title: Mac Studio

text: The Mac Studio supports up to four 6K monitors connected via Thunderbolt, and a fifth monitor via HDMI. It was introduced alongside the Apple Studio Display, a 27-inch 5K monitor with an integrated 12 megapixel camera, six-speaker sound system with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos support and a height adjustable stand.


title: Mac Studio

text: Mac Studio has two removable flash storage ports, with one or two of them in use, the latter in models with 4 or 8 TB of storage. While it is possible to swap the flash storage card between same size models, with an Apple Configurator restore, upgrading is not supported yet. Some reviewers have criticized this decision as unfriendly for right to repair, while "Ars Technica" notes this limitation may be due to the design of Apple silicon that implements the SSD controller into the system on a chip rather than the drive itself for encryption purposes. The positioning of components such as the SSD beneath an exposed power supply has also been criticized.


title: Winnowing

text: Winnowing is a process by which chaff is separated from grain. It can also be used to remove pests from stored grain. Winnowing usually follows threshing in grain preparation. In its simplest form, it involves throwing the mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery. Techniques included using a winnowing fan (a shaped basket shaken to raise the chaff) or using a tool (a winnowing fork or shovel) on a pile of harvested grain.


title: Winnowing

text: The winnowing-fan (λίκνον ["líknon"], also meaning a "cradle") featured in the rites accorded Dionysus and in the Eleusinian Mysteries: "it was a simple agricultural implement taken over and mysticized by the religion of Dionysus," Jane Ellen Harrison remarked. "Dionysus Liknites" ("Dionysus of the winnowing fan") was wakened by the Dionysian women, in this instance called "Thyiades", in a cave on Parnassus high above Delphi; the winnowing-fan links the god connected with the mystery religions to the agricultural cycle, but mortal Greek babies too were laid in a winnowing-fan. In Callimachus' "Hymn to Zeus", Adrasteia lays the infant Zeus in a golden "líknon", her goat suckles him and he is given honey. In the "Odyssey", the dead oracle Teiresias tells Odysseus to walk away from Ithaca with an oar until a wayfarer tells him it is a winnowing fan (i.e., until Odysseus has come so far from the sea that people don't recognize oars), and there to build a shrine to Poseidon.


title: Winnowing

text: In ancient China, the method was improved by mechanization with the development of the rotary winnowing fan, which used a cranked fan to produce the airstream. This was featured in Wang Zhen's book the " Nong Shu" of 1313 AD.


title: Winnowing

text: In Saxon settlements such as one identified in Northumberland as Bede's Ad Gefrin (now called Yeavering) the buildings were shown by an excavator's reconstruction to have opposed entries. In barns a draught created by the use of these opposed doorways was used in winnowing.


title: Winnowing

text: The technique developed by the Chinese was not adopted in Europe until the 18th century when winnowing machines used a 'sail fan'. The rotary winnowing fan was exported to Europe, brought there by Dutch sailors between 1700 and 1720. Apparently, they had obtained them from the Dutch settlement of Batavia in Java, Dutch East Indies. The Swedes imported some from south China at about the same time and Jesuits had taken several to France from China by 1720. Until the beginning of the 18th century, no rotary winnowing fans existed in the West.


title: Winnowing

text: The development of the winnowing barn allowed rice plantations in South Carolina to increase their yields dramatically.


title: Winnowing

text: In 1737 Andrew Rodger, a farmer on the estate of Cavers in Roxburghshire, developed a winnowing machine for corn, called a 'Fanner'. These were successful and the family sold them throughout Scotland for many years. Some Scottish Presbyterian ministers saw the fanners as sins against God, for the wind was a thing specially made by him and an artificial wind was a daring and impious attempt to usurp what belonged to God alone. As the Industrial Revolution, the winnowing process was mechanized by the invention of additional winnowing machines, such as fanning mills.


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Phyllis Coates (born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell; January 15, 1927) is an American former actress, with a career spanning over fifty years. She is best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film "Superman and the Mole Men" and in the first season of the television series "Adventures of Superman".


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Born on January 15, 1927, in Wichita Falls, Texas, Coates is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Stell. After graduating from Odessa High School, she moved to ent to Los Angeles with her mother. Coates attended (as Gypsy Stell) Los Angeles City College.


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Originally billed under her birth name as Gypsy Stell, Coates was discovered by vaudeville comedian Ken Murray in a Hollywood and Vine restaurant from whom she learned comic timing. She subsequently appeared as a dancer and a comedienne in skits for ten months in "Blackouts", his "racy" (mildly risqué) variety show. She later performed as one of Earl Carroll's showgirls at his Earl Carroll Theatre. In 1946, she toured with a USO production of "Anything Goes".


title: Phyllis Coates

text: On July 13, 1944, aged 17, she "began her work with 20th Century Fox ... after receiving a seven year contract with option."


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Coates signed a movie contract with Warner Brothers extending from 1948 to 1956, and she co-starred with George O'Hanlon as the title character's wife in the studio's Joe McDoakes short-subject comedies. She acted in film serials, including "Jungle Drums of Africa" (1953), "Gunfighters of the Northwest" (1953), and "Panther Girl of the Kongo" (1955). Her film career also included roles in "Girls in Prison" (1956), "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" (1957), "Blood Arrow" (1958), "Cattle Empire" (1958), "The Incredible Petrified World" (1959), "The Baby Maker" (1970) and "Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn" (1989).


title: Phyllis Coates

text: In 1952, she guest-starred in "How Death Valley Got Its Name", the first episode of the anthology series "Death Valley Days". She appeared in the 1954 "Death Valley Days" episode "The Light On The Mountain". She was cast as the widowed Mary in the 1959 episode, "One in a Hundred." In a 1964 episode, "The Left Hand Is Damned," she portrayed the kind-hearted saloon singer Dora Hand of Dodge City, Kansas.


title: Phyllis Coates

text: She was cast in "The Lone Ranger" in 1953, and in 1955 in "The Woman in the White Mask". Coates was cast in 1955 as Madge in the CBS sitcom "Professional Father". In 1955, she portrayed Medora De More in the two-part episode "King of the Dakotas" of the NBC western anthology series "Frontier". In 1956, she was cast in the episode "God in the Street" of another anthology series, "Crossroads", based on the lives of American clergymen. That same year, she appeared in a second religious drama, "This Is the Life", as Betty in the episode "I Killed Lieutenant Hartwell." She was also cast in 1956 as Marge in the episode "Web Feet" of the military drama "Navy Log". She guest-starred in David Janssen's crime drama "Richard Diamond, Private Detective".


title: Phyllis Coates

text: In 1958, Coates played the mother, Clarissa Holliday, in all thirty-nine episodes of the 1958–1959 situation comedy, "This Is Alice". She made guest appearances in three episodes of "Perry Mason": murderer Norma Carter in "The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde" in 1958, "The Case of the Cowardly Lion" in 1961, and in "The Case of the Ice-Cold Hands" in 1964. In 1961, she was cast as Elizabeth Gwynn in the episode "The Little Fishes" on CBS's "Rawhide". Coates guest-starred as well on three episodes of "Gunsmoke" between 1958 and 1964.


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Coates played Lois Lane in the first season of "Adventures of Superman." Noel Neill, who had played Lois Lane in two Columbia "Superman" serials, in 1948 and 1950, replaced Coates, who was not available for the second season. With the death of Noel Neill on July 3, 2016, Coates became the last surviving regular cast member from the "Adventures of Superman" TV series.


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Coates's "Superman" fame has obscured the fact that she was one of Hollywood's most consistently employed actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. She freelanced steadily, appearing in numerous low-budget features, many of them westerns, as well as serials and a steady stream of TV appearances, both as a regular in several series and as a guest cast member in others. All this was in addition to the "McDoakes" shorts, in which she continued to appear until Warner Brothers discontinued the series in 1956. Arguably, her best-remembered films of the 1950s—perhaps owing to their being those in which she has a substantial role, and being among the few that have been preserved so that they are available today on home video—are "Blues Busters" with The Bowery Boys (in which she has a musical number); "Panther Girl of the Kongo", a jungle serial in which she starred; and "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein".


title: Phyllis Coates

text: In the 1960s, when it became clear that "Adventures of Superman" would continue to enjoy great popularity in syndicated reruns, far beyond the end of its production in 1957, Coates—like many of the other supporting cast members such as Jack Larson ("Jimmy Olsen")—tried to distance herself from the "Superman" series, fearing it might limit her opportunities. By the mid 1960s, however, she had settled into a comfortable semi-retirement as a wife and homemaker after marrying Los Angeles family physician Howard Press in 1962. She resumed her career after their divorce in 1986, but in the period immediately before that divorce, her film and television appearances were infrequent. One notable role was that of the mother of the female lead in the 1970 film "The Baby Maker", directed by James Bridges, the lover and production partner of Jack Larson, who had remained Coates's good friend since they worked together on "Adventures of Superman".


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Despite her stated misgivings about being remembered only as Lois Lane after relaunching her career, Coates agreed to appear as Lois's mother in the first season finale of the 1990s television series "". Noel Neill, who also played Lois Lane in film and TV series, had already been Lois's mother in the 1978 film "Superman". Since then, it has become a tradition in Superman adaptations for actresses who have previously played Lois Lane to later play Lois's mother. Teri Hatcher, who played Lois in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman", made an appearance in the tenth season of the series "Smallville" as Lois's mother, Ellen Lane.


title: Phyllis Coates

text: Coates married director Richard L. Bare in 1948. They divorced in January 1949. She married jazz pianist Robert Nelms in 1950, gave birth to a daughter, and divorced in 1953. Coates married director Norman Tokar in 1955 and gave birth to a son in 1957. She was married to Dr. Howard Press from 1962 to 1986, during which time she gave birth to another daughter.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: The discography of American rapper Lil Durk consists of eight studio albums (including one collaborative album), four compilation albums, one live album, one extended play, thirteen mixtapes, and 150 singles (including 82 as a featured artist).


title: Lil Durk discography

text: On April 3, 2012, Durk released his debut commercial mixtape, "I'm Still a Hitta", a sequel to his mixtape, "I'm a Hitta". He released his second commercial mixtape, "Signed to the Streets", on October 10, 2013, with it serving as his first release after being signed to French Montana's Coke Boys imprint. Durk released his third commercial mixtape, "Signed to the Streets 2", a sequel to his previous project, on July 7, 2013.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: On June 2, 2015, Durk released his debut studio album, "Remember My Name", which served as his first release for Def Jam Recordings. The album became his first project to chart on the "Billboard" 200, peaking at number 14 on the chart. He released his fourth commercial mixtape, "300 Days 300 Nights", on December 15, 2015.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: Durk released his second studio album, "Lil Durk 2X", on July 22, 2016. The album peaked at number 29 on the "Billboard" 200. He released his fifth commercial mixtape, "They Forgot", on February 14, 2017. Two days later, he released his sixth commercial mixtape, "Life Ain't No Joke". He released his seventh commercial mixtape, "Love Songs 4 the Streets", on March 1, 2017. On September 17, 2017, Durk released a collaborative mixtape with Emmett Dove and Chukk Beezy, "DFE, The Start of Emmett Dove". He released his debut extended play, "Signed to the Streets 2.5", a bridge in his "Signed to the Streets" series, on October 19, 2017, his 25th birthday. He released a collaborative mixtape with Tee Grizzley, "Bloodas", on December 8, 2017, which peaked at number 96 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: On March 30, 2018, Durk released his eighth commercial mixtape, "Just Cause Y'all Waited". The mixtape peaked at number 57 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: Durk released his third studio album, "Signed to the Streets 3", the last installment of his "Signed to the Streets" trilogy, on November 9, 2018. The album peaked at number 17 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: Durk released his fourth studio album, "Love Songs 4 the Streets 2", a sequel to "Love Songs 4 the Streets", on August 2, 2019. The album peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200. Durk released a compilation album with Only the Family, "Family over Everything", on December 11, 2019. The album peaked at number 93 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: On May 8, 2020, Durk released his fifth studio album, "Just Cause Y'all Waited 2", a sequel to "Just Cause Y'all Waited". The album peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: Durk released his sixth studio album, "The Voice", on December 24, 2020. The album also peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200, tying with "Just Cause Y'all Waited 2". From the deluxe edition of the album, it produced the top-40 song, "Finesse Out the Gang Way", which features Lil Baby and reached number 39 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. On June 4, 2021, Durk released a collaborative album with Lil Baby, "The Voice of the Heroes", which is named after Durk's nickname of "the Voice" and Baby's nickname of "the Hero". The album debuted and peaked atop the "Billboard" 200, giving Durk his first chart-topping project. It produced the top-40 single, the album's title track, "Voice of the Heroes", which peaked at number 21 on the Hot 100. "Hats Off", a collaboration with Travis Scott, another song from the album, became a top-20 song, debuting and peaking at number 16 on the chart. The album also contains two top-40 songs, "2040" and "How It Feels", which debuted and peaked at numbers 31 and 34 on the Hot 100, respectively.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: Durk released his seventh studio album, "7220", on March 11, 2022. The album debuted and peaked atop the "Billboard" 200, giving Durk his second chart-topping project and first solo chart-topping project. It produced two top-20 singles, "Broadway Girls" from 2021 and "Ahhh Ha", which reached numbers 14 and 19 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively; the former single features Morgan Wallen and gave Durk his highest-charting single as a lead artist. It also produced the top-40 single, "Pissed Me Off" from 2021, which debuted and peaked at number 39 on the Hot 100.


title: Lil Durk discography

text: Durk has also been featured on several songs that have received mainstream success. In 2020, he appeared on Drake's single, "Laugh Now Cry Later", which debuted and peaked at number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100, giving him his highest-charting song in total. That same year, Durk was featured on Pooh Shiesty's single, "Back in Blood", which reached number 13 on the Hot 100. In 2021, he joined Coi Leray on the remix of her single, "No More Parties", which hit number 26 on the Hot 100. That same year, Durk was featured alongside Lil Baby on DJ Khaled's single, "Every Chance I Get", which debuted and peaked at number 20 on the Hot 100. Durk also appeared alongside the Kid Laroi on Polo G's song, "No Return", which charted at number 26 on the Hot 100. Later in the year, Durk was once again featured alongside Lil Baby on Meek Mill's single, "Sharing Locations", which debuted and peaked at number 22 on the Hot 100. He also appeared alongside Vory on Kanye West's song, "Jonah", which reached number 27 on the Hot 100. Durk then appeared alongside Giveon on another Drake song, this time on "In the Bible", which debuted and peaked at number seven on the Hot 100. Continuing the year, he was featured alongside G Herbo and 21 Savage on another version of Nardo Wick's single, "Who Want Smoke?", titled "Who Want Smoke??" with an extra question mark in the title, which reached number 17 on the Hot 100.


title: Full body scanner

text: A full-body scanner is a device that detects objects on or inside a person's body for security screening purposes, without physically removing clothes or making physical contact. Unlike metal detectors, full-body scanners can detect non-metal objects, which became an increasing concern after various airliner bombing attempts in the 2000s and some scanners can also detect swallowed items or hidden in body cavities of a person. Starting in 2007, full-body scanners started supplementing metal detectors at airports and train stations in many countries.


title: Full body scanner

text: Passengers and advocates have objected to images of their naked bodies being displayed to screening agents or recorded by the government. Critics have called the imaging virtual strip searches without probable cause, and have suggested they are illegal and violate basic human rights. However, current technology is less intrusive and because of privacy issues most people are allowed to refuse this scan and opt for a traditional pat-down. Depending on the technology used, the operator may see an alternate-wavelength image of the person's naked body, merely a cartoon-like representation of the person with an indicator showing where any suspicious items were detected, or full X-ray image of the person. For privacy and security reasons, the display is generally not visible to other passengers, and in some cases is located in a separate room where the operator cannot see the face of the person being screened. Transmission X-ray scanners claim to be more privacy neutral as there is almost no way to distinguish a person but they also have a software able to hide privacy issues.


title: Full body scanner

text: The first (ultra-low-dose backscatter X-ray) full body security scanner was developed by Dr. Steven W Smith, who developed the Secure 1000 whole body scanner in 1992. He subsequently sold the device and associated patents to Rapiscan Systems, who now manufacture and distribute the device.


title: Full body scanner

text: Safety aspects of the Secure 1000 have been assessed in the US by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and other independent sources since the early 1990s.


title: Full body scanner

text: In 2000 Dr. Vladimir V. Linev within ADANI patented a system for scanning a person, based on transmission (penetrating) X-ray technology, focused on the search for unwanted objects and contraband which was then the base for CONPASS body scanner marketed later.


title: Full body scanner

text: The first millimeter-wave full body scanner was developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington. The operation is one of the four national laboratories Battelle manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. In the 1990's, they patented their 3-D holographic-imagery technology, with research and development support provided by the TSA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 2002, Silicon Valley startup SafeView, Inc. obtained an exclusive license to PNNL's (background) intellectual property, to commercialize their technology. From 2002 to 2006, SafeView developed a production-ready millimeter body scanner system, and software which included scanner control, algorithms for threat detection and object recognition, as well as techniques to conceal raw images in order to resolve privacy concerns. During this time, SafeView developed foreground IP through several patent applications. By 2006, SafeView's body scanning portals had been installed and trialed at various locations around the globe. They were installed at border crossings in Israel, international airports such as Mexico City and Amsterdam's Schiphol, ferry landings in Singapore, railway stations in the UK, government buildings like The Hague, and commercial buildings in Tokyo. They were also employed to secure soldiers and workers in Iraq's Green Zone. In 2006, SafeView was acquired by L-3 Communications. From 2006 and 2020, L-3 Communications (later L3Harris) continued to make incemental enhancements to their scanner systems, while deploying thousands of units world wide. In 2020, Leidos acquired L3Harris, which included their body scanner business unit.


title: Full body scanner

text: The first passive, non-radiating full body screening camera device was developed by Lockheed Martin through a sponsorship by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ)'s Office of Science and Technology and the United States Air Force Research Laboratory. Proof of concept was conducted in 1995 through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Rights to this technology were subsequently acquired by Brijot Imaging Systems, who further matured a commercial-grade product line and now manufacture, market and support the passive millimeter wave camera devices.


title: Full body scanner

text: Schiphol in the Netherlands was the first airport in the world to implement SafeView's millimeter-wave body scanner on a large scale after a test with flight personnel the previous year. On May 15, 2007, two of 17 purchased security scans were installed.


title: Full body scanner

text: The Italian government had planned to install full-body scanners at all airport and train stations throughout the country, but announced in September 2010 plans to remove the scanners from airports, calling them "slow and ineffective".


title: Full body scanner

text: The European Union currently allows member states to decide whether to implement full body scanners in their countries:


title: Full body scanner

text: In Australia the government has decided a no opt-out policy will be enforced in relation to screening at airports. Persons with medical or physical conditions that prevent them from undertaking a body scan will be offered alternative screening methods suitable to their circumstances. Infants and young children under 140 cm will not be selected to undergo a body scan.


title: Full body scanner

text: Body-scanners are being used at eight of Australia's international airports – Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. So far only passengers exiting via international flights are affected. Domestic and international passengers departing Newcastle Port Stephens airport have been subject to body scanning since October 2019. Passengers who refuse a scan may be banned from flying. The scanners proposed to be used in Australia have shown a high rate of error in testing. Public outrage over the nude images created by the body scanners being collected by policy resulted in a lawsuit in 2010 to stop body scanning.


title: Full body scanner

text: In Canada, 24 airports currently have these scanners in use, using millimeter-wave technology. Transport Canada notes that "Passengers selected for a secondary search can choose between the full body scanner or a physical search."


title: Full body scanner

text: In the U.S. full-body scanners have been installed at train stations, subways, penitentiaries and airports.


title: Full body scanner

text: After having previously used X-ray-based scanners the TSA currently uses Millimeter Wave AIT scanners exclusively, which show no identifying characteristics of the person being scanned. Instead, a generic outline of a person is used. As of December 2015, "While passengers may generally decline AIT screening in favor of physical screening, TSA may direct mandatory AIT screening for some passengers as warranted by security considerations in order to safeguard transportation security."


title: Full body scanner

text: Regarding privacy concerns the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has stated in 2010 they "[have] not, will not and the machines cannot store images of passengers at airports". However the TSA later disclosed, in a response to the house chair on homeland security, that its procurement of airport scanners requires manufacturers to include image storage and transmission features but that these features should be disabled before being placed in an airport. The TSA shows 45 individuals have the ability to turn these machines into 'test mode' which enables recording images, but states that they would never do this on a production system. The US Marshal Service did operate a backscatter machine in a courthouse which records images. However, in a statement they noted that only individuals involved in a test were recorded. A sample of these images was received and disseminated by Gizmodo in 2010, using a Freedom Of Information Request. It is not clear if the US Marshal service has put these new scanning machines, that have recording capabilities, into production. The analyst is in a different room and is not supposed to be able to see the person being scanned by the Backscatter X-ray AIT, but is in contact with other officials who can halt the scanned person if anything suspicious shows up on the scan.


title: Full body scanner

text: US Penitentiary is also constantly purchasing X-ray full body scanners for contraband and weapons detection purposes. The scanners are generally Transmission X-ray scanners since these are the only devices capable of detecting metallic and non-metallic contraband hidden underneath clothing as well as contraband hidden inside body cavities.


title: Full body scanner

text: Civil rights groups in Britain in 2010 argued that the body scanning of children contravened the law relating to child pornography.


title: Full body scanner

text: Passive infra-red scanners have been developed for use in public spaces to collect and analyse natural heat radiation given off by the human body to detect both metallic and non-metallic "threat objects". No external radiation source is used and privacy is preserved as no body details are revealed. Police are conducting a trial of the equipment at London rail stations.


title: Full body scanner

text: During the forecast period of 2020–2025, the Asia–Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest market CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). The growth of this region is possibly due to the high airport investments and improvements in prison systems. China and India are heavily investing in greenfield airport construction. In January 2020, the Indian government decided to equip 84 airports with full-body scanners, which has led the Indian market to grow at a higher rate.


title: Full body scanner

text: Some argue that using a full-body scanner is equivalent to a strip search, and if used without probable cause violates basic human rights.


title: Full body scanner

text: Full-body scanning allows screeners to see the surface of the skin under clothing, prosthetics including breast prostheses and prosthetic testicles, which may require a potentially embarrassing, physical inspection once detected. The scanners can also detect other medical equipment normally hidden, such as colostomy bags and catheters. The transgender community also has privacy concerns that body scanners could lead to their harassment.


title: Full body scanner

text: In the UK, in 2010, the Equality and Human Rights Commission argued that full-body scanners were a risk to human rights and might be breaking the law.


title: Full body scanner

text: A ruling of the European Council in 2013 required that persons analyzing the image shall be in a separate location and the image shall not be linked to the screened person.


title: Full body scanner

text: In 2010 the National Human Rights Commission of Korea opposed the use of full-body scanners and recommended that they not be deployed at airports.


title: Full body scanner

text: Opponents in the US argue that full body scanners and the new TSA patdowns are unconstitutional. A comprehensive student note came out in the Fall 2010 issue of the University of Denver Transportation Law Journal arguing that full-body scanners are unconstitutional in the United States because they are (1) too invasive and (2) not effective enough because the process is too inefficient.


title: Full body scanner

text: On July 2, 2010, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a lawsuit to suspend the deployment of full-body scanners at airports in the United States:


title: Full body scanner

text: EPIC claimed at that time that full-body scanners violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because they subject citizens to a virtual strip search without any evidence of wrongdoing.


title: Full body scanner

text: The American Civil Liberties Union, in 2006, called the machines an invasion of privacy: "This doesn't only concern genitals but body size, body shape and other things like evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances or catheter tubes. These are very personal things that people have every right to keep private and personal, aside from the modesty consideration of not wanting to be naked."


title: Full body scanner

text: In Idaho a bill was introduced in 2011 to prevent the use of full-body scanners as a primary screening method and allow people to request an alternative.


title: Full body scanner

text: Travelers at U.S. airports have complained that when they opted not to be scanned, they were subjected to a new type of invasive pat-down that one traveler in 2010 described as "probing and pushing ... in my genital area." Another traveler in the United States complained in 2010 that the TSA employee "inserted four fingers of both hands "inside" my trousers and ran his fingers all the way around my waist, his fingers extending at least 2–3 inches "below" my waistline."


title: Full body scanner

text: As of December 15, 2015 the TSA published a new policy which required AIT to be "mandatory" for "some" passengers for "security reasons". However, most individuals in the US can still opt out of the scanner and choose a pat-down if they are uncomfortable going through the scanner. Individuals also have the right to be patted down in a private room and have it witnessed by a person of the individual's choice.


title: Full body scanner

text: In November 2010, a female traveler who opted out of a full body scan at Fort Lauderdale International Airport claimed that TSA agents handcuffed her to a chair and ripped up her plane ticket when she asked questions about the new type of invasive pat down she was about to receive. In response, the TSA posted parts of the security camera footage on their blog, though there is no sound in the video and the passenger is not directly in the camera during most of the incident.


title: Full body scanner

text: In the United States, in 2010 the TSA required that their full-body scanners "allow exporting of image data in real time", and cases of the government's storing of images have been confirmed.


title: Full body scanner

text: In August 2010, it was reported that the United States Marshals Service saved thousands of images from a millimeter wave scanner. TSA – part of the Department of Homeland Security – reiterated that its own scanners do not save images and that the scanners do not have the capability to save images when they are installed in airports. However, these statements contradict the TSA's own Procurement Specs which specifically require that the machines have the ability to record and transmit images, even if those features might be initially turned off on delivery. Opponents have also expressed skepticism that if there were a successful terror attack that the machines could not save images for later inspection to find out what went wrong with the scans. On November 16, 2010, 100 of the stored 35,000 body scan images were leaked online and posted by Gizmodo.


title: Full body scanner

text: In February 2012 airport employees in Lagos were allegedly discovered wandering away from a cubicle located in a hidden corner on the right side of the screening area to where the 3D full-body scanner monitors are located.


title: Full body scanner

text: At the Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport, TSA complaints have been reported to disproportionally stem from women who felt that they were singled out for repeated screening for the entertainment of male security officers.


title: Full body scanner

text: Current backscatter and millimeter wave scanners installed by the TSA are unable to screen adequately for security threats inside turbans, hijab, burqas, casts, prosthetics and loose clothing. This technology limitation of current scanners often requires these persons to undergo additional screening by hand or other methods and can cause additional delay or feelings of harassment.


title: Full body scanner

text: According to a manufacturer of the machines, the next generation of backscatter scanners will be able to screen all types of clothing. These improved scanners have been designed to equalize the screening process for religious minorities.


title: Full body scanner

text: Currently the transmission (penetrating) X-ray technology is the only way to detect hidden objects inside prosthetic devices and other hiding criteria of the same type.


title: Full body scanner

text: Current machines installed by the TSA require agents in the US to designate each passenger as either male or female, after which the software compares the passenger's body against a normative body of that sex. Transgender passengers have reported that full body scanners at several U.S. airports have falsely raised alarms based on their anatomy.


title: Full body scanner

text: Health concerns relating to the use of full-body scanning technology are present, especially pertaining to the use of X-ray scanners. The issue is mainly regulated by ANSI 43.17.2009, which limits the dose on a per-person basis. However this 2010-era document is intended to apply primarily in the context of standard civilian-airport security. It is generally not considered applicable to unusual terrorism-threat detection concerns in high-security environments (prisons, special-purpose airports) or military institutions. Nor is ANSI 43.17.2009 considered to be the appropriate standard for highly concealed threats such liquid bombs inside body cavities or swallowed drugs. Due to fundamental physical limitations of how each type of detection technology functions, these highly covert types of threats are impossible to detect by any means other than transmission X-rays.


title: Full body scanner

text: From the perspective of annual dosage, the ANSI 43.17.2009 standard stipulates that a transmission X-ray dosage of 0.25 μSv per scan, in conjunction with an annual total limit at 250 µSv, equates to a per-person maximum of such 1000 scans per year for a civilian-aviation passenger. However, counting all medical X-ray procedures (as a typical person might undergo in an average year), and if the total annual dose of 250 µSv is taken to include all medical-related doses, then the number of flights/scans permitted for that person could be greatly reduced, assuming that transmission-type X-ray technology is used at each security screening that the civil-aviation passenger undergoes. But because the medical X-ray dosages vary tremendously (over several orders of magnitude) depending on the diagnostic procedures that the patient is subjected to, the proportional contribution of airport-security X-raying to the person's total annual dosage cannot be calculated unless an accounting of the medical X-ray dosages is also present.


title: Full body scanner

text: Currently adopted millimeter wave scanners operate in the millimeter or sub-terahertz band, using non-ionizing radiation, and have no proven adverse health effects, though no long-term studies have been done. Thomas S. Tenforde, president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, said in 2010 that millimeter wave scanners are probably within bounds [of standards for safe operation], but there should be an effort to verify that they are safe for frequent use. WHO (World Health Organization) in 2011 categorized RF (radio frequency) radiation as a possible carcinogen.


title: Full body scanner

text: Numerical simulations of terahertz radiation, which active millimeter-wave scanners do not operate at, have produced mixed results. Researchers at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have used simulations to show a way that terahertz radiation may affect DNA, However, this has not been verified.


title: Full body scanner

text: In the United States, the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 required that all full-body scanners operated in airports by the Transportation Security Administration use "Automated Target Recognition" software, which replaces the picture of a nude body with the cartoon-like representation. As a result of this law, all backscatter X-ray machines formerly in use by the Transportation Security Administration were removed from airports by May 2013, since the agency said the vendor (Rapiscan) did not meet their contractual deadline to implement the software.


title: Full body scanner

text: In the European Union, backscatter X-ray screening of airline passengers was banned in 2012 to protect passenger safety, and the deployment at Manchester Airport was removed.


title: Full body scanner

text: Several radiation safety authorities including the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, The Health Physics Society, and the American College of Radiology, have stated that they are "not aware of any evidence" that full-body scans are unsafe. However, other radiation authorities, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Energy Agency recommend against using ionizing radiation on certain populations like pregnant women and children, and opponents of the devices say that no long-term studies have been done on the health effects of either backscatter X-ray or millimeter wave scanners: "I don't think the right questions have been asked. We don't have enough information to make a decision on whether there's going to be a biological effect or not". (Douglas Boreham, professor in Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.)


title: Full body scanner

text: Richard Morin, a medical physicist at the Mayo Clinic has said that he is not concerned about health effects from backscatter X-ray scanners: "From a radiation standpoint there has been no evidence that there is really any untoward effect from the use of this device [backscatter scanner], so I would not be concerned about it from a radiation dose standpoint – the issues of personal privacy are a different thing". The health effects of the more common millimeter wave scanner are largely unknown, and at least one expert believes a safety study is warranted. "I am very interested in performing a National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements study on the use of millimeter-wave security screening systems", said Thomas S. Tenforde, council president. However, no long-term studies have been done on the health effects of millimeter wave scanners.


title: Full body scanner

text: Perhaps the most notable and debated professional opinion in regard to the safety of scanners is the so-called "Holdren Letter" from a number of world-renowned biochemists and biophysics researchers from the University of California to the Assistant to the US President for Science and Technology, Dr. John P. Holdren. The opening paragraph of their letter of concern reads: "We, a number of University of California, San Francisco faculty, are writing—see attached memo—to call your attention to our concerns about the potential serious health risks of the recently adopted whole body back scatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers."


title: Full body scanner

text: Critics of backscatter X-ray scanners, including the head of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, say that the radiation emitted by some full-body scanners is as much as 20 times stronger than officially reported and is not safe to use on large numbers of persons because of an increased risk of cancer to children and at-risk populations.


title: Full body scanner

text: Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) have argued that the amount of radiation is higher than claimed by the TSA and body scanner manufacturers because the doses were calculated as if distributed throughout the whole body, but the radiation from backscatter X-ray scanners is focused on just the skin and surrounding tissues:


title: Full body scanner

text: The majority of [the scanners'] energy is delivered to the skin and the underlying tissue. Thus, while the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high.


title: Full body scanner

text: The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest X- rays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude, the real dose to the skin is now high.


title: Full body scanner

text: In addition, it appears that real independent safety data do not exist. A search, ultimately finding top FDA radiation physics staff, suggests that the relevant radiation quantity, the Flux [photons per unit area and time (because this is a scanning device)] has not been characterized. Instead an indirect test (Air Kerma) was made that emphasized the whole body exposure value, and thus it appears that the danger is low when compared to cosmic rays during airplane travel and a chest X-ray dose.


title: Full body scanner

text: However other professors in the UCSF radiology department disagree, saying that the radiation dose is low. "The conclusions are wrong", Ronald Arenson, professor of radiology, tells SF Weekly of his own institution's letter. "People who are totally unrelated to radiation wrote it. ... It was senior faculty at UCSF. They're smart people and well-intended, but their conclusions, I think, were off-base. They don't understand how radiation translates to an actual dose in the human body".


title: Full body scanner

text: Dr. Steve Smith, inventor of the body scanner in 1991, and president of Tek84, one of the companies that produces the machines, has stated that the concerns of Dr. Brenner and UCSF Scientists regarding the skin dose of backscatter scanners are incorrect. He states the values used for X-ray penetration were incorrectly based on the description of the imaging depth which describes what the instrument sees and is a few mm into the skin and the dosage depth which is deeper. He describes experimental proof that the X-rays have the same properties as any other X-rays and the penetration is correct to be averaged over the whole body. Dr. Smith has provided measured data from an operating body scanner to explain his position.


title: Full body scanner

text: In October 2010, The TSA responded to the concerns of UCSF researchers via the White House science advisor.


title: Full body scanner

text: Scanners also concentrate the dose in time, because they deliver a high dose-rate at the moment of exposure. High dose-rate exposure has been shown to cause greater damage than the same radiation dose delivered at lower rates. This raises further questions about comparisons to background radiation.


title: Full body scanner

text: Since general-use x-ray systems emit ionizing radiation, the societal benefit of reliably detecting threats must be sufficient to outweigh the potential radiation risk, if any, to the individual screened. The dose from one screening with a general-use x-ray security screening system is so low that it presents an extremely small risk to any individual. To put the radiation dose received into perspective:


title: Full body scanner

text: The U.S. TSA has also made public various independent safety assessments of the Secure 1000 Backscatter X-ray Scanner.


title: Full body scanner

text: Dr. David Brenner, head of Columbia University's center for radiological research, said although the danger posed to the individual passenger is "very low", he is urging researchers to carry out more tests on the device to look at the way it affects specific groups who could be more sensitive to radiation.


title: Full body scanner

text: Dr. Andrew J. Einstein, director of cardiac CT research at Columbia University, has made the following statements in support of the safety of body scanners: "A passenger would need to be scanned using a backscatter scanner, from both the front and the back, about 200,000 times to receive the amount of radiation equal to one typical CT scan ... Another way to look at this is that if you were scanned with a backscatter scanner every day of your life, you would still only receive a tenth of the dose of a typical CT scan ... By comparison, the amount of radiation from a backscatter scanner is equivalent to about 10 minutes of natural background radiation in the United States ... I believe that the general public has nothing to worry about in terms of the radiation from airline scanning ... For moms-to-be, no evidence supports an increased risk of miscarriage or fetal abnormalities from these scanners ... A pregnant woman will receive much more radiation from cosmic rays she is exposed to while flying than from passing through a scanner in the airport".


title: Full body scanner

text: In May 2010 the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements issued a press release in response to the health risk claims from UCSF and Columbia University (claims of excessive skin dose and risks to large populations vs. individuals). The NCRP claims that cancer risks cited by opponents are completely inaccurate, stating that:


title: Full body scanner

text: general-use systems should adhere to an effective dose of 0.1 microsievert (μSv) (0.01 millirem) or less per scan, and can be used mostly without regard to the number of individuals scanned or the number of scans per individual in a year. An effective dose of 0.1 μSv (0.01 mrem) per scan would allow 2,500 scans of an individual annually [i.e., if each scan required 0.1 μSv (0.01 mrem)] without exceeding the administrative control of 0.25 mSv (25 mrem) to a member of the general public for a single source or set of sources under one control. Assuming 250 workdays per year, this would correspond to an average of 10 scans each day, a frequency that is unlikely to be encountered.


title: Full body scanner

text: All the same the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety which includes the International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Health Organization, reported that, "Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, even though the radiation dose from body scanners is 'extremely small'".


title: Full body scanner

text: It has also been suggested that defects in the machines, damage from normal wear-and-tear, or software errors could focus an intense dose of radiation on just one spot of the body. The researchers write:


title: Full body scanner

text: Moreover, there are a number of 'red flags' related to the hardware itself. Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense. Any glitch in power at any point in the hardware (or more importantly in software) that stops the device could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin. Who will oversee problems with overall dose after repair or software problems? The TSA is already complaining about resolution limitations; who will keep the manufacturers and/or TSA from just raising the dose, an easy way to improve signal-to-noise and get higher resolution? Lastly, given the recent incident (on December 25th), how do we know whether the manufacturer or TSA, seeking higher resolution, will scan the groin area more slowly leading to a much higher total dose?


title: Full body scanner

text: Proponents of backscatter X-ray scanners argue that the ANSI N43.17 standard addresses safety requirements and engineering design of the systems to prevent the occurrence of accidental high radiation due to defects and errors in hardware and software. Safety requirements include "fail-safe" controls, multiple overlapping interlocks and engineering design to ensure that failure of any systems result in safe or non-operation of the system to reduce the chance of accidental exposures. Furthermore, TSA requires that certification to the ANSI N43.17 standard is performed by a third party and not by the manufacturer themselves. But there are cases where types of medical scanning machines, operated by trained medical personnel, have malfunctioned, causing serious injury to patients that were scanned. Critics of full-body scanners cite these incidents as examples of how radiation-based scanning machines can overdose people with radiation despite all safety precautions.


title: Full body scanner

text: In March 2011, it was found that some of the full body scanners in the US were emitting 10 times the normal level of radiation: Contractors charged with routinely examining the scanners submitted reports containing discrepancies, including mathematical miscalculations showing that some of the devices emitted radiation levels 10 times higher than normal:Peter Kant, executive vice president of Rapiscan Systems, said that "In our review of the surveys we found instances where a technician incorrectly did his math and came up with results that showed the radiation readings were off by a factor of 10".


title: Full body scanner

text: The X-rays from backscatter scanners "are a form of ionizing radiation, that is, radiation powerful enough to strip molecules in the body of their electrons, creating charged particles that cause cell damage and are thought to be the mechanism through which radiation causes cancer." Humans are exposed to background radiation every day, anywhere on earth, and proponents of backscatter X-ray scanners say that the devices expose subjects to levels of radiation equivalent to background radiation. Furthermore, when traveling on an airplane, passengers are exposed to much higher levels of radiation than on earth due to altitude. Proponents say that a backscatter X-ray scan is equivalent to the radiation received during two minutes of flying.


title: Full body scanner

text: The UK Health Protection Agency has also issued a statement that the radiation dose from backscatter scanners is very low and "about the same as one hour of background radiation".


title: Full body scanner

text: The European Commission issued a report stating that backscatter X-ray scanners pose no known health risk, but suggested that backscatter X-ray scanners, which expose people to ionizing radiation, should not be used when millimeter-wave scanners that "have less effects on the human body" are available.


title: Full body scanner

text: Assuming all other conditions equal, there is no reason to adopt X‐ray backscatters, which expose the subject to an additional – although negligible – source of ionizing radiations. Other WBI (Whole Body Imaging) technologies should be preferred for standard use. However, the European Commission's report provides no data substantiating the claim that "all other conditions are equal". One area where backscatter X-ray scanners can provide better performance than millimeter wave scanners, for example, is in the inspection of the shoes, groin and armpit regions of the body. The European Commission also recommended that alternate screening methods should be "used on pregnant women, babies, children and people with disabilities".


title: Full body scanner

text: In the United States, Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee sent a letter on August 6, 2010, to the Secretary of Homeland Security and Administrator of the TSA, requesting that the TSA "have the Department's Chief Medical Officer, working with independent experts, conduct a review of the health effects of their use for travelers, TSA employees, and airport and airline personnel." The TSA has completed this review.


title: Full body scanner

text: The U.S. government is also supplying higher-radiation through-body X-ray machines to at least two African countries "for the purposes of airport security – the kind that can see through flesh, and which deliver real doses of radiation. The U.S.-supplied scanners have apparently been deployed at one airport in Ghana and four in Nigeria". This has caused some to question how far the U.S. government intends to go with the technology.


title: Full body scanner

text: Unions for airline pilots working for American Airlines and US Airways have urged pilots to avoid the full body scanners.


title: Full body scanner

text: There is controversy over full-body scanners in some countries because the machines create images of virtual strip searches on persons under the age of 18 which may violate child pornography laws. In the UK, the scanners may be breaking the Protection of Children Act of 1978 by creating images or pseudo-images of nude children.


title: Full body scanner

text: Parents have complained that their young children are being virtually strip searched, sometimes without their parents present.


title: Full body scanner

text: Some critics suggest that full-body scanner technology is ineffective for multiple reasons, including that they can easily be bypassed and a study published in the November 2010 edition of the "Journal of Transportation Security" suggested terrorists might fool the Rapiscan machines and others like it employing the X-ray "backscatter" technique. A terrorist, the report found, could tape a thin film of explosives of about 15–20 centimeters in diameter to the stomach and walk through the machine undetected.


title: Full body scanner

text: Terrorists have already evolved their tactics with the use of surgically implanted bombs or bombs hidden in body cavities.


title: Full body scanner

text: In March 2012, scientist and blogger Jonathan Corbett demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the machines by publishing a viral video showing how he was able to get a metal box through backscatter X-ray and millimeter wave scanners in two US airports. In April 2012, Corbett released a second video interviewing a TSA screener, who described firearms and simulated explosives passing through the scanners during internal testing and training. In another test of the full-body scanners, the machines failed to detect bomb parts hidden around a person's body. And in a different test in 2011, an undercover TSA agent was able to carry a handgun through full body scanners multiple times without the weapon being detected. However, in this case, the TSA agent who was in charge of viewing the scanned images was simply not paying attention.


title: Full body scanner

text: Furthermore, an Israeli airport security expert, Rafi Sela, who helped design security at Ben Gurion International Airport, has said: "I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747... That's why we haven't put them in our airport."


title: Full body scanner

text: Again, despite the scanners, the TSA has been unable to stop weapons like box cutters and pistols from being carried onto airplanes.


title: Full body scanner

text: The Australia government has been challenged over the effectiveness and cost of full body scanners by public media to which Australian Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has said he "makes no apologies" for mandating the installation of full body scanners at Australian airports.


title: Full body scanner

text: Two alternatives that have been argued for by experts, such as Prof Chris Mayhew from Birmingham University, are chemical-based scanners and bomb-sniffing dogs. Others have argued that passenger profiling, as done by Israeli airport security, should replace full body scanners and patdowns.


title: Full body scanner

text: Unlike the above, transmission technology allows to detect objects swallowed or hidden inside the objects. This is the main reason it is commonly used in prisons and jails. However the current technology does not allow the dual-energy body scanning (and detecting the object by its atomic number like it is used in baggage or vehicle X-ray scanners) which could give the image the same detection effectiveness as regular black and white X-ray. This leads to the idea that human-held detection (finding threats by looking at the image and finding non-common to the human body items) is the most effective way to find a contraband. However counting a human factor (fatigue, decreased attention) threats still could be missed. Modern software based on Artificial Intelligence in full body scanners is designed to minimize human faults and rise the detection effectiveness of this method.


title: Full body scanner

text: A Gallup poll given just after the 2009 Christmas Day bombing attempt suggested that 78% of American airline travelers approved of body scanners while 20% disapproved. 51% indicated that they would have some level of discomfort with full-body scans, while 48% said they would not be uncomfortable with the idea. The poll was given in the context of the 2009 Christmas Day bombing attempt, and some opponents of full body scanners say that the explosives used in that bombing attempt would not have been detected by full-body scanners.


title: Full body scanner

text: An ABC/Washington Post poll conducted by Langer Associates and released November 22, 2010, found that 64 percent of Americans favored the full-body X-ray scanners, but that 50 percent think the "enhanced" pat-downs go too far; 37 percent felt so strongly. In addition the poll states opposition is lowest amongst those who fly less than once a year.


title: Full body scanner

text: As of November 23, 2010 an online poll of 11,817 people on The Consumerist website, 59.41% said they would not fly as a result of the new scans. Additionally, as of November 23, 2010, a poll of MSNBC 8,500 online readers indicated 84.1% believe the new procedures would not increase travel safety. According to a CBS telephone poll of 1,137 people published in November 2010, 81% (+/- 5%) percent of those polled approved TSA's use of full-body scans.


title: Full body scanner

text: There has been some debate about the safety of the scanners, however, the TSA argue that mmw scanners used emit no ionizing radiation.


title: Full body scanner

text: Former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has been criticized for heavily promoting full-body scanners while not always fully disclosing that he is a lobbyist for one of the companies that makes the machines. Other full-body scanner lobbyists with government connections include:


title: Full body scanner

text: Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2008, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.


title: Full body scanner

text: bring full-body scanners to train stations, mass transit, and public events. Contracts included in the EPIC release showed plans to develop long-range scans that could assess what a subject carried from 30 feet away, along with studies that involved systems for x-ray scanners mounted in vans and "covert" scans of pedestrians.


title: Full body scanner

text: Millimeter-wave scanner software transitioned to featureless male or female 'cartoons' in 2011, in response to widescale privacy concerns. Opponents of full body scanners still consider this an unconstitutional strip search, because even though the operator sees only an edited version of the image, a naked image is still captured by the machine, and there is no guarantee the government or a private company will not store it in the case that a terrorist attack were successful.


title: Full body scanner

text: Currently, the millimeter-wave scanner monitor shows a generic cookie-cutter-like outline of a person and highlights potential threats. It is the same image no matter the individual's gender, height, or body type. The scanner software recognizes metallic and non-metallic items hiding under clothing. The machine then processes an image using yellow boxes to point out any areas that may need additional screening.


title: Full body scanner

text: TSA Administrator John Pistole stated that "Our top priority is the safety of the traveling public, and TSA constantly strives to explore and implement new technologies that enhance security and strengthen privacy protections for the traveling public ... This software upgrade enables us to continue providing a high level of security through advanced imaging technology screening, while improving the passenger experience at checkpoints."


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendments to the Constitution, passing the budget, confirming the Prime Minister and the Government and controlling their activities.


title: Seimas

text: Its 141 members are elected for a four-year term, with 71 elected in individual constituencies, and 70 elected in a nationwide vote based on open list proportional representation. A party must receive at least 5%, and a multi-party union at least 7%, of the national vote to qualify for the proportional representation seats.


title: Seimas

text: Following the elections in 2020, the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats is the largest party in the Seimas, forming a ruling coalition with the Liberal Movement and the Freedom Party.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas traces its origins to the Seimas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as the Seimas of inter-war Lithuania. The first Seimas after the restoration of independence of Lithuania convened in 1992.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania exercises legislative power in Lithuania. The powers of the Seimas are defined by the Constitution and the laws of Lithuania.


title: Seimas

text: The primary function of the Seimas is to consider, adopt and issue laws and amendments to the Constitution. The Seimas also approves the state budget proposed by the Government, supervises its implementation, and sets state taxation. In foreign relations, the Seimas ratifies international treaties.


title: Seimas

text: Decisions of the Seimas are taken in open simple majority votes. In some cases prescribed by law, a secret ballot is held, for example in expressing no-confidence in the government. Constitutional laws are adopted by the Seimas in a majority vote and can be changed only by a 3/5 majority vote. The list of constitutional laws needs to be approved in a 3/5 majority vote. Changes to the Constitution itself need to be approved in two votes separated by no less than three months, by a 2/3 majority. Changes to international borders of Lithuania need to be approved by 4/5 of the members of the Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas approves or rejects the candidate for the Prime Minister nominated by the President. The Seimas must also give its assent to the newly formed Government and its programme before the Government can start their work. The Government remains accountable to the Seimas for its activities. If the Seimas expresses no-confidence in the Prime Minister or the Government as a whole, the Government must resign and can ask the president to call an early election.


title: Seimas

text: Members of Seimas have legal immunity and cannot be arrested or detained without the consent of the vote of Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas appoints and dismisses justices and presidents of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, proposed by the President. In its legislative capacity, the Seimas also sets the basis for a judiciary institution advising and, to some extent, binding the President in appointing, promoting or dismissing other judges.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas also establishes and disestablishes ministries of the Government, establishes state awards, can declare martial law and emergencies, start mobilization and introduce direct local rule on municipalities.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas has 141 members, elected to a four-year term in parallel voting, with 71 members elected in single-seat constituencies and 70 members elected by proportional representation. Ordinary elections to the Seimas take place on the second Sunday of October, with the voting open for all citizens of Lithuania who are at least 18 years old.


title: Seimas

text: Members of Parliament in the 71 single-seat constituencies are elected in a majority vote, with a run-off held within 15 days, if necessary. The remaining 70 seats are allocated to the participating political parties using the largest remainder method. Parties normally need to receive at least 5% (7% for multi-party electoral lists) of the votes to be eligible for a seat. Candidates take the seats allocated to their parties based on the preference lists submitted before the election and adjusted by preference votes given by the voters.


title: Seimas

text: Democratic Labor Party of Lithuania won the absolute majority of seats in the first election in 1992, the only time it has been achieved in independent Lithuania as of 2015. The party suffered electoral setback in 1996, but remained a major electoral force in the election of 2000 (in cooperation with Social Democratic Party of Lithuania), allowing it to form the government in 2001. The two parties merged under the banner of Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and formed the government after the elections of 2004 and 2012, and participated in the government as a junior partner after the elections of 2016.


title: Seimas

text: Its right wing formed the Homeland Union, a conservative party which won the election in 1996, gaining 70 seats and governing with the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. The two parties merged in 2008 under the banner of Homeland Union, winning the election in the same year with 45 seats.


title: Seimas

text: Other parties that have gained at least 10 seats in any election to the Seimas are Centre Union of Lithuania, New Union (Social Liberals) (part of the ruling coalition between 2001 and 2008, later merged with Labour Party), Liberal Union of Lithuania (part of the ruling coalition between 2000 and 2001, later merged with the Centre Union of Lithuania to form Liberal and Centre Union), Labour Party (part of the ruling coalition between 2004 and 2008, as well as between 2012 and 2016), Order and Justice (part of the ruling coalition between 2012 and 2016), Liberal and Centre Union (part of the ruling coalition between 2008 and 2012, later merged with YES to form Lithuanian Freedom Union), Peasants and New Democratic Party Union (now Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, leading a coalition government since 2016), National Resurrection Party (part of the ruling coalition between 2008 and 2011, when it merged into Liberal and Centre Union) and Liberal Movement (part of the ruling coalition between 2008 and 2012).


title: Seimas

text: The sittings of the Seimas are presided over by the Speaker of the Seimas or a Deputy Speaker. The first sitting of the Seimas after an election is opened by the eldest member of the Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: The Speaker of the Seimas represents the Seimas and directs its work. Under the legislative procedure, the Speaker submits the laws adopted by the Seimas to the President and may sign and proclaim the laws that are not signed or returned by the President in due time.


title: Seimas

text: The Speaker of the Seimas may temporarily act as the President or deputise for President in cases where the President is abroad or is incapable to exercise the duties of the office. The Speaker of the Seimas, in such a situation, does not have the full powers of the President.


title: Seimas

text: The Speaker of the Seimas and the Deputy Speakers are responsible to the Seimas for their activities, answering questions submitted by the members of the parliament. Under the Statute of the Seimas, the Speakers of the Seimas suspend membership in their political groups upon election.


title: Seimas

text: The operations of the Seimas are primarily governed by the Constitution of Lithuania and the Statute of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.


title: Seimas

text: The right of legislative initiative in the Seimas belongs to the members of the Seimas, the President, and the Government. Citizens of Lithuania can also propose laws and proposals backed by at least 50 000 voters must be considered by the Seimas. The legislative procedure for proposed laws is regulated by the Statute of the Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: All draft laws and proposals submitted to the Seimas, and any changes or supplements to previously submitted proposals must be registered with the Secretariat of the Seimas Sittings. The legal department of the Seimas then reviews the draft law, issuing a conclusion on whether or not the draft is in compliance with existing laws and the technical rules of law-making.


title: Seimas

text: The draft laws are presented to the Seimas, which can vote to commence the procedure of consideration of the draft, postpone it or reject the draft. If the Seimas decides to commence the procedure of consideration, it appoints the principal and additional Committees to consider the draft law.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas Committees perform thorough analysis of the draft law, present it to interested state institutions and organizations, consult specialists in different fields and hear opinions on the draft. Interested persons can, at this stage, provide proposals and opinions on the draft.


title: Seimas

text: The reports of the principal Committee and any other Committees are heard by the Seimas and a general discussion is held. A vote is taken on the amendments to the draft law, which can be proposed and presented by any person with the right of legislative initiative. Finally, the Seimas votes on whether to approve the draft law confirmed by the Committee together with amendments adopted at a sitting of the Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: The adopted laws are submitted to the President. The President can return the law to the Seimas for additional consideration or sign it. Seimas can, but is not obliged to, take proposals by the President into account and can approve the laws returned by the President in a simple majority vote. If the President does not sign the law returned after additional consideration or neither signs nor returns the law after the initial submission, the Speaker of the Seimas can sign the law. The law comes into effect after being published in the "Official Gazette" ("Valstybės žinios").


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas meets annually in two regular sessions: a spring session (10 March – 30 June) and an autumn session (10 September – 23 December). Extraordinary sessions can be called by the Speaker of the Seimas upon the proposal of at least one third of all members of the Seimas, or, in some cases, by the President.


title: Seimas

text: When the Seimas is in session, there are four plenary sittings of the Seimas per week: two on Tuesday and two on Thursday, which are presided by the Speaker of the Seimas or the Deputy Speaker. As a rule, the sittings of the Seimas are open to the public. The open sittings of the Seimas are also broadcast on cable television and via the internet.


title: Seimas

text: The programmes for the sessions of the Seimas and the draft agendas of sittings are drafted and approved by the Assembly of the Elders, which is made up of the members of the Board of the Seimas and representatives of the parliamentary groups.


title: Seimas

text: The board of the Seimas consists of the Speaker of the Seimas, the Deputy Speakers, and the leader of the opposition. The Speaker and the Deputy


title: Seimas

text: Parliamentary committees are elected by the Seimas from among its members. The committees consider draft legislation and can explore and clarify other issues in their area of competence.


title: Seimas

text: The committees are formed during the first session of the newly elected Seimas and can have between 7 and 17 members (with the exception of the Committee on European Affairs, which has at least 15 members). Members are selected based on proportional representation of parliamentary groups. Each committee elects its Chair and Deputy Chair, subject to approval by the Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: The Seimas Palace () is the seat of the Seimas. It consists of three buildings in the center of Vilnius, at the end of Gediminas Avenue. The main building (I Seimas Palace) was designed by architects Algimantas Nasvytis and his brother Vytautas Nasvytis as the Palace of the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR. Construction, at the site of a former stadium, started in 1976 and was completed in 1980. On March 11, 1990, the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania was proclaimed in the main hall of the building. The hall, now referred to as the Hall of the Act of 11 March, housed the sessions of the Seimas until 2007 and is now used for special occasions. The offices of most of the parliament members are also located in this building.


title: Seimas

text: The two other buildings were built around the same time and were connected to the main building after the independence, as the demand for working space increased. The II Seimas Palace, close to Neris river, originally housed the Ministry of Finance of the Lithuanian SSR. After a renovation finished in 2007, the main chamber of the II Seimas Palace houses the sessions of the Seimas. The building also houses the Chancellery of the Seimas. The III Seimas Palace was originally occupied by the Council of the Center of Labour Unions and is now used by the Committees of the Seimas, also housing the restaurant and other administrative functions.


title: Seimas

text: January events of 1991 are commemorated by fragments of the barricades and memorial signs around the Palace.


title: Seimas

text: The first traces of large nobility meetings can be found in the negotiations for Treaty of Salynas in 1398. However, it is considered that the first Seimas met in Hrodna in 1445 during talks between Casimir IV Jagiellon and the Council of Lords. As the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars raged, the Grand Duke needed more tax revenues to finance the army and had to call the Seimas more frequently. In exchange for increased taxation, the nobility demanded various privileges, including strengthening the Seimas.


title: Seimas

text: At first the Seimas did not have the legislative power. It would debate on foreign and domestic affairs, taxes, wars and treasury. At this time, there were no rules regulating how frequently the Seimas would assemble, who could participate, how the sessions should take place or what functions the Seimas had. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Seimas acquired some legislative powers and could petition the Grand Duke to pass certain laws, which the Duke usually granted in exchange for nobility's support and cooperation in taxation and war matters.


title: Seimas

text: Major reforms were carried out between 1564 and 1566, just before the Union of Lublin. In the Second Statute of Lithuania, the Seimas acquired full legislative powers, acting as the lower house of the parliament, with the Lithuanian Council of Lords as the upper house. It was at this point that elections to the Seimas were introduced (local nobles would elect their delegates) – any noble could participate in the Seimas before.


title: Seimas

text: Seimas of the Grand Dutchy was abolished in 1569, with the Union of Lublin. The Union created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and joined the Seimas of Lithuania with the Sejm of Poland into a single Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. By this time, 40 Seimas of Lithuania had taken place.


title: Seimas

text: Nobles of Lithuania continued to meet until the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth under the name of Lithuanian Convocations. They debated matters concerning the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or tried to establish a common position among Lithuanian delegates before departing for the Sejm of the Commonwealth.


title: Seimas

text: The Sejm of the Commonwealth, General Sejm, was the parliament of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Union of Lublin until the late 18th century. The sejm was a powerful political institution, and from early 16th century, the Polish king (who was the Grand Duke of Lithuania) could not pass laws without the approval of that body.


title: Seimas

text: Duration and frequencies of the sejms changed over time, with the six-week sejm session convened every two years being most common. Sejm locations changed throughout history, eventually with the Commonwealth capital of Warsaw emerging as the primary location. The number of sejm deputies and senators grew over time, from about 70 senators and 50 deputies in the 15th century to about 150 senators and 200 deputies in the 18th century. Early sejms have seen mostly majority voting, but beginning in the 17th century, unanimous voting became more common, and 32 sejms were vetoed with the infamous liberum veto, particularly in the first half of the 18th century. This vetoing procedure has been credited with significantly paralyzing the Commonwealth governance. In addition, beginning in 1573, three special types of sejms handled the process of the royal election in the interregnum period.


title: Seimas

text: The Great Seimas of Vilnius was a major assembly held on December 4 and 5, 1905 in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, largely inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was the first modern national congress in Lithuania, with over 2,000 participants. The assembly made the decision to demand wide political autonomy within the Russian Empire and achieve this by peaceful means. It is considered an important step towards the Act of Independence of Lithuania, adopted on February 16, 1918 by the Council of Lithuania, as the Seimas laid the groundwork for the establishment of an independent Lithuanian state.


title: Seimas

text: The first widely elected body in Lithuania after the declaration of independence on February 16, 1918, was the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania. The election was held on April 14–15, 1920. The voter turnout reached about 90%.


title: Seimas

text: The primary role of the Constituent Assembly was to adopt the Constitution of Lithuania, which was accomplished on August 1, 1922. The new constitution gave broad powers to the parliament, the Seimas, elected to a three-year term. Seimas would select the Cabinet of Ministers and elect the President. In addition, the Constituent Assembly adopted numerous laws, including a broad land reform and introduced Litas as the national currency.


title: Seimas

text: The First Seimas of Lithuania was the first parliament of Lithuania elected in accordance with the constitution of 1922. The election took place on October 10–11, 1922. However, no party was able to form a sustainable coalition and the Seimas was dissolved on March 12, 1923. New elections were held on May 12 and May 13.


title: Seimas

text: The Second Seimas of Lithuania was the only regular interwar Seimas which completed its full three-year term. The Christian Democrats gained two additional seats which were enough to give them a slim majority. The Seimas continued the land reform, expanded the network of primary and secondary schools and introduced a system of social support. However, it did not bring political stability, as it saw several short-lived governments.


title: Seimas

text: The Third Seimas of Lithuania was elected on May 8–10, 1926, with the Christian Democrats in opposition for the first time. The Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union and Social Democrats formed a coalition government which lifted martial law, restored democratic freedoms, and declared broad amnesty to political prisoners. However, the government was sharply criticized following some unpopular decisions. The Seimas was interrupted by 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état in December, when the democratically elected government was replaced with the authoritarian rule of Antanas Smetona. The Third Seimas was dissolved on March 12, 1927 and new elections were not called until 1936.


title: Seimas

text: The Fourth Seimas of Lithuania was elected on 9 and 10 June 1936. Elections took place under the constitution of 1928, which had been proclaimed by president Smetona without the assent of the Seimas. The parliament was elected to a five-year term. With opposition parties effectively barred from participating, Lithuanian Nationalists Union got 42 (of 49) seats, with the remaining seven seats taken by the Young Lithuania, a youth branch of the Nationalists Union. The primary task of the new Seimas was to adopt a new constitution, which was accomplished on 11 February 1938. The new constitution provided for even more powers to the president.


title: Seimas

text: After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940 and subsequent occupation, the Fourth Seimas was dismissed and a puppet People's Seimas was elected in a heavily rigged elections, in order to give legal sanction to the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union. The new parliament proclaimed the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, petitioned for admission to the Soviet Union (a petition that was accepted on August 3, 1940), adopted a new constitution and renamed itself to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR, a rubber stamp legislature.


title: Seimas

text: On March 11, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR proclaimed the independence of Lithuania from the Soviet Union, renaming itself the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania (also called Supreme Council – Reconstituent Seimas, and regarded as the Fifth Seimas). The council adopted the Provisional Basic Law that served as a temporary constitution and worked on the Constitution of Lithuania that was submitted and approved by voters in a referendum on October 25, 1992.


title: Seimas

text: The first election in independent Lithuania was held on October 25, 1992, with a run-off on November 15. The election was won by the (ex-communist) Democratic Labor Party of Lithuania, which gained 73 of the 141 seats in the Sixth Seimas. Algirdas Brazauskas was elected the first speaker of the Seimas on November 25, 1992, becoming the acting President on the same day. Česlovas Juršėnas then became the acting (and later permanent) Speaker of the Seimas. The period was plagued by poor economic situation and financial scandals, including one involving former Prime Minister Adolfas Šleževičius.


title: Seimas

text: The election to the Seventh Seimas was held on October 20, 1996 with the run-off on November 10. The election was won by the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Conservative Party, which gained 70 seats and formed a coalition with the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party (16 seats). Later part of the term of the Seimas was again characterized by an economic crisis, brought about by Russian financial crisis of 1998. In addition, several high-profile privatizations were undertaken, including that of Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery. Vytautas Landsbergis served as the Speaker of the Seimas during the term.


title: Seimas

text: The Eighth Seimas was elected on October 8, 2000. Liberal Union of Lithuania won the most seats of any party in the election, with 33, forming the government with New Union (Social Liberals) (its leader, Artūras Paulauskas becoming the Speaker of the Seimas), Lithuanian Centre Union and the Modern Christian Democrats. The coalition was short-lived and Algirdas Brazauskas, a social democrat, became the prime minister less than a year later. This term of the Seimas saw Lithuania fulfilling its long-term foreign policy goals of joining NATO and the European Union. Speaker of the Seimas Artūras Paulauskas also served for two months in 2004 as the Acting President of Lithuania after the impeachement of Rolandas Paksas and before the new election took place.


title: Seimas

text: The Social Democrats remained at the helm of the government after the 2004 parliamentary election, which was held on October 10, with the run-off on October 24. The party was the third-largest in the Ninth Seimas after the election with 20 seats, behind Labour Party with 39 and Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives) with 25, but managed to govern together with New Union (Social Liberals) (11 seats), the Labour Party and the support of other parties. It was the first time since independence that a ruling government survived an election. Artūras Paulauskas was reelected as the Speaker of the Seimas, but was replaced by Viktoras Muntianas in 2006. In 2006, the Labour Party left the coalition when its leader was removed from the post of Minister of Economy and the Social Democrats formed a coalition with the Civil Democracy Party, the Peasants and People's Party, and the Liberal and Centre Union, although the coalition had to rule in a minority and relied on support of opposition parties. New Union (Social Liberals) later rejoined the coalition in early 2008. Česlovas Juršėnas once again became the Speaker of the Seimas in April 2008.


title: Seimas

text: The Tenth Seimas was elected on October 12, 2008, with a run-off on October 26. Homeland Union became the largest party with 45 seats, forming a coalition with populist and short-lived National Resurrection Party (16 seats), Liberal Movement (11 seats) and Liberal and Centre Union (8 seats). Arūnas Valinskas of the National Resurrection Party was elected the Speaker of the Seimas. Ten months later, on September 17, 2009, he was replaced by Irena Degutienė of the Homeland Union, who became the first female Speaker of the Seimas. The term of the Tenth Seimas was plagued a severe economic crisis and the bust of the housing bubble. The Seimas and the Government responded with a wide-ranging and much-criticized tax reform and severe austerity, bringing about wide dissatisfaction and protests.


title: Seimas

text: As a result of widespread dissatisfaction with the ruling coalition, the ruling parties fared poorly in the 2012 parliamentary election. The Social Democrats became the largest party in the Eleventh Seimas, with 38 seats, forming a government coalition with Labour Party (19 seats), Order and Justice (11 seats) and Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (8 seats). Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania withdrawn from the coalition in 2014.


title: Seimas

text: Elections in 2016 resulted in another shift of power. Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, a minor party in the preceding parliament, won a sweeping victory, securing 54 seats in the Twelfth Seimas (eventually rising to 59 as they were joined by several independents). The Social Democrats lost a lot of their support and finished with 17 seats (they were joined in the Seimas by the two members of Labour Party), but remained as a junior partner in the ruling coalition with Peasants and Greens Union. By 2019, coalition included two other parties (Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania and Order and Justice), but latter had been expelled in the same year.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Roger Louis Faulques (14 December 1924 – 6 November 2011) René Faulques, was a French Army Colonel, a graduate of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, a paratrooper officer of the French Foreign Legion, and a mercenary. He fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Suez Crisis, the Algerian War, the Congo Crisis, the North Yemen Civil War and the Nigerian Civil War. He is one of France's most decorated soldiers.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Faulques was a maquis resistance fighter in 1944 and took part in the last battles of World War II in the French First Army. As a Corporal, he received the Croix de Guerre at the age of 20. Noted for his fighting spirit and sense of command, he was admitted to the Military School of Saint-Cyr, which had changed its terms of recruitment to overcome the lack of officers in the French army at the end of World War II. In 1946 he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and was assigned, at his own request, to the Foreign Legion, within the 3rd Régiment Etranger d'Infanterie (3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment).


title: Roger Faulques

text: Faulques served in the First Indochina War as a Lieutenant with the 1 BEP (1st Foreign Parachute Battalion) and participated in the struggles of this unit until its destruction in October 1950. On 26 February 1948, in command of a group of legionaries, Faulques was ambushed on Route Coloniale 3. Having lost half of his legionaries, Faulques led his men in hand-to-hand fighting until wounded in both feet by a machine gun bullet. His legionaries evacuated Faulques "in extremis" from the line of fire. Repatriated to the mainland for treatment, at the age of 23 Faulques was appointed a Chevalier of the légion d'honneur and held five citations.


title: Roger Faulques

text: After recovering from his wounds, Faulques saw action in the Battle of RC 4, when he was placed in command of the training platoon of 1 BEP, which lost nearly 80% of its force during the evacuation of Cao Bang in September and October 1950. Seriously wounded four times during this battle (right shoulder shattered by bullets, chest opened by a volley, left elbow and right femur shattered by bullets), he lay on the ground for three days, left for dead. Having survived, Faulques was captured by the Vietminh who, judging him mortally wounded, released Faulques to the French authorities with other gravely injured prisoners. Mentioned in dispatches Faulques was made an Officer of the légion d'honneur for exceptional services and was again repatriated to France. His injuries required him to spend several years in the Val-de-Grâce military hospital.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Ending the war in Indochina with six wounds and eight citations, Faulques then served in French Algeria as an intelligence officer of the 1 REP during the Battle of Algiers. He was accused of torture in Algeria and proved to be effective in the dismantling of several networks of the FLN.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Faulques and Captain Yves de La Bourdonnaye were given leave by army minister Pierre Messmer, and left to provide support to the Belgian-backed Katangese Gendarmerie against the Republic of Congo-Leopoldville, joining hundreds of other British, Rhodesian, French, and South African mercenary and voluntary irregulars in replacing the 117 Belgian officers, and other white volunteers of Belgian descent. Especially notable among the French mercenaries were professional career soldiers who had fought in the Algerian War, which of course included Faulques.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Following his deposition and kidnapping, Congolese-Leopoldville Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated by the Katangese with the direct support of Belgium, and the indirect support of the CIA. Katangese military officer Moise Tshombe then declared himself president.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Lumumba’s death resulted in mass protests, which were not only confined to the Congo. Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru condemned the assassination as “an international crime of the first magnitude”, and urged greater UN involvement, deploying the 4,700 strong 99th Indian Infantry Brigade as UN peacekeepers in March in order to keep foreign combatants out of the country. Nehru’s Indian forces under the command of Brigadier-General Raja attacked the Katangan capital of Elisabethville on 13 September 1961 in Operation Morthor. During this attack Indian soldiers assaulted the lightly defended post office and killed all of its Katangan occupants. According to Ian Colvin who was an eyewitness, the attack was “needlessly brutal.” In response to this, serious fighting soon broke out as Katanga’s self-declared President Moise Tshombe encouraged both Katangese civilians and foreign mercenaries to go on the offensive against UN forces. Prior to this on the 5 April 1961, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld criticised Belgian mercenaries for their service in Katanga and condemned Tshombe for turning the Katangese public against the United Nations. The counterattack to Operation Morthor included the siege of Jadotville led by Faulques, Michel de Clary, and Henri Lasimone.


title: Roger Faulques

text: The siege of Jadotville lasted 5 days. At the end of the battle, 155 Irish soldiers under Commandant Pat Quinlan surrendered to Faulques and his 3000–5000 Katangan force on 17 September having run out of ammunition. During the action the UN forces had inflicted heavy casualties on the Katangans and their mercenary allies (300 dead, 1000 wounded), with only minimal casualties of their own (5 wounded).


title: Roger Faulques

text: In all, the failure of Operation Morthor was used in arguments both against the deployment of UN peacekeepers, and for the strengthening of such forces. On September 18, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld's plane crashed over Zambia en route to negotiate a ceasefire between ONUC and the Katangese, prompting much speculation over the suspicious nature of his death, including the possibility that his plane was shot down by a fighter plane piloted by a Belgian mercenary working for self-declared President Tshombe. Hammarskjöld was succeeded by U Thant.


title: Roger Faulques

text: In December 1961, UN troops launched Operation Unokat in order to regain control of the situation, against which the defence strategy was designed by Faulques. Operation Unokat applied significant pressure on the rebel state, and eventually Tshombe relented and signed the Kitona Declaration. When in 1962 violence began to flare up again, Katangan gendarmes attacked peacekeeping forces in Katanga on 24 December in response to which, UN Secretary General Thant authorized the retaliatory offensive, Operation Grandslam. Swedish air support and heavy mortar fire engaged the mercenaries, after which Swedish peacekeepers entered the Katangese capital Elizabethville, followed by the Indian brigade of General Raja, defeating the Katangese forces and securing the capital by 28 December. After a year of guerrilla insurgency, Tshombe, realizing that his position was untenable, sued for peace on 15 January 1963. Two days later he signed an instrument of surrender and declared the Katangan secession to be over.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Faulques continued his mercenary career, alongside his friend Bob Denard, first being deployed in North Yemen from August 1963 to the end of 1964, in support of MI6 (British intelligence), then in Biafra on behalf of the French government. According to David Smiley in "Arabian Assignment " (page 156), the French and Belgian mercenaries alternated in the early 1960s between the Yemeni and Congo theatres since in the Congo they had women and alcohol at will but were rarely paid, while in Yemen they were paid but were deprived of women and alcohol.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Faulques served as a model for certain characters in the novels of Jean Lartéguy, "Les Centurions," "Les Prétoriens" (The Praetorians) and "Les Chimères Noires" (The Hounds of Hell) and in Declan Power's 2005 book “The Siege of Jadotville”.


title: Roger Faulques

text: Faulques is portrayed by the French actor Guillaume Canet in the 2016 film "The Siege of Jadotville".


title: Apadravya

text: The apadravya, like the ampallang, is a piercing that passes through the glans. While the ampallang passes horizontally through the glans, the apadravya passes vertically through the glans from top to bottom, almost always placed centrally and passing through the urethra. It can be paired with an ampallang to form the magic cross. Off-center apadravyas are also possible, wherein the piercing is deliberately offset, yet usually still passes through the urethra. The piercing is often done on a slightly forward angle to the hips.


title: Apadravya

text: "Apadravya" () is the generic name used in Kama Sutra for prostheses to increase the size of penis during intercourse, primarily to satisfy a woman classified as "hastini" (हस्तिनी, 'she-elephant'). Fixing an apadravya by perforating the lingam is mentioned as a peculiarity of the "southern countries." Such definition is supposedly illustrative of palang (crossbar in Iban) and other penis inserts of proto-Malay origins. Indeed, traditional palang design is simply a pin used to accommodate a wooden glans cape extension and hence, the term apadravya in this context refers to the glans cape extension and not to the palang itself. Nevertheless, it was Doug Malloy in the 1970s who labelled the vertical glans piercing as "apadravya" and the horizontal one as "ampallang."