title: Neuromancer

text: "Neuromancer" is considered "the archetypal cyberpunk work". Outside science fiction, it gained unprecedented critical and popular attention as an "evocation of life in the late 1980s", although "The Observer" noted that "it took the "New York Times" 10 years" to mention the novel. By 2007 it had sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.


title: Neuromancer

text: The novel has had significant linguistic influence, popularizing such terms as cyberspace and ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics). Gibson himself coined the term "cyberspace" in his novelette "Burning Chrome", published in 1982 by "Omni" magazine, but it was through its use in "Neuromancer" that it gained recognition to become the "de facto" term for the "World Wide Web" during the 1990s. The portion of "Neuromancer" usually cited in this respect is:


title: Neuromancer

text: The 1999 cyberpunk science fiction film "The Matrix" particularly draws from "Neuromancer" both eponym and usage of the term "matrix". "After watching "The Matrix", Gibson commented that the way that the film's creators had drawn from existing cyberpunk works was 'exactly the kind of creative cultural osmosis" he had relied upon in his own writing."


title: Neuromancer

text: In his afterword to the 2000 re-issue of "Neuromancer", fellow author Jack Womack goes as far as to suggest that Gibson's vision of cyberspace may have inspired the way in which the Internet developed (particularly the World Wide Web), after the publication of "Neuromancer" in 1984. He asks "[w]hat if the act of writing it down, in fact, "brought it about?"" (269).


title: Neuromancer

text: Norman Spinrad, in his 1986 essay "The Neuromantics" which appears in his non-fiction collection "Science Fiction in the Real World", acknowledged the book's title as a triple pun: "neuro" referring to the nervous system; "necromancer"; and "new romancer". The cyberpunk genre, the authors of which he suggested be called "neuromantics", was "a fusion of the romantic impulse with science and technology", according to Spinrad.


title: Neuromancer

text: Writing in "F&SF" in 2005, Charles de Lint noted that while Gibson's technological extrapolations had proved imperfect (in particular, his failure to anticipate the cellular telephone), "Imagining story, the inner workings of his characters' minds, and the world in which it all takes place are all more important."


title: Neuromancer

text: Lawrence Person in his "Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto" (1998) identified "Neuromancer" as "the archetypal cyberpunk work". Literary critic Larry McCaffery described the concept of the matrix in "Neuromancer" as a place where "data dance with human consciousness... human memory is literalized and mechanized... multi-national information systems mutate and breed into startling new structures whose beauty and complexity are unimaginable, mystical, and above all nonhuman." Gibson later commented on himself as an author circa "Neuromancer" that "I'd buy him a drink, but I don't know if I'd loan him any money," and referred to the novel as "an adolescent's book". The success of "Neuromancer" was to effect the 35-year-old Gibson's emergence from obscurity.


title: Neuromancer

text: In 1989, Epic Comics published a 48-page graphic novel version by Tom de Haven and Bruce Jensen. It only covers the first two chapters, "Chiba City Blues" and "The Shopping Expedition", and was never continued.


title: Neuromancer

text: In the 1990s a version of "Neuromancer" was published as one of the Voyager Company's "Expanded Books" series of hypertext-annotated HyperCard stacks for the Apple Macintosh (especially the PowerBook).


title: Neuromancer

text: A video game adaptation of the novel—also titled "Neuromancer"—was published in 1988 by Interplay. Designed by Bruce J. Balfour, Brian Fargo, Troy A. Miles, and Michael A. Stackpole, the game had many of the same locations and themes as the novel, but a different protagonist and plot. It was available for a variety of platforms, including the Amiga, the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and for DOS-based computers.


title: Neuromancer

text: According to an episode of the American version of "Beyond 2000", the original plans for the game included a dynamic soundtrack composed by Devo and a real-time 3D-rendered movie of the events the player went through. Psychologist and futurist Dr. Timothy Leary was involved, but very little documentation seems to exist about this proposed second game, which was perhaps too grand a vision for 1988 home computing.


title: Neuromancer

text: The BBC World Service Drama production of "Neuromancer" aired in two one-hour parts, on 8 and 15 September 2002. Dramatised by Mike Walker, and directed by Andy Jordan, it starred Owen McCarthy as Case, Nicola Walker as Molly, James Laurenson as Armitage, John Shrapnel as Wintermute, Colin Stinton as Dixie, David Webber as Maelcum, David Holt as Riviera, Peter Marinker as Ashpool, and Andrew Scott as The Finn. It can no longer be heard on The BBC World Service Archive.


title: Neuromancer

text: Gibson read an abridged version of his novel "Neuromancer" on four audio cassettes for Time Warner Audio Books (1994), which are now unavailable. An unabridged version of this book was read by Arthur Addison and made available from Books on Tape (1997). In 2011, Penguin Audiobooks produced a new unabridged recording of the book, read by Robertson Dean.


title: Neuromancer

text: "Neuromancer the Opera" is an adaptation written by Jayne Wenger and Marc Lowenstein (libretto) and Richard Marriott of the Club Foot Orchestra (music). A production was scheduled to open on March 3, 1995 at the Julia Morgan Theater (now the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts) in Berkeley, California, featuring Club Foot Orchestra in the pit and extensive computer graphics imagery created by a world-wide network of volunteers. However, this premiere did not take place and the work has yet to be performed in full.


title: Neuromancer

text: There have been several proposed film adaptations of "Neuromancer", with drafts of scripts written by British director Chris Cunningham and Chuck Russell, with Aphex Twin providing the soundtrack. The box packaging for the video game adaptation had even carried the promotional mention for a major motion picture to come from "Cabana Boy Productions." None of these projects have come to fruition, though Gibson had stated his belief that Cunningham is the only director with a chance of doing the film correctly.


title: Neuromancer

text: In May 2007, reports emerged that a film was in the works, with Joseph Kahn (director of "Torque") in line to direct and Milla Jovovich in the lead role. In May 2010 this story was supplanted with news that Vincenzo Natali, director of "Cube" and "Splice", had taken over directing duties and would rewrite the screenplay. In March 2011, with the news that Seven Arts and GFM Films would be merging their distribution operations, it was announced that the joint venture would be purchasing the rights to "Neuromancer" under Vincenzo Natali's direction. In August, 2012, GFM Films announced that it had begun casting for the film (with offers made to Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg), but no cast members have been confirmed yet. In November 2013, Natali shed some light on the production situation; announcing that the script had been completed for "years", and had been written with assistance from Gibson himself. In May 2015, it was reported the movie got new funding from Chinese company C2M, but Natali was no longer available for directing.


title: Neuromancer

text: In August 2017, it was announced that "Deadpool" director Tim Miller was signed on to direct a new film adaptation by Fox, with Simon Kinberg producing.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: Ja'Marr Anthony Chase (born March 1, 2000) is an American football wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at LSU, where he won the Fred Biletnikoff Award and the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship as a sophomore. Selected fifth overall by the Bengals in the 2021 NFL Draft, Chase was named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and a second-team All-Pro after setting rookie records for single-year and single-game receiving yards en route to an appearance in Super Bowl LVI.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: Chase attended Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana, located in suburban New Orleans. During his career, he had 115 receptions for 2,152 yards and 30 touchdowns. Coming out of high school, Chase was a 4 star recruit ranked the nations 84th overall recruit and number 15 receiver prospect. After initially committing to the University of Kansas, Chase committed to Louisiana State University (LSU) to play college football.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: As a true freshman at LSU in 2018, Chase played in all 14 games and made eight starts. He finished the season with 23 receptions for 313 yards and three touchdowns.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: Chase returned as a starter in 2019, and that year led the FBS in receiving yards with 1,780 yards on 84 catches (21.2 avg) and 20 receiving touchdowns. His 20 receiving touchdowns set a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record until it was broken by DeVonta Smith the following year. Six times he eclipsed the 100-yard mark and an additional three times he eclipsed 200 receiving yards in a game mark, including a College Football Playoff championship game record 221 yards against Clemson. LSU finished the year undefeated and won the College Football Playoff National Championship. At the end of the regular season, Chase was awarded the Fred Biletnikoff Award as the best receiver in college football. He was also named a unanimous All-American.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: A month before the start of the 2020 season, Chase announced that he was opting out to concentrate on his NFL career. His decision was reportedly not specifically due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, but rather due to agents having convinced him to sit out his third collegiate season so to not get injured. Chase was assured he would be a top draft pick before the season started. NFL rules state a player can not be drafted until three years after leaving high school.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: Chase was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals fifth overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, reuniting him with his college quarterback Joe Burrow. He became the first player in franchise history to wear the number 1, which was his number in college. Chase signed his four-year rookie contract, worth $30.8 million, on June 2, 2021.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: Despite early struggles in the preseason, Chase played his first career regular season game on September 12, 2021, against the Minnesota Vikings, finishing with 101 receiving yards and a touchdown as the Bengals won 27–24 in overtime. Chase caught an additional three touchdown passes over his next two games, making him the youngest player in NFL history to catch four touchdown passes in his first three career games. Chase was named the NFL Rookie of the Month for September after totaling 220 receiving yards and four touchdowns through his first three games.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: During the Bengals 25–22 overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers, Chase had 159 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown at the end of the first half, earning him another Rookie of the Week award. During Week 7 against the Baltimore Ravens, Chase finished with 201 receiving yards, including an 82-yard touchdown in the Bengals 41–17 win, earning him his first AFC Offensive Player of the Week award. His 754 receiving yards set an NFL record for the most receiving yards ever by a player in their first seven career games. On December 22, Chase was announced as a selection for the 2022 Pro Bowl.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: In Week 17 against the Kansas City Chiefs, Chase totaled 266 receiving yards and three touchdowns during the Bengals' 34–31 division clinching win. He was named AFC offensive player of the week, his second of the season. Chase's 266 yards not only set a Bengals franchise record for receiving yards, but it also set an NFL record for most receiving yards in a game by a rookie. In Week 18 against the Cleveland Browns, Chase caught two passes for 26 yards before leaving the game, surpassing the Bengals franchise record set by Chad Johnson for most receiving yards in a single season. Overall, Chase finished his rookie regular season with 81 receptions for 1,455 yards (4th in the NFL) and 13 receiving touchdowns (3rd).


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: In the against the Las Vegas Raiders, Chase had nine receptions for 116 receiving yards and three carries for 23 yards, helping the Bengals win their first playoff game since the 1990 season. In the against the Tennessee Titans, Chase recorded five receptions for 109 receiving yards, making him the youngest player in NFL history to record multiple 100 yard receiving games in a single postseason. In the , Chase caught 6 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown in the 27–24 overtime win against the Kansas City Chiefs, helping the Bengals advance to Super Bowl LVI, their first Super Bowl appearance since Super Bowl XXIII in 1988. In the Super Bowl, Chase caught 5 passes for 89 yards, but lost 23–20. Chase's 368 postseason receiving yards set a rookie record, breaking the previous record of 242 set by Torry Holt in the 1999 season.


title: Ja'Marr Chase

text: In Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chase caught 10 passes for 129 yards and a game-tying touchdown with no time left in regulation, in the 23–20 overtime loss. In Week 6, Chase suffered a hip injury in the game, but he had 7 receptions for 132 yards and two second-half touchdowns in a 30–26 comeback victory against the New Orleans Saints.


title: Akashic records

text: In the religion of theosophy and the philosophical school called anthroposophy, the Akashic records are a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms, not just human. They are believed by theosophists to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane. There are anecdotal accounts but no scientific evidence for the existence of the Akashic records.


title: Akashic records

text: The Sanskrit term "akasha" was introduced to the language of theosophy through H. P. Blavatsky (1831–1891), who characterized it as a sort of life force; she also referred to "indestructible tablets of the astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and action, but she did not use the term "akashic".


title: Akashic records

text: The notion of an akashic "record" was further disseminated by Alfred Percy Sinnett in his book "Esoteric Buddhism" (1883) when he cites Henry Steel Olcott's "A Buddhist Catechism" (1881). Olcott wrote that "Buddha taught two things are eternal, viz, 'Akasa' and 'Nirvana': everything has come out of Akasa in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and, passes away. No thing ever comes out of nothing."


title: Akashic records

text: By C. W. Leadbeater's "Clairvoyance" (1899) the association of the term with the idea was complete, and he identified the akashic records by name as something a clairvoyant could read.


title: Akashic records

text: In his 1913 "", Leadbeater claims to record the history of Atlantis and other civilizations as well as the future society of Earth in the 28th century.


title: Akashic records

text: Alice A. Bailey wrote in her book "Light of the Soul" on "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – Book 3 – Union achieved and its Results" (1927):


title: Akashic records

text: The Austrian theosophist, and later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner used the Akashic records concept mainly in a series of articles in his journal "Lucifer-Gnosis" from 1904 to 1908, where he wrote about Atlantis and Lemuria, topics related to their purported history and civilization. Besides this, he used the term in the title of lectures on a "Fifth Gospel" held in 1913 and 1914, shortly after the foundation of the Anthroposophical Society and Steiner's exclusion from the Theosophical Society Adyar.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Chyler Leigh West (pronounced ; "née" Potts), known professionally as Chyler Leigh, is an American actress, singer and model. She is known for portraying Janey Briggs in the comedy film "Not Another Teen Movie" (2001), Lexie Grey in the ABC medical drama series "Grey's Anatomy" (2007–2012), and Alex Danvers in the DC Comics superhero series "Supergirl" (2015–2021).


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Leigh was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Yvonne Norton and Robert Potts and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where her parents ran a weight-loss business. The business went bankrupt when she was eight and her parents' marriage ended when she was 12; she, her mother, and her older brotherformer actor Christopher Khayman Leethen moved to Miami, where her mother remarried her first husband. Leigh was estranged from her father for many years following her parents' divorce, but they have since reconciled.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Leigh was in eighth grade when she started modelling. She soon began acting by appearing in local television commercials and a syndicated teen news show, "Hall Pass". In 1999, Leigh and her mother relocated to Los Angeles so she could develop her acting career. At 16, she took and passed the California High School Proficiency Exam.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: At age 16, Leigh met her future husband, 20-year-old Nathan West, when they both attended auditions for the pilot of an unsuccessful WB series titled "Saving Graces". They began a relationship, and Leigh left home to move in with West. Leigh described them as being "broken", both having had troubled family lives and difficult upbringings. This led to abuse of drugs such as cocaine, which quickly escalated into addiction. The catalysts for change eventually came in 2001, when Leigh, in the throes of addiction and barely eating, was told by the director of "Not Another Teen Movie" that she looked unhealthily thin. Around that time, she and West also attended a Christian church service, at the invitation of a friend, which helped them in recovery, and the two were subsequently married.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Leigh started acting at an early age and debuted in the film world at age 15 in 1997's "Kickboxing Academy". She started hosting in local TV shows and modeling; in 2001, Leigh nabbed the lead role in the box-office success "Not Another Teen Movie" as Janey Briggs. She also appeared with the cast in Marilyn Manson's music video "Tainted Love", a song which appeared in the film. She was ranked #65 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2002. In 2002, Leigh was cast in two short-lived TV series: "Girls Club", in which she played lawyer Sarah Mickle, and "That '80s Show", in which she played punk rocker June Tuesday. She then became a series regular on the ABC legal drama "The Practice", but was let go at the end of the season due to budget cuts. Following that, she joined the cast of "Reunion" in September 2005.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: In ABC's medical drama "Grey's Anatomy", Leigh first appeared as a woman in Joe's bar who was noticed by Derek Shepherd during the final two episodes of the third season, and her character is later revealed to be Lexie Grey, the younger half-sister of the titular character. Leigh was made an official series regular for season four and remained so until the eighth-season finale, as Leigh chose to depart from the show after five years to spend more time with her family.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Leigh also makes music with her husband Nathan West (East of Eli), under the name "WestLeigh". They have performed covers and originals songs. In 2015, for their thirteenth anniversary they wrote "Love Lit The Sky". On Valentine's Day 2017, they released the single "Nowhere". Leigh has taken part in several of her husband's tours.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: On June 18, 2017, a single "Spirit of Samba" by Laurent Voulzy was released featuring Leigh, Nina Miranda, Luisa Maita and Eloisia; in France it reached the 99th position on the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) chart.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: From 2015 to 2021, Leigh starred in the CBS/CW DC Comics television series "Supergirl" as Alex Danvers, the elder adoptive sister of the titular character and a scientist and government agent at the DEO. She would reprise the role on "Arrow", "The Flash", and "Legends of Tomorrow" during crossover events "Crisis on Earth-X", "Crisis on Infinite Earths", and "Armageddon". She made her directorial debut with the season six episode "Prom Again!".


title: Chyler Leigh

text: In 2002, Leigh married fellow actor Nathan West in Alaska. The couple worked together in 2000 on the television series "7th Heaven", playing Mary Camden's (Jessica Biel) troubled friends Frankie and Johnnie. Leigh and West have three children – a son and two daughters (born 2003, 2006, and 2009).


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Leigh is a Christian and credits her faith and a "really awesome church" with giving her and her husband "a reason to live". She also supports The Thirst Project, a non-profit organization in America which aims to bring safe drinking water to communities around the world.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: In mid-2020, Leigh published a statement on the Create Change website, an advocacy website she co-founded, in which she expressed an emotional connection with her "Supergirl" character's coming-out scene. Several websites and media outlets, especially those connected with LGBTQ advocacy, interpreted this statement as Leigh's own coming-out about her sexuality.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: Leigh and her family previously lived in Los Angeles, but they now split their time between Vancouver and Nashville.


title: Chyler Leigh

text: During mid-2020, Leigh contracted COVID-19 and became ill. Leigh described her experience in an article published to createchange.me on October 14, 2020:


title: Chyler Leigh

text: I lost about a month's worth of time, laying in bed, waving to my children in the hallway with a mask on so they didn't see how sick I was from COVID-19. Almost "game-over" sick. The only time I had with my husband was spent six feet apart on our bedroom balcony in the morning for a soul-lifting hour to just be with one another or when he donned his mask coming in the room to take care of me, bravely bringing food and Gatorade (which half the time I wasn't able to taste). Golden moments in the midst of darkness. I will say I'm incredibly lucky, though. By the grace of God, no one else got sick. And, although there were a few occasions it almost seemed necessary, I didn't have to go to the hospital. I think getting through a sickness of that magnitude definitely earned me a level up. My body defeated what I thought was impossible and I got a proper restart.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: Animals is the tenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 January 1977 through Harvest and Columbia Records. It was self-produced at Pink Floyd's Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976. The album continued the longform compositions that made up their previous works, including "Wish You Were Here" (1975).


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: "Animals" is both a progressive rock album and a concept album, focusing on the social-political conditions of mid-1970s Britain, and was a change from the style of Pink Floyd's work. Tension within the band during production culminated in keyboardist Richard Wright being fired two years later. The album's cover shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of the Battersea Power Station, conceived by the band's bassist and lead songwriter Roger Waters, and was designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: Pink Floyd released no singles from "Animals" but promoted it through the In the Flesh tour. Waters' agitation with audiences during this tour inspired their next album, "The Wall" (1979). "Animals" reached number 2 in the UK and number 3 in the US. It initially received mixed reviews, but gained more favourable reviews in later years, and is considered one of the band's best works.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: In 1975, Pink Floyd bought a three-storey block of church halls at 35 Britannia Row in Islington, north London. Their deal with Harvest Records' parent company EMI for unlimited studio time in return for a reduced percentage of sales had expired, and they converted the building into a recording studio and storage facility. Its construction took up most of 1975, and in April 1976 the band started work on their tenth studio album, "Animals", at the new facility.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: "Animals" was engineered by a previous Floyd collaborator, Brian Humphries, and recording took place at Britannia Row from April to December 1976, continuing into early 1977. "Raving and Drooling" and "You've Got to Be Crazy", two songs previously performed live and considered for "Wish You Were Here", reappeared as "Sheep" and "Dogs" respectively. They were reworked to fit the new concept, and separated by a Waters-penned composition, "Pigs (Three Different Ones)". The only other new composition, "Pigs On The Wing" (split into two parts to start and end the album), contains references to Waters' private life; his new romantic interest was Carolyne Anne Christie (who was married to Rock Scully, manager of the Grateful Dead, when she met Waters). With the exception of "Dogs" (co-written by David Gilmour) the album's five tracks were written by Waters. Gilmour was distracted by the birth of his first child, and contributed little else towards the songwriting of the album. Similarly, neither Mason nor Wright contributed as much as they had on previous albums, and "Animals" was the first Pink Floyd album not to contain a composer's credit for Wright.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: The band had discussed employing another guitarist for future tours, and Snowy White was therefore invited into the studio. When Waters and Mason inadvertently erased one of Gilmour's completed guitar solos, White was asked to record a solo on "Pigs on the Wing". Although his performance was omitted from the vinyl release, it was included on the 8-track cartridge version. White later performed on the "Animals" tour. Mason recalled that he enjoyed working on "Animals" more than he had on "Wish You Were Here".


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: Loosely based on George Orwell's political fable "Animal Farm", the album's lyrics describe various classes in society as different kinds of animals: the predatory dogs, the despotic ruthless pigs, and the "mindless and unquestioning” herd of sheep. Whereas the novella focuses on Stalinism, the album is a critique of capitalism and differs again in that the sheep eventually rise up to overpower the dogs. The album was developed from a collection of unrelated songs into a concept which, in the words of author Glenn Povey, "described the apparent social and moral decay of society, likening the human condition to that of mere animals".


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: Apart from its critique of capitalist society, the album is also a part response to the punk rock movement, which grew in popularity as a nihilistic statement against the prevailing social and political conditions, and also a reaction to the general complacency and nostalgia that appeared to surround rock music. Pink Floyd were an obvious target for punk musicians, notably Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols, who wore a Pink Floyd T-shirt on which the words "I hate" had been written in ink. Rotten has constantly said it was done for a laugh (he was a fan of several progressive rock bands of the era, including Magma and Van Der Graaf Generator). Drummer Nick Mason later stated that he welcomed the "Punk Rock insurrection" and viewed it as a welcome return to the underground scene from which Pink Floyd originated. In 1977, he produced The Damned's second album, "Music for Pleasure", at Britannia Row, after they failed to entice the retired Syd Barrett to the role.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: In his 2008 book "Comfortably Numb", author Mark Blake argues that "Dogs" contains some of David Gilmour's finest work; although the guitarist sings only one lead vocal, his performance is "explosive". The song also contains notable contributions from Wright, which echo the synthesizer sounds used on the band's previous album, "Wish You Were Here".


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" is audibly similar to "Have a Cigar", with bluesy guitar fills and elaborate bass lines. Of the song's three pigs, the only one directly identified is morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who amongst other things is described as a "house-proud town mouse".


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: "Sheep" contains a modified version of Psalm 23, which continues the traditional "The Lord is my shepherd" with words like "he maketh me to hang on hooks in high places and converteth me to lamb cutlets". Towards the end of the song, the eponymous sheep rise up and kill the dogs, and later retire back to their homes. Wright played the song's introduction unaccompanied on the electric piano, but did not receive a writing credit for it.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: The album is book-ended by each half of "Pigs on the Wing", a simple love song in which a glimmer of hope is offered despite the anger expressed in the album's other three songs. Described by author Andy Mabbett as "[sitting] in stark contrast to the heavyweight material between them", the two halves of the song were heavily influenced by Waters' relationship with his then wife.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: Once the album was complete, work began on its cover. Hipgnosis, designer of the band's previous album covers, offered three ideas, one of which was a small child entering his parents' bedroom to find them having sex: "copulating, like animals!" The final concept was, unusually, designed by Waters. At the time he lived near Clapham Common, and regularly drove past Battersea Power Station, which was by then approaching the end of its useful life. A view of the building was chosen for the cover image, and the band commissioned German company Ballon Fabrik (who had previously constructed Zeppelin airships) and Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw to build a pig balloon (known as "Algie"). The balloon was inflated with helium and manoeuvred into position on 2 December 1976, with a marksman ready to fire if it escaped. Inclement weather delayed work, and the band's manager Steve O'Rourke neglected to book the marksman for a second day; the balloon broke free of its moorings and disappeared from view. The pig flew over Heathrow, resulting in panic and cancelled flights; pilots also spotted the pig in the air. It eventually landed in Kent and was recovered by a local farmer, who was apparently furious that it had scared his cows. The balloon was recovered and filming continued for a third day, but as the early photographs of the power station were considered better, the image of the pig was later superimposed onto one of those taken by professional photographer Howard Bartrop on location on a residential block of flats adjacent.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: During the "Isles of Wonder" short film shot by Danny Boyle and shown as part of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the camera zooms down the length of the River Thames, from a small spring in the countryside all the way to the Olympic venue. During the fly-by, a pig can be seen floating above Battersea Power Station.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: The album's theme continues onto the record's picture labels. Side one's label shows a fisheye lens view of a dog and the English countryside, and side two features a pig and sheep, in the same setting. Mason's handwriting is used as a typeface throughout the packaging. The gatefold features monochrome photographs of the dereliction around the power station.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: The album's release followed Capital Radio's broadcast two days earlier of "The Pink Floyd Story", and an evening press conference held at the power station two days before that. The broadcast was originally to have been an exclusive for the DJ Nicky Horne, who since mid-December had been broadcasting "The Pink Floyd Story", but a copy was given to John Peel, who played side one of the album in its entirety a day earlier.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: "Animals" was released in the UK on 21 January 1977, and in the US on 12 February. It reached number two in the UK and number three in the US. Thanks to the album and the band's back catalogue, according to "The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums", "Pink Floyd bested ABBA for most weeks on chart [in 1977], 108 to 106."


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: "NME" called "Animals" "one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music to have been made available this side of the sun", and "Melody Maker" Karl Dallas described it as an "uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific". "Rolling Stone" Frank Rose was unimpressed, writing: "The 1977 Floyd has turned bitter and morose. They complain about the duplicity of human behavior (and then title their songs after animals – get it?). They sound like they've just discovered this – their message has become pointless and tedious." Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" gave the album a "B+" rating and found the negative reaction overly cynical, reasoning that the album functions simply as "a piece of well-constructed political program music ... lyrical, ugly, and rousing, all in the right places".


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: In his 2004 autobiography "", Mason says that the album's perceived harshness, compared to previous Floyd releases, might have been the result of a "workman-like mood in the studio", and an unconscious reaction to accusations from some punk artists that bands like Pink Floyd represented "dinosaur rock". "Animals" was certified by the RIAA as 4× Platinum on 31 January 1995. Gilmour said on Westwood One's Pink Floyd 25th Anniversary Special about the album: "It wasn't one of the more productive periods of our life I don't think. We used those two tracks which went back to '74, changed the names, doctored them around and stuck them on the album. It was a great, I love the album, it was exciting and noisy and fun. It really had some great bits and stuff of effects on there but it was not one of our creative high points really." Wright, on the BBC Omnibus Special in 1994, said: "I didn't really like a lot of the music on the album. I didn't fight hard to put my stuff on the album and I didn't have anything to put on. I played well but did not contribute to the writing and also Roger was not letting me write. This was the whole start of the whole ego thing in the band, "Animals"."


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: Originally released on Harvest Records in the UK and Columbia Records in the US, "Animals" was issued on Compact Disc (CD) in 1985, and in the US in 1987. It was reissued as a digitally remastered CD with new artwork in 1994, and as a digitally remastered limited-edition vinyl album in 1997. An anniversary edition was released in the US in the same year, followed in 2000 by a reissue from Capitol Records. The album was also included in the "Shine On" box set in 1992, in the 2007 "Oh, By The Way" box set and in the 2011 "Why Pink Floyd...?" re-release series both in the box set and as a standalone 'Discovery' edition CD.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: In an April 2020 interview, Waters said he had pushed for the release of a remixed and remastered vinyl of "Animals" by James Guthrie, but that it had been rejected by Gilmour and Mason. In June 2021, Waters released a statement announcing a new release with stereo and 5.1 surround mixes. Waters cited a dispute between himself and Gilmour over a set of liner notes written by Mark Blake as the reason for the delay, and posted the rejected liner notes on his website. The remix of the album was released on 16 September 2022, on vinyl, CD, & Blu-ray; a limited edition deluxe gatefold package containing the vinyl, CD, Blu-ray, and DVD copies of the remix and a 32-page book was released on 7 October 2022. A hybrid multichannel SACD of the stereo and surround remixes was released exclusively through Acoustic Sounds on 16 September 2022. The band released the 2018 remix of "Dogs" as a digital single on 22 July 2022. The remixed version of the album charted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 (its highest position since March, 1977).


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: The album became the subject material for the band's In the Flesh Tour, which began in Dortmund on the same day the album was released. The tour continued through continental Europe in February, the UK in March, the United States for three weeks in April and May, and another three weeks in the United States in June and July. "Algie" became the inspiration for a number of pig themes used throughout. An inflatable pig was floated over the audience, and during each performance was replaced with a cheaper, but explosive version. On one occasion the mild propane gas was replaced with an oxygen-acetylene mixture, producing a massive (and dangerous) explosion. German promoter Marcel Avram presented the band with a piglet in Munich, only for it to leave a trail of broken mirrors and excrement across its mirrored hotel room, leaving manager O'Rourke to deal with the resulting fallout.


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: The band was augmented by familiar figures such as Dick Parry and Snowy White, but relations within the band became fraught. Waters took to arriving at the venues alone, departing as soon as each performance was over. On one occasion, Wright flew back to England, threatening to leave the band. The size of the venues was also an issue; in Chicago, the promoters claimed to have sold out the 67,000-person regular capacity of the Soldier Field stadium (after which ticket sales should have been ended), but Waters and O'Rourke were suspicious. They hired a helicopter, photographer and attorney, and discovered that the actual attendance was 95,000; a shortfall to the band of $640,000. The end of the tour was a low point for Gilmour, who felt that the band had by now achieved the success the members had originally sought, and that there was nothing else they could look forward to. In July 1977 – on the final date at the Montreal Olympic Stadium – a small group of noisy and excited fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters to such an extent that he spat at one of them. He was not the only person who felt depressed about playing to such large audiences, as Gilmour refused to join his bandmates for their third encore. Waters later spoke with producer Bob Ezrin and told him of his sense of alienation on the tour, and how he sometimes felt like building a wall to separate himself from the audience. The spitting incident would later form the basis of a new concept, which would eventually become one of the band's most successful album releases, "The Wall".


title: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

text: All tracks written and all lead vocals performed by Roger Waters, except "Dogs", written and sung by both Waters and David Gilmour.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Gretchen Esther Whitmer (born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 and in the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer was born and raised in Michigan. She is a graduate of Forest Hills Central High School near Grand Rapids, Michigan State University, and the Michigan State University College of Law, which at the time was the Detroit College of Law. She ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives in the 1990s before being elected in 2000. In 2006, she became a state senator, a position she kept until term limits forced her to step down in 2015. She was the Senate's first female Democratic leader from 2011 to 2015. In 2013, Whitmer gained national attention for a floor speech during a debate on abortion in which she shared her experience of being sexually assaulted. For six months in 2016, she was the county prosecutor for Ingham County.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer was elected governor in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial election, defeating the Republican Attorney General of Michigan, Bill Schuette. As governor, Whitmer has focused on healthcare and infrastructure. In February 2020, she was selected to give the Democratic response to then President Donald Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address. On October 8, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation thwarted a militia group's kidnapping plot against Whitmer. Since January 2021, Whitmer has served as one of the vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee. She was reelected governor in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Tudor Dixon by an 11% margin.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Gretchen Whitmer was born on August 23, 1971, in Lansing, Michigan, the eldest of three children of Sharon H. "Sherry" Reisig and Richard Whitmer, both attorneys. Her father was head of the state department of commerce under Governor William Milliken and was the president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan between 1988 and 2006. Whitmer's mother worked as an assistant attorney general under Michigan Attorney General, Frank J. Kelley. Her parents divorced when she was ten years old; she and her siblings moved with their mother to Grand Rapids. Her father traveled from his home in Detroit to visit the family at least once a week.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer attended and graduated from Forest Hills Central High School near Grand Rapids, Michigan. She received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in communication and a Juris Doctor from Michigan State University in 1993 and 1998, respectively.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer originally ran for the Michigan House of Representatives in the 1990s but was unsuccessful. In 2000, she tried again and was elected to represent the 23rd legislative district. She was reelected in 2002 and 2004.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In March 2006, Whitmer won a special election to the Michigan State Senate, replacing Virg Bernero, who had been elected mayor of Lansing in November 2005. She was elected to a full term in November, and reelected in 2010. In 2011, Whitmer's Democratic colleagues unanimously chose her to be the Senate Democratic Leader, making her the first woman to lead a party caucus in the Senate. Due to term limits, Whitmer was unable to run for reelection in 2014 and left office in 2015. In 2013, she received national recognition when she discussed her experience of being sexually assaulted. She told the story during a debate about abortion rights, particularly for victims of rape, arguing victims should be allowed to terminate pregnancies that result from rape.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On May 11, 2016, it was announced that the judges of Michigan's 30th Judicial Circuit Court had unanimously selected Whitmer to serve the remaining six months of outgoing Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III's term, after he was arrested on March 14, 2016, and charged with 11 counts of involvement with a prostitute and four counts of willful neglect of duty. In a letter dated March 29, 2016, Dunnings announced he would resign effective July 2.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On June 21, 2016, Whitmer was administered the oath of office as prosecutor by Ingham County Circuit Court Chief Judge Janelle Lawless. She said her top priorities during her six months of service would be to determine if any other officials in the prosecutor's office knew about Dunnings's alleged crimes and to change how the office handled domestic violence and sexual assault cases.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On July 22, 2016, Whitmer issued an 11-page report on whether Dunnings's alleged criminal activity had affected cases handled by the office. The report concluded that employees "were never asked to compromise a case or look the other way" and that she had "full confidence that any problem that had existed in this office left with Mr. Dunnings". Whitmer's term expired on December 31, 2016.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On January 3, 2017, Whitmer announced she would run in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial race. On August 7, 2018, Whitmer became the Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan. She won all 83 counties in the state in the Democratic primary.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In July 2018, Republican officials accused Whitmer of supporting the movement to abolish ICE, a claim that Whitmer disputed. She said that, if elected, she would focus on improving Michigan's fundamentals, such as schools, roads, and water systems. Whitmer's main opponent was Republican Bill Schuette, the term-limited attorney general of Michigan. The two candidates met for a debate on October 12, 2018, in Grand Rapids, at WOOD-TV. A second debate was held at WDIV studios in Detroit on October 24.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer describes herself as a progressive Democrat, who can work with state legislators from different political perspectives.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: As both a gubernatorial candidate and as governor, one of Whitmer's key pledges was to "fix the damn roads", a reference to Michigan's struggling infrastructure. Her initial post-election plan to fund road repairs with a 45-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase was deeply unpopular, with one poll finding it opposed by 75% of Michigan voters, including majorities of Democrats and independent voters. Democratic legislators in Michigan's Republican-controlled legislature largely declined to support the plan, which would have nearly tripled Michigan's gas tax and potentially made it the highest in the nation.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer's first budget earmarked several billions of dollars for investment in infrastructure. In 2019, she struggled with the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a budget and made several concessions.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: The gubernatorial election and national conversation during Whitmer's time in office focused largely on healthcare. During the election, she was the only Democratic candidate not to support a single-payer healthcare system. As governor, she has focused on women's healthcare and Medicaid expansion.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In May 2020, the Edenville Dam gave way after awaiting an overdue report on its safety standards. Whitmer directed the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) to form an investigation that "state Republicans, flooding victim advocates and dam safety experts" criticized, concerned that the state's environmental agency would essentially be investigating itself. Guidelines from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials advocate independent investigators. An inquiry launched by the United States House of Representatives later gave the EGLE and FERC a two-week deadline for answers.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. This order was met with broad public approval; a March poll found that 69% of Michigan residents supported Whitmer's actions, including 61% of self-identified Republicans.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: After Whitmer extended the order and tightened restrictions in April, an eight-hour protest against the restrictions, organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and co-hosted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters to the Michigan State Capitol. "New York Times" columnist Charlie Warzel described the demonstration as "twisted, paranoid and racialized", pushed by conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones. Jeanine Pirro of Fox News praised the protesters, saying: "God bless them, it’s going to happen all over the country." At the time of the protest, more than 1,900 people in Michigan had died after contracting the virus. On April 29, a Michigan judge upheld the order against legal challenge, ruling: "Our fellow residents have an interest to remain unharmed by a highly communicable and deadly virus. And since the state entered the Union in 1837, it has had the broad power to act for the public health of the entire state when faced with a public crisis."


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Polling by the Detroit Regional Chamber in mid-April found that 57% of Michigan residents approved of Whitmer's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the extension, despite the protests. The family of the first child to die of COVID-19 in Michigan expressed support for Whitmer's decision to extend the stay-at-home order on the grounds that social distancing would save lives. LaVondria Herbert, the child's mother, said: "I want to say thank you to the governor for making people go home."


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In May 2020, Detroit-based rapper Gmac Cash released a song, "Big Gretch", in support of Whitmer and her handling of the pandemic. In the song, Cash calls to put "Buffs on her face", referring to a brand of buffalo horn sunglasses from Cartier, which Detroiters consider a sign of respect.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On October 2, 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4–3 that "a state law allowing the governor to declare emergencies and keep them in place without legislative input—the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act—is unconstitutional", and unanimously ruled that the 1976 Emergency Management Act "did not give Whitmer the power, after April 30, to issue or renew any executive orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic after 28 days without Legislative approval". Also on October 2, a petition containing 539,384 signatures was submitted seeking to repeal the 1945 EPGA law allowing Whitmer emergency powers during the pandemic.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In March 2021, Whitmer traveled to Florida for three days to visit her ailing father. The trip was controversial, in part because Whitmer did not self-quarantine on her return, despite voluntary guidelines from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services recommending self-quarantine for a full seven days after travel; Whitmer's staff said she was regularly tested for COVID-19. Further controversy about the trip arose because of Air Eagle LLC, the company hired to fly Whitmer to Florida, is not authorized to operate charter flights.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In May 2021, Whitmer was photographed with a large group of unmasked people, with no social distancing, in a bar in East Lansing. The restaurant was violating state-mandated social distancing guidelines that restricted indoor dining to no more than six people on a table. Whitmer apologized for the incident.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In February 2020, Whitmer was selected to deliver the Democratic response to the State of the Union address by then President Donald Trump. Michigan was considered a swing state in the 2020 United States presidential election, and it was speculated that Democrats hoped selecting Whitmer would bolster their chance of winning the state.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In early March, days before the 2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary, Whitmer endorsed Joe Biden, and joined his campaign as a national co-chair.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In 2020, amid her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as after tweets in which Trump attacked her and called her "that woman from Michigan", Whitmer gained a greater national profile. Her response to the pandemic was the subject of the cover story of "Newsweek" May 1, 2020, edition. Also in May, Cecily Strong impersonated Whitmer on an episode of "Saturday Night Live". Strong portrayed Whitmer on the show again in February 2021.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Biden and his team vetted Whitmer as a potential running mate during their 2020 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, with Biden confirming she was on his shortlist in March. Michigan's status as a key swing state was seen as boosting her prospects of being selected. "The New York Times" reported that she was one of four finalists for the position, along with Kamala Harris, Susan Rice, and Elizabeth Warren; Harris was ultimately selected. By some reporting, Whitmer removed herself from consideration, urging Biden to choose a Black woman instead. While Whitmer was not selected, her consideration for the position further elevated her national stature.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer delivered a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention that praised Biden's work in rescuing the Michigan auto industry and criticized Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whitmer was seen as having strong prospects of being offered a position in Biden's cabinet. On January 9, 2021, she said she was not interested in leaving her role as governor.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In early January 2021, then-President-elect Biden nominated Whitmer as one of the vice chair candidates for the Democratic National Committee; the committee elected Whitmer and the rest of the slate of candidates on January 20 unopposed.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On October 8, 2020, a federal indictment against six men associated with the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan-based militia group, was unsealed. The indictment charges the men with plotting to kidnap Whitmer and violently overthrow Michigan's government. The FBI became aware of the scheme in early 2020 after communications among the far-right group were discovered, and via an undercover agent who met with more than a dozen individuals at a meeting in Dublin, Ohio. Another seven men were charged with state crimes in relation to the plot. Facebook is cooperating with the investigation, since the federal criminal complaint detailed how the group used a private Facebook group to discuss the alleged plot.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In the wake of the unsealed indictment, Whitmer, in a livestream, thanked the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, called the plotters "sick and depraved men", and blamed Trump for refusing to explicitly condemn far-right groups and for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. In April 2022, two men (Harris and Caserta) were acquitted on all charges on grounds of entrapment by federal authorities. In August 2022, two others (Fox and Barry Croft Jr.) were convicted of conspiracy to kidnap. In October 2022, three others (Morrison, Musico, and Bellar) were convicted of providing material support for a terrorist act. Additionally, Garbin and Franks pleaded guilty.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, groups within the United States anti-abortion movement criticized Whitmer for allowing abortion procedures to continue in Michigan, stating that they were "life-sustaining". In September 2021, Whitmer began working with the state legislature to repeal a 90-year-old law that banned abortion in Michigan, so as to preserve abortion rights in the state in case "Roe v. Wade" was overturned.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In 2018, as a candidate for governor, Whitmer spoke at Hash Bash to endorse Proposal 1 to legalize recreational cannabis in Michigan. Whitmer said that she had been a longtime supporter of legalizing cannabis, "before it was politically fashionable", and that the time was right to "get it done" so "maybe we can get to work filling those damn potholes" and "regulate it so it doesn't get in the hands of kids". In 2019, as governor, she reappeared at Hash Bash via recorded video message, saying: "We worked hard, we got it done, we made recreational marijuana legal in the state of Michigan."


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer has said she would like to phase in full-day universal pre-k for 4-year-olds in Michigan. She would eliminate Michigan's current 3rd grade "read-or-flunk" policy, which she has said penalizes students the education system has failed, and would instead work to improve their reading skills. She proposes that all high school students be offered two years of debt-free higher education, either college or post-secondary training for skilled trades.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer has ordered the closure of major oil pipelines in Michigan and supports renewable energy initiatives. She has been endorsed by the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On January 11, 2021, Whitmer called for a ban on all weapons inside the Michigan State Capitol in response to armed protestors in April 2020. In her seven "concrete steps" to deter school shooting, she has called for bans on bump stocks and increasing resources for school resource officers. In 2019, Whitmer joined 11 other governors in calling for stricter gun control laws in the form of "common sense gun legislation". In 2012, she wrote NRA President Wayne LaPierre a letter on "HuffPost" about actions to prevent further school violence like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer has said she would fight Republican efforts to take away protections for patients with preexisting conditions. In the State Senate, she successfully worked to expand Medicaid coverage in the state under the Affordable Care Act. She spoke against single-payer healthcare as unrealistic on a state level in 2018. She also said she would work to lower the cost of prescription drugs and would get rid of Schuette's drug immunity law, which she believes protects drug companies from legal trouble if their drugs harm or kill people.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer expressed disapproval of Trump's plan to exclude illegal immigrants from the 2020 United States Census. In 2019, she told immigration rights groups that she supported plans to give undocumented immigrants driver's licenses or a form of government ID.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: On June 7, 2018, Whitmer advocated for expanding the protections of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. She has issued executive orders to prevent discrimination against members of the LGBT community. In 2022, Whitmer was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: In March 2019, Whitmer proposed increasing the gasoline tax by 45 cents per gallon to fund road repairs; it was not enacted. In 2021, Whitmer proposed a new 6% income tax on businesses that organize as partnerships, limited liability companies, and S corporations.


title: Gretchen Whitmer

text: Whitmer has two children with her first husband, Gary Shrewsbury. The couple divorced, and in 2011 she married dentist Marc P. Mallory, who has three children from his previous marriage. Whitmer and Mallory live in the Michigan Governor's Mansion in Lansing, Michigan, with her two daughters and his three sons.


title: Quasar

text: A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass ranging from millions to tens of billions of solar masses, surrounded by a gaseous accretion disc. Gas in the disc falling towards the black hole heats up because of friction and releases energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The radiant energy of quasars is enormous; the most powerful quasars have luminosities thousands of times greater than that of a galaxy such as the Milky Way. Usually, quasars are categorized as a subclass of the more general category of AGN. The redshifts of quasars are of cosmological origin.


title: Quasar

text: The term originated as a contraction of "quasi-stellar "[star-like]" radio source"—because quasars were first identified during the 1950s as sources of radio-wave emission of unknown physical origin—and when identified in photographic images at visible wavelengths, they resembled faint, star-like points of light. High-resolution images of quasars, particularly from the Hubble Space Telescope, have demonstrated that quasars occur in the centers of galaxies, and that some host galaxies are strongly interacting or merging galaxies. As with other categories of AGN, the observed properties of a quasar depend on many factors, including the mass of the black hole, the rate of gas accretion, the orientation of the accretion disc relative to the observer, the presence or absence of a jet, and the degree of obscuration by gas and dust within the host galaxy.


title: Quasar

text: More than a million quasars have been found, with the nearest known being about 600 million light-years away from Earth. The record for the most distant known quasar continues to change. In 2017, the quasar ULAS J1342+0928 was detected at redshift "z" = 7.54. Light observed from this 800-million-solar-mass quasar was emitted when the universe was only 690 million years old. In 2020, the quasar Pōniuāʻena was detected from a time only 700 million years after the Big Bang, and with an estimated mass of 1.5 billion times the mass of the Sun. In early 2021, the quasar J0313–1806, with a 1.6-billion-solar-mass black hole, was reported at "z" = 7.64, 670 million years after the Big Bang.


title: Quasar

text: Quasar discovery surveys have demonstrated that quasar activity was more common in the distant past; the peak epoch was approximately 10 billion years ago. Concentrations of multiple, gravitationally attracted quasars are known as large quasar groups and constitute some of the largest known structures in the universe.


title: Quasar

text: The term "quasar" was first used in an article by astrophysicist Hong-Yee Chiu in May 1964, in "Physics Today", to describe certain astronomically puzzling objects:


title: Quasar

text: Between 1917 and 1922, it became clear from work by Heber Curtis, Ernst Öpik and others that some objects ("nebulae") seen by astronomers were in fact distant galaxies like the Milky Way. But when radio astronomy began in the 1950s, astronomers detected, among the galaxies, a small number of anomalous objects with properties that defied explanation.


title: Quasar

text: The objects emitted large amounts of radiation of many frequencies, but no source could be located optically, or in some cases only a faint and point-like object somewhat like a distant star. The spectral lines of these objects, which identify the chemical elements of which the object is composed, were also extremely strange and defied explanation. Some of them changed their luminosity very rapidly in the optical range and even more rapidly in the X-ray range, suggesting an upper limit on their size, perhaps no larger than the Solar System. This implies an extremely high power density. Considerable discussion took place over what these objects might be. They were described as ""quasi-stellar" [meaning: star-like] "radio sources"", or ""quasi-stellar objects"" (QSOs), a name which reflected their unknown nature, and this became shortened to "quasar".


title: Quasar

text: The first quasars (3C 48 and 3C 273) were discovered in the late 1950s, as radio sources in all-sky radio surveys. They were first noted as radio sources with no corresponding visible object. Using small telescopes and the Lovell Telescope as an interferometer, they were shown to have a very small angular size. By 1960, hundreds of these objects had been recorded and published in the Third Cambridge Catalogue while astronomers scanned the skies for their optical counterparts. In 1963, a definite identification of the radio source 3C 48 with an optical object was published by Allan Sandage and Thomas A. Matthews. Astronomers had detected what appeared to be a faint blue star at the location of the radio source and obtained its spectrum, which contained many unknown broad emission lines. The anomalous spectrum defied interpretation.


title: Quasar

text: British-Australian astronomer John Bolton made many early observations of quasars, including a breakthrough in 1962. Another radio source, 3C 273, was predicted to undergo five occultations by the Moon. Measurements taken by Cyril Hazard and John Bolton during one of the occultations using the Parkes Radio Telescope allowed Maarten Schmidt to find a visible counterpart to the radio source and obtain an optical spectrum using the Hale Telescope on Mount Palomar. This spectrum revealed the same strange emission lines. Schmidt was able to demonstrate that these were likely to be the ordinary spectral lines of hydrogen redshifted by 15.8%, at the time, a high redshift (with only a handful of much fainter galaxies known with higher redshift). If this was due to the physical motion of the "star", then 3C 273 was receding at an enormous velocity, around , far beyond the speed of any known star and defying any obvious explanation. Nor would an extreme velocity help to explain 3C 273's huge radio emissions. If the redshift was cosmological (now known to be correct), the large distance implied that 3C 273 was far more luminous than any galaxy, but much more compact. Also, 3C 273 was bright enough to detect on archival photographs dating back to the 1900s; it was found to be variable on yearly timescales, implying that a substantial fraction of the light was emitted from a region less than 1 light-year in size, tiny compared to a galaxy.


title: Quasar

text: Although it raised many questions, Schmidt's discovery quickly revolutionized quasar observation. The strange spectrum of 3C 48 was quickly identified by Schmidt, Greenstein and Oke as hydrogen and magnesium redshifted by 37%. Shortly afterwards, two more quasar spectra in 1964 and five more in 1965 were also confirmed as ordinary light that had been redshifted to an extreme degree. While the observations and redshifts themselves were not doubted, their correct interpretation was heavily debated, and Bolton's suggestion that the radiation detected from quasars were ordinary spectral lines from distant highly redshifted sources with extreme velocity was not widely accepted at the time.


title: Quasar

text: An extreme redshift could imply great distance and velocity but could also be due to extreme mass or perhaps some other unknown laws of nature. Extreme velocity and distance would also imply immense power output, which lacked explanation. The small sizes were confirmed by interferometry and by observing the speed with which the quasar as a whole varied in output, and by their inability to be seen in even the most powerful visible-light telescopes as anything more than faint starlike points of light. But if they were small and far away in space, their power output would have to be immense and difficult to explain. Equally, if they were very small and much closer to this galaxy, it would be easy to explain their apparent power output, but less easy to explain their redshifts and lack of detectable movement against the background of the universe.


title: Quasar

text: Schmidt noted that redshift is also associated with the expansion of the universe, as codified in Hubble's law. If the measured redshift was due to expansion, then this would support an interpretation of very distant objects with extraordinarily high luminosity and power output, far beyond any object seen to date. This extreme luminosity would also explain the large radio signal. Schmidt concluded that 3C 273 could either be an individual star around 10 km wide within (or near to) this galaxy, or a distant active galactic nucleus. He stated that a distant and extremely powerful object seemed more likely to be correct.


title: Quasar

text: Schmidt's explanation for the high redshift was not widely accepted at the time. A major concern was the enormous amount of energy these objects would have to be radiating, if they were distant. In the 1960s no commonly accepted mechanism could account for this. The currently accepted explanation, that it is due to matter in an accretion disc falling into a supermassive black hole, was only suggested in 1964 by Edwin Salpeter and Yakov Zeldovich, and even then it was rejected by many astronomers, as at this time the existence of black holes at all was widely seen as theoretical.


title: Quasar

text: Various explanations were proposed during the 1960s and 1970s, each with their own problems. It was suggested that quasars were nearby objects, and that their redshift was not due to the expansion of space but rather to light escaping a deep gravitational well. This would require a massive object, which would also explain the high luminosities. However, a star of sufficient mass to produce the measured redshift would be unstable and in excess of the Hayashi limit. Quasars also show forbidden spectral emission lines, previously only seen in hot gaseous nebulae of low density, which would be too diffuse to both generate the observed power and fit within a deep gravitational well. There were also serious concerns regarding the idea of cosmologically distant quasars. One strong argument against them was that they implied energies that were far in excess of known energy conversion processes, including nuclear fusion. There were suggestions that quasars were made of some hitherto unknown stable form of antimatter in similarly unknown types of region of space, and that this might account for their brightness. Others speculated that quasars were a white hole end of a wormhole, or a chain reaction of numerous supernovae.


title: Quasar

text: Eventually, starting from about the 1970s, many lines of evidence (including the first X-ray space observatories, knowledge of black holes and modern models of cosmology) gradually demonstrated that the quasar redshifts are genuine and due to the expansion of space, that quasars are in fact as powerful and as distant as Schmidt and some other astronomers had suggested, and that their energy source is matter from an accretion disc falling onto a supermassive black hole. This included crucial evidence from optical and X-ray viewing of quasar host galaxies, finding of "intervening" absorption lines, which explained various spectral anomalies, observations from gravitational lensing, Gunn's 1971 finding that galaxies containing quasars showed the same redshift as the quasars, and Kristian's 1973 finding that the "fuzzy" surrounding of many quasars was consistent with a less luminous host galaxy.


title: Quasar

text: This model also fits well with other observations suggesting that many or even most galaxies have a massive central black hole. It would also explain why quasars are more common in the early universe: as a quasar draws matter from its accretion disc, there comes a point when there is less matter nearby, and energy production falls off or ceases, as the quasar becomes a more ordinary type of galaxy.


title: Quasar

text: The accretion-disc energy-production mechanism was finally modeled in the 1970s, and black holes were also directly detected (including evidence showing that supermassive black holes could be found at the centers of this and many other galaxies), which resolved the concern that quasars were too luminous to be a result of very distant objects or that a suitable mechanism could not be confirmed to exist in nature. By 1987 it was "well accepted" that this was the correct explanation for quasars, and the cosmological distance and energy output of quasars was accepted by almost all researchers.


title: Quasar

text: Later it was found that not all quasars have strong radio emission; in fact only about 10% are "radio-loud". Hence the name "QSO" (quasi-stellar object) is used (in addition to "quasar") to refer to these objects, further categorised into the "radio-loud" and the "radio-quiet" classes. The discovery of the quasar had large implications for the field of astronomy in the 1960s, including drawing physics and astronomy closer together.


title: Quasar

text: In 1979 the gravitational lens effect predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity was confirmed observationally for the first time with images of the double quasar 0957+561.


title: Quasar

text: A study published in February 2021 showed that there are more quasars in one direction (towards Hydra) than in the opposite direction, seemingly indicating that the Earth is moving in that direction. But the direction of this dipole is about 28° away from the direction of the Earth's motion relative to the cosmic microwave background radiation.


title: Quasar

text: In March 2021, a collaboration of scientists, related to the Event Horizon Telescope, presented, for the first time, a polarized-based image of a black hole, particularly the black hole at the center of Messier 87, an elliptical galaxy approximately 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, revealing the forces giving rise to quasars.


title: Quasar

text: It is now known that quasars are distant but extremely luminous objects, so any light that reaches the Earth is redshifted due to the metric expansion of space.


title: Quasar

text: Quasars inhabit the centers of active galaxies and are among the most luminous, powerful, and energetic objects known in the universe, emitting up to a thousand times the energy output of the Milky Way, which contains 200–400 billion stars. This radiation is emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum, almost uniformly, from X-rays to the far infrared with a peak in the ultraviolet optical bands, with some quasars also being strong sources of radio emission and of gamma-rays. With high-resolution imaging from ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, the "host galaxies" surrounding the quasars have been detected in some cases. These galaxies are normally too dim to be seen against the glare of the quasar, except with special techniques. Most quasars, with the exception of 3C 273, whose average apparent magnitude is 12.9, cannot be seen with small telescopes.


title: Quasar

text: Quasars are believed—and in many cases confirmed—to be powered by accretion of material into supermassive black holes in the nuclei of distant galaxies, as suggested in 1964 by Edwin Salpeter and Yakov Zeldovich. Light and other radiation cannot escape from within the event horizon of a black hole. The energy produced by a quasar is generated "outside" the black hole, by gravitational stresses and immense friction within the material nearest to the black hole, as it orbits and falls inward. The huge luminosity of quasars results from the accretion discs of central supermassive black holes, which can convert between 6% and 32% of the mass of an object into energy, compared to just 0.7% for the p–p chain nuclear fusion process that dominates the energy production in Sun-like stars. Central masses of 10 to 10 solar masses have been measured in quasars by using reverberation mapping. Several dozen nearby large galaxies, including the Milky Way galaxy, that do not have an active center and do not show any activity similar to a quasar, are confirmed to contain a similar supermassive black hole in their nuclei (galactic center). Thus it is now thought that all large galaxies have a black hole of this kind, but only a small fraction have sufficient matter in the right kind of orbit at their center to become active and power radiation in such a way as to be seen as quasars.


title: Quasar

text: This also explains why quasars were more common in the early universe, as this energy production ends when the supermassive black hole consumes all of the gas and dust near it. This means that it is possible that most galaxies, including the Milky Way, have gone through an active stage, appearing as a quasar or some other class of active galaxy that depended on the black-hole mass and the accretion rate, and are now quiescent because they lack a supply of matter to feed into their central black holes to generate radiation.


title: Quasar

text: The matter accreting onto the black hole is unlikely to fall directly in, but will have some angular momentum around the black hole, which will cause the matter to collect into an accretion disc. Quasars may also be ignited or re-ignited when normal galaxies merge and the black hole is infused with a fresh source of matter. In fact, it has been suggested that a quasar could form when the Andromeda Galaxy collides with the Milky Way galaxy in approximately 3–5 billion years.


title: Quasar

text: In the 1980s, unified models were developed in which quasars were classified as a particular kind of active galaxy, and a consensus emerged that in many cases it is simply the viewing angle that distinguishes them from other active galaxies, such as blazars and radio galaxies.


title: Quasar

text: The highest-redshift quasar known () was ULAS J1342+0928, with a redshift of 7.54, which corresponds to a comoving distance of approximately 29.36 billion light-years from Earth (these distances are much larger than the distance light could travel in the universe's 13.8-billion-year history because space itself has also been expanding).


title: Quasar

text: More than quasars have been found (as of August 2020), most from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. All observed quasar spectra have redshifts between 0.056 and 7.64 (as of 2021). Applying Hubble's law to these redshifts, it can be shown that they are between 600 million and 29.36 billion light-years away (in terms of comoving distance). Because of the great distances to the farthest quasars and the finite velocity of light, they and their surrounding space appear as they existed in the very early universe.


title: Quasar

text: The power of quasars originates from supermassive black holes that are believed to exist at the core of most galaxies. The Doppler shifts of stars near the cores of galaxies indicate that they are revolving around tremendous masses with very steep gravity gradients, suggesting black holes.


title: Quasar

text: Although quasars appear faint when viewed from Earth, they are visible from extreme distances, being the most luminous objects in the known universe. The brightest quasar in the sky is 3C 273 in the constellation of Virgo. It has an average apparent magnitude of 12.8 (bright enough to be seen through a medium-size amateur telescope), but it has an absolute magnitude of −26.7. From a distance of about 33 light-years, this object would shine in the sky about as brightly as the Sun. This quasar's luminosity is, therefore, about 4 trillion (4) times that of the Sun, or about 100 times that of the total light of giant galaxies like the Milky Way. This assumes that the quasar is radiating energy in all directions, but the active galactic nucleus is believed to be radiating preferentially in the direction of its jet. In a universe containing hundreds of billions of galaxies, most of which had active nuclei billions of years ago but only seen today, it is statistically certain that thousands of energy jets should be pointed toward the Earth, some more directly than others. In many cases it is likely that the brighter the quasar, the more directly its jet is aimed at the Earth. Such quasars are called blazars.


title: Quasar

text: The hyperluminous quasar APM 08279+5255 was, when discovered in 1998, given an absolute magnitude of −32.2. High-resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope and the 10 m Keck Telescope revealed that this system is gravitationally lensed. A study of the gravitational lensing of this system suggests that the light emitted has been magnified by a factor of ~10. It is still substantially more luminous than nearby quasars such as 3C 273.


title: Quasar

text: Quasars were much more common in the early universe than they are today. This discovery by Maarten Schmidt in 1967 was early strong evidence against steady-state cosmology and in favor of the Big Bang cosmology. Quasars show the locations where supermassive black holes are growing rapidly (by accretion). Detailed simulations reported in 2021 showed that galaxy structures, such as spiral arms, use gravitational forces to 'put the brakes on' gas that would otherwise orbit galaxy centers forever; instead the braking mechanism enabled the gas to fall into the supermassive black holes, releasing enormous radiant energies. These black holes co-evolve with the mass of stars in their host galaxy in a way not fully understood at present. One idea is that jets, radiation and winds created by the quasars shut down the formation of new stars in the host galaxy, a process called "feedback". The jets that produce strong radio emission in some quasars at the centers of clusters of galaxies are known to have enough power to prevent the hot gas in those clusters from cooling and falling on to the central galaxy.


title: Quasar

text: Quasars' luminosities are variable, with time scales that range from months to hours. This means that quasars generate and emit their energy from a very small region, since each part of the quasar would have to be in contact with other parts on such a time scale as to allow the coordination of the luminosity variations. This would mean that a quasar varying on a time scale of a few weeks cannot be larger than a few light-weeks across. The emission of large amounts of power from a small region requires a power source far more efficient than the nuclear fusion that powers stars. The conversion of gravitational potential energy to radiation by infalling to a black hole converts between 6% and 32% of the mass to energy, compared to 0.7% for the conversion of mass to energy in a star like the Sun. It is the only process known that can produce such high power over a very long term. (Stellar explosions such as supernovas and gamma-ray bursts, and direct matter–antimatter annihilation, can also produce very high power output, but supernovae only last for days, and the universe does not appear to have had large amounts of antimatter at the relevant times.)


title: Quasar

text: Since quasars exhibit all the properties common to other active galaxies such as Seyfert galaxies, the emission from quasars can be readily compared to those of smaller active galaxies powered by smaller supermassive black holes. To create a luminosity of 10 watts (the typical brightness of a quasar), a supermassive black hole would have to consume the material equivalent of 10 solar masses per year. The brightest known quasars devour 1000 solar masses of material every year. The largest known is estimated to consume matter equivalent to 10 Earths per second. Quasar luminosities can vary considerably over time, depending on their surroundings. Since it is difficult to fuel quasars for many billions of years, after a quasar finishes accreting the surrounding gas and dust, it becomes an ordinary galaxy.


title: Quasar

text: Radiation from quasars is partially "nonthermal" (i.e., not due to black-body radiation), and approximately 10% are observed to also have jets and lobes like those of radio galaxies that also carry significant (but poorly understood) amounts of energy in the form of particles moving at relativistic speeds. Extremely high energies might be explained by several mechanisms (see Fermi acceleration and Centrifugal mechanism of acceleration). Quasars can be detected over the entire observable electromagnetic spectrum, including radio, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray and even gamma rays. Most quasars are brightest in their rest-frame ultraviolet wavelength of 121.6 nm Lyman-alpha emission line of hydrogen, but due to the tremendous redshifts of these sources, that peak luminosity has been observed as far to the red as 900.0 nm, in the near infrared. A minority of quasars show strong radio emission, which is generated by jets of matter moving close to the speed of light. When viewed downward, these appear as blazars and often have regions that seem to move away from the center faster than the speed of light (superluminal expansion). This is an optical illusion due to the properties of special relativity.


title: Quasar

text: Quasar redshifts are measured from the strong spectral lines that dominate their visible and ultraviolet emission spectra. These lines are brighter than the continuous spectrum. They exhibit Doppler broadening corresponding to mean speed of several percent of the speed of light. Fast motions strongly indicate a large mass. Emission lines of hydrogen (mainly of the Lyman series and Balmer series), helium, carbon, magnesium, iron and oxygen are the brightest lines. The atoms emitting these lines range from neutral to highly ionized, leaving it highly charged. This wide range of ionization shows that the gas is highly irradiated by the quasar, not merely hot, and not by stars, which cannot produce such a wide range of ionization.


title: Quasar

text: Like all (unobscured) active galaxies, quasars can be strong X-ray sources. Radio-loud quasars can also produce X-rays and gamma rays by inverse Compton scattering of lower-energy photons by the radio-emitting electrons in the jet.


title: Quasar

text: "Iron quasars" show strong emission lines resulting from low-ionization iron (Fe ), such as IRAS 18508-7815.


title: Quasar

text: Quasars also provide some clues as to the end of the Big Bang's reionization. The oldest known quasars ("z" = 6) display a Gunn–Peterson trough and have absorption regions in front of them indicating that the intergalactic medium at that time was neutral gas. More recent quasars show no absorption region, but rather their spectra contain a spiky area known as the Lyman-alpha forest; this indicates that the intergalactic medium has undergone reionization into plasma, and that neutral gas exists only in small clouds.


title: Quasar

text: The intense production of ionizing ultraviolet radiation is also significant, as it would provide a mechanism for reionization to occur as galaxies form. Despite this, current theories suggest that quasars were not the primary source of reionization; the primary causes of reionization were probably the earliest generations of stars, known as Population III stars (possibly 70%), and dwarf galaxies (very early small high-energy galaxies) (possibly 30%).


title: Quasar

text: Quasars show evidence of elements heavier than helium, indicating that galaxies underwent a massive phase of star formation, creating population III stars between the time of the Big Bang and the first observed quasars. Light from these stars may have been observed in 2005 using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, although this observation remains to be confirmed.


title: Quasar

text: The taxonomy of quasars includes various subtypes representing subsets of the quasar population having distinct properties.


title: Quasar

text: Because quasars are extremely distant, bright, and small in apparent size, they are useful reference points in establishing a measurement grid on the sky.


title: Quasar

text: The International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) is based on hundreds of extra-galactic radio sources, mostly quasars, distributed around the entire sky. Because they are so distant, they are apparently stationary to current technology, yet their positions can be measured with the utmost accuracy by very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). The positions of most are known to 0.001 arcsecond or better, which is orders of magnitude more precise than the best optical measurements.


title: Quasar

text: A grouping of two or more quasars on the sky can result from a chance alignment, where the quasars are not physically associated, from actual physical proximity, or from the effects of gravity bending the light of a single quasar into two or more images by gravitational lensing.


title: Quasar

text: When two quasars appear to be very close to each other as seen from Earth (separated by a few arcseconds or less), they are commonly referred to as a "double quasar". When the two are also close together in space (i.e. observed to have similar redshifts), they are termed a "quasar pair", or as a "binary quasar" if they are close enough that their host galaxies are likely to be physically interacting.


title: Quasar

text: As quasars are overall rare objects in the universe, the probability of three or more separate quasars being found near the same physical location is very low, and determining whether the system is closely separated physically requires significant observational effort. The first true triple quasar was found in 2007 by observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. LBQS 1429-008 (or QQQ J1432-0106) was first observed in 1989 and at the time was found to be a double quasar. When astronomers discovered the third member, they confirmed that the sources were separate and not the result of gravitational lensing. This triple quasar has a redshift of "z" = 2.076. The components are separated by an estimated 30–50 kiloparsecs (roughly 97,000–160,000 light-years), which is typical for interacting galaxies. In 2013, the second true triplet of quasars, QQQ J1519+0627, was found with a redshift "z" = 1.51, the whole system fitting within a physical separation of 25 kpc (about 80,000 light-years).


title: Quasar

text: The first true quadruple quasar system was discovered in 2015 at a redshift "z" = 2.0412 and has an overall physical scale of about 200 kpc (roughly 650,000 light-years).


title: Quasar

text: A multiple-image quasar is a quasar whose light undergoes gravitational lensing, resulting in double, triple or quadruple images of the same quasar. The first such gravitational lens to be discovered was the double-imaged quasar Q0957+561 (or Twin Quasar) in 1979.


title: Quasar

text: Several quadruple-image quasars are known, including the Einstein Cross and the Cloverleaf Quasar, with the first such discoveries happening in the mid-1980s.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The Dodge Viper is a sports car that was manufactured by Dodge (by SRT for 2013 and 2014), a division of American car manufacturer FCA US LLC from 1992 until 2017, having taken a brief hiatus in 2007 and from 2010 to 2012. Production of the two-seat super car began at New Mack Assembly Plant in 1991 and moved to Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in October 1995.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Although Chrysler considered ending production because of serious financial problems, on September 14, 2010, the then chief executive Sergio Marchionne announced and previewed a new model of the Viper for 2012. In 2014, the Viper was named number 10 on the "Most American Cars" list, meaning 75% or more of its parts are manufactured in the U.S. The Viper was eventually discontinued in 2017 after being in production for 26 years.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The 0-60 mph time on a Viper varies from around 3.5-seconds to 4.5 seconds. Top speed ranges from 160 mph to over 200 mph, depending on variant and year.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The Viper was initially conceived in late 1988 at Chrysler's Advanced Design Studios. The following February, Chrysler president Bob Lutz suggested to Tom Gale at Chrysler Design Center that the company should consider producing a modern Cobra, and a clay model was presented to Lutz a few months later. Produced in sheet metal by Metalcrafters, the car appeared as a concept at the North American International Auto Show in 1989. Public reaction was so enthusiastic that chief engineer Roy Sjoberg was directed to develop it as a standard production vehicle. But then Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca delayed approving the $70 million needed to put the sports car into production, saying it was a lot to spend without assurance of financial return.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Sjoberg selected 85 engineers to be "Team Viper", with development beginning in March 1989. The team asked the then-Chrysler subsidiary Lamborghini to cast a prototype aluminum block for the sports car to use in May. The production body was completed in Fall 1989, with a chassis prototype running in December. Though a V8 engine was first used in the test mule called White Mule, the V10 engine, which the production car was meant to use, was ready in February 1990. Official approval from Iacocca came in May 1990. By auto industry standards $70 million was not a lot of money but the potential in improved image was fantastic. One year later, Carroll Shelby piloted a pre-production car as the pace vehicle in the Indianapolis 500 race. In November 1991, the car was released to reviewers with the first retail shipments beginning in January 1992.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The powerful two-seater, which sold for $52,000, sparked immediate interest in the Dodge brand among enthusiasts and the automotive press. Lutz hoped it would raise the spirits of the designers and engineers who were discouraged by the homely, unpopular cars that they had been commanded to produce. The popularity of the Viper overshadowed the recent failure of Iacocca's pet car, the TC, which had cost five times as much to develop.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The first prototype was tested in January 1989. It debuted in 1991 with two pre-production models as the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 when Dodge was forced to substitute it in place of the Japanese-built Dodge Stealth, because of complaints from the United Auto Workers, and went on sale in January 1992 as the "RT/10 Roadster".


title: Dodge Viper

text: Lamborghini (then owned by Chrysler Corporation) helped with the design of the V10 engine for the Viper, which was based on the Chrysler's LA V8 engine. A major contributor to the Viper since the beginning was Dick Winkles, the chief power engineer, who had spent time in Italy overseeing the development of the engine.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Originally engineered to be a performance car, the Viper had no exterior-mounted door handles or key cylinders and no air conditioning (however, this was added as an option for the 1994-95 models, and climate controls featured a "snowflake" icon, which indicated a potential setting for the A/C). The roof was made from canvas, and the windows were made from vinyl using zippers to open and close, much like the Jeep Wrangler. However, the Viper was still equipped with some domestic features, including manually-adjustable leather-trimmed sport bucket seats with lumbar support, an AM-FM stereo cassette player with clock and high fidelity sound system, and interior carpeting. Aluminium alloy wheels were larger in diameter due to the larger brakes. A lightweight fiberglass hard roof option on later models was also available to cover the canvas soft roof, and was shipped with each new car. There were also no airbags, in the interest of weight reduction. Adjustable performance suspension was also an available option for most Vipers.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The engine weighs and is rated at at 4,600 rpm and of torque at 3,600 rpm. Due to the long-gearing allowed by the engine, it provides fuel economy at a United States Environmental Protection Agency-rated in the city and on the highway. The body is a tubular steel frame with resin transfer molding (RTM) fiberglass panels. The car has a curb weight of and lacks modern driver aids such as traction control and anti-lock brakes. The SR I can accelerate from in 4.2 seconds, in 9.2 seconds, can complete the quarter mile in 12.6 seconds at the speed of and has a maximum speed of approximately . Its large tires allow the car to average close to one lateral "g" in corners. However, the car proves tricky to drive at high speeds, particularly for the unskilled driver.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The second generation of the Viper, codenamed "SR II" was introduced in 1996. The exposed side exhaust pipes on the roadster were relocated to a single muffler at the rear exiting via two large central tailpipes during the middle of the model year, which reduced back pressure, and therefore increased the power to . Torque would also increase by to . A removable hardtop was now available along with a sliding glass window. Some steel suspension components were replaced by aluminum, resulting in a weight reduction.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Later in the 1996 model year, Dodge introduced the Viper GTS, a new coupé version of the Viper RT/10. Dubbed the “double bubble”, the roof featured slightly raised sections that looked like bubbles to accommodate the usage of helmets and taking design cues from the Shelby Daytona designed by Pete Brock. More than 90% of the GTS was new in comparison to the RT/10 despite similar looks. The GTS would come with the same V10 engine but power would be increased to at 5,200 rpm and of torque at 3,700 rpm. The 1996 GTS would be the first Viper to be equipped with airbags and also included air conditioning, power windows and power door locks as standard equipment. The Viper GTS would be chosen as the pace car for the 1996 Indianapolis 500.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Minor updates would continue in 1997 and 1998. In 1997, the RT/10 would receive a power increase to 450 hp along with air-bags and power windows. In 1998, both of the versions of the Viper were equipped with second-generation air bags, revised exhaust manifolds (saving over the previous cast iron components) along with a revised camshaft.


title: Dodge Viper

text: In 2000, the Dodge Viper was updated to lighter hypereutectic pistons and received factory frame improvements. While the hypereutectic pistons provided less expansion, the forged pistons were preferred by customers for the supercharged and turbocharged aftermarket packages. TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) recalls (998 and 999) were done at local dealerships to repair the 1996 to 1999 Viper frames by adding gussets with rivets near the steering box. 2001 saw the addition of anti-lock braking system.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Colors would vary throughout the second generation. Dodge would offer three or four colors per model year. Some colors such as steel gray were only offered for one model year (MY2000) while other colors such as red were offered during the entire second generation. Interior colors and wheel options would also vary throughout the second generation. The cobalt blue colour of the Dodge Viper GTS seen in the Viper (TV series) was exclusively available to the series.


title: Dodge Viper

text: Stripes would be an option beginning in 1996. The GTS stripes were larger, fuller stripes than the stripes offered on the 96 RT/10. The GTS had twin stripes (8 inches wide with a 4-inch gap in between) that ran from the front bumper all the way through the rear bumper. 1996 was the only model year in which the stripes would run through the rear license plate area. Stripes on later models would run from front to rear but did not run through the rear license plate area.


title: Dodge Viper

text: The RT/10 was replaced by the SRT-10 roadster in 2003, and the GTS was replaced in 2006 by the SRT-10 coupé.