title: Nuclear power in France

text: In October 2019, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire released an audit report on the construction of the heavily delayed and nearly four times over-budget Flamanville 3 EPR development, started by Areva in 2007, which assessed it as largely a project management and skills failure. The Finance Minister demanded EDF present within a month an action plan for the project, calling it "a failure for the entire French nuclear industry".


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In 2020, the French government announced plans to change the wholesale nuclear power market, to enable EDF to completely cover its costs while preventing price volatility. A "price corridor" with floor and ceiling price limits would be defined for wholesale nuclear power electricity, rather than the current fixed €42/MWh for a quarter of production, which third-party suppliers used to avoid peak period high prices. A price band of €42-48/MWh has been suggested, though pricing would be controlled by regulator Commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE). Some prefer a higher price band to finance new nuclear builds to replace older reactors, for example Francois Dos Santos of the EDF central works council suggested a €47-53/MWh price band.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: EDF has a programme, named Grand Carénage and costed at €49.4 billion, to life extend by 2025 nearly all French power reactors from 40 to 50 years lifetime. These have been approved by regulatory body ASN in February 2021.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Drawing such a large percentage of overall electrical production from nuclear power is unique to France. This reliance has resulted in certain necessary deviations from the standard design and function of other nuclear power programs. For instance, in order to meet changing demand throughout the day, some plants must work as peaking power plants, whereas most nuclear plants in the world operate as base-load plants, and allow other fossil or hydro units to adjust to demand. Nuclear power in France has a total capacity factor of around 77%, which is low compared to nuclear power plants in other countries due to load following. Fleet availability has been declining in recent years, averaging approximately 72% over the 2020-2021 operating years. This is quite low compared to other, less dominant nuclear plant fleets and suggests the operating regime has had adverse long-term impacts on the operability of the fleet.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The first eight power reactors in the nation were gas cooled reactor types (UNGG reactor), whose development was pioneered by CEA. Coinciding with a uranium enrichment program, EDF developed pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology which eventually became the dominant type. The gas-cooled reactors located at Brennilis, Bugey, Chinon, and Marcoule have all been shut down.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: All operating plants today are PWRs. The sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor technology development reactors, Phénix and Superphénix, have been shut down. Work on a more advanced design in the form of the ASTRID reactor was finally abandoned in September 2019.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The PWR plants were all developed by Framatome (now Areva) from the initial Westinghouse design. All currently operating PWR plants are of three design variations, having output powers of 900 MWe, 1300 MWe, and 1450 MWe. The repeated use of these standard variants of a design has afforded France the greatest degree of nuclear plant standardization in the world.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: There are a total of 34 of these reactors in operation; most were constructed in the 1970s and the early 1980s. In 2002, they had a uniform review and all were granted a 10-year life extension.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: With the CP0 and CP1 designs, two reactors share the same machine and command room. With the CP2 design, each reactor has its own machine and command room. Apart from this difference, CP1 and CP2 use the same technologies, and the two types are frequently referred to as "CPY". Compared to CP0 they have an additional cooling circuit between the emergency system that in case of an accident allows to spray water into the containment and the circuit which contains river water, a more flexible control system and some minor difference in the layout of the building.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: This three loop design (three steam generators and three primary circulation pumps) was also exported to a number of other countries, including:


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In February 2021, Autorité de sûreté nucléaire gave generic authorisation, subject to conditions, for a ten-year life extension beyond the design life of 40 years of the French 900 MWe reactors. Specific reviews of each reactor are still required.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: There are 20 reactors of this design (four steam generators and four primary circulation pumps) operating in France. The P4 and P'4 type have some minor difference in the layout of the building, especially for the structure which contain the fuel rods and the circuitry.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: There are only four of these reactors, housed at two separate sites: Civaux and Chooz. Construction of these reactors started between 1984 and 1991, but full commercial operation did not begin until between 2000 and 2002 because of thermal fatigue flaws in the heat removal system requiring the redesign and replacement of parts in each N4 power station. By 2002 the reactors had been uprated from 1450 MWe to 1500 MWe.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The next generation design for French reactors is the EPR, which is also intended for foreign markets. The EPR was originally developed as a German-French joint project to incorporate the advantages of the highly reliable German design as well as French experience at mass construction of relatively "standardized" nuclear facilities. The design was intended to be built in both Germany and France as well as various export markets. However, the German nuclear phase-out precluded any construction of EPRs in Germany and ultimately led to Siemens selling its shares in the joint venture (see below). Two EPR units are in operation at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China. Operational units include one at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland. Under construction units include two at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in the United Kingdom. Construction of the first French EPR started at the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant in 2007. The completion date was set for 2012, but the reactor suffered delays and cost overruns. , completion was scheduled for late 2022, ten years behind schedule.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: An additional EPR reactor was planned for the Penly Nuclear Power Plant, but this project has now been abandoned.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The reactor design was developed by Areva contributing its N4 reactor technology and the German company Siemens contributing its Konvoi reactor technology. In keeping with the French approach of highly standardized plants and proven technology, it uses more traditional active safety systems and is more similar to current plant designs than international competitors such as the AP1000 or the ESBWR.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In 2013, EDF acknowledged the difficulties it was having building the EPR design. In September 2015, EDF's chief executive, Jean-Bernard Lévy, stated that the design of a "New Model" EPR was being worked on, which will be easier and cheaper to build, which would be ready for orders from about 2020. In 2016 EDF planned to build two New Model EPR reactors in France by 2030 to prepare for renewing its fleet of older reactors. However following financial difficulties at Areva, and its merger with EDF, French Energy Minister Nicolas Hulot said in January 2018 "for now [building a New Model EPR] is neither a priority or a plan. Right now the priority is to develop renewable energy and to reduce the share of nuclear."


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The majority of nuclear plants in France are located away from the coasts and obtain their cooling water from rivers. These plants employ cooling towers to reduce their impact on the environment. The temperature of emitted water carrying the waste heat is strictly limited by the French government, and this has proved to be problematic during recent heat waves.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: These five get their cooling water directly from the ocean and can thus dump their waste heat directly back into the sea, which is slightly more economical.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: France is one of the few countries in the world with an active civilian nuclear reprocessing program, with the COGEMA La Hague site. Enrichment work, some MOX fuel fabrication, and other activities take place at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Centre. Enrichment is completely domestic and is powered by 2/3 of the output of the nuclear plant at Tricastin. Reprocessing of fuel from other countries has been done for the United States and Japan, who have expressed the desire to develop a more closed fuel cycle similar to what France has achieved. MOX fuel fabrication services have also been sold to other countries, notably to the US for the Megatons to Megawatts Program, using plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. After the cancellation of German plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf, Germany, also relied on the La Hague facility for its civilian reprocessing before switching to the once thru fuel cycle in 2005.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: While France does not mine uranium for the front end of the fuel cycle domestically, French companies have various holdings in the uranium market. Uranium for the French program totalled 8000 tonnes annually as of 2014. Areva is involved in uranium mining operations in Canada, Kazakhstan, Namibia, and Niger. Several French former colonies have significant uranium reserves and French companies have stayed active in many of them even after those countries became independent. Due to the CFA Franc countries having a currency peg first to the French Franc and now to its successor, the euro, economic relations between these former French colonies and their former metropole remain strong.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Final disposal of the high level nuclear waste is planned to be done at the Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory deep geological repository.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: France's nuclear reactors comprise 90 per cent of EDFs capacity and so they are used in load-following mode and some reactors close at weekends because there is no market for the electricity. This means that the capacity factor is low by world standards, usually in the high seventies as a percentage, which is not an ideal economic situation for nuclear plants.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: During periods of high demand EDF has been routinely "forced into the relatively expensive spot and short-term power markets because it lacks adequate peak load generating capacity". France heavily relies on electric heating, with about one third of existing and three-quarters of new houses using electric space heating due to the low off-peak tariffs offered. Due to this residential heating demand, about 2.3 GW of extra power is needed for every degree Celsius of temperature drop. This means that during cold snaps, French electricity demand increases dramatically, forcing the country to import at full capacity from its neighbours during peak demand. For example, in February 2012, Germany "came to the rescue of France during last week's cold snap by massively exporting electricity to its neighbour".


title: Nuclear power in France

text: All but five of EDFs plants are inland and require fresh water for cooling. Eleven of these fifteen inland plants have cooling towers, using evaporative cooling, while the others use lake or river water directly. In very hot summers, generation output may be restricted.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In 2008, nuclear power accounted for 16% of final energy consumption in France. As is common in all industrialized nations, fossil fuels still dominate energy consumption, particularly in the transportation and heating sectors.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: However, nuclear constitutes a higher level of total energy consumption in France than in any other country.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The heavy investment in nuclear power energy requires electricity export when French electricity demand is low, or low-price dumping in the French market, and encourages the use of electricity for space heating and water heating.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: France on a net basis exported of electricity to its neighbours in the second half of 2021. However, the country relied on imports from Spain and Belgium at the end of 2021 due to cold weather and multiple outages at it nuclear plants.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In July 2008, 18,000 litres (4,755 gallons) of uranium solution containing natural uranium were accidentally released from Tricastin Nuclear Power Centre. Due to cleaning and repair work the containment system for a uranium solution holding tank was not functional when the tank filled. The inflow exceeded the tank's capacity and 30 cubic metres of uranium solution leaked, with 18 cubic metres spilled on the ground. Testing found elevated uranium levels in the nearby Gaffière and Lauzon rivers. The liquid that escaped to the ground contained about 75 kg of natural uranium, which is toxic as a heavy metal, but only slightly radioactive. Estimates for the releases were initially higher, up to 360 kg of natural uranium, but revised downward later. French authorities banned the use of water from the Gaffière and Lauzon for drinking and watering of crops for 2 weeks. Swimming, water sports and fishing were also banned. This incident has been classified as Level 1 (anomaly) on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Shortly after the first incident, approximately 100 employees were exposed to minor doses of radiation (1/40 of the annual limit) due to a piping failure.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In October 2017, EDF announced it would repair fire safety system pipes at 20 nuclear reactors to increase seismic safety after discovering thinning metal in some sections of pipes. EDF classified this as a Level 2 (incident) on the International Nuclear Event Scale.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In 2006, the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) was created as the independent French nuclear safety regulator, replacing the General Direction for Nuclear Safety and Radioprotection.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In 2012, the ASN released a report announcing a sweeping safety upgrade to all the country's reactors. The ASN's report states plainly that a loss of coolant or electricity could, in the worst cases, see meltdowns at nuclear reactors in hours. It also lists many shortcomings found during 'stress tests', in which some safety aspects of plants were found not to meet existing standards. It will now require all power plants to build a set of safety systems of last resort, contained in bunkers that will be hardened to withstand more extreme earthquakes, floods and other threats than plants themselves are designed to cope with. It will also adopt a proposal by EDF to create an elite force that is specifically trained to tackle nuclear accidents and could be deployed to any site within hours. Both moves are a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Following the 2011 Fukushima I nuclear accidents, there has been an increased focus on the risks associated with seismic activity in France, with particular attention focused on the Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: General seismic risk in France is categorised on a five-point scale, with zone 1 being very low risk, through to zone 5 in areas with a 'very strong' risk. In Metropolitan France the areas of highest risk are rated at 4, 'strong', and are located in the Pyrenees, Alps, the south of the Haut-Rhin "département", the Territoire de Belfort and a few communes in Doubs. A new zoning map comes into force on 1 May 2011, which significantly increases the rating for many areas. The major nuclear research facilities at Cadarache are located in a zone 4 area near the fault that caused the 1909 Lambesc earthquake, while the Marcoule research centre and the nuclear power plants at Tricastin, Cruas, Saint-Alban, Bugey and Fessenheim (near the fault that caused the 1356 Basel earthquake) are all within zone 3. A further six plants lie within zone 2.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The current process for evaluating the seismic hazard for a nuclear plant is set out in "Règle Fondamentale de Sûreté" (Fundamental Safety Rule) RFS 2001-01, published by the Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety, which uses more detailed seismotectonic zones. RFS 2001-01 replaced RFS I.2.c, published in 1981, however it has been criticised for continuing to require a deterministic assessment (rather than a probabilistic approach) that relies primarily on the strongest 'historically known' earthquake near a site. This leads to a number of problems including the short period (in geological timescales) for which there are records, the difficulty of assessing the characteristics of earthquakes that occurred prior to the use of seismometers, the difficulty of identifying the existence of all earthquakes that pre-date the historic record, and ultimately the reliance on one single earthquake scenario. Other criticisms include the use of intensity in the evaluation method, rather than spectral acceleration, which is commonly used elsewhere.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Following the 2011 Fukushima I nuclear accidents, an OpinionWay poll at the end of March found that 57% of the French population were opposed to nuclear energy in France. A TNS-Sofres poll in the days following the accident found 55% in favour of nuclear power. In 2006, BBC/GlobeScan poll found 57% of the French opposed to nuclear energy.<ref name="BBC/GlobeScan"></ref>


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In May 2001, an Ipsos poll found that nearly 70% of the population had a 'good opinion' of nuclear power, however 56% also preferred not to live near a nuclear plant and the same proportion thought that a 'Chernobyl-like accident' could occur in France.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The same Ipsos poll revealed that 50% thought that nuclear power was the best way of solving the problem of the greenhouse effect, while 88% thought this was a major reason for continuing to use nuclear power.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Historically the position has generally been favourable, with around two-thirds of the population strongly supporting nuclear power, while the Gaullists, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party were also all in favour.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: When the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant was being constructed in 1997, it was claimed to be welcomed by the local community:


title: Nuclear power in France

text: A variety of reasons were cited for the popular support; a sense of national independence and reduced reliance on foreign oil, reduction of greenhouse gases, and a cultural interest in large technological projects (like the TGV, whose high-speed lines are powered by these plants, and Concorde).


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: On 18 January 1982, Swiss environmental activist Chaïm Nissim fired five rockets on the Superphénix nuclear plant, then under construction. The rockets were launched at the incomplete containment building and caused damage, missing the reactor's empty core.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In January 2004, up to 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched in Paris against a new generation of nuclear reactors, the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR). On 17 March 2007, simultaneous protests, organised by Sortir du nucléaire, were staged in five French towns to protest against the construction of EPR plants.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: After Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, thousands staged anti-nuclear protests around France, demanding reactors be closed. Protesters' demands were focused on getting France to shut its oldest nuclear power station at Fessenheim. Many people also protested at the Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant, France's second most powerful.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In November 2011, thousands of anti-nuclear protesters delayed a train carrying radioactive waste from France to Germany. Many clashes and obstructions made the journey the slowest one since the annual shipments of radioactive waste began in 1995.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Also in November 2011, a French court fined nuclear power giant Électricité de France €1.5m and jailed two senior employees for spying on Greenpeace, including hacking into Greenpeace's computer systems. Greenpeace was awarded €500,000 in damages.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: On the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, organisers of French anti-nuclear demonstrations claim 60,000 supporters formed a human chain 230 kilometres long, stretching from Lyon to Avignon. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann expects anti-nuclear petition drives to start in at least six European Union countries in 2012 with the goal of having the EU abandon nuclear power.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In March 2014, police arrested 57 Greenpeace protesters who used a truck to break through security barriers and enter the Fessenheim nuclear in eastern France. The activists hung antinuclear banners, but France's nuclear safety authority said that the plant's security had not been compromised. Although President Hollande promised to close Fessenheim by 2016, this was delayed due to the late completion of Flamanville 3, with Fessenheim finally closed in June 2020.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: In 2007, Areva NC claimed that, due to their reliance on nuclear power, France's carbon emissions per kWh are less than 1/10 that of Germany and the UK, and 1/13 that of Denmark, which has no nuclear plants. Its emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide have been reduced by 70% over 20 years, even though the total power output has tripled in that time.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: If done without environmental or health over-sight, conventional mining for uranium can produce large amounts of mining tailings and contaminated water but as of 2010, about half of the world's uranium supply is increasingly generated from In situ recovery (ISR) technology, that does not require physical mining in the conventional sense and if responsibly operated is considerably cleaner. Another alternative to ISR is remote controlled underground mining, the French-owned Areva Resources Canada owns a large stake in the Canadian McArthur River uranium mine, the world's highest grade and largest uranium mine by output, the underground remote operation of mining vehicles in this mine, is designed to keep personnel exposure to rock particulates and radon gas etc. low. The mine is a frequent winner of the John T. Ryan National Safety Trophy award in Canada, which is bestowed upon the safest mine in the country every year.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: According to the French embassy to the US, fission-electricity "helps to reduce French greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding the release of 31 billions tonnes of carbon dioxide (contrary to coal or gas generation) and making France the less carbon emitting country within the OECD". It further notes that, due to recycling of spent nuclear fuel, French fission-electric stations, produce 10 g/year/inhabitant of "nuclear waste", which is primarily fission products and other safety concerning solid decaying radioactive isotopes.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: French environmentalist Bruno Comby started the group Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy in 1996, and said in 2005, "If well-managed, nuclear energy is very clean, does not create polluting gases in the atmosphere, produces very little waste and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect".


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Unlike its neighboring countries of Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, France does not rely very much on fossil fuels and biomass for electricity or home heating thanks to an abundance of cheap nuclear power.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Each year, the coal fired power stations in Germany are the cause of a calculated 1,860 premature domestic deaths and approximately 2,500 deaths abroad.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: As the adoption of electric cars over internal combustion engine vehicles increases, France's comparatively cheap peak and off peak electricity prices could act as a strong customer incentive that may spur the speed of adoption of electric vehicles. This would essentially turn the current perceived glut of relatively cheap nuclear electricity into an asset, as demand for electric vehicle recharging stations becomes more and more commonplace.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: Due to France's very low-carbon power electricity grid, the carbon dioxide emissions from charging an electric car from the French electricity grid are 12 g per km traveled.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: This compares favourably to the direct emissions of one of the most successful hybrid electric vehicles, the Toyota Prius, which produces carbon dioxide emissions at the higher rate of 105 g per km traveled.


title: Nuclear power in France

text: The nuclear fusion project ITER is constructing the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in the south of France. A collaboration between the European Union (EU), India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the project aims to make a transition from experimental studies of plasma physics to electricity-producing fusion power plants. In 2005, Greenpeace International issued a press statement criticizing government funding of the ITER, believing the money should have been diverted to renewable energy sources and claiming that fusion energy would result in nuclear waste and nuclear weapons proliferation issues. A French association including about 700 anti-nuclear groups, Sortir du nucléaire (Get Out of Nuclear Energy), claimed that ITER was a hazard because scientists did not yet know how to manipulate the high-energy deuterium and tritium hydrogen isotopes used in the fusion process. According to most anti-nuclear groups, nuclear fusion power "remains a distant dream". The World Nuclear Association says that fusion "presents so far insurmountable scientific and engineering challenges". Construction of the ITER facility began in 2007, but the project has run into many delays and budget overruns. The facility is now not expected to begin operations until the year 2027 – 11 years after initially anticipated.


title: Disaster Movie

text: Disaster Movie is a 2008 American parody film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer and produced by Peter Safran, Friedberg, and Seltzer. It stars Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Gary "G Thang" Johnson, Crista Flanagan, Nicole Parker, Ike Barinholtz, Carmen Electra, Tony Cox, and Kim Kardashian in her feature film debut. It was released on August 29, 2008 by Lionsgate. The film is a parody of the disaster film genre and pop culture.


title: Disaster Movie

text: The film was panned by critics and audiences for its forced adult humor, excessive pop culture references, and poor directing, with many considering it to be even worse than the previous movies created by Seltzer and Friedberg, as well as one of the worst films of all time. The movie received six nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards. It grossed nearly $35 million against a budget of $20 million.


title: Disaster Movie

text: In the year 10,001 B.C., a caveman runs away from a predator through a plain and immediately gets into a fight with Wolf. After defeating him, the caveman then encounters the predator, a saber-toothed, gasoline-drinking Amy Winehouse, who informs him that the world will end on August 29, 2008, and that their fate lies in a Crystal Skull.


title: Disaster Movie

text: The sequence is then revealed to be a dream of everyman Will in the present day. He then finds out that his girlfriend Amy is having an affair with Flavor Flav, and she breaks up with Will because he is not admitting his true feelings for her.


title: Disaster Movie

text: Later that day, Will has a "Super Duper Sweet Sixteen" party at his house, despite being 25. The guests include Juney, Dr. Phil, Will's best friend Calvin, and Anton Chigurh, among others. During the party, Amy arrives with her new boyfriend, a Calvin Klein underwear model. The party then comes to a halt when the room shakes and the lights go out. A bulletin on the radio claims there is a meteor shower and it is the end of the world. Soon after, the city starts to freeze over, and Will, Juney, Calvin, and Calvin's girlfriend Lisa retreat to a garage for shelter. When Juney mentions that the calamities are caused by global warming, Will realizes his dream as a caveman could be related. Later, Will is chided by the others for not committing himself to his relationship with Amy.


title: Disaster Movie

text: The gang leaves the garage and Will gets a call from Amy, where he admits his feelings for her before the call is dropped. He decides to go to rescue Amy. Lisa is later killed by a meteor. While the others comfort a distraught Calvin, Giselle, a prostitute, climbs out of a manhole and gets hit by a taxi. Calvin catches her, and they immediately fall in love with each other. Giselle's pimp, Prince Edwin, challenges Calvin to for her love, but a tornado appears and Prince Edwin flees. Iron Man, Hellboy, and the Hulk attempt to fight it, but all are defeated by cows thrown by the tornado. After taking shelter, Will, Juney, Calvin, and Giselle encounter rabid knockoffs of Alvin and the Chipmunks, who attack the gang and kill Juney. The "Chipmunks" then go after Will and Calvin, but they trap them in a trash can, fatally suffocating them as they attempt to escape.


title: Disaster Movie

text: On their way to the museum where Amy is trapped, the group runs into Batman, who informs them that they must go to evacuation buses and that there will be no chance of survival if they go to save Amy. With time against them, Princess Giselle kills Speed Racer, and the group hijacks his Mach Five to drive to the museum. At the museum, they save Amy, who reveals that the Crystal Skull is the only thing that can stop the end of the world. Calvin and the Princess then find that the museum doors are closed and all of the artifacts have come alive, including Po from Kung Fu Panda, who fights Calvin but is defeated. When Calvin makes out with the Princess, Calvin accidentally pulls her wig and discovers that she is actually a transvestite. While this happens, "Po" takes out a katana and simultaneously kills Calvin and the Princess.


title: Disaster Movie

text: Meanwhile, Will and Amy run into a nude Beowulf, who fights with Will. After Amy stabs "Beowulf" in the back, Will and Amy encounter Indiana Jones, who is revealed to be Will's father. "Indy" tries to put the Crystal Skull on the altar, but he flies through a stained glass window in the room. Will does it instead, and he averts further destruction. Will and Amy have a wedding ceremony performed by "The Guru Shitka", which ends with a musical number about all of the characters in the film dating each other (having sex in the unrated version) parodying "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" by Sarah Silverman and the film closes with the "Chipmunks" getting crushed to death by a falling cow before the credits start to roll.


title: Disaster Movie

text: On April 2, 2008, less than 3 months after the release of Friedberg and Seltzer's previous spoof film "Meet the Spartans", it was announced that the duo were in pre-production on a spoof of "Superbad", with the title being "Goodie Two Shoes". Unlike the previous Friedberg and Seltzer-directed films, which were financed by Regency Enterprises and distributed by 20th Century Fox, this film was financed by Grosvenor Park and distributed by Lionsgate in the United States.


title: Disaster Movie

text: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer wrote the film as a parody of "Superbad", but similar to the duo's previous films, it parodies some of the big blockbusters and popular celebrities from 2007 and 2008. Since many of the films being spoofed were not released at the time that the script was being written, Friedberg and Seltzer used trailer footage to get the basic idea of the films.


title: Disaster Movie

text: On April 28, Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Gary “G Thang” Johnson and Carmen Electra signed up to be the main cast members.


title: Disaster Movie

text: Filming took place in the state of Louisiana from April 28 to June 6. Oscar-nominated production designer William Elliott (who has done production design on the duo films since "Date Movie"), did the production design for the sets. The Chamber of commerce building in Shreveport was used for filming the natural history museum scenes in the film.


title: Disaster Movie

text: On its domestic theatrical debut, "Disaster Movie" grossed $2,023,130 on its opening day, $5,836,973 over the three-day weekend, and $6,945,535 over the four-day weekend (including Labor Day). It ranked #7 for both the three- and four-day weekends. The film's takings for the weekend fell far short of the $17 million predicted by the "Dallas Morning News". The film was not as commercially successful as previous Friedberg/Seltzer releases. On a $20 million budget, it grossed $14,190,901 domestically and $17,492,474 internationally for a worldwide total of $31,683,375, less than half the gross of "Meet the Spartans".


title: Disaster Movie

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Disaster Movie" has an approval rating of 1% based on 74 reviews with an average rating of 2.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Returning to their seemingly bottomless well of flatulence humor, racial stereotypes, and stale pop culture gags, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have produced what is arguably their worst "Movie" yet." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 15 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "F" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Disaster Movie

text: Jason Solomons of "The Guardian" wrote that "Nothing can convey the grimness of "Disaster Movie", which would be the Worst Movie Ever Made were it actually a movie at all." Adam Tobias of the "Watertown Daily Times" opined, "I just don't see how anyone could not find "Disaster Movie" one of the worst films of all time," further adding that the title of the film was appropriate, because the movie is "a disaster." "The Times" newspaper named the film the worst of 2008.


title: Disaster Movie

text: The only positive review posted on Rotten Tomatoes was by Jim Schembri from the Australian newspaper "The Age". Schembri called it "dumb but also undeniably funny in more spots than a right-thinking mature person feels comfortable admitting", the film was given 3½ stars out of five.


title: Disaster Movie

text: The most positive major critic review listed on either Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes was by Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly", who gave the film a C+ and remarked: "The movie is merciless sending up "Juno"s self-satisfied hipster gobbledygook, and it's quite funny to see Hannah Montana still promoting her tie-in products as she lies crushed and dying under a meteor." Gleiberman previously contributed the only positive review listed on either site (out of 17 at Metacritic and 57 at Rotten Tomatoes) of Friedberg and Seltzer's earlier effort "Epic Movie".


title: Disaster Movie

text: In a 2017 episode of the ABC show "Big Fan", Kim Kardashian revealed that she is mortified by her character's death scene in the film and she "can't watch" [it].


title: Disaster Movie

text: It was featured in Empire's "50 Worst Movies Ever" poll, in 14th place. In 2012 it was included in Total Film's "66 Worst Movies Ever" list. The MRQE's included it on its 50 Worst Movies list, where it has a score of 19, one of the lowest scores on the site. "Disaster Movie" became the lowest ranked film on IMDb's Bottom 100 list days after its premiere.


title: Disaster Movie

text: On January 21, 2009, the film received six nominations for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards. The nominations were for Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actress (Electra), Worst Supporting Actress (Kardashian), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel. Kardashian acknowledged her nomination on her blog, where she commented, "It's an honor just being nominated!"


title: Disaster Movie

text: The DVD and Blu-ray were released on January 6, 2009. They both included an Unrated "Cataclysmic" Edition and the theatrical version, both with the same extras. About 410,934 DVD units were sold, bringing in $8,447,690 in revenue .


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Mu is a mythical lost continent introduced by Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), who identified the "Land of Mu" with Atlantis. The name was subsequently identified with the hypothetical land of Lemuria by James Churchward (1851–1936), who asserted that it was located in the Pacific Ocean before its destruction. The place of Mu in both pseudoscience and fantasy fiction is discussed in detail in "Lost Continents" (1954, 1970) by L. Sprague de Camp.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Geologists dismiss the existence of Mu and the lost continent of Atlantis as physically impossible, as a continent can neither sink nor be destroyed in the short period of time asserted in legends and folklore and literature about these places. Mu's existence is considered to have no factual basis.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: The mythical idea of the "Land of Mu" first appeared in the works of the British-American antiquarian Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908), after his investigations of the Maya ruins in Yucatán. He claimed that he had translated the first copies of the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the K'iche' from the ancient Mayan using Spanish. He claimed the civilization of Yucatán was older than those of Greece and Egypt, and told the story of an even older continent.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Le Plongeon got the name "Mu" from Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, who, in 1864, mistranslated what was then called the Troano Codex (now called "Madrid Codex") using the de Landa alphabet. Brasseur believed that a word which he read as "Mu" referred to a land that had been submerged by a catastrophe. Le Plongeon identified this lost land with Atlantis and, following Ignatius Donnelly in "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" (1882), identified it as a continent that had once existed in the Atlantic Ocean:


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Le Plongeon claimed that the civilization of ancient Egypt was founded by Queen Moo, a refugee from the land's demise. Other refugees supposedly fled to Central America and became the Maya.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Mu, as an alternative name for a lost Pacific Ocean continent previously identified as the hypothetical Lemuria (the supposed place of origin for lemurs), was later popularised by James Churchward (1851–1936) in a series of books, beginning with "Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man" (1926), re-edited later as "The Lost Continent Mu" (1931). Other popular books in the series are "The Children of Mu" (1931) and "The Sacred Symbols of Mu" (1933).


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Churchward claimed that "more than fifty years ago", while he was a soldier in India, he befriended a high-ranking temple priest who showed him a set of ancient "sunburnt" clay tablets, supposedly in a long-lost "Naga-Maya language" which only two other people in India could read. Churchward convinced the priest to teach him the dead language and decipher the tablets by promising to restore and store the tablets, for Churchward was an expert in preserving ancient artifacts. The tablets were written in either Burma or in the lost continent of Mu itself, according to the high priest. Having mastered the language himself, Churchward found out that they originated from "the place where [man] first appeared—Mu". The 1931 edition states that "all matter of science in this work are based on translations of two sets of ancient tablets": the clay tablets he read in India, and a collection of 2,500 stone tablets that had been uncovered by William Niven in Mexico.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: The tablets begin with the creation of Earth, Mu, and the superior human civilization Naacal by the seven commands of the seven superlative intellects of the seven-headed serpent Narayana. This creation story dismisses the theory of evolution. Churchward gave a vivid description of Mu as the home of an advanced civilization, the Naacal, which flourished between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, was dominated by a “white race", and was "superior in many respects to our own". At the time of its demise, about 12,000 years ago, Mu had 64 million inhabitants and seven major cities, and colonies on the other continents. The 64 million inhabitants were separated as ten tribes that followed one government and one religion.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Churchward claimed that the landmass of Mu was located in the Pacific Ocean, and stretched east–west from the Marianas to Easter Island, and north–south from Hawaii to Mangaia. According to Churchward the continent was supposedly 5,000 miles from east to west and over 3,000 miles from north to south, which is larger than South America. The continent was believed to be flat with massive plains, vast rivers, rolling hills, large bays, and estuaries. He claimed that according to the creation myth he read in the Indian tablets, Mu had been lifted above sea level by the expansion of underground volcanic gases. Eventually Mu "was completely obliterated in almost a single night": after a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, "the broken land fell into that great abyss of fire" and was covered by "fifty millions of square miles of water." Churchward claimed the reasoning for the continent's destruction in one night was because the main mineral on the island was granite and was honeycombed to create huge shallow chambers and cavities filled with highly explosive gases. Once the chambers were empty after the explosion, they collapsed on themselves, causing the island to crumble and sink.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Churchward claimed that Mu was the common origin of the great civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Central America, India, Burma and others, including Easter Island, and was in particular the source of ancient megalithic architecture. As evidence for his claims, he pointed to symbols from throughout the world, in which he saw common themes of birds, the relation of the Earth and the sky, and especially the Sun. Churchward claimed that the king of Mu was named Ra and he related this to the Egyptian god of the sun, Ra, and the Rapa Nui word for Sun, "ra’a". He claimed to have found symbols of the Sun in "Egypt, Babylonia, Peru and all ancient lands and countries – it was a universal symbol."


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: As additional evidence for his claims, Churchward looked to the Holy Bible and found through his own translations that Moses was trained by the Naacal brotherhood in Egypt. Assyria mistranslated when writing and misplaced the Garden of Eden, which according to Churchward would have been located in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Churchward makes references to the Ramayana epic, a religious text of Hindu attributed to sage and historian Valmiki. Valmiki mentions the Naacals as “coming to Burma from the land of their birth in the East,” that is, in the direction of the Pacific Ocean.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Churchward attributed all megalithic art in Polynesia to the people of Mu. He claimed that symbols of the sun are found "depicted on stones of Polynesian ruins", such as the stone hats ("pukao") on top of the giant "moai" statues of Easter Island. Citing W. J. Johnson, Churchward describes the cylindrical hats as "spheres" that "seem to show red in the distance", and asserts that they “represent the Sun as Ra.” He also incorrectly claimed that some of them are made of "red sandstone", which does not exist on the island. The platforms on which the statues rest ("ahu") are described by Churchward as being "platform-like accumulations of cut and dressed stone", which were supposedly left in their current positions "awaiting shipment to some other part of the continent for the building of temples and palaces". He also cites the pillars "erected by the Māori of New Zealand" as an example of this lost civilization's handiwork. In Churchward's view, the present-day Polynesians are not descendants of the dominant members of the lost civilization of Mu, responsible for these great works, but are instead descendants of survivors of the cataclysm that adopted "the first cannibalism and savagery" in the world.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: In the 1882 book "Oahspe: A New Bible", John Newbrough included a map of the Earth in antediluvian times (i.e. prior to the great flood of biblical record) where an unknown continent is located in the Northern Pacific. Newbrough called this continent Pan. People often link both Pan and Mu as the same mythological continent since both are claimed to be located in the Pacific. Newbrough continues to claim that the unknown continent disappeared 24,000 years ago, but will soon rise from the Pacific and will be inhabited by the Kosmon race.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Max Heindel, a Danish-American occultist, wrote about Mu in "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" (1909), which offers a different image and chronology. According to Heindel, Mu existed when the Earth's crust was still hardening, in a period of high heat and dense atmosphere. Heindel claims humans existed at this time, but that they had the power to shape-shift. He says they had no eyes but rather two sensitive spots that were affected by the light of the Sun. In the dense atmosphere, humans were guided more by internal perception than by external vision. The language of these humans consisted of the sounds of nature.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Louis Jacolliot was a French attorney, judge, and occultist who specialized in the translation of Sanskrit. He wrote about the land of the Rutas, a lost land that ancient sources claimed was in the Indian Ocean but which he placed in the Pacific Ocean and associated with Atlantis stories in "Histoire des Vierges. Les Peuples et les continents disparus" (1874). He amplified upon this in "Occult Science in India" (1875, English translation 1884). He has been identified as a contributor to Rosicrucianism.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: James Bramwell and William Scott-Elliot claimed that the cataclysmic events on Mu began 800,000 years ago and went on until the last catastrophe, which occurred in precisely 9564 BC.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: In the 1930s, Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, was interested in Churchward's work and considered Mu as a possible location of the original homeland of the Turks.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Masaaki Kimura has suggested that certain underwater features located off the coast of Yonaguni Island, Japan (popularly known as the Yonaguni Monument), are ruins of Mu.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Modern geological knowledge rules out "lost continents" of any significant size. According to the theory of plate tectonics, which has been extensively confirmed since the 1970s, the Earth's crust consists of lighter "sial" rocks (continental crust rich in aluminium silicates) that float on heavier "sima" rocks (oceanic crust richer in magnesium silicates). The sial is generally absent in the ocean floor where the crust is a few kilometers thick, while the continents are huge solid blocks tens of kilometers thick. Since continents float on the sima much like icebergs float on water, a continent cannot simply "sink" under the ocean.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: It is true that continental drift and seafloor spreading can change the shape and position of continents and occasionally break a continent into two or more pieces (as happened to Pangaea). However, these are very slow processes that occur in geological time scales (hundreds of millions of years). Over the scale of history (tens of thousands of years), the sima under the continental crust can be considered solid, and the continents are basically anchored on it. It is almost certain that the continents and ocean floors have retained their present position and shape for the whole span of human existence.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: There is also no conceivable event that could have "destroyed" a continent, since its huge mass of sial rocks would have to end up somewhere—and there is no trace of it at the bottom of the oceans. The Pacific Ocean islands are not part of a submerged landmass but rather the tips of isolated volcanoes.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: This is the case, in particular, of Easter Island, which is a recent volcanic peak surrounded by deep ocean (3,000 m deep at 30 km off the island). After visiting the island in the 1930s, Alfred Métraux observed that the "moai" platforms are concentrated along the current coast of the island, which implies that the island's shape has changed little since they were built. Moreover, the "Triumphal Road" that Pierre Loti had reported ran from the island to the submerged lands below, is actually a natural lava flow. Furthermore, while Churchward was correct in his claim that the island has no sandstone or sedimentary rocks, the point is irrelevant because the "pukao" are all made of native volcanic scoria.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: After the Pleistocene, cultures of the Americas and the Old World developed social complexity independent of each other, and, in fact, agriculture and sedentism emerged in multiple locations around the world after the inception of the Holocene at 11,700 BP. The emergence of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A sites such as Göbekli Tepe and Neolithic villages such as Jericho and Çatalhöyük in the Levant and Anatolia, respectively, result from local processes of cultural evolution, not colonization by individuals from elsewhere.


title: Mu (mythical lost continent)

text: Easter Island was first settled around AD 300 and the "pukao" on the "moai" are regarded as having ceremonial or traditional headdresses.


title: EMI Records

text: EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia and Parlophone record labels. The label was later launched worldwide. It has a branch in India called "EMI Records India", run by director Mohit Suri. In 2014, Universal Music Japan revived the label in Japan as the successor to EMI Records Japan. In June 2020, Universal revived the label as the successor to Virgin EMI, with Virgin Records now operating as an imprint of EMI Records.


title: EMI Records

text: An EMI Records Ltd. legal entity was created in 1956 as the record manufacturing and distribution arm of EMI in the UK. It oversaw EMI's various labels, including The Gramophone Co. Ltd., Columbia Graphophone Company, and Parlophone Co. Ltd.


title: EMI Records

text: The global success that EMI enjoyed in the 1960s exposed the fact that the company had the rights to only some of its trademarks in some parts of the world, most notably His Master's Voice and Columbia, with RCA Victor and the American Columbia Records owning the rights to these trademarks in North America.


title: EMI Records

text: Complicating matters was Columbia's formation of its own operations in the UK by purchasing Oriole Records and changing its name to that of its then-parent company CBS (the legal trademark designation bearing the full name of the parent company, "Trade Mark of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc."), and as CBS Records International becoming highly successful, a serious rival to EMI, in the UK.


title: EMI Records

text: In July 1965, the standalone EMI Record labels were extracted from E.M.I. Records Ltd. and folded into The Gramophone Company Ltd. On 1 July 1973, The Gramophone Co. Ltd. was renamed EMI Records Ltd. At the same time, E.M.I. Records Ltd. was wound down and its activities were absorbed into EMI Records Ltd.


title: EMI Records

text: Earlier, on 1 January 1973, all of The Gramophone Company Ltd. pop labels (Columbia, Parlophone, Harvest, Sovereign and Regal) had been rebranded as EMI. EMI Records then signed new music artists that became worldwide successes: Kraftwerk, Renaissance, Queen, Olivia Newton-John, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, Sheena Easton, and Pink Floyd (though some of these acts were on different labels in the US, not EMI's Capitol Records). In 1978, EMI launched EMI America Records as its second label in the United States after Capitol, and in 1988, EMI America later merged with sister label Manhattan Records, founded in 1984, becoming EMI Manhattan Records and eventually EMI USA when Capitol absorbed it in 1989. In 1997, EMI Records' American division was folded into Virgin Records and Capitol.


title: EMI Records

text: In October 1979, EMI Ltd. merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to become Thorn EMI, whose shareholders voted on 16 August 1996 in favour of demerging Thorn from EMI again. The recorded music division became EMI Group plc, and the electronics and rentals divisions were divested as Thorn plc.


title: EMI Records

text: In 2010, EMI Records opened a country music division, EMI Records Nashville, which includes on its roster Troy Olsen, Alan Jackson, Kelleigh Bannen, and Eric Church. EMI Records Nashville is a sister label to the Capitol Nashville unit of Universal Music Group.


title: EMI Records

text: Australia's most prolific artist, Slim Dusty, signed with the Columbia Graphophone Co. for Regal Zonophone Records in 1946 and remained with EMI until his death in 2003, selling over 7 million records for the label in Australia by 2007.


title: EMI Records

text: Virgin EMI Records retained use of the EMI branding after Universal Music Group's acquisition of EMI in September 2012, but it is otherwise unrelated to the old label which was defunct and renamed Parlophone Records in 2013 and is now part of Warner Music Group. EMI Christian Music Group was renamed Capitol Christian Music Group. EMI Classics was sold to Warner Music Group in February 2013. After EU regulatory approval, EMI Classics was absorbed into Warner Classics in July 2013. The reissues of pre-1997 releases from EMI America and EMI Records USA are handled by UMG's Capitol Music Group, Virgin Records' American distributor and a stand-alone British distributor. The distributors of the vast majority of EMI Records' UK catalogue are Rhino Entertainment in the US and WEA International for the world outside the US.


title: EMI Records

text: In April 2013, EMI Music Japan became defunct following Universal's acquisition of EMI. The company's successor was EMI Records Japan, a sublabel of Universal Music Japan. In February 2014, Universal Japan did a label reorganization, with more than half of the former EMI Records Japan artists being transferred to Nayutawave Records. Later that year, the two sublabels were combined and rebranded as EMI Records. Since 2018, Takeshi Okada has been the managing director of Universal Japan's EMI Records label. In 2020, the label launched an official YouTube channel, six years after the label was formed.


title: EMI Records

text: On 16 June 2020, Universal rebranded Virgin EMI Records as EMI Records and named Rebecca Allen (former president of UMG's Decca label) as the label's president.


title: EMI Records

text: EMI United Kingdom is a brand of EMI Records that, despite the name, appeared worldwide between roughly 1993 and 1998, used mainly for artists such as Iron Maiden, Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd, as a sister imprint to Parlophone, EMI Premiere, hEMIsphere, Eminence, EMI Gold and the home video division Picture Music International. During the 90s, it reissued albums that originally bore the Harvest Records, Columbia Graphophone Company, RAK Records, Regal Zonophone, HMV, Music for Pleasure and Starline labels. As of 2013, EMI UK's catalogue is owned by Warner Music Group after the acquisition of the Parlophone Label Group's assets. By contrast, UMG owns the catalogue of reissues from Deep Purple's albums between 1972 to 1975 on the band's vanity label Purple, in addition to their last albums for EMI in Europe, "Abandon" and "Bananas".


title: Takers

text: Takers (formerly known as Bone Deep) is a 2010 American heist action thriller film directed by John Luessenhop from a story and screenplay written by Luessenhop, Gabriel Casseus, Peter Allen, and Avery Duff. It features Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, Michael Ealy, Tip "T.I." Harris, Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen and Zoe Saldana in an ensemble cast. The film was released on August 27, 2010.


title: Takers

text: The film follows a group of professional bank robbers (Ealy, Brown, Christensen, Walker and Elba) who specialize in spectacular robberies. They are pulled into one last job by a recently-paroled cohort (T.I.) only to be pitted against a hard-boiled detective (Dillon) and his partner (Hernandez) who interrupt their heist.


title: Takers

text: Detectives Jack Welles and Eddie Hatcher investigate a daring heist by a group of well-organized bank robbers. The crew, led by Gordon Cozier, consists of John, A.J., and brothers Jake and Jesse Attica. The crew is without a former member, Ghost, who was caught during a previous robbery five years before. In his absence, Jake began a relationship with Ghost's former girlfriend Lilly, who had accepted his marriage proposal.


title: Takers

text: After Ghost is released from prison, he meets up with the crew to plan a heist, in which it is discovered that two armored trucks will travel together, but that all the money is kept in the first truck, which holds $12 million.


title: Takers

text: The crew, dressed as construction workers, hide out underground, while Ghost poses as a police officer, so he can keep an eye out for the trucks. Meanwhile, in order to cover themselves in case Ghost is setting them up, John heads to the top of a nearby garage to take out Ghost with a sniper rifle in case things go wrong. The crew plan to detonate the blast when the armored trucks drive overhead, causing the trucks to fall underground. However, a cyclist causes the lead driver to stop short and the explosives are detonated too early. The lead driver radios the police, while armed guards pile out of the rear truck.


title: Takers

text: A gunfight ensues between the robbers in the crater and the guards on the street, until John commandeers the rear truck and rams the lead truck into the crater where the crew cut into it. John and the other robbers pack the cash into bags, and flee by heading down a variety of different tunnels, with the plan of connecting into various subway lines to make their escape.


title: Takers

text: Welles and Hatcher show up on the scene, and, after learning of the robbers' escape through the sewer system, remember a map of the city subway system from the Russian gang hideout, and deduce that they must be escaping through the stations marked on the map where the sewers intersect the subway. They rush to the nearest station, where they find Jesse, and a chase ensues, during which Jesse hides his bag of money and is cornered. He shoots Detective Hatcher and escapes while Welles stops to aid his partner, who dies from his wound.


title: Takers

text: Jesse reconvenes with the rest of the crew at a hotel room, and admits to the shooting of Hatcher. It is now revealed that Ghost had previously cut a deal with the Russian gangsters to kill his former accomplices in exchange for half of the heist's take. Ghost gives the Russians the hotel room number, then escapes out the bathroom window, just before the Russians storm the room and attempt to kill the crew. A.J. sacrifices himself to save the others in the ensuing gunfight, and the rest of the crew is able to kill the Russians and flee the building before the police arrive. Jake and Jesse return home where, to their horror, Jake finds Lilly's corpse, and Jesse finds the safe where they kept their secret stash of money opened and cleaned out. The police surround their bar, and shoot the two when they make a suicide charge outside, killing them.


title: Takers

text: Gordon and John separate to make their escape, but realize that Ghost intends to take all of their money, which is being held by Scott, a well-connected fence. Ghost sneaks onto Scott's private plane and kills him, taking their laundered money in two suitcases. Gordon and Detective Welles arrive, and a three-way Mexican standoff results in which Ghost hits both Gordon and Welles. As Ghost prepares to finish Gordon off, John arrives and shoots him dead. John recognizes Welles as the same cop, who was with the little girl. John and Gordon refuse to kill Welles. John and an injured Gordon take the money and drive off, with Gordon's sister Naomi in tow. A gravely wounded Welles manages to call 911 for help on his cell phone.


title: Takers

text: Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 28% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 115 reviews; the average rating is 4.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, ""Takers" boasts some gripping set pieces and keeps things moving quickly, but its two-dimensional characters, clichéd script, and brazenly derivative plot make it hard to recommend." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 45 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Today called it "almost a good little heist movie", praising the plot twists but criticising the characterization.


title: Takers

text: Author Stephen King, in his end-of-the-year "Entertainment Weekly" column, listed it at #5 of his best films of 2010. He says that "the climax does strain credulity, but the characters feel real & the armored-car heist is the best action sequence in 2010"


title: Takers

text: The film was number one at the box office during its opening weekend, making $20,512,304. Takers made its U.S. debut on approximately 2,600 screens at 2,206 locations. According to Box Office Mojo, "The heist thriller tripled the start of "Armored", and it came in only a bit behind last summer's higher-profile "The Taking of Pelham 123". Its initial attendance was also nearly 50 percent greater than similar titles like "Dead Presidents", and "Street Kings"." "Takers" was made available on Blu-ray and DVD on January 18, 2011.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around the world.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Due to its primary usage in scattered isolated regions where communication is limited to the local area, Hakka has developed numerous varieties or dialects, spoken in different provinces, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and Guizhou, as well as in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue, Wu, Southern Min, Mandarin or other branches of Chinese, and itself contains a few mutually unintelligible varieties. It is most closely related to Gan and is sometimes classified as a variety of Gan, with a few northern Hakka varieties even being partially mutually intelligible with southern Gan. There is also a possibility that the similarities are just a result of shared areal features.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Taiwan (where Hakka is the native language of a significant minority of the island's residents) is a center for the study and preservation of the language. Pronunciation differences exist between the Taiwanese Hakka dialects and Mainland China's Hakka dialects; even in Taiwan, two major local varieties of Hakka exist.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: The Meixian dialect (Moiyen) of northeast Guangdong in China has been taken as the "standard" dialect by the People's Republic of China. The Guangdong Provincial Education Department created an official romanization of Moiyen in 1960, one of four languages receiving this status in Guangdong.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: The name of the Hakka people who are the predominant original native speakers of the variety literally means "guest families" or "guest people": "Hak" (Mandarin: ) means "guest", and "ka" (Mandarin: ) means "family". Among themselves, Hakka people variously called their language "Hak-ka-fa" ("-va"), "Hak-fa" ("-va"), "Tu-gong-dung-fa" ("-va"), literally "Native Guangdong language", and "Ngai-fa" ("-va"), "My/our language". In Tonggu County, Jiangxi province, people call their language "Huai-yuan-fa".


title: Hakka Chinese

text: It is commonly believed that Hakka people have their origins in several episodes of migration from northern China into southern China during periods of war and civil unrest dating back as far as the end of Western Jin. The forebears of the Hakka came from present-day Central Plains provinces of Henan and Shaanxi, and brought with them features of Chinese varieties spoken in those areas during that time. (Since then, the speech in those regions has evolved into dialects of modern Mandarin). The presence of many archaic features occur in modern Hakka, including final consonants , as are found in other modern southern Chinese varieties, but which have been lost in Mandarin.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Laurent Sagart (2002) considers Hakka and southern Gan Chinese to be sister dialects that descended from a single common ancestral language (Proto-Southern Gan) spoken in central Jiangxi during the Song Dynasty. In Hakka and southern Gan, Sagart (2002) identifies a non-Chinese substratum that is possibly Hmong-Mien, an archaic layer, and a more recent Late Middle Chinese layer. Lexical connections between Hakka, Kra-Dai, and Hmong-Mien have also been suggested by Deng (1999).


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Due to the migration of its speakers, Hakka may have been influenced by other language areas through which the Hakka-speaking forebears migrated. For instance, common vocabulary is found in Hakka, Min, and the She (Hmong–Mien) languages. Today, most She people in Fujian and Zhejiang speak Shehua, which is closely related to Hakka.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: A regular pattern of sound change can generally be detected in Hakka, as in most Chinese varieties, of the derivation of phonemes from earlier forms of Chinese. Some examples:


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Hakka has as many regional dialects as there are counties with Hakka speakers as the majority. Some of these Hakka dialects are not mutually intelligible with each other. Meixian is surrounded by the counties of Pingyuan, Dabu, Jiaoling, Xingning, Wuhua, and Fengshun. Each county has its own special phonological points of interest. For instance, Xingning lacks the codas and . These have merged into and , respectively. Further away from Meixian, the Hong Kong dialect lacks the medial, so whereas the Meixian dialect pronounces the character 光 as , the Hong Kong Hakka dialect pronounces it as , which is similar to the Hakka spoken in neighbouring Shenzhen.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Tones also vary across the dialects of Hakka. The majority of Hakka dialects have six tones. However, there are dialects which have lost all of their checked tones ("rusheng"), and the characters originally of this tone class are distributed across the non-"ru" tones. An example of such a dialect is Changting, which is situated in Western Fujian province. Moreover, there is evidence of the retention of an earlier Hakka tone system in the dialects of Haifeng and Lufeng, situated in coastal southeastern Guangdong province. They contain a yin-yang splitting in the "qu" tone, giving rise to seven tones in all (with yin-yang registers in "ping" and "ru" tones and a "shang" tone).


title: Hakka Chinese

text: In Taiwan, there are two main dialects: Sixian and Hailu (alternatively known as Haifeng; Hailu refers to Haifeng County and Lufeng County). Most Hakka speakers in Taiwan can trace their ancestry to these two regions. Sixian speakers come from Jiaying Prefecture, mainly from the four counties of Chengxiang (now Meixian District), Zhengping (now Jiaoling), Xingning and Pingyuan. Most dialects of Taiwanese Hakka, except Sixian and Dabu, preserved postalveolar consonants (, , and ), which are uncommon in other southern Chinese varieties.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: "Ethnologue" reports the dialects of Hakka as being "Yue-Tai" (Meixian, Wuhua, Raoping, Taiwan Kejia: Meizhou above), "Yuezhong "(Central Guangdong), "Huizhou, Yuebei" (Northern Guangdong), "Tingzhou" (Min-Ke), "Ning-Long" (Longnan), "Yugui," and "Tonggu."


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Like other southern Chinese varieties, Hakka retains single syllable words from earlier stages of Chinese; thus a large number of syllables are distinguished by tone and final consonant. This reduces the need for compounding or making words of more than one syllable. However, it is also similar to other Chinese varieties in having words which are made from more than one syllable.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Hakka, as well as numerous other Chinese varieties such as Min and Cantonese, prefers the verb when referring to "saying" rather than the Mandarin (Hakka ).


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Hakka uses , like Cantonese for the verb "to eat" and (Hakka ) for "to drink", unlike Mandarin which prefers (Hakka ) as "to eat" and "hē" (Hakka ) as "to drink" where the meanings in Hakka are different, "to stutter" and "to be thirsty" respectively.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Various dialects of Hakka such as Taiwanese Hakka, is sometimes written in the Latin script or Pha̍k-fa-sṳ.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Dialects of Hakka have been written in a number of Latin orthographies, largely for religious purposes, since at least the mid-19th century. The popular "The Little Prince" has also been translated into Hakka (2000), specifically the Miaoli dialect of Taiwan (itself a variant of the Sixian dialect). This also was dual-script, albeit using the Tongyong Pinyin scheme.


title: Hakka Chinese

text: Hakka TV is a state-run, primarily Hakka-language television channel in Taiwan that started in 2003. In mainland China, Meizhou Televisions's Hakka Public Channel () has broadcasts 24 hours a day in Hakka since 2006.


title: Ranger School

text: The United States Army Ranger School is a 62-day small unit tactics and leadership course that develops functional skills directly related to units whose mission is to engage the enemy in close combat and direct fire battles.


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger training was established in September 1950 at Fort Benning, Georgia. The Ranger course has changed little since its inception. Until recently, it was an eight-week course divided into three phases. The course is now 61 days in duration and divided into three phases as follows: Benning Phase, Mountain Phase, and Swamp Phase.


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger School is open to soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen in the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as select allied military students. The course is conducted in various locations. Benning Phase occurs in and around Camp Rogers and Camp Darby at Fort Benning, Georgia. Mountain Phase is conducted at Camp Merrill, in the remote mountains near Dahlonega, Georgia. Swamp Phase is conducted in the coastal swamps at various locations near Camp Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.


title: Ranger School

text: The United States Army Ranger School is not organizationally affiliated with the 75th Ranger Regiment. Ranger School falls under control of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command as a school open to most members of the United States Army, but the 75th Ranger Regiment is a Special Operations warfighting unit organized under the United States Army Special Operations Command. The two share a common heritage and subordinate battalions common lineage, and Ranger School is a requirement for all officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO) of the 75th Ranger Regiment.


title: Ranger School

text: Those graduating from Ranger School are presented with the Ranger Tab, which is worn on the upper shoulder of the left sleeve of a military uniform, according to U.S. Army regulations Wearing the tab is permitted for the remainder of a soldier's military career. The cloth version of the tab is worn on the Army Combat Uniform and Army Green Service Uniform; a smaller, metal version is worn on the Army Service Uniform.


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger Training had begun in September 1950 at Fort Benning Georgia "with the formation and training of 17 Airborne Companies by the Ranger Training Command". The first class graduated from Ranger training in November 1950, becoming the 1st Ranger Infantry Company. The United States Army's Infantry School officially established the Ranger Department in December 1951. Under the Ranger Department, the first Ranger School Class was conducted in January–March 1952, with a graduation date of 1 March 1952. Its duration was 59 days. At the time, Ranger training was voluntary.


title: Ranger School

text: In 1966, a panel headed by General Ralph E. Haines Jr. recommended making Ranger training mandatory for all Regular Army officers upon commissioning. On 16 August 1966, the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Harold K. Johnson, directed it so. This policy was implemented in July 1967. It was rescinded on 21 June 1972 by General William Westmoreland. Once again, Ranger training was voluntary.


title: Ranger School

text: In August 1987, the Ranger Department was split from the Infantry School and the Ranger Training Brigade was established.


title: Ranger School

text: The Ranger Companies that made up the Ranger Department became the current training units—the 4th, 5th and 6th Ranger Training Battalions.


title: Ranger School

text: Desert Phase was added in 1983 and the length of the Ranger course was extended to 65 days. The duration was again expanded in October 1991 to 68 days, concurrently with the reshuffling of the Desert phase from the last phase to the second. The 7th Ranger Training Battalion was added to administer this phase. The most recent duration change to Ranger School occurred in May 1995, when the Desert Phase was removed from the Ranger course. Ranger School was reduced to its current 61-day length of training, at 19.6 hours of training per day.


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger School is open to all Military Occupational Specialties (MOSs) in the U.S. Army, although—as of April 2011—an Army combat exclusion zone still limits some from attending, but this does not include women as women are now allowed to attend the school. Ranger students come from units in the United States Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and from foreign military services. However, the two largest groups of attendees for Ranger School are from the U.S. Army's Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course (IBOLC), and the 75th Ranger Regiment. Competitions and pre-Ranger courses are typically used to determine attendance. The Marine Corps is only allotted twenty slots for Ranger school each year, while the Air Force is only allotted six.


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger students typically range in rank from Private First Class to Captain, with lieutenants and specialists making up the largest group. The average age of a student is 23, and the average class consists of 366 students, with 11 classes conducted per year. The vast majority of Ranger students have already graduated from Airborne School, and will make multiple jumps during the course. However, a small number of students have entered and completed Ranger School without being Airborne qualified. These individuals completed tasks assigned by cadre instead of taking part in the jumps alongside their classmates.


title: Ranger School

text: Following the graduation of Captain Kristen Marie Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Lynne Haver in August 2015, the Army announced that Ranger School would henceforth be open to female students. While acknowledging that in the past he "would have doubted a woman could pass the rigorous course", Brigade Command Sergeant Major Curtis Arnold described Griest and Haver as "tough soldiers" who "proved their mettle beyond a doubt" and "absolutely earned the respect of every ranger instructor". In October 2015, Major Lisa Jaster also graduated from Ranger School, becoming the first female Army Reserve officer to receive a Ranger tab. In 2019, First Lieutenant Chelsey Hibsch became the first female Air Force officer to graduate from Ranger School.


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger School training has a basic scenario: the flourishing drug and terrorist operations of the enemy forces, the "Aragon Liberation Front," must be stopped. To do so, the Rangers will take the fight to their territory, the rough terrain surrounding Fort Benning, the mountains of northern Georgia, and the swamps and coast of Florida. Ranger students are given a clear mission, but they determine how to best execute it.


title: Ranger School

text: The purpose of the course is learning to soldier as a combat leader while enduring the great mental and psychological stresses and physical fatigue of combat; the Ranger Instructors (RIs) – also known as Lane Graders – create and cultivate such a physical and mental environment. The course primarily comprises field craft instruction; students plan and execute daily patrolling, perform reconnaissance, ambushes, and raids against dispersed targets, followed by stealthy movement to a new patrol base to plan the next mission. Ranger students conduct about 20 hours of training per day, while consuming two or fewer meals daily totaling about , with an average of 3.5 hours of sleep a day. Students sleep more before a parachute jump for safety considerations. Ranger students typically wear and carry some of weapons, equipment, and training ammunition while patrolling more than throughout the course.


title: Ranger School

text: The first phase of Ranger School is conducted at Camp Rogers and Camp Darby at Fort Benning, Georgia and is conducted by the 4th Ranger Training Battalion. The "Benning Phase" is the "crawl" phase of Ranger School, where students learn the fundamentals of squad-level mission planning. It is "designed to assess a Soldier’s physical stamina, mental toughness, leadership abilities, and establishes the tactical fundamentals required for follow-on phases of Ranger School". In this phase, training is separated into two parts, the Ranger Assessment Phase (RAP) and Squad Combat Operations.


title: Ranger School

text: The Ranger Assessment Phase is conducted at Camp Rogers. As of April 2011, it encompasses Days 1–3 of training. Historically, it accounts for 60% of students who fail to graduate Ranger School. Events include:


title: Ranger School

text: The emphasis at Camp Darby is on the instruction in and execution of Squad Combat Operations. The phase includes "fast paced instruction on troop leading procedures, principles of patrolling, demolitions, field craft, and basic battle drills focused towards squad ambush and reconnaissance missions". The Ranger student receives instruction on airborne/air assault operations, demolitions, environmental and "field craft" training, executes the infamous "Darby Queen" obstacle course, and learns the fundamentals of patrolling, warning and operations orders, and communications. The fundamentals of combat operations include battle drills (React to Contact, Break Contact, React to Ambush, React to Indirect Fire, and Crossing a Danger Area), which are focused on providing the principles and techniques that enable the squad-level element to successfully conduct reconnaissance and ambush missions. As a result, the Ranger student gains tactical and technical proficiency and confidence in themselves, and prepares to move to the next phase of the course, the Mountain Phase.


title: Ranger School

text: The second phase of Ranger School is conducted at the remote Camp Merrill near Dahlonega, Georgia by the 5th Ranger Training Battalion. Here, "students receive instruction on military mountaineering tasks, mobility training, as well as techniques for employing a platoon for continuous combat patrol operations in a mountainous environment". Adding to the physical hardships endured in the Benning phase, in this phase "the stamina and commitment of the Ranger student is stressed to the maximum. At any time, they may be selected to lead tired, hungry, physically expended students to accomplish yet another combat patrol mission". The Ranger student continues learning how to sustain themselves and their subordinates in the mountains. The rugged terrain, severe weather, hunger, mental and physical fatigue, and the psychological stress the student encounters allow them to measure their capabilities and limitations and those of their fellow soldiers.


title: Ranger School

text: In addition to combat operations, the student receives four days of military mountaineering training. The sequence of training has changed in past decades. As of 2010, the training sequence is as follows. In the first two days students learn knots, belays, anchor points, rope management, mobility evacuation, and the fundamentals of climbing and abseiling. The training ends in a two-day Upper mountaineering exercise at Yonah Mountain, to apply the skills learned during Lower mountaineering. Each student must make all prescribed climbs at Mt. Yonah to continue in the course. During the field training exercise (FTX), students execute a mission requiring mountaineering skills.


title: Ranger School

text: Combat missions are against a conventionally equipped threat force in a Mid-Intensity Conflict. These missions are both day and night in a two part, four and five-day FTX, and include moving cross country over mountains, vehicle ambushes, raiding communications and mortar sites, river crossing, and scaling steeply sloped mountainous terrain.


title: Ranger School

text: The Ranger student reaches his objective in several ways: cross-country movement, parachuting into small drop zones, air assaults into small, mountain-side landing zones, or a 10-mile march across the Tennessee Valley Divide. The student's commitment and physical-mental stamina are tested to the maximum. At the end of the Mountain Phase, the students travel by bus to a nearby airfield and conduct an airborne operation, parachuting into Swamp Phase. Non-airborne are bused to Eglin Air Force Base for the Swamp Phase.


title: Ranger School

text: The third phase of Ranger School is conducted at Camp James E. Rudder (Auxiliary Field #6), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida by the 6th Ranger Training Battalion. According to the Ranger Training Brigade, This phase focuses on the continued development of the Ranger student's combat arms functional skills. Students receive instruction on waterborne operations, small boat movements, and stream crossings upon arrival. Practical exercises in extended platoon level operations executed in a coastal swamp environment test the Students’ ability to operate effectively under conditions of extreme mental and physical stress. This training further develops the Students' ability to plan and lead small units during independent and coordinated airborne, air assault, small boat, and dismounted combat patrol operations in a low intensity combat environment against a well trained, sophisticated enemy.


title: Ranger School

text: The Swamp Phase continues the progressive, realistic OPFOR (opposing forces) scenario. As the scenario develops, the students receive "in-country" technique training that assists them in accomplishing the tactical missions later in the phase. Technique training includes: small boat operations, expedient stream crossing techniques, and skills needed to survive and operate in a rainforest/swamp environment by learning how to deal with reptiles and how to determine the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes. Camp Rudder has specially trained reptile experts who teach the students to not fear the wildlife they encounter.


title: Ranger School

text: The Ranger students are updated on the scenario that eventually commits the unit to combat during techniques training. The 10-day FTX comprises "fast paced, highly stressful, challenging exercises in which the Students are evaluated on their ability to apply small unit tactics and techniques during the execution of raids, ambushes, movements to contact, and urban assaults to accomplish their assigned missions". The capstone of the course is the extensively planned raid of the Atropian Liberation Front's (ALF) island stronghold. This small boat operation involves each platoon in the class, all working together on separate missions to take down the simulated cartel's final point of strength.


title: Ranger School

text: Afterwards, students who have met graduation requirements spend several days cleaning their weapons and equipment before returning to Fort Benning. By then they have earned PX (Post Exchange) privileges, and access to a community center where they can use a telephone, eat civilian food, and watch television. In years past, the "Gator Lounge" served this purpose, but it was destroyed by a fire in late 2005. In the years since, a new "Gator Lounge" has been built, maintaining many of the features of the original. Graduation is at Fort Benning. In an elaborate ceremony at Victory Pond, the black-and-gold Ranger Tab is pinned to the graduating soldier's left shoulder (usually by a relative, a respected RI, or soldier from the student's original unit). The Ranger Tab is permanently worn above the soldier's unit patch.


title: Ranger School

text: The Desert Phase was designed to instruct its students in Desert Warfare operations and basic survival in the deserts of the Middle East. John Lock describes the Desert Phase as follows. The phase commenced with an in-flight rigging and airborne assault—or an air assault landing by non-airborne personnel, onto an objective. Following the mission, the students moved into a cantonment area. Remaining in garrison for five days, they then received classes on desert-survival techniques to include water procurement and water preservation. Leadership responsibilities, standing operating procedures (SOPs), reconnaissance, and ambush techniques were also reviewed. Additional emphasis was placed on battle drills to include react to enemy contact, react to indirect fire, and react to near and far ambushes. Drills on how to breach barbed and concertina wire with wire cutters and assault ladders were taught as were techniques on how to clear a trench line and how to assault a fortified bunker. The remainder of the phase comprised patrolling during field training exercises—"reconnaissance, raid, or ambush missions". "The phase culminated with an airborne assault—with non-Airborne trucked—by the entire class on a joint objective."


title: Ranger School

text: Ranger School's initial evaluation of a Desert Phase was a cadre-lead patrol at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico in early 1971 called Arid Fox I. In June 1971, the Ranger Training Brigade conducted Arid Fox II, the first student-led patrol. This was part of the brigade's continuing evaluation of the possibility of integrating a Desert Phase into the Ranger course. The first students to undergo the Desert Phase were selected from Ranger Class 13–71 (class 13 in 1971). When the bulk of the class went on to begin the Swamp phase, the airborne qualified members of Ranger Class 13–71 (Desert) donned MC1-1 parachutes, boarded a C-130 aircraft and parachuted into the White Sands Missile Range.


title: Ranger School

text: Upon formal integration into the Ranger Course, the Desert Phase was initially run by the Ranger School's 4th (Desert Ranger) Training Company stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas from 1983 to 1987. When the Desert Phase was officially introduced, the length of Ranger School was lengthened to 65 days. At the outset, the Desert Phase was the last phase of the Ranger Course—following the Benning, Mountain and Swamp Phases, respectively.


title: Ranger School

text: In 1987, the unit was expanded into the 7th Ranger Training Battalion and moved to Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah.


title: Ranger School

text: In October 1991, the course was increased to sixty-eight days and the sequence was changed to Fort Benning, Desert (Fort Bliss, Texas), Mountain, and Florida. In May 1995, the school underwent its most recent course change when the Desert phase was discontinued. The last Ranger School class to go through the Desert Phase was class 7–95.


title: Ranger School

text: The U.S. Army has not given up on small unit desert training. In 2015, the 1st Armored Division created the Desert Warrior Course that focuses on honing combat tracking, night land navigation, live-fire drills, and a myriad of other tasks.


title: Ranger School

text: A student's graduation is highly dependent on their performance in graded positions of leadership. This leadership ability is evaluated at various levels in various situations, and is observed while they are in one of typically two graded leadership roles per phase. The student can either meet the high standards and be given a "GO" by the R.I., or can fail to meet this standard and receive a "NO GO". The student must demonstrate the ability to meet the standard in order to move forward, and can thus only afford one unsuccessful patrol. The student's success will lie in his ability to essentially manipulate those directly underneath their charge of leadership. At times, this will be as few as two to three people—and at other times the student may be required to lead up to an entire 45-person platoon. The student's success can be dependent on the performance and teamwork of these individuals, whom they must motivate and lead. Missions are typically broken up into four stages: planning, movement, actions on the objective, and establishment of a patrol base. The Platoon Leader position (in Mountains and Florida) will be rotated throughout the mission, and the same is true for the platoon sergeant position. The squad leader position is on a 24-hour rotation which is the same for all of the ungraded key leadership positions: Medic, Forward Observer (FO) and Radio Telephone Operator (RTO).


title: Ranger School

text: Another part of the evaluation of the student is a peer evaluation; failing a peer evaluation (scoring less than a 60% approval rating from your squad) can result in disqualification, though usually only if it happens twice. Due to unit loyalties, certain individuals within a squad who may be "the odd one out" will sometimes be singled out by the squad arbitrarily. Because of this, someone who has been "peered out" or "peered," will be moved to another squad, sometimes within another platoon, in order to ensure that this was not the reason the student was peered. If it happens within this new squad, however, this is taken as an indication that student is being singled out because they are either lazy, incompetent, or cannot keep up. At this time the student will usually be removed from the course.


title: Ranger School

text: If a student performs successfully, but suffers an injury that keeps them from finishing, they may be medically recycled (med recycle) at the discretion of either the battalion or the Ranger Training Brigade commander; the student will be given an opportunity to heal and finish the course with the next class. Students recycled in the first phase are temporarily assigned to Vaughn's Platoon (informally known as the "Gulag" to Ranger students). Recycled students typically receive classes on Ranger School tasks and perform a variety of general tasks for their respective Ranger Training Battalion. While marking time at Ranger School is not always pleasant, those who have been recycled typically perform well when reinserted back into the course, with pass rates well over 80%.


title: Ranger School

text: Students can also be recycled for a variety of other reasons, including failing their patrol evaluations, peer evaluation, collecting 3 or more bad spot reports in a phase, or receiving a Serious Observation Report (SOR). Students may receive SORs for actions including, but not limited to, negligent discharges, safety violations involving demolitions or mountaineering, not looking through their sights while firing, or throwing away ammunition to lighten their load while on patrol. If a student fails a phase twice for the same reason (patrols, peers, etc.) they will usually be dropped from the course, but may possibly be offered a "day one restart," and will restart on Day 1 of the next Ranger School class. In rare cases, those assessed of honor violations (lying, cheating, stealing) and SORs may be offered a day one restart as opposed to being dropped from the course.


title: Ranger School

text: Historically, the graduation rate has been around 50%, but this has fluctuated. In the period prior to 1980, the Ranger School attrition rate was over 65%. 64% of Ranger School class 10–80 graduated. The graduation rate has dropped below 50% in recent years: 52% in 2005, 54% in 2006, 56% in 2007, 49% in 2008, 46% in 2009, 43% in 2010, and 42% in 2011. Recycles are included in the graduation rates. Recycles are tracked by the class they start with, and affect only that class's


title: Ranger School

text: Following the completion of Ranger School, a student will usually find himself "in the worst shape of his life". Military folk wisdom has it that Ranger School's physical toll is like years of natural aging; high levels of fight-or-flight stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol), along with standard sleep deprivation and continual physical strain, inhibit full physical and mental recovery throughout the course.


title: Ranger School

text: Common maladies during the course include weight loss, dehydration, trench foot, heatstroke, frostbite, chilblains, fractures, tissue tears (ligaments, tendons, muscles), swollen hands, feet, knees, nerve damage, loss of limb sensitivity, cellulitis, contact dermatitis, cuts, and insect, spider, bee, and wildlife bites.


title: Ranger School

text: Because of the physical and psychological effect of low calorie intake over an extended period of time, it is not uncommon for many Ranger School graduates to encounter weight problems as they return to their units and their bodies and minds slowly adjust to routine again. A drastically lowered metabolic rate, combined with a nearly insatiable appetite (the result of food deprivation and the ensuing survivalist mentality) can cause quick weight gain, as the body is already in energy (fat) storing mode.


title: Ranger School

text: A Ranger student's diet and sleep are strictly controlled by the Ranger Instructors. During time in garrison students are given one to three meals a day, but forced to eat extremely quickly and without any talking. During field exercises Ranger students are given two MREs (Meal, Ready-to-eat) per day, but not allowed to eat them until given permission. This is enforced most harshly in Darby and Mountain phases. Since food and sleep are at the bottom of the priorities of those in the infantry behind security, weapons maintenance, and personal hygiene, it is generally the last thing Ranger students are allowed to do. As such, the two MREs are generally eaten within three hours of each other, one post mission, and the other prior to the planning portion of the mission. Though the Ranger student's daily caloric intake of 2200 calories would be more than enough for the average person, Ranger students are under such physical stress that this amount is insufficient. The Ranger Training Brigade does not maintain weight information in the 21st century, but in the 1980s, Ranger students lost an average of 25–30 pounds during the Ranger course.


title: Ranger School

text: The awards listed below are designed to recognize outstanding achievement during the Ranger Course. Dependent on class performance, all or some of these awards may be presented upon graduation.


title: Ranger School

text: The Darby Award is awarded to the Ranger that shows the best tactical and administrative leadership performance, has the most positive spot reports and has demonstrated being a cut above the rest. They must also pass all graded leadership positions, peer reports, and may not recycle. This award is named in the honor of BG William O. Darby, who organized the 1st Ranger Battalion in 1942 with handpicked volunteers leading the way onto the beaches of North Africa. Ranger Battalions also spearheaded the campaigns in Sicily and Italy, and the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach. In the Pacific the 6th Ranger Battalion served with distinction in the Philippines.