title: Jason Aldean

text: 27 of his 38 singles have reached #1 on either the Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts with "Why", "She's Country", "Big Green Tractor", "The Truth", "Don't You Wanna Stay" (a duet with Kelly Clarkson), "Dirt Road Anthem", "Fly Over States", "Take a Little Ride", "The Only Way I Know" (a collaboration with Luke Bryan and Eric Church), "Night Train", "When She Says Baby", "Burnin' It Down", "Just Gettin' Started", "Tonight Looks Good on You", "Lights Come On", "A Little More Summertime", "Any Ol' Barstool", "You Make It Easy", "Drowns the Whiskey" (a duet with Miranda Lambert), "Girl Like You", "Rearview Town", "Got What I Got", "Blame It on You", "If I Didn't Love You" (a duet with Carrie Underwood), and "Trouble with a Heartbreak".


title: Jason Aldean

text: Jason Aldine Williams was born in Macon, Georgia, on February 28, 1977. His parents separated when he was three. He was raised by his mother in Macon, and during the summer he spent time with his father in Homestead, Florida. Before his father went to his work, he would map out guitar chords on notebook paper to show his son where to place his fingers to play the chords and Jason would sit and practice all day while his dad was at work. When his dad got home, he got out his own guitar and they played together. Soon he could play a song after hearing it only a few times. His early favorites included George Strait's "The Cowboy Rides Away", Hank Williams Jr.'s "The Blues Man", and Alabama's "My Home's in Alabama".


title: Jason Aldean

text: Both of his parents encouraged young Aldean as he progressed musically. From age 14, after watching the country-music awards on television, he wanted to perform on stage. With his mother's help, he performed at the local VFW hall in Macon. He sang John Anderson's song "Seminole Wind" and Tracy Lawrence's "Sticks and Stones". He then began performing at area talent contests and local fairs. At 15, he joined the "house band" at Georgia nightspot Nashville South.


title: Jason Aldean

text: In order to stand out, Aldean changed the spelling of his middle name, Aldine, to come up with the name Aldean.


title: Jason Aldean

text: After high school, with his father's help, Aldean and his band performed at clubs and festivals around the Southeast. With Justin Weaver (one of the band's members), Aldean began writing and recording original songs. In 1998, he performed songs from his first album at a showcase staged by Atlanta nightclub The Buckboard. He was approached by Michael Knox, then of the Warner-Chappell song-publishing company. After signing with Warner-Chappell, Aldean moved to Nashville on November 1, 1998, at the age of 21.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean was offered a recording contract but was subsequently dropped. He signed with another label but again was dropped in 2000 after his label postponed his recording sessions repeatedly. Various showcases failed to bring him a contract. The last straw was an attempt at the Wildhorse Saloon where the promised label talent scouts never even showed up. Still frustrated and discouraged with his struggling career, Aldean gave himself six months before planning to leave Nashville and return home to Georgia. Then five weeks later, he was offered a deal from Broken Bow Records in Nashville. Shortly after the release of his self-titled debut album, Aldean picked up his new (and current) agent Kevin Neal. Furthermore, while recording "Relentless", Aldean moved to Clarence Spalding and Spalding Entertainment for management.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean's debut single, "Hicktown", was released in early 2005. It served as the lead-off to his self-titled debut album and reached number 10 on the US "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart. The album also produced his first number one hit with "Why". This album finally released the number 4 hit "Amarillo Sky", which had previously been a non-charting single in 2002 for McBride & the Ride. This song earned a 2006 ACM nomination for Song of the Year and Video of the Year. Aldean earned the title "Top New Male Vocalist" at the 2006 ACM Awards. The album has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the United States and was certified platinum by the RIAA in 2007.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean spent most of January 2007, in the studio with producer Michael Knox to finish his second album, "Relentless". This album was released on May 29, 2007, and at Wal-Mart locations, it was released with a Limited Edition CMT Pick DVD that included Aldean's performances. The album's lead-off single, "Johnny Cash", was originally recorded by Tracy Byrd, but Aldean's version of it peaked at No. 6. Its followup "Laughed Until We Cried" became his 5th consecutive Top 10 hit. "Relentless" has also been certified platinum by the RIAA, and its title track was released as its 3rd single. The song has also been Aldean's lowest-charting single both in the U.S. and Canada, failing to reach the Top 10 on the country charts.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean released his seventh single titled "She's Country" on December 1, 2008. This song serves as the lead-off single from his third album "Wide Open", which was released on April 7, 2009. The single debuted at No. 51 on the Hot Country Songs chart in late-November 2008. Being his 7th consecutive Top 40 hit on the country charts, it is also his 1st Top 40 hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It later became his second number-one hit, and his first since "Why" in May 2006. The next single, "Big Green Tractor", became Aldean's third number-one hit. "Wide Open" debuted at No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart. "The Truth" became the album's third consecutive number-one hit in January 2010, with "Crazy Town" being the album's fourth single and peaking at No. 2 on the country charts.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean performed with Bryan Adams on an episode of "CMT Crossroads" in the beginning of May, and the episode premiered on June 26, 2009. In an interview with "Shave" Magazine, Aldean explained that working with Bryan on "Crossroads" "was great" and that "[h]e was a lot of fun." But the real highlight for him was that he was working with Randy Owen. "I am a big fan of Alabama so I got a chance to work with Randy Owen on this album (it didn't make the album but it eventually made a bonus track). It was really cool. Alabama were like 'The Beatles' for me so working with him was definitely one of the highlights," he said "I mean, both of those guys were really cool moments, but if I had to pick one highlight, it would be working with Randy [Owen] this year." A live DVD titled "Wide Open Live & More" was released on August 25, 2009. At the 2010 CMT Music Awards, Aldean picked up 3 nominations in Video of the Year and Male Video of the Year for "The Truth", as well as Collaborative Video of the Year and CMT Performance of the Year for his performance of "Heaven" with Bryan Adams.


title: Jason Aldean

text: In August 2010, Aldean released the single "My Kinda Party", which entered the Hot Country Songs chart at No. 41. It is the lead-off single from his album of the same name, which was released on November 2, 2010. It marks as Aldean's tenth top-10 country hit. Aldean also collaborated with Kelly Clarkson on the intimate duet "Don't You Wanna Stay". His and Clarkson's performance on November 10, 2010, at the CMA Awards received positive recognition, and debuted at No. 59 on "Billboard"'s Hot Country Songs chart from unsolicited airplay for the week of November 20, 2010. In March 2011, it became Aldean's fifth number-one hit.


title: Jason Aldean

text: In early 2011, Aldean's version of "Dirt Road Anthem", which was recorded previously by both of its writers country rap artist Colt Ford and Brantley Gilbert (who also wrote "My Kinda Party"), debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart at No. 57 as an album cut from an unsolicited airplay for the week of February 5, 2011. In March 2011, the song was chosen as the third single from "My Kinda Party". Aldean also collaborated with Ludacris for the song at the 2011 CMT Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee on June 8, 2011. In addition to making #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart for the week of July 30, 2011, it also became Aldean's first Top 10 hit on the Hot 100 chart.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean performed "My Kinda Party" at the start of the 2011 Home Run Derby, which was broadcast on ESPN. Aldean won the CMA award for Album of the Year in 2011 as well as the Musical Event of the Year with "Don't You Wanna Stay", his duet with Kelly Clarkson. This was his first win. On October 25, 2011, it was announced that Aldean would be performing on "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night", the 1-hour special which took place live on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. "Don't You Wanna Stay" received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, but however lost to The Civil Wars at the 54th Grammy Awards on February 12, 2012. The fourth single from the album was "Tattoos on This Town", which peaked at No. 2, followed by yet another number one single, entitled "Fly Over States".


title: Jason Aldean

text: The first single from Aldean's fifth album was entitled "Take a Little Ride". It was released on July 16, 2012. Later, the album's title was announced as "Night Train". This album was released on October 16, 2012. Its second single, "The Only Way I Know", is a collaboration among him, Luke Bryan, and Eric Church. The album's third single, entitled "1994", is a tribute to Joe Diffie. The album's fourth single, the title track, was released to country radio on June 24, 2013. The fifth single, "When She Says Baby", was released to country radio on November 18 of that same year. "Take a Little Ride", "The Only Way I Know", "Night Train", and "When She Says Baby" all peaked at number 1 on the Country Airplay chart respectively.


title: Jason Aldean

text: During a radio interview on May 18, Aldean hinted at another possible collaboration with Ludacris. He did state that it would not be on "Night Train". On December 16, 2014, Ludacris released an Extended Play titled "Burning Bridges", in which the title track featured him and Aldean as a duet. Aldean performed "My Kinda Party" during the People's Choice Awards on January 9, 2013. On June 5, 2013, Jason Aldean co-hosted the 2013 CMT Music Awards with actress Kristen Bell. He and Lenny Kravitz opened the awards show singing "American Woman".


title: Jason Aldean

text: On July 22, 2014, Aldean released a new single "Burnin' It Down". This song would serve as the lead single off his sixth studio album "Old Boots, New Dirt", which was released on October 7, 2014. This song reached No. 1 both on the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. The album's second single, "Just Gettin' Started", was released to country radio on November 10, 2014. It reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in March 2015. "Tonight Looks Good on You" was released as the third single on March 23, 2015. It reached No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart in July 2015. also performed "CMT Crossroads" with Bob Seger song called "Turn the Page". The album's fourth single, "Gonna Know We Were Here" released to country radio on August 17, 2015. It reached No. 2 on the Country Airplay chart in January 2016. Jason Aldean is one of only three artists to achieve RIAA platinum sales certification on an album released this year. His "Old Boots, New Dirt" album, which debuted at the top of Billboard's all-genre Top 200 chart in October, has now shipped more than one million units. This means that he is the only country star to release a platinum-seller in 2014, and joins only Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande in platinum album certifications for collections released this year.


title: Jason Aldean

text: At the conclusion of Aldean's Burn it Down Tour, he donated over $600,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure of South Florida.


title: Jason Aldean

text: In July 2016 it was announced that the seventh regular studio album, "They Don't Know", was set for release on September 9 of that year. Again produced by Michael Knox, the album was preceded by the single "Lights Come On", released to country radio on April 1, 2016. The album's second single, "A Little More Summertime", released to country radio on July 15, 2016. The album's third single, "Any Ol' Barstool", was released to country radio on December 5, 2016. The album's fourth and final single, the title track of the album, was released to country radio on May 8, 2017. At the 2016 ACM Awards, Aldean was awarded Entertainer of the Year for the first time in his career. He would go on to win that award in 2017 and also 2018.


title: Jason Aldean

text: In March 2017, Aldean announced that he is working on his eighth album, titled "Rearview Town", which was released on April 13, 2018. The lead single, "You Make It Easy", was released on January 26, 2018. Aldean also confirmed two other songs would appear on the album: "Gettin' Warmed Up" and "Set It Off".


title: Jason Aldean

text: On October 1, 2017, Aldean had just begun performing "When She Says Baby" at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada when Stephen Paddock began firing into the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort. Aldean and his band managed to exit the stage unharmed, but 60 concertgoers died and 867 others were injured during the incident. On October 7, Aldean opened "Saturday Night Live" with words of support for those hurting in the aftermath of the shooting, saying that "we witnessed one of the worst tragedies in American history. Like everyone, I'm struggling to understand what happened that night (and why) and how to pick up the pieces and start to heal. But you can be sure that we're going to walk through these tough times together, every step of the way. Because when America is at its best, our bond and our spirit — it's unbreakable." He then performed a cover of "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty, who had died five days earlier.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean performed at the 2019 Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum Concert and Induction Ceremony. Aldean's ninth album, titled "9", was released on November 22, 2019. The album's first single, "We Back" released to country radio on September 9, 2019. It peaked at number 6 on the Country Airplay in March 2020 and number 1 on the Canadian Country chart. The album's second single, "Got What I Got" released to country radio on April 6, 2020. "Blame It on You" was released on October 26, 2020 as the album's third single.


title: Jason Aldean

text: On July 23, 2021, Aldean released the single "If I Didn't Love You", featuring Carrie Underwood. It was the leadoff single to his tenth studio album, a double album project entitled "Macon, Georgia". The first half, "Macon", was released on November 12, 2021. On January 14, 2022, "Trouble with a Heartbreak" was released as the album's second single and was the leadoff single to the second half of the album, "Georgia", which was released on April 22, 2022. On March 25, 2022, Aldean and Brantley Gilbert released the single "Rolex® on a Redneck". On July 18, 2022, Aldean released the single "That's What Tequila Does" to country radio, from the double album "Macon, Georgia". In November 2022, Aldean released his version of Alabama's "Christmas in Dixie"


title: Jason Aldean

text: Jason has been an avid supporter of raising awareness for breast cancer research since 2004, after losing a dear friend to the disease. He has raised close to $4M for cancer research through donating a portion of each ticket sale, special merchandise, VIP meet & greets, a donate button on his website, and his annual Concert for the Cure, most of which he has contributed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean married Jessica Ann Ussery on August 4, 2001. Together, the couple have a daughter born in 2003, and another born in 2007. On September 30, 2012, Aldean admitted to having "acted inappropriately at a bar" with former "American Idol" contestant, Brittany Kerr, responding to reports linking her and Aldean. In a statement, Kerr said she had suffered "a lapse in judgment" and "would like to sincerely apologize to everyone that has been affected by this." Aldean filed for divorce on April 26, 2013, citing irreconcilable differences and listing the filing date as the formal separation date.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean and Kerr began dating and made their first public appearance as a couple at the 2014 CMT Awards. On September 24, 2014, Aldean and Kerr announced their engagement. The couple were married on March 21, 2015. Their son, Memphis was born on December 1, 2017. Their daughter, Navy was born in early 2019. In August 2022, Brittany Aldean posted an Instagram video in which she stated, "I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase", followed by a longer post in which she stated an opposition to "sex changes" for minors. She received support from other country singers such as RaeLynn and Whitney Duncan, while Cassadee Pope and Maren Morris criticized the remarks as indicative of transphobia. In response, Aldean's public relations firm The GreenRoom dropped him as a client on September 1.


title: Jason Aldean

text: Aldean owns a hunting company called Buck Commander, in partnership with former Major League Baseball (MLB) players Adam LaRoche, Ryan Langerhans, and Tom Martin; Willie Robertson of "Duck Dynasty"; and fellow country singers Luke Bryan and Tyler Farr.


title: Jason Aldean

text: In 2015, "Forbes" estimated Aldean's annual income at $43.5 million. Aldean was the seventh highest-earning country musician making about 32.5 million dollars in 2017. In 2017, Aldean was on Forbes' Celebrity 100 list, being ranked at 98. Aldean became the sixth artist to receive the ACM Dick Clark Artist of the Decade Award in 2019. The award is given to artists who were consistently on top of the charts over the span of the decade.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. Its effectiveness is debated; some studies have suggested that it is "difficult to show clearly that cloud seeding has a very large effect." The usual objective is to increase precipitation (rain or snow), either for its own sake or to prevent precipitation from occurring in days afterward.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The most common chemicals used for cloud seeding include silver iodide, potassium iodide and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide). Liquid propane, which expands into a gas, has also been used. This can produce ice crystals at higher temperatures than silver iodide. After promising research, the use of hygroscopic materials, such as table salt, is becoming more popular.


title: Cloud seeding

text: When cloud seeding, increased snowfall takes place when temperatures within the clouds are between −20 and −7 °C. Introduction of a substance such as silver iodide, which has a crystalline structure similar to that of ice, will induce freezing nucleation.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In mid-altitude clouds, the usual seeding strategy has been based on the fact that the equilibrium vapor pressure is lower over ice than over water. The formation of ice particles in supercooled clouds allows those particles to grow at the expense of liquid droplets. If sufficient growth takes place, the particles become heavy enough to fall as precipitation from clouds that otherwise would produce no precipitation. This process is known as "static" seeding.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Seeding of warm-season or tropical cumulonimbus (convective) clouds seeks to exploit the latent heat released by freezing. This strategy of "dynamic" seeding assumes that the additional latent heat adds buoyancy, strengthens updrafts, ensures more low-level convergence, and ultimately causes rapid growth of properly selected clouds.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding chemicals may be dispersed by aircraft or by dispersion devices located on the ground (generators or canisters fired from anti-aircraft guns or rockets). For release by aircraft, silver iodide flares are ignited and dispersed as an aircraft flies through the inflow of a cloud. When released by devices on the ground, the fine particles are carried downwind and upward by air currents after release.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Since 2021, the United Arab Emirates has been using a new technology: drones equipped with a payload of electric-charge emission instruments and customised sensors fly at low altitudes and deliver an electric charge to air molecules. This method produced a significant rainstorm in July 2021. For instance, in Al Ain it rained 6.9 millimetres on 20–21 July.


title: Cloud seeding

text: An electronic mechanism was tested in 2010, when infrared laser pulses were directed to the air above Berlin by researchers from the University of Geneva. The experimenters posited that the pulses would encourage atmospheric sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide to form particles that would then act as seeds.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Whether cloud seeding is effective in producing a statistically significant increase in precipitation is still a matter of academic debate, with contrasting results depending on the study in question, and contrasting opinion among experts.


title: Cloud seeding

text: A study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences failed to find statistically significant support for the effectiveness of cloud seeding. Based on the report's findings, Stanford University ecologist Rob Jackson said: "I think you can squeeze out a little more snow or rain in some places under some conditions, but that's quite different from a program claiming to reliably increase precipitation." Data similar to that of the NAS study was acquired in a separate study conducted by the Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project. However, whereas the NAS study concluded that "it is difficult to show clearly that cloud seeding has a very large effect," the WWMPP study concluded that "seeding could augment the snowpack by a maximum of 3% over an entire season."


title: Cloud seeding

text: In 2003, the US National Research Council (NRC) released a report stating, "...science is unable to say with assurance which, if any, seeding techniques produce positive effects. In the 55 years following the first cloud-seeding demonstrations, substantial progress has been made in understanding the natural processes that account for our daily weather. Yet scientifically acceptable proof for significant seeding effects has not been achieved".


title: Cloud seeding

text: A 2010, Tel Aviv University study claimed that the common practice of cloud seeding to improve rainfall, with materials such as silver iodide and frozen carbon dioxide, seems to have little if any impact on the amount of precipitation. A 2011 study suggested that airplanes may produce ice particles by freezing cloud droplets that cool as they flow around the tips of propellers, over wings or over jet aircraft, and thereby unintentionally seed clouds. This could have potentially serious consequences for particular hail stone formation.


title: Cloud seeding

text: However, Jeff Tilley, director of weather modification at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, claimed in 2016 that new technology and research has produced reliable results that make cloud seeding a dependable and affordable water supply practice for many regions. Moreover, in 1998 the American Meteorological Society held that "precipitation from supercooled orographic clouds (clouds that develop over mountains) has been seasonally increased by about 10%."


title: Cloud seeding

text: Despite the mixed scientific results, cloud seeding was attempted during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to coax rain showers out of clouds before they reached the Olympic city in order to prevent rain during the opening and closing ceremonies. Whether this attempt was successful is a matter of dispute, with Roelof Bruintjes, who leads the National Center for Atmospheric Research's weather-modification group, remarking that "we cannot make clouds or chase clouds away."


title: Cloud seeding

text: With an NFPA 704 health hazard rating of 2, silver iodide can cause temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury to humans and other mammals with intense or chronic exposure. However, there have been several detailed ecological studies that showed negligible environmental and health impacts. The toxicity of silver and silver compounds (from silver iodide) was shown to be of low order in some studies. These findings likely result from the minute amounts of silver generated by cloud seeding, which are about one percent of industry emissions into the atmosphere in many parts of the world, or individual exposure from tooth fillings.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Accumulations in the soil, vegetation, and surface runoff have not been large enough to measure above natural background. A 1995 environmental assessment in the Sierra Nevada of California and a 2004 independent panel of experts in Australia confirmed these earlier findings.


title: Cloud seeding

text: "In 1978, an estimated 3,000 tonnes of silver were released into the US environment. This led the US Health Services and EPA to conduct studies regarding the potential for environmental and human health hazards related to silver. These agencies and other state agencies applied the Clean Water Act of 1977 and 1987 to establish regulations on this type of pollution."


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding over Kosciuszko National Park—a biosphere reserve—is problematic in that several rapid changes of environmental legislation were made to enable the trial. Environmentalists are concerned about the uptake of elemental silver in a highly sensitive environment affecting the pygmy possum among other species as well as recent high level algal blooms in once pristine glacial lakes. Research 50 years ago and analysis by the former Snowy Mountains Authority led to the cessation of the cloud seeding program in the 1950s with non-definitive results. Formerly, cloud seeding was rejected in Australia on environmental grounds because of concerns about the protected species, the pygmy possum. Since silver iodide and not elemental silver is the cloud seeding material, the claims of negative environmental impact are disputed by peer-reviewed research as summarized by the international Weather Modification Association.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In 1891, Louis Gathmann suggested shooting liquid carbon dioxide into rain clouds to cause them to rain. During the 1930s, the Bergeron–Findeisen process theorized that supercooled water droplets present, while ice crystals are released into rain clouds, would cause rain. While researching aircraft icing, General Electric (GE)'s Vincent Schaefer and Irving Langmuir confirmed the theory. Schaefer discovered the principle of cloud seeding in July 1946 through a series of serendipitous events. Following ideas generated between him and Nobel laureate Langmuir while climbing Mt Washington in New Hampshire, Schaefer, Langmuir's research associate, created a way of experimenting with supercooled clouds using a deep freeze unit of potential agents to stimulate ice crystal growth, i.e., table salt, talcum powder, soils, dust, and various chemical agents with minor effect. Then one hot and humid July 14, 1946, he wanted to try a few experiments at GE's Schenectady Research Lab


title: Cloud seeding

text: He was dismayed to find that the deep freezer was not cold enough to produce a "cloud" using breath air. He decided to move the process along by adding a chunk of dry ice just to lower the temperature of his experimental chamber. To his astonishment, as soon as he breathed into the deep freezer, he noted a bluish haze, followed by an eye-popping display of millions of microscopic ice crystals, reflecting the strong light rays from the lamp illuminating a cross-section of the chamber. He instantly realized that he had discovered a way to change super-cooled water into ice crystals. The experiment was easily replicated, and he explored the temperature gradient to establish the limit for liquid water.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Within the month, Schaefer's colleague, the atmospheric scientist Dr. Bernard Vonnegut, was credited with discovering another method for "seeding" super-cooled cloud water. Vonnegut accomplished his discovery at the desk, looking up information in a basic chemistry text and then tinkering with silver and iodide chemicals to produce silver iodide. Together with Professor Henry Chessin, of SUNY Albany, a crystallographer, he co-authored a publication in "Science" and received a patent in 1975. Both methods were adopted for use in cloud seeding during 1946 while working for GE in the state of New York.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Schaefer's method altered a cloud's heat budget; Vonnegut's altered formative crystal structure, an ingenious property related to a good match in lattice constant between the two types of crystal. (The crystallography of ice later played a role in Vonnegut's brother Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Cat's Cradle"). The first attempt to modify natural clouds in the field through "cloud seeding" began during a flight that began in upstate New York on 13 November 1946. Schaefer was able to cause snow to fall near Mount Greylock in western Massachusetts, after he dumped of dry ice into the target cloud from a plane after a easterly chase from the Schenectady County Airport.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Dry ice and silver iodide agents are effective in changing the physical chemistry of super-cooled clouds, thus useful in augmentation of winter snowfall over mountains and under certain conditions, in lightning and hail suppression. While not a new technique, hygroscopic seeding for enhancement of rainfall in warm clouds is enjoying a revival, based on some positive indications from research in South Africa, Mexico, and elsewhere. The hygroscopic material most commonly used is table salt. It is postulated that hygroscopic seeding causes the droplet size spectrum in clouds to become more maritime (bigger drops) and less continental, stimulating rainfall through coalescence. From March 1967 until July 1972, the US military's Operation Popeye cloud-seeded silver iodide to extend the monsoon season over North Vietnam, specifically the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The operation resulted in the targeted areas seeing an extension of the monsoon period an average of 30 to 45 days. The 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron carried out the operation to "make mud, not war".


title: Cloud seeding

text: One private organization that offered, during the 1970s, to conduct weather modification (cloud seeding from the ground using silver iodide flares) was Irving P. Krick and Associates of Palm Springs, California. They were contracted by Oklahoma State University in 1972 to conduct a seeding project to increase warm cloud rainfall in the Lake Carl Blackwell watershed. That lake was, at that time (1972–73), the primary water supply for Stillwater, Oklahoma and was dangerously low. The project did not operate for a long enough time to show statistically any change from natural variations.


title: Cloud seeding

text: An attempt by the United States military to modify hurricanes in the Atlantic basin using cloud seeding in the 1960s was called Project Stormfury. Only a few hurricanes were tested with cloud seeding because of the strict rules set by the scientists of the project. It was unclear whether the project was successful. Hurricanes appeared to change slightly in structure, but only temporarily. The fear that cloud seeding could potentially change the course or power of hurricanes and negatively affect people in the storm's path stopped the project.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Two federal agencies have supported various weather modification research projects, which began in the early-1960s: The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation; Department of the Interior) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA; Department of Commerce). Reclamation sponsored several cloud seeding research projects under the umbrella of Project Skywater from 1964 to 1988, and NOAA conducted the Atmospheric Modification Program from 1979 to 1993. The sponsored projects were carried out in several states and two countries (Thailand and Morocco), studying both winter and summer cloud seeding. From 1962 to 1988 Reclamation developed cloud seeding applied research to augment water supplies in the western US. The research focused on winter orographic seeding to enhance snowfall in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, and precipitation in coast ranges of southern California. In California Reclamation partnered with the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) to sponsor the Serra Cooperative Pilot Project (SCPP), based in Auburn CA, to conduct seeding experiments in the central Sierra. The University of Nevada and Desert Research Institute provided cloud physics, physical chemistry, and other field support. The High Plains Cooperative Pilot Project (HIPLEX), focused on convective cloud seeding to increase rainfall during the growing season in Montana, Kansas, and Texas from 1974 to 1979. In 1979, the World Meteorological Organization, and other member-states led by the Government of Spain conducted a Precipitation Enhancement Project (PEP) in Spain, with inconclusive results due probably to location selection issues. Reclamation sponsored research at several universities including Colorado State University, Universities of Wyoming, Washington, UCLA, Utah, Chicago, NYU, Montana, Colorado and research teams at Stanford, Meteorology Research Inc., and Penn State University, and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, North Dakota, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. Cooperative efforts with state water resources agencies in California, Colorado, Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona assured that the applied research met state water management needs. The High Plains Cooperative Pilot Project also engaged in partnerships with NASA, Environment Canada, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). More recently, in cooperation with six western states, Reclamation sponsored a small cooperative research program called the Weather Damage Modification Program, from 2002–2006.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In the United States, funding for research has declined in the last two decades. However, the Bureau of Reclamation sponsored a six-state research program from 2002–2006, called the "Weather Damage Modification Program". A 2003 study by the United States National Academy of Sciences urges a national research program to clear up remaining questions about weather modification's efficacy and practice.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) conducted major trials between 1947 and the early-1960s:


title: Cloud seeding

text: Only the trial conducted in the Snowy Mountains produced statistically significant rainfall increases over the entire experiment.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Hydro Tasmania (at the time still known as the Hydro Electric Commission) began experimenting with cloud-seeding over lake catchments in central Tasmania in the early 1960s in order to determine if their electricity-producing dams could be kept at high water levels through cloud seeding. Tasmania proved to be one place where cloud seeding was highly effective. Various trials were undertaken between 1964 and 2005, and again between 2009 and 2016, but none have taken place since then. Hydro Tasmania also undertook soil and water survey samples and found negligible trace elements of the materials used for cloud seeding (such as silver iodine), and determined it did not have a detrimental effect on the environment.


title: Cloud seeding

text: An Austrian study to use silver iodide seeding for hail prevention ran during 1981–2000, and the technique is still actively deployed there.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The Thailand Royal Rainmaking Project (, ) was initiated in November 1955 by King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thai farmers repeatedly suffered the effects of drought. The king resolved to do something about it and proposed a solution to the dearth of rain: artificial rainmaking, or cloud seeding. The program is run by the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The king received recognition for the Royal Rainmaking Project from the EUREKA organization in 2001 for an invention that is beneficial to the world. In 2009, Jordan received permission from Thailand to use the technique.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The largest cloud seeding system is in the People's Republic of China. They believe that it increases the amount of rain over several increasingly arid regions, including its capital city, Beijing, by firing silver iodide rockets into the sky where rain is desired. There is even political strife caused by neighboring regions that accuse each other of "stealing rain" using cloud seeding. China used cloud seeding in Beijing just before the 2008 Olympic Games in order to have a dry Olympic season. In February 2009, China also blasted iodide sticks over Beijing to artificially induce snowfall after four months of drought, and blasted iodide sticks over other areas of northern China to increase snowfall. The snowfall in Beijing lasted for approximately three days and led to the closure of 12 main roads around Beijing. At the end of October 2009 Beijing claimed it had its earliest snowfall since 1987 due to cloud seeding. According to "research paper from Tsinghua University, the Chinese weather authorities used weather modification to ensure the sky was clear and lower air pollution" on July 1, 2021. The Chinese Communist party celebrated its centenary on July 1 with a major celebration. The celebration took place in Tiananmen Square. The paper was published on November 26, 2021 in a peer-review journal called Environment Science (via South China Morning Post). The research shows that the Chinese government used cloud-seeding techniques to force rainfall the evening before the celebration event. This rainfall lowered the amount of PM2.5 pollution by more than two-thirds. That helped improve the air quality at the time from “moderate” to “good”.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In India, cloud seeding operations were conducted during the years 1983, 1984–87,1993-94 by Tamil Nadu Govt due to severe drought. In the years 2003 and 2004 Karnataka government initiated cloud seeding. Cloud seeding operations were also conducted in the same year through US-based Weather Modification Inc. in the state of Maharashtra.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In Jakarta, cloud seeding was used to minimize flood risk in anticipation of heavy floods in 2013, according to the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used unmanned aerial vehicles to seed clouds in 10 Iranian provinces.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Israel has been enhancing rain in convective clouds since the 1950s. The practice involves emitting silver iodide from airplanes and ground stations. The seeding takes place only in the northern parts of Israel. Since 2021, Israel stopped the rain enhancement project.


title: Cloud seeding

text: To counter drought and a growing population in a desert region, Kuwait is embarking on its own cloud seeding program, with the local Environment Public Authority conducting a study to gauge its viability locally.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In Southeast Asia, open-burning haze pollutes the regional environment. Cloud seeding has been used to improve the air quality by encouraging rainfall.


title: Cloud seeding

text: On 20 June 2013, Indonesia said it will begin cloud-seeding operations following reports from Singapore and Malaysia that smog caused by forest and bush fires in Sumatra have disrupted daily activities in the neighboring countries. On 25 June 2013, hailstones were reported to have fallen over some parts of Singapore. Despite NEA denials, some believe that the hailstones are the result of cloud seeding in Indonesia.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Thailand started a rain-making project in the late-1950s, known today as the Royal Rainmaking Project. Its first efforts scattered sea salt in the air to catch the humidity and dry ice to condense the humidity to form clouds. The project took about ten years of experiments and refinement. The first field operations began in 1969 above Khao Yai National Park. Since then the Thai government claims that rainmaking has been successfully applied throughout Thailand and neighboring countries. On 12 October 2005 the European Patent Office granted to King Bhumibol Adulyadej the patent EP 1 491 088 "Weather modification by royal rainmaking technology". The budget of the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation in FY2019 was 2,224 million baht.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding was used due to the low amount of rain causing low power generation from hydro in March 2019


title: Cloud seeding

text: In the United States, cloud seeding is used to increase precipitation in areas experiencing drought, to reduce the size of hailstones that form in thunderstorms, and to reduce the amount of fog in and around airports. In the summer of 1948, the usually humid city of Alexandria, Louisiana, under Mayor Carl B. Close, seeded a cloud with dry ice at the municipal airport during a drought; quickly of rainfall occurred.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding is occasionally used by major ski resorts to induce snowfall. Eleven western states and one Canadian province (Alberta) have ongoing weather modification operational programs. In January 2006, an $8.8 million cloud seeding project began in Wyoming to examine the effects of cloud seeding on snowfall over Wyoming's Medicine Bow, Sierra Madre, and Wind River mountain ranges.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In Oregon, Hood River seeding was used by Portland General Electric to produce snow for hydro power in 1974-1975. The results were substantial, but caused an undue burden on the locals who experienced overpowering rainfall causing street collapses and mud slides. PGE discontinued its seeding practices the following year.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The US signed the Environmental Modification Convention in 1978 which banned the use of weather modification for hostile purposes.


title: Cloud seeding

text: As of 2022, seven agencies in California were conducting cloud seeding operations using silver iodide, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility District which had begun employing the technique in 1969 to increase the water supply to its hydroelectric power plants, and reported that it results in "an average of 3 to 10% increase in [Sierra Nevada] snowpack".


title: Cloud seeding

text: During the sixties, Irving P. Krick & Associates operated a successful cloud seeding operation in the area around Calgary, Alberta. This utilized both aircraft and ground-based generators that pumped silver iodide into the atmosphere in an attempt to reduce the threat of hail damage. Ralph Langeman, Lynn Garrison, and Stan McLeod, all ex-members of the RCAF's 403 Squadron, attending the University of Alberta, spent their summers flying hail suppression. The Alberta Hail Suppression Project is continuing with C$3 million a year in funding from insurance companies to reduce hail damage in southern Alberta.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Bulgaria operates a national network of hail protection, silver iodide rocket sites, strategically located in agricultural areas such as the rose valley. Each site protects an area of 10 sq. km, the density of the site clusters is such that at least 2 sites will be able to target a single hail cloud, initial detection of hail cloud formation to firing of the rockets is typically 7–10 minutes in its entire process with a view to seed the formation of much smaller hailstones, high in the atmosphere that will melt before reaching ground level.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Data collated since the 1960s suggests huge agricultural sector losses are avoided yearly with the protection system, unseeded the hail will flatten entire regions, with seeding this can be reduced to minor leaf damage from the smaller hailstones that failed to melt.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding began in France during the 1950s with the intent of reducing hail damage to crops. The ANELFA () project consists of local agencies acting within a non-profit organization. A similar project in Spain is managed by the Consorcio por la Lucha Antigranizo de Aragon. The success of the French program was supported by analysis made by Jean Dessens based on insurance data; that of the Spanish program in studies conducted by the Spanish Agricultural Ministry. However, Jean Dessens's results were heavily criticized and doubt was cast on the effectiveness of ground generator seeding. ()


title: Cloud seeding

text: The Soviet Union created a specifically designed version of the Antonov An-30 aerial survey aircraft, the An-30M Sky Cleaner, with eight containers of solid carbon dioxide in the cargo area plus external pods containing meteorological cartridges that could be fired into clouds. Currently, An-26 is also used for cloud seeding. At the July 2006 G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, President Putin commented that air force jets had been deployed to seed incoming clouds so they rained over Finland. Rain drenched the summit anyway. In Moscow, the Russian Airforce tried seeding clouds with bags of cement on June 17, 2008. One of the bags did not pulverize and went through the roof of a house. In October 2009, the Mayor of Moscow promised a "winter without snow" for the city after revealing efforts by the Russian Air Force to seed the clouds upwind from Moscow throughout the winter.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In Germany civic engagement societies organize cloud seeding on a region level. A registered society maintains aircraft for cloud seeding to protect agricultural areas from hail in the district Rosenheim, the district Miesbach, the district Traunstein (all located in southern Bavaria, Germany) and the district Kufstein (located in Tyrol, Austria).


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding is also used in Baden-Württemberg, a federal state particularly known for its winegrowing culture. The districts of Ludwigsburg, Heilbronn, Schwarzwald-Baar and Rems-Murr, as well as the cities Stuttgart and Esslingen participate in a program to prevent the formation of hailstones. Reports from a local insurance agency suggest that the cloud seeding activities in the Stuttgart area have prevented about 5 million euro in damages in 2015 while the project's annual upkeep is priced at only 325.000 euro. Another society for cloud seeding operates in the district of Villingen-Schwenningen.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Slovenia's oldest aeroclub Letalski center Maribor carries air defense against hail as a specialized operation. The Cessna TU206G Turbo Stationair 6 II is equipped with external aggregates and flares for flying. Three crew members work in the operation. Two are the pilots in the plane and the third is the radar operator on the ground. The purpose of the defense is to prevent damage to farmland and cities in the areas of Styria and Prekmurje - aircraft hail suppression. They have been carrying out defense since 1983. Silver iodide is used as a reagent. The base is at Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport. The activity is financed by local communities and the Ministry of Agriculture, it has great support among people and farmers from all over the countryside.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Project Cumulus was a UK government initiative to investigate weather manipulation, in particular through cloud seeding experiments, operational between 1949 and 1952. A conspiracy theory has circulated that the Lynmouth flood of 1952 was caused by secret cloud seeding experiments carried out by the Royal Air Force. However, meteorologist Philip Eden has given several reasons why "it is preposterous to blame the Lynmouth flood on such experiments".


title: Cloud seeding

text: In Australia, summer activities of CSIRO and Hydro Tasmania over central and western Tasmania between the 1960s and the present day appear to have been successful. Seeding over the Hydro-Electricity Commission catchment area on the Central Plateau achieved rainfall increases as high as 30 percent in autumn. The Tasmanian experiments were so successful that the Commission has regularly undertaken seeding ever since in mountainous parts of the State.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In 2004, Snowy Hydro Limited began a trial of cloud seeding to assess the feasibility of increasing snow precipitation in the Snowy Mountains in Australia. The test period, originally scheduled to end in 2009, was later extended to 2014. The New South Wales (NSW) Natural Resources Commission, responsible for supervising the cloud seeding operations, believes that the trial may have difficulty establishing statistically whether cloud seeding operations are increasing snowfall. This project was discussed at a summit in Narrabri, NSW on 1 December 2006. The summit met with the intention of outlining a proposal for a 5-year trial, focusing on Northern NSW.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The various implications of such a widespread trial were discussed, drawing on the combined knowledge of several worldwide experts, including representatives from the Tasmanian Hydro Cloud Seeding Project however does not make reference to former cloud seeding experiments by the then-Snowy Mountains Authority, which rejected weather modification. The trial required changes to NSW environmental legislation in order to facilitate placement of the cloud seeding apparatus. The modern experiment is not supported for the Australian Alps.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In December 2006, the Queensland government of Australia announced a $7.6 million in funding for "warm cloud" seeding research to be conducted jointly by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the United States National Center for Atmospheric Research. Outcomes of the study are hoped to ease continuing drought conditions in the states South East region.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In March 2020, scientists from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science Centre and Southern Cross University trialled marine cloud seeding off the coast of Queensland, Australia, with the aim to protect Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching and dieoff during marine heatwaves. Using two high-pressure turbines, the team sprayed microscopic droplets of saltwater into the air. These then evaporate leaving behind very small salt crystals, which water vapour clings to, creating clouds that reflect the sun more effectively.


title: Cloud seeding

text: In 1985 the Moroccan Government started with a Cloud seeding program called 'Al-Ghait'. The system was first used in Morocco in 1999; it has also been used between 1999 and 2002 in Burkina Faso and from 2005 in Senegal.


title: Cloud seeding

text: The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) is the only international framework related to the regulation of weather and climate modification technologies. Historically developed after cloud seeding operations were conducted during the Vietnam War and the Cold War, the convention's scope of application solely encompasses military or any other hostile uses of weather modification technologies. Indeed, the use of weather modification programs for peaceful purposes is not prohibited by the treaty. However, ENMOD has been criticised for its many weaknesses, notably regarding the vagueness and ambiguity of notions leaving room for various interpretations.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Given the growing attractiveness of weather modification programs, the legal framework offered by ENMOD is arguably insufficient, as the question of "ownership" is not answered. A 1948 article in the Stanford Law Review stated that attributing a "legal title to a cloud would be ridiculous" due to the distinct nature of clouds, their perpetual change of form and location, their emergence, disappearance and renewal. Similarly, Brooks considers private ownership of clouds as "nonsense" as control is limited to the short moment of the cloud being above somebody's land. Quilleré-Majzoub dismisses the concept of ownership of clouds altogether, given their specific nature, rendering the idea of a cloud ever belonging to somebody unsubstantiated. Indeed, clouds are beyond occupancy – similar to air, running water, the sea and animals "ferae naturae" – and should thus be considered as common property. Based on this assumption, it follows that a distinction between "res communis", belonging to everybody and thus necessitating international regulation, and "res nullis", belonging to nobody with states serving themselves as they please, is more suitable. Although water is generally considered as "res nullis" in international law, there is strong pressure to acknowledging it as "res communis", but cloud moisture does currently not have a clearly defined status. It is thus suggested that international law should elaborate a jurisdictional regime that takes into account both the particular nature of clouds and the implications of new technologies.


title: Cloud seeding

text: However, the picture changes once the moisture in the clouds is made accessible through artificial rainmaking technologies as the rainwater can now be occupied. Typically, regarding naturally occurring precipitation, the first to reduce it to possession, normally the landowner, will gain rights in it as long as no existing rights are violated. Given that this benefit is, however, accorded by nature, these natural rights should not allow the landowner to claim artificially induced rain. In California, current legislation binds water generated through seeding to existing surface water rights and groundwater regulations, considering the produced water as "natural supply". Yet courts could decide that the induced rain should be designed as "additional precipitation", permitting the cloud seeding entity to claim a portion of this generated water. However, this approach would again be faced with challenges, given the difficulty of determining the fraction of extra water procured by cloud seeding.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Cloud seeding has been the focus of many theories based on the belief that governments manipulate the weather in order to control various conditions during Operation Popeye, including global warming, populations, military weapons testing, public health, and flooding.


title: Cloud seeding

text: Note: Chapter Six "The War Ends as I Discover Cloud Seeding" Schaefer discusses the conversations with Langmuir while climbing Mount Washington (pg 118-119) and then describes the event "My Discovery of Dry Ice Seeding" on pages 128-129. References by his son, James M Schaefer, Ph.D. 6-24-2013


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Hell or High Water is a 2016 American neo-Western crime drama film directed by David Mackenzie and written by Taylor Sheridan. It follows two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who carry out a series of bank robberies to save their family ranch, while being pursued by two Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham). It was the final film produced by OddLot Entertainment due to its dissolution in 2015.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: "Hell or High Water" premiered at the "Un Certain Regard" section of the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2016, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 12, 2016. It received critical acclaim, particularly for Pine, Foster, and Bridges' performances, Sheridan's screenplay, and the editing. It grossed $37.9 million on a $12 million budget. The American Film Institute selected it as one of its ten Movies of the Year, and it was nominated for numerous awards, including four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Bridges), Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: In West Texas, brothers Toby and Tanner Howard rob two branches of the Texas Midlands Bank. Though the robberies are well-planned, Tanner's wild nature leads him to take unnecessary risks, frustrating Toby. Back at their family ranch, they bury their getaway car in a pit with a backhoe. Their mother has died after a long illness, leaving their ranch in debt because of a reverse mortgage provided by the Texas Midlands Bank which would lead to foreclosure if not settled. Meanwhile, oil has been discovered on their land, and Toby is determined to ensure a comfortable life for his estranged sons.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Two Texas Rangers, Marcus Hamilton and Alberto Parker, are assigned to the case. Hamilton, who is close to retirement, investigates the robberies and quickly determines the brothers' methods and personalities. Meanwhile, Tanner robs another bank while Toby unknowingly waits at a nearby diner. They then take the stolen money to an Indian casino in Oklahoma to be laundered, where Toby has the casino convert their gambling winnings into a check made out to the Texas Midlands Bank. With untraceable funds and gambling as a cover for how they were acquired, the brothers head back to Texas.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Hamilton and Parker stake out another branch of the Texas Midlands Bank, but find nothing. Hamilton figures a pattern to the bank robberies and determines the next target, and he and Parker head to the site of the next robbery. Pressed for time, the brothers proceed with the heist despite the bank being crowded. A shootout ensues when a security guard and an armed civilian fire at the brothers, causing Tanner to kill both of them. During the shootout, Toby is shot in the back.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: The brothers race out of town with the local posse in pursuit. After gaining some distance, Tanner stops and fires an automatic weapon at the posse, with his fire superiority forcing them to retreat. The brothers then split up; Toby takes the money using another vehicle, while Tanner creates a diversion. He draws the lawmen to a desert mountain ridge where he takes potshots at the police with a rifle, killing Parker in the process. Distraught, Hamilton uses a local resident’s knowledge of the area to circle behind Tanner and fatally shoot him.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Simultaneously, Toby manages to pass through a police checkpoint without incident, and launders the stolen cash at the casino, where he sees the news report of his brother's death. He takes the casino's check to the bank just in time to avoid the ranch's foreclosure and deeds the ranch into a family trust.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Following his retirement, Hamilton visits his former office and learns that Toby has been cleared as a suspect, as his record is clean and he has no motive since his new oil wells earn more in a month than the total stolen in all of the robberies together. The money from the ranch's oil wells is deposited at the Texas Midlands Bank, which refuses to cooperate with the investigation for fear of losing management of the family's trust fund. Despite the lack of evidence, Hamilton remains certain that Toby was indeed the second bank robber.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Hamilton confronts Toby at the ranch, and wishes to know the reason behind the robberies. Toby explains that he has resolved to not let poverty affect his sons like it affected him and Tanner. Hamilton tells Toby he holds him responsible for the death of Parker, and the tension in their conversation builds as a clear prelude to an impending violent shootout. But they are interrupted when Toby's ex-wife and children arrive. As Hamilton departs, Toby suggests they meet again soon to "finish the conversation" and "bring you some peace." Hamilton replies that he would like to meet again and maybe he will "bring some peace" to Toby before leaving.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: On April 18, 2012, "Deadline" reported that Sidney Kimmel Entertainment had acquired the heist film "Comancheria", written by Taylor Sheridan, which SKE would finance and produce with Peter Berg of Film 44. It is the second installment of Sheridan's trilogy of "the modern-day American frontier". At Cinemacon 2016 in Las Vegas, a standee was presented for the film, revealing that the title had been changed to "Hell or High Water". Berg was potentially attached to direct the film. Endgame Entertainment and Focus Features were also among the studios bidding for the project against SKE. The script won the best Black List script in 2012. On April 2, 2015, it was announced that Jeff Bridges was set to star, while Chris Pine and Ben Foster were also in talks to join, and David Mackenzie was set to direct the film. On May 4, 2015, Pine and Foster were confirmed to play brothers in the film, who commit bank robberies to save their family's farm in West Texas, while Bridges would play a Texas Ranger set to catch the brothers. CBS Films acquired the US rights to the film, which was produced by Sidney Kimmel of Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Peter Berg of Film 44, Carla Hacken of SKE, and Julie Yorn of LBI, with Gigi Pritzker, Bill Lischak, Michael Nathanson, Rachel Shane, John Penotti, Bruce Toll and Braden Aftergood as executive producers. Sidney Kimmel Entertainment developed the project with Film 44, and OddLot Entertainment co-produced and co-finance the film along with SKE.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Although the film's plot takes place in West Texas, filming took place in Eastern New Mexico. Principal photography on the film began on May 26, 2015, in Clovis, New Mexico. Filming also took place in other New Mexico communities such as Portales and Tucumcari. Some rural scenes were filmed in the vast and sparsely populated ranch country of Quay and Guadalupe counties of New Mexico, including scenic shots of Alamogordo Valley south of Luciano Mesa. Filming wrapped on July 8, 2015.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: "Hell or High Water" premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2016. It began a limited release on August 12, 2016, in the United States, followed by an expansion on August 19, and a wide release on August 26. The film opened in the UK and Ireland on September 9, and in New Zealand on October 21, 2016.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: "Hell or High Water" grossed $27 million in the United States and Canada and $10.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $37.9 million, against a production budget of $12 million.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: In North America, the film grossed $621,329 from 32 theaters in its opening weekend, for a $19,417 per theater average. The following weekend, "Hell or High Water" expanded to 472 theaters, grossing $2.7 million (a per theater average of $5,709). The film began its wide release at 909 theaters on August 26, and grossed $3.7 million over the weekend, finishing 12th at the box office.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: "Hell or High Water" received universal acclaim, with many praising the film as revitalizing the western genre. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 284 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Hell or High Water" offers a solidly crafted, well-acted Western heist thriller that eschews mindless gunplay in favor of confident pacing and full-bodied characters." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 88 out of 100, based on reviews from 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun Times" gave the film four out of four stars, saying, "In ways large and small, "Hell or High Water" is a movie so beautiful and harsh and elegiac and knowing, the moment it was over was the moment I wanted to see it again." IGN reviewer Samantha Ladwig gave the film a 9/10, saying ""Hell or High Water" surprises with its complex narrative, stuns with its cinematography, and makes up for this summer's shortcomings." Tom Stempel of "Creative Screenwriting" praised "Hell or High Water" as "a fresh, smart, bank robbery-character study and one of the best screenplays so far this year."


title: Hell or High Water (film)

text: "Hell or High Water" received four nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Bridges, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.


title: Hematoma

text: A hematoma, also spelled haematoma, or blood suffusion is a localized bleeding outside of blood vessels, due to either disease or trauma including injury or surgery and may involve blood continuing to seep from broken capillaries. A hematoma is benign and is initially in liquid form spread among the tissues including in sacs between tissues where it may coagulate and solidify before blood is reabsorbed into blood vessels. An ecchymosis is a hematoma of the skin larger than 10 mm.


title: Hematoma

text: They may occur among and or within many areas such as skin and other organs, connective tissues, bone, joints and muscle.


title: Hematoma

text: A collection of blood (or even a hemorrhage) may be aggravated by anticoagulant medication (blood thinner). Blood seepage and collection of blood may occur if heparin is given via an intramuscular route; to avoid this, heparin must be given intravenously or subcutaneously.


title: Hematoma

text: Some hematomas are visible under the surface of the skin (commonly called bruises) or possibly felt as masses or lumps. Lumps may be caused by the limitation of the blood to a sac, subcutaneous or intramuscular tissue space isolated by fascial planes. This is a key anatomical feature that helps prevent injuries from causing massive blood loss. In most cases a hematoma as a sac of blood eventually dissolves; however, in some cases it may continue to grow due to blood seepage or show no change. If the sac of blood does not disappear, then it may need to be surgically cleaned out or repaired.


title: Hematoma

text: The slow process of reabsorption of hematomas can allow the broken down blood cells and hemoglobin pigment to move in the connective tissue. For example, a patient who injures the base of their thumb might cause a hematoma, which will slowly move all through their finger within a week. Gravity is the main determinant of this process.


title: Hematoma

text: Hematomas on articulations can reduce mobility of a member and present roughly the same symptoms as a fracture.


title: Hematoma

text: In most cases, movement and exercise of the affected muscle is the best way to introduce the collection back into the bloodstream.


title: Hematoma

text: A misdiagnosis of a hematoma in the vertebra can sometimes occur; this is correctly called a hemangioma (buildup of cells) or a benign tumor.


title: Hematoma

text: The English word "hematoma" came into use in 1826. The word derives from the Greek αἷμα "haima" "blood" and -ωμα "-oma", a suffix forming nouns indicating a mass or tumor.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Benjamin Gibbard (born August 11, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums, and as a member of the indie pop band The Postal Service. Gibbard released his debut solo album, "Former Lives", in 2012, and a collaborative studio album, "One Fast Move or I'm Gone" (2009) with Jay Farrar.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard was born to Allen and Margaret (née Flach) Gibbard in Bremerton, Washington. His father was in the Navy and his family moved around the country, including spending time in Northern Virginia before returning to Washington. Gibbard spent his early life there during the grunge music explosion of the early 1990s. He graduated from Olympic High School in Bremerton in 1994, and studied environmental chemistry at Western Washington University. He was raised Catholic and in 2007 referred to himself as an "indoctrinated Catholic even though I haven't been to church of my own volition in 10 or 15 years now."


title: Ben Gibbard

text: In 1996, while playing guitar in the band Pinwheel, Gibbard recorded a demo cassette under the moniker Death Cab for Cutie, titled "You Can Play These Songs with Chords" (1997). After receiving a positive response to the material, Gibbard expanded the project into a full band, with the addition of guitarist Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Nathan Good. The following year, the band released its debut album, "Something About Airplanes" (1998), on Barsuk Records, and released its follow-up, "We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes", in 2000.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard had a minor role in the John Krasinski film "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" based on the David Foster Wallace short story collection of the same title. He completed a solo tour through the US in the spring of 2007 that featured David Bazan of Pedro the Lion and singer-songwriter Johnathan Rice.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard has been open about his political views, expressing his support of the Democratic Party. On October 10, 2016, Death Cab for Cutie released "Million Dollar Loan", the first song in the Dave Eggers project, 30 Days, 50 Songs. The song targets Donald Trump as it satirizes the fact he asked his father for a million dollar loan. Gibbard said of the song: "Lyrically, 'Million Dollar Loan' deals with a particularly tone deaf moment in Donald Trump's ascent to the Republican nomination. While campaigning in New Hampshire last year, he attempted to cast himself as a self-made man by claiming he built his fortune with just a 'small loan of a million dollars' from his father. Not only has this statement been proven to be wildly untrue, he was so flippant about it. It truly disgusted me."


title: Ben Gibbard

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gibbard live streamed daily concerts from his home after canceling shows due to the pandemic. Gibbard played songs by his bands Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service and other artists such as the Decemberists, Radiohead, New Order, Depeche Mode and the Beatles while promoting local Washington non-profit organizations.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard became engaged to actress and musician Zooey Deschanel in 2008 and married in September 2009 near Seattle. They announced their separation on November 1, 2011, with Deschanel filing for divorce on December 27, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized on December 12, 2012. Gibbard later married photographer and tour manager Rachel Demy on October 21, 2016 in Seattle.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: In a 2003 interview, Gibbard stated that while he had previously been a vegan, he recently became a pescetarian. He reportedly gave up alcohol in 2008 and began running marathons. He ran his first trail ultramarathon in 2013 and has since completed several each year.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard is a lapsed Catholic who now identifies as agnostic: "I don't want to falsely believe in something solely so I can jump to the front of the line for whatever this awesome place is we go after we die. [...] The vastness of that idea is so beyond my comprehension that I feel like if there was a God, then that God would accept me saying I'm not able to believe because it's so outside of my ability to understand it. I understand that's where faith comes into play."


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard is an activist for gay rights and wrote an article in "The Daily Beast" explaining why the issue is important to him. He stated that when his lesbian sister got married, it was "the most beautiful thing" he ever saw. In the article, he voiced his support for Washington Referendum 74 and discussed raising money for the issue. He stated, "I would just feel so much pride for my state if we could pass it by a popular vote and show the rest of the country that this is the direction we are going in."


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard has been a fan of the MLB's Seattle Mariners since the age of five and has thrown the first pitch at two Mariners games. When the Mariners traded Ichiro Suzuki to the New York Yankees in 2012, Gibbard honored him by writing and releasing the song "Ichiro's Theme". Gibbard's handwritten lyrics for the song are currently in the archive of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: As of May 2015, Gibbard tours with four modified 1970s Fender Mustang guitars. Additionally, he uses two custom-built Acme Silvertone amplifier heads. For use on acoustic songs, he relies on two 2008 Gibson J-45 Acoustic Guitars with B-Band pickup systems. As of 2016, Gibbard has since began using Supro amplifiers. In the past, Gibbard played 1980s Japanese-built Squier Bullets through a Sears Silvertone amp, which he immortalized in the lyrics to the song No Joy In Mudville. He also used Fender Telecasters and G&L ASAT guitars.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: In January 2021, Fender announced the Ben Gibbard Mustang as part of their Artist Signature series, designed to Ben's specifications and inspired by the 1970s Mustangs he uses on tour. The guitar features several unique features including a chambered ash body, custom "Ben Gibbard" pickups, and simplified electronics.


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard is the subject of the song "Ben's My Friend" by indie folk act Sun Kil Moon. The track appears on the project's sixth studio album, "Benji" (2014). On Sun Kil Moon's follow-up album, "Universal Themes" (2015), primary recording artist Mark Kozelek again refers to his friendship with Gibbard on its closing track, "This Is My First Day and I'm Indian and I Work at a Gas Station". Gibbard previously made a guest appearance on the band's third studio album, "April" (2008).


title: Ben Gibbard

text: Gibbard is also referenced in "The Cones of Dunshire", an episode from the sixth season of "Parks and Recreation". In the episode, April (Aubrey Plaza) attempts to promote a forest cabin to hipsters by claiming that "Ben Gibbard and Neko Case made out here once."


title: Seth

text: Seth, in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, and Eve believed that God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel.


title: Seth

text: According to the Book of Genesis, Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old (according to the Masoretic Text), or 230 years old (according to the Septuagint), "a son in his likeness and image". The genealogy is repeated at . states that Adam fathered "sons and daughters" before his death, aged 930 years. According to Genesis, Seth died at the age of 912 (that is, 14 years before Noah's birth). (2962 BC)


title: Seth

text: Seth figures in the pseudepigraphical texts of the "Life of Adam and Eve" (the "Apocalypse of Moses"). It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. While the surviving versions were composed from the early 3rd to the 5th century, the literary units in the work are considered to be older and predominantly of Jewish origin. There is wide agreement that the original was composed in a Semitic language in the 1st century AD/CE. In the Greek versions, Seth and Eve travel to the doors of the Garden to beg for some oil of the Tree of Mercy (i.e. the Tree of Life). On the way, Seth is attacked and bitten by a wild beast, which goes away when ordered by Seth. Michael refuses to give them the oil at that time, but promises to give it at the end of time, when all flesh will be raised up, the delights of paradise will be given to the holy people and God will be in their midst. On their return, Adam says to Eve: "What hast thou done? Thou hast brought upon us great wrath which is death." (chapters 5–14) Later, only Seth can witness the taking-up of Adam at his funeral in a divine chariot, which deposits him in the Garden of Eden.


title: Seth

text: Genesis refers to Seth as the ancestor of Noah and hence the father of all mankind, all other humans having perished in the Great Flood. Seth is seen by Eve as a replacement given by God for Abel, whom Cain had slain. It is said that late in life, Adam gave Seth secret teachings that would become the Kabbalah. The Zohar refers to Seth as "ancestor of all the generations of the tzaddikim" (Hebrew: righteous ones). According to Seder Olam Rabbah, based on Jewish reckoning, he was born in 130 AM. According to Aggadah, he had 33 sons and 23 daughters. According to the Seder Olam Rabbah, he died in 1042 AM.


title: Seth

text: In the "Antiquities of the Jews", Josephus refers to Seth as virtuous and of excellent character, and reports that his descendants invented the wisdom of the heavenly bodies, and built the "pillars of the sons of Seth", two pillars inscribed with many scientific discoveries and inventions, notably in astronomy. They were built by Seth's descendants based on Adam's prediction that the world would be destroyed at one time by fire and another time by global flood, in order to protect the discoveries and be remembered after the destruction. One was composed of brick, and the other of stone, so that if the pillar of brick should be destroyed, the pillar of stone would remain, both reporting the ancient discoveries, and informing men that a pillar of brick was also erected. Josephus reports that the pillar of stone remained in the land of Siriad in his day.


title: Seth

text: William Whiston, a 17/18th-century translator of the "Antiquities", stated in a footnote that he believed Josephus mistook Seth for Sesostris, king of Egypt, the erector of the pillar in Siriad (being a contemporary name for the territories in which Sirius was venerated, i.e. Egypt). He stated that there was no way for any pillars of Seth to survive the deluge, because the deluge buried all such pillars and edifices far underground in the sediment of its waters. The perennialist writer Nigel Jackson identifies the land of Siriad in Josephus' account with Syria, citing related Mandaean legends regarding the "Oriental Land of Shyr" in connection with the visionary mytho-geography of the prophetic traditions surrounding Seth.


title: Seth

text: The 2nd-century BC Book of Jubilees, regarded as noncanonical except in the Alexandrian Churches, also dates his birth to 130 AM. According to it, in 231 AM Seth married his sister, Azura, who was four years younger than he was. In the year 235 AM, Azura gave birth to Enos.


title: Seth

text: Seth is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with Adam, Abel, and others, with a feast day on July 26. He is also included in the Genealogy of Jesus, according to Luke 3:23–38.


title: Seth

text: The Sethians were a Christian Gnostic sect who may date their existence to before Christianity. Their thinking, although it is predominantly Judaic in foundation, is arguably strongly influenced by Platonism. Sethians are so called for their veneration of the biblical Seth, who is depicted in their creation myths as a divine incarnation; consequently, the offspring or 'posterity' of Seth are held to comprise a superior elect within human society.


title: Seth

text: Although the Quran makes no mention of Shēth ibn Adam, he is revered within Islamic tradition as the third and righteous son of Adam and Eve and seen as the gift bestowed on Adam after the death of Abel. The Sunni scholar and historian ibn Kathir in his "tarikh" (book of history), "Al-Bidāya wa-n-nihāya" (), records that Seth, a prophet like his father Adam, transfers God's Law to mankind after the death of Adam, and places him among the exalted antediluvian patriarchs of the Generations of Adam. Some sources say that Seth was the receiver of scriptures. These scriptures are said to be the "first scriptures" mentioned in the Quran 87:18. Medieval historian and exegete al-Tabari and other scholars say that Seth buried Adam and the secret texts in the tomb of Adam, i.e., the "Cave of Treasures".


title: Seth

text: The Islamic literature holds that Seth was born when Adam was past 100 and that Adam appointed Seth as guide to his people. The 11th-century Syrian historian and translator Al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik recorded the maxims and aphorisms of the ancient philosophers in his book "Kitāb mukhtār al-ḥikam wa-maḥāsin al-kalim" and included a chapter on Seth. Within Islamic tradition Seth holds wisdom of several kinds; knowledge of time, prophecy of the future Great Flood, and inspiration on the methods of night prayer. Islam, Judaism and Christianity trace the genealogy of mankind back to Seth since Abel left no heirs and Cain's heirs, according to tradition, were destroyed by the Great Flood. Many traditional Islamic crafts are traced back to Seth, such as the making of horn combs. Seth also plays a role in Sufism, and Ibn Arabi includes a chapter in his "Bezels of Wisdom" on Seth, entitled "The Wisdom of Expiration in the Word of Seth".


title: Seth

text: Some traditions locate Seth's tomb in the village of Al-Nabi Shayth ( "The Prophet Seth") in the mountains above the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon, where there is a mosque named after him. This tomb was described by the 12th-century geographer Ibn Jubayr. A rival tradition, mentioned by later medieval Arab geographers from the 13th century on, placed the tomb of "Nabi Shith" ("Prophet Seth") in the Palestinian village of Bashshit, southwest of Ramla village. According to the Palestine Exploration Fund, Bashshit means "Beit Shith", i.e. "House of Seth". The village was depopulated with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, but the three-domed structure said to be Seth's tomb survives in the Israeli moshav Aseret built on the site. Another tomb in the city of Balkh Afghanistan has been identified as the burial sight of Seth sheth


title: Seth

text: Local Muslims in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh in India believe a grave in Hazrat Shees Jinnati Mosque to be of Hazrat Shees or the Prophet Seth.


title: Seth

text: According to the Mandaean scriptures, including the Qolastā, the Book of John and Genzā Rabbā, Seth is cognate with the angelic soteriological figure Sheetil (also spelled Shitil; ), a son of Adam Kadmaya who taught John the Baptist with his brothers Anush (Enosh) and Hibil Ziwa (Abel). He is variously spoken of as a son of Adam, a brother or son of Hibil, and the brother or father of Anush. Sheetil is one of the revealers of Mandaeism and a prophet, identified as the biblical Seth.


title: Seth

text: According to Yazidi oral literature, Adam and Eve each deposited their seeds into separate jars. While Eve's seed developed into insects, Adam's seed gave birth to Shehid ibn Jerr, the ancestor of the Yazidis. Yazidis thus believe that they have been created separately and differently from all other human beings (Kreyenbroek 2005: 31).


title: Seth

text: On July 26, 2014, forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) blew up Nabi Shiyt (Prophet Seth) shrine in Mosul, Iraq. Sami al-Massoudi, the deputy head of the Shiite Endowment Office overseeing holy sites, confirmed that destruction. He added, ISIL took some of the artifacts to an unknown location.


title: Seth

text: There is a village named after him in Lebanon, that is "Al-Nabi Shayth" or "Al-Nabi Sheeth" (meaning "The Prophet Seth"), which is also considered to contain his shrine.


title: Growth hormone

text: Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in human development. GH also stimulates production of IGF-1 and increases the concentration of glucose and free fatty acids. It is a type of mitogen which is specific only to the receptors on certain types of cells. GH is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored and secreted by somatotropic cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland.


title: Growth hormone

text: A recombinant form of hGH called somatropin (INN) is used as a prescription drug to treat children's growth disorders and adult growth hormone deficiency. In the United States, it is only available legally from pharmacies by prescription from a licensed health care provider. In recent years in the United States, some health care providers are prescribing growth hormone in the elderly to increase vitality. While legal, the efficacy and safety of this use for HGH has not been tested in a clinical trial. Many of the functions of hGH remain unknown.


title: Growth hormone

text: In its role as an anabolic agent, HGH has been used by competitors in sports since at least 1982, and has been banned by the IOC and NCAA. Traditional urine analysis does not detect doping with HGH, so the ban was not enforced until the early 2000s, when blood tests that could distinguish between natural and artificial HGH were starting to be developed. Blood tests conducted by WADA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, targeted primarily HGH. Use of the drug for performance enhancement is not currently approved by the FDA.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH has been studied for use in raising livestock more efficiently in industrial agriculture and several efforts have been made to obtain governmental approval to use GH in livestock production. These uses have been controversial. In the United States, the only FDA-approved use of GH for livestock is the use of a cow-specific form of GH called bovine somatotropin for increasing milk production in dairy cows. Retailers are permitted to label containers of milk as produced with or without bovine somatotropin.


title: Growth hormone

text: The names "somatotropin" ("STH") or "somatotropic hormone" refer to the growth hormone produced naturally in animals and extracted from carcasses. Hormone extracted from human cadavers is abbreviated "hGH". The main growth hormone produced by recombinant DNA technology has the approved generic name (INN) "somatropin" and the brand name "Humatrope", and is properly abbreviated rhGH in the scientific literature. Since its introduction in 1992 Humatrope has been a banned sports doping agent, and in this context is referred to as HGH.


title: Growth hormone

text: Genes for human growth hormone, known as growth hormone 1 (somatotropin; pituitary growth hormone) and growth hormone 2 (placental growth hormone; growth hormone variant), are localized in the q22-24 region of chromosome 17 and are closely related to human chorionic somatomammotropin (also known as placental lactogen) genes. GH, human chorionic somatomammotropin, and prolactin belong to a group of homologous hormones with growth-promoting and lactogenic activity.


title: Growth hormone

text: The major isoform of the human growth hormone is a protein of 191 amino acids and a molecular weight of 22,124 daltons. The structure includes four helices necessary for functional interaction with the GH receptor. It appears that, in structure, GH is evolutionarily homologous to prolactin and chorionic somatomammotropin. Despite marked structural similarities between growth hormone from different species, only human and Old World monkey growth hormones have significant effects on the human growth hormone receptor.


title: Growth hormone

text: Several molecular isoforms of GH exist in the pituitary gland and are released to blood. In particular, a variant of approximately 20 kDa originated by an alternative splicing is present in a rather constant 1:9 ratio, while recently an additional variant of ~ 23-24 kDa has also been reported in post-exercise states at higher proportions. This variant has not been identified, but it has been suggested to coincide with a 22 kDa glycosylated variant of 23 kDa identified in the pituitary gland. Furthermore, these variants circulate partially bound to a protein (growth hormone-binding protein, GHBP), which is the truncated part of the growth hormone receptor, and an acid-labile subunit (ALS).


title: Growth hormone

text: Secretion of growth hormone (GH) in the pituitary is regulated by the neurosecretory nuclei of the hypothalamus.


title: Growth hormone

text: These cells release the peptides growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH or "somatocrinin") and growth hormone-inhibiting hormone (GHIH or "somatostatin") into the hypophyseal portal venous blood surrounding the pituitary.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH release in the pituitary is primarily determined by the balance of these two peptides, which in turn is affected by many physiological stimulators (e.g., exercise, nutrition, sleep) and inhibitors (e.g., free fatty acids) of GH secretion.


title: Growth hormone

text: Somatotropic cells in the anterior pituitary gland then synthesize and secrete GH in a pulsatile manner, in response to these stimuli by the hypothalamus.


title: Growth hormone

text: The largest and most predictable of these GH peaks occurs about an hour after onset of sleep with plasma levels of 13 to 72 ng/mL.


title: Growth hormone

text: Maximal secretion of GH may occur within minutes of the onset of slow-wave (SW) sleep (stage III or IV). Otherwise there is wide variation between days and individuals. Nearly fifty percent of GH secretion occurs during the third and fourth NREM sleep stages.


title: Growth hormone

text: Surges of secretion during the day occur at 3- to 5-hour intervals. The plasma concentration of GH during these peaks may range from 5 to even 45 ng/mL.


title: Growth hormone

text: Between the peaks, basal GH levels are low, usually less than 5 ng/mL for most of the day and night. Additional analysis of the pulsatile profile of GH described in all cases less than 1 ng/ml for basal levels while maximum peaks were situated around 10-20 ng/mL.


title: Growth hormone

text: A number of factors are known to affect GH secretion, such as age, sex, diet, exercise, stress, and other hormones. Young adolescents secrete GH at the rate of about 700 μg/day, while healthy adults secrete GH at the rate of about 400 μg/day. Sleep deprivation generally suppresses GH release, particularly after early adulthood.


title: Growth hormone

text: In addition to control by endogenous and stimulus processes, a number of foreign compounds (xenobiotics such as drugs and endocrine disruptors) are known to influence GH secretion and function.


title: Growth hormone

text: Effects of growth hormone on the tissues of the body can generally be described as anabolic (building up). Like most other protein hormones, GH acts by interacting with a specific receptor on the surface of cells.


title: Growth hormone

text: Increased height during childhood is the most widely known effect of GH. Height appears to be stimulated by at least two mechanisms:


title: Growth hormone

text: In addition to increasing height in children and adolescents, growth hormone has many other effects on the body:


title: Growth hormone

text: The most common disease of GH excess is a pituitary tumor composed of somatotroph cells of the anterior pituitary. These somatotroph adenomas are benign and grow slowly, gradually producing more and more GH. For years, the principal clinical problems are those of GH excess. Eventually, the adenoma may become large enough to cause headaches, impair vision by pressure on the optic nerves, or cause deficiency of other pituitary hormones by displacement.


title: Growth hormone

text: Prolonged GH excess thickens the bones of the jaw, fingers and toes, resulting in heaviness of the jaw and increased size of digits, referred to as acromegaly. Accompanying problems can include sweating, pressure on nerves (e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome), muscle weakness, excess sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), insulin resistance or even a rare form of type 2 diabetes, and reduced sexual function.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH-secreting tumors are typically recognized in the fifth decade of life. It is extremely rare for such a tumor to occur in childhood, but, when it does, the excessive GH can cause excessive growth, traditionally referred to as pituitary gigantism.


title: Growth hormone

text: Surgical removal is the usual treatment for GH-producing tumors. In some circumstances, focused radiation or a GH antagonist such as pegvisomant may be employed to shrink the tumor or block function. Other drugs like octreotide (somatostatin agonist) and bromocriptine (dopamine agonist) can be used to block GH secretion because both somatostatin and dopamine negatively inhibit GHRH-mediated GH release from the anterior pituitary.


title: Growth hormone

text: The effects of growth hormone (GH) deficiency vary depending on the age at which they occur. Alterations in somatomedin can result in growth hormone deficiency with two known mechanisms; failure of tissues to respond to somatomedin, or failure of the liver to produce somatomedin. Major manifestations of GH deficiency in children are growth failure, the development of a short stature, and delayed sexual maturity. In adults, somatomedin alteration contributes to increased osteoclast activity, resulting in weaker bones that are more prone to pathologic fracture and osteoporosis. However, deficiency is rare in adults, with the most common cause being a pituitary adenoma. Other adult causes include a continuation of a childhood problem, other structural lesions or trauma, and very rarely idiopathic GHD.


title: Growth hormone

text: Adults with GHD "tend to have a relative increase in fat mass and a relative decrease in muscle mass and, in many instances, decreased energy and quality of life".


title: Growth hormone

text: Diagnosis of GH deficiency involves a multiple-step diagnostic process, usually culminating in GH stimulation tests to see if the patient's pituitary gland will release a pulse of GH when provoked by various stimuli.


title: Growth hormone

text: Several studies, primarily involving patients with GH deficiency, have suggested a crucial role of GH in both mental and emotional well-being and maintaining a high energy level. Adults with GH deficiency often have higher rates of depression than those without. While GH replacement therapy has been proposed to treat depression as a result of GH deficiency, the long-term effects of such therapy are unknown.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH has also been studied in the context of cognitive function, including learning and memory. GH in humans appears to improve cognitive function and may be useful in the treatment of patients with cognitive impairment that is a result of GH deficiency.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH is used as replacement therapy in adults with GH deficiency of either childhood-onset or adult-onset (usually as a result of an acquired pituitary tumor). In these patients, benefits have variably included reduced fat mass, increased lean mass, increased bone density, improved lipid profile, reduced cardiovascular risk factors, and improved psychosocial well-being. Long acting growth hormone (LAGH) analogues are now available for treating growth hormone deficiency both in children and adults. These are once weekly injections as compared to conventional growth hormone which has to be taken as daily injections. LAGH injection 4 times a month has been found to be as safe and effective as daily growth hormone injections.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH can be used to treat conditions that produce short stature but are not related to deficiencies in GH. However, results are not as dramatic when compared to short stature that is solely attributable to deficiency of GH. Examples of other causes of shortness often treated with GH are Turner syndrome, Growth failure secondary to chronic kidney disease in children, Prader–Willi syndrome, intrauterine growth restriction, and severe idiopathic short stature. Higher ("pharmacologic") doses are required to produce significant acceleration of growth in these conditions, producing blood levels well above normal ("physiologic").


title: Growth hormone

text: Claims for GH as an anti-aging treatment date back to 1990 when the "New England Journal of Medicine" published a study wherein GH was used to treat 12 men over 60. At the conclusion of the study, all the men showed statistically significant increases in lean body mass and bone mineral density, while the control group did not. The authors of the study noted that these improvements were the opposite of the changes that would normally occur over a 10- to 20-year aging period. Despite the fact the authors at no time claimed that GH had reversed the aging process itself, their results were misinterpreted as indicating that GH is an effective anti-aging agent. This has led to organizations such as the controversial American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine promoting the use of this hormone as an "anti-aging agent".


title: Growth hormone

text: A Stanford University School of Medicine meta-analysis of clinical studies on the subject published in early 2007 showed that the application of GH on healthy elderly patients increased muscle by about 2 kg and decreased body fat by the same amount. However, these were the only positive effects from taking GH. No other critical factors were affected, such as bone density, cholesterol levels, lipid measurements, maximal oxygen consumption, or any other factor that would indicate increased fitness. Researchers also did not discover any gain in muscle strength, which led them to believe that GH merely let the body store more water in the muscles rather than increase muscle growth. This would explain the increase in lean body mass.


title: Growth hormone

text: GH has also been used experimentally to treat multiple sclerosis, to enhance weight loss in obesity, as well as in fibromyalgia, heart failure, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and burns. GH has also been used experimentally in patients with short bowel syndrome to lessen the requirement for intravenous total parenteral nutrition.