title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Cledus calls Carrie, who is back in Texarkana and again about to marry Junior when Cledus calls offering her $50,000 to help out; she agrees and again becomes a runaway bride. Though she still has feelings for Bandit, when Carrie arrives, she initially intones she is only in it for the money, and she and Cledus work on getting Bandit off the booze and back into shape. She then trades in Junior's car for a new Trans Am. The group arrive at the pier in Miami only to find out the manifest is quarantined for three weeks. They return later that night to steal it, only to find the "package" is a live elephant (the G.O.P. mascot) which Cledus names "Charlotte" after his aunt. When Bandit removes a splinter from Charlotte's foot, she takes a liking to him.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Soon after the trio start off for Dallas, they are accosted for the first of several times by Sheriff Justice, but Bandit outwits him and they escape. En route, they stop at a remote fuel station and notice something wrong with Charlotte. Moments later, an ambulance pulls in with an Italian gynecologist in the back; "Doc" is initially reluctant to help, but when his driver speeds off unknowingly leaving him stranded, he asks to hitch a ride with them, agreeing to watch Charlotte.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Doc later finds that Charlotte is pregnant and due to give birth any time, but Bandit is determined to stay on schedule. Entering Louisiana, Doc says that Charlotte is almost in labor and needs to be off her feet. Cledus chooses they all need a break and they go to a nearby nightclub where Don Williams is headlining. When Carrie sees Bandit scribbling on a napkin a picture of Charlotte cradled by suspended netting to keep her off her feet, she angrily leaves, but not before telling Bandit that she will come back only when he likes himself again. Later that night, a drunken Bandit makes his drawing a reality, and Doc agrees that his idea will work.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Buford intends to call for help from his brothers Reggie, a Mountie Sergeant in Quebec, and Gaylord, an effeminate Texas State Patrolman. Later, as Bandit and Cledus enter Texas, Buford lures the Bandit into a trap: a mass of 40 Texas Patrol and Mountie cruisers pursuing him across a desert basin. Bandit orders Cledus to get to Dallas, but he enlists a large convoy of his trucker pals and comes to Bandit's rescue instead, wrecking nearly all of the cruisers in a giant demolition derby while Doc and Charlotte watch from the sidelines. The two escape by crossing a makeshift trailer bridge with Buford and his brothers in pursuit. Two of the trucks pull away, resulting in Gaylord and Reggie's cruisers crashing in the ensuing gap before they can cross, but Buford is still in pursuit, though his cruiser is barely functioning.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Cledus begs Bandit to stop at a safari reserve, where Charlotte finally gives birth to her baby. Bandit is ready to load them both back up in the truck, but Cledus refuses and then knocks Bandit down when he insults him. When he sees Charlotte in tears, Bandit finally comes to his senses and apologizes.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Bandit later finds Carrie and tells her that he likes himself now, and that he does not want to be without her. He then tells her that he has not yet taken Charlotte to Dallas, but they can still make it. Carrie is overjoyed when she sees Charlotte's baby, and Bandit asks Charlotte's permission for him and Carrie to get hitched, to which Charlotte trumpets her approval; Doc, now riding in the cab with Cledus and Fred, also voices his approval, and they all drive away with Charlotte and her baby in tow in circus carts, with Buford still in pursuit, now driving a Greyhound bus.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: "Smokey and the Bandit II" was filmed simultaneously with "The Cannonball Run", in which Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise also starred. Football players Joe Klecko and Terry Bradshaw also appear in both films.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: It is the first film to feature director Hal Needham's "Blooper Reel Credit Crawl" at the end, in that a collection of bloopers and outtakes from the film showed on one side of the screen while the closing credits slowly scrolled up the other side. "Cannonball Run", also directed by Needham, used this same technique.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Buford's brothers were both portrayed by Gleason; "Reggie" was a Canadian version of "Reginald Van Gleason III", a popular character from Gleason's television show.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: The film was written and produced before it was announced that the 1980 Republican National Convention would be held in Detroit rather than Dallas.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Many of the movie's scenes take place in northern Palm Beach County, especially at Burt Reynolds' ranch in Jupiter, Florida.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Although the Bandit again sticks to a Pontiac Trans Am, this time a 1980 Turbo model with five color decals unlike 1981's single color decals, the Snowman switches to a 1980 GMC General, silver with blue trim with the same mural on the trailer as in the original film. This "new rig" suggests that the pair were successful in the "double or nothing" wager offered by the Burdettes at the end of the first film, where they were persuaded to drive from Atlanta to Boston and back in 18 hours to buy clam chowder and bring it to the Burdettes.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: A world-record automobile jump was captured on film during the "roundup sequence", when stuntman Gary Davis jumped a 1974 Dodge Monaco over 150 feet. Davis suffered compressed vertebrae as a result of a hard landing.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: The roundup sequence in the desert shows many new Pontiac Le Mans sedans decorated as police cars being destroyed. The cars were originally ordered by a car rental agency in Phoenix, who refused to accept the delivery when they discovered the cars were not equipped with air conditioning. Pontiac took the cars back and eventually gave them to the producers to be used in the film.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Smokey and the Bandit 2: Original Soundtrack was released on vinyl, cassette tape and 8-track tape by MCA Records in 1980.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: "Smokey and the Bandit II" grossed $10,883,835 in its opening weekend, the second highest ever at the time, behind "". It also set a record for an opening week, with a gross of $18,108,031. It was the eighth-most-popular 1980 film at the United States and Canada box office earning $66,132,626. This box office income inspired a third film.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: The film received almost completely negative reviews from critics who felt that it suffered badly in comparison to the original. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 14% based on reviews from seven critics. Roger Ebert gave it a one out of four stars and stated that there was "[in 1980] no need for this movie. That's true of most sequels, but it's especially true of "Smokey and the Bandit II", which is basically just the original movie done again, not as well ... how can I say it's lazy when it has 50 trucks doing stunts in it? Because it takes a lot less thought to fill up a movie with stunts than to create a comedy that's genuinely funny".


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: Burt Reynolds later said that he did not enjoy working on the film at all, feeling that it was an unnecessary sequel put together by Universal purely for money-making reasons rather than to try making a good picture.


title: Smokey and the Bandit II

text: The film was followed by another sequel three years later, "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3" (1983), in which Reynolds only made a brief cameo appearance, and Sally Field did not appear.


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: Guillermo Kahlo (born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo; 26 October 1871 – 14 April 1941) was a German-Mexican photographer. He photographically documented important architectural works, churches, streets, landmarks, as well as industries and companies in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century; because of this, his work has not only artistic value but also historical and documental importance. He was the father of painter Frida Kahlo.


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: Kahlo was born in Pforzheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire (now in Baden-Württemberg, Germany), the son of jeweller Jakob Heinrich Kahlo and Henriette Kaufmann. His daughter, Frida Kahlo, maintained that he was of Hungarian-Jewish descent. A 2005 book by Gaby Franger and Rainer Huhle traced Kahlo's genealogy, and stated that "despite the legend propagated by Frida," Guillermo did not have Jewish Hungarian roots, but was born to Lutheran parents who "came from families accommodated in Frankfurt and Pforzheim."


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: He attended the University of Nuremberg. His father paid him to travel to Mexico in 1891 as he did not get along with his stepmother. In Mexico, Wilhelm adopted the Spanish equivalent of his name "Guillermo." In July 1894, he solicited Mexican citizenship.


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: Kahlo's earliest known photograph is from 1897. His first project with Secretary of Finance José Yves Limantour was in 1900. Kahlo usually used large glass plates that measured 8in x 10in to 11in x 14in.


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: In 1901, he set up a photographic studio, working for "El Mundo Ilustrado" and "Semanario Ilustrado". He was commissioned by the government to do architectural photographs, probably his best work. He also took photographs of churches with other photographers for a six-volume survey in the 1920s. José Vasconcelos published Kahlo's work involving the churches in 1923 through Mexico's Ministry of Education.


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: Kahlo married Mexican-born María de los Dolores Eleuteria Clotilde Cardeña Espino in August, 1893. The night she died giving birth to their third child, he asked Antonio Calderón for his daughter Matilde’s hand in marriage. After the marriage, Kahlo sent his and Maria’s daughters away to be raised in a convent.


title: Guillermo Kahlo

text: Kahlo and Calderón were the parents of seven children, including the painter Frida Kahlo and Cristina Kahlo. Cristina was the only one who had children. Frida once commented that, in her childhood, she would sometimes be present when her father suffered from epileptic seizures and would give him aid.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: Edge of the World is an adventure drama film directed by Michael Haussman and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the British soldier and adventurer James Brooke (1803–1868), the first White Rajah of Sarawak. The film also features Atiqah Hasiholan, Dominic Monaghan, Hannah New, and Josie Ho. The script was written by Rob Allyn, who also produced the film. "Edge of the World" is a co-production between Malaysia, China, the US and the UK.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: The film is based on the true story of the Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke, who has been suggested as one of the inspirations for the Rudyard Kipling story "The Man Who Would Be King", and Joseph Conrad's novel "Lord Jim". Brooke was a former soldier in the Bengal Army who sailed to Borneo which was still under the control of Bruneian Sultanate in 1839, where he helped the Sultan of Brunei's governor (Pengiran Indera Mahkota, title for the governor) put down a local rebellion and took over as governor of what became the Raj of Sarawak as his own private kingdom. He was knighted by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom prior to being appointed Governor of the new Crown Colony of Labuan. Brooke's dynasty lasted three generations and spanned a century.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: Rob Allyn, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Margate House Films, was interested in filming the life of James Brooke, after being introduced to the figure through a footnote in a George MacDonald Fraser novel, which he read in 2009. More research on Brooke led him into a fixation. He also came across a coffee table book in a Singapore bookstore, named "The White Rajah of Sarawak" with illustrations of Sarawak tribes and jungles. After thinking about the film for 3 years, Allyn and his production company tried to make the story into film since 2013, initially naming the film as "The White Rajah". Later Jason Brooke, grandson of Anthony Brooke, representing Brooke Heritage Trust, contacted Allyn and invited him to make the film in Sarawak instead of Indonesia. The Trust also gave the Allyn access to various images from the Brooke family for film production. In September 2016, government of Sarawak endorsed the plan and channeled RM 39.01 million through Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sports Ministry to fund the project. However, later cost overrun increased the cost to RM 48.57 million (US$ 15 million). The project also received 30% cash rebate from "Film in Malaysia" Office, a division of National Film Development Corporation Malaysia for choosing Malaysia as a filming location and working with a local production company.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: Allyn wrote the film and also produced the film with his sons Conor and Jake, along with Josie Ho, and Conroy Chan. In 2019, the film was renamed to just "Rajah" and the list of starring actors was released in September. Principal photography was shot in entirety in Sarawak, starting from 24 September 2019 until the end of October in the same year. All film shots were completed in Siniawan, Bau District. The film was made with the support of the Sarawak Tourism Board. The Brooke Heritage Trust was a technical advisor.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: In February 2021, the movie was again renamed to "Edge of the World". Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired US distribution rights in March 2021. British distributor Signature will release the film in the UK.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: "Edge of the World" was released in the US through Direct-to-video (VOD) and online platforms on 4 June 2021, then in the UK digitally and on DVD on 21 June 2021


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: During the 5th Malaysia International Film Festival in July 2022, the movie was selected as the opening film.


title: Edge of the World (2021 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 56% approval rating based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Although it falls short as a biopic of the fascinating figure at its center, "Edge of the World" offers a visually and dramatically engaging glimpse of Victorian-era colonialism." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". According to some reviewers, the movie resembles "Apocalypse Now", especially in the clash between Brooke (Captain Willard) and Mahkota (Colonel Kurtz).


title: Silane

text: Silane is an inorganic compound with chemical formula, . It is a colourless, pyrophoric, toxic gas with a sharp, repulsive smell, somewhat similar to that of acetic acid. Silane is of practical interest as a precursor to elemental silicon. Silane with alkyl groups are effective water repellents for mineral surfaces such as concrete and masonry. Silanes with both organic and inorganic attachments are used as coupling agents.


title: Silane

text: Silane can be produced by several routes. Typically, it arises from the reaction of hydrogen chloride with magnesium silicide:


title: Silane

text: It is also prepared from metallurgical-grade silicon in a two-step process. First, silicon is treated with hydrogen chloride at about 300 °C to produce trichlorosilane, HSiCl3, along with hydrogen gas, according to the chemical equation


title: Silane

text: The most commonly used catalysts for this process are metal halides, particularly aluminium chloride. This is referred to as a redistribution reaction, which is a double displacement involving the same central element. It may also be thought of as a disproportionation reaction, even though there is no change in the oxidation number for silicon (Si has a nominal oxidation number IV in all three species). However, the utility of the oxidation number concept for a covalent molecule, even a polar covalent molecule, is ambiguous. The silicon atom could be rationalized as having the highest formal oxidation state and partial positive charge in and the lowest formal oxidation state in , since Cl is far more electronegative than is H.


title: Silane

text: An alternative industrial process for the preparation of very high-purity silane, suitable for use in the production of semiconductor-grade silicon, starts with metallurgical-grade silicon, hydrogen, and silicon tetrachloride and involves a complex series of redistribution reactions (producing byproducts that are recycled in the process) and distillations. The reactions are summarized below:


title: Silane

text: The silane produced by this route can be thermally decomposed to produce high-purity silicon and hydrogen in a single pass.


title: Silane

text: Still other industrial routes to silane involve reduction of silicon tetrafluoride () with sodium hydride (NaH) or reduction of with lithium aluminum hydride ().


title: Silane

text: Another commercial production of silane involves reduction of silicon dioxide () under Al and gas in a mixture of NaCl and aluminum chloride () at high pressures:


title: Silane

text: In 1857, the German chemists Heinrich Buff and Friedrich Woehler discovered silane among the products formed by the action of hydrochloric acid on aluminum silicide, which they had previously prepared. They called the compound "siliciuretted hydrogen".


title: Silane

text: For classroom demonstrations, silane can be produced by heating sand with magnesium powder to produce magnesium silicide (), then pouring the mixture into hydrochloric acid. The magnesium silicide reacts with the acid to produce silane gas, which burns on contact with air and produces tiny explosions. This may be classified as a heterogeneous acid–base chemical reaction, since the isolated ion in the antifluorite structure can serve as a Brønsted–Lowry base capable of accepting four protons. It can be written as


title: Silane

text: In general, the alkaline-earth metals form silicides with the following stoichiometries: , , and . In all cases, these substances react with Brønsted–Lowry acids to produce some type of hydride of silicon that is dependent on the Si anion connectivity in the silicide. The possible products include and/or higher molecules in the homologous series , a polymeric silicon hydride, or a silicic acid. Hence, with their zigzag chains of anions (containing two lone pairs of electrons on each Si anion that can accept protons) yield the polymeric hydride .


title: Silane

text: Yet another small-scale route for the production of silane is from the action of sodium amalgam on dichlorosilane, , to yield monosilane along with some yellow polymerized silicon hydride .


title: Silane

text: Silane is the silicon analogue of methane. Because of the greater electronegativity of hydrogen in comparison to silicon, this Si–H bond polarity is the opposite of that in the C–H bonds of methane. One consequence of this reversed polarity is the greater tendency of silane to form complexes with transition metals. A second consequence is that silane is pyrophoric — it undergoes spontaneous combustion in air, without the need for external ignition. However, the difficulties in explaining the available (often contradictory) combustion data are ascribed to the fact that silane itself is stable and that the natural formation of larger silanes during production, as well as the sensitivity of combustion to impurities such as moisture and to the catalytic effects of container surfaces causes its pyrophoricity. Above 420 °C, silane decomposes into silicon and hydrogen; it can therefore be used in the chemical vapor deposition of silicon.


title: Silane

text: The Si–H bond strength is around 384 kJ/mol, which is about 20% weaker than the H–H bond in H. Consequently, compounds containing Si–H bonds are much more reactive than is H. The strength of the Si–H bond is modestly affected by other substituents: the Si–H bond strengths are: SiHF 419 kJ/mol, SiHCl 382 kJ/mol, and SiHMe 398 kJ/mol.


title: Silane

text: While diverse applications exist for organosilanes, silane itself has one dominant application, as a precursor to elemental silicon, particularly in the semiconductor industry. The higher silanes, such as di- and trisilane, are only of academic interest. About 300 metric tons per year of silane were consumed in the late 1990s. Low-cost solar photovoltaic module manufacturing has led to substantial consumption of silane for depositing (PECVD) hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) on glass and other substrates like metal and plastic. The PECVD process is relatively inefficient at materials utilization with approximately 85% of the silane being wasted. To reduce that waste and the ecological footprint of a-Si:H-based solar cells further several recycling efforts have been developed.


title: Silane

text: A number of fatal industrial accidents produced by combustion and detonation of leaked silane in air have been reported.


title: Silane

text: Due to weak bonds and hydrogen silane is a pyrophoric gas (capable of autoignition at temperatures below ).


title: Silane

text: For lean mixtures a two-stage reaction process has been proposed, which consists of a silane consumption process and a hydrogen oxidation process. The heat of condensation increases the burning velocity due to thermal feedback.


title: Silane

text: Diluted silane mixtures with inert gases such as nitrogen or argon are even more likely to ignite when leaked into open air, compared to pure silane: even a 1% mixture of silane in pure nitrogen easily ignites when exposed to air.


title: Silane

text: In Japan, in order to reduce the danger of silane for amorphous silicon solar cell manufacturing, several companies began to dilute silane with hydrogen gas. This resulted in a symbiotic benefit of making more stable solar photovoltaic cells as it reduced the Staebler–Wronski effect.


title: Silane

text: Unlike methane, silane is fairly toxic: the lethal concentration in air for rats (LC) is 0.96% (9,600 ppm) over a 4-hour exposure. In addition, contact with eyes may form silicic acid with resultant irritation.


title: Silane

text: In regards to occupational exposure of silane to workers, the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has set a recommended exposure limit of 5 ppm (7 mg/m) over an eight-hour time-weighted average.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study (or combined study and collection) of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service, as a never-ending stream of new stamps was produced by countries that sought to advertise their distinctiveness through their stamps.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Stamp collecting is generally accepted as one of the areas that make up the wider subject of philately, which is the study of stamps. A philatelist may, but does not have to, collect stamps. It is not uncommon for the term "philatelist" to be used to mean a stamp collector. Many casual stamp collectors accumulate stamps for sheer enjoyment and relaxation without worrying about the tiny details. The creation of a large or comprehensive collection, however, generally requires some philatelic knowledge and will usually contain areas of philatelic studies.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Postage stamps are often collected for their historical value and geographical aspects and also for the many subjects depicted on them, ranging from ships, horses, and birds to kings, queens and presidents.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Sales of postage stamps are an important source of income for some countries whose stamp issues may exceed their postal needs, but have designs that appeal to many stamp collectors.


title: Stamp collecting

text: It has been suggested that John Bourke, Receiver General of Stamp Dues in Ireland, was the first collector. In 1774, he assembled a book of the existing embossed revenue stamps, ranging in value from 6 pounds to half a penny, as well as the hand stamped charge marks that were used with them. His collection is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Postage stamp collecting began at the same time that stamps were first issued, and by 1860 thousands of collectors and stamp dealers were appearing around the world as this new study and hobby spread across Europe, European colonies, the United States and other parts of the world.


title: Stamp collecting

text: The first postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued by Britain in May 1840 and pictured a young Queen Victoria. It was produced without perforations (imperforate) and consequently had to be cut from the sheet with scissors in order to be used. While unused examples of the Penny Black are quite scarce, used examples are quite common, and may be purchased for $20 to $200, depending upon condition.


title: Stamp collecting

text: People started to collect stamps almost immediately. One of the earliest and most notable was John Edward Gray. In 1862, Gray stated that he "began to collect postage stamps shortly after the system was established and before it had become a rage".


title: Stamp collecting

text: Female stamp collectors date from the earliest days of postage stamp collecting. One of the earliest was Adelaide Lucy Fenton who wrote articles in the 1860s for the journal "The Philatelist" under the name Herbert Camoens.


title: Stamp collecting

text: As the hobby and study of stamps began to grow, stamp albums and stamp related literature began to surface, and by the early 1880s publishers like Stanley Gibbons made a business out of this advent.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Children and teenagers were early collectors of stamps in the 1860s and 1870s. Many adults dismissed it as a childish pursuit but later many of those same collectors, as adults, began to systematically study the available postage stamps and publish books about them. Some stamps, such as the triangular issues of the Cape of Good Hope, have become legendary.


title: Stamp collecting

text: By the early 2000s, stamp collecting was seen to be in decline as the digital world surpassed traditional hobbies even though by 2013, "The Wall Street Journal" estimated the global number of stamp collectors was around 60 million. However, the hobby's unexpected appeal for a millennial audience was observed in a 2020 article for "The Guardian".


title: Stamp collecting

text: A few basic items of equipment are recommended for proper stamp collection. Stamp tongs help to handle stamps safely, a magnifying glass helps in viewing fine details and an album is a convenient way to store stamps. The stamps need to be attached to the pages of the album in some way, and stamp hinges are a cheap and simple way to do this. However, hinging stamps can damage them, thus reducing their value; today many collectors prefer more expensive "hingeless mounts". Issued in various sizes, these are clear, chemically neutral thin plastic holders that open to receive stamps and are gummed on the back so that they stick to album pages. Another alternative is a stockbook, where the stamps drop into clear pockets without the need for a mount. Stamps should be stored away from light, heat and moisture or they will be damaged.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Stamps can be displayed according to the collector's wishes, by country, topic, or even by size, which can create a display pleasing to the eye. There are no rules and it is entirely a matter for the individual collector to decide. Albums can be commercially purchased, downloaded or created by the collector. In the latter cases, using acid free paper provides better long-term stamp protection.


title: Stamp collecting

text: The main ways of acquiring stamps are through retail market stamp dealers who have online websites, or post on eBay or other forums, and conduct local stamp show dealer "bourse" events. The way to buy wholesale is to attend auctions and there are many auction companies around the world that offer regular auctions, most lots sold at one advance over the underbidder no matter what the price. These are called unreserved auctions. Reserved auctions are the same except a minimum price or "reserve" is set to ensure the stamp does not sell below this level. If during the auction there are no bidders for the lot at the reserve price then the lot will be left unsold in the auction.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Buying at auction takes knowing the market and what stamps are worth at both a wholesale market level and what they can be then sold for in a retail market. Stamp value's are heavily skewed to quality. The same stamp can sell for drastically different prices due to quality. The most sought after stamps are those that are fresh, have white non-toned paper, have no hidden faults like hidden creases or thins, do not have any repairs and have not been regummed with fraudulent gum. Stamp pricing is also based on the look of the stamp, and the stamp that has an image that is very well centered will sell well. Mint (not used) full original gum stamps that have never been hinged will always sell for premiums. It is important to have certificates for rare and high quality stamps to certify they are fault free and genuine in all respects. Foundations like the Vincent Graves Greene are well respected for certifying Canadian stamps. They check for hidden faults like creases, tears and thins as well as lightened cancellations, repairs, reperforated perforations and re-applied (regummed) fake gum.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Stamp list pricing is set in various stamp catalogues. For US and Canada stamps the standard catalogue is the Scott catalogue using Scott numbers. For Canadian stamps there is a specialized catalogue called the Unitrade (which reflects more accurately the actual values of the stamps vs the Scott catalogue values), and for Great Britain and Commonwealth stamps most collectors use Stanley Gibbons catalogues. Typically stamps will sell at auction for a range of 10 to 30% of catalogue list price, but if the stamp is of the very top quality then the sell price may exceed the catalogue list price. As with many collectibles with no inherent value, sell pricing is set by the market bidding on the item at the time.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Many collectors also ask their family and friends to save stamps for them from their mail. Although the stamps received by major businesses and those kept by elderly relatives may be of international and historical interest, the stamps received from family members are often of the definitive sort. Definitives seem mundane but, considering their variety of colours, watermarks, paper differences, perforations and printing errors, they can fill many pages in a collection. Introducing either variety or specific focus to a collection can require the purchasing of stamps, either from a dealer or online. Online stamp collector clubs often contain a platform for buying/selling and trading. Large numbers of relatively recent stamps, often still attached to fragments or envelopes, may be obtained cheaply and easily. Rare and old stamps can also be obtained, but these can be very expensive.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Duplicate stamps are those a collector already has and are not required, therefore, to fill a gap in a collection. Duplicate stamps can be sold or traded, so they are an important medium of exchange among collectors.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Many dealers sell stamps through the Internet while others have neighborhood shops which are among the best resources for beginning and intermediate collectors. Some dealers also jointly set up week-end stamp markets called "bourses" that move around a region from week to week. One of the most well known bourses is the Carré Marigny in Paris. They also meet collectors at regional exhibitions and stamp shows.


title: Stamp collecting

text: A worldwide collection would be enormous, running to thousands of volumes, and would be incredibly expensive to acquire. Many consider that Count Philipp von Ferrary's collection at the beginning of the 20th century was the most complete ever formed. Many collectors limit their collecting to particular countries, certain time periods or particular subjects (called "topicals") like birds or aircraft.


title: Stamp collecting

text: There are thousands of organizations for collectors: local stamp clubs, special-interest groups, and national organizations. Most nations have a national collectors' organization, including the American Philatelic Society (APS) in the United States; the Royal Philatelic Society London and Philatelic Traders Society in United Kingdom; and the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada. The Internet has greatly expanded the availability of information and made it easier to obtain stamps and other philatelic material. The American Topical Association is now a part of the APS and promotes thematic collecting as well as encouraging sub-groups of numerous topics. The Collectors Club, often referred to as the Collectors Club of New York, is a private club and philatelic society in New York City. Founded in 1896, it is one of the oldest existing philatelic societies in the United States. This club like many others has made the transition to Zoom virtual meetings due to Covid and has decided to keep the forum for the future as membership and attendance at club events has grown substantially since they have made their meetings accessible via the internet.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Stamp clubs and philatelic societies can add a social aspect to stamp collecting and provide a forum where novices can meet experienced collectors. Although such organizations are often advertised in stamp magazines and online, the relatively small number of collectors – especially outside urban areas – means that a club may be difficult to set up and sustain. The Internet partially solves this problem, as the association of collectors online is not limited by geographical distance. For this reason, many highly specific stamp clubs have been established on the Web, with international membership.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Organizations such as the Cinderella Stamp Club (UK) retain hundreds of members interested in a specific aspect of collecting. Social organizations, such as the Lions Club and Rotary International, have also formed stamp collecting groups specific to those stamps that are issued from many countries worldwide that display the organization's logo.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Early stamps of the United States are known as classics. Collectors are able to establish the exact position of a stamp on the original sheet of 200 stamps. Rare stamps are often expertized.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Stamp catalogues are the primary tool used by serious collectors to organize their collections, and for the identification and valuation of stamps. Most stamp shops have stamp catalogues available for purchase. A few catalogues are offered online, either free or for a fee. There are hundreds of different catalogues, most specializing in particular countries or periods. Collector clubs tend to provide free catalogues to their members.


title: Stamp collecting

text: The stamp collection assembled by French-Austrian aristocrat Philipp von Ferrary (1850–1917) at the beginning of the 20th century is widely considered the most complete stamp collection ever formed (or likely to be formed). It included, for example, all of the rare stamps described above that had been issued by 1917. However, as Ferrary was an Austrian citizen, the collection was broken up and sold by the French government after the First World War, as war reparations.


title: Stamp collecting

text: The Tapling Collection of postage stamps was donated to the British Museum from the estate of Thomas Tapling in 1891. It currently forms the Tapling Collection in the Philatelic Collections of the British Library.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Several European monarchs were keen stamp collectors, including King George V of the United Kingdom and King Carol II of Romania. King George V possessed one of the most valuable stamp collections in the world and became President of the Royal Philatelic Society. His collection was passed on to Queen Elizabeth II who, while not a serious philatelist, has a collection of British and Commonwealth first day covers which she started in 1952.


title: Stamp collecting

text: U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a stamp collector; he designed several American commemorative stamps during his term. Late in life Ayn Rand renewed her childhood interest in stamps and became an enthusiastic collector. Several entertainment and sport personalities have been known to be collectors. Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, collected stamps as a child. His childhood stamp album is in the collection of the British Postal Museum & Archive. John Lennon of The Beatles was a childhood stamp collector. His stamp album is held by the National Postal Museum.


title: Stamp collecting

text: Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov has amassed a huge stamp collection over the decades, led by stamps from Belgium and Belgian Congo, that has been estimated to be worth $15 million.


title: VTB Bank

text: VTB Bank (; formerly known as "Vneshtorgbank", , lit. 'International Trade Bank') is a Russian majority state-owned bank headquartered in various federal districts of Russia; its legal address is registered in St. Petersburg; as of 2022 company's capital stock was mostly owned by three Russian agencies.


title: VTB Bank

text: VTB Bank and its subsidiaries form a leading Russian financial group – VTB Group uniting VTB banks located in different countries and offering a wide range of corporate banking services and products in Russia, CIS, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the U.S.


title: VTB Bank

text: VTB was ranked 446th on the FT Global 500 2012, The "Financial Times"’ annual snapshot of the world's largest companies. It climbed to 210th in the ranking of the 500 largest companies in Europe, the FT Europe 500 2014, and to 127th in the FT Emerging 500 2014, the list of the 500 largest companies on the world's emerging markets.


title: VTB Bank

text: VTB Bank was founded as Vneshtorgbank in 1990 with the support of the Russian State Bank and the Ministry of Finance. It was set up as a limited liability company with the aim of servicing Russia's foreign trade operations and promoting Russia's integration into the global economy.


title: VTB Bank

text: In 2004, the bank acquired a majority stake of 85.8% in Guta Bank, which was reorganised into a retail bank, Vneshtorgbank 24 (VTB24). The bank also acquired the Armenian Armsberbank, which was later renamed VTB Armenia. In 2005, the bank acquired 75% plus three shares of the Promstroybank (PSB), which was reorganised as Bank VTB North-West and later became VTB's North-Western Regional Centre, and bought the Ukrainian bank Mriya, which was later merged with VTB Bank (Ukraine).


title: VTB Bank

text: In 2007, the bank set up a subsidiary in Angola known as VTB África. The bank also took over Slavneftebank in Belarus and later renamed it VTB Belarus. In June, VTB became the first Russian bank to offer an initial public offering (IPO), raising $8 billion in what became the largest international banking IPO at the time.


title: VTB Bank

text: In 2008, the bank acquired a 51% stake in AF Bank in Azerbaijan from AF Holding International, later renaming it VTB Azerbaijan. In 2010, the bank's board approved the phased acquisition of TransCreditBank from Russian Railways. In 2013, VTB carried out a secondary public offering (SPO) which raised 102.5 billion rubles ($3.3 billion) and diluted the Russian government's share in VTB from 75.5 percent to 60.9 percent.


title: VTB Bank

text: In 2011, VTB invested more than $191 million for shares in the Isle of Man company DST Investment 3 which was roughly than half of the funds in Yuri Milner's DST Global. This led to Milner's large stake in Twitter. Kanton had almost no investment in Twitter. DST Investment 3 also issued shares to Alisher Usmanov's Kanton that were used to support the Kremlin's investment in Facebook.


title: VTB Bank

text: In August 2018, it was announced that VTB Bank would acquire a 75% stake in Vozrozhdenie Bank after its previous owners oversaw a "major banking collapse".


title: VTB Bank

text: In November 2018, the National Bank of Ukraine declared the Ukrainian subsidiary of VTB Bank insolvent due to its declining liquidity and worsening financial position.


title: VTB Bank

text: In December 2018, it was announced that VTB Bank would be acquiring controlling stakes in Sarovbusinessbank (81.1%) and Zapsibcombank (71.8%).


title: VTB Bank

text: On 24 July 2015, an agreement, which as approved by Dmitry Medvedev, was signed between the bank president, Director of Russian Post, Dmitry Strashnov, and Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Nikolai Nikiforov, on the Russian Post purchase of 50 percent minus 1 share of Leto Bank (Summer Bank) from VTB24, with the purpose of reorganising it into the National Post Bank. The remaining 50 percent plus one share will be owned by VTB24 of VTB Bank. VTB CEO Kostin suggested appointing Dmitry Rudenko, the current head of Leto Bank, as the head of Post Bank (Russia).


title: VTB Bank

text: On 28 January 2016, sets of documents were signed between VTB24 and Russian Post on establishing the Post Bank. Russian Post purchased 50 percent minus one share of the newly established Post Bank through its 100 percent subsidiary. The remaining 50 percent plus one share is owned by VTB24 of VTB Bank. Dmitry Rudenko, the head of Leto Bank of VTB24, became the head of Post Bank (Russia).


title: VTB Bank

text: On 28 December 2017, VTB24 sells two shares to Dmitry Rudenko, the Chairman of the Board of Post Bank. VTB 24 and Russia Post have equal shares in Post Bank: each have 50 percent minus one share. VTB24 has 1,062 branches.


title: VTB Bank

text: In February 2011, the government floated an additional 10% minus two shares of VTB Bank. The private investors, who paid a total of 95.7 billion rubles ($3.1 billion) for the assets, included the investment funds Generali, TPG Capital, China Investment Corp, a sovereign wealth fund responsible for managing China's foreign exchange reserves, and companies affiliated with businessman Suleyman Kerimov.


title: VTB Bank

text: In May 2013 VTB completed a secondary public offering (SPO), issuing 2.5 trillion new additional shares by public subscription. All shares were placed on Moscow's primary stock exchange. The government did not participate in the SPO, so its stake in the bank decreased to 60.9% after the subscription closed. The bank raised 102.5 billion rubles worth of additional capital. Three sovereign wealth funds, Norway's Norges Bank Investment Management, Qatar Holding LLC and the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) and commercial bank China Construction Bank became the largest investors during the SPO, after purchasing more than half of the additional shares issued.


title: VTB Bank

text: In 2017 the main shareholder of VTB is the Russian government, which owned 60.9% of the lender through its Federal Agency for State Property Management. The remaining shares are split between holders of its Global Depository Receipts and minority shareholders, both individuals and companies.


title: VTB Bank

text: As of April 2022, its Management Committee (referred as VTB Bank Management Board or VTB MB) includes:


title: VTB Bank

text: , VTB's Supervisory Council consists of Anton Siluanov (Chairman of the Supervisory Council), Matthias Warnig (member of the Supervisory Council),[8] Sergey Dubinin (member of supervisory council), Mikhail Zadornov (Member of Supervisory Council), Andrey Kostin (President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board), Shahmar Movsumov (Independent member of supervisory council), Igor Repin (Independent member of Supervisory Council), Alexander Sokolov (Member of Supervisory Council), Vladimir Chistyukhin (member of supervisory council), Mukhadin Eskindarov (Member of Supervisory Council).


title: VTB Bank

text: Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as at 31 December 2021: net interest income – 646,3 RUB billion, net fee and commission income – 90,0 RUB billion, operating income before provisions – 822,7 RUB billion, staff costs and administrative expenses – -308,8 RUB billion, net profit – 327,4 RUB billion.


title: VTB Bank

text: Since 2017, VTB Bank has been the title partner of the Russian Formula 1 stage in Sochi – Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix.


title: VTB Bank

text: Since 2005, VTB Bank has been the general sponsor of the Kamaz Master team, a team which has been active in re-known rally raid such as Dakar Rally, Silk Way Rally and Africa Eco Race.


title: VTB Bank

text: Since 2013, VTB Group has been supporting the Velobike, a bicycle-sharing system in Moscow, a project by the Department for Transport and Development of Road Infrastructure of the city. In 2018, the number of trips exceeded 3 million.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 29 July 2014, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published that the Bank of Moscow and VTB Bank OJSC, the second largest bank in Russia, has been added to the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 31 July 2014, VTB Bank and its subsidiaries was added to the European Union sanctions list due to its role in the Crimean Crisis that same year.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 6 August 2014, VTB was added to the Canadian sanctions list due to its role in the Russo-Ukrainian War and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 13 August 2014, United States clarifies entities under sectoral sanctions. United States increases its sectoral sanctions on VTB Bank together with its subsidiaries (“the VTB Group”) and the Bank of Moscow through its parent bank, VTB Bank OAO, and other entities that VTB has 50 percent or greater ownership either individually or in the aggregate, either directly or indirectly. Also, US persons cannot use a third party intermediary and they must use caution during "transactions with a non-blocked entity in which one or more blocked persons has a significant ownership interest that is less than 50 percent or which one or more blocked persons may control by means other than a majority ownership interest."


title: VTB Bank

text: On 1 September 2014, VTB was added to the Australian autonomous sanctions list for Russia, Crimea, and Sevastopol.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 12 September 2014, the United States issues a consolidated listing of directives associated with Executive Order 13662 sanctions during the crisis in Ukraine. For the Russian financial sector, Directive 1 was amended to increase the financial sanctions on the Russian financial sector for "all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings" in new equity or new debt issued on or after 12 September 2014 to "longer than 30 days maturity". New equity or new debt issued from 29 July 2018 until 12 September 2018 was sanctioned if "longer than 90 days maturity".


title: VTB Bank

text: In 2015 the banks' chief Executive Andrei Kostin predicted loses for the bank in the years to come because of the plunging ruble accelerated by western sanctions.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 15 March 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions against VTB Bank and subsidiaries because of the ongoing Russian interference in Ukraine.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 28 November 2017, the United States increases the Executive Order 13662 sanctions to the Russian financial sector. For the Russian financial sector, Directive 1 was amended to increase the financial sanctions on the Russian financial sector for "all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings" in new equity or new debt issued on or after 28 November 2017 to "longer than 14 days maturity". New equity or new debt issued from 12 September 2014 until 28 November 2017 was sanctioned if "longer than 30 days maturity".


title: VTB Bank

text: On 27 November 2018, the National Bank of Ukraine declares the Ukrainian subsidiary of VTB Bank insolvent due to its declining liquidity and worsening financial position.


title: VTB Bank

text: On 25 June 2020 European Court of Justice rejected VTB and Sberbank bank's 2014 lawsuit against EU sectoral sanctions citing that regulators were within their aims of ""imposing a cost on the Russian government"" because of the latter's actions in Ukraine. The Court specified that intentionally ambigous language versions of the regulation (that the bank argued were wrongly applied) doesn't prevent the Court to from choosing one that fits best its general purposes.


title: VTB Bank

text: In February 2022, amid the Russo-Ukrainian crisis, US and EU officials were reportedly finalizing an extensive package of sanctions on VTB bank and other related Russian entities. On 24 February, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, US president Joe Biden and British prime minister Boris Johnson announced new sanctions against VTB bank along with other Russian individuals and companies.


title: David Olusoga

text: David Adetayo Olusoga (born January 1970) is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to "The One Show" and "The Guardian".


title: David Olusoga

text: David Olusoga was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to a Nigerian father and British mother. At five years old, Olusoga migrated to the UK with his mother and grew up in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. He was one of a very few non-white people living on a council estate. By the time he was 14, the National Front had allegedly attacked his house on more than one occasion, requiring police protection for him and his family. They were allegedly eventually forced to leave as a result of the racism. He later attended the University of Liverpool to study the history of slavery, and in 1994, graduated with a BA (Hons) History degree, followed by a postgraduate course in broadcast journalism at Leeds Trinity University.


title: David Olusoga

text: Olusoga began his television career as a researcher on the 1999 BBC series "Western Front". He became a producer of history programmes after university, working from 2005 on programmes such as "Namibia: Genocide and the Second Reich", "The Lost Pictures of Eugene Smith" and "Abraham Lincoln: Saint or Sinner?".


title: David Olusoga

text: Subsequently he became a television presenter, beginning in 2014 with "The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire", about the Indian, African and Asian troops who fought in the First World War, followed by other documentaries and appearances on BBC One television's "The One Show". In 2015 it was announced that he would co-present "Civilisations", a sequel to Kenneth Clark's 1969 television documentary series "Civilisation", alongside the historians Mary Beard and Simon Schama. His most recent TV series include "", "The World's War", "A House Through Time" and the BAFTA award-winning "Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners".


title: David Olusoga

text: Olusoga has written stand-alone history books as well as those accompanying his television series. He is the author of the 2016 book "Black and British: A Forgotten History", which was awarded both the Longman–History Today Trustees Award 2017 and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2017. His other books include "The World’s War", which won First World War Book of the Year in 2015, "The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism" (2011) which he co-authored with Casper Erichsen, and "Civilisations" (2018). He contributed to the "Oxford Companion to Black British History", and has written for "The Guardian", "The Observer", "New Statesman" and "BBC History" magazine; since June 2018 he has been a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which publishes "The Guardian".


title: David Olusoga

text: Olusoga was included in the 2019 and 2020 editions of the "Powerlist", a ranking of the 100 most influential Black Britons, and in the 2021 edition he made the Top 10 most influential, ranking eighth.


title: David Olusoga

text: He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to history and to community integration. He received his medal from the Queen in January 2019.


title: David Olusoga

text: On appointing him as a professor in 2019, the University of Manchester described him as an expert on military history, empire, race and slavery, and "one of the UK's foremost historians". Olusoga gave his inaugural professorial lecture on "Identity, Britishness and the "Windrush"" at the University of Manchester in May 2019.


title: David Olusoga

text: In response to the global Black Lives Matter movement with protests after the murder of George Floyd, Olusoga's "Black and British: A Forgotten History" was re-broadcast. along with "Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners", also fronted by him.


title: David Olusoga

text: On 13 November 2020, the BBC announced that it had commissioned "Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga", a special programme in which Barack Obama discusses the first volume of his presidential memoirs, "A Promised Land". The programme aired on 19 January 2021.


title: David Olusoga

text: In December 2021, it was announced that Olusoga had been awarded the President's Medal, by the British Academy. Olusoga is the 39th person to receive the medal, which has been awarded since 2010, and recognises services to the humanities and social sciences. Previous recipients include Margaret Atwood, Jimmy Wales and Hilary Mantel.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Superboy is an American television series based on the fictional DC comic book character Superman's early years as Superboy. The show ran from 1988–1992 in syndication. It was renamed The Adventures of Superboy at the start of the third season.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The "Superboy" series was brought to the screen by executive producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind, the producers of the first three "Superman" films and the 1984 "Supergirl" film. This series and the release of the 1988 "Superman" animated series on CBS coincided with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Superman character that year. Ironically, the series came about a year after DC Comics had "erased" the character of Superboy from their continuity in the "Man of Steel" reboot by John Byrne. Nevertheless, the show went on in October 1988 with John Haymes Newton playing the lead role of Superboy/Clark Kent, along with Stacy Haiduk as love interest Lana Lang and Jim Calvert as Clark's college roommate T.J. White. In the Philippines, the series premiered on People's Television Network on September 4, 1989.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: "Superboy" was the first weekly TV series to be produced at the then new Disney/MGM Studios. For the second season onward, the series moved several miles up Interstate 4 to Universal Studios Florida, the largest motion picture and television-sound facility outside Hollywood, where it was then showcased as that studio's first weekly television product.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: At first, much of the action centered around stories that Clark and T.J. reported on for the college newspaper, the "Shuster Herald". All the exterior scenes shot at "Shuster University" are actually filmed on the main campus of the University of Central Florida. Siegelville, however, was depicted as a coastal city, as evidenced by imagery of both the new and old Sunshine Skyway Bridges (Interstate 275) in St. Petersburg, Florida in the opening credits.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: "Superboy" was scripted by many actual comic-book writers. Superman editors Mike Carlin and Andrew Helfer penned several episodes, such as "The Alien Solution", its sequel "Revenge of the Alien" and "The Bride of Bizarro". Other comic book writers that contributed to the series include Denny O'Neil, Cary Bates, J. M. DeMatteis and Mark Evanier.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Clark Kent/Superboy attends the Siegel School of Journalism at Shuster University in Shusterville, Florida – names which reference Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The first season of the series, which began airing in October 1988, focused on Clark Kent / Superboy (John Haymes Newton), his childhood friend and love interest Lana Lang (Stacy Haiduk) and his college roommate T.J. White (Jim Calvert), son of "Daily Planet" editor Perry White. Scott James Wells played Superboy's nemesis Lex Luthor. Clark's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, were portrayed by Stuart Whitman and Salome Jens, respectively.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: In an interview with "Boys' Life" prior to the show's debut, Newton spoke of the importance of overall character development and his focus would both be on Superboy and Clark Kent: "When Clark is not Superboy, he ought to be a well-rounded individual. I think people have gotten tired of seeing the nerdy Clark after four movies".


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Thirteen episodes were initially filmed for Season 1, beginning with "Countdown to Nowhere". This episode featured Superboy's first public appearance as he prevents a group of saboteurs from selling a powerful laser weapon developed by the U.S. government to an arms dealer. "Countdown to Nowhere" aired in two versions: an "uncut" version in which the story plays in the present day and a second version in which the main story is introduced as a flashback through two additional scenes with Lana, Clark and T.J. The second version contained some scenes cut from the main story in order to fit the flashback lead-ins into the episode. This episode is the first episode of the series chronologically, but was the fifth one that was aired in most markets. It also appears as the fifth episode on the first season DVD set. The first season's story editor was Fred Freiberger, who also scripted a few episodes.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The first thirteen episodes of "Superboy" were rather crude compared to later episodes. The producers, not sure whether any additional episodes would be ordered, did their best to save money on the first thirteen. As a result, the special effects are a bit rougher and the episodes have a grittier, real-world feel to them. This brought about more character-oriented stories and stories with more ordinary villains like drug dealers and crime bosses.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: After thirteen additional episodes were ordered for the first season, special effects improved and the show took on a more professional look. More fantastic enemies were introduced, such as an unnamed gaseous alien, who could possess the bodies of others in "The Alien Solution", a life-force vampire in "Succubus" and long-time Superman villain Mister Mxyzptlk (guest star Michael J. Pollard) in "Meet Mr. Mxyzptlk".


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Superboy's nemesis, Lex Luthor, was introduced in "The Jewel of Techechal" (the first episode broadcast) as Clark's classmate at Shuster University. This version of Luthor was more interested in fixing basketball games and humiliating Superboy than anything else. But the season one finale, "Luthor Unleashed", completely changed his character. This episode adapted Lex Luthor's silver age comic book origin, in which Superboy rescues Lex from a lab accident that causes him to lose all of his hair, becoming the familiar bald villain Superman fans have come to recognize. Luthor blames Superboy for his hair loss and gains a new, more intense hatred for the Boy of Steel. From this point on in the series, Luthor is determined to destroy Superboy, rather than just humiliate him.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: In the second season, drastic changes took place. The producers of the show were not enamored of Newton's portrayal of Superboy. He was replaced by Gerard Christopher in the lead role. A new direction was made this season with the second season's stories guided by Executive Story Consultants Mark Jones and Cary Bates.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Scott Wells was also replaced as Lex Luthor by Sherman Howard. The change in Luthor's appearance was explained in the second season opener "With This Ring, I Thee Kill". The two-part episode revealed Luthor had plastic surgery to assume the appearance of Warren Eckworth, the wealthy inventor of the "Superboy Gun", which Luthor believed could kill Superboy. The character of T.J. White was written out of the series (he went to work for the "Daily Planet") and Andy McCalister, portrayed by Ilan Mitchell-Smith, became Clark's new roommate. Andy was very different from T.J. and was constantly looking to make money with his get-rich-quick schemes. He also flirted with Lana frequently and his advances were always refused, though Lana did consider Andy a friend.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The villains were amped up in the second season, as additional comic book characters were introduced to the series, many of them appearing for the first time in live-action. Metallo (Michael Callan), Bizarro (Barry Meyers) as well as the Yellow Peri (Elizabeth Keifer) appeared in the second season and Mister Mxyzptlk (Pollard) made a return appearance. Gilbert Gottfried appeared in two episodes as a nasty, wisecracking criminal genius named "Nick Knack" who used toys to commit crimes (a reference to the Toyman). Another character was a dhampir who found a way through a serum to gain human abilities such as repelling his craving for blood and gaining a tolerance for sunlight. Thus, he became a friend of both Superboy and Lana but would become villainous if doing without the serum for too long. Philip Michael Thomas also made an appearance as a medieval alchemist who survived into modern times in order to battle a sorcerer spreading plague, and aided Superboy when he was infected by said disease. The episode "Superboy... Rest in Peace" featured guest star Betsy Russell, who was reunited with series star Gerard Christopher for the first time since the two had worked together previously in the 1985 movie "Tomboy". Also notable is the guest star appearance of former James Bond actor George Lazenby and Bond girl actress Britt Ekland as aliens disguised as Superboy's Kryptonian father and mother, Jor-El and Lara, in two episodes, "Abandon Earth" and "Escape to Earth".


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: With the third season, the series saw more changes. The show's title officially became "The Adventures of Superboy" and the setting shifted from Shuster University to The Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters in Capitol City, Florida, where Clark and Lana were interns. The Bureau is depicted as a government agency which investigates paranormal activities and aliens, including Superboy (this format change pre-dates the concept of the television series "The X-Files").


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Andy McCalister was dropped from the series, though Ilan Mitchell-Smith would make a final guest appearance in the episode "Special Effects", which explained his disappearance by saying that Andy went to intern at a movie studio. The new supporting cast consisted of Clark and Lana's co-worker at the Bureau, Matt Ritter (Peter Jay Fernandez) and the Bureau chief C. Dennis Jackson (Robert Levine).


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The tone of the series changed dramatically as darker stories were produced and the overall look of the series took on many characteristics of film noir. A few journalists at the time suggested that this darker look was largely due to the success of Tim Burton's "Batman" movie from a year prior. Many stories dealt with more mature themes, a change new producers Julia Pistor and Gerard Christopher implemented. In "Rebirth", Superboy is confronted with the possibility that he may have accidentally taken a human life and gives up his Superboy identity in guilt. "Carnival" shows a demonic individual named 'Deville' trying to acquire Superboy's eternal soul by tempting him to give in and kill a man who is implied to be a rapist. "Mindscape" deals with Superboy's deepest fears as an alien life-form brings those fears to life in Superboy's nightmares while simultaneously draining his life energy. "Roads Not Taken" shows the different paths Superboy's life may have taken, as Superboy travels to alternate earths where his life is very different. He meets a version of himself who killed Luthor in a fit of rage and another who has become a despotic ruler of earth. The alternate version of Superboy who took Luthor's life was shown wearing a black leather jacket and sunglasses which bears some resemblance to the Conner Kent version of Superboy as he first appeared in the "Death of Superman" storyline. The third season ended with the two-part episode "The Road to Hell" with former TV Tarzan Ron Ely guest-starring as an adult, retired Man of Steel from an alternate reality.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The fourth season maintained the darker look and feel of the third one and was the first in which no major cast changes took place. Noel Neill and Jack Larson made guest appearances in the episode "Paranoia" as employees of the Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters. Neill had originated the role of Lois Lane in the 1948 "Superman" and 1950 "Atom Man vs. Superman" film serials and replaced Phyllis Coates in the role in the 1950s "Adventures of Superman" TV series before originating the role of Lois' mother, Ella/Ellen Lane, in 1978's "Superman"; Larson co-starred as Jimmy Olsen in "Adventures of Superman" with Neill. The trend of more mature stories also continued in episodes such as "To Be Human", in which Bizarro becomes human, only to be forced to give up his humanity to save Superboy's life and "Into the Mystery", in which a mystical, ghostly woman, apparently an angel of death, leads Superboy to his dying aunt's bedside. A memorable Luthor tale, "Know Thine Enemy", appeared in this season, featuring Superboy re-living Luthor's tortured memories of childhood via "psychodisk" while Luthor threatened to destroy all life on Earth.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: DC Comics published a tie-in comic book series during the TV show's run, launching the comic during the TV series' second season. "Superboy" (Volume 2) is different from any other Superman or Superboy titles in that it is set in the continuity of the "Superboy" television series, as opposed to the regular DC Universe. Its intent was to explore some of the unseen tales and events that the TV series could not. The series originally carried the cover title "Superboy: The Comic Book" with issue #1 having a photo cover with the show's stars Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk (dated Feb. 1990), although the title in the indicia was simply "Superboy". After issue #11, the series changed its cover title to "The Adventures of Superboy" as the TV series itself had changed titles starting with season three, and the change was reflected in the comic book's indicia beginning with #18. The series was published monthly until it went bi-monthly for its final three issues, remained in publication for 22 issues to the end of 1991 (cover dated Feb. 1992), and a concluding one issue special in 1992.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Although the "Superboy" series was still popular, the fourth season was to be its last. The finale was to be titled "Obituary for a Superhero" and Superboy was supposed to appear to meet his demise at the hands of Lex Luthor in a cliffhanger ending. The intent of the Salkinds was to make a series of television movies, which would resolve the cliffhanger and see Superboy's return. A series of events that occurred during the fourth season resulted in those plans changing.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Alexander and Ilya Salkind had been connected with the Superman franchise since they struck a licensing agreement with Warner Communications, the parent company of both Warner Bros. and DC Comics, in the 1970s. This enabled the father-son tandem to produce any project they so desired with several Superman related properties, and they took advantage of this by producing three films starring Christopher Reeve as Superman. While the first and second films were critical and financial successes, the third was not. The Salkinds sold their Superman film license to The Cannon Group, which produced a Superman film that also flopped.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Since the agreement with Warner was still in effect, and since they still had some of the properties within the Superman canon to work with, Alexander and Ilya decided to develop a television series with Superboy as the focus. This was done despite the previously mentioned 1986 retconning of the origins of Superman by John Byrne, which deleted Superboy from his existence. Nevertheless, "Superboy" was launched in 1988 with DC Comics serving as a production entity, giving Warner Bros. a stake in the production. The Salkinds agreed with Viacom to distribute the series.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: In 1991 Jenette Kahn, president of DC Comics, was interested in bringing Superman back to television and tasked Deborah Joy LeVine and Les Moonves of the parent company's television department to come up with a concept. Using the new series canon created by Byrne, LeVine and Moonves developed what was to become "", and ABC showed interest in picking it up. The new series was to launch in 1993.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. notified Alexander and Ilya that they were exercising their rights to terminate their licensing agreement and retaking possession of any remaining Superman-related intellectual property the Salkinds had licenses for. This decision meant that once the final episodes for the season were completed, "Superboy" would immediately cease production; this also meant that the planned series of telefilms would have to be scrapped and the intended series finale, "Obituary For a Superhero", would have to be rewritten. The writers instead came up with a new final episode, a two-part episode titled "Rites of Passage", to close the series.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The Salkinds decided to challenge Warner Bros. in court over the rights to their "Superboy" series; a lengthy period of legal wrangling ended with a settlement. The terms of the settlement were:


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Some time after the series' cancellation, there was a dispute over what rights to the character the Salkinds actually owned. For a time this prevented any official home video release of the series. Between 1992 and 2006 the only way to see "Superboy" in the United States was by ordering bootleg VHS and DVD copies of the series sold on eBay and other websites. The audio and video quality of these copies was varied.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: In 1999, Gerard Christopher began offering three VHS tapes of the series created from his personal master tapes (Christopher has masters of all of the episodes he starred in, Seasons 2–4). Each video tape featured four episodes (which were selected episodes from Seasons 3 and 4) and was sold on his website for a price of $25–$30 US. A fourth VHS video tape was released by Christopher in 2002. Christopher not only sold these video tapes on his website by mail order, but also sold them at personal appearances when attending various comic book conventions and shows. He had offered other "Superboy" merchandise for sale, such as autographed photos and episode scripts. All merchandise from Christopher was also autographed.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: In response to overwhelming fan demand, from a private email sent by Christopher (only to the fans who had previously ordered merchandise from his website) , he decided to offer all "Superboy" episodes on DVD, offering a complete Season 2 set on DVD in early June 2004 and planned to sell complete sets of Seasons 3 and 4 in the future. "The Adventures of Superboy: Season 2 Episodes" DVD set consisted of three discs (in DVD-R format), was produced by Christopher himself, and sold for a price of $159.00 US (due to their past loyalty fans who had previously ordered merchandise from Christopher's website were able to pre-purchase the Season 2 DVD set at the reduced price of $129.00 US for a limited time before June 30, 2004 as this offer was by invitation only). The latter two seasons were planned to be sold at a reduced cost. Tapes and DVDs sold by Christopher were the best quality copies of the series available, since they were made from master tapes, rather than from off-air recordings like all other bootleg copies.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: When Warner Home Video announced the official release of Season 1, Christopher announced that his self-produced DVD sets would no longer be available on his website in 2005, with the planned DVD releases for Seasons 3 and 4 cancelled.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: In an interview for the webpage supermanhomepage.com, Salkind revealed that the legal battle between the three companies involved in the series' production (Viacom, Warner Bros. and the Salkinds) was the reason the show was not re-run on television or released to home video. This dispute was settled circa 2005, allowing the series to be released on DVD.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The DVD set includes a behind-the-scenes featurette with new interviews with first-season Clark Kent/Superboy actor John Haymes Newton, actors Stacy Haiduk and James Calvert, creative/executive producer Ilya Salkind as well as director David Nutter. The DVD also features the screen test of John Haymes Newton and audio commentaries by Ilya Salkind and Newton on two key episodes ("Revenge of the Alien" Part 2 and "Meet Mr. Mxyzptlk"). The DVD was released in advance of the film "Superman Returns".


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: After a six-and-a-half years gap, Warner Bros. released the complete second season of "Superboy" on DVD via its Warner Archive Collection on December 11, 2012. This is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and only in the US, as well as Amazon.com through their CreateSpace service, which ships globally.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: Warner Bros. released the complete third season of "Superboy" on July 16, 2013, via MOD, through Warner Archive, as well as Amazon.com through their CreateSpace service, which ships globally.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: The fourth season was listed at warnerarchive.com for an October 29, 2013 release date. For a limited time, copies of the DVD set were autographed by series star Gerard Christopher; the non-autographed version becomes available upon exhaustion of the autographed inventory. It is also available from Amazon.com through their CreateSpace service, which ships globally.


title: Superboy (TV series)

text: All four seasons were made available in 2018 for streaming on DC Universe, a paid streaming subscription specializing in DC Comics-related content. As the original series was shot on videotape, these episodes are presented in standard definition at their original 4:3 display ratio.


title: Little green men

text: Little green men is the stereotypical portrayal of extraterrestrials as little humanoid creatures with green skin and sometimes with antennae on their heads. The term is also sometimes used to describe gremlins, mythical creatures known for causing problems in airplanes and mechanical devices. Today, these creatures are more commonly associated with an alleged alien species called greys, whose skin color is described as not green, but grey.


title: Little green men

text: During the reports of flying saucers in the 1950s, the term "little green men" came into popular usage in reference to aliens. In one classic case, the Kelly-Hopkinsville sighting in 1955, two rural Kentucky men described a supposed encounter with metallic-silver, somewhat humanoid-looking aliens no more than in height. Employing journalistic licence and deviating from the witnesses' accounts, The Evansville Courier newspaper used the term "little green men" in writing up the story. Other media then followed suit.


title: Little green men

text: Usage of the term clearly predates the 1955 incident; for example, in England reference to little green men or children dates back to the 12th century green children of Woolpit, although exactly when the term was first applied to extraterrestrial aliens has been difficult to pin down. In his historical satire "A History of New York" (1809), American author Washington Irving described Lunatics (or men from the moon) as "pea green", in contrast to the "white" inhabitants of Earth.


title: Little green men

text: Folklore researcher Chris Aubeck has used electronic searches of old newspapers and found a number of instances dating from around the turn of the 20th century referring to green aliens. Aubeck found one story from 1899 in the "Atlanta Constitution", about a little green-skinned alien, in a tale called "Green Boy From Hurrah", "Hurrah" being another planet, perhaps Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs referred to the "green men of Mars" and "green Martian women" in his first science fiction novel "A Princess of Mars" (1912), although at tall, they were hardly "little". However, the first use of the specific phrase "little green man" in reference to extraterrestrials that Aubeck found dates to 1908 in the "Daily Kennebec Journal" (Augusta, Maine), in this case the aliens again being Martians.


title: Little green men

text: In 1910 (or 1915), a "little green man" was allegedly captured from his crashed spaceship in Apulia, in south-east Italy.


title: Little green men

text: Green aliens soon came to commonly portray extraterrestrials and adorned the covers of many of the 1920s to 1950s science fiction pulp magazines with pictures of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon battling green alien monsters. The first documented print example specifically linking "little green men" to extraterrestrial spaceships is in a newspaper column satirizing the public panic following Orson Welles' famous War of the Worlds Halloween broadcast of October 31, 1938. The column by reporter Bill Barnard in the Corpus Christi "Times" the next day begins, "Thirteen little green men from Mercury stepped out of their space ship at Cliff Maus Field [local airport] late yesterday afternoon for a good-will visit to Corpus Christi" and ends with: "Then the 13 little green men got in their space ship and flew away." The familiarity with which the term was used suggests that this probably was not the first instance where it was applied to extraterrestrials in spaceships.


title: Little green men

text: In 1946, Harold M. Sherman published a pulp science fiction book entitled "The Green Man: A Visitor From Space". The cover illustration was of a normal-looking and proportioned human being, albeit with a green skin.


title: Little green men

text: Nationally syndicated columns by humorist Hal Boyle spoke of a green man from Mars in his flying saucer in early July 1947 during the height of the brand new flying saucer phenomenon in the U.S. that started June 24 after Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting and the Roswell UFO incident. However, Boyle did not describe his green Martian as "small".


title: Little green men

text: In 1951, a science fiction book titled "The Case of the Little Green Men" was published by Mack Reynolds, telling of a private detective hired to investigate disguised aliens living among the human population. As he was being hired, the detective referred derisively and familiarly to the aliens in the flying saucers being "little green men". The cover illustration is notable for depicting the LGM with the classic antennae sticking out of the head. Mack Reynolds would go on to write the first "Star Trek" novel in 1968 ("Mission to Horatius").


title: Little green men

text: By early 1950, stories began circulating in newspapers about little beings being recovered from flying saucer crashes. Though largely considered to be hoaxes, some of the stories from the sources about little aliens eventually made it into the popular 1950 book "Behind the Flying Saucers" by Variety magazine columnist Frank Scully.


title: Little green men

text: A witness reporting a flying saucer sighting to a Wichita, Kansas newspaper in June 1950 stated that he saw "absolutely no little green men with egg on their whiskers".


title: Little green men

text: Similarly, electronic searches show that "little green men" was specifically used in reference to science fiction and flying saucers by at least 1951 in "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" (in the "Post", a book review of a mystery/science fiction novel called "The Little Green Man"), and 1952 in the "Los Angeles Times" and the "Chicago Tribune" (the "Tribune" mocking flying saucer reports using a "little green man with pink polka dots"). The next example of "The New York Times" using the term dates from 1955 in a book review of a sci-fi satire called "Martians, Go Home". The Martians were obnoxious "little green men" whose appearance was "true to prophecy".


title: Little green men

text: In a later example, following a nationally publicized flurry of UFO sightings in November 1957, syndicated Washington columnist Frederick Othman wrote: "New Flying Saucer Epidemic On. All over this land again are flying saucers ... No little green men have climbed out of these celestial vehicles so far, but in another couple of days I wouldn't be surprised ..."


title: Little green men

text: The term also shows up much earlier in other contexts. Film gossip columnist Hedda Hopper used it in 1939 referring to small cast members of "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), and admonished against drinking on the set. In 1942, "The Los Angeles Times" used the term in a pictorial on Marines training for jungle combat. In this case, "little green men" referred to camouflaged Japanese soldiers. "The Washington Post" in 1942 likewise used the term "little green man" in reference to a camouflaged Japanese sniper who nearly killed one of their war correspondents.


title: Little green men

text: Before its more modern application to aliens, "little green men" was commonly used to describe various supernatural beings in old legends and folklore and in later fairy tales and children's books such as goblins. Aubeck noted several examples of the latter in 19th and early 20th century literature. As an example, Rudyard Kipling had a "little green man" in "Puck of Pook's Hill" from 1906.


title: Little green men

text: Another example, and the earliest use of "little green man" in "The New York Times" and the "Chicago Tribune", dates from 1902, in a review of a children's book called "The Gift of the Magic Staff", where a supernatural "Little Green Man" is a boy's friend and helps him visit the cloudland fairies. The next use in "The New York Times" was in 1950, and references a planned film by Walt Disney Corporation of a 1927 novel by poet/novelist Robert Nathan called "The Woodcutter's House". The only animated character in the picture was to be Nathan's "Little Green Man", a confidant of the woodland animals. (The film was never made.)


title: Little green men

text: In 1923, a serialized romance, "When Hearts Command" by Elizabeth York Miller, which appeared in newspapers such as the "Chicago Tribune" and "The Washington Post", has a former mental patient who still sees "little green men" and who simultaneously comments that a fellow patient "conversed with the inhabitants of Mars".


title: Little green men

text: Other instances of imaginary small green beings have been found in a newspaper column from 1936 sarcastically discussing doctors and their medical advice, saying these are the same people who have breakdowns in middle age and start hallucinating "a little green man with big ears". Syndicated columnist Sydney J. Harris used "little green man" in 1948 as a child's imaginary friend while condemning the age-old tradition of frightening children with stories of "boogeymen".


title: Little green men

text: These examples illustrate that use of "little green men" was already deeply engrained in English vernacular long before the flying saucer era, used for a variety of supernatural, imaginary, or mythical beings. It also seems to have easily extended beyond the imaginary to real people, such as the reference to small actors in the "Wizard of Oz" or camouflaged Japanese soldiers. Similarly, Aubeck and others suspect that when flying saucers came along in 1947, with subsequent speculation about alien origins, the term naturally and quickly attached itself to the modern age equivalent. It is also clear that by the early 1950s, the term was already commonly used as a sarcastic reference to the occupants of flying saucers. By 1954, the image of little green men had become inscribed in the public's collective consciousness.


title: Little green men

text: Further electronic searches suggest that the term became increasingly more common in the 1960s and always used in a derisive or humorous way. The "Chicago Tribune" in 1960 carried a front-page story on the speculations of a Harvard anthropologist about how aliens might look and alien sex. The article opens with the comment, "If there really are 'little green men' out there in space, there are probably also little green women–and sex." A cartoon was attached showing two amorous centaur-like male and female aliens with antennae sticking out of their heads. The article also enigmatically states, "The 'little green men' designation came from Dr. Otto Struve, director of the national radio astronomy observatory, Green Bank, W. Va. He said that's what the possible outerspacers are called 'among themselves'."


title: Little green men

text: The term even penetrated into the commentary of "The Wall Street Journal". First use in the "Journal" was 1960 in an article on the Brookings Report commissioned by NASA, studying the possible social effects of the discovery of extraterrestrial life. The "Journal" commented that they thought the report overly pessimistic, assuming that "the little green men with the wiggly antennae" would be hostile. Another "Journal" use of the term occurred in 1968 in an editorial on a planned Congressional investigation of UFOs. The writer sarcastically asked how they planned to subpoena "a little green man". In 1969, they commented that the Condon Committee UFO study commissioned by the Air Force was a waste of money. The editorial stated that even if they did prove that "UFOs were people with little green men", what were we supposed to do about it?


title: Little green men

text: By 1965, a little green man had even appeared in "The Flintstones" as a recurring character. The Great Gazoo (introduced in Episode 145) typified the representation of a little green man with his short, green stature and helmet with antennae. However, the 1960s also marked a transition in the way people imagined a stereotypical alien. In alien abduction stories they are often small but grey beings and in Arthur C. Clarke's "" (1968) they are unseen.


title: Little green men

text: Little green aliens and the term "little green men" have fallen out of general use in serious science fiction circles and are most commonly used to ridicule the notion that aliens may exist, with a few exceptions, such as Yoda in the "Star Wars" movie saga. A derisive usage can be seen in the episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", set in 1969, as Captain Kirk, captured by the US Air Force while attempting to steal film showing the "Enterprise" in Earth's atmosphere, calls himself a "little green man from Alpha Centauri" when interrogated by the base security officer. Earlier in the same episode, a rescued Air Force captain brought aboard the "Enterprise" tells Kirk he's never believed in little green men, immediately before meeting the obviously alien Mr. Spock (who replies, "Neither have I"). In the 1988 "Doctor Who" serial "Remembrance of the Daleks", the line is parodied when the Doctor states that the Daleks are aliens. Group Captain Gilmore asks if he's fighting little green men, to which the Doctor says "no, little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour".


title: Little green men

text: Instead, the little green alien image seems to have migrated mainly to the world of children's media where it can still be found in abundance. Examples include


title: Little green men

text: The uniformed "local self-defence" forces with camouflage and modern Russian weaponry but no identifying badges or insignia, operating in 2014 during the Russo-Ukrainian War were also called "martians" or "little green men" by the locals and the media.


title: Little green men

text: In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish of the University of Cambridge, UK dubbed the first discovered pulsar LGM-1 for "little green men" because the regular oscillations of its signal suggested a possible intelligent origin. Its designation was later changed to CP 1919, and is now known as PSR B1919+21.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: The Lockheed bribery scandals encompassed a series of bribes and contributions made by officials of U.S. aerospace company Lockheed from the late 1950s to the 1970s in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: The scandal caused considerable political controversy in West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. In the U.S., the scandal nearly led to Lockheed's downfall, as it was already struggling due to the commercial failure of the L-1011 TriStar airliner.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Through the Emergency Loan Guarantee Act of 1971 the Emergency Loan Guarantee board was created to manage federally guaranteed private loans up to $250 million to Lockheed Corporation. The guarantee program would have the U.S government assume the private debt of Lockheed if it defaulted on its debts. In 1975 Lockheed did not go into default. In August 1975 the board investigated whether Lockheed violated its obligations by failing to tell the board about foreign payments made to Lockheed. On October 14, 1977, Lockheed and its 24 lending banks entered into a credit agreement, providing for a $100 million revolving line of credit, to replace the Government guarantee commitment; this was used to retire $60 million worth of Lockheed debt. The Emergency Loan Guarantee Board approved the new credit agreement on October 14, 1977, through a termination agreement that closed the Government Emergency Loan Guarantee Board after issuance of its final report on September 30, 1977. Fees paid by Lockheed and its banks to the Board for administering the program loan netted around $30 million which was sent to the U.S. Treasury. No taxpayer money was ever given to Lockheed.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: In late 1975 and early 1976, a sub-committee of the U.S. Senate led by Senator Frank Church concluded that members of the Lockheed board had paid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft. In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $22 million in bribes to foreign officials in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including the F-104 Starfighter, the so-called "Deal of the Century".


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Former Lockheed lobbyist Ernest Hauser told Senate investigators that West German Minister of Defence Franz Josef Strauss and his party had received at least $10 million for the purchase of 900 F-104G Starfighters in 1961. The party and its leader denied the allegations, and Strauss filed a slander suit against Hauser. As the allegations were not corroborated, the issue was dropped.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: In September 1976, in the final phase of the West German federal election, the controversy was re-opened when questions were asked about the whereabouts of the "Lockheed documents" within the Federal Ministry of Defence. Anonymous sources also distributed several, possibly falsified, documents to the media. According to one of these documents, member of the German Bundestag and its defense council Manfred Wörner accepted an invitation by Lockheed to visit their aircraft plants in the US with the entire trip being paid by Lockheed. In the course of the investigations, it emerged that most of the documents related to the Starfighter purchase had been destroyed in 1962. The whereabouts of the documents were again discussed in a committee of inquiry meeting of the Bundestag between January 1978 and May 1979. An investigation of Lockheed documents by the U.S. revealed that Wörner's trip had been financed by the German Bundestag, and was related to a test flight with the Lockheed S-3 Viking. Only part of the travel costs of Wörner's secretary, and Wörner's flight back from the US to Germany was paid by Lockheed:


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: The Italian branch of the Lockheed scandal involved the bribery of Christian Democrat and Socialist politicians to favor the purchase by the Italian Air Force of C-130 Hercules transport planes. The allegations of bribery were supported by political magazine "L'Espresso", and targeted former Cabinet ministers Luigi Gui and Mario Tanassi, the former Prime Minister Mariano Rumor and then-President Giovanni Leone, forcing him to resign his post on June 15, 1978.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: The scandal involved the Marubeni Corporation and several high-ranking members of Japanese political, business and underworld circles, including Finance Minister Eisaku Satō and the JASDF Chief of Staff Minoru Genda. In 1957, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force wished to buy the Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger to replace the F-86 Sabre then in service, but heavy lobbying by Lockheed of key Liberal Democratic Party figures led to the adoption of the F-104 instead.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Later, Lockheed hired underworld figure Yoshio Kodama as a consultant in order to influence Japanese parastatal airlines, including All Nippon Airways (ANA), to buy the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar instead of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. On February 6, 1976, the vice-chairman of Lockheed told the Senate subcommittee that Lockheed had paid approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka for aid in the matter.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Lockheed paid ¥2.4 billion to earn the contract from ANA. ¥500 million of the total was received by the Prime Minister. ¥160 million was received by ANA officials. ¥1.7 billion was received by Kodama. On October 30, 1972, ANA announced its decision to purchase 21 Lockheed L-1011 Tristars, which cost approximately $5 million each, even though it had previously announced options to purchase the DC-10. The 1986 US President's Commission on Organized Crime revealed that from 1969 to 1975 Lockheed used Deak & Company, a large foreign exchange operator owned by Nicholas Deak, as the conduit to transfer money intended by Lockheed to bribe Japanese officials. It was disclosed that US$8.3 million was moved to Deak's offices in Hong Kong, where a Spanish-born priest representing Lockheed took the cash and carried it to Japan.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: In March 1976, in protest of the scandal, actor Mitsuyasu Maeno made a suicide attack on Kodama's Tokyo home by crashing a light aircraft onto it. Maeno died and two servants were injured. Kodama himself was unharmed.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Tanaka was arrested on July 27, 1976, and was released in August on a ¥200 million ($690,000) bond. He was found guilty by a Tokyo court on October 12, 1983 for violations of foreign exchange control laws but not on bribery. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but remained free on appeal until his death in 1993.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Prince Bernhard received a $1.1 million bribe from Lockheed to ensure the Lockheed F-104 would win out over the Dassault Mirage 5 for the purchase contract. He had served on more than 300 corporate boards or committees worldwide and had been praised in the Netherlands for his efforts to promote the economic well-being of the country.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Prime Minister Joop den Uyl ordered an inquiry into the affair, while Prince Bernhard refused to answer reporters' questions, stating: "I am above such things". The results of the inquiry led to a constitutional crisis in which Queen Juliana threatened to abdicate if Bernhard was prosecuted. Bernhard was spared, but had to step down from several public positions and was forbidden to wear his military uniforms again.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Prince Bernhard always denied the charges, but after his death on December 1, 2004, interviews were published showing that he admitted taking the money. He said: "I have accepted that the word Lockheed will be carved on my tombstone."


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Declassified correspondences between Kingdon Gould Jr and Henry Kissinger showed that Kissinger was informed of the bribes in 1975.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Between 1970 and 1975, Lockheed paid Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi $106 million in commissions. His commissions started at 2.5% + and eventually rose to as much as 15%. Khashoggi "became for all practical purposes a marketing arm of Lockheed. Adnan would provide not only an entrée but strategy, constant advice, and analysis," according to Max Helzel, then vice president of Lockheed's international marketing.


title: Lockheed bribery scandals

text: Lockheed chairman of the board Daniel Haughton and vice chairman and president Carl Kotchian resigned from their posts on February 13, 1976. The scandal also played a part in the formulation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which President Jimmy Carter signed into law on December 19, 1977, which made it illegal for American persons and entities to bribe foreign government officials.