title: Ken Kesey

text: Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". The book's success, as well as the demolition of the Perry Lane cabins in August 1963, allowed him to move to a log house in La Honda, California, a rustic hamlet in the Santa Cruz Mountains 15 miles west of Stanford University. He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called "Acid Tests," involving music (including the Stanford-educated Anonymous Artists of America and Kesey's favorite band, the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobe lights, LSD, and other psychedelic effects. These parties were described in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and served as the basis for Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", an early exemplar of the nonfiction novel. Other firsthand accounts of the Acid Tests appear in "" by Hunter S. Thompson and the 1967 Hells Angels memoir "Freewheelin Frank: Secretary of the Angels" (Frank Reynolds; ghostwritten by Michael McClure).


title: Ken Kesey

text: While enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1957, Kesey wrote "End of Autumn"; according to Rick Dogson, the novel "focused on the exploitation of college athletes by telling the tale of a football lineman who was having second thoughts about the game". Kesey came to regard the unpublished work as juvenilia, but an excerpt served as his Stanford Creative Writing Center application sample.


title: Ken Kesey

text: During his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship year, Kesey wrote "Zoo", a novel about beatniks living in the North Beach community of San Francisco, but it was never published.


title: Ken Kesey

text: The inspiration for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" came while Kesey was working the night shift with Gordon Lish at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs he had volunteered to experiment with. He did not believe these patients were insane, but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave. Published under Cowley's guidance in 1962, the novel was an immediate success; in 1963, it was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Miloš Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman).


title: Ken Kesey

text: Kesey originally was involved in the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Kesey loathed that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by Chief Bromden, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's casting as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). Despite this, Faye Kesey has said that her husband was generally supportive of the film and pleased that it was made.


title: Ken Kesey

text: When the 1964 publication of his second novel, "Sometimes a Great Notion", required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed "Furthur". This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, "The Furthur Inquiry") was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey said, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16 mm cameras during the trip, which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney and Alison Elwood's 2011 film "Magic Trip".


title: Ken Kesey

text: After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who turned them on to Timothy Leary. "Sometimes a Great Notion" inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.


title: Ken Kesey

text: In 1965, Kesey was arrested in La Honda for marijuana possession. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the U.S. eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time.


title: Ken Kesey

text: On January 23, 1984, Kesey's 20-year-old son Jed, a wrestler for the University of Oregon, suffered severe head injuries on the way to Pullman, Washington, when the team's loaned van crashed after sliding off an icy highway. Two days later at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, he was declared brain dead and his parents gave permission for his organs to be donated.


title: Ken Kesey

text: Jed's death deeply affected Kesey, who later called Jed a victim of policies that had starved the team of funding. He wrote to Senator Mark Hatfield:


title: Ken Kesey

text: At a Grateful Dead concert soon after the death of promoter Bill Graham, Kesey delivered a eulogy, mentioning that Graham had donated $1,000 toward a memorial to Jed atop Mount Pisgah, near the Kesey home in Pleasant Hill. In 1988, Kesey donated $33,395 toward the purchase of a proper bus for the school's wrestling team.


title: Ken Kesey

text: Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called "Twister: A Ritual Reality". Many old and new friends and family showed up to support the Pranksters on this tour, which took them from Seattle's Bumbershoot all along the West Coast, including a sold-out two-night run at The Fillmore in San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, where they coaxed the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg into performing with them.


title: Ken Kesey

text: Kesey mainly kept to his home life in Pleasant Hill, preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In the Grateful Dead DVD "The Closing of Winterland" (2003) documenting the New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview.


title: Ken Kesey

text: On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a Phish concert in Darien Lake, New York. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from "The Wizard of Oz" and "Frankenstein".


title: Ken Kesey

text: In June 2001, Kesey was the keynote speaker at The Evergreen State College's commencement ceremony. His last major work was an essay for "Rolling Stone" magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.


title: Ken Kesey

text: In 1997, health problems began to weaken Kesey, starting with a stroke that year. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on his liver to remove a tumor; he did not recover and died of complications several weeks later on November 10 at age 66.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: "Don't Stop Believin' is a song by American rock band Journey. It was released in October 1981 as the second single from the group's seventh studio album, "Escape" (1981), released through Columbia Records. "Don't Stop Believin'" shares writing credits between the band's vocalist Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, and keyboardist Jonathan Cain. A mid-tempo rock anthem, "Don't Stop Believin'" is memorable for its distinctive opening keyboard riff.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: At the dawn of the 1980s, Journey was becoming one of the most successful rock acts of the era. The band added Cain on keyboards before entering the studio to record "Escape". Cain had kept the song title from encouragement his father gave him as a struggling musician living on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. The song is unusual in that its chorus does not arrive until the song is nearly finished; its structure consists of two pre-choruses and three verses before it arrives at its central hook. The band recorded the song in one take at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: A top-10 worldwide hit in 1981, "Don't Stop Believin'" became the group's signature song and has continued to endure over the years. Decades after its release, it became the best-selling digital track from the twentieth century, with over seven million downloads. Critics acclaimed its anthemic qualities; music magazine "Rolling Stone" ranked it among its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2022, the single was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Cover versions have included the cast of the American comedy-drama "Glee" in 2009, which outperformed the original internationally.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: By 1980, the Californian rock outfit Journey was on its way to becoming one of the most successful acts of the era. After discarding its roots in progressive rock, the group hired vocalist Steve Perry and smoothed out its sound. The band had notched several domestic top-25 hits with "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" and "Any Way You Want It". Original keyboardist Gregg Rolie, with the group since its progressive days, amicably departed in 1980, leaving the foursome without one of its signature elements. Rolie recommended the band invite Jonathan Cain of British rockers the Babys to be his permanent replacement, who accepted and joined the band as they prepared to record its next album, "Escape" (1981).


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: To prepare for writing its next effort, Journey rented a warehouse in Oakland, California, where they worked daily to complete arrangements and develop new ideas. Cain came up with the song's title and hook; it stemmed from something his father frequently told him when he was a struggling musician living on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. Cain was unsuccessful and ready to give up, and each time he would call home in despair, his father would tell him, "Don't stop believing or you're done, dude." Guitarist Neil Schon invented the song's distinctive bass line, and Perry suggested Cain write a driving synthesizer piece to complement that bass line. Drummer Steve Smith added atop that with a standard rock backbeat, and instructed Schon to play 16th note arpeggios over the rest of the instrumentation, as though he were a "train" guiding the song in its direction.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: This motif lyrically inspired the song as well. Cain and Perry thought the imagery brought to mind a story of two people leaving behind past lives in their hometown and boarding a midnight train to anywhere else. Perry liked the concept that the characters be a girl from a small town and a boy raised in the city. "We felt that every young person has a dream and sometimes where you grow up isn’t where you’re destined to be," Cain said. They copied the day's progress to cassette tapes and took them home for further review. Smith felt a regular rock beat wouldn't suit the entire song, so he supplemented it with melodic, syncopated additions on the tom-toms and ride cymbal bell, increasing its complexity as the song builds. The song was built backwards, as the title hook were the only lyrics the band had developed initially.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The band recorded the song at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. Perry had a cold on the day of recording and was unable to make it, so its instrumental was tracked without him. The musicians found the song's tempo and varying sections difficult to record, especially Cain and bassist Ross Valory's intro. Co-producer Mike Stone turned on a verbal click track for the group to practice to; after about twenty minutes, they turned the machine off and recorded the song live in one take. Perry rejoined Journey the next week and also completed his vocals mainly in one take. Altogether, the song and its corresponding album came together under its budget and in about two months. Cain was grateful that Perry gave his ideas equal weight given his status as a new member of the band.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: While a majority of songs have a refrain that is repeated several times throughout the song, the true chorus to "Don't Stop Believin (as well as the first mention of its title) is not heard until the end of the song, with only 0:50 left. The song's writers designated the musically similar sections before the chorus as the "pre-chorus." The song's structure is:


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song is played in the key of E major at a tempo of 118 beats per minute. The vocal range is E–C#. The chord progression, played by the piano in the introduction and continued throughout most of the song, is eight chords long, following a I–V–vi–IV–I–V–iii–IV progression.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: While the lyrics mention being "born and raised in south Detroit", there is no place in the Detroit, Michigan area commonly called "South Detroit". The city lies mainly on the north bank of the Detroit River, and directly south of its downtown area lies the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario. Steve Perry has said, "I tried north Detroit, I tried east and west and it didn't sing, but south Detroit sounded so beautiful. I loved the way it sounded, only to find out later it's actually Canada." Detroit residents often refer to the "east side" and "west side" of the city, but only rarely "north" (sometimes called "8 Mile", after the boundary road of the same name) or "south" (instead referred to as "Downriver" or "Mexicantown"). The lyric "streetlight people living just to find emotion" came from Perry watching people walking in the streets of Detroit at night after a show.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: Mike DeGagne of AllMusic has described "Don't Stop Believin as a "perfect rock song" and an "anthem", featuring "one of the best opening keyboard riffs in rock." It was ranked #133 on "Rolling Stone"s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is the best-selling digital track from the 20th century, with over seven million copies sold in the United States.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: In 2007, the song gained press coverage and a sharp growth in popularity for its use in the famous final scene of HBO's "The Sopranos" series finale "Made in America". Steve Perry was initially hesitant to allow the song to be used in "The Sopranos" but later agreed. Digital downloads of the song soared following the episode's airing and the exposure motivated the band members to overcome the struggles they were having at the time and find a replacement lead singer after former lead singer Steve Augeri’s departure.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song has for years been commonly played at Detroit Red Wings home games. During the last minutes of playoff victories, the volume is lowered during the "born and raised in south Detroit" line, which is instead sung by home fans. It was played at the closing ceremony of the Red Wings long-time home Joe Louis Arena in 2017. It is also used at other Detroit sporting events.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song is played during the 8th inning of every San Francisco Giants home game. Steve Perry is a Giants season ticket holder and memorably led the crowd in the song during a game in the World Series in 2014. In addition, after the Giants won the 2010 World Series, Fox Sports used the song to close out their postgame coverage of the fifth and deciding game of the series.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song got a boost when it was used as the closing number in "Rock of Ages", a jukebox musical featuring hits of the '80s. The show ran on Broadway from 2009 to 2015, and in 2012 was made into a movie starring Tom Cruise.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song is used in professional wrestling by Silas Young as his entrance music on the independent circuit, though due to music rights issues he's used in-house music commissioned by Ring of Honor when wrestling for that promotion.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: In 2020, the song was used in a Toyota Hilux commercial. In the commercial, With the help of his Hilux, a dad retraces his steps on an epic journey to help his daughter find her lost toy.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song reached number eight on "Billboard"'s Mainstream Rock chart, and number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. It sold over a million copies in vinyl. It is the number one paid digital download song originally released in the 20th century, and was also the 72nd most downloaded song of 2008, and 84th most downloaded song of 2009 in the store, over 27 years after its release. On August 31, 2009 the song topped the 3 million mark in paid downloads. It is the best-selling digital song from a pre-digital-era,<ref name="Yahoo 10/24/12"></ref> and it was also the best-selling rock song in digital history until it was overtaken by Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" in January 2014. It was placed just outside the top twenty best selling digital songs of all time in September 2010. It has sold over 7 million digital units in the US as of July 2017.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: "Don't Stop Believin has entered other charts across the world in recent years, following a gain in popularity. In Ireland, the song peaked at number 4, at 25 in Sweden after many chart runs, and at number 50 in the Dutch charts.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The power ballad is one of the most popular rock tracks in Ireland and continues to remain in the top ten most downloaded songs.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: The song was released in the United Kingdom in December 1981 and peaked only at number 62. "Don't Stop Believin, never re-released as a physical single in the UK, retained a cult following and re-entered the UK Singles Chart in February 2009 at number 94 due to digital downloads. On November 1, 2009, following a performance on "The X Factor", "Don't Stop Believin re-entered the chart peaking at number 52, and it rose to number 19 a week later. The song stayed in the charts for three weeks, before dropping out of the top 40. On December 20 that year, "Don't Stop Believin re-entered the chart at number nine after the song was performed again on "The X Factor". The song remained in the top 10 for another seven weeks in 2010, hitting a peak of number six in the process.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: In early 2010, it was announced that the song had been the 65th best-selling single of 2009, this nearly three decades after its initial release. "Don't Stop Believin spent a total of 21 non-consecutive weeks in the top 40 during its November 2009 – April 2010 run. "Don't Stop Believin was the 25th best-selling track of 2010, selling just over 435,000 copies. It re-entered the charts in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and to date has spent 95 weeks in the top 100.


title: Don't Stop Believin'

text: In September 2014, the Official Charts Company listed the song as having sold a million copies in the UK.


title: Gallstone

text: A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder from precipitated bile components. The term cholelithiasis may refer to the presence of gallstones or to any disease caused by gallstones, and choledocholithiasis refers to the presence of migrated gallstones within bile ducts.


title: Gallstone

text: Most people with gallstones (about 80%) are asymptomatic. However, when a gallstone obstructs the bile duct and causes acute cholestasis, a reflexive smooth muscle spasm often occurs, resulting in an intense cramp-like visceral pain in the right upper part of the abdomen known as a biliary colic (or "gallbladder attack"). This happens in 1–4% of those with gallstones each year. Complications from gallstones may include inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis), inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), obstructive jaundice, and infection in bile ducts (cholangitis). Symptoms of these complications may include pain that lasts longer than five hours, fever, yellowish skin, vomiting, dark urine, and pale stools.


title: Gallstone

text: Risk factors for gallstones include birth control pills, pregnancy, a family history of gallstones, obesity, diabetes, liver disease, or rapid weight loss. The bile components that form gallstones include cholesterol, bile salts, and bilirubin. Gallstones formed mainly from cholesterol are termed "cholesterol stones", and those formed mainly from bilirubin are termed "pigment stones". Gallstones may be suspected based on symptoms. Diagnosis is then typically confirmed by ultrasound. Complications may be detected using blood tests.


title: Gallstone

text: The risk of gallstones may be decreased by maintaining a healthy weight with exercise and a healthy diet. If there are no symptoms, treatment is usually not needed. In those who are having gallbladder attacks, surgery to remove the gallbladder is typically recommended. This can be carried out either through several small incisions or through a single larger incision, usually under general anesthesia. In rare cases when surgery is not possible, medication can be used to dissolve the stones or lithotripsy can be used to break them down.


title: Gallstone

text: In developed countries, 10–15% of adults experience gallstones. Gallbladder and biliary-related diseases occurred in about 104 million people (1.6% of people) in 2013 and resulted in 106,000 deaths. Gallstones are more common among women than men and occur more commonly after the age of 40. Gallstones occur more frequently among certain ethnic groups than others. For example, 48% of Native Americans experience gallstones, whereas gallstone rates in many parts of Africa are as low as 3%. Once the gallbladder is removed, outcomes are generally positive.


title: Gallstone

text: Gallstone disease refers to the condition where gallstones are either in the gallbladder or common bile duct. The presence of stones in the gallbladder is referred to as cholelithiasis, from the Greek "chol"- (bile) + "lith"- (stone) + -"iasis" (process). The presence of gallstones in the common bile duct is called choledocholithiasis, from the Greek "chol"- (bile) + "docho"- (duct) + "lith"- (stone) + "iasis"- (process). Choledocholithiasis is frequently associated with obstruction of the bile ducts, which can lead to cholangitis, from the Greek: "chol"- (bile) + "ang"- (vessel) + "itis"- (inflammation), a serious infection of the bile ducts. Gallstones within the ampulla of Vater can obstruct the exocrine system of the pancreas and can result in pancreatitis.


title: Gallstone

text: Gallstones, regardless of size or number, are often asymptomatic. These "silent stones" do not require treatment and can remain asymptomatic even years after they form.


title: Gallstone

text: A characteristic symptom of a gallstone attack is the presence of colic-like pain in the upper-right side of the abdomen, often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Pain from symptomatic gallstones may range from mild to severe and can steadily increase over a period lasting from 30 minutes to several hours. Other symptoms may include fever, as well as referred pain between the shoulder blades or below the right shoulder. If one or more gallstones block the bile ducts and cause bilirubin to leak into the bloodstream and surrounding tissue, jaundice and itching may also occur. In this case, liver enzyme levels are likely to be raised.


title: Gallstone

text: Often, gallbladder attacks occur after eating a heavy meal. Attacks are most common in the evening or at night.


title: Gallstone

text: In rare cases, gallstones that cause severe inflammation can erode through the gallbladder into adherent bowel, potentially causing an obstruction termed gallstone ileus.


title: Gallstone

text: Other complications can include ascending cholangitis, which occurs when a bacterial infection causes purulent inflammation in the biliary tree and liver, and acute pancreatitis caused by blockage of the bile ducts that prevents active enzymes from being secreted into the bowel, instead damaging the pancreas. Rarely, gallbladder cancer may occur as a complication.


title: Gallstone

text: Gallstone risk increases for females (especially before menopause) and for people near or above 40 years; the condition is more prevalent among both North and South Americans and people of European descent than among other ethnicities. A lack of melatonin could significantly contribute to gallbladder stones, as melatonin inhibits cholesterol secretion from the gallbladder, enhances the conversion of cholesterol to bile, and is an antioxidant, which is able to reduce oxidative stress to the gallbladder. Gilbert syndrome has been linked to an increased risk of gallstones. Researchers believe that gallstones may be caused by a combination of factors, including inherited body chemistry, body weight, gallbladder motility (movement), and low-calorie diet. The absence of such risk factors does not, however, preclude the formation of gallstones.


title: Gallstone

text: Nutritional factors that may increase risk of gallstones include constipation; eating fewer meals per day; low intake of the nutrients folate, magnesium, calcium, and vitamin C; low fluid consumption; and, at least for men, a high intake of carbohydrate, a high glycemic load, and high glycemic index diet. Wine and whole-grained bread may decrease the risk of gallstones.


title: Gallstone

text: Rapid weight loss increases risk of gallstones. The weight loss drug orlistat is known to increase the risk of gallstones.


title: Gallstone

text: Cholecystokinin deficiency caused by celiac disease increases risk of gallstone formation, especially when diagnosis of celiac disease is delayed.


title: Gallstone

text: Pigment gallstones are most commonly seen in the developing world. Risk factors for pigment stones include hemolytic anemias (such as from sickle-cell disease and hereditary spherocytosis), cirrhosis, and biliary tract infections. People with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) are at increased risk to develop gallstones. Additionally, prolonged use of proton pump inhibitors has been shown to decrease gallbladder function, potentially leading to gallstone formation.


title: Gallstone

text: Cholesterol modifying medications can affect gallstone formation. Statins inhibit cholesterol synthesis and there is evidence that their use may decrease the risk of getting gallstones. Fibrates increase cholesterol concentration in bile and their use has been associated with an increased risk of gallstones. Bile acid malabsorption may also be a risk.


title: Gallstone

text: Cholesterol gallstones develop when bile contains too much cholesterol and not enough bile salts. Besides a high concentration of cholesterol, two other factors are important in causing gallstones. The first is how often and how well the gallbladder contracts; incomplete and infrequent emptying of the gallbladder may cause the bile to become overconcentrated and contribute to gallstone formation. This can be caused by high resistance to the flow of bile out of the gallbladder due to the complicated internal geometry of the cystic duct. The second factor is the presence of proteins in the liver and bile that either promote or inhibit cholesterol crystallization into gallstones. In addition, increased levels of the hormone estrogen, as a result of pregnancy or hormone therapy, or the use of combined (estrogen-containing) forms of hormonal contraception, may increase cholesterol levels in bile and also decrease gallbladder motility, resulting in gallstone formation.


title: Gallstone

text: The composition of gallstones is affected by age, diet and ethnicity. On the basis of their composition, gallstones can be divided into the following types: cholesterol stones, pigment stones, and mixed stones. An ideal classification system is yet to be defined.


title: Gallstone

text: Cholesterol stones vary from light yellow to dark green or brown or chalk white and are oval, usually solitary, between 2 and 3 cm long, each often having a tiny, dark, central spot. To be classified as such, they must be at least 80% cholesterol by weight (or 70%, according to the Japanese classification system). Between 35% and 90% of stones are cholesterol stones.


title: Gallstone

text: Bilirubin ("pigment", "black pigment") stones are small, dark (often appearing black), and usually numerous. They are composed primarily of bilirubin (insoluble bilirubin pigment polymer) and calcium (calcium phosphate) salts that are found in bile. They contain less than 20% of cholesterol (or 30%, according to the Japanese classification system). Between 2% and 30% of stones are bilirubin stones.


title: Gallstone

text: Mixed (brown pigment stones) typically contain 20–80% cholesterol (or 30–70%, according to the Japanese classification system). Other common constituents are calcium carbonate, palmitate phosphate, bilirubin and other bile pigments (calcium bilirubinate, calcium palmitate and calcium stearate). Because of their calcium content, they are often radiographically visible. They typically arise secondary to infection of the biliary tract which results in the release of β-glucuronidase (by injured hepatocytes and bacteria) which hydrolyzes bilirubin glucuronides and increases the amount of unconjugated bilirubin in bile. Between 4% and 20% of stones are mixed.


title: Gallstone

text: Gallstones can vary in size and shape from as small as a grain of sand to as large as a golf ball. The gallbladder may contain a single large stone or many smaller ones. Pseudoliths, sometimes referred to as sludge, are thick secretions that may be present within the gallbladder, either alone or in conjunction with fully formed gallstones.


title: Gallstone

text: Diagnosis is typically confirmed by abdominal ultrasound. Other imaging techniques used are ERCP and MRCP. Gallstone complications may be detected on blood tests.


title: Gallstone

text: On abdominal ultrasound, sinking gallstones usually have posterior acoustic shadowing. In floating gallstones, reverberation echoes (or comet-tail artifact) is seen instead in a clinical condition called adenomyomatosis. Another sign is wall-echo-shadow (WES) triad (or double-arc shadow) which is also characteristic of gallstones.


title: Gallstone

text: Maintaining a healthy weight by getting sufficient exercise and eating a healthy diet that is high in fiber may help prevent gallstone formation.


title: Gallstone

text: Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) appears to prevent formation of gallstones during weight loss. A high fat diet during weight loss also appears to prevent gallstones.


title: Gallstone

text: Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is a non-invasive method to manage gallstones that uses high-energy sound waves to disintegrate them first applied in January 1985.


title: Gallstone

text: Side effects of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy include biliary pancreatitis and liver haematoma.


title: Gallstone

text: Cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) has a 99% chance of eliminating the recurrence of cholelithiasis. The lack of a gallbladder has no negative consequences in most people, however 10 to 15% of people develop postcholecystectomy syndrome, which may cause nausea, indigestion, diarrhea, and episodes of abdominal pain.


title: Gallstone

text: Obstruction of the common bile duct with gallstones can sometimes be relieved by endoscopic retrograde sphincterotomy (ERS) following endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).


title: Gallstone

text: The medications ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) have been used in treatment to dissolve gallstones. A 2013 meta-analysis concluded that UDCA or higher dietary fat content appeared to prevent formation of gallstones during weight loss. Medical therapy with oral bile acids has been used to treat small cholesterol stones, and for larger cholesterol gallstones when surgery is either not possible or unwanted. CDCA treatment can cause diarrhea, mild reversible hepatic injury, and a small increase in the plasma cholesterol level. UDCA may need to be taken for years.


title: Gallstone

text: Gallstones can be a valued by-product of animals butchered for meat because of their use as an antipyretic and antidote in the traditional medicine of some cultures, particularly traditional Chinese medicine. The most highly prized gallstones tend to be sourced from old dairy cows, termed calculus bovis or "niu-huang" (yellow thing of cattle) in Chinese. Some slaughterhouses carefully scrutinize workers for gallstone theft.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and militant member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who, following a controversial trial, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment and has been imprisoned since 1977 (currently ).


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In his 1999 memoir "Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance", Peltier admitted to participating in the shootout but said he did not kill the FBI agents. Human rights watchdogs, such as Amnesty International, and political figures including Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and the 14th Dalai Lama, have campaigned for clemency for Peltier.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: At the time of the shootout, Peltier was an active member of the AIM, an Indigenous rights advocacy group that worked to combat the racism and police brutality experienced by American Indians. Peltier ran for president of the United States in 2004, winning the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party, and receiving 27,607 votes, limited to the ballot in California. He ran for vice president of the United States in 2020 on the Party for Socialism and Liberation ticket with Gloria La Riva as the presidential candidate, as well on tickets for other Left parties and on the ballot of the Peace and Freedom Party. For health reasons, Peltier withdrew from those tickets on August 1, 2020.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: , Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman in Florida. Peltier became eligible for parole in 1993. On January 18, 2017, it was announced that President Barack Obama denied Peltier's application for clemency. He is of Lakota, Dakota and French descent. He is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier was born on September 12, 1944, at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa near Belcourt, North Dakota, in a family of 13 children. Peltier's parents divorced when he was four years old. Leonard and his sister Betty Ann lived with their paternal grandparents Alex and Mary Dubois-Peltier in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. In September 1953, at the age of nine, Leonard was enrolled at the Wahpeton Indian School in Wahpeton, North Dakota, an Indian boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Leonard remained away from his home at Wahpeton Indian School through the ninth grade; the school forced assimilation to white American culture by requiring the children to use English and forbidding the inclusion of Native American culture. He graduated from Wahpeton in May 1957, and attended the Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau, South Dakota. After finishing the ninth grade, he returned to the Turtle Mountain Reservation to live with his father. Peltier later obtained a general equivalency degree (GED).


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 1965, Peltier relocated to Seattle, Washington. Peltier worked as a welder, a construction worker, and as the co-owner of an auto shop in Seattle in his twenties. The co-owners used the upper level of the building as a stopping place, or halfway house, for American Indians who had alcohol addiction issues or had recently finished their prison sentences and were re-entering society. However, the halfway house took a financial toll on the shop, so they closed it.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In Seattle, Peltier became involved in a variety of causes championing Native American civil rights. In the early 1970s, he learned about the factional tensions at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota between supporters of Richard Wilson, elected tribal chairman in 1972, and traditionalist members of the Lakota tribe. It was Dennis Banks who first invited Leonard Peltier to join AIM. Consequently, Peltier became an official member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1972, which was founded by urban Indians in Minneapolis in 1968, at a time of rising Indian activism for civil rights.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Wilson had created a private militia, known as the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON), whose members were reputed to have attacked political opponents. Protests over a failed impeachment hearing of Wilson contributed to the AIM and Lakota armed takeover of Wounded Knee at the reservation in February 1973. Federal forces reacted, conducting a 71-day siege, which became known as the Wounded Knee incident. They demanded the resignation of Wilson. Peltier, however, spent most of the occupation in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin jail charged with attempted murder related to a different protest. When Peltier secured bail at the end of April, he took part in an AIM protest outside the federal building in Milwaukee and was on his way to Wounded Knee with the group to deliver supplies when the incident ended.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 1975, Peltier traveled as a member of AIM to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to help reduce violence among political opponents. At the time, he was a fugitive, with an arrest warrant having been issued in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the attempted murder of an off-duty Milwaukee police officer. (He was acquitted of the attempted murder charge in February 1978.)


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On June 26, 1975, Special Agents Ronald Arthur Williams and Jack Ross Coler of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation searching for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for questioning in connection with the recent assault and robbery of two local ranch hands. Eagle had been involved in a physical altercation with a friend, during which he had stolen a pair of leather cowboy boots. At approximately 11:50 a.m., Williams and Coler, driving two separate unmarked cars, spotted, reported, and followed a red pick-up truck that matched the description of Eagle's.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Soon after his initial report, Williams radioed to a local dispatch that he and Coler had come under fire from the vehicle's occupants. Williams radioed that they would be killed if reinforcements did not arrive. He next radioed that they both had been shot. FBI Special Agent Gary Adams was the first to respond to Williams' call for assistance, and he also came under gunfire; Adams was unable to reach Coler and Williams in time, and both agents died within the first ten minutes of gunfire. At about 4:25 p.m., authorities recovered the bodies of Williams and Coler from their vehicles. Norman Charles fired at the agents with a stolen British .308 rifle. Peltier allegedly had a AR-15 rifle. The two agents had fired a total of five shots: two from Williams' handgun, one round from Coler's handgun, one round from Coler's rifle, and one round from Coler's shotgun.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: The FBI reported that Williams had received a defensive wound to his right hand (as he attempted to shield his face) from a bullet that passed through his hand into his head. Williams received two gunshot injuries, to his body and foot, before the contact shot that killed him. Coler, incapacitated from earlier bullet wounds, had been shot twice in the head. In total, 125 bullet holes were found in the agents' vehicles, many from a .223 Remington AR-15 rifle. The shooters allegedly took apart Williams's car and stole four guns belonging to the agents. Allegedly, Darrelle Butler took Williams' handgun, Peltier took Coler's handgun, and Robideau took Coler's two long guns: a .308 rifle and a shotgun. The case against the man the agents had been pursuing (Jimmy Eagle) was dismissed for lack of evidence.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: At least three men were arrested in connection with the shooting: Peltier, Robert Robideau, and Darrelle "Dino" Butler, all AIM members who were present at the Jumping Bull compound at the time of the shootings.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Leonard Peltier provided numerous alibis to several people about his activities on the morning of the attacks. In an interview with the author Peter Matthiessen ("In the Spirit of Crazy Horse", 1983), Peltier described working on a car in Oglala, claiming to have driven back to the Jumping Bull Compound about an hour before the shooting started. In an interview with Lee Hill, he described being awakened in the tent city at the ranch by the sound of gunshots. To Harvey Arden, for "Prison Writings", he described enjoying a beautiful morning before he heard the firing.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On September 5, 1975, Butler was arrested; Agent Williams's handgun and rounds of ammunition were recovered from an automobile in the vicinity of Butler's arrest location.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On September 9, 1975, Peltier purchased a station wagon.<br> The following day, AIM member Robideau, Norman Charles and Michael Anderson were injured in the accidental explosion of ammunition from Peltier's station wagon on the Kansas Turnpike close to Wichita. Agent Coler's .308 rifle and an AR-15 rifle were found in the burned vehicle. The FBI forwarded a description of a recreational vehicle (RV) and the Plymouth station wagon recently purchased by Peltier to law enforcement during the hunt for the suspects. The RV was stopped by an Oregon State Trooper, but the driver, later discovered to be Peltier, fled on foot following a small shootout. Peltier's thumbprint and Agent Coler's handgun were discovered under the RV's front seat.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On December 22, 1975, Peltier was named to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. On February 6, 1976, Peltier was arrested along with Frank Blackhorse, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Hinton, Alberta, Canada at the Smallboy's Reserve/Smallboy Camp, transported to Calgary, Alberta and taken to the Oakalla Prison Farm in Vancouver, British Columbia.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In December 1976, Peltier was extradited from Canada based on documents submitted by the FBI. Warren Allmand, Canada's Solicitor General at the time, later stated that these documents contained false information. (Blackhorse was also extradited to the United States, but charges against him related to the reservation shootout were dropped.) One of the documents relied on in Peltier's extradition was an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a Native American woman local to the area near Pine Ridge Reservation. While Poor Bear stated that she was Peltier's girlfriend during that time and watched the killings, Peltier and others at the scene said that Poor Bear did not know Peltier and was not present during the murders. Poor Bear later admitted to lying to the FBI, but said that the agents interviewing her had coerced her into making the claims. When Poor Bear tried to testify against the FBI, the judge barred her testimony because of mental incompetence.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier fought extradition to the United States. Robideau and Butler were acquitted on grounds of self-defense by a federal jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Peltier returned too late to be tried with Robideau and Butler, and he was subsequently tried separately.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier's trial was held in Fargo, North Dakota, where a jury convicted him of the murders of Coler and Williams. Unlike the testimony in the trial for Butler and Robideau, the jury was informed that the two FBI agents were killed by close-range shots to their heads, when they were already defenseless due to previous gunshot wounds. Consequently, Peltier could not submit a self-defense testimony that may have resulted in an acquittal. The jury was also shown autopsy and crime scene photographs of the two agents, which had not been shown to the jury at Cedar Rapids. In April 1977, Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Numerous doubts have been raised over Peltier's guilt and the fairness of his trial, based on allegations and inconsistencies in the FBI and prosecution's handling of the case. Several key witnesses in the initial trial have recanted their statements and stated they were made under duress at the hands of the FBI. At least one witness was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony against Peltier.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier was convicted in 1977 largely on the evidence presented by three witness affidavits, all signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, that placed him at the scene of the shootout and contended that Peltier planned his crimes. Poor Bear claimed to be Peltier's girlfriend at the time, but later admitted that she never knew him personally. Moreover, Poor Bear was known to be mentally unstable. This was confirmed when the FBI deemed her unfit to testify in court. But her testimony, as put forth in her previous affidavits, remained a key part of the prosecution's case against Peltier. Two other witnesses whose testimony was used to place Peltier at the scene of the crime also later recanted. They alleged that the FBI had coerced and threatened them by tying them to chairs, denying them their right to talk to their attorney, and otherwise intimidating them.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: FBI radio intercepts indicated that the two FBI agents Williams and Coler had entered the Pine Ridge Reservation in pursuit of a suspected thief in a red pickup truck. The FBI confirmed this claim the day after the shootout, but red pickup trucks near the reservation had been stopped for weeks, and Leonard Peltier did not drive a red pickup truck. Evidence was given that Peltier was driving a Chevrolet Suburban; a large sport utility vehicle-style vehicle built on a pickup truck chassis, with an enclosed rear section. Peltier's vehicle was orange with a white roof—not a red, open-bed pickup truck with no white paint.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: At Peltier's trial, the FBI changed their previous statements that they had been in search of a red pickup truck and instead said that they were looking for an orange and white van, similar to the one Peltier drove. This contradictory statement by the FBI was a highly contentious matter of evidence in the trials.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Though the FBI's investigation indicated that an AR-15 was used to kill the agents, several different AR-15s were in the area at the time of the shootout. Also, no other cartridge cases or evidence about them were offered by the prosecutor's office, although other bullets were fired at the crime scene. During the trial, all the bullets and bullet fragments found at the scene were provided as evidence and detailed by Cortland Cunningham, FBI Firearms expert, in testimony (Ref "US v. Leonard Peltier", Vol 9). Years later, a request under the Freedom of Information Act prompted another examination of the FBI ballistics report used to convict Peltier. An impartial expert evaluated the firing pin linked to the gun that shot Williams and Coler and concluded that the cartridge case from the scene of the crime did not come from the rifle tied to Peltier. This evidence negated a key facet of the prosecution's case against Peltier. The court did not allow the defense to present the Fargo jury with information about other cases in which the FBI had been rebuked for tampering with evidence and witnesses. In some similar prosecutions against AIM leaders at the time, defense attorneys did present such evidence to the juries.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier began serving his sentences in 1977. On July 20, 1979, he and two other inmates escaped from Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc. One inmate was shot dead by a guard outside the prison and the other was captured 90 minutes later, approximately away. Peltier remained at large until he was captured by a search party three days later near Santa Maria, California, after a farmer alerted authorities that Peltier had consumed some of his crops and stolen his shoes. Peltier was later apprehended without incident. As he was in possession of a Ruger Mini-14 rifle at the time of his capture, Peltier was convicted and sentenced to serve a five-year sentence for escape and a two-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm, in addition to his preexisting two life sentences.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier's conviction sparked great controversy and has drawn criticism from a number of prominent figures across a wide range of disciplines. In 1999, Peltier asserted on CNN that he did not commit the murders and that he has no knowledge who shot the FBI agents nor knowledge implicating others in the crime. Peltier has described himself as a political prisoner. Numerous public and legal appeals have been filed on his behalf; however, due to the consistent objection of the FBI, none of the resulting rulings has been made in his favor. His appeals for clemency received support from world famous civil rights advocates including Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and activist Rigoberta Menchú, and Mother Teresa. International government entities such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the European Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, and the Italian Parliament have all passed resolutions in favor of Peltier's clemency. Moreover, several human rights groups including The International Federation of Human Rights and Amnesty International have launched campaigns advocating for Peltier's clemency. In the United States, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the Committee of Concerned Scientists, Inc., the National Lawyers Guild, and the American Association of Jurists are all active supporters of clemency for Peltier.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 1999, Peltier filed a "habeas corpus" petition, but it was rejected by the 10th Circuit Court on November 4, 2003. Near the end of the Clinton administration in 2001, rumors began circulating that Bill Clinton was considering granting Peltier clemency. Opponents of Peltier campaigned against his possible clemency; about 500 FBI agents and families protested outside the White House, and FBI director Louis Freeh sent a letter opposing Peltier's clemency to the White House. Clinton did not grant Peltier clemency. In 2002, Peltier filed a civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the FBI, Louis Freeh and FBI agents who had participated in the campaign against his clemency petition, alleging that they "engaged in a systematic and officially sanctioned campaign of misinformation and disinformation." On March 22, 2004, the suit was dismissed. In January 2009, President George W. Bush denied Peltier's clemency petition before leaving office.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 2016, Peltier's attorney's filed a clemency application with the White House's Office of the Pardon Attorney, and his supporters organized a campaign to convince President Barack Obama to commute Peltier's sentence, a campaign which included an appeal by Pope Francis, as well as James Reynolds, a senior attorney and former US Attorney who supervised the prosecution against Peltier in the appeal period following his initial trial. In a letter to the United States Department of Justice, Reynolds wrote that clemency was "in the best interest of justice in considering the totality of all matters involved". In a subsequent letter to the "Chicago Tribune", Reynolds added that the case against Peltier "was a very thin case that likely would not be upheld by courts today. It is a gross overstatement to label Peltier a 'cold-blooded murderer' on the basis of the minimal proof that survived the appeals in his case." On January 18, 2017, two days before President Obama left office, the Office of the Pardon Attorney announced that Obama had denied Peltier's application for clemency. On June 8, 2018, KFGO Radio in Fargo, N.D., reported that Peltier filed a formal clemency request with President Trump. KFGO obtained and published a letter that was sent by Peltier's attorney to the White House.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In the documentary film "Incident at Oglala" (1992), AIM activist Robert Robideau said that the FBI agents had been shot by a 'Mr X'. When Peltier was interviewed about 'Mr X', he said he knew who the man was. Dino Butler, in a 1995 interview with E.K. Caldwell of "News From Indian Country", said that 'Mr X' was a creation of Peltier's supporters and had been named as the murderer in an attempt to gain Peltier's release from prison. In a 2001 interview with "News From Indian Country", Bernie Lafferty said that she had witnessed Peltier's referring to his murder of one of the agents.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In January 2002 in the "News from Indian Country", publisher Paul DeMain wrote an editorial that an "unnamed delegation" told him that Peltier had murdered the FBI agents. DeMain described the delegation as "grandfathers and grandmothers, AIM activists, pipe carriers and others who have carried a heavy unhealthy burden within them that has taken its toll." DeMain said he was also told that the motive for the execution-style murder of high-ranking AIM activist Anna Mae Aquash in December 1975 at Pine Ridge "allegedly was her knowledge that Leonard Peltier had shot the two agents, as he was convicted."


title: Leonard Peltier

text: DeMain did not accuse Peltier of participation in the Aquash murder. In 2003 two Native American men were indicted and later convicted of the murder.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On May 1, 2003, Peltier sued DeMain for libel for similar statements about the case published on March 10, 2003, in "News from Indian Country". On May 25, 2004, Peltier withdrew the suit after he and DeMain settled the case. DeMain issued a statement saying he did not think Peltier was given a fair trial for the two murder convictions, nor did he think Peltier was connected to Aquash's death. DeMain stated he did not retract his allegations that Peltier was guilty of the murders of the FBI agents and that the motive for Aquash's murder was the fear that she might inform on the activist.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 2003 there were federal grand jury hearings on charges against Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. Bruce Ellison, Leonard Peltier's lawyer since the 1970s, was subpoenaed and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, refusing to testify. He also refused to testify, on the same grounds, at Looking Cloud's trial in 2004. During the trial, the federal prosecutor named Ellison as a co-conspirator in the Aquash case. Witnesses said that Ellison participated in interrogating Aquash about being an FBI informant on December 11, 1975, shortly before her murder.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In February 2004, Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud, an Oglala Sioux, was tried and convicted of the murder of Aquash. In Looking Cloud's trial, the prosecution argued that AIM's suspicion of Aquash stemmed from her having heard Peltier admit to the murders of the FBI agents. Darlene "Kamook" Nichols, former wife of the AIM leader Dennis Banks, testified that in late 1975, Peltier told of shooting the FBI agents. He was talking to a small group of AIM activists who were fugitives from law enforcement. They included Nichols, her sister Bernie Nichols (later Lafferty), Nichols' husband Dennis Banks, and Aquash, among several others. Nichols testified that Peltier said, "The motherfucker was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway." Bernie Nichols-Lafferty gave the same account of Peltier's statement. At the time, all were fleeing law enforcement after the Pine Ridge shootout.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Earlier in 1975, AIM member Douglass Durham had been revealed to be an undercover FBI agent and dismissed from the organization. AIM leaders were fearful of infiltration. Other witnesses have testified that, when Aquash was suspected of being an informant, Peltier interrogated her while holding a gun to her head. Peltier and David Hill were said to have Aquash participate in bomb-making so that her fingerprints would be on the bombs. Prosecutors alleged in court documents that the trio planted these bombs at two power plants on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Columbus Day 1975.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: During the trial, Nichols acknowledged receiving $42,000 from the FBI in connection with her cooperation on the case. She said it was compensation for travel expenses to collect evidence and moving expenses to be farther from her ex-husband Dennis Banks, whom she feared because she had implicated him as a witness. Peltier has claimed that Kamook Nichols committed perjury with her testimony.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On June 26, 2007, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered the extradition of John Graham to the United States to stand trial for his alleged role in the murder of Aquash. He was eventually tried by the state of South Dakota in 2010. During Graham's trial, Darlene "Kamook" Ecoffey said Peltier told both her and Aquash that he had killed the FBI agents in 1975. Ecoffey testified under oath, "He (Peltier) held his hand like this", she said, pointing her index finger like a gun, "and he said 'that (expletive) was begging for his life but I shot him anyway.'" Graham was convicted of murdering Aquash and sentenced to life in prison.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier was the candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in the 2004 election for President of the United States. While numerous states have laws that prohibit prison inmates convicted of felonies from voting (Maine and Vermont are exceptions), the United States Constitution has no prohibition against felons being elected to federal offices, including President. The Peace and Freedom Party secured ballot status for Peltier only in California. His presidential candidacy received 27,607 votes, approximately 0.2% of the vote in that state.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 2020 he ran as the vice-presidential running mate of Gloria La Riva, on the ticket of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in the presidential campaign. He was forced to resign from the ticket for health reasons in early August 2020, and was replaced with Sunil Freeman.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In a February 27, 2006, decision, U.S. District Judge William Skretny ruled that the FBI did not have to release five of 812 documents relating to Peltier and held at their Buffalo field office. He ruled that the particular documents were exempted on the grounds of "national security and FBI agent/informant protection". In his opinion, Judge Skretny wrote, "Plaintiff has not established the existence of bad faith or provided any evidence contradicting (the FBI's) claim that the release of these documents would endanger national security or would impair this country's relationship with a foreign government." In response, Michael Kuzma, a member of Peltier's defense team, said, "We're appealing. It's incredible that it took him 254 days to render a decision." Kuzma further said, "The pages we were most intrigued about revolved around a teletype from Buffalo ... a three-page document that seems to indicate that a confidential source was being advised by the FBI not to engage in conduct that would compromise attorney-client privilege."


title: Leonard Peltier

text: Peltier's supporters have tried to obtain more than 100,000 pages of documents from FBI field offices, claiming that the files should have been turned over at the time of his trial or following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed soon after.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: On January 13, 2009, Peltier was beaten by inmates at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, where he had been transferred from USP Lewisburg. He was sent back to Lewisburg, where he remained until the fall of 2011, when he was transferred to a federal penitentiary in Florida. As of 2016, Leonard Peltier is housed at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida.


title: Leonard Peltier

text: In 2016, a statue of Peltier, based on a self portrait he made in prison, was created by artist Rigo 23 and installed on the grounds of American University in Washington, D.C.. After the university received complaints from the FBI Agents Association, the statue was removed and relocated to the Main Museum in Los Angeles.


title: Mega Man

text: Mega Man, known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man". The original game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, and spawned a franchise that expanded to over 50 games on multiple systems. As of July 26, 2022, the series has sold 38 million units worldwide.


title: Mega Man

text: The classic series consists of eleven games, the standalone "Mega Man & Bass", the spin-off Game Boy series (released in Japan as "Rockman World"), and various ports, remakes, and compilations. The core games in the franchise have all been set in a single continuity; the storyline of the "classic" series is succeeded by the "Mega Man X", "Mega Man Zero", "Mega Man ZX", and the "Mega Man Legends" series. This timeline excludes the spin-off "Mega Man Battle Network" and "Mega Man Star Force" series, both of which take place in an alternate universe where the internet flourished rather than robotics.


title: Mega Man

text: In the story behind the original series, Mega Man is a robot originally named Rock, created as a lab assistant by the scientist Dr. Light with Dr. Wily as his partner. Following treachery by Dr. Wily in which he reprogrammed most of Dr. Light's robots, Rock volunteered to be converted into a fighting robot to defend the world from Wily's violent robotic threats, thus becoming Mega Man.


title: Mega Man

text: Though all incarnations of "Mega Man" feature unique stories, settings, and characters, they share several common features. All main "Mega Man" games released prior to 1997 are side-scrolling action platformers. The player character must fight through the levels using Mega Man's "Mega Buster"—a cannon attached to his arm—to shoot the robotic enemies inhabiting his environment. When Mega Man was released in 1987, the characteristic that made it revolutionary was the choice given to the player of which robot master to attempt first. After defeating a Robot Master—the boss of a level—Mega Man gains the ability to use that Robot Master's special weapon. Each Robot Master is representative of a specific element or object, with such bosses as Fire Man, Ice Man, Guts Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, and Bomb Man. The weapons Mega Man gains share the theme of the defeated boss. After defeating all of the Robot Masters, Mega Man travels to a multi-stage fortress to confront Dr. Wily, the person responsible for the robotic enemies' destructive acts. In the fortress, Mega Man fights past new bosses, clones of the game's Robot Masters, and Wily himself, who is usually in a large multi-phase war machine.


title: Mega Man

text: Enemies are weak to at least one weapon; for instance, Fire Man will take more damage from Ice Man's weapon than from other weapons. This concept draws inspiration from rock-paper-scissors. Robot Master levels can generally be completed in any order, resulting in a strategic hallmark of the series: determining the best order to defeat bosses and earn weapons. Sequels of "Mega Man" games contain new enemies alongside familiar ones, new bosses and weapons, and perhaps new gadgets. Later installments of the game give the player the option of commanding other player characters with different abilities, such as Proto Man, Duo, and Bass.


title: Mega Man

text: The "Classic" series has not reached a definite conclusion. Originally developed for the NES, the original Mega Man series experienced graphical improvements in fourth and fifth generation installments. The series had no games developed for sixth generation consoles but returned in the seventh generation purposely sporting graphics, sound and gameplay similar to the original NES games to inspire a nostalgic look and feel, distributed as downloadable content instead of retail games like the previous installments.


title: Mega Man

text: On December 4, 2017, Capcom announced that a new game in the classic series, "Mega Man 11", would release in late 2018. Unlike "Mega Man 9" and "10", this game features modern, HD, cel-shaded graphics and is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio. When using a special weapon, in addition to changing colors, Mega Man's armor changes appearance as well.


title: Mega Man

text: Capcom wanted a redesign in graphics and control as the "Rock Man" series moved from the NES to the SNES, prompting the creation of the "Mega Man X" series in 1993. Set in the future, this series follows the story of Mega Man's successor, X, a new, advanced robot that has complete free will over his actions, thoughts and feelings. This character, also a creation of Dr. Light, was put into suspended animation and uncovered 100 years in the future by a researcher named Dr. Cain. The "Mega Man X" series features more detailed 16-bit graphics and greater freedom of movement. In the "Mega Man X" series, the characters grow in abilities and power as the game progresses.


title: Mega Man

text: As the series progressed, various other player characters have appeared, such as fellow Maverick Hunter Zero who was created by Dr. Wily of the "Classic" series, OVER-1, created jointly by Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack, and Axl, a Reploid with an adolescent personality who has the ability to shape-shift into other Reploids. Zero would later star in his own spin-off series, "Mega Man Zero".


title: Mega Man

text: The series was originally intended to conclude with "Mega Man X5", however, its storyline was continued with three additional installments ("Mega Man X6", "Mega Man X7", "Mega Man X8"), the last of which ended with a cliffhanger.


title: Mega Man

text: In 2002, a follow-up series to the "Mega Man X" franchise was developed for the Game Boy Advance which starred Zero, a character created for the "Mega Man X" series as a sidekick/ally of X. The series revolved around Zero battling a powerful human-supremacy force as he protects the oppressed remaining reploids. In the "Mega Man Zero" series, the gameplay is largely similar to Zero's play style in the later "Mega Man X" games and features an in-depth ranking system that rewards the player with new abilities and enhancements (such as copied abilities from boss characters) in exchange for better play performance. In the fourth game, Zero can also physically steal weapons from enemies (such as axes and guns).


title: Mega Man

text: With its fourth installment, "Mega Man Zero" became the first series in the franchise to reach a definitive conclusion.


title: Mega Man

text: The series has also been referenced in other media; in "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3", Zero's fourth skin was based on his appearance from Mega Man Zero. On July 5, 2020, Capcom Taiwan announced Zero from the Mega Man Zero series would be playable in Rockman X DiVE.


title: Mega Man

text: The "Mega Man ZX" series debuted in 2006 for Nintendo DS, and chronologically takes place 200 years after the "Mega Man Zero" series. Progression has led to the mixing of physical attributes between humans and robots; humans are given the physical advantages of robots, and robots are also given lifespans.


title: Mega Man

text: The player is given the choice of choosing a male or female human protagonist in each installment, a first in the franchise. The series revolves around the protagonist collecting "Biometals", which contains data on the legendary heroes of the past (including X, Zero, and the Four Guardians from the "Zero" series). Using these Biometals, they are able to transform (or "Mega-Merge", in the English releases) and use the powers of these heroes. In the second game, 2007's "Mega Man ZX Advent", the player character is also able to transform into boss characters upon defeating them.


title: Mega Man

text: A third game, code named "Mega Man ZXC" was under development around 2008, but was cancelled by Capcom's decision.


title: Mega Man

text: Beginning on the PlayStation in 1997, a 3D action game series called "Mega Man Legends" was created to take advantage of the console's advanced graphics hardware. The "Legends" series is set in the same world as the other Mega Man games, although thousands of years in the future. The world is covered by immense bodies of water and features the return of several major characters from the original series in different situations. The hero, Mega Man (Rock) Volnutt, is a relic hunter called a "Digger" who scavenges various ruins throughout the world in search of refractor shards that can be mined and traded as currency. "Mega Man Legends" brings the gameplay into 3D and is an action adventure with role-playing game elements.


title: Mega Man

text: The "Legends" series concluded with only two main games and a spin-off starring mainstay antagonist Tron Bonne before being discontinued. Unlike "Battle Network" and "Zero", the final game in the series does not resolve the storyline. A continuation to the "Legends" series has become an oft-requested game among many Capcom and Mega Man fans. A third game was once under development for the Nintendo 3DS, but on July 17, 2011, Capcom cancelled the project saying it did not meet certain requirements. This decision was met with criticism from fans and gaming news outlets.


title: Mega Man

text: Despite the many years since the last new release in the series, various characters from the "Legends" series consistently appear in Capcom cross-over games such as "Marvel vs. Capcom", and the Servbot characters have become iconic within the Capcom community, making many cameo appearances in non-"Mega Man" games, including "Dead Rising" and as part of the outfit obtained via achievements in "Lost Planet 2".


title: Mega Man

text: "Mega Man Battle Network", a series primarily on the Game Boy Advance, began in 2001 as a way for the "Mega Man" games to branch out into the role-playing video game market and to celebrate "Mega Man"s 15th anniversary. This series features a Net Navi called "MegaMan.EXE". NetNavis act as virtual assistants to Operators, such as the protagonist Lan, an elementary school student and future hero who uses his Net Navi to help battle computer viruses and other Internet-based threats. The game combines elements from collectible card games to create a unique fast-paced battle system. An anime series, "MegaMan NT Warrior", was also produced, ending with 209 episodes and a 50-minute film adaptation. "Mega Man Network Transmission", the only entry in the series released on a home console rather than a handheld, takes place chronologically between the first two "Battle Network" games, although it was released between the third and fourth. It is also different from other games in the Battle Network universe in that its game play reminds strongly of the "Classic" series.


title: Mega Man

text: Along with the anime and games, Mega Man Battle Network had toys mainly based on the Advanced PET from the series. the user would buy a starter pack which included 3 battle chips, and an Advanced PET, the toy came in three colors, Red (based on "ProtoMan.EXE"), Black (based on "Bass.EXE"), and Blue (based on "MegaMan.EXE"). several battle chip expansion packs were also released, when the toy was discontinued, a total of 333 Battle Chips were released. the toy could be linked together via a link cable with another Advanced PET to battle each other.


title: Mega Man

text: A follow-up to the "Mega Man Battle Network" series and released on the Nintendo DS, "Star Force"s launch commemorated the 20th anniversary of the "Mega Man" franchise. The "Star Force" games are very similar to the "Battle Network" games, and also takes place roughly 200 years later in the timeline. Network technology has progressed with electromagnetic wave technology to connect the world via radio waves. The series stars a timid boy named Geo Stelar and an extraterrestrial EM-wave being named Omega-Xis who can merge into an EM-Human known as "Mega Man," allowing the player to explore both the real world and the EM-world. Although each game has a different set of antagonists, they are usually EM-beings that are able to merge with humans to create new threats. The gameplay is very similar to the "Battle Network" series with an over-the-shoulder battle system and more simplified collectible card game elements, as well as faster-paced battle mechanics. An anime based on this series began airing on TV Tokyo in October 2006 for 76 episodes.


title: Mega Man

text: "Rockman Xover" (ロックマン Xover "Rokkuman Kurosuōbā", pronounced Rockman Crossover) is a game for Apple's iOS platform marking the 25th anniversary of the "Mega Man" franchise, and was released on November 29, 2012, on the Hong Kong iTunes Store. The game features a new protagonist, OVER-1 (オーバー ワン "Ōbā Wan"), a Reploid created by Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack, confronting villains from the entire "Mega Man" franchise, who have crossed between dimensions to join forces. Capcom stated a North American release was cancelled due to largely negative feedback from Japanese fans. The game ceased operations on March 31, 2015.


title: Mega Man

text: Various incarnations of Mega Man appear as playable fighters in the "Marvel vs. Capcom" series. The original was a playable fighter in "" and "". He is assisted by his companion robots, Rush, Beat and Eddie. His sister robot, Roll, is also playable in both games, but is a secret character in the first game. Although he did not make a playable appearance in "", and its successor, "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3", Zero from "Mega Man X" and Tron Bonne from "Mega Man Legends" appear as representatives for the series. X appears as an alternate costume for Zero and Frank West and as a card in Heroes and Heralds mode. The original Mega Man appears in the arcade endings of Thor and Nova, and also appears on a poster in the Days of Future Past stage, and finally, as another card in Heroes and Heralds Mode. X and Zero appear as playable characters in "", with Sigma appearing as both a DLC fighter and a major antagonist in the Story Mode, where he merges with the supervillain Ultron to become Ultron Sigma.


title: Mega Man

text: MegaMan.EXE and Zero both appear as bonus playable characters in the fighting game "Onimusha Blade Warriors", while a different version of Mega Man, based on his appearance on the American box art of the first game, appears as a playable fighter in the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions of "Street Fighter X Tekken". Mega Man Volnutt and Roll also make an appearance in "", with Zero added to the U.S. version. In 2013, Mega Man appeared as a playable character in "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U" and its sequel, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate". An amiibo based on his appearance was confirmed on November 11, and can be utilized in "Super Smash Bros." as well as "Mario Kart 8" where it can be scanned to unlock a costume for the player's Mii based on Mega Man's. In "Super Mario Maker", the player can unlock a Mega Man costume by scanning the character's amiibo.


title: Mega Man

text: Mega Man's first television appearances were produced for the American market and were based on the classic series. First was "" (1989–91), a show that took place in a universe that was made up of many different Nintendo games. It featured Mega Man as a main character and also featured Dr. Wily as one of the antagonists. This was followed by "Mega Man" (1994–95), the first series to be based in the Mega Man universe.


title: Mega Man

text: Mega Man next appeared in anime produced in Japan and based on spin-off series. First was "MegaMan NT Warrior" (2002–06), based on the "Mega Man Battle Network" video game series (both the anime and the video game series were known as "Rockman.EXE" in Japan). This was followed by "Mega Man Star Force" (2006–08), based on the video game series of the same name (both were known as "Shooting Star Rockman" in Japan).


title: Mega Man

text: A series titled "" began airing in 2018. Unlike the previous anime, it is again an American-produced animated series loosely based on the classic series.


title: Mega Man

text: Mega Man starred in "", a three-part OVA that was developed in Japan. Production on this series started in 1994, before the American TV series, but was not officially released in the United States until 2005.


title: Mega Man

text: Development of a film based on "Mega Man" had begun by December 2014 when 20th Century Fox registered a website domain for the film. In September 2015, Fox was revealed to be developing the film with Chernin Entertainment, and its CEO Peter Chernin was set to serve as a producer, with David Ready and Michael Finfer overseeing the production for Chernin, while Mike Ireland and Ryan Horrigan were overseeing for Fox. Fox had attempted to secure the "Mega Man" rights for over two years, and officially signed a deal to do so in early 2017. The filmmaking duo of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman were in final negotiations to write and direct the film for Fox and Chernin Entertainment in July 2017, when Masi Oka joined as a producer. In October 2018, Capcom officially announced that a live-action film was in development at Fox and Chernin Entertainment, and confirmed the involvement of Joost and Schulman along with Oka. The film was part of Capcom's plans to increase value in the "Mega Man" franchise following the release of the "Mega Man" original series video game "Mega Man 11" that month, and the company intended for the film to draw different audiences interested in video games or action films. The film was set to depict the world of the "Mega Man" games by using a higher-budgeted film production. In March 2019, The Walt Disney Company officially acquired Fox, and in August, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that several films in development at Fox would not be progressing, citing operating losses from that studio in Disney's third fiscal quarter; the "Mega Man" film was believed to have been one of these films. That October, Capcom announced that "Mega Man" remained slated for a live-action film adaptation to create further awareness for the brand.


title: Mega Man

text: In January 2020, Disney and Chernin mutually agreed to end their production deal, citing Disney rarely having third-party studios finance their films. Chernin Entertainment was set to retain 70 of its projects from Fox, while the remaining productions were Disney-owned properties that would still involve Chernin as an executive producer. Later that month, Mattson Tomlin was revealed to be rewriting the "Mega Man" script. In April, Chernin signed a non-exclusive multi-year first-look film deal between Chernin Entertainment and the streaming service Netflix. In July, Joost and Schulman said that "big news" would soon be provided for the film, and said they invited Tomlin to co-write the script after he wrote their Netflix film "Project Power" (2020), a process they enjoyed. Joost and Schulman wanted to combine their interest in robotics and the future of automation with their favorite "Mega Man" games, and called Mega Man an "underdog hero". In August, Tomlin said his approach was to explore Mega Man as a real person with a "primal and emotional" story that can be relatable beyond the character's traditional depictions. In December 2021, Joost and Schulman's production company Supermarché was revealed to be developing the film alongside Chernin Entertainment for Netflix, with the duo's in-house producer Orlee-Rose Strauss also attached. Ryan Leston at "IGN" reported the film was still in early development at that time. In August 2022, Schulman confirmed that he and Joost were writing a "Mega Man" film adaptation for Netflix, and said it would explore the future of automation and "man and robot becoming one" as either being good or bad. Shortly after, Joost said that Josh Koenigsberg, who co-wrote Joost and Schulman's film "Secret Headquarters" (2022), was writing a new draft of the screenplay with the duo and hoped to turn in a completed draft to Netflix in the following weeks. Koenigsberg said he had replayed past "Mega Man" video games to research the property.


title: Mega Man

text: Various artbooks and source books have been released for many years in Japan, often including conceptual artwork, interviews with production staff, and background information on the storyline and concepts that are not present within the games themselves. One of the most well-known is the "Rockman Perfect Memories" sourcebook released in 2002 which first confirmed the presence of an alternate timeline (for "Battle Network"), as well as exactly where the "Legends" series fit into the fictional "Mega Man" universe.


title: Mega Man

text: Recently a series of artbooks called the "Official Complete Works" has been published for individual "Mega Man" series, showcasing a large collection of artwork and background information. To date, books for the "Zero", "Classic" and "X" (released together as "R20"), "Star Force", and "Battle Network" series have been produced. Although these books have for many years been exclusive to Japan, UDON Entertainment Corporation has finished translating the "Official Complete Works" series for the North American market, called "R25". "Mega Man: Official Complete Works" was re-released as a hardcover on October 16, 2018, "Mega Man X: Official Complete Works" was followed by a hardcover re-release on November 27, 2018. A hardcover re-release of "Mega Man Zero: Official Complete Works" was released on June 11, 2019. On April 2, 2019, it was announced that "Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works" would be getting a hardcover re-release on August 20, 2019. On October 31, 2019, it was announced that "Mega Man Star Force Official Complete Works" would be getting a hardcover re-release on May 5, 2020.


title: Mega Man

text: Mega Man has also been featured in many comics and manga in Japan, although few have been localized in North America.


title: Mega Man

text: The most well-known series is produced by Hitoshi Ariga (who went on to provide character designs and artwork for future official Capcom releases, including the Super Famicom game "Mega Man and Bass"). The series began with "Rockman Remix", later known as "Rockman Megamix", and followed up by "Rockman Gigamix". The "Megamix" portion of the series would eventually be brought to North American shores thanks to UDON Entertainment Corporation, also responsible for the localization of the short "Mega Man ZX" manga by Shin Ogino. In the original "Mega Man" series, Dr. Light was known as Dr. "R"ight, so many of his robots featured in Ariga's comic have "R"s in their designs. UDON did not alter this detail in the English version of "Mega Man Megamix".


title: Mega Man

text: In addition, Viz Media localized the 13-volume "Rockman EXE" manga by Ryo Takamisaki under the name "MegaMan NT Warrior". Takamisaki would later serialize a short adaptation of "Mega Man Star Force 3" that was never published outside Japan.


title: Mega Man

text: Some other manga series that have not been localized outside Japan include a 12-volume "Rockman X" adaptation by Yoshihiro Iwamoto, over 15 "Classic" and "X" adaptations by Shigeto Ikehara, a light-hearted adaptation of "Rockman Zero" by Hideto Kajima, a slapstick adaptation of "Shooting Star Rockman" by Masaya Itagaki, another "Battle Network" adaptation by Jun Keijima and Miho Asada called "Rockman EXE Battle Story", and a short series of slapstick "Battle Network" and "Star Force"-themed adaptations by Takumi Kawano.


title: Mega Man

text: Dreamwave Productions and Brazilian publisher Magnum Press made its own comic books based on the classic game series. The Brazilian series, "Novas Aventuras de Megaman" ("New Adventures of Megaman"), were originally published and sold in Brazil between 1996 and 1997 and drew certain criticism for featuring bizarrely altered storylines (with characters from several installments appearing at random, as well as erotic and sexual innuendo in Mega Man and X's relationship with Roll) as well for frequent nudity involving Roll and an original character named Princesa, which attempted to take over the status as the main character of the comics; its sudden end on a cliffhanger. The series was illustrated by Erica Awano, Eduardo Francisco, Daniel HDR and others.


title: Mega Man

text: The Dreamwave series lasted only four issues and also ended abruptly, with plot-threads from the first three issues being dropped completely in the final issue and the inclusion of a short story promising a "Mega Man X" follow-up that never materialized. This was one of several Dreamwave Capcom comics that were cut short or simply never made it to issue #1, including "", "Darkstalkers" and "Rival Schools".


title: Mega Man

text: On July 20, 2017, it was announced that "Mega Man Megamix" would be getting remastered on January 24, 2018, titled “"Mega Man: Mastermix"” These releases will contain remastered versions of the original stories and in full color provided by Josh Perez. And on September 29, 2018, It was announced that "Mega Man Mastermix" would be getting released in trade paperback form on April 2, 2019.


title: Mega Man

text: In April 2011, Archie Comics released their first issue in an ongoing series of licensed comics based on the "Mega Man" franchise which features the titular character going against his nemesis Dr. Wily in various, original story arcs. The overall concept was created and almost exclusively written by Ian Flynn, who was also the head writer for Archie Comics' other video game licensed comic series "Sonic the Hedgehog". Consequently, as of May 2013, both series have been crossed-over in a major story arc called "Worlds Collide", which spans twelve issues between the "Mega Man" comics, the main "Sonic the Hedgehog" comics, and the latter's side-series "Sonic Universe". The popularity of this crossover is such that another meeting of the two series, "Worlds Unite", was announced for spring of 2015. The series was put on “indefinite hiatus” after Issue 55.


title: Mega Man

text: In 1990, a junior novel version of "Mega Man 2" was released as part of the "Worlds of Power" novel series. Mega Man is turned human by Dr. Light during an accident in a machine designed to clone Mega Man. Instead of a Mega Buster, human Mega Man uses a hand gun, and instead of being able to copy the robot master's weapons, he instead takes them off of their arms. For some reason, being human does not affect him much and he is still able to consume E-drinks (Energy Tanks) and gain a power boost. The book follows the general plot of Mega Man 2 and even provides game hints at the end of some chapters.


title: Mega Man

text: Ascertaining the identity of video game composers, especially prior to the fifth generation of consoles, can be difficult, as the composers were often uncredited or credited under a pseudonym. Recent soundtrack releases and interviews have discovered the true names of the composers; and in some cases, specific track credits.


title: Mega Man

text: The indie rock music group The Protomen dedicated their first two albums to a rock opera based on Mega Man, called "The Protomen" (2005) and "" (2009).


title: Mega Man

text: Independent rap artist Mega Ran remixed several Mega Man tracks for an album called "Mega Ran" (2007) and several follow-up albums, which were officially licensed by Capcom. He now holds a Guinness World Record for the most songs recorded referencing Megaman with 130.


title: Mega Man

text: Indie video game cover band The Megas (band) is a band that covers the music of the original NES Mega Man games, known for adding their own twist on the original story in their lyrics such as giving Robot Masters distinct personalities unseen in the games. "Get Equipped" (2008), their debut album covering the events of Mega Man 2; while their most recent albums, "History Repeating: Blue" (2012) and "History Repeating: Red" (2014) cover the events of Mega Man 3.


title: Mega Man

text: In 1999, the Brazilian role-playing game magazine "Dragão Brasil" #14 published an adaptation for "3D&T" by Marcelo Cassaro and João Paulo Nogueira.


title: Mega Man

text: According to GamesRadar, the "Mega Man" games were the first to feature a non-linear "level select" option. This was a stark contrast to both linear games (like "Super Mario Bros.") and open world games (like "The Legend of Zelda" and "Metroid"). GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature of "Mega Man" as the basis for the non-linear mission structure found in most open-world, multi-mission, sidequest-heavy games, including modern games like "Grand Theft Auto", "Red Dead Redemption" and "". In "" tenth episode "Raging Demon", Ryu and Ken were seen playing "Mega Man 2" from a gift from Ken's father.


title: Mega Man

text: The original Mega Man series was well received, with IGN ranking all six original titles in the top 100 best NES games. Mega Man 2 in particular is widely regarded as the best of the series and one of the finest and most influential platformers of all-time. IGN ranked it as the fourth best NES game, behind only Super Mario and Legend of Zelda titles, calling it "virtually flawless" and its gameplay "oft-replicated and never exceeded".


title: Mega Man

text: The "Mega Man X" series has been positively received. The first Mega Man X game was widely acclaimed by critics since its release. Gaming magazines in the United States and Europe including "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ("EGM"), "GamePro", "Game Players", "Nintendo Power", "Super Play", and the German version of "Total!" consistently lauded the game's visuals, audio, control, and overall gameplay. "Game Players" summarized "Mega Man X" as "a near-perfect cart with classic gameplay, excellent graphics and sound and tons of hidden items and power-ups". "Nintendo Power" stated that the game had "great control and fun" along with "challenging play".


title: Mega Man

text: Websites such as IGN, GameSpot, GamesRadar, and 1UP.com retrospectively held "Mega Man X" as a successful milestone in converting the "Mega Man" series from its increasingly stale existence on the NES to the SNES. Brett Elston of GamesRadar stated, ""X" was a total reinvention of the series, a perfectly executed update that had fans anticipating its release with a fervor the franchise hadn't seen since the "Mega Man 2" and "3" days."


title: Mega Man

text: "Mega Man X" received criticism from some publications as well. Ed Semrad, Danyon Carpenter, and Al Manuel of the "EGM" review panel all noted that the game may have too low a difficulty level; Semrad disliked the introductory stage and felt that the game was too short as well. "Super Play" editor Zy Nicholson lowered his review score of the game because he found the levels were neither large nor challenging. "A few elementary tricks like repeating easy sections to recoup energy and weapon power will see you through the harder bits," Nicholson explained. "Within the level you'll also find restart points, extra lives, and no harsh time limit to put pressure on your performance. Couple this with a password system that records your level completion, status and weapon accumulation and you'll see we're not looking at a lasting challenge for the experienced player." "Nintendo Power" criticized how little the game had changed stating that "the theme remains the same as the Game Boy and NES Mega Man titles." The game's title initially proved a source of some confusion; the gaming media reported that many gamers mistook the "X" for the roman numeral 10.


title: Mega Man

text: "Mega Man X" was ranked number 58 in "Nintendo Power"'s "100 Best Nintendo Games of All Time" in its 100th issue in September 1997, number 103 in the publication's "Top 200 Games" list for its 200th issue in February 2006, and the 11th best SNES game of all time in its August 2008 issue. Both GamesRadar and ScrewAttack listed "Mega Man X" as the eighth best game in the SNES library. "GamePro" similarly listed it as the eighth greatest 16-bit video game. "Game Informer" considered it the 120th best game of all time in its own 200th issue in December 2009. IGN named it the twelfth-best on its own top 100 SNES games list in 2011.


title: Mega Man

text: "Mega Man X" was a commercial success. The SNES version has sold 1.16 million copies worldwide as of March 31, 2021, making it the 89th best-selling Capcom game of all time. IGN's Jeremy Dunham speculated that the game's more mature storyline and its inclusion of numerous gameplay extensions over the original "Mega Man" series helped create a "unique cadre of fans". A spin-off series, "Mega Man Zero", began in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance handheld as a result of the immense popularity of the character Zero.


title: Mega Man

text: The "Mega Man Zero" games have earned generally positive reviews. Review sources both criticized and praised the high difficulty level of the game and remarked that they were similar in nature to earlier installments in the Mega Man series. Positive reviews noted the variety of abilities and customization along with an engaging story than compared to its earlier series, while negative reviews focused on the series repetitiveness and lack of originality. Review scores were lower for the last two games in the series, with critics pointing out that the games were just using the same gameplay without introducing anything new. When the first game in the series came out, reviewers were quick to hail a return to what they considered "the Mega Man roots", however some fans criticized that the lack of knowing which boss the player will face next was a change for the worse and that it "takes away what made the series unique in the past".


title: Mega Man

text: Overall, the character of Mega Man has been well received by critics. IGN called him an icon of Capcom. "Nintendo Power" listed Mega Man as their fourth favourite hero, citing his ability to steal weapons from downed Robot Masters. Mega Man was also listed as the best robot in video games by many sources such Joystick Division, UGO Networks, and "Complex". GameDaily ranked him as the best Capcom character of all time. UGO Networks listed Mega Man as one of their best heroes of all time, and called him "one of the most iconic video game heroes of all time". He was included in GameSpot's "All Time Greatest Video Game Hero" contest and reached the "Elite Eight" round before losing to Mario. In a "Famitsu" poll done in February 2010, Mega Man was voted by readers as the twenty-second most popular video game character. The 2011 "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" lists Mega Man as the 23rd most popular video game character. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked him as the 12th "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games.


title: Mega Man

text: "Complex" ranked him as having the tenth best fighting game cameos for his guest appearances in "Street Fighter X Tekken" in 2012. Joystick Division cited his rivalry with Dr. Wily as seventh of the ten greatest in video games, adding giving "great credit to this rivalry for its open-endedness" and GamesRadar listed him and Proto Man as having one of the best brotherly rivalries in gaming. UGO Networks have placed Mega Man as the eighth character who most deserves his own movie.


title: Mega Man

text: 1UP.com described Mega Man as "Capcom's ill-treated mascot", and "one of the most incongruous characters of all time", saying "it wouldn't be completely incorrect to assume that the popularity of the series has almost nothing to do with Mega Man himself", but with "his rivals, his enemies, and their abilities." IGN agreed with his dependency on support characters, saying Zero is "cooler than Mega Man". Den of Geek listed Mega Man's incarnation from "Street Fighter X Tekken" as the 15th best cameo in fighting game history due to how it represented Capcom's lack of interest in featuring other games as of 2012, as well as the apparent self-mockery of it due to Mega Man's poor characterization. Destructoid described this Mega Man as "legit" stating it was "an unexpected and interesting creative decision by [Capcom] using this version of Mega Man to represent them in what may be one of their biggest games of 2012".


title: Mega Man

text: "Mega Man" series director Keiji Inafune announced the similarly themed "Mighty No. 9" in September 2013, but after much controversy surrounding delays and mishandling, the game was released in June 2016 to a mixed-to-negative reception. Batterystaple Games released the "Mega Man X"-inspired "20XX" in 2014.