text: In 1993, Bill Keller of "The New York Times" reported that popular suspicion in Southern African nations held that the timing of disarmament indicated a desire to prevent a nuclear arsenal from falling into the hands of a native African and Coloured government with the collapse of the Apartheid system controlled by European settlers. De Klerk denied such a motivation when asked about this in a 2017 interview. The African National Congress political party, which took power in South Africa after Apartheid, approved of nuclear disarmament.


title: South Africa and weapons of mass destruction

text: The Treaty of Pelindaba came into effect on 15 July 2009 once it had been ratified by 28 countries. This treaty requires that parties will not engage in the research, development, manufacture, stockpiling acquisition, testing, possession, control or stationing of nuclear explosive devices in the territory of parties to the treaty and the dumping of radioactive wastes in the African zone by treaty parties. The African Commission on Nuclear Energy, in order to verify compliance with the treaty, has been established and will be headquartered in South Africa.


text: South Africa signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 20 September 2017, and ratified it on 25 February 2019.


text: As of 2015, South Africa still possessed most of the weapons grade uranium extracted from its nuclear weapons, and had used some of it to produce medical isotopes. There had been three security breaches at Pelindaba since the end of Apartheid, with a 2007 breach described by a former US official as being "horrifying", although the South African government dismissed the 2007 breach as a "routine burglary".


text: In October 1998, the report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission publicly revealed Project Coast, a clandestine government chemical and biological warfare program conducted during the 1980s and 1990s. Project Coast was initiated in 1981 and initially, defensive aspects were the prime objective but as time progressed, offensive programmes became more pervasive and more important. It became the sole programme for the creation of a range of chemical and biological agents for offensive and defensive use within South Africa as well as neighbouring territories.


text: On the defensive side, Project Coast oversaw research into the development of agents to protect troops in battle and VIPs against chemical or biological attack. The project was also tasked with developing CS and CR gas agents for crowd control, developing defensive training programs for troops and developing protective clothing.


text: The program reported to the South African Defence Force Surgeon General (Maj. Gen. N. J. Nieuwoudt (1980-1988) and Maj. Gen. D.P. Knobel (1988–1998)). Nieuwoudt recruited South African cardiologist and army officer Brig. Wouter Basson (1981–1992) as Project Officer and ultimately Nieuwoudt and Basson recruited a large contingent of medical professionals, scientists and weapons specialists to research and develop these weapons and associated antidotes. Basson was replaced by Col. Ben Steyn in 1992 (1992–1995). Several front companies were created, including Delta G Scientific Company, Protechnik and Roodeplaat Research Laboratories to facilitate the research and development of chemical and biological weapons.


text: After Basson's arrest in 1997, documents found in his possession revealed that the "dirty-tricks" products included anthrax-laced cigarettes, household items contaminated with organophosphates and paraoxon-laced gin and whisky. Other unverified claims include that a so-called infertility toxin was introduced into black townships, and that cholera was deliberately introduced into the water sources of some South African villages. It was also claimed that South Africa supplied anthrax and cholera to government troops in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which it is alleged were used against guerrillas there. In January of 1992, the government of Mozambique alleged that either South Africa, or South African backed Renamo forces deployed an artillery-delivered airburst chemical weapon during a battle at a rebel base in Tete province. Five soldiers were said to have died, and many more were injured. South African military and civilian doctors collected samples from the Mozambican government, and denied any involvement in the matter. The programme operated until 1993.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: The fourth series of British science fiction television programme "Doctor Who" was preceded by the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes aired, starting with "Partners in Crime" on 5 April 2008 and ending with "Journey's End" three months later on 5 July 2008.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: "Partners in Crime" marked the debut of Donna Noble, as played by Catherine Tate, as a full-time companion to the Tenth Doctor, after she first appeared in the 2006 Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride". Freema Agyeman also returns as the Doctor's companion Martha Jones from the previous series. John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri also returned to appear in the series finale, as well as Billie Piper, who appeared as Rose Tyler in the three final episodes of the series.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: The series started production on 8 August 2007 and concluded on 29 March 2008. A short Children in Need special titled "Time Crash" was also produced and before "Voyage of the Damned", as well as a mini-episode entitled "Music of the Spheres", which was premiered at the "Doctor Who" Prom after the fourth series finale in July 2008. The fourth series was the final full series to star David Tennant as the Doctor, and the last with lead writer and showrunner Russell T Davies, but they would both stay until 2010, following the 2008–2010 specials. The series incorporates a loose story arc consisting of recurring mentions of the disappearance of bees from planet Earth and the loss of various planets and moons.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: The fourth series marked David Tennant's third and final full series as the Doctor, although he continued in the role for the 2008–2010 specials. In the Christmas special, Australian actress and singer Kylie Minogue starred as one-time companion Astrid Peth, who died during the events of the episode. The companions in the regular series had all been in the lead companion role previously: the primary role of Donna Noble, who was introduced in "The Runaway Bride", was played by Catherine Tate for all thirteen episodes. Her return was announced by the BBC on 3 July 2007. Freema Agyeman, who portrayed the Doctor's companion Martha Jones in series three, returned for "The Sontaran Stratagem", "The Poison Sky", "The Doctor's Daughter", "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End". Billie Piper, who played Rose Tyler from the first episode of the first series to the finale of the second series appeared in the three final episodes of the series. She made brief appearances in the episodes "Partners in Crime", "The Poison Sky" and "Midnight". Her return had been planned by Davies since her departure in 2006, and was officially announced on 27 November 2007. John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri, who portrayed previous companions Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith, Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler respectively, also reappeared in the finale.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: Recurring guest stars for the series included Bernard Cribbins and Jacqueline King as Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott and mother Sylvia Noble. Penelope Wilton returned as shamed former prime minister Harriet Jones in "The Stolen Earth", her first appearance since "The Christmas Invasion". Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri reprised their roles as Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler in "Journey's End". Adjoa Andoh returned as Martha Jones' mother Francine in the finale. Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Tommy Knight also starred in the finale in their respective roles of Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and Luke Smith from spin-off series "Torchwood" and "The Sarah Jane Adventures". This marked their first appearances in "Doctor Who" itself, although Eve Myles had previously featured in "The Unquiet Dead" as a direct ancestor of Gwen called Gwyneth.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: The fourth series featured a large number of high-profile stars such as Kylie Minogue (Astrid Peth in "Voyage of the Damned"), Alex Kingston and Steve Pemberton (River Song and Strackman Lux respectively in "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead"), Sarah Lancashire (Miss Foster in "Partners in Crime"), and Phil Davis and Peter Capaldi (Lucius and Caecillus respectively in "The Fires of Pompeii"). Other guest stars included Sasha Behar, Tim McInnerny, Colin Morgan, Christopher Ryan, Georgia Moffett (daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and later wife of David Tennant), Nigel Terry, Felicity Kendal, Fenella Woolgar, Felicity Jones, Tom Goodman-Hill, Colin Salmon, Lesley Sharp, Lindsey Coulson, David Troughton (son of Second Doctor actor Patrick Troughton), and Chipo Chung (who had previously portrayed Chantho in "Utopia"). Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and Paul O'Grady made cameo appearances as themselves in "The Stolen Earth".


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: All of the episode titles were revealed in the 5 April 2008 issue of the "Radio Times", except the title of the twelfth, which was "being kept secret as it gives away too much." The article also identified the title of episode 9 as "River's Run", as did the press release for the subsequent issue of "Doctor Who Magazine", but this was changed a few days afterwards to "Forest of the Dead". The title of episode 12 was eventually revealed in a press release as "The Stolen Earth". A Children in Need special, entitled "Time Crash", was produced alongside the series and was broadcast on 16 November 2007. In addition, a mini-episode entitled "Music of the Spheres" was shot on 3 May 2008 for series 4 and was premiered at the "Doctor Who" Prom on 27 July 2008, with the audio being broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 3. It was then broadcast on BBC One on New Year's Day 2009.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: Like the previous three series, all of the episodes are bound together in a loose story arc. In previous series, the story arcs were in the form of an arc word, such as Bad Wolf, Torchwood, or Mr Saxon, but the arc for the fourth series is cumulative: "Doctor Who Magazine"s preview of "Partners in Crime" described the arc as "an element from every episode–whether it's a person, a phrase, a question, a planet, or a mystery –builds up to the grand finale". Multiple mentions were made about the bees disappearing from planet Earth and stories driven by a missing or lost planet. Executive producer Russell T Davies stated in the same feature that the series' finale had been planned for three years previous to its airdate. The regular series focuses heavily on Donna: David Tennant stated that the "whole thirteen weeks is Donna's story ... why she's with the Doctor again is the subtext", and producer Phil Collinson cited Donna as a "fresh dynamic" for the fourth series.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: "Doctor Who Magazine" gradually revealed writers for the series alongside episode announcements. First-time writers for the programme included James Moran, co-writer of the 2006 horror film "Severance", and Keith Temple, who had written episodes of "Byker Grove" and "Casualty". Previous writers Gareth Roberts, Stephen Greenhorn, Helen Raynor and Steven Moffat all contributed to the series, with Russell T Davies continuing to act as head writer and executive producer. Tom MacRae had written an episode for this series, entitled "Century House", but this was replaced after Russell T Davies decided that it was too close in tone to Gareth Roberts' "The Unicorn and the Wasp". This was Phil Collinson's last series as producer, as well as Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner's last full series as executive producers, all having worked on the programme since its return. Susie Liggat produced five episodes (blocks 2, 5 and 7), as she did in series 3 with "Human Nature" / "The Family of Blood".


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: "Doctor Who" had been recommissioned for a fourth series in March 2007, shortly before the broadcast of the third series. The production schedule called for 15 full episodes to be produced, rather than the usual 14, due to the announcement that the next full series of "Doctor Who" would not air until 2010. This schedule meant that the programme would be unable to enter production during the second half of 2008. The 15 episodes consisted of 13 regular episodes and the 2007 and 2008 Christmas specials. Recording for the 2007 Christmas special began on 9 July 2007, with production on the series itself beginning on 8 August 2007 and concluding on 29 March 2008. The tenth production block – consisting of 2008 Christmas special "The Next Doctor" and the BBC Proms "cutaway" scene "Music of the Spheres" — completed recording on 3 May.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: On 1 February 2008, the BBC announced that, in a partnership with Carlton Screen Advertising, a 90-second film trailer of the fourth series would be shown in cinemas across Britain "before the most anticipated new releases". The trailer was aired on British television on 22 March 2008. As with the third series and every series subsequently, the stars of the programme and production crew attended a premiere in central London where the first two episodes of the series were screened.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: The fourth series premiered on 5 April 2008 with "Partners in Crime", and concluded after 13 episodes on 5 July 2008 with "Journey's End". "Doctor Who Confidential" also aired alongside each episode of the series, continuing on from the previous series.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: The fourth series received positive reviews from critics. The series is considered among critics as one of the greatest of the revived era of the programme, as the series saw the revived era at its peak in popularity. The series finale "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End" received an Appreciation Index score of 91, the highest ever for an episode of "Doctor Who" and one of the highest ever given to a television programme. A poll conducted by "Radio Times" in 2015 found that readers voted the fourth series finale as the greatest finale of the programme.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: Ben Rawson-Jones of "Digital Spy" gave the series four out of five stars, stating that "a winning mixture of elation and poignancy ensured that the season achieved a great tonal balance where neither light nor dark was allowed to fully overwhelm the other". He praised Tate's performance, by saying of the series that "at the core was Catherine Tate's excellent performance as Donna Noble, a refreshing contrast to the effervescent spirits of Rose and Martha". He also praised the tone of the series, stating that "Russell T. Davies deserves great praise for assembling such a diverse range of stories". However, Rawson-Jones was critical of certain monsters lacking "menace"; he named the Sontarans as an example and stated that the execution of UNIT "was a genuine letdown".


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: "Den of Geek" gave an overwhelmingly positive review of the series, giving it four stars out of five, believing it to be the most consistent series of the revived era so far, and of the programme as a whole. They praised the special effects, citing "The Fires of Pompeii", "Planet of the Ood" and the finale as "the epitome of what The Mill can do". "Den of Geek" further praised the acting talents of David Tennant and Catherine Tate, saying "never have we had it so good... she [Tate] displayed such a fine grasp of character that even David Tennant was left slightly in the shade by her energetic, thoughtful, hopeful and achingly sorrowful (not to mention damn funny to boot) performance". However, they also criticised the familiarity of the Sontaran two-parter and the hollowness of "Voyage of the Damned". Overall, "Den of Geek" summarized the series as "astonishing", stating that "series four was never anything less than stunning, there were no 'lows' it was all 'highs'".


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: David Cornelius of "DVD Talk" stated that "It's the best season yet...every episode in this season is a highlight". He too praised Tate's performance, declaring her as "the new series' best companion yet." Cornelius went on to state that Davies' and Tennant's final series was the series "we'll always remember as the year Davies and Tennant went out on top". He further praised the cast and crew as a whole, complimenting "the excellent guest stars, the impressive set designs, the sharp direction and the detailed creature makeup". Overall, Cornelius summarized that "the fourth season of "Doctor Who" is outstanding television...and a monumental work of storytelling".


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: Travis Fickett of "IGN" gave the series a rating of 7.5 out of 10. Summarizing the series, he stated that "Overall, this season is a mixed bag. I enjoyed Donna more than Martha and less than Rose. It was a let down to see the Daleks as the villains yet again, especially after the terrific appearance by The Master. The Sontarans were original and fun, but nothing to write home about." Fickett stated that Moffat's episodes, "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead", and Davies' episodes, "Midnight" and "Turn Left", were the highlights of the series.


title: Doctor Who (series 4)

text: Selected pieces of score from this series (from "Voyage of the Damned" to "Journey's End"), as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 17 November 2008 by Silva Screen Records. 27 tracks were released on a single CD, with a total length of 76 minutes, 27 seconds.


title: Jonah Lotan

text: Yair "Jonah" Lotan (; born July 3, 1973) is an Israeli actor best known for appearing in "Hostages", "Foyle's War" and "24".


title: Jonah Lotan

text: Lotan was born Yair Zlotogorsky in Jerusalem, Israel, on July 3, 1973, and grew up in Jerusalem and the U.S. state of New York. His family returned to live in Jerusalem when he was twelve years-old and he attended Hebrew University Secondary School. His father is a psychologist and his mother is a physician. He served for three years in the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1990s. In his early 20s he embarked on a modelling career and appeared as a host of children's shows on Channel 1. He graduated with a degree in cinema from Tel Aviv University. Lotan then moved to London to pursue a master's degree at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.


title: Jonah Lotan

text: Lotan starred as Joe Farnetti in "Foyle's War", a British drama set around real-life war stories in which characters must wage personal war amid the chaos of an actual war. He stated that his character in "Foyle's War" reminded him of a friend in the military who had an ability to see humor in any given situation. He voiced the lead role in the 2001 video game "", as David Armstrong, a U.S. Army soldier serving in the Cold War. He appeared in the 2001 film "Swimming Pool" as Chris, played Kenny in the 2004 television series "NY-LON", and acted next to Keira Knightley as an intern in 2005 film, "The Jacket". Lotan also had a role in the fifth season of "24", as Spenser Wolff, and appeared in four episodes of "" as Marty Pino, a doctor/serial-killer. Lotan played Jesse in the 2006 film, "One Night with the King", and was in the 2006 television film, "The Beyond", centering on NASA scientists at a jet propulsion laboratory during a global crisis. Lotan was also in the 2008 HBO historical war drama "Generation Kill", as Robert Timothy Bryan, a U.S. Navy corpsman. He was also cast for the lead role in David Milch's HBO pilot "Last of the Ninth".


title: Jonah Lotan

text: In September 2017, Yair Jonah Lotan appeared as Joel Singer in Oslo (play) by J. T. Rogers at Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Stage. The production was scheduled to transfer to the West End Harold Pinter Theatre in October 2017.


title: 2021–22 FC Bayern Munich season

text: The 2021–22 season was the 123rd season in the existence of FC Bayern Munich and the club's 57th consecutive season in the top flight of German football. In addition to the domestic league, Bayern Munich participated in this season's editions of the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League, as well as the DFL-Supercup as winners of the 2020–21 Bundesliga.


title: 2021–22 FC Bayern Munich season

text: This season was the first since 2010-11 without defender Jérôme Boateng who departed to join Olympique Lyonnais, 2008-09 without David Alaba who also left to join Real Madrid, and 2011-12 without fellow spaniard Javi Martínez who departed to join Qatar SC after he decided not to extend his contract to continue to play for the club.


title: 2021–22 FC Bayern Munich season

text: ! colspan="18" style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center| Players transferred out during the season


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. PAHs are uncharged, non-polar and planar. Many are colorless. Many of them are found in coal and in oil deposits, and are also produced by the combustion of organic matter—for example, in engines and incinerators or when biomass burns in forest fires.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are discussed as possible starting materials for abiotic syntheses of materials required by the earliest forms of life.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: The terms polyaromatic hydrocarbon or polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon are also used for this concept.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: By definition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have multiple rings, precluding benzene from being considered a PAH. Some sources, such as the US EPA and CDC, consider naphthalene to be the simplest PAH. Other authors consider PAHs to start with the tricyclic species phenanthrene and anthracene. Most authors exclude compounds that include heteroatoms in the rings, or carry substituents.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: A polyaromatic hydrocarbon may have rings of various sizes, including some that are not aromatic. Those that have only six-membered rings are said to be alternant.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Most PAHs, like naphthalene, anthracene, and coronene, are planar. This geometry is a consequence of the fact that the σ-bonds that result from the merger of sp hybrid orbitals of adjacent carbons lie on the same plane as the carbon atom. Those compounds are achiral, since the plane of the molecule is a symmetry plane.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In rare cases, PAHs are not planar. In some cases, the non-planarity may be forced by the topology of the molecule and the stiffness (in length and angle) of the carbon-carbon bonds. For example, unlike coronene, corannulene adopts a bowl shape in order to reduce the bond stress. The two possible configurations, concave and convex, are separated by a relatively lowenergy barrier (about 11 kcal/mol)


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In theory, there are 51 structural isomers of coronene that have six fused benzene rings in a cyclic sequence, with two edge carbons shared between successive rings. All of them must be non-planar and have considerable higher bonding energy (computed to be at least 130 kcal/mol) than coronene; and, as of 2002, none of them had been synthesized.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Other PAHs that might seem to be planar, considering only the carbon skeleton, may be distorted by repulsion or steric hindrance between the hydrogen atoms in their periphery. Benzo[c]phenantrene, with four rings fused in a "C" shape, has a slight helical distortion due to repulsion between the closest pair of hydrogen atoms in the two extremal rings. This effect also causes distortion of picene.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Adding another benzene ring to form dibenzo[c,g]phenantrene creates steric hindrance between the two extreme hydrogen atoms. Adding two more rings on the same sense yields heptahelicene in which the two extreme rings overlap. These non-planar forms are chiral, and their enantiomers can be isolated.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: The benzenoid hydrocarbons have been defined as condensed polycyclic unsaturated fully-conjugated hydrocarbons whose molecules are essentially planar with all rings six-membered. Full conjugation means that all carbon atoms and carbon-carbon bonds must have the sp structure of benzene. This class is largely a subset of the alternant PAHs, but is considered to include unstable or hypothetical compounds like triangulene or heptacene.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: The aromaticity varies for PAHs. According to Clar's rule, the resonance structure of a PAH that has the largest number of disjoint aromatic pi sextets—i.e. benzene-like moieties—is the most important for the characterization of the properties of that PAH.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: For example, phenanthrene has two Clar structures: one with just one aromatic sextet (the middle ring), and the other with two (the first and third rings). The latter case is therefore the more characteristic electronic nature of the two. Therefore, in this molecule the outer rings have greater aromatic character whereas the central ring is less aromatic and therefore more reactive. In contrast, in anthracene the resonance structures have one sextet each, which can be at any of the three rings, and the aromaticity spreads out more evenly across the whole molecule. This difference in number of sextets is reflected in the differing ultraviolet–visible spectra of these two isomers, as higher Clar pi-sextets are associated with larger HOMO-LUMO gaps; the highest-wavelength absorbance of phenanthrene is at 293 nm, while anthracene is at 374 nm. Three Clar structures with two sextets each are present in the four-ring chrysene structure: one having sextets in the first and third rings, one in the second and fourth rings, and one in the first and fourth rings. Superposition of these structures reveals that the aromaticity in the outer rings is greater (each has a sextet in two of the three Clar structures) compared to the inner rings (each has a sextet in only one of the three).


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs are nonpolar and lipophilic. Larger PAHs are generally insoluble in water, although some smaller PAHs are soluble. The larger members are also poorly soluble in organic solvents and in lipids. The larger members, e.g. perylene, are strongly colored.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Polycyclic aromatic compounds characteristically yield radical anions upon treatment with alkali metals. The large PAH form dianions as well. The redox potential correlates with the size of the PAH.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs can also be produced geologically when organic sediments are chemically transformed into fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The rare minerals idrialite, curtisite, and carpathite consist almost entirely of PAHs that originated from such sediments, that were extracted, processed, separated, and deposited by very hot fluids.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs may result from the incomplete combustion of organic matter in natural wildfires. Substantially higher outdoor air, soil, and water concentrations of PAHs have been measured in Asia, Africa, and Latin America than in Europe, Australia, the U.S., and Canada.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: High levels of such PAHs have been detected in the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary, more than 100 times the level in adjacent layers. The spike was attributed to massive fires that consumed about 20% of the terrestrial above-ground biomass in a very short time.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs are prevalent in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies in both the nearby and distant Universe and make up a dominant emission mechanism in the mid-infrared wavelength range, containing as much as 10% of the total integrated infrared luminosity of galaxies. PAHs generally trace regions of cold molecular gas, which are optimum environments for the formation of stars.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope include instruments for obtaining both images and spectra of light emitted by PAHs associated with star formation. These images can trace the surface of star-forming clouds in our own galaxy or identify star forming galaxies in the distant universe.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In June 2013, PAHs were detected in the upper atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Certain PAHs such as perylene can also be generated in anaerobic sediments from existing organic material, although it remains undetermined whether abiotic or microbial processes drive their production.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: The dominant sources of PAHs in the environment are thus from human activity: wood-burning and combustion of other biofuels such as dung or crop residues contribute more than half of annual global PAH emissions, particularly due to biofuel use in India and China. As of 2004, industrial processes and the extraction and use of fossil fuels made up slightly more than one quarter of global PAH emissions, dominating outputs in industrial countries such as the United States.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: A year-long sampling campaign in Athens, Greece found a third (31%) of PAH urban air pollution to be caused by wood-burning, like diesel and oil (33%) and gasoline (29%). It also found that wood-burning is responsible for nearly half (43%) of annual PAH cancer-risk (carcinogenic potential) compared to the other sources and that wintertime PAH levels were 7 times higher than in other seasons, especially if atmospheric dispersion is low.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Lower-temperature combustion, such as tobacco smoking or wood-burning, tends to generate low molecular weight PAHs, whereas high-temperature industrial processes typically generate PAHs with higher molecular weights.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Most PAHs are insoluble in water, which limits their mobility in the environment, although PAHs sorb to fine-grained organic-rich sediments. Aqueous solubility of PAHs decreases approximately logarithmically as molecular mass increases.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Two-ringed PAHs, and to a lesser extent three-ringed PAHs, dissolve in water, making them more available for biological uptake and degradation. Further, two- to four-ringed PAHs volatilize sufficiently to appear in the atmosphere predominantly in gaseous form, although the physical state of four-ring PAHs can depend on temperature. In contrast, compounds with five or more rings have low solubility in water and low volatility; they are therefore predominantly in solid state, bound to particulate air pollution, soils, or sediments. In solid state, these compounds are less accessible for biological uptake or degradation, increasing their persistence in the environment.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Human exposure varies across the globe and depends on factors such as smoking rates, fuel types in cooking, and pollution controls on power plants, industrial processes, and vehicles. Developed countries with stricter air and water pollution controls, cleaner sources of cooking (i.e., gas and electricity vs. coal or biofuels), and prohibitions of public smoking tend to have lower levels of PAH exposure, while developing and undeveloped countries tend to have higher levels.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Burning solid fuels such as coal and biofuels in the home for cooking and heating is a dominant global source of PAH emissions that in developing countries leads to high levels of exposure to indoor particulate air pollution containing PAHs, particularly for women and children who spend more time in the home or cooking.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In industrial countries, people who smoke tobacco products, or who are exposed to second-hand smoke, are among the most highly exposed groups; tobacco smoke contributes to 90% of indoor PAH levels in the homes of smokers. For the general population in developed countries, the diet is otherwise the dominant source of PAH exposure, particularly from smoking or grilling meat or consuming PAHs deposited on plant foods, especially broad-leafed vegetables, during growth. PAHs are typically at low concentrations in drinking water.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Emissions from vehicles such as cars and trucks can be a substantial outdoor source of PAHs in particulate air pollution. Geographically, major roadways are thus sources of PAHs, which may distribute in the atmosphere or deposit nearby. Catalytic converters are estimated to reduce PAH emissions from gasoline-fired vehicles by 25-fold.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: People can also be occupationally exposed during work that involves fossil fuels or their derivatives, wood-burning, carbon electrodes, or exposure to diesel exhaust. Industrial activity that can produce and distribute PAHs includes aluminum, iron, and steel manufacturing; coal gasification, tar distillation, shale oil extraction; production of coke, creosote, carbon black, and calcium carbide; road paving and asphalt manufacturing; rubber tire production; manufacturing or use of metal working fluids; and activity of coal or natural gas power stations.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs typically disperse from urban and suburban non-point sources through road runoff, sewage, and atmospheric circulation and subsequent deposition of particulate air pollution. Soil and river sediment near industrial sites such as creosote manufacturing facilities can be highly contaminated with PAHs. Oil spills, creosote, coal mining dust, and other fossil fuel sources can also distribute PAHs in the environment.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Two- and three-ringed PAHs can disperse widely while dissolved in water or as gases in the atmosphere, while PAHs with higher molecular weights can disperse locally or regionally adhered to particulate matter that is suspended in air or water until the particles land or settle out of the water column. PAHs have a strong affinity for organic carbon, and thus highly organic sediments in rivers, lakes, and the ocean can be a substantial sink for PAHs.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Algae and some invertebrates such as protozoans, mollusks, and many polychaetes have limited ability to metabolize PAHs and bioaccumulate disproportionate concentrations of PAHs in their tissues; however, PAH metabolism can vary substantially across invertebrate species. Most vertebrates metabolize and excrete PAHs relatively rapidly. Tissue concentrations of PAHs do not increase (biomagnify) from the lowest to highest levels of food chains.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs transform slowly to a wide range of degradation products. Biological degradation by microbes is a dominant form of PAH transformation in the environment. Soil-consuming invertebrates such as earthworms speed PAH degradation, either through direct metabolism or by improving the conditions for microbial transformations. Abiotic degradation in the atmosphere and the top layers of surface waters can produce nitrogenated, halogenated, hydroxylated, and oxygenated PAHs; some of these compounds can be more toxic, water-soluble, and mobile than their parent PAHs.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: The British Geological Survey reported the amount and distribution of PAH compounds including parent and alkylated forms in urban soils at 76 locations in Greater London. The study showed that parent (16 PAH) content ranged from 4 to 67 mg/kg (dry soil weight) and an average PAH concentration of 18 mg/kg (dry soil weight) whereas the total PAH content (33 PAH) ranged from 6 to 88 mg/kg and fluoranthene and pyrene were generally the most abundant PAHs. Benzo["a"]pyrene (B"a"P), the most toxic of the parent PAHs, is widely considered a key marker PAH for environmental assessments; the normal background concentration of B"a"P in the London urban sites was 6.9 mg/kg (dry soil weight). London soils contained more stable four- to six-ringed PAHs which were indicative of combustion and pyrolytic sources, such as coal and oil burning and traffic-sourced particulates. However, the overall distribution also suggested that the PAHs in London soils had undergone weathering and been modified by a variety of pre-and post-depositional processes such as volatilization and microbial biodegradation.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Managed burning of moorland vegetation in the UK has been shown to generate PAHs which become incorporated into the peat surface. Burning of moorland vegetation such as heather initially generates high amounts of two- and three-ringed PAHs relative to four- to six-ringed PAHs in surface sediments, however, this pattern is reversed as the lower molecular weight PAHs are attenuated by biotic decay and photodegradation. Evaluation of the PAH distributions using statistical methods such as principal component analyses (PCA) enabled the study to link the source (burnt moorland) to pathway (suspended stream sediment) to the depositional sink (reservoir bed).


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Concentrations of PAHs in river and estuarine sediments vary according to a variety of factors including proximity to municipal and industrial discharge points, wind direction and distance from major urban roadways, as well as tidal regime which controls the diluting effect of generally cleaner marine sediments relative to freshwater discharge. Consequently, the concentrations of pollutants in estuaries tends to decrease at the river mouth. Understanding of sediment hosted PAHs in estuaries is important for the protection of commercial fisheries (such as mussels) and general environmental habitat conservation because PAHs can impact the health of suspension and sediment feeding organism. River-estuary surface sediments in the UK tend to have a lower PAH content than sediments buried 10–60 cm from the surface reflecting lower present day industrial activity combined with improvement in environmental legislation of PAH. Typical PAH concentrations in UK estuaries range from about 19 to 16,163 µg/kg (dry sediment weight) in the River Clyde and 626 to 3,766 µg/kg in the River Mersey. In general estuarine sediments with a higher natural total organic carbon content (TOC) tend to accumulate PAHs due to high sorption capacity of organic matter. A similar correspondence between PAHs and TOC has also been observed in the sediments of tropical mangroves located on the coast of southern China.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Cancer is a primary human health risk of exposure to PAHs. Exposure to PAHs has also been linked with cardiovascular disease and poor fetal development.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs have been linked to skin, lung, bladder, liver, and stomach cancers in well-established animal model studies. Specific compounds classified by various agencies as possible or probable human carcinogens are identified in the section "Regulation and Oversight" below.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Historically, PAHs contributed substantially to our understanding of adverse health effects from exposures to environmental contaminants, including chemical carcinogenesis. In 1775, Percivall Pott, a surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, observed that scrotal cancer was unusually common in chimney sweepers and proposed the cause as occupational exposure to soot. A century later, Richard von Volkmann reported increased skin cancers in workers of the coal tar industry of Germany, and by the early 1900s increased rates of cancer from exposure to soot and coal tar was widely accepted. In 1915, Yamigawa and Ichicawa were the first to experimentally produce cancers, specifically of the skin, by topically applying coal tar to rabbit ears.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In 1922, Ernest Kennaway determined that the carcinogenic component of coal tar mixtures was an organic compound consisting of only carbon and hydrogen. This component was later linked to a characteristic fluorescent pattern that was similar but not identical to benz["a"]anthracene, a PAH that was subsequently demonstrated to cause tumors. Cook, Hewett and Hieger then linked the specific spectroscopic fluorescent profile of benzo["a"]pyrene to that of the carcinogenic component of coal tar, the first time that a specific compound from an environmental mixture (coal tar) was demonstrated to be carcinogenic.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In the 1930s and later, epidemiologists from Japan, the UK, and the US, including Richard Doll and various others, reported greater rates of death from lung cancer following occupational exposure to PAH-rich environments among workers in coke ovens and coal carbonization and gasification processes.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: The structure of a PAH influences whether and how the individual compound is carcinogenic. Some carcinogenic PAHs are genotoxic and induce mutations that initiate cancer; others are not genotoxic and instead affect cancer promotion or progression.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs that affect cancer initiation are typically first chemically modified by enzymes into metabolites that react with DNA, leading to mutations. When the DNA sequence is altered in genes that regulate cell replication, cancer can result. Mutagenic PAHs, such as benzo["a"]pyrene, usually have four or more aromatic rings as well as a "bay region", a structural pocket that increases reactivity of the molecule to the metabolizing enzymes. Mutagenic metabolites of PAHs include diol epoxides, quinones, and radical PAH cations. These metabolites can bind to DNA at specific sites, forming bulky complexes called DNA adducts that can be stable or unstable. Stable adducts may lead to DNA replication errors, while unstable adducts react with the DNA strand, removing a purine base (either adenine or guanine). Such mutations, if they are not repaired, can transform genes encoding for normal cell signaling proteins into cancer-causing oncogenes. Quinones can also repeatedly generate reactive oxygen species that may independently damage DNA.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Enzymes in the cytochrome family (CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP1B1) metabolize PAHs to diol epoxides. PAH exposure can increase production of the cytochrome enzymes, allowing the enzymes to convert PAHs into mutagenic diol epoxides at greater rates. In this pathway, PAH molecules bind to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and activate it as a transcription factor that increases production of the cytochrome enzymes. The activity of these enzymes may at times conversely protect against PAH toxicity, which is not yet well understood.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Low molecular weight PAHs, with two to four aromatic hydrocarbon rings, are more potent as co-carcinogens during the promotional stage of cancer. In this stage, an initiated cell (a cell that has retained a carcinogenic mutation in a key gene related to cell replication) is removed from growth-suppressing signals from its neighboring cells and begins to clonally replicate. Low-molecular-weight PAHs that have bay or bay-like regions can dysregulate gap junction channels, interfering with intercellular communication, and also affect mitogen-activated protein kinases that activate transcription factors involved in cell proliferation. Closure of gap junction protein channels is a normal precursor to cell division. Excessive closure of these channels after exposure to PAHs results in removing a cell from the normal growth-regulating signals imposed by its local community of cells, thus allowing initiated cancerous cells to replicate. These PAHs do not need to be enzymatically metabolized first. Low molecular weight PAHs are prevalent in the environment, thus posing a significant risk to human health at the promotional phases of cancer.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Adult exposure to PAHs has been linked to cardiovascular disease. PAHs are among the complex suite of contaminants in tobacco smoke and particulate air pollution and may contribute to cardiovascular disease resulting from such exposures.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: In laboratory experiments, animals exposed to certain PAHs have shown increased development of plaques (atherogenesis) within arteries. Potential mechanisms for the pathogenesis and development of atherosclerotic plaques may be similar to the mechanisms involved in the carcinogenic and mutagenic properties of PAHs. A leading hypothesis is that PAHs may activate the cytochrome enzyme CYP1B1 in vascular smooth muscle cells. This enzyme then metabolically processes the PAHs to quinone metabolites that bind to DNA in reactive adducts that remove purine bases. The resulting mutations may contribute to unregulated growth of vascular smooth muscle cells or to their migration to the inside of the artery, which are steps in plaque formation. These quinone metabolites also generate reactive oxygen species that may alter the activity of genes that affect plaque formation.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Oxidative stress following PAH exposure could also result in cardiovascular disease by causing inflammation, which has been recognized as an important factor in the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Biomarkers of exposure to PAHs in humans have been associated with inflammatory biomarkers that are recognized as important predictors of cardiovascular disease, suggesting that oxidative stress resulting from exposure to PAHs may be a mechanism of cardiovascular disease in humans.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Multiple epidemiological studies of people living in Europe, the United States, and China have linked in utero exposure to PAHs, through air pollution or parental occupational exposure, with poor fetal growth, reduced immune function, and poorer neurological development, including lower IQ.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Some governmental bodies, including the European Union as well as NIOSH and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regulate concentrations of PAHs in air, water, and soil. The European Commission has restricted concentrations of 8 carcinogenic PAHs in consumer products that contact the skin or mouth.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons identified by the US EPA, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) due to their carcinogenicity or genotoxicity and/or ability to be monitored are the following:


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: A spectral database exists for tracking polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the universe. Detection of PAHs in materials is often done using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography with ultraviolet-visible or fluorescence spectroscopic methods or by using rapid test PAH indicator strips. Structures of PAHs have been analyzed using infrared spectroscopy.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs possess very characteristic UV absorbance spectra. These often possess many absorbance bands and are unique for each ring structure. Thus, for a set of isomers, each isomer has a different UV absorbance spectrum than the others. This is particularly useful in the identification of PAHs. Most PAHs are also fluorescent, emitting characteristic wavelengths of light when they are excited (when the molecules absorb light). The extended pi-electron electronic structures of PAHs lead to these spectra, as well as to certain large PAHs also exhibiting semi-conducting and other behaviors.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs may be abundant in the universe. They seem to have been formed as early as a couple of billion years after the Big Bang, and are associated with new stars and exoplanets. More than 20% of the carbon in the universe may be associated with PAHs. PAHs are considered possible starting material for the earliest forms of life.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Light emitted by the Red Rectangle nebula possesses spectral signatures that suggest the presence of anthracene and pyrene. This report was considered a controversial hypothesis that as nebulae of the same type as the Red Rectangle approach the ends of their lives, convection currents cause carbon and hydrogen in the nebulae's cores to get caught in stellar winds, and radiate outward. As they cool, the atoms supposedly bond to each other in various ways and eventually form particles of a million or more atoms. Adolf Witt and his team inferred that PAHs—which may have been vital in the formation of early life on Earth—can only originate in nebulae.


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: PAHs, subjected to interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation, and hydroxylation, to more complex organic compounds—"a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively". Further, as a result of these transformations, the PAHs lose their spectroscopic signature which could be one of the reasons "for the lack of PAH detection in interstellar ice grains, particularly the outer regions of cold, dense clouds or the upper molecular layers of protoplanetary disks."


title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

text: Low-temperature chemical pathways from simple organic compounds to complex PAHs are of interest. Such chemical pathways may help explain the presence of PAHs in the low-temperature atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, and may be significant pathways, in terms of the PAH world hypothesis, in producing precursors to biochemicals related to life as we know it.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Soldier Boy is the name of three superhero characters in the comic book series "Herogasm" and "The Boys", created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The first character introduced (the second successor to the mantle, made by Vought along with his predecessor to claim to be the same Soldier Boy who fought and died in World War II, kept in suspended animation until being revived in modern times) is the elected leader of the Vought-sponsored superhero team Payback, depicted as one of the only "Supes" (i.e. "superpowered" or "superhuman" individuals, often acting as "superheroes") with selfless, benevolent motivations, who detests the use of profanity, and annually has sex with Homelander alone at the "Herogasm" orgy instead of participating, under the mistaken hope that the "test" of doing so will convince Homelander to let him join his own superhero team, the Seven. After his most recent dalliance with Homelander, Soldier Boy is captured by CIA black ops agent Billy Butcher and brutally tortured and murdered by him for information on Homelander's recent activities. The original Soldier Boy is later revealed to have been mercy killed by Mallory during his first mission at the Battle of the Bulge, after his "Avenging Squad" inadvertently caused Mallory's men to be massacred, and been replaced by the second for the remainder of the war.


title: Soldier Boy

text: In the Amazon Prime Video streaming television adaptation, Soldier Boy (Ben) is introduced in the 2022 third season, portrayed by Jensen Ackles. A composite character of the comic book characters, this Soldier Boy is depicted as the first American non-aging Supe, created by Frederick Vought during World War II, whom MM deems responsible for his family's downfall. A foul-mouthed "bonafide war hero", while working with the CIA during the Cold War as the leader of Payback, Soldier Boy was betrayed to the Russian government and experimented on for forty years. He is inadvertently freed by the Boys in the present-day while they were seeking the "superweapon" B.C.L. RED to use to kill Homelander, which in actuality is Soldier Boy himself, who, due to experimentation, can now emit an energy which negates the superpowers of any other Supes with whom it comes in contact. It is later revealed that Homelander is Soldier Boy's son. The character has received a positive reception.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Soldier Boy is introduced in "Herogasm" as the "elected" leader of the superhero team Payback. At the title annual orgy of Supes, he is said to have had sex with the Homelander alone every year out of the belief that he will let him join his own superhero team, the Seven (a promise which Homelander has no intention of fulfilling), primarily existing as comic relief. As the Homelander is inspired to begin planning a "Supe revolution" against Vought and their puppet rulers in the White House shortly after having sex with him for the most recent time, Soldier Boy remains obliviously standing by Homelander's side as he prepares to announce his plans, only for him to be interrupted by James Stillwell.


title: Soldier Boy

text: In "The Boys" arc "The Self-Preservation Society", Soldier Boy has his nose bitten off by CIA black ops agent Billy Butcher, the Homelander's archenemy and leader of the Boys, who begins to brutally beat and torture him for information on the Homelander and his activities over the next few days, mocking him for having claimed to be the same Soldier Boy who fought in World War II, kept alive by being frozen in suspended animation, an identity he was forced to assume and impersonate by Vought. In the "What I Know" arc, Butcher is revealed to have killed Soldier Boy with a public funeral being held for him and members of the Seven (including the Homelander) serving as his pallbearers.


title: Soldier Boy

text: In "The Boys" arc "Barbary Coast", in precedence of telling "Wee Hughie" Campbell about the true sadistic nature of Billy Butcher, Lieutenant Colonel Greg D. Mallory tells him about his own history with Supes, beginning with his captaincy during World War II, when his company was made government and Vought officials to supervise the "Avenging Squad", a team of the first American-made Supes, led by the first Soldier Boy, during the Battle of the Bulge. While eager to serve, Soldier Boy had little military experience, and ordered the flying members of the team to inspect the area for a Nazi presence, oblivious to the fact that doing so would expose their position. Realizing what Soldier Boy had done, Mallory only had time to give his men a brief warning before the enemy (a nearby "Waffen-SS" platoon) attacked, massacring both his and Soldier Boy's men. After coming across a mortally wounded Soldier Boy, near-vertically bisected by a blast, in the aftermath, Mallory had then dropped a grenade by his feet before walking away, mercy killing him.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Continuing to tell Hughie about his own past in the "The Boys" arc "Barbary Coast", Mallory reveals that by 1950, he learned that new versions (new Supes under the same designs and branding) of Soldier Boy and his brethren had been created by Vought to replace them, fighting elsewhere, known as "Crimefighters Incorporated" after the war and making propaganda films for the United States government. This second Soldier Boy would eventually later die in unknown circumstances, and be succeeded by the third in modern times, presented by Vought (like the second) as the first still-alive Soldier Boy.


title: Soldier Boy

text: In the 2022 third season of the streaming television series adaptation, Jensen Ackles portrays a composite character based of the various comic book characters known as Soldier Boy, created by Nazi defector Frederick Vought during World War II in 1944, via injections of Compound V into a normal soldier. After being mentioned by Stan Edgar in the 2020 second season as an early test subject for Compound V, represented via a statue, Soldier Boy is said by Marvin T. "MM" Milk in the third season to be responsible for killing his grandfather whilst thwarting a carjacking, motivating his father's decision to "work himself to death" as a lawyer attempting to bring down Vought, and causing MM's OCD. Soldier Boy was said to have been killed while preventing a nuclear meltdown during the Cold War. Believing this story to be false, upon learning of the location of a Russian superweapon known as B.C.L. RED said to have actually killed Soldier Boy, Queen Maeve sends Billy Butcher to verify whether it did or not and then retrieve it, both hoping to potentially use the weapon to kill Homelander, the unstable leader of the Seven, due to Vought having equated him and Soldier Boy to have been on a similar to equal power level.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Interrogating and killing Soldier Boy's former sidekick Gunpowder after injecting himself with "V-24" given to him by Maeve, giving himself temporary superpowers, Butcher learns that Soldier Boy was actually killed during a joint black ops mission between his Supe team Payback and the CIA in Nicaragua in 1984, working against the Sandinistas, under the supervision of Butcher's own mentor, Grace Mallory. Confronting Mallory, Butcher learns that the vast majority of her men had been massacred by Russian and Nicaraguan troops in an ambush in 1984, and that while she did see Soldier Boy fight off several soldiers in the subsequent battle, she had been knocked out while avoiding friendly fire from Gunpowder, and only learned of Soldier Boy's death upon her awakening, caused by an unknown "superweapon" (B.C.L. RED), witnessed by his then-girlfriend the Crimson Countess. Not wanting it publicly known that the Russian government had the capability of killing Supes, the then-President, Ronald Reagan, had ordered the incident to be covered up, with Vought receiving full immunity. Unbeknownst to most people, Stan Edgar had organized the incident to get rid of Soldier Boy by allowing Noir and Payback to turn against him in revenge for his physical and mental abuse of his team members. The team managed to knock him out and leave him for the Russians, but not without Soldier Boy inflicting horrific burns and significant brain trauma upon Noir in retaliation.


title: Soldier Boy

text: After failing to track down the Crimson Countess in the present, Butcher and the Boys make their way to Russia and infiltrate the secret laboratory which Maeve believed to hold B.C.L. RED. After being overwhelmed by Russian soldiers, whom Butcher and Hughie Campbell then kill after taking more V-24, Butcher discovers and opens the B.C.L. RED. pod, only to find it contains a still-living, comatose, and bearded Soldier Boy. Inadvertently awakened from his induced coma, Soldier Boy exits the pod and releases a powerful radation blast from his chest, rendering Kimiko Miyashiro powerless and wounded (counteracting her usual regenerative abilities). The Boys retreat to stabilize her while Soldier Boy escapes, with Butcher surmising his new abilities to be a result of experimentation.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Soldier Boy returns to the United States by smuggling himself onto a commercial flight. While wandering New York City, he experiences a powerful flashback (triggered by hearing a song that was played whilst he was being experimented on), causing him to relive several traumatic moments while in Russian captivity. The ensuing rage triggers a destructive radioactive burst and he levels the better part of a five-story apartment complex, drawing the attention of Homelander as a potential new supervillain. After finding his way to "the Legend," a former Vought executive, he recovers his original uniform and confronts the Crimson Countess, who Butcher had restrained as a show of good faith in a bid to join forces with him (with MM being falsely led to believe was to use her as bait to kill Soldier Boy). After revealing his torture and disappointment that Payback never came to rescue him, she reveals that she, and the rest of Payback, secretly despised him and betrayed him to the Russians for no money, at which point he kills her with a radioactive burst.


title: Soldier Boy

text: After joining forces with Butcher and Hughie, with Soldier Boy agreeing to kill Homelander in exchange for them helping him track down and kill the remaining members of Payback, the group infiltrates Herogasm, an annual superhero orgy, hosted by Soldier Boys' former teammates TNT Twins. After the Twins claim Noir sold him out to the Russians, Soldier Boy suffers another PTSD episode and releases an energy blast, destroying the building, killing the Twins and multiple guests, and injuring others. Before the group can escape, they are confronted by Homelander. The group manages to overpower him after a fight, but Homelander is able to escape the energy blast in the nick of time.


title: Soldier Boy

text: While hunting another Payback member, Mindstorm, Soldier Boy starts to hear voices, which greatly concerns Hughie and Butcher. Butcher reveals to Hughie that he has supplied Soldier Boy with marijuana in order to keep him from having another destructive episode. After triggering a booby trap, Mindstorm attacks Butcher by forcing him to endlessly relive his traumatic past. Soldier Boy leaves Butcher for dead despite Hughie's protests. Later, Hughie confronts Soldier Boy about his PTSD, drug problem, and constant showboating of his military past; Hughie had previously learned from The Legend that Soldier Boy's service during the Second World War was mostly propaganda, having taken more active roles in suppressing race rioting and opposing the Civil Rights and peace movements, with there being "rumors about Dealey Plaza". Later, realizing the error of his ways, Hughie betrays Soldier Boy and saves Mindstorm, who in turn frees Butcher in return for being teleported to safety. Soldier Boy arrives soon afterward and kills Mindstorm, but not before learning from him Edgar's role in his capture and the reason for it: Edgar had used Soldier Boy's semen to create Homelander as a more powerful replacement. Later, Soldier Boy reveals the information to a shocked Homelander during a phone call to him.


title: Soldier Boy

text: After Soldier Boy informs Butcher and Hughie of the revelation that he is Homelander's father, the two, and later the rest of the Boys and Maeve, become concerned that he and Homelander will team up. He tells Butcher of his own privileged background, starkly contrasting with the more humble original story developed by Vought, which allowed him to enter Frederick Vought's Compound V trials; his father, a prominent steel magnate, neglected him and regarded him as a disappointment, disowning him and his new superhero persona as he had not earned his superpowers himself. Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Maeve go to Seven Tower to fight Homelander and Black Noir, detaining the Boys in a disused safe at the Flatiron Building. However, Homelander, having earlier killed Noir (for keeping his parentage secret) and retrieved Ryan, attempts to connect with Soldier Boy, saying that they and Ryan could be a family. After Soldier Boy disowns Homelander as weak, damaged, attention-seeking, and a disappointment, he attempts to blast him and fulfill his agreement with Butcher. However, after Ryan lasers Soldier Boy to stop him from attacking Homelander, and Soldier Boy makes the mistake of striking Ryan in retaliation, he ends up fighting Butcher, Annie, MM, and Kimiko, with Homelander reluctantly fighting Queen Maeve. When they attempt to use Novichok improvised by Frenchie to knock out Soldier Boy, he attempts to release an energy blast in retaliation. Before he can kill the Boys, a grievously-injured Maeve pushes him out of the window to save them, losing her own powers when he discharges mid-air and forced her to go into hiding. Soldier Boy is thereafter detained on Mallory's orders, with his statue in front of Seven Tower being toppled by supporters of both Homelander and Stormfront after Vought's news media wing reported that Soldier Boy's attack was motivated by Russian indoctrination.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Soldier Boy is mentioned and pictured throughout the 2020–2021 promotional web series "Seven on 7 with Cameron Coleman", with the last film he had starred in, 1983's "Red River", being released to Vought's new "Vought+" streaming service, while the "" first season finale "" mentions Homelander to be the first Supe since Soldier Boy to hold the same level of "caliber" as him in the public eye; Eric Kripke additionally expressed interest in a future episode of "Diabolical" set in the comic series' continuity, like "", adapting Soldier Boy III's and Homelander's sexual relationship, which was not adapted to the live-action series' different Soldier Boy I, with Ackles potentially also voicing the younger character.


title: Soldier Boy

text: To promote the character's appearances in the third season of "The Boys", Jensen Ackles appeared in several videos depicting Soldier Boy's in-universe promotional campaigns for Vought and the United States government in the 1980s, in particular recording several anti-drug PSAs and serenading the dancers of "Solid Gold" with a spoken-word rendition of Blondie's "Rapture". Following the airing of this cover, Ackles additionally expressed interest in recording a potential album of similar cover works, tentatively entitled "Soldier Boy Sings The Hits".


title: Soldier Boy

text: The character was designed as a parody analogous to Marvel Comics' Captain America, a basic "supersoldier" trained in shield-fighting, who maintains a genuinely patriotic and innocent approach to his role, not realizing the depravity of the Supes around him (never resorting to foul language or joining his team during the "Herogasm" orgies, although he privately has sex with Homelander at each one, believing each encounter to be a "test" for him to join the Seven and leave Payback). He is in the habit of reciting the names of states while engaged in battle. It is claimed he fought in World War II, though Butcher claims otherwise and refers to this story as an insult to the people who really did; Soldier Boy is later revealed to be the third Supe to have taken the mantle, after the first was killed during his first mission and the second fought during the war only to die later.


title: Soldier Boy

text: For the 2022 third season of the television adaptation, Soldier Boy was redesigned by Laura Jean "LJ" Shannon and Greg Hopwood as analogous to both Captain America, Superman, and the Winter Soldier, in particular the former's "Nomad" depiction in the 2018 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "", as portrayed by Chris Evans, with a practical pointed shield for defense and attack. Soilder Boy also possesses the ability to produce radiation that can be released from his chest in beams of energy or explosive burst, that can also fry the Compound V out of a Supe's system, courtesy of Soviet-era experimentation. Soldier Boy is frequently described as being nearly as strong as Homelander, which is proven in the episode Herogasm, where his superhuman strength and durability rivals that of Homelander, allowing him to fight him almost evenly.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Addressing Soldier Boy III's sexual relationship with Homelander in the "Herogasm" comic series, Eric Kripke confirmed that it would not be adapted to the television series adaptation, with Jensen Ackles instead portraying the original World War II-era heterosexual Soldier Boy I introduced in the "Barbary Coast" arc of "The Boys", having survived the war into modern times (unlike the comic series), and been held prisoner and experimented on in a laboratory, in-and-out of an induced coma, from 1984 to 2022. Prior to Ackles' casting, Kripke intended to "cast an older actor, because we were going for like a grizzled John Wayne sort of vibe", before instead offering Ackles the role, whom he had previously worked with on the first five seasons of The CW's "Supernatural", and who was "in contention for a brief time" (although did not audition) for the role of Steve Rogers / Captain America in the 2011 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "" (prior to Chris Evans's casting), a character of which Soldier Boy is a parody, with Ackles characterising them as "Captain America on his ass, [and] as if [he] gave up super-heroism and was just your drunk and inappropriate uncle". On the character's relationship with Homelander in the third season of the television series adaptation, Ackles stated that:


title: Soldier Boy

text: "Homelander is the new iteration of Soldier Boy. He's the new kid on the block in Soldier Boy's eyes. Going back to that toxic masculinity: very true to form, one of the first things that ever comes out of Soldier Boy's mouth after he looks at a big poster of Homelander is 'What the fuck?' It's just looking at the world around him, knowing he doesn't fit in and [that] things are different. And there it is, personified in this statuesque red, white and blue superhero. He's not thrilled about that. The relationship is immediately contentious. They have their words."


title: Soldier Boy

text: The character and Ackles' portrayal in the third season of the television series adaptation have received a positive media reception.


title: Soldier Boy

text: Ackles' cover of Blondie's "Rapture" received additional praise from the band itself, with original singer Debbie Harry describing the rendition as "epic".


title: Venom Snake

text: , also known as , is a fictional character from Konami's "Metal Gear" video game series. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, he is most notably the protagonist in the 2015 game "". He is performed via voice acting and performance capture by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version and by Kiefer Sutherland in the English version.


title: Venom Snake

text: Within the series, Venom Snake is the leader of a mercenary unit, Diamond Dogs, who returns to the battlefield after waking up from a nine-year coma in an that also resulted in the loss of his left arm and a piece of shrapnel embedded into the right side of his forehead. While initially introduced in-game as long-standing "Metal Gear" character Big Boss, it is revealed he is actually a former physician and combat medic who underwent facial reconstruction and subliminal brainwashing to serve as Big Boss' body double; via retcon, Venom Snake is also revealed to be the man killed by Solid Snake at the end of the original 1987 game.


title: Venom Snake

text: Venom Snake and his role as a replacement for Big Boss in "The Phantom Pain" received mixed opinions from critics, with some finding the decision fitting in the context of the series, while others thought it negated the emotional crux of the game's story or failed to provide closure. Sutherland's performance garnered praise from critics, although some were bemused by his relative lack of dialogue.


title: Venom Snake

text: makes a minor appearance in "" as an unnamed combat medic and then throughout "" as the player character also known as . His original identity (whose face is partially obscured when he's on-screen) was employed by Big Boss's Militaires Sans Frontières private forces. He accompanies Big Boss in the helicopter extraction of Ricardo "Chico" Valenciano Libre and Paz Ortega Andrade from a U.S. Naval prison facility in Cuba in 1975. He successfully removes a time bomb implanted inside Paz's abdomen, but fails to notice a second bomb within Paz which goes off, causing their helicopter to crash in the process. The medic shields Big Boss from the blast and the two men survive the crash, but the medic ends up losing his left arm while fragments of bones and teeth are buried within his body, including a large piece of shrapnel lodged within his cerebral cortex. Both Big Boss and the medic fall into a coma for the next nine years. During his coma, the medic is transferred to a hospital in Cyprus, where he is subjected to Zero's process of subconscious brainwashing and facial reconstruction in order to be Big Boss' mental doppelganger (now dubbed "Snake") to draw attention away from his mental template. After awakening, Snake escapes the hospital following an attack by XOF strike force and is extracted by Revolver Ocelot. He takes command of the Diamond Dogs mercenary unit along with a new Mother Base constructed near Seychelles in 1984. Snake then engages in a series of missions in Afghanistan and Central Africa as he and Kazuhira Miller seek revenge for lost comrades and pursues the Cipher organization. With Miller and Ocelot as advisers, he recruits several individuals into his army, including companions such as the sniper Quiet and the canine D-Dog. Snake ultimately comes face to face with XOF's leader Skull Face, as well as the traitorous Huey Emmerich and the child mercenary leader Eli. During an unspecified time period, he is shown receiving Big Boss' cassette tape, with one side labelled "Operation Intrude N313" which he plays on a Sony BitCorder device connected to a HiTBiT MSX2 computer; the timeline establishes that he would die fighting against Solid Snake in Outer Heaven.


title: Venom Snake

text: The character of Big Boss debuted in the original "Metal Gear" game, initially serving as Solid Snake's commanding officer of FOXHOUND and main radio contact, while also serving as the leader of Outer Heaven's forces. Despite an apparent defeat, the game ends with a message from Big Boss vowing revenge following the credits. "" had an in-game rumor about Big Boss rebuilt with cybernetic parts after being mortally wounded during the previous game's final encounter; this explanation was used for Big Boss' survival in the "", although it has since been retconned with the release of "The Phantom Pain".


title: Venom Snake

text: Venom Snake is distinguished from the original Big Boss by his bionic left arm, the numerous facial scars, and the shrapnel "horn" protruding from the right side of his forehead. His eye-patch also differs from the one usually worn by Big Boss, as it has three straps instead of just two. The decision to have Snake lose his left arm was made early during the development of "Metal Gear Solid V", although originally he was supposed to wear a regular prosthetic rather than a bionic arm.


title: Venom Snake

text: The game features a hidden "karma" system which causes Venom Snake's appearance to change based on the player's behavior. Negative actions such as killing people and animals or developing nuclear weapons earn Demon Points. Earning 20,000 Demon Points causes Snake's horn to grow, and reaching 50,000 makes it grow even longer and causes Snake to become permanently soaked in blood. This demonic appearance is accentuated by Snake's belt, which resembles a tail. Positive actions such as extracting animals and child soldiers, earning certain achievements, or visiting Mother Base's zoo will eventually reverse these changes, which are purely aesthetic.


title: Venom Snake

text: In "Metal Gear Solid V", Venom Snake is portrayed by Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland through voice-over and facial motion capture, briefly as the medic in "Ground Zeroes" and then as the player character throughout "The Phantom Pain". Sutherland plays both Venom Snake and Big Boss, but the official credits make no distinction between either character, with the role, simply billed as "Snake". The casting was announced by Konami on 6 June 2013, during the annual Konami Pre-E3 show. Kojima's reason for selecting Sutherland rather than David Hayter (Snake's usual voice actor) was to "have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice rather than words", and that he "needed someone who could genuinely convey both the facial and vocal qualities of a man in his late 40s". Hollywood producer and director Avi Arad suggested to Kojima that Sutherland could fulfill these requirements. Akio Ōtsuka was unaffected by this casting change and continued to voice the character in the Japanese version, dubbing over Sutherland's facial capture performance (a first for the series). On 4 March 2015, Kojima said that Snake would have less dialogue in "The Phantom Pain" than in previous installments, explaining that this would make Snake more an extension of the player and that he would act based on the player's actions "rather than doing things like making spontaneous comments or flirting with women."


title: Venom Snake

text: The character was initially introduced as "Punished Snake" in the E3 2013 trailer for "Metal Gear Solid V", but this moniker would fall into disuse in favor of "Venom Snake", which is the name that was used in most of the promotional imagery and merchandising since E3 2014. Although the final game bills him as "Punished 'Venom' Snake" in the opening sequence of every mission, "Punished Snake" is never spoken by anyone, while "Venom Snake" is only spoken once in the actual game. In all other instances, the character is simply referred to as "Snake" or "Boss".


title: Venom Snake

text: During the prologue sequence of the game, the player character is briefly given the name by the medical staff protecting him in Cyprus, while Big Boss (whose face is covered in bandages) assumes the name Ishmael while helping the player thwart off the XOF forces pursuing them in the hospital. These are the names of the protagonist and the narrator in "Moby-Dick". According to Kenji Yano (who wrote the novelization of "The Phantom Pain" under the pen name Hitori Nojima), these names were chosen to symbolize Big Boss handing down the role of protagonist to Venom Snake while Big Boss takes a supporting role in the story.


title: Venom Snake

text: The character of Venom Snake and his role in "The Phantom Pain" received a mixed reception. Asserting that "Metal Gear" has always been a primarily metafictional series, Dave Thier of "Forbes" praised the game's substitution of a player-created avatar for Big Boss. He felt that the twist acted as an ending to both the game and the series, rather than the plot, and wrote, "You've made it through every mission, you've backtracked, perfected, gotten your S ratings, and employed perfect stealth. That's it, you're Big Boss, you're Snake, You're 'you.' And you're done." Chris Carter of "Destructoid" said that Venom Snake made sense within the context of the series, as the games have "always dabbled in the concept of 'the legend' being stronger than the actual person", but was disappointed that the game's ending was not a remake of the original "Metal Gear", featuring Sutherland as Venom and Hayter as Solid Snake. "PC Gamer"s Samuel Roberts called the revelation of Venom Snake's identity "one perfect moment in a bad story", and thought that the twist worked on a literal level, making the medic a "tragic and unsettling" figure whose only meaningful relationship is with a woman (Quiet) who thinks he is Big Boss. Roberts complimented that in removing the character's identity of Big Boss, the epilogue left the player with "no backstory other than the one [they]'ve just created", reflecting the player's own unique experience and being "a perfect thematic match for [the] game".


title: Venom Snake

text: Conversely, David Roberts from "GamesRadar+" wrote that the reveal was a "strange" ending and "a bizarre bit of fridge logic that makes less and less sense the more I think about it". He further felt that the twist caused the story to become "hollow" and lacking in closure as a result of the "rehash[ing]" of missions during the game's second half and its "slapped in" ending. However, he thought a player-created avatar for Big Boss was "purely and distinctly "Metal Gear"" and a humorous way for Kojima to show his appreciation towards the series' long-term fans. "Kotaku"s Jason Schreier similarly wrote that while the twist was "neat", it raised more questions under scrutiny, and felt that being misled into experiencing Big Boss' character arc when it was actually someone else cheapened the rationale behind key plot events. Schreier also disliked that "The Phantom Pain" failed to provide any explanation or context for both Venom Snake and Big Boss' change of character and motivations for their villainous portrayals in "Metal Gear" and "".


title: Venom Snake

text: Kiefer Sutherland received praise for his performance as Snake, although some critics were bemused by the minimal dialogue spoken by the character throughout the game, calling it "strange", "suspicious", and "positively jarring".


title: Venom Snake

text: Ryan Gilliam of "Polygon" included Venom Snake as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s, writing he was "one of the more complex characters in all of "Metal Gear" [...] The Big Boss character lost a lot with the switch from series regular David Hayter to celebrity voice talent Kiefer Sutherland. But Venom Snake makes the list because he isn't the hero. He's masquerading as the real Big Boss, unknowingly, and represents what a person can be if they're told exactly who they are."


title: Van Morrison discography

text: Morrison made his first recording playing saxophone on "Boozoo Hully Gully" with the International Monarchs in 1962. His first recording session as lead singer/songwriter with Them was produced by Dick Rowe at Decca's studio. "Don't Start Crying Now" was the first single released and the garage rock classic, "Gloria" was also recorded at this session. "Baby, Please Don't Go" (recorded October 1964) was released November 1964 with "Gloria" as the B-side and was a Top Ten hit in the UK Singles Chart. "Here Comes the Night" was Them's second hit in 1965, charting at No. 2 in the UK and No. 24 in the US.


title: Van Morrison discography

text: Morrison had his first recording session as a solo artist for Bang Records in New York City for Bert Berns on 28 March 1967. One of the songs was "Brown Eyed Girl", which charted at No. 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. By April 2008, he had been on the "Billboard" album chart a total of 787 weeks.


title: Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)

text: William "Will" Smith (portrayed by Willard "Will" Smith) is a fictionalized version of Smith and main character in the 1990–1996 NBC television sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and the 2022 Peacock streaming television drama "Bel-Air", portrayed in the latter series by Jabari Banks.


text: The character of Will Smith is loosely based on the life of Warner Bros. executive Benny Medina as well as the actor who plays him of the same name (although in the show 'Will' is short for William, while in real life it is short for Willard). Smith's charming and mischievous personality earned him the nickname "Prince," which eventually became "Fresh Prince". Smith had become a successful rapper, but lost most of his money because of poor budgeting. When NBC signed Smith up for the sitcom, he was almost bankrupt, and it immediately launched his acting career.


text: The premise of the character of Will, and of the show in general, is outlined in the opening theme. Will is a street-smart and laid-back West Philadelphia teenager. While playing street basketball, Will misses a shot and the ball hits a group of gang members. After hearing about the subsequent fight with them he got into, his mother sends him to live with his wealthy aunt and uncle (Vivian and Phillip Banks) in Bel-Air.


text: Following Will's arrival in Bel-Air, he was a great distance from home and was considered an outsider by many people in his Bel-Air neighborhood. Early on, he had a picture of Malcolm X on his wall. He often disagrees with his cousin Carlton, whom he sees as not quite "black" enough because he doesn't talk like other young African Americans. The next day at school, Carlton and Will show up and after failing to talk the bully down and scare her, they bribe her to leave Ashley alone for $50. Will becomes sick with an infection and must have his tonsils removed. At the hospital, Will befriend his roommate, an elderly patient named Max Jakey who has an optimistic and care-free attitude despite being cooped up in a hospital all the time. After suffering from nightmares about incompetent doctors, Will escapes and goes back home but is busted by Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv when Phil sits on top of Geoffrey's bed. Will is taken back to the hospital (complete with a bodyguard to prevent his escape) and has his surgery. Max later returns to retrieve his lucky hat, having been moved to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Talking to Will and seeing a nurse come in, he gives Will his lucky hat to keep. While Smith sometimes perceives Phil as being overprotective of Ashley, he himself also can be; when Ashley asks him about sex, Will became shocked by Ashley's inquiry, which leads him and Carlton to go to a clinic to talk to a doctor about how to discuss sex with Ashley. Will and Carlton are punished for their behavior and ordered by Uncle Phil to get the bracelet back. At the pawn shop, Agnes is about to sell the bracelet to another customer for $550. Playing on the crush Agnes has on Carlton, he plans to have Carlton strip to get the bracelet. His father, Lou, who had abandoned him at childhood, returns in the episode "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse." His dad promises to take him on the road with him, but later drops Will, and the resulting disappointment breaks Will’s heart. It is then that Smith tearfully realizes Philip is the closest thing he had to a father. Will and the Banks family vacation to Will's hometown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where Will learns to his horror that he has a reputation as a chicken due to not fighting Omar, a local bully and instead going to live in Bel Air, Los Angeles. To salvage his reputation, Will plans to fight Omar on the basketball court where he had the notorious fight but finds that Omar is no longer a bully and has grown up, attempting to give back to his community and help people. Will refuses to take no for an answer and keeps trying to fight Omar, who reminds Will that he needs to grow up and stop worrying about his reputation. Will chooses to stay home an extra week with Vy but later calls Uncle Phil to tell him that he's not coming back.


text: Though Will often teases his Uncle Phillip due to his obesity, he genuinely values Phillip as a father figure and fiercely defends him when his image or integrity is attacked by outsiders, especially in season 3's "Asses to Ashes." In the episode, "Bullets Over Bel-Air," Will is shot at a bank ATM while protecting Carlton from a robber. Carlton then feels that Will could have died saving him. During one of Will's visits back to his old neighborhood in Philly, he confronts the old park thug, Omar, to restore his damaged reputation. When Will challenges him, he is startled when a reformed Omar refuses to fight back. Omar shuns Will, and through him, Will gradually realizes that his reputation is not important.


text: Similar to his relationship with Uncle Phil is his relationship with his cousin Carlton. Though he often mocks Carlton mercilessly over his preppy nature, lack of “street cred”, and generally uncool nature, he is also fiercely protective of Carlton and will not hesitate to come to his cousin's defense. As stated previously, he even went so far as to take a bullet for Carlton. In another episode, Will quits a black fraternity when they refuse to let Carlton in for not being “black” enough. Will’s loyalty and love for Carlton are not lost on the latter, and in the final episode Carlton outright tells Will “Thank you for being the brother I always wanted.”.


text: At the conclusion of the show's run, the Banks family decides to settle in New York, while Will remains in Los Angeles to finish his last year of college. Will eventually becomes a close member of the Banks family and a better man by the series' end. Will delivers the last line of dialogue in the series: "I am definitely going to miss you, C."


text: The character and Will Smith's portrayal received near unanimous praise from television critics and audiences alike. UGO editor Bryan Enk praised Will Smith's role as the character, stating "Rarely has there been a television series so perfectly tailor-made for its star than "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" [...] "Fresh Prince" fit Will Smith like a glove; it was obviously a showcase for him, but his co-stars were just as good, and Smith never hogged the spotlight (or the camera), allowing each cast member to shine in every episode."


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (; 3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan army officer and politician who served as President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner led a coup d'état on 4 May 1954 with the support of the army and the Colorado Party, with which he was affiliated. After a brief provisional government headed by Tomás Romero Pereira, he was the Colorado Party's presidential candidate for the 1954 general election, and was elected unopposed since all other parties were banned.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: He officially assumed the presidency on 15 August 1954, quickly suspended constitutional and civil rights, and began a period of harsh repression with the support of the army and the military police (which also served as a secret or political police) against anyone who opposed his authoritarian rule. Even when opposition parties were legalized in 1962, they were barely tolerated, and the repression continued. On 25 August 1967, he introduced a new constitution enabling him to re-elect himself; in 1977 he modified that constitution to permit himself to be re-elected indefinitely. He was fraudulently re-elected seven times from 1958 until 1988; approximately six months after the 1988 general election, he was overthrown in the coup d'état of 2 and 3 February 1989, led by his most trusted confidant, Major General Andrés Rodríguez Pedotti, with the support of the army.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: On 5 February 1989, just two days after the coup, Stroessner was exiled to Brazil, where he spent the last 17 years of his life. He died at 11:20 AM on 16 August 2006 at the Santa Luzia Hospital in Brasilia from septic shock due to complications from pneumonia.  He was veiled in a strict private ceremony, and finally buried in the Campo da Esperança Cemetery.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner's parents were Hugo Strößner, who emigrated from Hof, Bavaria, Germany, and worked as an accountant for a brewery, and Heriberta Matiauda, who grew up in a wealthy Paraguayan family of Criollo Spanish descent. Stroessner was born in Encarnación on 3 November 1912. He enrolled in the Francisco López Military Academy in 1929, and received his commission as a lieutenant in the Paraguayan Army in 1931.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: In 1932, he fought against Bolivian forces in the Battle of Boquerón during the Chaco War. After the war he rose steadily in rank; by 1940, he had risen to the rank of major and joined the general staff in 1946. When the Paraguayan Civil War broke out in 1947, he commanded the artillery division at Paraguarí that ensured that President Higinio Morínigo won the war by destroying a working-class rebel area of Asunción. President Morínigo found Stroessner's military skills very useful and promoted him rapidly. As one of the few officers who had remained loyal to Morínigo, Stroessner became a formidable political and social player once he entered the higher echelons of the Paraguayan armed forces. He became a brigadier — and the youngest general officer in South America — in 1948. His accurate political sense failed him only once, when he found himself in 1948 on the wrong side of a failed coup attempt and had to be driven to the Brazilian embassy in the trunk of a car, earning him the nickname of "Colonel Trunk". Stroessner backed Felipe Molas López in a successful coup against Juan Natalicio González. He then backed Federico Chávez against Molas López and by 1951 he was Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces of Paraguay.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner objected to President Federico Chávez's plans to arm the national police and threw him out of office in a coup on 4 May 1954. After a brief interim presidency by Tomás Romero, Stroessner was the only candidate in a special election on 11 July to complete Chávez's term. He was reelected seven times—in 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1988. He appeared alone on the ballot in 1958. In his other elections, he won by implausibly high margins; only once (1968) did he drop below 80 percent of the vote. That campaign was also the only time an opposition candidate got more than 20 percent of the vote. He served for 35 years, with only Fidel Castro having a longer tenure among 20th-century Latin American leaders; though Castro's tenure as "president" was shorter at 32 years (1976–2008).


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Soon after taking office, Stroessner placed the entire country under a state of siege and suspended civil liberties. The state-of-siege provisions allowed the government to arrest and detain anyone indefinitely without trial, as well as forbid public meetings and demonstrations. It was renewed every 90 days until 1987, except for a brief period in 1959. Although it technically only applied to Asunción after 1970, the courts ruled that anyone charged with security offenses could be brought to the capital and charged under the state-of-siege provisions—even if the offense took place outside the capital. Apart from one 24-hour period on election days, Stroessner ruled under what amounted to martial law for nearly all of his tenure. A devoted anti-communist who brought Paraguay into the World Anti-Communist League, he justified his repression as a necessary measure to protect the country.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: The Stroessner regime's strong anti-communist stance earned it the support of the United States, with which it enjoyed close military and economic ties and supported the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic. The Stroessner regime even offered to send troops to Vietnam alongside the Americans. The United States played a "critical supporting role" in the domestic affairs of Stoessner's Paraguay. Between 1962 and 1975 the US provided $146 million to Paraguay's military government and Paraguayan officers were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas. Although the military and security forces under Stroessner received less material support from the United States than other South American countries, strong inter-military connections existed through military advisors and military training. Between 1962 and 1966, nearly 400 Paraguayan military personnel were trained by the United States in the Panama Canal Zone and on US soil. Strong Paraguayan-U.S. relations continued until the Carter Administration emphasized a foreign policy that recognized human rights abuses, although both military and economic aid were allotted to the Paraguayan government in Carter's budgets. The Reagan Administration restored more cordial relations due to Stroessner's staunch anti-communism, but by the mid 1980s relations cooled, largely because of the international outcry over the regime's excesses, along with its involvement in narcotics trafficking and money-laundering. In 1986, the Reagan administration added his regime to its list of Latin American dictatorships.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: As leader of the Colorado Party, Stroessner exercised nearly complete control over the nation's political scene. Although opposition parties were nominally permitted after 1962 (the Colorado Party had been the only legal party in the country since 1947), Paraguay remained for all intents and purposes a one-party state. Elections were so heavily rigged in favor of the Colorados that the opposition had no realistic chance of winning, and opposition figures were subjected to varying degrees of harassment. Furthermore, Stroessner's Paraguay became a haven for Nazi war criminals, including Josef Mengele, and non-communist peaceful opposition was crushed. Given Stroessner's affinity for Nazism and harboring of Nazi war criminals, foreign press often referred to his government as the "poor man's Nazi regime".


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Stroessner's rule brought more stability than most of the country's living residents had previously known. From 1927 to 1954, the country had had 22 presidents, including six from 1948 to 1954 alone. However, that stability came at a high cost. Corruption was rampant (Stroessner himself did not dispute charges of corruption at some levels in his government) and Paraguay's human rights record was considered one of the poorest in South America. During Stroessner's regime, an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people were murdered, 400 to 500 more "disappeared," and thousands more imprisoned and tortured.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: Press freedom was also limited, constitutional guarantees notwithstanding. Any outcry about government mistreatment or attacks toward the Colorado Party would result in destruction of the media outlets. Many media executives were sent to prison or tortured. Because of this, political opponents were few and far between. Near the end of this presidency, he declared that he would remove the state of siege, but quickly recanted after students began protesting trolley fares.


title: Alfredo Stroessner

text: For the first 13 years of his rule, Stroessner ruled under a severely authoritarian constitution enacted in 1940. It was replaced in 1967 with an equally repressive document. Like its predecessor, it gave the president broad powers to take exceptional actions for the good of the country, such as suspending civil liberties and intervening in the economy. It thus formed the legal basis for the state of virtual martial law under which Stroessner governed. While it limited the president to two five-year terms, it stipulated that only those terms completed after the 1968 election would count toward that limit. In 1977, faced with having to leave office for good the following year, Stroessner pushed through a constitutional amendment allowing him to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms.