document_title: Curling

question_text: where do the stones for curling come from

question_tokens: where do the stones for curling come from

text: Curling

text: History

text: Evidence that curling existed in Scotland in the early 16th century includes a curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 uncovered (along with another bearing the date 1551) when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland.[5] The world's oldest curling stone and the world's oldest football are now kept in the same museum (the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum) in Stirling.[6] The first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541.[7] Two paintings, "Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap" and "The Hunters in the Snow" (both dated 1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depict Flemish peasants curling, albeit without brooms; Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf.[8]

text: The word curling first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson.[9][10] The sport was (and still is, in Scotland and Scottish-settled regions like southern New Zealand) also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while traveling over the pebble (droplets of water applied to the playing surface).[11] The verbal noun curling is formed from the Scots (and English) verb curl,[12] which describes the motion of the stone.

text: Kilsyth Curling Club claims to be the first club in the world, having been formally constituted in 1716;[13] it is still in existence today.[14] Kilsyth also claims the oldest purpose-built curling pond in the world at Colzium, in the form of a low dam creating a shallow pool some 100 × 250 metres in size.

text: In the early history of curling, the playing stones were simply flat-bottomed stones from rivers or fields, which lacked a handle and were of inconsistent size, shape and smoothness.[15][16] Some early stones had holes for a finger and the thumb, akin to ten-pin bowling balls.[17] Unlike today, the thrower had little control over the 'curl' or velocity and relied more on luck than on precision, skill and strategy. The sport was often played on frozen rivers although purpose-built ponds were later created in many Scottish towns.[18] For example the Scottish poet David Gray describes whisky drinking curlers on the Luggie Water at Kirkintilloch.[19][20]

text: In Darvel, East Ayrshire, the weavers relaxed by playing curling matches using the heavy stone weights from the looms' warp beams, fitted with a detachable handle for the purpose. Many a wife would keep her husband's brass curling stone handle on the mantelpiece, brightly polished until the next time it was needed.[22] Central Canadian curlers often used 'irons' rather than stones until the early 1900s; Canada is the only country known to have done so, while others experimented with wood or ice-filled tins.[23]

text: Outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland between the 16th and 19th centuries because the climate provided good ice conditions every winter. Scotland is home to the international governing body for curling, the World Curling Federation, Perth, which originated as a committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, the mother club of curling.

text: Today, the sport is most firmly established in Canada, having been taken there by Scottish emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling Club, the oldest established sports club still active in North America,[24] was established in 1807. The first curling club in the United States was established in 1830, and the sport was introduced to Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the 19th century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Brazil, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea.[25]

text: The first world championship for curling was limited to men and was known as the Scotch Cup, held in Falkirk and Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959. The first world title was won by the Canadian team from Regina, Saskatchewan, skipped by Ernie Richardson. (The skip is the team member who calls the shots; see below.)

text: Curling was one of the first sports that was popular with women and girls.[26]

text: Olympic curling

text: Curling has been a medal sport in the Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter Olympics. It currently includes men's, women's and mixed doubles tournaments (the mixed tournament was held for the first time in 2018).[27]

text: In February 2002, the International Olympic Committee retroactively decided that the curling competition from the 1924 Winter Olympics (originally called Semaine des Sports d'Hiver, or International Winter Sports Week) would be considered official Olympic events and no longer be considered demonstration events. Thus, the first Olympic medals in curling, which at the time was played outdoors, were awarded for the 1924 Winter Games, with the gold medal won by Great Britain and Ireland, two silver medals by Sweden, and the bronze by France. A demonstration tournament was also held during the 1932 Winter Olympic Games between four teams from Canada and four teams from the United States, with Canada winning 12 games to 4.[28][29]

text: Since the 1998 Olympics, Canada has dominated the sport with their men's teams winning gold in 2006, 2010, and 2014, and silver in 1998 and 2002. The women's team won gold in 1998 and 2014, a silver in 2010, and a bronze in 2002 and 2006. The mixed doubles team won gold in 2018.

text: Equipment

text: Curling sheet

text: The playing surface or curling sheet is defined by the World Curling Federation Rules of Curling.[30] It is a rectangular area of ice, carefully prepared to be as flat and level as possible, 146 to 150 feet (45 to 46 m) in length by 14.5 to 16.5 feet (4.4 to 5.0 m) in width. The shorter borders of the sheet are called the backboards. Because of the elongated shape, several sheets may be laid out side by side in the same arena, allowing multiple games to be played simultaneously.

text: A target, the house, is centred on the intersection of the centre line, drawn lengthwise down the centre of the sheet and the tee line, drawn 16 feet (4.9 m) from, and parallel to, the backboard. These lines divide the house into quarters. The house consists of a centre circle (the button) and three concentric rings, of diameters 4, 8 and 12 feet, formed by painting or laying coloured vinyl sheet under the ice and are usually distinguished by colour. A stone must at least touch the outer ring in order to score (see Scoring below); otherwise the rings are merely a visual aid for aiming and judging which stone is closer to the button. Two hog lines are drawn 37 feet (11 m) from, and parallel to, the backboard.

text: The hacks are fixed 12 feet (3.7 m) behind each button; a hack gives the thrower something to push against when making the throw. On indoor rinks, there are usually two fixed hacks, rubber-lined holes, one on each side of the centre line, with the inside edge no more than 3 inches (76 mm) from the centre line and the front edge on the hack line. A single moveable hack may also be used.

text: The ice may be natural but is usually frozen by a refrigeration plant pumping a brine solution through numerous pipes fixed lengthwise at the bottom of a shallow pan of water. Most curling clubs have an ice maker whose main job is to care for the ice. At the major curling championships, ice maintenance is extremely important. Large events, such as the Brier or other national/international championships, are typically held in an arena that presents a challenge to the ice maker, who must constantly monitor and adjust the ice and air temperatures as well as air humidity levels to ensure a consistent playing surface. It is common for each sheet of ice to have multiple sensors embedded in order to monitor surface temperature, as well as probes set up in the seating area (to monitor humidity) and in the compressor room (to monitor brine supply and return temperatures). The surface of the ice is maintained at a temperature of around 23 °F (−5 °C).[31]

text: A key part of the preparation of the playing surface is the spraying of water droplets onto the ice, which form pebble on freezing. The pebbled ice surface resembles an orange peel, and the stone moves on top of the pebbled ice.[32] As the stone moves over the pebble, any rotation of the stone causes it to curl to the inside or outside. The amount of curl (commonly referred to as the feet of curl) can change during a game as the pebble wears; the ice maker must monitor this and be prepared to scrape and re-pebble the surface prior to each game.[33]

text: Curling stone

text: The curling stone (also sometimes called a rock in North America) is made of granite and is specified by the World Curling Federation, which requires a weight between 38 and 44 pounds (17.24 and 19.96 kg), a maximum circumference of 36 inches (914.4 mm) and a minimum height of 4.5 inches (114.3 mm).[30] The only part of the stone in contact with the ice is the running surface, a narrow, flat annulus or ring, 0.25 to 0.50 inches (6.4 to 12.7 mm) wide and about 5 inches (130 mm) in diameter; the sides of the stone bulge convex down to the ring and the inside of the ring is hollowed concave to clear the ice. This concave bottom was first proposed by J. S. Russell of Toronto, Ontario, Canada sometime after 1870, and was subsequently adopted by Scottish stone manufacturer Andrew Kay.[23]

text: The granite for the stones comes from two sources: Ailsa Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast of Scotland, and the Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales.

text: Ailsa Craig is the traditional source and produces two types of granite, Blue Hone and Ailsa Craig Common Green. Blue Hone has very low water absorption, which prevents the action of repeatedly freezing water from eroding the stone.[34] Ailsa Craig Common Green is a lesser quality granite than Blue Hone. In the past, most curling stones were made from Blue Hone but the island is now a wildlife reserve and the quarry is restricted by environmental conditions that exclude blasting.

text: Kays of Scotland has been making curling stones in Mauchline, Ayrshire, since 1851 and has the exclusive rights to the Ailsa Craig granite, granted by the Marquess of Ailsa, whose family has owned the island since 1560. According to the 1881 Census, Andrew Kay employed 30 people in his curling stone factory in Mauchline.[35] The last harvest of Ailsa Craig granite by Kays took place in 2013, after a hiatus of 11 years; 2,000 tons were harvested, sufficient to fill anticipated orders through at least 2020. Kays have been involved in providing curling stones for the Winter Olympics since Chamonix in 1924 and has been the exclusive manufacturer of curling stones for the Olympics since the 2006 Winter Olympics.[36][37]

text: Trefor granite comes from the Yr Eifl or Trefor Granite Quarry in the village of Trefor on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales and has produced granite since 1850. Trefor granite comes in shades of pink, blue and grey.[38] The quarry supplies curling stone granite exclusively to the Canadian, Canada Curling Stone Co., which has been producing stones since 1992 and supplied the stones for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

text: A handle is attached by a bolt running vertically through a hole in the centre of the stone. The handle allows the stone to be gripped and rotated upon release; on properly prepared ice the rotation will bend (curl) the path of the stone in the direction in which the front edge of the stone is turning, especially as the stone slows. Handles are coloured to identify each team, two popular colours in major tournaments being red and yellow. In competition, an electronic handle known as the eye on the hog may be fitted to detect hog line violations. This electronically detects whether the thrower's hand is in contact with the handle as it passes the hog line and indicates a violation by lights at the base of the handle. The eye on the hog eliminates human error and the need for hog line officials. It is mandatory in high-level national and international competition, but its cost, around US$650 each, currently puts it beyond the reach of most club curling.

text: Curling broom

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The curling broom, or brush, is used to sweep the ice surface in the path of the stone (see sweeping) and is also often used as a balancing aid during delivery of the stone.

text: Prior to the 1950s, most curling brooms were made of corn strands and were similar to household brooms of the day. In 1958, Fern Marchessault of Montreal inverted the corn straw in the centre of the broom. This style of corn broom was referred to as the Blackjack.[39]

text: Artificial brooms made from man-made fabrics rather than corn, such as the Rink Rat, also became common later during this time period. Prior to the late sixties, Scottish curling brushes were used primarily by some of the Scots, as well as by recreational and elderly curlers, as a substitute for corn brooms, since the technique was easier to learn. In the late sixties, competitive curlers from Calgary, Alberta, such as John Mayer, Bruce Stewart, and, later, the world junior championship teams skipped by Paul Gowsell, proved that the curling brush could be just as (or more) effective without all the blisters common to corn broom use.[39] During that time period, there was much debate in competitive curling circles as to which sweeping device was more effective: brush or broom. Eventually, the brush won out with the majority of curlers making the switch to the less costly and more efficient brush. Today, brushes have replaced traditional corn brooms at every level of curling; it is rare now to see a curler using a corn broom on a regular basis.

text: Curling brushes may have fabric, hog hair, or horsehair heads. Modern curling brush handles are usually hollow tubes made of fibreglass or carbon fibre instead of a solid length of wooden dowel. These hollow tube handles are lighter and stronger than wooden handles, allowing faster sweeping and also enabling more downward force to be applied to the broom head with reduced shaft flex. New, "directional fabric" brooms, which players are worried will alter the fundamentals of the sport by reducing the level of skill required, have been accused of giving players an unfair advantage.[40] The new brooms were temporarily banned by the World Curling Federation and Curling Canada[41] for the 2015–2016 season. The new brooms give sweepers unprecedented control over the direction the stone goes.[42]

text: Shoes

text: Curling shoes are similar to ordinary athletic shoes except that they have dissimilar soles; the slider shoe (usually known as a "slider") is designed for the sliding foot and the "gripper shoe" (usually known as a gripper) for the hack foot.

text: The slider is designed to slide and typically has a Teflon sole. It is worn by the thrower during delivery from the hack and by sweepers or the skip to glide down the ice when sweeping or otherwise traveling down the sheet quickly. Stainless steel was once common for slider soles, and "red brick" sliders with lateral blocks of PVC on the sole are also available. Most shoes have a full-sole sliding surface, but some shoes have a sliding surface covering only the outline of the shoe and other enhancements with the full-sole slider. Some shoes have small disc sliders covering the front and heel portions or only the front portion of the foot, which allow more flexibility in the sliding foot for curlers playing with tuck deliveries.[43] When a player is not throwing, the player's slider shoe can be temporarily rendered non-slippery by using a slip-on gripper. Ordinary athletic shoes may be converted to sliders by using a step-on or slip-on Teflon slider or by applying electrical or gaffer tape directly to the sole or over a piece of cardboard. This arrangement often suits casual or beginning players.

text: The gripper is worn by the thrower on the hack foot during delivery and is designed to grip the ice. It may have a normal athletic shoe sole or a special layer of rubbery material applied to the sole of a thickness to match the sliding shoe. The toe of the hack foot shoe may also have a rubberised coating on the top surface or a flap that hangs over the toe to reduce wear on the top of the shoe as it drags on the ice behind the thrower.

text: Other equipment

text: Other types of equipment include:

text:
Curling pants, made to be stretchy to accommodate the curling delivery.
A stopwatch to time the stones over a fixed distance to calculate their speed. Stopwatches can be attached either to clothing or the broom.
Curling gloves and mittens, to keep the hands warm and improve grip on the broom.

text: Gameplay

text: The purpose of a game is to score points by getting stones closer to the house centre, or the "button", than the other team's stones.[44] Players from either team alternate in taking shots from the far side of the sheet. An end is complete when all eight rocks from each team have been delivered, a total of sixteen stones. If the teams are tied at the end of the game, play continues for as many ends as may be required to break the tie. The winner is the team with the highest score after all ends have been completed (see Scoring below). A game may be conceded if considered unwinnable.

text: International competitive games are generally ten ends, so most of the national championships that send a representative to the World Championships or Olympics also play ten ends. However, there is a movement on the World Curling Tour to make the games only eight ends.[45] Most tournaments on that tour are eight ends, as are the vast majority of recreational games.

text: In international competition, each side is given 73 minutes to complete all of its throws. Each team is also allowed two minute-long timeouts per 10-end game. If extra ends are required, each team is allowed 10 minutes of playing time to complete its throws and one added 60-second timeout for each extra end. However, the "thinking time" system, in which the delivering team's game timer stops as soon as the shooter's rock crosses the t-line during the delivery, is becoming more popular, especially in Canada. This system allows each team 38 minutes per 10 ends, or 30 minutes per 8 ends, to make strategic and tactical decisions, with 4 minutes and 30 seconds an end for extra ends.[46] The "thinking time" system was implemented after it was recognized that teams playing aggressively (using draws and other low-weight shots which take more time for the stones to come to rest) were essentially being penalized in terms of the time they had available compared to teams which primarily use hits which require far less time per shot.

text: Delivery

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The process of sliding a stone down the sheet is known as the delivery.

text: The skip, or the captain of the team, will usually determine the required weight, turn, and line of the stone. These will be influenced by the tactics at this point in the game, which may involve taking out, blocking or tapping another stone.

text:
The weight of the stone is its velocity, which depends on the leg drive of the delivery rather than the arm.
The turn or curl is the rotation of the stone, which gives it a curved trajectory.
The line is the direction of the throw ignoring the effect of the turn.

text: The skip may communicate the weight, turn, line, and other tactics by calling or tapping a broom on the ice. In the case of a takeout, guard, or a tap, the skip will indicate the stones involved.

text: Before delivery, the running surface of the stone is wiped clean and the path across the ice swept with the broom if necessary, because any dirt on the bottom of a stone or in its path can alter the trajectory and ruin the shot. Intrusion by a foreign object is called a pick-up or pick.

text: The thrower throws from the hack. Another player, usually the skip, is stationed behind the button to determine the tactics, weight, turn, and line, and the other two may sweep in front of the stone to influence the trajectory (see Sweeping, below). The players, with the exception of the skip, take turns throwing and sweeping; when one player (e.g., the lead) throws, the players not throwing (the second and third) sweep. When the skip throws, the third, or vice-skip, takes his role.

text: The thrower's gripper shoe (with the non-slippery sole) is positioned against one of the hacks; for a right-handed curler the right foot is placed against the left hack and vice versa for a left-hander. The thrower, now in the hack, lines the body up with shoulders square to the skip's broom at the far end for line.

text: The stone is placed in front of the foot now in the hack. Rising slightly from the hack, the thrower pulls the stone back (some older curlers may actually raise the stone in this backward movement) then lunges smoothly out from the hack pushing the stone ahead while the slider foot is moved in front of the gripper foot, which trails behind. The thrust from this lunge determines the weight and hence the distance the stone will travel. While not compulsory, most curlers deliver the stone while sliding out from the hack. Balance may be assisted by a broom held in the free hand with the back of the broom down so that it slides. One older writer suggests the player keep "a basilisk glance" at the mark.[50]

text: There are two current types of delivery, the common flat-foot deliver as well as the Manitoba tuck delivery where the curler slides on the front ball of his foot.[51]

text: The stone is released as the thrower approaches the hog line, at which point the turn is imparted by a slight clockwise or counter-clockwise twist of the handle from around the two or ten o'clock position to the twelve o'clock on release. A typical rate of turn is about 2 1⁄2 rotations before coming to a rest.

text: The stone must be released before its front edge crosses the near hog line, and it must clear the far hog line or else be removed from play (hogged); an exception is made if a stone fails to come to rest beyond the far hog line after rebounding from a stone in play just past the hog line. The release rule is rarely enforced in club play unless abuse is suspected. However, in major tournaments it is strictly enforced; the "eye on the hog" sensor in the stone will indicate whether the stone has been legally thrown or not. The lights on the stone handle will either light up green, indicating that the stone has been legally thrown, or red, in which case the illegally thrown stone will be immediately pulled from play instead of waiting for the stone to come to rest.

text: Sweeping

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: After the stone is delivered, its trajectory is still influenced by the two sweepers under instruction from the skip. Sweeping is done for several reasons: to reduce friction underneath the stone, to decrease the amount of curl, and to clean debris from the stone's path.[52] The stones curl more as they slow down, so sweeping early in travel tends to increase distance as well as straighten the path, and sweeping after sideways motion is established can increase the sideways distance. When sweeping, pressure and speed of the brush head are key in slightly increasing the layer of moisture that builds up under the stone.

text: One of the basic technical aspects of curling is knowing when to sweep. When the ice in front of the stone is swept, a stone will usually travel both farther and straighter. In some situations, one of the two alterations in path is not desirable. For example, a stone may have too much weight, but require sweeping to prevent curling into a guard. The team must decide which is better: getting by the guard but traveling too far, or hitting the guard.

text: Much of the yelling that goes on during a curling game is the skip calling the line of the shot and the sweepers calling the weight. The skip evaluates the path of the stone and calls to the sweepers to sweep as necessary to maintain the intended track. The sweepers themselves are responsible for judging the weight of the stone, ensuring the length of travel is correct and communicating the weight of the stone back to the skip. Some teams use stopwatch timing, from back line to the nearest hog line as a sweeping aid. Many teams use the Number System to communicate in which of 10 playable zones it is estimated the stone will stop.

text: Usually, the two sweepers will be on opposite sides of the stone's path, although depending on which side the sweepers' strengths lie this may not always be the case. Speed and pressure are vital to sweeping. In gripping the broom, one hand should be one third of the way from the top (non-brush end) of the handle while the other hand should be one third of the way from the head of the broom. The angle of the broom to the ice should be so that the most force possible can be exerted on the ice. The precise amount of pressure may vary from relatively light brushing ("just cleaning" - to ensure debris will not alter the stone's path) to maximum-pressure scrubbing.

text: Sweeping is allowed anywhere on the ice up to the tee line, as long as it is only for one's own team stones. Once the leading edge of a team stone crosses the tee line only one player may sweep it. Additionally, when a stone crosses the tee line, one player from the other team is allowed to sweep it. This is the only case that a stone may be swept by an opposing team member. In international rules, this player must be the skip; or if the skip is throwing, then the sweeping player must be the third.

text: Burning a stone

text: Occasionally, players may accidentally touch a stone with their broom or a body part. This is often referred to as burning a stone. Players touching a stone in such a manner are expected to call their own infraction as a matter of good sportsmanship. Touching a stationary stone when no stones are in motion (there is no delivery in progress) is not an infraction (unless the stationary stone is struck in such a manner that its position is altered), and is a common way for the skip to indicate a stone that is to be taken out.

text: When a stone is touched when stones are in play, the remedies vary[30][53] between placing the stones as they end up after the touch, replacing the stones as they would have been if no stone were touched, or removal of the touched stone from play. In non-officiated league play, the skip of the non-offending team has the final say on where the stones are placed after the infraction.

text: Types of shots

text: Many different types of shots are used to carefully place stones for strategic or tactical reasons; they fall into three fundamental categories as follows:

text: Guards are thrown in front of the house in the free guard zone, usually to protect the shot-rock (the stone closest to the button at the time) or to make the opposing team's shot difficult. Guard shots include the centre-guard, on the centreline and the corner-guards to the left or right sides of the centre line. See Free Guard Zone below.

text: Draws are thrown only to reach the house. Draw shots include raise and angle-raise, come-around, and freeze shots.

text: Takeouts are intended to remove stones from play and include the peel, hit-and-roll and double shots.

text: For a more complete listing, see Glossary of curling terms.

text: Free guard zone

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Until four stones have been played (two from each side), stones in the free guard zone (those stones left in the area between the hog and tee lines, excluding the house) may not be removed by an opponent's stone (although they can be moved as long as they are not taken out of play). These are known as guard rocks. If the guard rocks are removed, they are placed back in the positions they were before the shot was thrown, and the opponent's stone is removed from play and cannot be replayed. This rule is known as the four-rock rule or the free guard zone rule (for a while in Canada, a "three-rock rule" was in place, but that rule has been replaced by the four-rock rule).

text: This rule, a relatively recent addition to curling, was added in response to a strategy of "peeling" opponents' guard stones (knocking them out of play at an angle that caused the shooter's stone to also roll out of play, leaving no stones on the ice). A team in the lead would often employ this strategy during the game. By knocking all stones out, the opponents could at best score one point (if they had the hammer). Alternatively, the team with the hammer could peel rock after rock, which would blank the end, keeping the last rock advantage for another end. This strategy had developed (mostly in Canada) as ice-makers had become skilled at creating a predictable ice surface and the adoption of brushes allowed greater control over the rock. While a sound strategy, this made for an unexciting game. Observers at the time noted that if two teams equally skilled in the peel game faced each other on good ice, the outcome of the game would be predictable from who won the coin flip to have last rock (or had earned it in the schedule) at the beginning of the game. The 1990 Brier was considered by many curling fans as boring to watch because of the amount of peeling and the quick adoption of the Free Guard Zone the following year reflected how disliked this aspect of the game had become.

text: The free guard zone was originally called the Modified Moncton Rule and was developed from a suggestion made by Russ Howard for the Moncton 100 cashspiel (with the richest prize ever awarded at the time in a tournament) in Moncton, New Brunswick, in January 1990. "Howard's Rule" (later known as the Moncton Rule), used for the tournament and based on a practice drill his team used, had the first four rocks in play unable to be removed no matter where they were at any time during the end. This method of play was altered by restricting the area in which a stone was protected to the free guard zone only for the first four rocks thrown and adopted as a Four-rock Free Guard Zone for international competition shortly after. Canada kept to the traditional rules until a three-rock Free Guard Zone rule was adopted for the 1993–94 season. After several years of having the three-rock rule used for the Canadian championships and the winners then having to adjust to the four-rock rule in the World Championships, the Canadian Curling Association adopted the now-standard Free Guard Zone in the 2002–2003 season.

text: One strategy that has been developed by curlers in response to the Free Guard Zone (Kevin Martin from Alberta is one of the best examples) is the "tick" game, where a shot is made attempting to knock (tick) the guard to the side, far enough that it is difficult or impossible to use but still remaining in play while the shot itself goes out of play. The effect is functionally identical to peeling the guard but significantly harder, as a shot that hits the guard too hard (knocking it out of play) results in its being replaced, while not hitting it hard enough can result in its still being tactically useful for the opposition. There is also a greater chance that the shot will miss the guard entirely because of the greater accuracy required to make the shot. Because of the difficulty of making this type of shot, only the best teams will normally attempt it, and it does not dominate the game the way the peel formerly did. Steve Gould from Manitoba popularized ticks played across the face. These are easier to make because they impart less speed on the object stone, therefore increasing the chance that it remains in play even if a bigger chunk of it is hit.

text: Hammer

text: Last-rock or last-stone advantage in an end is called the hammer. Before the game, teams typically decide who gets the hammer in the first end either by chance (such as a coin toss), by a "draw-to-the-button" contest, where a representative of each team shoots to see who gets closer to the centre of the rings, or, particularly in tournament settings like the Winter Olympics, by a comparison of each team's win-loss record. In all subsequent ends, the hammer belongs to the team that did not score in the preceding end. In the event that neither team scores, the hammer remains with the same team. Naturally, it is easier to score points with the hammer than without; in tournament play, the team with the hammer generally tries to score two or more points. If only one point is possible, the skip will often try to avoid scoring at all in order to retain the hammer until the next end, when two or more points may lie. This is called a blank end. Scoring without the hammer is commonly referred to as stealing, or a steal, and is much more difficult.

text: Strategy

text: Curling is a game of strategy, tactics and skill. The strategy depends on the team's skill, the opponent's skill, the conditions of the ice, the score of the game, how many ends remain and whether the team has last-stone advantage (the hammer). A team may play an end aggressively or defensively. Aggressive playing will put a lot of stones in play by throwing mostly draws; this makes for an exciting game and is very risky but the reward can be very great. Defensive playing will throw a lot of hits preventing a lot of stones in play; this tends to be less exciting and less risky. A good drawing team will usually opt to play aggressively, while a good hitting team will opt to play defensively.

text: If a team does not have the hammer in an end, it will opt to try to clog up the four-foot zone in the house to deny the opposing team access to the button. This can be done by throwing "centre line" guards in front of the house on the centre line, which can be tapped into the house later or drawn around. If a team has the hammer, they will try to keep this four-foot zone free so that they have access to the button area at all times. A team with the hammer may throw a corner guard as their first stone of an end placed in front of the house but outside the four-foot zone to utilize the free guard zone. Corner guards are key for a team to score two points in an end, because they can either draw around it later or hit and roll behind it, making the opposing team's shot to remove it more difficult.

text: Ideally, the strategy in an end for a team with the hammer is to score two points or more. Scoring one point is often a wasted opportunity, as they will then lose last-rock advantage for the next end. If a team cannot score two points, they will often attempt to "blank an end" by removing any leftover opposition rocks and rolling out; or, if there are no opposition rocks, just throwing the rock through the house so that no team scores any points, and the team with the hammer can try again the next end to score two or more with it. Generally, a team without the hammer would want to either force the team with the hammer to only one point (so that they can get the hammer back) or "steal" the end by scoring one or more points of their own.[54]

text: Generally, the larger the lead a team will have in a game, the more defensively they should play. By hitting all of the opponent's stones, it removes opportunities for their getting multiple points, therefore defending the lead. If the leading team is quite comfortable, leaving their own stones in play can also be dangerous. Guards can be drawn around by the other team, and stones in the house can be tapped back (if they are in front of the tee line) or frozen onto (if they are behind the tee line). A frozen stone is difficult to remove, because it is "frozen" (in front of and touching) to the opponents stone. At this point, a team will opt for "peels", meaning that the stones they throw will be to not only hit their opposition stones, but to roll out of play as well. Peels are hits that are thrown with the most amount of power.

text: Conceding a game

text: It is not uncommon at any level for a losing team to terminate the match before all ends are completed if it believes it no longer has a realistic chance of winning. Competitive games end once the losing team has "run out of rocks"—that is, once it has fewer stones in play and available for play than the number of points needed to tie the game.

text: Dispute resolution

text: Most decisions about rules are left to the skips, although in official tournaments, decisions may be left to the officials. However, all scoring disputes are handled by the vice skip. No players other than the vice skip from each team should be in the house while score is being determined. In tournament play, the most frequent circumstance in which a decision has to be made by someone other than the vice skip is the failure of the vice skips to agree on which stone is closest to the button. An independent official (supervisor at Canadian and World championships) then measures the distances using a specially designed device that pivots at the centre of the button. When no independent officials are available, the vice skips measure the distances.

text: Scoring

text: The winner is the team having the highest number of accumulated points at the completion of ten ends. Points are scored at the conclusion of each of these ends as follows: when each team has thrown its eight stones, the team with the stone closest to the button wins that end; the winning team is then awarded one point for each of its own stones lying closer to the button than the opponent's closest stone.

text: Only stones that are in the house are considered in the scoring. A stone is in the house if it lies within the 12-foot (3.7 m) zone or any portion of its edge lies over the edge of the ring. Since the bottom of the stone is rounded, a stone just barely in the house will not have any actual contact with the ring, which will pass under the rounded edge of the stone, but it still counts. This type of stone is known as a biter.

text: It may not be obvious to the eye which of two rocks is closer to the button (centre) or if a rock is actually biting or not. There are specialized devices to make these determinations, but these cannot be brought out until after an end is completed. Therefore, a team may make strategic decisions during an end based on assumptions of rock position that turn out to be incorrect.

text: The score is marked on a scoreboard, of which there are two types; the baseball type and the club scoreboard.

text: The baseball-style scoreboard was created for televised games for audiences not familiar with the club scoreboard. The ends are marked by columns 1 through 10 (or 11 for the possibility of an extra end to break ties) plus an additional column for the total. Below this are two rows, one for each team, containing the team's score for that end and their total score in the right hand column.

text: The club scoreboard is traditional and used in most curling clubs. Scoring on this board only requires the use of (up to) 11 digit cards, whereas with baseball-type scoring an unknown number of multiples of the digits (especially low digits like 1) may be needed. The numbered centre row represents all possible accumulated scores, and the numbers placed in the team rows represent the end in which that team achieved that cumulative score. If the red team scores three points in the first end (called a three-ender), then a 1 (indicating the first end) is placed beside the number 3 in the red row. If they score two more in the second end, then a 2 will be placed beside the 5 in the red row, indicating that the red team has five points in total (3+2). This scoreboard works because only one team can get points in an end. However, some confusion may arise if neither team scores points in an end, this is called a blank end. The blank end numbers are usually listed in the farthest column on the right in the row of the team that has the hammer (last rock advantage), or on a special spot for blank ends.

text: The following example illustrates the difference between the two types. The example illustrates the men's final at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

text:
Baseball-style scoreboard

Team
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Final

 Canada
0
2
1
1
0
6
0
0
x
x
10

 Finland
2
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
x
x
4

text:
Curling club-style scoreboard

 Canada

2
3
4

6

Points
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Blank ends

 Finland

1
5
8

7

text: Eight points – all the rocks thrown by one team counting – is the highest score possible in an end, and is known as an "eight-ender" or "snowman". Scoring an eight-ender against a relatively competent team is very difficult; in curling, it is considered the equivalent of pitching a perfect game in baseball. Probably the best-known snowman came at the 2006 Players' Championships. Future (2007) World Champion Kelly Scott scored eight points in one of her games against 1998 World bronze medalist Cathy King.[55][56]

text: Curling culture

text: Competition teams are normally named after the skip, for example, Team Martin after skip Kevin Martin. Amateur league players can (and do) creatively name their teams, but when in competition (a bonspiel) the official team will have a standard name.

text: Top curling championships are typically played by all-male or all-female teams. It is known as mixed curling when a team consists of two men and two women. For many years, in the absence of world championship or Olympic mixed curling events, national championships (of which the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship was the most prominent) were the highest-level mixed curling competitions. However, a European Mixed Curling Championship was inaugurated in 2005, a World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was established in 2008, and the European Mixed Championship was replaced with the World Mixed Curling Championship in 2015. A mixed tournament was held at the Olympic level for the first time in 2018, although it was a doubles tournament, not a four-person.

text: Curling tournaments may use the Schenkel system for determining the participants in matches.

text: Curling is played in many countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom (especially Scotland), the United States, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Japan, all of which compete in the world championships.

text: Curling has been depicted by many artists including: George Harvey,[57][58] John Levack,[59] The Dutch School,[60] Charles Martin Hardie, [61] John Elliot Maguire, [62] John McGhie, [63] and John George Brown.[64]

text: Curling is particularly popular in Canada. Improvements in ice making and changes in the rules to increase scoring and promote complex strategy have increased the already high popularity of the sport in Canada, and large television audiences watch annual curling telecasts, especially the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (the national championship for women), the Tim Hortons Brier (the national championship for men), and the women's and men's world championships.

text: Despite the Canadian province of Manitoba's small population (ranked 5th of 10 Canadian provinces), Manitoban teams have won the Brier more times than teams from any other province. The Tournament of Hearts and the Brier are contested by provincial and territorial champions, and the world championships by national champions.

text: Curling is the provincial sport of Saskatchewan. From there Ernie Richardson and his family team dominated Canadian and international curling during the late 1950s and early 1960s and have been considered to be the best male curlers of all time.[65] Sandra Schmirler led her team to the first ever gold medal in women's curling in the 1998 Winter Olympics. When she died two years later from cancer, over 15,000 people attended her funeral, and it was broadcast on national television.

text: Good sportsmanship

text: More so than in many other team sports, good sportsmanship, often referred to as the "Spirit of Curling", is an integral part of curling. In the United States there was even a theology of curling.[66]

text: The Spirit of Curling also leads teams to congratulate their opponents for making a good shot, strong sweeping or spectacular form. Perhaps most importantly, the Spirit of Curling dictates that one never cheers mistakes, misses or gaffes by one's opponent (unlike most team sports) and one should not celebrate one's own good shots during the game beyond modest acknowledgement of the shot such as a head nod, fist bump or thumbs-up gesture. Modest congratulation, however, may be exchanged between winning team members after the match. On-the-ice celebration is usually reserved for the winners of a major tournament after winning the final game of the championship. It is completely unacceptable to attempt to throw opposing players off their game by way of negative comment, distraction or heckling.[67]

text: A match traditionally begins with players shaking hands with and saying "good curling" or "have a pleasant game" to each member of the opposing team. It is also traditional in some areas for the winning team to buy the losing team a drink after the game.[68] Even at the highest levels of play, players are expected to call their own fouls.

text: It is not uncommon for a team to concede a curling match after it believes it no longer has any hope of winning. Concession is an honourable act and does not carry the stigma associated with quitting, and also allows for more socializing. To concede a match, members of the losing team offer congratulatory handshakes to the winning team. Thanks, wishes of future good luck and hugs are usually exchanged between the teams. To continue playing when a team has no realistic chance of winning can be seen as a breach of etiquette.

text: Accessibility in curling

text: Curling has been adapted for wheelchair users and people otherwise unable to throw the stone from the hack. These curlers may use a device known as a "delivery stick". The cue holds on to the handle of the stone and is then pushed along by the curler. At the end of delivery, the curler pulls back on the cue, which releases it from the stone.[69] The Canadian Curling Association Rules of Curling allows the use of a delivery stick in club play but does not permit it in championships.

text: The delivery stick was specifically invented for elderly curlers in Canada in 1999. In early 2016 an international initiative started to allow use of the delivery sticks by players over 60 years of age in World Curling Federation Senior Championships, as well as in any projected Masters (60+) Championship that develops in the future.[70]

text: Terminology

text: Terms used to describe the game include:

text: The ice in the game may be fast (keen) or slow. If the ice is keen, a rock will travel farther with a given amount of weight (throwing force) on it. The speed of the ice is measured in seconds. One such measure, known as "hog-to-hog" time, is the speed of the stone and is the time in seconds the rock takes from the moment it crosses the near hog line till it crosses the far hog line. If this number is lower, the rock is moving faster, so again low numbers mean more speed. The ice in a match will be somewhat consistent and thus this measure of speed can also be used to measure how far down the ice the rock will travel. Once it is determined that a rock taking (for example) 13 seconds to go from hog line to hog line will stop on the tee line, the curler can know that if the hog-to-hog time is matched by a future stone, that stone will likely stop at approximately the same location. As an example, on keen ice, common times might be 16 seconds for guards, 14 seconds for draws, and 8 seconds for peel weight.

text: The back line to hog line speed is used principally by sweepers to get an initial sense of the weight of a stone. As an example, on keen ice, common times might be 4.0 seconds for guards, 3.8 seconds for draws, 3.2 for normal hit weight, and 2.9 seconds for peel weight. Especially at the club level, this metric can be misleading, due to amateurs sometimes pushing stones on release, causing the stone to travel faster than the back-to-hog speed.

text: Champions and major championships

text:
Curling at the Winter Olympics
World Curling Championships
World Junior Curling Championships
World Senior Curling Championships
World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
European Curling Championships
Continental Cup of Curling

Tim Hortons Brier
Scotties Tournament of Hearts
United States Men's Curling Championship
United States Women's Curling Championship
Canada Cup of Curling
European Mixed Curling Championship

text: Notable curling clubs

text:
Bemidji Curling Club – Bemidji, Minnesota, Home of the 2006 United States Men's & Women's Olympic Curling Teams
Broomstones Curling Club – Wayland, Massachusetts
Chicago Curling Club – Chicago, Illinois
Dakota Curling Club – Burnsville, Minnesota – a leading example of the development of new curling clubs on arena ice in the USA
Detroit Curling Club – Ferndale, Michigan
Garrison Golf and Curling Club, Kingston, Ontario
Grand National Curling Club – Organization in the United States covering clubs on the east coast
Granite Curling Club – Winnipeg, Manitoba
Granite Curling Club – Seattle, Washington, the only dedicated curling facility on the west coast of the United States
Ice Melters Curling Club – England
Markinch Curling Club – Fife, Scotland
Mayflower Curling Club – Halifax, Nova Scotia
Milwaukee Curling Club – Mequon, Wisconsin — The oldest curling club in the U.S. – Since 1845
Ottawa Curling Club – Ottawa, Ontario
Potomac Curling Club – Laurel, Maryland – Near Washington, D.C
Pittsburgh Curling Club – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Established in 2002
Plainfield Curling Club – South Plainfield, New Jersey
Rideau Curling Club – Ottawa, Ontario
Royal Caledonian Curling Club – Scotland, the official Mother Club of curling
Royal Montreal Curling Club – Montreal, Quebec, the oldest active athletic club in North America
Royal City Curling Club – New Westminster, British Columbia
Saint Paul Curling Club – St. Paul, Minnesota – Founded in 1885. Club with largest active membership in the United States (over 1000 members).
Utica Curling Club – Utica, New York
Kilsyth Curling Club – the first constituted curling club in the world
Wausau Curling Club – Wausau, Wisconsin – Home of the Tietge Bonspiel, the oldest and largest high school curling bonspiel in the U.S.

text: In popular culture

text: Curling is featured prominently in "Boy Meets Curl", the twelfth episode of the comedy series The Simpsons' twenty-first season. The episode aired on the Fox network in the United States on 14 February 2010.[71]

text: Men with Brooms is a 2002 Canadian film that takes a satirical look at curling.[72] A TV adaptation, also titled Men with Brooms, debuted in 2010 on CBC Television.[73]

text: The Corner Gas episode "Hurry Hard" involves the townspeople of Dog River competing in a local curling bonspiel for the fictitious "Clavet Cup". The episode also features cameos by Canadian curlers Randy Ferbey and Dave Nedohin.


document_title: 63rd National Film Awards

question_text: who won the best actress award at the 63rd national film awards in 2016

root

text: 63rd National Film Awards

text: Selection process[edit]

text: The Directorate of Film Festivals invited nominations for the awards in January 2016. The acceptable last date for entries was until 13 January 2016. Feature and Non-Feature Films certified by Central Board of Film Certification between 1 January 2015, and 31 December 2015, were eligible for the film award categories. Books, critical studies, reviews or articles on cinema published in Indian newspapers, magazines, and journals between 1 January 2015, and 31 December 2015, were eligible for the best writing on cinema section. Entries of dubbed, revised or copied versions of a film or translation, abridgements, edited or annotated works and reprints were ineligible for the awards.[1]

tag: p

text: For the Feature and Non-Feature Films sections, films in any Indian language, shot on 16 mm, 35 mm, a wider film gauge or a digital format, and released in cinemas, on video or digital formats for home viewing were eligible. Films were required to be certified as a feature film, a featurette or a Documentary/Newsreel/Non-Fiction by the Central Board of Film Certification.[1]

text: Best Film Friendly State[edit]

text: The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through a State Government Policy.

text:
Award
Name of State
Citation

Best Film Friendly State
State of Gujarat
Film Policy for Promotion of Gujarati Cinema.

tag: table

text: Dadasaheb Phalke Award[edit]

text: Introduced in 1969, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest award given to recognise the contributions of film personalities towards the development of Indian cinema and for distinguished contributions to the medium, its growth and promotion.[2]

text: A committee consisting five eminent personalities from Indian film industry was appointed to evaluate the lifetime achievement award, Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Following were the jury members.[3]

text:
Jury Members

Lata Mangeshkar • Asha Bhosle • Salim Khan • Nitin Mukesh • Anup Jalota

tag: ul

text:
Name of Award
Awardee(s)
Awarded As
Awards

Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Manoj Kumar
Actor, Filmmaker
Swarna Kamal, ₹1 million (US$16,000) and a Shawl

text: Feature Films[edit]

text: Feature films will be awarded at All India as well as regional level. Following will be the awards given in each category:

text: Juries[edit]

text: A committee headed by Ramesh Sippy was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:[4]

text:
Jury Members

Ramesh Sippy (Chairperson) • Gangai Amaran • Sandip Datta • John Matthew Matthan • Dharam Gulati • Gyan Sahay • S. R. Leela • K. Vasu • Satish Kaushik • Shyamaprasad • Munin Barua

text: All India Award[edit]

text: Following will be the awards given:

text: Golden Lotus Award[edit]

text: Official Name: Swarna Kamal

text: All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

text:
Name of Award
Name of Film
Language
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best Feature Film
Baahubali: The Beginning
Telugu
Producer: Shobu Yarlagadda and Arka Media Works (P) LTD.
Director: S. S. Rajamouli
₹ 250,000/- Each

Best Debut Film of A Director
Masaan
Hindi
Producer: Phantom Films
Director: Neeraj Ghaywan
₹ 1,25,000/- Each

Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Hindi
Producer: Salman Khan and Rockline Venkatesh
Director: Kabir Khan
₹ 200,000/- Each

Best Children's Film
Duronto
Hindi
Producer: Code Red Films
Director: Soumnedra Padhi
₹ 150,000/- Each

Best Direction
Bajirao Mastani
Hindi
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
₹ 250,000/-

text: Silver Lotus Award[edit]

text: Official Name: Rajat Kamal

text: All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.

text:
Name of Award
Name of Film
Language
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best Feature Film on National Integration
Nanak Shah Fakir
Punjabi
Producer: Gurbani Media
Director:  –
₹ 150,000/- Each for

Best Film on Other Social Issues
Nirnayakam
Malayalam
Producer: Jayraj Films
Director: V. K. Prakash
₹ 150,000/- Each

Best Film on Environment/Conservation/Preservation
Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal
Malayalam
Producer: Dr. A. K. Pillai
Director: Dr. Biju
₹ 150,000/- Each

Best Actor
Piku
Hindi
Amitabh Bachchan
₹ 50,000/-

Best Actress
Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Hindi
Kangana Ranaut
₹ 50,000/-

Best Supporting Actor
Visaranai
Tamil
Samuthirakani
₹ 50,000/-

Best Supporting Actress
Bajirao Mastani
Hindi
Tanvi Azmi
₹ 50,000/-

Best Child Artist
Ben
Malayalam
Gaurav Menon
₹ 50,000/-

Best Male Playback Singer
Katyar Kaljat Ghusali
(For the song "Aruni Kirani")
Marathi
Mahesh Kale
₹ 50,000/-

Best Female Playback Singer
Dum Laga Ke Haisha
(For the song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage")
Hindi
Monali Thakur
₹ 50,000/-

Best Cinematography
Bajirao Mastani
Hindi
Sudeep Chatterjee
₹ 50,000/-

Best Screenplay
 • Screenplay Writer (Original)
 • Piku
 • Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Hindi
 • Juhi Chaturvedi
 • Himanshu Sharma
₹ 50,000/-

Best Screenplay
 • Screenplay Writer (Adapted)
Talvar
Hindi
Vishal Bhardwaj
₹ 50,000/-

Best Screenplay
 • Dialogues
 • Piku
 • Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Hindi
 • Juhi Chaturvedi
 • Himanshu Sharma
₹ 50,000/-

Best Audiography
 • Location Sound Recordist
Talvar
Hindi
Sanjay Kurian
₹ 50,000/-

Best Audiography
 • Sound Designer
Bajirao Mastani
Hindi
Biswadeep Chatterjee
₹ 50,000/-

Best Audiography
 • Re-recordist of the Final Mixed Track
Bajirao Mastani
Hindi
Justin Jose
₹ 50,000/-

Best Editing
Visaranai
Tamil
Kishore Te
₹ 50,000/-

Best Art Direction
Bajirao Mastani
Hindi
 • Shriram Iyengar
 • Saloni Dhatrak
 • Sujeet Sawant
₹ 50,000/-

Best Costume Design
Nanak Shah Fakir
Punjabi
Payal Saluja
₹ 50,000/-

Best Make-up Artist
Nanak Shah Fakir
Punjabi
 • Preetisheel G. Singh
 • Clover Wootton
₹ 50,000/-

Best Music Direction
 • Songs
Ennu Ninte Moideen
(For the song "Kathirunnu")
Malayalam
M. Jayachandran
₹ 50,000/-

Best Music Direction
 • Background Score
Tharai Thappattai
Tamil
Ilaiyaraaja
₹ 50,000/-

Best Lyrics
Dum Laga Ke Haisha
(For the song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage")
Hindi
Varun Grover
₹ 50,000/-

Best Special Effects
Baahubali : The Beginning
Telugu
V. Srinivas Mohan
₹ 50,000/-

Best Choreography
Bajirao Mastani
(For the song "Deewani Mastani")
Hindi
Remo D'Souza
₹ 50,000/-

Special Jury Award
Margarita with a Straw
Hindi
Kalki Koechlin (Actress)
₹ 200,000/-

Special Mention
Sairat
Marathi
Rinku Rajguru (Actress)
Certificate only

 • Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam
 • Lukka Chuppi
Malayalam
Jayasurya (Actor)

Irudhi Suttru
Tamil
Ritika Singh (Actress)

text: Regional Awards[edit]

text: The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.

text:
Name of Award
Name of Film
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best Feature Film in Assamese
Kothanodi
Producer: Anurupa Hazarika
Director: Bhaskar Hazarika
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Bengali
Shankhachil
Producer: Nideas Creations & Productions Pvt Ltd.
Director: Goutam Ghose
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Bodo
Dau Huduni Methai
Producer: Shankarlal Goenka
Director: Manju Borah
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Hindi
Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Producer: Maneesh Sharma & Yash Raj Films
Director: Sharat Katariya
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Kannada
Thithi
Producer: Prspctvs Productions Pvt Ltd.
Director: Raam Reddy
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Konkani
Enemy
Producer: A Durga Prasad
Director: Dinesh P. Bhonsle
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Maithili
Mithila Makhaan
Producer: Neetu Chandra & Samir Kumar
Director: Nitin Chandra
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Malayalam
Pathemari
Producer: Allens Media
Director: Salim Ahamed
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Manipuri
Eibusu Yaohanbiyu
Producer: Yunman Hitalar (Neta) Singh
Director: Maipaksana Haorongbam
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Marathi
Ringan
Producer: My Role Motion Pictures
Director: Makarand Mane
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Oriya
Pahada ra luha
Producer: Mohapatra Movie Magic Pvt. Ltd.
Director: Sabyasachi Mohapatra
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Punjabi
Chauthi Koot
Producer: NFDC & Kartikeya Singh
Director: Gurvinder Singh
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Sanskrit
Priyamanasam
Producer: Baby Mathew Somatheeram
Director: Vinod Mankara
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Tamil
Visaranai
Producer: Wunderbar Films
Director: Vetri Maaran
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Telugu
Kanche
Producer: Y. Rajeev Reddy
Director:Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi (Krish)
₹ 100,000/- Each

text: Best Feature Film in Each of the Language Other Than Those Specified In the Schedule VIII of the Constitution

text:
Name of Award
Name of Film
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best Feature Film in Haryanvi
Satrangi
Producer: Punam Deswal Sharma
Director: Sundeep Sharma
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Khasi
Onaatah
Producer: Pomu Das & Marjina Kurbah
Director: Pradip Kurbah
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Mizo
Kima’s Lode Beyond the Class
Producer: Children's Film Society
Director: Zualaa Chhangte
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Feature Film in Wancho
The Head Hunter
Producer: Splash Films Private Limited
Director: Nilanjan Datta
₹ 100,000/- Each

text: Non-Feature Films[edit]

text: Short Films made in any Indian language and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.

text: Golden Lotus Award[edit]

text: Official Name: Swarna Kamal

text:
Name of Award
Name of Film
Language
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best Non-Feature Film
Amdavad Ma Famous
Gujrati
Producer: Akanksha Tewari & Arya A. Menon
Director: Hardik Mehta
₹ 100,000/- Each

Best Non-Feature Film Direction
Kamuki
Malayalam
Producer: Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute
Director: Christo Tomy
₹ 50,000/- Each

text: Silver Lotus Award[edit]

text: Official Name: Rajat Kamal

text: All the Awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)' and cash prize.

text:
Name of Award
Name of Film
Language
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best First Non-Feature Film
Daaravtha
Marathi
Producer: Nishantroy Bombarde
Director: Nishantroy Bombarde
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Anthropological / Ethnographic Film
Aoleang
English
Producer: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Stuidies
Director: Ranajit Ray
Assistant Director - Goutam Sharma

₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Biographical Film / Best Historical Reconstruction / Compilation Film
Life in Metaphors: A Portrait of Girish Kasaravalli
English And Kannada
Producer: Reelism Film
Director: O.P. Shrivastava
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Arts / Cultural Film
 •  A Far Afternoon - A Painted Saga

 • Yazhpanam Thedchanamoorthy - Music Beyond Boundaries
Hindi, English

Tamil
Producer: Piramal Art Foundation
Director: Sruti Harihara Subramanian

Producer: Siddhartha Productions
Director: Amshan Kumar
₹ 50,000/- Each (Cash Component to be shared)

Best Environment Film including Best Agricultural Film
 • The Man who Dwarfed the Mountains

 •  God On The Edge
Hindi,English

English, Bengali
Producer:Rajiv Mehrotra, PSBT
Director: Ruchi Shrivastava & Sumit Sunderlal Khanna

Producer:Elements Picture Studio
Director:Ashok Patel
₹ 50,000/- Each (Cash Component to be shared)

Best Promotional Film
Weaves of Maheshwar
Hindi, English
Producer: Storyloom Films
Director:Keya Vaswani & Nidhi Kamath
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Film on Social Issues
Auto Driver
Manipuri
Producer: Oinam Doren, Longjam Meenadevi
Director: Longjam Meenadevi
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Educational / Motivational / Instructional Film
Paywat
Marathi
Producer: Mithunchandra Chaudhari
Director: Nayana Dolas & Mithunchandra Chaudhari
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Exploration / Adventure Film
Dribbling with their Future
English, Tamil & Kannada
Producer: N. Dinesh Raj Kumar & Mathew Varghese
Director: Jacob Varghese
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Investigative Film
Tezpur 1962
English
Producer: Films Division of India
Director: Samujjal Kashyap
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Animation Film
Fisherwoman and TukTuk
No Dialogues
Producer: Nilima Eriyat
Director: Suresh Eriyat
Animator: Studio Eeksaurus Productions Private Limited
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Short Fiction Film
Aushadh
Marathi
Producer: Amol Deshmukh
Director: Amol Deshmukh
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Film on Family Welfare
Best Friends Forever
English
Producer: Syed Sultan Ahmed (Edumedia India Pvt. Ltd.)
Director: Sandeep Modi
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Cinematography
Benaras- The Unexplored Attachments
Bengali
Cameraman: Amartya Bhattacharyya
Laboratory Processing:
₹ 50,000/- Each

Best Audiography
Edpa Kana
Kudukh
Moumita Roy
₹ 50,000/-

Best Editing
Breaking Free
English
Parvin Angre and Sridhar Rangayan
₹ 50,000/-

Best Music Direction
A Far Afternoon- A Painted Saga
Hindi, English
Aravind - Shankar
₹ 50,000/-

Special Jury Award
In Search Of Fading Canvas
Hindi
Producer: Films Division
Director: Manohar Singh Bisht
₹ 50,000/- Each

Special Mention
The Chameleone
English
Arun Shankar
Certificate only

Amma
Malayalam
Neelan

Syaahi
Marathi
Varun Tandon

text: Best Writing on Cinema[edit]

text: The awards aim at encouraging study and appreciation of cinema as an art form and dissemination of information and critical appreciation of this art-form through publication of books, articles, reviews etc.

text: Golden Lotus Award[edit]

text: Official Name: Swarna Kamal

text: All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)' and cash prize.

text:
Name of Award
Name of Book
Language
Awardee(s)
Cash Prize

Best Book on Cinema
Dr. Rajkumar Samagra Charithre
Kannada
Author: Doddahulluru Rukkoji Publisher: Preeti Pustaka Prakashana
₹ 75,000/- Each

Best Film Critic

Manipuri
Meghachandra Kongbam
₹ 75,000/-

Special Mention
Forgotten Masters of Hindi Cinema

Author: Satish Chopra
Certificate Only


document_title: Jute cultivation

question_text: soaking the jute plants in water is called

text: Jute cultivation

text: Cultivation[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: To grow jute, farmers scatter the seeds on cultivated soil. When the plants are about 15–20 cm tall, they are thinned out. About four months after planting, harvesting begins. The plants are usually harvested after they flower, before the flowers go to seed. The stalks are cut off close to the ground. The stalks are tied into bundles and soaked in water for about 20 days. This process softens the tissues and breaks the hard pectin bond between the bast and Jute hurd (inner woody fiber stick) and the process permits the fibres to be separated. The fibres are then stripped from the stalks in long strands and washed in clear, running water. Then they are hung up or spread on thatched roofs to dry. After 2–3 days of drying, the fibres are tied into bundles. The suitable climate for growing jute is a warm and wet climate, which is offered by the monsoon climate during the fall season, immediately followed by summer. Temperatures ranging from 70–100 °F and relative humidity of 70%–90% are favorable for successful cultivation. Jute requires 2–3 inches of rainfall weekly with extra needed during the sowing period.

text: Retting[edit]

text: Retting is the process of extracting fibers from the long lasting life stem or bast of the bast fiber plants. The available retting processes are: mechanical retting (hammering), chemical retting (boiling & applying chemicals), steam/vapor/dew retting, and water or microbial retting. Among them, the water or microbial retting is a century old but the most popular process in extracting fine bast fibers. However, selection of these retting processes depends on the availability of water and the cost of retting process.

text: To extract fine fibers from jute plant, a small stalk is harvested for pre-retting. Usually, this small stalk is brought before 2 weeks of harvesting time. If the fiber can easily be removed from the Jute hurd or core, then the crop is ready for harvesting.

text: After harvesting, the jute stalks are tied into bundles and submerged in soft running water. The stalk stays submerged in water for 20 days. However, the retting process may require less time if the quality of the jute is better. In most cases, the fiber extraction process of bast fibers in water retting is done by the farmers while standing under water.

text: When the jute stalk is well retted, the stalk is grabbed in bundles and hit with a long wooden hammer to make the fiber loose from the jute hurd or core. After loosing the fiber, the fiber is washed with water and squeezed for dehydration. The extracted fibers is further washed with fresh water and allowed to dry on bamboo poles. Finally, they are tied into small bundles to be sold into the primary market.

text: Major producers[edit]

text: The Ganges delta contributes more than 80% of the jute production in the world. The Ganges delta can be sub-divided into the following geo-graphical regions in terms of jute cultivation:

text:
Jat Area (Brahmaputra Alluvium): This comprises part of the districts of Dhaka, Mymensingh, Tangail, and Comilla of Bangladesh. The area annually receives fresh deposit of silts carried down by the flood water. Soils are acidic in, the texture varies from sand loam to clay loam. According to commercial quality, the best quality Jute, the Jat type, grows in this area.
District Area (Ganges Alluvium): This comprises part of the districts of Kushtia, Jessore, Khulna, Rajshahi, Pabna, and Dhaka of Bangladesh and major portion of West Bengal of India. This area has soil of slight alkaline clay loam to light loam in gray to dark gray color. The type of Jute grown in this area is known as District Jute, which is next to Jat Jute in order of quality. The jute fibre grown in this region is further divided into two major varieties, such as: Hard District Jute and Soft District Jute.
Northern Area (Teesta Silt): This comprises part of Dinajpur, Rangpur districts, East Bogra, and Sirajganj of Bangladesh and some parts of North Bihar Purnea and West Bengal of India. The region has sandy soil with low moisture retention capacity. Soil retention is slightly acidic. Northern type of Jute is inferior quality of the three commercial types.

text: Strengths of major jute producing countries[edit]

text: India, China, and Bangladesh are the three major producers in the cultivation or production of jute fiber.

text:
India has taken advantage of recent improvements in the cultivation of jute to become the largest producer or cultivator of jute in the world. Using advanced production techniques, India also has dominance over the worldwide jute products market. Due to national law to use jute as packaging materials, India is the largest consumer of jute in the world.
Bangladesh is currently the second largest producer of jute fiber, now over taken by India. The Jat Area, popular for highest quality of jute fiber is located in Bangladesh. Therefore, Bangladesh is able to supply the highest quality of jute fiber in the world. However, Bangladesh falls behind its other competitors in applying recent technological advancements. In terms of world export of jute fiber, Bangladesh's share is more than 70%, which makes Bangladesh the largest exporter of jute fiber in the world.
China is the third largest in terms of jute cultivation. Due to China's huge population, the Chinese are not emphasizing the cultivation of jute, as it competes with other necessary crops. Due to modern effective agriculture, they have the highest yield of jute fiber in the world.

text: History[edit]

text: For centuries, jute has been an integral part of the culture of East Bengal and some parts of West Bengal, precisely in the southwest of Bangladesh. Since the seventeenth century, the British started trading in jute. During the reign of the British Empire jute was also used in the military. British jute barons grew rich processing jute and selling manufactured products made from jute. Dundee Jute Barons and the British East India Company set up many jute mills in Bengal and by 1895 jute industries in Bengal overtook the Scottish jute trade. Many Scots emigrated to Bengal to set up jute factories. More than a billion jute sandbags were exported from Bengal to the trenches during World War I and also exported to the southern United States region to bag cotton. It was used in the fishing, construction, art and the arms industry. Initially, due to its texture, it could only be processed by hand until it was discovered in Dundee that by treating it with whale oil, it could be treated by machine.[1]


document_title: Means of production

question_text: under communism who controls the means of production

text: Means of production

text: Marxian analysis[edit]

text: The analysis of the technological sophistication of the means of production and how they are owned is a central component in the Marxist theoretical framework of historical materialism and in Marxian economics.

text: In Marx's work and subsequent developments in Marxist theory, the process of socioeconomic evolution is based on the premise of technological improvements in the means of production. As the level of technology improves with respect to productive capabilities, existing forms of social relations become superfluous and unnecessary, creating contradictions between the level of technology in the means of production on the one hand and the organization of society and its economy on the other. These contradictions manifest themselves in the form of class conflicts, which develop to a point where the existing mode of production becomes unsustainable, either collapsing or being overthrown in a social revolution. The contradictions are resolved by the emergence of a new mode of production based on a different set of social relations including, most notably, different patterns of ownership for the means of production.[7]

text: Ownership of the means of production and control over the surplus product generated by their operation is the fundamental factor in delineating different modes of production. Capitalism is defined as private ownership and control over the means of production, where the surplus product becomes a source of unearned income for its owners. By contrast, socialism is defined as social ownership of the means of production so that the surplus product accrues to society at large.

text: Determinant of class[edit]

text: Marx's theory of class defines classes in their relation to their ownership and control of the means of production. In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie, or the capitalist class, is the class that owns the means of production and derives a passive income from their operation. In contrast, the proletariat, or working class, comprises the majority of the population that lacks access to the means of production and are therefore induced to sell their labor power for a wage or salary to gain access to necessities, goods and services.[8]

text: To the question of why classes exist in human societies in the first place, Karl Marx offered a historical and scientific explanation that it was the cultural practice of ownership of the means of production that gives rise to them. This explanation differs dramatically from other explanations based on "differences in ability" between individuals or on religious or political affiliations giving rise to castes. This explanation is consistent with the bulk of Marxist theory in which Politics and Religion are seen as mere outgrowths (superstructures) of the basic underlying economic reality of a people.[9]

text: Related terms[edit]

text: Factors of production are defined by German economist Karl Marx in his book Das Kapital as labor, subjects of labor, and instruments of labor: the term is equivalent to means of production plus labor. The factors of production are often listed in economic writings derived from the classical school as "land, labour and capital". Marx sometimes used the term "productive forces" equivalently with "factors of production;" in Kapital, he uses "factors of production", in his famous Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, he uses "productive forces" (that may depend on the translation).

text: Production relations (German: Produktionsverhältnis) are the relations humans enter into with each other in using the means of production to produce. Examples of such relations are employer/employee, buyer/seller, the technical division of labour in a factory, and property relations.

text: Mode of production (German: Produktionsweise) means the dominant way in which production is organised in society. For instance, "capitalism" is the name for the capitalist mode of production in which the means of production are owned privately by a small class (the bourgeoisie) who profits off the labor of the working class (the proletariat). Communism is a mode of production in which the means of production are not owned by anyone, but shared in common, without class based exploitation.