title: William V, Prince of Orange

text: In 1799 the Hereditary Prince took an active part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, engineering the capture of a Batavian naval squadron in the Vlieter Incident. The surrender of the ships (that had been paid for by the Batavian Republic) was formally accepted in the name of William V as stadtholder, who was later allowed to sell them to the Royal Navy (for an appreciable amount). But that was his only success, as the troops suffered from choleric diseases, and civilians at that time were unwilling to re-instate the old regime. The arrogance of the tone in his proclamation, demanding the restoration of the stadtholderate, may not have been helpful, according to Simon Schama.


title: William V, Prince of Orange

text: After the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, in which Great Britain recognised the Batavian Republic, an additional Franco-Prussian Convention of 23 May 1802 declared that the House of Orange would be ceded in perpetuity the domains of Dortmund, Weingarten, Fulda and Corvey in lieu of its Dutch estates and revenues (this became the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda). As far as Napoleon was concerned, this cession was conditional on the liquidation of the stadtholderate and other hereditary offices of the Prince. William V, however, had no interest in towns, territories and abbeys confiscated from other rulers, including alternatives as Würzburg and Bamberg, but wanted what was his due: his arrears in salaries and other financial perquisites since 1795, or a lump sum of 4 million guilders. The foreign minister of the Batavian Republic, Maarten van der Goes, was willing to secretly try to persuade the "Staatsbewind" of the Batavian Republic to grant this additional indemnity, but Napoleon put a stop to it, when he got wind of the affair.


title: William V, Prince of Orange

text: The last of the Dutch stadtholders, William V died in exile at his daughter's palace in Brunswick, now in Germany. His body was moved to the Dutch Royal Family crypt in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft on 29 April 1958.


title: William V, Prince of Orange

text: In 1813, his son, William VI returned to the Netherlands and proclaimed himself king, thus becoming the first Dutch monarch from the House of Orange.


title: William V, Prince of Orange

text: During his life and afterward, William V was a controversial person, in himself, and because he was the unwilling center of a political firestorm that others had caused. Many historians and contemporaries have written short appreciations of him that were often acerbic. Phillip Charles, Count of Alvensleben, who was the Prussian envoy to the Hague from 1787 (so not someone who must be suspected to be prejudiced against William) may be taken as an example. He wrote:


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: Lü Xiaojun (; born 27 July 1984) is a Chinese weightlifter. He is a three-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion competing in the 77 kg category until 2018 and 81 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: Lü was born in a village administered by Qianjiang City, Hubei Province. His father, Lü Yuan, and the rest of his family were farmers. When he was 13 years old he joined a local sports school to be trained as a weightlifter, which was an opportunity to escape rural poverty. In 1999, to remove the financial burden on Lü's family, his coach Dengling Hu sent him to join the provincial team.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: In 2003 Lü represented the Hubei provincial team in the Chinese national weightlifting championships, competing at 69 kg. He won the bronze total for his class. The same year, due to his outstanding performance, he was recruited by the Chinese national team. In 2006 due to ligament injuries in his shoulders and legs, he left the national team. In 2008, after the 2008 Summer Olympics, Lü renewed his training in the national team with coach Yu Jie.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: He has set thirteen senior world records throughout the course of his career, seven at –77 kg and six at –81 kg.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: Heading into the 2012 Summer Olympics Lü was the heavy favorite to win. He ended up winning the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 77 kg class with a total of 379 kg. His snatch of 175 kg set both a world and Olympic record, as did his total of 379 kg, for the 77 kg class. Due to the confusion between Lü and his opponent Lu Haojie's family name, Lü was unable to attempt his third lift of snatch at 177 kg.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: He was again the heavy favorite to win gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He finished the snatch phase with a new world record of 177 kg, but did not win gold due to Nijat Rahimov's clean and jerk world record of 214 kg. Lü and Rahimov had the same total, but Rahimov won due to virtue of a lighter body weight.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: However, due to the doping offences of Rahimov, the gold medal was stripped and Rahimov was disqualified, Lü regained the gold medal in 2022.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Lü dominated the newly established men's 81 kg weightlifting competition by lifting 170 kg and 204 kg in the snatch and clean & jerk phases respectively for a total of 374 kg to win the gold medal. By winning this title, Lü became the oldest weightlifting champion in the history of modern Olympic Games at 37.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: In 2009 he won his first World Weightlifting Championships where he set new Snatch and Total world records. Looking to repeat in 2010 he ended up being the silver medalist, but returned in 2011 to win gold for the second time.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: Lü won 3 gold medals in the 77 kg class at the 2013 World Weightlifting Championships. He broke his own world record in the snatch with a lift of 176 kg. He also completed a 204 kg clean and jerk, setting a new world record total of 380 kg.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: At the 2015 World Weightlifting Championships he won the gold medal in the snatch, but was unable to complete a clean and jerk which eliminated him from winning a fourth world championship.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: In 2018 the International Weightlifting Federation updated the weight classes, and he competed in the newly created 81 kg division. The 81 kg division saw 5 world records set and 11 junior world records set. In the snatch portion, Lü initially set the snatch world record of 172 kg, then Mohamed Ihab in his next attempt lifted 173 kg setting a new world record. In the clean & jerk portion, Mohamed Ihab set 2 new world records in the total with his first two lifts, but he was unable to lift his final clean & jerk of 203 kg. This allowed Lu to win gold with his 202 kg clean & jerk, setting a new world record total of 374 kg, out lifting Mohamed Ihab by 1 kg.


title: Lü Xiaojun

text: Lü married his long-term girlfriend Guo Xiyan, a former world class weightlifter herself, in December 2013. They have two children together, one born in August 2014.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Germaine Maurice Lindsay (23 September 1985 – 7 July 2005), also known as Abdullah Shaheed Jamal, was one of the four Islamist suicide bombers who detonated bombs on three trains on the London Underground and a bus in central London during the 7 July 2005 London bombings, killing 56 people (including themselves), and injuring more than 700. Lindsay detonated the bomb that killed himself and 26 other people on a train travelling on the Piccadilly line between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square tube stations.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Lindsay was born in Jamaica; after moving to Britain at age five, he lived in Dalton, West Yorkshire, where he attended Rawthorpe Junior School and Rawthorpe High School. He subsequently moved to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Lindsay had converted to Islam shortly after his mother, Maryam McCleod Ismaiyl, converted to the faith in 2001 and encouraged him to do the same. He worked part-time as a carpet fitter and supplemented his income by selling covers for mobile phones at a local market.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Lindsay married a woman from Kinnitty, County Offaly, Ireland, in a traditional Islamic religious ceremony, which had no legal recognition in the UK. He divorced her eight days later to marry Samantha Lewthwaite. Lewthwaite, a native of County Down, Northern Ireland, had converted to Islam at the age of 17 after moving to Aylesbury. Lewthwaite lived with him and gave birth to their second child two months after his death.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Abdullah el-Faisal, a controversial imam convicted of attempting to incite sectarian murders in 2003, later claimed to have been close to Lindsay.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Lindsay's wife, Samantha Lewthwaite, denied his involvement until authorities produced forensic evidence to confirm his identity. She later said she abhorred the attacks and that her husband's mind had been poisoned by "radicals".


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: By 2015, she had been accused of causing the deaths of more than 400 people. Now dubbed the 'White Widow', Lewthwaite is an alleged member of the Somalia-based radical Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: Lindsay detonated his bomb, killing 26 people, on a train travelling between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square stations.


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: On 22 July 2005, police and fire services were called to Lindsay's home in Aylesbury after neighbours reported a strong smell of petrol coming from it. It was suspected to be a retaliatory arson attack on the empty property. Later it was revealed in the local press that Lindsay's wife and son were living under


title: Germaine Lindsay

text: "police protection" and would not be returning home. In December 2005, two 17-year-olds were convicted at Aylesbury Crown Court of arson in circumstances where they were reckless as to whether the life of another person would be endangered and each sentenced to 18 months youth detention with a training order.


title: Indian labour law

text: Indian labour law refers to law regulating labour in India. Traditionally, the Indian government at the federal and state levels has sought to ensure a high degree of protection for workers, but in practice, this differs due to the form of government and because labour is a subject in the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution. The Minimum Wages Act 1948 requires companies to pay the minimum wage set by the government alongside limiting working weeks to 40 hours (9 hours a day including an hour of break). Overtime is strongly discouraged with the premium on overtime being 100% of the total wage. The Payment of Wages Act 1936 mandates the payment of wages on time on the last working day of every month via bank transfer or postal service. The Factories Act 1948 and the Shops and Establishment Act 1960 mandate 15 working days of fully paid vacation leave each year to each employee with an additional 7 fully paid sick days. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 gives female employees of every company the right to take 6 months' worth of fully paid maternity leave. It also provides for 6 weeks worth of paid leaves in case of miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and the Employees' State Insurance, governed by statutory acts provide workers with necessary social security for retirement benefits and medical and unemployment benefits respectively. Workers entitled to be covered under the Employees' State Insurance (those making less than Rs 21000/month) are also entitled to 90 days worth of paid medical leaves. A contract of employment can always provide for more rights than the statutory minimum set rights. The Indian parliament passed four labour codes in the 2019 and 2020 sessions. These four codes will consolidate 44 existing labour laws. They are: The Industrial Relations Code 2020, The Code on Social Security 2020, The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and The Code on Wages 2019.


title: Indian labour law

text: Indian labour law is closely connected to the Indian independence movement, and the campaigns of passive resistance leading up to independence. While India was under colonial rule by the British Raj, labour rights, trade unions, and freedom of association were all regulated by the:


title: Indian labour law

text: Workers who sought better conditions, and trade unions who campaigned through strike action were frequently, and violently suppressed. After independence was won in 1947, the Constitution of India of 1950 embedded a series of fundamental labour rights in the constitution, particularly the right to join and take action in a trade union, the principle of equality at work, and the aspiration of creating a living wage with decent working conditions.


title: Indian labour law

text: In the Constitution of India from 1950, articles 14-16, 19(1)(c), 23-24, 38, and 41-43A directly concern labour rights. Article 14 states everyone should be equal before the law, article 15 specifically says the state should not discriminate against citizens, and article 16 extends a right of "equality of opportunity" for employment or appointment under the state. Article 19(1)(c) gives everyone a specific right "to form associations or unions". Article 23 prohibits all trafficking and forced labour, while article 24 prohibits child labour under 14 years old in a factory, mine or "any other hazardous employment".


title: Indian labour law

text: Articles 38-39, and 41-43A, however, like all rights listed in Part IV of the Constitution are not enforceable by courts, rather than creating an aspirational "duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws". The original justification for leaving such principles unenforceable by the courts was that democratically accountable institutions ought to be left with discretion, given the demands they could create on the state for funding from general taxation, although such views have since become controversial. Article 38(1) says that in general the state should "strive to promote the welfare of the people" with a "social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of national life. In article 38(2) it goes on to say the state should "minimise the inequalities in income" and based on all other statuses. Article 41 creates a "right to work", which the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 attempts to put into practice. Article 42 requires the state to "make provision for securing just and human conditions of work and for maternity relief". Article 43 says workers should have the right to a living wage and "conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life". Article 43A, inserted by the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India in 1976, creates a constitutional right to codetermination by requiring the state to legislate to "secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings".


title: Indian labour law

text: Indian labour law makes a distinction between people who work in "organised" sectors and people working in "unorganised sectors". The laws list the ditors to which various labour rights apply. People who do not fall within these sectors, the ordinary law of contract applies.


title: Indian labour law

text: India's labour laws underwent a major update in the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947. Since then, an additional 45 national laws expand or intersect with the 1948 act, and another 200 state laws control the relationships between the worker and the company. These laws mandate all aspects of employer-employee interaction, such as companies must keep 6 attendance logs, 10 different accounts for overtime wages, and file 5 types of annual returns. The scope of labour laws extend from regulating the height of urinals in workers' washrooms to how often a work space must be lime-washed. Inspectors can examine working space anytime and declare fines for violation of any labour laws and regulations.


title: Indian labour law

text: Among the employment contracts that are regulated in India, the regulation involves significant government involvement which is rare in developed countries. The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 requires that employers have terms including working hours, leave, productivity goals, dismissal procedures or worker classifications, approved by a government body. The employment agreement is also governed by the suitable confidentiality, non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and non-compete clause (NCC) in agreements with employees. It has its roots in trade secret legislations under common law and intellectual property law. These may include the type of information that is likely to be disclosed, the manner in which it should be used and restrictions on disclosure post-termination.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 aims at regulating employment of contract labour so as to place it at par with labour employed directly. Women are now permitted to work night shifts too (10 pm to 6 am).


title: Indian labour law

text: The Latin phrase 'dies non' is being widely used by disciplinary authorities in government and industries for denoting the 'unauthorised absence' to the delinquent employees. According to Shri R. P. Saxena, chief engineer, Indian Railways, dies-non is a period which neither counted in service nor considered as break in service. A person can be marked dies-non, if


title: Indian labour law

text: In cases of such willful and unauthorised absence from work, the leave sanctioning authority may decide and order that the days on which the work is not performed be treated as dies non-on the principle of no work no pay. This will be without prejudice to any other action that the competent authority might take against the persons resorting to such practises. The principle of "no work no pay" is widely being used in the banking industry in India. All other manufacturing industries and large service establishments like railways, posts and telecommunications are also implementing it to minimise the incidences of unauthorised absence of workers. The term 'industry' infuses a contractual relationship between the employer and the employee for sale of products and services which are produced through their cooperative endeavor.


title: Indian labour law

text: This contract together with the need to put in efforts in producing goods and services imposes duties (including ancillary duties) and obligations on the part of the employees to render services with the tools provided and in a place and time fixed by the employer. And in return, as a quid pro quo, the employer is enjoined to pay wages for work done and or for fulfilling the contract of employment. Duties generally, including ancillary duties, additional duties, normal duties, emergency duties, which have to be done by the employees and payment of wages therefor. Where the contract of employment is not fulfilled or work is not done as prescribed, the principle of 'no work no pay' is brought into play.


title: Indian labour law

text: In the Labour Law 2021, the government has approved an overtime payment to the employees working more than 15 minutes of scheduled shift. It is applicable from 1 April 2021.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Payment of Wages Act 1936 requires that employees receive wages, on time, and without any unauthorised deductions. Section 6 requires that people are paid in money rather than in kind. The law also provides the tax withholdings the employer must deduct and pay to the central or state government before distributing the wages.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Minimum Wages Act 1948 sets wages for the different economic sectors that it states it will cover. It leaves a large number of workers unregulated. Central and state governments have discretion to set wages according to kind of work and location, and they range between as much as 143 to 1120 per day for work in the so-called central sphere. State governments have their own minimum wage schedules.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 applies to establishments with 10 or more workers. Gratuity is payable to the employee if he or she resigns or retires. The Indian government mandates that this payment be at the rate of 15 days salary of the employee for each completed year of service subject to a maximum of 2000000.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Payment of Bonus Act 1965, which applies only to enterprises with over 20 people, requires bonuses are paid out of profits based on productivity. The minimum bonus is currently 8.33 per cent of salary.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Workmen's Compensation Act 1923 requires that compensation is paid if workers are injured in the course of employment for injuries, or benefits to dependants. The rates are low.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 (repealed in 2020) created the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation of India. This functions as a pension fund for old age security for the organised workforce sector. For those workers, it creates Provident Fund to which employees and employers contribute equally, and the minimum contributions are 10-12 per cent of wages. On retirement, employees may draw their pension.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Employees' State Insurance provides health and social security insurance. This was created by the Employees' State Insurance Act 1948.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act 2008 (repealed in 2020) was passed to extend the coverage of life and disability benefits, health and maternity benefits, and old age protection for unorganised workers. "Unorganised" is defined as home-based workers, self-employed workers or daily-wage workers. The state government was meant to formulate the welfare system through rules produced by the National Social Security Board.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 (repealed in 2020), creates rights to payments of maternity benefits for any woman employee who worked in any establishment for a period of at least 80 days during the 12 months immediately preceding the date of her expected delivery. On 30 March 2017 the President of India Pranab Mukherjee approved the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 which provides for 26-weeks paid maternity leave for women employees.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (repealed in 2020), provides for compulsory contributory fund for the future of an employee after his/her retirement or for his/her dependents in case of employee's early death. It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir and is applicable to:


title: Indian labour law

text: The Code on Social Security, 2020, consolidating 9 central labour enactments relating to social security.


title: Indian labour law

text: Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution of India gives everyone an enforceable right "to form associations or unions".


title: Indian labour law

text: The Trade Unions Act 1926, amended in 2001, contains rules on governance and general rights of trade unions.


title: Indian labour law

text: It is repealed by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. Trade Unions in India historically have had a deleterious effect on industrial peace in India .Great Bombay textile strike


title: Indian labour law

text: It was the view of many in the Indian Independence Movement, including Mahatma Gandhi, that workers had as much of a right to participate in management of firms as shareholders or other property owners. Article 43A of the Constitution, inserted by the Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India in 1976, created a right to codetermination by requiring the state to legislate to "secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings". However, like other rights in Part IV, this article is not directly enforceable but instead creates a duty upon state organs to implement its principles through legislation (and potentially through court cases). In 1978 the Sachar Report recommended legislation for inclusion of workers on boards, however this had not yet been implemented.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Industrial Disputes Act 1947 section 3 created a right of participation in joint work councils to "provide measures for securing amity and good relations between the employer and workmen and, to that end to comment upon matters of their common interest or concern and endeavour to compose any material difference of opinion in respect of such matters". However, trade unions had not taken up these options on a large scale. In "National Textile Workers Union v Ramakrishnan" the Supreme Court, Bhagwati J giving the leading judgment, held that employees had a right to be heard in a winding up petition of a company because their interests were directly affected and their standing was not excluded by the wording of the Companies Act 1956 section 398. It is repealed by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Industrial Disputes Act 1947 regulates how employers may address industrial disputes such as lockouts, layoffs, retrenchment etc. It controls the lawful processes for reconciliation, adjudication of labour disputes.


title: Indian labour law

text: According to fundamental rules (FR 17A) of the civil service of India, a period of unauthorised absence- (i) in the case of employees working in industrial establishments, during a strike which has been declared illegal under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, or any other law for the time being in force; (ii) in the case of other employees as a result of action in combination or in concerted manner, such as during a strike, without any authority from, or valid reason to the satisfaction of the competent authority; shall be deemed to cause an interruption or break in the service of the employee, unless otherwise decided by the competent authority for the purpose of leave travel concession, quasi-permanency and eligibility for appearing in departmental examinations, for which a minimum period of continuous service is required.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 consolidated and amended the laws relating to Trade Unions, conditions of employment in industrial establishment or undertaking, investigation and settlement of industrial disputes. The act combines and simplifies 3 Central Labour Laws.


title: Indian labour law

text: Article 14 states everyone should be equal before the law, article 15 specifically says the state should not discriminate against citizens, and article 16 extends a right of "equality of opportunity" for employment or appointment under the state. Article 23 prohibits all trafficking and forced labour, while article 24 prohibits child labour under 14 years old in a factory, mine or "any other hazardous employment".


title: Indian labour law

text: Article 39(d) of the Constitution provides that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work. In the Equal Remuneration Act 1976 implemented this principle in legislation.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment. Furthermore, the following judicial orders ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 bans discrimination on the basis of caste including in employment and pursuance of profession or trade. The legislation has often been called the "world's most powerful anti-discrimination law".


title: Indian labour law

text: Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, abolishes bonded labour, but estimates suggest that between 2 million and 5 million workers still remain in debt bondage in India.


title: Indian labour law

text: Child labour in India is prohibited by the Constitution, article 24, in factories, mines and hazardous employment, and that under article 21 the state should provide free and compulsory education up to a child is aged 14. However, in practice, the laws are not enforced properly.


title: Indian labour law

text: Some of India's most controversial labour laws concern the procedures for dismissal contained in the Industrial Disputes Act 1947. A workman who has been employed for over a year can only be dismissed if permission is sought from and granted by the appropriate government office. Additionally, before dismissal, valid reasons must be given, and there is a wait of at least two months for government permission, before a lawful termination can take effect.


title: Indian labour law

text: A permanent worker can be terminated only for proven misconduct or for habitual absence. The Industrial Disputes Act (1947) requires companies employing more than 100 workers to seek government approval before they can fire employees or close down. In practice, permissions for firing employees are seldom granted. Indian laws require a company to get permission for dismissing workers with plant closing, even if it is necessary for economic reasons. The government may grant or deny permission for closing, even if the company is losing money on the operation.


title: Indian labour law

text: The dismissed worker has a right to appeal, even if the government has granted the dismissal application. Indian labour regulations provide for a number of appeal and adjudicating authorities – conciliation officers, conciliation boards, courts of inquiry, labour courts, industrial tribunals and the national industrial tribunal – under the Industrial Disputes Act. These involve complex procedures. Beyond these labour appeal and adjudicating procedures, the case can proceed to respective State High Court or finally the Supreme Court of India.


title: Indian labour law

text: Redundancy pay must be given, set at 15 days' average pay for each complete year of continuous service. An employee who has worked for 4 years in addition to various notices and due process, must be paid a minimum of the employee's wage equivalent to 60 days before retrenchment, if the government grants the employer a permission to lay off.


title: Indian labour law

text: The Industries (Regulation and Development) Act 1951 declared that manufacturing industries under its First Schedule were under common central government regulations in addition to whatever laws state government enact. It reserved over 600 products that can only be manufactured in small-scale enterprises, thereby regulating who can enter in these businesses, and above all placing a limit on the number of employees per company for the listed products. The list included all key technology and industrial products in the early 1950s, including products ranging from certain iron and steel products, fuel derivatives, motors, certain machinery, machine tools, to ceramics and scientific equipment.


title: Indian labour law

text: Each state in India may have special labour regulations in certain circumstances. Every state in India makes its own regulations for the Central Act. The regulations may vastly differ from state to state. The forms and procedures used will be different in each state. The Central Government is in the process on simplifying these multiple state laws into 4 Labour Codes. They are Code on 1. Wages, 2. Social Security and Welfare, 3. Industrial Relations, 4. Occupational Safety and Health and Working Conditions.<ref.</ref>


title: Indian labour law

text: In 2004 the State of Gujarat amended the Industrial Disputes Act to allow greater labour market flexibility in the Special Export Zones of Gujarat. The law allows companies within SEZs to lay off redundant workers, without seeking the permission of the government, by giving a formal notice and severance pay.


title: Indian labour law

text: The West Bengal government revised its labour laws making it virtually impossible to shut down a loss-making factory. The West Bengal law applies to all companies within the state that employ 70 or more employees.


title: Indian labour law

text: According to a World Bank report in 2008, heavy reform would be desirable. The executive summary stated,


title: Indian labour law

text: Ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 had said that new labour laws are needed, however no reforms were made to effect.


title: Indian labour law

text: In Uttam Nakate case, the Bombay High Court held that dismissing an employee for repeated sleeping on the factory floor was illegal - a decision which was overturned by the Supreme Court of India. However, it took two decades to complete the legal process. In 2008, the World Bank criticised the complexity, lack of modernisation and flexibility in Indian regulations.


title: Out of the Past

text: Out of the Past (billed in the United Kingdom as Build My Gallows High) is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) from his 1946 novel "Build My Gallows High" (also written as Homes), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M. Cain.


title: Out of the Past

text: Its complex, fatalistic storyline, dark cinematography, and classic "femme fatale" garnered the film critical acclaim and cult status. In 1991, the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress added "Out of the Past" to the United States National Film Registry of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” films.


title: Out of the Past

text: Joe Stefanos arrives in Bridgeport, California, a rural mountain town, seeking Jeff Bailey, who owns a local gas station. Bailey is fishing with Ann Miller. They are in love. (Her lifelong friend Jim is jealous.) The Kid, Jeff's deaf-mute employee and friend, interrupts them, signing to Jeff. At the station, Stefanos tells Jeff that he must go to Lake Tahoe to meet "Whit." Jeff invites Ann to ride with him. He tells her about his past in a flashback.


title: Out of the Past

text: Bailey's real last name is Markham. He and Jack Fisher were partners, private investigators in New York. Whit Sterling, a gambling kingpin, hires Markham—solo—to find Whit's girlfriend, Kathie Moffat, who shot him and stole $40,000. Whit promises she will not be harmed.


title: Out of the Past

text: Jeff eventually corners Kathie in Acapulco. She seduces him. She admits that she shot Whit, but denies taking his money. Eventually, Jeff proposes that they run away together. Whit and Stefanos arrive. Jeff says that Kathie is on a south-bound steamer. Whit instructs Jeff to keep looking for her.


title: Out of the Past

text: The couple flee to San Francisco. Fisher, now working for Whit, spots Jeff at the track. Jeff arranges to meet Kathie at a mountain cabin, but Fisher follows Kathie and tries to blackmail them. The two men brawl. Kathie deliberately kills Fisher and drives away, leaving behind a bank book showing a balance of $40,000.


title: Out of the Past

text: The flashback ends. Jeff wants to clean things up and return to Ann. Ann leaves him at Whit's estate. A cheerful Whit tells Jeff he has a job for him. Jeff is startled when Kathie appears at breakfast. She comes to his room; he tells her to get out.


title: Out of the Past

text: Leonard Eels, a crooked San Francisco lawyer, helped Whit dodge $1 million in taxes and is blackmailing him. Whit wants Jeff to recover the incriminating records. Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, explains the plan to Jeff, who suspects he is being framed. That night, at Eels' apartment, Jeff alerts Eels, obliquely, promising to return. After they leave, Jeff trails Meta, then returns and finds Eels dead. He hides the body.


title: Out of the Past

text: In Meta's apartment, Jeff overhears Kathie arranging for the discovery of Eels' body. When the hidden body is not found, she believes Eels has escaped. Jeff confronts her and Kathie reveals that she gave Whit a signed affidavit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher. She says they can start all over again. They kiss, he leaves. Stefanos arrives and confirms that he killed Eels.


title: Out of the Past

text: Jeff consigns the tax papers to a delivery service. Whit's thugs capture him. He offers the incriminating records in exchange for the affidavit, without implicating Kathie. When Kathie and Meta arrive at Eels' apartment to retrieve the affidavit, the police are already there. They instead phone Whit.


title: Out of the Past

text: Jeff becomes wanted for the murders of Fisher and Eels and police expect him to return to Bridgeport. Stefanos, directed by Kathie, trails the Kid to the gorge where Jeff is hiding out. The Kid spots Stefanos poised to shoot Jeff and hooks his coat with a fishing line, accidentally pulls him over to his death. Jeff returns to Whit's mansion to inform them of Stefanos death and to tell Whit about Kathie's doublecross. He suggests making Stefanos' death look like a guilt-ridden suicide after his murder of Eels. He will return the records if Whit destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her over to the police for Fisher's death. Whit accepts, promising Kathie he will kill her if she does not cooperate.


title: Out of the Past

text: Jeff meets Ann in the woods. She believes in him, but tells him to be absolutely sure of what he wants. She will wait.


title: Out of the Past

text: Jeff discovers that Kathie has killed Whit. She gives him a choice: run away with her or take the blame for all three murders. He dials the phone while she is upstairs. They leave in a car with Jeff driving. Seeing a police roadblock ahead, Kathie shoots him. She fires at the police. A machine gun riddles the car with bullets, killing her.


title: Out of the Past

text: In Bridgeport, Ann asks the Kid if Jeff was going away with Kathie. Lying, the Kid nods his head. Ann gets into Jim's car, and the Kid smiles, saluting Jeff's name on the gas station's sign.


title: Out of the Past

text: "Out of the Past" was produced by RKO Pictures, and the key personnel—director Jacques Tourneur, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, actors Mitchum and Greer, along with Albert S. D'Agostino's design group—were long-time RKO collaborators. Although the studio focused on making B-films during the early 1940s, the post-World War-II "Out of the Past" was given a comparatively lavish budget.


title: Out of the Past

text: John Garfield and Dick Powell turned down the lead. Kirk Douglas, in only his third credited screen performance, plays a supporting role but a central part in the story as Mitchum's antagonist. The next time Mitchum and Douglas played major roles in the same picture was in the 1967 Western "The Way West", alongside Richard Widmark.


title: Out of the Past

text: "Out of the Past" is considered one of the greatest of all films noir. Robert Ottoson hailed the film as "the "ne plus ultra" of forties film noir". Bosley Crowther, the film critic for "The New York Times" in 1947, complimented the crime drama's direction and performances, although he did find the latter portion of the screenplay hard to follow:


title: Out of the Past

text: Shortly after the film's release, the staff of the widely read trade publication "Variety" also gave it a positive review:


title: Out of the Past

text: Decades later, in his 2004 assessment of the film for the "Chicago Sun-Times", critic Roger Ebert noted:With regard to the production's stylish and moody cinematography, Ebert also dubbed the film "The greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time":


title: Out of the Past

text: The film holds a score of 93% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 9/10, based on 40 reviews.


title: Out of the Past

text: "Out of the Past" was remade as "Against All Odds" (1984) with Rachel Ward in the Greer role, Jeff Bridges filling in for Mitchum, and James Woods as a variation of Kirk Douglas' villain, with Jane Greer as the mother of her original character in "Out of the Past" and Richard Widmark in a supporting role.


title: Gina Schock

text: Regina Ann Schock (born August 31, 1957) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band The Go-Go's.


title: Gina Schock

text: Schock's career began as drummer for Edie and the Eggs, a band assembled to feature the John Waters star Edith Massey. After her stint in Edie and the Eggs, Schock relocated to Los Angeles, California. Soon after, in 1979, she joined The Go-Go's, replacing Elissa Bello as the band's drummer. Schock recorded and toured steadily with The Go-Go's until the group disbanded in 1985 and reformed a few years later. She had open-heart surgery before the tour supporting the band's 1984 album "Talk Show". The Go-Go's announced their breakup in 1985, but played reunion gigs in 1990 and 1994.


title: Gina Schock

text: In 1985, Schock was occasionally seen on television appearances as the drummer of the Norwegian band a-ha. However, this was just for promo on television, as she was never part of the official band. In 1987, Schock and Vance DeGeneres formed the band House of Schock. In 1997, she joined Dominique Davalos and Kathy Valentine's band The Delphines.


title: Gina Schock

text: In 1997, Schock sued the other members of The Go-Go's for unpaid royalties. She demanded $100,000 in compensation and an accounting, claiming that she had not received any income from the band since 1986.


title: Gina Schock

text: Schock co-wrote, with Ted Bruner and Trey Vittetoe, the title track of Miley Cyrus' 2008 album, "Breakout". The song was previously recorded by Katy Perry. She also co-wrote "Naturally", recorded in 2009 by Selena Gomez.


title: Gina Schock

text: The Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020; however, in May of that year the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022.


title: Gina Schock

text: Schock's book, "Made in Hollywood: All Access With the Go-Go's", was published in 2021. The book consists of her photos of the Go-Go's and Schock's own writing. It also features writing from Jodie Foster, Paul Reubens, Martha Quinn, Kate Pierson, Dave Stewart, and members of the band, including a foreword from Kathy Valentine.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Nakh peoples, also known as Vainakh peoples (Chechen/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush), are a group of Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen (including the Chechen sub-ethnos, the Kists, in Georgia), Ingush and Bats peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical groups.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Nakh peoples and Vainakh peoples are two terms that were coined by Soviet ethnographers such as the Ingush ethnographer Zaurbek Malsagov. The reasoning behind the creation of these terms was to unite the closely related nations of Chechen and Ingush into one term. The terms "Vainakh" (our people) and "Nakh" (people) were first used as a term to unite two peoples in 1928. It was subsequently popularized by other Soviet authors, poets, and historians such as Mamakaev and Volkova in their research. According to the historian Victor Schnirelmann, the terms "Vainakh" and "Nakh" were introduced more actively during the period from the 1960s through the 1980s.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Before 1920s however, there was a unifying term for both Chechens and Ingush used by 19th century Russian generals, historians, ethnographers and cartographers. This term was "Nakhchi", or the modern lowland version of "Nokhchi", the term today is only used by Chechens and Kists. Historically, however, this term included peoples such as Ingush and Batsbi. The famous 19th century historian B. K. Dalgat who worked extensively in Ingushetia, wrote a lot about Chechen and Ingush ethnography. According to him, the term "Nakhchuy/Nakhchiy" was already a unifying term for both Ingush and Chechens. This is not the case today, as most, if not all, Ingush would reject the Nakhchi ethnonym and consider it foreign. The rejection of this ethnonym was also recorded in 1872 by the ethnographer Umalat Laudaev who wrote:


title: Nakh peoples

text: The term "Nakhchi" was still used by historians and ethnographers for Chechens, Ingush and Batsbi up until the 20th century before it was replaced by the Vainakh/Nakh term in the 1960s. Russian historian Adolf Berge used this term for both Chechens and Ingush in 1859. The famous Russian linguist Peter von Uslar, who studied the North Caucasian languages, also referred to both nations in 1888 as "Nakhche". This term was also used by Potto, Veidenbaum, Gan, Dubrovin and many others during the 19th century.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The oldest mention of "Nakhchiy" occurred in 1310 by the Georgian Patriarch Cyril Donauri, who mentions the "People of Nakhche" among Tushetians, Avars and many other Northeast Caucasian nations. The term "Nakhchiy" has also been connected to the city Nakhchivan and the nation of Nakhchamatyan (mentioned in the 7th-century Armenian work "Ashkharhatsuyts") by many Soviet and modern historians. Chechen manuscripts in Arabic from the early 1820s do mention a certain "Nakhchuvan" (near modern-day Kagizman, Turkey) as the homeland of all Nakhchiy.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The etymology of "Nakhchi" is believed to have come from "Nakh" (people) + "-chi" (suffix) or "Nakh" (people) + "Chuo" (territory). Whatever the case, most historians and linguists agree that the ethnonym includes the term "Nakh" (people). It is because of this assumption that many historians such as Potto, Berger, Gan, Dubrovin believed that it meant "the nation".


title: Nakh peoples

text: Traditionally, Nakh peoples were known as a society with a highly developed and complex clan system. Individuals are united in family groups called "Tsa" – house. Several Tsa's are part of the "Gar" -branch or "Nekh"-road, a group of Gar's is in turn called a teip, a unit of tribal organization of Vainakh people. Teip has its own Council of Elders and unites people from the political, economic and military sides. Teips leave all cases to the democratically elected representatives of houses i.e. "Tsa". The number of participants of Teipan-Kheli depends on the number of houses.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Some believe that most teips made unions called tukkhums, a military-economic or military-political union of teips. However, this has been heavily disputed by several historians and ethnographers, including Dalgat who claims that most Chechens never used tukkhums. He also claims that they were only used by some societies in the lowlands.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The national scale issues were addressed through Mehk-Khel, the People's Council. Representatives of the Council were elected by each Teip Council and had an enormous influence on the destiny of the people. They could start a war or prohibit and prevent any teip from starting one. Mehk-Khel could gather in different places at different times. It used to gather in Terloy-Mokhk and Akkhi-Mokhk's Galain-Chozh region. A gigantic Mehk-Kheli stone still stands in Galain-Chozh, around which Mehk-Kheli members solved issues.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Chechen-Ingush society has always been egalitarian, unstratified, and classless. Traditionally, there was no formal political organization and no political or economic ranking.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Many observers, including famous Russians such as Leo Tolstoy, have been very impressed by the democratic nature of the indigenous Chechen governments prior to Russian conquest. According to the Western Ichkerophile Tony Wood, the Vainakh peoples, in particular the Chechens (as the Ingush and the Batsbi have fallen under foreign domination much more frequently and as a result, the indigenous system and democratic values are less deeply ingrained), could be described as one of the few nations in the world with an indigenous system highly resemblant of democracy (others cited are often Scots, Albanians and Basques; notably, all three, much like the Vainakh peoples, are mountain dwelling peoples with a clan-based social organization and a strong attachment to the concept of freedom). In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a couple of Circassian tribes overthrew their traditional aristocracy and established a democratic, egalitarian society, with some adoptions from the Nakh system. This advance, which may have spread eventually to all of the Circassian tribes, was halted by their political state being annihilated by Russian conquest, a fate later shared by the rest of the Caucasus.


title: Nakh peoples

text: It is notable that the Chechen and Ingush systems, as well as the system later adopted from them by some Eastern Circassian tribes, resembles the typical Western democratic republic. It has a central government with a legislative body (the Mehk-Khel), a body resemblant of an executive branch (the Mehk-Khetasho) as well as a judicial branch (the other councils). The adat and other bodies have served as the constitution. The members of all three of the main national councils of the nation were elected, producing an indigenous democracy of the Nakh peoples.


title: Nakh peoples

text: During the Soviet Union period, as well as during the Ramzan Kadyrov's regime, the Teip-Council system was strongly criticized by the federal and local administration installed in Chechnya and Ingushetia, who viewed it as a destabilizing force and an obstacle to maintaining order. They said that such a system was illustrative of the anarchic nature of the Caucasian ethos.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The democratic and egalitarian nature, the values of freedom and equality of Chechen society have been cited as factors contributing to their resistance to Russian rule (in addition, there was no elite to be coopted by Tsarist authorities, as Wood notes).


title: Nakh peoples

text: A characteristic feature of Vainakh architecture in the Middle Ages, rarely seen outside Chechnya and Ingushetia, was the Vainakh tower. This was a kind of multi-floor structure that was used for dwelling or defense (or both). Nakh tower architecture and construction techniques reached their peak from the 15th to 17th centuries.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Residential towers had two or three floors, supported by a central pillar of stone blocks, and were topped with flat shale roofing. These towers have been compared in character to the prehistoric mountain settlements dating to 8000 BC.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Military ("combat") towers were 25 meters high or more, with four of five floors and a square base approximately six meters wide. Access to the second floor was through a ladder. The defenders fired at the enemy through loopholes. The top of the tower had "mashikul" – overhanging small balconies without a floor. These towers were usually crowned with pyramid-shaped roofing built in steps and topped with a sharpened capstone.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Buildings combining the functions of residential and military towers were intermediate in size between the two types, and had both loop-holes and "mashikuls". Nakh towers used to be sparingly decorated with religious or symbolic petrographs, such as solar signs or depictions of the author's hands, animals, etc. Military towers often bore a Golgotha cross.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Lack of arable land in sufficient quantities in the mountainous areas forced Vainakhs to use their territory of residence as efficiently as possible. They leveled the steep slopes, organized terraces suitable for agriculture. On the barren rocky slopes of rocks, which are unsuitable for agriculture, Vainakhs hew foundations for terraces. On carts harnessed donkeys and oxen, they brought black soil of the lowlands, and filled with it artificial terraces. For maximum harvest was organized by the entire irrigation system, which consisted of a small artificial stream canals connected with the mountain rivers, these canals were called Taatol, they also built a small stone canals called Epala, and quite small wooden troughs Aparri. Some scholars notably I. Diakonov and S. Starostin proposed that Epala and Aparri may correspond to Urartian irrigation canal name "pili" and Hurrian "pilli/a".


title: Nakh peoples

text: Carts and carriages made by Vainakh masters were highly valued in the region and beyond. Products of Vainakh masters brought power not only to the Caucasian peoples, but also by such excess power to the established industry of Russia. To support non-competitive domestic producers, Russia overlaid Vainakh manufacturers with large fees. At this complaining Terek Cossacks in their letters to Russian Government, despite the fact that they are a natural enemy of the tree. In 1722 the Russian Army bought 616 vehicles for 1308 rubles, at a time when the annual salary of the governor of the three villages was only 50 rubles.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Since ancient times, the Ingush and Chechens have been producing thin felt carpets called "Istang". Ingush and Chechen rugs are distinguished by a peculiar pattern and high quality. Jacob Reineggs, who visited the region in the 18th century, noticed that Chechen and Ingush women skillfully manufactured carpets and fringes. "Istang" - in translation into the Ingush language, it literally means "wives", since this was more of a female occupation. Vainakh carpets were divided among themselves into different groups dependent on patterns:


title: Nakh peoples

text: Only a few fragments of Vainakh mythology have survived to modern times. These fragments consist of the names of deities personifying elements of animist ideas, Nart saga, cosmogonic tradition, remnants of stock-breeding and landtilling, totemic beliefs and folk calendar.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The greatest samples of Nakh mythology are the legends of Pkharmat, Galanchoge Lake, the epic war of Pkhagalberi (hare riders) dwarves against Narts, Kezanoi Lake, and myths about how sun, moon and stars appeared.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Nakh myth of the legendary Pkharmat being shackled on Mount Kazbek by God Sela because he has stolen heavenly fire from him shows some parallels with Greek Myth of Prometheus and Georgian Amirami.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The legendary war of Pkhalberi (hare riders) dwarves against Narts can be compared to Greek "Crane and Pygmies war" by Said-Magomed Khasiev


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Golden Fleece myth seems to be bound to Nakh 11 years calendar tradition. In such a myth, ram skin was placed in an oak frame "Jaar" for 11 years, and produced golden fleece named "Dasho Ertal".


title: Nakh peoples

text: This legend has explicit parallels with Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, Grecian Baucis and Philemon, and the Islamic Lot. It relates that there once stood a very rich town at the place where now there is only a lake. Despite their great wealth, the people of this town were afflicted with insatiable greed and covetousness. Thus it came to pass that the supreme god Dela sent his representatives in the guise of beggars, to test them. They begged the wealthy citizens to give them food, but were driven away with only blows and curses in return. Only one poor family in the village shared their food with them, keeping only a morsel of burnt bread for themselves, while giving an unburnt loaf of fine white bread to their guests. On leaving the house, the grateful strangers told the family that after some time had passed, water would begin to form puddles outside their front door, and that when this happened they should gather up only the barest of necessities, leave their home, and go to the mountains. The poor family heeded this advice, but, before departing for higher ground, warned the rich of the town of the impending disaster, and begged them to follow them, but, such was the avarice of the rich folk, that they would not abandon their treasures - not even to save themselves from a watery grave. That evening, the family watched from the mountains as a terrible catastrophe unfolded: they saw the water cover their house and with it the greedy folk who had stayed behind. To commemorate the terrible flood, the Vainakhs named the newly-formed lake Kouzan-am/Kezenoyam ‘lake of sorrow and cruelty’.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Interestingly, the tradition of an ancient settlement associated with the lake is borne out by the archeological record for the area: traces of human habitation dating back as far as 40,000 BC have been found near Kouzan-am. Cave paintings, artifacts, and other archaeological evidence bear witness to continuous habitation for some 8,000 years. People living in these settlements used tools, fire, and clothing made of animal skins.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Legend has it that two women once decided to wash their laundry in the purest water to be found near their village, and that this water proved to be that of the sacred Lake Galain-am, abode of Tusholi, daughter of the Vainakh supreme deity Dela. The goddess, outraged at such sacrilege, punished the offenders by turning them into two stones. This, however, did not solve the problem of the ritually impure lake and the enraged goddess could no longer bear to dwell in its sullied waters. Emerging from them, she assumed the form of a supernatural bull, and began systematically to destroy the villages that dotted the hillside. This destruction continued until, at last, the bull was tamed in the aul of Ame in the area named Galain-Chazh (after the Galay-teip, a clan later deported "en masse" to Kazakhstan in 1944). The inhabitants of Galain-Chazh harnessed the energies of the newly-tamed animal, availing themselves of its mighty strength to plough their fields; but the following Spring torrential rain began to fall upon the fields which the sacred animal had ploughed. This pelting rain continued to flood the fields until at last they disappeared beneath the waters of a new lake, into which Tusholi gratefully disappeared, rejoicing in the purity of her newly-formed abode.


title: Nakh peoples

text: In ancient Nakh cosmology, the universe was created by the supreme god Dela. Earth, created in three years, was three times larger than the heavens and was propped up on gigantic bull horns. The realm of the Vainakh Gods lay above the clouds. Ishtar-Deela was the ruler of the subterranean world, Deeli-Malkhi. Deeli-Malkhi was larger than the human realm and took seven years to create. Nakhs believed that when the sun sets in the west it goes to the netherworld and rises out of it in the East. Deeli-Malkhi was not an evil realm of the dead or undead, but not far removed in morality from the upper world - even superior to it in some respects - most notably in its social structures. Unlike in certain other religions, there was no judgment in the afterlife.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Dela-Malkh was the sun god playing a central role in religious celebrations. On 25 December Nakhs celebrated Sun Festival in honour of the Sun God's birthday.


title: Nakh peoples

text: During the Middle Ages, Vainakh society felt a strong Byzantine influence that led to the adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in some parts of the country (particularly the mountainous South). However, Christianity did not last long. After the devastation of the country by Tamerlane, Christianity was eroded (due to the temporary loss of contacts between Georgia and Nakh Christians) and gradually the Chechens and Ingush returned to their native, pagan beliefs (while the Bats were permanently Christianized). Islam began to spread on Nakh peoples lands from 16th and 17th centuries.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Vainakhs are predominantly Muslim of the Shafi`i school of thought of Sunni Islam. The majority of Chechens (approx. 2 million) and Ingush (approx. 700,000 people) are Muslim of the Shafi`i school. Kists (about 7,100 people) are mainly Sunni Muslims with a Georgian Orthodox minority, while Bats (approx. 3,000 people) are Christian (Georgian Orthodox).


title: Nakh peoples

text: By rite, most Chechens are Qadiris, with a considerable Naqshbandi minority. There is also a tiny Salafi minority (Sunni sect). The two main groups (Salafism is more of a modern introduction to the region, and is still considered to be completely foreign) have often had divergent responses to events (for example, the Qadiri authorities initially backing the Bolsheviks who promised to grant freedom to the Chechens from Russia; while the Naqshbandis were more sceptical of the Bolsheviks' sincerity).


title: Nakh peoples

text: However, as is also the case with other Caucasian groups, such as the Georgians, Abkhaz, and Circassians, Islam did not wipe out all traces of the native religion. Many Chechens and Ingush even refer to the God of the Muslim religion (usually "Allah", from Arabic) as "Dela", who is the head god of the original Nakh pantheon (parallel to how Georgians refer to the Christian God as Ghmerti, their original main god). The Nakh interpretation of Sharia often is more resemblant of the adat than of Sharia as practiced in other Muslim countries, though some note that this may actually be closer to the original intent in some ways. There is a saying that "Muhammad may have been an Arab, but Allah is Chechen for sure", emphasizing this attitude towards the restrictive Islam of the Middle East that is often imagined in the West as representing the behavior and culture of all Muslims. Despite syncretism, most Nakh peoples are often regarded as either "Muslim people" (in the case of Ingush, Kists and Chechens), or as "Orthodox Christian people" (Batsbi). Nonetheless, worship of the original pantheon for the most part has no modern continuity and was replaced by Islam, despite some syncretism (i.e. building mosques consistently near streams, where temples were, reverence for the adat, etc.).


title: Nakh peoples

text: There is considerable tension among Chechens about religion. This largely asserts itself in the conflict between the pan-Islamist/Wahhabi/Salafi creed which vows to "cleanse Islam of impurity and syncretism" (i.e. de-Chechenize Islam in Chechnya to bring it more in line with global Islam), and those who view the indigenous form as superior, or otherwise as a national custom to be defended. Among the claimant governments for the land of Ichkeria, both the Western exiled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian installed Kadyrov regime are largely hostile to Wahhabism/Salafism, while the reaction of the Caucasus Emirate is considerably more positive, though still at times rather uncomfortable towards it (see certain statements by Dokka Umarov, for example). The Kadyrov government, meanwhile, opposes Wahhabism in name, but still rules Chechnya with a rather harsh interpretation of Sharia law, including banning of bare-headed women in public, mandatory Qu'ran study in schools (with the interpretation favored by the government promoted), the death penalty for suspected homosexuality and so on. The exiled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, meanwhile, has consistently stated both that the indigenous interpretation is a national trait (to be preserved) and that Ichkeria should be a secular national state, and while Islam may certainly be a part of the Chechen identity at times, it is certainly neither a requirement nor more important than any other aspect.


title: Nakh peoples

text: This attitude has been largely prevalent (except for in 1998 when Maskhadov briefly allowed Sharia courts to appear due to intense pressure from his opponents, including Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev, in an attempt to find unity by compromise). It is noted by many observers, Chechen, Russian (such as Valery Tishkov) and Western (such as Paul B. Henze, as well as Tony Wood and Anatol Lieven), that often, as seen in countries like Turkey and Albania, nationalist imagery and symbols — particularly the wolf, an animal viewed as symbolic of the Chechen nation — is given far more importance than religion.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Burial vaults or crypts remained from the pagan period in the history of Vainakhs, before some of them converted to Islam in the 16th century (Islam has spread throughout the entire region only in the 17th century). They were built either a bit deepening into the ground or half underground and on the surface. The latter formed whole "towns of the dead" on the outskirts of the villages and reminded sanctuaries from the outside, with a dummy vaults constructed of overlapping stones. The deceased were placed on the special shelves in the crypts, in clothes and decorations and arms.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The general Islamic rituals established burials with the further penetration of Islam inside the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Stone steles, churts, inscribed with prayers and epitaphs, began to be erected at the graves and more prosperous mountaineers were honoured with mausoleums after death. The Borgha-Kash Mausoleum dating to the very beginning of the 15th century and built for a Noghai prince is a good example of this.


title: Nakh peoples

text: A 2011 study by Oleg Balanovsky and a number of other geneticists showed that the Y-DNA haplogroup J2a4b* (a subclade of J2, located mainly in the Middle East, Caucasus and Mediterranean) was highly associated with Nakh peoples. J2a4b* accounted for the majority of the Y-chromosomes of Ingush and Chechen men, with the Ingush having a much higher percentage, 87.4%, than Chechens, who had 51–58% depending on region (the lowest being in Malgobek, the highest in Dagestan and Achkhoy-Martan). In their paper, Balanovsky "et al." speculated that the differences between fraternal Caucasian populations may have arisen due to genetic drift, which would have had a greater effect among the Ingush than the Chechens due to their smaller population. The Chechens and the Ingush have the highest frequencies of J2a4b* yet reported (other relatively high frequencies, between 10 and 20 percent, are found in the Mediterranean and Georgia).


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Vainakh have been referred to by various names, including "Durdzuks" in medieval Arab, Georgian and Armenian ethnography.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Historical linguists, including Johanna Nichols, have connected ancestral Nakh languages and their distant relatives to a Neolithic migration from the Fertile Crescent.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Another view, not necessarily contradicting the previous one, posits a migration of Nakh into their present location in the North Caucasus during the classical era, following the collapse of Urartu.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Igor Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin have suggested that Nakh is distantly related to Hurro-Urartian, which they included as a branch of the Northeastern Caucasian language family (which were dubbed Alarodian languages by Diakonoff). Several studies argue that the connection is probable. Other scholars, however, doubt that the language families are related, or believe that, while a connection is possible, the evidence is far from conclusive. Various interpretations of the Nakh-Urartian relationship exist: another, held by Kassian (2011), is that Urartian and Nakh's common vocabulary instead reflects a history of intense borrowing from Urartian into Nakh.


title: Nakh peoples

text: According to Amjad Jaimoukha, the mythological Gargareans, a group who migrated from eastern Asia Minor to the North Caucasus mentioned by Greek writer Strabo, are connected to the Nakh root "gergara", meaning "kindred" in proto-Nakh. However, Jaimoukha's theory is unlikely as Strabo and other ancient Greek writers considered the Gargareans to be Greeks.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The following is a list of historical or prehistoric peoples who have been proposed as speakers of Nakh languages.


title: Nakh peoples

text: According to Georgian scholars I. A. Djavashvili and Giorgi Melikishvili the Urartuan state of Supani was occupied by the ancient Nakh tribe Tzov, the state of which is called Tsobena in ancient Georgian historiography. Sophene was part of the kingdom of Urartu from the 8th to 7th centuries BCE. After uniting the region with his kingdom in the early 8th century BCE, king Argishtis I of Urartu resettled many of its inhabitants to his newly built city of Erebuni. However, Djavashvili's and Melikishvili's theory is not widely accepted.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Jaimoukha argued that the Vainakhs are descended from the Gargarei, a mythological tribe who are mentioned in the Geographica of Strabo (1st century BCE) and in Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder (1st century CE). Strabo wrote that "... the Amazons live close to Gargarei, on the northern foothills of the Caucasus mountains". Gaius Plinius Secundus also localizes Gargarei as living north of the Caucasus, but calls them Gegar. Some scholars (P. K. Uslar, K. Miller, N. F. Yakovleff, E. I. Krupnoff, L. A. Elnickiy, I. M. Diakonoff, V. N. Gamrekeli) supported the proposal that Gargarei is an earlier form of the Vainakh ethnonym. Jaimoukha notes that "Gargarean" is one of many Nakh root words - gergara, meaning, in fact, "kindred" in proto-Nakh. If this is the case, it would make Gargarei virtually equivalent to the Georgian term "Dzurdzuk" (referring to the lake Durdukka in the South Caucasus, where they are thought to have migrated from, as noted by Strabo, before intermixing with the local population) which they applied to a Nakh people who had migrated north across the mountains to settle in modern Chechnya and Ingushetia.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Despite Jaimoukha's claims, Strabo suggests that the Gargareans were Aeolian Greeks and locates their homeland Gargara in Troad, in the far west of modern Turkey.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Tsanars were a people of East-Central Northern Georgia, living in an area around modern Khevi. Tsanaria was their state, and it distinguished itself by the decisive role it and its people played in fending off the Arab invasion of Georgia. Their language is thought by many historians (including Vladimir Minorsky and Amjad Jaimoukha) to be Nakh, based on placenames, geographic location, and other such evidence. However, there is opposition to the theory that theirs was a Nakh language. Others claim they spoke a Sarmatian language like Ossetic. The Tsanars, too, eventually were assimilated within Georgiandom.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Ghlighvi has been a historical name for the Ingush, possibly deriving from their ethnonym "Ghalghaj". It was first mentioned by Vakhushti of Kartli in 1745, a Georgian noble, who noted that they split off from the Durdzuks.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Dvals were a historic people living in modern-day South Ossetia and some nearby regions, as well as the southern parts of North Ossetia (South and West of the Gligvs, South and East of the Malkh). They integrated themselves into the Georgian kingdom and produced a number of fine Georgian calligraphers and historians. They also produced an Orthodox saint: Saint Nicholas of Dvaleti. The language of the Dvals is thought to be Nakh by many historians, though there is a rival camp which argues for its status as a close relative of Ossetic. Another theory posits that the Dvals were of Karvelian (Georgian) origin. Various evidence given to support the Nakh theory (Different scholars use different arguments.) includes the presence of Nakh placenames in former Dval territory, taken as evidence of Nakh–Svan contact, which probably would have indicated the Nakh nature of the Dvals or of people there before them, and the presence of a foreign-origin Dval clan among the Chechens. The Dvals were assimilated by the Georgians and the Ossetians. It is thought that Dval did not become fully extinct until the 18th century, making the Dvals the most recent Nakh people known to have disappeared.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Malkhs were a Nakh people, who were deemed to be the westernmost Nakh people, and made an alliance with the Greek Bosporus Kingdom.


title: Nakh peoples

text: Durdzuk is a medieval ethnonym used mainly in Georgian, Armenian and Arabic sources in the 9th-18th centuries, in which most researchers identify the Durdzuks as the ancestors of modern Chechens and Ingush. Some researchers localize the Durdzuks in the mountainous Ingushetia and identify them with the Ingush, others believe that during the Middle Ages the population of Chechnya was known to the South Caucasian peoples under the name "Durdzuks" (or "Dzurdzuks"), and the population of Ingushetia under the names "Gligvi", "giligii". The Georgian historian V. N. Gamrekeli claims that "Durdzuk" is definitely and, with all its references, uniformly localized, between Didoet-Dagestan in the east and the gorge of the Terek River, in the west.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Durdzuks constructed numerous kingdoms, notably Durdzuketi; and they were noted for their exceptionally fierce devotion to freedom and their ability to resist invaders, ranging from the Arabs to the Scythians to Turkic peoples to the Mongolian invaders. They seemed also to have been employed as mercenaries by various parties. They had a written language using Georgian script (It is not known whether they spoke that language however.), but most of these writings have been lost, with only a few pieces surviving. After the 14th-century Second Mongol Invasion of Durdzuketi and the destruction wrought by the two invasions (including, as Amjad Jaimoukha notes, the destruction of their memory of their past), they radically changed their culture.


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Isadiks were an ancient Nakh people of the North Caucasus who were farmers. They were probably undone by Scythian invaders. A remnant of them may have been absorbed by the Vainakh, as their name can now be seen in the Chechen teip "Sadoy".


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Khamekits were another ancient Nakh people of the North Caucasus who were farmers. They were also probably undone by Scythian invaders. A remnant of them may have been absorbed by the Vainakh, as their name may now be reflected in the Ingush teip "Khamki".


title: Nakh peoples

text: Before the 19th century, the Arshtins were a Vainakh tukkhum living in between the Ingush and Chechens, with vague affinities to both groups, along the Sunzha River's middle reaches and its tributaries. The Arshtins were mostly known as Karabulaks, which they are called in Russian, from their Kumyk name. They also called themselves "Baloi". They were variously considered to be an independent people, a subgroup of Chechens, or a subgroup of Ingush (further complicated by the fact that many in the 19th century, including many Ingush themselves, considered the Ingush to be a subgroup of the Chechens). Their language is thought to have been similar to Chechen and Ingush (not unlike today's Galanchozh dialect spoken by the Myalkhi tukhum).


title: Nakh peoples

text: The Arshtins eventually were wiped out by Russian imperialism. The late 1850s saw the end of the Eastern and Central Caucasian resistance to Tsarist rule; and in 1865, the Deportation of Circassians occurred. Although the Russians mainly targeted Circassians for expulsion or murder, the Arshtins also were victims. In May–July 1865, according to official documents, 1366 Arshtin families disappeared and only 75 remained. These 75 families joined (or rejoined) the Chechen nation as the Erstkhoi tukhum.


title: Simple Minds discography

text: The discography of the Scottish art rock/new wave band Simple Minds consists of 21 studio albums (either original or covers and counting 1981's "Sons and Fascination"/"Sister Feelings Call" as a double album release), eleven live albums, ten compilation albums, fourteen box sets, 68 singles, and five video albums.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong (formally 225088 Gonggong; provisional designation ) is a dwarf planet, a member of the scattered disc beyond Neptune. It has a highly eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from from the Sun. , its distance from the Sun is , and it is the sixth-farthest known Solar System object. According to Deep Ecliptic Survey Gonggong is in a 3:10 orbital resonance with Neptune, in which it completes three orbits around the Sun for every ten orbits completed by Neptune. Gonggong was discovered in July 2007 by American astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory, and the discovery was announced in January 2009.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: At approximately in diameter, Gonggong is the size of Pluto's moon Charon, and is the fifth-largest known trans-Neptunian object. It may be sufficiently massive to be plastic under its own gravity and therefore a dwarf planet. Gonggong's large mass makes retention of a tenuous atmosphere of methane just possible, though such an atmosphere would slowly escape into space. The object is named after "Gònggōng", a Chinese water god responsible for chaos, floods and the tilt of the Earth. The name was chosen by its discoverers in 2019, when they hosted an online poll for the general public to help choose a name for the object, and the name Gonggong won.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong is red, likely due to the presence of organic compounds called tholins on its surface. Water ice is also present on its surface, which hints at a brief period of cryovolcanic activity in the distant past. With a rotation period around 22 hours, Gonggong rotates slowly compared to other trans-Neptunian objects, which typically have periods less than 12 hours. The slow rotation of Gonggong may have been caused by tidal forces from its natural satellite, named Xiangliu.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong was discovered by American astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown and David Rabinowitz on 17 July 2007. The discovery was part of the Palomar Distant Solar System Survey, a survey conducted to find distant objects in the region of , beyond from the Sun, using the Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. The survey was designed to detect the movements of objects out to at least 1,000 AU from the Sun. Schwamb identified Gonggong by comparing images using the blinking technique. In the discovery images, Gonggong appeared to move slowly, suggesting that it is a distant object. The discovery was part of Schwamb's doctoral thesis. At that time, Schwamb was a graduate student of Michael Brown at the California Institute of Technology.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong was formally announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular on 7 January 2009. It was then given the provisional designation because it was discovered during the second half of July 2007. The last letter and numbers of its designation indicate that it is the 267th object discovered during the latter half of July. , it has been observed 230 times over 13 oppositions, and has been identified in two precovery images, with the earliest image taken by the La Silla Observatory on 19 August 1985.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The object is named after Gonggong, a water god in Chinese mythology. Gonggong is depicted as having a copper-and-iron, red-haired human head (or sometimes torso) and the body or tail of a serpent. Gonggong was responsible for creating chaos and catastrophe, causing flooding and tilting the Earth, until he was sent into exile. Gonggong is often accompanied by his minister, Xiangliu, a nine-headed poisonous snake monster who was also responsible for causing flooding and destruction.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Before its official naming, Gonggong was the largest known unnamed object in the Solar System. Initially after the discovery of Gonggong, Brown nicknamed the object "Snow White" for its presumed white color based on his assumption that it may be a member of the icy Haumea collisional family. The nickname also fitted because, by that time, Brown's team had discovered seven other large trans-Neptunian objects which were collectively referred to as the "seven dwarfs": in 2002, in 2003, , and in 2004, and and in 2005. However, Gonggong turned out to be very red in color, comparable to Quaoar, so the nickname was dropped. On 2 November 2009, two years after its discovery, the Minor Planet Center assigned the minor planet number 225088 to Gonggong.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Upon the discovery and announcement of Gonggong, Brown did not consider naming it, as he regarded it to be an unremarkable object, despite its large size. Brown later declared in 2011 that he now had enough information to justify giving it a name, in consideration of the discovery of water ice and the possibility of methane on its surface, which made it noteworthy enough to warrant further study. Following the "Kepler" spacecraft's large revision of Gonggong's size in 2016, Schwamb justified that Gonggong was eligible for naming, an acknowledgement of its large size and that the characteristics of Gonggong were known with enough certainty for a name to be given to reflect them.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: In 2019, the discoverers of Gonggong hosted an online poll for the general public to choose between three possible names: Gonggong (Chinese), Holle (German), and Vili (Norse). These were selected by the discoverers in accordance with the International Astronomical Union's (IAU's) minor planet naming criteria, which state that objects with orbits like that of Gonggong must be given names related to mythological figures that are associated with creation. The three options were chosen because they were associated with water, ice, snow, and the color red—all characteristics of Gonggong—and because they had associated figures that could later provide a name for Gonggong's satellite. The name for Gonggong's satellite was not chosen by the hosts of the naming poll, as this privilege is reserved for its discoverers.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Having gained 46 percent of the 280,000 votes, on 29 May 2019, the discovery team announced Gonggong as the winning name. The name was proposed to the IAU's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), which is responsible for naming minor planets. The name was accepted by the CSBN and was announced by the Minor Planet Center on 5 February 2020.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Planetary symbols are no longer much used in astronomy, so Gonggong never received a symbol in the astronomical literature. A Gonggong symbol (), mostly used among astrologers, is included in Unicode as U+1F77D. The symbol was designed by Denis Moskowitz, a software engineer in Massachusetts; it combines the Chinese character 共 "gòng" with a snake's tail.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong orbits the Sun at an average distance of , and completes a full orbit in 554 years. The orbit of Gonggong is highly inclined to the ecliptic, with an orbital inclination 30.7 degrees. Its orbit is also highly eccentric, with a measured orbital eccentricity of 0.50. Due to its highly eccentric orbit, the distance of Gonggong from the Sun varies greatly over the course of its orbit, from at aphelion, its furthest point from the Sun, to around at perihelion, its closest point to the Sun. Gonggong reached perihelion in 1857, and is currently moving farther from the Sun, toward its aphelion.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The period, inclination and eccentricity of Gonggong's orbit are all rather extreme compared to other large bodies in the Solar system. Among likely dwarf planets, its period is the third longest, at 554 years compared to 558 years for and the ca. 11,400 years of . Its 31° inclination is second, after 44° for Eris, and its 0.50 eccentricity is also (a rather distant) second, after Sedna at 0.84.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The Minor Planet Center lists it as a scattered disc object for its eccentric and distant orbit. The Deep Ecliptic Survey shows the orbit of Gonggong to be in a 3:10 resonance with Neptune; Gonggong completes three orbits around the Sun for every ten orbits completed by Neptune.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: , Gonggong is about from the Sun and is moving away at a speed of . It is the eighth-farthest known Solar System object from the Sun, preceding (89.6 AU), (90.3 AU), (95.9 AU), (97.2 AU), (99.0 AU), (123.5 AU), and (~ 132 AU). Gonggong is more distant than , which is located 84.3 AU from the Sun . It has been farther from the Sun than Sedna since 2013, and it will surpass Eris in distance by 2045. Gonggong will reach aphelion by 2134.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong has an absolute magnitude (H) of 2.34, which makes it the seventh-brightest trans-Neptunian object known. It is dimmer than (H=2.31; D=917 km) but brighter than Quaoar (H=2.82; D=1,110 km). The Minor Planet Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database assume a brighter absolute magnitude of 1.6 and 1.8, respectively, which would make it the fifth brightest trans-Neptunian object.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Being 88 AU from the Sun, the apparent magnitude of Gonggong is only 21.5, and so it is too dim to be seen from Earth with the naked eye. Although closer to the Sun than the dwarf planet Eris, Gonggong appears dimmer, as Eris has a higher albedo and an apparent magnitude of 18.8.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The surface of Gonggong has an albedo (reflectivity) of 0.14. The surface composition and spectrum of Gonggong is expected to be similar to that of , as both objects are red in color and display signs of water ice and possibly methane in their spectra. The reflectance spectrum of Gonggong was first measured in 2011 at near-infrared wavelengths, with the Folded port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) spectrograph on the Magellan Baade Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Gonggong's spectrum exhibits a strong red spectral slope along with broad absorption bands at wavelengths of 1.5 μm and 2 μm, meaning that Gonggong reflects more light at these wavelengths. Additional photometric measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 instrument display similar absorption bands at 1.5 μm, which are characteristic features of water ice, a substance often found on large Kuiper belt objects. The presence of water ice on the surface of Gonggong implies a brief period of cryovolcanism in the distant past, when water erupted from its interior, deposited onto its surface, and subsequently froze.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong is among the reddest trans-Neptunian objects known, especially in the visible and near-infrared. Its red color is unexpected for an object with a substantial amount of water ice on its surface, which are typically neutral in color, hence why Gonggong was initially nicknamed "Snow White". Gonggong's color implies that methane is present on its surface, although it was not directly detected in the spectrum of Gonggong due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of the data. The presence of methane frost would account for its color, as a result of the photolysis of methane by solar radiation and cosmic rays producing reddish organic compounds known as tholins. Observations of Gonggong's near-infrared spectrum in 2015 revealed an absorption feature at 2.27 μm, indicating the presence of methanol along with its irradiation products on its surface. Methanol is expected to brighten Gonggong's surface, although the irradiation of water ice may account for its present dark surface.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong is large enough to be able to retain trace amounts of volatile methane on its surface, even when at its closest distance to the Sun (33.7 AU), where temperatures are higher than that of Quaoar. In particular, the large size of Gonggong means that it is likely to retain trace amounts of other volatiles, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, and possibly nitrogen, which almost all trans-Neptunian objects lose over the course of their existence. Like Quaoar, Gonggong is expected to be near the mass limit at which it is able to retain those volatile materials on its surface.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The presence of tholins on the surface of Gonggong implies the possible existence of a tenuous methane atmosphere, analogous to Quaoar. Although Gonggong occasionally comes closer to the Sun than Quaoar, where it becomes warm enough that a methane atmosphere should evaporate, its larger mass could make the retention of methane just possible. During aphelion, methane along with other volatiles would condense on Gonggong's surface, allowing for long-term irradiation that would otherwise result in a decrease in surface albedo. The lower surface albedo would contribute to the loss of highly volatile materials such as nitrogen, as a lower albedo corresponds to more light being absorbed by the surface rather than being reflected, thus resulting in greater surface heating. Hence, the nitrogen content of Gonggong's atmosphere is expected to be depleted to trace amounts while methane is likely retained.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong is thought to have had cryovolcanic activity along with a more substantial atmosphere shortly after its formation. Such cryovolcanic activity is expected to have been brief, and the resulting atmosphere gradually escaped over time. Volatile gases, such as nitrogen and carbon monoxide, were lost, while less volatile gases such as methane are likely to remain in its present tenuous atmosphere.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: As of 2019, Gonggong is estimated to have a diameter of , derived from radiometric measurements, its calculated mass, and assuming a density similar to other similar bodies. This would make Gonggong the fifth-largest trans-Neptunian object, after Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. Gonggong is approximately the size of Pluto's moon Charon, although Gonggong's current size estimate has an uncertainty of .


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has not addressed the possibility of officially accepting additional dwarf planets since the acceptance of Makemake and Haumea in 2008, prior to the announcement of Gonggong in 2009. Despite not satisfying the IAU's criterion of having an absolute magnitude brighter than +1, Gonggong is large enough to be considered a dwarf planet by several astronomers. Brown states that Gonggong "must be a dwarf planet even if predominantly rocky", based on the 2013 radiometric measurement of . Scott Sheppard and colleagues think that it is likely to be a dwarf planet, based on its minimum possible diameter— under the assumption of a completely reflective surface with an albedo of 1 10^{-0.2H}</math>, where formula_1 is the absolute magnitude of Gonggong, and formula_2 is the albedo of Gonggong, which in this case is assumed to be 1.|name=magnitude|group=lower-alpha}}—and what was at the time the expected lower size limit of around for hydrostatic equilibrium in cold icy-rocky bodies. However, Iapetus is not in equilibrium despite being in diameter, so this remains just a possibility.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: In 2010, astronomer Gonzalo Tancredi initially estimated Gonggong to have a very large diameter of , though its dwarf planet status was unclear as there was no lightcurve data or other information to ascertain its size. Gonggong is too distant to be resolved directly; Brown placed a rough estimate of its diameter ranging from , based on an albedo of 0.18 which was the best fit in his model. A survey led by a team of astronomers using the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory in 2012 determined its diameter to be (), based on the thermal properties of Gonggong observed in the far infrared range. This measurement is consistent with Brown's estimate. Later observations in 2013 using combined thermal emission data from "Herschel" and the Spitzer Space Telescope suggested a smaller size of (), though this estimate had a larger range of uncertainty.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: In 2016, combined observations from the "Kepler" spacecraft and archival thermal emission data from "Herschel" suggested that Gonggong was much larger than previously thought, giving a size estimate of () based on an assumed equator-on view and a lower estimated albedo of 0.089. This would have made Gonggong the third-largest trans-Neptunian object after Eris and Pluto, larger than Makemake (). These observations of Gonggong were part of the "Kepler" spacecraft's K2 mission which includes studying small Solar System bodies. Subsequent measurements in 2018 revised the size of Gonggong to (), based on the mass and density of Gonggong derived from the orbit of its satellite and the discovery that the viewing direction was almost pole-on. With this size estimate, Gonggong is again thought to be the fifth-largest trans-Neptunian object.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Based on the orbit of its satellite, the mass of Gonggong has been calculated to be , with a density of . From these mass and density estimates, the size of Gonggong was calculated to be about , smaller than the previous 2016 size estimate of . Given the mass, the 2016 size estimate of would have implied an unexpectedly low (and likely erroneous) density of .


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Gonggong is the fifth most massive trans-Neptunian object, after Eris, Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. It is slightly more massive and denser than Charon, which has a mass of and a density of . Due to its large size, mass, and density, Gonggong is expected to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, taking the shape of a MacLaurin spheroid that is slightly flattened due to its rotation.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: The rotation period of Gonggong was first measured in March 2016, through observations of variations in its brightness with the "Kepler" space telescope. Gonggong's light curve amplitude as observed by "Kepler" is small, only varying in brightness by about 0.09 magnitudes. The small light curve amplitude of Gonggong indicates that it is being viewed at a pole-on configuration, further evidenced by the observed inclined orbit of its satellite. The "Kepler" observations provided ambiguous values of and hours for the rotation period. Based on a best-fit model for its rotation pole orientation, the value of hours is thought to be the more plausible one. Gonggong rotates slowly compared to other trans-Neptunian objects, which usually have periods between 6 and 12 hours. Due to its slow rotation, it is expected to have a low oblateness of 0.03 or 0.007, for rotation periods of 22.4 or 44.81 hours, respectively.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: Following the March 2016 discovery that Gonggong was an unusually slow rotator, the possibility was raised that a satellite may have slowed it down via tidal forces. The indications of a possible satellite orbiting Gonggong led Csaba Kiss and his team to analyze archival Hubble observations of Gonggong. Their analysis of Hubble images taken on 18 September 2010 revealed a faint satellite orbiting Gonggong at a distance of at least . The discovery was announced in a Division for Planetary Sciences meeting on 17 October 2016. The satellite is approximately in diameter and has an orbital period of 25 days. On 5 February 2020 the satellite was officially named Xiangliu, after the nine-headed poisonous snake monster that accompanied Gonggong in Chinese mythology. This naming came at the same time that Gonggong itself was officially named.


title: 225088 Gonggong

text: It was calculated by planetary scientist Amanda Zangari that a flyby mission to Gonggong would take a minimum of over 20 years with current rocket capabilities. A flyby mission could take just under 25 years using a Jupiter gravity assist, based on a launch date of 2030 or 2031. Gonggong would be approximately 95 AU from the Sun when the spacecraft arrives.


title: Kink.com

text: Kink.com is a San Francisco-based bondage internet pornography company that runs a group of websites devoted to BDSM and related fetishes. Kink.com, along with Kink Studios, LLC, Hogtied.com and Behindkink.com are DBAs for Cybernet Entertainment LLC, the parent company that operates the studio.


title: Kink.com

text: In March 2018, Alison Boden, the former VP of Technology, became the new CEO of Kink.com. She helmed the company until founder Peter Acworth returned in 2021.


title: Kink.com

text: Kink.com was started by UK native Peter Acworth in 1997 while he was a doctoral candidate in finance at Columbia University. After reading a story in a British tabloid about a fireman who made £250,000 in a short period by starting an Internet pornography website, Acworth decided to start a pornographic web site of his own. Since Acworth had what he described as a lifelong interest in bondage, he oriented the site toward BDSM pornography. The site was called Hogtied.com and initially featured content that was licensed from other primary producers. The site was successful and was soon grossing several thousand dollars per day. Acworth left his graduate studies to work on the site full-time.


title: Kink.com

text: In 1998, Acworth moved the company from New York City to San Francisco. Finding that sales were leveling off because other sites were using the same content, Acworth began producing his own material, initially featuring himself with various models whom he found through Craigslist or through his photographer friends. He opened the company's second site, Fucking Machines, in 2000, and has since opened 26 additional subscription Web sites.


title: Kink.com

text: Several Web sites under the Kink.com umbrella feature directors who relocated following the demise of Insex as a result of US government pressure in 2005, but offer more of a focus on consensuality than Insex was known for.


title: Kink.com

text: In late 2006, Kink.com purchased the San Francisco Armory for $14.5 million, for use as a production studio. A group known as the Mission Armory Community Collective formed to oppose Kink.com's use of the building and in early February 2007 held a public protest in front of the building.


title: Kink.com

text: At one point, there were plans to demolish part of the building to make way for a condominium development. Such news brought in supporters who welcomed Kink.com's preservation of the historic building as part of an overall attempt to revitalize and bring back business to the area, without altering the appearance of the historic building.