title: Racing flags

text: On road course races in IndyCar, a single yellow flag at a marshaling station indicates a "local" yellow, similar to the aforementioned rules in Formula One. In these cases, the pace car does not enter the track, and the caution period is limited only to that particular segment of the track. Green flag racing prevails around the remainder of the course. Twin yellow flags displayed at the starter's stand indicates a "full-course caution,” in which the pace car would enter the track and the entire course would be under caution. This might occur for a serious crash or other major hazards. NASCAR has also experimented with "local yellows" on their road course events, although a plain blue flag is used instead.


title: Racing flags

text: In the case of snowmobile racing, the yellow flag is displayed at or before the point of the hazard. When a snowmobile racer crosses the yellow flag, the race will continue, however, the skis and track of the snowmobile must remain on the ground.


title: Racing flags

text: In snowmobile water cross (racing on open water), the caution flag simply warns the racers that one or more racers have sunk and are in the water, however the race will continue as normal.


title: Racing flags

text: In horse racing, the yellow flag means that there is a serious incident ahead, the horses must be pulled up and the race must be declared void. Most yellow flags are seen when a horse has suffered a serious injury.


title: Racing flags

text: As an alternative to the full-course yellow and safety car periods used during other FIA-backed races, the 24H Series uses a series of purple lights and flags to declare a "Code 60" period. Under "Code 60", overtaking is not allowed and all drivers must slow their cars down to a maximum of . The race resumes immediately when green flags are waved and green lights are flashing at each marshal post. Yellow flags are still used to indicate local cautions.


title: Racing flags

text: The point at which the caution period starts is a topic of controversy in oval racing. Traditionally, the cars were locked into their positions when they crossed the start/finish line, but technological advancements have made it possible to lock them in at the instant that the caution is declared. This has effectively put an end to the "race back to the caution", in which drivers speed up during yellow flag periods to beat the leader to the flag. This practice, while giving lapped drivers a better chance to make their lap back, was at times highly dangerous in that it encouraged drivers to engage in pitched battles with major safety hazards on track. Safety workers were not able to respond to accidents until the cars were under control of the pace car, which markedly slowed their response times to potentially injured drivers. To compensate for the elimination of the race back to the caution, NASCAR and some other motorsports series, both road racing and short oval, have implemented the "beneficiary rule", which allows the highest-placed car that is a full lap or more behind the race leader to complete an extra lap during the caution period in order to make up a lap.


title: Racing flags

text: In some series (Indy Racing League, Champ Car, beginning in 2007, Formula One, and beginning in mid 2009, NASCAR) lapped cars between the pace car and the leader are allowed to move to the rear of the next lap when the signal is given two laps before a restart.


title: Racing flags

text: The rule, as enforced in the three open-wheel series, is designed to prevent lapped cars from blocking on ensuing restarts, as to prevent unsportsmanlike blocking when a lapped teammate or friend of one driver attempts to help that driver through impeding the progress of an opponent on the restart.


title: Racing flags

text: The red and yellow striped flag or surface flag is displayed stationary at local flag stations to indicate that track conditions have changed due to substances on the track which could reduce grip or cause a car to lose control. Generally oil, coolant, small pieces of debris or sand are the hazards. It can also be "rocked" back and forth (but not waved) to indicate a small animal on the racing surface. Many organizations will display this flag for only two laps, after which the changed surface is considered to merely be part of the track. This flag is generally not used anymore, during conditions that would warrant this flag to be waved, the race enters Virtual Safety Car.


title: Racing flags

text: The solid red flag is displayed when conditions are too dangerous to continue the session. Depending on the series and the circumstances, the cars are typically directed to proceed immediately to pit road, or to stop at a specific spot on the track. In some severe cases the cars might be required to stop immediately where they are. During red flag conditions, repair work in the pits, the garage area, or on the track is typically prohibited, except in non-points paying races.


title: Racing flags

text: There are numerous hazards that might cause a need to halt or prematurely end a session. Many hazards, such as rain, lightning, darkness, a blocked course (due to debris, water, or safety vehicles), a car on fire, or a multi-car crash (especially one that results in serious injuries or one that results in damage to walls, fences or the surface itself which require repairs) might prompt series officials to call for the red flag.


title: Racing flags

text: Some series use a red flag to temporarily stop a race nearing the end of a race after an accident or other incident to minimize the number of caution laps, even when the situation would not warrant a red flag at other points in the race. This is usually done when a collision requiring cleanup would otherwise extend the caution period to take longer than the amount of race laps available to finish the race, when a fuel spill occurs on the circuit, or to maximize safety team work. During such a red-flag period, cars are directed to stop in line at a specific point on the track, usually directly opposite to the incident. In Supercars, a race that is suspended after 75% of the laps have been completed may be declared complete at the race director's discretion, such as happened in Supercars forerunner Bathurst 1000 race in 1992 when torrential rain led to numerous cars crashing off the track in laps 144 and 145 and race results were woundback two laps.


title: Racing flags

text: The red flag may be used to indicate a pre-determined pause in the race, such as in NASCAR's Budweiser Shootout or the Sprint All Star Race. In these cases, the cars are directed to the pit area where some may be worked on to the extent the race rules allow.


title: Racing flags

text: In Formula One, the white flag is waved on the last corner and the pit straight at the end of free practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, indicating to drivers that there are drivers doing practice starts on the pit straight. Drivers are permitted to do one practice start at the end of each free practice session.


title: Racing flags

text: In all championships which use the FIA International Sporting Code, as well as North American road racing, the white flag indicates the presence of an officials car such as ambulance, fire truck, jet dryer, etc. or a competitor moving at below normal speed in the section of track covered by the flag station. In IndyCar, a stationary white flag means they are moving above one-third racing speed while waving means they are moving below one-third racing speed.


title: Racing flags

text: In most American forms of motorsports – including NASCAR, IndyCar, and North American motorcycle road racing – a waved white flag displayed at the starter's stand indicates the start of the final lap of the race.


title: Racing flags

text: In MotoGP, a white flag is used to inform riders that they are allowed to change machine. The Race Direction has deemed that the track is wet enough to justify the change of bikes and the Grand Prix becomes a wet race, having originally been declared a 'dry race' at the start.


title: Racing flags

text: In some series, a white flag is shown from all flag stations on the first lap of a practice or qualifying session so competitors will know which stations are staffed.


title: Racing flags

text: Prior to the adoption of starting lights, the Supercars series and its forerunners would use a green flag to start the race. Following the adoption of lights as the routine starting device, if the starting lights were unavailable a race would started by lowering the national flag of whichever country the race is held in. Typically this would indicate the Australian flag but races in the series are, with the notable exception of 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, regularly held in New Zealand and occasionally are held in other countries such as Bahrain, China and the United States of America.


title: Racing flags

text: The solid black flag is used to summon a driver to the pits. It is usually associated with a penalty imposed on the driver for disobeying the rules, but may also be used when a car is suffering a mechanical failure, leaking fluid, exhibiting damage such as loose bodywork, loose hood, dragging bumper, or any other damage that could potentially become a hazard to the driver or other competitors. In some cases, the black flag may be used to call a driver to the pits when their radio is not working, though this is not common.


title: Racing flags

text: In FIA International-permitted series, the black flag means an immediate disqualification for the driver involved. The car number of the summoned driver is displayed on the finish line. Some sanctioning bodies wave the black flag at all observation posts simultaneously to order all drivers to clear the track after the starter waves the red flag, often in the case of a serious accident.


title: Racing flags

text: In Supercars races, infringements such as exceeding the pit lane speed limit, violating a restart after a safety car period, or causing an accident will result in a drive through pit penalty that must be taken in reasonable time. Rarely, due to the short amount of time in which the driver has to complete the penalty, such a penalty may be rescinded such as in Race 28 of the 2021 season when, upon receiving a penalty for passing before the control line after a safety car period, Shane van Gisbergen protested over his radio that the lead driver had suddenly reduced throttle forcing van Gisbergen to pass, and throttle telemetry supported this. The sudden 42% reduction in throttle itself could have led to a drive through penalty for race leader Anton de Pasquale, but the very wet conditions and possible loss of traction and safety issues were mitigating circumstances.


title: Racing flags

text: When the black flag is used for disciplinary reasons in most races in North America, a driver is required to return to pit lane for at minimum a drive-through penalty. A driver may be black-flagged for failing to maintain a reasonable minimum speed, even if no apparent damage or mechanical failure is present. In almost all cases, the team is given a chance to make repairs to the car and get it up to an acceptable condition. If the driver still cannot maintain minimum speed in relation to the leaders after repairs, the driver may be required to park for the remainder of the race. For example, NASCAR requires that a driver run at or above 115 percent of the fastest lap time by any driver in the final practice. (This can be converted to an average speed-limit based on the length of the course, which for oval tracks will be close to the actual speed limit at any given time.) IndyCar has a 105 percent rule, most notably used when officials parked Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro during the 2012 Indianapolis 500.


title: Racing flags

text: In the case of snowmobile racing, the black flag comes in three stages to disqualification; the first flag is a warning to a racer, the second flag is a one-lap penalty, and the third is disqualification. In order for a snowmobile racer to receive a black flag, the racer must make contact with intent to inconvenience another racer.


title: Racing flags

text: During the Coke Zero Suzuka 8 Hours (FIM World Endurance Championship), a black flag waved from the starter's stand designates the start of the race. In this case, it is not a penalty flag and is a nod solely to the race's sponsor, as Coke Zero utilizes the color black as its visual branding.


title: Racing flags

text: A mechanical black flag is a black flag with an orange disc in its center which indicates that a vehicle is being summoned to the pits due to serious mechanical problems or loose bodywork that presents a risk to other competitors. At some road racing events, it is used to summon the vehicle to the pits to inform the driver of violation "maximum sound levels.” Also known as the 'Meatball' flag.


title: Racing flags

text: A diagonally divided black-and-white flag is displayed with a car number to indicate a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. This flag can be displayed if a car tries to intentionally drive another car off the course, or if a driver gets out of their car and initiates an altercation with another driver. The black and white diagonal flag can also mean a warning to a driver for exceeding track limits. For example, Charles Leclerc was shown this flag for "bad sportsmanship" while defending from Lewis Hamilton during the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.


title: Racing flags

text: Some administrators (NASCAR and IndyCar) do not distinguish mechanical problems or unsportsmanlike conduct from rules violations and simply use the solid black flag for all violations.


title: Racing flags

text: Some leagues use a black flag with a white saltire. This is displayed with a car number if a driver ignores the other black flags for an extended period and also it indicates that that car is no longer being scored. In NASCAR, the car is not scored again until it pays attention to the black flag by pitting once this flag is displayed. However, in IndyCar, they are no longer scored indefinitely (disqualified).


title: Racing flags

text: Ignoring the black flag or the black-white cross flag intentionally may result in post-race disciplinary action in addition to disqualification from the race. Fines, probation, suspensions, and other penalties (e.g., points being docked from championship standings) may result, depending upon the severity of the situation.


title: Racing flags

text: A light blue flag, sometimes with a diagonal yellow, orange, or red stripe, informs a driver that a faster car is approaching and that the driver should move aside to allow one or more faster cars to pass. During a race, this would only be usually shown to a driver who is getting lapped but during practice or qualifying sessions, it could be shown to any driver. In most series, the blue flag is not mandatory—drivers obey it only as a courtesy to their fellow racers. As such, it is often referred to as the "courtesy flag." In other series, drivers get severely penalized for not yielding or for interfering with the leaders, including getting sent to the pits for the rest of the race. In Formula One, if the driver about to be lapped ignores three waved blue flags in a row, he is required to serve a drive-through penalty. The blue flag may also be used to warn a driver that another car on the same lap is going to attempt to overtake them.


title: Racing flags

text: The steady blue flag is displayed when a faster car is approaching, the blue flag is waved when the faster car is about to overtake.


title: Racing flags

text: In Formula One, blue lights or flags may be shown at the end of pit lanes to warn of approaching cars on the track.


title: Racing flags

text: The chequered flag (or checkered flag) is displayed at the start/finish line to indicate that the race is officially finished. At some circuits, the first flag point will display a repeat chequered flag (usually on the opposite side of the circuit). The flag is commonly associated with the winner of a race, as they are the first driver to "take" (in other words, drive past) the chequered flag.


title: Racing flags

text: Upon seeing the chequered flag and crossing the finish line, drivers are required to slow to a safe speed, and return to their garage, "parc fermé", or paddock, depending on the applicable regulations of the series.


title: Racing flags

text: There is no standard design for the chequered flag. Although it nearly always consists of alternating black and white squares or rectangles arranged in a chequerboard pattern, the number, size, and length-width proportions of the rectangles vary from one flag to another. Also, the chequered flag typically has a black rectangle at the corner of the flag closest to the top of the flagpole. There have been instances of the black and white squares being painted onto a wooden board and simply held up for drivers to observe at the finish line. Sometimes a sponsor's logo is emblazoned in the center of the chequered flag. In NASCAR and F1 events, a single chequered flag is waved to signal the completion of a race. In IndyCar, two chequered flags are waved together, a tradition dating to the 1980 Indianapolis 500, but only if the race is under green conditions. (The starter will wave both a chequered and yellow flag if safety car conditions occur at the end of the race, in a yellow-chequer finish.)


title: Racing flags

text: NASCAR traditionally has a special version of the chequered flag sewn for Victory Lane that has the name and date of the race on it, a practice that has spread to IndyCar. That flag is used for the team in the winner's photographs taken after the race, and is a prize awarded to the team along with the race trophy. Teams often hang such flags at their headquarters in a similar fashion to other sports teams hanging championship banners from the rafters at stadiums.


title: Racing flags

text: Beginning in the 2017 season, NASCAR has utilized a white-and-green variant of the chequered flag to indicate the end of a stage of a race. After the flag is waved, the race temporarily goes into caution to allow drivers who have had placed in the top 10 position following a stage to go into the pit road in a timely manner.


title: Racing flags

text: The chequered flag originated in at the Glidden Tours, a road rally, in 1906. Sidney Walden divided the courses into sections; the time check at the end of each section was performed by race officials called "checkers." These checkers used chequered flags to identify themselves. The earliest known photographic record of a chequered flag being used to end a race was from the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race held in Long Island, New York.


title: Racing flags

text: There is a persistent urban legend claiming that the flag originated in horse racing, but there is no basis for this myth. Another myth claims that the chequered flag's earliest known use was for 19th century bicycle races in France, but this claim also has no evidence.


title: Racing flags

text: In 1980, USAC starter Duane Sweeney started a tradition at the Indianapolis 500 by waving twin chequered flags at the end of the race. Previous starters had only used a single flag. Sweeney also marked the first use of twin green flags at the start of the race.


title: Racing flags

text: In snowmobile water cross the chequered flag is attached to the racer's life vest, and the racer is rewarded with a victory lap.


title: Racing flags

text: In many short tracks, the flagman gives the chequered flag to the winner of the race, but a variety of other celebratory traditions, such as the burnout, the Polish victory lap and the victory lane or victory circle celebration, sometimes overshadow the chequered flag tradition.


title: Racing flags

text: The chequered flag has become so well recognized that it is often used to indicate the conclusion of many things unrelated to auto racing. For example, some software installation programs display a chequered flag to indicate that a computer program has been installed successfully.


title: Racing flags

text: Chequered flags were also posted at each corner of the end zones in the original Yankee Stadium when the facility was used by the New York Giants of the National Football League from 1956 through 1973.


title: Racing flags

text: The chequered flag is not only used for auto racing, but also for a representation of the automotive industry itself.


title: Racing flags

text: The chequered, red, yellow, white, and green flags are used identically to how they are used in auto racing. The yellow and red striped flag is used to indicate debris on the track. Other flags used include:


title: Racing flags

text: Historically, the only means for race officials to communicate to drivers was through the usage of flags. With the advent of two-way or full-duplex radios, this is not necessarily the case. Most drivers racing on paved short track oval courses do not rely on flags; rather, they are informed of track conditions by their crew chiefs and spotters or by yellow / red flashing lights found on most oval tracks. Occasionally, though, some drivers must rely on the use of flags for information when they experience radio malfunctions. Flags are still used to tell the crowd of spectators what is happening. Dirt track and lower-level racers are less likely to have radios than their paved track counterparts.


title: Racing flags

text: In contrast to smaller circuits, road racing drivers rely heavily on the use of flags. As it is impractical to have spotters covering all segments of a winding race track, the first indication to drivers of local hazards almost always comes from marshals stationed at various flag stations around the course. Missing or disregarding a flag can have critical consequences, as Mario and Michael Andretti discovered during a 1991 CART race in Detroit, Michigan. Michael came around a blind corner at high speed, without heeding the yellow flag being displayed—and plowed into the back of a CART safety truck tending to another disabled car. Fifteen seconds later, his father Mario disregarded the same madly waving yellows and crashed into the car the safety vehicle was trying to assist.


title: Racing flags

text: Modern F1 cars and other high-end formula racing cars have information displays on their steering wheels which can flash up the word "flag" to warn drivers when they are entering a sector with a local yellow. Most new circuits and older ones used for F1 employ trackside flashing lights at regular intervals, as a clearer way to signal yellow, green, red, blue or SC flag status to drivers than relying on them to spot a marshal waving a flag, especially so on modern circuits where there are large run-off areas which put the marshals well away from the actual track.


title: Vita Vea

text: Tevita Tuliʻakiʻono Tuipulotu Mosese Vaʻhae Fehoko Faletau Vea (born February 5, 1995), otherwise known as Vita Vea, is an American football nose tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Washington and was drafted by the Buccaneers in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.


title: Vita Vea

text: As a junior in 2017, Vea was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and won the Morris Trophy. On January 2, 2018, he declared his intention to enter the 2018 NFL Draft.


title: Vita Vea

text: Vea was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round with the 12th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.


title: Vita Vea

text: Vea strained his calf during training camp, causing him to miss the entire preseason as well as the first three games of the regular season. Vea recorded his first career sack in Week 10, during a 16–3 loss to the Washington Redskins.


title: Vita Vea

text: In Week 12, during a 35–22 win against the Atlanta Falcons, Vea recorded a sack, a career-best two pass deflections, and caught a one-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jameis Winston. As a result, Vea became the first defensive player since J. J. Watt in 2014 to record a sack and catch a touchdown in the same game, the ninth player in NFL history to accomplish both in the same game, and the heaviest player in NFL history to catch a touchdown at 347 pounds. Overall, he started all 16 games and recorded 35 total tackles, 12 quarterback hits, and three passes defensed.


title: Vita Vea

text: During "Thursday Night Football" against the Chicago Bears in Week 5, Vea suffered fractures to his right leg and ankle after making a tackle on running back David Montgomery. Prior to the injury, Vea recorded one sack on Nick Foles during the 20–19 loss. Vea was placed on injured reserve on October 13, 2020. Vea was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the team on November 28, 2020, and moved back to injured reserve on December 5. Vea was activated from injured reserve on January 22, 2021. In Super Bowl LV, Vea recorded one tackle during the Buccaneers' win over the Kansas City Chiefs.


title: Vita Vea

text: On April 26, 2021, the Buccaneers picked up Vea's fifth-year option, guaranteeing Vea $7.6 million for the 2022 season. In the Week 11 loss to the Washington Football Team, Vea suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter and was carted off the field.


title: Vita Vea

text: On January 8, 2022, Vea signed a four-year, $73 million extension with the Buccaneers. As a result of the Los Angeles Rams advancing to Super Bowl LVI, Vea was selected to his first career Pro Bowl as an alternate for defensive tackle Aaron Donald.


title: Cel shading

text: Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon and/or give the render a characteristic paper-like texture. There are similar techniques that can make an image look like a sketch, an oil painting or an ink painting. The name comes from "cels" (short for celluloid), clear sheets of acetate which were painted on for use in traditional 2D animation.


title: Cel shading

text: The cel-shading process starts with a typical 3D model. Where cel-shading differs from conventional rendering is in its non-photorealistic illumination model. Conventional smooth lighting values are calculated for each pixel and then quantized to a small number of discrete shades to create the characteristic "flat look", where the shadows and highlights appear as blocks of color rather than being smoothly mixed in a gradient.


title: Cel shading

text: Black ink outlines and contour lines can be created using a variety of methods. One popular method is to first render a black outline, slightly larger than the object itself. Back-face culling is inverted and the back-facing triangles are drawn in black. To dilate the silhouette, these back-faces may be drawn in wireframe multiple times with slight changes in translation. Alternatively, back-faces may be rendered solid-filled, with their vertices translated along their vertex normals in a vertex shader. After drawing the outline, back-face culling is set back to normal to draw the shading and optional textures of the object. Finally, the image is composited via Z-buffering, as the back-faces always lie deeper in the scene than the front-faces. The result is that the object is drawn with a black outline and interior contour lines. The term "cel-shading" is popularly used to refer to the application of this "ink" outlining process in animation and games, although originally the term referred to the flat shading technique regardless of whether the outline was applied.


title: Cel shading

text: The Sega Dreamcast title "Jet Set Radio", which was revealed at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show, drew media attention for its cel-shaded style. It used cel-shading for its characters and its vibrant visual style has had a lasting influence on the use of cel-shading in video games. The PlayStation title "Fear Effect" also had character models that are cel-shaded, and was released in February 2000, several months before "Jet Set Radio" officially released in mid-2000. Since the early 2000s, many notable video games have made use of this style, such as "" (2002) and "Ōkami" (2006).


title: Cel shading

text: Cel shading, in contrast to other visual styles such as photorealism, is often used to lend a more artistic or fantastical element to a video game's environment. In developing "Ōkami", director Hideki Kamiya described his vision for the game's graphics: "I wanted to create a game with the natural beauty of the Japanese countryside... to make a world that was glistening and beautiful." Producer Atsushi Inaba recalls in a 2004 interview that Clover Studios had "abandoned the realistic style" for "Ōkami" as they became inspired by traditional Japanese art.


title: Cel shading

text: Game studios might choose a style such as cel shading in their development for reasons beyond artistic vision. Cel shaded graphics are usually simple in visual information, which can be useful in some applications. In the case of "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker", developer Satoru Takizawa states that using this style allowed to “represent the mechanisms and objects for puzzles [in "The Wind Waker"] in a more easy-to-understand way”. Takizawa also argues that photorealistic graphics, in contrast, would have “had the adverse effect of making information difficult to represent game-wise”.


title: Ningxia

text: Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous region for the Hui people, one of the 56 officially recognised nationalities of China. Twenty percent of China's Hui population lives in Ningxia.


title: Ningxia

text: Ningxia is bounded by Shaanxi to the east, Gansu to the south and west and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north and has an area of around . This sparsely settled, mostly desert region lies partially on the Loess Plateau and in the vast plain of the Yellow River and features the Great Wall of China along its northeastern boundary. Over about 2000 years an extensive system of canals (The total length about 1397 kilometers) has been built from Qin dynasty. Extensive land reclamation and irrigation projects have made increased cultivation possible. The arid region of Xihaigu, which covers large parts of the province, suffers from severe water shortage, which the canals were intended to alleviate.


title: Ningxia

text: Ningxia was the core area of the Western Xia in the 11th-13th century, established by the Tangut people; its name, "Peaceful Xia", derived from the Mongol conquest of the state. The Tanguts made significant achievements in literature, art, music, and architecture, particularly invented Tangut script. Long one of the country's poorest areas, a small winemaking industry has become economically important since the 1980s. Before the arrival of viticulture, Ningxia's 6.8 million people, 36 per cent of whom are Muslims from the Hui ethnic group, relied largely on animal grazing, subsistence agriculture and the cultivation of wolfberries used in traditional Chinese medicine. Since then, winemaking has become the premier specialty of Ningxia. The province housed almost 40,000 hectares of wine grapes and produced 120 million wine bottles in 2017 – a quarter of the entire nation's production.


title: Ningxia

text: As a frontier zone between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers, Ningxia was a frequent seat of war and incursions by non-Chinese tribes. Ningxia and its surrounding areas were incorporated into the Qin as the Beidi Commandery as early as the 3rd century BC. To pacify the region, the imperial government established military colonies to reclaim land. In addition, horse pasturages were founded under the Imperial Stud to safeguard the supply of army horses, as early as the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE – 9 CE). Throughout the Han dynasty and the Tang dynasty there were several large cities established in the region. The Liang Province rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty affected Ningxia.


title: Ningxia

text: By the 11th century the Tangut people had established the Western Xia dynasty on the outskirts of the then-Song dynasty. Jews also lived in Ningxia, as evidenced by the fact that in 1489, after a major flood destroyed Torah scrolls in Kaifeng, a replacement was sent to the Kaifeng Jews by the Ningbo and Ningxia Jewish communities.


title: Ningxia

text: It then came under Mongol domination after Genghis Khan conquered Yinchuan in the early 13th century. Muslims from Central Asia also began moving into Ningxia from the west. The Muslim Dungan Revolt of the 19th century affected Ningxia.


title: Ningxia

text: In 1914, Ningxia was merged with the province of Gansu. However, in 1928 it was detached from Gansu and became a separate province. Between 1914 and 1928, the Ma clique ruled the provinces of Qinghai, Ningxia and Gansu; General Ma Hongkui was the military governor of Ningxia and had absolute authority in the province. The Muslim conflict in Gansu, which lasted from 1927 to 1930, spilled over into Ningxia. In 1934, warlord and National Revolutionary Army general Sun Dianying attempted to conquer the province, but was defeated by an alliance led by the Ma clique.


title: Ningxia

text: From 1950 to 1958, a Kuomintang Islamic insurgency resulted in fighting throughout Northwest China, including Ningxia. In 1954, the Chinese government merged Ningxia with Gansu, but in 1958 Ningxia formally became an autonomous region of China. In 1969, Ningxia received a part of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, but this area was returned in 1979.


title: Ningxia

text: A number of Chinese artifacts dating from the Tang dynasty and Song dynasty, some of which had been owned by Emperor Zhenzong, were excavated and then came into the hands of Ma Hongkui, who refused to publicize the findings. Among the artifacts were a white marble tablet from the Tang dynasty, gold nails, and bands made out of metal. It was not until after Ma died that his wife went to Taiwan in 1971 from America to bring the artifacts to Chiang Kai-shek, who turned them over to the Taipei National Palace Museum.


title: Ningxia

text: Present-day Ningxia is one of the nation's smallest provincial-level units and borders the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. At 3556 meters above sea level, Aobaogeda () in the Helan Mountains is the highest point in Ningxia.


title: Ningxia

text: Ningxia is a relatively dry, desert-like region and features a diverse geography of forested mountains and hills, table lands, deserts, flood plains and basins cut through by the Yellow River. The Ningxia ecosystem is one of the least studied regions in the world. Significant irrigation supports the growing of wolfberries, a commonly consumed fruit throughout the region. Ningxia's deserts include the Tengger desert in Shapotou.


title: Ningxia

text: The northern section, through which the Yellow River flows, supports the best agricultural land. A railroad, linking Lanzhou with Baotou, crosses the region. A highway has been built across the Yellow River at Yinchuan.


title: Ningxia

text: On 16 December 1920, the Haiyuan earthquake, 8.6 magnitude, at , initiated a series of landslides that killed an estimated 200,000 people. Over 600 large loess landslides created more than 40 new lakes.


title: Ningxia

text: In 2006, satellite images indicated that a 700 by 200-meter fenced area within Ningxia— southwest of Yinchuan, near the remote village of Huangyangtan—is a near-exact 1:500 scale terrain model reproduction of a 450 by 350-kilometer area of Aksai Chin bordering India, complete with mountains, valleys, lakes and hills. Its purpose is as yet unknown.


title: Ningxia

text: It was reported that approximately 34 percent (33.85 million mu) of the region's total surface consisted of grassland. This figure is down from approximately 40 percent in the 1990s. The grasslands are spread over the dry desert-steppe area in the northeast (which forms a part of the Inner Mongolian steppe region), and the hilly pastures located on the semi-arid Loess Plateau in the south. It is ascertained that the grasslands of Ningxia have been degraded to various degrees. However, there is scientific debate as to what extent this degradation is taking place as measured in time and space. Historical research has also found limited evidence of expanding grassland degradation and desertification in Ningxia. A major component of land management in Ningxia is a ban on open grazing, which has been in place since 2003. The ecological and socio-economic effects of this Grazing Ban in relation to the grasslands and pastoralists' livelihood are contested. The ban stipulates that animal husbandry be limited to enclosed pens and no open grazing be permitted in certain time periods set by the Autonomous Region's People's Government.


title: Ningxia

text: The region is from the sea and has an arid continental climate on the north to humid continental climate to the south, with average summer temperatures rising to in July and average winter temperatures dropping to between in January. Seasonal extreme temperatures can reach in summer and in winter. The diurnal temperature variation can reach above , especially in spring. Annual rainfall averages from , with more rain falling in the south of the region.


title: Ningxia

text: of which located in grassland areas. In 2011 it was estimated that the potential value per capita of these resources accounted for 163.5 percent of the nation's average. Ningxia boasts verified coal reserves of over 30 billion tons, with an estimated reserve of more than 202 billion tons, ranking sixth nationwide. Coal deposits are spread over one-third of the total surface of Ningxia, and mined in four major fields in the Helan and Xiangshan mountains, Ningdong and Yuanzhou (or Guyuan). The region's reserves of oil and natural gas can be found in Yanchi and Lingwu County, and are ideal for large-scale development of oil, natural gas and chemical industries. Ningxia leads China in gypsum deposits, with a proven reserve of more than 4.5 billion tons, of which the rarely found, top-grade gypsum accounts for half of the total deposits. The Hejiakouzi deposit in Tongxin County features a reserve of 20 million tons of gypsum with a total thickness of 100 meters. There is a considerable deposit of quartz sandstone, of which 17 million tons have been ascertained. In addition, there are phosphorus, flint, copper, iron, barite, other minerals and Helan stone – a special clay stone.


title: Ningxia

text: The politics of Ningxia is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China.


title: Ningxia

text: The Chairman of the Autonomous Region is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Ningxia. However, in the Autonomous Region's dual party-government governing system, the Chairman has less power than the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Ningxia Committee Secretary, colloquially termed the "Ningxia CCP Party Chief".


title: Ningxia

text: The five prefecture-level cities of Ningxia are subdivided into 22 county-level divisions (9 districts, 2 county-level cities, and 11 counties).


title: Ningxia

text: Rural Ningxia was for long an officially designated poverty area, and is still located on the lower rungs of the developmental ladder. It is the province with the third smallest GDP (Tibet being the last) in China, even though its neighbors, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, are among the strongest emerging provincial economies in the country. Its nominal GDP in 2011 was just 200.0 billion yuan (US$32.7 billion) and a per capita GDP of 21,470 yuan (US$3,143). It contributes 0.44% of the national economy.


title: Ningxia

text: Similar to other areas, Ningxia has seen a gradual decline of its peasant population due to rural–urban migration. In spite of this, the great majority (62.8 percent) was still agricultural at the time of the survey. Animal husbandry is important for the regional economy. In the main pastoral county, Yanchi, it is even the leading industry when specified for the primary sector. The dominant grazing animals are sheep and goat. In the (semi-)pastoral regions, herders engage in a mixed sedentary farming operation of dryland agriculture and extensive animal husbandry, while full nomadic pastoralism is no longer practiced.


title: Ningxia

text: Ningxia is the principal region of China where wolfberries are grown. Other specialties of Ningxia are licorice, products made from Helan stone, fiddlehead and products made from sheepskin.


title: Ningxia

text: Ningxia wines are a promising area of development. The Chinese authorities have given approval to the development of the eastern base of the Helan Mountains as an area suitable for wine production. Several large Chinese wine companies including Changyu and Dynasty Wine have begun development in the western region of the province. Together they now own 20,000 acres of land for wine plantations and Dynasty has ploughed 100 million yuan into Ningxia. In addition, the major oil company China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation has founded a grape plantation near the Helan Mountains. The household appliance company Midea has also begun participating in Ningxia's wine industry. Vineyards have been set up in the region.


title: Ningxia

text: Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone was established in 1992. Spanning , it has an annual economic output Rmb23.7 billion (25.1% up) (US$3.5 billion). Major investors are mainly local enterprises such as Kocel Steel Foundry, FAG Railway Bearing (Ningxia), Ningxia Little Giant Machine Tools, etc. Major industries include machinery and equipment manufacturing, new materials, fine chemicals and the animation industry.


title: Ningxia

text: Desheng Industrial Park (in Helan County) is a base for about 400 enterprises. The industrial park has industrial chains from Muslim food and commodities to trade and logistics, new materials and bio-pharmaceuticals that has 80 billion yuan in fixed assets. Desheng is looking to be the most promising industrial park in the city. It achieved a total output value of 4.85 billion in 2008, up 40 percent year-on-year. The local government plans to cut taxes and other fees to reduce the burden on local enterprises. The industrial output value reached 2.68 billion yuan in 2008, an increase of 48 percent from a year earlier.


title: Ningxia

text: Islam is the single biggest religious tradition in Ningxia, where every third Ningxia resident is a Muslim. Many of the Han Chinese practice Chinese folk religions, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism. According to a demographic analysis of the year 2010, Muslims form 34% of the province's population. Christianity is the religion of 1.17% of the province's population according to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2004.


title: Ningxia

text: One of Ningxia's main tourist spots is the internationally renowned Xixia Tombs site located west of Yinchuan. The remnants of nine Western Xia emperors' tombs and two hundred other tombs lie within a area. Other famous sites in Ningxia include the Helan Mountains, the mysterious 108 stupas, the twin pagodas of Baisikou and the desert research outpost at Shapatou. A less visited tourist spot in Ningxia is the Mount Sumeru Grottoes (), which is among the ten most famous grottoes in China.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: Michael Hammond Bates (4 December 1920 – 11 January 1978) was a British actor born in India. He was best known for playing Chief Guard Barnes who processes (and strip-searches) Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in "A Clockwork Orange", Cyril Blamire in "Last of the Summer Wine" (1973–75), and Rangi Ram in "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" (1974–77).


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: Bates was born in Jhansi, United Provinces, India. His parents were of Cheshire families; his father, Henry Stuart "Harry" Bates (1893–1985), son of Albert Bates, of Congleton, Cheshire, was educated at Denstone School and Cambridge University before entering the Indian Civil Service in 1920. He served as Deputy Secretary of the Revenue Department and a Member of the Board of Revenue for the United Provinces of India until 1947 (in which year he was created CSI) and was later of the Colonial Office. Bates's mother, Sarah Clarke Walker (1896–1982) was daughter of William Hammond Walker, also of Congleton. Bates spent his early years in India, speaking Hindi and Urdu as his first languages before learning English, and remaining fluent in the former two languages for the rest of his life.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: Having been sent home to England aged seven by his parents, Bates was educated at Uppingham School and his father's alma mater, St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He was commissioned in the Indian Army in March 1942. During World War II he served in the Burma Campaign as a major with the Brigade of Gurkhas and was mentioned in dispatches in 1944.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: In 1953, while an ensemble member with the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, Bates appeared in "Richard III" and "All's Well That Ends Well".


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: In 1956, Bates appeared in "Hotel Paradiso" ("L'Hôtel du libre échange"), which starred Alec Guinness, at the Winter Garden Theatre in London. On radio, he played a variety of characters in the BBC's long-running comedy series "The Navy Lark", including Able Seaman Ginger, Lieutenant Bates, Rear Admiral Ironbridge, the Padre, and Captain Ignatius Aloysius Atchison.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: Bates appeared in many British television series, including "Last of the Summer Wine" from 1973 to 1975 (as Cyril Blamire) and "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" from 1974 to 1977 (as Rangi Ram). His role as Rangi Ram led to the allegation that he had performed in brownface. Series co-creator Jimmy Perry told Stuart Jeffries in 2003 that they had been unable to find a suitable Asian actor. "But Michael was ideal for the role", Perry said. Interviewed by the journalist Neil Clark for "The Daily Telegraph" in 2013, Perry said Bates only "wore was a light tan. He wasn't blacked up! Michael spoke fluent Urdu, and was a captain in the Gurkhas".


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: The show is not repeated in the UK by the BBC, who use the "blacked up" description of Bates's performance on their website's article about the series.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: Bates's film roles include "Bedazzled" (1967) as the flirtatious police inspector, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1967) as Mr. McGregor, "Battle of Britain" (1969) as Warrant Officer Warwick, "Oh! What a Lovely War" (1969) as a Lance-Corporal, "Patton" (1970) as Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery (to whom he bore a striking resemblance), "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) and "Frenzy" (1972). On stage, he played Shakespearean roles at Stratford and at the Old Vic, and made a big impression as Inspector Truscott in the West End production of "Loot" by Joe Orton in 1966.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: In 1954, Bates married Margaret M. J. Chisholm. They had three children: Rupert (who also became an actor), Camilla, and Jolyon.


title: Michael Bates (actor)

text: Bates was a supporter of the Conservative Party. Peter Sallis described Bates as being "slightly to the right of Thatcher” politically and claimed that Bates's right-wing opinions contrasted so sharply with the left-wing views of fellow "Last of the Summer Wine" star Bill Owen that the series was almost not made because of their arguments.


title: John Horton Conway

text: John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Born and raised in Liverpool, Conway spent the first half of his career at the University of Cambridge before moving to the United States, where he held the John von Neumann Professorship at Princeton University for the rest of his career. On 11 April 2020, at age 82, he died of complications from COVID-19.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway was born on 26 December 1937 in Liverpool, the son of Cyril Horton Conway and Agnes Boyce. He became interested in mathematics at a very early age. By the time he was 11, his ambition was to become a mathematician. After leaving sixth form, he studied mathematics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. A "terribly introverted adolescent" in school, he took his admission to Cambridge as an opportunity to transform himself into an extrovert, a change which would later earn him the nickname of "the world's most charismatic mathematician".


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway was awarded a BA in 1959 and, supervised by Harold Davenport, began to undertake research in number theory. Having solved the open problem posed by Davenport on writing numbers as the sums of fifth powers, Conway began to become interested in infinite ordinals. It appears that his interest in games began during his years studying the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, where he became an avid backgammon player, spending hours playing the game in the common room.


title: John Horton Conway

text: In 1964, Conway was awarded his doctorate and was appointed as College Fellow and Lecturer in Mathematics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.


title: John Horton Conway

text: After leaving Cambridge in 1986, he took up the appointment to the John von Neumann Chair of Mathematics at Princeton University. There, he won the school's Pi Day pie-eating contest.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway's career was intertwined with that of Martin Gardner. When Gardner featured Conway's Game of Life in his Mathematical Games column in October 1970, it became the most widely read of all his columns and made Conway an instant celebrity. Gardner and Conway had first corresponded in the late 1950s, and over the years Gardner had frequently written about recreational aspects of Conway's work. For instance, he discussed Conway's game of Sprouts (July 1967), Hackenbush (January 1972), and his angel and devil problem (February 1974). In the September 1976 column, he reviewed Conway's book "On Numbers and Games" and even managed to explain Conway's surreal numbers.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway was a prominent member of Martin Gardner's Mathematical Grapevine. He regularly visited Gardner and often wrote him long letters summarizing his recreational research. In a 1976 visit, Gardner kept him for a week, pumping him for information on the Penrose tilings which had just been announced. Conway had discovered many (if not most) of the major properties of the tilings. Gardner used these results when he introduced the world to Penrose tiles in his January 1977 column. The cover of that issue of "Scientific American" features the Penrose tiles and is based on a sketch by Conway.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway was married three times. With his first two wives he had two sons and four daughters. He married Diana in 2001 and had another son in 2001. He had three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.


title: John Horton Conway

text: On 8 April 2020, Conway developed symptoms of COVID-19. On 11 April, he died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the age of 82.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway invented the Game of Life, one of the early examples of a cellular automaton. His initial experiments in that field were done with pen and paper, long before personal computers existed. Since Conway's game was popularized by Martin Gardner in "Scientific American" in 1970, it has spawned hundreds of computer programs, web sites, and articles. It is a staple of recreational mathematics. There is an extensive wiki devoted to curating and cataloging the various aspects of the game. From the earliest days, it has been a favorite in computer labs, both for its theoretical interest and as a practical exercise in programming and data display. Conway came to dislike the Game of Life, feeling that it overshadowed deeper and more important things he had done. Nevertheless, the game helped to launch a new branch of mathematics, the field of cellular automata.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway contributed to combinatorial game theory (CGT), a theory of partisan games. He developed the theory with Elwyn Berlekamp and Richard Guy, and also co-authored the book "Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays" with them. He also wrote "On Numbers and Games" ("ONAG") which lays out the mathematical foundations of CGT.


title: John Horton Conway

text: He was also one of the inventors of the game sprouts, as well as philosopher's football. He developed detailed analyses of many other games and puzzles, such as the Soma cube, peg solitaire, and Conway's soldiers. He came up with the angel problem, which was solved in 2006.


title: John Horton Conway

text: He invented a new system of numbers, the surreal numbers, which are closely related to certain games and have been the subject of a mathematical novelette by Donald Knuth. He also invented a nomenclature for exceedingly large numbers, the Conway chained arrow notation. Much of this is discussed in the 0th part of "ONAG".


title: John Horton Conway

text: In the mid-1960s with Michael Guy, Conway established that there are sixty-four convex uniform polychora excluding two infinite sets of prismatic forms. They discovered the grand antiprism in the process, the only non-Wythoffian uniform polychoron. Conway has also suggested a system of notation dedicated to describing polyhedra called Conway polyhedron notation.


title: John Horton Conway

text: In the theory of tessellations, he devised the Conway criterion which is a fast way to identify many prototiles that tile the plane.


title: John Horton Conway

text: He investigated lattices in higher dimensions and was the first to determine the symmetry group of the Leech lattice.


title: John Horton Conway

text: In knot theory, Conway formulated a new variation of the Alexander polynomial and produced a new invariant now called the Conway polynomial. After lying dormant for more than a decade, this concept became central to work in the 1980s on the novel knot polynomials. Conway further developed tangle theory and invented a system of notation for tabulating knots, now known as Conway notation, while correcting a number of errors in the 19th-century knot tables and extending them to include all but four of the non-alternating primes with 11 crossings. The Conway knot is named after him.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway's conjecture that, in any thrackle, the number of edges is at most equal to the number of vertices, is still open.


title: John Horton Conway

text: He was the primary author of the "ATLAS of Finite Groups" giving properties of many finite simple groups. Working with his colleagues Robert Curtis and Simon P. Norton he constructed the first concrete representations of some of the sporadic groups. More specifically, he discovered three sporadic groups based on the symmetry of the Leech lattice, which have been designated the Conway groups. This work made him a key player in the successful classification of the finite simple groups.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Based on a 1978 observation by mathematician John McKay, Conway and Norton formulated the complex of conjectures known as monstrous moonshine. This subject, named by Conway, relates the monster group with elliptic modular functions, thus bridging two previously distinct areas of mathematics—finite groups and complex function theory. Monstrous moonshine theory has now been revealed to also have deep connections to string theory.


title: John Horton Conway

text: As a graduate student, he proved one case of a conjecture by Edward Waring, that every integer could be written as the sum of 37 numbers each raised to the fifth power, though Chen Jingrun solved the problem independently before Conway's work could be published.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway wrote a textbook on Stephen Kleene's theory of state machines and published original work on algebraic structures, focusing particularly on quaternions and octonions. Together with Neil Sloane, he invented the icosians.


title: John Horton Conway

text: He invented a base 13 function as a counterexample to the converse of the intermediate value theorem: the function takes on every real value in each interval on the real line, so it has a Darboux property but is "not" continuous.


title: John Horton Conway

text: For calculating the day of the week, he invented the Doomsday algorithm. The algorithm is simple enough for anyone with basic arithmetic ability to do the calculations mentally. Conway could usually give the correct answer in under two seconds. To improve his speed, he practised his calendrical calculations on his computer, which was programmed to quiz him with random dates every time he logged on. One of his early books was on finite-state machines.


title: John Horton Conway

text: In 2004, Conway and Simon B. Kochen, another Princeton mathematician, proved the free will theorem, a version of the "no hidden variables" principle of quantum mechanics. It states that given certain conditions, if an experimenter can freely decide what quantities to measure in a particular experiment, then elementary particles must be free to choose their spins to make the measurements consistent with physical law. Conway said that "if experimenters have free will, then so do elementary particles."


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conway received the Berwick Prize (1971), was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1981), became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, was the first recipient of the Pólya Prize (LMS) (1987), won the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics (1998) and received the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (2000) of the American Mathematical Society. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Liverpool, and in 2014 one from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University.


title: John Horton Conway

text: Conferences called Gathering 4 Gardner are held every two years to celebrate the legacy of Martin Gardner, and Conway himself was often a featured speaker at these events, discussing various aspects of recreational mathematics.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Super Fly is a 1972 American blaxploitation neo-noir crime drama film directed by Gordon Parks Jr. and starring Ron O'Neal as Youngblood Priest, an African American cocaine dealer who is trying to quit the underworld drug business. The film is well known for its soundtrack, written and produced by soul musician Curtis Mayfield. It was released on August 4, 1972.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: O'Neal reprised his role as Youngblood Priest in the 1973 film "Super Fly T.N.T.", which he also directed. Producer Sig Shore directed a second sequel, "The Return of Superfly", released in 1990, with Nathan Purdee as Priest. A remake was released in 2018.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Youngblood Priest (Ron O'Neal), an African-American cocaine dealer, enjoys a luxurious lifestyle in Harlem. He yearns to go straight, despite the fortune he makes. One day, Priest confronts Fat Freddie, one of his dealers, about money that Freddie owes and threatens to force Freddie's wife into prostitution unless he robs a competitor. Although the timid Freddie abhors violence, he agrees and accompanies another member of Priest's "family" of lower-level dealers to commit the robbery.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Priest discusses his plan to buy thirty kilos of high-quality cocaine with the $300,000 he and his partner Eddie have, which they can sell for $1,000,000 within four months. With such a big score, they can retire comfortably. Eddie argues that crime is the only option left to them by "The Man." That night, Eddie and Priest approach Scatter, a retired dealer who started Priest in the business. Scatter initially refuses to help Priest. Eddie threatens Scatter, demanding that he reveal his source if he will not supply them, but Scatter holds him at gunpoint. Priest defuses the situation and persuades Scatter to help them, although Scatter warns that it will be the last time.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Priest and Eddie are joined by Freddie, who turns over the money he stole. The next day, Freddie is picked up for fighting, and when he is beaten by the police, he reveals when and where Priest and Eddie are to pick up the first kilo of cocaine from Scatter. Freddie attempts to escape and is killed when he runs in front of a car.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: That night, after picking up the kilo from Scatter, Priest and Eddie are apprehended by several policemen. The lieutenant reveals that he is Scatter's supplier and that they can have as much "weight," as they want, and will be extended both credit and protection. Eddie is elated by the new situation, claiming that they are set for life, although Priest is still determined to quit after selling the thirty kilos. Soon after, the drugs are sold by Priest and Eddie's "family." Priest's white mistress, Cynthia is dismayed to learn that Priest does not return her love and is planning on quitting the business. Their argument is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Scatter who reveals that the real head of the operation is Deputy Commissioner Reardon, who is trying to kill him for quitting. Scatter gives Priest a packet of information on Reardon and his family. Scatter is captured by the corrupt policemen, who give him a fatal overdose of drugs.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Both enraged and scared, Priest gives the information on Reardon and an envelope of cash to two mafia men and takes out a $100,000 contract on "the Man's" life. Priest demands his half of their profits from Eddie. After Priest leaves with the cash, Eddie betrays him by phoning the lieutenant. Priest has anticipated Eddie's duplicity, however, and gives the briefcase carrying the money to a disguised Georgia in exchange for one full of rags. Priest is then picked up by the lieutenant and taken to the waterfront, where he is confronted by Reardon. Reardon threatens Priest that he must continue selling drugs as long as he is ordered to, but when Priest refuses, the policemen begin to beat him. Priest overcomes his foes using karate, then reveals that he knows exactly who Reardon is. Priest explains that he hired contract killers to murder Reardon and his entire family should anything happen to him. The powerless Reardon then watches as Priest walks away free, giving the policemen one final glare before driving off to join Georgia.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Filming took place from January to mid-April 1972 in New York City. The film was financed by two directors: Gordon Parks, who had directed the 1971 film "Shaft" and Sig Shore, who produced "Super Fly," and played Deputy Commissioner Riordan, or "The Man" in the film. Large companies produced many of the blaxploitation films, and "Super Fly" is no exception. The film was acquired and distributed by Warner Bros. and had a white producer (Shore). African-Americans were a part of the process as well, with Gordon Parks Jr. as director and Phillip Fenty as screenwriter.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Nate Adams coordinated the fashion and wardrobe for the film. He had done several fashion shows prior to "Super Fly". He still owns many of the suits, shoes and fedora hats.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Charles McGregor, who plays Fat Freddie, was released from prison before the film's production. The film was shot by director of photography James Signorelli, who would go on to become the film segment director for "Saturday Night Live".


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Carl Lee, who played Eddie, enjoyed television fame until he abused drugs – in particular, heroin. He died in 1986 of an overdose. The film's soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield was well enough received that he was sought for other soundtracks. The songs "Freddie's Dead" and the title song both shot up the Pop Top Ten chart in late 1972, with each single selling over a million copies.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: The movie generated roughly $4 million in profits. Shore received the bulk of the profits since he put up the most money, 40 percent, while the actors, directors, and scriptwriters split the remaining profits. The soundtrack alone generated about $5 million in profits – one of the first film soundtracks to earn such a sizable return – primarily from the biggest singles "Super Fly" and "Freddie's Dead". As the soundtrack's composer, Mayfield was the only other person in the production who earned revenue approaching Shore's.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Despite the controversy surrounding "Super Fly"s drug use, the production of the film made significant advances for African-Americans. The Harlem community backed "Super Fly" financially, and a number of black businesses helped with the production costs. Another quality that distinguishes "Super Fly" from other blaxploitation films was the technical crew, the majority of which was non-white, constituting the largest non-white technical crew in its time. Altogether, such an independently financed film ultimately had unusually large financial backing.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: At the time of its release, there were many African-Americans that were displeased with the images of themselves portrayed in films such as "Super Fly", "Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassssss Song", and "Shaft". Junius Griffin, the head of the Hollywood branch of the NAACP stated, "we must insist that our children are not exposed to a steady diet of so-called black movies that glorify black males as pimps, dope pushers, gangsters, and super males."


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: "Super Fly" resonated with many of the post-Civil Rights Movement generation of African Americans, who saw Youngblood as a new example of how to rise in the American class system. Several California organized crime veterans, including drug trafficker "Freeway" Rick Ross, have cited the film as an influence in their decision to take up drug dealing and gang violence. The Congress for Racial Equality, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other organizations attempted to block the film's distribution and pushed for more African-American involvement in Hollywood's creative process. The Student National Coordinating Committee also protested the film as a tool of white oppression.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: Manthiahas Diawara suggested that the film's glorification of drug dealers served to subtly critique the civil rights movement's failure to provide better economic opportunities for black America and that the portrayal of a black community controlled by drug dealers serves to highlight that the initiatives of the civil rights movement were far from fully accomplished. The filmmakers maintain that it was their desire to show the negative and empty aspects of the drug subculture. This is evident in the movie from the beginning as Priest communicates his desire to leave the business. Nearly every character in the film, with the notable exception of his "main squeeze," tries to dissuade Priest from quitting; their chief argument being that dealing and snorting are the best he ever could achieve in life.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: After an initial gross of $24.8 million, the film was re-released in 1973 and earned $2 million in US and Canada rentals. It was the highest-grossing blaxploitation film at the time.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: A standard definition DVD was released by Warner Brothers on January 14, 2004—the day its star, Ron O'Neal, died after battling cancer. The original red and black Warner logo is replaced by the updated AOL/Warner logo used at the time of DVD release. Additionally, the end credits on the original film release and video cassette differ from the DVD. On the original release and videocassette the film end credits roll with a shot of the top of the Empire State building and the title track ("Superfly") plays. After "The End" is displayed, the film fades to black but Mayfield's "Superfly" continues to play for a few minutes until the track ends. In the DVD release, Warner Bros. decided to fade out the track midway right as "The End" is shown, and again brings up the AOL/Warner logo.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: On June 26, 2018 The Warner Archive Collection released "Super Fly" on Blu-ray and has received mostly praise for its video & audio restoration.


title: Super Fly (1972 film)

text: "Superfly" was remade by Director X and released in June 2018 with a cast that included Trevor Jackson and Jason Mitchell.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Jeremy Andrew Bulloch (16 February 1945 – 17 December 2020) was an English actor. In a career that spanned six decades, he gained recognition for originating the physical portrayal of Boba Fett in the "Star Wars" franchise, appearing as the character in the films "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Bulloch returned to the franchise for a cameo as Captain Colton in 2005's "".


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Bulloch was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, to Aziz "Diana" ("née" Meade) and McGregor Bulloch, an aeronautical engineer. He was the middle of three siblings, with three older half-brothers from his mother's earlier marriage. He attended St Leonard's School, Blandford Forum, Dorset, and Dorset House, Littlehampton, West Sussex, before training at the Corona Academy theatre school, London. From the age of five, he enjoyed acting and singing after a school show. He began acting at the age of ten and "appeared in [several] Disney films, British sitcoms and plays".


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: At the age of twelve, Bulloch's first professional appearance was in a breakfast cereal commercial. After several uncredited screen appearances, Bulloch's first regular role was in the 1960 TV series "Counter-Attack!" and (the same year) "The Chequered Flag". He went on to have a recurring role in "Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School" (1961) and a regular role in "The Newcomers" (1965–1967). At the age of seventeen, he portrayed Hamlet on stage.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: In 1962, he appeared with Cliff Richard in the musical film "Summer Holiday". He had a part in "The Devil's Agent", which also starred Christopher Lee who later portrayed Count Dooku in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. He also appeared in two "Doctor Who" stories, "The Space Museum" (1965) and "The Time Warrior" (1973). Coincidentally, David Prowse and John Hollis, who both would later appear alongside Bulloch in "The Empire Strikes Back", also appeared in a Jon Pertwee-era "Doctor Who" serial. In 1973, he appeared in the Malcolm McDowell comedy/musical "O Lucky Man!". From 1979 to 1981, he was a regular in the ITV sitcom "Agony", in which he played Rob Illingworth, one half of a gay couple. His later television roles included a recurring role as Edward of Wickham in "Robin of Sherwood" (1984–86). He also had minor roles in three James Bond films, twice playing Smithers, an assistant to Q.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: In a career spanning over half a century, Bulloch is best known for his role in Boba Fett's costume in the "Star Wars" films "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", despite the character's "minimal screen time." Toby Hadoke writes that "his precise body language and smouldering presence were ... integral to the character's appeal." The voice was provided by Jason Wingreen originally and in the updated versions by Temuera Morrison, to strengthen the connection with the Prequel Trilogy. Bulloch's half-brother, Robert Watts, who was working as an associate producer for "Empire", was tasked with finding someone who "would fit in the costume of Boba Fett." So Watts called Bulloch (who at the time was working on "Agony") and encouraged him to see Tiny Nicholls, the wardrobe supervisor and Bulloch had a costume fitting as Boba Fett, which "took 20 minutes to put on."


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Additionally, he played a minor role as an Imperial officer (later identified as Lieutenant Sheckil), who grabs Leia when she warns Luke Skywalker of Vader's trap in "The Empire Strikes Back". Bulloch was initially to do the scene as Fett when he fires at Skywalker on Cloud City, but with no one available to play the part, Bulloch went to the wardrobe and got changed into the "Imperial Officer's outfit". This was his only non-masked appearance in the original "Star Wars" films. John Morton, who portrayed the rebel pilot Dak Ralter (during the Battle of Hoth), covered Bulloch as a body double for Fett when the character confronts Vader in the Bespin hallway during Han Solo's torture.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Bulloch returned as Boba Fett for the fan film mockumentary: "Return of the Ewok" chasing Wicket on the Death Star. He filmed his scenes for "Jedi" for four weeks. Bulloch was unaware of Fett's apparent demise prior to filming and was disappointed, since he would have liked to do more with his character. Bulloch said that portraying Fett was the most uncomfortable role he played and that putting on the jetpack "was very heavy." Fett's death in "Return of the Jedi" would later be retconned in the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian", in which Bulloch had no involvement.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: While portraying Fett, Bulloch drew some inspiration from Clint Eastwood's the Man with No Name. Both Fett and Eastwood's character in "A Fistful of Dollars" wear similar capes, cradle their gun, ready to shoot and move in slow motion.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: In 2004, Bulloch published a limited edition memoir, "Flying Solo", which is a humorous account of his personal and professional life, interspersed with tales from the convention circuit. In 2005, for the first time in 22 years, he once again made an appearance in a "Star Wars" film, "". This time he portrayed Captain Jeremoch (a portmanteau of Bulloch's name) Colton piloting Kenobi, Bail Organa and Yoda to Coruscant in an Alderaan Cruiser (later identified as the "Sundered Heart" and similar to the first vessel to appear in "Star Wars"). Afterwards, Bulloch played a small cameo role in "Star Wars" fan films "Order of the Sith: Vengeance" and its sequel "Downfall – Order of the Sith", alongside David Prowse and Michael Sheard. These fan films were made in England in support of Save the Children.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: In an interview in 2013, he expressed an interest in being involved in a future "Star Wars" film in some way, saying, "The lovely thing is ... if I'm wearing a helmet, no one knows how old I am." He subsequently denied involvement in future projects. Although Boba Fett did not appear in "", Bulloch hinted that a film focusing on the origins of Boba Fett would be made. "The Book of Boba Fett", a Disney+ television series taking place after the events of "Return of the Jedi", premiered in 2021.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: He was featured in the 2015 documentary "Elstree 1976"; a behind-the-scenes film, which focuses on the lives of some actors and extras who appeared in the "Star Wars" original trilogy. The documentary had a premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: He was also featured in the 2021 Disney+ documentary special, "Under The Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett" which celebrates the origins and legacy of the character.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: In 2004, Bulloch had a cameo in Mark Hamill's "" which also featured some "Star Wars" alumni such as David Prowse and Peter Mayhew. In 2005, he played the role of "Chairman Skellon" in a stage production of "The Trial of Davros". In 2006, Bulloch provided the voice of "Sir Logan the Prowler" in the "Night Traveler" multimedia adventure series produced by Lunar Moth Entertainment.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: In 2008, Richard LeParmentier, known for his portrayal of Admiral Motti in "Star Wars", worked on "Motti Now", a spoof of "Apocalypse Now", featuring Bulloch and other "Star Wars" actors, including Kenneth Colley, Garrick Hagon and Jerome Blake.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Bulloch was married to Maureen Walker; the couple had two sons and lived in London. He had another son from a previous marriage. His half-brother was Robert Watts, who was a producer on "The Empire Strikes Back", "Return of the Jedi" and the "Indiana Jones" films. Watts also had a cameo as Lieutenant Watts in "Return of the Jedi". His son Robbie portrayed Matthew of Wickham in four episodes of "Robin of Sherwood". The character is the son of Edward of Wickham portrayed by Bulloch. Another son is the translator Jamie Bulloch. His sister Sally Bulloch was a child actress before becoming an executive manager of the Athenaeum Hotel.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: He once considered being a sportsman but ultimately chose to go into acting. Long before portraying Fett, Bulloch trained with David Prowse at his gym in South London. In his spare time, he enjoyed playing cricket and travelling. Bulloch said that he had been a fan of "Star Trek" ever since the original series.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Following the release of the "Star Wars Special Edition trilogy", prequel trilogy and new films, he was frequently invited to science fiction conventions throughout the world, and was inducted as an honorary member of the 501st Legion costuming organisation in May 2002. Later, in November 2009, he actually joined the 501st as a costume-wearing member making appearances with the group as Boba Fett. Beginning in 2000, he was a frequent guest at the "Star Wars" Weekends (held annually at Disney's Hollywood Studios). In August 2018, Bulloch announced his retirement from attending conventions.


title: Jeremy Bulloch

text: Bulloch died of complications from Parkinson's disease (which he had lived with for many years) at St. George's Hospital in Tooting, London, on 17 December 2020, at the age of 75.


title: The Blacklist (season 2)

text: The second season of the American crime thriller television series "The Blacklist" premiered on NBC on September 22, 2014, and concluded on May 14, 2015, and ran for 22 episodes. The season was produced by Davis Entertainment, Universal Television, and Sony Pictures Television, and the executive producers are Jon Bokenkamp, John Davis, John Eisendrath, John Fox, and Joe Carnahan.


title: The Blacklist (season 2)

text: The second season follows Reddington's war with The Cabal, a shadowy multinational group that holds positions of influence in government and business, over The Fulcrum, a digital repository of information about The Cabal's illegal activities that both parties want. The season introduces Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marnò), a former agent of the Mossad and new member of the Task Force with a connection to Reddington. The first part of the season sees the resolution of Red's conflict with Milos Kirchoff, AKA Berlin. The second half of the season introduces a new series antagonist Peter Kotsiopulos (David Strathairn), the ruthless Director of the National Clandestine Service (AKA The Director) and a key member of The Cabal, who seeks possession of The Fulcrum at any cost. The season also follows Elizabeth Keen's investigation into Tom's double life and the subsequent breakup of their marriage. Liz ends up being tried over her involvement in a murder committed by Tom and the subsequent cover up. Ultimately Liz and Tom reconcile but Liz ends up on the run from the FBI and the Task Force after killing Tom Connolly (Reed Birney), the U. S. Attorney General and secret member of The Cabal.


title: The Blacklist (season 2)

text: The second season of "The Blacklist" received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 80% approval rating based on 15 reviews, with an average score of 7.77/10. The consensus reads: "Though "The Blacklist" flirts with narrative overload, it's held together by James Spader's scenery-eating performance and wildly entertaining action".


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is a major expansion for "Destiny 2", a first-person shooter video game by Bungie. Representing the sixth expansion and the fifth year of extended content for "Destiny 2", it was originally planned for release in late 2021, but due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion was delayed by three months and was released on February 22, 2022. Prior to release, Bungie reported that "The Witch Queen" had over 1 million pre-orders, "on track to becoming the most pre-ordered expansion in "Destiny 2" history".


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: The expansion revolves around Savathûn, The Witch Queen, the sister of Oryx, who was the antagonist of the original "Destiny"s (2014) first major expansion, "" (2015). The expansion adds new content across the game, including new missions, Player versus Environment locations, Player versus Player maps, player gear, weaponry, and a new raid. There are also four seasons of content released throughout Year 5. The first, "Season of the Risen", released simultaneously with the expansion. It was followed by "Season of the Haunted" in May, "Season of Plunder" in August, and then the final and current season, "Season of the Seraph", which began December 6 and will run until the launch of the next expansion, "", on February 28, 2023.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: "The Witch Queen" introduces a new location, Savathûn's Throne World, above Mars within the Ascendant Realm. In addition to world activities, a new raid, "Vow of the Disciple", was released on March 5, 2022. Two additional dungeons will also be added over the course of the expansion. The "King's Fall" raid, from "The Taken King" expansion, was added on August 26, 2022 during Season 18 for all players to access. It features the same story as the original, but accounts for differences in "Destiny 2", such as gameplay mechanics and Champion enemies, as well as a new starting instance to replace the absent Dreadnaught destination that had been present in "The Taken King" (players begin the raid in the Court of Oryx area like the original, but cannot explore the Dreadnaught beyond this area). New and existing story content was expanded with a new "Legendary" difficulty, designed to be challenging for single players but with improved rewards for completing. At the same time, some content from the "" (2018) expansion was removed from the game and placed in the Destiny Content Vault; this included the full "Forsaken" campaign, the Tangled Shore destination and its activities, but not the Dreaming City, the Last Wish raid, the Shattered Throne dungeon, or the strikes. Ahead of this, "Forsaken"s campaign was made free-to-play for all players on December 7, 2021, with a bundle pack available to purchase to access the endgame content for players who did not already own "Forsaken". While the other seasonal activities from "" (2020) were removed with "The Witch Queen", the Battlegrounds activity from "Season of the Chosen" (Season 13) was merged with the existing strikes under one playlist, named Vanguard Operations.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Savathûn's Lucent Brood, Hive warriors that carry the power of Light, is a new major enemy within "The Witch Queen". They have similar Light-focused abilities within the Arc, Solar, and Void classes as the players' Guardian characters as well as their own Ghosts that can resurrect them unless the Guardians can destroy the Ghost within a limited window.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: "Beyond Light" introduced Stasis as a power of Darkness which, unlike the other three powers of Light which each had three subtrees that could be selected, used customizable Aspects and Fragments to give the player more customization of how Stasis could be used. Over the course of "The Witch Queen", Bungie will bring similar Aspects and Fragments to the original Light powers, starting with Void at the launch of "The Witch Queen", followed by Solar in "Season of the Haunted" (Season 17), then Arc in "Season of Plunder" (Season 18). These changes maintain the basic abilities but allow players to modify and mix effects atop these powers. Bungie does plan to introduce additional Darkness powers but does not plan on adding these until after they have completed the Light power conversion within "The Witch Queen".


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: "The Witch Queen" introduces a new weapon type, the glaive, which has both melee and short-range attacks as well as defensive capabilities. Unlike most other weapon drops which have randomized perks, glaives have abilities that can be customized by the player through a new weapon crafting system, which can also be used to craft other types of weapons. Game director Joe Blackburn stated it would not be similar to weapon crafting in massively multiplayer online games, it would not favor experienced players with numerous existing resources over novice players, and would not have pay to win-style mechanics. Blackburn stated this crafting system would allow players to customize a weapon to their playstyle or to shift a weapon within the game's changing meta without having to "farm" for a new version of the weapon. The new Deepsight ability also plays a role in the new weapon crafting system. Players craft weapons at a new location called The Enclave, located on Mars (accessible from within the Throne World location). To craft weapons, players need to obtain weapon patterns (blueprints) from the world or through in-game activities or quests, as well as find and use special "Deepsight Resonance" weapons to unlock and extract crafting materials. Crafting materials can also be purchased from Master Rahool and obtained from Banshee-44 upon accumulating specific amounts of “gunsmith reputation”, which is gained from dismantling weapons and armor. Once a weapon has been crafted, it can then be further upgraded and modified through use in gameplay, unlocking new and enhanced perks. Players also have the ability to further customize their crafted weapons by obtaining cosmetic "Mementos" from certain activities. A weapon can be crafted and modified indefinitely, so as long as the weapon patterns, crafting materials, weapon perks, and other necessary resources are obtained and unlocked for use. Bungie stated that the initial weapons from "The Witch Queen" and its raid and seasonal content, including some exotic weapons, would be the only weapons that can be crafted, but plan to include legacy weapons from previous releases in future seasons. For example within "Season of the Seraph", weapons from the Deep Stone Crypt raid, introduced in the prior expansion "Beyond Light", became craftable.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: In addition to the major story and content added with "The Witch Queen", Bungie divided the year into four seasons. With each season, Power Level minimums and caps were raised by 10 Power levels. Each season offers a free-tier and paid-tier season pass to acquire new gear, game currency, and cosmetics, as well as new activities and triumphs associated with those activities, some of which requires purchase of the season pass to access. Like the previous year (Year 4), seasonal activities and story missions can still be accessed in subsequent seasons for the duration of Year 5 (some triumphs, however, can only be completed during the active season).


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Season of the Risen (Season 16) began with the launch of "The Witch Queen" on February 22, 2022. New and existing players' Power levels were increased to the new minimum Power level of 1350, a soft cap of 1500, with the hard Power level cap set to 1550, and the pinnacle reward cap at 1560. The season added the "PsiOps Battlegrounds" activity, in which the player infiltrates Lucent Brood strongholds within Earth's European Dead Zone and Cosmodrome and on Earth's Moon to locate a Lightbearer Hive lieutenant, then enter its mindscape to capture it with the help of Empress Caiatl's Psions. Completing the activity rewards seasonal weapons and gear with the help of a revamped War Table in the H.E.L.M. The season also introduced an exotic quest called "Vox Obscura" that rewards a new exotic breech-loaded grenade launcher, the Dead Messenger; completing the Master version of the activity rewards its catalyst. This activity has players returning to part of the Mars destination from the original "Destiny" (2014). The seasonal artifact featured during this season was the Synaptic Spear (featuring mods focusing on mid- to long-range weapons and Void abilities).


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Season of the Haunted (Season 17) began on May 24, 2022, with the hard Power level cap being raised to 1560, and the pinnacle reward cap at 1570. It features the return of the Leviathan ship, which previously had been occupied by Emperor Calus, Empress Caiatl's father, now corrupted with Darkness, infesting its halls with Nightmares when it arrives in orbit above Earth's Moon to commune with the Lunar Pyramid. The Solar subclasses were updated for this season to match the same aspect and fragment approach used with Stasis and Void. The season introduced two new activities: "Nightmare Containment", in which players patrol the Leviathan's upper decks to summon Nightmares and destroy them; and "Sever", a weekly mission where players infiltrate the Leviathan's Underbelly section to destroy Nightmares conjured by Emperor Calus. The H.E.L.M. was expanded and updated to support these additional activities, while some areas of the original Leviathan raid are fully explorable as new patrol zones. A new dungeon, "Duality", was released on May 27, 2022, and takes place in the mindscape of Emperor Calus. Among new weapons include the return of Trespasser, an exotic sidearm from the original "Destiny"s "" expansion, as well as weapons from the vaulted Menagerie activity from "" (Season 7), updated with new perks and are able to be crafted at the Mars Relic. The seasonal artifact featured during this season was the Nightmare Harvester (featuring mods focusing on close- to mid-range weapons and Solar abilities).


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Season of Plunder (Season 18) began on August 23, 2022, with the hard Power level cap being raised to 1570, and the pinnacle reward cap at 1580. It featured the return of Mithrax, Kell of Light, his daughter Eido, and the Spider who teamed up with the Drifter and the player Guardian to raid Fallen pirate ships led by the newly thawed Eramis, Kell of Darkness (last seen during "Beyond Light") and her Fallen pirate lords. The Arc subclasses were updated for this season to match the same aspect and fragment approach used with Stasis, Void, and Solar. The season introduced three new activities: "Ketchcrash", in which 6 players engage in ship-to-ship space combat; "Expedition", where 3 players assemble treasure maps and search for treasure while fending off Fallen and Cabal enemies; and "Pirate Hideouts", a weekly mission where players invade pirate lairs throughout the Solar System in search for treasure. The season also sees the return of the "King's Fall" raid from the original "Destiny"'s "The Taken King" expansion. In addition to brand new weapons including those from the reprised "King's Fall" raid, the weapons introduced in the "Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack" were updated with new perks and are now able to be crafted at the Mars Relic. The seasonal artifact featured during this season was the Skeleton Key (featuring mods focusing on mid- to long-range weapons and Arc abilities).


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Season of the Seraph (Season 19) began on December 6, 2022, with the hard Power level cap being raised to 1580, and the pinnacle reward cap at 1590. Serving as prelude to "Lightfall", the season features the return of the Warmind Rasputin, whose consciousness was placed into an engram by Ana Bray following his deactivation by the Black Fleet during "Season of Arrivals", and the Guardian works with her to restore Rasputin into an Exo body while fending off Xivu Arath's Hive and Wrathborn forces. The season introduces a new, 3-player matchmade activity called "Heist Battlegrounds", where Guardians infiltrate Braytech facilities throughout the Solar System and destroy Wrathborn forces within them to obtain Rasputin's submind data. A new exotic quest, "Operation: Seraph's Shield", will be added on December 20, 2022 that will reward a new craftable exotic pulse rifle, the Revision Zero; its multiple catalysts can be obtained over multiple weekly runs of the quest. A new dungeon, "Spire of the Watcher", was released on December 9, 2022, and takes place in a Seraph spire facility on Mars. Tied to the season is the introduction of the annual "Moments of Triumph", featuring triumphs across the various content from "The Witch Queen" and its four seasons. In addition to brand new weapons introduced this season, the weapons featured from the "Warmind" expansion as well as the "Deep Stone Crypt" raid from "Beyond Light" were updated with new perks and are now able to be crafted at the Mars Relic. The seasonal artifact featured during this season is the Seraph Cipher (featuring mods focusing on mid- to long-range weapons and Void, Arc, and Stasis abilities).


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: "The Witch Queen" centers on the titular Savathûn, who along with her siblings Oryx, the Taken King, and Xivu Arath, the Hive God of War, lead the Hive, an undead species that serve the Worm Gods and are closely aligned with the behavior of the Darkness and its Pyramids of the Black Fleet. The Hive follow the Sword Logic, a religious belief that living beings can only justify their existence to live through combat, a tenet that is diametrically opposite to that of the Light, the Traveler, and those that have allied with it, including humanity and the Vanguard.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: Unlike her siblings' focus on combat, Savathûn's methods to serve the Worm Gods has been based on subterfuge and trickery, and had taken steps to prevent the Vanguard from contacting the Darkness as it entered the Solar System (as depicted during ""). During the events of "" a year ago, Savathûn had further manipulated the Vanguard. She claimed to have rescued a weakened Osiris from Xivu Arath from within the Ascendant Realm. She then took his form to influence the Vanguard into strategic alliances with factions of the Cabal and Fallen. During "", Savathûn revealed her true form but was held captive by Queen Mara Sov of the Reef. She made a deal with Mara: she helps to recover the lost Techeuns from the Ascendant Realm and returns Osiris in exchange for Mara's protection from Xivu Arath and her freedom from the Worm Gods, a deal that the Vanguard were wary of. Mara's ritual was successful with the assistance of her rescued Techeuns and she was able to capture Savathûn's worm, but Savathûn herself escaped, leaving behind Osiris' true body.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: "The Witch Queen" begins shortly after Mara's ritual at the end of "Season of the Lost". The planet Mars has suddenly reappeared after being taken by the Darkness over a year ago at the end of "Season of Arrivals". The Vanguard and Ikora Rey's Hidden intelligence agents explore the planet. Ikora and Eris Morn discover evidence of more Darkness artifacts sent by the Pyramids, including the appearance of temporal distortions throughout the planet. They find nearby Cabal activity looking to destroy Savathûn's Hive ship, and the player's Guardian instead uses a Cabal weapon to board the ship and chase down Savathûn. Aboard, they discover that Savathûn is able to wield the power of Light and used that to infuse her Hive warriors, known as the Lucent Brood, with powers similar to that of the Guardians. After defeating a Lightbearer Knight and destroying its Ghost, the Guardian is then lured into Savathûn's Throne World, where they face more of the Lucent Hive and eventually Savathûn herself, who escapes and expels the Guardian from her Throne World.


title: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

text: The Guardian ends up back on Mars where they communicate with Ikora, bewildered over the fact that Savathûn had stolen the Light for herself and for her Hive warriors, and the morality between Light and Darkness has increasingly become blurred. Noticing a Darkness artifact that the Guardian had obtained from Savathûn's ship, Ikora asks them to visit the nearby Pyramid Relic, which has the ability to unlock and manifest memories of any given object. The Guardian activates the Relic by using the artifact, which gives them a power of the Darkness called Deepsight. The Relic also creates a weapon out of the artifact, a glaive called The Enigma, for the Guardian to use in combat; the Guardian is also granted the ability to shape their own weapons through the Relic. Ikora then orders the Guardian to return to Savathûn's Throne World to search for more answers, while giving the Guardian the Synaptic Spear, a Cabal artifact infused with Light-suppression technology, to aid them in the battles to come.