title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell became a restricted free agent after the 1994 NFL season and received a contract offer from the Philadelphia Eagles, who had just hired former Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes as their new head coach. Rhodes hired former Green Bay Packers’ wide receivers coach Jon Gruden to be the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator and worked out a trade to acquire Brunell. Brunell was reluctant to accept the five-year contract offer from the Philadelphia Eagles as he did not want to spend his twenties as a backup quarterback behind Randall Cunningham. The Packers and Eagles agreed on the terms of a trade, but were unable to finalize the deal after Brunell declined to sign a long-term deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.


title: Mark Brunell

text: On April 21, 1995, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded third (66th overall) and fifth round (170th overall) picks in the 1995 NFL Draft to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Brunell. This became the first trade in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ franchise history. The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Brunell to a three-year contract.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell started 13 games in 1995, completed 201 out of 346 passes, for 2,168 yards, with 15 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He also rushed for 480 yards.


title: Mark Brunell

text: During his years in Jacksonville, Brunell was selected to the Pro Bowl three times, in 1997, 1998, and 2000 and awarded the Pro Bowl MVP in the 1997 game. With Brunell starting, the Jaguars won an AFC Central Division title and became the first NFL expansion team to make the playoffs three times in its first four seasons of play. The furthest he led the team was to the 1996 AFC Championship Game, which they lost to the New England Patriots. They returned again in 1999, but would lose to the Tennessee Titans.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell was benched in favor of Byron Leftwich following halftime of the third game of the 2003 season. It would be the final time Brunell took the field as a member of the Jaguars. As a starter since their inaugural season, Brunell left the team holding all of the Jacksonville Jaguars passing records.


title: Mark Brunell

text: In December 2013, Brunell was inducted into the Pride of the Jaguars, the team's Hall of Fame equivalent.


title: Mark Brunell

text: During the 2004 season, limited by a hamstring injury, Brunell struggled and would be benched midseason for backup quarterback Patrick Ramsey. Ramsey's play towards the end of that season and following pre-season would lead to a quarterback controversy where Brunell would be benched going into the 2005 season. This would change in 2005 after Ramsey suffered an early season injury that thrust Brunell back into the starter's role.


title: Mark Brunell

text: In 2005, Brunell played much better and led the team to a 10–6 record and a playoff victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He finished third in the 2005 NFL Comeback Player of the Year awards.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell's most prolific moment in the 2005 season was during Week 2, when he completed two long passes to wide receiver Santana Moss for two touchdowns in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to defeat the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football, 14–13.


title: Mark Brunell

text: On September 24, 2006, Brunell broke the NFL record for most consecutive completions in single game when he completed his first 22 passes against the Houston Texans. Brunell also set the Redskins franchise record for highest completion percentage in a single game (88.9%). The previous record was held by Hall of Fame quarterback Sammy Baugh for 66 years (87.5%).


title: Mark Brunell

text: On November 13, 2006, after winning only three of their first nine games of 2006, Brunell was benched in favor of Jason Campbell, Washington's 2005 first round draft pick.


title: Mark Brunell

text: On March 13, 2008, Brunell was signed by the New Orleans Saints. As the Saints have not issued number 8 since Archie Manning retired, Brunell changed his jersey number to 11, the only time in his career he would wear a jersey number besides his customary number 8.


title: Mark Brunell

text: He entered the 2008 season as the backup to Drew Brees, appearing in just two games. In 2009, he appeared in all 16 games as the Holder on the Saints place-kicking unit, and saw his first playing time at quarterback in three years during a week 17 loss to the Carolina Panthers, as the Saints had already clinched homefield advantage and rested starter Drew Brees, as well as many other starters. Although he played little for the Saints, he was noted for his role as a veteran advisor to the Saints' starting quarterback, Drew Brees.


title: Mark Brunell

text: During the Saints playoff run on January 24, 2010, Brunell was the holder on the 40-yard field goal kicked by Garrett Hartley in overtime against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game to send the New Orleans Saints to the team's first ever Super Bowl. On February 7, 2010 for the Super Bowl, Brunell served as the Backup QB behind Drew Brees, and the Holder for Garrett Hartley. Brunell and Hartley’s role as the kicking unit helped the Saints get some big critical kicks, going 3 for 3 on three long field goals (46 yards, 44 yards, 47 yards), and an extra point, to score a total of 10 points in the first 3 quarters, helping keep the score close going into the 4th quarter, having the Saints down by only one point (16-17). The Colts would never score again, as the momentum shifted the Saints way. Brunell earned his first and only Super Bowl ring with the New Orleans Saints when the team won its first franchise world championship by defeating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell was a free agent after the 2009 season, and did not re-sign with the Saints. On July 28, 2010, he signed a two-year deal to play for the New York Jets. Brunell completed his first pass for the Jets on October 3 against the Buffalo Bills. In the last regular game of the 2010 season, while filling in for starting quarterback Mark Sanchez, Brunell threw his first scoring pass since 2006, a 17-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with 15 seconds left in the opening half. He then went on to throw a second scoring pass for 52 yards to Braylon Edwards in the second half. Brunell sat on the bench as the Jets made it to the AFC Championship but eventually lost to the Steelers 24-19.


title: Mark Brunell

text: After one season with the Jets, he was released on July 29, 2011. He was re-signed two days later at a reduced salary.


title: Mark Brunell

text: In April 2012, Brunell stated that he would like to play another season if the opportunity presented itself, contradicting a report from the "Florida Times-Union" that he was ready to retire.


title: Mark Brunell

text: When Washington Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell, who played quarterback for the team after Brunell, was asked what player he learned the most from in his career, Campbell said it was Mark Brunell. Campbell said "a nice tribute about how the man he replaced helped him become a better person off the field."


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell was an assistant football coach at Providence School in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012. In January 2013, Brunell became the new head football coach and program director at Episcopal School of Jacksonville. Episcopal went 2–8 in Brunell's first season, then improved to 8–3 in 2014.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell, a devout Christian, and his family have been active members of the Metro Morningstar Church in Sterling, Virginia (now Grace Covenant Church). When they were living in Florida, Brunell was very active within Southpoint Community Church, a church on the southside of Jacksonville that he helped found. He was also one of the most involved members of Champions for Christ. He also conducted volunteer work at the University of North Florida.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell's links with Champions for Christ has garnered some controversy, with the National Football League investigating CFC over concerns that players were being taken advantage of financially.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell is married to Stacy with a daughter, Caitlin, and three sons: Jacob, Joseph and Luke. Joseph is currently a quarterback for the Georgetown Hoyas.


title: Mark Brunell

text: Brunell has been credited in establishing numerous Whataburger fast food locations around the Jacksonville area. These businesses and the money they lost contributed to his bankruptcy proceedings.


title: Mark Brunell

text: On June 25, 2010, Brunell filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, at least in part due to numerous failed real estate and other business investments. It is also reported that Brunell and several of his co-investors (also former teammates) have defaulted on 'multiple' loans involving different properties around the country.


title: Mark Brunell

text: According to a "Florida Times-Union" report, Brunell listed approximately $5.5 million in assets against almost $25 million in liabilities. The liabilities are mostly in the form of personal guarantees on commercial real estate loans involving several of his limited liability corporations. The operation of 11 Whataburger franchise locations in which Brunell is involved will not be affected by the bankruptcy.


title: John Collison

text: John Collison (born 6 August 1990) is an Irish billionaire entrepreneur and the co-founder and President of Stripe which he co-founded in 2010 with his brother Patrick. Collison was the youngest self made billionaire in 2016. As of 2022, according to "Bloomberg Billionaires Index", his net worth was estimated at US$11.4 billion, ranking him the 187th richest person in the world and one of the wealthiest people from Ireland.


title: John Collison

text: In 2007, Collison founded "Shuppa" with his older brother Patrick in Limerick, Ireland. The company later merged with Auctomatic, which was funded by Y Combinator, and Collison moved to Silicon Valley.


title: John Collison

text: Auctomatic was a software company that built tools for the eBay platform. The company was also funded by Chris Sacca. Auctomatic was acquired for $5 million in March 2008, when Collison was 17.


title: John Collison

text: In 2009, Collison (having returned to finish secondary school at Castletroy College) received 8 A1 and 2 A2 grades in the Irish Leaving Certificate examination. He continued to study at Harvard University, commencing his studies in September 2009. Collison is a pilot and a pianist.


title: John Collison

text: In 2010, Collison co-founded Stripe, which received backing from Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Sequoia Capital.


title: John Collison

text: In November 2016, the Collison brothers became the world's youngest self-made billionaires, worth at least $1.1 billion, after an investment in Stripe from CapitalG and General Catalyst valued the company at $9.2 billion. In the same year, 2016, John was ranked by Forbes the 15th in the list America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40.


title: John Collison

text: In 2018, Stripe, under the direction of the Collison brothers, contributed $1 million to California YIMBY, a pro-housing development lobbying organization. The Collison brothers are citizens of Ireland.


title: John Collison

text: In 2021 and 2022, Collison bought the Abbeyleix Estate and the derelict Millbrook House, neighbouring properties in County Laois, Ireland. He has stated he will spend several millions of euros over some years restoring Millbrook House to make a family home.


title: John Collison

text: A profile of the brothers published in Forbes in 2021 claimed the brothers had "escaped" from Limerick, describing it as a "warzone" because of a gang feud and it was "the 'murder capital' of Europe". It claimed "shootings, pipe bomb attacks, and stabbings" happened there every night. It also claimed that "Some bad neighbourhoods are even walled off by a dirty graffitied 10-foot-high barrier, like the Berlin Wall".


title: John Collison

text: The article received a lot of publicity online, causing a backlash. Patrick tweeted "Not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of ‘overcoming’ anything is crazy. We are who we are because we grew up where we did". John tweeted it was "daft". Patrick O'Donovan called on the magazine and author to apologise to the people of Limerick "or the insult and hurt caused" by it. He also tweeted "I am calling on them to come to Limerick where I will gladly set the record straight in respect of what our county and city has to offer as opposed to what your work of fiction depicts," and "Please let me know when suits to visit." Niall Collins tweeted that the article was a "disgraceful description of Limerick, home to so many fine and decent people".


title: Powerade

text: Powerade is a sports drink created, manufactured and marketed by The Coca-Cola Company. Its primary competitor is Gatorade, owned by PepsiCo.


title: Powerade

text: In 1988, Powerade became the official sports drink of the Olympics, alongside Aquarius, another sports drink made by Coca-Cola. It is a rival of another sports drink, Gatorade.


title: Powerade

text: In July 2001, The Coca-Cola Company launched a new formula for Powerade including vitamins B, B and B, which play a role in energy metabolism.


title: Powerade

text: In July 2002, The Coca-Cola Company started in Toogoolawah by updating the bottles of the standard Powerade (previous logo styling) to a new sport-grip bottle.


title: Powerade

text: In 2002, The Coca-Cola Company introduced Powerade Option to the United States, in response to Gatorade's popular Propel. Option is a "low Calorie sports drink" that is colorless and sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium, to provide sugar-conscious consumers with another rehydration choice. Powerade Option took 36% of the Fitness Water category behind Propel's 42%.


title: Powerade

text: In 2007, Powerade Zero was released, a sports drink with electrolytes, which contains no sugar, no calories and no carbohydrates. Powerade Option was subsequently discontinued.


title: Powerade

text: In June 2009, The Coca-Cola Company bought Glacéau, owner of brands such as VitaminWater and SmartWater, for $4.1 billion, a price tag that signaled the company's seriousness in pursuing growth of non-carbonated beverages. Since then, the company has also given its Glacéau management team control of its Powerade sports drink brand.


title: Powerade

text: Powerade's main competition is Gatorade marketed by the Quaker Oats Company, a division of PepsiCo. Gatorade, which was branded at the University of Florida in 1965, was the first commercially available sports drink in the United States. It now holds a commanding share of the market. As of 2011, Gatorade held a 70% market share to Powerade's 28.5%.


title: Powerade

text: All Sport is a competitor marketed by All Sport, Inc. and distributed by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. All Sport was marketed by PepsiCo until 2001, when Gatorade's maker, the Quaker Oats Company was acquired by PepsiCo. All Sport was sold to the Monarch Beverage Company soon after. Powerade and All Sport have each been distributed through their own direct store deliver channels. It was subsequently purchased by Gary Smith, the Chairman & CEO of All Sport, Inc. of Austin, Texas.


title: Powerade

text: Outside the United States, the Lucozade energy drink (manufactured since 1927 by the pharmaceutical company now known as GlaxoSmithKline) competes with Powerade. Lucozade's formulation differs in that it uses primarily glucose and contains caffeine. The more direct competitor to Powerade and Gatorade is Lucozade Sport.


title: Powerade

text: "Note: Standard 8-ounce servings meet the FDA definition of 'low sodium' and have less sodium than a glass of chocolate milk."


title: Powerade

text: One Powerade ad campaign stated that Powerade's ION4 is superior to Gatorade, as the claims made by Pepsi, the parent owner of Gatorade were apparently deceptive and false. The courts ruled in favor of Powerade as of August 2009.


title: Powerade

text: Being high in sugar Powerade may contribute to diabetes and weight gain if combined with other sugar sources.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: Suzane Louise von Richthofen (born 3 November 1983) is a German-Brazilian woman who was convicted of murdering her parents on 31 October 2002 with the help of her boyfriend and his brother. She was put on trial in São Paulo in July 2006 and was sentenced to 39 years and 6 months in prison.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: Suzane von Richthofen is the daughter of German engineer Manfred Albert von Richthofen and Lebanese-Brazilian psychiatrist Marisia von Richthofen (née "Marísia Sílvia Abdalla"), and allegedly a distant relative of the German World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen. Her father was a director of DERSA, a state-owned company which manages São Paulo's highway system, and the chief engineer for the Mário Covas beltway project. She has a younger brother, Andreas Albert von Richthofen. After graduating from a German high school, she studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. In the summer of 1999, she met Daniel Cravinhos de Paula e Silva, who had been instructing her brother in flying model airplanes. Soon after, they began a relationship and took part in activities together, including attending a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: Suzane's family had a R$ 5.5 million declared net worth. However, prosecutors suspect that two anonymous accounts in Swiss banks, containing at least € 10 million, were opened by Suzane's father in her name in November 2001, when she turned 18. Suzane's father is thought to have embezzled this money from DERSA. Nothing prevents Suzane from gaining access to the money after serving her sentence.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: In the late hours of Thursday, a Halloween of 2002, Suzane von Richthofen, who had planned the murder of her parents for months, checked if they were already asleep, then disconnected the alarm system of the estate and opened the door to her boyfriend, Daniel Cravinhos (21), and his brother, Christian Cravinhos (26), who had been waiting outside. The Cravinhos brothers went upstairs to the parents' bedroom and struck them with iron bars before strangling them with towels. Suzane was waiting in the living room downstairs. After the murder was accomplished, the three staged a break-in by pocketing money they found, spreading papers in the library, and creating a mess in the house. Suzane and Daniel then went to a love hotel, while Christian ate at a fast food restaurant. Early in the morning, Suzane and Daniel picked up her little brother, Andreas, at an internet cafe and went home, where they "discovered" the crime scene, called the police, and told them their story.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: However, investigating officers had doubts that the crime was a burglary and suspected that the perpetrators were known to the victims; they soon began to question the children and the employees of the Richthofen family. Police were suspicious of not only the crime scene, with the alarm system switched off and the papers spread very regularly, as if by design, but also Suzane's cold behaviour – she was seen in the house's swimming pool with Daniel the day after the murder, and celebrated her 19th birthday with friends just hours after the parents' burial. The investigators began shadowing Suzane and Daniel. They also learned that Christian had bought a motorcycle a few days after the murders and had paid cash in R$100 bills, well above his normal income levels. A few days later, on November 9, 2002, he, Daniel and Suzane were all arrested; Suzane soon confessed to the murder.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: Suzane was released from prison in May 2005, when the Supreme Federal Court granted her "habeas corpus". She then awaited her trial under house arrest.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: Suzane's parents, who initially allowed her to date Daniel, changed their opinion when they discovered that he used marijuana almost daily, was unwilling to work or attend school, and came from a lower-class background. In July 2002, while Suzane's parents were on vacation, Daniel moved into the house for a month. When the parents came back home, Suzane suggested they buy her a flat in which she could live with Daniel. Her father refused, saying that she could do whatever she liked only if she earned money herself. She continued meeting Daniel secretly. Suzane claimed that her actions were motivated by love, and a fear that Daniel would leave her if the parents were not killed. Her lawyer, Denivaldo Barni, said that Suzane had no motive at all, but was forced to the crime by Daniel, whom she adored like a god.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: Another part of the motive may have been the parents' wealth, estimated at about $ 17 million, which Suzane would inherit in the event of the parents' death. As Prosecutor Roberto Tardelli put it, Suzane wanted to "get her hands on the money and assets her parents had worked so hard to obtain"; she "wanted her freedom and independence without having to work for it". On trial, Cravinhos claimed that Suzane was abused by her father, which she and her brother Andreas von Richthofen deny. It was also claimed that the Richthofen parents were alcoholics, but in the autopsy no alcohol was detected in their bodies.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: In 2018, a justice denied request of freedom for von Richthofen, citing her egocentrism and a narcissistic personality disorder as serious personality traits that may have led to her crime.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: On 5 June 2006, Suzane von Richthofen, along with the Cravinhos brothers, was put on trial in São Paulo for "homicídio qualificado", the equivalent of first degree murder in Brazilian law. The trial was delayed and finally started on 17 July. On trial, Suzane blamed Daniel Cravinhos for everything, while the Cravinhos brothers claimed that they acted on her wishes. Prosecutor Roberto Tardelli, however, called Suzane the "mastermind" of the crime. Roberto Tardelli called for 50 years imprisonment for each of the three defendants. Suzane was described as a "personification of the evil blonde". On 22 July 2006, Suzane was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Daniel Cravinhos got the same sentence and his brother Christian was sentenced to 38 years for conspiracy.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: The book "Richthofen: O assassinato dos pais de Suzane" ("Richtofen: The murder of Suzane's parents"), by Roger Franchini, was published in 2011. The work describes the murder and the subsequent events.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: The book "Suzane - Assassina e manipuladora" ("Suzane - Murderer and manipulator"), by Ullisses Campbell, was published in 2020. This book is more focused in the life of Suzane von Richthofen and her psychological profile.


title: Suzane von Richthofen

text: The 2021 Brazilian films "The Girl Who Killed Her Parents" and "The Boy Who Killed My Parents" are two different depictions of the crime. Brazilian actress Carla Diaz portrays Suzane von Richthofen in both films.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Megaregions of the United States are generally understood to be regions in the U.S. that contain two or more roughly adjacent urban metropolitan areas that, through commonality of systems—of transport, economy, resources, and ecologies—experience blurred boundaries between the urban centers, such that perceiving and acting as if they are a continuous urban area is, for the purposes of policy coordination, of practical value. The antecedent term, with which "megaregions" is synonymous, is megalopolis, which was coined in relation to the Boston through Washington, D.C., corridor in the Atlantic Northeast, by Jean Gottmann in the mid-twentieth century. "America 2050", a project of the Regional Plan Association, lists 11 megaregions encompassing urban regions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico (e.g., the Great Lakes and Northeast Megaregions). As of December 2000, these clustered networks of American cities contained an estimated total population exceeding 280 million persons (see also these other sources).


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Megaregions were independently explored in a 2005 report by Robert E. Lang and Dawn Dhavale of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. A 2007 article by Lang and Arthur C. Nelson uses 20 areas grouped into 10 megaregions, based on an original model.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: In the perspective of a Texas group research group whose focus is "education, and technology transfer initiatives to improve the mobility of people and goods in urban and rural communities of megaregions," there is no single, preponderant, widely agreed upon statutory/regulatory definition of a megaregion. Historically, it is the modernised term offered to the geography, urban planning, and related communities via the America 2050 initiative to describe a group of two or more roughly adjacent metropolitan areas that, through commonality of systems—e.g., of transport, economy, resources, and ecologies—experience a blurring of the boundaries between the population centers, such that while some degree of separation may remain, their perception as a continuous urban area, e.g., "to coordinate policy at this expanded scale", is of value. Its direct antecedent, in the same organisation and scholarship, is in the term "megalopolis", which was repurposed from earlier different meanings by Jean Gottmann of the University of Paris and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton; in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gottmann directed "A Study of Megalopolis" for The Twentieth Century Fund, applying that term to an analysis of the urbanized northeastern seaboard of the U.S., in particular from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. (the Northeast megalopolis), which became known as the "Northeast megaregion" in the work of America 2050 [and its sponsor, the Regional Plan Association (RPA)]. (The RPA is an independent, New York-based, non-profit planning organization.) A reputable, broader American description from the same organisation defines a megaregion as a large network of metropolitan regions that share several or all of the following:


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: According to the RPA, as of this date, more than 70 percent of the nation's population and employment opportunuties are located in the 11 U.S. megaregions they have identified. Megaregions are spoken of as becoming the new competitive units in the global economy, characterized by the increasing movement of goods, people and capital among their metropolitan regions. "The New Megas," asserts Richard Florida, "are the real economic organizing units of the world, producing the bulk of its wealth, attracting a large share of its talent and generating the lion's share of innovation."


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Despite these scholarly perspectives, statutory and regulatory documents have not arrived at a single definition, which has led to "variations on what should be prioritized within megaregions across jurisdictions". The megaregion concept provides cities and metropolitan regions a context within which to cooperate across jurisdictional borders, including the coordination of policies, to address specific challenges experienced at the megaregion scale, such as planning for high-speed rail, protecting large watersheds, and coordinating regional economic development strategies. However, megaregions are not formally recognized in the hierarchy of governance structure like a city or metropolitan planning organization (MPO). In cont, megaregions that cross international borders (such as the Southern California, Gulf Coast, and Arizona Sun Corridor megaregions), while having a shared history and culture, are often limited in power. Overall, planning in cross-jurisdictional megaregions can be susceptible to varying levels of regulations. This makes creating plans for megaregions surprisingly complex.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: The Regional Plan Association methodology for identifying the emerging megaregions included assigning each county a point for each of the following:


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: This methodology was much more successful at identifying fast-growing regions with existing metropolitan centers than more sparsely populated, slower growing regions. Nor does it include a distinct marker for connectedness between cities. The RPA method omits the eastern part of the Windsor-Quebec City urban corridor in Canada.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Thirteen of the top 100 American primary census statistical areas are not included in any of the 11 emerging mega-regions. However, the Lexington-based CSA in Kentucky is identified by the RPA as being part of an "area of influence" of the Great Lakes megalopolis, while the Albany and Syracuse-based CSAs in Upstate New York are shown as being within the influence of the Northeastern mega-region. Similarly, the Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC-based CMA are considered influenced by the Piedmont-Atlantic megalopolis, Jackson, MS CMA by the Gulf Coast megaregion, Little Rock, AR CMA by the Texas Triangle, and the Des Moines and Omaha-based CMAs by the Great Lakes megalopolis. The El Paso, TX CMA is roughly equidistant from two megaregions, being near the southeastern edge of the Arizona Sun Corridor area of influence and the southern tip of the Front Range area of influence. This leaves Honolulu, HI, Wichita, KS, Springfield, MO and Charleston, SC as the only top 100 American CMAs that have no mega-region affiliation of any kind as defined by the RPA.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Though identification of the megaregions has gone through several iterations, the above identified are based on a set of criteria developed by Regional Plan Association, through its America 2050 initiative - a joint venture with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Two historic publications helped lay the foundation for this new set of criteria, the book" Megalopolis" by Jean Gottmann (1961) and The Regions’ Growth, part of Regional Plan Association's second regional plan.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: The relationships underpinning megaregions have become more pronounced over the second half of the 20th century as a result of decentralized land development, longer daily commutes, increased business travel, and a more footloose, flexible, knowledge workforce. The identification of new geographic scales—historically based on increased population movement from the city center to lower density areas as a megaregion presents immense opportunities from a regional planning perspective, to improve the environmental, infrastructure and other issues shared among the regions within it. The most recent and only previous attempt to plan at this scale happened more than 70 years ago, with the Tennessee Valley Authority. Political issues stymied further efforts at river basin planning and development.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: In 1961's Megalopolis, Gottman describes the Northeastern seaboard of the United States - or Megapologis - as "... difficult to single out ... from surrounding areas, for its limits cut across established historical divisions, such as New England and the Middle Atlantic states, and across political entities, since it includes some states entirely and others only partially." On the complex nature of this regional scale, he writes:


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Some of the major characteristics of Megalopolis, which set it apart as a special region within the United States, are the high degree of concentration of people, things and functions crowded here, and also their variety. This kind of crowding and its significance cannot be described by simple measurements. Its various aspects will be shown on a number of maps, and if these could all be superimposed on one base map there would be demarcated an area in which so many kinds of crowding coincide in general (though not always in all the details of their geographical distribution) that the region is quite different from all neighboring regions and in fact from any other part of North America. The essential reason for its difference is the greater concentration here of a greater variety of kinds of crowding.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: Crowding of population, which may first be expressed in terms of densities per square mile, will, of course, be a major characteristic to survey. As this study aims at understanding the meaning of population density, we shall have to know the foundation that supports such crowding over such a very fast area. What do these people do? What is their average income and their standard of living? What is the distribution pattern of wealth and of certain more highly paid occupations? For example, the outstanding concentration of population in the City of New York and its immediate suburbs (a mass of more than ten million people by any count) cannot be separated from the enormous concentration in the same city of banking, insurance, wholesale, entertainment, and transportation activities. These various kinds of concentration have attracted a whole series of other activities, such as management of large corporations, retail business, travel agencies, advertising, legal and technical counseling offices, colleges, research organizations, and so on. Coexistence of all these facilities on an unequaled scale within the relatively small territory of New York City, and especially of its business district...has made the place even more attractive to additional banking, insurance, and mass media organizations.in the US, megaregions have been garnering more attention at the federal level. In 2016, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) awarded The University of Texas at Austin a five-year grant to lead a consortium under the University Transportation Centers (UTC) program, called Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM). The center aims to advance research, education, and technology transfer initiatives to improve the mobility of people and goods in urban and rural communities of megaregions. In addition, the Transportation Research Board (a division of the National Research Council of the United States), listed "megaregions" in two of its "Critical Issues in Transportation 2019" Policy Snapshot reports.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: The RPA report identifies megaregions that are shared between the US and Canada, and is presumably at least tangentially concerned with pan-North American issues. However, being based on largely American research, it does not clearly define the geographic extent of megaregions where they extend into Canada, a responsibility that has largely been left to Canadian geographers defining the megalopolis within their own country. The American report excludes Canadian population centres that are not deemed to be closely adjacent to US megaregions. It includes most of Southern Ontario in the Great Lakes Megaregion but excludes the St. Lawrence Valley, despite the fact that Canadian geographers usually include them as part of one larger Quebec City-Windsor Corridor.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: The close relationship between large linked metropolitan regions and a nation's ability to compete in the global economy is recognized in Europe and Asia. Each has aggressively pursued strategies to manage projected population growth and strengthen economic prosperity in its large regions.


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: The European Spatial Development Perspective, a set of policies and strategies adopted by the European Union in 1999, is working to integrate the economies of the member regions, reduce economic disparities, and increase economic competitiveness (Faludi 2002; Deas and Lord 2006).


title: Megaregions of the United States

text: In East Asia, comprehensive strategic planning for large regions, centered on metropolitan areas, has become increasingly common and has progressed further than in the United States or Europe. Planning for the Hong Kong-Pearl River Delta region, for instance, aims to enhance the region's economic strength and competitiveness by overcoming local fragmentation, building on global economic cooperation, taking advantage of mutually beneficial economic factors, increasing connectivity among development nodes, and pursuing other strategic directions.


title: 80 Plus

text: 80 Plus (trademarked 80 PLUS) is a voluntary certification program launched in 2004, intended to promote efficient energy use in computer power supply units (PSUs).


title: 80 Plus

text: Certification is acquirable for products that have more than 80% energy efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load, and a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100% load.


title: 80 Plus

text: For the higher certification levels, the requirement of 0.9 or better power factor was extended to apply to 20% and 50% load levels, as well as at 100% load. The Platinum level requires 0.95 or better power factor for servers.


title: 80 Plus

text: The Climate Savers Computing Initiative efficiency level targets for workstations for 2007 through 2011, corresponding to the 80 Plus certification levels. From July 2007 through June 2008, the basic 80 Plus level (Energy Star 4.0). For the next year, the target is 80 Plus Bronze level, the following year 80 Plus Silver, then 80 Plus Gold, and finally Platinum.


title: 80 Plus

text: There have been instances where companies claim or imply that their supplies are 80 Plus when they have not been certified, and in some cases do not meet the requirements. When a company resells an OEM power supply under a new name it must be certified under the new name and company, even if the OEM supply is certified. In some instances, a reseller has claimed a higher wattage than the supply can deliver – in which case, the reseller's supply would not meet 80 Plus requirements. The 80 Plus website has a list of all certified supplies, so it is possible to confirm that supply meets the requirements.


title: 80 Plus

text: Although some power supply manufacturers name their products with similar names, such as "85 Plus", "90 Plus" and "95 Plus" there is no such official certification or standard.


title: 80 Plus

text: Other than misleading consumers by falsely claiming certification with similar names or companies "reselling", another way companies try to confuse consumers is by claiming they meet a certain certification requirement when in fact they do not. For example, the highest 80 Plus is 80+ Titanium (96% efficiency at 50% load). Some companies will claim they meet this requirement even when they are only close (i.e. 95.xx%) therefore claiming 80+ Titanium. However, this is not the case as one could easily modify the test unit to be more enhanced than production models in order to slightly raise numbers.


title: 80 Plus

text: The Plug Load Solutions official website provides lists certifications for each company, allowing consumers to verify how many and which models are listed. For example, if we take a look at the highest rating available (80 Plus Titanium) in the 230V Internal category (most common for industrial PSUs) for comparison; we can see that Compuware Corporation leads with 29 models, followed by Super Micro Computer, Inc. with 20 80 Plus Titanium units, and close third place is Delta Electronics with 18 units.


title: 80 Plus

text: The efficiency of a computer power supply is its output power divided by its input power; the remaining input power is converted into heat. For instance, a 600-watt power supply with 60% efficiency running at full load would draw 1000 W from the mains and would therefore waste 400 W as heat. On the other hand, a 600-watt power supply with 80% efficiency running at full load would draw 750 W from the mains and would therefore waste only 150 W as heat.


title: 80 Plus

text: For a given power supply, efficiency varies depending on how much power is being delivered. Supplies are typically most efficient at between half and three-quarters load, much less efficient at low load, and somewhat less efficient at maximum load. Older ATX power supplies were typically 60% to 75% efficient. To qualify for 80 Plus, a power supply must achieve at least 80% efficiency at three specified loads (20%, 50% and 100% of maximum rated power). However, 80 Plus supplies may still be less than 80% efficient at lower loads. For instance, an 80 Plus, 520 watt supply could still be 70% or less efficient at 60 watts (a typical idle power for a desktop computer). Thus it is still important to select a supply with capacity appropriate to the device being powered.


title: 80 Plus

text: It is easier to achieve the higher efficiency levels for higher wattage supplies, so gold and platinum supplies may be less available in consumer-level supplies of reasonable capacity for typical desktop machines.


title: 80 Plus

text: Typical computer power supplies may have power factors as low as 0.5 to 0.6. The higher power factor reduces the peak current draw, reducing load on the circuit or on an uninterruptible power supply.


title: 80 Plus

text: Reducing the heat output of the computer helps reduce noise, since fans do not have to spin as fast to cool the computer. Reduced heat and resulting in lower cooling demands may increase computer reliability.


title: 80 Plus

text: The testing conditions may give an unrealistic expectation of efficiency for heavily loaded, high power (rated much larger than 300 W) supplies. A heavily loaded power supply and the computer it is powering generate significant amounts of heat, which may raise the power supply temperature, which is likely to decrease its efficiency. Since power supplies are certified at room temperature, this effect is not taken into account.


title: 80 Plus

text: 80 Plus does not set efficiency targets for very low load. For instance, generation of standby power may still be relatively inefficient, and may not meet requirements of the One Watt Initiative. Testing of 80 Plus power supplies shows that they vary considerably in standby efficiency. Some power supplies consume half a watt or less in standby with no load, where others consume several times as much at standby, even though they may meet higher 80 Plus certification requirement levels.


title: Government and intergovernmental reactions to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

text: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine received widespread international condemnation, leading to new sanctions being imposed on Russia, consequently triggering a Russian financial crisis. Reactions among governments worldwide have generally been negative, with criticism and condemnation made by many leading nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. International organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have also voiced significant criticism of the invasion over not having justifiable precedent. From the early phases of the invasion, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.


text: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for nations to either establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine or provide Ukraine with air support. Zelenskyy also called for "peace", stating that he does not "want Ukraine's history to be a legend about 300 Spartans." Zelenskyy, in an address to the British House of Commons, also invoked the words of Winston Churchill by saying "We will fight at sea; we will fight in the air; we will protect our land. We will fight everywhere ... and we will not surrender."


text: Ukrainian officials have published photos and videos of killed and captured Russian soldiers. Some experts have argued that Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention prohibits videos of captured soldiers.


text: On 2 April, Zelenskyy warned Ukrainian residents that Russian forces retreating from around Kyiv were "mining the whole territory. They are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed", and leaving behind "a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers."


text: On 26 February 2022, the Russian communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, ordered independent media outlets to take down reports that described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an "assault, invasion, or declaration of war", threatening fines and blocks. From 1 March, Russian schools started war-themed social studies classes for teenagers based on the Russian government's position on history; one teaching manual (publicized by independent media outlet MediaZona) asserted that "genocide" had been occurring in eastern Ukraine for eight years, and that Russia was responding with a "special peacekeeping operation" in Ukraine, which was "not a war".


text: Russian President Vladimir Putin on 4 March declared that Russia had "absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors". Putin called for other countries to "think about normalizing relations and cooperating normally", stating there was "no need to escalate the situation, impose restrictions".


text: On 5 March he criticized Ukraine for resisting the invasion, saying, "they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood." Also that day, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the countries of the European Union and NATO to "stop pumping weapons" to Ukraine, claiming that terrorists might use the weapons against airplanes.


text: On 7 March, the Russian government adopted a list of countries and regions "taking unfriendly actions against Russia, Russian companies, and citizens" – Albania, Andorra, Australia, United Kingdom, all European Union states, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, the Federated states of Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, San Marino, North Macedonia, Singapore, United States, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, and Japan.


text: Putin on 8 March declared that Russian "conscript soldiers are not participating in hostilities" in Ukraine "and will not participate in them". On 9 March, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that it had "discovered" Russian conscript soldiers participating in the military operation in Ukraine, and that "almost all" of these conscripts had returned to Russia, but some other conscripts had been "captured" in Ukraine.


text: On 9 March, Russia bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol; Associated Press journalists on the scene took photos and videos of multiple bloodstained, pregnant mothers leaving the blown-out maternity ward. One pregnant woman and her baby died after the bombing. Russian officials provided different, shifting stances on the bombing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially stated that Russia does "not fire on civilian targets", then later said he lacked "clear information about what happened". Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized "pathetic shouting about so-called atrocities", stating that the hospital had no patients and doctors. According to him, it was controlled by Ukrainian extremists. Russia's Defense Ministry denied bombing the hospital, and accused Ukraine of staging the bombing. Russian officials called images of the attack "fake news" and labelled a pregnant woman pictured fleeing the bombed hospital as an actor.


text: On 16 March, a Russian airstrike hit a theatre in Mariupol containing hundreds of civilians; satellite pictures three days prior showed large words "DETI" ("children" in Russian) displayed as a signal to Russian forces about those inside the theatre. Russia's military denied bombing the theatre. Russia's foreign ministry said that it was a "lie" that Russia bombed the theatre, insisting that "Russia's armed forces don't bomb towns and cities". During the invasion, Russia used airstrikes against Ukrainian cities including Mariupol, Kyiv and Kharkiv.


text: On 16 March, Putin gave a speech calling Russian opponents of the war "scum and traitors," saying that "natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country."


text: On 25 March, the leader of the Russian military's General Staff Main Operational Directorate, , stated that the first stage of the operation had "generally been accomplished", and the "combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (was) considerably reduced", allowing Russia "to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas" in eastern Ukraine. A day later, Russian forces bombed Lviv, a city in western Ukraine.


text: On 1 April, Russia accused Ukraine of conducting an airstrike on Russian territory; this was the first such accusation since the start of the Russian invasion. Russia said that an airstrike on a fuel depot in Belgorod had upset the peace negotiations with Ukraine.


text: After Russian forces occupied Bucha, Kyiv Oblast for five weeks and then withdrew, they were accused by Bucha officials of extrajudicial killings of Bucha residents. Russia's Ministry of Defense responded on 3 April that "not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions" during the Russian occupation of Bucha. This claim was contradicted by many eyewitness accounts by Bucha residents.


text: The Russian defence ministry suggested that corpses of dead civilians had been placed on the streets of Bucha after "all Russian units withdrew completely" from the city on 30 March, but satellite photos were taken by Maxar Technologies showed that at least 11 body-sized objects on Bucha's Yablonska Street appeared between 9 and 11 March, remaining there for more than three weeks, in the same positions as 11 civilian corpses in a 1 April video. A high-ranking Russian official, Mikhail Ulyanov, claimed that Bucha's mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk did not discuss "dead bodies in the streets" in a 31 March video, but Fedoruk on 7 March had already done so, and on 28 March, accused Russian forces of killings and rapes in Bucha.


text: RIA Novosti, a media outlet controlled and owned by the Russian government, published an article by Timofey Sergeytsev that declared that "Nazis who took weapons must be killed in numbers as much as possible", while "most of the [Ukrainian] people are guilty, they are passive Nazis, Nazi enablers ... and must be punished". The article also stated that Ukraine "may develop only in dependency to Russia", and that "history has proven Ukraine may not exist as a national state". On 5 April 2022, Russia's opposition politician Alexei Navalny said the "monstrosity of lies" in the Russian state media "is unimaginable. And, unfortunately, so is its persuasiveness for those who have no access to alternative information." He tweeted that "warmongers" among Russian state media personalities "should be treated as war criminals. From the editors-in-chief to the talk show hosts to the news editors, [they] should be sanctioned now and tried someday."


text: In July 2022, , a member of the Krasnoselsky district council in Moscow, was sentenced to seven years in prison after making anti-war comments at a council meeting in March, including stating that "our country has aggressively attacked a neighbouring country" and "kids in Ukraine are dying each day". Lawyer Pavel Chikov said that this was the first jail term under the new Russian 2022 war censorship laws.


text: More than a dozen countries expelled Russian diplomats following the invasion, citing espionage activities incompatible with diplomatic status, and then also Russian killing of civilians in the Bucha massacre. Additionally, the European Union declared 19 Russian diplomats personae non-gratae.


text: Following the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, eight NATO member states – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia – triggered security consultations under Article 4. The Estonian government issued a statement by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas saying: "Russia's widespread aggression is a threat to the entire world and to all NATO countries, and NATO consultations on strengthening the security of the Allies must be initiated to implement additional measures for ensuring the defence of NATO Allies. The most effective response to Russia's aggression is unity." On 24 February, Stoltenberg announced new plans that "will enable us to deploy capabilities and forces, including the NATO Response Force, to where they are needed". Following the invasion, NATO announced plans to increase military deployments in the Baltics, Poland, and Romania.


text: After the 25 February UN Security Council meeting, Stoltenberg announced that parts of the NATO Response Force would be deployed, for the first time ever, to NATO members along the eastern border. He stated that forces would include elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), led by France. The US announced on 24 February that it would deploy 7,000 troops to join the 5,000 already in Europe. NATO forces included the 's Carrier Strike Group 8, which entered the Mediterranean Sea the previous week as part of a planned exercise. The carrier strike group was placed under NATO command, the first time this had occurred since the Cold War.


text: As Russia began to build forces on Ukraine's border in the lead-up to the invasion, Finland and Sweden, both neutral states, increased their cooperation with NATO. Both countries attended the emergency NATO summit as members of NATO's Partnership for Peace, and both condemned the invasion and provided assistance to Ukraine. On 25 February, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova threatened Finland and Sweden with "military and political consequences" if they attempted to join NATO. Both Finnish and Swedish public opinion shifted in favour of joining NATO after the invasion. A public petition asking the Parliament of Finland to hold a referendum to join NATO reached the required 50,000 signatures, prompting a parliamentary discussion on 1 March.


text: On 8 March, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that "any attack against any NATO country [or] NATO territory ... will trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. On 11 March, Biden proclaimed that while the United States would, as part of NATO, "defend every single inch of NATO territory with [its] full might", NATO would not "fight a war against Russia in Ukraine", as such "direct conflict between NATO and Russia is World War III, something we must strive to prevent".


text: On 13 March, Jake Sullivan, the United States National Security Advisor to President Biden, warned of a full-fledged NATO response if Russia were to hit any part of NATO territory. Sullivan added on 22 March, during Biden's trip to Europe to discuss updating NATO's posture towards Russia, that Biden would emphasize three key issues: new sanctions against Russia and tightening existing sanctions, longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture and contingencies in the case of nuclear weapons use, and 'joint action' on enhancing energy security in Europe, which is highly reliant on Russian gas. Zelenskyy repeatedly urged NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which was rejected by the organization as it would involve shooting down Russian aircraft, an act that would significantly escalate the war to involve NATO.


text: On 16 March, a meeting of NATO defence ministers agreed to continue supplying Ukraine with military, financial and humanitarian aid, though Stoltenberg ruled out the deployment of forces in Ukraine or a no-fly-zone, saying NATO has "a responsibility" not to escalate the war beyond Ukraine.


text: Upon his arrival for the 2022 Brussels extraordinary summit on 24 March, Biden increased the amount of new aid offered to Ukraine by one billion dollars and announced added guarantees for NATO obligations to protect all NATO-allied nations which border Ukraine. On 28 March, Biden, at the end of his NATO trip to Europe, reaffirmed his condemnation of Putin, saying that he would "'make no apologies'" for previously stating that "'Putin cannot remain in power'". On 29 March, Kallas sided with Biden's condemnation and called for the further isolation of Putin from international politics. As part of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence, NATO countries agreed to establish four multinational battalion-sized battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, on top of four existing battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.


text: On 6 and 7 April, foreign ministers from NATO member states as well as Ukraine, the European Union, Finland, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand and Australia convened to discuss further sanctions on Russia and additional arms deliveries to Ukraine.


text: On 27 February 2022, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union would ban Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik in response to disinformation and their coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. She also said that the EU would finance the purchase and delivery of military equipment to Ukraine and proposed a ban on Russian aircraft using EU airspace. The following day, the Council of the European Union adopted two assistance measures to strengthen Ukraine's military capabilities. The measures, for a total value of €500 million, financed the provision of military equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces including – for the first time in EU history – weapons and other lethal equipment.


text: On 28 February, the EU imposed a ban on transactions with the Russian Central Bank and a ban on the overflight of EU airspace and on access to EU airports by Russian carriers. On 2 March, a SWIFT ban for certain Russian banks was adopted, ensuring that they were disconnected from the international financial system, and the broadcasting activities in the EU of the outlets Sputnik and RT were suspended. On 10 March, additional measures targeting the Belarusian financial sector were agreed upon, and the EU imposed restrictive measures, including an asset freeze and a travel ban on 160 prominent businesspeople ("oligarchs") and members of the Russian Federation Council. At the onset of the war, similar measures had already been applied on members of Russia's Security Council and Duma, and on other individuals.


text: On 15 March, the EU decided to impose a fourth package of economic and individual sanctions, including trade restrictions for iron, steel, and luxury goods. The European Commission claimed that restricting steel imports could lead to a loss of €3.3 billion in revenue for Russia, and von der Leyen explained that the EU was working to suspend Russia's membership rights in multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. On 23 March, the Council decided to double the funding for the Ukrainian armed forces, bringing the total amount from €500 million to €1 billion. On 1 April, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola visited Kyiv to "show the EU's support for Ukraine" and to meet with Ukrainian officials.


text: On 8 April, the EU passed the fifth round of sanctions, which included an embargo on Russian coal, restrictions on Russian-flagged ships in EU ports, restrictions on Russian and Belarusian road transport in the EU, a ban on four Russian banks, export bans of high-tech goods and expanded sanctions on family members of individuals already sanctioned. The same day, a delegation including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and prime minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger visited Ukraine. Von der Leyen presented Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a questionnaire to join the EU; she also visited the city of Bucha to observe the aftermath of the Bucha massacre. Borrell announced that the EU delegation to Ukraine, headed by Matti Maasikas, would return to Kyiv after it was evacuated at the outbreak of war.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial hub Kochi and south of the major port city and a commercial hub, Mangalore. During the period of British colonial rule in India, when Kannur was a part of the Malabar District (Madras Presidency), the city was known as Cannanore. Kannur is the sixth largest urban agglomeration in Kerala. As of 2011 census, Kannur Municipal Corporation, the local body which administers mainland area of city, had a population of 232,486.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur was the headquarters of Kolathunadu, one of the four most important dynasties on the Malabar Coast, along with the Zamorin of Calicut, Kingdom of Cochin and Kingdom of Quilon. The Arakkal kingdom had right over the city of Kannur and Laccadive Islands in the late medieval period. Kannur municipality was formed on 1 November 1866 by the Madras Act 10 of 1865 (Amendment of the Improvements in Towns Act 1850) of the British Indian Empire, along with the municipalities of Thalassery, Kozhikode, Palakkad and Fort Kochi, making them the first modern municipalities in the state. It was upgraded into a municipal corporation in 2015.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur Cantonment is the only cantonment board in Kerala. The Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala is Asia's largest, and the world's third-largest, naval academy. Muzhappilangad beach is the longest drive-in beach in Asia and appeared among the top six best beaches for driving in the world in a BBC "Top Gear" article. During British rule, Kannur's chief importance laid in producing Thalassery pepper.


title: Kannur

text: The earliest evidence of human habitation in the region are rock-cut caves and megalithic burial sites of the Neolithic age. The Taliparamba-Kannur-Thalassery area abounds in rock-cut caves, dolmens, burial stone circles and menhirs, all of megalith. Kannur District was the seat of powerful kingdom based at Ezhimala in the Sangam period (1st–5th century CE). The ancient port of "Naura", which is mentioned in the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" as a port somewhere north of Muziris is identified with Kannur. Pliny the Elder (1st century CE) states that the port of "Tyndis" was located at the northwestern border of "Keprobotos" (Chera dynasty). The region, which lies north of the port at "Tyndis", was ruled by the kingdom of Ezhimala during the Sangam period.


title: Kannur

text: According to the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea", a region known as "Limyrike" began at "Naura" and "Tyndis". However the Ptolemy mentions only "Tyndis" as the "Limyrike"'s starting point. The region probably ended at Kanyakumari; it thus roughly corresponds to the present-day Malabar Coast. The value of Rome's annual trade with the region was estimated at around 50,000,000 sesterces. Pliny the Elder mentioned that "Limyrike" was prone by pirates. The Cosmas Indicopleustes mentioned that the "Limyrike" was a source of peppers.


title: Kannur

text: The kingdom of Ezhimala had jurisdiction over two "Nadu"s – The coastal "Poozhinadu" and the hilly eastern "Karkanadu". According to the works of Sangam literature, "Poozhinadu" consisted much of the coastal belt between Mangalore and Kozhikode. "Karkanadu" consisted of Wayanad-Gudalur hilly region with parts of Kodagu (Coorg). It is said that Nannan, the most renowned ruler of Ezhimala dynasty, took refuge at Wayanad hills in the 5th century CE when he was lost to Cheras, just before his execution in a battle, according to the Sangam works.


title: Kannur

text: According to Kerala Muslim tradition, Kannur along with surrounding Madayi and Dharmadom were home to three of the oldest mosques in the Indian subcontinent. According to the Legend of Cheraman Perumals, the first Indian mosque was built in 624 AD at Kodungallur with the mandate of the last the ruler (the Cheraman Perumal) of Chera dynasty, who left from Dharmadom to Mecca and converted to Islam during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632). According to "Qissat Shakarwati Farmad", the "Masjids" at Kodungallur, Kollam, Madayi, Barkur, Mangalore, Kasaragod, Kannur, Dharmadam, Panthalayani, and Chaliyam, were built during the era of Malik Dinar, and they are among the oldest "Masjid"s in the Indian subcontinent. It is believed that Malik Dinar died at Thalangara in Kasaragod town.


title: Kannur

text: Ezhimala kingdom was succeeded by Mushika dynasty in the early medieval period, most possibly due to the migration of Tuluva Brahmins from Tulu Nadu. The "Mushika-vamsha Mahakavya", written by Athula in the 11th century, throws light on the recorded past of the Mushika Royal Family up until that point. The Indian anthropologist Ayinapalli Aiyappan states that a powerful and warlike clan of the Bunt community of Tulu Nadu was called "Kola Bari" and the Kolathiri Raja of Kolathunadu was a descendant of this clan. The kingdom of Kolathunadu, who were the descendants of Mushika dynasty, at the peak of its power reportedly extended from Netravati River (Mangalore) in the north to Korapuzha (Kozhikode) in the south with Arabian Sea on the


title: Kannur

text: west and Kodagu hills on the eastern boundary, also including the isolated islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.


title: Kannur

text: An Old Malayalam inscription (Ramanthali inscriptions), dated to 1075 CE, mentioning king Kunda Alupa, the ruler of Alupa dynasty of Mangalore, can be found at Ezhimala near Kannur. The Arabic inscription on a copper slab within the Madayi Mosque in Kannur records its foundation year as 1124 CE. In his book on travels ("Il Milione"), Marco Polo recounts his visit to the area in the mid 1290s. Other visitors included Faxian, the Buddhist pilgrim and Ibn Batuta, writer and historian of Tangiers. The Kolathunadu in the late medieval period emerged into independent 10 principalities i.e., Kadathanadu (Vadakara), Randathara or Poyanad (Dharmadom), Kottayam (Thalassery), Nileshwaram, Iruvazhinadu (Panoor, Kurumbranad etc., under separate royal chieftains due to the outcome of internal dissensions. The Nileshwaram dynasty on the northernmost part of Kolathiri dominion, were relatives to both Kolathunadu as well as the Zamorin of Calicut, in the early medieval period.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur was an important trading center in the 12th century, with active business connections with Persia and Arabia. The port at Kozhikode held the superior economic and political position in medieval Kerala coast, while Kannur, Kollam, and Kochi, were commercially important secondary ports, where the traders from various parts of the world would gather.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur served as the East India Company military headquarters on India's west coast until 1887. The modern town is referred to as Kannur Town. Kannur, as a district and surrounding areas, were mostly ruled by the famous Kolathiri Rajas. When the state of Kerala was formed the district took the name Kannur since the administrative offices were established here. Before that, Kannur was the headquarters of Chirakkal taluk of Malabar District in the Madras Presidency. During the period of Company rule in India, the East India Company preferred Madras and Cochin as their major stations and Kannur started to lose its old glory. The people of Kannur are still waiting for their old glory to get back and they feel they are being sidelined because the state administration is located the exact opposite side of the state. Part of the original city of Kannur was under Kerala's only Muslim Royalty called the Arakkal and this area is still known as city.


title: Kannur

text: The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrived at Kappad Kozhikode in 1498 during the Age of Discovery, thus opening a direct sea route from Europe to South Asia. In 1501 a Portuguese factory was planted here by Pedro Álvares Cabral, and in 1502 da Gama made a treaty with the Raja. The St. Angelo Fort at Kannur was built in 1505 by Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy of India. The Dutch captured the fort from the Portuguese in 1663. They modernised the fort and built the bastions Hollandia, Zeelandia, and Frieslandia that are the major features of the present structure. The original Portuguese fort was pulled down later. A painting of this fort and the fishing ferry behind it can be seen in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The Dutch sold the fort to king Ali Raja of Arakkal in 1772.


title: Kannur

text: During the 17th century, Kannur was the capital city of the only Muslim Sultanate in Kerala, known as Arakkal, who also ruled the Laccadive Islands in addition to the city of Kannur. Arakkal Kingdom and Chirakkal kingdom were two vassal kingdoms based in the city of Kannur. The island of Dharmadom near Kannur, along with Thalassery, was ceded to the East India Company as early as 1734, which were claimed by all of the "Kolattu Rajas", "Kottayam Rajas", "Mannanar" and " Arakkal Bibi" in the late medieval period, where the British initiated a factory and English settlement following the cession. Then the East India Company captured the fort Kannur in 1790 and used it as one of their major military stations on the Malabar Coast. During the period of British colonial rule, Kannur was part of the Madras province in the Malabar District.


title: Kannur

text: In 1761, the British captured Mahé, and the settlement was handed over to the ruler of Kadathanadu. The British restored Mahé to the French as a part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris. In 1779, the Anglo-French war broke out, resulting in the French loss of Mahé. In 1783, the British agreed to restore to the French their settlements in India, and Mahé was handed over to the French in 1785.


title: Kannur

text: Initially the British had to suffer local resistance against their rule under the leadership of Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, who had popular support in Thalassery-Wayanad region. The guerrilla war launched by Pazhassi Raja, the ruler of Kottayam province, against the East India Company had a huge impact on the history of Kannur. Changes in the socio-economic and political sectors in Kerala during the initial decades of the 20th century created conditions congenial for the growth of the Communist Party. Extension of English education initiated by Christian missionaries in 1906 and later carried forward by government, rebellion for wearing a cloth to cover upper parts of body, installing an idol at Aruvippuram in 1888, Malayali Memorial in 1891, establishment of SNDP Yogam in 1903, activities, struggles etc. became factors helpful to accelerate changes in Kerala society during a short time. These movements eventually coalesced into the Indian independence movement.


title: Kannur

text: Very soon, ideas about socialism and Soviet Revolution reached Kerala. Such ideas got propagated in Kerala through the works of Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai, Sahodaran Ayyappan, P. Kesavadev and others. By the beginning of the 1930s, some other useful developments were taking place. Important among them was Nivarthana Agitation in Travancore. That was the demand of people suppressed so far as untouchables and weaker sections for participation in government. This brought to the forefront struggles like proportional representation in government and reservation of jobs. This imparted a new enthusiasm among oppressed masses.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur has an elevation of along the coast of the Laccadive Sea, with a sandy coastal area. The city has an -long seashore and a -long beach at Payyambalam. Kannur is located north of Kozhikode, south of Kasargod and Mangalore, west of the Western Ghat regions of Kodagu and Wayanad, and east of the Laccadive Sea. Mappila Bay harbour at Ayikkara. On one side, there is St. Angelo Fort (built in 1505) and on the other side is Arakkal palace. Muzhappilangad Beach, the longest Drive-in Beach in Asia, is located in Kannur. Vayalapra Lake is near Madayi.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur experiences a very wet tropical monsoon climate ("Am" under the Köppen climate classification.) In the months of April and May, the average daily maximum temperature is about . Temperatures are moderate in December and January: about . Like other areas on the Malabar Coast, this city receives heavy rainfall during the Southwest monsoon. The annual average rainfall is , around 68 per cent of which is received in summer.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur municipality was formed on 1 November 1866 according to the Madras Act 10 of 1865 (Amendment of the Improvements in Towns act 1850) of the British Indian Empire, along with the municipalities of Thalassery, Kozhikode, Palakkad, and Fort Kochi, making them the first modern municipalities in the state. It was upgraded into a Municipal Corporation in the year 2015.


title: Kannur

text: The city is administered by the Kannur Municipal Corporation, headed by a mayor. The corporation is headed by a Mayor and council, and manages 78.35 km of Kannur city, with a population of about 232,486 within that area. For administrative purposes, the city is divided into 55 wards, from which the members of the corporation council are elected for five years. Kannur Municipal Corporation is divided into six zones: Kannur town, Pallikunnu, Puzhathi, Edakkad, Elayavoor, and Chelora.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur Corporation is the fifth City Corporation in Kerala after the creation of the state. Established in 2015, Kannur Corporation's first mayor was E. P. Latha. Kannur corporation has two assembly constituencies – Kannur and Azhikode – both of which are part of Kannur parliamentary constituency.


title: Kannur

text: The Kannur City Police is headed by a commissioner, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. The city is divided into some zones each under a circle officer. Apart from regular law and order, the city police comprise the traffic police, bomb squad, dog squad, fingerprint bureau, women's cell, juvenile wing, narcotics cell, riot force, armed reserve camps, district crime records bureau and a women's station. It operates several police stations functioning under the Home Ministry of Government of Kerala.


title: Kannur

text: According to the 2011 census of India, Kannur city has a population of . Males constitute 46.2% of the population and females 53.8%. Kannur has an average literacy rate of 96.23%, higher than the national average of 74.04%. Male literacy is 98% and female literacy is 94%. In Kannur, 12% of the population is under six years of age.


title: Kannur

text: The Anglo-Indian community in Kannur live mainly in the Kannur Cantonment of Burnacherry and its surrounding areas of Thillery, No.3 Bazaar and Camp Bazaar. Malayalam is the administrative and local language.


title: Kannur

text: Indian Naval Academy is situated in Ezhimala, Kannur. Naval cadets are trained here in 2500 acres vast campus. Kannur District has five Kendriya Vidyalaya at Kannur, Keltron Nagar, Payyanur, Ezhimala, and Thalassery, Peringome.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur University was established by Act 22 of 1996 of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The university by the name "Malabar University" had come into existence earlier by the promulgation of an ordinance by the governor of Kerala, on 9 November 1995. The university was inaugurated on 2 March 1996 by A. K. Antony, the Chief Minister of Kerala. The objective of the Kannur University Act 1996 was to establish in the state of Kerala a teaching, residential and affiliating university so as to provide for the development of higher education in Kasargod and Kannur revenue districts and the Mananthavady Taluk of Wayanad district. Kannur University is a multi-campus university.


title: Kannur

text: Government Brennen College, the first college in Kannur, established in the year 1862, provide education to more than 2500 students. Government College of Engineering, Kannur was established in 1986 near Dharmasala, Kannur as a center for imparting engineering education in northern Kerala. The college is among the top ten engineering colleges of the state, providing higher studies in the field of technical education.


title: Kannur

text: The Government Medical College, Kannur was established in 1993 at Pariyaram to serve Kannur city and surroundings. The thirteenth National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Campus is located at Dharmashala, Kannur north of Kannur City.


title: Kannur

text: Many local cable television channels are available in Kannur. The most popular cable channels are City Channel, City Gold, City Juke, Network Channels, Zeal Network, Kannur Vision, World Vision, Worldvision Music, Chakkarakkal, Gramika channel Koothuparamba and Kannurone


title: Kannur

text: Private FM radio stations in Kannur include: Radio Mango 91.9 (Malayala Manorama Co Ltd), Club FM 94.3 (Mathrubhumi Printing And Publishing Co Ltd), Red FM 93.5 (Sun Network) and Best FM 95.0 (Asianet Communications Ltd)


title: Kannur

text: A number of newspapers are published from Kannur, including the "Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi, Madhyamam, Deshabhimani, Deepika, Rashtra Deepika, Chandrika, Kerala Kaumudi, Mangalam, Janmabhumi, Veekshanam, Thejas", "Siraj", Suprabhaatham, Janayugom and The New Indian Express.


title: Kannur

text: The Kannur cuisine depicts it culture and heritage. It is famous for Malabar biriyani. The city of is also famous for Haluva called as "Sweet Meat" by Europeans due to the texture of the sweet. Another speciality is banana chips, which are made crisp and wafer-thin. Other popular dishes include seafood preparations (prawns, mussels, mackerel) . Vegetarian fare includes the sadya.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur cuisine is a blend of traditional Kerala, Persian, Yemenese and Arab food culture. This confluence of culinary cultures is best seen in the preparation of most dishes. "Kallummakkaya" (mussels) curry, "irachi puttu" ("irachi" meaning meat), "parottas" (soft flatbread), "Pathiri" (a type of rice pancake) and "ghee" rice are some of the other specialties. The characteristic use of spices is the hallmark of Kannur cuisine—black pepper, cardamom and clove are used profusely.


title: Kannur

text: The Kerala version of "biryani", popularly known as "kuzhi mandi" in Malayalam is another popular item, which has an influence from Yemen. Various varieties of "biriyanis" like Thalassery "biriyani", and Kannur "biriyani", are prepared here.


title: Kannur

text: The snacks include "unnakkaya" (deep-fried, boiled ripe banana paste covering a mixture of cashew, raisins and sugar), "pazham nirachathu" (ripe banana filled with coconut grating, molasses or sugar), "muttamala" made of eggs, "chatti pathiri", a dessert made of flour, like a baked, layered "chapati" with rich filling, "arikkadukka", and more.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur has a good road network connecting to Mangalore, Bangalore, Mysore, Kodagu and Cochin. The railway station is also well connected to all parts of India. The Kannur International Airport which is about 26 km from the city began operations on 9 December and is the fourth international airport in the state. Other nearby airports are at Calicut, Mysore and Mangalore.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur is on National Highway 66 or (formerly National Highway 17) between Kozhikode and Mangalore. This highway is scheduled to be expanded to four lanes. A bypass for Kannur city is proposed under the NH widening project.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur is connected to Kodagu, Mysore and Bangalore in Karnataka by the Kannur-Coorg-Mysore Highway. This highway is upgraded to National Highway in 2017.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur railway station is one of the major stations of the Southern Railway zone, under the jurisdiction of the . All trains including the Thiruvananthapuram Rajdhani Express and Garib Rath stop at Kannur. Six daily trains and around 15 weekly or bi-weekly trains connect Kannur to the capital Thiruvananthapuram. Kannur is well connected through rail with Mangalore and Kozhikode.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur South railway station and Edakkad railway stations are located under Kannur Corporation limits. Chirakkal railway station is located north of the city. Only passenger trains halt at these three stations.


title: Kannur

text: Kannur International Airport in Mattanur inaugurated on 9 December 2018. It is the fourth international airport in Kerala. The airport has a runway (the longest in the State) and state of the art passenger terminal as well other amenities. It is well connected by a comprehensive network of roads and a proposal for railway line has also been mooted. In the 2016–17 Union Railway budget, were dedicated for under Extra Budgetary Resource (EBR) in which a part of the bill will be borne by the State Government towards the railway line.


title: Kannur

text: Literature: Sukumar Azhikode, Oyyarathu Chandu Menon, Cherusseri Namboothiri, N. Prabhakaran, T. Padmanabhan, T. K. D. Muzhappilangad


title: Kannur

text: Sports: Jimmy George, V. P. Sathyan, Denson Devadas, C. K. Vineeth, Sahal Abdul Samad, Tintu Luka, Chundangapoyil Rizwan


title: Kannur

text: Political leaders: M. V. Raghavan, Pinarayi Vijayan, K. Karunakaran, E. K. Nayanar, K. K. Shailaja, E. Ahamed, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, E. P. Jayarajan, Kadannappalli Ramachandran, K. Sudhakaran


title: Kannur

text: M. N. Nambiar, Malavika Mohanan, Samvrutha Sunil, Mamta Mohandas, Vineeth, Vineeth Kumar, Deepak Parambol, Sanusha, Sanoop Santhosh, Nikhila Vimal, Nivetha Thomas, Sreekala Sasidharan, Sneha Paliyeri, Anju Aravind, Athmiya Rajan, Sruthi Lakshmi, Parvathy Nambiar, Ganapathi S Poduval, Madonna Sebastian, Sana Khan, Santhosh Keezhattoor


title: Kannur

text: Music (Playback singers): Vineeth Sreenivasan, Shaan Rahman, Sushin Shyam, Sayanora Philip, Arun Alat


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Amanda Louise Staveley (born 11 April 1973) is a British business executive. She is notable chiefly for her connections with Middle Eastern investors. She helped a Saudi consortium take over Newcastle United in a deal completed in October 2021 and has joined the board of directors.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: In 2008, Staveley played a prominent role in the investment of £7.3 billion in Barclays by the ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley's firm, PCP Capital Partners, acted for Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family, who invested £3.5 billion to control 16 percent of the bank. The deal was reported to have earned PCP Capital Partners a commission of £110 million, which, after paying advisers, represented a profit of £40 million. Staveley was also involved in Mansour's high-profile purchase of Manchester City F.C. in September 2008.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley has also attempted on two occasions to buy a stake in Newcastle United, first in 2018 and again in 2020 as part of a group led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. The takeover was completed on 7 October 2021 with Staveley owning 10% of the club, Reuben Brothers owning 10%, and Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, owning 80%.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley was born near Ripon in Yorkshire. She is the daughter of Robert Staveley, a North Yorkshire landowner who founded the Lightwater Valley theme park, where Staveley waitressed as a child; her mother, Lynne, was an occasional model and champion showjumper.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York. As a child, she competed in showjumping and athletics. At the age of 16, Staveley left school and enrolled at a crammer, winning a place to read modern languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. As a student, she supplemented her income by working as a model. Staveley abandoned her degree after suffering from stress following a family bereavement.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: In 1996, Staveley borrowed £180,000 and bought the restaurant, Stocks, in Bottisham between Cambridge and Newmarket. Through the restaurant, Staveley came to know members of Newmarket's racing community, in particular those associated with the Godolphin Racing stables owned by the Al Maktoum family of Dubai, as well as people from Cambridge's high-tech businesses. Through the late 1990s she started dealing in shares and became an active angel investor, especially in dot com enterprises and biotech firms such as Futura Medical.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley closed Stocks and in 2000 opened Q.ton, a £10 million conference centre and facility developed in a joint venture with Trinity College, Cambridge on Cambridge Science Park. Investors in Q.ton were believed to include King Abdullah of Jordan.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: In 2000 Staveley sold a 49 per cent share in Q.ton to the telecoms company EuroTelecom for £2 million. Staveley joined the firm as a non-executive director. A few months later EuroTelecom went out of business in the collapse of the dotcom boom. At the time it was claimed that Q.ton owed EuroTelecom £835,000 and that Staveley had agreed to buy back the company's stake, only for the money not to be forthcoming. Staveley denied having agreed to any payments and hired Kroll Inc. to investigate the members of the EuroTelecom board.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley bought EuroTelecom's stake in Q.ton from the firm's administrator PricewaterhouseCooper, a deal that led to a discontinued petition of bankruptcy against her when payment was delayed. She began raising £35 million from private investors to roll out the Q.ton concept throughout the UK and Europe. However, the company failed. Staveley agreed an Individual Voluntary Arrangement and in 2008 was paying back her creditors, including Barclays.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: After the failure of Q.ton Staveley moved to Dubai, cultivating connections centred on Abu Dhabi but extending across the Middle East.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: In 2008 the "Financial Times" described her firm, PCP Capital Partners, as really amounting to Staveley and her legal partner, Craig Eadie, and explained that, although based in Mayfair, London, the company acts "via offshore private equity affiliates" as a vehicle for the investment of Middle Eastern money, with Staveley acting as an adviser on those deals.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: These contacts brought Staveley to a new level of prominence at the end of 2008 with the investment of Middle Eastern funds in Barclays as the bank sought to recapitalise by raising money privately rather than accept a bail-out from the British government following the financial crisis of that year. Staveley earned a fee of £30 million for her role in the transaction. In 2010, "The Daily Telegraph" reported that Mansour's disposal of his stake in Barclays had made him a profit of about £2.25 billion.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: On 8 June 2020, Staveley's firm filed a £1.5 billion lawsuit against Barclays, claiming that the bank offered her client, Abu Dhabi, "manifestly worse" terms than those offered to Qatar. The Barclays legal team claimed that Staveley inserted herself into the capital raising while Staveley countered that the PCP was not a "facilitator" as Barclays claimed, but rather led the investment syndicate. A judgement was reached in February 2021 with Staveley losing the case despite the judge ruling that the bank was "guilty of serious deceit" towards PCP Capital Partners. Judge Waksman’s ruling described Staveley’s deal for Sheikh Mansour as "excellent" and found that Barclays had made false representations to PCP, but dismissed PCP’s claim to compensation. In March 2021, Waksman ruled that Barclays was responsible for its own legal costs as the bank had made a "financial benefit as a result of its fraud". In April 2021 Staveley launched an appeal against the verdict, which she lost in June 2021.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: The Barclays deal followed Sheikh Mansour's £210 million purchase of Manchester City F.C. in September of the same year through the Abu Dhabi United Group, a transaction reportedly worth £10 million in commission to PCP Capital Partners. At the same time Staveley was involved in extended negotiations by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Dubai International Capital to buy a 49 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club, although the deal, which would have given Staveley a place on the club's board, eventually foundered.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: On 20 November 2017, Staveley submitted a bid in the region of £300 million to buy Newcastle United, which failed. A new takeover bid, primarily funded by the Saudi Arabian government's sovereign wealth fund (Public Investment Fund), was reported in April 2020. It fell through again on 30 July 2020 as reported by the BBC, The Times and other media. A £300 million deal was successfully concluded on 7 October 2021 in which Staveley took a 10% share in Newcastle United, as did Reuben Brothers, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund took an 80% share.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: The takeover sparked condemnation by human rights organizations who characterized the takeover as "sportswashing." The other 19 Premier League clubs condemned the Saudi takeover of Newcastle, stating that it damaged the brand of the Premier League. Staveley defended the takeover, arguing that it was not "sportswashing." Staveley has also argued that PIF, which is the Saudi Arabian government's sovereign wealth fund, is a separate entity from the Saudi Arabian government.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Also in 2008 Staveley fronted a bid by the Qatar Investment Authority to buy the Trillium facilities management business from the Land Securities property group, an offer reportedly totaling £1.1 billion. The bid in the end came to nothing and Trillium was sold to Telereal for £750 million in January 2009.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Later that year Staveley was involved in an attempt to help finance the $13.5 billion sale of Barclays Global Investors to the US firm BlackRock, offering $2.8 billion of funding in return for a shareholding of 10 per cent, an amount that reportedly included a commitment of Staveley's own money. In June 2009, with details being finalised, Blackrock pulled out of the deal. Press reports at the time suggested that BlackRock had sought further clarification of the identity of the investors behind the special purpose vehicle created by PCP Capital Partners to handle the offer, although alternative reports claimed that they had always been aware of the conditions of the deal. In the end BlackRock funded its purchase of BGI from other sources.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: In 2010 Staveley was reported to have advised the Qatari property investment company Barwa in their purchase of the Park House site on Oxford Street in London from Land Securities for £250 million, a deal that was said to have earned PCP Capital Partners in the region of £5 million to £7.5 million in fees. In March 2012 it was announced that Waterway PCP Properties Ltd, a Middle Eastern private equity group fronted by Staveley, had paid Land Securities £234 million for their Arundel Great Court site on the north bank of the Thames in London.


title: Amanda Staveley

text: Staveley initially hit the tabloid headlines after dating Prince Andrew, Duke of York, in 2003. In October 2011, she married British-Iranian financier Mehrdad Ghodoussi, in a ceremony held at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire. In 2013, she was diagnosed with Huntington's disease. Staveley lives in Dubai and has a house in London's Park Lane.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Industrial espionage, economic espionage, corporate spying, or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security.


title: Industrial espionage

text: While political espionage is conducted or orchestrated by governments and is international in scope, industrial or corporate espionage is more often national and occurs between companies or corporations.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Economic or industrial espionage takes place in two main forms. In short, the purpose of espionage is to gather knowledge about one or more organizations. It may include the acquisition of intellectual property, such as information on industrial manufacture, ideas, techniques and processes, recipes and formulas. Or it could include sequestration of proprietary or operational information, such as that on customer datasets, pricing, sales, marketing, research and development, policies, prospective bids, planning or marketing strategies or the changing compositions and locations of production. It may describe activities such as theft of trade secrets, bribery, blackmail and technological surveillance. As well as orchestrating espionage on commercial organizations, governments can also be targets – for example, to determine the terms of a tender for a government contract.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Economic and industrial espionage is most commonly associated with technology-heavy industries, including computer software and hardware, biotechnology, aerospace, telecommunications, transportation and engine technology, automobiles, machine tools, energy, materials and coatings and so on. Silicon Valley is known to be one of the world's most targeted areas for espionage, though any industry with information of use to competitors may be a target.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Information can make the difference between success and failure; if a trade secret is stolen, the competitive playing field is leveled or even tipped in favor of a competitor. Although a lot of information-gathering is accomplished legally through competitive intelligence, at times corporations feel the best way to get information is to take it. Economic or industrial espionage is a threat to any business whose livelihood depends on information.


title: Industrial espionage

text: In recent years, economic or industrial espionage has taken on an expanded definition. For instance, attempts to sabotage a corporation may be considered industrial espionage; in this sense, the term takes on the wider connotations of its parent word. That espionage and sabotage (corporate or otherwise) have become more clearly associated with each other is also demonstrated by a number of profiling studies, some government, some corporate. The United States government currently has a polygraph examination entitled the "Test of Espionage and Sabotage" (TES), contributing to the notion of the interrelationship between espionage and sabotage countermeasures. In practice, particularly by "trusted insiders", they are generally considered functionally identical for the purpose of informing countermeasures.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Economic or industrial espionage commonly occurs in one of two ways. Firstly, a dissatisfied employee appropriates information to advance interests or to damage the company. Secondly, a competitor or foreign government seeks information to advance its own technological or financial interest. "Moles", or trusted insiders, are generally considered the best sources for economic or industrial espionage. Historically known as a "patsy", an insider can be induced, willingly or under duress, to provide information. A patsy may be initially asked to hand over inconsequential information and, once compromised by committing a crime, blackmailed into handing over more sensitive material. Individuals may leave one company to take up employment with another and take sensitive information with them. Such apparent behavior has been the focus of numerous industrial espionage cases that have resulted in legal battles. Some countries hire individuals to do spying rather than the use of their own intelligence agencies. Academics, business delegates, and students are often thought to be used by governments in gathering information. Some countries, such as Japan, have been reported to expect students to be debriefed on returning home. A spy may follow a guided tour of a factory and then get "lost". A spy could be an engineer, a maintenance man, a cleaner, an insurance salesman, or an inspector: anyone who has legitimate access to the premises.


title: Industrial espionage

text: A spy may break into the premises to steal data and may search through waste paper and refuse, known as "dumpster diving". Information may be compromised via unsolicited requests for information, marketing surveys, or use of technical support or research or software facilities. Outsourced industrial producers may ask for information outside the agreed-upon contract.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Computers have facilitated the process of collecting information because of the ease of access to large amounts of information through physical contact or the Internet.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Economic and industrial espionage has a long history. Father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles, who visited Jingdezhen, China in 1712 and later used this visit to reveal the manufacturing methods of Chinese porcelain to Europe, is sometimes considered to have conducted an early case of industrial espionage.


title: Industrial espionage

text: Historical accounts have been written of industrial espionage between Britain and France. Attributed to Britain's emergence as an "industrial creditor", the second decade of the 18th century saw the emergence of a large-scale state-sponsored effort to surreptitiously take British industrial technology to France. Witnesses confirmed both the inveigling of tradespersons abroad and the placing of apprentices in England. Protests by those such as ironworkers in Sheffield and steelworkers in Newcastle, about skilled industrial workers being enticed abroad, led to the first English legislation aimed at preventing this method of economic and industrial espionage. This did not prevent Samuel Slater from bringing British textile technology to the United States in 1789. In order to catch up with technological advances of European powers, the US government in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries actively encouraged intellectual piracy.


title: Industrial espionage

text: American founding father and first U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton advocated rewarding those bringing "improvements and secrets of extraordinary value" into the United States. This was instrumental in making the United States a haven for industrial spies.