title: Cowrie

text: The term "porcelain" derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell ("porcellana") due to their similar appearance. Shells of certain species have historically been used as currency in several parts of the world, as well as being used, in the past and present, very extensively in jewelry, and for other decorative and ceremonial purposes.


title: Cowrie

text: The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Indian Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, in Maluku in the Pacific, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique. Cowrie shell money was important in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia.


title: Cowrie

text: In the United States and Mexico, cowrie species inhabit the waters off Central California to Baja California (the chestnut cowrie is the only cowrie species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of the United States; further south, off the coast of Mexico, Central America and Peru, Little Deer Cowrie habitat can be found; and further into the Pacific from Central America, the Pacific habitat range of Money Cowrie can be reached) as well as the waters south of the Southeastern United States.


title: Cowrie

text: Some species in the family Ovulidae are also often referred to as cowries. In the British Isles the local "Trivia" species (family Triviidae, species "Trivia monacha" and "Trivia arctica") are sometimes called cowries. The Ovulidae and the Triviidae are other families within Cypraeoidea, the superfamily of cowries and their close relatives.


title: Cowrie

text: The word "cowrie" comes from Hindi कौडि ("kaudi"), from Tamil கவடி ("kavadi"), which has its origins in Sanskrit कपर्द ("kaparda").


title: Cowrie

text: The shells of cowries are usually smooth and shiny and more or less egg-shaped. The round side of the shell is called the Dorsal Face, whereas the flat under side is called the Ventral Face, which shows a long, narrow, slit-like opening (aperture), which is often toothed at the edges. The narrower end of the egg-shaped cowrie shell is the anterior end, and the broader end of the shell is called the posterior. The spire of the shell is not visible in the adult shell of most species, but is visible in juveniles, which have a different shape from the adults.


title: Cowrie

text: Nearly all cowries have a porcelain-like shine, with some exceptions such as Hawaii's granulated cowrie, "Nucleolaria granulata". Many have colorful patterns. Lengths range from 5 mm for some species up to 19 cm for the Atlantic deer cowrie, "Macrocypraea cervus".


title: Cowrie

text: Cowrie shells, especially "Monetaria moneta", were used for centuries as currency by native Africans. In his book "Marriage and Morals", Bertrand Russell attributed the use of cowrie shells as currency in ancient Egypt to the similarity between shape of the shell and that of female genitalia. After the 1500s, however, the shell's use as currency became even more common. Western nations, chiefly through the slave trade, introduced huge numbers of Maldivian cowries in Africa. The Ghanaian cedi was named after cowrie shells. Starting over three thousand years ago, cowrie shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. They were also used as means of exchange in India.


title: Cowrie

text: The Classical Chinese character for "money" () originated as a stylized drawing of a Maldivian cowrie shell. Words and characters concerning money, property or wealth usually have this as a radical. Before the Spring and Autumn period the cowrie was used as a type of trade token awarding access to a feudal lord's resources to a worthy vassal.


title: Cowrie

text: The Ojibwe aboriginal people in North America use cowrie shells which are called sacred Miigis Shells or whiteshells in Midewiwin ceremonies, and the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba, Canada is named after this type of shell. There is some debate about how the Ojibway traded for or found these shells, so far inland and so far north, very distant from the natural habitat. Oral stories and birch bark scrolls seem to indicate that the shells were found in the ground, or washed up on the shores of lakes or rivers. Finding the cowrie shells so far inland could indicate the previous use of them by an earlier tribe or group in the area, who may have obtained them through an extensive trade network in the ancient past.


title: Cowrie

text: In Brazil, as a result of the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, cowrie shells (called "") are also used to consult the Orixás divinities and hear their replies.


title: Cowrie

text: Cowrie shells were among the devices used for divination by the Kaniyar Panicker astrologers of Kerala, India.


title: Cowrie

text: In certain parts of Africa, cowries were prized charms, and they were said to be associated with fecundity, sexual pleasure and good luck.


title: Cowrie

text: Cowrie shells are also worn as jewelry or otherwise used as ornaments or charms. In Mende culture, cowrie shells are viewed as symbols of womanhood, fertility, birth and wealth. Its underside is supposed, by one modern ethnographic author, to represent a vulva or an eye.


title: Cowrie

text: On the Fiji Islands, a shell of the golden cowrie or bulikula, "Cypraea aurantium", was drilled at the ends and worn on a string around the neck by chieftains as a badge of rank. The women of Tuvalu use cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts.


title: Cowrie

text: Cowrie shells are sometimes used in a way similar to dice, e.g., in board games like Pachisi, Ashta Chamma or in divination (cf. Ifá and the annual customs of Dahomey of Benin). A number of shells (6 or 7 in Pachisi) are thrown, with those landing aperture upwards indicating the actual number rolled.


title: Cowrie

text: In Nepal cowries are used for a gambling game, where 16 pieces of cowries are tossed by four different bettors (and sub-bettors under them). This game is usually played at homes and in public during the Hindu festival of Tihar or Deepawali. In the same festival these shells are also worshiped as a symbol of Goddess Lakshmi and wealth.


title: Cowrie

text: Large cowrie shells such as that of a "Cypraea tigris" have been used in Europe in the recent past as a darning egg over which sock heels were stretched. The cowrie's smooth surface allows the needle to be positioned under the cloth more easily.


title: Cowrie

text: In the 1940s and 1950s, small cowry shells were used as a teaching aid in infant schools e.g counting, adding, subtracting.


title: Fritz X

text: Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. "Fritz X" was the world's first precision guided weapon deployed in combat and the first to sink a ship in combat. "Fritz X" was a nickname used both by Allied and "Luftwaffe" personnel. Alternative names include Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X, Kramer X-1, PC 1400X or FX 1400 (the latter, along with the unguided PC 1400 "Fritz" nickname, is the origin for the name "Fritz X").


title: Fritz X

text: "Fritz X" was a further development of the PC 1400 ("Panzersprengbombe, Cylindrisch" 1,400 kg) armour-piercing high-explosive bomb, itself bearing the nickname "Fritz". It was a penetration weapon intended to be used against armored targets such as heavy cruisers and battleships. It was given a more aerodynamic nose, four stub wings, and a box-shaped tail unit consisting of a roughly 12-sided annular set of fixed surfaces and a cruciform tail with thick surfaces within the annulus, which contained the "Fritz X"s aerodynamic controls.


title: Fritz X

text: The "Luftwaffe" recognized the difficulty of hitting moving ships during the Spanish Civil War. "Dipl. engineer" Max Kramer, who worked at the "Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt" ("DVL") had been experimenting since 1938 with remote-controlled free-falling bombs and in 1939 fitted radio-controlled spoilers. In 1940, was invited to join the development, since they already had experience in the development and production of unguided bombs.


title: Fritz X

text: "Fritz X" was guided by a Kehl-Strasbourg radio control link, which sent signals to the movable spoilers in the thick vertical and horizontal tail fin surfaces, within the annular tail fin structure. This control system was also used for the unarmored, rocket-boosted Henschel Hs 293 anti-ship ordnance, itself first deployed on 25 August 1943. The "Straßburg" receiver antenna installations on the "Fritz X" were aerodynamically integrated into the trailing edge of the annular surfaces of the tail fin, non-metallically encapsulated within a quartet of "bulged" sections in the trailing edge. This design feature of the "FuG" 230 "Straßburg" receiver installation is not entirely unlike the Azon (US contemporary guided bomb), which had its own receiving antennas placed in the quartet of diagonal struts bracing the fixed sections of its tail fins.


title: Fritz X

text: Minimum launch height was – although was preferred – and a range of was necessary. As it was an MCLOS-guidance ordnance design, the operator had to keep the bomb in sight at all times (a tail flare was provided, as with the Azon, to assist the operator in tracking the weapon) and the control aircraft had to hold course, which made evading gunfire or fighters impossible. Approximately 1,400 examples, including trial models, were produced.


title: Fritz X

text: The Fritz X possessed a spoiler-based control setup on its tailfin unit, using three sets of aerodynamic control spoiler systems, with two of them giving the ordnance control in both the pitch and yaw axes, differentially operating and constantly oscillating rapidly under direct control from the "Kehl-Straßburg" radio control link. The roll control setup, operating autonomously and not under control from the deploying aircraft, similarly oscillated to those under the externally controlled sets and were located on the outboard sections of the horizontal tailfin surfaces within the annular set of outer tailfin surfaces. These were like the American Azon ordnance's own "aileron" control surfaces in their purpose, commanded by an internal gyroscope in the tail's central housing in both the Azon and Fritz X, to keep the ordnance level during its trajectory. The inboard set of spoiler surfaces in the tailfin's horizontal surfaces, which used a set of wing fence-like flat surfaces for airflow separation from the autonomous roll control spoilers, controlled the pitch angle after release and were controlled by the radio control link, giving the Fritz X's bombardier in the deploying aircraft the ability to control the range of the drop, a capability that the Azon ordnance did not have. The yaw control spoilers housed in the vertical tailfin surfaces were also under control through the radio link, and had similar "fence" surfaces to guide airflow over them. All three spoiler surface sets, when deployed, barely protruded from the surface during operation, with the pair of spoiler systems under external control having a degree of "proportionality" in their operation by varying the "dwell time" spent on one side or the other during their rapid rate of oscillation from side to side when a control input was sent to them.


title: Fritz X

text: The Fritz X was steered by the bombardier in the launching aircraft over a radio link between the aircraft's "Kehl" transmitter and the weapon's "Straßburg" receiver. The bombardier had to be able to see the target at all times, and like the Azon ordnance, the Fritz X bomb had a flare in the tail so it could be seen from the controlling aircraft for its MCLOS-form guidance to control it properly. The disadvantage with this — in comparison to fully autonomous-guidance glide bombs like the operational U.S. Navy's "Bat" radar-homing glide bomb, used against Japan in 1944–45 — were that the aircraft had to be flown toward the target on a steady course and that as the missile neared its target it became possible to misguide by jamming its radio channel.


title: Fritz X

text: Unlike the Hs 293, which was deployed against merchant ships and light escorting warships, the Fritz X was intended to be used against armoured ships such as heavy cruisers and battleships. The Fritz X had to be released at least from the target. The plane had to decelerate immediately after bomb release so the bombardier could see the bomb and guide it; this deceleration was achieved by making a steep climb and then levelling out. The bombardier could make a maximum correction of in range and in bearing. The bomber was vulnerable to fighter attack as well as ship-based air defense weapons while maintaining a slow, steady course so the bombardier could maintain visual contact to guide the bomb. When working properly, the missile was able to pierce 130 mm (5.1 in) of armor.


title: Fritz X

text: Accuracy is the main reason for developing a weapon system of this kind, rather than continuing to use so-called "dumb bombs". A skilled bombardier could manage to guide 50% of the bombs to within a 15 m (50 ft) radius of the aiming point, and about 90% hit within a 30 m (100 ft) radius (other sources say 60% hits within 4.6 metre radius).


title: Fritz X

text: The only Luftwaffe unit to deploy the Fritz X was "Gruppe" III of "Kampfgeschwader" 100 "Wiking" (Viking), designated III./KG 100; the bomber wing itself evolved as the larger-sized descendant of the earlier "Kampfgruppe 100" unit in mid-December 1941. This unit employed the medium range Dornier Do 217K-2 bomber on almost all of its attack missions, though, in a few cases toward the end of its deployment history, Dornier Do 217K-3 and M-11 variants were also used. The Fritz X had been initially tested with a Heinkel He 111 bomber, although it was never taken into combat by this aircraft. A few special variants of the troublesome Heinkel He 177A "Greif" long-range bomber were equipped with the "Kehl" transmitter and proper bombracks to carry the Fritz X, and it is thought that this combination might have seen limited combat service, at least with the combinations known to have been involved in test drops. It was found that the launch aircraft had to "toss" the bomb slightly, climbing and then descending, to keep it in view ahead.


title: Fritz X

text: The Fritz X was first deployed on 21 July 1943 in a raid on Augusta harbour in Sicily. A number of additional attacks around Sicily and Messina followed, though no confirmed hits were made and it appears the Allies were unaware that the large bombs being dropped were radio-guided weapons.


title: Fritz X

text: On 9 September, the "Luftwaffe" achieved their greatest success with the weapon. After Pietro Badoglio publicly announced the Italian armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943, the Italian fleet had steamed out from La Spezia and headed to Tunisia. To prevent the ships from falling into Allied hands, six Do 217K-2s from III. "Gruppe" of KG 100 (III/KG 100) took off, each carrying a single Fritz X. The Italian battleship , flagship of the Italian fleet, received two hits and one near miss, and sank after her magazines exploded. 1,393 men, including Admiral Carlo Bergamini, died. Her sister ship, "Italia", was also seriously damaged but reached Tunisia.


title: Fritz X

text: The American light cruiser was hit by Fritz Xs at 10:00 AM on 11 September 1943 during the invasion of Salerno, and was forced to retire to the United States for eight months of repairs. A single Fritz X passed through the roof of "C" turret and killed the turret crew and a damage control party when it exploded in the lower ammunition-handling room. The blast tore a large hole in the ship's bottom, opened a seam in her side, and blew out all fires in her boiler rooms. "Savannah" lay dead in the water with her forecastle nearly awash, and eight hours elapsed before her boilers were relit, allowing the "Savannah" to get under way for Malta. USS "Savannah" lost 197 crewmen in this attack. Fifteen other sailors were seriously wounded, and four more were trapped in a watertight compartment for 60 hours. These four sailors were not rescued until "Savannah" had already arrived at Grand Harbor, Valletta, Malta on 12 September.


title: Fritz X

text: "Savannah"s sister ship, , had been targeted earlier that same morning. While it is often believed that the ship was hit by a Fritz X, in fact the bomb just missed the ship, exploding about 15 meters away. Damage was minimal.


title: Fritz X

text: The Royal Navy's light cruiser was hit by a Fritz X off Salerno at 14:40 on 13 September. The Fritz X passed through seven decks and straight through her keel, exploding underwater just under the keel. The concussive shock of the Fritz X's underwater detonation close to "Uganda"s hull extinguished all her boiler fires, and resulted in sixteen men being killed, with "Uganda" taking on 1,300 tons of water. "Uganda" was towed to Malta for repairs.


title: Fritz X

text: Two merchant ships may have been hit by Fritz X bombs at Salerno, though the evidence is uncertain. SS "Bushrod Washington" was hit by a glide bomb, either a Fritz X or a Hs 293, on 14 September while offloading a cargo of gasoline. SS "James W. Marshall" was set afire by a conventional bomb, Hs 293 or Fritz X on 15 September. As with "Bushrod Washington", the nature of the weapon that damaged "James W. Marshall" is uncertain. A witness aboard a ship nearby, Joseph A. Yannacci, attributes the attack to Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers, which were too small to carry glide bombs. While an attack with a Fritz X cannot be ruled out, there is at least an equal case to suggest that, if a glide bomb was involved, the culprit was actually a Hs 293 from II./KG 100; Luftwaffe records show that II./KG 100, armed only with Hs 293 glide bombs, was active over Salerno that day.


title: Fritz X

text: KG 100 achieved another success with Fritz X while the British battleship was providing gunfire support at Salerno on 16 September. One bomb penetrated six decks before exploding in number 4 boiler room. This explosion put out all fires and blew out the double bottom. A second Fritz X near-missed "Warspite", holing her at the waterline. She took on a total of 5,000 tonnes of water and lost steam and consequently all power, both to the ship herself and to all her systems, but although the damage had been considerable, "Warspite"s casualties amounted to only nine killed and fourteen wounded. She was towed to Malta by tugs and , then returned to Britain via Gibraltar and was out of action for nearly 9 months; she was never completely repaired, but returned to action to bombard German positions in Normandy during Operation Overlord.


title: Fritz X

text: The last Fritz X attack at Salerno lightly damaged the US light cruiser "Philadelphia" with two near misses on 17 September. This attack is sometimes reported as taking place on 18 September. However, according to US Navy records, the cruiser "Philadelphia" departed Salerno the night of 17/18 September. Moreover, according to Luftwaffe records, III./KG 100, the Luftwaffe unit armed with the Fritz X, flew its last mission on 17 September. Other ships damaged by Fritz-X included Dutch sloop and British destroyer .


title: Fritz X

text: The control system used by the Fritz X relied on radio contact between the bomb and the guidance unit, and was susceptible to electronic countermeasures. After the initial attacks in August 1943, the Allies went to considerable effort to develop jamming devices. These were first deployed in late September 1943, too late for Salerno. The system met with some success, though it proved cumbersome and easily overwhelmed if large numbers of weapons were deployed simultaneously.


title: Fritz X

text: In early 1944, as the U.S. Army was engaged in the Battle of Anzio, the United Kingdom began to deploy its Type 650 transmitter, which employed a different approach to interfering with the FuG 203/230 radio link on a Fritz X, by jamming the Straßburg receiver's intermediate frequency (IF) section. The FuG 230 receiver's IF section operated at a 3 MHz frequency, and the Type 650 appears to have been quite successful in interfering with Fritz X ordnance deployments, especially because the operator did not have to attempt to find which of the eighteen selected Kehl-Straßburg command frequencies were in use and then manually tune the jamming transmitter to one of them. The Type 650 automatically defeated the receiver, regardless which radio frequency had been selected for a missile.


title: Fritz X

text: By the time of the Normandy landings, a combination of Allied air supremacy (keeping the Luftwaffe's bombers at bay) and ship-mounted jammers meant that the Fritz X had no significant effect on the invasion fleet. Some accounts report that the Norwegian destroyer was hit by a Fritz X at dawn on D-Day. This is unlikely, as III./KG 100, the unit which had carried the Fritz X into combat, had largely been re-equipped with the Hs 293 by that time for its anti-ship missions, and the attack on "Svenner" occurred before the first glide bombers launched their assaults on the Normandy beaches.


title: Fritz X

text: The Fritz X has been credited as responsible for the loss of the hospital ship at Salerno as well as the destroyer and the light cruiser at Anzio; however, these ships were actually hit by Hs 293s, as demonstrated by the nature of the damage inflicted, as well as by reports from witnesses (in the case of "Janus", either an Hs 293 or a conventional torpedo was responsible).


title: The Big Country

text: The Big Country is a 1958 American epic Western film directed by William Wyler, starring Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives. The supporting cast features Charles Bickford and Chuck Connors. Filmed in Technicolor and Technirama, the picture was based on the serialized magazine novel "Ambush at Blanco Canyon" by Donald Hamilton and was co-produced by Wyler and Peck. The opening title sequence was created by Saul Bass.


title: The Big Country

text: Burl Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance, as well as the Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score, composed by Jerome Moross. The film is one of the few in which Heston plays a major supporting role rather than the lead.


title: The Big Country

text: Former sea captain James McKay travels to the American West to join his fiancée Patricia at the enormous ranch owned by her father, Henry Terrill, referred to by all as "The Major". After a meeting with Patricia's friend, schoolteacher Julie Maragon, McKay and Patricia are accosted by a group of drunks led by Buck Hannassey, the son of the Major's ardent and implacable enemy Rufus Hannassey. In spite of the harassment and mockery, McKay surprises Patricia by making light of the incident and stating that he's experienced worse and the boys meant no harm.


title: The Big Country

text: The next morning, McKay declines an invitation from the Major's foreman Steve Leech to ride an indomitable bronco stallion named "Old Thunder". McKay then brings a pair of dueling pistols to the Major as a gift. When the Major learns of Buck's pestering of his daughter and future son-in-law, he gathers his men and goes to raid the Hannassey ranch despite McKay's attempts to defuse the situation. The Major's group finds neither Rufus nor Buck, so they settle for terrorizing the Hannassey women and children, shooting holes in the Hannassey water reservoir. They find Buck's posse in town and proceed to beat and humiliate them. Meanwhile, McKay privately tames and rides Old Thunder after many unsuccessful attempts, and swears his only witness, the ranch hand Ramon, to secrecy.


title: The Big Country

text: A gala is held on the Terrill ranch in honor of Patricia's upcoming wedding. At the height of the festivities, an armed Rufus crashes the party and accuses the Major of the hypocrisy of pretending to be a gentleman when his actions speak otherwise. The next day, McKay secretly goes to Maragon's abandoned ranch, known as the "Big Muddy". The Big Muddy's territory is the location of the town's only nearby river, and as such it is a vital source of water for both the Terrill and Hannassey cattle during times of drought. McKay persuades Maragon to sell the ranch to him in the hopes of both securing a gift for Patricia and ending the conflict by continuing Maragon's policy of unrestricted access to the river. McKay shows up at the camp of the search party led by Leech sent out to find the presumed lost McKay.


title: The Big Country

text: Upon returning to Ladder Ranch, Leech calls McKay a liar when McKay explains he was never lost or in danger, but McKay again refuses to be goaded into a fight, which disappoints Patricia enough to make the pair reconsider their engagement. Before dawn and without an audience, McKay challenges Leech to a prolonged outdoor fistfight, which ends in a draw. In the morning, Maragon tells Patricia of McKay's purchase of the Big Muddy for her, which initially convinces her to attempt to make amends with McKay. However, when she learns of McKay's plan to allow the Hannasseys equal access to the water, she leaves for good.


title: The Big Country

text: Wanting to lure the Major into an ambush in the canyon leading to his homestead, Rufus takes Maragon hostage. Although McKay personally promises Rufus equal access to the water, he finds himself in a clash with Buck, which is ultimately settled with a duel. Buck fires before the signal, but misses, his bullet grazing McKay's forehead and leaving him open to be shot by McKay. Buck's subsequent display of cowardice convinces McKay to spare Buck. The frustrated Buck snatches another gun from a nearby civilian, forcing Rufus to kill his son. Rufus goes to the canyon for a final confrontation with the Major and challenges him to a one-on-one showdown. Armed with rifles, the two old men advance and kill one another. McKay, along with Julie and Ramon, ride off to start a new life together.


title: The Big Country

text: Robert Wyler and Jessamyn West wrote the first screenplay for the film based on the Donald Hamilton story that had been serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post". Leon Uris wrote a second screenplay and Robert Wilder wrote another, with the final script by James R. Webb and Sy Bartlett. After arbitration, Webb, Bartlett and Wilder received screenplay credit and Wyler and West received adaptation credit. Uris was not given credit as his script deviated too much from the original story.


title: The Big Country

text: Director William Wyler was known for shooting an exorbitant number of takes on his films, usually without explaining to the actors what to do differently except "[make it] better", and this one was no exception. Many of the actors, including Jean Simmons and Carroll Baker, were so traumatized by his directing style that they refused to speak about the experience for years. Simmons later said they constantly received rewrites for the script, making acting extremely difficult. Gregory Peck and Wyler, who were good friends, fought constantly on the set and had a falling out for three years, although they later reconciled. Wyler and Charles Bickford also clashed, as they had done 30 years previously on the production of his 1929 film "Hell's Heroes". Burl Ives, however, claimed to have enjoyed making the film.


title: The Big Country

text: Before principal photography was complete, Wyler left for Rome to start work on "Ben-Hur", delegating creation of the final scenes involving McKay and Julie to his assistant Robert Swink, whose resulting scenes pleased Wyler so much that he wrote Swink a letter stating: "I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with the new ending... The shots you made are complete perfection."


title: The Big Country

text: The Blanco Canyon scenes were filmed in California's Red Rock Canyon State Park in the Mojave Desert. The ranch and field scenes with greenery were filmed in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the town of Farmington in central California.


title: The Big Country

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" wrote in a negative review, "for all this film's mighty pretensions, it does not get far beneath the skin of its conventional Western situation and its stock Western characters. It skims across standard complications and ends on a platitude. Peace is a pious precept, but fightin' is more excitin'. That's what it proves." "Variety" called the film "one of the best photography jobs of the year", with a "serviceable, adult" storyline "which should find favor with audiences of all tastes." "Harrison's Reports" declared it "a first-rate super-Western, beautifully photographed in the Technirama anamorphic process and Technicolor. It is a long picture, perhaps too long for what the story has to offer, but there is never a dull moment from start to finish and it holds one's interest tightly throughout." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" called it "super stuff. Franz Planer's photography of Texas is downright awe-inspiring, the characters are solid, the story line firm, the playing first-rate, the music more than dashing in this nearly three-hour tale which should delight everybody."


title: The Big Country

text: John McCarten of "The New Yorker" wrote, "Of those involved in this massive enterprise, Mr. Bickford and Mr. Ives are the most commendable as they whoop and snort about the sagebrush. But even they are hardly credible types, and as for the rest of the cast, they can be set down as a rather wooden lot." Philip K. Scheuer of the "Los Angeles Times" called the film "too self consciously 'epical' to be called great, but at its best, which is frequently, it's better than good." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote that the picture's attempts to convey a message were for the most part "superficial and pedestrian," and found that "the pivotal character of McKay, played on a monotonously self-righteous note by Gregory Peck, never comes alive. It is mainly due to the power of the climactic canyon battle, and Burl Ives' interesting playing as Rufus, that this remains a not unsympathetic film, decorated pleasantly by Jean Simmons and with spirit by Carroll Baker."


title: The Big Country

text: The film was a big hit, being the second-most popular movie in Britain in 1959. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.


title: The Big Country

text: President Dwight D. Eisenhower liked the movie so much, he screened it on four successive evenings in the White House during his second administration.


title: The Big Country

text: Ives won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for the musical score by Jerome Moross.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Hypothetical types of biochemistry are forms of biochemistry agreed to be scientifically viable but not proven to exist at this time. The kinds of living organisms currently known on Earth all use carbon compounds for basic structural and metabolic functions, water as a solvent, and DNA or RNA to define and control their form. If life exists on other planets or moons it may be chemically similar, though it is also possible that there are organisms with quite different chemistries for instance, involving other classes of carbon compounds, compounds of another element, or another solvent in place of water.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: The possibility of life-forms being based on "alternative" biochemistries is the topic of an ongoing scientific discussion, informed by what is known about extraterrestrial environments and about the chemical behaviour of various elements and compounds. It is of interest in synthetic biology and is also a common subject in science fiction.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: The element silicon has been much discussed as a hypothetical alternative to carbon. Silicon is in the same group as carbon on the periodic table and, like carbon, it is tetravalent. Hypothetical alternatives to water include ammonia, which, like water, is a polar molecule, and cosmically abundant; and non-polar hydrocarbon solvents such as methane and ethane, which are known to exist in liquid form on the surface of Titan.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: A shadow biosphere is a hypothetical microbial biosphere of Earth that uses radically different biochemical and molecular processes than currently known life. Although life on Earth is relatively well-studied, the shadow biosphere may still remain unnoticed because the exploration of the microbial world targets primarily the biochemistry of the macro-organisms.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Perhaps the least unusual alternative biochemistry would be one with differing chirality of its biomolecules. In known Earth-based life, amino acids are almost universally of the form and sugars are of the form. Molecules using amino acids or sugars may be possible; molecules of such a chirality, however, would be incompatible with organisms using the opposing chirality molecules. Amino acids whose chirality is opposite to the norm are found on Earth, and these substances are generally thought to result from decay of organisms of normal chirality. However, physicist Paul Davies speculates that some of them might be products of "anti-chiral" life.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: It is questionable, however, whether such a biochemistry would be truly alien. Although it would certainly be an alternative stereochemistry, molecules that are overwhelmingly found in one enantiomer throughout the vast majority of organisms can nonetheless often be found in another enantiomer in different (often basal) organisms such as in comparisons between members of Archaea and other domains, making it an open topic whether an alternative stereochemistry is truly novel.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: On Earth, all known living things have a carbon-based structure and system. Scientists have speculated about the pros and cons of using atoms other than carbon to form the molecular structures necessary for life, but no one has proposed a theory employing such atoms to form all the necessary structures. However, as Carl Sagan argued, it is very difficult to be certain whether a statement that applies to all life on Earth will turn out to apply to all life throughout the universe. Sagan used the term "carbon chauvinism" for such an assumption. He regarded silicon and germanium as conceivable alternatives to carbon (other plausible elements include but are not limited to palladium and titanium); but, on the other hand, he noted that carbon does seem more chemically versatile and is more abundant in the cosmos). Norman Horowitz devised the experiments to determine whether life might exist on Mars that were carried out by the Viking Lander of 1976, the first U.S. mission to successfully land an unmanned probe on the surface of Mars. Horowitz argued that the great versatility of the carbon atom makes it the element most likely to provide solutions, even exotic solutions, to the problems of survival on other planets. He considered that there was only a remote possibility that non-carbon life forms could exist with genetic information systems capable of self-replication and the ability to evolve and adapt.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: The silicon atom has been much discussed as the basis for an alternative biochemical system, because silicon has many chemical properties similar to those of carbon and is in the same group of the periodic table, the carbon group. Like carbon, silicon can create molecules that are sufficiently large to carry biological information.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: However, silicon has several drawbacks as an alternative to carbon. Silicon, unlike carbon, lacks the ability to form chemical bonds with diverse types of atoms as is necessary for the chemical versatility required for metabolism, and yet this precise inability is what makes silicon less susceptible to bond with all sorts of impurities from which carbon, in comparison, is not shielded. Elements creating organic functional groups with carbon include hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and metals such as iron, magnesium, and zinc. Silicon, on the other hand, interacts with very few other types of atoms. Moreover, where it does interact with other atoms, silicon creates molecules that have been described as "monotonous compared with the combinatorial universe of organic macromolecules". This is because silicon atoms are much bigger, having a larger mass and atomic radius, and so have difficulty forming double bonds (the double-bonded carbon is part of the carbonyl group, a fundamental motif of carbon-based bio-organic chemistry).


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Silanes, which are chemical compounds of hydrogen and silicon that are analogous to the alkane hydrocarbons, are highly reactive with water, and long-chain silanes spontaneously decompose. Molecules incorporating polymers of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms instead of direct bonds between silicon, known collectively as silicones, are much more stable. It has been suggested that silicone-based chemicals would be more stable than equivalent hydrocarbons in a sulfuric-acid-rich environment, as is found in some extraterrestrial locations.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Of the varieties of molecules identified in the interstellar medium , 84 are based on carbon, while only 8 are based on silicon. Moreover, of those 8 compounds, 4 also include carbon within them. The cosmic abundance of carbon to silicon is roughly 10 to 1. This may suggest a greater variety of complex carbon compounds throughout the cosmos, providing less of a foundation on which to build silicon-based biologies, at least under the conditions prevalent on the surface of planets. Also, even though Earth and other terrestrial planets are exceptionally silicon-rich and carbon-poor (the relative abundance of silicon to carbon in Earth's crust is roughly 925:1), terrestrial life is carbon-based. The fact that carbon is used instead of silicon may be evidence that silicon is poorly suited for biochemistry on Earth-like planets. Reasons for this may be that silicon is less versatile than carbon in forming compounds, that the compounds formed by silicon are unstable, and that it blocks the flow of heat.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Even so, biogenic silica is used by some Earth life, such as the silicate skeletal structure of diatoms. According to the clay hypothesis of A. G. Cairns-Smith, silicate minerals in water played a crucial role in abiogenesis: they replicated their crystal structures, interacted with carbon compounds, and were the precursors of carbon-based life.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Although not observed in nature, carbon–silicon bonds have been added to biochemistry by using directed evolution (artificial selection). A heme containing cytochrome "c" protein from "Rhodothermus marinus" has been engineered using directed evolution to catalyze the formation of new carbon–silicon bonds between hydrosilanes and diazo compounds.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Silicon compounds may possibly be biologically useful under temperatures or pressures different from the surface of a terrestrial planet, either in conjunction with or in a role less directly analogous to carbon. Polysilanols, the silicon compounds corresponding to sugars, are soluble in liquid nitrogen, suggesting that they could play a role in very-low-temperature biochemistry.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, while poisonous for most life forms on Earth, is incorporated into the biochemistry of some organisms. Some marine algae incorporate arsenic into complex organic molecules such as arsenosugars and arsenobetaines. Fungi and bacteria can produce volatile methylated arsenic compounds. Arsenate reduction and arsenite oxidation have been observed in microbes ("Chrysiogenes arsenatis"). Additionally, some prokaryotes can use arsenate as a terminal electron acceptor during anaerobic growth and some can utilize arsenite as an electron donor to generate energy.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: It has been speculated that the earliest life forms on Earth may have used arsenic biochemistry in place of phosphorus in the structure of their DNA. A common objection to this scenario is that arsenate esters are so much less stable to hydrolysis than corresponding phosphate esters that arsenic is poorly suited for this function.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: The authors of a 2010 geomicrobiology study, supported in part by NASA, have postulated that a bacterium, named GFAJ-1, collected in the sediments of Mono Lake in eastern California, can employ such 'arsenic DNA' when cultured without phosphorus. They proposed that the bacterium may employ high levels of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate or other means to reduce the effective concentration of water and stabilize its arsenate esters. This claim was heavily criticized almost immediately after publication for the perceived lack of appropriate controls. Science writer Carl Zimmer contacted several scientists for an assessment: "I reached out to a dozen experts ... Almost unanimously, they think the NASA scientists have failed to make their case".


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Other authors were unable to reproduce their results and showed that the study had issues with phosphate contamination, suggesting that the low amounts present could sustain extremophile lifeforms.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Alternatively, it was suggested that GFAJ-1 cells grow by recycling phosphate from degraded ribosomes, rather than by replacing it with arsenate.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: In addition to carbon compounds, all currently known terrestrial life also requires water as a solvent. This has led to discussions about whether water is the only liquid capable of filling that role. The idea that an extraterrestrial life-form might be based on a solvent other than water has been taken seriously in recent scientific literature by the biochemist Steven Benner, and by the astrobiological committee chaired by John A. Baross. Solvents discussed by the Baross committee include ammonia, sulfuric acid, formamide, hydrocarbons, and (at temperatures much lower than Earth's) liquid nitrogen, or hydrogen in the form of a supercritical fluid.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Carl Sagan once described himself as both a carbon chauvinist and a water chauvinist; however, on another occasion he said that he was a carbon chauvinist but "not that much of a water chauvinist".


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Water as a compound is cosmically abundant, although much of it is in the form of vapour or ice. Subsurface liquid water is considered likely or possible on several of the outer moons: Enceladus (where geysers have been observed), Europa, Titan, and Ganymede. Earth and Titan are the only worlds currently known to have stable bodies of liquid on their surfaces.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Not all properties of water are necessarily advantageous for life, however. For instance, water ice has a high albedo, meaning that it reflects a significant quantity of light and heat from the Sun. During ice ages, as reflective ice builds up over the surface of the water, the effects of global cooling are increased.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: There are some properties that make certain compounds and elements much more favorable than others as solvents in a successful biosphere. The solvent must be able to exist in liquid equilibrium over a range of temperatures the planetary object would normally encounter. Because boiling points vary with the pressure, the question tends not to be "does" the prospective solvent remain liquid, but "at what pressure". For example, hydrogen cyanide has a narrow liquid-phase temperature range at 1 atmosphere, but in an atmosphere with the pressure of Venus, with of pressure, it can indeed exist in liquid form over a wide temperature range.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: The ammonia molecule (NH), like the water molecule, is abundant in the universe, being a compound of hydrogen (the simplest and most common element) with another very common element, nitrogen. The possible role of liquid ammonia as an alternative solvent for life is an idea that goes back at least to 1954, when J. B. S. Haldane raised the topic at a symposium about life's origin.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Numerous chemical reactions are possible in an ammonia solution, and liquid ammonia has chemical similarities with water. Ammonia can dissolve most organic molecules at least as well as water does and, in addition, it is capable of dissolving many elemental metals. Haldane made the point that various common water-related organic compounds have ammonia-related analogs; for instance the ammonia-related amine group (−NH) is analogous to the water-related hydroxyl group (−OH).


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Ammonia, like water, can either accept or donate an H ion. When ammonia accepts an H, it forms the ammonium cation (NH), analogous to hydronium (HO). When it donates an H ion, it forms the amide anion (NH), analogous to the hydroxide anion (OH). Compared to water, however, ammonia is more inclined to accept an H ion, and less inclined to donate one; it is a stronger nucleophile. Ammonia added to water functions as Arrhenius base: it increases the concentration of the anion hydroxide. Conversely, using a solvent system definition of acidity and basicity, water added to liquid ammonia functions as an acid, because it increases the concentration of the cation ammonium. The carbonyl group (C=O), which is much used in terrestrial biochemistry, would not be stable in ammonia solution, but the analogous imine group (C=NH) could be used instead.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: However, ammonia has some problems as a basis for life. The hydrogen bonds between ammonia molecules are weaker than those in water, causing ammonia's heat of vaporization to be half that of water, its surface tension to be a third, and reducing its ability to concentrate non-polar molecules through a hydrophobic effect. Gerald Feinberg and Robert Shapiro have questioned whether ammonia could hold prebiotic molecules together well enough to allow the emergence of a self-reproducing system. Ammonia is also flammable in oxygen and could not exist sustainably in an environment suitable for aerobic metabolism.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: A biosphere based on ammonia would likely exist at temperatures or air pressures that are extremely unusual in relation to life on Earth. Life on Earth usually exists within the melting point and boiling point of water, at a pressure designated as normal pressure, and between 0 °C (273 K) and 100 °C (373 K). When also held to normal pressure, ammonia's melting and boiling points are −78 °C (195 K) and −33 °C (240 K) respectively. Because chemical reactions generally proceed more slowly at lower temperatures, ammonia-based life existing in this set of conditions might metabolize more slowly and evolve more slowly than life on Earth. On the other hand, lower temperatures could also enable living systems to use chemical species that would be too unstable at Earth temperatures to be useful.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Another set of conditions where ammonia is liquid at Earth-like temperatures would involve it being at a much higher pressure. For example, at 60 atm ammonia melts at −77 °C (196 K) and boils at 98 °C (371 K).


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Ammonia and ammonia–water mixtures remain liquid at temperatures far below the freezing point of pure water, so such biochemistries might be well suited to planets and moons orbiting outside the water-based habitability zone. Such conditions could exist, for example, under the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Methane (CH) is a simple hydrocarbon: that is, a compound of two of the most common elements in the cosmos: hydrogen and carbon. It has a cosmic abundance comparable with ammonia. Hydrocarbons could act as a solvent over a wide range of temperatures, but would lack polarity. Isaac Asimov, the biochemist and science fiction writer, suggested in 1981 that poly-lipids could form a substitute for proteins in a non-polar solvent such as methane. Lakes composed of a mixture of hydrocarbons, including methane and ethane, have been detected on the surface of Titan by the "Cassini" spacecraft.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: There is debate about the effectiveness of methane and other hydrocarbons as a solvent for life compared to water or ammonia. Water is a stronger solvent than the hydrocarbons, enabling easier transport of substances in a cell. However, water is also more chemically reactive and can break down large organic molecules through hydrolysis. A life-form whose solvent was a hydrocarbon would not face the threat of its biomolecules being destroyed in this way. Also, the water molecule's tendency to form strong hydrogen bonds can interfere with internal hydrogen bonding in complex organic molecules. Life with a hydrocarbon solvent could make more use of hydrogen bonds within its biomolecules. Moreover, the strength of hydrogen bonds within biomolecules would be appropriate to a low-temperature biochemistry.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Astrobiologist Chris McKay has argued, on thermodynamic grounds, that if life does exist on Titan's surface, using hydrocarbons as a solvent, it is likely also to use the more complex hydrocarbons as an energy source by reacting them with hydrogen, reducing ethane and acetylene to methane. Possible evidence for this form of life on Titan was identified in 2010 by Darrell Strobel of Johns Hopkins University; a greater abundance of molecular hydrogen in the upper atmospheric layers of Titan compared to the lower layers, arguing for a downward diffusion at a rate of roughly 10 molecules per second and disappearance of hydrogen near Titan's surface. As Strobel noted, his findings were in line with the effects Chris McKay had predicted if methanogenic life-forms were present. The same year, another study showed low levels of acetylene on Titan's surface, which were interpreted by Chris McKay as consistent with the hypothesis of organisms reducing acetylene to methane. While restating the biological hypothesis, McKay cautioned that other explanations for the hydrogen and acetylene findings are to be considered more likely: the possibilities of yet unidentified physical or chemical processes (e.g. a non-living surface catalyst enabling acetylene to react with hydrogen), or flaws in the current models of material flow. He noted that even a non-biological catalyst effective at 95 K would in itself be a startling discovery.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: A hypothetical cell membrane termed an azotosome, capable of functioning in liquid methane in Titan conditions was computer-modeled in an article published in February 2015. Composed of acrylonitrile, a small molecule containing carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, it is predicted to have stability and flexibility in liquid methane comparable to that of a phospholipid bilayer (the type of cell membrane possessed by all life on Earth) in liquid water. An analysis of data obtained using the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), completed in 2017, confirmed substantial amounts of acrylonitrile in Titan's atmosphere. Later studies questioned whether acrylonitrile would be able to self-assemble into azotozomes.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Hydrogen fluoride (HF), like water, is a polar molecule, and due to its polarity it can dissolve many ionic compounds. Its melting point is −84 °C, and its boiling point is 19.54 °C (at atmospheric pressure); the difference between the two is a little more than 100 K. HF also makes hydrogen bonds with its neighbor molecules, as do water and ammonia. It has been considered as a possible solvent for life by scientists such as Peter Sneath and Carl Sagan.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: HF is dangerous to the systems of molecules that Earth-life is made of, but certain other organic compounds, such as paraffin waxes, are stable with it. Like water and ammonia, liquid hydrogen fluoride supports an acid–base chemistry. Using a solvent system definition of acidity and basicity, nitric acid functions as a base when it is added to liquid HF.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Hydrogen sulfide is the closest chemical analog to water, but is less polar and is a weaker inorganic solvent. Hydrogen sulfide is quite plentiful on Jupiter's moon Io and may be in liquid form a short distance below the surface; astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch has suggested it as a possible solvent for life there. On a planet with hydrogen sulfide oceans, the source of the hydrogen sulfide could come from volcanoes, in which case it could be mixed in with a bit of hydrogen fluoride, which could help dissolve minerals. Hydrogen sulfide life might use a mixture of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as their carbon source. They might produce and live on sulfur monoxide, which is analogous to oxygen (O). Hydrogen sulfide, like hydrogen cyanide and ammonia, suffers from the small temperature range where it is liquid, though that, like that of hydrogen cyanide and ammonia, increases with increasing pressure.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Silicon dioxide, also known as silica and quartz, is very abundant in the universe and has a large temperature range where it is liquid. However, its melting point is , so it would be impossible to make organic compounds in that temperature, because all of them would decompose. Silicates are similar to silicon dioxide and some have lower melting points than silica. Feinberg and Shapiro have suggested that molten silicate rock could serve as a liquid medium for organisms with a chemistry based on silicon, oxygen, and other elements such as aluminium.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Sulfuric acid in liquid form is strongly polar. It remains liquid at higher temperatures than water, its liquid range being 10 °C to 337 °C at a pressure of 1 atm, although above 300 °C it slowly decomposes. Sulfuric acid is known to be abundant in the clouds of Venus, in the form of aerosol droplets. In a biochemistry that used sulfuric acid as a solvent, the alkene group (C=C), with two carbon atoms joined by a double bond, could function analogously to the carbonyl group (C=O) in water-based biochemistry.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: A proposal has been made that life on Mars may exist and be using a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide as its solvent.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: A 61.2% (by mass) mix of water and hydrogen peroxide has a freezing point of −56.5 °C and tends to super-cool rather than crystallize. It is also hygroscopic, an advantage in a water-scarce environment.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Supercritical carbon dioxide has been proposed as a candidate for alternative biochemistry due to its ability to selectively dissolve organic compounds and assist the functioning of enzymes and because "super-Earth"- or "super-Venus"-type planets with dense high-pressure atmospheres may be common.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Physicists have noted that, although photosynthesis on Earth generally involves green plants, a variety of other-colored plants could also support photosynthesis, essential for most life on Earth, and that other colors might be preferred in places that receive a different mix of stellar radiation than Earth.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: These studies indicate that blue plants would be unlikely; however yellow or red plants may be relatively common.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Many Earth plants and animals undergo major biochemical changes during their life cycles as a response to changing environmental conditions, for example, by having a spore or hibernation state that can be sustained for years or even millennia between more active life stages. Thus, it would be biochemically possible to sustain life in environments that are only periodically consistent with life as we know it.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: For example, frogs in cold climates can survive for extended periods of time with most of their body water in a frozen state, whereas desert frogs in Australia can become inactive and dehydrate in dry periods, losing up to 75% of their fluids, yet return to life by rapidly rehydrating in wet periods. Either type of frog would appear biochemically inactive (i.e. not living) during dormant periods to anyone lacking a sensitive means of detecting low levels of metabolism.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: The genetic code may have evolved during the transition from the RNA world to a protein world. The Alanine World Hypothesis postulates that the evolution of the genetic code (the so-called GC phase) started with only four basic amino acids: alanine, glycine, proline and ornithine (now arginine). The evolution of the genetic code ended with 20 proteinogenic amino acids. From a chemical point of view, most of them are Alanine-derivatives particularly suitable for the construction of α-helices and β-sheets basic secondary structural elements of modern proteins. Direct evidence of this is an experimental procedure in molecular biology known as alanine scanning.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: A hypothetical "Proline World" would create a possible alternative life with the genetic code based on the proline chemical scaffold as the protein backbone. Similarly, a "Glycine World" and "Ornithine World" are also conceivable, but nature has chosen none of them. Evolution of life with Proline, Glycine, or Ornithine as the basic structure for protein-like polymers (foldamers) would lead to parallel biological worlds. They would have morphologically radically different body plans and genetics from the living organisms of the known biosphere.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: In 2007, Vadim N. Tsytovich and colleagues proposed that lifelike behaviors could be exhibited by dust particles suspended in a plasma, under conditions that might exist in space. Computer models showed that, when the dust became charged, the particles could self-organize into microscopic helical structures, and the authors offer "a rough sketch of a possible model of...helical grain structure reproduction".


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: In 2020, Luis A. Anchordoqu and Eugene M. Chudnovsky of the City University of New York hypothesized that cosmic necklace-based life composed of magnetic monopoles connected by cosmic strings could evolve inside stars. This would be achieved by a stretching of cosmic strings due to the star's intense gravity, thus allowing it to take on more complex forms and potentially form structures similar to the RNA and DNA structures found within carbon-based life. As such, it's theoretically possible that such beings could eventually become intelligent and construct a civilization using the power generated by the star's nuclear fusion. Because such use would use up part of the star's energy output, the luminosity would also fall. For this reason, it's thought that such life might exist inside stars observed to be cooling faster or dimmer than current cosmological models predict.


title: Hypothetical types of biochemistry

text: Frank Drake suggested in 1973 that intelligent life could inhabit neutron stars. Physical models in 1973 implied that Drake's creatures would be microscopic. In 1980, Robert L Forward wrote the science fiction novel Dragon's Egg using Drake's suggestion as a thesis.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significant role in the development of the national petroleum industry. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire led to the evacuation of its residents and caused widespread damage.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Formerly a city, Fort McMurray became an urban service area when it amalgamated with Improvement District No. 143 on April 1, 1995, to create the Municipality of Wood Buffalo (renamed the RM of Wood Buffalo on August 14, 1996). Despite its current official designation of urban service area, many locals, politicians and the media still refer to Fort McMurray as a city. Fort McMurray was known simply as McMurray between 1947 and 1962.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 18th century, the Cree were the dominant First Nations people in the Fort McMurray area. The Athabasca oil sands were known to the locals and the surface deposits were used to waterproof their canoes. During the fur trade, the location of Fort McMurray, west of Methye Portage, was an important junction on the fur trade route from eastern Canada to the Athabasca Country. In 1778, the first European explorer, Peter Pond, came to the region in search of furs, as the European demand for this commodity at the time was strong. Pond explored the region farther south along the Athabasca River and the Clearwater River, but chose to set up a trading post much farther north by the Athabasca River near Lake Athabasca. However, his post closed in 1788 in favour of Fort Chipewyan, now the oldest continuous settlement in Alberta.


title: Fort McMurray

text: In 1790, the explorer Alexander MacKenzie made the first recorded description of the oil sands. By that time, trading between the explorers and the Cree was already occurring at the confluence of the Clearwater and Athabasca Rivers. The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company were in fierce competition in this region. Fort McMurray was established there as a Hudson's Bay Company post by 1870, named for the Chief Factor William McMurray. It continued to operate as a transportation stopover in the decades afterwards. The Alberta and Great Waterways Railway arrived in 1915 complementing existing steamboat service.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The community has played a significant role in the history of the petroleum industry in Canada. Oil exploration is known to have occurred in the early 20th century, but Fort McMurray's population remained small, no more than a few hundred people. By 1921, there was serious interest in developing a refining plant to separate the oil from the sands. Alcan Oil Company was the first outfit to begin bulk tests at Fort McMurray. The nearby community of Waterways was established to provide a southern terminus for waterborne transportation when the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway reached there in 1921.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Abasands Oil was the first company to successfully extract oil from the oil sands through hot water extraction by the 1930s, but production was very low. Fort McMurray's processing output gradually grew to over 1,100 barrels/day by World War II, and Fort McMurray was set up by the US and Canadian forces as staging ground for the Canol Project.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Fort McMurray and Waterways amalgamated as the village of McMurray (the "Fort" was dropped until 1962, when it was restored to reflect its heritage) by 1947, and became a town a year later. Fort McMurray was granted the status of new town so it could get more provincial funding. By 1966, the town's population was over 2,000.


title: Fort McMurray

text: In 1967, the Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) plant opened and Fort McMurray's growth soon took off. More oil sands plants were opened, especially after the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, when serious political tensions and conflicts in the Middle East triggered oil price spikes. The population of the town reached 6,847 by 1971 and climbed to 31,000 by 1981, a year after its incorporation as a city.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The population peaked at almost 37,000 in 1985, then declined to under 34,000 by 1989. Low oil prices since the oil price collapse in 1986 slowed the oil sands production greatly, as oil extraction from the oil sands is a very expensive process and lower world prices made this uneconomical.


title: Fort McMurray

text: On April 1, 1995, the City of Fort McMurray and Improvement District No. 143 were amalgamated to form the Municipality of Wood Buffalo. The new municipality was subsequently renamed the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo on August 14, 1996. As a result, Fort McMurray was no longer officially designated a city. Instead, it was designated an urban service area within a specialized municipality. The amalgamation resulted in the entire RM of Wood Buffalo being under a single government. Its municipal office is located in Fort McMurray, which accounts for the great majority of the RM's population; all but 5,000 of the RM's residents live in the Fort McMurray urban service area.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The city continued to grow for a few years even after the oil bust caused by the 2003 collapse in world oil prices. Oil price increases since 2003 made oil extraction profitable again for around a decade, until another slump in oil prices which began in December 2014 and deepened in 2015 resulted in layoffs and postponement of projects.


title: Fort McMurray

text: In June 2013, heavy rains caused the Hangingstone River to flood, causing a six-day state of emergency, a bridge collapse, the closure of highways 63 and 881, and the evacuation of 150 people.


title: Fort McMurray

text: On May 3, 2016, a large wildfire burning southwest of Fort McMurray resulted in the mandatory evacuation of the community. Record-breaking temperatures, reaching , low relative humidity and strong winds contributed to the fire's rapid growth in forests affected by "an unusually dry and warm winter".


title: Fort McMurray

text: Upwards of 88,000 people in the community and surrounding region were evacuated. It was Canada's largest recorded wildfire evacuation in history and third-largest recorded environmental disaster evacuation behind the 1979 Mississauga train derailment and the 1950 Red River flood.


title: Fort McMurray

text: On April 27, 2020, massive ice jams along the Athabasca River resulted in a major flood. It devastated the downtown of Fort McMurray, submerging streets and ruining businesses, cars and houses.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Fort McMurray is northeast of Edmonton on Highway 63, about west of the Saskatchewan border, nestled in the boreal forest at the confluence of the Athabasca River, the Clearwater River, the Hangingstone River, and the Horse River. It sits at above sea level. Fort McMurray is the largest community in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.


title: Fort McMurray

text: White spruce, trembling aspen, balsam poplar and white birch are the most prominent native trees in and around town. Black spruce and tamarack occur in poorly drained areas and jack pine may be seen on the driest sites. European aspen, blue spruce and sand cherry are among the exotic trees occasionally seen.


title: Fort McMurray

text: With severe winters except during periods of warming chinook winds, mild to warm summers and only three months which average temperature is higher than , Fort McMurray has a borderline subarctic climate (Köppen: "Dfc"), very slightly below to be considered a humid continental climate ("Dfb") as May averages ; and falls into the Natural Resources Canada (NRC) Plant Hardiness Zone 3a.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The community lies at a lower elevation than most other parts of Alberta, so under the right conditions it can be a "hot spot" for Alberta.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Temperatures range from an average of in January, to in July. The average annual precipitation is and falls mainly in the summer months. Average annual snowfall is , with almost all of it falling between October and April.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The highest temperature ever recorded in Fort McMurray was on June 30, 2021. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on February 1, 1917 and December 31, 1933.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray include Abasand Heights, Beacon Hill, Eagle Ridge, Grayling Terrace, Gregoire, Lower Townsite, Parsons Creek, Prairie Creek, Saline Creek, Stone Creek, Thickwood Heights, Dickinsfield, Timberlea, and Waterways.


title: Fort McMurray

text: In the 2021 census, the Fort McMurray population centre recorded residents living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Fort McMurray

text: In the 2016 census, the Fort McMurray population centre recorded 66,573 residents living in 23,937 of its 28,567 total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of 60,555. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The permanent population of the Fort McMurray urban service area according to the RM of Wood Buffalo's 2021 municipal census is 72,917, a change of from its 2018 municipal census permanent population of 72,056. In addition, the 2021 municipal census counted a shadow population of 3,089 non-permanent residents for a combined population of 76,006, while the 2018 municipal census counted 3,559 non-permanent residents for a combined population of 75,615.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Fort McMurray is an increasingly multicultural community. The 2021 census published by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo found roughly 6,700 people moved to the region since the 2018 census.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The top four provinces that sent people were other communities in Alberta (55 per cent), followed by Newfoundland and Labrador (13 percent), and British Columbia and Ontario (nine percent each).


title: Fort McMurray

text: This is a drastic change from the 2012 municipal census, which was taken when Fort McMurray and the oil sands was undergoing a huge period of economic and population growth. That census reported people from Ontario represented 27.5 percent of Canadians coming to Fort McMurray, followed by British Columbia (26.3 percent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (17.5 percent). People from elsewhere in Alberta made up 3.1 per cent of the population.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The 2021 census found 60.2 percent of residents are white, compared to 64 percent in 2018. The second largest ethnic group is South East Asian (7.2 percent), followed by South Asian (6.7 percent). People identifying as Chinese, Japanese or Korean represented 2.08 percent of the population.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Indigenous peoples represented 7 percent, remaining consistent from 2018. The municipal survey did not count the population of the region's First Nation reserves because they do not fall under municipal jurisdiction. First Nations people represent four percent of the municipality's population. Métis people represent 2.89 percent of the population, followed by Inuk (0.16 percent) and non-Status First Nation (0.13 percent).


title: Fort McMurray

text: About 3.2 percent of people identified as African, followed by mixed ethnicities (2.44 percent), Black or African Canadian (2 percent), European (1.73 percent), Arab (1.41 percent), Hispanic or Latin American (1.08 percent), Caribbean (0.67 percent) and Oceanic (0.13 percent).


title: Fort McMurray

text: Fort McMurray is considered the heart of one of Alberta's (and Canada's) hubs of petroleum production, located near the Athabasca oil sands. Besides the oil sands, the economy also relies on natural gas and pipeline transport, forestry and tourism. Oil sands producers include Syncrude, Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, and CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC. Fort McMurray's growth is characteristic of a boomtown. Housing prices and rents are far higher in Fort McMurray than most such remote areas, and in 2006, Fort McMurray had the highest prices in Alberta. The Alberta government has promised to release more Crown land for residential construction, particularly in Timberlea on the north side.


title: Fort McMurray

text: There are several airports in the area, with Fort McMurray International Airport being the largest in northern Alberta. It is serviced by Air Canada, Air Canada Express, McMurray Aviation, Northwestern Air, WestJet and WestJet Encore, with scheduled flights to Calgary, Edmonton, Fort Chipewyan, Fort Smith, and Toronto. The airport is also serviced by various oil companies with corporate and charter flights heading north to private airstrips at oil sands operations. Flights are frequently booked to capacity because of the high transient worker population and workers who commute to Fort McMurray from other parts of Canada.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Fort McMurray Transit operates in the community, with routes that extend to all subdivisions on the south side and subdivisions on the north side. Although the service concentrates on Fort McMurray it does operate to hamlets in the RM including Anzac, Janvier, Conklin and Fort McKay.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Ebus and Red Arrow operate scheduled passenger bus services to Edmonton and other communities along Highway 63, as well as other destinations farther south.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Highway 63 is the only highway between Fort McMurray and Edmonton. Due to the industrial demands of the oilsands, Highway 63 boasts some of the highest tonnage per kilometre in Canada, and the largest and heaviest loads that trucks have ever carried. Highway 63 was fully twinned in May 2016. Highway 881 also provides access to the region from Lac La Biche.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Canadian National Railway (CN) discontinued the "Muskeg Mixed" (mixed train) to Fort McMurray in 1989, and there has been no passenger rail service since. CN continues to operate freight service on its Lac La Biche subdivision and stations beyond.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Canada Post identified Fort McMurray as "having a particularly high cost to serve" in January 2014, and planned to institute a surcharge of $5.00 for all parcels shipped to the area. However, the postal service retracted this decision before the rate change went into effect.


title: Fort McMurray

text: The Fort McMurray Public School District (FMPSD) and Catholic School District both serve the primary, elementary, and secondary education needs of students in Fort McMurray. Each school district offers diverse programs like French immersion, performing arts or a dedicated technology and science lab, however only FMPSD offers the Advanced Placement program at one of their schools, being Westwood Community High School.


title: Fort McMurray

text: On Abasand Drive, École Boréal is the only francophone school in the area and goes from pre-kindergarten to grade 12.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Keyano College is a publicly funded college and vocational institute based in the area and plays a role in training workers for the oil sands. Known as the cultural hub of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Keyano College contains both a state-of-the-art theatre and recital hall, hosting a variety of musical and theatrical events that attract upwards of 50,000 visitors each season.


title: Fort McMurray

text: Local teams include the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), the Fort McMurray Giants of the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL), and the Keyano Huskies of the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference (ACAC).


title: Fort McMurray

text: The MacDonald Island Park recreation centre is located on MacDonald Island north-east of downtown. The centre contains the Wood Buffalo Regional Library, indoor water park, basketball, tennis and squash courts, rock climbing, fitness centre, indoor playground, ice rinks and public rental space. Shell Place, a connected recreational facility, and a seasonal golf course surround the centre. Fort McMurray Knights Rugby Football Club is also based in the town.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: Love Yourself 轉 Tear (stylized in all caps) is the third Korean-language studio album by South Korean boy band BTS. The album was released on May 18, 2018, by Big Hit Entertainment. It is available in four versions and contains eleven tracks, with "Fake Love" as its lead single. The concept album explores themes relating to the pains and sorrows of separation. On May 27, 2018, the album debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200, earning 135,000 album-equivalent units and becoming BTS' highest-charting album in a Western market at the time, as well as the first Korean album to top the US albums chart and the highest-charting album by an Asian act.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: "Love Yourself: Tear" was first announced on April 16, 2018, following the release of a nine-minute short film entitled "Euphoria: Theme of Love Yourself 起 Wonder" on April 5. The video included a new single, also named "Euphoria", recorded as a solo by member Jungkook. The song was produced by DJ Swivel, Candace Nicole Sosa, Bang Si-hyuk, Supreme Boi, Adora, and BTS' leader RM, and was complimented for its synth-pop style and tropical house elements. "Tear" was designed as a follow-up to BTS' 2017 EP "", with "Euphoria" serving to connect the two releases.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: On May 6, the trailer for the album, featuring a new song entitled "Singularity", was released. The neo-soul solo was performed by member V, and serves as the intro track for the album. "Singularity" was produced by British composer Charlie J. Perry, with lyrics also provided by RM. The trailer was described as having a sensual, dream-like atmosphere, and was praised for its use of symbolism and contrast. Blanca Méndez of "Spin" called V's performance in the video "rich" and "expressive", describing it as having a "quiet confidence". The song itself was described as having a haunting tune, and containing jazz elements and themes of desperation. Promotional concept photos presenting four different themes were released on May 8, for the "O" and "R" versions, and May 10 for the "Y" and "U" versions. The official track list of eleven songs was released on May 13, revealing a second collaboration with Steve Aoki, as well as a track titled "Airplane pt.2", said to be an extension of J-Hope's song "Airplane" from his mixtape "Hope World". The song "Anpanman" is based on the Japanese manga superhero of the same name.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: On May 14, the first video teaser for what was revealed to be the first single, "Fake Love", was released via Big Hit's official YouTube channel. The song has been described as "an emo, hip hop genre track with a grunge rock guitar sound & groovy trap beat that creates an odd gloominess", and lyrics that "clearly represent the theme of the album by realizing that a love that was thought to be fated was actually a lie". The "Billboard" Music Awards released a short, sneak peek clip from the music video on May 15, which showed part of the new choreography and teased a line from the song's chorus, "I'm so sick of this fake love". Big Hit released the second and final video teaser on May 16. On May 18, the album was released, along with the music video for "Fake Love".


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: On May 18, 2018, two hours prior to the album's release, a "Comeback Preview Show" was broadcast live from Los Angeles on Naver's "V LIVE" broadcasting site featuring BTS discussing the new music. "Fake Love" made its worldwide television debut on May 20, when BTS performed it live at the 2018 "Billboard" Music Awards. This marked the first time that a Korean music act performed at the award show.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: As was previously done for "", a special "BTS Comeback Show", hosted by Mnet, was broadcast live worldwide on May 24, featuring performances of "Fake Love" and several B-side songs from the album. The group revealed behind the scenes images of comeback preparations and presented a special video specifically for their fans. The show was broadcast simultaneously online via Mnet Japan, YouTube, Facebook and Joox. BTS also performed "Fake Love" on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on May 25, marking their second appearance on the program.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: The group also held a press conference at the Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on May 24, 2018, to promote the album. During the following two weeks, BTS performed the songs "Fake Love", "Airplane pt. 2", and "Anpanman" on various South Korean music shows, including "Music Bank", "Show! Music Core", "Inkigayo", "Show Champion", and "M Countdown".


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: In an interview with "Billboard" some of the producers that helped with the album recalled their thought processes and aims for the album. For the intro "Singularity", Charlie J. Perry recalled that the song started out as a poem and it was built up from there. They wanted it to have a Daniel Caesar/D'Angelo type of vibe in the realm of neo-soul. For "The Truth Untold", Jake Torrey said they wanted to play with some cooler chords and at one point had the feel of a Sam Smith ballad. The person who helped write "Airplane pt. 2", Ali Tamposi who co-wrote the hit "Havana" by Camila Cabello, stated she wanted the song to have a similar feel to "Havana". In an interview with "TV Report" in Korea writer MNEK discussed the track "Paradise". It was originally supposed to be called "Mouth" and was about a breakup and having a broken heart. The lyrics changed a bit after sending it to BTS.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: "Anpanman" is based on the Japanese hero Anpanman who is the world's weakest hero and made out of red bean bread. The character gives parts of his face to hungry people and in the lyrics BTS compare themselves to him stating they desire to give people hope through their music and performances. "Outro: Tear" begins with a fast rap, the lyrics describing the regretful possibility of the band's disbandment, and “134340” is named after the minor planet designation of the former planet Pluto. It talks about being turned away by a former lover and being seen as something insignificant.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: "Magic Shop" was created by Jungkook and is a song dedicated to their fans. It showcases catchy beats and electronic drops. "Love Maze" is meant to be an uplifting song that showcases a catchy rap.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: "Love Yourself: Tear" received positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 74, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Neil Z. Yeung from AllMusic gave the album four stars out of five stating that "stylish and yearning, "Love Yourself: Tear" is BTS at a polished and focused peak, cohesive enough to feel like it was conceived in one particular period rather than cobbled together like some of their previous releases". Blanca Méndez of "Spin" stated that "whereas the first installment of the series seemed uneasy and disjointed in its span of styles, "Love Yourself: Tear"'s genre-hopping sounds like the group is simply having a good time". Sheldon Pearce of "Pitchfork" wrote that the album "formula is a slick, loosely thematic album about love and loss, with a stronger focus on rapping than ever before" and that ""Tear" aims for cohesion and produces fun, prismatic songs in the process." Jess Lau of The 405 noted that ""Love Yourself: Tear" shows off each individual member's qualities fairly and acts as a well-structured introduction to a wider global audience that is all too eager to pick out negatives". Elias Leight from "Rolling Stone" stated that "BTS' "Love Yourself: Tear" is K-Pop with genre-hopping panache" and noted that "throughout it all, the members of BTS affect melodic sincerity, singing with intensity and melisma, rapping in tones that show their effort and strain, as if caring never went out of style". Caitlin Kelley from "Billboard" described the album as "one of their most thematically cohesive yet sonically varied albums, with maximalist production erupting against lyrics about emptiness".


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: Crystal Tai of the "South China Morning Post" said, "On "Love Yourself: Tear", the band also known as the Bangtan Boys, reveal that they are boys no longer, instead embracing a mature sound that is as dark as it is real". Jeff Benjamin from Fuse TV pointed out that "while the lead-up to the album release saw BTS shifting expectations for Korean-pop acts, the music itself positions them away from any dismissive boy band or pop star labels". Hong Dam-young of "The Korea Herald" revealed "BTS' focus has always been on connecting with listeners and using its members' own stories as leverage. And the group has not deviated from that in its new album "Love Yourself: Tear"" describing, "Musically, the fully packed 11-track album is admirable, as it seamlessly shifts between genres ranging from emo hip hop and Latin pop to pop ballads. Unlike the group’s previous socially conscious hip-hop works, "Love Yourself: Tear" is overtaken by dark tunes and complexed feelings of love" adding that, "The key factor behind the album's explosive success doesn't lie solely on its musical versatility and extravagance, but also in its overarching message: What truly matters is to deliver messages that can truly touch a listener's heart".


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian", however, gave the album a mixed review, writing that "on the plus side, they're very good at ballads, performing them with a breathy intensity that's genuinely affecting and powerful..." but "there is also stuff that you struggle to recall the second it finishes: in one ear and out the other it goes, leaving no recognisable trace. It's not that it's overly saccharine, which is the charge regularly levelled at K-pop; it's just commonplace". Petridis pointed out that "the phenomenon of BTS seems more interesting than the music at its centre, although "Love Yourself: Tear" is certainly good enough to keep the phenomenon moving smoothly". Crystal Bell of "MTV" stated 'with "Love Yourself: Tear", BTS cemented themselves as one of most vital acts in pop music today", calling the album one of the best of 2018.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: In December 2018, art director HuskyFox was nominated in the category Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for his work on "Love Yourself: Tear". It is the second time someone of Korean descent received a Grammy nomination after Sumi Jo was nominated for Best Opera Recording in 1992.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: Both "Fake Love" and "Singularity" were voted as one of the top 65 Best Songs of 2018 by "The New York Times". "Paradise" was ranked the second best K-Pop B-track in 2018 by "MTV", and “134340” came in as the 15th best K-pop song of the year on "Billboard". "Billboard" ranked the album on their "Best Albums of 2018 (So Far)" mid-year list.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: Between April 18 and 25, 2018, the first six days of the pre-order period for "Love Yourself: Tear", IRIVER reported that the album had sold more than 1.44 million copies domestically, surpassing its predecessor "" as the most pre-ordered album in Korea, and making BTS the first K-pop group to have two consecutive albums exceed one million pre-orders. On May 24, news media revealed updated numbers showing that pre-orders had actually crossed 1.5 million copies. This record was eventually in July 2018 by BTS' own compilation album "", with a difference of about 62,000 copies.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: Upon its release in South Korea, "Love Yourself: Tear" sold 1,664,041 copies in its first two weeks, making it the highest monthly sales for an album since the Gaon Chart's inception. The record was previously held by BTS' own EP "Love Yourself: Her", and was eventually surpassed by "Love Yourself: Answer" in September 2018. The album also sold around 250,000 copies more in its first week than "Love Yourself: Her", BTS' previous Korean release.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: These sales also caused BTS to become the first K-pop artist to surpass one-million copies in its first week on the Hanteo chart since its inception in 1993, making them true "double million sellers" (pure, without repackage). The album was eventually certified "Million" by the Korea Music Content Association in July 2018, becoming the first album to receive this after the Gaon Music Chart launched certifications earlier that year. Of the 20 million albums sold in 2018, "Love Yourself: Tear" accounted for about 2 million, or 10% of them. In August 2019, the album surpassed 2 million copies in South Korea along with "", making BTS' their 2nd "Double Million" certification after received their milestone in October 2018.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: On May 27, 2018, the album debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200, earning 135,000 album-equivalent units (including 100,000 pure album sales), becoming BTS' highest-charting album in the US, as well as the first K-pop album to top the US albums chart, and the highest-charting album by an Asian act. It is also the highest sales week for both BTS and a Korean act in the United States, and the first album primarily in a non-English language to top the "Billboard" 200 since Il Divo with "Ancora" in 2006. As of July 2018, according to Nielsen Music's Mid-Year Report, "Love Yourself: Tear" is the ninth best-selling album of 2018 in the United States, and is the top-selling foreign language album. The album became the band's longest-running entry on the World Albums chart in July 2020, when it re-entered the July 18 chart issue at number 11, marking its hundredth week on the tally. It is the first BTS album to achieve this feat, as well as a first for any Korean language offering in the history of the chart.


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: In the United Kingdom, "Love Yourself: Tear" was BTS' highest-charting album, becoming their first top ten on the UK Albums chart, with a peak at number eight. The album later attained Silver in the UK, becoming BTS' third album to be achieve this certification following "Love Yourself: Answer" and "".


title: Love Yourself: Tear

text: The album has sold over 100,000 copies since its Japanese release, becoming the first of BTS' Korean-language discography to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan in August 2018. Tower Records Japan reported the album was the most imported album in Japan for 2018.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: Willard is a 1971 American horror film directed by Daniel Mann and written by Gilbert Ralston, based on Stephen Gilbert's novel "Ratman's Notebooks". Bruce Davison stars as social misfit Willard Stiles, who is squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father. His only friends are a couple of rats raised at home, including Ben and Socrates, and their increasing number of friends. When Socrates is killed by Willard's boss, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: "Willard" was released on February 26, 1971 by Cinerama Releasing Corporation, opening to positive reviews and high box office returns, and was the 12th highest-grossing release of the year. It was also nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Picture.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: The film was followed by a 1972 sequel "Ben", and a 2003 remake, also titled "Willard", with Crispin Glover portraying Willard, and Davison making a cameo as Willard's father.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: Willard Stiles is a meek social misfit who develops an affinity for rats. He lives in a large house with his cranky and decrepit mother Henrietta. On his 27th birthday, he comes home to a surprise birthday party thrown by his mother, where all of the attendees are her friends. After leaving the party in embarrassment, he notices a rat in his backyard and tosses it pieces of his birthday cake.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: His mother tells him to eliminate the rats. Willard uses food and a plank bridge to lure them into a pit in the backyard, then begins filling the pit with water to drown them. However, moved by the rats' piteous squeals as they realize their plight, he replaces the plank, allowing them to get to safety. He later begins playing with a rat he names Queenie. A white rat, which Willard names Socrates, becomes his best companion. Other rats emerge, including a bigger black specimen whom he names Ben.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: At work, Willard is tasked with an overwhelming number of accounts by his boss Al Martin, who usurped the business from Willard's father. Willard asks Al for a raise, having not received one since his father's death despite working after hours and weekends. Al refuses and pressures Willard to sell him his house. Willard sneaks into a party that Al is hosting, opens a rat-filled suitcase, and urges them to get the food. The guests are terrorized by the rats, and Al destroys the catering tables trying to fend them off. The next day Willard's mother dies. He is informed that she had no money and the house is heavily mortgaged.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: Willard starts bringing Socrates and Ben to the office on Saturdays to keep him company while he is the only one there. His friend and temporary assistant, Joan, gives him a cat named Chloe to comfort him. He hands Chloe off to a stranger. Meanwhile, the rat colony is growing and Willard cannot afford to keep feeding them. After overhearing one of Al's friends boasting of a large cash withdrawal, he sneaks into the man's house and orders his rats to tear up the bedroom door. The man and his wife flee the house upon seeing the rats, and Willard steals the cash.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: The next day, a worker spots the rats. Al bludgeons Socrates to death, devastating Willard. When Joan refuses to persuade Willard to sell his house to Al, he fires her and Willard, believing that unemployment will force Willard to sell. That night, while Al is at work, Willard enters the office with his rats. He confronts Al over the death of Socrates, the mistreatment of his father and Al's machinations to buy his house. As Al attempts to attack him, Willard orders the rats to attack Al. Disoriented by the swarming rats, Al falls out the window to his death, with the rats eating the corpse, much to Willard’s horror. After witnessing Al's gruesome death, Willard abandons the rats at the scene. The next day, he places his remaining rats into crates and dunks them in the backyard pit. He then seals up any holes through which the rats could enter his house.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: Willard has dinner with Joan at his house, telling her of his newfound self-confidence, which he attributes to her and Socrates. Over the course of their conversation, however, he sees Ben staring sinisterly at him from a shelf. Investigating, he finds hordes of the same rats he attempted to drown in the pit, unaware that the rats chewed through the crates and swam to safety. He orders Joan to leave and locks the door behind her. Willard offers Ben and the rats food, which he mixes with pesticide. Ben sniffs the pesticide box and squeals loudly, alerting the others. Willard chases Ben upstairs, cornering him in a storage room. He barricades the door against the other rats, leaving Ben to face him alone. While Ben eludes Willard's attacks, the rats gnaw through the door. Willard shouts, "I was good to you, Ben!" before the rats start to jump on him. Overwhelmed, Willard succumbs to the attack.


title: Willard (1971 film)

text: The film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 54%, based on , with a rating average of 5.8/10. The critical consensus reads: ""Willard" has an intriguing character study lurking within – but much of those elements, like many of the movie's characters, are swallowed up by rats".