title: Operation Vengeance

text: To avoid detection by radar and Japanese personnel stationed in the Solomon Islands along a straight-line distance of about between U.S. forces and Bougainville, the mission entailed an over-water flight south and west of the Solomons. This roundabout approach was plotted and measured to be about . The fighters would, therefore, travel 600 miles out to the target and 400 miles back. The 1,000-mile flight, with extra fuel allotted for combat, was beyond the range of the F4F Wildcat and F4U Corsair fighters then available to Navy and Marine squadrons based on Guadalcanal. The mission was instead assigned to the 339th Fighter Squadron, 347th Fighter Group, whose P-38G Lightning aircraft, equipped with drop tanks, were the only American fighters in the Pacific with the range to intercept and engage.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: 339th Squadron Commander Major John W. Mitchell, already an ace pilot, was chosen to lead the flight. For better navigation, Mitchell asked for a navy compass, which was provided by Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Luther S. Moore, and installed in Mitchell's P-38 the day before the attack. All of the P-38 fighters mounted their standard armament of one 20 mm cannon and four .50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns, and were equipped to carry two drop tanks under their wings. A limited supply of tanks was flown up from New Guinea, sufficient to provide each Lightning with one large tank to replace one of the small tanks. The difference in size put approximately greater weight on one side of the aircraft, but the tanks were located close enough to the aircraft's center of gravity to avoid serious performance problems.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Eighteen P-38s were assigned the mission. One flight of four was designated as the "killer" flight, while the remainder, which included two spares, would climb to to act as "top cover" for the expected reaction by Japanese fighters based at Kahili. A flight plan was prepared by the Command Operations Officer, Marine Major John Condon, but this was discarded by Mitchell, who thought the airspeeds and time estimates were not best for intercepting Yamamoto. With several of his pilots assisting, Mitchell calculated an intercept time of 09:35, based on the itinerary, to catch the bombers descending over Bougainville, 10 minutes before landing at Balalae. He worked back from that time and drew four precisely calculated legs, with a fifth leg curving in a search pattern in case Yamamoto was not seen at the chosen point. In addition to heading out over the Coral Sea, the 339th would "wave-hop" all the way to Bougainville at altitudes no greater than 50 feet (15 m), maintaining radio silence.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Although the 339th Fighter Squadron officially carried out the mission, 10 of the 18 pilots were drawn from the other two squadrons of the 347th Group. The Commander AirSols, Rear Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, selected four pilots to be designated as the "killer" flight:


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The remaining pilots would act as reserves and provide air cover against any retaliatory attacks by local Japanese fighters:


title: Operation Vengeance

text: A briefing included the designated cover story for the source of the intelligence stating it had come from Australian coastwatchers, who supposedly had spotted an important high-ranking officer boarding an aircraft at Rabaul. Several historians say that the pilots were not specifically briefed on the identity of their target, but Thomas Alexander Hughes wrote that Mitscher told the assembled pilots it was Yamamoto, to "provide additional incentive" to the fliers.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The specially fitted P-38s took off from Kukum Field on Guadalcanal beginning at 07:25 on April 18. Two of the Lightnings assigned to the killer flight dropped out of the mission at the start, one with a tire flattened during takeoff (McLanahan) and the second when its drop tanks would not feed fuel to the engines (Moore).


title: Operation Vengeance

text: In Rabaul, despite urgings by local Japanese commanders to cancel the trip for fear of ambush, Yamamoto's airplanes took off as scheduled for the trip of . They climbed to , with their fighter escort at their 4 o'clock position and higher, split into two V-formations of three planes.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Mitchell's flight of four led the squadron at low altitude, with the killer flight, now consisting of Lanphier, Barber, and spares Besby F. Holmes and Raymond K. Hine, immediately behind. Mitchell, fighting off drowsiness, navigated by flight plan and the navy compass. This has been called the longest-distance fighter-intercept mission of the war.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Mitchell and his force arrived at the intercept point one minute early, at 09:34, just as Yamamoto's aircraft descended into view in a light haze. The P-38s jettisoned the auxiliary tanks, turned to the right to parallel the bombers, and began a full power climb to intercept them.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The tanks on Holmes's P-38 did not detach and his two-man element turned back toward the sea. Mitchell radioed Lanphier and Barber to engage, and they climbed toward the eight aircraft. The nearest escort fighters dropped their own tanks and dived toward the pair of P-38s. Lanphier immediately turned head-on and climbed towards the escorts while Barber chased the diving bomber transports. Barber banked steeply to turn in behind the bombers and momentarily lost sight of them, but when he regained contact, he was immediately behind one and began firing into its right engine, rear fuselage, and empennage. When Barber hit its left engine, the bomber began to trail heavy black smoke. The Betty rolled violently to the left and Barber narrowly avoided a mid-air collision. Looking back, he saw a column of black smoke and assumed the Betty had crashed into the jungle. Barber headed towards the coast at treetop level, searching for the second bomber, not knowing which one carried the targeted high-ranking officer.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Barber spotted the second bomber, carrying Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki and part of Yamamoto's staff, low over the water off Moila Point, trying to evade an attack by Holmes, whose wing tanks had finally come off. Holmes damaged the right engine of the Betty, which emitted a white vapor trail, but his closure speed carried him and his wingman Hine past the damaged bomber. Barber attacked the crippled bomber and his bullet strikes caused it to shed metal debris that damaged his own aircraft. The bomber descended and crash-landed in the water. Ugaki and two others survived the crash and were later rescued. Barber, Holmes and Hine were attacked by Zeros, Barber's P-38 receiving 104 hits. Holmes and Barber each claimed a Zero shot down during this melee, although Japanese records show that no Zeros were lost. The top cover briefly engaged reacting Zeros without making any kills. Mitchell observed the column of smoke from Yamamoto's crashed bomber. Hine's P-38 had disappeared by this point, presumably crashed into the water. Running close to minimum fuel levels for return to base, the P-38s broke off contact, with Holmes so short of fuel that he was forced to land in the Russell Islands. Hine was the only American pilot who did not return. Lanphier's actions during the battle are unclear as his account was later disputed by other participants, including the Japanese fighter pilots. As he approached Henderson Field, Lanphier radioed the fighter director on Guadalcanal that "That son of a bitch will not be dictating any peace terms in the White House", breaching security and endangering the code-breaking program. Upon landing, one engine quit from fuel starvation. He immediately put in a claim for shooting down Yamamoto.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service (MIS) was made up mostly of Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans). They were trained in interpretation, interrogation, and translation of Japanese materials ranging from standard textbooks to captured documents.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Information leading to Yamamoto's ambush was a significant MIS contribution in the Solomons campaign. MIS Technical Sergeant Harold Fudenna translated an intercepted radio message indicating the itinerary of Yamamoto. Although this message was first met with skepticism that the Japanese would be so careless, other MIS linguists in Alaska and Hawaii had also intercepted the same message, confirming its accuracy.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The crash site and body of Yamamoto were found on April 19, the day after the attack, by a Japanese search-and-rescue party. The crash site was located in the jungle north of the coastal site of the former Australian patrol post and Catholic mission of Buin (which was re-established after the war several kilometers inland).


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The retrieval party noted Yamamoto had been thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, his white-gloved hand grasping the hilt of his katana, his body still upright in his seat under a tree. Hamasuna said Yamamoto was instantly recognizable, his head tilted down as if deep in thought. A post-mortem of Yamamoto indicated two bullet wounds, one to the back of his left shoulder, and a separate wound to his left lower jaw that appeared to exit above his right eye. The Japanese navy doctor examining Yamamoto's body determined the head wound killed Yamamoto. These more violent details of Yamamoto's death were hidden from the Japanese public, and the medical report whitewashed, this secrecy "on orders from above" according to biographer Hiroyuki Agawa.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: In Japan, Yamamoto's killing became known as the "Navy A("kō") incident" (). It raised morale in the United States and shocked the Japanese, who were officially told about the incident only on May 21, 1943. The announcement said that the admiral was killed in April while directing strategy on the front lines had "engaged in combat with the enemy and met gallant death on a war plane."


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Norman Lodge, an Associated Press correspondent in the South Pacific, had found out what had happened and had filed a detailed story about the mission on May 11 which said the United States had been tracking Yamamoto for five days before the shoot-down, but U.S. military censors prevented the story from going out. At this point, U.S. officials had not disclosed anything about the operation, and the American public first learned of Yamamoto's death when the May 21 Japanese statement was covered in the news. The Japanese account was augmented by American writers noting that Yamamoto's purported claim that he would dictate peace terms to the United States from a seat in the White House was now sure not to happen. Roosevelt was quoted as saying "Gosh!" on May 21 upon supposedly learning the news from reporters about the Japanese announcement. Over the next couple of days there were stories in the U.S. press speculating that the Japanese announcement was itself a cover for Yamamoto having committed hara-kiri because the war was not going well for the Japanese. Then on May 31 "Time" magazine ran separate stories several pages apart, one of which reported the Japanese announcement and one of which related how Lanphier and his P-38 pilots on Guadalcanal had shot down three Japanese bombers over Bougainville and then flown home wondering if they had killed "some Jap bigwig" in the bombers. However, the Japanese did not draw any conclusions from this.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Regardless of any cover story, intelligence officials in Great Britain were upset by the operation; not having suffered the Pearl Harbor attack themselves, they did not have the same visceral feelings towards Yamamoto and did not think that killing any one admiral was worth the risk to Allied codebreaking abilities against Japan. Indeed, Prime Minister Winston Churchill protested the decision to go ahead with the operation to Roosevelt himself.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The American public did not learn the full story of the operation, including that it was based on broken codes, until September 10, 1945, after the conclusion of the war, when many papers published an Associated Press account. Even then U.S. intelligence was frustrated because they wanted to keep the secret longer as they were still debriefing Japanese intelligence officers and feared knowledge of the code-breaking would rush those officers into shame-driven suicide.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The remains of Yamamoto's aircraft, "323" of the 705th Kokutai, lie in the jungle around from the town of Panguna, (). The crash site is around an hour's walk from the nearest road.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Although the aircraft wreckage has been heavily scavenged by souvenir hunters, parts of the fuselage remain where it crashed. The site is on private land. Access was previously difficult as the ownership of the land was disputed. However, , it is possible for visitors to gain access to the site by prior arrangement.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Part of one wing has been removed and is displayed, on permanent loan, at the Isoroku Yamamoto Family Museum in Nagaoka, Japan. One of the aircraft's doors is at the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Although Operation Vengeance was notable for its target, there has been controversy about who shot down the admiral's aircraft.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The issue began immediately after the mission when the U.S. military credited Thomas Lanphier with the kill. The captain claimed in his report that after turning to engage the escort Zeros and shooting the wings off one, he had flipped upside down as he circled back towards the two bombers. On seeing the lead bomber turning in a circle below him, he came out of his turn at a right angle to the circling bomber and fired, blowing off its right wing. The plane then crashed into the jungle. Lanphier also reported that he saw Lieutenant Rex Barber shoot down another bomber which also crashed into the jungle.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: From the report, U.S. intelligence assumed that three bombers had been downed because Lieutenant Besby F. Holmes claimed the "Betty" that crashed into the sea. None of the remaining pilots were debriefed after the mission because no formal interrogation procedures existed on Guadalcanal at that time. Likewise, Lanphier's claim of the kill was never officially witnessed. Many of the mission's other pilots soon became skeptical about the official U.S. Army version.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Six months later, unauthorized details about the operation leaked into the press. In October 1943, an issue of "Time" magazine featured an article about "Vengeance" and mentioned Lanphier by name. An outraged U.S. Navy considered it a serious breach of security. As a result, Major John Mitchell, who had been nominated for the Medal of Honor, was downgraded to the Navy Cross; this was the same award subsequently presented to all the pilots of the killer flight.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The controversy did not subside after the war because of the testimony of the surviving Japanese escort pilot who witnessed the mission. Zero pilot Kenji Yanagiya, who had been in Yamamoto's fighter escort, told John Mitchell he might have been responsible for the loss of Lieutenant Raymond Hine because he had heavily damaged a P-38 (escorting another Lightning that had not dropped its fuel tanks), although neither he nor any of the other Zero pilots had claimed a P-38 that day. The cause of Hine's disappearance is still officially undetermined. Yanagiya also affirmed that none of the escorting Japanese fighters were shot down, only one was damaged enough that it required a half day of repair at Buin. These details contradicted Lanphier's claim for a Zero. Likewise, Japanese military records confirmed that only two Mitsubishi G4M bombers had been shot down on the day. Eventually, Lanphier and Barber were officially awarded half credits for the destruction of the bomber that crashed into the jungle, and half credits to Barber and Holmes for the bomber that crashed at sea. Several ground inspections of Yamamoto's crash site have determined that the path of the bullet impacts validated Barber's account because "all visible gunfire and shrapnel damage was caused by bullets entering from immediately behind the bomber" not from the right.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Subsequently, Barber petitioned the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records to have his half credit on the bomber shared with Lanphier changed to a whole credit. In September 1991, the Air Force History Office advised the board that "enough uncertainty" existed in both Lanphier's and Barber's claims for them both to be accepted; the board's decision was split on Barber's petition. Secretary of the Air Force Donald Rice ruled to retain the shared credit. Barber then applied to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to have the ruling of the Secretary of the Air Force overturned and the opposing claims re-investigated, but the court refused to intervene.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: In May 2006, "Air Force Magazine" published a letter by Doug Canning, a former pilot of the 347th Fighter Group who flew on Operation Vengeance (he escorted Lieutenant Holmes back to the Russell Islands). Canning, who was friends with both Lanphier and Barber, stated that Lanphier had written the official report, medal citations, and several magazine articles about the mission. He also claimed Barber had been willing to share the half credit for shooting down Yamamoto until Lanphier had given him an unpublished manuscript he had written claiming he alone had shot down the admiral. Canning agreed that Barber had a strong case for his claim citing the testimony of another pilot from Yamamoto's Zero escort, Kenji Yanagiya, who saw Yamamoto's "Betty" crash 20 to 30 seconds after being hit from behind by fire from a P-38. Likewise, the second Betty carrying Ugaki crashed 20 seconds after being struck by aircraft fire. Canning stated categorically that the P-38Gs flown that day did not have aileron boost to assist in turning (as did later models) making it physically impossible for Lanphier's aircraft to have made the 180 degree turn fast enough to intercept Yamamoto's plane in less than 30 seconds. The Air Force later disqualified Lanphier's claim for shooting down a Zero in the battle, meaning that Lanphier lost his "ace" status as his total number of air-to-air kills dropped from five to four.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: In spite of criticism from Barber and other surviving pilots from the mission, Lanphier continued to claim credit for downing Yamamoto until his death in 1987. Most newspaper obituaries reporting Lanphier's death credited him with killing Yamamoto. Rex Barber continued to contest Lanphier's claim, mainly in military circles and publications, until his death in 2001.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Lieutenant Julius Jacobson, another pilot on the mission, remarked in 1997, "There were 15 of us who survived, and as far as who did the effective shooting, who cares?" Donald Rice, the then secretary of the Air Force, commented in 1993, "Historians, fighter pilots and all of us who have studied the record of this extraordinary mission will forever speculate as to the exact events of that day in 1943. There is glory for the whole team."


title: Operation Vengeance

text: The Yamamoto killing has been the subject of extensive historical and legal discussion in military, political and academic circles.


title: Operation Vengeance

text: Following the 2020 killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, the Yamamoto killing was cited by senior U.S. officials as a precedent. Various major media and noted pundits also singled out the Yamamoto killing as "the" relevant comparison, including "The New York Times", who reported that the Yamamoto killing was "the last time the United States killed a major military leader in a foreign country" prior to the Soleimani killing.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall () is an uninhabitable granite islet situated in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United Kingdom claims that Rockall lies within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and is part of its territory, but this claim is not recognised by Ireland. It and the nearby skerries of Hasselwood Rock and Helen's Reef are the only emergent parts of the Rockall Plateau. The rock was formed by magmatism as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province during the Paleogene.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall's approximate distances from the closest islands in each direction are as follows: It is west of Soay, Scotland; northwest of Tory Island, Ireland; and south of Iceland.


title: Rockall

text: The nearest permanently inhabited place is North Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, to the east.


title: Rockall

text: The United Kingdom claimed Rockall in 1955 and incorporated it as a part of Scotland in 1972. The UK does not make a claim to extended EEZ based on Rockall, as it has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which says that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf". However, such features are entitled to a territorial sea extending . Ireland's position is that Rockall does not even generate a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea for the United Kingdom owing to the UK's uncertain title to Rockall. Ireland does not recognize the UK's claim, although it has never sought to claim sovereignty of Rockall for itself. The consistent position of successive Irish governments has been that Rockall and similar rocks and skerries have no significance for establishing legal claims to mineral rights in the adjacent seabed or to fishing rights in the surrounding seas.


title: Rockall

text: The origin and meaning of the islet's name "Rockall" is uncertain. The Scottish Gaelic name for the islet, , may derive from an Old Norse name that may contain the element , meaning 'mountain'. It has also been suggested that the name is from the Norse , meaning 'foaming sea', and , meaning 'bald head'—a word which appears in other placenames in Scandinavian-speaking areas. Another idea is that it derives from the Gaelic , meaning 'skerry of roaring' or 'sea rock of roaring' (although can also be translated as 'tearing' or 'ripping').


title: Rockall

text: The Dutch mapmakers Petrus Plancius and , show an island called "Rookol" northwest of Ireland on their "Map of New France and the Northern Atlantic Ocean" (Amsterdam, ). The first literary reference to the island, which is called "Rokol", is found in Martin Martin's "A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland", published in 1703. This book gives an account of a voyage to the archipelago of St Kilda, and Martin states: "... and from it lies Rokol, a small rock to the westward of St Kilda; the inhabitants of this place call it "Rokabarra"."


title: Rockall

text: The name is also used in Scottish Gaelic folklore for a mythical rock which is supposed to appear three times, its last appearance being at the end of the world: "". ('When Rocabarra returns, the world will likely come to be destroyed').


title: Rockall

text: Rockall's name has also been used in Irish mythology; one story describes how legendary giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) scooped up a chunk of Ireland to fling at a Scottish rival. It instead missed and landed in the Irish Sea – the pebble left behind formed Rockall, while the clump became the Isle of Man and the void left behind filled with water and eventually became Lough Neagh.


title: Rockall

text: The rock has been noted in written records since the late 16th century. In the 20th century, its location became relevant due to potential oil and fishing rights that might accrue to a nation recognized as having a legitimate claim to it.


title: Rockall

text: In 1955 the British landed on Rockall and claimed it for the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom formally annexed the islet in 1972.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall gives its name to one of the sea areas named in the shipping forecast provided by the British Meteorological Office.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall has been a point of interest for adventurers and amateur radio operators, who have variously landed on or briefly occupied the islet. Fewer than 20 individuals have ever been confirmed to have landed on Rockall, and the longest known continuous occupation is 45 days (achieved in 2014 by a solo person). In a House of Commons debate in 1971, William Ross, Labour MP for Kilmarnock, said: "More people have landed on the moon than have landed on Rockall" (however only twelve people have landed on the moon, so while possibly true at the time, it is no longer correct.)


title: Rockall

text: The earliest recorded date of landing on the island is often given as 8 July 1810, when a Royal Navy officer named Basil Hall led a small landing party from the frigate to the summit. However, research by James Fisher (see below), in the log of "Endymion" and elsewhere, indicates that the actual date for this first landing was on Sunday 8 September 1811.


title: Rockall

text: The landing party left "Endymion" for the rock by boat. Whilst there, "Endymion", which was taking depth measurements around Rockall, lost visual contact with the rock as a haze descended. The ship drifted away, leaving the landing party stranded. The expedition made a brief attempt to return to the ship, but could not find the frigate in the haze, and soon gave up and returned to Rockall. After the haze became a fog, the lookout sent to the top of Rockall spotted the ship again, but it turned away from Rockall before the expedition in their boats reached it. Finally, just before sunset, the frigate was again spotted from the top of Rockall, and the expedition was able to get back on board. The crew of "Endymion" reported that they had been searching for five or six hours, firing their cannon every ten minutes. Hall related this experience and other adventures in a book entitled "Fragment of Voyages and Travels Including Anecdotes of a Naval Life".


title: Rockall

text: The next landing was by a Mr Johns of HMS "Porcupine" whilst the ship was on a mission, (between June and August 1862), to make a survey of the sea bed prior to the laying of a transatlantic telegraph cable. Johns managed to gain foothold on the island, but failed to reach the summit.


title: Rockall

text: On 18 September 1955, Rockall was annexed by the British Crown when Lieutenant-Commander Desmond Scott RN, Sergeant Brian Peel RM, Corporal AA Fraser RM, and James Fisher (a civilian naturalist and former Royal Marine), were winched onto the island by a Royal Navy helicopter from (coincidentally named after the man who first charted the island). The annexation of Rockall was announced by the Admiralty on 21 September 1955.


title: Rockall

text: The expedition team cemented in a brass plaque on Hall's Ledge and hoisted the Union Flag to stake the UK's claim. The inscription on the plaque read:


title: Rockall

text: The initial incentive for the annexation was the test-firing of the UK's first guided nuclear weapon, the American-made Corporal missile. The missile was to be launched from South Uist and sent over the North Atlantic. The Ministry of Defence was concerned that the unclaimed island would provide an opportunity for the Soviet Union to spy on the test. Consequently, in April 1955 an order was issued to the Admiralty to seize the island and declare UK sovereignty, lest it become an outpost for foreign observers.


title: Rockall

text: On 7 November 1955, J. Abrach Mackay, a member of the Clan Mackay, made a protest about the annexation; the 84-year-old local councillor declared: "My old father, God rest his soul, claimed that island for the Clan of Mackay in 1846 and I now demand that the Admiralty hand it back. It's no' theirs'." The British Government ignored the protests, which were soon forgotten.


title: Rockall

text: In 1971, Captain T R Kirkpatrick RE led the landing party on a government expedition named "Operation Top Hat" that was mounted from "RFA Engadine" to establish that the rock was part of the United Kingdom and to prepare the islet for the installation of a light beacon. The landing party included Royal Engineers, Royal Marines and civilian members from the Institute of Geological Sciences in London. The party was landed by winch line from the Wessex 5 helicopters of the Royal Naval Air Services Commando Headquarters Squadron, commanded by Lt Cmdr Neil Foster RN. As well as collecting samples of the aegerine granite, rockallite, for later analysis in London, the top of the rock was blown off using a newly developed blasting technique, Precision Pre-Splitting. This created a level area that was drilled to take the anchorages for the light beacon that was installed the following year. Two phosphor bronze plates were chased into the wall above Hall's Ledge, each secured by four 80-tonne rock-anchor bolts; there was no evidence of the brass plate installed in 1955.


title: Rockall

text: Establishing that the rock is part of the United Kingdom and its development as a light beacon facilitated the incorporation of the island into the District of Harris in the County of Inverness in the Island of Rockall Act 1972 and reinforced the UK Government's position with regard to seabed rights in the area.


title: Rockall

text: In 1978, eight members of the Dangerous Sports Club, including David Kirke, one of its founders, held a cocktail party on the island, allegedly leaving with the plaque.


title: Rockall

text: Former SAS member and survival expert Tom McClean lived on the island from 26 May 1985 to 4 July 1985 to affirm the UK's claim to the islet.


title: Rockall

text: In 1997, the environmentalist organisation Greenpeace occupied the islet for a short time, calling it Waveland, to protest against oil exploration. Greenpeace declared the island to be a "new Global State" (as a spoof micronation) and offered citizenship to anyone willing to take their pledge of allegiance. The British Government's response was to state that "Rockall is British territory. It is part of Scotland and anyone is free to go there and can stay as long as they please" and otherwise ignore them. During his one night on Rockall, Greenpeace protester and "Guardian" journalist John Vidal unscrewed the 1955 plaque and re-fixed it back-to-front. Micronation continued after leaving the island until 1999.


title: Rockall

text: In June 2005 the first amateur radio (ham radio) activation of Rockall took place when the club station MS0IRC/P was set up and operated for a few hours on HF frequencies before they had to close down due to approaching bad weather. The IOTA number EU-189 was issued to Rockall as a result of this activation.


title: Rockall

text: In 2010, it was revealed that the plaque had gone missing. An Englishman, Andy Strangeway, announced his intention to land on the island and affix a replacement plaque in June 2010. The Western Isles Council have approved planning permission for the plaque. The 2010 expedition was cancelled, but Strangeway still intends to replace the plaque.


title: Rockall

text: In October 2011 a group of amateur radio (ham radio) operators from Belgium travelled by ship to Rockall. Several of them climbed up the rocks and set up a radio station for some hours. They stayed overnight on top of the island. Radio contacts to all over the world were made using HF frequencies under the call sign "MM0RAI/P".


title: Rockall

text: In 2013 an occupation of the island by explorer Nick Hancock to raise money for the charity Help for Heroes was planned. The challenge was to land on Rockall and survive solo for 60 days. On 31 May 2013, Hancock, and a TV crew from BBC's "The One Show", sailed to the islet aboard "Orca III", and he made his first unsuccessful attempt to land on the islet. The weather conditions at the time "were not favourable" according to a Maritime and Coastguard Agency official. Subsequently, Hancock postponed his challenge until 2014. On 5 June 2014 Hancock landed on Rockall to begin his 60-day survival. Despite being forced to cut his 60-day goal short after losing supplies in a storm, Hancock did remain on the island for 45 days, beating McClean's occupancy record by five days.


title: Rockall

text: The "Round Rockall" sailing race, sponsored by Galway Bay Sailing Club, runs from Galway, Ireland, around Rockall and back. It was held in 2012 to coincide with the finish of the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race around the world.


title: Rockall

text: The 2015–2016 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race race 12 from New York to Derry was extended around Rockall despite previous promises to crew from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston that this would not happen again after the race to Danang.


title: Rockall

text: In 2017, the Safehaven Marine team led by Frank Kowalski set a world record for the Long Way Round Circumnavigation of Ireland via Rockall island. The Baracuda-style naval patrol, search and rescue vessel, "Thunder Child", completed the route in 34 hours, 1 minute, and 47 seconds. Set in an anti-clockwise direction, the new record – the first of its kind – is now subject to ratification by Irish Sailing and the Union Internationale Motonautique, the world governing board for all powerboat activity.


title: Rockall

text: During Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee celebrations in June 2022, Dr. Chris Grieco and Campbell Cameron had intended to live on the rock for one week to raise £1 million for the Children's Hospice South West and The Royal Navy charity. The trip was also being supported by Nick Hancock, who is the world record holder for occupation of the Rock. The attempt at Rockall was cancelled due to the unavailability of a vessel. A new team including Campbell Cameron VR RNR FRGS and Chris Thrall, a former Royal Marine Commando, is planned to go ahead in June 2023, with the goal of beating the world record currently held by Nick Hancock FRGS.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall is one of the few pinnacles of the surrounding Helen's Reef; it is located west of the uninhabited islet of Soay, St Kilda, Scotland, and northwest of Tory Island, County Donegal, Ireland. Its location was precisely determined by Nick Hancock during his 2014 expedition. The surrounding elevated seabed is called the Rockall Bank, lying directly south from an area known as the Rockall Plateau. It is separated from the Outer Hebrides by the Rockall Trough, itself located within the Rockall Basin (also known as the "Hatton Rockall Basin").


title: Rockall

text: In 1956 the British scientist James Fisher referred to the island as "the most isolated small rock in the oceans of the world". The neighbouring Hasselwood Rock and several other pinnacles of the surrounding Helen's Reef are smaller, at half the size of Rockall or less, and equally remote, but those formations are legally not islands or points on land, as they are often submerged completely, only revealed momentarily above certain types of ocean surface waves.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall is about wide and long at its base and rises sheer to a height of . It is often washed over by large storm waves, particularly in winter. There is a small ledge of , known as Hall's Ledge, from the summit on the rock's western face. It is the only named geographical location on the rock.


title: Rockall

text: The nearest point on land from Rockall is , east at the uninhabited Scottish island of Soay in the St Kilda archipelago. The nearest inhabited area lies east at Hirta, the largest island in the St. Kilda group, which is populated intermittently at a single military base. The nearest permanently inhabited settlement is west of the headland of Aird an Rùnair, near the crofting township of Hogha Gearraidh on the island of North Uist at . North Uist is part of "Na h-Eileanan Siar" council area of Scotland.


title: Rockall

text: The exact position of Rockall and the size and shape of the Rockall Bank was first charted in 1831 by Captain A. T. E. Vidal, a Royal Navy surveyor. The first scientific expedition to Rockall was led by Miller Christy in 1896 when the Royal Irish Academy sponsored a study of the flora and fauna. They chartered the "Granuaile".


title: Rockall

text: A detailed underwater mapping of the area around Rockall undertaken in 2011–2012 by Marine Scotland showed that Rockall itself is a minor pinnacle, whilst Helen's Reef extends in a sweeping arc of fissures and ridges to the north-west of the islet. Between the islet and Helen's Reef is a deeper trench much used by squid fishermen.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall is located in the pathway of the warming and moderating Gulf Stream. Although the rock does not sustain any weather station, the isolated nature of the setting dictates an extremely maritime climate without heat or cold extremes.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall is made of a type of peralkaline granite that is relatively rich in sodium and potassium. Within this granite are darker bands richer in iron because they contain two iron-sodium silicate minerals called aegirine and riebeckite. The darker bands are a type of granite that geologists have named "rockallite", although use of this term is now discouraged.


title: Rockall

text: In 1975, a mineral new to science was discovered in a rock sample from Rockall. The mineral is called bazirite, named after the chemical elements barium and zirconium. Bazirite has the chemical composition BaZrSiO.


title: Rockall

text: Rockall forms part of the deeply eroded Rockall Igneous Centre that was formed as part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. It was formed approximately 52 ± 8 million years ago based on rubidium–strontium dating, as part of the breakup of Laurasia. Greenland and Europe separated and the northeast Atlantic Ocean was formed between them, eventually leaving Rockall as an isolated islet.


title: Rockall

text: The RV "Celtic Explorer" surveyed the Rockall Bank in 2003. The Irish Light Vessel "Granuaile" (the same name as the steamer on the RIA 1896 botany survey) was chartered by the Geological Survey of Ireland, on behalf of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, to conduct a seismic survey of the Rockall Bank and the Hatton Bank in July 2004, as part of the Irish National Seabed Survey.


title: Rockall

text: The island's only permanent macro-organism inhabitants are common periwinkles and other marine molluscs. Small numbers of seabirds, mainly fulmars, northern gannets, black-legged kittiwakes, and common guillemots, use the rock for resting in summer, and gannets and guillemots occasionally breed successfully if the summer is calm with no storm waves washing over the rock. In total there have been just over twenty species of seabird and six other animal species observed (including the aforementioned molluscs) on or near the islet.


title: Rockall

text: Cold-water coral biogenic reefs have been identified on the wider Rockall Bank, which are contributing features for the East Rockall Bank and North-West Rockall Bank SACs.


title: Rockall

text: In December 2013 surveys by Marine Scotland discovered four new species of animals in the sea around Rockall. These are believed to live in an area where hydrocarbons are released from the sea bed, known as a cold seep. The discovery has raised the issue of restricting some forms of fishery to protect the sea bed. The species are:


title: Rockall

text: Irish claims to Rockall are based on its proximity to the Irish mainland; however, the country has never formally claimed sovereignty over the rock. Although Rockall is closer to the UK coast than to the Irish coast, Ireland does not recognise the UK's territorial claim to Rockall, "which would be the basis for a claim to a 12-mile territorial sea".


title: Rockall

text: Ireland regards Rockall as irrelevant when determining the boundaries of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) as the rock is uninhabitable and in signing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1997, the UK has agreed that "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf".


title: Rockall

text: In 1988, Ireland and the United Kingdom signed an EEZ boundary agreement, ignoring the rock per UNCLOS. With effect from 31 March 2014, the UK and Ireland published EEZ limits which include Rockall within the UK's EEZ.


title: Rockall

text: In October 2012, the "Irish Independent" published a picture of the Irish Navy ship "LÉ Róisín" sailing past Rockall conducting routine maritime security patrols, and claimed that it was exercising Ireland's sovereign rights over the rock.


title: Rockall

text: The UK claims Rockall along with a territorial sea around the islet inside the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The UK also claims "a circle of UK sovereign airspace over the islet of Rockall".


title: Rockall

text: The UK claimed Rockall on 18 September 1955 when "Two Royal Marines and a civilian naturalist, led by Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Desmond Scott, raised a Union flag on the islet and cemented a plaque into the rock". Prior to this Rockall was legally "terra nullius". In 1972, the British Island of Rockall Act formally annexed Rockall to the United Kingdom.


title: Rockall

text: The UK considers the rock administratively part of the Isle of Harris and, under the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order 1999 a large sea area around it was declared to be under the jurisdiction of Scots law. A navigational beacon was installed on the island in 1982 and the UK declared that no ship would be allowed within a radius of the rock. However, in 1997, the UK ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), limiting territorial sea claims to a radius, and therefore allowing free passage in waters beyond this.


title: Rockall

text: In 1988, the United Kingdom and Ireland signed an EEZ boundary agreement for which "the location of Rockall was irrelevant to the determination of the boundary". In 1997, the UK ratified UNCLOS, which states that "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf".


title: Rockall

text: As the rock lies within the United Kingdom's EEZ, the UK has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources of the area, including jurisdiction over the protection and preservation of the marine environment.


title: Rockall

text: In May 2017, declassified documents revealed that the 1955 decision to claim the rock as UK territory was motivated by worries that it could otherwise be used by "hostile agents" to spy on the future South Uist missile testing range.


title: Rockall

text: Early in January 2021, after the UK left the European Union, the "Northern Celt", an Irish fishing boat based out of Greencastle, County Donegal, was ordered to leave the 12-nautical-mile zone around Rockall by officers of Marine Scotland.


title: Rockall

text: There have been various disasters on the neighbouring Hasselwood Rock and Helen's Reef (the latter was named in 1830).


title: Arctic wolf

text: The Arctic wolf (Canis lupus arctos), also known as the white wolf or polar wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesmere Island. Unlike some populations that move between tundra and forest regions, Arctic wolves spend their entire lives north of the northern treeline. Their distribution to south is limited to the northern fringes of the Middle Arctic tundra on the southern half of Prince of Wales and Somerset Islands. It is a medium-sized subspecies, distinguished from the northwestern wolf by its smaller size, its whiter colouration, its narrower braincase, and larger carnassials. Since 1930, there has been a progressive reduction in size in Arctic wolf skulls, which is likely the result of wolf-dog hybridization.


title: Arctic wolf

text: In 1935, the British zoologist Reginald Pocock attributed the subspecies name "Canis lupus arctos" (Arctic wolf) to a specimen from Melville Island in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada. He wrote that similar wolves could be found on Ellesmere Island. He also attributed the name "Canis lupus orion" to a Greenland wolf specimen from Cape York, northwest Greenland. Both wolves are recognized as separate subspecies of "Canis lupus" in the taxonomic authority "Mammal Species of the World" (2005).


title: Arctic wolf

text: A study by Chambers "et al". (2012) using autosomal microsatellite DNA and Mitochondrial DNA data indicate that the Arctic wolf has no unique haplotypes which suggests that its colonization of the Arctic Archipelago from the North American mainland was relatively recent, and thus not sufficient to warrant subspecies status. During a meeting assembled in 2014 by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, one speaker, Robert K. Wayne, mentioned he disagreed with the conclusion that a subspecies had to be genetically distinct, believing that different subspecies could slowly grade into each other - suggesting that although it was impossible to determine if an individual wolf was one subspecies or the next using DNA, the population of Arctic wolves as a whole could be distinguished by the looking at the proportions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP): i.e. Arctic wolves could be distinguished by having three wolves in the putative population with a specific SNP, whereas another subspecies could be distinguished by having 20 wolves with that SNP. Wayne furthermore stated that he believed the habitat in which the wolf happened to be found was a good enough characteristic to distinguish a subspecies.


title: Arctic wolf

text: The Arctic wolf is relatively unafraid of people, and can be coaxed to approach people in some areas. The wolves on Ellesmere Island do not fear humans, which is thought to be due to them seeing humans so little, and they will approach humans cautiously and curiously. Otto Sverdrup wrote that during the Fram expedition, a pair of wolves shadowed one of his teammates, who kept them at a distance by waving his ski pole. In 1977, a pair of scientists were approached by six wolves on Ellesmere Island, with one animal leaping at one of the scientists and grazing a cheek. A number of incidents involving aggressive wolves have occurred in Alert, Nunavut, where the wolves have lived in close proximity to the local weather station for decades and became habituated to humans. One of these wolves attacked 3 people, was shot, and tested positive for rabies.


title: Arctic wolf

text: Very little is known about the movement of the Arctic wolves, mainly due to climate. The only time at which the wolf migrates is during the wintertime when there is complete darkness for 24 hours. This makes Arctic wolf movement hard to research. About south of the High Arctic, a wolf movement study took place in the wintertime in complete darkness, when the temperature was as low as . The researchers found that wolves prey mainly on the muskoxen. There is no available information of the wolves' movements where the muskoxen were.


title: Arctic wolf

text: In the wild, Arctic wolves primarily prey on muskoxen and Arctic hares. They have also been found to prey on lemmings, caribou, Arctic foxes, birds, and beetles. It has been also found that Arctic wolves scavenge through garbage. This sort of food source will not always be found in the Arctic wolf's diet because of regional and seasonal availability. Sometimes there is debate whether the muskox or the Arctic hare is the primary prey for the hare-wolf-muskox predator-prey system. Studies provide evidence that the muskoxen are indeed their primary prey because wolf presence and reproduction seems to be higher when muskox is more available than higher hare availability. More supporting evidence suggests that muskoxen provide long-term viability and other ungulates do not appear in the wolf's diet. Evidence suggesting that Arctic wolves depend more on hares claims that the mature wolf population paralleled the increase of hares rather than muskoxen availability. The study goes on to say that degree of reliance between the two sources of food is uncertain and that the amount of consumption between the two species depends on the season and year. Debate continues when seasonal and diet of young wolves is discussed. According to one study, muskox calves serve as a primary food source because the needs of pups are greater but another study suggests that "when hares were much more plentiful (Mech, 2000), wolves commonly fed them to their pups during summer." These differences may be attributed to location as well. Polar bears are rarely encountered by wolves, though there are two records of wolf packs killing polar bear cubs.


title: Arctic wolf

text: The Arctic wolf is least concern, but it does face threats. In 1997, there was a decline in the Arctic wolf population and its prey, muskoxen ("Ovibos moschatus"), and Arctic hares ("Lepus arcticus"). This was due to unfavourable weather conditions during the summers for four years. Arctic wolf populations recovered the next summer when weather conditions returned to normal.


title: All the Small Things

text: "All the Small Things" is a song by American rock band Blink-182. It was the second single and eighth track released from the band's third album, "Enema of the State" (1999). The track was composed primarily by guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge as an ode to his then girlfriend. Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Jerry Finn, the song was created with the intention of shipping it to radio, as the trio felt they needed a single "really catchy and basic."


title: All the Small Things

text: The single was released to radio on September 28, 1999, and promptly charted worldwide, becoming a number one hit on "Billboard's" Modern Rock Tracks chart, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and crossing over to pop radio and peaking at number six on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song remains the band's most successful single to date, being their only song to break the Top 40. The song charted within the top 20 in ten other countries, and gained greater significance due to its accompanying music video, which parodies and mocks the boy bands Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and 'N Sync and the pop singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The video was popular in rotation on MTV's "Total Request Live", leading to criticism from those who felt their basis for parody was thin.


title: All the Small Things

text: "All the Small Things" was selected by "Rolling Stone" as one of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs", and is listed in the 2010 book "1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: All the Small Things

text: "All the Small Things" can be traced back to when the trio first began writing songs for "Enema of the State" at DML Studios. DeLonge had just bought his first home in San Diego, and bought two to three thousand dollars worth of foam padding to insulate his room. By this point, most of the tracks present on "Enema of the State" had been written, but DeLonge felt the album needed "just one song that was really catchy and basic." "I remember thinking, 'The label's gonna want a song for the radio – so here's one,'" said DeLonge. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format." DeLonge had wanted to write a track including "na na na's" as an ode to one of his favorite bands, the Ramones. Additionally, in an interview, DeLonge remarked, "I put 'na na's' in it, because I couldn't think of any words, you know?", to explain this lyrical decision. Early demos listed it as "Ramones-style song", and the original working title of the track was "Babycakes-Buttermuffin".


title: All the Small Things

text: DeLonge wrote the track about Jennifer Jenkins, his longtime girlfriend since high school whom he would eventually marry. The lyrics "She left me roses by the stairs / Surprises let me know she cares" are based on an incident in which Jenkins left roses on the stairs after DeLonge returned home late from recording. The guitar riff for the song cycles around chords C major, F and G (I, IV and V in C), a familiar chord progression. The texture on the track is due to several overdubs playing various inversions and extensions of the main chords. The bass guitar stays on C while the guitars move to F, creating a 2nd inversion chord. "It was one of the last songs we recorded," DeLonge told "Kerrang!", "because it was simple it wasn't that much fun to play. But once we put it all together and played it as a band we all looked at each other and said, 'This song's huge!'"


title: All the Small Things

text: "Q" called the song "one of those power-pop tunes that the Americans get soooo right," joking, "[it] has more hooks than the Fishing Channel." "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" dubbed it the band's "most subtle song about sex," calling it one of the album's classic singles.


title: All the Small Things

text: The single debuted at number 89 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for the week of December 4, 1999 and eventually peaked at number six, the highest Blink-182 has received on that chart. The song also reached number one on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks. The song also achieved massive success in other countries, most notably in the United Kingdom, where it entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart in March 2000, beaten to the top of the chart by "Bag It Up" by Geri Halliwell. "All the Small Things" has since sold 1,200,000 copies in the UK and been certified double Platinum. In Australia, "All the Small Things" peaked at number eight on the ARIA Singles Chart. The single was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association.


title: All the Small Things

text: It was one of the top-selling singles in America in 2000, with Nielsen SoundScan estimating its sales at 500,000 copies.


title: All the Small Things

text: "All the Small Things" was released on the UK compilation album "Now That's What I Call Music! 45" (2000) and the US edition of "Now That's What I Call Music! 4" (2000). The song was used in 1999 in the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (season 4, episode 9 - "Something Blue") before it was released on CD, and in "Boston Legal" (season 1, episode 14 - "Til We Meat Again"). The song is played during the end credits of the 2000 film, "Charlie's Angels". It can be heard in the trailer for "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and in the 2000 film "Archibald the Koala: The Movie" and the 2002 film "Clockstoppers", and is also present on its soundtrack. Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 2008 album "Undeniable". The song has been used frequently in music video games; "All the Small Things" is a playable track in "Guitar Hero 5", "", and "Guitar Hero Live". It appears as downloadable content for "Rock Band" on consoles, further appearing in "Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1" and "Rock Band's" iOS port. Covers are present in the video games "Rock Revolution", "Donkey Konga", and "Alvin and the Chipmunks".


title: All the Small Things

text: When originally released, the song was performed on "Saturday Night Live" along with "What's My Age Again?" on January 8, 2000, on the season 25 episode hosted by Jamie Foxx. As a testament to the song's lasting popular impact, it was performed on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" twice: first on October 15, 1999, and second after Blink 182's reformation on May 19, 2009. In "The Simpsons" episode "Barting Over" the song is played along with the appearance of the band themselves at the scene where Bart encounters a skateboard hall. A British television series named after the song was broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom in 2009. In "Family Guy"'s "It's a Trap!", Han Solo (Peter Griffin) can be heard singing the song after C-3PO (Glenn Quagmire) states the Ewoks "Seem to think I'm some sort of god.", to which Peter exclaims "And they seem to think I'm Sum 41!" before proceeding to enthusiastically sing the first line of "All the Small Things", much to the chagrin of Luke Skywalker (Chris Griffin).


title: All the Small Things

text: An advertising campaign by Dunkin' was seen in fall of 2020, seemingly utilizing the song's title in their signage with the phrase, "All The Fall Things". Fans saw the pun as a reference to the band, and a testament to the enduring popularity of the song. An article from iHeartRadio pointed out the song's continued place in pop culture and marketing campaigns by saying, "'All The Small Things' may have come out more than 20 years ago, but it's certainly made a resurgence in 2020. Earlier this year, the song was featured in a BMW commercial, now Dunkin Donuts is using the title for a punny marketing campaign to promote its fall menu." The band's official Facebook account reposted an image of the sign, with the caption "we [see] you Dunkin'".


title: All the Small Things

text: Starting in 2019, the NHL team the Colorado Avalanche began playing the song during the third period of home games with a comfortable lead and after overtime wins. While the song plays, the audio is cut out during the chorus to allow fans in the arena to sing along, in a manner similar to their division rival St. Louis Blues with Take Me Home, Country Roads. On May 5, 2022, Hoppus acknowledged the Avalanche's tradition on Twitter, calling it "amazing". The tradition has gained more prominence as the 2021–22 team won the Stanley Cup final. The Athletic's book about the 2021-22 team was titled "Carry Me Home", a lyric from the song's refrain.


title: All the Small Things

text: The song proved influential on the pop punk genre, with a host of young musicians emulating its sound. "It blended punk attitude with pop songwriting so much better than other bands," said Simple Plan bassist David Desrosiers.


title: All the Small Things

text: The music video for "All the Small Things" was directed by Marcos Siega, and mocks boy bands and contemporary pop videos. It features the trio doing parodies of other popular boy-bands such as Backstreet Boys (most famously the "I Want It That Way" video), 98 Degrees, and NSYNC. The video also features parodies of Britney Spears' "Sometimes", and Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" video. It became the most successful video from "Enema of the State", and its constant airplay on MTV cemented the band's image as video stars. The music video was shot on location from August 5–6 at Van Nuys Airport and Santa Monica State Beach. It premiered September 20, 1999, on MTV's "Making the Video". The video was a major success on MTV's "Total Request Live" ("TRL"), where it was retired after 65 days on the countdown.


title: All the Small Things

text: The video was named "Best Video" at the 2000 Kerrang! Awards, as well as nabbing "Best Group Video" at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. "I was a little surprised it went over so well," recalled Marcos Siega, director of the clip, commenting that he felt it would offend viewers of "TRL" and boy band fans. "I think we had the opposite effect. In some ways, I think that video put Blink at that sort of pop level with those other bands. We were making fun of them, but it kind of became [what it was making fun of]." "Blink now had the backing of a major record company […] just like the synthesized pop acts they were spoofing," said British journalist Tim Footman. "In what way were they less 'pop' than Sugar Ray and 98 Degrees?" Matt Diehl, author of the book "My So-Called Punk", called the basis for satire thin: "To seasoned ears, Blink-182 sounded and looked just as manufactured as the pop idols they were poking fun at." In a similar vein, in 2011, "The New York Times" wrote, "Fame doesn’t discriminate based on origin, though: soon the group was as famous as those it was parodying."


title: All the Small Things

text: During rehearsals for the video, bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus met his future wife, Skye Everly. According to a 2004 interview, Everly, who was then an MTV talent executive, initially said no to dating Hoppus: "Tom [DeLonge] always used to embarrass me. Any girl he'd talk to, he'd say, 'Hey, you wanna go on a date with Mark?' He asked Skye [Everly], my wife, who looked at me and said 'No.' That's how it all started." Hoppus married Everly on December 2, 2000.


title: All the Small Things

text: "All the Small Things" served as the second single from Irish pop rap duo Jedward's debut studio album, "Planet Jedward". The single was released on July 16, 2010. The song performed relatively modestly, peaking at number 21 on the Irish Charts and at number 6 on the UK Indie Chart.


title: All the Small Things

text: The music video for "All The Small Things" premiered on YouTube on July 15, 2010. The video was filmed in June 2010. The video is inspired by the original video by Blink-182, parodying popular music videos that have been seen worldwide. The videos parodied by Jedward include "SOS" by the Jonas Brothers, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by Beyoncé, "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, and "...Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears. The video was given its first television airplay by 4Music on July 16, 2010. Since its premiere, the video has more than 2 million views on YouTube.


title: Chocolate truffle

text: A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped and toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts or almonds), usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape.


title: Teen pop

text: Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards preteens and teenagers. Teen pop incorporates different subgenres of pop music, as well as elements of R&B, dance, electronic, hip hop and rock, while the music of girl groups, boy bands, and acts like Britney Spears, is sometimes referred to as pure pop. Typical characteristics of teen pop music include Auto-Tuned or pitch-corrected vocals, choreographed dances, emphasis on visual appeal (photogenic faces, unique body physiques, immaculate hair styles and fashion clothes), lyrics focused on love, relationships, dancing, partying, friendship, puppy love (also known as a "crush") and repeated chorus lines. Its lyrics also incorporate sexual innuendo. Teen pop singers often cultivate an image of a girl next door/boy next door.


title: Teen pop

text: According to AllMusic, teen pop "is essentially dance-pop, pop, and urban ballads" that are marketed to teens, and was conceived in its contemporary form during the late 1980s and 1990s, pointing out the late 1990s as "arguably the style's golden era." About.com's Bill Lamb described teen pop sound as "a simple, straightforward, ultra-catchy melody line [...] The songs may incorporate elements of other pop music genres, but usually they will never be mistaken for anything but mainstream pop. The music is designed for maximum focus on the performer and a direct appeal to listeners."


title: Teen pop

text: In "Crazy About You: Reflections on the Meanings of Contemporary Teen Pop Music" (2002), Phillip Vannini and Scott M. Myers write that teen pop songs "are targeted to youths presumably unaware and unconcerned with the problems of everyday society. Youths are symbolized as mainly in growing up while having a good time." Some authors deemed teen pop music as "more disposable, less intellectually challenging, more feminine, simpler and more commercially focused than other musical forms." In "Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual", author Melanie Lowe wrote that teen pop "is marked by a clash of presumed innocence and overt sexuality, a conflict that mirrors the physical and emotional turmoil of its primary target audience and vital fan base: early-adolescent middle-and upper middle-class suburban girls."


title: Teen pop

text: Teen-oriented popular music had become common by the end of the swing era, in the late 1940s, with Frank Sinatra being an early teen idol. However, it was the early 1960s that became known as the "golden age" for pop teen idols, who included Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Lulu and Ricky Nelson. During the 1970s, one of the most popular preteen and teen-oriented acts was the Osmonds, where family members Donny and Marie both enjoyed individual success as well as success as a duo apart from the main family (Donny also recorded with his brothers as the Osmonds).


title: Teen pop

text: The first major wave of teen pop after the counter-culture of the 1960s and 1970s occurred in the mid to late 1980s, with artists such as Menudo, New Edition, the Jets, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Martika, New Kids on the Block and Kylie Minogue. In the early 1990s, teen pop dominated the charts until grunge and gangsta rap crossed over into the mainstream in North America by late 1991. Teen pop remained popular in the United Kingdom with the boy band Take That during this period, until the mid-1990s when Britpop became the next major wave in the UK, eclipsing the style similar to how grunge did in North America.


title: Teen pop

text: In 1996, British girl group Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe", which made them major pop stars in the UK, as well as in the US the following year. In their wake, other teen pop groups and singers rose to prominence, including Hanson, the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Robyn, All Saints, S Club 7, Five, B*Witched, and Destiny's Child. In 1999, the success of teenaged pop singers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore marked the development of what AllMusic refers to as the "pop Lolita" trend, sparking the short careers of upcoming pop singers such as Willa Ford, Brooke Allison, Samantha Mumba, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Mikaila, Amanda, Nikki Cleary and Kaci Battaglia.


title: Teen pop

text: In 2001, artists like Aaron Carter, Swedish group A-Teens, girl groups 3LW, Play, Eden's Crush and Dream and boy bands O-Town, B2K and Dream Street were teen pop artists who achieved success. In Latin America, successful singers and bands appealing to tweens and teens were Sandy & Junior, RBD and Rouge.


title: Teen pop

text: 1990s and early 2000s teen pop artists eventually entered hiatuses and semi-retirements (*NSYNC, Dream, Destiny's Child) or changed their musical style, including the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, 3LW and Aaron Carter. Many teen artists starting incorporating genres such as pop rock, contemporary R&B and hip-hop. B2K were a hip hop/pop/R&B group consisting of four teenage black boys, and were considered a boy band, though they were only active from 2000 to 2004. Their style of music was very different than other teenage artists, sounding more mature than the typical boy band, though all members were in their mid-teenage years at the time.


title: Teen pop

text: In the mid to late 2000s, teenage singers such as Rihanna and Chris Brown achieved success, indicating new relevance of teen-oriented pop music.


title: Teen pop

text: In 2005, AKB48 was created to promote idol culture and Japanese pop nationwide and overseas followed by the expansion of sister groups and rival groups locally and internationally over the years. In 2016, SNH48, as AKB48's second international sister group, announced its local Chinese sister groups like BEJ48, GNZ48, SHY48 and CKG48 to integrate idol culture with a Chinese twist.


title: Teen pop

text: The emergence of Canadian singer Justin Bieber created a renewed interest in teen pop, especially of the traditional male teen idol. With the release of his debut seven-track EP "My World" on December 5, 2009, he became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Since his debut, Bieber has played a key role in influencing modern popular culture and has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time.


title: Teen pop

text: In 2010, the creation of Ark Music Factory helped contributed a new generation of teen pop artists via the Internet, such as Rebecca Black and Jenna Rose, despite major criticism with these artists due to the excessive use of auto-tune. As for Japanese teen pop culture, the category of "idol" was playing an important role. Momoiro Clover Z is ranked as number one among female idol groups according to 2013–2017 surveys.


title: Teen pop

text: By the late 2010s, K-pop artists such as BTS and Blackpink, attained international stardom in teen pop culture. Having sold over 4.7 million copies, "" by BTS is the all-time best-selling album in South Korea. BTS is the first Asian and non-English-speaking act to be named International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Global Recording Artist of the Year (2020). The group was featured on "Time"'s international cover as "Next Generation Leaders" in 2018 and are recognised as the "Princes of Pop".


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Nandy was born in Manchester and educated at the comprehensive Parrs Wood High School and Holy Cross College before studying politics at Newcastle University and public policy at Birkbeck, University of London. She then worked as an aide to Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard, a researcher for homelessness charity Centrepoint and a senior policy adviser at The Children's Society. She also served as a Labour councillor for the Hammersmith Broadway ward on Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Nandy was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell from 2010 to 2012, Shadow Minister for Children from 2012 to 2013, and Shadow Minister for Charities and Civil Society from 2012 to 2015, with responsibility for Labour Policy on the Third Sector. She served as Shadow Energy Secretary from 2015, shadowing Amber Rudd, until she resigned in 2016 to co-chair Owen Smith's leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: After a further four years as a backbench MP, Nandy stood as a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, coming in third place with 16.3% of the vote, behind Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey. Starmer subsequently appointed Nandy as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in April 2020. Following a reshuffle in November 2021, Nandy was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Lisa Eva Nandy was born in Manchester on 9 August 1979, the daughter of Louise ("née" Byers) and Dipak Nandy. Her maternal grandfather Frank Byers was a Liberal MP who held many offices in the Liberal Party, later being created a life peer. Nandy grew up in both Manchester and Bury, where her family subsequently settled.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: She was educated at Parrs Wood High School, a mixed comprehensive school in East Didsbury in Manchester, followed by Holy Cross College in Bury. She studied politics at Newcastle University, graduating in 2001, and obtained a master's degree in public policy from Birkbeck, University of London.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: She worked as a researcher and caseworker for the Walthamstow Labour MP Neil Gerrard. After that, Nandy worked as a researcher at the homelessness charity Centrepoint from 2003 to 2005, and then as senior policy adviser at The Children's Society from 2005 until her election in 2010, where she specialised in issues facing young refugees, also acting as adviser to the Children's Commissioner for England and to the Independent Asylum Commission. She served as a Labour councillor for the Hammersmith Broadway ward on Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council from 2006 to 2010. As a councillor, she served as shadow cabinet member for housing.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Nandy was selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Wigan constituency in February 2010 from an all-women shortlist. Elected to parliament on 7 May 2010, she became the constituency's first female MP and one of the first Asian female MPs.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: She was appointed to the Education Select Committee in July 2010 and was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell, the Shadow Olympics Minister, in October 2010. In 2012, she succeeded Catherine McKinnell as Shadow Children and Young Families Minister. In October 2013, she was appointed shadow charities minister.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Following Labour's general election defeat in May 2015 and Ed Miliband's subsequent resignation as party leader, there was some speculation in the media that Nandy would stand in the leadership election. Nandy declined and endorsed Andy Burnham. In August 2015, Owen Jones said that he encouraged Nandy to run for the leadership, but the recent birth of her son prevented it. Nandy was also mentioned in the Guardian and the Telegraph as someone from the left wing of the party who could replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader before the 2017 general election, and after the 2019 general election in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: In September 2015, it was announced that Nandy had been appointed to serve as Shadow Energy Secretary in the Shadow Cabinet. Along with many colleagues, she resigned from her post in June 2016. In the wake of these resignations, Nandy was approached by Labour MPs who wanted her to stand against Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership election. MPs felt that Nandy and eventual candidate Owen Smith were soft Left politicians who could win the leadership. Nandy declined to stand and instead served as co-chair of Smith's campaign team.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: After the election resulted in Corbyn's re-election, Nandy announced that she did not intend to return to the frontbench without the re-introduction of Shadow Cabinet elections, which had been abolished by Ed Miliband in 2011 (the last election being held in 2010). She also spoke of the abuse she had received for not supporting Corbyn, which she described as leaving her "genuinely frightened". She compared her treatment to that which she had received at the hands of the far-right when she first campaigned to become MP for Wigan in 2010.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: In 2018, Nandy set up the Centre for Towns, with data analytics expert Ian Warren. The Centre for Towns bills itself as an "independent non-partisan organisation dedicated to providing research and analysis of our towns". At the end of 2018 Nandy became the chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: In January 2020, Nandy wrote a letter to the "Wigan Post" outlining her intention to stand to succeed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2020 leadership election, saying that she wanted to "bring Labour home" to its traditional strongholds.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: On 16 January 2020, during the Labour leadership election, Nandy said that demands for Scottish independence could be overcome with a "social justice agenda", saying that there were times in the past when that had quelled nationalist movements in Catalonia and Quebec. She was criticised by several Scottish National Party politicians, who pointed to police violence and the jailing of politicians during the 2017 Catalan independence referendum to refute her point. In a blog post, Nandy said that police violence in Catalonia was unjustified, and that socialists opposed to separatism "may yet win out".


title: Lisa Nandy

text: On 21 January 2020, Lisa Nandy was endorsed by the GMB union, which praised her "ambition, optimism, and decisive leadership". In February, she won the endorsement of the Jewish Labour Movement, receiving the backing of 51% of JLM members.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: On 5 April 2020, Nandy was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the new Shadow Cabinet led by Keir Starmer. Although Dominic Raab became Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary in September 2020 following the abolition of the Department for International Development, Nandy did not hold the portfolio of International Development, which was held by Preet Gill.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: In March 2021, Nandy made her first foreign policy speech at Chatham House. Nandy said her priorities would include national security, Russian aggression and climate change.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: On 29 November 2021, Nandy was moved to the newly created position of Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Given that this involved opposing the Johnson government's flagship levelling up policy, the move was described as a promotion. She was critical of the Levelling Up White Paper.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: "Politico" has stated that she is on the "centre left" of the Labour party, and is a "clear break from Corbynism, and Paul Bristow has said that Nandy is "refreshingly untribal". Jon Cruddas has stated that Nandy is on the "authentic soft left" of the party.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: She has supported Labour's position as an internationalist party, supported remaining in the EU, supported a "soft" Brexit in opposition to a second Brexit referendum, and supported immigration into the UK.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: On the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, she supports a two-state solution and opposes the "Trump peace plan" and Israeli occupation of the West Bank, noting her support for the Palestinian right of return, while also opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and supporting the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Nandy supports "ethical interventionism" and states that although she supports working towards peace, she is "not a pacifist". She has also cited Robin Cook's speech in 1997 on "ethical foreign policy" as an influence on her beliefs, and the UK intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 as an example of ethical interventionism. She voted against UK airstrikes in Syria in 2015, opposed UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and the Iraq War.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: She criticised China's record on human rights and called for sanctions on Chinese officials. She criticised Russia's record on human rights and the Salisbury poisoning and also former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's positions on Russia for standing "with the Russian government, and not with the people it oppresses".


title: Lisa Nandy

text: In 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965. Nandy, in a letter to UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK position "is damaging to Britain’s reputation, undermines your credibility and moral authority and sets a damaging precedent that others may seize upon to undermine UK national interests, and those of our allies, in other contexts or maritime disputes”.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: On the issue of the Trump presidency, Nandy has said that the UK should "engage" with Donald Trump, to "have the argument" with him. She has also stated that she would oppose signing a trade deal with the US unless it ratifies the Paris Agreement, which the US withdrew from under Trump's presidency.


title: Lisa Nandy

text: Nandy's partner, Andy Collis, is a public relations consultant. She has a son, born in Wigan Infirmary in April 2015.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: The Bob Semple tank (sometimes referred to as Big Bob) was a light tank designed by New Zealand Minister of Works Bob Semple during World War II. Originating out of the need to build military hardware from available materials, the tank was built from corrugated iron on a tractor base. Designed and built during a period of uncertainty in which New Zealand feared having to defend itself from Japanese invasion without external assistance, these tanks were a civilian effort to design and create a means to protect New Zealand.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: Designed and built without formal plans or blueprints, it had numerous design flaws and practical difficulties, and was never put into mass production or used in combat.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: At the onset of the Second World War, New Zealand - like its neighbour Australia - had no indigenous armoured fighting vehicle industry, and it was expected that armoured fighting vehicles would be imported from Britain. Although Australia and New Zealand had some heavy industry that could be turned to the production of armour and armoured vehicles, little had been done. The idea of mechanising the New Zealand Army had been suggested before the war but without much progress. The use of the American Disston "Six Ton Tractor Tank", a 1937 vehicle constructed of an armoured box on a Caterpillar Model 35 chassis which had been sold to Afghanistan, was suggested.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: New Zealand had built some improvised armoured trucks and, unable to get any tracked carriers from Australia, were building their own with armour plate imported from Australia. After the Fall of France in mid-1940, and the loss of most British tanks there, there was no likelihood of production being spared for New Zealand. Rather than obtain the armoured superstructures from America, they decided to produce their own using local materials and resources.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: It was decided that a 'tractor-tank' would be an adequate design; if the need for defence arose, a large tank superstructure could be bolted upon a tractor base within a few hours, allowing for quick transformation and deployment of the tanks.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: The first (mild steel) prototype was built on a Caterpillar D8 crawler tractor, a type which was readily available. The Public Works Department had 81 D8s, and another 19 were available. A lack of weapons meant that it was equipped with six Bren machine guns — one in each side, two facing the front, one in the turret and one at the rear. The vehicle was very tall at 12 ft (3.5 m) and performance was poor. Due to the lack of armour plate, corrugated (manganese) plating was used in the expectation it would deflect bullets. The crew of eight included one gunner who had to lie on a mattress on top of the engine to fire his Bren gun.


title: Bob Semple tank

text: The tanks were constructed without the use of any formal plans or blueprints. Working from an American postcard depicting the conversion of a tractor to a 'tractor-tank', Bob Semple and TG Beck (Christchurch District Works Engineer), improvised the design of the tanks. Using resources available to Bob Semple as Minister of Public Works, work on the first tank commenced at the PWD's Temuka workshops in June 1940. The additional two were built at the NZR Addington Workshops. The first cost £5,902, and the second and third together cost £4,323, for a total cost of £10,225 (although the Army was only billed £3,414).


title: Bob Semple tank

text: The intention was to disperse the hulls at locations ready in case of a Japanese invasion at which point they would be mounted on tractors for use. The idea was discarded after the tanks attracted public ridicule; however, Bob Semple stood by his design and even stated "I don’t see anyone else coming up with any better ideas."


title: Bob Semple tank

text: Due to the limitations of requirements and resources, the tank was a functional failure. By using a large tractor as a base, and bolting on a hastily designed and poorly constructed tank superstructure, the resultant tanks were inadequately armored, extremely heavy (20–25 ton), unstable, restricted by tractor gearing to slow speeds, and had to stop to change gears. Furthermore, due to the shape of the underlying tractor and undue vibrations, shooting from the tank was both difficult and inevitably inaccurate. These limitations have caused the Bob Semple Tank to frequently make lists of "Worst ever tanks".


title: Bob Semple tank

text: In the end, due to their impracticality, the tanks were disposed of by the Army. They had been given Army serial numbers NZ6292 (held at Papakura) and NZ3494 & NZ3495 (held at Burnham). Only one went to the Pacific in 1944, after having its armor stripped. It is possible that the Bob Semple tank could have been potentially useful in battle, as it was planned to have a 37 mm anti-tank gun rather than the Bren gun in the turret; the armor also was not completely without bullet resistance, so it might have been at least somewhat effective in the event of an invasion.


title: Snake Plissken

text: S.D. "Snake" Plissken (given as S.D. "Bob" Plissken, in the opening of "Escape from L.A.") is the protagonist of the films "Escape from New York" and "Escape from L.A." He is portrayed by Kurt Russell, and created by director John Carpenter and screenwriter Nick Castle. An anti-hero, he is a former Special Forces operator/war hero in World War III turned criminal. The movies follow his apprehension by the United States Police Force and subsequent conscription to extract top-secret material from New York City and Los Angeles, which have, in this dystopian setting, been entirely converted into maximum-security prisons.


title: Snake Plissken

text: "Snake" Plissken is a former U.S. Army lieutenant, serving under Special Forces Unit "Black Flight" stated by Hauk in "Escape from New York", with two Purple Hearts, and the youngest man to be decorated by the US President for bravery during campaigns in Leningrad and Siberia in World War III against the Former Soviet Alliances and Eurasian United War Union.


title: Snake Plissken

text: Some time later, he turned to a life of crime due to the perceived betrayal of the United States government during the "Leningrad Ruse" (when he lost the use of his left eye) and when his parents were burned alive in their home by the United States Police Force, events described in the "Escape from New York" novelization by Mike McQuay. He traveled with his war buddy and only friend, Bill Taylor. Snake took up with partners Harold Hellman (later known as "Brain") and Bob 'Fresno Bob'. In Kansas City around 1993, Hellman apparently let Plissken and Fresno Bob get cornered by police, at which time Fresno Bob was brutally tortured and killed by sadistic law enforcers within the United States Police Force.


title: Snake Plissken

text: After his daring escape from New York, Plissken finds himself in Cleveland, where he meets two new partners in crime — Jack "Carjack" Malone (later known as Hershe Las Palmas) and Mike "Texas Mike" O'Shay. Subsequently, Texas Mike is killed and Carjack is caught. Plissken evades capture and makes his way to the United States territory of New Vegas, Thailand, where he becomes a gunfighter-for-hire. He is eventually apprehended by the United States Police Force and brought to California, where he is scheduled for deportation to Los Angeles ― now an island due to the flooding of the San Fernando Valley in an earthquake, and a place of exile for criminals and undesirables.


title: Snake Plissken

text: As a result of the Kansas City incident, it was widely believed in the criminal community that Plissken is dead. This is a running gag in "Escape from New York": "I heard you were dead" (homage to the John Wayne film "Big Jake"). In "Escape from L.A.", the recurring joke is changed to "I thought you'd be taller."


title: Snake Plissken

text: Plissken has a tattoo of a cobra on his abdomen. He is skilled in martial arts due to his military training.


title: Snake Plissken

text: Snake is shown as being very cynical, most likely due to the hypocrisy of the U.S. government, and appears to be willing to do anything to survive. He is often stated by others to be somewhat of a misanthropist. He is terse, stern in his speech, of few words, and holds nothing sacred or even important. He does however hold a loose code of honor.


title: Snake Plissken

text: He frequently shows coolness and level-headed thinking under extremely stressful situations. Although he will kill without remorse or hesitation, he does not kill for fun or when it is unnecessary. He is also known for his quick wit and gallows humor.


title: Snake Plissken

text: Snake was arrested in 1997 after breaking into the U.S. Federal Reserve in Denver, Colorado. He was sentenced to life in New York maximum security prison, that is, the entire island of Manhattan, surrounded by an impenetrable wall, and then abandoned to fall into anarchy. At this time, Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into Manhattan, and the President, played by Donald Pleasence, is captured by the "Duke of New York" (Isaac Hayes), the "de facto" leader of the prisoners. Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef), the New York Police Commissioner, offers Snake a full pardon if he will go in and rescue the President. The President carries technical information that would allow the United States to be the dominant world power, but in 24 hours it will become useless. Hauk enforces the time limit by implanting microscopic explosive capsules in Plissken's carotid arteries, which will detonate at the deadline. Plissken rescues the President with the help of Harold Hellman (Harry Dean Stanton) (now known as Brain, and working for the Duke of New York), Brain's "squeeze" Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau), and a taxicab driver nicknamed Cabby (Ernest Borgnine). Only Plissken and the President survive their escape. As the President begins his broadcast speech, Plissken, who is disgusted by the President's lack of regret for the people who died to get him out, walks away, deliberately shredding the time-critical information tape.


title: Snake Plissken

text: In January 1997, Marvel Comics released the one-shot "The Adventures of Snake Plissken". The story takes place sometime between "Escape from New York" and before his famous Cleveland escape mentioned in "Escape from L.A." Snake has robbed the Centers for Disease Control of some engineered metaviruses and is looking for buyers in Chicago. Finding himself in a deal that is really a set-up, he makes his getaway and exacts revenge on the buyer for ratting him out to the United States Police Force. In the meantime, a government lab has built a robot called ATACS (Autonomous Tracking And Combat System) that can catch criminals by imprinting their personalities upon its program in order to predict and anticipate a specific criminal's every move. The robot's first test subject is America's public enemy number one, Snake Plissken. After a brief battle, the tide turns when ATACS copies Snake to the point of fully becoming his personality. Now recognizing the government as the enemy, ATACS sides with Snake. Unamused, Snake destroys it. As ATACS shuts down, it can only ask him, "Why?" Snake just walks off answering, "I don't need the competition".


title: Snake Plissken

text: Snake Plissken appeared in "John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles", a four-part comic book miniseries released in 2003 that was published by CrossGen comics and Hurricane Entertainment. The story takes place the morning after the events in "Escape from New York". Snake has been given a military Humvee after his pardon and makes his way to Atlantic City. Despite the fact the director's cut of the New York movie shows Snake was caught after a bank job, this story has Snake finishing up a second heist that was preplanned before his capture. The job is stealing the car JFK was assassinated in from a casino and then delivering it to a buyer on a yacht in the gulf. The job involves Snake's partnership with a man named Marrs who ends up double crossing him. Left for dead in a sinking crab cage, Snake escapes and is luckily saved by a passing fisherman named Captain Ron. When Ron denies Snake's request to use his boat in order to beat Marrs to the robbery, Snake decides to kill him. But when he ends up saving Ron from a Russian mob wanting money, Ron changes his mind and helps Snake. Once at the casino, Snake comes face to face with Marrs and his men, who arrive at the same time, ending in a high-speed shoot-out. Snake gets away with the car and its actress portraying Jackie Kennedy, leaving Marrs to be caught by the casino owner, who cuts him a deal to bring his car back and live. After some trouble, Snake manages to finally get the car to the buyer's yacht with Ron's boat and is then attacked by Marrs. Following the fire fight the yacht and car are destroyed, Marrs and Captain Ron are dead, and Snake makes his escape in a helicopter with the 30 million credits owed to him for the job. The series is written by William O'Neill, penciled by Tone Rodriguez and edited by Jan Utstein-O'Neill.


title: Snake Plissken

text: Sixteen years after his escape from New York, Snake is once again enlisted for a similar situation, as the story begins with a similar plotline as was used in "Escape from New York". This time, Snake is forced to retrieve a disk for a remote control which controls a series of EMP-style satellites. These devices are positioned around the entire world. The disk is somewhere in Los Angeles. The city had separated from the mainland due to an earthquake in August 2000 and had become an island separate from the United States, which had become a totalitarian theocratic police state. Snake had to retrieve a black box, with which the President's (Cliff Robertson) daughter, Utopia (A.J. Langer) had entered Los Angeles. The President says he does not care if she is returned or killed, as she is a traitor to his country. Snake initially refuses, but once infected with the plutoxin-7 virus, which will lead to his death in 10 hours, he agrees. Snake retrieves the box and seemingly returns it to the President. However, when the President attempts to activate it, he learns it is not the real box. Snake reveals that he switched the box with a fake, and promptly uses the code "666" to "wipe out all technology" in the world.


title: Snake Plissken

text: In July 2000, Tribune Entertainment announced plans to adapt "Escape from New York" into a television series. However, it was canceled in September 2001, due to the September 11 attacks in New York.


title: Snake Plissken

text: Along with the comic book, other "Snake Plissken Chronicles" projects were announced. A Namco-produced video game was announced, but was later cancelled possibly due to the death of Debra Hill. Production I.G was also set to create an anime film based on the property, reportedly based on the "Escape From Earth" concept by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, but this also never materialized. Carpenter and Russell would have executive produced, and Russell would have provided the voice and likeness of Snake.


title: Snake Plissken

text: In the 2000s, there was a proposed second sequel, often mentioned by Carpenter and Russell in interviews prior to the release of "Escape from L.A." The concept was that Earth was the only place left for Plissken to escape. After "Escape from L.A." failed to attract much business, the project never materialized.


title: Snake Plissken

text: In August 2006, an Internet rumor suggested that the project was actively being pursued by Paramount at Russell's urging, but the rumor was revealed to be untrue.


title: Snake Plissken

text: It was rumored that in 1996, the script to "Ghosts of Mars" originally started off as a potential Snake Plissken sequel. Entitled "Escape from Mars", the story would have been largely much the same; however, after "Escape from L.A." failed to make much money at the box office, the studio did not wish to make another Plissken movie. Snake Plissken was then changed to "Desolation Williams," and the studio also insisted that Ice Cube be given the part. Years later, a tweet confirmed that the rumor was false, and "Ghost of Mars" was never intended as a sequel.


title: Snake Plissken

text: On March 13, 2007, it was announced that Gerard Butler would play the role of Snake Plissken in a remake of "Escape from New York". Kurt Russell, as well as many fans, did not approve.


title: Snake Plissken

text: As of June 2008, a rumor was circulating that the project is proceeding with Josh Brolin as Snake Plissken. However, the project ended up being in development hell. On October 12, 2015, 20th Century Fox hired Luther creator Neil Cross to write the film's script. In March 2017, it was announced that Robert Rodriguez will direct the movie. In February 2019, new development surfaced when Leigh Whannell was hired to write a new script, with the option to replace Rodriguez as director.


title: Buddhist texts

text: Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, found in Afghanistan and written in Gāndhārī, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monastics, but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages (such as Pāli, Gāndhārī, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit) and collected into various Buddhist Canons. These were then translated into other languages such as Buddhist Chinese ("fójiào hànyǔ" 佛教漢語) and Classical Tibetan as Buddhism spread outside of India.


title: Buddhist texts

text: Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized into canonical, commentarial, and pseudo-canonical. Buddhist traditions have generally divided these texts with their own categories and divisions, such as that between "buddhavacana" "word of the Buddha," many of which are known as "sutras", and other texts, such as "shastras" (treatises) or "Abhidharma".


title: Buddhist texts

text: These religious texts were written in different languages, methods and writing systems. Memorizing, reciting and copying the texts was seen as spiritually valuable. Even after the development and adoption of printing by Buddhist institutions, Buddhists continued to copy them by hand as a spiritual practice.