document_title: A Study in Scarlet

question_text: when does a study in scarlet take place

question_tokens: when does a study in scarlet take place

text: A Study in Scarlet

text: Plot summary[edit]

text: Part I: The Reminiscences of Watson[edit]

text: Part I leads with a heading which establishes the role of Dr. Watson as narrator and sets up the narrative stand-point that the work to follow is not fiction, but fact: "Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, MD, Late of the Army Medical Department."

text: The story begins in 1881,[4] when Dr. Watson, having returned to London after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, visits the Criterion Restaurant and runs into an old friend named Stamford,[5] who had been a dresser under him at St. Bartholomew's Hospital.[6] Watson confides in Stamford that, due to a shoulder injury that he sustained at the Battle of Maiwand, he has been forced to leave the armed services and is now looking for a place to live. Stamford mentions that an acquaintance of his, Sherlock Holmes, is looking for someone to split the rent at a flat at 221B Baker Street, but he cautions Watson about Holmes's eccentricities.

text: Stamford takes Watson back to St. Bartholomew's where, in a laboratory, they find Holmes experimenting with a reagent named Annie DeVries, seeking a test to detect human haemoglobin. Holmes explains the significance of bloodstains as evidence in criminal trials. After Stamford introduces Watson to Holmes, Holmes shakes Watson's hand and comments, "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." Though Holmes chooses not to explain why he made the comment, Watson raises the subject of their parallel quests for a place to live in London, and Holmes explains that he has found the perfect place in Baker Street. At Holmes's prompting, the two review their various shortcomings to make sure that they can live together. After seeing the rooms at 221B, they move in and grow accustomed to their new situation.

text: Watson is amazed by Holmes, who has profound knowledge of chemistry and sensational literature, very precise but narrow knowledge of geology and botany; yet knows little about literature, astronomy, philosophy, and politics. Holmes also has multiple guests visiting him at different intervals during the day.

text: After much speculation by Watson, Holmes reveals that he is a "consulting detective" and that the guests are clients. Facing Watson's doubts about some of his claims, Holmes casually deduces to Watson that one visitor, a messenger from Scotland Yard is also a retired Marine sergeant. When the man confirms this, Watson is astounded by Holmes' ability to notice details and assemble them.

text: Holmes reads the telegram requesting consultation in a fresh murder case. He is reluctant to help because credit would go entirely to the officials. Watson urges him to reconsider so Holmes invites him to accompany him as he investigates the crime scene, an abandoned house off the Brixton Road.

text: Holmes observes the pavement and garden leading up to the house before he and Watson meet Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade. The four observe the crime scene, Holmes using a magnifying lens and tape measure. The male corpse, he's told, has been identified as Enoch Drebber. Blood has been found in the room but there is no wound on the body. They also learn from documents found on his person that he was in London with his secretary, Joseph Stangerson. On one wall, written in blood, is "RACHE". Correcting an erroneous theory of Lestrade's, Holmes remarks that it is the German word for "revenge." He goes on to deduce that the victim died from poison and supplies a description of the murderer: six feet tall, disproportionately small feet, florid complexion, square toed boots, and smoking a Trichinopoly cigar. His right-hand fingernails are long and he arrived in a cab whose horse had three old shoes and a new one. Holmes says "RACHE" was a ploy to fool the police. Upon moving Drebber's body, the pair discover a woman's gold wedding ring.

text: Soon, Holmes and Watson visit the home of the constable who had first discovered the corpse, paying him a bit for the disturbance. They get little information Holmes didn't already know, other than that a seemingly drunk loiterer had attempted to approach the crime scene. Holmes chastises the officer for not realising that this was the murderer himself in disguise. They leave and Holmes explains that the murderer returned on realising that he'd forgotten the wedding ring.

text: Holmes dispatches some telegrams including an order for a newspaper notice about the ring. He also buys a facsimile of it. He guesses that the murderer, having already returned to the scene of the crime for it, would come to retrieve it. The advertisement is answered by an old woman who claims that the ring belongs to her daughter. Holmes gives her the duplicate, follows her, and returns to Watson with the story: she took a cab, he hopped onto the back of it, he found that she had vanished when it stopped. This leads Holmes to believe that it was the murderer's accomplice in disguise.

text: A day later, Gregson visits Holmes and Watson, telling them that he has arrested a suspect. He had gone to Madame Charpentier's Boarding House where Drebber and Stangerson had stayed before the murder. He learned from her that Drebber, a drunk, had attempted to kiss Mrs Charpentier's daughter, Alice, which caused their immediate eviction. Drebber, however, came back later that night and attempted to grab Alice, prompting her older brother to attack him. He attempted to chase Drebber with a cudgel but claimed to have lost sight of him. Gregson has him in custody on this circumstantial evidence.

text: Lestrade then arrives revealing that Stangerson has been murdered. Lestrade had gone to interview Stangerson after learning where he had been rooming. His body was found dead near the hotel window, stabbed through the heart. Above his body was written “RACHE”. The only things Stangerson had with him were a novel, a pipe, and a small box containing two pills. The pillbox Lestrade still has with him. Holmes tests the pills on an old and sickly Scottish terrier in residence at Baker Street. The first pill produces no evident effect, the second kills the terrier. Holmes deduces that one was harmless and the other poison.

text: Just at that moment, a very young street urchin named Wiggins arrives. He's the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of homeless children Holmes employs to help him occasionally. Wiggins states that he's summoned the cab Holmes wanted. Holmes sends him down to fetch the cabby, claiming to need help with his luggage. When the cabbie comes upstairs and bends for the trunk, Holmes handcuffs and restrains him. He then announces the captive cabby as Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Drebber and Stangerson.

text: Part II: "The Country of the Saints"[edit]

text: The story flashes back to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah in 1847, where John Ferrier and a little girl named Lucy, the only survivors of a small party of pioneers, lie down near a boulder to die from dehydration and hunger. They are discovered by a large party of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ led by Brigham Young. The Saints rescue Ferrier and Lucy on the condition that they adopt and live under their faith. Ferrier, who has proven himself an able hunter, adopts Lucy and is given a generous land grant with which to build his farm after the party constructs Salt Lake City. Years later, a now-grown Lucy befriends and falls in love with a man named Jefferson Hope.

text: Lucy and Hope become engaged, with the ceremony scheduled to take place after Hope's return from a two-month-long journey for his job. However, Ferrier is visited by Young, who reveals that it is against the religion for Lucy to marry Hope, a non-Mormon. He states that Lucy should marry Joseph Stangerson or Enoch Drebber—both sons of members of the church's Council of Four—though Lucy may choose which one. Ferrier and Lucy are given a month to decide.

text: Ferrier, who has sworn to never marry his daughter to a Mormon (Mormon being a slang term to refer to this group of religious peoples), immediately sends out word to Hope for help. When he is visited by Stangerson and Drebber, Ferrier is angered by their arguments over Lucy and throws them out. Every day, however, the number of days Ferrier has left to marry off Lucy is painted somewhere on his farm in the middle of the night. Hope finally arrives on the eve of the last day, and sneaks his love and her adoptive father out of their farm and away from Salt Lake City. However, while he is hunting for food, Hope returns to a horrific sight: a makeshift grave for the elder Ferrier. Lucy is nowhere to be seen. Determined to devote his life to revenge, Hope sneaks back into Salt Lake City, learning that Stangerson murdered Ferrier, and that Lucy was forcibly married to Drebber. Lucy dies a month later from a broken heart; Drebber, who inherited Ferrier's farm, is indifferent to her death. Hope then breaks into Drebber's house the night before Lucy's funeral to kiss her body and remove her wedding ring. Swearing vengeance, Hope stalks the town, coming close to killing Drebber and Stangerson on numerous occasions.

text: Hope begins to suffer from an aortic aneurysm, causing him to leave the mountains to earn money and recuperate. When he returns several years later, he learns that Drebber and Stangerson have fled Salt Lake City after a schism between the Mormons. Hope searches the United States, eventually tracking them to Cleveland; the pair then flees to Europe, eventually landing in London.

text: This is the story the handcuffed Hope willingly tells to Holmes, Lestrade, Gregson, and Watson. In London, Hope became a cabby and eventually found Drebber and Stangerson at the train station in Euston about to depart to Liverpool. Having missed the first train, Drebber instructed Stangerson to wait at the station and then returned to Madame Charpentier's house. After an altercation with Madame Charpentier's son, Drebber got into Hope's cab and spent several hours drinking. Eventually Hope took him to the house on Brixton Road, which Drebber drunkenly entered believing it was a hotel. Hope then forced Drebber to recognize him and to choose between two pills, one of which was harmless and the other poison. Drebber took the poisoned pill, and as he died, Hope showed him Lucy's wedding ring. The excitement coupled with his aneurysm had caused his nose to bleed; he used the blood to write “RACHE” on the wall above Drebber.

text: Hope realised, upon returning to his cab, that he had forgotten Lucy’s ring, but upon returning to the house, he found Constable Rance and other police officers, whom he evaded by acting drunk. He then had a friend pose as an old lady to pick up the supposed ring from Holmes's advertisement.

text: Hope then began stalking Stangerson's room at the hotel; but Stangerson, on learning of Drebber's murder, refused to come out. Hope climbed into the room through the window and gave Stangerson the same choice of pills, but he was attacked by Stangerson and forced to stab him in the heart.

text: After being told of this, Holmes and Watson return to Baker Street; Hope dies from his aneurysm the night before he is to appear in court, a smile on his face. One morning, Holmes reveals to Watson how he had deduced the identity of the murderer and how he had used the Irregulars, whom he calls "street Arabs," to search for a cabby by that name. He then shows Watson the newspaper; Lestrade and Gregson are given full credit. Outraged, Watson states that Holmes should record the adventure and publish it. Upon Holmes's refusal, Watson decides to do it himself.

text: Publication[edit]

text: Conan Doyle wrote the novel at the age of 27 in less than three weeks.[7] As a general practice doctor in Southsea, Portsmouth, he had already published short stories in several magazines of the day, such as the periodical London Society. The story was originally titled A Tangled Skein, and was eventually published by Ward Lock & Co. in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, after many rejections. The author received £25 in return for the full rights (although Conan Doyle had pressed for a royalty instead). It was illustrated by David Henry Friston. The novel was first published as a book in July 1888 by Ward, Lock & Co., and featured drawings by the author's father, Charles Doyle. A second edition appeared the following year and was illustrated by George Hutchinson; a year later in 1890, J. B. Lippincott & Co. released the first American version. Numerous further editions, translations and dramatisations have appeared since.

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: As the first Sherlock Holmes story published, A Study in Scarlet was among the first to be adapted to the screen. In 1914, Conan Doyle authorised a silent film be produced by G. B. Samuelson. Holmes was played by James Bragington, an accountant who worked as an actor for the only time of his life. He was hired for his resemblance to Holmes, as presented in the sketches originally published with the story.[8] As early silent films were made with film that itself was made with poor materials, and film archiving was then rare, it is now a lost film. The success of the film allowed for a second version to be produced that same year by Francis Ford, which has also been lost.

text: The 1933 film entitled A Study in Scarlet, starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs Pyke, bears no plot relation to the novel, as the producers had purchased rights to only the title, not the story. (So limited were the purchased rights that the famous Baker Street address is "221A" in the film rather than the renowned "221B.") Aside from Holmes, Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and Inspector Lestrade, the only connections to the Holmes canon are a few lifts of character names (Jabez Wilson, etc.). The plot contains an element of striking resemblance to one used several years later in Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None: that of murder victims being counted off by lines from the same nursery rhyme, but the Holmes film takes the precaution of using the phrase "ten little black boys".[9][10]

text: The book has rarely been adapted in full, but notable instances were an episode broadcast on 23 September 1968 in the second season of the BBC television series Sherlock Holmes, with Peter Cushing in the lead role and Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson, which put more detail into the story, including the actor who claims the ring; the second episode of the 1979 Soviet TV adaptation, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (the first episode combines the story of their meeting with "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"; the second episode adapts the actual Jefferson Hope case.[11]); a 1983 animated version produced by Burbank Films Australia, with Peter O'Toole voicing Holmes; A Study in Scarlet was the first episode of the BBC's complete Sherlock Holmes on Radio 4 in 1989, dramatised by Bert Coules and starring Clive Merrison as Holmes, Michael Williams as Watson, Donald Gee as Inspector Lestrade, and John Moffatt as Inspector Gregson;[12] and a 2007 episode of the American radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.[13]

text: In both the 1968 television adaptation featuring Peter Cushing and the 1983 animated version featuring Peter O'Toole, the story is changed so that Holmes and Watson already know each other and have been living at 221-B Baker Street for some time.

text: Other adaptations use only the portions of the first section of the book in which Holmes and Watson's relationship is established. The Ronald Howard/H. Marion Crawford television series used that section of the book as the basis for the episode "The Case of the Cunningham Heritage".[14]

text: Steven Moffat loosely adapted A Study in Scarlet into "A Study in Pink" as the first episode of the 2010 BBC television series Sherlock featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as a 21st-century Sherlock Holmes, and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson.[15] The adaptation retains many individual elements from the story, such as the scribbled "RACHE" and the two pills, and the killer's potentially fatal aneurysm (however it is located in his brain rather than his aorta). However, the entire backstory set in America is omitted, and the motivation of the killer is completely different. It also features Moriarty's presence. Also, the meeting of Holmes and Watson is adapted in the Victorian setting in the special "The Abominable Bride".

text: In 2010, A Study in Scarlet was adapted for the stage by William Amos Jr and Margaret Walther.[16]

text: In 2014, A Study in Scarlet was adapted again for the stage by Greg Freeman, Lila Whelan and Annabelle Brown in an adaptation for Tacit Theatre.[17] The production premiered at Southwark Playhouse in London in March 2014[18]

text: "The Deductionist", an episode of Elementary, contains many elements of Hope's case, including the motivation of revenge. The story was more closely adapted in the season 4 episode, "A Study in Charlotte."

text: "The First Adventure", the first episode of the 2014 NHK puppetry series Sherlock Holmes, is loosely based on A Study in Scarlet and "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons". In it, Holmes, Watson and Lestrade are pupils at a fictional boarding school called Beeton School. They find out that a pupil called Jefferson Hope has taken revenge on Enoch Drebber and Joseph Stangerson for stealing his watch. "Scarlet Story", the series' opening theme tune, is named after the novel[19] and the name of "Beeton School" is partially inspired by Beeton's Christmas Annual.[20]

text: A Study in Scarlet was illustrated by Seymour Moskowitz for Classics Illustrated comics in 1953. It was also adapted to graphic novel form by Innovation Publishing in 1989 (adapted by James Stenstrum and illustrated by Noly Panaligan) and by Sterling Publishing in 2010 (adapted by Ian Edginton and illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard).

text: Depiction of Mormonism[edit]

text: According to a Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organisation as being steeped in kidnapping, murder and enslavement, he said: "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that, though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest".[21] Conan Doyle's daughter has stated: "You know, father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons."[21] Historians speculate that "Conan Doyle, a voracious reader, would have access to books by Fannie Stenhouse, William A. Hickman, William Jarman, John Hyde and Ann Eliza Young, among others,"[21] in explaining the author's early perspective on Mormonism.

text: Years after Conan Doyle's death, Levi Edgar Young, a descendant of Brigham Young and a Mormon general authority, claimed that Conan Doyle had privately apologised, saying that "He [Conan Doyle] said he had been misled by writings of the time about the Church"[21] and had "written a scurrilous book about the Mormons."[22]

text: In August 2011, the Albemarle County, Virginia, School Board removed A Study in Scarlet from the district's sixth-grade required reading list following complaints from students and parents that the book was derogatory toward Mormons.[23][24] It was moved to the reading lists for the tenth-graders, and remains in use in the school media centres for all grades.[25]

text: Allusions in other works[edit]

text: In his Naked is the Best Disguise (1974), Samuel Rosenberg notes the similarity between Jefferson Hope's tracking of Enoch Drebber and a sequence in James Joyce's novel Ulysses, though of course Joyce's work did not begin to appear in print until 1918. Several other associations between Conan Doyle and Joyce are also listed in Rosenberg's book.

text: The British fantasy and comic book writer Neil Gaiman adapted this story to the universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The new short story is titled "A Study in Emerald" (2004) and is modelled with a parallel structure.


document_title: Western jackdaw

question_text: what is the name for a group of jackdaws

root

text: Western jackdaw

text: Systematics[edit]

text: Etymology[edit]

text: The western jackdaw was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema Naturae.[2] Owing to its supposed fondness for picking up coins, Linnaeus gave it the binomial name Corvus monedula, choosing the specific name mǒnēdŭla, which is derived from moneta, the Latin stem of the word "money".[3][4] Jackdaws are sometimes placed in the genus Coloeus, from the Ancient Greek κολοιός (koloios) for jackdaw,[5] though most subsequent works have retained the two jackdaw species in Corvus.[6]

tag: p

text: The original Old English word ċēo (pronounced with initial ch) gave modern English "chough"; Chaucer sometimes used this word to refer to the western jackdaw,[7] as did Shakespeare in Hamlet although there has been debate about which species he was referring to.[8] This onomatopoeic name, based on the western jackdaw's call, now refers to corvids of the genus Pyrrhocorax; the red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), formerly particularly common in Cornwall, became known initially as the "Cornish chough" and then just the "chough", the name transferring from one species to the other.[9]

text: The common name jackdaw first appeared in the 16th century, and is thought to be a compound of the forename Jack, used in animal names to signify a small form (e.g. jack snipe), and the archaic native English word daw. Formerly, western jackdaws were simply called "daws".[7] The metallic chyak call may be the origin of the jack part of the common name,[10] but this is not supported by the Oxford English Dictionary.[11] Daw, first used for the bird in the 15th century, is held by the Oxford English Dictionary to be derived from the postulated Old English dawe, citing the cognates in Old High German tāha, Middle High German tāhe or tāchele, and modern German Dahle or Dohle, and dialectal Tach, Dähi, Däche and Dacha.

text: Names in English dialects are numerous. Scottish and north English dialects have included ka or kae since the 14th century. The Midlands form of this word was co or coo. Caddow is potentially a compound of ka and dow, a variant of daw. Other dialectal or obsolete names include caddesse, cawdaw, caddy, chauk, college-bird, jackerdaw, jacko, ka-wattie, chimney-sweep bird (from their nesting propensities), and sea-crow (from the frequency with which they are found on coasts). It was also frequently known quasi-nominally as Jack.[12][13][14][15]

text: An archaic collective noun for a group of jackdaws is a "clattering".[16] Another name for a flock is a "train".[17]

text: Taxonomy[edit]

text: A study in 2000 found that the genetic distance between jackdaws and the other members of Corvus was greater than that within the rest of the genus.[18] This led Pamela Rasmussen to reinstate the genus name Coloeus, created by Johann Kaup in 1829,[19] in her Birds of South Asia (2005),[20] a treatment also used in a 1982 systematic list in German by Hans Edmund Wolters.[21] A study of corvid phylogeny undertaken in 2007 compared DNA sequences in the mitochondrial control region of several corvids. It found that the western jackdaw, and the closely related Daurian jackdaw (C. dauuricus) of eastern Russia and China, were basal to the core Corvus clade.[22] The names Coloeus monedula and Coloeus dauuricus have since been adopted by the International Ornithological Congress in their official list.[23] The two species of jackdaw have been reported to hybridise in the Altai Mountains, southern Siberia, and Mongolia. Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of specimens of the two species from their core ranges show them to be genetically distinct.[22]

text: Subspecies[edit]

text: There are four recognised subspecies of the western jackdaw.[12][24] All European subspecies intergrade where their populations meet.[25] C. m. monedula intergrades into C. m. soemmerringii in a transition zone running from Finland south across the Baltic and eastern Poland to Romania and Croatia.[26]

text:
C. m. monedula (Linnaeus, 1758), the nominate subspecies, is found in eastern Europe. Its range extends across Scandinavia, from southern Finland south to Esbjerg and Haderslev in Denmark, through eastern Germany and Poland, and south across eastern central Europe to the Carpathian Mountains and north-western Romania, Vojvodina in northern Serbia, and Slovenia.[27] It breeds in south-eastern Norway, southern Sweden, and northern and eastern Denmark, with occasional wintering in England and France. It has been recorded as a rare vagrant to Spain.[28] It has a pale nape and sides of the neck, a dark throat, and a light grey partial collar of variable extent.[25]
C. m. spermologus (Vieillot, 1817) occurs in western, central and southern Europe and northern Africa, from the British Isles, Netherlands and the Rhineland in the north, through western Switzerland into Italy in the south-east, and the Iberian peninsula and Morocco in the south.[27] It winters in the canary Islands and Corsica. The name "spermologus" comes from the Greek σπερμολόγος, a picker of seeds.[29] It is darker in colour than the other subspecies and lacks the whitish border at the base of the grey nape.[25]
C. m. soemmerringii (Fischer, 1811) is found in north-eastern Europe and north and central Asia, from the former Soviet Union to Lake Baikal and north-west Mongolia, and south to Turkey, Israel and the eastern Himalayas. Its south-western limits are Serbia and southern Romania.[27] It winters in Iran and northern India (Kashmir).[20] Johann Fischer von Waldheim described this taxon as Corvus soemmerringii in 1811, noting its differences from populations in western Europe.[30] Its species name was given in honour of the German anatomist, Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring.[31] It is distinguished by the nape and the sides of the neck being paler, creating a contrasting black crown and lighter grey part collar.[25]
C. m. cirtensis (Rothschild and Hartert, 1912) is found in Morocco and Algeria in north-western Africa and was formerly found in Tunisia.[27] The name "cirtensis" refers to the ancient city of Cirta in Numidia. The plumage is duller and more uniformly dark grey than the other subspecies, with the paler nape less distinct.[25]

tag: ul

text: Description[edit]

text: Measuring 34–39 centimetres (13–15 in) in length, the western jackdaw is the second smallest member of the genus Corvus.[32] Most of the plumage is a shiny black, with a purple (in subspecies monedula and spermologus) or blue (in subspecies cirtensis and soemmerringii) sheen on the crown,[33] forehead, and secondaries, and a green-blue sheen on the throat, primaries, and tail. The cheeks, nape and neck are light grey to greyish-silver, and the underparts are slate-grey. The legs are black, as is the short stout bill,[32] the length of which is about 75% of the length of the rest of the head.[33] There are rictal bristles covering around 40% of the maxilla and 25% of the lower mandible.[33] The irises of adults are greyish or silvery white while those of juveniles are light blue, becoming brownish before whitening at around one year of age.[32] The sexes look alike,[12][34] though the head and neck plumage of male birds fades more with age and wear, particularly just before moulting.[35] Western jackdaws undergo a complete moult from June to September in the western parts of their range, and a month later in the east.[27] The purplish sheen of the cap is most prominent just after moulting.[35]

text: Immature birds have duller and less demarcated plumage.[36] The head is a sooty black, sometimes with a faint greenish sheen and brown feather bases visible; the back and side of the neck are dark grey and the underparts greyish or sooty black. The tail has narrower feathers and a greenish sheen.[35]

text: There is very little geographic variation in size. The main differences are the presence or absence of a whitish partial collar at the base of the nape, the variations in the shade of the nape and the tone of the underparts. Populations in central Asia have slightly larger wings and western populations have a slightly heavier bill. Body colour becomes darker further north, in mountain regions and humid climates, and paler elsewhere. However, individual variation, particularly in juveniles and also during the months before moulting, can often be greater than geographic differences.[33]

text: A skilled flyer, the western jackdaw can manoeuvre tightly as well as tumble and glide. It has characteristic jerky wing beats when flying, though these are not evident when birds are migrating.[36] Wind tunnel experiments show that the preferred gliding speed is between 6 and 11 metres (20 and 36 ft) per second and that the wingspan decreases as the bird flies faster.[37] On the ground, western jackdaws have an upright posture and strut briskly, their short legs giving them a rapid gait. They feed with their heads held down or horizontally.[36]

text: Within its range, the western jackdaw is unmistakable; its short bill and grey nape are distinguishing features. From a distance, it can be confused with a rook (Corvus frugilegus), or when in flight, with a pigeon or chough.[36] Flying western jackdaws are distinguishable from other corvids by their smaller size, faster and deeper wingbeats and proportionately narrower and less fingered wing tips. They also have shorter, thicker necks, much shorter bills and frequently fly in tighter flocks. They can be distinguished from choughs by their uniformly grey underwings and their black beaks and legs.[38] The western jackdaw is very similar in morphology, behaviour, and calls to the Daurian jackdaw, with which its range overlaps in western Asia. Adults are readily distinguished, since the Daurian has a pied plumage, but immature birds are much more similar, both species having dark plumage and dark eyes. The Daurian tends to be darker, with a less contrasting nape than the Western.[39]

text: Vocalisations[edit]

text: Western jackdaws are voluble birds. The main call, frequently given in flight, is a metallic and squeaky chyak-chyak or kak-kak.[12] This is a contact or greeting call. A feeding call made by adults to call young, or males when offering food to their mates, has been transcribed as kiaw or kyow. Females in return give a more drawn out version when begging for food from males, written as kyaay, tchaayk or giaaaa.[40] Perched birds often chatter together, and before settling for the night, large roosting flocks make a cackling noise. Western jackdaws also have a hoarse, drawn-out alarm call,[12] arrrrr or kaaaarr, used when warning of predators or when mobbing them.[40] Nestlings begin making a soft cheep at about a week of age. As they grow, their voice becomes louder until their call is a penetrating screech around day 18. After this, the voice deepens and softens.[41] From day 25, the young cease calling and become silent if they hear an unfamiliar noise.[42] The European jackdaw can be trained to imitate human speech.[43]

text: Distribution and habitat[edit]

text: The western jackdaw is found from north-west Africa through all of Europe, except for the extreme north, and eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas and Lake Baikal. To the east, it occurs throughout Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and north-west India.[25] However, it is regionally extinct in Malta and Tunisia.[1] The range is vast, with an estimated global extent of between 1 million and 10 million square kilometres (4 hundred thousand to 4 million square miles). It has a large global population, with an estimated 15.6 to 45 million individuals in Europe alone.[44] Censuses of bird populations in marginal uplands in Britain show that western jackdaws greatly increased in numbers between the 1970s and 2010, although this increase may be related to recovery from previous periods when they were regarded as pests.[45] The UK population was estimated at 2.5 million individuals in 1998, up from 780,000 in 1970.[46]

text: Most populations are resident, but the northern and eastern populations are more migratory,[26] relocating to wintering areas between September and November and returning between February and early May.[47] Their range expands northwards into Russia to Siberia during summer, and retracts in winter.[12] They are vagrants to the Faroe Islands, particularly in the winter and spring, and occasionally to Iceland.[36] Elsewhere, western jackdaws congregate over winter in the Ural Valley in north-western Kazakhstan, the north Caspian, and the Tian Shan region of western China. They are winter visitors to the Quetta Valley in western Pakistan,[47] and are winter vagrants to Lebanon, where they were first recorded in 1962.[48] In Syria, they are winter vagrants and rare residents with some confirmed breeding taking place.[49] The soemmerringii subspecies occurs in south-central Siberia and extreme north-west China and is accidental to Hokkaido, Japan.[50] A small number of western jackdaws reached the north-east of North America in the 1980s and have been found from Atlantic Canada to Pennsylvania.[51] They have also occurred as vagrants in Gibraltar, Mauritania, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon,[1] and one is reported to have been seen in Egypt.[25]

text: Western jackdaws inhabit wooded steppes, pastures, cultivated land, coastal cliffs, and towns. They thrive when forested areas are cleared and converted to fields and open areas.[25] Habitats with a mix of large trees, buildings, and open ground are preferred; open fields are left to the rook, and more wooded areas to the Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius).[36] Along with other corvids such as the rook, common raven (Corvus corax), and hooded crow (C. cornix), some western jackdaws spend the winter in urban parks; populations measured in three urban parks in Warsaw show increases from October to December, possibly due to western jackdaws migrating there from areas further north.[52] The same data from Warsaw, collected from 1977 to 2003, showed that the wintering western jackdaw population had increased four-fold. The cause of the increase is unknown, but a reduction in the number of rooks may have benefited the species locally, or rooks overwintering in Belarus may have caused western jackdaws to relocate to Warsaw.[53]

text: Behaviour[edit]

text: Generally wary of people in the forest or countryside, western jackdaws are much tamer in urban areas.[54] Like magpies,[55] they are known to show interest in shiny objects such as jewellery.[56] John Gay, in his Beggar's Opera, notes that "A covetous fellow, like a jackdaw, steals what he was never made to enjoy, for the sake of hiding it".[57] In Tobias Smollett's The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, a scathing character assassination runs, "He is ungracious as a hog, greedy as a vulture, and thievish as a jackdaw."[58]

text: Highly gregarious, western jackdaws are generally seen in flocks of varying sizes, though males and females pair-bond for life and pairs stay together within flocks.[59] Flocks increase in size in autumn and birds congregate at dusk for communal roosting,[12] with up to several thousand individuals gathering at one site. At Uppsala, Sweden, 40,000 birds have been recorded at a single winter roost with mated pairs often settling together for the night.[54] Western jackdaws frequently congregate with hooded crows[34] or rooks,[36] the latter particularly when migrating or roosting.[60] They have been recorded foraging with the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), and common gull (Larus canus) in northwestern England.[60] Flocks are targets of coordinated hunting by pairs of lanner falcons (Falco biarmicus), although larger groups are more able to elude the predators.[61] Western jackdaws sometimes mob and drive off larger birds such as European magpies, common ravens, or Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus); one gives an alarm call which alerts its conspecifics to gather and attack as a group.[42] Occasionally, a sick or injured western jackdaw is mobbed until it is killed.[62]

text: In his book King Solomon's Ring, Konrad Lorenz described and analysed the complex social interactions in a western jackdaw flock that lived around his house in Altenberg, Austria. He ringed them for identification and caged them in the winter to prevent their annual migration. He found that the birds have a linear hierarchical group structure, with higher-ranked individuals dominating lower-ranked birds, and pair-bonded birds sharing the same rank.[63] Young males establish their individual status before pairing with females. Upon pairing, the female assumes the same social position as her partner. Unmated females are the lowest members in the pecking order, and are the last to have access to food and shelter.[63] Lorenz noted one case in which a male, absent during the dominance struggles and pair bondings, returned to the flock, became the dominant male, and chose one of two unpaired females for a mate. This female immediately assumed a dominant position in the social hierarchy and demonstrated this by pecking others. According to Lorenz, the most significant factor in social behaviour was the immediate and intuitive grasp of the new hierarchy by each of the western jackdaws in the flock.[63]

text: Social displays[edit]

text: Social hierarchy in western jackdaw flocks is determined by supplanting, fighting, and threat displays—several of which have been described. In the bill-up posture, the western jackdaw tilts its bill and head upwards and sleeks its plumage. Indicating both appeasement and assertiveness, the posture is used by birds intending to enter feeding flocks. A bill-down posture is another commonly used agonistic behaviour. In this display, a bird lowers its bill and erects its nape and head feathers, and sometimes slightly lifts its wings. Western jackdaws often face off in this posture until one backs down or a fight ensues. In the forward-threat posture, a bird holds its body horizontally and thrusts its head forwards. In intense versions, the bird ruffles its feathers and spreads or raises its tail and wings. This extreme is seen when facing off over nests or females.[64] In the defensive-threat posture, the bird lowers its head and bill, spreads its tail and ruffles its feathers. Supplanting is where one bird moves in and displaces another from a perch-site. The second bird usually retreats without resorting to a fight. Western jackdaws fight by launching themselves at each other feet-first and then wrestling with their feet intertwined and pecking at each other. Other individuals gather and call noisily.[65]

text: Western jackdaws entreat their partners to preen them by showing their nape and ruffling their head feathers. Birds mainly preen each other's head and neck. Known as allopreening, this behaviour is almost always done between birds of a mated pair.[65]

text: Breeding[edit]

text: Western jackdaws become sexually mature in their second year. Genetic analysis of pairs and offspring shows no evidence of extra-pair copulation[59] and there is little evidence for couple separation even after multiple instances of reproductive failure.[66] Some pairs do separate in the first few months, but almost all pairings of over six months' duration are lifelong, ending only when a partner dies.[60] Widowed or separated birds fare badly, often being ousted from nests or territories and unable to rear broods alone.[60]

text: Western jackdaws usually breed in colonies with pairs collaborating to find a nest site, which they then defend from other pairs and predators during most of the year.[66] They nest in cavities in trees or cliffs, in ruined or occupied buildings and in chimneys, the common feature being a sheltered site for the nest. The availability of suitable sites influences their presence in a locale.[36] They may also use church steeples for nesting, a fact reported in verse by 18th century English poet William Cowper:

text:
A great frequenter of the church,
Where, bishoplike, he finds a perch,
And dormitory too.[67]

text: Nest platforms can attain a great size. A mated pair usually constructs a nest by improving a crevice by dropping sticks into it; it is then built on top of the platform formed.[62] This behaviour has led to the blocking of chimneys and even resulted in nests crashing down into fireplaces, sometimes with birds still on them.[68]

text: In his The Natural History of Selborne, Gilbert White notes that western jackdaws used to nest in crevices beneath the lintels of Stonehenge, and describes an example of the bird using a rabbit burrow for nesting.[17] The species has been recorded outcompeting the tawny owl (Strix aluco) for nest sites in the Netherlands.[69] They can take over old nest sites of the black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius)[70] and stock dove (Columba oenas).[65] Breeding colonies may also edge out those of the red-billed chough, but in turn be ousted by larger corvids such as the carrion crow, rook or magpie.[65]

text: Nests are lined with hair, wool, dead grass and many other materials.[71] The eggs are a lighter colour than those of other corvids,[72] being smooth, a glossy pale blue or blue-green with darker speckles ranging from dark brown to olive or grey-violet.[73] Egg size and weight varies slightly between subspecies; those of subspecies monedula average 35.0 by 24.7 millimetres (1.38 in × 0.97 in) and 11.1 g (0.39 oz) in weight, those of subspecies soemmerringii 34.8 by 25.0 millimetres (1.37 in × 0.98 in) in size and 11.3 g (0.40 oz) in weight, and those of subspecies spermologus 35.0 by 25.2 millimetres (1.38 in × 0.99 in) in size and 11.5 g (0.41 oz) in weight.[73] Clutches usually contain 4 or 5 eggs,[71] although a Slovakian study found clutch sizes ranging from 2 to 9 eggs.[74] The eggs are incubated by the female for 17–18 days until hatching as naked altricial chicks, which are completely dependent on the adults for food. They fledge after 28–35 days,[71] and the parents continue to feed them for another four weeks or so.[60]

text: Western jackdaws hatch asynchronously and incubation begins before clutch completion, which often leads to the death of the last-hatched young. If the supply of food is low, parental investment in the brood is kept to a minimum as little energy is wasted on feeding a chick that is unlikely to survive.[75] Replacement clutches are very rarely laid in the event of clutch failure.[73]

text: The great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) has been recorded as a brood parasite of the western jackdaw, depositing its eggs in their nests in Spain and Israel.[76][77] Nest robbers include the common raven in Spain, tawny owl, and least weasel (Mustela nivalis) in England, and brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) in Finland.[78] The European pine marten (Martes martes) raids isolated nests in Sweden but is less successful when nests are part of a colony.[70]

text: Feeding[edit]

text: Foraging takes place mostly on the ground in open areas and to some extent in trees.[25] Landfill sites, bins, streets, and gardens are also visited, more often early in the morning when there are fewer people about.[25] Various feeding methods are employed, such as jumping, pecking, clod-turning and scattering, probing the soil, and occasionally, digging. Flies around cow pats are caught by jumping from the ground or at times by dropping vertically from a few metres onto the cow pat. Earthworms are not usually extracted from the ground by western jackdaws but are eaten from freshly ploughed soil.[79] Jackdaws will ride on the backs of sheep and other mammals, seeking ticks as well as actively gathering wool or hair for nests, and will catch flying ants in flight.[39] Compared with other corvids, the western jackdaw spends more time exploring and turning over objects with its bill; it also has a straighter and less downturned bill and increased binocular vision which are advantageous for this foraging strategy.[80]

text: The western jackdaw tends to feed on small invertebrates up to 18 millimetres (0.71 in) in length that are found above ground, including various species of beetle (particularly cockchafers of the genus Melolontha,[81] and weevil larvae and pupae.[79]), Diptera, and Lepidoptera species, as well as snails and spiders. Also eaten are small rodents, bats,[82] the eggs and chicks of birds, and carrion such as roadkill. Vegetable items consumed include farm grains (barley, wheat and oats), weed seeds, elderberries, acorns, and various cultivated fruits.[79] Examination of the gizzards of western jackdaws shot in Cyprus in spring and summer revealed a diet of cereals (predominantly wheat) and insects (notably cicadas and beetles).[83] The diet averages 84% plant material except when breeding, when the main food source is insects.[39] A study in southern Spain examining western jackdaw pellets found that they contained significant amounts of silicaceous and calcareous grit to aid digestion of vegetable food and supply dietary calcium.[84]

text: Opportunistic and highly adaptable, the western jackdaw varies its diet markedly depending on available food sources.[85] They have been recorded taking eggs and nestlings from the nests of the skylark (Alauda arvensis),[86] Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), razorbill (Alca torda), common murre (Uria aalge), grey heron (Ardea cinerea),[81] rock pigeon (Columba livia),[87] and Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto).[81] A field study of a large city dump on the outskirts of León in northwestern Spain showed that western jackdaws forage there in the early morning and at dusk, and engage in some degree of kleptoparasitism.[88] The saker falcon (Falco cherrug) has been reported stealing food from western jackdaws on powerlines in Vojvodina in Serbia.[89]

text: Western jackdaws practice active food sharing – where the initiative for the transfer lies with the donor – with a number of individuals, regardless of sex or kinship. They also share more of a preferred food than a less preferred food.[90] The active giving of food by most birds is found mainly in the context of parental care and courtship. Western jackdaws show much higher levels of active giving than has been documented for other species, including chimpanzees. The function of this behaviour is not fully understood, though it has been found to be detached from nutrition and compatible with hypotheses of mutualism, reciprocity and harassment avoidance. It has also been proposed that food sharing may be motivated by prestige enhancement.[91]

text: Parasites and diseases[edit]

text: Western jackdaws have learned to peck open the foil caps of milk bottles left on the doorsteps after delivery by the milkman. The bacterium Campylobacter jejuni has been isolated from their beaks and cloacae so milk can become contaminated as they drink. This activity was linked to cases of Campylobacter gastroenteritis in Gateshead in northeast England[92] and led the Department of Health to suggest that milk from bottles which had been pecked open should be discarded. It was recommended that steps be taken to prevent birds attacking bottles in future.[93]

text: An outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness in Spain which was causing mortalities in humans has been linked to western jackdaws. During a post-mortem on an affected bird, a polyomavirus was isolated from the spleen. The illness appeared to be a co-infection of this with Salmonella and the virus has been provisionally named the crow polyomavirus (CPyV).[94] Segmented filamentous bacteria have been isolated from the small intestine of a western jackdaw, although their pathogenicity or role is unknown.[95]

text: Pest control[edit]

text: The western jackdaw has been hunted as vermin, though not as heavily culled as other species of corvid.[96] After a series of poor harvests in the early 1500s, Henry VIII introduced a Vermin Act in 1532 "ordeyned to dystroye Choughes (i.e. jackdaws), Crowes and Rokes" to protect grain crops from their predations. Western jackdaws were notorious as they also favoured fruit, especially cherries. This act was taken up in a piecemeal fashion, but Elizabeth I passed the Act for the Preservation of Grayne in 1566 that was taken up with more vigour. The species was hunted for its threat to grain crops and for propensity for nesting in belfries until the mid-20th century. Particularly large numbers were culled in the county of Norfolk. Western jackdaws were also culled on game estates as they raid nests of other birds for eggs.[97] In a 2003 dissertation on public opinion of corvids, Antonia Hereth notes that the German naturalist Alfred Brehm considered the western jackdaw to be a lovable bird, and did not describe any negative impacts of this species on agriculture.[98]

text: The western jackdaw is one of a very small number of birds that it is legal to use as a decoy or to trap in a cage in the United Kingdom. The other pest species that can be controlled by trapping are the crow, jay, magpie and rook. An authorised person must comply with the requirements of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and does not need to show that the birds were a nuisance before trapping them.[99] As of 2003 the western jackdaw was listed as a potential species for targeted hunting in the European Union Birds Directive, and hunting has been encouraged by German hunting associations.[98] Permission to shoot western jackdaws in spring and summer exists in Cyprus as they are thought (incorrectly) to prey on gamebirds.[83]

text: Cultural depictions and folklore[edit]

text: An ancient Greek and Roman adage runs "The swans will sing when the jackdaws are silent", meaning that educated or wise people will speak only after the foolish have become quiet.[101] In Ancient Greek folklore, a jackdaw can be caught with a dish of oil. A narcissistic creature, it falls in while looking at its own reflection.[102] The mythical Princess Arne Sithonis was bribed with gold by King Minos of Crete, and was punished by the gods for her greed by being transformed into an equally avaricious jackdaw, who still seeks shiny things.[103] The Roman poet Ovid described jackdaws as harbingers of rain in his poetic work Amores.[104] Pliny notes how the Thessalians, Illyrians, and Lemnians cherished jackdaws for destroying grasshoppers' eggs. The Veneti are fabled to have bribed the jackdaws to spare their crops.[102]

text: In some cultures, a jackdaw on the roof is said to predict a new arrival; alternatively, a jackdaw settling on the roof of a house or flying down a chimney is an omen of death, and coming across one is considered a bad omen.[104] A jackdaw standing on the vanes of a cathedral tower is said to foretell rain. The 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury records the story of a woman who, upon hearing a jackdaw chattering "more loudly than usual," grew pale and became fearful of suffering a "dreadful calamity", and that "while yet speaking, the messenger of her misfortunes arrived".[105] Czech superstition formerly held that if jackdaws are seen quarreling, war will follow, and that jackdaws will not build nests at Sázava after being banished by Saint Procopius.[15]

text: The jackdaw was considered sacred in Welsh folklore as it nested in church steeples – it was shunned by the Devil because of its choice of residence.[106] Nineteenth century belief in the Fens held that seeing a jackdaw on the way to a wedding was a good omen for a bride.[107]

text: The jackdaw is featured on the Ukrainian town of Halych's ancient coat of arms, the town's name allegedly being derived from the East Slavic word for the bird.[108] In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), Milan Kundera notes that Franz Kafka's father Hermann had a sign in front of his shop with a jackdaw painted next to his name, since "kavka" means jackdaw in Czech.[109]


document_title: List of Game of Thrones episodes

question_text: what is the name of the next episode of game of thrones

text: List of Game of Thrones episodes

text: Series overview[edit]

text:
Season
Episodes
Originally aired
Avg. viewers
(millions)

First aired
Last aired

1
10
April 17, 2011 (2011-04-17)
June 19, 2011 (2011-06-19)
2.52[14]

2
10
April 1, 2012 (2012-04-01)
June 3, 2012 (2012-06-03)
3.80[14]

3
10
March 31, 2013 (2013-03-31)
June 9, 2013 (2013-06-09)
4.97[15]

4
10
April 6, 2014 (2014-04-06)
June 15, 2014 (2014-06-15)
6.84[16]

5
10
April 12, 2015 (2015-04-12)
June 14, 2015 (2015-06-14)
6.88[17]

6
10
April 24, 2016 (2016-04-24)
June 26, 2016 (2016-06-26)
7.69[18]

7
7
July 16, 2017 (2017-07-16)
August 27, 2017 (2017-08-27)
10.26[19]

tag: table

text: Episodes[edit]

text: Season 1 (2011)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

1
1
"Winter Is Coming"
Tim Van Patten
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 17, 2011 (2011-04-17)
2.22[20]

2
2
"The Kingsroad"
Tim Van Patten
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 24, 2011 (2011-04-24)
2.20[21]

3
3
"Lord Snow"
Brian Kirk
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 1, 2011 (2011-05-01)
2.44[22]

4
4
"Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"
Brian Kirk
Bryan Cogman
May 8, 2011 (2011-05-08)
2.45[23]

5
5
"The Wolf and the Lion"
Brian Kirk
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 15, 2011 (2011-05-15)
2.58[24]

6
6
"A Golden Crown"
Daniel Minahan
Story by : David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
Teleplay by : Jane Espenson and David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 22, 2011 (2011-05-22)
2.44[25]

7
7
"You Win or You Die"
Daniel Minahan
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 29, 2011 (2011-05-29)
2.40[26]

8
8
"The Pointy End"
Daniel Minahan
George R. R. Martin
June 5, 2011 (2011-06-05)
2.72[27]

9
9
"Baelor"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 12, 2011 (2011-06-12)
2.66[28]

10
10
"Fire and Blood"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 19, 2011 (2011-06-19)
3.04[29]

text: Season 2 (2012)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

11
1
"The North Remembers"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 1, 2012 (2012-04-01)
3.86[30]

12
2
"The Night Lands"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 8, 2012 (2012-04-08)
3.76[31]

13
3
"What Is Dead May Never Die"
Alik Sakharov
Bryan Cogman
April 15, 2012 (2012-04-15)
3.77[32]

14
4
"Garden of Bones"
David Petrarca
Vanessa Taylor
April 22, 2012 (2012-04-22)
3.65[33]

15
5
"The Ghost of Harrenhal"
David Petrarca
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 29, 2012 (2012-04-29)
3.90[34]

16
6
"The Old Gods and the New"
David Nutter
Vanessa Taylor
May 6, 2012 (2012-05-06)
3.88[35]

17
7
"A Man Without Honor"
David Nutter
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 13, 2012 (2012-05-13)
3.69[36]

18
8
"The Prince of Winterfell"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 20, 2012 (2012-05-20)
3.86[37]

19
9
"Blackwater"
Neil Marshall
George R. R. Martin
May 27, 2012 (2012-05-27)
3.38[38]

20
10
"Valar Morghulis"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 3, 2012 (2012-06-03)
4.20[39]

text: Season 3 (2013)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

21
1
"Valar Dohaeris"
Daniel Minahan
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
March 31, 2013 (2013-03-31)
4.37[40]

22
2
"Dark Wings, Dark Words"
Daniel Minahan
Vanessa Taylor
April 7, 2013 (2013-04-07)
4.27[41]

23
3
"Walk of Punishment"
David Benioff
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 14, 2013 (2013-04-14)
4.72[42]

24
4
"And Now His Watch Is Ended"
Alex Graves
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 21, 2013 (2013-04-21)
4.87[43]

25
5
"Kissed by Fire"
Alex Graves
Bryan Cogman
April 28, 2013 (2013-04-28)
5.35[44]

26
6
"The Climb"
Alik Sakharov
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 5, 2013 (2013-05-05)
5.50[45]

27
7
"The Bear and the Maiden Fair"
Michelle MacLaren
George R. R. Martin
May 12, 2013 (2013-05-12)
4.84[46]

28
8
"Second Sons"
Michelle MacLaren
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 19, 2013 (2013-05-19)
5.13[47]

29
9
"The Rains of Castamere"
David Nutter
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 2, 2013 (2013-06-02)
5.22[48]

30
10
"Mhysa"
David Nutter
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 9, 2013 (2013-06-09)
5.39[49]

text: Season 4 (2014)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

31
1
"Two Swords"
D. B. Weiss
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 6, 2014 (2014-04-06)
6.64[50]

32
2
"The Lion and the Rose"
Alex Graves
George R. R. Martin
April 13, 2014 (2014-04-13)
6.31[51]

33
3
"Breaker of Chains"
Alex Graves
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 20, 2014 (2014-04-20)
6.59[52]

34
4
"Oathkeeper"
Michelle MacLaren
Bryan Cogman
April 27, 2014 (2014-04-27)
6.95[53]

35
5
"First of His Name"
Michelle MacLaren
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 4, 2014 (2014-05-04)
7.16[54]

36
6
"The Laws of Gods and Men"
Alik Sakharov
Bryan Cogman
May 11, 2014 (2014-05-11)
6.40[55]

37
7
"Mockingbird"
Alik Sakharov
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 18, 2014 (2014-05-18)
7.20[56]

38
8
"The Mountain and the Viper"
Alex Graves
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 1, 2014 (2014-06-01)
7.17[57]

39
9
"The Watchers on the Wall"
Neil Marshall
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 8, 2014 (2014-06-08)
6.95[58]

40
10
"The Children"
Alex Graves
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 15, 2014 (2014-06-15)
7.09[59]

text: Season 5 (2015)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

41
1
"The Wars to Come"
Michael Slovis
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 12, 2015 (2015-04-12)
8.00[60]

42
2
"The House of Black and White"
Michael Slovis
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 19, 2015 (2015-04-19)
6.81[61]

43
3
"High Sparrow"
Mark Mylod
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 26, 2015 (2015-04-26)
6.71[62]

44
4
"Sons of the Harpy"
Mark Mylod
Dave Hill
May 3, 2015 (2015-05-03)
6.82[63]

45
5
"Kill the Boy"
Jeremy Podeswa
Bryan Cogman
May 10, 2015 (2015-05-10)
6.56[64]

46
6
"Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"
Jeremy Podeswa
Bryan Cogman
May 17, 2015 (2015-05-17)
6.24[65]

47
7
"The Gift"
Miguel Sapochnik
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 24, 2015 (2015-05-24)
5.40[66]

48
8
"Hardhome"
Miguel Sapochnik
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 31, 2015 (2015-05-31)
7.01[67]

49
9
"The Dance of Dragons"
David Nutter
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 7, 2015 (2015-06-07)
7.14[68]

50
10
"Mother's Mercy"
David Nutter
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 14, 2015 (2015-06-14)
8.11[69]

text: Season 6 (2016)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

51
1
"The Red Woman"
Jeremy Podeswa
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
April 24, 2016 (2016-04-24)
7.94[70]

52
2
"Home"
Jeremy Podeswa
Dave Hill
May 1, 2016 (2016-05-01)
7.29[71]

53
3
"Oathbreaker"
Daniel Sackheim
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 8, 2016 (2016-05-08)
7.28[72]

54
4
"Book of the Stranger"
Daniel Sackheim
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 15, 2016 (2016-05-15)
7.82[73]

55
5
"The Door"
Jack Bender
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
May 22, 2016 (2016-05-22)
7.89[74]

56
6
"Blood of My Blood"
Jack Bender
Bryan Cogman
May 29, 2016 (2016-05-29)
6.71[75]

57
7
"The Broken Man"
Mark Mylod
Bryan Cogman
June 5, 2016 (2016-06-05)
7.80[76]

58
8
"No One"
Mark Mylod
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 12, 2016 (2016-06-12)
7.60[77]

59
9
"Battle of the Bastards"
Miguel Sapochnik
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 19, 2016 (2016-06-19)
7.66[78]

60
10
"The Winds of Winter"
Miguel Sapochnik
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
June 26, 2016 (2016-06-26)
8.89[79]

text: Season 7 (2017)[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
U.S. viewers
(millions)

61
1
"Dragonstone"
Jeremy Podeswa
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
July 16, 2017 (2017-07-16)
10.11[80]

62
2
"Stormborn"
Mark Mylod
Bryan Cogman
July 23, 2017 (2017-07-23)
9.27[81]

63
3
"The Queen's Justice"
Mark Mylod
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
July 30, 2017 (2017-07-30)
9.25[82]

64
4
"The Spoils of War"
Matt Shakman
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
August 6, 2017 (2017-08-06)
10.17[83]

65
5
"Eastwatch"
Matt Shakman
Dave Hill
August 13, 2017 (2017-08-13)
10.72[84]

66
6
"Beyond the Wall"
Alan Taylor
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
August 20, 2017 (2017-08-20)
10.24[85]

67
7
"The Dragon and the Wolf"
Jeremy Podeswa
David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
August 27, 2017 (2017-08-27)
12.07[86]

text: Home media releases[edit]

text:
Season
Episodes
DVD and Blu-ray release date

Region 1
Region 2
Region 4

1
10
March 6, 2012[87]
March 5, 2012[88]
August 10, 2012[89]

2
10
February 19, 2013[90]
March 4, 2013[91]
March 6, 2013[92]

3
10
February 18, 2014[93]
February 17, 2014[94]
February 19, 2014[95]

4
10
February 17, 2015[96]
February 16, 2015[97]
February 18, 2015[98]

5
10
March 15, 2016[99]
March 14, 2016[100]
March 16, 2016[101]

6
10
November 15, 2016[102]
November 14, 2016[103]
November 16, 2016[104]

7
7
December 12, 2017[105]
December 11, 2017[106]
December 11, 2017[107]

text: Ratings[edit]

text:
Season
Ep. 1
Ep. 2
Ep. 3
Ep. 4
Ep. 5
Ep. 6
Ep. 7
Ep. 8
Ep. 9
Ep. 10
Average

1
2.22
2.20
2.44
2.45
2.58
2.44
2.40
2.72
2.66
3.04
2.52[108]

2
3.86
3.76
3.77
3.65
3.90
3.88
3.69
3.86
3.38
4.20
3.80[108]

3
4.37
4.27
4.72
4.87
5.35
5.50
4.84
5.13
5.22
5.39
4.97[109]

4
6.64
6.31
6.59
6.95
7.16
6.40
7.20
7.17
6.95
7.09
6.84[110]

5
8.00
6.81
6.71
6.82
6.56
6.24
5.40
7.01
7.14
8.11
6.88[111]

6
7.94
7.29
7.28
7.82
7.89
6.71
7.80
7.60
7.66
8.89
7.69[112]

7
10.11
9.27
9.25
10.17
10.72
10.24
12.07
N/A
10.26[113]


document_title: Krishna Nagar, Delhi

question_text: nearest metro station to krishna nagar new delhi

text: Krishna Nagar, Delhi

text: Krishna Nagar, Delhi is an urban ward situated in the East Delhi district of Delhi in the Trans-Yamuna area.[1][2] It is surrounded by Vishwas Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Preet Vihar & Geeta Colony areas.[3]

text: The main areas under this Delhi Assembly constituency include the Old anarkali, jagatpuri, Ram Nagar, Ram Nagar Extension, East Krishna Nagar, Krishna Nagar Blocks A through J, Arjun Nagar, Radhey Puri, Rashid Market, Chander Nagar, New Layal Pur and New Layal Pur Extn. and West Azad Nagar.

text: Metro Route[edit]

text: The nearest Delhi Metro station from Krishna Nagar is Welcome Metro Station on Red Line or Preet Vihar Metro Station on Blue Line. Krishna Nagar Metro Station is under construction and will be completed by December 2017.


document_title: It Follows

question_text: when is it follows supposed to take place

text: It Follows

text: Plot[edit]

text: A young woman, Annie Marshall, flees her house as an unseen presence follows her. She drives to the beach, where she makes a panicked phone call to her parents. The next morning, her horribly mutilated body is found by the water.

text: A Detroit college student, Jaime "Jay" Height, goes on a date with her new boyfriend, Hugh. At the movies, Hugh points out a girl whom Jay says she cannot see. Afraid, he asks that they leave. On another date, Hugh and Jay have sex in his car, but afterwards he incapacitates her with chloroform. She wakes up tied to a wheelchair. Hugh explains that she will be pursued by an entity that only she can see, which can take the appearance of any person. Although it only moves at a walking pace, it will always know where she is and will be constantly approaching, and if it catches Jay, it will kill her and pursue the previous person to have passed it on: Hugh. After they see a naked woman walking toward them, Hugh drives Jay home and flees.

text: The next day, the police cannot find the woman or Hugh, who was living under a false identity. At school, Jay sees an old woman in a hospital gown walking towards her, invisible to others. Jay's older sister Kelly and her friends Paul and Yara agree to help and spend the night in the same house. Paul investigates a smashed kitchen window but sees no one; Jay sees a disheveled, urinating, half-naked woman walking toward her. Jay runs upstairs to the others, who cannot see the entity. When a tall man with seemingly no eyes enters the bedroom, Jay flees the house.

text: With the help of their neighbor, Greg, the group discovers Hugh's real name, Jeff Redmond, and trace him to his address. Jeff explains that the entity began pursuing him after a one-night stand, and that Jay can pass it to someone else in the same way. Greg drives the group to his family's lake house and teaches Jay to shoot a revolver. The entity, taking multiple guises, attacks Jay on the lakefront. She shoots it but it recovers. Jay flees in Greg's car but crashes into a cornfield, and wakes up in a hospital with a broken arm.

text: Greg has sex with Jay at the hospital, as he does not believe the entity exists. Days later, Jay sees the entity in the form of Greg. It smashes a window at Greg's house and enters. She tries to warn the real Greg on the telephone but he does not answer. She runs into the house and finds the entity in the form of Greg's half-naked mother knocking on his door; it jumps on Greg and kills him. Jay flees by car and spends the night outdoors. On a beach, Jay sees three young men on a boat. She undresses and walks into the water. Back home, Jay refuses Paul's offer of sex.

text: The group plans to kill the entity by luring it into a swimming pool and dropping electrical devices into the water. Jay, waiting in the pool, spots the entity and realizes it has taken the appearance of her father. It throws the devices at her. Firing at an invisible target, Paul accidentally wounds Yara, but shoots the entity in the head, causing it to fall into the pool. As it pulls Jay underwater, Paul shoots it again and Jay escapes. Paul asks Jay if the entity is dead. Jay approaches the pool and sees it filling with blood.

text: Jay and Paul have sex. Afterwards, Paul drives past prostitutes in a seedy part of town. Later, Jay and Paul walk down the street holding hands. In the distant background, someone walks behind them, but it is not clear who or what it is.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Maika Monroe as Jaime "Jay" Height
Keir Gilchrist as Paul Bolduan
Daniel Zovatto as Greg Hannigan
Jake Weary as Hugh / Jeff Redmond
Olivia Luccardi as Yara Davis
Lili Sepe as Kelly Height
Bailey Spry as Annie Marshall
Debbie Williams as Mrs. Height
Ruby Harris as Mrs. Redmond
Leisa Pulido as Mrs. Hannigan
Ele Bardha as Mr. Height
Ingrid Mortimer as Old Woman in Pajamas
Alexyss Spradlin as Girl in Kitchen
Mike Lanier as Giant Man
Don Hails as Old Naked Man
Charles Gertner as Neighbor Boy
Erin Stone as Girl in Courtyard
Luke Hodgson as Lawson High School Striped Sweater Boy

text: Development and production[edit]

text: Writer and director David Robert Mitchell conceived the film based on recurring dreams he had in his youth about being followed: "I didn't use those images for the film, but the basic idea and the feeling I used. From what I understand, it's an anxiety dream. Whatever I was going through at that time, my parents divorced when I was around that age, so I imagine it was something to do with that."[6] The role that sexual transmission plays came later, from Mitchell's desire for something that could transfer between people.[7] Mitchell started writing the film in 2011 while working on a separate film he intended to be his second feature film; however, Mitchell struggled with this would-be second feature and made It Follows as his next film instead.[8] Mitchell realized that the concept he was working on was tough to describe and thus refused to discuss the plot when asked what he was working on, reasoning later, "When you say it out loud, it sounds like the worst thing ever."[7]

text: The film was shot in 2013 in Detroit, Michigan.[9] Mitchell used wide-angle lenses when filming to give the film an expansive look,[9] and cited the works of George Romero and John Carpenter as influences on the film's compositions and visual aesthetic.[6]

text: The film's monster, shot composition, and overall aesthetic were influenced by the work of contemporary photographer Gregory Crewdson. Director of photography Mike Gioulakis said: "We’re both big fans of the still photographer Gregory Crewdson and David had him in his look book from day one. [Crewdson’s] photographs have the same kind of surreal suburban imagery that we wanted for It Follows." [10]

text: Interpretations[edit]

text: It Follows has sparked numerous interpretations from film critics in regard to the source of "it" and the film's symbolism.[6] Critics have interpreted the film as a parable about HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections,[11] and the social perceptions thereof; the sexual revolution;[12] and "primal anxieties" about intimacy.[13]

text: Mitchell stated: "I'm not personally that interested in where 'it' comes from. To me, it's dream logic in the sense that they're in a nightmare, and when you're in a nightmare there's no solving the nightmare. Even if you try to solve it."[6] Mitchell said that while Jay “opens herself up to danger through sex, sex is the one way in which she can free herself from that danger ... We’re all here for a limited amount of time, and we can’t escape our mortality ... but love and sex are two ways in which we can – at least temporarily – push death away”.[11]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text:
It Follows (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Soundtrack album by Disasterpeace

Released
2 February 2015 (2015-02-02)

Genre
Electronic

Length
44:43

Label
Editions Milan Music

Producer

Richard Glasser
JC Chamboredon
Stefan Karrer

Disasterpeace chronology

The Floor is Jelly (2014)String Module Error: Match not foundString Module Error: Match not found
It Follows (2015)

text: The score was composed by Rich Vreeland, better known as Disasterpeace.[14][15] It was released on February 2, 2015 over Editions Milan Music with permission of The Weinstein Company with a digital booklet.[16] The digital version of the album went on sale March 10, 2015.

text: Release[edit]

text: It Follows premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2014. It was released theatrically in France on February 4, 2015, and in the United Kingdom on February 27. It was given a limited release in the United States on March 13[17] and a wide release on March 27[18] in 1,200 theaters.[19] The film also received a limited release on March 27, 2015, in Canada by Mongrel Media.[20]

text: Box office[edit]

text: It Follows opened in limited theaters on March 13, 2015, in the United States and Canada. It earned $163,453 in its opening weekend from four theaters at an average of $40,863 per theater, making it the best limited opening for a film released in the United States and Canada in 2015.[21]

text: The film made its international debut in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2015, where it earned $573,290 (£371,142) on 190 screens for the #8 position. The following week, the film dropped two spots to #10 with a weekend gross of $346,005 (£229,927) from 240 screens.[citation needed]

text: As of April 5, the film has a domestic gross of $8.9 million and an international gross of $1.6 million for a worldwide total of $10.3 million.[22][23][24] As of January 2016, the worldwide box office has reached $20.3 million.[25]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: It Follows received critical acclaim.[26] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 96% approval rating and a rating average score of 8.2/10, based on 216 reviews. The critical consensus states: "Smart, original, and above all terrifying, It Follows is the rare modern horror film that works on multiple levels — and leaves a lingering sting."[27] On review aggregator website Metacritic, the film has an average rating of 83/100 based on 37 critics indicating "universal acclaim".[28] On Rotten Tomatoes' aggregation, it was ranked as the sixth most-praised film of the year.[29]

text: Peter Debruge of Variety gave an overall positive review, saying: "Starting off strong before losing its way in the end, this stylish, suspenseful chiller should significantly broaden Mitchell’s audience without disappointing his early supporters in the slightest."[30] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Creepy, suspenseful and sustained, this skillfully made lo-fi horror movie plays knowingly with genre tropes and yet never winks at the audience, giving it a refreshing face-value earnestness that makes it all the more gripping."[31] Tim Robey of The Telegraph gave the film five out of five stars and said, "With its marvellously suggestive title and thought-provoking exploration of sex, this indie chiller is a contemporary horror fan's dream come true."[32] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club said, "Despite all the fun-to-unpack ideas swirling around Mitchell’s premise, this is first and foremost a showcase for his considerable talents as a widescreen visual stylist, which are most apparent in the movie’s deftly choreographed, virtuoso 360 degree pans."[33] Mike Pereira of Bloody Disgusting described the film as a "creepy, mesmerizing exercise in minimalist horror" and labelled it "a classical horror masterpiece".[34] Michael Nordine of Vice named It Follows as "the best horror film in years,"[35] and critic Mark Frauenfelder called it "the best horror film in over a decade".[36]

text: Possible sequel[edit]

text: Following the film's success, Radius-TWC co-president Tom Quinn announced that the studio is looking into a possible sequel.[37] Quinn has expressed the idea of flipping the concept of the first film around, with Maika Monroe's Jay or another protagonist going down the chain to find the origin of "it".[38]


document_title: Price of oil

question_text: when did the oil prices start to drop

question_tokens: when did the oil prices start to drop

text: Price of oil

text: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)[edit]

text: In 1960 the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in Baghdad, Iraq by its first five members —Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela—,[4][5][6] with Qatar and Libya joining immediately, followed by United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador and Gabon after a decade. The goal of these countries was to increase its influence in the world oil market, then dominated by a cartel known as the "Seven Sisters", five of which were headquartered in the United States.[5] These companies had been controlling posted prices since the so-called 1927 Red Line Agreement and 1928 Achnacarry Agreement, and had achieved a high level of price stability until 1972.[5] Angola joined the OPEC in 2007 and Equatorial Guinea in 2017.

text: History[edit]

text: Price history from 2003 onwards[edit]

text: From 1999 til mid 2008, the price of oil rose significantly. It was explained by the rising oil demand in countries like China and India.[7] In the middle of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the price of oil underwent a significant decrease after the record peak of US$147.27 it reached on July 11, 2008. On December 23, 2008, WTI crude oil spot price fell to US$30.28 a barrel, the lowest since the financial crisis of 2007–2010 began. The price sharply rebounded after the crisis and rose to US$82 a barrel in 2009.[8] In July 2008 oil reached a record peak of US$147.27 but by February 2009 it sank beneath $40 a barrel.[9] On 31 January 2011, the Brent price hit $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008, on concerns about the political unrest in Egypt.[10] For about three and half years the price largely remained in the $90–$120 range. In the middle of 2014, price started declining due to a significant increase in oil production in USA, and declining demand in the emerging countries.[11] The oil glut—caused by multiple factors—spurred a sharp downward spiral in the price of oil that continued through February 2016.[12] By February 3, 2016 oil was below $30—[13] a drop of "almost 75 percent since mid-2014 as competing producers pumped 1-2 million barrels of crude daily exceeding demand, just as China's economy hit lowest growth in a generation."[14] Some analysts speculate that it may continue to drop further, perhaps as low as $18[15]

text: According to a report released on February 15, 2016 by Deloitte LLP—the audit and consulting firm—with global crude oil at near ten-year low prices, 35% of listed E&P oil and gas companies are at a high risk of bankruptcy worldwide.[16][17] Indeed, bankruptcies "in the oil and gas industry could surpass levels seen in the Great Recession."[16][18]

text: The causes of oil price fluctuations[edit]

text: There are two views dominating the oil market discourse. There are those who strongly believe that the market has undergone structural changes and that low oil prices are here to stay for a prolonged period. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who think that this is yet another cycle and oil prices will recover sooner rather than later. These two scenarios – structural versus cyclical – reflect the high degree of uncertainty engulfing the oil market. This presupposes that we can separate neatly the cyclical from the structural, but this would be an oversimplification. All the factors discussed above have become intertwined and the response of one part of the system will affect the other parts.[19]

text: A 2016 survey of the academic literature finds that "most major oil price fluctuations dating back to 1973 are largely explained by shifts in the demand for crude oil".[20] As the global economy expands, so does demand for crude oil.[20] The authors note that the price of oil has also increased at times due to greater "demand for stocks (or inventories) of crude oil... to guard against future shortages in the oil market. Historically, inventory demand has been high in times of geopolitical tension in the Middle East, low spare capacity in oil production, and strong expected global economic growth."[20] In particular, political events can have a strong influence on the oil price. Historical examples include OPEC’s 1973 embargo in reaction to the Yom Kippur War and the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Financial analysts and academics have had very few tools to study such political events compared to what is available on economic aspects of oil price formation.[21] The PRIX index was developed in attempt to fill this gap with a metric on political developments and corresponding export trends from world’s 20 largest oil exporters.[21][22]

text: The supply of oil is dependent on geological discovery, the legal and tax framework for oil extraction, the cost of extraction, the availability and cost of technology for extraction, and the political situation in oil-producing countries. Both domestic political instability in oil producing countries and conflicts with other countries can destabilise the oil price. In 2008 the New York Times reported, for example, in the 1940s the price of oil was about $17 rising to just over $20 during the Korean War (1951–1953). During the Vietnam War (1950s – 1970s) the price of oil slowly declined to under $20. During the Arab oil embargo of 1973—the first oil shock—the price of oil rapidly rose to double in price. During the 1979 Iranian Revolution the price of oil rose. During the second oil shock the price of oil peaked in April 1980 at $103.76. During the 1980s there was a period of "conservation and insulation efforts" and the price of oil dropped slowly to c. $22. It again reached a peak of c. $65 during the 1990 Persian Gulf crisis and war. Following that, there was a period of global recessions and the price of oil hit a low of c. $15 before it peaked at a high of $45 on September 11, 2001[23] only to drop again to a low of $26 on May 8, 2003.[14] The price rose to $80 with the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. By March 3, 2008 the price of oil reached $103.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.[23]

text: Although the oil price is largely determined by the balance between supply and demand—as with all commodities—some commentators including Business Week, the Financial Times and the Washington Post, argued that the rise in oil prices prior to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 was due to speculation in futures markets.[24][25][26][27][28]

text: For a dissenting view of oil prices being determined by demand, see Forbes, "Global Oil Demand is Always Rising - and Not Related to Price".[29]

text: Benchmark pricing[edit]

text: In North America this generally refers to the WTI Cushing Crude Oil Spot Price West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also known as Texas Light Sweet, a type of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing and the underlying commodity of New York Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts. WTI is a light crude oil, lighter than Brent Crude oil. It contains about 0.24% sulfur, rating it a sweet crude, sweeter than Brent. Its properties and production site make it ideal for being refined in the United States, mostly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions. WTI has an API gravity of around 39.6 (specific gravity approx. 0.827) per barrel (159 liters) of either WTI/light crude as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) for delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma. Cushing, Oklahoma, a major oil supply hub connecting oil suppliers to the Gulf Coast, has become the most significant trading hub for crude oil in North America.

text: In Europe and some other parts of the world, the oil price benchmark is Brent as traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE, into which the International Petroleum Exchange has been incorporated) for delivery at Sullom Voe.

text: Other important benchmarks include Dubai, Tapis, and the OPEC basket. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) uses the imported refiner acquisition cost, the weighted average cost of all oil imported into the US, as its "world oil price".

text: In Robert Mabro's 2006 book on challenges and opportunities in oil in the 21st century, after the collapse of the OPEC-administered pricing system in 1985, and a short lived experiment with netback pricing, oil-exporting countries adopted a market-linked pricing mechanism.[30] First adopted by PEMEX in 1986, market-linked pricing received wide acceptance and by 1988 became and still is the main method for pricing crude oil in international trade.[30] The current reference, or pricing markers, are Brent, WTI, and Dubai/Oman.[30]

text: Market listings[edit]

text: Oil is marketed among other products in commodity markets. By 2008 widely traded oil futures, and related natural gas futures, included with most of these oil futures having delivery dates every month:[31][32]

text:
Petroleum

Nymex Crude Future
Dated Brent Spot
WTI Cushing Spot
Nymex Heating Oil Future
Nymex RBOB (Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending) Gasoline Future

Natural gas

Nymex Henry Hub Future
Henry Hub Spot
New York City Gate Spot

text: Speculation during the 2008 crisis[edit]

text: In June 2008 Business Week reported that the surge in oil prices prior to 2008 had led some commentators to argue that at least some of the rise was due to speculation in the futures markets.[24] However, although speculation can greatly raise the oil price in the short run, in the long run fundamental market conditions will determine the oil price. Storing oil is expensive, and all speculators must ultimately, and generally within a few months, sell the oil they purchase.

text: According to a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) May 29, 2008 report the "Multiple Energy Market Initiatives" was launched in partnership with the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority and ICE Futures Europe in order to expand surveillance and information sharing of various futures contracts. Part 1 is "Expanded International Surveillance Information for Crude Oil Trading."[28] This announcement has received wide coverage in the financial press, with speculation about oil futures price manipulation.[25][26][27]

text: The interim report by the Interagency Task Force, released in July, found that speculation had not caused significant changes in oil prices and that fundamental supply and demand factors provide the best explanation for the crude oil price increases. The report found that the primary reason for the price increases was that the world economy had expanded at its fastest pace in decades, resulting in substantial increases in the demand for oil, while the oil production grew sluggishly, compounded by production shortfalls in oil-exporting countries.

text: The report stated that as a result of the imbalance and low price elasticity, very large price increases occurred as the market attempted to balance scarce supply against growing demand, particularly in the last three years. The report forecast that this imbalance would persist in the future, leading to continued upward pressure on oil prices, and that large or rapid movements in oil prices are likely to occur even in the absence of activity by speculators. The task force continues to analyze commodity markets and intends to issue further findings later in the year.

text: Oil-storage trade (contango)[edit]

text: The strategy works because oil prices for delivery in the future are trading at a premium to those in the spot market - a market structure known in the industry as contango - with investors expecting prices to eventually recover from the near 60 percent slide in oil in the last seven months.

text: The oil-storage trade, also referred to as contango, a market strategy in which large, often vertically-integrated oil companies purchase oil for immediate delivery and storage—when the price of oil is low— and hold it in storage until the price of oil increases. Investors bet on the future of oil prices through a financial instrument, oil futures in which they agree on a contract basis, to buy or sell oil at a set date in the future. Crude oil is stored in salt mines, tanks and oil tankers.[33]

text: Investors can choose to take profits or losses prior to the oil-delivery date arrives. Or they can leave the contract in place and physical oil is "delivered on the set date" to an "officially designated delivery point", in the United States, that is usually Cushing, Oklahoma. When delivery dates approach, they close out existing contracts and sell new ones for future delivery of the same oil. The oil never moves out of storage. If the forward market is in "contango"—the forward price is higher than the current spot price—the strategy is very successful.

text: Scandinavian Tank Storage AB and its founder Lars Jacobsson introduced the concept on the market in early 1990.[34] But it was in 2007 through 2009 the oil storage trade expanded,[35] with many participants—including Wall Street giants, such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citicorp—turning sizeable profits simply by sitting on tanks of oil.[36] By May, 2007 Cushing's inventory fell by nearly 35% as the oil-storage trade heated up.[36]

text: "The trend follows a spike in oil futures prices that has created incentives for traders to buy crude oil and oil products at current rates, sell them on futures markets and store them until delivery."

text: By the end of October 2009 one in twelve of the largest oil tankers was being used more for temporary storage of oil, rather than transportation.[37]

text: From June 2014 to January 2015, as the price of oil dropped 60 percent and the supply of oil remained high, the world's largest traders in crude oil purchased at least 25 million barrels to store in supertankers to make a profit in the future when prices rise. Trafigura, Vitol, Gunvor, Koch, Shell and other major energy companies began to book booking oil storage supertankers for up to 12 months. By 13 January 2015 At least 11 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) and Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCC)" have been reported as booked with storage options, rising from around five vessels at the end of last week. Each VLCC can hold 2 million barrels."[38]

text: In 2015 as global capacity for oil storage was out-paced by global oil production, and an oil glut occurred. Crude oil storage space became a tradable commodity with CME Group— which owns NYMEX— offering oil-storage futures contracts in March 2015.[33] Traders and producers can buy and sell the right to store certain types of oil.[33]

text: By 5 March 2015, as oil production outpaces oil demand by 1.5 million barrels a day, storage capacity globally is dwindling. Crude oil is stored in old salt mines, in tanks and on tankers.[33] In the United States alone, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude-oil supplies are at almost 70% of the U. S. storage capacity, the highest to capacity ratio since 1935.[33]

text: Comparative cost of production[edit]

text:
Oil and gas barrel production Cost, March 2016[39]

Country
Gross
taxes
Capital
spending
Production
costs
Admin
transport
Total

UK
$0
$22.67
$17.36
$4.30
$44.33

Brazil
$6.66
$16.09
$9.45
$2.80
$34.99

Nigeria
$4.11
$13.10
$8.81
$2.97
$28.99

Venezuela
$10.48
$6.66
$7.94
$2.54
$27.62

Canada
$2.48
$9.69
$11.56
$2.92
$26.64

U.S. Shale
$6.42
$7.56
$5.85
$3.52
$23.35

Norway
$0.19
$13.76
$4.24
$3.12
$21.31

U.S. non-shale
$5.03
$7.70
$5.15
$3.11
$20.99

Indonesia
$1.55
$7.65
$6.87
$3.63
$19.71

Russia
$8.44
$5.10
$2.98
$2.69
$19.21

Iraq
$0.91
$5.03
$2.16
$2.47
$10.57

Iran
$0
$4.48
$1.94
$2.67
$9.08

Saudi Arabia
$0
$3.50
$3.00
$2.49
$8.98

text: Future projections[edit]

text: Peak oil is the period when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. It relates to a long-term decline in the available supply of petroleum. This, combined with increasing demand, will significantly increase the worldwide prices of petroleum derived products. Most significant will be the availability and price of liquid fuel for transportation.

text: The US Department of Energy in the Hirsch report indicates that "The problems associated with world oil production peaking will not be temporary, and past "energy crisis" experience will provide relatively little guidance."[40] The 2014 United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects report notes that "Oil prices were on a downward trend in the first half of 2013 (after a spike in January and February caused by geopolitical tensions with Iran), as global demand for oil weakened along with the deceleration in world economic growth overall." [41]

text: Impact of declining oil price[edit]

text: A major rise or decline in oil price can have both economic and political impacts. The decline on oil price during 1985–1986 is considered to have contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.[42] Low oil prices could alleviate some of the negative effects associated with the resource curse, such as authoritarian rule[43][44][45][46][47] and gender inequality.[48][49] Lower oil prices could however also lead to domestic turmoil and diversionary war. The reduction in food prices that follows lower oil prices could have positive impacts on violence globally.[50]

text: Research shows that declining oil prices make oil-rich states less bellicose.[51] Low oil prices could also make oil-rich states engage more in international cooperation, as they become more dependent on foreign investments.[52] The influence of the United States reportedly increases as oil prices decline, at least judging by the fact that "both oil importers and exporters vote more often with the United States in the United Nations General Assembly" during oil slumps.[50]

text: Lower oil prices lead to greater global trade.[53]

text: Declining oil prices may boost consumer oriented stocks but may hurt oil-based stocks.[54][55] It is estimated that 17–18% of S&P would decline with declining oil prices.

text: The oil importing economies like EU, Japan, China or India would benefit, however the oil producing countries would lose.[56][57][58] A Bloomberg article presents results of an analysis by Oxford Economics on the GDP growth of countries as a result of a drop from $84 to $40. It shows the GDP increase between 0.5% to 1.0% for India, USA and China, and a decline of greater than 3.5% from Saudi Arabia and Russia. A stable price of $60 would add 0.5 percentage point to global gross domestic product.[59]

text: Katina Stefanova has argued that falling oil prices do not imply a recession and a decline in stock prices.[60] Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, had earlier written that that positive impact on consumers and businesses outside of the energy sector, which is a larger portion of the US economy will outweigh the negatives.[61] Taking cues from a legendary oil investor, Harold Hamm, ranked as one of the richest men in the world by Forbes, Shawn Baldwin, Chairman of alternative investment firm The AIA Group, speculates that oil prices will rise by year-end 2016 from current levels.[62]

text: Oil glut[edit]

text: Economists have observed that the 2015-2016 oil glut also known as 2010s oil glut started with a considerable time-lag, more than six years after the beginning of the Great Recession: "the price of oil [had] stabilized at a relatively high level (around $100 a barrel) unlike all previous recessionary cycles since 1980 (start of First Persian Gulf War). But nothing guarantee[d] such price levels in perpetuity".[63]

text: During 2014–2015, OPEC members consistently exceeded their production ceiling, and China experienced a marked slowdown in economic growth. At the same time, U.S. oil production nearly doubled from 2008 levels, due to substantial improvements in shale "fracking" technology in response to record oil prices. A combination of factors led a plunge in U.S. oil import requirements and a record high volume of worldwide oil inventories in storage, and a collapse in oil prices that continues into 2016.[64][65][66]

text: It has also been argued that the collapse in oil prices in 2015 should be very beneficial for developed western economies, who are generally oil importers and aren't over exposed to declining demand from China.[67] In the Asia-Pacific region, exports and economic growth were at significant risk across economies reliant on commodity exports as an engine of growth. The most vulnerable economies were those with a high dependence on fuel and mineral exports to China, such as: Korea DPR, Mongolia and Turkmenistan – where primary commodity exports account for 59–99% of total exports and more than 50% of total exports are destined to China. The decline in China’s demand for commodities also adversely affected the growth of exports and GDP of large commodity-exporting economies such as Australia (minerals) and the Russian Federation (fuel). On the other hand, lower commodity prices led to an improvement in the trade balance – through lower the cost of raw materials and fuels – across commodity importing economies, particularly Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and other remote island nations (Kiribati, Maldives, Micronesia (F.S), Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu) which are highly dependent on fuel and agricultural imports [68]

text: The North Sea oil and gas industry was financially stressed by the reduced oil prices, and called for government support in May 2016.[69]

text: Hedging as risk management[edit]

text: The use of hedging using commodity derivatives as a risk management tool on price exposure to liquidity and earnings, has been long established in North America. Chief Financial Officers (CFOS) use derivatives to dampen, remove or mitigate price uncertainty.[70] Bankers also use hedge funds to more "safely increase leverage to smaller oil and gas companies."[70] However, when not properly used, "derivatives can multiply losses"[70] particularly in North American where investors are more comfortable with higher levels of risk than in other countries.[70]

text: With the large number of bankruptcies as reported by Deloitte[18] "funding [for upstream oil industry] is shrinking and hedges are unwinding."[16] "Some oil producers are also choosing to liquidate hedges for a quick infusion of cash, a risky bet."[17]

text: "Access to capital markets, bankers' support and derivatives protection, which helped smooth an otherwise rocky road, are fast waning...The roughly 175 companies at risk of bankruptcy have more than $150 billion in debt, with the slipping value of secondary stock offerings and asset sales further hindering their ability to generate cash."

text: To finance exploration and production of the unconventional shale oil industry in the United States, "hundreds of billions of dollars of capital came from non-bank participants [non-bank buyers of bank energy credits] in leveraged loans] that were thought at the time to be low risk.[71] However, with the oil glut that continued into 2016, about a third of oil companies are facing bankruptcy.[18] While investors were aware that there was a risk that the operator might declare bankruptcy, they felt protected because "they had come in at the 'bank' level, where there was a senior claim on the assets [and] they could get their capital returned."[70]

text: By 2012,[70]

text: "... in recent years the combination of the development of large resource plays in the US and the emergence of business models designed to ensure consistent dividend payouts to investors has led to the development of more aggressive hedging policies in companies and less restrictive covenants in bank loans."

text: A classic example of taking on too much risk through hedging is the 1982 collapse of Penn Square Bank caused by plummeting of the price of oil in 1981.[71] Penn Square Bank had lent too much to Exploration and Production E&P operators. Penn Square Bank caused the failure of Seafirst in 1982 and then Continental Illinois.[71] When they failed and were liquidated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) the non-bank buyers or participants of bank energy credits of these leveraged loans participants were considered by to be 'unsecured claims,' not 'true sales' and they were not able to collect any capital.[71]

text: At the 5th annual World Pensions Forum in 2015, Jeffrey Sachs advised institutional investors to divest from carbon-reliant oil industry firms in their pension fund's portfolio.[72]

text: 2015–16 prices: The lows of January 2016[73][edit]

text: Because of oversupply and lack of agreements between oil-producing countries members of the OPEC (Saudi Arabia in particular, which pumped at world's records) and also because of lack of coordinated efforts between OPEC and Non-OPEC countries (Russian being a big player, refusing to reduce production) the price of oil fell rapidly in 2015 and continued to slide in 2016 causing the cost of WTI crude to fall to a 10-year low of $26.55 on January 20. The average price of oil in January 2016 was well below $35. Oil did not recover until April 2016, when oil went above the $45 mark.

text: By 20 January 2016, the OPEC Reference Basket was down to US$22.48/bbl—less than one-fourth of its high from June 2014 ($110.48), less than one-sixth of its record from July 2008 ($147.27), and back below the April 2003 starting point ($23.27) of its historic run-up.[66]