title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Paraguay was a leading participant in Operation Condor, a campaign of state terror and security operations officially implemented in 1975 which were jointly conducted by the military dictatorships of six South American countries (Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil) with the support of the United States. Human rights violations characteristic of those in other South American countries such as kidnappings, torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings were routine and systematic during the Stroessner regime. Following executions, many of the bodies of those killed by the regime were dumped in the Chaco or the Río Paraguay. The discovery of the "Archives of Terror" in 1992 in the Lambaré suburb of Asunción confirmed allegations of widespread human rights violations.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Pastor Coronel was the chief of the Department of Investigations, or secret police. He would interview people in a "pileta", a bath of human vomit and excrement, or ram electric cattle prods up their rectums. In 1975, the Secretary of the Paraguayan Communist Party, , was dismembered alive with a chainsaw while Stroessner listened on the phone. The screams of tortured dissidents were often recorded and played over the phone to family members, and sometimes the bloody garments of those killed were sent to their homes.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Under Stroessner, egregious human rights violations were committed against the Aché Indian population of Paraguay's eastern districts, largely as the result of U.S. and European corporations wanting access to the country's forests, mines and grazing lands. The Aché Indians resided on land that was coveted and had resisted relocation attempts by the Paraguayan army. The government retaliated with massacres and forced many Aché into slavery. In 1974, the UN accused Paraguay of slavery and genocide. Only a few hundred Aché remained alive by the late 1970s. The Stroessner regime financed this genocide with U.S. aid.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner was careful not to show off or draw attention from jealous generals or foreign journalists. He avoided rallies and took simple holidays in Patagonia. He became more tolerant of opposition as the years passed, but there was no change in the regime's basic character.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: During Stroessner's rule, no socialist nations had diplomatic relations with Paraguay, with the sole exception of non-aligned Yugoslavia. Stroessner made many state visits, including to Japan, the United States, and France, as well as to South Africa, a country which Paraguay developed close bilateral ties with in the 1970s. He also made several visits to West Germany, although over the years his relations with that country deteriorated. Since he had always been known as pro-German, this worsening of relations, combined with his feeling that the U.S. had abandoned him, was regarded as a personal blow to Stroessner.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: It has been asserted that the Roman Catholic Church is the only reason Stroessner did not have absolute control over the country. After the destruction of Asunción University in 1972 by police, the Archbishop of Paraguay Ismael Rolón Silvero excommunicated the minister of the interior and the chief of police, and proscribed the celebration of Holy Mass in a sign of protest against the Stroessner regime. When Pope John Paul II visited Paraguay in 1988, his visit bolstered what was already a robust anti-Stroessner movement within the country.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner gave a written television interview to Alan Whicker as part of a documentary called "The Last Dictator" (UK: 7 April 1970) for the television series "Whicker's World". The programme was released in a Region 2 DVD box-set by the UK's Network imprint.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner dedicated large proportions of the Paraguayan national budget to the military and police apparatus, both fundamental to the maintenance of the regime. According to a 1963 article from "Time" magazine, Stroessner spent 33% of the 1962 annual budget on army and police, 15% for education, and just 2% for public works. There was no income tax and public spending was the smallest percentage of GDP in Latin America.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner enacted several economic development projects, including the building of the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world in Itaipu Dam, developing Paraguay's economy: although Paraguay received only 15% of the contracts, it was a major factor allowing the country to have the highest rate of growth in Latin America for most of the 1970s. The construction of the Itaipu Dam, as well as the subsequently built Yacyretá Dam on the Paraguay–Argentina Border, displaced thousands of Paraguayans, pushing them from their homes, often without any restitution. The Itaipu Dam displaced at least 80,000 Paraguayans, and the Yacyretá was estimated to have displaced at least that many by December 2008. 160 workers died building the Itaipu Dam.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner also promoted projects that purportedly developed the country's infrastructure. Amongst these were the improvement of highways and the issuing of 15–20 hectare land grants to military personnel upon completion of their service, provided that the land would be used for farming purposes. Over 10,000 soldiers took up this offer. By the end of the "Stronato", the second biggest city was Puerto Flor de Lis (renamed "Puerto Presidente Stroessner," then "Ciudad del Este"), founded just 32 years before.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: In April 1987, Stroessner lifted the state of siege as part of the run-up to elections the following spring. However, several draconian security laws remained in effect, meaning that the substance (if not the form) of the state of siege was still in place. As had been the case for over three decades, opposition leaders continued to be arbitrarily arrested and opposition meetings and demonstrations were broken up (often brutally). Stroessner was nominated by the Colorados once again, and was the only candidate who was allowed to campaign completely unmolested. Under these circumstances, the February 1988 election was no different from past elections, with Stroessner officially registering 89 percent of the vote — a margin that his rivals contended could only have been obtained through massive fraud.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: On 3 February 1989, only six months after being sworn in for what would have been his eighth full term, Stroessner was ousted in a coup d'état led by General Andrés Rodríguez, his closest confidant for over three decades. One reason for the coup was that the generals feared one of Stroessner's offspring would succeed him. Of the two, Alfredo (aka 'Freddie'), was a cocaine addict and Gustavo, a pilot, was loathed for being homosexual. A more outlandish rumour was that Lino Oviedo threatened Rodríguez with a grenade if he did not launch the coup. The two generals, Rodríguez and Oviedo, fought a brief artillery duel over Asunción.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: The eastern city of Puerto Flor de Lis, which had been renamed Puerto Presidente Stroessner in his honour, in 1989 was again renamed Ciudad del Este. Asunción's airport had been named after him during his regime, but was later renamed Silvio Pettirossi International Airport.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner died on 16 August 2006, in Brasília, at the age of 93. The immediate cause of death was a stroke. He had been suffering from pneumonia after undergoing a hernia operation. The Paraguayan government preemptively dismissed any suggestions for honouring the late president within Paraguay. He tried to return to Paraguay before his death, to die in his homeland, but he was rebuked and threatened with arrest by the government.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: In part due to Stroessner's abuses, Paraguay's current constitution limits the president to a single five-year term with no possibility of reelection, even if nonsuccessive. The ban on any sort of reelection has become so entrenched in Paraguayan politics that in 2017, when the legislature debated an amendment that would have allowed then-president Horacio Cartes to run for reelection, massive protests forced the Colorados to abandon those plans.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner was married to Eligia Mora (26 December 1910 – 3 February 2006). They had three children: Gustavo, Alfredo and Graciela. Alfredo Domínguez Stroessner, son of Graciela, was a senator. The couple were forcibly separated after his exile; she fled to the US, while he was given asylum in Brazil. Although they stayed in touch by phone and occasionally met up, they were unable to live together, and neither Stroessner nor his son were able to return to Paraguay to attend her funeral.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner engaged in extramarital affairs before and during his presidency. According to many sources, some of his affairs were with teenage girls as young as 13, and he may have fathered over 30 illegitimate children. The affairs were divulged after his downfall, further tarnishing his image.


title: Perineal raphe

text: The perineal raphe is a visible line or ridge of tissue on the body that extends from the anus through the perineum to scrotum (male) or labia majora (female). It is found in both males and females, arises from the fusion of the urogenital folds, and is visible running medial through anteroposterior, to the anus where it resolves in a small knot of skin of varying size.


title: Perineal raphe

text: In males, this structure continues through the midline of the scrotum (scrotal raphe) and upwards through the posterior midline aspect of the penis (penile raphe). It also exists deeper through the scrotum where it is called the scrotal septum. It is the result of a fetal developmental phenomenon whereby the scrotum and penis close toward the midline and fuse.


title: Lawn mower

text: A lawn mower (also known as a mower, grass cutter or lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the design of the mower, but generally is adjustable by the operator, typically by a single master lever, or by a lever or nut and bolt on each of the machine's wheels. The blades may be powered by manual force, with wheels mechanically connected to the cutting blades so that when the mower is pushed forward, the blades spin or the machine may have a battery-powered or plug-in electric motor. The most common self-contained power source for lawn mowers is a small (typically one cylinder) internal combustion engine. Smaller mowers often lack any form of propulsion, requiring human power to move over a surface; "walk-behind" mowers are self-propelled, requiring a human only to walk behind and guide them. Larger lawn mowers are usually either self-propelled "walk-behind" types or more often, are "ride-on" mowers, equipped so the operator can ride on the mower and control it. A robotic lawn mower ("lawn-mowing bot", "mowbot", etc.) is designed to operate either entirely on its own or less commonly by an operator by remote control.


title: Lawn mower

text: Two main styles of blades are used in lawn mowers. Lawn mowers employing a single blade that rotates about a single vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a cutting bar and multiple blade assembly that rotates about a single horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel mowers (although in some versions, the cutting bar is the only blade, and the rotating assembly consists of flat metal pieces which force the blades of grass against the sharp cutting bar).


title: Lawn mower

text: There are several types of mowers, each suited to a particular scale and purpose. The smallest types, non-powered push mowers, are suitable for small residential lawns and gardens. Electrical or piston engine-powered push-mowers are used for larger residential lawns (although there is some overlap). Riding mowers, which sometimes resemble small tractors, are larger than push mowers and are suitable for large lawns, although commercial riding lawn mowers (such as zero-turn mowers) can be "stand-on" types, and often bear little resemblance to residential lawn tractors, being designed to mow large areas at high speed in the shortest time possible. The largest multi-gang (multi-blade) mowers are mounted on tractors and are designed for large expanses of grass such as golf courses and municipal parks, although they are ill-suited for complex terrain.


title: Lawn mower

text: The lawn mower was invented in 1830 by Edwin Beard Budding of Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. Budding's mower was designed primarily to cut the grass on sports grounds and extensive gardens, as a superior alternative to the scythe, and was granted a British patent on August 31, 1830.


title: Lawn mower

text: Budding's first machine was wide with a frame made of wrought iron. The mower was pushed from behind. Cast-iron gear wheels transmitted power from the rear roller to the cutting cylinder, allowing the rear roller to drive the knives on the cutting cylinder; the ratio was 16:1. Another roller placed between the cutting cylinder and the main or land roller could be raised or lowered to alter the height of cut. The grass clippings were hurled forward into a tray-like box. It was soon realized, however, that an extra handle was needed in front to help pull the machine along. Overall, these machines were remarkably similar to modern mowers.


title: Lawn mower

text: Two of the earliest Budding machines sold went to Regent's Park Zoological Gardens in London and the Oxford colleges. In an agreement between John Ferrabee and Edwin Budding dated May 18, 1830, Ferrabee paid the costs of enlarging the small blades, obtained letters of patent and acquired rights to manufacture, sell and license other manufacturers in the production of lawn mowers. Without patent, Budding and Ferrabee were shrewd enough to allow other companies to build copies of their mower under licence, the most successful of these being Ransomes of Ipswich, which began making mowers as early as 1832.


title: Lawn mower

text: His machine was the catalyst for the preparation of modern-style sporting ovals, playing fields (pitches), grass courts, etc. This led to the codification of modern rules for many sports, including for football, lawn bowls, lawn tennis and others.


title: Lawn mower

text: It took ten more years and further innovations to create a machine that could be drawn by animals, and sixty years before a steam-powered lawn mower was built. In the 1850s, Thomas Green & Son of Leeds introduced a mower called the Silens Messor (meaning silent cutter), which used a chain drive to transmit power from the rear roller to the cutting cylinder. These machines were lighter and quieter than the gear-driven machines that preceded them, although they were slightly more expensive. The rise in popularity of lawn sports helped prompt the spread of the invention. Lawn mowers became a more efficient alternative to the scythe and domesticated grazing animals.


title: Lawn mower

text: Manufacture of lawn mowers took off in the 1860s. By 1862, Ferrabee's company was making eight models in various roller sizes. He manufactured over 5000 machines until production ceased in 1863. The first grass boxes were flat trays but took their present shape in the 1860s. James Sumner of Lancashire patented the first steam-powered lawn mower in 1893. His machine burned petrol and/or paraffin (kerosene) as fuel. These were heavy machines that took several hours to warm up to operating pressure. After numerous advances, these machines were sold by the Stott Fertilizer and Insecticide Company of Manchester and Sumner. The company they both controlled was called the Leyland Steam Motor Company.


title: Lawn mower

text: Around 1900, one of the best known English machines was the Ransomes' Automaton, available in chain- or gear-driven models. Numerous manufacturers entered the field with petrol (gasoline) engine-powered mowers after the start of the 20th century. The first was produced by Ransomes in 1902. JP Engineering of Leicester, founded after World War I, produced a range of very popular chain-driven mowers. About this time, an operator could ride behind animals that pulled the large machines. These were the first riding mowers.


title: Lawn mower

text: The first United States patent for a reel lawn mower was granted to Amariah Hills on January 12, 1868. In 1870, Elwood McGuire of Richmond, Indiana designed a human-pushed lawn mower, which was very lightweight and a commercial success. John Burr patented an improved rotary-blade lawn mower in 1899, with the wheel placement altered for better performance. Amariah Hills went on to found the Archimedean Lawn Mower Co. in 1871.


title: Lawn mower

text: In the United States, gasoline-powered lawn mowers were first manufactured in 1914 by Ideal Power Mower Co. of Lansing, Michigan, based on a patent by Ransom E. Olds. Ideal Power Mower also introduced the world's first self-propelled, riding lawn tractor in 1922, known as the "Triplex". The roller-drive lawn mower has changed very little since around 1930. "Gang mowers", those with multiple sets of blades to cut a wider swath, were built in the United States in 1919 by the Worthington Mower Company.


title: Lawn mower

text: In the 1920s one of the most successful companies to emerge during this period was Atco, at that time a brand name of Charles H Pugh Ltd. The Atco 'Standard' motor mower, launched in 1921 was an immediate success. Just 900 of the 22-inch-cut machines were made in 1921, each costing £75. Within five years, annual production had accelerated to tens of thousands. Prices were reduced and a range of sizes were available, making the Standard the first truly mass-produced engine-powered mower.


title: Lawn mower

text: Rotary mowers were not developed until engines were small enough and powerful enough to run the blades at sufficient speed. Many people experimented with rotary blade mowers in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and Power Specialties Ltd. introduced a gasoline-powered rotary mower. Kut Kwick replaced the saw blade of the "Pulp Saw" with a double-edged blade and a cutter deck, converting the "Pulp Saw" into the first ever out-front rotary mower.


title: Lawn mower

text: One company that produced rotary mowers commercially was the Australian Victa company, starting in 1952. Its mowers were lighter and easier to use than similar ones that had come before. The first Victa mowers were made at Mortlake, an inner suburb of Sydney, by local resident Mervyn Victor Richardson. He made his first model out of scrap in his garage. The first Victa mowers were then manufactured, going on sale on 20 September 1952. The new company, Victa Mowers Pty Ltd, was incorporated on 13 February 1953.


title: Lawn mower

text: The venture was so successful that by 1958 the company moved to much larger premises in Parramatta Road, Concord, and then to Milperra, by which time the mower incorporated an engine, designed and manufactured by Victa, which was specially designed for mowing, rather than employing a general-purpose engine bought from outside suppliers. Two Victa mowers, from 1958 and 1968 respectively, are held in the collection of the National Museum of Australia. The Victa mower is regarded as something of an Australian icon, appearing en masse, in simulated form, at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.


title: Lawn mower

text: The hover mower, first introduced by Flymo in 1964, is a form of rotary mower using an air cushion on the hovercraft principle.


title: Lawn mower

text: A cylinder mower or reel mower carries a fixed, horizontal cutting blade at the desired height of cut. Over this is a fast-spinning reel of blades which force the grass past the cutting bar. Each blade in the blade cylinder forms a helix around the reel axis, and the set of spinning blades describes a cylinder.


title: Lawn mower

text: Of all the mowers, a properly adjusted cylinder mower makes the cleanest cut of the grass, and this allows the grass to heal more quickly. The cut of a well-adjusted cylinder mower is straight and definite, as if cut with a pair of scissors. This clean cut promotes healthier, thicker and more resilient lawn growth that is more resistant to disease, weeds and parasites. Lawn cut with a cylinder mower is less likely to result in yellow, white or brown discolouration as a result of leaf shredding. While the cutting action is often likened to that of scissors, it is not necessary for the blades of the spinning cylinder to contact the horizontal cutting bar. If the gap between the blades is less than the thickness of the grass blades, a clean cut can still be made. If more, however, the grass will slip through. Reel mowers also have more difficulty mowing over uneven terrain.


title: Lawn mower

text: There are many variants of the cylinder mower. Push mowers have no engine and are usually used on smaller lawn areas where access is a problem, where noise pollution is undesirable and where air pollution is unwanted. As the mower is pushed along, the wheels drive gears which rapidly spin the reel. Typical cutting widths are . Advances in materials and engineering have resulted in these mowers being very light and easy to operate and manoeuvre compared with their predecessors while still giving all the cutting advantages of professional cylinder mowers. Their distinct environmental benefits, both in noise and air pollution, are also strong selling points, something not lost on many international zoos, animal sanctuaries and exclusive hotel groups.


title: Lawn mower

text: The basic push mower mechanism is also used in gangs towed behind a tractor. The individual mowers are arranged in a "v" behind the tractor with each mower's track slightly overlapping that of the mower in front of it. Gang mowers are used over large areas of turf such as sports fields or parks.


title: Lawn mower

text: A gasoline engine or electric motor can be added to a cylinder mower to power the cylinder, the wheels, the roller, or any combination of these. A typical arrangement on electric powered machines for residential lawns is for the motor to power the cylinder while the operator pushes the mower along. The electric models can be corded or cordless. On petrol machines the engine drives both the cylinder and the rear roller. Some variants have only three blades in a reel spinning at great speed, and these models are able to cut grass which has grown too long for ordinary push mowers. One type of reel mower, now largely obsolete, was a powered version of the traditional side-wheel push mower, which was used on residential lawns. An internal combustion engine sat atop the reel housing and drove the wheels, usually through a belt. The wheels in turn drove the reel, as in the push mower.


title: Lawn mower

text: Greens mowers are used for the precision cutting of golf greens and have a cylinder made up of at least eight, but normally ten, blades. The machine has a roller before and after the cutting cylinder which smooths the freshly cut lawn and minimizes wheel marks. Due to the weight, the engine also propels the mower. Much smaller and lighter variants of the roller mower are sometimes used for small patches of ornamental lawns around flower beds, and these have no engine.


title: Lawn mower

text: Riding reel mowers are also produced. Typically, the cutting reels are ahead of the vehicle's main wheels, so that the grass can be cut before the wheels push the grass over onto the ground. The reels are often hydraulically powered.


title: Lawn mower

text: A rotary mower rotates about a vertical axis with the blade spinning at high speed relying on impact to cut the grass. This tends to result in a rougher cut and bruises and shreds the grass leaf resulting in discolouration of the leaf ends as the shredded portion dies. This is particularly prevalent if the blades become clogged or blunt. Most rotary mowers need to be set a little higher than cylinder equivalents to avoid scalping and gouging of slightly uneven lawns, although some modern rotaries are fitted with a rear roller to provide a more formal striped cut. These machines will also tend to cut lower (13 mm) than a standard four-wheeled rotary.


title: Lawn mower

text: Extensive grass trimming was not common before the widespread application of the vertical shaft single cylinder gasoline/petrol engine. In the United States this development paralleled the market penetration of companies such as the Briggs & Stratton company of Wisconsin.


title: Lawn mower

text: Most rotary push mowers are powered by internal combustion engines. Such engines are usually four-stroke engines, used for their greater torque and cleaner combustion (although a number of older models used two-stroke engines), running on gasoline (petrol) or other liquid fuels. Internal combustion engines used with lawn mowers normally have only one cylinder. Power generally ranges from four to seven horsepower. The engines usually have a carburetor and require a manual pull crank to start them, although an electric starter is offered on some models, particularly large riding and commercial mowers. Some mowers have a throttle control on the handlebar with which the operator can adjust the engine speed. Other mowers have a fixed, pre-set engine speed. All are equipped with a governor (often centrifugal/mechanical or air vane style) to open the throttle as needed to maintain the pre-selected speed when the force needed to cut the thicker or taller grass is encountered. Gasoline mowers have the advantages over electric mowers of greater power and distance range. They do create a significant amount of pollution due to the combustion in the engine, and their engines require periodic maintenance such as cleaning or replacement of the spark plug and air filter, and changing the engine oil. Growing awareness of the air pollution caused by small gas engines has resulted in some state-level legislation pushing consumers to chose machines with different power sources. October 9, 2021, California passed an air pollution control law AB1346 phasing out gasoline powered small off-road engines, like those found in lawn mowers, set to take effect January 1, 2024.


title: Lawn mower

text: Electric mowers are further subdivided into corded and cordless electric models. Both are relatively quiet, typically producing less than 75 decibels, while a gasoline lawn mower can be 95 decibels or more.


title: Lawn mower

text: Corded electric mowers are limited in range by their trailing power cord, which may limit their use with lawns extending outward more than 100–150 feet (30–45 m) from the nearest available power outlet. There is the additional hazard with these machines of accidentally mowing over the power cable, which stops the mower and may put users at risk of receiving a dangerous electric shock. Installing a residual-current device (GFCI) on the outlet may reduce the shock risk.


title: Lawn mower

text: Cordless electric mowers are powered by a variable number (typically 1–4) of 12-to-80-volt rechargeable batteries. Typically, more batteries mean more run time and/or power (and more weight). Batteries can be in the interior of the lawnmower or on the outside. If on the outside, the depleted batteries can be quickly swapped with recharged batteries. Cordless mowers have the maneuverability of a gasoline-powered mower and the environmental friendliness of a corded electric mower, but they are more expensive and come in fewer models (particularly the self-propelling type) than either. The eventual disposal of worn-out batteries is problematic (though some manufacturers offer to recycle them), and the motors in some cordless mowers tend to be less powerful than gasoline motors of the same total weight (including batteries).


title: Lawn mower

text: In hand-powered lawn mowers, the reel is attached to the mower's wheels by gears, so that when the mower is pushed forward, the reel spins several times faster than the plastic or rubber-tired wheels turn. Depending on the placement of the reel, these mowers often cannot cut grass very close to lawn obstacles.


title: Lawn mower

text: Hover mowers are powered rotary push lawn mowers that use an impeller above the spinning blades to drive air downward, thereby creating an air cushion that lifts the mower above the ground. The operator can then easily move the mower as it floats over the grass. Hover mowers are necessarily light in order to achieve the air cushion and typically have plastic bodies with an electric motor. The most significant disadvantage, however, is the cumbersome usability in rough terrain or on the edges of lawns, as the lifting air-cushion is destroyed by wide gaps between the chassis and the ground. Hover mowers are built to operate on steep slopes, waterfronts, and high-weeded areas, so they are often used by golf course greenskeepers and commercial landscapers. Grass collection is often available, but can be poor in some models. The quality of cut can be inferior if the grass is pushed away from the blade by the cushion of air.


title: Lawn mower

text: A robotic mower is contained by a border wire around the lawn that defines the area to be mowed. The robot uses this wire to locate the boundary of the area to be trimmed and in some cases to locate a recharging dock. Robotic mowers are capable of maintaining up to of grass. Robotic lawn mowers are increasingly sophisticated, are usually self-docking and contain rain sensors, nearly eliminating human interaction for mowing grass. Multiple robotic mowers can be used to mow an even larger area.


title: Lawn mower

text: Tractor pulled mowers are usually in the form of an attachment to a tractor. The attachments can simply function by the movement of the tractor similar to manual push cylinder mowers, but also sometimes may have powered moving blades. They are commonly mounted on either the side or the back of the tractor.


title: Lawn mower

text: Riding mowers (U.S. and Canada) or ride-on mowers (U.K. and Canada) are a popular alternative for large lawns. The operator is provided with a seat and controls on the mower and literally rides on the machine. Most use the horizontal rotating blade system, though usually with multiple blades. A common form of ride-on mower is the lawn tractor. These are usually designed to resemble a small agricultural tractor, with the cutting deck mounted amidships between the front and rear axles.


title: Lawn mower

text: The drives for these mowers are in several categories. The most common transmission for tractors is a manual transmission. The second most common transmission type is a form of continuously variable transmission, called the hydrostatic transmission. These transmissions take several forms, from pumps driving separate motors, which may incorporate a gear reduction, to fully integrated units containing a pump, motor and gear reduction. Hydrostatic transmissions are more expensive than mechanical transmissions, but they are easier to use and can transmit greater torque to the wheels compared to a typical mechanical transmission. The least common drive type, and the most expensive, is electric.


title: Lawn mower

text: There have been a number of attempts to replace hydrostatic transmissions with lower cost alternatives, but these attempts, which include variable belt types, e.g. MTD's "Auto Drive", and toroidal, have various performance or perception problems that have caused their market life to be short or their market penetration to be limited.


title: Lawn mower

text: Riding lawn mowers can often mount other devices, such as rototillers/rotavators, snow plows, snow blowers, yard vacuums, occasionally even front buckets or fork-lift tines (these are more properly known as "lawn tractors" in this case, being designed for a number of tasks). The ability to tow other devices is because they have multiple gears, often up to 5 or 6 and variable top speeds.


title: Lawn mower

text: The deck of a rotary mower is typically made of steel. Lighter steel is used on less expensive models, and heavier steel on more expensive models for durability. Other deck materials include aluminium, which does not rust and is a staple of higher priced mowers, and hard composite plastic, which does not rust and is lighter and less expensive than aluminium. Electric mowers typically have a plastic deck.


title: Lawn mower

text: Riding mowers typically have an opening in the side or rear of the housing where the cut grass is expelled, as do most rotary lawn mowers. Some have a grass catcher attachment at the opening to bag the grass clippings.


title: Lawn mower

text: Mulching mowers use special mulching blades which are available for rotary mowers. The blade is designed to keep the clippings circulating underneath the mower until the clippings are chopped quite small. Other designs have twin blades to mulch the clippings to small pieces. This function has the advantages of forgoing the additional work collecting and disposing of grass clippings while reducing lawn waste in such a way that also creates convenient compost for the lawn, forgoing the expense and adverse environmental effect of fertilizer.


title: Lawn mower

text: Mower manufacturers market their mowers as side discharge, 2-in-1, meaning bagging and mulching or side discharging and mulching, and 3-in-1, meaning bagging, mulching, and side discharge. Most 2-in-1 bagging and mulching mowers require a separate attachment to discharge grass onto the lawn. Some side discharge mower manufacturers also sell separate "mulching plates" that will cover the opening on the side discharge mower and, in combination with the proper blades, will convert the mower to a mulching mower. These conversions are impractical when compared with 2- or 3-in-1 mowers which can be converted in the field in seconds. There are two types of bagging mowers. A rear bag mower features an opening on the back of the mower through which the grass is expelled into the bag. Hi-vac mowers have a tunnel that extends from the side discharge to the bag. Hi-vac is also the type of grass collection used on some riding lawn mowers and lawn tractors and is suitable for use in dry conditions but less suitable for long wet lush grass as they often clog up. Mulching and bagging mowers are not well suited to long grass or thick weeds. In some ride-on mowers, the cut grass is dropped onto the ground and then collected by a set of rotating bristles, allowing even long, wet grass to be collected.


title: Lawn mower

text: Rotary mowers with internal combustion engines come in three price ranges. Low priced mowers use older technology, smaller motors, and lighter steel decks. These mowers are targeted at the residential market and typically price is the most important selling point.


title: Lawn mower

text: Professional grass-cutting equipment (used by large establishments such as universities, sports stadiums and local authorities) usually take the form of much larger, dedicated, ride-on platforms or attachments that can be mounted on, or behind, a standard tractor unit (a "gang-mower"). Either type may use rotating-blade or cylindrical-blade type cutters, although high-quality mowed surfaces demand the latter. Wide-area mowers (WAMs) are commercial grade mowers which have decks extended to either side, many to . These extensions can be lowered for large area mowing or raised to decrease the mower's width and allow for easy transport on city roads or trailers. Commercial lawn-mowing companies have also enthusiastically adopted types such as the zero-turn mower (in both ride-on and stand-on versions), which allow high speed over the grass surface, and rapid turnaround at the end of rows, as well as excellent maneuverability around obstacles.


title: Lawn mower

text: Rotary mowers can throw out debris with extreme velocity and energy. Additionally, the blades of a self-powered push mower (gasoline or electric) can injure a careless or inattentive user; consequently, many come equipped with a dead man's switch to immediately disable the blade rotation when the user is no longer holding the handle. In the United States, over 12,000 people per year are hospitalized as a result of lawn mower accidents. In 2016, 86,000 adults and 4,500 children were admitted to the emergency room for lawnmower injuries. The vast majority of these injuries can be prevented by wearing protective footwear when mowing. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be at least 12 years old before they are allowed to use a walk-behind lawn mower and at least 16 years of age before using a riding mower and that they "should not operate lawn mowers until they have displayed the necessary levels of judgment, strength, coordination, and maturity". Persons using a mower should wear heavy footwear, eye protection, and hearing protection in the case of engine-powered mowers.


title: Lawn mower

text: A 2001 study showed that some mowers produce the same amount of pollution (emissions other than carbon dioxide) in one hour as driving a 1992 model vehicle for . Another estimate puts the amount of pollution from a lawn mower at four times the amount from a car, per hour, although this report is no longer available. Beginning in 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency set standards for lawn equipment emissions and expects a reduction of at least 35 percent.


title: Lawn mower

text: Lawn mowers produce GHG emissions. A minimum-maintained lawn management practice with clipping recycling, and minimum irrigation and mowing, is recommended to mitigate global warming effects from urban turfgrass system.


title: Lawn mower

text: Mowers can create significant noise pollution, and could cause hearing loss if used without hearing protection for prolonged periods of time. Lawn mowers also present an occupational hearing hazard to the nearly 1 million people who work in lawn service and ground-keeping. One study assessed the occupational noise exposure among groundskeepers at several North Carolina public universities and found noise levels from push lawn mowers measured between 86 and 95 decibels (A-weighted) and from riding lawn mowers between 88 and 96 dB(A); both types exceeded the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Recommended Exposure Limit of 85 dB(A).


title: Lawn mower

text: The risk of hearing loss and noise pollution can be reduced by using battery-operated mowers or appropriate hearing protection such as earplugs or earmuffs.


title: Lawn mower

text: It is possible for a lawn mower to damage the underlying soil, the roots of the grass, and the mower itself if the blades cut through the grass and collide with the underlying ground. Therefore, it is important to adjust mower height properly and choose the right tires for a lawn mower to prevent any marking or digging.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Hanna Reitsch (29 March 1912 – 24 August 1979) was a German aviator and test pilot. Along with Melitta von Stauffenberg, she flight tested many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II and received many honors. Reitsch was among the very last people to meet Adolf Hitler alive in the in late April 1945.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch set more than 40 flight altitude records and women's endurance records in gliding and unpowered flight, before and after World War II. In the 1960s, she was sponsored by the West German foreign office as a technical adviser in Ghana and elsewhere, and founded a gliding school in Ghana, where she worked for Kwame Nkrumah.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Silesia, on 29 March 1912 to an upper-middle-class family. She was daughter of Dr. Wilhelm (Willy) Reitsch, who was an ophthalmology clinic manager, and his wife Emy Helff-Hibler von Alpenheim, who was a member of the Austrian nobility. Despite her mother being a devout Catholic, Hanna was raised a Protestant. She had two siblings, her brother Kurt, a Frigate captain, and her younger sister Heidi. Reitsch began flight training in 1932 at the School of Gliding in Grunau. While a medical student in Berlin she enrolled in a German Air Mail amateur flying school for powered aircraft at Staaken, training in a Klemm Kl 25.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In 1933, Reitsch left medical school at the University of Kiel to become, at the invitation of Wolf Hirth, a full-time glider pilot/instructor at Hornberg in Baden-Württemberg. Reitsch contracted with the Ufa Film Company as a stunt pilot and set an unofficial endurance record for women of 11 hours and 20 minutes.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In January 1934, she joined a South America expedition to study thermal conditions, along with Wolf Hirth, Peter Riedel and Heini Dittmar. While in Argentina, she became the first woman to earn the Silver C Badge, the 25th to do so among world glider pilots.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In June 1934, Reitsch became a member of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS) and became a test pilot in 1935. Reitsch enrolled in the Civil Airways Training School in Stettin, where she flew a twin-engine on a cross country flight and aerobatics in a Focke-Wulf Fw 44.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In 1937, Ernst Udet gave Reitsch the honorary title of after she had successfully tested Hans Jacobs's divebrakes for gliders.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: At the DFS she test-flew transport and troop-carrying gliders, including the DFS 230 used at the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In September 1937, Reitsch was posted to the Luftwaffe testing centre at Rechlin-Lärz Airfield by Ernst Udet.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Her flying skill, desire for publicity, and photogenic qualities made her a star of Nazi propaganda. Physically she was petite in stature, very slender with blonde hair, blue eyes and a "ready smile". She appeared in Nazi propaganda throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch was the first female helicopter pilot and one of the few pilots to fly the Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, for which she received the Military Flying Medal. In 1938, during the three weeks of the International Automobile Exhibition in Berlin, she made daily flights of the Fa 61 helicopter inside the .


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch was a test pilot on the Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber and Dornier Do 17 light/fast bomber projects, for which she received the Iron Cross, Second Class, from Hitler on 28 March 1941.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch was asked to fly many of Germany's latest designs, among them the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 in 1942. A crash landing on her fifth Me 163 flight badly injured Reitsch; she spent five months in a hospital recovering. Reitsch received the Iron Cross First Class following the accident, one of only three women to do so.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In February 1943 after news of the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad she accepted an invitation from Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim to visit the Eastern Front. She spent three weeks visiting Luftwaffe units, flying a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: On 28 February 1944, she presented the idea of Operation Suicide to Hitler at Berchtesgaden, which "would require men who were ready to sacrifice themselves in the conviction that only by this means could their country be saved." Although Hitler "did not consider the war situation sufficiently serious to warrant them ... and ... this was not the right psychological moment", he gave his approval. The project was assigned to Gen. Günther Korten. There were about seventy volunteers who enrolled in the Suicide Group as pilots for the human glider-bomb. By April 1944, Reitsch and Heinz Kensche finished tests of the Me 328, carried aloft by a Dornier Do 217. By then, she was approached by SS- Otto Skorzeny, a founding member of the (Leonidas Squadron). They adapted the V-1 flying bomb into the Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg including a two-seater and a single-seater with and without the mechanisms to land. The plan was never implemented operationally, "the decisive moment had been missed."


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In her autobiography Reitsch recalled that after two initial crashes with the Fi 103R she and Heinz Kensche took over tests of the prototype Fi 103R. She made several successful test flights before training the instructors. "Though an average pilot could fly the V1 without difficulty once it was in the air, to land it called for exceptional skill, in that it had a very high landing speed and, moreover, in training it was the glider model, without engine, that was usually employed."


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In October 1944, Reitsch claims she was shown a booklet by Peter Riedel which he'd obtained while in the German Embassy in Stockholm, concerning the gas chambers. She further claims that while believing it to be enemy propaganda, she agreed to inform Heinrich Himmler about it. Upon doing so, Himmler is said to have asked whether she believed it, and she replied, "No, of course not. But you must do something to counter it. You can't let them shoulder this onto Germany." "You are right," Himmler replied.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: During the last days of the war, Hitler dismissed Hermann Göring as head of the Luftwaffe and appointed von Greim, to replace him. Von Greim and Reitsch flew from Gatow Airport into embattled Berlin to meet Hitler in the , arriving on 26 April as the Red Army troops were already in the central area of Berlin. Reitsch and von Greim had flown from Rechlin–Lärz Airfield to Gatow Airfield in a Focke Wulf 190, escorted by twelve other Fw 190s from Jagdgeschwader 26 under the command of Hans Dortenmann. In Berlin, Reitsch landed a Fi 156 on an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate. Hitler gave Reitsch two capsules of poison for herself and von Greim. She accepted the capsule.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Shortly after midnight on 29 April, Reitsch and von Greim flew out of Berlin in an Arado Ar 96 from the same improvised airstrip. This was the last plane out of Berlin. Von Greim was ordered to get the Luftwaffe to attack the Soviet forces that had just reached Potsdamer Platz and to make sure Heinrich Himmler was punished for his treachery in making unauthorised contact with the Western Allies so as to surrender. Troops of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army, which was fighting its way through the Tiergarten from the north, tried to shoot the plane down fearing that Hitler was escaping in it, but it took off successfully.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch was soon captured along with von Greim and the two were interviewed together by U.S. military intelligence officers. When asked about being ordered to leave the on 29 April 1945, Reitsch and von Greim reportedly repeated the same answer: "It was the blackest day when we could not die at our Führer's side." Reitsch also said: "We should all kneel down in reverence and prayer before the altar of the Fatherland." When the interviewers asked what she meant by "Altar of the Fatherland" she answered, "Why, the Führer's bunker in Berlin ..." She was held for eighteen months. Von Greim killed himself on 24 May 1945.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Evacuated from Silesia ahead of the Soviet troops, Reitsch's family took refuge in Salzburg. During the night of 3 May 1945, after hearing a rumour that all refugees were to be taken back to their original homes in the Soviet occupation zone, Reitsch's father shot and killed her mother and sister and her sister's three children before killing himself.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: After her release Reitsch settled in Frankfurt am Main. After the war, German citizens were barred from flying powered aircraft, but within a few years gliding was allowed, which she took up again. In 1952, Reitsch won a bronze medal in the World Gliding Championships in Spain; she was the first woman to compete and in 1955 she became German champion. She continued to break records, including the women's altitude record () in 1957 and her first diamond of the Gold-C badge.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: During the mid-1950s, Reitsch was interviewed on film and talked about her wartime flight tests of the Fa 61, Me 262 and Me 163.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In 1959, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited Reitsch, who spoke fluent English, to start a gliding centre, and she flew with him over New Delhi.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: From 1962 to 1966, she lived in Ghana. The then Ghanaian President, Kwame Nkrumah invited Reitsch to Ghana after reading of her work in India. At Afienya she founded the first black African national gliding school, working closely with the government and the armed forces. The West German government supported her as technical adviser. The school was commanded by J.E.S. de Graft-Hayford, with gliders such as the double-seated Schleicher K7, Slingsby T.21 and a Bergfalke, along with a single-seated Schleicher K 8. She gained the FAI Diamond Badge in 1970. The project was evidently of great importance to Nkrumah and has been interpreted as part of a "modernist" development ideology.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch's attitudes to race underwent a change. "Earlier in my life, it would never have occurred to me to treat a black person as a friend or partner ..." She now experienced guilt at her earlier "presumptuousness and arrogance". She became close to Nkrumah. The details of their relationship are now unclear due to the destruction of documents, but some surviving letters are intimate in tone.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: In Ghana, some Africans were disturbed by the prominence of a person with Reitsch's past, but Shirley Graham Du Bois, a noted African-American writer who had emigrated to Ghana and was friendly towards Reitsch, agreed with Nkrumah that Reitsch was extremely naive politically. Contemporary Ghanaian press reports seem to show a lack of interest in her past.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Throughout the 1970s, Reitsch broke gliding records in many categories, including the "Women's Out and Return World Record" twice, once in 1976 () and again, in 1979 (), flying along the Appalachian Ridges in the United States. During this time, she also finished first in the women's section of the first world helicopter championships.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch was interviewed and photographed several times in the 1970s, towards the end of her life, by Jewish-American photo-journalist Ron Laytner. In her closing remarks she is quoted as saying:


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Reitsch died of a heart attack in Frankfurt at the age of 67, on 24 August 1979. She had never married. She is buried in the Reitsch family grave in the Salzburger Kommunalfriedhof.


title: Hanna Reitsch

text: Former British test pilot and Royal Navy officer Eric Brown said he received a letter from Reitsch in early August 1979 in which she said, "It began in the bunker, there it shall end." Within weeks she was dead. Brown speculated that Reitsch had taken the cyanide capsule Hitler had given her in the bunker, and that she had taken it as part of a suicide pact with Greim. There is no record of an autopsy.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: Edward John O'Brien (born 15 April 1968) is an English guitarist, songwriter and member of the rock band Radiohead. He releases solo music under the name EOB.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien attended Abingdon School in Oxfordshire, England, where he met the other members of Radiohead. O'Brien said his role in the group was to "service the songs" and support the songwriter, Thom Yorke. He often creates ambient sounds and textures, using effects, sustain units and the EBow, and provides backing vocals. In 2010, "Rolling Stone" named O'Brien the 59th greatest guitarist of all time. Along with the other members of Radiohead, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien's first solo album, "Earth", was released in 2020. O'Brien had been writing songs for years, but lacked confidence and felt they had a character that would be lost with Radiohead. He began a solo North American tour in February 2020; a larger tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien was born on April 15, 1968. His family comes from Ballyporeen, Ireland. As a child, O'Brien enjoyed cricket and theatre. His parents split when he was 10; O'Brien said this was when music became his "refuge". He grew up listening to post-punk acts such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam and the Ants, Depeche Mode, the Police and David Bowie. He said: "It was a very foetal [time] for music because people who went to art college or artists, or musicians, suddenly thought, 'Oh, I can be that.'"


title: Ed O'Brien

text: The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School, an independent school for boys in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. While O'Brien was playing Lysander in a school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", he met Thom Yorke, who was scoring the production. Yorke asked him to join him for a jam. According to O'Brien, "Before that, [life] was a bit confusing, a bit crap. And then suddenly ... I felt something very strong, almost like some kind of epiphany, almost like: 'This is it.'"


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien, along with the drummer Philip Selway, was in the year above Yorke and the bassist Colin Greenwood, and three years above Colin's brother, the multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood. In 1985, they formed On a Friday, the name referring to the band's usual rehearsal day in the school's music room. The band continued to rehearse during holidays while the members attended university. O'Brien studied economics at the University of Manchester.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: In 1991, On a Friday signed a record contract with EMI and changed their name to Radiohead. They found early success with their debut 1992 single "Creep". Their third album, "OK Computer" (1997), brought them international fame and is often acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time. "OK Computer" saw O'Brien use less distortion and more delay and other effects, creating a sound that was "more about textures". O'Brien became depressed during the extensive "OK Computer" tour, but focused on supporting Yorke. After the tour, he returned to Oxford, used large amounts of drugs and fell further into depression. He said: "I was single, on my own … I was the lowest I've ever been. It was the irony as well – you're at the top, that old cliché."


title: Ed O'Brien

text: Radiohead's next albums, "Kid A" (2000) and "Amnesiac" (2001), marked a dramatic change in sound, incorporating influences from electronic music, classical music, jazz and krautrock. O'Brien initially struggled with the change of direction, saying: "It's scary – everyone feels insecure. I'm a guitarist and suddenly it's like, well, there are no guitars on this track, or no drums." At the suggestion of Michael Brook, the creator of the Infinite Guitar, O'Brien began using sustain units, which allow guitar notes to be sustained indefinitely. He combined these with looping and delay effects to create synthesiser-like sounds. O'Brien kept an online diary of Radiohead's progress during the recording.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: By 2011, Radiohead had sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2019; O'Brien and the Radiohead drummer Philip Selway attended the induction ceremony and gave speeches. O'Brien thanked his bandmates for their musicianship and friendship, saying that "some of the nights we have in the rehearsal studio where they’re like transcendental moments".


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien releases solo music under the name EOB. After making demos with the producer Ian Davenport in 2014, he recorded with the producer Flood from late 2017 to early 2019. His first solo track, the ambient composition "Santa Teresa", was released on 4 October, 2019. He had written songs for years, but lacked the confidence to bring them to Radiohead and felt they had a "distinct energy" that would be lost if they became a "hybrid product".


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien's debut solo album, "Earth", was released on 17 April 2020 on Capitol Records to positive reviews. It features the drummer Omar Hakim, the Invisible members Nathan East and Dave Okumu, the folk singer Laura Marling, the Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley, the Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and the Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood. The music was inspired by O'Brien's time living in Brazil and attending Carnival, which he described as a "musical eureka moment". The first track, "Brasil", was released on 5 December 2019, followed by "Shangri-La" on 6 February. O'Brien began a North American tour in February 2020; a larger "Earth" tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. O'Brien contributed a remix of Paul McCartney's song "Slidin'" to the remix album "McCartney III Imagined" (2021)"."


title: Ed O'Brien

text: In 1999, O'Brien contributed to the soundtrack for the BBC drama series "Eureka Street". He played guitar on the 2003 Asian Dub Foundation album "Enemy of the Enemy". O'Brien and Selway toured and recorded with Neil Finn as part of the 7 Worlds Collide project; O'Brien provided guitar and backing vocals on their 2001 live album and the 2009 studio album "The Sun Came Out".


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien is a founding director of the Featured Artists Coalition, a nonprofit organisation set up to protect the rights of featured musical artists, particularly in the digital age. He appeared on the 16 April 2011 episode of the BBC Radio 5 Live sports programme "Fighting Talk" in support of Record Shop Day.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien worked with Fender to design a signature model guitar, the EOB Stratocaster, which went on sale in November 2017. It features a tremolo bridge and a sustainer neck pickup.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: In 2013, O'Brien cofounded the Laundry, a workspace, restaurant and nightclub converted from a laundry in London Fields. In 2019, Hackney Council announced that the building would be demolished to make way for luxury flats. In 2014, O'Brien and Selway signed an open letter protesting a ban on guitars in British prisons. In 2019, O'Brien joined the RSPB Let Nature Sing project, which aimed to get birdsong into the UK charts to raise awareness of the decline in Britain's birdlife. In 2020, O'Brien contributed to Ear Opener, an online video course aimed at helping young people write music. That November, he gave evidence to a DCMS Committee inquiry into the impact of streaming on the music industry. He said he wanted to speak for less successful artists, who he felt were "taken advantage of".


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien said his role in Radiohead is to support the songwriter, Thom Yorke, and "service the songs". He said of his playing: "I literally learned to play my instrument within the band, so I started off very limited — and I'm "still" very limited. But I've been lucky, because I've been in a band that has not required you to be a virtuoso." In 2010, the "Rolling Stone" journalist David Fricke named O'Brien the 59th greatest guitarist of all time. O'Brien also sings backing vocals, which "Pitchfork" described in 2006 as Radiohead's "most consistent secret weapon".


title: Ed O'Brien

text: While Jonny Greenwood plays most of Radiohead's lead guitar parts, O'Brien often creates ambient effects, making extensive use of effects units. He said of the technique: "It's a bit like you're creating a canvas. That would be in accompaniment with Thom playing chords on the piano — you're building up a cloud of effects behind." O'Brien usually plays Fender Stratocasters, including an Eric Clapton Stratocaster. He also plays Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars, including a twelve-string Rickenbacker. O'Brien said in 2017 that his most used effects are distortion, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay and a DigiTech Whammy pitch shifter.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: To create the high-pitched chiming sound that introduces "Lucky", O'Brien strums above the guitar nut. He creates the reverberating pops on the introduction of "2 + 2 = 5". On "Karma Police", O'Brien distorts his guitar by driving a delay effect to self-oscillation, then lowering the delay rate, creating a "melting" effect. "Treefingers", an ambient piece, was created by processing O'Brien's guitar loops. On "Dollars and Cents", O'Brien uses a pitch shifter pedal to shift his guitar chords from minor to major. For "All I Need", he used a sustain unit and a guitar strung with four bottom E strings, creating a thicker sound. O'Brien uses the EBow, an electronic sustaining device, on his guitar to generate drones and ambient leads on songs such as "My Iron Lung", "Talk Show Host", "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", "Where I End and You Begin" and "Nude". On the Radiohead albums "The King of Limbs" and "A Moon Shaped Pool", he used a Klon Centaur overdrive pedal.


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien's earliest guitar influence was Andy Summers of the Police, particularly his use of delay and chorus effects on "Walking on the Moon". His other influences include Peter Buck of R.E.M, Paul Weller of the Jam, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, John McGeoch of Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Edge of U2. O'Brien admired how these guitarists created "space" rather than playing conventional solos. He said: "They were great guitarists, but they weren’t lead guitarists ... My favourite guitarists know when not to play. Then you make more of it when you do play. Make it count." O'Brien cited the American band Phish as an influence, saying: "It’s like a jazz band; they are willing to take risks for a moment of musical transcendence. That’s what I’m after — I want to tap into that."


title: Ed O'Brien

text: O'Brien lives in London and Wales with his wife Susan Kobrin, who worked for Amnesty International. The couple have a son, born in January 2004, and a daughter, born in 2006. O'Brien is a cricket fan and supports Brentford F.C. Around 2000, he gave up alcohol and took up meditation; he said: "[Alcohol] was fucking me up. I thought, 'I can carry on, or I can be a better person.'" In 2011, he and his family moved to Brazil and lived for a year on a farm near Ubatuba. In March 2020, O'Brien announced that he had contracted COVID-19 and was recovering in isolation.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a 1976 American thriller horror film directed and produced by Charles B. Pierce, and written by Earl E. Smith. The film is loosely based on the 1946 Texarkana Moonlight Murders, crimes attributed to an unidentified serial killer known as the Phantom Killer. It is narrated by Vern Stierman, who had narrated Pierce's 1972 film "The Legend of Boggy Creek". Ben Johnson stars as Captain J.D. Morales, a fictionalized version of Texas Ranger Captain M. T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas. The Phantom is played by Bud Davis, who later worked as stunt coordinator on films such as "Forrest Gump", "Cast Away", and "Inglourious Basterds". The film was mostly shot around Texarkana, and a number of locals were cast as extras. The world premiere was held in Texarkana on December 17, 1976, before its regular run in theaters on December 24.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film states that "the incredible story you are about to see is true, where it happened and how it happened; only the names have been changed." The actual Phantom attacked eight people in or near the town of Texarkana, Texas, which is on the Texas border with Arkansas. Most of the murders occurred in rural areas just outside Texarkana, in Bowie County, Texas, while the film has them occurring in Arkansas. However, the general outline of the murders largely follows reality, with mostly minor artistic license taken. As in the film, the real killer was never identified nor apprehended.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film is loose enough with the facts that one family member of a victim filed a lawsuit in 1978 over its depiction of his sister. The film's tagline claims that the man who killed five people "still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Ark.," causing officials of that neighboring city to threaten Pierce over the ads in 1977. It remained on the posters. A sequel with the same name was released on October 16, 2014.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Before the "Phantom-attacks", which occurred about eight months after World War II, Texarkana was pleasant and citizens were preparing for a good future. On the night of Sunday, March 3, 1946, Sammy Fuller and Linda Mae Jenkins park on a lovers' lane. Soon, the hood of the car opens and closes and a man with a bag over his head with holes cut out for his eyes is seen holding wires he had yanked from the engine. While Sammy tries starting the car, the man breaks his window and pulls him out, cutting him on the broken glass. The man then gets inside the car with Linda.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The next morning, Linda is found on the side of the road barely alive. While at the crime scene, Deputy Norman Ramsey reports that both victims are still alive. He leaves a message for Sheriff Barker to meet him at Michael-Meagher Hospital. At the hospital, a doctor tells Sheriff Barker that Linda was not raped but that her back, stomach, and breasts were "heavily bitten; literally chewed." At the police station, Barker suggests to Police Chief Sullivan to warn teens and college students from parking on lonely roads.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: On March 24, while investigating a lovers' lane in heavy rain, Ramsey hears gunshots and finds Howard W. "Buddy" Turner dead in a ditch and the corpse of his girlfriend, Emma Lou Cook, tied to a tree. Ramsey spots the hooded man escaping in a car. Panicked, the town sells out of guns and other home safety equipment. Sheriff Barker calls in help and tells Ramsey they are getting the most famous criminal investigator in the country, the "Lone Wolf" of the Texas Rangers, Captain J.D. Morales. After arriving, Morales explains he will be in charge of the investigation and calls the unidentified attacker a Phantom. Ramsey is assigned to assist Morales, and Patrolman A.C. "Sparkplug" Benson is to be his driver.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: At the barber shop, Ramsey explains to Morales his theory that the Phantom attacks every 21 days. The next attack falls on the day of a high school prom, and decoys are set up on the edges of town. After the dance, on April 14, trombone player Peggy Loomis leaves with her boyfriend Roy Allen. Despite her worries, they go to Spring Lake Park in the middle of town. When they leave, the Phantom jumps on the driver's door and pulls Roy out of the car, causing Peggy to crash. She flees as the Phantom beats Roy, but he catches her and ties her hands around a tree. Roy awakens, but is shot to death while attempting to escape. The Phantom attaches a pocket knife to the distal end of the slide of Peggy's trombone and kills her while "playing" the instrument by repeatedly projecting the slide-with-knife forward into her back while she is tied to the tree.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Morales and other officers meet with psychiatrist Dr. Kress at a restaurant, where he explains that the Phantom is a highly intelligent sadist with a strong sex drive, between the ages of 35 and 40. As Kress expresses his doubts about their chances of capturing the Phantom, the Phantom's shoes are shown, revealing that he had heard the entire conversation. At the station, a man named Johnson says that he was robbed and forced to drive a man to Lufkin at gunpoint. While on the road, Ramsey receives a report about an armed suspect, and a brief chase ensues. The suspect, Eddie LeDoux, at first denies everything, then confesses to being the Phantom, but Morales is unconvinced. Johnson identifies him as his robber.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: On May 3, Helen Reed is seen by the Phantom leaving a grocery store. At home that night, Helen asks her husband Floyd, who is sitting in front of a window in his armchair, if he hears somebody walking outside. After he replies that he does not, the Phantom shoots him through their window. Helen inspects and sees Floyd dying. As she uses the telephone to call police, the Phantom breaks through the screen door and shoots her twice in the face. Despite her wounds, she drags herself out of the house and into a cornfield while the Phantom inspects Floyd's body. The Phantom stalks her with a pickaxe, but leaves when she gets help at a nearby house. News of this attack causes the town to panic, and people begin boarding up their windows.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Later, Morales and Ramsey receive a report about a stolen car that matches the one from the Turner and Cook murders. While investigating a sand pit, they encounter the Phantom. Morales shoots at him but misses, causing him to run into the woods. The Phantom escapes by jumping past a moving train, but is shot in the leg. While the officers are waiting for the train to pass, the Phantom escapes. They continue their search, but never find him.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Years later, during the Christmas season of 1976, the film "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" premieres in Texarkana and the shoes of the Phantom are seen on someone standing in line.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: In addition, other victims are played by: Mike Hackworth as Sammy Fuller, based on Jimmy Hollis, from the first pair of actual victims; Misty West and Rick Hildreth as murdered couple Emma Lou Cook and Buddy Turner, respectively, based on the second pair of actual victims, Richard L. Griffin and Polly Ann Moore; and Steve Lyons as Roy Allen, based on Paul Martin, from the third pair of actual victims. Bud Davis plays Phantom Killer, whose face is never seen. Narration throughout the film was provided by Vern Stierman.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Principal photography began on Monday, June 21, in the very hot summer of 1976 for about four weeks. Locations included Scott, Arkansas, Shreveport, Louisiana, Garland City, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas. The last scene filmed was the first attack, which was shot in front of Pierce's home in Shreveport. About 19 Texarkana locals starred in the film along with several extras.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Pierce called Dawn Wells on July 8, 1976, to star in his film. She arrived by plane in Texarkana before noon the next day. She stayed in Texarkana for six days, but completed her scenes in the first two. While filming the cornfield scene, Wells was almost attacked by a bulldog, but the crew scared it away by shooting at it. Wells wanted to talk to the real-life survivor of her role, Katie Starks, but Katie refused. "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" was Wells' fourth film and her second time working with Pierce. During her stay, she did not read the script; she relied on the director, instead. She said that was the way she wanted it. Wells explained, "Acting-wise, it's an extremely emotional role. I didn't want to pattern my interpretation after anything. I wanted to go on my own feelings." Being shot at was a new experience for the actress. "They planted a charge in the receiver, so I was standing there holding the phone, shaking, expecting the receiver to blow up in my face."


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Andrew Prine, who played Norman Ramsey, wrote the last fifth of the film because it had no ending. Both Ben Johnson and he were hung over while filming the train scene after partying the night before. During the rain scene with Ramsey, a snake made its way on the set. Crew members were yelling at Andrew that it was a moccasin, but Prine wanted to finish his scene without reshooting, so the crew killed the snake afterwards.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film's poster art was painted with acrylic by graphic illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, then an unknown. McQuarrie had painted the poster for Pierce's "The Legend of Boggy Creek", then later for his films "Bootleggers" (1974), "Winterhawk" (1975), and "Winds of Autumn" (1976). McQuarrie became recognized for his talent and went on to paint posters for "Creature from Black Lake" (1976), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "Battlestar Galactica" (1978), "Back to the Future" (1985), and the original "Star Wars" trilogy. His concept art was used to help convince 20th Century Fox to fund "Star Wars". The advertising department placed the controversial phrase, "In 1946, this man killed five people...today he still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Ark." on the poster. After Texarkana city officials threatened to sue, Pierce tried having the statement removed. The last part of the phrase was censored or removed in advertisements, but it remained on several posters.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film was released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures on December 24, 1976, and internationally in Sweden (1977), West Germany (1978), and the Philippines (1979). It was played at drive-ins until the end of 1977 and made its television debut by June 1978.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film was released on VHS in 1983 by Warner Home Video, which then rereleased it in 1988. Good Times Video also released it on VHS on May 15, 2001. The Turner Classic Movies cable channel occasionally airs widescreen versions of the film. It had a digital release on May 21, 2013, when Shout! Factory released it on a Blu-ray/DVD combo with Pierce's 1979 film "The Evictors".


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" wrote, "A couple of professional actors, Ben Johnson and Andrew Prine, head the cast, but the film looks nonprofessional in every other respect." "Variety" declared that "Pierce inserts bloody murders into the pic like clockwork, and that's about all there is to it. Film never reaches the truly frightening level of Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", a much more stylish exploitation pic with a similar theme. And on a more serious dramatic level, it doesn't really delve into the hysteria such killings cause among the police and the citizenry, the way "Dirty Harry" did." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "this week's trash picture," writing that the film had "no discernible point except to depict a series of particularly grisly killings with a lingering, graphic morbidity." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave it half a star out of four, calling it "a dumb film" that "ends unsatisfactorily without our knowing who the killer is, his motive, or whether he is now dead or alive."


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Larry Fisher, a film critic for the "Delta Democrat-Times", gave the film a three-star rating out of five. He said Ben Johnson gave a superb performance as Captain J.D. Morales, and, "Although the picture lacks a strong ending, Pierce does one of the most credible jobs of engineering the tense, horrifying murder scenes." Mark Melson, "Shreveport Times" Amusement editor, opined that it "may prove interesting to some viewers for one reason or another," but was "ultimately unsatisfying."


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: William Whitaker of the "Abilene Reporter-News" gave the film a negative review, stating, "where I was expecting a dramatic retelling of the mysterious case concerning the phantom killer and his bizarre murders, I was greeted with an extremely uneven picture, collapsing into the most sickening, blood-weltering scenes one minute and then lapsing into some incredibly bad comedy relief the next." He continued, "Such vivid contrasts in the film's approach to its subject lead to its downfall. Any effect the disgustingly boring and extremely brutal murder scenes have go to waste seconds later when director Charles B. Pierce leads the picture into some of the type of poor comedy relief that one is used to seeing in budget pictures of the '60s. As a result, the film is unable to conjure up any mood or suspense." He concludes with, "All in all, the picture is an unpleasant little film and Pierce, after going overboard on the blood and gore scenes, never seems to be able to decide as to how serious the picture should be," and that "both mature and immature minds should avoid the film." A reporter in El Paso, Texas, gave it a mixed review, writing that "this mixture of humor with fact saved "The Town..." as it wakes the audience when things begin to lag." He goes on to write, "All things considered, the movie is entertaining and would appeal to those who savor unsolved murder mysteries." He finishes with, "Don't be surprised if a great many more movies of legendary mass murderers come out in the near future."


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Scott Weinberg from FEARnet gave the film a positive review, in writing it is, "Arguably the most accomplished feature from the late Charles B. Pierce." He specified, "while the movie offers a slightly stodgy 'voice-over' narration and some moments that seem plucked straight out of '1970s police procedural 101', including a few painful moments of cop-related comic relief, it also delivers some legitimately effective atmosphere, several cool character actors doing fine work, and a handful of sincerely creepy moments."


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: "Bloody Disgusting" gave the film five "skulls" in a review by Patrick Cooper, who wrote that it is "a hugely entertaining atmospheric thriller," and that "the only parts that fumble a bit are the regrettable comedic moments... these well-intentioned bits sharply interrupt the serious ambiance of the film, but at least they're few and spaced far enough apart that they don't ruin the whole thing."


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 42%, based on 12 reviews, with a rating average of 5.3/10.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The beginning of the film states that the first attack occurred on Sunday, March 3. In real life, the attack happened on Friday, February 22. Jimmy Hollis (portrayed as "Sammy Fuller") was not pulled out of the window. The girl, Mary Jeanne Larey (portrayed as "Linda Mae Jenkins") was told to run. She was then chased down and sexually assaulted with the attacker's gun. She soon escaped and received help at a house.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The next attack in the film is stated as happening on Saturday, March 24; in 1946, March 24 was a Sunday. In the film, "Howard Turner" and his girlfriend, "Emma Lou Cook," are found dead outside of the vehicle. Emma Cook was shown tied to a tree with bite marks. In real life, both victims were found inside of the vehicle, shot to death. The character "Deputy Ramsey" was patrolling the area and found the bodies. Afterwards, he saw the Phantom getting into a car and leaving. On the real morning of March 24, a passing motorist spotted a car and found the bodies of Richard Griffin and Polly Ann Moore inside before calling the authorities. By the time the officers were on the scene, the killer was gone.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film states that locals soon started buying guns and locks, but this did not happen until two months later in May. After the second attack, the characters in the film bring in Captain J.D. Morales of the Texas Rangers. M.T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, the real-life Texas Ranger upon whom the character is based, did not come to Texarkana until after the second double-murder near Spring Lake Park. The film has Morales naming the killer a phantom, but the naming of the killer did not come until after the murders in April, and by the executive editor of the "Texarkana Gazette".


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: The film then shows a high school prom with the character "Peggy Loomis" playing a trombone, and officers setting up decoys in an attempt to capture the Phantom. Betty Jo Booker, who played saxophone (not a trombone) was playing at a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) social event (not a prom), and officers did not set up decoys until after her and friend Paul Martin's murders. In the film, "Peggy" and "Roy" are a couple, but Booker and Martin were only friends in real life. Martin and she were shot to death, and her saxophone was missing for six months.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: In the film, "Helen Reed" sees the attacker before being shot. However, Katie Starks was shot through the same window as her husband and did not see her attacker until he tried crawling through the kitchen window.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: In February 1977, Texarkana city officials voted to file a lawsuit against the film's ad campaign. When city officials visited Washington, DC, they were kidded about the film's tagline. Mayor Harvey Nelson explained, "The ad is too much; that's just not true. There's objection that this whole thing will be spreading fear in the community. There are relatives of the victims still living here, and this is very unpleasant to them." Pierce worked with American International Pictures to remove the "still lurking" statement, but it remained on the posters.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: In 1978, Mark Melton Moore, the brother of real-life victim Polly Ann Moore, took Pierce to court for $1.3 million for invading his privacy. He claimed his sister, who was portrayed as "Emma Lou Cook" in the film, was depicted "as a high school dropout and a woman with loose and low morals; when in fact none of such was true." In real life, Polly Ann Moore graduated high school at the age of 16. The court denied his claim in 1979. Mr. Moore filed again in 1980 to the Texas Supreme Court. The Sixth Court of Civil Appeals in Texarkana agreed again that the film's producers did not invade his privacy and that he was not entitled to any money.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: On March 15, 1978, Gerald Gedrimas, a teenager, shot and killed his high school friend James Grunstra. In court, Gedrimas stated that he thought of his plan to be an "outlaw" like Jesse James – the infamous legendary outlaw of the Wild West – while watching "The Town That Dreaded Sundown".


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: In Texarkana (where the story is based), this film is shown to the public at Spring Lake Park near Halloween. It is the last film shown for "Movies in the Park," which plays a film on each Thursday during May and October. The showing of the film, which has been a tradition since 2003, is a free event sponsored by the Texarkana Department of Parks & Recreation.


title: The Town That Dreaded Sundown

text: A follow-up metasequel by Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum was released on October 16, 2014, in select theaters and then on Video on Demand the following day. The director, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, directed a script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Addison Timlin plays the lead role and is supported by Gary Cole, Ed Lauter, and Veronica Cartwright. The film received mostly positive reviews.


title: Dharmendra filmography

text: This following is a complete filmography of Indian actor and producer Dharmendra Deol. He was born on 8 December 1935, and made his debut in 1960 with film "Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere" at the age of 25. He has starred in more than 300 films.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The Texas Heartbeat Act, Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), is an act of the Texas Legislature that bans abortion after the detection of embryonic or fetal cardiac activity, which normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy. The law took effect on September 1, 2021, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for emergency relief from Texas abortion providers. It is the first time a state has successfully imposed a six-week abortion ban since "Roe v. Wade", and the first abortion restriction to rely solely on enforcement by private individuals through civil lawsuits, rather than having state officials enforce the law with criminal or civil penalties. The act authorizes members of the public to sue anyone who performs or facilitates an illegal abortion for a minimum of $10,000 in statutory damages per abortion, plus court costs and attorneys' fees.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The Texas Heartbeat Act has been subjected to numerous lawsuits in state and federal court, but the statute has thus far withstood each of these court challenges and remains in effect. Lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Act have been filed by abortion providers and advocates, as well as the United States Department of Justice, but none of these lawsuits have been able to restore access to post-heartbeat abortions in Texas. The law has been exceedingly difficult to challenge in court because of its unique enforcement mechanism, which bars state officials from enforcing the law and instead authorizes private individuals to sue anyone who performs or assists a post-heartbeat abortion. Because the law is enforced by private citizens rather than government officials, abortion providers have been unable to obtain relief that will stop private lawsuits from being initiated against them. This produced an end-run around "Roe v. Wade", which had established a federal constitutional right to abortion, because the threat of private civil-enforcement lawsuits forced abortion providers to comply with SB 8 despite its incompatibility with the Supreme Court's then-existing abortion pronouncements.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Even when courts have declared SB 8 unconstitutional, abortion providers have remained in compliance with the Act because it purports to subject individuals to private civil-enforcement lawsuits if they perform or assist a post-heartbeat abortion while an injunction that blocks the law's enforcement is in effect, if that injunction is later vacated or reversed on appeal. On October 6, 2021, federal district Judge Robert L. Pitman issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the state of Texas from enforcing the law, which remained in effect until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a stay of Pitman's order two days later. Yet Pitman's order was unable to fully restore access to post-heartbeat abortions in Texas, even during the 48-hour window in which it was in effect, because abortion providers were unwilling to risk the civil liability that would be imposed if Pitman's injunction were stayed or overturned by a higher court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn the Fifth Circuit's stay of Pitman's ruling, so any post-heartbeat abortions performed in reliance on Pitman's injunction are subject to private civil-enforcement lawsuits under the terms of SB 8. This has made it difficult for abortion providers to resume services even when they obtain relief from a lower court that pronounces the statute unconstitutional, and it has further frustrated efforts to thwart the statute's enforcement in court.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The success of the Texas Heartbeat Act was a major blow to "Roe v. Wade", as it provided a blueprint for states to outlaw abortion while insulating their laws from effective judicial review. This enabled the states to evade "Roe v. Wade" and other Supreme Court rulings that had declared abortion to be a constitutionally protected right. It also led other states to copy SB 8’s enforcement mechanism and immunize their restrictive abortion laws from judicial review. On May 25, 2022, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed HB 4327 into law, which outlaws abortion from the moment of fertilization. Because HB 4237, like the Texas Heartbeat Act, is enforced solely through civil lawsuits brought by private citizens, abortion providers were unable to stop the law in court and ceased performing abortions in Oklahoma, even though the Supreme Court had not yet overruled "Roe v. Wade" when the statute took effect. Idaho has also enacted a six-week abortion ban modeled after the Texas Heartbeat Act, which has prevented abortion providers from challenging the constitutionality of the statute in federal court.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: A different six-week abortion ban, HB 59, was previously introduced in Texas by Representative Phil King on July 18, 2013. The bill did not pass. In 2019, another six-week abortion ban was introduced as HB 1500, which was jointly authored by Representatives Briscoe Cain, Phil King, Dan Flynn, Tan Parker, and Rick Miller. As of February 26, 2019, HB 1500 had 57 sponsors or cosponsors of the 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives. HB 1500, like HB 59, relied on conventional public enforcement by state officials, similar to laws that had been enacted in other states. HB 1500 did not pass.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: On March 11, 2021, the Texas Heartbeat Bill (Senate Bill 8 or SB 8 for short) was introduced by Senator Bryan Hughes. A companion bill (HB 1515) was filed by Representative Shelby Slawson a day later in the Texas House of Representatives. Unlike HB 1500, SB 8 and HB 1515 contained a novel enforcement mechanism designed to shield the law from pre-enforcement judicial review. Each of the bills explicitly forbade state officials to enforce the law in any way, and instead authorized private individuals to sue those who perform or assist abortions after cardiac activity had been detected for $10,000 per abortion, plus costs and attorneys' fees. In structuring the law this way, the authors sought to shield it from judicial review in federal court, because lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a state statute must be brought against state officials charged with enforcing the disputed law, rather than against the state itself. And without a state official who enforces the law, there is no one for abortion providers to sue pre-enforcement; they must instead wait to be sued in state court by a private individual and assert their constitutional claims as a defense to liability in those private civil-enforcement proceedings. This enforcement mechanism is very similar to private attorney general laws. Hughes revealed that he had modeled SB8 after private attorney general laws like the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act which also offered bounties for successful lawsuits.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The private civil-enforcement feature of the law was engineered by former Stanford law professor Jonathan F. Mitchell. The idea was based on his 2018 "Virginia Law Review" article, "The Writ-of-Erasure Fallacy", which noted that laws enforced solely by private citizens are nearly impossible to challenge in pre-enforcement lawsuits. He later brought this idea to the attention of Mark Lee Dickson, an East Texas anti-abortion pastor, in 2019. Dickson was able to persuade the city council of Waskom, Texas, to enact an ordinance that outlawed abortion within city limits through the private civil-enforcement mechanism proposed by Mitchell, although it was mostly a symbolic move as the town had no abortion providers. Dickson then championed for similar laws to be passed in other towns and cities in Texas over the following years, including Lubbock, where a Planned Parenthood facility halted abortion procedures following passage of the local law. Mitchell helped Hughes draft the bill for the state based on the municipal ordinances he had written as a means of avoiding pre-enforcement judicial scrutiny, primarily by taking state officials out of enforcing the abortion ban and leaving enforcement entirely in the hands of private individuals.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The bill was a legislative priority of Republican lawmakers for the 2021 regular session, denoted 87(R). The Senate version was approved by both houses of the bicameral Texas legislature after the Senate concurred with House amendments. Texas governor Greg Abbott signed the bill on May 19, 2021, and it took effect on September 1, 2021.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The Texas Heartbeat Act contains twelve sections. Although the Act is best known for its provisions that outlaw abortion after cardiac activity has been detected, and that authorize private lawsuits against those who violate the Act, the Act includes other provisions that further restrict abortion and deter litigants from challenging abortion laws in court. It is regarded as one of the most aggressive and far-reaching pieces of anti-abortion legislation that has ever been enacted.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Section 2 of the Act declares that Texas has never repealed, either expressly or by implication, its pre–"Roe v. Wade" statutes that outlaw and criminalize abortion unless the mother's life is in danger. The Texas pre-"Roe" abortion laws are still codified at articles 4512.1 through 4512.6 of the Revised Civil Statutes, and they impose felony criminal liability on anyone who performs an elective abortion, as well as anyone who "furnishes the means for procuring an abortion knowing the purpose intended". The punishment is two to five years' imprisonment for each abortion performed or facilitated, and the statute of limitations is three years.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: By declaring that the state’s pre-"Roe" criminal abortion have never been repealed, section 2 overrules McCorvey v. Hill, a 2004 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which held that Texas had implicitly repealed its pre-"Roe" criminal abortion statutes by enacting subsequent legislation that regulates the abortion procedure. It also ensures that "all" abortions performed in Texas—including abortions that occur before cardiac activity is detectable—are defined and regarded as criminal acts under Texas law, even though prosecutors in Texas cannot indict or charge abortion providers for their violations of these statutes until "Roe v. Wade" is overruled.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The enactment of section 2 has led Texas officials to threaten abortion funds and their donors with criminal prosecution under the state’s pre-"Roe" abortion statutes. On March 18, 2022, Representative Briscoe Cain sent cease-and-desist letters to every abortion fund in Texas, demanding that they immediately stop paying for elective abortions performed in Texas. Cain warned that these abortion funds were violating the state’s unrepealed pre-"Roe" abortion statutes by “furnishing the means for procuring an abortion knowing the purpose intended,” and that every single one their employees, volunteers, and donors could face criminal prosecution for violating the state’s pre-"Roe" laws. Cain pointed out that neither "Roe v. Wade" nor any other decision of the Supreme Court has ever created or recognized a constitutional right to pay for another person’s abortion, and that "Roe" protects only abortion providers and their patients from prosecution under the state’s pre-"Roe" criminal abortion prohibitions. Abortion funds in Texas have refused to halt their activities in response to Cain’s letter, and Cain has promised to introduce legislation that will ensure that Texas abortion funds and their donors are prosecuted for each abortion that they have assisted in violation of the state’s pre-"Roe" abortion laws.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Section 3 of the Act requires a physician to test for a “fetal heartbeat” (or “cardiac activity”) before performing an abortion and prohibits abortion if a “fetal heartbeat” is detected. The only exception is for when “a physician believes a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance.” The term "medical emergency" is not defined in the statute.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Section 3 includes a provision that specifically bans public enforcement of the law by state or local officials, and insists that the sole means of enforcement shall take place through civil-enforcement lawsuits brought by private individuals.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Section 3 also authorizes any private individual to sue anyone who performs or induces, or "aids and abets," a post-heartbeat abortion. Although an abortion patient may not be named as a defendant, anybody who provides support for an unlawful abortion can be sued in addition to the physician performing the procedure. That includes staff members at clinics, counselors, lawyers, financiers, and those who provide transportation to an abortion clinic, including drivers of a taxi or ride-hailing companies. The act incentivizes private enforcement by authorizing successful plaintiffs to collect "statutory damages" of "not less than $10,000" for each post-heartbeat abortion that the defendant performed or facilitated, in addition to court costs and attorney's fees if a defendant is proven liable. Plaintiffs are not required to have a personal connection to the patient or abortion provider in order to bring a lawsuit under SB 8.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Section 3 of the Act also insulates the state of Texas and its officials from being sued by preserving their sovereign immunity and forbidding them to enforce the statute in any way.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: The Act allows defendants to escape liability if they demonstrate that the relief sought by the plaintiff will impose an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions. But the Act also provides that this “undue burden” defense is unavailable if the Supreme Court overrules "Roe v. Wade" or "Planned Parenthood v. Casey", even if the abortion occurred while those decisions were in effect, and it establishes a four-year statute of limitations. This subjects abortion providers and their enablers to potential future liability for abortions performed in reliance on "Roe" and "Casey" if those decisions are later overruled, and it deterred the provision of abortions even while "Roe" and "Casey" remained on the books.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Finally, section 3 allows civil-enforcement lawsuits to filed in the plaintiff’s home county, raising the prospect that anyone who violates or assists a violation of SB 8 could be forced to defend themselves in any one of Texas’s 254 counties, including deep-red counties where judges and juries will likely be hostile to abortion.


title: Texas Heartbeat Act

text: Section 4 of the Act requires litigants who challenge the constitutionality of "any" Texas abortion restriction to pay the attorneys' fees of "prevailing parties" if their challenge is unsuccessful. Section 4 also imposes joint and several liability on the attorneys and law firms that sue to enjoin the enforcement of any Texas abortion law.