title: National Lacrosse League

text: In July 2007, the Vancouver Ravens were conditionally approved for a 2008 return; the conditions included selling at least 2,500 season tickets and finding a suitable arena lease by July 19, 2007. On July 16, 2007, the Vancouver Ravens announced an agreement with Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment to make GM Place (now Rogers Arena) the home venue of the Ravens, if they were able to meet the season ticket sales requirement. However, just a few days later, announced that the Ravens would not play in the 2008 season. Although a local tabloid made mention of a potential return in 2011 for the team, Commissioner Daniel announced that there would be no expansion in 2011.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: After high attendance of over 20,000 fans at the 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Jennings says that the league will "definitely consider expanding to Halifax, for sure."


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On June 17, 2009, the San Jose Stealth announced their relocation to Everett, Washington, north of Seattle, for the 2010 season. The newly renamed Washington Stealth played their home games at the Comcast Arena at Everett. In their first season in Everett, the Stealth won the league title.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On August 10, 2009, the New York Titans announced the team's move to Orlando, Florida, to become the Orlando Titans.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: Commissioner George Daniel announced on March 31, 2010, that there would be no expansion for the 2011 season.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: In July 2010, the Orlando Titans announced that they would not participate in the 2011 season due to ownership restructuring.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: In late summer 2011, the Boston Blazers suspended operations for the 2012 season. However, as of May 31, 2012, GM and team president Doug Reffue stated that the Blazers ownership is in negotiations with a local New England group. With the intentions of either selling the team or entering into a partnership with this group, Reffue added that the Blazers could return for the 2014 season.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On June 27, 2013, the Washington Stealth announced that they were relocating permanently to the Langley Events Centre in Langley, British Columbia, and would be renamed the Vancouver Stealth. The decision to relocate was made after the 2013 NLL Championship Game (which the Stealth earned the right to host) had to be moved, due to a scheduling conflict with Comcast Arena, from Everett to Langley, where it was played before a sold out crowd.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On July 11, 2014 the Philadelphia Wings announced they would be relocating from Philadelphia after 28 years in the city. On August 5, the Wings announced they would be relocating to Uncasville, Connecticut and will play in the Mohegan Sun Arena.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On May 29, 2015 the Minnesota Swarm announced they would be relocating to Duluth, Georgia to become the Georgia Swarm, and will play in the Arena at Gwinnett Center.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On July 20, 2015 the Edmonton Rush announced they would be relocating to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to become the Saskatchewan Rush and play in the SaskTel Centre. In their first season in Saskatoon, the Rush won the league title.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On August 30, 2017, the NLL announced a new franchise for San Diego to begin play in the 2018–19 schedule. The San Diego Seals are owned by Joseph Tsai. Two weeks later on September 14, the league announced an eleventh franchise also to begin play in 2018–19, the return of the league to Philadelphia which has been without a team since the Philadelphia Wings moved to New England in the summer of 2014. The new Wings will be owned by Comcast Spectacor though it is yet to be determined if the original history will belong to the new incarnation.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On September 13, 2018, the NLL announced that the Rochester Knighthawks would re-locate to Halifax, Nova Scotia as the Halifax Thunderbirds, and that a new iteration of the Nighthawks would be established as an expansion franchise under the ownership of Pegula Sports and Entertainment. The Thunderbirds' owner Curt Styres sold the rights to the Knighthawks' intellectual property to Pegula. On December 11, 2018, the NLL announced a new expansion franchise in Long Island, New York, slated to play at the Nassau Coliseum. After a public vote, the team announced its branding as the New York Riptide in February 2019.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On July 22, 2020, the league announced it would expand to Fort Worth, Texas for the 2021–22 season, playing its home games at Dickies Arena. This team became the Panther City Lacrosse Club.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On February 23, 2021, the league announced the relocation of the New England Black Wolves to Albany, New York beginning in the 2021–22 season. The Albany FireWolves team will play at the Times Union Center and were officially named the FireWolves on April 14, 2021 after an online naming contest was held.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: The Professional Lacrosse Players' Association (PLPA) is the trade union of players in the NLL. The PLPA was founded in 1991 by Dave Succamore (a former Detroit Turbos player), Peter Schmitz (a former Boston Blazers player and president) and four other players from other teams with assistance by labor attorney Ronald L. Jaros. The union was organized to assist with missed work pay for players who miss their regular jobs for games; expanded expense reimbursement; more opportunities for promotional pay on top of their regular game salaries; more time for rookies to assess their initial contracts; game compensation for practice players; free agency; a standard grievance and arbitration process for fines and suspensions. Before the PLPA was in place, injured players were responsible for paying their own medical bills.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: In the early 2000s, CNN Sports Illustrated aired NLL games regularly. The NLL had had its All-Star Games and Championship games on NBC in 2005 and ESPN2 in 2006.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: In 2007, the NLL had a regularly scheduled "Game of the Week" on Versus. For the 2008 season, due to dispute between the Professional Lacrosse Players' Association and the NLL owners in completing the collective bargaining agreement, the "Game of the Week" on Versus was cancelled. Also in 2007, the NLL signed an agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio, who were the "Official Satellite Radio Partner". The pact included a "Game of the Week" as well as a weekly highlight show.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: For the 2011 season, the NLL returned to Versus, beginning with coverage of the 2011 All-Star Game, followed by 6 weekly games, and 2 playoff games, one of these being the championship game. In the 2012 season, the rights shifted to CBS Sports Network, which carried a package of eight regular season games.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: In 2012, the NLL reached an agreement with the YouTube channel The Lacrosse Network. All games were available on YouTube after the broadcast and most games were broadcast live. For the 2016 season, the league moved to Fox Sports' streaming platform Fox Sports Go. Beginning with the 2016 division semifinals, the NLL introduced an in-house NLLTV service operated by NeuLion.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: In the 2017 season, the NLL reached a two-season deal with Twitter to stream a weekly game, as well as playoff games and the Champion's Cup, via the social network's live streaming features. A separate deal was reached with CBS Sports Digital to stream games on its subscription platform SportsLive.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: For the 2018–19 season, the league announced a broadcasting agreement with Turner Sports, under which its games would be streamed exclusively by B/R Live.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: For the 2021–22 season, the NLL reached a new media rights agreement with ESPN Inc., under which all games would stream on ESPN+ in the United States, and at least 10 would air on an ESPN television channel. In Canada, the league also returned to TSN (which is minority-owned by ESPN) for the first time since 2016, airing a Saturday-night package focusing on its Canadian franchises, playoff games, and streaming of other games online for TSN subscribers. All other game broadcasts are produced in-house by the league, using a mix of on-site staff and remote production hubs (with Dome Productions, a joint venture between TSN's parent company Bell Media and rival Rogers Media, handling the hub for Canadian teams and any other game broadcast by TSN).


title: National Lacrosse League

text: "Blast Lacrosse", a video game based on the NLL, was released on May 23, 2001. Developed by Sandbox Studios and published by Acclaim Entertainment, it was the first lacrosse video game and included all nine teams from the NLL's 15th season (2001). The game received a 6.1/10 score from "IGN"s Chris Carle, who praised the gameplay and controls but criticized the graphics and animations of the players.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On February 15, 2005, the NLL announced that Activision would produce a new video game. The game was slated to be released for the 2007 season. In an online chat held on NLL.com with commissioner Jim Jennings, it was noted that the game would be out in 2009, but the game was never released.


title: National Lacrosse League

text: On March 31, 2010, the NLL announced it had partnered with Crosse Studio and Triple B Games to develop "NLL Lacrosse 2010" presented by Reebok Lacrosse. The game was released exclusively on the Xbox 360 as an Indie Game on April 23, 2010. Crosse Studio and Triple B Games developed "Inside Lacrosse's College Lacrosse 2010" in 2009 before approaching the NLL to license their next game. The NLL game won Kotaku's Indie Sports video game of the year for 2010.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (; Ulster-Scots: "The Hurries") was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions: originally formed by Presbyterian radicals angry at being shut out of power by the Anglican establishment, they were joined by many from the majority Catholic population.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Following some initial successes, particularly in County Wexford, the uprising was suppressed by government militia and yeomanry forces, reinforced by units of the British Army, with a civilian and combatant death toll estimated between 10,000 and 50,000. A French expeditionary force landed in County Mayo in August in support of the rebels: despite victory at Castlebar, they were also eventually defeated. The aftermath of the Rebellion led to the passing of the Acts of Union 1800, merging the Parliament of Ireland into the Parliament of the United Kingdom.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Despite its rapid suppression, the 1798 Rebellion remains a significant event in Irish history. Centenary celebrations in 1898


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: were instrumental in the development of modern Irish nationalism, while several of the Rebellion's key figures, such as Wolfe Tone, became important reference points for later republicanism. Debates over the significance of 1798, the motivation and ideology of its participants, and acts committed during the Rebellion continue to the present day.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Since 1691 and the end of the Williamite War, the government of Ireland had been dominated by an Anglican minority establishment. Membership of the Irish Parliament became restricted to members of the established church, who were expected to identify closely with the economic and political interests of England. The support of the Catholic gentry for the Jacobite side during the war had led to Parliament passing a series of Penal Laws, barring them from holding government or military positions and restricting Catholics' ability to purchase or inherit land. The proportion of land owned by Catholics, already reduced following earlier 17th century conflicts, continued to decline.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The effect of the Penal Laws was to destroy the political influence of the Catholic gentry, many of whom sought alternative opportunities in European militaries. The same laws, however, also discriminated against Presbyterians and other Protestant Dissenters, who were increasingly important in trade and commerce and were particularly strongly represented in Ulster.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: By the middle of the 18th century, a number of factors combined to increase demands for political reform. Despite Ireland nominally being a sovereign kingdom governed by the monarch and its own Parliament, legislation such as the Declaratory Act 1719 meant it, in reality, had fewer privileges and freedoms than most of Britain's North American colonies. Merchants grew increasingly frustrated by commercial restrictions favouring England at Ireland's expense, adding to the list of grievances; it was claimed that Ireland was "debarred from the common and natural benefits of trade" while still being "obliged to support a large national [...] and military establishment". Financial controversies such as "Wood's halfpence" in 1724 and the "Money Bill Dispute" of 1753, over the appropriation of an Irish treasury surplus by the Crown, alienated sections of the Protestant professional class, leading to riots in Cork and Dublin.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: This developing national consciousness led some members of the "Protestant Ascendancy" to advocate greater political autonomy from Great Britain. The movement was led by figures like Charles Lucas, a Dublin apothecary exiled in 1749 for promoting the so-called "patriot" cause: Lucas returned 10 years later and was elected as an MP, beginning a period of increased "patriot" influence in Parliament. Some of the "patriots" also began seeking support from the growing Catholic middle class: in 1749 George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne issued an address to the Catholic clergy, urging cooperation in the Irish national interest. In 1757 John Curry formed the Catholic Committee, which campaigned for repeal of the Penal Laws from a position of loyalty to the regime.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: From 1778 onwards a number of local militias known as the Irish Volunteers were raised in response to the withdrawal of regular forces to fight in the American Revolutionary War. Thousands of middle- and upper-class Anglicans, along with a few Presbyterians and Catholics, joined the Volunteers, who became central to the growing sense of a distinct Irish political identity. Although the Volunteers were formed to defend Ireland against possible French invasion, many of their members and others in the "patriot" movement became strongly influenced by American efforts to secure independence, which were widely discussed in the Irish press. Close links with recent emigrants meant that northern Presbyterians were particularly sympathetic to the Americans, who they felt were subject to the same injustices.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In 1782 the Volunteers held a Convention at Dungannon which demanded greater legislative independence; this heavily influenced the British executive to amend legislation restricting the Irish Parliament, confirmed by the Irish Appeals Act 1783. With increased legislative independence secured, "Patriot" MPs such as Henry Grattan continued to press for greater enfranchisement, although the campaign quickly foundered on the issue of Catholic emancipation: although Grattan supported it, many "patriots" did not, and even the Presbyterians were "bitterly divided" on whether it should be immediate or gradual.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Against this background actual reform proceeded slowly. The Papists Act 1778 began to dismantle some earlier restrictions by allowing Catholics to join the army and to purchase land if they took an oath of allegiance to the Crown. In 1793 Parliament passed laws allowing Catholics meeting the property qualification to vote, but they could still neither be elected nor appointed as state officials.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Since the early 18th century, the remains of the Catholic landowning class, once strongly Jacobite, had protected their position by adopting an "obsequious" attitude to the regime, cultivating the favour of the Hanoverian monarchs directly rather than that of a hostile Irish Parliament. The death of the Old Pretender in 1766, and Pope Clement XIII's subsequent recognition of the Hanoverians, reduced government suspicions of Jacobite sympathies among Catholics. Most senior Catholic churchmen also expressed loyalty to the government, hoping to secure increased tolerance. These attitudes however "barely impinged on [...] the mass of the population".


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: 19th century historiography assumed that the rural, Catholic Ireland of the majority was largely quiet during the 18th century and unaffected by urban demands for reform. Outbreaks of rural violence by "Whiteboys" from the 1760s onwards, directed against landlords and tithe proctors, were assumed by historians such as Lecky to have been driven by local, agrarian issues such as tenant farmers' rents rather than wider political consciousness.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: More recently it has been argued that the persistence of Jacobite imagery among Whiteboy and other groups suggests that strong opposition to Protestant and British rule remained widespread in Gaelic-speaking rural Ireland. A further dimension was provided by a younger generation of Catholic gentry and "middlemen"


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: in counties like Wexford, some of whom were radicalised by time spent in Revolutionary France, and who often emerged as local leaders in 1798.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Unrest had also grown in County Armagh in the decade prior to the Rebellion involving clashes between groups of "Defenders", a Catholic secret society, and Protestant gangs of "Break of Day Men" or "Peep o' Day Boys". Originating as nonsectarian "fleets" of young men, the groups emerged in north Armagh in the 1780s before spreading southwards. Like "Whiteboyism" this activity is often depicted as economic in origin, triggered by competition between Protestants and Catholics in the lucrative linen industry of the area. However, there is evidence that as time went on the Defenders developed an increasing political consciousness.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The 1789 French Revolution provided further inspiration to more radical members of the Volunteer movement, who saw it as an example of the common people cooperating to remove a corrupt regime. In early 1791, wool merchant Samuel Neilson, a former Volunteer who had attended the Dungannon convention, made plans to set up a pro-French newspaper, the "Northern Star". He was joined from spring 1791 by a group from the Belfast Volunteers led by doctor William Drennan, who formed a secret political club called the "Irish Brotherhood". Inspired by events in France and the publication of Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man", they drew up a programme including the independence of Ireland on a republican model, parliamentary reform, and the restoration of all civic rights to Catholics.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: While Neilson, Drennan and the other Belfast radicals were Presbyterian, a second club set up the following month in Dublin included a more representative mix of Anglicans, Presbyterians and Catholics from the city's professional classes. One member, barrister Theobald Wolfe Tone, suggested the name "Society of United Irishmen", which was adopted by the whole organisation. The Society initially took a constitutional approach, but the 1793 outbreak of war with France forced the organisation underground when Pitt's government acted to suppress the political clubs. Tone fled to America, and Drennan was arrested and charged with seditious libel; although acquitted, he took little further part in events. In response Neilson and others in the Belfast group began restructuring the United Irishmen on revolutionary lines.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In May 1795 the Belfast delegates approved a "New System" of organisation: this was based on cells or 'societies' of 20–35 men, with a tiered structure of baronial, county, and provincial committees reporting to a single national committee, mirroring the structure of the Presbyterian church. In 1796 the New System was transformed into a military structure, each group of three 'societies' forming one company. Numbers grew rapidly; many Presbyterian shopkeepers and farmers joined in the North, while recruitment efforts among the Defenders


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In the same period a group of new leaders were elected to the United "Directory" in Dublin, notably two radicals from the aristocracy, Arthur O'Connor and MP Lord Edward FitzGerald. Other members of the committee included lawyer Thomas Addis Emmet, physician William McNevin, and Catholic Committee secretary Richard McCormick. To augment their growing strength, the United Irish leadership decided to seek military help from the current French revolutionary government, the Directory. Tone travelled from the United States to France to press the case for intervention, landing at Le Havre in February 1796 following a stormy winter crossing.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Tone had arrived in France without either instructions or accreditation from the United Irishmen, but almost single-handedly convinced the French Directory to alter its policy. His written "memorials" on the situation in Ireland came to the attention of Director Lazare Carnot, who, seeing an opportunity to destabilise Great Britain, asked for a formal invasion plan to be developed. By May, General Henry Clarke, head of the War Ministry's "Bureau Topographique", had drawn up an initial plan offering the Irish 10,000 troops and arms for 20,000 more men, with strict insistence that the United Irishmen attempt no rising until the French had landed. In June Carnot wrote to the experienced general Lazare Hoche asking him to act as commander and describing the plan as "the downfall of the most dangerous of our enemies. I see in it the safety of France for centuries to come."


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: A force of 15,000 veteran troops was assembled at Brest under Hoche. Sailing on 16 December, accompanied by Tone, the French arrived off the coast of Ireland at Bantry Bay on 22 December 1796 after eluding the Royal Navy; however, unremitting storms, bad luck and poor seamanship all combined to prevent a landing. Tone remarked that "England [...] had its luckiest escape since the Armada;" the fleet was forced to return home and the army intended to spearhead the invasion of Ireland was split up and sent to fight in other theatres of the French Revolutionary Wars.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: By 1797 reports began to reach Britain that a secret revolutionary army was being prepared in Ireland by Tone's associates. Naval mutinies at Spithead and the Nore suggested that French-inspired agitators were trying to spread the revolution to England; the crisis however appeared to pass, and in October the Navy defeated an invasion fleet of France's client state, the Batavian Republic, at Camperdown.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Tone had attempted to convince the increasingly influential general Napoleon Bonaparte, who had recently mounted a successful campaign in Italy that another landing in Ireland was feasible. Bonaparte initially showed little interest: he was largely unfamiliar with the Irish situation and needed a war of conquest, not of liberation, to pay his army. However, by February 1798 British spies reported he was preparing a fleet in the Channel ports ready for the embarkation of up to 50,000 men. Their destination remained unknown, but the reports were immediately passed to the Irish government under the Viceroy, Lord Camden.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In early 1798, a series of violent attacks on magistrates in County Tipperary, County Kildare and King's County alarmed the authorities. They also received information that a faction of the United Irish leadership, led by Fitzgerald and O'Connor, felt they were "sufficiently well organised and equipped" to begin an insurgency without French aid; they were opposed by Emmet, McCormick and NcNevin, who favoured an approach protecting life and property and wanted to wait for a French landing. Camden came under increasing pressure from hardline Irish MPs, led by Speaker John Foster, to crack down on the disorder in the south and midlands and arrest the Dublin leadership.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Camden prevaricated for some time, partly as he feared a crackdown would itself provoke an insurrection: the British Home Secretary Lord Portland agreed, describing the proposals as "dangerous and inconvenient". The situation changed when United Irish documents on manpower were leaked by an informer, silk merchant Thomas Reynolds, suggesting nearly 280,000 men across Ulster, Leinster and Munster were preparing to join the "revolutionary army". The Irish government learned from Reynolds that a meeting of the Leinster "Directory" had been set for 10 March in the Dublin house of wool merchant Oliver Bond, where a motion for an immediate rising would be voted on. Camden decided to move to arrest the leadership, arguing to London that he otherwise risked having the Irish Parliament turn against him. On the tenth, most of the moderates among the leadership such as Emmett, McNevin and Dublin City delegate Thomas Traynor were taken: several of the 'country' delegates arrived late to the meeting and escaped, as did McCormick. The only other senior member to escape was Fitzgerald himself, who went into hiding; the incident had the effect of strengthening Fitzgerald's faction and pushing the leadership towards rebellion.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The Irish government effectively imposed martial law on 30 March, although civil courts continued sitting. Overall command of the army was transferred from Ralph Abercromby to Gerard Lake, who supported an aggressive approach against suspected rebels.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: A rising in Cahir, County Tipperary broke out in response, but was quickly crushed by the High Sheriff, Col. Thomas Judkin-Fitzgerald. Militants led by Samuel Neilson and Lord Edward FitzGerald with the help of co-conspirator Edmund Gallagher dominated the rump United Irish leadership and planned to rise without French aid, fixing the date for 23 May.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The initial plan was to take Dublin, with the counties bordering Dublin to rise in support and prevent the arrival of reinforcements followed by the rest of the country who were to tie down other garrisons. The signal to rise was to be spread by the interception of the mail coaches from Dublin. However, last-minute intelligence from informants provided the Government with details of rebel assembly points in Dublin and a huge force of military occupied them barely one hour before rebels were to assemble. The Army then arrested most of the rebel leaders in the city. Deterred by the military, the gathering groups of rebels quickly dispersed, abandoning the intended rallying points, and dumping their weapons in the surrounding lanes. In addition, the plan to intercept the mail coaches miscarried, with only the Munster-bound coach halted at Johnstown, near Naas, on the first night of the rebellion.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Although the planned nucleus of the rebellion had imploded, the surrounding districts of Dublin rose as planned and were swiftly followed by most of the counties surrounding Dublin. The first clashes of the rebellion took place just after dawn on 24 May. Fighting quickly spread throughout Leinster, with the heaviest fighting taking place in County Kildare where, despite the Army successfully beating off almost every rebel attack, the rebels gained control of much of the county as military forces in Kildare were ordered to withdraw to Naas for fear of their isolation and destruction as at Prosperous. However, rebel defeats at Carlow and the hill of Tara, County Meath, effectively ended the rebellion in those counties. In County Wicklow, news of the rising spread panic and fear among loyalists; they responded by massacring rebel suspects held in custody at Dunlavin Green and in Carnew. A baronet, Sir Edward Crosbie, was found guilty of leading the rebellion in Carlow and executed for treason.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In County Wicklow, large numbers rose but chiefly engaged in a bloody rural guerrilla war with the military and loyalist forces. General Joseph Holt led up to 1,000 men in the Wicklow Mountains and forced the British to commit substantial forces to the area until his capitulation in October.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In the north-east, mostly Presbyterian rebels led by Henry Joy McCracken rose in County Antrim on 6 June. They briefly held most of the county, but the rising there collapsed following defeat at Antrim town. In County Down, after initial success at Saintfield, rebels were defeated on the 11th at Portaferry and, led by Henry Munro, decisively in the longest battle of the rebellion at Ballynahinch on the 12th.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The rebels had most success in the south-eastern county of Wexford where forces primarily led by Fr. John Murphy seized control of the county, but a series of bloody defeats at the Battle of New Ross, Battle of Arklow, and the Battle of Bunclody prevented the effective spread of the rebellion beyond the county borders. 20,000 troops eventually poured into Wexford and defeated the rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill on 21 June. The dispersed rebels spread in two columns through the midlands, Kilkenny, and finally towards Ulster. The last remnants of these forces fought on until their final defeat on 14 July at the battles of Knightstown Bog, County Meath and Ballyboughal, County Dublin.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: On 22 August, nearly two months after the main uprisings had been defeated, about 1,000 French soldiers under General Humbert landed in the north-west of the country, at Kilcummin in County Mayo. Joined by up to 5,000 local rebels, they had some initial success, inflicting a humiliating defeat on the British in Castlebar (also known as the "Castlebar races" to commemorate the speed of the retreat) and setting up a short-lived "Irish Republic" with John Moore as president of one of its provinces, Connacht. This sparked some supportive uprisings in Longford and Westmeath which were quickly defeated. The Franco-Irish force won another minor engagement at the battle of Collooney before the main force was defeated at the battle of Ballinamuck, in County Longford, on 8 September 1798. The Irish Republic had only lasted twelve days from its declaration of independence to its collapse. The French troops who surrendered were repatriated to France in exchange for British prisoners of war, but hundreds of the captured Irish rebels were executed. This episode of the 1798 Rebellion became a major event in the heritage and collective memory of the West of Ireland and was commonly known in Irish as and in English as "The Year of the French".


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Despite their general anti-clericalism and hostility to the Bourbon monarchy, the French Directory suggested to the United Irishmen in 1798 restoring the Jacobite Pretender, Henry Benedict Stuart, as Henry IX, King of the Irish. This was on account of General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert landing a force in County Mayo for the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and realising the local population were devoutly Catholic (a significant number of Irish priests supported the Rising and had met with Humbert, although Humbert's Army had been veterans of the anti-clerical campaign in Italy). The French Directory hoped this option would allow the creation of a stable French client state in Ireland, however, Wolfe Tone, the Protestant republican leader, scoffed at the suggestion and it was quashed.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: On 12 October 1798, a larger French force consisting of 3,000 men, and including Wolfe Tone himself, attempted to land in County Donegal near Lough Swilly. They were intercepted by a larger Royal Navy squadron, and finally surrendered after a three-hour battle without ever landing in Ireland. Wolfe Tone was tried by court-martial in Dublin and found guilty. He asked for death by firing squad, but when this was refused, Tone cheated the hangman by slitting his own throat in prison on 12 November, and died a week later.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Small fragments of the great rebel armies of the Summer of 1798 survived for a number of years and waged a form of guerrilla or "fugitive" warfare in several counties. In County Wicklow, General Joseph Holt fought on until his negotiated surrender in Autumn 1798. It was not until the failure of Robert Emmet's rebellion in 1803 that the last organised rebel forces under Captain Michael Dwyer capitulated. Small pockets of rebel resistance had also survived within Wexford and the last rebel group under James Corcoran was not vanquished until February 1804.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The Act of Union, having been passed in August 1800, came into effect on 1 January 1801 and took away the measure of autonomy granted to Ireland's Protestant Ascendancy. It was passed largely in response to the rebellion and was underpinned by the perception that the rebellion was provoked by the brutish misrule of the Ascendancy as much as the efforts of the United Irishmen.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Religious, if not economic, discrimination against the Catholic majority was gradually abolished after the Act of Union but not before widespread mobilisation of the Catholic population under Daniel O'Connell. Discontent at grievances and resentment persisted but resistance to British rule now largely manifested itself along anti-taxation lines, as in the Tithe War of 1831–36.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Presbyterian radicalism was effectively tamed or reconciled to British rule by inclusion in a new Protestant Ascendancy, as opposed to a merely Anglican one. By mid-1798 a schism between the Presbyterians and Catholics had developed, with radical Presbyterians starting to waver in their support for revolution. The government capitalised on this by acting against the Catholics in the radical movement instead of the northern Presbyterians. Prior to the rebellion, anyone who admitted to being a member of the United Irishmen was expelled from the Yeomanry, however former Presbyterian radicals were now able to enlist in it, and those radicals that wavered in support saw it as their chance to reintegrate themselves into society. The government also had news of the sectarian massacre of Protestants at Scullabogue spread to increase Protestant fears and enhance the growing division. Anglican clergyman Edward Hudson claimed that "the brotherhood of affection is over", as he enlisted former radicals into his Portglenone Yeomanry corps. On 1 July 1798 in Belfast, the birthplace of the United Irishmen movement, it is claimed that everyman had the red coat of the Yeomanry on. However, the Protestant contribution to the United Irish cause was not yet entirely finished as several of the leaders of the 1803 rebellion were Anglican or Presbyterian.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Nevertheless, this fostering or resurgence of religious division meant that Irish politics was largely, until the Young Ireland movement in the mid-19th century, steered away from the unifying vision of the egalitarian United Irishmen and based on sectarian fault lines with Unionist and Dublin Castle individuals at the helm of power in Ireland. After Robert Emmet's rebellion of 1803 and the Act of Union Ulster Presbyterians and other dissenters were likely bought off by British/English Anglican ruling elites with industry ship building wollen mill and as the 19th century progressed they become less and less radical and Republican/Nationalist in outlook.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The intimate nature of the conflict meant that the rebellion at times took on the worst characteristics of a civil war, especially in Leinster. Catholic resentment was fuelled by the remaining Penal Laws still in force. Rumours of planned massacres by both sides were common in the days before the rising and led to a widespread climate of fear across the nation.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: The aftermath of almost every British victory in the rising was marked by the massacre of captured and wounded rebels with some on a large scale such as at Carlow, New Ross, Ballinamuck and Killala. The British were responsible for particularly gruesome massacres at Gibbet Rath, New Ross and Enniscorthy, burning rebels alive in the latter two. For those rebels who were taken alive in the aftermath of battle, being regarded as traitors to the Crown, they were not treated as prisoners of war but were executed, usually by hanging. Local forces publicly executed suspected members of the United Irishmen without trial in Dunlavin in what is known as the Dunlavin Green executions, and in Carnew days after the outbreak of the rebellion.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: In addition, non-combatant civilians were murdered by the military, who also carried out many instances of rape, particularly in County Wexford. Many individual instances of murder were also unofficially carried out by local Yeomanry units before, during and after the rebellion as their local knowledge led them to attack suspected rebels. "Pardoned" rebels were a particular target.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: According to the historian Guy Beiner, the Presbyterian insurgents in Ulster suffered more executions than any other arena of the 1798 rebellion, and the brutality with which the insurrection was quelled in counties Antrim and Down was long remembered in local folk traditions.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: County Wexford was the only area which saw widespread atrocities by the rebels during the Wexford Rebellion. Massacres of loyalist prisoners took place at the Vinegar Hill camp and on Wexford bridge. After the defeat of a rebel attack at New Ross, the Scullabogue Barn massacre occurred, in which between 80 and 200 mostly Protestant men, women, and children were imprisoned in a barn which was then set alight. In Wexford town, on 20 June some 70 loyalist prisoners were marched to the bridge (first stripped naked, according to an unsourced claim by historian James Lydon) and piked to death.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: Contemporary estimates put the death toll from 20,000 (Dublin Castle) to as many as 50,000 of which 2,000 were military and 1,000 loyalist civilians. Some modern research argues that these figures may be too high. Firstly, a list of British soldiers killed, compiled for a fund to aid the families of dead soldiers, listed just 530 names. Secondly, professor Louis Cullen, through an examination of depletion of the population in County Wexford between 1798 and 1820, put the fatalities in that county due to the rebellion at 6,000. Historian Thomas Bartlett therefore argues, "a death toll of 10,000 for the entire island would seem to be in order". Other modern historians believe that the death toll may be even higher than contemporary estimates suggest as the widespread fear of repression among relatives of slain rebels led to mass concealment of casualties.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: By the centenary of the Rebellion in 1898, conservative Irish nationalists and the Catholic Church would both claim that the United Irishmen had been fighting for "Faith and Fatherland", and this version of events is still, to some extent, the lasting popular memory of the rebellion. A series of popular "98 Clubs" were formed. At the bicentenary in 1998, the non-sectarian and democratic ideals of the Rebellion were emphasised in official commemorations, reflecting the desire for reconciliation at the time of the Good Friday Agreement which was hoped would end "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland.


title: Irish Rebellion of 1798

text: According to R. F. Foster, the 1798 rebellion was "probably the most concentrated episode of violence in Irish history".


title: Mario Kempes

text: Mario Alberto Kempes Chiodi (; born 15 July 1954) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker or attacking midfielder. A prolific goalscorer, he finished as La Liga's top goalscorer twice with Valencia and amassed 116 goals in 184 league games for the club.


title: Mario Kempes

text: At international level, Kempes was the focal point of Argentina's 1978 World Cup win where he scored twice in the final and received the Golden Boot as top goalscorer. He also won the Golden Ball for the player of the tournament, making him one of only three players to have won all three awards at a single World Cup, along with Garrincha in 1962 and Paolo Rossi in 1982.


title: Mario Kempes

text: Kempes won South American Footballer of the Year, Onze d'Or European footballer of the Year and World Cup Golden Ball in 1978. In 2004, he was named as one of the Top 125 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA's 100th anniversary celebration. Kempes was nicknamed "El Toro" and "El Matador".


title: Mario Kempes

text: Kempes was born in Bell Ville, Córdoba. His father, Mario Quemp, was of German heritage. His mother, Teresa Chiodi, was Italian. At the age of seven he began playing with a junior team and at fourteen he joined the Talleres reserves.


title: Mario Kempes

text: Kempes' career started at local club Instituto, where he played alongside Osvaldo Ardiles before quickly moving on to Rosario Central, where he established himself as a remarkable goalscorer, scoring 85 goals in 105 matches, prompting Valencia to sign him. At Mestalla he would go on to win the Copa del Rey, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup as well as two consecutive Pichichis, scoring 24 and 28 goals in the 1976–77 and 1977–78 seasons. Famous as a hard-working forward, he used to strike from outside the penalty area with his surging runs towards goal and was not the traditional center-forward operating solely inside the box. Many defenders found difficulty handling his attacking style.


title: Mario Kempes

text: Before the 1978 World Cup, Kempes was the only foreign-based player on the list of coach César Luis Menotti's Argentina national team. when announcing the squad he had selected for the 1978 tournament, Menotti described him with these words: "He's strong, he's got skill, he creates spaces and he shoots hard. He's a player who can make a difference, and he can play in a centre-forward position."


title: Mario Kempes

text: Kempes had been the top scorer in La Liga the previous two seasons and was determined to show on home soil that he could deliver against the best on the sport's greatest stage. However, he had failed to get on the score-sheet in West Germany in 1974, at the age of 20, and after the first round group stage in 1978, his name was still missing among goal scorers in the tournament.


title: Mario Kempes

text: After leaving Valencia in 1984, Kempes spent two years at Hércules in nearby Alicante before spending six years at various Austrian clubs. His play declined in his 30s and he did not compete for top scorer honours in the Austrian top flight. He rounded off his career with stints at more obscure clubs in Indonesia, Chile and Albania during the 1990s.


title: Mario Kempes

text: During his club career he won 43 caps for Argentina and scored 20 times. He represented his country in three World Cups in 1974, 1978 and 1982, winning the competition in 1978. He was the leading goalscorer in the 1978 tournament, scoring six goals in three braces: the first two in Argentina's first semi-final group stage match against Poland, another two against Peru, and the last two in the final against the Netherlands, which Argentina won 3–1. His second goal, in the 105th minute, was the game winner in extra time. However, in the same tournament, he notoriously stopped a goal with his hand in a second-round match against Poland. This resulted in a penalty kick that was promptly saved by Ubaldo Fillol. His goals in the 1978 World Cup Final were his last for Argentina at the age of just 23.


title: Mario Kempes

text: In 1978, he was named "South American Football Player of the Year" ("El Mundo," Caracas, Venezuela). He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.


title: Mario Kempes

text: Kempes made his full-time managing debut in Albania. His brief spell with Lushnja was groundbreaking, as he became the first foreign manager who signed a foreign player in Albanian football history. His career in Albania came to a quick end in 1997. The following year, he landed a job with Venezuelan side Mineros de Guayana. In 1999, Kempes moved to Bolivia and managed The Strongest, before taking charge of Blooming in 2000. Previously, he had worked as assistant coach for Uruguayan manager Héctor Núñez in Valencia and as a player-manager of Indonesian League champions Pelita Jaya.


title: Mario Kempes

text: He currently works as a football analyst and commentator in Spanish for ESPN Deportes (ESPN's Spanish-language version). With Fernando Palomo and Ciro Procuna he provides the commentary in the Latin American version of the FIFA franchise video games FIFA 13, FIFA 14, FIFA 15, FIFA 16, FIFA 17, FIFA 18, FIFA 19, FIFA 20, FIFA 21 and FIFA 22.


title: Estrous cycle

text: The estrous cycle (, originally ) is the set of recurring physiological changes that are induced by reproductive hormones in most mammalian therian females. Estrous cycles start after sexual maturity in females and are interrupted by anestrous phases, otherwise known as "rest" phases, or by pregnancies. Typically, estrous cycles repeat until death. These cycles are widely variable in duration and frequency depending on the species. Some animals may display bloody vaginal discharge, often mistaken for menstruation. Many mammals used in commercial agriculture, such as cattle and sheep, may have their estrous cycles artificially controlled with hormonal medications for optimum productivity. The male equivalent, seen primarily in ruminants, is called rut.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Mammals share the same reproductive system, including the regulatory hypothalamic system that produces gonadotropin-releasing hormone in pulses, the pituitary gland that secretes follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and the ovary itself that releases sex hormones, including estrogens and progesterone.


title: Estrous cycle

text: However, species vary significantly in the detailed functioning. One difference is that animals that have estrous cycles resorb the endometrium if conception does not occur during that cycle. Animals that have menstrual cycles shed the endometrium through menstruation instead. Another difference is sexual activity. In species with estrous cycles, females are generally only sexually active during the estrus phase of their cycle. This is also referred to as being "in heat". In contrast, females of species with menstrual cycles can be sexually active at any time in their cycle, even when they are not about to ovulate.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Humans have menstrual cycles rather than estrous cycles. They, unlike most other species, have concealed ovulation, a lack of obvious external signs to signal estral receptivity at ovulation (i.e., the ability to become pregnant). Animals with estrous cycles often have unmistakable outward displays of receptivity, ranging from engorged and colorful genitals to behavioral changes like mating calls.


title: Estrous cycle

text: "Estrus" is derived via Latin "" ('frenzy', 'gadfly'), from Greek "oîstros" (literally 'gadfly', more figuratively 'frenzy', 'madness', among other meanings like 'breeze'). Specifically, this refers to the gadfly in Ancient Greek mythology that Hera sent to torment Io, who had been won in her heifer form by Zeus. Euripides used "oestrus" to indicate 'frenzy', and to describe madness. Homer used the word to describe panic. Plato also used it to refer to an irrational drive and to describe the soul "driven and drawn by the gadfly of desire". Somewhat more closely aligned to current meaning and usage of "estrus", Herodotus ("Histories", ch. 93.1) uses "oîstros" to describe the desire of fish to spawn.


title: Estrous cycle

text: The earliest use in English was with a meaning of 'frenzied passion'. In 1900, it was first used to describe 'rut in animals; heat'.


title: Estrous cycle

text: In British and most Commonwealth English, the spelling is "oestrus" or (rarely) "œstrus". In all English spellings, the noun ends in "-us" and the adjective in "-ous". Thus in North American English, a mammal may be described as "in estrus" when it is in that particular part of the estrous cycle.


title: Estrous cycle

text: One or several follicles of the ovary start to grow. Their number is species-specific. Typically this phase can last as little as one day or as long as three weeks, depending on the species. Under the influence of estrogen, the lining of the uterus (endometrium) starts to develop. Some animals may experience vaginal secretions that could be bloody. The female is not yet sexually receptive; the old corpus luteum degenerates; the uterus and the vagina distend and fill with fluid, become contractile and secrete a sanguinous fluid; the vaginal epithelium proliferates and the vaginal cytology shows a large number of non-cornified nucleated epithelial cells. Variant terms for "proestrus" include "pro-oestrus", "proestrum", and "pro-oestrum".


title: Estrous cycle

text: Estrus or oestrus refers to the phase when the female is sexually receptive ("in heat" American English, or "on heat" British English). Under regulation by gonadotropic hormones, ovarian follicles mature and estrogen secretions exert their biggest influence. The female then exhibits sexually receptive behavior, a situation that may be signaled by visible physiologic changes. Estrus is commonly seen in the mammalian species, including primates.


title: Estrous cycle

text: In some species, the labia are reddened. Ovulation may occur spontaneously in others. Especially among quadrupeds, a signal trait of estrus is the lordosis reflex, in which the animal spontaneously elevates her hindquarters.


title: Estrous cycle

text: This phase is characterized by the activity of the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone. The signs of estrogen stimulation subside and the corpus luteum starts to form. The uterine lining begins to appear. In the absence of pregnancy the diestrus phase (also termed pseudo-pregnancy) terminates with the regression of the corpus luteum. The lining in the uterus is not shed, but is reorganized for the next cycle. Other spellings include "metoestrus", "metestrum", "metoestrum", "dioestrus", "diestrum", and "dioestrum".


title: Estrous cycle

text: Anestrus refers to the phase when the sexual cycle rests. This is typically a seasonal event and controlled by light exposure through the pineal gland that releases melatonin. Melatonin may repress stimulation of reproduction in long-day breeders and stimulate reproduction in short-day breeders. Melatonin is thought to act by regulating the hypothalamic pulse activity of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone. Anestrus is induced by time of year, pregnancy, lactation, significant illness, chronic energy deficit, and possibly age. Chronic exposure to anabolic steroids may also induce a persistent anestrus due to negative feedback on the hypothalamus/pituitary/gonadal axis. Other spellings include "anoestrus", "anestrum", and "anoestrum".


title: Estrous cycle

text: After completion (or abortion) of a pregnancy, some species have "postpartum estrus", which is ovulation and corpus luteum production that occurs immediately following the birth of the young. For example, the mouse has a fertile postpartum estrus that occurs 14 to 24 hours following parturition.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Estrous cycle variability differs among species, but cycles are typically more frequent in smaller animals. Even within species significant variability can be observed, thus cats may undergo an estrous cycle of 3 to 7 weeks. Domestication can affect estrous cycles due to changes in the environment. For most species, vaginal smear cytology may be used in order to identify estrous cycle phases and durations.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Some species, such as cats, cows and domestic pigs, are polyestrous, meaning that they can go into heat several times per year. Seasonally polyestrous animals or seasonal breeders have more than one estrous cycle during a specific time of the year and can be divided into short-day and long-day breeders:


title: Estrous cycle

text: Monestrous species, such as canids and bears, have only one breeding season per year, typically in spring to allow growth of the offspring during the warm season to aid survival during the next winter.


title: Estrous cycle

text: A few mammalian species, such as rabbits and cats, do not have an estrous cycle, instead being induced to ovulate by the act of mating and are able to conceive at almost any arbitrary moment.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Generally speaking, the timing of estrus is coordinated with seasonal availability of food and other circumstances such as migration, predation etc., the goal being to maximize the offspring's chances of survival. Some species are able to modify their estral timing in response to external conditions.


title: Estrous cycle

text: The female cat in heat has an estrus of 14 to 21 days and is generally characterized as an induced ovulator, since coitus induces ovulation. However, various incidents of spontaneous ovulation have been documented in the domestic cat and various non-domestic species. Without ovulation, she may enter interestrus, which is the combined stages of diestrus and anestrus, before reentering estrus. With the induction of ovulation, the female becomes pregnant or undergoes a non-pregnant luteal phase, also known as pseudopregnancy. Cats are polyestrous but experience a seasonal anestrus in autumn and late winter.


title: Estrous cycle

text: A female dog is usually diestrous (goes into heat typically twice per year), although some breeds typically have one or three cycles per year. The proestrus is relatively long at 5 to 9 days, while the estrus may last 4 to 13 days, with a diestrus of 60 days followed by about 90 to 150 days of anestrus. Female dogs bleed during estrus, which usually lasts from 7–13 days, depending on the size and maturity of the dog. Ovulation occurs 24–48 hours after the luteinizing hormone peak, which occurs around the fourth day of estrus; therefore, this is the best time to begin breeding. Proestrus bleeding in dogs is common and is believed to be caused by diapedesis of red blood cells from the blood vessels due to the increase of the estradiol-17β hormone.


title: Estrous cycle

text: A mare may be in heat for 4 to 10 days, followed by approximately 14 days in diestrus. Thus, a cycle may be short, totaling approximately 3 weeks. Horses mate in spring and summer; autumn is a transition time, and anestrus occurs during winter.


title: Estrous cycle

text: A feature of the fertility cycle of horses and other large herd animals is that it is usually affected by the seasons. The number of hours daily that light enters the eye of the animal affects the brain, which governs the release of certain precursors and hormones. When daylight hours are few, these animals "shut down", become anestrous, and do not become fertile. As the days grow longer, the longer periods of daylight cause the hormones that activate the breeding cycle to be released. As it happens, this benefits these animals in that, given a gestation period of about eleven months, it prevents them from having young when the cold of winter would make their survival risky.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Rats are polyestrous animals that typically have rapid cycle lengths of 4 to 5 days. Although they ovulate spontaneously, they do not develop a fully functioning corpus luteum unless they receive coital stimulation. Fertile mating leads to pregnancy in this way, but infertile mating leads to a state of pseudopregnancy lasting about 10 days. Mice and hamsters have similar behavior. The events of the cycle are strongly influenced by lighting periodicity.


title: Estrous cycle

text: A set of follicles starts to develop near the end of proestrus and grows at a nearly constant rate until the beginning of the subsequent estrus when the growth rates accelerate eightfold. Ovulation occurs about 109 hours after the start of follicle growth.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Estrogen peaks at about 11 am on the day of proestrus. Between then and midnight there is a surge in progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone, and ovulation occurs at about 4 am on the next estrus day. The following day, metestrus, is called early diestrus or diestrus I. During this day, the corpora lutea grow to a maximal volume, achieved within 24 hours of ovulation. They remain at that size for three days, halve in size before the metestrus of the next cycle and then shrink abruptly before estrus of the cycle after that. Thus the ovaries of cycling rats contain three different sets of corpora lutea at different phases of development.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Buffalo have an estrous cycle of about 22 to 24 days. Buffalo are known for difficult estrus detection. This is one major reason for being less productive than cattle. During four phases of its estrous cycle, mean weight of corpus luteum has been found to be 1.23±0.22g (metestrus), 3.15±0.10g (early diestrus), 2.25±0.32g (late diestrus), and 1.89±0.31g (proestrus/estrus), respectively. The plasma progesterone concentration was 1.68±0.37, 4.29±0.22, 3.89±0.33, and 0.34±0.14 ng/ml while mean vascular density (mean number of vessels/10 microscopic fields at 400x) in corpus luteum was 6.33±0.99, 18.00±0.86, 11.50±0.76, and 2.83±0.60 during the metestrus, early diestrus, late diestrus and proestrus/estrus, respectively.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Female cattle, also referred to as "heifers" in agriculture, will gradually enter standing estrus, or "standing heat," starting at puberty between 9 and 15 months of age. The cow estrous cycle typically lasts 21 days. Standing estrus is a visual cue which signifies sexual receptivity for mounting by male cattle. This behavior lasts anywhere between 8 and 30 hours at a time. Other behaviors of the female during standing estrus may change, including, but not limited to: nervousness, swollen vulva, or attempting to mount other animals. While visual and behavioral cues are helpful to the male cattle, estrous stages cannot be determined by the human eye. Rather, the stage can be estimated from the appearance of the corpora lutea or follicle composition.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Due to the widespread use of bovine animals in agriculture, cattle estrous cycles have been widely studied, and manipulated, in an effort to maximize profitability through reproductive management. Much estrous control in cattle is for the purpose of synchronization, a practice or set of practices most often used by cattle farmers to control the timing and duration of estrus in large herds.


title: Estrous cycle

text: There is variation between the available methods of cattle estrous synchronization. Treatment depends on herd size, specific goals for control, and budget. Some of the FDA-approved drugs and devices used to mimic natural hormones of the estrous cycle include, but are not limited to, the following classes:


title: Estrous cycle

text: There is variation between the available methods of cattle estrous synchronization. Treatment depends on herd size, specific goals for control, and budget.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Bovine estrous cycles may also be impacted by other bodily functions such as oxytocin levels. Additionally, heat stress has been linked to impairment of follicular development, especially impactful to the first-wave dominant follicle. Future synchronization programs are planning to focus on the impact of heat stress on fertilization and embryonic death rates after artificial insemination.


title: Estrous cycle

text: Additionally, work has been done regarding other mammalian females, such as in dogs, for estrous control; However, there are yet to be any approved medications outside of those commercially available.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The Cave is a 2005 American action horror film, directed by Bruce Hunt and distributed by Screen Gems. It was written by Michael Steinberg and Tegan West. Its story follows a group of cave-divers and scientists who become trapped while exploring a cave system in Romania, and encounter a pack of deadly creatures. It stars Cole Hauser, Eddie Cibrian, Morris Chestnut, Marcel Iureș, Lena Headey, Rick Ravanello, Piper Perabo and Daniel Dae Kim.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The film was produced by Lakeshore Entertainment and Cinerenta and was released on August 26, 2005. It grossed $6.1 million during its opening weekend and $33.3 million worldwide, against a budget of $30 million. It received negative reviews and has a 12% approval rating based on 111 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: During the Cold War era, a group of Soviet and British plunderers drive to an abandoned 13th-century abbey in the Carpathian Mountains.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Within the derelict abbey are many mosaics depicting mythological creatures and winged demons. The men wish to access the vaults beneath the floor, and set up a dynamite charge, but the entire floor splits beneath them and they fall through to the bottom of a vast cave system. The explosion also triggers a landslide which demolishes the abbey and covers the opening above the men. They descend further into the cave in the hope of finding a way out, and hear strange rattling sounds in the darkness.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Some time later in 2005, a team led by Dr Nicolai, with his associate Dr Kathryn Jennings and cameraman Alex Kim, are excavating the site of the former abbey. They find an opening and examine some of the curious mosaics which are still intact inside the ruins. After further research, Dr Nicolai discovers a river that stretches for miles inside the cave system. Local biologists believe the cave could contain an undiscovered ecosystem, so Dr Nicolai hires a group of American divers led by brothers Jack and Tyler McAllister – thrill seeking professional cave explorers who run a world famous scuba diving team.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The divers arrive in Romania with a modified rebreather which allows a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The team includes rock-climbing professional Charlie, first scout Briggs, sonar expert Strode, and survival expert Top Buchanan.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The group descend on cables to the base camp they have set up below. Briggs is chosen to go into the river first to scout ahead. After following the river for two miles he sees something in the distance, but before he can provide more details the server crashes and he loses contact.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Jack and the rest of the group press on, thinking the problem is simply an equipment malfunction. They eventually find Briggs safe downriver. But Strode is suddenly attacked and dragged away by a large, strange creature. As Strode fights for his life, he grabs on to his water scooter and turns it on full speed, but the creature latches on to Strode and pulls him back into a dark crevice. The water scooter speeds off on its own and crashes into the cave wall causing a rock fall.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The group start to look for Strode but Jack calls them back. He realizes the cave-in has now forced them to follow the river and search for a new way out. Dr Nicolai believes they should wait to be rescued, but Jack reminds Nicolai that they are three miles below the surface entrance and their support crew is not scheduled to retrieve them for 12 days.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Jack and Top decide to follow the river together along the line left by Strode. Jack is seized by one of the creatures that attacked Spode, but is able to fight it off. When the men make it back to the team, Jack has three deep cuts on his back, as well as a huge claw he severed from the creature.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Kathryn looks at cells from the claw under a microscope and notices a mutation within them. She realizes the mutations indicate the presence of a parasite. Nicolai discovers the same parasite in all of the lifeforms they find. The known cave species all originated above ground, she explains, but have adapted over generations to life underground. Kathryn theorizes this new parasite originated in the cave environment and has never been exposed to the outside world.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The team stumble across the equipment and remains of previous explorers and also find a femur bone with large teeth marks, unaware they are themselves being stalked by the creatures. The team is obliged to descend through a series of rapids. Tyler sees Nicolai hanging on to the side of the cave, his leg badly injured, but is sucked down into the current, before he can help. As everyone starts to surface, they hear Nicolai screaming. Jack volunteers to retrieve him and swims over, but as he approaches, Nicolai is dragged underwater by one of the creatures. Jack lights a flare and swims deep below the surface, where he can see the creature pulling Nicolai to his death. However, Jack clearly sees tattooed letters on the creature's hands, proving the mutants were once human.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Jack regroups with the team on shore. But his senses and physical features are beginning to transform as a result of the scratches he got earlier. His hearing has improved significantly and his other senses are heightened. When Jack tells them they must go back up the cave wall to escape, Charlie scales the wall but is soon attacked by a creature hidden in the passage above. The human-sized winged mutation kills her on the cliff face in full view of the team.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: As Jack exhibits super-keen senses and inhumanly slanted pupils, Kathryn theorises that what is happening to Jack has happened before. She speculates that Jack, the previous explorers and all the ecosystem's creatures mutated due to the parasite; the infected humans now resemble the winged demons depicted in the mosaics. Witnessing Jack's transformation, some of the survivors question his judgement and the team splits up. Alex, Briggs and Kathryn go their own way, while Top and Tyler stay with Jack.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Jack, Top and Tyler discover a cavern littered with human skeletons and realize this is the ancient battleground depicted in the mosaics; the abbey's residents battled these creatures centuries ago and sealed the cave to prevent them from escaping. Jack notices there is light and cold water coming through the center of the river, which confirms this is the passageway out of the cave. He lets Tyler go back to find the others, but in doing so he witnesses Briggs's death - impaled on spikes on the cave wall.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Tyler saves Kathryn and brings her to the passageway. On their way back, they meet Alex and all run to rejoin Jack and Top. However, the creatures have entered the cavern and stolen the rebreathers necessary to navigate the passage. Top, Kathryn, Tyler and Alex run into the river toward the passageway, but Alex is killed before he can get in the water, a creature grabbing him from above. Jack causes a distraction, allowing the others to escape while he sacrifices himself by battling the creatures. The three resurface in a huge canyon and are finally safe.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The survivors return to civilization and Top departs. A little while later, Tyler and Kathryn meet up and he asks her if Jack could have survived out in the open in his mutated state. Kathryn says she had originally thought the parasite could only survive underground, but now she is uncertain; she suspects the parasite wants to get out. When she lowers her sunglasses, it is clear that Kathryn's eyes have mutated just like Jack's. Kathryn then quickly walks away, as Tyler realizes she knows she is infected with the parasite, and that she intends to remain free, able to infect others. He runs after her, but she disappears in the crowd.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: "The Cave" received mostly negative reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 12% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 111 reviews, with an average rating of 3.5/10. The critics consensus reads, "Despite its stylized and impressive sets, this horror-monster movie mish-mash suffers from endless cliches and wildly implausible plotlines." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "C−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: The main complaint was the lack of character building and overly familiar cliches, with Neil Smith of BBC Online calling it "a generic duffer that is as exciting as a hole in the ground". Robert Koehler made the same observation in Variety, writing, ""The Cave" feels familiar as it goes through the rote edicts of the scientific crew vs. beastie formula". In her review for the New York Times, Laura Kern praised the film’s sets and visual style, but denounced the script, writing "Having worked as second- and third-unit director on the "Matrix" trilogy and "Dark City," Bruce Hunt is no stranger to inspired and stylish productions. But whereas those films managed to inject new life into tired territory, "The Cave", his first effort as director, fails to generate anything resembling innovation." Judy Chia Hui Hsu wrote in "The Seattle Times", "the serenity of the largely aquatic underground world framed by majestic stalagmites and serpentine corridors succeeds in capturing the moviegoer’s attention," but added, "The insipid dialog lacks even a hint of comic relief, so the audience is grateful when the action quickly kicks into gear," and "one of the film’s biggest letdowns is that the vicious beast, seen in the full light of the final scenes, is not such a surprise after all. The creature is simply an amalgamation of monsters we’ve seen before".


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: In the US, the film opened ranked #5 grossing $6,147,294 at 2,195 sites, averaging $2,800. It went on to have a final US gross of $15,007,991. In Australia, it opened at 89 sites, averaging A$3,204 grossing A$285,121. It had a second-weekend decrease by 74%, and had a finishing gross of A$570,131. Worldwide, the film has grossed $33,296,457.


title: The Cave (2005 film)

text: Two soundtrack CDs were released on August 26, 2005 by Lakeshore Records, one with the score by the film's composers Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek and the other one which features tracks by heavy metal bands including Atreyu, Lacuna Coil, Diecast, Burning Brides, Ill Niño, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, It Dies Today, Trivium and more. Also, the single "Nemo" by Nightwish is featured during the end credits of the film.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: Nurse Jackie is an American medical comedy-drama television series. It premiered on Showtime on June 8, 2009, and its seventh and final season premiered on April 12, 2015. The series finale aired on June 28, 2015.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: The show stars Edie Falco as the title character, Jackie Peyton, an emergency department nurse at All Saints' Hospital in New York City. For Jackie, "every day is a high wire act of juggling patients, doctors, fellow nurses, and her own indiscretions."


title: Nurse Jackie

text: The show was well-received by critics, winning five Primetime Emmy Awards out of 24 nominations, including one win for Falco and Merritt Wever each.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: "Nurse Jackie" was created by Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem, and Evan Dunsky. Brixius and Wallem served as showrunners for the first four seasons and shared executive producer duties with Caryn Mandabach and John Melfi. Showtime ordered an initial 12 episodes. Before the premiere, Brixius told the New York "Daily News" that "Guys' stories tend to be about conquests—getting the job, winning the Olympics, whatever. Women['s] stories aren't as immediately climactic so they need to play out over the course of three months ... And every medical show out there has been about doctors. Doctors are absolutely unable to do what they have to do without nurses. We want to tell those stories."


title: Nurse Jackie

text: The June 8, 2009, series premiere was Showtime's most successful ever, with 1 million viewers for the premiere and over 350,000 for the repeat broadcast. Showtime immediately picked up the series for a second season. Season Three premiered on Showtime on March 28, 2011. On May 23, 2011, Showtime ordered a fourth season. A fifth season was ordered on May 31, 2012, and production began in late 2012. The season 4 finale aired on June 17, 2012. Season 5 premiered on April 14, 2013, with new showrunner and executive producer, Clyde Phillips. On June 6, 2013, Showtime renewed the show for a sixth season, which premiered on April 13, 2014.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: On March 31, 2014, Showtime renewed "Nurse Jackie" for a seventh season, which was announced in September as the show's final season. It premiered April 12, 2015.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: Showtime called Jackie Peyton a "strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life," noting that she had "an occasional weakness for Vicodin, Percocet, and Xanax to get her through the days." The main characters include Dr. Eleanor O'Hara (Eve Best), a British doctor and Jackie's best friend at work; Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), a spunky, inexperienced nursing student from a community college, "the perfect foil for Jackie's sharp angles"; Dr. Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli), "a likable 'golden boy' whose calm façade hides a nervous disposition"; and Eddie Walzer (Paul Schulze), a pharmacist with whom Jackie is having an affair at the beginning of the series.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: Other characters include the officious hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith), Jackie's bar owner husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa), their daughters Grace (Ruby Jerins) and Fiona (Daisy Tahan in season 1 and Mackenzie Aladjem in seasons 2 through 7), and Thor (Stephen Wallem), Jackie's kindhearted confidant and the real-life brother of show creator/executive producer Linda Wallem.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: The premiere of "Nurse Jackie" was met with generally positive reviews from critics, and received a Metacritic rating of 76 out of 100. "Entertainment Weekly" gave the first episode a B+, stating "Edie Falco brings a genial forcefulness to Nurse Jackie." "New York" magazine called the Showtime series "smart, acrid, alternately sharp and sentimental" and "the best series yet in the cable channel's ongoing meditation on the nature of addiction ... and the setting for a truly breakthrough female character." James Poniewozik from "Time" magazine ranked "Nurse Jackie"'s episode "Tiny Bubbles" (106) as 5th on his "Top 10 Episodes of 2009" list. "Variety" and "Salon" struck the primary sour notes, with "Variety" noting, "The series increasingly feels like all style and limited substance – a star showcase that's less 'triumphant return' than 'Nice to have you back, but...'"


title: Nurse Jackie

text: Reviews of subsequent seasons varied. The second season achieved a Metacritic rating of 75 out of 100 from 16 critics, the third season received 79 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, the fourth received 83 out of 100 out of 9 reviews, the fifth season received a 66 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, and the sixth season received a rating of 64 out of 100 based on 4 reviews. The seventh and final season did not receive enough ratings to warrant a score.


title: Nurse Jackie

text: Soon after "Nurse Jackie" premiered, the New York State Nurses Association decried the unethical behavior of the title character, and the detrimental impression regarding nurses that such a portrayal could have on the public, stating, "In the first episode, Nurse Jackie is introduced as a substance abuser who trades sex with a pharmacist for prescription drugs ... She has no qualms about repeatedly violating the nursing Code of Ethics."


title: Nurse Jackie

text: On August 29, 2010, at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, in her acceptance speech for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Falco exclaimed "I'm not funny!" Later, while speaking to the press, she expanded upon her statement and said that she felt her performance was dramatic. Several articles have since been written addressing this question, with some writers even calling for an overhaul of the Emmy categorization process as well as a "Comedy-Drama/Dramedy" category for the awards.


title: Michael Blackson

text: Michael Blackson was born in Liberia in 1972 to a Ghanaian father and a Liberian mother. He spent his young years in between Monrovia and Ghana before relocating to the United States in the mid-1980s. His father died in 2008. Michael lived in Newark, New Jersey when he was 13, and then settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when he was 15. He began pursuing comedy after his coworker at Domino's suggested he start open mic.


title: Michael Blackson

text: In 2005, he released a comedy sketch CD entitled "Modasucka: Welcome to America". Also in 2005, he made an appearance on TV series 30 Rock, "P. Diddy Presents: The Bad Boys of Comedy" on HBO, and starred in a commercial for "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central.


title: Michael Blackson

text: In 2011, Blackson appeared on Starz's "Martin Lawrence Presents: 1st Amendment Stand-up" and Showtime's "Shaquille O'Neal Presents All Star Comedy Jam".


title: Michael Blackson

text: On July 31, 2021, Blackson proposed to his girlfriend, Rada Darling, during a radio interview on The Breakfast Club. On November 24, 2021, he became a U.S citizen. Blackson is the uncle of Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Eli Apple.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Martin Steven Lewis CBE (born 9 May 1972) is an English financial journalist and broadcaster. Lewis founded the website MoneySavingExpert.com. He sold the website in 2012 to the Moneysupermarket.com group for up to £87 million.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis was born at Withington Hospital in Manchester in 1972. His family lived in the Manchester suburb of Didsbury. While still a child he moved with his family to the village of Norley, near Delamere Forest in rural Cheshire, where his father was appointed headmaster of Delamere Forest School, a Jewish school for students with special educational needs. His mother Susan Lewis, died following a horse riding accident, involving a collision with a lorry, when he was aged 11. In later life he became a patron of the children's bereavement charity Grief Encounter and an advocate for life insurance.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis attended The King's School, an independent school in Chester. Lewis has stated that he was subjected to anti-Semitism as a school boy in Chester, remarking that as one of only two Jewish boys in his year he was given the nickname "Jew" by other pupils. He went on to read Government and Law at the London School of Economics and in 1997 became a postgraduate student in Broadcast Journalism at Cardiff University's Centre for Journalism Studies. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Chester.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: After graduating, Lewis was the general secretary of the LSE Students' Union. He then went to work in the City of London for the Brunswick Group, a financial communications consultancy.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: After graduating in journalism at Cardiff University, Lewis became a producer for the BBC Business Unit working on the BBC Radio Five Live business programmes and as an editor of BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme business slot. Lewis then moved to satellite channel "Simply Money", fronted by Angela Rippon, where he cultivated his "Money Saving Expert" persona. From the outset, the channel suffered poor viewing figures and its main backer, Invest TV Resources, withdrew their support in March 2001. Almost all of its 51 staff, including Lewis, lost their jobs.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: After the collapse of "Simply Money", Lewis contributed to a "Deal of the Week" column in the "Sunday Express". Lewis also presented "Money Saving Expert" slots on Channel 5's daytime show, "Open House with Gloria Hunniford". Lewis returned to the BBC to work as a business and personal finance reporter for the corporation's BBC One "Breakfast News". In 2005, Lewis presented a daytime television series on ITV called "Make Me Rich" and in 2008 a peak time programme on Five called "It Pays to Watch!". Lewis has also presented money special editions for ITV's "Tonight" and has featured as a "Money Saving Expert" on several other magazine programmes including "Good Morning Britain" and "Lorraine".


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis currently appears on ITV's "This Morning" and as an occasional guest on other news and magazine programmes. In 2012, he began co-presenting "The Martin Lewis Money Show", initially with Saira Khan, and more recently with Angellica Bell. He also appeared weekly on the "Emma Barnett Show" on BBC's Radio Five Live. In June 2020 he was a guest on BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs".


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In December 2022, Martin Lewis appeared with LadBaby on their Christmas charity single, "Food Aid", a spoof of Band Aid's 1984 charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In October 2002 Martin appeared in the Meridian Trust's (now Public Service Broadcasting Trust) live Spotlight Programme "Save yourself a fortune" on ITV Meridian as their Money Saving Expert for the first time. The programme subsequently won the Royal Television Society Educational Award – 2002 Campaigns and Seasons.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis created and runs the website MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE), which was originally designed for a cost of just £100 in February 2003.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In September 2012 he sold the website to the Moneysupermarket.com group for up to £87m but remained editor-in-chief. The deal saw Lewis receive £35m cash up front in addition to 22.1m shares in Moneysupermarket.com and £27m in future payments. He simultaneously announced his intention to give £10m to charity, of which £1m would go to Citizens Advice.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In July 2015 Lewis sold just over half his shareholding in Moneysupermarket.com, obtained in the sale of Money Saving Expert, for £25.2 million. On the back of this he gave a further £1m to Citizens Advice and £500,000 each to The Trussell Trust and the Personal Finance Education Group to fund financial triage and education work. In 2018 Lewis started legal action against Facebook for defamation over fake adverts using his face and name, mostly promoting ‘bitcoin’ and ‘investing’. He later dropped the action after Facebook agreed to fund an anti-scam project.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis has a fortnightly column in "The Sunday Post" and a regional syndicated column in "The Yorkshire Post", the "Manchester Evening News" and the "Express & Star" amongst others. He has been a columnist for "The Sunday Times", "News of the World", "The Guardian" and the "Sunday Express". All his columns are on the theme of saving money.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In 2010 Martin Lewis was a presenter on "GMTV with Lorraine", a weekday morning chat show. The programme includes a regular feature called ‘Deals of the Week’. Ofcom investigated a complaint that the programme promoted MoneySavingExpert.com, a website owned and run by Lewis as a commercial enterprise. Lewis denied any wrongdoing and continues to do so. However the Ofcom report concluded: "By inviting viewers to obtain further information and vouchers on the GMTV website, and then re-directing them to Martin Lewis' commercial website to obtain that information, the programme was effectively promoting his business. As a result of this promotion, the programme was in breach of Rule 10.3 of the Code."


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In late 2005, campaigns against what were claimed to be unfair bank charges gained momentum and a few small websites started to highlight the issue. Lewis was at the forefront of the media campaign to reclaim what he states are unfair and unlawful fees charged by UK banks. He presented the first mainstream television programme on how to reclaim bank fees (ITV1's "Tonight") and in November 2006 published a step-by-step guide, including template letters as well as regularly appearing across the media to champion the issue.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: His campaign suffered a major setback in November 2009 when the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that the charges imposed by banks formed part of their fees for current account services and could not be assessed for fairness under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. Lewis, along with other consumer groups, hired Ray Cox QC (a barrister with previous experience of banking cases) to look into new legal arguments for account holders wishing to reclaim charges, which might possibly use regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms Act as suggested by the Supreme Court Judgement.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: This attempt suffered a further setback when, on 22 December 2009, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued a statement saying that it had decided against taking forward such an investigation because it "would have a very limited scope and low prospects of success". Lewis published updated template letters allowing individuals to attempt to recover bank charges on financial hardship grounds on 2 February 2010,


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In summer 2008, Lewis appeared on several television and radio programmes exhorting consumers to "cap your energy bills now", based on the prediction that there would be a further round of price increases at the end of 2008. "Capping prices" involved consumers locking themselves into rates higher than prevailing un-capped rates. After that point British Gas announced an increase of 30% on its un-capped prices, though in January 2009 UK energy companies' un-capped prices were reduced by up to 10%.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Information published by uSwitch, a price comparison site whose business motivation is to encourage frequent switching between energy suppliers, after the price cuts, in February 2009, suggested that "Those who were savvy enough to sign up to a competitive fixed-price plan last summer, before some increases in wholesale energy were passed on, are sitting pretty as prices would need to drop by 16% on average before it would be worth moving" but failed to be clear about which specific capped deals it was basing this assertion on, and when it was sensible to have committed to a capped rate deal.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In 2011, Lewis launched the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information with former National Union of Students president Wes Streeting and backed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to provide information to potential students about the changes to tuition fees and student loans resulting from the Browne Review. After subtle changes to student loan repayments were announced in the Autumn Statement of 2015, Lewis appealed directly to the Prime Minister and engaged lawyers to investigate. He said that freezing the repayment threshold would represent a retroactive hike in student loan costs that could "destroy any trust" that students have in the student finance and political systems.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: In 2016, Lewis launched and provided funding for the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, a think tank directed by former Liberal Democrat adviser Polly Mackenzie to study the link between mental health issues and debt.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis' other large-scale campaigns, with ensuing television programmes, include refunds for missold payment protection insurance. Between January 2011 and December 2019 UK banks paid £38.3 billion in compensation for millions of fraudulently sold policies.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis became a Governor of the London School of Economics in 2008. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to consumer rights and to charitable services through the MSE Charity Fund and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and consumer rights.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis requested to be created a crossbench peer in the House of Lords but was rejected by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which encouraged him to apply again in the future. He believes he was turned down due to work and family obligations leaving him with limited time for parliamentary work but a spokesperson for the appointments commission denied the claimed reasons, stating that some very good candidates were rejected.


title: Martin Lewis (financial journalist)

text: Lewis has a sister. His father was Head Master of a Special Educational Needs School in Chester. His mother was killed following a horse riding accident on 7 May 1984. Lewis married "5 News" weather presenter Lara Lewington on 31 May 2009. They have one daughter. Lewis is Jewish and practises the Jewish faith. As of 2021 "The Sunday Times Rich List" estimates his net worth at £123 million.


title: John Mayall

text: John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is an English blues singer, musician and songwriter, whose musical career spans over sixty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians.


title: John Mayall

text: Born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1933, Mayall grew up in Cheadle Hulme. He was the son of Murray Mayall, a guitarist and jazz enthusiast. From an early age he was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as Lead Belly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith and Eddie Lang, and taught himself to play the piano, guitars, and harmonica.


title: John Mayall

text: Mayall was sent to Korea as part of his national service, and during a period of leave bought his first electric guitar in Japan. Back in England, he enrolled at Manchester College of Art and started playing with a semi-professional band, the Powerhouse Four. After graduation, he obtained a job as an art designer, but continued to play with local musicians. In 1963, he opted for a full-time musical career and moved to London. His previous craft would be put to good use in the designing of covers for many of his coming albums.


title: John Mayall

text: Mayall began living in the US part time in the late 1960s, living there full time by the early 1970s. A brush fire destroyed his house in Laurel Canyon in 1979, seriously damaging his musical collections and archives.


title: John Mayall

text: Mayall has been married twice, and has six children and six grandchildren. His second wife, Maggie Mayall, is an American blues performer, and since the early 1980s she has taken part in the management of her husband's career. They married in 1982, and divorced in 2011.


title: John Mayall

text: In 1956, with college fellow Peter Ward, Mayall had founded the Powerhouse Four, which consisted of the two men and other local musicians with whom they played at local dances. In 1962 Mayall became a member of the Blues Syndicate. The band was formed by trumpeter John Rowlands and alto saxophonist Jack Massarik, who had seen the Alexis Korner band at a Manchester club and wanted to try a similar blend of jazz and blues. It also included rhythm guitarist Ray Cummings and drummer Hughie Flint, whom Mayall already knew. In 1962 John and his band were frequent and popular artists at all-night R&B sessions at the Twisted Wheel cellar club in central Manchester. Alexis Korner persuaded Mayall to opt for a full-time musical career and move to London, where Korner introduced him to many other musicians and helped them to find gigs. In late 1963, with his band, which was now called the Bluesbreakers, Mayall started playing at the Marquee Club. The lineup was Mayall, Ward, John McVie on bass and guitarist Bernie Watson, formerly of Cyril Davies and the R&B All-Stars. The next spring Mayall obtained his first recording date with producer Ian Samwell. The band, with Martin Hart at the drums, recorded two tracks: "Crawling Up a Hill" and "Mr. James". Shortly after, Hughie Flint replaced Hart and Roger Dean took the guitar from Bernie Watson. This lineup backed John Lee Hooker on his British tour in 1964.


title: John Mayall

text: Mayall was offered a recording contract by Decca and, on 7 December 1964, a live performance of the band was recorded at the Klooks Kleek. A later studio-recorded single, "Crocodile Walk", was released along with the album, but both failed to achieve any success and the contract was terminated.


title: John Mayall

text: In April 1965 former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton replaced Roger Dean and John Mayall's career entered a decisive phase.


title: John Mayall

text: In 1965, with Eric Clapton as their new guitar player, the Bluesbreakers began attracting considerable attention. That summer the band cut a couple of tracks for a single, "I'm Your Witchdoctor" b/w "Telephone Blues" (released in October). In August, however, Clapton left for a jaunt to Greece with a bunch of relative musical amateurs calling themselves the 'Glands'. John Weider, John Slaughter, and Geoff Krivit attempted to fill in as Bluesbreaker guitarist but, finally, Peter Green took charge. John McVie was dismissed, and during the next few months Jack Bruce, from the Graham Bond Organisation, played bass.


title: John Mayall

text: In November 1965 Clapton returned, and Green departed as Mayall had guaranteed Clapton his spot back in the Bluesbreakers whenever he tired of the Glands. McVie was allowed back, and Bruce left to join Manfred Mann, but not before a live date by the Mayall-Clapton-Bruce-Flint line-up was recorded on Mayall's two-track tape recorder at London's Flamingo Club in November. The rough recording provided tracks that later appeared on the 1969 compilation "Looking Back" and the 1977 "Primal Solos". The same line-up also entered the studio to record a planned single, "On Top of the World", which was not released at that time. Mayall and Clapton cut a couple of tracks without the others (although some sources give this as occurring back in the summer): "Lonely Years" b/w "Bernard Jenkins" was released as a single the next August on producer Mike Vernon's Purdah Records label (both tracks appeared again two decades later in Clapton's "Crossroads" box set). In a November 1965 session, blues pianist-singer Champion Jack Dupree (originally from New Orleans but in the 1960s living in Europe) got Mayall and Clapton to play on a few tracks.


title: John Mayall

text: In April 1966, the Bluesbreakers returned to Decca Studios to record a second LP with producer Vernon. The sessions, with horn arrangements for some tracks (John Almond on baritone sax, Alan Skidmore on tenor sax, and Dennis Healey on trumpet), lasted just three days. "Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton" was released in the UK on 22 July 1966. Several of the 12 tracks were covers of pure Chicago blues (side 1 kicking off strong with Otis Rush's "All Your Love" and Freddy King's hit instrumental "Hide Away" [here spelled without a space as "Hideaway"]); Mayall wrote or arranged five (such as "Double Crossing Time", a slow blues with a scorching solo by co-writer Clapton); and Clapton debuted as lead vocalist, and began his practice of paying tribute to Robert Johnson, with "Ramblin' on My Mind". The album was Mayall's commercial breakthrough, rising to No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart, and has since gained classic status, largely for the audacious aggressiveness and molten fluidity of Clapton's guitar playing. "It's Eric Clapton who steals the limelight," reports music mag "Beat Instrumental," adding with unintended understatement, "and no doubt several copies of the album will be sold on the strength of his name."


title: John Mayall

text: In the meantime, on 11 June the formation of Cream—Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker—had been revealed in the music press, much to the embarrassment of Clapton, who had not said anything about this to Mayall. (After a May Bluesbreakers gig at which Baker had sat in, he and Clapton had first discussed forming their own band, and surreptitious rehearsal jams with Bruce soon commenced.) Clapton's last scheduled gig with the Bluesbreakers was 17 July in Bexley, south-east of London; Cream made a warmup club debut 29 July in Manchester and its "official" live debut two days later at the Sixth National Jazz and Blues Festival, Windsor.