title: Centrifugal pump

text: In the mineral industry, or in the extraction of oilsand, froth is generated to separate the rich minerals or bitumen from the sand and clays. Froth contains air that tends to block conventional pumps and cause loss of prime. Over history, industry has developed different ways to deal with this problem. In the pulp and paper industry holes are drilled in the impeller. Air escapes to the back of the impeller and a special expeller discharges the air back to the suction tank. The impeller may also feature special small vanes between the primary vanes called split vanes or secondary vanes. Some pumps may feature a large eye, an inducer or recirculation of pressurized froth from the pump discharge back to the suction to break the bubbles.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: A centrifugal pump containing two or more impellers is called a multistage centrifugal pump. The impellers may be mounted on the same shaft or on different shafts. At each stage, the fluid is directed to the center before making its way to the discharge on the outer diameter.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: For higher pressures at the outlet, impellers can be connected in series. For higher flow output, impellers can be connected in parallel.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: A common application of the multistage centrifugal pump is the boiler feedwater pump. For example, a 350 MW unit would require two feedpumps in parallel. Each feedpump is a multistage centrifugal pump producing 150 L/s at 21 MPa.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: All energy transferred to the fluid is derived from the mechanical energy driving the impeller. This can be measured at isentropic compression, resulting in a slight temperature increase (in addition to the pressure increase).


title: Centrifugal pump

text: The energy usage in a pumping installation is determined by the flow required, the height lifted and the length and friction characteristics of the pipeline.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: The head added by the pump (formula_8) is a sum of the static lift, the head loss due to friction and any losses due to valves or pipe bends all expressed in metres of fluid. Power is more commonly expressed as kilowatts (10 W, kW) or horsepower (hp = kW/0.746). The value for the pump efficiency, formula_12, may be stated for the pump itself or as a combined efficiency of the pump and motor system.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: The energy usage is determined by multiplying the power requirement by the length of time the pump is operating.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: An oilfield solids control system needs many centrifugal pumps to sit on or in mud tanks. The types of centrifugal pumps used are sand pumps, submersible slurry pumps, shear pumps, and charging pumps. They are defined for their different functions, but their working principle is the same.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: Magnetically coupled pumps, or magnetic drive pumps, vary from the traditional pumping style, as the motor is coupled to the pump by magnetic means rather than by a direct mechanical shaft. The pump works via a drive magnet, 'driving' the pump rotor, which is magnetically coupled to the primary shaft driven by the motor. They are often used where leakage of the fluid pumped poses a great risk (e.g., aggressive fluid in the chemical or nuclear industry, or electric shock - garden fountains). They have no direct connection between the motor shaft and the impeller, so no stuffing box or gland is needed. There is no risk of leakage, unless the casing is broken. Since the pump shaft is not supported by bearings outside the pump's housing, support inside the pump is provided by bushings. The pump size of a magnetic drive pumps can go from few watts of power to a giant 1 MW.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: The process of filling the pump with liquid is called priming. All centrifugal pumps require liquid in the liquid casing to prime. If the pump casing becomes filled with vapors or gases, the pump impeller becomes gas-bound and incapable of pumping. To ensure that a centrifugal pump remains primed and does not become gas-bound, most centrifugal pumps are located below the level of the source from which the pump is to take its suction. The same effect can be gained by supplying liquid to the pump suction under pressure supplied by another pump placed in the suction line.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: In normal conditions, common centrifugal pumps are unable to evacuate the air from an inlet line leading to a fluid level whose geodetic altitude is below that of the pump. Self-priming pumps have to be capable of evacuating air (see Venting) from the pump suction line without any external auxiliary devices.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: Centrifugal pumps with an internal suction stage such as water-jet pumps or side-channel pumps are also classified as self-priming pumps. Self-Priming centrifugal pumps were invented in 1935. One of the first companies to market a self-priming centrifugal pump was American Marsh in 1938.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: Centrifugal pumps that are not designed with an internal or external self-priming stage can only start to pump the fluid after the pump has initially been primed with the fluid. Sturdier but slower, their impellers are designed to move liquid, which is far denser than air, leaving them unable to operate when air is present. In addition, a suction-side swing check valve or a vent valve must be fitted to prevent any siphon action and ensure that the fluid remains in the casing when the pump has been stopped. In self-priming centrifugal pumps with a separation chamber the fluid pumped and the entrained air bubbles are pumped into the separation chamber by the impeller action.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: The air escapes through the pump discharge nozzle whilst the fluid drops back down and is once more entrained by the impeller. The suction line is thus continuously evacuated. The design required for such a self-priming feature has an adverse effect on pump efficiency. Also, the dimensions of the separating chamber are relatively large. For these reasons this solution is only adopted for small pumps, e.g. garden pumps. More frequently used types of self-priming pumps are side-channel and water-ring pumps.


title: Centrifugal pump

text: Another type of self-priming pump is a centrifugal pump with two casing chambers and an open impeller. This design is not only used for its self-priming capabilities but also for its degassing effects when pumping twophase mixtures (air/gas and liquid) for a short time in process engineering or when handling polluted fluids, for example, when draining water from construction pits.This pump type operates without a foot valve and without an evacuation device on the suction side. The pump has to be primed with the fluid to be handled prior to commissioning. Two-phase mixture is pumped until the suction line has been evacuated and the fluid level has been pushed into the front suction intake chamber by atmospheric pressure. During normal pumping operation this pump works like an ordinary centrifugal pump.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura left Capcom and joined Square (now Square Enix) in 1993, with her first project there being "Live A Live". She would later become better known for writing the music for "Kingdom Hearts", which was her last game at Square before leaving to become a freelancer in 2002. She founded a music production company, Midiplex, the following year. Despite leaving Square Enix, she has continued to compose for the "Kingdom Hearts" series and other games such as "The 3rd Birthday" and "Final Fantasy XV".


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Other well-known games Shimomura has worked on include "Super Mario RPG", the "Mario & Luigi" series, "Parasite Eve", "Legend of Mana", and "Xenoblade Chronicles". Her works have gained a great deal of popularity and have been performed in multiple video game music concerts. Music from several of her games have been published as arranged albums and piano scores. She is also a member of the music label Brave Wave Productions.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura was born on October 19, 1967, in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. She developed an interest for music at a young age, and started taking piano lessons "at the age of four or five". She began composing her own music by playing the piano randomly and pretending to compose, eventually coming up with her own pieces, the first of which she says she still remembers how to play. Shimomura attended Osaka College of Music, and graduated as a piano major in 1988.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Upon graduation, Shimomura intended to become a piano instructor and was extended a job offer to become a piano teacher at a music store, but as she had been an avid gamer for many years she decided to send some samples of her work to various video game companies that were recruiting at the university. Capcom invited her in for an audition and interview, and she was offered a job there. Her family and instructors were dismayed with her change in focus, as video game music was not well respected, and "they had paid [her] tuition for an expensive music school and couldn't understand why [she] would accept such a job", but Shimomura accepted the job at Capcom anyway.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: While working for Capcom, Shimomura contributed to the soundtracks of over 16 games, including the successful "Street Fighter II", which she composed all but three pieces for. The first soundtrack she worked on at the company was for "Samurai Sword" in 1988. "Final Fight", in 1989, was her first work to receive a separate soundtrack album release, on an album of music from several Capcom games. The first soundtrack album to exclusively feature her work came a year later for the soundtrack to "Street Fighter II". While she began her tenure at Capcom working on games for video game consoles, by 1990 she had moved to the arcade game division. She was a member of the company's in-house band Alph Lyla, which played various Capcom game music, including pieces written by Shimomura. She performed live with the group on a few occasions, including playing piano during Alph Lyla's appearance at the 1992 Game Music Festival.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: In 1993, Shimomura left Capcom to join another game company, Square. She stated that the move was done because she was interested in writing "classical-style" music for fantasy role-playing games. While working for Capcom, she was in the arcade department and was unable to transfer to the console department to work on their role-playing video game series "Breath of Fire", although she did contribute one track to the first game in the series. Her first project at Square was the score for the role-playing video game "Live A Live" in 1994. While she was working on the score to "Super Mario RPG" the following year, she was asked to join Noriko Matsueda on the music to the futuristic role-playing game "Front Mission". Although she was overworked doing both scores and it was not the genre that she was interested in, she found herself unable to refuse after her first attempt to do so unexpectedly happened in the presence of the president of Square, Tetsuo Mizuno. These games were followed by "Tobal No. 1", the last score she worked on with another composer for a decade.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Over the next few years, she composed the soundtrack to several games, including "Parasite Eve" and "Legend of Mana". Of all her compositions, Shimomura considers the soundtrack to "Legend of Mana" the one that best expresses herself and the soundtrack remains Shimomura's personal favourite. "Parasite Eve" on the PlayStation had the first soundtrack by Shimomura that included a vocal song, as it was the first game she had written for running on a console system that had the sound capability for one. In 2002 she wrote the score for "Kingdom Hearts", which she has said is the most "special" soundtrack to her, as well as a turning point in her career; she named the soundtracks to "Street Fighter II" and "Super Mario RPG" as the other two significant points in her life as a composer.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: "Kingdom Hearts" was wildly successful, shipping more than four million copies worldwide; Shimomura's music was frequently cited as one of the highlights of the game, and the title track has been ranked as the fourth-best role-playing game title track of all time. The soundtrack has led to two albums of piano arrangements. "Kingdom Hearts" was the last soundtrack that she worked on at Square. After the release of "Kingdom Hearts" in 2002, Shimomura left Square for maternity leave, and began work as a freelancer in 2003. She has built on the work she did while at Square; since leaving she has composed or is composing music for eleven "Kingdom Hearts" games and Nintendo's "Mario & Luigi" series. She has also worked on many other projects, such as "Heroes of Mana" and various arranged albums. In February 2014, Shimomura played piano at a retrospective 25th anniversary concert at Tokyo FM Hall. She performed songs from games such as "Kingdom Hearts", "Live a Live", and "Street Fighter II". During the "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms" performance from "Super Mario RPG", Shimomura was joined onstage by fellow composer Yasunori Mitsuda, who played the Irish bouzouki. She most recently composed and produced the majority of the score for "Final Fantasy XV", which she began writing for in 2006, a decade before the game was released. She is also a member of the music label Brave Wave Productions.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura has been cited as one of the most well-known video game music composers. Shimomura's best works compilation album, titled "Drammatica: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura", was released in March 2008. The album contains compositions from "Kingdom Hearts" and many other games she worked on in full orchestration, with Shimomura stating that she chose music that was popular among fans and well-suited for orchestration, but had never been performed by an orchestra before. In a 2008 interview with Music4Games regarding the project, Shimomura commented that with the sheet music generated for the project, she would be interested in pursuing a live performance of "Drammatica" for fans if the opportunity arose. In March 2009, that wish was realized when it was announced that Arnie Roth would conduct the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the concert Sinfonia Drammatica in the Stockholm Concert Hall, which would combine music from the album with performances of Chris Hülsbeck's Symphonic Shades concert. The concert took place in August 2009. In March 2007, Shimomura released her first non-video game album, "Murmur", an album of vocal songs sung by Chata.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura's music for "Kingdom Hearts" made up one fourth of the music of the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in September 2009, which were produced by the creators of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series and conducted by Arnie Roth. "Legend of Mana"s title theme was also performed by the Australian Eminence Symphony Orchestra for its classical gaming music concert "A Night in Fantasia 2007".


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Music from the original soundtrack of "Legend of Mana" was arranged for the piano and published by DOREMI Music Publishing. Two compilation books of music from the series have also been published as "Seiken Densetsu Best Collection Piano Solo Sheet Music" first and second editions, with the second including Shimomura's tracks from "Legend of Mana". All songs in each book have been rewritten by Asako Niwa as beginning to intermediate level piano solos, though they are meant to sound as much like the originals as possible. Additionally, piano sheet music from "Kingdom Hearts" and "Kingdom Hearts II" has been published as music books by Yamaha Music Media.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura's first dedicated concert performance outside Japan was held at the Salle Cortot in Paris in November 2015. Later that same month, she performed at the El Plaza Condesa in Mexico City. In September 2016, some of her music for "Final Fantasy XV" was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, as well as in Boston, with Shimomura herself performing on piano.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura composed for the concert work "Merregnon: Land of Silence". Her work was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and filmed at the Stockholm Concert Hall in 2021. Worldwide performances are planned starting in 2022.


title: Yoko Shimomura

text: Shimomura lists Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Maurice Ravel as some of her influences on her personal website. She has also stated that she has enjoyed "lounge-style jazz" for a long time. Despite these influences and her classical training, the diverse musical styles that she has used throughout her career and sometimes in the same soundtrack include "rock, electronica, oriental, ambient, industrial, pop, symphonic, operatic, chiptune, and more". She draws inspiration for her songs from things in her life that move her emotionally, which she describes as "a beautiful picture, scenery, tasting something delicious, scents that bring back memories, happy and sad things... Anything that moves my emotion gives me inspiration". Shimomura has also stated that she comes up with most of her songs when she is doing something that is "not part of [her] daily routine, like traveling." Although her influences are mostly classical, she has said that in her opinion her "style has changed dramatically over the years, though the passion for music stays the same." Shimomura has said that she believes that an important part of "the creative process behind music" is to "convey a subtle message, something that comes from your imagination and sticks with the listener, without being overly specific about what it means", rather than only writing simple themes with obvious messages. She stated her favorite composition was "Dearly Beloved" from "Kingdom Hearts".


title: Backcountry (film)

text: Backcountry is a 2014 Canadian nature–survival horror film, written and directed by Adam MacDonald, marking his feature film directorial debut. It is loosely based on the true story of a hungry man-eating black bear that attacked Mark Jordan and Jacqueline Perry, in the back country of Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park, North of Chapleau, Ontario in 2005, events for which Mark later received the Star of Courage award from Governor General Michaëlle Jean.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, and received generally positive reviews from critics upon release.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: Alex and his girlfriend Jenny arrive at a national park to go camping for the weekend. In hopes of exploring a trail he loved when he was younger, Alex refuses a map from the park ranger, confident that he knows the park well. On the first night after they set up camp, they encounter a tour guide named Brad who Jenn invites to have dinner with them. Brad flirts with Jenn, much to Alex's annoyance; the two confront one another and Brad leaves.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: The following morning, Alex decides to go off-trail, deeper into the park where he remembers there is a lake with a waterfall. On the way, he sees a bear paw print in the ground but does not alert Jenn. They also discover a half-eaten deer carcass. When they arrive at where Alex believes the lake to be, they discover it is not and he realises they are lost. Panicked, Jenn looks for her cell phone to call for help but Alex reveals he removed it from her backpack and left it in the car, worried that she would be distracted by it all weekend. The pair argue, and Jenn reveals she never wanted to come hiking. Alex tells her he was planning to propose.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: They make camp for the night and, as the pair sleep, a huge black bear approaches the tent. In the morning, they find all of their food has been eaten. As they continue hiking, they come across a bear bed and, realising there is a bear near, decide to walk as far as they can while it's light. The following morning, Alex awakes to see the bear a few metres from the tent. It approaches and eventually claws its way through, injuring Jenn's arm. She briefly wards it off with bear spray but it returns, and Jenn watches in horror as Alex is dragged from the tent and brutally mauled to death. Jenn flees without any belongings.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: Jenn rests for the night high up in a tree; she awakes to the sound of a helicopter overhead, but fails to get its attention. Stalked again by the bear, she manages to escape by climbing down a waterfall, but slips and breaks her ankle. Using a makeshift splint, she struggles through the park using her flare as a guide. Miraculously, Jenn makes it back to their starting point where they left their canoe. She paddles back to the park entrance and collapses in the parking lot. Brad, who is getting ready to lead a tour, notices her and rushes over to help.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: Production took place from October through November 2013. The film was shot in Powassan, Ontario and Caddy Lake, Manitoba and was funded by Telefilm Canada and Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.


title: Backcountry (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "Backcountry" holds an approval rating of 92%, based on 50 reviews, and an average rating of 7/10. Its consensus reads, "Tense, well-acted, and at once atmospheric as well as brutally impactful, "Backcountry" marks a memorably assured debut from writer-director Adam MacDonald." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Santiago Ponzinibbio (born September 26, 1986) is an Argentine mixed martial artist competing as a Welterweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: He was born in Argentina to parents of Italian heritage, with paternal grandparents from Sicily. Ponzinibbio began training kickboxing when he was 13 years old growing up in Argentina. Ponzinibbio became interested in MMA, but there were too few local gyms in which he could pursue it. As a result, Ponzinibbio traveled to Florianópolis, Brazil, where he lived the first five months in a tent on a beach, doing some odd jobs to try make ends meet. Meanwhile, he trained at several nearby gyms. He turned professional in 2008 competing in regional promotions in South America.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: In March 2013, it was revealed that Ponzinibbio was a cast member of . He won his elimination fight to get into the TUF house, defeating Thiago Silva by TKO in round 1. He was the second pick for Team Nogueira. Over the course of the show, Ponzinibbio defeated Marcio Santos by TKO and Cleiton Duarte by unanimous decision to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals, he defeated Leonardo Santos by unanimous decision. However, Ponzinibbio broke his hand during this semifinal fight and was replaced by Santos in the finals against William Macário. The semifinal-round fight with Santos, however, was picked as the "Fight of the Season", and his finish of Marcio Santos earned "Knockout of the Season" which earned Ponzinibbio $50,000 bonuses.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Ryan LaFlare on November 9, 2013, at UFC Fight Night 32. LaFlare won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was briefly linked to a bout with Jordan Mein on April 19, 2014, at UFC on Fox 11. However, Ponzinibbio was removed from the bout and replaced by Hernani Perpetuo.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was expected to face Ildemar Alcântara on July 5, 2014, at UFC 175. However, Ponzinibbio was forced out of the bout with a knee injury. He was replaced by Kenny Robertson.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was expected to face Sérgio Moraes on September 13, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 51. However, Moraes pulled out of the bout citing a lingering knee injury and was replaced by Wendell Oliveira. Ponzinibbio defeated Oliveira by TKO in the first round.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Sean Strickland on February 22, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 61. Ponzinibbio won the back and forth fight via unanimous decision.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio next faced Lorenz Larkin on June 27, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 70. He lost the fight via TKO in the second round and earned a "Fight of the Night" bonus.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Andreas Ståhl on December 10, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 80. He won the bout via TKO in the first round.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Court McGee on April 16, 2016, at UFC on Fox 19. He won the bout via TKO in the first round.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio next faced Zak Cummings on August 6, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 92. He won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Nordine Taleb on February 19, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 105. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Gunnar Nelson on July 16, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 113. He won the fight by knockout in the first round, becoming the first man to finish Nelson by knockout in MMA competition. The win also earned him his first "Performance of the Night" bonus award. At the post fight press conference, Nelson claimed that Ponzinibbio poked him in the eye during an earlier exchange and caused him to see double, stating “I really should have said something because I was seeing double for the rest of the fight. He caught me with a shot that I didn’t really see.” Ponzinibbio dismissed Nelson's claim and stated "I went there to knock him out and thank God it went as expected, I won by knockout. If (the eye poke) happened, of course it wasn’t intentional, but I watched the video again and didn’t see it."


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was expected to face Kamaru Usman on May 19, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 129. However, on April 21, 2018, Ponzinibbio announced he was injured and pulled from the card.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Neil Magny on November 17, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 140. He won the fight via knockout. This win earned him the Performance of the Night award.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was expected to face Robbie Lawler on December 14, 2019, at UFC 245. However, on October 12, 2019, it was revealed that Ponzinibbio had pulled out of the fight due to a staph infection.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was scheduled to face Muslim Salikhov on January 16, 2021, at UFC on ABC 1. However, Salikhov pulled out of the bout in mid-December citing health issues after contracting COVID-19. However, Li Jingliang stepped in as a replacement on short notice and the two fought at UFC on ABC 1. Ponzinibbio lost the fight via first-round knockout.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Miguel Baeza on June 5, 2021, at . He won the back-and-forth fight via unanimous decision. This bout earned him the" Fight of the Night" award.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Geoff Neal on December 11, 2021, at UFC 269. He lost the back-and-forth bout via split decision. 10 out of 14 media scores gave it to Neal.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio faced Michel Pereira on May 21, 2022 at UFC Fight Night 206. He lost the fight via split decision. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Santiago Ponzinibbio

text: Ponzinibbio was scheduled to face Robbie Lawler on December 10, 2022, at UFC 282. However, the week of the event, Lawler was forced to withdraw due to an undisclosed injury. He was replaced by Alex Morono at a catchweight of 180 pounds. Ponzinibbio won the fight via technical knockout. This win earned him the "Performance of the Night" award.


title: Hirsutism

text: Hirsutism is excessive body hair on parts of the body where hair is normally absent or minimal. The word is from early 17th century: from Latin "hirsutus" meaning "hairy". It usually refers to a "male" pattern of hair growth in a female that may be a sign of a more serious medical condition, especially if it develops well after puberty. Cultural stigma against hirsutism can cause much psychological distress and social difficulty. Discrimination based on facial hirsutism often leads to the avoidance of social situations and to symptoms of anxiety and depression.


title: Hirsutism

text: Hirsutism is usually the result of an underlying endocrine imbalance, which may be adrenal, ovarian, or central. It can be caused by increased levels of androgen hormones. The amount and location of the hair is measured by a Ferriman-Gallwey score. It is different from hypertrichosis, which is excessive hair growth anywhere on the body.


title: Hirsutism

text: Hirsutism affects between 5 to 15% of women across all ethnic backgrounds. Depending on the definition and the underlying data, approximately 40% of women have some degree of facial hair. About 10 to 15% of cases of hirsutism are idiopathic with no known cause.


title: Hirsutism

text: The causes of hirsutism can be divided into endocrine imbalances and non-endocrine etiologies. It is important to begin by first determining the distribution of body hair growth. If hair growth follows a male distribution, it could indicate the presence of increased androgens or hyperandrogenism. However, there are other hormones not related to androgens that can lead to hirsutism. A detailed history is taken by a provider in search of possible causes for hyperandrogenism or other non-endocrine-related causes. If the distribution of hair growth occurs throughout the body, this is referred to as hypertrichosis, not hirsutism.


title: Hirsutism

text: Hirsutism is a clinical diagnosis of excessive androgenic, terminal hair growth. A complete physical evaluation should be done prior to initiating more extensive studies, the examiner should differentiate between widespread body hair increase and male pattern virilization. One method of evaluating hirsutism is the Ferriman-Gallwey Score which gives a score based on the amount and location of hair growth. The Ferriman-Gallwey Score has various cutoffs due to variable expressivity of hair growth based on ethnic background.


title: Hirsutism

text: Diagnosis of patients with even mild hirsutism should include assessment of ovulation and ovarian ultrasound, due to the high prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), as well as 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (because of the possibility of finding non-classic 21-hydroxylase deficiency). People with hirsutism may present with an elevated serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) level, however, additional imaging is required to discriminate between malignant and benign etiologies of adrenal hyperandrogenism. Levels greater than 700 μg/dL are indicative of adrenal gland dysfunction, particularly congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency. However, PCOS and idiopathic hirsutism make up 90% of cases.


title: Hirsutism

text: Treatment of hirsutism is indicated when hair growth causes patient distress. The two main approaches to treatment are pharmacologic therapies targeting androgen production/action, and direct hair removal methods including electrolysis and photo-epilation. These may be used independently or in combination.


title: Hirsutism

text: Common medications consist of antiandrogens, insulin sensitizers, and oral contraceptive pills. All three types of therapy have demonstrated efficacy on their own, however insulin sensitizers are shown to be less effective than antiandrogens and oral contraceptive pills. The therapies may be combined, as directed by a physician, in line with the patient's medical goals. Antiandrogens are drugs that block the effects of androgens like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the body."" They are the most effective pharmacologic treatment for patient-important hirsutism, however they have teratogenic potential, and are therefore not recommended in people who are pregnant or desire pregnancy. Current data does not favor any one type of oral contraceptive over another.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Elaine Goodman Luria (; ; born August 15, 1975) is an American politician and US Navy veteran serving as the U.S. representative from since 2019. Luria's congressional district includes most of Hampton Roads, including all of Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and Poquoson and parts of Norfolk and Hampton. Before running for Congress, she served as a naval officer for 20 years. Luria rose to the rank of commander and spent most of her career aboard ship. She defeated Republican incumbent Scott Taylor in 2018 and was reelected in a rematch against Taylor in 2020, before losing her bid for a third term to Republican Jen Kiggans in 2022.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria was born on August 15, 1975, in Birmingham, Alabama. Her mother Michelle's family immigrated to Jasper, Alabama, in 1906. The family sold goods to coal miners in Walker County, Alabama. In the early-1900s, Luria's great-grandfather helped establish a Reform Jewish congregation in Jasper, and her immediate family joined the Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham. Luria's mother and grandmother were active in the National Council of Jewish Women (of which her mother was president), Hadassah, the Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood, and the Birmingham Jewish Federation.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria graduated from Indian Springs School in 1993. She graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science (BS), with a double major in physics and history and a minor in French. In 2000, Luria attended the United States Naval Nuclear Power School. While serving in the Navy and stationed aboard the flagship , she earned a Master of Science (MS) degree in engineering management from Old Dominion University in 2004.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria served as a naval officer for 20 years, operating nuclear reactors as an engineer, where she rose to the rank of commander. Luria was among the first female American sailors to spend her entire career on combat ships. She commanded Assault Craft Unit TWO, a combat-ready unit of 400 sailors, from 2014 until her retirement in 2017. She held a Passover seder on an aircraft carrier after 9/11.


title: Elaine Luria

text: As of 2019, Luria's service was the longest active-duty tenure of any current member of the House Democratic Caucus.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria ran for the United States House of Representatives in . In the June 10 Democratic primary, she garnered 62% of the vote, defeating Karen Mallard, who received 38%.


title: Elaine Luria

text: In the general election, Luria defeated Republican incumbent Scott Taylor with 51% of the vote to Taylor's 49%. She carried six of the district's nine county-level jurisdictions, including all but one of the district's five independent cities. She also carried Taylor's hometown of Virginia Beach.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria ran for reelection. She defeated Taylor in a rematch with 51% of the vote. As in 2018, Luria carried six of the district's nine county-level jurisdictions, including all but one independent city. She was likely helped by Joe Biden carrying the district; notably, Biden carried Virginia Beach, the first Democrat to do so since 1964.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria ran for reelection in 2022. Facing a difficult path to victory as a Democrat in a competitive district, she focused her campaign on defense policy and refrained from highlighting Biden's $1.5 trillion Build Back Better spending plan, for which she voted. Luria lost the election to Jen Kiggans.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria was sworn in on January 3, 2019. She was one of 102 female members elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2018, a record number. She joined two other female veterans in that class, fellow Naval Academy graduate Mikie Sherrill and former Air Force officer Chrissy Houlahan.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Virginia's 2nd congressional district is centered on Hampton Roads. It includes all of Poquoson, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg cities and York County in Hampton Roads; parts of Norfolk and Hampton cities and James City County in Hampton Roads; and all of Accomack and Northampton counties on the Eastern Shore.


title: Elaine Luria

text: On Veterans Day 2019, Luria released a video announcing her support for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, which "The Washington Post" called "an unusual move for a moderate on the cusp of a tough reelection."


title: Elaine Luria

text: During Trump's presidency, Luria voted in line with his stated position 11% of the time. As of June 2022 she had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 98.2% of the time.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria was one of the original members appointed to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol in 2021. She and Representative Adam Kinzinger co-led the eighth public hearing in July 2022. This hearing focused on Trump's inaction during the 187 minutes from the end of his speech to his Rose Garden speech, where he told the rioters, "We love you, you're very special". Luria introduced the full video of both speeches. She also showed outtakes from Trump's January 7, 2021, statement titled "Remarks on National Healing". Luria said of these remarks that this "was not the message of condemnation and just punishment for those who broke the law that we expect from a president whose oath and duty is to ensure the laws are faithfully executed. But instead, It was his newest version of 'Stand Back and Stand By'." In her closing statement, she said, "This is not, as it may appear, a story of inaction in a time of crisis, but instead it was the final action of Donald Trump's own plan to assert the will of the American people and remain in power. Not until it was clear that his effort to violently disrupt or delay the counting of the election results had failed did he send his message—a message to his supporters in which he commiserated with their pain and he told them affectionately to go home."


title: Elaine Luria

text: On July 25, 2022, Luria posted on her Twitter account the original script of Trump's January 7 remarks and edits he made to it in which he had crossed out any references to DOJ action and condemnation was heavily toned down.


title: Elaine Luria

text: While the federal government was in a partial shutdown, Luria said that she had asked for her salary to be withheld until federal workers were paid in January 2019. She participated in a bipartisan group of representatives seeking to broker a compromise to end the shutdown.


title: Elaine Luria

text: In February 2019, Luria introduced the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2019, which increased the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) made to veterans. It earned bipartisan support and passed in September 2019.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria is a self-described "unabashed supporter" of the U.S. relationship with Israel. She was the lone Democrat to vote against repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 in 2021.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria was listed as one of 60 House Democrats who expressed support for some kind of border wall in January 2019.


title: Elaine Luria

text: In September 2019, Luria labeled herself a "security Democrat"—an idiom for freshman Democrats with national security experience—and called for an impeachment inquiry against Trump in a "Washington Post" op-ed. In an October 2019 town hall meeting in Virginia Beach, Luria charged that Trump had "Enlist[ed] the help of a foreign leader to influence and malign a potential political opponent to affect the outcome of our next election all under [the] guise of trying to fight corruption." Later in October 2019, Luria formally voted for an impeachment inquiry against Trump, and joined all but three House Democrats to vote for impeachment on both counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December 2019; all House Republicans voted no on both charges.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria accepts the scientific consensus on climate change and is concerned about the physical impacts of climate change on global instability and military readiness. She also believes the Trump administration attempted to discredit military and scientific experts on the physical impacts of climate change, which she views as an aspersion to the national security and scientific apparatuses.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria opposes proposed legislation that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks, calling the efforts "bullshit".


title: Elaine Luria

text: In her 2018 campaign, Luria pledged not to accept donations from political action committees (PACs). She was consequently endorsed by End Citizens United, a group that seeks to reform campaign finance laws and reduce the role of corporate money in politics. In 2020, Luria accepted $34,000 in corporate PAC contributions from the PACs of a tobacco company and defense contractors, among others. PolitiFact rated Luria's decision to accept corporate PAC funding a "Full Flop." End Citizens United expressed disappointment in Luria's reversal.


title: Elaine Luria

text: Luria's husband, Robert Blondin, is also a retired naval commander and spent 27 years in the service. Luria has two stepchildren and a daughter born in 2009. The family resides in Norfolk, and she gave the commencement speech in May 2019 at Virginia Wesleyan University. Luria attends Ohef Sholom Temple, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Norfolk.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million people from 28 member states. In February 2018, the European Parliament had voted to decrease the number of MEPs from 751 to 705 if the United Kingdom were to withdraw from the European Union on 29 March 2019. However, the United Kingdom participated alongside other EU member states after an extension of Article 50 to 31 October 2019; therefore, the allocation of seats between the member states and the total number of seats remained as it had been in 2014. The Ninth European Parliament had its first plenary session on 2 July 2019.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: On 26 May 2019, the European People's Party led by Manfred Weber won the most seats in the European Parliament, making Weber the leading candidate to become the next President of the European Commission. Despite this, the European Council decided after the election to nominate Ursula von der Leyen as new Commission President. The centre-left and centre-right parties suffered significant losses, while pro-EU centrist, liberal and environmentalist parties and anti-EU right-wing populist parties made substantial gains.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: On 7 June 2018, the Council agreed at ambassador level to change the EU electoral law and to reform old laws from the 1976 Electoral Act. The purpose of the reform is to increase participation in elections, raise understanding of their European character and prevent irregular voting while at the same time respecting the constitutional and electoral traditions of the member states. The reform forbids double voting and voting in third countries, thus improving the visibility of European political parties. To avoid double voting, contact authorities are established to exchange data on voters, a process that has to start at least six weeks before the elections.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The European Parliament gave its consent on 4 July 2018 and the Act was adopted by the Council on 13 July 2018. However, not all member states ratified the Act prior to the 2019 elections and therefore this election took place in line with the previous rules.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The process involves the nomination by European political parties of candidates for the role of Commission President, the party winning the most seats in the European Parliament receiving the first opportunity to attempt to form a majority to back their candidate (akin to how heads of government are elected in national parliamentary democracies). This process was first used in 2014 and was opposed by some in the European Council. The future of the process is uncertain, but the European Parliament has attempted to codify the process and the parties are almost certain to select the candidates again. On 23 January 2018, the Constitutional Affairs Committee adopted a text stating that the process could not be overturned, and that Parliament "will be ready to reject any candidate in the investiture procedure of the Commission President who was not appointed as a in the run-up to the European elections".


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: In May 2018 a Eurobarometer poll suggested that 49% of the 27,601 individuals from all 28 EU countries surveyed think that the process will help them vote in the next European elections while 70% also think that the process requires a real debate on European issues.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: Incumbent Jean-Claude Juncker stated he would not seek a second term as President of the European Commission.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: At their 2018 Congress in Helsinki, the EPP elected Manfred Weber as their for President of the European Commission.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: Previous candidate Martin Schulz left the European Parliament in 2017 to head the Social Democratic Party of Germany, but he stepped down from the latter position in 2018.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: Šefčovič announced his withdrawal in November and supported Frans Timmermans as the Common Candidate.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The party convened an extraordinary Congress in Lisbon to ratify the election of the candidate and to vote upon the manifesto.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: Jan Zahradil, an MEP for the Czech Civic Democratic Party, is the of the European Conservatives and Reformists.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: As in 2014, the Greens adopted the principle of having two leading candidates for the European Elections 2019. Unlike in 2014, where the candidates were chosen through an open online primary elections, the two leading candidates were elected by the Council of the Party in Berlin in November 2018. Four people, two of them being currently MEPs, have declared their candidacy:


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: At their 2018 Congress in Berlin, the party elected Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout as their for the President of the European Commission.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: Oriol Junqueras, a Catalan historian, academic and former Vice President of Catalonia who, at the time of the election, was imprisoned because of his involvement in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum, is the of the European Free Alliance.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: Rather than present a single candidate, the ALDE group presented a Team Europe of seven people as the alliance's leading candidates:


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy was widely expected to disband after the election. One reason was that its biggest share of MEPs came from the United Kingdom, which was long expected to leave the EU before the election. The second was that the second-biggest partner, Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S), felt uneasy about this alliance anyway, having unsuccessfully tried to join the Greens/EFA or ALDE group instead. In February 2019, M5S alongside partners from Croatia, Finland, Greece and Poland presented a new alliance of anti-establishment parties that claim to be neither left nor right.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The Movement is an alliance of populist parties set up by Steve Bannon in 2018 with the purpose of contesting the European elections. Participating parties included, at least temporarily, Lega Nord, People's Party of Belgium and Brothers of Italy and possibly French National Rally. Originally envisioned as an attempt to unite the populist parties in Europe, The Movement has so far been snubbed by the Alternative for Germany, the Freedom Party of Austria and the UK Independence Party. In March 2019, reporters assessed Bannon's project as a failure. Shortly ahead of the election, Marine Le Pen of the French National Rally distanced herself from Bannon, clarifying that he played no role in her party's campaign.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: In April 2019, Matteo Salvini of Italy's Lega launched the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations as a new coalition of populist, hard Eurosceptic and anti-immigration parties. It has been joined by most of the members of the outgoing Europe of Nations and Freedom group (including Lega, the French National Rally, Freedom Party of Austria and the Dutch Party for Freedom) as well as some former EFDD (Alternative for Germany) and ECR parties (Danish People's Party and Finns Party). It has been predicted to become the fourth largest group in parliament with an estimate of more than 80 MEPs.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: 2019 saw the debut of new parties such as Wiosna of Poland, Czech Pirate Party of Czech Republic, USR-PLUS of Romania, Human Shield and Most of Croatia, ĽSNS and Progressive Slovakia of Slovakia. Some of the new parties have already joined European parties, e.g. LMŠ of Slovenia is a member of ALDE.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The biggest new party is La République En Marche! (LREM) of French President Emmanuel Macron that was formed in 2016 and won the French presidential and parliamentary elections of the following year. Initially, it balked at joining any of the existing party families, instead trying to form a new parliamentary group of pro-European centrists who support Macron's plans to reform the European institutions, drawing away members from ALDE, EPP and S&D. Possible partners for such a project were expected to include Spanish Ciudadanos, Progressive Slovakia and the Hungarian Momentum Movement. However, the hypothetical group was considered to have difficulties to find MEPs from at least seven member states as is required to form a new group. In November 2018, LREM decided to cooperate with the liberal ALDE group instead. Nevertheless, Macron stressed that this was merely a loose alliance and his party is not a member of the ALDE Europarty. He bluntly criticised ALDE for accepting donations from the Bayer-Monsanto chemical group while LREM's campaign chief threatened to recall the alliance. In April and May 2019, LREM continued its efforts to build a broader group, including ALDE, but also centrist and centre-left parties outside of ALDE.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The European Spring initiated from the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 ran as a pan-European party alliance with one unified vision for Europe, the European Green New Deal. The most prominent figure is the former Greek minister Yanis Varoufakis, who ran as a candidate in the constituency of Germany, but failed to secure a seat. Despite garnering approximately one and a half million votes, no representatives who ran DiEM25 were elected, due to the votes being dispersed throughout different EU countries.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: As a new pan-European party, Volt Europa was founded in different European countries two years before the elections and successfully campaigned in eight EU countries for the elections with one transnational programme. Despite missing its own goal to create a parliamentary group on its own, approximately half a million votes in total were sufficient to send one of the founders, Damian Boeselager, into the European Parliament via a German Volt list. Since June 2019, Volt is part of the group of the Greens/EFA.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: In June 2018, the European Council decided to reapportion 27 of the 73 seats which would become vacant in the event of the United Kingdom leaving the EU. As the United Kingdom was still a member of the EU at the time of the election, the elections were held with the same allocation of seats as in 2014. When the United Kingdom left the EU, 27 of the seats were reallocated to other EU member states as shown below, resulting in a total of 705 MEPs.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: There were no pan-European polls for the European elections. However, several organisations calculated the theoretical seat distribution in the European Parliament based on national polls in all member states. The table below displays these different projections. Since the United Kingdom notified its intention to leave the European Union in March 2017, the United Kingdom was expected not to participate in the European elections and was therefore excluded from projections. On 10 April 2019, the European Council extended the Brexit deadline to 31 October 2019, and the UK did participate in the European elections. The UK was included in most projections after that date.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: The heads of governments, gathered in a European Council on 1–3 July 2019, could not agree on a consensus President of the Commission. The two "Spitzenkandidaten" were discussed, but neither Manfred Weber (EPP), nor Frans Timmermans (PES), who had the backing of many leaders but not of those from the Visegrád Group, had a majority.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: In the final hours of the vote, the name of Ursula von der Leyen was suggested and agreed to by all governments, with Germany's abstention.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: "Le Grand Continent" published a detailed analysis of the secret ballot. The authors numbered the public pledges of national delegations and individual MEPs as amounting to 410, which is 27 more than what von der Leyen ultimately received.


title: 2019 European Parliament election

text: To explain the difference, they suggested three scenarios: one in which the support of delegations from the S&D group (some for, some against, some equivocal) was lower than admitted, another in which MEPs from the populist parties in government (Poland's PiS, Hungary's Fidesz and Italy's M5S) were claiming support only to gain leverage, and a half-way scenario which they see as the likeliest. In two of these three scenarios, the S&D group, which for decades was the pillar of the Grand coalition in Europe, no longer has a majority of MEPs supporting the Commission.


title: Icon

text: An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most common subjects include Christ, Mary, saints and angels. Although especially associated with portrait-style images concentrating on one or two main figures, the term also covers most religious images in a variety of artistic media produced by Eastern Christianity, including narrative scenes, usually from the Bible or the lives of saints.


title: Icon

text: Icons are most commonly painted on wood panels with egg tempera, but they may also be cast in metal, carved in stone, embroidered on cloth, done in mosaic or fresco work, printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity can be classified as "icons", although "iconic" may also be used to describe a static style of devotional image. In the Greek language, the term for icon painting uses the same word as for "writing", and Orthodox sources often translate it into English as "icon writing".


title: Icon

text: Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the production of Christian images dates back to the very early days of Christianity, and that it has been a continuous tradition since then. Modern academic art history considers that, while images may have existed earlier, the tradition can be traced back only as far as the 3rd century, and that the images which survive from Early Christian art often differ greatly from later ones. The icons of later centuries can be linked, often closely, to images from the 5th century onwards, though very few of these survive. Widespread destruction of images occurred during the Byzantine Iconoclasm of 726–842, although this did settle permanently the question of the appropriateness of images. Since then, icons have had a great continuity of style and subject, far greater than in the icons of the Western church. At the same time there have been change and development.


title: Icon

text: Pre-Christian religions had produced and used art works. Statues and paintings of various gods and deities were regularly worshiped and venerated. It is unclear when Christians took up such activities. Christian tradition dating from the 8th century identifies Luke the Evangelist as the first icon painter, but this might not reflect historical facts. A general assumption that early Christianity was generally aniconic, opposed to religious imagery in both theory and practice until about 200, has been challenged by Paul Corby Finney's analysis of early Christian writing and material remains (1994). This distinguishes three different sources of attitudes affecting early Christians on the issue: "first that humans could have a direct vision of God; second that they could not; and, third, that although humans could see God they were best advised not to look, and were strictly forbidden to represent what they had seen". These derived respectively from Greek and Near Eastern pagan religions, from Ancient Greek philosophy, and from the Jewish tradition and the Old Testament. Of the three, Finney concludes that "overall, Israel's aversion to sacred images influenced early Christianity considerably less than the Greek philosophical tradition of invisible deity apophatically defined", so placing less emphasis on the Jewish background of most of the first Christians than most traditional accounts. Finney suggests that "the reasons for the non-appearance of Christian art before 200 have nothing to do with principled aversion to art, with other-worldliness, or with anti-materialism. The truth is simple and mundane: Christians lacked land and capital. Art requires both. As soon as they began to acquire land and capital, Christians began to experiment with their own distinctive forms of art".


title: Icon

text: Aside from the legend that Pilate had made an image of Christ, the 4th-century Eusebius of Caesarea, in his "Church History", provides a more substantial reference to a "first" icon of Jesus. He relates that King Abgar of Edessa (died ) sent a letter to Jesus at Jerusalem, asking Jesus to come and heal him of an illness. This version of the Abgar story does not mention an image, but a later account found in the Syriac "Doctrine of Addai" () mentions a painted image of Jesus in the story; and even later, in the 6th-century account given by Evagrius Scholasticus, the painted image transforms into an image that miraculously appeared on a towel when Christ pressed the cloth to his wet face. Further legends relate that the cloth remained in Edessa until the 10th century, when it was taken by General John Kourkouas to Constantinople. It went missing in 1204 when Crusaders sacked Constantinople, but by then numerous copies had firmly established its iconic type.


title: Icon

text: The 4th-century Christian Aelius Lampridius produced the earliest known written records of Christian images treated like icons (in a pagan or Gnostic context) in his "Life of Alexander Severus" (xxix) that formed part of the "Augustan History". According to Lampridius, the emperor Alexander Severus (), himself not a Christian, had kept a domestic chapel for the veneration of images of deified emperors, of portraits of his ancestors, and of Christ, Apollonius, Orpheus and Abraham. Saint Irenaeus, () in his "Against Heresies" (1:25;6) says scornfully of the Gnostic Carpocratians:


title: Icon

text: On the other hand, Irenaeus does not speak critically of icons or portraits in a general sense—only of certain gnostic sectarians' use of icons.


title: Icon

text: Another criticism of image veneration appears in the non-canonical 2nd-century Acts of John (generally considered a gnostic work), in which the Apostle John discovers that one of his followers has had a portrait made of him, and is venerating it:


title: Icon

text: Later in the passage John says, "But this that you have now done is childish and imperfect: you have drawn a dead likeness of the dead."


title: Icon

text: At least some of the hierarchy of the Christian churches still strictly opposed icons in the early 4th century. At the Spanish non-ecumenical Synod of Elvira () bishops concluded, "Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration".


title: Icon

text: Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis, wrote his letter 51 to John, Bishop of Jerusalem () in which he recounted how he tore down an image in a church and admonished the other bishop that such images are "opposed[...] to our religion".


title: Icon

text: Elsewhere in his "Church History", Eusebius reports seeing what he took to be portraits of Jesus, Peter and Paul, and also mentions a bronze statue at Banias / Paneas under Mount Hermon, of which he wrote, "They say that this statue is an image of Jesus"; further, he relates that locals regarded the image as a memorial of the healing of the woman with an issue of blood by Jesus (Luke 8:43–48), because it depicted a standing man wearing a double cloak and with arm outstretched, and a woman kneeling before him with arms reaching out as if in supplication. John Francis Wilson suggests the possibility that this refers to a pagan bronze statue whose true identity had been forgotten; some have thought it to represent Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing, but the description of the standing figure and the woman kneeling in supplication precisely matches images found on coins depicting the bearded emperor Hadrian () reaching out to a female figure—symbolizing a province—kneeling before him.


title: Icon

text: When asked by Constantia (Emperor Constantine's half-sister) for an image of Jesus, Eusebius denied the request, replying: "To depict purely the human form of Christ before its transformation, on the other hand, is to break the commandment of God and to fall into pagan error." Hence Jaroslav Pelikan calls Eusebius "the father of iconoclasm".


title: Icon

text: After the emperor Constantine I extended official toleration of Christianity within the Roman Empire in 313, huge numbers of pagans became converts. This period of Christianization probably saw the use of Christian images became very widespread among the faithful, though with great differences from pagan habits. Robin Lane Fox states "By the early fifth century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints; by , we can be sure that the inside of a saint's shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, a practice which had probably begun earlier."


title: Icon

text: When Constantine himself () apparently converted to Christianity, the majority of his subjects remained pagans. The Roman Imperial cult of the divinity of the emperor, expressed through the traditional burning of candles and the offering of incense to the emperor's image, was tolerated for a period because it would have been politically dangerous to attempt to suppress it. In the 5th century the courts of justice and municipal buildings of the empire still honoured the portrait of the reigning emperor in this way. In 425 Philostorgius, an allegedly Arian Christian, charged the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople with idolatry because they still honored the image of the emperor Constantine the Great in this way. Dix notes that this occurred more than a century before the first extant reference to a similar honouring of the image of Christ or of his apostles or saints known today, but that it would seem a natural progression for the image of Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, to be paid similar veneration as that given to the earthly Roman emperor. However, the Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, and other groups insist on explicitly distinguishing the veneration of icons from the worship of idols by pagans.


title: Icon

text: After adoption of Christianity as the only permissible Roman state religion under Theodosius I, Christian art began to change not only in quality and sophistication, but also in nature. This was in no small part due to Christians being free for the first time to express their faith openly without persecution from the state, in addition to the faith spreading to the non-poor segments of society. Paintings of martyrs and their feats began to appear, and early writers commented on their lifelike effect, one of the elements a few Christian writers criticized in pagan art—the ability to imitate life. The writers mostly criticized pagan works of art for pointing to false gods, thus encouraging idolatry. Statues in the round were avoided as being too close to the principal artistic focus of pagan cult practices, as they have continued to be (with some small-scale exceptions) throughout the history of Eastern Christianity.


title: Icon

text: Nilus of Sinai ( ), in his "Letter to Heliodorus Silentiarius", records a miracle in which St. Plato of Ankyra appeared to a Christian in a dream. The Saint was recognized because the young man had often seen his portrait. This recognition of a religious apparition from likeness to an image was also a characteristic of pagan pious accounts of appearances of gods to humans, and was a regular "topos" in hagiography. One critical recipient of a vision from Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki apparently specified that the saint resembled the "more ancient" images of him—presumably the 7th-century mosaics still in Hagios Demetrios. Another, an African bishop, had been rescued from Arab slavery by a young soldier called Demetrios, who told him to go to his house in Thessaloniki. Having discovered that most young soldiers in the city seemed to be called Demetrios, he gave up and went to the largest church in the city, to find his rescuer on the wall.


title: Icon

text: During this period the church began to discourage all non-religious human images—the Emperor and donor figures counting as religious. This became largely effective, so that most of the population would only ever see religious images and those of the ruling class. The word "icon" referred to any and all images, not just religious ones, but there was barely a need for a separate word for these.


title: Icon

text: It is in a context attributed to the 5th century that the first mention of an image of Mary painted from life appears, though earlier paintings on catacomb walls bear resemblance to modern icons of Mary. Theodorus Lector, in his 6th-century "History of the Church" 1:1 stated that Eudokia (wife of emperor Theodosius II, 460) sent an image of the "Mother of God" named Icon of the Hodegetria from Jerusalem to Pulcheria, daughter of Arcadius, the former emperor and father of Theodosius II. The image was specified to have been "painted by the Apostle Luke."


title: Icon

text: Margherita Guarducci relates a tradition that the original icon of Mary attributed to Luke, sent by Eudokia to Pulcheria from Palestine, was a large circular icon only of her head. When the icon arrived in Constantinople it was fitted in as the head into a very large rectangular icon of her holding the Christ child and it is this composite icon that became the one historically known as the Hodegetria. She further states another tradition that when the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II, fled Constantinople in 1261 he took this original circular portion of the icon with him. This remained in the possession of the Angevin dynasty who had it likewise inserted into a much larger image of Mary and the Christ child, which is presently enshrined above the high altar of the Benedictine Abbey church of Montevergine. Unfortunately this icon was subjected to repeated repainting over the subsequent centuries, so that it is difficult to determine what the original image of Mary's face would have looked like. However, Guarducci also states that in 1950 an ancient image of Mary at the Church of Santa Francesca Romana was determined to be a very exact, but reverse mirror image of the original circular icon that was made in the 5th century and brought to Rome, where it has remained until the present.


title: Icon

text: In later tradition the number of icons of Mary attributed to Luke would greatly multiply; the Salus Populi Romani, the Theotokos of Vladimir, the Theotokos Iverskaya of Mount Athos, the Theotokos of Tikhvin, the Theotokos of Smolensk and the Black Madonna of Częstochowa are examples, and another is in the cathedral on St Thomas Mount, which is believed to be one of the seven painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and brought to India by St. Thomas. Ethiopia has at least seven more. Bissera V. Pentcheva concludes, "The myth [of Luke painting an icon] was invented in order to support the legitimacy of icon veneration during the Iconoclastic controversy" [8th and 9th centuries, much later than most art historians put it]. By claiming the existence of a portrait of the Theotokos painted during her lifetime by the evangelist Luke, the iconodules "fabricated evidence for the apostolic origins and divine approval of images."


title: Icon

text: In the period before and during the Iconoclastic Controversy, stories attributing the creation of icons to the New Testament period greatly increased, with several apostles and even Mary herself believed to have acted as the artist or commissioner of images (also embroidered in the case of Mary).


title: Icon

text: There was a continuing opposition to images and their misuse within Christianity from very early times. "Whenever images threatened to gain undue influence within the church, theologians have sought to strip them of their power". Further, "there is no century between the fourth and the eighth in which there is not some evidence of opposition to images even within the Church". Nonetheless, popular favor for icons guaranteed their continued existence, while no systematic apologia for or against icons, or doctrinal authorization or condemnation of icons yet existed.


title: Icon

text: The use of icons was seriously challenged by Byzantine Imperial authority in the 8th century. Though by this time opposition to images was strongly entrenched in Judaism and Islam, attribution of the impetus toward an iconoclastic movement in Eastern Orthodoxy to Muslims or Jews "seems to have been highly exaggerated, both by contemporaries and by modern scholars".


title: Icon

text: Though significant in the history of religious doctrine, the Byzantine controversy over images is not seen as of primary importance in Byzantine history; "[f]ew historians still hold it to have been the greatest issue of the period".


title: Icon

text: The Iconoclastic Period began when images were banned by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian sometime between 726 and 730. Under his son Constantine V, a council forbidding image veneration was held at Hieria near Constantinople in 754. Image veneration was later reinstated by the Empress Regent Irene, under whom another council was held reversing the decisions of the previous iconoclast council and taking its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council. The council anathemized all who hold to iconoclasm, i.e. those who held that veneration of images constitutes idolatry. Then the ban was enforced again by Leo V in 815. Finally, icon veneration was decisively restored by Empress Regent Theodora in 843.


title: Icon

text: From then on all Byzantine coins had a religious image or symbol on the reverse, usually an image of Christ for larger denominations, with the head of the Emperor on the obverse, reinforcing the bond of the state and the divine order.


title: Icon

text: The tradition of (, literally "not-made-by-hand") accrued to icons that are alleged to have come into existence miraculously, not by a human painter. Such images functioned as powerful relics as well as icons, and their images were naturally seen as especially authoritative as to the true appearance of the subject: naturally and especially because of the reluctance to accept mere human productions as embodying anything of the divine, a commonplace of Christian deprecation of man-made "idols". Like icons believed to be painted directly from the live subject, they therefore acted as important references for other images in the tradition. Beside the developed legend of the "mandylion" or Image of Edessa was the tale of the Veil of Veronica, whose very name signifies "true icon" or "true image", the fear of a "false image" remaining strong.


title: Icon

text: Although there are earlier records of their use, no panel icons earlier than the few from the 6th century preserved at the Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt survive, as the other examples in Rome have all been drastically over-painted. The surviving evidence for the earliest depictions of Christ, Mary and saints therefore comes from wall-paintings, mosaics and some carvings. They are realistic in appearance, in contrast to the later stylization. They are broadly similar in style, though often much superior in quality, to the mummy portraits done in wax (encaustic) and found at Fayyum in Egypt. As can be judged from such items, the first depictions of Jesus were generic, rather than portrait images, generally representing him as a beardless young man. It was some time before the earliest examples of the long-haired, bearded face that was later to become standardized as the image of Jesus appeared. When they did begin to appear there was still variation. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said that no one knew the appearance of Jesus or that of Mary. However, Augustine was not a resident of the Holy Land and therefore was not familiar with the local populations and their oral traditions. Gradually, paintings of Jesus took on characteristics of portrait images.


title: Icon

text: At this time the manner of depicting Jesus was not yet uniform, and there was some controversy over which of the two most common icons was to be favored. The first or "Semitic" form showed Jesus with short and "frizzy" hair; the second showed a bearded Jesus with hair parted in the middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted. Theodorus Lector remarked that of the two, the one with short and frizzy hair was "more authentic". To support his assertion, he relates a story (excerpted by John of Damascus) that a pagan commissioned to paint an image of Jesus used the "Zeus" form instead of the "Semitic" form, and that as punishment his hands withered.


title: Icon

text: Though their development was gradual, it is possible to date the full-blown appearance and general ecclesiastical (as opposed to simply popular or local) acceptance of Christian images as venerated and miracle-working objects to the 6th century, when, as Hans Belting writes, "we first hear of the church's use of religious images". "As we reach the second half of the sixth century, we find that images are attracting direct veneration and some of them are credited with the performance of miracles". Cyril Mango writes, "In the post-Justinianic period the icon assumes an ever increasing role in popular devotion, and there is a proliferation of miracle stories connected with icons, some of them rather shocking to our eyes". However, the earlier references by Eusebius and Irenaeus indicate veneration of images and reported miracles associated with them as early as the 2nd century.


title: Icon

text: In the icons of Eastern Orthodoxy, and of the Early Medieval West, very little room is made for artistic license. Almost everything within the image has a symbolic aspect. Christ, the saints, and the angels all have halos. Angels (and often John the Baptist) have wings because they are messengers. Figures have consistent facial appearances, hold attributes personal to them, and use a few conventional poses. Archangels bear a thin staff and sometimes a mirror.


title: Icon

text: Colour plays an important role as well. Gold represents the radiance of Heaven; red, divine life. Blue is the colour of human life, white is the Uncreated Light of God, only used for resurrection and transfiguration of Christ. In icons of Jesus and Mary, Jesus wears red undergarment with a blue outer garment (representing God becoming human) and Mary wears a blue undergarment with a red overgarment (representing a human who was granted gifts by God), and thus the doctrine of deification is conveyed by icons. Letters are symbols too. Most icons incorporate some calligraphic text naming the person or event depicted. Even this is often presented in a stylized manner.


title: Icon

text: In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition there are reports of particular wonderworking icons that exude myrrh (fragrant, healing oil), or perform miracles upon petition by believers. When such reports are verified by the Orthodox hierarchy, they are understood as miracles performed by God through the prayers of the saint, rather than being magical properties of the painted wood itself. Theologically, all icons are considered to be sacred, and are miraculous by nature, being a means of spiritual communion between the heavenly and earthly realms. However, it is not uncommon for specific icons to be characterised as "miracle-working", meaning that God has chosen to glorify them by working miracles through them. Such icons are often given particular names (especially those of the Virgin Mary), and even taken from city to city where believers gather to venerate them and pray before them. Islands like that of Tinos are renowned for possessing such "miraculous" icons, and are visited every year by thousands of pilgrims.


title: Icon

text: The Eastern Orthodox view of the origin of icons is generally quite different from that of most secular scholars and from some in contemporary Roman Catholic circles: "The Orthodox Church maintains and teaches that the sacred image has existed from the beginning of Christianity", Léonid Ouspensky has written. Accounts that some non-Orthodox writers consider legendary are accepted as history within Eastern Orthodoxy, because they are a part of church tradition. Thus accounts such as that of the miraculous "image not made by hands", and the weeping and moving "Mother of God of the Sign" of Novgorod are accepted as fact: "Church Tradition tells us, for example, of the existence of an Icon of the Savior during His lifetime (the 'Icon-Made-Without-Hands') and of Icons of the Most-Holy Theotokos [Mary] immediately after Him."


title: Icon

text: Eastern Orthodoxy further teaches that "a clear understanding of the importance of Icons" was part of the church from its very beginning, and has never changed, although explanations of their importance may have developed over time. This is because icon painting is rooted in the theology of the Incarnation (Christ being the of God) which did not change, though its subsequent clarification within the Church occurred over the period of the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Icons also aerved as tools of edification for the illiterate faithful during most of the history of Christendom. Thus, icons are words in painting; they refer to the history of salvation and to its manifestation in concrete persons. In the Orthodox Church, "icons have always been understood as a visible gospel, as a testimony to the great things given man by God the incarnate Logos". In the Council of 860 it was stated that "all that is uttered in words written in syllables is also proclaimed in the language of colors".


title: Icon

text: Eastern Orthodox find the first instance of an image or icon in the Bible when God made man in his own image (Septuagint Greek ), in Genesis 1:26–27. In Exodus, God commanded that the Israelites not make any graven image; soon afterwards, however, he commanded that they make graven images of cherubim and other like things, both as statues and woven on tapestries. Later, Solomon included still more such imagery when he built the first temple. Eastern Orthodox believe these qualify as icons, in that they were visible images depicting heavenly beings and, in the case of the cherubim, used to indirectly indicate God's presence above the Ark.


title: Icon

text: In the Book of Numbers it is written that God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, "Nehushtan", and hold it up, so that anyone looking at the snake would be healed of their snake bites. In John 3, Jesus refers to the same serpent, saying that he must be lifted up in the same way that the serpent was. John of Damascus also regarded the brazen serpent as an icon. Further, Jesus Christ himself is called the "image of the invisible God" in Colossians 1:15, and is therefore in one sense an icon. As people are also made in God's images, people are also considered to be living icons, and are therefore "censed" along with painted icons during Orthodox prayer services.


title: Icon

text: According to John of Damascus, anyone who tries to destroy icons "is the enemy of Christ, the Holy Mother of God and the saints, and is the defender of the Devil and his demons". This is because the theology behind icons is closely tied to the Incarnational theology of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, so that attacks on icons typically have the effect of undermining or attacking the Incarnation of Jesus himself as elucidated in the Ecumenical Councils.


title: Icon

text: Basil of Caesarea, in his writing "On the Holy Spirit", says: "The honor paid to the image passes to the prototype". He also illustrates the concept by saying, "If I point to a statue of Caesar and ask you 'Who is that?', your answer would properly be, 'It is Caesar.' When you say such you do not mean that the stone itself is Caesar, but rather, the name and honor you ascribe to the statue passes over to the original, the archetype, Caesar himself." This is thus the approach to icons; to kiss an icon of Jesus, in the Eastern Orthodox view, is to show love towards Jesus himself, not mere wood and paint making up the physical substance of the icon. Worship of the icon as somehow entirely separate from its prototype is expressly forbidden by the Seventh Ecumenical Council.


title: Icon

text: Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.


title: Icon

text: Of the icon painting tradition that developed in Byzantium, with Constantinople as the chief city, we have only a few icons from the 11th century and none preceding them, in part because of the Iconoclastic reforms during which many were destroyed or lost, and also because of plundering by the Republic of Venice in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, and finally the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.


title: Icon

text: It was only in the Komnenian period (1081–1185) that the cult of the icon became widespread in the Byzantine world, partly on account of the dearth of richer materials (such as mosaics, ivory, and vitreous enamels), but also because an "iconostasis" a special screen for icons was introduced then in ecclesiastical practice. The style of the time was severe, hieratic and distant.


title: Icon

text: In the late Comnenian period this severity softened, and emotion, formerly avoided, entered icon painting. Major monuments for this change include the murals at Daphni Monastery () and the Church of St. Panteleimon near Skopje (1164). The Theotokos of Vladimir () is probably the most representative example of the new trend towards spirituality and emotion.


title: Icon

text: The tendency toward emotionalism in icons continued in the Paleologan period, which began in 1261. Palaiologan art reached its pinnacle in mosaics such as those of Chora Church. In the last half of the 14th century, Palaiologan saints were painted in an exaggerated manner, very slim and in contorted positions – a style known as the Palaiologan Mannerism, of which is a superb example.


title: Icon

text: After 1453, the Byzantine tradition was carried on in regions previously influenced by its religion and culture—in the Balkans, Russia, and other Slavic countries, Georgia and Armenia in the Caucasus, and among Eastern Orthodox minorities in the Islamic world. In the Greek-speaking world Crete, ruled by Venice until the mid-17th century, was an important centre of painted icons, as home of the Cretan School, exporting many to Europe.


title: Icon

text: Crete was under Venetian control from 1204 and became a thriving center of art with eventually a , or organized painter's guild, the Guild of Saint Luke, on Western lines. Cretan painting was heavily patronized both by Catholics of Venetian territories and by Eastern Orthodox. For ease of transport, Cretan painters specialized in panel paintings, and developed the ability to work in many styles to fit the taste of various patrons. El Greco, who moved to Venice after establishing his reputation in Crete, is the most famous artist of the school, who continued to use many Byzantine conventions in his works. In 1669 the city of Heraklion, on Crete, which at one time boasted at least 120 painters, finally fell to the Turks, and from that time Greek icon painting went into a decline, with a revival attempted in the 20th century by art reformers such as Photis Kontoglou, who emphasized a return to earlier styles.


title: Icon

text: Russian icons are typically paintings on wood, often small, though some in churches and monasteries may be as large as a table top. Many religious homes in Russia have icons hanging on the wall in the —the "red" corner (see Icon corner). There is a rich history and elaborate religious symbolism associated with icons. In Russian churches, the nave is typically separated from the sanctuary by an "iconostasis", a wall of icons.


title: Icon

text: The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity from the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire in 988 AD. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by usage, some of which had originated in Constantinople. As time passed, the Russians—notably Andrei Rublev and Dionisius—widened the vocabulary of iconic types and styles far beyond anything found elsewhere. The personal, improvisatory and creative traditions of Western European religious art are largely lacking in Russia before the 17th century, when Simon Ushakov's painting became strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings from Protestant as well as Catholic Europe.


title: Icon

text: In the mid-17th century, changes in liturgy and practice instituted by Patriarch Nikon of Moscow resulted in a split in the Russian Orthodox Church. The traditionalists, the persecuted "Old Ritualists" or "Old Believers", continued the traditional stylization of icons, while the State Church modified its practice. From that time icons began to be painted not only in the traditional stylized and nonrealistic mode, but also in a mixture of Russian stylization and Western European realism, and in a Western European manner very much like that of Catholic religious art of the time. The Stroganov School and the icons from Nevyansk rank among the last important schools of Russian icon-painting.


title: Icon

text: In Romania, icons painted as reversed images behind glass and set in frames were common in the 19th century and are still made. The process is known as reverse glass painting. "In the Transylvanian countryside, the expensive icons on panels imported from Moldavia, Wallachia, and Mt. Athos were gradually replaced by small, locally produced icons on glass, which were much less expensive and thus accessible to the Transylvanian peasants".


title: Icon

text: The earliest historical records about icons in Serbia dates back to the period of Nemanjić dynasty. One of the notable schools of Serb icons was active in the Bay of Kotor from the 17th century to the 19th century.


title: Icon

text: Trojeručica meaning "Three-handed Theotokos" is the most important icon of the Serbian Orthodox Church and main icon of Mount Athos.


title: Icon

text: The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Oriental Orthodoxy also have distinctive, living icon painting traditions. Coptic icons have their origin in the Hellenistic art of Egyptian Late Antiquity, as exemplified by the Fayum mummy portraits. Beginning in the 4th century, churches painted their walls and made icons to reflect an authentic expression of their faith.


title: Icon

text: The Aleppo School was a school of icon-painting, founded by the priest Yusuf al-Musawwir (also known as Joseph the Painter) and active in Aleppo, which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire, between at least 1645 and 1777.


title: Icon

text: Although the word "icon" is not generally used in Western Christianity, there are religious works of art which were largely patterned on Byzantine works, and equally conventional in composition and depiction. Until the 13th century, icon-like depictions of sacred figures followed Eastern patterns—although very few survive from this early period. Italian examples are in a style known as Italo-Byzantine. From the 13th century, the Western tradition came slowly to allow the artist far more flexibility, and a more realist approach to the figures. If only because there was a much smaller number of skilled artists, the quantity of works of art, in the sense of panel paintings, was much smaller in the West, and in most Western settings a single diptych as an altarpiece, or in a domestic room, probably stood in place of the larger collections typical of Orthodox "icon corners".


title: Icon

text: Only in the 15th century did production of painted works of art begin to approach Eastern levels, supplemented by mass-produced imports from the Cretan School. In this century, the use of icon-like portraits in the West was enormously increased by the introduction of old master prints on paper, mostly woodcuts which were produced in vast numbers (although hardly any survive). They were mostly sold, hand-coloured, by churches, and the smallest sizes (often only an inch high) were affordable even by peasants, who glued or pinned them straight onto a wall.


title: Icon

text: With the Reformation, after an initial uncertainty among early Lutherans, who painted a few icon-like depictions of leading Reformers, and continued to paint scenes from Scripture, Protestants came down firmly against icon-like portraits, especially larger ones, even of Christ. Many Protestants found these idolatrous.


title: Icon

text: The Catholic Church accepted the decrees of the iconodule Seventh Ecumenical Council regarding images. There is some minor difference, however, in the Catholic attitude to images from that of the Orthodox. Following Gregory the Great, Catholics emphasize the role of images as the , the "Bible of the Poor", from which those who could not read could nonetheless learn.


title: Icon

text: Catholics also, however, share the same viewpoint with the Orthodox when it comes to image veneration, believing that whenever approached, sacred images are to be shown reverence. Though using both flat wooden panel and stretched canvas paintings, Catholics traditionally have also favored images in the form of three-dimensional statuary, whereas in the East, statuary is much less widely employed.


title: Icon

text: A joint Lutheran–Orthodox statement made in the 7th Plenary of the Lutheran–Orthodox Joint Commission, in July 1993 in Helsinki, reaffirmed the ecumenical council decisions on the nature of Christ and the veneration of images:


title: Johnny Messner (actor)

text: Johnny Messner (born April 11, 1970) is an American film and television actor best known for his portrayal of a muscular military man in the 2004 film "".


title: Johnny Messner (actor)

text: Messner was born on April 11, 1970, in Syracuse, New York. He lived in Europe for 13 years while his father served in the United States Air Force, mainly in Germany and England. During this time, he developed a love for sports while playing on teams at military bases. He has one brother and one sister. He briefly attended the San Diego State University to major in sports broadcasting but eventually decided to drop out. Soon after that he went back to New York where he pursued an acting career. He has several tattoos; one depicts Italian actress Monica Bellucci, and another is of his father.


title: Johnny Messner (actor)

text: As an actor Messner is probably best known for his work in the films "Tears of the Sun", "The Whole Ten Yards" and "Hostage", and in the TV series "Guiding Light" (working with friend Frank Grillo and a young Hayden Panettiere), "" and "Cold Case". In August 2004, American action adventure film "", starring Messner as an ex-military man Bill Johnson, premiered in theaters. It was the actor's first leading role in a mainstream movie, and gave him a chance to impress the audiences with a perfect musculature. The portrayal gained him status of a sex symbol. Around that time Messner became notorious due to his controversial interviews for "IGN" and "Lawrence Journal-World". He stated that "in Hollywood we've lost the real man", and that he's the only "alpha male" still working in the film industry, along with Bruce Willis. In those interviews Messner expressed harsh criticism for actors Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt and Vin Diesel, among others. In December 2004, the horror-themed website "CampBlood" named him the 2004's sexiest man in horror.


title: Johnny Messner (actor)

text: Known as an action hero, he starred in numerous genre films including "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" (2004), "Tears of the Sun" (2003), "Running Scared" (2006), "Arena" (2011), "Kill 'em All" (2012), "The Good, the Bad, and the Dead" (2015), "Silencer" (2018), and "Beyond the Law" (2019). He portrayed the main protagonist, an ex-police officer Burke Wyatt, in the 2008 action film "Ring of Death", created for Spike TV. A torture sequence, shot for the film, required Messner to be waterboarded.


title: B*Witched

text: B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll. Originally active between 1997 and 2002, they enjoyed success in both Europe and North America between 1998 and 2002, releasing two albums and eight singles, all of which made the UK Top 20. Their first four singles, "C'est la Vie", "Rollercoaster", "To You I Belong" and "Blame It on the Weatherman", all reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. In 2002, having sold over 3 million albums worldwide, B*Witched were dropped by their record company. Soon afterwards, when O'Carroll decided to leave, the group split up. In 2006, the Lynch sisters formed a group, Ms. Lynch, frequently performing B*Witched material at live shows.


title: B*Witched

text: On 18 October 2012, it was announced that B*Witched would reunite for the ITV2 reality-documentary series "The Big Reunion", along with other pop groups of their time, including Liberty X, Five, Honeyz and Atomic Kitten. The show follows the six groups as they reunited for the first time in a decade and rehearsed ahead of a comeback performance at the Hammersmith Apollo on 26 February 2013. Due to the success of the show and the high demand for tickets at the Hammersmith Apollo gig, the "Big Reunion" lineups also embarked on an arena tour around the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.


title: B*Witched

text: In May 2013, B*Witched unveiled a new song called "Love and Money". During a radio interview in October 2013, Edele Lynch confirmed that the group would be releasing new material. On 28 September 2014, they released an EP, entitled "Champagne or Guinness".


title: B*Witched

text: All four members of B*Witched knew each other vaguely from dancing at Digges Lane dance studios in Dublin. Sinéad O'Carroll met Keavy Lynch (one of the younger sisters of Boyzone's Shane Lynch) in a garage in the Dublin suburb of Finglas, where Keavy was working as a part-time mechanic. The two of them became friends after talking about music and the idea of being in a band. Lindsay Armaou met Keavy at a kickboxing class. In 1996, Keavy, Sinéad and Keavy's identical twin sister Edele decided to put a group together, originally called Butterfly Farm. They later became a four-piece when Armaou joined.


title: B*Witched

text: The group experimented with the name D'sire and Sister, before settling on B*Witched. The band members deliberately cultivated a tomboy image and, in order to appeal to a younger audience, understated their ages in their early years. Edele and Keavy's brother Shane Lynch (of the band Boyzone) helped the group find a manager, Kim Glowas. In 1997 she signed the group to Glowworm Records, the Epic Records label she ran. The label was co-run by Ray "Madman" Hedges, who produced all of B*Witched's releases.


title: B*Witched

text: B*Witched released their debut single "C'est la Vie" on 25 May 1998, prior to their first show at Lawmuir Primary School in Bellshill as part of Jobee's 20-year anniversary. Despite mixed reviews, it reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and in the process B*Witched became the youngest girl group to have a number one in the UK (a feat that has since been surpassed by the Sugababes and Little Mix). Following its release in the United States, the song went to number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Subsequent singles "Rollercoaster", "To You I Belong" and "Blame It on the Weatherman" all topped the UK chart as well. They also performed the theme song for the Saturday morning cartoon "". Their self-titled debut album, "B*Witched", was released in October 1998, and reached number three on the UK Albums Chart and was certified 2× Platinum in the UK. The album also peaked at number 12 on the US "Billboard" 200 and was certified Platinum in the US.