title: Ed King

text: King's guitar playing and songwriting skills were an essential element of Lynyrd Skynyrd's first three albums: "(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)", "Second Helping" and "Nuthin' Fancy". King co-wrote one of the band's most recognizable hits "Sweet Home Alabama", and his voice counted the "one, two, three", before he launched into his famous riff to start the song. Other songs that King wrote or co-wrote for Lynyrd Skynyrd include "Poison Whiskey", "Saturday Night Special", "Whiskey Rock-a-Roller" and "Workin' for MCA". Guitarist Rossington noted years later that King was the most business-minded member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, relating a story of how King would stock up on food items during stops on tour and then re-sell the items to his bandmates at a 500% markup when they later got hungry on the bus.


title: Ed King

text: Band biographer Mark Ribowsky wrote that King was an outsider in Lynyrd Skynyrd to some extent, as he was from Southern California and the only non-Southerner in the lineup, but that it was King who brought a level of professionalism to the fledgling band. King detailed his initial exit from the band in the documentary "If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd", saying "Ronnie [Van Zant] and my guitar roadie who changed my strings were thrown in jail in Ann Arbor. They didn't arrive...until 10 minutes before we went on. I had to play on old strings and I broke two strings during "Free Bird". After, Ronnie was riding me, and a lightbulb went off and I said, "That's it." I went back to my room, packed up my stuff and left." King referred to himself as a peaceful "Southern California hippie" and the band's predilection for drunken brawling never sat well with him; the incident which led to his departure was merely the final straw.


title: Ed King

text: King's departure in 1975 happened during a particularly difficult tour that the band dubbed the "Torture Tour", a tour that also claimed drummer and founding member Bob Burns weeks earlier due to a mental breakdown. The band continued with only two guitarists for a few months before discovering Steve Gaines in 1976. Gaines was killed in a plane crash along with his sister Cassie Gaines and Van Zant on October 20, 1977. Coincidentally, Steve Gaines was born on the same day as King, September 14, 1949.


title: Ed King

text: King was one of the guitarists in the reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987, and played a major role. He had to leave the band again in 1996 because of congestive heart failure. In 2005, Ed asked Mark Basile, a long time friend and guitarist from New York, to put together the remaining non-touring Skynyrd members, Artimus Pyle, Leslie Hawkins, JoJo Billingsley and Bob Burns for several shows from 2005-2006. That band, called The Saturday Night Special Band, played several shows that can be found on YouTube.


title: Ed King

text: King, along with all pre-crash members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. His guitar playing influenced many subsequent musicians, including Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.


title: Ed King

text: In 2011, King underwent a successful heart transplant. In 2017, he appeared as a customer in the Discovery Channel docudrama "Moonshiners", buying $30,000 worth of premium gin.


title: Ed King

text: According to a Nashville news station WTVF, King had been battling cancer in the months prior to his death. King died in his Nashville, Tennessee, home on August 22, 2018, at 68 years of age. His death was announced through his personal Facebook page. Following King's death, former Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmate Rossington released a statement saying, "Ed was our brother, and a great songwriter and guitar player. I know he will be reunited with the rest of the boys in Rock and Roll Heaven. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."


The 2020 United States presidential election in Nevada was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Nevada voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate California Senator Kamala Harris. Nevada has six votes in the Electoral College.


title: 2020 United States presidential election in Nevada

text: Throughout the campaign, polls of the state generally showed a Biden lead, albeit with a sometimes slender margin. Prior to polling day, most news organizations considered that Nevada was leaning towards Biden.


text: Biden carried Nevada by 2.39%, a slightly smaller margin than Hillary Clinton's 2.42% in 2016, making it one of just seven states in which Trump improved on his 2016 margin. Biden's somewhat narrow victory in Nevada also makes it his weakest victory in a state that Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, as well as the only one that was decided by less than a 7.1% margin of victory. Most counties in the state of Nevada are rural, and voted heavily for Trump. However, Biden won the two most populous counties, Clark and Washoe, which make up almost 89% of Nevada's population and are decisive in deciding the winner of the state. Biden also won Washoe County by a wider margin than Clinton. The state's three largest cities are also located in these counties: Las Vegas and Henderson in the former, and Reno in the latter. His strength in these areas was likely due to high presence of minority and union voters: Biden's strength came from heavy turnout among culinary unions in populous Clark County, anchored by Las Vegas. Biden had the backing of Culinary Union Local 226, based on right-to-work standards. Additionally, Biden was able to win about 43% and 34% of votes in the tourism-heavy Lake Tahoe areas of Carson City and Douglas County respectively, sealing his victory in the state.


text: On September 7, 2019, the Nevada Republican Party became one of several state GOP parties to officially cancel their respective primaries and caucuses. Donald Trump's re-election campaign and GOP officials have cited the fact that Republicans canceled several state primaries when George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush sought a second term in 1992 and 2004, respectively; and Democrats scrapped some of their primaries when Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were seeking reelection in 1996 and 2012, respectively. In August 2019, the Associated Press quoted the state party spokesman, Keith Schipper, who stated it "isn't about any kind of conspiracy theory about protecting the president... He's going to be the nominee... This is about protecting resources to make sure that the president wins in Nevada and that Republicans up and down the ballot win in 2020."


text: In lieu of conducting their caucuses, the state party's governing central committee instead formally held an "Alternative Presidential Preference Poll" on February 22, 2020, voting "by acclamation" to officially bind all 25 of its national pledged delegates to Trump.


text: Given the outcome of the election in other states, Nevada became a crucial swing state to determine whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump would win the 2020 presidential election. With Biden's win, this would mark the fourth presidential election in a row that Nevada has voted Democratic, although this is the first time since the beginning of the Democratic winning streak in Nevada that the state was more Republican than the nation, the last time being 2004, when incumbent George W. Bush carried the state by 2.6% and won the national popular vote by 2.4%. Nevada was the state that came closest to flipping from blue to red in 2020.


text: The COVID-19 pandemic in particular had a strong effect on Nevada, as the pandemic negatively affected gambling and tourism, which the state's economy relies on. 22% of voters regarded the pandemic as the most important issue of the election, and these voters broke for Biden by 73 points.


text: Most counties in the state of Nevada are rural, and have voted Republican since 1980. As a whole, the rural counties outside of Las Vegas and Reno made up much of Trump's total. The state's two most populous counties, Clark County and Washoe County, which contain over 89% of the state's population, broke for Biden. Outside of Clark and Reno, Biden's strongest performances would be in the Lake Tahoe areas of Carson City and Douglas County; while these areas are more rural and Republican-leaning, they are also reliant on both the gambling and tourism industries. Biden hit nearly 43% in Carson City, and received 33% of the vote in Douglas County—this totaled to more than 24,000 votes, effectively clinching the state for Biden.


text: Nevada received facetious attention because of the delay in its finalization of results compared to most other battleground states. 3 days before the state was called, the electoral map showed Biden at 264 electoral votes while having a narrow lead in Nevada, with Trump having a lead in the remaining uncalled swing states. Had the state been called for Biden sooner, its 6 electors would've increased his electoral vote count exactly to the required 270 to win the presidency. The delay in Nevada's results became an internet meme before the state was projected for Biden on November 7.


text: Latinos were critical to Biden's victory in Nevada, particularly Latinos of Mexican heritage. Latino membership in the Culinary Workers Union was a key driver of Democratic dominance in the state, with over 60,000 (mostly Latino) members who work in the Las Vegas casino, hotel, and service industries, as well as other tourism industries.


text: On November 5, the Nevada Republican Party alleged "at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud". Republican lawyers released a list of over 3,000 people who allegedly did not live in Clark County, Nevada, when they voted. However, these were not proven to be illegal votes, because Nevada (a) allows for people who moved states 30 days before the election to vote in Nevada's election, and (b) allows people studying in colleges in another state to vote in Nevada's election. Additionally, the list featured military members who were overseas and voted by mail.


text: On November 17, representatives of the Trump campaign asked a judge to nullify Biden's 33,596-vote margin, and simply declare Trump the winner and his electors elected. However, on November 24, the Nevada Supreme Court certified Biden as the winner of the state.


title: Honeycomb

text: A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.


title: Honeycomb

text: Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey to secrete of wax, and so beekeepers may return the wax to the hive after harvesting the honey to improve honey outputs. The structure of the comb may be left basically intact when honey is extracted from it by uncapping and spinning in a centrifugal machine, more specifically a honey extractor. If the honeycomb is too worn out, the wax can be reused in a number of ways, including making sheets of comb foundation with hexagonal pattern. Such foundation sheets allow the bees to build the comb with less effort, and the hexagonal pattern of worker-sized cell bases discourages the bees from building the larger drone cells. Fresh, new comb is sometimes sold and used intact as comb honey, especially if the honey is being spread on bread rather than used in cooking or as a sweetener.


title: Honeycomb

text: Broodcomb becomes dark over time, due to empty cocoons and shed larval skins embedded in the cells, alongside being walked over constantly by other bees, resulting in what is referred to as a 'travel stain' by beekeepers when seen on frames of comb honey. Honeycomb in the "supers" that are not used for brood (e.g. by the placement of a queen excluder) stays light-colored.


title: Honeycomb

text: Numerous wasps, especially Polistinae and Vespinae, construct hexagonal prism-packed combs made of paper instead of wax; in some species (such as "Brachygastra mellifica"), honey is stored in the nest, thus technically forming a paper honeycomb. However, the term "honeycomb" is not often used for such structures.


title: Honeycomb

text: The axes of honeycomb cells are always nearly horizontal, with the open end higher than the back end. The open end of a cell is typically referred to as the top of the cell, while the opposite end is called the bottom. The cells slope slightly upwards, between 9 and 14°, towards the open ends.


title: Honeycomb

text: Two possible explanations exist as to why honeycomb is composed of hexagons rather than any other shape. First, the hexagonal tiling creates a partition with equal-sized cells, while minimizing the total perimeter of the cells. Known in geometry as the honeycomb conjecture, this was given by Jan Brożek and mathematically proven much later by Thomas Hales. Thus, a hexagonal structure uses the least material to create a lattice of cells within a given volume. A second reason, given by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, is that the shape simply results from the process of individual bees putting cells together: somewhat analogous to the boundary shapes created in a field of soap bubbles. In support of this, he notes that queen cells, which are constructed singly, are irregular and lumpy with no apparent attempt at efficiency.


title: Honeycomb

text: The closed ends of the honeycomb cells are also an example of geometric efficiency, though three-dimensional. The ends are trihedral (i.e., composed of three planes) sections of rhombic dodecahedra, with the dihedral angles of all adjacent surfaces measuring 120°, the angle that minimizes surface area for a given volume. (The angle formed by the edges at the pyramidal apex, known as the tetrahedral angle, is approximately 109° 28' 16" ()


title: Honeycomb

text: The shape of the cells is such that two opposing honeycomb layers nest into each other, with each facet of the closed ends being shared by opposing cells.


title: Honeycomb

text: Individual cells do not show this geometric perfection: in a regular comb, deviations of a few percent from the "perfect" hexagonal shape occur. In transition zones between the larger cells of drone comb and the smaller cells of worker comb, or when the bees encounter obstacles, the shapes are often distorted. Cells are also angled up about 13° from horizontal to prevent honey from dripping out.


title: Honeycomb

text: In 1965, László Fejes Tóth discovered that the trihedral pyramidal shape (which is composed of three rhombi) used by the honeybee is not the theoretically optimal three-dimensional geometry. A cell end composed of two hexagons and two smaller rhombi would actually be .035% (or about one part per 2850) more efficient. This difference is too minute to measure on an actual honeycomb, and irrelevant to the hive economy in terms of efficient use of wax, considering wild comb varies considerably from any mathematical notion of "ideal" geometry.


title: Honeycomb

text: Bees use their antennae, mandibles and legs to manipulate the wax during comb construction, while actively warming the wax. During the construction of hexagonal cells, wax temperature is between , well below the temperature at which wax is assumed to be liquid for initiating new comb construction. The body temperature of bees is a factor for regulating an ideal wax temperature for building the comb.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: The Volkswagen Arteon is a car manufactured by German car manufacturer Volkswagen. Described as a large family car or a mid-size car, it is available in five-door liftback or estate body styles. The Arteon was unveiled on 6 March 2017, at the Geneva Motor Show, and at the Chicago Auto Show for the North American market. It is direct successor to the CC; however, Volkswagen announced that the Arteon is positioned to be more upmarket than the CC. The vehicle is based on the MQB platform.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: Launched in Europe in 2017, the Arteon is positioned above the Passat, and is heavily based on the 2015 Volkswagen Arteon concept car shown at the Geneva International Motor Show. The Arteon made its debut for the United States at the 2018 Chicago Auto Show. Volkswagen delayed the launch in the United States of the Arteon due to unspecified issues with the emissions testing. Vehicles started arriving at dealerships in the US in April 2019. It became available in the Canadian market in the spring of 2019. The Arteon had multiple delays for Malaysia, only arriving to the market in August 2020. Less than a year later, in July 2021, the facelifted model was launched. However, it will be discontinued for the Canadian market after the 2021 model year due to poor sales.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: In 2020, the Arteon was given a facelift. A new shooting brake body style and plug-in hybrid and performance Volkswagen R variants were launched. The facelift included a new digital instrument panel in front of the driver, and an or infotainment touchscreen.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: The Arteon R performance variant, launched in 2020, features Volkswagen's 2.0L turbocharged petrol engine, which produces and . It will be available only in four-wheel drive through a seven-speed DSG gearbox. Its time is approximately five seconds. The Arteon R is available in both liftback and shooting-brake variants.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: In 2020, a plug-in hybrid of both the Arteon and Arteon Shooting Brake was launched, known as the . Available with only the 1.4L petrol engine, it offers an electric-only range of 34 miles, and a combined output of 215 bhp.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: The Arteon is built in Emden, Lower Saxony, Germany. A version for the Chinese market, called the CC, is built in Changchun, China. It is also assembled in Pekan, Malaysia. The Arteon is based on Volkswagen's modular MQB platform.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: In Europe, the Arteon initially featured three turbo direct injection engines at launch: a 2.0L 280PS TSI petrol engine and two diesel engines with 150PS and 240PS. Three additional engines were introduced shortly after, the 1.5L TSI Evo petrol engine with 150PS, as well a petrol and a diesel engine, both with 190PS.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: In the United States, it was available in three trims — SE, SEL, and Premium — with one engine: all Arteons of 2019 will have Volkswagen's workhorse 2.0 litre turbo four, tuned to produce 268 hp and 258 lb ft of torque. Power is managed by an eight speed automatic transmission, with the choice of front or all wheel drive.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: For the 2022 US-model, the Arteon got a powertrain upgrade which increased the power from 268 hp to 300 hp. In addition the 8-speed TipTronic-style automatic transmission has been upgraded to a 7-speed DSG transmission.


title: Volkswagen Arteon

text: The Arteon can be fitted with an optional safety system called Emergency Assist 2.0, and it takes advantage of four existing Volkswagen safety programs: Adaptive Cruise Control, Side Assist, Lane Assist and Park Assist. The Arteon will notice if a driver has not touched the accelerator, brakes or steering wheel for a certain length of time, and it will attempt to alert the person with sounds, visual cues and even a physical brake tap. If that does not work, Emergency Assist 2.0 takes over: the car's hazard lights switch on and it steers itself to a safe nearside lane. The system uses Lane Assist to recognize lines on the road and Park Assist to actually steer the car. Radar detection via Adaptive Cruise Control and Side Assist helps ensure the Arteon will not hit any other vehicles.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: A branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) is an amino acid having an aliphatic side-chain with a branch (a central carbon atom bound to three or more carbon atoms). Among the proteinogenic amino acids, there are three BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Non-proteinogenic BCAAs include 2-aminoisobutyric acid.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: The three proteinogenic BCAAs are among the nine essential amino acids for humans, accounting for 35% of the essential amino acids in muscle proteins and 40% of the preformed amino acids required by mammals. Synthesis for BCAAs occurs in all locations of plants, within the plastids of the cell, as determined by presence of mRNAs which encode for enzymes in the metabolic pathway.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: BCAAs fill several metabolic and physiologic roles. Metabolically, BCAAs promote protein synthesis and turnover, signaling pathways, and metabolism of glucose. Oxidation of BCAAs may increase fatty acid oxidation and play a role in obesity. Physiologically, BCAAs take on roles in the immune system and in brain function. BCAAs are broken down effectively by dehydrogenase and decarboxylase enzymes expressed by immune cells, and are required for lymphocyte growth and proliferation and cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity. Lastly, BCAAs share the same transport protein into the brain with aromatic amino acids (Trp, Tyr, and Phe). Once in the brain BCAAs may have a role in protein synthesis, synthesis of neurotransmitters, and production of energy.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: The Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the U.S. Institute of Medicine set Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for essential amino acids in 2002. For leucine, for adults 19 years and older, 42 mg/kg body weight/day; for isoleucine 19 mg/kg body weight/day; for valine 24 mg/kg body weight/day. For a 70 kg (154 lb) person this equates to 2.9, 1.3 and 1.7 g/day. Diets that meet or exceed the RDA for total protein (0.8 g/kg/day; 56 grams for a 70 kg person), meet or exceed the RDAs for branched-chain amino acids.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Dietary BCAAs have been used in an attempt to treat some cases of hepatic encephalopathy. They can have the effect of alleviating symptoms of hepatic encephalophathy, but there is no evidence they benefit mortality rates, nutrition, or overall quality of life as further research is necessary.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Certain studies suggested a possible link between a high incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among professional American football players and Italian soccer players, and certain sports supplements including BCAAs. In mouse studies, BCAAs were shown to cause cell hyper-excitability resembling that usually observed in ALS patients. The proposed underlying mechanism is that cell hyper-excitability results in increased calcium absorption by the cell and thus brings about cell death, specifically of neuronal cells which have particularly low calcium buffering capabilities.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Yet any link between BCAAs and ALS remains to be fully established. While BCAAs can induce a hyperexcitability similar to the one observed in mice with ALS, current work does not show if a BCAA-enriched diet, given over a prolonged period, actually induces ALS-like symptoms.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Blood levels of the BCAAs are elevated in obese, insulin resistant humans and in mouse and rat models of diet-induced diabetes, suggesting the possibility that BCAAs contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity and diabetes. BCAA-restricted diets improve glucose tolerance and promote leanness in normal weight mice, restores insulin sensitivity and normal body weight to obese mice and promotes insulin sensitivity in obese rats. In lean and obese mice, these benefits of BCAA-restriction are mediated by isoleucine and valine, and not by restriction of leucine.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: In flies restriction of dietary BCAAs extends lifespan, while restriction of BCAAs in mice extends male lifespan and decreased frailty, but does not extend female lifespan. In mice, dietary supplementation with BCAAs alone decreases lifespan and promotes obesity. However, consumption of a BCAA-enriched essential amino acid supplement extends the lifespan of mice.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Five enzymes play a major role in the parallel synthesis pathways for isoleucine, valine, and leucine: threonine dehydrogenase, acetohydroxyacid synthase, ketoacid reductoisomerase, dihydroxyacid dehygrogenase and aminotransferase. Threonine dehydrogenase catalyzes the deamination and dehydration of threonine to 2-ketobutyrate and ammonia. Isoleucine forms a negative feedback loop with threonine dehydrogenase. Acetohydroxyacid synthase is the first enzyme for the parallel pathway performing condensation reaction in both steps – condensation of pyruvate to acetolactate in the valine pathway and condensation of pyruvate and 2-ketobutyrate to form acetohydroxybutyrate in the isoleucine pathway. Next ketoacid reductisomerase reduces the acetohydroxy acids from the previous step to yield dihydroxyacids in both the valine and isoleucine pathways. Dihydroxyacid dehygrogenase converts the dihyroxyacids in the next step. The final step in the parallel pathway is conducted by amino transferase, which yields the final products of valine and isoleucine. A series of four more enzymes – isopropylmalate synthase, isopropylmalate isomerase, isopropylmalate dehydrogenase, and aminotransferase – are necessary for the formation of leucine from 2-oxolsovalerate.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Degradation of branched-chain amino acids involves the branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase complex (BCKDH). A deficiency of this complex leads to a buildup of the branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) and their toxic by-products in the blood and urine, giving the condition the name maple syrup urine disease. On the other hand, unchecked activity of this complex causes branched-chain keto acid dehydrogenase kinase deficiency.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: The BCKDH complex converts branched-chain amino acids into acyl-CoA derivatives, which after subsequent reactions are converted either into acetyl-CoA or succinyl-CoA that enter the citric acid cycle.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: In a rat model of maple syrup urine disease, acute administration of BCAAs increases DNA damage in the hippocampus region of the brain. The nearby Figure shows the degradation pathway of BCAAs and specifically the key role of inadequate BCKDH in maple syrup urine disease. Chronic administration of BCAAs, compared to acute administration, increased DNA damage not only in the hippocampus but also in the striatum region of the brain. Antioxidant treatment was able the prevent the DNA damage in these brain regions, suggesting that the BCAAs cause DNA damage through the production of oxidative stress.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: While most amino acids are oxidized in the liver, BCAAs are primarily oxidized in the skeletal muscle and other peripheral tissues. The effects of BCAA administration on muscle growth in rat diaphragm was tested, and concluded that not only does a mixture of BCAAs alone have the same effect on growth as a complete mixture of amino acids, but an amino acid mixture with all but BCAAs has no effect on rat diaphragm muscle growth. Administration of either isoleucine or valine alone had no effect on muscle growth, although administration of leucine alone appears to be nearly as effective as the complete mixture of BCAAs. Leucine indirectly activates p70 S6 kinase as well as stimulates assembly of the eIF4F complex, which are essential for mRNA binding in translational initiation. P70 S6 kinase is part of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTOR) signaling pathway, and has been shown to allow adaptive hypertrophy and recovery of rat muscle. At rest protein infusion stimulates protein synthesis 30 minutes after start of infusion, and protein synthesis stays elevated for another 90 minutes. Infusion of leucine at rest produces a six-hour stimulatory effect and increased protein synthesis by phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase in skeletal muscles. Following resistance exercise, without BCAA administration, a resistance exercise session does not affect mTOR phosphorylation and even produces a decrease in Akt phosphorylation. Some phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase was discovered. When BCAAs were administered following a training session, sufficient phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase and S6 indicated activation of the signaling cascade.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: In addition to cell signaling, the mTOR pathway also plays a role in beta cell growth leading to insulin secretion. High glucose in the blood begins the process of the mTOR signaling pathway, in which leucine plays an indirect role. The combination of glucose, leucine, and other activators cause mTOR to start signaling for the proliferation of beta cells and the secretion of insulin. Higher concentrations of leucine cause hyperactivity in the mTOR pathway, and S6 kinase is activated leading to inhibition of insulin receptor substrate through serine phosphorylation. In the cell the increased activity of mTOR complex causes eventual inability of beta cells to release insulin and the inhibitory effect of S6 kinase leads to insulin resistance in the cells, contributing to development of type 2 diabetes.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Metformin is able to activate AMP kinase which phosphorylates proteins involved in the mTOR pathway, as well as leads to the progression of mTOR complex from its inactive state to its active state. It is suggested that metformin acts as a competitive inhibitor to the amino acid leucine in the mTOR pathway.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: BCAAs have an insulin-like effect on glucose, causing a reduction in glucose levels. BCAAs that are ingested before exercise can be oxidized by skeletal muscle and used as energy during the exercise, reducing the need for the liver to increase levels of glycogenolysis. During anaerobic exercise the pyruvate molecules that result from glucose metabolism are converted to lactic acid, the buildup of which can lead to metabolic acidosis with pH levels as low as 6.4. High levels of lactic acid cause glucose metabolism to stop in order to reduce further reduction of pH. BCAA supplementation has been shown to decrease levels of lactic acid in the muscle, allowing glucose metabolism to continue. This results in reduced rates of glycogenolysis in the liver and consequently lower plasma levels of glucose. However, studies done regarding long term effects of BCAAs on glucose levels have shown that consistent supplementation of BCAAs do not have a notable effect on blood glucose levels outside of exercise.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: Recent studies have also shown that BCAAs reduce the levels of circulating free fatty-acids (FFA) in the blood. FFAs compete for binding sites on albumin with tryptophan, and when levels of FFAs in the blood are decreased, levels of free tryptophan also decrease as more is bound by albumin. During exercise, levels of free tryptophan entering the brain are increased, causing an increase in 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, aka serotonin), a contributor to the sensation of fatigue. Through their reduction in levels of FFAs in the blood, BCAAs can help to reduce the levels of free tryptophan entering the brain, and help to reduce the sensation of fatigue as a result of exertion. The reduction in tryptophan uptake in the brain leads to a reduction in serotonin synthesis and release (in rats.) The reduction in serotonin can be as great as 90%; low levels of serotonin decrease sensations of fatigue, but also leads to a lack of focus, poor impulse control, aggressive behavior and poor planning.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: BCAA also inhibits tyrosine uptake in the brain (tyrosine being another aromatic amino acid, like tryptophan); the reduced uptake depresses catecholamine synthesis and release in the brain. Catecholamines are associated with enhanced physical performance. The simultaneous reductions in both catecholamine and serotonin synthesis may account for the relatively neutral effect of BCAA on physical performance.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: BCAAs are also found to reduce the increase in serum levels of ammonia that occurs during exercise. This is done by increasing the amount of ammonia used in glutamine synthesis, preventing an over-accumulation of ammonia in the blood. Increased levels of ammonia in the brain result in lower levels of GABA and glutamate, causing an increase in central fatigue. Increased levels of ammonia in the muscle tissue also increase phosphofructokinase activity (PFK), leading to an increase in lactic acid, a major contributor to muscle fatigue.


title: Branched-chain amino acid

text: In addition, BCAA supplementation has been shown to decrease levels of creatine kinase in muscle cells post exercise. Creatine kinase is an indicator of muscle damage, and is responsible for transferring a phosphate group from ATP to create a phosphocreatine molecule. BCAA supplementation has been shown to decrease levels of creatine kinase, leading to higher levels of intracellular ATP and a lessened sense of fatigue. See also DOMS.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: Golmaal is an Indian comedy film series directed by Rohit Shetty, with four installments to date, the first three produced by Dhilin Mehta and the fourth by Shetty and Sangeeta Ahir. The first film "" released in 2006 and was followed by 3 direct sequels:"Golmaal Returns" (2008), "Golmaal 3" (2010) and "Golmaal Again" (2017). All four films starred Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Sanjay Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee and Mukesh Tiwari, with Shreyas Talpade, Ashwini Kalsekar and Murali Sharma appearing in three and Kareena Kapoor and Kunal Khemu appearing in two.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: "Golmaal" is now the ninth-highest-grossing film series in Bollywood. The film series has been described as a screwball comedy franchise. This is the fifth Indian film franchise to have four installments after "CID 999 Franchise", "CBI", "Major Mahadevan Franchise" and "Raaz Series".


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: An animated version of the film series named "Golmaal Jr. was" released for with three central characters: Madhav, Gopal and Lucky.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: Friends Gopal, Lucky, Madhav and Laxman often dupe gullible people out of their money. Hilarity ensues when they target an elderly couple and simultaneously try wooing their beautiful neighbour.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: Gopal, who lives with his wife, Ekta, gets stuck in a yacht for a night after he saves an attractive young woman. Ekta suspects him of having an affair and decides to uncover the truth.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: Cupid strikes when Pritam, a single father, comes across his college sweetheart, Geeta, in Goa. However, when their respective children go at war with each other, the two find it difficult to reunite.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: Five orphan men return to the orphanage they grew up in to attend their mentor's funeral. However, they encounter the ghost of their childhood friend, Khushi, and help her attain salvation.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: It was revealed in the upcoming film "Cirkus" trailer released in December 2022, that film is set in 1960's and it would be a prequel to the first film of "Golmaal" series. In the trailer five kids was standing in front of "Jamnadas Orphanage" and telling their names - Gopal, Madhav and Laxman (2 kids), while the fifth kid is mute and trying to tell his name is Lucky.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: After the release of the fourth installment, director Shetty is interested in the fifth part of the franchise. He said, after getting a right script there will definitely be another installment. Actor Ajay Devgn also shows interest to return to next part. It is also reported that Kareena Kapoor might return for the next installment. After the release of the "Aankh Marey" music video from Ranveer Singh and Sara Ali Khan's "Simmba", speculations of a fifth installment of the Golmaal franchise further strengthened. In the video, the four main actors, including Arshad Warsi and Tusshar Kapoor, are seen at the end of the holding up their hands to denote the number "5." Finally, on November 7, 2021, Rohit announced that the fifth film of Golmaal series will be called Phir Golmaal. He also announced on that same day that it will be about Gopal, Madhav, Laxman, Lucky, and their new friend, who is named Vicky solving a case of them being accused of a murder as they keep on getting into trouble while solving it.


title: Golmaal (film series)

text: An animated series "Golmaal Jr." based on the characters from film series premiered on Sonic Nickelodeon on 13 May 2019.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt (; 21 December 1742 – 12 September 1819), "Graf" (count), later elevated to "Fürst" (sovereign prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian "Generalfeldmarschall" (field marshal). He earned his greatest recognition after leading his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was born in Rostock, the son of a retired army captain. His military career began in 1758 as a hussar in the Swedish Army. He was captured by the Prussians in 1760 during the Pomeranian Campaign and thereafter joined the Prussian Army, serving as a hussar officer for Prussia during the remainder of the Seven Years' War. In 1773, Blücher was forced to resign by Frederick the Great for insubordination. He worked as a farmer until the death of Frederick in 1786, when Blücher was reinstated and promoted to colonel. For his success in the French Revolutionary Wars, Blücher became a major general in 1794. He became a lieutenant general in 1801 and commanded the cavalry corps during the Napoleonic Wars in 1806.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: War broke out between Prussia and France again in 1813 and Blücher returned to active service at the age of 71. He was appointed full general over the Prussian field forces and clashed with Napoleon at the Battles of Lützen and Bautzen. Later he won a critical victory over the French at the Battle of Katzbach. Blücher commanded the Prussian Army of Silesia at the Battle of the Nations where Napoleon was decisively defeated. For his role, Blücher was made a field marshal and received his title of Prince of Wahlstatt. After Napoleon’s return in 1815, Blücher took command of the Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine and coordinated his force with that of the British and Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington. At the Battle of Ligny, he was severely injured and the Prussians retreated. After recovering, Blücher resumed command and joined Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, with the intervention of Blücher's army playing a decisive role in the final allied victory.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was made an honorary citizen of Berlin, Hamburg and Rostock. Known for his fiery personality, he was nicknamed "Marschall Vorwärts" ("Marshal Forward") by his soldiers because of his aggressive approach in warfare. Along with Paul von Hindenburg, he was the most highly decorated Prussian-German soldier in history: Blücher and Hindenburg are the only Prussian-German military officers to have been awarded the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. A statue once stood in the square that bore his name, "Blücherplatz", in Breslau (today Wrocław).


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was born on 21 December 1742 in Rostock, a Baltic port in northern Germany, then in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His father Christian Friedrich von Blücher (1696–1761), was a retired army captain, and his family belonged to the nobility and had been landowners in northern Germany since at least the 13th century. His mother was Dorothea Maria von Zülow (1702–1769), who also belonged to an old noble family from Mecklenburg.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Gebhard began his military career at the age of 16, when he joined the Swedish Army as a hussar. At the time, Sweden was at war with Prussia in the Seven Years' War. Blücher took part in the Pomeranian campaign of 1760, where Prussian hussars captured him in a skirmish. The colonel of the Prussian regiment, Wilhelm Sebastian von Belling (a distant relative), was impressed with the young hussar and had him join his own regiment.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher took part in the later battles of the Seven Years' War, and as a hussar officer, gained much experience in light cavalry work. In peace, however, his ardent spirit led him into excesses of all kinds, such as the mock execution of a priest suspected of supporting Polish uprisings in 1772. As a result, he was passed over for promotion to major. Blücher submitted a rude letter of resignation in 1773, which Frederick the Great replied to with "Captain Blücher can take himself to the devil" (1773).


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher settled down to farming. Within 15 years, he had acquired financial independence and had become a Freemason. During Frederick the Great's lifetime, Blücher could not return to the army. However, the monarch died in 1786, and the following year, Blücher was reinstated as a major in his old regiment, the Red Hussars. He took part in the expedition to the Netherlands in 1787, and the next year was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1789, he received Prussia's highest military order, the "Pour le Mérite", and in 1794, he became colonel of the Red Hussars. In 1793 and 1794, Blücher distinguished himself in cavalry actions against the French, and for his victory at Kirrweiler on 28 May 1794, he was promoted to major general. In 1801, he was made a lieutenant general.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was one of the leaders of the war party in Prussia in 1805, and he served as a cavalry general in the disastrous campaign of 1806. At the double Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Blücher fought at Auerstedt, repeatedly leading the charges of the Prussian cavalry, but without success. During the retreat of the broken armies, he commanded the rearguard composed of Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe's corps. With the capitulation of the main body after the Battle of Prenzlau on 28 October, he found his march toward the north-east blocked. He led the remnant of his corps away to the north-west. Reinforcing his numbers with a division previously commanded by Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Blücher and his new chief of staff, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, reorganised his forces into two small corps totaling 21,000 men and 44 cannons. Nevertheless, he was defeated by two French corps at the Battle of Lübeck on 6 November. The next day, trapped against the Danish frontier by 40,000 French troops, he was compelled to surrender with less than 10,000 soldiers at Ratekau. Blücher insisted that clauses be written in the capitulation document that he had had to surrender due to lack of provisions and ammunition, and that his soldiers should be honoured by a French formation along the street. He was allowed to keep his sabre and to move freely, bound only by his word of honour. He was soon exchanged for future Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, and was actively employed in Pomerania, at Berlin, and at Königsberg until the conclusion of the war.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: After the war, Blücher was looked upon as the natural leader of the Patriot Party, with which he was in close touch during the period of Napoleonic domination, but his hopes of an alliance with Austria in the war of 1809 were disappointed. In this year, he was made general of cavalry. In 1812, he expressed himself so openly on the alliance of Russia with France that he was recalled from his military governorship of Pomerania and virtually banished from the court.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Following the start of the War of Liberation in the spring of 1813, Blücher was again placed in high command, and he was present at Lützen and Bautzen. During the summer truce, he worked on the organisation of the Prussian forces; when the war was resumed, he became commander-in-chief of the Army of Silesia, with August von Gneisenau and Karl von Müffling as his principal staff officers and 40,000 Prussians and 50,000 Russians under his command during the autumn campaign. The most conspicuous military quality displayed by Blücher was his unrelenting energy.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: The irresolution and divergence of interests usual in Sixth Coalition armies found in him a restless opponent. Knowing that if he could not induce others to co-operate, he was prepared to attempt the task at hand by himself, which often caused other generals to follow his lead. He defeated Marshal MacDonald at the Katzbach, and by his victory over Marshal Marmont at Möckern led the way to the decisive defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. Blücher's own army stormed Leipzig on the evening of the last day of the battle. This was the fourth battle between Napoleon and Blücher, and the first that Blücher had won.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: On the day of Möckern (16 October 1813), Blücher was made a field marshal, and after the victory, he pursued the French with his accustomed energy. In the winter of 1813–1814, Blücher, with his chief staff officers, was mainly instrumental in inducing the Coalition sovereigns to carry the war into France itself.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: The Battle of Brienne and the Battle of La Rothière were the chief incidents of the first stage of the celebrated 1814 campaign in north-east France, and they were quickly followed by victories of Napoleon over Blücher at Champaubert, Vauchamps, and Montmirail. The courage of the Prussian leader was undiminished, though, and his victory against the vastly outnumbered French, at Laon (9 and 10 March) practically decided the fate of the campaign. However, his health had been severely affected by the strains of the previous two months, and he now suffered a breakdown, during which he lost his sight and suffered a delusion that a Frenchman had impregnated him with an elephant. Dominic Lieven wrote that the breakdown, "revealed the fragility of the coalition armies' command structure and just how much the Army of Silesia had depended on Blücher's drive, courage, and charisma... The result was that for more than a week after the battle of Laon, the Army of Silesia... played no useful role in the war".


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: After this, Blücher infused some of his energy into the operations of the Prince Schwarzenberg's Army of Bohemia, and at last this army and the Army of Silesia marched in one body directly towards Paris. The victory of Montmartre, the entry of the allies into the French capital, and the overthrow of the First Empire were the direct consequences.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was in favour of punishing the city of Paris severely for the sufferings of Prussia at the hands of the French armies, but the allied commanders intervened. According to the Duke of Wellington, one of Blücher's plans involved blowing up the Jena Bridge near the Champ de Mars:


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: In gratitude for his victories in 1814, King Frederick William III of Prussia created Blücher "Prince (Fürst) of Wahlstatt" (in Silesia on the Katzbach battlefield). The king also awarded him estates near Krieblowitz (now Krobielowice, Poland) in Lower Silesia and a grand mansion at 2, Pariser Platz in Berlin (which in 1930 became the Embassy of the United States, Berlin). Soon afterward, Blücher paid a visit to England, where he was received with royal honours and cheered enthusiastically everywhere he went.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: When Oxford University granted him an honorary doctorate (doctor of laws), he is supposed to have joked that if he was made a doctor, they should at least make Gneisenau an apothecary; "...for if I wrote the prescription, he made the pills."


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: After the war, Frederick William III gave Blücher properties in the area of Neustadt (now Prudnik). In November of the same year, Blücher leased Kunzendorf, Mühlsdorf, Wackenau and Achthuben to a local farmer, Hübner, in exchange for 2,000 thalers, rolls of linen cloth and yarn. His wife also moved to Kunzendorf. While living in the area of Neustadt, he financed the families of the fallen soldiers, gave a few liters of beer to the local parish priest every day, and paid a doctor from Neustadt to treat the poor. Thanks to his efforts, a health resort called "Blücher's Spring" was established in Kunzendorf (it was destroyed together with the castle as a result of the battles of the Neustadt in 1945).


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: After the war, Blücher retired to Silesia. However, the return of Napoleon from Elba and his entry into Paris at the start of the Hundred Days, called him back to service. He was put in command of the Army of the Lower Rhine, with Gneisenau serving again as his chief of staff. At the outset of the Waterloo Campaign of 1815, the Prussians sustained a serious defeat at Ligny (16 June), in the course of which the old field marshal lay trapped under his dead horse for several hours and was repeatedly ridden over by cavalry, his life saved only by the devotion of his "aide-de-camp" Count Nostitz, who threw a greatcoat over his commander to obscure Blücher's rank and identity from the passing French. As Blücher was unable to resume command for some hours, Gneisenau took command, drew off the defeated army, and rallied it. In spite of Gneisenau's distrust of Wellington, he obeyed Blücher's last orders to direct the army's retreat towards Wavre, rather than Liège, to keep alive the possibility of joining the Prussian and Wellington's Anglo-allied armies together.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: After bathing his wounds in a liniment of rhubarb and garlic, and fortified by a liberal internal dose of schnapps, Blücher rejoined his army. Gneisenau feared that the British had reneged on their earlier agreements and favored a withdrawal, but Blücher convinced him to send two corps to join Wellington at Waterloo. He then led his army on a tortuous march along muddy paths, arriving on the field of Waterloo in the late afternoon. In spite of his age, the pain of his wounds, and the effort it must have taken for him to remain on horseback, Bernard Cornwell states that several soldiers attested to Blücher's high spirits and his determination to defeat Napoleon:


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: With the battle hanging in the balance, Blücher's army intervened with decisive and crushing effect, his vanguard drawing off Napoleon's badly needed reserves, and his main body being instrumental in crushing French resistance. This victory led the way to a decisive victory through the relentless pursuit of the French by the Prussians. The two Coalition armies entered Paris on 7 July.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher remained in the French capital for a few months, but his age and infirmities compelled him to retire to his Silesian residence at Krieblowitz. At the invitation of the British government, he made another state visit to England, to be formally thanked for his army and his role in the Waterloo Campaign. When his carriage stopped on Blackheath Hill, overlooking London, he is said to have exclaimed, "What a city to sack!" He died at Krieblowitz on 12 September 1819, aged 76. After his death, an imposing mausoleum was built for his remains.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: When Krieblowitz was conquered by the Red Army in 1945, Soviet soldiers broke into the Blücher mausoleum and scattered the remains. Soviet troops reportedly used his skull as a football. After 1989, some of his remains were taken by a Polish priest and interred in the catacomb of the church in Sośnica (German: Schosnitz), three km from the now Polish Krobielowice.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Napoleon characterized him as a very brave soldier with no talent for a general. But he admired his attitude to be like a


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: bull that looks all around him with rolling eyes, and when he sees danger, charges. Napoleon experienced him as stubborn and untiring, knowing no fear. He called him an old rascal that attacked him with the same fury after the most terrible beating as he would be on his feet again the next moment and ready for the fight.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: It was to be said later among the Prussian military that Blücher established "a Prussian way of war" that had abiding influence:


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: More generally, Blücher was a courageous and popular general who "had much to be proud of: energy, controlled aggression and a commitment to defeating the enemy army."


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was married twice: in 1773 to Karoline Amalie von Mehling (1756–1791) and, after her death, in 1795 to (1772–1850), sister of General Peter von Colomb. While this second marriage was without issue, by his first marriage Blücher had seven children, of whom two sons and a daughter survived infancy,


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: The marshal's grandson, Count Gebhard Bernhard von Blücher (1799–1875), was created "Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt" (Serene Highness) in Prussia, a hereditary title in primogeniture, the other members of his branch bearing the title "count" or "countess". In 1832, he bought Raduň Castle in the Opava District and in 1847 the lands at Wahlstatt, Legnickie Pole, all of which remained in the family until the flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1945, which forced the family into exile in their mansion Havilland Hall in Guernsey, acquired by the 4th prince and his English wife, Evelyn, Princess Blücher. Later the family moved to Eurasburg, Bavaria. The present head of the House of "Blücher von Wahlstatt" is Nicolaus, 8th Prince Blücher of Wahlstatt (born 1932), the heir apparent is his son, hereditary count Lukas (born 1956).


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: The Rhineland town of Kaub has a museum dedicated to Blücher, commemorating in particular his crossing the Rhine with the Prussian and Russian armies, on New Year's night 1813–1814, in pursuit of the French.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: After Blücher's death, statues were erected to his memory at Berlin, Breslau, Rostock, and Kaub (where his troops crossed the Rhine in pursuit of Napoleon's forces in 1813).


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: In gratitude for Blücher's service, George Stephenson, the pioneering British locomotive engineer, named a locomotive after him. The small mining village a few miles from Stephenson's birth place in Wylam also bears the name Blucher in honour of him.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: The "Blucher" was named after him, after the original ship was captured by the British and the new owners named it for him.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Three ships of the German navy have been named in honour of Blücher. The first to be so named was the corvette , built at Kiel's Norddeutsche Schiffbau AG (later renamed the "Krupp-Germaniawerft") and launched 20 March 1877. Taken out of service after a boiler explosion in 1907, she ended her days as a coal freighter in Vigo, Spain.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: On 11 April 1908, the "Panzerkreuzer" SMS "Blücher" was launched from the Imperial Shipyard in Kiel. This ship was sunk on 24 January 1915 in the First World War at the Battle of Dogger Bank.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: The Second World War German heavy cruiser "Blücher" was completed in September 1939, and pronounced ready for service on 5 April 1940 after completing a series of sea trials and training exercises. The vessel was sunk four days later near Oslo during the invasion of Norway.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher was played by German actor Otto Gebühr in the 1929 film "Waterloo". In 1932, he was the subject of the biographical film "Marshal Forwards", in which he was played by Paul Wegener. It was part of a group of Prussian films released during the era.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: Blücher also has a boarding house named after him at Berkshire based Wellington College. The Blucher, as it is known, is a boys' house renowned for sporting and academic prowess.


title: Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

text: A popular German idiom, "geht ran wie Blücher" ("charge like Blücher"), meaning that someone is taking very direct and aggressive action, in war or otherwise, refers to Blücher. The full German saying, now obsolete, relates to the Battle of the Katzbach in 1813: ""Der geht ran wie Blücher an der Katzbach!"" ("He's advancing like Blücher at Katzbach!"), referring to Blücher and describing vigorous, forceful behaviour.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: PlayStation 2 models were produced from 2000 to 2013. Some PlayStation 2 (PS2) revisions only change in their internal construction while others feature substantial external changes. Each region receives a different model number; for example, the V18 was released in North America as SCPH-90001, in Australia as SCPH-90002, and in Hong Kong as SCPH-90006. The final digit is a region code with no bearing on the hardware; many games and DVDs are restricted to certain regions, and the system software displays in different languages.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: The PS2 is primarily differentiated between models with the original "fat" case design and "slimline" models introduced at the end of 2004. In 2010, a television incorporating a PS2 was introduced.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: Three of the original PS2 launch models (SCPH-10000, SCPH-15000, and SCPH-18000) were only sold in Japan and lacked the expansion bay of later PS2 models. These models instead included a PCMCIA slot. SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000 did not have built-in DVD movie playback and instead relied on encrypted playback software that was copied to a memory card from an included CD-ROM (normally, the PS2 will only execute encrypted software from its memory card; see PS2 Independence Exploit). V3 had a substantially different internal structure from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected printed circuit boards. In V4, everything except the power supply was unified onto one board. V5 introduced minor internal changes, and the only difference between V6 (sometimes called V5.1) and V5 is the orientation of the Power/Reset switch board connector, which was reversed to prevent the use of no-solder modchips. V5 also introduced a more reliable laser than the ones used in previous models. V7 and V8 included only minor revisions to V6.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: Beginning with model SCPH-500xx (v9 & 10), the i.LINK port was removed. An infrared receiver was added for use with a remote to control DVD playback, leaving both controller ports free from the external receiver.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: The PS2 standard color is matte black. Several different variations in color were produced in different quantities and regions, including ceramic white, light yellow, metallic blue (aqua), metallic silver, navy (star blue), opaque blue (astral blue), opaque black (midnight black), pearl white, Sakura purple, satin gold, satin silver, snow white, super red, transparent blue (ocean blue), and also Limited Edition color Pink, which was distributed in regions including Oceania and parts of Asia.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: In September 2004, Sony unveiled its third major hardware revision (V12, model number SCPH-700xx). Available in late October 2004, it is smaller, thinner, and quieter than the older versions and includes a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also has an integrated modem). Due to its thinner profile, it does not contain the 3.5" expansion bay and therefore does not support the internal hard disk drive. It also lacks an internal power supply, similar to the GameCube, and has a modified Multitap expansion. The removal of the expansion bay results in incompatibility with games that require the HDD expansion, such as "Final Fantasy XI".


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: There are two sub-versions of the SCPH-700xx, one with the old Emotion Engine (EE) and Graphics Synthesizer (GS) chips, and the other with the newer unified EE+GS chip, but otherwise are identical. The sub-versions are variously referred to as V12 for both models, V11.5 for the older and V12 for the newer model, and V12 for the older and V13 for the newer model. The V12 model was first released in black, but a silver edition was available in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, United Arab Emirates and other GCC countries, France, Italy, South Africa, and North America. A limited edition pink console also became available after March 2007.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: V12 (or V13) was succeeded by V14 (SCPH-7500x), which contains different ASICs than previous revisions, with some chips having a copyright date of 2005, compared to 2000 or 2001 for earlier models. It also has a different lens and some compatibility issues with a different number of PlayStation games and even some PS2 games. An addon to add HDD support to newer 7500x and onward models called the "HDPro" was created but had limited success.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: In the beginning of 2005, it was found that some black slimline console power transformers manufactured between August and December 2004 were defective and could overheat. The units were recalled by Sony and replaced by a 2005 model.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: Later hardware revisions had better compatibility with PlayStation games ("Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions" operates on most silver models); however, the new Japanese slim models have more issues with playing PlayStation games than the first PS2 revisions.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: In 2006, Sony released new hardware revisions (V15, model numbers SCPH-7700x and SCPH-7700x). V15 was first released in Japan on September 15, 2006, including the Silver edition. After its release in Japan, it was then released in North America, Europe and other parts of the world. The new revision uses an integrated, unified EE+GS chip, a redesigned ASIC, a different laser lens, an updated BIOS, and updated drivers.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: On July 19, 2007, Sony started shipping a revision of the slimline PlayStation 2 (SCPH-7900x) featuring a reduced weight of 600 grams compared to 900 g of the SCPH-7700x, achieved through a reduction in parts. The unit also uses a smaller motherboard as well as a custom ASIC which houses the EE, GS, and the RDRAM. The AC adaptor's weight was reduced to 250 g from the previous 350 g.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: Another refinement of the slimline PlayStation 2 (SCPH-9000x) was released in Japan on November 22, 2007. As well as some cosmetic changes, the design of the hardware was overhauled, incorporating the power supply into the console itself like the original (fat) PlayStation 2 revisions; this also increases the total weight to . On SCPH-9000x series consoles manufactured after the third quarter of 2008 as the last revision of the PlayStation 2, some changes were made (indicated by date code 8C) to incorporate a revised BIOS, which disables an exploit present in all older models that allowed homebrew applications to be launched from a memory card.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: Sony also manufactured a consumer device called the PSX that can be used as a digital video recorder and DVD burner in addition to playing PS2 games. The device was released in Japan on December 13, 2003, and was the first Sony product to include the XrossMediaBar interface. It did not sell well in Japan, and was not released anywhere else.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: Released in Europe in 2010, the Sony BRAVIA KDL22PX300 is a 22-inch (56 cm) 720p television that incorporates a PlayStation 2 console with a disc cover that can be opened by pressing the "Open" button and closed by sliding it and four HDMI ports. The TV also includes BRAVIA Internet Video Access, allowing users access to streaming services such as YouTube and on-demand television. Although the maximum resolution of the screen is 720p, 1080p input sources can be used and displayed.


title: PlayStation 2 models

text: As this TV was only released in Europe, it is a PAL-region system that could only play PAL games and software.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has been one of the state's fastest growing since 1980, when its population was 11,801.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: A major center of growth in the Coachella Valley, Palm Desert is a popular retreat for "snowbirds" from colder climates (the Eastern and Northern United States, and Canada), who swell its population by an estimated 31,000 each winter. Palm Desert has seen more residents become "full-timers", mainly from the coasts and urban centers of California, who have come for both affordable and high-valued homes.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The ancestral homeland of Cahuilla, a division of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Their bird songs and funeral songs share the oral tradition of how they were present on these lands for over 10,000 years.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The area was first known as the Old MacDonald Ranch, but the name changed to Palm Village in the 1920s when date palms were planted. Local historians said the main residents of pre-1950 Palm Desert were Cahuilla Indian farmers of the now extinct "San Cayetano" tribe, but a few members of the Montoya family of Cahuilla/Spanish descent were prominent leaders in civic life.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The first residential development occurred in 1943 in connection with an Army maintenance camp in the area. That site was later developed into "El Paseo", an upscale shopping district not unlike Rodeo Drive. In 1948, the Palm Desert Corporation began to develop real estate, and in 1951 the area was given its present name.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (0.76%) is water.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The elevation (City hall) is above sea level. Elevations vary from the lower northern half once covered in sand dunes to the upper slope southern cove () all the way to the ridgeline at . Palm Desert is located in the Coachella Valley, the north-western extension of the Sonoran Desert.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Sun City Palm Desert, California lies on the northern side of Interstate 10 from Palm Desert itself, but is unincorporated and not part of the City of Palm Desert (the original name was Sun City Palm Springs from 1991 to 1996).


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The climate of the Coachella Valley is influenced by the surrounding geography. High mountain ranges on three sides and a south-sloping valley floor all contribute to its year-round warm climate, having among the warmest winters in the western United States. Palm Desert has a tropical desert climate: Its average annual high temperature is and average annual low is , but summer highs above are common and sometimes exceed , while summer night lows often stay above . Winters are warm with daytime highs between . Under of annual precipitation are average, with over 348 days of sunshine per year. The mean annual temperature at makes Palm Desert one of the warmest places in the United States. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Palm Desert was on July 6, 1905.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The surrounding mountains create a thermal belt in the southern foothills of Palm Desert, leading to a micro-climate with significantly warmer night-time temperatures during the winter months. The University of California maintains weather stations located in this thermal belt as part of their ecological project in the Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Palm Desert had a population of 48,445. The population density was . The racial makeup of Palm Desert was 39,957 (82.5%) White (70.4% Non-Hispanic White), 875 (1.8%) African American, 249 (0.5%) Native American, 1,647 (3.4%) Asian, 55 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 4,427 (9.1%) from other races, and 1,235 (2.5%) from two or more races. There were 11,038 residents of Hispanic or Latino origin (22.8%).


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The Census reported that 48,137 people (99.4% of the population) lived in households, 98 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 210 (0.4%) were institutionalized.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: There were 23,117 households, out of which 4,253 (18.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 10,253 (44.4%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 2,177 (9.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 811 (3.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,227 (5.3%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 373 (1.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 7,948 households (34.4%) were made up of individuals, and 4,370 (18.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08. There were 13,241 families (57.3% of all households); the average family size was 2.65.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The population was spread out, with 7,534 people (15.6%) under the age of 18, 3,333 people (6.9%) aged 18 to 24, 8,731 people (18.0%) aged 25 to 44, 12,924 people (26.7%) aged 45 to 64, and 15,923 people (32.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 53.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.4 males.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: There were 37,073 housing units at an average density of , of which 15,171 (65.6%) were owner-occupied, and 7,946 (34.4%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 5.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 16.8%. 30,667 people (63.3% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 17,470 people (36.1%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: According to the 2010 United States Census, Palm Desert had a median household income of $53,456, with 9.2% of the population living below the federal poverty line.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: According to the 2000 United States Census of 2000, there were 41,155 people, 19,184 households, and 11,414 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 28,021 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 86.8% White, 1.2% African American, 0.5% Native American, 2.6% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 6.5% from other races, and 2.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.1% of the population.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: There are 19,184 households in Palm Desert, out of which 18.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were married couples living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.5% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.1 and the average family size was 2.7. The demographics of Palm Desert shows a rising population of children and young adults.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The age distribution of the population was 17.3% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 22.7% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 27.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The median income for a household in the city was $48,000 and the median income for a family was $58,183. Males had a median income of $42,257 versus $32,202 for females. The per capita income for the city was $33,463. About 5.9% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.1% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: According to the City's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The city's first golf course and tennis club was Shadow Mountain in 1952, followed by Marrakesh in 1954, the Palm Desert Greens mobile home park golf course in 1961, and the Palm Desert Country Club in 1962. The latter, located east of the original city, was formally annexed in 1992. The total number of golf clubs (more than 30 located within from the city) have made Palm Desert known as the "World's Golf Capital."


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Desert Willow Golf Resort is the City Of Palm Desert's municipal golf course, and has two championship courses: Mountain View and Firecliff. It is associated with the Westin Desert Willow Resort at the golf course location. The Firecliff course is listed at No. 13 in Golf Magazine's 'Best Courses you can Play' 2010 list for California.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: In the late-1970s and 1980s, a spate of private golf clubs, destination resorts and hotels appeared in the northern half of Palm Desert, such as the four-star JW Marriott Desert Springs Golf Resort and Spa in 1987 and the four-star Desert Willow Golf Resort in 2002. The city has over 30 motels and 5,000 motel rooms, since lodging and hospitality is a major portion of the local tourist-based economy.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Palm Desert was incorporated as a city in 1973 and designated a charter city in 1997. It operates on a council-manager form of government. Residents of Palm Desert elect five non-partisan council members who serve four-year staggered terms, with elections occurring every two years. The position of mayor is non-elected and rotates annually among the members of the city council. The council serves to pass ordinances, approve budgets, and hire the city manager and city attorney. The city manager oversees administrative operations and the appointment of department heads.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The Riverside County Sheriff's Department has a station located in Palm Desert which provides police services to the municipalities of Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Indian Wells, as well as the surrounding unincorporated areas.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The city of Palm Desert contracts for fire and paramedic services with the Riverside County Fire Department through a cooperative agreement with CAL FIRE. Palm Desert currently has three fire stations, which are Station 33, (Town Center), Station 67 (Mesa View), and Station 71 (North Palm Desert). Each fire station provides an engine company and a paramedic ambulance. Fire station 33 also has a truck company.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Palm Desert is the home of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, a combination zoo and botanical garden featuring an extensive collection of desert plants and animals and a state-of-the-art animal hospital.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Palm Desert is also the site of the main campus of College of the Desert, the local community college, which has expanded greatly in size since the campus opened in 1961 and one of the buildings was built by donations from the local Cahuilla Indian tribal nations. The state higher education system opened an extension campus duplex (the Indian Wells Education Center for both California State University, San Bernardino and the University of California Riverside.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The primary high school is Palm Desert High School (with 2200 students) which is part of the Desert Sands Unified School District. The main Middle School (with 1100 students) is Palm Desert Middle School, a charter school. The four elementary schools in the city are: George Washington Charter, Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. The northernmost part of Palm Desert is served by the Palm Springs Unified School District, so the students can attend Rancho Mirage High School in Rancho Mirage, or Nellie Coffman Middle School and Cathedral City High School in Cathedral City, California. Some students in the eastside are zoned to La Quinta High School and Colonel Mitchell Paige Middle School.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The Riverside County Department of Education operates San Cayetano Community School, a grade 1 to 12 educational facility. Palm Desert has 8 private schools in the immediate area: Desert Adventist Academy, Palm Desert Presbyterian School, Sacred Heart Catholic Academy, The Palm Valley School, the Learning Tree Academy, Xavier College Preparatory High School (Catholic-Jesuit), the Hope Academy, and the Desert Torah Academy, a Jewish community school and its social recreational Jewish Community Center. It also has meetings by the Jewish Federation of the Desert based in Palm Springs, serving an estimated 35,000 Jewish people in the Coachella Valley.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: South of Palm Desert is the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, and north of Palm Desert is the Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City is maintained by the Palm Springs Cemetery District. Also in Cathedral City is the Forest Lawn Cemetery, maintained by Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Many celebrities keep homes in Palm Desert, including Rita Rudner and more recently, the current home of professional golfer Michelle Wie and one of the homes of Bill Gates. Legendary actress Anne Francis resided in a condominium until July, 2000. Film producer Jerry Weintraub called it his second home before he died. Artist Phillip K. Smith III calls Palm Desert home and his studio is in Palm Desert.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: The city is home to the Palm Desert Scene, a musical genre that has been heavily influential internationally since the early 1990s. Many of the Palm Desert bands are credited for starting the rock/metal subgenre known as stoner rock. Bands including Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Eagles of Death Metal have become well known rock bands.


title: Palm Desert, California

text: Palm Desert had been in the sister cities program, as designated by Sister Cities International. Six to nine cities that are or were associated with Palm Desert:


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Administrative counties were subnational divisions of England used for local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888, which established an elected county council for each area. Some geographically large historic counties were divided into several administrative counties, each with its own county council. The administrative counties operated until 1974, when they were replaced by a system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties under the Local Government Act 1972.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: In 1888 the government, led by the Tory prime minister Lord Salisbury established county councils throughout England and Wales, covering areas known as administrative counties. Many larger towns and cities were given the status of county borough, with similar powers and independent of county council control. Under the Act, each county borough was an "administrative county of itself".


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Sussex, and Yorkshire were split up for administrative purposes, following historical divisions used by the Courts of Quarter Sessions.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Additionally there was a County of London which covered the area today known as Inner London. The Isle of Wight was previously administered as part of Hampshire but became its own administrative county in 1890.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: In 1894 a uniform two-tier system was established outside the county boroughs and London, with subdivisions of the administrative counties called urban districts, rural districts and municipal boroughs. The structure was complete once the County of London was divided into metropolitan boroughs in 1900.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Most exclaves of counties were eliminated under the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, but in 1894 county councils were given the power to adjust county boundaries, and most of the remaining anomalies were removed in the next few years. For example, the Measham area of Derbyshire was transferred to Leicestershire in 1897.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: The map shows the counties and the county boroughs. When a county borough expanded into territory of a county that was not the one it came from, maps sometimes showed this as an increase in size of the county which the county borough was associated with.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Monmouthshire, not shown on the map, was reckoned for some legal purposes among the English counties for most of this period.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: The 1888 Act did not contain a list of administrative counties: it was not until 1933 and the passing of a new Local Government Act that they were enumerated in the Act's schedule. Unlike the 1888 Act, the 1933 Act did not include county boroughs as administrative counties.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: In legislation and formal documents the suffix "shire" was generally not used: for example, Bedfordshire was referred to as "the administrative county of Bedford" and the Northamptonshire council as the "county council of Northampton". In the case of Lancashire and Cheshire the councils were officially the "county council of the palatine county". Shropshire was always officially entitled the "county of Salop". The right of Berkshire to be described as a "royal county" was recognised by the monarch in 1958. On 1 April 1959 the administrative county of Southampton was renamed as Hampshire.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: This system was the basis of the ceremonial counties used for Lieutenancy – except that Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk and Sussex were not split for Lieutenancy. (Yorkshire, however, was).


title: Administrative counties of England

text: The table lists the area and population of each administrative county at the censuses of 1891 and 1961.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Several county councils had administrative headquarters outside of their area. This was usually because the traditional county town was a county borough. The headquarters of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire county councils were moved from the county boroughs to locations within their respective administrative counties.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: The boundaries of the administrative counties changed considerably over time. The reasons for this were threefold: the growth of towns on either side of an existing boundary, the creation and extension of county boroughs and the elimination of outlying exclaves and other anomalies.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: As urbanisation increased, and suburbs were built on a scale not seen before, the urban areas surrounding various towns and cities started to cross traditional county borders. The Local Government Act 1888 provided that in the case that an urban sanitary district crossed a county border, the entire district would be considered part of the county in which the larger part was. This condition was maintained with the expansion of urban districts and municipal boroughs.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Towns that were split by historic borders and were unified in one administrative county include Banbury, Mossley, Tamworth, Todmorden.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Additionally, the territory and population of administrative counties was reduced by the increasing numbers of county boroughs, and extensions thereof. This was recognised as a problem, and the process of creation and enlargement of such boroughs was made more difficult by the Local Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Act 1926. By June 1970 25% of the population were within the county boroughs.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: On creation, many of the administrative counties had a number of exclaves. During the 1890s most of these were eliminated, with parishes being exchanged between counties. The boundaries of Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Wiltshire contained numerous enclaves and exclaves, and were realigned in 1931.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: Throughout the next century, debates took place about what should be done about local government in respect of the increasing urbanisation of the country. Proposals to expand or change county boroughs or to create larger urban counties were discussed, but nothing happened until 1963, when legislation was passed to come into effect in 1965.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: The County of London was abolished, and replaced by Greater London, a "sui generis" council area, taking the three of the surrounding county boroughs, more of Surrey and Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire and consuming nearly all of Middlesex – the remaining parts being ceded to Surrey and Hertfordshire. Some other changes took place, such as the Soke of Peterborough and Huntingdonshire being merged into Huntingdon and Peterborough, and the merger of the original Cambridgeshire with the Isle of Ely to form Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely.


title: Administrative counties of England

text: In 1974 the administrative counties were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and replaced with the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England.


title: Trope (literature)

text: A literary trope is the use of figurative language, via word, phrase or an image, for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. Keith and Lundburg describe a trope as, "a substitution of a word or phrase by a less literal word or phrase." The word "trope" has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring or overused literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works. Literary tropes span almost every category of writing, such as poetry, film, plays, and video games.


title: Trope (literature)

text: The term "trope" derives from the Greek ("tropos"), "turn, direction, way", derived from the verb τρέπειν ("trepein"), "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change". Tropes and their classification were an important field in classical rhetoric. The study of tropes has been taken up again in modern criticism, especially in deconstruction. Tropological criticism (not to be confused with tropological reading, a type of biblical exegesis) is the historical study of tropes, which aims to "define the dominant tropes of an epoch" and to "find those tropes in literary and non-literary texts", an interdisciplinary investigation of which Michel Foucault was an "important exemplar".


title: Trope (literature)

text: A specialized use is the medieval amplification of texts from the liturgy, such as in the "Kyrie Eleison" ("Kyrie, / magnae Deus potentia, / liberator hominis, / transgressoris mandati, / eleison"). The most important example of such a trope is the "Quem quaeritis?", an amplification before the "Introit" of the Easter Sunday service and the source for liturgical drama. This particular practice came to an end with the Tridentine Mass, the unification of the liturgy in 1570 promulgated by Pope Pius V.


title: Trope (literature)

text: Rhetoricians have analyzed a variety of "twists and turns" used in poetry and literature and have provided a list of labels for these poetic devices. These include


title: Trope (literature)

text: Kenneth Burke has called metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony the "four master tropes" owing to their frequency in everyday discourse.


title: Trope (literature)

text: These tropes can be used to represent common recurring themes throughout creative works, and in a modern setting relationships and character interactions. It can also be used to denote examples of common repeating figures of speech and situations.


title: Trope (literature)

text: Whilst most of the various forms of phrasing described above are in common usage, most of the terms themselves are not, in particular antanaclasis, litotes, metonymy, synecdoche and catachresis.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: Diplomacy is an American strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in the United States in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases (players spend much of their time forming and betraying alliances with other players and forming beneficial strategies) and the absence of dice and other game elements that produce random effects. Set in Europe in the years leading to the Great War, "Diplomacy" is played by two to seven players, each controlling the armed forces of a major European power (or, with fewer players, multiple powers). Each player aims to move their few starting units and defeat those of others to win possession of a majority of strategic cities and provinces marked as "supply centers" on the map; these supply centers allow players who control them to produce more units. Following each round of player negotiations, each player can issue attack and support orders, which are then executed during the movement phase. A player takes control of a province when the number of provinces that are given orders to support the attacking province exceeds the number of provinces given orders to support the defending province.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: "Diplomacy" was the first commercially published game to be played by mail (PBM); only chess, which is in the public domain, saw significant postal play earlier. "Diplomacy" was also the first commercially published game to generate an active hobby scene with amateur fanzines; only science-fiction, fantasy and comics fandom saw fanzines earlier. Competitive face-to-face "Diplomacy" tournaments have been held since the 1970s. Play of "Diplomacy" by e-mail (PBEM) has been widespread since the late 1980s.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: "Diplomacy" has been published in the United States by Games Research, Avalon Hill, and Hasbro; the name is currently a registered trademark of Hasbro's Avalon Hill division. "Diplomacy" has also been licensed to various companies for publication in other countries. "Diplomacy" is also played on the Internet, adjudicated by a computer or a human gamemaster.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: In its catalog, Avalon Hill advertised "Diplomacy" as John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger's favorite game. Kissinger described it as his favorite in an interview published in a games magazine. American broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite is reported to have been a fan of the game. Michael Portillo, British journalist, broadcaster, and former Member of Parliament and cabinet minister, is known to have played the game while studying at Harrow County School for Boys.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: The idea for "Diplomacy" arose from Allan B. Calhamer's study at Harvard of nineteenth-century European history under Sidney B. Fay and from his study of political geography. Calhamer also drew inspiration from the card game of Hearts, in which he observed that players were at an advantage when they teamed up against the leader, and from the game of chess, which inspired him to use a limited number of spaces and pieces.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: The rough form of "Diplomacy" was created in 1954, and its details were developed through playtesting until the 1958 map and rules revisions. Calhamer paid for a 500-game print run of that version in 1959 after rejection by major companies. It has been published since then by Games Research (in 1961, then a 1971 edition with a revised rulebook), Avalon Hill (in 1976), by Hasbro's Avalon Hill division (in 1999), and now by Wizards of the Coast (in 2008) in the US, and licensed to other boardgame publishers for versions sold in other countries. Among these are Parker Brothers, Waddingtons Games, Gibsons Games, and Asmodée Editions.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: The board is a map of 1901 Europe plus Turkey, Syria and North Africa. It is divided into fifty-six land regions and nineteen sea regions. Forty-two of the land regions are divided among the seven Great Powers of the game: Austria-Hungary, England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Turkey. The remaining fourteen land regions are neutral at the start of the game.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: Thirty-four of the land regions contain "supply centers", corresponding to major centers of government, industry or commerce ("e.g.", Vienna and Rome); twenty-two of these are located within the Great Powers and are referred to as "home" supply centers. The remaining twelve are located in the neutral provinces. The number of supply centers a player controls determines the total number of armies and fleets a player may have on the board, and as players gain and lose control of centers, they may build (raise) or must remove (disband) units correspondingly.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: The land provinces within the Great Powers which contain supply centers are generally named after a major city in the province (e.g. London and Moscow) while the other land provinces within the Great Powers are generally named after a region (e.g. Bohemia and Apulia). Neutral land provinces are generally named after countries (e.g. Serbia and Belgium).


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: All players other than Britain and Russia begin the game with two armies and one fleet; Britain starts with two fleets and one army, and Russia starts with two armies and two fleets, making it the only player to start the game with more than three units. Only one unit at a time may occupy a given map region. Balancing units to supply center counts is done after each game-year, which involves two seasons of play: Spring and Fall.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: At the beginning of the game, the twelve neutral supply centers are typically captured within the first few moves. Further acquisition of supply centers becomes a zero sum dynamic with any gains in a player's resources coming at the expense of a rival.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: Although the game starts in 1901, the map generally reflects the political boundaries of Europe in 1914, just before the outbreak of the Great War. Bosnia is already annexed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Balkans reflect the results of the wars of 1912 and 1913 in the region.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: On the other hand, Montenegro is shown as part of Austria-Hungary. Additionally, North Africa and Tunis start the game as neutral, despite these regions being part of the French colonial empire in 1914. Finland and Syria are both parts of Great Powers, as Finland was part of the Russian Empire, and Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire in 1914. Tunis is used rather than Tunisia on most boards. North Africa is a single province covering parts of Algeria and Morocco.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: "Diplomacy" proceeds by seasons, beginning in the year 1901, with each year divided into two main seasons: the "Spring" and "Fall" (Autumn) moves. Each season is further divided into negotiation and movement phases, followed by 'retreat' or 'disband' adjustments and an end-of-the-year Winter phase of new builds or removals following the Fall adjustments.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: In the negotiation phase, players discuss tactics and strategy, form alliances, and share intelligence or spread disinformation. Negotiations may be made public or kept private. Players are not bound to anything they say or promise, and no agreements are enforceable.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: Communication and trust are highly important; players must forge alliances with others and observe their actions to evaluate their trustworthiness. At the same time, they must convince others of their own trustworthiness while making plans to turn against their allies when least expected. A well-timed betrayal can be just as profitable as an enduring, reliable alliance.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: After the negotiation period, players write secret orders for each unit; these orders are revealed and executed simultaneously. A unit can move from its location to an adjacent space, support an adjacent unit to hold an area in the event of an attack, support another unit to attack a space into which it could move itself, or hold defensively. In addition, fleets may transport armies from one coast space to another when in a chain called a "convoy". Armies may only occupy land regions, and fleets occupy sea regions and the land regions that border named seas. Only one unit may occupy each region. If multiple units are ordered to move to the same region, only the unit with the most support moves there. If two or more units have the same highest support, a standoff occurs and no units ordered to that region move. A unit ordered to give support that is attacked has those orders canceled and is forced to hold, except in the case that support is being given to a unit invading the region from which the attack originated.


title: Diplomacy (game)

text: Certain spaces on the board have two coasts and here a player must specify which one they want their fleet to occupy. A fleet can only move to coasts and oceans that border the coast that it is on. For example, a fleet occupying the southern coast of Bulgaria cannot move into Romania or the Black Sea, but a fleet on the east coast could.