title: Pangasinan

text: Pangasinan is located in the west central area of Luzon in the Philippines. It is bordered by La Union to the north, Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya to the northeast, Nueva Ecija to the southeast, and Zambales and Tarlac to the south. To the west of Pangasinan is the South China Sea. The province also encloses the Lingayen Gulf.


title: Pangasinan

text: The province has a land area of . It is north of Manila, south of Baguio, north of Subic International Airport and Seaport, and north of Clark International Airport. At the coast of Alaminos, the Hundred islands have become a famous tourist spot.


title: Pangasinan

text: The terrain of the province, as part of the Central Luzon plains, is typically flat, with a few parts being hilly and/or mountainous. The northeastern municipalities of San Manuel, San Nicolas, Natividad, San Quintin and Umingan have hilly to mountainous areas at the tip of the Cordillera mountains. The Zambales mountains extend to the province's western towns of Labrador, Mabini, Bugallon, Aguilar, Mangatarem, Dasol, and Infanta forming the mountainous portions of those towns.


title: Pangasinan

text: The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) reported several inactive volcanoes in the province: Amorong, Balungao, Cabaluyan, Cahelietan, Candong, and Malabobo. PHIVOLCS reported no active or potentially active volcanoes in Pangasinan. A caldera-like landform is located between the towns of Malasiqui and Villasis with a center at about 15° 55′ N and 120° 30′ E near the Cabaruan Hills.


title: Pangasinan

text: Several rivers traverse the province. The longest is the Agno River which originates in the Cordillera Mountains of Benguet and eventually terminates at the Lingayen Gulf. Other major rivers include the Bued River, Angalacan River, Sinocalan River, Patalan River and the Cayanga River.


title: Pangasinan

text: The province of Pangasinan is subdivided into 44 municipalities, 4 cities, and 1,364 "barangay" (which means "village" or "community"). There are six congressional districts in the province.


title: Pangasinan

text: The capital of the province is Lingayen. In ancient times, the capital of Pangasinan was Binalatongan, now San Carlos. During Japanese occupation, Dagupan was made a wartime capital.


title: Pangasinan

text: Pangasinan has 1,364 barangays comprising its 44 municipalities and 4 cities, ranking the province at 3rd with the most barangays in a Philippine province, only behind the Visayan provinces of Leyte and Iloilo.


title: Pangasinan

text: Longos Amangonan Parac‑Parac Fabrica is the longest named barangay in the Philippines. It is situated in the municipality of San Fabian, Pangasinan. The most populous barangay in the province is Bonuan Gueset in Dagupan City with a population of 22,042 as of 2010. If cities are excluded, "Poblacion" in the municipality of Lingayen has the highest population at 12,642. "Iton" in Bayambang has the lowest with only 99 as of the 2010 census.


title: Pangasinan

text: The Pangasinan people (Totoon Pangasinan) are called Pangasinan or the Hispanicized name "Pangasinense", or simply "taga-Pangasinan", which means "native of Pangasinan". Pangasinan people were known as traders, businesspeople, farmers and fishers. Pangasinan is the third most-populated province in the Philippines. The estimated population of the indigenous speakers of the Pangasinan language in the province of Pangasinan is almost 2 million and is projected to double in about 30 years. According to the 2000 census 47 percent of the population are native Pangasinan and 44 percent are Ilocano settlers. Indigenous Sambal people predominate in the westernmost municipalities of Bolinao and Anda. The Pangasinan people are closely related to the Austronesian-speaking peoples of the Philippines as well as Indonesia and Malaysia.


title: Pangasinan

text: The Pangasinan language is an agglutinative language. It belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian languages branch of the Austronesian language family and is the primary language of the province of Pangasinan, as well as northern Tarlac and southwestern La Union. The Pangasinan language is similar to the other Malayo-Polynesian languages of the Philippines, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia. It is closely related to the Ibaloi language spoken in the neighboring province of Benguet, located northwest of Pangasinan. The Pangasinan language along with Ibaloi are classified under the Pangasinic group of languages. The other Pangasinic languages are:


title: Pangasinan

text: Aside from their native language, many educated Pangasinans are highly proficient in Ilocano, English and Filipino. Pangasinan is mostly spoken in the central part of the province in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and is the second language in other parts of Pangasinan. Ilocano is widely spoken in the westernmost and easternmost parts of Pangasinan in the 1st, 5th and 6th districts, and is the second language in other parts of Pangasinan. Ilocanos and Pangasinans speak Ilocano with a Pangasinan accent, as descendants of Ilocanos from first generation who lived within Pangasinan population learned Pangasinan language. Bolinao, a Sambalic language is widely spoken in the western tip of the province in the towns of Bolinao and Anda.


title: Pangasinan

text: The dominant religion in Pangasinan is Roman Catholicism with 80% affiliation in the population. The Aglipayan Church comes in second with 15% of the population. Other religious denominations are divided with other Christian groups such as Members Church of God International, Iglesia Ni Cristo, Baptist, Methodist, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventist. Few are strict believers and continue to practice their indigenous anito beliefs and rituals, like most of the people of the Philippines.


title: Pangasinan

text: Spanish and American missionaries introduced Christianity to Pangasinan. Prior to the Spanish conquest in 1571, the predominant religion of the people of Pangasinan was similar to the indigenous religion of the highland Igorot or the inhabitants of the Cordillera Administrative Region on the island of Luzon, who mostly retained their indigenous culture and religion. A translation of the New Testament (excluding Revelation) in the Pangasinan language by Fr. Nicolas Manrique Alonzo Lallave, a Spanish Dominican friar assigned in Urdaneta, was the first ever translation of a complete portion of the Bible in a Philippine language. Pangasinan was also influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam to a lesser extent before the introduction of Christianity. Some Pangasinense people have reverted to their indigenous religion of worshiping Ama Kaoley or Ama-Gaolay, while the Sambal people of the west have reverted to their indigenous religion worshiping Malayari.


title: Pangasinan

text: The province's economy is mainly agricultural due to its vast fertile plains. More than 44 percent of its agricultural area is devoted to crop production. Aside from being one of the Philippine's rice granaries, Pangasinan is also a major producer of coconut, mango and eggplant. Pangasinan is the richest province in the Ilocos Region.


title: Pangasinan

text: The 1200 megawatt Sual coal-fired power plant and 345 megawatt San Roque multi-purpose dam in the municipalities of Sual and San Manuel, respectively, are the primary sources of energy in the province.


title: Pangasinan

text: Pangasinan is a major fish supplier in Luzon and a major producer of salt in the Philippines. It has extensive fishponds mostly for raising "bangus" or "milkfish" along the coasts of the Lingayen Gulf and the South China Sea. Pangasinan's aquaculture includes oyster and sea urchin farms.


title: Pangasinan

text: Salt is also a major industry. In salt evaporation ponds seawater is mixed with sodium bicarbonate until the water evaporates and the salt remains. This is their ancient tradition inspired from Egypt.


title: Pangasinan

text: The major crops in Pangasinan are rice, mangoes, corn, and sugar cane. Pangasinan has a land area of 536,819 hectares, and 44 percent of the total land area of Pangasinan is devoted to agricultural production.


title: Pangasinan

text: There are thousands of public schools and hundreds of private schools across the province for primary and secondary education. Many Pangasinans go to Metro Manila, Baguio, and the United States for tertiary and higher education.


title: Pangasinan

text: Pangasinan has 51 hospitals and clinics and 68 rural health units (as of July 2002). Although some residents go to other parts of the Philippines, Metro Manila, Europe and the United States for extensive medical tests and treatment, almost all Pangasinans go to the major medical centers in the cities of Dagupan, San Carlos and Urdaneta.


title: Pangasinan

text: The culture of Pangasinan is a blend of the indigenous Malayo-Polynesian and western Hispanic culture with some Indian and Chinese influences as well as American influences. Pangasinan is westernized yet retains a strong native Austronesian background.


title: Pangasinan

text: The main centers of Pangasinan culture are Dagupan City, Lingayen, Manaoag, Calasiao and San Carlos City.


title: Pangasinan

text: The incumbent governor of Pangasinan is Ramon Guico III along with Vice Governor Mark Lambino, son of Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Raul Lambino. Among prominent figures who served as Governor of Pangasinan include Francisco Duque Jr., former Secretary of Department of Health (Philippines), Conrado Estrella, former secretary of Department of Agrarian Reform, Tito Primicias, Vicente Millora, Daniel Maramba, Oscar Orbos, Victor Agbayani and Amado Espino Jr.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot (Floyd Lawton) is a supervillain and antihero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by David Vern Reed, Lew Schwartz and Bob Kane, the character made his first appearance in "Batman" #59 (June–July 1950). The character was modernized with the popular look he is now known for in "Detective Comics" #474 by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin. He is an excellent sniper who regularly boasts of never missing a shot, and is often considered one of the deadliest assassins in the DC Universe. Deadshot is primarily an adversary of the superhero Batman and belongs to the collection of enemies that make up his rogues gallery, though he has also come into conflict with other heroes, such as Green Arrow. While typically portrayed as a supervillain, he has also been occasionally depicted as an antihero.


title: Deadshot

text: The character has been substantially adapted from the comics into various forms of media, including television series, feature films and video games. Years after a one-off appearance, Deadshot became a recurring popular Batman villain following Detective Comics #474 and eventually joined the Suicide Squad. Deadshot was portrayed by Bradley Stryker in the final season of "Smallville", by Michael Rowe in the Arrowverse, and by Will Smith in the DC Extended Universe, starting with the 2016 film, "Suicide Squad". IGN ranked Deadshot as the 43rd-greatest comic book villain of all time in 2009.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot is often a hired assassin, regularly boasting to "Never Miss". He is capable of using a large variety of weapons, but is most frequently portrayed as using a pair of suppressed, wrist-mounted guns. He initially appears in Gotham City as a new crime fighter, but is revealed to be an enemy of Batman when he attempts to replace the Dark Knight. He is sent to jail when Batman and Commissioner Gordon publicly expose his plot to become the king of Gotham's underworld. After breaking out of jail, Deadshot begins hiring his services out as an assassin. At this point, he changes his costume from the top hat and tails he previously wore to a red jumpsuit and distinctive metal face plate with a targeting device on the right side.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot's past is revealed in subsequent appearances. His real name is Floyd Lawton, and he grew up in a wealthy household with his mother, abusive father and older brother Eddie. Eddie was beloved by his parents and the other townspeople, while Floyd was a troubled child and despised by his parents; still, Floyd idolized his brother and always stood up for him during conflicts with the town's other children. Floyd's parents were the most powerful people in his town, but they were known to despise each other. Eventually Floyd's mother claimed his father had become "too abusive", prompting Floyd and Eddie to kill him. When Eddie attempted the kill, he shot his father's spine, crippling him. Floyd took a shot from his tree house but accidentally killed Eddie instead. From that moment on, Floyd swore to never miss another shot again.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot has been a major figure in the Suicide Squad in many of its incarnations, where his skills as a marksman and his disregard for human life serve to advance the group's objectives.


title: Deadshot

text: One of his most defining traits is a desire to die in a spectacular fashion, this being his primary motivation for joining the Suicide Squad. He feels he has no reason to continue living, and, while he does not want to commit suicide, he simply does not care if he dies. Various reasons have been cited for this, but the most common thread in them is his parents' peculiar hatred for one another.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot almost gets his wish to die when he confronts a Senator who is threatening to expose the Suicide Squad to the world. Having been ordered to stop his immediate superior, Rick Flag, from assassinating the senator, he kills the senator himself, citing his orders as "Stop Flag from killing the Senator. Exact words". After this Deadshot is gunned down by the police on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He survives his wounds, to continue on with the Squad.


title: Deadshot

text: Lawton's uniform is stolen by an airport employee, who uses it to commit crimes and murders. Lawton is forced to kill the man with a bullet to the head. The shooting of his own "image" affects him greatly; for a while, he does not even fix the hole in his own uniform. While the suit has been lost, Lawton has threatened to kill the man he thought had been responsible, his teammate Captain Boomerang.


title: Deadshot

text: During a mission for the Suicide Squad, Count Vertigo asks Deadshot if he would kill him if asked. Deadshot agrees and the two go off to a secluded area for the decision. Vertigo declines, a decision Deadshot accepts with no argument.


title: Deadshot

text: After being affected by the supernatural entity Neron during the "Underworld Unleashed" storyline, Deadshot decides to kill a kindergarten class via a large explosion. An incarnation of the Justice League stops him. Around this time, Deadshot travels overseas to kill the Pope. Wonder Woman stops him at the last minute.


title: Deadshot

text: After dozens of villains are infected by the Joker venom, Deadshot, Merlyn and Deadline attack the Iron Heights metahuman prison. Deadline is killed and Deadshot rescues Captain Boomerang from medical confinement.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot had a son named Edward "Eddie" Lawton who appeared in the 1988 "Deadshot" series. Eddie was sodomized and killed by Wes Anselm, a member of the gang hired by Deadshot's mother in order to blackmail her son into finally killing his hated father. In retaliation, Deadshot crippled her spine.


title: Deadshot

text: In a second miniseries released in 2005, Deadshot discovers he has a daughter, Zoe, who is being raised in a crime-filled area of Star City. Lawton decides to do right by his daughter, and embarks on a lethal war on the local gangs that plague the area. The series ends with Deadshot faking his death, having realized a normal life is not for him, but also having mostly cleared up the area and convincing Green Arrow to patrol it more regularly.


title: Deadshot

text: In the New 52 continuity of Suicide Squad, there is a Japanese girl named Suchin Lawton who is revealed to be Deadshot's daughter, though little else is revealed.


title: Deadshot

text: During the 2005–2006 "Infinite Crisis" storyline, Deadshot is featured in the series "Villains United". The Secret Six are banded together by a mysterious, shrouded character named Mockingbird (who is actually Lex Luthor) who offers a major reward for committing to the team and a severe punishment for not accepting membership. Deadshot is offered the reward of ruling North America; his punishment is to be the destruction of the neighborhood in which his daughter and his daughter's mother live. At the end of the miniseries, the conflict ends in stalemate and Deadshot's status remains roughly unchanged from the end of his second miniseries. He remains a part of The Secret Six and is shown having reached a grudging friendship with another member, Catman. His share of the payment for the Six's mercenary work is stated to be sent in its entirety to his daughter and her mother. After the Six disband, Knockout comments in passing that he has returned to the Suicide Squad.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot and the Suicide Squad are featured in "Countdown", rounding up supervillains for removal. The group encounters Pied Piper and Trickster several times, and each time fail to capture them. In "Countdown to Final Crisis" #24 Deadshot makes a solo effort to capture them, but the pair again elude him. In issue 22, Deadshot (breaking orders from Amanda Waller and Suicide Squad protocol) attacks Piper and Trickster on a train outside of the Rocky Mountains. Given that the supervillains are aware of Project Salvation ("Salvation Run"), Deadshot apparently kills The Trickster, leaving Pied Piper on his own. In "Salvation Run" #2, Deadshot is tricked and sent off to the prison planet along with the last batch of criminals. Rick Flag, Jr. tells him as the Boom tube closes that he cannot have people like him on Earth. Deadshot vows that if he ever returns to Earth, he would take his revenge on Flag. After helping fight off the Parademon invasion, he escapes with the surviving villains in the teleportation machine.


title: Deadshot

text: In "", Deadshot is seen breaking into Arkham Asylum. He goes to the Joker's cell and explains that he has taken a contract on the Joker's life, due to his indirect responsibility for the death of a high school student. Just as he is about to kill the Joker, however, Onomatopoeia arrives and engages Deadshot in a shootout. Eventually, Onomatopoeia gains the upper hand and shoots Deadshot in the head.


title: Deadshot

text: It is later revealed that Deadshot's armor saves him, and masks his vital signs to make it appear that he had been killed. He explains what happened at Arkham to Batman, before being turned over to the Gotham Police. Batman uses the technology of Lawton's mask to later survive an encounter with the Joker and Onomatopoeia.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot, along with Scandal Savage, Bane, Rag Doll and Catman reunite the Secret Six, having been hired to retrieve Tarantula from Alcatraz Island, and find a card which she stole from Junior, a mysterious villain who supposedly runs the entire West Coast mob. Junior has practically the entire villain community at her beck and call, all afraid of her, even those in Arkham Asylum. The Six later learn that the card in question was made by Neron, and says "Get Out Of Hell Free."


title: Deadshot

text: Soon, the Six are attacked by a small army of super-villains, all wanting to recover the card and collect the reward of $20 million for each of the Six, under the orders of Junior, who captures and tortures Bane, whose strong principles and moral convictions, paired with his fatherly fondness of Scandal keep him from betraying his new team. It is later revealed that Junior is in fact Rag Doll's sister and daughter of the first Rag Doll. She has the ghastly appearance of an old clown, with sliced skin and eyes stitched wide open to give the appearance of a clown.


title: Deadshot

text: The Six escape, and head for Gotham City, with Deadshot seemingly betraying them and leaving with Tarantula. The Six manage to catch up to Deadshot, only to be attacked by Junior and the Super villains, and the Mad Hatter, who is revealed to be the one who hired them, simply so they would be killed. Tarantula sacrifices herself by pulling herself and Junior in front of the Super villains' combined attack, seemingly destroying the card along with them. However, it is later shown that Scandal is now in possession of the card.


title: Deadshot

text: The Suicide Squad re-enter Deadshot's life when the title returned in January 2010 as a tie-in to the "Blackest Night" storyline.


title: Deadshot

text: While on a mission to Gotham City to kill several of Batman's allies, Rag Doll insinuates that Deadshot and Catman are friends despite their protestations, something they grudgingly acknowledge. Before this plot thread can be pursued further, the Six are ambushed by an army of superheroes who had come to assist Batman. Deadshot and the rest of the team choose to fight the heroes despite the overwhelming odds, and Deadshot manages to take down Doctor Light before being blasted and rendered unconscious by Green Lantern. The rest of the Six are similarly trounced and defeated soon after.


title: Deadshot

text: In The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), Deadshot is recruited to the Suicide Squad prior to the events of the first issue. He still has a daughter and wears a costume similar to the one he wore in the 2000s miniseries, but his son has been erased from continuity. In addition, Deadshot no longer has his trademark mustache (though he briefly regrows it to cover a scar in issue #13). He is portrayed as a Batman villain and a rival of Mad Dog, a bounty hunter. He also is bitter enemies with Captain Boomerang.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot is arrested for a failed assassination of a U.S. Senator by Batman and was sentenced to life in prison. Later, he is recruited to be part of the Suicide Squad in exchange for early release. Deadshot is made team leader due to his skill under pressure, but quickly grows disillusioned with the group after a planned visit with his daughter, his first since his arrest, is withheld from him and ultimately aborted within minutes of him reuniting with his daughter in order to send him on a mission.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot ultimately sacrifices his life to kill the evil cult member Regulas, who had brainwashed most of the members of Suicide Squad and had recruited Black Spider into his group Basilisk in order to assassinate Amanda Waller. Deadshot is later revealed to have been resurrected, possibly through use of an arm from Resurrection Man, obtained by the Squad for Waller during an earlier mission.


title: Deadshot

text: During the 2013–2014 "Forever Evil" story line, Amanda Waller contacts Deadshot to help her get the Suicide Squad back together after the three Justice League teams are "dead." After his money was wired, Deadshot heads out to get Harley Quinn back on the team.


title: Deadshot

text: During the War of Jokes and Riddles, a story taking place in the early days of Batman's career, Deadshot sided with the Joker. Deadshot engaged Deathstroke, who sided with the Riddler, in a battle that took over 5 days, killing multiple victims. Eventually Batman put a stop to it and gave both a swift defeat. Deadshot suffered severe head trauma and was hospitalized.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot remained a stalwart of the Suicide Squad throughout. However, he was finally killed by Black Mask on an operation that soon fell apart.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot has no superhuman powers but is the top marksman in the DC Universe. He possesses superhuman-like accuracy, and regularly boasts that he "never misses" his target. Deadshot once shot an apple off of Captain Boomerang's head with his eyes closed. He also intentionally grazed the skull of Enchantress while she was flying, since he was asked to take her down non-lethally. He is so skilled that he can make his shots ricochet from structures and kill multiple targets at the same time. He can even shoot around corners. Deadshot is also a tactical genius and master strategist and is also a highly skilled demolitions expert.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot has access to a vast array of weaponry, most notably, his sniper rifle and twin machine guns mounted on each arm. Deadshot is allegedly bilingual, and learned to speak Russian as a youth. He also claims to have been a Card-carrying Communist.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot has proven to be a formidable hand-to-hand combatant when needed due to his excellent physical condition and training as an assassin. He has gone toe-to-toe against Batman on several occasions and has also fought Deathstroke to a standstill. He is adept in Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Boxing, Krav Maga and Muay Thai. He is also an expert in many different styles of knife fighting. Lawton also possesses advanced knowledge of the human anatomy and knows all the weak spots and pressure points of the human body.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot is portrayed as a consummate professional; as long as he has been paid to kill someone, he will always carry it out, without exceptions. Batman was unable to get him to stop threatening a witness by threatening Deadshot or his family; Deadshot rightly assumed that Batman was bluffing. However, Batman ultimately does get Deadshot to abort the hit by freezing his client's bank accounts. Unable to get paid, Deadshot publicly cancelled the assassination, letting the witness go free.


title: Deadshot

text: Perhaps his most defining trait is his acknowledged death wish, which often manifests as him deliberately engineering situations likely to kill him. This makes him unpredictable as an opponent, as his willingness to die allows him to deliberately injure himself to achieve a goal. For example, during Identity Crisis, he deliberately shoots himself in the neck while fighting Kyle Rayner, so that Rayner would attempt to save him and drop his guard, allowing Lawton to take aim and almost shoot him. He often expresses disappointment at surviving his missions, such as immediately lamenting "damn" when awakening in a hospital.


title: Deadshot

text: In his run on "Suicide Squad", John Ostrander delved into Deadshot's past and family background. The revelation of Deadshot having a brother, whom he idolized, seemed to resonate with Deadshot's attachment to Rick Flag, team leader. Ostrander implied that this relationship also colored Deadshot's rivalry with Batman, whom Deadshot had always been unable—or subconsciously unwilling—to kill.


title: Deadshot

text: In the Amalgam Comics universe, Deadshot was combined with the Marvel villain Bullseye to create the assassin Deadeye. William Lawton appears as an enemy of Dare the Terminator and Catsai.


title: Deadshot

text: In the tie-in comic to "Arrow", issue "Back from the Deadshot" (set after the events of "Lone Gunmen"), when Floyd regains consciousness, an elderly homeless man approaches him. Deadshot wrenches the arrow from his eye and stabs the old man with it. As he staggers out of the building, he is kidnapped by a group of men in a van after losing consciousness again, before he could be taken by the police. In a hospital room, Lawton wakes up and finds his eye having been operated on. Before his brain could be examined, under the instructions of an unknown man, he breaks out of his restraints and walks out. Two months later, Deadshot appears in Bludhaven and approaches a man who apparently has a job for him, but he is rejected due to having only one fully working eye. He stays in this city as retired assassin before China White gives him a new offer and new eye scope.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot appears in "Arrow" digital comic, working as part of the Suicide Squad, killing members of the extremist sect Onslaught in the Republic of Kasnia along with Bronze Tiger. The two were later training in the A.R.G.U.S. headquarters, taking out ten men in 7 seconds. Soon afterwards, he, Tiger, Diggle and Ravan Nassar are deployed to Kahndaq to take down Onslaught. When they arrive at an Onslaught camp, Deadshot takes up his trademark sniper position, killing an Onslaught member as he was about to execute hostages, providing a distraction for Bronze Tiger and Diggle to begin killing other members. After Nassar blows up an Onslaught truck, Deadshot and the rest of the group find a survivor to take them to Khem-Adam. Lawton and Turner torture the survivor, but Diggle manages to convince the survivor to tell the Squad the location of Khem-Adam's lair. They arrive there and free the kidnapped girls, killing several Onslaught agents along the way. Lawton picks up Turner's body after Khem-Adam killed him and carries him out to the waiting A.R.G.U.S. helicopter, insisting that he be buried in his home country.


title: Deadshot

text: In the "" prequel comic series, Deadshot appears as a member of Harley Quinn's new Suicide Squad, free of Amanda Waller's explosive collars. During the team's mission to release Killer Croc from the GCPD Headquarters, Deadshot has the opportunity to shoot Batman and Robin as they pass by, but is stopped from doing so by Harley. Deadshot and Captain Boomerang are later hired by the Penguin to assassinate Bruce Wayne, only to run into Batman and Killer Croc. During the fight, Deadshot reveals that he is still working for Waller, kills Boomerang, and chases away Killer Croc, saving Batman's life. Batman then subdues Deadshot, but the latter tells him that, if he is arrested, Waller will have him released in no time, and suggests a temporary alliance to investigate Simon Stagg's "Project: Meta". The two discover that the project involves weaponizing Clayface's remains, and are forced to fight a number of monsters created from Clayface's clay. During the fight, Deadshot betrays and attempts to kill Batman, but is stopped and arrested by Commissioner James Gordon. Later, while Deadshot is being interrogated at the GCPD Headquarters, Waller arrives and begins arguing with Gordon over her operative's arrest. When Gordon is distracted by Batman (actually Robin in disguise) delivering Bruce Wayne safely, Deadshot and Waller seize the opportunity to vanish.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot appears as the main antagonist of the tie-in digital comic taking place between the video games "" and "". Hailing from a family of wealthy real-estate tycoons, Floyd witnessed his older brother killed by his abusive parents when he was a child and later murdered them when he was fourteen while setting it up to make it look like they killed themselves. Inheriting his family's wealth, he quits the real-estate business and becomes a military contractor, giving him access to a large arsenal of weapons.


title: Deadshot

text: Lawton later discovers that despite his parents being sent to Arkham Asylum on accounts of child abuse before his brother's death, they were not committed to the prison as their doctor, Thomas Wayne, agreed to keep them out of the asylum as long as they give him a large discount on a building that would eventually become Wayne Tower. After the revelations of Thomas Wayne's corrupt nature were brought to the public in the first game, Lawton becomes Deadshot and uses his expert marksmanship to hunt down the Arkham staff that were working at the asylum during the time period that Thomas operated.


title: Deadshot

text: Bruce talks to Lawton in person in hopes of getting Deadshot to target him instead of the Arkham staff, but he antagonizes Lawton to the point where he decides to go after those close to Bruce instead. While Bruce manages to save Lucius Fox and Commissioner Gordon, Deadshot kidnaps Alfred with the rest of the Arkham staff and attaches explosives to each of them. He gives Batman a gun and forces the vigilante to decide between shooting him or letting the hostages die to prove to Gotham that true heroes do not exist. Batman instead shoots the detonator and defeats Deadshot as Alfred frees the rest of the hostages. Lawton is sent to Arkham Asylum after his lawyer argued for his untreated PTSD, where a shadowed figure offers him a spot in the Suicide Squad.


title: Deadshot

text: In "The Flash" digital comic, Lawton teams up with Digger Harkness and Carrie Cutter as part of the Squad. They watch The Flash take on the meta-human King Shark. Waller tells him and the rest of the Squad to suit up, as they were going in to stop the Shark. They arrive outside of the man's former apartment and Deadshot helps to knock him down, before Cupid traps him with a net. Joe West approaches, asking who they were, before Lawton introduced them as the Suicide Squad. They each fire at him, but he is saved by The Flash, who rushed him to safety while the Squad appears to recognize him.


title: Deadshot

text: Set in a near alternate future of the New 52, Lawton is imprisoned in an underground Belle Reeve missing his shooting arm. He, and the future Black Manta and Harley Quinn are broken out by Amanda Waller, who informs them that they were imprisoned and forgotten as the government found a way to clone super villains and Suicide Squad members in Texas. After Harley and Manta are killed by Joker clones, Deadshot allows Waller time by taking on a Deathstroke clone in a sword fight. Despite his disadvantages, Deadshot defeats the clone and sacrifices his life in the process. Deadshot's actions allowed Waller to break into the main hub and stop the cloning.


title: Deadshot

text: Deadshot makes a cameo in the "Tiny Titans" series as a player on Lobo's soccer team called the Secret Six.


title: Deadshot

text: While Deadshot was not in the TV series "Young Justice", he did appear in the tie-in comic. He is seemingly hired by Queen Bee to assassinate Quraci President Rumaan Harjavti, but is intercepted by Superman, Superboy and Miss Martian. He does manage to shoot Rumaan's brother, Sumaan in the shoulder before he was nearly beaten to death by Superboy (who was aggressive due to Luthor's patch drug) and carried to the hospital by Superman. Queen Bee revealed that Deadshot did succeed as his mission was to actually injure Sumaan (as Sumaan would be viewed as a hero to the public and she has Sumaan under her control).


title: Deadshot

text: Zoe Lawton was created by Christos N Gage and Steven Cummings. She made her first appearance in "Deadshot" #1.


title: Deadshot

text: The daughter of Michelle Torres and Deadshot, Zoe was conceived following a casual liaison. Her mother gave up prostitution and drugs for Zoe's sake and moved them to a poor neighborhood in Star City, where she was raised for four years without her father's knowledge.


title: Deadshot

text: Zoe and her mother are approached by Deadshot who has recently learned of her existence. She is babysat by Deadshot, with whom she bonds. Later, when Deadshot is forced to leave the family for their protection, she is granted admittance to a good school thanks to her father's connections.


title: Deadshot

text: Spending time with her father and mother in a park, Zoe is present when they are suddenly attacked by Lady Vic and Double Dare. She and her mother are allowed to flee by the assassins, but return to assist Deadshot. She is the reason Deadshot does not kill any of his assailants. Later, she is present when her father calls her mother and informs her that he will never see them again, for their own safety.


title: Emmett Brown

text: Emmett Lathrop Brown, Ph.D., commonly referred to as Doc Brown, is a fictional scientist character in the "Back to the Future" franchise. In the world of the franchise, he is the inventor of the world's first and second time machines, the first (counting in order of his personal chronology) constructed using a 1981 DeLorean sports car, and the second constructed using a steam engine locomotive.


title: Emmett Brown

text: The character is portrayed by Christopher Lloyd in all three films, as well as in the live action sequences of the . He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta in the animated series. The character's appearance and mannerisms are loosely inspired by Leopold Stokowski and Albert Einstein. In 2008, Dr. Emmett Brown was selected by "Empire" magazine as one of "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time", ranking at #20.


title: Emmett Brown

text: He appears to possess great admiration for scientists from previous eras, naming successive pet dogs Copernicus and Einstein, and having portraits of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein in his laboratory. His favorite author is Jules Verne and his family name was originally "von Braun" during World War I.


title: Emmett Brown

text: Emmett's family moved to Hill Valley from Germany in 1908. Although initially wealthy because of his inheritance, he spent his entire family fortune on his time travel project. When the Brown mansion was destroyed by fire in 1962 and the property sold to developers, Doc subsequently resided in the mansion's garage. Once broke, he established a privately owned business to offer 24-hour scientific services, building ingenious devices for his customers.


title: Emmett Brown

text: Emmett's work appears to be highly regarded, enough for him to win an award for his work. However, he is shown as absent-minded at times, and various statements by other characters inhabiting Hill Valley indicate that he is generally regarded as strange, eccentric, or insane due to him conducting dangerous experiments and crafting devices believed impossible to construct in reality. Being very loud and sprightly, he often speaks with wide-eyed expressions and broad gestures ("Great Scott!" being one of his well-known catchphrases) and tends to be overly verbose in his delivery, referring in one case to a school dance as a "rhythmic ceremonial ritual".


title: Emmett Brown

text: Doc and Marty met when the latter was 14, several years prior to the events of the first time travel experiment. Marty, out of curiosity, sneaked into Doc's lab after being warned by his parents to stay away from him. Happy to be revered as 'cool', Doc hired Marty as his part-time lab assistant.


title: Emmett Brown

text: In the original timeline, in contrast with Marty's shy and unassertive father, George McFly, Doc is a supportive and open-minded mentor for Marty. Doc's positive influence in turn allows Marty to mentor George in 1955, which appears to encourage George's later success as a novelist, and help him become a better husband and father. One line in particular, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," originates from Doc. Marty repeats it to George in 1955, who repeats it back to Marty in the post time travel 1985.


title: Emmett Brown

text: Doc has been involved with illegal and criminal enterprises (albeit as a means to obtain items for his inventions he could not purchase legally) but he is naive and care-free about the consequences of his actions. He excitedly tells Marty how he cheated Libyan terrorists out of stolen plutonium: "They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and, in turn, gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts!"


title: Emmett Brown

text: Despite being intelligent and logical for the most part, Doc is somewhat naive at times about the unknown possible uses of his time machine, initially actively explores the course of the world's future and tries to alter the past or future of the principal characters to improve their lives. However, events lead him to conclude that time travel is too dangerous for mankind. His conviction initially strengthened when he realizes that he has unwittingly altered history by preventing the death of Clara Clayton in 1885; he concludes that the time machine has "caused nothing but disaster" and asks Marty to destroy it once he returns to his own time. Nonetheless, Doc pursues a romantic relationship with Clara despite the risks of further disrupting the timeline.


title: Emmett Brown

text: However, after having been left behind in 1885 when Marty departs in the DeLorean for 1985, Doc starts a family with Clara; the couple have two sons, Jules and Verne. He eventually builds another time machine out of a steam locomotive, completed it on September 1893, and the Browns return to 1985 in order to pick up Einstein and meet with Marty again before setting out for another adventure.


title: Emmett Brown

text: Lloyd reprised the role of Doc Brown in the 2015 direct-to-video short film "Doc Brown Saves the World", which reveals that he has returned to his time at some point after the events of "Back to the Future Part III" and erased the future witnessed in "Back to the Future Part II" as the various inventions of that time led to mass obesity and Griff Tannen triggering a nuclear holocaust.


title: Emmett Brown

text: The character's family name is similar to German rocket engineer Wernher von Braun until his family changed it to "Brown" during WW1. "Emmett" or "Emit" spelled slightly differently is the backward spelling of "time". His second name, "Lathrop", roughly spells "portal" backwards.


title: Emmett Brown

text: Rick Sanchez of the American animated series "Rick and Morty" (voiced by Justin Roiland) began as a parody of Doc Brown; in September 2021, Christopher Lloyd portrayed Sanchez himself in a series of promotional interstitials for the series' two-part fifth season finale, alongside Jaeden Martell as Morty Smith (also voiced by Roiland in the series), a character inspired by Marty McFly. Addressing Roiland's and his own portrayals of Rick compared to Doc Brown, Christopher Lloyd stated "that he felt like Doc and Rick were like two brothers that took different paths."


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (; ; – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on psychological development in children. He published on a diverse range of subjects, and from multiple views as his perspective changed over the years. Among his students was Alexander Luria and Kharkiv school of psychology.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: He is known for his concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD): the distance between what a student (apprentice, new employee, etc.) can do on their own, and what they can accomplish with the support of someone more knowledgeable about the activity. Vygotsky saw the ZPD as a measure of skills that are in the process of maturing, as supplement to measures of development that only look at a learner's independent ability.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Also influential are his works on the relationship between language and thought, the development of language, and a general theory of development through actions and relationships in a socio-cultural environment. This can be found in many of his essays.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Despite his claim for a "new psychology" that he foresaw as a "science of the Superman" of the Communist future, Vygotsky's main work was in developmental psychology. In order to fully understand the human mind, he believed one must understand its genesis. Consequently, the majority of his work involved the study of infant and child behavior, as well as the development of language acquisition (such as the importance of pointing and inner speech) and the development of concepts; now often referred to as schemas or schemata.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Early in the psychological research period of his career (1920s), which focused upon mechanistic and reductionist "instrumental psychology" in many ways inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov (his theory of "higher nervous activity") and Vladimir Bekhterev (and his "reflexologist" followers), Vygotsky argued that human psychological development could be formed through the use of meaningless (i.e., virtually random) signs that he viewed as the psychological equivalent of instrument use in human labor and industry. It was later during the "holistic" period of his career (the first half of the 1930s) that Vygotsky rejected this earlier reductionist views on signs.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: While Vygotsky never met Jean Piaget, he had read a number of his works and agreed on some of his perspectives on learning. At some point (around 1929–30), Vygotsky came to disagree with Piaget's understanding of learning and development, and held a different theoretical position from Piaget on the topic of inner speech; Piaget asserted that egocentric speech in children "dissolved away" as they matured, while Vygotsky maintained that egocentric speech became internalized, what we now call "inner speech". However, in the early 1930s he radically changed his mind on Piaget's theory and openly praised him for his discovery of the social origin of children's speech, reasoning, and moral judgements. Piaget only read Vygotsky's work after his death.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Nearing the end of his life, Vygotsky's later work involved adolescent development. However, his most important and widely known contribution is his theory for the development of "higher psychological functions," which considers human psychological development as emerging through unification of interpersonal connections and actions taken within a given socio-cultural environment (i.e., language, culture, society, and tool-use). Vygotsky eventually came to dialogue with the mainstream Gestalt line of thought and adopted a more holistic approach to understanding development. Under the increasing influence of the holistic thinking of the scholars primarily associated with the German-American Gestalt psychology movement, Vygotsky adopted their views on "psychological systems" and—inspired by Kurt Lewin's "topological (and vector) psychology"—introduced the enigmatic construct of the "zone of proximal development". It was during this period that he identified the play of young children as their "leading activity", which he understood to be the main source of preschoolers' psychological development, and which he viewed as an expression of an inseparable unity of emotional, volitional, and cognitive development. At this time, Vygotsky fully revealed his long-time interest in the philosophy of Spinoza, who would remain one of his favorite thinkers throughout his life. A fervent Spinozist in many respects, Vygotsky was profoundly influenced by Spinoza's thought, largely in response to Spinoza's examinations concerning human emotion. As his work matured, Spinoza's thought became a more central visitation in Vygotsky's later work, increasingly focused on the issue of human emotion and its role in higher psychological functions and development that he largely omitted in his earlier work and utterly needed for creating a holistic psychological theory.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: As early as the mid-1920s, Vygotsky's ideas were introduced in the West, but he remained virtually unknown until the early 1980s when the popularity among educators of the constructivist developmental psychology and educational theory of Jean Piaget (1896-1980) started to decline and, in contrast, Vygotsky's notion of the "zone of proximal development" became a central component of the development of "social constructivist" turn in developmental and, primarily, educational psychology and practice. A "Review of General Psychology" study, published in 2002, ranked Vygotsky as the 83rd top psychologist of the twentieth century and the third (and the last) Russian on the top-100 list after Ivan Pavlov and Vygotsky's longtime collaborator Alexander Luria.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Lev Semionovich Vygotsky (; – June 11, 1934) was born to the Vygodskii family in the town of Orsha, Belarus (then belonging to the Russian Empire) into a non-religious middle-class family of Russian Jewish extraction. His father Simkha Vygodskii was a banker.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygodskii was raised in the city of Gomel, where he was homeschooled until 1911 and then obtained a formal degree with distinction in a private Jewish gymnasium, which allowed him entrance to a university. In 1913 Vygodskii was admitted to the Moscow University by mere ballot through a "Jewish Lottery": at the time a three percent Jewish student quota was administered for entry in Moscow and Saint Petersburg universities. He had interest in humanities and social sciences, but at the insistence of his parents he applied to the medical school in Moscow University. During the first semester of study he transferred to the law school. There he studied law and, in parallel, he attended lectures at Shaniavskii University.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygodskii's early interests were in the arts and, primarily, in the topics of the history of the Jewish people, the tradition, culture and Jewish identity. In contrast, during this period he was highly critical of the ideas of both socialism and Zionism, and proposed the solution of the "Jewish question" by return to the traditional Jewish Orthodoxy. His own academics, however, included a wide field of studies including linguistics, psychology, and philosophy.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Interrupted by the October Bolshevik uprising in 1917, Vygodskii never completed his formal studies at the Imperial Moscow University, and thus, he never obtained a degree. Following these events, he left Moscow and eventually returned to Gomel. There is virtually no information about his life when Gomel was under German occupation (administratively belonging to the Ukrainian State at the time) during World War I, until the Bolsheviks captured the city in 1919. After that, he was an active participant of major social transformation under the Bolshevik rule and a fairly prominent representative of the Bolshevik government in Gomel from 1919 to 1923. By the early 1920s, as reflected in his journalistic publications of the time, he informally changed his Jewish-sounding birth name, 'Lev Símkhovich Výgodskii' (), with the surname becoming "Vygótskii" and the patronymic 'Símkhovich' becoming the Slavic 'Semiónovich'. It was under this pen-name that the fame subsequently came to him. His daughters (subsequently born in 1925 and 1930) and other relatives, though, preserved their original family name 'Vygodskii'. The traditional English spelling of his last name nowadays is 'Vygotsky'.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: In January 1924, Vygotsky took part in the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Petrograd (soon thereafter renamed Leningrad). After the Congress, Vygotsky met with Alexander Luria and with his help received an invitation to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute in Moscow which was under the direction of Konstantin Kornilov. Vygotsky moved to Moscow with his new wife, Roza Smekhova. He began his career at the Psychological Institute as a "staff scientist, second class". He also became a secondary teacher, covering a period marked by his interest in the processes of learning and the role of language in learning.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: By the end of 1925, Vygotsky completed his dissertation titled "The Psychology of Art", that was not published until the 1960s, and a book titled "Pedagogical Psychology", that apparently was created on the basis of lecture notes that he prepared in Gomel while he was a psychology instructor at local educational establishments. In the summer of 1925 he made his first and only trip abroad to a London congress on the education of the deaf. Upon return to the Soviet Union, he was hospitalized due to tuberculosis and, having miraculously survived, would remain an invalid and out of work until the end of 1926. His dissertation was accepted as the prerequisite of a scholarly degree, which was awarded to Vygotsky in autumn 1925 "in absentia".


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: After his release from the hospital, Vygotsky did theoretical and methodological work on the crisis in psychology, but never finished the draft of the manuscript and interrupted his work on it around mid-1927. The manuscript was published later with notable editorial interventions and distortions in 1982 and was presented by the editors as one of the most important of Vygotsky's works. In this early manuscript, Vygotsky argued for the formation of a general psychology that could unite the naturalist objectivist strands of psychological science with the more philosophical approaches of Marxist orientation. However, he also harshly criticized those of his colleagues who attempted to build a "Marxist Psychology" as an alternative to the naturalist and philosophical schools. He argued that if one wanted to build a truly Marxist Psychology, there were no shortcuts to be found by merely looking for applicable quotes in the writings of Marx. Rather one should look for a methodology that was in accordance with the Marxian spirit.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: From 1926 to 1930, Vygotsky worked on a research program investigating the development of higher cognitive functions of logical memory, selective attention, decision making, and language comprehension, from early forms of primal psychological functions. During this period he gathered a group of collaborators including Alexander Luria, Boris Varshava, Alexei Leontiev, Leonid Zankov, and several others. Vygotsky guided his students in researching this phenomenon from three different perspectives:


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: In the early 1930s, Vygotsky experienced deep crises, both personal and theoretical, and after a period of massive self-criticism, he made an attempt at a radical revision of his theory. The work of the representatives of the Gestalt psychology and other holistic scholars was instrumental in this theoretical shift. In 1932–1934, Vygotsky aimed to establish a psychological theory of consciousness, but because of his death, this theory remained only unconfirmed and unfinished.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygotsky was a pioneering psychologist and his major works span six separate volumes, written over roughly ten years, from "Psychology of Art" (1925) to "Thought and Language" [or "Thinking and Speech"] (1934). Vygotsky's interests in the fields of developmental psychology, child development, and education were extremely diverse. His philosophical framework includes interpretations of the cognitive role of mediation tools, as well as the re-interpretation of well-known concepts in psychology such as internalization of knowledge. Vygotsky introduced the notion of zone of proximal development, a metaphor capable of describing the potential of human cognitive development. His work covered topics such as the origin and the psychology of art, development of higher mental functions, philosophy of science and the methodology of psychological research, the relation between learning and human development, concept formation, interrelation between language and thought development, play as a psychological phenomenon, learning disabilities, and abnormal human development (aka "defectology"). His scientific thinking underwent several major transformations throughout his career, but generally Vygotsky's legacy may be divided into two fairly distinct periods, and the transitional phase between the two during which Vygotsky experienced the crisis in his theory and personal life. These are the mechanistic "instrumental" period of the 1920s, integrative "holistic" period of the 1930s, and the transitional years of, roughly, 1929–1931. Each of these periods is characterized by its distinct themes and theoretical innovations.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygotsky studied child development and the significant roles of cultural mediation and interpersonal communication. He observed how higher mental functions developed through these interactions, and also represented the shared knowledge of a culture. This process is known as internalization. "Internalization" may be understood in one respect as "knowing how". For example, the practices of riding a bicycle or pouring a cup of milk, initially, are outside and beyond the child. The mastery of the skills needed for performing these practices occurs through the activity of the child within society. A further aspect of internalization is "appropriation", in which children take tools and adapt them to personal use, perhaps using them in unique ways. Internalizing the use of a pencil allows the child to use it very much for personal ends rather than drawing exactly what others in society have drawn previously.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: In the 1930s, Vygotsky was engaged in massive reconstruction of the theory of his "instrumental" period of the 1920s. Around 1929–1930, he realized numerous deficiencies and imperfections of the earlier work of the Vygotsky Circle and criticized it on a number of occasions: in 1929, 1930, in 1931, and in 1932. Specifically, Vygotsky criticized his earlier idea of radical separation between the "lower" and "higher" psychological functions and, around 1932, appears to abandon it.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygotsky's self-criticism was complemented by external criticism for a number of issues, including the separation between the "higher" and the "lower" psychological functions, impracticality and inapplicability of his theory in social practices (such as industry or education) during the time of rapid social change, and vulgar Marxist interpretation of human psychological processes. Critics also pointed to his overemphasis on the role of language and, on the other hand, the ignorance of the emotional factors in human development. Major figures in Soviet psychology such as Sergei Rubinstein criticized Vygotsky's notion of mediation and its development in the works of students. Following criticism and in response to a generous offer from the highest officials in Soviet Ukraine, a major group of Vygotsky's associates, the members of the Vygotsky Circle, including Luria, Mark Lebedinsky, and Leontiev, moved from Moscow to Ukraine to establish the Kharkov school of psychology. In the second half of the 1930s, Vygotsky was criticized again for his involvement in the cross-disciplinary study of the child known as paedology and uncritical borrowings from contemporary "bourgeois" science. Considerable critique came from alleged followers of Vygotsky, such as Leontiev and members of his research group in Kharkov. Much of this early criticism was later discarded by these Vygotskian scholars as well.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: There occurred a period of major revision of Vygotsky's theory, a transition from a mechanist orientation of his 1920s to an integrative holistic science of the 1930s. During this period, Vygotsky was under particularly strong influence of holistic theories of German-American group of proponents of Gestalt psychology, most notably, the peripheral participants of the Gestalt movement Kurt Goldstein and Kurt Lewin. However, Vygotsky's work of this period remained largely fragmentary and unfinished and, therefore, unpublished.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: "Zone of Proximal Development" (ZPD) is a term Vygotsky used to characterize an individual's mental development. He originally defined the ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” He used the example of two children in school who originally could solve problems at an eight-year-old developmental level (that is, typical for children who were age 8). After each child received assistance from an adult, one was able to perform at a nine-year-old level and one was able to perform at a twelve-year-old level. He said "This difference between twelve and eight, or between nine and eight, is what we call "the zone of proximal development."" He further said that the ZPD “defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state.” The zone is bracketed by the learner's current ability and the ability they can achieve with the aid of an instructor of some capacity.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygotsky viewed the ZPD as a better way to explain the relation between children's learning and cognitive development. Prior to the ZPD, the relation between learning and development could be boiled down to the following three major positions: 1) Development always precedes learning (e.g., constructivism): children first need to meet a particular maturation level before learning can occur; 2) Learning and development cannot be separated, but instead occur simultaneously (e.g., behaviorism): essentially, learning is development; and 3) learning and development are separate, but interactive processes (e.g., gestaltism): one process always prepares the other process, and vice versa. Vygotsky rejected these three major theories because he believed that learning should always precede development in the ZPD. According to Vygotsky, through the assistance of a more knowledgeable other, a child is able to learn skills or aspects of a skill that go beyond the child's actual developmental or maturational level. The lower limit of ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently (also referred to as the child's developmental level). The upper limit is the level of potential skill that the child is able to reach with the assistance of a more capable instructor. In this sense, the ZPD provides a prospective view of cognitive development, as opposed to a retrospective view that characterizes development in terms of a child's independent capabilities. The advancement through and attainment of the upper limit of the ZPD is limited by the instructional and scaffolding-related capabilities of the more knowledgeable other (MKO). The MKO is typically assumed to be an older, more experienced teacher or parent, but often can be a learner's peer or someone their junior. The MKO need not even be a person, it can be a machine or book, or other source of visual and/or audio input.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Perhaps Vygotsky's most important contribution concerns the inter-relationship of language development and thought. This problem was explored in Vygotsky's book, "Thinking and speech", entitled in Russian, "Myshlenie i rech" ("Мышление и речь"), that was published in 1934. In fact, this book was a mere collection of essays and scholarly papers that Vygotsky wrote during different periods of his thought development and included writings of his "instrumental" and "holistic" periods. Vygotsky never saw the book published: it was published posthumously, edited by his closest associates (Kolbanovskii, Zankov, and Shif) not sooner than December 1934, i.e., half a year after his death. The first English translation was published in 1962 (with several later revised editions) heavily abbreviated and under an alternative and incorrect translation of the title "Thought and Language" for the Russian title "Mysl' i iazyk". The book establishes the explicit and profound connection between speech (both silent inner speech and oral language), and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness. Vygotsky described inner speech as being qualitatively different from verbal external speech. Although Vygotsky believed inner speech developed from external speech via a gradual process of "internalization" (i.e., transition from the external to the internal), with younger children only really able to "think out loud", he claimed that in its mature form, inner speech would not resemble spoken language as we know it (in particular, being greatly compressed). Hence, thought itself developing socially.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Vygotsky died of a relapse of tuberculosis on June 11, 1934, at the age of 37, in Moscow in the Soviet Union. One of Vygotsky's last private notebook entries gives a proverbial, yet very pessimistic self-assessment of his contribution to psychological theory:


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: This is the final thing I have done in psychology – and I will like Moses die at the summit, having glimpsed the promised land but without setting foot on it. Farewell, dear creations. The rest is silence.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Immediately after his death, Vygotsky was proclaimed one of the leading psychologists in the Soviet Union, although his stellar reputation was somewhat undermined by the decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of 1936 that denounced the mass movement, discipline, and related social practice of the so-called pedology. Yet, even despite some criticisms and censorship of his works — most notably, in the post-Stalin era by his self-proclaimed best students and followers — Vygotsky always remained among the most quoted scholars in the field and has become a cult figure for a number of contemporary intellectuals and practitioners in Russia and the international psychological and educational community alike.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: In the Soviet Union, the work of the group of Vygotsky's students known as the Vygotsky Circle was responsible for Vygotsky's scientific legacy. The members of the group subsequently laid a foundation for Vygotskian psychology's systematic development in such diverse fields as the psychology of memory (P. Zinchenko), perception, sensation, and movement (Zaporozhets, Asnin, A. N. Leont'ev), personality (Lidiya Bozhovich, Asnin, A. N. Leont'ev), will and volition (Zaporozhets, A. N. Leont'ev, P. Zinchenko, L. Bozhovich, Asnin), psychology of play (G. D. Lukov, Daniil El'konin) and psychology of learning (P. Zinchenko, L. Bozhovich, D. El'konin), as well as the theory of step-by-step formation of mental actions (Pyotr Gal'perin), general psychological activity theory (A. N. Leont'ev) and psychology of action (Zaporozhets). Andrey Puzyrey elaborated the ideas of Vygotsky in respect of psychotherapy and even in the broader context of deliberate psychological intervention (psychotechnique), in general. Laszlo Garai founded a Vygotskian research group.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: In North America, Vygotsky's work was known from the end of the 1920s through a series of publications in English, but it did not have a major effect on research in general; in fact many scholars have stressed the lack of application to contemporary psychological research. In 1962 a translation of his posthumous 1934 book, "Thinking and Speech", published with the title,"Thought and Language", did not seem to change the situation considerably. It was only after an eclectic compilation of partly rephrased and partly translated works of Vygotsky and his collaborators, published in 1978 under Vygotsky's name as "Mind in Society", that the Vygotsky boom started in the West: originally, in North America, and later, following the North American example, spread to other regions of the world. A lot of Vigotsky's principles are taught education in today's society.This version of Vygotskian science is typically associated with the names of its chief proponents Michael Cole, James Wertsch, their associates and followers, and is relatively well known under the names of "cultural-historical activity theory" (aka CHAT) or "activity theory". Scaffolding, a concept introduced by Wood, Bruner, and Ross in 1976, is somewhat related to the idea of ZPD, although Vygotsky never used the term.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: A critique of the North American interpretation of Vygotsky's ideas and, somewhat later, its global spread and dissemination appeared in the 1980s. The early 1980s criticism of Russian and Western "Vygotskian" scholars continued throughout the 1990s. Van der Veer & Valsiner (1991) called these strands of Vygotskian thought "neo-Vygotskian fashions in contemporary psychology" and Cazden (1996) called them "selective traditions" in Vygotskian scholarship. Palincsar (1998) said that the zone of proximal development was "one of the most used and least understood constructs to appear in contemporary educational literature", and Fischer & Mercer (1992) said that the construct was "used as little more than a fashionable alternative to Piagetian terminology or the concept of IQ for describing individual differences in attainment or potential".


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Van der Veer and Valsiner also suggest clearly distinguishing between Vygotsky's original notion of "zona blizhaishego razvitiia" ("ZBR") and what they think of as its "superficial interpretations" collectively known as "zone of proximal development" ("ZPD"). Valsiner and Van der Veer also identify certain statements in Vygotskian literature as mere "declarations of faith", i.e. hollow statements often repeated. Whereas Gillen (2000) talks of different "versions of Vygotsky" and Van der Veer (2008) speaks of "multiple readings of Vygotsky", Gradler (2007) simply speaks of "concepts and inferences curiously attributed to Lev Vygotsky". Toomela (2000) calls the strand known as "activity theory" a "dead end” for cultural-historical psychology and, moreover, for methodological thinking in cultural psychology.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Gredler & Schields (2004) question "if anyone actually reads Vygotsky's words" and Gredler (2012) asks whether it is "too late to understand Vygotsky for the classroom", while Rowlands (2000) suggests "turning Vygotsky on his head". According to Miller (2011), inconsistencies, contradictions, and at times fundamental flaws in "Vygotskian" literature were revealed in critical publications on this subject and are typically associated with - but certainly not limited to - the North American legacy of Michael Cole and James Wertsch and their associates. Smagorinsky (2011) speaks of "challenges of claiming a Vygotskian perspective".


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Lambert (2000) claims that Vygotsky's writings on play were too brief to be called a theory and furthermore were hardly relevant anymore. According to Zhang (2013), Vygotsky's theories are fundamentally flawed from a contemporary linguistic standpoint and Newman (2018) claims that "the support claimed from Vygotsky in accounts of second language acquisition is misplaced, first because of those difficulties and, second, because many who claim support from Vygotsky, do not need or even use his theory but instead focus their attention on his empirical observations and assume incorrectly that if their own empirical observations match Vygotsky's, then Vygotsky's theory can be accepted".


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: During the early twenty-first century, several scholarly reevaluations of the popular version (sometimes disparagingly termed "Vygotsky cult", "the cult of Vygotsky", or even "the cult of personality around Vygotsky") of Vygotsky's legacy have been undertaken and are referred to as the "revisionist revolution in Vygotsky Studies". Vygotsky studies conducted within the framework of the "revisionist turn" during the 2010s revealed systematic and massive falsifications and distortions of Vygotsky's legacy., but also demonstrated a rapid and dramatic decrease of this author's popularity in international scholarship that began in 2017. The reasons of this crisis are not entirely clear yet and are being discussed in scholarly circles.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: The revisionist movement in Vygotsky Studies was termed a "revisionist revolution" to describe a relatively recent trend that emerged in the 1990s. This trend is typically associated with growing dissatisfaction with the quality and scholarly integrity of available texts of Vygotsky and members of Vygotsky Circle, including their English translations made from largely mistaken, distorted, and even in a few instances falsified Soviet editions, which raises serious concerns about the reliability of Vygotsky's texts available in English. However, unlike critical literature that discusses Western interpretations of Vygotsky's legacy, the target of criticism and the primary object of research in the studies of the revisionist strand are Vygotsky's texts proper: the manuscripts, original lifetime publications, and Vygotsky's posthumous Soviet editions that most often were subsequently uncritically translated into other languages. The revisionist strand is solidly grounded in a series of studies in Vygotsky's archives that uncovered previously unknown and unpublished Vygotsky materials.


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Thus, some studies of the revisionist strand show that certain phrases, terms, and expressions typically associated with Vygotskian legacy as its core notions and concepts—such as "cultural-historical psychology", "cultural-historical theory", "cultural-historical school", "higher psychical/mental functions", "internalization", "zone of proximal development", etc. in fact, either occupy not more than just a few dozen pages within the six-volume collection of Vygotsky's works, or never even occur in Vygotsky's own writings. Another series of studies revealed the questionable quality of Vygotsky's published texts that, in fact, were never finished and intended for publication by their author, but were nevertheless posthumously published without giving proper editorial acknowledgement of their unfinished, transitory nature, and with numerous editorial interventions and distortions of Vygotsky's text. Another series of publications reveals that another well-known Vygotsky's text that is often presented as the foundational work was back-translated into Russian from an English translation of a lost original and passed for the original Vygotsky's writing. This episode was referred to as "benign forgery".


title: Lev Vygotsky

text: Scholars associated with the revisionist movement in Vygotsky Studies propose returning to Vygotsky's original uncensored works, critically revising the available discourse, and republishing them in both Russian and translation with a rigorous scholarly commentary. Therefore, an essential part of this revisionist strand is the ongoing work on ""PsyAnima" Complete Vygotsky" project that for the first time ever exposes full collections of Vygotsky's texts, uncensored and cleared from numerous mistakes, omissions, insertions, and blatant distortions and falsifications of the author's text made in Soviet editions and uncritically transferred in virtually all foreign translated editions of Vygotsky's works. This project is carried out by an international team of volunteers—researchers, archival workers, and library staff—from Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Switzerland, who joined their efforts and put together a collection of L. S. Vygotsky's texts. This publication work is supported by a stream of critical scholarly studies and publications on textology, history, theory and methodology of Vygotskian research that cumulatively contributes to the first ever edition of "The Complete Works of L.S. Vygotsky". Currently, this collection of Vygotsky's research is available and still in print in a series consisting of six total volumes of his work with added commentary/foreword.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Courtney Melba Barnett (born 3 November 1987) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and musician. Known for her deadpan singing style and witty, rambling lyrics, she attracted attention with the release of her debut EP "I've Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris" in 2012. International interest came with the release of her EP "" in 2013.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Barnett's debut album, "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit", was released in 2015 to widespread acclaim. At the 2015 ARIA Music Awards, she won four awards from eight nominations. She was nominated for Best New Artist at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards and International Female Solo Artist at the 2016 Brit Awards. She released "Lotta Sea Lice", a collaborative album with Kurt Vile, in 2017. She released her second album, "Tell Me How You Really Feel", to further acclaim in 2018. Barnett's third studio album "Things Take Time, Take Time" was released in November 2021.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Courtney Melba Barnett was born in Sydney on 3 November 1987. She was given her middle name after opera singer Nellie Melba. She grew up in Sydney's Northern Beaches area. Her mother was a ballerina. When she was 16, her family moved to Hobart. She attended St Michael's Collegiate School and the Tasmanian School of Art. Having grown up listening to American bands, she discovered Australian singer-songwriters Darren Hanlon and Dan Kelly, who inspired her to start writing songs. While pursuing a music career, she worked as a pizza delivery driver.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: From 2010 to 2011, Barnett played second guitar in Melbourne grunge band Rapid Transit. They released one self-titled album on cassette, which is now a rare collector's item. She also recorded many early versions of her songs with a band called Courtney Barnett and the Olivettes, which was later shortened to the Olivettes. They released a live EP demo CD, with only 100 copies being produced which were hand numbered. Around this time Courtney also featured on a track by Melbourne singer-songwriter Giles Field called "I Can't Hear You, We're Breaking Up" which was released in late 2011. She also has a credit as co-writer on the song.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Between 2011 and 2013, Barnett was a member of Australian psych-country band Immigrant Union, a musical project founded by Brent DeBoer (of The Dandy Warhols) and Bob Harrow. Along with sharing vocal duties, Barnett predominantly played slide guitar and is on the band's second studio album, "Anyway". DeBoer also played drums on Barnett's first EP, "I've Got a Friend called Emily Ferris". It appeared in 2012 on Barnett's own label, Milk! Records.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: In 2013, Barnett played lead guitar on Jen Cloher's third studio album, "In Blood Memory", which was also released on Milk! Records. Following the release of her first EP, Barnett signed to Marathon Artists (via its imprint House Anxiety). In August 2013, Marathon Artists released "The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas", a combined package of Barnett's first EP and her second EP, "How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose". "The Double EP" brought Barnett international critical acclaim, with "Avant Gardener", the lead single, named Track of the Day by "Q Magazine" and Best New Track by "Pitchfork" in 2013. It was named the album of the week by "Stereogum" The track "History Eraser" was nominated for the APRA Song of the Year. "How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose" was released on a limited run by Milk! Records as a standalone EP in October 2013. Marathon Artists and House Anxiety partnered with Mom + Pop Music for the U.S. release of "The Double EP" in 2014.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Milk! Records released a compilation EP, "A Pair of Pears (with Shadows)", on 10" white vinyl in September 2014, following a crowd-sourcing campaign in July that year. The EP included a Barnett track, "Pickles from the Jar", the song was voted in at number 51 in Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2014.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: On 30 January 2015, Barnett released details on her upcoming full-length album, recorded in April 2014 with Burke Reid, along with two singles, "Pedestrian at Best" and "Depreston" and accompanying music videos. The music video for "Pedestrian at Best" features Cloher and Fraser A Gorman. Her debut album, "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit", was released worldwide via Milk! Records (Australia), / House Anxiety (UK & Rest of World), and Mom + Pop Music (US) on 23 March 2015, and was accompanied by tours in the UK and Europe, America, and Australasia.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: "Sometimes I Sit and Think" was met with critical acclaim, "The Times", "Pitchfork" and the "Chicago Tribune". Up until the release of "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit", Courtney Barnett, Bones Sloane, and Dave Mudie toured as Courtney Barnett and the Courtney Barnetts.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: In August 2015, Barnett's UK label, , in partnership with Mom + Pop Music and Milk! Records, launched a global, guerilla campaign for the release of her single "Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party". Billboards and posters bearing the song's title went up in London, New York, LA, Melbourne and Sydney. The campaign garnered a lot of interest online and across social media and culminated in a surprise busking gig in Camden, London.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: In concert, Dan Luscombe (of The Drones) has often played lead guitar and keyboards, having featured on both, "How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose" and "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit", the latter of which he also co-produced. When Luscombe was not available, the band performed as a trio, with Barnett handling all guitar duties. Luscombe did not play on Barnett's 2015 tours, however, and she now refers to the band as the "CB3" on her Facebook page. The CB3 moniker also features prominently on drummer Dave Mudie's bass drum.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Barnett was nominated in eight categories at the ARIA Music Awards of 2015, and won four trophies: Breakthrough Artist, Best Female Artist, Best Independent Release and Best Cover Art for "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit". At the end of 2015, Barnett was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category. She was later nominated for Best International Female in 2016 for the Brit awards. On 21 May 2016, she was the musical guest on the season finale of "Saturday Night Live"'s 41st season, hosted by Fred Armisen. In January 2016, Barnett appeared on the cover of Australian music magazine, "Happy Mag". And on 27 May 2016, she was the musical guest on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon".


title: Courtney Barnett

text: In 2017, Barnett and Kurt Vile recorded the collaborative album "Lotta Sea Lice", released via Matador Records, Marathon Artists and Milk! Records on October 13. Some of the album collaborators include Stella Mozgawa, Mick Harvey and the Dirty Three's Mick Tuner and Jim White. The lead single "Over Everything" was released on August 30, 2017 accompanied by the music video directed by Danny Cohen. "Over Everything" initially sparked the pair's collaboration, after Philadelphia-based Vile wrote the song with the Melbourne-based Barnett's voice in mind. The second single "Continental Breakfast" was released on 26 September 2017. In June 2017 Vile and Barnett announced a North American tour. The duo was backed by the Sea Lice, a band featuring Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag), Rob Laakso (The Violators, The Swirlies, Mice Parade), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), and Katie Harkin (Sky Larkin, touring member of Sleater-Kinney and Wild Beasts).


title: Courtney Barnett

text: On 12 February 2018, Barnett teased a new album on her social media accounts, featuring her trying out various musical instruments with the clip ending with the tagline "Tell Me How You Really Feel". Barnett released the singles "Nameless, Faceless", "Need A Little Time", "City Looks Pretty", and "Sunday Roast" from her sophomore solo album, which was launched at a private function at Sydney's Lansdowne Hotel in April 2018 and emceed by ex-Go-Between Lindy Morrison. The album was eventually released on 18 May 2018 and titled "Tell Me How You Really Feel". The album dealt, in part, with Barnett's thoughts about isolation in the social media age. "City Looks Pretty" was featured on the soundtrack of the video game "FIFA 19".


title: Courtney Barnett

text: In December 2020, NME reported that a documentary titled "Anonymous Club" exploring "the inner life of the notoriously shy [Barnett] amidst her significant rise to fame" is in the works after receiving $2.5 million in funding from Screen Australia.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: On 7 July 2021, Barnett released "Rae Street", the lead single from her third studio album, "Things Take Time, Take Time", which was released on 12 November 2021.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Barnett plays left-handed, using mostly left-handed guitars with standard tuning and string order for left-handed players (low strings at the top, high strings at the bottom). She occasionally plays right-handed guitars flipped upside down, but does not prefer it. She learned to play on acoustic guitars, and developed her own method of fingerstyle guitar because she disliked the sound of a pick; she later transferred this playing style to the electric guitar. She is capable of using a pick and claims she could probably play better with one, but prefers to play using her fingers, strumming with both her thumb and index finger on rhythm parts and using her index finger where she would otherwise use a pick for lead parts. She prefers to play in standard tuning, but has used open G tuning for slide guitar.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Among the guitars Barnett has used for performance and recording are a Harmony H59 and a number of Fenders, including Jaguars, Stratocasters, and Telecasters, which she strings with Ernie Ball Power Slinky strings in the 0.011−0.048 gauge. She plays through Fender Hot Rod Deville and Fender Deluxe amplifiers, with effects pedals including a Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal, a "cheap delay pedal", and a chorus pedal.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Barnett is a lesbian. She was in a relationship with fellow musician Jen Cloher from 2012 to 2018, and the song "Numbers" was co-written by the pair about their relationship. Barnett's song "Pickles from the Jar" also details their relationship, and Cloher is mentioned in the first line of "Dead Fox". Barnett called Cloher a "huge constant influence" on her music. She also played guitar in Cloher's band from 2012 to 2018.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters".


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. Barnett has won 6 ARIA Music Awards from 20 nominations.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The Australian Music Prize (the AMP) is an annual award of $30,000 given to an Australian band or solo artist in recognition of the merit of an album released during the year of award. The commenced in 2005.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J. They commenced in 2005.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The Music Victoria Awards, are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2005.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse live industry, celebrating the success of the Australian live scene. The awards commenced in 2016.


title: Courtney Barnett

text: Delivered since 2010, the GAFFA Awards (Swedish: GAFFA Priset) are a Swedish award that rewards popular music awarded by the magazine of the same name.


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: Titles starring characters introduced or re-introduced by Gaiman in "The Books of Magic" (most notably Timothy Hunter) include:


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: Titles starring characters and/or based on concepts introduced or re-introduced by Gaiman during his run on "The Sandman" include:


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: In 2018, Vertigo launched "The Sandman Universe" sub-imprint with an eponymous one-shot consisting of several segments produced by various creators from a story by Gaiman:


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: The one-shot was followed by four ongoing series produced mostly by the creative teams behind the short stories:


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: After the dissolution of Vertigo, new and existing "The Sandman Universe" titles continued publication under DC Black Label:


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: The following table can be sorted to show Gaiman's novels in chronological order, or arranged alphabetically by title, or by co-author, or by series:


title: Neil Gaiman bibliography

text: The following table can be sorted to show Gaiman's illustrated books in chronological order, or arranged alphabetically by title, or by illustrator, or by series:


title: Thai Airways International

text: Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, trading as THAI (, ) is the flag carrier airline of Thailand. Formed in 1961, the airline has its corporate headquarters in Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Chatuchak District, Bangkok, and primarily operates from Suvarnabhumi Airport. THAI is a founding member of the Star Alliance. The airline is the second-largest shareholder of the low-cost carrier Nok Air with a 15.94 per cent stake (2020), and it launched a regional carrier under the name Thai Smile in the middle of 2012 using the new Airbus A320 aircraft.


title: Thai Airways International

text: Thai operate from its main hub at Suvarnabhumi Airport and secondary hub at Phuket International Airport, the airline and its subsidiaries fly to over 101 destinations in 37 countries, using a fleet of 64 aircraft, that consist of wide-body aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus, while the subsidiary Thai Smile operates narrow body aircraft. As of 2013, services between Bangkok and Los Angeles were served via Incheon International Airport near Seoul. However, it ended its service to the US on 25 October 2015. Thai's route network is dominated by flights to Europe and Asia, though the airline serves five cities in Oceania. Thai was the first Asia-Pacific airline to serve Heathrow Airport. Among Asia-Pacific carriers, the company has one of the largest passenger operations in Europe. As of 2021, the longest route Thai operates is the Suvarnabhumi Airport (VTBS) to Heathrow Airport (LHR) (5,950 mi). As of the end of 2019, 1,438 of its 22,054 employees were pilots.


title: Thai Airways International

text: Thai Airways International was founded in 1960 as a joint venture between Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which held a 30 percent share of the new company valued at two million Thai baht, and Thailand's domestic carrier, Thai Airways Company (). The purpose of the joint venture was to create an international component for the domestic carrier Thai Airways Company. SAS provided operational, managerial, and marketing expertise, with training aimed at building a fully independent national airline in the shortest possible time. Thai nationals were gradually able to assume full managerial responsibility and the number of expatriate staff duly decreased, with expatriates accounting for less than one percent of staff based in Thailand in 1987.


title: Thai Airways International

text: The carrier's first revenue flight was on 1 May 1960, with flights to nine overseas Asian destinations from Bangkok.


title: Thai Airways International

text: The airline's first intercontinental services using Douglas DC-8s started in 1971 to Australia, and then to Europe the following year. A number of the larger Douglas DC-10 wide-body tri-jets was acquired in the late-1970s. Services to North America commenced in 1980.


title: Thai Airways International

text: On 1 April 1977, after 17 years of capital participation by SAS, the Thai government bought out the remaining 15 percent of SAS-owned shares and Thai became a state owned enterprise of the Thai government. As of 22 May 2020, the Thai Ministry of Finance is no longer the majority shareholder, having reduced its holding to 47.86 percent from 51.03 percent.


title: Thai Airways International

text: On 1 April 1988, then-Prime Minister Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda, merged the international and domestic operations of the two companies to form the present company, Thai Airways International, to have a single national carrier. On 25 June 1991, the reconfigured company listed its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and offered them to the public. The Thai public offering of shares is the largest ever undertaken in the country.


title: Thai Airways International

text: On 14 May 1997, THAI, along with Lufthansa, Air Canada, SAS, and United Airlines, founded the world's first and largest airline alliance, Star Alliance.


title: Thai Airways International

text: The genesis of Thai's later financial difficulties has been attributed to actions taken in the 1990s when Thai Airways began "buying every type of plane that was being manufactured." Different models meant that the airline had to train an army of technicians to keep differing airframes and engines from both General Electric and Rolls-Royce airworthy, significantly inflating maintenance costs.


title: Thai Airways International

text: In the first decade of the 21st century, Thai Airways continued its route network expansion with new services to Chengdu, Busan, Chennai, Xiamen, Milan, Moscow, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Johannesburg, and Oslo.


title: Thai Airways International

text: Using the Airbus A340-500 fleet it acquired in 2005, Thai commenced non-stop flights between Bangkok and New York, its first non-stop service to North America. The airline later converted an existing one-stop service (via Tokyo) to Los Angeles into a non-stop flight using the same aircraft type. Citing very high fuel costs, Thai discontinued the New York service in July 2008, even though the airline had been able to fill 80 percent of the seats. The service to Los Angeles was again reverted to one-stop service via Seoul on 1 May 2012, leaving the airline without a non-stop service between Thailand and North America. The A340s used were phased out, replaced by the Boeing 777-200ER for the Bangkok–Seoul–Los-Angeles route. Although the previous A340 used for non-stop services was not subject to ETOPS, the phasing in of the 777 with one-stop service (with the 330 minute rule) would be indefinite for years to come; the airline had no plans to pursue newer North America destinations (e.g., Houston) or purchase the Boeing 747-8 for transpacific routes since is operating the Airbus A380.


title: Thai Airways International

text: The 2000s also saw Thai expand its Thai airport network beyond its Bangkok hub. The airline launched non-stop flights from Phuket to Tokyo–Narita, Seoul–Incheon and Hong Kong.


title: Thai Airways International

text: During the late-2000s, Thai's growth was hampered by a combination of internal and external factors, including a spike in fuel prices, domestic political conflict in Thailand, and the global economic crisis of the late-2000s. In 2008, after achieving profitability for the previous 40 years, Thai recorded a loss for the first time in its history of around 21 billion baht (US$675 million). The airline blamed high fuel costs and Thailand's political turmoil. As of Q2 2009, after a series of restructuring initiatives, including a two-year deferral of its Airbus A380 deliveries, the carrier returned to a net profit of 2.5 billion baht.


title: Thai Airways International

text: Thai's need for reform became evident in the first decade of the 21st century, but reforms, when they came, were invariably cut short. Thai's problems were threefold: ineffective leadership at the top; inexperienced boards; and a coddled union. Piyasvasti Amranand took Thai's helm in October 2009 after serving as energy minister. At Thai, he is still regarded as a true reformer, imposing salary cuts for senior executives as part of his drive to reduce costs. He was voted out by the board in 2012 for what may have been political reasons. The board of directors was, after the 2014 Thai coup d'état, packed with military brass. Five civilian members were purged and replaced with five Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) generals, as was the board's chairman. The appointments ended Thai's policy of only appointing technocrats to the board. Three RTAF generals remain on the 2020 board; they have no experience running listed companies or restructuring loss-making airlines. Concomitantly, employees at Thai enjoyed an overprotected status. Salary increases based on length of employment led to senior captains earning more than the CEO.


title: Thai Airways International

text: While celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2010, Thai, led by its president, Piyasvasti Amranand, drafted new plans for the airline's future, including aircraft fleet renewal and an upgrade of existing services. Thai placed orders for a number of aircraft, including the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, and it launched a refurbishment of its Boeing 747 and 777 cabins. Mindful of rising fuel costs, the airline phased-out its most inefficient aircraft, including its Airbus A340-500s. The airline took delivery of its first Airbus A380 aircraft in the second half of 2012, intending to eventually deploy the aircraft on its core European routes.


title: Thai Airways International

text: THAI resumed network expansion with the resumption of flights to Brussels, in addition to a new non-stop flight from Stockholm and Copenhagen to Phuket. At the same time, the Greek debt crisis caused Thai to suspend its services to Athens.


title: Thai Airways International

text: Thai expects to be the first carrier in Asia to fly commercial flights using biofuels. The carrier launched the initiative with experimental flights in December 2011 as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program, otherwise known as "Travel Green". Thai hopes to stimulate sustained biofuel production in Thailand by working with Thai government agencies and regional corporate partners, such as PTT Public Company Limited. The effort aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in regional air travel as well as position Thailand to be the "bio hub" of Asia.