title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: At the trial for Zach Adams, it was alleged that the state used unethical investigatory techniques to coerce a confession from his brother. In 2014, Dylan Adams was arrested on federal gun charges that would have ended in a lengthy prison sentence. The prosecutor, who was also handling the Bobo case, arranged a no-jail plea deal on the condition that he go live with a retired police officer, Dennis Benjamin, whom Dylan did not know. Five weeks later, Benjamin called 9-1-1 to report that he had someone in his home who wanted to confess to the murder of Holly Bobo. Despite the fact that this confession led to the arrests, much of what Adams confessed to did not match the evidence.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Dylan Adams' mother claims that there was extensive coercion in his interrogation: "In this statement Dylan is trying to tell his story as to what happened, and you've got this TBI agent saying, 'Don't you mean this? Don't you mean it happened like this?' And, 'No, Dylan, it went down like this.' And you can honestly tell at [that] point that Dylan, I can as his mother, he gave up. He's like, 'OK, if that's what you said, OK.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Jeffrey Pearcy also claims the statements regarding his involvement were fabricated by King to assist her son, who is serving a long prison sentence.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: At Zach Adams' trial, his defense contended that he was "100% innocent." The defense alleged that Autry concocted a story in exchange for a reduced sentence, and that although some of his story seemed to be corroborated, he had access to all of the details through discovery. The defense also pointed to the fact that cell phone pings did not follow the path that Holly Bobo's cell phone took and that none of the men matched the witness description given by Clint Bobo. The Adams brothers and Autry were all too tall and were either too slim or too heavy to be the abductor. Austin was the correct weight and height, but Bobo described a man with dark hair that covered his neck; Austin had short red hair.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Former TBI agent Terry Dicus, who had been the lead investigator on the case, testified for the defense. He told the jury that he ruled the men out early in the case because Austin passed a polygraph, their alibis checked out and cell phone records put Zach Adams and Holly Bobo several miles apart during the critical timeframe. According to a defense expert, Adams' and Bobo's cell phones were in separate sectors during nearly the entire time frame of the abduction; the cell phones came into the same sector only at about 9:10 a.m., over an hour later. Dicus also noted that for Autry's story to fit with the cell phone pings, the men would have had to drive 106 miles per hour, a scenario that is unlikely on the winding gravel roads they traveled. The defense also noted that all four men had been ruled out as the originator of a palmprint found on Holly's car, while another suspect, Terry Britt, could not be excluded.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Zach Adams' defense attorney, Jennifer Thompson, contended that the initial suspect in the case, Terry Britt, was the real killer, saying that he "has never been cleared by the TBI and in fact it appears the government has more evidence of his guilt than it does of the three defendants charged in the present case."


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Britt is a convicted sex offender who has been convicted of multiple rapes. It was argued at trial that Britt fit the physical description and had a history of stalking blonde women. Clint Bobo also identified a voice sample of Britt's voice as being very similar to the voice he had heard that morning.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Dicus testified that Britt had fabricated an alibi. Britt told investigators that his wife stayed home from work that morning to help him install a bathtub. Through the investigation, Dicus discovered that Britt's wife, Janet, had gone to work that morning, but Britt called and made her leave "on the biggest news day" of the county's history. The Britts did produce a handwritten receipt for the bathtub, but the store had no record of the sale. According to Dicus, Britt's wife had been with him on previous occasions when Britt had stalked girls. Britt could not be excluded as the contributor of the handprint. Dicus also testified that following the Bobo abduction, Britt allegedly changed his appearance by cutting his hair.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: A U.S. Marshals Service senior inspector testified that at one point, Britt said, "Sounds like you have it all figured out," and said he would "plead to it," but did not clarify specific charges or conditions for a plea deal.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: The criminal case against the men charged has been met with strong criticism and conflict between members of the prosecution, complicating the investigation. District Attorney Matt Stowe was elected to office in the summer of 2014 following the arrests and stated that he believes he was elected in part due to skepticism regarding the arrests and questions over whether enough evidence exists against them to obtain a conviction. "[Voters] wanted another set of eyes on this Holly Bobo case; they weren't happy with everything that was coming out of there, and I think that they wanted someone else to take a look and someone else to say, 'We know what's going on.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: In the fall of 2014, Jason Autry's attorney, John Herbison, accused the prosecutor of arresting the defendants without probable cause as an unethical "investigatory technique", then adding and dropping charges strategically before hearings to avoid having to produce evidence against the defendants. In October 2014, when evidence tampering charges were dropped against Dylan Adams just days after he was charged with rape, Herbison said: "If those reports are correct, it means that they're just playing games," Herbison said. "They charged him with something less serious in order to keep him locked up, and then when it comes time to answer questions about the charge, they dismiss that and charge him with a more serious charge in circuit court, where he's not entitled to a preliminary hearing."


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: He also noted the state's similar treatment of Mark Pearcy to avoid hearings. In August 2014, the state failed to arrange transport for Pearcy to the courthouse causing the hearing to be rescheduled for September, but just prior to the new hearing the charges against him were dropped with the explanation given that Pearcy was facing unrelated federal charges and they were being forced to wait to proceed with the state charges. Herbison said the laws regarding the charges would not preclude the state charges. "If the state is claiming that is the case, the prosecutor is either ill-informed or being disingenuous," he said. Charges were never reinstated and the case against his brother, Jeff, was similarly dropped.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Zach Adams's attorney, Jennifer Thompson, repeatedly said that evidence was not turned over to the defense. For example, in 2014, DA Matt Stowe made a statement that because Holly was menstruating at the time of her abduction there was a lot of DNA evidence in Zachary Adams's Decatur County home. No DNA evidence was ever turned over to the defense or produced at trial. She also said that the medical examiner referred to materials that were never given to her.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: On December 17, 2014, nine months after Zach Adams's arrest, Judge Creed McGinley chastised prosecutors for delays in the case and for the state's failure to turn over evidence to the defense. "I am absolutely out of patience with these cases not moving," he said. Judge McGinley ordered that a bill of particulars be filed for Zachary Adams's case within seven days and that discovery take place immediately. The prosecution ignored both deadlines. In response, attorneys for the men filed motions to dismiss charges. The motions filed accused the state of "silence or stonewalling", stating that, among other things, the state had yet to disclose evidence that the skull found belonged to Bobo. "It would appear to me if they had a skull with a dental match they would have given that to us right away. It's a little suspicious why we don't have that forensic information," said Autry's attorney Fletcher Long.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Following the hearing in December 2014, a dispute regarding the handling of the case led the TBI to briefly drop its investigation of the case and cut ties with the entire district, saying District Attorney Matt Stowe had accused them of misconduct. The TBI agreed to come back on the case after Stowe recused himself from the case and Jennifer Nichols was appointed as special prosecutor. Following Stowe's allegations of misconduct by the TBI, the defense attorneys working on the case stated that they intended to subpoena Stowe to question him regarding the alleged misconduct. Emails by Wally Kirby, Executive Director of Tennessee District Attorney's Conference, revealed that Stowe accused TBI of compromising the case by proceeding "so slowly that the culprits were always one step ahead and that TBI...was leaking information and possibly covering up evidence."


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: The case attracted a high level of national media coverage. Discovery Channel published an article several months after her disappearance, discussing how the high levels of media coverage, including some instances of inaccurate media coverage, hurt the investigation. A notable example of misinformation was the description of her last known movements. Early reports inaccurately reported that Bobo was dragged into the woods. Clint later clarified that Holly had, in fact, walked with the man wearing camouflage into the woods, either willingly or by coercion. This clarification led to rumors that Clint had changed his story and was a suspect in his sister's disappearance. Whitney Duncan defended him in an April 17 Twitter statement, stating that he was innocent and not a suspect in the case. Some early sources also erroneously reported that the skull was found on property owned by Zach Adams's family. Her body was found 10 miles away from Adams's property on land owned by the Tubbs family.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: Police received scores of erroneous tips from the public, including a number of "psychics", making it difficult for police to identify important leads.


title: Murder of Holly Bobo

text: On September 29, 2017, the ABC Network aired an investigative journalism segment, "Justice for Holly Bobo", on its prime-time television program "20/20".


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: In anatomy, the temporomandibular joints (TMJ) are the two joints connecting the jawbone to the skull. It is a bilateral synovial articulation between the temporal bone of the skull above and the mandible below; it is from these bones that its name is derived. This joint is unique in that it is a bilateral joint that functions as one unit. Since the TMJ is connected to the mandible, the right and left joints must function together and therefore are not independent of each other.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The main components are the joint capsule, articular disc, mandibular condyles, articular surface of the temporal bone, temporomandibular ligament, stylomandibular ligament, sphenomandibular ligament, and lateral pterygoid muscle.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The articular capsule (capsular ligament) is a thin, loose envelope, attached above to the circumference of the mandibular fossa and the articular tubercle immediately in front; below, to the neck of the condyle of the mandible. Its loose attachment to the neck of the mandible allows for free movement.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The unique feature of the temporomandibular joint is the articular disc. The disc is composed of dense fibrocartilagenous tissue that is positioned between the head of the mandibular condyle and the mandibular fossa of the temporal bone. The temporomandibular joints are one of the few synovial joints in the human body with an articular disc, another being the sternoclavicular joint. The disc divides each joint into two compartments, the lower and upper compartments. These two compartments are synovial cavities, which consist of an upper and a lower synovial cavity. The synovial membrane lining the joint capsule produces the synovial fluid that fills these cavities. The disc is biconcave in shape. The anterior portion of the disc serves as the insertion site for the superior head of the lateral pterygoid. The posterior portion attaches to the temporal bone. Both upper and lower compartments do not communicate with each other unless the disc is damaged.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The central area of the disc is avascular and lacks innervation, thus getting its nutrients from the surrounding synovial fluid. In contrast, the posterior ligament and the surrounding capsules along have both blood vessels and nerves. Few cells are present, but fibroblasts and white blood cells are among these. The central area is also thinner but of denser consistency than the peripheral region, which is thicker but has a more cushioned consistency. The synovial fluid in the synovial cavities provides nutrition for the avascular central area of the disc. With age, the entire disc thins and may undergo the addition of cartilage in the central part, changes that may lead to impaired movement of the joint. The synovial membrane covers the inner surface of the articular capsule in the TMJ, except for the surface of the articular disc and condylar cartilage.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The lower joint compartment formed by the mandible and the articular disc is involved in rotational movement—this is the initial movement of the jaw when the mouth opens. The upper joint compartment formed by the articular disc and the temporal bone is involved in translational movement—this is the secondary gliding motion of the jaw as it is opened widely.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: In some cases of anterior disc displacement, the pain felt during movement of the mandible is due to the condyle compressing this area against the articular surface of the temporal bone.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: There are three ligaments associated with the temporomandibular joints: one major and two minor ligaments. These ligaments are important in that they define the border movements, or in other words, the farthest extents of movements, of the mandible. Movements of the mandible made past the extents functionally allowed by the muscular attachments will result in painful stimuli, and thus, movements past these more limited borders are rarely achieved in normal function.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Other ligaments, called "oto-mandibular ligaments", connect the middle ear (malleus) with the temporomandibular joint:


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Sensory innervation of the temporomandibular joint is derived from the auriculotemporal and masseteric branches of V or mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve. These are only sensory innervation. Recall that motor is to the muscles.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The specific mechanics of proprioception in the temporomandibular joint involve four receptors. Ruffini endings function as static mechanoreceptors which position the mandible. Pacinian corpuscles are dynamic mechanoreceptors that accelerate movement during reflexes. Golgi tendon organs function as static mechanoreceptors for the protection of ligaments around the temporomandibular joint. Free nerve endings are the pain receptors for the protection of the temporomandibular joint itself.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Free nerve endings, many of which act as nociceptors, innervate the bones, ligaments, and muscles of the TMJ. The fibrocartilage that overlays the TMJ condyle is not innervated and is avascular in healthy TMJs. When bone tissue, ligaments, or muscles become inflamed or injured, sensory signals are relayed along small-diameter primary afferent nerve fibers that form the trigeminal nerve. Signals are directed through the trigeminal nerve and modulated by neuronal cell bodies in the trigeminal ganglion. Nociceptive signals are subsequently routed to the spinal trigeminal nucleus, which contains second-order sensory neurons. From the trigeminal nucleus, sensory signals are relayed to higher-order brain regions, including the somatosensory cortex and thalamus.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Its arterial blood supply is provided by branches of the external carotid artery, predominately the superficial temporal branch. Other branches of the external carotid artery, namely the deep auricular artery, anterior tympanic artery, ascending pharyngeal artery, and maxillary artery, may also contribute to the arterial blood supply of the joint.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Formation of the temporomandibular joints occurs at around 12 weeks "in utero" when the joint spaces and the articular disc develop. At approximately 10 weeks the component of the fetus future joint becomes evident in the mesenchyme between condylar cartilage of the mandible and the developing temporal bone. Two slits like joint cavities and intervening disk make their appearance in this region by 12 weeks. The mesenchyme around the joint begins to form the fibrous joint capsule. Very little is known about the significance of newly forming muscles in joint formation. The developing superior head of the lateral pterygoid muscle attaches to the anterior portion of the fetal disk. The disk also continues posteriorly through the petrotympanic fissure and attaches to the malleus of the middle ear.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: A growth center is located in the head of each mandibular condyle before an individual reaches maturity. This growth center consists of hyaline cartilage underneath the periosteum on the articulating surface of the condyle. This is the last growth center of bone in the body and is multidirectional in its growth capacity, unlike a typical long bone. This area of cartilage within the bone grows in length by appositional growth as the individual grows to maturity. Over time, the cartilage is replaced by bone, using endochondral ossification. This mandibular growth center in the condyle allows the increased length of the mandible needed for the larger permanent teeth, as well as for the larger brain capacity of the adult. This growth of the mandible also influences the overall shape of the face and thus is charted and referred to during orthodontic therapy. When an individual reaches full maturity, the growth center of bone within the condyle has disappeared.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Each temporomandibular joint is classed as a "ginglymoarthrodial" joint since it is both a ginglymus (hinging joint) and an arthrodial (sliding) joint. The condyle of the mandible articulates with the temporal bone in the mandibular fossa. The mandibular fossa is a concave depression in the squamous portion of the temporal bone.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: These two bones are actually separated by an articular disc, which divides the joint into two distinct compartments. The inferior compartment allows for rotation of the condylar head around an instantaneous axis of rotation, corresponding to the first 20mm or so of the opening of the mouth. After the mouth is open to this extent, the mouth can no longer open without the superior compartment of the temporomandibular joints becoming active.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: At this point, if the mouth continues to open, not only are the condylar heads rotating within the lower compartment of the temporomandibular joints, but the entire apparatus (condylar head and articular disc) "translates". Although this had traditionally been explained as a forward and downward sliding motion, on the anterior concave surface of the mandibular fossa and the posterior convex surface of the articular eminence, this translation actually amounts to a rotation around another axis. This effectively produces an evolute which can be termed the resultant axis of mandibular rotation, which lies in the vicinity of the mandibular foramen, allowing for a low-tension environment for the vasculature and innervation of the mandible.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The necessity of translation to produce further opening past that which can be accomplished with a sole rotation of the condyle can be demonstrated by placing a resistant fist against the chin and trying to open the mouth more than 20 or so mm.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The resting position of the temporomandibular joint is not with the teeth biting together. Instead, the muscular balance and proprioceptive feedback allow a physiologic rest for the mandible, an interocclusal clearance, or freeway space, which is 2 to 4 mm between the teeth.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Normal full jaw opening is 40-50 millimeters as measured from the edge of lower front teeth to edge of upper front teeth.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: When measuring the vertical range of motion, the measurement must be adjusted for the overbite. For example, if the measurement from the edge of the lower front teeth to the edge of the upper front teeth is 40 millimeters and the overbite is 3 millimeters, then the jaw opening is 43 millimeters.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Normal movements of the mandible during function, such as mastication, or chewing, are known as excursions. There are two lateral excursions (left and right) and the forward excursion, known as protrusion. The reversal of protrusion is retrusion.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: When the mandible is moved into protrusion, the mandibular incisors, or front teeth of the mandible, are moved so that they first come edge to edge with the maxillary (upper) incisors and then surpass them, producing a temporary underbite. This is accomplished by translation of the condyle down the articular eminence (in the upper portion of the joint) without any more than the slightest amount of rotation taking place (in the lower portion of the joint), other than that necessary to allow the mandibular incisors to come in front of the maxillary incisors without running into them. (This is all assuming an ideal Class I or Class II occlusion.)


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: During chewing, the mandible moves in a specific manner as delineated by the two temporomandibular joints. The side of the mandible that moves laterally is referred to as either the working or rotating side, while the other side is referred to as either the balancing or orbiting side. The latter terms, although a bit outdated, are actually more precise, as they define the sides by the movements of the respective condyles.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: When the mandible is moved into a lateral excursion, the working side condyle (the condyle on the side of the mandible that moves outwards) only performs rotation (in the horizontal plane), while the balancing side condyle performs the translation. During actual functional chewing, when the teeth are not only moved side to side but also up and down when biting of the teeth is incorporated as well, rotation (in a vertical plane) also plays a part in both condyles.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The mandible is moved primarily by the four muscles of mastication: the masseter, medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid and the temporalis. These four muscles, all innervated by V, or the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve, work in different groups to move the mandible in different directions. Contraction of the lateral pterygoid acts to pull the disc and condyle forward within the glenoid fossa and down the articular eminence; thus, the action of this muscle serves to protrude the jaw, it with the assistance of gravity, and the digastricus muscle also opens the jaw. The other three muscles close the mouth; the masseter and the medial pterygoid by pulling up the angle of the mandible and the temporalis by pulling up on the coronoid process of the mandible.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Pain or dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint is referred to as temporomandibular joint dysfunction or temporomandibular joint "disorder" (TMD). This term is used to refer to a group of problems involving the temporomandibular joints and the muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, and other tissues associated with them.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: Although rare, other pathologic conditions may also affect the function of temporomandibular joints, causing pain and swelling. These conditions include chondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, giant cell tumor, and aneurysmal bone cyst.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The temporomandibular joints can be felt in front of or within the external acoustic meatus during movements of the mandible. Auscultation of the joint can also be performed.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: The most common disorder of a temporomandibular joint is disc displacement. In essence, this is when the articular disc, attached anteriorly to the superior head of the lateral pterygoid muscle and posteriorly to the retrodiscal tissue, moves out from between the condyle and the fossa so that the mandible and temporal bone contact is made on something other than the articular disc. This, as explained above, is usually very painful, because, unlike these adjacent tissues, the central portion of the disc contains no sensory innervation.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: In most instances of disorder, the disc is displaced anteriorly upon translation, or the anterior and inferior sliding motion of the condyle forward within the fossa and down the articular eminence. On opening, a "pop" or "click" can sometimes be heard and usually felt also, indicating the condyle is moving back onto the disk, known as "reducing the joint" ("disc displacement with reduction"). Upon closing, the condyle will slide off the back of the disc, hence another "click" or "pop" at which point the condyle is posterior to the disc. Upon clenching, the condyle compresses the bilaminar area, and the nerves, arteries, and veins against the temporal fossa, causing pain and inflammation.


title: Temporomandibular joint

text: In disc displacement without reduction the disc stays anterior to the condylar head upon opening. Mouth opening is limited and there is no "pop" or "click" sound on opening.


title: S.W.A.T. (2017 TV series, season 4)

text: The fourth season of "S.W.A.T.", an American police procedural drama television series, premiered on November 11, 2020 and concluded on May 26, 2021 on CBS with 18 episodes produced.


title: S.W.A.T. (2017 TV series, season 4)

text: The season dealt with real life serious issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and racial tension in Los Angeles between law enforcement and the Black community following the aftermaths of the Killing of Breonna Taylor, and the Murder of George Floyd.


title: S.W.A.T. (2017 TV series, season 4)

text: For the 2020–21 U.S. television season, the fourth season of "S.W.A.T." ranked #42 with a total of 5.96 million viewers.


title: S.W.A.T. (2017 TV series, season 4)

text: The fourth season of "S.W.A.T." was set to be a mid-season premiere. However, on July 14 it was announced that it would switch places with "Survivor", and premiered on November 11, 2020.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany predominantly sources its energy from fossil fuels, followed by wind, nuclear power, solar, biomass (wood and biofuels) and hydro.


title: Energy in Germany

text: The German economy is large and developed, ranking fourth in the world by nominal GDP. Germany is seventh in global primary energy consumption as of 2020. As of 2021, German primary energy consumption amounted to 12,193 Petajoule, with more than 75% coming from fossil sources, 6.2% from nuclear energy and 16.1% from renewables. In 2021 Germany's electricity production reached 553.9 TWh, down from 631.4 TWh in 2013.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Key to Germany's energy policies and politics is the "Energiewende", meaning "energy turnaround" or "energy transformation". The policy includes phasing out nuclear power by 2022, and progressive replacement of fossil fuels by renewables. The nuclear electricity production lost in Germany's phase-out was primarily replaced with coal electricity production and electricity importing. One study found that the nuclear phase-out caused $12 billion in social costs per year, primarily due to increases in mortality due to exposure to pollution from fossil fuels.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany is highly dependent on Russian energy, as it gets more than half of the natural gas, a third of heating oil, and half of its coal imports from Russia. Due to this reliance, Germany blocked, delayed or watered down EU proposals to cut Russian energy imports amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the Russian invasion resulted in a radical shift in Germany's energy policy, with the goal of being almost completely independent of Russian energy imports by mid-2024.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany is the sixth largest consumer of energy in the world, and the largest national market of electricity in Europe. The country is the fifth-largest consumer of oil in the world. Oil consumption accounted for 34.3% of all energy use in 2018, and 23.7% of Germany's energy consumption came from gas.


title: Energy in Germany

text: About 98% of oil consumed in Germany is imported. In 2021, Russia supplied 34.1% of crude oil imports, the US 12.5%, Kazakhstan 9.8% and Norway 9.6%.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany is also the world's largest importer of natural gas, which covered more than a quarter of primary energy consumption in Germany in 2021. Around 95% of Germany's natural gas is imported, of which around half is re-exported. 55% of gas imports come from Russia, 30% from Norway and 13% from the Netherlands. As of 2022, Germany does not have LNG terminals, so all gas imports use pipelines. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced that it wanted to build an LNG terminal at the North Sea port of Brunsbüttel to improve energy security.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Because of its rich coal deposits, Germany has a long tradition of using coal. It was the fourth-largest consumer of coal in the world as of 2016. Domestic hard coal mining has been completely phased out in 2018, as it could not compete with cheaper sources elsewhere and had survived only through subsidies. As of 2022, only lignite is still mined in Germany. After ending domestic production in 2018, Germany imported all 31.8 million tonnes of the hard coal it consumed in 2020. The biggest suppliers were Russia (45.4%), the United States (18.3%) and Australia (12.3%).


title: Energy in Germany

text: Coal is the second-largest source of electricity in Germany. , around 24% of the electricity in the country is generated from coal. This was down from 2013, when coal made up about 45% of Germany's electricity production (19% from hard coal and 26% from lignite). Nonetheless, in the first half of 2021, coal was the largest source of electricity in the country.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany is also a major producer of coal. Lignite is extracted in the extreme western and eastern parts of the country, mainly in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sachsen and Brandenburg. Considerable amounts are burned in coal plants near the mining areas to produce electricity and transporting lignite over far distances is not economically feasible; therefore, the plants are located near the extraction sites. Bituminous coal is mined in Nordrhein-Westfalen and Saarland. Most power plants burning bituminous coal operate on imported material, therefore, the plants are located not only near to the mining sites, but throughout the country.


title: Energy in Germany

text: German coal-fired power plants are being designed and modified so they can be increasingly flexible to support the fluctuations resulting from increased renewable energy. Existing power plants in Germany are designed to operate flexibly. Load following is achieved by German natural gas combined cycle plants and coal-fired power plants. New coal-fired power plants have a minimum load capability of approximately 40%, with further potential to reduce this to 20–25%. The reason is that the output of the coal boiler is controlled via direct fuel combustion and not, as is the case with a gas combined-cycle power plant, via a heat recovery steam generator with an upstream gas turbine.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany has been opening new coal power plants until recently, following a 2007 plan to build 26 new coal plants. This has been controversial in light of Germany's commitment to curbing carbon emissions. By 2015, the growing share of renewable energy in the national electricity market (26% in 2014, up from 4% in 1990) and the government's mandated CO emission reduction targets (40% below 1990 levels by 2020; 80% below 1990 levels by 2050) have increasingly curtailed previous plans for new, expanded coal power capacity.


title: Energy in Germany

text: On 26 January 2019, a group of federal and state leaders as well as industry representatives, environmentalists, and scientists made an agreement to close all 84 coal plants in the country by 2038.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Coal was used to generate almost 40% of the country's electricity in 2018 and is expected to be replaced by renewable energy and natural gas.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Nuclear power has been a topical political issue in recent decades, with continuing debates about when the technology should be phased out. A coalition government of Gerhard Schröder took the decision in 2002 to phaseout all nuclear power by 2022. The topic received renewed attention at the start of 2007 due to the political impact of the Russia-Belarus energy dispute and in 2011 after the Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan. Within days of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, large anti-nuclear protests occurred in Germany. Protests continued and, on 29 May 2011, Merkel's government announced that it would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. Eight of the seventeen operating reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following Fukushima in 2011. German coal consumption has risen during 2011, 2012 and 2013.


title: Energy in Germany

text: The former chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the phase-out of plants, previously scheduled to go offline as late as 2036, would give Germany a competitive advantage in the renewable energy era, stating, "As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs". Merkel also pointed to Japan's "helplessness" – despite being an industrialised, technologically advanced nation – in the face of its nuclear disaster.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In September 2011, German engineering giant Siemens announced a complete withdrawal from the nuclear industry, as a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Remaining nuclear companies in Germany are E.ON Kernkraft GmbH, Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy GmbH, RWE Power AG, and EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG.


title: Energy in Germany

text: The share of electricity produced from renewable energy in Germany has increased from 6.3 per cent of the national total in 2000 to over 25 per cent in the first half of 2012. Germany renewable power market grew from 0.8 million residential customers in 2006 to 4.9 million in 2012, or 12.5% of all private households in the country. In 2011, they purchased 15 terawatt-hours (TWh) of green power, and commercial customers bought a further 10.3 TWh. Renewable energy share of gross electricity consumption rose from 10% in 2005 to 20% in 2011. Main renewable electricity sources were in first half of 2012: Wind energy 36.6%, biomass 22.5%, hydropower 14.7%, photovoltaics (solar) 21.2% and biowaste 3.6%. Wood-fire plants fuelled by wood pellets are included in biomass. Half of Germany's timber production is consumed by wood fired plants. Wood fired plants are counted as renewable energy by Germany and the European Union counting them as "carbon neutral".


title: Energy in Germany

text: In 2010, investments totalling 26 billion euros were made in Germany's renewable energies sector. Germany spends about 20 billion euros per year subsidising renewable energy. According to official figures, some 370,000 people in Germany were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2010, especially in small and medium-sized companies. This is an increase of around 8 per cent compared to 2009 (around 339,500 jobs), and well over twice the number of jobs in 2004 (160,500). About two-thirds of these jobs are attributed to the Renewable Energy Sources Act


title: Energy in Germany

text: In the first half of 2012, 25.1% of Germany's electricity supply was produced from renewable energy sources, more than the electricity generated by nuclear power stations.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In end of 2011, the cumulative installed total of renewable power was 65.7GW. Although Germany does not have a very sunny climate, solar photovoltaic power made up 4% of annual electricity consumption. On 25 May 2012, a Saturday, solar power reached a new record, injecting 22 GW of power into the German power grid. This met 50% of the nation's mid-day electricity demand on that day.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In 2016, renewable energy based electricity generation reached 29.5%, but coal remained a factor at 40.1% of total generation. Wind was the leading renewable source at 12.3%, followed by biomass at 7.9% and solar PV at 5.9%.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In 2020, renewable energy reached a share of 50.9% on the German public grid. Wind power made up 27% of total generation, and solar made up 10.5%. Biomass made up 9.7%, and hydro power made up 3.8%. The largest single non-renewable source was brown coal, with 16.8% of generation, followed by nuclear with 12.5%, then hard coal at 7.3%. Gas mainly provides peaking services, allowing for a generation share of 11.6%.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In October 2016 the German Biomass Research Center ("") (DBFZ) launched an online biomass atlas for researchers, investors and the interested public.


title: Energy in Germany

text: The energy efficiency bottom-up index for the whole economy (ODEX) in Germany decreased by 18% between 1991 and 2006, which is equivalent to an energy efficiency improvement by 1.2% per annum on average based on the ODEX, which calculates technical efficiency improvements. Since the beginning of the new century, however, the efficiency improvement measured by the ODEX has slowed down. While a continuous decrease by 1.5%/y could be observed between 1991 and 2001, the decrease in the period from 2001 to 2006 only amounted to 0.5%, which is below the EU-27 level.


title: Energy in Germany

text: By 2030 the German Federal Ministry of the Economy projects an increase in electricity consumption to 658 TWh. The expected increase is due to an expected uptick in electric mobility, more heating through electric heat-pumps, and production of batteries and hydrogen.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Germany is the fourth-largest producer of nuclear power in the world, but in 2000, the government and the German nuclear power industry agreed to phase out all nuclear power plants by 2021, as a result of an initiative with a vote result of 513 Yes, 79 No and 8 Empty. The seven oldest reactors were permanently closed after the Fukushima accident. However, being an integral part of the EU's internal electricity market, Germany will continue to consume foreign nuclear electricity even after 2022.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In September 2010, Merkel's government reached a late-night deal which would see the country's 17 nuclear plants run, on average, 12 years longer than planned, with some remaining in production until well into the 2030s. Then, following Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the government changed its mind again, deciding to proceed with the plan to close all nuclear plants in the country by 2022.


title: Energy in Germany

text: Government policy emphasises conservation and the development of renewable sources, such as solar, wind, biomass, water, and geothermal power. As a result of energy saving measures, energy efficiency (the amount of energy required to produce a unit of gross domestic product) has been improving since the beginning of the 1970s. The government has set the goal of meeting 80% of the country's energy demands from alternative energy by 2050.


title: Energy in Germany

text: After becoming Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel expressed concern for overreliance on Russian energy, but she received little support from others in Berlin.


title: Energy in Germany

text: In September 2010, the German government announced a new aggressive energy policy with the following targets:


title: Energy in Germany

text: Forbes ranked German Aloys Wobben ($3B), founder of Enercon, as the richest person in the energy business (wind power) in Germany in 2013.


title: Esther McVey

text: Esther Louise McVey (born 24 October 1967) is a British politician and television presenter serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton since 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2019 to 2020, in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for a period in 2018 and as Minister of State for Employment from 2014 to 2015.


title: Esther McVey

text: Born in Liverpool, McVey was raised in foster care for the first two years of her life and was then raised by her biological family. She was privately educated at The Belvedere School before going on to study at Queen Mary University of London and City, University of London. After working at her family's construction business, she became a television presenter, co-presenting "GMTV" with Eamonn Holmes.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey first entered the House of Commons as MP for Wirral West at the 2010 general election. She served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People from 2012 to 2013, prior to serving as Minister of State for Employment from 2013 to 2015. She was sworn into the Privy Council in 2014 and attended Cabinet after that year's reshuffle. In the 2015 general election, she lost her seat and spent eighteen months serving as Chair of the British Transport Police Authority before returning to parliament in the 2017 general election, succeeding former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in Tatton.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey served in the second May ministry as Deputy Chief Whip from 2017 to 2018. She was appointed Work and Pensions Secretary in January 2018. In July, she misled the House of Commons over the new Universal Credit scheme by claiming a National Audit Office report showed it should be rolled out faster when in fact the report concluded the roll-out should be paused. Amid calls for her resignation, she apologised to the House. She resigned in November 2018 in opposition to Brexit negotiations and Theresa May's draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. She founded the Blue Collar Conservative parliamentary caucus, before standing in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, but was eliminated in the first round after finishing in last place with nine votes. After the contest, she attended Cabinet as Minister of State for Housing and Planning until Boris Johnson's first Cabinet reshuffle. After leaving the Johnson Cabinet, McVey returned to the backbenches and subsequently, with her MP husband (2022) jointly host their weekly programmes titled, 'Friday' "Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip" on GB News and she also regularly writes for the Daily Express Newspaper.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey, of Irish Catholic descent, was born in Liverpool. She spent the first two years of her life in foster care as a Barnardo's child. She was educated at the (at that time fee-paying, independent) Belvedere School, before reading law at Queen Mary University of London (LLB) and radio journalism at City, University of London (MA). In July 2009, McVey graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with the degree of Master of Science (MSc) in corporate governance.


title: Esther McVey

text: From 2000 to 2006, McVey was a director of her family's Liverpool-based construction business J. G. McVey & Co. (run by her father) which specialised in demolition and site clearance, land reclamation and regeneration. In 2003, the firm received two immediate prohibition safety notices with which it complied. Her father has since said that she was "only there in name".


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey returned to the family business after university, while undertaking a postgraduate course in radio journalism at City University, before embarking on a career in the media, both as a presenter and producer.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey was a co-presenter of the summer holiday Children's BBC strand "But First This" in 1991, and subsequently presented and produced a wide range of programmes, co-hosting GMTV, BBC1's science entertainment series "How Do They Do That?," "5's Company", "The Heaven and Earth Show", "Shopping City", BBC2's youth current affairs programme "Reportage" and Channel 4's legal series "Nothing But The Truth" with Ann Widdecombe. She took part in Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey returned to Liverpool and set up her own business, Making It (UK) Ltd, which provides training for small and medium enterprises as well as providing office space for new startup businesses, which led to her founding Winning Women, supported by funding from the North West Regional Development Agency.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey joined GB News in 2021 to present a weekly show with her husband, titled "Saturday Morning with Esther and Phillip". In September 2022, in a shakeup of the channel's schedule, it was announced that the pair would present another show on Friday, titled "Friday Morning with Esther and Phillip".


title: Esther McVey

text: A supporter of Conservative Way Forward, a Thatcherite organisation, McVey was selected to stand as the Conservative Party candidate in the 2005 general election for the Wirral West constituency, but lost to the sitting Labour MP Stephen Hesford by 1,097 votes.


title: Esther McVey

text: In the 2010 general election, McVey gained Wirral West on defeating the Labour candidate, Phil Davies, by a 2,436 majority (16,726 votes cast, 42.5% vote share). In 2010, McVey was Parliamentary Private Secretary to then-Employment Minister Chris Grayling. From 2012 to 2013, she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Work and Pensions, working under Iain Duncan Smith.


title: Esther McVey

text: In December 2013, she was formally reprimanded for using House of Commons notepaper and postage to electioneer for the Conservative Party; she apologised and repaid the £300 costs.


title: Esther McVey

text: David Cameron appointed McVey Minister of State for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions in an October 2013 reshuffle. McVey was later sworn into the Privy Council on 27 February 2014. Shortly after being made Minister for Employment, McVey had the responsibility for the Health and Safety Executive taken away after it was reported that a demolition company had been found to be in violation of health and safety laws while she was director.


title: Esther McVey

text: In April 2014 McVey apologised for a tweet criticising the Wirral Labour Party that was issued during the Hillsborough memorial service. Social media posts at the time claimed the timing of the tweet showed a lack of respect.


title: Esther McVey

text: In November 2014, then-backbench Labour MP John McDonnell discussed a "Sack Esther McVey Day" among Labour activists and politicians, saying that "a whole group in the audience" argued 'Why are we sacking her? Why aren't we lynching the bastard?'" The Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps called for Labour to withdraw the whip from McDonnell. The official Labour Party Twitter feed said McDonnell's comments "don't represent the views of the Labour Party. He speaks for himself". In 2015, speaking to Robert Peston of ITV, McDonnell defended his comments by saying that he was "simply report[ing] what was shouted out at a public meeting". On the same day as his "lynch" remarks, in a debate in the House of Commons, McDonnell criticised McVey for playing the victim and proceeded to call her a "stain of inhumanity".


title: Esther McVey

text: In the 2015 general election, McVey was defeated by the Labour candidate Margaret Greenwood who gained the Wirral West seat by 417 votes.


title: Esther McVey

text: After losing her seat, McVey took up the post of chair of the British Transport Police Authority from November 2015, on a four-year contract. However, ten days after it was announced that a 2017 general election would take place, McVey resigned the post. Between the elections she also held part-time jobs as a special adviser to Irish lobbying firm Hume Brophy, a privately-held investment group known as Floreat Group, and a fellowship at the University of Hull.


title: Esther McVey

text: In April 2017, McVey was selected to succeed George Osborne as the Conservative candidate for the June 2017 general election in his safe seat of Tatton. She was elected, with around the same vote share as Osborne gained in 2015 (58.6%) (and with a larger number of votes than Osborne gained in any of the four times he stood in an election at Tatton), but with a decreased majority. In a reshuffle prompted by Sir Michael Fallon's resignation as Secretary of State for Defence in the wake of sexual assault allegations, and in which former Chief Whip Gavin Williamson replaced Fallon and his deputy Julian Smith replaced Williamson, McVey was appointed Deputy Chief Government Whip.


title: Esther McVey

text: On 8 January 2018, McVey was appointed as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, a post she held until 15 November 2018 when she resigned over the Brexit deal. Labour MP Dan Carden said McVey's appointment "will put fear in the hearts of the vulnerable and disabled. The last time McVey was at DWP she was ejected from parliament by the voters of Wirral West."


title: Esther McVey

text: In July 2018 it was reported by the head of the National Audit Office (NAO) that McVey had misled parliament over the new Universal Credit scheme by claiming that the NAO report showed that it should be rolled out faster when in fact the report concluded that the roll-out should be paused. She apologised to the House of Commons on 4 July 2018 amid calls for her resignation. Labour MP Margaret Greenwood said in parliament, "The secretary of state should be ashamed that she has been forced to come to this house again. If she misread this report so badly this brings in to question her competence and her judgment. If she did read the report and chose to misrepresent its findings, she has clearly broken the ministerial code. Either way, she should resign."


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey said that there were problems with Universal Credit. "The Guardian" wrote, "Tens of thousands of ESA claimants will receive back-payments of £5,000–£20,000 as a result of what MPs have called a series of 'avoidable' mistakes. The DWP was warned of the error as early as 2014, but failed to take action until 2017."


title: Esther McVey

text: On 15 November 2018, McVey announced her ministerial resignation over Brexit following May's publication of the draft proposed deal. She was replaced by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd.


title: Esther McVey

text: It was reported on 27 June 2019 that McVey had received £17,000 for her resignation in severance pay. She was criticised by Labour MP Neil Coyle for taking the payment when she had earlier admitted universal credit had "failings".


title: Esther McVey

text: In March 2019, she was criticised after tweeting a widely discredited claim made in a 2014 newspaper opinion column about the UK, along with other EU states, being forced to join the Euro from 2020, before later deleting it.


title: Esther McVey

text: In May 2019, McVey announced her intention to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party when Theresa May resigned, claiming that she already had "enough support" to stand. Later that month, McVey launched Blue Collar Conservatives, as part of her leadership campaign, with MPs such as Scott Mann, Iain Duncan Smith and her partner Philip Davies in attendance.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey finished in last place after the first ballot of the Conservative Party leadership candidates and was eliminated.


title: Esther McVey

text: Following Boris Johnson winning the leadership contest and becoming Prime Minister in July 2019, McVey returned to the cabinet when he made her Minister of State for Housing and Planning. In September 2019, during an event on housing at the Conservative Party conference, she received widespread ridicule after she referred to "3D architects, 3D visionaries – doing it with it on a computer" and suggested that this was a new technology.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey later became a correspondent and later a presenter for the right-leaning television channel, GB News. She was criticised by the chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, Eric Pickles, for breaking anti-lobbying rules within the Ministerial Code in accepting the job at GB News while she was still the housing minister.


title: Esther McVey

text: Since returning to the backbenches, McVey has been a critic of her party's lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic and has repeatedly broken the whip to vote against further restrictions. She has also, like several of her Conservative colleagues, gone against her party's agenda by calling for the government to stop building HS2, due to the high-cost, the burden of which she believes will be put on the taxpayer.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey endorsed Jeremy Hunt in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. She was his candidate for Deputy Prime Minister.


title: Esther McVey

text: McVey lives in West Kirby, Wirral. She was previously in relationships with BBC producer Mal Young and former Conservative frontbencher Ed Vaizey. When in London, she shared a flat in Pimlico with Conservative colleague Philip Davies MP, with whom she has had a "long time on-and-off romantic interest". They were reported to be partners in July 2018. The house-sharing arrangement ended when McVey lost her seat at the 2015 general election. In May 2019 the BBC's "Politics Live" programme reported that she and Davies were engaged. On 19 September 2020, McVey married Davies in a private ceremony at Westminster, in Parliament's historic St Mary Undercroft chapel, during Covid restrictions.


title: The King of Limbs

text: The King of Limbs is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 18 February 2011 as a download, followed by a physical release on 28 March through XL Recordings internationally and TBD Records in North America.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Following the more conventional instrumentation of "In Rainbows" (2007), "The King of Limbs" saw Radiohead move further from standard song structures and recording methods. They developed the album with their producer Nigel Godrich through sampling and looping; the singer, Thom Yorke, described it as "an expression of wildness and mutation". The artwork, by Yorke and his longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood, depicts nature and spirits inspired by fairy tales.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead released no singles from "The King of Limbs", but released a music video for "Lotus Flower" featuring Yorke's dancing that inspired an internet meme. In 2012, they began an international tour, with several festival appearances. To perform the complex rhythms live, they were joined by a second drummer, Clive Deamer. The European tour was postponed after the temporary stage collapsed in Toronto's Downsview Park, killing the technician Scott Johnson and injuring three others.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Though its unconventional production and shorter length divided listeners, "The King of Limbs" was named one of the best albums of the year by publications including "The Wire", "NME" and "PopMatters". It was nominated in five categories at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative Music Album. The download version sold an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 copies in two months, and the vinyl became a bestseller in the UK. The retail edition debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US "Billboard" 200, making it the first Radiohead album not to achieve gold certification in the US. "The King of Limbs" was followed by the remix album "TKOL RMX 1234567", the live video "", and the non-album singles "Supercollider" and "The Butcher".


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead worked on "The King of Limbs" with their longtime producer Nigel Godrich intermittently from May 2009 to January 2011. The sessions included three weeks recording at the home of the actress Drew Barrymore in Los Angeles in early 2010.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead wanted to avoid repeating the protracted recording process of their previous album "In Rainbows" (2007). According to the singer, Thom Yorke, they felt that "if we are gonna carry on, we need to do it for a new set of reasons". The Radiohead cover artist, Stanley Donwood, said that whereas "In Rainbows" was "very much a definitive statement", the band wanted to make an album that was more "transitory". The multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood said: "We didn't want to pick up guitars and write chord sequences. We didn't want to sit in front of a computer either. We wanted a third thing, which involved playing and programming."


title: The King of Limbs

text: Whereas Radiohead had developed "In Rainbows" from live performances, "The King of Limbs" developed from studio experimentation. Yorke sought to move further from conventional recording methods. After he and Godrich became interested in DJing during their time in Los Angeles, Godrich proposed a two-week experiment whereby the band used turntables and vinyl emulation software instead of conventional instruments. According to Godrich, "That two-week experiment ended up being fucking six months. And that's that record, the whole story of all of it."


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead assembled much of the album by looping and editing samples of their playing. They used sampling software written by Greenwood, which he described as a "wonky, rubbish version" of Ableton Live, to create sequences of music. Yorke wrote melodies and lyrics over the sequences, which he likened to the process of editing a film. The guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "The brick walls we tended to hit were when we knew something was great, like 'Bloom', but not finished ... Then [Colin Greenwood] had that bassline, and Thom started singing. Those things suddenly made it a hundred times better." According to Godrich, the result of the recording sessions was a "gigantic mess that took me about a year and a half to unravel".


title: The King of Limbs

text: On 24 January 2010, Radiohead suspended recording to perform at the Hollywood Henry Fonda Theatre to raise funds for Oxfam responding to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The show was released free online in December 2010 as "Radiohead for Haiti", and included a performance of the future "King of Limbs" track "Lotus Flower" by Yorke on acoustic guitar.


title: The King of Limbs

text: According to "Rolling Stone", "The King of Limbs" saw Radiohead move further from conventional rock music and song structures in favour of "moody, rhythm-heavy electronica, glacially paced ballads and ambient psychedelia". Several critics noted dubstep influences. The album features extensive sampling, looping, and ambient sounds, including natural sounds such as birdsong and wind. "Pitchfork" said it comprised "aggressive rhythms made out of dainty bits of digital detritus, robotically repetitive yet humanly off-kilter, parched thickets of drumming graced with fleeting moments of melodic relief". According to O'Brien: "Rhythm is the king of limbs! The rhythm dictates the record. It's very important." Yorke said "The King of Limbs" was a "visual" album, with lyrics and artwork about "wildness" and "mutating" inspired by his environmental concerns. The title derives from the King of Limbs, an ancient oak tree in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, near Tottenham House, where Radiohead recorded "In Rainbows".


title: The King of Limbs

text: The first track, "Bloom", was inspired by the BBC nature documentary series "The Blue Planet". It opens with a piano loop and features horns and complex rhythms. "Morning Mr Magpie" has "restless guitars". "Little by Little" features "crumbling guitar shapes" and "clattering" percussion. "Feral" features scattered vocal samples and "mulched-up" drums. "Lotus Flower" features a driving synth bassline and Yorke's falsetto. "Codex" is a piano ballad with "spectral" horns and strings and a Roland TR-808 drum machine. "Give Up the Ghost" is an acoustic guitar ballad with layered vocal harmonies. The final track, "Separator", has guitar, piano, a "brittle" drum loop and echoing vocals.


title: The King of Limbs

text: At eight tracks and 37 minutes in length, "The King of Limbs" is Radiohead's shortest album. O'Brien explained that Radiohead felt the ideal album was around 40 minutes long, and cited Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" (1971) as a classic record shorter than "The King of Limbs".


title: The King of Limbs

text: The "King of Limbs" artwork was created by Yorke with the longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood. As with previous Radiohead albums, Donwood worked as the band recorded nearby. He painted oil portraits of the Radiohead members in the style of Gerhard Richter, but abandoned them as "I'd never painted with oils before and I'm not Gerhard Richter so it was just a series of painted disasters". Instead, the music made Donwood think of "immense multicoloured cathedrals of trees, with music echoing from the branches whilst strange fauna lurked in the fog". He and Yorke drew trees with eyes, limbs, mouths, and familiars, creating "strange multi-limbed creatures" inspired by Northern European fairy tales.


title: The King of Limbs

text: For the special edition of "The King of Limbs", Donwood wanted to create something "in a state of flux". He chose newspaper, which fades in sunlight, for its ephemeral nature; this reflected the album's nature themes, mirroring the natural decay of living things. He took inspiration from weekend broadsheets and underground 1960s newspapers and magazines such as "Oz" and "International Times". The special edition includes a sheet of artwork on blotting paper of the kind used to administer LSD; Donwood said, "In theory, not that I would propose such an illegal thing, but somebody could... And I don't think that's been done as a marketing thing before." The special edition was nominated for the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 54th Grammy Awards.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead announced "The King of Limbs" on their website on 14 February 2011. It was released on 18 February, a day early, as the website was ready ahead of schedule. The download version was sold for £6, with a special edition of the album, released on 9 May 2011, sold for £30. The special edition contains the album on CD and two 10-inch vinyl records, additional artwork, a special record sleeve, and a "colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic package". "The King of Limbs" was released on CD and vinyl on March 28, 2011 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom, TBD in the United States and Hostess Entertainment in Japan.


title: The King of Limbs

text: On 16 April 2011, Radiohead released two further tracks from the "King of Limbs" sessions, "Supercollider" and "The Butcher", as a double single for Record Store Day. A few days later, the tracks were released as free downloads for those who had purchased "The King of Limbs" from the Radiohead website. In June 2011, Radiohead announced a series of "King of Limbs" remixes by various electronic artists. Yorke said the band wanted to experiment with the music further by giving it to remixers, and liked the idea that it was not "fixed and set in stone". The remixes were compiled on the album "TKOL RMX 1234567", released in September 2011.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead performed "The King of Limbs" in its entirety for "", broadcast in July 2011 and released on DVD and Blu-ray in December 2011. Godrich said the performance was an effort to record the "very mechanised" album again and show it in a new light. On 11 February 2014, Radiohead released an app, "Polyfauna", featuring music and imagery from "The King of Limbs". In 2017, Radiohead collaborated with the film composer Hans Zimmer to record a new version of "Bloom" for the BBC nature documentary series "Blue Planet II". The track, "(ocean) bloom", features new vocals by Yorke recorded alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra. In a press release, Yorke said that "Bloom" had been inspired by the original "Blue Planet" series, and that it was "great to be able to come full circle with the song".


title: The King of Limbs

text: On 18 February, Radiohead released a music video for "Lotus Flower" on YouTube, featuring black-and-white footage of Yorke dancing. It was directed by Garth Jennings and choreographed by Wayne McGregor. The video inspired the "Dancing Thom Yorke" internet meme, whereby fans replaced the audio or edited the visuals, and "#thomdance" became a trending hashtag on Twitter. A promotional broadcast in Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, was canceled due to security concerns.


title: The King of Limbs

text: On 28 March 2011, to promote the retail release of "The King of Limbs", Radiohead distributed a free newspaper, the "Universal Sigh", at independent record shops across the world. Donwood and Yorke distributed copies in person at the Rough Trade record shop in east London. Influenced by free newspapers such as "LA Weekly" or "London Lite", the "Universal Sigh" is a 12-page tabloid printed using web-offset lithography on newsprint paper and features artwork, poetry, and lyrics, plus short stories by Donwood, Jay Griffiths and Robert Macfarlane.


title: The King of Limbs

text: Radiohead did not perform "The King of Limbs" live until several months after its release, as Yorke wanted to continue studio work and it took some time to arrange the album for performance. To perform the album's complex rhythms, they enlisted a second drummer, Clive Deamer, who had worked with Portishead and Get the Blessing. Selway said: "That was fascinating. One played in the traditional way, the other almost mimicked a drum machine. It was push-and-pull, like kids at play, really interesting." Deamer has joined Radiohead for subsequent tours.


title: The King of Limbs

text: On 24 June 2011, Radiohead played a surprise performance on the Park stage at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival, performing mainly new material. The "Guardian" critic Rosie Swash gave the performance a mixed review, saying the audience had hoped for older songs. In September, Radiohead played two dates at New York City's Roseland Ballroom and made American TV appearances including the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" and an hour-long special of "The Colbert Report". In 2012, Radiohead toured Europe, North America, and Asia, with appearances at the Bonnaroo, Coachella and Fuji Rock festivals. They played mainly arenas, as O'Brien said the "precise and detailed" "King of Limbs" material would not suit outdoor venues.


title: The King of Limbs

text: On 16 June 2012, the stage collapsed during the setup for a show at Toronto's Downsview Park, killing drum technician Scott Johnson and injuring three other members of Radiohead's road crew. The show was canceled and Radiohead's tour dates in Europe were postponed. After rescheduling the tour, Radiohead paid tribute to Johnson and their stage crew at their next concert, in Nîmes, France, in July. In 2013, Live Nation Canada Inc, two other organisations and an engineer were charged with 13 charges. Following a delay caused by mistrial, the case was dropped in 2017 under the Jordan ruling, which puts time limits on cases. Radiohead released a statement condemning the decision. A 2019 inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.


title: The King of Limbs

text: On the Radiohead website, where it was exclusively available for nearly two months prior to its retail release, "The King of Limbs" sold between 300,000 and 400,000 download copies. Radiohead's co-manager Chris Hufford estimated that Radiohead made more money from "The King of Limbs" than any of their previous albums, as most sales were made through their website without a record company.


title: The King of Limbs

text: The retail edition debuted at number seven on the UK Albums Chart, ending Radiohead's streak of five consecutive number-one UK albums, and sold 33,469 copies in its first week. The vinyl edition, excluding special edition sales, sold more than 20,000 copies in the UK in the first half of 2011, 12% of all vinyl sold in that period, and became the bestselling vinyl album of 2011. , it was the decade's second-bestselling vinyl in the UK.


title: The King of Limbs

text: In the US, the retail edition debuted at number six on the "Billboard" 200, with first-week sales of 69,000 copies. The following week, it peaked at number three, selling 67,000 copies. By April 2012, "The King of Limbs" had sold 307,000 retail copies in the US, making it Radiohead's first album not to achieve gold certification there. This was credited to the surprise release; Radiohead's co-manager Bryce Edge said some fans did not realise Radiohead had released a new record.


title: The King of Limbs

text: At Metacritic, which aggregates scores from mainstream critics, "The King of Limbs" has an average score of 80 based on 40 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Michael Brodeur of the "Boston Globe" praised "the tense calm these eight songs maintain—a composure that feels constantly ready to crack", and wrote that "where "In Rainbows" was mellow but brisk – an album that felt on its way somewhere – these songs are eerie and insidious, creeping like shadows". "PopMatters" Corey Beasley wrote: ""The King of Limbs" is a beautiful record, one that begs more of a conscious listen than its predecessor, but one that provides equal – if different – thrills in doing so."


title: The King of Limbs

text: François Marchand of the "Vancouver Sun" said that the album "bridges Radiohead's many different styles" and was "worth embracing". The critic Robert Christgau awarded the album a two-star "honourable mention" and recommended the songs "Little by Little" and "Bloom". The "Quietus" critic Ben Graham felt it could be Radiohead's best work, writing that it returned to the style of their albums "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" with "a greater maturity and weight of experience that enriches both the songs and the process".


title: The King of Limbs

text: Some felt "The King of Limbs" was less innovative than Radiohead's prior albums. Mark Pytlik of "Pitchfork" called it "well-worn terrain for Radiohead, and while it continues to yield rewarding results, the band's signature game-changing ambition is missed". AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described it as "Radiohead doing what they do ... without flash or pretension, gently easing from the role of pioneers to craftsmen". Luke Lewis of "NME" felt it was "a record to respect for its craft, rather than worship for its greatness".


title: The King of Limbs

text: In the "Los Angeles Times", Ann Powers wrote that "The King of Limbs" had divided listeners, with some finding it too low-key, abstract, or "doomy", or too similar to Radiohead's previous work. Some fans, having waited years for the follow-up to "In Rainbows", were disappointed by a shorter album that felt "relatively dashed together". Unfounded rumours spread of a second album soon to be released, bolstered by the lyrics of the final track, "Separator": "If you think this is over then you're wrong".


title: The King of Limbs

text: In a 2015 article for "Stereogum", Ryan Leas concluded that "The King of Limbs" was "very good, occasionally great music by a pivotal band that nevertheless felt like something of a letdown because it wasn't, ultimately, some genius stroke none of us expected". Many listeners preferred "," including Leas, who wrote: "You hear muscle and movement and bodies existing where the now tapped-out ingenuity of Radiohead's electronic impulses has begun to make their recorded music brittle."


title: The King of Limbs

text: In 2021, the "Consequence of Sound" critic Jordan Blum and the "Stereogum" writer Chris Deville both wrote that "The King of Limbs" remained Radiohead's most divisive record. Some fans found it too short, or too "shallow and ephemeral"; Blum and Deville credited the disappointment to expectations set by the "warm and approachable" "In Rainbows", which had boosted Radiohead's influence with its innovative pay-what-you-want release. Deville also speculated that the running order, with the less accessible songs on the first half, had lost some listeners.


title: The King of Limbs

text: "The King of Limbs" was named one of the best albums of 2011 by several publications, including the "Wire," the "Guardian", "Mojo", "NME", "PopMatters", "Uncut" and "Rolling Stone". At the 54th Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. "Lotus Flower" was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song.


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: Roe v. Wade is a 2020 American political legal drama film produced, written and directed by Nick Loeb and Cathy Allyn. It serves as a dramatization of the 1973 landmark decision of the same name, rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions.


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: The film stars a predominantly conservative ensemble cast, including Jon Voight, Stacey Dash and Robert Davi. Loeb also stars as Bernard Nathanson, a gynecologist who co-founded the abortion rights organization National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) and later became an anti-abortion movement advocate. According to Loeb, the film is about "the women's rights movement versus the pro-life movement. It's a social war movie where we take both sides of the argument and hopefully let the audience decide."


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: The film, which received generally poor reviews, was first screened at the VIFF Vienna Independent Film Festival in October 2020 and was released on April 2, 2021.


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: After experiencing a personal tragedy with his girlfriend relating to abortion, Dr. Bernard Nathanson (Nick Loeb) becomes a strong abortion advocate to make sure no woman has to go through what she went through. Together with journalist Larry Lader (Jamie Kennedy), they fight to legalize abortion across the country. Fighting against the anti-abortion lobby headed by Dr. Mildred Jefferson (Stacey Dash), the decision ends up in the U.S. Supreme Court leading to a verdict on abortion.


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: Sources reported that "Roe v. Wade" had been filming since June 15, 2018, under the title "1973". The production was kept hidden from the media until a July 2018 report in "The Hollywood Reporter" revealed that shooting had taken place in Louisiana. Several cast and crew members (including the original director) left the project within the first few days of filming because of the anti-abortion theme of Loeb and Cathy Allyn's screenplay. Loeb and Allyn stepped in as directors despite their lack of experience. One crew member told "The Daily Beast", "They're not keeping people in the loop with the script. When people finally receive the script, they've dropped out really fast." Rather than send scripts out in advance, lines were changed just before shooting. Some locations barred the filmmakers from shooting. Louisiana State University explained filming was not allowed there because of logistical issues and not the film's subject matter.


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: Executive producer Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, told Fox News the aim of the film is "to educate the public" with "facts, no fake news". Of the controversy surrounding the film, she acknowledged: "Folks that are inside the set, inside the project, are getting pressure from Hollywood and from outside. They don't want the truth to come out. And so for various reasons, investors, donors, cast [and] crew are getting rattled from all this pressure." The film's unit production manager (UPM), though, disputed King's "no fake news" statement in a "Salon" report. The UPM told the website that he withdrew from the project the day before filming began because in his opinion the partial script he received contained historical inaccuracies but promoted them as factual. For example, an early draft portrayed Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, as a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sympathizer who disparaged Black people before 15 robed women during a cross burning, a claim which Sanger biographer Jean H. Baker declared false.


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, of critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of .


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: "The New York Times" cited "hammy acting and poor production values," and called it a "confused, sepia-tinted cross between a mafia thriller, a courtroom drama and a saga of prophetic redemption" that depicted "a mercenary anti-Catholic conspiracy." "Variety" called it an "atrocious anti-abortion propaganda piece" that disseminates historical falsehoods. "Variety" said the filmmakers' "revisionist telling amounts to a sometimes sexist smear campaign, executed with roughly the competence of a cheaply assembled infomercial as it exploits religious guilt to disgrace a legal medical procedure."


title: Roe v. Wade (film)

text: The film premiered as part of the 2020 Vienna Independent Film Festival, at which Voight won the Best Supporting Actor award.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: Donald Patrick "Don" Murray (born July 31, 1929) is an American actor best known for his breakout performance in the film "Bus Stop" (1956, with Marilyn Monroe), which earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His other films include "A Hatful of Rain" (1957), "Shake Hands with the Devil" (1959, with James Cagney), "One Foot in Hell" (1960, with Alan Ladd), "The Hoodlum Priest" (1961), "Advise & Consent" (1962, with Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton), "Baby the Rain Must Fall" (1965, with Steve McQueen), "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" (1972), "Deadly Hero" (1975), and "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986, with Kathleen Turner).


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: Murray starred in television series such as "The Outcasts" (1968–1969), "Knots Landing" (1979–1981), and "Twin Peaks" (2017).


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: Murray was born in 1929, the second of three children, to Dennis Aloisius Murray, a Broadway dance director and stage manager, and Ethel Murray (née Cook), a former Ziegfeld Follies performer.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: Murray attended East Rockaway High School (class of 1947) in East Rockaway, New York, where he played football and was on the track team. He was a member of the student government, glee club, and joined the Alpha Phi Chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. Upon graduation from high school, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, he soon made his Broadway debut in the play "The Rose Tattoo" (1951), as Jack Hunter.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: A member of the Brethren Church, Murray registered as a conscientious objector during the Korean War, when many young American men were being drafted into the armed forces. Murray was assigned to alternative service in Europe, where he helped orphans and war casualties.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: In 1954, he returned from Europe to the United States and acting. He starred alongside Mary Martin in the stage version of "The Skin of Our Teeth". Upon seeing his performance in the play, director Joshua Logan decided to cast him in 20th Century Fox's film adaptation of "Bus Stop", a play by William Inge.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: Don Murray's role as Beauregard "Beau" Decker in "Bus Stop" (1956) marked his film debut. He starred alongside Marilyn Monroe, who played Cherie, the object of his desire. His performance as the innocent cowboy who is determined to get Cherie was well received, and he was nominated for a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer and for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: In 1957, he starred as reserved, married bookkeeper Charlie Sampson in "The Bachelor Party". That same year he starred in one of his most successful roles, that of Johnny Pope in the drama "A Hatful of Rain". Despite director Fred Zinnemann's intention to typecast the actor as the comical brother Polo, Murray insisted on playing the lead. Thus he portrayed Johnny Pope, a morphine-addicted Korean War veteran. The film was one of the first to show the effects of drug abuse on the addicted and those around him.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: He starred as a blackmailed United States senator in "Advise & Consent" (1962), a film version of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury. The movie was directed by Otto Preminger and cast Murray opposite Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton. He also co-starred with Steve McQueen in "Baby the Rain Must Fall" (1965), and played the ape-hating Governor Breck in "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" (1972).


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: In 1976, Murray starred in the film "Deadly Hero". In addition to acting, Murray directed a film based on the book "The Cross and the Switchblade" (1970).


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: He starred with Otis Young in the ABC western television series "The Outcasts" (1968–1969) featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: In 1979, he starred as Sid Fairgate on the long-running prime-time soap opera "Knots Landing". He also scripted two episodes of the program in 1980. In 1981, Murray decided to leave the series after two seasons to concentrate on other projects, but some sources say he left over a salary dispute. The character's death was notable at the time, because it was considered rare to kill off a star character. The death came in the second episode of season three, following season two's cliffhanger in which Sid's car careened off a cliff. To make viewers doubt that the character had actually died, Murray was listed in the credit sequence for season three; in fact, season three revealed that Fairgate had survived the plunge off the cliff (thus temporarily reassuring the viewers), but died shortly afterwards in hospital. Although he effectively distanced himself from the series after that, Murray later contributed an interview segment for "Knots Landing: Together Again", a reunion special made in 2005.


title: Don Murray (actor)

text: In 1956, Murray married Hope Lange, with whom he had co-starred in "Bus Stop". They had two children, Christopher and Patricia. They divorced in 1961. In 1962, he married Elizabeth Johnson and then had three children, Coleen, Sean, and Michael.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (French for "seventy-five"). The French 75 was designed as an anti-personnel weapon system for delivering large volumes of time-fused shrapnel shells on enemy troops advancing in the open. After 1915 and the onset of trench warfare, other types of battlefield use demanding impact-detonated high-explosive shells prevailed. By 1918 the 75s became the main agents of delivery for toxic gas shells. The 75s also became widely used as truck mounted anti-aircraft artillery. They were the main armament of the Saint-Chamond tank in 1918.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: When World War II broke out the French were still using the “75” against lightly armored tanks like the Panzer III and IV.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The French 75 is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece. It was the first field gun to include a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism, which kept the gun's trail and wheels perfectly still during the firing sequence. Since it did not need to be re-aimed after each shot, the crew could reload and fire as soon as the barrel returned to its resting position. In typical use the French 75 could deliver fifteen rounds per minute on its target, either shrapnel or melinite high-explosive, up to about away. Its firing rate could even reach close to 30 rounds per minute, albeit only for a very short time and with a highly experienced crew.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: At the opening of World War I, in 1914, the French Army had about 4,000 of these field guns in service. By the end of the war about 12,000 had been produced. It was also in service with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), which had been supplied with about 2,000 French 75 field guns. Several thousand were still in use in the French Army at the opening of World War II, updated with new wheels and tires to allow towing by trucks rather than by horses. The French 75 set the pattern for almost all early-20th century field pieces, with guns of mostly 75 mm forming the basis of many field artillery units into the early stages of World War II.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The forerunner of the French 75 was an experimental 57 mm gun which was first assembled in September 1891 at the Bourges arsenal under the direction of a Captain Sainte-Claire Deville. This 57 mm gun took advantage of a number of the most advanced artillery technologies available at the time:


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The only major design difference between the 57 and 75 that would emerge was the recoil system. But even before the 57 entered testing, in 1890 General Mathieu, Director of Artillery at the Ministry of War, had been informed that Konrad Haussner, a German engineer working at the Ingolstadt arsenal, had patented an oil-and-compressed-air long-recoil system. They also learned that Krupp was considering introducing the system after testing it. Krupp would later reject Haussner's invention, due to insoluble technical problems caused by hydraulic fluid leakage.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: In 1891 Haussner sold his patents to a firm named , which searched for potential buyers. After reviewing the blueprints in February 1892, the French artillery engineers advised that a gun should be produced without purchasing the Haussner invention. Accordingly, General Mathieu turned to Lt. Colonel Joseph-Albert Deport, at the time the Director of the Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (APX), and asked him whether he could construct a gun on the general principle of the Haussner long-cylinder recoil without infringing the existing patents. After it was judged possible, a formal request was sent out on 13 July 1892.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: It took five more years under the overall leadership of Mathieu's successor, General Deloye, to perfect and finally adopt in March 1898 an improved and final version of the Deport 75 mm long-recoil field gun. Various deceptions, some of them linked to the Dreyfus Case which erupted in 1894, had been implemented by Deloye and French counter-intelligence to distract German espionage.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The final experimental version of Deport's 75 mm field gun was tested during the summer of 1894 and judged very promising. Extensive trials, however, revealed that it was still prone to hydraulic fluid leakage from the long-recoil mechanism. The Deport 75 was returned to Puteaux arsenal for further improvements. Hydraulic fluid leakage was typical of this experimental phase of artillery development during the 1890s, as Haussner and Krupp had previously experienced.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: In December 1894, Deport was passed over for promotion, and resigned to join "Chatillon-Commentry", a private armaments firm. Two young military engineers from Ecole Polytechnique, Captains Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville and Emile Rimailho, continued development and introduced an improved version in 1896. Their contribution was a leakproof hydro-pneumatic long-recoil mechanism which they named "Frein II" (Brake # II). A major improvement was the placement of improved silver-alloy rings on the freely moving piston which separated the compressed air and the hydraulic fluid inside the main hydro-pneumatic recoil cylinder. These and other modifications achieved the desired result: the long-term retention of hydraulic fluid and compressed air inside the recoil system, even under the worst field conditions.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: Captain Sainte-Claire Deville also designed important additional features, such as a device for piercing the fuzes of shrapnel shells automatically during the firing sequence (an "automatic fuze-setter"), thus selecting the desired bursting distance. The independent sight had also been perfected for easy field use by the crews, and a nickel-steel shield was added to protect the gunners. The armored caissons were designed to be tilted in order to present the shells horizontally to the crews. The wheel brakes could be swung under each wheel ("abattage"), and, together with the trail spade, they immobilized the gun during firing.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The gun was officially adopted on 28 March 1898 under the name ""Matériel de" 75mm "Mle 1"897". The public saw it for the first time during the Bastille Day parade of 14 July 1899.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The gun's barrel slid back on rollers, including a set at the muzzle, when the shot was fired. The barrel was attached near the breech to a piston rod extending into an oil-filled cylinder placed just underneath the gun. When the barrel recoiled, the piston was pulled back by the barrel's recoil and thus pushed the oil through a small orifice and into a second cylinder placed underneath. That second cylinder contained a freely floating piston which separated the surging oil from a confined volume of compressed air. During the barrel's recoil the floating piston was forced forward by the oil, compressing the air even further. This action absorbed the recoil progressively as the internal air pressure rose and, at the end of recoil, generated a strong but decreasing back pressure that returned the gun forward to its original position. The smoothness of this system had no equal in 1897, and for at least another ten years. Each recoil cycle on the French 75, including the return forward, lasted about two seconds, permitting a maximum theoretical firing rate of about 30 rounds per minute.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: At the beginning in 1914, the French 75 fired two main types of shells, both with high muzzle velocities (535 m/s for the shrapnel shell) and a maximum range of 8,500 meters. Their relatively flat trajectories extended all the way to the designated targets. French 75 shells, at least initially in 1914, were essentially anti-personnel. They had been designed for the specific purpose of inflicting maximum casualties on enemy troops stationing or advancing in the open.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: Every shell, whether it be a high-explosive or shrapnel shell, was fixed to a brass case which was ejected when the breech was manually opened. Semi-automatic breech opening and shell ejection during recoil and return had not been developed yet.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The French 75 introduced a new concept in artillery technology: rapid firing without realigning the gun after each shot. Older artillery had to be resighted after each shot in order to stay on target, and thus fired no more than two aimed shots per minute. The French 75 easily delivered fifteen aimed rounds per minute and could fire even faster for short periods of time, but the long-term sustained rate was 3-4 rounds per minute as more than this would overheat the barrel. This rate of fire, the gun's accuracy, and the lethality of the ammunition against personnel, made the French 75 superior to all other regimental field artillery at the time. When made ready for action, the first shot buried the trail spade and the two wheel anchors into the ground, following which all other shots were fired from a stable platform. Bringing down the wheel anchors tied to the braking system was called ""abattage"". The gun could not be elevated beyond eighteen degrees, unless the trail spade had been deeply dug into the ground; however, the 75 mm field gun was not designed for plunging fire. The gun could be traversed laterally 3 degrees to the sides by sliding the trail on the wheel's axle. Progressive traversing together with small changes in elevation could be carried out while continuously firing, called ""fauchage"" or "sweeping fire". A four-gun battery firing shrapnel could deliver 17,000 ball projectiles over an area 100 meters wide by 400 meters long in a single minute, with devastating results. Because of the gun's traversing ability, the greater the distance to the enemy concentration, the wider the area that could be swept.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: Each Mle 1897 75 mm field gun battery of 4 guns consisted of 170 men led by four officers recruited among graduates of engineering schools. Enlisted men from the countryside were given charge of the six horses that pulled each gun and its first limber. Another six horses pulled each additional limber and caisson which were assigned to each gun. A battery included 160 horses, most of them pulling ammunition as well as repair and supply caissons.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The French artillery entered the war in August 1914 with more than 4,000 Mle 1897 75 mm field guns (1,000 batteries of four guns each). Over 17,500 Mle 1897 75 mm field guns were produced during World War I, over and above the 4,100 French 75s which were already deployed by the French Army in August 1914. All the essential parts, including the gun's barrel and the oleo-pneumatic recoil mechanisms were manufactured by French State arsenals: Puteaux, Bourges, Châtellerault and St Etienne. A truck-mounted anti-aircraft version of the French 75 was assembled by the automobile firm of De Dion-Bouton and adopted in 1913.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The total production of 75 mm shells during World War I exceeded 200 million rounds, mostly by private industry. In order to increase shell production from 20,000 rounds per day to 100,000 in 1915, the government turned to civilian contractors, and, as a result, shell quality deteriorated. This led to an epidemic of burst barrels which afflicted 75 mm artillery during 1915. Colonel Sainte-Claire Deville corrected the problem, which was due to microfissures in the bases of the shells, due to shortcuts in manufacturing. Shell quality was restored by September 1915, but never to the full exacting standards of pre-war manufacture.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The French 75 gave its best performances during the Battle of the Marne in August–September 1914 and at Verdun in 1916. At the time the contribution of 75 mm artillery to these military successes, and thus to the French victories that ensued, was seen as significant. In the case of Verdun, over 1,000 French 75s (250 batteries) were constantly in action, night and day, on the battlefield during a period of nearly nine months. The total consumption of 75 mm shells at Verdun during the period February 21 to September 30, 1916, is documented by the public record at the "Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre" to have been in excess of 16 million rounds, or nearly 70% of all shells fired by French artillery during that battle. The French 75 was a devastating anti-personnel weapon against waves of infantry attacking in the open, as at the Marne and Verdun. However, its shells were comparatively light and lacked the power to obliterate trench works, concrete bunkers and deeply buried shelters. Thus, with time, the French 75 batteries became routinely used to cut corridors with high-explosive shells, across the belts of German barbed wire. After 1916, the 75 batteries became the carriers of choice to deliver toxic gas shells, including mustard gas and phosgene.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: The French Army had to wait until early 1917 to receive in numbers fast-firing heavy artillery equipped with hydraulic recoil brakes (e.g. the 155 mm Schneider howitzer and the long-range Canon de 155mm GPF). In the meantime it had to do with a total of about four thousand de Bange 90 mm, 120 mm and 155 mm field and converted fortress guns, all without recoil brakes, that were effective but inferior in rate of fire to the more modern German heavy artillery.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: During the interwar, the French army kept the Mle 1897 in service and it continued to be the main gun of the French field artillery. The surplus guns were soon sold to allied countries.


title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897

text: Upgrades were considered in the 1920s, such as the use of a split trail carriages. The prototypes were satisfactory but the French Army decided not to fund the improvements, choosing instead to develop a new model. That new plan was abandoned after the 1920s budget cuts.