title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1979, the park was sold to Six Flags and became known as Six Flags Magic Mountain. In 1981, Six Flags Magic Mountain introduced a ride that was on the west coast for the first time called Roaring Rapids. It was developed by Intamin in conjunction with the now defunct Six Flags Astroworld, which had opened a similar ride in 1979. Along with Rapids came the completion of the midway near Spillikin Corners to link with Revolution's area. Finally, a complete circuit could be made around the park. It was originally designed as a dual-sided station, but only one was fully developed, and all that exists of the possible second side is a few supports. It uses large pumps to circulate water, and each of the two pumps can circulate 88,500 gallons per minute. The reservoir can hold 1.5 million gallons of water, and one of the innovations used on it was the introduction of guide boards to help eliminate jam ups.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1982, the attraction Freefall was added. Also built by Intamin, it was considered a cutting edge drop tower ride, if not strictly a "roller coaster." It simply ascends the tower and then drops down, with the track curving to horizontal, leaving riders on their backs. Others were built for other parks (some of which are Six Flags). Today, most of these rides are obsolete and have been removed. Some flat rides were added and others removed the next year.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1984, Sarajevo Bobsleds was erected. Yet another ride built by Intamin, the coaster was basically a bobsled without ice and snow. The coaster was built in honor of the 1984 Olympics. Six Flags Great Adventure added a similar ride that same year. In 1986, Sarajevo Bobsleds was removed and now operates at Six Flags Over Texas as La Vibora. The other bobsled was moved to Six Flags Great America and later to The Great Escape in Queensbury, New York, where it operates as Alpine Bobsled.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1985, Children's World was rethemed as Bugs Bunny World, as Magic Mountain had abandoned the Trolls in favor of Warner Bros.' "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies" characters. That year, Michael Jackson visited the park, riding rides such as Colossus, Revolution and Roaring Rapids. In 1986, the park added a steel stand-up looping roller coaster called Shockwave also designed by Intamin. This coaster was located in the back of the park replacing Sarajevo Bobsleds. At the end of 1988, the coaster was removed as part of a ride rotation program and went to Six Flags Great Adventure in 1990. It was removed from there in 1992 and was repainted white and rethemed upon its removal to Six Flags Astroworld. There it was known as Batman The Escape. When Astroworld closed in 2005, the ride was put in storage at Darien Lake.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1987, the park re-themed the Back Street. Spinning flat rides were renamed Turbo (Electric Rainbow), Subway (Himalaya), and Reactor (Enterprise). The dance club was rethemed as well, and located near Reactor. After Hours, as it was now called (formerly Decibels), for one summer stayed open later than the rest of the park. It, along with Back Street, would stay open an additional two hours as a place for locals to hang out. This format lasted one season.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1988, Ninja, "The Black Belt of Roller Coasters", opened. Built by Arrow Dynamics, it was the first suspended swing roller coaster on the West coast. Ninja has gone through very few changes since it was opened in 1988; evidently only the wheels and paint have been changed.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Tidal Wave opened in 1989. It is a short, wet ride featuring a large boat that travels up a low-angled incline to a level water trough. The trough, in the shape of a semicircle, ends in a steep drop into a large splashpool. The impact displaces large amounts of water on its riders. The ride's exit ramp crosses over the splashpool, allowing willing patrons leaving the ride to get soaked from the splash.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1990, Viper, a multiple looping coaster designed by Arrow Dynamics, opened. It features a drop, speeds up to , 3 vertical loops, a batwing turn that inverts riders twice, and a double corkscrew.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1991, Magic Mountain added Psyclone, modeled after the Coney Island Cyclone. The Spillikin Corners area of the park was re-themed as Cyclone Bay to suit the new coaster, drawing guests into this area. The change was largely cosmetic, as the earlier theme relied on retail establishments that had been removed previously. The Glass Blower had been replaced by the Shooting Gallery, and the Candy Kitchen viewing area was redesigned. With Psyclone, the crowds returned. Due to the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Psyclone's structure was damaged, and the ride was eventually removed in 2007. After adding Ninja, Viper, and Psyclone within 4 years, the park was getting a large repertoire of big roller coasters.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: The next year, 1992, a coaster built by Intamin called Flashback was added. This one-of-a-kind ride, originally planned to be enclosed in a building, had already operated at Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Over Georgia prior to its arrival. Very steep, short drops were designed to make riders feel like they were "diving" down in a plane, and it ended in a 540 degree upward spiral. But, because of the shoulder harnesses, riders were subjected to a lot of head banging. This coaster rarely ran by 1996 (it created too much noise for the nearby water park) and on January 23, 2007, the park announced that Flashback would be removed along with Psyclone. The park also stated that Flashback might be re-built elsewhere within the park for 2008 but the ride was finally scrapped at the end of 2007.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1993, Six Flags Magic Mountain entered the Time Warner era. The new ride for the year was Yosemite Sam Sierra Falls. It was a water ride that has two twisting tubes that riders could slide down in using a raft. Also that year, there was re-theming and High Sierra Territory was opened. The Showcase Theatre became Golden Bear Theater, the Animal Star Theatre was created in Bugs Bunny World, and a large, fake, wooden tree was built. This year also saw the end of live non-Christian themed concerts in the park due to the riot that broke out as a result of a "TLC" concert that was oversold. Magic Mountain was quickly overwhelmed by large crowds that vandalized and destroyed property. Park shops had their windows broken and looting quickly followed. Police were called to the scene in full riot gear. The park was evacuated and closed down for the night.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1994, Magic Mountain added what two other Six Flags parks already had, a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted looping roller coaster called (which other Six Flags parks also added in the coming years). Batman: the Ride (BTR) is an inverted coaster, meaning the usual coaster protocol is reversed; the track is overhead and the cars are below it. The trains travel on the outside of the loops, and rider's legs hang freely, as on a ski lift.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: A separately gated waterpark called Six Flags Hurricane Harbor opened on June 16, 1995. The 22-acre park included body slides, tube slides, a kiddie water play area, lazy river, and a wave pool. The following year, a SkyCoaster called Dive Devil opened at Magic Mountain.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: A dual launch coaster called debuted at the park on March 15, 1997. Designed by Intamin, the 30-second ride launches riders from 0 to in seven seconds on a track that scales up a 41-story tower. It was the first roller coaster in the world to reach speeds of 100 mph. Originally slated to open in June 1996, the ride's opening was delayed and pushed back to 1997 as problems with the LSM launch motors were found. The tower structure was painted a grayish white when the ride first opened and lasted until 2011.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 1998, a new Bolliger & Mabillard Stand-up roller coaster called Riddler's Revenge opened as the tallest and fastest stand-up roller coaster in the world.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Also in 1998, Six Flags was sold to Premier Parks. The next year saw no dramatic changes. In 2000, a steel hypercoaster, Goliath, was added. It was built by Giovanola.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: 2001 was to be the year of three new roller coasters, but only one actually opened on time: Goliath Jr., a steel kiddie coaster. The other two, Déjà Vu and X (now X²), had mechanical problems. Déjà Vu opened late in 2001 and X opened early in 2002. Déjà Vu was designed by Vekoma and is a Giant Inverted Boomerang coaster (GIB), a variant of their popular Boomerang design. It is an inverted coaster with coaches suspended beneath an overhead track that traverses an open-circuit track forward and in reverse and features two completely vertical drops and three inversions. It opened late in 2001, but suffered a lot of downtime. X was designed by Arrow Dynamics, as the world's first "fourth-dimensional" roller coaster. It was the only one in North America where riders experience going 360 degrees in their seats. Each seat lies on a separate axis from the track. This coaster managed to open briefly on January 12, 2002, only to close due to more technical problems. It reopened late in August of that year. The ride closed for a major refurbishment and re-theme in 2008 where X transformed into X².


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 2003, Scream, designed by Bolliger & Mabillard was added. At this point, Six Flags Magic Mountain tied with Cedar Point for the park with the most roller coasters in the United States. Scream is similar in concept with Medusa at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and is a mirror image of Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure. It is a floorless roller coaster with trains riding above the rails traversing seven inversions on of track on floorless trains. In 2006, Tatsu, a Bolliger & Mabillard flying roller coaster was added, causing a temporary closure of Revolution and Roaring Rapids to allow construction to take place. It was much larger than the other three Bolliger & Mabillard Flying Coasters at other Six Flags parks, all named . Tatsu has a suspended-track orientation featuring vehicles that recline passengers with their backs against the track and facing the ground. This brought the park up to 17 roller coasters, to tie with Cedar Point for the greatest number of roller coasters in a park (albeit Flashback had been standing but not operating for an extended period of time and thus it is debatable whether the park could claim 17 as its number of roller coasters).


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On June 22, 2006, Six Flags, Inc. announced that it was exploring options for six of its parks, including Magic Mountain and its neighboring water park, Hurricane Harbor. Though management said closing the park was unlikely, rumors still began that the park could be sold to real estate developers, with an intent to close the park and build housing developments in the area. Park officials cited dwindling attendance due to rowdy behavior among some of the park-goers (notably gang members and other teenagers and young adults, who account for a large percentage of the park's attendance) as reasons for wanting to sell the park while management was wanting to move Six Flags into more of a family park direction. Throughout the Six Flags chain, attendance in the second quarter of 2006 was 14 percent lower than it was in the second quarter of 2005.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: By the fall of 2006, Six Flags announced that Magic Mountain was still up for sale. They also stated, however, that it would be sold to a company that would continue to operate it as a park, and that closing Magic Mountain was not a possibility. Cedar Fair, Anheuser-Busch, and several others considered buying the park but none of the offers came close to the asking price.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: When Six Flags announced which parks it was selling in January 2007, Magic Mountain was no longer one of them. The company decided not to sell Magic Mountain and its adjacent water park. Spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg said that upon further evaluation, the company decided that the Los Angeles parks remained too valuable to relinquish, as sales were increasing, and that the park would not be sold. Other parks were sold as a package and remained open.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Roller coasters Flashback and Psyclone were both removed in 2007, with Psyclone being demolished in February and Flashback remained standing until December of that year, when it was finally scrapped. As a result, Six Flags Magic Mountain no longer tied the record for the most roller coasters in a single park, relinquishing the record to Cedar Point – the park's total had never surpassed Cedar Point but had tied numerous times. The park began focusing more attention on marketing with family-oriented values, and a new children's theme area, Thomas Town, was added in 2008. The park renovated one its thrill rides, however. "X" was closed on December 2 for its transformation into X which featured new fourth-generation trains, a new paint job, and special effects that included pyrotechnics and audio. It reopened on May 24, 2008. In the same year, the park began work on the "Magic of the Mountain" museum at the top of its Sky Tower attraction that contained memorabilia throughout the park's history including old television commercials, park maps, models, and equipment saved from defunct rides.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: , a wooden roller coaster, opened on May 23, 2009. It was built in the former location of Psyclone and featured tunnels, spraying mist, and special effects. On January 9, 2011, the ride was renamed to Apocalypse and given an appropriate theme that reflects an "end of the world" scenario. Later that year, Six Flags President and CEO Mark Shapiro said in a Los Angeles Times published interview that Magic Mountain had plans to install a new roller coaster for its 2010 season, and would add a new themed area for children in 2011 called Wiggles World. Shapiro also stated that the adjacent Hurricane Harbor would receive an expansion.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On May 29, 2010, Mr. Six's Dance Coaster was scheduled to open but it was delayed until 2011 when it would open under a new theme. On the same day, Mr. Six's Splash Island opened at the adjacent Hurricane Harbor water park.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On August 3, 2010, it was announced that Superman: The Escape would undergo a major redevelopment before the 2011 season. On October 20, 2010, Six Flags Magic Mountain officially announced their full plans for 2011 after a video was leaked six days earlier. In addition to opening Mr. Six's Dance Coaster under a new name and theme, Six Flags announced two other attractions. In time for the 2011 season, Superman: The Escape was refurbished to and opened on March 19, 2011. The coaster featured new backwards launching cars and a new color scheme. The third and final announcement regards an entirely new thrill roller coaster. The opened on July 1, 2011 as Magic Mountain's eighteenth roller coaster which was an Intamin ZacSpin. This roller coaster reclaimed the world record for the highest number of roller coasters at a single theme park. It was later announced, on November 4, 2010, that the children's roller coaster would be called Road Runner Express and located in "Bugs Bunny World".


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In late 2010, Six Flags began the process of removing non-Warner Bros. licensed theming from attractions. They terminated several licenses including Terminator and Thomas the Tank Engine. was renamed and rethemed into "Apocalypse" which re-opened on January 8, 2011. Thomas Town was renamed and rethemed to Whistlestop Park in time for the 2011 season.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On January 18, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported after considering a new theme based on DC Comics superhero sidekicks, the park opted for simplicity and renamed the Little Flash coaster to Road Runner Express. Due to Green Lantern being placed in Gotham City Backlot, the area was re-themed into DC Universe. In addition, Grinder Gearworks became "Wonder Woman: Lasso Of Truth" and Atom Smasher was renamed "The Flash: Speed Force".


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In August 2011, several media sources reported that Six Flags New England would install Six Flags Magic Mountain's "Déjà Vu" for the park's 2012 season.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On September 1, 2011, Six Flags Magic Mountain announced that they would be opening a new attraction for the 2012 season named . The free-fall drop attraction was integrated into both sides of the park's tall tower structure and ranks as the world's tallest drop tower, featuring a plummet from above ground level. The following day, Six Flags Magic Mountain confirmed on Facebook that Déjà Vu would be removed from the park. Then on September 13, 2011, the park announced that Déjà Vu would be removed after October 16, 2011, "Déjà Vu fans, we have created some exclusive after hours ride time for you to ride it again before October 16."


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On October 31, 2011, Log Jammer operated for the last time and was removed to make way for Full Throttle, which opened in 2013.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In August 2012, Six Flags Magic Mountain confirmed rumors that a new roller coaster, Full Throttle, would open the following season. Full Throttle opened as the park's 18th roller coaster, allowing Six Flags Magic Mountain to market having the most roller coasters in the world once again. The ride was built to feature the world's tallest vertical loop on a roller coaster at . In addition, Full Throttle set a record for being the first roller coaster to feature a track section with rails on both sides of the spine. This occurs at the top of the ride's massive inversion.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On August 29, 2013, Six Flags Magic Mountain officially announced that they would run both Batman: The Ride and Colossus backwards for a limited time of the 2014 season. They will also expand Bugs Bunny World with the addition of a new roller coaster. On April 8, 2014, Six Flags Magic Mountain announced that the park will host its first ever "Holiday in the Park" Christmas event in late 2014 and for future years after.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In the summer of 2014, the park placed banners across the property advertising the Bonzai Pipelines in the adjacent property, Hurricane Harbor, along with the closing of Colossus which took place on August 16, 2014. On August 28, 2014, Six Flags announced the Rocky Mountain Construction conversion of Colossus into Twisted Colossus. Twisted Colossus opened on May 23, 2015.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On September 3, 2015, Six Flags announced the renovation of Revolution with a new paint scheme, upgraded lighting, and new train eliminating the controversial over-the-shoulder restraints that had been the source of the ride's spotty reputation for much of its life. Named "The New Revolution," the roller coaster reopened on April 21, 2016.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On September 1, 2016, the park announced to open in 2017. The 4D shooting dark ride is nearly identical to the located at Six Flags parks around North America. The ride opened on July 12, 2017 and is located in the Metropolis section near The Riddler's Revenge.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On August 29, 2017, Six Flags announced the addition of a Zamperla Giga Discovery flat ride to be built in a newly renovated Boardwalk Beach area near DC Universe. Marketed as "the world's tallest pendulum ride", CraZanity takes riders to a height of 172 feet (52.4 m) and speeds up to 75 mph (120.7 kmh).


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On August 29, 2018, the park announced the brand new racing launch coaster West Coast Racers from Premier Rides and a revamp of the old Cyclone Bay area into a high-energy, urban Los Angeles. The ride itself is dubbed the first launched racing coaster in the world and the first quadruple launched coaster, even though the existing Fiorano GT Challenge holds these records. The Möbius loop coaster officially opened to the public on January 9, 2020, and became the 19th coaster at the park.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On March 24, 2019, the park announced that would permanently close and be removed from the park which no longer makes West Coast Racers the park's 20th coaster.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On March 13, 2020, the park closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme park reopened on April 1, 2021, with Members and Passholders being granted access on April 1 and 2, with the general public being admitted to the park on April 3. As of August 2021, Six Flags Magic Mountain visitors are no longer required to wear masks outdoors.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: On October 21, 2021, the park announced Wonder Woman Flight of Courage, the world's tallest and fastest single rail coaster, to open in summer 2022. The ride is an I-Box Raptor coaster built by Rocky Mountain Construction.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Starting November 1, 2022, Six Flags Magic Mountain reduced their 365-day operating schedule to operate on select days only. The 365 day schedule, which was introduced in 2018 to “maximize travel industry opportunities,” was limited to select weekends only. Park Marketing & Communications Publicist Alexandria French said in a statement that the changed operation schedule would deliver a more “exceptional guest experience.”


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: There are presently eleven separately themed areas within the park – each zone featuring its own distinct rides, attractions, and food service venues.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Magic Mountain's proximity to downtown Los Angeles, the hub of the American film and television industry, has resulted in its appearance in several productions, usually representing a park other than itself. The debut of "Revolution" was the focal point of the 1977 release "Rollercoaster". Bob Einstein, as his character Super Dave Osborne, performed his first "stunt" on a roller coaster at Magic Mountain. In 1983, Magic Mountain became the fictional "Walley World" for "National Lampoon's Vacation", with scenes featuring "Revolution" and "Colossus" (each using fictional names). On television, Magic Mountain doubled as the theme park in the opening credits of the television series "Step by Step". Other TV productions featuring Magic Mountain have included: NCIS, "Entourage", "The Bionic Woman", "The A-Team", "CHiPs", "Wonder Woman", "Way Out Games", "Knight Rider", "Beverly Hills, 90210", "Melrose Place", "The King of Queens", and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The band Kiss also filmed their acting debut in 1978's made-for-TV "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park" that featured the band members in the park and near Colossus. In the 2000 movie "Space Cowboys" Donald Sutherland is shown riding Viper and is portrayed as the designer when Clint Eastwood recruits him.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Magic Mountain's Showcase Theatre was the filming location for the video game-themed game show "The Video Game" from September 1984 to September 1985.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Magic Mountain was also the filming location for the children's educational video series "Real Wheels" episode "Here Comes A Roller Coaster", with host Dave Hood, which was released in 1995.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In the Nickelodeon show "Drake & Josh", Drake, Josh, and Megan take a trip to Mystic Mountain (parody of Magic Mountain) in the episode "The Demonator", and they ride the "Demonator". On "Zoey 101" Zoey and Lisa take Michael to Mystic Mountain (both series were created by Dan Schneider), and they help Michael overcome his roller coaster fear in the episode "Rollercoaster". He rides the "Spine Twister", which was actually the Goliath from Magic Mountain. In 1990, Nickelodeon's "Wild and Crazy Kids", the wooden roller coaster, Colossus, was featured as a game called "Wacky RollerCoaster Spill". In the movie "This Is Spinal Tap", the band performs as second billing to a puppet show at the fictional "Themeland Amusement Park" in Stockton, California, located north of Santa Clarita. The actual filming location is Magic Mountain's amphitheater. The Kidsongs video "Ride the Roller Coaster" is set at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Nick Cannon group "The School Gyrls" movie premiere was at Magic Mountain. In the film "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer", they go to a theme park and ride a roller coaster for the first time. The coaster was Goliath. Goliath was also featured as the "Aquaman" roller coaster in the third season of the HBO series "Entourage".


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 2011, the park was chosen as the setting for the Travel Channel's version of the quiz show "Scream! If You Know the Answer". The "Glee" cast visited the park in 2012 for their senior skip day in the "Big Brother" episode, where they ride Viper.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 2013, a large section of the parking lot was blocked off for a Toyota Camry commercial. Both pictures and the background footage reveal Goliath and Colossus, indicating that it is Magic Mountain where the commercial was shot. The ride that was built for the commercial bears a resemblance to the park's new coaster at the time, Full Throttle: a big hill, a barrier-test loop, a backwards propulsion section, and a forwards propulsion section that runs through a tunnel placed next to the hill.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 2017, the park and Full Throttle were used in the filming of the music video for Katy Perry's "Chained to the Rhythm".


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: In 2017, areas of the park were used in the filming of the Netflix comedy "Sandy Wexler" starring Adam Sandler.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Although not featured, Magic Mountain is mentioned numerous times in the Netflix horror-comedy "Santa Clarita Diet".


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: A recreation of Magic Mountain was featured built in the computer game "RollerCoaster Tycoon 2", including a blank version of the park with no rides and attractions.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Six Flags Magic Mountain's coasters are commonly ranked high in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards. With the opening of Full Throttle on June 22, 2013, Six Flags Magic Mountain obtained the world record for the largest number of roller coasters in an amusement park.


title: Six Flags Magic Mountain

text: Below is a table with roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain and their highest ranking in the Golden Ticket Awards.


title: Concrete (film)

text: The film involves four boys who kidnap a girl named Misaki. The boys rape, torture, and murder her in a similar manner to the manner of the boys who killed Junko Furuta.


title: Concrete (film)

text: Many people protested the film's release before it even premiered, and it was eventually relegated to specialty theater showings and a DVD release.


title: Concrete (film)

text: Tatsuo Oosugi, a troubled working class teenager who frequently assaults his mother for divorcing his father and neglecting him, decides to join the yakuza to raise money for his future marriage with Kayoko Matsuyama after suffering burnout from his various low-paying jobs. Despite initially wanting to leave, he is given the opportunity to start a small gang called the Ryujin gang. He then recruits many of his friends to commit crimes like robbery and eventually, rape to please his seniors.


title: Concrete (film)

text: One night, they see a high school student named Misaki going home on her bike. She is knocked over by one of the boys and Tatsuo pretends to take her home. When Misaki tries to go home by herself, Tatsuo reveals his true nature and threatens to burn her house down if she speaks up. Misaki is silenced as she is raped in a hotel and brought to the house of Takao Matsuyama, their friend and Kayoko's brother.


title: Concrete (film)

text: There, the boys insert various foreign objects into her vagina, beat her and force her to lie to her parents over the phone that she is staying at her friend's house. Despite the horrific abuses, Misaki finds the courage to escape the house twice, with the help of Takao's mother in the second instance, but is nonetheless caught and punished by having her leg doused in lighter fluid and burned. Tatsuo punishes Takao's mother by beating her and threatens the other boys with murder if they express sympathy with Misaki or help her escape.


title: Concrete (film)

text: After several more instances of abuse, which leaves her incontinent and dehydrated, Misaki begs the boys for water. Tatsuo, however, taunts her and fatally injures her by beating her further and dropping a barbell on her stomach. The gang then leaves the house to relax at a sauna while the dying Misaki expresses her last wish to "stay strong".


title: Concrete (film)

text: After returning from the sauna, the gang discovers that Misaki has succumbed to her injuries after she is unresponsive to Tatsuo putting a lit cigarette near her nose. He decides to cover up the murder by getting a concrete drum from his old job and burying her body in it. The drum is placed in the open fields.


title: Concrete (film)

text: Eventually, all of the boys are arrested and a detective who had previously met Tatsuo in one of his prior arrests angrily calls him a "demon seed" for trying to minimize his role in Misaki's murder, by claiming that he did not intend to kill her and only killed one person. The site where Misaki's body is found has now become a gravesite for Misaki as the audience hears her, via a voiceover, asking whether people realize "how precious life is". The film ends with a crying Tatsuo in a dark room as he fails to make a mangled bird fly from his hand.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute Shoshoni: "Tit'-so-pi 2002"; ; Shoshoni: "Soónkahni 2002"), was an international winter multi-sport event that was held from February 8 to 24, 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Salt Lake City was selected as the host city in June 1995 at the 104th IOC Session. They were the eighth Olympics to be hosted by the United States, and the most recent to be held in the country (Los Angeles will host the future 2028 Summer Olympics). The 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics were both organized by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC), the first time that both events were organized by a single committee.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The Games featured 2,399 athletes from 78 nations, participating in 78 events in 15 disciplines. Norway topped the medal table, with 13 gold and 25 medals overall, while Germany finished with the most total medals, winning 36 (with 12 of them gold). The hosting United States was third by gold medals and second by overall medals, with 10 and 34 respectively. Australia notably became the first Southern Hemisphere country to ever win gold medals at the Winter Olympics.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The Games finished with a budgetary surplus of US$40 million; the surplus was used to fund the formation of the Utah Athletic Foundation—which has continued to maintain the facilities built for these Olympics. The venues have continued to be used for national and international winter sports events after the Olympics, while the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee has backed the possibility of Salt Lake City bidding for a future Winter Olympics.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Salt Lake City was chosen over Québec City, Canada; Sion, Switzerland; and Östersund, Sweden, on June 16, 1995, at the 104th IOC Session in Budapest, Hungary. Salt Lake City had previously come in second during the bids for the 1998 Winter Olympics, awarded to Nagano, Japan, and had offered to be the provisional host of the 1976 Winter Olympics when the original host, Denver, Colorado, withdrew. The 1976 Winter Olympics were ultimately awarded to Innsbruck, Austria.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: There was a scandal involving allegations of bribery used to win the rights to the Games. Prior to its successful bid, Salt Lake City had attempted four times to secure the games, failing each time. In 1998, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were accused of taking gifts from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) during the bidding process. The allegations resulted in the expulsion of several IOC members and the adoption of new IOC rules. Although nothing strictly illegal had been done, it was felt that the acceptance of the gifts was morally dubious. In addition, legal charges were brought against the leaders of Salt Lake's bid committee by the United States Department of Justice. Investigations were also launched into prior bidding process by other cities, finding that members of the IOC received bribes during the bidding process for both the 1998 Winter Olympics and 2000 Summer Olympics. In response to the scandal, Mitt Romney was hired as the new president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The torch relay ceremonially began on November 19, 2001, with the traditional kindling of an Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece. On December 3, Greek skier Thanassis Tsailas lit the first torch from the cauldron, and transferred its flame to a ceremonial lantern for transport to Atlanta, where it arrived on December 4 to officially launch the U.S. leg of the relay. The route of the relay covered , passed through 300 communities and 46 U.S. states, and was carried by 12,012 torchbearers.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The torch was modeled after an icicle, with a slight curve to represent speed and fluidity. The torch measures long, wide at the top, at the bottom, and was designed by Axiom Design of Salt Lake City. It was created with three sections, each with its own meaning and representation.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: In February 1999, in response to the bid scandal and a financial shortfall for the Games, Mitt Romney, then CEO of the private equity firm Bain Capital (and future U.S. presidential candidate, U.S. Senator, and Governor of Massachusetts), was hired as the new president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney, Kem C. Gardner, a Utah commercial real estate developer, and Don Stirling, the Olympics' local marketing chief, raised "millions of dollars from Mormon families with pioneer roots: the Eccles family, whose forebears were important industrialists and bankers" to help rescue the Games, according to a later report. An additional US$410 million was received from the federal government. U.S. federal subsidies amounted to $1.3 billion (for infrastructure improvements only), compared to $45 billion of federal funding received by the organizing committee of the 2014 Winter Olympics from the Russian government. The Games were financially successful, raising more money with fewer sponsors than any prior Olympic Games, which left SLOC with a surplus of $40 million. The surplus was used to create the Utah Athletic Foundation, which maintains and operates many of the remaining Olympic venues.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: "The Oxford Olympics Study" established the outturn cost of the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics at US$2.5 billion in 2015-dollars and cost overrun at 24% in real terms. This includes sports-related costs only, that is, (i) "operational costs" incurred by the organizing committee to stage the Games, e.g., expenditures for technology, transportation, workforce, administration, security, catering, ceremonies, and medical services, and (ii) "direct capital costs" incurred by the host city and country or private investors to build, e.g., the competition venues, the Olympic village, international broadcast center, and media and press center, which are required to host the Games. Indirect capital costs are "not" included, such as for road, rail, or airport infrastructure, or for hotel upgrades or other business investment incurred in preparation for the Games but not directly related to staging the Games. The cost and cost overrun for Salt Lake City 2002 compares with costs of US$2.5 billion and a cost overrun of 13% for Vancouver 2010, and costs of US$51 billion and a cost overrun of 289% for Sochi 2014, the latter being the most costly Olympics to date. The average cost for Winter Games since 1960 is US$3.1 billion, average cost overrun is 142%.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The 2002 Winter Games were the first Olympic Games to take place since September 11, 2001, which meant a higher level of security than ever before provided for the Games. As a result, the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) designated the Olympics a National Special Security Event (NSSE). Aerial surveillance and radar control was provided by the U.S. Marines of Marine Air Control Squadron 2, Detachment C, from Cherry Point, North Carolina. The FBI and NSA arranged with Qwest Communications to use intercept equipment for a period of less than six months around the time of the 2002 Winter Olympics.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: When he spoke during the opening ceremonies, Jacques Rogge, presiding over his first Olympics as the IOC president, told the athletes of the United States:


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Work on venues for the 2002 Winter Olympics began as early as 1989, following the passing of a state referendum that authorized the use of taxpayer money to publicly fund the construction of new facilities for a Winter Olympics bid in 1998 or 2002. Their construction was overseen by the Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee and the Utah Sports Authority—a body created under the referendum.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: New facilities built for the Games included the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah Olympic Park in Summit County, The Ice Sheet at Ogden, and Soldier Hollow at the Wasatch Mountain State Park—the furthest competition venue from Salt Lake City. The E Center in West Valley City and the Peaks Ice Arena in Provo were also built with support from the SLOC, and co-hosted hockey.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Delta Center hosted figure skating and short track speed skating; it was renamed Salt Lake Ice Center for the duration of the Games due to IOC rules. Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The Olympic Village was built at historic Fort Douglas, whose land had been acquired by the University of Utah to construct new residences. The SLOC provided funding to the project in exchange for its use during the Olympics.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Main Street in Park City was converted into a pedestrian plaza during the Games, with festivities such as concerts, firework shows, and sponsor presences. Medal presentations took place in downtown Salt Lake City; the stage for the ceremony featured the Hoberman Arch, an arch-shaped metal "curtain" designed by Chuck Hoberman.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The largest public transport project completed for the Games was the TRAX light rail system, which first began operations ahead of the Games in 1999.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: To help reduce vehicle traffic to Soldier Hollow and provide a special experience for tourists, Heber Valley Railroad offered a special train service to Wasatch Mountain State Park on steam locomotives during the Games. After arriving at the station, passengers then embarked to Soldier Hollow on horse-drawn sleighs.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics was held at Rice–Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah on February 8, 2002. The facility was renovated and expanded for the Games. The Games were officially opened by President George W. Bush, while the Olympic cauldron was lit by members of the gold medal-winning U.S. ice hockey team from the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York (as made famous by the "Miracle on ice").


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: In an acknowledgment of the September 11 attacks, the ceremony opened with the entrance of a damaged American flag recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, carried by an honor guard of athletes nominated by fellow members of the U.S. team (as with the main flagbearer), and police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York City Police Department, and firefighters from the New York City Fire Department. The flag was presented during the playing of the U.S. national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner", as performed by the Tabernacle Choir.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The Olympic cauldron was designed to look like an icicle and was made of glass, allowing the fire to be seen burning within, reflecting the Games' slogan "Light the Fire Within" and an overarching "fire and ice" theme. The actual glass cauldron stands atop a twisting glass and steel support, is high, and the flame within burns at . Together with its support, the cauldron stands tall and was made of 738 individual pieces of glass. Small jets send water down the glass sides of the cauldron to keep the glass and metal cooled (so they would not crack or melt) and give the effect of melting ice. The cauldron was designed by WET Design of Los Angeles, its frame built by roller coaster manufacturer Arrow Dynamics of Clearfield, Utah, and its glass pieces created by Western Glass of Ogden, Utah. The cauldron's cost was $2 million, and it was unveiled to the public when originally installed at Rice–Eccles Stadium on January 8, 2002.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Production for the opening and closing ceremonies was designed by Seven Nielsen, and music for both ceremonies was directed by Mark Watters.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The 2002 Winter Olympics featured 78 medal events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports, an increase of 10 events over the 1998 Winter Olympics. Skeleton made its return to the Winter Olympic program for the first time since 1948, while a women's event was contested for the first time in bobsleigh.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: A total of 78 teams qualified at least one athlete to compete in the Games. Five NOCs made their Winter Olympic debut in Salt Lake, including Cameroon, Hong Kong, Nepal, Tajikistan, and Thailand.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: In the following calendar for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport are held. The number in each box represents the number of finals that were contested on that day.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics was held on February 24, 2002, at the Rice–Eccles Stadium University of Utah closing ceremonies set designed by Seven Nielsen. It was narrated by Utah natives Donny and Marie Osmond (who voiced animatronic dinosaur skeletons designed by Michael Curry), it featured performances by a number of musicians and bands, including Bon JovI, Christina Aguilera, Creed, Dianne Reeves, Donny and Marie Osmond, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gloria Estefan, Harry Connick Jr., Kiss, Moby and Angie Stone, NSYNC, R. Kelly, Sting, Willie Nelson, and Yo Yo Ma. It also featured appearances by figure skaters such as Kurt Browning, Dorothy Hamill, and Ilia Kulick, as well as dancer Savion Glover.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Departing from Juan Antonio Samaranch's tradition of declaring each Olympics the "best ever", IOC president Jacques Rogge began a tradition of assigning each Games their own identity in his comments, describing the 2002 Winter Olympics as having been "flawless".


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Italian singers Irene Grandi and Elisa performed during the cultural presentation by Turin, host city of the 2006 Winter Olympics, while Josh Groban and Charlotte Church performed a duet of "The Prayer" as the Olympic flame was extinguished.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The overall branding of the 2002 Winter Olympics was based on a concept entitled "Land of Contrast — Fire and Ice", which featured a palette of warm and cool colors to contrast the warmer, rugged, red-rock areas of Southern Utah from the colder, mountainous regions of Northern Utah.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The emblem for the 2002 Winter Olympics was unveiled in October 1999, consisting of a stylized snowflake with segments colored in blue, orange, and yellow. The emblem was designed to resemble an Olympic cauldron and flame, as well as a sun rising from behind mountains. The orange center section of the flame was intended to reflect traditional Navajo weaving. The official event pictograms were inspired by branding irons, and the line thickness and 30-degree angles mirrored those of the emblem.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The designs of the mascots of the 2002 Winter Olympics were unveiled on May 19, 1999, during an event marking 1,000 days until the opening ceremony. The mascots represent three animals native to the western United States — a snowshoe hare, coyote, and American black bear respectively, with each mascot symbolizing a character from the legends of local Native Americans, and wearing a charm around their neck with an original Anasazi or Fremont-style petroglyph. For the first time in Olympic history, the names of the mascots were determined by a public vote, using name suggestions submitted by local students; on September 25, the names of the mascots were officially announced as Powder, Copper, and Coal respectively.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: International Sports Broadcasting (ISB) served as the host broadcaster for the 2002 Winter Olympics; the Salt Palace convention center served as the International Broadcast Centre and press center for the Games. The IOC estimated that the 2002 Winter Olympics were viewed by over two billion people worldwide, with 13 billion viewer-hours watched.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: In the United States, the 2002 Winter Olympics were broadcast by NBC Universal networks. They were the first Winter Olympics under a multi-year rights agreement between NBC and the IOC, under which it would hold exclusive rights to all Olympic Games from 1996 through 2008. The contract had excluded the 1998 Winter Olympics, as CBS Sports had an existing deal to exclusively televise the Winter Olympics from 1992 through 1998.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: NBC partnered with HDNet to produce an eight-hour block of daily coverage in high definition, which was carried by HDNet and on the digital signals of participating NBC affiliates. Despite being held in a time zone only one hour ahead of Pacific Time, NBC still tape delayed much of its coverage for the west coast, although Salt Lake City's local NBC affiliate KSL-TV was given permission to air the live, east coast broadcasts to ensure their availability in the Games' host city.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Coverage of the Games by the Seven Network in Australia featured "The Ice Dream", a comedy miniseries presented by the double act of Roy and HG as a follow-up to "The Dream"—their series for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The series featured a running gag of the duo proposing a bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics by the winter resort town of Smiggin Holes, New South Wales.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The 2002 Winter Olympics brought a huge amount of success to the Utah skiing industry. Since hosting the Winter Games, Utah has seen a 42% increase in skier and snowboarder visits –11. This increase resulted in direct expenditures from skiers and snowboarders growing 67% from $704 million in 2002–2003 to $1.2 billion in 2010–2011.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Fourteen venues were constructed or expanded in preparation for the Winter Games. One of the venues constructed for the Games was the Utah Olympic Park, which has proven to be one of the most successful venues to date because it has been maintained in top competition form. Owing to the routine maintenance of the park, Utah has been able to host a large number of winter competitions since 2002, including more than 60 World Cup events (e.g. the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup), as well as seven world championships, and various other sporting events. Hosting these high-profile competitions has resulted in approximately $1 billion being injected into the local economy. During 2013–2014, Utah held 16 various winter sport events, bringing $27.3 million to the economy of Utah. After holding the Olympics, Utah became home to two National Governing Bodies of Sport. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is headquartered in Park City, Utah and the U.S. Olympic speed skating team is based out of the Utah Olympic Oval.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The University of Utah was one of the hosts of the 2002 Winter Olympics; the planning committee approached the University of Utah and asked them to build several student dormitories which would serve as athletes' accommodation during the Games. It was agreed that the university would pay approximately $98 million out of the total required amount of $110 million to complete the construction. As a result, students of the university have benefited as almost 3,500 of them would be housed here after the Games. This was a great economic benefit to the university since the amount of money used to complete such dormitories could take long to be afforded. The university was also asked to expand Rice Eccles Stadium to accommodate 50,000 people up from 32,000. The university would then be refunded almost $59 million and be given an extra $40 million for its maintenance.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The 2002 Olympic Games also benefited the university economically since the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park was elevated by the renovations that took place. Ice rinks were very scarce in Utah, but they became plentiful and offered several entertainment and training opportunities for hockey players and figure skaters due to the Olympic Games. The Cauldron Park located at the University of Utah which was built with $6.5 million in profits and had the following features: a visitors' center which had a theater that showed a thrilling movie about the Olympic Games of 2002 and a "park" which had a dazzling pool and a V-shaped stone wall with the names of all the medalists of the 2002 Olympic Games. Besides, the park had 17 plates that hung on the stadium's fence celebrating the highlights of each day of the Olympics. All these features acted as tourist attraction that boosted the economic development of the university. In addition, it is indicated that the approximate value of media exposure through print during the Games was equated to $22.9 million. Mainly, this was a huge economic benefit to the university as more and more people got to know about the educational establishment, and this also boosted enrollment and future development.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Holger Preuss in his book "The Economics of Staging the Olympics: A Comparison of the Games 1972–2008" argues that "The export of the 'Olympic Games' service results in an inflow of funds to the host city, causing additional production which, in its turn, leads to employment and income effects." According to the study "2002 Olympic Winter Games, Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Impacts", the estimated creation of new job years of employment was 35,424, and additional earnings of $1,544,203,000. It was noted that the increase of Olympic related job started in 1996 and continued until 2003. These effects can be estimated on the ground of historical relationship between job and corresponding population growth. A lot of people migrated into the future place of the Olympic Games for expanding and favorable employment opportunities that the Olympics ensured. Although residents occupied many of the higher paying jobs created by the Games, many of the vacated jobs were filled by immigrants who relocated for the better employment opportunities.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Basically, the immigration rate was even larger because the employees immigrated with their families. The additional people paid diverse taxes and fees from their income, creating additional revenue on the state and local levels.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: Olympic related jobs in Utah started in 1996 with slight job opportunities of less than 100. However, from the job measurement conducted from 1996 to 2002, steady attainment of job opportunities established and a maximum level was noted in 2001 where there were 12,500 job opportunities attained yearly, and approximately 25,070 jobs created in 2002. Therefore, from 1996 to 2002 the sum of employment equated to 35,000 jobs which lasted a year. February 2002 is when the highest employment opportunities were created compared to other years. There were around 25,070 job opportunities created compared to 35,000 created from 1996 to 2001.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: It is difficult to quantify the impact of the 2002 Olympics on the unemployment rates in Utah, due mostly to the effect of the early 2000s recession. In 1996, the unemployment rate in Utah was approximately 3.4%, while the U.S. national average was 5.4% and by the end of 2001, the unemployment rate in Utah was around 4.8%, while the national average had risen to 5.7%. There was a high percentage of visitors to the Games, which raised the number of tourists whose consumption and demand prompted the establishment of job opportunities to meet the demands.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: In 2017, an exploratory committee was formed to consider a Salt Lake City bid for a future Winter Olympics. In December 2018, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC, now the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee [USOPC]) named Salt Lake City as its preferred candidate to bid for a future Winter Olympics, citing that its experience and existing venues could be leveraged. In February 2022, amid the 2022 Winter Olympics and the 20th anniversary of the Games in Salt Lake City, the USOPC stated that it was "already in dialogue with the IOC, not yet for a specific year but as part of their evolving process", and acknowledged that there was "very high excitement and support from the local population."


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The 2002 Winter Olympics were the first Winter Olympics held after the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, resulting in the first instances of athletes being disqualified for failing drug testing. Athletes in cross-country skiing were disqualified for various reasons, including doping by two Russians and one Spaniard, leading Russia to file protests and threaten to withdraw from the competition.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: A major scandal emerged during the pairs figure skating competition; the Canadian pair of Jamie Salé and David Pelletier narrowly lost to the Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, despite the Canadians being deemed the favorites to win after their free skate program. The French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne alleged that the head of the French Federation of Ice Sports, Didier Gailhaguet, had pressured her to judge the competition in favor of Russia regardless of performance. Amid criticisms of the incident by both Canadian and American media outlets, and suspicions that this was part of a vote swapping scheme with Russia to benefit the French ice dance team, the International Skating Union (ISU) voted to suspend Le Gougne for failing to immediately inform officials of Gailhaguet's actions. They also recommended to the IOC that the gold medal be jointly awarded to both pairs. An IOC panel voted in favor of the motion, resulting in both Salé and Pelletier, as well as Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, being jointly awarded gold medals.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: In the final race A, with one lap remaining and currently in second place, Apolo Ohno of the United States attempted to make a pass on the leader Kim Dong-Sung of South Korea, who then drifted to the inside and as a result, Ohno raised his arms to imply he was blocked. Kim finished first ahead of Ohno, but the Australian referee James Hewish disqualified Kim for what appeared to be impeding, awarding the gold medal to Ohno.


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The South Korean team immediately protested the decision of the chief official of the race, but their protests were denied by the International Skating Union (ISU). The South Korean team then appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The IOC refused to see the case, stating, "This is a matter for the ISU to decide on. At this time, the IOC has received no proposal and taken no action".


title: 2002 Winter Olympics

text: The disqualification of Kim upset South Korean supporters, many of whom directed their anger at Ohno and the IOC. A large number of e-mails protesting the race results crashed the IOC's email server, and thousands of accusatory letters, many of which contained death threats, were sent to Ohno and the IOC. South Korean media accused Ohno of simulating foul, using the Konglish word "Hollywood action". The controversy continued at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, held jointly in South Korea and Japan several months after the Olympics. When the South Korean soccer team scored a goal during the group stage match against the U.S. team, South Korean players Ahn Jung-Hwan and Lee Chun-Soo made an exaggerated move imitating the move Ohno had made during the speed skating event to imply the other athlete had drifted into his lane.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: In mathematical analysis, Lipschitz continuity, named after German mathematician Rudolf Lipschitz, is a strong form of uniform continuity for functions. Intuitively, a Lipschitz continuous function is limited in how fast it can change: there exists a real number such that, for every pair of points on the graph of this function, the absolute value of the slope of the line connecting them is not greater than this real number; the smallest such bound is called the "Lipschitz constant" of the function (or "modulus of uniform continuity"). For instance, every function that has bounded first derivatives is Lipschitz continuous.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: In the theory of differential equations, Lipschitz continuity is the central condition of the Picard–Lindelöf theorem which guarantees the existence and uniqueness of the solution to an initial value problem. A special type of Lipschitz continuity, called contraction, is used in the Banach fixed-point theorem.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: We have the following chain of strict inclusions for functions over a closed and bounded non-trivial interval of the real line:


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: Given two metric spaces ("X", "d") and ("Y", "d"), where "d" denotes the metric on the set "X" and "d" is the metric on set "Y", a function "f" : "X" → "Y" is called Lipschitz continuous if there exists a real constant "K" ≥ 0 such that, for all "x" and "x" in "X",


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: Any such "K" is referred to as a Lipschitz constant for the function "f" and "f" may also be referred to as K-Lipschitz. The smallest constant is sometimes called the (best) Lipschitz constant of "f" or the dilation or dilatation of "f". If "K" = 1 the function is called a short map, and if 0 ≤ "K" < 1 and "f" maps a metric space to itself, the function is called a contraction.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: In particular, a real-valued function "f" : "R" → "R" is called Lipschitz continuous if there exists a positive real constant K such that, for all real "x" and "x",


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: In this case, "Y" is the set of real numbers R with the standard metric "d"("y", "y") = |"y" − "y"|, and "X" is a subset of R.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: In general, the inequality is (trivially) satisfied if "x" = "x". Otherwise, one can equivalently define a function to be Lipschitz continuous if and only if there exists a constant "K" ≥ 0 such that, for all "x" ≠ "x",


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: For real-valued functions of several real variables, this holds if and only if the absolute value of the slopes of all secant lines are bounded by "K". The set of lines of slope "K" passing through a point on the graph of the function forms a circular cone, and a function is Lipschitz if and only if the graph of the function everywhere lies completely outside of this cone (see figure).


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: A function is called locally Lipschitz continuous if for every "x" in "X" there exists a neighborhood "U" of "x" such that "f" restricted to "U" is Lipschitz continuous. Equivalently, if "X" is a locally compact metric space, then "f" is locally Lipschitz if and only if it is Lipschitz continuous on every compact subset of "X". In spaces that are not locally compact, this is a necessary but not a sufficient condition.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: More generally, a function "f" defined on "X" is said to be Hölder continuous or to satisfy a Hölder condition of order α > 0 on "X" if there exists a constant "M" ≥ 0 such that


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: for all "x" and "y" in "X". Sometimes a Hölder condition of order α is also called a uniform Lipschitz condition of order α > 0.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: then "f" is called K"-bilipschitz (also written K"-bi-Lipschitz). We say "f" is bilipschitz or bi-Lipschitz to mean there exists such a "K". A bilipschitz mapping is injective, and is in fact a homeomorphism onto its image. A bilipschitz function is the same thing as an injective Lipschitz function whose inverse function is also Lipschitz.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: A Lipschitz structure on a topological manifold is defined using an atlas of charts whose transition maps are bilipschitz; this is possible because bilipschitz maps form a pseudogroup. Such a structure allows one to define locally Lipschitz maps between such manifolds, similarly to how one defines smooth maps between smooth manifolds: if and are Lipschitz manifolds, then a function formula_18 is locally Lipschitz if and only if for every pair of coordinate charts formula_19 and formula_20, where and are open sets in the corresponding Euclidean spaces, the composition


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: This structure is intermediate between that of a piecewise-linear manifold and a topological manifold: a PL structure gives rise to a unique Lipschitz structure. While Lipschitz manifolds are closely related to topological manifolds, Rademacher's theorem allows one to do analysis, yielding various applications.


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: Let "F"("x") be an upper semi-continuous function of "x", and that "F"("x") is a closed, convex set for all "x". Then "F" is one-sided Lipschitz if


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: It is possible that the function "F" could have a very large Lipschitz constant but a moderately sized, or even negative, one-sided Lipschitz constant. For example, the function


title: Lipschitz continuity

text: has Lipschitz constant "K" = 50 and a one-sided Lipschitz constant "C" = 0. An example which is one-sided Lipschitz but not Lipschitz continuous is "F"("x") = "e", with "C" = 0.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects to movies at its inaugural dinner in 1929, presenting a plaque for "Best Engineering Effects" to the first Best Picture Oscar winner, the World War I flying drama "Wings".


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: Producer David O. Selznick, then production head at RKO Studios, petitioned the Academy Board of Governors to recognize the work of animator Willis O'Brien for his groundbreaking work on 1933's "King Kong".


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: It was not until 1938 when a film was actually recognized for its effects work, when a "Special Achievement Award for Special Effects" was given to the Paramount film "Spawn of the North". The following year, "Best Special Effects" became a recognized category, although on occasion the Academy has chosen to honor a single film outright rather than nominate two or more films. From 1939 to 1963, it was an award for a film's visual effects as well as audio effects, so it was often given to two persons, although some years only one or the other type of effect was recognized. In 1964, it was given only for visual effects, and the following year the name of the category was changed to "Best Special Visual Effects".


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: Honorees for this award have been bestowed several times as a Special Achievement Academy Award. In 1977, the category was given its current name "Best Visual Effects." For decades, shortlisted finalists were selected by a steering committee. They are presently chosen by the visual effects branch executive committee. 1990 was the last year there were no official nominees. "Back to the Future Part III", "Dick Tracy", "Ghost" and "Total Recall" advanced to a second stage of voting, but only "Total Recall" received a requisite average and it was given a special achievement Oscar.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: To date, there have been three wholly animated films nominated in this category: "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 1993, "Kubo and the Two Strings" in 2016, and "The Lion King" in 2019. There has been one semi-animated film nominated, which also won: "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in 1988.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: Usually, there are three nominated films. In 1979, there were five films nominated. Sometimes, no award is given. Other times, a single film is given the award outright.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: In 2007, it was decided that a list of no more than 15 eligible films would be chosen, from which a maximum of seven would be shortlisted for further consideration. A vote would then proceed, with a maximum of three nominees. Since 2010, there are ten shortlisted finalists which, using a form of range voting, produce five nominees. No more than four people may be nominated for a single film.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: A number of filmmakers have had their movies honored for their achievements in visual effects; i.e., five films produced by George Pal, five by director/producer George Lucas, five by director James Cameron (who began his career in Hollywood as an effects technician), four by directors Richard Fleischer, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, three by directors Robert Zemeckis and Christopher Nolan, and two by directors Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: Stanley Kubrick's only Oscar win was in this category, for 1968's "". The film's credits list four effects contributors, including Douglas Trumbull. However, according to the rules of the Academy in effect at the time, only three persons could be nominated for their work on a single film, which would have resulted in the omission of either Trumbull, Tom Howard, Con Pederson or Wally Veevers. Ultimately, it was Kubrick's name that was submitted as a nominee in this category, resulting in his winning the award, which many consider a slight to the four men whose work contributed to the film's success.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: The tables below display the Oscar nominees for Best Special Effects including the recipients of the Special Achievement Awards.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: The tables below display the Oscar nominees for Best Visual Effects including the recipients of the Special Achievement Awards.


title: Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

text: Finalists for Best Visual Effects are selected by the Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee. Beginning with a long list of up to 20 titles, the committee then advances ten films to the shortlist. Prior to the 83rd Academy Awards, only fifteen films were long-listed, and only seven films were shortlisted. The full membership of the Visual Effects Branch is invited to view excerpts and is provided with supporting information at a "bake-off" where balloting determines the five nominees. These are the additional films that presented at the bake-off.


title: Human skin

text: The human skin is the outer covering of the body and is the largest organ of the integumentary system. The skin has up to seven layers of ectodermal tissue guarding muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Human skin is similar to most of the other mammals' skin, and it is very similar to pig skin. Though nearly all human skin is covered with hair follicles, it can appear hairless. There are two general types of skin, hairy and glabrous skin (hairless). The adjective "cutaneous" literally means "of the skin" (from Latin "cutis", skin).


title: Human skin

text: Because it interfaces with the environment, skin plays an important immunity role in protecting the body against pathogens and excessive water loss. Its other functions are insulation, temperature regulation, sensation, synthesis of vitamin D, and the protection of vitamin B folates. Severely damaged skin will try to heal by forming scar tissue. This is often discoloured and depigmented.


title: Human skin

text: In humans, skin pigmentation (affected by melanin) varies among populations, and skin type can range from dry to non-dry and from oily to non-oily. Such skin variety provides a rich and diverse habitat for bacteria that number roughly 1000 species from 19 phyla, present on the human skin.


title: Human skin

text: Human skin shares anatomical, physiological, biochemical and immunological properties with other mammalian lines, especially pig skin. Pig skin shares similar epidermal and dermal thickness ratios to human skin; pig and human skin share similar hair follicle and blood vessel patterns; biochemically the dermal collagen and elastic content is similar in pig and human skin; and pig skin and human skin have similar physical responses to various growth factors.


title: Human skin

text: Skin has mesodermal cells, pigmentation, such as melanin provided by melanocytes, which absorb some of the potentially dangerous ultraviolet radiation (UV) in sunlight. It also contains DNA repair enzymes that help reverse UV damage, such that people lacking the genes for these enzymes have high rates of skin cancer. One form predominantly produced by UV light, malignant melanoma, is particularly invasive, causing it to spread quickly, and can often be deadly. Human skin pigmentation varies among populations in a striking manner. This has led to the classification of people(s) on the basis of skin colour.


title: Human skin

text: In terms of surface area, the skin is the second largest organ in the human body (the inside of the small intestine is 15 to 20 times larger). For the average adult human, the skin has a surface area of from . The thickness of the skin varies considerably over all parts of the body, and between men and women and the young and the old. An example is the skin on the forearm which is on average 1.3 mm in the male and 1.26 mm in the female. of skin holds 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes, and more than 1,000 nerve endings. The average human skin cell is about 30 micrometres (μm) in diameter, but there are variants. A skin cell usually ranges from 25 to 40 μm, depending on a variety of factors.


title: Human skin

text: The epidermis, "epi" coming from the Greek meaning "over" or "upon", is the outermost layer of the skin. It forms the waterproof, protective wrap over the body's surface which also serves as a barrier to infection and is made up of stratified squamous epithelium with an underlying basal lamina.


title: Human skin

text: The epidermis contains no blood vessels, and cells in the deepest layers are nourished almost exclusively by diffused oxygen from the surrounding air and to a far lesser degree by blood capillaries extending to the outer layers of the dermis. The main type of cells that make up the epidermis are Merkel cells, keratinocytes, with melanocytes and Langerhans cells also present. The epidermis can be further subdivided into the following "strata" (beginning with the outermost layer): corneum, lucidum (only in palms of hands and bottoms of feet), granulosum, spinosum, and basale. Cells are formed through mitosis at the basale layer. The daughter cells (see cell division) move up the strata changing shape and composition as they die due to isolation from their blood source. The cytoplasm is released and the protein keratin is inserted. They eventually reach the corneum and slough off (desquamation). This process is called "keratinization". This keratinized layer of skin is responsible for keeping water in the body and keeping other harmful chemicals and pathogens out, making skin a natural barrier to infection.


title: Human skin

text: The epidermis contains no blood vessels and is nourished by diffusion from the dermis. The main type of cells that make up the epidermis are keratinocytes, melanocytes, Langerhans cells, and Merkel cells. The epidermis helps the skin regulate body temperature.


title: Human skin

text: The skin has up to seven layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. The epidermis is divided into several layers, where cells are formed through mitosis at the innermost layers. They move up the strata changing shape and composition as they differentiate and become filled with keratin. After reaching the top layer stratum corneum they are eventually 'sloughed off', or desquamated. This process is called keratinization and takes place within weeks.


title: Human skin

text: It was previously believed that the stratum corneum was "a simple, biologically inactive, outer epidermal layer comprising a fibrillar lattice of dead keratin". It is now understood that this is not true, and that the stratum corneum should be considered to be a live tissue. While it is true that the stratum corneum is mainly composed of terminally differentiated keratinocytes called corneocytes that are anucleated, these cells remain alive and metabolically functional until desquamated.


title: Human skin

text: Blood capillaries are found beneath the epidermis and are linked to an arteriole and a venule. Arterial shunt vessels may bypass the network in ears, the nose and fingertips.


title: Human skin

text: About 70% of all human protein-coding genes are expressed in the skin. Almost 500 genes have an elevated pattern of expression in the skin. There are fewer than 100 genes that are specific for the skin, and these are expressed in the epidermis. An analysis of the corresponding proteins show that these are mainly expressed in keratinocytes and have functions related to squamous differentiation and cornification.


title: Human skin

text: The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbours many nerve endings that provide the sense of touch and heat. It contains the hair follicles, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, apocrine glands, lymphatic vessels and blood vessels. The blood vessels in the dermis provide nourishment and waste removal from its own cells as well as from the stratum basale of the epidermis.


title: Human skin

text: The dermis is structurally divided into two areas: a superficial area adjacent to the epidermis, called the "papillary region", and a deep thicker area known as the "reticular region".


title: Human skin

text: The papillary region is composed of loose areolar connective tissue. It is named for its finger-like projections called "papillae", which extend toward the epidermis. The papillae provide the dermis with a "bumpy" surface that interdigitates with the epidermis, strengthening the connection between the two layers of skin.


title: Human skin

text: In the palms, fingers, soles, and toes, the influence of the papillae projecting into the epidermis forms contours in the skin's surface. These epidermal ridges occur in patterns ("see:" fingerprint) that are genetically and epigenetically determined and are therefore unique to the individual, making it possible to use fingerprints or footprints as a means of identification.


title: Human skin

text: The reticular region lies deep in the papillary region and is usually much thicker. It is composed of dense irregular connective tissue, and receives its name from the dense concentration of collagenous, elastic, and reticular fibres that weave throughout it. These protein fibres give the dermis its properties of strength, extensibility, and elasticity.


title: Human skin

text: Also located within the reticular region are the roots of the hairs, sebaceous glands, sweat glands, receptors, nails, and blood vessels.


title: Human skin

text: Tattoo ink is held in the dermis. Stretch marks, often from pregnancy and obesity, are also located in the dermis.


title: Human skin

text: The subcutaneous tissue (also "hypodermis" and "subcutis") is not part of the skin, but lies below the dermis of the cutis. Its purpose is to attach the skin to underlying bone and muscle as well as supplying it with blood vessels and nerves. It consists of loose connective tissue, adipose tissue and elastin. The main cell types are fibroblasts, macrophages and adipocytes (subcutaneous tissue contains 50% of body fat). Fat serves as padding and insulation for the body.


title: Human skin

text: Human skin shows high skin colour variety from the darkest brown to the lightest pinkish-white hues. Human skin shows higher variation in colour than any other single mammalian species and is the result of natural selection. Skin pigmentation in humans evolved to primarily regulate the amount of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) penetrating the skin, controlling its biochemical effects.


title: Human skin

text: The actual skin colour of different humans is affected by many substances, although the single most important substance determining human skin colour is the pigment melanin. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes and it is the main determinant of the skin colour of darker-skinned humans. The skin colour of people with light skin is determined mainly by the bluish-white connective tissue under the dermis and by the haemoglobin circulating in the veins of the dermis. The red colour underlying the skin becomes more visible, especially in the face, when, as consequence of physical exercise or the stimulation of the nervous system (anger, fear), arterioles dilate.


title: Human skin

text: There are at least five different pigments that determine the colour of the skin. These pigments are present at different levels and places.


title: Human skin

text: There is a correlation between the geographic distribution of UV radiation (UVR) and the distribution of indigenous skin pigmentation around the world. Areas that highlight higher amounts of UVR reflect darker-skinned populations, generally located nearer towards the equator. Areas that are far from the tropics and closer to the poles have lower concentration of UVR, which is reflected in lighter-skinned populations.


title: Human skin

text: In the same population it has been observed that adult human females are considerably lighter in skin pigmentation than males. Females need more calcium during pregnancy and lactation, and vitamin D which is synthesized from sunlight helps in absorbing calcium. For this reason it is thought that females may have evolved to have lighter skin in order to help their bodies absorb more calcium.


title: Human skin

text: The Fitzpatrick scale is a numerical classification schema for human skin colour developed in 1975 as a way to classify the typical response of different types of skin to ultraviolet (UV) light:


title: Human skin

text: As skin ages, it becomes thinner and more easily damaged. Intensifying this effect is the decreasing ability of skin to heal itself as a person ages.


title: Human skin

text: Among other things, skin ageing is noted by a decrease in volume and elasticity. There are many internal and external causes to skin ageing. For example, ageing skin receives less blood flow and lower glandular activity.


title: Human skin

text: A validated comprehensive grading scale has categorized the clinical findings of skin ageing as laxity (sagging), rhytids (wrinkles), and the various facets of photoageing, including erythema (redness), and telangiectasia, dyspigmentation (brown discolouration), solar elastosis (yellowing), keratoses (abnormal growths) and poor texture.


title: Human skin

text: Photoageing has two main concerns: an increased risk for skin cancer and the appearance of damaged skin. In younger skin, sun damage will heal faster since the cells in the epidermis have a faster turnover rate, while in the older population the skin becomes thinner and the epidermis turnover rate for cell repair is lower, which may result in the dermis layer being damaged.


title: Human skin

text: Though most human skin is covered with hair follicles, some parts can be hairless. There are two general types of skin, hairy and glabrous skin (hairless). The adjective "cutaneous" means "of the skin" (from Latin "cutis", skin).


title: Human skin

text: The human skin is a rich environment for microbes. Around 1000 species of bacteria from 19 bacterial phyla have been found. Most come from only four phyla: Actinomycetota (51.8%), Bacillota (24.4%), Pseudomonadota (16.5%), and Bacteroidota (6.3%). Propionibacteria and Staphylococci species were the main species in sebaceous areas. There are three main ecological areas: moist, dry and sebaceous. In moist places on the body Corynebacteria together with Staphylococci dominate. In dry areas, there is a mixture of species but dominated by Betaproteobacteria and Flavobacteriales. Ecologically, sebaceous areas had greater species richness than moist and dry ones. The areas with least similarity between people in species were the spaces between fingers, the spaces between toes, axillae, and umbilical cord stump. Most similarly were beside the nostril, nares (inside


title: Human skin

text: Reflecting upon the diversity of the human skin researchers on the human skin microbiome have observed: "hairy, moist underarms lie a short distance from smooth dry forearms, but these two niches are likely as ecologically dissimilar as rainforests are to deserts."


title: Human skin

text: The NIH conducted the Human Microbiome Project to characterize the human microbiota which includes that on the skin and the role of this microbiome in health and disease.


title: Human skin

text: Microorganisms like "Staphylococcus epidermidis" colonize the skin surface. The density of skin flora depends on region of the skin. The disinfected skin surface gets recolonized from bacteria residing in the deeper areas of the hair follicle, gut and urogenital openings.


title: Human skin

text: Diseases of the skin include skin infections and skin neoplasms (including skin cancer). Dermatology is the branch of medicine that deals with conditions of the skin.


title: Human skin

text: The skin is also valuable for diagnosis of other conditions, since many medical signs . Skin color affects the visibility of these signs, a source of misdiagnosis in unaware medical personnel.


title: Human skin

text: The skin supports its own ecosystems of microorganisms, including yeasts and bacteria, which cannot be removed by any amount of cleaning. Estimates place the number of individual bacteria on the surface of of human skin at 50 million, though this figure varies greatly over the average of human skin. Oily surfaces, such as the face, may contain over . Despite these vast quantities, all of the bacteria found on the skin's surface would fit into a volume the size of a pea. In general, the microorganisms keep one another in check and are part of a healthy skin. When the balance is disturbed, there may be an overgrowth and infection, such as when antibiotics kill microbes, resulting in an overgrowth of yeast. The skin is continuous with the inner epithelial lining of the body at the orifices, each of which supports its own complement of microbes.


title: Human skin

text: Cosmetics should be used carefully on the skin because these may cause allergic reactions. Each season requires suitable clothing in order to facilitate the evaporation of the sweat. Sunlight, water and air play an important role in keeping the skin healthy.


title: Human skin

text: Oily skin is caused by over-active sebaceous glands, that produce a substance called sebum, a naturally healthy skin lubricant. A high glycemic-index diet and dairy products (except for cheese) consumption increase IGF-1 generation, which in turn increases sebum production. Overwashing the skin does not cause sebum overproduction but may cause dryness.


title: Human skin

text: When the skin produces excessive sebum, it becomes heavy and thick in texture, known as oily skin. Oily skin is typified by shininess, blemishes and pimples. The oily-skin type is not necessarily bad, since such skin is less prone to wrinkling, or other signs of ageing, because the oil helps to keep needed moisture locked into the epidermis (outermost layer of skin). The negative aspect of the oily-skin type is that oily complexions are especially susceptible to clogged pores, blackheads, and buildup of dead skin cells on the surface of the skin. Oily skin can be sallow and rough in texture and tends to have large, clearly visible pores everywhere, except around the eyes and neck.


title: Human skin

text: Human skin has a low permeability; that is, most foreign substances are unable to penetrate and diffuse through the skin. Skin's outermost layer, the stratum corneum, is an effective barrier to most inorganic nanosized particles. This protects the body from external particles such as toxins by not allowing them to come into contact with internal tissues. However, in some cases it is desirable to allow particles entry to the body through the skin. Potential medical applications of such particle transfer has prompted developments in nanomedicine and biology to increase skin permeability. One application of transcutaneous particle delivery could be to locate and treat cancer. Nanomedical researchers seek to target the epidermis and other layers of active cell division where nanoparticles can interact directly with cells that have lost their growth-control mechanisms (cancer cells). Such direct interaction could be used to more accurately diagnose properties of specific tumours or to treat them by delivering drugs with cellular specificity.


title: Human skin

text: Nanoparticles 40 nm in diameter and smaller have been successful in penetrating the skin. Research confirms that nanoparticles larger than 40 nm do not penetrate the skin past the stratum corneum. Most particles that do penetrate will diffuse through skin cells, but some will travel down hair follicles and reach the dermis layer.


title: Human skin

text: The permeability of skin relative to different shapes of nanoparticles has also been studied. Research has shown that spherical particles have a better ability to penetrate the skin compared to oblong (ellipsoidal) particles because spheres are symmetric in all three spatial dimensions. One study compared the two shapes and recorded data that showed spherical particles located deep in the epidermis and dermis whereas ellipsoidal particles were mainly found in the stratum corneum and epidermal layers. Nanorods are used in experiments because of their unique fluorescent properties but have shown mediocre penetration.


title: Human skin

text: Nanoparticles of different materials have shown skin's permeability limitations. In many experiments, gold nanoparticles 40 nm in diameter or smaller are used and have shown to penetrate to the epidermis. Titanium oxide (TiO), zinc oxide (ZnO), and silver nanoparticles are ineffective in penetrating the skin past the stratum corneum. Cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots have proven to penetrate very effectively when they have certain properties. Because CdSe is toxic to living organisms, the particle must be covered in a surface group. An experiment comparing the permeability of quantum dots coated in polyethylene glycol (PEG), PEG-amine, and carboxylic acid concluded the PEG and PEG-amine surface groups allowed for the greatest penetration of particles. The carboxylic acid coated particles did not penetrate past the stratum corneum.


title: Human skin

text: Scientists previously believed that the skin was an effective barrier to inorganic particles. Damage from mechanical stressors was believed to be the only way to increase its permeability.


title: Human skin

text: Recently, simpler and more effective methods for increasing skin permeability have been developed. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) slightly damages the surface of skin and causes a time-dependent defect allowing easier penetration of nanoparticles. The UVR's high energy causes a restructuring of cells, weakening the boundary between the stratum corneum and the epidermal layer. The damage of the skin is typically measured by the transepidermal water loss (TEWL), though it may take 3–5 days for the TEWL to reach its peak value. When the TEWL reaches its highest value, the maximum density of nanoparticles is able to permeate the skin. While the effect of increased permeability after UVR exposure can lead to an increase in the number of particles that permeate the skin, the specific permeability of skin after UVR exposure relative to particles of different sizes and materials has not been determined.


title: Human skin

text: There are other methods to increase nanoparticle penetration by skin damage: tape stripping is the process in which tape is applied to skin then lifted to remove the top layer of skin; skin abrasion is done by shaving the top 5–10 μm off the surface of the skin; chemical enhancement applies chemicals such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and oleic acid to the surface of the skin to increase permeability; electroporation increases skin permeability by the application of short pulses of electric fields. The pulses are high voltage and on the order of milliseconds when applied. Charged molecules penetrate the skin more frequently than neutral molecules after the skin has been exposed to electric field pulses. Results have shown molecules on the order of 100 μm to easily permeate electroporated skin.


title: Human skin

text: A large area of interest in nanomedicine is the transdermal patch because of the possibility of a painless application of therapeutic agents with very few side effects. Transdermal patches have been limited to administer a small number of drugs, such as nicotine, because of the limitations in permeability of the skin. Development of techniques that increase skin permeability has led to more drugs that can be applied via transdermal patches and more options for patients.


title: Human skin

text: Increasing the permeability of skin allows nanoparticles to penetrate and target cancer cells. Nanoparticles along with multi-modal imaging techniques have been used as a way to diagnose cancer non-invasively. Skin with high permeability allowed quantum dots with an antibody attached to the surface for active targeting to successfully penetrate and identify cancerous tumours in mice. Tumour targeting is beneficial because the particles can be excited using fluorescence microscopy and emit light energy and heat that will destroy cancer cells.


title: Human skin

text: Sunblock and sunscreen are different important skin-care products though both offer full protection from the sun.


title: Human skin

text: Sunblock—Sunblock is opaque and stronger than sunscreen, since it is able to block most of the UVA/UVB rays and radiation from the sun, and does not need to be reapplied several times in a day. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are two of the important ingredients in sunblock.


title: Human skin

text: Sunscreen—Sunscreen is more transparent once applied to the skin and also has the ability to protect against UVA/UVB rays, although the sunscreen's ingredients have the ability to break down at a faster rate once exposed to sunlight, and some of the radiation is able to penetrate to the skin. In order for sunscreen to be more effective it is necessary to consistently reapply and use one with a higher sun protection factor.


title: Human skin

text: Vitamin A, also known as retinoids, benefits the skin by normalizing keratinization, downregulating sebum production which contributes to acne, and reversing and treating photodamage, striae, and cellulite.


title: Human skin

text: Vitamin D and analogues are used to downregulate the cutaneous immune system and epithelial proliferation while promoting differentiation.


title: Human skin

text: Vitamin C is an antioxidant that regulates collagen synthesis, forms barrier lipids, regenerates vitamin E, and provides photoprotection.


title: Human skin

text: Vitamin E is a membrane antioxidant that protects against oxidative damage and also provides protection against harmful UV rays.


title: Human skin

text: Several scientific studies confirmed that changes in baseline nutritional status affects skin condition.


title: Human skin

text: The Mayo Clinic lists foods they state help the skin: fruits and vegetables, whole-grains, dark leafy greens, nuts, and seeds.


title: Home Free (group)

text: Home Free is an American country a cappella group of five vocalists: Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, Tim Foust, and Adam Chance. Starting as a show group, they toured with approximately 200 shows a year across the United States. The group won the fourth season of "The Sing-Off" on NBC in 2013. They sang an arrangement of Hunter Hayes' "I Want Crazy" as their final competitive song, earning the group $100,000 and a recording contract with Sony.


title: Home Free (group)

text: The band released their first major label album, "Crazy Life", in February 2014. Their most recent album, "So Long Dixie", was released in November 2022.


title: Home Free (group)

text: Home Free was originally formed in January 2001 by Chris Rupp in Mankato, Minnesota, when some of its members were still in their teens. The five founding members were brothers Chris and Adam Rupp, Matt Atwood, Darren Scruggs, and Dan Lemke. They took their name from a boat owned by Atwood's grandfather who helped support the group financially in their early years. The group began as a hobby for the singers, but they gradually grew in experience and popularity. By 2007 they had enough of a following to pursue music full-time. During this period, the Rupp brothers and Atwood formed the core of the group, with Atwood singing lead tenor. Other members of the group came and went. Current member Rob Lundquist, another Minnesotan, joined in 2008.


title: Home Free (group)

text: For much of the group's history they worked with many talented bass singers, but did not have a full-time committed bass voice. In 2007 Chris Foss sang with them. Elliott Robinson was added as bass in September 2008, and was replaced in June 2009 by Troy Horne. Later that year, Horne left to rejoin the House Jacks. To replace Horne they turned to Tim Foust, who first sang with them as a guest on their 2010 tour. A Texas native, Foust was then pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter of country music and had recently released a solo album, but was not ready to sign on full-time. Matthew Tuey sang with the group in the interim of 2011, until Foust joined them full-time in January 2012.


title: Home Free (group)

text: In 2012, Austin Brown was working on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship as a featured singer in their production shows. When Home Free joined the cruise as a guest performing group, they met and became close. Brown, who was born in Tifton, Georgia, let Home Free know that he would be interested in joining the group if they ever had an opening. At the end of 2012 lead singer Matt Atwood and his wife, who had married the previous year, were expecting their first child. Finding the group's touring schedule incompatible with family life, and having an opportunity to take over his family's real estate business in Mankato, Atwood made the decision to retire from the group. Home Free then invited Brown to join as lead tenor. He sang his first show with the group in October 2012, and became full-time in January 2013.


title: Home Free (group)

text: The group, made up of Chris and Adam Rupp, Lindquist, Foust and Brown, competed in the fourth season of "The Sing-Off", recording their performances in September 2013. During that time, the group arranged for substitute performers to fulfill their previously-scheduled concert commitments. The series was televised in December 2013, and the group headlined the Sing-Off tour across 32 cities in 2014.


title: Home Free (group)

text: On March 18, 2016, it was announced that, after sixteen years of performing with the group, co-founder Chris Rupp would be leaving to pursue a solo career. He would be replaced after May 8 by Adam Chance, formerly of Street Corner Symphony.


title: Home Free (group)

text: An update of Home Free's 2014 album "Full of Cheer" called "Full Of (Even More) Cheer" was released in November 2016 and debuted at number two on the Top Country Albums Chart with 13,000 sold - the band's best performance on the chart at the time.


title: Home Free (group)

text: The band has been actively posting videos to their Youtube channel since 2009. In May 2020, they announced that they had reached 1 million subscribers to their channel. Home Free was also an early adopter of Patreon, where they crowdfund to raise money to produce their videos.