title: Beta-Hydroxy beta-methylbutyric acid

text: The effects of HMB on human skeletal muscle were first discovered by Steven L. Nissen at Iowa State University in the . Nissen founded a company called Metabolic Technologies, Inc. (MTI) around the time of his discovery, which later acquired six HMB-related patents that the company has used to license the right to manufacture and incorporate HMB into dietary supplements. When it first became available commercially in the late 1990s, HMB was marketed solely as an exercise supplement to help athletes and bodybuilders build muscle. MTI subsequently developed two HMB-containing products, Juven and Revigor, to which Abbott Nutrition obtained the market rights in 2003 and 2008 respectively. Since then, Abbott has marketed Juven as a medical food and the Revigor brand of HMB as an active ingredient in food products for athletes (e.g., certain formulations of Myoplex) and other medical foods (e.g., certain formulations of Ensure).


title: Oliver Chris

text: Oliver Graham Chris (born 2 November 1978) is an English actor. He has appeared in television series, TV films and on the stage. His work has included theatrical productions in London's West End and Broadway in New York City.


title: Oliver Chris

text: Chris was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He passed his eleven-plus exam and attended Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys before moving to the Michael Hall Steiner School in his fourth year. He later attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. In 2005, he completed an evening class at Birkbeck College and was subsequently accepted for a degree course in history, politics and philosophy.


title: Oliver Chris

text: Chris has appeared in several comedy series, including "The Office", "Green Wing", "According to Bex", "Nathan Barley", "The IT Crowd", "Rescue Me" and "Bluestone 42".


title: Oliver Chris

text: In 2004, Chris re-wrote the lyrics to the Beatles' "Let It Be" to a song about the England football player Wayne Rooney and recorded it in collaboration with the actor Stephen Campbell Moore and a number of other actors and journalists. The song was reprised and re-recorded, with rewritten lyrics, for the 2006 Fifa World Cup and became a hit on YouTube, with 200,000 hits.


title: Oliver Chris

text: Chris has also narrated most of the "Alex Rider" series of audiobooks by Anthony Horowitz, although Dan Stevens replaced him as reader for "Snakehead", "Crocodile Tears" and "Scorpia Rising".


title: Oliver Chris

text: In early 2006, Chris played the role of Captain Leonard in "Sharpe's Challenge", starring Sean Bean, while 2007 saw him in the TV comedy "Bonkers", written by Sally Wainwright as well as Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Wilton's Music Hall. In 2006, he also appeared as Christian in "Cyrano de Bergerac" at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He later appeared in Peter Hall's production of "The Portrait of a Lady". He made his West End debut in late 2008 in Lisa Kron's comedy, "Well". In 2010, he appeared alongside Judi Dench in Hall's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Rose Theatre, Kingston.


title: Oliver Chris

text: Chris was cast in Ben Miller's feature-length debut comedy film "Huge", which premiered in June 2010. In 2011, saw him appear in two episodes of "Silent Witness", whilst also playing one of the leading roles in the National Theatre production of "One Man, Two Guvnors" alongside James Corden. He appeared in three series of the BBC Three comedy "Bluestone 42", about a British bomb disposal detachment in Afghanistan. He also played Dr Richard Truscott in the ITV medical drama series "Breathless", set in the 1960s, which ran for one series from October 2013.


title: Oliver Chris

text: From 2014 to 2016, Chris played Prince William in the play "King Charles III", appearing in the West End and on Broadway. In May 2017, he appeared in the same role in the BBC Two film adaptation.


title: Oliver Chris

text: Between February and May 2017, Chris played Orsino in a production of Twelfth Night at the Royal National Theatre. He also played Friedrich Engels in Richard Bean and Clive Coleman's new play "Young Marx", the opening production at the Bridge Theatre in December 2017. In 2019, Chris took on the roles of Oberon and Theseus in Nicholas Hytner's adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Bridge Theatre, London. Paul Taylor, in his review for "The Independent", described Chris' Oberon as "superlatively funny" while Stig Abell in the TLS opined that doubling the roles of Oberon and Theseus allowed Chris "to be by turns sublime and ridiculous, stuffy and lusty".


title: Oliver Chris

text: Chris' writing credits include "Ralegh: The Treason Trial", staged at the Winchester Great Hall and then the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2018 and "Jack Absolute Flies Again," based on Sheridan's "The Rivals", co-written with Richard Bean, due to be staged at the Olivier Theatre in 2020.


title: Selenis Leyva

text: Selenis Leyva is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gloria Mendoza in the Netflix comedy-drama series "Orange Is the New Black" (2013–19), and also starred on the Disney+ comedy-drama series "Diary of a Future President" (2020–21).


title: Selenis Leyva

text: Leyva was born and raised in The Bronx. She is of Cuban and Dominican descent. She has appeared in a number of Off-Broadway productions. On television, Leyva had a recurring role of Detective Mariluz Rivera in "Law & Order", and also appeared in different roles on the show and on "". She has guest-starred on "Third Watch", "The Sopranos", "The Good Wife", "Girls", and "Elementary".


title: Selenis Leyva

text: In 2013, Leyva began starring as Gloria Mendoza, a Latina leader in the jail, in the Netflix comedy-drama series "Orange Is the New Black". Her character was recurring for the first two seasons and she was promoted to series regular in Season 3. Along with cast, she received three Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. She also received ALMA Award for Outstanding Special Achievement in Television in 2014. The series ended in 2019, after seven seasons. During her time in "Orange Is the New Black", Leyva co-starred opposite Viola Davis and Catalina Sandino Moreno in the 2016 courtroom drama film "Custody" directed and written by James Lapine, and played Monica Warren in the 2017 superhero film "". In 2018, she had a supporting role in the Netflix miniseries "Maniac".


title: Selenis Leyva

text: In 2019, Leyva was cast in the Disney+ comedy-drama series "Diary of a Future President" produced by Gina Rodriguez. The series premiered on January 17, 2020 and was cancelled in December 2021.


title: Selenis Leyva

text: Leyva is the co-author, with her sister Marizol, of the book "My Sister: How One Sibling's Transition Changed Us Both", which was published by Bold Type Books in March 2020.


title: Selenis Leyva

text: Leyva has one daughter, Alina. She is a supporter of the LGBT community and revealed in June 2015 that her sister Marizol is transgender.


title: Jadyn Wong

text: Jadyn Wong is a Canadian actress, best known for playing mechanical prodigy Happy Quinn on the CBS show "Scorpion".


title: Jadyn Wong

text: Jadyn Wong was born May 11, 1989 in Canada to immigrants from the then-British Hong Kong. She completed her Bachelor of Commerce at the University of British Columbia. She has a black belt in karate and is also a classical pianist.


title: Jadyn Wong

text: Jadyn Wong made her professional acting debut in the miniseries Broken Trail (2006) with Robert Duvall. Her first audition, she was handpicked for the role by Duvall after hundreds of actresses were auditioned across North America.


title: Jadyn Wong

text: She also appeared in "Space Buddies" (2009) as a Chinese reporter; as April Jung in the short film "The Letters" (2010); as a Money Channel Interviewer in "Cosmopolis" (2012); as Diondra in "Debug" (2014); and as Molly in the TV movie "Client Seduction" (2014). In 2016, she played Altagracia in "You're Killing Me Susana".


title: Jadyn Wong

text: From 2014 to 2018, Wong starred in the CBS television series "Scorpion" as Happy Quinn. In 2018, she joined the cast of "Needle in a Timestack", a science fiction film written and directed by John Ridley.


title: Howa Type 20

text: The , referred to as the , is an assault rifle developed for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force by Howa. The first examples were purchased in 2019, and it is intended to eventually replace the Howa Type 89 in general service.


title: Howa Type 20

text: In August 2014, it was reported that the JGSDF was looking for a new rifle to replace the Type 89. Initial candidates to replace the Type 89s include the Heckler & Koch G36, Heckler & Koch HK416, Steyr AUG, FN SCAR, and a new rifle developed by Howa.


title: Howa Type 20

text: In 2015, the Japanese Ministry of Defense procured various foreign made rifles for testing purposes and contracted with Howa to test their domestic rifle. The procurement contract is shown as:


title: Howa Type 20

text: The small arms "S type, 516 and 716" are the SIG516 and SIG716, "G type, V" is the G36V, "HK type" is likely the HK416 or HK417, and "SC type, H and L" is the SCAR-H and SCAR-L. It is unknown what rifle is small arms "M type".


title: Howa Type 20

text: At the same time, Howa filed a patent on the design for their rifle on 15 May 2015. Furthermore, the design was patented under Japan's Design Act (Article 14) which allows the design to be kept in secret for up to three years. An updated design was later patented under the same law on 25 September 2015.


title: Howa Type 20

text: In 2018, the Ministry of Defense procured another batch of small arms for testing. The procurement contract is shown as:


title: Howa Type 20

text: The rifles were later revealed to be the Type 20 (then designated as HOWA 5.56), HK416 and SCAR-L following an announcement on 6 December 2019 that the Type 20 has been selected over the other two rifles. A follow up report stated that two evaluations were conducted on the rifle in 2018. The first evaluation focused on the weapon's performance on land such as effective range and accuracy. The second evaluation compared the weapon's performance, logistics and cost to the other two rifles.


title: Howa Type 20

text: Since all three rifles satisfied the JGSDF's requirements, the Type 20 was selected due to having the highest score based on the second evaluation. The unit price for mass production is stated to be at ¥280,000 including maintenance and operation costs. The estimated life cycle cost is ¥43.9 billion if 150,000 units are procured.


title: Howa Type 20

text: The first batch of rifles (3,283 units) were purchased for ¥900 million in the FY 2020 defense budget, equivalent to $2,600 per rifle.


title: Howa Type 20

text: On May 18 2020, the Ministry of Defense announced that the rifle would be designated as the Type 20. It was also announced that the Type 20 will first be issued to soldiers in the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade.


title: Howa Type 20

text: The Type 20 is said to possess better environment durability, fire power and extensibility over the Type 89. This is needed as water-resistance is essential for amphibious operations in the southwestern islands of Japan. One key difference it has over the Type 89 is the addition of multiple rails, making it the first Japanese rifle to have this feature as a standard design. The magazine is also believed to be STANAG compatible. The rifle features a telescoping stock, vertical forward grip, an ambidextrous safety selector, and operates via short-stroke piston. Compared to its original design, the current design of the Type 20 retains much of the same characteristics with only some notable changes. The barrel length has been shortened slightly and the hand guard has been redesigned to feature an M-LOK rail design. The side rails have been extended, foldable iron sights were added and the stock features a shoulder pad similar to the one seen on the HK416.


title: Howa Type 20

text: Because of the radical and modern design shift the rifle has over its predecessor, there are some speculations on how it got its design. One speculation is that the design was possibly influenced by various foreign made rifles; as Japan has experience procuring and utilizing a number of foreign rifles, i.e. the Special Forces Group. As such, the design of the Type 20 has been compared to the FN SCAR, CZ 805 BREN and Heckler & Koch HK433; with some observers believing the rifle possesses similar dimensions and functionality to the SCAR. Another design influence is speculated to come from the experience Howa has gained from developing the ACIES variants of the Type 89.


title: Howa Type 20

text: The rifle weighs 3.5 kg and has a total length between 780 mm to 850 mm depending on the extension of the stock. The barrel length is 330 mm. Unlike the Type 89, the Type 20 did not adopt the three round burst select fire, as it was deemed unnecessary. The rifle is compatible with an underbarrel bayonet, and, according to a Ministry of Defense press conference, the rifle can be used with the Beretta GLX-160 grenade launcher. The rifle was also showcased with a foregrip that features a miniature bipod and a DEON MARCH 8x optical sight.


title: Abzu

text: The Abzu or Apsu (Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: — ='water' ='deep', recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the abzu. In Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, it is referred to as the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld (Kur) and the earth (Ma) above.


title: Abzu

text: In the city of Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E-abzu (house of the deep waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu. Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu ("apsû"). Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to Judaism's mikvot, the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches.


title: Abzu

text: The Sumerian god Enki (Ea in the Akkadian language) was believed to have lived in the abzu since before human beings were created. His wife Damgalnuna, his mother Nammu, his advisor Isimud and a variety of subservient creatures, such as the gatekeeper Lahmu, also lived in the abzu.


title: Abzu

text: Abzu ("apsû") is depicted as a deity only in the Babylonian creation epic, the , taken from the library of Assurbanipal (c. 630 BCE) but which is about 500 years older. In this story, he was a primal being made of fresh water and a lover to another primal deity, Tiamat, a creature of salt water. The begins: "When above the heavens ("e-nu-ma e-liš") did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, the first, the begetter, and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, she who bore them all; they were still mixing their waters, and no pasture land had yet been formed, nor even a reed marsh." This resulted in the birth of the younger gods, who later murdered Apsu in order to usurp his lordship of the universe. Enraged, Tiamat gives birth to the first dragons, filling their bodies with "venom instead of blood", and made war upon her treacherous children, only to be slain by Marduk, the god of Storms, who then forms the heavens and earth from her corpse.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" is a song recorded by American singer Justin Timberlake. It was released on May 6, 2016, as the lead single of the soundtrack to the film "Trolls" (2016), in which Timberlake voiced the character "Branch" and served as the executive music producer. It was written and produced by Timberlake, Max Martin, and Shellback. Musically, "Can't Stop the Feeling!" is an uptempo disco-pop, soul-pop number with funk influences.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The song was released as a single on May 6, 2016, six months before the film debuted, and serviced to contemporary hit radio on May 10, 2016. Timberlake gave his first televised performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling!" during the interval act of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 grand final. It was followed by a music video directed by Mark Romanek, which was released on May 16, 2016. The music video follows Timberlake on a tour to everyday places as he dances through what a typical day may be. , it accumulated over 1.6 billion views. A wide number of fan-made videos followed the song's video release.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The single debuted atop the US "Billboard" Hot 100, opening with 379,000 downloads in its first week, marking Timberlake's fifth number-one single in the country, and making it the twenty-sixth song in the Hot 100 history to start at the summit of the chart. Additionally, it became the second song to spend its first ten weeks atop the Digital Songs chart. The single marked his fifth number-one single on the Radio Songs chart and his eighth on the Mainstream Top 40; it is among the top twenty longest-leading number-one singles on the Adult Contemporary chart. Internationally, it topped the charts in Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, and Switzerland, and the top five in most of Europe.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" was the best-selling song of 2016 in the US. , it has sold 3.3 million downloads in the country. For Apple Music it was the second-best-performing song of the year. The Official Charts Company from the UK named it Timberlake's biggest song in the country, for over one million units sold. The song received several awards and nominations, such as its nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 89th annual ceremony (where Timberlake performed the song as the opening number), the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Song, and it won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. This is the 41st Hot 100 number one song to be nominated for an Academy Award.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: In the early stages of recording his fifth studio album, Timberlake also served as the executive music producer for the soundtrack to the film "Trolls". The uptempo disco-pop track was written and produced by Timberlake, Max Martin and Shellback. "Entertainment Weekly" described the song as a "funky mix of disco and pop." For "The A.V. Club" it is "a soul-pop sugar rush tweaked for maximum dance grooves." "Can't Stop the Feeling!" is written in the key of C major with a tempo of 113 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of CAmFAm, and Timberlake's vocals span two octaves, from E to E. The track features a "jazzy", uptempo beat and a falsetto chorus.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "This movie feels like one big, trippy disco experience. But we didn't have a disco song," said Timberlake of the "Trolls" soundtrack. "We had 'September' [by Earth, Wind & Fire], but we thought this was a great opportunity to do a modern disco song. I think that disco is a really underappreciated genre." "Can't Stop the Feeling!" appears in the denouement of the movie, conceived with the idea of covering the disco genre inspired by the situation of the final scene. Timberlake commented the song was inspired by Bill Withers' "Lovely Day".


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The song received generally positive reviews from music critics. Writers from "Billboard", "Rolling Stone", "Fuse" and "USA Today" highlighted its attractiveness for the summer season. Adelle Platon from "Billboard" called it "delightful" and a "feel-good jam". Nate Chinen from "The New York Times" wrote "Timberlake is on firm footing here, gliding over a disco-pop beat and urging all comers to catch the spirit." Jon Niles from "Music Times" wrote: "The song gives off a feeling of pure joy that only a talent as great as Timberlake could bring to the table." For Lisa Respers France of CNN Entertainment, "If Friday had a sound, it would be Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling!"." Ed Masley wrote in AZCentral "the lyrics sound like they were custom-made to be the soundtrack to your favorite summer memories." For "The A.V. Club", Annie Zaleski wrote "a perfect summer song is one I can blast while driving in the car with the windows down. The tune doesn't have to be meaningful—in fact, the more lightweight, the better—and it should offer a few minutes of unadulterated escapism. This year, I can already tell that "Can't Stop The Feeling!" is my hot-weather jam."


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "The A.V. Club" included it among the 40 best songs of 2016 (first half). "Billboard" critics ranked "Can't Stop the Feeling!" at number 33 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list, adding "the rhythm is eventually gonna get you to dance." Digital Spy considered it the 19th-best pop song of the year, while Idolator named it the 20th-best song of the year, for "feel-good" and "infectious." Aversely, contributors for "Time" and "Spin" gave it unfavorable reviews, with the former naming it the worst song of 2016 and the latter stating, "There are certain songs notable not only for their popularity, but for an insufferable repetition."


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. Timberlake received the Hollywood Song Award for "Can't Stop the Feeling!" at the 2016 Hollywood Film Awards and won the award for Best Song Written for an Animated Film at the 2016 Hollywood Music in Media Awards. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, Critics' Choice Award for Best Song, Satellite Award for Best Original Song, and by the Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for Best Song/Recording Created for a Film.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" won the award for Song of the Year at the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards and Favorite Song at the 43rd People's Choice Awards. At the former it was also nominated for Best Song from a Movie. For the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, it received nominations for Choice Summer Song, Choice Party Song and Choice Song from a Movie or TV Show. It received nominations for Song of the Summer at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, for International Song of the Year at the 2016 NRJ Music Awards, and for Favorite Song at the 2017 Kids' Choice Awards. The 2016 BBC Music Awards shortlisted it for Song of the Year nominee. Among other international awards, it was nominated at the Australian APRA Music Awards in the category International Work of the Year, at the Hungarian Music Awards in Modern Pop-Rock Album/Record of the Year, and at the Mexican Telehit Awards in Song of the Year. "Can't Stop The Feeling!" was also nominated for the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards in the categories Song of the Year and Song to Dance to, and at the 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards for Best Musical Moment.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: At the 2017 Billboard Music Awards it won the awards for Top Selling Song and Top Radio Song, and was also nominated for Top Hot 100 Song. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) recognized it as one of the most performed songs of 2016 and 2017. It is also nominated for World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: Instead of Timberlake's solo version, the film version of the song was submitted to the general field and visual media category, eventually getting nominated only in the latter and winning. The Recording Academy changed some rules for the next awards. Grammy SVP Bill Freimuth explained to "Variety":


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: Counting its first three days of airplay, "Can't Stop the Feeling!" debuted at number 24 on the US Mainstream Top 40 and started at a personal-best number 19 on Adult Top 40, both for the charts dated May 21, 2016. "Can't Stop the Feeling!" became the first song in the history of Mediabase Top 40 to close the entire Top 40 radio station panel in the first week, being the "most added" song in all 186 of them.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" became the 26th song to debut at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 on the chart issue dated May 28, 2016, marking Justin Timberlake's fifth chart-topping single in the country. The song started at the Hot 100's summit powered most heavily by its number-one debut on the Digital Songs sales chart (where it was Timberlake's sixth leader), having sold 379,000 downloads in its first week (ending May 12), according to Nielsen Music. Timberlake scored his highest weekly sales total for a song, besting the 315,000-unit start for "Suit & Tie" in 2013. It entered Streaming Songs at number six with 15.6 million US streams in its first full week. On Radio Songs, it ascended from 27-9 following its first full week of airplay (83 million in audience), becoming the first song to reach the Radio Songs top 10 in just two chart weeks since Adele's "Hello" (November 14, 2015). With "Give It to Me" having last led the Hot 100 dated April 28, 2007, Timberlake returned to number one after nine years and one month, the longest span between leaders since Christina Aguilera waited 10 years, two months and one week between "Lady Marmalade" in 2001 and her featured turn on Maroon 5's "Moves like Jagger" in 2011. Among males, it saw Timberlake end the longest break between Hot 100 number ones since Dr. Dre went 12 years, two months and three weeks between "No Diggity" (by Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre) and "Crack a Bottle", his collaboration with Eminem and 50 Cent. The song spent 52 weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming one of a few singles to have spent at least a year on the chart, and 62 weeks on the Digital Songs chart.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" reached number one on Radio Songs in just its fifth week, marking the quickest sprint to the top since Adele's "Hello" needed just four weeks in November 2015. Among male artists, the single made the fastest rise to number one on Radio Songs in nearly 25 years, since Michael Jackson's "Black or White" set the record with a three-week climb in 1991. Mariah Carey's "I'll Be There" tied the mark in 1992. The single also tied Adele's "Hello" for the fastest-ever rise to the top of the Adult Top 40. Among males, "Feeling" bested Pharrell Williams' eight-week trip to the top with "Happy", which reached number one in April 2014, for the quickest climb to the top spot by a solo male artist. "Can't Stop the Feeling!" also reached the top of the Mainstream Top 40, where Timberlake passed Bruno Mars for the most number ones among males.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: With "Can't Stop the Feeling!" spending a sixth week atop Digital Songs, it became Timberlake's longest lead atop the chart, passing "SexyBack". Additionally, it marked Timberlake's best weekly audience for a song with 163 million, passing the 159 million that "Mirrors" drew at its peak. The following week, it became Timberlake's first solo number one on Adult Contemporary. Reaching the AC summit in just its eighth week, "Feeling" completed the fastest run to number one for a (non-holiday) song by a male artist in 17 years, since Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart" needed only six weeks in 1999. Among all songs, "Feeling" made the fastest trip to number one on AC since Adele's "Hello": four weeks, in November 2015. Timberlake also earned his sixth number-one on Dance Club Songs with "Can't Stop the Feeling!". He reached the top of the chart without the aid of officially commissioned remixes. However, versions from Barry Harris, Fenix and Erick Decks, among others, have helped bring the song to club crowds. "Can't Stop the Feeling!" became the eighth song to top Digital Songs for at least 10 weeks and the first since Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk" led for a record-tying 13 weeks in 2015; Flo Rida's "Low" first set the mark with 13 weeks at number one on Digital Songs in 2007–08. "Feeling" is the second song to spend its first 10 weeks on Digital Songs at number one, joining The Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow", which logged its first 10 weeks on the chart at the summit in 2009.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: In the US it was the best-selling song of the summer, while being listed at 2 on the "Billboard" seasonal ranking. Spotify named it the fifth most-streamed song of the summer globally. , it has sold 2.495 million downloads in the country, thus being the best-selling song of the year according to Nielsen Music. It was also the number three most-heard song on US radio in 2016, with 3.422 billion audience impressions for the year. It was the number two most-played song in terms of total number of plays, with 587,000.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" is among the top 20 longest-leading number-one singles on the Adult Contemporary chart. It is also one of only eight singles in the "Billboard" Hot 100's 58-year history to spend its first 40 weeks or more in the top 40.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: It reached the top position of the Canadian Hot 100 in its fifth week, after spending its first four weeks at number 2.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: By September 2016, it has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and sextuple platinum by Music Canada. , the song has accumulated 7.6 million units in the US, combining sales (3.3 million downloads) and equivalent streams.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: In 2016, "Can't Stop the Feeling!" was ranked as the 9th most popular song of the year on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: One year after its release, "Can't Stop the Feeling!" finished as the 49th most popular song of the year on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 2017.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: "Can't Stop the Feeling!" reached the top spot in Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the top 5 in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It spent four weeks atop the Euro Digital Songs chart.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The song debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart, and remained in the number 2 position for four weeks, it later reached the top spot of the UK Singles Sales Chart and spent two weeks as well at the top position. The Official Charts Company from the UK named it Timberlake's biggest song in the country with over 1 million units sold, surpassing 2013's "Mirrors". It was ranked 10 on UK year-end chart, while being the 3rd-best-selling song of the year in the territory. According to Phonographic Performance Limited, it was the most played song on UK radio, TV and in public places during 2016, while Timberlake was placed fifth.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: By September 2022, it has been certified diamond by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie, Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique and the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (ZVAP), elevenfold platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), septuple platinum by the Swedish Recording Industry Association (GLF), quintuple platinum by the Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI), quatruple platinum by the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), and triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and Denmark's IFPI, and double platinum by the Recorded Music New Zealand (RMNZ).


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The first video released, titled "First Listen", features cast members from the DreamWorks Animation's "Trolls", among them such as Anna Kendrick, Gwen Stefani, James Corden, Zooey Deschanel, Ron Funches, Caroline Hjelt, Aino Jawo, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Kunal Nayyar.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The song's official music video was released on May 16, 2016. Helmed by director Mark Romanek, the "Can't Stop the Feeling!" video follows Timberlake on a tour to everyday places like a laundromat, diner, barbershop and a donut shop, with an individual dancing along to the single at every stop. All the revelers eventually end up congregating with Timberlake below a highway underpass where they dance together to the song. As described by "Time" editor Cady Lang, Timberlake "dances through what a typical day might be: breakfast at the diner and grocery shopping." Talking to "Entertainment Weekly", director Mark Romanek described the concept as "just the overall feeling of unironic and sincere humanism. It's not trying to be cool or slick or ironic. It's just fun. Most of the time, people are excellent. It's just a big sugar cookie. It makes people smile for four minutes." He stated the brief dance-off between Timberlake and an inflatable arm waving tube man was inspired by Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the mouse in "Anchors Aweigh". "Bustle" writer Amy Mackelden highlighted the scene as the best moment of the video. "Esquire" editor Jonathan Evans addressed Timberlake's monochromatic outfit, writing "the singer nails it by playing with shades of the color [white], plus throwing some pattern and texture in the mix."


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The video received nominations for Best Male Video International at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards Japan, for Best Music Video at the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and for Favorite Music Video at the 2017 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: On May 9, 2016, it was announced Timberlake would perform his song during the interval act of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 finale, which took place in Stockholm, Sweden on May 14, 2016. This was the first time in the contest's history whereby a celebrated artist who had never participated in the contest performed. Timberlake opened the performance singing "Rock Your Body", soon switching over to "Can't Stop the Feeling!". He was joined by a group of backup singers/dancers and a horn section for the song's televised debut. The performance wasn't aired in the US due to rights issues. The day before the main show, Timberlake made his first appearance before an audience on night rehearsal to perform both songs.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: On February 26, 2017, Timberlake opened the 89th Academy Awards with a performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling!", which included an R&B breakdown and a cover of Bill Withers' "Lovely Day" at the end. Timberlake began the performance in the front corridor of the Dolby Theatre, dancing his way to the stage with his backup dancers. The song was also the closing number of his Super Bowl LII halftime show performance.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: In June 2016, "Billboard" named it the wedding DJs' fourth most popular party song in the US. Numerous fan-made videos followed the video's release, which includes The Memphis Grizzlies, the United States Olympic Committee, citizens of Memphis, Gilbert, graduates of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, among others. On May 26, 2016, Victoria's Secret Angels released a video in which they lip-synced to the song.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: Choreographers Celia Rowlson-Hall and Crishon Landers with the help of film producer Mia Lidofsky created a flash mob dance video on October 2, 2016, in support of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016 set to the music of "Can't Stop the Feeling!" — with all of the dancers wearing pantsuits in reference to Hillary Clinton's outfit of choice. They called the event #Pantsuitpower Flashmob for Hillary. The video was covered in news media including "The Washington Post", "The Guardian", and "Vogue", — and garnered over 2 million views on Facebook. From New York City, the Pantsuit Power movement then spread to Raleigh, North Carolina on October 23, 2016, with another flash mob. The song was also used for an opening video for the 2017 Western Conservative Summit, featuring Republican politicians from Colorado.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The song was also featured in an episode of the American Broadcasting Company series "Speechless" called "P-R-PROM".


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: The film version featured in the soundtrack album includes additional vocals from Anna Kendrick, James Corden, Zooey Deschanel and Gwen Stefani.


title: Can't Stop the Feeling!

text: In June 2016, American country music group Lady A covered the song in a live performance in Columbus, Ohio. Jon Freeman of "Rolling Stone" commented it "evoked the loose spirit of a jam band unwinding at a summer festival." Country performer Hunter Hayes covered the song when he headlined The Paramount in Huntington, New York in June 2017. An editor from Digital Journal opined it was "in a clever fashion, which was great deal of fun, both for him and the audience."


title: Sicarii

text: The Sicarii (Modern Hebrew: סיקריים "siqariyim") were a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots who, in the decades preceding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, strongly opposed the Roman occupation of Judea and attempted to expel them and their sympathizers from the area. The Sicarii carried "sicae", or small daggers, concealed in their cloaks. At public gatherings, they pulled out these daggers to attack Romans and alleged Roman sympathizers alike, blending into the crowd after the deed to escape detection.


title: Sicarii

text: The Sicarii are regarded as one of the earliest known organized assassination units of cloak and daggers, predating the Islamic Hashishin and Japanese ninja by centuries. The derived Spanish term "sicario" is used in contemporary Latin America to describe a hitman.


title: Sicarii

text: In Latin, "Sicarii" is the plural form of "Sicarius" "dagger-man", "dagger-wielder". "Sica", possibly from Proto-Albanian *tsikā (whence Albanian "thika", "knife"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- ("to sharpen") possibly via Illyrian. In later Latin usage, "sicarius" was also the standard term for a murderer (see, e.g., the "Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficiis"), and to this day "sicario" is a salaried assassin in Spanish and a commissioned murderer in Italian and Portuguese.


title: Sicarii

text: Victims of the Sicarii are thought to have included the High Priest Jonathan, although it is possible that his murder was orchestrated by the Roman governor Antonius Felix. Some murders were met with severe retaliation by the Romans on the entire Jewish population of the region. However, on some occasions, the Sicarii would release their intended victim if their terms were met. Much of what is known about the Sicarii comes from the "Antiquities of the Jews" and "The Jewish War" by Josephus, who wrote that the Sicarii agreed to release the kidnapped secretary of Eleazar, governor of the Temple precincts, in exchange for the release of ten captured assassins.


title: Sicarii

text: At the beginning of the First Roman-Jewish War, the Sicarii, and (possibly) Zealot helpers (Josephus differentiated between the two but did not explain the main differences in depth), gained access to Jerusalem and committed a series of atrocities in an attempt to incite the population into war against Rome. In one account, given in the Talmud, they destroyed the city's food supply, using starvation to force the people to fight against the Roman siege, instead of negotiating peace. Their leaders, including Menahem ben Yehuda and Eleazar ben Ya'ir, were notable figures in the war, and the group fought in many battles against the Romans as soldiers. Together with a small group of followers, Menahem made his way to the fortress of Masada, took over a Roman garrison and slaughtered all 700 soldiers there. They also took over another fortress called Antonia and overpowered the troops of Agrippa II. He also trained them to conduct various guerrilla operations on Roman convoys and legions stationed around Judea.


title: Sicarii

text: Josephus also wrote that the Sicarii raided nearby Hebrew villages including Ein Gedi, where they massacred 700 women and children.


title: Sicarii

text: The Zealots, Sicarii and other prominent rebels finally joined forces to attack and temporarily take Jerusalem from Rome in 66 AD, where they took control of the Temple in Jerusalem, executing anyone who tried to oppose their power. The local populace resisted their control and launched a series of sieges and raids to remove the rebel factions. The rebels eventually silenced the uprising and Jerusalem stayed in their hands for the duration of the war. The Romans finally came to take back the city, and they led counter-attacks and sieges to starve the rebels inside. The rebels held for some time, but the constant bickering and the lack of leadership led the groups to disintegrate. The leader of the Sicarii, Menahem, was killed by rival factions during an altercation. Soon, the Romans regained control, and finally destroyed the whole city in 70 AD.


title: Sicarii

text: Eleazar and his followers returned to Masada and continued their rebellion against the Romans until 73 AD. The Romans eventually took the fortress and, according to Josephus, found that most of its defenders had committed suicide rather than surrender. In Josephus' "The Jewish War" (vii), after the fall of the Temple in 70 AD, the "sicarii" became the dominant revolutionary Hebrew faction, scattered abroad. Josephus particularly associates them with the mass suicide at Masada in 73 AD and to the subsequent refusal "to submit to the taxation census when Cyrenius was sent to Judea to make one" (Josephus) as part of their rebellion's religious and political scheme.


title: Sicarii

text: Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament, was believed by some to be a sicarius. This opinion is objected to by modern historians, mainly because Josephus in "The War of the Hebrews" (2:254–7) mentions the appearance of the Sicarii as a new phenomenon during the procuratorships of Felix (52–60 AD), having no apparent relation with the group called Sicarii by Romans at times of Quirinius. The 2nd century compendium of Jewish oral law, the Mishnah ("Makhshirin" 1:6), mentions the word "sikrin" (), perhaps related to Sicarii, and which is explained by the early rabbinic commentators as being related to the (= robbers), and to government personnel involved with implementing the laws of Sicaricon. Maimonides, in his Mishnah Commentary ("Makhshirin" 1:6), explains the same word "sikrin" as meaning "people who harass and who are disposed to being violent."


title: Animal Planet

text: Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily devoted to series and documentaries about wild animals and domestic pets.


title: Animal Planet

text: The channel was originally a joint venture with BBC Worldwide, and primarily focused on nature documentaries surrounding wildlife, targeting a family audience. In 2008, Animal Planet rebranded with a more mature programming direction, with a greater emphasis on aggressive and predatory portrayals of animals, as well as an increase in documentary-style reality series following personalities involved in animal-related occupations and investigations. Animal Planet rebranded again in October 2018, pivoting away from its more aggressive branding.


title: Animal Planet

text: , approximately 91,603,000 households receive Animal Planet. Discovery has also established or licensed international versions of the channel in various regions.


title: Animal Planet

text: Animal Planet was launched on June 1, 1996; it was created by Discovery Communications in cooperation with BBC Worldwide. On January 1, 1997, Animal Planet's distribution grew as a result of Advance Entertainment Corporation selling the satellite transponder slot belonging to the WWOR EMI Service (a national superstation feed of Secaucus, New Jersey/New York City's WWOR-TV, that was implemented following the 1989 passage of the Syndication Exclusivity Rights Rule by the Federal Communications Commission) to Discovery Communications, replacing the feed with Animal Planet outright.


title: Animal Planet

text: In late 2005, as part of a multi-million dollar expansion, the National Aquarium in Baltimore opened an exhibit called "Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extreme". Animal Planet and the National Aquarium in Baltimore announced a multi-year partnership the year prior, which produced an original orientation film that gives Aquarium visitors background on the Australian area which inspired the new exhibit and a dedicated area inside the expansion where visitors can learn about Animal Planet's conservation efforts and other programming. The partnership also allowed the possibility of future productions of television programs about the National Aquarium in Baltimore's research and exhibits.


title: Animal Planet

text: In 2006, BBC Worldwide sold its 20% interest in the flagship Animal Planet U.S. network back to Discovery Communications. The BBC maintained its 50% ownership in Animal Planet's European, Asian and Latin American channels, as well as a minority interest in Animal Planet Japan and Animal Planet Canada until November 15, 2010, when BBC Worldwide sold 50% interest in Animal Planet and Liv to Discovery Communications for $156 million. Animal Planet is additionally an associate member of the Caribbean Cable Cooperative.


title: Animal Planet

text: During the late 2000s, Genius Products announced a U.S. distribution agreement involving Animal Planet and TLC. Jakks Pacific also entered into a licensing agreement to develop Animal Planet-branded pet products.


title: Animal Planet

text: On February 3, 2008, amidst declining average viewership, Animal Planet underwent a major revamp in its programming and branding. The new lineup placed a larger focus on series portraying animals as "characters" in their own right, and more "aggressive" and story-based entertainment series targeting mature viewers 13-49 (such as "Escape to Chimp Eden" and the reality documentary series "Whale Wars"), as opposed to traditional nature documentaries and family viewing. The network also adopted a new logo, replacing its previous "elephant and globe" emblem with a stylized wordmark, and the new slogan "Same Planet, Different World". Network president Marjorie Kaplan explained that Animal Planet had been too "soft" and family-oriented, and that it was aiming to be "more aggressive and tapping into the instinctual nature of compelling animal content."


title: Animal Planet

text: In April 2010, Animal Planet introduced a new slogan and marketing campaign, "Surprisingly Human," as an evolution of the 2008 rebranding. The slogan reflected Animal Planet's increasing number of personality-based series following animal-related investigations and occupations, such as "River Monsters".


title: Animal Planet

text: In April 2012, Animal Planet's entertainment-oriented direction was criticized after it broadcast ""—a fictional documentary suggesting that mermaids were real. Despite its fictitious content, the documentary was widely viewed, and a follow-up entitled "Mermaids: The New Evidence" set an all-time ratings record for the channel.


title: Animal Planet

text: On October 15, 2018, Animal Planet unveiled a new logo, featuring a symbol of a jumping elephant resembling the original logo. The new branding symbolizes a new mission of "keeping the childhood joy and wonder of animals alive by bringing people up close in every way." The new branding coincided with the October 28 premieres of "Crikey! It's the Irwins" (a new series following the family of Steve Irwin) and "Amanda to the Rescue", and the premiere of "Big Cat Stories" the following night.


title: Animal Planet

text: On January 23, 2019, Animal Planet was launched in France, along with Discovery Turbo, Discovery World and TLC.


title: Animal Planet

text: Recent additions to the channel, such as "Meerkat Manor" and "Orangutan Island", reflect its shift toward "predation programming" and more immersive storytelling. Animal Planet intended the new direction to help revitalize stagnating ratings, after primetime viewership of the network dropped by 9% in 2007. Animal Planet added pseudo-scientific documentary, reality television, and sitcom shows to its line-up.


title: Animal Planet

text: Animal Planet is also well known for the "Puppy Bowl", an annual special featuring puppies at play inside a football-themed setting. The special airs on the afternoon prior to the NFL's Super Bowl, and was originally narrated by commentator and NFL Films narrator Harry Kalas before his death.


title: Animal Planet

text: On October 29, 2022, months after the merger of Discovery, Inc. and WarnerMedia into Warner Bros. Discovery, it was announced that "Pit Bulls & Parolees" would air its final season, while other shows like "Lone Star Law" and "Louisiana Law" moved to Discovery Channel. With the exception of the upcoming "Puppy Bowl XIX" set to air on the network February 12, 2023, the latest programming moves left Animal Planet to air reruns of the network's programming as well as other shows from other Discovery properties pre-WBD merger.


title: Animal Planet

text: D.C. Thomson & Co. partnered with Discovery to publish "Animal Planet Magazine" in the United Kingdom. The magazine's first issue was published on February 16, 2011.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a disease linked to the X chromosome. It is a result of fatty acid buildup caused by peroxisomal fatty acid beta oxidation which results in the accumulation of very long chain fatty acids in tissues throughout the body. The most severely affected tissues are the myelin in the central nervous system, the adrenal cortex, and the Leydig cells in the testes. The long chain fatty acid buildup causes damage to the myelin sheath of the neurons of the brain, resulting in seizures and hyperactivity. Other symptoms include problems in speaking, listening, and understanding verbal instructions.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: Clinically, ALD presents as a heterogeneous disorder, showing several distinct phenotypes, and no clear pattern of genotype–phenotype correlation. As an X-linked disorder, ALD presents most commonly in males; however, approximately 50% of heterozygote females show some symptoms later in life. Approximately two-thirds of ALD patients will present with the childhood cerebral form of the disease, which is the most severe form. It is characterized by normal development in early childhood, followed by rapid degeneration to a vegetative state. The other forms of ALD vary in timing of onset and in clinical severity, ranging from adrenal insufficiency alone to progressive paraparesis in early adulthood.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: ALD is caused by mutations in "ABCD1", a gene located on the X chromosome that codes for ALD, a peroxisomal membrane transporter protein. The exact mechanism of the pathogenesis of the various forms of ALD is not known. Biochemically, individuals with ALD show very high levels of unbranched, saturated, very long chain fatty acids, particularly cerotic acid (26:0). The level of cerotic acid in plasma does not correlate with clinical presentation. Treatment options for ALD are limited. For the childhood cerebral form, stem cell transplant and gene therapy are options if the disease is detected early in the clinical course. Adrenal insufficiency in ALD patients can be successfully treated. ALD is the most common peroxisomal inborn error of metabolism, with an incidence estimated between 1:18,000 and 1:50,000. It does not have a significantly higher incidence in any specific ethnic group.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: ALD can present in different ways. The different presentations are complicated by the pattern of X-linked recessive inheritance. There have been seven phenotypes described in males with "ABCD1" mutations and five in females. Initial symptoms in boys affected with the childhood cerebral form of ALD include emotional instability, hyperactivity and disruptive behavior at school. Older patients affected with the cerebral form will present with similar symptoms. Untreated, cerebral ALD is characterized by progressive demyelination leading to a vegetative state and death. Adult males with an adrenomyeloneuropathy presentation typically present initially with muscle stiffness, paraparesis and sexual dysfunction. All patients with clinically recognized ALD phenotypes are at risk for adrenal insufficiency. There is no reliable way to predict which form of the disease an affected individual will develop, with multiple phenotypes being demonstrated within families. Onset of adrenal insufficiency is often the first symptom, appearing as early as two years of age.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: ALD is caused by mutations in "ABCD1", located at Xq28 and demonstrates X-linked recessive inheritance. The gene ABCD1 encodes a peroxisomal membrane transporter which is responsible for transporting very long chain fatty acid substrate into the peroxisomes for degradation. Mutations in this gene that interfere with this process cause this syndrome.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: Males with an "ABCD1" mutation are hemizygous, as they only have a single X chromosome. Female carriers will typically avoid the most severe manifestations of the disease, but often become symptomatic later in life. Although the detection of an "ABCD1" mutation identifies an individual who is affected with a form of ALD, there is no genotype–phenotype correlation. Within a family, there will often be several different phenotypes, despite the presence of the same causative mutation. In one case, a family with six affected members displayed five different phenotypes. There are no common mutations that cause ALD, most are private or familial. Almost 600 different mutations have been identified, approximately half are missense mutations, one quarter are frameshifts, with in-frame deletions and splicing defects making up the remainder. The incidence of new mutations in ALD (those occurring spontaneously, rather than being inherited from a carrier parent) is estimated at 4.1%, with the possibility that these are due to germline mosaicism.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: The exact cause for the varied collection of symptoms found in the different ALD phenotypes is not clear. The white matter of the brain, the Leydig cells of the testes and the adrenal cortex are the most severely affected systems. The excess VLCFA can be detected in almost all tissues of the body, despite the localization of symptoms. The lack of Coenzyme A does not permit the disintegration of the VLCFA, accumulating the same in the white matter, adrenal glands, and the testes more specifically in the Leydig cells not allowing the proper function of these organs. Successful treatment of the demyelination process that affects the brain with either stem cell transplant or gene therapy does not immediately normalize the VLCFA levels in body tissues. The levels of VLCFA can be normalized by treatment with Lorenzo's oil, but this does not alter the progression of the disease. It is unclear whether the accumulation of VLCFA is associated with the pathogenesis of the disease in a specific way, or if it is a biochemical phenotype, useful for identification.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: The clinical presentation of ALD can vary greatly, making diagnosis difficult. With the variety of phenotypes, clinical suspicion of ALD can result from a variety of different presentations. Symptoms vary based on the disease phenotype, and even within families or between twins. When ALD is suspected based on clinical symptoms, the initial testing usually includes plasma very long chain fatty acid (VLCFA) determination using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The concentration of unsaturated VLCFA, particularly 26 carbon chains is significantly elevated in males with ALD, even prior to the development of other symptoms. Confirmation of ALD after positive plasma VLCFA determination usually involves molecular genetic analysis of "ABCD1". In females, where plasma VLCFA measurement is not always conclusive (some female carriers will have normal VLCFA in plasma), molecular analysis is preferred, particularly in cases where the mutation in the family is known. Although the clinical phenotype is highly variable among affected males, the elevations of VLCFA are present in all males with an "ABCD1" mutation.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: Because the characteristic elevations associated with ALD are present at birth, well before any symptoms are apparent, there have been methods developed in the interests of including it in newborn screening programs. One of the difficulties with ALD as a disease included in universal newborn screening is the difficulty in predicting the eventual phenotype that an individual will express. The accepted treatment for affected boys presenting with the cerebral childhood form of the disease is a bone marrow transplant, a procedure which carries significant risks. However, because most affected males will demonstrate adrenal insufficiency, early discovery and treatment of this symptom could potentially prevent complications and allow these patients to be monitored for other treatment in the future, depending on the progression of their disease.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: The Loes score is a rating of the severity of abnormalities in the brain found on MRI. It ranges from 0 to 34, based on a point system derived from the location and extent of disease and the presence of atrophy in the brain, either localized to specific points or generally throughout the brain. A Loes score of 0.5 or less is classified as normal, while a Loes score of 14 or greater is considered severe. It was developed by neuroradiologist Daniel J. Loes MD and is an important tool in assessing disease progression and the effectiveness of therapy.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: Initial attempts at dietary therapy in ALD involved restricting the intake of very-long chain fatty acids (VLCFA). Dietary intake is not the only source for VLCFA in the body, as they are also synthesized endogenously. This dietary restriction did not impact the levels of VLCFA in plasma and other body tissues. After the realization that endogenous synthesis was an important contribution to VLCFA in the body, efforts at dietary therapy shifted to inhibiting these synthetic pathways in the body. The parents of Lorenzo Odone, a boy with ALD, spearheaded efforts to develop a dietary treatment to slow the progression of the disease. They developed a mixture of unsaturated fatty acids (glycerol trioleate and glyceryl trierucate in a 4:1 ratio), known as Lorenzo's oil that inhibits elongation of saturated fatty acids in the body. Supplementation with Lorenzo's oil has been found to normalize the VLCFA concentrations in the body, although its effectiveness at treating the cerebral manifestations of the disease is still controversial and unproven. Trials with Lorenzo's oil have shown that it does not stop the neurological degradation in symptomatic patients, nor does it improve adrenal function, but asymptomatic patients, and speculatively AMN variants without cerebral involvement, as well as female carriers may benefit from early intake of oleic and erucic acids in addition to VLCFA restriction.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: A solution of 4 parts glycerol trioleate and 1 part glycerol trierucate, which are the triacylglycerol forms of oleic acid and erucic acid, has been tested for ALD. Results are mixed, showing possible benefit for asymptomatic patients in conjunction with dietary therapy, but little or no benefit for those with symptomatic ALD.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: While dietary therapy has been shown to be effective to normalize the very-long chain fatty acid concentrations in the plasma of individuals with ALD, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants is the only treatment that can stop demyelination that is the hallmark of the cerebral forms of the disease. In order to be effective, the transplant must be done at an early stage of the disease; if the demyelination has progressed, transplant can worsen the outcome, and increase the rate of decline. While transplants have been shown to be effective at halting the demyelination process in those presenting with the childhood cerebral form of ALD, follow-up of these patients has shown that it does not improve adrenal function.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: For patients where an appropriate match for a transplant cannot be found, there have been investigations into the use of gene therapy. Appropriate vectors are selected and modified to express wild type "ABCD1", which is then transplanted into the patients using a similar procedure as for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. Gene therapy has only been tried on a small number of patients, mainly in France. These patients were only considered for gene therapy after there was no HLA match for a traditional transplant. In two reported cases, the gene therapy was successful, with a resolution of the demyelination process up to two years after the procedure. Although the gene therapy was successful in resolving the neurological symptoms, plasma VLCFA levels remained elevated.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: Treatment of the adrenal insufficiency that can accompany any of the common male phenotypes of ALD does not resolve any of the neurological symptoms. Hormone replacement is standard for ALD patients demonstrating adrenal insufficiency. Adrenal insufficiency does not resolve with successful transplant; most patients still require hormone replacement.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: ALD has not been shown to have an increased incidence in any specific country or ethnic group. In the United States, the incidence of affected males is estimated at 1:21,000. Overall incidence of hemizygous males and carrier females is estimated at 1:16,800. The reported incidence in France is estimated at 1:22,000.


title: Adrenoleukodystrophy

text: There are documented asymptomatic males who present no ALD symptoms well into their 60s and 70s. It's not understood how they can have an ABCD1 gene variant and possess elevated VLCFAs and not exhibit either Cerebral ALD, Adrenal Insufficiency, or Adrenomyeloneuropathy symptoms. Daughters of asymptomatic males become obligate carriers, who may themselves be asymptomatic and who can pass the variant onto their children, which then silently perpetuates ALD. Sons of asymptomatic males only receive their father's Y chromosome and therefore can't inherit ALD.


title: Contra (series)

text: Contra is a video game series produced by Konami composed primarily of run and gun-style shooting games. The series debuted in February 1987 with the Japanese coin-operated arcade game of the same name, which was has since spawned several sequels produced for various platforms.


title: Contra (series)

text: The arcade version of "Contra" was released a few months after the Iran–Contra affair was made public. While it is unclear whether the game was deliberately named after the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, the ending theme of the original game was titled , after the adversaries of the real-life Contras.


title: Contra (series)

text: The majority of the "Contra" games are side-scrolling shoot-'em-ups where the player takes control of an armed commando who must fight all sorts of extraterrestrial monsters and other kinds of futuristic menaces. In addition to the side-scrolling stages, the original "Contra" (among others) also features "pseudo-3D perspective" levels where the player must move towards the background in order to progress, while subsequent titles, such as "Super Contra" and "", feature overhead stages as well. Only the Appaloosa-developed installments in the series, "" and "C: The Contra Adventure", as well as "Neo Contra", deviated from the series' mainly side-scrolling perspective (although "C: The Contra Adventure" does feature two side-scrolling stages). "", while maintaining the side-view perspective of the 2D games, features fully polygonal 3D graphics. Almost every game in the series, with only a few exceptions (such as the MSX2 version of "Contra", "C: The Contra Adventure" or "Operation C" for the Game Boy, which were single-player only), allows two players to play the game simultaneously.


title: Contra (series)

text: The main power-ups in the series are falcon-shaped letter icons which will replace the player's default weapon with a new one, such as a Laser Gun or a Spread Gun. There are also power-ups that are actually auxiliary items like the Barrier (which provides temporary invincibility) or the Rapid Bullets (which increases the firing speed of the player's current weapon) in the original "Contra", as well as weapons such as the Mega Shell in the arcade version of "Super Contra" and the Bombs in "Contra III" and "", that are used to destroy all on-screen enemies. The original arcade version of "Contra" used the falcon icons for all of its weapons except the Laser Gun and the Fire Ball weapon, while in the arcade version of "Super Contra", no Falcon icons were used. "Contra: Shattered Soldier" and "Neo Contra" both deviate from this tradition by having set weapon configurations instead.


title: Contra (series)

text: Most of the "Contra" games have the player begin the game with only a set number of lives (three in most console games). If the player gets hit once, they will lose a life along with any weapon they currently possess in some games. Because of this, the "Contra" series is notorious for being extremely difficult. Even in the original arcade versions, most of the games only give limited chances to continue before forcing the player to start all over. Extra lives are usually obtained in most games when the player reaches certain scores. The NES version of the original "Contra" used the Konami Code (previously featured in the NES version of "Gradius") to start the game with thirty lives instead of the usual three. Most of the subsequent console games in the series only featured these extra lives codes in their Japanese releases, such as "Contra Spirits" (the Japanese version of "Contra III") and "Contra: Hard Corps".


title: Contra (series)

text: The original arcade versions of "Contra" and "Super Contra" were ported to several computer platforms in North America and Europe during the late 1980s and 1990s. In North America, the original "Contra" and "Super Contra" (as "Super C") were ported to DOS. A version of "Super C" was also released for the Amiga. "Contra" was released for DOS, the Amstrad CPC, the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum in Europe under the "Gryzor" title.


title: Contra (series)

text: As software emulation became more widespread, the games would be re-released in numerous formats on several platforms, most notable through the Wii's Virtual Console, the Xbox Live Arcade, and the PlayStation Network.


title: Contra (series)

text: "Contra", and its initial sequels, are set in the 27th century, and center around two commandos named Bill Rizer and Lance Bean. They are members of a special guerrilla task force codenamed "Contra", who are sent to thwart armies of alien invaders seeking to destroy the Earth. After "", the series would deviate from its original premise.


title: Contra (series)

text: "" and its sequels ("" and "C The Contra Adventure") take place after the events of "Contra III", and followed several new characters; namely, recurring protagonist Ray Poward. Additionally, "Hard Corps" would feature human antagonists, rather than aliens. 2011's "" is a prequel to "Hard Corps", and is also set twenty years before the events of the original "Contra". The game follows a character named "Bahamut", but in an interview with Siliconera, producer Kenji Yamamoto comments that Bahamut may or may not be the same character from the original "Hard Corps". Yamamoto would also reveal the reason why the game doesn't use the "Contra" name in its title was due to how "different" fans regarded "Hard Corps" from the rest of the series. "Hard Corps" and its follow ups have since been considered to be spin-offs from the main series.


title: Contra (series)

text: Bill would not return until 2002's ""; where he became a convicted war criminal sent to fight against his former partner, Lance, who has become a terrorist leader. In the game's sequel, "Neo Contra", a cryogenically frozen Bill is ultimately revealed to be a clone of the original Bill Rizer.


title: Contra (series)

text: "Contra 4" was intended to be a direct sequel to "Contra III", ignoring the events of previous installments. However, "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion", originally the nicknames given to Bill and Lance in the NES versions of "Contra" and "Super C", were made into separate characters. The game's main antagonist, "Black Viper", is also treated as a new character, despite originally appearing in the North American version of "Operation C" (which also refers to protagonist Lance as "Scorpion"). On the official timeline seen in the "History of "Contra"" e-book included with the "Contra Anniversary Collection", the game is chronology set after the Japanese versions of "Operation C" and "Contra III", but before the events of "Hard Corps".


title: Contra (series)

text: "" would return to the post-"Contra III" setting. The game features the return of Kaiser from the latter game, who joins a group of bounty hunters in a place called the "Damned City".


title: Contra (series)

text: While the original Japanese version of the early "Contra" games (specifically "Contra", "Super Contra" and "Operation C") were set in the 27th century (in the years 2633, 2634, and 2635 in that order), the American versions of these games omitted this detail and the instruction manuals for these versions implied that the series was set during the present day. "" retains its futuristic setting of 2636 for its American release, but the identities of the two player characters, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean (the heroes from the previous installments), were changed to their descendants "Jimbo" and "Sully" in order to retain the continuity of the previous localizations.


title: Contra (series)

text: The enemy characters of the earlier games were also named differently in the American versions. In particular, "Red Falcon", originally the name of the terrorist army that was fought by the main characters in the first game (the Red Falcon Organization), became the name of the actual alien entity leader; thus, "Red Falcon" became the name of the final boss fought at the end of "Contra", where the player fights both his alien body form and his heart. In Japan, these are intended to be two different entities: Emperor Demon Dragon God Java and Emperor Demon Evil Heart Gomera Mosking, respectively.


title: Contra (series)

text: The final boss of "Super Contra" (or the third to last boss in the NES "Super C") and "Contra III"; is named Emperor Demon Gyaba in the original Japanese versions. Often mistaken as Red Falcon, his American name is referred to as Jagger Froid in the "Super C" instruction manual. The American "Super C" instruction manual also illustrates a common "running" alien enemy from its final stage as Red Falcon. The alien entity leader known as Red Falcon does not appear as an enemy in the "Super Contra" or "Super C" games.


title: Contra (series)

text: In the Japanese version of "Operation C", the antagonist was originally a nameless hostile nation seeking to develop alien-based weapons. This was changed in the North American version to "Black Viper", another alien invader.


title: Contra (series)

text: With the release of the American and European versions of "", all international "Contra" releases began to follow the Japanese continuity.


title: Contra (series)

text: "Contra Force" is a standalone entry that, due to it being originally intended to be separate game altogether, is considered to be non-canon from the rest of the franchise.


title: Contra (series)

text: "Contra ReBirth" begins in 2633, but the game's plot primarily takes place in 1973 and incorporates elements of time travel. It has since been considered non-canon, instead taking place in an alternate timeline during a period dubbed "the KONTRA era".


title: Contra (series)

text: When Konami released the NES version of the original "Contra" in the PAL region (Europe and Australia) they modified the game by replacing the original main characters and most of the human enemies with robotic counterparts, retitling the game "Probotector" (a portmanteau of "Robot" and "Protector"), the latter move done probably to avoid any association with the Iran–Contra affair (the reason for which "Super Contra"'s American title was shortened to "Super C"). The title referred to the two robotic soldiers, RD-008 and RC-011, who replaced Bill and Lance in this version. This was presumably done due to the German Federal Agency BPjM, which prohibited the sale and advertisement of media deemed too violent to children, including "content which glorifies war".


title: Contra (series)

text: While the original arcade games, as well as a few computer conversions under the "Gryzor" title, were released unchanged in Europe, subsequent console installments of the "Contra" series were released under the "Probotector" title in Europe. The original "Probotector" was followed by "Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces" for the NES (originally "Super C") and "Super Probotector: Alien Rebels" for the SNES (""). The "Contra" games for the Game Boy ("Operation C" and the Game Boy version of "Alien Wars") and Mega Drive ("") were also released as "Probotector" titles in Europe. The series would revert to the "Contra" title in Europe beginning with "Contra: Legacy of War" for the PlayStation, retaining the human characters. However, "Probotector II" and "Super Probotector" were still released for the Wii Virtual Console in Europe and Australia like their original releases, with no "uncensored" versions available. Although "Contra 4" was not released in Europe, the "Probotector" character appears in the game as a hidden character.


title: Contra (series)

text: By the end of 1996, the "Contra" series had accumulated combined sales of over 4 million units worldwide.


title: Michael Landes

text: Michael Christopher Landes was born to Patricia and Bernard Landes on September 18, 1972 in The Bronx, New York. Landes studied performing arts at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Los Angeles.


title: Michael Landes

text: He met Wendy Benson in Boston during the summer of 1999 while they were filming "The Gentleman from Boston"; they married on October 21, 2000 at Saint Thomas Church in Manhattan. According to "Tribute", they lived in Los Angeles with their two children: Mimi and Dominic.


title: Michael Landes

text: Landes made guest appearances on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "The New Lassie", and "Blossom". In 2016, Landes told Digital Spy that when he was replaced on "" after —"because I looked too much like Dean Cain, who played Clark... and Teri Hatcher, who played Lois"—it was his first time being fired. For his starring role in the television film "Please God, I'm Only Seventeen", he was nomained for a Young Artist Award: Best Young Actor in a Television Movie, and in film, Landes also featured in "Hart's War".


title: Walter Tevis

text: Walter Stone Tevis (February 28, 1928 – August 9, 1984) was an American novelist and short story writer. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: "The Hustler", "The Color of Money" and "The Man Who Fell to Earth". A fourth, "The Queen’s Gambit", was adapted into a miniseries with the same title and shown on Netflix in 2020. His books have been translated into at least 18 languages.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis was born in San Francisco, California, in 1928 to Anna Elizabeth "Betty" (née Bacon) and Walter Stone Tevis, an appraiser, growing up in the Sunset District, across the street from Golden Gate Park. His sister, Betty, was born in 1925.


title: Walter Tevis

text: He developed a rheumatic heart condition, so his parents placed him in the Stanford Children's Convalescent home (and given heavy doses of phenobarbital), for a year, during which time they returned to Kentucky, where the Tevis family had been given an early land grant in Madison County. Walter traveled across country alone by train at age 11 to rejoin his family in Kentucky. He made friends with Toby Kavanaugh, a fellow high school student, and learned to shoot pool in the Kavanaugh mansion in Lawrenceburg. In the library there, he read science fiction for the first time. They remained lifelong friends. Kavanaugh later became the owner of a pool room in Lexington, which would have an impact on Tevis's writing.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Near the end of World War II, the 17-year-old Tevis served in the Pacific Theater as a Navy carpenter's mate on board the USS "Hamilton".


title: Walter Tevis

text: After his discharge, he graduated from Model Laboratory School in 1945. He entered the University of Kentucky, where he received B.A. (1949) and M.A. (1954) degrees in English literature and studied with A. B. Guthrie Jr., the author of "The Big Sky". While a student there, Tevis worked in a pool hall and published a story about pool written for Guthrie's class. He later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he received an MFA in creative writing in 1960.


title: Walter Tevis

text: After graduation, Tevis wrote for the Kentucky Highway Department. He taught classes in fields from the sciences and English to physical education in small-town Kentucky high schools in Science Hill, Hawesville, Irvine, and Carlisle. He also taught at Northern Kentucky University, the University of Kentucky, and Southern Connecticut State University.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis taught English literature and creative writing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, from 1965 to 1978, where he was named University Professor. Tevis was a member of the Authors Guild.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis wrote more than two dozen short stories for a variety of magazines. "The Big Hustle," his pool hall story for "Collier's" (August 5, 1955), was illustrated by Denver Gillen. It was followed by short stories in "The American Magazine", "Bluebook", "Cosmopolitan", "Esquire", "Galaxy Science Fiction", "Playboy", "Redbook" and "The Saturday Evening Post".


title: Walter Tevis

text: His first novel, "The Hustler", was published by Harper & Row in 1959. Tevis followed it with "The Man Who Fell to Earth", published in 1963. Tevis drew from elements of his childhood in "The Man Who Fell to Earth", as noted by James Sallis, writing in "The Boston Globe":


title: Walter Tevis

text: During his time teaching at Ohio University, Tevis became aware that the level of literacy among students was falling at an alarming rate. That observation gave him the idea for "Mockingbird" (1980), set in a grim and decaying New York City in the 25th century. The population is declining, no one can read, and robots rule over the drugged, illiterate humans. With the birth rate dropping, the end of the species seems a possibility. Tevis was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1980 for "Mockingbird". During one of his last televised interviews, he revealed that PBS once planned a production of "Mockingbird" as a follow-up to their 1979 film of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Lathe of Heaven".


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis also wrote "The Steps of the Sun" (1983), "The Queen's Gambit" (1983), and "The Color of Money" (1984), a sequel to "The Hustler". His short stories were collected in "Far from Home" in 1981.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Three of Tevis's six novels were adapted for major motion pictures, and one for a TV mini-series. "The Hustler", directed by Robert Rossen, and "The Color of Money", directed by Martin Scorsese, followed the escapades of fictional pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson. "The Man Who Fell to Earth", directed by Nicolas Roeg, was released in 1976; it was subsequently re-made in 1987 as a TV film. "The Queen’s Gambit" is a 2020 Netflix mini-series starring Anya Taylor-Joy.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis married Jamie Griggs in 1957, and they remained together for over twenty years before getting divorced. They had two children, a son, William Thomas, and daughter, Julia Ann.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis was a frequent smoker, gambler and alcoholic, and his works often included these vices as central themes. Tevis took some of the money he earned from the movie rights to "The Hustler" and moved his family to Mexico, where he later claimed that he "stayed drunk for eight months." When Tevis was drinking, he couldn't write. According to his son Will, "[Walter Tevis] is the [anti-]hero of all his own books." Having a heart condition, Tevis was given phenobarbital at a young age. This is considered part of the inspiration for the character Beth Harmon in "The Queen's Gambit", and according to Tevis, part of the reason for his later alcoholism. Tevis was able to overcome his alcohol habit in the 1970s with help from Alcoholics Anonymous.


title: Walter Tevis

text: Tevis spent his last years in New York City as a full-time writer, where he died of lung cancer in 1984. He was buried in Richmond, Kentucky.


title: Walter Tevis

text: In 2003, Jamie Griggs Tevis published her autobiography, "My Life with the Hustler". She died August 4, 2006.


title: Walter Tevis

text: In 1983, Tevis married Eleanora Walker, later the trustee of the Walter Tevis Copyright Trust. She died December 9, 2016, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, in an apparent suicide. Walter Tevis's literary output is represented by the Susan Schulman Literary Agency.


title: French Americans

text: French Americans or Franco-Americans (), are citizens or nationals of the United States who identify themselves with having full or partial French or French-Canadian heritage, ethnicity and/or ancestral ties. They include French-Canadian Americans, whose experience and identity differ from the broader community.


title: French Americans

text: The state with the largest proportion of people identifying as having French ancestry is Maine, while the state with the largest number of people with French ancestry is California. Many U.S. cities have large French American populations. The city with the largest concentration of people of French extraction is Madawaska, Maine, while the largest French-speaking population by percentage of speakers in the U.S. is found in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana.


title: French Americans

text: Country-wide, as of 2020, there are about 9.4 million U.S. residents who declare French ancestry or French Canadian descent, and about 1.32 million per the 2010 census, spoke French at home. An additional 750,000 U.S. residents speak a French-based creole language, according to the 2011 American Community Survey.


title: French Americans

text: Franco-Americans are less visible than other similarly sized ethnic groups and are relatively uncommon when compared to the size of France's population, or to the numbers of German, Italian, or English Americans. This is partly due to the tendency of Franco-American groups to identify more closely with North American regional identities such as French Canadian, Acadian, Brayon, Louisiana French than as a coherent group, but also because emigration from France during the 19th century was low compared to the rest of Europe. Consequently, there is less of a unified French American identity as with other European American ethnic groups, and French descent is highly concentrated in Louisiana and New England. Nevertheless, the French presence has had an outsized impact on American toponyms.


title: French Americans

text: Some Franco-Americans arrived prior to the founding of the United States, settling in places like the Midwest, Louisiana or Northern New England. In these same areas, many cities and geographic features retain their names given by the first Franco-American inhabitants, and in sum, 23 of the Contiguous United States were colonized in part by French pioneers or French Canadians, including settlements such as Iowa (Des Moines), Missouri (St. Louis), Kentucky (Louisville) and Michigan (Detroit), among others.


title: French Americans

text: While found throughout the country, today Franco-Americans are most numerous in New England, northern New York, the Midwest, Louisiana, and northern California. Often, Franco-Americans are identified more specifically as being of French Canadians, Cajuns or Louisiana Creole descent.


title: French Americans

text: A vital segment of Franco-American history involves the Quebec diaspora of the 1840s–1930s, in which nearly one million French Canadians moved to the United States, mainly relocating to New England mill towns, fleeing economic downturn in Québec and seeking manufacturing jobs in the United States.


title: French Americans

text: Historically, French Canadians had among the highest birth rates in world history, explaining their relatively large population despite low immigration rates from France. These immigrants mainly settled in Québec and Acadia, although some eventually inhabited Ontario and Manitoba. Many of the first French-Canadian migrants to the U.S. worked in the New England lumber industry, and, to a lesser degree, in the burgeoning mining industry in the upper Great Lakes. This initial wave of seasonal migration was then followed by more permanent relocation in the United States by French-Canadian millworkers.


title: French Americans

text: Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent but also including individuals of mixed-race heritage (cf. Creoles of Color). Louisiana Creoles of any race have common European heritage and share cultural ties, such as the traditional use of the French language and the continuing practice of Catholicism; in most cases, the people are related to each other. Those of mixed race also sometimes have African and Native American ancestry. As a group, the mixed-race Creoles rapidly began to acquire education, skills (many in New Orleans worked as craftsmen and artisans), businesses and property. They were overwhelmingly Catholic, spoke Colonial French (although some also spoke Louisiana Creole) and kept up many French social customs, modified by other parts of their ancestry and Louisiana culture. The free people of color married among themselves to maintain their class and social culture.


title: French Americans

text: The Cajuns of Louisiana have a unique heritage, generally seeing themselves as distinct from Louisiana Creoles despite a number of historical documents also classifying the Acadians' descendants as "Créoles". Their ancestors settled Acadia, in what is now the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and part of Maine in the 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1755, after capturing Fort Beauséjour in the region, the British Army forced the Acadians to either swear an oath of loyalty to the British Crown or face expulsion. Thousands refused to take the oath, causing them to be sent, penniless, to the 13 colonies to the south in what has become known as the Great Upheaval. Over the next generation, some four thousand managed to make the long trek to Louisiana, where they began a new life. The name "Cajun" is a corruption of the word "Acadian". Many still live in what is known as the Cajun Country, where much of their colonial culture survives. French Louisiana, when it was sold by Napoleon in 1803, covered all or part of fifteen current U.S. states and contained French and Canadian colonists dispersed across it, though they were most numerous in its southernmost portion.


title: French Americans

text: During the War of 1812, Louisiana residents of French origin took part on the American side in the Battle of New Orleans (December 23, 1814, through January 8, 1815). Jean Lafitte and his Baratarians later were honored by US General Andrew Jackson for their contribution to the defense of New Orleans.


title: French Americans

text: In Louisiana today, more than 15 percent of the population of the Cajun Country reported in the 2000 United States Census that French was spoken at home.


title: French Americans

text: Another significant source of immigrants to Louisiana was Saint-Domingue (today Haiti); many Saint Dominicans fled during this time, and half of the diaspora eventually settled in New Orleans.


title: French Americans

text: Biloxi in Mississippi, and Mobile in Alabama, still contain French American heritage since they were founded by the Canadian Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.


title: French Americans

text: In the 17th and early 18th centuries there was an influx of a few thousand Huguenots, who were Calvinist refugees fleeing religious persecution following the issuance of the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau by Louis XIV of the Kingdom of France. For nearly a century they fostered a distinctive French Protestant identity that enabled them to remain aloof from American society, but by the time of the American Revolution they had generally intermarried and merged into the larger Presbyterian community. In 1700, they constituted 13 percent of the white population of the Province of Carolina and 5 percent of the white population of the Province of New York. The largest number settling in South Carolina, where the French comprised four percent of the white population in 1790. With the help of the well organized international Huguenot community, many also moved to Virginia. In the north, Paul Revere of Boston was a prominent figure.


title: French Americans

text: A new influx of French-heritage people occurred at the very end of the colonial era. Following the failed invasion of Quebec in 1775-1776, hundreds of French-Canadian men who had enlisted in the Continental Army remained in the ranks. Under colonels James Livingston and Moses Hazen, they saw military action across the main theaters of the Revolutionary War. At the end of the war, New York State formed the Canadian and Nova Scotia Refugee Tract stretching westward from Lake Champlain. Though many of the veterans sold their claim in this vast region, some remained and the settlement held. From early colonizing efforts in the 1780s to the era of Quebec's "great hemorrhage," the French-Canadian presence in Clinton County in northeastern New York was inescapable.


title: French Americans

text: From the beginning of the 17th century, French Canadians explored and traveled to the region with their coureur de bois and explorers, such as Jean Nicolet, Robert de LaSalle, Jacques Marquette, Nicholas Perrot, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Pierre Dugué de Boisbriant, Lucien Galtier, Pierre Laclède, René Auguste Chouteau, Julien Dubuque, Pierre de La Vérendrye and Pierre Parrant.


title: French Americans

text: The French Canadians set up a number of villages along the waterways, including Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; La Baye, Wisconsin; Cahokia, Illinois; Kaskaskia, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan; Saint Ignace, Michigan; Vincennes, Indiana; St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; and Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. They also built a series of forts in the area, such as Fort de Chartres, Fort Crevecoeur, Fort Saint Louis, Fort Ouiatenon, Fort Miami (Michigan), Fort Miami (Indiana), Fort Saint Joseph, Fort La Baye, Fort de Buade, Fort Saint Antoine, Fort Crevecoeur, Fort Trempealeau, Fort Beauharnois, Fort Orleans, Fort St. Charles, Fort Kaministiquia, Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Rouillé, Fort Niagara, Fort Le Boeuf, Fort Venango and Fort Duquesne. The forts were serviced by soldiers and fur trappers who had long networks reaching through the Great Lakes back to Montreal. Sizable agricultural settlements were established in the "Pays des Illinois."


title: French Americans

text: The region was relinquished by France to the British in 1763 as a result of the Treaty of Paris. Three years of war by the Natives, called Pontiac's War, ensued. It became part of the Province of Quebec in 1774, and was seized by the United States during the Revolution.


title: French Americans

text: In the nineteenth century, many people of French heritage arrived from Quebec and New Brunswick to work in manufacturing cities, especially textile centers, in New England and New York State. They came together in enclaves known as "Little Canadas". In the same period, Francophones from Quebec became a majority of workers in other regions and sectors, for instance the saw mill and logging camps in the Adirondack Mountains and their foothills. They amounted to an ever-growing share of the region's population; by the mid-twentieth century, Franco-Americans comprised 30 percent of Maine's population.


title: French Americans

text: Factories could provide employment to entire nuclear families, including children. Some French-Canadian women saw New England as a place of opportunity and possibility where they could create economic alternatives for themselves distinct from the expectations of their farm families in Canada. By the early twentieth century, some saw temporary migration to the United States as a rite of passage and a time of self-discovery and self-reliance. Most moved permanently to the United States, using the inexpensive railroad system to visit Quebec from time to time. When these women did marry, they had fewer children with longer intervals between children than their Canadian counterparts. Some women never married and oral accounts suggest that self-reliance and economic independence were important reasons for choosing work over marriage and motherhood. These women conformed to traditional gender ideals in order to retain their 'Canadienne' cultural identity, but they also redefined these roles in ways that provided them increased independence as wives and mothers.


title: French Americans

text: Women also shaped the Franco-American experience as members of religious orders. The first hospital in Lewiston, Maine, became a reality in 1889 when the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, the 'Grey Nuns,' opened the Asylum of Our Lady of Lourdes. This hospital was central to the Grey Nuns' mission of providing social services for Lewiston's predominately French-Canadian mill workers. The Grey Nuns struggled to establish their institution despite meager financial resources, language barriers, and opposition from the established medical community.


title: French Americans

text: The French-Canadian community in the Northeast tried to preserve its inherited cultural norms. This happened within the institutions of the Catholic Church, though it involved struggling with little success against Irish clerics. According to Raymond Potvin, the predominantly Irish hierarchy was slow to recognize the need for French-language parishes; several bishops even called for assimilation and English language-only parochial schools. By the twentieth century, a number of parochial schools for Francophone students opened, though they gradually closed later in the century and a large share of the French-speaking population left the Church. At the same time, the number of priests available to staff these parishes diminished. Like Church institutions, such Franco-American newspapers as "Le Messager" and "La Justice" served as pillars of the ideology of "survivance"—the effort to preserve the traditional culture through faith and language. A product of the commercial and industrial economy of these areas, by 1913, the French and French-Canadian populations of New York City, Fall River (Massachusetts), and Manchester (New Hampshire) were the largest in the country. Out of the 20 largest Franco-American populations in the United States, only four cities were outside of New York and New England, with New Orleans ranking 18th largest in the nation. Because of this, a number of French institutions were established in New England, including the Société Historique Franco-américaine in Boston and the Union Saint-Jean-Baptiste d’Amérique of Woonsocket, the largest French-Catholic cultural and mutual benefit society in the United States in the early twentieth century. Immigration from Quebec dwindled in the 1920s.


title: French Americans

text: Amid the decline of the textile industry from the 1920s to the 1950s, the French element experienced a period of upward mobility and assimilation. This pattern of assimilation increased during the 1970s and 1980s as many Catholic organizations switched to English and parish children entered public schools; some parochial schools closed in the 1970s. In recent decades, self-identification has moved away from the French language.


title: French Americans

text: Franco-American culture continues to evolve in the twenty-first century. Well-established genealogical societies and public history venues still seek to share the Franco-American story. Their work is occasionally supported by the commercial and cultural interests of Quebec and state governments in the Northeast. New groups and events have contributed to the effort. Some observers have drawn a comparison between recent developments and the appropriation and modernization of “Franco” culture by young people in the 1970s. For some, a “renaissance” or “revival” is under way.


title: French Americans

text: The New Hampshire PoutineFest, founded by Timothy Beaulieu, uses an iconic Quebec dish to broaden interest in the culture. The French-Canadian Legacy podcast offers contemporary perspectives on French-Canadian experiences on both sides of the border. Through a collaboration with the Quebec Government Office and local institutions, the podcast’s team established a GeoTour dedicated to Franco-American life in major New England cities. Acts of commemoration have lately extended to pioneer suffragist Camille-Lessard Bissonnette. Abby Paige has, for her part, brought the community’s history and its complicated legacies to the stage. The culture and its manifestations in Louisiana, the Midwest, and the Northeast have become the focus of a course at Harvard University. Francophonie Month (March) and St. John the Baptist Day (June 24) also provide an opportunity for celebration and increased visibility. At the same time, some members of the community are inviting reconsideration of Franco-Americans’ place in conversations about race and class.