title: National Gendarmerie

text: The National Gendarmerie (, ) is one of two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police. The Gendarmerie is a branch of the French Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, with additional duties from the Ministry of Armed Forces. Its responsibilities include policing smaller towns, suburbs and rural areas, along with special subdivisions like the GSPR. By contrast, the National Police is a civilian law enforcement agency that is in charge of policing cities and larger towns. Because of its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfills a range of military and defence missions, including having a cybercrime division. The Gendarmerie has a strength of around 102,269 people (as of 2018).


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie is the heir of the , the oldest police force in France, dating back to the Middle Ages. The Gendarmerie has influenced the culture and traditions of gendarmerie forces around the world, especially in independent countries from the former French colonial empire.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie is the direct descendant of the "Maréchaussée" ("Marshalcy") of the "ancien regime". The lasted from medieval times until the French Revolution.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: During the Middle Ages, there were two Grand Officers of the Kingdom of France with police responsibilities: The Marshal of France and the Constable of France. The military policing responsibilities of the Marshal of France were delegated to the "Marshal's provost", whose force was known as the Marshalcy because its authority ultimately derived from the Marshal. The Marshalcy dates back to the Hundred Years' War, with some historians tracing it back to the early 12th century.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The second organisation, the Constabulary (), was under the command of the Constable of France. The constabulary was regularised as a military body in 1337.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In 1415 the fought in the Battle of Agincourt and their commander, the "Prévôt des Maréchaux" (Provost of the Marshals), Gallois de Fougières, was killed in battle. This history was rediscovered in 1934, and Gallois de Fougières was then officially recorded as the first known gendarme to have died in the line of duty. His remains are now buried under the monument to the gendarmerie in Versailles.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Under King Francis I (), the was merged with the Constabulary. The resulting force was also known as the , or, formally, the Constabulary and Marshalcy of France (). Unlike the former constabulary, the new was not a fully militarized force.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In 1720, the was officially attached to the Household of the King (), together with the "gendarmerie" of the time, which was not a police force at all, but a royal guard. During the eighteenth century, the marshalcy developed in two distinct areas: increasing numbers of Marshalcy Companies (), dispersed into small detachments, were stationed around the French countryside to maintain law and order, while specialist units provided security for royal and strategic sites such as palaces and the mint (e.g., the and the .)


title: National Gendarmerie

text: While its existence ensured the relative safety of French rural districts and roads, visitors from England, which had nothing but the not very effective parish constables, saw the , with its armed and uniformed patrols, as royal soldiers with an oppressive role and so a symbol of foreign tyranny. On the eve of the 1789 French Revolution, the "Maréchaussée" numbered 3,660 men divided into small brigades (a "brigade" in this context being a squad of ten to twenty men). Their limited numbers and scattered deployment rendered the ineffective in controlling the "Great Fear" of July through August, 1789.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: During the revolutionary period, the commanders generally placed themselves under the local constitutional authorities. Despite their connection with the king, they were therefore perceived as a force favoring the reforms of the French National Assembly.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: As a result, the was not disbanded but simply renamed as the . Its personnel remained unchanged, and the functions of the force remained much as before. However, from this point, the gendarmerie, unlike the , became a fully militarized force. During the revolutionary period, the main force responsible for policing was the National Guard. Although the had been the main police force of the "ancien regime", the gendarmerie was initially a full-time auxiliary to the National Guard militia.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In 1791 the newly named was grouped into 28 divisions, each commanded by a colonel responsible for three départements. In turn, two companies of gendarmes under the command of captains were based in each department. This territorial basis of organisation continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Under Napoléon, the numbers and responsibilities of the gendarmerie—renamed —were expanded significantly. In contrast to the mounted , the gendarmerie were both horse and foot personnel; in 1800, these numbered approximately 10,500 of the former and 4,500 of the later, respectively.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In 1804 the first Inspector General of Gendarmerie was appointed and a general staff established—based out of the in Paris. Subsequently, special gendarmerie units were created within the Imperial Guard for combat duties in French occupied Spain.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Following the Second Restoration of 1815, the gendarmerie was reduced in numbers to about 18,000 and reorganised into departmental legions. Under King Louis Phillippe a "gendarmerie of Africa" was created for service in Algeria and during the Second Empire the Imperial Guard Gendarmerie Regiment was re-established. The majority of gendarmes continued in what was now the established role of the corps—serving in small, sedentary detachments as armed rural police. Under the Third Republic the ratio of foot to mounted gendarmes increased and the numbers directly incorporated in the French Army with a military police role reduced.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The National Gendarmerie is still sometimes referred to as the (being the old name for the service). The gendarmes are also occasionally called , which is a slang term derived from an 18th-century Hungarian word for "frontier guards." The symbol of the gendarmerie is a stylized grenade, which is also worn by the Italian Carabinieri and the Grenadier Guards in Britain. The budget in 2008 was approximately 7.7 billion euros.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The equivalent Dutch force, "Royal Marechaussee", uses officially the old French term--which King William I, when assuming power after the fall of Napoleon, considered preferable to "gendarmerie".


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In French, the term "police" not only refers to the forces, but also to the general concept of "maintenance of law and order" (policing). The Gendarmerie's missions spans three categories:


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie, while remaining part of the French armed forces, has been attached to the Ministry of the Interior since 2009. Criminal investigations are run under the supervision of prosecutors or investigating magistrates. Gendarmerie members generally operate in uniform, and, only occasionally, in plainclothes.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Director-general of the Gendarmerie (DGGN) is appointed by the Council of Ministers, with the rank of Général d'Armée. The current Director-General is Général Christian Rodriguez who took office on November 1, 2019.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie headquarters, called the Directorate-General of the National Gendarmerie ( (DGGN))), long located in downtown Paris, relocated in 2012 to the southern suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The main components of the organization are Departmental Gendarmerie, Mobile Gendarmerie, Republican Guard, Overseas Gendarmerie, five specialized Gendarmerie branches, Provost Gendarmerie and Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The above-mentioned organizations report directly to the Director General (DGGN) with the exception of the Republican Guard, which reports to the Île-de-France region.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Departmental Gendarmerie (), also named «La Blanche» "(The White)", is the most numerous part of the Gendarmerie, is in charge of policing small towns and rural areas. Its territorial divisions are based on the administrative divisions of France, particularly the departments from which the Departmental Gendarmerie derives its name. The Departmental Gendarmerie carries out the general public order duties in municipalities with a population of up to 20,000 citizens. When that limit is exceeded, the jurisdiction over the municipality is turned over to the National Police.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: It is divided into 13 metropolitan regions (including Corsica), themselves divided into (one for each of the 100 , thus the name), themselves divided into (one for each of the 342 arrondissements).


title: National Gendarmerie

text: It maintains gendarmerie brigades throughout the rural parts of the territory. There are two kind of brigades:


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In addition, the Gendarmerie runs a national criminal police institute () specializing in supporting local units for difficult investigations.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The research units may be called into action by the judiciary even within cities (i.e. in the National Police's area of responsibility). As an example, the Paris research section of the Gendarmerie was in charge of the investigations into the vote-rigging allegations in the 5th district of Paris (see corruption scandals in the Paris region).


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Gendarmes normally operate in uniform. They may operate in plainclothes only for specific missions and with their supervisors' authorisation.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Mobile Gendarmerie (), also named « La Jaune » "(The Yellow)", it is organized in seven Regions of the Mobile Gendarmerie (one for each of the seven military regions of metropolitan France, called (). It comprises 18 Groupings () featuring 109 squadrons for a total of approx. 11,300 personnel.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Nearly 20% of the Mobile Gendarmerie squadrons are permanently deployed on a rotational basis in the French overseas territories. Other units deploy occasionally abroad alongside French troops engaged in military operations (called external operations or OPEX).


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The civilian tasks of the mobile gendarmerie are similar to those of the police units known as (CRS), for which they are often mistaken. Easy ways to distinguish them include:


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Mobile Gendarmerie includes GBGM (), an Armoured grouping composed of seven squadrons equipped with VXB armoured personnel carriers, better known in the Gendarmerie as VBRG (, "Gendarmerie armoured wheeled vehicle"). It is based at Versailles-Satory. The unit also specializes in CBRN defense.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The non-metropolitan branches include units serving in the French overseas and territories (such as the Gendarmerie of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), staff at the disposal of independent States for technical co-operation, Germany, security guards in French embassies and consulates abroad.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Air Gendarmerie () is placed under the dual supervision of the Gendarmerie and the Air Force, it fulfills police and security missions in the air bases, and goes on the site of an accident involving military aircraft.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Air Transport Gendarmerie () is placed under the dual supervision of the Gendarmerie and the direction of civilian aviation of the transportation ministry, its missions include:


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Ordnance Gendarmerie () fulfills police and security missions in the establishments of the Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (France's defence procurement agency).


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Nuclear ordnance security Gendarmerie (, GSAN) was created in 1964. It is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Armed Forces and plays a major role in the security chain of the nuclear devices.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The main mission of this specific branch is to secure the government's control over all the nuclear forces and weapons. The security of the civil nuclear powerplants and research establishments is provided by specialized units of the Departmental Gendarmerie. More specifically, the gendarmes of this unit are responsible for ensuring the protection and the readiness of the different kinds of missiles used by the French Navy and Air Force.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: In order to do so, the GSAN is composed of his own units and of units from other branches of the gendarmerie, temporary placed under its command like squadrons of the Mobile Gendarmerie to protect the convoys of nuclear weapons components. For instance, a special security platoon can be deployed on board of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to secure the nuclear weapons carried on the ship.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Provost Gendarmerie (), created in 2013, is the military police of the French Army deployed outside metropolitan France. The functions of military police for the French Army on French soil are fulfilled by units of the Departmental Gendarmerie.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: GIGN () is one of the two premier Counter-terror formations of France. Its counterpart within the National Police is the RAID. Operatives from both formations make up the protective detail of the French President (the GSPR). Its missions include counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, surveillance of national threats, protection of government officials and targeting of organized crime.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: GIGN was established in 1974 following the Munich massacre. Created initially as a relatively small police tactical unit specialized in sensitive hostage situations, it has since grown into a larger and more diversified force of nearly 400 members.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Many of its missions are classified, and members are not allowed to be publicly photographed. Since its formation, GIGN has been involved in over 1,800 missions and rescued more than 600 hostages, making it one of the most experienced counter-terrorism units in the world. The unit came into prominence following its successful assault on a hijacked Air France flight at Marseille Marignane airport in December 1994.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The uniform of the Gendarmerie has undergone many changes since the establishment of the corps. Throughout most of the 19th century a wide bicorne was worn with a dark blue coat or tunic. Trousers were light blue. White aiguillettes were a distinguishing feature. In 1905 the bicorne was replaced by a dark blue kepi with white braiding, which had increasingly been worn as a service headdress. A silver crested helmet with plume, modelled on that of the French cuirassiers, was adopted as a parade headdress until 1914. Following World War I a relatively simple uniform was adopted for the Gendarmerie, although traditional features such as the multiple-cord aiguillette and the dark blue/light blue colour combination were retained.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: Since 2006 a more casual "relaxed uniform" has been authorised for ordinary duties (see photograph below). The kepi however continues in use for dress occasions. Special items of clothing and equipment are issued for the various functions required of the Gendarmerie. The cavalry and infantry of the Republican Guard retain historic ceremonial uniforms dating from the 19th century.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: As of 31 December 2018, the National Gendarmerie consisted of approx. 98,000 personnel units. Career gendarmes are either commissioned or non-commissioned officers. The lower ranks consist of auxiliary gendarmes on limited-time/term contracts. The 102,269 personnel of the National Gendarmerie is divided into:


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie nationale's Prospective Centre (CPGN), which was created in 1998 by an ordinance of the Minister for Defence, is one of the gendarmerie's answers to officials' willingness to modernise the State. Under the direct authority of the general director of the gendarmerie, it is located in Penthièvre barracks on Avenue Delcassé in Paris and managed by Mr Frédéric LENICA, (assisted by a general secretary, Colonel LAPPRAND) "maître des requêtes" in the Conseil d'Etat.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie has used helicopters since 1954. They are part of the Gendarmerie air forces ( or FAG—not to be confused with the Air Gendarmerie or the Air Transport Gendarmerie). FAG units are attached to each of the seven domestic "zonal" regions and six overseas COMGEND (Gendarmerie commands). They also operate for the benefit of the National Police which owns no helicopters (the Police also has access to Civil Security helicopters).


title: National Gendarmerie

text: , Gendarmerie air forces (FAG) operate a fleet of 56 machines belonging to three types and specialized in two basic missions: surveillance/intervention and rescue/intervention.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: The Gendarmerie use as service pistol the Sig-Sauer SP 2022 - like almost all French law enforcement agencies.


title: National Gendarmerie

text: This list is completed by less-lethal weapons like the LBD-40 (a 40mm plastic ball launcher), the Taser x26 and Pepper Spray.


title: Charlatan

text: A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. Synonyms for "charlatan" include "shyster", "quack", or "faker". "Quack" is a reference to "quackery" or the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale of snake oil, or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services.


title: Charlatan

text: The word comes from French "," a seller of medicines who might advertise his presence with music and an outdoor stage show. The best known of the Parisian charlatans was Tabarin, whose skits and farces were influenced by "commedia dell'arte" inspired Molière. The word can also be traced to Spanish ', an indiscreetly talkative person, a "chatterbox". Ultimately, etymologists trace "charlatan" from either the Italian ', to chatter or prattle; or from "Cerretano", a resident of Cerreto, a village in Umbria, known for its quacks.


title: Charlatan

text: A distinction is drawn between the charlatan and other kinds of confidence tricksters. The charlatan is usually a salesperson of a certain service or product, who has no personal relationship with his "marks" (customers or clients), and avoids elaborate hoaxes or roleplaying con-games. Rather, the person called a charlatan is being accused of resorting to quackery, pseudoscience, or other knowingly employed bogus means of impressing people in order to swindle victims by selling them worthless nostrums and similar goods or services that will not deliver on the promises made for them. One example of a charlatan is a 19th-century medicine show operator, who has long since left town by the time the people who bought his "snake oil" or similarly named "cure-all" tonic realize that it was a scam. A misdirection by a charlatan is a confuddle, a dropper is a leader of a group of conmen, and hangmen are conmen that present false checks. A gaff means to trick or con and a mugu is a victim of a rigged game.


title: Charlatan

text: In reported spiritual communications, a charlatan is a person who fakes evidence that a spirit is "making contact" with the medium and seekers. Notable people who have successfully debunked the claims of purported supernatural mediums include magician/scientific skeptic James Randi, Brazilian writer Monteiro Lobato and magician Harry Houdini.


The 2008 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 4, 2008, to elect members to the United States House of Representatives to serve in the 111th United States Congress from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011. It coincided with the election of Barack Obama as President. All 435 voting seats, as well as all 6 non-voting seats, were up for election. The Democratic Party, which won a majority of seats in the 2006 election, expanded its control in 2008.


title: 2008 United States House of Representatives elections

text: The Republican Party, hoping to regain the majority it lost in the 2006 election or at least expand its congressional membership, lost additional seats. With one exception (Louisiana's 2nd district), the only seats to switch from Democratic to Republican had been Republican-held prior to the 2006 elections. Republicans gained five Democratic seats total, while losing 26 of their own, giving the Democrats a net gain of 21 seats, effectively erasing all gains made by the GOP since 1994. In addition, with the defeat of Republican congressman Chris Shays in Connecticut's 4th district, this became the first time since the 1850s that no Republican represented the New England region.


text: The 10.6% popular vote advantage by the Democrats was the largest by either party since 1982, 26 years earlier, and as of 2022 remains the most recent time that either party won by a double-digit margin in the overall popular vote for the House of Representatives. Turnout increased due to the 2008 presidential election. The presidential election, 2008 Senate elections, and 2008 state gubernatorial elections, as well as many other state and local elections, occurred on the same date. This was the first and, as of 2022, remains the only election since 1980 in which the party of a newly elected president simultaneously gained seats in the House.


text: As of 2022, this remains the last election in which Democrats won congressional seats in Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota, the last election in which Democrats won more than one seat in Alabama, and the last election in which Democrats won a majority of seats in Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. It is also the last time Republicans won a seat in Delaware.


text: At the end of the 110th Congress (2nd Session), the membership of the U.S. House of Representatives was composed of 235 Democrats, 199 Republicans, and one vacancy.


text: The thirteen special elections to the 110th United States Congress are listed below by election date.


text: In 2008 there were eight special elections for vacant seats in the United States House of Representatives, for the 110th United States Congress. In the special elections, Democrats gained three seats while keeping hold of five seats. Republicans held only one of their four seats.


text: Twenty-seven Republicans retired. Thirteen of their seats were then won by Democrats (see Open seat gains, below).


text: One Republican lost in a primary and the seat was eventually won by a Democrat. One Democrat lost the primary as did two Republicans. The three primary winners, however, managed to retain the seat for the same party.


text: Fourteen Republicans and five Democrats lost their general elections, thereby losing their seats to the other party.


text: Twelve seats (and one delegate's seat) held by retiring Republicans were won by Democrats. No Democratic retirements were picked up by Republicans.


text: On April 8, 2008, analyst Stuart Rothenberg of The Rothenberg Political Report stated that the fight for the House would be a "one-sided battle, with Democrats having most of the targets." He points to a list of one dozen seats (out of all 435 seats in the House) that are most likely to change hands, of those twelve, ten are open seats, seats which Republicans won by 3% or less in 2006 or otherwise endangered GOP seats.


text: In May 2007, conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote that he believed there were at least a few House seats that were won by Democrats in 2006 "solely because of GOP corruption," and that such seats would be "the most likely to return to the Republican column in 2008". He also said,


text: Novak qualified this by saying that in "previous elections, major House gains by either party have always been followed by losses in the next election".


text: InTrade.com, the only betting site that offered odds on control of the House, put the likelihood of the Democrats retaining control at about 90% .


text: There have been three special elections for open Republican seats, IL-14 (formerly held by Dennis Hastert), LA-06 (formerly held by Richard Baker) and MS-01 (formerly held by Roger Wicker). Democrats won all three elections. After the MS-01 loss, Ron Gunzburger wrote, "GOP insiders in DC now privately acknowledge the Democratic victory in this seat likely foreshadows a dismal general election ahead for congressional Republicans."


text: The following table rates the competitiveness of selected races from around the country according to noted political analysts. Races not included should be considered safe for the incumbent's party. (Incumbents "not" running for re-election have parentheses around their name.)


text: Note: In Louisiana's 2nd and 4th districts, primary runoffs were held November 4, 2008 and the general election for both of these races were held December 6, 2008.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA, stylized as SAG·AFTRA ) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, internet influencers, fashion models, and other media professionals worldwide. The organization was formed on March 30, 2012, following the merger of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG, created in 1933) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA, created in 1937 as the American Federation of Radio Artists, gaining a 'T' in 1952 after its merger with the Television Authority). SAG-AFTRA is a member of the AFL–CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: As of January 2013, "Variety" reported that the merger had proceeded with "few bumps", amid shows of good will on both sides. The stickiest remaining problem was reported to be the merger of the two pension funds, in part as a way of dealing with the issue of performers who paid into each plan, yet did not quite earn enough under either of the old plans to qualify for a pension.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: Ken Howard was the first president of the merged union. Upon his death he was succeeded by Gabrielle Carteris in 2016. On September 2, 2021, Fran Drescher of the Unite for Strength faction was elected president.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: SAG-AFTRA is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and in New York City in addition to other local offices nationwide.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: SAG-AFTRA has a diverse membership consisting of actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, disc jockeys, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: Membership in SAG-AFTRA is considered a rite of passage for new performers and media professionals. It is often procured after getting hired for their first job in a studio that has a collective bargaining agreement with the union. SAG-AFTRA work is considered to be substantially more prestigious than non-union jobs. Due to the size and influence of the union, most major media firms have a collective bargaining agreement with SAG-AFTRA through the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Studios that have signed a collective bargaining agreement with SAG-AFTRA are not closed shops, but are generally required to give preference to union members first when hiring.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: Nearly all professional actors and media professionals working for medium or large-scale American media firms are expected to be unionized. As a result, SAG-AFTRA has many members who are consistently out of work, uncommon for a union, but reflective of how work is procured in the industry. According to SAG-AFTRA's Department of Labor records since its founding, around 34%, or a third, of the union's total membership have consistently been considered "withdrawn," "suspended," or otherwise not categorized as "active" members. These members are ineligible to vote in the union. "Honorable withdrawals" constitute the largest portion of these, at 20% of the total membership, or 46,934 members. "Suspended payment" members are the second largest, at 14%, or 33,422 members. This classification scheme is continued from the Screen Actors Guild, rather than the scheme used by AFTRA.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: The union is perceived as having two factions. The larger faction ("United for Strength") says it is focused on creating job opportunities for members. A second faction ("Membership First") has criticized the current administration for being too quick and soft when it comes to negotiations with studios.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: "Global Rule One" is the foundation for SAG-AFTRA's unity as a union. It essentially states that members may not perform in any form of media that is not protected under a SAG-AFTRA contract or affiliated unions' jurisdictions.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: Global Rule One states: No member shall render any services or make an agreement to perform services for any employer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the union, which is in full force and effect, in any jurisdiction in which there is a SAG-AFTRA national collective bargaining agreement in place. This provision applies worldwide.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: Do not work orders are formally issued to denote productions that have not entered into the required agreements.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: After about a year and a half of negotiations, SAG-AFTRA issued a strike on October 21, 2016, against eleven American video game developers and publishers, including Activision, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Interactive, and WB Games. The strike resulted from attempted negotiations since February 2015 to replace the previous contract, the Interactive Media Agreement, that expired in late 2014. There were four major issues they fought for with this strike: establishing transparency in contract negotiation; preventing vocal stress from long recording sessions; providing safety assurances for stunt coordinators on performance capture sets; and giving payments of residuals based on sales of a video game, which have traditionally not been used in the video game industry. SAG-AFTRA members sought to bring equity for video game actors as in other industries, while the video game companies feared that giving residuals to actors would overshadow the contributions of programmers and artists that contribute to the games. It was the first such organized strike within the video game industry and the first voice actors' strike in 17 years, as well as the first strike within the merged SAG-AFTRA organization. As of April 23, 2017, it became the longest strike within SAG, surpassing the 95-day 1980 Emmy Awards strike, and the 2000 commercials strike.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: On September 20, 2018, SAG-AFTRA called a strike against global advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) after BBH announced they would no longer honor a long-standing contract with SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA launched a successful strike action that drew thousands of members to picket lines and strike actions across the country. At the close of the strike, BBH agreed to return to SAG-AFTRA's contract.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: In 2018, BBH had withdrawn from their contract with SAG-AFTRA, which was first agreed on in 1999, over contractual terms that stated BBH would not be allowed to hire non-union actors. BBH stated put them at competitive disadvantage as many of their peer agencies were not signatories.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: SAG-AFTRA members' successful strike actions, including pickets and rallies throughout the U.S., proved a success for SAG-AFTRA. Several actions of note included a rally of 1,000 SAG-AFTRA members and supporters near SAG-AFTRA Headquarters at the La Brea Tar Pits, and a picket line at BBH Headquarters in Los Angeles that drew an estimated 1,000 members standing in solidarity on the picket line.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: On July 20, 2019, SAG ended its 10-month strike against BBH after the advertising agency agreed to sign the union’s new commercials contract.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: On February 7, 2021, SAG-AFTRA announced that former U.S. President Donald Trump, who resigned from the group on February 4, 2021, would be barred from ever rejoining due to his attacks on journalists and obstructing the peaceful transfer of power to the next president.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: On February 9, 2016, NBCUniversal, Telemundo's parent company, faced claims by SAG-AFTRA of operating under a double standard between its Spanish-language and English-language talent at NBC and Telemundo. In its response, the network released a statement claiming it is “committed to making Telemundo a great place to work for our employees and will continue to invest in them to ensure their salaries and working conditions are competitive with the rest of the broadcasting industry in accordance with market size and station revenues.”


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: A few days later on February 13, 2016, SAG-AFTRA came back and added that Telemundo had been treating its employees like “second-class professionals” given that many actors do not receive basic workplace guarantees that SAG-AFTRA contracts provide, such as fair pay, water breaks, health insurance and residuals. At that time, Telemundo president Luis Silberwasser responded by saying that SAG-AFTRA asked for recognition of the union as the bargaining agent for employees — rather than seeking a vote by employees. However, SAG-AFTRA claimed that intimidation tactics had been taking place within the network to keep employees from unionizing and that they believe “there is no such thing as a ‘fair vote’ when workers are afraid for their careers and livelihoods, and live with the fear of retaliation if they are seen as actively wanting to unionize. SAG-AFTRA wants to ensure full protection for workplace democracy and performers’ rights to choose through a truly fair process.”


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: In August 2016, Telemundo once again found itself up against the union when the network refused to air an ad placed by SAG-AFTRA detailing the unfair wage gap and lack of benefits Telemundo employees face as opposed to unionized performers at NBCUniversal. The ad was set to air during the network’s premiere people’s choice awards Premios Tu Mundo but was never placed into rotation. A Telemundo spokesperson responded saying, “After legal review, we have concluded the ad did not pass legal standards for issue-based advertisement.” Meanwhile, other Spanish-language networks such as MegaTV and Estrella TV aired the ad nationwide.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: SAG-AFTRA continued to stand its ground, stating that "Telemundo's decision to censor 30 seconds of truthful commentary about its working conditions shows just how averse it is to having a transparent discussion about its refusal to fairly compensate Spanish-speaking performers."


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: In March 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administered a secret vote amongst 124 Telemundo performers, based on the amount of time actors have worked on telenovela dramas and other shows. SAG-AFTRA announced that 81% of eligible voters chose to unionize in a balloting process that began Feb. 7 and lasted four weeks.


title: SAG-AFTRA

text: Joining the union will allow Telemundo actors, along with singers, dancers and stunt people, to bargain with the network for health insurance, residual payments and other benefits that are routine at English-language television networks.


title: Jani Master

text: Jani Master (born Shaik Jani Basha; 2 July 1982) is an Indian dance choreographer who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. He has also worked in Kannada, Tamil, and Hindi films. He choreographs in a wide range of dancing styles, but he is mostly known for his western and folk style dancing.


title: Jani Master

text: Jani Master began his film work as a dancer in Telugu films and on the ETV's Telugu Television Reality-dance show "Dhee Ultimate Dance" "Show", before being given the chance to choreograph in "Drona", a 2009 Telugu film. Actor Ram Charan employed him as choreographer of the dances for 2012 Telugu film "Racha". Ram Charan appointed him as choreographer in all of his films. He then worked for other actors such as: Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun, N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Pothineni, Ravi Teja. He has also sung a song dedicated to Ram Charan.


title: Jani Master

text: In 2014, Bollywood actor Salman Khan appointed Jani Master for "Jai Ho" as choreographer. He also choreographs award ceremonies. He continues to choreograph in feature films. He has contributed to two Television Reality-dance shows as a choreographer and as a mentor. His awards include Filmfare Awards, CineMAA Awards and South Indian International Movie Awards. From 2017, he is one of the judges on various Telugu Television reality-dance shows such as "Neethone Dance" on the Star Maa.


title: Jani Master

text: In 2018, he was the choreographer for the film "MLA". In the same year he worked as an assistant to Prabhudeva for a Tamil song, Rowdy Baby from the film "Maari 2" brought so much of recognition, as the song became a viral hit for its choreography across Indian subcontinent and other parts of the world.


title: Jani Master

text: Later, in 2020 he once again received praise for his choreography for Butta Bomma song from the Telugu film "Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo".The rolling step in the music video became as a signature step. It was recreated by many celebrities and million others across various social media and short-video making entertainment platforms. This song also became a hit.


title: History of Turkey

text: The history of Turkey, understood as the history of the region now forming the territory of the Republic of Turkey, includes the history of both Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey) and Eastern Thrace (the European part of Turkey). These two previously politically distinct regions came under control of the Roman Empire in the second century BC, eventually becoming the core of the Roman Byzantine Empire. For times predating the Ottoman period, a distinction should also be made between the history of the Turkic peoples, and the history of the territories now forming the Republic of Turkey From the time when parts of what is now Turkey were conquered by the Seljuq dynasty, the history of Turkey spans the medieval history of the Seljuk Empire, the medieval to modern history of the Ottoman Empire, and the history of the Republic of Turkey since the 1920s.


title: History of Turkey

text: Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to the Paleolithic. The earliest representations of culture in Anatolia were Stone Age artifacts. Artifacts from the Paleolithic era have been found scattered through Anatolia, and many are currently housed in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, in the Archaeological Museum in Antalya, and in other Turkish institutions.


title: History of Turkey

text: Bronze Age civilization started to appear in Anatolia in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The earliest representations of culture in Anatolia can be found in several archaeological sites located in the central and eastern part of the region. Stone Age artifacts such as animal bones and food fossils were found at Burdur (north of Antalya). Although the origins of some of the earliest peoples are shrouded in mystery, the remnants of Bronze Age civilizations, such as the Hattian, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and the Hittites, provide us with many examples of the daily lives of its citizens and their trade. After the fall of the Hittites, the new Greek states of Phrygia and Lydia developed on the western coast as the classical Greek Aegean civilization began to flourish.


title: History of Turkey

text: The classical history of Anatolia (Asia Minor) can be roughly subdivided into the classical period and Hellenistic Anatolia, ending with the conquest of the region by the Roman empire in the second century BC.


title: History of Turkey

text: After the fall of the Hittites, the new states of Phrygia and Lydia stood strong on the western coast as Greek civilization began to flourish. They, and all the rest of Anatolia were relatively soon after incorporated into the Achaemenid Persian Empire.


title: History of Turkey

text: As Persia grew in strength, their system of local government in Anatolia allowed many port cities to grow and to become wealthy. All of Anatolia got divided into various satrapies, ruled by satraps (governors) appointed by the central Persian rulers. The first state that was called Armenia by neighbouring peoples was the state of the Armenian Orontid dynasty, which included parts of eastern Turkey beginning in the 6th century BC, which became the Satrapy of Armenia under Achaemenid rule. Some of the satraps revolted periodically but did not pose a serious threat. In the 5th century BC, Darius I built the Royal Road, which linked the principal city of Susa with the west Anatolian city of Sardis.


title: History of Turkey

text: Anatolia played a pivotal role in Achaemenid history. In the earliest 5th century BC, some of the Ionian cities under Persian rule revolted, which culminated into the Ionian Revolt. This revolt, after being easily suppressed by the Persian authority, laid the direct uplead for the Greco-Persian Wars, which turned out to be one of the most crucial wars in European history.


title: History of Turkey

text: Achaemenid Persian rule in Anatolia ended with the conquests of Alexander the Great, defeating Darius III between 334 and 330 BC. Alexander wrested control of the whole region from Persia in successive battles. After Alexander's death, his conquests were split amongst several of his trusted generals, but were under constant threat of invasion from both the Gauls and other powerful rulers in Pergamon, Pontus, and Egypt. The Seleucid Empire, the largest of Alexander's territories, and which included Anatolia, became involved in a disastrous war with Rome culminating in the battles of Thermopylae and Magnesia. The resulting Treaty of Apamea in (188 BC) saw the Seleucids retreat from Anatolia. The Kingdom of Pergamum and the Republic of Rhodes, Rome's allies in the war, were granted the former Seleucid lands in Anatolia.


title: History of Turkey

text: Roman control of Anatolia was strengthened by a 'hands off' approach by Rome, allowing local control to govern effectively and providing military protection. In the early 4th century, Constantine the Great established a new administrative centre at Constantinople, and by the end of the 4th century the Roman empire split into two parts, the Eastern part (Romania) with Constantinople as its capital, referred to by historians as the Byzantine Empire from the original name, Byzantium.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Thracians (, ) were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Central and Southeastern Europe. They were bordered by the Scythians to the north, the Celts and the Illyrians to the west, the Ancient Greeks to the south and the Black Sea to the east. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family. The study of Thracians and Thracian culture is known as Thracology.


title: History of Turkey

text: Starting around 1200 BC, the western coast of Anatolia was heavily settled by Aeolian and Ionian Greeks. Numerous important cities were founded by these colonists, such as Miletus, Ephesus, Smyrna and Byzantium, the latter founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 657 BC. All of Thrace, and the native Thracian peoples were conquered by Darius the Great in the late 6th century BC, and were re-subjugated into the empire in 492 BC following Mardonius' campaign during the First Persian invasion of Greece. The territory of Thrace later became unified by the Odrysian kingdom, founded by Teres I, probably after the Persian defeat in Greece.


title: History of Turkey

text: By the 5th century BC, the Thracian presence was pervasive enough to have made Herodotus call them the second-most numerous people in the part of the world known by him (after the Indians), and potentially the most powerful, if not for their lack of unity. The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, such as the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace and the Dacian kingdom of Burebista. A type of soldier of this period called the Peltast probably originated in Thrace.


title: History of Turkey

text: Before the expansion of the Kingdom of Macedon, Thrace was divided into three camps (East, Central, and West) after the withdrawal of the Persians following their eventual defeat in mainland Greece. Cersobleptes, a notable ruler of the East Thracians, attempted to expand his authority over many of the Thracian tribes but was eventually defeated by the Macedonians.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Thracians were typically not city-builders. The largest Thracian cities were in fact large villages and the only polis was Seuthopolis.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Persian Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC, which led to increasing cultural homogeneity and Hellenization in the area. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, Anatolia was subsequently divided into a number of small Hellenistic kingdoms, all of which became part of the Roman Republic by the mid-1st century BC. The process of Hellenization that began with Alexander's conquest accelerated under Roman rule, and by the early centuries AD the local Anatolian languages and cultures had become extinct, being largely replaced by ancient Greek language and culture.


title: History of Turkey

text: In 324, Constantine I chose Byzantium to be the new capital of the Roman Empire, renaming it New Rome. Following the death of Theodosius I in 395 and the permanent division of the Roman Empire between his two sons, the city, which would popularly come to be known as Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. This, which would later be branded by historians as the Byzantine Empire, ruled most of the territory of what is today Turkey until the Late Middle Ages, while the other remaining territory remained in Sassanid Persian hands.


title: History of Turkey

text: Between the 3rd and 7th century AD, the Byzantines and the neighboring Sassanids frequently clashed over possession of Anatolia, which significantly exhausted both empires, thus laying the way open for the eventual Muslim conquests from both empires' respective south.


title: History of Turkey

text: Historians generally agree that the first Turkic people lived in a region extending from Central Asia to Siberia. Historically they were established after the 6th century BC. The earliest separate Turkic peoples appeared on the peripheries of the late Xiongnu confederation about 200 BC (contemporaneous with the Chinese Han Dynasty).


title: History of Turkey

text: The first mention of Turks was in a Chinese text that mentioned trade of Turk tribes with the Sogdians along the Silk Road.


title: History of Turkey

text: It has often been suggested that the Xiongnu, mentioned in Han Dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Hun hordes of Attila, who invaded and conquered much of Europe in the 5th century AD, may have been Turkic and descendants of the Xiongnu. Some scholars argue that the Huns were one of the earlier Turkic tribes, while others argue that they were of Mongolic origin.


title: History of Turkey

text: In the 6th century, 400 years after the collapse of northern Xiongnu power in Inner Asia, leadership of the Turkic peoples was taken over by the Göktürks. Formerly in the Xiongnu nomadic confederation, the Göktürks inherited their traditions and administrative experience. From 552 to 745, Göktürk leadership united the nomadic Turkic tribes into the Göktürk Empire. The name derives from "gok", "blue" or "celestial". Unlike its Xiongnu predecessor, the Göktürk Khanate had its temporary "khans" from the Ashina clan that were "subordinate" to a sovereign authority controlled by a council of tribal chiefs. The Khanate retained elements of its original shamanistic religion, Tengriism, although it received missionaries of Buddhist monks and practiced a syncretic religion. The Göktürks were the first Turkic people to write Old Turkic in a runic script, the Orkhon script. The Khanate was also the first state known as "Turk". Towards the end of the century, the Göktürks Khanate was split in two; i.e., Eastern Turkic Khaganate and Western Turkic Khaganate. The Tang Empire conquered the Eastern Turkic Khaganate in 630 and the Western Turkic Khaganate in 657 in a series of military campaigns. However in 681 the khanate was revived. The Göktürks eventually collapsed due to a series of dynastic conflicts, but the name "Turk" was later taken by many states and peoples.


title: History of Turkey

text: Turkic peoples and related groups migrated west from Turkestan and what is now Mongolia towards Eastern Europe, Iranian plateau and Anatolia and modern Turkey in many waves. The date of the initial expansion remains unknown. After many battles, they established their own state and later created the Ottoman Empire. The main migration occurred in medieval times, when they spread across most of Asia and into Europe and the Middle East. They also participated in the Crusades.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Seljuq Turkmens created a medieval empire that controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. From their homelands near the Aral sea, the Seljuqs advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Seljuq/Seljuk empire was founded by Tughril Beg (1016-1063) in 1037. Tughril was raised by his grandfather, Seljuk-Beg Seljuk gave his name to both the Seljuk empire and the Seljuk dynasty. The Seljuqs united the fractured political scene of the eastern Islamic world and played a key role in the first and second crusades. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuqs also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Ottoman beylik's first capital was located in Bursa in 1326. Edirne which was conquered in 1361 was the next capital city. After largely expanding to Europe and Anatolia, in 1453, the Ottomans nearly completed the conquest of the Byzantine Empire by capturing its capital, Constantinople during the reign of Mehmed II. Constantinople was made the capital city of the Empire following Edirne. The Ottoman Empire would continue to expand into the Eastern Anatolia, Central Europe, the Caucasus, North and East Africa, the islands in the Mediterranean, Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian peninsula in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Ottoman Empire's power and prestige peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. The empire was often at odds with the Holy Roman Empire in its steady advance towards Central Europe through the Balkans and the southern part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In addition, the Ottomans were often at war with Persia over territorial disputes, which allowed them to inherit the Timurid Renaissance. At sea, the empire contended with the Holy Leagues, composed of Habsburg Spain, the Republic of Venice and the Knights of St. John, for control of the Mediterranean. In the Indian Ocean, the Ottoman navy frequently confronted Portuguese fleets in order to defend its traditional monopoly over the maritime trade routes between East Asia and Western Europe; these routes faced new competition with the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. The Ottomans even had influence in Southeast Asia as the Ottomans sent soldiers to their most distant vassal, the Sultanate of Aceh at Sumatra in Indonesia. Their forces in Aceh were opposed by the Portuguese that had crossed the Atlantic and Indian Oceans invaded the Sultanate of Malacca and the Spaniards who had crossed from Latin America and invaded formerly Muslim Manila in the Philippines, as these Iberian powers waged a world war against the Ottoman Caliphate known as the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.


title: History of Turkey

text: The Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 marked the beginning of Ottoman territorial retreat; some territories were lost by the treaty: Austria received all of Hungary and Transylvania except the Banat; Venice obtained most of Dalmatia along with the Morea (the Peloponnesus peninsula in southern Greece); Poland recovered Podolia. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire continued losing its territories, including Greece, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and the Balkans in the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars. Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century (see Rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). Its inhabitants were of varied ethnicities, including Turks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks, French, and Italians (particularly from Genoa and Venice). Faced with territorial losses on all sides the Ottoman Empire under the rule of the Three Pashas forged an alliance with Germany who supported it with troops and equipment. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I (1914–1918) on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated. Following World War I, the huge conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new states.


title: History of Turkey

text: On October 30, 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed, followed by the imposition of Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920 by Allied Powers, which was never ratified. The Treaty of Sèvres would break up the Ottoman Empire and force large concessions on territories of the Empire in favour of Greece, Italy, Britain and France.


title: History of Turkey

text: The occupation of some parts of the country by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish national movement. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. By September 18, 1922, the occupying armies were expelled. On November 1, the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule. The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in the new capital of Ankara. Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first President of Turkey and subsequently introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new Secular Republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past. The Ottoman fez was abolished, full rights for women politically were established, and new writing system for Turkish based upon the Latin alphabet was created.


title: History of Turkey

text: According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish parliament presented Mustafa Kemal with the honorific surname "Atatürk" ("Father of the Turks") in 1934.


title: History of Turkey

text: Turkey was neutral in World War II (1939–45) but signed a treaty with Britain in October 1939 that said Britain would defend Turkey if Germany attacked it. An invasion was threatened in 1941 but did not happen and Ankara refused German requests to allow troops to cross its borders into Syria or the USSR. Germany had been its largest trading partner before the war, and Turkey continued to do business with both sides. It purchased arms from both sides. The Allies tried to stop German purchases of chrome (used in making better steel). Starting in 1942 the Allies provided military aid. The Turkish leaders conferred with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in November, 1943, and promised to enter the war. By August 1944, with Germany nearing defeat, Turkey broke off relations. In February 1945, it declared war on Germany and Japan, a symbolic move that allowed Turkey to join the nascent United Nations.


title: History of Turkey

text: Meanwhile, relations with Moscow worsened, setting stage for the start of the Cold War. The demands by the Soviet Union for military bases in the Turkish Straits, prompted the United States to declare the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece, and resulted in large-scale U.S. military and economic support.


title: History of Turkey

text: After participating with the United Nations forces in the Korean War, Turkey joined NATO in 1952, becoming a bulwark against Soviet expansion into the Mediterranean. Following a decade of intercommunal violence on the island of Cyprus and the Greek military coup of July 1974, overthrowing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as a dictator, Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus in 1974. Nine years later the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was established. Turkey is the only country that recognises the TRNC


title: History of Turkey

text: The one-party period was followed by multi-party democracy after 1945. The Turkish democracy was interrupted by military coups d'état in 1960, 1971 and 1980. In 1984, the PKK began an insurgency against the Turkish government; the conflict, which has claimed over 40,000 lives, continues today. Since the liberalization of the Turkish economy during the 1980s, the country has enjoyed stronger economic growth and greater political stability.


title: History of Turkey

text: In August 2014, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey's first direct presidential election.


title: History of Turkey

text: In July 2016, the Turkish attempted coup took place. A number of rogue government units took over and were only repelled after a few hours.


title: History of Turkey

text: In December 2016, an off duty policeman Mevlut Altintas shot dead the Russian Ambassador inside an Art Gallery. He refused to surrender and was then shot dead by special police.


title: History of Turkey

text: In April 2017, the constitutional amendments, which significantly increased the powers of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were narrowly accepted in the constitutional referendum.


title: History of Turkey

text: In June 2018, President Erdogan was re-elected for a new five-year term in the first round of the presidential election. His AK Party (AKP), Justice and Development Party secured a majority in the separate parliamentary election.


title: History of Turkey

text: In October 2018, Prince MBS of Saudi Arabia sent a group of government agents to murder prominent critic, Jamal Khashoggi. His death was just a few days before his sixtieth birthday.


title: History of Turkey

text: In July 2022, the Turkish government asked the international community to recognise Turkey by its Turkish name Türkiye, preventing from confusion with Turkey (bird).


title: Shell (computing)

text: In computing, a shell is a computer program that exposes an operating system's services to a human user or other programs. In general, operating system shells use either a command-line interface (CLI) or graphical user interface (GUI), depending on a computer's role and particular operation. It is named a shell because it is the outermost layer around the operating system.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Command-line shells require the user to be familiar with commands and their calling syntax, and to understand concepts about the shell-specific scripting language (for example, bash), while graphical shells place a low burden on beginning computer users and are characterized as being easy to use, yet most GUI-enabled operating systems also provide CLI shells, normally for performing advanced tasks.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Operating systems provide various services to their users, including file management, process management (running and terminating applications), batch processing, and operating system monitoring and configuration.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Most operating system shells are not "direct" interfaces to the underlying kernel, even if a shell communicates with the user via peripheral devices attached to the computer directly. Shells are actually special applications that use the kernel API in just the same way as it is used by other application programs. A shell manages the user– system interaction by prompting users for input, interpreting their input, and then handling output from the underlying operating system (much like a read–eval–print loop, REPL). Since the operating system shell is actually an application, it may easily be replaced with another similar application, for most operating systems.


title: Shell (computing)

text: In addition to shells running on local systems, there are different ways to make remote systems available to local users; such approaches are usually referred to as remote access or remote administration. Initially available on multi-user mainframes, which provided text-based UIs for each active user "simultaneously" by means of a text terminal connected to the mainframe via serial line or modem, remote access has extended to Unix-like systems and Microsoft Windows. On Unix-like systems, Secure Shell protocol is usually used for text-based shells, while SSH tunneling can be used for X Window System–based graphical user interfaces (GUIs). On Microsoft Windows, Remote Desktop Protocol can be used to provide GUI remote access, and since Windows Vista, PowerShell Remote can be used for text-based remote access via WMI, RPC, and WS-Management.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Most operating system shells fall into one of two categories command-line and graphical. Command-line shells provide a command-line interface (CLI) to the operating system, while graphical shells provide a graphical user interface (GUI). Other possibilities, although not so common, include a voice user interface and various implementations of a text-based user interface (TUI) that are not CLI, such as text-based menu systems. The relative merits of CLI- and GUI-based shells are often debated. Many computer users use both depending on the task to be performed.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Early interactive systems provided a simple command-line interpreter as part of the resident monitor. This interpreter might be called by different names, such as codice_1 on DEC TOPS-10 systems. The interpreter would execute one of a number of predefined commands, one of which would be to run a user program. Common commands would log the user on and off the system, allocate, free, and manipulate devices and files, and query various pieces of information about the system or a user process.


title: Shell (computing)

text: In 1964, for the Multics operating system, Louis Pouzin conceived the idea of "using commands somehow like a programming language," and coined the term "shell" to describe it. In a 1965 document, the shell is defined as "a common procedure called automatically by the supervisor whenever a user types in some message at his console, at a time when he has no other process in active execution under console control. This procedure acts as an interface between console messages and subroutine [in the supervisor]."


title: Shell (computing)

text: In 1971, Ken Thompson developed the Thompson shell in the first version of Unix. While simpler than the Multics shell, it contained some innovative features, which have been carried forward in modern shells, including the use of < and > for input and output redirection.


title: Shell (computing)

text: The graphical shell first appeared in Douglas Engelbart’s NLS system, demonstrated in December, 1968 at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, in what has been called "The Mother of All Demos". Engelbart’s colleagues at Stanford Research Institute brought the concept to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where it appeared on the Alto, introduced in 1973. From there the idea spread to Niklaus Wirth’s Lilith in 1980, and the Apple Lisa in 1983, then became ubiquitous.


title: Shell (computing)

text: A command-line interface (CLI) is an operating system shell that uses alphanumeric characters typed on a keyboard to provide instructions and data to the operating system, interactively. For example, a teletypewriter can send codes representing keystrokes to a command interpreter program running on the computer; the command interpreter parses the sequence of keystrokes and responds with an error message if it cannot recognize the sequence of characters, or it may carry out some other program action such as loading an application program, listing files, logging in a user and many others. Operating systems such as UNIX have a large variety of shell programs with different commands, syntax and capabilities, with the POSIX shell being a baseline. Some operating systems had only a single style of command interface; commodity operating systems such as MS-DOS came with a standard command interface (COMMAND.COM) but third-party interfaces were also often available, providing additional features or functions such as menuing or remote program execution.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Application programs may also implement a command-line interface. For example, in Unix-like systems, the telnet program has a number of commands for controlling a link to a remote computer system. Since the commands to the program are made of the same keystrokes as the data being sent to a remote computer, some means of distinguishing the two are required. An escape sequence can be defined, using either a special local keystroke that is never passed on but always interpreted by the local system. The program becomes modal, switching between interpreting commands from the keyboard or passing keystrokes on as data to be processed.


title: Shell (computing)

text: A feature of many command-line shells is the ability to save sequences of commands for re-use. A data file can contain sequences of commands which the CLI can be made to follow as if typed in by a user. Special features in the CLI may apply when it is carrying out these stored instructions. Such batch files (script files) can be used repeatedly to automate routine operations such as initializing a set of programs when a system is restarted. Batch mode use of shells usually involves structures, conditionals, variables, and other elements of programming languages; some have the bare essentials needed for such a purpose, others are very sophisticated programming languages in and of themselves. Conversely, some programming languages can be used interactively from an operating system shell or in a purpose-built program.


title: Shell (computing)

text: The command-line shell may offer features such as command-line completion, where the interpreter expands commands based on a few characters input by the user. A command-line interpreter may offer a history function, so that the user can recall earlier commands issued to the system and repeat them, possibly with some editing. Since all commands to the operating system had to be typed by the user, short command names and compact systems for representing program options were common. Short names were sometimes hard for a user to recall, and early systems lacked the storage resources to provide a detailed on-line user instruction guide.


title: Shell (computing)

text: A graphical user interface (GUI) provides means for manipulating programs graphically, by allowing for operations such as opening, closing, moving and resizing windows, as well as switching focus between windows. Graphical shells may be included with desktop environments or come separately, even as a set of loosely coupled utilities.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Most graphical user interfaces develop the metaphor of an "electronic desktop", where data files are represented as if they were paper documents on a desk, and application programs similarly have graphical representations instead of being invoked by command names.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Graphical shells typically build on top of a windowing system. In the case of X Window System or Wayland, the shell consists of an X window manager or a Wayland compositor, respectively, as well as of one or multiple programs providing the functionality to start installed applications, to manage open windows and virtual desktops, and often to support a widget engine.


title: Shell (computing)

text: In the case of macOS, Quartz Compositor acts as the windowing system, and the shell consists of the Finder, the Dock, SystemUIServer, and Mission Control.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Modern versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system use the Windows shell as their shell. Windows Shell provides desktop environment, start menu, and task bar, as well as a graphical user interface for accessing the file management functions of the operating system. Older versions also include Program Manager, which was the shell for the 3.x series of Microsoft Windows, and which in fact shipped with later versions of Windows of both the 95 and NT types at least through Windows XP. The interfaces of Windows versions 1 and 2 were markedly different.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Desktop applications are also considered shells, as long as they use a third-party engine. Likewise, many individuals and developers dissatisfied with the interface of Windows Explorer have developed software that either alters the functioning and appearance of the shell or replaces it entirely. WindowBlinds by StarDock is a good example of the former sort of application. LiteStep and Emerge Desktop are good examples of the latter.


title: Shell (computing)

text: Interoperability programmes and purpose-designed software lets Windows users use equivalents of many of the various Unix-based GUIs discussed below, as well as Macintosh. An equivalent of the OS/2 Presentation Manager for version 3.0 can run some OS/2 programmes under some conditions using the OS/2 environmental subsystem in versions of Windows NT.


title: Shell (computing)

text: "Shell" is also used loosely to describe application software that is "built around" a particular component, such as web browsers and email clients, in analogy to the shells found in nature. Indeed, the (command-line) shell encapsulates the operating system "kernel". These are also sometimes referred to as "wrappers".


title: Shell (computing)

text: In expert systems, a shell is a piece of software that is an "empty" expert system without the knowledge base for any particular application.


title: Deflategate

text: Deflategate was a National Football League (NFL) controversy involving the allegation that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady ordered the deliberate deflation of footballs used in the Patriots' victory against the Indianapolis Colts during the on January 18, 2015. The controversy resulted in Brady being suspended for four games, while the team was fined and forfeited two draft selections in 2016.


title: Deflategate

text: For his alleged part in the scandal, Brady's suspension was originally to be implemented during the 2015 regular season. Brady successfully appealed the suspension in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, allowing him to resume his playing duties for the entirety of 2015. However, following the conclusion of the season, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated Brady's four-game suspension, which became effective for the 2016 regular season. After losing a request for a rehearing, Brady announced he would accept the suspension and missed the season's first four games. The controversy remained a topic of discussion during the season, which concluded with the Patriots winning Super Bowl LI and Brady being named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the game. The season also saw the NFL change the procedure for monitoring football pressure.


title: Deflategate

text: The official rules of the National Football League require footballs to be inflated to a gauge pressure of between when measured by the game officials. The rules do not specify the temperature at which such measurement is to be made. As stated by the pressure-temperature law, there is a positive correlation between the temperature and pressure of a gas with a fixed volume and mass. Thus, if a football were inflated to the minimum pressure of 12.5 psi at room temperature, the pressure would drop below the minimum as the gases inside cooled to a lower ambient temperature on the playing field.


title: Deflategate

text: Before 2006, normal NFL operating procedure was for the home team to provide all of the game's footballs. In 2006, the rules were altered so that each team uses its own footballs while on offense. Teams rarely handle a football used by the other team except after recovering a fumble or interception. Brady, along with Peyton Manning, who started at quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts in 2006, argued for the rules to change for the express purpose of letting quarterbacks use footballs that suited them. Removing air from a football makes it easier to grip, throw, and catch.


title: Deflategate

text: Early reports suggested that the Colts and Baltimore Ravens first suspected that the footballs the Patriots were using in the games against each team might have been deliberately underinflated to gain an illegal advantage during the 2014 NFL regular season, although Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh denied reports concerning the Ravens.


title: Deflategate

text: The American Football Conference (AFC) Championship Game for the 2014 season was played on January 18, 2015, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the Patriots, who hosted the Colts. The winning team would advance to play in Super Bowl XLIX. Before the game, the Colts had notified the NFL that they suspected the Patriots were underinflating balls, but provided no specific information.


title: Deflategate

text: During the first half of the , Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw an interception to Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson. After the play was over, Jackson handed the ball to the Colts equipment manager for safekeeping as a souvenir. Early reports suggested that Jackson was the first to suspect the ball was deflated, but Jackson said he did not notice anything wrong with the ball he caught. Jackson says he actually did not even know the ball was taken or that the controversy existed until he was being driven home from the team's charter plane after the Colts had arrived in Indianapolis. "I wouldn't know how that could even be an advantage or a disadvantage," Jackson said, "I definitely wouldn't be able to tell if one ball had less pressure than another." After Jackson's interception, the team notified NFL Gameday Operations that they "understood that there was a


title: Deflategate

text: At halftime, NFL officials inspected the footballs. Former NFL referee Gerry Austin initially, and incorrectly, stated that 11 of the 12 balls used by the Patriots were measured to be two pounds per square inch below the minimum amount, but later reports contradicted this allegation, stating that only a single ball was two pounds per square inch below the minimum, while others were just a few ticks under the minimum. It was subsequently revealed that in NFL Official Clete Blakeman's measurement sequence (which was deemed to be the more accurate of the two gauges), five of eleven footballs measured below 11.0 pounds, this being less than 90% of the officially mandated minimum pressure and a full two pounds below the claimed original inflation target (a magnitude of pressure loss difficult to account for through environmental factors alone).


title: Deflategate

text: According to NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino, referees do not log the pressure of the balls before the game, or check during the game, and did not do so in this case. Walt Anderson, the referee, gauged the footballs. The Patriots' game balls were re-inflated at halftime to meet specifications and were reintroduced into the game.


title: Deflategate

text: No issues were raised on the pressure of the footballs used in the second half. The pressures of four of the Colts' footballs were measured at halftime using two gauges, and were found to be within regulation on one of the two gauges, but not on the other gauge. The remainder were not measured because, according to the Wells Report, "the officials were running out of time before the start of the second half."


title: Deflategate

text: The Patriots led 17–7 at halftime; in the second half, the Patriots scored 28 points for a final score of 45–7.


title: Deflategate

text: The NFL began an investigation into the underinflation of the game balls in the 2014–2015 playoffs. The report of the investigation was released in May 2015.


title: Deflategate

text: On January 22, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick indicated that he did not know anything about the balls being underinflated until the day after the event, and that the New England Patriots would "cooperate fully" with any investigation. He said, When I came in Monday morning, I was shocked to hear about the news reports about the footballs. I had no knowledge of the situation until Monday morning. [...] I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on the footballs. They know a lot more than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am. I hear them comment on it from time to time, but I can tell you, and they will tell you, that there's never any sympathy whatsoever from me on that subject. Zero. [...] Tom's personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide.Patriots quarterback Tom Brady initially referred to the accusations as "ridiculous". Brady also held a news conference on January 22, preparing his team with a talk beforehand. He denied any involvement and stated that the National Football League had not contacted him in regard to their investigation. He went on to say that he was "handling the situation before the Super Bowl".


title: Deflategate

text: HeadSmart Labs found that similar weather changes caused an average 1.8 psi drop in football pressure. They also reported that the air in an electric pump could reach 130 °F.


title: Deflategate

text: On January 27, an anonymous league source stated that the investigation was focusing on a Patriots locker room attendant who was seen on surveillance video taking the 24 game footballs (12 from each team) into a restroom for approximately 90 seconds. This video was provided to the NFL by the New England Patriots the day after the 45–7 Patriots victory.


title: Deflategate

text: Blandino confirmed on January 29 that the NFL checks, but does not log, the pregame pressure of each football, and therefore is no record of where in the 12.5 to 13.5 psi range each Patriots and Colts football was before the game. In the same news conference, referee Bill Vinovich said, We test them. It's 12.5 to 13.5. We put 13 in every ball. ... Dean tested a couple in the office and had one underinflated and one to specs, and you really couldn't tell the difference unless you actually sat there and tried to squeeze the thing or did some extraordinary thing. If someone just tossed you the ball, especially in 20 degree weather, you're going to pretty much play with the ball. They are going to be hard. You're not going to notice the difference.


title: Deflategate

text: Ian Rapoport released a report February 1 citing anonymous league sources who indicated that amongst the 11 of the 12 footballs used in the first half judged by the officials to be under the minimum PSI, just one was two pounds under, while "many" were just a few ticks under.


title: Deflategate

text: The investigation also found that officials noticed during the game that a game ball was missing, and two different officials handed replacement balls to a Patriots equipment manager. One of those officials was reportedly fired from the NFL for selling game balls for personal profit, though the NFL denied this claim. The Patriots even submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Brady, who filed a federal lawsuit against the league to overturn his suspension, straddling the line between NFL stakeholder and whistleblower.


title: Deflategate

text: Ryan Grigson, speaking at the 2016 NFL Combine, stated that "prior to the AFC Championship Game, we notified the league about our concerns that the Patriots might be using underinflated footballs". According to the NFL's investigation, "Grigson, Sullivan, and other members of the Colts equipment staff referenced the Colts Week 11 game against the Patriots in Indianapolis. During that game, Colts strong safety Mike Adams intercepted two passes thrown by Tom Brady… the intercepted footballs appeared to be coated in a tacky substance and seemed spongy or soft when squeezed." A "New York Post" article noted that Grigson's claim implied that the NFL had advance knowledge of the issue and was trying to run a sting operation, contradicting Blandino's claim that it was an issue that "came up in the first half". The claim also contradicts NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent's statement that Grigson notified the league "during the second quarter of the game".


title: Deflategate

text: On January 23, the NFL hired Manhattan attorney Ted Wells to "get to the bottom of Deflategate." Wells previously had worked with the NFL to "get to the bottom" of the Miami Dolphins bullying scandal between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. In a press release, following the league's decision to hire Wells, the NFL claimed that the investigation "will be thorough and objective, and is being pursued expeditiously" with the participation of league executive vice president Jeff Pash. Many, especially in the New England media, questioned how Wells could act impartially given his history with the NFL. Some critics wanted an investigator without ties to the NFL appointed to investigate the alleged scandal. After four months of waiting, the NFL published a 243-page investigative report that alleged that it was "more probable than not" that the Patriots' equipment personnel had deliberately circumvented the rules. Brady was implicated as it was deemed more probable than not that he was "generally aware" of the deflation. The report further stated that Belichick and other members of the coaching staff were not involved in the situation. The report focused on the communications and actions of locker-room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski. The report concluded it was "more probable than not" that the two deliberately released air from Patriots game balls after they were tested by game officials. In several texts between Jastremski and McNally, the two mentioned and joked about inflation, deflation, needles and gifts from Brady to McNally. Brady was a constant reference point in these discussions. McNally referred to himself as "the deflator" in a text message to Jastremski as far back as May 2014.


title: Deflategate

text: The Wells Report relied on scientific analysis performed by the Exponent consulting company and supported by Dr. Daniel Marlow, a Princeton University physics professor. The analysis concluded that no studied factors accounted for the loss of air pressure exhibited by the Patriots' game balls. The Wells Report asserted that the scientific study supported the report's conclusion that the loss of air pressure may be the result of human intervention.


title: Deflategate

text: The Wells Report's physics argument, based on a number of experiments as well as on theoretical modeling,alleged that several theoretical sources of variability (differences in game use, alleged "vigorous rubbing" by the Patriots before play, leakage during the game and variations in football volume) could be set aside as they had no discernible effect. Based on documented habit, as well as the recollections of referee Walt Anderson, the Patriots balls were (as usual) set around 12.5 psi, and the Colts balls around 13.0 psi, before their games. The ideal gas law shows that footballs inflated in a warm environment will drop in pressure in a cold environment; however, a football is not a thermos, and the footballs would have rapidly started to reinflate when taken to the officials' locker room for halftime testing. (Wells estimates that the Patriots balls had two to four minutes to repressurize before measurements began; the measurements themselves spanned an estimated four to five minutes.)


title: Deflategate

text: Besides temperature-based deflation and the timing of the measurements, the wetness or dryness of a ball's surface also has a small but detectable effect on the measured pressure, and minor measurement error may be caused by the gauges. During halftime, the referees used two gauges on each ball: one bearing a Wilson logo and one without. The non-logo gauge was the one that Wells believed to have been used by Anderson to confirm the pregame pressure of the balls. The logo-bearing gauge appeared to consistently run at least 0.35 psi above the (accurately calibrated) non-logo gauge, but both were determined to be extremely consistent and precise. The logo gauge was shown to be inaccurate (running high) but consistently precise, and therefore the report claimed it as additional confirmation that the non-logo measurement was correct (with the exception of Colts ball #3, below). Wells believed that Blakeman and NFL official Dyrol Prioleau used the non-logo and logo gauges respectively in the Patriots' halftime tests, and that the two men switched gauges for the Colts' halftime tests.


title: Deflategate

text: Even with the combined effect of wet vs. dry balls, temperature-driven pressure loss from the halftime game weather followed by partial temperature-driven pressure increase inside the warm locker room and errors in measurement, Wells concluded that, without absolute certainty, there was no studied "set of credible environmental or physical factors that completely accounts" for the total measured pressure loss.


title: Deflategate

text: The Exponent science report alleged that no credible environmental or physical factors within the game characteristics fully explained the additional loss of pressure in the Patriots' footballs relative to the Colts' footballs.


title: Deflategate

text: Exponent believes the measurements for Colts ball #3 involve some sort of transcription error by the original NFL transcriber, as it is the only row that reverses the usual logo vs. non-logo gauge differential.


title: Deflategate

text: Many Patriots fans and New England media members assailed the report for its ambiguous allegations, including phrases such as "more probable than not" and "generally aware" in relation to Brady's knowledge of the situation, and the report's minimization of the NFL's wrongdoing in relation to the air pressure of the footballs. Many New England fans were furious at ESPN, especially at Chris Mortensen, for broadcasting news stories that were seen as painting the Patriots in a negative light. Mark Brunell and Jerome Bettis strongly criticized Brady on ESPN, saying that based on their playing experience, it was unlikely that the balls had been underinflated without Brady's awareness.


title: Deflategate

text: On May 6, 2015, in reaction to the Wells Report, James Glanz of "The New York Times" wrote an article titled "In the End, Science Works Against the Patriots." The story took the position that the Patriots almost certainly cheated, and that the proof was based on the allegation that the ideal gas law could not explain the Patriots' football pressure. Joe Nocera of the same newspaper took the opposite position in a January 22, 2016 article titled "True Scandal of Deflategate Lies in the N.F.L.'s Behavior." Nocera argued that the analysis conducted by professor John Leonard concluding that no deflation occurred was "utterly convincing."


title: Deflategate

text: On May 7, when asked to comment on the report, Brady stated that he had no reaction because the report was just 30 hours old and he was still "digesting" it. He stated that he hoped to comment more fully in the future. He also referred to owner Robert Kraft's comments following the release of the report. Brady's agent Don Yee criticized the report, stating that investigators jumped to conclusions.


title: Deflategate

text: On May 12, lead author Ted Wells defended the report, indicating that text messages between Patriots game-day employees Jim McNally and John Jastremski about Brady were more than circumstantial evidence to implicate Brady.


title: Deflategate

text: On May 14, attorney Daniel L. Goldberg prepared a document rebutting specific charges made in the Wells Report, citing Nobel Prize-winning scientist Roderick MacKinnon, who has financial ties to Kraft. Goldberg has represented the Patriots and was present during all of the interviews of Patriots personnel conducted at Gillette Stadium.


title: Deflategate

text: In June 2015, the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank utilizing the ideal gas law as a basis for its report, released an independent scientific analysis that concluded that the Wells Report was "deeply flawed" and that "[i]t is ... unlikely that the Patriots deflated the footballs." The report noted the lack of evidence of a pressure rise during the measurements and used it to challenge the timing assumptions and the question of how much warming happened to Patriots' and Colts' footballs, and thus the question of whether the pressure differences could be explained by science. The NFL responded that timing still could not explain the pressure declines."


title: Deflategate

text: On August 19, 2015, New York Law School professor and self-described Patriots detractor Robert Blecker posted an article "DeflateGate: The Smoking Gun" in which he looked at pictures in the Wells Report and concluded that they had been deliberately staged to make the referee's recollection about which gauge was used appear less reliable. "60 Minutes Sports" later interviewed Blecker and showed the pictures.


title: Deflategate

text: On August 26, self-described Patriots fan Robert F. Young posted a letter online that he had sent to the judge reviewing the Brady suspension. The letter requested permission to file an "amicus curiae" brief. The judge posted the letter to the official court docket on September 10, 2015. The brief asserted that the lack of pressure rise noted by the American Enterprise Institute report was not the result of timing differences but was caused when Exponent deliberately rigged the warming test to produce an artificially high result as compared to the game-day events, which occurred when Exponent did not properly simulate how the Patriots' footballs had remained in the bag. The brief claimed that the Exponent appendix to the Wells Report provided sufficient proof of the deception and that Exponent lied in its assertion that the variation in ball pressure could not be explained by science. The brief also detailed how heat flow theory could be used to calculate that the warming difference caused by the bag on game day was sufficient to completely explain the difference between the NFL/Exponent simulation results based on the referee's recollection of the gauge and the actual ball pressures. The brief examined each of Exponent's reasons for not believing the referee as to which gauge had been used before the game, arguing why Exponent would not have actually believed each reason that it had provided. It noted an observation by Professor Blecker that Exponent's timing assumption for the Colts' footballs had no basis in information provided by the NFL and was not explained in any way. It noted that with the more generally agreed timing assumption of the Colts' balls having been tested at the last minute, the Exponent experimental simulation data was consistent with believing the referee. The brief argued that the Exponent work, when properly understood, shows that no air was improperly removed from the Patriots' footballs. On August 30, Young posted a pictorial summary of his case, including experimental data from Patriots fan Mike Greenway, not part of the brief, showing that even a dry bag, partially open, was sufficient to slow warming of a football that was at the top of the bag by 2.5 times relative to the result reached by Exponent's experimental work.


title: Deflategate

text: On August 31, writing an op-ed piece for WBUR-FM, Professor Blecker explained that the NFL and Exponent had been deceptive regarding crucial evidence and that it was most likely that the Patriots had not cheated. The op-ed mentioned that the "expert accusers" (Exponent) ignored the effect of the balls having remained in the bag on game day and linked to Young's website for further proof.


title: Deflategate

text: During an interview on "60 Minutes" that aired on CBS on September 13, 2015, Blecker claimed that the NFL investigation was biased against the Patriots. He stated that the gauges used to measure the footballs at halftime were Walt Anderson's personal gauges and that, "if you want to know how much something has dropped, you've got to measure it with the same gauge before the game as you do at halftime." Blecker also noted that the side-by-side comparison of the two gauges shown in the Wells Report showed them to be of different sizes. The photos also showed that the NFL measured the two needles at different spots to make the smaller needle appear longer. According to Blecker, the different needle sizes resulted in one gauge reading at a constant measure of about 0.4 psi higher than the other. On December 14, 2015, Blecker filed an "amicus curiae" brief accusing the NFL of being "infected with bias, unfairness, evident partiality and occasional fraud."


title: Deflategate

text: On November 25, 2015, MIT professor John Leonard posted a lecture on YouTube titled "Taking the Measure of Deflategate" in which he explained why the Exponent portion of the Wells Report contained technical failures that led to an incorrect conclusion that footballs were deflated. Leonard explained the ideal gas law calculations and detailed how others had erred by not considering the effect absolute pressure. He concluded that the Patriots' footballs met the ideal gas law prediction."If I had to stake my reputation and my career on it, the Patriots' balls match the ideal gas law prediction, and I don't know why people can't get that." — John Leonard, "Taking the Measure of Deflategate" @ 47:37Leonard pointed out inconsistencies in the Exponent report regarding the effect of wetness on volume, and cited a study by Carnegie Mellon University graduate student Thomas Healy that showed as much as a three-percent increase in volume if the balls are wet. Leonard agreed with previous analysis that showed slowed warming when the balls were kept in a bag—something that he claims that the Exponent reports ignored. He also detailed technical failures of the transient analysis in the Exponent report, which did not show a slower rate of warming for wet balls. Leonard argued that the Exponent report contained incorrect "amplitudes" in some graphs that underrepresented the total warming of both the Colts' and Patriots' balls.


title: Deflategate

text: On May 11, 2015, the NFL announced that Tom Brady was suspended without pay for four games of the upcoming season for his involvement, based on "substantial and credible evidence" that Brady knew that Patriots employees were deflating footballs and that he failed to cooperate with investigators. The Patriots were also fined $1 million and were forced to forfeit their first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft as well as their fourth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent's May 11 letter to Brady stated in part: "Your actions as set forth in the report clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football. ... With respect to your particular involvement, the report established that there is substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots' employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge. Moreover, the report documents your failure to cooperate fully and candidly with the investigation, including by refusing to produce any relevant electronic evidence (emails, texts, etc.), despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information, and by providing testimony that the report concludes was not plausible and contradicted by other evidence."


title: Deflategate

text: The NFL also announced a three-day appeal deadline for charges against Brady according to the 2011 collective-bargaining agreement, and a deadline of May 21 for charges against the team. Brady's agent indicated that the suspension would be appealed. The Patriots suspended Jim McNally and John Jastremski indefinitely on May 6, and the NFL indicated that the men could not be rehired without the league's approval. Patriots owner Robert Kraft issued a statement stating that the punishment "far exceeded" reasonable expectations, was based on circumstantial evidence and that Brady had Kraft's unconditional support. After Judge Berman vacated the Brady suspension, the Patriots requested that Jastremski and McNally be reinstated; the NFL officially did so on September 16, 2015.