and I" has two different tracks in a parallel groove on the B-side. One groove has the Oblapos remixes of "Me Myself and I," while the other has "Brain Washed Follower. One version of the 12" single of The Sensual World by Kate Bush has the instrumental version of the track in a parallel groove - while the instrumental version also appears on side B as one of two sequential tracks."
Records with parallel grooves have been used in games to provide multiple outcomes, chosen either deliberately or randomly, depending on the game. In 1971, Mattel introduced a game called "Talking Football," in which two players simulate a game of American football. Plays are recorded on small discs, each with six parallel grooves. The player on offense chooses one of ten possible offensive plays, each recorded on one disc, and inserts the corresponding disc into a handheld record player. The other player, without knowing which disc was inserted, then chooses one of six possible defensive plays, marked on the disc so that the record player plays the correct groove corresponding to the chosen combination of offensive and defensive plays. Some plays result in a penalty or turnover, which requires inserting a special disc for that situation, which is unmarked and therefore a random outcome is selected.
In 1975 Ronco UK released a parallel groove game called "They're Off," which featured four 12-inch discs each containing eight possible outcomes on a horse race. It featured Noel Whitcomb, a well-known horse-racing commentator of the day and the game revolved around betting which "horse" would win the race on that occasion. This appears to have been based on a Canadian product called "They're at the Post" by Maas Marketing, which is more or less the same game with different recordings on the discs to reflect the target market.
Inside-to-outside recording and hill-and-dale recording.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s the Vitaphone sound system used large sixteen-inch 33 1/3 rpm records to provide the soundtrack for motion pictures. The record rotated in the usual clockwise direction but the groove was cut and played starting at the inside of the recorded area and proceeding outward. This inside start was dictated by the unusually long playing time of the records and the rapid wearing down of the single-use disposable metal needles which were standard for playing lateral-cut shellac records at that time. The signal degradation caused by a worn needle point was most audible when playing the innermost turns of the groove, where the undulations were most closely packed and tortuous, but fairly negligible when playing the outermost turns where they were much more widely spaced and easily traced. With an inside start the needle point was freshest where it mattered most.
Almost all analog disc records were recorded at a constant angular speed, resulting in a decreasing linear speed toward the disc's center. The result was a maximum level of signal distortion due to low groove velocity nearest the center of the disc, called "end-groove distortion". Loud musical passages were most audibly affected. Since some music, especially classical music, tends to start quietly and mount to a loud climax, such distortion could be minimized if the disc was recorded to play beginning at the inner end of the groove. A few such records were issued, but the domination of automatic record changers, and the fact that symphony movements, for example, varied greatly in length and could be difficult to arrange appropriately on 20-minute disc sides, made them no more than curiosities.
Until the 1920s, French Pathé Records used inside start and other commercially distinctive grooving. At that time they cut all discs vertically, meaning the vibrations in the grooves were "hill and dale," as their wax cylinders had always been. The records required a special sapphire stylus and a vertically responsive reproducer for playback.
A number of radio transcriptions were standard lateral grooved records (either playing at 33 1/3 or 78) but starting from the inside. An example was those made by the New York Judson Studios, starting in about 1928 or 1929 and running into the 1930s. Each record was 12", made of standard shellac, started in the inner groove and had a locked groove at the outer edge. Some radio transcription discs had both outside and inside-start as a way to maintain the fidelity levels when the record was turned over.
Inventor Thomas Edison, who always favored the cylinder for all its advantages, also cut his discs with vertically modulated grooves from their introduction in 1912 until a year or two before his company's demise in 1929 (Edison Disc Records). Edison pioneered fine groove discs that played for up to five minutes per 10-inch side; they were very thick to remain perfectly flat and played back with a precision-ground diamond stylus. A commercially unsuccessful extension of the system introduced grooves nearly twice as fine as those of microgroove LPs, yielding playing times of up to 20 minutes per side at 80 RPM and again requiring a special diamond stylus. Even more than with Pathé discs, Edison's vertical-cut records called for specially designed equipment for playback.
When using a modern stereo cartridge to play these or other vertical-cut monophonic recordings, the polarity of one channel must be inverted at some point before the two channels are combined to produce a mono signal, as is desirable; otherwise, they largely cancel each other out, leaving little more than surface noise audible.
Early multiple track (i.e., stereophonic) format.
Before the development of the single-groove stereo system circa 1957, at least three companies: Cook Records, Livingston Audio Products, and Atlantic Records, released a number of "binaural" recordings. These were not created using binaural recording techniques, but rather one side of each record consisted of two long, continuous tracks — one containing the left channel, and the other containing the right channel. It was intended that the buyer purchase an adapter from Cook Laboratories or a tonearm from Livingston that allowed two cartridges to be mounted together, with the proper spacing, on a single tone arm. Over 50 records were released using this format.
Quadraphonic formats.
Quadraphonic records present four channels of audio, requiring specialized pickups and decoding equipment to reproduce the two additional channels' signals from the groove.
Disc noise reduction formats.
In the 1970s and 1980s, more than a thousand audiophile records were produced with audio tracks specially encoded to be played back through various noise reduction systems in order to reduce noise and increase the dynamic range. Systems employed include dbx disc (1973–1982), Telefunken/Nakamichi High-Com II (1979–1982), CBS CX 20 (1981–1982), and UC (1983–1989).
Vibration-resistant discs.
Highway Hi-Fi was a system of proprietary records and players designed for use in automobiles, utilizing a slower play speed and high stylus pressure.
Unusual materials and uses.
With their origin stretching back to the dawn of recorded sound at the turn of the 20th century, flexible recording media have been made from a variety of materials including foil, paper, and–in the 1950s–thin flexible vinyl known as flexi discs.
Thin, flexible paper-based records were briefly popularized in the 1930s by Hit of the Week Records and Durium Records. "Melody Cards" were popular in the late 1950s. They took the form of an oversized rectangular postcard with the usual address and greeting space on one side and an illustration on the other. The illustration was overlaid with a transparent plastic material into which the grooving was impressed. The recording was usually musical as the name implies. They typically played at 45 RPM. It was recommended to not write on them with a ball point pen, an invention which was just coming into common use at that time. Laminated cardboard records have been produced as integral promotional novelties on packaging, most notably on the backs of cereal boxes in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Beginning in the 1940s, flexible records began to be used in the form of "book records"–spiral bound paper publications and four or five flexible record sheets bound in. A spindle hole went through the entire assembly. Book records could be opened to one of the records and completely folded back around itself, so that the whole thing could be placed on the turntable and played intact.
In the 1950s, advances in vinyl production technology led to the development of the 7-inch 33 RPM flexi disc record. Only seen occasionally in the 1950s, these recordings were increasingly used as inserts in magazines that included audio supplements from the 1960s through the 1980s. The recordings were pressed on very thin, flexible sheets of vinyl (or laminated paper), providing a mixture of economy, practical utility and novelty appeal. Flexi discs or Soundsheets were often provided by music publishers to their customers, frequently school band and orchestra directors, marching band and drum corps leaders and others, with their printed catalogs of sheet music. The director could then hear a sample recording of the piece as they looked at an excerpt from the musical score.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when computer programs and other binary data were often stored on audio cassettes, a number of microcomputer hobbyist magazines published "flexible program sheets" under various trademarked names including "Floppy ROM", "Flexisoft", and "Discoflex". These bound-in thin plastic 33 RPM audio recordings stored computer data such as video game programs that would be played on a turntable and dubbed onto a cassette. It was also possible to connect the record player's output to the computer's cassette (analog signal) input port and load the data into the computer directly. This method of storing computer data later expanded to include non-flexi-disc novelty releases from musicians such as Chris Sievey.
Chocolate records about three inches in diameter, and small players made for them, were marketed as a novelty in Europe in 1903–1904. After a record wore out or ceased to amuse, it could be eaten.
In 1973, the Kingdom of Bhutan issued several unusual postage stamps that are playable miniature phonograph records. These thin plastic single-sided adhesive-backed 33 RPM discs feature folk music and tourism information. Not very practical for actual postal use and rarely seen canceled, they were designed as revenue-generating novelties and were initially scorned as such by most stamp collectors. Their small diameters (approximately 7 and 10 cm or 2.75 and 4 inches) make them unplayable on turntables with automatic return tonearms.
In the Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1960s, bootleg copies of banned Western music were individually recorded onto used medical x-ray film and sold on the black market. These were called "ribs" or 'Roentgenizdat'.
Unusual appearance.
Colored vinyl.
The first discs by Berliner Gramophone were black, and that has been the standard color for gramophone records ever since. But as early as 1899, the Vitaphone Talking Machine Co. made records that were brownish-red in color. The American Record Company produced records made of blue shellac for their flagship label, although pressings for client labels were made in standard black. Unusual colors, and even multi-colored shellac first appeared in the 1910s on such labels as Vocalion Records. In the 1920s, several companies made records of various shades of brown, including Perfect Records and Grey Gull Records.
When RCA Victor launched the 7-inch 45 RPM record, they initially had eight musical classifications (pop, country, blues, classical, children's, etc.) each with not only its own uniquely colored label but with a corresponding color vinyl. According to experts at the Sarnoff Center in Princeton, New Jersey, the cost of maintaining eight vinyl colors became too high, but the different colored labels were continued, at least for popular music (black) and classical (red, as in "Red Seal"). In October 1945, RCA Victor put on the market its first "non-breakable" phonograph records. Made of a ruby-red, translucent vinyl resin plastic, they cost twice as much ($2 per disc) as the 12-inch Victor Red Seal. In the 1960s, a distinction was made in label colors of promotional copies of 45 RPM records as well, with pop music being issued on yellow labels and country on light green.
In the 1970s, such gimmicks started to reappear on records, especially on 7-inch and 12-inch singles. These included using colored acetate instead of black vinyl. Available colors included clear, transparent white, red, blue, yellow and multi-hued.
Faust released their debut album with transparent vinyl and cover in 1971, and a transparent 12-inch of Queen's "The Invisible Man" was released. In the 1980s, the ska band Bad Manners released a single on Magnet Records called "Samson And Delilah" that was pressed on clear vinyl, with a clear label and clear print on the label and it came in a clear sleeve. In 1983, American post-punk band Talking Heads released the album "Speaking in Tongues"; a limited number of copies were pressed on clear vinyl and included in an elaborate plastic case designed by Robert Rauschenberg.
Some recordings were released in several different colors, in a deliberate effort to sell the same product to one person multiple times as collector's items. Currently, it is common practice for hardcore punk to release records of different colors at the same time, and press a smaller number of one color than the other. This has created a culture of hardcore record collecting based on having the same release multiple times, each copy with a different and more rare color.
The 1977 release of the 45 RPM single of "Strawberry Letter 23" by The Brothers Johnson was produced by A&M Records with a slightly pink center label (as opposed to the usual buff color that A&M uses), and had strawberry scent embedded into the plastic to make the record give off the odor of strawberries.
Adrian Snell's 1979 album "Something New Under the Sun" was produced on opaque yellow vinyl, in reference to the name of the album.
Kraftwerk released a 12-inch single of "Neon Lights," made of glow-in-the-dark plastic in 1978. Penetration released a luminous vinyl limited edition of the album "Moving Targets" in 1978 and the "Translumadefractadisc" (Han-O-Disc) punk sampler picture disc (which had a silk screened luminous ink under the litho on Mylar film image of Medusa) was released by The Label (U.K) in 1979. The Foo Fighters' debut single "This Is a Call" was available on 12-inch glow-in-the-dark vinyl, and Luke Vibert also released a glow-in-the-dark 11-inch EP in 2000. In late 2010 - early 2011, dubstep artist Skrillex released a limited 500 copy run of his EP "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" on 12-inch glow-in-the-dark vinyl.
The Canadian pressing of Devo's "" album featured spattered-color vinyl, with a grey/white marbled base with splashes of color on the top of that. The UK pressing came in multiple (solid) colors of vinyl and a picture disc edition that came with a flexi-disc (the US edition, however, was plain black).
From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams released a small number of singles on colored vinyl. Notable examples are "Christmas Time", originally on both black and clear green vinyl and later reissued on red vinyl, and a 12" single of "Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven" on silver colored vinyl in 1992, in order to commemorate the massive sales of his earlier hit single "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", which was featured in its full-length version on the disc.
Isis released their first EP "Red Sea"' on tri-colored vinyl. Divided like a pie, one third was red, one third was black, and one third was tan/gold. Other bands have released records with 2 colors, divided down the middle.
Electronic artist Isao Tomita issued a coral or peach vinyl disc of "The Bermuda Triangle" on RCA Red Seal.
Alternative artist The Dandy Warhols have been known to release all their 7-inch singles on different color vinyl records, and also their LP's. An uncolored, clear, limited release version of their album 'The Dandy Warhols Come Down' was available at the record stores in the band's hometown in 1997.
Jack White's independent label Third Man Records often produces limited editions of their releases on colored, multi-colored and glow-in-the-dark vinyl.
American singer songwriter Madonna released her 2005 album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" on a double pink vinyl. Her 2008 Hard Candy album was released on a triple package, which two of these LPs are "candy swirled" vinyl discs (pink-white and blue-white "candy swirled" discs like a starlight candy).
The alternative band Jars of Clay released a limited edition version of their 'Inland' album using coke bottle green for the disc.
Picture discs.
A picture disc has graphics visible in the grooved playing area, rather than just on an unplayable back side or large label.
Picture discs have been around since the 1920s—or since about 1910, if postcard-size rectangular picture records are included. In the early 1930s they were a minor gimmick in an attempt to stimulate abysmal depression-era record sales. Most of these early picture discs were simply a very thin clear plastic laminated onto a sheet of printed cardboard before being stamped in a record press. One US series was more substantial. Some suffered from audible defects such as low-frequency noise due to a surface texture or were rapidly worn to shreds by the very heavy pickups and crude steel needles used to play records at that time.
Vogue Records 78 rpm picture discs were made by Sav-Way Industries in 1946 and 1947 and were of high quality both physically and sonically. Their playing surfaces were clear vinyl and there was a sturdy aluminum core disc between the printed sheets. The imagery was usually gaudy and done in 1940s calendar art style. They sold for US$1.05 each, only about 50 percent more than ordinary shellac records, but the list of available titles was short and the recording artists were second-rank at best.
The first 'modern' rock picture disc was introduced as an assortment of artists such as MC5 and The Doors. It was released in 1969 by Elektra/Metronome of Germany and entitled "Psychedelic Underground - Off 2, Hallucinations". The second release was the British progressive rock band Curved Air's first album, "Air Conditioning", a UK issue (1970).
Unusually shaped discs.
Shaped discs contain an ordinary grooved centre (typically the same as a standard 7-inch) but with a non-grooved outer rim that can be cut to any shape that does not cut into the grooves. These oddly shaped records were frequently combined with picture discs (see above); a trend that was pushed particularly hard by UK record company branches in the mid-1980s. Curiously, uncut test pressings of shaped discs in their original 12-inch form - with the clear vinyl surrounds still intact - are much more sought-after by collectors than the "regular" shapes themselves.
A well known unusually shaped disc is a picture disc by Toto with the song "Africa" on side 1 and "Rosanna" on side 2. It was originally pressed in 1983 and reissued on Record Store Day in 2017.
Screamo bands Jeromes Dream and Orchid released a split in the shape of a skull. The record was considered a 10-inch. It spun at 45 RPM and was one sided. Some came in glow in the dark, some in blood red, and some black and white.
Some extreme examples required smaller grooving than standard 7-inch such as the single "Montana" by John Linnell (of the band They Might Be Giants) which was in the shape of the United States. This record was problematic because record players whose tonearms returned automatically after the record finished playing often did just that before the needle actually reached the song.
Canadian hardcore punk bands Left For Dead and Acrid released a split LP on No Idea Records on 31 July 1997 as a saw-blade shaped vinyl record. When these spun on the record player, they resembled a spinning saw. The rap duo Insane Clown Posse released a sample vinyl featuring songs from their studio album , in the shape of the album's "Joker Card", the Wraith. Alternative rock band Snow Patrol released a specially created web-shaped vinyl for the single "Signal Fire," a song which was used in the film "Spider-Man 3".
Etched discs.
Usually taking up a blank side of vinyl, rather than containing music, one side of a disc can be pressed with etched or embossed images. This can take the form of autographs, part of the artwork or logos. Earliest records produced by Emile Berliner, as those by other early companies as Zonophone had etched labels, before paper labels were widely used. Many early Edison Diamond Discs did have etched labels as well, with many (if not all) also featuring a little etched picture of Thomas Edison.
The Gramophone company etched their logo at the blank side of their single sided records in the early 1900s, in the same way, Some later single sided Red Seal records by Victor had a pattern with the word Victor on it.
After having already released both colored vinyl singles and picture discs in the 1980s, Canadian rock artist Bryan Adams issued a 12" single of "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" in autumn 1991, which had the front cover photography etched onto side B.
Coheed and Cambria released their fourth album "" with side four having etched artwork on it incorporating the band's logo. The "B side" of Dinosaur Jr's cover of The Cure's "Just like Heaven" has a bas-relief "sculpture" embossed on its surface. Side 6 of Boards of Canada's Geogaddi has an etching of a nuclear family for the track "Magic Window", albeit to replace the 1 minute 46 second long silent track that appears on digital versions.
Although these etchings cannot be seen while the record is playing, some are pressed on clear vinyl so the etchings can be seen from both sides. An example of this is the 1997 7-inch of "Freeze the Atlantic" by Cable which has etched fish.
The Japanese rock band Boris (known for their unique LPs; their 2006 album Pink was released on pink vinyl) pressed their 2006 album, Vein, on transparent vinyl with etched artwork on the outer two inches of the record. This causes problems with auto-start phonographs, as the actual grooves of music do not start where the needle is designed to drop. This may cause damage to the needle and record artwork.
The 1980 A&M Records LP of Split Enz's album "True Colours" was remarkable not only for its multiple cover releases (in different color patterns), but for the laser-etching process used on the vinyl. The logo from the album cover, as well as other shapes, were etched into the vinyl in a manner that, if hit by a light, would reflect in polychromatic colors. This laser etching does not affect the playing grooves. This same process was also used for the 45 single of the band's song "One Step Ahead" from the album "Waiata".
The 1981 A&M Records LP of Styx's album "Paradise Theatre" had a laser-etched design of the band's logo on side two.
The 1990 Mute XL12Bong18 release from Depeche Mode features "Enjoy the Silence" The Quad: Final Mix on side A and the etched image of a rose and a hand-drawn "DM" on side B.
The original soundtrack recording for the film "Superman II" had a special edition with the Superman "S" shield logo etched five times on each side of the standard black vinyl album.
The 2020 release of the Quake soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails has program code from the game etched into side D.
Liquid-filled discs.
For the release of the soundtrack for the Disney film "The Black Hole", a prototype disc filled with aniline dye colored silicone fluids and oils that freely move around was produced; however, leakage proved too great a problem and it was never released.
In 2012, Third Man Records announced a limited edition 12-inch single release of Jack White's "Sixteen Saltines" on a liquid-filled disc, calling it "the first-ever disc of its kind to be made available to the public" and noting the unreleased "Black Hole" release.
Also in 2012, The Flaming Lips released an extremely limited (and expensive) edition of their double album of collaborations "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends", which was filled with a diluted mix of blood contributed by several of the collaborators, including Kesha, Chris Martin and Neon Indian's Alan Palomo. It was pressed at United Record Pressing in Nashville at the same time as Jack White's liquid-filled "Sixteen Saltines" 12", and the first copy of the "Fwends" blood vinyl was traded for two copies of "Saltines."
In 2017, Fonoflo Records released a liquid filled record for Tennessee Jet's Reata featuring double-concentric liquids, being the first of its kind. In an outer chamber on the record, Old Crow whiskey was inserted, while Coca-Cola was inserted to an inner ring.
Other concepts.
A BP Fallon single entitled "Fame #9", another product of Third Man Records, was pressed in a process dubbed "Single Signal", in which the B-side has different content on the left and right channels of the stereo groove. Listeners with a balance knob on their stereo are instructed to turn it either to the left or the right to play the record correctly.
Hologram discs.
One of the many features added to the vinyl version of Jack White's 2014 album "Lazaretto" is a floating hologram image of a spinning angel that appears when the record is played and viewed at from a certain angle.
Additionally, alongside a standard vinyl release, the soundtrack for "" was made available on a holographic record that displays an image of the "Millennium Falcon" on one side and a TIE fighter on the other, both spinning at the speed of the record. The deluxe vinyl edition of Rush's "2112" features a hologram of a spinning Red Star of the Federation. All three of these were produced by Tristan Duke for his studio Infinity Light Science.


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Popular Front of India

The Popular Front of India (PFI) is an extremist Islamic organisation in India formed as a successor to National Development Front (NDF) in 2006, and often have been accused for involvement in anti-national and anti-social activities by the Indian Government. It acquired a multi-state dimension by merging with the National Development Front, Manitha Neethi Pasarai, Karnataka Forum for Dignity and other organisations. The PFI describe themselves as a neo-social movement committed to empower people to ensure justice, freedom and security. The organisation has various wings to cater to different sections of society, including the National Women's Front and the Campus Front of India.
PFI claims to work in cooperation with the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations and other human rights activists in a bid to curb human rights violations in the nation. The organisation campaigns for Muslim Reservation in line with the Mishra Commission (National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities) report to address inequality faced by Muslims in India. In 2012, the organisation conducted protests against the use of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act [UAPA] to detain innocent citizens.
Since its inception, the organisation has been accused of various antisocial and anti-national activities. The allegations include connections with various Islamic terrorist groups, possessing arms, kidnapping, murder, intimidation, hate campaigns, rioting, Love Jihad and various acts of religious extremism. In 2010, the assault on Prof. T. J. Joseph who published a controversial question paper, supposedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad, was linked to the PFI. However, the charges were denied by the organisation, which added that the accusations were fabricated to malign the organisation.
In 2012, the Government of Kerala informed the High Court of their opinion that the activities of the Popular Front are inimical to the safety of the country and that it is "nothing but a resurrection of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in another form", in its argument to ban the organisation's Independence Day programme, dubbed "Freedom Parade". The High Court dismissed the Government's stand, but upheld the ban imposed by the State Government. In July 2010, the Kerala Police seized country-made bombs, weapons, CDs and several documents containing Taliban and Al-Qaeda propaganda, from PFI activists. The raids conducted were subsequently termed "undemocratic" and "unconstitutional" by the organisation. As of 6 September 2010, as informed to the state high court by the Kerala government, no evidence has been found by the police in its probe into the allegation of links to Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e Taiba (Let) or Al-Qaeda. However, in April 2013 a series of raids by the Kerala Police on PFI centres across North Kerala found lethal weapons, foreign currency, human shooting targets, bombs, explosive raw materials, gunpowder, swords, among other things. The Kerala Police claimed that the raid revealed the "terror face" of the PFI.
In 2015, the Madras High Court issued a notice to the Commissioner of Police based on the PIL charging police for having given misleading information to HC on the "unity march", a variant of the Freedom Parade. The HC directed to register a case against the CoP and the SP, and ₹3.3mn as compensation for "loss of image, reputation and defamation". The organisation provided counter arguments to the allegations positioned against it in its 2012 nationwide campaign "Why Popular Front".
The organisation is also known for its anti-Imperialist and anti-Zionist stance, as seen in the pro-Palestine protests in various parts of the country in November 2012, and later in July 2014 with the nationwide solidarity campaigns christened "I am Gaza". In 2015, the Popular Front protested against the death sentence given to a democratically elected leader and Islamist affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi and his followers. The protest was in front of the Egyptian embassy in New Delhi.
History.
The PFI started in Kerala as successor to National Development Front in 2006. It went on to merge with the Karnataka Forum for Dignity of Karnataka and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu and later in 2009, with Goa's Citizen's Forum, Rajasthan's Community Social and Educational Society, West Bengal's Nagarik Adhikar Suraksha Samiti, Manipur's Lilong Social Forum and Andhra Pradesh's Association of Social Justice. It actively advocates Muslim reservations, personal law courts for Muslims, the cause of Dalits, Muslims and tribals, and scholarships to deprived Muslim students.
A common platform was formed in cooperation with the South India Council as an outcome of a regional discussion attended by Muslim social activists and intellectuals from the South Indian States at Bangalore on 25 and 26 January 2004. It has taken up the issue of reservation in government and private sector jobs and Parliament and Assemblies and in cooperation with the Confederation of Muslim Institutions in India, it organised a two-day workshop on Muslim Reservations on 26 and 27 November 2005 at Hyderabad, inaugurated by Rajya Sabha member Rahman Khan. The slogan of PFI is "Naya Karavan: Naya Hindustan", which is Urdu for "New Caravan: new India".
Criticism and accusations.
The various allegations include connections with various Islamic terrorist groups, possessing arms, kidnapping, murder, intimidation, hate campaign, rioting, Love Jihad and various acts of religious extremism, including the assault on professor T. J. Joseph who had set a controversial question paper supposedly insulting the Prophet Muhammed. However, the charges were refuted by the PFI which alleged the accusations as baseless and fabricated to malign the organisation. An IB officer have said that PFI preaches to its cadres that killing of right-wing activists would provide them 'religious rewards in the afterlife'.
2003 Murders.
In 2003, some of its members were arrested for rioting and murdering eight Hindus in Marad Beach in Kerala's Kozhikode.
Connection with Students Islamic Movement of India.
In 2010, the PFI was alleged to have links with the banned Islamic terrorist organisation Students Islamic Movement of India. The PFI's national chairman, Abdul Rehman, was the former national secretary of SIMI, while the organization's state secretary, Abdul Hameed, was SIMI's former state secretary. Most former leaders of SIMI were either identified with PFI or were holding various portfolios in the organisation. The alleged SIMI connection has been dubbed baseless by the leaders of the Popular Front claiming that the Front was launched in 1993, whereas the SIMI ban came much later in 2001. Retired Indian army officer P. C. Katoch has claimed that the PFI maintains links with the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.
Arms training camp in Narath.
In April 2013, Kerala Police raided a training camp in Narath, Kannur and arrested 21 activists of the Popular Front of India. Two country-made bombs, a sword, raw materials for making bombs and pamphlets in the name of PFI were seized by the police. The raid was conducted at the office building of Thanal Charitable Trust. A document with names of several leading personalities and organisations was also seized, which police suspect is a hit-list. The Popular Front leadership and those arrested claimed that it was a Yoga training programme organised as part of a personality development programme and asked for a judicial probe by a sitting judge to inquire into the alleged training camp. PFI's state president claimed that this police case was fabricated in a bid to tarnish the organisation's image. On 18 May 2013, the NIA arrived to investigate the alleged extremist activities in Narath.
Kidnap and Murder of boys for ransom.
Two boys were kidnapped on 8 June 2011 from SBRR Mahajana College premises in Mysore and murdered by members of Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), who sought ransom of 5 crore rupees to raise funds for their organisation. In 2006 KFD had merged with PFI. The arrested KFD members are Adil, alias Adil Pasha; Athavulla Khan; Ameen, alias Syed Ameen; Rehman, alias Shabbir Rehaman; Kouser, alias Mohammed Kouser; and Safeer Ahmed, alias Safeer. Following the arrest of these KFD members, Karnataka state government requested the Union government to ban Karnataka Forum for Dignity.
Murder of CPI(M) and RSS workers.
In 2012, the Kerala government informed the Kerala High Court, in an affidavit, that Popular Front of India had active involvement in 27 murder cases, mostly of cadres of CPI-M and RSS. In 2014, it again submitted before the Kerala High Court that activists of the NDF/PFI were involved in 27 communally motivated murder cases, 86 attempt to murder cases and in 106 communal cases registered in the state. The affidavit was filed in response to a petition filed by Thejas, spokesperson of PFI in the State, challenging the refusal of the government to give government advertisements to the daily. A carpenter Abid Pasha was arrested for six murder cases. He had links with PFI.
Murder of ABVP activist N Sachin Gopal and Vishal.
On 6 July 2012, N. Sachin Gopal, a student of Modern ITC, Kannur and the district leader Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, was allegedly stabbed by members of the Campus Front and Popular Front of India. Student leader Vishal was murdered. Gopal later died of his injuries at KMC Hospital in Mangalore on 6 September 2012 A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the case.
SMS campaign against people of the North-East.
After the Assam riots in 2012, an SMS hate campaign was launched in the South of India threatening people from the North-East with retribution, particularly after Ramzan. Investigators traced the source of these hate messages to Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) and the Popular Front of India, along with its affiliate organisations Manita Neeti Pasarai and Karnataka Forum for Dignity. More than 60 million messages were sent in a single day on 13 August 2012. Some 28-30 percent of the messages were found to have been uploaded from Pakistan. The SMS campaign was designed to create a panic among the people from the North-East, forcing them to flee. This led to a mass exodus of 30,000 people from cities of Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and national capital Delhi. Union Home Ministry banned bulk SMS and MMS for 15 days to quell rumors and threats.
The PFI has denied the accusation.
Attack on T. J. Joseph by PFI activists.
In Jan 2011, Kerala Police filed a charge sheet against 27 alleged PFI activists in conjunction with an incident in which they severed the hand of a Kerala professor who had offended the religious sentiments of his students. At the time of the attack, Joseph was coming back from his duties at a private Christian college in Muvattapuzha and had been accused of blasphemy.
It is reported that the attack resulted from the ruling from one of the "Taliban-model" courts (Darul Khada) operating in the state. The Kerala state police claimed to be "unearthing the vast network" of the PFI, and after a series of raids on the houses of PFI members, the district secretary of the PFI "threatened the officer with dire consequences if he continued raiding the houses of its activists." On 9 July 2010, it was reported that PFI installations were being raided by police, and that they had found propaganda videos from the global Islamic network al-Qaeda in the possession of one alleged PFI member, and a rifle, fake SIM cards, and fake identity cards in the possession of another member of the PFI. As a result of the incident, the BJP has called for a ban on the PFI and an examinations of possible links between the PFI and the Taliban by the National Investigation Agency.
One of the chief accused in this case, Prof. Anas was acquitted. He had contested to win the local elections from jail. He alleged the accusation is a scheme devised by the NIA and the police to deliberately target the Popular Front.
Shimoga Violence.
Karnataka's Shimoga faced violence during rallies held by Popular Front of India, which resulted in the death of two persons. Popular Front of India activists were arrested for the murder of Vishwanath Shetty. Later it was proved that the second killing was related to Popular Front.
Funding of Anti-CAA Protests.
On 1 January 2020 Union law minister Mr.Ravi Shankar Prasad stated that Popular Front of India, may have played a part in violence surrounding some protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also informed Ministry of Home Affairs in its report submitted to Home Ministry and is investigating a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) probe. However Popular Front of India has denied any link with any protest against the CAA in the country and called it a cheap campaign against Popular Front of India.
Forced Conversation.
AS Zainaba, president of the National Women's Front – the PFI's women's wing – have admitted planning forced religious conversions to Islam at charitable trusts related to PFI.
On accusations and counter charges.
In 2012, the Popular Front launched a nationwide campaign "Why the Popular Front", detailing the alleged false accusations and attempts by mainstream media and other organisations to tarnish its image. The organisation maintains that it strives hard to restore the rights of the depressed and marginalised sections of the Indian society. The organisation's former Chairman, E M Abdul Rahman, gave elaborate justifications for the accusations that the PFI faces that year.
Further, the organisation filed complaints with the Press Council of India against 10 newspapers—both Hindi and English—for their attempts to tarnish the image of the PFI.
In 2013, in line with the PFI's counter charge, "Coastal Digest" reported that the NIA and the IB denied that they had shared any such information, denying the claims by the media. This was in response to the 2012 complaints against 10 newspapers. In March 2015, Indian intelligence agencies reported that the role of the PFI in the 2011 Mumbai bombings, 2012 Pune bombings and 2013 Hyderabad blasts had been found; claims which were subsequently denied by the PFI.
Political activities.
National Political Conference.
The public meeting on 17 February 2009 which marked the conclusion of National Political Conference saw the merger of social organisations in eight states into the Popular Front of India. Along with the state presidents of NDF Kerala, MNP Tamil Nadu and KFD Karnataka which had already merged with Popular Front, heads of social organisations in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Manipur joined hands on the dais with the Popular Front chairman.
Freedom Parade on Indian Independence Day.
The PFI and its allies conducted a freedom parade on 15 August in 2009 and 2010 in celebration of Indian Independence Day. The parade was followed by a public meeting. In 2010, the parade was conducted in Udupi and Mettuppalayam. In the previous year it was conducted in Mangalore and Madurai.
The Kerala state government banned the Freedom Parade stating it would jeopardise communal harmony. The ban was challenged in the Kerala High Court which upheld the ban. The Intelligence wing of Kerala Police had informed the High Court that PFI is the new face of banned Islamist group Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and is engaged in fundamentalist and anti-national activities. This stand of the government was rejected by the High Court.
Social Justice conference 2011.
The Social Justice Conference was held at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi on 26 and 27 November 2011. The conference was addressed by Syed Shahabuddin, a former MP and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party leader, and Thol. Thirumavalavan the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader. The key address of the conference was to plea the UPA government to implement the findings of Sachar Committee Report and the Ranganath Misra Commission.
Protest against misuse of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
21 activists of PFI were charged with Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for involvement in anti-national activities. Following which, in May 2013, the organisation conducted a statewide campaign in Kerala, it started on 8 May from Kasargod and how the UAPA is being misused, and how they believe it is terrorising citizens who resisted oppression from a ruling elite. The campaign concluded with a mass gathering at the State Capital, Thiruvananthapuram on 30 May.
Muslim minority reservation and employment.
KM Shareef, the National General Secretary of PFI has asserted that reservation is the most immediate need of Muslims, referencing a report submitted by the Prime Minister's High Level Committee (Justice Rajindar Sachchar Committee) in November 2006, which identified the Muslim community as more backward than any other, and claimed that insufficient discussion on this topic was taking place in assemblies and parliament. In the context of the Central Government's decision on reservation in higher education, the South India Council organised three Regional Conventions on Reservation: in Calcutta on 4 August 2006, in Bangalore on 5 August 2006, and in Chennai on 17 August 2006. A National Convention on Reservation in Higher Education was organised by the South India Council jointly with All India Milli Council at New Delhi on 29 August 2006. Former Prime Minister V. P. Singh also addressed the convention.
In 2010, the National Executive Council of the PFI demanded a ten percent reservation for Muslims across India.


Arthur Firstenberg

Arthur Robert Firstenberg (born May 28, 1950) is an American author and activist on the subject of electromagnetic radiation and health. He is the founder of the independent campaign group the Cellular Phone Task Force. His 1997 book "Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution" was published by the group. He is the author of "The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life" (AGB Press 2017).
Education.
Born May 28, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York, Firstenberg was a Westinghouse scholar who received a BA in mathematics from Cornell University in 1971 and continued into medical school from 1978 to 1982. Firstenberg did not complete medical school due to illness, which he attributes to electromagnetic hypersensitivity brought on by receiving over 40 diagnostic dental x-rays.
Campaign against microwave technology.
Since 1996, Firstenberg has argued in numerous publications that wireless technology is dangerous, and "the telecommunications industry has suppressed damaging evidence about its technology since at least 1927."
In 1997, the Cellular Phone Taskforce was the lead petitioner in a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's RF radiation exposure limits, which was joined by dozens of other parties including the Ad Hoc Association of Parties Concerned About the Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Health and Safety Rules ("AHA"). The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled for the FCC. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was supported by an amicus curiae brief written by Senators Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords, was denied.
In May 2008, Firstenberg and other groups accused the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, of discrimination against those allergic to EM radiation for having free wireless networks in city buildings. The case was dismissed in 2011.
In January 2010, Firstenberg filed a lawsuit against his neighbor, seeking damages of $530,000, for "refusing to turn off her cell phone and other electronic devices." He claimed that because of shared wiring, electromagnetic fields from his neighbor's electronic devices were keeping him up at night and destroying his health. He stated that he was made homeless as a result. The First District Court of New Mexico dismissed the case in September 2012, citing lack of sufficient supporting evidence. Firstenberg filed an appeal of the dismissal in the District Court in December 2012. On March 9, 2015, the New Mexico Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal by the district court.
Arthur also is a member of an organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico, called "Once a Forest", which promotes fire suppression on public lands. The group opposes forest management policies such as thinning and prescribed fire. Their views are controversial.


Ken Beatrice

Kenneth Edward Beatrice (July 28, 1943 – December 6, 2015) was an American radio personality. He hosted a Washington, D.C.-area radio call-in sports show for 23 years, first on WMAL between 1973 and 1995, later on WTEM from 1995 to 2000.
Early life.
Kenneth Edward Beatrice was born on July 28, 1943. His family was Italian-American. He graduated from Boston College in 1965. During the 1970s, Beatrice worked for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. He also studied football scouting reports in his spare time.
Broadcasting career.
WBZ.
After occasionally appearing on WBZ radio sports shows as a guest, Beatrice joined the station in 1975 as the weekend host of "Calling All Sports". He replaced Guy Mainella as weekday host in 1976, but was moved back to weekends after five weeks and succeeded by Bob Lobel.
WMAL.
In 1977, Beatrice joined WMAL as host of "Sports Call", the station's nightly sports show, and the Washington Redskins pregame show. He became one of the city's most prominent and highest-rated radio hosts. On February 20, 1981, Beatrice admitted to "The Washington Star" that he had made "exaggerations" about his accomplishments on the air. He confessed that he did not play football at Boston College, that his doctorate degree was from a diploma mill in Ohio, and that his scouting system only involved people who scouted as a hobby. His admission came as "The Washington Post" was about to publish a story by Tony Kornheiser written after several weeks of intense questioning in which Beatrice admitted that he had no role in the Boston Patriots drafting Fran Tarkenton. He took a leave of absence after the story broke, but returned after five weeks. On August 16, 1991, Beatrice suffered a heart attack, which required him to undergo triple bypass surgery and miss many weeks of work.
By 1995, Beatrice's ratings had decreased to 5,000 listeners per fifteen minutes (down from 20,000 in 1990). On October 4, 1995 it was announced that WMAL was dropping Beatrice's show. The station's decision resulted in 200 phone calls and about 40 letters from supporters. His final program aired on October 6 and featured calls from Washington Redskins head coach Norv Turner, Redskins general manager Charley Casserly, and Washington Bullets head coach Jim Lynam.
WTEM.
On October 16, 1995, Beatrice signed a contract to host a sports program on a radio network owned by Sam Huff. The program originated from Middleburg, Virginia, but was syndicated nationally, including on WTEM in Washington, D.C. On April 20, 2000, Beatrice retired from radio.
Style.
Beatrice was known for his high-pitched voice, pronounced Boston accent, encyclopedic knowledge of sports (especially NFL Draft prospects), opinionated nature, respectful treatment of kids who called into his show, and his long running promos for Arby's. Some believe he had a tendency to talk over guests and callers, go off on tangents, and lecture guests. His catchphrase was "You're next!"
Post-retirement.
After his retirement, Beatrice settled in Haymarket, Virginia. He was a lector at St. John the Evangelist Church in Warrenton, Virginia, where he also trained other lectors. He died on December 6, 2015 from complications of pneumonia at the age of 72.


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Minolta helps you celebrate the morning


James Ting

James Henry Ting Wei (丁謂, born 1951) is a Shanghai-born Chinese-Canadian former business executive who was once one of Hong Kong's most successful businessmen before being charged with illegal business practices.
Early years.
Ting was born in Shanghai in 1951 and moved to Hong Kong in 1958. Ting moved to Australia and moved to Canada with his wife to study engineering at the University of Toronto. After graduation, Ting founded International Semi Tech Microsystems, a computer assembler, in Toronto in 1981.
Building the empire.
With Semi-Tech Ting expanded beyond computer components to acquire various high profile businesses like Singer Corporation, Sansui Electric, G.M. Pfaff and Akai. At its peak in 1997, Ting's business empire employed 100,000 people in 120 countries with sales of $5 billion. Before the empire collapsed in 1999, Ting sold them to Grande Holdings, which he founded in 1987.
Collapse and downfall.
These businesses Ting was involved in and improper business practices brought down his empire, tarnished the businesses he led or acquired. Singer made a loss of $238 million in 1997, while Semi-Tech and Akai both went bankrupt in 2000.
Ting fled Canada to avoid investigation by Canadian and US authorities and eventually Hong Kong to Macau. He was forced to return to Hong Kong, but left for China to avoid being investigated by Hong Kong regulators from 2000 to 2003. He was arrested after flying back from Macau by helicopter in March 2003 and was then investigated by Hong Kong Police's Commercial Crimes Bureau. On 29 June 2005 he was convicted to two counts of false accounting relating to a fake HK$300 million stake in MicroMain Systems, and was sentenced to six years in prison. After serving only one year, Ting's conviction was overturned by Hong Kong's Court of Appeals and he escaped retrial in 2006. He escaped another retrial in November 2007.
Ting's whereabouts after his legal problems is unknown.


Jonathan Baxter Harrison

Jonathan Baxter Harrison (April 5, 1835 – June 17, 1907), was a Unitarian minister and journalist who was involved in many of the social causes of his day: abolitionism, Indian rights, forest preservation, and the cultural improvement of the working class. Best known for his realistic depictions of everyday American life, he is acknowledged as an important influence in the development of literary realism.
Life.
Born in a log cabin in Greene County, Ohio, he early showed an eagerness for reading, often studying beside the fire at night after a long day spent working in the fields. As a young man, he became a backwoods Methodist minister, and then worked for a Quaker-run abolitionist paper. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he joined, with the rank of First Sergeant, the 8th Indiana Infantry Regiment, a regiment of volunteers formed for a three-month period of service; the regiment fought at the Battle of Rich Mountain under the command of William Rosecrans. He spent the remaining war years as editor of the "Winchester Journal" in Randolph County, Indiana, where he began corresponding with Charles Eliot Norton, the secretary of the Loyal Publication Society, beginning a lifelong friendship. In Norton’s papers we see Harrison described as a figure much like Abraham Lincoln: an unaffected frontiersman, at once virtuous and wise.
After the war, Harrison became a Unitarian minister and active in Spiritualism, a religious movement that attracted many abolitionists and other reformers. To be closer to Norton, Harrison moved east, obtaining a position as Unitarian minister 1870-1873 in Montclair, New Jersey, and then from 1879-1884 in Franklin Falls, New Hampshire, where he lived until his death. He made the acquaintance of members of Norton’s circle, such as Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect and social critic, and William Dean Howells, the editor of "The Atlantic Monthly".
At the encouragement of Norton and his friends, Harrison began writing on some of the most important social issues of the day. These included the conditions in the South after the end of Reconstruction; working class culture and political life in New England; the condition of the American Indians; and the deforestation of the Northeast. During the 1882 campaign to preserve the natural environment around Niagara Falls, Harrison wrote a series of letters to newspapers in Boston and New York that turned public opinion in favor of preservation. By 1889 he was a well-known figure among New England journalists and intellectuals; in that year he was awarded an honorary degree (Artium Magister) by Harvard University.
Harrison was recognized by his friends as someone with a unique and perceptive view of American life. His work has an ethnographic feel, particularly his documentation of life in the post-bellum South, based on extensive travels and contact with ordinary people in the everyday business of life. One of his major concerns was to show the highly educated cultural elite how the rest of America lived, thought, and felt. Like Charles Eliot Norton, he was a conservative in the stamp of Matthew Arnold, worried that capitalism insidiously worked to degrade culture, and part of his intentions—particularly in documenting the life of the New England working class—was to make the cultured elite more aware and more concerned about the spiritual life of ordinary people. His work remains today as an important testimony of the conditions of life in the United States of the late nineteenth century.
Selected Writings of Jonathan Baxter Harrison.
Post-Reconstruction Period in the South.
"Studies in the South." "The Atlantic Monthly":


Kamala Harris for the people


Talk to the Press

Talk to the Press is a press and publicity agency that was founded in 2007 by media expert and former national newspaper journalist Natasha Courtenay-Smith. The company provides an outlet for individuals who wish to sell their stories and specialises in feature stories of a personal nature that range from dealing with the credit crunch to teen prostitution. Their articles predominantly appear in tabloid newspapers including "The Daily Mail", "The Sun" and "The Daily Mirror", and in women's magazines such as "Closer", "Reveal", "Bella" and "Take a Break". In March 2010 Talk to the Press featured in the "Cutting Edge" documentary "My Daughter Grew Another Head" about women's magazines.
Founder Natasha Courtenay-Smith has appeared as a media expert on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live and also appeared on BBC Breakfast to discuss the public fascination with the daily dramas of peoples' lives. The internet is thought to be instrumental in the rise of companies such as Talk to the Press because it allows them to find relevant stories all over the country. Courtenay-Smith is supported by a team of feature writers and journalists.
Articles about Talk to the Press have appeared in the Guardian and Independent newspapers. The journalists' newspaper The Press Gazette describes Talk to the Press as a website which aims to bridge the gap between the media and individuals with a story to tell.


PP icon


Planet Radio

Planet Radio is a community radio station based in Brisbane, Australia dedicated to promoting environmental issues and independent music. It narrowcasts on 88 FM to many locations in Brisbane, though some of its programmes are podcast to reach a wider audience via the Internet. Its web site claims Planet Radio is the "world's first environmental radio service".
Programmes.
Some of the weekly programmes on Planet Radio include:


Moidu Vanimel

Moidu vanimel is a South India-based journalist and photographer. Moidu started journalism as staff reporter in leading Malayalam daily Madhyamam and retired as News editor in 2017. He was concentrated writing reports regularly on political developments, environmental issues and health issues related environmental pollution more than two decades. After journalism career he started journey as wildlife photographer.
Early life.
Moidu studied in Government Sanskrit College, Pattambi completed M A in malayalam language and literature. During his college study he was actively involved as editorial board member with Padabhedham periodical. Then he joined in Madhyamam Daily as Reporter then he promoted as news editor for Madhyamam Daily and Madhyamam weekly. When he was Retiring in 2017 June he was working as news editor.
As photographer.
After journalism career he completed photography course from University of Calicut with A Grade in 2018. He full time concentrated in travel, bird watching and photography. As part of bird photography and documentation, conducted extensive travels to Koonthankulam Bird Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Odisha, Sathal in Uttarakhand, Mandal, Chafi, Choptha and pangod. Visited all the bird sanctuaries in Gujarat, Kolkata, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. He conducted a solo photography exhibition on Himalayan birds at Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Hall in Kozhikode in June 2019. He also published one short story collection in malayalam.


Ticket exchange

A ticket exchange is a market where tickets are bought and sold.
Secondary market.
Ticket exchanges allow people to buy and sell tickets online. For example, an individual who purchased tickets to a concert may find that they can no longer go and hence sell their tickets on a ticket exchange. Originally, this industry was dominated by street-based touts working outside large events and venues, buying tickets cheaply from people who had spares and selling them on to last-minute buyers. While some street touts may still exist, the advent of the internet has transformed the industry. Secondary markets today are predominantly online. There are two types of ticket exchanges, also called secondary marketplaces - for event tickets and for travel reservations.
Ticket exchange in events.
Event ticket exchanges are predominantly dominated by four big players - StubHub, Viagogo, Seatwave and GetMeIn. Among these big online ticket marketplaces, smaller players are emerging offering slightly different services, like marketplaces which limit the price of the tickets to the current live price. The event ticket exchanges have suffered significant criticism in recent years for enabling 'armchair' touts. These are small groups of people who purchase a large number of event tickets before fans are able to purchase them for themselves. These groups then sell these tickets on the ticket exchanges for a significantly higher price.
Ticket exchange in air travel.
There are online marketplaces where people can offer their transferable flight tickets and hotel reservations for sale. For travellers without travel insurance, it can reduce losses when unable to travel. Flights are transferable if the name on the ticket can be changed. There are over 60 airlines which allow name changes. These airlines always charge a fee for this service. The resale of airline tickets depends only on the rules of the airline and not on the country of the seller.
Ticket exchanges for travel reservations also facilitate the resale of hotel rooms and package holidays, such as SpareFare.net.


Deborah Aschheim

Deborah Aschheim is an American new media artist. She has exhibited her work internationally, in the United States and in Europe. She is best known for her exhibition "Involuntary Memories". Her work includes video sculptures and focuses on memory, memory loss, and place. She describes her work as the attempt to understand memory from both a personal and emotional perspective. Her work was included in an exhibition at the Suyama Space in Seattle in 2013.
Aschheim was a 2007 Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC.
Education.
Aschheim graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology with Honors and Studio Art from Brown University in 1986, and a MFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington in 1990.
"Involuntary Memories".
Aschheim’s "Involuntary Memories" is a unique installation that utilizes several different art forms including drawings, sculptures, artifacts, and interviews completed in 2011-2012 at the Orange County Great Park (formerly known as the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro). The piece focuses on the relationships that people who lived during the Richard Nixon/ Vietnam War era now have with the period nearly 40 years later.
For this piece, Aschheim chose to create original works of art in the form of sculptures and drawings gaining inspiration mainly from UC Irvine’s Archives and Special Collections. She then used these creations and added the text from the interviews she conducted in her open studio. The interviews showed both sides of the anti- and pro-war arguments during this era.
There was also a video played by Penny Lane and Brian Frye that showcased a few excerpts from "The Silent Majority: Super 8 Home Movies from the Nixon White House". Penny Lane and Brian Frye also produced a video titled “"Our Nixon"” which used archival footage of home movies by Nixon staffers. Meg Linton also wrote an intro for the exhibition. Indre Viskonta also wrote an essay regarding the piece. "Involuntary Memories" was an installation piece in Great Park Art Gallery, Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California 2013.


Masamitsu Naito

 is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Okazaki, Aichi, he graduated from the University of Tokyo and received master's degrees from it and Columbia University, he was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in 1998 after running unsuccessfully for the prefectural assembly of Tokyo.
In November 2017 an investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism cited his name in the list of politicians named in "Paradise Papers" allegations.


Linda Dement

Linda Dement (born 1960 in Brisbane) is an Australian multidisciplinary artist, working in the fields of digital arts, photography, film, and writing non-fiction. Dement is largely known for her exploration of the creative possibilities of emergent technologies such as the CD-ROM, 3-D modelling, interactive software, and early computing.
About.
She began exhibiting in 1984. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) from City Art Institute, Sydney in 1988.
Dement's work has been exhibited in Australia and internationally in galleries and festivals, including at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Ars Electronica in Austria, the International Symposia of Electronic Art in Sydney and Montreal and the Impakt Media Arts Festival in Europe.
Along with Australian artist collective VNS Matrix, Dement's work pioneered Australian cyberfeminism in art. Cyberfeminist politics and poetics used technology to deconstruct gender stereotypes in mainstream culture, and proactively situated women in relation to the rise of electronic culture in the early 1990s. Through her work, Dement aims to "give form to the unbearable." Dement's work has been described as depersonalised autobiography, that is, an appropriation of the digital as a space of expression, or a "rupture" in the info-tech dominated sphere of computer culture. Her work explores the relationship between the physical body and the body politic, exaggerating female "other-ness" or the "monstrous-feminine."
Censorship.
Some of Dement's early works have come under censorship by the Australian Government. "Typhoid Mary" was taken to the NSW Parliament as being "obscene" and subsequently came under the classification of the Australian Government's Office of Film and Literature as "not suitable for those under the age of 18." "In My Gash" also received a formal "Restricted" classification.


Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!


Viral email

A viral email (also known as a "pass-along email") is an email which rapidly propagates from person to person, generally in a word-of-mouth manner. It is an example of a viral phenomenon, which is used for profit in viral marketing, but can also contribute to the propagation of Internet memes like viral videos.
Overview.
A viral emails spreads when a person receives an email, often of a political or humorous nature, and forwards it to people they know. These people do the same, and thus they spread the email, potentially worldwide. In this sense, the process is similar to that of an email chain letter, but typically without the explicit requirement to pass it along that is a common part of the chain letter model. A common commercial application for viral emails is that of the viral advertising campaigns: promotional emails are specifically created so that they follow a viral propagation. Another form of viral email offers life-saving advice, such as Triangle of Life, which is passed around by well-meaning people even though agencies, governments and scientists have issued statements warning of its dangers.
Behavior.
A 2004 study into viral email behaviors identified a number of reasons as to why people may pass along emails. Most of the emails that were passed along involved humor, although other factors - such as the presence of naked pictures and warnings about crime - were identified as being significant. This tends to be replicated in commercial viral emails, where humor is a common theme, and where more risque content is often employed. The same study also examined reasons for not passing along emails, and noted that the most common reason was "the sense that the content was old."
Commercial implications.
In viral marketing, the aim is to spread awareness about a product offering, service or concept using word-of-mouth behaviors. Unlike spam, which is based on a massive distribution of unsolicited emails, viral emails use social networking aspects to ensure their goals of wide propagation. This is one of the strengths of viral email to marketers - while users are quick to delete email from marketers, they are less likely to delete the email if it comes from a person that they know.
As an example of viral marketing in practice, vouchers may be provided via email to customers, who are then encouraged to forward those emails on to friends and family. In 2006, Threshers (a UK-based off-licence retail chain) emailed vouchers to staff and suppliers. The emails were then redistributed by recipients, ultimately resulting in many of their branches almost running out of stock when the vouchers were honored by the company. While at the time the Thresher Group denied that they were attempting to run a viral email-based marketing campaign, the company repeated the exercise the following year. Similarly, a campaign for a Ferrari test drive garnered over 40,000 responses even though only 5,000 emails had been sent.
Many viral emails that may appear to be advertisements are, in fact, fake, and run the risk of significantly damaging the brand.
Collections.
A number of websites are dedicated to collecting viral emails, often with a particular focus on humorous emails. These include Viralbank, which collects both commercial and non-commercial emails, Bore Me, which features a section devoted to adult viral emails, and ViralEmails, a forum based website allowing its users to share viral emails as well as a daily viral email sent via a newsletter.


Sam Kutesa

Sam Kahamba Kutesa (born 1 February 1949) is a Ugandan businessman, politician and lawyer. He is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Uganda, a position he has held since 13 January 2005 and maintained through three cabinet reshuffles. He is also the elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Mawogola County in Sembabule District. He was the President of the United Nations General Assembly during its 69th session in 2014–2015.
Early life and education.
Kutesa attended Mbarara High School. He has a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University, back when the institution was part of the University of East Africa. He also has a Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre in Kampala.
Career.
Kutesa was in private law practice between 1973 and 2001. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mbarara North Constituency from 1980 to 1985 and as Attorney General from 1985 to 1986. Between 1994 and 1995, he served as a delegate to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Ugandan Constitution. He was elected MP for Mawogola County in 2001 and was re-elected in 2006. He was Minister of State for Investment from 2001 to 2005. President Yoweri Museveni appointed Sam Kutesa as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2005, following the death of James Wapakhabulo.
He is a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement political party.
Controversy.
In 2011, Kutesa was accused in a parliamentary investigation of receiving bribes as kickbacks from Irish oil firm Tullow Oil. Despite calls from MPs for him to resign along with the others accused, a lawyer, Severino Twinobusingye, managed to successfully sue the Attorney General and halt the proceedings and to block the calls for resignation. Following further suspicion around the incident as a result of Tullow Oil’s court case with Heritage Oil over its tax on Uganda assets, an ad-hoc parliamentary committee was convened to further investigate the allegations of corruption.
United Nations General Assembly.
As Africa was due to hold the presidency of the sixty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the African Union Executive Council unanimously chose him to be their candidate after the withdrawal of Cameroonian Foreign Minister Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo. His candidature was endorsed unanimously during the 17th Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in Algiers, Algeria in May 2013. He was officially elected by the UNGA on 11 June 2014.
Because Kutesa defended the discriminatory Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014, human rights organizations felt his U.N. presidential position was not supportive of the values embodied in the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A petition asked United States Secretary of State John Kerry to revoke Kutesa's visa and thereby keep him from assuming the role of president of the UNGA. The petition – which garnered over 15,000 signatures on Change.org – was written by Ugandan Milton Allimadi, editor of "Black Star News". He highlighted Kutesa's support of the Ugandan anti-gay bill and allegations of corruption. In spite of protests and the petition, Kutesa became the president.


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