title: John J. Pershing

text: Some writers have speculated that Pershing's frustration at the slow progress through the Argonne was the cause of two incidents which then ensued. First, he ordered the U.S. First Army to take "the honor" of recapturing Sedan, site of the French defeat in 1870; the ensuing confusion (an order was issued that "boundaries were not to be considered binding") exposed American troops to danger not only from the French on their left, but even from one another, as the 1st Division tacked westward by night across the path of the 42nd Division (accounts differ as to whether Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur, then commanding the 84th Brigade of the 42nd Division, was really mistaken for a German officer and arrested). Liggett, who had been away from headquarters the previous day, had to sort out the mess and implement the instructions from the Allied Supreme Command, Marshal Foch, allowing the French to recapture the city; he later recorded that this was the only time during the war in which he lost his temper.


title: John J. Pershing

text: Second, Pershing sent an unsolicited letter to the Allied Supreme War Council, demanding that the Germans not be given an armistice and that instead, the Allies should push on and obtain an unconditional surrender. Although in later years, many, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, felt that Pershing had been correct, at the time, this was a breach of political authority. Pershing narrowly escaped a serious reprimand from Wilson's aide, "Colonel" Edward M. House, and later apologized.


title: John J. Pershing

text: At the time of the Armistice with Germany, another Franco-American offensive was due to start on November 14, thrusting towards Metz and into Lorraine, to take place simultaneously with further BEF advances through Belgium. In his memoirs, Pershing claimed that the American breakout from the Argonne at the start of November was the decisive event leading to the German acceptance of an armistice, because it made untenable the Antwerp–Meuse line. This is probably an exaggeration; the outbreak of civil unrest and naval mutiny in Germany, the collapse of Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and particularly Austria-Hungary following Allied victories in Salonika, Syria, and Italy, and the Allied victories on the Western Front were among a series of events in the autumn of 1918 which made it clear that Allied victory was inevitable, and diplomatic inquiries about an armistice had been going on throughout October.


title: John J. Pershing

text: President Wilson was keen to tie matters up before the mid-term elections, and as the other Allies were running low on supplies and manpower, they followed Wilson's lead.


title: John J. Pershing

text: American successes were largely credited to Pershing, and he became the most celebrated American leader of the war. MacArthur saw Pershing as a desk soldier, and the relationship between the two men deteriorated by the end of the war. Similar criticism of senior commanders by the younger generation of officers (the future generals of World War II) was made in the British and other armies, but, in Pershing's defense, although it was not uncommon for brigade commanders to serve near the front and even be killed, the state of communications in World War I made it more practical for senior generals to command from the rear.


title: John J. Pershing

text: He controversially ordered his troops to continue fighting before the signed Armistice took effect. This resulted in 3,500 American casualties on the last day of the war, an act which was regarded as murder by a few officers under his command. Pershing doubted the Germans' good faith, and most of his contemporaries took the view he expressed to the House Committee on Military Affairs in his testimony on November 5, 1919:


title: John J. Pershing

text: The year of 1918 also saw a personal health struggle for Pershing as he was sickened during the 1918 flu pandemic, but unlike many who were not so fortunate, Pershing survived. He rode his horse, Kidron, in the Paris victory parade in 1919.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In September 1919, in recognition of his distinguished service during World War I, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to promote Pershing to General of the Armies of the United States, the highest rank possible for any member of the United States armed forces, which was created especially for him.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1976, Congress authorized President Gerald Ford to posthumously promote George Washington to this rank as part of the United States Bicentennial; Washington previously held the rank of General in the Continental Army, and wore a three-star insignia; his posthumous appointment to General of the Armies rank and the specific wording of the authorizing statute, Public Law 94-479, of October 1976, ensured that Washington would always be considered the U.S. Army's highest-ranking officer. Pershing was authorized to create his insignia for the new rank and chose to continue wearing four stars for the rest of his career.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1919, Pershing created the Military Order of the World War as an officer's fraternity for veterans of the First World War, modeled after the Military Order of Foreign Wars. Both organizations still exist today and welcome new officer members to their ranks. Pershing himself would join the MOFW in 1924.


title: John J. Pershing

text: There was a movement to draft Pershing as a candidate for president in 1920; he refused to campaign, but indicated that he "wouldn't decline to serve" if the people wanted him. Though Pershing was a Republican, many of his party's leaders considered him too closely tied to the policies of the Democratic Party's President Woodrow Wilson. Another general, Leonard Wood, was the early Republican front runner, but the nomination went to Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio, who went on to win the general election.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1921, Pershing became Chief of Staff of the United States Army, serving for three years. He created the Pershing Map, a proposed national network of military and civilian highways. The Interstate Highway System instituted in 1956 bears considerable resemblance to the Pershing map. On his 64th birthday, September 13, 1924, Pershing retired from active military service. (Army regulations from the late 1860s to the early 1940s required officers to retire on their 64th birthday.)


title: John J. Pershing

text: On November 1, 1921, Pershing was in Kansas City to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Liberty Memorial that was being constructed there, (now known as the National World War I Museum and Memorial). Also present that day were Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of the Belgian Army, Admiral of the Fleet David Beatty of the British Royal Navy, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of the French Army, and General Armando Diaz of the Royal Italian Army. One of the main speakers was Vice President Calvin Coolidge. In 1935, bas-reliefs of Pershing, Jacques, Foch and Diaz by sculptor Walker Hancock were added to the memorial. Pershing also laid the cornerstone of the World War Memorial in Indianapolis on July 4, 1927.


title: John J. Pershing

text: On October 2, 1922, amid several hundred officers, many of them combat veterans of World War I, Pershing formally established the Reserve Officers Association (ROA) as an organization at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. ROA is a 75,000-member, professional association of officers, former officers, and spouses of all the uniformed services of the United States, primarily the Reserve and United States National Guard. It is a congressionally chartered Association that advises the Congress and the President on issues of national security on behalf of all members of the Reserve Component.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1924, Pershing became a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was also an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and a Veteran Companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. On January 5, 1935 Pershing was designated a Military Order of the World Wars Honorary Commander-in-Chief for Life.


title: John J. Pershing

text: Pershing served on a committee of the Sons of the American Revolution to establish and recognize Constitution Day in the United States.


title: John J. Pershing

text: During the 1930s, Pershing largely retreated to private life, but returned to the public eye with publication of his memoirs, "My Experiences in the World War", which were awarded the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for history. He was also an active Civitan during this time.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1940, before and after the Fall of France, Pershing was an outspoken advocate of aid for the United Kingdom during World War II.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In August 1940, he publicly supported the "Destroyers for Bases Agreement", whereby the United States sold fifty warships from World War I to the UK in exchange for lengthy leases of land on British possessions for the establishment for military bases.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1944, with Congress' creation of the five star rank of General of the Army, Pershing was still considered to be the highest-ranking officer of the United States military as his rank was General of the Armies. "In [1799] Congress created for George Washington the rank of General of the Armies ... General [Ulysses S.] Grant received the title of General of the Army in 1866 . ... Carefully Congress wrote a bill (HR 7594) to revive the rank of General of the Armies for General Pershing alone to hold during his lifetime. The rank would cease to exist upon Pershing's death." Later, when asked if this made Pershing a five-star general, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson commented that it did not, since Pershing never wore more than four stars, but that Pershing was still to be considered senior to the present five-star generals of World War II.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In July 1944, Pershing was visited by Free French leader General Charles de Gaulle. When Pershing asked after the health of his old friend, Marshal Philippe Pétain – who had headed the pro-German Vichy regime until it was dissolved in late 1942 – de Gaulle replied tactfully that, when he last saw him, the Marshal was well.


title: John J. Pershing

text: On July 15, 1948, Pershing died of coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure at age 87 at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., which was his home after 1944. He lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda and following a state funeral, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. near the grave sites of the soldiers he commanded in Europe. The site is now known as Pershing Hill. George C. Marshall, then serving as U.S. Secretary of State, was in charge of funeral plans.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1940 General Pershing was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action leading an assault against hostile Moros at Mount Bagsak, on the island of Jolo in the Philippines on June 15, 1913.


title: John J. Pershing

text: "For extraordinary heroism against hostile fanatical Moros at Mount Bagsak, Jolo, Philippine Islands on June 15, 1913. He personally assumed command of the assaulting line at the most critical period when only about 15 yards from the last Moro position. His encouragement and splendid example of personal heroism resulted in a general advance and the prompt capture of the hostile stronghold."


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1932, eight years after Pershing's retirement from active service, his silver citation star was upgraded to the Silver Star decoration. In 1941, he was retroactively awarded the Army of Occupation of Germany Medal for service in Germany following the close of World War I. As the medal had a profile of Pershing on its obverse, Pershing became the only soldier in the history of the U.S. Army, and only one of four in the entire U.S. Armed Forces, eligible to wear a medal with his own likeness on it. Navy admirals George Dewey, William T. Sampson and Richard E. Byrd were also entitled to wear medals with their own image on them.


title: John J. Pershing

text: Colonel Francis Warren Pershing (1909–1980), Pershing's son, served in the Second World War as an advisor to the Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall. After the war he continued with his financial career and founded a stock brokerage firm, Pershing & Company. In 1938, he married Muriel Bache Richards, granddaughter of financier Jules Bache. He was father to two sons who both served in Vietnam War, Colonel John Warren Pershing III (1941–1999) and Second Lieutenant Richard W. Pershing (1942–1968). John Pershing III served in the Army from 1964 to 1967 and Army Reserve from 1967 to 1999. He attained the rank of colonel, and his assignments included special assistant to Army Chief of Staff General Gordon R. Sullivan. Richard Pershing served as a second lieutenant in the 502nd Infantry and was killed in action on February 17, 1968, in Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War.


title: John J. Pershing

text: In 1917, two years after the deaths of his wife Helen and three daughters, Pershing courted Anne Wilson "Nita" Patton, the younger sister of his protégé, George S. Patton.


title: John J. Pershing

text: Pershing met her when she traveled to Fort Bliss to visit her brother, and he introduced them. Pershing and Nita Patton soon began a relationship; they became engaged in 1917, but their separation because of Pershing's time in France during World War I ended it. Nita Patton never married, while Pershing remained unmarried until he secretly wed Micheline Resco in 1946.


title: John J. Pershing

text: Pershing had wartime affairs, including one with French-Romanian artist Micheline Resco (1894–1968), and he later expressed regret that he had let Nita Patton "get away". Resco was 34 years his junior and they had known each other and exchanged encoded love letters since meeting in Paris in 1917, where Resco painted Pershing's portrait. In 1946, Pershing secretly wed Resco in his Walter Reed Hospital apartment.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceuticals; consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, seeds and biotechnology products. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer was founded in 1863 in Barmen as a partnership between dye salesman Friedrich Bayer and dyer Friedrich Weskott. As was common in this era, the company was established as a dyestuffs producer. The versatility of aniline chemistry led Bayer to expand their business into other area, and in 1899 Bayer launched the compound acetylsalicylic acid under the trademarked name Aspirin. In 1904 Bayer received a trademark for the "Bayer Cross" logo, which was subsequently stamped onto each aspirin tablet, creating an iconic product that is still sold by Bayer. Other commonly known products initially commercialized by Bayer include heroin, phenobarbitol, polyurethanes, and polycarbonates.


title: Bayer

text: In 1925 Bayer merged with five other German companies to form IG Farben, creating the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical company. Following World War II, the Allied Control Council seized IG Farben's assets because of its role in the Nazi war effort and involvement in the Holocaust including using slave labour from concentration camps and humans for dangerous medical testing, and production of Zyklon B, a chemical used in gas chambers. In 1951 IG Farben was split into its constituent companies, and Bayer was reincorporated as Farbenfabriken Bayer AG. Bayer played a key role in the Wirtschaftswunder in post-war West Germany, quickly regaining its position as one of the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical corporations.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer AG was founded as a dyestuffs factory in 1863 in Barmen (later part of Wuppertal), Germany, by Friedrich Bayer and his partner, Johann Friedrich Weskott, a master dyer. Bayer was responsible for the commercial tasks. Fuchsine and aniline became the company's most important products.


title: Bayer

text: The headquarters and most production facilities moved from Barmen to a larger area in Elberfeld in 1866. Friedrich Bayer (1851–1920), son of the company's founder, was a chemist and joined the company in 1873. After the death of his father in 1880, the company became a joint-stock company, Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayern & Co, also known as Elberfelder Farbenfabriken.


title: Bayer

text: A further expansion in Elberfeld was impossible, so the company moved to the village Wiesdorf at Rhein and settled in the area of the alizarin producer Leverkus and Sons. A new city, Leverkusen, was founded there in 1930 and became home to Bayer AG's headquarters. The company's corporate logo, the Bayer cross, was introduced in 1904, consisting of the word "BAYER" written vertically and horizontally, sharing the "Y" and enclosed in a circle. An illuminated version of the logo is a landmark in Leverkusen.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer's first major product was acetylsalicylic acid—first described by French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853—a modification of salicylic acid or salicin, a folk remedy found in the bark of the willow plant. By 1899, Bayer's trademark Aspirin was registered worldwide for Bayer's brand of acetylsalicylic acid, but it lost its trademark status in the United States, France and the United Kingdom after the confiscation of Bayer's US assets and trademarks during World War I by the United States, and because of the subsequent widespread usage of the word.


title: Bayer

text: The term "aspirin" continued to be used in the US, UK and France for all brands of the drug, but it is still a registered trademark of Bayer in over 80 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Germany and Switzerland. As of 2011, approximately 40,000 tons of aspirin were produced each year and 10–20 billion tablets consumed in the United States alone for prevention of cardiovascular events. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.


title: Bayer

text: There is an unresolved controversy over the roles played by Bayer scientists in the development of aspirin. Arthur Eichengrün, a Bayer chemist, said he was the first to discover an aspirin formulation that did not have the unpleasant side effects of nausea and gastric pain. He also said he had invented the name "aspirin" and was the first person to use the new formulation to test its safety and efficacy. Bayer contends that aspirin was discovered by Felix Hoffmann to help his father, who had arthritis. Various sources support the conflicting claims. Most mainstream historians attribute the invention of aspirin to Hoffmann and/or Eichengrün.


title: Bayer

text: Heroin (diacetylmorphine), now illegal as an addictive drug, was introduced as a non-addictive substitute for morphine, and trademarked and marketed by Bayer from 1898 to 1910 as a cough suppressant and over-the-counter treatment for other common ailments, including pneumonia and tuberculosis. Bayer scientists were not the first to make heroin, but the company led the way in commercializing it. "Heroin" was a Bayer trademark until after World War I. Bayer's director of pharmacology did not want the drug to have "too complicated a name" so Bayer settled on heroisch, the German word for heroic.


title: Bayer

text: In 1903, Bayer licensed the patent for the hypnotic drug diethylbarbituric acid from its inventors Emil Fischer and Joseph von Mering. It was marketed under the trade name Veronal as a sleep aid beginning in 1904. Systematic investigations of the effect of structural changes on potency and duration of action at Bayer led to the discovery of phenobarbital in 1911 and the discovery of its potent anti-epileptic activity in 1912. Phenobarbital was among the most widely used drugs for the treatment of epilepsy through the 1970s, and as of 2014 it remains on the World Health Organization's list of essential medications.


title: Bayer

text: During World War I (1914–1918), Bayer's assets, including the rights to its name and trademarks, were confiscated in the United States, Canada and several other countries. In the United States and Canada, Bayer's assets and trademarks, including the well-known Bayer cross, were acquired by Sterling Drug, a predecessor of Sterling Winthrop and were not reclaimed until 1994.


title: Bayer

text: Throughout the war, Bayer was involved in production and development of various chemical weapons. In 1914, Bayer manufactured dianisidine chlorosulfate for use in 105 mm artillery shell, intended as a lung irritant against British forces.


title: Bayer

text: In 1916, Bayer scientists discovered suramin, an anti-parasite drug that is still sold by Bayer under the brand name Germanin. The formula of suramin was kept secret by Bayer for commercial reasons, but it was elucidated and published in 1924 by Ernest Fourneau and his team at the Pasteur Institute. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.


title: Bayer

text: In 1925, Bayer became part of IG Farben, a German conglomerate formed from the merger of six chemical companies: BASF, Bayer, Hoechst (including Cassella and Chemische Fabrik Kalle), Agfa, Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron, and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer. In the 1930s, Gerhard Domagk, director of Bayer's Institute of Pathology and Bacteriology, working with chemists Fritz Mietzsch and Joseph Klarer, discovered prontosil, the first commercially available antibacterial drug. The discovery and development of this first sulfonamide drug opened a new era in medicine. Domagk won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939 "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil". He was forced by the Nazi Party to relinquish the reward; German citizens had been forbidden from accepting Nobel prizes since the Nobel committee had awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize to a German pacifist, Carl von Ossietzky.


title: Bayer

text: Helge Wehmeier, then CEO of Bayer, offered a public apology in 1995 to Elie Wiesel for the company's actions during World War II (1939–1945) and the Holocaust. IG Farben, Bayer's parent company, used slave labour in factories it built in Nazi concentration camps, most notably in the Monowitz concentration camp (known as Auschwitz III), part of the Auschwitz camp complex in German-occupied Poland. By 1943, almost half of IG Farben's 330,000-strong workforce consisted of slave labour or conscripts, including 30,000 Auschwitz prisoners.


title: Bayer

text: Helmuth Vetter, an Auschwitz camp physician, SS captain and employee of the Bayer group within IG Farben conducted medical experiments on inmates at Auschwitz and at the Mauthausen concentration camp. In one study of an anaesthetic, the company paid RM 170 per person for the use of 150 female inmates of Auschwitz. A Bayer employee wrote to Rudolf Höss, the Auschwitz commandant: "The transport of 150 women arrived in good condition. However, we were unable to obtain conclusive results because they died during the experiments. We would kindly request that you send us another group of women to the same number and at the same price."


title: Bayer

text: After the war, the Allied Control Council seized IG Farben for "knowingly and prominently ... building up and maintaining German war potential". It was split into its six constituent companies in 1951, then split again into three: BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. Bayer was at that point known as Farbenfabriken Bayer AG; it changed its name to Bayer AG in 1972. After the war, some employees of Bayer appeared in the IG Farben Trial, one of the Nuremberg Subsequent Tribunals under US jurisdiction. Among them was Fritz ter Meer, who helped to plan the Monowitz camp (Auschwitz III) and IG Farben's Buna Werke factory at Auschwitz, where medical experimentation had been conducted and where 25,000 forced laborers were deployed. Ter Meer was sentenced to seven years, but was released in 1950 for good behavior. He was elected to Bayer AG's supervisory board in 1956, a position he retained until 1964.


title: Bayer

text: In 1953, Bayer brought the first neuroleptic (chlorpromazine) onto the German market. In the 1960s, Bayer


title: Bayer

text: introduced a pregnancy test, Primodos, that consisted of two pills that contained norethisterone (as acetate) and ethinylestradiol. It detected pregnancy by inducing menstruation in women who were not pregnant; the presence or absence of menstrual bleeding was then used to determine whether the user was pregnant. The test became the subject of controversy when it was blamed for birth defects, and it was withdrawn from the market in the mid-1970s. Litigation in the 1980s ended inconclusively. A review of the matter by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in 2014 assessed the studies performed to date and found the evidence for adverse effects to be inconclusive.


title: Bayer

text: In 1978, Bayer purchased Miles Laboratories and its subsidiaries Miles Canada and Cutter Laboratories, acquiring along with them a variety of product lines including Alka-Seltzer, Flintstones vitamins and One-A-Day vitamins, and Cutter insect repellent.


title: Bayer

text: Along with the purchase of Cutter, Bayer acquired Cutter's Factor VIII business. Factor VIII, a clotting agent used to treat hemophilia, was produced, at the time, by processing donated blood. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, people with hemophilia were found to have higher rates of AIDS, and by 1983 the CDC had identified contaminated blood products as a source of infection. According to the "New York Times", this was "one of the worst drug-related medical disasters in history". Companies, including Bayer, developed new ways to treat donated blood with heat to decontaminate it, and these new products were introduced early in 1984. In 1997, Bayer and the other three makers of such blood products agreed to pay $660 million to settle cases on behalf of more than 6,000 hemophiliacs infected in United States. But in 2003, documents emerged showing that Cutter had continued to sell unheated blood products in markets outside the US until 1985, including in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Argentina, to offload a product they were unable to sell in Europe and the US; they also continued manufacturing the unheated product for several months. Bayer said it did this because some countries were doubtful about the efficacy of the new product.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer has been involved in other controversies regarding its drug products. In the late 1990s it introduced a statin drug, Baycol (cerivastatin), but after 52 deaths were attributed to it, Bayer discontinued it in 2001. The side effect was rhabdomyolysis, causing kidney failure, which occurred with a tenfold greater frequency in patients treated with Baycol in comparison to those prescribed alternate medications of the statin class. Trasylol (aprotinin), used to control bleeding during major surgery, was withdrawn from the market worldwide in 2007 when reports of increased mortality emerged; it was later re-introduced in Europe but not in the US.


title: Bayer

text: In 2014, pharmaceutical products contributed €12.05 billion of Bayer's €40.15 billion in gross revenue. In 2019, identified "key growth" products were Xarelto (rivaroxaban), Eylea (aflibercept), Stivarga (regorafenib), Xofigo (radium-223), and Adempas (riociguat). Top-selling products as of 2014 included:


title: Bayer

text: In 1994, Bayer AG purchased Sterling Winthrop's over-the-counter (OTC) drug business from SmithKline Beecham and merged it with Miles Laboratories, thereby reclaiming the U.S. and Canadian trademark rights to "Bayer" and the Bayer cross, as well as the ownership of the Aspirin trademark in Canada.


title: Bayer

text: In 2004, Bayer HealthCare acquired the over-the-counter pharmaceutical division of Roche. In March 2008, Bayer HealthCare announced an agreement to acquire the portfolio and OTC division of privately owned Sagmel, Inc., a US-based company that markets OTC medications in most of the Commonwealth of Independent States countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and others.


title: Bayer

text: On 28 August 2008, an explosion occurred at the Bayer CropScience facility at Institute, West Virginia, United States. A runaway reaction ruptured a tank and the resulting explosion killed two employees. The ruptured tank was close to a methyl isocyanate tank which was undamaged by the explosion.


title: Bayer

text: In March 2006, Merck KGaA announced a €14.6bn bid for Schering AG, founded in 1851. By 2006, Schering had annual gross revenue of around €5 billion and employed about 26,000 people in 140 subsidiaries worldwide. Bayer responded with a white knight bid and in July acquired the majority of shares of Schering for €14.6bn, and in 2007, Bayer took over Schering AG and formed Bayer Schering Pharma. The acquisition of Schering was the largest take-over in Bayer's history, and as of 2015, was one of the ten biggest pharma mergers of all time.


title: Bayer

text: In November 2010, Bayer AG signed an agreement to buy Auckland-based animal health company Bomac Group. Bayer partnered on the development of the radiotherapeutic Xofigo with Algeta, and in 2014, moved to acquire the company for about $2.9 billion. In 2014, Bayer agreed to buy Merck's consumer health business for $14.2 billion which would provide Bayer control with brands such as Claritin, Coppertone and Dr. Scholl's. Bayer would attain second place globally in nonprescription drugs. In June 2015, Bayer agreed to sell its diabetic care business to Panasonic Healthcare Holdings for a fee of $1.02 billion.


title: Bayer

text: In August 2019, the business acquired the ≈60% of BlueRock Therapeutics it didn't already own for up to $600 million.


title: Bayer

text: In August 2020, Bayer announced it had acquired KaNDy Therapeutics Ltd, helping to boost its female healthcare business, for $425 million. In October, Bayer agreed to acquire Asklepios BioPharmaceuticals for $2 billion upfront.


title: Bayer

text: In June 2021, the company announced it acquire Noria Therapeutics Inc. and PSMA Therapeutics Inc. gaining rights to a number of cancer-based investigational compounds based on actinium-225.


title: Bayer

text: In September 2015, Bayer spun out its $12.3 billion materials science division into a separate, publicly traded company called Covestro in which it retained about a 70% interest. Bayer spun out the division because it had relatively low profit margins compared to its life science divisions (10.2%, compared with 24.9% for the agriculture business and 27.5% for healthcare) and because the business required high levels of investment to maintain its growth, and to more clearly focus its efforts and identity in the life sciences. Covestro shares were first offered on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in October 2015. Effective January 2016 following the spinout of Covestro, Bayer rebranded itself as a life sciences company, and restructured into three divisions and one business unit: Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Crop Science, and Animal Health.


title: Bayer

text: In May 2016, Bayer offered to buy U.S. seeds company Monsanto for $62 billion. Shortly after Bayer's offer, Monsanto rejected the acquisition bid, seeking a higher price. In September 2016, Monsanto agreed to a $66 billion offer by Bayer. In order to receive regulatory approval, Bayer agreed to divest a significant amount of its current agricultural assets to BASF in a series of deals. On 21 March 2018 the deal was approved by the European Union, and it was approved in the United States on 20 May 2018. The sale closed on 7 June 2018. The Monsanto brand was discontinued; its products will be marketed under the Bayer name. On 16 September 2019, under the approval of National Company Law Tribunal, Bayer completed the merger of Monsanto India.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer's Monsanto acquisition is the biggest acquisition by a German company to date. However, owing to ongoing litigation concerning the herbicide Roundup, produced by Monsanto, the deal is considered one of the worst corporate deals ever agreed, owing to the massive financial and reputational blows it has caused Bayer.


title: Bayer

text: In 2003, to separate operational and strategic managements, Bayer AG was reorganized into a holding company. The group's core businesses were transformed into limited companies, each controlled by Bayer AG. These companies were: Bayer CropScience AG; Bayer HealthCare AG; Bayer MaterialScience AG and Bayer Chemicals AG, and the three service limited companies Bayer Technology Services GmbH, Bayer Business Services GmbH and Bayer Industry Services GmbH & Co. OHG. In 2016, the company began a second restructuring with the aim of allowing it to transition to a life sciences based company. By divesting its Chemicals division in 2004 and with the aim of off-loading its Materials division by mid-2016, Bayer will be left with the four core units, as depicted below.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer CropScience has products in crop protection (i.e. pesticides), nonagricultural pest control, and seeds and plant biotechnology. In addition to conventional agrochemical business, it is involved in genetic engineering of food. In 2002, Bayer AG acquired Aventis (now part of Sanofi) CropScience and fused it with their own agrochemicals division (Bayer Pflanzenschutz or "Crop Protection") to form Bayer CropScience; the Belgian biotech company Plant Genetic Systems became part of Bayer through the Aventis acquisition. Also in 2002, Bayer AG acquired the Dutch seed company Nunhems, which at the time was one of the world's top five seed companies. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Bayer CropScience's LibertyLink genetically modified rice had contaminated the U.S. rice supply. Shortly after the public learned of the contamination, the E.U. banned imports of U.S. long-grain rice and the futures price plunged. In April 2010, a Lonoke County, Arkansas jury awarded a dozen farmers $48 million. The case was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which affirmed the judgement. On 1 July 2011, Bayer CropScience agreed to a global settlement for up to $750 million. In September 2014, the firm announced plans to invest $1 billion in the United States between 2013 and 2016. A Bayer spokesperson said that the largest investments will be made to expand the production of its herbicide Liberty. Liberty is an alternative to Monsanto's product, Roundup, which are both used to kill weeds.


title: Bayer

text: The prospective merger parties said at the time the combined agriculture business planned to spend $16 billion on research and development over the next six years and at least $8 billion on research and development in the United States.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer CropScience Limited is the Indian subsidiary of Bayer AG. It is listed on the Indian stock exchanges viz. the Bombay Stock Exchange & National Stock Exchange of India and has a market capitalization of $2 billion. Bayer BioScience, headquartered in Hyderabad, India, has about 400 employees, and has research, production, and an extensive sales network spread across India.


title: Bayer

text: Before the 2016 restructuring, Bayer HealthCare comprises a further four subdivisions: Bayer Schering Pharma, Bayer Consumer Care, Bayer Animal Health and Bayer Medical Care. As part of the corporate restructuring, Animal Health was moved into its own business unit, leaving the division with the following categories; Allergy, Analgesics, Cardiovascular Risk Prevention, Cough & Cold, Dermatology, Foot Care, Gastrointestinals, Nutritionals and Sun Care.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer Consumer Care manages Bayer's OTC medicines portfolio. Key products include analgesics such as Bayer Aspirin and Aleve, food supplements Redoxon and Berocca, and skincare products Bepanthen and Bepanthol. Women's healthcare is an example of a General Medicine business unit. Bayer Pharma produces the birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. Both pills use a newer type of progestin hormone called drospirenone in combination with estrogen. Yaz is advertised as a treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and moderate acne. Other key products include the cancer drug Nexavar, the multiple sclerosis drug betaferon/betaseron and the blood-clotting drug, Kogenate. In May 2014, it was announced that Bayer would buy Merck & Co's consumer health care unit for $14.2 billion. Bayer also controls Dihon Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd in China.


title: Bayer

text: The Pharmaceuticals Division focuses on prescription products, especially for women's healthcare and cardiology, and also on specialty therapeutics in the areas of oncology, hematology and ophthalmology. The division also comprises the Radiology Business Unit which markets contrast-enhanced diagnostic imaging equipment together with the necessary contrast agents.


title: Bayer

text: In addition to internal R&D, Bayer has participated in public–private partnerships. One example in the area of non-clinical safety assessment is the InnoMed PredTox program. Another is the Innovative Medicines Initiative of EFPIA and the European Commission.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer Chemicals AG (with the exception of H.C. Starck and Wolff Walsrode) was combined with certain components of the polymers segment to form the new company Lanxess on 1 July 2004; Lanxess was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in early 2005. Bayer HealthCare's Diagnostics Division was acquired by Siemens Medical Solutions in January 2007.


title: Bayer

text: Bayer Diabetes Care managed Bayer's medical devices portfolio. Key products included the blood glucose monitors Contour Next EZ (XT), Contour, Contour USB and Breeze 2 used in the management of diabetes. The diabetes business unit was sold to Panasonic Healthcare Co. for $1.15 billion in June 2015. Bayer MaterialScience was a supplier of high-tech polymers, and developed solutions for a broad range of applications relevant to everyday life. On 18 September 2014, the Board of Directors of Bayer AG announced plans to float the Bayer MaterialScience business on the stock market as a separate entity. On 1 June 2015, Bayer announced that the new company would be named Covestro; Bayer formally spun out Covestro in September 2015.


title: Bayer

text: For the fiscal year 2017, Bayer reported earnings of EUR€7.3 billion, with an annual revenue of EUR€35 billion, a decrease of 25.1% over the previous fiscal cycle. Bayer's shares traded at over €69 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US€65.4 billion in November 2018. In September 2019, Bayer announced to reduce the number of management board members from seven to five to reduce overall costs.


title: Bayer

text: In 1904, the company founded the sports club TuS 04 ("Turn- und Spielverein der Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co."), later SV Bayer 04 ("Sportvereinigung Bayer 04 Leverkusen"), finally becoming TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen ("Turn- und Sportverein") in 1984, generally, however, known simply as Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The club is best known for its football team, but has been involved in many other sports, including athletics, fencing, team handball, volleyball, boxing, and basketball. TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen is one of the largest sports clubs in Germany. The company also supports similar clubs at other company sites, including Dormagen (particularly handball), Wuppertal (particularly volleyball), and Krefeld-Uerdingen (featuring another former Bundesliga football club, SC Bayer 05 Uerdingen, now KFC Uerdingen 05).


title: Bayer

text: In October 2008, Bayer's Canadian division was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Canadian division was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by the "Toronto Star" newspaper. Bayer USA was given a score of 85 (out of 100) in the Human Rights Campaign's 2011 Corporate Equality Index, a measure of gay and lesbian workplace equality.


title: Bayer

text: In 2016, Standard Ethics Aei gave a rating to Bayer in order to include the company in its Standard Ethics German Index. Bayer received an EE- rating, the fourth tier in an eight-tier ranking.


title: Bayer

text: In August 2018, two months after Bayer acquired Monsanto, a U.S. jury ordered Monsanto to pay $289 million to a school groundskeeper who claimed his Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was caused by regularly using Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide produced by Monsanto. Following the verdict, Bayer's share price dropped by around 14% or $14 Billion in market capitalization. The company filed an appeal on 18 September 2018. Pending appeal, the award was later reduced to $78.5 million. In November 2018, Monsanto appealed the judgement, asking an appellate court to consider a motion for a new trial. A verdict on the appeal was delivered in June 2020 upholding the verdict but further reducing the award to $21.5 million. On 13 May 2019, a United States Superior Court Judge ordered Bayer to pay more than $ 2.5 billion in damages to a couple in California, both of whom contracted non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, later cut to $87 million on appeal.)


title: Bayer

text: In June 2020, the company agreed to pay $9.6 billion to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits claiming harm from Roundup, saying this action will result in the resolution of 75% of those claims. Bayer will also assign $1.25 billion for future claims, an action that needs approval from the US District Court, Northern District of California. The settlement, according to the company, does not admit either liability or wrongdoing, but brings an end to irresolution in the case. The settlement does not include three cases that have already gone to jury trials and are being appealed. In July 2020, the California Court of Appeals denied the appeal but reduced the damages owed to $20.4 million.


title: Bayer

text: The general consensus among national regulatory agencies, and the European Commission is that labeled usage of the herbicide poses no carcinogenic or genotoxic risk to humans. In January 2020, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its interim registration review for Roundup, stating that it "...did not identify any risks of concern" for cancer and other risks to humans from glyphosate exposure."


title: Bayer

text: In 2019, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson (who market Xarelto together) settled around 25,000 lawsuits on the blood thinning drug Xarelto (rivaroxaban) by agreeing to disburse $775 million (US) to federal and state plaintiffs who said the companies had not properly warned patients about possible fatal bleeding as a result of ingesting the drug. There was no admission of liability from the companies in the settlement as they noted they had prevailed in six previous trials. The settlement will be divided evenly between the companies.


title: Bayer

text: In 2019, a federal jury in San Francisco CA sided with Bayer in a $600 million (US) class action suit alleging that the company misinformed consumers by promoting its One A Day vitamins as supporting cardiac health, vigorous immune systems and boosting user energy. The suit was first filed as a nationwide class action; in 2017, the US District Court in San Francisco said subclasses of purchasers of the vitamin in Florida, New York, and California could act together.


title: Bayer

text: The jury found that the plaintiffs failed to prove that Bayer misrepresented its One A Day claims, and also did not demonstrate that any of the class representative consumers who purchased One A Day relied on the so-called false information as part of their buying decision.


title: Bayer

text: In the mid-1980s, when Bayer's Cutter Laboratories realized that their blood products, the clotting agents Factor VIII and IX, were contaminated with HIV, the financial investment in the product was considered too high to destroy the inventory. Bayer misrepresented the results of its own research and knowingly supplied hemophilia medication tainted with HIV to patients in Asia and Latin America, without the precaution of heat treating the product, recommended for eliminating the risk. As a consequence, thousands who infused the product tested positive for HIV and later developed AIDS.


title: Bayer

text: On 14 February 2020, Bayer and BASF were ordered to pay Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader $15 million in damages as a result of destruction of his peach trees which was caused by the usage of dicamba by nearby farmers. Dicamba was another product which Bayer acquired from Monsanto. Bayer also inherited the lawsuit from Monsanto as well. On 15 February 2020, Bayer-representing Monsanto- and BASF were ordered to pay not only the $15 million in damages, but an additional $250 million in punitive damages. Bayer and BASF afterwards announced plans to appeal the $265 million fine.


title: Bayer

text: In June 2020, Bayer agreed to a settlement of up to $400 million for all 2015–2020 crop year dicamba claims, not including the $265 million judgement. On 25 November 2020, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. reduced the punitive damage amount in the Bader Farms case to $60 million.


title: Bayer

text: In June 2020, Bayer agreed to pay $800 million to settle lawsuits in a variety of jurisdictions which claimed contamination of public waterways with PCBs by Monsanto before 1978. On 25 November 2020, however, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin rejected Bayer's settlement offer, which was now at $650 million, and allowed Monsanto-related lawsuits involving PCB to proceed.


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: Eleanor May Tomlinson (born 19 May 1992) is an English actress and singer. She has appeared in films including "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" (2008), "Jack the Giant Slayer" (2013), "Colette" (2018) and "Love Wedding Repeat" (2020). Tomlinson also starred in the BBC One series "Poldark" (2015–2019).


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: Tomlinson was born in London, England. She and her family moved to Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, when she was young and she attended Beverley High School. She is the daughter of Judith Hibbert, a singer, and Malcolm Tomlinson, an actor and horse racing commentator. Her brother, Ross Tomlinson, is also an actor.


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: In 2006, Tomlinson appeared in "The Illusionist" as Young Sophie. She starred in the teen film "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" in 2008, in which she plays Jas. Tomlinson played Kirsten in the 2009 Pro Sieben international production "Hepzibah – Sie holt dich im Schlaf" alongside David Bamber, under the direction of Robert Sigl.


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: Tomlinson went on to play Eve, an alien, in "The Mad Woman in the Attic"—episodes three and four of Series 3 of "The Sarah Jane Adventures"—in 2009, as well as Fiona Chataway in the film "Alice in Wonderland" which premiered in theatres on 5 March 2010. In 2013 she was Xenya in the film "Siberian Education" by Gabriele Salvatores.


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: After an extensive search, Tomlinson was cast as Princess Isabelle in "Jack the Giant Slayer" (2013), directed by Bryan Singer. She also appeared in the "Agatha Christie's Poirot" episode "The Labours of Hercules" (2013) as Alice Cunningham.


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: In 2013 she starred in the TV series "The White Queen", as Lady Isabel Neville and as Georgiana Darcy in the BBC adaptation of "Death Comes to Pemberley". Between 2015 and 2019, she played Demelza Poldark in the BBC One television series "Poldark".


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: Tomlinson was number 56 on the ""Radio Times" TV 100" list for 2018, a list said to be determined by television executives and broadcasting veterans.


title: Eleanor Tomlinson

text: She starred in the 2019 BBC television series "The War of the Worlds"—based on the H.G. Wells novel of the same name—playing Amy, a role expanded from that of the wife of the book's narrator. In 2021 she played Lady Gabby in Stephen Merchant & Elgin James' comedy drama for BBC television, "The Outlaws".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: The Japanese language makes use of a system of honorific speech, called , which includes honorific suffixes and prefixes when referring to others in a conversation. Suffixes are often gender-specific at the end of names, while prefixes are attached to the beginning of many nouns. Honorific suffixes also indicated the speaker's level and referred an individual's relationship and are often used alongside other components of Japanese honorific speech.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Honorific suffixes are generally used when referring to the person one is talking to or unrelated people and are not used when referring to oneself. The omission of suffixes implies a high degree of intimacy or close friendship.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Although honorifics are not essential to the grammar of Japanese, they are a fundamental part of its sociolinguistics, and their proper use is deemed essential to proficient and appropriate speech.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: The use of honorifics is closely related to Japanese social structures and hierarchies. For example, a 1986 study on the notion that Japanese women spoke more politely than men examined each sex's use of honorifics found that while women spoke more politely on average than men, both sexes used the same level of politeness in the same relative situation. Thus, the difference in politeness was a result of the average social station of women versus men as opposed to an inherent characteristic. Usage in this respect has changed over time as well. A 2012 study from Kobe Shoin Women's University found that the use of honorific suffixes and other polite speech markers have increased significantly over time, while age, sex, and other social variables have become less significant. The paper concluded that honorifics have shifted from a basis in power dynamics to one of personal distance.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: They can be applied to either the first or last name depending on which is given. In situations where both the first and last names are spoken, the suffix is attached to whichever comes last in the word order. Japanese names traditionally follow the Eastern name order.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: An honorific is generally used when referring to the person one is talking to (one's "interlocutor"), or when referring to an unrelated third party in speech. However, it is dropped by some superiors when referring to one's in-group or informal writing. It is never used to refer to oneself, except for dramatic effect or some exceptional cases.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Dropping the honorific suffix when referring to one's interlocutor, which is known as to , implies a high degree of intimacy and is generally reserved for one's spouse, younger family members, social inferiors (as in a teacher addressing students in traditional arts), close friends and confidants. Within sports teams or among classmates, where the interlocutors approximately are of the same age or seniority, it can be acceptable to use family names without honorifics. Some people of the younger generation, roughly born since 1970, prefer to be referred to without an honorific. However, dropping honorifics is a sign of informality even with casual acquaintances.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: When referring to a third person, honorifics are used except when referring to one's family members while talking to a non-family member or when referring to a member of one's company while talking to a customer or someone from another company—this is the uchi–soto (in-group / out-group) distinction. Honorifics are not used to refer to oneself, except when trying to be arrogant ("ore-sama"), to be cute ("-chan"), or sometimes when talking to young children to teach them how to address the speaker.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Use of honorifics is correlated with other forms of honorific speech in Japanese, such as the use of the polite form ("-masu, desu") versus the plain form—that is, using the plain form with a polite honorific ("-san, -sama") can be jarring.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: While these honorifics are solely used on proper nouns, these suffixes can turn common nouns into appropriate nouns when attached to the end of them. This can be seen in words such as which turns the common noun into a proper noun that would refer solely to that particular cat while adding the honorific "-chan" can also mean cute.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: When translating honorific suffixes into English, separate pronouns or adjectives must be used to convey characteristics to the person they are referencing. While some honorifics such as "-san" are very frequently used due to their gender neutrality and straightforward definition of polite unfamiliarity, other honorifics such as "-chan" or "-kun" are more specific as to the context in which they must be used as well as the implications they give off when attached to a person's name. These implications can only be translated into English using adjectives or adjective word phrases.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: , sometimes pronounced in Kansai dialect, is the most commonplace honorific and is a title of respect typically used between equals of any age. Although the closest analog in English are the honorifics "Mr.", "Miss", "Ms.", or "Mrs.", "-san" is almost universally added to a person's name; "-san" can be used in formal and informal contexts, regardless of the person's gender. It is also commonly used to convert common nouns into proper ones, as discussed below.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "San" may be used in combination with workplace nouns, so a bookseller might be addressed or referred to as and a butcher as .


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "San" is sometimes used with company names. For example, the offices or shop of a company called Kojima Denki might be referred to as "Kojima Denki"-san"" by another nearby company. This may be seen on small maps often used in phone books and business cards in Japan, where the names of surrounding companies are written using "-san".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "San" can be attached to the names of animals or even for cooking; "fish" can be referred to as , but both would be considered childish (akin to "Mr. Fish" or "Mr. Fishy" in English) and would be avoided in formal speech. When referring to their spouse as a third party in a conversation, married people often refer to them with "-san".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Due to "-san" being gender-neutral and commonly used, it can refer to any stranger or acquaintance whom one does not see as a friend. However, it may not be appropriate when using it on someone close or when it is clear that other honorifics should be used.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is a more respectful version for individuals of a higher rank than oneself. Appropriate usages include divine entities, guests or customers (such as a sports venue announcer addressing members of the audience), and sometimes towards people one greatly admires. It is the root word for "-san". Deities such as native Shinto "kami" and Jesus Christ are referred to as , meaning "Revered spirit"-sama"". When used to refer to oneself, "-sama" expresses extreme arrogance (or self-effacing irony), as in praising oneself to be of a higher rank, as with .


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "Sama" customarily follows the addressee's name on all formal correspondence and postal services where the addressee is, or is interpreted as, a customer.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is generally used by people of senior status addressing or referring to those of junior status, or it can be used when referring to men in general, male children or male teenagers, or among male friends. It can be used by males or females when addressing a male to whom they are emotionally attached, or whom they have known for a long time. Although it may seem rude in workplaces, the suffix is also used by seniors when referring to juniors in both academic situations and workplaces, more typically when the two people are associated.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Although "-kun" is generally used for boys, it is not a hard rule. For example, "-kun" can be used to name a close personal friend or family member of any gender. In business settings, young female employees are addressed as "-kun" by older males of senior status. It can be used by male teachers addressing their female students.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "Kun" can mean different things depending on gender. "Kun" for females is a more respectful honorific than "-chan", implying childlike cuteness. "Kun" is not only used to address females formally; it can also be used for a very close friend or family member. Calling a female "-kun" is not insulting and can also mean that the person is respected, although that is not the normal implication. Rarely, sisters with the same name, such as "Miku", may be differentiated by calling one "Miku"-chan"" and the other "Miku"-san"" or ""-sama"", and on some occasions,""-kun"". "Chan" and "-kun" occasionally mean similar things. The general use of "-kun" for females implies respectful endearment and that the person being referred to is sweet and kind.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: In the National Diet (Legislature), the Speaker of the House uses "-kun" when addressing Diet members and ministers. An exception was when Takako Doi was the Speaker of the lower house, where she used the title "-san".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: expresses that the speaker finds a person endearing. In general, "-chan" is used for young children, close friends, babies, grandparents and sometimes female adolescents. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, or youthful women. "Chan" is not usually used for strangers or people one has just met.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Although traditionally, honorifics are not applied to oneself, some people adopt the childlike affectation of referring to themselves in the third person using "-chan" (childlike because it suggests that one has not learned to distinguish between names used for oneself and names used by others). For example, a young girl named "Kanako" might call herself "Kanako-chan" rather than the first-person pronoun.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is intended as an even more cute or affectionate variant of "-chan". It evokes a small child's mispronunciation of that form of address, or baby talk – similar to how, for example, a speaker of English might use "widdle" instead of "little" when speaking to a baby. Moe anthropomorphisms are often labeled as "-tan", e.g., the commercial mascot Habanero-tan, the manga figure Afghanis-tan or the OS-tans representing operating systems. A more notorious use of the honorific was for the murderer Nevada-tan.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: also expresses endearment. Like "-chan", it can be used for young children but exclusively for boys instead of girls. See Diminutive suffix and Hypocorism for more info on this linguistic phenomenon.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is used to address or refer to one's older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club. Teachers are not "senpai", but rather they are "sensei". Neither are students of the same or lower grade: they are referred to but never addressed as . In a business environment, those with more experience are "senpai".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is used to refer to or address teachers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, and other authority figures. It is used to show respect to someone who has achieved mastery in an art form or some other skill, such as accomplished novelists, musicians, artists, and martial artists. In Japanese martial arts, "sensei" typically refers to someone who is the head of a dojo. As with "senpai", "sensei" can be used not only as a suffix but also as a stand-alone title. The term is not generally used when addressing a person with very high academic expertise; the one used instead is .


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is used in formal writing and sometimes in very formal speech for referring to a person who is unfamiliar to the speaker, typically a person known through publications whom the speaker has never actually met. For example, the "-shi" title is common in the speech of newsreaders. It is preferred in legal documents, academic journals, and other formal written styles. Once a person's name has been used with "-shi", the person can be referred to with "shi" alone, without the name, as long as only one person is being referred to.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "O-" (お-) and "go"- (ご-) are honorific prefixes used to exalt nouns. They can be applied to things like a garden (お庭, "oniwa") or to people in conjunction with a suffix, like a doctor (お医者さん, "oishasan"). "O-" is used for words with Japanese roots, while "go-" is used for words with Chinese roots, although exceptions such as "ojōsan" (お嬢さん), "oishasan" above, "okyakusama" (お客様) where "o-" is used with Chinese words still occur. They are only ever used in the second or third person, and when applied to an object indicate respect for the owner of the object rather than the object itself. For example, one would refer to the parents of another as "goryōshin" (ご両親) while their own parents would be "ryōshin" (両親).


title: Japanese honorifics

text: It is common to use a job title after someone's name, instead of using a general honorific. For example, an named Ichiro might be referred to as ""Ichiro-senshu"" rather than ""Ichiro-san"", and a named Suzuki might be referred to as ""Suzuki-tōryō"" rather than ""Suzuki-san"".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: In a business setting, it is common to refer to people using their rank, especially for positions of authority, such as or . Within one's own company or when speaking of another company, title + "san" is used, so a president is "Shachō-san". When speaking of one's own company to a customer or another company, the title is used by itself or attached to a name, so a department chief named Suzuki is referred to as "Buchō" or "Suzuki-buchō".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: However, when referring to oneself, the title is used indirectly, as using it directly is perceived as arrogant. Thus, a department chief named Suzuki will introduce themselves as 部長の鈴木 "buchō no Suzuki" ("Suzuki, the department chief"), rather than ×鈴木部長 *"Suzuki-buchō" ("Department Chief Suzuki").


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Convicted and suspected criminals were once referred to without any title. Still, now an effort is made to distinguish between , , and , so as not to presume guilt before anything has been proven. These titles can be used by themselves or attached to names.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: However, although "suspect" and "defendant" began as neutral descriptions, they have become derogatory over time. When actor and musician Gorō Inagaki was arrested for a traffic accident in 2001, some media referred to him with the newly made title , originating from the English word "member", to avoid the use of . But in addition to being criticized as an unnatural term, this title also became derogatory almost instantly—an example of euphemism treadmill.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Criminals who are sentenced to death for the serious crimes such as murder, treason, etc. are referred to as .


title: Japanese honorifics

text: There are several different words for "our company" and "your company". "Our company" can be expressed with the humble or the neutral , and "your company" can be expressed with the honorific or . Additionally, the neutral can refer to either the speaker's or the listener's company. All of these titles are used by themselves, not attached to names.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: When mentioning a company's name, it is considered important to include its status depending on whether it is or . These are often abbreviated as 株 and 有, respectively.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: "Heika" (陛下 へいか), literally meaning "below the steps [of the throne]", and equivalent to "Majesty", is the most formal style of nobility in Japan, and is reserved only for the Emperor, Empress, Empress Dowager or Grand Empress Dowager. All other members of the Imperial Family are styled "Denka" (殿下 でんか), the equivalent of "Highness". Although the monarch of Japan is an emperor, he is not usually styled as "Imperial Majesty", however other members of the Imperial family are customarily styled "His/Her Imperial Highness" whilst the Emperor's style in English is simply "His Majesty".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: , pronounced when attached to a name, roughly means "lord" or "master". It does not equate noble status. Rather it is a term akin to "milord" or French ""monseigneur"" or Portuguese/Spanish/Italian ""don"", and lies below "-sama" in level of respect. This title is not commonly used in daily conversation, but it is still used in some types of written business correspondence, as well as on certificates and awards, and in written correspondence in tea ceremonies. It is also used to indicate that the person referred to has the same (high) rank as the referrer, yet commands respect from the speaker.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: is another suffix coming from Japanese history. It was used to denominate lords and ladies in the court, especially during the Heian period. The most famous example is the Prince Hikaru Genji, protagonist of "The Tale of Genji" who was called . Nowadays, this suffix can be used as a metaphor for someone who behaves like a prince or princess from ancient times, but its use is very rare. Its main usage remains in historical dramas.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: literally means "above", and denotes a high level of respect. While its use is no longer common, it is still seen in constructions like , and , reverent terms for "father", "mother" and "older sister" respectively. Receipts that do not require specification of the payer's name are often filled in with "ue-sama".


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Martial artists often address their teachers as "sensei". Junior and senior students are organized via a "senpai/kōhai" system.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Also in some systems of karate, "O-Sensei" is the title of the (deceased) head of the style. This is how the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba is often referred to by practitioners of that art. The "O-" prefix itself, translating roughly as "great[er]" or "major", is also an honorific.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Various titles are also employed to refer to senior instructors. Which titles are used depends on the particular licensing organization.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: are martial arts titles developed by the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, the Kokusai Budoin, and the International Martial Arts Federation Europe. Many organizations in Japan award such titles upon a sincere study and dedication of Japanese martial arts. The below mentioned titles are awarded after observing a person's martial arts skills, his/her ability of teaching and understanding of martial arts and the most importantly as a role model and the perfection of one's character.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: In informal speech, some Japanese people may use contrived suffixes in place of normal honorifics. This is essentially a form of wordplay, with suffixes being chosen for their sound, or for friendly or scornful connotations. Although the range of such suffixes that might be coined is limitless, some have gained such widespread usage that the boundary between established honorifics and wordplay has become a little blurred. Examples of such suffixes include variations on "-chan" (see below), "-bee" (scornful), and "-rin" (friendly).


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Note that unlike a proper honorific, use of such suffixes is governed largely by how they sound in conjunction with a particular name, and on the effect the speaker is trying to achieve.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Some honorifics have baby talk versions—mispronunciations stereotypically associated with small children and cuteness, and more frequently used in popular entertainment than in everyday speech. The baby talk version of "-sama" is .


title: Japanese honorifics

text: There are even baby talk versions of baby talk versions. "Chan" can be changed to , and less often, to .


title: Japanese honorifics

text: Words for family members have two different forms in Japanese. When referring to one's own family members while speaking to a non-family-member, neutral, descriptive nouns are used, such as for "mother" and for "older brother". Honorific forms are used when addressing one's own family members or addressing or referring to someone else's family members. Using the suffix "-san", as is most common, "mother" becomes and "older brother" becomes . The honorifics "-chan" and "-sama" may also be used instead of "-san", to express a higher level of closeness or reverence, respectively.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: The general rule is that a younger family member (e.g., a young brother) addresses an older family member (e.g., a big sister) using an honorific form, while the more senior family member calls the younger one only by name.


title: Japanese honorifics

text: The initial prefix in these nouns is itself an honorific prefix. In more casual situations the speaker may omit this prefix but keep the suffix.


title: Randy Couture

text: Randall Duane Couture (; born June 22, 1963) is an American actor, former U.S. Army sergeant, former mixed martial artist and former collegiate and Greco-Roman wrestler. During his tenures in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), he became a three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, two-time UFC Light heavyweight Champion, an interim UFC Light heavyweight Champion, making him a six-time UFC Champion and the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament winner. He is the first of seven fighters to hold two UFC championship titles in two different divisions (along with B.J. Penn, Conor McGregor, Georges St-Pierre, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Henry Cejudo).


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture has competed in a record 16 title fights. He is tied for the record for the most wins in UFC Heavyweight Championship bouts (6) with former UFC Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. He had the most title reigns in the UFC, with six. His last fight with Lyoto Machida marked his 24th fight in the UFC. He is the fourth member of the UFC Hall of Fame. He is one of only 2 over the age of 40 to have won a UFC championship fight, having done so four times. He is one of the few MMA champions to regain a title he had lost, and the only to have done it three times (twice at heavyweight, once at light heavyweight).


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture was an Olympic wrestling alternate and has lived in Corvallis, Oregon throughout much of his career, where he served as an assistant wrestling coach and a strength and conditioning coach for Oregon State University. He established Team Quest with Matt Lindland and Dan Henderson, a training camp for fighters, based out of Gresham, Oregon, and headed by coach Robert Folis. In 2005, he moved to Las Vegas, where he opened his own extensive chain of gyms under the name Xtreme Couture. He partnered with Bas Rutten to open Legends Gym in Hollywood, California.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture is generally recognized as a clinch and ground-and-pound fighter who uses his wrestling ability to execute take downs, establish top position and successively strike the opponent on the bottom. He has displayed a variety of skills in boxing and catch wrestling. He is the only UFC fighter to win a championship after becoming a Hall-of-Famer and is the oldest champion in MMA history with his title victory over Tim Sylvia at age 43.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture was born in Everett, Washington, the son of Sharan Amelia (née King) and Edward Lewis "Ed" Couture. He wrestled at Alderwood Middle School in Lynnwood, Washington, then moved on to Lynnwood High School, where he won a State Championship during his senior year in wrestling. He served in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1988, attaining the rank of Sergeant in the 101st Airborne, where he "wrestled and did a little boxing."


title: Randy Couture

text: While he was in the Army he applied for tryouts with the U.S. Army Freestyle Wrestling team; however, due to a clerical error his application was sent to the Greco-Roman tryouts and rather than wait until the next year he decided to pursue it. Despite never having competed in Greco-Roman he made the team.


title: Randy Couture

text: Upon discharge, Couture became a three-time Olympic team alternate (1988, 1992 and 1996), a semifinalist at the 2000 Olympic Trials, a three-time NCAA Division I All-American and a two-time NCAA Division I runner-up (1991 and 1992) at Oklahoma State University. In 1992, he was the Division I runner-up at , coming in second after Mark Kerr.


title: Randy Couture

text: Being called to the tournament as an alternate on three weeks' notice, Couture made his professional mixed martial arts debut at UFC 13 on May 30, 1997, as part of a four-man heavyweight tournament. His first opponent was Tony Halme, who outweighed him by nearly . Couture immediately hit a double-leg takedown and, after some ground and pound, moved to back mount and secured a rear naked choke submission to win in under a minute. In the tournament final, he defeated Steven Graham, another larger opponent (290 lb), by TKO at 3:13 into the first round.


title: Randy Couture

text: On October 17, 1997, at UFC 15, Couture fought Vitor Belfort to determine the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Couture was an underdog, as 19-year-old Belfort was the UFC 12 Heavyweight Tournament Champion, winning all of his matches with devastating punches. After circling away from Belfort's left hand, Couture got the clinch. The fighters broke up and, when Belfort attempted a flurry of punches, Couture hit a takedown. He immediately gained side control and landed strikes. As Belfort scrambled to his feet, Couture landed knee strikes. He clinched again and wore Belfort down with dirty boxing. By the 7-minute mark, Belfort was exhausted. Couture again took him down, and finished him with punches from back mount, for one of the biggest upsets in MMA at the time.


title: Randy Couture

text: At on December 21, Couture challenged the UFC Heavyweight Champion, Maurice Smith to his second title defense since winning the belt from Mark Coleman earlier that year. It was a slow-paced fight, and neither fighter significantly damaged the other, but Couture hit several takedowns and held positional control throughout the fight. After 21 minutes, he won a majority decision and became the new UFC Heavyweight Champion. Though this win was controversial as many believe Smith did enough to win the fight.


title: Randy Couture

text: In 1998, UFC matchmakers wanted Couture to defend the belt against Bas Rutten, former King of Pancrase. Couture instead signed with Vale Tudo Japan, and was stripped of the title. He had his first and only match against Shooto veteran and grappling especialist Enson Inoue. After taking the fight to the ground, Couture tapped out to an armbar, just over 90 seconds into the bout.


title: Randy Couture

text: Still in Japan, Couture was signed up with Fighting Network RINGS, debuting against Mikhail Illoukhine on March 20, 1999, in RINGS. Couture submitted to a kimura, though the loss was controversial due to Illoukhine locking the hold while they were being re-positioned on the center of the ring. After that loss, he took a break from MMA to focus on his amateur wrestling career.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture returned to MMA in October 2000, for the RINGS King of Kings Tournament 2000. He won a unanimous decision over UFC veteran Jeremy Horn in his first fight, and then another over Pancrase veteran Ryūshi Yanagisawa. These two wins qualified him for the final event of the tournament, in March 2001. Before that, he was offered a shot at the UFC Heavyweight Championship against Kevin Randleman on November 17, 2000. He was taken down in the first two rounds, but defended well from his back, negating most of Randleman's ground and pound attempts. In the third round, he tripped Randleman to the mat and landed several strikes from full mount for a TKO victory and his second UFC Heavyweight Championship.


title: Randy Couture

text: In March 2001, Couture continued in the RINGS King of Kings Tournament 2000 Final. After winning an even decision over veteran Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in the first fight, he got caught in a guillotine choke by Valentijn Overeem after committing himself in a takedown and had to submit. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira won the tournament, and Couture returned to the UFC.


title: Randy Couture

text: His first title defense was against Brazilian kickboxer Pedro Rizzo, at UFC 31. This was the first UFC event under Zuffa management, with Dana White as the new president. Both fighters inflicted substantial damage. After five 5-minute rounds, Couture won a close unanimous decision. Some fans felt Rizzo had won, so the UFC set up an immediate rematch for UFC 34, in November 2001. This time, Couture won decisively by TKO in the third round.


title: Randy Couture

text: His third title defense was in March 2002, against up-and-comer Josh Barnett. In the second round, Barnett mounted Couture and landed several strikes to win the title by TKO. After the fight, it was revealed Barnett had tested positive for anabolic steroids. He was subsequently stripped of the title and cut from the UFC.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture then faced Ricco Rodriguez for the vacant UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 39, in late 2002. After dominating the first three rounds, 39-year-old Couture became noticeably fatigued. In the fifth round, Rodriguez took him down and landed an elbow strike to his orbital bone, breaking it and making him submit. This was the first time a UFC fight had finished in the fifth round.


title: Randy Couture

text: After two consecutive losses to larger opponents in the heavyweight division, Couture moved down to the light heavyweight division. In his light heavyweight debut, he fought long-time number one contender Chuck Liddell for the UFC Interim Light heavyweight Championship. He was again the underdog but, after outstriking Liddell for three rounds, took the fight to the ground and won by TKO via strikes from full mount, becoming the first UFC fighter to win titles in two weight classes.


title: Randy Couture

text: His next match, against five-time defending champion Tito Ortiz, was billed as a "Champion vs. Champion" fight. 40-year-old Couture won a unanimous decision to become the undisputed UFC Light heavyweight Champion.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture's first title defense was against Vitor Belfort, whom he had previously defeated in 1997 at UFC 15. In the first round, as Couture closed the distance to attempt a clinch, Belfort grazed his right eye with a left hook. His glove opened a cut, and Belfort was declared the winner when the cageside doctor advised the fight be stopped. A rubber match took place later that year. Couture dominated all three rounds before winning by doctor stoppage due to a cut, and became a two-time UFC Light heavyweight Champion.


title: Randy Couture

text: On April 16, 2005, in a rematch with Liddell, Couture lost his title and suffered the first knockout loss of his career. He came back in August to defeat Mike van Arsdale and reestablish himself as a top contender. He faced Liddell for the third and final time in a championship match at UFC 57, on February 4, 2006. He was knocked out in the second round and, immediately afterwards, announced his retirement from MMA.


title: Randy Couture

text: On June 24, 2006, on The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale, Couture became the fourth inductee to the UFC Hall of Fame, joining Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, and Ken Shamrock.


title: Randy Couture

text: After retiring from MMA, Couture became a regular broadcast commentator for UFC events and co-host of "Before the Bell" and "After the Bell" on The Fight Network. He appeared in the Rob Schneider movie "Big Stan", with fellow mixed martial artists Don Frye and Bob Sapp.


title: Randy Couture

text: On November 17, 2006, Couture fought and drew with Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in a submission wrestling contest. After the match Couture invited Souza to train at his gym. Souza accepted and started training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture was featured in the season two premiere episode of the Spike TV show "Pros vs. Joes", which aired January 25, 2007. His teammates on the episode were Michael Irvin, Kevin Willis, and José Canseco. He returned for the finale, where he took part in a football-based round. His teammates were Willis, Randall Cunningham, Bruce Smith, Roy Jones Jr., and Tim Hardaway.


title: Randy Couture

text: On January 11, 2007, Couture announced his return from retirement in an interview on the Spike TV magazine show, "Inside the UFC". In a conversation with Joe Rogan, he confirmed he would face Tim Sylvia for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 68, on March 3, 2007. He also announced he had signed a four-fight, two-year deal with the UFC.


title: Randy Couture

text: At the age of 43, Couture defeated Sylvia by unanimous decision to become UFC Heavyweight Champion for a third time (a UFC record). Couture's first punch, eight seconds into the fight, sent the (2.03 m) Sylvia to the mat. He controlled the pace of the fight for five rounds, smothering Sylvia with strikes and numerous takedowns. All three judges scored the bout 50–45 for Couture.


title: Randy Couture

text: At UFC 74 on August 25, 2007, Couture successfully defended the title against Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga, defeating him via TKO by strikes. Couture suffered a broken left arm when he blocked one of Gonzaga's kicks. The kick cleanly split his ulna, requiring him to wear a splint for six weeks.


title: Randy Couture

text: On October 11, 2007, Couture announced he was severing all ties with the UFC, leaving two contracted fights, a position as an on-air analyst and the UFC Heavyweight Championship behind. He received $250,000 (plus $936,000 of PPV revenue) for his comeback fight with Tim Sylvia. He received a $250,000 purse for defeating Gabriel Gonzaga (plus a $35,000 "Fight of the Night" bonus and $787,000 in PPV revenue). He complained Chuck Liddell was allegedly paid more than he was, despite losing his previous two fights. Couture cited the UFC's failure to sign #1 ranked Heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko, as well as disputes with UFC management, for his decision.


title: Randy Couture

text: On October 18, 2007, UFC president Dana White said Couture remained the UFC Heavyweight Champion despite his plans to quit, and reiterated he would not release Couture from the final two fights on his contract. Couture held a press conference on October 25, 2007, where he denied his departure from UFC was a "retirement", set forth his grievances about his pay, and reiterated his belief that he would be free from any contractual obligations to the UFC after nine months.


title: Randy Couture

text: On October 30, 2007, White and Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta held another press conference, where White reiterated the UFC's position of twelve days prior, and released documents refuting Couture's claims about the pay he received.


title: Randy Couture

text: They met again on Thanksgiving weekend to discuss a possible UFC return, but Couture said he had no desire to do so at the time.


title: Randy Couture

text: Cornering some of his fighters from Xtreme Couture at HDNet Fights on December 15 in Dallas, Couture answered questions about Fedor Emelianenko, stating that he would like to fight him in October, once his UFC contract expired, if the UFC could not come to a co-promotion agreement with Russia's M-1 Global beforehand.


title: Randy Couture

text: On January 15, 2008, Zuffa filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court in Nevada, citing breach of contract and irreparable damage, seeking over $10,000 in damages. This suit only concerned Couture's employment contract and not his promotional contract. On February 28, 2008, Judge Jennifer Togliatti handed down the first ruling in the case, issuing a preliminary injunction barring Couture from participating in an IFL event held the following day.


title: Randy Couture

text: On August 2, 2008, a Texas appeals court granted Zuffa's request for a stay against a motion for a declaratory judgment in a suit filed by HDNet regarding Couture's contractual status with the UFC. The stay effectively ended the dispute in the state of Texas, and Zuffa was allowed to move forward with the Nevada suit.


title: Randy Couture

text: On September 2, 2008, the UFC announced it had signed Couture to a new three-fight contract. On November 15, he returned at UFC 91 in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he lost the UFC Heavyweight Championship to Brock Lesnar. At first a closely contested match, Lesnar knocked Couture down in the second round and struck him with hammerfists for a TKO victory at 3:07. In a post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Couture declared his desire to keep fighting and said he felt he was still becoming a better fighter, blaming the loss on his performance, not his age.


title: Randy Couture

text: On August 29, 2009, Couture faced former UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion and former PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 102 in Portland, Oregon, and lost by unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, and 29–28). After the bout, Couture stated he felt he was in the best shape of his life, and would wait and see what the UFC had in store for him. The fight received the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Randy Couture

text: After the Nogueira loss, Couture signed a new six-fight deal, which superseded his previous contract.


title: Randy Couture

text: On November 14, 2009, at UFC 105, Couture faced Brandon Vera. Vera landed effective strikes and scored a takedown, but Couture won a somewhat controversial unanimous decision. The fight was his first at Light heavyweight since losing to Chuck Liddell in 2006. With the win, the 46-year-old Couture became the oldest fighter to win a UFC bout.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture fought fellow UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman at UFC 109. The bout marked the first time UFC Hall of Famers fought each other in the UFC. They were scheduled to meet at UFC 17 in 1998, but an injury to Couture forced the cancellation of the bout. They wrestled each other in a freestyle match at the 1989 Olympic Festival at Oklahoma State University; Coleman won the match by one point. Couture modified his training for this bout, focusing on catch wrestling and refining his boxing under coach Gil Martinez. The combined age of these fighters (91) is the highest in any UFC match. Couture made Coleman pass out to a rear-naked choke submission in the second round, getting his first submission win in over four years.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture was scheduled to fight Rich Franklin at UFC 115, but Franklin instead fought Chuck Liddell, replacing Liddell's original opponent, Tito Ortiz. Couture instead faced three-time boxing world champion James Toney at UFC 118. Couture dominated Toney, taking him down and mounting him within seconds, and quickly making him submit to an arm triangle choke. The match achieved notoriety, though it drew criticisms of being a freak show fight, among them by UFC President Dana White himself. Many also felt that this fight had been made as an attempt to repair damage done to the credibility of MMA after Ray Mercer knocked out former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture had stated he was interested in fighting either Lyoto Machida or Maurício Rua (in a non-title bout). Since Rua had an upcoming title defense against Jon Jones, UFC matchmakers gave him Machida. They fought on April 30, 2011, at UFC 129, before 55,000 fans in Toronto. Couture had stated before the bout it would be his final fight. Machida knocked him out in the second round with a jumping front kick. After the fight, Couture announced he was "finally done fighting", at the age of 47.


title: Randy Couture

text: On January 29, 2013, Couture signed with Bellator to be a coach in the first season of their reality show, "" which debuted in June 2013. Couture also did commentary for Bellator 96.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture made a cameo appearance in the direct-to-video Steven Seagal film "Today You Die" and on the season finale of the CBS show "The Unit", as a military guard. He played fight commentator Terry Flynn in the film "Redbelt". He appeared on an episode of The History Channel show "Human Weapon" on September 27, 2007, and starred in the 2008 film "". He played Toll Road in the 2010 movie "The Expendables" and reprised the role in the 2012 and 2014 sequels. He did several public service announcements, one against crystal meth. He starred alongside 50 Cent and Bruce Willis in the 2011 film, "Setup", as an enforcer named Petey.


title: Randy Couture

text: In 2012, he played the leading role of hard-bitten cop Paul Ross in Brandon Nutt's action film "Hijacked", alongside Dominic Purcell.


title: Randy Couture

text: On September 4, 2014, it was announced that Couture would be one of the celebrities competing on the 19th season of "Dancing with the Stars". He paired with professional dancer Karina Smirnoff. The couple was eliminated on the third week of competition finishing in eleventh place.


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture appeared on "Impractical Jokers" as a guest during Sal Vulcano's punishment in the episode "Pantsing with the Stars". In that episode, Vulcano, who refused an instruction during a challenge where he was posing as a Krav Maga instructor, was given a surprise punishment by the other Jokers in that he then had to wrestle Couture and attempt to “pants” him.


title: Randy Couture

text: In 2019, Couture starred alongside Luke Goss and Michael Jai White in the movie "The Hard Way" which was among the most popular watched movies on Netflix.


title: Randy Couture

text: In July, 2019, Couture appeared on an episode of the Outdoor Channel show "Gunnytime" entitled "Teamwork Makes the Dream Work".


title: Randy Couture

text: Couture was previously married to Sharon, Tricia, and Kim Couture (née Borrego). He and Kim filed for divorce in May 2009. He continued to coach her and support her MMA career. He has three children, including Ryan. He often works with and is the long-term partner of model and actress Mindy Robinson.


title: Randy Couture

text: Asked if MMA could be improved, he suggested health insurance, retirement plans as well as more equal compensation regarding other athletes and sports. He lives in Las Vegas.


title: Randy Couture

text: In 2012 Randy Couture was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame (ISHOF) presented by sports legend Dr. Robert M. Goldman.


title: Randy Couture

text: On October 23, 2019, Couture suffered a heart attack after training and walked himself to a nearby hospital. Following a successful operation, Couture made a full recovery.


title: Blippi

text: Blippi is an American educational YouTube channel/video live-action program for toddlers and children up to the age of about five years old. The show was created and the character originally played by Stevin John, who posted the first episode of the show on YouTube on February 18, 2014. Aiming to keep Blippi going, John joined the multi-channel network Moonbug Entertainment in 2020, which funds the series and other children's programs. It is dubbed in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic,


title: Blippi

text: Until May 2021, the Blippi character was only portrayed by Stevin John. On May 8, Clayton Grimm, who played Blippi in live performances, performed as Blippi for the first time on the channel and would host as an alternative Blippi with John. On October 9, 2021, Moonbug announced the addition of a new character named Meekah (played by Kaitlin Becker). The spin-off series "Blippi's Treehouse" started airing on December 1, 2021, on Amazon Kids+, with two more characters, Scratch and Patch (both are puppets).


title: Blippi

text: The eponymous YouTube series features Blippi, an adult with a childlike curiosity and energetic persona, who wears a blue and orange beanie cap, blue shirt, orange suspenders, and an orange bow tie.


title: Blippi

text: In October 2020 Moonbug Entertainment partnered with Virgin Media to bring Blippi and other Moonbug programs to the United Kingdom. The show expanded to Southeast Asia in March 2021 when Moonbug partnered with POPS Worldwide to bring children's content to the POPS Kids app. Netflix acquired the streaming license to Blippi in January 2022.


title: Blippi

text: In 2019 Blippi signed a master toy deal with Jazwares LLC to sell a variety of merchandise such as toy vehicles, plush and educational toys based on the Blippi show, beginning in spring 2020.


title: Blippi

text: In early 2020 Jazwares created "My Buddy Blippi," a plush toy that can recreate 15 of the character's sounds and phrases.


title: Blippi

text: Blippi The Musical is a live show produced by Round Room Live in partnership with Moonbug Entertainment, and was scheduled to tour North America in summer 2021. In previous tours of Blippi there had been some outcry as a result of the performances not being performed by Stevin John but by another actor. Originally scheduled in 2020, live performances were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Blippi

text: Blippi Wonders is a computer-animated children's web series based on Stevin John's "Blippi". The series is about Blippi, along with either TABBS (an orange cat) or D.BO (a blue dog) on a blue car called the Blippi Mobile. The Blippi Mobile can change into many elements, such as wings and shrinking down. The series is produced by London-based Moonbug Entertainment and Italy-based Rainbow S.p.A..


title: Blippi

text: Nathan J. Robinson of "Current Affairs" criticized Blippi's programming, calling it "dead and sterile" and lacking intellectual curiosity that children can understand.


title: Blippi

text: Common Sense Media, however, says Blippi’s programs incorporate simple preschool skills like color recognition and counting. It teaches preschoolers to engage in their surroundings and explore their curiosity.


title: Jack Davenport

text: Jack Arthur Davenport (born 1 March 1973) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series "This Life" and "Coupling", and as James Norrington in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. He has also appeared in other Hollywood films, such as "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "".


title: Jack Davenport

text: On television, Davenport is known for his roles in the ensemble drama series "FlashForward," "Smash", and "The Morning Show" as well as his leading role in the 2013 ITV drama series "Breathless".


title: Jack Davenport

text: Davenport, the son of actors Nigel Davenport and Maria Aitken, was born in Wimbledon, London, and lived in Ibiza, Spain, for the first seven years of his life. His uncle is writer and former Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken, his maternal grandmother was socialite Penelope Aitken, his maternal grandfather was politician William Aitken, and one of his maternal great-grandfathers was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Through Jonathan Aitken's marriage to Elizabeth Rees-Williams, Davenport is also related to Jared Harris and Jamie Harris, her sons from her marriage to Richard Harris. His parents divorced when he was seven, at which point he was sent to the independent Dragon School in Oxford, as his parents did not want him to become involved in the divorce proceedings. He then went on to attend Cheltenham College, a boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational), in the spa town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, in the West of England, followed by the British American Drama Academy in London.


title: Jack Davenport

text: Davenport had not planned to become an actor; however, his career began when he took a gap year after attending Cheltenham College. A director from Theatr Clwyd was impressed by his performance in a summer drama course and asked Davenport to work for him. Aged 18 he was in Wales, performing bit parts in "Hamlet", where he became friends with Rhys Ifans.


title: Jack Davenport

text: The following year, he attended the University of East Anglia (UEA), concentrating in Film Studies and English Literature. He tried acting once more at the UEA but was not, at this point, particularly interested in it. Davenport had considered becoming a member of a film crew, as opposed to acting in front of the camera. His mother advised him, after his graduation from UEA, to write to John Cleese requesting work on the set of his upcoming film, "Fierce Creatures", so that Davenport could gain some experience behind the camera. Cleese instead sent Davenport's letter to the casting department, and he was subsequently cast as a trainee zookeeper. Whilst a small part with few lines it provided his first opportunity to work in front of the camera. After the production of "Fierce Creatures" was completed, Davenport found an agent who secured him an audition for the role of Miles Stewart in the BBC television drama series "This Life".


title: Jack Davenport

text: Since then Davenport has played roles in many successful films and TV series, including "The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Coupling" and "Ultraviolet", as well as the box office smash "", and its sequels, "" and "".


title: Jack Davenport

text: During his career Davenport has also performed voice-overs, having narrated the audio versions of John Buchan's "The Thirty-Nine Steps" and recorded parts in Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange". He also provides the voice over for the British MasterCard advertisements (the American being done by Billy Crudup).


title: Jack Davenport

text: In 2006, he featured in the ITV1 drama "The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant" and in 2009 starred in the film "The Boat That Rocked".


title: Jack Davenport

text: In 2007 Davenport was cast in "Swingtown", a period and relationship drama for CBS about the impact of sexual and social liberation in 1970s American suburban households, with story arcs involving open marriages and key parties. This was cancelled after one season.