title: Regulatory capture

text: George Stigler framed the problem of regulatory capture as "the problem of discovering when and why an industry is able to use the state for its purposes". He focuses on whole industries. But, it is never a whole industry which is ‘capturing’ its regulators, but only the big companies which, using the tool of the revolving door, ‘highjack’ the regulator by offering high salaries. Brezis and Cariolle (2019) has shown that the connected firms are always the big firms. Indeed, the top 5 financial companies concentrate around 80% of the stock of revolving door movements and regulatory capture. This leads to inequality of influence among firms in the same sector.


title: Regulatory capture

text: It should also be noted that regulatory capture in developed country is not anymore related to corruption and illegal behavior, but to abuse of power.


title: Regulatory capture

text: There is substantial academic literature suggesting that smaller government units are easier for small, concentrated industries to capture than large ones. For example, a group of states or provinces with a large timber industry might have their legislature and/or their delegation to the national legislature captured by lumber companies. These states or provinces then becomes the voice of the industry, even to the point of blocking national policies that would be preferred by the majority across the whole country. Moore and Giovinazzo (2012) call this "distortion gap".


title: Regulatory capture

text: The opposite is possible. Very large and powerful industries (e.g. energy, banking, weapon system construction) can capture national governments, and then use that power to block policies at the national, state or provincial level that the voters may want, although even local interests can thwart national priorities.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Regulatory capture has an economic basis: vested interests in an industry have the greatest financial stake in regulations affecting them, and so are more likely to try to influence the regulator than relatively dispersed individual consumers, each with little incentive. When regulators form expert bodies to examine policy, these invariably feature current or former industry members, or at the very least, individuals with lives and contacts in the industry. Capture is also facilitated where consumers or taxpayers have a poorer understanding than businesses of underlying issues.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Jon Hanson and his co-authors argue that the phenomenon extends beyond political agencies and organizations. Businesses have an incentive to control anything that has power over them, including the media, academia and popular culture, and will try to capture them too. This is called "deep capture".


title: Regulatory capture

text: Regulatory public interest is based on market failure and welfare economics. It holds that regulation is the response of the government to public needs. Its purpose is to make up for market failures, improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and maximize social welfare. Posner pointed out that the public interest theory contains the assumption that the market is fragile, and that if left unchecked, it will tend to be unfair and inefficient, and government regulation is a costless and effective way to meet the needs of social justice and efficiency. Mimik believes that government regulation is a public administration policy that focuses on private behavior. It is a rule drawn from the public interest. Irving and Brouhingan saw regulation as a way of obeying public needs and weakening the risk of market operations. They also expressed the view that regulation reflects the public interest.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The review of the United States' history of regulation at the end of the 19th century, especially the regulation of railway tariffs by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887, revealed that regulations and market failures are not co-relevant. At least until the 1960s, regulation was developed in the direction of favoring producers, and regulation increased the profits of manufacturers within the industry. In potentially competitive industries such as trucking and taxis, regulations allow higher prices and prevent entrants. In monopoly industries such as electric power generation, there is evidence that regulation has little effect on prices, so the industry can earn excess profits. Evidence shows that regulation is beneficial to producers.


title: Regulatory capture

text: These observations led to the emergence and development of regulatory capture theory. Contrary to regulatory public interest theory, this holds that the provision of regulation adapts to the industry's needs, that is, both the legislator and regulator are controlled and captured by the industry. The basic view of the theory is that the regulator gets captured no matter how the regulatory scheme is designed. The implication is that regulation increases the industry's profits rather than the social welfare.


title: Regulatory capture

text: This was essentially a purely capture theory in the early days, that is, the regulators and legislators were captured and controlled by the industry. Later regulatory models, such as those by Stigler, Pelzmann, or Becker, follow the regulatory capture theory in the eyes of Posner (1974) and others. All these models reflect that regulators and legislators are trying to maximize private, not public, interests. They use "private interest" theory to explain the origin and purpose of regulation. Aton (1986) argues that Stigler's theoretical logic is clearer and more central than the previous "capture theory" hypothesis, but it is difficult to distinguish between the two.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Regulatory capture theory has a specific meaning, that is, an experience statement that regulations are beneficial for producers in real life. So it is essentially not a true regulatory theory. Although the analysis results are similar to the Stigler model, the methods are completely different. Stigler used standard economic analysis methods to analyze the regulation behavior, then created a new regulatory theory – regulatory economic theory. Of course, different divisions depend on the criteria for division, and they essentially depend on the researchers' different understanding of specific concepts.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Justice Douglas' dissent in "Sierra Club v. Morton" (1972) describes concern that regulators become too favorable with their regulated industries.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Another distinction can be made between capture retained by big firms and by small firms. While Stigler mainly referred to large firms capturing regulators by bartering their vast resources (materialist capture), small firms are more prone to retain non-materialist capture via a special underdog rhetoric.


title: Regulatory capture

text: On 21 October 1966, a tip containing spoil and tailings from Merthyr Vale Colliery slipped after a period of heavy rain, killing 116 children and 28 adults in the Welsh village of Aberfan. In contravention of the National Coal Board's procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which water springs were known to emerge. After three weeks of rain the tip became saturated and of spoil and tailings slipped down the side of the hill, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and a row of houses.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Iain McLean and Martin Johnes, in a 2000 study of the Aberfan disaster, observed that Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Mines went largely unchallenged by the tribunal, although the two consider that the organisation failed in their duty, falling in line with the interests of the National Coal Board whose activities they were supposed to be overseeing.


title: Regulatory capture

text: In the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which had regulatory responsibility for offshore oil drilling, was widely cited as an example of regulatory capture. The MMS then became the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and on October 1, 2010, the collection of mineral leases was split off from the agency and placed under the Department of the Interior as the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). On October 1, 2011, BOEMRE was then split into two bureaus, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).


title: Regulatory capture

text: The three-stage reorganization, including the name change to BOEMRE, was part of a re-organization by Ken Salazar, who was sworn into office as the new Secretary of the Interior on the same day the name change was announced. Salazar's appointment was controversial because of his ties to the energy industry. As a senator, Salazar voted against an amendment to repeal tax breaks for ExxonMobil and other major petroleum companies and in 2006, he voted to end protections that limit offshore oil drilling in Florida's Gulf Coast. One of Salazar's immediate tasks was to "[end] the department's coziness with the industries it regulates" but Daniel R. Patterson, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, said "Salazar has a disturbingly weak conservation record, particularly on energy development, global warming, endangered wildlife and protecting scientific integrity. It's no surprise oil and gas, mining, agribusiness and other polluting industries that have dominated Interior are supporting rancher Salazar – he's their friend". Indeed, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, which lobbies for the mining industry, praised Salazar, saying that he was not doctrinaire about the use of public lands.


title: Regulatory capture

text: MMS had allowed BP and dozens of other companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first attaining permits to assess threats to endangered species, as required by law. BP and other companies were also given a blanket exemption (categorical exclusion) from having to provide environmental impact statements. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued strong warnings about the risks posed by such drilling and in a 2009 letter, accused MMS of understating the likelihood and potential consequences of a major spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The letter further accused MMS of highlighting the safety of offshore drilling while understating the risks and impact of spills and playing down the fact that spills had been increasing. Both current and former MMS staff scientists said their reports were overruled and altered if they found high risk of accident or environmental impact. Kieran Suckling, director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said, "MMS has given up any pretense of regulating the offshore oil industry. The agency seems to think its mission is to help the oil industry evade environmental laws".


title: Regulatory capture

text: After the Deepwater accident occurred, Salazar said he would delay granting any further drilling permits. Three weeks later, at least five more permits had been issued by the minerals agency. In March 2011, BOEMRE began issuing more offshore drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico. Michael Bromwich, head of BOEMRE, said he was disturbed by the speed at which some oil and gas companies were shrugging off Deepwater Horizon as "a complete aberration, a perfect storm, one in a million", but would nonetheless soon be granting more permits to drill for oil and gas in the gulf.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) charter was amended in 1996, its sole focus has been the regulation of safety. A report by the U.S. Department of Transportation found that FAA managers had allowed Southwest Airlines to fly 46 airplanes in 2006 and 2007 that were overdue for safety inspections, ignoring concerns raised by inspectors. Audits of other airlines resulted in two airlines grounding hundreds of planes, causing thousands of flight cancellations. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee investigated the matter after two FAA whistleblowers, inspectors Charalambe "Bobby" Boutris and Douglas E. Peters, contacted them. Boutris said he attempted to ground Southwest after finding cracks in the fuselage, but was prevented by supervisors he said were friendly with the airline. The committee subsequently held hearings in April 2008. James Oberstar, former chairman of the committee said its investigation uncovered a pattern of regulatory abuse and widespread regulatory lapses, allowing 117 aircraft to be operated commercially although not in compliance with FAA safety rules. Oberstar said there was a "culture of coziness" between senior FAA officials and the airlines and "a systematic breakdown" in the FAA's culture that resulted in "malfeasance, bordering on corruption".


title: Regulatory capture

text: On July 22, 2008, a bill was unanimously approved in the Democrat-controlled House to tighten regulations concerning airplane maintenance procedures, including the establishment of a whistleblower office and a two-year "cooling off" period that FAA inspectors or supervisors of inspectors must wait before they can work for those they regulated. The bill also required rotation of principal maintenance inspectors and stipulated that the word "customer" properly applies to the flying public, not those entities regulated by the FAA. The bill died in the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that year. In 2008 the FAA proposed to fine Southwest $10.2 million for failing to inspect older planes for cracks,<ref name="ap-mailtrib/msnbc">David Koenig, "Southwest Airlines faces $10.2 million fine" "Mail Tribune", Associated Press (March 6, 2008). Retrieved April 11, 2011</ref> and in 2009 Southwest and the FAA agreed that Southwest would pay a $7.5 million penalty and would adapt new safety procedures, with the fine doubling if Southwest failed to follow through. In September 2009, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt issued a directive mandating that the agency use the term "customers" only to refer to the flying public.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Prior to the deregulation of the US air industry, the Civil Aeronautics Board served to maintain an oligopoly of US airlines.


title: Regulatory capture

text: In a June 2010 article on regulatory capture, the FAA was cited as an example of "old-style" regulatory capture, "in which the airline industry openly dictates to its regulators its governing rules, arranging for not only beneficial regulation but placing key people to head these regulators".


title: Regulatory capture

text: That the FAA was a victim of regulatory capture was one focus of a United States Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation and Space meeting held in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash that followed a previous crash of a Lion Air flight and claimed 157 lives. The Boeing 737 MAX platform that crashed had been subjected to only an "amended" airworthiness type certificate. The NTSB was tasked with the investigation of the FAA's certification process.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Legal scholars have pointed to the possibility that federal agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had been captured by media conglomerates. Peter Schuck of Yale Law School has argued that the FCC is subject to capture by the media industries' leaders and therefore reinforce the operation of corporate cartels in a form of "corporate socialism" that serves to "regressively tax consumers, impoverish small firms, inhibit new entry, stifle innovation, and diminish consumer choice". The FCC selectively granted communications licenses to some radio and television stations in a process that excludes other citizens and little stations from having access to the public.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Michael K. Powell, who served on the FCC for eight years and was chairman for four, was appointed president and chief executive officer of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, a lobby group, effective April 25, 2011. His role has been the cable industry's leading advocate, spokesman, and representative in its relationship with the U.S. Congress, the Administration, the FCC, and other federal agencies.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Meredith Attwell Baker was one of the FCC commissioners who approved a controversial merger between NBC Universal and Comcast. Four months later, she announced her resignation from the FCC to join Comcast's Washington, D.C. lobbying office. Legally, she is prevented from lobbying anyone at the FCC for two years and an agreement made by Comcast with the FCC as a condition of approving the merger will ban her from lobbying any executive branch agency for life. Nonetheless, Craig Aaron, of Free Press, who opposed the merger, complained that "the complete capture of government by industry barely raises any eyebrows" and said public policy would continue to suffer from the "continuously revolving door at the FCC".


title: Regulatory capture

text: In July 2019, congresswomen Elizabeth Warren and Pramila Jayapal issued a letter (citing a report by the Project On Government Oversight) showing concerns for the composition of the FCC's Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), questioning whether it could effectively serve the public interest if the majority of its members were representatives of the private sector. They wrote that "having the FCC's policy-making process rely on input from individuals employed by, or affiliated with, the corporations that it is tasked with overseeing is the very definition of regulatory capture".


title: Regulatory capture

text: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (New York Fed) is the most influential of the Federal Reserve Banking System. Part of the New York Fed's responsibilities is the regulation of Wall Street, but its president is selected by and reports to a board dominated by the chief executives of some of the banks it oversees. While the New York Fed has always had a closer relationship with Wall Street, during the years that Timothy Geithner was president, he became unusually close with the scions of Wall Street banks, a time when banks and hedge funds were pursuing investment strategies that caused the financial crisis of 2007–2008, which the Fed failed to stop.


title: Regulatory capture

text: During the crisis, several major banks that were on the verge of collapse were rescued via the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Geithner engineered the New York Fed's purchase of $30 billion of credit default swaps from American International Group (AIG), which it had sold to Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale. By purchasing these contracts, the banks received a "back-door bailout" of 100 cents on the dollar for the contracts. Had the New York Fed allowed AIG to fail, the contracts would have been worth much less, resulting in much lower costs for any taxpayer-funded bailout. Geithner defended his use of unprecedented amounts of taxpayer funds to save the banks from their own mistakes, saying the financial system would have been threatened. At the January 2010 congressional hearing into the AIG bailout, the New York Fed initially refused to identify the counterparties that benefited from AIG's bailout, claiming the information would harm AIG. When it became apparent this information would become public, a legal staffer at the New York Fed e-mailed colleagues to warn them, lamenting the difficulty of continuing to keep Congress in the dark. Jim Rickards calls the bailout a crime and says "the regulatory system has become captive to the banks and the non-banks".


title: Regulatory capture

text: Historians, political scientists, and economists have often used the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), a now-defunct federal regulatory body in the United States, as a classic example of regulatory capture. The creation of the ICC was the result of widespread and longstanding anti-railroad agitation. Richard Olney, a prominent railroad lawyer, was asked by a railroad president if he could do something to get rid of the ICC. Olney, who later was appointed Attorney General in the Grover Cleveland administration, replied in an 1892 letter,


title: Regulatory capture

text: While the Interstate Commerce Act forbade "undue and unreasonable prejudice" against interstate passengers, in the sixty-six years before Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company (1955) the ICC had ruled against every black petitioner bringing a racial segregation complaint, earning the nickname "The Supreme Court of the Confederacy". The ICC then failed to enforce "Keys vs. Carolina Coach", attempting to justify segregation on a separate but equal basis for six years before being forced by the Department of Justice under then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to act in response to the Freedom Riders protests of 1961.


title: Regulatory capture

text: According to Frank N. von Hippel, despite the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has often been too timid in ensuring that America's 104 commercial reactors are operated safely:


title: Regulatory capture

text: Nuclear power is a textbook example of the problem of "regulatory capture" – in which an industry gains control of an agency meant to regulate it. Regulatory capture can be countered only by vigorous public scrutiny and Congressional oversight, but in the 32 years since Three Mile Island, interest in nuclear regulation has declined precipitously.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Then-candidate Barack Obama said in 2007 that the five-member NRC had become "captive of the industries that it regulates" and Joe Biden indicated he had absolutely no confidence in the agency.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The NRC has given a license to "every single reactor requesting one", according to Greenpeace USA nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio to refer to the agency approval process as a "rubber stamp". In Vermont, ten days after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that damaged Japan's Daiichi plant in Fukushima, the NRC approved a 20-year extension for the license of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, although the Vermont state legislature had voted overwhelmingly to deny such an extension. The Vermont plant uses the same GE Mark 1 reactor design as the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The plant had been found to be leaking radioactive materials through a network of underground pipes, which Entergy, the company running the plant, had denied under oath even existed. Representative Tony Klein, who chaired the Vermont House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, said that when he asked the NRC about the pipes at a hearing in 2009, the NRC didn't know about their existence, much less that they were leaking. On March 17, 2011, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a study critical of the NRC's 2010 performance as a regulator. The UCS said that through the years, it had found the NRC's enforcement of safety rules has not been "timely, consistent, or effective" and it cited 14 "near-misses" at U.S. plants in 2010 alone. Tyson Slocum, an energy expert at Public Citizen said the nuclear industry has "embedded itself in the political establishment" through "reliable friends from George Bush to Barack Obama", that the government "has really just become cheerleaders for the industry".


title: Regulatory capture

text: Although the exception, there have been instances of a revolving door. Jeffrey Merrifield, who was on the NRC from 1997 to 2008 and was appointed by presidents Clinton and Bush, left the NRC to take an executive position at The Shaw Group, which has a nuclear division regulated by the NRC.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The NRC Office of Inspector General concluded that Merrifield violated federal ethics laws by failing to recuse himself from matters affecting prospective employers with which he was interviewing.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The NRC Inspector General's report detailed that Merrifield had voted twice on matters involving companies he had contacted about job prospects. In addition, the report noted that Merrifield called a senior executive at another utility to request that he encourage other companies to return calls about his job search. The report also noted that Merrifield failed to report certain reimbursed travel expenses for himself and his family.


title: Regulatory capture

text: One of those interviewed by the NRC Inspector General was Dale Klein, Chairman of the NRC at the time. Klein commented that "Merrifield generally was a staunch advocate of his chosen positions and was reluctant to change his mind." The interview notes also indicated that "other Commissioners also commented that Merrifield was excessively touting his accomplishments within [a] task force, but Klein indicated that this self-promoting tendency by Merrifield was not unique to this issue."


title: Regulatory capture

text: Although the NRC referred the matter to the Justice Department for civil action and to the U.S. Attorney's office for criminal action, neither office pursued the matter. The same U.S. Attorney's Office declined all 20 similar referrals for prosecution during the period from 2004 to 2008.


title: Regulatory capture

text: A year-long Associated Press (AP) investigation showed that the NRC, working with the industry, has relaxed regulations so that aging reactors can remain in operation. The AP found that wear and tear of plants, such as clogged lines, cracked parts, leaky seals, rust and other deterioration resulted in 26 alerts about emerging safety problems and may have been a factor in 113 of the 226 alerts issued by the NRC between 2005 and June 2011. The NRC repeatedly granted the industry permission to delay repairs and problems often grew worse before they were fixed.


title: Regulatory capture

text: However, a paper by Stanford University economics professors John B. Taylor and Frank A. Wolak compared the financial services and nuclear industries. While acknowledging both are susceptible in principle to regulatory capture, they concluded regulatory failure – including through regulatory capture – has been much more of a problem in the financial industry and even suggested the financial industry create an analog to the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations to reduce regulatory risk.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has strongly opposed the efforts of the 50 state attorneys general, who have banded together to penalize banks and reform the mortgage modification process, following the subprime mortgage crisis and the financial crisis of 2008. This example was cited in "The New York Times" as evidence that the OCC is "a captive of the banks it is supposed to regulate".


title: Regulatory capture

text: The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also been accused of acting in the interests of Wall Street banks and hedge funds and of dragging its feet or refusing to investigate cases or bring charges for fraud and insider trading. Financial analyst Harry Markopolos, who spent ten years trying to get the SEC to investigate Bernie Madoff, called the agency "nonfunctional, captive to the industry".


title: Regulatory capture

text: Similarly in the case of the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme, there were repeated warnings of fraud from both inside and outside the SEC for more than a decade. But the agency did not stop the fraud until 2009, after the Madoff scandal became public in 2008.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The SEC has been found by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, the Senate Judiciary Committee and a federal district court to have illegally dismissed an employee in September 2005 who was critical of superiors' refusal to pursue Wall Street titan John Mack. Mack was suspected of giving insider information to Arthur J. Samberg, head of Pequot Capital Management, once one of the world's largest hedge funds. After more than four years of legal battles, former SEC investigator Gary J. Aguirre filed papers in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case he had against the SEC, seeking an order to force the SEC to turn over Pequot investigation records to him on the grounds that they had not charged anyone. Aguirre had already provided incriminating evidence of Pequot's insider trading involving Microsoft trades to the SEC in a letter on January 2, 2009. The morning after Aguirre's FOIA papers were filed, the SEC announced they had filed charges against Pequot and Pequot had agreed to disgorge $18 million in illegal gains and pay $10 million in penalties. A month later, the SEC settled Aguirre's wrongful termination lawsuit for $755,000.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The list of officials who have left the SEC for highly lucrative jobs in the private sector and who sometimes have returned to the SEC includes Arthur Levitt, Robert Khuzami, Linda Chatman Thomsen, Richard H. Walker, Gary Lynch and Paul R. Berger. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) released a report on May 13, 2011, which found that between 2006 and 2010, 219 former SEC employees sought to represent clients before the SEC. Former employees filed 789 statements notifying the SEC of their intent to represent outside clients before the commission, some filing within days of leaving the SEC.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Reporter Matt Taibbi calls the SEC a classic case of regulatory capture. On August 17, 2011, Taibbi reported that in July 2001, a preliminary fraud investigation against Deutsche Bank was stymied by Richard H. Walker, then SEC enforcement director, who began working as general counsel for Deutsche Bank in October 2001. Darcy Flynn, an SEC lawyer, the whistleblower who exposed this case also revealed that for 20 years, the SEC had been routinely destroying all documents related to thousands of preliminary inquiries that were closed rather than proceeding to formal investigation. The SEC is legally required to keep files for 25 years and destruction is supposed to be done by the National Archives and Records Administration. The lack of files deprives investigators of possible background when investigating cases involving those firms. Documents were destroyed for inquiries into Bernard Madoff, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Bank of America and other major Wall Street firms that played key roles in the 2008 financial crisis. The SEC has since changed its policy on destroying those documents and as of August 2011 the SEC investigator general was investigating the matter.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The decision known as "In re Amway Corp.", and popularly called "Amway '79", made the FTC a captive regulator of the nascent multi-level marketing industry. The situation came to a head in December 2012, when hedge fund Pershing Square Capital management announced a $1-billion short position against the company, and evidently expected the FTC to act, which, to date, it has not. From a forensic accounting standpoint, there is no difference between a Ponzi-scheme like the Madoff scandal, and a pyramid scheme, except that in the latter the money is laundered through product sales, not investment. The press has widely reported on why the FTC won't act, e.g. Forbes though legal opinion has been very supportive in some quarters, such as William K. Black, who was instrumental in bringing thousands of criminal prosecutions in the S&L scandal, which was also rife with problems of regulatory capture.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The District of Columbia Taxicab Commission has been criticized for being beholden to taxi companies and drivers rather than ensuring that the district has access to a "safe, comfortable, efficient and affordable taxicab experience in well-equipped vehicles".


title: Regulatory capture

text: Some commentators have acknowledged that while Washington Initiative 502 legalized marijuana, it did so in a manner that led to a state-run monopoly on legal marijuana stores with prices far above that of the existing medical dispensaries, which the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board is now trying to close down in favor of the recreational stores, where prices are two to five times higher than the product can be obtained elsewhere.


title: Regulatory capture

text: In August 2009, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) provisionally granted a request by Bell Canada to impose usage-based billing on Internet wholesalers, igniting protest from both the wholesalers and consumers, who claimed that the CRTC was "kow-towing to Bell".


title: Regulatory capture

text: On February 2, 2011, CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to defend the agency's decision. Critic Steve Anderson said, "The CRTC's stubbornness in the face of a mass public outcry demonstrates the strength of the Big Telecom lobby's influence. While government officials have recognized the need to protect citizens' communications interests, the CRTC has made it clear that their priorities lie elsewhere".


title: Regulatory capture

text: In Japan, the line may be blurred between the goal of solving a problem and the different goal of making it look as if the problem is being addressed.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Despite warnings about its safety, Japanese regulators from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) approved a 10-year extension for the oldest of the six reactors at Fukushima Daiichi just one month before a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami damaged reactors and caused a meltdown. The conclusion to the Diet of Japan's report on Fukushima attributed this directly to regulatory capture.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Nuclear opponent Eisaku Sato, governor of Fukushima Prefecture from 1988 to 2006, said a conflict of interest is responsible for NISA's lack of effectiveness as a watchdog. The agency is under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which encourages the development of Japan's nuclear industry. Inadequate inspections are reviewed by expert panels drawn primarily from academia and rarely challenge the agency. Critics say the main weakness in Japan's nuclear industry is weak oversight. Seismologist Takashi Nakata said, "The regulators just rubber-stamp the utilities' reports".


title: Regulatory capture

text: Both the ministry and the agency have ties with nuclear plant operators, such as Tokyo Electric. Some former ministry officials have been offered lucrative jobs in a practice called "amakudari", "descent from heaven". A panel responsible for re-writing Japan's nuclear safety rules was dominated by experts and advisers from utility companies, said seismology professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi, who quit the panel in protest, saying it was rigged and "unscientific". The new guidelines, established in 2006, did not set stringent industry-wide earthquake standards, rather nuclear plant operators were left to do their own inspections to ensure their plants were compliant. In 2008, the NISA found all of Japan's reactors to be in compliance with the new earthquake guidelines.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Yoshihiro Kinugasa helped write Japan's nuclear safety rules, later conducted inspections and still in another position at another date, served on a licensing panel, signing off on inspections.


title: Regulatory capture

text: In 1996, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now combined with the Ministry of Labour) came under fire over the scandal of HIV-tainted blood being used to treat hemophiliacs.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Although warned about HIV contamination of blood products imported from the U.S., the ministry abruptly changed its position on heated and unheated blood products from the U.S., protecting the Green Cross and the Japanese pharmaceutical industry, keeping the Japanese market from being inundated with heat-treated blood from the United States. Because the unheated blood was not taken off the market, 400 people died and over 3,000 people were infected with HIV.


title: Regulatory capture

text: No senior officials were indicted and only one lower-level manager was indicted and convicted. Critics say the major task of the ministry is the protection of industry, rather than of the population. In addition, bureaucrats get "amakudari" jobs at related industries in their field upon retirement, a system which serves to inhibit regulators. Moriyo Kimura, a critic who works at MHLW, says the ministry does not look after the interests of the public.


title: Regulatory capture

text: Tobacco control in the Philippines is largely vested in the Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco (IACT) under Republic Act No. 9211 (Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003). The IACT's membership includes pro-tobacco groups in the Department of Agriculture and National Tobacco Administration, as well as "a representative from the Tobacco Industry to be nominated by the legitimate and recognized associations of the industry", the Philippine Tobacco Institute (composed of the largest local cigarette producers and distributors). In a 2015 Philippine Supreme Court case, the Court ruled that the IACT as the "exclusive authority" in regulating various aspects tobacco control including access restrictions and tobacco advertisement, promotion, and sponsorships. In this case, the Department of Health, which is the primary technical agency for disease control and prevention, was held to be without authority to create tobacco control regulations unless the IACT delegates this function. The IACT's organization also limits the Philippines' enforcement of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.


title: Regulatory capture

text: The academic Thomas Alured Faunce has argued the World Trade Organization non-violation nullification of benefits claims, particularly when inserted in bilateral trade agreements, can facilitate intense lobbying by industry which can result in effective regulatory capture of large areas of governmental policy.


title: Regulatory capture

text: McClean and Johnes argued that the sinking of the Titanic and its investigation illustrate an early example of regulatory failure and regulatory capture of the Board of Trade and Parliament by the shipping industry.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: A full-frame DSLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 35 mm image sensor format (). Historically, 35 mm was one of the standard film formats, alongside larger ones, such as medium format and large format. The full-frame DSLR is in contrast to full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, and DSLR and mirrorless cameras with smaller sensors (for instance, those with a size equivalent to APS-C-size film), much smaller than a full 35 mm frame. Many digital cameras, both compact and SLR models, use a smaller-than-35 mm frame as it is easier and cheaper to manufacture imaging sensors at a smaller size. Historically, the earliest digital SLR models, such as the Nikon NASA F4 or Kodak DCS 100, also used a smaller sensor.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: Kodak states that 35 mm film (note: in "Academy format", 21.0 mm × 15.2 mm) has the equivalent of 6K horizontal resolution, according to a senior vice president of IMAX. This equates to 10K horizontal resolution in full-frame size.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: If the lens mounts are compatible, many lenses, including manual-focus models, designed for 35 mm cameras can be mounted on DSLR cameras. When a lens designed for a full-frame camera, whether film or digital, is mounted on a DSLR with a smaller sensor size, only the center of the lenses image circle is captured. The edges are cropped off, which is equivalent to zooming in on the center section of the imaging area. The ratio of the size of the full-frame 35 mm format to the size of the smaller format is known as the "crop factor" or "focal-length multiplier", and is typically in the range 1.3–2.0 for non-full-frame digital SLRs.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: When used with lenses designed for full frame film or digital cameras, full-frame DSLRs offer a number of advantages compared to their smaller-sensor counterparts. One advantage is that wide-angle lenses designed for full-frame 35 mm retain that same wide angle of view. On smaller-sensor DSLRs, wide-angle lenses have smaller angles of view equivalent to those of longer-focal-length lenses on 35 mm film cameras. For example, a 24 mm lens on a camera with a crop factor of 1.5 has a 62° diagonal angle of view, the same as that of a 36 mm lens on a 35 mm film camera. On a full-frame digital camera, the 24 mm lens has the same 84° angle of view as it would on a 35 mm film camera.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: If the same lens is used on both full-frame and cropped formats, and the subject distance is adjusted to have the same "field" of view (i.e., the same framing of the subject) in each format, depth of field (DoF) is in inverse proportion to the format sizes, so for the same "f"-number, the full-frame format will have less DoF. Equivalently, for the same DoF, the full-frame format will require a larger "f"-number (that is, a smaller aperture diameter). This relationship is approximate and holds for moderate subject distances, breaking down as the distance with the smaller format approaches the hyperfocal distance, and as the magnification with the larger format approaches the macro range.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: There are optical quality implications as well—not only because the image from the lens is effectively cropped—but because many lens designs are now optimized for sensors smaller than . The rear element of any SLR lens must have clearance for the camera's reflex mirror to move up when the shutter is released; with a wide-angle lens, this requires a retrofocus design, which is generally of inferior optical quality. Because a cropped-format sensor can have a smaller mirror, less clearance is needed, and some lenses, such as the EF-S lenses for the Canon APS-C sized bodies, are designed with a shorter back-focus distance; however, they cannot be used on bodies with larger sensors.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: The full-frame sensor can also be useful with wide-angle perspective control or tilt/shift lenses; in particular, the wider angle of view is often more suitable for architectural photography.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: While full-frame DSLRs offer advantages for wide-angle photography, smaller-sensor DSLRs offer some advantages for telephoto photography because the smaller angle of view of small-sensor DSLRs enhances the telephoto effect of the lenses. For example, a 200 mm lens on a camera with a crop factor of 1.5× has the same angle of view as a 300 mm lens on a full-frame camera. The extra "reach", for a given number of pixels, can be helpful in specific areas of photography such as wildlife or sports.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: Lower size sensors also allow for the use of a wider range of lenses, since some types of optical impurities (specifically vignetting) are most visible around the edge of the lens. By only using the center of the lens, these impurities are not noticed. In practice, this allows for the use of lower cost lenses without corresponding loss of quality.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: Finally, full frame sensors allow for sensor designs that result in lower noise levels at high ISO and a greater dynamic range in captured images. Pixel density is lower on full frame sensors. This means the pixels can be either spaced further apart from each other, or each photodiode can be manufactured at a slightly larger size. Larger pixel sizes can capture more light which has the advantage of allowing more light to be captured before over saturation of the photodiode. Additionally, less noise is generated by adjacent pixels and their emf fields with larger photodiodes or greater spacing between photodiodes. For a given number of pixels, the larger sensor allows for larger pixels or photosites that provide wider dynamic range and lower noise at high ISO levels. As a consequence, full-frame DSLRs may produce better quality images in certain high contrast or low light situations.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: Production costs for a full-frame sensor can exceed twenty times the costs for an APS-C sensor. Only 20 full-frame sensors will fit on an silicon wafer, and yield is comparatively low because the sensor's large area makes it very vulnerable to contaminants—20 evenly distributed defects could theoretically ruin an entire wafer. Additionally, when full-frame sensors were first produced, they required three separate exposures during the photolithography stage, tripling the number of masks and exposure processes. Modern photolithography equipment now allows single-pass exposures for full-frame sensors, but other size-related production constraints remain much the same.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: Some full-frame DSLRs intended mainly for professional use include more features than typical consumer-grade DSLRs, so some of their larger dimensions and increased mass result from more rugged construction and additional features as opposed to this being an inherent consequence of the full-frame sensor.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: The Nikon E2/E2s (1994), E2N/E2NS (1996) and E3/E3S (1998) digital SLRs as well as the similar Fujifilm Fujix DS-505/DS-515, DS-505A/DS-515A and DS-560/DS-565 models used a reduction optical system (ROS) to compress a full-frame 35 mm field onto a smaller 2/3-inch (11 mm diagonal) CCD imager. They were therefore not digital SLRs with full-frame sensors, however had an angle of view equivalent to full-frame digital SLRs for a given lens; they had no crop factor with respect to angle of view.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: The first full-frame DSLR cameras were developed in Japan from around 2000 to 2002: the MZ-D by Pentax, the N Digital by Contax's Japanese R6D team, and the EOS-1Ds by Canon.


title: Full-frame DSLR

text: Nikon has designated its full frame cameras as "FX" format and its smaller sensor interchangeable-lens camera formats as "DX" and "CX".


title: Pantalone

text: Pantalone , spelled Pantaloon in English, is one of the most important principal characters found in . With his exceptional greed and status at the top of the social order, Pantalone is "money" in the commedia world. His full name, including family name, is "Pantalon de' Bisognosi", Italian for "Pantalone of the Needy".


title: Pantalone

text: Pantalone originated as part of a master/servant duo and was the original il Magnifico stock character. Carlo Goldoni, in his memoirs, named Pantalone as one of the four primary Commedia dell'Arte characters. Among other things, Pantalone is a character of Venetians; one theory is that his name ederives from Saint Pantaleon ("San Pantalone"), a popular saint in Venice. Another theory is that his name derives from Venetian emo merchants who were called Piantaleoni. While the theories of the St Pantaleone and the lion of St Mark are common, they are both now considered unlikely origins, and the true origin is unknown. The name Pantaloon generally means "old fool" or "dotard". The role of Pantalone is usually spoken entirely in the Venetian dialect. The character of Pantalone is entirely based on currency and ego, for he has the highest regard for his intelligence, "but at every step he becomes the butt for every conceivable kind of trick". With little else to occupy his thoughts after a life as a tradesman or merchant, Pantalone is the metaphorical representation of money in the commedia world. While the social standing of merchants may have changed through many centuries, the intent for Pantalone was to ensure that he had the status that allowed him to meddle in the affairs of others. Pantalone is usually the father to one of the innamorati (the lovers), another stock character found in commedia. He is driven to keep his child and their respective lover apart. Pantalone is presented either as a widower or bachelor, and despite his age, makes numerous passes at the women within the commedia world, "though he is always rejected". Pantalone never forgets a deal and his merit is based on actions, not words. He is also described as being petty, and he never forgets or forgives even the smallest things.


title: Pantalone

text: Pantalone is characterized as loving his money and having emotional extremes. With his sinister and often inhumane treatment towards his fellows, Pantalone is perceived to be a pivotal part of commedia. His importance is represented in almost every commedia production; often placing him at the beginning of the comedy. In a commedia drama, many zanni or lazzi routines will begin by an action delivered by Pantalone himself. Pantalone is described as being too self-absorbed to notice and interact much with the audience, but he is so oblivious that it serves the same purpose.


title: Pantalone

text: Pantalone is also displayed either as a single man or a widower, and not withstanding his age, makes various "attempts" at the ladies inside the commedia world and is always rejected. Due to his portrayal as an older, and single man, it can be depicted that Pantalone is very one sided representation of old age. However, he is actually a very rounded and multifaceted depiction of the suggestive natures of old age.


title: Pantalone

text: Pantalone's inappropriate enthusiasm for the young ladies inside the commedia world is abundantly borne out in the previously mentioned Capriccii. "Of all the twenty-seven pieces, ten allude to ladies in their titles alone, either just as a lady [donna], or as spouse [mogier], house cleaner and courtesan [Massara, Padrona], whores [puttane], sweetheart [morosa], and darling [Innamorata]."


title: Pantalone

text: Sexual symbolism is very prominent as illustrated in "Della bellezza, and crudeltà d'una Donna", one elderly person communicates along these lines:


title: Pantalone

text: The traditional Pantalone stance is that of a hunch-backed old man. He walks with his hips forward, allowing him to make larger strides when he walks. The hunched shape restricts his legs, which are bent and turned out at the knees. The feet have the heels together with the toes facing apart. His hands and feet move quickly, though his body is stiff, and his head is constantly moving. When he walks, his feet should be picked up more than would occur naturally. Pantalone is slow moving, and he has bouts of agility when there is high emotion, but it is followed by asthmatic breathing and panting. Pantalone is often short and skinny. A lot of Pantalone's comedy stems from the fact that his excitable actions greatly contradict the senile position that the actor takes. He often falls backwards, generally to bad news related in some way or another to his financials. When this occurs, he is often amusingly "turtle-like" and is often stuck in that position until assisted. Pantalone can do all of the movements of the other characters, but they are greatly hindered because of his old age. None of Pantalone's physical actions should look easy, for his is truly "the oldest of the old." In the well-known "all the world's a stage" speech in Shakespeare's "As You Like It" (II, vii), Jacques describes the second-last stage of life as "the lean and slippered pantaloon."


title: Pantalone

text: Pantalone's costume was designed with the inappropriateness intended to comically entertain. The costume for Pantalone is characterized by the use of red for almost the entire costume. The characteristics of the costume also include a Greek style hat, a jacket, a pair of long trousers or breeches with stockings, a tight jacket, a woollen skullcap and a robe or cape; it also includes a prominent codpiece or strategically placed coin purse. It also includes a black and red robe and yellow Turkish slippers. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a sword or dagger and gold medallion often accompanied the purse. The Pantalone mask is a half-mask with accents on bony structure, big, bushy eyebrows, a long, hooked nose, a mustache, and a long, pointed or forked beard. He occasionally is noted as having horn spectacles. He occasionally carries a walking stick, but it is used more as an aggravating weapon than an actual walking tool. Because of his skinny legs, Pantalone is often portrayed wearing trousers rather than knee-breeches (which Jacques refers to as "his youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide/For his shrunk shank"). He therefore became the origin of the name of a type of trouser called "pantaloons", which was later shortened to "pants".


title: Pantalone

text: Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" (in the short story "Puss in Boots") gives another representation of Pantalone. The interpretation uses the spelling 'Pantaloon', but he follows a very similar description and ends up dead.


title: Brihadisvara Temple, Gangaikonda Cholapuram

text: The Brihadisvara Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva in Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Jayankondam, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Completed in 1035 AD by Rajendra Chola I as a part of his new capital, this Chola dynasty era temple is similar in design, and has a similar name, as the older 11th century, Brihadeeswarar Temple about to the southwest in Thanjavur. The Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple is smaller yet more refined than the Thanjavur Temple. Both are among the largest Shiva temples in South India and examples of Dravidian style temples. The temple is also referred to in texts as "Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple" or "Gangaikondacholeeswaram Temple"


text: The main temple dedicated to Shiva is based on a square plan, but it displays other Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Durga, Surya, Harihara, Ardhanarishvara, and others. It opens to the sunrise and its sanctum, as well as the "mandapas", are aligned on an east–west axis. In addition to the main shrine, the temple complex has a number of smaller shrines, "gopura", and other monuments, with some partially ruined or restored in later centuries. The temple is famed for its bronze sculptures, artwork on its walls, the depiction of Nandi and the scale of its tower. As well as its notability for having been built by Rajendra I, the temple is also noteworthy for its numerous inscriptions, although none of them are his.


text: Except for this temple, the old city of Gangaikonda Cholapuram – the capital of a powerful Asian empire from around AD 900 to AD 1215 or over three centuries along with its other major Chola-era Hindu temples have been completely destroyed, leaving a desolate place. The Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple remains an active temple. Four daily rituals, and many yearly festivals are held there, of which the Shivarathri during the Tamil month of "Masi" (February–March), Aipassi Pournami during "Aipassi" (October– November) and Thiruvadirai during "Margazhi" (December–January) are the most prominent. It is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Tamil Nadu. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) administers the temple as a protected heritage monument. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2004, along with the Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur and Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram. These are referred to collectively as the Great Living Chola Temples.


text: The Brihadeeswarar Temple is located near the village of Gangaikonda Cholapuram, about southwest of Chennai and from Chidambaram. Roughly to the northeast is the similarly named Chola dynasty era Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, and is about to the northeast of the Airavatesvara Temple. All three are UNESCO world heritage sites.


text: The temple is on Highway 81 connecting Tiruchirappalli and Chidambaram. The nearby city of Chidambaram is connected to other major cities by daily trains on the Indian railway network, Tamil Nadu bus services and National Highways 36, 81, and 245. The nearest airport with regular services is Tiruchirappalli International Airport (IATA: TRZ), about away.


text: Though inland, the temple is near the Kollidam River, within the Cauveri River delta with access to the Bay of Bengal and through it to the Indian Ocean.


text: Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple is built in Dravidian architecture with a square plan. The original courtyard is two squares stacked next to each other, all "mandapas", the "upapitham", the shrine plans, the "garbha griha" (sanctum) and the tower elements are all square shaped and incorporate circles and principles of geometric symmetry. The structural elements resemble the big Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur. Both include a courtyard entered through multiple gateways and relatively small "gopuram" (tower). Inside are shrines, most of which are aligned on an east–west axis; a few are perpendicular. The temple complex includes "Nandi Mandapa", "Alankar Mandapa", "Maha Mandapa", "Mukha Mandapa" and "Ardha Mandapa". Some of these were added and restored by Hindu kingdoms after the 14th century or by British India art conservation officials in the 19th century.


text: The visible "upapitham" measures long by with an east–west axis, but part of it is likely missing with the surviving foundation covered by soil and with a restored surface for tourism. On the visible part, states Balasubrahmanyam, the "garbha griha" (sanctum) is long, the "maha mandapa" (great hall) is long, and the "ardha mandapa" (partial hall) is . The square-shaped "ardha mandapa" connects the sanctum and the great hall. The temple is one of the earliest ones to have pillared halls, which became a common feature in subsequent temples.


text: The main temple is built on an elevated structure with the courtyard measuring by . Its sanctum measures and is entered through the "Ardha Mandapa". The sanctum doorway is flanked by "dvarapala"s, the guardians, each tall. The sanctum contains Brihadeeswarar (Shiva) in the form of "lingam". This "lingam" is tall and the base has a circumference of .


text: There is an image of a seated Nandi bull in the courtyard, aligned axially facing the sanctum. There are five shrines around the sanctum and a Lion well, which was added during the 19th century. The temple site has a monolithic representation of Navagrahas, the nine planetary deities.


text: The "vimanam" (temple tower) is high, which is smaller than the Thanjavur Temple. Historians believe that the height of the temple is deliberately kept low in dimensions compared to the Thanjavur temple as a mark of respect of Rajendra to his father's masterpiece. Compared to the Thanjavur Temple, which has straight contours, this temple has a curvilinear contour, slightly concave towards the top. It is divided into eight zones.


text: The tower rises as a vertical square structure to a height of above the "adhisthanam". It has two horizontal bands with a massive cornice wrapped around it. Each band has five individual bays on the south, west and east sides with pilasters between the bays. The end bays are squares, the other three are oblong. The center bay of each set of five being the widest. On each side are carvings on the wall with four horizontal rows of friezes. These narrate Hindu legends and Puranic mythologies from the Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta traditions. Each storey has moulded horizontal projections (cornices) with floral arch-shaped motifs ("gavaksha"). According to Balasubrahmanyam, incorporated in the features are mythical creatures in the form of "yali", and the entablature is decorated with necklace shaped motifs.


text: The Sri-vimana at Gangaikonda has nine storeys ("talas") including those at the lower levels, in contrast to the thirteen storeys at Thanjavur. Each storey has a square-circle-oblong artwork. The upper levels repeat the lower level design in a rhythmic shrinking pattern. The symmetry principles are dutifully embedded in, but the rate of shrinking is not linear with height. The lower storeys shrink faster than the upper storeys. This gives the vimana an uncommon parabolic form. The "griva" (neck) is oriented towards the cardinal directions, and like the Thanjavur Temple, Nandi bulls sit on its top corners. Above the "griva" is the "kirtimukha"s, then a symmetric open lotus. The tower is capped with a "kalasa", whose inscription was once gold coated; the gold is long gone. Above the "kalasa" is a lotus bud greeting the sky.


text: There are about fifty sculptural reliefs around the walls of the sanctum, three of which — Nataraja, Saraswati and Shiva garlanding a devotee — being the most prominent. There is a shrine for Shaiva saint and scholar Chandeshvara (one of the sixty-three Nayanars). There are other niches around the temple walls depicting various forms of Shiva, Durga and Vishnu. There are many bronze statues in the temple depicting Chola art of the 11th century, with the one of Kartikeya being the most recognisable.


text: One relief includes a most unusual portrait of a Hindu ruler who built the temple. Shiva, with Parvati beside him, hands down a garland of flowers to mark his victory to a diminutive seated figure of Rajendra I.


text: The temple was constructed in 1035 AD by Rajendra Chola I (1012-44 CE), the son of the famous Chola king Raja Raja Chola I, who built the Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur. Some experts believe that the temple was built during 1020, during the 6th regnal year, but inscriptions indicate the 20th regnal year, which is 1035 AD. Rajendra wanted to emulate the temple built by his father after his victory in a campaign across India that Chola era texts state covered Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Bengal. After his victory, he demanded that the defeated kingdoms send pots of Ganges River water and pour them into the temple's well. The well was originally called Cholagangam as it was filled with water from Ganges.


text: Rajendra I, as is Tamil tradition, then assumed the name Gangaikonda Cholan, meaning the one who conquered the Ganges. He established Gangaikonda Cholapuram as his capital from the earlier Chola capital of Thanjavur. Gangaikonda Cholapuram remained the Chola capital for the next 250 years. Rajendra I built the entire capital with several temples using plans and infrastructure recommended in Tamil Vastu and Agama Sastra texts. These included a Dharma Sasta, Vishnu and other temples. However, these structures were destroyed in the late 13th and 14th centuries except this temple. The other Chola landmarks, clearly shown by soil covered mounds and excavated broken pillar stumps and brick walls, are found over a large area nearby. The earliest inscription that mentions this city by name is dated 1029, while the earliest reference to Rajendra I's expedition towards the Ganges river in the north is dated 1023. The first gift to the newly built Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple is dated 1035.


text: Rajendra I, states Dehejia, must have involved the same craftsmen used by his father and transferred them from Thanjavur. Most or all of the Chola kings from Rajendra I had their coronation at Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Archaeological excavations have revealed fort walls and palace remains a few kilometers from this temple. It is believed that Kulothunga Chola I, Rajendra's successor, built fortifications around the city.


text: The reasons for the city's destruction are unclear. According to Vasanthi, the Pandyas who defeated the Cholas during the later part of 13th-century "may have razed the city to ground" to avenge their previous defeats. However, it is unclear why other temples were destroyed and this temple was spared, as well as why there are around twenty inscriptions from later Cholas, Pandyas and Vijayanagar Empires indicating various gifts and grants to this temple if they previously razed this place.


text: An alternative theory links the destruction to the raids, plunder and wars, particularly with the invasion of the capital city and the territories, that were earlier a part of the Chola and Madurai Empires, by the armies of the Delhi Sultanate led by the Muslim commander Malik Kafur in 1311, followed by Khusrau Khan in 1314, and Muhammad bin Tughlaq in 1327. The period that followed saw wars between the Hindu kings and the Muslim sultans who succeeded the Delhi Sultanate and carved out new states such as the nearby Madurai Sultanate (1335–1378). The Vijayanagara Empire defeated the Madurai Sultanate in 1378 and this temple, along with other Chola era temples, then returned to the control of Hindu kings who repaired and restored many of them.


text: Gangaikonda Cholpuram and the temple are mentioned in many of the contemporary works of the period like "Muvar Ula" and "Kalingathuparani". Scholars like Vasanthi believe that the 11th century Tamil poet Kambar's description of Ayodhya was based on the streets and city structure of Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Similar correlation is derived based on the works of Sekkizhar in "Periya Puranam". "Muvar Ula", a treatise on the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas, provides a vivid account of the city and the temple. Like the Thanjavur temple, this temple is also believed to have emerged as a centre of social, economic and political activities. Cultural activities like music, dance and art in the form of bronzes were encouraged and staged in the temple.


text: The temple was added to the list of Great Living Chola Temples in the year 2004. All three temples were built by the Cholas between the 10th and 12th centuries CE and have many similarities. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) made additions to the shopping and visitor attraction offices in the temple in 2009 that included a museum, restaurant, shops and restrooms under the aegis of the Hindu Religious and Endowment Board of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The temples are classified as Great Living Chola Temples as they are still visited, worshiped in and used as they were when they were constructed. The millennium celebration of the coronation of the Rajendra Chola was celebrated in the temple over two days during July 2014.


text: Though it is administered by the ASI as a monument, worship practises are followed similar to those at other Shiva temples in Tamil Nadu. The temple follows Saivite tradition and the temple priests perform the "pooja" (rituals) during festivals and daily basis. The temple rituals are performed four times a day: "Kalasanthi" at 8:30 a.m., "Uchikalam" at 12:30 p.m., "Sayarakshai" at 6:00 p.m., and "Arthajamam" between 7:30 –8:00 p.m. Each ritual has three steps: "alangaram" (decoration), "neivethanam" (food offering) and "deepa aradanai" (waving of lamps) for both Brihadeeswarar and Periya Nayagi. There are weekly, monthly and fortnightly rituals performed in the temple. The temple is open from 6:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m. every day. The temple has many festivals in its calendar, with the Shivarathri during the Tamil month of "Masi" (February–March), Aipassi Pournami during "Aipassi" (October–November) and Thiruvadirai during "Margazhi" (December–January) being the most prominent. "Annabhishekam", the ablution of the presiding deity with cooked rice is performed during "Aipasi" festival.


title: Milium (dermatology)

text: A milium ("plural" milia), also called a milk spot or an oil seed, is a clog of the eccrine sweat gland. It is a keratin-filled cyst that can appear just under the epidermis or on the roof of the mouth. Milia are commonly associated with newborn babies, but can appear on people of all ages. They are usually found around the nose and eyes, and sometimes on the genitalia, often mistaken by those affected as warts or other sexually transmitted diseases. Milia can also be confused with stubborn whiteheads.


title: Milium (dermatology)

text: In children, milia often disappear within two to four weeks. For adults, they can be removed by a physician (a dermatologist has specialist knowledge in this area). A common method that a dermatologist uses to remove a milium is to nick the skin with a #11 surgical blade and then use a comedone extractor to press the cyst out.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Degenerative disc disease (DDD) is a medical condition typically brought on by the normal aging process in which there are anatomic changes and possibly a loss of function of one or more intervertebral discs of the spine. DDD can take place with or without symptoms, but is typically identified once symptoms arise. The root cause is thought to be loss of soluble proteins within the fluid contained in the disc with resultant reduction of the oncotic pressure, which in turn causes loss of fluid volume. Normal downward forces cause the affected disc to lose height, and the distance between vertebrae is reduced. The anulus fibrosus, the tough outer layers of a disc, also weakens. This loss of height causes laxity of the longitudinal ligaments, which may allow anterior, posterior, or lateral shifting of the vertebral bodies, causing facet joint malalignment and arthritis; scoliosis; cervical hyperlordosis; thoracic hyperkyphosis; lumbar hyperlordosis; narrowing of the space available for the spinal tract within the vertebra (spinal stenosis); or narrowing of the space through which a spinal nerve exits (vertebral foramen stenosis) with resultant inflammation and impingement of a spinal nerve, causing a radiculopathy.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: DDD can cause mild to severe pain, either acute or chronic, near the involved disc, as well as neuropathic pain if an adjacent spinal nerve root is involved. Diagnosis is suspected when typical symptoms and physical findings are present; and confirmed by x-rays of the vertebral column. Occasionally the radiologic diagnosis of "disc degeneration" is made incidentally when a cervical x-ray, chest x-ray, or abdominal x-ray is taken for other reasons, and the abnormalities of the vertebral column are recognized. The diagnosis of DDD is not a radiologic diagnosis, since the interpreting radiologist is not aware whether there are symptoms present or not. Typical radiographic findings include disc space narrowing, displacement of vertebral bodies, fusion of adjacent vertebral bodies, and development of bone in adjacent soft tissue (osteophyte formation). An MRI is typically reserved for those with symptoms, signs, and x-ray findings suggesting the need for surgical intervention.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Treatment may include chiropractic to reduce pain and increase any reduced range of motion (ROM) of the spine; Physical Therapy for pain relief, ROM, and appropriate muscle/strength training with emphasis on correcting abnormal posture, assisting the paravertebral (paraspinous) muscles in stabilizing the spine, and core muscle strengthening; stretching exercises; massage therapy; oral analgesia with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDS); and topical analgesia with lidocaine, ice and heat. Immediate surgery may be indicated if the symptoms are severe or sudden in onset, or there is a sudden worsening of symptoms. Elective surgery may be indicated after six months of conservative therapy with unsatisfactory relief of symptoms.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Degenerative disc disease can result in lower back or upper neck pain. The amount of degeneration does not correlate well with the amount of pain patients experience. Many people experience no pain while others, with the same amount of damage have severe, chronic pain. Whether a patient experiences pain or not largely depends on the location of the affected disc and the amount of pressure that is being put on the spinal column and surrounding nerve roots.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Nevertheless, degenerative disc disease is one of the most common sources of back pain and affects approximately 30 million people every year. With symptomatic degenerative disc disease, the pain can vary depending on the location of the affected disc. A degenerated disc in the lower back can result in lower back pain, sometimes radiating to the hips, as well as pain in the buttocks, thighs or legs. If pressure is being placed on the nerves by exposed nucleus pulposus, sporadic tingling or weakness through the knees and legs can also occur.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: A degenerated disc in the upper neck will often result in pain to the neck, arm, shoulders and hands; tingling in the fingers may also be evident if nerve impingement is occurring.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: After an injury, some discs become painful because of inflammation and the pain comes and goes. Some people have nerve endings that penetrate more deeply into the anulus fibrosus (outer layer of the disc) than others, making discs more likely to generate pain. In the alternative, the healing of trauma to the outer anulus fibrosus may result in the innervation of the scar tissue and pain impulses from the disc, as these nerves become inflamed by nucleus pulposus material. Degenerative disc disease can lead to a chronic debilitating condition and can have a serious negative impact on a person's quality of life. When pain from degenerative disc disease is severe, traditional nonoperative treatment may be ineffective.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: There is a disc between each of the vertebrae in the spine. A healthy, well-hydrated disc will contain a great deal of water in its center, known as the nucleus pulposus, which provides cushioning and flexibility for the spine. Much of the mechanical stress that is caused by everyday movements is transferred to the discs within the spine and the water content within them allows them to effectively absorb the shock. At birth, a typical human nucleus pulposus will contain about 80% water. However natural daily stresses and minor injuries can cause these discs to gradually lose water as the annulus fibrosus, or the tough outer fibrous material of a disc, weakens. Because degenerative disc disease is largely due to natural daily stresses, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists have suggested it is not truly a "disease" process.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: This water loss makes the discs more flexible and results in the gradual collapse and narrowing of the gap in the spinal column. As the space between vertebrae gets smaller, extra pressure can be placed on the discs causing tiny cracks or tears to appear in the annulus. If enough pressure is exerted, it is possible for the nucleus pulposus material to seep out through the tears in the annulus and can cause what is known as a herniated disc.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: As the two vertebrae above and below the affected disc begin to collapse upon each other, the facet joints at the back of the spine are forced to shift which can affect their function.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Additionally, the body can react to the closing gap between vertebrae by creating bone spurs around the disc space in an attempt to stop excess motion. This can cause issues if the bone spurs start to grow into the spinal canal and put pressure on the spinal cord and surrounding nerve roots as it can cause pain and affect nerve function. This condition is called spinal stenosis.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: For women, there is evidence that menopause and related estrogen-loss are associated with lumbar disc degeneration, usually occurring during the first 15 years of the climacteric. The potential role of sex hormones in the etiology of degenerative skeletal disorders is being discussed for both genders.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Mutations in several genes have been implicated in intervertebral disc degeneration. Probable candidate genes include type I collagen (sp1 site), type IX collagen, vitamin D receptor, aggrecan, asporin, MMP3, interleukin-1, and interleukin-6 polymorphisms. Mutation in genes – such as MMP2 and THBS2 – that encode for proteins and enzymes involved in the regulation of the extracellular matrix has been shown to contribute to lumbar disc herniation.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Degenerative discs typically show degenerative fibrocartilage and clusters of chondrocytes, suggestive of repair. Inflammation may or may not be present. Histologic examination of disc fragments resected for presumed DDD is routine to exclude malignancy.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Fibrocartilage replaces the gelatinous mucoid material of the nucleus pulposus as the disc changes with age. There may be splits in the anulus fibrosus, permitting herniation of elements of nucleus pulposus. There may also be shrinkage of the nucleus pulposus that produces prolapse or folding of the anulus fibrosus with secondary osteophyte formation at the margins of the adjacent vertebral body. The pathologic findings in DDD include protrusion, spondylolysis, and subluxation of vertebrae (spondylolisthesis) and spinal stenosis. It has been hypothesized that "Cutibacterium acnes" may play a role.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Diagnosis of degenerative disc disease will usually consist of an analysis of a patient's individual medical history, a physical exam designed to reveal muscle weakness, tenderness or poor range of motion, and an x-ray to confirm the diagnosis and rule out other causes.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Often, the symptoms of degenerative disc disease can be successfully treated without surgery. One or a combination of treatments such as physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, traction, or epidural steroid injection can provide adequate relief of troubling symptoms.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Surgery may be recommended if the conservative treatment options do not provide relief within two to three months for cervical or 6 months for lumbar symptoms. If leg or back pain limits normal activity, if there is weakness or numbness in the legs, if it is difficult to walk or stand, or if medication or physical therapy are ineffective, surgery may be necessary, most often spinal fusion. There are many surgical options for the treatment of degenerative disc disease, including anterior and posterior approaches. The most common surgical treatments include:


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Traditional approaches in treating patients with DDD-resultant herniated discs oftentimes include discectomy—which, in essence, is a spine-related surgical procedure involving the removal of damaged intervertebral discs (either whole removal, or partially-based). The former of these two discectomy techniques involved in open discectomy is known as Subtotal Discectomy (SD; or, aggressive discectomy) and the latter, Limited Discectomy (LD; or, conservative discectomy). However, with either technique, the probability of post-operative reherniation exists and at a considerably high maximum of 21%, prompting patients to potentially undergo recurrent disk surgery.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: New treatments are emerging that are still in the beginning clinical trial phases. Glucosamine injections may offer pain relief for some without precluding the use of more aggressive treatment options. Adult stem cell or cell transplantation therapies for disc regeneration are in their infancy of development, but initial clinical trials have shown cell transplantation to be safe and initial observations suggest some beneficial effects for associated pain and disability. An optimal cell type, transplantation method, cell density, carrier, or patient indication remains to be determined. Investigation into mesenchymal stem cell therapy knife-less fusion of vertebrae in the United States began in 2006 and a DiscGenics nucleus pulposus progenitor cell transplantation clinical trial has started as of 2018 in the United States and Japan.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Researchers and surgeons have conducted clinical and basic science studies to uncover the regenerative capacity possessed by the large animal species involved (humans and quadrupeds) for potential therapies to treat the disease. Some therapies, carried out by research laboratories in New York, include introduction of biologically engineered, injectable riboflavin cross-linked high density collagen (HDC-laden) gels into disease spinal segments to induce regeneration, ultimately restoring functionality and structure to the two main inner and outer components of vertebral discs—anulus fibrosus and the nucleus pulposus.


title: Degenerative disc disease

text: Degenerative disc disease can occur in other mammals besides humans. It is a common problem in several dog breeds, and attempts to remove this disease from dog populations have led to several hybrid breeds, such as the Chiweenie.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his discovery of resonance states in particle physics using the hydrogen bubble chamber. In 2007 the "American Journal of Physics" commented, "Luis Alvarez was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century."


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: After receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1936, Alvarez went to work for Ernest Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Alvarez devised a set of experiments to observe K-electron capture in radioactive nuclei, predicted by the beta decay theory but never before observed. He produced tritium using the cyclotron and measured its lifetime. In collaboration with Felix Bloch, he measured the magnetic moment of the neutron.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: In 1940, Alvarez joined the MIT Radiation Laboratory, where he contributed to a number of World War II radar projects, from early improvements to Identification friend or foe (IFF) radar beacons, now called transponders, to a system known as VIXEN for preventing enemy submarines from realizing that they had been found by the new airborne microwave radars. Enemy submarines would wait until the radar signal was getting strong and then submerge, escaping attack. But VIXEN transmitted a radar signal whose strength was the cube of the distance to the submarine so that as they approached the sub, the signal—as measured by the sub—got progressively weaker, and the sub assumed the plane was getting farther away and didn't submerge. The radar system for which Alvarez is best known and which has played a major role in aviation, most particularly in the post war Berlin airlift, was Ground Controlled Approach (GCA). Alvarez spent a few months at the University of Chicago working on nuclear reactors for Enrico Fermi before coming to Los Alamos to work for Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan project. Alvarez worked on the design of explosive lenses, and the development of exploding-bridgewire detonators. As a member of Project Alberta, he observed the Trinity nuclear test from a B-29 Superfortress, and later the bombing of Hiroshima from the B-29 "The Great Artiste".


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: After the war Alvarez was involved in the design of a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber that allowed his team to take millions of photographs of particle interactions, develop complex computer systems to measure and analyze these interactions, and discover entire families of new particles and resonance states. This work resulted in his being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1968. He was involved in a project to x-ray the Egyptian pyramids to search for unknown chambers. With his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, he developed the Alvarez hypothesis which proposes that the extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs was the result of an asteroid impact.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Alvarez was a member of the JASON Defense Advisory Group, the Bohemian Club, and the Republican Party.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Luis Walter Alvarez was born in San Francisco on June 13, 1911, the second child and oldest son of Walter C. Alvarez, a physician, and his wife Harriet née Smyth, and a grandson of Luis F. Álvarez, a Spanish physician, born in Asturias, Spain, who lived in Cuba for a while and finally settled in the United States, who found a better method for diagnosing macular leprosy. He had an older sister, Gladys, a younger brother, Bob, and a younger sister, Bernice. His aunt, Mabel Alvarez, was a California artist specializing in oil painting.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: He attended Madison School in San Francisco from 1918 to 1924, and then San Francisco Polytechnic High School. In 1926, his father became a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, and the family moved to Rochester, Minnesota, where Alvarez attended Rochester High School. He had always expected to attend the University of California, Berkeley, but at the urging of his teachers at Rochester, he instead went to the University of Chicago, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1932, his master's degree in 1934, and his PhD in 1936. As an undergraduate, he belonged to the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. As a postgraduate he moved to Gamma Alpha.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: In 1932, as a graduate student at Chicago, he discovered physics there and had the rare opportunity to use the equipment of legendary physicist Albert A. Michelson. Alvarez also constructed an apparatus of Geiger counter tubes arranged as a cosmic ray telescope, and under the aegis of his faculty advisor Arthur Compton, conducted an experiment in Mexico City to measure the so-called East–West effect of cosmic rays. Observing more incoming radiation from the west, Alvarez concluded that primary cosmic rays were positively charged. Compton submitted the resulting paper to the "Physical Review", with Alvarez's name at the top.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Alvarez's sister, Gladys, worked for Ernest Lawrence as a part-time secretary, and mentioned Alvarez to Lawrence. Lawrence then invited Alvarez to tour the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago with him. After he completed his oral exams in 1936, Alvarez, now engaged to be married to Geraldine Smithwick, asked his sister to see if Lawrence had any jobs available at the Radiation Laboratory. A telegram soon arrived from Gladys with a job offer from Lawrence. This started a long association with the University of California, Berkeley. Alvarez and Smithwick were married in one of the chapels at the University of Chicago and then headed for California. They had two children, Walter and Jean. They were divorced in 1957. On December 28, 1958, he married Janet L. Landis, and had two more children, Donald and Helen.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: At the Radiation Laboratory he worked with Lawrence's experimental team, which was supported by a group of theoretical physicists headed by Robert Oppenheimer. Alvarez devised a set of experiments to observe K-electron capture in radioactive nuclei, predicted by the beta decay theory but never observed. Using magnets to sweep aside the positrons and electrons emanating from his radioactive sources, he designed a special purpose Geiger counter to detect only the "soft" X-rays coming from K capture. He published his results in the "Physical Review" in 1937.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: When deuterium (hydrogen-2) is bombarded with deuterium, the fusion reaction yields either tritium (hydrogen-3) plus a proton or helium-3 plus a neutron (). This is one of the most basic fusion reactions, and the foundation of the thermonuclear weapon and the current research on controlled nuclear fusion. At that time the stability of these two reaction products was unknown, but based on existing theories Hans Bethe thought that tritium would be stable and helium-3 unstable. Alvarez proved the reverse by using his knowledge of the details of the 60-inch cyclotron operation. He tuned the machine to accelerate doubly ionized helium-3 nuclei and was able to get a beam of accelerated ions, thus using the cyclotron as a kind of super mass spectrometer. As the accelerated helium came from deep gas wells where it had been for millions of years, the helium-3 component had to be stable. Afterwards Alvarez produced the radioactive tritium using the cyclotron and the reaction and measured its lifetime.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: In 1938, again using his knowledge of the cyclotron and inventing what are now known as time-of-flight techniques, Alvarez created a mono-energetic beam of thermal neutrons. With this he began a long series of experiments, collaborating with Felix Bloch, to measure the magnetic moment of the neutron. Their result of , published in 1940, was a major advance over earlier work.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: The British Tizard Mission to the United States in 1940 demonstrated to leading American scientists the successful application of the cavity magnetron to produce short wavelength pulsed radar. The National Defense Research Committee, established only months earlier by President Franklin Roosevelt, created a central national laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the purpose of developing military applications of microwave radar. Lawrence immediately recruited his best "cyclotroneers", among them Alvarez, who joined this new laboratory, known as the Radiation Laboratory, on November 11, 1940. Alvarez contributed to a number of radar projects, from early improvements to Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) radar beacons, now called transponders, to a system known as VIXEN for preventing enemy submarines from realizing that they had been found by the new airborne microwave radars.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: One of the first projects was to build equipment to transition from the British long-wave radar to the new microwave centimeter-band radar made possible by the cavity magnetron. In working on the Microwave Early Warning system (MEW), Alvarez invented a linear dipole array antenna that not only suppressed the unwanted side lobes of the radiation field but also could be electronically scanned without the need for mechanical scanning. This was the first microwave phased-array antenna, and Alvarez used it not only in MEW but in two additional radar systems. The antenna enabled the Eagle precision bombing radar to support precision bombing in bad weather or through clouds. It was completed rather late in the war; although a number of B-29s were equipped with Eagle and it worked well, it came too late to make much difference.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: The radar system for which Alvarez is best known and which has played a major role in aviation, most particularly in the post-war Berlin airlift, was Ground Controlled Approach (GCA). Using Alvarez's dipole antenna to achieve a very high angular resolution, GCA allows ground-based radar operators to watch special precision displays to guide a landing airplane to the runway by transmitting verbal commands to the pilot. The system was simple, direct, and worked well, even with previously untrained pilots. It was so successful that the military continued to use it for many years after the war, and it was still in use in some countries in the 1980s. Alvarez was awarded the National Aeronautic Association's Collier Trophy in 1945 "for his conspicuous and outstanding initiative in the concept and development of the Ground Control Approach system for safe landing of aircraft under all weather and traffic conditions".


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Alvarez spent the summer of 1943 in England testing GCA, landing planes returning from battle in bad weather, and also training the British in the use of the system. While there he encountered the young Arthur C. Clarke, who was an RAF radar technician. Clarke subsequently used his experiences at the radar research station as the basis for his novel "Glide Path", which contains a thinly disguised version of Alvarez. Clarke and Alvarez developed a long-term friendship.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: In the fall of 1943, Alvarez returned to the United States with an offer from Robert Oppenheimer to work at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project. However, Oppenheimer suggested that he first spend a few months at the University of Chicago working with Enrico Fermi before coming to Los Alamos. During these months, General Leslie Groves asked Alvarez to think of a way that the US could find out if the Germans were operating any nuclear reactors, and, if so, where they were. Alvarez suggested that an airplane could carry a system to detect the radioactive gases that a reactor produces, particularly xenon-133. The equipment did fly over Germany, but detected no radioactive xenon because the Germans had not built a reactor capable of a chain reaction. This was the first idea of monitoring fission products for intelligence gathering. It would become extremely important after the war.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: As a result of his radar work and the few months spent with Fermi, Alvarez arrived at Los Alamos in the spring of 1944, later than many of his contemporaries. The work on the "Little Boy" (a uranium bomb) was far along so Alvarez became involved in the design of the "Fat Man" (a plutonium bomb). The technique used for uranium, that of forcing the two sub-critical masses together using a type of gun, would not work with plutonium because the high level of background spontaneous neutrons would cause fissions as soon as the two parts approached each other, so heat and expansion would force the system apart before much energy has been released. It was decided to use a nearly critical sphere of plutonium and compress it quickly by explosives into a much smaller and denser core, a technical challenge at the time.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: To create the symmetrical implosion required to compress the plutonium core to the required density, thirty-two explosive charges were to be simultaneously detonated around the spherical core. Using conventional explosive techniques with blasting caps, progress towards achieving simultaneity to within a small fraction of a microsecond was discouraging. Alvarez directed his graduate student, Lawrence H. Johnston, to use a large capacitor to deliver a high voltage charge directly to each explosive lens, replacing blasting caps with exploding-bridgewire detonators. The exploding wire detonated the thirty-two charges to within a few tenths of a microsecond. The invention was critical to the success of the implosion-type nuclear weapon. He also supervised the RaLa Experiments. Alvarez later wrote that:


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Again working with Johnston, Alvarez's last task for the Manhattan Project was to develop a set of calibrated microphone/transmitters to be parachuted from an aircraft to measure the strength of the blast wave from the atomic explosion, so as to allow the scientists to calculate the bomb's energy. After being commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, he observed the Trinity nuclear test from a B-29 Superfortress that also carried fellow Project Alberta members Harold Agnew and Deak Parsons (who were respectively commissioned at the rank of captain).


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Flying in the B-29 Superfortress "The Great Artiste" in formation with the "Enola Gay", Alvarez and Johnston measured the blast effect of the Little Boy bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima. A few days later, again flying in "The Great Artiste", Johnston used the same equipment to measure the strength of the Nagasaki explosion.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Returning to the University of California, Berkeley as a full professor, Alvarez had many ideas about how to use his wartime radar knowledge to improve particle accelerators. Though some of these were to bear fruit, the "big idea" of this time would come from Edwin McMillan with his concept of phase stability which led to the synchrocyclotron. Refining and extending this concept, the Lawrence team would build the world's then-largest proton accelerator, the Bevatron, which began operating in 1954. Though the Bevatron could produce copious amounts of interesting particles, particularly in secondary collisions, these complex interactions were hard to detect and analyze at the time.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: Seizing upon a new development to visualize particle tracks, created by Donald Glaser and known as a bubble chamber, Alvarez realized the device was just what was needed, if only it could be made to function with liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen nuclei, which are protons, made the simplest and most desirable target for interactions with the particles produced by the Bevatron. He began a development program to build a series of small chambers, and championed the device to Ernest Lawrence.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: The Glaser device was a small glass cylinder () filled with ether. By suddenly reducing the pressure in the device, the liquid could be placed into a temporary superheated state, which would boil along the disturbed track of a particle passing through. Glaser was able to maintain the superheated state for a few seconds before spontaneous boiling took place. The Alvarez team built chambers of 1.5 in, 2.5 in, 4 in, 10 in, and 15 in using liquid hydrogen, and constructed of metal with glass windows, so that the tracks could be photographed. The chamber could be cycled in synchronization with the accelerator beam, a picture could be taken, and the chamber recompressed in time for the next beam cycle.


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: This program built a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber almost 7 feet (2 meters) long, employed dozens of physicists and graduate students together with hundreds of engineers and technicians, took millions of photographs of particle interactions, developed computer systems to measure and analyze the interactions, and discovered families of new particles and resonance states. This work resulted in the Nobel Prize in Physics for Alvarez in 1968, "For his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonant states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chambers and data analysis."


title: Luis Walter Alvarez

text: In 1964 Alvarez proposed what became known as the High Altitude Particle Physics Experiment (HAPPE), originally conceived as a large superconducting magnet carried to high altitude by a balloon in order to study extremely high-energy particle interactions. In time the focus of the experiment changed toward the study of cosmology and the role of both particles and radiation in the early universe. This work was a large effort, carrying detectors aloft with high-altitude balloon flights and high-flying U-2 aircraft, and an early precursor of the COBE satellite-born experiments on the cosmic background radiation (which resulted in the award of the 2006 Nobel Prize, shared by George Smoot and John Mather.)