text: On his return to Paris he had become acquainted with Étienne Clavière, the Genevese exile, and a banker named Panchaud. From them he learnt about the abuse of stock-jobbing, and seizing their ideas he began to regard stock-jobbing, or "agiotage" (known in English as "arbitrage"), as the source of all evil, and to attack in his usual vehement style the Banque de St-Charles and the Compagnie des Eaux. This pamphlet brought him into controversy with Pierre Beaumarchais, who certainly did not get the best of it, but it lost him any chance of employment with the government.


title: Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

text: His abilities were too great, however, to be overlooked by the foreign minister Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes. After a preliminary trip to Berlin in early 1786, he was dispatched that July on a mission to the royal court of Prussia. Upon his return in January, Mirabeau published a full account in his "Secret History of the Court of Berlin" (1787). This account denounced the Prussian court as scandalous and corrupt, described the dying King Frederick the Great as weak and overly emotional, and labeled Prince Henry of Prussia, brother of Frederick the Great and a guest of the French court, as narrow-minded and incompetent. He also wrote contemptuously of Prussia's principal ministers Ewald Friedrich, Count von Hertzberg, and Joachim von Blumenthal. The resulting uproar was an extreme embarrassment for the French government, which quickly censored the book, but could not prevent its widespread notoriety. Mirabeau's episode provided inspiration to many more radical publishers who came to regard Mirabeau as a leader of the coming revolution.


text: During his journey to Germany, he had made the acquaintance of Jakob Mauvillon, an expert on Prussia whose expertise Mirabeau made use of in his "De la monarchie prussienne sous Frédéric le Grand" (London, 1788). In 1788, Mirabeau was approached and asked to offer himself as a candidate for secretary to the Assembly of Notables, which the King Louis XVI had just convened as a method to circumvent the opposition of the parlements to crown initiatives seeking to reform France's tax structure. His chance to be a leading voice in France as it faced political ferment seemed to be fading as he turned down the crown offer, explaining his reasoning in a letter of 18 April 1788 to the minister Montmorin. In this affair he had sought to bring his name before the public by publishing another financial work, the "Dénonciation de l'agiotage", however, it had contained diatribes that harmed his chance to serve as secretary, and led him to retire to Tongeren. He further injured his prospects by publishing the reports he had sent back to France during his secret mission to Berlin. But 1789 was at hand; the Estates-General was summoned, and the French Revolution broke out soon afterward. As a result, Mirabeau was able to exploit a completely new set of political circumstances to expand exponentially his political influence.


text: On hearing of the king's decision to summon the Estates-General, Mirabeau went to Provence, and offered to assist at the preliminary conference of the nobility of his district (the local representatives of the Second Estate), but was rejected. He appealed instead to the Third Estate and was elected to the Estates-General in both Aix and Marseilles. He chose to accept the seat for the former city, and was present at the opening of the Estates-General on 4 May 1789. From this time onward, Mirabeau took a very prominent role in the deliberations of the National Constituent Assembly.


text: Among a large crowd of unfamiliar politicians in the Estates General, Mirabeau was one figure who stood out. He was widely known to the French public, and not only did the people place great faith in him, they feared him. His great capacity for work and extensive knowledge were easily seen, but the scandals of his private life with women, time in prison, and extensive debt could not be overlooked. At every important crisis his voice was heard, though his advice was not always followed. He possessed both logical acuity and passionate enthusiasm. From the beginning, he recognized that government should exist to allow the population to pursue its daily work in peace, and that for a government to be successful it must be strong. At the same time, he thoroughly understood that for a government to be strong, it must be in harmony with the wishes of the majority of the people. He had studied the British system of government, and he hoped to establish in France a system similar in principle, yet still distinct. In the first stages of the meetings of the Estates-General, Mirabeau was soon recognized as a leader, because he always knew his own mind and was prompt in emergencies. He is attributed with the successful consolidation of the National Assembly out of the membership of the Estates-General. During the royal session of 23 June 1789 of the National Assembly, Mirabeau replied to the king's envoy who had come to bring the order to dissolve this Assembly : "Tell those who send you that we are here by the will of the people and will leave only by the force of bayonets !"


text: After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, Mirabeau warned the Assembly of the futility of passing fine-sounding decrees and urged the necessity of action. Although the cause of liberty had triumphed, Mirabeau foresaw that the intervention of armed mobs would only drive the path of Revolution further and further along a destructive path of violence. He declared that the night of 4 August (when members of the Constituent Assembly took an oath to end feudalism) accomplished nothing other than to give the people immense theoretical liberty while providing them no practical freedom and overthrowing the old régime before a new one could be constituted. His failure to control the theorists demonstrated to Mirabeau that his eloquence could not enable him to guide the Assembly by himself, and that he must get additional support. He wished to establish a strong ministry in the manner of an English ministry. In his view, it should be responsible to an assembly chosen to represent the people of France better than the British House of Commons represented the common people of Great Britain.


text: According to a story contained in the "Mémoires of the duchesse d'Abrantes", Mirabeau's first thought of becoming a minister can be traced to May 1789, when Queen Marie Antoinette allegedly tried to bribe him. He refused the bribe, but expressed his wish to be a minister. The indignation with which the queen rejected the idea may have made him consider the Duke of Orléans, a cousin of Louis XVI, as a possible constitutional king, because his title would of necessity be parliamentary. But the weakness of the Duke of Orléans was too palpable, and Mirabeau expressed his utter contempt for him. He also attempted to form an alliance with the Marquis de la Fayette, but the two could not agree on a personal level, and Lafayette had his own theories about a new French constitution. Mirabeau tried for a time to act with Jacques Necker, the French finance minister, and obtained the sanction of the Assembly for Necker's financial scheme, not because it was good, but because, as he said, "no other plan was before them, and something must be done."


text: The Comte de la Marck was a close friend of the queen, and had been elected a member of the Estates-General. His acquaintance with Mirabeau, begun in 1788, ripened during the following year into a friendship, which La Marck hoped to turn to the advantage of the court. After The March on Versailles of 5 October 1789, he consulted Mirabeau as to what measures the king ought to take, and Mirabeau, delighted at the opportunity, drew up his recommendations. His "Mémoire" offers insight into Mirabeau's genius for politics. The main position was that the king was not free in Paris; he must therefore depart Paris for a provincial capital in the French interior, and there he must appeal to the people and summon a great convention. It would be ruin to appeal to the nobility, as the queen advised. At this great convention the king must show himself ready to recognize that great changes had taken place, that feudalism and absolutism had forever disappeared, and that a new relationship between king and people must arise, which must be loyally observed on both sides in the future. To establish this new constitutional position between king and people would not be difficult, because the indivisibility of the monarch and his people is anchored in the heart of the French people.


text: This was Mirabeau's programme, from which he never diverged, but which was far too statesmanlike to be understood by the king, and far too assertive of the altered condition of the monarchy to be palatable to the queen. Mirabeau followed up his "Mémoire" with a scheme for a great ministry containing all the most notable men: Necker would be prime minister, "to render him as powerless as he is incapable, and yet preserve his popularity for the king"; the Duc de la Rochefoucauld; La Marck; Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun; Mirabeau, without portfolio; Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target, mayor of Paris; Lafayette, as generalissimo of the army; Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur, as foreign minister; Jean Joseph Mounier; and Isaac René Guy le Chapelier.


text: This scheme was leaked, then ruined by a decree of the Assembly of 7 November 1789, such that no member of the Assembly could become a minister. This decree destroyed any chance of the sort of harmony between ministers and parliament that existed in England and dashed Mirabeau's hopes. The queen utterly refused to take Mirabeau's counsel saying, "I hope that we shall never sink so low that we shall have to ask for aid from Mirabeau.", and La Marck left Paris. However, in April 1790, La Marck was suddenly recalled by the comte de Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian ambassador to Paris, and became the queen's most trusted political adviser. From this time to Mirabeau's death, he was the bearer of almost daily communications between Mirabeau and the queen. Mirabeau at first attempted to make an alliance with Lafayette, but it was useless, for Lafayette was not a strong man himself.


text: Besides his schemes to become a minister, Mirabeau also assisted the Assembly in drafting civil rights legislation. In August 1789, he played an important role in drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.


text: In June 1790, Mirabeau met the captive Queen Marie Antoinette in Saint Cloud, where she was less watched and confined than in Paris (where her jailers followed her every step, even in her bedroom). Mirabeau retained a close connection with the queen, and drew up many state papers for her. In return, the king used money from Austria to secretly pay his debts and provide him with a monthly allowance of six thousand francs, with promises of a million or more. Some historians argue Mirabeau was not the traitor that many believed him to be because he continued to uphold his political beliefs and tried to make possible a bridge between the king and the revolutionaries.


text: Mirabeau focused his efforts on two main issues: changing the ministry and dealing with impending civil war. His attempts to form political alliances with Lafayette and Necker failed and resulted in open hostility. Necker disappeared from the French court after September 1790 and no longer posed a threat. Lafayette, however, was very powerful due to his control of the military and the National Guard. At first, Mirabeau attempted to undermine Lafayette's power, but decided to solve the problem of the ministry, and maintain stability, by removing all ministers and placing the ministry entirely under Lafayette. In effect, Mirabeau suggested that the king distance himself from politics and let the revolution run its course, because it would inevitably destroy itself through its contradictory nature. Furthermore, Mirabeau proposed that, if his plan should fail, Paris should no longer be the capital of France, showing a conservative line of thinking: the only way to end the revolution would be to destroy its place of birth. In a meeting with the king and queen, Mirabeau maintained that not only was civil war inevitable, it was necessary for the survival of the monarchy. Mirabeau believed that the decision to go to war, even civil war, must come only from the king. In a letter of confidence to Mirabeau, Louis wrote that, as a Christian king, he could not declare war on his own subjects. However, that would not stop him from reacting in kind if his subjects declared war first. In order to avoid provoking a civil war, the king refrained from confronting the Constituent Assembly, and hoped instead for a constitution that he could agree to. Once the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1790 destroyed this hope, Louis adopted a strategy of strengthening royal authority and the church's position, and accepted the use of force to accomplish this. Mirabeau's involvement with the court is as interesting for the insights it provides into the mind of Louis XVI as it is for the effects it produced in the Revolution.


text: On the question of the royal veto, Mirabeau took a practical view and, seeing that the royal power was already considerably weakened, declared for the king's absolute veto and against the suspensive veto. He knew from his British experience that such a veto would be impractical unless the king knew the people were on his side, and that if it were used unjustifiably, the power of the purse possessed by the representatives of the people could bring about a bloodless revolution. The difference between the suspensive veto and the absolute was simple: the absolute veto gave the king the power to stop any law for an indefinite period of time. The suspensive veto, on the other hand, put limitations on the powers of the king. The final compromise was to allow the king a suspensive veto for a period of two years.


text: On the subject of peace and war, Mirabeau supported the king's authority with some success. Again, almost alone in the Assembly, he held that the soldier ceased to be a citizen when he became a soldier; he must submit to the deprivation of his liberty to think and act and must recognize that a soldier's first duty is obedience. With such sentiments, it is no wonder that he approved of the vigorous conduct of the marquis de Bouillé at Nancy, which was to his credit, as Bouillé was opposed to him.


text: Lastly, in matters of finance, he attacked Necker's "caisse d'escompte", which was to have the whole control of the taxes, as usurping the Assembly's power of the purse, and heartily approved of the system of assignats, with the reservation that the issue should be limited to no more than one-half the value of the lands to be sold.


text: He saw that much of the National Assembly's inefficiency arose from the members' inexperience and their incurable verbosity. To establish some system of rules, he got his friend Samuel Romilly to draw up a detailed account of the rules and customs of the British House of Commons, which he translated into French, but which the Assembly refused to use.


text: In addition to his place in the National Assembly, Mirabeau also served as a member of the Jacobin Club until his death. However, historian Charles Kuhlmann believed that "he was a Jacobin in name only and regarded the society as one of the chief obstacles in the way of his plans for the restoration of royal authority." In the end, the Jacobins would stand in his way of restoring royal authority, but in the early years of the revolution, Mirabeau was actually a leading figure in the Jacobin Club. Mirabeau reached the height of his influence within the club when he was elected its president in December 1790.


text: During his time in the Jacobin Club, he would have a lasting impact on the selling of church land, the slave trade, and the determination of which citizens could serve in the National Guard. Mirabeau argued for the selling of church lands to private individuals in order to rescue the country from its financial troubles. This argument would be strongly supported by his fellow Jacobins. Although Mirabeau argued for the abolition of slavery, it must be said that, "in spite of their oft-expressed devotion for liberty and equality, the clubs long remained indifferent to the horrors of slavery and the slave trade" until later in the revolution, after Mirabeau's death. As for the National Guard, the National Assembly passed a decree on 6 December 1790 stating that only active citizens could serve on the National Guard. Due to "an article of the electoral law of October, 1789, only persons whose annual tax amounted to the equivalent of three days' work were recognized as active citizens," leaving the decree of 6 December to restrict the right to bear arms to the middle and upper classes.


text: The decree of 6 December led to heated debates within the clubs of the Jacobins, especially in Paris. It also pitted Maximilien Robespierre, a rising political figure, against Mirabeau. The evening after the decree was passed, Robespierre would attempt to give a speech against the decree at the Jacobins club in Paris only to be stopped by Mirabeau. He "attempted to stop him on the grounds that no one was allowed to challenge a decree already rendered" by the National Assembly; however, after an hour and a half of uproar Robespierre was allowed to finish. Historians believe that Mirabeau tried to stop Robespierre because he had begun to notice the change in the revolution to a more radical form led by the radical members of the Jacobin party. Mirabeau would serve as a member of the more moderate group called the "Société des amis de la Révolution de Paris", which was formed in November 1789. This group would disappear by 1790 due to conflict within the Jacobin Club.


text: After Mirabeau's death, there would be no greater place of mourning than in the Jacobin Clubs throughout Paris. It is said that at "Alençon tears ran from every eye and members fainted" over hearing the news of his death. The mourning of Mirabeau as a Jacobin hero would not last long, however. After the deposing of the monarchy in 1792, the French republic would find letters written by Mirabeau to the king about trying to save the monarchy. This would lead to the destruction of his bust in the Jacobin Club and to his denunciation by Robespierre as "an intriguer and political charlatan unworthy of the honor of lying in the Pantheon."


text: In foreign affairs, he held that the French people should conduct their revolution as they wished, and that no foreign nation had any right to interfere with the country's internal affairs. But he knew that neighboring nations were disturbed by the progress of the revolution, feared its influence on their own peoples, and that foreign monarchs were being importuned by French émigrés to intervene on behalf of the French monarchy. To prevent this intervention, or rather to give no pretext for it, was the guiding principle in his foreign policy. He was elected a member of the "comité diplomatique" of the Assembly in July 1790, and in this capacity he was able to prevent the Assembly from doing much harm with regard to foreign affairs. He had long known Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin, the foreign secretary, and, as matters became more strained, he entered into daily communication with the minister, advising him on every point, and, while dictating his policy, defended it in the Assembly. Mirabeau's exertions in this respect showed him to be a statesman; his influence is best demonstrated by the confused state of affairs in this area after his death.


text: Mirabeau's health had been damaged by the excesses of his youth and his strenuous work in politics, and in 1791, he contracted pericarditis. With the continuous medical attention paid to him by his friend and physician Pierre Jean George Cabanis, Mirabeau survived to perform his duties as president of the National Assembly until his death on 2 April 1791 in Paris. Even close to the end, he directed debates with eloquence that further increased his popularity. The people of Paris cherished him as one of the fathers of the Revolution. During the Trial of Louis XVI in 1792, Mirabeau's dealings with the royal court were brought to light, and he was largely discredited by the public after it became known that he had secretly acted as an intermediary between the monarchy and the revolutionaries and had taken payment for it. Historians in the 21st century discovered secret documents in the archives of Vienna that demonstrate that the Austrian ambassador orchestrated the meetings with the king and queen. Florimond-Claude, comte de Mercy-Argenteau, the ambassador, was the queen's political advisor, with advice tailored to the needs of Austria, not France.


text: He received a grand burial, and it was for him that the Panthéon in Paris was created as a burial place for great Frenchmen. The street where he died (rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin) was renamed "rue Mirabeau". In 1792, his secret dealings with the king were uncovered, and in 1794 his remains were removed from the Panthéon and were replaced with those of Jean-Paul Marat. His remains were then buried anonymously in the graveyard of Clamart. In spite of searches performed in 1889, they were not found.


text: With Mirabeau's death the task of saving the monarchy became much more difficult, as the king was less reconciled than he had ever been with the Revolution, and thus revolutionary leaders became less willing to share power with a king who proved so unwilling to compromise. Some historians, such as Francois Furet, however, believe that even had he lived, there would have been a similar outcome, as it would have been extremely difficult to remake the old monarchy in harmony with the growing democratic ideals of the age.


text: Mirabeau proved himself as one of the strongest early leaders of the revolution. His energy captivated his audience, his leadership was often the lead of the revolutionary ideas, while his work with the king stained his image. Mirabeau's early life, though filled with the ideas of a young man revolting against a stern father, helped give him these qualities.


text: Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of The Republic of Texas and fourth United States Ambassador to Nicaragua, was named in his honor.


text: His first literary work written after the bombastic, but eloquent "Essai sur le despotisme" (Neufchâtel, 1775) was a translation of Robert Watson's "Philip II", done in Amsterdam with the help of Nicolas-Luton Durival. His "Considerations sur l'ordre de Cincinnatus" (London, 1788) was based on a pamphlet by Aedanus Burke of South Carolina, who opposed the aristocratic tendencies of the Society of the Cincinnati, and the notes to it were by Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target. His financial writings were suggested by the Genevese exile Étienne Clavière.


text: During the Revolution, he received yet more help; men were proud to labour for him, and did not murmur because he absorbed all the credit and fame. Étienne Dumont, Clavière, Antoine-Adrien Lamourette and Étienne Salonion Reybaz were but a few of the most distinguished of his collaborators. Dumont was a Genevese exile and old friend of Romilly who willingly prepared the famous addresses that Mirabeau used to make to the Assembly marked by sudden bursts of eloquent declamation; Clavière helped him in finance and not only worked out his figures, but also wrote his financial discourses; Lamourette wrote the speeches on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; Reybaz not only wrote for him his famous speeches on the assignats, the organization of the national guard, and others, which Mirabeau read word for word at the tribune, but also even the posthumous speech on succession to the estates of intestates, which Talleyrand read in the Assembly as the last work of his dead friend.


text: He was also portrayed in the popular video game "Assassin's Creed Unity" as an Assassin and one of the main characters.


title: Project Pluto

text: Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in 1961 and 1964 respectively.


title: Project Pluto

text: On 1 January 1957, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selected the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory to study the feasibility of applying heat from a nuclear reactor to power a ramjet engine for a Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. This would have many advantages over other nuclear weapons delivery systems: operating at Mach 3, or around , and flying as low as , it would be invulnerable to interception by contemporary air defenses and carry more and larger nuclear warheads (up to sixteen with nuclear weapon yields of up to ) and deliver them with greater accuracy than was possible with intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) at the time and, unlike them, could be recalled.


title: Project Pluto

text: This research became known as Project Pluto, and was directed by Theodore Charles (Ted) Merkle, leader of the laboratory's R Division. Originally carried out at Livermore, California, testing was moved to new facilities constructed for $1.2 million on at NTS Site 401, also known as Jackass Flats. The test reactors were moved about on a railroad car that could be controlled remotely. The need to maintain supersonic speed at low altitude and in all kinds of weather meant that the reactor had to survive high temperatures and intense radiation. Ceramic nuclear fuel elements were used that contained highly enriched uranium oxide fuel and beryllium oxide neutron moderator.


title: Project Pluto

text: After a series of preliminary tests to verify the integrity of the components under conditions of strain and vibration, Tory II-A, the world's first nuclear ramjet engine, was run at full power (46 MW) on 14 May 1961. A larger, fully-functional ramjet engine was then developed called Tory II-C. This was run at full power (461 MW) on 20 May 1964, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of a nuclear-powered ramjet engine. Despite these and other successful tests, ICBM technology developed quicker than expected, and this reduced the need for cruise missiles. By the early 1960s, there was greater sensitivity about the dangers of radioactive emissions in the atmosphere, and devising an appropriate test plan for the necessary flight tests was difficult. On 1 July 1964, seven years and six months after it was started, Project Pluto was canceled.


title: Project Pluto

text: During the 1950s, the United States Air Force (USAF) considered the use of nuclear powered aircraft and missiles as part of its Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion project, which was coordinated by the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Office. Research into missiles was coordinated by the Missile Projects Branch. The concept of using a nuclear reactor to provide a heat source for a ramjet was explored by Frank E. Rom and Eldon W. Sams at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Lewis Research Center in 1954 and 1955.


title: Project Pluto

text: The principle behind the nuclear ramjet was relatively simple: motion of the vehicle pushed air in through the front of the vehicle (the ram effect). If a nuclear reactor heated the air, the hot air expanded at high speed out through a nozzle at the back, providing thrust. The concept appeared feasible, so in October 1956, the USAF issued a system requirement, SR 149, for the development of a winged supersonic missile.


title: Project Pluto

text: At the time, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was conducting studies of the use of a nuclear rocket as an upper stage of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on behalf of the United States Air Force (USAF). The AEC farmed this work out to its two rival atomic weapons laboratories, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, California. By late 1956 improvements in nuclear weapon design had reduced the need for a nuclear upper stage, and the development effort was concentrated at LASL, where it became known as Project Rover.


title: Project Pluto

text: On 1 January 1957, the USAF and the AEC selected the Livermore Laboratory to study the design of a nuclear reactor to power ramjet engines. Keeping the theme of dog-related names, this research became known as Project Pluto. It was directed by Theodore C. (Ted) Merkle, leader of the Laboratory's R Division.


title: Project Pluto

text: The proposed use for nuclear-powered ramjets would be to power a cruise missile, called SLAM, for Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. It would have many advantages over other nuclear weapons delivery systems. It was estimated that the reactor would weigh between , permitting a payload of over . Operating at Mach 3, or around and flying as low as , it would be invulnerable to interception by contemporary air defenses. It would carry sixteen nuclear warheads with nuclear weapon yields of up to and would deliver them with greater accuracy than was possible with ICBMs at the time and, unlike them, it could be recalled.


title: Project Pluto

text: It was estimated that the unit cost of each missile would be less than $5 million (equivalent to $ million in ), making them much cheaper than a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber. Operating costs would also be low, as keeping them in readiness would be cheaper than a submarine or bomber, and comparable with a missile silo-based ICBM. Range would not be unlimited, but would be determined by the fuel load. Merkle calculated that a MW-day would burn about one gram of highly enriched uranium. A 490 MW reactor with 50 kilograms of uranium would therefore burn 1 percent of its fuel each day. Assuming that an accumulation of neutron poisons could be avoided, the missile could fly for several days. The success of the project depended upon a series of technological advances in metallurgy and materials science. Pneumatic motors necessary to control the reactor in flight had to operate while red-hot and in the presence of intense ionizing radiation. The need to maintain supersonic speed at low altitude and in all kinds of weather meant that the reactor, code-named "Tory", had to survive high temperatures and conditions that would melt the metals used in most jet and rocket engines.


title: Project Pluto

text: The solution arrived at was to use ceramic fuel elements.The core of the reactor would be made of beryllium oxide (), the only available neutron moderator material that could withstand the high temperatures required. Over 80 percent of the fueled tubes were long; the rest varied in length so as to achieve the correct column length and arrangement. The tubes consisted of a BeO matrix with a grain size between in diameter containing a solid solution of urania (), zirconia () and yttria (). The Tory II-A reactor used a uranium-beryllia mixture, but by the time Tory II-C was built zirconia and yttria was added in a 1.06:1:1 ratio of urania:zirconia:yttria. The zirconia and yttria stabilized the urania against phase transition to triuranium octoxide () at temperatures around . The fuel particles of the urania-zirconia-yttria mixture (known as "horseradish" were mostly from in size, although some were smaller or larger. The uranium was in the form of oralloy: uranium enriched to 93.2 percent uranium-235).


title: Project Pluto

text: The tubes had a hexagonal cross-section measuring from one flat side to the opposite, with a 7.5-millimeter diameter hole in the center. They were closely packed to form a honeycomb pattern. The metal tie rods were made of René 41 and Hastelloy R235 and were cooled so they did not exceed . The ceramic tubes surrounding the tie rods (known as guard tubes) were unfueled and had smaller diameter holes. The core was surrounded by neutron reflectors on all sides.The forward reflector was thick and the aft reflector thick. Both were composed of BeO tubes. The side reflector consisted of of BeO tubes around which was of nickel shims. The reactor was controlled through the movement of hafnium control rods that moved axially within the tie rods. Twelve, known as shim rods, were located about from the central axis of the core, while two were located closer to the reflector; one was a vernier rod and the other as a safety rod. Normally the movement of the rods was restricted to but in the event of a scram they could be moved in 1.5 seconds. The shim rods were moved by four actuators, each of which handled three shim rods. The shim rods were long and in diameter, with a travel.


title: Project Pluto

text: The contract to manufacture the fuel elements was awarded to the Coors Porcelain Company. The process of making horseradish involved mixing sinterable BeO powder with oralloy uranyl nitrate, yttrium nitrate and zirconium nitrate to form a slurry which was coprecipitated by adding ammonium nitrate. Because the process involved oralloy, criticality safety required a long, narrow geometry for the mix tanks. The mixture was filtered, dried and calcined at . It was then blended with a binding mixture containing polyvinyl alcohol, methyl cellulose and water and extruded through a die at to form the tubes. The tubes were dried, the binder was burned out by heating them to , and they were fired in hydrogen at to densify them. The maximum permissible effect on reactivity due to impurities in the tubes was 2 to 3 percent. In practice it was only 0.5 percent.


title: Project Pluto

text: Tests were conducted at new facilities constructed for $1.2 million on of Jackass Flats at the AEC's Nevada Test Site (NTS), known as Site 401. The facilities here were intended for use by Project Rover, but while Rover's reactor was still under development, they were used for Project Pluto. The complex included of roads, critical-assembly building, control building, assembly and shop buildings, and utilities.


title: Project Pluto

text: An aggregate mine was purchased to supply the concrete for the walls of the disassembly building, Building 2201, which were thick. Building 2201 was designed to allow radioactive components to be adjusted, dissembled or replaced remotely. Operations in the main disassembly bay could be viewed through lead glass viewing windows. "Hot" cells adjacent to the disassembly bay were used to monitor the control rod actuators. Vaults within each cell were equipped with remote manipulators.


title: Project Pluto

text: All controls were located in the central control room, which was air conditioned with a positive pressure so air always flowed towards the disassembly bay and the hot cells, and the air from them used was passed through filters. The main disassembly bay and the hot cells were accessible through opening that were normally covered with lead plates. There showers and a radiation safety room for workers. Building 2201 also contained a maintenance shop, darkroom, offices, and equipment storage rooms. Scientists monitored the tests remotely via a television hook up from a tin shed located at a safe distance that had a fallout shelter stocked with two weeks' supply of food and water in the event of a major catastrophe.


title: Project Pluto

text: Some of oil well casing was necessary to store the approximately of compressed air at used to simulate ramjet flight conditions for Pluto. Three giant compressors were borrowed from the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut that could replenish the farm in five days. A five-minute, full-power test involved of air being forced over 14 million diameter steel balls that were held in four steel tanks which were heated to .


title: Project Pluto

text: Because the test reactors were highly radioactive once they were started, they were transported to and from the test site on railroad cars. The "Jackass and Western Railroad", as it was light-heartedly described, was said to be the world's shortest and slowest railroad. There were two locomotives, the remotely controlled electric L-1, and the diesel/electric L-2, which was manually controlled but had radiation shielding around the cab. The former was normally used; the latter was as a backup. The Cold Assembly Bay (Room 101) in Building 2201 was used for storage and assembly of components of the reactor test vehicle. It also contained a maintenance service pit and battery charger for locomotive.


title: Project Pluto

text: In 1957, the Livermore Laboratory began working on a prototype reactor called Tory II-A to test the proposed design. It was initially intended to build two Tory II-A test reactors, which were designated IIA-1 and IIA-2, but in the event only one was built, and designated II-A. The purpose was to test the design under conditions similar to that in a ramjet engine, but to save time and money, and reduce complexity, Tory II-A would have a much smaller diameter than the real thing, about a third of that required for the engine. To allow it to still reach criticality with reduced fuel, the core was surrounded by a thick nuclear graphite neutron reflector.


title: Project Pluto

text: The Tory II-A design process was completed by early 1960. During the summer and early fall of that year, the core was assembled at Livermore inside a special fixture in a shielded containment building It reached criticality on 7 October 1960 with the control vanes rotated 90° from the full shutdown position. A test was then carried out with the cooling passages of the core and neutron reflector filled with water. Instead of the predicted increase in reactivity, there was a drop, and the reactor could not go critical at all. The water was replaced with heavy water, but it was barely able to reach criticality. It was therefore concluded that additional fuel would be required to attain the required margin for error when more components were installed.


title: Project Pluto

text: The reactor was shipped to the Nevada Test Site for a series of dry runs and zero- or low-power tests. Another layer of fuel elements was added. The reactor was mounted on the test vehicle and, with heavy water for coolant, reached criticality during a test run on 9 December 1960, with the control vanes at 65°. It was estimated that without the heavy water, 71° would have been required. Boron rods were then inserted into the six central tie tubes. This lowered the reactivity of the core, and the vanes had to be turned to 132° before criticality was achieved. Uranium-235 foils were placed in the core tubes, and the reactor was run at 150 W for ten minutes.


title: Project Pluto

text: The next set of tests involved blowing air through the reactor while it was subcritical in order to test the integrity of the components under conditions of strain and vibration. On 17 and 18 December, air flow rates of for 30 seconds. During what was intended to be the final qualification test on 11 January 1961, with an air flow rate of and a core temperature of , the clamp holding the exit nozzle to the air duct on the test vehicle broke, and the nozzle flew through the air. Following this mishap, it was decided to conduct a test of radio-controlled disconnection and removal of the reactor from the test vehicle. During this test the electrically controller coupler between the locomotive and the test vehicle suddenly opened, and the test vehicle careened down the track and violently stuck the concrete face of the test pad bunker at the end. The test vehicle was extensively damaged, and had to be stripped down and rebuilt. All the reactor components had to be checked for cracks.


title: Project Pluto

text: With repairs completed, the Tory II-A was returned to the test pad on for another series of tests. It was found that without cooling water, the reactor reached criticality with the control vanes at 75°; with heavy water for coolant it was reached with them at 67°. With hot air flowing through the reactor, the core temperature was raised to , then to , and finally to . It was then operated at 10 KW for 60 seconds at . A final test was conducted on 3 May 1961, with an air flow rate of , a core temperature of and no incidents.


title: Project Pluto

text: Tory II-A was operated at its designed value on 14 May 1961, when it reached a power output of 46 MW with a core temperature of . Three high power test runs were conducted on 28 September, 5 October and 6 October. These reached power levels of 144, 166 and 162 MW with core temperatures of respectively. With the tests conducted successfully, the reactor was dissembled between December 1961 and September 1962.


title: Project Pluto

text: Tory II-A tested the reactor design and the integrity of the fuel elements under a simulation of operational conditions. Livermore now produced a second reactor, Tory II-C, which would be a fully functional engine for a ramjet missile. Issues that had been ignored in Tory II-A had to be resolved out in that of Tory II-C. The design was complete by August 1962. The Tory II-C reactor was cylindrical in shape, long and in diameter. It contained about 293,000 fueled and 16,000 unfueled beryllium oxide tubes, which occupied 55 percent of its volume. The fuel loading varied through the reactor to achieve the right power profile. In operation, the core generated .


title: Project Pluto

text: The checkout of the test facilities for Tory II-C testing commenced on 17 November 1962. The facilities were incomplete when this testing began, so many of the tests were in support of the construction program. These tests fell into four categories: testing of the air supply system; testing of the other facilities components; qualification of the test vehicle; and operator training. The facilities checkout ended on 5 March 1964, by which time 82 tests had been carried out.


title: Project Pluto

text: Before attempting a high power reactor test, five major tests were performed. The first test, conducted on 23 March 1964, was a subcritical test of the twelve hand-inserted and six electrically-activated auxiliary shutdown rods. The purpose of the test was to verify that the operational rods could be removed safely so long as the auxiliary rods were in place. This would mean that staff would not have to be removed from the test bunker area during checkout. The test was conducted as if it were a critical one, with all personnel evacuated from the test area and the test managed remotely from the control room. The test verified the predictions made at Livermore; the operational rods could be withdrawn safely. A cold critical test was then conducted the following day to verify that the instrumentation was working correctly.


title: Project Pluto

text: Hot zero-power tests were conducted on 9 and 23 April 1964. These involved testing the core under air flow conditions approaching those of a full power run. The test plan for the first test called for running air at at a rate of for 60 seconds. The test was aborted and the shim rods scrammed when vibration exceeded a pre-set level. It turned out that the vibration of the core was not the problem: it was the transducers used to measure vibration, which were not operating properly. Loose connections were repaired, and a second test scheduled. This time it was planned to operate successively at . This was done, and there was no vibration. The test also qualified the thermocouples used to monitor the core's temperature.


title: Project Pluto

text: The next step was to conduct a low power test with air at on 7 May 1964. As the air reaching maximum flow, shim actuator B2 became noisy and was placed on hold. Then, soon after the maximum was reached, actuator A1 detected a loss of air pressure and scrammed. Actuators A2 and B1 began moving to compensate for the loss of reactivity. A manual scram was then ordered, although in hindsight this was unnecessary. The problem with B2 was traced to a faulty wire, and that with A1 to a faulty pressure switch. Since there were no outstanding problems, the decision was taken to proceed with an intermediate power test on 12 May. This test aimed to simulate condition of a Mach 2.8 flight at . The reactor was taken to critical and the power increased to 750 kW. Air flow was then increased to at an average temperature of . The core reached . The test was concluded after an hour and 45 minutes.


title: Project Pluto

text: The stage was now set for a full power test on 20 May 1964. This would simulate a Mach 2.8 flight on a hot day at sea level. The reactor was started and power raised to 700 kW. Air was introduced at and then raised to . The reactor power was then increased to around 76 MW, at which point the core temperature was . All systems were functioning normally, so the airflow was increased to and power increased until the core temperature reached , at which point the power output was around 461 MW. The reactor was run for five minutes, after which a manual scram was initiated, and the airflow reduced to for two minutes. The whole test took about an hour. Inspection of the reactor afterwards was done without disassembly. No blockages or anomalies were detected. The control rods were all in place, and there was no evidence of damage or corrosion.


title: Project Pluto

text: Despite the successful tests, the Department of Defense, the sponsor of the Pluto project, had second thoughts. The weapon was considered "too provocative", and it was believed that it would compel the Soviets to construct a similar device. Intercontinental ballistic missile technology had proven to be more easily developed than previously thought, reducing the need for such highly capable cruise missiles. The ICBM has several advantages over the SLAM. An ICBM required less ground support and maintenance, and could be launched in minutes instead of several hours, and so was less vulnerable to a nuclear first strike. An ICBM also traveled to its target faster and was less vulnerable to interception by Soviet air defenses. The main advantage of the SLAM was its ability to carry a larger payload but the value of this was diminished by improvements in nuclear weapon design, which made them smaller and lighter, and the subsequent development of multiple warhead capability in ICBMs.


title: Project Pluto

text: The other major problem with the SLAM concept was the environmental damage caused by radioactive emissions during flight, and the disposal of the reactor at the end of the mission. Merkle estimated that about 100 grams of fission products would be produced, which would be dispersed over a wide area. Although small compared to that produced by a nuclear explosion, it was a problem for testing. It was anticipated that numerous test flights would be required.


title: Project Pluto

text: Atmospheric nuclear testing was still going on in the early 1960s, so the radioactive emissions were not considered to be a major problem by comparison. The noise level was estimated to be a deafening 150 decibels. And there was the possibility of the missile going out of control. The idea of testing it over Nevada was quickly discarded. It was proposed to conduct test flights in the vicinity of Wake Island, flying a figure-eight course. The reactor would then be dumped into the Pacific Ocean where it was deep. By the early 1960s there was increasing public awareness of the undesirable environmental impacts of radioactive contamination of the atmosphere and the ocean, and the radioactive emissions from the missile were considered unacceptable wherever the tests were conducted.


title: Project Pluto

text: The AEC requested $8 million (equivalent to $ million in ) in fiscal year 1965 for continued tests of Tory II-C and the development of Tory III. In April 1964, the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy recommended that $1.5 million be cut from this request. This provided continued funding for Tory II-C, but not for the development of Tory III. The Department of Defense's Director of Research and Engineering, Harold Brown favored the continuation of Project Pluto at a low level of funding in order to progress the technology. This was not good enough for the House Appropriations Committee; the technology had been demonstrated by the successful Tory II-C tests, and if there was no longer a military requirement for it, there was no reason to continue funding. It therefore cut another $5.5 million from the funding request, leaving only $1 million for "mothballing" the project. This led to the decision by the Department of Defense and the Department of State to terminate the project.


title: Project Pluto

text: On 1 July 1964, seven years and six months after it was started, Project Pluto was canceled. Merkle hosted a celebratory dinner at a nearby country club for project participants where SLAM tie tacks and bottles of "Pluto" mineral water were given away as souvenirs. At its peak, Project Pluto had employed around 350 people at Livermore and 100 at Site 401, and the total amount spent had been about $260 million (equivalent to $ million in ).


title: Project Pluto

text: The Tory II-C reactor was not disassembled after the high power test, and remained there until 1976, when it was dissembled at the Engine Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (E-MAD) building. In 1971 and 1972, Building 2201 was used by the Fuel Repackaging Operations Project. Fuel elements from the Tory II reactors were removed from the hot cells in Building 2201 and taken to Area 6, from whence they were shipped to the Idaho National Laboratory. Building 2201 was used in the 1970s and 1980s to house the Hydrogen Content Test Facility. Starting in 1986, the Sandia National Laboratory used it for a series of classified nuclear weapons related projects, and in 1998 an unidentified organization used it for a classified project. Building 2201 was cleaned and decontaminated between 2007 and 2009 to make it safe for future demolition.


title: Our Planet

text: Our Planet is a British nature documentary series made for Netflix. The series is narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Silverback Films, led by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, who also created BBC documentary series "Planet Earth", "Frozen Planet" and "The Blue Planet", in collaboration with the conservation charity World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Music composed by award-winning composer Steven Price.


title: Our Planet

text: The series addresses issues of conservation while featuring these desperate animals in their respective home regions, and has been noted for its greater focus on humans' impact on the environment than traditional nature documentaries, centering around how climate change impacts all living creatures. It is the first nature documentary Netflix has ever made. All episodes were released on 5 April 2019. A behind-the-scenes documentary was released onto Netflix on 2 August 2019. Netflix reported that 25 million households were expected to watch the series during its first month of release. It was later reported that 100 million households had watched the series as of March 2021.


title: Our Planet

text: On 15 April 2015, it was announced that the team behind the BBC nature series "Planet Earth" would produce an eight-part nature docu-series for Netflix that would be released in 2019. It was four years in the making and was filmed in 50 countries, and over 600 crew members took part in the production. The series focuses on the breadth of the diversity of habitats around the world, including the Arctic wilderness, the deep sea, the vast landscapes of Africa and the diverse jungles of South America.


title: Our Planet

text: In November 2018, David Attenborough was announced as the narrator, with the release date of 5 April 2019 also announced.


title: Our Planet

text: The series premiere was held on 4 April 2019, at the Natural History Museum in London. Guests at the premiere included Prince Charles and his two sons Prince William and Prince Harry, Charlie Brooker, David Beckham and his son Brooklyn Beckham, Ellie Goulding and the series narrator David Attenborough, who attended the event to underline their support for action against climate change.


title: Our Planet

text: In his speech, Prince Charles said he hoped “Our Planet” would educate hundreds of millions of people around the world about what action was required, while David Attenborough called on the world to "be responsible careful citizens of this planet which is our only home, and for the creatures that live in it."


title: Our Planet

text: The first teaser trailer for "Our Planet" was released on 8 November 2018. Three months later, on 4 February 2019, the second teaser trailer was released. On 19 March 2019, the official trailer for the documentary was released.


title: Our Planet

text: A 1 hour long bonus episode "Our Planet - Behind The Scenes" about the project is accessible under "Additional Videos" on Netflix.


title: Our Planet

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 93% based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 8.33/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A cornucopia of visual wonder and environmental advocacy, "Our Planet"s breathtaking cinematography explores more of this beautiful, blue marble while presenting an urgent call to action to its inhabitants" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 88 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Our Planet

text: Lucy Mangan of "The Guardian" gave out 4 out of 5 stars to Our Planet, saying "it places clearer emphasis on the fragility and interconnectedness of all the species and eco-systems on display, and on the huge impact, humanity has had on them in so short a time. Bryan Resnick of "Vox" praised the series as "can’t really describe the scale of what’s missing" stating "It reminds us we’re living in an age of staggering wildlife loss due to human development, over-fishing, deforestation, and climate change. This series doesn’t let us forget that. Humans have caused staggering amounts of wildlife loss. Our Planet doesn’t hide from it." Ben Travers of Indie Wire gave out an overall B+ for the series, and claims that the series ruthlessly contrasts the world's natural wonders with the environmental crisis killing them off, he wrote "Their deaths are a warning for the darkness underlying all of "Our Planet", a nature docuseries no longer content with passive commentary. It also offers all the stunning imagery you’ve come to expect from these documentarians, but its attitude may surprise you. Individual entries feel a little less memorable because of it. The light, comic touches that made for lovely little moments in "Planet Earth" are overshadowed if not spoiled entirely, by the traumatic lessons put front and centre."


title: Our Planet

text: Will Gompertz of BBC also handed out a 4 out of 5 stars for the series, stating it "gives us some of the most dazzling images you are ever likely to view on TV. When necessary, they are embellished with Attenborough's commentary, which is never obtrusive and always written with brevity and wit...It has been created by masters of their craft with an exceptional narrator, I do wonder, though, if the experienced executive producers at BBC would have sharpened up the first episode a little." Stuart McGurk of British "GQ" said "It’s hard not to see this as a direct rebuke of the BBC’s nature documentaries: take one well-worn spectacular of the natural world, shoot it even more spectacularly than the BBC ever did and structure your whole opening episode around the idea that, without taking things like global warming seriously – without putting it front and centre about any show you’re making about the natural world, because how could you not – then pretty soon they’ll be nothing left to film so beautifully." Kevin Yeoman of Screen Rant concluded the series as "stunningly ambitious", he wrote "Where "Our Planet" excels [Planet Earth and Blue Planet], though, is in its presentation. It’s not trying to convince anyone of anything — the time for doing that is long past. It’s simply stating this information as fact, in as straightforward a manner as possible. Not that it’s particularly difficult considering the evidence the series has on hand."


title: Our Planet

text: However, Ed Power of "The Telegraph" criticized the documentary series as "visually dazzling but very familiar." and gave it a 3 out of 5 stars, writing "It is clichéd in its portrayal of life on earth as a slow-motion ballet of tooth and claw...In short, the innovations that made Attenborough’s previous series so sensational are conspicuously absent. It’s a haunting vision. More of this and Our Planet might have been a meaningful addition to the canon of natural history series. Instead, it prioritizes cinematic grandeur to an almost oppressive degree." Writing in "The Independent", Lucy Jones stated that the most important aspect of the series, which set it apart from other nature documentaries of its type, was the depictions of the harsh realities of global warming, mass species extinction and environmental degradation which were woven into the narration that accompanied the breathtaking scenes and imagery, but she also argues it did not go far enough and should have been more radical given current ecological crises. In particular, she says the program should have called out those responsible for this ecocide. When Attenborough's narration tells the audience "We have destroyed half the forests on earth", she retorts "But, who is we? As well as the fossil fuel industry, where is the fishing industry? Agriculture? The plastics industry? The vested interests that keep the planet burning? Yes, we are all complicit – those of us in affluent societies with high-consumption lifestyles more so than anyone – but there are greater powers at work. Describing the scale of the challenge is necessary but I wanted the series to go further, to peer under the hood."


title: Our Planet

text: The soundtrack was released with a compilation of the incidental music specially commissioned for "Our Planet". The theme song "In This Together", which is a collaboration with English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding, is also included.


title: Our Planet

text: Starting from 20 June 2020, the series was aired on Indonesian television network TVRI as a part of "Belajar dari Rumah" (Study from Home) programming block, made possible by a partnership between the Ministry of Education and Culture and Netflix. The broadcast marked the first Netflix original documentary series ever aired on conventional television, alongside a collection of Netflix documentaries included in the partnership.


title: Our Planet

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Netflix has made the series available for free streaming on YouTube as an educational resource.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The seventh and final season of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered on September 24, 2002 on UPN and concluded its 22-episode run on May 20, 2003. It maintained its previous timeslot, airing Tuesdays at 8:00 pm ET.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Season seven deals with the Potential Slayers, normal girls around the world who are candidates to succeed the Slayer upon her death.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: It is revealed that Buffy's resurrection caused an instability which allows The First Evil, a spiritual entity that Buffy encountered in the third season, to begin tipping the balance between good and evil. It has inactive Potential Slayers hunted and killed by Caleb, a sinister and misogynistic preacher turned serial killer, who heads a cult called Bringers, who worship The First as a god. Inside the Hellmouth it raises an army of Turok-Han, an ancient and powerful sub species of vampire. Caleb later destroys the Watchers' Council's headquarters in London, killing many Watchers, including Quentin Travers.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Dawn begins her sophomore year at high school. Buffy gets a job at the rebuilt Sunnydale High, where she meets the new principal, Robin Wood, a vampire hunter and the son of deceased Slayer, Nikki Wood, who was killed by Spike in New York City many years ago. Buffy also reunites with Willow, who still is working through her emotional rampage in the previous season, and Spike, who earned his soul back but is temporarily driven mad by regret.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Willow begins to heal emotionally from Tara's death and finds solace with a Potential Slayer named Kennedy. They immediately start dating before Kennedy can fully understand Willow. Their relationship is strained when Willow drains a significant portion of her life force to reopen a portal for Buffy, but they soon reconcile.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson leave Mexico and return to Sunnydale after The First convinces Andrew to help open the Seal of Danzalthar, which results in the death of Jonathan. Andrew is captured by the Scoobies, who show resentment toward him, but he becomes a committed ally after The First takes Jonathan's form and tries to convince him to kill all the Potentials in the house. Andrew refuses, insisting he's good now, later admitting his guilt about how cruel his betrayal of Jonathan was and disclosing that he does not believe he will survive the forthcoming battle.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Anya and Xander break up for good after a demon named Halfrek gets her to kill a group of frat boys. Buffy and Anya fight while Willow summons D'Hoffryn, who questions Anya. Anya requests that her latest vengeance be reversed. Halfrek is killed and Anya is turned human once more.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Spike is driven mad by The First, and soon it also gains control of him for a time. The First also reveals that Spike killed Robin Wood's mother, sparking a vendetta. Robin makes an attempt on Spike's life. Ironically, this attack frees Spike from his insanity and, regaining his clarity, Spike beats Robin. Buffy finds the injured Robin in his garage and angrily shuns him for attacking Spike. Buffy finds out that Giles was part of the scheme, and becomes angry at him, but they soon make peace.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Willow helps track the Potentials in Sunnydale and a number of them, brought by Giles, take refuge in Buffy's house. Dawn at first believes herself to be a Potential, but becomes disappointed when she finds that is not the case. Xander cheers her up saying she's anything but ordinary. The now human Anya also returns to the Scooby Gang, and while she and Xander still love each other, they don't get back together.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Later, a fully reformed Faith, having been broken out of prison by Wesley to save Angel, returns to Sunnydale to help fight The First. During Faith's return, the Scoobies and the Potentials begin to question Buffy's leadership skills. Everything goes seemingly well, but when Buffy leads the Potentials to attack Caleb and the Bringers, several girls are killed and Xander loses an eye during the fight. The Scoobies and the Potentials eventually mutiny against her, electing a reluctant Faith as their new leader. Spike, however, stays loyal to Buffy and informs her that he has learned of an ancient weapon, known as the Scythe, that was designed only for the Slayer. While Buffy fights Caleb and finds the Scythe, Faith leads the Potentials on a mission in the sewers, only to find they've been tricked as a time bomb explodes. Following the explosion, several Turok-Han attack the survivors. Buffy saves the lives of the remaining Potentials, reconciles with her friends and finally makes peace with Faith.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: As the Hellmouth becomes more active, nearly all humans and supernatural creatures flee Sunnydale, turning the town into a ghost town. Buffy and her friends stay behind in an effort to defeat The First. Meanwhile, Xander, at Buffy's request, takes Dawn out of Sunnydale to safety. Also, Principal Wood returns to join the cause and finally accepts Spike.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: In the series finale, Dawn adamantly returns to help fight against the First. As she does so, Angel leaves Los Angeles and returns to Sunnydale with an amulet (given to him by Wolfram & Hart), which Buffy gives to Spike. Buffy finally kills Caleb by cutting him in half with the scythe. While Caleb is dead, they make their move to thwart The First's plans once and for all. The Potentials descend into the Hellmouth to fight an army of Turok-Han, while the other Scoobies hold off the few Turok-Han that escape into the halls of Sunnydale High. Willow uses a spell that activates all the Potential Slayers, granting them some Slayer powers. Anya is killed in the fight, along with some of the new Slayers. Fearing she is done for, The First returns to taunt Buffy, saying her fight is in vain. Refusing to let the world be destroyed, Buffy and her allies dig deep and begin to gain the upper hand. Spike's amulet channels the power of the sun and kills all of the Turok-Han in the Hellmouth, but Spike himself is also consumed and he sacrifices himself to defeat the enemy. Buffy tells Spike she loves him; he tells her to run. The Hellmouth collapses, and the resulting crater swallows all of Sunnydale. The survivors of the battle escape on a school bus, which Buffy catches up to after saying goodbye to Spike.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: In the last scene of the series, the survivors gather on the rim of Sunnydale's crater. The Scoobies and new Slayers tend to the wounded. Xander mourns Anya's death and is consoled by Andrew. Dawn asks what their next move is and Buffy smiles.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Series creator Joss Whedon served as executive producer, and wrote two episodes – the season premiere and finale – and directed the finale as well. Marti Noxon also served as executive producer and was the showrunner, but only co-wrote one episode. Noxon was originally due to write the penultimate episode of the series, but she was already busy writing a new pilot for Fox. Jane Espenson was promoted to co-executive producer and wrote or co-wrote six episodes. Co-executive producer David Fury wrote three episodes, including directing one of them. Supervising producer Douglas Petrie was promoted to co-executive producer midseason and wrote or co-wrote four episodes, including directing one of them. Rebecca Rand Kirshner was promoted to executive story editor and wrote three episodes. Drew Z. Greenberg was promoted to story editor and wrote three episodes. The only new addition was Drew Goddard, who wrote or co-wrote five episodes.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: David Solomon directed the most episodes in the seventh season, directing five episodes and was promoted to co-executive producer. James A. Contner (also co-producer) directed three.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The seventh and final season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" coincided with the fourth season of "Angel". This was the final year in which both shows were on television together.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: In "Lies My Parents Told Me", Willow (Alyson Hannigan) receives a call from Fred. She leaves immediately and goes to L.A. without telling why. Willow appears in the "Angel" episode "Orpheus" to re-ensoul Angel (David Boreanaz) as she previously did before in "Becoming". After successfully re-ensouling Angel, she brings Faith (Eliza Dushku) back with her to Sunnydale to help in the fight against The First Evil.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: In the "Angel" season four finale, "Home", Angel receives an amulet from Wolfram & Hart which is important to the final battle in Sunnydale. Angel goes to Sunnydale in the penultimate episode "End of Days" and also appears in the series finale "Chosen". Angel gives Buffy the amulet (which is later worn by Spike in the final battle) and offers his help, but Buffy declines as she needs him to be the second front if they fail. Buffy and Angel share one final moment in a graveyard where they discuss a possible future.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: In the fifth and final season of "Angel", Spike is resurrected (after his death in "Chosen") by the magical amulet. Spike becomes a main character in the final season. Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab) also becomes a main character in the final season. "Buffy" recurring character Andrew Wells (Tom Lenk) appears in two episodes ("Damage" and "The Girl in Question") in the final season of "Angel", revealed to be a Watcher-in-training. Andrew states in "Damage" that Xander is in Africa, Willow and Kennedy are in Brazil, Buffy and Dawn are in Rome, and everyone else is in England.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The series received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series for "Chosen". While, "Chosen" won for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Series at the Visual Effects Society Awards.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: "Conversations with Dead People" won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form, while "Chosen" was nominated in the same category.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The Futon Critic named "Conversations with Dead People" the 42nd best episode of 2002 and "Chosen" the 50th best episode of 2003.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The seventh season averaged 4.1 million viewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave season seven a score of 80% with an average rating of 8.33 out of 10 based on 20 reviews with a critics consensus stating, "Seldom subtle, always subversive, "Buffy" ends the way it began: a funny, weird show that packs a punch and a whole lot of feeling."


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: In late 2006, series creator Joss Whedon announced that a canonical comic book continuation of the series would be written. The comic book, titled "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight", is published by Dark Horse Comics; and the first issue (written by Whedon), titled "The Long Way Home" was released on March 14, 2007.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The storyline picks up after the end of the final episode with the Scooby Gang in Europe and Buffy in charge of all the new Slayers. Most of the characters from the television series appear in the comic book series.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: Out of the 40 issues of "Season Eight", Whedon wrote 17 issues and oversaw all other issues as "executive producer". Other "Buffy" television writers that have written issues include Jane Espenson (6 issues), Drew Goddard (4 issues), Steven S. DeKnight (1 issue), Drew Z. Greenberg (1 issue) and Doug Petrie (1 issue).


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: The comic book series continued with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine" in September 2011, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten" in March 2014, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eleven" in November 2016, and concluded with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Twelve" in June 2018.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: A graphic novel (canon status not certain) set during the seventh season of the show, "Spike: Into the Light," written by James Marsters, was released by Dark Horse Comics on July 16, 2014.


title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)

text: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": The Complete Seventh Season was released on DVD in region 1 on November 16, 2004 and in region 2 on April 5, 2004. The DVD includes all 22 episodes on 6 discs presented in full frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio (region 1) and in anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio (region 2 and 4). Special features on the DVD include seven commentary tracks—"Lessons" by writer Joss Whedon and director David Solomon; "Conversations with Dead People" by writers Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard, director Nick Marck, and actors Danny Strong and Tom Lenk; "Selfless" by writer Drew Goddard and director David Solomon; "The Killer in Me" by writer Drew Z. Greenberg and director David Solomon; "Lies My Parents Told Me" by co-writer/director David Fury, co-writer Drew Goddard, and actors James Marsters and D. B. Woodside; "Dirty Girls" by writer Drew Goddard and actor Nicholas Brendon; and "Chosen" by writer and director Joss Whedon. Featurettes include, ""Buffy": It's Always Been About the Fans", which details the fandom of the series; ""Buffy" 101: Studying the Slayer" showcases interviews with television critics and scholars discussing the themes of show; "Generation S" showcases interviews with the "Slayerettes" introduced in the season; "The Last Sundown" has Joss Whedon list his favorite episodes and comments on the show; ""Buffy" wraps" features interviews with cast and crew at the series wrap party; and "Season 7 Overview – "Buffy": Full Circle", a 30-minute featurette where cast and crew members discuss the season. Also included are series outtakes and DVD-ROM content.


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: Can't Slow Down is the second solo studio album by American recording artist Lionel Richie. It was released on October 11, 1983, by Motown Records. It has sold over 20 million copies, and is Richie's best-selling album of all time. Five singles were released from "Can't Slow Down", all of which hit the top ten of the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, including two that reached No. 1: "All Night Long (All Night)" and "Hello". The album also won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1985.


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: In a contemporary review for "The Village Voice", music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "B+" and called it a "surprisingly solid" improvement, particularly with respect to Richie's ballad singing. He felt that its "jumpy international dance-pop" suited Richie more than the Commodores' funk had and predicted that, considering his "well-established appeal to white people," "Can't Slow Down" had the potential to become a "mini-"Thriller"". Don Shewey of "Rolling Stone" magazine gave the album four out of five stars and said that, although the ballads were monotonous, Richie successfully broadened his music for different listeners and drew on contemporary artists such as Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson: "if you can't innovate, imitate. And the more honest they are about their sources, the better."


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that Richie took a conservative, melodic hook-based approach on an album whose hits showed him at his best and whose only weakness was a short running time. In 1999, "Q" magazine included "Can't Slow Down" on its list of the best Motown records of all time and stated, "Production values are high, his songwriting craft is at its peak and at least one track – the global smash 'All Night Long' – is an anthem to good times that makes the heart sing and feet twitch".


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: The album reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" album chart. It also spent 59 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 (including the entire year of 1984) and a total of 160 weeks (over three years) on the "Billboard" 200. After being the third best-selling album of 1984, it went on to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1985, beating out such heavyweight contenders as "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen and "Purple Rain" by Prince. By 1986 the album had sold 15 million copies, eventually selling over 20 million.


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: "Can't Slow Down" achieved the feat of having every single released hit the top ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Two songs, "Hello" and "All Night Long (All Night)", both went to #1. Other hits include "Stuck on You" (US #3), "Running With the Night" (US #7), and "Penny Lover" (US #8). The ballad "The Only One" was a significant song from the album which was never released as a single, yet remains a popular staple of Richie's live performances.


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: The single "Stuck on You" also reached No. 24 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart (now Hot Country Songs).


title: Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)

text: On May 6, 2003, a two-CD deluxe edition of the album was released in conjunction of the 20th anniversary of the album's original release date. This version included several mixes originally included on various singles from the album at the end of the first CD, including instrumental versions of the 12-inch extended mixes of "All Night Long (All Night)" and "Running with the Night". Disc 2 showcased demo or alternate versions of all tracks from the original album, plus additional unfinished songs from the same sessions, all previously unreleased.


title: Amberjack

text: Amberjacks are Atlantic and Pacific fish in the genus "Seriola" of the family Carangidae. They are widely consumed across the world in various cultures, most notably for Pacific amberjacks in Japanese cuisine; they are most often found in the warmer parts of the oceans. There are many variations of amberjack, including greater amberjack (Atlantic), lesser amberjack (Atlantic), Almaco jack (Pacific), yellowtail (Pacific), and the banded rudderfish (Atlantic). Though most of the Seriola species are considered "amberjacks", the species Seriola hippos (samson fish) is not.


title: Amberjack

text: Greater amberjacks, "Seriola dumerili", are the largest of the jacks. They usually have dark stripes extending from nose to in front of their dorsal fins. They have no scutes and soft dorsal bases less than twice the length of the anal fin bases. They are usually 18 kg (40 pounds) or less, and are found associated with rocky reefs, debris, and wrecks, typically in 20 to 75 m (10 to 40 fathoms). Greater amberjacks are also found in the Pacific.


title: Amberjack

text: Lesser amberjacks, "Seriola fasciata", have proportionately larger eyes and deeper bodies than greater amberjacks. They are olive green or brownish-black with silver sides, and usually have a dark band extending upward from their eyes. Juveniles have split or wavy bars on their sides. The adults are usually under 5 kg (10 lbs). They are found deeper than other jacks, commonly 50 to 130 m (30 to 70 fathoms).


title: Amberjack

text: Amberjacks are voracious predators, which feed on squid, fish, and crustaceans, and are thought to spawn offshore throughout most of the year.


title: Amberjack

text: Banded rudderfish, "Seriola zonata", is the second-smallest amberjack. This jack can be distinguished from the pilot fish by the presence of a first dorsal fin. Juveniles are banded vertically like pilotfish, and follow large objects or animals. Large individuals (over 10 inches) have no bands. This fish, though commonly caught, is rarely identified. Large ones, with a raccoon-stripe on the eye and an iridescent gold stripe on the side, are usually called amberjacks when caught, and juveniles are called pilotfish. They are found as far north as Nova Scotia. They are less dependent on sharks, etc., than pilotfish. They can be caught on shrimp, silversides, lures (e.g. spoons), and flies.


title: Amberjack

text: Other species exist in other parts of the world, such as: yellowtail amberjack (including the Asian yellowtail, the California yellowtail, and yellowtail kingfish or southern yellowtail), Almaco jack, and Japanese amberjack (five-ray yellowtail).


title: Amberjack

text: Amberjacks are predators. They feed on pelagic and benthic fish. Their prey also includes squid and crustaceans, as well as sardines and bigeye scad. Younger juvenile jacks tend to feed on plankton and small invertebrates.


title: Amberjack

text: Greater Amberjacks mature at around 4 years old, and migrate in late spring to early summer (March to June) to reproduce. They migrate to deeper water to spawn, producing their young near shipwrecks or large objects as a safe haven.


title: Amberjack

text: Females are much larger than males, and have a higher life expectancy. The maximum lifespan for females is 17 years, whilst the average is 10 due to popular demand for them in big game fishing and as a high-quality food fish.


title: Amberjack

text: Amberjacks are not top of the food chain in their habitat, and therefore are prone to being prey for Yellowfin Tuna, sharks and other larger fish.


title: John Ridley

text: John Ridley IV (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for "12 Years a Slave", for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the anthology series "American Crime". In 2017 he directed the documentary film "".


title: John Ridley

text: Ridley was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was raised from the age of seven in Mequon, Wisconsin, with an ophthalmologist father, John Ridley, III, and a mother, Terry Ridley, who was a special education teacher for Milwaukee Public Schools. He has two sisters and is the middle sibling.


title: John Ridley

text: Ridley graduated from Homestead High School in Mequon, Wisconsin in 1982. He enrolled in Indiana University but transferred to New York University. There, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in East Asian languages. The subject wasn't applicable to his career, but it sparked his intellectual interests. Ridley is Christian.


title: John Ridley

text: Following college, Ridley spent a year living and traveling in Japan. Then, he returned to New York and began performing standup comedy in New York City, and he made appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". Moving to Los Angeles in 1990, he began writing for such television sitcoms as "Martin", "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and "The John Larroquette Show".


title: John Ridley

text: After both writing and directing his film debut, the 1997 crime thriller "Cold Around the Heart", he and Oliver Stone co-adapted Ridley's first novel, "Stray Dogs" (still unpublished when Stone bought the rights) into the 1997 Stone-directed film "U Turn", which was released slightly earlier than "Cold Around the Heart". Ridley went on to write the novels "Love Is a Racket" and "Everybody Smokes in Hell". His novel "Spoils of War" was adapted into the 1999 David O. Russell-directed "Three Kings". Ridley's original script was rewritten by Russell and Ridley, with Ridley receiving a "story by" credit negotiated among himself, Russell, and the releasing studio, Warner Bros. Ridley then became a writer and a supervising producer on the NBC crime drama "Third Watch". His other novels are "The Drift", "Those Who Walk in Darkness", and "A Conversation with the Mann". He also wrote the graphic novel "The American Way".


title: John Ridley

text: From 2000 to 2010, he was a commentator and blogger for NPR. His blog was "Visible Man", a play on Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man". In 2003, Ridley inked a one-year overall deal with Universal Network Television.


title: John Ridley

text: His work as screenwriter also includes "12 Years a Slave", "Red Tails", and "Undercover Brother." His script for "12 Years a Slave" won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, making Ridley the second African American to win the award, after Geoffrey S. Fletcher (for "Precious", based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire).


title: John Ridley

text: In April 2015, Ridley was developing an ABC television series involving an existing Marvel Comics character. However, by December 2019, the project was cancelled due to Marvel Television folding into Marvel Studios.


title: John Ridley

text: On April 16, 2018, it was announced that Ridley would direct and write an adaptation of his graphic novel "The American Way" produced by Blumhouse Productions.


title: John Ridley

text: On June 4, 2018, it was announced that Ridley would direct a feature film adaptation of the Robert Silverberg short story, "Needle in a Timestack" produced by Bron Studios. The film featured performances from Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, Cynthia Erivo, and Orlando Bloom.


title: John Ridley

text: In 2021, Ridley began writing a number of series for DC Comics. The series include a new Batman series 'The Next Batman' as part of the company's line-wide event 'Future State', and a 5-issue series 'The Other History of the DC Universe' a text-based story about the history of the non-white, non-American DC heroes such as Black Lightning and Katana.


title: John Ridley

text: In December 2007, during the Writers Guild of America strike against the major production studios, Ridley opted for WGA membership as a dues-paying non-member, or "fi-core," making him eligible to submit scripts to the studios while the strike was ongoing. In an op-ed published in the "Los Angeles Times", Ridley expressed his frustration at the direction the strike had taken and the WGA's crushing of internal dissent: "After 15 years of being told shut up, sit down and be part of the groupthink, I decided I did not belong in the guild. The guild has a way to option out. I took the option." Ridley's screenplay for "12 Years a Slave" was thus ineligible for a Writers Guild of America Award.


title: Cambodian riel

text: The riel (; ; sign: ៛; code: KHR) is the currency of Cambodia. There have been two distinct riel, the first issued between 1953 and May 1975. Between 1975 and 1980, the country had no monetary system. A second currency, also named "riel", has been issued since 20 March 1980. Since the 1990s, citizens have used the riel alongside the U.S. dollar at the well-known rate of 4,000 KHR/USD for retail payments.


title: Cambodian riel

text: Popular belief suggests that the name of the currency comes from the Mekong river fish, the "riĕl" ("small fish" in Khmer). It is more likely that the name derives from the high silver content Spanish-American dollar whose value is eight "reales", a coin widely used for international trade in Asia and the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries.


title: Cambodian riel

text: In rural areas the riel is used for virtually all purchases, large and small. However, the United States dollar is also used, particularly in urban Cambodia and tourist areas. In areas near the Thai border, the Thai baht is also accepted.


title: Cambodian riel

text: Dollarization started in the 1980s and continued to the early 90s when the United Nations contributed humanitarian aid, refugees began sending remittances home, and inflation as high as 177% per year eroded confidence in the riel. From 1991-1993, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia stationed 22,000 personnel throughout Cambodia, whose spending represented a large part of the Cambodian economy.


title: Cambodian riel

text: While the riel remains in common use in the provinces, the major cities and tourist areas heavily use the U.S. dollar. The latter is dispensed in ATMs, accepted in virtually all purchases, and USD quotations are required to price hotel rooms, airline tickets and significant financial transactions. Everyone knows the exchange rate of 4,000 KHR/US$ for retail trade, with riel paid out for change in fractions of a dollar.


title: Cambodian riel

text: In June 2020, the National Bank of Cambodia announced the phaseout from wide circulation of small U.S. dollar banknotes of $1, $2 and $5. This is aimed at reducing the cost of keeping the smaller US notes in circulation, as well as increasing the use of the riel in lieu of these notes. No fees were to be charged to collect these small notes before 31 August, 2020, but after that date banks were expected to incur costs of transporting these notes.


title: Cambodian riel

text: The piastre was introduced in French Indochina in 1885 at par with the Spanish-American silver dollar, and was in use until 1952.


title: Cambodian riel

text: In 1953, the Cambodia branch of the "Institut d'Émission des États du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam" issued notes dual denominated in piastre and riel with the riel being at par with the piastre. At the same time, the two other branches of the "Institut" had similar arrangements with the đồng in South Vietnam and the kip in Laos. The piastre itself was derived from Spanish pieces of eight (pesos).


title: Cambodian riel

text: The riel was at first subdivided into 100 "centimes" (abbreviated to cent. on the coins) but this changed in 1959 to 100 "sen" (). For the first few years, the riel and piastre circulated alongside each other. The first riel banknotes were also denominated in piastres.


title: Cambodian riel

text: Coins: The 10, 20 and 50 centimes of 1953 and sen coins were minted in aluminum and were the same size as the corresponding att and xu (su) coins of Laos and South Vietnam (though without the holes in the Lao coins). A 1 riel coin about the size of a U.S. nickel was to be issued in 1970, as part of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization's coin program, but was not released, perhaps due to the overthrow of the government of Norodom Sihanouk by Lon Nol.


title: Cambodian riel

text: Although the Khmer Rouge printed banknotes, these notes were not issued as money was abolished after the Khmer Rouge took control of the country.


title: Cambodian riel

text: In 1993 they printed a series of coloured banknotes for limited use on territories controlled by them.


title: Cambodian riel

text: After the Vietnamese attacked Khmer Rouge in 1978, the riel was re-established as Cambodia's national currency on 20 March 1980, initially at a value of 4 riels = 1 U.S. dollar. It is subdivided into 10 kaks or 100 sens. Because there was no money for it to replace and a severely disrupted economy, the central government gave away the new money to the populace in order to encourage its use.


title: Cambodian riel

text: The first coins were 5 sen pieces, minted in 1979 and made of aluminum. No more coins were minted until 1994, when denominations of 50, 100, 200 and 500 riels were introduced. However, these are rarely found in circulation.


title: Caliban's War

text: Caliban's War is a 2012 science fiction novel by James S. A. Corey (pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). It is about a conflict in the Solar System that involves Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt (colonies of people living on asteroids, referred to as "Belters"). It is the second book in "The Expanse" series and is preceded by "Leviathan Wakes". The third book, "Abaddon's Gate", was released on June 4, 2013. One of eight short stories and novellas published by James S. A. Corey, entitled "Gods of Risk", takes place directly after the events of "Caliban's War".


title: Caliban's War

text: Eighteen months after the events of "Leviathan Wakes", the solar system is in a precarious balance while they watch unknowable events unfold on the planet Venus. Earth and Mars are still poised for battle, and someone didn't recognize the warning that the Eros Incident held for humanity.


title: Caliban's War

text: On Ganymede, Mei Meng is kidnapped from her preschool by her doctor. Several hours later, Earth and Martian space marines are attacked and effortlessly killed by a super soldier, with Bobbie Draper, a Martian marine, the only survivor. Earth and Mars begin a shooting war which throws Ganymede into chaos. In the aftermath, Mei's father Praxidike Meng fruitlessly searches for his daughter in the midst of the societal breakdown in the Ganymede colony. Several months later, the crew of the "Rocinante" are tasked with delivering emergency aid to Ganymede. Meng spots James Holden during a food riot and asks the crew to help find his daughter. They agree and are able to trace her kidnappers to unused tunnels on the moon. Holden, Meng, and ship mechanic Amos Burton discover a secret lab. In the midst of a shootout with lab security, they inadvertently release another super soldier who kills some of the lab personnel. In the wake of the battle, the crew find remnants of the protomolecule and the corpse of Mei's friend, who was being treated by Mei's doctor for immunodeficiency. The crew rush to escape the station as more chaos erupts around them, and are able to make it back aboard the "Rocinante".


title: Caliban's War

text: Draper is brought to the peace talks between Earth and Mars occurring on Earth, giving testimony regarding the super soldier attack on Ganymede. She violates diplomatic protocol and is dismissed by the Martian delegation, but is then hired by Chrisjen Avasarala, who is leading the UN negotiations. Draper discovers that Avasarala's assistant is betraying her, leading Avasarala to conclude that her UN superiors are trying to get rid of her, from which she deduces that a group within the UN is responsible for the super soldier attack. Avasarala allows Draper to be brought along as her bodyguard on a slow-moving yacht headed to Ganymede on an ostensible relief mission. On their way to Tycho station, the "Rocinante" crew discovers a super soldier stowed away in their cargo hold. They are able to lure out the creature using radioactive bait before vaporizing it with the ship's exhaust. The "Rocinante" is damaged during the encounter, but the crew learn more about the super soldiers. Holden confronts Fred Johnson, who he believes controls the only other sample of the protomolecule. Johnson denies involvement with the Ganymede incident and fires Holden's crew. They help Meng release a video asking for help searching for Mei, raising enough money to continue the search. Upon receiving information about Mei's doctor, Meng deduces that the super soldiers are being created on a base on Io. With the "Rocinante" repaired, they set out to recover Mei.


title: Caliban's War

text: On board the yacht, Avasarala sees Meng's video appeal and learns that a UN detachment is heading to intercept the "Rocinante". The crew of the yacht prevent her from warning Holden, claiming that their communication systems are broken. When they refuse her demands to get the yacht repaired, Avasarala has Draper take control of the vessel. Avasarala sends a warning to Holden, and she and Draper board a racing pinnace to rendezvous with the "Rocinante". After meeting Holden's crew, Avasarala and Draper share notes of the super soldiers. Realizing that they are several days away from being destroyed by the UN detachment, Avasarala convinces the crew to let her send this information to her contacts within the UN to prevent an all-out war. Draper and Avasarala convince the Martian fleet to help protect the "Rocinante". This culminates in a space battle between the UN detachment, the Martian forces, and a second UN fleet loyal to Avasarala. With the UN Secretary General recalling the admiral hostile to the "Rocinante", the battle ends in victory for the Martians and Avasarala's faction. The crew lands on Io, where Amos and Meng rescue Mei along with other immunodeficient children. Draper kills a super soldier using knowledge about its capabilities. The crew heads back to Luna, where the people responsible for the super soldier project are brought to justice. Avasarala is promoted, Meng is hired to oversee efforts to restore Ganymede, Draper returns to Mars, and the "Rocinante" takes a contract escorting a supply ship. Throughout the story, the solar system had been watching changes on Venus, which culminate with the launch of something unknown as the book ends.


title: Caliban's War

text: Critical reception for "Caliban's War" was predominantly positive, with "Kirkus Reviews" noting that the book could be enjoyed as a standalone novel but was "best appreciated after volume one". Wired.com's Geek Dad and "Publishers Weekly" both praised the novel, with GeekDad citing the book's "believable human personalities and technology that is easily recognizable" as a highlight. Tor.com gave an overall positive review for "Caliban's War", but noted that there was "some rather tiresome dialogue in the cards, as well as an overabundance of laughably transparent politics, and a couple of at best cartoonishly characterised bad guys".


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: Kim Dong-jun (born February 11, 1992), also known as just Dongjun, is a South Korean singer and actor. He debuted as member of boy group (and later its subgroup ZE:A Five and ZE:A J). Apart from his group's activities, he has established himself as an actor, notably through his participation in various television dramas such as "The Fugitive of Joseon" (2013), "Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul-ho" (2016), "Black" (2017) and "About Time" (2018). He has also starred in films such as "A Company Man" (2012), "Take My Hand" (2014), and "Dead Again" (2017).


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: Kim entered a nine-membered group called "Children of Empire". In 2009, they started in Mnet "Children of Empire" and "Children of Empire Returns", where they tour the country doing guerilla performances. Later the group faced controversy in December following the similarities of the group's name to Brown Eyed Girls' JeA. The group later changed the pronunciation of the name to avoid implications. On January 7, 2010, the group debuted with their EP, "Nativity" under the name ZE:A.


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: ZE:A J solo project has released solo track for Kevin, Heechul and Dongjun. Dongjun was the last member to release solo track "Healing" on May 3. The track was composed and written by himself.


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: Kim won two gold medals in the Idol Athletes Chuseok Special on August 27, 2011, in men's 100 meter and 110 meter hurdles against other idols.


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: In June 2017, Kim joined Gold Moon Entertainment after his contract with Star Empire Entertainment ended. The CEO of his new agency was ZE:A's former manager, Hwang Jung-moon. In August 2017, it was reported that Gold Moon Entertainment, The Vibe Entertainment and Asakusa Games had merged and now operate under the name "Major 9."


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: In July 2017, it was reported that Kim was set to star OCN's new drama, "Black", portraying a second generation chaebol.


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: In May 2018, Kim starred on tvN's drama "About Time" portraying a musical director who is known for his genius abilities, but lacks humanity.


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: Kim enlisted as an active duty soldier on July 12, 2021. He completed basic military training in first place and was selected as a special warrior. Currently, he’s serving as an assistant instructor at the Korea Army Training Center.


title: Kim Dong-jun

text: While serving in the military, Kim appeared in the 5th episode of tvN variety program "The Backpacker Chef" which aired on June 23, 2022. At that time, he had been promoted to a corporal and was serving as an assistant in the 1st Infantry Recruit Training Battalion.