text: The 25th anniversary edition was published in hardcover () and trade paperback () in 2014. New bonus materials are Morrison's 2 page synopsis, some extras in the Morrison's thumbnail layouts, and a gallery of McKean's rough sketches and original promotion art back in the 90s.


title: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

text: The absolute edition () was published in 2019 with McKean involved in designing the book. For this edition, McKean took the opportunity to change the colour of Joker's dialogues in the entire story from red and white back to wine red because this was what he always wanted back in the days, but somehow the design was changed in the post-production of the first edition. Majority of the bonus materials printed in the 15th and 25th anniversary editions are also presented in this book. New additions to this book are McKean's detailed description of how he designed this book and a few extras of the artist's rough sketches and promotion art. The trade paperback known as new edition () was published in 2020 under the banner of DC Black Label.


text: The hardcover deluxe edition () was published in 2021. This edition reuses the story pages from the absolute edition; the colour of Joker's dialogues in the entire story are all evidently changed into wine red. The design of the book and bonus material pages offered in this edition retain the same format as the 25th anniversary edition.


text: Upon the graphic novel's release, it became a commercial success and catapulted Morrison and McKean's name in the comic book industry. Editor Karen Berger revealed that it has sold "close to a half million copies" by 2004, making it the best-selling original graphic novel in American superhero comics. According to the Grant Morrison website, the series has already sold over 600,000 copies worldwide.


text: Hilary Goldstein of IGN Comics praised the story and its "claustrophobic" portrayal of the asylum, saying that ""Arkham Asylum" is unlike any other Batman book you've ever read [and] one of the finest superhero books to ever grace a bookshelf". Goldstein also ranked "Arkham Asylum" #4 on a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels, behind "", "", and "". "Rolling Stone" praised the book as being one of Grant Morrison's best works, calling it "[their] first big commercial hit – and their first shot writing Batman, a character they would spend a great deal of time with over the course of their career – was this ground-breaking graphic novel featuring the grim, twisted artwork of painter Dave McKean. In this darkly poetic, psychologically rich tale, Batman faces off against the Joker, Two-Face, the Scarecrow and other villains inside Gotham City's house for the criminally insane". Joseph Szadkowski of "The Washington Times" called it as "one of the key sequential-art stories of the Batman library".


text: Keith Dooley of "Comics Authority" describes it as "psychologically and visually jarring book [that] brings the reader along with Amadeus Arkham and Batman on their journeys through their psyches in a world full of symbolism". Adding also that "Batman, his foes, and all of humanity are greatly affected by the power of symbolism, with this story laying before the reader that these fictional characters' stories are also, in many ways, our stories". Lucas Siegel from "Newsarama" also praised the comic, describing the art as "striking, beautiful, and yes, today's secret word: disturbing".


text: Despite the critical acclaim of the first edition, Morrison was surprised to learn that the graphic novel's success was due to the readers were enjoying McKean's art more than the story. Negative criticisms were mainly aiming at the heavy reliance on symbolism which many found difficult to understand and accused the story didn't work well with the art together. Morrison did the best as possible to defend all the misunderstood meanings, claiming the real problem was McKean insisted on not wanting to adhere the original idea at all. The collaboration with the artist was retrospectively interpreted as "clashed and competed with the story's symbolic systems between the script and the art" when both actually envisioned the same story against each other. McKean wanted abstract rendering in his art which Morrison described as "doesn't have the most terrifying expressions of the real", wishing the panels were all in the same style as most comic book artists regularly illustrate. The author personally preferred Brian Bolland to have been the artist instead since Bolland's art in "" was always the idea in mind when scripting the story.


text: The 15th anniversary edition reprinted the story which Morrison saw the opportunity of supplying the original script and adding annotations to reinforce every metaphors in the story. The annotated script revealed another conflicting factor between the two and that's McKean himself had personal inputs in the script's narrative structure. Some of the acts Morrison originally intended to include in the graphic novel were eventually excluded in the final product. One of the suggestions McKean made was removing Robin from the story as he thought mainly focusing the asylum's creepy interiors would be sufficient enough rather than adding unnecessary scenes that aren't taking place inside the mansion itself.


text: Morrison opined that everything in the graphic novel would have been more concrete if McKean hadn't interfere with the original idea and diminish it into a thin sense of plot. The author also recalled how the script was passed around to a number of professionals in the comics industry for review. Most of them thought the heavy symbolism and psychological horror elements were not only pretentious, but comical, and laughed at the idea. Morrison apocryphally cited a "Who's laughing now, @$$hole?" line in return when the original idea in the script actually does make much more sense than the current final product.


text: McKean, on the other hand, stated that it was appropriate for him to ignore some of the horror tone in Morrison's script when he called those acts were "absurd thing to do". The artist has said that he was "trying to make the book despite the subject, rather than because of it. At the end of the day, if you really love to do Batman comics, then that's probably the best thing to do. Not liking them, and then trying to make something out of them is just a waste of time". McKean even cited regular comic book illustration as "very, very overpainted, lavish illustrations in every panel just didn't work. It hampers the storytelling. It does everything wrong. It's very difficult to have any enthusiasm about it after that." in a way of expressing why he rejected the drawing technique since it's not his signature rendering.


text: During the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, Morrison said that a sequel to the Arkham Asylum graphic novel is in the works, tentatively titled "Arkham Asylum 2". Comic book artist Chris Burnham, who collaborated with Morrison in "Batman Incorporated", is attached to work on the project. Described as a Luc Besson-esque thriller, the sequel will take place in the future timeline Morrison created where Damian Wayne, Batman's son, has grown up to become an adult Batman of his own. While the graphic novel is described as a 120-page effort, further details or a release date have yet to be announced. In October 2020, Morrison stated that the sequel is currently on hold due to their involvement on the "Brave New World" television series, but said that 26 pages were already written and they expressed interest in resuming the work. Morrison also comments that the sequel will have a different vibe than the Arkham Asylum graphic novel, feeling more like a work of Philip K. Dick.


text: In the film "Batman Begins" (2005), Jonathan Crane's entrance to the Arkham Asylum's cellar with Rachel Dawes mirrors the Joker's own entrance with Batman in the novel. Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker in the 2008 sequel "The Dark Knight" was heavily influenced by "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth". Ledger was given a copy of the novel as a reference for preparation, which he "tried really hard to read and put it down".


text: During an interview with "ToonZone" in October 2015, "" director Jay Oliva expressed his interest in making an animated film adaptation of "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth", but Oliva departed from Warner Bros. Animation in 2017 before such adaptation could be made.


text: The game "" is loosely based on the comic, which follows a similar premise and also shares the same name. Although it was deemed an "ungamable graphic novel" by creative director Sefton Hill, its tone and psychological edge were a primary influence on the game. Additionally, the new warden of Arkham, Quincy Sharp, believes himself to be the reincarnation of Amadeus Arkham, and makes frequent reference to the history outlined in the comic, including Amadeus's mother's dementia, the murder of his wife and daughter by Martin Hawkins, and Amadeus' murder of Hawkins. Under this delusion, Sharp "haunts" the mansion and recreates several tableaux which appear in the comic, including the cell in which Amadeus inscribed his name into the floor.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Jedi Mind Tricks (JMT) are an American underground hip hop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1996 by two high school friends, rapper Vinnie Paz (Vincenzo Luvineri) and producer Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind (Kevin Baldwin). In 1999, rapper Jus Allah joined the group to record their second studio album, "Violent by Design". Jus left the group shortly after, but returned in late 2006 and began working on the sixth studio album, "A History of Violence". In 2011 Stoupe left the group because "his heart wasn't in making JMT records anymore". In 2013, Jus split from the group indefinitely, and Stoupe returned in 2015.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: DJ Kwestion mainly scratches choruses on the turntable. Kwestion is also a part of the group Skratch Makaniks. Kwestion, who is the tour DJ, was a replacement for JMT's previous DJ, Drew Dollars, who is no longer affiliated with the group due to creative differences.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: JMT has collaborations with both regional MCs and rap veterans, including GZA, Kool G Rap, 7L & Esoteric, Sean Price, Ras Kass, Canibus, Percee P, Killah Priest, Immortal Technique, Block McCloud, Virtuoso, Louis Logic, R.A. the Rugged Man, Tragedy Khadafi, Chief Kamachi, Necro, and Ill Bill. The group has sold over 250,000 albums in the United States and 450,000 albums worldwide, all of which were released independently.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: "The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, And Electro-Magnetic Manipulation Of Human Consciousness" known as "The Psycho-Social" for short was released under Superregular Recordings and was JMT's first full-length LP. It featured 12 tracks and 6 bonus tracks.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Prior to the release of their first LP, Vinnie Paz had conceived the idea of forming a rotating, collaborative super-group of underground East Coast artists called the Army of the Pharaohs (AotP).


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: The LP was originally titled "Polymatrix: Reincarnation of the Hologramic Christ". Vinnie Paz became noticeably more aggressive, abandoning his cosmic, paranoid rhyme style from The Psycho-Social CD for more violent lyrics. The LP also introduced Jus Allah, a founding member of JMT who had left for college but dropped out a short while after. A self-proclaimed Five-Percenter, Jus was present on every non-AotP track on "Violent by Design" as JMT's unofficial third member. Violent By Design contains more braggadocio and horrorcore lyrics. Typically, they do this by combining themes of hardcore/gangsta rap with mythological or fantasy imagery.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: The list of guest artists on this album was also their longest, including Mr. Lif, Planetary of OuterSpace, Louis Logic, Diamondback, Philip King Rappah, Coffee Gangsta Child L-Fudge, B.A. Barakus, J-Treds, Killa Sha, C-Baz and Tragedy Khadafi, plus a couple of odd phone-call interludes by Mr. Len.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: During the course of "Violent by Design's" 1999–2000 recording period, Paz changed his alias to Vinnie Paz, inspired by the boxer of the same name. The reason for this has been reported to be the result of a short-lived rivalry instigated by fellow Philly underground rapper iCON the Mic King. Vinnie Paz decided to settle on his new moniker in order to prevent any further confusion. It was also around this time that he formally declared himself to be a follower of Islam, alluding to this fact several times on record.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Mid-2003 saw the release of JMT's third LP, "Visions of Gandhi". In an interview, Vinnie Paz said the title was inspired by Foxy Brown's verse in Nas's song "Affirmative Action", and expresses the need for a prominent figure of non-violent social change such as Gandhi in a post-9/11 world.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Stoupe, now supplied with a professional studio in New York, also expanded his variety of production, incorporating grand orchestral samples and a stronger Latin feel. In response, some longtime fans felt let down by Vinnie Paz's lyricism and delivery, as well as the abundance of slick, upbeat loops adopted by Stoupe . Nevertheless, the album helped expand the group's audience as its popularity and commercial success continued to grow.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: A little over a year later, JMT continued their creative streak with "Legacy of Blood", this time intentionally keeping guest artists to a minimum. Carrying with them their lessons from Gandhi, Stoupe and Vinnie tried to strike a balance between the past two albums. Vinnie Paz also added a more personal aspect to his lyrics, most notably in the last song "Before the Great Collapse".


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: In February 2005, Babygrande officially announced that Jus Allah had signed on to the label after reconciling with his former partners. Babygrande released his long-awaited debut LP, "All Fates Have Changed", in May of that year. However, after a dispute with label CEO Chuck Wilson soon after the album's release, Jus left Babygrande and denied any new association with JMT.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: In March 2006, a reunited Army of the Pharaohs released "The Torture Papers" LP. The crew now consisted of Vinnie Paz, Chief Kamachi, 7L & Esoteric, Apathy, Celph Titled, Planetary & Crypt the Warchild of Outerspace, King Syze, Faez One, Reef the Lost Cauze, and new Jedi Mind Tricks hype-man Des Devious. This time, however, Virtuoso and Bahamadia were not featured and are no longer associated with the Army.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: The fifth Jedi Mind Tricks album, titled "Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell", was released on September 19, 2006. The release coincided with the beginning of the album's supportive tour, which kicked off in New York City's Time Square. The album was widely acclaimed, unlike the group's two previous albums, which both received mixed reviews. A large part of the acclaim was due to the album's lyrical and musical diversity, both missing from their previous efforts. The album featured the single "Heavy Metal Kings" with Ill Bill, the Shara Worden-assisted "Razorblade Salvation", and the storytelling track "" with R.A. the Rugged Man. A day after the release of the album, Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks did an interview with "The Breakdown", a show on ItsHipHop.tv where he discussed the album and his thoughts on Jus Allah.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: In early 2006, rumors spread that the group had reunited with estranged member Jus Allah, and that he would be featured on "Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell", but no collaboration appeared. However, on September 20, 2006 a newly recorded Jedi Mind Tricks/Jus Allah collaboration, produced by Brods, titled "The Rebuilding" appeared online. In a January 2007 interview Paz stated that Jus would be featured on the group's upcoming sixth album, titled "A History of Violence". Jus Allah, Doap Nixon and Demoz were added to the AotP roster in 2007, and contributed verses to the group's second studio album "Ritual of Battle", which was released on September 25, 2007. Also, in summer 2008, Jedi Mind Tricks' Label, Babygrande, released a JMT DVD: "With a 12+ year career under their belt and a continually growing rabid fan base, the history of Jedi Mind Tricks has never been officially documented…until summer 2008, 'Divine Fire: The Story of Jedi Mind Tricks DVD,' promises an insightful excursion into the roots of an underground empire." (from Babygrande's Newsletter).


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: In an interview conducted in September 2007 on the Art of Rhyme website, Jus Allah announced that he has rejoined Jedi Mind Tricks. In the interview, he stated "I'm back in the group [and that] I'm focused on... putting out the next Jedi Mind Tricks album... a History of Violence." "A History of Violence" was released on November 11, 2008. It would be the last JMT album released on Babygrande Records.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: After a long time dispute with Babygrande Records, JMT decided to part ways and form their own record label entitled Enemy Soil. Enemy Soil features artists such as JMT, Reef the Lost Cauze, Dutch (the side group of Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind), and Army of the Pharaohs.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Vinnie Paz released his first solo album "Season of the Assassin" on June 22, 2010. Jus Allah is in the works of releasing his second solo album entitled MMA (Meanest Man Alive). Stoupe released the album for his group, Dutch, (which features Liz Fullerton on vocals) entitled "A Bright Cold Day" on June 8, 2010. Army of the Pharaohs released their third album as well entitled "The Unholy Terror" on March 30, 2010.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: It was announced that JMT would be creating a new title called "Violence Begets Violence". This album marks the first album without Stoupe behind production. Vinnie Paz stated in a blog on the JMT website that Stoupe has lost the inspiration for Hip-Hop and decided to focus on other things in his career, such as his sidegroups, and that Stoupe would not be producing any of the tracks on the new JMT album. Vinnie Paz stated that there is no conflict between the two and if Stoupe wants to be part of the next album, Paz would welcome him back. JMT has since gotten numerous producers to fill in the slot and released a new single from the album entitled "Target Practice". The new album was released on October 25, 2011.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: In November 2013, one of the first acts on Stoupe's new production company, Bad Tape Music, Red Martina released their debut "Intransit" with Stoupe as the producer on all thirteen tracks. Other band members are rapper Noesis (from Philadelphia Slick), multi-instrumentalist Ish Quintero, and vocalist Hayley Cass.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Jus Allah had left the group along with leaving the supergroup Army of the Pharaohs. The reason for his departure has not been disclosed.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: On November 7, 2014, JMTHIPHOP.com confirmed Stoupe's return to Jedi Mind Tricks. On November 27, 2014, a post on jmthiphop.com revealed that Vinnie Paz and Stoupe would be returning as Jedi Mind Tricks in 2015.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: Vinnie Paz mentioned numerous times in 2016 on his podcast, "Broad Street Breakdown", that he and Stoupe were working on another Jedi Mind Tricks record.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: From 2019, Vinnie Paz released several studio albums, including "Camouflage Regime" with Tragedy Khadafi.


title: Jedi Mind Tricks

text: On November 19, 2021, Jedi Mind Tricks released their new album called "The Funeral and the Raven", which was fully produced by Stoupe.


title: Lean startup

text: Lean startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles and rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable; this is achieved by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. Lean startup emphasizes customer feedback over intuition and flexibility over planning. This methodology enables recovery from failures more often than traditional ways of product development.


title: Lean startup

text: Central to the lean startup methodology is the assumption that when startup companies invest their time into iteratively building products or services to meet the needs of early customers, the company can reduce market risks and sidestep the need for large amounts of initial project funding and expensive product launches and financial failures. While the events leading up to the launch can make or break a new business, it is important to start with the end in mind. This means thinking about the direction in which you want your business to grow and how to put all the right pieces in place to make this possible.


title: Lean startup

text: Similar to the precepts of lean manufacturing and lean software development, the lean startup methodology seeks to eliminate wasteful practices and increase value-producing practices during the earliest phases of a company so that the company can have a better chance of success without requiring large amounts of outside funding, elaborate business plans, or a perfect product. Customer feedback during the development of products or services is integral to the lean startup process, and ensures that the company does not invest time designing features or services that consumers do not want. This is done primarily through two processes, using key performance indicators and a continuous deployment process.


title: Lean startup

text: When a startup company cannot afford to have its entire investment depend upon the success of a single product or service, the lean startup methodology proposes that by releasing a minimum viable product that is not yet finalized, the company can then make use of customer feedback to help further tailor the product or service to the specific needs of its customers.


title: Lean startup

text: The lean startup methodology asserts that the "lean has nothing to do with how much money a company raises"; rather it has everything to do with assessing the specific demands of consumers and how to meet that demand using the least amount of resources possible.


title: Lean startup

text: Use of the word "lean" to describe the streamlined production system of lean manufacturing was popularized by the 1990 book "The Machine That Changed the World". The Toyota Production System pioneered by Taiichi Ohno combined flow principles that had been used by Henry Ford since the early 1900s with innovations such as the TWI programs introduced to Japan in 1951.


title: Lean startup

text: Lean manufacturing systems consider as waste the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer, and continually seek ways to eliminate such waste. In particular, such systems focus on:


title: Lean startup

text: The lean startup methodology is based on the customer development methodology of Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur-turned-academic Steve Blank. In his book "The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win" (2005, 5th edition 2013), Blank pointed out the pitfalls of a narrow emphasis on product development; instead he argued that startups should focus on what he called "customer development", which emphasizes "learning about customers and their problems as early in the development process as possible". Blank's customer development methodology proposed four steps:


title: Lean startup

text: In an article published in the "Harvard Business Review" in 2013, Steve Blank described how the lean startup methodology also drew inspiration from the work of people like Ian C. MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath who developed a technique called discovery-driven planning, which was an attempt to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to planning.


title: Lean startup

text: In his blog and book "The Lean Startup", entrepreneur Eric Ries used specific terms to refer to the core lean startup principles, as described below.


title: Lean startup

text: A minimum viable product (MVP) is the "version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort" (similar to a pilot experiment). The goal of an MVP is to test fundamental business hypotheses (or leap-of-faith assumptions) and to help entrepreneurs begin the learning process as quickly as possible.


title: Lean startup

text: As an example, Ries noted that Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn wanted to test the hypothesis that customers were ready and willing to buy shoes online. Instead of building a website and a large database of footwear, Swinmurn approached local shoe stores, took pictures of their inventory, posted the pictures online, bought the shoes from the stores at full price after he'd made a sale, and then shipped them directly to customers. Swinmurn deduced that customer demand was present, and Zappos would eventually grow into a billion dollar business based on the model of selling shoes online.


title: Lean startup

text: Continuous deployment, similar to continuous delivery, is a process "whereby all code that is written for an application is immediately deployed into production," which results in a reduction of cycle times. Ries stated that some of the companies he's worked with deploy new code into production as often as 50 times a day. The phrase was coined by Timothy Fitz, one of Ries's colleagues and an early engineer at IMVU.


title: Lean startup

text: A split or A/B test is an experiment in which "different versions of a product are offered to customers at the same time." The goal of a split test is to observe differences in behavior between the two groups and to measure the impact of each version on an actionable metric.


title: Lean startup

text: A/B testing is sometimes incorrectly performed in serial fashion, where a group of users one week may see one version of the product while the next week users see another. This undermines the statistical validity of the results, since external events may influence user behavior in one time period but not the other. For example, a split test of two ice cream flavors performed in serial during the summer and winter would see a marked decrease in demand during the winter where that decrease is mostly related to the weather and not to the flavor offer.


title: Lean startup

text: Another way to incorrectly A/B test is to assign users to one or another A/B version of the product using any non-random method.


title: Lean startup

text: Actionable metrics can lead to informed business decisions and subsequent action. These are in contrast to vanity metrics—measurements that give "the rosiest picture possible" but do not accurately reflect the key drivers of a business.


title: Lean startup

text: Vanity metrics for one company may be actionable metrics for another. For example, a company specializing in creating web based dashboards for financial markets might view the number of web page views per person as a vanity metric as their revenue is not based on number of page views. However, an online magazine with advertising would view web page views as a key metric as page views are directly correlated to revenue.


title: Lean startup

text: A typical example of a vanity metric is "the number of new users gained per day". While a high number of users gained per day seems beneficial to any company, if the cost of acquiring each user through expensive advertising campaigns is significantly higher than the revenue gained per user, then gaining more users could quickly lead to bankruptcy.


title: Lean startup

text: A pivot is a "structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth." A notable example of a company employing the pivot is Groupon; when the company first started, it was an online activism platform called The Point. After receiving almost no traction, the founders opened a WordPress blog and launched their first coupon promotion for a pizzeria located in their building lobby. Although they only received 20 redemptions, the founders realized that their idea was significant, and had successfully empowered people to coordinate group action. Three years later, Groupon would grow into a billion dollar business.


title: Lean startup

text: Steve Blank defines a pivot as "changing (or even firing) the plan instead of the executive (the sales exec, marketing or even the CEO)."


title: Lean startup

text: This topic focuses on how entrepreneurs can maintain accountability and maximize outcomes by measuring progress, planning milestones, and prioritizing. The topic was later expanded upon to include three levels of innovation accounting related to the types of assumptions being validated.


title: Lean startup

text: The Build–Measure–Learn loop emphasizes speed as a critical ingredient to customer development. A team or company's effectiveness is determined by its ability to ideate, quickly build a minimum viable product of that idea, measure its effectiveness in the market, and learn from that experiment. In other words, it is a learning cycle of turning ideas into products, measuring customers' reactions and behaviors against built products, and then deciding whether to persevere or pivot the idea; this process repeats as many times as necessary. The process can also be viewed as a test of hypotheses. The phases of the loop are: Ideas → Build → Product → Measure → Data → Learn.


title: Lean startup

text: The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management template invented by Alexander Osterwalder around 2008 for developing new business models or documenting existing ones. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.


title: Lean startup

text: The template consists of nine blocks: activities, partners, resources, value proposition, customers, customer channels, customer relationships, costs and revenue. Startups use the template (and/or other templates described below) to formulate hypotheses and change their business model based on the success or failure of tested hypotheses.


title: Lean startup

text: The Lean Canvas is a version of the Business Model Canvas adapted by Ash Maurya in 2010 specifically for startups. The Lean Canvas focuses on addressing broad customer problems and solutions and delivering them to customer segments through a unique value proposition. "Problem" and "solution" blocks replace the "key partners" and "key activities" blocks in the Business Model Canvas, while "key metrics" and "unfair advantage" blocks replace the "key resources" and "customer relationships" blocks, respectively.


title: Lean startup

text: The Value Proposition Canvas is a supplement to the Business Model Canvas ("customer segment" and "value proposition" blocks) published in 2012 to address the customer–product relationship, the perceived value of the product or service, and potential product/market fit. The "value proposition" block is divided into three categories—products and services, gain creators, and pain relievers—that correspond to three categories in the "customer segment" block—customer jobs, gains, and pains.


title: Lean startup

text: The Mission Model Canvas is a version of the Business Model Canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Steve Blank for entities such as government agencies that have a predetermined budget instead of a goal of raising revenue. It was published in 2016. Earlier publications by Osterwalder and colleagues had suggested how to adapt the Business Model Canvas for nonprofit enterprises that depend on raising revenue. "Mission budget/cost" and "mission achievement/impact factors" blocks replace the "cost structure" and "revenue streams" blocks in the Business Model Canvas, while "beneficiaries", "buy-in/support" and "deployment" blocks replace the "customer segments", "customer relationships" and "channels" blocks, respectively.


title: Lean startup

text: Ries and others created an annual technology conference called Startup Lessons Learned which has subsequently changed its name to the Lean Startup Conference. Lean startup meetups in cities around the world have garnered 20,000 regular participants. The first lean startup meetup named Lean Startup Circle was created by Rich Collins on June 26, 2009 hosting speaking events, workshops, and roundtable discussions. As of 2012, there are lean startup meetups in over 100 cities and 17 countries as well as an online discussion forum with over 5500 members. Third-party organizers have led lean startup meetups in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Austin, Beijing, Dublin, and Rio de Janeiro, among others—many of which are personally attended by Ries—with the Chicago and New York City Lean Startup Meetups attracting over 4,000 members each. The Lean Startup Machine created a new spin on the lean startup meetups by having attendees start a new company in three days. As of 2012, the Lean Startup Machine claimed to have created over 600 new startups this way.


title: Lean startup

text: Prominent high-tech companies have begun to publicly employ the lean startup methodology, including Intuit, Dropbox, Wealthfront, Votizen, Aardvark, and Grockit. The lean startup principles are also taught in classes at Harvard Business School and UC Berkeley and are implemented in municipal governments through Code for America.


title: Lean startup

text: Academic researchers in Finland have applied the lean startup methodology to accelerating research innovation.


title: Lean startup

text: The United States Government has employed lean startup ideas. The Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States, Steven VanRoekel noted in 2012 that he was taking a "lean-startup approach to government". Ries has worked with the former and current Chief Technology Officers of the United States—Aneesh Chopra and Todd Park respectively—to implement aspects of the lean startup model. In particular, Park noted that in order to understand customer demand, the Department of Health and Human Services recognized "the need to rapidly prototype solutions, engage customers in those solutions as soon as possible, and then quickly and repeatedly iterate those solutions based on working with customers". In May 2012, Ries and The White House announced the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, which brings together top citizen innovators and government officials to work on high-level projects and deliver measurable results in six months.


title: Lean startup

text: Steve Blank, working with retired United States Army colonel Pete Newell and former United States Army Special Forces colonel Joe Felter, adapted lean startup principles for U.S. government innovation under the moniker "Hacking for Defense", a program in which university students solve problems that the Department of Defense, the United States Armed Forces, and the United States Intelligence Community submit to participating universities. Hacking for Defense and variants like Hacking for Diplomacy have expanded to the United States Department of State, Department of Energy, NASA, and nonprofits.


title: Lean startup

text: Lean startup principles have been applied to specific competencies within typical startups and larger organizations:


title: Lean startup

text: The lean startup methodology was first proposed in 2008 by Eric Ries, using his personal experiences adapting lean management and customer development principles to high-tech startup companies. The methodology has since been expanded to apply to any individual, team, or company looking to develop new products, services, or systems without unlimited resources. The lean startup's reputation is due in part to the success of Ries' bestselling book, "The Lean Startup", published in September 2011.


title: Lean startup

text: Ries' said that his first company, Catalyst Recruiting, failed because he and his colleagues did not understand the wants of their target customers, and because they focused too much time and energy on the initial product launch. Next, Ries was a senior software engineer with There, Inc., which Ries described as a classic example of a Silicon Valley startup with five years of stealth R&D, $40 million in financing, and nearly 200 employees at the time of product launch. In 2003, There, Inc. launched its product, There.com, but they were unable to garner popularity beyond the initial early adopters. Ries claimed that despite the many proximate causes for failure, the most important mistake was that the company's "vision was almost too concrete", making it impossible to see that their product did not accurately represent consumer demand.


title: Lean startup

text: Although the lost money differed by orders of magnitude, Ries concluded that the failures of There, Inc. and Catalyst Recruiting shared similar origins: "it was working forward from the technology instead of working backward from the business results you're trying to achieve."


title: Lean startup

text: After Ries later co-founded IMVU Inc., IMVU investor Steve Blank insisted that IMVU executives audit Blank's class on entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley. Ries applied Blank's customer development methodology and integrated it with ideas from lean software development and elsewhere to form the lean startup methodology.


title: Lean startup

text: Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, wrote an article in 2010 criticizing the lean startup method for over-emphasizing "running lean" (constantly cutting and reducing non-essential parts of the company to save time and money). He specifically disagreed with portraying "running lean" as an end rather than a means to winning the market without running out of cash. Horowitz gave as an example his startup Loudcloud, which by "running fat" was able to outperform 20 direct competitors and after 8 years reach a value of $1.6 billion. However, at least since 2008, numerous advocates of lean methods have pointed out that "running lean" does not mean cost cutting.


title: Lean startup

text: Trey Griffith, the VP of technology at Teleborder, stated in 2012 that the majority of backing for the lean startup methodology was anecdotal and had not been rigorously validated when first presented. However, he went on to note that better support of the method comes out of a 2011 analysis of the factors of success in growth companies as described in the 2011 book "Great by Choice".


title: Bob Seger discography

text: The discography of Bob Seger, an American rock artist, includes 18 studio albums, two live albums, five compilation albums and more than 60 singles (including regional releases and collaborations). Bob Seger's albums have sold over 50 million copies and received seven multi-platinum, four Platinum and two Gold certifications by the RIAA.


title: Bob Seger discography

text: With the single exception of 1972's "Smokin' O.P.'s", re-released on CD with remastered sound by Capitol in 2005, all of Seger's albums prior to 1975's "Beautiful Loser" (the pre-Silver Bullet Band releases) have long remained out of print. The albums "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" (1969), "Mongrel" (1970) and "Seven" (1974) were briefly available on CD in 1993. "Noah" (1969), "Brand New Morning" (1971) and "Back in '72" (1973) were available only on vinyl/tape formats and have never been officially reissued on CD, but all three were unofficially reissued in 2008 in Argentina on the Lost Diamonds label.


title: Bob Seger discography

text: Bob Seger was considered for quite a few more film soundtracks that he ultimately did not appear on. In 1983, after the success of "Old Time Rock and Roll" in "Risky Business" (1983) starring Tom Cruise, the song "No Man's Land" was slated for Cruise's next film "All the Right Moves" (1983).


title: Bob Seger discography

text: In 1985, Seger was asked to write the title track for "Back to the Future" (1985), but eventually "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News was used instead and became a massive hit. Seger's song was called "Yesterday Rules"; he performed the song live on his 1986 tour. That same year the unreleased song "Can't Hit the Corners No More", which had been recorded for "Against the Wind" (1980), was scheduled to appear on the soundtrack to "The Color of Money" (1986), again starring Tom Cruise, but that never happened.


title: Bob Seger discography

text: In 1989, Seger was invited to record Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" as the title track for the movie of the same name (1990), but he turned the offer down, because he was doing recordings for his upcoming album, "The Fire Inside" (1991), at the time.


title: Bob Seger discography

text: The song "Roll Me Away" was used in the 1984 movie "Reckless" and "Feel Like a Number" was used in the 1993 movie "Striking Distance".


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: St. John's College is a private liberal arts college with dual campuses in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. St. John's is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States as the successor institution of King William's School, a preparatory school founded in 1696; the current institution received a collegiate charter in 1784. In 1937, St. John's adopted a Great Books curriculum based on discussion of works from the Western canon of philosophical, religious, historical, mathematical, scientific, and literary works.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The college grants a single bachelor's degree, in liberal arts. The awarded degree is equivalent to a double major in philosophy and the history of science, and a double minor in Classical Studies and Comparative Literature.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: Two master's degrees are available through the college's graduate institute: one in liberal arts, which is a modified version of the undergraduate curriculum (differing mostly in that the graduate students are not restricted to a set sequence of courses), and one in Eastern Classics, which applies most of the features of the undergraduate curriculum (seminars, preceptorials, language study, and a set sequence of courses) to a list of classic works from India, China, and Japan. The Master of Arts in Eastern Classics is only available at the Santa Fe campus.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: Although King William's School was founded with an affiliation to Church of England, St. John's no longer has a religious affiliation.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: St. John's College traces its origins to King William's School, founded in 1696. In 1784, Maryland chartered St. John's College, which absorbed King William's School when it opened in 1785. The college took up residence in a building known as Bladen's Folly (the current McDowell Hall), which was originally built to be the Maryland governor's mansion, but was not completed. There was some association with the Freemasons early in the college's history, leading to speculation that it was named after Saint John the Evangelist. The college's original charter, reflecting the Masonic value of religious tolerance as well as the religious diversity of the founders (which included Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and the Roman Catholic Charles Carroll of Carrollton) stated that "youth of all religious denominations shall be freely and liberally admitted". The college always maintained a small size, generally enrolling fewer than 500 men at a time.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In its early years, the college was at least nominally public—the college's founders had envisaged it as the Western Shore branch of a proposed “University of Maryland” but a lack of enthusiasm from the Maryland General Assembly and its Eastern Shore counterpart, Washington College, made this largely a paper institution. After years of inconsistent funding and litigation, the college accepted a smaller annual grant in lieu of being funded through the state's annual appropriations process. During the Civil War, the college closed and its campus was used as a military hospital. In 1907 it became the undergraduate college of a loosely organized "University of Maryland" that included the professional schools located in Baltimore. By 1920, when Maryland State College (founded in 1857 as Maryland Agricultural College) became the University of Maryland at College Park, St. John's was a free-standing private institution.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The college curriculum has taken various forms throughout its history. It began with a general program of study in the liberal arts, but St. John's was a military school for much of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It ended compulsory military training with Major Enoch Garey's accession as president in 1923.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: Garey and the Navy instituted a Naval Reserve unit in September 1924, creating the first-ever collegiate Department of Naval Science in the United States. But despite St. John's successfully pioneering the entire NROTC movement, student interest waned, the voluntary ROTC disappeared in 1926 with Garey's departure, and the Naval Reserve unit followed by 1929.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In 1936, the college lost its accreditation. The Board of Visitors and Governors, faced with dire financial straits caused by the Great Depression, invited educational innovators Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan to make a completely fresh start. They introduced a new program of study, which remains in effect today. Buchanan became dean of the college, while Barr assumed its presidency. In his guide "Cool Colleges", Donald Asher writes that the New Program was implemented to save the college from closing: "Several benefactors convinced the college to reject a watered-down curriculum in favor of becoming a very distinctive academic community. Thus this great institution was reborn as a survival measure."


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In 1938, Walter Lippman wrote a column praising liberal arts education as a bulwark against fascism, and said "in the future, men will point to St. John's College and say that there was the seed-bed of the American renaissance."


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In 1940, national attention was attracted to St. John's by a story in "Life" entitled "The Classics: At St. John's They Come into Their Own Once More". Classic works unavailable in English translation were translated by faculty members, typed, mimeographed, and bound. They were sold to the general public as well as to students, and by 1941 the St. John's College bookshop was famous as the only source for English translations of works such as Copernicus's "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium", St. Augustine's "De Musica", and Ptolemy's "Almagest".


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The wartime years were difficult for the all-male St. John's. Enlistment and the draft all but emptied the college; 15 seniors graduated in 1943, eight in 1945, and three in 1946. From 1940 to 1946, St. John's was repeatedly confronted with threats of its land being seized by the Navy for expansion of the neighboring U.S. Naval Academy, and James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, formally announced plans to do so in 1945. At the time, "The New York Times", which had expected a legal battle royale comparable to the 1819 "Dartmouth" case, commented that "although a small college of fewer than 200 students, St. John's has, because of its experimental liberal arts program, received more publicity and been the center of a greater academic controversy than most other colleges in the land. Its best-books program has been attacked and praised by leading educators of the day."


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The constant threat of eviction discouraged Stringfellow Barr. In late 1946 Forrestal withdrew the plan to take over St. John's in the face of public opposition and the disapproval of the House Naval Affairs Committee, but Barr and Scott Buchanan were already committed to leaving St. John's and launching Liberal Arts, Inc., a new, similar college in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; that project eventually failed—but thinking about other sites for the college eventually led to the opening of St. John's second campus in Santa Fe in 1964.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: St John's had been founded as an all-white institution and continued as such in the early years of the New Program, with Barr actively discouraging black students from applying. However, by 1948 faculty and student sentiment had shifted and students, with the support of the faculty and administration, persuaded a reluctant Board of Visitors and Governors to integrate the college and St. John's became the one of the first previously all-white colleges south of the Mason-Dixon line to admit black students voluntarily.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In 1949, Richard D. Weigle became president of St. John's. Following the chaotic and difficult period from 1940 to 1949, Weigle's presidency continued for 31 years, during which time the New Program and the college itself became well established.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In 1951, St. John's became coeducational, admitting women for the first time in its then-254-year history. There was some objection from students because they had not been involved in—nor even aware of—the decision before it was announced to the media, and from some who believed that the college could not remain a serious institution were it to admit women. Martin Dyer reported that women who were admitted quickly proved they were the academic and intellectual equals of their male counterparts.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: As enrollment grew during the 1950s, and facing the coming larger baby-boom generation, thoughts turned again towards opening another campus—but this time in addition to, not instead of, the one in Annapolis. Serious talk of expansion began in 1959 when the father of a student from Monterey, California, suggested to President Weigle that he establish a new campus there. "Time" ran an article on the college's possible expansion plans, and 32 offers came in to the college from New Hampshire, Oregon, Georgia, Alaska, Florida, Connecticut, and other states.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: A group from the Monterey Peninsula told Weigle that they were definitely interested, though funding was a problem, and suitable land was a big question. There was also an offer of land in Claremont, California, but competition with the other colleges there for students and financial contributions was a negative. The Riverside Mission Inn (in Riverside, California) was another possibility, but with only of land and many renovations needed to the inn, funding was again a major issue.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The three California locations were all still major contenders when Robert McKinney (publisher of "The Santa Fe New Mexican" and a former SJC board member) called and told Weigle that a group of city leaders had long been looking for another college for Santa Fe. During a lunch Weigle attended at John Gaw Meem's house on the outskirts of Santa Fe in late January 1961, Meem volunteered that he had a little piece of land () that he would gladly donate to the college. After lunch, Weigle looked at the land and instantly fell in love with it. A committee of four faculty members (Robert Bart, Barbara Leonard, Douglas Allanbrook, and William Darkey) later visited the four sites in contention and, after much deliberation, recommended Santa Fe.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: In 1961, the governing board of St. John's approved plans to establish a second college at Santa Fe. Groundbreaking occurred on April 22, 1963, and the first classes began in 1964. As it turned out, shortly afterwards land was also donated to the college on the Monterey Peninsula, on condition that a campus be developed there by a certain date.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The Great Books program (often called simply "the Program" or "the New Program" at St. John's) was developed at the University of Chicago by Stringfellow Barr, Scott Buchanan, Robert Hutchins, and Mortimer Adler in the mid-1930s as an alternative form of education to the then rapidly changing undergraduate curriculum. St. John's adopted the Great Books program in 1937, when the college was facing the possibility of financial and academic ruin. The Great Books program in use today was also heavily influenced by Jacob Klein, who was dean of the college in the 1940s and 1950s.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The four-year program of study, nearly all of which is mandatory, requires that students read and discuss the works of many of Western civilization's most prominent contributors to philosophy, theology, mathematics, science, music, poetry, and literature. Tutorials (mathematics, language, and music), as well as seminar and laboratory, are discussion-based. In the mathematics tutorial students often demonstrate propositions that mathematicians throughout various ages have laid out. In the language tutorial student translations are presented (ancient Greek is studied in the first two years and French for the last two). The tutorials, with seminar and laboratory, constitute the classes. All classes, and in particular the seminar, are considered formal exercises; consequently, students address one another, as well as their teachers, by their honorific and last name during class.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: St. John's avoids modern textbooks, lectures, and examinations, in favor of a series of manuals. While traditional (A to F) grades are given and provided on transcripts, the culture of the school de-emphasizes their importance and grades are released only at the request of the student. Grading is based largely on class participation and papers. Tutors, as faculty members are called at the college, play a non-directive role in the classroom, compared to mainstream colleges. However, at St. John's this varies by course and instructor. Class size is small on both campuses, with a student to tutor ratio of 7:1. Seminar is the largest class, with around 20 students, but led by two tutors. Daytime tutorials are smaller, typically ranging between 12 and 16 students and are led by one tutor. Preceptorials are the smallest class size, ranging between 3 and 9 students.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The Great Books are not the only texts used at St. John's. Greek and French classes make use of supplemental materials that are more like traditional textbooks. Science laboratory courses and mathematics courses use manuals prepared by faculty members that combine source materials with workbook exercises. For example, the mathematics tutorial combines a 1905 paper by Albert Einstein with exercises that require the student to work through the mathematics used in the paper.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: Although it varies from year to year and differs slightly between campuses, the Great Books reading list is the basis of the school's curriculum.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The Graduate Institute in Liberal Education was established at St. John's College in 1967 as a summer program on the Santa Fe campus. The size and scope of the Institute have expanded so that currently both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses offer year-round graduate-level study based on the principles of the St. John's undergraduate program. Students in the Liberal Arts program explore the persisting questions of human existence by studying classic works of the western tradition. This program is organized into five semester-long thematic segments: Philosophy and Theology, Politics and Society, Literature, Mathematics and Natural Science, and History. Students earn a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts (MALA) by completing four of these five segments. A common curriculum provides the basis for a shared intellectual community; discussion with fellow students and faculty is the mode of learning both inside and outside the classroom. Each semester, students attend a seminar, a tutorial and a preceptorial—all carried out as small-group discussions under the guidance of St. John's faculty members. These three types of classes are the framework of the distinctive St. John's educational experience.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: At the Santa Fe campus, there is a program offering a Master of Arts in Eastern Classics (MAEC). This program is three semesters long and is designed to be completed in one 12-month period. The impetus for the program came with the recognition that the undergraduate program simply could not do justice to the Great Books of the three main Asian traditions (India, China and Japan) by trying to squeeze in a few works among so many European masterworks. The EC program therefore provides a full set of readings in the philosophical, religious and literary traditions of the three cultures listed above. Thus, students learn Chinese culture by reading not only Confucius, Laozi and Zhuangzi, but also Mencius, Xun Zi, Han Feizi, and Mozi, as well as historical narratives by Sima Qian and the "Zuo Zhuan", the later movement of Neo-Confucianism and Zhu Xi, narrative works such as "Journey to the West" or the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the great Chinese poets, Li Bai, Wang Wei and Du Fu. This list represents only one-third of the required corpus, which also covers the major teachings and branches of Hinduism and the development of Theravada, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism, as well as such literary masterpieces as the Mahabharata, Shakuntala, The Tale of Genji, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and others. Students also take a language, either Sanskrit or Classical Chinese.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: St. John's is located in the Historic Annapolis district, one block away from the Maryland State Capitol building. Its proximity to the United States Naval Academy (across King George Street) has inspired many a comparison to Athens and Sparta. The schools carry on a spirited rivalry seen in the annual croquet match between the two schools on the front lawn of St. John's, which has been called by "GQ" ""the purest intercollegiate athletic event in America."" St. John's has won 29 of the 36 annual matches. About the Johnnies' commitment to the event, one midshipman commented, "They're out practicing croquet every afternoon! Alabama should take football this seriously."


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: Construction of McDowell Hall at the center of campus was begun in 1742 by Provincial Governor of Maryland Thomas Bladen, but was not completed until after the end of the Colonial period. The 23,000-square-foot historic building underwent some improvements in 2017–18. Its Great Hall has seen many college events, from balls feting Generals Lafayette and Washington to the unique St. John's institutions called waltz parties.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: The observatory facility, located at the top of the Foucault pendulum tower in Mellon Hall, contains two permanently mounted telescopes, a 12" Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope model LX200 and a 16" Newtonian telescope, both made by Meade Instruments. The Foucault Pendulum is located at the top of the four-story tower. The pendulum drive magnet is housed within a cast iron cone in the Observatory facility. The magnet is keyed to turn on and off as the pendulum swings by using technology such as a photoresistor that determine the center of the pendulum's swing.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: St. John's Santa Fe campus is located on the eastern edge of Santa Fe, close to Atalaya Mountain. It was opened in 1964 in response to the increase in qualified applicants at the Annapolis campus. The college chose to open a second campus rather than increase the size of the Annapolis campus. The second campus was part of a larger project to construct six campuses across the country. St. John's abandoned the concept when it later sold a tract of land it owned in Monterey, California.


title: St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)

text: Within the Class of 2022, 36 U.S. states and 15 countries are represented. Approximately 99% of students receive financial aid. First-year undergraduate students range in age from 15 to 65. The student body is relatively small compared to other liberal arts colleges, with a population historically below 500 students on each campus during a year. The college offers many community seminars and lectures that are available to the public.


title: The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

text: The Berenstain Bears is a children's animated television comedy series based on the children's book series of the same name by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Acting as a remake of


title: The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

text: the cartoon series of the same name (1985–87), the series follows the lives of a family of anthropomorphic bears who learn a moral or safety-related lesson during the course of each episode. The series was broadcast on PBS Kids from January 6, 2003 until December 6, 2004. 40 episodes were produced.


title: The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

text: The series is set in a world populated only by anthropomorphic bears and primarily centers around the Berenstain Bears. The Berenstain Bears are a family residing in the rural community of Bear Country consisting of Mama Bear, Papa Q. Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear. Although a numerous episodes are based on the books and promote the same morals as encouraged in the picture books from which their plots originated, the program's faithfulness to the original series is slightly mixed on account of a number of later episodes following original storylines. Nonetheless, they mostly portray the same environment depicted in the original "Berenstain Bears" storybooks quite accurately and concentrate on the messages and lessons learned by the family through their different experiences, such as generosity and responsibility, as well as the daily lives of the bears.


title: The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

text: The show was produced by the Canada-based animation studio Nelvana for PBS Kids in the United States and Treehouse TV in Canada. 80 15-minute episodes were produced, adapted from the books and also a few new stories as well, similar to the 1985 production. However, due to the laws requiring Nelvana to employ writers and artists, the Berenstains' involvement in the program was limited; they sought to exert their influence on some details, according to Stan: "Our bears don't wear shoes, and Papa wouldn't wear his hat in the house...And we try to keep complete, total banality out of the stories". Common practicalities of animation did force some minor costume changes from the books, such as eliminating polka dots and plaids (this issue also occurred in the previous animated series and specials and only a limited amount of polka dots was allowed in the five specials). The series is supposed to supplement the 1985 series because new books were released since then, even though the two series have a radically different production style as well as a change of in-universe elements. Another issue is the two series are not seen together.


title: The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

text: Country music singer-songwriter Lee Ann Womack performed the theme song written by Stan Meissner for the series.


title: The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

text: It debuted in the United States on PBS Kids on January 6, 2003. Originally, it aired together with "Seven Little Monsters" but the two shows were eventually separated. Reruns aired on PBS Kids Sprout (later known as simply Sprout) from its inception up until the channel rebranded into Universal Kids on September 9, 2017, after Sprout's rights to air the series expired.


title: Giant Silva

text: Paulo César da Silva (born July 21, 1962) is a Brazilian former national basketball player for the Brazilian national basketball team and later mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Giant Silva. He stands 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in) and weighs 159 kg (351 lb). A super-heavyweight wrestler, he was both a face and a heel in several professional wrestling promotions. Known for his great height, in 2014 he was described as the sixth tallest professional wrestler in history.


title: Giant Silva

text: In the 1980s, Silva was originally a professional basketball player. He played with the senior Brazilian national basketball team at the 1988 Summer Olympics as Paulão da Silva. Very much like El Gigante/Giant Gonzales, who also started as a basketball player, the 7'2" (219 cm) tall da Silva, played as a reserve center on Brazil's national team, wearing the #13 jersey.


title: Giant Silva

text: After turning pro in late 1997, Silva signed with World Wrestling Federation. After debuting he was given the name: "Giant Silva" and was a member of the Oddities stable. For most of his WWF tenure, Silva was a cornerman for the Oddities and his matches on TV were tag matches, teaming up with Golga and/or Kurrgan. His only highlight was at Summerslam 1998 when he, Golga, and Kurrgan defeated Kai En Tai in a 3 on 4 Handicap match. Silva was released around February 1999.


title: Giant Silva

text: After his WWF tenure, Silva joined Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and was renamed Gigante Silva. He was introduced by midget wrestler Tzuki and soon became an ally to "tecnicos", often teaming up in tag team matches against numerically superior "rudos". Silva struck an occasional team with fellow superheavyweight Brazo de Plata and had part in a feud with Gigante Kurggan, who was brought by Los Capos (the faction led by Apolo Dantes and Universo 2000) in order to oppose him. In November 2003, Silva turned "rudo" himself and allied with Pierroth Jr. and his valet La Comandante before leaving Mexico for Japan full time.


title: Giant Silva

text: In 2001, Silva joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He originally debuted on August 12, 2001 as a member of Masahiro Chono's stable: Team 2000 where he was paired up with another Giant: Giant Singh (better known as The Great Khali) as the tag team: Club 7. Silva made his in-ring debut for New Japan when he took part in the G1 World Climax tournament where he finished in 4th place with 4 points. He and Singh made their debut as a tag team at Indicate of Next on October 8, 2001 where they defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenzo Suzuki, Yutaka Yoshie, & Wataru Inoue in a 4 on 2 handicap match.


title: Giant Silva

text: In the fall of 2001, Silva teamed with Chono in the 2001 G1 Tag League with the team finishing in 7th place with 6 points. In 2002, Silva took part in several tournaments. In February he was part of the a tournament for the vacated IWGP Heavyweight Championship but lost in the first round to eventual winner: Tadao Yasuda. Two days later on February 3, Silva, Singh, and Chono won the Teisen Hall Cup 6 Man Tag Team Tournament. In March, Club 7 then entered a tournament for the vacated IWGP Tag Team Championship. In the first round, they defeated fellow Team 2000 members: Scott Norton and Super J, but lost to Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi in the semi-finals.


title: Giant Silva

text: In the spring of 2002, Club 7 broke up and began feuding shortly afterwards. The two were scheduled to face each other at Toukon Memorial Day on May 2, 2002 but an injury to Singh prevented the match from taking place. The two finally fought at Cross Road on August 29, 2002 with Silva defeating Singh.


title: Giant Silva

text: From 2004–2008, Silva wrestled for HUSTLE where he took part in a variety of matches and formed teams with Scott Norton, Toshiaki Kawada, and Mark Coleman.


title: Giant Silva

text: After his career in NJPW, Silva was signed by Dream Stage Entertainment and competed in Pride Fighting Championships, a defunct mixed martial arts organization based in Japan. Although at one time he trained with members of the Gracie family, most notably Ricardo Gracie and Ralek Gracie, he only had a crash course in Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he had his debut in Pride Shockwave 2003 against 250lbs Heath Herring. Silva led the more experienced fighter to the third round, absorbing repeated leg kicks and taking Herring down once, but Heath capitalized and reversed it into a rear naked choke for the win.


title: Giant Silva

text: In April 2004, Silva took part in the Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, whose first round saw him facing sumo wrestler Henry "Sentoryu" Miller, only 85lbs lighter. Sentoryu accomplished a takedown on Silva and attacked his guard, only for Silva's height to neutralize his ground and pound attempts, as the sumo did not reach to his head. Miller finally got side control, but then Silva reversed him with a Kimura lock and made him tap out. The pro wrestler then advanced to the second round, being pitted against former world judo champion Naoya Ogawa, who won the fight by takedown and ground and pound TKO.


title: Giant Silva

text: Silva would then face another professional wrestler, Pro Wrestling NOAH's Takashi Sugiura, who used his wrestling acumen to take him down and land knees and punches for the stoppage. The match had some controversy, as a brawl erupted after the bout and Silva had to be restrained by several ring crew men.


title: Giant Silva

text: On December 31, 2006 Giant Silva finally faced a heavier opponent, the former yokozuna Akebono Tarō, at K-1 Premium 2006. The sumo clinched Silva and pressed him against the ropes, until Silva broke the hug and transitioned a Kimura lock in way to the ground, submitting Akebono for his second and last win.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Woodblock printing in Japan (, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the "ukiyo-e" artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868) and similar to woodcut in Western printmaking in some regards, the mokuhanga technique differs in that it uses water-based inks—as opposed to western woodcut, which typically uses oil-based inks. The Japanese water-based inks provide a wide range of vivid colors, glazes, and transparency.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: In 764 the Empress Kōken commissioned one million small wooden pagodas, each containing a small woodblock scroll printed with a Buddhist text ("Hyakumantō Darani"). These were distributed to temples around the country as thanks for the suppression of the Emi Rebellion of 764. These are the earliest examples of woodblock printing known, or documented, from Japan.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: By the eleventh century, Buddhist temples in Japan produced printed books of sutras, mandalas, and other Buddhist texts and images. For centuries, printing was mainly restricted to the Buddhist sphere, as it was too expensive for mass production, and did not have a receptive, literate public as a market. However, an important set of fans of the late Heian period (12th century), containing painted images and Buddhist sutras, reveal from loss of paint that the underdrawing for the paintings was printed from blocks. In the Kamakura period from the 12th century to the 13th century, many books were printed and published by woodblock printing at Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Kamakura.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Western style movable type printing-press was brought to Japan by Tenshō embassy in 1590, and was first printed in Kazusa, Nagasaki in 1591. However, western printing-press were discontinued after the ban on Christianity in 1614. The printing-press seized from Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's forces in 1593 was also in use at the same time as the printing press from Europe. An edition of the Confucian "Analects" was printed in 1598, using a Korean moveable type printing press, at the order of Emperor Go-Yōzei.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Tokugawa Ieyasu established a printing school at Enko-ji in Kyoto and started publishing books using domestic wooden movable type printing-press instead of metal from 1599. Ieyasu supervised the production of 100,000 types, which were used to print many political and historical books. In 1605, books using domestic copper movable type printing-press began to be published, but copper type did not become mainstream after Ieyasu died in 1616.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: The great pioneers in applying movable type printing press to the creation of artistic books, and in preceding mass production for general consumption, were Honami Kōetsu and Suminokura Soan. At their studio in Saga, Kyoto, the pair created a number of woodblock versions of the Japanese classics, both text and images, essentially converting emaki (handscrolls) to printed books, and reproducing them for wider consumption. These books, now known as Kōetsu Books, Suminokura Books, or Saga Books, are considered the first and finest printed reproductions of many of these classic tales; the Saga Book of the Tales of Ise ("Ise monogatari"), printed in 1608, is especially renowned.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Despite the appeal of moveable type, however, craftsmen soon decided that the running script style of Japanese writings was better reproduced using woodblocks. By 1640 woodblocks were once again used for nearly all purposes. After the 1640s, movable type printing declined, and books were mass-produced by conventional woodblock printing during most of the Edo period.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: The mass production of woodblock prints in the Edo period was due to the high literacy rate of Japanese people in those days. The literacy rate of the Japanese in the Edo period was almost 100% for the samurai class and 50% to 60% for the "chōnin" and "nōmin" (farmer) class due to the spread of private schools "terakoya". There were more than 600 rental bookstores in Edo, and people lent woodblock-printed illustrated books of various genres. While the Saga Books were printed on expensive paper, and used various embellishments, being printed specifically for a small circle of literary connoisseurs, other printers in Edo quickly adapted the conventional woodblock printing to producing cheaper books in large numbers, for more general consumption. The content of these books varied widely, including travel guides, gardening books, cookbooks, "kibyōshi" (satirical novels), "sharebon" (books on urban culture), "kokkeibon" (comical books), "ninjōbon" (romance novel), "yomihon", "kusazōshi", art books, play scripts for the kabuki and "jōruri" (puppet) theatre, etc. The best-selling books of this period were "Kōshoku Ichidai Otoko (Life of an Amorous Man)" by Ihara Saikaku, "Nansō Satomi Hakkenden" by Takizawa Bakin, and "Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige" by Jippensha Ikku, and these books were reprinted many times.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: From the 17th century to the 19th century, "ukiyo-e" depicting secular subjects became very popular among the common people and were mass-produced. "ukiyo-e" is based on kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, beautiful women, landscapes of sightseeing spots, historical tales, and so on, and Hokusai and Hiroshige are the most famous artists. In the 18th century, Suzuki Harunobu established the technique of multicolor woodblock printing called "nishiki-e" and greatly developed Japanese woodblock printing culture such as "ukiyo-e". "Ukiyo-e" influenced European Japonisme and Impressionism. Yoshitoshi was called the last great "ukiyo-e" master, and his cruel depictions and fantastic expressions influenced later Japanese literature and anime. The price of one "ukiyo-e" at that time was about 20 mon, and the price of a bowl of soba noodles was 16 mon, so the price of one "ukiyo-e" was several hundred yen to 1000 yen in today's currency.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Many publishing houses arose and grew, publishing both books and single-sheet prints. One of the most famous and successful was Tsuta-ya. A publisher's ownership of the


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: physical woodblocks used to print a given text or image constituted the closest equivalent to a concept of "copyright" that existed at this time. Publishers or individuals could buy woodblocks from one another, and thus take over the production of certain texts, but beyond the ownership of a given set of blocks (and thus a very particular representation of a given subject), there was no legal conception of the ownership of ideas. Plays were adopted by competing theaters, and either reproduced wholesale, or individual plot elements or characters might be adapted; this activity was considered legitimate and routine at the time.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: After the decline of "ukiyo-e" and introduction of modern printing technologies, woodblock printing continued as a method for printing texts as well as for producing art, both within traditional modes such as "ukiyo-e" and in a variety of more radical or Western forms that might be construed as modern art. In the early 20th century, "shin-hanga" that fused the tradition of "ukiyo-e" with the techniques of Western paintings became popular, and the works of Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida gained international popularity. Institutes such as the "Adachi Institute of Woodblock Prints" and "Takezasado" continue to produce ukiyo-e prints with the same materials and methods as used in the past.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: With the entry into modernity, in Japan there was a renewal of woodblock printmaking, the "hanga". After the death of Hiroshige in 1858, the "ukiyo-e" practically disappeared. Its last manifestations correspond to Goyō Hashiguchi, who already shows a clear Western influence in the realism and plastic treatment of his images. With the entry into the 20th century, the artists who practiced engraving evolved to a style more in line with modern Japanese taste. One of its first exponents was Hiroshi Yoshida, author of landscapes influenced by nineteenth-century English watercolor. In 1918 the Nippon Sōsaku Hanga Kyōkai (Japan Printmaking Artists' Association) was founded, a group of artists who synthesized traditional Japanese painting with the new Western aesthetic. Notable among its members were Kōshirō Onchi, Un'ichi Hiratsuka and Shikō Munakata. The first, influenced by Vasili Kandinsky, was the first to produce abstract engravings, of a style however distinctly oriental for its chromaticism of soft tones and for its lyricism and imagination. Hiratsuka was more traditional in technique and choice of subjects, with a preference for black and white monochrome, in themes ranging from Buddhism to landscapes and popular scenes, in which he combined traditional methods with modern effects. Munakata was noted for his original, personal and expressive work, with an unmistakable stamp. He also focused on Buddhist themes, generally also monochrome, but with a free, carefree style, with a careless appearance but of great vitality.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: The technique for printing texts and images was generally similar. The obvious differences were the volume produced when working with texts (many pages for a single work), and the complexity of multiple colors in some images. Images in books were almost always in monochrome (black ink only), and for a time art prints were likewise monochrome or done in only two or three colors.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: The text or image is first drawn onto thin "washi" (Japanese paper), called "gampi", then glued face-down onto a plank of close-grained wood, usually a block of smooth cherry. Oil could be used to make the lines of the image more visible. An incision is made along both sides of each line or area. Wood is then chiseled away, based on the drawing outlines. The block is inked using a brush and then a flat hand-held tool called a "baren" is used to press the paper against the woodblock to apply the ink to the paper. The traditional baren is made in three parts, it consists of an inner core made from bamboo leaves twisted into a rope of varying thicknesses, the nodules thus created are what ultimately applies the pressure to the print. This coil is contained in a disk called an "ategawa" made from layers of very thin paper which is glued together and wrapped in a dampened bamboo leaf, the ends of which are then tied to create a handle. Modern printmakers have adapted this tool, and today barens are made of aluminum with ball bearings to apply the pressure are used; as well as less expensive plastic versions.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: The first prints were simply one-color ("sumizuri-e"), with additional colors applied by hand ("kappazuri-e"). The development of two registration marks carved into the blocks called "kento" was especially helpful with the introduction of multiple colors that had to be applied with precision over previous ink layers. The sheet of paper to be printed is placed in the kento, then lowered onto the woodblock.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: While, again, text was nearly always monochrome, as were images in books, the growth of the popularity of "ukiyo-e" brought with it demand for ever increasing numbers of colors and complexity of techniques. The stages of this development follow:


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Japanese printmaking, as with many other features of Japanese art, tended to organize itself into schools and movements. The most notable schools (see also schools of ukiyo-e artists) and, later, movements of "moku-hanga" were:


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Other artists, such as Sharaku, Kabukidō Enkyō, Sugakudo, and Shibata Zesshin, are considered independent artists, free of school associations, and presumably, without the resulting associated benefits from publishers, who might be less inclined to produce prints by an unaffiliated artist. However, many of the surviving examples speak to the contrary. The earliest examples by these artists are among the most desirable, valuable, and rarest of all ukiyo-e. Additionally, many examples exhibit very fine printing, using expensive mica ("kirazuri"), premium inks and the highest quality papers.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: Following are common Tokugawa-period print sizes. Sizes varied depending on the period, and those given are approximate; they are based on the pre-printing paper sizes, and paper was often trimmed after printing.


title: Woodblock printing in Japan

text: The Japanese terms for vertical (portrait) and horizontal (landscape) formats for images are "tate-e" (立て絵) and "yoko-e" (横絵), respectively.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Edwin Eugene Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957) was a Canadian-American character actor, playwright, singer and lyricist. He became an American citizen in 1939.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Born in London, Ontario, he made his professional debut at the age of six when he appeared with the Kilties Band of Canada. He later appeared in sketches with Beatrice Lillie.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Lockhart was educated in Canadian schools and at the London Oratory School in London, England. He also played football for the Toronto Argonauts.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Lockhart had a long stage career; he also wrote professionally and taught acting and stage technique at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. He had also written theatrical sketches, radio shows, special stage material, song lyrics and articles for stage and radio magazines.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: He made his Broadway debut in 1916, in the musical " The Riviera Girl". He was a member of the traveling play "The Pierrot Players" (for which he wrote the book and lyrics). This play introduced the song, "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", for which Lockhart wrote the lyrics along with Canadian composer Ernest Seitz. (The song was subsequently made popular by Les Paul and Mary Ford in the 1950s.) He wrote and directed the Broadway musical revue "Bunk of 1926". He sang in "Die Fledermaus" for the San Francisco Opera Association. On Broadway, Lockhart originated the roles of Uncle Sid in Eugene O'Neill's only comedy, "Ah, Wilderness!" (1933), and Fortesque in Arthur Schwartz's "Virginia" (1937). In 1949 he took over from Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman, during the original run of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman".


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Since his death, Lockhart's legacy as a stage actor has been eclipsed by his noteworthy work on the screen. He made his film debut in "Smilin' Through" (1922) as the Rector, but he made few additional appearances during the silent era. His sound debut was in the film "By Your Leave" (1934), where he played the playboy Skeets. Lockhart subsequently appeared in more than 300 motion pictures. He often played villains, including a role as the treacherous informant Regis in "Algiers" (1938), the American remake of "Pepe le Moko", which gained him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also played the suspicious Georges de la Trémouille, the Dauphin's chief counselor, in "Joan of Arc" (1948), starring Ingrid Bergman. He had a great succession of "good guy" supporting roles including Bob Cratchit in "A Christmas Carol" (1938) and Judge Harper in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947).


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Upon the arrival of Orson Welles in Hollywood in 1940, Lockhart wrote a short poem satirizing Welles entitled "Little Orson Annie". The poem was a parody of the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Lockhart is remembered as the Starkeeper in "Carousel" (1956). Playing a bumbling sheriff, he appeared in "His Girl Friday" (1940) opposite Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. He also appeared in the movie "The Sea Wolf" (1941), adapted from the novel by Jack London, as a ship's doctor. His last film role was that of the Equity Board President in the film "Jeanne Eagels" (1957).


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Lockhart has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one for motion pictures, at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 6681 Hollywood Boulevard. Both were dedicated February 8, 1960.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Lockhart was married to actress Kathleen Lockhart from June 12, 1924, until his death. They had one child together, June Lockhart, through whom he is the grandfather of Anne Lockhart.


title: Gene Lockhart

text: Lockhart died April 1, 1957, from a coronary thrombosis at the age of 65 in St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, California. He is buried next to his wife in Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Tetrachloroethylene, also known under the systematic name tetrachloroethene, or perchloroethylene, and many other names (and abbreviations such as "perc" or "PERC", and "PCE"), is a chlorocarbon with the formula ClC=CCl . It is a colorless liquid widely used for dry cleaning of fabrics, hence it is sometimes called "dry-cleaning fluid". It also has its uses as an effective automotive brake cleaner. It has a sweet odor detectable by most people at a concentration of 1 part per million (1 ppm). Worldwide production was about in 1985.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: British physicist and chemist Michael Faraday first synthesized tetrachloroethylene in 1821 by thermal decomposition of hexachloroethane.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Most tetrachloroethylene is produced by high temperature chlorinolysis of light hydrocarbons. The method is related to Faraday's discovery since hexachloroethane is generated and thermally decomposes. Side products include carbon tetrachloride, hydrogen chloride, and hexachlorobutadiene.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Several other methods have been developed. When 1,2-dichloroethane is heated to 400 °C with chlorine, tetrachloroethylene is produced by the chemical reaction:


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: This reaction can be catalyzed by a mixture of potassium chloride and aluminium chloride or by activated carbon. Trichloroethylene is a major byproduct, which is separated by distillation.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Tetrachloroethylene is an excellent solvent for organic materials. Otherwise it is volatile, highly stable, and nonflammable. For these reasons, it is widely used in dry cleaning. It is also used to degrease metal parts in the automotive and other metalworking industries, usually as a mixture with other chlorocarbons. It appears in a few consumer products including paint strippers and spot removers. It is also used in aerosol preparations.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Tetrachloroethylene was once extensively used as an intermediate in the manufacture of HFC-134a and related refrigerants. In the early 20th century, tetrachloroethene was used for the treatment of hookworm infestation.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: The acute toxicity of tetrachloroethylene "is moderate to low". "Reports of human injury are uncommon despite its wide usage in dry cleaning and degreasing".


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified tetrachloroethylene as a Group 2A carcinogen, which means that it is probably carcinogenic to humans. Like many chlorinated hydrocarbons, tetrachloroethylene is a central nervous system depressant and can enter the body through respiratory or dermal exposure. Tetrachloroethylene dissolves fats from the skin, potentially resulting in skin irritation.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Animal studies and a study of 99 twins showed there is a "lot of circumstantial evidence" that exposure to tetrachloroethylene increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease ninefold. Larger population studies are planned. Also, tetrachloroethylene has been shown to cause liver tumors in mice and kidney tumors in male rats.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: At temperatures over , such as in welding, tetrachloroethylene can be oxidized into phosgene, an extremely poisonous gas.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has compiled extensive health and safety information for tetrachloroethylene, including recommendations for dry cleaning establishments.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Tetrachloroethylene exposure has been linked to pronounced acquired color vision deficiencies after chronic exposure.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: Tetrachloroethylene exposure can be evaluated by a breath test, analogous to breath-alcohol measurements. Because it is stored in the body's fat and slowly released into the bloodstream, tetrachloroethylene can be detected in the breath for weeks following a heavy exposure. Tetrachloroethylene and trichloroacetic acid (TCA), a breakdown product of tetrachloroethylene, can be detected in the blood.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: In Europe, the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) recommends for tetrachloroethylene an occupational exposure limit (8 hour time-weighted average) of 20 ppm and a short-term exposure limit (15 min) of 40 ppm.


title: Tetrachloroethylene

text: In principle, tetrachloroethylene contamination can be remediated by chemical treatment or by bioremediation. Chemical treatment involves reducing metals such as iron powder. Bioremediation entails reductive dechlorination by "Dehalococcoides" sp. under aerobic conditions by cometabolism by "Pseudomonas" sp. In addition to bioremediation, TCE hydrolyzes on contact with soil. Products of biodegradation products include trichloroethylene, cis-1,2-dichloroethene and vinyl chloride; full degradation converts tetrachloroethylene to ethylene and chloride.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (commonly known as Giant) is a Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer, recognized as the world's largest bicycle designer and manufacturer. Giant has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, the Netherlands, China, and Hungary.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: Giant was established in 1972 in Dajia, Taichung County in Taiwan (now part of Taichung City), by King Liu and several friends. A major breakthrough came in 1977 when Giant's chief executive, Tony Lo, negotiated a deal with Schwinn to begin manufacturing bikes as an OEM, manufacturing bicycles to be sold exclusively under other brand names as a private label. As bike sales increased in the U.S., and after workers at the Schwinn plant in Chicago went on strike in 1980, Giant became a key supplier, making more than two-thirds of Schwinn bikes by the mid-1980s, representing 75% of Giant's sales. When Schwinn decided to find a new source and in 1987 signed a contract with the China Bicycle Company to produce bikes in Shenzhen, Giant, under new president Bill Austin (formerly vice-president marketing at Schwinn), established its own brand of bicycles to compete in the rapidly expanding $200-and-above price range. In 1984, Giant also set up a joint venture, "Giant Europe", with Andries Gaastra of Dutch bicycle manufacturer Koga-Miyata. In 1992, Gaastra sold his shares back, and Giant became a full shareholder of Giant Europe.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: By 2018, Giant had sales in over 50 countries, in more than 12,000 retail stores. Its total annual sales in 2017 reached 6.6 million bicycles with revenue of US$1.9 billion.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: With the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for Giant's bikes has skyrocketed. Bicycle manufacturing skyrocketed in Taiwan, fueled by global demand sparked by fear of contracting the coronavirus on crowded buses and trains in Europe or America, or by the need for outdoor activities after weeks of confinement. With this increase in demand, Giant is planning to build a new large plant in the European Union. In addition, the company is moving factories from China to Taiwan.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: COVID-19's impact on the bicycle industry is evidenced by a 55% increase in Giant's revenue in the first quarter of 2021. E-bikes have accounted for 30% of sales.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In 1996, Giant established their Mosh BMX division with the help of Redline Bicycles founder Linn Kastan and racer Jason Richardson. Mosh manufactured BMX bikes and parts, as well as managed a professional BMX racing team. In 2002 Giant signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Satellite Sports Group (a company that then managed the former GT Air Show) to begin manufacturing Giant branded bikes to boost the Giant label. These bikes were priced between $150 to $350, filling in the open entry level price gap that their Mosh labeled high-end bikes could not. Giant made bikes using the Mosh name until 2003 when it switched to labeling all high end stunt specific parts as Mosh parts. The parts were sold separately as well as on Giant labeled BMX bikes. In 2008, Mosh was disbanded.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In 2008 Giant launched the Liv/Giant sub-brand with products focused exclusively on the female cycling market.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In 2014, the Liv/Giant sub-brand was re-branded to Liv. The re-branding was meant to further differentiate the Liv brand products with existing Giant product, communicating the concept of "designed by women for women". All Liv products are designed from the ground up including frame geometry, carbon layup and utilizes separate molds and designs that separate it from Giant branded products. As part of the rebranding, dedicated Liv stores and Liv zones within most Giant retailers were introduced.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In 2015, Giant announced the global launch of its Momentum brand lifestyle bikes. The first two models, the iNeed Street and iWant Park, had an ARP of US$425 and were aimed at a younger, more urban demographic than Giant's more expensive performance road and mountain bikes.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In July 2019, Giant launched CADEX, previously the name of their mass-produced carbon fiber bicycle launched in 1987, as their line of bicycle components, wheels, tires and finishing kits. Before the brand was officially launched, UCI WorldTeam teams sponsored by Giant (Team Sunweb on 2018, and CCC Pro Team on 2019) were seen with components branded as #Overachieve, which Giant says were race-tested prototypes of the CADEX components.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In 1987, Giant introduced the CADEX carbon fiber road bike. Giant became the first bicycle maker to apply computer-aided design and volume production techniques to the production of carbon road bikes.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: In 1995, Giant designed the first road bicycle with a sloping top tube featuring a smaller rear triangle. The tighter chainstay-seatstay configuration is said to be inherently stiffer than a more conventional frame design, and because less material is used, the Compact Road design is also said to be lighter. With more responsive cornering and improved acceleration, as well as improved aerodynamics, the Giant design became largely imitated.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: By 1998, with Mike Burrows, Giant refined the design for racing by the professional ONCE team. This was only after initial resistance by the Union Cycliste Internationale and subsequent amendment to its regulations to allow for bicycles with a sloping top tube.


title: Giant Bicycles

text: Giant road frames were originally made of 6061 (ALUXX) aluminium alloy and were also characterized by bladed forks and seat posts to reduce air resistance. Frames came in three sizes (small, medium, and large), with riders fitted through the use of stems and seat posts of different lengths. By 2018, Giant road frames were available in up to six sizes (X-Small, Small, Medium, Medium/Large, Large and X-Large).