title: Laptop

text: As of 2022, many laptops no longer contain space for a 2.5" drive, accepting only M.2 cards; a few of the smallest have storage soldered to the motherboard. For those that can, they can typically contain a single 2.5-inch drive, but a small number of laptops with a screen wider than 15 inches can house two drives.


title: Laptop

text: A variety of external HDDs or NAS data storage servers with support of RAID technology can be attached to virtually any laptop over such interfaces as USB, FireWire, eSATA, or Thunderbolt, or over a wired or wireless network to further increase space for the storage of data. Many laptops also incorporate a SD or microSD card slot. This enables users to download digital pictures from an SD card onto a laptop, thus enabling them to delete the SD card's contents to free up space for taking new pictures.


title: Laptop

text: Optical disc drives capable of playing CD-ROMs, compact discs (CD), DVDs, and in some cases, Blu-ray discs (BD), were nearly universal on full-sized models between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s. As of 2021, drives are uncommon in compact or premium laptops; they remain available in some bulkier models, but the trend towards thinner and lighter machines is gradually eliminating these drives and players – when needed they can be connected via USB instead.


title: Laptop

text: An alphanumeric keyboard is used to enter text, data, and other commands (e.g., function keys). A touchpad (also called a trackpad), a pointing stick, or both, are used to control the position of the cursor on the screen, and an integrated keyboard is used for typing. Some touchpads have buttons separate from the touch surface, while others share the surface. A quick double-tap is typically registered as a click, and operating systems may recognize multi-finger touch gestures.


title: Laptop

text: An external keyboard and mouse may be connected using a USB port or wirelessly, via Bluetooth or similar technology. Some laptops have multitouch touchscreen displays, either available as an option or standard. Most laptops have webcams and microphones, which can be used to communicate with other people with both moving images and sound, via web conferencing or video-calling software.


title: Laptop

text: Laptops typically have USB ports and a combined headphone/microphone jack, for use with headphones, a combined headset, or an external mic. Many laptops have a card reader for reading digital camera SD cards.


title: Laptop

text: On a typical laptop there are several USB ports; if they use only the older USB connectors instead of USB-C, they will typically have an external monitor port (VGA, DVI, HDMI or Mini DisplayPort or occasionally more than one), an audio in/out port (often in form of a single socket) is common. It is possible to connect up to three external displays to a 2014-era laptop via a single Mini DisplayPort, using multi-stream transport technology.


title: Laptop

text: Apple, in a 2015 version of its MacBook, transitioned from a number of different I/O ports to a single USB-C port. This port can be used both for charging and connecting a variety of devices through the use of aftermarket adapters. Apple has since transitioned back to using a number of different ports. Google, with its updated version of Chromebook Pixel, shows a similar transition trend towards USB-C, although keeping older USB Type-A ports for a better compatibility with older devices. Although being common until the end of the 2000s decade, Ethernet network port are rarely found on modern laptops, due to widespread use of wireless networking, such as Wi-Fi. Legacy ports such as a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, serial port, parallel port, or FireWire are provided on some models, but they are increasingly rare. On Apple's systems, and on a handful of other laptops, there are also Thunderbolt ports, but Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C. Laptops typically have a headphone jack, so that the user can connect headphones or amplified speaker systems for listening to music or other audio.


title: Laptop

text: In the past, a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) or ExpressCard slot for expansion was often present on laptops to allow adding and removing functionality, even when the laptop is powered on; these are becoming increasingly rare since the introduction of USB 3.0. Some internal subsystems such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or a wireless cellular modem can be implemented as replaceable internal expansion cards, usually accessible under an access cover on the bottom of the laptop. The standard for such cards is PCI Express, which comes in both mini and even smaller M.2 sizes. In newer laptops, it is not uncommon to also see Micro SATA (mSATA) functionality on PCI Express Mini or M.2 card slots allowing the use of those slots for SATA-based solid-state drives.


title: Laptop

text: Since the late 1990s, laptops have typically used lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries, These replaced the older nickel metal-hydride typically used in the 1990s, and nickel–cadmium batteries used in most of the earliest laptops. A few of the oldest laptops used non-rechargeable batteries, or lead–acid batteries.


title: Laptop

text: Battery life is highly variable by model and workload and can range from one hour to nearly a day. A battery's performance gradually decreases over time; a noticeable reduction in capacity is typically evident after two to three years of regular use, depending on the charging and discharging pattern and the design of the battery. Innovations in laptops and batteries have seen situations in which the battery can provide up to 24 hours of continued operation, assuming average power consumption levels. An example is the HP EliteBook 6930p when used with its ultra-capacity battery.


title: Laptop

text: A laptop's battery is charged using an external power supply, which is plugged into a wall outlet. The power supply outputs a DC voltage typically in the range of 7.2—24 volts. The power supply is usually external and connected to the laptop through a DC connector cable. In most cases, it can charge the battery and power the laptop simultaneously. When the battery is fully charged, the laptop continues to run on power supplied by the external power supply, avoiding battery use. If the used power supply is not strong enough to power computing components and charge the battery simultaneously, the battery may charge in a shorter period of time if the laptop is turned off or sleeping. The charger typically adds about to the overall transporting weight of a laptop, although some models are substantially heavier or lighter. Most 2016-era laptops use a smart battery, a rechargeable battery pack with a built-in battery management system (BMS). The smart battery can internally measure voltage and current, and deduce charge level and State of Health (SoH) parameters, indicating the state of the cells.


title: Laptop

text: Historically, DC connectors, typically cylindrical/barrel-shaped coaxial power connectors have been used in laptops. Some vendors such as Lenovo made intermittent use of a rectangular connector.


title: Laptop

text: Some connector heads feature a center pin to allow the end device to determine the power supply type by measuring the resistance between it and the connector's negative pole (outer surface). Vendors may block charging if a power supply is not recognized as original part, which could deny the legitimate use of universal third-party chargers.


title: Laptop

text: With the advent of USB-C, portable electronics made increasing use of it for both power delivery and data transfer. Its support for 20 V (common laptop power supply voltage) and 5 A typically suffices for low to mid-end laptops, but some with higher power demands such as gaming laptops depend on dedicated DC connectors to handle currents beyond 5 A without risking overheating, some even above 10 A. Additionally, dedicated DC connectors are more durable and less prone to wear and tear from frequent reconnection, as their design is less delicate.


title: Laptop

text: Waste heat from the operation is difficult to remove in the compact internal space of a laptop. The earliest laptops used passive cooling; this gave way to heat sinks placed directly on the components to be cooled, but when these hot components are deep inside the device, a large space-wasting air duct is needed to exhaust the heat. Modern laptops instead rely on heat pipes to rapidly move waste heat towards the edges of the device, to allow for a much smaller and compact fan and heat sink cooling system. Waste heat is usually exhausted away from the device operator towards the rear or sides of the device. Multiple air intake paths are used since some intakes can be blocked, such as when the device is placed on a soft conforming surface like a chair cushion. Secondary device temperature monitoring may reduce performance or trigger an emergency shutdown if it is unable to dissipate heat, such as if the laptop were to be left running and placed inside a carrying case. Aftermarket cooling pads with external fans can be used with laptops to reduce operating temperatures.


title: Laptop

text: A docking station (sometimes referred to simply as a "dock") is a laptop accessory that contains multiple ports and in some cases expansion slots or bays for fixed or removable drives. A laptop connects and disconnects to a docking station, typically through a single large proprietary connector. A docking station is an especially popular laptop accessory in a corporate computing environment, due to a possibility of a docking station transforming a laptop into a full-featured desktop replacement, yet allowing for its easy release. This ability can be advantageous to "road warrior" employees who have to travel frequently for work, and yet who also come into the office. If more ports are needed, or their position on a laptop is inconvenient, one can use a cheaper passive device known as a port replicator. These devices mate to the connectors on the laptop, such as through USB or FireWire.


title: Laptop

text: Laptop charging trolleys, also known as laptop trolleys or laptop carts, are mobile storage containers to charge multiple laptops, netbooks, and tablet computers at the same time. The trolleys are used in schools that have replaced their traditional static computer labs suites of desktop equipped with "tower" computers, but do not have enough plug sockets in an individual classroom to charge all of the devices. The trolleys can be wheeled between rooms and classrooms so that all students and teachers in a particular building can access fully charged IT equipment.


title: Laptop

text: Laptop charging trolleys are also used to deter and protect against opportunistic and organized theft. Schools, especially those with open plan designs, are often prime targets for thieves who steal high-value items. Laptops, netbooks, and tablets are among the highest–value portable items in a school. Moreover, laptops can easily be concealed under clothing and stolen from buildings. Many types of laptop–charging trolleys are designed and constructed to protect against theft. They are generally made out of steel, and the laptops remain locked up while not in use. Although the trolleys can be moved between areas from one classroom to another, they can often be mounted or locked to the floor, support pillars, or walls to prevent thieves from stealing the laptops, especially overnight.


title: Laptop

text: In some laptops, solar panels are able to generate enough solar power for the laptop to operate. The One Laptop Per Child Initiative released the OLPC XO-1 laptop which was tested and successfully operated by use of solar panels. Presently, they are designing an OLPC XO-3 laptop with these features. The OLPC XO-3 can operate with 2 watts of electricity because its renewable energy resources generate a total of 4 watts. Samsung has also designed the NC215S solar–powered notebook that will be sold commercially in the U.S. market.


title: Laptop

text: A common accessory for laptops is a laptop sleeve, laptop skin, or laptop case, which provides a degree of protection from scratches. Sleeves, which are distinguished by being relatively thin and flexible, are most commonly made of neoprene, with sturdier ones made of low-resilience polyurethane. Some laptop sleeves are wrapped in ballistic nylon to provide some measure of waterproofing. Bulkier and sturdier cases can be made of metal with polyurethane padding inside and may have locks for added security. Metal, padded cases also offer protection against impacts and drops. Another common accessory is a laptop cooler, a device that helps lower the internal temperature of the laptop either actively or passively. A common active method involves using electric fans to draw heat away from the laptop, while a passive method might involve propping the laptop up on some type of pad so it can receive more airflow. Some stores sell laptop pads that enable a reclining person on a bed to use a laptop.


title: Laptop

text: Some of the components of earlier models of laptops can easily be replaced without opening completely its bottom part, such as keyboard, battery, hard disk, memory modules, CPU cooling fan, etc.


title: Laptop

text: Some of the components of recent models of laptops reside inside. Replacing most of its components, such as keyboard, battery, hard disk, memory modules, CPU cooling fan, etc., requires removal of its either top or bottom part, removal of the motherboard, and returning them.


title: Laptop

text: In some types, solder and glue are used to mount components such as RAM, storage, and batteries, making repairs additionally difficult.


title: Laptop

text: Features that certain early models of laptops used to have that are not available in most current laptops include:


title: Laptop

text: The majority of laptops released in 2022 are capable of common tasks such as web browsing, video playback, and office applications, even at the low end. That said, performance of desktops often surpass comparably priced laptops. The upper limits of performance of laptops remain lower than desktops, due to mostly practical reasons, such as decreased battery life, increased size and heat, etc.


title: Laptop

text: The upgradeability of laptops is very limited compared to thoroughly standardized desktops, due to technical and economic reasons. In general, hard drives and memory can be upgraded easily. Due to the integrated nature of laptops, however, the motherboard, CPU, and graphics, are seldom officially upgradeable. Some efforts towards industry standard parts and layouts have been attempted, such as Common Building Block, but the industry remains largely proprietary and fragmented. There is no industry-wide standard form factor for laptops; Moreover, starting with 2013 models, laptops have become increasingly integrated (soldered) with the motherboard for most of its components (CPU, SSD, RAM, etc.) to reduce size and upgradeability prospects.


title: Laptop

text: Prolonged use of laptops can cause repetitive strain injury because of their small, flat keyboard and trackpad pointing devices. Usage of separate, external ergonomic keyboards and pointing devices is recommended to prevent injury when working for long periods of time; they can be connected to a laptop easily by USB, Bluetooth or via a docking station. Some health standards require ergonomic keyboards at workplaces.


title: Laptop

text: A laptop's integrated screen often requires users to lean over for a better view, which can cause neck or spinal injuries. A larger and higher-quality external screen can be connected to almost any laptop to alleviate this and to provide additional screen space for more productive work. Another solution is to use a computer stand.


title: Laptop

text: A study by State University of New York researchers found that heat generated from laptops can increase the temperature of the lap of male users when balancing the computer on their lap, potentially putting sperm count at risk. The study, which included roughly two dozen men between the ages of 21 and 35, found that the sitting position required to balance a laptop can increase scrotum temperature by as much as . However, further research is needed to determine whether this directly affects male sterility. A later 2010 study of 29 males published in "Fertility and Sterility" found that men who kept their laptops on their laps experienced scrotal hyperthermia (overheating) in which their scrotal temperatures increased by up to . The resulting heat increase, which could not be offset by a laptop cushion, may increase male infertility.


title: Laptop

text: A common practical solution to this problem is to place the laptop on a table or desk or to use a book or pillow between the body and the laptop. Another solution is to obtain a cooling unit for the laptop. These are usually USB powered and consist of a hard thin plastic case housing one, two, or three cooling fans – with the entire assembly designed to sit under the laptop in question – which results in the laptop remaining cool to the touch, and greatly reduces laptop heat buildup.


title: Laptop

text: Heat generated from using a laptop on the lap can also cause skin discoloration on the thighs known as "toasted skin syndrome".


title: Laptop

text: Laptops are less durable than desktops/PCs. However, the durability of the laptop depends on the user if proper maintenance is done then the laptop can work longer.


title: Laptop

text: Because of their portability, laptops are subject to more wear and physical damage than desktops, additionally hindered by their integrated nature. A liquid spill onto the keyboard, while a minor issue with a desktop system, can damage the internals of a laptop and destroy the computer, result in a costly repair or entire replacement of laptops. One study found that a laptop is three times more likely to break during the first year of use than a desktop. To maintain a laptop, it is recommended to clean it every three months for dirt, debris, dust, and food particles. Most cleaning kits consist of a lint-free or microfiber cloth for the screen and keyboard, compressed air for getting dust out of the cooling fan, and a cleaning solution. Harsh chemicals such as bleach should not be used to clean a laptop, as they can damage it.


title: Laptop

text: Laptops rely on extremely compact cooling systems involving a fan and heat sink that can fail from blockage caused by accumulated airborne dust and debris. Most laptops do not have any type of removable dust collection filter over the air intake for these cooling systems, resulting in a system that gradually conducts more heat and noise as the years pass. In some cases, the laptop starts to overheat even at idle load levels. This dust is usually stuck inside where the fan and heat sink meet, where it can not be removed by a casual cleaning and vacuuming. Most of the time, compressed air can dislodge the dust and debris but may not entirely remove it. After the device is turned on, the loose debris is reaccumulated into the cooling system by the fans. Complete disassembly is usually required to clean the laptop entirely. However, preventative maintenance such as regular cleaning of the heat sink via compressed air can prevent dust build-up on the heat sink. Many laptops are difficult to disassemble by the average user and contain components that are sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD).


title: Laptop

text: Battery life is limited because the capacity drops with time, eventually warranting replacement after as little as 2-3 years. A new battery typically stores enough energy to run the laptop for five to six hours or more, depending on usage and the battery size. The battery is often easily replaceable and a higher capacity model may be obtained for longer charging and discharging time. Some laptops do not have the usual removable battery and have to be brought to the service center of their manufacturer or a third-party laptop service center to have their battery replaced. Replacement batteries can also be expensive, depending on the availability of the parts.


title: Laptop

text: Because they are valuable, commonly used, portable, and easy to hide in a backpack or other type of bag, laptops are often stolen. Every day, over 1,600 laptops go missing from U.S. airports. The cost of stolen business or personal data, and of the resulting problems (identity theft, credit card fraud, breach of privacy), can be many times the value of the stolen laptop itself. Consequently, the physical protection of laptops and the safeguarding of data contained on them are both of great importance. Some laptops, primarily professional and educational devices, have a Kensington security slot, which can be used to tether them with a security cable and lock. In addition, modern operating systems have features such as Activation Lock or similar that prevents the use of the device without credentials. As of 2015, some laptops also have additional security elements added, including biometric security components such as Windows Hello or Touch ID.


title: Laptop

text: Software such as GadgetTrak and Find My Mac have been engineered to help people locate and recover their stolen laptops in the event of theft. Setting one's laptop with a password on its firmware (protection against going to firmware setup or booting), internal HDD/SSD (protection against accessing it and loading an operating system on it afterward), and every user account of the operating system are additional security measures that a user should do. Fewer than 5% of lost or stolen laptops are recovered by the companies that own them, however, that number may decrease due to a variety of companies and software solutions specializing in laptop recovery. In the 2010s, the common availability of webcams on laptops raised privacy concerns. In "Robbins v. Lower Merion School District" (Eastern District of Pennsylvania 2010), school-issued laptops loaded with special software enabled staff from two high schools to take secret webcam shots of students at home, via their students' laptops.


title: Laptop

text: There are many laptop brands and manufacturers. Several major brands that offer notebooks in various classes are listed in the adjacent box.


title: Laptop

text: The major brands usually offer good service and support, including well-executed documentation and driver downloads that remain available for many years after a particular laptop model is no longer produced. Capitalizing on service, support, and brand image, laptops from major brands are more expensive than laptops by smaller brands and ODMs. Some brands specialize in a particular class of laptops, such as gaming laptops (Alienware), high-performance laptops (HP Envy), netbooks (EeePC) and laptops for children (OLPC).


title: Laptop

text: Many brands, including the major ones, do not design and do not manufacture their laptops. Instead, a small number of Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) design new models of laptops, and the brands choose the models to be included in their lineup. In 2006, 7 major ODMs manufactured 7 of every 10 laptops in the world, with the largest one (Quanta Computer) having 30% of the world market share. Therefore, identical models are available both from a major label and from a low-profile ODM in-house brand.


title: Laptop

text: Battery-powered portable computers had just 2% worldwide market share in 1986. However, laptops have become increasingly popular, both for business and personal use. Around 109 million notebook PCs shipped worldwide in 2007, a growth of 33% compared to 2006. In 2008 it was estimated that 145.9 million notebooks were sold, and that the number would grow in 2009 to 177.7 million. The third quarter of 2008 was the first time when worldwide notebook PC shipments exceeded desktops, with 38.6 million units versus 38.5 million units. Due to the advent of tablets and affordable laptops, many computer users now have laptops due to the convenience offered by the device.


title: Laptop

text: Before 2008, laptops were very expensive. In May 2005, the average notebook sold for while desktops sold for an average of . Around 2008, however, prices of laptops decreased substantially due to low-cost netbooks, drawing an average at U.S. retail stores in August 2008. Starting with the 2010's, laptops have decreased substantially in price at the low end due to inexpensive and low power Arm processors, less demanding operating systems such as ChromeOS, and SoC's. As of 2022, a new laptop can easily be obtained for


title: Laptop

text: The list of materials that go into a laptop computer is long, and many of the substances used, such as beryllium, lead, chromium, and mercury compounds, are toxic or carcinogenic to humans. Although these toxins are relatively harmless when the laptop is in use, concerns that discarded laptops cause a serious health and environmental risks when improperly discarded have arisen. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) in Europe specified that all laptop computers must be recycled by law. Similarly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has outlawed landfill dumping or the incinerating of discarded laptop computers.


title: Laptop

text: Most laptop computers begin the recycling process with a method known as Demanufacturing, this involves the physical separation of the components of the laptop. These components are then either grouped into materials (e.g. plastic, metal and glass) for recycling or more complex items that require more advanced materials separation (e.g.) circuit boards, hard drives and batteries.


title: Laptop

text: Corporate laptop recycling can require an additional process known as data destruction. The data destruction process ensures that all information or data that has been stored on a laptop hard drive can never be retrieved again. Below is an overview of some of the data protection and environmental laws and regulations applicable for laptop recycling data destruction:


title: Laptop

text: The ruggedized Grid Compass computer was used since the early days of the Space Shuttle program. The first commercial laptop used in space was a Macintosh portable in 1990 on Space Shuttle mission STS-41 and again in 1991 aboard STS-43. Apple and other laptop computers continue to be flown aboard crewed spaceflights, though the only long-duration flight certified computer for the International Space Station is the ThinkPad. As of 2011, over 100 ThinkPads were aboard the ISS. Laptops used aboard the International Space Station and other spaceflights are generally the same ones that can be purchased by the general public but needed modifications are made to allow them to be used safely and effectively in a weightless environment such as updating the cooling systems to function without relying on hot air rising and accommodation for the lower cabin air pressure. Laptops operating in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures, and wet or dusty conditions differ from those used in space in that they are custom designed for the task and do not use commercial off-the-shelf hardware.


title: Aidan Turner

text: Aidan Turner (born 19 June 1983) is an Irish actor. He played the roles of Ross Poldark in the 2015–2019 BBC adaptation of "The Poldark Novels" by Winston Graham, Dante Gabriel Rossetti in "Desperate Romantics", Ruairí McGowan in "The Clinic", and John Mitchell in the supernatural drama series "Being Human". He played Kíli in "The Hobbit" film series (2012-2014).


title: Aidan Turner

text: Turner was born at home in Clondalkin, a suburban town of Dublin. The family moved later to Walkinstown. Turner attended secondary school at St Mac Dara's Community College in Templeogue before leaving to join his older brother at Firhouse Community College. Turner has stated: "I probably wasn't a great student. I had a car when I was 17, so I used to just run out of school when I could, jump in the car and go play pool in Tallaght. I don't know how I knew, but I convinced myself that my [final exam] results were never going to matter to me."


title: Aidan Turner

text: Before becoming an actor, Turner was a successful ballroom dancer, once obtaining third place in the adult section of the Irish National Championships. After finishing secondary school, he briefly worked as an apprentice electrician, alongside his father. After he saw a notice up in Dublin's Gaiety School of Acting, and having become interested in acting while working in a cinema, he applied. He graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004.


title: Aidan Turner

text: After graduating, Turner appeared in several theatre plays, including "The Plough and the Stars", "Romeo and Juliet", and "A Cry from Heaven".


title: Aidan Turner

text: Turner's television acting career began in 2007 with an uncredited appearance on the first episode of "The Tudors". In the same year he produced and starred in the film "Porcelain", directed by Gavin Cleland, which was shot in a convent in Dublin. However only a trailer of the movie was ever released. Between 2008 and 2009, he appeared in a recurring role on "The Clinic". Appearing in 18 episodes as Ruairí McGowan, he followed "The Clinic" with a BBC production, "Desperate Romantics". He portrayed Dante Gabriel Rossetti in all six episodes of the show, which aired in 2009. Turner played the vampire John Mitchell on the supernatural drama programme "Being Human" during the first three series from 2009 to 2011.


title: Aidan Turner

text: His film career began with two short films, "The Sound of People" and "Matterhorn", both in 2007. He later played Mal in the thriller feature film "Alarm" (2008).


title: Aidan Turner

text: His role on "Being Human" brought Turner to the attention of Peter Jackson, who cast him as the dwarf Kíli in "The Hobbit trilogy" (2012–2014). In 2014, he won the Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer for the second film in the series, "The Desolation of Smaug", which had been released the previous year. In 2013, he also played shadowhunter-turned-werewolf Luke Garroway in "".


title: Aidan Turner

text: In the 2015 BBC TV miniseries "And Then There Were None", based on the Agatha Christie novel, he plays the cynical mercenary Philip Lombard.


title: Aidan Turner

text: Turner performed the title role of Ross Poldark in the 2015 revival of the BBC series. At the National Television Awards ceremony in 2016, Turner was presented with the "Impact Award" for his performance in "Poldark".


title: Aidan Turner

text: In 2017, Turner met actress Caitlin FitzGerald. They married in August 2020, and FitzGerald gave birth to their child in January 2022.


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-founder and chairman, John D. Rockefeller, who is among the wealthiest Americans of all time and among the richest people in modern history. Its history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was an illegal monopoly.


title: Standard Oil

text: The company was founded in 1863 by Rockefeller and Henry Flagler, and was incorporated in 1870. Standard Oil dominated the oil products market initially through horizontal integration in the refining sector, then, in later years vertical integration; the company was an innovator in the development of the business trust. The Standard Oil trust streamlined production and logistics, lowered costs, and undercut competitors. "Trust-busting" critics accused it of using aggressive pricing to destroy competitors and form a monopoly that threatened other businesses.


title: Standard Oil

text: Rockefeller ran the company as its chairman, until his retirement in 1897. He remained the major shareholder, and in 1911, with the dissolution of the trust into 34 smaller companies, Rockefeller became the richest person in modern history, as the initial income of these individual enterprises proved to be much bigger than that of a single larger company. Standard Oil of New Jersey, the entity controlling Standard Oil at the time of the breakup, has since continued on and today is known as ExxonMobil, the largest investor-owned oil company in the world. Many other companies across multiple sectors are either direct descendants of Standard Oil (such as Chevron and Marathon Oil) or have acquired a Standard Oil descendant (such as BP and Unilever).


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil's pre-history began in 1863, as an Ohio partnership formed by industrialist John D. Rockefeller, his brother William Rockefeller, Henry Flagler, chemist Samuel Andrews, silent partner Stephen V. Harkness, and Oliver Burr Jennings, who had married the sister of William Rockefeller's wife. In 1870, Rockefeller abolished the partnership and incorporated Standard Oil in Ohio. Of the initial 10,000 shares, John D. Rockefeller received 2,667, Harkness received 1,334, William Rockefeller, Flagler, and Andrews received 1,333 each, Jennings received 1,000, and the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler received 1,000. Rockefeller chose the "Standard Oil" name as a symbol of the reliable "standards" of quality and service that he envisioned for the nascent oil industry.


title: Standard Oil

text: In the early years, John D. Rockefeller dominated the combine; he was the single most important figure in shaping the new oil industry. He quickly distributed power and the tasks of policy formation to a system of committees, but always remained the largest shareholder. Authority was centralized in the company's main office in Cleveland, but decisions in the office were made cooperatively.


title: Standard Oil

text: The company grew by increasing sales and through acquisitions. After purchasing competing firms, Rockefeller shut down those he believed to be inefficient and kept the others. In a seminal deal, in 1868, the Lake Shore Railroad, a part of the New York Central, gave Rockefeller's firm a going rate of one cent a gallon or forty-two cents a barrel, an effective 71% discount from its listed rates in return for a promise to ship at least 60 carloads of oil daily and to handle loading and unloading on its own. Smaller companies decried such deals as unfair because they were not producing enough oil to qualify for discounts.


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard's actions and secret transport deals helped its kerosene price to drop from 58 to 26 cents from 1865 to 1870. Rockefeller used the Erie Canal as a cheap alternative form of transportation—in the summer months when it was not frozen—to ship his refined oil from Cleveland to New York City. In the winter months, his only options were the three trunk lines—the Erie Railroad and the New York Central Railroad to New York City, and the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.


title: Standard Oil

text: Competitors disliked the company's business practices, but consumers liked the lower prices. Standard Oil, being formed well before the discovery of the Spindletop oil field (in Texas, far from Standard Oil's base in the Midwest) and a demand for oil other than for heat and light, was well placed to control the growth of the oil business. The company was perceived to own and control all aspects of the trade.


title: Standard Oil

text: In 1872, Rockefeller joined the South Improvement Co. which would have allowed him to receive rebates for shipping and drawbacks on oil his competitors shipped. But when this deal became known, competitors convinced the Pennsylvania Legislature to revoke South Improvement's charter. No oil was ever shipped under this arrangement. Using highly effective tactics, later widely criticized, it absorbed or destroyed most of its competition in Cleveland in less than two months and later throughout the northeastern United States.


title: Standard Oil

text: A. Barton Hepburn was directed by the New York State Legislature in 1879, to investigate the railroads' practice of giving rebates to their largest clients within the state. Merchants without ties to the oil industry had pressed for the hearings. Prior to the committee's investigation, few knew of the size of Standard Oil's control and influence on seemingly unaffiliated oil refineries and pipelines—Hawke (1980) cites that only a dozen or so within Standard Oil knew the extent of company operations.


title: Standard Oil

text: The committee counsel, Simon Sterne, questioned representatives from the Erie Railroad and the New York Central Railroad and discovered that at least half of their long-haul traffic granted rebates and much of this traffic came from Standard Oil. The committee then shifted focus to Standard Oil's operations. John Dustin Archbold, as president of Acme Oil Company, denied that Acme was associated with Standard Oil. He then admitted to being a director of Standard Oil.


title: Standard Oil

text: The committee's final report scolded the railroads for their rebate policies and cited Standard Oil as an example. This scolding was largely moot to Standard Oil's interests since long-distance oil pipelines were now their preferred method of transportation.


title: Standard Oil

text: In response to state laws that had the result of limiting the scale of companies, Rockefeller and his associates developed innovative ways of organizing to effectively manage their fast-growing enterprise. On January 2, 1882, they combined their disparate companies, spread across dozens of states, under a single group of trustees. By a secret agreement, the existing 37 stockholders conveyed their shares "in trust" to nine trustees: John and William Rockefeller, Oliver H. Payne, Charles Pratt, Henry Flagler, John D. Archbold, William G. Warden, Jabez Bostwick, and Benjamin Brewster.


title: Standard Oil

text: “Whereas some state legislatures imposed special taxes on out-of-state corporations doing business in their states, other legislatures forbade corporations in their state from holding the stock of companies based elsewhere. (Legislators established such restrictions in the hope that they would force successful companies to incorporate—and thus pay taxes—in their state.)”


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil's organizational concept proved so successful that other giant enterprises adopted this "trust" form.


title: Standard Oil

text: By 1882, Rockefeller's top aide was John Dustin Archbold, whom he left in control after disengaging from business to concentrate on philanthropy after 1896. Other notable principals of the company include Henry Flagler, developer of the Florida East Coast Railway and resort cities, and Henry H. Rogers, who built the Virginian Railway.


title: Standard Oil

text: In 1885, Standard Oil of Ohio moved its headquarters from Cleveland to its permanent headquarters at 26 Broadway in New York City. Concurrently, the trustees of Standard Oil of Ohio chartered the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey (SOCNJ) to take advantage of New Jersey's more lenient corporate stock ownership laws.


title: Standard Oil

text: In 1890, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Sherman Antitrust Act (Senate 51–1; House 242–0), a source of American anti-monopoly laws. The law forbade every contract, scheme, deal, or conspiracy to restrain trade, though the phrase "restraint of trade" remained subjective. The Standard Oil group quickly attracted attention from antitrust authorities leading to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General David K. Watson.


title: Standard Oil

text: From 1882 to 1906, Standard paid out $548,436,000 in dividends at a 65.4% payout ratio. The total net earnings from 1882 to 1906 amounted to $838,783,800, exceeding the dividends by $290,347,800, which was used for plant expansions.


title: Standard Oil

text: In 1896, John Rockefeller retired from the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, the holding company of the group, but remained president and a major shareholder. Vice-president John Dustin Archbold took a large part in the running of the firm. In the year 1904, Standard Oil controlled 91% of oil refinement and 85% of final sales in the United States. At this time, state and federal laws sought to counter this development with antitrust laws. In 1911, the U.S. Justice Department sued the group under the federal antitrust law and ordered its breakup into 34 companies.


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil's market position was initially established through an emphasis on efficiency and responsibility. While most companies dumped gasoline in rivers (this was before the automobile was popular), Standard used it to fuel its machines. While other companies' refineries piled mountains of heavy waste, Rockefeller found ways to sell it. For example, Standard created the first synthetic competitor for beeswax (Paraffin) and bought the company that invented and produced Vaseline, the Chesebrough Manufacturing Co., which was a Standard company only from 1908 until 1911.


title: Standard Oil

text: One of the original "Muckrakers" Ida M. Tarbell, was an American author and journalist whose father was an oil producer whose business had failed because of Rockefeller's business dealings. After extensive interviews with a sympathetic senior executive of Standard Oil, Henry H. Rogers, Tarbell's investigations of Standard Oil fueled growing public attacks on Standard Oil and monopolies in general. Her work was published in 19 parts in "McClure's" magazine from November 1902 to October 1904, then in 1904 as the book "The History of the Standard Oil Co".


title: Standard Oil

text: The Standard Oil Trust was controlled by a small group of families. Rockefeller stated in 1910: "I think it is true that the Pratt family, the Payne–Whitney family (which were one, as all the stock came from Colonel Payne), the Harkness-Flagler family (which came into the company together) and the Rockefeller family controlled a majority of the stock during all the history of the company up to the present time."


title: Standard Oil

text: These families reinvested most of the dividends in other industries, especially railroads. They also invested heavily in the gas and the electric lighting business (including the giant Consolidated Gas Co. of New York City). They made large purchases of stock in U.S. Steel, Amalgamated Copper, and even Corn Products Refining Co.


title: Standard Oil

text: Weetman Pearson, a British petroleum entrepreneur in Mexico, began negotiating with Standard Oil in 1912–13 to sell his "El Aguila" oil company, since Pearson was no longer bound to promises to the Porfirio Díaz regime (1876–1911) to not to sell to U.S. interests. However, the deal fell through and the firm was sold to Royal Dutch Shell.


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil's production increased so rapidly it soon exceeded U.S. demand and the company began viewing export markets. In the 1890s, Standard Oil began marketing kerosene to China's large population of close to 400 million as lamp fuel. For its Chinese trademark and brand, Standard Oil adopted the name "Mei Foo" (), (which translates to Mobil). Mei Foo also became the name of the tin lamp that Standard Oil produced and gave away or sold cheaply to Chinese farmers, encouraging them to switch from vegetable oil to kerosene. The response was positive, sales boomed and China became Standard Oil's largest market in Asia. Prior to Pearl Harbor, Stanvac was the largest single U.S. investment in Southeast Asia.


title: Standard Oil

text: The North China Department of Socony (Standard Oil Company of New York) operated a subsidiary called Socony River and Coastal Fleet, North Coast Division, which became the North China Division of Stanvac (Standard Vacuum Oil Company) after that company was formed in 1933. To distribute its products, Standard Oil constructed storage tanks, canneries (bulk oil from large ocean tankers was re-packaged into tins), warehouses, and offices in key Chinese cities. For inland distribution, the company had motor tank trucks and railway tank cars, and for river navigation, it had a fleet of low-draft steamers and other vessels.


title: Standard Oil

text: Stanvac's North China Division, based in Shanghai, owned hundreds of river-going vessels, including motor barges, steamers, launches, tugboats, and tankers. Up to 13 tankers operated on the Yangtze River, the largest of which were "Mei Ping" (), "Mei Hsia" (), and "Mei An" (). All three were destroyed in the 1937 USS "Panay" incident.


title: Standard Oil

text: "Mei An" was launched in 1901 and was the first vessel in the fleet. Other vessels included "Mei Chuen", "Mei Foo", "Mei Hung", "Mei Kiang", "Mei Lu", "Mei Tan", "Mei Su", "Mei Xia", "Mei Ying", and "Mei Yun". "Mei Hsia", a tanker, was specially designed for river duty. It was built by New Engineering and Shipbuilding Works of Shanghai, who also built the 500-ton launch "Mei Foo" in 1912.


title: Standard Oil

text: "Mei Hsia" ("Beautiful Gorges") was launched in 1926 and carried 350 tons of bulk oil in three holds, plus a forward cargo hold, and space between decks for carrying general cargo or packed oil. She had a length of , a beam of , a depth of , and had a bullet-proof wheelhouse. "Mei Ping" ("Beautiful Tranquility"), launched in 1927, was designed off-shore, but assembled and finished in Shanghai. Its oil-fuel burners came from the U.S. and water-tube boilers came from England.


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil Company and Socony-Vacuum Oil Company became partners in providing markets for the oil reserves in the Middle East. In 1906, SOCONY (later Mobil) opened its first fuel terminals in Alexandria. It explored in Palestine before the World War broke out, but ran into conflict with the local authorities.


title: Standard Oil

text: By 1890, Standard Oil controlled 88 percent of the refined oil flows in the United States. The state of Ohio successfully sued Standard, compelling the dissolution of the trust in 1892. But Standard simply separated Standard Oil of Ohio and kept control of it. Eventually, the state of New Jersey changed its incorporation laws to allow a company to hold shares in other companies in any state.


title: Standard Oil

text: So, in 1899, the Standard Oil Trust, based at 26 Broadway in New York, was legally reborn as a holding company, the "Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey" (SOCNJ), which held stock in 41 other companies, which controlled other companies, which in turn controlled yet other companies. According to Daniel Yergin in his Pulitzer Prize-winning "" (1990), this conglomerate was seen by the public as all-pervasive, controlled by a select group of directors, and completely unaccountable.


title: Standard Oil

text: In 1904, Standard controlled 91 percent of production and 85 percent of final sales. Most of its output was kerosene, of which 55 percent was exported around the world. After 1900 it did not try to force competitors out of business by selling at a loss. The federal Commissioner of Corporations studied Standard's operations from the period of 1904 to 1906 and concluded that "beyond question ... the dominant position of the Standard Oil Co. in the refining industry was due to unfair practices—to abuse of the control of pipe-lines, to railroad discriminations, and to unfair methods of competition in the sale of the refined petroleum products".


title: Standard Oil

text: Because of competition from other firms, their market share gradually eroded to 70 percent by 1906 which was the year when the antitrust case was filed against Standard. Standard's market share was 64 percent by 1911 when Standard was ordered broken up. At least 147 refining companies were competing with Standard including Gulf, Texaco, and Shell. It did not try to monopolize the exploration and extraction of oil (its share in 1911 was 11 percent).


title: Standard Oil

text: In 1909, the U.S. Justice Department sued Standard under federal antitrust law, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, for sustaining a monopoly and restraining interstate commerce by:


title: Standard Oil

text: Rebates, preferences, and other discriminatory practices in favor of the combination by railroad companies; restraint and monopolization by control of pipe lines, and unfair practices against competing pipe lines; contracts with competitors in restraint of trade; unfair methods of competition, such as local price cutting at the points where necessary to suppress competition; [and] espionage of the business of competitors, the operation of bogus independent companies, and payment of rebates on oil, with the like intent.


title: Standard Oil

text: The lawsuit argued that Standard's monopolistic practices had taken place over the preceding four years:


title: Standard Oil

text: The general result of the investigation has been to disclose the existence of numerous and flagrant discriminations by the railroads in behalf of the Standard Oil Co. and its affiliated corporations. With comparatively few exceptions, mainly of other large concerns in California, the Standard has been the sole beneficiary of such discriminations. In almost every section of the country that company has been found to enjoy some unfair advantages over its competitors, and some of these discriminations affect enormous areas.


title: Standard Oil

text: The government identified four illegal patterns: (1) secret and semi-secret railroad rates; (2) discriminations in the open arrangement of rates; (3) discriminations in classification and rules of shipment; (4) discriminations in the treatment of private tank cars. The government alleged:


title: Standard Oil

text: Almost everywhere the rates from the shipping points used exclusively, or almost exclusively, by the Standard are relatively lower than the rates from the shipping points of its competitors. Rates have been made low to let the Standard into markets, or they have been made high to keep its competitors out of markets. Trifling differences in distances are made an excuse for large differences in rates favorable to the Standard Oil Co., while large differences in distances are ignored where they are against the Standard. Sometimes connecting roads prorate on oil—that is, make through rates which are lower than the combination of local rates; sometimes they refuse to prorate; but in either case the result of their policy is to favor the Standard Oil Co. Different methods are used in different places and under different conditions, but the net result is that from Maine to California the general arrangement of open rates on petroleum oil is such as to give the Standard an unreasonable advantage over its competitors.


title: Standard Oil

text: The government said that Standard raised prices to its monopolistic customers but lowered them to hurt competitors, often disguising its illegal actions by using bogus supposedly independent companies it controlled.


title: Standard Oil

text: The evidence is, in fact, absolutely conclusive that the Standard Oil Co. charges altogether excessive prices where it meets no competition, and particularly where there is little likelihood of competitors entering the field, and that, on the other hand, where competition is active, it frequently cuts prices to a point which leaves even the Standard little or no profit, and which more often leaves no profit to the competitor, whose costs are ordinarily somewhat higher.


title: Standard Oil

text: On May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the lower court judgment and declared the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act, Section II. It ordered Standard to break up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors, the biggest two of the companies were Standard Oil of New Jersey (which became Exxon) and Standard Oil of New York (which became Mobil).


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard's president, John D. Rockefeller, had long since retired from any management role. But, as he owned a quarter of the shares of the resultant companies, and those share values mostly doubled, he emerged from the dissolution as the richest man in the world. The dissolution had actually propelled Rockefeller's personal wealth.


title: Standard Oil

text: By 1911 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in "Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States", that Standard Oil of New Jersey must be dissolved under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split into 34 companies. Two of these companies were Standard Oil of New Jersey (Jersey Standard or Esso), which eventually became Exxon, and Standard Oil of New York (Socony), which eventually became Mobil; those two companies later merged into ExxonMobil.


title: Standard Oil

text: Over the next few decades, both companies grew significantly. Jersey Standard, led by Walter C. Teagle, became the largest oil producer in the world. It acquired a 50 percent share in Humble Oil & Refining Co., a Texas oil producer. Socony purchased a 45 percent interest in Magnolia Petroleum Co., a major refiner, marketer, and pipeline transporter. In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Co., an industry pioneer dating back to 1866, and a growing Standard Oil spin-off in its own right.


title: Standard Oil

text: In the Asia-Pacific region, Jersey Standard had oil production and refineries in the Dutch East Indies but no marketing network. Socony-Vacuum had Asian marketing outlets supplied remotely from California. In 1933, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum merged their interests in the region into a 50–50 joint venture. Standard-Vacuum Oil Co., or "Stanvac", operated in 50 countries, from East Africa to New Zealand, before it was dissolved in 1962.


title: Standard Oil

text: Rockefeller's original company, Standard Oil Company of Ohio (Sohio), effectively ceased to exist when it was purchased by BP in 1987. BP continued to sell gasoline under the Sohio brand until 1991. Other Standard oil entities include "Standard Oil of Indiana" which became Amoco after other mergers and a name change in the 1980s, and "Standard Oil of California" which became the Chevron Corp.


title: Standard Oil

text: Some have speculated that if not for that court ruling, Standard Oil could have possibly been worth more than $1 trillion in the 2000s. Whether the breakup of Standard Oil was beneficial is a matter of some controversy. Some economists believe that Standard Oil was not a monopoly, and argue that the intense free market competition resulted in cheaper oil prices and more diverse petroleum products. Critics claimed that success in meeting consumer needs was driving other companies, who were not as successful, out of the market.


title: Standard Oil

text: An example of this thinking was given in 1890, when Rep. William Mason, arguing in favor of the Sherman Antitrust Act, said: "trusts have made products cheaper, have reduced prices; but if the price of oil, for instance, were reduced to one cent a barrel, it would not right the wrong done to people of this country by the "trusts" which have destroyed legitimate competition and driven honest men from legitimate business enterprise".


title: Standard Oil

text: The Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits the restraint of trade. Defenders of Standard Oil insist that the company did not restrain trade; they were simply superior competitors. The federal courts ruled otherwise.


title: Standard Oil

text: Some economic historians have observed that Standard Oil was in the process of losing its monopoly at the time of its breakup in 1911. Although Standard had 90 percent of American refining capacity in 1880, by 1911, that had shrunk to between 60 and 65 percent because of the expansion in capacity by competitors. Numerous regional competitors (such as Pure Oil in the East, Texaco and Gulf Oil in the Gulf Coast, Cities Service and Sun in the Midcontinent, Union in California, and Shell overseas) had organized themselves into competitive vertically integrated oil companies, the industry structure pioneered years earlier by Standard itself.


title: Standard Oil

text: In addition, demand for petroleum products was increasing more rapidly than the ability of Standard to expand. The result was that although in 1911 Standard still controlled most production in the older regions of the Appalachian Basin (78 percent share, down from 92 percent in 1880), Lima-Indiana (90 percent, down from 95 percent in 1906), and the Illinois Basin (83 percent, down from 100 percent in 1906), its share was much lower in the rapidly expanding new regions that would dominate U.S. oil production in the 20th century. In 1911, Standard controlled only 44 percent of production in the Midcontinent, 29 percent in California, and 10 percent on the Gulf Coast.


title: Standard Oil

text: Some analysts argue that the breakup was beneficial to consumers in the long run, and no one has ever proposed that Standard Oil be reassembled in pre-1911 form. ExxonMobil, however, does represent a substantial part of the original company.


title: Standard Oil

text: Since the breakup of Standard Oil, several companies, such as General Motors and Microsoft, have come under antitrust investigation for being inherently too large for market competition; however, most of them remained together. The only company since the breakup of Standard Oil that was divided into parts like Standard Oil was AT&T, which after decades as a regulated natural monopoly, was forced to divest itself of the Bell System in 1984.


title: Standard Oil

text: Standard Oil's breakup split the company into 34 separate companies. Several of these companies were considered among the Seven Sisters who dominated the industry worldwide for much of the 20th century, and both Standard Oil's direct and indirect descendants make up Big Oil.


title: Standard Oil

text: Many of today's largest oil and gas companies are or have acquired a descendant of Standard Oil. Moreover, many other companies have acquired or been created from Standard Oil descendants over time, including Unilever (which acquired Standard descendant Vaseline in 1987), TransUnion (created originally as a holding company for Standard descendant Union Tank Car) and Berkshire Hathaway (which later acquired Union Tank Car).


title: Standard Oil

text: Of the 34 "Baby Standards", 11 were given rights to the Standard Oil name, based on the state they were in. Conoco and Atlantic elected to use their respective names instead of the Standard name, and their rights would be claimed by other companies.


title: Standard Oil

text: By the 1980s, most companies were using their brand names instead of the Standard name, with Amoco being the last one to have widespread use of the "Standard" name, as it gave Midwestern owners the option of using the Amoco name or Standard.


title: Standard Oil

text: Three supermajor companies now own the rights to the Standard name in the United States: ExxonMobil, Chevron Corp., and BP. BP acquired its rights through acquiring Standard Oil of Ohio and merging with Amoco and has a small handful of stations in the Midwestern United States using the Standard name. Likewise, BP continues to sell marine fuel under the Sohio brand at various marinas throughout Ohio. ExxonMobil keeps the Esso trademark alive at stations that sell diesel fuel by selling "Esso Diesel" displayed on the pumps.


title: Standard Oil

text: ExxonMobil has full international rights to the Standard name, and continues to use the Esso name overseas and in Canada. To protect its trademark, Chevron has one station in each state it owns the rights to be branded as Standard. Some of its Standard-branded stations have a mix of some signs that say Standard and some signs that say Chevron. Over time, Chevron has changed which station in a given state is the Standard station.


title: Standard Oil

text: In February 2016, ExxonMobil successfully asked a U.S. federal court to lift the 1930s, trademark injunction that banned it from using the Esso brand in some states. Neither BP nor Chevron objected to the decision. ExxonMobil asked for it to be lifted primarily so it could have universal marketing material for its stations globally and, likewise, the Esso name returned to some minor station signage at both Exxon and Mobil stations.


title: Standard Oil

text: As of 2021, six states that have the Standard Oil name rights are not being actively used by the companies that own them. Chevron withdrew from Kentucky (home of the Standard Oil of Kentucky, which Chevron acquired in 1961) in 2010, while BP gradually withdrew from five Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) since the initial conversion of Amoco sites to BP. As ExxonMobil has stations in all of these states, with the aforementioned minor signage ExxonMobil has de facto claimed the Standard trademark in these states, though they are still held by their respective rights holders.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron, sold under the brand name Zofran among others, is a medication used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery. It is also effective for treating gastroenteritis. It can be given by mouth or by injection into a muscle or into a vein.


title: Ondansetron

text: Common side effects include diarrhea, constipation, headache, sleepiness, and itchiness. Serious side effects include QT prolongation and severe allergic reaction. It appears to be safe during pregnancy but has not been well studied in this group. It is a serotonin 5-HT receptor antagonist. It does not have any effect on dopamine receptors or muscarinic receptors.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron was patented in 1984 and approved for medical use in 1990. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 83rd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 8million prescriptions.


title: Ondansetron

text: Although an effective antiemetic agent, the high cost of brand-name ondansetron initially limited its use to controlling postoperative nausea and vomiting and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.


title: Ondansetron

text: The 5-HT receptor antagonists are the primary medications used to treat and prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and radiotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.


title: Ondansetron

text: A number of medications including ondansetron appear to be effective in controlling postoperative nausea and vomiting. It is more effective than metoclopramide, and less sedating than cyclizine or droperidol.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron is used off-label to treat morning sickness and hyperemesis gravidarum of pregnancy. It is typically used after other antinausea drugs have failed.


title: Ondansetron

text: There appears to be a low risk of harm to the baby with use during pregnancy, though there may be an increase in heart problems among the babies.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron is in pregnancy category B in the US. It is not known if ondansetron is excreted in breast milk.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron is one of several antiemetic drugs used during the vomiting phase of cyclic vomiting syndrome.


title: Ondansetron

text: Trials in emergency department settings support the use of ondansetron to reduce vomiting associated with gastroenteritis and dehydration. A retrospective review found it was used commonly for this purpose, being administered in over 58% of cases. Its use reduced hospital admissions, but was also associated with higher rates of return visits to the emergency department. Furthermore, people who had initially received ondansetron were more likely to be admitted on the return visit than people who had not received the drug. However, this effect may simply be due to the agent being used more frequently in people who present with more severe illness. Its use was not found to mask serious diagnoses.


title: Ondansetron

text: In one study of patients with IBS-D variant ondansetron showed statistically significant effect on stool consistency and bloating. Nonetheless, it did not have any antinociceptive activity.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron has rarely been studied in people under 4 years of age. As such, little data is available to guide dosage recommendations.


title: Ondansetron

text: It is not necessary to adjust the dosage for people under 75 years of age. The use of ondansetron has not been studied in people older than 75 years of age, and it is not known if dosage should be adjusted for this group.


title: Ondansetron

text: The maximum recommended dose for people with severe liver function impairment is 8 mg/day. In these people, ondansetron is cleared from the body at half to one-third the rate as in healthy people. The concentration of ondansetron in body tissues as opposed to plasma is also higher than in healthy people.


title: Ondansetron

text: Headache is the most common adverse effect. A review of use for post-operative nausea and vomiting found that for every 36 people treated, one would experience headache, which could be severe.


title: Ondansetron

text: Constipation, diarrhea, and dizziness are other commonly reported side effects. It is broken down by the hepatic cytochrome P450 system and it has little effect on the metabolism of other drugs broken down by this system. Anecdotally, ototoxicity has also been reported if injected too quickly.


title: Ondansetron

text: Use of ondansetron has been associated with prolongation of the QT interval, which can lead to a potentially fatal heart rhythm known as "torsades de pointes". Although this may happen in any person with any formulation, the risk is most salient with the injectable (intravenous) form of the drug and increases with dose. The risk is also higher in people taking other medicines that prolong the QT interval, as well as in people with congenital long QT syndrome, congestive heart failure, and/or bradyarrhythmias. As such, single doses of injectable ondansetron should not exceed 16 mg at one time. (Oral dosing recommendations remain intact, including the recommendation of a single 24-mg oral dose when indicated.) Electrolyte imbalances should be corrected before the use of injectable ondansetron. People are cautioned to seek immediate medical care if symptoms such as irregular heartbeat/palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or fainting occur while taking ondansetron.


title: Ondansetron

text: No specific treatment is available for ondansetron overdose; people are managed with supportive measures. An antidote to ondansetron is not known.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron is a highly selective serotonin 5-HT receptor antagonist, with low affinity for dopamine receptors. The 5-HT receptors are present both peripherally on vagal nerve terminals and centrally in the chemoreceptor trigger zone of the area postrema in the medulla. Serotonin is released by the enterochromaffin cells of the small intestine in response to chemotherapeutic agents and may stimulate vagal afferents (via 5-HT receptors) to initiate the vomiting reflex. It is thought that ondansetron's antiemetic action is mediated mostly via antagonism of vagal afferents with a minor contribution from antagonism of central receptors.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron may have a degree of peripheral selectivity due to binding to P-glycoprotein and efflux out of the brain at the blood–brain barrier.


title: Ondansetron

text: Ondansetron (marketed under the brand name Zofran) was developed in the mid-1980s by GlaxoSmithKline in London. It was granted US patent protection in September 1987, received a use patent June 1988, and was approved by the US FDA in January 1991. It was granted another divisional patent in November 1996. Finally, owing to GlaxoSmithKline's research on pediatric use, ondansetron's patent protection was extended until December 2006. By this final year of its patent (2006), Zofran had become the 20th highest-selling brand-name drug in the United States, with sales of US$1.3 billion in the first 9 months of 2006 (80% from the US). The first generic versions were approved by the US FDA in December 2006, with marketing approval granted to Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and SICOR Pharmaceuticals. In 2018, University of São Paulo and Biolab were granted a patent for an orodispersible form of the drug.


title: Ondansetron

text: In 1997, ondansetron was the subject of a meta-analysis case study published in the "British Medical Journal". Researchers examined 84 trials, with 11,980 people receiving ondansetron, published between 1991 and September 1996. Intravenous ondansetron 4 mg versus placebo was investigated in 16 reports and three further reports which had been duplicated a total of six times. The number needed to treat (NNT) to prevent vomiting within 24 hours was 9.5, with 95% confidence interval 6.9 to 15, in the 16 nonduplicated reports. In the three duplicated reports, the NNT was significantly lower at 3.9 (3.3 to 4.8). When all 25 reports were combined, the apparent NNT improved to 4.9 (4.4 to 5.6). Inclusion of duplicate reports led to a 23% overestimation of ondansetron's antiemetic efficacy.


title: Ondansetron

text: In addition, the authors found the covert duplication of reports on ondansetron was not easy to detect, because of lack of cross-referencing between papers, and reports containing duplicate findings were cited in eight reviews of the drug. Their analysis was a subject of an editorial in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in 1999.


title: Ondansetron

text: It can be given by mouth, as a tablet or orally disintegrating tablet, or by injection into a muscle or into a vein.


title: Ondansetron

text: A 2006 double-blind, randomized controlled trial indicated ondansetron may have value in the treatment of schizophrenia, as an adjunct to haloperidol. The study found the combination to significantly improve negative schizophrenia symptoms, and people taking both drugs experienced fewer of the adverse effects commonly associated with haloperidol. An earlier, smaller, open-label trial had found ondansetron to be useful in treating antipsychotic-induced tardive dyskinesia in people with schizophrenia, and the study patients also showed significant improvement in the disease's symptoms.


title: Ondansetron

text: Early studies have also examined ondansetron as a possible treatment for psychosis resulting from advanced Parkinson's disease. Its apparent benefits despite a lack of any significant antagonistic properties at dopamine receptors or the 5-HT receptor raises interesting questions about the etiology of psychosis.


title: Ondansetron

text: There is tentative evidence that it may be useful in decreasing the desired effects of alcohol. There is also some tentative evidence in those who are addicted to stimulants.


title: Ondansetron

text: Two small, placebo-controlled trials have been conducted to assess the efficacy of ondansetron for postanesthetic shivering, a common occurrence after surgery. Ondansetron was found to be as effective as pethidine (meperidine, Demerol) when given as a single intravenous dose before anesthesia.


title: Cars 2

text: Cars 2 is a 2011 American computer-animated spy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to "Cars" (2006), the second film in the "Cars" franchise, and the 12th animated film from the studio. This was the final Pixar film animated with their old software system, Marionette, before being officially replaced with Presto in 2012. The film was directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Brad Lewis, and produced by Denise Ream, from a screenplay written by Ben Queen, and a story by Lasseter, Lewis, and Dan Fogelman. In the film's ensemble voice cast, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Bonnie Hunt, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles from the first film. Paul Newman, who voiced Doc Hudson in the previous film, died in September 2008, so his character was written out of the film; George Carlin, who previously voiced Fillmore, died during the same year, and his role was passed to Lloyd Sherr. The returning cast is joined by Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Eddie Izzard, and Thomas Kretschmann, who voice the new characters introduced in this film.


title: Cars 2

text: The film follows race car Lightning McQueen (Wilson) and tow truck Mater (Cable Guy), who head to Japan and Europe to compete in the World Grand Prix, but Mater accidentally becomes sidetracked with international espionage, and ends up attempting to uncover a conspiracy led by a mysterious criminal mastermind and his gang which threatens all competitors in the Grand Prix, with the help of British spies Finn McMissile (Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Mortimer).


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars 2" was first announced in April 2008 as the schedule for a summer 2012 release alongside "Up" (2009) and "Brave" (2012), making "Cars" the second Pixar film to spawn a sequel after "Toy Story", as well as becoming a franchise. Lasseter was confirmed to be returning as director, while Lewis was designated as co-director in June 2010. Lasseter was convinced of the story while traveling around the world promoting the first film. Michael Giacchino composed the film's score, with artists such as Weezer, Robbie Williams, Brad Paisley and Bénabar contributing original songs for the film.


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars 2" premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 18, 2011, and was released in the United States on June 24, in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats. It received mixed reviews from critics, with the voice acting, animation and characters receiving some praise, while criticism was aimed towards the plot and its G-rating. Despite the mixed reviews, "Cars 2" continued the studio's streak of box office success, grossed $562 million worldwide against its $200 million budget, becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 2011 and the highest-grossing film of the "Cars" trilogy. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 69th Golden Globe Awards, but lost to "The Adventures of Tintin". A sequel, "Cars 3", was released on June 16, 2017. To date, this is the last Pixar film to be directed by Lasseter.


title: Cars 2

text: British spy Finn McMissile infiltrates an oil rig owned by a group of criminal lemon cars to rescue fellow spy Leland Turbo, who has blown his own cover. He witnesses the criminals, seemingly led by German weapons designer and scientist Professor Zündapp, load an electromagnetic pulse generator, disguised as a TV camera onto a shipping crate. After discovering Leland's death, a burst of flames reveals his presence to the criminals, and he escapes by faking his death.


title: Cars 2

text: Five years after the events of the first film, after winning his fourth Piston Cup, Lightning McQueen returns to Radiator Springs to spend his off-season with his friends. However, Italian formula race car Francesco Bernoulli challenges Lightning to take part in the World Grand Prix, an international three-race event created by former oil tycoon Sir Miles Axlerod, who intends to promote his new environmentally friendly fuel, Allinol, and invites race cars from around the world to compete. Lightning and his best friend Mater — along with Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, and Sarge — depart for Tokyo for the first race of the World Grand Prix.


title: Cars 2

text: At a World Grand Prix promotional party event, Mater makes a scene after eating a bowl of wasabi and leaking on stage, embarrassing Lightning in front of everyone. While cleaning up, Mater interrupts a fight between American spy Rod "Torque" Redline and lemons Grem and Acer. Redline plants his tracking device on Mater, causing Finn and his associate Holley Shiftwell to mistake him for the spy. Meanwhile, Redline is captured and killed by Zündapp, who reveals that Allinol is set on fire when hit with the EMP from earlier. He informs his superior, an unknown mastermind, that Redline passed on his information. Holley finds and recruits Mater to stop Zündapp's plot.


title: Cars 2

text: At the first race, three racers are ignited by the camera, making their engines explode. Lightning places second in the race after Bernoulli, due to miscommunication with Mater, who was evading Zündapp's henchmen with help from Holley and Finn. Lightning angrily snaps at Mater, who then goes to the airport to return to Radiator Springs, but is abducted by Finn as the lemons close onto both, and they flee in Finn's jet, Siddeley. After traveling to Paris, to collect more information from Finn's old friend and underground informant Tomber, they travel to Porto Corsa, Italy, where the second race is being held. During the race, Mater infiltrates the criminals' meeting, just as a few racers are flamed out by the camera, causing a multi-car pile-up, while Lightning wins. Due to controversy and increased fears over Allinol's safety, Axlerod lifts the requirement to use it for the final race in London. However, when Lightning decides to continue using it, the lemons plan to kill him in the race. Frightened by the realization that his best friend is in danger, Mater accidentally blows his cover, causing him, Finn, and Holley to be captured and tied up inside Big Bentley, where he admits to them that he is not the spy they think he is.


title: Cars 2

text: When the race starts, Lightning takes the lead before passing Big Ben, however, the camera was inexplicably defective on him. The criminals tell Mater they planted a time bomb in Lightning's pits as a backup plan, spurring him to break free and escape. Finn and Holley escape soon after but realize that the bomb was fitted on Mater's air filter when they were passed out as the criminals predicted that Mater would escape to help Lightning. Mater had already arrived at the pits when they tell him this, so he flees down the track while Lightning chases after him to apologize for his outburst in Tokyo. Finn apprehends Zündapp when he attempts to escape. The other lemons arrive and outnumber Finn, Holley, Mater, and Lightning, but they are soon rescued by the arrival of the other Radiator Springs residents and Sarge's colleagues in the British Army. Mater and Lightning go to Buckingham Palace, where Mater exposes Axlerod as the mastermind behind the plot, which is proven after Axelrod is forced to disable the bomb. It is then revealed that the World Grand Prix was a cover-up by Axelrod to turn the world against Allinol and other alternative fuels, and he was also the one who was leaking oil in Tokyo, blaming Mater for it. After Axlerod and the lemons are arrested by the London police, Mater receives an honorary knighthood from the Queen, and he and Lightning reconcile.


title: Cars 2

text: Back in Radiator Springs, Mater tells everyone there about his story, just when Finn and Holley stop over. Fillmore then reveals that Sarge swapped the Allinol with Fillmore's organic fuel, which explains the camera's ineffectiveness on Lightning. A "Radiator Springs Grand Prix" is held, featuring all the World Grand Prix contenders. Mater declines an invitation from Finn and Holley to go on another mission, choosing to stay in Radiator Springs. Though his weapons get confiscated, he gets to keep the rockets and catches up to Lightning, who speeds off with Mater behind him, just as Siddeley speeds into the distance.


title: Cars 2

text: Much of the cast from the original "Cars" returned for the sequel, but three voice actors of the original film have died since its release. Joe Ranft (who voiced Red) died in an automobile accident on August 16, 2005, ten months before "Cars" (which was dedicated in memorial to him) was released, and therefore Red played no vocal role in the film. George Carlin (who voiced Fillmore) died of heart failure on June 22, 2008, so Fillmore was voiced by Lloyd Sherr (who also voices Tony Trihull). Paul Newman (who voiced Doc Hudson) died of cancer on September 26, 2008. After Newman's death, Lasseter said they would "see how the story goes with Doc Hudson." Doc was eventually dropped, and implied to have died a few years before the events of "Cars 2".


title: Cars 2

text: In international versions of the film, the character Jeff Gorvette is replaced with race car drivers better known in the specific countries in his dialogue scenes (however, he still appears as a competitor).


title: Cars 2

text: In Brazil, Gorvette is replaced by Carla Veloso in his dialogue scenes (Carla appears in all other versions of the film, but with no lines); Carla is voiced by Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte. Sportspeople still appear, with Lewis Hamilton becoming Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi, while Brent Mustangburger and David Hobbscap were done by sports announcers José Trajano and Luciano do Valle.


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars" is the second Pixar film, after "Toy Story", to have a sequel as well as becoming a franchise. John Lasseter, the director of the film, said that he was convinced of the sequel's story while traveling around the world promoting the first film. He said:


title: Cars 2

text: In April 2008, Pixar unveiled its latest animation slate, with "Cars 2" scheduled for a summer 2012 release. Brad Lewis, who had served as producer on "Ratatouille", was announced as the film's director. In June 2010, it was announced that Lasseter had been designated as co-director.


title: Cars 2

text: In 2009, Disney registered several domain names, hinting to audiences that the title and theme of the film would be in relation to a "World Grand Prix".


title: Cars 2

text: In November 2010, the synopsis was announced, revealing the espionage racing storyline, along with a first look image and official poster.


title: Cars 2

text: In March 2011, Jake Mandeville-Anthony, a U.K. screenwriter, sued Disney and Pixar alleging copyright infringement and breach of implied contract. In his complaint he alleged that "Cars" and "Cars 2" are based in part on work that he had submitted in the early 1990s and he sought an injunction to stop the release of "Cars 2" and requested actual or statutory damages. On May 13, 2011, Disney responded to the lawsuit, denying "each and every one of Plaintiff's legal claims concerning the purported copyright infringement and substantial similarity of the parties' respective works." On July 27, 2011, the lawsuit was dismissed by a district court judge who, in her ruling, wrote that the "Defendants have sufficiently shown that the Parties' respective works are not substantially similar in their protectable elements as a matter of law".


title: Cars 2

text: In November 2010, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Peter Jacobson, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, and Thomas Kretschmann were confirmed as the voice talent featured in the film. From November 2010 until May 2011, Disney released information about the other voice talent, including Jenifer Lewis, Katherine Helmond, Michael Wallis, Darrell Waltrip, Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Bruce Campbell, Sig Hansen, Michel Michelis, Jeff Gordon, Lewis Hamilton, Brent Musburger, David Hobbs, John Turturro, and Eddie Izzard.


title: Cars 2

text: The soundtrack for the film was released on both CD and digital download on June 14, 2011. "Cars 2" is the fourth Pixar film to be scored by Michael Giacchino after "The Incredibles", "Ratatouille" and "Up". It was also the first and only Pixar film directed by John Lasseter not to be scored by Randy Newman, who scored the first and third films of the "Cars" franchise.


title: Cars 2

text: During the summer of 2008, John Lasseter announced that "Cars 2" would be pushed forward and released in the summer of 2011, one year earlier than its original 2012 release date. The US release date was later confirmed to be June 24, 2011, with a UK release date set for July 22, 2011. The world premiere of the film took place at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on June 18, 2011. "Cars 2" was released in 4,115 theaters in the USA and Canada setting a record-high for a G-rated film and for Pixar. The latter was surpassed by "Brave" (4,164 theaters). The film was presented in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D, as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats.


title: Cars 2

text: The film was preceded by a short film titled "Hawaiian Vacation", directed by Gary Rydstrom and starring the characters of the "Toy Story" franchise.


title: Cars 2

text: The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and digital download on November 1, 2011. This release was produced in four different physical packages: a 1-disc DVD, a 2-disc combo pack (DVD and Blu-ray), a 5-disc combo pack (DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and Digital Copy), and an 11-disc three movie collector's set, which features "Cars", "Cars 2", and "Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales". The film was also released as a Movie Download edition in both standard and high definition.


title: Cars 2

text: The Movie Download release includes four bonus features: "Cars Toons" "Air Mater", the "Toy Story Toon" "Hawaiian Vacation", "World Tour Interactive Feature", and "Bringing Cars 2 to the World". The 1-disc DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack releases include the shorts "Air Mater" and "Hawaiian Vacation", plus the "Director John Lasseter Commentary". The 5-disc combo pack includes all of the same bonus features as the 1-disc DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack versions, in addition to "World Tour Interactive Feature" and "Sneak Peek: The Nuts and Bolts of Cars Land." The 11-disc three movie collection comes packaged with "Cars" (DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Copy), "Cars 2" (DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, nand Digital Copy), and "Mater's Tall Tales" (DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Copy).


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars 2" sold a total of 1,983,374 DVD units during its opening week, generating $31.24 million and claiming first place. It also finished on the top spot on the Blu-ray chart during its first week, selling 1.76 million units and generating $44.57 million. Its Blu-ray share of home media was 47 percent, indicating an unexpectedly major shift of sales from DVD to Blu-ray. Blu-ray 3D contributed to this, accounting for 17% of total disc sales. In 2019, "Cars 2" was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars 2" grossed $191.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $370.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $562.1 million. Worldwide on its opening weekend it grossed $109 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title. Overall, "Cars 2" became the seventh-biggest Pixar film in worldwide box office among the fourteen released.


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars 2" made $25.7 million on its debut Friday (June 24, 2011), marking the second-largest opening day for a Pixar film, at the time, after "Toy Story 3"'s $41.1 million. During this time, though, it was the third least-attended opening day for a Pixar film, only ahead of "Up" and "Ratatouille". It also scored the sixth largest opening day for an animated feature. On its opening weekend as a whole, "Cars 2" debuted at No.1 ahead of "Green Lantern" and "Bad Teacher" with $66.1 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated feature, the seventh largest opening for Pixar, the eighth largest among films released in June, and the fourth largest for a G-rated film. In its second weekend, however, the film was overtaken by "", dropping 60.3% and grossing $26.2 million. At the end of its theatrical run, "Cars 2" became the lowest-grossing Pixar film in North America since "A Bug's Life" out of the studio's first twelve films.


title: Cars 2

text: Outside North America, it grossed $42.9 million during its first weekend from 3,129 theaters in 18 countries, topping the box office. It performed especially well in Russia where it grossed $9.42 million, marking the best opening weekend for a Disney or Pixar animated feature and surpassing the entire runs of "Cars" and "Toy Story 3". In Mexico, it made $8.24 million during its first weekend, while in Brazil, it topped the box office with $5.19 million ($7.08 million with previews). It also premeiered at No.1 with $5.16 million in Australia, where it debuted simultaneously with "Kung Fu Panda 2" and out-grossed it. It is the highest-grossing film of 2011 in Lithuania ($477,117), Argentina ($12 million). It is the highest-grossing animated film of 2011 in Estonia ($442,707), Finland ($3.2 million), Norway ($5.8 million).


title: Cars 2

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 219 reviews with an average rating of 5.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Cars 2" is as visually appealing as any other Pixar production, but all that dazzle can't disguise the rusty storytelling under the hood." It is the lowest-rated Pixar film on the site to date and the only one to earn a "rotten" certification. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Cars 2

text: "The original "Cars" was not greeted with exceptional warmth," said "The New York Times", "but the sequel generated Pixar's first truly negative response."


title: Cars 2

text: Critics generally criticized the focus on Mater and felt the film lacked warmth and charm, while also feeling the film was made as an exercise in target marketing and was too violent to deserve a G rating. Reviewing the film for "The Wall Street Journal", Joe Morgenstern wrote, “This frenzied sequel seldom gets beyond mediocrity." "Entertainment Weekly" critic Owen Gleiberman said, ""Cars 2" is a movie so stuffed with "fun" that it went right off the rails. What on earth was the gifted director-mogul John Lasseter thinking – that he wanted kids to come out of this movie was [sic] more ADD?" Although Leonard Maltin on "IndieWire" claimed that he had "such high regard for Pixar and its creative team led by John Lasseter" he said he found the plot "confusing" and felt that Mater's voice was annoying, saying that he'd "rather listen to chalk on a blackboard than spend nearly two hours with Tow Mater." Considering the low reviews given to the Pixar production, critic Kyle Smith of the "New York Post" said, "They said it couldn't be done. But Pixar proved the yaysayers wrong when it made its first bad movie, "Cars". Now it has worsted itself with the even more awful "Cars 2"."


title: Cars 2

text: Conversely, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the movie 3½ stars out of four, and said that "the sequel is a tire-burning burst of action and fun with a beating heart under its hood." He also praised its "fluid script" and called it a "winner". Roger Ebert was the most effusive of the more positive reviews, praising Lasseter's channeling of childhood playtime for the film's spirit and writing, “At a time when some ‘grown-up’ action films are relentlessly shallow and stupid, here is a movie with such complexity that even the cars sometimes have to pause and explain it to themselves.” Justin Chang of "Variety" commented, “The rare sequel that not only improves on but retroactively justifies its predecessor.” Ticket buyers also gave the film an A− in exit polls, on par with other Pixar titles.


title: Cars 2

text: A central current of the negative reviews was the theory that "Cars 2" was forced out of Pixar by its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, out of greed to drive merchandising sales. Lasseter vehemently denied these claims, which he attributed to "people who don’t know the facts, rushing to judge." Some theorized that the vitriol was less about the film but more about Pixar's broadened focus to sequels. "The New York Times" reported that although one negatively reviewed film would not be enough to scratch the studio, "the commentary did dent morale at the studio, which until then had enjoyed an unbroken and perhaps unprecedented run of critical acclaim."


title: Cars 2

text: "Cars 2" marks the first Pixar film not to be nominated for an Oscar. It is also the first Pixar film not nominated for Best Animated Feature since its introduction in 2001.


title: Cars 2

text: A video game based on the film was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Disney Interactive Studios for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and Nintendo DS on June 21, 2011. The PlayStation 3 version of the game was reported to be compatible with stereoscopic 3D gameplay. A Nintendo 3DS version was released on November 1, 2011, and a PSP version was released on November 8, 2011.


title: Cars 2

text: An app based on the film was released on iTunes for a dollar on June 23, 2011. The Lite version was released for free that same day. The object of the game was to complete each race, unlock new levels, and get a high score. As of June 28, 2011, the app had hit No. 1 on the App Store. The game was retired on August 29, 2014.


title: Cars 2

text: A stand-alone sequel, titled "Cars 3", was released on June 16, 2017. Directed by Brian Fee, the film focuses on Lightning McQueen, now a veteran racer, who after being overshadowed by a new wave of rookies, gets help from a young race car, Cruz Ramirez, to instruct him for the increasingly high-tech world and defeat new rival Jackson Storm.


title: Cars 2

text: An animated feature film spin-off called "Planes", produced by DisneyToon Studios, was released on August 9, 2013. A sequel to "Planes", titled "", was later released the following year on July 18, 2014.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the "Table of General Standard Chinese Characters". Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one of the two standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the People's Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s to encourage literacy. They are officially used in the People's Republic of China, Malaysia and Singapore, while traditional Chinese characters still remain in common use in Hong Kong, Macau, ROC/Taiwan and Japan to a certain extent.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially . In its broadest sense, the latter term refers to all characters that have undergone simplifications of character "structure" or "body", some of which have existed for millennia mainly in handwriting alongside traditional characters. On the other hand, the official name refers to the modern systematically simplified character set, which (as stated by then-Chairman Mao Zedong in 1952) includes not only structural simplification but also substantial reduction in the total number of standardized Chinese characters.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: Simplified character forms were created by reducing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the same pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character, usually the simplest amongst all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: A second round of simplifications was promulgated in 1977, but was later retracted in 1986 for a variety of reasons, largely due to the confusion caused and the unpopularity of the second-round simplifications.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: In August 2009, China began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new "Table of General Standard Chinese Characters" consisting of 8,105 (simplified and unchanged) characters was officially implemented for use by the State Council of the People's Republic of China on June 5, 2013.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: Although most simplified Chinese characters in use today are the result of the work moderated by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s and 1960s, the use of some of these forms predates the PRC's formation in 1949. Caoshu, cursive written text, was the inspiration of some simplified characters, and for others, some are attested as early as the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) as either vulgar variants or original characters.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lufei Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China as quickly as possible. Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged and subsequently blamed for their problems. Soon, people in the movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and therefore proposed that a reform be initiated. It was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, "If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die" (). Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time.


title: Simplified Chinese characters

text: In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of the intelligentsia maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China. In 1935, 324 simplified characters collected by Qian Xuantong were officially introduced as the table of first batch of simplified characters, but they were suspended in 1936 due to fierce opposition within the party.