title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley came up with an innovative way to dispose of the FIA's involvement in the commercial activities of Formula One. In order to maintain Ecclestone's investment to deliver digital television, he proposed extending Ecclestone's rights for F1 coverage to 100 years from the initial 15, arguing that a deal of such length could not be anti-competition as it was effectively the same as an outright sale. The Commission agreed with his assessment and in the interest of impartiality, Mosley removed himself from the negotiations, which eventually returned around $300 million (£150 million).


title: Max Mosley

text: The FIA planned to "put almost all of it into a charitable foundation which will then have the resources to undertake important work on improving safety in motor sport and in road safety", and thus the FIA Foundation was created in 2001. In addition, the FIA continued to receive an annual dividend from the deal, Mosley stated: "Over the totality of the contract, and on an annual basis, the sum we have accepted represents billions of dollars. Looked at from that point of view, it is a huge amount of money." Lovell compares the figure to extend the rights to 100 years to the £600 million KirchGruppe paid for the rights to the 2002 Football World Cup and the £1.1 billion British Sky Broadcasting paid for a three-year package of English Premier League football. The figure was not entirely comparable however due to the dispute over who actually owned Formula One. Before the settlement with the EU Commission was reached, Mosley feared that the FIA was losing control over the sport following a heated argument with Ecclestone in Paris. Ecclestone argued that he had built Formula One into the entity that it was and the FIA only had rights to designate the event as official. Ecclestone threatened to "do a scorched earth" if another party were to gain control of the commercial side of Formula One. Mosley came up with the solution in order for the FIA to retain its sporting management role and Ecclestone to retain his commercial role.


title: Max Mosley

text: Over the same period, Mosley was attempting to delay European legislation banning tobacco advertising. At this time, all leading Formula One teams carried significant branding from tobacco brands; for instance, Williams ran with backing from Rothmans; West was a backer of several teams including McLaren; McLaren also enjoyed a long-term relationship with Marlboro, as did Ferrari, and Mild Seven backed Benetton's Formula One effort. The Labour party had pledged to ban tobacco advertising in its manifesto ahead of its 1997 General Election victory, supporting a proposed European Union Directive. The Labour Party's stance on banning tobacco advertising was reinforced following the election by forceful statements from the Health Secretary Frank Dobson and Minister for Public Health Tessa Jowell. Ecclestone appealed "over Jowell's head" to Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff, who arranged a meeting with Blair. Ecclestone and Mosley, both Labour Party donors, met Blair on 16 October 1997. Mosley argued that the proposed legislation was illegal by EU rules, that Formula One needed more time to find alternative sources of funding and that the prompt introduction of a ban would lead to races being held outside Europe, while the coverage, including tobacco logos, would still be broadcast into the EU. He also argued that:


title: Max Mosley

text: On 4 November, the "fiercely anti-tobacco Jowell" argued in Brussels for an exemption for Formula One. Media attention initially focused on Labour bending its principles for a "glamour sport" and on the "false trail" of Jowell's husband's links to the Benetton Formula team. On 6 November, correspondents from three newspapers enquired whether Labour had received any donations from Ecclestone; he had donated £1 million in January 1997. On 11 November, Labour promised to return the money on the advice of Sir Patrick Neill. On 17 November, Blair apologised for his government's mishandling of the affair and stated "the decision to exempt Formula One from tobacco sponsorship was taken two weeks later. It was in response to fears that Britain might lose the industry overseas to Asian countries who were bidding for it."


title: Max Mosley

text: The revised directive went into force in June 1998, and banned sponsorship from 2003, with a further three-year extension for "global sports such as Formula One". On 5 October 2000, the directive was overturned in the European Court of Justice on the grounds that it was unlawful. A new Tobacco Advertising Directive took effect in July 2005; the "Financial Times" described Mosley as "furious" that this was a year earlier than provided for under the 1998 directive. As of 2009, Ferrari is the only F1 team to retain tobacco sponsorship, although the team carries no explicit branding in races because of the European legislation. Although the FIA moved its headquarters out of the EU in 1999, it returned in 2001.


title: Max Mosley

text: Asked in a 2003 interview about his most enduring achievement as president of the FIA, Mosley replied: "I think using Formula One to push ENCAP Crash-Testing." The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) is a European car safety performance assessment programme that originated with work done by the Transport Research Laboratory for the UK Department for Transport. The FIA became involved in the programme in 1996, taking a lead in promoting it, and Mosley chaired the body from its launch as Euro NCAP in 1997 to 2004. Despite what NCAP describes as a "strong negative response" from car manufacturers at first, the initiative has expanded, and NCAP says that there has been a clear increase in the safety of modern cars as a result. The EU commission in 2000 stated that "EuroNCAP had become the single most important mechanism for achieving advances in vehicle safety" and "the most cost effective road safety action available to the EU." Mosley continued to promote the matter through his membership of initiatives such as CARS 21, the European Commission's policy group aimed at improving the worldwide competitiveness of the European automotive industry.


title: Max Mosley

text: In February 2001, Mosley announced his intention to stand again for the presidency in October of that year, saying that if successful this third term would be his last.


title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley was elected to his third term as president of the FIA in 2001. From 2000, Formula One saw the return of teams partly or wholly owned and operated by major motor manufacturers, who feared that under Ecclestone's management F1 coverage would go to pay television, reducing the value of their investment. In 2001, the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) announced an alternative world championship, the Grand Prix World Championship to start by 2008. The GPMA stipulated that the championship should not be regulated by the FIA, which Lovell believes was because the organisation believed Mosley was too close to Ecclestone. The proposed championship came to nothing and the GPMA later became the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).


title: Max Mosley

text: In June 2004, Mosley announced that he would step down from his position in October of that year, one year early, saying "I no longer find it either satisfying or interesting to sit in long meetings [...] I have achieved in this job everything I set out to [...]". One month later, he rescinded his decision after the FIA Senate called for him to stay on. According to a BBC Sport profile, many insiders considered that the announcement, and Mosley's public disagreements with Ecclestone, were "just part of a well crafted plan to strengthen their control over the sport"; Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, suggested that it arose because Mosley's proposals for Formula One met opposition. In 2004, Mosley said he felt Ferrari's then team principal Jean Todt should succeed him as president of the FIA when he stepped down.


title: Max Mosley

text: The 2005 United States Grand Prix was run with only six cars, after the Michelin tyres used by the other 14 cars proved unsafe for the circuit. A proposal involving the addition of a temporary chicane to slow cars through the fastest corner of the circuit was suggested but rejected by Mosley. He stated his reasons for not agreeing to the chicane: "Formula One is a dangerous activity and it would be most unwise to make fundamental changes to a circuit without following tried and tested procedures. What happened was bad but can be put right. This is not true of a fatality." He continued, "Formula One is a sport which entertains. It is not entertainment disguised as sport." Mosley gave three possible solutions for the Michelin runners: to use qualifying tyres but change them whenever necessary on safety grounds, to use a different tyre to be provided by Michelin or to run at reduced speed. These were all rejected by the Michelin-shod teams. Paul Stoddart, the owner of the Minardi team who ran on Bridgestone tyres, was prepared to compromise to accommodate Michelin teams—even though a reduced field would guarantee his team much needed points—and was particularly vocal in his criticism and renewed his calls for Mosley to resign.


title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley was elected unopposed to his fourth term as president of the FIA in 2005. In recognition of his contribution to road safety and motorsport, Mosley was made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur in 2006. The Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honour) is France's highest decoration for outstanding achievements in military or civil life; a Chevalier (Knight) is the fifth class.


title: Max Mosley

text: Continuing a theme of his presidency, in 2006 Mosley called for Formula One manufacturers to develop technology relevant to road cars. In recent years, a large proportion of the enormous budget of Formula One has been spent on the development of very powerful, very high-revving engines, which some say have little applicability to road cars. Mosley announced a 10-year freeze on the development of engines, to allow manufacturers to spend more of their budgets on environmentally friendly technology such as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) introduced in 2009. In July 2008, he sent a letter to the Formula One teams, in which he called for the teams to propose future sporting regulations to address specific issues including reduced fuel consumption.


title: Max Mosley

text: The 2007 Formula One season was dominated by Ferrari's accusations that the McLaren team had made illegal use of their intellectual property, leading to legal cases in the United Kingdom and Italy. Unlike previous cases, such as the Toyota team's illegal use of Ferrari intellectual property in 2004 that had been handled by German police, the FIA investigated. They initially found McLaren innocent; unable to find enough evidence to suggest that anyone other than designer Mike Coughlan had seen the information or that the team had used it. Ron Dennis, team principal of McLaren, was unaware at this point that Mosley had been sent personal e-mails from Fernando Alonso, stating that the data had been used and seen by others in the team. When Italian police uncovered a series of text messages between McLaren and their spy at Ferrari, the team was hauled in front of the World Motor Sports Council (WMSC) once more. This time they were found guilty and eventually fined a gross $100M and excluded from the 2007 constructors' championship. Later in the year, the Renault team was found guilty by the FIA of possessing some of McLaren's intellectual property, but was not punished, as the "FIA's WMSC decided there was not enough evidence to show the championship had been affected." In relation to McLaren, triple world champion Jackie Stewart criticised Mosley and stated that other teams did not back McLaren for "fear of repercussions". Television commentator and newspaper columnist Martin Brundle, a former driver, was among those who criticised the FIA and Mosley for inconsistency and questioned the "energetic manner" in which he felt McLaren was being pursued, suggesting that there was a "witch hunt" against the team. Brundle and the "Sunday Times" subsequently received a writ for libel before the paper printed a correction. Mosley went on to defend himself of the charges made by Brundle, highlighting that the WMSC originally acquitted McLaren of any wrongdoing, stating: "Concrete evidence of use by McLaren of the Ferrari information was simply not there." It was only later in the year when "e-mails emerged which showed others inside McLaren were indeed aware of the Ferrari information", that the FIA found the team guilty.


title: Max Mosley

text: At the start of 2008, Mosley said that he wanted to see through reforms such as budget capping and new technologies like KERS introduced into Formula One before retiring. In March of that year, the "News of the World" released video footage of Mosley engaged in acts with five consenting women in a scenario that the paper alleged involved Nazi role-playing (an allegation that, though dismissed in court as "no genuine basis", allegedly "ruined" Mosley's reputation). The situation was made more controversial by his father's association with the Nazis. Mosley admitted "the embarrassment the revelations caused", but said that there was no Nazi theme involved. He was strongly criticised by former drivers, motor manufacturers, and several of the national motoring bodies who form the FIA. His involvement in the Bahrain Grand Prix was cancelled. Public expressions of support were limited. Mosley said that he received much supportive correspondence, and said that he would continue to the end of his current term, which he said would be his last. Mosley's longtime ally Ecclestone eventually appeared to support Mosley's removal.


title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley won a vote of confidence at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the FIA on 3 June 2008, with 103 votes in support and 55 against, with seven abstentions and four invalid votes. Several clubs, including the ADAC, AAA and KNAC Nationale Autosport Federatie (KNAF) considered withdrawal from the FIA after the decision. Other formerly critical organisations subsequently said that they would accept the outcome of the vote and wished to move on. In July 2008, Mosley won a High Court legal case against the "News of the World" for invasion of privacy. The presiding judge, Mr Justice Eady, said there was: "no evidence that the gathering on 28 March 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact. I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust."


title: Max Mosley

text: In December 2008, Mosley said that he still intended to stand down when his term ran out in October 2009, but would take the final decision in June of that year. Mosley's close relationship with Ecclestone, the sport's promoter, was criticised in early 2009 by Sir Jackie Stewart, who suggested that Mosley should resign in favour of a CEO from outside motorsport.


title: Max Mosley

text: In mid-2009, the FIA and the newly formed Formula One Teams Association disagreed over the format of rules for the following season. When the entry list for the 2010 championship was announced on 12 June 2009, the entries of five of the eight FOTA teams remained provisional on their acceptance of the new rules. The next day, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association announced its support for FOTA's request for "stability, clear rules, a clear and transparent system of governance" and their threat to form a breakaway series from Formula One. The BBC Sport website reported this as an attack on Mosley's authority and noted that Mosley was expected to stand again for the presidency in 2009.


title: Max Mosley

text: On 23 June, Mosley said he was considering running for a fifth term as FIA president in October "in light of the attack on my mandate". However, the following day FOTA and the FIA reached an agreement with Mosley agreeing not to stand for re-election as part of the deal: 'now there is peace'. Luca di Montezemolo welcomed Mosley's decision to stand down and called Mosley a 'dictator'. Mosley responded by saying that he was still considering his 'options' and might well stand for re-election in October after all. He later said that he was "under pressure from all over the world" to stand for re-election. On 15 July, Mosley confirmed that he would after all stand down, and again endorsed former Ferrari Executive Director Jean Todt as his successor. Todt subsequently became president.


title: Max Mosley

text: In 2008, Mosley won a court case ("Mosley v News Group Newspapers") against the "News of the World" newspaper which had reported his involvement in what they said was a Nazi-themed sex act involving five women, on the grounds that it had breached his privacy. Justice Eady ruled that, despite one of the attendees wearing a military uniform, there were no Nazi connotations to the orgy. As a result, in 2009 Mosley brought a case ("Mosley v United Kingdom") against the UK's privacy laws in the European Court of Human Rights, in a bid to force newspapers to warn people before exposing their private lives so they could have the opportunity to seek a court injunction. The case was rejected by the court on 10 May 2011 as they argued that a "pre-notification requirement would inevitably affect political reporting and serious journalism."


title: Max Mosley

text: In July 2011, "The Daily Telegraph" reported that Mosley was financially guaranteeing the court costs of claimants who may have been subjected to phone hacking by the "News of the World". Mosley refused to comment at the time, but he later gave a television interview to the BBC and a telephone interview to Reuters where he confirmed the story.


title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley launched legal action against Google, in an attempt to stop searches from returning web pages which use the photographs from the video used for the "News of the World" story. On 6 November 2013, in Mosley v SARL Google, a French court sided with Mosley and ordered Google to prevent its search engine from providing links to images of Mosley engaging in sexual activities from the video. "The Register" suggested the ruling would lead to a Streisand effect, increasing interest in the images, which are still findable through other search engines. At the Leveson Inquiry, Mosley stated his reasons for pursuing Google:


title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley launched similar legal action against Google in Germany. In January 2014, the German court also ruled against the American company. In giving its verdict, the court stated, "that the banned pictures of the plaintiff severely violate his private sphere."


title: Max Mosley

text: In an interview with "Der Spiegel" following the judgement, Mosley said: "Strictly speaking Google has got to obey German courts in Germany and French courts in France. But in the end it has to decide whether it wants to live in a democracy. Google behaves like an adolescent rebelling against the establishment. The company has to recognise that it is a part of society and it must accept the responsibility which comes with that." Mosley then launched proceedings against Google in the UK. All the cases were eventually settled in May 2015.


title: Max Mosley

text: In late February 2018, the "Daily Mail" reported that Mosley had published a leaflet in the early 1960s linking black immigration to the spread of diseases, the implication being that Mosley had committed perjury in the High Court when giving evidence in his libel case against the "News of the World". In an interview with Cathy Newman on "Channel 4 News", he conceded that a passage in the leaflet "probably is racist", which he denied ever publishing, and rejected the accusation he had lied in court. The following day, the Labour Party said it would not accept any further donations from Mosley, including further support for the office of deputy leader Tom Watson; Mosley had donated £500,000 in total to Watson's office. Asked what he would do about the "Daily Mail"s publication of its article, Mosley said what happened next was, "entirely in the hands of my lawyers".


title: Max Mosley

text: In December 2020, it was announced that the High Court had rejected Mosley's legal action against the publisher of the "Daily Mail" for sending a dossier which suggested that he had lied under oath to prosecutors. Justice Matthew Nicklin wrote that “The claimant’s pleaded claim discloses no reasonable grounds for bringing his claim for malicious prosecution.” In fact, no prosecution had taken place.


title: Max Mosley

text: Mosley died on 23 May 2021 after suffering from cancer, with the news being confirmed by Bernie Ecclestone. He was 81.


title: Max Mosley

text: On 29 March 2022, an inquest into his death confirmed that Mosley was found with a fatal gunshot wound to his head. Mosley had been told that he had just "weeks" to live and told his personal assistant of 20 years that he was going to take his own life the day before he did so.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast and from north to south. The desert is widest in the west, along the line joining the Lake Bosten and the Lop Nor (87°–89° east). In 2007, it occupied an arc of land in area.


title: Gobi Desert

text: In its broadest definition, the Gobi includes the long stretch of desert extending from the foot of the Pamirs (77° east) to the Greater Khingan Mountains, 116–118° east, on the border of Manchuria; and from the foothills of the Altay, Sayan, and Yablonoi mountain ranges on the north to the Kunlun, Altyn-Tagh, and Qilian mountain ranges, which form the northern edges of the Tibetan Plateau, on the south.


title: Gobi Desert

text: A relatively large area on the east side of the Greater Khingan range, between the upper waters of the Songhua (Sungari) and the upper waters of the Liao-ho, is reckoned to belong to the Gobi by conventional usage. Some geographers and ecologists prefer to regard the western area of the Gobi region (as defined above): the basin of the Tarim in Xinjiang and the desert basin of Lop Nor and Hami (Kumul), as forming a separate and independent desert, called the Taklamakan Desert.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi is overall a cold desert, with frost and occasionally snow occurring on its dunes. Besides being quite far north, it is also located on a plateau roughly above sea level, which contributes to its low temperatures. An average of about of rain falls annually in the Gobi. Additional moisture reaches parts of the Gobi in winter as snow is blown by the wind from the Siberian Steppes. These winds may cause the Gobi to reach in winter to in summer.


title: Gobi Desert

text: However, the climate of the Gobi is one of great extremes, combined with rapid changes of temperature of as much as . These can occur not only seasonally but within 24 hours.


title: Gobi Desert

text: In southern Mongolia, the temperature has been recorded as low as . In contrast, in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, it rises as high as in July.


title: Gobi Desert

text: Average winter minimums are a frigid , while summertime maximums are a warm . Most of the precipitation falls during the summer.


title: Gobi Desert

text: Although the southeast monsoons reach the southeast parts of the Gobi, the area throughout this region is generally characterized by extreme dryness, especially during the winter, when the Siberian anticyclone is at its strongest. The southern and central parts of the Gobi Desert have variable plant growth due to this monsoon activity. The more northern areas of the Gobi are very cold and dry, making it unable to support much plant growth; this cold and dry weather is attributed to Siberian-Mongolian high pressure cells. Hence, the icy Dust and snowstorms of spring and early summer plus early January (winter).


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi Desert is the source of many important fossils finds, including the first dinosaur eggs, twenty-six of which, averaging 9 inches (23 cm) in length, were uncovered in 1923.


title: Gobi Desert

text: Archeologists and paleontologists have done excavations in the Nemegt Basin in the northwestern part of the Gobi Desert (in Mongolia), which is noted for its fossil treasures, including early mammals, dinosaur eggs, and prehistoric stone implements, some 100,000 years old.


title: Gobi Desert

text: Despite the harsh conditions, these deserts and the surrounding regions sustain many animals, including black-tailed gazelles, marbled polecats, wild Bactrian camels, Mongolian wild ass and sandplovers. They are occasionally visited by snow leopards, Gobi bears, and wolves. Lizards are especially well-adapted to the climate of the Gobi Desert, with approximately 30 species distributed across its southern Mongolian border. The most common vegetation in the Gobi desert are shrubs adapted to drought. These shrubs included gray sparrow's saltwort ("Salsola passerina"), gray sagebrush, and low grasses such as needle grass and bridlegrass. Due to livestock grazing, the amount of shrubs in the desert has decreased. Several large nature reserves have been established in the Gobi, including Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Great Gobi A and Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The area is vulnerable to trampling by livestock and off-road vehicles (effects from human intervention are greater in the eastern Gobi Desert, where rainfall is heavier and may sustain livestock). In Mongolia, grasslands have been degraded by goats, which are raised by nomadic herders as source of cashmere wool.


title: Gobi Desert

text: Large copper deposits are being mined by Rio Tinto Group. The mine was and remains controversial. There was significant opposition in Mongolia's parliament to the terms under which the mine will proceed, and some are calling for the terms to be renegotiated. Specifically, the contention revolves primarily around the question of whether negotiations were fair (Rio Tinto is far better resourced) and whether Rio Tinto will pay adequate taxes on the revenues it derives from the mine (an agreement was reached whereby the operation will be exempt from windfall tax).


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi Desert is expanding through desertification, most rapidly on the southern edge into China, which is seeing of grassland overtaken every year. Dust storms increased in frequency between 1996 and 2016, causing further damage to China's agriculture economy. However, in some areas desertification has been slowed or reversed.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The northern and eastern boundaries between desert and grassland are constantly changing. This is mostly due to the climate conditions before the growing season, which influence the rate of evapotranspiration and subsequent plant growth.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The expansion of the Gobi is attributed mostly to human activities, locally driven by deforestation, overgrazing, and depletion of water resources, as well as to climate change.


title: Gobi Desert

text: China has tried various plans to slow the expansion of the desert, which have met with some success. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program (or "Green Great Wall") was a Chinese government tree-planting project begun in 1978 and set to continue through 2050. The goal of the program is to reverse desertification by planting aspen and other fast-growing trees on some 36.5 million hectares across some 551 counties in 12 provinces of northern China.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi, broadly defined, can be divided into five distinct dry ecoregions, based on variations in climate and topography:


title: Gobi Desert

text: The surface is extremely diversified, although there are no great differences in vertical elevation. Between Ulaanbaatar () and the small lake of Iren-dubasu-nor (), the surface is greatly eroded. Broad flat depressions and basins are separated by groups of flat-topped mountains of relatively low elevation ), through which archaic rocks crop out as crags and isolated rugged masses. The floors of the depressions lie mostly between above sea-level. Further south, between Iren-dutiasu-nor and the Yellow River, comes a region of broad tablelands alternating with flat plains, the latter ranging at altitudes of 1000–1100 m and the former at . The slopes of the plateaus are more or less steep and are sometimes penetrated by "bays" of the lowlands.


title: Gobi Desert

text: As the border-range of the Hyangan is approached, the country steadily rises up to and then to . Here small lakes frequently fill the depressions, though the water in them is generally salty or brackish. Both here and for south of Ulaanbaatar, streams are frequent and grass grows more or less abundantly. Through all the central parts, until the bordering mountains are reached, trees and shrubs are utterly absent. Clay and sand are the predominant formations; the watercourses, especially in the north, being frequently excavated deep. In many places in the flat, dry valleys or depressions farther south, beds of loess, thick, are exposed. West of the route from Ulaanbaatar to Kalgan, the country presents approximately the same general features, except that the mountains are not so irregularly scattered in groups but have more strongly defined strikes, mostly east to west, west-north-west to east-south-east, and west-south-west to east-north-east.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The altitudes are higher, those of the lowlands ranging from , and those of the ranges from higher, though in a few cases they reach altitudes of . The elevations do not form continuous chains, but make up a congeries of short ridges and groups rising from a common base and intersected by a labyrinth of ravines, gullies, glens, and basins. But the tablelands, built up of the horizontal red deposits of the Han-gai (Obruchev's Gobi formation) which are characteristic of the southern parts of eastern Mongolia, are absent here or occur only in one locality, near the Shara-muren river. They are greatly intersected by gullies or dry watercourses. Water is scarce, with no streams, no lakes, no wells, and precipitation falls seldom. The prevailing winds blow from the west and northwest, and the pall of dust overhangs the country as in the Taklamakan and the desert of Lop. Characteristic of the flora are wild garlic, "Kalidium gracile", wormwood, saxaul, "Nitraria schoberi", "Caragana", Ephedra, saltwort and the grass "Lasiagrostis splendens". The taana wild onion "Allium polyrrhizum" is the main browse eaten by many herd animals, and Mongolians claim that this is essential in producing the proper, hazelnut-like notes of camel airag (fermented milk).


title: Gobi Desert

text: The vast desert is crisscrossed by several trade routes, some of which have been in use for thousands of years. Among the most important are those from Kalgan (at the Great Wall) to Ulaanbaatar (); from Jiuquan (in Gansu) to Hami ; from Hami to Beijing (); from Hohhot to Hami and Barkul; and from Lanzhou (in Gansu) to Hami.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The southwestern portion of the Gobi, known also as the Xitao and the Little Gobi, fills the space between the great north loop of the Yellow River on the east, the Ejin River on the west, and the Qilian Mountains and narrow rocky chain of Longshou, in altitude, on the southwest. The Ordos Desert, which covers the northeastern portion of the Ordos Plateau, in the great north loop of the Yellow River, is part of this ecoregion. It belongs to the middle basin of the three great depressions into which Potanin divides the Gobi as a whole.


title: Gobi Desert

text: "Topographically," says Nikolai Przhevalsky, "it is a perfectly level plain, which in all probability once formed the bed of a huge lake or inland sea." He concludes this based on the level area of the region as a whole, the hard saline clay and the sand-strewn surface and, lastly, the salt lakes which occupy its lowest parts. For hundreds of kilometers, nothing can be seen but bare sands; in some places, they continue so far without a break that the Mongols call them "Tengger" (i.e. sky). These vast expanses are absolutely waterless, nor do any oases relieve the unbroken stretches of yellow sand, which alternate with equally vast areas of saline clay or, nearer the foot of the mountains, with barren shingle. Although on the whole a level country with a general altitude of , this section, like most other parts of the Gobi, is crowned by a network of hills and broken ranges of at least 300 m in elevation. The vegetation is confined to a few varieties of bushes and a dozen kinds of grasses and herbs, the most conspicuous being saxaul ("Haloxylon ammondendron") and "Agriophyllum gobicum". The others include prickly convolvulus, field wormwood ("Artemisia campestris"), acacia, "Inula ammophila", "Sophora flavescens", "Convolvulus ammanii", "Peganum" and "Astragalus" species, but all dwarfed, deformed and starved. The fauna consists of little but antelope, wolf, fox, hare, hedgehog, marten, numerous lizards and a few birds, e.g. the sandgrouse, lark, stonechat, sparrow, crane, Mongolian ground jay ("Podoces hendersoni"), horned lark ("Eremophila alpestris"), and crested lark ("Galerida cristata").


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Yulduz valley or valley of the Haidag-gol (–) is a mini desert enclosed by two prominent members of the Shanashen Trahen Osh mountain range, namely the chucis and the kracenard pine rallies, running perpendicular and far from one another. As they proceed south, they transcend and transpose, sweeping back on east and west respectively, with Lake Bosten in between. These two ranges mark the northern and the southern edges respectively of a great swelling, which extends eastward for nearly twenty degrees of longitude. On its northern side, the Chol-tagh descends steeply, and its foot is fringed by a string of deep depressions, ranging from Lukchun ( below sea level) to Hami ( above sea-level). To the south of the Kuruk-tagh lie the desert of Lop Nur, the Kum-tagh desert, and the valley of the Bulunzir-gol. To this great swelling, which arches up between the two border-ranges of the Chol-tagh and Kuruk-tagh, the Mongols give the name of "Ghashuun-Gobi" or "Salt Desert". It is some across from north to south, and is traversed by a number of minor parallel ranges, ridges and chains of hills. Down its middle runs a broad stony valley, wide, at an elevation of . The Chol-tagh, which reaches an average altitude of , is absolutely sterile, and its northern foot rests upon a narrow belt of barren sand, which leads down to the depressions mentioned above.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Kuruk-tagh is the greatly disintegrated, denuded and wasted relic of a mountain range which used to be of incomparably greater magnitude. In the west, between Lake Bosten and the Tarim, it consists of two, possibly of three, principal ranges, which, although broken in continuity, run generally parallel to one another, and embrace between them numerous minor chains of heights. These minor ranges, together with the principal ranges, divide the region into a series of long; narrow valleys, mostly parallel to one another and to the enclosing mountain chains, which descend like terraced steps, on the one side towards the depression of Lukchun and on the other towards the desert of Lop.


title: Gobi Desert

text: In many cases these latitudinal valleys are barred transversely by ridges or spurs, generally elevations en masse of the bottom of the valley. Where such elevations exist, there is generally found, on the east side of the transverse ridge, a cauldron-shaped depression, which some time or other has been the bottom of a former lake, but is now nearly a dry salt-basin. The surface configuration is in fact markedly similar to that which occurs in the inter-mount latitudinal valleys of the Kunlun Mountains. The hydrography of the Ghashiun-Gobi and the Kuruk-tagh is determined by the aforementioned arrangements of the latitudinal valleys. Most of the principal streams, instead of flowing straight down these valleys, cross them diagonally and only turn west after they have cut their way through one or more of the transverse barrier ranges.


title: Gobi Desert

text: To the highest range on the great swelling Grigory Grum-Grshimailo gives the name of Tuge-tau, its altitude being above the level of the sea and some above the crown of the swelling itself. This range he considers to belong to the Choltagh system, whereas Sven Hedin would assign it to the Kuruk-tagh. This last, which is pretty certainly identical with the range of Kharateken-ula (also known as the Kyzyl-sanghir, Sinir, and Singher Mountains), that overlooks the southern shore of the Lake Bosten, though parted from it by the drift-sand desert of Ak-bel-kum (White Pass Sands), has at first a west-northwest to east-southeast strike, but it gradually curves round like a scimitar towards the east-northeast and at the same time gradually decreases in elevation.


title: Gobi Desert

text: At 91° east, where the principal range of the Kuruk-tagh system wheels to the east-northeast, four of its subsidiary ranges terminate, or rather die away somewhat suddenly, on the brink of a long narrow depression (in which Sven Hedin sees a northeast bay of the former great Central Asian lake of Lop-nor), having over against them the écheloned terminals of similar subordinate ranges of the Pe-shan (Boy-san) system (see below). The Kuruk-tagh is throughout a relatively low, but almost completely barren range, being entirely destitute of animal life, save for hares, antelopes and wild camels, which frequent its few small, widely scattered oases. The vegetation, which is confined to these same areas, is of the scantiest and is mainly confined to bushes of saxaul "(Haloxylon)", "anabasis", reeds (kamish), tamarisks, poplars, and Ephedra.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi had a long history of human habitation, mostly by nomadic peoples. By the early 20th century, the region was under the nominal control of Manchu-China, and inhabited mostly by Mongols, Uyghurs, and Kazakhs.


title: Gobi Desert

text: The Gobi Desert as a whole was known only very imperfectly to outsiders, as information was confined to observations by individual travelers engaging in their respective itineraries across the desert. Among the European explorers who contributed to the understanding of the Gobi, the most important were the following:


title: Hank Green

text: William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American vlogger, science communicator, entrepreneur, author, internet producer, and musician. He is known for producing the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, as well as for creating and hosting the educational YouTube channels "Crash Course" and "SciShow". He has also advocated for and organized social activism, created and hosted a number of other YouTube channels and podcasts, released music albums, and amassed a large following on TikTok.


title: Hank Green

text: With his brother John, Hank co-created VidCon, the world's largest conference about online videos, and the Project for Awesome, an annual online charity event, as well as the now-defunct conferences NerdCon: Stories, focused on storytelling, and PodCon, focused on podcasts. He is the co-creator of "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" (2012–2013), an adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" in the style of video blogs that was the first web series to win an Emmy. He is also the co-founder of merchandise company DFTBA Records, crowdfunding platform Subbable, game company DFTBA Games, and online video production company Pemberley Digital, which produces video blog adaptations of classic novels in the public domain. Green is the founder of the environmental technology blog EcoGeek, which evolved into Complexly, an online video and audio production company of which he is the CEO. Green also hosts the podcasts "Dear Hank & John" and "Delete This" with his brother and wife respectively, along with the podcast "SciShow Tangents".


title: Hank Green

text: Green's debut novel, "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing", was published on September 25, 2018; its sequel "A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor" was published on July 7, 2020. Both novels debuted as "New York Times" Best Sellers.


title: Hank Green

text: William Henry Green II was born on May 5, 1980 to Mike and Sydney Green in Birmingham, Alabama, but his family soon moved to Orlando, Florida, where he was raised. He graduated from Winter Park High School in 1998 and then earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Eckerd College and a M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. His master's thesis was entitled "Of Both Worlds: How the Personal Computer and the Environmental Movement Change Everything".


title: Hank Green

text: Throughout high school and college, Green created and designed websites for himself and local clients. His first project, the "Mars Exploration Page", in 1994, experienced minor success on the heels of the Mars Pathfinder Mission. A later website, IHateI4.com, which was about Green’s dislike for Interstate 4, a widely unpopular highway among Floridians, brought press from local news channels and the "Orlando Sentinel". Green continued as a web developer after moving to Montana for graduate school, focusing on developing websites for educational institutions (including the University of Montana) and environmental non-profit organizations.


title: Hank Green

text: While in graduate school, Green created "EcoGeek", a blog focusing on technological advancements that would benefit the environment. Starting out as a class project, EcoGeek evolved into a major environmental publication. EcoGeek caught the attention of "Time", where it was described as "porn for hardcore science, tech and enviro freaks". Writing about environmental issues, Green has been published on numerous environmental blogs, including Treehugger.com, Yahoo! Green, "The National Geographic Green Guide", "Scientific American", The Weather Channel, Planet Green, NPR and in "The New York Times".


title: Hank Green

text: During the mid-2000s, Green wrote regularly for "Mental Floss" and co-authored one of their books, "Mental Floss: Scatterbrained".


title: Hank Green

text: From January 1 to December 31, 2007, Hank Green and his brother John ran a video blog project titled Brotherhood 2.0. The original project ran every week day for the entire year, with the premise that the brothers would cease all text-based ("textual") communication for the year and instead converse by daily video blogs, made available to the public via their YouTube channel "Vlogbrothers" and on their website.


title: Hank Green

text: In 2008, John and Hank met up with their fans, known as "Nerdfighters". The first gathering was a last-minute decision, but despite the short three-day notice, nearly a hundred people attended. In August, John and Hank were invited to the Google office in Chicago to talk about the project. That same day, they filled the Harold Washington Library with about four hundred young adults. Following John's book tour for his third novel, "Paper Towns", the brothers went on a national tour in November. With events in 17 different cities, they met Nerdfighters at local libraries and community centers. During this tour, Green released his first album of Nerdfighter-themed songs, titled "So Jokes".


title: Hank Green

text: The Green brothers have been interviewed on PotterCast, and have been recurring keynote speakers at the "Harry Potter" fan convention LeakyCon. The Brotherhood 2.0 project succeeded in its original mission. The two brothers have come to communicate more thoroughly with each other, and have a larger influence in each other's lives than before the project was initiated. The brothers talked on the phone once or twice a year before Brotherhood 2.0, but, according to Hank's wife Katherine, they now "talk almost every day." John and Hank continued to post vlogs every Tuesday and Friday on their channel. Their video topics vary from explanations of current events, reunion videos, joke videos, rant videos, thoughts from various places, Question Tuesdays, and random topics. As of May 22, 2021, they have posted over 1,900 videos. The channel has more than 3 million subscribers, and its videos have been watched over 860,000,000 times.


title: Hank Green

text: In January 2012, Hank and John created the educational YouTube channel "Crash Course", as part of the site's Original Channel Initiative. The channel features several educational courses based on the high school curriculum, and first launched with series focusing on Biology and World History. According to John, the brothers see "Crash Course" "as an introduction, as a way to get kids excited about learning, not as an attempt to replace traditional classroom materials." Their goal is to create "resources that allow for more valuable interaction in the classroom," with hopes that the channel will one day span the entire high school curriculum.


title: Hank Green

text: The channel was initially hosted by the two brothers, with Hank focusing on the science courses and John teaching the humanities courses. The channel has since expanded to welcome new hosts such as Craig Benzine, Phil Plait, and Emily Graslie into its roster, and has launched new courses such as Astronomy, Physics, and Philosophy. As part of YouTube Kids, a separate "Crash Course: Kids" channel was launched in March 2015, with Sabrina Cruz hosting a Science course geared toward a younger audience.


title: Hank Green

text: "Crash Course" has received praise from students and teachers alike. It has been awarded grants by Bill Gates' bgC3, and has struck a partnership with PBS Digital Studios to continue developing more series, although the majority of its funding comes from viewer support via Patreon.


title: Hank Green

text: Green created the science YouTube channel "SciShow" in January 2012, which, like "Crash Course", was initially funded by the online video website. The channel features a series of videos focused on several scientific fields such as chemistry, physics, and biology, as well as interviews and trivia shows with experts. Green aims for "SciShow"'s content to be approachable and to dispel the idea that science is an inherently difficult subject. Like "Crash Course", "SciShow" is meant to be supplementary to the traditional educational experience, with Green's goal being "to be good at one thing so teachers can be good at other things."


title: Hank Green

text: "SciShow" is primarily hosted by Green, though it has since expanded with Michael Aranda taking on additional hosting duties, as well as with occasional appearances by Lindsey Doe and Emily Graslie. A spin-off channel, "SciShow Space", was launched in April 2014 to cover space topics, and is hosted by Green, Reid Reimers, and Caitlin Hofmeister. A third channel, "SciShow Kids", premiered in March 2015. It is aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 6 and is hosted by Jessi Knudsen Castañeda. Late in 2016, its patrons on Patreon chose a topic for a new channel, "SciShow Psych", which launched in March 2017. It is hosted by Hank Green and Brit Garner who teach about the human brain and aim to provide clear and reputable psychology information.


title: Hank Green

text: The channel has amassed a large audience, with its videos being regularly featured on several media outlets. Green and "SciShow" were granted a national advertisement deal with YouTube that featured promotion on billboards and television commercials. The channel has been praised as "informative, casual without being condescending, and funny," though it has been criticized for providing biased information on genetic modification, which was later addressed in a video.


title: Hank Green

text: At VidCon in June 2017, Green announced a new PBS Digital Studios partner channel, to be hosted by himself, "SciShow" writer Blake de Pastino, and paleontologist Kallie Moore, titled "Eons". It documents the history of life on Earth, "From the dawn of life in the Archaean Eon ... right up to the end of the most recent Ice Age." It premiered June 26, 2017. As of May 22, 2021 Eons has over 1.8 million subscribers and 270 million views.


title: Hank Green

text: Started in June 2019, "Journey to the Microcosmos" is hosted by Green and produced by Complexly. It explores the microscopic world, with topics such as bacteria, tardigrades, and other microorganisms. The music is produced by Andrew Huang.


title: Hank Green

text: Started in June 2020, "Bizarre Beasts" is hosted by Hank Green and Sarah Suta and produced by Complexly. The channel releases monthly videos exploring a specific unusual animal, such as chameleons, kākāpō, and yeti crabs. As of July, 2022, Bizarre Beasts has over 150,000 subscribers and 5.6 million views.


title: Hank Green

text: On April 9, 2012, Hank Green and co-creator Bernie Su premiered a new web series, "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries". This series is a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", his wife's favorite book, and is conveyed through the form of vlogs. The series stars Ashley Clements, Mary Kate Wiles, Laura Spencer, and Julia Cho. The channel has over 160,000 subscribers, with more than 22.5 million video views. The series also bridged other online media, such as Twitter and Tumblr pages under the names of characters and entities from the series. Green was also one of the writers of the series.


title: Hank Green

text: As a result of "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries"' success, Pemberley Digital launched "Welcome to Sanditon" in 2013, a spin-off web series based on Jane Austen's unfinished novel "Sanditon". Green and Su serve as executive producers, with "Lizzie Bennet Diaries"' producers Margaret Dunlap and Jay Bushman serving as creators, executive producers, and showrunners. The series follows Gigi Darcy when she moves to Sanditon, California to run a beta demo of the Pemberley Digital Domino application.


title: Hank Green

text: The next Pemberley Digital project was "Emma Approved", an adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma", which premiered in 2014. Created by Su, who executive produces with Green, the web-series follows Emma Woodhouse as she documents her business success with her lifestyle company.


title: Hank Green

text: Pemberley Digital partnered with PBS Digital Studios to produce the company's first web-series not based on a novel written by Austen. "Frankenstein, MD", a modern adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" co-created by Su, Brett Register, and Lon Harris, premiered in 2014 on the PBS Digital YouTube channel. The series was executive produced by Su and Green, and follows PhD student Victoria Frankenstein, portrayed by as Anna Lore, and Iggy DeLacey, portrayed by Steve Zaragoza, as they make videos for their science YouTube channel.


title: Hank Green

text: In his Vlogbrothers video uploaded on December 7, 2012, Green featured Emily Graslie, a curatorial assistant at the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum. In this video, she showed Green a wide variety of specimens in the lab. Due to her ease in front of the camera, enthusiasm, and fan comments, Graslie was offered her own YouTube channel "The Brain Scoop" as a part of the Nerdfighter family. The series debuted in January 2013. "The Brain Scoop" was acquired by The Field Museum of Natural History in 2014.


title: Hank Green

text: In 2010, Green met Lindsey Doe, a sexologist, after Doe found Green's Vlogbrothers channel and asked him to talk at a panel in her course at the University of Montana. In 2013, the two co-founded "Sexplanations", a YouTube channel focused on sex education. The show has covered topics such as slut-shaming, consent, and masturbation.


title: Hank Green

text: Following the success of "Crash Course" and "SciShow," Green and his brother John partnered with "Mental Floss" to produce and co-host a YouTube channel based on the magazine. Both Green brothers wrote for the magazine years before they were approached to help launch the YouTube channel. The first series, called "The List Show", features John Green presenting several interesting facts and bits of trivia related to a central topic. The channel has since launched two other series: "Big Questions", hosted by Craig Benzine, and "Misconceptions", hosted by Elliott Morgan. Initially, Hank was slated to host a quiz show based on his abandoned YouTube channel "Truth or Fail", in which viewers would answer several questions via link annotations, jumping from video to video to find out answers and get more questions. Only one episode of the "Quiz Show" was released, though Hank has stayed on as producer on the other series, as well as occasionally guest hosting "The List Show".


title: Hank Green

text: Hank and John Green produced "How to Adult", an educational web series hosted by vloggers and young adult novelists T. Michael Martin and Emma Mills. The series premiered in February 2014 and is meant to offer solutions and teach life skills to newly minted adults. The channel features Martin and Mills, as well as guest appearances by Hank and Emily Graslie, talking about topics not generally covered in school and teaching skills and dispensing advice surrounding adulthood. The series was pitched to the Green brothers by Martin and Mills, who then decided to help fund and produce the channel.


title: Hank Green

text: In 2014, Green partnered with Animal Wonders Inc, a non-profit organization focused on animal rescue and animal-based education, to launch a new YouTube channel focused on animals. "Animal Wonders" is hosted by Jessi Knudsen Castañeda, a regular guest of the "SciShow" Talk Show, and founder and executive director of Animal Wonders, Inc. The channel is produced and directed by Caitlin Hofmeister and Matthew Gaydos, and features a wide range of animals residing in the animal center, as well as information on pet care, training, and animal behavior.


title: Hank Green

text: In June 2015, Green teamed up with Charlie McDonnell and Jimmy Hill to produce a new daily morning show titled "Cereal Time". The idea came from Green, who serves as an executive producer on the series after McDonnell asked him for advice on his next projects. The show premiered every weekday morning at 7:00 GMT on the "Cereal Time" YouTube channel, and featured McDonnell and Hill having a conversation over breakfast and discussing several topics. The show is influenced by Rhett and Link's "Good Mythical Morning", and McDonnell has described the show as "authentic" likening his presenting style as "a bit more of myself than I am on my main YouTube channel." Green stated that his role as executive producer mostly involves paying for production, and while he confirmed that the show isn't profitable, he assured viewers that it would continue. The show has been on hiatus since September 2016, with no sign yet of the show's return.


title: Hank Green

text: In June 2015, Hank Green and his brother John Green started a weekly podcast titled "Dear Hank & John". They refer to it as "A comedy podcast about death". Taking a mainly humorous tone, each episode involves the brothers reading a series of questions submitted by listeners and offering their dubious advice. The episode closes with a news segment with two standard topics: Mars, presented by Hank, and AFC Wimbledon, presented by John.


title: Hank Green

text: Hank has said that he enjoys the more conversational tone of the podcast, as it more closely resembles what the Vlogbrothers videos used to be like.


title: Hank Green

text: In February 2017, Green launched "Holy Fucking Science", a new "science podcast with the enthusiasm (and language) of a gaming channel." It is available both as an audio-only cast, and in video form on YouTube. It was canceled March 2018, after 58 episodes, due to regrets about using "fuck" in the title and wishes to change up the format. In late 2018 the panelists from "HFS" returned in "SciShow Tangents", another podcast with a similar format.


title: Hank Green

text: In March 2018, Green and his wife Katherine launched a new podcast, "DELETE THIS", in which they take a look at Hank's Twitter feed from the previous week and analyze its impact on the conversation and his followers, as a gateway to considering the overall role of social media in society. In August 2020, the podcast was reformatted and retitled "TASKMISTRESS", in which Katherine critiques episodes of the program "Taskmaster" and provides alternatives to the judgments of its host, Greg Davies. In January 2021, the podcast abandoned the "Taskmaster" theme and returned to broadly being a discussion about social media and internet culture.


title: Hank Green

text: In November 2018, Green, together with the other "Holy Fucking Science" panelists, started "SciShow Tangents" which they describe as a "lightly competitive knowledge showcase." Every episode they deliver science facts related to the episodes topic in different formats, such as poems or questions from listeners, and guess the real fact.


title: Hank Green

text: In 2016, Hank's LLC and production company EcoGeek was renamed Complexly (after the phrase "Imagine Others Complexly"). Complexly is the umbrella organization which produces and manages most of Hank's YouTube shows, as well as a number of other shows, podcasts, and projects.


title: Hank Green

text: In 2007, brothers John and Hank introduced the annual charity project titled the Project for Awesome (P4A), a project in which YouTube users take two days, originally in mid-December, to create videos promoting charities or nonprofit organizations of their choosing. The total amount of money raised every year has continued to incrementally increase (with the exception of 2011). In 2021, the event was moved to late February, and a record $2,368,016 was raised.


title: Hank Green

text: DFTBA Records (an initialism for "Don't Forget to Be Awesome") is an e-commerce merchandise company that was co-founded by Green and Alan Lastufka in 2008. Originally a record label, its main focus was music generated by prominent YouTube stars like Green himself, Dave Days, Charlie McDonnell, Molly Lewis, among others. The company now focuses on selling merchandise for prominent YouTube stars, such as Green and his brother John, Charlie McDonnell, Rhett and Link, CGP Grey, and Hannah Hart, among several others. DFTBA Records has a prominently independent distribution network.


title: Hank Green

text: The goal of the record label, as Lastufka stated in a video on the subject, is to provide a distribution network for talented artists of YouTube and to make sure their music reaches out to the "largest audience possible." The record label claims to aid a bigger audience in connecting with the artists, and make the "YouTube experience" more lucrative, more exciting, and more fun. Aside from music albums, the label's official website sells other forms of merchandise, such as T-shirts, accessories, and posters.


title: Hank Green

text: On June 19, 2014, Lastufka announced that he had sold his entire stake in the company and resigned as president, to pursue other projects.


title: Hank Green

text: In January 2015, Green announced plans for a game company called DFTBA Games on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. He launched the first DFTBA Games project Wizard School in September 2015. Wizard School is tabletop card game meant to emulate attending and "graduating" from "Wizard School." This project was fully funded within the same day it launched.


title: Hank Green

text: VidCon is an annual conference based around online video first held in 2010. Along with his brother, John, Hank founded VidCon in response to the growing online video community. Hank states, "We wanted to get as much of the online video community together, in one place, in the real world for a weekend. It's a celebration of the community, with performances, concerts, and parties; but it's also a discussion of the explosion in community-based online video."


title: Hank Green

text: The event draws many popular YouTube users, as well as their fans, and provides room for the community to interact. The event also contains an industry conference for people and businesses working in the online video field. Since its inception, the annual attendance of the event has grown.


title: Hank Green

text: After two years of producing "Crash Course" and "SciShow" through grants provided by YouTube, the Green brothers decided to find a more sustainable way to fund the projects. In 2013, they launched Subbable, a monthly subscription-based crowdfunding platform similar to Kickstarter that would let subscribers pledge a monthly donation to creators and receive perks in exchange by building up a pledge bank. Among the platform's initial creators and channels were the Green brothers' "Crash Course" and "SciShow", and YouTubers CGP Grey, MinutePhysics and Wheezy Waiter. In the Subbable introduction video, Green said:


title: Hank Green

text: In March 2015, Patreon, another subscription-based crowdfunding platform, acquired Subbable and added Subbable's creators into its fold, with the bulk of the acquisition money going to match up to $100,000 in pledges to ease the transition. Although talks of the two companies joining forces had been discussed since their launch, they only got serious after Amazon announced a change in its payment services, which would lead to Subbable creators losing subscribers. As part of the deal, the Green brothers received a small portion of Patreon and Hank signed on as an unpaid advisor.


title: Hank Green

text: Following VidCon's success, Green launched a new conference, NerdCon: Stories, focusing on all types of storytelling media, in 2015. The first NerdCon: Stories was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during October 9–10, 2015. The two-day conference attracted around 3,000 attendees, and featured guests such as Hank and John Green, Patrick Rothfuss, Maureen Johnson, Maggie Stiefvater, John Scalzi, and the "Welcome to Night Vale" cast and crew, among other storytellers, authors, performers, and musicians.


title: Hank Green

text: The second NerdCon: Stories returned to the Minneapolis Convention Center on October 14–15, 2016, with many of its original guests.


title: Hank Green

text: In November 2020, Hank, with his brother John, started the "Awesome Socks Club", a monthly subscription service where members receive a pair of socks designed by independent artists. All post-tax profits are donated to the charity Partners in Health, in a business model similar to Newman's Own products. As of March 2022, the Awesome Socks Club had 45,000 members.


title: Hank Green

text: In March 2022, the brothers started the "Awesome Coffee Club", with an identical business model and goal to the Awesome Socks Club. The coffee is ethically sourced from Columbia via the brothers' sourcing partner Sucafina. The beans are then roasted in St. Louis, Missouri and distributed through DFTBA's fulfillment center in Missoula, Montana.


title: Hank Green

text: In August 2022, Hank Green reported that the Awesome Socks Club had over 40,000 subscribers and the Awesome Coffee Club had over 10,000 subscribers.


title: Hank Green

text: In September 2022, during the lead-up to the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Montana, Green interviewed Democrat Monica Tranel, who ran for Montana's 1st congressional district, in Missoula. He hosted a second event in Bozeman, Montana in October, though he did not explicitly endorse Tranel.


title: Hank Green

text: During the Brotherhood 2.0 project, Green accepted a challenge to perform an original song bi-weekly (known as "Song Wednesdays") and he has continued, though less frequently, to write, record, and perform songs since then. His songs include "I'm Gonna Kill You," "Baby, I Sold Your Dog on eBay," and "What Would Captain Picard Do?". Green's first successful song was "Accio Deathly Hallows", which was featured on YouTube's front page preceding the release of the final "Harry Potter" book, and has been viewed over two million times.


title: Hank Green

text: Green's first studio album, "So Jokes", was released in 2008 and reached number 22 on the Billboard Top 25 revenue generating albums online. He has since released four other albums: "I'm So Bad at This: Live!" (2009), "This Machine Pwns n00bs" (2009), "Ellen Hardcastle" (2011) which was named for the winner of a 2010 charity raffle, and "Incongruent" (2014) with his new band, Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers. The album was released on May 7, 2014.


title: Hank Green

text: Green's debut novel, "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing", was published on September 25, 2018. It is a science fiction novel about a young woman who gains overnight fame when she stumbles across an alien structure. The book debuted as a "New York Times" Bestseller. The sequel, "A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor", was released on July 7, 2020, and was on the July 26, 2020, "New York Times" Bestsellers list at number 6.


title: Hank Green

text: When signing novels, Green often includes a symbol known as the "Hank-lerfish," meant to resemble an anglerfish.


title: Hank Green

text: In 2011, Green created "2-D" glasses, which allow one to watch 3-D movies in 2-D. The glasses were originally created for those who experience discomfort watching 3-D movies (such as Green's wife) and consist of either two right or two left lenses from a pair of regular 3-D glasses.


title: Hank Green

text: In September 2019, Green started creating content on TikTok. He has seen growing success and has been called a "top creator" on TikTok by "The New York Times". As of October 2022, he has over 7 million followers and over 497 million likes on his page. His content mainly consists of educational, humorous, and social-commentary videos. After a TikTok which spoke positively about his book, "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing", went viral, Green saw a 3200% increase in sales on Amazon.


title: Hank Green

text: In April 2021, Green announced he would donate his TikTok Creator Fund revenue of over $35,000 to the First Nations Development Institute, a sum consisting of an estimated $700 from 20,000,000 TikTok views in a month as of August 2020, averaging to about 3.5 cents per 1,000 views. In January 2022, Green released a YouTube video criticizing TikTok for the method in which creators are paid, pointing out that due to the set value of the Creator Fund, as TikTok becomes more popular, creators earn less.


title: Hank Green

text: Green was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2006. He was also diagnosed with a learning disorder as a child and speculates this to likely be ADHD. Green has stated he is an atheist.


title: Kickboxing

text: Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, general fitness, or for competition. Some styles of kickboxing include: Karate, Muay Thai, Japanese kickboxing, Sanda, and Savate.


title: Kickboxing

text: Although since the dawn of humanity people have faced each other in hand-to-hand combat, the first documentation on the use of kicking and punching in sports combat is from ancient Greece and ancient India. But nevertheless, the term kickboxing originated in Japan, in the 1960s, and developed in the late 1950s from karate mixed with boxing, with Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Savate also having some influence, with competitions held since then. American kickboxing originated in the 1970s and was brought to prominence in September 1974, when the Professional Karate Association (PKA) held the first World Championships. Historically, kickboxing can be considered a hybrid martial art formed from the combination of elements of various traditional styles. This approach became increasingly popular since the 1970s, and since the 1990s, kickboxing has contributed to the emergence of mixed martial arts via further hybridization with ground fighting techniques from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and folk wrestling.


title: Kickboxing

text: There is no single international governing body, although some international governing bodies include the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (also known as WAKO), World Kickboxing Association, International Sport Karate Association, International Kickboxing Federation, and World Kickboxing Network, among others. Consequently, there is no single kickboxing world championship, and champion titles are issued by individual promotions, such as Glory, K-1 and ONE Championship among others. Bouts organized under different governing bodies apply different rules, such as allowing the use of knees or clinching etc.


title: Kickboxing

text: The term itself was introduced in the 1960s as a Japanese anglicism by Japanese boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi for a hybrid martial art combining Muay Thai and karate which he had introduced in 1958. The term was later also adopted by the American variant. Since there has been a lot of cross-fertilization between these styles, with many practitioners training or competing under the rules of more than one style, the history of the individual styles cannot be seen in isolation from one another.


title: Kickboxing

text: The French term "Boxe pieds-poings" (literally "feet-fists-boxing") is also used in the sense of "kickboxing" in the general meaning, including French boxing (Savate) as well as American, Dutch and Japanese kickboxing, Burmese and Thai boxing, any style of full contact karate, etc.


title: Kickboxing

text: Since kickboxing is a broad term, understanding the history can be somewhat difficult, since combat is an inherent part of being human. Kicking and punching as an act of human aggression have probably existed throughout the world since prehistory.


title: Kickboxing

text: The earliest known depiction of any type of boxing comes from a Sumerian relief in Iraq from the 3rd millennium BC. Forms of kickboxing existed in ancient India. The earliest references to musti-yuddha come from classical Vedic epics such as the "Ramayana" and "Rig Veda," compiled in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The "Mahabharata" describes two combatants boxing with clenched fists and fighting with kicks, finger strikes, knee strikes and headbutts. Mushti Yuddha has travelled along the Indosphere and has been a preceder and a strong influence in many famous martial arts of Southeast Asia such as Muay Thai, Muay Laos and Pradal Serey (of Cambodia).


title: Kickboxing

text: In the Pankration, a mixed martial art from ancient Greece, a form of kickboxing was used in its Anō Pankration modality, being able to use any extremity to hit. In addition, it is debated whether kicks were allowed in ancient Greek boxing, and while there is some evidence of kicks, this is the subject of debate among scholars.


title: Kickboxing

text: The French were the first to include boxing gloves into a sport that included kicking and boxing techniques. In 1743, modern boxing gloves were invented by Englishman Jack Broughton. Frenchman Charles Lecour added English boxing gloves to la boxe française. Charles Lecour was a pioneer of modern savate or la boxe française. He created a form where both kicking and punching was used. Lecour was the first to view savate as a sport and self-defense system. The French colonists introduced European boxing gloves into the native Asian martial arts in French Indochina. The use of European boxing gloves spread to neighboring Siam.


title: Kickboxing

text: It was during the 1950s that a Japanese karateka named Tatsuo Yamada first established an outline of a new sport that combined karate and Muay Thai. This was further explored during the early 1960s, when competitions between karate and Muay Thai began, which allowed for rule modifications to take place. In the middle of the decade, the first events with the term kickboxing were held in Osaka.


title: Kickboxing

text: By the 1970s and 1980s, the sport had expanded beyond Japan and had reached North America and Europe. It was during this time that many of the most prominent governing bodies were formed.


title: Kickboxing

text: Since the 1990s the sport has been mostly dominated by the Japanese K-1 promotion, with some competition coming from other promotions and mostly pre-existing governing bodies.


title: Kickboxing

text: Along with the growing popularity in competition, there has been an increased amount of participation and exposure in the mass media, fitness, and self-defense.


title: Kickboxing

text: On December 20, 1959, a Muay Thai match among Thai fighters was held at Asakusa town hall in Tokyo. Tatsuo Yamada, who established ""Nihon Kempo Karate-do"", was interested in Muay Thai because he wanted to perform karate matches with full-contact rules since practitioners are not allowed to hit each other directly in karate matches. At this time, it was unimaginable to hit each other in karate matches in Japan. He had already announced his plan which was named ""The draft principles of project of establishment of a new sport and its industrialization"" in November 1959, and he proposed the tentative name of "karate-boxing" for this new sport. It is still unknown whether Nak Muay was invited by Yamada, but it is clear that Yamada was the only karateka who was really interested in Muay Thai. Yamada invited a champion Nak Muay (and formerly his son Kan Yamada's sparring partner), and started studying Muay Thai. At this time, the Thai fighter was taken by Osamu Noguchi who was a promoter of boxing and was also interested in Muay Thai. The Thai fighter's photo was on the magazine "The Primer of Nihon Kempo Karate-do, the first number" which was published by Yamada.


title: Kickboxing

text: There were "Karate vs. Muay Thai fights" on February 12, 1963. The three karate fighters from "Oyama dojo" (kyokushin later) went to the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Thailand and fought against three Muay Thai fighters. The three kyokushin karate fighters' names are Tadashi Nakamura, Kenji Kurosaki and Akio Fujihira (also known as Noboru Osawa). The Muay Thai team were composed of only one authentic Thai fighter. Japan won by 2–1: Tadashi Nakamura and Akio Fujihira both KOed opponents by punch while Kenji Kurosaki, who fought the Thai, was KOed by elbow. The only Japanese loser Kenji Kurosaki was then a kyokushin instructor rather than a contender and temporarily designated as a substitute for the absent chosen fighter. On June of the same year, karateka and future kickboxer Tadashi Sawamura faced against top Thai fighter Samarn Sor Adisorn, in which Sawamura was knocked down 16 times and defeated. Sawamura would use what he learned in that fight to incorporate in the evolving kickboxing tournaments.


title: Kickboxing

text: Noguchi studied Muay Thai and developed a combined martial art which Noguchi named "kick boxing", which absorbed and adopted more rules than techniques from Muay Thai. The main techniques of kickboxing are still derived from a form of Japanese full contact karate where kicks to the legs are allowed, kyokushin. In early competitions, throwing and butting were allowed to distinguish it from Muay Thai. This was later repealed. The "Kickboxing Association", the first kickboxing sanctioning body, was founded by Osamu Noguchi in 1966 soon after that. Then the first kickboxing event was held in Osaka on April 11, 1966.


title: Kickboxing

text: Tatsu Yamada died in 1967, but his dojo changed its name to "Suginami Gym", and kept sending kickboxers off to support kickboxing.


title: Kickboxing

text: Kickboxing boomed and became popular in Japan as it began to be broadcast on TV. By 1970, kickboxing was telecast in Japan on three different channels three times weekly. The fight cards regularly included bouts between Japanese (kickboxers) and Thai (Muay Thai) boxers. Tadashi Sawamura was an especially popular early kickboxer. In 1971 the All Japan Kickboxing Association (AJKA) was established and it registered approximately 700 kickboxers. The first AJKA Commissioner was Shintaro Ishihara, the longtime Governor of Tokyo. Champions were in each weight division from fly to middle. Longtime Ilyushiner Noboru Osawa won the AJKA bantamweight title, which he held for years. Raymond Edler, an American university student studying at Sophia University in Tokyo, took up kickboxing and won the AJKC middleweight title in 1972; he was the first non-Thai to be officially ranked in the sport of Thai boxing, when in 1972 Rajadamnern ranked him no. 3 in the Middleweight division. Edler defended the All Japan title several times and abandoned it. Other popular champions were Toshio Fujiwara and Mitsuo Shima. Most notably, Fujiwara was the first non-Thai to win an official Thai boxing title, when he defeated his Thai opponent in 1978 at Rajadamnern Stadium winning the lightweight championship bout.


title: Kickboxing

text: By 1980, due to poor ratings and then infrequent television coverage, the golden-age of kickboxing in Japan was suddenly finished.


title: Kickboxing

text: In 1993, as Kazuyoshi Ishii (founder of Seidokaikan karate) produced K-1 under special kickboxing rules (no elbow and neck wrestling) in 1993, kickboxing became famous again.


title: Kickboxing

text: In the mid-1980s to early 1990s, before the first k-1, Kazuyoshi Ishii also partook in the formation of glove karate as an amateur sport in Japan. Glove karate is based on knockdown karate rules, but wearing boxing gloves and allowing punches to the head. In effect, it is oriental rules kickboxing with scoring based on knockdowns and aggression rather than the number of hits. As K-1 grew in popularity, Glove karate for a while became the fastest-growing amateur sport in Japan.


title: Kickboxing

text: Between 1970 and 1973 a handful of kickboxing promotions were staged across the USA. The first recognized bout of this kind occurred on January 17, 1970, and came about when Joe Lewis, a Shorin Ryu stylist who had also studied Jeet Kune Do with the legendary Bruce Lee, and noted champion in the Karate tournament circuit, grew disillusioned with the point-sparring format and sought to create an event that would allow martial artists to fight to the knock out. Enlisting the help of promoter Lee Faulkner, training in boxing and combining the techniques of boxing and Karate for the first time in America, Lewis arranged the bout to be held at the 1st Pro Team Karate Championships. Lewis faced Kenpo stylist Greg "Om" Baines, who had defeated two opponents in years pasts. Lewis won the fight by knockout in the second round. The event was advertised as "Full contact" but the announcers referred to it as Kickboxing, and rules included knees, elbows and sweeps. Lewis would defend his U.S Heavyweight champion title 10 times, remaining undefeated until he came back from his retirement. In the early days, the rules were never clear; one of the first tournaments had no weight divisions, and all the competitors fought off until one was left. During this early time, kickboxing and full contact karate are essentially the same sport.


title: Kickboxing

text: The institutional separation of American full-contact karate from kickboxing occurred with the formation of the Professional Karate Association (PKA) in 1974 and of the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) in 1976.


title: Kickboxing

text: They were the first organised body of martial arts on a global scale to sanction fights, create ranking systems, and institute a development programme.


title: Kickboxing

text: The International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) and the International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) have been the only organizations to have thrived in the modern era.


title: Kickboxing

text: The International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) was founded in 1992 by Steve Fossum and Dan Stell. Stell eventually stepped down to go back to fighting while Fossum continued with the organization. In 1999 Fossum and Joe Taylor of Ringside Products created the first amateur open North American tournament for Kickboxing and Muay Thai, now the IKF World Classic.


title: Kickboxing

text: After ending its venture with K-1 in 2006, ISKA co-operated the World Combat League with Chuck Norris, and Strikeforce MMA in partnership with Silicon Valley Entertainment (SVE), an investor group who also own the San Jose Sharks. Norris passed the WCL to his son-in-law Damien Diciolli in 2007, and it has since become inactive. Strikeforce MMA was sold to UFC in 2011.


title: Kickboxing

text: The ISKA expanded into sport (tournament) martial arts about 15 years ago, and is a co-operator along with WAKO and Global Marketing Ventures (GMV) in the global Open World Tour (OWT) the first worldwide pro circuit of sport karate professional competitors. It sanctions and assists in the annual US Open & ISKA World Championships that anchors the OWT and the North American-based NASKA Tour. The US Open & ISKA World Championships is broadcast live on ESPN2 and ESPN3 each year.


title: Kickboxing

text: Other kickboxing sanctioning bodies include World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (primarily amateurs) and KICK International.


title: Kickboxing

text: In West Germany, American-styled kickboxing was promulgated from its inception in the 1970s by Georg F. Bruckner, who in 1976 was the co-founder of the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations. The term "kickboxing" as used in German-speaking Europe is therefore mostly synonymous with American kickboxing. The low-kick and knee techniques allowed in Japanese kickboxing, by contrast, were associated with Muay Thai, and Japanese kickboxing went mostly unnoticed in German-speaking Europe before the launch of K-1 in 1993.


title: Kickboxing

text: By contrast, in the Netherlands kickboxing was introduced in its Japanese form, by Jan Plas and Thom Harinck who founded NKBB (The Dutch Kickboxing Association) in 1976.


title: Kickboxing

text: Harinck also founded the MTBN (Dutch Muay Thai Association) in 1983, and the WMTA (World Muay Thai Association) and the EMTA (European Muay Thai Association) in 1984.


title: Kickboxing

text: The most prominent kickboxing gyms in the Netherlands, Mejiro Gym, Chakuriki Gym and Golden Glory, were all derived from or were significantly influenced by Japanese kickboxing and kyokushin karate.


title: Kickboxing

text: Out of the 19 K-1 World Grand Prix championship titles issued from 1993 to 2012, 15 went to Dutch participants (Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Remy Bonjasky, Semmy Schilt and Alistair Overeem). The remaining four titles were won by Branko Cikatić of Croatia in 1993, Andy Hug of Switzerland in 1996, Mark Hunt of New Zealand in 2001 and Mirko Filipović of Croatia in 2012.


title: Kickboxing

text: Kickboxing has a number of different rulesets. For example, Oriental/K-1 rules allow punches, high and low kicks and even knee strikes, while American kickboxing is limited to punches and kicks only above the belt (high kicks).


title: Kickboxing

text: In the first two decades of the 21st century, several larger kickboxing promotions such as Glory, One Championship and Bellator Kickboxing have adopted the k1/oriental rule set, which allows knee strikes, kicking and punching.


title: Kickboxing

text: Full Contact (also referred to as American Kickboxing) is essentially a mixture of Western boxing and traditional karate. The male kickboxers are bare-chested wearing kickboxing trousers and protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, boxing gloves, groin-guard, shin-pads, and kick-boots and protective helmet (for amateurs and those under 16). Female kickboxers will wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under full contact rules include, Dennis Alexio, Joe Lewis, Rick Roufus, Jean-Yves Thériault, Benny Urquidez, Bill Wallace, Demetrius Havanas, Billy Jackson, Pete Cunningham, and Don "The Dragon" Wilson


title: Kickboxing

text: Semi Contact or Points Fighting, is the variant of American kickboxing most similar to karate, since it consists in fighting for the purpose of scoring points with an emphasis on delivery, speed, and technique. Under such rules, fights are held on the tatami, presenting the belts to classify the fighters in order of experience and ability. The male kickboxers wear shirts and kickboxing trousers as well as protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, . boxing gloves, groin-guard, shin-pads, kick-boots, and headgear. The female kickboxers will wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under semi-contact rules include Raymond Daniels, Michael Page, and Gregorio Di Leo.


title: Kickboxing

text: International rules, or freestyle kickboxing (also known as Low Kick in the United States), contrast with full contact rules in that it also allows low kicks. The male kickboxers are bare-chested, wearing kickboxing trousers or shorts and protective gear, including mouth-guard, hand wraps, Boxing gloves, shin guards, and groin guard. The female kickboxers will wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear.


title: Kickboxing

text: Muay Thai, or Thai boxing, rules usually sees bouts contested over 5, 3 minute rounds and male fighters bare-chested wearing shorts and protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, shin-wraps, boxing gloves, groin-guard and sometimes "prajioud" arm bands. 4oz MMA-style, open-finger gloves are sometimes used. The female Thaiboxers will wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear. Muay Thai is unique in that it is the only style of kickboxing that allows elbows, knees, clinch fighting, throws, sweeps and low kicks. Groin strikes were allowed until the 1980s in international Muay Thai and are still partially allowed in Thailand itself (though the boxers wear cups to lessen the impact). Kicking to mid-body and head are scored highly generating a large number of points on judges' scorecards. Moreover, kicking is still judged highly even if the kick was blocked. In contrast, punching is worth fewer points.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under Muay Thai rules include Apidej Sit Hrun, Buakaw Por. Pramuk, Changpuek Kiatsongrit, Rob Kaman, Ramon Dekkers, Coban Lookchaomaesaitong, Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn, Saenchai P.K. Saenchaimuaythaigym, Samart Payakaroon and Yodsanklai Fairtex.


title: Kickboxing

text: Dutch rules (sometimes referred to as Dutch Kickboxing) came about when Japanese kickboxing and Muay Thai were first introduced in Holland in the 70s. European rules began to be developed by the Netherland Kick Boxing Bond in the 1970s when the late Jan Plas brought the sport from Japan to his native country. The primary difference between Dutch rules and full Muay Thai rules was the prohibition of elbow strikes and the limited knees strikes (only to the body). However, elbows were allowed when both parties agree to it. These changes were aimed at reducing injuries and making bouts more accessible to TV viewers. Like the Thai counterpart, the fights are accompanied with the traditional Thai music during a battle. The Dutch kickboxing rules were instrumental to the development of the K-1 rules.


title: Kickboxing

text: Oriental rules (also known as K-1 rules or unified rules, and sometimes referred to as Japanese kickboxing) was the first combat sport that adopted the name of "kickboxing" in 1966, later termed "Japanese kickboxing" as a retronym. Since the 1990s, many of the largest kickboxing promotions such as K-1, ONE Championship, Glory and Bellator Kickboxing adopted this ruleset. Oriental rules began to be developed by the Japanese boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi and Karate practitioner Tatsuo Yamada, and it was initially intended as a mix of Karate and Muay Thai, but it was later affected also by the Dutch rules, which were first formalised in the Netherlands in the 1970s. The primary difference between Muay Thai and Oriental Kickboxing was the prohibition of elbow strikes and throws. In addition, the amount of clinch fighting is drastically decreased. These changes were aimed at reducing injuries and making bouts more accessible to TV viewers. Oriental rules bouts were traditionally fought over 5, 3-minute rounds but 3 round bouts have since become popular. The male kickboxers are bare-chested wearing shorts (although trousers and karate gis have been worn) and protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, shin-wraps, gloves.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under K-1 rules include Semmy Schilt, Badr Hari, Ernesto Hoost, Albert Kraus, Masato, Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky, Giorgio Petrosyan, Buakaw and Andy Souwer.


title: Kickboxing

text: Sanda or Sanshou (also known as Chinese boxing and Chinese kickboxing) is a form of kickboxing originally developed by the Chinese military based upon the study and practices of traditional Kung fu and modern combat fighting techniques; it combines traditional kickboxing, which include close range and rapid successive punches and kicks, with wrestling, takedowns, throws, sweeps, kick catches, and in some competitions, even elbow and knee strikes. The male fighters are bare-chested wearing shorts and protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, boxing gloves and groin-guard. The female kickboxers will wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under Sanshou rules include Wei Rui, Fang Bian, Jia Aoqi, Muslim Salikhov, Pat Barry, Zhang Tiequan, Liu Hailong, Cung Le, Shahbulat Shamhalaev and Shamil Zavurov.


title: Kickboxing

text: Shootboxing (also known as Standing Vale Tudo) is a unique style of hybrid kickboxing popular in Japan that utilizes standing submissions such as chokeholds, armlocks and wristlocks in addition to kicks, punches, knees and throws. The male fighters are bare-chested wearing skin tight trousers and protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, boxing gloves and groin-guard. The female kickboxers will wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under shootboxing rules include Rena Kubota, Kenichi Ogata, Hiroki Shishido, Ai Takahashi and Andy Souwer.


title: Kickboxing

text: Lethwei is a type of kickboxing originating from Myanmar that features minimal rules and protective equipment. Lethwei not only allows the use of headbutts but actually emphasizes it, and fighters wear no gloves. Bouts can only be won with a knockout, either a proper or a technical. Uniquely, after one knockout and two minutes rest, the knocked out fighter may still choose to continue the fight once, unless they are knocked out in the final round. There are no points; if no knockout happens before the end of the fifth round, the fight is declared a draw. Male fighters are bare-chested and wear shorts. Protective gear consists of a mouth-guard, groin-guard, and wraps around hands and feet. Female fighters wear a sports bra and chest protection in addition to the male clothing and protective gear.


title: Kickboxing

text: Notable fighters under Lethwei rules include Soe Lin Oo, Tun Tun Min, Dave Leduc, Too Too and Cyrus Washington.


title: Kickboxing

text: There are a large number of special or variant kicking techniques, including spinning kicks, jumping kicks, and other variants such as


title: Kickboxing

text: Spinning versions of the back, side, hook and axe kicks can also be performed along with jumping versions of all kicks.


title: Kickboxing

text: The knee techniques in Japanese kickboxing, indicative of its Muay Thai heritage, are the main difference that separates this style from other kickboxing rules.


title: Kickboxing

text: There are three main defensive positions (guards or styles) used in kickboxing. Within each style, there is considerable variation among fighters, as some fighters may have their guard higher for more head protection while others have their guard lower to provide better protection against body punches. Many fighters vary their defensive style throughout a bout in order to adapt to the situation of the moment, choosing the position best suited to protect them.


title: Kickboxing

text: Knocking a person unconscious or even causing a concussion may cause permanent brain damage. There is no clear division between the force required to knock a person out and the force likely to kill a person. Also, contact sports, especially combat sports, are directly related to a brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, abbreviated CTE. This disease begins to develop during the life of the athlete, and continues to develop even after sports activity has ceased. In addition, repetitive and subconcussive blows to the head, and not just concussions, cause CTE.


title: Waterboarding

text: Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method of waterboarding, the captive's face is covered with cloth or some other thin material and immobilized on their back at an incline of 10 to 20 degrees. Torturers pour water onto the face over the breathing passages, causing an almost immediate gag reflex and creating a drowning sensation for the captive. Normally, water is poured intermittently to prevent death. However, if the water is poured uninterruptedly it will lead to death by asphyxia, also called dry drowning. Waterboarding can cause extreme pain, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, and lasting psychological damage. Adverse physical effects can last for months, and psychological effects for years. The term "water board torture" appeared in press reports as early as 1976.


title: Waterboarding

text: Waterboarding has been used in diverse places and at various points in history, including the Spanish and Flemish Inquisitions, by the United States military during the Philippine–American War, by Japanese and German officials during World War II, by the French in the Algerian War, by the U.S. during the Vietnam War (despite a ban on the practice by U.S. generals), by the Pinochet regime in Chile, by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, by British security forces during the Troubles, and by South African police during the Apartheid era. In the wake of World War II, the U.S. executed Japanese war criminals convicted of, among other crimes, waterboarding American prisoners of war. Historically, waterboarding has been viewed as an especially severe form of torture.


title: Waterboarding

text: The use of waterboarding became a matter of public controversy in the United States during the War on Terror in the 2000s. In 2002 and 2003, the CIA waterboarded at least three Al-Qaeda suspects: Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The CIA relied on the then-secret torture memos, prepared by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, which authorized the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques", including waterboarding, on extrajudicial prisoners of the United States. In December 2005, the United States passed the Detainee Treatment Act, which banned U.S. military from using torture (including waterboarding); the bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush. However, the law did not affect the CIA's use of waterboarding. When Congress passed a bill restricting the use of waterboarding by the CIA in 2008, President Bush vetoed it. In January 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13491, which banned the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture in interrogations of detainees by any government agency. In April 2009, President Obama stated that he considered waterboarding to be torture.


title: Waterboarding

text: While the technique has been used in various forms for centuries, the term "water board" was recorded first in a 1976 UPI report: "A Navy spokesman admitted use of the 'water board' torture ... to 'convince each trainee that he won't be able to physically resist what an enemy would do to him.'" The verb-noun "waterboarding" dates from 2004. Techniques using forcible drowning to extract information had hitherto been referred to as "water torture", "water treatment", "water cure" or simply "torture". Professor Darius Rejali of Reed College, author of "Torture and Democracy" (2007), speculates that the term waterboarding probably has its origin in the need for a euphemism.


title: Waterboarding

text: The practice of waterboarding has differed. During the Algerian War of Independence and Marcos' dictatorship in the Philippines, waterboarding involved forcing the victim to swallow or inhale water. Other forms of waterboarding prevent water from entering the lungs. The United States Army's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training occasionally included waterboarding, in a less severe form that only mimicked drowning. Different accounts of waterboarding by the United States disagree about how it is practiced. Some accounts describe saturated cloth and water being used to create a misperception of drowning, while others describe water entering the body.


title: Waterboarding

text: The United States' Office of Legal Counsel in August 2002 responded to the request by the CIA for a legal opinion regarding the use of certain interrogation techniques. It included the following account of the CIA's definition of waterboarding in a Top Secret 2002 memorandum as follows:


title: Waterboarding

text: Historically in the West, the technique is known to have been used in the Spanish Inquisition. The suffocation of bound prisoners with water has been favored because, unlike most other torture techniques, it produces no marks on the body. CIA officers who have subjected themselves to the technique have lasted an average of 14 seconds before refusing to continue.


title: Waterboarding

text: In 2006 and 2007, Fox News and Current TV, respectively, demonstrated a waterboarding technique. In the videos, each correspondent is held against a board by the torturers.