title: BASE jumping

text: During the early days of BASE jumping, the NPS issued permits that authorized jumps from El Capitan. This program ran for three months in 1980 and then collapsed amid allegations of abuse by unauthorized jumpers. The NPS has since vigorously enforced the ban, charging jumpers with "aerial delivery into a National Park". One jumper drowned in the Merced River while evading arresting park rangers, having declared "No way are they gonna get me. Let them chase me—I'll just laugh in their faces and jump in the river". Despite incidents like this one, illegal jumps continue in Yosemite at a rate estimated at a few hundred per year, often at night or dawn. El Capitan, Half Dome, and Glacier Point have been used as jump sites.


title: BASE jumping

text: A study of BASE jumping fatalities estimated that the overal annual fatality risk in 2002 was one fatality per 60 participants. A study of 20,850 BASE jumps from the Kjerag Massif in Norway reported nine fatalities over the 11-year period from 1995 to 2005, or one in every 2,317 jumps. However, at that site, one in every 254 jumps over that period resulted in a nonfatal accident. BASE jumping is one of the most dangerous recreational activities in the world, with a fatality and injury rate 43 times higher than that of parachuting from a plane.


title: Mexican Cession

text: The Mexican Cession () is the region in the modern-day southwestern United States that Mexico originally controlled, then ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. This region had not been part of the areas east of the Rio Grande that had been claimed by the Republic of Texas, though the Texas annexation resolution two years earlier had not specified the southern and western boundary of the new state of Texas. At roughly , the Mexican Cession was the third-largest acquisition of territory in U.S. history, surpassed only by the Louisiana Purchase and the Alaska Purchase.


title: Mexican Cession

text: Most of the area had been the Mexican territory of Alta California, while a southeastern strip on the Rio Grande had been part of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, most of whose area and population were east of the Rio Grande on land that had been claimed by the Republic of Texas since 1835, but never controlled or even approached aside from the Texan Santa Fe Expedition. Mexico controlled the territory later known as the Mexican Cession, with considerable local autonomy punctuated by several revolts and few troops sent from central Mexico, in the period from 1821–22 after independence from Spain up through 1846 when U.S. military forces seized control of California and New Mexico on the outbreak of the Mexican-American War. The northern boundary of the 42nd parallel north was set by the Adams–Onís Treaty signed by the United States and Spain in 1821 and ratified by Mexico in 1831 in the Treaty of Limits (Mexico–United States). The eastern boundary of the Mexican Cession was the Texas claim at the Rio Grande and extending north from the headwaters of the Rio Grande, not corresponding to Mexican territorial boundaries. The southern boundary was set by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which followed the Mexican boundaries between Alta California (to the north) and Baja California and Sonora (to the south).


title: Mexican Cession

text: Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México were captured soon after the start of the war and the last resistance there was subdued in January 1847, but Mexico would not accept the loss of territory. Therefore, during 1847, troops from the United States invaded central Mexico and occupied the Mexican capital of Mexico City, but still no Mexican government was willing to ratify the transfer of the northern territories to the U.S. It was uncertain whether any treaty could be reached. There was even an All of Mexico Movement proposing complete annexation of Mexico among Eastern Democrats but opposed by Southerners like John C. Calhoun who wanted the additional territory for their crops but not the large population of central Mexico.


title: Mexican Cession

text: Eventually Nicholas Trist forged the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, explicitly redefining the border between Mexico and the United States in early 1848 after President Polk had already attempted to recall him from Mexico as a failure. Although Mexico did not overtly cede any land under the treaty, the redefined border had the effect of transferring Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México to the control of the United States. Equally important, the new border also acknowledged Mexico's loss of Texas, both the core eastern portion and the western claims, neither of which had been formally recognized by Mexico until that time.


title: Mexican Cession

text: The U.S. Senate approved the treaty, rejecting amendments from both Jefferson Davis to also annex most of northeastern Mexico and Daniel Webster not to take even Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The United States also paid $15,000,000 ($482 million in 2016 dollars) for the damage caused by the war in Mexico's territory and agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts to U.S. citizens.


title: Mexican Cession

text: The Mexican Cession as ordinarily understood (i.e. excluding lands claimed by Texas) amounted to , or 14.9% of the total area of the current United States. If the disputed western Texas claims are also included, that amounts to a total of . If all of Texas had been seized, since Mexico had not previously acknowledged the loss of any part of Texas, the total area ceded under this treaty comes to .


title: Mexican Cession

text: Considering the seizures, including all of Texas, Mexico lost 54% of its pre-1836 territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. For only fifteen years from 1821 (when Mexican independence was secured) and the Texan Revolt in 1836, the Mexican Cession (excluding Texas) formed approximately 42% of the country of Mexico; prior to that, it had been a part of the Spanish colony of New Spain for some three centuries. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, a chain of Roman Catholic missions and settlements extended into the New Mexico region, mostly following the course of the Rio Grande from the El Paso area to Santa Fe.


title: Mexican Cession

text: Soon after the war started and long before negotiation of the new Mexico–United States border, the question of slavery in the territories to be acquired polarized the Northern and Southern United States in the bitterest sectional conflict up to this time, which lasted for a deadlock of four years during which the Second Party System broke up, Mormon pioneers settled Utah, the California Gold Rush settled California, and New Mexico under a federal military U.S government turned back Texas's attempt to assert control over territory Texas claimed as far west as the Rio Grande. Eventually the Compromise of 1850 preserved the Union, but only for another decade. Proposals included:


title: Mexican Cession

text: It quickly became apparent that the Mexican Cession did not include a feasible route for a transcontinental railroad connecting to a southern port. The topography of the New Mexico Territory included mountains that naturally directed any railroad extending from the southern Pacific coast northward, to Kansas City, St. Louis, or Chicago. Southerners, anxious for the business such a railroad would bring (and hoping to establish a slave state beachhead on the Pacific coast), agitated for the acquisition of railroad-friendly land at the expense of Mexico, thus bringing about the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: William Tulloch Paterson (born 3 June 1945) is a Scottish actor with a career in theatre, film, television and radio. Throughout his career he has appeared regularly in radio drama and provided the narration for a large number of documentaries. He has appeared in films and TV series including "Comfort and Joy" (1984), "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" (1986), "Truly, Madly, Deeply" (1990), "Wives and Daughters" (1999), "Sea of Souls" (2004–2007), "Amazing Grace" (2006), "Miss Potter" (2006), "Little Dorrit" (2008), "Doctor Who" (2010), "Outlander" (2014), "Fleabag" (2016–2019), "Inside No. 9" (2018), "Good Omens" (2019), and "Brassic" (2020). He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Scottish BAFTAs.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: William Tulloch Paterson was born in Glasgow on 3 June 1945. Paterson was raised in Dennistoun by his father, a plumber, and his mother, a hairdresser. He states that his interest in acting began with a school trip to the Citizens Theatre in the Gorbals in 1961. However, after school he chose to initially pursue a career based on an interest in architecture and spent three years as a quantity surveyor's apprentice before deciding to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: Paterson made his professional acting debut in 1967, appearing alongside Leonard Rossiter in Bertolt Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. In 1970, Paterson joined the Citizens' Theatre for Youth. He remained there as an actor and assistant director until 1972, when he left to appear with Billy Connolly in the musical comedy "The Great Northern Welly Boot Show" at the Edinburgh Festival in 1972. Paterson would work with Connolly again, some years later, when he performed in Connolly's play "". After having seen Paterson perform at the Festival, John McGrath invited him to join his theatre company, , touring the United Kingdom and Europe with plays such as "The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil". He was a founding member of 7:84, and made his London debut in 1976 with the company. He appeared in the Edinburgh Festival and London with John Byrne's first play, "Writer's Cramp".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: He first appeared in the West End when he took over the lead role in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" at the Savoy Theatre in 1979. Paterson's career began to centre as much on television than the theatre. His first appearances in 1978 were as a police Sergeant of Scotland Yard in "The Odd Job" and then in BAFTA award winning drama "Licking Hitler". He then played King James in the UK television serial "Will Shakespeare" the same year. Paterson would later recall that the biggest regret of his career was during this period, when in 1978 he failed to attend an audition for a role in the film "Alien". He provided the voice of the Assistant Arcturan Pilot in Episode 7 of the original BBC Radio 4 version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in 1978. He played Lopakhin in the BBC production of "The Cherry Orchard" in 1981. Paterson did not, however, entirely neglect the theatre, and in 1982, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance as Schweyk in another Brecht play, "Schweik in the Second World War" at the National Theatre. He was in the original National Theatre production of "Guys and Dolls" (1982).


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: The early 1980s also saw Paterson beginning to appear in films, including "The Killing Fields", "Comfort and Joy" and "A Private Function" (all 1984). Other film credits include "Dutch Girls" (1985) and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1987).


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In television, his extensive and award-winning TV career includes a memorable portrayal of property villain Ally Fraser in series 2 of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" (1986). He also appeared in "Smiley's People" (1982), "The Singing Detective" (1986), "Traffik" (1988).


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: Paterson performed in "Death and the Maiden" at the Royal Court and Duke of York's (1991–92). Other theatre roles in this period include "Ivanov" at the Almeida, London and Maly Theatre, Moscow (1997).


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 1990, he performed the role of Mr Jenkins, father to a child who his attached in "The Witches" (1990). He went on to act in "Truly, Madly, Deeply" (1990), "Chaplin" (1992), Sir Ian McKellen's "Richard III" (1995). In 1997, he appeared as Brian, a cafe owner who knows the Spice Girls, in "Spice World". He also performed in "The Crow Road" (1996), a miniseries from the novel by Iain Banks and "Doctor Zhivago" (2002).


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: He later performed in the films "Bright Young Things" (2003), "Miss Potter" (2006), "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" (2008) and "Creation" (2009). In television, much of his later work has been for the BBC, starring as Dr Douglas Monaghan in three seasons of the supernatural drama series "Sea of Souls" (2004-2007). He also played the role of Dr Gibson in the 1999 production of "Wives and Daughters", and appeared in the 2008 BBC production of the Charles Dickens novel "Little Dorrit" as Mr Meagles, as DS Box in the first series of "Criminal Justice" (2008), and as Dr James Niven in "".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: Paterson has also narrated for various television and radio programmes. In 2005, he would take a role as Rob McKenna, a lorry driver and unknowing Rain God, in Fits the 19th, 20th, and 22nd of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase". In 2003, Paterson began broadcasting radio stories about his childhood in Glasgow, "Tales From the Back Green" on BBC Scotland, which led to them being published by Hodder in 2008 and appearances at many book festivals throughout the UK. He narrated the 2009 BBC TV programme "1929 – The Great Crash" which recalled the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and compared it to the recent financial turmoil of 2008. From 2009 to 2010, he appeared as , the head of the CPS in "". He also played the key role of SIS Chief Percy Alleline in the 2009 BBC Radio 4 version of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 2010, Paterson starred in "Doctor Who" as Professor Edwin Bracewell, in the episode "Victory of the Daleks", with his character making a second appearance in the opening half of the season finale, "The Pandorica Opens". Later in the year, Paterson narrated the BBC Four wildlife documentary "Birds Britannia".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 2011, Paterson starred in "Fast Freddie, The Widow and Me". His most recent theatre is "Earthquakes in London" at the National Theatre in the summer of 2010. He also narrated the BBC's annual coverage of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and in 2013 appeared as Adam Smith in "The Low Road" at the Royal Court.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: Paterson played lawyer Ned Gowan in the 2014 Starz period TV series, "Outlander". In 2014, Paterson landed a part as Douglas Henshall's father in TV series "Shetland".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 2015, he starred alongside Brian Cox in a performance of "Waiting for Godot" at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. In 2015, Paterson was presented with the lifetime achievement of the Scottish BAFTAs.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 2016, he narrated "The Farmers' Country Showdown", a series for the BBC following the agricultural show season and broadcast early in 2017. In 2016, Paterson performed with his friend Simon Callow in "The Rebel". He also appeared as the Scottish character Private Frazer in the remake film "Dad's Army".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: Beginning with the first season in 2016 and ending with the second season in 2019, Paterson played the father of the main character and her sister in the British TV show "Fleabag". In 2019, Paterson also performed in the four-part BBC drama "Guilt".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 2022, Paterson performed in the fantasy drama "House of the Dragon" as the character Lord Lyman Beesbury. He is the narrator of the British TV show "The Repair Shop".


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 1980, while filming "The Lost Tribe", Paterson purchased a holiday home in Fordyce with fellow actor Miriam Margolyes.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: In 1984, Paterson married German stage designer Hildegard Bechtler. They have a son and daughter. Since leaving Glasgow he has spent much of his life living in London and currently resides in North London near Tufnell Park.


title: Bill Paterson (actor)

text: Paterson has published a series of book stories based on his childhood in Glasgow entitled "Tales From The Back Green".


title: Nancy Kissinger

text: Nancy Sharon Kissinger (née Maginnes; born April 13, 1934) is an American philanthropist and socialite, and the wife of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The couple married on March 30, 1974, in Arlington, Virginia.


title: Nancy Kissinger

text: Kissinger was born in Manhattan and raised in White Plains, New York. Her parents were Agnes (born McKinley) and Albert Bristol Maginnes, a wealthy lawyer and football player. She received a B.A. in history in 1955 from Mount Holyoke College.


title: Nancy Kissinger

text: Before her marriage, she was a long-time aide to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, recommended to him in 1964 by Kissinger, then a professor at Harvard, where she was a student. Her first job was as Kissinger's researcher on a Rockefeller task force; she continued working for Rockefeller at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund after the task force finished its work. She later became director of international studies for Rockefeller's Commission on Critical Choices for Americans.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: In the Hebrew Bible, the Urim ( "ʾŪrīm", "lights") and the Thummim ( "Tummīm", meaning uncertain, possibly "perfections") are elements of the "hoshen", the breastplate worn by the High Priest attached to the ephod. They are connected with cleromancy (with divination by casting lots). Most scholars suspect that the phrase refers to a set of two objects used by the high priest to answer a question or reveal the will of God.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: The Urim and the Thummim first appear in Exodus 28:30, where they are named for inclusion on the breastplate to be worn by Aaron in the holy place. Other books, especially 1 Samuel, describe their uses.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: "Urim" () traditionally has been taken to derive from a root meaning "lights"; these derivations are reflected in the Neqqudot of the Masoretic Text. In consequence, "Urim and Thummim" has traditionally been translated as "lights and perfections" (by Theodotion, for example), or, by taking the phrase allegorically, as meaning "revelation and truth", or "doctrine and truth" (it appears in this form in the Vulgate, in the writing of St. Jerome, and in the Hexapla). The latter use was defended in modern Catholic interpretations by connecting Urim and Thummim from the roots ירה (to teach) and אׇמַן (be true).


title: Urim and Thummim

text: "Thummim" () is widely considered to be derived from the consonantal root (t-m-m), meaning "innocent", Many scholars now believe that "Urim" () simply derives from the Hebrew term ("Arrim"), meaning "curses", and thus that "Urim and Thummim" essentially means "cursed or faultless", in reference to the deity's judgment of an accused person; in other words, "Urim and Thummim" were used to answer the question "innocent or guilty".


title: Urim and Thummim

text: Assyriologist William Muss-Arnolt connected the singular forms—"ur" and "tumm"—with the Babylonian terms "ūrtu" and "tamītu", meaning "oracle" and "command", respectively. According to his theory the Hebrew words use a "pluralis intensivus" to enhance their apparent majesty, not to indicate the presence of more than one. Along these lines the urim and thummim are hypothesized to derive from the Tablets of Destiny worn by Marduk on his breast according to Babylonian religion).


title: Urim and Thummim

text: is regarded by biblical scholars as key to understanding the Urim and Thummim; the passage describes an attempt to identify a sinner by repeatedly splitting the people into two groups and identifying which group contains the sinner. In the version of this passage in the Masoretic Text, it describes Saul and Jonathan being separated from the rest of the people, and lots being cast between them; the Septuagint version, however, states that "Urim" would indicate Saul and Jonathan, while "Thummim" would indicate the people. In the Septuagint, a previous verse uses a phrase which is usually translated as "inquired of God", which is significant as the grammatical form of the Hebrew implies that the inquiry was performed by objects being manipulated; scholars view it as evident from these verses and versions that cleromancy was involved, and that "Urim" and "Thummim" were the names of the objects being cast.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: The description of the clothing of the Hebrew high priest in the Book of Exodus portrays the Urim and Thummim as being put into the sacred breastplate, worn by the high priest over the Ephod. Where the biblical text elsewhere describes an Ephod being used, scholars presume that it is referring to use of the Urim and Thummim in conjunction with the Ephod, as this seems to be intimately connected with it; similarly where non-prophets are portrayed as asking God for guidance, and the advice is not described as given by visions, scholars think that Urim and Thummim were the medium implied. In all but two cases ( and ), the question is one which is effectively answered by a simple "yes" or "no"; a number of scholars believe that the two exceptions to this pattern, which give more complex answers, were originally also just sequences of "yes" or "no" questions, but became corrupted by later editing.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: There is no description of the form of the Urim and Thummim in the passage describing the high priest's vestments, and a number of scholars believe that the author of the passage, which textual scholars attribute to the priestly source, was not actually entirely aware of what they were either. Nevertheless, the passage does describe them as being "put into" the breastplate, which scholars think implies they were objects put into some sort of pouch within it, and then, while out of view, one (or one side, if the "Urim and Thummim" was a single object) was chosen by touch and withdrawn or thrown out; since the Urim and Thummim were put inside this pouch, they were presumably small and fairly flat, and were possibly tablets of wood or of bone. Considering the scholars' conclusion that "Urim" essentially means "guilty" and "Thummim" essentially means "innocent", this would imply that the purpose of the Urim and Thummim was an ordeal to confirm or refute suspected guilt; if the Urim was selected it meant guilt, while selection of the Thummim would mean innocence.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: According to classical rabbinical literature, in order for the Urim and Thummim to give an answer, it was first necessary for the individual to stand facing the fully dressed high priest, and vocalise the question briefly and in a simple way, though it was not necessary for it to be loud enough for anyone else to hear it. Maimonides explains that the High Priest would stand facing the Ark of the Covenant with the inquirer behind him, facing the Priest's back. After the inquirer asked his question, the Holy Spirit would immediately overcome the Priest and he would see the letters protruding in a prophetic vision. The Talmudic rabbis argued that "Urim and Thummim" were words written on the sacred breastplate. Most of the Talmudic rabbis, and Josephus, following the belief that "Urim" meant "lights", argued that the rituals involving Urim and Thummim involved questions being answered by great rays of light shining out of certain jewels on the breastplate; each jewel was taken to represent different letters, and the sequence of lighting thus would spell out an answer (though there were 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and only 12 jewels on the breastplate); two Talmudic rabbis, however, argued that the jewels themselves moved in a way that made them stand out from the rest, or even moved themselves into groups to form words.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: According to Islamic sources, there was a similar form of divination among the Arabs before the beginning of Islam. There, two arrow shafts (without heads or feathers), on one of which was written "command" and the other "prohibition" or similar, were kept in a container, and stored in the Kaaba at Mecca; whenever someone wished to know whether to get married, go on a journey, or to make some other similar decision, one of the Kaaba's guardians would randomly pull one of the arrow shafts out of the container, and the word written upon it was said to indicate the will of the god concerning the matter in question. Sometimes a third, blank, arrow shaft would be used, to represent the refusal of the deity to give an answer. This practice is called "rhabdomancy", after the Greek roots "rhabd-" "rod" and "-mancy" ("divination").


title: Urim and Thummim

text: The first reference to "Urim and Thummim" in the Bible is the description in the Book of Exodus concerning the high priest's vestments; the chronologically earliest passage mentioning them, according to textual scholars, is in the Book of Hosea, where it is implied, by reference to the Ephod, that the Urim and Thummim were fundamental elements in the popular form of the Israelite religion, in the mid 8th century BC. Consulting the Urim and Thummim was said to be permitted for determining territorial boundaries, and was said to be required, in addition to permission from the king or a prophet, if there was an intention to expand Jerusalem or the Temple in Jerusalem; however, these rabbinical sources did question, or at least tried to justify, why Urim and Thummim would be required when a prophet was also present. The classical rabbinical writers argued that the Urim and Thummim were only permitted to be consulted by very prominent figures such as army generals, the most senior of court figures, and kings, and the only questions which could be raised were those which were asked for the benefit of the people as a whole. To uncover the sin of Achan the sacred Lots were used by JoshuaAbiathar joined David, who was then in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. 22:20-23; 23:6). He remained with David, and became priest of the party of which he was the leader (1 Sam. 30:7). When David ascended the throne of Judah, Abiathar was appointed High Priest (1 Chr. 15:11; 1 Kings 2:26) and the "king's counselor" (1 Chr. 27:33-34). Meanwhile, Zadok, of the house of Eleazar, had been made High Priest. According to the "Jewish Encyclopedia" Abiathar was deposed from office when he was deserted by the Holy Spirit without which the Urim and Thummin could not be consulted.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: Although Josephus argues that the Urim and Thummim continued to function until the era of the Maccabees, Talmudic sources are unanimous in agreeing that the Urim and Thummim stopped functioning much earlier, when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians. In a passage from the part of the Book of Ezra which overlaps with the Book of Nehemiah, it is mentioned that individuals who were unable to prove, after the Babylonian captivity had ended, that they were descended from the priesthood before the captivity began, were required to wait until priests in possession of Urim and Thummim were discovered; this would appear to confirm the statements in the Talmud that the Urim and Thummim had by then been lost. Indeed, since the priestly source, which textual scholars date to a couple of centuries prior to the captivity, does not appear to know what the Urim and Thummim looked like, and there is no mention of the Urim and Thummim in the deuteronomic history beyond the death of David, scholars suspect that use of them decayed some time before the Babylonian conquest, probably as a result of the growing influence of prophets at that time.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: Maimonides states that in the Second Temple the Urim and Thummim actually existed but no longer functioned in the practical sense since the priests no longer possessed the Holy Spirit. Rabbi Abraham ben David disagrees and maintains that during that era, the Urim and Thummim were completely absent.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, said that he used interpreters in order to translate the Book of Mormon from the golden plates. The interpreters he described as a pair of stones, fastened to a breastplate joined in a form similar to that of a large pair of spectacles. Smith later referred to this object as the Urim and Thummim. In 1823, Smith said that the angel Moroni, who had told him about the golden plates, also told him about the Urim and Thummim, "two stones in silver bows" fastened to a breastplate, and the angel intimated that they had been prepared by God to aid in the translation of the plates. The Urim and Thummim were said to have been found with the golden plates, the aforementioned breastplate, and the Sword of Laban. Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, described these Urim and Thummim as being like "two smooth three-cornered diamonds."


title: Urim and Thummim

text: Smith also said he used the Urim and Thummim to assist him in receiving other divine revelations, including some of the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants and portions of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Only Oliver Cowdery is claimed to have attempted to use them to receive his own revelation. Latter Day Saints believe that Smith's Urim and Thummim were functionally identical to the biblical Urim and Thummim.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: Smith extended the use of the term "Urim and Thummim" to describe the dwelling place of God, the earth in a future state, and the white stone mentioned in the Book of Revelation.


title: Urim and Thummim

text: In accordance with the belief that "Urim and Thummim" translates to "Light and Truth", the Latin equivalent "Lux et Veritas" has been used for several university mottoes. For example, "Lux et Veritas" is the motto of Indiana University and the University of Montana. Similarly, Northeastern University's motto is "Lux, Veritas, Virtus" ("Light, Truth, Virtue"). "Urim and Thummim" itself is emblazoned in Hebrew across the open book pictured on the Yale University coat of arms, and the translation "Lux et Veritas" appears below on a banner.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French client state roughly corresponding to the current Netherlands). In that capacity he was known as Louis I (Dutch: Lodewijk I ).


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis was the fifth surviving child and fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, out of eight children who lived past infancy. He and his siblings were all born on Corsica, which had been conquered by France less than a decade before his birth. Louis followed his older brothers into the French Army, where he benefited from Napoleon's patronage. In 1802, he married his step-niece Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Joséphine (Napoleon's wife).


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: In 1806, Napoleon established the Kingdom of Holland in place of the Batavian Republic, appointing Louis as the new king. Napoleon had intended for Holland to be little more than a puppet state, but Louis was determined to be as independent as possible, and in fact became quite popular amongst his new people. Growing tired of his brother's wilfulness, Napoleon annexed Holland into the French Empire in 1810, and Louis went into exile. His youngest son, Louis-Napoléon, established the Second French Empire in 1852, proclaiming himself Napoleon III.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a younger brother of Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme Bonaparte. Louis' godparents were the island's governor, Mr de Marbeuf and the wife of the intendant, Bertrand de Boucheporn, whom Letizia and her husband, Carlo, had befriended.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis Bonaparte's early career was spent in the Army, and he served with Napoleon in Egypt. Thanks to his older brother, Napoleon, Louis was given a commission in the French Military, and was promoted to Lieutenant in the 4th Artillery Regiment, and from there he was made Aide de Camp on Napoleon's staff. Napoleon, during his Italian Campaign, recommended Louis to Carnot, and Louis was consequently made a captain. He later became a General by the age of 25, although he himself felt that he had risen too high in too short a time.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Upon Louis's return to France, he was involved in Napoleon's plot to overthrow the Directory. After becoming the First Consul, Napoleon arranged for a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine, and hence Napoleon's stepdaughter. Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage at first, was persuaded by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family, and she did so.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis supposedly suffered from periods of mental illness. These periods of depression or mental instability (records fail to distinguish) would plague Louis until his death.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Feeling that the Batavian Republic was too independent for his liking, Napoleon replaced it with the Kingdom of Holland on 5 June 1806, and placed Louis on the throne. Napoleon had intended for his younger brother to be little more than a French prefect of Holland. However, Louis had his own mind, and tried to be a responsible and independent ruler. In an effort to endear himself to his adopted country, he tried to learn the Dutch language; he called himself Lodewijk I (adopting the Dutch form of his name) and declared himself Dutch rather than French. Allegedly, his Dutch was initially so poor that he told the people he was the "Konijn van 'Olland" ("Rabbit of 'Olland"), rather than "Koning van Holland" ("King of Holland"). However, his sincere effort to learn Dutch earned him some respect from his subjects.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Having declared himself Dutch, Louis tried to make his court Dutch as well. He forced his court and ministers (mostly provided by Napoleon) to speak only Dutch, and also to renounce their French citizenships. This latter was too much for his wife Hortense who, in France at the time of his demands, refused his request. Louis and Hortense had never gotten along, and this demand further strained their relationship. She only came to Holland reluctantly, and deliberately tried to avoid Louis as much as possible.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis could never settle on the location for his capital city while he was in Holland. He changed capitals over a dozen times, trying Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and other places. On one occasion, after visiting the home of a wealthy Dutch merchant, he liked the place so much that he had the owner evicted so he could take up residence there. Then, Louis moved again after seven weeks. His constant moving kept the court in upheaval since they had to follow him everywhere. The European diplomatic corps went so far as to petition Bonaparte to remain in one place so they could keep up with him. This restlessness was later attributed to his alleged "lunacy".


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Hortense bore Louis's sons Napoléon Charles Bonaparte and Napoléon Louis Bonaparte in Paris, while Louis was in Holland. In 1806, Louis called for his son to be sent to him in Holland, but he was again refused by Hortense, who believed that her son would never be returned to France. When Louis appealed to his brother Napoleon for help, Napoleon sided with Hortense. Napoleon kept the boy in his own court, and he even had him named the heir to the French throne prior to the birth of his own son.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Two major tragedies occurred during the reign of Louis Bonaparte: the explosion of a cargo ship loaded with gunpowder in the heart of the city of Leiden in 1807, and a major flood in Holland in 1809. In both instances, Louis personally and effectively oversaw local relief efforts, which helped earn him the title of "Louis the Good". Napoleon appeared disappointed and commented: "″Brother, when they say of some king or other that he is good, it means that he has failed in his rule.″"


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis Bonaparte's reign was short-lived due to two factors. The first was that Napoleon wanted to reduce the value of French loans from Dutch investors by two-thirds, meaning a serious economic blow to the Netherlands. The second factor was the one that became the pretext for Napoleon's demand of Louis's abdication. As Napoleon was preparing an army for his invasion of Russia, he wanted troops from the entire region under his control, the allied border countries. This included troops from the Netherlands. Louis, confronted by his brother's demand, refused point-blank. Napoleon then accused Louis of putting Dutch interests above those of France, and removed most of the French forces in Holland for the coming war in the east, leaving only about 9,000 garrison soldiers in the country. Unfortunately for Louis, the English landed an army of 40,000 in 1809 in an attempt to capture Antwerp and Flushing. With Louis unable to defend his realm, France sent 80,000 militiamen, commanded by future King of Sweden Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and successfully repelled the invasion. Napoleon then suggested that Louis should abdicate, citing Louis's inability to protect Holland as a reason. Louis refused and declared the occupation of the Kingdom by a French army as unlawful. On 1 July 1810 Louis abdicated in favor of his second son, Napoleon Louis Bonaparte. He fled from Haarlem on 2/3 July and settled in Austria. Oudinot invaded Holland on 4 July. Napoleon annexed Holland to France by the Decree of Rambouillet on 9 July.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: After his abdication, Louis Bonaparte assumed the title of Count of Saint-Leu ("comte de Saint-Leu"), which was a reference to his property at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt near Paris. He was appointed as the Constable of France in 1808, a strictly honorary title.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: After his Dutch kingdom was taken away from him, the Austrian Emperor Francis I offered him asylum. Between 1811 and 1813, he found refuge in Graz, where he turned to writing and poetry. Louis wrote to Napoleon after the latter's defeat in Russia to request that the Dutch throne be restored to him; however, Napoleon refused. His request to visit the Netherlands was denied several times by King William I of the Netherlands, but King William II allowed him a visit in 1840. Although traveling in the Netherlands under a false name, some people found out that it was their former king, which led to a cheering crowd gathering under the window of his hotel room. It is said that he was quite moved by this demonstration of affection from his former subjects.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: After the death of his eldest brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by the Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although Louis took little action himself to advance the claim. Louis's son and heir, the future Emperor Napoleon III, on the other hand, was at that time being imprisoned in France for having attempted a Bonapartist coup d'état.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis Bonaparte died on 25 July 1846 in Livorno, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Louis was married on 4 January 1802 to Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of the deceased general Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. Josephine was the first wife of Louis's brother Napoleon. Thus Hortense was also Louis's step-niece.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: This marriage had been forced upon them and was rather loveless, though they supposedly consummated it and interacted often enough to produce three sons. As a rule, the Bonapartes, with the exception of Napoleon, loathed the Beauharnaises. Hortense also certainly had extra-marital lovers.


title: Louis Bonaparte

text: Hortense de Beauharnais gave birth to three sons which were officially claimed by Louis Bonaparte, despite his own doubts about their paternity:


title: Saints Row IV

text: Saints Row IV is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 2011's "", the fourth installment of the "Saints Row" series, and the final main installment in the original series that began with the original game. The game was released in August 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and was later ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Linux in 2015. A Nintendo Switch port was released on March 27, 2020, and a Google Stadia port was released on November 1, 2021.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The game's open world nature allows players to freely explore a simulation of the fictional city of Steelport while completing main and side missions at their leisure. It incorporates science fiction elements, and continues the series' reputation for over-the-top parody. The single-player story follows the same player-created character from the previous games, who is elected President of the United States after thwarting a terrorist threat. Five years into their governance, they find themselves trapped in the Steelport simulation along with members of their gang, the 3rd Street Saints, after an alien empire known as the Zin attack the Earth and capture them. With help from some Saints who managed to escape and hacked the simulation to give them superpowers, the player attempts to rescue their captured friends, escape the simulation, and defeat the Zin.


title: Saints Row IV

text: "Saints Row IV" was the first game developed by Volition following its acquisition by Koch Media in early 2013. The supernatural and superpower concept for the game started in "Enter the Dominatrix", a cancelled expansion planned for "", which the team expanded into "Saints Row IV". Volition later released a "director's cut" of "Enter the Dominatrix" as downloadable content for "Saints Row IV" alongside "How the Saints Saved Christmas", various weapons, costumes, and vehicle packs, and a standalone expansion, "" (which serves as an epilogue to the base game's story).


title: Saints Row IV

text: The game received several limited and summative edition releases, and was briefly banned in Australia. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its humor and character customization options, but criticized its lack of challenge. It also performed very well financially, selling over one million copies in its first week. The next game in the series, a reboot, titled "Saints Row", was released in August 2022.


title: Saints Row IV

text: Similar to previous "Saints Row" games, "Saints Row IV" is an open world action game with third-person shooter elements wherein the player is free to explore the environment and, at their leisure, play story or side missions. As the leader of the Saints, a street gang that has become the world's most "powerful and popular" organization, the player is elected President of the United States, receives superpowers, and fends off an alien invasion. Most often the player will engage in shooting and racing activities, though other activities vary from fighting crowds of zombies, shoot-outs in tanks, side-scrolling brawlers, fights against supersized, daikaiju energy drink cans, and using a dubstep gun to interrupt 1950s Americana. The player-character receives elemental powers and superpowers that greatly increase their jump height and running speed, such that the player can hop over buildings and outrun vehicles. The elemental powers include abilities to shoot fire and ice projectiles, telekinetically toss things, and create shockwaves upon landing jumps. As the player progresses through the game, they can optionally upgrade their abilities and weapons skill tree by using collectible "data clusters" scattered around town. If the player becomes too rowdy, the alien race's police analogue will intervene. As in previous games, the player-character's look and feel is entirely customizable via a robust character editor feature.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The game is set in a nearly identical simulation of Steelport, the fictional city setting from "", though individual story missions have new, custom-designed levels. "Saints Row IV" story parodies science fiction video games, mostly "Mass Effect 2", as well as films like "The Matrix" and "Zero Dark Thirty", and other "nerd culture". Some story missions are propelled by individual characters' existential crises, as each Saint character is stuck in a personal simulation of their own hell, and must be rescued by the player. Other elements borrowed from video game culture include BioWare-style character romances and a "Metal Gear"-style mission with an unhelpful partner.


title: Saints Row IV

text: City districts are "liberated" from alien occupation as the player completes side missions in occupied districts. Liberated districts increase the player's hourly income, which can be spent on weapons, skills, and perks. Side missions include Insurance Fraud (where the player jumps into traffic to collect insurance money), demolition derby-style Mayhem, and superpowered foot races. "Saints Row IV" has a two-player cooperative mode.


title: Saints Row IV

text: A few months after the events of "", the 3rd Street Saints are called to assist MI-6 agent Asha Odekar (Rebecca Riedy) and former Deckers leader Matt Miller (Yuri Lowenthal) in foiling a terrorist plot by former S.T.A.G. leader Cyrus Temple (Richard Epcar). The Boss (Troy Baker, Kenn Michael, Robin Atkin Downes, Laura Bailey, Diane Michelle, Sumalee Montano, or Nolan North) and their top lieutenants, Shaundi (Danielle Nicolet) and Pierce Washington (Arif S. Kinchen), breach Cyrus' base with Asha, killing him and preventing a nuclear missile from hitting Washington D.C. Five years later, the Boss has been elected President of the United States for their heroism, receiving actor Keith David (himself) as their Vice President, while assigning their cabinet roles to various Saints members and former Vice Kings leader Benjamin King (Terry Crews). Moments into a press conference, Earth is hit by an invasion from an alien empire known as the Zin, led by the ruthless Zinyak (JB Blanc), who destroy the White House and abduct the Boss, Keith, and most of the cabinet.


title: Saints Row IV

text: After the Boss escapes from a computer simulation based on a 1950s sitcom environment with the help of the Saints' hacker specialist Kinzie Kensington (Natalie Lander), they find themselves brought into a virtual recreation of Steelport. Working to manipulate the environment with special powers, they eventually reunite with Kinzie and Keith in a stolen Zin ship. When the group try to contact other Saints for help, Zinyak stops them by destroying the Earth. Enraged, the Boss re-enters the Steelport simulation to find the others that the Zin abducted, rescuing each from simulations based on their personal nightmares. Zinyak responds by having the Steelport simulation flooded with copies of gang members the Boss faced in the past, which causes Kinzie to suspect he is drawing them from the memories of someone else who has fought them. The Boss quickly deduces that the Zin abducted Johnny Gat (Daniel Dae Kim), the only Saints lieutenant who has been with the gang longer than them, and who was supposedly killed years ago. After rescuing Gat from his own simulation, he explains that Zinyak captured him years ahead of Earth's invasion because he was the only one who could have thwarted it, and officially rejoins the Saints.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The Saints soon rally inside the simulation to confront Zinyak, only for Kinzie to be captured in the real world by Zin forces. Discovering that Keith betrayed them, the Boss confronts him and learns he did so in exchange for the Zin restoring Earth. After pursuing him through his own personal nightmare, the Boss reveals to Keith he was tricked, and convinces him to rejoin the Saints. Learning where Kinzie was taken, the Boss rescues her from her personal nightmare. With the group back in operations, Kinzie formulates a plan to board Zinyak's ship by overloading the Steelport simulation to create an opening. Upon the Saints achieving this, the Boss boards Zinyak's ship, steals power armor that emulates their powers from the simulation, and uses it to kill Zinyak in front of the Zin, seizing control of their empire.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The game's ending depends on the number of optional "loyalty" missions completed. If any of them were omitted, the Boss plans for the Saints to conquer a new homeworld, starting the "Saints Empire." Otherwise, the Saints learn they can restore Earth using time-travel, after discovering that Zinyak captured several historical figures and placed them in suspended animation. The Boss decides to awaken one of them from stasis, namely 19th century writer Jane Austen (Eden Riegel), whom they are a fan of, and who reveals herself as the game's narrator once she awakens.


title: Saints Row IV

text: After the release of "Saints Row: The Third", preliminary work on a game called "Saints Row: Part Four" began. The game would take place after the events of "The Third" in a new city and feature gameplay similar to "The Third". Meanwhile, a standalone expansion to "The Third" called "Enter the Dominatrix" was first announced as a 2012 April Fool's joke, but still went into development. The expansion pack's basic concept included a superpowered player-character trapped by alien commander Zinyak in a simulation of Steelport. With THQ suffering financially, its president Jason Rubin encouraged company subsidiary and "Saints Row" series developer Volition to grow elements from the expansion into a full game. The company announced this change in direction in June 2012, cancelling "Saints Row: Part Four" and expanding "Enter the Dominatrix" into a full sequel, "Saints Row IV". The company's strategy was partly to avoid sales issues by releasing the game in August 2013, prior to the circulation of rumors about next generation video game consoles. Volition was sold to Koch Media in early 2013 when its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy. It became Koch's first internal video game studio. The studio officially announced "Saints Row IV" two months later, which was published by Koch Media brand Deep Silver. Acquired without rights to their "Red Faction" series, Volition's new goals were to make connected, open world games where "the player is an agent of mayhem". The entire company worked on the one game.


title: Saints Row IV

text: Each of the "Saints Row" series games had a core intent, and while the first three games built on the first's "outlandishness and irreverence", the fourth focused on "the supernatural and superpowers". Senior producer Jim Boone recalled reviewers that asked whether the company could be "more over-the-top" than "Saints Row: The Third", which they took as a challenge. The team focused more on making the game "fun" than "for the sake of being over the top", and felt that superpowers helped the game's basic navigation and combat. They also chose to remove the previous game's in-game mobile phone-based navigation, which hindered its narration, and replaced it with a "quest log structure". The team chose not to devote as much time improving the game's graphics, considering the impending release of next generation platforms. The game spent less time in development than prior series games.


title: Saints Row IV

text: In August 2014, Volition announced that they would be releasing a development kit for the Windows version of the game, which lets players modify game assets and create new weapons. Support for modding via Steam Workshop integration was added in November 2016.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The in-game radio has seven pre-programmed radio stations and 109 licensed tracks. The game's original soundtrack is composed by Malcolm Kirby Jr., who also composed the previous game's soundtrack.


title: Saints Row IV

text: "Saints Row IV" was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America on August 20, 2013, and worldwide on three days later. Preorders included a patriot-themed downloadable content pack that included flamethrower, dubstep, and rocket launcher weapons, a bald eagle jet, and an Uncle Sam outfit. A limited edition release of the game included a replica of the game's dubstep gun, a doomsday button, and Johnny Gat statuette. Another limited edition release, the Game of the Generation Edition, included the previous items as well as a display case for the game. The game was originally refused ratings classification and effectively banned in Australia but was later accepted when modified to remove the offending content. The country's PlayStation 4 release was later recalled due to a classification error.


title: Saints Row IV

text: "Saints Row IV" was released in several summative editions. The Game of the Century edition included 20 downloadable content sets and was released May 9, 2014. The National Treasure Edition included 29 downloadable content sets and was released on July 8, 2014. High Voltage Software ported the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with all of its downloadable content as "Saints Row IV: Re-Elected". It was announced in late August 2014 alongside "", a standalone "Saints Row IV" expansion developed by Volition in conjunction with High Voltage. Both were released in North America on January 20, 2015, and worldwide three days later, both separately and bundled together. The release included new features such as voice commands. A Linux port was presented in December 2015. "Re-Elected" was released for the Nintendo Switch on March 27, 2020.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The game received multiple downloadable content (DLC) packs after release. A Season Pass, which features two exclusive mission packs, was announced ahead to the game's launch. The first DLC, "GAT V", which adds Johnny Gat-inspired weapons and character customization options, was released for free on 17 September 2013, to coincide with the release of the rival open world game "Grand Theft Auto V" ("GTA V"). The first mission pack, "Enter the Dominatrix", was released October 22, 2013. The pack was originally intended as but evolved into the full sequel, "Saints Row IV". The leftover content became the sequel's first mission pack. It tells an alternative story about the Zin invasion wherein the Steelport simulation is hijacked by a rogue artificial intelligence called the Dominatrix. The pack's storytelling frequently breaks the fourth wall and self-referentially acknowledges its own plot holes and incongruence with the larger "Saints Row" story. Some scenes end in concept art or videos of Volition employees acting out the drama so as to give the game an unfinished feel. The pack also casts characters from "Saints Row: The Third" who did not return in the sequel. There are five missions in total, new weapons, vehicles, and computer-controlled support characters ("homies"). The second and final mission pack, "How the Saints Save Christmas", features new weapons and vehicles, and a three-mission storyline about the Saints rescuing Santa Claus from the Steelport simulation. It was released in December 2013. Non-mission downloadable content packs include new costumes, vehicles, and weapons (e.g., face masks of United States Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama).


title: Saints Row IV

text: On December 8, 2022, a free update to all existing Windows versions of the game on Steam and GOG brought it to a new "Re-Elected Edition" which includes all DLC released for the title; this was alongside a free giveaway offer for the game on the Epic Games Store. The Re-Elected Edition supports cross-play between the Steam, GOG and Epic editions of the game. Previous versions of "Saints Row IV" were subsequently removed from sale, but existing saves and achievements carried over into the new version.


title: Saints Row IV

text: The game received generally positive reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers praised its over-the-top humor and character customization options, and criticized its lack of challenge. Several also commented on its "even-handed treatment" of gender, particularly female characters, and spotlighted hacker and former FBI agent Kinzie Kensington's character performance. "Saints Row IV" sold over one million copies in its first week, and as of 2013, Volition has not released total sales figures.


title: Saints Row IV

text: "Polygon" Danielle Riendeau described "Saints Row IV" as "big, goofy, and self-referential fun" and thought that the game accomplished what it set out to be: "an outrageous exercise in player power fantasy". She also praised the game's degree of freedom around character identity, its "dumb and lovable" narrative, and its transitions between varied sequences. Riendeau wrote that Volition "trimmed the fat" from previous games, and that their addition of superpowers "blew the constraints off a genre already known for player freedom". She considered the story funny and "as obvious as can be", but found its characters "well-realized". Riendeau particularly praised the game's "treatment of gender"bold female characters who could pursue same-sex relationships or even switch their gender mid-game, and were not treated differently for being femalebut found the game's continued association between women and sex workers "problematic" and a "vestige from the series' roots as a juvenile crime drama".


title: Saints Row IV

text: Reflecting on the series' progression, "Eurogamer" Chris Schilling said that "Saints Row IV" successfully reinvented the series yet again, with superpowers replacing the usefulness of in-game vehicles. He compared the game's exploration mechanics to that of "Crackdown", and its superpowers to the "Infamous" and "Prototype" series, and added that the game's silliness fulfilled a specific niche in gaming. Schilling wrote that the need to restock at ammo shops was a "jarring holdover" from the previous games, but appreciated the recurrence of elements such as the GPS navigation system, side mission gameplay, and city district liberation. He regarded the game overall as artful but "gloriously dumb", like "the Sistine Chapel ceiling of stupidity". Schilling also commented on how he felt an urge to simply forgo the story to search for collectibles, though despite these options, the game became "wearying" over long play sessions.


title: Saints Row IV

text: Similarly, Dan Stapleton of IGN became bored when his superhero protagonist had little "to overcome", and ultimately likened the game to "enabling god-like cheat codes" in its predecessor. He wrote that it was very difficult to die, given the large amount of power-ups dropped by enemies, and that the otherwise praiseworthy features from "Saints Row: The Third" felt "vestigial" when outmoded by superpowers. Stapleton said the player received the powers too early, which let the player play without caring about the city, and thus removed the "sense of place and character it had in the previous game". He considered the game's large number of collectibles an acknowledgement of this hole, which while originally rewarding, quickly becomes a "chore". Stapleton praised the "Red Faction"-style Disintegrator and Abductor guns, though considered the dubstep gun an "ineffective disappointment". As a symbol, though, "Polygon" described the dubstep gun as "iconic" of "Saints Row IV".


title: Saints Row IV

text: In August 2019, a new "Saints Row" game was hinted to be "deep in development" by Volition. As of late 2020, it was still in development. In August 2021, the new game was confirmed to be a reboot to the franchise. Titled simply "Saints Row", it was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows on August 23, 2022.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The Howrah Bridge is a balanced cantilever bridge over the Hooghly River in West Bengal. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a pontoon bridge at the same location linking the cities of Howrah and Kolkata (Calcutta). On 14 June 1965, it was renamed Rabindra Setu after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. It is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The bridge is one of four on the Hooghly River and is a famous symbol of Kolkata and West Bengal. The other bridges are the Vidyasagar Setu (popularly called the Second Hooghly Bridge), the Vivekananda Setu and the relatively new Nivedita Setu. It carries a daily traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians, easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. The third-longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, the Howrah Bridge is currently the sixth-longest bridge of its type in the world.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: In 1862, the Government of Bengal asked George Turnbull, chief engineer of the East Indian Railway Company to study the feasibility of bridging the Hooghly River. He had recently established the company's rail terminus in Howrah. He reported on 19 March, with large-scale drawings and estimates, that:


title: Howrah Bridge

text: In view of the increasing traffic across the Hooghly river, a committee was appointed in 1855–56 to review alternatives for constructing a bridge across it. The plan was shelved in 1859–60, to be revived in 1868, when it was decided that a bridge should be constructed and a newly appointed trust vested to manage it. The Calcutta Port Trust was founded in 1870, and the Legislative department of the then Government of Bengal passed the Howrah Bridge Act in the year 1871 under the Bengal Act IX of 1871, empowering the lieutenant-governor to have the bridge constructed with Government capital under the aegis of the Port Commissioners.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: Eventually a contract was signed with Sir Bradford Leslie to construct a pontoon bridge. Different parts of the bridge were constructed in England and shipped to Calcutta, where they were assembled. The assembling period was fraught with problems. The bridge was considerably damaged by the great cyclone on 20 March 1874. A steamer named "Egeria" broke from her moorings and collided head-on with the bridge, sinking three pontoons and damaging nearly 200 feet of the bridge. The bridge was complete in 1874, at a total cost of 2.2 million, and opened to traffic on 17 October of that year. The bridge was then 1528 ft long and 62 ft wide, with 7-foot wide pavements on either side. Initially the bridge was periodically unfastened to allow steamers and other marine vehicles to pass through. Before 1906, the bridge used to be undone for the passage of vessels during daytime only. Since June of that year it started opening at night for all vessels except ocean steamers, which were required to pass through during daytime. From 19 August 1879, the bridge was illuminated by electric lamp-posts, powered by the dynamo at the Mullick Ghat Pumping Station. As the bridge could not handle the rapidly increasing load, the Port Commissioners started planning in 1905 for a new improved bridge.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: In 1906 the Port Commission appointed a committee headed by R.S. Highet, chief engineer, East Indian Railway and W.B. MacCabe, chief engineer, Calcutta Corporation. They submitted a report stating that


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The committee eventually decided on a floating bridge. It extended tenders to 23 firms for its design and construction. Prize money of £3,000 (45,000, at the then exchange rate) was declared for the firm whose design would be accepted.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The initial construction process of the bridge was stalled due to World War I, although the bridge was partially renewed in 1917 and 1927. In 1921 a committee of engineers named the 'Mukherjee Committee' was formed, headed by R. N. Mukherji, Sir Clement Hindley, chairman of Calcutta Port Trust and J. McGlashan, Chief Engineer. They referred the matter to Sir Basil Mott, who proposed a single span arch bridge. Charles Alfred O'Grady one of the Engineers


title: Howrah Bridge

text: In 1922, the New Howrah Bridge Commission was set up, to which the Mukherjee Committee submitted its report. In 1926 the New Howrah Bridge Act passed. In 1930 the Goode Committee was formed, comprising S.W. Goode as president, S.N. Mallick, and W.H. Thompson, to investigate and report on the advisability of constructing a pier bridge between Calcutta and Howrah. Based on their recommendation, M/s. Rendel, Palmer and Tritton were asked to consider the construction of a suspension bridge of a particular design prepared by their chief draftsman Mr. Walton. On basis of the report, a global tender was floated. The lowest bid came from a German company, but due to increasing political tensions between Germany and Great Britain in 1935, it was not given the contract. The Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Co. was awarded the construction contract that year. The New Howrah Bridge Act was amended in 1935 to reflect this, and construction of the bridge started the next year.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The bridge does not have nuts and bolts, but was formed by riveting the whole structure. It consumed 26,500 tons of steel, out of which 23,000 tons of high-tensile alloy steel, known as Tiscrom, were supplied by Tata Steel. The main tower was constructed with single monolith caissons of dimensions 55.31m× 24.8m with 21 shafts, each 6.25 metre square. The Chief Engineer of the Port Trust, Mr. J. McGlashan, wanted to replace the pontoon bridge, with a permanent structure, as the present bridge interfered with north–south river traffic. Work could not be started as World War I (1914–1918) broke out. Then in 1926 a commission under the chairmanship of Sir R. N. Mukherjee recommended a suspension bridge of a particular type to be built across the River Hoogly. The bridge was designed by one Mr. Walton of M/s Rendel, Palmer & Triton. The order for construction and erection was placed on M/s.Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company in 1939. Again World War II (1939–1945) intervened. All the steel that was to come from England were diverted for war effort in Europe. Out of 26,000 tons of steel, that was required for the bridge, only 3000 tons were supplied from England. In spite of the Japanese threat, the then (British) government of India pressed on with the construction. Tata Steel were asked to supply the remaining 23,000 tons of high tension steel. The Tatas developed the quality of steel required for the bridge and called it Tiscom. The entire 23,000 tons was supplied in time. The fabrication and erection work was awarded to a local engineering firm of Howrah: the Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop Construction Co. The two anchorage caissons were each 16.4 m by 8.2 m, with two wells 4.9 m square. The caissons were so designed that the working chambers within the shafts could be temporarily enclosed by steel diaphragms to allow work under compressed air if required. The caisson at Kolkata side was set at 31.41 m and that at Howrah side at 26.53 m below ground level.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: One night, during the process of grabbing out the muck to enable the caisson to move, the ground below it yielded, and the entire mass plunged two feet, shaking the ground. The impact of this was so intense that the seismograph at Kidderpore registered it as an earthquake and a Hindu temple on the shore was destroyed, although it was subsequently rebuilt. While muck was being cleared, numerous varieties of objects were brought up, including anchors, grappling irons, cannons, cannonballs, brass vessels, and coins dating back to the East India Company.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The job of sinking the caissons was carried out round-the-clock at a rate of a foot or more per day. The caissons were sunk through soft river deposits to a stiff yellow clay 26.5 m below ground level. The accuracy of sinking the huge caissons was exceptionally precise, within 50–75 mm of the true position. After penetrating 2.1 m into clay, all shafts were plugged with concrete after individual dewatering, with some 5 m of backfilling in adjacent shafts. The main piers on the Howrah side were sunk by open wheel dredging, while those on the Kolkata side required compressed air to counter running sand. The air pressure maintained was about 40 lbs per square inch (2.8 bar), which required about 500 workers to be employed. Whenever excessively soft soil was encountered, the shafts symmetrical to the caisson axes were left unexcavated to allow strict control. In very stiff clays, a large number of the internal wells were completely undercut, allowing the whole weight of the caisson to be carried by the outside skin friction and the bearing under the external wall. Skin friction on the outside of the monolith walls was estimated at 29 kN/m while loads on the cutting edge in clay overlying the founding stratum reached 100 tonnes/m. The work on the foundation was completed in November 1938.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: By the end of 1940, the erection of the cantilevered arms was commenced and was completed in mid-summer of 1941. The two halves of the suspended span, each 282 feet (86 m) long and weighing 2,000 tons, were built in December 1941. The bridge was erected by commencing at the two anchor spans and advancing towards the center, with the use of creeper cranes moving along the upper chord. 16 hydraulic jacks, each of which had an 800-ton capacity, were pressed into service to join the two halves of the suspended span.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The entire project cost 25 million (£2,463,887). The project was a pioneer in bridge construction, particularly in India, but the government did not have a formal opening of the bridge due to fears of attacks by Japanese planes fighting the Allied Powers. Japan had attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The first vehicle to use the bridge was a solitary tram.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: When commissioned in 1943, Howrah was the 3rd-longest cantilever bridge in the world, behind Pont de Québec () in Canada and Forth Bridge () in Scotland. It has since been surpassed by three bridges, making it the sixth-longest cantilever bridge in the world in 2013. It is a suspension type balanced cantilever bridge, with a central span between centers of main towers and a suspended span of . The main towers are high above the monoliths and apart at the top. The anchor arms are each, while the cantilever arms are each. The bridge deck hangs from panel points in the lower chord of the main trusses with 39 pairs of hangers. The roadways beyond the towers are supported from ground, leaving the anchor arms free from deck load. The deck system includes cross girders suspended between the pairs of hangers by a pinned connection. Six rows of longitudinal stringer girders are arranged between cross girders. Floor beams are supported transversally on top of the stringers, while themselves supporting a continuous pressed steel troughing system surfaced with concrete.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The longitudinal expansion and lateral sway movement of the deck are taken care of by expansion and articulation joints. There are two main expansion joints, one at each interface between the suspended span and the cantilever arms and there are others at the towers and at the interface of the steel and concrete structures at both approach. There are total 8 articulation joints, 3 at each of the cantilever arms and 1 each in the suspended portion. These joints divide the bridge into segments with vertical pin connection between them to facilitate rotational movements of the deck. The bridge deck has longitudinal ruling gradient of 1 in 40 from either end, joined by a vertical curve of radius . The cross gradient of deck is 1 in 48 between kerbs.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The bridge serves as the gateway to Kolkata, connecting it to the Howrah Station, which is one of the five intercity train terminus stations serving Howrah and Kolkata. As such, it carries the near entirety of the traffic to and from the station, taking its average daily traffic close to nearly 150,000 pedestrians and 100,000 vehicles. In 1946, a census of the daily traffic was taken, which counted 27,400 vehicles, 121,100 pedestrians and 2,997 cattle. The bulk of the vehicular traffic comes from buses and cars. Prior to 1993, the bridge also carried trams. Trams departed from the terminus at Howrah station towards Sealdah, Rajabazar, Shyambazar, High Court, Dalhousie Square, Park Circus, Ballygunge, Tollygunge etc. In 1993, tram service on the bridge was discontinued due to the increasing load on the structure. However, the bridge still continues to carry much more than the expected load. A 2007 report revealed that nearly 90,000 vehicles were plying on the bridge daily (15,000 of which were goods-carrying), though its load-bearing capacity is only 60,000. One of the main reasons for the overloading was that, although vehicles carrying up to 15 tonnes are allowed on the structure, vehicles with 12-18 wheels and carrying loads up to 25 tonnes often plied on it. From 31 May 2007 onwards, overloaded trucks were banned from crossing the bridge and were redirected to the Vidyasagar Setu instead. The road is flanked by footpaths wide, which are thronged with pedestrians.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) is vested with the maintenance of the bridge. The bridge has been subject to damage from vehicles due to rash driving, and corrosion due to atmospheric conditions and biological wastes. In October 2008, 6 high-tech surveillance cameras were placed to monitor the entire long and wide structure from the control room. Two of the cameras were placed under the floor of the bridge to track the movement of barges, steamers and boats on the river, while the other four were fixed to the first layer of beams — one at each end and two in the middle — to monitor vehicle movements. This was in response to substantial damage caused to the bridge from collisions with vehicles, so that compensation could be claimed from the miscreants.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: Corrosion has been caused by bird droppings and human spitting. An investigation in 2003 revealed that as a result of prolonged chemical reaction caused by continuous collection of bird excreta, several joints and parts of the bridge were damaged. As an immediate measure, the Kolkata Port Trust engaged contractors to regularly clean the bird droppings, at an annual expense of . In 2004, KoPT spent to paint the entirety of of the bridge. Two coats of aluminium paint, with a primer of zinc chromate before that, was applied on the bridge, requiring a total of 26,500 litres of paint.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The bridge is also considerably damaged by pedestrians spitting out acidic, lime-mixed stimulants (gutka and paan). A technical inspection by Port Trust officials in 2011 revealed that spitting had reduced the thickness of the steel hoods protecting the pillars from six to less than three millimeters since 2007. The hangers need those hoods at the base to prevent water seeping into the junction of the cross-girders and hangers, and damage to the hoods can jeopardize the safety of the bridge. KoPT announced that it will spend on covering the base of the steel pillars with fibreglass casing to prevent spit from corroding them.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: On 24 June 2005, a private cargo vessel "M V Mani", belonging to the Ganges Water Transport Pvt. Ltd, while trying to pass under the bridge during high tide, had its funnel stuck underneath for three hours, causing substantial damage worth about 15 million to the stringer and longitudinal girder of the bridge. Some of the 40 cross-girders were also broken. Two of four trolley guides, bolted and welded with the girders, were extensively damaged. Nearly of of the track were twisted beyond repair. The damage was so severe that KoPT requested help from Rendall-Palmer & Tritton Limited, the original consultant on the bridge from UK. KoPT also contacted SAIL for 'matching steel' used during its construction in 1943. For the repair, which cost around , about 8 tonnes of steel was used. The repairs were completed in early 2006.


title: Howrah Bridge

text: The bridge has been shown in numerous films, such as Bimal Roy's 1953 film "Do Bigha Zamin", Ritwik Ghatak's "Bari Theke Paliye" in 1958, Satyajit Ray's "Parash Pathar" in the same year, Mrinal Sen's "Neel Akasher Neechey" in 1959, Shakti Samanta's "Howrah Bridge" (1958), that featured the famous song Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu and "China Town" (1962) and "Amar Prem" (1971), Amar Jeet's 1965 "Teen Devian" in 1965, Mrinal Sen's 1972 National Award winning Bengali film "Calcutta 71" and Sen's Calcutta Trilogy its sequel in 1973, "Padatik", Richard Attenborough's 1982 Academy Award winning film "Gandhi", Goutam Ghose's 1984 Hindi film "Paar", Raj Kapoor's "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" in 1985, Nicolas Klotz's "The Bengali Night" in 1988, Roland Joffé's English language film "City of Joy" in 1992, Florian Gallenberger's Bengali film "Shadows of Time" in 2004, Mani Ratnam's Bollywood film "Yuva" in 2004, Pradeep Sarkar's 2005 Bollywood film "Parineeta", Subhrajit Mitra's 2008 Bengali film "", Mira Nair's 2006 film "The Namesake", Blessy's 2008 Malayalam Film "Calcutta News", Surya Sivakumar's 2009 Tamil film "Aadhavan", Imtiaz Ali's 2009 Hindi film "Love Aaj Kal", Abhik Mukhopadhyay's 2010 Bengali film "Ekti Tarar Khonje", Sujoy Ghosh's 2012 Bollywood film "Kahaani", Anurag Basu's 2012 Hindi film "Barfi!", Riingo Banerjee's 2012 Bengali film "Na Hannyate", Rana Basu's 2013 Bengali film "Namte Namte", and Ali Abbas Zafar's 2014 Hindi film "Gunday" and the 2015 YRF release from director Dibakar Banerjee's "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!". Shoojit sircar's "Piku" also features some scenes on this iconic bridge. The bridge was also featured in Garth Davis' Academy Award-nominated 2016 film "Lion". Anvita Dutt's 2022 movie Qala (film) features some fictional scenes of Howrah Bridge's construction.


title: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)

text: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between September 1979 and April 1981 on NBC, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film before the series aired. The film and series were developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, based on the character Buck Rogers created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan that had previously been featured in comic strips, novellas, a serial film, and on television and radio.


text: The first made-for-TV movie was released theatrically in March 1979 as "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century". The film made $21 million at the North American box office, prompting Universal to move ahead with a weekly series later that year. The film, which was also released internationally, featured all of the main protagonist characters who would appear in the weekly series, and also included Princess Ardala of the planet Draconia, and her henchman, Kane.


text: The theatrical film also served as a pilot and two-part first episode for the series, entitled "Awakening". Several scenes were edited, some to remove the more adult dialogue in the film, including when Buck refers to Wilma as "ballsy", and later when he says "shit", and a scene in which Buck kills Ardala's henchman, Tiger Man, was edited to allow the character to return in later episodes. Also, some new and extended scenes were added for the TV version, including several scenes within Buck's new apartment, which was the setting for a new final scene in which Dr. Huer and Wilma try to persuade Buck to join the Defense Directorate. This scene ends with Buck actually declining their offer, though he opts to join them in an unofficial capacity by the first episode of the series proper, "Planet of the Slave Girls". In this unofficial role, Buck does everything from acting as a covert agent on various undercover assignments to assisting Wilma as a flight/combat instructor. Buck is, most often, partnered with Wilma, with whom he often shares a flirtatious relationship.


text: Including the two-part pilot episode, the first season comprised 24 episodes, with four of the stories being two-parters. The tone of the series was lighter than the pilot movie, and showed a more positive picture of future Earth. The Inner City was now known as New Chicago, and human civilization was established as having spread once again across the planet, and also to the stars. After the movie pilot, no reference to barren radioactive wastelands was made, and in several episodes, the world outside is shown as lush and green. The mutants seen in the pilot film were no longer seen, and Buck sometimes ventured outside New Chicago with no hazards encountered. As opposed to the isolationist planet seen in the film, Earth no longer has an invisible defense shield surrounding it and is shown to be the center of an interstellar, human-dominated government, sometimes called "the Federation" or "the Alliance", with its capital at New Chicago. During the first season, references were also made to other "new" Earth cities such as New Detroit, New Manhattan, New Phoenix, New Tulsa, Boston Complex, and New London. A "City-on-the-Sea" was also seen, mentioned as being the former New Orleans.


text: Wilma Deering and Dr. Huer were the only Defense Directorate personnel seen in every episode, though several others were seen in individual episodes. Most Defense Directorate personnel regard Buck as being at least an "honorary" captain, in reference to his 20th-century U.S. military rank, but his membership in Earth's defense forces is unofficial. Nevertheless, Buck often flies with the fighter squadrons, and uses his 20th-century U.S. Air Force background to assist in their training. Dr. Huer regularly meets, greets, and otherwise deals with representatives of other sovereign powers. Huer was also seen in military uniform (at formal occasions), thus indicating he is or was a member of the military.


text: Travel between the stars was accomplished with the use of "stargates" - artificially created portals in space (similar in appearance to wormholes), but referred to as "warp" travel on at least one occasion by Wilma Deering. Stargates appear as a diamond-shaped quartet of brilliant lights in space that shimmer when a vessel is making transit. Some people find the transit through a stargate to be physically unpleasant (transit resembling a "spinning" of the spacecraft). Buck's dislike of them is shown in part one of the episode "Planet of the Slave Girls" and again in part two of the episode "The Plot to Kill a City".


text: To portray futuristic-looking buildings on Earth, the show used stock shots of the remaining national pavilions of Expo 67, particularly the French and British pavilions, as well as shots of the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.


text: Juanin Clay, who played Major Marla Landers in the first-season episode "Vegas in Space", was originally cast as Wilma for the TV series (Erin Gray had initially opted not to return after the pilot film, but she later changed her mind). Wilma's personality was softened considerably in the series. While she was still seen as a strong, confident and consummate professional in her work, she had a much more relaxed attitude and a warmer relationship with Buck. A potentially romantic relationship between Buck and Wilma was hinted at, but rarely expanded upon, and in the first season, Buck was involved (to some degree) with a different woman almost every week. Producers demanded that Wilma have blonde hair, so dye jobs were needed to lighten Erin Gray's brunette locks. During the final episodes of the first season, Gray was allowed to return to her natural hair color, and Wilma was dark-haired throughout season two. Buck's best-known enemy during the first season was Princess Ardala, played by Pamela Hensley, whose desire was to conquer and possess both Earth and Buck himself. She appeared in four separate stories, including the pilot film, two single episodes ("Escape from Wedded Bliss" and "Ardala Returns"), and the two-part first-season finale ("Flight of the War Witch").


text: The opening title sequence for the series included stock footage from the Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 launches.


text: The series had an overall budget of $800,000 per hour of air time, according to "Starlog" issue #32 (March 1980). Former actor Jock Gaynor served as producer for 20 episodes. Although reasonably popular with viewers, the first season failed to receive much critical acclaim. One vocal critic of the series was Gerard himself, who pushed for more serious storytelling and often clashed with the producers and the network (NBC) over the show's tone and handling. He often arbitrarily refused to perform some of the more comical lines in the scripts he was given, complaining that Buck was just a "wise-ass" who was making one joke after another, and often rewrote scripts himself to place more emphasis on his own character at the expense of others (for example, in the episode "Escape From Wedded Bliss", the script originally called for Buck to be rescued from the Draconians at the end by Wilma, but Gerard vetoed the idea). Unhappy with the show's direction, Gerard became increasingly difficult to work with, which led to tensions on set. A meeting between writers/script editors Anne Collins and Alan Brennert and him went badly, and they quit the show midway through the first season. Gerard himself was threatened with legal action by the network if he continued to cause problems and hinder the production. In the November 1980 issue of "Starlog", Gerard even said he had hoped the series would not be picked up for a second season because he had no wish to go through another season like the first one.


text: Production of the second season was delayed by several months due to an actors' strike. When production resumed in the fall of 1980, the series had a new set of producers (headed by John Mantley, who had primarily worked on television Westerns) and the format of the series was changed. Instead of defending the Earth from external threats, Buck, Wilma, and Twiki were now a part of a crew aboard an Earth spaceship called the "Searcher" on a mission to seek out the lost "tribes" of humanity who had scattered in the five centuries since Earth's 20th-century nuclear war, a theme present in Glen A. Larson's previous science-fiction television series, "Battlestar Galactica".


text: Another notable change in the second season was the disappearance of many of the regular characters of the first season, such as Dr. Huer, Dr. Theopolis, Princess Ardala, and Kane. However, several new characters were added:


text: The character of Wilma Deering was softened in the second season as the producers attempted to tone down the militaristic "Colonel Deering" image (who often gave Buck orders) and to make her more feminine. Another change in the second season was the sound of Twiki's voice. Because of illness, Mel Blanc was briefly replaced by Bob Elyea as the voice of Twiki for the first seven episodes of the second season. After recovering, Blanc returned to the role for the final six episodes of the season, though no explanation was given for the change in Twiki's voice.


text: The substance of the storylines also changed in the second season. Less emphasis was placed on militaristic ideals and, with a few exceptions, Gerard scaled back the humor in the second season in favor of more serious episodes (with the final episode of the series ending on a somber note as a result). Buck and Wilma's relationship became slightly more romantic during the second year, though most romantic activity was implied and took place off-screen.


text: Moreover, the second season deals with more serious concepts such as evolution, ecology, racism, pollution, war, nuclear power, identity, the self, and religion. It also draws on mythology as exemplified by Hawk's people, who are variants on the bird people found in ancient tales around the world, and makes special reference to the moai of Easter Island. An episode also included a story about satyr creatures.


text: In addition to its parallels to Larson's previous television series "Battlestar Galactica", the second season is similar in theme to "", with the "Searcher" roaming through space much like the USS "Enterprise" had, Buck being the maverick explorer true to the style of Captain James T. Kirk, and the serious, rather stoic Hawk being a revamped version of Mr. Spock. Even Wilma, to some extent, had been remodeled after Lt. Uhura from "Star Trek", often dressed in a miniskirt uniform and regularly sitting at a communications console on the bridge of the "Searcher".


text: Although initially pleased with the change in personnel, Gerard again became unhappy with the show. At the time of production, Gerard spoke highly of new showrunner John Mantley, but in a retrospective article in the mid-1990s, he was more critical of him and the "Star Trek"-esque style of the second season. Ratings dropped significantly after the season premiere, and coupled with an increasingly problematic star, NBC cancelled the series at the end of an 11-episode, strike-abbreviated season. No finale storyline was produced, with the final episode broadcast being a normal standalone episode.


text: Guest stars on the series included Peter Graves, Lance LeGault, Jamie Lee Curtis, Markie Post, Dorothy Stratten, Leigh McCloskey, Trisha Noble, Richard Moll, Jerry Orbach, Gary Coleman, Jack Palance, Sam Jaffe, Sid Haig, Vera Miles, and Buster Crabbe (who played Buck Rogers in the original 1930s "Buck Rogers" film serial), playing Brigadier Gordon (a reference to his other famous role, Flash Gordon). Joseph Wiseman also appeared in the episode "Vegas In Space" playing the character Morphus, and was also briefly seen in the theatrical version of the pilot as Emperor Draco (Princess Ardala's father), but his appearance was edited out of the television version. Several actors who had played villains in the 1960s "Batman" television series also guest-starred, including Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Roddy McDowall, and Julie Newmar.


text: Inspired by the success of "Star Wars", Universal began developing "Buck Rogers" for television, spearheaded by Glen A. Larson, who had a production deal with the studio. Production began in 1978. Initially, Larson and Universal had planned on making a series of "Buck Rogers" TV movies for NBC. The pilot for Larson's other science-fiction series, "Battlestar Galactica" (1978), had been released theatrically in some countries and in key locations in North America, and had done well at the box office. Universal then opted to release the first "Buck Rogers" TV movie theatrically on March 30, 1979. Good box-office returns led NBC to commission a weekly series, which began on September 20, 1979, with a slightly modified version of the theatrical release.


text: The production recycled many of the props, effects shots, and costumes from "Battlestar Galactica", which was still in production at the time the pilot for "Buck Rogers" was being filmed. For example, the "landram" vehicle was made for the "Galactica" series, and the control sticks used in the Terran starfighters in the pilot movie were the same as those used in Galactica's Viper craft. The Terran starfighters were also concept designer Ralph McQuarrie's original vision of the Colonial Vipers.


text: The new series centered on Captain William Anthony "Buck" Rogers (played by Gil Gerard), a NASA/USAF pilot who commands "Ranger 3", a spacecraft that is launched in May 1987. Due to a life-support malfunction, Buck is accidentally frozen for 504 years before his spacecraft is discovered adrift in 2491. The combination of gases that froze his body coincidentally comes close to the formula commonly used in the 25th century for cryopreservation, and his rescuers are able to revive him. He learns that civilization on Earth was rebuilt following a devastating nuclear war (later established as occurring on November 22, 1987), and is now under the protection of the Earth Defense Directorate.


text: The series followed him as he tried (not always successfully) to fit into 25th-century culture. Even though no traceable personal records of him remained, he was uniquely qualified, due to his pilot and combat skills and personal ingenuity, to help Earth Defense foil assorted evil plots to conquer the planet. In many respects, this version of Buck Rogers was more similar to James Bond or Steve Austin than Nowlan's original character, and Buck often went undercover on various covert missions. Buck is aided in his adventures by his friend and sometimes romantic interest, Colonel Wilma Deering (played by Erin Gray), a high-ranking officer and starfighter pilot. He is also assisted by Twiki, a small robot or "ambuquad", as they were known. Twiki was played mainly by Felix Silla and voiced mainly by Mel Blanc (who had previously voiced Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers in spoofs of the early Buck Rogers and other science-fiction serials) using a gruff voice very similar to the one he used for Barnyard Dawg. Twiki became Buck's comic sidekick and communicated with an electronic noise that sounded like "biddi-biddi-biddi", but also spoke English (usually preceded by "biddi-biddi-biddi-biddi"). Twiki's English often consisted of 20th-century slang that he learned from Buck. Also aiding Buck was Dr. Theopolis or "Theo" (voiced by Eric Server), a sentient computer in the shape of a disk about 9 inches in diameter with an illuminated face. He was capable of understanding Twiki's electronic language, and was usually carried around his neck. Theo was a member of Earth's "computer council" and one of the planet's scientific leaders. During the first season, Buck and Wilma took their orders from Dr. Elias Huer, played by Tim O'Connor, the head of the Defense Directorate. Some episodes suggested Huer was the leader of the entire planet, though this was never made completely clear.


text: The series' chief villain (at least in the first season) was Princess Ardala (played by Pamela Hensley), whose goal was to conquer the Earth while making Buck her consort. She was aided by her henchman Kane (played in the pilot film by Henry Silva and in the series by Michael Ansara). All of these characters were featured in the original comic strip except for Dr. Theopolis and Twiki (whose closest counterpart in earlier versions would likely be Buck's human sidekick, Buddy Wade). Kane (or Killer Kane as he was then known) was also featured in the 1939 film serial, and was actually the chief villain himself, rather than Ardala's henchman (Ardala did not appear in the film serial).


text: The pilot film depicted human civilization as fairly insular, with an invisible defense shield that surrounded the entire planet, protecting it from invaders. Civilization was restricted to a few cities; the main city seen in the pilot and weekly series was New Chicago, which was also known as the Inner City. Travel beyond the Inner City was hazardous, as much of the planet was said to be a radioactive wasteland inhabited by violent mutants (as Buck discovered when he visited the derelict remains of old Chicago).


text: The series was originally shown in the UK by ITV, beginning in late August 1980, with the feature-length, two-part episode "Planet of the Slave Girls" (the pilot film, which had been released theatrically in Britain in summer 1979, was not actually shown on British television until 1982). ITV broadcast "Buck Rogers" in an early Saturday-evening slot, where it competed against, and beat, the BBC's long-running science-fiction series "Doctor Who" that also started its 18th season that day. As a similar effect had occurred a few years earlier when several ITV stations screened "Man from Atlantis" against "Doctor Who"; this prompted the BBC to move "Doctor Who" to a new weekday slot for its next season in 1982, though "Buck Rogers" had been cancelled in the US by then. The BBC aired the "Buck Rogers" series on BBC Two in 1989 and again in 1995-1996. Forces TV later broadcast the show several times from November 2018.


text: The theatrical version of the pilot film was released on VHS, Betamax, and Laserdisc in 1981. A handful of the episodes were issued in the US in 1985 by MCA Home Video: "Vegas in Space", "Space Vampire", "Return of the Fighting 69th", "Unchained Woman", "A Blast for Buck", "Happy Birthday Buck", "Space Rockers", and "The Guardians". In 1987, a single episode, "Ardala Returns", was released by Goodtimes Home Video, a budget release company. The same MCA tapes were re-released in the late 1990s. In other countries, several series episodes were released on VHS in the late 1990s. Australia released 10 volumes, covering all first-season episodes through "Space Rockers".


text: Universal Studios released the complete series on DVD in North America (Region 1) on November 16, 2004. While it does contain every episode from both seasons, the pilot episode included is the theatrical version and not the TV version. The set contains five double-sided discs.


text: The series was released on DVD in Europe (Region 2), though each season was released separately as opposed to in one set like the Region 1 release. Season one was released on November 22, 2004, and season two on October 31, 2005, neither of which had the same cover artwork or menu screens as the Region 1 release. Notable differences are the addition of subtitles for various European languages.


text: On January 24, 2012, Universal Studios re-released season one as a six-disc set in North America. The discs were single-sided for this release, in contrast to the double-sided discs released in 2004. Season two was re-released with single-sided discs on January 8, 2013. As a bonus feature, the second-season set includes the television version of the original pilot film, "Awakening", the first time this version has been released on DVD.