title: Tommy John

text: John finished his career with a 288–231 record, a 3.34 ERA, 2,245 strikeouts, 1,259 walks, and 4,783 hits allowed in innings pitched. After pitching for 26 years, he ranked among baseball's all-time leaders in wins (26th), losses (19th), innings pitched (20th), hits allowed (10th), earned runs allowed (1,749, 16th), games started (700, eighth), shutouts (46, 26th), batters faced (19,692, 18th), and wild pitches (187, 17th). He had 188 career no decisions, an all-time MLB record among starting pitchers (dating back to at least 1908). Of Hall-of-Fame-eligible pitchers since 1900, Roger Clemens (whose career is tainted by steroids allegations) is the only one with more wins than John not to be elected to the Hall of Fame.


title: Tommy John

text: Though John was nearing the 300 win club at the end of his career, he had not necessarily intended to pitch long enough to reach the milestone. "You'd like to stay around long enough to win 300, but that's not the ultimate goal for me," he said in 1987. "My kids are getting older, and it's tougher for us to move as much as we used to. I decided that wherever we go, we go as a group. The kids have a lifetime contract with us." After the Yankees released him in 1989, he planned to keep working out and throwing in case another ballclub signed him; none did, however, and the season was his last.


title: Tommy John

text: John first appeared on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in 1995. He earned 21.3% of the vote, but 75% is required for induction. Over the next several years, his vote totals rose and fell, but through 2008, he had never received more than 29.6% of the vote. In 2009, in his 15th and final year of eligibility for election on the main ballot, John received a career-high 31.7% of the vote, but this was still not enough for election. He could still enter the Hall if he were selected by the Modern Era Subcommittee of the Veterans Committee. John was announced as one of the finalists for the 2020 Modern Baseball Era ballot; however he was not one of the inductees.


title: Tommy John

text: In a Yahoo Sports article in 2017, Chris Cwik discussed the pros and cons of John's Hall of Fame case. Pros Cwik mentioned were that his 111 Adjusted ERA+ was better than that of Sutton or Early Wynn (both Hall of Famers) and that his surgery has revolutionized the game. Cons were that he never led the league in wins or strikeouts or won a Cy Young Award, and his 288 wins and 3.34 ERA were more "borderline" Hall of Fame credentials. Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports also did a pro-con analysis in 2019. On the pro side, Calcaterra noted that he was above average during his long career; on the con side, he too noted that John never led the league in wins or strikeouts, writing "John was simply not dominant in any way — his ERA+ was a not-very-Hall-of-Famer–111 — even if he was pretty darn dependable and even if he ate innings like crazy." Analyzing John's wins above replacement value on several statistical sites (ranging from over 60 to 79.1), Brett Ballantini of "Sports Illustrated" said in 2020, "This is a guy who, irrespective of any surgery named after him, is a guy whose baseball career alone simply says he's a Hall of Famer." In a 2016 interview, John pointed out that his 164 wins following the surgery were one shy of the amount that Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax had over his entire career.


title: Tommy John

text: John went on to win 164 games after having the surgery, 40 more than before. His successful comeback proved once and for all that baseball players could still be successful after undergoing major surgery. In 2012, Lindsey Berra of ESPN noted that roughly one in seven major league pitchers had undergone Tommy John surgery at some point in their careers. "It's become an accepted side effect of the job," said George Paletta, team physician for the St. Louis Cardinals. Doug Miller of MLB.com wrote that "baseball history was altered – some would say saved – forever" when John returned from his recovery, observing that "Today, the tearing of a pitcher's ulnar collateral ligament is no longer a career-ending calamity." ESPN personality Dan Patrick and longtime baseball commentator Bob Costas discussed the impact that Tommy John surgery has had on the game, stating in 2012 that there could be a case for John being awarded the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. The initial Tommy John surgery, John's subsequent return to pitching success, and his relationship with Dr. Jobe was the subject of an ESPN "30 for 30 Shorts" documentary in 2013.


title: Tommy John

text: John was a soft throwing sinkerball pitcher whose technique resulted in batters hitting numerous ground balls which often induced double plays. In 1980, Dave Anderson of "The New York Times" estimated that his fastball was about 92 miles per hour. "It sinks sharply away from right-handed batters, and it sinks into left-handed batters," he wrote. Rick Cerone, who caught John with the Yankees, said of the fastball, "It looks like a real good pitch to hit until about the last 10 feet, then it sinks about two or three inches outside. When the batters try to pull it, they just hit these little grounders." At the start of his major league career, John threw just a fastball and a curveball. The Indians tried to get him to throw a slider in 1964, but John struggled with it and went back to throwing two pitches later that year. By 1980, he was throwing the slider. He also threw three different curveballs by then, classifying them by their release point: "Each one breaks differently, down or flat or in between, depending on how you spin it." In 1972, he added a screwball, which he used as a changeup to complement his repertoire. His arm lagged behind the rest of his body when he threw pitches, a technique that put extra stress on it, which contributed to his UCL injury in 1974. John tried to emulate Whitey Ford's pitching style, and he studied books on pitching by Christy Mathewson, Bob Feller, and Bob Shaw.


title: Tommy John

text: Between his stints with the Angels and Athletics in 1985, John served as color commentator alongside Tim McCarver for a game between the White Sox and the Athletics on ABC's "Monday Night Baseball" on June 24. Following his career, John did broadcasting for several different teams. From 1994 through 1996, he served as a broadcaster for the Twins. In 1997, John served as the color commentator for the Charlotte Knights of the International League, also performing a public relations role for the ballclub. John returned to New York in 1998 to do commentary on select games during WPIX's final year of broadcasting Yankee baseball. On June 26, 2008, he guest-hosted the "Mike and Mike" ESPN Radio program.


title: Tommy John

text: John started his coaching career at Furman University. During the 2002 season, John joined the Expos' organization, serving as the pitching coach for the Harrisburg Senators of the Eastern League before managing the Maryville franchise in the Arizona Fall League. In 2003, he was promoted to coach the Triple-A Edmonton Trappers of the Pacific Coast League. Next year, the Yankees got permission from the Expos to interview John, and New York hired him to be the pitching coach for the Staten Island Yankees.


title: Tommy John

text: On December 17, 2006, John was named manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League. The fifth manager in team history, he compiled a 159176 won-lost record in two-and-a-half seasons with Bridgeport. John resigned on July 8, 2009, to pursue a "non-baseball position" with Sportable Scoreboards; Frank Boulton, the team owner and CEO, publicly thanked John for his contributions. While still managing the Bluefish, he became the spokesman for Tommy John's Go-Flex, a joint cream for older athletes manufactured by New Vitality.


title: Tommy John

text: George Vecsey of "The New York Times" described John as "a churchgoer, a good-natured family man." On July 13, 1970, Tommy married the former Sally Simmons. They are the parents of four children: Tamara, Tommy III, Travis, and Taylor. In 2014, John moved to California with his girlfriend, Cheryl Zeldin, who he was married to as of January 2022.


title: Tommy John

text: In 1998, Tamara John married Patrick Mannelly, who went on to become a long snapper for the Chicago Bears. The two met at Duke University. As a 10-year-old in 1992, Taylor's singing and acting talents landed him a role in "Les Misérables" on Broadway. He also played Little League Baseball, as did his brothers. On March 9, 2010, Taylor died at the age of 28 as the result of a seizure and heart failure apparently due to an overdose of prescription drugs. "He was the greatest kid in the world, but he would get into these panic spells and deep abysses," John said of Taylor. "He was wired different than the rest of us." John has started the "Let's Do It" Foundation, dedicated to raising awareness about suicides and preventing them.


title: Tommy John

text: John's oldest son, Tommy III, played baseball for the Furman University Paladins. He was a 4-year letterman for the Paladins, leading the team in complete games as a pitcher in 1997 (3 games) and in home runs (9) in 1999, a year in which he was named an All-Southern Conference player. In 2000, he became one of three players in the history of Furman's varsity baseball team to hit for the cycle, doing so on April 1 against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. After graduating from Furman, he spent two seasons in the independent minor leagues as a pitcher for the Tyler Roughnecks and Schaumburg Flyers. John is a chiropractor and went on to write a book, "Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent's Survival Guide", which discusses the injury risk associated with young athletes specializing in one specific sport and suggests ways to prevent youth from ever having to undergo major sports-related surgery, such as Tommy John surgery.


title: Tommy John

text: John's hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana, presented him a key to the city on September 1, 1989, and Indiana governor Evan Bayh presented him with the Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana's highest honor. On October 24, 2013, the Terre Haute Parks Department honored John by renaming Spencer Field after him. The complex was the site of John's last non-professional game in 1961, when he was a member of the Terre Haute Gerstmeyer High School Black Cats.


title: Tommy John

text: John eventually overcame his stuttering problem and earned a reputation as one of baseball's most talkative players. "Ask Tommy John what time it is, and he'll tell you how to make a watch," said Lemon. Following his career, he became a motivational speaker. He has no relation to the Tommy John Underwear company and considered suing the founder over the use of his name but abandoned the idea after attorneys wanted $250,000 to represent him. As of 2019, he was no longer watching baseball, considering the game unrecognizable. He was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2018.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates (, ), or phthalate esters, are esters of phthalic acid. They are mainly used as plasticizers, i.e., substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity. They are used primarily to soften polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Note that while phthalates are usually plasticizers, not all plasticizers are phthalates. The two terms are specific and unique and cannot be used interchangeably.


title: Phthalate

text: Lower-molecular-weight phthalates, those derived from C3-C6 alcohols, are being gradually replaced in many products in the United States, Canada, and European Union over health concerns. They are being replaced by high-molecular-weight phthalates (those with more than six carbons in their backbone, which gives them increased permanency and durability), as well as alternative plasticizers not based on phthalic anhydride. In 2010, the market was still dominated by high-phthalate plasticizers; however, due to legal provisions and growing environmental awareness and perceptions, producers are increasingly switching to non-phthalate plasticizers. The legacy use of phthalate plasticizers has prevented manufacturers from using post-consumer recycled PVC since that recycled content would likely contain phthalates. Thus, many manufacturers have moved to use only virgin PVC in their products. There are, however, efforts underway to collect post-consumer PVC for chemical recycling efforts that can remove legacy phthalates and create virgin-like PVC. Those efforts are focused on areas like healthcare where PVC makes up a significant amount of medical devices.


title: Phthalate

text: Due to the ubiquity of plasticized plastics, the majority of people are exposed to some level of phthalates. For example, most Americans tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have metabolites of multiple phthalates in their urine. In studies of rodents exposed to certain phthalates, high doses have been shown to change hormone levels and cause birth defects.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates are produced industrially by the acid catalysed reaction of phthalic anhydride with excess alcohol. The synthesis of diethyl phthalate is illustrative of this:


title: Phthalate

text: The properties of the phthalate can be varied by changing the alcohol, allowing for an almost limitless range of products, although only around 30 are, or have been, commercially important. Phthalates' share of the global plasticisers market has been decreasing since around 2000. Despite this the global production of phthalates has continued to rise. In 2015 total production of was around 5.5 million tonnes, up from around 2.7 million tonnes in the 1980s. The reason for this has been the increasing size of the plasticiser market (a smaller slice of a much bigger pie), driven by increases in PVC production, which doubled between 2000 and 2020. The People's Republic of China is the largest consumer, accounting for around 45% of all use. Europe and the United States together account for around 25% of use, with the remainder widely spread around the world.


title: Phthalate

text: Various plants and microorganisms have been reported to naturally produce phthalate esters (endogenous phthalates). Biosynthesis is believed to involved a modified Shikimate pathway The extent of this natural production is not fully known, but it may create a background of phthalate pollution.


title: Phthalate

text: Between 90 and 95% of all phthalates are used as plasticisers for the production of flexible PVC. They were the first commercially important compounds for this role, a historic advantage that has led to them becoming firmly embedded in flexible PVC technology. Among the common plastics, PVC is unique in its acceptance of large amounts of plasticizer with gradual changes in physical properties from a rigid solid to a soft gel. Plasticizers, especially phthalates, derived from alcohols with 7-13 carbon atoms occupy a privileged position as general purpose plasticizers, suitable for almost all flexible PVC applications. Phthalates larger than this have limited compatibility in PVC, with di(isotridecyl) phthalate representing the practical upper limit. Conversely, plasticizers derived from alcohols with 4-6 carbon atoms are too volatile to be used on their own, but have been used alongside other compounds as secondary plasticizers, where they improve low-temperature flexibility. Compounds derived from alcohols with 1-3 carbon atoms are not used as plasticizers in PVC at all, due excessive fuming at processing temperatures (typically 180-210°C).


title: Phthalate

text: Historically DINP, DEHP, DIOP, DBP, and DIHP have been the most important phthalates, however many of these are now facing regulatory pressure and gradual phase-outs. Almost all phthalates derived from alcohols with 8 or fewer carbons are classed as toxic by ECHA. This includes Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP or DOP), which has long been the most widely used phthalate, with commercial production dating back to the 1930s. In the EU, the use of DEHP is restricted under REACH and it can only be used in specific cases if an authorisation has been granted; similar restrictions exist in many other jurisdictions. Despite this, the phase-out of DEHP is slow and it was still the most frequently used plasticizer in 2018, with an estimated global production of 3.24 million tonnes. DINP and DIDP are used as a substitutes for DEHP in many applications, as they are not classified as hazardous. Non-phthalate plasticizers are also being increasingly used.


title: Phthalate

text: Almost 90% of all plasticizers are used in PVC, giving this material improved flexibility and durability. The majority is used in films and cable sheathing. Flexible PVC can consist of over 85% plasticizer by mass, however unplasticized PVC (UPVC) should not contain any.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates see use as plasticisers in various other polymers, with applications centred around coatings such as lacquers, varnishes, and paints. The addition of phthalates imparts some flexibility to these materials, reducing their tendency to chip.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates derived from alcohols with between 1-4 carbon atoms are used as plasticisers for cellulose-type plastics, such as cellulose acetate, nitrocellulose and cellulose acetate butyrate, with commonly encountered applications including nail polish. Most phthalates are also compatible with alkyds and acrylic resins, which are used in both oil and emulsion based paints.


title: Phthalate

text: Other plasticised polymer systems include polyvinyl butyral (particularly the forms used to make laminated glass), PVA and its co-polymers like PVCA. They are also compatible in nylon, polystyrene, polyurethanes, and certain rubbers; but their use in these is very limited. Phthalates have also been used for producing plastic explosives such as Semtex.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates can plasticise ethyl cellulose, polyvinyl acetate phthalate (PVAP) and cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP), all of which are used to make enteric coatings for tablet and capsule medications. These coatings protect drugs from the acidity of the stomach, but allow their release and absorption in the intestines.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalate esters are widely used as solvents for highly reactive organic peroxides. Thousands of tonnes are consumed annually for this purpose. The great advantage offered by these esters is that they are phlegmatizers, i.e. they minimize the explosive tendencies of a family of chemical compounds that otherwise are potentially dangerous to handle.


title: Phthalate

text: Relatively minor amounts of some phthalates find use in personal-care items such as eye shadow, moisturizer, nail polish, liquid soap, and hair spray. Low-molecular-weight phthalates like dimethyl phthalate and diethyl phthalate are used as fixatives for perfumes. Dimethyl phthalate has been also used as an insect repellent and is especially useful against ixodid ticks responsible for Lyme disease. and species of mosquitoes such as "Anopheles stephensi, Culex pipeins and Ades aegypti",


title: Phthalate

text: Diallyl phthalate is used to prepare vinyl ester resins with excellent electrical insulation properties, these are used to manufacture of electronics components. Alkyds are sometimes classes as phthalates, as they meet the technical definition, however, being polymeric esters of phthalic acid their properties and applications are very different.


title: Phthalate

text: The development of cellulose nitrate plastic in 1846 led to the patent of castor oil in 1856 for use as the first plasticizer. In 1870, camphor became the more favored plasticizer for cellulose nitrate. Phthalates were first introduced in the 1920s and quickly replaced the volatile and odorous camphor. In 1931, the commercial availability of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the development of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) began the boom of the plasticizer PVC industry.


title: Phthalate

text: In February 2009, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission published a review of methods to measure phthalates in food.


title: Phthalate

text: In 2021, a study looked for phthalates in 64 fast food items. Phthalate DnBP was detected in 81 percent of the samples, while DEHP was found in 70 percent. Diethylhexyl terephthalate (DEHT), the main alternative to DEHP, was detected in 86%.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalate esters are the dialkyl or alkyl aryl esters of phthalic acid (also called 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, not be confused with the structurally isomeric terephthalic or isophthalic acids); the name "phthalate" derives from phthalic acid, which itself is derived from the word "naphthalene". When added to plastics, phthalates allow the long polyvinyl molecules to slide against one another. The phthalates have a clear syrupy liquid consistency and show low water solubility, high oil solubility, and low volatility. The polar carboxyl group contributes little to the physical properties of the phthalates, except when R and R' are very small (such as ethyl or methyl groups). Phthalates are colorless, odorless liquids produced by reacting phthalic anhydride with an appropriate alcohol (usually 6- to 13-carbon).


title: Phthalate

text: The mechanism by which phthalates and related compounds effect plasticization to polar polymers has been a subject of intense study since the 1960s. The mechanism is one of polar interactions between the polar centres of the phthalate molecule (the C=O functionality) and the positively charged areas of the vinyl chain, typically residing on the carbon atom of the carbon-chlorine bond. For this to be established, the polymer must be heated in the presence of the plasticizer, first above the Tg of the polymer and then into a melt state. This enables an intimate mix of polymer and plasticizer to be formed, and for these interactions to occur. When cooled, these interactions remain and the network of PVC chains cannot reform (as is present in unplasticized PVC, or PVC-U). The alkyl chains of the phthalate then screen the PVC chains from each other as well. They are blended within the plastic article as a result of the manufacturing process.


title: Phthalate

text: Because they are not chemically bonded to the host plastics, phthalates are released from the plastic article by relatively gentle means. For example, they can be removed by heating or by extraction with organic solvents.


title: Phthalate

text: Being inexpensive, nontoxic (in an acute sense), colorless, noncorrosive, biodegradable, and with easily tuned physical properties, phthalate esters are nearly ideal plasticizers. Among the numerous alternative plasticizers are Dioctyl terephthalate (DEHT) (a terephthalate isomeric with DEHP) and 1,2-Cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid diisononyl ester (a hydrogenated version of DINP).


title: Phthalate

text: Many bio-based plasticizers based on vegetable oil have been developed. They can be substituted for dioctyl phthalate.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates are easily released into the environment. In general, they do not persist due to rapid biodegradation, photodegradation, and anaerobic degradation. Outdoor air concentrations are higher in urban and suburban areas than in rural and remote areas. They also pose no acute toxicity.


title: Phthalate

text: Because of their volatility, DEP and DMP are present in higher concentrations in air in comparison with the heavier and less volatile DEHP. Higher air temperatures result in higher concentrations of phthalates in the air. PVC flooring leads to higher concentrations of BBP and DEHP, which are more prevalent in dust. A 2012 Swedish study of children found that phthalates from PVC flooring were taken up into their bodies, showing that children can ingest phthalates not only from food but also by breathing and through the skin.


title: Phthalate

text: Diet is believed to be the main source of DEHP and other phthalates in the general population. Fatty foods such as milk, butter, and meats are a major source. Studies show that exposure to phthalates is greater from ingestion of certain foods, rather than exposure via water bottles as is most often first thought of with plastic chemicals. Low-molecular-weight phthalates such as DEP, DBP, BBzP may be dermally absorbed. Inhalational exposure is also significant with the more volatile phthalates.


title: Phthalate

text: Another study, conducted between 2003 and 2010 analysing data from 9,000 individuals, found that those who reported that they had eaten at a fast food restaurant had much higher levels of two separate phthalates—DEHP and DiNP—in their urine samples. Even small consumption of fast food caused higher presence of phthalates. "People who reported eating only a little fast food had DEHP levels that were 15.5 percent higher and DiNP levels that were 25 percent higher than those who said they had eaten none. For people who reported eating a sizable amount, the increase was 24 percent and 39 percent, respectively."


title: Phthalate

text: In a 2008 Bulgarian study, higher dust concentrations of DEHP were found in homes of children with asthma and allergies, compared with healthy children's homes. The author of the study stated, "The concentration of DEHP was found to be significantly associated with wheezing in the last 12 months as reported by the parents." Phthalates were found in almost every sampled home in Bulgaria. The same study found that DEHP, BBzP, and DnOP were in significantly higher concentrations in dust samples collected in homes where polishing agents were used. Data on flooring materials was collected, but there was not a significant difference in concentrations between homes where no polish was used that have balatum (PVC or linoleum) flooring and homes with wood. High frequency of dusting did decrease the concentration.


title: Phthalate

text: In general, children's exposure to phthalates is greater than that of adults. In a 1990s Canadian study that modeled ambient exposures, it was estimated that daily exposure to DEHP was 9 μg/kg bodyweight/day in infants, 19 μg/kg bodyweight/day in toddlers, 14 μg/kg bodyweight/day in children, and 6 μg/kg bodyweight/day in adults. Infants and toddlers are at the greatest risk of exposure, because of their mouthing behavior. Body-care products containing phthalates are a source of exposure for infants. The authors of a 2008 study "observed that reported use of infant lotion, infant powder, and infant shampoo were associated with increased infant urine concentrations of [phthalate metabolites], and this association is strongest in younger infants. These findings suggest that dermal exposures may contribute significantly to phthalate body burden in this population." Although they did not examine health outcomes, they noted that "Young infants are more vulnerable to the potential adverse effects of phthalates given their increased dosage per unit body surface area, metabolic capabilities, and developing endocrine and reproductive systems."


title: Phthalate

text: Infants and hospitalized children are particularly susceptible to phthalate exposure. Medical devices and tubing may contain 20–40% Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) by weight, which "easily leach out of tubing when heated (as with warm saline / blood)". Several medical devices contain phthalates including, but not limited to, IV tubing, gloves, nasogastric tubes, and respiratory tubing. The Food and Drug Administration did an extensive risk assessment of phthalates in the medical setting and found that neonates may be exposed to five times greater than the allowed daily tolerable intake. This finding led to the conclusion by the FDA that, "[c]hildren undergoing certain medical procedures may represent a population at increased risk for the effects of DEHP".


title: Phthalate

text: In 2008, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found a variety of phthalates in erasers and warned of health risks when children regularly suck and chew on them. The European Commission Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER), however, considers that, even in the case when children bite off pieces from erasers and swallow them, it is unlikely that this exposure leads to health consequences.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates are also found in medications, where they are used as inactive ingredients in producing enteric coatings. It is not known how many medications are made using phthalates, but some include omeprazole, didanosine, mesalamine, and theophylline. A recent study found that urinary concentrations of monobutyl phthalate, the DBP metabolite, of Asacol (a particular formulation of mesalamine) users was 50 times higher than the mean of nonusers. The study showed that exposures from phthalate-containing medications can far exceed population levels from other sources. DBP in medications raises concern about health risks due to the high level of exposures associated with taking these medications, especially in vulnerable segments of the population, including pregnant women and children.


title: Phthalate

text: In 2008, the United States National Research Council recommended that the cumulative effects of phthalates and other antiandrogens be investigated. It criticized U.S. EPA guidances, which stipulate that, when examining cumulative effects, the chemicals examined should have similar mechanisms of action or similar structures, as too restrictive. It recommended instead that the effects of chemicals that cause similar adverse outcomes should be examined cumulatively. Thus, the effect of phthalates should be examined together with other antiandrogens, which otherwise may have been excluded because their mechanisms or structure are different.


title: Phthalate

text: A study in the peer-reviewed journal "Environmental Pollution" published October 12, 2021 found that high phthalate levels are weakly correlated with a greater risk of dying from any cause and with a stronger correlation to dying from heart problems, but the calculated hazard ratios were below 2 in both cases. The study estimated that phthalates may contribute to 91,000–107,000 premature deaths each year among people aged 55–64 in the United States.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates enter the bloodstream and disrupt sex hormone production, interfering with sexual development in infants and sexual behaviour in adults. Levels of phthalates have been dose-dependently linked to reduced anogenital distance decreased sexual desire and satisfaction in women, and malformed genital development in rats.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates act by mimicking the female hormone estrogen, which in turn inhibits production of the male hormone testosterone. As such, phthalates are considered to be endocrine disruptors—a substance that interferes with the normal hormonal mechanisms that allow a biological organism to interact with its environment, and has sparked demands to ban or restrict its use in baby toys.


title: Phthalate

text: Endocrine disruptors exhibit numerous behaviors that can make studying them a challenge. There can be a lag between when someone is exposed to an endocrine disruptor and any symptoms manifesting themselves–in particular fetal and early childhood exposure may have consequences later in adulthood. Many studies refer to this period of fetal and postnatal development as particularly important to development, but studying this is difficult; it is obviously a huge challenge to measure endocrine disruptor exposure during fetal development and then decades later diagnosing any health problems. Additionally, endocrine disruptor exposure can transmit epigenetically to one's offspring without them being directly exposed to the endocrine disruptors. Finally, particularly low levels of exposure may still have significant effects, and exposure to multiple endocrine disruptors across a variety of compounds (not just phthalates) may synergistically combine to cause a greater effect. Evaluating the actual effects of a specific compound such as a particular phthalate requires examining cumulative exposure across multiple compounds, rather than evaluating one compound in isolation.


title: Phthalate

text: A widespread concern about phthalate exposure is the possibility (though not conclusive) that it is the cause of a worldwide drop in male fertility. Studies have shown that phthalates cause abnormalities in the reproductive systems of animals, with the greatest effects when the animal is exposed during gestation and immediately thereafter. Numerous studies on adult male humans show the similar result that phthalate exposure correlates with worsening metrics of male fertility, such as semen quality, the quantity of damaged DNA in sperm, decreased sperm motility, decreased semen volume, and other metrics. Phthalates causing harm to the male reproductive system is plausible, and continues to be researched.


title: Phthalate

text: The effect of phthalates on the female reproductive system is also not fully understood yet. Current studies indicate phthalates have negative effects on folliculogenesis and steroidogenesis.


title: Phthalate

text: Early research also shows phthalate exposure may be associated with diabetes and insulin resistance, breast cancer, obesity, metabolic disorders, and immune function.


title: Phthalate

text: There are possible (though not conclusive) associations between phthalate exposure and adverse child neurodevelopment, including the development of ADHD and autistic behaviors and lower cognitive and motor development. Most common associations found in medical reports link the phthalates exposure to hyperactivity, aggression, and other adverse behaviors. Some studies have found the childhood exposure to be as early as in utero.


title: Phthalate

text: In many cases, there are studies that show connections between phthalates and these negative outcomes, as well as studies that show no connection; this is likely due to the research challenges outlined above, and when resolved, could show that phthalate exposure does not cause health effects, or even that they have a much greater effect than currently predicted. In all cases, larger studies are needed to demonstrate incontrovertibly what effect phthalate exposure has on human health.


title: Phthalate

text: A Nature Reviews Endocrinology review paper from 2017 gives some advice for avoiding exposure to phthalates for concerned people; while they make pains to state that there is no evidence that shows this advice will positively affect one's health, they suggest (1) eating a balanced diet to avoid ingesting too many endocrine disruptors from a single source, (2) eliminating canned or packaged food in order to limit ingestion of DEHP phthalates leached from plastics, and (3) eliminating use of any personal product such as moisturizer, perfume, or cosmetics that contain phthalates. Eliminating personal products containing phthalates can be particularly difficult or impossible due to some countries such as the United States not requiring them to be disclosed in a list of ingredients.


title: Phthalate

text: There may be a link between the obesity epidemic and endocrine disruption and metabolic interference. Studies conducted on mice exposed to phthalates in utero did not result in metabolic disorder in adults. However, "in a national cross-section of U.S. men, concentrations of several prevalent phthalate metabolites showed statistically significant correlations with abnormal obesity and insulin resistance." Mono-ethylhexyl-phthalate (MEHP), a metabolite of DEHP, has been found to interact with all three peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs). PPARs are members of the nuclear receptor superfamily. The author of the study stated "The roles of PPARs in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism raise the question of their activation by a sub-class of pollutants, tentatively named metabolic disrupters." Phthalates belong to this class of metabolic disruptors. It is a possibility that, over many years of exposure to these metabolic disruptors, they are able to deregulate complex metabolic pathways in a subtle manner.


title: Phthalate

text: Large amounts of specific phthalates fed to rodents have been shown to damage their liver and testes, and initial rodent studies also indicated hepatocarcinogenicity. Following this result, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate was listed as a possible carcinogen by IARC, EC, and WHO. Later studies on primates showed that the mechanism is specific to rodents; humans are resistant to the effect. The carcinogen classification was subsequently withdrawn.


title: Phthalate

text: In 1994, a Health Canada assessment found that DEHP and another phthalate product, B79P, were harmful to human health. The Canadian federal government responded by banning their use in cosmetics and restricting their use in other applications.


title: Phthalate

text: A more recent assessment in 2017 found that B79P and DEHP may cause environmental damage. As of 2019, regulations to protect the environment against DEHP and B79P have not yet been put into place.


title: Phthalate

text: The use of some phthalates has been restricted in the European Union for use in children's toys since 1999. DEHP, BBP, and DBP are restricted for all toys; DINP, DIDP, and DNOP are restricted only in toys that can be taken into the mouth. The restriction states that the amount of these phthalates may not be greater than 0.1% mass percent of the plasticized part of the toy.


title: Phthalate

text: Generally, the high molecular weight phthalates DINP, DIDP, and DPHP have been registered under REACH and have demonstrated their safety for use in current applications. They are not classified for any health or environmental effects.


title: Phthalate

text: The low molecular weight products BBP, DEHP, DIBP, and DBP were added to the Candidate list of Substances for Authorisation under REACH in 2008–9, and added to the Authorisation list, Annex XIV, in 2012. This means that from February 2015 they are not allowed to be produced in the EU unless authorisation has been granted for a specific use, however they may still be imported in consumer products. The creation of an Annex XV dossier, which could ban the import of products containing these chemicals, was being prepared jointly by the ECHA and Danish authorities, and expected to be submitted by April 2016.


title: Phthalate

text: In 2006 the Dutch office of Greenpeace UK sought to encourage the European Union to ban sex toys that contained phthalates.


title: Phthalate

text: During August 2008, the United States Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which became public law 110–314. Section 108 of that law specified that as of February 10, 2009, "it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture for sale, offer for sale, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States any children's toy or child care article that contains concentrations of more than 0.1 percent of" DEHP, DBP, or BBP and "it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture for sale, offer for sale, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States any children's toy that can be placed in a child's mouth or child care article that contains concentrations of more than 0.1 percent of" DINP, DIDP, DnOP. Furthermore, the law requires the establishment of a permanent review board to determine the safety of other phthalates. Prior to this legislation, the Consumer Product Safety Commission had determined that voluntary withdrawals of DEHP and diisononyl phthalate (DINP) from teethers, pacifiers, and rattles had eliminated the risk to children, and advised against enacting a phthalate ban.


title: Phthalate

text: In another development in 1986, California voters approved an initiative to address their growing concerns about exposure to toxic chemicals. That initiative became the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known by its original name of Proposition 65. In December 2013 DINP was listed as a chemical "known to the State of California to cause cancer" This means that, starting December 2014, companies with ten or more employees manufacturing, distributing or selling the product(s) containing DINP are required to provide a clear and reasonable warning for that product. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, charged with maintaining the Proposition 65 list and enforcing its provisions, has implemented a "No Significant Risk Level" of 146 μg/day for DINP.


title: Phthalate

text: Phthalates are used in some, but not all, PVC formulations, and there are no specific labeling requirements for phthalates. PVC plastics are typically used for various containers and hard packaging, medical tubing and bags, and are labeled "Type 3". However, the presence of phthalates rather than other plasticizers is not marked on PVC items. Only unplasticized PVC (uPVC), which is mainly used as a hard construction material, has no plasticizers. If a more accurate test is needed, chemical analysis, for example by gas chromatography or liquid chromatography, can establish the presence of phthalates.


title: Phthalate

text: Polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PETE, Terylene, Dacron) is the main substance used to package bottled water and many sodas. Products containing PETE are labeled "Type 1" (with a "1" in the recycle triangle). Although the word "phthalate" appears in the name, PETE does not use phthalates as plasticizers. The terephthalate polymer PETE and the phthalate ester plasticizers are chemically different substances. Despite this, however, a number of studies have found phthalates such as DEHP in bottled water and soda. One hypothesis is that these may have been introduced during plastic recycling.


title: Mediterranean race

text: The Mediterranean race (also Mediterranid race) was a historical race concept that was a sub-race of the Caucasian race as categorised by anthropologists in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. According to various definitions, it was said to be prevalent in the Mediterranean Basin and areas near the Mediterranean, especially in Southern Europe, North Africa, most of Western Asia, the Middle East or Near East; western Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and parts of the Horn of Africa. To a lesser extent, certain populations of people in Ireland, western parts of Great Britain, and Southern Germany, despite living far from the Mediterranean, were thought to have some minority Mediterranean elements in their population, such as Bavaria, Wales, and Cornwall.


title: Mediterranean race

text: Carleton S. Coon characterized the subgroup as having shorter or medium (not tall) stature, a long (dolichocephalic) or moderately long (mesocephalic) skull, a narrow and often slightly aquiline nose, prevalence of dark hair and eyes, and cream to tan or dark brown skin tone; olive complexion being especially common and epitomizing the supposed Mediterranean race.


title: Mediterranean race

text: Racial differentiations occurred following long-standing claims about the alleged differences between the Nordic and the Mediterranean people. Such debates arose from responses to ancient writers who had commented on differences between northern and southern Europeans. The Greek and Roman people considered the Germanic and Celtic peoples to be wild, red haired barbarians. Aristotle contended that the Greeks were an ideal people because they possessed a medium skin-tone, in contrast to pale northerners. By the 19th century, long-standing cultural and religious differences between Protestant northwestern Europe and the Catholic south were being reinterpreted in racial terms.


title: Mediterranean race

text: In the 19th century, the division of humanity into distinct races became a matter for scientific debate. In 1870, Thomas Huxley argued that there were four basic racial categories (Xanthochroic, Mongoloid, Australioid and Negroid). The Xanthochroic race were the "fair whites" of north and central Europe. According to Huxley,


title: Mediterranean race

text: By the late 19th century, Huxley's Xanthochroi group had been redefined as the "Nordic" race, whereas his Melanochroi became the Mediterranean race. As such, Huxley's Melanochroi eventually also comprised various other dark Caucasoid populations, including the Hamites (e.g. Berbers, Somalis, northern Sudanese, ancient Egyptians) and Moors.


title: Mediterranean race

text: William Z. Ripley's "The Races of Europe" (1899) created a tripartite model, which was later popularised by Madison Grant. It divided Europeans into three main subcategories: Teutonic, Alpine and Mediterranean. Ripley noted that although the European Caucasoid populations largely spoke (Indo-European) languages, the oldest extant language in Europe was Basque. He also acknowledged the existence of non-European Caucasoids, including various populations that did not speak Indo-European or Indo-Iranian languages, such as Hamito-Semitic and Turkish groups.


title: Mediterranean race

text: During the 20th century, white supremacists and Nordicists in Europe and the United States promoted the merits of the Nordic race as the most "advanced" of all the human population groups, designating them as the "master race". Southern/Eastern Europeans were deemed to be inferior, an argument that dated back to Arthur de Gobineau's claims that racial mixing was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire. However, in southern Europe itself alternative models were developed which stressed the merits of Mediterranean peoples, drawing on established traditions dating from ancient and Renaissance claims about the superiority of civilisation in the south.


title: Mediterranean race

text: Giuseppe Sergi's much-debated book "The Mediterranean Race" (1901) argued that the Mediterranean race had likely originated from a common ancestral stock that evolved in the Sahara region or the Eastern part of Africa, in the region of the great lakes, near the sources of the Nile, including Somaliland, and which later spread from there to populate North Africa, and the circum-Mediterranean region. Sergi added that the Mediterranean race "in its external characters is a brown human variety, neither white nor negroid, but pure in its elements, that is to say not a product of the mixture of Whites with Negroes or negroid peoples." He explained this taxonomy as inspired by an understanding of "the morphology of the skull as revealing those internal physical characters of human stocks which remain constant through long ages and at far remote spots[...] As a zoologist can recognise the character of an animal species or variety belonging to any region of the globe or any period of time, so also should an anthropologist if he follows the same method of investigating the morphological characters of the skull[...] This method has guided me in my investigations into the present problem and has given me unexpected results which were often afterwards confirmed by archaeology or history."


title: Mediterranean race

text: According to Sergi, the Mediterranean race was the "greatest race of the world" and was singularly responsible for the most accomplished civilizations of antiquity, including those of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Persia, Ancient Rome, Carthage, Hittite Anatolia, Land of Punt, Mesopotamia and Phoenicia. The four great branches of the Mediterranean stock were the Libyans, the Ligurians, the Pelasgians and the Iberians. Ancient Egyptians, Ethiopians and Somalis were considered by Sergi as Hamites, themselves constituting a Mediterranean variety and one situated close to the cradle of the stock. To Sergi, the Semites were a branch of the Eurafricans who were closely related to the Mediterraneans. He also asserted that the light-skinned Nordic race descended from the Eurafricans.


title: Mediterranean race

text: According to Robert Ranulph Marett, "it is in North Africa that we must probably place the original hotbed of that Mediterranean race".


title: Mediterranean race

text: Later in the 20th century, the concept of a distinctive Mediterranean race was still considered useful by theorists such as Earnest Hooton in "Up From the Ape" (1931) and Carleton S. Coon in his revised edition of Ripley's "Races of Europe" (1939). These writers subscribed to Sergi's depigmentation theory that the Nordic race was the northern variety of Mediterraneans that lost pigmentation through natural selection due to the environment.


title: Mediterranean race

text: According to Coon, the "homeland and cradle" of the Mediterranean race was in North Africa and Southwest Asia, in the area from Morocco to Afghanistan. He further stated that Mediterraneans formed the major population element in Pakistan and North India. Coon also argued that smaller Mediterraneans had travelled by land from the Mediterranean basin north into Europe in the Mesolithic era. Taller Mediterraneans (Atlanto-Mediterraneans) were Neolithic seafarers who sailed in reed-type boats and colonised the Mediterranean basin from a Near Eastern origin. He argued that they also colonised Britain & Ireland where their descendants may be seen today, characterized by dark brown hair, dark eyes and robust features. He stressed the central role of the Mediterraneans in his works, claiming "The Mediterraneans occupy the center of the stage; their areas of greatest concentration are precisely those where civilisation is the oldest. This is to be expected, since it was they who produced it and it, in a sense, that produced them".


title: Mediterranean race

text: C. G. Seligman also asserted that "it must, I think, be recognized that the Mediterranean race has actually more achievement to its credit than any other, since it is responsible for by far the greater part of Mediterranean civilization, certainly before 1000 B.C. (and probably much later), and so shaped not only the Aegean cultures, but those of Western as well as the greater part of Eastern Mediterranean lands, while the culture of their near relatives, the Hamitic pre-dynastic Egyptians, formed the basis of that of Egypt."


title: Mediterranean race

text: In the U.S., the idea that the Mediterranean race included certain populations on the African continent was taken up in the early 20th century by African-American writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois, who used it to attack white supremacist ideas about racial "purity". Such publications as the "Journal of Negro History" stressed the cross-fertilization of cultures between Africa and Europe, and adopted Sergi's view that the "civilizing" race had originated in Africa itself.


title: Mediterranean race

text: While the close relationship between people living on both sides of the Mediterranean has been confirmed by modern genetics, the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense is rejected by modern scientific consensus. In 2019, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists stated: "The belief in 'races' as natural aspects of human biology, and the structures of inequality (racism) that emerge from such beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past."


title: Mediterranean race

text: The first physical and social description of the Mediterranean race (then termed "Celtic race") was given by the Scottish scientist William Rhind in 1851:


title: Mediterranean race

text: The Celtic Race (anc. Galatae, Pyreni), are characterised by a well-formed head, elongated from front to back, and moderate in breadth; face oval; features well defined and elegantly formed; complexion dark; dark brown or black eyes; black hair turning early grey; form middle size, handsome; feet and hands small. Mental powers quick, active and energetic, rather than profound. Passions and affections strong. Fond of society, but not forgetful of injuries. Monarchial in their governments. They occupy the southern and insular parts of Europe.


title: Mediterranean race

text: According to William Z. Ripley, the marked features of the Mediterranean race were dark hair, dark eyes, a long face, dolichocephalic skull, and a variable narrow nose.


title: Mediterranean race

text: C. S. Coon wrote that marked Mediterranean features included skin color ranging "from pink or peaches-and-cream to a light brown", a relatively prominent and aquiline nose, considerable body hair, and dark brown to black hair.


title: Mediterranean race

text: According to Renato Biasutti, frequent Mediterranean traits included "skin color 'matte'-white or brunet-white, chestnut or dark chestnut eyes and hair, not excessive pilosity; medium-low stature (162), body of moderately longilinear forms; dolichomorphic skull (78) with rounded occiput; oval face; leptorrhine nose (68) with straight spine, horizontal or inclined downwards base of the septum; large open eyes." Agreeing with Cipriani's classification, Biasutti also adopted a category of "Ibero-Insular" for a more archaic and isolated type observed in Sardinia, and especially among the South Eastern Sardinians, which went by the specific name of "Paleo-Sardinian". According to Giuseppe Sergi, the earliest known inhabitants of Sardinia belonged, on the basis of the skeletons unearthed, to the Mediterranean race and were related to the North Africans; they were relatively dark-skinned, black-to-chestnut haired, and short in stature.


Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) are a group of 26 interdisciplinary technology-based-engineering research institutions in India which are focused on information technology. Five of them are established, funded and managed by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The other 21 are set up on the public-private partnership (PPP) model, funded by the central government, state governments and industry partners in the ratio 50:35:15.


title: Indian Institutes of Information Technology

text: Prior to 2014, the IIITs at Gwalior, Allahabad, Jabalpur, and Kancheepuram were set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).


text: In 2014, "The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Bill, 2014" was introduced in the Lok Sabha. The bill sought to grant the status of Institutes of National Importance (INI) upon the four IIITs. After much debate and changes, the bill was passed by the Parliament on 1 December 2014 and published as "Indian Institutes of Information Technology Act, 2014" on 8 December 2014, coming into effect on 5 January 2015.


text: In 2015, a fifth institute was set up by the MHRD in Kurnool, as part as the government obligation under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. "Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2017" granted the INI status to the Kurnool institute.


text: Besides the above fully government funded IIITs, in 2010 the Union Cabinet approved a scheme for setting up twenty more IIITs, based on the public-private partnership (PPP) model, funded by the central government, state governments and industry partners in the ratio 50:35:15. As of 2014, 23 proposals were made by 21 states (Andhra Pradesh (Chittoor & Kakinada), Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra (Pune & Nagpur), Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh), and 16 proposals were approved (Andhra Pradesh (Chittoor), Andhra Pradesh (Kakinada), Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra (Pune), Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur, and Tripura). , 14 of these IIITs were set up, the ones not being set up are the ones in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh and in Agartala, Tripura. In addition, in 2015 the MHRD approved an IIIT in Nagpur, Maharashtra and in Ranchi, Jharkhand. An IIIT in Bhagalpur, Bihar was approved in 2016. Finally, to close the list of 20 'approved' IIITs, an IIIT in Surat, Gujarat was approved and set up in 2017. , these four newer institutes were already established, leaving only the institutes in Kakinada and Agartala to be established.


text: On 9 August 2017, "The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Public-Private Partnership) Act, 2017" has been notified in the Gazette of India. The act confers the INI status on 15 IIITs set up on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode in Vadodara, Guwahati, Sri City, Kota, Tiruchirappalli, Kalyani, Una, Sonepat, Lucknow, Kottayam, Manipur, Dharwad, Pune, Nagpur, and Ranchi.


text: Three of the IIITs set up under the PPP model in 2017, namely institutes in Surat, Bhopal, and Bhagalpur, were not mentioned in the 2017 PPP act, nor were the institutes in Kakinada and Agartala.


text: In 2018, the Government of Tripura approved for the establishment of IIIT Agartala, which was stalled since 2012, covering which were missing from private sources under the PPP model. The institution was set to start classes in the 2018–2019 academic session from the NIT Agartala campus.


text: In 2016, the central government gave in-principle approval for an IIIT in Raichur, Karnataka. In 2018, the MHRD clarified that the Raichur institute will officially replace the Kakinada one, and asked the state government to assign land for the institute, planning to make the institute functional by the following year. However, since the land was not acquired, in 2019 the MHRD decided to shift the IIIT to Hyderabad, Telangana. IIIT Raichur started its academic activity in August 2019 from the temporary campus of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Telangana.


text: In 2020, the "Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020" was introduced, officially declaring the IIITs in Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala, and Raichur as well as conferring the INI status on them. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 20 March 2020 and by the Rajya Sabha on 22 September 2020.


text: Admissions into undergraduate programmes in IIITs for 6,000 seats are through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority and JEE-Main. For postgraduate programs admission is through Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE).


title: It Was Written

text: It Was Written is the second studio album by American rapper Nas, released on July 2, 1996, by Columbia Records. After the modest commercial success of his debut album "Illmatic" (1994), Nas pursued a more polished, mainstream sound for "It Was Written". Produced largely by Trackmasters, it departed from the debut's raw, underground aesthetic and embraced mafioso and gangsta themes. The recording also marked the first appearance of Nas's short-lived supergroup The Firm, featuring the rappers Foxy Brown, AZ, and Cormega.


title: It Was Written

text: The album was a commercial success, selling 270,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, while receiving mostly positive reviews. It also heralded Nas's mainstream popularity as well as that of mafioso rap, joining similarly successful albums like Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…" (1995) and Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" (1996). However, Nas's more commercial sound fostered accusations of selling out within the hip hop community, and its critical standing suffered with comparisons to the acclaimed "Illmatic". With at least 3 million copies sold, and certified triple platinum, "It Was Written" remains Nas's best-selling album.


title: It Was Written

text: Following the critical acclaim of his debut album "Illmatic" (1994), Nas chose to concentrate his efforts in a more mainstream direction, in contrast to the raw, unpolished and underground tone of his debut. Despite its significant impact on hip hop at the time, "Illmatic" did not experience the larger sales of most major releases at the time in hip hop, such as Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle" (1993). This was due in part to Nas's shy personality and uninvolvement in promoting the record. Nas began to make appearances on other artists' work, including Kool G Rap's "Fast Life" on his album "4, 5, 6" (1995) and Raekwon's "Verbal Intercourse" on his album "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…" (1995), which made Nas the first non-Wu-Tang Clan member to appear on one of its solo recordings. He began to dub himself as Nas Escobar on these guest appearances.


title: It Was Written

text: Meanwhile, his excessive spending habits left him with little money, and Nas was forced to ask for a loan to purchase clothes to wear to the Source Awards ceremony in 1995. The success of fellow East Coast act The Notorious B.I.G. and promoter Puff Daddy at the awards show sent a message to Nas to change his commercial approach, resulting in his hiring of Steve "The Commissioner" Stoute as manager. While "Illmatic" attained gold status in the United States, Stoute convinced Nas to aim his efforts in a more mainstream, commercial direction for his second album, after which Nas enlisted the production team Trackmasters, who were known at the time for their mainstream success. Other producers for the album included DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Havoc of Mobb Deep, L.E.S., Live Squad, and MC Serch as executive producer.


title: It Was Written

text: Following the recording, "It Was Written" was mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound in New York City. The artist Aimée Macauley designed the album cover, while Danny Clinch took photos for the packaging.


title: It Was Written

text: In contrast to "Illmatic", the album contains a more detailed and elaborate production, while it shares similarity to the G-funk sound, relying heavily on sampled and looped funk grooves. "It Was Written" has Nas experimenting with a theatrical mafioso concept under the alias of "Nas Escobar" (inspired by the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar). The album's subject matter has been noted for its focus on materialistic excess and other mafioso lyrical themes. Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" wrote of Nas's shift in lyrical themes from "Illmatic", stating he "repeatedly cites the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and drops brand names of clothes, cars, liquor and guns." Nas also references lines from his previous material, a common element in his music that has been analyzed by one music writer as "return[ing] to his professional beginnings in those references."


title: It Was Written

text: The album opens with "Album Intro" in which a slave rebellion is heard, and it contains samples of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" (1964) and The Lost Generation's "The Sly, the Slick, and the Wicked" (1970). () The opening song "The Message" features production by the Trackmasters, Poke & Tone, and scratching from Kid Capri. One critic described the song as a "bloody narrative", and cited it as "one of the most visually evocative songs of Nas's career". The song's title references the classic hip hop single "The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Legendary producer DJ Premier had one production credit on the jazz fusion-styled "I Gave You Power", a song which depicts a first-person narrative from the perspective of a gun. The song is accompanied by falling piano notes and stuttering drums.


title: It Was Written

text: The album contains the singles "If I Ruled the World", which features guest vocals from Lauryn Hill, and "Street Dreams". Music critic J.R. Reynolds wrote that the former has Nas "rapping his way to anarchy in an imagined world where he kicks discipline to the curb and good times rule." In the song, he states that he would "open every cell in Attica/send them to Africa". The latter is an account on the impact of drugs in Nas's neighborhood. The song contains smooth bass lines and frail drums, and it features an interpolation of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (1983). The album also features guest appearances from Mobb Deep and The Firm, a supergroup which was initially composed of Nas, AZ, Cormega and Foxy Brown. The group makes an appearance on the song "Affirmative Action", a tale of robbery and three characters with mob connections. Brett Berliner of Stylus Magazine described the song's beat as "extremely mafioso, sounding straight out of "Goodfellas", with strings and crescendos", while he cited the song as "one of the best posse tracks of all time."


title: It Was Written

text: Mobb Deep's Havoc produced two tracks for the album, "The Set Up", a story about revenge, and "Live Nigga Rap", a freestyle performed by Nas and Mobb Deep with hard, gloomy percussion. "Black Girl Lost" is a sympathetic account on the struggle of African-American women. It features vocals by R&B singer Joel "Jo-Jo" Hailey of Jodeci. Music critic Krisex wrote of Nas's lyricism, stating "The L.E.S.-produced song woos heavy rotation while the MC makes the type of passionate perusals that leave lyrical aficionadeos genuflecting at his mike stand." The song's title comes from the book of the same name by pulp writer Donald Goines; his literary work has served as a popular source of reference for many gangsta rap artists. "Nas Is Coming" is a collaboration between Nas and West Coast rapper Dr. Dre. One writer cited it as "more of a gangsta, mainstream tune than anything Nas has ever recorded." The song's opening conversation, a skit, is a discussion between Nas and Dr. Dre about hip hop artists and fans over-concerned with the East Coast-West Coast rivalry, and that the two are producing a song that does not revolve around or contribute to the beef.


title: It Was Written

text: "It Was Written" was released on July 2, 1996, selling 270,000 copies in its first week. It peaked at number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and debuted at the top of the "Billboard" 200, remaining on the latter chart at number one for four consecutive weeks, in the top 20 for eleven weeks, and a total of thirty-four weeks in the top 200.


title: It Was Written

text: The album's first single "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" peaked at #15 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, #17 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart and #53 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart. The second single "Street Dreams" hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, as well as #1 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, while it peaked at #18 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and #27 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. On September 6, 1996, "It Was Written" was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of 2 million copies in the United States. On January 8, 1997, "Street Dreams" was certified Gold in sales by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies.


title: It Was Written

text: "It Was Written" remains Nas's best-selling album. In 2001, it had reached sales of more than 2.13 million copies. By 2014, the album had sold 2,595,000. On June 24, 2021, it was certified triple platinum by the RIAA.


title: It Was Written

text: "It Was Written" was generally well received by critics. Marc Landas of "The Source" called it an "audio anthology of ghetto stories told by one of hip-hop's most prolific writers." "Vibe" magazine's Kris Ex criticized the album's "consistently aggressive attempts at pop music", but also wrote that Nas "shines through". Despite calling the album "adequate" and commending Nas for his lyricism and flow, Ex concluded that "It Was Written" "isn't nearly as satisfying as his first one." "NME"s Andy Crysell wrote that "Nas's neat, considered lyrics treat the violence that surrounds him with a mixture of remorse, resignation and ebullience." Christopher John Farley of "Time" stated "The lyrics in "It Was Written" could be sharper, but the music, energetic and engaging on many tracks, helps drive his message home." "Q" magazine called Nas's performance "angry, lean and full of drive." Both the "Chicago Tribune" and "Chicago Sun-Times" were favorable of the album's sound. "Los Angeles Times" writer Cheo Hodari Coker called the album "poetic", writing that it "demonstrates a continuing lyrical maturity that makes his already potent beats and rhymes all the more compelling". "Spin" magazine preferred the "reach" of "It Was Written" to Nas's "more suavely rapped debut", praised the production, and described the songs' choruses as "grainy, pop-savvy".


title: It Was Written

text: The album's release followed the commercial success of other mafioso-themed rap albums with similar subject matter, including Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…" (1995), Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" (1996) and AZ's "Doe or Die" (1995). Some critics dismissed its mainstream, R&B and pop-leaning sound, as well as the enlistment of a top production unit and popular guest artists. The album's lyrics and themes were also poorly received as an attempt by Nas to follow the popularity of gangsta and mafioso rap. "Rolling Stone"s Mark Coleman wrote negatively of Nas's themes and called it "the latest blatant example of trashy tough-guy talk", writing "Certainly he strikes a note of creepy realism in his stories of heavyweight dealing and literally cutthroat competition. 'The Set Up', 'Shootouts' and 'Affirmative Action' [...] are chilling in their how-many-grams-to-a-kilo detail and utter amorality. On 'Watch Dem Niggas', Nas cites as inspirations both the boxing coach Cus D'Amato and the murderous drug lord Pablo Escobar. What is this guy thinking?". Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" commented that he "continually shifts perspective" and called it "late-stage gangsta rap, starting to buckle under its own contradictions." "The Village Voice"s Robert Christgau gave the album a "neither" () rating, indicating an album that "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't."


title: It Was Written

text: The album was ranked number 41 in "NME"s critics' poll of 1996, and Jim Farber of the "New York Daily News" named it the sixth best album of 1996. German-based magazine "Spex" ranked it number four on its "End of Year" list, while the UK-based magazine "The Face" named it the twenty-fourth best album of 1996. "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" was ranked number 29 on "NME"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Singles of the Year list, and number 20 on "The Village Voice"s Pazz & Jop critics' poll. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1997.


title: It Was Written

text: Leo Stanley of AllMusic later praised Nas's lyricism and ghetto-themed vignettes, along with the album's detailed production. For "Stylus Magazine"s "On Second Thought" publication, critic Brett Berliner re-examined the album, discussing its initial impact, and cited it as "one of the first hip-hop albums to straddle the critical and commercial divide successfully." While comparing "It Was Written" to "Illmatic", Berliner stated "It’s a seriously good album with a bit of filler, worth of almost all of the praise "Illmatic" got. This is Nas's second classic, and should be considered one of the best albums of all time." About.com later ranked "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" number 24 on its list of 50 Great Hip Hop Songs, while it also named the song the fourth best R&B/Rap Collaboration.


title: It Was Written

text: While later reviews of the album were more positive, the subject matter was still criticized. Reviewers found Nas's violent, fantastical mafioso stories to lack the authentic, emotional qualities of his debut album. While "Illmatic" is often held as Nas's masterpiece, "It Was Written" deemed a case of the sophomore slump and the first of his subsequent work to be scrutinized in comparison to the former. However, "It Was Written" was also viewed as his commercial breakthrough, enhancing the rapper's image in the mainstream and attracting a much larger fanbase. In contrast to the popular consensus, rappers Royce da 5'9" and Schoolboy Q have opined that "It Was Written" is superior to "Illmatic".


title: It Was Written

text: "Nas is Coming" began a brief collaboration between Nas and West Coast hip hop producer Dr. Dre. The alliance also resulted in the formation of The Firm, who make their debut on track number eight, "Affirmative Action". The pairing of the East Coast rapper and the West Coast producer, during the period of the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry, brought criticism from both sides.


title: It Was Written

text: In addition, West Coast-based rapper Tupac Shakur took offense to the opening line of the song "The Message", and in retaliation insulted Nas on a song titled "Against All Odds" from his posthumously released album "" (1996). In an interview for "King" magazine, Nas later confirmed that the song was intended as a diss towards The Notorious B.I.G., with the line "There's one life, one love, so there can only be one King." Nas and Shakur eventually met and reconciled prior to the latter's fatal shooting. As a result of his death, Shakur did not have the opportunity to remove the insults to Nas in "Against All Odds" on "The 7 Day Theory".


title: It Was Written

text: "It Was Written" has been credited, along with Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…" (1995), with helping usher in the era of the mafioso rap. According to writer Sam Chennault, while the hip hop subgenre would "run out of steam quickly, this release is a gem." Chennault also discussed the significance of "It Was Written" during the period of its release, stating "after mastering stark street corner realism on "Illmatic", Nas delivered a loose concept album that was, at the time, groundbreaking in its scope, approach and execution." According to rapper Young Noble, a close friend of Tupac Shakur, the song "I Gave You Power" served as the main inspiration for Shakur's "" (1996). American hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco has cited "It Was Written" as his favorite album and his primary source of inspiration. Fiasco has stated that he based his debut album "Food & Liquor" (2006) on the conceptual style and "moods" of "It Was Written". When asked of his musical influences in an interview with AllHipHop.com, Fiasco stated "You know I really tried to go back and recreate [Nas’] "It Was Written", you know what I'm saying like that? [I would play] "It Was Written" and then I would play my album, and it was like, ‘Do we got [this] record, do we got that record?’" He went on to explain the album's influence on him:


title: It Was Written

text: American reggae and hip hop artist Matisyahu regards "It Was Written" as one of his influences as well. He cites the introduction of "It Was Written", in which slaves rebel against their owner, as having a major influence on him. According to "The Washington Post", "Matisyahu, too, felt enslaved. By what? He didn't know. Just felt the chains. The lyrics rocked him. The beat did, too." Matisyahu stated that after listening to "It Was Written", "I connected with hip-hop, the hardness of it, the driving beat. It’s music with space, that has gaps in every little thing that happens."


title: It Was Written

text: While "It Was Written" earned more positive notices from critics over time, its standing also suffered from comparisons to the acclaimed "Illmatic". Nas's subsequent releases have continued to be weighed against his debut, despite all of them selling more copies. Against this standard, they have often been critically deemed as mediocre follow-ups. "It Was Written" was the first of Nas's albums to have been labeled as 'selling out' by fans of "Illmatic", due to his crossover sensibilities and radio-friendly hits aimed at the pop charts. In addition, none of his following releases have been able to reach the sales success of "It Was Written". The follow-up, "I Am…" (1999), fared almost as well as "It Was Written", serving as Nas's only other album to reach double platinum status. After the releases of "I Am…" and "Nastradamus" (1999), which underwent considerable editing due to bootlegging of the recording sessions, many fans and critics feared that his career was deteriorating. Despite the chart-topping success of "I Am…", hip hop audiences were not ready for the more prophetic themes of "Nastradamus", as it only sold 232,000 copies by its first week (less than half of "I Am…"s first-week figures).


title: It Was Written

text: By 2001, "Illmatic" and "It Was Written" were both selling at a rate of over 3,000 copies a week, while "Nastradamus" was earning an average of little more than 2,000 copies a week, despite its relative newness. Both "I Am…" and "Nastradamus" received further criticism for their commercially oriented sound. Reflecting this widespread perception in the hip hop community and adding to his ongoing feud with Jay-Z at the time, Jay-Z mocked him in the song "Takeover" (2001) for assuming a "Pablo Escobar" persona and having a "one hot album ["Illmatic"] every ten year average". Nas, however, made something of a comeback with his fifth album "Stillmatic" (2001) and the follow-up "God's Son" (2002), which both sold in excess of 1 million copies. Afterwards, his subsequent albums tended to receive more positive reviews, including the platinum-selling "Street's Disciple" (2004) and his untitled ninth album (2008).


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: The Control Panel is a component of Microsoft Windows that provides the ability to view and change system settings. It consists of a set of applets that include adding or removing hardware and software, controlling user accounts, changing accessibility options, and accessing networking settings. Additional applets are provided by third parties, such as audio and video drivers, VPN tools, input devices, and networking tools.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: The Control Panel has been part of Microsoft Windows since Windows 1.0, with each successive version introducing new applets. Beginning with Windows 95, the Control Panel is implemented as a special folder, i.e. the folder does not physically exist, but only contains shortcuts to various applets such as "Add or Remove Programs" and "Internet Options". Physically, these applets are stored as ".cpl" files. For example, the "Add or Remove Programs" applet is stored under the name "appwiz.cpl" in the "SYSTEM32" folder. ==


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: In Windows XP, the Control Panel home screen was changed to present a categorized navigation structure reminiscent of navigating a web page. Users can switch between this "Category View" and the grid-based "Classic View" through an option that appears on either the left side or top of the window. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, additional layers of navigation were introduced, and the Control Panel window itself became the main interface for editing settings, as opposed to launching separate dialogs.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: Many of the individual Control Panel applets can be accessed in other ways. For instance, "Display Properties" can be accessed by right-clicking on an empty area of the desktop and choosing "Properties". The Control Panel can be accessed from a command prompt by typing "control"; optional parameters are available to open specific control panels.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: On Windows 10, Control Panel is deprecated in favor of Settings app, which was originally introduced on Windows 8 as "PC settings" to provide a touchscreen-optimized settings area using its Metro-style app platform. Some functions, particularly the ability to add and remove user accounts, were moved exclusively to this app on Windows 8 and cannot be performed from Control Panel.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: As of the October 2020 update to Windows 10, trying to open the "System" applet in Control Panel will redirect users to the Windows 10 Settings application. While the page for the applet still exists in current versions of Windows 10, Microsoft is actively trying to block shortcuts and third party applications that could have been used to get into the old "System" page, potentially leading to a permanent removal of said page from Control Panel in future versions of Windows.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: The applets listed below are components of the Microsoft Windows control panel, which allows users to define a range of settings for their computer, monitor the status of devices such as printers and modems, and set up new hardware, programs and network connections. Each applet is stored individually as a separate file (usually a .cpl file), folder or DLL, the locations of which are stored in the registry under the following keys:


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: The control panel then uses these lists to locate the applets and load them into the control panel program (control.exe) when started by the user. In addition to using the control panel, a user can also invoke the applets manually via the command processor. For instance, the syntax ""Control.exe inetcpl.cpl"" or ""control.exe /name Microsoft.InternetOptions"" will run the internet properties applet in Windows XP or Vista respectively. While both syntax examples are accepted on Windows Vista, only the former one is accepted on Windows XP.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: These are options in the control panel that show devices connected to the computer. They do not actually offer a direct interface to control these devices, but rather offer basic tasks such as removal procedures and links to wizards (Printers & Faxes is an exception). Such applets include Scanners and Cameras, Game Controllers, and Portable Media Devices.


title: Control Panel (Windows)

text: Third-party software vendors have released many applets. Although it is impossible to mention all of them, some of them are listed here:


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: Alone (released in the UK as Final Days) is a 2020 American horror film directed by Johnny Martin and starring Tyler Posey and Donald Sutherland. The film follows a young man who barricades himself inside his apartment during a zombie apocalypse. The film was released on October 16, 2020.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: A young man is recording a video log on his laptop saying goodbye right before he is about to hang himself in his apartment.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: The young man is Aidan (Tyler Posey). Forty-two days before his suicide attempt, he was living a peaceful life awaking from a tryst with a random girl. During that morning, a violent outbreak happens outside his apartment; everyone is being attacked by infected people called Screamers. Aidan encounters his first Screamer via his neighbor Brandon, who entered Aidan's apartment after being attacked by his roommate. Aidan threatens Brandon with a kitchen knife to leave after noticing a wound in the back of his neck, later Brandon begins to turn, and Aidan gets him out of his apartment in time before the change is complete.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: On the news, Aidan learns the virus is transferred by bite and scratching. The symptoms of being infected include bleeding eyes, rage, cannibalism, inhuman screaming, and repeating the last words said before turning. The news reports that the Screamers are aware of what they're doing but can not stop themselves; their repeated use of their last words are an attempt to plead for someone to stop them. Aidan tries contacting his family but the signal is not working on his phone. He can receive the text messages his Dad sent him, informing Aidan that his sister got away but is out of contact. He and Aidan's mom are trying to reach Aidan but are having trouble with the outbreak. The last message is for Aidan to 'Stay Alive' and not leave his home till they arrive.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: Aidan follows his Dad's orders and isolates himself in the apartment. Over time he tallies the days that pass on his bathroom mirror, keeps video logs on his laptop, and tries to keep himself entertained. Eventually, he begins to run out of food, the water in his building is cut off, and he begins to hallucinate about his parents. He receives his first real threat when a Screamer breaks into his home using the air ducts connecting the rooms. He fights the Screamer off with a baseball bat and dumps the body off his balcony while sealing the vent the Screamer crashed through.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: He finally receives a voicemail from his mother. His emotional state takes a turn for the worst when he listens and learns that his parents died while hiding from Screamers. Aidan suffers an emotional breakdown and falls into despair.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: Having no hope left, he attempts suicide, calling back to the opening of the story when he recorded his last video log. The moment he readies to hang himself he sees a woman on a balcony across from his, a normal human woman. He gives up his suicide attempt and now has found renewed hope. He contacts her the next morning using premade cue cards and learns her name is Eva. The two strike up a friendship, with Aidan offering his reserved bottled water for her. He later gets Brandon's keys and grabs the remaining food and rock climbing gear to help Eva, even finding radios for them to communicate.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: Aidan and Eva bond more and decide for Eva to escape to Aidan's room. He first travels the air ducts to find more supplies for them to wait it out. Aidan hits jackpot when he enters a room stocked with food, but Eva warns him to leave as the room is barricaded with no one inside signaling it may be a trap. Aidan is surprised by Edward (Donald Sutherland), an older survivor who entered the room before Aidan after the original tenant killed himself. Edward and Aidan initially have a conversation about the situation and different philosophies about life after death, then Edward hits Aidan with his bat while his guard is down.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: Edward ties Aidan up in the bedroom to be a sacrifice for his wife, who has turned. Aidan is saved when Eva calls the radio, providing a distraction that allows Aidan to escape and feed Edward to his wife. He grabs his belongings and runs to his room, drops from his balcony to the ground using a makeshift rope of bed sheets, fights off Screamers, and makes it to Eva. They both fight to return to Aidan's apartment, with Eva entering the room first while Aidan fights off a Screamer. He returns covered in blood but believes he's been infected when a mark on his shirt is revealed. He goes to jump to his death so he won't turn and kill Eva who pleads for him not to leave her. After removing his shirt they are both overjoyed to see there is no bite and Aidan won't turn. They run to Aidan's door to hold the refrigerator back against it, stopping the Screamers from entering. They promise to survive together till the end.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: The film was released via video-on-demand on October 16, 2020 and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 20, 2020.


title: Alone (2020 horror film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed two as positive and six as negative for rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of .


title: Lucky Charms

text: Lucky Charms is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills since 1964. The cereal consists of multi-colored marshmallows and pieces of shaped pulverized oat, each resembling one of several objects or symbols associated with good luck. The packaging and marketing features a leprechaun mascot, Lucky.


title: Lucky Charms

text: Lucky Charms was created in 1964 by product developer John Holahan. General Mills management challenged a team of product developers to use the available manufacturing capacity from either of General Mills' two principal cereal products—Wheaties or Cheerios—and do something unique. Holahan came up with the idea after a visit to the grocery store in which he decided to mix Cheerios with bits of Brach's Circus peanuts.


title: Lucky Charms

text: An advertising company employed by General Mills and Company suggested marketing the new cereal around the idea of charm bracelets. Thus, the charms of Lucky Charms were born. Lucky Charms is the first cereal to include marshmallows in the recipe. These pieces are called "marshmallow bits", or "marbits", due to their small size. Marbits were invented by Edward S. Olney and Howard S. Thurmon (U.S. patent number 3,607,309, filed November 1, 1968, and assigned September 9, 1971, for ""preparation of marshmallow with milk solids")," with the patent grant now assigned to Kraftco Corporation.


title: Lucky Charms

text: The mascot of Lucky Charms, created in 1963, is Lucky the Leprechaun, also known as Sir Charms, and originally called L.C. Leprechaun. The cartoon character's voice was supplied by the late voice actor Arthur Anderson until 1992. Lucky has also been voiced by Eric Bauza, Tex Brashear, Jason Graae, Doug Preis, and Daniel Ross. In 1975, Lucky the Leprechaun was briefly replaced by Waldo the Wizard in New England, while Lucky remained the mascot in the rest of the United States. Envisioned as a forgetful wizard who was kind to children, Waldo initially prevailed in market tests. However, Waldo's creator Alan Snedeker suspects he sealed Waldo's fate by working on TV ads that portrayed a nicer version of Lucky.


title: Lucky Charms

text: The oat cereal was not originally sugar-coated. After initial sales failed to meet expectations, the oats were sugar-coated, and the cereal's success grew. Piggy banks and plastic watches were introduced as cereal box send-away prizes as a marketing tactic to increase sales. The recipe for the cereal remained unchanged until the introduction of a new flavor: Chocolate Lucky Charms, in 2005. Later in 2012, General Mills introduced "Lucky Charms Marshmallow Treats".


title: Lucky Charms

text: Following the product launch, the General Mills marketing department found that sales performed dramatically better if the composition of the marbits changed periodically. Various features of the marbits were modified to maximize their appeal to young consumers. Over the years, over 40 limited edition features such as Winter Lucky Charms, Olympic-themed Lucky Charms, and Lucky Charms featuring marshmallow landmarks from around the world were created to drive consumer demands. In focus groups and market research, more brightly colored charms resulted in better sales than did dull or pastel colors. Currently, General Mills conducts "concept-ideation" studies on Lucky Charms.


title: Lucky Charms

text: In April 2022, the FDA opened an investigation into whether Lucky Charms was making people ill after receiving reports from over 100 people that it caused nausea, vomiting and other symptoms. A food safety website iwaspoisoned.com separately documented over 3,000 similar complaints from all over the United States and Canada that started trending upwards in 2021.


title: Lucky Charms

text: The first boxes of Lucky Charms cereal contained marshmallows in the shapes of pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers. The lineup has changed occasionally, beginning with the introduction of blue diamonds in 1975, followed by purple horseshoes in 1983, red balloons in 1989, green trees in 1991, rainbows in 1992, blue moons in 1995, leprechaun hats in 1997 (temporarily replaced the green clovers), orange shooting stars and around-the-world charms in 1998 (added blue, green, yellow, purple, and red in 2011), a crystal ball in 2001, an hourglass in 2008, and a unicorn in 2019. In 2013, 6 new rainbow swirl moons and 2 new rainbow charms were introduced. From the original four marshmallows, the permanent roster as of 2013 includes eight marshmallows.


title: Lucky Charms

text: Older marshmallows were phased out periodically. The first shapes to disappear were the yellow moons and blue diamonds, replaced by yellow/orange pots of gold and blue moons respectively in 1994. In 2006, the assortment included purple horseshoes; red balloons; blue crescent-moons; orange and white shooting stars; yellow and orange pots of gold; pink, yellow, and blue rainbows; two-tone green leprechaun hats; pink hearts (the one shape to survive since the beginning); with the most recent addition being the return of the clovers in 2004. In 2018, for the first time in ten years, Lucky Charms retired a marshmallow, the hourglass shape. It was replaced by a unicorn, which was chosen on social media by way of emojis. The size and brightness of the marshmallows changed in 2004.


title: Lucky Charms

text: Recent changes to the marshmallows include the star shape taking on a "star" design, the orange five-pointed star being complemented by a white "trail". In late 2005, another marshmallow shape was added, the "Hidden Key". It is a solid yellow marshmallow that resembles an arched door (similar to the shape of a tombstone; flat at the bottom, flat sides with a round top). When liquid is added to the cereal, the sugar in the marshmallow dissolves and the shape of a skeleton key appears "as if by magic". The tagline was, "Unlock the door with milk!" This "new" marshmallow type has been used in other hot and cold cereals, but with mixed success (from characters "hidden" inside a bigger marshmallow to letters appearing). In early June 2006, General Mills introduced Magic Mirror marshmallows. In 2008, yellow and orange hourglass marshmallows were introduced with the marketing tagline of, "The Hourglass Charm has the power to Stop Time * Speed Up Time * Reverse Time". As of 2011, swirled marshmallows and rainbow-colored stars have been introduced.


title: Lucky Charms

text: The marshmallows are meant to represent Lucky's magical charms, each with their own special meaning or "power". , the following are explanations of the permanent marshmallows:


title: Lucky Charms

text: There have been more than 30 featured limited edition marshmallow shapes over the years, with the introduction of themed Lucky Charms, such as Winter Lucky Charms. Some of these include:


title: Lucky Charms

text: For an advertising campaign in May 2017, General Mills announced they would be promoting 10,000 boxes of cereal that contain only marshmallow pieces. In order to win one of the coveted boxes, consumers would need to purchase a specially marked box of regular Lucky Charms with a code on the inside panel. The code would be entered into an official website to see if the consumer is the winner of one of the 10,000 novelty boxes produced. The sweepstakes ran through December 2017.


title: Lucky Charms

text: In August 2020, General Mills announced it would be selling packages of Lucky Charms marshmallow-pieces-only in retail outlets for a limited time. Each six-ounce bag will contain hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, blue moons, rainbows, red balloons, and unicorns.


title: Lucky Charms

text: In the earliest commercials, Lucky Charms cereal had no theme jingle; action was accompanied by a light instrumental "Irish" tune. Soon, however, a simple two-line tag was added:


title: Lucky Charms

text: This simple closer, with the kids usually singing the first line and Lucky singing the second, survived into the 1980s.


title: Lucky Charms

text: Then, with the addition of the purple horseshoe marbit, it was extended into a jingle describing the contents of the box.


title: Lucky Charms

text: This was later revised with the addition of red balloons to the now-familiar "Hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, and blue moons, pots of gold, and rainbows, and tasty red balloons!” In 2008, the pot of gold was replaced with the hourglass in the theme song. It was replaced by the Unicorn in 2018.


title: Lucky Charms

text: The jingle is usually accompanied by mentioning that Lucky Charms contains whole-grain ingredients and is part of a balanced meal. General Mills's market position is centered on cereals that contain "more whole grain than any other single ingredient, which is significant, because 95 per cent of Americans aren't eating minimally 48 grams of whole grain per day as recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines".


title: Environmental impact assessment

text:
Environmental Impact assessment
 (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental impact assessment" is usually used when applied to actual projects by individuals or companies and the term "strategic environmental assessment" (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programmes most often proposed by organs of state. It is a tool of environmental management forming a part of project approval and decision-making. Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review.


title: Environmental impact assessment

text: The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project. The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as "the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made". EIAs are unique in that they do not require adherence to a predetermined environmental outcome, but rather they require decision makers to account for environmental values in their decisions and to justify those decisions in light of detailed environmental studies and public comments on the potential environmental impacts.


title: Environmental impact assessment

text: Environmental Impact Assessments commenced in the 1960s, as part of increasing environmental awareness. An EIA is prepared to estimate the effects of a proposed development or construction project. EIA provides technical evaluations that are intended to contribute to more objective decision making. In the United States, EIA obtained formal status in 1969, with the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). EIAs have been used increasingly around the world. The number of environmental assessments filed every year "has vastly overtaken the number of more rigorous Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)." An environmental assessment is a "mini-Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) designed to provide sufficient information to allow the agency to decide whether the preparation of a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is necessary."


title: Environmental impact assessment

text: At the end of the project, an audit evaluates the accuracy of the EIA by comparing actual to predicted impacts. The objective is to make future EIAs more valid and effective. Two primary considerations are:


title: Environmental impact assessment

text: Audits can be performed either as a rigorous assessment of the null hypothesis or with a simpler approach comparing what actually occurred against the predictions in the EIA document.