title: Lollipop

text: Sugar is a very versatile ingredient and is used in a wide variety of food products. Sugar interacts differently depending on the presence of other ingredients and on various treatments. When heated enough to break the molecules apart, sugar generates a complex flavor, changes the color, and creates a pleasing aroma. Sugar can form two types of solids in foods; crystalline and glassy amorphous. Crystalline solids can be found in food products such as fondant, fudge, and butter creams, while glassy amorphous solids can be found in products such as lollipops, marshmallows, and caramels. Glassy amorphous solids result when moderate sugar concentrations (50% solutions) are heated to high temperatures, eliminating nearly all moisture. The final moisture content is around 1%-2%, whereas the final moisture content in crystalline candies is 8%-12%. The non-crystalline nature of glassy amorphous solids is due to the presence of inhibitors in the solution. Without an inhibitor, crystallization would occur spontaneously and rapidly as sugar cools due to its high concentration. Some common inhibitors used in lollipop production are corn syrup, cream of tartar, honey, and butter.


title: Lollipop

text: The second most important ingredient in lollipop production is water. Although the moisture content falls to less than 2% at the end of the lollipop making process, water is required at the start of the process. All other ingredients used in the process of lollipop production are optional. The use of inhibitors is dependent on the type of sugar used. The amount of inhibitor in the lollipop is usually small in comparison to the amount of sugar used. Additional flavors, colorings, and inclusions (like bubble gum or a tootsie roll) can be added to the final product, but are not a part of the main structure of a simple lollipop.


title: Lollipop

text: While the main functional ingredients of a lollipop are quite simple, the process of making such confections can be complex. The formation and physical state of the glassy amorphous structure used in the creation of the lollipop is an involved chemical process. The first step in making lollipops after mixing the main ingredients is the heating process. During heating, the molecules increase in their translational mobility and therefore begin to resemble liquids. Although many hard candies are heated to about 310˚F, the temperature that the solution is heated to is dependent on the specific volume and contents of the mixture. After heating is complete, the solution can then be cooled. The final cooled solution is a supersaturated due to the moisture content dropping below 2%. Supersaturated or supercooled liquids are also formed due to inhibitors preventing crystallization. They are unstable because crystallization is a favored reaction in this case. During the cooling process, the most important physicochemical characteristic of lollipops, the glass transition process, occurs.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: Georgios Giakoumakis (; born 9 December 1994) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a striker for Scottish Premiership club Celtic and the Greece national team.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: Giakoumakis started his career at Atsalenios. In 2012, he signed for Platanias and he debuted for the club in a 3–2 win against Skoda Xanthi, coming in as a substitute in the 78th minute.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: In January 2014 he signed for Episkopi on loan until the end of the season and he made a total of 11 appearances and scoring two goals. He returned to Platanias, starting playing more often in the 2014–15 season and on 26 April 2015, he scored his first Superleague goal, in a 2–0 home win Panetolikos.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 26 June 2017, Giakoumakis joined AEK Athens on a four-year contract. On 20 December, he scored his first goal with the club in a 4–0 away Greek Cup win against Panetolikos. On 4 February, he scored as a late substitute in stoppage time in 2–1 away win game against champions Olympiacos. It was his first goal in Super League with AEK.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: He scored his first goal for the 2018–19 season, in a 2–1 home win against Lamia for the Greek Cup, taking advantage of Lucas Boyé's excellent solo effort.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 24 January 2019, after a year-and-a-half in AEK Athens, Giakoumakis signed a six months contract with OFI in the club's effort to avoid relegation, with an undisclosed purchase option for the summer of 2019. On 17 March 2019, he scored his first goal with the club in a crucial 2–0 home win over fellow strugglers Levadiakos to climb above their SuperLeague rivals, however both clubs still sit in the relegation zone.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 3 March 2020, he was loaned out to Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze for the remainder of the current football season. On 30 May 2020, Giakoumakis scored the winning goal for Górnik Zabrze against ŁKS Łódź sealing a vital 1–0 away win for his club. On 23 June 2020, Giakoumakis scored his third goal for Górnik Zabrze in the Ekstraklasa, while teammate Stavros Vasilantonopoulos registered his second marker for the club in the same match. The Greek striker connected with a low pass across the box, neatly turning the ball beyond the goalkeeper into the far right corner, sealing a 3–1 away win against ŁKS Łódź.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 11 August 2020, Giakoumakis moved to VVV-Venlo. He signed a two-year contract with an option for an additional year with the Dutch club, while AEK Athens received a transfer fee of €600,000. On 12 September, in his first game for VVV, Giakoumakis led his new club to win against FC Emmen by scoring a hat trick in the 2020–21 Eredivisie opener. The Greek forward scored all his goals in the second half, overturning the score, as the hosts were leading up to that point with 2–0.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 14 January 2021, Giakoumakis scored all four goals in a 4–1 away victory at ADO Den Haag. Two weeks later, on 28 January 2021, he again scored all four goals in a 4–1 victory: this time at home to Vitesse, and joined former Ajax striker Luis Suárez as the only players in the 21st century to have twice scored four goals in a single Eredivisie game. He was voted Eredivisie Player of the Month for January, having scored the most goals in Netherlands in a calendar month since 1985, and the second-most to Marco Van Basten's 12 with Ajax.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 14 March, VVV-Venlo may have suffered its seventh consecutive defeat in the Eredivisie, however Giakoumakis with the goal he scored against Fortuna Sittard in an 3–1 home loss, made history as he caught Hans Sleven, who in the 1958–59 season had scored 24 goals in one year, rising to the fifth place of the scorers of all times for the club. On 13 May, Giakoumakis scored in VVV-Venlo's defeat in a crucial match against champions Ajax. After a reasonably good start to the competition, the club was unable to win the last fourteen matches in the league and was relegated while Giakoumakis became top scorer of Eredivisie.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: During the summer window, Giakoumakis was wanted by various clubs, with German club Werder Bremen agreeing a transfer fee with Venlo. On 31 August 2021, the last day of the summer transfer window, he signed for Scottish Premiership club Celtic on a five-year contract for a fee of £2.5 million. A month later, he made his debut as a substitute in a 4–0 home loss against Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League. On 23 October, Giakoumakis scored his first goal for Celtic, opening the scoring in a 2–0 league win against St Johnstone. On 22 January 2022, Giakoumakis started for the first time in three months and rewarded Ange Postecoglou with a goal in a 2–1 away win over Alloa Athletic in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 20 February, Giakoumakis scored a hat-trick in a 3–2 win against Dundee. On 14 March, Giakoumakis scored twice to help beat Dundee United and book their place in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup. On 19 March, he scored his second hat-trick in five games as Celtic beat in-form Ross County 4–0 to move six points clear of Rangers at the top of the table. His efforts in March earned him the SPFL Player of The Month award. On the final day of the season, Giakoumakis scored a double after coming off the bench against Motherwell to become the joint top goalscorer in the league. This was despite playing in only 21 games, which was 16 fewer than Regan Charles-Cook who also scored 13.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 30 March 2015, head coach Kostas Tsanas announced his first call up (replaced Nikolaos Ioannidis) and make his debut with Greece U21 for an international friendly game at Peristeri Stadium against Croatia U21.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: On 11 November 2020, Giakoumakis scored on his debut for the Greece national team against Cyprus in a 2–1 victory.


title: Giorgos Giakoumakis

text: Giakoumakis was born in Heraklion, Crete, is of Romani origins, and comes from a family that has produced footballers in three generations.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: "Full Measure" is the thirteenth episode and season finale of the third season of the American television crime drama series "Breaking Bad", and the 33rd overall episode of the series. It was written and directed by the show's creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: In a flashback to 1993, Walter White and his pregnant wife Skyler are shown by a realtor the house where they will eventually live. Walt, then working at the prestigious Sandia Laboratory, envisions a bright future with three children and worries that they are not setting their sights high enough with the "starter house".


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: In the present day, after Walt kills the gang members and Jesse Pinkman goes on the run, Walt meets with Gus Fring and Mike to negotiate for his and Jesse's safety, and for the continuation of his employment. Walt suggests Gus has two options: (A) kill Walt right there on the spot and eventually track down and kill Jesse, or (B) consider the incident a "lone hiccup in an otherwise long and fruitful business arrangement," let him return to cooking, and both agree to forget about Jesse. Gus leaves, appearing to have chosen option B but informs Walt that he will be choosing Jesse's replacement.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: Walt arrives at the superlab. Gale Boetticher has been reinstated as his lab partner, and Victor now shadows them everywhere. Gus informs Gale later that night of Walt's cancer. Gus says he intends to keep Walt on as long as possible but must prepare for the "worst-case scenario." Walt, whose prior suspicions about Gale are soon reignited, correctly concludes that Gus is simply grooming Gale and that Walt will be killed once Gale masters Walt's cooking procedure.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: Acting on Gus's request, Mike visits Saul Goodman to find out Jesse's whereabouts. Saul refuses, claiming attorney-client privilege, but relents after Mike physically threatens him. Saul then allows Mike to look at a notebook containing a fake address for a trailer park in Virginia.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: Walt and Saul meet Jesse at a laser tag arcade; Victor is parked nearby and watches Walt and Saul enter. Walt informs Jesse of his situation and explains that when Gale is confident enough to take over, they will be disposed of. Walt decides they must kill Gale. Jesse begs Walt, having made enough money from the venture to ensure his family is financially secure, to quit and go to the police or the Drug Enforcement Administration, but Walt refuses. He reasons that Gus cannot stop production, and with Gale out of the picture, Gus would have no choice but to keep Walt. Jesse says he is not a murderer and cannot kill Gale. Walt says he will do the job, and Jesse only needs to find Gale's address, as Walt is being heavily watched and cannot do so. Later that evening, Jesse calls Walt at home with Gale's address.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: As Walt is leaving his home to kill Gale, Victor arrives and informs him of a chemical leak at the lab. Walt suspects a setup but is forced to go with Victor. Upon arriving at the laundromat, Walt sees Mike, confirming his suspicions. Pleading for his life, Walt offers to cook for free and take them to Jesse. Mike, upon hearing this, demands Jesse's location, but Walt says he needs to call him and set up a meeting. Walt calls Jesse, who is sitting in the darkened laser tag building about to smoke meth. Jesse asks "Did you do it?" Walt frantically tells Jesse he is about to be killed. He urges Jesse to reach Gale and kill him first. Victor and Mike wrestle the phone away and when Walt quotes Gale's address to them, they realize what he has asked Jesse to do. Victor hurriedly leaves; Mike stays with Walt and attempts to warn Gale, but Gale fails to notice his phone ringing. Jesse arrives at Gale's house and pulls a gun on him. Gale pleads for his life, but a tearful and shaking Jesse reluctantly pulls the trigger.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode ends with Jesse's pulling a gun on Gale and firing directly into the screen, with Gale's death not visibly revealed on-screen. This led to wide speculation among fans and reviewers that Jesse did not actually kill Gale, but rather aimed away from him and fired the gun. However, Gilligan said he never intended for that scene to be a cliffhanger and he thought it clearly conveyed that Gale had died.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: Upon first initial airing, the episode was watched by 1.56 million American viewers, and attained an 18–49 rating/share of 0.7/2.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: Bryan Cranston won his third consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in this episode.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: Critical reaction to the episode was overwhelmingly positive, with many reviewers calling it one of the best in the series. Tim Goodman of the "San Francisco Chronicle" praised the season's character development, describing the finale as "an exclamation mark on the tortured journey of Jesse". Maureen Ryan of the "Chicago Tribune" believed the episode "mixed action with character beats well." Donna Bowman of "The A.V. Club" stated the episode "should cement this season of "Breaking Bad" as one of television's finest dramatic accomplishments". Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a 9, saying that "[it] wasn't the best episode this season, but it was still a good one and we got to know more about the rest of the players."


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: The finale of the episode (and season), where Jesse Pinkman hesitantly shoots Gale point-blank, was critically acclaimed. Stephen Lagioia, writing for "Screen Rant", said the moment was a pivotal one for Jesse's character development, calling the scene "a pretty somber and disturbing moment." Being called one of the saddest, and most shocking deaths in the series by various critics, Amanda Harding said Gale's death was a turning point in Jesse's and Walter's relationship, and also said the ending further moved Walter into becoming his darker persona, Heisenberg.


title: Full Measure (Breaking Bad)

text: In 2019 "The Ringer" ranked "Full Measure" as the second best out of the 62 total "Breaking Bad" episodes.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: The Polka-Dot Man (Abner Krill) is a fictional character and supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a minor enemy of Batman, belonging to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: The character made his live-action debut in the DC Extended Universe film "The Suicide Squad" (2021), portrayed by David Dastmalchian.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: Shortly after Batman began appearing in Gotham City, his growing renown inspired an entire generation of costumed rogues who committed largely harmless crimes to attract his attention in the hopes of matching wits with the legendary vigilante. Among these was a local crook named Abner Krill, who decided, for reasons unknown, to launch a crime wave based on spots and dots in Gotham City, where he inevitably came into conflict with Batman and Robin. As Mister Polka-Dot, he wore a costume covered in spots (which, being different sizes and colors were not actual polka dots); once removed from the costume, the spots could be used for a variety of purposes, such as creating deadly weapons and a bizarre escape vehicle. He succeeded in capturing Robin, but Batman defeated him.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: Years later, Krill (now calling himself the Polka-Dot Man) was driven to crime once more when he found himself unemployed, penniless, and desperate to pay his bills. No longer able to afford his original electronically gimmicked costume, he instead resorted to using a baseball bat in a poorly thought-out attempt to rob a jewelry store, which resulted in him assaulting Officer Foley of the Gotham City Police Department, causing minor injuries. He was then beaten badly by Detective Harvey Bullock, who was sick of costumed villains in the city. The assault put the Polka-Dot Man in traction and he filed a brutality suit against the police department, which resulted in Bullock being forced to see a psychiatrist.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: Following his recovery, Krill became a committed alcoholic who spent more time drinking himself into a stupor in sleazy bars than troubling Batman. The fact that Robin had tracked him down with a leopard became something of a running joke among other villains. As Nightwing, Dick Grayson encountered the Polka-Dot Man a second time when he trashed "My Alibi", a bar known for underworld regulars who vouched for each other's whereabouts when they were off committing crimes. Nightwing pitched Krill through a window display and into the street, where he was picked up by the police.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: Later, Mister Polka-Dot (having resumed his original alias) reappeared with a new look, joining a group of villains working for General Immortus. Immortus, with the help of Professor Milo, upgraded the villains' powers and gadgets. As a follower of General Immortus, Mister Polka-Dot has presumably been operated upon by Professor Milo to internalize his technology. The group was undone when they were betrayed by the Human Flame. Most were killed in the brutal battle, including Mister Polka-Dot. His head was crushed after a manhole cover landed on it.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: When he created his costume, Abner Krill possessed advanced technology in the form of the costume's polka dots, which were controlled through the costume's belt. When attached to his costume, they were inert, but once removed, they would enlarge in size and become various different devices which could aid in his crime sprees, most notably a flying saucer which he used as a getaway vehicle.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: The Polka-Dot Man appears in the prequel comic to "Injustice 2". Following the events of , he is shown as a member of this universe's Suicide Squad. However, after a mysterious villain (actually Jason Todd disguised as Batman) appears and takes control of the Squad, he kills the Polka-Dot Man using the bomb implanted in his neck, considering him useless.


title: Polka-Dot Man

text: The Polka-Dot Man makes a cameo appearance in the final issue of the "Batman '66" comic series, set in the universe of the 1966 "Batman" TV series.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Antonio Marquis "L.A." Reid (born June 7, 1956) is an American record executive, A&R representative, and record producer. He is the founder and served as co-chairman of Hitco Entertainment. He also previously served as the chairman and CEO of Epic Records and The Island Def Jam Music Group, as well as the president and CEO of Arista Records.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Early in his career he was a musician, joining the Ohio R&B bands Pure Essence in 1973, and The Deele (with future business partner Babyface) in 1981 as a drummer. Reid also has an extended musical career serving as a record producer, programmer, and instrumentalist for various recording artists. He also founded Hitco Music Publishing in 1996 as well as co-founded LaFace Records with producing partner Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Reid appeared as a judge on the first two seasons of the U.S. version of the television show "The X Factor," after which he focused on the release of "Xscape," the posthumous album by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid has won three Grammy Awards, including as a songwriter for Boyz II Men's "End of the Road". His life is documented in his 2016 memoir "Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next," which also made the "New York Times" bestseller list.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid began his music career as a drummer, with his first appearance on record being with the Cincinnati funk rock outfit Pure Essence. Pure Essence released one solitary 45 in the mid-1970s. They later appeared on local FM rock radio station WEBN's second annual LP compilation, but the group was renamed 'Essence'. Reid would experience more mainstream success when he became a member of the 1980s R&B band The Deele, best known for their 1988 hit "Two Occasions", a song on their third album "Eyes of a Stranger". The band had broken up before the success of the single, then reunited to promote "Two Occasions" as it rose up the charts under Dick Griffey's Solar Records. The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.


title: L.A. Reid

text: After The Deele disbanded, Reid and bandmate Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds founded LaFace in 1989 through a joint venture with Arista Records, with funding from Arista Records creator Clive Davis. The label soon became one of the premier destinations for popular African-American entertainers who created Black Pop music that was easily accessible to both Urban and Top 40 radio formats. Reid signed 14-year-old Usher to the label, whose six album releases have sold 65 million units worldwide. Other popular acts on the label during its peak include Toni Braxton, TLC, and Outkast. Both TLC and Toni Braxton went on to sell more than 65 million records each. Initially headquartered in Atlanta, the label played a significant role in developing the city's music industry.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid formed the Hitco Publishing Group in 1996, as a joint venture with Windswept Music. While starting up Hitco, Reid, looking to connect to a new market of producers, songwriters and talent, hired Shakir Stewart whom he saw as someone with "a finger on the pulse of the next generation of hot producers in the Atlanta music scene". Shakir's first job in the music industry was as a creative executive at Hitco; he went on to become a senior vice president at Island Def Jam Music Group.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In May 2000, Edmonds and Reid sold their remaining 50% stake in LaFace to parent company BMG. The label became an imprint of Arista Records, with Arista taking on sales, marketing, and promotional duties for its acts. At this time, Reid also succeeded Clive Davis as president of Arista Records.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In 2000, LaFace was merged into Arista Records with Reid being promoted to president and CEO of Arista Records. In 1997 Reid attended the Harvard Business School six-week Advanced Management Program, in preparation to become CEO of Arista Records. In 2000, Reid signed his first unknown artists, Latin rapper Havana Mena and pop/rocker Avril Lavigne, to Arista. Avril Lavigne's debut album Let Go sold 6 million copies in the United States. As president of Arista Records, Reid signed artists such as Pink (whose November 2001 album Missundaztood sold 5 million copies in the US) and Ciara (whose September 2004 debut album Goodies sold 2.5 million copies in the US).


title: L.A. Reid

text: Under Reid's tenure at Arista, Usher (whom Reid originally signed at LaFace) completed production on his multi-platinum hit 2004 album "Confessions", which went on to spawn four No. 1 hit singles and sell 10 million copies in the United States alone. Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" sold more than 10 million copies and won a Grammy Award for Album of the year.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Following the merger of Sony and BMG, L.A. Reid was released from his contract at Arista in 2004 and became the chairman and CEO of The Island Def Jam Music Group in February 2004. Reid is noted for bringing Mariah Carey's career back to prominence with her multi-platinum 2005 album "The Emancipation of Mimi" after her career had stalled from 2001 to 2003 with less than stellar sales and general lack of public interest for her two previous projects, "Glitter" and "Charmbracelet".


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid also played a role in the successes of artists such as Kanye West, Rihanna, Bon Jovi, and Justin Bieber and was credited for the musical comeback of Jennifer Lopez with her 2011 album "Love?". Reid stepped down as Chairman/CEO of Island Def Jam in March 2011.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In early 2011 Reid became a judge on the U.S. version of the British television singing competition "The X Factor", alongside its creator and former "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell, 80s pop star Paula Abdul and former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, who replaced British recording artist Cheryl Cole.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid was assigned the Boys category throughout the competition, aided by friend and singer Rihanna at the Judges' Houses stage of the competition in The Hamptons. His final four acts were Marcus Canty, Chris Rene, Astro and Phillip Lomax. Lomax was eliminated on week one of the Live Shows, with Astro being eliminated on week six. Marcus Canty came fourth in the competition and was eliminated by the public vote in the semi-final (week eight). Chris Rene was Reid's most successful act who came third overall in the competition, bested by Josh Krajcik (who was mentored by Nicole Scherzinger) in second place and Melanie Amaro (mentored by Simon Cowell) who won the show. After the season ended, Reid worked with Astro, Marcus Canty and Chris Rene on their music careers.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In July 2011, Reid became the chairman and CEO of Epic Records. The label's roster included various former Jive Records artists.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In September 2012, Reid returned for "The X Factor"'s second season along with Simon Cowell, while Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul were axed from the panel, along with Season 1 host Steve Jones. Joining the judging panel were new judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, while Khloé Kardashian and Mario Lopez replaced Jones as co-hosts. Reid's team of finalists in the "over 25's" included Tate Stevens, the winner of the season.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid announced in December 2012 that he would not return for the third season in 2013 and was replaced by former judge of The X Factor UK, Kelly Rowland.


title: L.A. Reid

text: One of the projects that Reid embarked on following his stint on "The X Factor," was remaking Michael Jackson songs after his death with the album "Xscape", released May 2014. Reid went through 40 years of tracks catalogued by the Jackson estate, and eight tracks of Jackson vocals set to new music from Timbaland and J-Roc, Rodney Jerkins, Stargate and John McClain, the former A&M Records executive who is co-executor of the Jackson estate with John Branca. The originals they worked with were recorded by Michael Jackson from 1983 to 1999, the period just after "Thriller" and before "Invincible". "Xscape" earned Gold certification.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In 2016, Reid published the memoir "Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next". The book received favorable reviews. Soul Train wrote: "In "Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next," his memoir written with Joel Selvin, Reid vividly takes readers on a musical journey via fascinating stories and rare photos that chronicle his modest beginnings as a young musician in Cincinnati, to his storied and adventurous path to becoming one of the most successful music executives in history.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Under Reid, Epic had four albums debut at No. 1: Future, DJ Khaled, Travis Scott, and the final album from A Tribe Called Quest. On March 3, 2017 Future became the only artist on the "Billboard" charts to release back-to-back albums that debuted at number 1. While at Epic, Reid established the label as a hub for hip-hop acts such as Future, Travis Scott, DJ Khaled, and had significant success with pop artists including Meghan Trainor and Fifth Harmony. During his tenure, Epic grew its market share to 3.63 percent, up from 2.56 percent when he took over in 2011.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid is the co-author (with Joel Selvin) of "The New York Times" bestseller "Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next".


title: L.A. Reid

text: In May 2017, it was announced that Reid would exit his post at Epic Records following an accusation of unlawful behavior by a female co-worker. In response Reid stated: "I'm proud of my track record promoting, supporting and uplifting women at every company I've ever run. That notwithstanding, if I have ever said anything capable of being misinterpreted, I apologize unreservedly."


title: L.A. Reid

text: In 2018, Reid became founder and co-chairman of Hitco Entertainment, LLC with Charles Goldstuck, the former Chairman and CEO of TouchTunes Interactive Networks. Formed in January 2018, the company has offices in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta and has signed over 15 artists including platinum-selling acts Big Boi (of Outkast) and Dinah Jane of Fifth Harmony; the first release is a new album from Big Boi of Outkast. In April 2018, Empire Distribution, the San Francisco-based independent music company founded by Ghazi Shami, announced that it will provide distribution services to Hitco for their first new album release for Big Boi. In August 2018, Hitco held The Hit List showcase in New York City with performances by Hitco artists including Yella Beezy. Hitco's hit, Yella Beezy's "That's on Me", reached No. 1 at Urban Radio and Top 20 at Rhythm in September & has since went on to sell over 2 million copies worldwide. Songwriter Delacey, who has written for the likes of Halsey and Zara Larsson, joined the Hitco roster as a solo artist releasing "My Man," in March 2019. Also in March, Jennifer Lopez premiered the single "Medicine" featuring French Montana, her first release with Reid's Hitco Entertainment label.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In 2022, the assets of Hitco and its artist recording contracts were sold to Concord Music Group and Hitco ceased operations.


title: L.A. Reid

text: On August 30, 2006, L.A. Reid, along with Babyface, was honored as a BMI Icon at the 6th annual BMI Urban Awards. As of 2006, he has won 18 BMI awards. Together with Babyface, Reid has produced and/or co-written penning numerous R&B hits, racking up over 40 No. 1 singles.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid was honored with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' President's Merit Award at the Grammy salute to Industry Icons celebration on February 9, 2013, the day prior to the 55th Grammy Awards. Reid is also a three-time Grammy Award winner. In 2014, Reid received the Harvard University Alumni Award of Excellence in Media.


title: L.A. Reid

text: In 2006, Reid was noted for his philanthropic efforts to bring arts programs to urban youth at the Art for Life Palm Beach fundraiser hosted by Russel Simmons. That year he also received the UJA-Federation of New York's Music Visionary Award. He has also been involved with the Taste of Hope event for the City of Hope organization and the Robin Hood Foundation. In 2008 Reid wrote and co-produced the song "Just Stand Up" for the television special Stand Up To Cancer, which was performed by artists including Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes, and Carrie Underwood. The record sales for the single were donated to the show's eponymous organization. In 2009, Reid received the Spirit of Compassion Award from UNICEF.


title: L.A. Reid

text: Reid has a son named Antonio M. Reid, Jr., born in 1978, from a previous relationship. He married Perri "Pebbles" Reid in 1989; this union produced a son, Aaron Alexander, in November 1989. Reid and Pebbles divorced in 1996. In 2000 he married Erica Holton. They have two children.


title: Cupid's bow

text: The Cupid's bow is a facial feature where the double curve of a human upper lip is said to resemble the bow of Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love. The peaks of the bow coincide with the philtral columns giving a prominent bow appearance to the lip.


title: Rotifer

text: The rotifers (, from the Latin , "wheel", and , "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals.


title: Rotifer

text: They were first described by Rev. John Harris in 1696, and other forms were described by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1703. Most rotifers are around long (although their size can range from to over ), and are common in freshwater environments throughout the world with a few saltwater species.


title: Rotifer

text: Some rotifers are free swimming and truly planktonic, others move by inchworming along a substrate, and some are sessile, living inside tubes or gelatinous holdfasts that are attached to a substrate. About 25 species are colonial (e.g., "Sinantherina semibullata"), either sessile or planktonic. Rotifers are an important part of the freshwater zooplankton, being a major foodsource and with many species also contributing to the decomposition of soil organic matter. Most species of the rotifers are cosmopolitan, but there are also some endemic species, like "Cephalodella vittata" to Lake Baikal. Recent barcoding evidence, however, suggests that some 'cosmopolitan' species, such as "Brachionus plicatilis", "B. calyciflorus", "Lecane bulla", among others, are actually species complexes. In some recent treatments, rotifers are placed with acanthocephalans in a larger clade called Syndermata.


title: Rotifer

text: In June 2021, biologists reported the restoration of bdelloid rotifers after being frozen for 24,000 years in the Siberian permafrost.


title: Rotifer

text: Rev. John Harris first described the rotifers (in particular a bdelloid rotifer) in 1696 as "an animal like a large maggot which could contract itself into a spherical figure and then stretch itself out again; the end of its tail appeared with a forceps like that of an earwig". In 1702, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek gave a detailed description of "Rotifer vulgaris" and subsequently described "Melicerta ringens" and other species. He was also the first to publish observations of the revivification of certain species after drying. Other forms were described by other observers, but it was not until the publication of Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg's in 1838 that the rotifers were recognized as being multicellular animals.


title: Rotifer

text: About 2,200 species of rotifers have been described. Their taxonomy is currently in a state of flux. One treatment places them in the phylum Rotifera, with three classes: Seisonidea, Bdelloidea and Monogononta. The largest group is the Monogononta, with about 1,500 species, followed by the Bdelloidea, with about 350 species. There are only two known genera with three species of Seisonidea.


title: Rotifer

text: The Acanthocephala, previously considered to be a separate phylum, have been demonstrated to be modified rotifers. The exact relationship to other members of the phylum has not yet been resolved. One possibility is that the Acanthocephala are closer to the Bdelloidea and Monogononta than to the Seisonidea; the corresponding names and relationships are shown in the cladogram below.


title: Rotifer

text: The Rotifera, strictly speaking, are confined to the Bdelloidea and the Monogononta. Rotifera, Acanthocephala and Seisonida make up a clade called Syndermata.


title: Rotifer

text: The word "rotifer" is derived from a Neo-Latin word meaning "wheel-bearer", due to the corona around the mouth that in concerted sequential motion resembles a wheel (though the organ does not actually rotate).


title: Rotifer

text: Rotifers have bilateral symmetry and a variety of different shapes. The body of a rotifer is divided into a head, trunk, and foot, and is typically somewhat cylindrical. There is a well-developed cuticle, which may be thick and rigid, giving the animal a box-like shape, or flexible, giving the animal a worm-like shape; such rotifers are respectively called "loricate" and "illoricate". Rigid cuticles are often composed of multiple plates, and may bear spines, ridges, or other ornamentation. Their cuticle is nonchitinous and is formed from sclerotized proteins.


title: Rotifer

text: The two most distinctive features of rotifers (in females of all species) are the presence of "corona" on the head, a structure ciliated in all genera except "Cupelopagis" and presence of mastax. In the more primitive species, the corona forms a simple ring of cilia around the mouth from which an additional band of cilia stretches over the back of the head. In the great majority of rotifers, however, this has evolved into a more complex structure.


title: Rotifer

text: Modifications to the basic plan of the corona include alteration of the cilia into bristles or large tufts, and either expansion or loss of the ciliated band around the head. In genera such as "Collotheca", the corona is modified to form a funnel surrounding the mouth. In many species, such as those in the genus "Testudinella", the cilia around the mouth have disappeared, leaving just two small circular bands on the head. In the bdelloids, this plan is further modified, with the upper band splitting into two rotating wheels, raised up on a pedestal projecting from the upper surface of the head.


title: Rotifer

text: The trunk forms the major part of the body, and encloses most of the internal organs. The foot projects from the rear of the trunk, and is usually much narrower, giving the appearance of a tail. The cuticle over the foot often forms rings, making it appear segmented, although the internal structure is uniform. Many rotifers can retract the foot partially or wholly into the trunk. The foot ends in from one to four toes, which, in sessile and crawling species, contain adhesive glands to attach the animal to the substratum. In many free-swimming species, the foot as a whole is reduced in size, and may even be absent.


title: Rotifer

text: The coronal cilia create a current that sweeps food into the mouth. The mouth opens into a characteristic chewing pharynx (called the "mastax"), sometimes via a ciliated tube, and sometimes directly. The pharynx has a powerful muscular wall and contains tiny, calcified, jaw-like structures called "trophi", which are the only fossilizable parts of a rotifer. The shape of the trophi varies between different species, depending partly on the nature of their diet. In suspension feeders, the trophi are covered in grinding ridges, while in more actively carnivorous species, they may be shaped like forceps to help bite into prey. In some ectoparasitic rotifers, the mastax is adapted to grip onto the host, although, in others, the foot performs this function instead.


title: Rotifer

text: Behind the mastax lies an oesophagus, which opens into a stomach where most of the digestion and absorption occurs. The stomach opens into a short intestine that terminates in a cloaca on the posterior dorsal surface of the animal. Up to seven salivary glands are present in some species, emptying to the mouth in front of the oesophagus, while the stomach is associated with two gastric glands that produce digestive enzymes.


title: Rotifer

text: A pair of protonephridia open into a bladder that drains into the cloaca. These organs expel water from the body, helping to maintain osmotic balance.


title: Rotifer

text: Rotifers have a small brain, located just above the mastax, from which a number of nerves extend throughout the body. The number of nerves varies among species, although the nervous system usually has a simple layout. Close to the brain lies a "retrocerebral organ", consisting of two glands either side of a medial sac. The sac drains into a duct that divides into two before opening through pores on the uppermost part of the head. The function of the retrocerebral organ is unclear.


title: Rotifer

text: Rotifers typically possess one or two pairs of short antennae and up to five eyes. The eyes are simple in structure, sometimes with just a single photoreceptor cell. In addition, the bristles of the corona are sensitive to touch, and there are also a pair of tiny sensory pits lined by cilia in the head region.


title: Rotifer

text: Like many other microscopic animals, adult rotifers frequently exhibit eutely—they have a fixed number of cells within a species, usually on the order of 1,000.


title: Rotifer

text: Bdelloid rotifer genomes contain two or more divergent copies of each gene, suggesting a long-term asexual evolutionary history. For example, four copies of hsp82 are found. Each is different and found on a different chromosome excluding the possibility of homozygous sexual reproduction.


title: Rotifer

text: Rotifers eat particulate organic detritus, dead bacteria, algae, and protozoans. They eat particles up to 10 micrometres in size. Like crustaceans, rotifers contribute to nutrient recycling. For this reason, they are used in fish tanks to help clean the water, to prevent clouds of waste matter. Rotifers affect the species composition of algae in ecosystems through their choice in grazing. Rotifers may compete with cladocera and copepods for planktonic food sources.


title: Rotifer

text: Rotifers are dioecious and reproduce sexually or parthenogenetically. They are sexually dimorphic, with the females always being larger than the males. In some species, this is relatively mild, but in others the female may be up to ten times the size of the male. In parthenogenetic species, males may be present only at certain times of the year, or absent altogether.


title: Rotifer

text: The female reproductive system consists of one or two ovaries, each with a "vitellarium" gland that supplies the eggs with yolk. Together, each ovary and vitellarium form a single syncitial structure in the anterior part of the animal, opening through an oviduct into the cloaca.


title: Rotifer

text: Males do not usually have a functional digestive system, and are therefore short-lived, often being sexually fertile at birth. They have a single testicle and sperm duct, associated with a pair of glandular structures referred to as "prostates" (unrelated to the vertebrate prostate). The sperm duct opens into a gonopore at the posterior end of the animal, which is usually modified to form a penis. The gonopore is homologous to the cloaca of females, but in most species has no connection to the vestigial digestive system, which lacks an anus.


title: Rotifer

text: The phylum Rotifera encloses three classes that reproduce by three different mechanisms: Seisonidea only reproduce sexually; Bdelloidea reproduce exclusively by asexual parthenogenesis; Monogononta reproduce alternating these two mechanisms ("cyclical parthenogenesis" or "heterogony"). Parthenogenesis (amictic phase) dominates the monogonont life cycle, promoting fast population growth and colonization. In this phase males are absent and amictic females produce diploid eggs by mitosis which develop parthenogenetically into females that are clones of their mothers. Some amictic females can generate mictic females that will produce haploid eggs by meiosis. Mixis (meiosis) is induced by different types of stimulus depending on species. Haploid eggs develop into haploid dwarf males if they are not fertilized and into diploid "resting eggs" (or "diapausing eggs") if they are fertilized by males.


title: Rotifer

text: Fertilization is internal. The male either inserts his penis into the female's cloaca or uses it to penetrate her skin, injecting the sperm into the body cavity. The egg secretes a shell, and is attached either to the substratum, nearby plants, or the female's own body. A few species, such as members of the "Rotaria", are ovoviviparous, retaining the eggs inside their body until they hatch.


title: Rotifer

text: Most species hatch as miniature versions of the adult. Sessile species, however, are born as free-swimming larvae, which closely resemble the adults of related free-swimming species. Females grow rapidly, reaching their adult size within a few days, while males typically do not grow in size at all.


title: Rotifer

text: 'Ancient asexuals': Bdelloid rotifers are assumed to have reproduced without sex for many millions of years. Males are absent within the species, and females reproduce only by parthenogenesis.


title: Rotifer

text: However, a new study provided evidence for interindividual genetic exchange and recombination in "Adineta vaga", a species previously thought to be anciently asexual.


title: Rotifer

text: Recent transitions: Loss of sexual reproduction can be inherited in a simple Mendelian fashion in the monogonont rotifer "Brachionus calyciflorus": This species can normally switch between sexual and asexual reproduction (cyclical parthenogenesis), but occasionally gives rise to purely asexual lineages (obligate parthenogens). These lineages are unable to reproduce sexually due to being homozygous for a recessive allele.


title: Rotifer

text: Resting eggs enclose an embryo encysted in a three layered shell that protects it from external stressors. They are able to remain dormant for several decades and can resist adverse periods (e.g., pond desiccation or presence of antagonists). When favourable conditions return and after an obligatory period of diapause which varies among species, resting eggs hatch releasing diploid amictic females that enter into the asexual phase of the life cycle.


title: Rotifer

text: Bdelloid rotifer females cannot produce resting eggs, but many can survive prolonged periods of adverse conditions after desiccation. This facility is termed anhydrobiosis, and organisms with these capabilities are termed anhydrobionts. Under drought conditions, bdelloid rotifers contract into an inert form and lose almost all body water; when rehydrated they resume activity within a few hours. Bdelloids can survive the dry state for long periods, with the longest well-documented dormancy being nine years. While in other anhydrobionts, such as the brine shrimp, this desiccation tolerance is thought to be linked to the production of trehalose, a non-reducing disaccharide (sugar), bdelloids apparently cannot synthesise trehalose. In bdelloids, a major cause of the resistance to desiccation, as well as resistance to ionizing radiation, is a highly efficient mechanism for repairing the DNA double-strand breaks induced by these agents. This repair mechanism likely involves mitotic recombination between homologous DNA regions.


title: Rotifer

text: Rotifers fall prey to many animals, such as copepods, fish (e.g. herring, salmon), bryozoa, comb jellies, jellyfish, starfish, and tardigrades.


title: Rotifer

text: The genome size of a bdelloid rotifer, "Adineta vaga", was reported to be around 244 Mb. The genomes of Monogononts seem to be significantly smaller than those of Bdelloids. In Monogononta the nuclear DNA content (2C) in eight different species of four different genera ranged almost fourfold, from 0.12 to 0.46 pg. Haploid "1C" genome sizes in "Brachionus" species range at least from 0.056 to 0.416 pg.


title: Three Arrows

text: The Three Arrows () is a social democratic political symbol associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), used in the late history of the Weimar Republic. First conceived for the SPD-dominated Iron Front as a symbol of the social democratic resistance against Nazism in 1932, it became an official symbol of the Party during the November 1932 German federal election, representing opposition towards Nazism, Marxism-Leninism and reactionary conservatism.


title: Three Arrows

text: Since its inception, the symbol has been used in many different contexts by a variety of anti-fascist, social democratic and democratic socialist organisations.


title: Three Arrows

text: The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was opposed by both the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and the Communist Party (KPD). In this setting, the SPD organizer Carlo Mierendorff recruited Russian exiled physiologist Sergei Chakhotin as the propagandist of the paramilitary Iron Front, and together they developed propaganda initiatives to counter the NSDAP and the KPD in early 1932. The two launched the Three Arrows as a symbol for the social democrat militancy. The Iron Front was regarded as a "social fascist terror organisation" by the KPD.


title: Three Arrows

text: Mierendorf and Chakhotin launched the Three Arrows against the Swastika ("Dreipfeil gegen Hakenkreuz") campaign. Chakhotin authored a book by the same name. The Three Arrows were thought to represent the struggle of the social democratic movement against reaction (referring to monarchism), communism and fascism. On a widely used and publicized SPD election poster for the 6 November 1932 Reichstag elections, the Three Arrows were used to represent opposition to the Communist Party, the monarchist parties, and the Nazi Party, accompanied by the slogan "Against Papen, Hitler, Thälmann". The three arrows also represented the three agents of working class strength: political (represented by the SPD), economic (represented by the trade unions) and physical (represented by the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold). Chakhotin provides an even wider range of meanings, including the three elements of the movement (political/intellectual power, economic force, physical force), the three qualities demanded of fighters (activity, discipline, union), as well as the ideals of the French Revolution ("liberté, égalité, fraternité"). He also noted that "the figure 3 appears so often in human life, in thoughts, in personal life, and in history, that it has become a sort of 'sacred figure'."


title: Three Arrows

text: The aesthetic of the campaign and the Three Arrows symbol as such drew inspiration from Soviet-Russian avant-garde revolutionary artwork. According to Chakhotin, his inspiration for the Three Arrows were a swastika that had been crossed over with chalk in Heidelberg. Per Chakhotin's argument, the Three Arrows and the swastika would always appear as if the three lines were imposed over the swastika rather than the other way around. The Three Arrows were adopted as an official social democrat symbol by the SPD leadership and the Iron Front by June 1932. Iron Front members would carry the symbol on their arm bands. The slogan "neither Stalin's slaves nor Hitler's henchmen" was also used by the SPD in connection with the symbol.


title: Three Arrows

text: In August 1932, the Austrian Social Democrats adopted the Three Arrows as their combat symbol. The Austrian socialist poet Karl Schneller dedicated the poem "Drei Pfeile" to the 1932 Austrian Social Democratic Party congress. The symbol was banned in Austria in 1933. During the Nazi regime, the symbol appeared on pamphlets of the Revolutionary Socialists of Austria and was used in graffiti. During 1932–1935, it was also used in Belgium, Denmark and the United Kingdom.


title: Three Arrows

text: After Chakhotin had been forced into exile to France, the symbol became used by the French Section of the Workers International. The Three Arrows remained the symbol of the French socialists until the 1970s, when it was substituted with the fist and rose symbol. After World War II, the Three Arrows became the official party logo of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) in 1945. The symbol had been modified to include a circle, and the symbolism changed to represent the unity of industrial workers, farm workers and intellectuals. The Three Arrows remained a prominent symbol of the Social Democratic Party of Austria until the 1950s. According to the modern SPÖ, the Three Arrows represent opposition against fascism, capitalism and clericalism.


title: Three Arrows

text: The Portuguese Democratic People's Party, created in 1974 in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution, which put an end to the 48-year-long dictatorship in Portugal, and renamed itself the Social Democratic Party in 1976, uses an adaptation of the Three Arrows as its logo since its foundation. However, its arrows are pointing upwards, and each have a different colour (previously black, red and white; the white having been replaced by orange). According to party members involved in the discussions about the choice of symbols, the Arrows were chosen as a way to differentiate the party from its main rivals' easily recognizable logos: The Socialist Party's raised fist and rose, and the Communist Party's hammer and sickle. It is also supposed to stress the resistance to and rejection of fascism and Nazism.


title: Three Arrows

text: The Three Arrows were adopted by socialist and antifascist organizations in Poland. In 30. became an emblem of two political parties: Polish Socialist Party (pl. Polska Partia Socjalistyczna) and General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (yid. "Algemejner Jidiszer Arbeter Bund in Lite, Pojln un Rusland)."


title: Three Arrows

text: The Three Arrows symbol is popularly used within the antifa movement in the United States, along with flags based on the symbol of Antifa in Germany. Anarchists and anti-fascists frequently use the symbol, usually against authoritarianism, fascism and authoritarian socialism.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident) was a 1980 U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The incident occurred on September 18–19, 1980, at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas when a U.S. Air Force LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9 megaton W-53 Nuclear Warhead had a liquid fuel explosion inside its silo.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: The incident began with a fuel leak at on September 18, and culminated with the explosion at around on September 19, ejecting the warhead from its silo. The warhead landed a short distance away and no radioactive material was lost.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Launch Complex 374-7 was located in Bradley Township, Van Buren County farmland just 3.3 miles (5.3 km) NNE of Damascus, and approximately north of Little Rock.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: The Strategic Air Command facility of Little Rock Air Force Base was one of eighteen silos in the command of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing (308th SMW), specifically one of the nine silos within its 374th Strategic Missile Squadron (374th SMS), at the time of the explosion.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: At around CDT on Thursday, September 18, 1980, two airmen from a Propellant Transfer System (PTS) team were checking the pressure on the oxidizer tank of a USAF Titan II missile at Little Rock AFB's Launch Complex 374-7. One of the workers, Airman David P. Powell, had brought a ratchet wrench – long weighing – into the silo instead of a torque wrench, the latter having been newly mandated by Air Force regulations. Powell later claimed that he was already below ground in his safety suit when he realized he had brought the wrong wrench, so he chose to continue rather than turn back. The socket fell off the ratchet and dropped approximately before bouncing off a thrust mount and piercing the missile's skin over the first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak a cloud of its aerozine 50 fuel.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Aerozine 50 is hypergolic with the Titan II's oxidizer, dinitrogen tetroxide, such that they spontaneously ignite upon contact with each other. The nitrogen tetroxide is kept in a second tank in the rocket's first stage, directly above the fuel tank and below the second stage and its nine-megaton W-53 nuclear warhead.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Eventually, the missile combat crew and the PTS team evacuated the launch control center, while military and civilian response teams arrived to tackle the hazardous situation. Lieutenant General Lloyd R. Leavitt Jr., the Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, commanded the effort to save the launch complex. There was concern for the possible collapse of the now empty first-stage fuel tank, which could cause the rest of the 8-story missile to fall and rupture, allowing the oxidizer to contact the fuel already in the silo.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Early in the morning of Friday, September 19, a two-man PTS investigation team consisting of Senior Airman David Lee Livingston and Sergeant Jeff K. Kennedy entered the silo. Because their vapor detectors indicated an explosive atmosphere, the two were ordered to evacuate. The team was then ordered to reenter the silo to turn on an exhaust fan. Livingston reentered the silo to carry out the order and shortly thereafter, at about , the hypergolic fuel exploded – likely due to arcing in the exhaust fan. The initial explosion catapulted the 740-ton silo door away from the silo and ejected the second stage and warhead. Once clear of the silo, the second stage exploded. The W53 thermonuclear warhead landed about from the launch complex's entry gate. Its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material or nuclear detonation.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Livingston died at the hospital, and 21 others in the immediate vicinity of the blast sustained various injuries; Kennedy struggled with respiratory issues from inhaling oxidizer but survived. Livingston was posthumously promoted to staff sergeant. The entire missile launch complex was destroyed.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: At daybreak, the Air Force retrieved the warhead, which was returned to the Pantex weapons assembly plant.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: The launch complex was never repaired. Pieces of debris were taken away from the surrounding the facility, and the site was buried under a mound of gravel, soil, and small concrete debris. The land is now under private ownership. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Kennedy, initially praised as a hero, later received an official letter of reprimand for his first entry into the complex, as it later transpired that he had disregarded an order to stay away.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: In September 2013, Eric Schlosser published a book titled "". It focused on the explosion, as well as other Broken Arrow incidents during the Cold War. A documentary film titled "Command and Control" from director Robert Kenner, based on Schlosser's book, was released on January 10, 2017. The film was broadcast by PBS as part of its "American Experience" series.


title: 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

text: Jeff Plumb's account of his role in the incident was featured in a 2017 episode of WBEZ's "This American Life".


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Born Again is the eleventh studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Released in September 1983, it is the only album the group recorded with lead vocalist Ian Gillan, best known for his work with Deep Purple. It was also the last Black Sabbath album for nine years to feature original bassist Geezer Butler and the last to feature original drummer Bill Ward, though Ward did record a studio track with the band fifteen years later on their 1998 live album "Reunion". The album has received mixed reviews from critics, but was a commercial success upon its 1983 release, reaching No. 4 in the UK charts. The album also hit the top 40 in the United States. In July 2021, guitarist and founding member Tony Iommi confirmed that the long lost original master tapes of the album had been finally located, and that he was considering remixing the album for a future re-release.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Following the departure of vocalist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinny Appice in 1982, Sabbath's future was in doubt. The band switched management to Don Arden (Sharon Osbourne's father) and he suggested Ian Gillan as the new vocalist. "That band was put together on paper," guitarist Tony Iommi revealed in the 1992 documentary "Black Sabbath: 1978–1992". "We'd never rehearsed."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: The band had considered vocalists such as Robert Plant and David Coverdale before settling on Gillan. They even received an audition tape from a then-unknown Michael Bolton. Iommi told "Hit Parader" magazine in late 1983 that Gillan was the best candidate, saying "His shriek is legendary." Gillan was at first reluctant, but his manager convinced him to meet with Iommi and Butler at The Bear, a pub in Oxford. After a night of heavy drinking, Gillan officially committed to the project in February 1983.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: The project was originally intended to be a new supergroup, and the members of the group had no intention of billing themselves as Black Sabbath. At some point after recording had been completed, Arden insisted that they use the recognizable Sabbath name, and the members were overruled. "We thought we were doing a kind of Gillan-Iommi-Butler-Ward album…" recalled bassist Geezer Butler. "That is the way we approached the album. When we had finished the album, we took it to the record company and they said, 'Well, here's the contract: it is going to go out as a Black Sabbath album."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: "Born Again" featured the return of founding member Bill Ward on drums, who was newly sober after leaving the band in 1980 to deal with his alcoholism. Ward began drinking again near the end of the sessions and returned to Los Angeles for treatment once the album was completed, and has remained sober ever since. Ward has said that he enjoyed making the album, which remains his final studio album with the band.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Sabbath began recording in May 1983 at Richard Branson's Manor Studio, in the Oxfordshire countryside. Producer Robin Black had worked with the band in the mid-1970s, as engineer on "Sabotage".


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: In his autobiography, Iommi recounts Gillan informing him that, during sessions, he planned to live outside the house in a marquee tent: "I thought he was joking, but when I arrived at the Manor I saw this marquee outside and I thought, fucking hell, he's serious. Ian had put up this big, huge tent. It had a cooking area and a bedroom and whatever else." Gillan brought an immediacy to the songwriting that was uncommon for Sabbath: "Ian's lyrics were about sexual things or true facts, even about stuff that happened at The Manor there and then," Iommi recalls in his memoir. "They were good, but quite a departure from Geezer's and Ronnie's lyrics." For example, Gillan returned from a local pub one evening, took a car belonging to drummer Ward, and commenced racing around a go-cart track on the Manor Studio property. He crashed the car, which burst into flames after he escaped uninjured. He wrote the album's opening "Trashed" about the experience.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: "Disturbing the Priest" was written after a rehearsal space – set up by Iommi in a small building near a local church – received noise complaints from the resident priests. "We wanted this effect on 'Disturbing the Priest'," recalled the guitarist, "and Bill got this big bucket of water and he got this anvil. It was really heavy, and he'd got it hanging on a piece of rope and lower it in to get this effect: hit it and lower it in, and then lift it out again. It was a great effect, but it took hours to do."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: "I did some of the best drum work on that album…" Bill Ward recalled. "On 'Disturbing the Priest', there were some polyrhythms and some counterpoint things that I was doing, and I was using at least twenty different pieces of percussion towards the end of that song… I was real proud of a lot of the work that I did. Some of it invariably got lost in the mix, but I know that it's printed on those tracks."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: The band got along well, but it became apparent to all involved that Gillan's style did not quite mesh with the Sabbath sound. In 1992, he told director Martin Baker, "I was the worst singer Black Sabbath ever had. It was totally, totally incompatible with any music they'd ever done. I didn't wear leathers, I wasn't of that image...I think the fans probably were in a total state of confusion." In 1992, Iommi admitted to "Guitar World", "Ian is a great singer, but he's from a completely different background, and it was difficult for him to come in and sing Sabbath material."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: "I saw Ian go into the studio one day," Ward recalled, "and I was fortunate and honoured, actually, to be part of a session. I watched him lay tracks on 'Keep It Warm'… I felt like Ian "was" Ian in that song… I watched this incredible transformation of this man that really, I felt, delicately put lyrics together. It made sense. I thought he did an excellent job. And I really dig that song too."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: When the band heard the final product, they were horrified at the muffled mix. In his autobiography, Iommi explains that Gillan inadvertently blew a couple of tweeters in the studio speakers by playing the backing tracks too loud and nobody noticed. "We just thought it was a bit of a funny sound, but it went very wrong somewhere between the mix and the mastering and the pressing of that album...the sound was really dull and muffly. I didn't know about it, because we were already out on tour in Europe. By the time we heard the album, it was out and in the charts, but the sound was awful."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: For all his misgivings, Gillan remembers the period fondly, stating in the "Black Sabbath: 1978–1992" documentary, "But by God, we had a good year...And the songs, I think, were quite good."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Drummer Bev Bevan was brought into play drums for the subsequent tour, as Bill Ward had entered a rehab facility. Following the tour, this version of Black Sabbath fell apart, with Gillan, Bevan, and Ward departing. The tour was also a breaking point for Butler, who admits in the "Black Sabbath: 1978–1992" documentary, "I just got totally disillusioned with the whole thing and I left some time in 1984 after the Born Again tour. I just had enough of it." In 2015 Butler clarified to Dave Everley of Classic Rock: "I left because my second child was born and he was having problems, so I wanted to stay with him. I told Tony I couldn't concentrate on the band anymore. But I never fell out with anybody." Butler says the looming Deep Purple reunion played a large role in Gillan's decision to leave. Disagreements with management also contributed to the band's dissolution. Bevan would briefly return to the Sabbath fold in 1986-87 to record cymbal overdubs for the album "The Eternal Idol".


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: The cover – depicting what Martin Popoff described as a "garish red devil-baby" – is by Steve 'Krusher' Joule, a "Kerrang!" designer who also worked on Ozzy Osbourne's "Speak of the Devil". It is based on a black-and-white photocopy of a photograph published in a 1968 magazine. The same photograph was used for 12-inch versions of Depeche Mode's "New Life".


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: "I didn't have any participation in the album cover," recalled Bill Ward. "When I saw it, I hated it."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Ian Gillan told the press that he vomited when he first saw the picture. However, Tony Iommi approved the cover, which has been considered one of the worst ever. Ben Mitchell of "Blender" called the cover "awful". The British magazine, "Kerrang!", ranked the cover in second place, behind only the Scorpions' "Lovedrive", on their list of "10 Worst Album Sleeves in Metal/Hard Rock". The list was based on votes from the magazine's readers. "NME" included the sleeve on their list of the "29 sickest album covers ever". Sabbath's manager Don Arden was quite hostile towards the band's ex-vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, who had recently married his manager Sharon, and was fond of telling Osbourne that his children resembled the "Born Again" cover.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: "Born Again" was released in September 1983 and was a commercial success. It was the highest charting Black Sabbath album in the United Kingdom since "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (1973) and became an American Top 40 hit. Despite this, it became the first Black Sabbath album to not have any RIAA certification in the US.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: The album received mixed reviews upon its release. AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia wrote that the album has "gone down as one of heavy metal's all-time greatest disappointments" and described "Zero the Hero", "Hot Line", and "Keep It Warm" as "embarrassing". "Blender" contributor Ben Mitchell gave the album one out of five stars and claimed that the music on "Born Again" was worse than its cover. Martin Charles Strong, the author of "The Essential Rock Discography", wrote that it was "an exercise in heavy-metal cliché". However, Popmatters contributor Adrien Begrand has noted the album as "overlooked". The British magazine "Metal Forces" defined it "a very good album" even if "Gillan may not be the perfect frontman for the Sabs".


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Despite the overall negative reception with critics, the album remains a fan favorite. Author Martin Popoff has written that "if any album in the history of Black Sabbath is getting a new set of horns up from metalheads here deep into the new century, it's "Born Again"." Industrial metal band Godflesh and death metal band Cannibal Corpse both have covered "Zero the Hero", the former appears on the "Masters Of Misery - Black Sabbath: The Earache Tribute" album while the latter is featured on the "Hammer Smashed Face" EP. Cannibal Corpse's former singer, Chris Barnes, has called "Born Again" his favourite Black Sabbath album. "Zero the Hero" has also been cited as the inspiration for the Guns N' Roses hit "Paradise City", and in his autobiography Iommi also suggests the Beastie Boys may have borrowed the riff from "Hot Line" for their hit "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)". Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has called "Born Again" "one of the best Black Sabbath albums". Bill Stevenson, former drummer of Black Flag, stated the band was listening to the album around the time of "My War", defining songs like "Trashed" and "Disturbing the Priest" as "ideal".


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: In 1984, Ozzy Osbourne stated that the album was the "best thing I've heard from Sabbath since the original group broke up". Butler has pointed to "Zero the Hero" and "Disturbing the Priest" as his favorites on the album. In 1992 Iommi confessed to "Guitar World", "To be honest, I didn't like some of the songs on that album, and the production was awful. We never had time to test the pressings after it was recorded, and something happened to it by the time it got released."


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: A re-mastered 'Deluxe Expanded Edition' of "Born Again" was released in May 2011 by Sanctuary Records. It included several live tracks from the 1983 Reading Festival originally featured on BBC Radio 1's "Friday Rock Show". Though the release was remastered, it was not remixed due to the inability to locate the original master tapes, as well as Sanctuary not wanting delay the release in an effort to locate said tapes for a remix.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: In 2021, Tony Iommi claimed that the original master tapes, long thought lost, had been found and that he was considering remixing them for an eventual release.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: According to Iommi's autobiography, Ward began drinking again near the end of the "Born Again" recording sessions and returned to Los Angeles for treatment. The band recruited Bev Bevan, who had played with The Move and ELO, for the upcoming tour in support of the new album. Gillan had all the lyrics to the Sabbath songs written out and plastered all over the stage, explaining to Martin Baker in 1992, "I couldn't get into my brain any of these lyrics...I cannot soak in these words. There's no storyline. I can't relate to what they mean." Gillan attempted to overcome the problem by having a cue book with plastic pages on stage, which he would turn with his foot during the show. However, Gillan did not anticipate the "six buckets" of dry ice that engulfed the stage, making it impossible for the singer to see the lyric sheets. "Ian wasn't very sure-footed either," Iommi writes in his memoir. "He once fell over my pedal board. He was waving at the people, stepped back and, bang!, he went arse over head big time." Gillan also told Birch that it was Don Arden's idea to open the show with a crying baby blaring over the speakers and a dwarf made to look exactly like the demonic baby depicted on the "Born Again" album cover miming to the screaming. "We noticed a dwarf walking around the day before the opening show...And we're saying to Don, 'We think this is in the worst possible taste, this dwarf, you know?' And Don's going, 'Nah, the kids will love it, it'll be great.'"


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: The tour is most infamous, however, for the gigantic Stonehenge props the band used. Iommi recalls in his autobiography that it was Butler's idea but the designers took his measurements the wrong way and thought it was meant to be life-size. Months later, while rehearsing for the tour at the Birmingham NEC, the stage set arrived. "We were in shock," writes Iommi. "This stuff was coming in and in and in. It had all these huge columns in the back that were as wide as your average bedroom, the columns in front were about 13 feet high, and we had all the monitors and the side fills as well as all this rock. It was made of fiberglass and wood, and bloody heavy." The set would be lampooned in Rob Reiner's 1984 rock music mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap", with the band having the opposite problem of having to use miniature Stonehenge stage props. Butler has said that he told the associate scriptwriter of the film the story of the band's performances with their "Stonehenge" stage props. In an interview for the documentary "Black Sabbath: 1978–1992", Gillan claims Don Arden had the dwarf walk across the top of the Stonehenge props at the start of the show and, as the tape of the screaming baby faded away, fall back "from about thirty-five feet in the air on this big pile of mattresses. And then, 'Dong!' The bells start and the monks come out, the whole thing. Pure "Spinal Tap"." The band toured Europe first, playing the Reading Festival (a performance that is included on the 2011 deluxe edition of "Born Again") and also playing in a bullring in Barcelona in September. Sabbath performed Gillan's hit with Deep Purple, "Smoke on the Water", on the tour, with Iommi explaining in his memoir, "it seemed like a bum deal for him not to do any of his stuff while he was doing all of ours. I don't know if we played it properly but the audience loved it. The critics moaned; it was something out of the bag and they didn't want to know then." In October, the band took the Stonehenge set to America but could only use a portion of it at most gigs because the columns were too high. The set was eventually abandoned. A music video for "Zero the Hero" was also released, featuring performance footage of the band onstage interspersed with scenes involving several grotesque characters performing experiments on a witless young man in a haunted house filled with rats, roosters and a roaming horse.


title: Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

text: Tracks 3-11 recorded live at the Reading Festival on Saturday, August 27, 1983 and first aired on Friday Rock Show via BBC Radio 1.


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: Adarsh Gourav Bhagavatula (born 1994) is an Indian actor and singer who works in Hindi and English films. Gourav is best known for his portrayal of Mohit Chadda in the Hindi thriller film "Mom" (2017), and of Balram Halwai in American comedy-drama film "The White Tiger" (2020), which garnered him international acclaim, and nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: Adarsh Gourav Bhagavatula was born into a Telugu family in Jamshedpur, India. His father Satishnarayan Bhagavatula is from Srikakulam district and his mother Padmavati hails from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. Gourav was brought up in Jamshedpur. He later moved to Mumbai and studied at Narsee Monjee College.


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: In 2007, when Gourav's father, who was an employee of The Central Bank of India, got transferred to Mumbai, the family decided to relocate. He studied at the Lilavatibai Podar High School. While singing in the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007, he was spotted and asked if he wanted to try acting. He agreed only because he was excited to be on television. After a year of auditioning, he was cast as the young Shahrukh Khan in the film "My Name is Khan".


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: He was scouted to sing for Raell Padamsee's theatre company. He also sang for films like Black and White and Chal Chalein.


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: Although his acting career began when he was 14, Adarsh seriously started pursuing acting when he was cast to play one of the primary characters in a film titled "Banana", produced by John Abraham Entertainment and directed by Sajid Ali. While in his final year of college at Narsee Monjee College of Commerce, he worked with Anurag Kashyap in his short film "Clean Shaven" with Radhika Apte. The next year he was cast as the lead in "Rukh" alongside Manoj Bajpayee and as one of the antagonists in Sridevi's "Mom". To work on his craft, he took a break and went to The Drama School Mumbai in 2016. After finishing school, he worked in the Amazon production "Die Trying" and the TVF production "Hostel Daze". He also played Prince Tarquin in the NCPA production "Lucrece" directed by Paul Goodwin in 2017. In 2018, he worked with Academy nominee Deepa Mehta on her Netflix series "Leila".


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: After a few months of not being able to find any acting work, he was called in for an audition of "The White Tiger". His portrayal of Balram Halwai in the Netflix film has been lauded by all as the "star of Ramin Bahrani's film", with the Evening Standard saying, "Gourav is nuanced and utterly engaging as Balram Halwai, a bright peasant who morphs from lickspittle chauffeur into something more ruthless." and Variety calling it a "small marvel". The Telegraph said Gourav "gives the definition of a breakthrough performance" The Entertainment Weekly called him "a largely unknown actor whose soulful combination of sheer will and vulnerability should, in a just world, win him the kind of accolades that helped make Slumdog's Dev Patel a star. For his performance, Gourav was nominated for the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and was also nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor.


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: Gourav learnt Hindustani classical music for nine years under different Gurus. In college, he was the lead vocalist for a progressive rock band called "Oak Island".


title: Adarsh Gourav

text: He started getting interested in Western music while in Junior college and sang for the college band "Steepsky". They recorded a single called "Good guys finish last". In college, he sang for a progressive rock band called "Oak Island" which was also featured in "MTV Indies-Never Hide Sounds".


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: A Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M attack aircraft near the Syria–Turkey border on 24 November 2015. According to Turkey, the aircraft was fired upon while in Turkish airspace because it violated the border up to a depth of for about 17 seconds after being warned to change its heading ten times over a period of five minutes before entering the airspace. The Russia Defence Ministry denied that the aircraft ever left Syrian airspace, claiming that their satellite data showed that the Sukhoi was about inside Syrian airspace when it was shot down.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: The U.S. State Department said that the U.S. independently confirmed that the aircraft's flight path violated Turkish territory, and that the Turks gave multiple warnings to the pilot, to which they received no response and released audio recordings of the warnings they had broadcast. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed out that Turkey had the right to defend its airspace. Although Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the U.S. knew the flight path of the Russian jet and should have informed Turkey, two U.S. officials said that Russia had not informed the U.S. military of its jet's flight plan.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: The Russian pilot and navigator both ejected from the aircraft. The navigator Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued, but the pilot Oleg Peshkov was shot and killed by Syrian rebel ground fire while descending by parachute. A Russian marine from the search and rescue team launched to retrieve the two airmen was also killed when a rescue helicopter was targeted by the rebels.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: The incident was the first destruction of a Russian or Soviet Air Forces warplane by a NATO member state since an attack on the Sui-ho Dam during the Korean War in 1953. Reactions to the incident included denunciation from Russia and an attempt to defuse the situation by NATO afterwards. Russia deployed the guided missile cruiser "Moskva" armed with S-300F (SA-N-6 Grumble) long-range SAM missiles off the Syrian coast near Latakia and S-400 (SA-21 Growler) mobile SAM systems to Khmeimim airbase. In response, the Turkish Armed Forces deployed the KORAL land-based radar electronic support system in Hatay Province along the Turkish–Syrian border.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: After the 2012 shooting down of a Turkish RF-4E Phantom II Jet by Syrian forces, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan protested, saying that brief incursions should not trigger an attack, pointing out that Turkey did not shoot down Syrian helicopters that strayed into Turkish airspace. Nevertheless, as a response to the event he announced that Turkey changed its rules of engagement, and said it would start to consider all "military elements" approaching from Syria an enemy threat and would act accordingly. Subsequently, Turkey shot down a Syrian Mi-17 helicopter in September 2013 and a MiG-23 warplane in March 2014.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Russia is one of several countries directly involved in the Syrian conflict. On 30 September 2015, Russia began its air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other anti-government forces.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: In early October, Turkey and NATO protested against what they saw as Russia's deliberate violations of Turkish airspace. The Russian defence ministry admitted that a Russian Su-30 aircraft had entered Turkish airspace "for a few seconds" because of bad weather, adding that measures had been taken to prevent a repeat of such incidents, however Turkish radar had tracked the aircraft straying into Turkish airspace for up to lasting "several minutes". From 3–15 October, five discussions between senior ranking officials from Turkey and Russia occurred, concerning Turkish rules of engagement and Russian violations of Turkish airspace. On 6 November 2015, six U.S. Air Force F-15C fighters were deployed by US European Command from the 48th Fighter Wing at their Lakenheath base in Britain to Incirlik Air Base as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The government of Turkey requested these to secure the sovereignty of Turkish airspace because of earlier repeated Russian intrusions into Turkish airspace.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: On 19 November, Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov and the Russian military attaché, Colonel Andrei Victorovich Dovger, were summoned by Turkey. Russia, which was criticised by Turkey for having conducted operations near the Turkish border, a region inhabited by Syrian Turkmen and largely free of ISIL (though al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, was present in the region), was notified that Turkey's rules of engagement were in place and it would react to any violations of its border security. Turkey also warned Russia that it would not be indifferent to "attacks targeting the life security of Turkmen" in the Bayırbucak area. The preceding week Turkey had called for the UN Security Council to discuss attacks against Turkish-backed Turkmens. Approximately 1,700 people had fled the area in the previous three days due to battles between Syrian government forces and anti-government Syrian Turkmen and al-Nusra Front fighters. Russia had bombed the area near the Turkish border to support Syrian government forces. Syrian Turkmen formed their own armed brigades called Syrian Turkmen Brigades in opposition to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, loosely affiliated with other rebels such as the Free Syrian Army. The Turkmen brigades also cooperated with al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the al-Nusra Front and with the Salafi coalition known as Ahrar al-Sham. In Latakia, the Turkish-supported rebels formed the Jabal al-Turkman Brigade.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: On 24 November 2015 at 9:24 am local time (7:24 am GMT), as it was returning to Khmeimim airbase, a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft with tail number 83 white and registration number RF-90932 was shot down near the Syrian–Turkish border by a missile from a patrolling Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet. Later analysis suggested that a radar-guided, medium range AIM-120 AMRAAM was fired from between away. "The Economist" reported that the two Su-24s were on their way to strike Syrian Turkmen targets. Syrian government forces supported by the Shiite militias and the Russian Air Force were fighting against Syrian Turkmen brigades, Army of Conquest and al-Nusra Front fighters.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Early reports from Russian news agencies citing the Russian Defence Ministry, indicated that the aircraft had been downed by a ground-based strike from Syrian Turkmen rebels, but they later confirmed Turkish reports that the aircraft had been shot down by Turkish fighter jets. The Turkish military released a graphic of the Russian aircraft's flight pattern, which shows it crossing the southern tip of Hatay Province before being shot down and crashing near Turkmen Mountain. Russia then countered Turkey's radar trace analysis by publishing a different flight map showing no airspace violation. Three days later, on 27 November, Russia published another map.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: According to Turkey's statement to the UN Security Council, two aircraft, whose nationalities were unknown at the time, violated Turkish airspace up to a depth of for about 17 seconds. According to Turkish officials, the aircraft were given 10 warnings within the span of 5 minutes, by operators at a ground-controlled interception station, to change their course. Turkey later released the audio recording ("The unknown air traffic position to Humaymim 020 radial 26 miles. This is Turkish Air Force speaking on Guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace, change your heading south immediately"). The Russians claim there were no warnings. Analysts have noted that Turkey's warnings were issued on a dedicated mutually-agreed radio channel, which was the international Guard (emergency) channel (243.0 MHz), but the R-862M radio fitted to the Su-24M is not able to monitor this channel without optional equipment, which may not have been installed. According to Turkey, one aircraft left Turkish national airspace after violating it; the other aircraft was fired upon by Turkish F-16s patrolling the area and crashed into Syrian territory after being hit in Turkish airspace. Based on its heat signature, an anonymous American official stated that the jet was hit in Syrian airspace after a short incursion into Turkey. On 30 November, US Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute stated that the data supported the Turkish version of events.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Su-24 was downed from an altitude of within one kilometre of the Turkish border and in Syrian airspace, while returning to the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. Russia has maintained that the aircraft never left Syrian territory. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the aircraft was an Su-24 but said that it had proof the jet was within Syrian airspace. According to the commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Viktor Bondarev, a Turkish F-16 entered Syria's airspace for 40 seconds and flew inside Syrian territory, but the Russian warplane did not violate the Turkish border.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Both pilots ejected after the aircraft was hit. Initially, the deputy commander of a Turkmen Syrian opposition rebel brigade in Syria, Alparslan Çelik (a Turkish citizen and member of the Grey Wolves ultra-nationalist group), claimed his forces had shot dead the two pilots as they descended with parachutes, and in a film a person could be heard in the background repeatedly shouting "Stop shooting!" in Turkish as the parachutists descended. A Turkish official reported that he believed both were alive. It was also reported that one of the pilots had been captured by the Turkmen fighters and a video was circulated which allegedly showed the pilot's body.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Russia's military general staff spokesman Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoi confirmed that one pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Anatolyevich Peshkov, was killed by ground fire; the weapons systems operator was rescued.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: The shooting of an ejecting aircraft pilot is in contravention of Article 42 of the 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Convention.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: The pilot of the Su-24, Oleg Peshkov, 45, was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation, the country's highest military honour; the surviving weapon systems officer, Konstantin Murakhtin, and the deceased rescuer, Alexander Pozynich, 29, received the Order of Courage. On 2 December Peshkov was buried with full military honours in the Alley of Heroes of the cemetery in Lipetsk with about 10,000 people attending.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: The Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency showed video footage of the aircraft crashing and the two pilots parachuting down. Russian helicopters conducted low-altitude combat search and rescue flights in the area to look for the pilot.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Two Mil Mi-8 helicopters were sent to find and recover the pilots from the crash site. One of the helicopters was damaged by small-arms fire from Syrian Turkmen Brigade militants, resulting in the death of a naval infantryman, and was forced to make an emergency landing. All the surviving crew of the helicopter were later rescued and evacuated. The Free Syrian Army's 1st Coastal Division claimed that they subsequently destroyed the abandoned helicopter using a US-made BGM-71 TOW missile.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: As the Russian armed forces began planning an operation to extract the pilot, the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani contacted them and proposed a joint rescue operation under his supervision. The rescue team which General Soleimani put forth consisted of eight Hezbollah special forces personnel and 18 Syrian commandos, who were trained by Iran and had firsthand knowledge of the geography of the area, with Russia providing transport, logistical support, air cover and satellite intelligence. One of the pilots, Oleg Peshkov, had been wounded and then killed by rebels after parachuting from the plane, while the other one, Konstantin Murahtin, escaped and was rescued. During the rescue mission a Russian Marine, Alexandr Pozynich, had been fatally wounded. The rescue team returned to base safely and handed over the pilot to the Syrian Army. Vladimir Putin was reportedly closely following the operation. The body of the dead pilot was flown to Turkey and Russian officials in Ankara arranged for its repatriation to Moscow.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: On 25 November, the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey spoke for an hour by telephone, and both governments stated that day that they would not initiate a war as a result of the incident. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists that his country would "seriously reevaluate" its relationship with Turkey. The Russian Defence Ministry broke off military contacts with the Turkish Armed Forces and Russian defence officials said that future airstrikes in Syria would be escorted by fighters. According to the Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu, Russia will deploy S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Khmeimim airbase in Syria, where the Russian Aerospace Forces group is stationed.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: A few hours after the incident, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke from Sochi, where he was meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, saying that it was a "stab in the back by terrorist accomplices," that Russia would not put up with attacks like this one and that Russia–Turkey relations would be affected. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was due to visit Turkey the next day, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had scheduled a visit to Russia later in the year. Lavrov cancelled his trip after the incident. Lieutenant General Sergey Rudskoi said that forces threatening Russia would be targeted. Protesters pelted the Turkish embassy in Russia with eggs before police cleared the area. On 26 November, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced broad economic sanctions against Turkey that would affect their joint investment projects, including the possible shelving of a multibillion-dollar deal to build Turkish Stream gas pipeline through Turkey. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that Turkey would regret its actions. Putin accused Turkey of helping ISIL in the illegal oil trade, saying that funds from the sale of oil were used to support terrorists. The Russian Air Force had recently started bombing the oil tankers en route to other countries, including Turkey, and the infrastructure for processing and storage of crude oil. Putin later claimed that the Turkish shoot-down was an "ambush" that had been prepared in advance. A bill making denial of the Armenian genocide illegal has been introduced in the Russian State Duma.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the shooting would be added to the criminal record of insurgent groups fighting in the country and of those countries that were financing and arming them; he mentioned Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the strongest such backers.


title: 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown

text: Erdoğan pointed out that Turkey had the right to defend its airspace. He said worse incidents have not taken place in the past because of Turkey's restraint. He also stressed that Turkey's actions were fully in line with the new rules of engagement adopted after Syria shot down a Turkish jet in 2012. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu offered condolences and said the Turkish pilots did not know it was a Russian plane. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu defended the action saying Turkey has the right to defend itself against border violations, but that it did not amount to an aggression against any foreign territory and the country called for NATO to hold an extraordinary meeting later in the day. He further called for working towards solving the crisis in Syria. Davutoğlu also said that attacks on Turkmen could not be legitimised under the justification of attacking ISIL. Turkey's Ambassador to the United States, Serdar Kilic, asked for Turkey's warnings to be taken seriously. Davutoglu said Turkey would cooperate but did not offer an apology. Dozens of protesters were reported outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul demonstrating against Russian military operations in the Turkmen-populated areas of Syria. Russian President Putin issued a decree within hours of Turkey's statement which placed a ban on trade of some goods, forbade extensions of labour contracts for Turks working in Russia as of 1 January 2016, ended chartered flights from Russia to Turkey, disallowed Russian tourism companies from selling holiday packages with a stay in Turkey, and called for ending visa-free travel between Russia and Turkey, while ordering tighter control over Turkish air carriers in Russia, using security as a justification.