title: Transformers

text: Three "" limited series were also published. These are set at the beginning of the Great War, and identify Prime as once being a clerk named Optronix. "Beast Wars" was also retroactively stated as the future of this continuity, with the profile series "More than Meets the Eye" showing the Predacon Megatron looking at historical files detailing Dreamwave's characters and taking his name from the original Megatron. In 2004, this real life universe also inspired three novels and a Dorling Kindersley guide, which focused on Dreamwave as the "true" continuity when discussing in-universe elements of the characters. In a new twist, Primus and Unicron are siblings, formerly a being known as The One. "", set after the "Ark"'s disappearance, was also published. The real life universe was disrupted when Dreamwave went bankrupt in 2005. This left the "Generation One" story hanging and the third volume of "The War Within" half finished. Plans for a comic book set between "Beast Wars" and "Beast Machines" were also left unrealized.


title: Transformers

text: Throughout the years, the G1 characters have also starred in crossovers with fellow Hasbro property "G.I. Joe", but whereas those crossovers published by Marvel were in continuity with their larger storyline, those released by Dreamwave and "G.I. Joe" publisher Devil's Due Publishing occupy their own separate real life universes. In Devil's Due, the terrorist organization Cobra is responsible for finding and reactivating the Transformers. Dreamwave's version reimagines the familiar "G1" and "G.I. Joe" characters in a World War II setting, and a second limited series was released set in the present day, though Dreamwave's bankruptcy meant it was cancelled after a single issue. Devil's Due had Cobra re-engineer the Transformers to turn into familiar Cobra vehicles, and released further mini-series that sent the characters travelling through time, battling Serpentor and being faced with the combined menace of Cobra-La and Unicron. During this time, Cobra teams up with the Decepticons. IDW Publishing has expressed interest in their own crossover.


title: Transformers

text: The following year, IDW Publishing rebooted the G1 series from scratch within various limited series and . This allowed long-time writer of Marvel and Dreamwave comics, Simon Furman to create his own universe without continuity hindrance, similar to Ultimate Marvel. This new continuity originally consisted of a comic book series titled The Transformers with a companion series known as . The main series was broken up into several story arcs. Eventually, with IDW Publishing losing sales, the series was given a soft reboot. Beginning with "All Hail Megatron," the series was set in a new direction, discarding the mini series and Spotlight format with ongoing comics. By 2012 the series had split into three ongoing series; The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, The Transformers: Robots in Disguise (which later changed in 2015 to "The Transformers") and The Transformers: Till All Are One. In 2022, it was announced that IDW lost the publishing rights to Transformers.


title: Transformers

text: In January 2006, the "Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club" comic wrote a story based on the Transformers Classics toy line, set in the Marvel Comics universe, but excluding the "Generation 2" comic. Fifteen years after Megatron crash lands in the "Ark" with Ratchet, the war continues with the characters in their "Classics" bodies.


title: Transformers

text: IDW Publishing introduced "" in 2006, a collection of mini-series that re-imagine and reinterpret the G1 characters in various ways. To date, only one miniseries has been published, "", placing the characters in an Industrial Revolution-era setting. The series was delayed as Hasbro did not want to confuse newcomers with too many fictional universes before the release of the live-action film.


title: Transformers

text: However, IDW and the original publisher Marvel Comics announced a crossover storyline with the Avengers to coincide with the film "New Avengers/Transformers". The story is set on the borders of Symkaria and Latveria, and its fictional universe is set between the first two "New Avengers" storylines, as well in between the "" and "" phase of IDW's "The Transformers". IDW editor-in-chief, Chris Ryall hinted at elements of it being carried over into the main continuities, and that a sequel is possible. In June 2018 it was announced there would be Star Trek and Transformers Crossover being released in September 2018.


title: Transformers

text: First broadcast in Japan in 2000, "Robots in Disguise" was a single animated series consisting of thirty-nine episodes. It was exported to other countries in subsequent years. In this continuity, Megatron recreates the Decepticons as a subfaction of the Predacons on Earth, a potential reference to the return to the vehicle-based characters following the previous dominance of the animal-based characters of the "Beast" eras. It is a stand-alone universe with no ties to any other Transformers fiction, though some of the characters from "Robots in Disguise" did eventually make appearances in "Transformers: Universe", including Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Side Burn and Prowl.


title: Transformers

text: The show was heavily censored in the U.S. due to its content of buildings being destroyed and terrorism references after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers. The show was eventually banned from cable TV networks in the U.S.


title: Transformers

text: These three lines, launched in 2002 and dubbed the "Unicron Trilogy" by "Transformers" designer Aaron Archer, are co-productions between Takara and (lesser extent) Hasbro, simultaneously released in both countries, each lasting 52 episodes. "Armada" followed the Autobots and Decepticons discovering the powerful Mini-Cons on Earth, which are revealed by the end to be weapons of Unicron. "Energon", set ten years later, followed the Autobots and the Omnicons in their fight to stop the Decepticons and the Terrorcons from resurrecting Unicron with energon.


title: Transformers

text: In Japan, the series "Transformers: Cybertron" showed no ties to the previous two series, telling its own story. This caused continuity problems when Hasbro sold "Cybertron" as a follow-up to "Armada/Energon". The writers attempted to change certain plot elements from the Japanese version to remedy this, although this largely added up to nothing more than references to Unicron, Primus, Primes and Minicons.


title: Transformers

text: Just as Marvel produced a companion comic to "Generation One", Dreamwave Productions published the comic "Transformers Armada" set in a different continuity to the cartoon. At #19, it became "Transformers Energon". Dreamwave went bankrupt and ceased all publications before the storyline could be completed at #30. However, the Transformers Fan Club published a few stories set in the "Cybertron" era.


title: Transformers

text: The storyline of "Transformers: Universe", mainly set following "Beast Machines", sees characters from many assorted alternate continuities, including existing and new ones, encountering each other. The story was told in an unfinished comic book exclusive to the Official Transformers Collectors' Convention.


title: Transformers

text: In 2007, Michael Bay directed a live-action film based on "Transformers", with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, and Tyrese Gibson in the lead human cast while voice actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively. "Transformers" received mixed to positive reviews and was a box office success. It is the forty-fifth highest-grossing film and the fifth highest-grossing film of 2007, grossing approximately $709 million worldwide. The film won four awards from the Visual Effects Society and was nominated for three Academy Awards, for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. The performance of Shia Labeouf was praised by "Empire", and Peter Cullen's reprisal of Optimus Prime from the 1980s was well received by fans. A sequel, "", was released on June 24, 2009. It received mostly negative reviews, but was a commercial success and grossed more than its predecessor. A third film, "", was released on June 29, 2011, in 3-D and went on to gross over $1 billion, with mixed reviews. A fourth film, "", was released on June 27, 2014, which also grossed over $1 billion, though it got mixed to negative reviews. A fifth film, "" was released on June 23, 2017. "Bumblebee" was released on December 21, 2018, serving as a prequel to the first film, although it has since been declared a reboot of the film franchise.


title: Transformers

text: "" is a cartoon that was aired in early 2008 on Cartoon Network in the United States. Originally scheduled for late after 2007 under the title of "Transformers: Heroes", "Transformers Animated" is set in 2050 Detroit (after crash landing 50 years earlier), when robots and humans live side by side. The Autobots come to Earth and assume superhero roles, battling evil humans with the Decepticons having a smaller role until Megatron resurfaces. Main characters include Autobots Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, and Ratchet; Decepticons Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing, Lugnut, and Blackarachnia; and humans Professor Sumdac and Sari Sumdac. Several characters that were in the original Transformers cartoon and 1986 animated movie, as well as characters only seen in comics and such, make special appearances and cameos throughout the show, with various voice actors (including Corey Burton, John Moschitta, Jr., Susan Blu, and Judd Nelson) reprising their roles.


title: Transformers

text: Hasbro, in an attempt to stop the wave of reboots that started in 2001, created the Aligned Universe, with the intent to unify every "Transformers" media into one continuity. The name of this continuity, however is not official; it was adopted by the fans after Hasbro referred to it as an "Aligned Continuity".


title: Transformers

text: The toy lines derived from this continuity are "Transformers: Generations", "", and "Transformers Go!". The television series belonging to the Aligned Universe include "" (including its concluding film ""), the "Rescue Bots" TV series, its sequel "", the "Go!" anime adaptation, and the 2015 series "".


title: Transformers

text: The video games that are part of this shared universe are "" (including its and the companion ""), "", the , and "", that serves as a conclusion of the "Cybertron" series and crossover with the live-action film video game series.


title: Transformers

text: So far four novels have been published: "Transformers: Exodus", "Transformers: Exiles", "Transformers: Retribution", and "Transformers: The Covenant of Primus". The first three were published by Del Rey Books, while "Covenant of Primus" was published by 47North. In addition, IDW Publishing has published several comic books, including graphic novels, while Titan Magazines published "Transformers Comic UK", a 20 issues series from 2007 to 2014.


title: Transformers

text: The video games, novels, and television series contradict each other due to creative differences, miscommunications, constant team changes, and Aaron Archer being replaced with a different person that had no knowledge of the 354-page brand bible, "The Binder of Revelation".


title: Transformers

text: In August 2016, Machinima and Hasbro co-produced a computer-animated series named "Combiner Wars", simultaneously published on the website Go90 and YouTube. This was followed by two further installments, "Titans Return" and "Power of the Primes".


title: Transformers

text: Eric Calderon was executive producer of the trilogy. The events of the series take place 40 years after the end of the Autobot/Decepticon civil war, with the Transformers having returned to Cyberton and now being threatened by ancient technology.


title: Transformers

text: The trailer for "Combiner Wars" was released on July 26, 2016, along with four prequel episodes. Eight five-minute episodes of the series "Combiner Wars" were released weekly beginning on August 2. The cast of the "Combiner Wars" was predominantly made up of famous YouTube personalities. The first series was included as a bonus feature on the "Transformers: The Last Knight" Blu-ray release.


title: Transformers

text: The second series, dubbed "Titans Return" featured returning voice cast from previous iterations of Transformers, such as Peter Cullen and Judd Nelson, along with newcomers such as Michael Dorn as Perceptor and Wil Wheaton as Fortress Maximus. Guest voices included Mark Hamill and Ron Perlman. "Titans Return" debuted on November 14, 2017, on the Go90 platform, consisting of ten episodes at roughly 11 minutes each. The series featured returning Titan characters such as Metroplex, Fortress Maximus and Trypticon and the resultant destruction such enormous characters create.


title: Transformers

text: The third part of the trilogy, dubbed "Power of the Primes" was launched on May 1, 2018, comprising 10 episodes released weekly, each roughly 11 minutes long. FJ DeSanto was executive producer of the third installment. Animation was done by Tatsunoko Productions. "Power of the Primes" focused on the arrival of Megatronus, one of the original Primes. In 2019, Machinima shut down and folded into Otter Media. On January 19, Machinima removed all of its videos from YouTube, including those of the Prime Wars Trilogy. After the shutdown, a number of former Machinima creations returned to the web via Rooster Teeth. The series is available on the Rooster Teeth website.


title: Transformers

text: Produced by Boulder Media Limited, Hasbro Studios and Allspark Animation for Cartoon Network, it started airing on September 1, 2018.


title: Transformers

text: Two seasons, named "Chapters", were planned, with the first aired in 2018 and with the second, subtitled "Power of the Spark", planned for 2019.


title: Transformers

text: "Cyberverse" uses characters and elements across G1, Beast Era, the live-action film series, "Animated", and the Aligned continuity. It is notable for being the first television series of the franchise to have an 11-minute runtime (the latter two installments of the Prime Wars Trilogy have first utilized this format) and for having a New York cast instead of the usual Los Angeles one.


title: Transformers

text: The Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy is a 3D computer-animated three-part series that was developed as a co-production between Rooster Teeth, Netflix and Hasbro. Polygon Pictures was chosen as the animation studio. Headed by FJ DeSanto, a veteran of Transformers animation having previously worked on two installments of the Power of the Primes trilogy, the series tells the origin of the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Comprising three parts, the series was announced on February 15, 2019, for release on Netflix. The voice cast of the show used new actors for recognizable characters such as Jake Foushou as Optimus Prime and Jason Marnocha as Megatron. Each series is made up of six episodes, each a half hour long. The series also had a tie-in toyline.


title: Transformers

text: A trailer of for the first installment "Siege" was released on July 8, 2020, with the show following on July 30, 2020, The first series focused on the civil war on Cybertron and the conflict between the two leaders of the opposing factions, Optimus Prime and Megatron, along with the introduction of a third, mercenary, faction.


title: Transformers

text: A trailer for the second series, dubbed "Earthrise", was published on December 7, 2020 The second series debuted on Netflix on December 30. "Earthrise" was more limited in scope than the previous series. Instead of the entire Transformer civil war, this series focused on the two leaders once again and the crews of their starships as Optimus sought to flee Cybertron and find the missing Allspark. The series also saw the introduction of a fourth faction, the Quintessons.


title: Transformers

text: The trailer for the final series, "Kingdom", debuted on July 5, 2021 and the series premiered on Netflix on July 29. "Kingdom" picks up where the last series left off with Optimus and Megatron searching for the Allspark, having now crash-landed on Earth. On the planet, they encounter characters previously seen in the older series "Transformers: Beast Wars". The third series was the final one, as Hasbro has no plans for a fourth series.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: Deep Impact is a 1998 American science-fiction disaster film directed by Mimi Leder, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin, and starring Robert Duvall, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, and Morgan Freeman. Steven Spielberg served as an executive producer of this film. It was released by Paramount Pictures in North America and by DreamWorks Pictures internationally on May 8, 1998. The film depicts the attempts to prepare for and destroy a wide comet set to collide with Earth and cause a mass extinction.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: "Deep Impact" was released in the same summer as a similarly themed film, "Armageddon", which fared better at the box office, while astronomers described "Deep Impact" as being more scientifically accurate. Both films were similarly received by critics, with "Armageddon" scoring 37% and "Deep Impact" scoring 46% on Rotten Tomatoes. "Deep Impact" grossed over $349 million worldwide on an $80 million production budget. It was the final film by cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann, who died before the film's release.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: In May 1998, at a star party, teenage amateur astronomer Leo Beiderman observes an unidentified object in the night sky. He sends a picture to astronomer Dr. Marcus Wolf, who realizes it is a comet on collision course with Earth. Wolf dies in a car crash while racing to raise the alarm.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: A year later, journalist Jenny Lerner investigates Secretary of the Treasury Alan Rittenhouse over his connection with "Ellie", whom she assumes to be a mistress but is confused when she finds him and his family loading a boat with large amounts of food and other survival gear. She is apprehended by the FBI and taken to meet President Tom Beck, who persuades her not to share the story in return for a prominent role in the press conference he will arrange. She subsequently discovers that "Ellie" is actually an acronym — ELE — which stands for "extinction-level event". Two days later, Beck announces that the comet Wolf–Beiderman is on course to impact the Earth in roughly one year and could cause humanity's extinction. He reveals that the United States and Russia have been constructing the "Messiah" in orbit, a spacecraft to transport a team to alter the comet's path with nuclear bombs.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: The "Messiah" launches a short time later with a crew of five American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut. They land on the comet's surface and drill the nuclear bombs deep beneath its surface, but the comet shifts into the sunlight. Consequently, one astronaut is blinded and another propelled into space by an explosive release of gas. The remaining crew escape the comet and detonate the bombs.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: Rather than deflect the comet, the bombs split it in two. Beck announces the mission's failure in a television address, and that both pieces — the larger now named Wolf and the smaller named Beiderman — are both still headed for Earth. Martial law is imposed and a lottery selects 800,000 Americans to join 200,000 pre-selected individuals in underground shelters in the Meramec Caverns in Missouri. Lerner is pre-selected, as are the Beiderman family as gratitude for discovering the comet, though Leo's girlfriend Sarah and her family are not selected. Leo marries Sarah in a vain attempt to save her family; while this saves Sarah, her family are still not selected, and she refuses to go without them.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: A last-ditch effort to deflect the comets with ICBMs fails. Upon arrival at the shelter, Leo eschews his safety and leaves to find Sarah. He reaches her on the freeway and takes her and her baby brother to high ground while her parents remain. Lerner gives up her seat on the evacuation helicopter to a colleague and her young daughter, and instead travels to the beach where she reconciles with her estranged father.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: The Beiderman fragment hits the Atlantic Ocean, creating a megatsunami that destroys much of the East Coast of the United States and also hits Europe and Africa, resulting in millions of fatalities, including Sarah’s parents, Lerner and her father. Leo, Sarah, and her baby brother survive after making it to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The crew of "Messiah" decide to sacrifice themselves to destroy the larger Wolf fragment by flying deep inside it and detonating their remaining nuclear bombs. They say goodbye to their loved ones and execute their plan. Wolf is blown into smaller pieces which burn up harmlessly in the Earth's atmosphere.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: After the waters recede, President Beck speaks to a large crowd at an under-construction replacement United States Capitol, encouraging them to remember those lost as they begin to rebuild.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: The origins of "Deep Impact" started in the late 1970s when producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown approached Paramount Pictures proposing a remake of the 1951 film "When Worlds Collide". Although several screenplay drafts were completed, the producers were not completely happy with any of them and the project remained in "development hell" for many years. In the mid-1990s, they approached director Steven Spielberg, with whom they had made the 1975 blockbuster "Jaws", to discuss their long-planned project. However, Spielberg had already bought the film rights to the 1993 novel "The Hammer of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, which dealt with a similar theme of an asteroid on a collision course for Earth and humanity's attempts to prevent its own extinction. Spielberg planned to produce and direct "The Hammer of God" himself for his then-fledgling DreamWorks studio, but opted to merge the two projects with Zanuck and Brown, and they commissioned a screenplay for what would become "Deep Impact". In 1995, the forthcoming film was announced in industry publications as "Screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, based on the film "When Worlds Collide" and "The Hammer of God" by Arthur C Clarke" though ultimately, following a subsequent redraft by Michael Tolkin, neither source work would be credited in the final film. Spielberg still planned to direct "Deep Impact" himself, but commitments to his 1997 film "Amistad" prevented him from doing so in time, particularly as Touchstone Pictures had just announced their own similarly-themed film "Armageddon", also to be released in summer 1998. Not wanting to wait, the producers opted to hire Mimi Leder to direct "Deep Impact", with Spielberg acting as executive producer. Leder was unaware of the other film being made. “I couldn’t believe it. And the press was trying to pit us against each other. That didn’t feel good. Both films have great value and, fortunately, they both succeeded tremendously." Clarke's novel was used as part of the film's publicity campaign both before and after the film's release and he was disgruntled about not being credited on the film.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: Jenny Lerner, the character played by Téa Leoni, was originally intended to work for CNN. CNN rejected this because it would be "inappropriate". MSNBC agreed to be featured in the movie instead, seeing it as a way to gain exposure for the then newly created network.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: Director Mimi Leder later explained that she would have liked to travel to other countries to incorporate additional perspectives, but due to a strict filming schedule and a comparatively low budget, the idea was scratched. Visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar felt that coverage of worldwide events would have distracted and detracted from the main characters' stories.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: A number of scientists worked as science consultants for the film including astronomers Gene Shoemaker, Carolyn Shoemaker, Josh Colwell and Chris Luchini, former astronaut David Walker, and the former director of the NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Gerry Griffin.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: "Deep Impact" debuted at the North American box office with $41,000,000 in ticket sales. It managed to cross over "Twister", scoring the tenth-highest opening weekend of all time. For a decade, the film held the record for having the biggest opening weekend for a female-directed film until it was taken by "Twilight" in 2008. The film grossed $140,000,000 in North America and an additional $209,000,000 worldwide for a total gross of $349,000,000. Despite competition in the summer of 1998 from the similar "Armageddon", both films were widely successful, with "Deep Impact" being the higher opener of the two, while "Armageddon" was the most profitable overall.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: "Deep Impact" had a mixed critical reception. Based on 87 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 46% of critics enjoyed the film, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A tidal wave of melodrama sinks "Deep Impact"s chance at being the memorable disaster flick it aspires to be." Metacritic gave a score of 40 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" said that the film "has a more brooding, thoughtful tone than this genre usually calls for", while Rita Kempley and Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" criticized what they saw as unemotional performances and a lack of tension.


title: Deep Impact (film)

text: At the 1998 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress for Leoni (lost to Lacey Chabert for "Lost in Space") and Worst Screenplay For A Film Grossing More Than $100 Million (Using Hollywood Math) (lost to "Godzilla").


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: The party was founded as an Irish republican party on 16 May 1926 by Éamon de Valera and his supporters after they split from Sinn Féin in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War on the issue of abstentionism on taking the Oath of Allegiance to the British Monarchy, which de Valera advocated in order to keep his position as a Teachta Dála (TD) in the Irish parliament, in contrast to his position before the Irish Civil War. Since 1927, Fianna Fáil has been one of Ireland's two major parties, along with Fine Gael since 1933; both are seen as centre-right parties, to the right of the Labour Party and Sinn Féin. The party dominated Irish political life for most of the 20th century, and, since its foundation, either it or Fine Gael has led every government. Between 1932 and 2011, it was the largest party in Dáil Éireann, but latterly with a decline in its vote share; from 1989 onwards, its periods of government were in coalition with parties of either the left or the right.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil's vote collapsed in the 2011 general election; it emerged in third place, in what was widely seen as a political realignment in the wake of the post-2008 Irish economic downturn. By 2016, it had recovered enough to become the largest opposition party, and it entered a confidence and supply arrangement with a Fine Gael–led minority government. In 2020, after a number of months of political stalemate following the general election, Fianna Fáil agreed with Fine Gael and the Green Party to enter into an unprecedented coalition, with the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rotating between the roles of Taoiseach and Tánaiste.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and of Liberal International. From February 2019 to September 2022, Fianna Fáil was in partnership with the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil was founded by Éamon de Valera, a former leader of Sinn Féin. He and a number of other members split from Sinn Féin when a motion he proposed—which called for elected members to be allowed to take their seats in Dáil Éireann if and when the controversial Oath of Allegiance was removed—failed to pass at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in 1926. His new party adopted its name on 2 April of the same year. While it was also opposed to the Treaty settlement, it rejected abstentionism, instead aiming to republicanise the Irish Free State from within. Fianna Fáil's platform of economic autarky had appeal among the farmers, working-class people and the poor, while alienating more affluent classes. It largely pre-empted voters of the aforementioned groups from the Labour Party (with its almost identical economic and social policy) following its entry into the Dáil in 1927. Fianna Fáil would go on to style themselves for several decades as “the real Labour Party.”


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Cumann na nGaedheal sought to exploit the notion that Fianna Fáil was a party in thrall to communists. During the 1932 general election campaign, Cumann na Gaedheal declared in a newspaper advert that “the gunmen and Communists are voting for Fianna Fáil today – vote for the Government party.” However, Fianna Fáil won the election. The party first entered government on 9 March 1932. It was in power for 61 of the 79 years between then and the election of 2011. Its longest continuous period in office has been 15 years and 11 months (March 1932 – February 1948). Its longest single period out of office in the 20th century was four years and four months (March 1973 – July 1977). All of the party's leaders have served as Taoiseach.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: The party's most dominant era was the 41-year period between 1932 and 1973, when party leaders Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch served as Taoiseach in an almost unbroken chain save for six years that John A. Costello of Fine Gael briefly interrupted. De Valera's reign is acknowledged for having successfully guided Ireland through World War II unscathed but is criticised for leaving Ireland in economic and cultural stagnation. His successors such as Lemass however were able to turn around Ireland's economic fortunes as well as primed the country for entry into the European Economic Community, later the European Union.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil's fortunes began to falter in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1970 the Arms Crisis threatened to split the entire party in two when Fianna Fáil cabinet ministers Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney were dismissed by Jack Lynch after being accused of seeking to provide arms to the newly emergent Provisional Irish Republican Army. Factional infighting over Northern Ireland, economics and the "moral issues ” such as the legalization of divorce, abortion, and contraception plagued the party in this era and grew particularly intense when Charles Haughey later became party leader. Under Haughey, Fianna Fáil lost both the 1981 general election and November 1982 general election to Garret FitzGerald's Fine Gael during a particularly chaotic time in Ireland's political and economic history. Numerous failed internal attempts to oust Haughey as leader of the party culminated in the most significant split in the party's history when a large portion of the membership walked out to create the Progressive Democrats in 1985, under the leadership of Haughey archrival Desmond O'Malley. Haughey was forced to resign as Taoiseach and party leader in 1992 following revelations about his role in a phone tapping scandal.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Although the two parties had seemed poised to be bitter enemies owing to the personal conflicts between the memberships, from 1989 onwards Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats served repeatedly in coalition governments together, helping to stabilise Fianna Fáil. In 1994 Fianna Fáil came under the new leadership of Haughey protégé Bertie Ahern, who also became Taoiseach in 1997. Under Ahern, Fianna Fáil was able to claim credit for helping to broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 which began the peace process in Northern Ireland, as well the economic upswing caused by the Celtic Tiger which saw Ireland's economy boom during the 2000s. However, this momentum came to a sharp and sudden halt following two events. Firstly, Ahern was forced to resign as Taoiseach and left the party in 2008 following revelations made in the Mahon Tribunal that Ahern had accepted money from property developers. Secondly, the party, which was still in government under a new leader and Taoiseach Brian Cowen, was held responsible for the effects of the post-2008 Irish economic downturn. The party's popularity crashed: an opinion poll on 27 February 2009 indicated that only 10% of voters were satisfied with the Government's performance.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In the 2011 general election, it suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in the history of the Irish state. This loss was described as "historic" in its proportions and "unthinkable". The party sank from being the largest in the Dáil to the third-largest, losing 58 of its 78 seats. This broke 79 consecutive years of Fianna Fáil being the largest single party in the Dáil. That election took place with Michael Martin as leader, as Cowen had resigned as party leader in January 2011, although retained his role as Taoiseach until the election. Cowen's premiership was sharply criticised in the media, with "The Sunday Times" describing Cowen's tenure as Taoiseach as "a dismal failure" and in 2011 the "Irish Independent" calling Cowen the "worst Taoiseach in the history of the State."


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Martin continued to lead Fianna Fáil past 2011; In the 2016 general election Martin's Fianna Fáil made a moderate recovery while Fine Gael retained control of the government as a minority government, made possible by a confidence and supply agreement with Fianna Fáíl. In 2018 the party was divided internally over how the party would handle that year's referendum on the Eighth Amendment, the provision in the Irish constitution which forbade abortion, with a significant portion of both the parliamentary party and the ordinary membership in favour of a No vote. Leader Michael Martin signalled his own desire for a Yes vote, but was unable to bring the party under one stance, and ultimately more than half of Fianna Fáil's TDs campaigned for a No vote. On polling day the Yes side won, 66% to 33%.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: After the 2020 general election, for the first time in history, Fianna Fáil entered into a coalition government with its traditional rival Fine Gael, as well as the Green Party, with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin serving as Taoiseach. That same year a number of Fianna Fáil members were involved in the "Golfgate" scandal, an event that ultimately led to the resignation of Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary. In July 2021 Fianna Fáil suffered what a number of sources suggested might have been the single worst result in its history when the party polled extremely poorly in the 2021 Dublin Bay South by-election. The result prompted Jim O'Callaghan and Cathal Crowe to question whether Martin should lead the party into its next general election. In July 2022 thirty Fianna Fáil backbenchers formed an internal group within the party; almost immediately the group suggested that it would not vote for Leo Varadkar to become Taoiseach in December 2022 if Martin continued to lead Fianna Fáil by that point.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil uses a structure called a cumann system. The basic unit was the "cumann" (branch); these were grouped into "comhairlí ceantair" (district branches) and a "comhairle dáil ceantair" (constituency branch) in every constituency. The party claimed that in 2005 they had 50,000 registered names, but only an estimated 10,000–15,000 members were considered active.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: However, from the early 1990s onward the "cumann" structure was weakened. Every "cumann" was entitled to three votes to selection conventions irrespective of its size; hence, a large number of "cumainn" had become in effect "paper "cumainn"", the only use of which was to ensure an aspiring or sitting candidate got enough votes. Although this phenomenon was nothing new (the most famous example being Neil Blaney's "Donegal Mafia").


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Since the 2007 election, the party's structure has significantly weakened. This was in part exacerbated by significant infighting between candidates in the run-up to the 2011 general election. "The Irish Times" estimated that half of its 3,000 "cumainn" were effectively moribund. This fraction rose in Dublin with the exception of Dublin West, the former seat of both Brian Lenihan Snr and Brian Lenihan Jnr.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In the modern era, Fianna Fáil is seen as a typical catch-all party and has defined itself as such. In the 1980s Brian Lenihan Snr declared "there are no isms or [ide]ologies in my party", while in the early 2000s Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern affirmed the party's catch-all stance by defining Fianna Fáil as a party that "looks out for the small ranking guy, the middle-ranking guy and assists the big guy". This contrasts with the more working-class orientation Fianna Fáil had in the early 20th century; In 1926 Seán Lemass described the party as "a progressive republican party based on the actual conditions of the moment" while upon winning the 1932 Irish general election, newly elected Fianna Fáil TD Seán Moylan proclaimed that Fianna Fáil's win meant a victory of "the owners of the donkey and cart over the pony and trap class". The Fianna Fáil party of the 1930s has been described as an economically social democratic one that sought to create an economically independent state (autarky) via protectionist policies, based on its culturally nationalist thinking.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: During the leadership of Seán Lemass in the 1960s, Fianna Fáil began to utilise some corporatist policies (embracing the concept of ‘social partnership’), taking some influence from the Roman Catholic Church. It was also during Lemass' time that the party shifted heavily away from autarkic thinking and towards a firm belief in free trade and foreign direct investment in Ireland.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In 1967 Jack Lynch described the party as "left of centre" while suggesting it was to the left of Fine Gael and Labour. However, during the 1969 Irish general election the party ran red scare tactics against Labour after it began using the slogan "the seventies will be socialist!". As Fine Gael became more and more socially liberal in the 1970s under Garret FitzGerald, the party reacted by embracing social conservatism and populism. In the same time period, the emergence of the Troubles and the Arms Crisis of 1971 tested the party's nationalism, but despite these events, Fianna Fáil maintained their moderate culturally nationalist stance.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In the 1990s, Fianna Fáil was described as a conservative party but also as a nationalist party. It has presented itself as a "broad church" and attracted support from across disparate social classes. Between 1989 and 2011, it led coalition governments with parties of both the left and the right. Fianna Fáil's platform contains a number of enduring commitments: to Irish unity; to the promotion and protection of the Irish language; and to maintaining Ireland's tradition of military neutrality. While the party is distinctly more populist, nationalist, and generally more economically interventionist than Fine Gael, the party shares its rival's support of the European Union. Although part of the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament, the party has not supported the group's positions on civil liberties and its liberal nature is disputed, though the party did legalize same-sex civil partnerships in 2010.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: The party's name and logo incorporates the words 'The Republican Party'. According to Fianna Fáil, "Republican here stands both for the unity of the island and a commitment to the historic principles of European republican philosophy, namely liberty, equality and fraternity". The party's main goal at its beginning was to reunite the North and the South.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: R. Ken Carty wrote of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that they were "heterogeneous in their bases of support, relatively undifferentiated in terms of policy or programme, and remarkably stable in their support levels". Evidence from expert surveys, opinion polls and candidate surveys all fail to identify strong distinctions between the two parties.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: On 17 September 2007, Fianna Fáil announced that the party would for the first time organise in Northern Ireland. The then Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern was asked to chair a committee on the matter: "In the period ahead Dermot Ahern will lead efforts to develop that strategy for carrying through this policy, examining timescales and structures. We will act gradually and strategically. We are under no illusions. It will not be easy. It will challenge us all. But I am confident we will succeed".


title: Fianna Fáil

text: The party embarked on its first ever recruitment drive north of the border in September 2007 in northern universities, and established two 'Political Societies', the William Drennan Cumann in Queens University, Belfast, and the Watty Graham Cumann in UU Magee, Derry, which subsequently became official units of Fianna Fáil's youth wing, attaining full membership and voting rights, and attained official voting delegates at the 2012 Ard Fheis. On 23 February 2008, it was announced that a former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) councillor, Colonel Harvey Bicker, had joined Fianna Fáil.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Bertie Ahern announced on 7 December 2007 that Fianna Fáil had been registered in Northern Ireland by the UK Electoral Commission.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: The party's Ard Fheis in 2009 unanimously passed a motion to organise in Northern Ireland by establishing forums, rather than cumainn, in each of its six counties. In December 2009, Fianna Fáil secured its first Northern Ireland Assembly MLA when Gerry McHugh, an independent MLA, announced he had joined the party. Mr. McHugh confirmed that although he had joined the party, he would continue to sit as an independent MLA. In June 2010, Fianna Fáil opened its first official office in Northern Ireland, in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The then Taoiseach Brian Cowen officially opened the office, accompanied by Ministers Éamon Ó Cuív and Dermot Ahern and Deputies Rory O’Hanlon and Margaret Conlon. Discussing the party's slow development towards all-Ireland politics, Mr. Cowen observed: "We have a very open and pragmatic approach. We are a constitutional republican party and we make no secret of the aspirations on which this party was founded. It has always been very clear in our mind what it is we are seeking to achieve, that is to reconcile this country and not being prisoners of our past history. To be part of a generation that will build a new Ireland, an Ireland of which we can all be proud".


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil has not contested any elections in Northern Ireland since its registration and recognition there in 2007. At the party's 2014 Ard Fheis, a motion was passed without debate to stand candidates for election north of the border for the first time in 2019.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In 2017, Omagh councillor Sorcha McAnespy said she wished to run in the 2019 Northern Ireland local government election in the constituency under a Fianna Fáil ticket. In October 2017 she was elected as northern representative on the party's national executive, the "committee of 15".


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Since 24 January 2019, the party have been in partnership with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) formerly the main Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland, but now smaller than Sinn Féin. There had long been speculation about the eventual partnership for several years prior. This was initially met with a negative reaction from Seamus Mallon, former Deputy Leader of the SDLP, who stated he would be opposed to any such merger. Former leader of the SDLP Margaret Ritchie originally stated publicly that she opposed any merger, announcing to the Labour Party Conference that such a merger would not happen on her "watch". On 10 January 2019, Richie stated that she now supported a new partnership with Fianna Fáil.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Both Fianna Fáil and the SDLP currently have shared policies on key areas including addressing the current political situation in Northern Ireland, improving public services in both jurisdictions of Ireland, such as healthcare, housing, education, and governmental reform, and bringing about the further unity and cooperation of the people on the island and arrangements for a future poll on Irish reunification.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In September 2022, SDLP party leader Colum Eastwood announced the end of its partnership with Fianna Fáil, saying that the SDLP needed to move forward by "standing on its own two feet".


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Fianna Fáil joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party on 16 April 2009, and the party's Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) sat in the ALDE Group during the 7th European Parliament term from June 2009 to 1 July 2014. The party is a full member of the Liberal International. Prior to this, the party was part of the Eurosceptic Union for Europe of the Nations parliamentary group between 1999 and 2009.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: Party headquarters, over the objections of some MEPs, had made several attempts to sever the party's links to the European right, including an aborted 2004 agreement to join the European Liberal Democrat and Reform (ELDR) Party, with whom it already sat in the Council of Europe under the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) banner. On 27 February 2009, Taoiseach Brian Cowen announced that Fianna Fáil proposed to join the ELDR Party and intended to sit with them in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group in the European Parliament after the 2009 European elections.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In October 2009, it was reported that Fianna Fáil had irritated its new Liberal colleagues by failing to vote for the motion on press freedom in Italy (resulting in its defeat by a majority of one in the Parliament) and by trying to scupper their party colleagues' initiative for gay rights. In January 2010, a report by academic experts writing for the votewatch.eu site found that FF "do not seem to toe the political line" of the ALDE Group "when it comes to budget and civil liberties" issues.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In the 2014 European elections, Fianna Fáil received 22.3% of first-preference votes but only returned a single MEP, a reduction in representation of two MEPs from the previous term. This was due to a combination of the party's vote further dropping in Dublin and a two candidate strategy in the Midlands North West constituency, which backfired, resulting in sitting MEP Pat "the Cope" Gallagher losing his seat. On 23 June 2014, returning MEP Brian Crowley announced that he intended to sit with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) rather than the ALDE group during the upcoming 8th term of the European parliament. The following day on 24 June 2014 Crowley had the Fianna Fáil party whip withdrawn. He has since been re-added to Fianna Fáil's website.


title: Fianna Fáil

text: In the European Committee of the Regions, Fianna Fáil sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with two full and two alternate members for the 2020–2025 mandate. Kate Feeney is third vice-president of the Group and Group Coordinator in the SEDEC commission. Gillian Coughlan is Deputy Coordinator in the SEDEC Commission.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter. He wrote numerous songs, such as "Pancho and Lefty", "For the Sake of the Song", "If I Needed You", "Tecumseh Valley", "Tower Song", "Rex's Blues", and "To Live Is to Fly", that are widely considered masterpieces of American songwriting. His musical style has often been described as melancholy and features rich, poetic lyrics. During his early years, Van Zandt was respected for his guitar playing and fingerpicking ability.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1983 Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered and popularized Van Zandt's song "Pancho and Lefty", reaching number one on the Billboard country music chart. Much of Van Zandt's life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms and backwoods cabins. For much of the 1970s, he lived in a simple shack without electricity or a telephone.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt's influence has been cited by countless artists across multiple genres and his music has been recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Counting Crows, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Robert Earl Keen Jr., Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Wade Bowen, Gillian Welch, Richard Buckner, Pat Green, Colter Wall, Jason Isbell, Calvin Russell, Natalie Maines, Jason Molina, Kevin Morby, Stephen Duffy, Doc Watson, The Cowboy Junkies, Frank Turner, Rowland S. Howard, Cave In, Amenra and Marissa Nadler.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: He suffered from a series of drug addictions and alcoholism, and was given a psychiatric diagnosis of bipolar disorder. When he was young, the now-discredited insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt died on New Year's Day 1997 from cardiac arrythmia caused by health problems stemming from years of substance abuse. A revival of interest in Van Zandt blossomed in the 2000s. During the decade, two books, a documentary film ("Be Here to Love Me"), and numerous magazine articles were written about him.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Born in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy family, Van Zandt was a great-great-great-grandson of Isaac Van Zandt (a prominent leader of the Republic of Texas) and a great-great-grand-nephew of Khleber Miller Van Zandt (a major in the Confederate army and one of the founders of Fort Worth).


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Townes' parents were Harris Williams Van Zandt (1913–1966) and Dorothy Townes (1919–1983). He had two siblings, Bill (1949–2009) and Donna (1941–2011). Harris was a corporate lawyer and his career required the family to move several times during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1952, the family relocated from Fort Worth to Midland, Texas for six months before moving to Billings, Montana.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: At Christmas in 1956, Townes' father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside. He later told an interviewer that "seeing Elvis Presley on the "Ed Sullivan Show" was the starting point for me becoming a guitar player... I just thought that Elvis had all the money in the world, all the Cadillacs and all the girls, and all he did was play the guitar and sing. That made a big impression on me." In 1958, the family moved to Boulder, Colorado. Van Zandt remembered his time in Colorado fondly and often visited it as an adult. He later referred to Colorado in "My Proud Mountains", "Colorado Girl", and "Snowin' on Raton". Townes was a good student and active in team sports. In grade school, he was found to have a high IQ, and his parents began grooming him to become a lawyer or senator. Fearing that his family would move again, he willingly decided to attend the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota. He received a score of 1170 when he took the SAT in January 1962. His family soon moved to Houston, Texas.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1962, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder, wrote poetry, and listened to records by Lightnin' Hopkins and Hank Williams. In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression. They admitted him to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory. Afterwards, his mother said that her "biggest regret in life was that she had allowed that treatment to occur". In 1965, he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program. Soon after, he attempted to join the Air Force, but was rejected because of a doctor's diagnosis that labelled him "an acute manic-depressive who has made minimal adjustments to life". After Townes' father died in January 1966 aged 52, he quit school and went on the road for the first time having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1965, Van Zandt began playing regular shows at the Jester Lounge in Houston for $10 per night. After the Jester closed, he began to regularly perform (and occasionally live) at Sand Mountain Coffee House. In these Houston clubs, he met fellow musicians Lightnin' Hopkins, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Doc Watson. His repertoire consisted mostly of covers of songs written by Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and others, as well as original novelty songs like "Fraternity Blues." In 1966, Harris Van Zandt had encouraged his son to stop playing covers and write his own songs.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: At one point around 1967, Van Zandt was roommates with 13th Floor Elevators singer Roky Erickson. Erickson insisted that he join the Elevators on bass, even though he was a guitarist who had never played bass before. He auditioned for Erickson's bandmate Tommy Hall, but Hall rejected him.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1968, Van Zandt met songwriter Mickey Newbury in a Houston coffee shop. Newbury persuaded Van Zandt to go to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was introduced by Newbury to the man who became his longtime producer, "Cowboy" Jack Clement.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt cited Lightnin' Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Hank Williams and such varied artists as Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones, Blind Willie McTell, Tchaikovsky, and Jefferson Airplane as having had a major impact on his music.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: The years between 1968 and 1973 proved to be his most prolific era. Van Zandt released six albums during the time period: "For the Sake of the Song", "Our Mother the Mountain", "Townes Van Zandt", "Delta Momma Blues", "High, Low and In Between", and "The Late Great Townes Van Zandt". Among the tracks written for these albums were "To Live Is to Fly", "Pancho and Lefty", and "If I Needed You". These songs eventually raised Van Zandt to near-legend status in American and European songwriting circles.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1972, he recorded tracks for an album with a working title of "Seven Come Eleven", which remained unreleased for many years due to a dispute between his manager Kevin Eggers and producer Jack Clement. Eggers either could not or refused to pay for the studio sessions, so Clement erased the master tapes. However, before they were deleted, Eggers snuck into the studio and recorded rough mixes of the songs on to a cassette tape. Tracks from the aborted "Seven Come Eleven" debacle later surfaced on "The Nashville Sessions".


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1975, Van Zandt was featured prominently in the documentary film "Heartworn Highways" with Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Steve Young, Gamble Rogers, Charlie Daniels and David Allan Coe. His segment of the film was shot at his run-down trailer home in Austin, Texas, where Van Zandt is shown drinking straight whiskey during the middle of the day, shooting and playing with guns, and performing the songs "Waitin' Around to Die" and "Pancho and Lefty." His soon-to-be second wife Cindy and dog Geraldine (a large, "keenly intelligent" half-wolf, half-husky) are featured in the film.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1977, "Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas" was released. The album showcased Van Zandt solo at a 1973 concert before a small audience, and less elaborately produced than many of his early records. The album received positive reviews, and is considered by many to be among the best albums that the songwriter ever released.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In the mid-1970s, Van Zandt split from his longtime manager, Kevin Eggers. He found a new manager, John Lomax III (grandson of the famed folk music historian John Lomax), who set up a fan club for Van Zandt. Though the club was only advertised through small ads in the back of music magazines, Lomax immediately began to receive hundreds of impassioned letters from around the world written by people who felt touched by Van Zandt. Some of the letters described how his material often served as a crutch for those who were dealing with depression. In 1978, the singer fired Lomax and re-hired Eggers. He soon signed with Eggers' new label, Tomato Records. The following year, he recorded "Flyin' Shoes"; he did not release another album until 1987's "At My Window". Despite critical acclaim, he remained a cult figure. He normally played small venues (often to crowds of fewer than fifty people) but began to move towards playing larger venues (and even made a handful of television appearances) during the 1990s. For much of the 1970s, he lived a reclusive life outside of Nashville in a tin-roofed, bare-boards shack with no heat, plumbing or telephone, occasionally appearing in town to play shows.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Several of Van Zandt's compositions were recorded by other artists, such as Emmylou Harris who, with Don Williams, had a No. 3 country hit in 1981 with "If I Needed You," and Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, the pair taking "Pancho and Lefty" to No. 1 on the country charts in 1983. Van Zandt had a small cameo appearance in the video for the song. In his later years, he recorded less frequently, his voice and singing style altered in part because of his drug addiction and alcoholism. However, he continued writing songs, such as "Marie" and "The Hole".


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: According to Susanna Clark, Van Zandt turned down repeated invitations to write with Bob Dylan. Dylan was reportedly a "big fan" of Townes and claimed to have all of his records; Van Zandt admired Dylan's songs, but didn't care for his celebrity. The two first met during a chance encounter outside a costume shop in the South Congress district of Austin, on June 21, 1986. According to Johnny Guess, Dylan later arranged another meeting with the songwriter. The Drag in Austin was shut down due to Dylan being in town; Van Zandt drove his motorhome to the cordoned-off area, after which Dylan boarded the vehicle and requested to hear him play several songs. In May and June 1990, he opened for the Cowboy Junkies during a two-month-long tour of the United States and Canada, which exposed him to a younger generation of fans. As a result, he wrote the song "Cowboy Junkies Lament" for the group, with a verse about each member of the band.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt married Fran Peterson on August 26, 1965; a son, John Townes "J.T." Van Zandt II, was born to them on April 11, 1969, in Houston. The couple divorced on January 16, 1970. He began dating Cindy Morgan in 1974 and they married in 1978. Townes and Cindy became estranged for much of the early 1980s, and were divorced on February 10, 1983, in Travis County, Texas. They had no children.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt's third marriage was to Jeanene Munsell. They met on December 9, 1980, at a memorial for John Lennon. When the terminally-ill Dorothy Van Zandt learned that her son had impregnated Munsell, she told him, "You're going to do the right thing and honor that baby." He divorced his estranged second wife and married Munsell on March 14, 1983. Their first child, William Vincent, was born ten days later. Another child, Katie Belle, was born February 14, 1992. Van Zandt and Munsell divorced on May 2, 1994. However, the two remained close until Townes' death, and Jeanene was an executrix of his estate.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Around the time of their April 1993 separation, Jeanene coaxed the musician into signing over the publishing rights of his back catalog and recording royalties to her and their children. Townes' only source of income after making that change was money received from concert engagements, and even then, Townes frequently visited his ex-wife and gave her the money in his pockets. Following their divorce in 1994, his only possessions were a 1989 GMC Truck with camper shell, a 1984 Honda Shadow motorcycle and a 1983 Starwind 22-foot boat named "Dorothy." He also retained sole ownership of his family inheritance of ownership in oil lease and mineral rights.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: At the time of his death, he had begun a long-distance relationship with a woman named Claudia Winterer from Darmstadt, Germany. The two met in November 1995 during a concert of his in Hanau, Germany. Van Zandt told friends, he planned on marrying Winterer, but the two never became engaged.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt was addicted to heroin and alcohol throughout his adult life. At times, he became drunk on stage and forgot the lyrics to his songs. At one point, his heroin habit was so intense that he offered Kevin Eggers the publishing rights to all of the songs on each of his first four albums for $20. At various points, his friends saw him shoot up not just heroin, but also cocaine, vodka, as well as a mixture of rum and Coke. On at least one occasion, he shot up heroin in the presence of his son J.T., who was only eight years old at the time.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: As a result of Van Zandt's constant drinking, Harold Eggers, Kevin's brother, was hired as his tour manager and 24-hour caretaker in 1976, a partnership that lasted for the rest of the singer's life. Although the musician was years older than he was, Eggers later said that Van Zandt was his "first child." His battles with addiction led him into rehab nearly a dozen times throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Medical records from his recovery centers indicate that he believed his drinking had become a problem around 1973, and that by 1982 he was drinking at least a pint of vodka daily. Doctors' notes reported: "He admits to hearing voices, mostly musical voices", and "Affect is blunted and mood is sad. Judgment and insight is impaired." At various times he was prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft and the mood stabilizer lithium. The longest and final period of sobriety during his adult life was about a year in 1989 and 1990.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt continued writing and performing through the 1990s, though his output slowed noticeably. He had enjoyed some sobriety during the early 1990s, but actively abused alcohol during his final years. In 1994, he was admitted to the hospital to detox, when a doctor told Jeanene Van Zandt that trying to detox Townes again could potentially kill him. He grew increasingly frail during the mid-1990s, with friends noting that he seemed to have "withered."


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In early 1996, he was contacted by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, who informed Van Zandt that he was interested in recording and releasing an album for him on the band's Ecstatic Peace label, funded by Geffen. Van Zandt agreed, and sessions were scheduled to begin in Memphis during late December of that year. On December 19 or 20, Van Zandt fell down the concrete stairs outside his home, badly injuring his hip. After lying outside for an hour, he dragged himself inside and called his ex-wife Jeanene, who sent friends Royann and Jim Calvin to check on him. He told the couple that he had sustained the injury while getting out of bed, and refused medical treatment. They took him back to their home, and he spent Christmas week on their couch, unable to get up even to use the bathroom.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Determined to finish the album that he had scheduled to record with Shelley and Two Dollar Guitar, Van Zandt arrived at the Memphis studio being pushed in a wheelchair by road manager Harold Eggers. Shelley canceled the sessions due to the songwriter's erratic behavior and drunkenness. Van Zandt finally agreed to hospitalization, but not before returning to Nashville. By the time he consented to receive medical care, eight days had passed since the injury. On December 31, X-rays revealed that Van Zandt had an impacted left femoral neck fracture in his hip, and several corrective surgeries were performed. Jeanene informed the surgeon that one of Townes' previous rehab doctors had told her detoxing could kill him. The medical staff tried to explain to her that detoxing a "late-term alcoholic" at home would be ill-advised, and he would have a better chance at recovering under hospital supervision. She did not heed the warnings, and checked Townes out of the hospital. Understanding that he would most likely drink immediately after leaving the hospital, the physicians refused to prescribe him any painkillers.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: By the time Van Zandt was checked out of the hospital early the next morning, he had begun to show signs of delirium tremens. Jeanene rushed him to her car, where she gave him a flask of vodka to ward off the withdrawal delirium. She later reported that after getting him back home to Smyrna, Tennessee, and giving him alcohol, he became "lucid, in a real good mood, calling his friends on the phone." Jim Calvin shared a marijuana joint with him, and he was also given about four Tylenol PM tablets.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: While Jeanene was on the phone with Susanna Clark, their son Will noticed that Townes had stopped breathing and "looked dead", and alerted his mother, who attempted to perform CPR, "screaming his name between breaths". Townes Van Zandt died in the early morning hours of January 1, 1997, at the age of 52. His official cause of death was "natural" cardiac arrhythmia.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Two services were held for Van Zandt: one in Texas for family, and another in a large Nashville church, attended by friends, acquaintances, and fans. Some of his ashes were placed underneath a headstone in the Van Zandt family plot at the Dido Cemetery in Dido, Texas, near Fort Worth.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In the years immediately following Van Zandt's death, his former manager and label owner Kevin Eggers issued 14 albums of both new and previously unreleased material by the singer, all without consent of his estate (represented by Jeanene Van Zandt and his three children). Eggers claimed a 50% interest in eighty of Van Zandt's songs. After nearly ten years of legal battles, the court sided with the estate, issuing "injunctive relief against Eggers, restraining him from reproducing or distributing any of Van Zandt's songs."


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: It was revealed through these proceedings that Van Zandt's annual income in the years before his death had climbed to over $100,000, thanks in large part to the royalties accrued from his songs being covered by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard, Cowboy Junkies, and other major music stars. After Van Zandt's death his road manager, Harold Eggers, released video and audio recordings from the songwriter's concerts. An out-of-court settlement in 2006 granted the Van Zandts conditional control of Harold Eggers' mastered recordings with Eggers retaining a 50% ownership of seven albums and some royalties for the remaining recordings.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: On October 21, 2008, a number of Van Zandt's personal possessions were auctioned off at The Northside in Akron, Ohio at a benefit for Rex "Wrecks" Bell. Bell was a close friend and bandmate, and the inspiration for the song "Rex's Blues". Bell was also part owner of the bar Old Quarter in Houston, where Van Zandt performed the songs that would comprise the album "Live at the Old Quarter".


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt has been referred to as a cult musician and "a songwriter's songwriter." Musician Steve Earle, who met him in 1978 and considered Van Zandt a mentor, once called Van Zandt "the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that." The quote was printed on a sticker featured on the packing of "At My Window", much to Van Zandt's displeasure. In the years following, the quote was often cited by the press, much to Van Zandt and Earle's embarrassment; in 2009, Earle told the "New York Times" "Did I ever believe that Townes was better than Bob Dylan? No." But he concluded at the end of the same article that, "As a songwriter, you won't find anybody better." Earle has championed the songwriter on a number of occasions: his eldest son, Justin Townes Earle, also a musician, was named after Van Zandt. Earle wrote the song "Fort Worth Blues" as a tribute to the singer in the late 1990s, and in 2009 released an album titled "Townes", which featured all covers of Van Zandt songs.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: His Texas-grounded impact stretched farther than country. He has been cited as a source of inspiration by such notable artists as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Guthrie Thomas, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Chelsea Wolfe, Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Cowboy Junkies, Vetiver, Guy Clark, Devendra Banhart, Norah Jones, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Be Good Tanyas and Jolie Holland, Rowland S. Howard, Michael Weston King, Hayes Carll, Josh Ritter, Gillian Welch, Garth Brooks, Simon Joyner, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon, Marissa Nadler, Laura Marling, and Frank Turner, Folk musician Shakey Graves has credited his fast-paced, rhythmic style of finger picked guitar playing partially to Van Zandt's influence.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 1994, Israeli singer David Broza performed with Van Zandt during a Writers in the Round concert in Houston. When Van Zandt died, he left a shoe box full of unreleased poems and lyrics with a request that Broza set them to music. The resulting album was "Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt".


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In July 2012, Neurot Recordings released a three-way split album in tribute to Van Zandt, featuring Neurosis singer/guitarists Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till and doom/stoner metal legend Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Two years later another similar album was released featuring John Baizley, Mike Scheidt and Nate Hall, frontmen of the bands Baroness, YOB and U.S. Christmas respectively.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: On June 18, 2015, Van Zandt was inducted into the second year's ceremony of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, along with Asleep at the Wheel, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark and Flaco Jimenez. Gillian Welch inducted Van Zandt by telling stories about how he had come to her early gigs in Nashville and how he had bolstered her confidence in writing sad songs.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt's "Roadsongs" album version of The Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers" was used during the final scene of the Coen Brothers' 1998 film, "The Big Lebowski". The song was included on the movie's soundtrack. Since his death, Van Zandt's recordings have been licensed by his family for use in a number of films and television programs, including "Stepmom", "Ozark", "Six Feet Under", "In Bruges", "Calvary", "Crazy Heart", "Leaves of Grass", "Seven Psychopaths", "Deadwood", "Breaking Bad", "Billions", "True Detective", "Euphoria (American TV Series)", and "Hell or High Water" (Dollar Bill Blues). His ""Buckskin Stallion Blues"" was featured in the 2017 American film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" both as his original recording and a cover by Amy Annelle.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In the film "Country Strong", the "Austin Statesman" describes the character of Beau Hutton as "the next Townes Van Zandt". The 2012 documentary film "Low & Clear", which revolves around Van Zandt's son JT fly fishing for steelhead in British Columbia with his old fishing buddy Xenie, features Van Zandt's songs "Dollar Bill Blues" and "My Proud Mountains".


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In 2004, the film "", chronicling the artist's life and musical career, was released in the United States. It was very well received, earning a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Georgia Christgau of the "Village Voice" called the documentary "sympathetic but frank." Eddie Cockrell of "Variety" called the film "a dignified and wistful look at the unusual life, difficult career and lasting influence" of Van Zandt.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: A biography, titled "To Live's to Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt" by John Kruth, was released in 2007. It received mixed reviews, with "Publishers Weekly" lamenting that Kruth's "efforts are diminished by oddly alternating first- and third-person narratives, awkward transitions and text cluttered with excessive quotes... more insight into why – rather than countless tales of how – would have made this bio a more worthwhile read."


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: In April 2008, the University of North Texas Press published Robert Earl Hardy's biography on the songwriter, titled "A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt", which took more than eight years of research, including interviews with Mickey Newbury, Jack Clement, Guy and Susanna Clark, Mickey White, Rex Bell, Dan Rowland, Richard Dobson, John Lomax III, Van Zandt's brother and sister, cousins, his three ex-wives, and many others. The book has been described by "Kirkus Reviews" as a "poignant, clear and vivid portrait."


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: "I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt" by Brian T. Atkinson was released on New Year's Day 2012 by Texas A&M University Press, coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Van Zandt's death. The book contains interviews with longtime Van Zandt friends Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Russell and Peter Rowan as well as younger disciples such as Scott Avett (the Avett Brothers), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Kasey Chambers, Josh Ritter, and Grace Potter.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: Van Zandt was portrayed by Charlie Sexton in the 2018 film "Blaze", a biographical drama about the life of Blaze Foley.


title: Townes Van Zandt

text: More books and movies about Townes Van Zandt were released, e.g. Harold Eggers' "My Years with Townes Van Zandt" and Mickey White's "Another Mickey. Ruminations of a Texas Guitar Slinger" (books) or "Without Getting Killed or Caught" (movie, director: Tamara Saviano).


title: Genetics

text: Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms. It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar working in the 19th century in Brno, was the first to study genetics scientifically. Mendel studied "trait inheritance", patterns in the way traits are handed down from parents to offspring over time. He observed that organisms (pea plants) inherit traits by way of discrete "units of inheritance". This term, still used today, is a somewhat ambiguous definition of what is referred to as a gene.


title: Genetics

text: Trait inheritance and molecular inheritance mechanisms of genes are still primary principles of genetics in the 21st century, but modern genetics has expanded to study the function and behavior of genes. Gene structure and function, variation, and distribution are studied within the context of the cell, the organism (e.g. dominance), and within the context of a population. Genetics has given rise to a number of subfields, including molecular genetics, epigenetics and population genetics. Organisms studied within the broad field span the domains of life (archaea, bacteria, and eukarya).


title: Genetics

text: Genetic processes work in combination with an organism's environment and experiences to influence development and behavior, often referred to as nature versus nurture. The intracellular or extracellular environment of a living cell or organism may switch gene transcription on or off. A classic example is two seeds of genetically identical corn, one placed in a temperate climate and one in an arid climate (lacking sufficient waterfall or rain). While the average height of the two corn stalks may be genetically determined to be equal, the one in the arid climate only grows to half the height of the one in the temperate climate due to lack of water and nutrients in its environment.


title: Genetics

text: We need to know a lot more about the biology of viruses because of genetic analysis. The virus's genome, which is made up of 11 double-stranded RNA segments, serves as its defining characteristic. The primary characteristic of viral genetics is the genome's segmented structure's ability to reassign genome segments during mixed infections


title: Genetics

text: The word "genetics" stems from the ancient Greek ' meaning "genitive"/"generative", which in turn derives from ' meaning "origin".


title: Genetics

text: The observation that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding. The modern science of genetics, seeking to understand this process, began with the work of the Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel in the mid-19th century.


title: Genetics

text: Prior to Mendel, Imre Festetics, a Hungarian noble, who lived in Kőszeg before Mendel, was the first who used the word "genetic" in hereditarian context. He described several rules of biological inheritance in his works "The genetic laws of the Nature" (Die genetischen Gesetze der Natur, 1819). His second law is the same as what Mendel published. In his third law, he developed the basic principles of mutation (he can be considered a forerunner of Hugo de Vries). Festetics argued that changes observed in the generation of farm animals, plants, and humans are the result of scientific laws. Festetics empirically deduced that organisms inherit their characteristics, not acquire them. He recognized recessive traits and inherent variation by postulating that traits of past generations could reappear later, and organisms could produce progeny with different attributes. These observations represent an important prelude to Mendel’s theory of particulate inheritance insofar as it features a transition of heredity from its status as myth to that of a scientific discipline, by providing a fundamental theoretical basis for genetics in the twentieth century.


title: Genetics

text: Other theories of inheritance preceded Mendel's work. A popular theory during the 19th century, and implied by Charles Darwin's 1859 "On the Origin of Species", was blending inheritance: the idea that individuals inherit a smooth blend of traits from their parents. Mendel's work provided examples where traits were definitely not blended after hybridization, showing that traits are produced by combinations of distinct genes rather than a continuous blend. Blending of traits in the progeny is now explained by the action of multiple genes with quantitative effects. Another theory that had some support at that time was the inheritance of acquired characteristics: the belief that individuals inherit traits strengthened by their parents. This theory (commonly associated with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck) is now known to be wrong—the experiences of individuals do not affect the genes they pass to their children. Other theories included Darwin's pangenesis (which had both acquired and inherited aspects) and Francis Galton's reformulation of pangenesis as both particulate and inherited.


title: Genetics

text: Modern genetics started with Mendel's studies of the nature of inheritance in plants. In his paper ""Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden"" ("Experiments on Plant Hybridization"), presented in 1865 to the "Naturforschender Verein" (Society for Research in Nature) in Brünn, Mendel traced the inheritance patterns of certain traits in pea plants and described them mathematically. Although this pattern of inheritance could only be observed for a few traits, Mendel's work suggested that heredity was particulate, not acquired, and that the inheritance patterns of many traits could be explained through simple rules and ratios.


title: Genetics

text: The importance of Mendel's work did not gain wide understanding until 1900, after his death, when Hugo de Vries and other scientists rediscovered his research. William Bateson, a proponent of Mendel's work, coined the word "genetics" in 1905. (The adjective "genetic", derived from the Greek word "genesis"—γένεσις, "origin", predates the noun and was first used in a biological sense in 1860.) Bateson both acted as a mentor and was aided significantly by the work of other scientists from Newnham College at Cambridge, specifically the work of Becky Saunders, Nora Darwin Barlow, and Muriel Wheldale Onslow. Bateson popularized the usage of the word "genetics" to describe the study of inheritance in his inaugural address to the Third International Conference on Plant Hybridization in London in 1906.


title: Genetics

text: After the rediscovery of Mendel's work, scientists tried to determine which molecules in the cell were responsible for inheritance. In 1900, Nettie Stevens began studying the mealworm. Over the next 11 years, she discovered that females only had the X chromosome and males had both X and Y chromosomes. She was able to conclude that sex is a chromosomal factor and is determined by the male. In 1911, Thomas Hunt Morgan argued that genes are on chromosomes, based on observations of a sex-linked white eye mutation in fruit flies. In 1913, his student Alfred Sturtevant used the phenomenon of genetic linkage to show that genes are arranged linearly on the chromosome.


title: Genetics

text: Although genes were known to exist on chromosomes, chromosomes are composed of both protein and DNA, and scientists did not know which of the two is responsible for inheritance. In 1928, Frederick Griffith discovered the phenomenon of transformation: dead bacteria could transfer genetic material to "transform" other still-living bacteria. Sixteen years later, in 1944, the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment identified DNA as the molecule responsible for transformation. The role of the nucleus as the repository of genetic information in eukaryotes had been established by Hämmerling in 1943 in his work on the single celled alga "Acetabularia". The Hershey–Chase experiment in 1952 confirmed that DNA (rather than protein) is the genetic material of the viruses that infect bacteria, providing further evidence that DNA is the molecule responsible for inheritance.


title: Genetics

text: James Watson and Francis Crick determined the structure of DNA in 1953, using the X-ray crystallography work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins that indicated DNA has a helical structure (i.e., shaped like a corkscrew). Their double-helix model had two strands of DNA with the nucleotides pointing inward, each matching a complementary nucleotide on the other strand to form what look like rungs on a twisted ladder. The a-helix is a secondary structure and the twisting in the a-helix is caused by hydrogen bonds between the carboxyl (C=O) and the amine H (N-H) constituents of the polypeptide backbone. This structure showed that genetic information exists in the sequence of nucleotides on each strand of DNA. The structure also suggested a simple method for replication: if the strands are separated, new partner strands can be reconstructed for each based on the sequence of the old strand. This property is what gives DNA its semi-conservative nature where one strand of new DNA is from an original parent strand.


title: Genetics

text: Although the structure of DNA showed how inheritance works, it was still not known how DNA influences the behavior of cells. In the following years, scientists tried to understand how DNA controls the process of protein production. It was discovered that the cell uses DNA as a template to create matching messenger RNA, molecules with nucleotides very similar to DNA. The nucleotide sequence of a messenger RNA is used to create an amino acid sequence in protein; this translation between nucleotide sequences and amino acid sequences is known as the genetic code.


title: Genetics

text: With the newfound molecular understanding of inheritance came an explosion of research. A notable theory arose from Tomoko Ohta in 1973 with her amendment to the neutral theory of molecular evolution through publishing the nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution. In this theory, Ohta stressed the importance of natural selection and the environment to the rate at which genetic evolution occurs. One important development was chain-termination DNA sequencing in 1977 by Frederick Sanger. This technology allows scientists to read the nucleotide sequence of a DNA molecule. In 1983, Kary Banks Mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, providing a quick way to isolate and amplify a specific section of DNA from a mixture. The efforts of the Human Genome Project, Department of Energy, NIH, and parallel private efforts by Celera Genomics led to the sequencing of the human genome in 2003.


title: Genetics

text: At its most fundamental level, inheritance in organisms occurs by passing discrete heritable units, called genes, from parents to offspring. This property was first observed by Gregor Mendel, who studied the segregation of heritable traits in pea plants, showing for example that flowers on a single plant were either purple or white—but never an intermediate between the two colors. The discrete versions of the same gene controlling the inherited appearance (phenotypes) are called alleles.


title: Genetics

text: In the case of the pea, which is a diploid species, each individual plant has two copies of each gene, one copy inherited from each parent. Many species, including humans, have this pattern of inheritance. Diploid organisms with two copies of the same allele of a given gene are called homozygous at that gene locus, while organisms with two different alleles of a given gene are called heterozygous. The set of alleles for a given organism is called its genotype, while the observable traits of the organism are called its phenotype. When organisms are heterozygous at a gene, often one allele is called dominant as its qualities dominate the phenotype of the organism, while the other allele is called recessive as its qualities recede and are not observed. Some alleles do not have complete dominance and instead have incomplete dominance by expressing an intermediate phenotype, or codominance by expressing both alleles at once.


title: Genetics

text: When a pair of organisms reproduce sexually, their offspring randomly inherit one of the two alleles from each parent. These observations of discrete inheritance and the segregation of alleles are collectively known as Mendel's first law or the Law of Segregation. However, the probability of getting one gene over the other can change due to dominant, recessive, homozygous, or heterozygous genes. For example, Mendel found that if you cross homozygous dominate trait and homozygous recessive trait your odds of getting the dominant trait is 3:1. Real geneticist study and calculate probabilities by using theoretical probabilities, empirical probabilities, the product rule, the sum rule, and more.


title: Genetics

text: Geneticists use diagrams and symbols to describe inheritance. A gene is represented by one or a few letters. Often a "+" symbol is used to mark the usual, non-mutant allele for a gene.


title: Genetics

text: In fertilization and breeding experiments (and especially when discussing Mendel's laws) the parents are referred to as the "P" generation and the offspring as the "F1" (first filial) generation. When the F1 offspring mate with each other, the offspring are called the "F2" (second filial) generation. One of the common diagrams used to predict the result of cross-breeding is the Punnett square.


title: Genetics

text: When studying human genetic diseases, geneticists often use pedigree charts to represent the inheritance of traits. These charts map the inheritance of a trait in a family tree.


title: Genetics

text: Organisms have thousands of genes, and in sexually reproducing organisms these genes generally assort independently of each other. This means that the inheritance of an allele for yellow or green pea color is unrelated to the inheritance of alleles for white or purple flowers. This phenomenon, known as "Mendel's second law" or the "law of independent assortment," means that the alleles of different genes get shuffled between parents to form offspring with many different combinations. Different genes often interact to influence the same trait. In the Blue-eyed Mary ("Omphalodes verna"), for example, there exists a gene with alleles that determine the color of flowers: blue or magenta. Another gene, however, controls whether the flowers have color at all or are white. When a plant has two copies of this white allele, its flowers are white—regardless of whether the first gene has blue or magenta alleles. This interaction between genes is called epistasis, with the second gene epistatic to the first.


title: Genetics

text: Many traits are not discrete features (e.g. purple or white flowers) but are instead continuous features (e.g. human height and skin color). These complex traits are products of many genes. The influence of these genes is mediated, to varying degrees, by the environment an organism has experienced. The degree to which an organism's genes contribute to a complex trait is called heritability. Measurement of the heritability of a trait is relative—in a more variable environment, the environment has a bigger influence on the total variation of the trait. For example, human height is a trait with complex causes. It has a heritability of 89% in the United States. In Nigeria, however, where people experience a more variable access to good nutrition and health care, height has a heritability of only 62%.


title: Genetics

text: The molecular basis for genes is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA is composed of deoxyribose (sugar molecule), a phosphate group, and a base (amine group). There are four types of bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). The phosphates make hydrogen bonds with the sugars to make long phosphate-sugar backbones. Bases specifically pair together (T&A, C&G) between two backbones and make like rungs on a ladder. The bases, phosphates, and sugars together make a nucleotide that connects to make long chains of DNA. Genetic information exists in the sequence of these nucleotides, and genes exist as stretches of sequence along the DNA chain. These chains coil into a double a-helix structure and wrap around proteins called Histones which provide the structural support. DNA wrapped around these histones are called chromosomes. Viruses sometimes use the similar molecule RNA instead of DNA as their genetic material.


title: Genetics

text: DNA normally exists as a double-stranded molecule, coiled into the shape of a double helix. Each nucleotide in DNA preferentially pairs with its partner nucleotide on the opposite strand: A pairs with T, and C pairs with G. Thus, in its two-stranded form, each strand effectively contains all necessary information, redundant with its partner strand. This structure of DNA is the physical basis for inheritance: DNA replication duplicates the genetic information by splitting the strands and using each strand as a template for synthesis of a new partner strand.


title: Genetics

text: Genes are arranged linearly along long chains of DNA base-pair sequences. In bacteria, each cell usually contains a single circular genophore, while eukaryotic organisms (such as plants and animals) have their DNA arranged in multiple linear chromosomes. These DNA strands are often extremely long; the largest human chromosome, for example, is about 247 million base pairs in length. The DNA of a chromosome is associated with structural proteins that organize, compact, and control access to the DNA, forming a material called chromatin; in eukaryotes, chromatin is usually composed of nucleosomes, segments of DNA wound around cores of histone proteins. The full set of hereditary material in an organism (usually the combined DNA sequences of all chromosomes) is called the genome.


title: Genetics

text: DNA is most often found in the nucleus of cells, but Ruth Sager helped in the discovery of nonchromosomal genes found outside of the nucleus. In plants, these are often found in the chloroplasts and in other organisms, in the mitochondria. These nonchromosomal genes can still be passed on by either partner in sexual reproduction and they control a variety of hereditary characteristics that replicate and remain active throughout generations.


title: Genetics

text: While haploid organisms have only one copy of each chromosome, most animals and many plants are diploid, containing two of each chromosome and thus two copies of every gene. The two alleles for a gene are located on identical loci of the two homologous chromosomes, each allele inherited from a different parent.


title: Genetics

text: Many species have so-called sex chromosomes that determine the sex of each organism. In humans and many other animals, the Y chromosome contains the gene that triggers the development of the specifically male characteristics. In evolution, this chromosome has lost most of its content and also most of its genes, while the X chromosome is similar to the other chromosomes and contains many genes. This being said, Mary Frances Lyon discovered that there is X-chromosome inactivation during reproduction to avoid passing on twice as many genes to the offspring. Lyon's discovery led to the discovery of X-linked diseases.


title: Genetics

text: When cells divide, their full genome is copied and each daughter cell inherits one copy. This process, called mitosis, is the simplest form of reproduction and is the basis for asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction can also occur in multicellular organisms, producing offspring that inherit their genome from a single parent. Offspring that are genetically identical to their parents are called clones.


title: Genetics

text: Eukaryotic organisms often use sexual reproduction to generate offspring that contain a mixture of genetic material inherited from two different parents. The process of sexual reproduction alternates between forms that contain single copies of the genome (haploid) and double copies (diploid). Haploid cells fuse and combine genetic material to create a diploid cell with paired chromosomes. Diploid organisms form haploids by dividing, without replicating their DNA, to create daughter cells that randomly inherit one of each pair of chromosomes. Most animals and many plants are diploid for most of their lifespan, with the haploid form reduced to single cell gametes such as sperm or eggs.


title: Genetics

text: Although they do not use the haploid/diploid method of sexual reproduction, bacteria have many methods of acquiring new genetic information. Some bacteria can undergo conjugation, transferring a small circular piece of DNA to another bacterium. Bacteria can also take up raw DNA fragments found in the environment and integrate them into their genomes, a phenomenon known as transformation. These processes result in horizontal gene transfer, transmitting fragments of genetic information between organisms that would be otherwise unrelated. Natural bacterial transformation occurs in many bacterial species, and can be regarded as a sexual process for transferring DNA from one cell to another cell (usually of the same species). Transformation requires the action of numerous bacterial gene products, and its primary adaptive function appears to be repair of DNA damages in the recipient cell.


title: Genetics

text: The diploid nature of chromosomes allows for genes on different chromosomes to assort independently or be separated from their homologous pair during sexual reproduction wherein haploid gametes are formed. In this way new combinations of genes can occur in the offspring of a mating pair. Genes on the same chromosome would theoretically never recombine. However, they do, via the cellular process of chromosomal crossover. During crossover, chromosomes exchange stretches of DNA, effectively shuffling the gene alleles between the chromosomes. This process of chromosomal crossover generally occurs during meiosis, a series of cell divisions that creates haploid cells. Meiotic recombination, particularly in microbial eukaryotes, appears to serve the adaptive function of repair of DNA damages.


title: Genetics

text: The first cytological demonstration of crossing over was performed by Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock in 1931. Their research and experiments on corn provided cytological evidence for the genetic theory that linked genes on paired chromosomes do in fact exchange places from one homolog to the other.


title: Genetics

text: The probability of chromosomal crossover occurring between two given points on the chromosome is related to the distance between the points. For an arbitrarily long distance, the probability of crossover is high enough that the inheritance of the genes is effectively uncorrelated. For genes that are closer together, however, the lower probability of crossover means that the genes demonstrate genetic linkage; alleles for the two genes tend to be inherited together. The amounts of linkage between a series of genes can be combined to form a linear linkage map that roughly describes the arrangement of the genes along the chromosome.


title: Genetics

text: Genes generally express their functional effect through the production of proteins, molecules responsible for most functions in the cell. Proteins are made up of one or more polypeptide chains, each composed of a sequence of amino acids. The DNA sequence of a gene is used to produce a specific amino acid sequence. This process begins with the production of an RNA molecule with a sequence matching the gene's DNA sequence, a process called transcription.