title: Adana

text: The International Çukurova Instrumental Music Festival is a two-week long festival held annually in Adana, Antakya and Gaziantep. In 2009, the fifth estival took place with an opening concert by the Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra. Baritone Marcin Bronikowski, pianist Vania Batchvarova, guitarist Peter Finger, cellist Ozan Tunca and pianist Zöhrap Adıgüzelzade all performed at the festival.


title: Adana

text: Çukurova Art Days is a regional festival that has been taking place annually since 2007 in Adana, Mersin, Tarsus, Antakya, İskenderun, Silifke, Anamur and (in the past) in Aleppo.


title: Adana

text: The 13 Kare Arts Festival began in 1999 as a festival of photography dedicated to 13 Adana photographers who died in an accident during an Adana Photography Amateurs Association trip. Held every December, the festival has since expanded to include other arts such as undersea and architectural photography, puppet shows, shadow theatre and concerts.


title: Adana

text: The Adana Literature Festival is held every April at the Adana Centre for Arts & Culture. Around 100 writers, poets and critics participate in the festival .


title: Adana

text: During the mid-20th century, Adana was well known for its vibrant nightlife and many which mostly functioned as adult entertainment clubs, similar to the Japanese hostess clubs, with live music and a lounge with tables lined up on the ground floor and private rooms upstairs. The first opened before 1942 with the arrival of Englishmen who worked on the Adana-Ulukışla road that was funded by the British Government in an effort to persuade Turkey to join World War II. By the 1950s landowners who had grown wealthy from the cotton trade opened more and more "pavyons" along the Seyhan river. In the 1960s, rapid industrialisation brought more patrons from across the country, including from Istanbul and Ankara, and Adana was dubbed the Pavyon Capital of Turkey. Many popular singers owed their fame to the Adana .


title: Adana

text: The "pavyons" led the way for Western-style pubs and nightclubs by the late 1980s as Adana underwent big socio-economic changes. The traditional entertainment district was Sular, near the Central Station, but nowadays pubs and clubs are spread throughout the city. The bigger clubs such as Life Legend, Uptown, Casara and Lava, host star singers in elegant locations, mostly along the river and around the lake. There are still two active , Afrodit and Maksim, but now most adult entertainment is directed at what is known locally as tele-bars which are licensed as regular pubs but function as places where bargirls entertain customers. There are around twenty tele-bars mainly in the city centre and around the old dam.


title: Adana

text: A hundred-year-long tradition of dining on kebab, liver and rakı in the Kazancılar Bazaar, with street music and dancing, turned into a festival with all-night entertainment in 2010. The World Rakı Festival, officially renamed the Adana Kebab and Şalgam Festival, is held on the second Saturday night of December and attracts more than 20,000 people to the old town.


title: Adana

text: In the early 20th century coaches were invited to Adana from Istanbul to improve local sporting life. Varag Pogharian and Mateos Zarifian played an important role in organising the athletic movement and the first sports clubs in the city were founded by the Armenian community. in 1913 Adana Türkgücü was founded by Ahmet Remzi Bey and İsmail Sefa Bey in alliance with the Istanbul Türkgücü club that had been initiated by the Committee of Union and Progress. Adana's athletic clubs joined in the Cilician Olympic Games held in April 1914 in a venue north of Dörtyol, a first of its kind for the region. In the 1920s Adana İdman Yurdu, Adana Türk Ocağı, Seyhanspor and Milli Mensucat clubs were all founded and joined the Adana Football League that was established in 1924 along with clubs from other Cilician provinces. Adanaspor, founded in 1932, and Adana Demirspor, founded in 1940, later joined the Çukurova League.


title: Adana

text: The rivalry between the city's main football clubs, Adanaspor and Adana Demirspor, attracts attraction as a derby rooted in socio-economic divisions.


title: Adana

text: Football is the most popular sport in Adana although basketball, volleyball and handball are also played widely at professional and amateur levels. Warm weather makes the city a haven for sports like rowing, sailing, swimming and water polo. Horse racing and horse riding are also popular. The biannual Men's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship took place in Adana on 5–15 October 2009; twelve countries competed and Italy won the title after a final game against Turkey. Adana also hosted the 2013 IWBF Men's U23 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.The 1967 Women's European Volleyball Championship was organised in Turkey with Adana a host city along with Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir. Group C games are played in Adana at the Menderes Sports Hall.


title: Adana

text: Adanaspor and Adana Demirspor are the two Adana clubs that appear in the Turkish Professional Football League. After twelve years, Adanaspor returned to the Super Lig, in which they had competed for twenty-one years and were the runner up in the 1980–81 season. Adanaspor also performed at the UEFA Cup for three years. Adana Demirspor, currently performing in the TFF First League, was the runner up for the Turkish Cup in the 1977–1978 season and performed in the SuperLig for seventeen years. Both teams use the 5 Ocak Stadium, and matches between them are known as the Adana derby, creating an arch-rival atmosphere found in only three cities in Turkey. Kiremithanespor of the Yüreğir district compete in the Turkish Regional Amateur League. In women's football, Adana İdmanyurduspor compete in the First Football League, and play their home games at the Gençlik Stadium.


title: Adana

text: Adana ASKİ is the major club for Women's Pro-Basketball, performing in the Turkish Women's Basketball League (TKBL). Adana ASKİ was founded as Ceyhan Belediyespor in 2000, and was renamed and moved to Adana in 2014. After the move, the club had its best season ever (2014–15), playing in the final of the Turkish Women's Cup and the semi-final of the TKBL First Division. Adana ASKİ also play their home games at Menderes Sports Hall. Adanaspor, relegated to the third tier of the Turkish Men's Basketball League in 2016, play their home games at the Menderes Sports Hall. Wheelchair basketball clubs Adana Engelliler and Martı Engelliler play in the first division of the Turkish Wheelchair Basketball League, both playing their home games at the Serinevler Sports Hall.


title: Adana

text: Professional volleyball club Adana Toros was promoted to the top flight of the Turkish Men's Volleyball League on 12 April 2016 at the play-off finals in Bursa. Adana Toros play their home games at the Menderes Sports Hall. The city's handball club, Şakirpaşa HEM, was promoted to the Turkish Women's Handball Super League on 21 April 2016, at the play-off finals in Ankara. The venue of Şakirpaşa is Yüreğir Serinevler Arena.


title: Adana

text: Water sports are also popular in Adana. Adana Demirspor's water polo team is a legend in the community, joining the Turkish Water Polo League in 1942 after Turkey's first modern watersports venue, the Atatürk Swimming Complex, opened in Adana in 1936. The team has a record twenty-two years of straight championship titles in the Turkish Men's Water Polo League, seventeen years of it without losing a game, hence their nickname "The Unbeatables". Demirspor has a total of twenty-nine championship titles.


title: Adana

text: Rowing became a popular local sport in the last twenty years. Rowing competitions are held all year long on the Seyhan River and the Seyhan Reservoir. The Metropolitan Rowing Club and Çukurova University SK compete at the national and international level. Sailing competitions are also held at the Seyhan Reservoir all year round. The Adana Sailing Club competes at regattas in different categories. In swimming, Erdal Acet of Adana Demirspor is a prominent local figure, who broke the record for swimming the English Channel in nine hours and two minutes in 1976. Recreationally, the lack of swimming pools make the Seyhan River and the irrigation canals attractive for swimmers who want to cool off in the hot, humid summers. With almost one hundred people drowning every year, the Metropolitan Municipality has now opened forty-one swimming pools.


title: Adana

text: The Adana Half Marathon was inaugurated in 2011 on a national level with the participation of 223 athletes. In 2012, the marathon gained IAAF International Marathon status and hosted 610 athletes from ten nations. The marathon takes place on the first Sunday after 5 January, Adana's Independence Day. The route follows Adana's historic streets and the streets along the Seyhan river.


title: Adana

text: Horse racing is very popular in Adana. Yeşiloba Hippodrome is one of four Turkish racecourses to host horse racing competitions from October to May. Adana Equestrian Club is Turkey's biggest horse riding centre, hosting national and international competitions.


title: Adana

text: The media in Adana is run by national and local agencies. The Çukurova Journalists Union is the umbrella organisation for local media.


title: Adana

text: Adana has several daily newspapers, the most popular being the "Yeni Adana, Ekspres, Toros, Bölge" and "5 Ocak" papers. The oldest newspaper, "Yeni Adana ("New Adana)"," dates back to 1918 and played a significant role in the independence movement after the First World War. Most Adana newspapers serve not only the city but the whole Çukurova region. Many national newspapers have regional publishing centres in Adana. Hürriyet publishes a supplement, "Hürriyet Çukurova", which is Turkey's most popular regional newspaper with a circulation of 48,000. Sabah's regional supplement, "Güney (South)," is also published in Adana.


title: Adana

text: Kanal A is Adana's longest serving TV broadcaster, Çukurova TV, Akdeniz TV, Koza TV and Kent TV are the other major broadcasters. There are numerous local radio channels and TRT's Çukurova Radio can be listened to in the city.


title: Adana

text: Çakmak Street is the traditional shopping street in the old town. Attempts to pedestrianise it have been unsuccessful because traffic flow can't be diverted. There are several historical bazaars around the Büyük Saat (Clocktower) and Yağ Camii (Oil Mosque). The covered markets around Saydam street, and the Kilis and Mısır bazaars used to be centres for shopping for quality foreign goods.


title: Adana

text: Ziyapaşa Boulevard is an elegant street where expensive brand-name shops are located. It runs from the D-400 state road to the Central Train Station with the shops are concentrated towards the north end. The streets around Ziyapaşa and the Özal, Demirel and Evren boulevards in northern Adana also feature high-end shops.


title: Adana

text: Adana has four modern shopping malls. Galleria was the first to be built in the early 1990s. The M1 and Carrefour malls were built during the late 1990s at the west end of the city. Recently opened Optimum Outlet is the first mall east of the river and the closest to the city centre. It has a view of the river and the Merkez (Central) Park.


title: Adana

text: Public, private and not-for-profit institutions are located in Adana. Primary and secondary education in the city is regulated by the provincial directorate of the national Ministry of Education which also administers the state schools.


title: Adana

text: There are 282 public and 12 private primary schools which pupils attend from grades 1 to 8. From grades 9 to 11, pupils go to one of the 85 public and 26 private high schools. Notable high schools of the city with entrance exams include the state-owned Adana Fen and Adana Anadolu High Schools, and the private Gündoğdu and Bilfen High Schools. The Adana Gundogdu Schools is the largest private school in Adana and expands every year. There are six public and six private schools for pupils with special needs. Nine Community Training Centres help adult residents improve their skills.


title: Adana

text: Although the city has large Kurdish and Arab communities education in "unofficial" languages is only provided at institutions that do not get government support. Few of them teach Arabic or Kurdish.


title: Adana

text: The requirement to pass an entrance exam for admission to high schools and universities and for a career in the civil service led to the opening of more than one hundred crammer schools () in the city.


title: Adana

text: The Ramazanoğlu Library was founded in 1923 by combining two smaller libraries. It moved to its current location in the Sabancı Cultural Centre in 1976 and was renamed the Adana Public Library. It also has a branch in the Karacaoğlan Museum of Literature. Seyhan, Yüreğir, Sarıçam and Karaisalı also have public libraries administered by each district. Adana City Library specialises in publications about Adana and Çukurova's history and culture, and has a good collection of photography and films about the city. It is located in the Adana Centre for Arts and Culture.


title: Adana

text: The fifth Çukurova Book Fair took place in 2012, hosting 182,450 visitors from Çukurova and neighbouring regions. More than two hundred publishers and volunteer organisations had stands, more than 50 cultural events were performed and 300 authors were present to meet their readers. At the same time, the Çukurova Education Fair was organised at the Tüyap Exhibition Centre with the participation of 45 education institutions.


title: Adana

text: There are two state universities and one foundation university inside the city and another foundation university just outside it. Universities are regulated by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).


title: Adana

text: Çukurova University is a state university located on the eastern shore of the Seyhan Reservoir. In 2008, it was ranked one of the top 500 universities in the world according to research conducted by Blackwell Publishing, Quacquarelli Symonds and "The Times". It was founded in 1973 following the merger of the colleges of Agriculture and Medicine. Its campus has many cultural, social and athletic facilities for its 40,000 students.


title: Adana

text: Adana University for Science and Technology is a newer state university with nine faculties, two institutions and a college.


title: Adana

text: Çağ University is a not-for-profit tuition-based university founded in 1997. It is outside the city centre on the way to Tarsus. Most of its 2,500 students commute from Adana, Tarsus and Mersin.


title: Adana

text: Kanuni University is a recently opened, tuition-based university founded by the Çukurova Education and Culture Foundation.


title: Adana

text: Adana is a major health centre for a wide area stretching from the Mediterranean to Southeastern Anatolia. It has four university hospitals, eight state hospitals and seven private hospitals.


title: Adana

text: In the Hastaneler (Hospitals) part of the Seyhan district hospitals - including the Numune General Hospital, the Çukurova State Hospital, the Hospital for Thoracic Diseases and the Military Hospital - line up on both sides of H. Ömer Sabancı Street.


title: Adana

text: Part of Çukurova University, Balcalı Hospital is a research hospital that was founded in 1987 after the Faculty of Medicine moved to the main campus. It has 1050 inpatient beds in 47 service units, a 58-bed intensive care unit and a 17-bed emergency unit. The largest hospital in Southern and Southeastern Anatolia, it is also one of the biggest hospitals of Turkey.


title: Adana

text: A new health campus is expected to open in Yüreğir by 2014, which will include a 600-bed General Hospital, 200-bed Heart and Stroke Hospital, 250-bed maternity hospital, 100-bed oncology hospital, 150-bed Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Centre and 100-bed Psychiatry Hospital. The campus will have a capacity of 1400 inpatients and will be connected to the Hastaneler area via a bridge over the Seyhan river which will create one big campus.


title: Adana

text: In the 16th century, Adana was a port city where ships could navigate along the Seyhan River to the port just south of Taşköprü. It is now on the main route connecting Europe to the Middle East.


title: Adana

text: Just west of the old town, Şakirpaşa Airport is an international airport serving the Çukurova region. It is the sixth busiest airport in Turkey serving 5.4 million passengers in 2015. There are international flights to major cities of Germany, to Beirut, Jeddah, Erbil and Nicosia (TRNC), and frequent domestic flights to Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Antalya, Trabzon, Bodrum and Van.


title: Adana

text: Turkish State Railways (TCDD) runs five long-distance lines connecting Adana to Ankara, Kayseri, Karaman, Konya and Elazığ. All these lines use the Central Railway Station while some also use the city's other railway stations—Şehitlik and Şakirpaşa stations to the west, Kiremithane, İncirlik and Yakapınar stations o the east. TCDD also runs three regional lines across Çukurova. The Adana-Mersin Line operates as a commuter train with 27 trains daily. Services to Osmaniye–Islahiye and to Iskenderun run once a day. Regional trains stop at all city stations.


title: Adana

text: Although they became less popular as private airlines introduced inexpensive flights, buses are still the main form of transport to and from the city. Adana has two intercity bus terminals offering services to almost all Turkey's towns and cities. Bus companies travelling to cities west of Adana depart from the Central Bus Terminal while buses travelling to cities east of Adana depart from Yüreğir Bus Terminal. A shuttle service runs between the two terminals. Regional bus and minibus services from Adana to other places in Çukurova are plentiful. Extra summer bus services operate to the high plains of Tekir, Bürücek and Kızıldağ to enable Adana residents to escape the city heat.


title: Adana

text: There is an extensive motorway network (O50-O59) connecting Adana to as far as Erdemli in the west, Niğde in the north, Şanlıurfa in the east and Iskenderun in the south. It can take as little as 40 minutes to get to Mersin and two hours to reach Gaziantep.


title: Adana

text: Local transport is provided by the Adana Transit Corporation (a division of the Metropolitan Municipality) and by dolmuş and bus co-operatives. The Transit Corporation runs the Metro and the municipal buses.


title: Adana

text: Adana Metro is a rapid transit system that extends from the north-west to the city centre and Yüreğir. The Metro M1 line has thirteen stations and can transport 21,600 passengers an hour in each direction, a complete journey taking twenty minutes. A planned second line will run from Akıncılar to Çukurova University in the Sarıçam District. It will be long and will have seven stations..The Metro will eventually cover and serve 20 stations.


title: Adana

text: The Adana Transit Corporation also operates 229 bus services, eight of them designed specifically for disabled users. Payment is collected via a Kentkart smartcard system. Six Bus Co-operatives (known as Can buses) operate another 411 buses also using the Kentkart. Eighteen dolmuş co-operatives, with a total of 1,086 minibuses, provide services even to minor streets.


title: Adana

text: Adana is mostly flat and the warm weather makes it convenient for year-round cycling and walking. Cycling from one end of the city to the other usually takes less than 40 minutes. Although there are no bike lanes there are two bike paths, one along Fuzuli Street, the other along M. Kemalpaşa Boulevard. When compared to cities like İzmir, Konya and Eskişehir, Adana is less bicycle friendly.


title: Adana

text: Car-oriented urban planning has become even more extreme since the 1980s, with pedestrians finding parts of the sidewalks of popular streets converted into car parks. Adana has almost no car-free streets or squares. There are plans to convert both ends of Taşköprü (the Stone bridge) into squares and to widen the overcrowded sidewalks in the old town where it is difficult to walk. By far the most pedestrian-friendly street is Turgut Özal Boulevard although Kenan Evren and other major streets in the Çukurova district are also convenient for walking.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Phoenix Jones (born Benjamin John Francis Fodor, 1988 in Texas) is an American real-life superhero. Initially wearing a ski mask to intervene in a public assault, Fodor later developed a full costume and adopted "Phoenix Jones" as a pseudonym. From 2011 until its dissolution in 2014, Jones was the leader of the Rain City Superhero Movement, a Seattle, Washington based citizen patrol group that described itself as a crime prevention brigade.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones says the best way to prevent getting mistaken for a criminal by the police is to wear a "supersuit", although local police have expressed concern that the strange costumes may lead to emergency calls from citizens who mistake the "superheroes" for criminals. Jones says that all members of the Rain City Superhero Movement have a military or mixed martial arts background.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones is also a mixed martial artist signed to World Series of Fighting, where he has fought at two catchweights, which included fighting his older foster brother, UFC, Strikeforce and ONE Championship fighter Caros Fodor.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones says he wanted to take policing matters into his own hands after a few incidents changed his mind about Seattle. The first was when Jones says that his car was broken into and his son was injured after returning to the vehicle and falling on the broken glass. Jones was told that several people saw the break-in happen, but did not intervene. Later, Jones says that he encountered a friend being seriously assaulted outside a bar, and after calling 911 he put on the mask from the earlier break-in and "made a commotion" until the police showed up. "And I thought, why didn't someone help him? There were seventy people outside that bar and no one did anything."


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones went on to develop a full costume and pseudonym, when his crime-fighting behavior made him too recognizable. In a CBS news broadcast, Jones is shown entering a back room of an unnamed comic book store in which he changes into costume which consists of a Dragon Skin brand bulletproof vest and stab plating, as well as equipment including a stun baton, pepper spray or tear gas, handcuffs and a first aid kit.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones later became part of the Rain City Superhero Movement. In July 2011, local police recorded ten citizens patrolling the city in superhero costumes, using the names Thorn, Buster Doe, Green Reaper, The Mantis, Gemini, No Name, Catastrophe, Thunder 88, Penelope and Phoenix Jones. An individual using the pseudonym "Red Dragon" has also claimed to be a member of the group.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: When asked if he would have someone arrested for smoking cannabis, Jones said he considered it a low priority, and that he has no problem with people using drugs, but wants drug dealers to "sell somewhere else."


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones reports being stabbed with a knife while trying to intervene with a drug dealer and a resident, damaging part of his costume which had to be repaired. He has told police that his ballistic vest helped stop a bullet during an incident in Tacoma.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: In 2011, Jones claims to have had his nose broken by an assailant while attempting to break up a fight, when one of the men pulled a gun on him while another one kicked him, breaking his nose. This incident was never reported to police, and was treated by Jones' private doctor.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: In October 2011, Jones was arrested for investigation of assault, after using pepper spray to break up an alleged fight. He spent approximately seven hours in jail before posting the $3,800 bail. No charges were filed and the case was dropped later that month.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Jones appeared in court wearing a black and gray striped shirt over his supersuit on October 13, 2011. A court officer asked Jones to remove his mask, and he complied, putting the mask back on after the hearing. Jones then spoke with reporters and removed his mask again to reveal his identity as Ben Fodor. Fodor stated that he would continue patrolling the city:


title: Phoenix Jones

text: On January 9, 2020, Jones was arrested for allegedly selling Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) to an undercover police officer. At the time of his arrest, police alleged that he and his accomplice were also in possession of about 4 grams of cocaine.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Ben Fodor began his amateur MMA career in December 2006. Over the next four years, he amassed a record of 15 wins and 2 losses as an amateur.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: Fodor made his professional MMA debut in November 2013 for the Cage Warrior Combat promotion based in his native Washington state. Fodor is the younger foster brother of Strikeforce and UFC veteran Caros Fodor.


title: Phoenix Jones

text: On March 11, 2015, it was announced that Fodor had signed an exclusive contract with World Series of Fighting. Fodor made his debut at WSOF 20 on April 10, 2015, wanting to be known under his pseudonym "Phoenix Jones". He faced Emmanuel Walo and lost the fight via unanimous decision, his first loss in his professional career, leaving with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss. On September 18, 2015, he rebounded with a rare headscissors submission win over Roberto Yong at .


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It is located in the Northern celestial hemisphere between Pisces to the west and Taurus to the east. The name Aries is Latin for ram. Its old astronomical symbol is (♈). It is one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It is a mid-sized constellation ranking 39th in overall size, with an area of 441 square degrees (1.1% of the celestial sphere).


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries has represented a ram since late Babylonian times. Before that, the stars of Aries formed a farmhand. Different cultures have incorporated the stars of Aries into different constellations including twin inspectors in China and a porpoise in the Marshall Islands. Aries is a relatively dim constellation, possessing only four bright stars: Hamal (Alpha Arietis, second magnitude), Sheratan (Beta Arietis, third magnitude), Mesarthim (Gamma Arietis, fourth magnitude), and 41 Arietis (also fourth magnitude). The few deep-sky objects within the constellation are quite faint and include several pairs of interacting galaxies. Several meteor showers appear to radiate from Aries, including the Daytime Arietids and the Epsilon Arietids.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries is now recognized as an official constellation, albeit as a specific region of the sky, by the International Astronomical Union. It was originally defined in ancient texts as a specific pattern of stars, and has remained a constellation since ancient times; it now includes the ancient pattern and the surrounding stars. In the description of the Babylonian zodiac given in the clay tablets known as the MUL.APIN, the constellation, now known as Aries, was the final station along the ecliptic. The MUL.APIN was a comprehensive table of the rising and settings of stars, which likely served as an agricultural calendar. Modern-day Aries was known as , "The Agrarian Worker" or "The Hired Man". Although likely compiled in the 12th or 11th century BC, the MUL.APIN reflects a tradition that marks the Pleiades as the vernal equinox, which was the case with some precision at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. The earliest identifiable reference to Aries as a distinct constellation comes from the boundary stones that date from 1350 to 1000 BC. On several boundary stones, a zodiacal ram figure is distinct from the other characters. The shift in identification from the constellation as the Agrarian Worker to the Ram likely occurred in later Babylonian tradition because of its growing association with Dumuzi the Shepherd. By the time the MUL.APIN was created—in 1000 BC—modern Aries was identified with both Dumuzi's ram and a hired labourer. The exact timing of this shift is difficult to determine due to the lack of images of Aries or other ram figures.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: In ancient Egyptian astronomy, Aries was associated with the god Amon-Ra, who was depicted as a man with a ram's head and represented fertility and creativity. Because it was the location of the vernal equinox, it was called the "Indicator of the Reborn Sun". During the times of the year when Aries was prominent, priests would process statues of Amon-Ra to temples, a practice that was modified by Persian astronomers centuries later. Aries acquired the title of "Lord of the Head" in Egypt, referring to its symbolic and mythological importance.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries was not fully accepted as a constellation until classical times. In Hellenistic astrology, the constellation of Aries is associated with the golden ram of Greek mythology that rescued Phrixus and Helle on orders from Hermes, taking Phrixus to the land of Colchis. Phrixus and Helle were the son and daughter of King Athamas and his first wife Nephele. The king's second wife, Ino, was jealous and wished to kill his children. To accomplish this, she induced famine in Boeotia, then falsified a message from the Oracle of Delphi that said Phrixos must be sacrificed to end the famine. Athamas was about to sacrifice his son atop Mount Laphystium when Aries, sent by Nephele, arrived. Helle fell off of Aries's back in flight and drowned in the Dardanelles, also called the Hellespont in her honour.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Historically, Aries has been depicted as a crouched, wingless ram with its head turned towards Taurus. Ptolemy asserted in his "Almagest" that Hipparchus depicted Alpha Arietis as the ram's muzzle, though Ptolemy did not include it in his constellation figure. Instead, it was listed as an "unformed star", and denoted as "the star over the head". John Flamsteed, in his "Atlas Coelestis", followed Ptolemy's description by mapping it above the figure's head. Flamsteed followed the general convention of maps by depicting Aries lying down. Astrologically, Aries has been associated with the head and its humors. It was strongly associated with Mars, both the planet and the god. It was considered to govern Western Europe and Syria and to indicate a strong temper in a person.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: The First Point of Aries, the location of the vernal equinox, is named for the constellation. This is because the Sun crossed the celestial equator from south to north in Aries more than two millennia ago. Hipparchus defined it in 130 BC. as a point south of Gamma Arietis. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the First Point of Aries has since moved into Pisces and will move into Aquarius by around 2600 AD. The Sun now appears in Aries from late April through mid-May, though the constellation is still associated with the beginning of spring.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Medieval Muslim astronomers depicted Aries in various ways. Astronomers like al-Sufi saw the constellation as a ram, modelled on the precedent of Ptolemy. However, some Islamic celestial globes depicted Aries as a nondescript four-legged animal with what may be antlers instead of horns. Some early Bedouin observers saw a ram elsewhere in the sky; this constellation featured the Pleiades as the ram's tail. The generally accepted Arabic formation of Aries consisted of thirteen stars in a figure along with five "unformed" stars, four of which were over the animal's hindquarters and one of which was the disputed star over Aries's head. Al-Sufi's depiction differed from both other Arab astronomers' and Flamsteed's, in that his Aries was running and looking behind itself.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: The obsolete constellations of Aries (Apes/Vespa/Lilium/Musca (Borealis)) all centred on the same the northern stars. In 1612, Petrus Plancius introduced Apes, a constellation representing a bee. In 1624, the same stars were used by Jakob Bartsch as for Vespa, representing a wasp. In 1679, Augustin Royer used these stars for his constellation Lilium, representing the fleur-de-lis. None of these constellations became widely accepted. Johann Hevelius renamed the constellation "Musca" in 1690 in his "Firmamentum Sobiescianum". To differentiate it from Musca, the southern fly, it was later renamed Musca Borealis but it did not gain acceptance and its stars were ultimately officially reabsorbed into Aries. The asterism involved was 33, 35, 39, and 41 Arietis.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: In 1922, the International Astronomical Union defined its recommended three-letter abbreviation, "Ari". The official boundaries of Aries were defined in 1930 by Eugène Delporte as a polygon of 12 segments. Its right ascension is between 1 46.4 and 3 29.4 and its declination is between 10.36° and 31.22° in the equatorial coordinate system.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: In traditional Chinese astronomy, stars from Aries were used in several constellations. The brightest stars—Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Arietis—formed a constellation called "Lou" (婁), variously translated as "bond", "lasso", and "sickle", which was associated with the ritual sacrifice of cattle. This name was shared by the 16th lunar mansion, the location of the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. This constellation has also been associated with harvest-time as it could represent a woman carrying a basket of food on her head. 35, 39, and 41 Arietis were part of a constellation called "Wei" (胃), which represented a fat abdomen and was the namesake of the 17th lunar mansion, which represented granaries. Delta and Zeta Arietis were a part of the constellation "Tianyin" (天陰), thought to represent the Emperor's hunting partner. "Zuogeng" (左更), a constellation depicting a marsh and pond inspector, was composed of Mu, Nu, Omicron, Pi, and Sigma Arietis. He was accompanied by "Yeou-kang", a constellation depicting an official in charge of pasture distribution.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: In a similar system to the Chinese, the first lunar mansion in Hindu astronomy was called "Aswini", after the traditional names for Beta and Gamma Arietis, the Aswins. Because the Hindu new year began with the vernal equinox, the Rig Veda contains over 50 new-year's related hymns to the twins, making them some of the most prominent characters in the work. Aries itself was known as ""Aja"" and ""Mesha"". In Hebrew astronomy Aries was named ""Taleh""; it signified either Simeon or Gad, and generally symbolizes the "Lamb of the World". The neighboring Syrians named the constellation "Amru", and the bordering Turks named it "Kuzi". Half a world away, in the Marshall Islands, several stars from Aries were incorporated into a constellation depicting a porpoise, along with stars from Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Triangulum. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Arietis formed the head of the porpoise, while stars from Andromeda formed the body and the bright stars of Cassiopeia formed the tail. Other Polynesian peoples recognized Aries as a constellation. The Marquesas islanders called it "Na-pai-ka"; the Māori constellation "Pipiri" may correspond to modern Aries as well. In indigenous Peruvian astronomy, a constellation with most of the same stars as Aries existed. It was called the "Market Moon" and the "Kneeling Terrace", as a reminder of when to hold the annual harvest festival, Ayri Huay.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries has three prominent stars forming an asterism, designated Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Arietis by Johann Bayer. Alpha (Hamal) and Beta (Sheratan) are commonly used for navigation. There is also one other star above the fourth magnitude, 41 Arietis (Bharani). α Arietis, called Hamal, is the brightest star in Aries. Its traditional name is derived from the Arabic word for "lamb" or "head of the ram" ("ras al-hamal"), which references Aries's mythological background. With a spectral class of K2 and a luminosity class of III, it is an orange giant with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.00, which lies 66 light-years from Earth. Hamal has a luminosity of and its absolute magnitude is −0.1.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: β Arietis, also known as Sheratan, is a blue-white star with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.64. Its traditional name is derived from ""sharatayn"", the Arabic word for "the two signs", referring to both Beta and Gamma Arietis in their position as heralds of the vernal equinox. The two stars were known to the Bedouin as ""qarna al-hamal"", "horns of the ram". It is 59 light-years from Earth. It has a luminosity of and its absolute magnitude is 2.1. It is a spectroscopic binary star, one in which the companion star is only known through analysis of the spectra. The spectral class of the primary is A5. Hermann Carl Vogel determined that Sheratan was a spectroscopic binary in 1903; its orbit was determined by Hans Ludendorff in 1907. It has since been studied for its eccentric orbit.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: γ Arietis, with a common name of Mesarthim, is a binary star with two white-hued components, located in a rich field of magnitude 8–12 stars. Its traditional name has conflicting derivations. It may be derived from a corruption of "al-sharatan", the Arabic word meaning "pair" or a word for "fat ram". However, it may also come from the Sanskrit for "first star of Aries" or the Hebrew for "ministerial servants", both of which are unusual languages of origin for star names. Along with Beta Arietis, it was known to the Bedouin as ""qarna al-hamal"". The primary is of magnitude 4.59 and the secondary is of magnitude 4.68. The system is 164 light-years from Earth. The two components are separated by 7.8 arcseconds, and the system as a whole has an apparent magnitude of 3.9. The primary has a luminosity of and the secondary has a luminosity of ; the primary is an A-type star with an absolute magnitude of 0.2 and the secondary is a B9-type star with an absolute magnitude of 0.4. The angle between the two components is 1°. Mesarthim was discovered to be a double star by Robert Hooke in 1664, one of the earliest such telescopic discoveries. The primary, γ Arietis, is an Alpha² Canum Venaticorum variable star that has a range of 0.02 magnitudes and a period of 2.607 days. It is unusual because of its strong silicon emission lines.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: The constellation is home to several double stars, including Epsilon, Lambda, and Pi Arietis. ε Arietis is a binary star with two white components. The primary is of magnitude 5.2 and the secondary is of magnitude 5.5. The system is 290 light-years from Earth. Its overall magnitude is 4.63, and the primary has an absolute magnitude of 1.4. Its spectral class is A2. The two components are separated by 1.5 arcseconds. λ Arietis is a wide double star with a white-hued primary and a yellow-hued secondary. The primary is of magnitude 4.8 and the secondary is of magnitude 7.3. The primary is 129 light-years from Earth. It has an absolute magnitude of 1.7 and a spectral class of F0. The two components are separated by 36 arcseconds at an angle of 50°; the two stars are located 0.5° east of 7 Arietis. π Arietis is a close binary star with a blue-white primary and a white secondary. The primary is of magnitude 5.3 and the secondary is of magnitude 8.5. The primary is 776 light-years from Earth. The primary itself is a wide double star with a separation of 25.2 arcseconds; the tertiary has a magnitude of 10.8. The primary and secondary are separated by 3.2 arcseconds.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Most of the other stars in Aries visible to the naked eye have magnitudes between 3 and 5. δ Ari, called Boteïn, is a star of magnitude 4.35, 170 light-years away. It has an absolute magnitude of −0.1 and a spectral class of K2. ζ Arietis is a star of magnitude 4.89, 263 light-years away. Its spectral class is A0 and its absolute magnitude is 0.0. 14 Arietis is a star of magnitude 4.98, 288 light-years away. Its spectral class is F2 and its absolute magnitude is 0.6. 39 Arietis (Lilii Borea) is a similar star of magnitude 4.51, 172 light-years away. Its spectral class is K1 and its absolute magnitude is 0.0. 35 Arietis is a dim star of magnitude 4.55, 343 light-years away. Its spectral class is B3 and its absolute magnitude is −1.7. 41 Arietis, known both as c Arietis and Nair al Butain, is a brighter star of magnitude 3.63, 165 light-years away. Its spectral class is B8 and it has a luminosity of . Its absolute magnitude is −0.2. 53 Arietis is a runaway star of magnitude 6.09, 815 light-years away. Its spectral class is B2. It was likely ejected from the Orion Nebula approximately five million years ago, possibly due to supernovae. Finally, Teegarden's Star is the closest star to Earth in Aries. It is a red dwarf of magnitude 15.14 and spectral class M6.5V. With a proper motion of 5.1 arcseconds per year, it is the 24th closest star to Earth overall.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries has its share of variable stars, including R and U Arietis, Mira-type variable stars, and T Arietis, a semi-regular variable star. R Arietis is a Mira variable star that ranges in magnitude from a minimum of 13.7 to a maximum of 7.4 with a period of 186.8 days. It is 4,080 light-years away. U Arietis is another Mira variable star that ranges in magnitude from a minimum of 15.2 to a maximum of 7.2 with a period of 371.1 days. T Arietis is a semiregular variable star that ranges in magnitude from a minimum of 11.3 to a maximum of 7.5 with a period of 317 days. It is 1,630 light-years away. One particularly interesting variable in Aries is SX Arietis, a rotating variable star considered to be the prototype of its class, helium variable stars. SX Arietis stars have very prominent emission lines of Helium I and Silicon III. They are normally main-sequence B0p—B9p stars, and their variations are not usually visible to the naked eye. Therefore, they are observed photometrically, usually having periods that fit in the course of one night. Similar to Alpha² Canum Venaticorum variables, SX Arietis stars have periodic changes in their light and magnetic field, which correspond to the periodic rotation; they differ from the Alpha² Canum Venaticorum variables in their higher temperature. There are between 39 and 49 SX Arietis variable stars currently known; ten are noted as being "uncertain" in the General Catalog of Variable Stars.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: NGC 772 is a spiral galaxy with an integrated magnitude of 10.3, located southeast of β Arietis and 15 arcminutes west of 15 Arietis. It is a relatively bright galaxy and shows obvious nebulosity and ellipticity in an amateur telescope. It is 7.2 by 4.2 arcminutes, meaning that its surface brightness, magnitude 13.6, is significantly lower than its integrated magnitude. NGC 772 is a class SA(s)b galaxy, which means that it is an unbarred spiral galaxy without a ring that possesses a somewhat prominent bulge and spiral arms that are wound somewhat tightly. The main arm, on the northwest side of the galaxy, is home to many star forming regions; this is due to previous gravitational interactions with other galaxies. NGC 772 has a small companion galaxy, NGC 770, that is about 113,000 light-years away from the larger galaxy. The two galaxies together are also classified as Arp 78 in the Arp peculiar galaxy catalog. NGC 772 has a diameter of 240,000 light-years and the system is 114 million light-years from Earth. Another spiral galaxy in Aries is NGC 673, a face-on class SAB(s)c galaxy. It is a weakly barred spiral galaxy with loosely wound arms. It has no ring and a faint bulge and is 2.5 by 1.9 arcminutes. It has two primary arms with fragments located farther from the core. 171,000 light-years in diameter, NGC 673 is 235 million light-years from Earth.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: NGC 678 and NGC 680 are a pair of galaxies in Aries that are only about 200,000 light-years apart. Part of the NGC 691 group of galaxies, both are at a distance of approximately 130 million light-years. NGC 678 is an edge-on spiral galaxy that is 4.5 by 0.8 arcminutes. NGC 680, an elliptical galaxy with an asymmetrical boundary, is the brighter of the two at magnitude 12.9; NGC 678 has a magnitude of 13.35. Both galaxies have bright cores, but NGC 678 is the larger galaxy at a diameter of 171,000 light-years; NGC 680 has a diameter of 72,000 light-years. NGC 678 is further distinguished by its prominent dust lane. NGC 691 itself is a spiral galaxy slightly inclined to our line of sight. It has multiple spiral arms and a bright core. Because it is so diffuse, it has a low surface brightness. It has a diameter of 126,000 light-years and is 124 million light-years away. NGC 877 is the brightest member of an 8-galaxy group that also includes NGC 870, NGC 871, and NGC 876, with a magnitude of 12.53. It is 2.4 by 1.8 arcminutes and is 178 million light-years away with a diameter of 124,000 light-years. Its companion is NGC 876, which is about 103,000 light-years from the core of NGC 877. They are interacting gravitationally, as they are connected by a faint stream of gas and dust. Arp 276 is a different pair of interacting galaxies in Aries, consisting of NGC 935 and IC 1801.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: NGC 821 is an E6 elliptical galaxy. It is unusual because it has hints of an early spiral structure, which is normally only found in lenticular and spiral galaxies. NGC 821 is 2.6 by 2.0 arcminutes and has a visual magnitude of 11.3. Its diameter is 61,000 light-years and it is 80 million light-years away. Another unusual galaxy in Aries is Segue 2, a dwarf and satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, recently discovered to be a potential relic of the epoch of reionization.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries is home to several meteor showers. The Daytime Arietid meteor shower is one of the strongest meteor showers that occurs during the day, lasting from 22 May to 2 July. It is an annual shower associated with the Marsden group of comets that peaks on 7 June with a maximum zenithal hourly rate of 54 meteors. Its parent body may be the asteroid Icarus. The meteors are sometimes visible before dawn, because the radiant is 32 degrees away from the Sun. They usually appear at a rate of 1–2 per hour as "earthgrazers", meteors that last several seconds and often begin at the horizon. Because most of the Daytime Arietids are not visible to the naked eye, they are observed in the radio spectrum. This is possible because of the ionized gas they leave in their wake. Other meteor showers radiate from Aries during the day; these include the Daytime Epsilon Arietids and the Northern and Southern Daytime May Arietids. The Jodrell Bank Observatory discovered the Daytime Arietids in 1947 when James Hey and G. S. Stewart adapted the World War II-era radar systems for meteor observations.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: The Delta Arietids are another meteor shower radiating from Aries. Peaking on 9 December with a low peak rate, the shower lasts from 8 December to 14 January, with the highest rates visible from 8 to 14 December. The average Delta Arietid meteor is very slow, with an average velocity of per second. However, this shower sometimes produces bright fireballs. This meteor shower has northern and southern components, both of which are likely associated with 1990 HA, a near-Earth asteroid.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: The Autumn Arietids also radiate from Aries. The shower lasts from 7 September to 27 October and peaks on 9 October. Its peak rate is low. The Epsilon Arietids appear from 12 to 23 October. Other meteor showers radiating from Aries include the October Delta Arietids, Daytime Epsilon Arietids, Daytime May Arietids, Sigma Arietids, Nu Arietids, and Beta Arietids. The Sigma Arietids, a class IV meteor shower, are visible from 12 to 19 October, with a maximum zenithal hourly rate of less than two meteors per hour on 19 October.


title: Aries (constellation)

text: Aries contains several stars with extrasolar planets. HIP 14810, a G5 type star, is orbited by three giant planets (those more than ten times the mass of Earth). HD 12661, like HIP 14810, is a G-type main sequence star, slightly larger than the Sun, with two orbiting planets. One planet is 2.3 times the mass of Jupiter, and the other is 1.57 times the mass of Jupiter. HD 20367 is a G0 type star, approximately the size of the Sun, with one orbiting planet. The planet, discovered in 2002, has a mass 1.07 times that of Jupiter and orbits every 500 days. In 2019, scientists conducting the CARMENES survey at the Calar Alto Observatory announced evidence of two Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting Teegarden's star, located in Aries, within its habitable zone. The star is a small red dwarf with only around a tenth of the mass and radius of the Sun. It has a large radial velocity.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Roy William Thomas Jr. (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E. Howard's character and helped launch a sword and sorcery trend in comics. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's "X-Men" and "The Avengers", and DC Comics' "All-Star Squadron", among other titles.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Among the comics characters he co-created are Wolverine, Vision, Doc Samson, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ultron, Yellowjacket, Defenders, Man-Thing, Red Sonja, Adam Warlock, Morbius, Ghost Rider, Squadron Supreme, Invaders, Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Nighthawk, Havok, Banshee, Sunfire, Thundra, Arkon, Killraven, Wendell Vaughn, Red Wolf, Red Guardian, Daimon Hellstrom, Brother Voodoo and Valkyrie.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011 and into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame in 2022.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas was born in Jackson, Missouri, United States. As a child, he was a devoted comic book fan, and in grade school he wrote and drew his own comics for distribution to friends and family. The first of these was "All-Giant Comics", which he recalls as having featured such characters as Elephant Giant. He was enrolled at a parochial Lutheran school and attended St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson. As an adult, Thomas is "not religious" and has been described as a "lapsed Lutheran". He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 1961 with a BS in Education, having majored in history and social science.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas became an early and active member of Silver Age comic book fandom when it organized in the early 1960s – primarily around Jerry Bails, whose enthusiasm for the rebirth of superhero comics during that period led Bails to found the fanzine "Alter Ego", an early focal point of fandom. Thomas, then a high school English teacher, took over as editor in 1964 when Bails moved on to other pursuits. Letters from Thomas appeared regularly in the letters pages of both DC and Marvel Comics, including "Green Lantern" #1 (August 1960), "The Flash" #116 (Nov. 1960), "Fantastic Four" #5 (July 1962), "Fantastic Four" #15 (June 1963), and "Fantastic Four" #22 (Jan. 1964).


title: Roy Thomas

text: In 1965, Thomas moved to New York City to take a job at DC Comics as assistant to Mort Weisinger, then the editor of the Superman titles. Thomas said he had just accepted a fellowship to study foreign relations at George Washington University when he received a letter from Weisinger, "with whom I had exchanged one or two letters, tops", asking Thomas to become "his assistant editor on a several-week trial basis." Thomas had already written a "Jimmy Olsen" script "a few months before, while still living and teaching in the St. Louis area," he said in 2005. "I worked at DC for eight days in late June and very early July of 1965" before accepting a job at Marvel Comics. The Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" in "Fantastic Four" #61 (April 1967) describes Thomas "admitting that he gave up a scholarship to George Washington University just to write for Marvel!"


title: Roy Thomas

text: This came after his chafing under the notoriously difficult Weisinger, to a point, Thomas said in 1981, that he would go "home to my dingy little room at, coincidentally, the George Washington Hotel in Manhattan, during that second week, and actually feeling tears well into my eyes, at the ripe old age of 24." Familiar with editor and chief writer Stan Lee's Marvel work, and feeling them "the most vital comics around", Thomas "just sat down one night at the hotel and – I wrote him a letter! Not applying for a job or anything so mundane as that – I just said that I admired his work, and would like to buy him a drink some time. I figured he just might remember me from "Alter Ego"." Lee did, and phoned Thomas to offer him a Marvel writing test.


title: Roy Thomas

text: The writer's test, Thomas said in 1998, "was four Jack Kirby pages from "Fantastic Four Annual" #2 ... [Stan Lee] had Sol [Brodsky] or someone take out the dialogue. It was just black-and-white. Other people like Denny O'Neil and Gary Friedrich took it. But soon afterwards we stopped using it." The day after taking the test, Thomas was at DC, proofreading a Supergirl story, when Steinberg called asking Thomas to meet with Lee during lunch, where Thomas agreed to work for Marvel. He returned to DC to give "indefinite notice" to Weisinger, but Weisinger ordered him to leave immediately and "I was back at Marvel less than an hour after I first left, and had a "Modeling with Millie" assignment to do over the weekend. It was a Friday." His employment was announced in the "Bullpen Bulletins" section of "Fantastic Four" #47 (Feb. 1966) under the heading "How About That! Department" ("Roy's a fan who's made it!"). Thomas later described his early days at Marvel:


title: Roy Thomas

text: To that point, editor-in-chief Lee had been the main writer of Marvel publications, with his brother, Larry Lieber, often picking up the slack scripting Lee-plotted stories. Thomas soon became the first new Marvel writer to sustain a presence, at a time when comics veterans such as Robert Bernstein, Ernie Hart, Leon Lazarus, and Don Rico, and fellow newcomers Steve Skeates (hired a couple of weeks earlier) and O'Neil (brought in at Thomas' recommendation a few months later) did not. His Marvel debut was the romance-comics story "Whom Can I Turn To?" in the "Millie the Model" spin-off "Modeling with Millie" #44 (Dec. 1965) – for which the credits and the logo were inadvertently left off due to a production glitch, resulting in this being left off most credit lists. Thomas' first Marvel superhero scripting was "My Life for Yours", the "Iron Man" feature in "Tales of Suspense" #73 (Jan. 1966), working from a Lee plot as well as a plot assist from secretary Steinberg. Thomas estimates that Lee rewrote approximately half of that fledgling attempt.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas' earliest Marvel work also included the teen-romance title "Patsy and Hedy" #104–105 (Feb.-April 1966), and two "Doctor Strange" stories, plotted by Lee and Steve Ditko, in "Strange Tales" #143–144 (April–May 1966). Two previously written freelance stories for Charlton Comics also saw print: "The Second Trojan War" in "Son of Vulcan" #50 (Jan. 1966) and "The Eye of Horus" in "Blue Beetle" #54 (March 1966). "When Stan saw the couple of Charlton stories I'd written earlier in more of a Gardner Fox style, he wasn't too impressed," Thomas recalled. "It's probably a good thing I already had my job at Marvel at that point! I think I was the right person in the right place at the right time, but there are other people who, had they been there, might have been just as right."


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas took on what would be his first long-term Marvel title, the World War II series "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos", starting with #29 (April 1966) and continuing through #41 (April 1967) and the series' 1966 annual, "Sgt. Fury Special" #2. He also began writing the mutant-superteam title "[Uncanny] X-Men" from #20–43 (May 1966 – April 1968), and, finally, took over "The Avengers", starting with #35 (Dec. 1966), and continuing until 1972. That notable run was marked by a strong sense of continuity, and stories that ranged from the personal to the cosmic – the latter most prominently with the "Kree-Skrull War" in issues #89–97 (June 1971 – March 1972). Additional work included an occasional "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D" and "Doctor Strange" story in "Strange Tales". When that title became the solo comic "Doctor Strange", he wrote the entire run of new stories, from #169–183 (June 1968 – Nov. 1969), mostly with the art team of penciler Gene Colan and inker Tom Palmer.


title: Roy Thomas

text: As Thomas self-evaluated in a 1981 interview, shortly after leaving Marvel for rival DC Comics, "One of the reasons Stan liked my writing ... was that after a few issues he felt he could trust me enough that he virtually never again read anything I wrote – well, at least not more than a page or two in a row, just to keep me honest."


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas eloped in July 1968 to marry his first wife, Jean Maxey, returning to work a day late from a weekend comic-book convention in St. Louis, Missouri. Thomas said in 2000 that Brodsky, in the interim, had assigned "Doctor Strange" to the writer Archie Goodwin, newly ensconced at Marvel and writing "Iron Man", but Thomas convinced Brodsky to return it to him. "I got very possessive about "Doctor Strange"," Thomas recalled. "It wasn't a huge seller, but [by the time it was canceled], we were selling in the low 40 percent range of more than 400,000 print run, so it was actually selling a couple hundred thousand copies [but] at the time you needed to sell even more." He eventually did have a Caribbean honeymoon, where he scripted the wedding of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne in "The Avengers" #60 (Jan.1969).


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas, who had turned over "X-Men" to other writers, returned with issue #55 (April 1969) when the series was on the verge of cancellation. While efforts to save it failed – the title ended its initial run with #66 – Thomas' collaboration with artist Neal Adams through #63 (Dec. 1969) is regarded as a Silver Age creative highlight. Thomas won the 1969 Alley Award that year for Best Writer, while Adams and inker Tom Palmer, netted 1969 Alley Awards for Best Pencil Artist and Best Inking Artist, respectively.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas and artist Barry Smith launched "Conan the Barbarian" in October 1970, based on Robert E. Howard's 1930s pulp-fiction sword-and-sorcery character. Thomas, who stepped down from his editorship in August 1974, wrote hundreds of Conan stories in a host of Marvel comics and the black-and-white magazines "Savage Tales" and "The Savage Sword of Conan". During that time, he and Smith also brought to comics Howard's little-known, sword-wielding woman-warrior Red Sonja, initially as a Conan supporting character. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that, ""Conan the Barbarian" was something of a gamble for Marvel. The series contained the usual elements of action and fantasy, to be sure, but it was set in a past that had no relation to the Marvel Universe, and it featured a hero who possessed no magical powers, little humor and comparatively few moral principles."


title: Roy Thomas

text: In 1971, with Stan Lee and Gerry Conway, Thomas created Man-Thing and wrote the first Man-Thing story in color comics, after Conway and Len Wein had introduced the character in the black-and-white comics magazine "Savage Tales". Later that year, Thomas wrote the "Kree-Skrull War" storyline across multiple issues of "The Avengers" penciled variously by Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, and John Buscema. Thomas was the first person other than Stan Lee to receive a writer's credit for "The Amazing Spider-Man", and he and artist Ross Andru launched the Spider-Man spin-off title "Marvel Team-Up" in March 1972.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas and Marvel artists co-created many other characters, among them Wolverine, Ultron (including the fictional metal adamantium), Carol Danvers, Morbius the Living Vampire, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Doc Samson, Valkyrie, Brother Voodoo, Werewolf by Night, Banshee and Killraven. Thomas also co-created several characters based on already existing characters, including the Vision, Yellowjacket, the Black Knight, and Adam Warlock.


title: Roy Thomas

text: In 1972, when Lee became Marvel's publisher, Thomas succeeded him as editor-in-chief. Thomas also continued to script mainstream titles, including Marvel's flagship, "Fantastic Four". He launched such new titles as the "non-team" "The Defenders", as well as "What If", a title that explored fictional alternate histories of Marvel's existing characters and stories. In addition, he indulged his love of Golden Age comic-book heroes in the World War II-set superhero series "The Invaders". He was instrumental in engineering Marvel's comic-book adaptation of the 1977 film "Star Wars", without which, 1980s Marvel editor Jim Shooter believed, "[W]e would have gone out of business". In 1975, Thomas wrote the first joint publishing venture between Marvel and DC Comics – a 72-page "Wizard of Oz" movie adaptation in an oversized "Treasury Edition" format with art by John Buscema. He and Buscema crafted a comics adaptation of Tarzan for Marvel in June 1977.


title: Roy Thomas

text: In 1981, after several years of freelancing for Marvel and a dispute with then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, Thomas signed a three-year exclusive writing/editing contract with DC. He marked his return to that company with a two-part "Green Lantern" story in "Green Lantern" #138–139 (March–April 1981), and briefly wrote "Batman", "DC Comics Presents", and the "Legion of Super-Heroes". DC gave Thomas' work a promotional push by featuring several of his series in free, 16-page insert previews.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas married his second wife, Danette Couto, in May 1981. Danette legally changed her first name to Dann and would become Thomas' regular writing partner. He credits her with the original idea for the "Arak, Son of Thunder" series drawn by Ernie Colón. Writer Gerry Conway would also be a frequent collaborator with Thomas; together they wrote a two-part Superman-Shazam team-up in "DC Comics Presents"; a series of "Atari Force" and "Swordquest" mini-comics packaged with Atari 2600 video games; and three Justice League-Justice Society crossovers. Conway also contributed ideas to the talking animal comic "Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!", created by Thomas and Scott Shaw. Thomas and Conway were to be the co-writers of the "JLA/Avengers" intercompany crossover but editorial disputes between DC and Marvel caused the project's cancellation. During that era, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway collaborated on the screenplays for two movies: the animated feature "Fire and Ice" (1983) and "Conan the Destroyer" (1984). The duo also worked on a live-action "X-Men" film for production company Nelvana that never went into production.


title: Roy Thomas

text: As a solo writer, Roy Thomas wrote "Wonder Woman" and, with artist Gene Colan, updated the character's costume and introduced a new supervillainess, the Silver Swan. His final work on the series, issue #300 (Feb. 1983), was co-written with his wife Dann Thomas, who, as Roy Thomas noted in 1999 "became the first woman ever to receive scripting credit on the world's foremost super-heroine."


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas realized a childhood dream in writing the Justice Society of America (JSA). Reviving the Golden Age group in "Justice League of America" #193 and continuing in "All-Star Squadron", he wrote retro adventures, like those of The Invaders, set in World War II. In addition to the JSA's high-profile heroes, Thomas revived such characters as Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick, the Shining Knight, Robotman, Firebrand, the Tarantula, and Neptune Perkins. He used the series to address the complicated and sometimes contradictory continuity issues surrounding the JSA.


title: Roy Thomas

text: In 1983, Thomas and artist Jerry Ordway created "Infinity, Inc.", a group composed of the JSA's children. The characters debuted in "All-Star Squadron" #25 (Sept. 1983) and were launched in their own series in March 1984. Thomas wrote several limited series for DC including "America vs. the Justice Society", "Jonni Thunder a.k.a. Thunderbolt", "", and "Crimson Avenger" as well as two issues of "DC Challenge". From 1986 to 1988, Thomas contributed to the "Secret Origins" series and wrote most of the stories involving the Golden Age characters including Superman and Batman. In 1986, DC decided to write off the JSA from active continuity. A one-shot issue titled "The Last Days of the Justice Society" involved most of the JSA battling the forces of evil while merged with the Norse gods in an ever-repeating Ragnarok-like Limbo was written by Thomas, with art by David Ross. "Young All-Stars" replaced "All-Star Squadron" following the changes to DC's continuity brought about by the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" limited series. Thomas' last major project for DC was an adaptation of Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle drawn by Gil Kane and published in 1989–1990. Since then, Thomas has written a trio of Elseworlds one-shots combining DC characters with classic cinema and literature: "Superman's Metropolis" (1996), "Superman: War of the Worlds" (1998), and "JLA: The Island of Dr. Moreau" (2002).


title: Roy Thomas

text: By 1986, Thomas wrote for Marvel's New Universe line, beginning with "Spitfire and the Troubleshooters" #5 (Feb. 1987), followed by a multi-issue run of "Nightmask", co-scripted by his wife Dann Thomas. He scripted titles starring Doctor Strange, Thor, the Avengers West Coast, and Conan, often co-scripting with Dann Thomas or Jean-Marc Lofficier.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Over the next ten years Thomas did less work for the mainstream comics press. For a series of independent publishers, he wrote issues of the TV-series tie-ins "", "" and "The X-Files" for Topps Comics. He also wrote for television, and relaunched "Alter Ego" as a formal magazine published by TwoMorrows Publishing in 1999. In 2005, he earned a master's degree in Humanities from California State University.


title: Roy Thomas

text: With Marvel's four-issue miniseries "Stoker's Dracula" (Oct. 2004 – May 2005), Thomas and artist Dick Giordano completed an adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula", which the duo had begun 30 years earlier in 10- to 12-page installments, beginning with Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazine "Dracula Lives!" #5 (March 1974). They had completed 76 pages, comprising roughly one-third of the novel, through issues #6–8 and 10–11 and "Marvel Preview" #8 ("The Legion of Monsters"), before Marvel canceled "Dracula Lives" and later many of its other black-and-whites.


title: Roy Thomas

text: "Anthem", a comic book series by Thomas and artists Daniel Acuña, Jorge Santamaria Garcia and Benito Gallego, about World War II superheroes in an alternate reality, was published by Heroic Publishing in January 2006. Thomas returned to Red Sonja in 2006, writing the one-shot "Red Sonja: Monster Isle" for Dynamite Entertainment. In 2007 Thomas wrote a Black Knight story for Marvel's four-issue miniseries "Mystic Arcana".


title: Roy Thomas

text: From 2007 to 2010, Thomas wrote adaptations of classic literature for the Marvel imprint Marvel Illustrated, including "The Last of the Mohicans" (2007), "" (2007–2008), "Treasure Island" (2007–2008), "The Iliad" (2008), "Moby-Dick" (2008), "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (2008), "The Three Musketeers" (2008–2009), and "Kidnapped" (2009). In 2010, Marvel Illustrated released a collection of all the "Dracula" material adapted by Thomas and Giordano, originally published in the 1970s and mid-2000s.


title: Roy Thomas

text: In 2011, Roy Thomas wrote the one-shot "DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The '80s" with art by Rich Buckler. In 2012, Thomas teamed with artists Mike Hawthorne and Dan Panosian on Dark Horse's "Conan: The Road of Kings", which lasted 12 issues. In 2014, he wrote "75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen" for Taschen, a 700-page hardcover history of Marvel Comics. The following year, he compiled three volumes of World War II-era comics stories featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman for Chartwell Books.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas had a cameo appearance as a prison inmate on the third season of "Marvel's Daredevil", released in October 2018 on Netflix, and wrote a blog entry about this experience.


title: Roy Thomas

text: On November 10, 2018, Thomas visited Stan Lee at Lee's home in Beverly Hills to discuss Thomas' book "The Stan Lee Story". Lee told Thomas' manager, John Cimino, "Take care of my boy Roy" before Lee and Thomas were photographed together. Lee died less than 48 hours later.


title: Roy Thomas

text: On February 23, 2019, Jackson, Missouri, declared Roy Thomas Day. In a ceremony, he was awarded the key to the city.


title: Roy Thomas

text: On March 23, 2019, the final "Amazing Spider-Man" newspaper comic strip was published. Thomas had been the ghost writer for Stan Lee on the strip since 2000.


title: Roy Thomas

text: Thomas made a return to Marvel Comics in 2019 with the release of the "Captain America and The Invaders: Bahamas Triangle" one-shot drawn by Jerry Ordway, wrote a Wolverine origin page for the "Marvel 1000" celebration issue and did a two-part "Savage Sword of Conan" story with artist Alan Davis. In 2020, Thomas wrote a 10-page story in the Marvel one-shot "King-Size Conan" #1. In 2022, Thomas returned to write his most famous co-creation Wolverine, in the first two issues of a new Marvel Comics ongoing series called "X-Men: Legends" which tells new in-continuity stories of early X-Men adventures. Thomas's two-part story takes place right after "The Incredible Hulk" #181 and right before "Giant-Size X-Men" #1 and reveals a missing link mystery about Wolverine's costume.


title: Roy Thomas

text: On February 23, 2021, Thomas criticized Abraham Riesman's controversial Stan Lee biography "True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee." In a guest column in "The Hollywood Reporter", Thomas took issue with Riesman's assessment of conflicting accounts of the work of Lee and Jack Kirby, who is credited with co-creating many classic Marvel characters. Thomas stated, "Something like 95 percent of the time, [the book] is a very good biography. However, the remaining (and crucial) 5 percent of its content, scattered amid all that painstaking research and well-written prose, renders it often untrustworthy...i.e., a very bad biography. Because the author often insists, visibly and intrusively, on putting his verbal thumb on the scales, in a dispute he seems ill-equipped to judge."


title: Techtronic Industries

text: Techtronic Industries Company Limited (TTI Group or TTI) is a Hong Kong-based, multinational company that designs, produces, and markets power tools; outdoor power equipment; hand tools, and floor care appliances. It pioneered cordless power tools powered by lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.


title: Techtronic Industries

text: TTI manufactures in China, Vietnam, the U.S., Mexico and Europe, and in 2021, had annual sales of US$13.2 billion.


title: Techtronic Industries

text: In 1985, TTI was founded by Horst Julius Pudwill and Roy Chi Ping Chung as an original equipment manufacturer for overseas brands. In 1987, it began to produce Craftsman cordless power tools for Sears followed by cordless, handheld vacuum cleaners for Bissell.


title: Techtronic Industries

text: In 1990, TTI listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under stock code 0669 by initial public offering. Its ADRs also trade on Nasdaq


title: Techtronic Industries

text: Techtronic purchased Milwaukee Electric Tool from Atlas Copco in 2005 and began integrating lithium-ion batteries into their lineup.


title: Techtronic Industries

text: TTI's revenue grew from US$ million in 1990 to $ million in 2001. From 2010 to 2019, its sales rose at a compounded annual growth rate of 10 percent.


title: Dragon School

text: The Dragon School is one school on two sites in Oxford, England. The Dragon Pre-Prep (children aged 4–7) and Prep School (children aged 8–13) are both co-educational schools. The Dragon Prep School was founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School. It takes day pupils and boarders.


title: Dragon School

text: Originally established for boys, the Dragon School also accepted a small number of day girls with a close connection to the school, first admitting girls as boarders in 1994. The Dragon School is a feeder school to many independent schools, including Winchester College, Eton College, Shrewsbury School, Oundle School, Cheltenham Ladies' College, Harrow School, Radley College, Rugby School, Marlborough College, Wellington College, Canford School, St Edward's School, Oxford, Stowe School and Abingdon School.


title: Dragon School

text: The Dragon educates children from aged 4 to 13 in two sites in North Oxford: Bardwell Road and Richards Lane. Boarding starts at 8 and there are 10 boarding houses, including one weekly-boarding house.


title: Dragon School

text: The school was founded by a committee of Oxford dons, among whom the most active was a Mr George. In honour of Saint George the group decided to call themselves Dragons.


title: Dragon School

text: Teaching started in September 1877 at rooms in Balliol Hall, located in St Giles', central Oxford, under A. E. Clarke. The school expanded and moved within two years to 17 Crick Road, which became known as "School House". Charles Cotterill Lynam (known as the "Skipper") took over as headmaster in 1886.


title: Dragon School

text: In 1894, Lynam took out a lease on land at the current site at Bardwell Road in central North Oxford, just to the west of the River Cherwell. £4,000 was raised through subscriptions from local parents for the erection of new school buildings and the move was completed within a year. The school was known as Oxford Preparatory School and also Lynam's, but gradually its current name was adopted.


title: Dragon School

text: The Dragon School became the second school to take part in the Harrow History Prize in 1895, and many of its pupils have won this over the years, an early winner being Kit Lynam. The school was run for many years by the Lynam family.


title: Dragon School

text: Former pupils of the Dragon School are referred to as "Old Dragons". The following people were pupils at one time:


title: Public–private partnership

text: A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions. Typically, it involves private capital financing government projects and services up-front, and then drawing revenues from taxpayers and/or users over the course of the PPP contract. Public–private partnerships have been implemented in multiple countries and are primarily used for infrastructure projects. They have been employed for building, equipping, operating and maintaining schools, hospitals, transport systems, and water and sewerage systems.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Cooperation between private actors, corporations and governments has existed since the inception of sovereign states, notably for the purpose of tax collection and colonization. However, contemporary "public-private partnerships" came into being around the end of the 20th century. They were associated with neoliberal policies to increase the private sector's involvement in public administration. Originally, they were seen by governments around the world as a method of financing new or refurbished public sector assets outside their balance sheet. At the dawn of the millennium, this vision of PPPs came under heavy criticism as taxpayers or users still had to pay for those PPP projects, along with disproportionately high interest costs.


title: Public–private partnership

text: PPPs continue to be highly controversial as funding tools, largely over concerns that public return on investment is lower than returns for the private funder. PPPs are closely related to concepts such as privatization and the contracting out of government services. The lack of a shared understanding of what a PPP is and the secrecy surrounding their financial details makes the process of evaluating whether PPPs have been successful, complex. PPP advocates highlight the sharing of risk and the development of innovation, while critics decry their higher costs and issues of accountability. Evidence of PPP performance in terms of value for money and efficiency, for example, is mixed and often unavailable.


title: Public–private partnership

text: There is no consensus about how to define a PPP. The term can cover hundreds of different types of long-term contracts with a wide range of risk allocations, funding arrangements, and transparency requirements. The advancement of PPPs, as a concept and a practice, is a product of the new public management of the late 20th century, the rise of neoliberalism, and globalization pressures. Despite there being no formal consensus regarding a definition, the term has been defined by major entities.


title: Public–private partnership

text: For example, The OECD formally defines public-private-partnerships as "long term contractual arrangements between the government and a private partner whereby the latter delivers and funds public services using a capital asset, sharing the associated risks".


title: Public–private partnership

text: According to David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining, "A P3 typically involves a private entity financing, constructing, or managing a project in return for a promised stream of payments directly from government or indirectly from users over the projected life of the project or some other specified period of time".


title: Public–private partnership

text: A 2013 study published in "State and Local Government Review" found that definitions of public-private partnerships vary widely between municipalities: "Many public and private officials tout public-private partnerships for any number of activities, when in truth the relationship is contractual, a franchise, or the load shedding of some previously public service to a private or nonprofit entity." A more general term for such agreements is "shared service delivery", in which public-sector entities join together with private firms or non-profit organizations to provide services to citizens.


title: Public–private partnership

text: There is a semantic debate pertaining to whether public–private partnerships constitute privatization or not. Some argue that it isn't "privatization" because the government retains ownership of the facility and/or remains responsible for public service delivery. Others argue that they exist on a continuum of privatization; P3s being a more limited form of privatization than the outright sale of public assets, but more extensive than simply contracting-out government services.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Because "privatization" has a negative connotation, supporters of P3s generally take the position that P3s do not constitute privatization, while P3 opponents argue that they do. The Canadian Union of Public Employees describes P3s as "privatization by stealth".


title: Public–private partnership

text: Governments have used such a mix of public and private endeavors throughout history. Muhammad Ali of Egypt utilized "concessions" in the early 1800s to obtain public works for minimal cost while the concessionaires' companies made most of the profits from projects such as railroads and dams. Much of the early infrastructure of the United States was built by what can be considered public-private partnerships. This includes the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike road in Pennsylvania, which was initiated in 1792, an early steamboat line between New York and New Jersey in 1808; many of the railroads, including the nation's first railroad, chartered in New Jersey in 1815; and most of the modern electric grid. In Newfoundland, Robert Gillespie Reid contracted to operate the railways for fifty years from 1898, though originally they were to become his property at the end of the period.


title: Public–private partnership

text: However, the late 20th and early 21st century saw a clear trend toward governments across the globe making greater use of various PPP arrangements. Pressure to change the standard model of public procurement arose initially from concerns about the level of public debt, which grew rapidly during the macroeconomic dislocation of the 1970s and 1980s. Governments sought to encourage private investment in infrastructure, initially on the basis of neoliberal ideology and accounting fallacies arising from the fact that public accounts did not distinguish between recurrent and capital expenditures.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In 1992, the Conservative government of John Major in the United Kingdom introduced the Private finance initiative (PFI), the first systematic program aimed at encouraging public-private partnerships. The 1992 program focused on reducing the public-sector borrowing requirement, although, as already noted, the effect on public accounts was largely illusory. Initially, the private sector was unenthusiastic about PFI, and the public sector was opposed to its implementation. In 1993, the Chancellor of the Exchequer described its progress as "disappointingly slow". To help promote and implement the policy, Major created institutions staffed with people linked with the City of London, accountancy and consultancy firms who had a vested interest in the success of PFI.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Around the same time, PPPs were being initiated haphazardly in various OECD countries. The first governments to implement them were ideologically neoliberal and short on revenues: they were thus politically and fiscally inclined to try out alternative forms of public procurement. These early PPP projects were usually pitched by wealthy and politically-connected business magnates. This explains why each countries experimenting with PPPs started in different sectors. At that time, PPPs were seen as a radical reform of government service provision.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In 1997, the new british government of Tony Blair's Labour Party expanded the PFI but sought to shift the emphasis to the achievement of "value for money", mainly through an appropriate allocation of risk. Blair created Partnerships UK (PUK), a new semi-independent organization to replace the previous pro-PPP government institutions. Its mandate was to promote and implement PFI. PUK was central in making PPPs the "new normal" for public infrastructure procurements in the country. Multiple countries subsequently created similar PPP units based on PUK's model.


title: Public–private partnership

text: While initiated in first world countries, PPPs immediately received significant attention in developing countries. This is because the PPP model promised to bring new sources of funding for infrastructure projects, which could translate into jobs and economic growth. However, the lack of investor rights guarantees, commercial confidentiality laws, and dedicated state spending on public infrastructure in these countries made the implementation of public–private partnership in transition economies difficult. PPPs in the countries usually can't rely on stable revenues from user fees either. The World Bank's Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Forum attempts to mitigate these challenges.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A defining aspect of many infrastructure P3s is that most of the up-front financing is made through the private sector. The way this financing is done differs significantly by country. For P3s in the UK, bonds are used rather than bank loans. In Canada, P3 projects usually use loans that must be repaid within five years, and the projects are refinanced at a later date. In some types of public-private partnership, the cost of using the service is borne exclusively by the users of the service—for example, by toll road users. In other types (notably the PFI), capital investment is made by the private sector on the basis of a contract with the government to provide agreed-on services, and the cost of providing the services is borne wholly or in part by the government.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Typically, a private-sector consortium forms a special company called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop, build, maintain, and operate the asset for the contracted period. In cases where the government has invested in the project, it is typically (but not always) allotted an equity share in the SPV. The consortium is usually made up of a building contractor, a maintenance company, and one or more equity investors. The two former are typically equity holders in the project, who make decisions but are only repaid when the debts are paid, while the latter is the project's creditor (debt holder).


title: Public–private partnership

text: It is the SPV that signs the contract with the government and with subcontractors to build the facility and then maintain it. A typical PPP example would be a hospital building financed and constructed by a private developer and then leased to the hospital authority. The private developer then acts as landlord, providing housekeeping and other non-medical services, while the hospital itself provides medical services.


title: Public–private partnership

text: The SPV links the firms responsible of the building phase and the operating phase together. Hence there is a strong incentives in the building stage to make investments with regard to the operating stage. These investments can be desirable but may also be undesirable (e.g., when the investments not only reduce operating costs but also reduce service quality).


title: Public–private partnership

text: Public infrastructure is a relatively low-risk, high-reward investment, and combining it with complex arrangements and contracts that guarantee and secure the cash flows make PPP projects prime candidates for project financing. The equity investors in SPVs are usually institutional investors such as pension funds, life insurance companies, sovereign wealth and superannuation funds, and banks. Major P3 investors include AustralianSuper, OMERS and Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO, which funded the majority of P3 projects in Australia. Wall Street firms have increased their interest in PPP since the 2008 financial crisis.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Government sometimes make in kind contributions to a PPP, notably with the transfer of existing assets. In projects that are aimed at creating public goods, like in the infrastructure sector, the government may provide a capital subsidy in the form of a one-time grant so as to make the project economically viable. In other cases, the government may support the project by providing revenue subsidies, including tax breaks or by guaranteed annual revenues for a fixed period.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Private monopolies created by PPPs can generate a rent-seeking behavior, which leads to spiraling costs for users and/or taxpayers in the operation phase of the project.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Some public-private partnerships, when the development of new technologies is involved, include profit-sharing agreements. This generally involves splitting revenues between the inventor and the public once a technology is commercialized. Profit-sharing agreements may stand over a fixed period of time or in perpetuity.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Using PPPs have been justified in various ways over time. Advocates generally argue that PPPs enable the public sector to harness the expertise and efficiencies that the private sector can bring to the delivery of certain facilities and services traditionally procured and delivered by the public sector. On the other hand, critics suggest that PPPs are part of an ideological program that seeks to privatize public services for the profits of private entities.


title: Public–private partnership

text: PPPs are often structured so that borrowing for the project does not appear on the balance sheet of the public-sector body seeking to make a capital investment. Rather, the borrowing is incurred by the private-sector vehicle implementing the project, with or without an explicit backup guarantee of the loan by the public body. On PPP projects where the cost of using the service is intended to be borne exclusively by the end-user, or through a lease billed to the government every year during the operation phase of the project, the PPP is, from the public sector's perspective, an "off-balance sheet" method of financing the delivery of new or refurbished public-sector assets.


title: Public–private partnership

text: This justification was particularly important during the 1990s, but has been exposed as an accounting trick designed to make the government of the day appear more fiscally responsible, while offloading the costs of their projects to service users or future governments. In Canada, many auditor generals have condemned this practice, and forced governments to include PPP projects "on-balance sheet".


title: Public–private partnership

text: On PPP projects where the public sector intends to compensate the private sector through availability payments once the facility is established or renewed, the financing is, from the public sector's perspective, "on-balance sheet". According to PPP advocates, the public sector will regularly benefit from significantly deferred cash flows. This viewpoint has been contested through research that shows that a majority of PPP projects ultimately cost significantly more than traditional public ones.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In the European Union, the fact that PPP debt is not recorded as debt and remains largely "off-balance-sheet" has become a major concern. Indeed, keeping the PPP project and its contingent liabilities "off balance sheet" means that the true cost of the project is hidden. According to the International Monetary Fund, economic ownership of the asset should determine whether to record PPP-related assets and liabilities in the government's or the private corporation's balance sheet is not straightforward.


title: Public–private partnership

text: The effectiveness of PPPs as cost-saving venture has been refuted by numerous studies. Research has showed that on average, governments pay more for PPPs projects than for traditional publicly financed projects. The higher cost of P3s is attributed to these systemic factors:


title: Public–private partnership

text: Sometimes, private partners manage to overcome these costs and provide a project cheaper for taxpayers. This can be done by cutting corners, designing the project so as to be more profitable in the operational phase, charging user fees, and/or monetizing aspects of the projects not covered by the contract. For P3 schools in Nova Scotia, this latter aspect has included restricting the use of schools' fields and interior walls, and charging after-hours facility access to community groups at 10 times the rate of non-P3 schools.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In Ontario, a 2012 review of 28 projects showed that the costs were on average 16% lower for traditional publicly procured projects than for PPPs. A 2014 report by the Auditor General of Ontario said that the province overpaid by $8 billion through PPPs.


title: Public–private partnership

text: In response to these negative findings about the costs and quality of P3 projects, proponents developed formal procedures for the assessment of PPPs which focused heavily on value for money. Heather Whiteside defines P3 "Value for money" as:


title: Public–private partnership

text: Not to be confused with lower overall project costs, value for money is a concept used to evaluate P3 private-partner bids against a hypothetical public sector comparator designed to approximate the costs of a fully public option (in terms of design, construction, financing, and operations). P3 value for money calculations consider a range of costs, the exact nature of which has changed over time and varies by jurisdiction. One thing that does remain consistent, however, is the favoring of "risk transfer" to the private partner, to the detriment of the public sector comparator.Value for money assessment procedures were incorporated into the PFI and its Australian and Canadian counterparts beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A 2012 study showed that value-for-money frameworks were still inadequate as an effective method of evaluating PPP proposals. The problem is that it is unclear what the catchy term "value-for-money" means in the technical details relating to their practical implementation. A Scottish auditor once qualified this use of the term as "technocratic mumbo-jumbo".


title: Public–private partnership

text: Project promoters often contract a PPP unit or one of the Big Four accounting firms to conduct the value for money assessments. Because these firms also offer PPP consultancy services, they have a vested interest in recommending the PPP option over the traditional public procurement method. The lack of transparency surrounding individual PPP projects makes it difficult to draft independent value-for-money assessments.


title: Public–private partnership

text: A number of Australian studies of early initiatives to promote private investment in infrastructure concluded that in most cases, the schemes being proposed were inferior to the standard model of public procurement based on competitively tendered construction of publicly owned assets. In 2009, the New Zealand Treasury, in response to inquiries by the new National Party government, released a report on PPP schemes that concluded that "there is little reliable empirical evidence about the costs and benefits of PPPs" and that there "are other ways of obtaining private sector finance", as well as that "the advantages of PPPs must be weighed against the contractual complexities and rigidities they entail".


title: Public–private partnership

text: In the United Kingdom, many private finance initiative programs ran dramatically over budget and have not provided value for money for the taxpayer, with some projects costing more to cancel than to complete. An in-depth study conducted by the National Audit Office of the United Kingdom concluded that the private finance initiative model had proved to be more expensive and less efficient in supporting hospitals, schools, and other public infrastructure than public financing. A treasury select committee stated that 'PFI was no more efficient than other forms of borrowing and it was "illusory" that it shielded the taxpayer from risk'.


title: Public–private partnership

text: One of the main rationales for P3s is that they provide for a transfer of risk: the Private partner assumes the risks in case of cost overruns or project failures. Methods for assessing value-for-money rely heavily on risk transfers to show the superiority of P3s. However, P3s do not inherently reduce risk, they simply reassign who is responsible, and the Private sector assumes that risk at a cost for the taxpayer. If the value of the risk transfer is appraised too high, then the government is overpaying for P3 projects.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Incidentally, a 2018 UK Parliament report underlines that some private investors have made large returns from PPP deals, suggesting that departments are overpaying for transferring the risks of projects to the private sector, one of the Treasury's stated benefits of PPP.


title: Public–private partnership

text: Supporters of P3s claim that risk is successfully transferred from public to private sectors as a result of P3, and that the private sector is better at risk management. As an example of successful risk transfer, they cite the case of the National Physical Laboratory. This deal ultimately caused the collapse of the building contractor Laser (a joint venture between Serco and John Laing) when the cost of the complex scientific laboratory, which was ultimately built, was very much larger than estimated.


title: Public–private partnership

text: On the other hand, Allyson Pollock argues that in many PFI projects risks are not in fact transferred to the private sector and, based on the research findings of Pollock and others, George Monbiot argues that the calculation of risk in PFI projects is highly subjective, and is skewed to favor the private sector:


title: Public–private partnership

text: Following an incident in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where surgeons were forced to continue a heart operation in the dark following a power cut caused by PFI operating company Consort, Dave Watson from Unison criticized the way the PFI contract operates:


title: Public–private partnership

text: Furthermore, assessments ignore the practices of risk transfers to contractors under traditional procurement methods. As for the idea that the private sector is inherently better at managing risk, there has been no comprehensive study comparing risk management by the public sector and by P3s. Auditor Generals of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick have publicly questioned P3 rationales based on a transfer of risk, the latter stating he was "unable to develop any substantive evidence supporting risk transfer decisions". Furthermore, many PPP concessions proved to be unstable and required to be renegotiated to favor the contractor.