title: InfoWars

text: "Infowars" has published and promoted fake news, and Jones has been accused of knowingly misleading people to make money. In the summer of 2015, video editor Josh Owens and reporter Joe Biggs took a video of workers loading cargo in Texas. They claimed the men were drug smugglers; the Drudge Report picked up their headline, and Donald Trump used it in a campaign speech. Owens admitted years later: "It's not about truth, it's not about accuracy — it's about what's going to make people click on this video...In essence, we lied." (Biggs was later indicted for seditious conspiracy for his role with the Proud Boys in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.) As part of the probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, "InfoWars" was investigated to see if it was complicit in the dissemination of fake news stories distributed by Russian bots.


title: InfoWars

text: From May 2014 to November 2017, "InfoWars" republished articles from multiple sources without permission, including over 1,000 from Russian state-sponsored news network RT, as well as stories from news outlets such as CNN, the BBC, and "The New York Times" which "Salon" said were "dwarfed" by those from RT.


title: InfoWars

text: A 2020 study by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern and Rutgers universities found that "InfoWars" was among the top 5 most shared fake news domains in tweets related to COVID-19, the others being "The Gateway Pundit", "WorldNetDaily", Judicial Watch and Natural News.


title: InfoWars

text: "InfoWars" has regularly claimed, without evidence, that mass shootings have been staged "false flag" operations and has accused survivors of such events of being crisis actors employed by the United States government. "InfoWars" host Alex Jones promoted the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theories, claiming that the massacre of twenty elementary school students and six staff members was "completely fake" and "manufactured," a stance for which Jones was heavily criticized. In March 2018, six families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the attack, filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones for his role in spreading conspiracy theories about the shooting. In December 2019, "InfoWars" and Jones were ordered to pay $100,000 in legal fees prior to the trial for another defamation lawsuit from a different family whose son was killed in the shooting. In a June 2022 agreement, the families will drop their Texas and Connecticut defamation cases against Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health, and in return, those companies will no longer pursue their Texas case for bankruptcy protection. The families may continue to pursue defamation cases against Alex Jones and Free Speech Systems.


title: InfoWars

text: Jones has also accused David Hogg and other survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting of being crisis actors.


title: InfoWars

text: "InfoWars" promoted fabricated Pizzagate claims. The fake claims led to harassment of the owner and employees of Comet Ping Pong, a Washington, D.C. pizzeria targeted by the conspiracy theories, including threatening phone calls, online harassment, and death threats. The owner sent a letter to Jones in February 2017 demanding a retraction or apology. (Such a letter is required before a party may seek punitive damages in an action for libel under Texas law).


title: InfoWars

text: After receiving the letter, Jones said, "I want our viewers and listeners to know that we regret any negative impact our commentaries may have had on Mr. Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, or its employees. We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope that anyone else involved in commenting on Pizzagate will do the same thing." "InfoWars" also issued a correction on its website.


title: InfoWars

text: "InfoWars" reporter Owen Shroyer also targeted East Side Pies, a group of pizza restaurants in Austin, Texas, with similar fake "Pizzagate" claims. Following the claims, the pizza business was targeted by phone threats, vandalism, and harassment, which the co-owners called "alarming, disappointing, disconcerting and scary".


title: InfoWars

text: In 2017, "InfoWars" (along with similar sites) published a fake story about U.S. yogurt manufacturer Chobani, with headlines including "Idaho yogurt maker caught importing migrant rapists" and "allegations that Chobani's practice of hiring refugees brought crime and tuberculosis to Twin Falls". Chobani ultimately filed a federal lawsuit against Jones, which led to a settlement on confidential terms in May 2017. Jones offered an apology and retraction, admitting he had made "certain statements" on "InfoWars" "that I now understand to be wrong".


title: InfoWars

text: While Jones has stated, "I'm not a business guy, I'm a revolutionary", he spends much of "InfoWars"s air time pitching dietary supplements and survivalist products to his audience. As a private firm, "InfoWars" and its affiliated limited liability companies are not required to make public financial statements; as a result, observers can only estimate its revenue and profits.


title: InfoWars

text: Prior to 2013, Jones focused on building a "media empire". By 2013, Alex Seitz-Wald of "Salon" estimated that Jones was earning as much as $10 million a year between subscriptions, web and radio advertising, and sales of DVDs, T-shirts, and other merchandise. That year, Jones changed his business model to incorporate selling proprietary dietary supplements, including one that promised to "supercharge" cognitive functions.


title: InfoWars

text: Unlike most talk radio shows, "InfoWars" itself does not directly generate income. It gets no syndication fees from its syndicater GCN, no cut of the advertising that GCN sells, and it does not sell its three minutes per hour of national advertising time. The show no longer promotes its video service (though it still exists), and has not made any documentary films since 2012. Virtually all money is made by selling Jones's dietary supplements to viewers and listeners through the site's online store.


title: InfoWars

text: In 2017, the supplements sold on the "InfoWars" store were primarily sourced from Dr. Edward F. Group III, a chiropractor who founded the Global Healing Center supplement vendor. A significant portion of "InfoWars"s products contain colloidal silver, which Jones falsely claimed "kills every virus", including "the whole SARS-corona family"; this claim was disputed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).


title: InfoWars

text: A lesser source of revenue for "InfoWars" is its "money bomb" telethons, which resemble public radio fundraisers, except "InfoWars" is a for-profit institution. According to former "InfoWars" employees, a money bomb was able to raise $100,000 in a day.


title: InfoWars

text: In 2014, Jones claimed that "InfoWars" was accumulating over $20 million in annual revenue. "The New York Times" attributed most of the revenue to sales of supplements, including "Super Male Vitality" and "Brain Force Plus," which "InfoWars" purported would increase testosterone and mental agility, respectively. Court documents in 2014 indicate that "InfoWars" was successful enough for Jones and his then-wife to be planning to "build a swimming pool complex... featuring a waterfall and dining cabana with a stone fireplace". The documents also listed Jones's possessions, including four Rolex watches, a $40,000 saltwater aquarium, a $70,000 grand piano, $50,000 in weapons, and $70,000 in jewelry.


title: InfoWars

text: After "InfoWars" was banned by Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and Pinterest, Jones appealed to viewers, "The enemy wants to cut off our funding to destroy us. If you don't fund us, we'll be shut down."


title: InfoWars

text: In April 2022, it became known the company behind "InfoWars" had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as had Infowars Health (or IWHealth), against further civil litigation lawsuits. The court filings estimated InfoWars assets at between $0–$50,000, but its liabilities (including from the damages awarded against Jones in defamation suits) was estimated as being between $1 million to $10 million.


title: InfoWars

text: Owen Shroyer (born 1989) is an American political activist and commentator from St. Louis who now lives and works in Texas. He is considered to be part of the US alt-right movement.


title: InfoWars

text: Shroyer previously worked as an AM radio host in St. Louis on KXFN and later KFNS. He began hosting a podcast and posting YouTube videos of his views. Shroyer has been quoted as supporting conspiracy theories about the Clinton family.


title: InfoWars

text: On August 20, 2021, Shroyer was charged with illegally entering a restricted area and disorderly conduct during the 2021 United States Capitol attack. He announced on "InfoWars" that there was a warrant for his arrest and that he would fight the charges.


title: State Duma

text: The State Duma (), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma (), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house is the Federation Council. The Duma headquarters are located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to as deputies. The State Duma replaced the Supreme Soviet as a result of the new constitution introduced by Boris Yeltsin in the aftermath of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, and approved in a nationwide referendum.


title: State Duma

text: In the 2007 and 2011 Russian legislative elections a full party-list proportional representation with 7% electoral threshold system was used, but this was subsequently repealed. The legislature's term length was initially 2 years in the 1993–1995 elections period, and 4 years in 1999–2007 elections period; since the 2011 elections the term length is 5 years.


title: State Duma

text: The history of the Duma dates back to the Boyar dumas of Kievan Rus' and Muscovite Russia as well to Tsarist Russia. The State Duma was founded in 1905 after the violence and upheaval in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was Russia's first elected parliament. The first two attempts by Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918) to make it active were ineffective. Subsequently, each of these Dumas was dissolved after only a few months. The third Duma was the only one to last until the end of its five-year term.


title: State Duma

text: After the 1907 electoral reform, the third Duma, elected in November 1907, was largely made up of members of the upper classes, as radical influences in the Duma had almost entirely been removed. The establishment of the Duma after the 1905 Revolution was to herald significant changes to the previous Russian Imperial autocratic system. Furthermore, the Duma was later to have an important effect on Russian history, as it was one of the contributing factors in the February Revolution of 1917, the first of two that year, which led to the abolition of the Tsarist autocracy in Russia and the overthrow of the Tsardom.


title: State Duma

text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, the Soviet system of government was abolished and a new Constitution was introduced and approved by a referendum. The new Charter transformed the Russian Federation into a federal semi-presidential republic, with a bicameral parliament composed by the State Duma and the Federation Council.


title: State Duma

text: In the December 1993 elections pro-Yeltsin parties won 175 seats in the Duma versus 125 seats for the left bloc. The balance of power lay with the sixty-four deputies of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Only parties that won more than five percent of the vote were given party-list seats: eight passed the threshold in 1993. In addition to those eight parties, a pool of thirty-five deputies was entitled to form a registered group to reflect regional or sectoral interests. Business was governed by a steering committee, the Duma Council, consisting of one person from each party or group. The most important task was dividing up the chair positions in the Duma's twenty-three committees, which was done as part of a power-sharing "package" deal.


title: State Duma

text: Despite the fact that the Russian Constitution states that the State Duma is elected for four years, it was decided to elect the first State Duma for two years. The 1995 election resulted in a strong boost for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which became the first political party of Russia and elected 157 seats: a Communist, Gennady Seleznyov, was elected as Speaker of the State Duma. The "presidential party" Our Home – Russia won 55 seats.


title: State Duma

text: During the second half of the 1990s, the Duma became an important forum for lobbying by regional leaders and businessmen looking for tax breaks and legislative favors. The work of the leading committees, such as those for defense, foreign affairs, or budget, attracted a good deal of media attention and lobbying activity.


title: State Duma

text: In the early 2000s, following the 1999 parliamentary elections, the pro-presidential Unity party and the Communist Party were the leading forces in the State Duma.


title: State Duma

text: After the 2003 elections, a Dominant-party system was established in the State Duma with the pro-presidential United Russia party. In all subsequent elections, United Russia has always received an absolute majority of seats (more than 226). After the 2007 elections, a four-party system was formed with a United Russia, Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia. Other parties could not get enough votes to go to the State Duma. Only in 2016 elections, two other parties, Rodina and the Civic Platform, were able to get one seat.


title: State Duma

text: In 2008, after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution, the term of the State Duma was increased from four to five years.


title: State Duma

text: A 2016 exposé by Dissernet showed that one in nine members of the State Duma had obtained academic degrees with theses that were substantially plagiarized and likely ghostwritten. In 2018, it became known that the State Duma building will be reconstructed. In March 2019 it became known that the repair will begin in May 2019 and will end in September 2020. During this period, the State Duma was temporarily housed in the House of Unions. In addition, a draft of a new conference room, which would be an amphitheatre, was presented.


title: State Duma

text: Following the results of the 2021 election, in addition to the four main parties, the New People party was also elected to the State Duma. Thus, for the first time since 1999, a five-party State Duma was formed.


title: State Duma

text: The State Duma adopts decrees on issues relating to its authority by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.


title: State Duma

text: The legal framework that is used to elect Duma differed over the years. Save to parliamentary election of 2007 and election of 2011 the mixed system of parallel voting was used to elect Duma. The system was restored back in February 2014 from a party-list proportional representation system enacted in 2003 with an increased threshold of 7% which was lowered this time to 5%.


title: State Duma

text: According to the law adopted in 2014 the Russian territory is divided into constituencies which are used for elections of single candidates per constituency. The entire Russia (e.g., "Chuvash Republic; Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of Sakha, Altai Republic; Republic of Dagestan with 31 indigenous groups or enclaves) however is treated as a single constituency for the party-lists ballots.


title: State Duma

text: Bills of the State Duma are adopted by a majority of the total number of deputies of the State Duma, unless another procedure is envisaged by the Constitution. All bills are first approved by the State Duma and are further debated and approved (or rejected) by the Federation Council.


title: State Duma

text: Relatively few roll call votes have been published that identify individual deputies' votes. The votes of individuals are recorded only if the voting is open and the electronic method is used. While not all votes are officially roll call votes, every time a deputy electronically votes a computer registers the individual deputy's vote.


title: State Duma

text: Any Russian citizen who is age 21 or older is eligible to participate in the election may be elected deputy to the State Duma. However, that same person may not be a deputy to the Federation Council. In addition, a State Duma deputy cannot hold office in any other representative body of state power or bodies of local self-government. The office as deputy of the State Duma is a full-time and professional position. Thus, deputies to the State Duma may not be employed in the civil service or engage in any activities for remuneration other than teaching, research or other creative activities.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Ramzi Ahmed Yousef (; born 20 May 1967 or 27 April 1968) is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434; he was also a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and U.S. Diplomatic Security Service at a guest house in Islamabad, Pakistan, while trying to set a bomb in a doll, then extradited to the United States.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: He was tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York along with two co-conspirators and was convicted of planning the Bojinka plot. He received two life sentences plus 240 years for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Bojinka plot.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef's maternal uncle is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with whom he allegedly planned the Bojinka plot. Mohammed is a senior al-Qaeda member accused of being the principal architect of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Yousef is serving his life sentences at ADX Florence, located near Florence, Colorado. He shares a cell block that is commonly referred to as "Bombers' Row" with Terry Nichols, Eric Rudolph, and, before his transfer in late 2021, Ted Kaczynski.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: The name "Ramzi Yousef" is an alias. The 9/11 Commission later revealed that Yousef's real name is Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim. He was born in either Iraq, Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates to parents who were both from Pakistan. His father is Mohammed Abdul Karim from Balochistan, Pakistan. His mother is believed to be the sister of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: When his family returned to Pakistan in the mid-1980s, Yousef was sent to the United Kingdom for education. In 1986, he enrolled at Swansea Institute in Wales, where he studied electrical engineering, graduating four years later. He also studied at the Oxford College of Further Education to improve his English.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef left the United Kingdom after completing his studies and returned to Pakistan. He began to learn bomb making in a terrorist training camp in Peshawar, before traveling to the United States in 1992.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: The World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 26 February 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York. The 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower 1) into the South Tower (Tower 2), to bring both towers down and kill thousands of people. It failed to do so, but killed six civilians and injured 1,042, including 919 civilians (including an EMS worker), 88 firefighters, and 35 police officers.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: We are, the fifth battalion in the Liberation Army, declare our responsibility for the explosion on the mentioned building. This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel, the state of terrorism, and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: If our demands are not met, all of our functional groups in the army will continue to execute our missions against the military and civilian targets in and out the United States. For your own information, our army has more than hundred and fifty suicidal soldiers ready to go ahead. The terrorism that Israel practices (which is supported by America) must be faced with a similar one. The dictatorship and terrorism (also supported by America) that some countries are practicing against their own people must also be faced with terrorism.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: The American people must know, that their civilians who got killed are not better than those who are getting killed by the American weapons and support.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: The American people are responsible for the actions of their government and they must question all of the crimes that their government is committing against other people. Or they — Americans — will be the targets of our operations that could diminish them.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: On 1 September 1992, Yousef entered the United States with an Iraqi passport of disputed authenticity. His companion, Ahmed Ajaj, carried multiple immigration documents, among which was a crudely falsified Swedish passport. Providing a smokescreen to facilitate Yousef's entry, Ajaj was arrested on the spot when immigration officials found bomb manuals, videotapes of suicide car bombers, and a cheat sheet on how to lie to U.S. immigration inspectors in his luggage. Directors of the American Counter-Terrorism program later tied the travel arrangements to a phone call from Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian militant Muslim preacher, to the Pakistani telephone number 810604.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef was held for 72 hours and repeatedly interrogated, but INS holding cells were overcrowded. Yousef, requesting political asylum, was given a hearing date of 9 November 1992. He told Jersey City Police that he was Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim, a Pakistani national born and brought up in Kuwait, and that he had lost his passport. On December 31, 1992, the Pakistani Consulate in New York issued a temporary passport to Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim (SAAG 484 2002).


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef traveled around New York and New Jersey, during which time he made calls to Abdel-Rahman via cell phone. Between 3 December and 27 December 1992, he made conference calls to key numbers in Balochistan, Pakistan (SAAG 484 2002).


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Ajaj never reclaimed the manuals and tapes, which remained at the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after Judge Reena Raggi had ordered the materials released in December 1992.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef, aided by Mohammed A. Salameh and Mahmud Abouhalima, began assembling the urea nitrate-fuel oil device in his Pamrapo Avenue home in Jersey City ready for delivery to the WTC on 26 February 1993. He ordered chemicals from his hospital room when he had been injured in a car crash, one of three accidents caused by Salameh in late 1992 and early in 1993.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Speaking in code by phone on 29 December 1992, Ajaj told Yousef that he had won release of the bomb manuals but warned Yousef that picking them up might jeopardize his "business". On one book carried by Ajaj in 1992 was a word translated by the FBI as meaning "the basic rule." It was later found to be "al Qaeda" – meaning "the base."


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: During a CBS "60 Minutes" interview in 2002, co-conspirator Abdul Rahman Yasin said that Yousef originally wanted to bomb Jewish neighborhoods in New York City. Yasin added that after touring Crown Heights and Williamsburg, Yousef had changed his mind. Yasin alleged that Yousef was educated in bomb-making at a training camp in Peshawar, Pakistan.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef rented a Ryder van and on 26 February 1993, loaded it with powerful explosives. He packed four cardboard boxes into the back of the van, each containing a mixture of paper bags, newspapers, urea, and nitric acid; next to them he placed three red metal cylinders of compressed hydrogen. Four large containers of nitroglycerin were loaded into the center of the van with Atlas Rockmaster blasting caps connected to each.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: The van was driven into the garage of the World Trade Center, where it exploded. Using his Pakistani passport, Yousef escaped from the United States hours later. It is believed that he fled to Iraq and then Pakistan. As a result of the bombing, the FBI added Yousef as the 436th person on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on 21 April 1993.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: After returning to Pakistan in February 1993, Yousef went into hiding. That summer, he allegedly took up a contract to assassinate the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, which was initiated by members of Sipah-e-Sahaba. The plot failed when Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad were interrupted by police outside Bhutto's residence. Yousef decided to abort the bombing and it blew up as he was trying to recover the device. He escaped and went into hiding during the investigation.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: After the Iranian shrine bombing, Yousef soon began planning the Bojinka plot. It included plans to assassinate Pope John Paul II while he visited the Philippines, and to plant bombs inside several United and Delta Air Lines flights out of Bangkok. On this plot, he allegedly worked with his maternal uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: On 11 December 1994, Yousef conducted a trial run of the plan by boarding Philippine Airlines Flight 434 from Manila to Tokyo, Japan, with a stopover in Cebu. His identity for the flight was that of an Italian man named Armaldo Forlani. As an accomplished forger, he was able to make a counterfeit Italian passport for himself with that identity. The cabin crew for this leg of the flight later told investigators that Yousef changed seats several times during the relatively short flight, with his last seat change coming after a return from the lavatory.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef assembled a bomb in the lavatory, set the timer to detonate four hours later, and placed it in the life vest pouch under seat 26K on the right-hand side of the fuselage. The domestic flight attendant Maria Delacruz had noticed that Yousef kept switching seats during the course of the Manila to Cebu flight, but did not warn the new cabin crew boarding at Cebu of his behavior. Yousef and 25 other passengers left the plane at Cebu, where 256 passengers and a new cabin crew boarded for the trip to Tokyo. Many passengers were Japanese people; some were coworkers traveling as part of a tour group. Airport congestion delayed the departure of Flight 434 from Cebu for 38 minutes. All of the passengers had boarded by 8:30 a.m., with the bomb having been planted around two hours earlier. PAL 434 was cleared for takeoff at 8:38 a.m.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: At 11:43 am, about an hour and a half from Tokyo, the bomb exploded while Flight 434 cruised on autopilot above the Japanese island of Minami Daitō (near Okinawa Island and approximately 260 miles (420 km) southwest of Tokyo). The explosion dismembered 24-year-old , a Japanese businessman occupying the seat where the bomb was placed. Ten passengers sitting in the seats in front of and behind Ikegami were also injured while one needed urgent medical care. The explosion tore out a two square-foot (0.2 m) portion of the cabin floor into the cargo hold but leaving the fuselage of the plane intact. The airplane was spared from a deadly fiery explosion as the seat where the bomb was planted, 26K, was two rows away from the central fuel tank. The rapid expansion of energy from the bomb caused the plane to expand vertically slightly, damaging cables to the steering and aileron controls. The bomb's orientation caused the energy to be mostly absorbed by Ikegami; he was killed but the other passengers and the plane were not catastrophically damaged.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: The cockpit crew improvised to manipulate the plane's speed and direction by varying the engines' throttle settings. Captain Eduardo Reyes made an emergency landing at Okinawa's Naha Airport, saving 272 passengers and 20 crew. The aircraft became a crime scene under Japanese law; bomb fragments found in and around the blast zone, as well as the lower half of Ikegami's body, provided clues pointing investigators back to Manila.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef then returned to Manila, where he began preparing at least a dozen bombs, each with more explosive materials. Weeks before his planned attacks, a fire started in his Manila apartment, forcing him to flee the room, leaving everything behind. The fire made the apartment staff suspicious, and soon police, led by Aida Fariscal, raided the apartment and uncovered the plot. A Philippine National Police raid in another Manila apartment revealed related evidence that Abdul Murad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Yousef had drawn up plans for flying an airplane into CIA headquarters. The information was passed on to the Federal Aviation Administration, who warned individual airlines.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Despite the international manhunt, Yousef escaped from Manila to Pakistan. On 31 January 1995, he flew from Pakistan to Thailand and met with a South African associate Istaique Parker. Yousef told Parker to check two suitcases filled with bombs, one on a Delta Air Lines flight and another on a United Airlines flight. Both bombs were timed to blow up over populated areas of the U.S. Parker spent much of the day at the airport, but was reportedly too scared to approach the airlines with the suitcases. Finally, Parker returned to Yousef's hotel and lied that employees at the airline cargo sections were asking for passports and fingerprints, making it too risky to go ahead with the plan.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef, wanting to get the bombs on a plane bound for the U.S., called a friend with diplomatic immunity in Qatar who was willing to take the suitcases to London and check them on a flight to the U.S. The plan was that they would explode mid-flight and destroy the plane. Yousef planned to use the friend's diplomatic immunity to ensure the suitcases would be loaded on the plane. According to Simon Reeve's book "The New Jackals", the name of this friend has not been revealed, but his father is said to be a very senior politician and leading member of the establishment in Qatar (at the time, Yousef's maternal uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was living in Qatar as the guest of a Qatari cabinet official). However, there was a problem and the suitcases were not checked in. Yousef and Parker returned to Pakistan on 2 February 1995.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Following a tip-off from Istaique Parker, on 7 February 1995, Agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Special Agents of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service raided room #16 in the Su-Casa Guest House in Islamabad, Pakistan, and captured Yousef before he could move to Peshawar. Parker was paid $2 million under the Rewards for Justice Program for the information leading to Yousef's capture. During the raid, agents found Delta and United Airlines flight schedules and bomb components in children's toys. Yousef had chemical burns on his fingers. Yousef was sent to a federal prison in New York City and held there until his trial.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: On 5 September 1996, Yousef and two co-conspirators were convicted for their role in the Bojinka plot and were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Duffy to life in prison without parole.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: On 12 November 1997, Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing, and on 8 January 1998, Judge Duffy found Yousef guilty of plotting a "seditious conspiracy" to bomb the World Trade Center and sentenced Yousef to life plus 240 years in prison for both bombings. He also recommended that Yousef's entire sentence be served in solitary confinement.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: You keep talking also about collective punishment and killing innocent people to force governments to change their policies; you call this terrorism when someone would kill innocent people or civilians in order to force the government to change its policies. Well, when you were the first one who invented this terrorism. You were the first one who killed innocent people, and you are the first one who introduced this type of terrorism to the history of mankind when you dropped an atomic bomb which killed tens of thousands of women and children in Japan and when you killed over a hundred thousand people, most of them civilians, in Tokyo with fire bombings. You killed them by burning them to death. And you killed civilians in Vietnam with chemicals as with the so-called Orange agent. You killed civilians and innocent people, not soldiers, innocent people every single war you went. You went to wars more than any other country in this century, and then you have the nerve to talk about killing innocent people.And now you have invented new ways to kill innocent people. You have so-called economic embargo which kills nobody other than children and elderly people, and which other than Iraq you have been placing the economic embargo on Cuba and other countries for over 35 years. ... The Government in its summations and opening statement said that I was a terrorist. Yes, I am a terrorist and I am proud of it. And I support terrorism so long as it was against the United States Government and against Israel, because you are more than terrorists; you are the one who invented terrorism and using it every day. You are liars, butchers, and hypocrites.Duffy responded:


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Ramzi Yousef, you claim to be an Islamic militant. Of all the persons killed or harmed in some way by the World Trade Center bomb, you cannot name one who was against you or your cause. You did not care, just so long as you left dead bodies and people hurt.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: You weren't seeking conversions. The only thing you wanted to do was to cause death. Your God is not Allah. You worship death and destruction. What you do, you do not for Allah; you do it only to satisfy your own twisted sense of ego.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: You would have others believe that you are a soldier, but the attacks on civilization for which you stand convicted here were sneak attacks which sought to kill and maim totally innocent people ...


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: You, Ramzi Yousef, came to this country pretending to be an Islamic fundamentalist, but you cared little or nothing for Islam or the faith of the Muslims. Rather, you adored not Allah, but the evil that you yourself have become. And I must say that as an apostle of evil, you have been most effective.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: Yousef is held at the high-security Supermax prison ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado. The handcuffs Ramzi Yousef wore when he was captured in Pakistan are displayed at the FBI Museum in Washington, D.C. His Federal Prisoner number is: 03911–000.


title: Ramzi Yousef

text: In 1997, Osama bin Laden said during an interview that he did not know Yousef, but claimed to know Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks and Yousef's uncle. According to the 9/11 Commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said under interrogation that "Yousef was not a member of al-Qaeda and that Yousef never met bin Laden." Some authors, however, have made note of a stronger link between Yousef and bin Laden.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work. It is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust in early December before the postseason bowl games.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The award was created by the Downtown Athletic Club in 1935 to recognize "the most valuable college football player east of the Mississippi", and was first awarded to University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger. After the death in October 1936 of the club's athletic director, John Heisman, the award was named in his honor and broadened to include players west of the Mississippi. Heisman had been active in college athletics as a football player; a head football, basketball, and baseball coach; and an athletic director.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: It is the oldest of several overall awards in college football, including the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, and the AP Player of the Year. The Heisman and the AP Player of the Year honor the "outstanding player", while the Maxwell and the Walter Camp award recognizes the "best player", and the Archie Griffin Award recognizes the "most valuable player". The most recent winner of the Heisman Trophy is University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The trophy itself, designed by sculptor Frank Eliscu, is modeled after Ed Smith, a leading player in 1934 for the now-defunct New York University football team. The trophy is made out of cast bronze, is 13.5 inches (34.3 cm) tall, 14 inches long, 16 inches in width and weighs 45 pounds (20.4 kg).


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Eliscu had asked Smith, his former George Washington High School classmate, to pose for a commissioned sculpture of a football player. Smith did not realize until 1982 that the sculpture had become the Heisman Trophy. The Downtown Athletic Club presented Smith with a Heisman Trophy of his own in 1985.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: From its inception in 1935, the statue was cast by Dieges & Clust in New York (and later Providence, Rhode Island) until 1980, when Dieges and Clust was sold to Herff Jones. For a time until at least 2008, the statues were cast by Roman Bronze Works in New York.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Originally only players east of the Mississippi were eligible, but since 1936 all football players playing in all divisions of college football nationwide are eligible for the award, though winners usually represent Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Except for the one vote based on the fan voting, the balloting is based on positional voting, whereby each voter identifies three selections, ranking them in order. Each first-place selection is awarded three points, each second-place selection is awarded two points, and each third-place selection is awarded one point. Voters must make three selections and cannot duplicate a selection, else the ballot is invalid and none of the selections count.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The accounting firm Deloitte is responsible for the tabulation of votes, which has moved almost exclusively to online voting since 2007.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: As of 2022, USC has the most Heisman trophies won with eight; Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame each have seven; Ohio State has had six different players win the award.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The player who received the most votes (by percentage) was Joe Burrow of LSU in 2019, with 93.8% of possible points. Burrow also won by the largest margin of votes, with 1,846 votes over second place. USC running back O. J. Simpson received the most total first place votes, in 1968, with 855, but at a time when there were more total voters. The closest margin of votes was in 2009 between winner Mark Ingram II of Alabama and Toby Gerhart of Stanford.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Eleven Heisman Trophy winners are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and four winners have also been named Most Valuable Player in a Super Bowl. Some winners have gone on to play in other professional sports, including Bo Jackson in baseball and Charlie Ward in basketball.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Pete Dawkins and Dick Kazmaier are the only winners not to pursue a professional sports career: Dawkins had a career with the United States Army, where he achieved the rank of Brigadier General, while Kazmaier attended Harvard Business School, founded a consulting company specializing in sports marketing, and chaired the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition during 1988–89.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: In addition to personal statistics, team achievements play a heavy role in the voting – a typical Heisman winner represents a team that had an outstanding season and was most likely in contention for the national championship or a major conference championship at some point in that season.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The closest that a player outside the modern Division I FBS came to winning the Heisman is third place; in both cases, the players involved played for schools in what was at the time Division I-AA, now Division I FCS. The first was Gordie Lockbaum from Holy Cross in 1987, followed by Steve McNair, from Alcorn State in 1993. Armanti Edwards, from Appalachian State University, was also briefly mentioned as a candidate for the award following Appalachian's upset of No. 5-ranked Michigan in 2007.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Besides Griffin winning consecutive Heismans at Ohio State, five other programs had two different players win the Heisman Trophy in consecutive years: Yale (1936–37), Army (1945–46), Southern California (USC) (2004–05, though Reggie Bush voluntarily forfeited his 2005 award in September 2010 and sent the trophy back to the Heisman Trust), Oklahoma (2017-18), and Alabama (2020-21).


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Only three high schools have produced multiple Heisman trophy winners. The first was Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas (Davey O'Brien in 1938 and Tim Brown in 1987) (Woodrow remains the only "public" high school to be so recognized). Thereafter, two private high schools also achieved this distinction: Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Virginia (Vinny Testaverde as a Postgraduate in 1982, and Eddie George in 1996) and Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California (John Huarte in 1964, Matt Leinart in 2004, and Bryce Young in 2021).


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Of the colleges where trophy namesake John Heisman coached, only Auburn University has produced Heisman winners, with Pat Sullivan in 1971, Bo Jackson in 1985, and Cam Newton in 2010.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel became the first freshman to win the Heisman in 2012. The following year, at old, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston became the youngest Heisman Trophy winner at that time as a freshman. Both, however, were in their second year of college, having been redshirted during their first year of attendance, meaning that no "true" freshman has yet won the award. No sophomore won the Heisman in its first 72 years, at which point there were three consecutive sophomore winners — Tim Tebow in 2007, followed by Sam Bradford and Mark Ingram II — with Lamar Jackson, who also surpassed Winston's record as the youngest Heisman winner, becoming the fourth in 2016. Of the four sophomores to have won the award, only Bradford had been redshirted; the others all won during their second year of college attendance. Only a few juniors have won the award, starting with the eleventh winner in 1945, Doc Blanchard.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Five players have finished in the top three of the Heisman voting as freshmen or sophomores before later winning the award: Angelo Bertelli, Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, Doak Walker, and Herschel Walker. Eight players have finished in the top three as freshmen or sophomores but never won a Heisman: Clint Castleberry, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Rex Grossman, Larry Fitzgerald, Adrian Peterson, Deshaun Watson, and Christian McCaffrey. Four players have specifically finished second in consecutive years: Glenn Davis (second in 1944 and 1945, winner in 1946), Charlie Justice (second 1948 and 1949), Darren McFadden (second 2006 and 2007), and Andrew Luck (second 2010 and 2011).


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The oldest and youngest Heisman winners ever both played for Atlantic Coast Conference schools. The oldest, Chris Weinke, was 28 years old when he won in 2000; he spent six years in minor league baseball before enrolling at Florida State. The youngest winner is 2016 recipient Lamar Jackson of Louisville at the age of , four days younger than Jameis Winston was when he won in 2013.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The Heisman has usually been awarded either to a running back or a quarterback; very few players have won the trophy playing a position other than those two aforementioned. Three wide receivers have been named winner: Tim Brown (1987), Desmond Howard (1991), and DeVonta Smith (2020). Two tight ends have also won the trophy, Larry Kelley (1936) and Leon Hart (1949). Charles Woodson is the only primarily defensive player to win the award, doing so as a defensive back, while also serving as kick returner and occasional wide receiver for Michigan in 1997.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The highest finish ever for any individual who played exclusively on defense is second, by defensive end Hugh Green of Pittsburgh in 1980, linebacker Manti Te'o of Notre Dame in 2012, and by defensive end Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan in 2021. Although the Heisman is named in honor of an interior lineman, no interior lineman on either side of the ball has ever won the award. Legendary linebacker Dick Butkus placed sixth in 1963 and third in 1964 and could qualify as an interior lineman, as he played center on offense during his era when two-way players were still common. Offensive guard Tom Brown of Minnesota and the offensive tackle John Hicks of Ohio State placed second in 1960 and 1973, respectively. Rich Glover, a defensive lineman from Nebraska, finished 3rd in the 1972 vote—which was won by his Cornhusker teammate Johnny Rodgers. Washington's DT Steve Emtman finished 4th in voting in 1991. Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska finished fourth in 2009 as a defensive tackle. Also, Kurt Burris, a center for the Oklahoma team, was a runner-up for the award in 1954 and Orlando Pace finished fourth in 1996 as an offensive tackle for Ohio State.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Due to the neighborhood housing the Downtown Athletic Club's facilities becoming blockaded after the attacks on 9/11, the 2001 award ceremony was moved to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. After the DAC filed for bankruptcy in 2002, the Yale Club hosted the presentation at its facility in 2002 and 2003. The ceremony moved to the Hilton New York for 2004, and was presented annually at Palladium Times Square (then Nokia Theatre Times Square) from 2005 until its closure in 2019 (except in 2017, when the presentation was moved back to the Marquis because of a scheduling conflict).


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The 2008 Heisman press conference was held at the Sports Museum of America at 26 Broadway near the old Downtown Club building. There was an entire gallery with the museum-attraction dedicated to the Trophy, including the making of the Trophy, the history of the DAC, and information on John Heisman and all the Trophy's winners. There was also a dedicated area celebrating the most recent winner, and the opportunity for visitors to cast their vote for next winner (with the top vote-winner receiving 1 official vote on their behalf). The Sports Museum of America closed permanently in February 2009.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: After Palladium Times Square (then PlayStation Theater) closed in December 2019, the Heisman Trust began searching for a new location to conduct the trophy presentation. The 2020 ceremony would ultimately be held at the studios of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the ceremony was a virtual event with all participants appearing via remote interviews. The 2021 ceremony returned to an in-person event, with the presentation held at The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The award was first presented in 1935 by the Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) in New York City, a privately owned recreation facility located on the lower west side near the later World Trade Center site. It was first known simply as the DAC Trophy. The first winner, Jay Berwanger, was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but declined to sign for them. He never played professional football for any team. In 1936, John Heisman died and the trophy was renamed in his honor. Larry Kelley, the second winner of the award, was the first man to win it as the "Heisman Trophy".


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The first African American player to win the Heisman was Syracuse's Ernie Davis, who never played a snap in the NFL. He was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after winning the award and died in 1963. In 1966, former Florida Gators quarterback Steve Spurrier gave his Heisman trophy to the university president, Dr. J. Wayne Reitz, so that the award could be shared by Florida students and faculty. The gesture caused Florida's student government to raise funds to purchase a replacement trophy for Spurrier. Since then, the Downtown Athletic Club has issued two trophies to winners, one to the individual and a replica to his college.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Several Heisman trophies have been sold over the years; although there is a ban on the sale of all trophies awarded since 1999, trophies awarded in previous years can be sold. O. J. Simpson's 1968 trophy was sold in February 1999 for $230,000 as part of the settlement of the civil trial in the O. J. Simpson murder case. Yale end Larry Kelley sold his 1936 Heisman in December 1999 for $328,110 to settle his estate and to provide a bequest for his family. Charles White's 1979 trophy first sold for $184,000 and then for nearly $300,000 in December 2006 to help pay back federal income taxes. The current record price for a Heisman belongs to the trophy won by Minnesota halfback Bruce Smith in 1941 at $395,240. Paul Hornung sold his Heisman for $250,000 to endow student scholarships for University of Notre Dame students from his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Eliscu's original plaster cast sold at Sotheby's for $228,000 in December 2005.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The presentation of the Heisman trophy was not broadcast on television until 1977. Before 1977, the presentation of the award was not televised as a stand-alone special, but rather as a quick in-game feature. The ceremony usually aired on ABC as a feature at halftime of the last major national telecast (generally a rivalry game) of the college football season. ABC essentially showed highlights since the award was handed out as part of an annual weeknight dinner at the DAC. At the time, the event had usually been scheduled for the week following the Army–Navy Game. The most watched Heisman ceremony ever was in 2009 when Mark Ingram won over Toby Gerhart and Colt McCoy.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: On December 8, 1977, CBS (who paid $200,000 for the rights) aired a one-hour (at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time) special to celebrate the presentation of the Heisman trophy to Earl Campbell of the University of Texas. Elliott Gould and O. J. Simpson were the co-hosts, with Connie Stevens and Leslie Uggams providing musical entertainment and Robert Klein providing some comic relief.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: A number of critics have expressed concern about the unwritten rules regarding player position and age, as noted above.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Over the years, there has been substantial criticism of a regional bias, suggesting that the Heisman balloting process has ignored West Coast players. At present, the Pac-12 Conference (formerly Pac-10 and Pac-8) represents 12 of the 65 teams (roughly 18.5%) in the Power Five conferences. The Heisman can be, and has been, presented to players from other conferences, but a random sample over a long period of time might suggest that Pac-10/12 players might win somewhere close to 18% of the Heisman awards. In the 20 seasons between 1981 (Marcus Allen) and 2002 (Carson Palmer), not a single Pacific-10 Conference or other West Coast player won the Heisman Trophy. Four Southern California (USC) players have won the trophy in the early years of the 21st century and three won it subsequent to Palmer. Although Terry Baker, quarterback from Oregon State, won the trophy in 1962, and Gary Beban from UCLA won in 1967, no non-USC player from the West Coast had won between Stanford's Jim Plunkett in 1970 and Oregon's Marcus Mariota in 2014. Other than Mariota's win, the closest since Plunkett's win have been Chuck Muncie, John Elway, Toby Gerhart, Andrew Luck, Christian McCaffrey, and Bryce Love. Muncie was a running back for the California Golden Bears who finished second in the Heisman balloting in 1975. The other five were Stanford players who finished second in the Heisman balloting in 1982, and each year from 2009 to 2011, 2015, and 2017.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: The West Coast bias discussion usually centers on the idea that East Coast voters see few West Coast games, because of television coverage contracts, time zone differences, or cultural interest. At Heisman-projection website StiffArmTrophy.com, commentator Kari Chisholm claims that the Heisman balloting process itself is inherently biased:


title: Heisman Trophy

text: For Heisman voting purposes, the nation is divided into six regions—each of which get 145 votes. Put another way, each region gets exactly 16.67 percent of the votes. However, each region does not constitute an even one-sixth of the population. Three regions (Far West, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic) have larger populations than 16.67% of the national population; and three have less (Northeast, South, and Southwest). In fact, the Far West has the greatest population at 21.2% of the country and the Northeast has the least at 11.9%.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: In 2010 University of Southern California athletic director Pat Haden announced the university would return its replica of the 2005 Heisman Trophy due to NCAA sanctions requiring the university to dissociate itself from Reggie Bush. The NCAA found that Bush had received gifts from an agent while at USC. On September 14, 2010, Bush voluntarily forfeited his title as a Heisman winner. The next day, the Heisman Trust announced the 2005 award would remain vacated and removed all mention of the 2005 award from its official website. Bush eventually returned the trophy itself to the Heisman Trust in 2012.


title: Heisman Trophy

text: Critical responses from the national media were strident and varied. CBSSports.com producer J. Darin Darst opined that Bush "should never have been pressured to return the award." Kalani Simpson of Fox Sports wrote, "Nice try Heisman Trust...It's a slick move to try to wipe the slate clean." Former Football Writers Association of America president Dennis Dodd, on the other hand, decided to fictitiously award Bush's vacated 2005 award to Vince Young, the original runner-up that year. He wrote, "Since the Heisman folks won't re-vote, we did. Vince Young is the "new" winner of the 2005 Heisman." A "Los Angeles Times" piece argued that Bush's Heisman was "tainted" but lamented that the decision came five years after Bush was awarded the trophy and, therefore, four years after the expiration of Bush's term as current holder of the Heisman title.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The Polar Express is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy adventure film co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, who also served as one of the executive producers. The film features human characters animated using live-action and motion-capture CGI animation. It tells the story of a young boy who, on Christmas Eve, sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor. The boy joins several other children as they embark on a journey to visit Santa Claus preparing for Christmas. The film stars Tom Hanks, also one of the film's executive producers, in multiple distinct roles, with Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett, and Eddie Deezen in supporting roles.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: Castle Rock Entertainment produced the film in association with Shangri-La Entertainment, ImageMovers, Playtone, and Golden Mean Productions for Warner Bros. Pictures, as Castle Rock's first CGI-animated film. Its CGI visual effects and CGI performance capture were done at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The film was made with a production budget of $165–170 million, a record-breaking sum for an animated feature at the time.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: "The Polar Express" was released in the Chicago International Film Festival on October 13, 2004 and the United States on November 10, 2004. The film originally underperformed at the box office, grossing $286 million against a $165–170 million budget. However, later re-releases helped propel the film's gross to $314 million worldwide. The film was later listed in the 2006 "Guinness World Records" as the first all-digital capture film. The film also marks Michael Jeter's last acting role before his death, and the film was thus dedicated to his memory.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: On Christmas Eve, a passenger train known as the Polar Express stops at the Grand Rapids, Michigan house of a boy who is growing skeptical about the existence of Santa Claus. The conductor says the train is traveling to the North Pole, and the boy, although reluctant at first, climbs aboard and meets a spirited girl and a know-it-all boy. The train then stops to pick up a boy named Billy, who initially declines to board, but changes his mind as the train is leaving. The boy applies the emergency brake and Billy is allowed on, but opts to sit alone in the observation car. The children are then served hot chocolate by a platoon of dancing waiters, and the girl saves a cup for Billy.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: When the conductor and the girl go to give Billy his cup, the boy notices that the girl's ticket has not yet been validated. The wind blows out the ticket out into the wilderness, but it soon finds its way back to the train; After the girl discovers that her ticket is missing, the conductor leaves with her. Assuming that she will be thrown off the train, the boys finds the ticket and traverses the rooftops to find for the girl. There, he encounters a mysterious ghostly hobo that helps him reach the engine. The boy finds that the girl has been put in charge while the engineer and fireman are replacing the engine's headlight. As the train continues, it moves at an extreme speed due to the cotter pin shearing off. Once they reach a frozen lake, the cotter pin is replaced and the driver narrowly gets the train back onto the tracks as the ice breaks.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The conductor takes the boy and girl back to their seats and they join Billy in the observation car. The train arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the children will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa himself. While the girl and boy attempt to convince Billy to join them, the boy accidentally uncouples the car, sending it hurtling along a route towards a railway turntable inside Santa's workshop. The children make their way through an elf command center and a gift-sorting office facility, where Billy finds a present in his name. They are dumped into a giant sack of presents, where they also find the know-it-all boy. After the sack is loaded onto Santa's sleigh, the elves escort them out before Santa and his reindeer arrive.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: A bell flies loose from the galloping reindeer's reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He returns the bell to Santa, who selects him to receive the first gift of Christmas. Santa agrees to let him keep the bell. As the children board to go home, the boy discovers that he lost the bell through a hole in his pocket. The boy arrives home, and the conductor wishes him a Merry Christmas. He awakens on Christmas morning to find a present containing his lost bell with a note from Santa. He and his younger sister Sarah joyfully ring the bell, but their parents do not hear it because they do not believe in Santa. The boy reflects on his friends and sister eventually growing deaf to the bell over the years as their belief faded. However, despite the fact he is now an adult, the bell still rings for him, as it does "for all who truly believe."


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: Hanks optioned the book in 1999 with the hopes of playing the conductor and Santa Claus. One of the conditions of the sale was that the resulting film not be animated. Zemeckis, however, felt that a live-action version was unfeasible, claiming that it "would look awful, and it would be impossible – it would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million." Zemeckis felt that such a version would rob the audience of the art style of the book which he felt was "so much a part of the emotion of the story". The two acquired the rights to the book the following year. In order to keep his vision a new process was created by which actors would be filmed with motion capturing equipment in a black box stage which would then be animated to make the resulting film. Hanks stated that this method of working was "actually a return to a type of acting that acting in films does not allow you to do", comparing the process to performing a play in the round. The idea of a Scrooge puppet was conceived when Zemeckis looked at his toys he used to have, one of which was a puppet.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: Hanks plays five roles in the film including that of a small child (whose voice would later be dubbed in by Daryl Sabara). Initially Zemeckis considered having him play every role, but after trying this, Hanks grew exhausted, and they whittled down the number.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The soundtrack of the film, titled The Polar Express: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released on November 2, 2004 by Reprise Records, Warner Music Group and Warner Sunset Records. The song, "Believe", written by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 77th Academy Awards. It was sung at the 77th Academy Awards show by original performer Josh Groban with Beyoncé. It gained a Grammy Award in 2006.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in November 2007. Having sold 724,000 copies in the United States, it is the best-selling film soundtrack/holiday album hybrid since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: Most of the original orchestral score featured in the film was not released on the soundtrack and has never been released. The soundtrack mostly comprises only songs featured in the film. A limited number of promotional "For Your Consideration" CDs, intended to showcase the film's score to reviewers of the film, were released in 2005. This CD contained nearly the complete score, but none of the film's songs. Various bootleg versions of the soundtrack, combining both the official soundtrack album and the orchestral-only CD, have since surfaced.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The buildings at the North Pole refer to a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the city's center are loosely based on the Pullman Factory in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The locomotive featured in the film is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive modeled after the Pere Marquette 1225, which had spent many years on static display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan on the campus of Michigan State University, where Chris Van Allsburg recalled playing on the engine when attending football games as a child. The engine in the movie, however, is noticeably different from the real Pere Marquette 1225, and somewhat closer to looking like an S-1 from the Erie Railroad. These include the headlight being mounted into the smokebox, like many Delaware & Hudson steam locomotives, instead of being on a platform or the cow catcher, and the whistle being mounted on the upper right hand side of the boiler mounted upright, instead of on top of the boiler, mounted horizontally. It also lacks the feedwater heater, marker lights, number boards, and builders plates the real Pere Marquette 1225 has. The cow catcher is also bigger than it is in real life, with slats extending to the pilot beam, and it also lacks a coupler.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: In July 2002, Warner Bros. approached the locomotive's owner, the Steam Railroading Institute, to study the engine. The engine in the film is modeled from the PM No. 1225's drawings and the sounds from recordings made of the 1225 operating under steam.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: A video game based on the film was released on November 2, 2004 for GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 and Windows, developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by THQ. The plot of the game is somewhat different than the film version. Within the game, the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet—who is set as the main antagonist of the game—attempts to prevent the children from believing in Santa Claus by stealing their tickets and trying to stop the children from making it to the North Pole.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: Model railroad builder Lionel continues to make Polar Express train sets and equipment, including locomotives, traincars, and trackside buildings.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The film has also spawned multiple real-world holiday train-travel experiences based loosely on the film's train journey all over the United States, as well as Canada, and even the United Kingdom under license from Rail Events Inc.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: These include the Polar Express train ride held at the Grand Canyon Railway, the Polar Express Train Ride of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, the Polar Express Train Ride of the Texas State Railroad, The Polar Express Train Ride in Whippany, New Jersey, and The Polar Express Train Ride at Aspen Crossing. The Pere Marquette 1225 itself pulls a similarly-themed Christmas train, albeit under the name of the North Pole Express.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The UK's first Polar Express train rides were hosted on the Dartmoor Railway and the Weardale Railway which were both owned by the company British American Railway Services. These services were all diesel hauled, however in 2016, Telford Steam Railway became the first UK line to run the Polar Express with steam, powered by one of two American-built S160 2-8-0 locomotive's No's. 5197 & 6046 courtesy of Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire. Other steam operated Polar Express train rides in the UK are by Vintage Trains, which operated Great Western 4-6-0 Hall class No. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall for the ride, albeit being renamed Polar Star, and PNP Events' Polar Express Train Rides in Oxfordshire (Cholsey and Wallingford Railway), the Yorkshire Dales (Wensleydale Railway), South Devon (South Devon Railway) and Royal Tunbridge Wells (Spa Valley Railway). The Polar Express Train Ride also operates on the Mid-Norfolk Railway, and the Seaton Tramway operate the "Polar Express Tram Ride".


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: In 2021, CineConcerts in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products presented The Polar Express in Concert, being symphony hall showings of the movie backed by a live symphony orchestra and choir.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the "Polar Express" Experience, a motion simulator ride based on the film. The attraction was a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until January 1, 2008, and was open annually during the Christmas season. 2015 was the final year of operation for the "Polar Express" Experience and Wild Arctic has since operated on a year-round schedule.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The 4D film, distributed by SimEx-Iwerks, has been shown at other amusement parks around the world including Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Stone Mountain, Dollywood (during the annual Smoky Mountain Christmas event), Vancouver Aquarium (2009—2010).


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: "The Polar Express" premiered at the 40th Chicago International Film Festival on October 21, 2004. It opened on November 7 and went into wide distribution on November 10. In addition to standard theatrical 35mm format, a 3-D version for IMAX was also released, generated from the same CGI digital models used for the standard version.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The film was released on DVD as separated widescreen and full-screen versions in single and two-disc special editions (with bonus features) and on VHS on November 22, 2005, one year after the film originally came out in theaters. It was released on HD-DVD with bonus features in 2006 and on Blu-ray with bonus features on October 30, 2007, both presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio. It was also released in Anaglyph 3D Blu-ray and DVD on October 28, 2008, labeled as "The Polar Express: Presented in 3-D". This version includes an Anaglyph Version of the Film and the Original Theatrical Presentation. The film was later released to Blu-ray 3D on November 16, 2010.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The film opened at #2 behind "The Incredibles", and earned $23.3 million from approximately 7,000 screens at 3,650 theaters, for a per-theater average of $6,390 and a per-screen average of $3,332 in its opening weekend. It also brought in a total of $30.6 million since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2.1 million from 59 IMAX theaters, for an IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday. According to president Dan Fellman, "Titanic" had put a different spin on the numbers for "The Polar Express". Among holiday movies, "The Santa Clause 2" opened in 2002 to $29 million and grossed $140 million, while "Elf" debuted the next year at $31 million on its way to a $175-million take. The studio had high hopes for the movie, particularly since Zemeckis and Hanks had a history of success with "Forrest Gump" and "Cast Away". By comparison from the weekend the previous year, the top 12 movies had taken in $136.1 million down to 5% following the debuts of "The Matrix Revolutions", "Brother Bear" and "Elf". Since "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was released in 2001, Warner Bros. had released 10 major films and all of them had dropped off at least 36% in their second weekend, but only seven dropped off at least 49%. Not one of them had a lower three-day opening weekend total gross as "The Polar Express" itself. The overseas prospects for the film were not especially encouraging, even though "The Last Samurai" went on to make a considerable sum of money across the globe and was prematurely labeled a flop by the media. In its second weekend, "The Polar Express" dropped to 33%, and grossing $15.7 million, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative gross to $51.5 million. In its third weekend, which was Thanksgiving weekend, the film increased by 24%, earning $19.4 million, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative gross to $81.5 million. With a total gross of $71 million, "The Polar Express" would hold the record for having the highest IMAX gross of any film until it was taken by "Avatar" five years later in 2009. The film has made $187.9 million in North America, and $126.3 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $314.2 million (including all re-releases).


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: "The Independent" reported in 2011 that the film "is now seen by many as a classic". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, saying, "There's a deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie", and "it has a haunting, magical quality". Acknowledging comments by other reviewers, Ebert said, "It's a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen." Richard Roeper and Mick LaSalle also gave highly positive reviews to the film, with the former saying that it "remains true to the book, right down to the bittersweet final image" and the latter giving it his highest rating of five stars, calling it, "an enchanting, beautiful and brilliantly imagined film that constitutes a technological breakthrough." James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, stating that it is "a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages", and ranked it as the 10th best film of 2004, tying with "The Incredibles". Ian Nathan of "Empire Magazine" gave the film three out of five stars, and said, "For all the fairy-lit wonder, some will rail at the idea of "Back to the Future"s director dabbling with such a schmaltzy tale. Cynics will sneeze in shock; children will cuddle up and dream along." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" also gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "After a promising and distinctive start, a railway adventure to meet Santa runs off the rails."


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The character design and animation were criticized for dipping into the uncanny valley. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film 1 star out of 4, and called it "a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong". Stephanie Zacharek of "Salon" gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of "The Polar Express" if the look of it didn't give me the creeps." Geoff Pevere of the "Toronto Star" stated, "If I were a child, I'd have nightmares. Come to think of it, I did anyway." Paul Clinton from CNN called it "at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying". Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "There's no way of knowing whether they drank the company Kool-Aid. Still, from the looks of "The Polar Express" it's clear that, together with Mr. Zemeckis, this talented gang has on some fundamental level lost touch with the human aspect of film."


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: The film was nominated at the 77th Academy Awards in the categories of Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Dennis Leonard), Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan), and Best Original Song for "Believe" (music and lyrics by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri), but lost all three to "The Incredibles", "Ray", and "The Motorcycle Diaries" respectively. The film was nominated at the 3rd Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture."


title: The Polar Express (film)

text: In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated "The Polar Express" for its Top 10 Animated Films list.


title: Soft drink

text: A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a sugar substitute (in the case of "diet drinks"), or some combination of these. Soft drinks may also contain caffeine, colorings, preservatives, and/or other ingredients.


title: Soft drink

text: Soft drinks are called "soft" in contrast with "hard" alcoholic drinks. Small amounts of alcohol may be present in a soft drink, but the alcohol content must be less than 0.5% of the total volume of the drink in many countries and localities if the drink is to be considered non-alcoholic. Types of soft drinks include lemon-lime drinks, orange soda, cola, grape soda, ginger ale, and root beer.


title: Soft drink

text: Soft drinks may be served cold, over ice cubes, or at room temperature. They are available in many container formats, including cans, glass bottles, and plastic bottles. Containers come in a variety of sizes, ranging from small bottles to large multi-liter containers. Soft drinks are widely available at fast food restaurants, movie theaters, convenience stores, casual-dining restaurants, dedicated soda stores, vending machines, and bars from soda fountain machines.


title: Soft drink

text: Within a decade of the invention of carbonated water by Joseph Priestley in 1767, inventors in Britain and in Europe had used his concept to produce the drink in greater quantities. One such inventor, J. J. Schweppe, formed Schweppes in 1783 and selling the world's first bottled soft drink. Soft drink brands founded in the 19th century include R. White's Lemonade in 1845, Dr Pepper in 1885 and Coca-Cola in 1886. Subsequent brands include Pepsi, Irn-Bru, Sprite, Fanta and 7 Up.


title: Soft drink

text: The term "soft drink" is a category in the beverage industry, and is broadly used in product labeling and on restaurant menus. However, in many countries such drinks are more commonly referred to by regional names, including "pop", "cool drink", and "fizzy drink". Other lesser used terms include "carbonated drink", "cold drink", "fizzy juice", "lolly water", "seltzer", "coke", "cola", "soda", "soda pop", "tonic", and "mineral". Due to the high sugar content in typical soft drinks, they may also be called "sugary drinks".


title: Soft drink

text: In the United States, the 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey tracked the usage of the nine most common names. Over half of the survey respondents preferred the term "soda", which was dominant in the Northeastern United States, California, and the areas surrounding Milwaukee and St. Louis. The term "pop", which was preferred by 25% of the respondents, was most popular in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, while the genericized trademark "coke", used by 12% of the respondents, was most popular in the Southern United States. The term "tonic" is distinctive to eastern Massachusetts, although usage is declining.


title: Soft drink

text: In the English-speaking parts of Canada, the term "pop" is prevalent, but "soft drink" is the most common English term used in Montreal.


title: Soft drink

text: In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the term "fizzy drink" is common. "Pop" and "fizzy pop" are used in Northern England, South Wales, and the Midlands while "mineral" is used in Ireland. In Scotland, "fizzy juice" or even simply "juice" is colloquially encountered, as is "ginger". In Australia and New Zealand, "soft drink" or "fizzy drink" is typically used. In South African English, "cool drink" is any soft drink. U.S. soft drinks 7-Up or Sprite are called "lemonade" in the UK.


title: Soft drink

text: In other languages, various names are used: descriptive names as "non-alcoholic beverages", equivalents of "soda water", or generalized prototypical names. For example, the Bohemian variant of the Czech language (but not Moravian dialects) uses "limonáda" for all such beverages, not only for those from lemons. Similarly, the Slovak language uses "malinovka" (= "raspberry water") for all such beverages, not only for raspberry ones.


title: Soft drink

text: The origins of soft drinks lie in the development of fruit-flavored drinks. In the medieval Middle East, a variety of fruit-flavored soft drinks were widely drunk, such as sharbat, and were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup and honey. Other common ingredients included lemon, apple, pomegranate, tamarind, jujube, sumac, musk, mint and ice. Middle Eastern drinks later became popular in medieval Europe, where the word "syrup" was derived from Arabic. In Tudor England, 'water imperial' was widely drunk; it was a sweetened drink with lemon flavor and containing cream of tartar. 'Manays Cryste' was a


title: Soft drink

text: Another early type of soft drink was lemonade, made of water and lemon juice sweetened with honey, but without carbonated water. The "Compagnie des Limonadiers" of Paris was granted a monopoly for the sale of lemonade soft drinks in 1676. Vendors carried tanks of lemonade on their backs and dispensed cups of the soft drink to Parisians.


title: Soft drink

text: Carbonated drinks or fizzy drinks are beverages that contain dissolved carbon dioxide in carbonated water. The dissolution of CO in a liquid, gives rise to "effervescence" or "fizz". Carbon dioxide is only weakly soluble in water, therefore it separates into a gas when the pressure is released. The process usually involves injecting carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is removed, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which causes the solution to become effervescent, or fizzy.


title: Soft drink

text: Carbonated beverages are prepared by mixing chilled flavored syrup with chilled carbonated water. Carbonation levels range up to 5 volumes of CO per liquid volume. Ginger ale, colas, and related drinks are carbonated with 3.5 volumes. Other drinks, often fruity ones, are carbonated less.


title: Soft drink

text: In the late 18th century, scientists made important progress in replicating naturally carbonated mineral waters. In 1767, Englishman Joseph Priestley first discovered a method of infusing water with carbon dioxide to make carbonated water when he suspended a bowl of distilled water above a beer vat at a local brewery in Leeds, England. His invention of carbonated water (later known as soda water, for the use of soda powders in its commercial manufacture) is the major and defining component of most soft drinks.


title: Soft drink

text: Priestley found that water treated in this manner had a pleasant taste, and he offered it to his friends as a refreshing drink. In 1772, Priestley published a paper entitled "Impregnating Water with Fixed Air" in which he describes dripping "oil of vitriol" (or sulfuric acid as it is now called) onto chalk to produce carbon dioxide gas, and encouraging the gas to dissolve into an agitated bowl of water.


title: Soft drink

text: Another Englishman, John Mervin Nooth, improved Priestley's design and sold his apparatus for commercial use in pharmacies. Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman invented a generating apparatus that made carbonated water from chalk by the use of sulfuric acid. Bergman's apparatus allowed imitation mineral water to be produced in large amounts. Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius started to add flavors (spices, juices, and wine) to carbonated water in the late eighteenth century. Thomas Henry, an apothecary from Manchester, was the first to sell artificial mineral water to the general public for medicinal purposes, beginning in the 1770s. His recipe for 'Bewley's Mephitic Julep' consisted of 3 drachms of fossil alkali to a quart of water, and the manufacture had to 'throw in streams of fixed air until all the alkaline taste is destroyed'.


title: Soft drink

text: Johann Jacob Schweppe developed a process to manufacture bottled carbonated mineral water. He founded the Schweppes Company in Geneva in 1783 to sell carbonated water, and relocated his business to London in 1792. His drink soon gained in popularity; among his newfound patrons was Erasmus Darwin. In 1843, the Schweppes company commercialized Malvern Water at the Holywell Spring in the Malvern Hills, and received a royal warrant from King William IV.


title: Soft drink

text: It was not long before flavoring was combined with carbonated water. The earliest reference to carbonated ginger beer is in a "Practical Treatise on Brewing". published in 1809. The drinking of either natural or artificial mineral water was considered at the time to be a healthy practice, and was promoted by advocates of temperance. Pharmacists selling mineral waters began to add herbs and chemicals to unflavored mineral water. They used birch bark (see birch beer), dandelion, sarsaparilla, fruit extracts, and other substances.


title: Soft drink

text: Soft drinks soon outgrew their origins in the medical world and became a widely consumed product, available cheaply for the masses. By the 1840s, there were more than fifty soft drink manufacturers in London, an increase from just ten in the 1820s. Carbonated lemonade was widely available in British refreshment stalls in 1833, and in 1845, R. White's Lemonade went on sale in the UK. For the Great Exhibition of 1851 held at Hyde Park in London, Schweppes was designated the official drink supplier and sold over a million bottles of lemonade, ginger beer, Seltzer water and soda-water. There was a Schweppes soda water fountain, situated directly at the entrance to the exhibition.


title: Soft drink

text: Mixer drinks became popular in the second half of the century. Tonic water was originally quinine added to water as a prophylactic against malaria and was consumed by British officials stationed in the tropical areas of South Asia and Africa. As the quinine powder was so bitter people began mixing the powder with soda and sugar, and a basic tonic water was created. The first commercial tonic water was produced in 1858. The mixed drink gin and tonic also originated in British colonial India, when the British population would mix their medicinal quinine tonic with gin.


title: Soft drink

text: A persistent problem in the soft drinks industry was the lack of an effective sealing of the bottles. Carbonated drink bottles are under great pressure from the gas, so inventors tried to find the best way to prevent the carbon dioxide or bubbles from escaping. The bottles could also explode if the pressure was too great. Hiram Codd devised a patented bottling machine while working at a small mineral water works in the Caledonian Road, Islington, in London in 1870. His Codd-neck bottle was designed to enclose a marble and a rubber washer in the neck. The bottles were filled upside down, and pressure of the gas in the bottle forced the marble against the washer, sealing in the carbonation. The bottle was pinched into a special shape to provide a chamber into which the marble was pushed to open the bottle. This prevented the marble from blocking the neck as the drink was poured. R. White's, by now the biggest soft drinks company in London and south-east England, featured a wide range of drinks on their price list in 1887, all of which were sold in Codd's glass bottles, with choices including strawberry soda, raspberry soda, cherryade and cream soda.


title: Soft drink

text: In 1892, the "Crown Cork Bottle Seal" was patented by William Painter, a Baltimore, Maryland machine shop operator. It was the first bottle top to successfully keep the bubbles in the bottle. In 1899, the first patent was issued for a glass-blowing machine for the automatic production of glass bottles. Earlier glass bottles had all been hand-blown. Four years later, the new bottle-blowing machine was in operation. It was first operated by Michael Owens, an employee of Libby Glass Company. Within a few years, glass bottle production increased from 1,400 bottles a day to about 58,000 bottles a day.


title: Soft drink

text: In America, soda fountains were initially more popular, and many Americans would frequent the soda fountain daily. Beginning in 1806, Yale University chemistry professor Benjamin Silliman sold soda waters in New Haven, Connecticut. He used a Nooth apparatus to produce his waters. Businessmen in Philadelphia and New York City also began selling soda water in the early 19th century. In the 1830s, John Matthews of New York City and John Lippincott of Philadelphia began manufacturing soda fountains. Both men were successful and built large factories for fabricating fountains. Due to problems in the U.S. glass industry, bottled drinks remained a small portion of the market throughout much of the 19th century. (However, they were known in England. In "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", published in 1848, the caddish Huntingdon, recovering from months of debauchery, wakes at noon and gulps a bottle of soda-water.)


title: Soft drink

text: In the early 20th century, sales of bottled soda increased greatly around the world, and in the second half of the 20th century, canned soft drinks became an important share of the market. During the 1920s, "Home-Paks" was invented. "Home-Paks" is the familiar six-pack cartons made from cardboard. Vending machines also began to appear in the 1920s. Since then, soft drink vending machines have become increasingly popular. Both hot and cold drinks are sold in these self-service machines throughout the world.


title: Soft drink

text: Per capita consumption of soda varies considerably around the world. As of 2014, the top consuming countries per capita were Argentina, the United States, Chile, and Mexico. Developed countries in Europe and elsewhere in the Americas had considerably lower consumption. Annual average consumption in the United States, at 153.5 liters, was about twice that in the United Kingdom (77.7) or Canada (85.3).


title: Soft drink

text: In recent years, soda consumption has generally declined in the West. According to one estimate, per capita consumption in the United States reached its peak in 1998 and has continually fallen since. A study in the journal "Obesity" found that from 2003 to 2014 the proportion of Americans who drank a sugary beverage on a given day fell from approximately 62% to 50% for adults, and from 80% to 61% for children. The decrease has been attributed to, among other factors, an increased awareness of the dangers of obesity, and government efforts to improve diets.


title: Soft drink

text: At the same time, soda consumption has increased in some low or middle income countries such as Cameroon, Georgia, India, and Vietnam as soda manufacturers increasingly target these markets and consumers have increasing discretionary income.


title: Soft drink

text: Soft drinks are made by mixing dry or fresh ingredients with water. Production of soft drinks can be done at factories or at home. Soft drinks can be made at home by mixing a syrup or dry ingredients with carbonated water, or by Lacto-fermentation. Syrups are commercially sold by companies such as Soda-Club; dry ingredients are often sold in pouches, in a style of the popular U.S. drink mix Kool-Aid. Carbonated water is made using a soda siphon or a home carbonation system or by dropping dry ice into water. Food-grade carbon dioxide, used for carbonating drinks, often comes from ammonia plants.


title: Soft drink

text: Of most importance is that the ingredient meets the agreed specification on all major parameters. This is not only the functional parameter (in other words, the level of the major constituent), but the level of impurities, the microbiological status, and physical parameters such as color, particle size, etc.


title: Soft drink

text: Some soft drinks contain measurable amounts of alcohol. In some older preparations, this resulted from natural fermentation used to build the carbonation. In the United States, soft drinks (as well as other products such as non-alcoholic beer) are allowed by law to contain up to 0.5% alcohol by volume. Modern drinks introduce carbon dioxide for carbonation, but there is some speculation that alcohol might result from fermentation of sugars in a non-sterile environment. A small amount of alcohol is introduced in some soft drinks where alcohol is used in the preparation of the flavoring extracts such as vanilla extract.


title: Soft drink

text: Market control of the soft drink industry varies on a country-by-country basis. However, PepsiCo and the Coca-Cola Company remain the two largest producers of soft drinks in most regions of the world. In North America, Keurig Dr Pepper and Jones Soda also hold a significant amount of market share.


title: Soft drink

text: The over-consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks is associated with obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dental caries, and low nutrient levels. Experimental studies tend to support a causal role for sugar-sweetened soft drinks in these ailments, though this is challenged by other researchers. According to a 2013 systematic review of systematic reviews, 83.3% of the systematic reviews without reported conflict of interest concluded that sugar-sweetened soft drinks consumption could be a potential risk factor for weight gain.


title: Soft drink

text: From 1977 to 2002, Americans doubled their consumption of sweetened beverages—a trend that was paralleled by doubling the prevalence of obesity. The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with weight and obesity, and changes in consumption can help predict changes in weight.


title: Soft drink

text: The consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks can also be associated with many weight-related diseases, including diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular risk factors.


title: Soft drink

text: Most soft drinks contain high concentrations of simple carbohydrates: glucose, fructose, sucrose and other simple sugars. If oral bacteria ferment carbohydrates and produce acids that may dissolve tooth enamel and induce dental decay, then sweetened drinks may increase the risk of dental caries. The risk would be greater if the frequency of consumption is high.


title: Soft drink

text: A large number of soda pops are acidic as are many fruits, sauces, and other foods. Drinking acidic drinks over a long period and continuous sipping may erode the tooth enamel. A 2007 study determined that some flavored sparkling waters are as erosive or more so than orange juice.


title: Soft drink

text: Using a drinking straw is often advised by dentists as the drink does not come into as much contact with the teeth. It has also been suggested that brushing teeth right after drinking soft drinks should be avoided as this can result in additional erosion to the teeth due to mechanical action of the toothbrush on weakened enamel.


title: Soft drink

text: A 2006 study of several thousand men and women, found that women who regularly drank cola-based sodas (three or more a day) had significantly lower bone mineral density (BMD) of about 4% in the hip compared to women who did not consume colas. The study found that the effect of regular consumption of cola sodas was not significant on men's BMD.


title: Soft drink

text: In 2006, the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency published the results of its survey of benzene levels in soft drinks, which tested 150 products and found that four contained benzene levels above the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for drinking water.


title: Soft drink

text: The United States Food and Drug Administration released its own test results of several soft drinks containing benzoates and ascorbic or erythorbic acid. Five tested drinks contained benzene levels above the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended standard of 5 ppb. As of 2006, the FDA stated its belief that "the levels of benzene found in soft drinks and other beverages to date do not pose a safety concern for consumers".


title: Soft drink

text: A study published in the "Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology" in 2013 concluded that consumption of soft drinks was associated with a 23% higher risk of developing kidney stones.


title: Soft drink

text: In a 2019 study, 451,743 people who had higher consumption of soft drinks (two or more a day) were associated with all-cause mortality, artificially sweetened drinks with circulatory diseases and sugar-sweetened drinks with digestive diseases.


title: Soft drink

text: Since at least 2006, debate on whether high-calorie soft drink vending machines should be allowed in schools has been on the rise. Opponents of the soft drink vending machines believe that soft drinks are a significant contributor to childhood obesity and tooth decay, and that allowing soft drink sales in schools encourages children to believe they are safe to consume in moderate to large quantities. Opponents also argue that schools have a responsibility to look after the health of the children in their care, and that allowing children easy access to soft drinks violates that responsibility. Vending machine proponents believe that obesity is a complex issue and soft drinks are not the only cause. A 2011 bill to tax soft drinks in California failed, with some opposing lawmakers arguing that parents—not the government—should be responsible for children's drink choices.


title: Soft drink

text: On May 3, 2006, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Cadbury Schweppes, the Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association announced new guidelines that will voluntarily remove high-calorie soft drinks from all U.S. schools.


title: Soft drink

text: On May 19, 2006, the British education secretary, Alan Johnson, announced new minimum nutrition standards for school food. Among a wide range of measures, from September 2006, school lunches will be free from carbonated drinks. Schools will also end the sale of junk food (including carbonated drinks) in vending machines and tuck shops.