title: Ansett Australia

text: The Ansett Australia fleet as of 13 September 2001 (last day of trading) was made up of the following aircraft:


title: Ansett Australia

text: Only the Airbus A320 was utilised from Ansett's original fleet during the brief re-launch of operations as "Ansett Mark II" from October 2001 to March 2002. The Boeing 737, Boeing 767, and Boeing 747 fleets were grounded from September 2001 onwards as were the BAe 146 fleet, with the exception of a one-off revenue flight from Cairns to Brisbane in November 2001, operating off the back end of a charter flight for the government. Two other Ansett BAe 146 aircraft were chartered by the federal government in late 2001 during the federal election campaign.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Several of the defunct fleet types did operate ferry flights back to Melbourne from wherever they ended up across Australia in the months after the collapse, and operated the occasional test flight around Melbourne to retain currency.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Of the subsidiary fleets, only the Kendell Bombardier CRJ200 did not return to active flying. The Fokker 50, Saab 340, Twin Otter and Metro 23 regional aircraft were all back flying for Skywest, Kendell, Hazelton and Aeropelican in the weeks following the collapse. Both Kendell and Hazelton merged to create Regional Express Airlines. As of 2013, five former Kendell Saab 340s are in service with Regional Express with the others phased out. Three of the former Hazelton Airlines Saab 340s are in service with Regional Express.


title: Ansett Australia

text: At various times Ansett Australia and its predecessors, Ansett Airways and Australian National Airways and partnering carriers operated the Boeing 727, -100, -200 Advanced and the purpose-built 727 LR, Bristol Freighter, Cessna 550, Convair 340, Convair 440, de Havilland Dragon, de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou, de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, de Havilland Canada Dash 7, de Havilland Heron, Douglas DC-3 and C-47 Skytrain, Douglas DC-4, Douglas DC-5, Douglas DC-6, Fokker F-27, Fokker F-28, Fokker Universal, Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Lockheed L-188 Electra, LET L-200A Morava, Douglas DC-9, Mohawk 298, Piaggio P.166 and Vickers Viscount.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Flying Boat Services operated the Consolidated PBY Catalina, Short Sandringham and Short Sunderland.


title: Ansett Australia

text: At various times the Ansett-ANA helicopter division operated the Bell 47J Ranger, Bell 206, Bristol Sycamore, Sikorsky S-61 and Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard.


title: Ansett Australia

text: One of the most unusual aircraft that was operated by Ansett was the Aviation Traders ATL-98 Carvair from the 1960s. Three of the airline's own DC-4s were delivered to the United Kingdom for conversion by Aviation Traders Limited, the company run by Sir Freddie Laker as managing director.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Historically, whichever aircraft carried the registration VH-RMA (the initials of Reginald Miles Ansett) was the unofficial flagship of the airline. The code was carried by a Douglas C-47 Skytrain from 1948 to 1956, a Lockheed L-188 Electra from 1959 to 1984 and a Boeing 767-200 (Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services) from 1992 to 1997. The registration VH-RMA was purchased by Tesna Holdings in January 2002 but never used.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Australia offered up to three cabin classes (First, Business and Economy Classes) in varied seat configurations throughout its 66-year run. At the time of its collapse, this had reverted to just two travel classes (Business and Economy), both domestically and internationally:


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett International's last business class was introduced with the arrival of the Boeing 747-400. It offered 42 single recliner seats in a 2-2-2 configuration on the main deck, with around 160 degrees of recline. Ansett Australia's retrofitted two Boeing 747-400 series aircraft equipped with these recliner seats mostly served the Australia-Asia (Hong Kong and Osaka) international flights. The recliner seats were equipped with inflight entertainment including personal televisions/touch screens with AVOD, personal telephones in every seat and laptop 110 V AC power outlets.


title: Ansett Australia

text: On Ansett International's 767 fleet, Business seating was in a 1-2-2 configuration, with recliner seats and AVOD similar, but not identical to those on the B747.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Originally launched as "BusinessFirst" in 1997, and then reverting to just "Business Class" in 1999, Ansett Domestic's last business class offered 24 single lounge chair seats grouped in groups of two allowing a more spacious area on its domestic configured 767-300ER and 200ER/200 fleet in a 2-2-2 configuration. Ansett Australia's domestic business class seats were also installed on the Airbus A320-200 series, the Boeing 737-300 series, and the BAe-146 fleet in a 2–2 layout. These aircraft mostly served Australian domestic flights, however select 767-200ER, A320 and 737 services were also used on the Australia-Asia/Fiji (Denpasar, Hong Kong and Nadi) international flights as demand dictated.


title: Ansett Australia

text: The new international economy class was introduced with the arrival of the Boeing 747-400. It offered 398 seats equipped with adjustable wings in the headrest and an adjustable footrest to provide extra comfort. Ansett Australia's international economy class seats were also installed on some of the Boeing 767-200s, and some of the Boeing 767-300s. Seat rows were in a 3-4-3 configuration on the Boeing 747-400s lower deck and mostly a 3–3 configuration on the upper deck, a 2-3-2 configuration on the Boeing 767-200 and Boeing 767-300s. The Airbus A320 and Boeing 737s retained their domestic configuration for international service. These aircraft mostly served Australian domestic flights and some of the Australia-Asia/Fiji (Denpasar, Hong Kong, Osaka and Nadi) international flights. The seats were equipped with inflight entertainment including personal televisions and personal telephones in every seat.


title: Ansett Australia

text: The new domestic economy class was also introduced with the arrival of the Boeing 767-300ER, offering 224 seats. Ansett Australia's domestic economy class seats were also installed on some of the Airbus A320s, some of the BAe-146 series, some of the Boeing 737-300 series, some of the Boeing 767-200 series and some of the Boeing 767-300 series aircraft. Seat rows were in a 3–3 configuration on the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737-300s, a 2–3 configuration on the BAe 146 series aircraft and a 2-3-2 configuration on the Boeing 767-200 and Boeing 767-300s. These aircraft mostly served Australian domestic flights and some of the Australia-Asia/Fiji (Denpasar, Hong Kong and Nadi) international flights.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Following Ansett's limited re-launch under administration, it operated only Economy Class with a scaled back no-frills service. The A320s with convertible Business Class seating were configured back to all Economy, while the A320 cabins with fixed Business Class seating retained the Business seat but was considered all one cabin. Bottled water was offered throughout the flight.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Australia operated to many destinations in Australia and Asia prior to its collapse in 2001. This list does not include destinations only served by subsidiaries Aeropelican, Ansett New Zealand, Kendell Airlines, Skywest Airlines and Hazelton Airlines.


title: Ansett Australia

text: On 30 March 1999 Ansett Australia joined the Star Alliance, a global network of carriers, opening up interline agreements with a dozen different carriers connecting to over 100 countries across the world. Reciprocal rights for certain Star Alliance membership tiers was offered, including earning frequent flyer points and a wide selection of lounge access. The Star Alliance logo was added to every aircraft in the Ansett fleet, as well as its regional subsidiary airlines. Other Star member carriers like United Airlines benefited greatly by Ansett's membership, with seamless feeder connections from its trans-Pacific services. Membership in the Star Alliance was suspended upon the Ansett Group entering administration. Upon sale to the Tesna Consortium it was planned for the airline to rejoin Star Alliance, however the 4 March shutdown rendered this meaningless.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Golden Wing Club was the airport lounge service owned and operated by Ansett. Members received a bi-monthly magazine called "Travelling Life", as well as many other features. Golden Wing Club Lounges were located throughout Australia in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast, Alice Springs, and Hamilton Island. Ansett also ran international Golden Wing Clubs at Sydney and Perth, with an added "First Class" section of the Sydney Club for those travelling International First Class from 1994 to 1998. Access was available to Golden Wing Club members travelling on an Ansett or subsidiary service (e.g. Kendell, Aeropelican and Skywest) on the day of travel. Complimentary access was granted for Global Rewards Diamond and Sapphire members, as well as Star Alliance Gold (and above) members.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Lounges were for a time, located in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with members being able to access all Star Alliance Lounges as well. The lounges initially closed following the appointment of administrators and subsequent grounding of the group in September 2001, however select lounges re-opened in a scaled-back capacity in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth only from November 2001 until March 2002 while Ansett Mark II was operating.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Following Ansett's final flights in March 2002, the lounges permanently closed. In the weeks that followed they were emptied of their expensive artwork and other items of value in subsequent auctions, leaving behind furniture and a variety of fittings, most of which was purchased by the various airport owners who bought the terminals back from Ansett's administrators. Today, many of the former Golden Wing Clubs in Australia live on as new lounges, occupied by Virgin Australia as its member lounge in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, through leases secured with the airport owners. The former Golden Wing in Cairns was used initially by Australian Airlines as a crew training facility followed by Qantas as a temporary Qantas Club while the Cairns terminal underwent redevelopment, before being demolished in the terminal redevelopment. The Perth Golden Wing was used by charter airline Alliance, and then became Virgin's sixth lounge before being vacated in late 2015 when Virgin relocated to the new Domestic T1 terminal. The Canberra Lounge was used by Virgin Blue and eventually closed and demolished to make way for the new Canberra Terminal redevelopment. The Adelaide and Gold Coast lounges have both, in the process of terminal redevelopments, been demolished.


title: Ansett Australia

text: The Ansett Executive Lounge, also known as "Ansett Pass" and "Ansett Managers Lounge" was an exclusive airport lounge service owned and operated by Ansett. Membership was by invitation only, and offered luxury rivaling that of the world's finest five-star hotels. As membership was quite select, the lounges were significantly smaller than those of Golden Wing Clubs. Executive lounges were located throughout Australia (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, and Perth) and New Zealand (Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch).


title: Ansett Australia

text: These lounges closed at time of administration and did not reopen. In the years since the collapse, many of the former executive lounges were demolished after the airport owners purchased the leasing rights from Ansett's administrators. For a time, regional carrier Regional Express Airlines used the former Canberra lounge as a lounge area for its passengers. Virgin Blue used the former Executive Lounge in Sydney for its initial "Blue Room" and later on "The Lounge" product, but relocated to the former Golden Wing Club lounge in 2008. The former lounges are still in existence in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, but are now used for other purposes and not accessible to passengers.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Global Rewards was Ansett Australia's Frequent Flyer Program from 1991 to 2001. It was formerly known simply as "Ansett Frequent Flyer". Points could be used for services from Ansett Australia and their partners including flights, upgrades, holidays, hotel stays and car rentals. Diners Club was a significant financial services partner in Global Rewards. Points held at the time of the airline's collapse lost their value as no other airline took over the program as had taken place with the collapse of some other airlines.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett offered a limousine service, for those wishing to hire for journeys to and from the airport to the CBD in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. It also offered airport-to-suburb service in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett offered a valet parking service in major Australian and New Zealand airports. This also offered the convenience of kerbside check-in, and car cleaning for additional cost.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett's Capital Shuttle operated between Sydney and Canberra. This service mainly used Saab 340 and Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft, with small use of A320 and 737 aircraft mostly in peak periods. 'Capital Shuttle' services departed from a specially marked gate at Sydney Airport, Gate 14.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Also known as Ansett Air Freight during its time, Ansett ran a significant freight operation which specialised in the transport of items too large for normal carriage, along with heavy-freight contracts with numerous suppliers and contractors.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett ran a scheduled terminal transfer service at Sydney Airport, which offered seamless connection from its Domestic terminal to the International terminal for Ansett Australia services connecting to Ansett International. An Ansett bus operated the shuttle service which departed from a transfer lounge located between its two domestic concourses. The shuttle would route across the airside tarmac and runways and arrive near customs at Terminal 1.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Australia was one of the major sponsors of the Australian Football League, holding the naming rights to the AFL pre-season competition, the Ansett Australia Cup. It was also a major sponsor of Waverley Park. The logo was visible around the stadium.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett was also a Major Sponsor of Australian Cricket, with the Ansett Australia Test Series a prominent fixture of the Australian summer. Ansett's logo (called the StarMark) appeared on all players' training and game shirts, as well as around the boundary and on the field during Test Series.


title: Ansett Australia

text: The airline was the official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Boeing 767-300 ER VH-BZF carried the Olympic Flame from Athens to Guam for the start of the torch relay through Oceania. An A320-211 carried the Olympic Torch from Auckland to Uluru, to commence the Olympic Torch relay in Australia.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Since Qantas's Take over of Australian Airlines in 1992, Ansett acquired the rights to selective sponsorship of various teams involved in the Australian Touring Car Championship and Seven Networks commentary team between various airports close to racing venues around Australia from 1994 to Ten Network's takeover of V8 Supercar Series AVESCO (V8 Supercars Australia) launched the new series in 1997, but the insignia remained on various cars until Ansett folded in 2001.


title: Ansett Australia

text: It was also the sleeve / major sponsor of the Brisbane Broncos National Rugby League team from 1996 until 2001.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Australia sponsored the soap opera "Neighbours" in the late 1980s, having previously received publicity when its aircraft were used in the filming of another production by Reg Grundy — 1977's "". Ansett often sponsored Channel 9's Nightline late night news program from 1994 to 1997.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett also offered on-board News and movies, entitled ("Ansett Sky Show"). It consisted of a twice daily 30-minute news service (AM and PM), which was recorded by Channel 7 studios in Sydney entitled "Seven Ansett News", which was then transmitted by satellite to all Ansett capital city, and some regional airport locations. The news service was then dubbed to video cassettes, and was then distributed onto Ansett aircraft first thing in the morning and exchanged halfway during the operational day for the second afternoon/evening broadcast. For the domestic fleet, movies and television shows were recorded to tape and distributed to each aircraft once a month.


title: Ansett Australia

text: On international aircraft, the news was available in one edition (usually morning). Movies and television shows were recorded onto a central data system on both 747-400 and one 767-300ER aircraft, which was changed monthly.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett's safety demonstration was done via TV screens throughout the aircraft as well as in person, at the time of its demise.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services or simply Ansett Worldwide was one of the world's largest commercial jet aircraft leasing companies. It was Ansett Australia's subsidiary and leasing arm from 1985 until February 2000. AWAS was acquired by Dubai Aerospace Enterprise in 2017.


title: Ansett Australia

text: The Ansett Australia Flight Simulator Centre located in Melbourne had continued trading under administration, following the company's insolvency as it was one of the few Ansett businesses that could operate profitably, independent of the airline. An agreement was reached by the Deed Administrators in October 2004 for its sale to Aviation Training Australasia Pty Ltd. The sale included the business, related buildings, land and the Ansett owned Flight Simulators. Nineteen former Ansett Australia employees jobs were saved in the sale, and Aviation Training Australasia elected to operate the centre under the trading name of Ansett Flight Simulator Centre and later Ansett Aviation Training, dropping the "Australia" off the end of Ansett, but retaining the well recognised Ansett Star Mark logo, reflective of Ansett's last livery.


title: Ansett Australia

text: In April 2008, it announced that it was undergoing a major expansion and will be getting simulators for the current-generation Boeing 737, Fokker 100, Beechcraft King Air and Embraer EMB-120 Brasília, as well as a second Airbus A320 simulator due an extension to centre's existing building.


title: Ansett Australia

text: From 2008 Ansett Aviation Training continued growing to become the biggest Australian Training provider in the Asia Pacific Region, adding D level full flight simulators:


title: Ansett Australia

text: First in its Melbourne hub, later opening new training centers in Milan, at Malpensa Airport (Italy) in 2017 with 4 new simulators:


title: Ansett Australia

text: And in the second half of 2018 inaugurating in Brisbane (Queensland) its 3 bay simulation new building on the vicinity of the Brisbane International Airport by the Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Hon Cameron Dick MP, to accommodate a brand new ATR72-600 TRU simulator, adding in early 2019 a second Fokker 100 full flight simulator, acquiring full certification from CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Australia) to operate both of them :


title: Ansett Australia

text: With the demise of Ansett airline operations in 2002, the engineering services business, formerly known as the Ansett Australia Maintenance Base located at Melbourne Airport, was retained under the name of Ansett Aviation Engineering Services (AAES), primarily to care for the Ansett aircraft held in storage having mandatory ongoing maintenance, and also for other airlines supplying third party maintenance. Through five years of administration, AAES continued to operate despite Ansett Australia no longer trading.


title: Ansett Australia

text: New business was secured and the engineering skills base continued to grow. The AAES business was acquired by the John Holland Group in June 2007 under the banner of John Holland Aviation Services. As part of the sale to John Holland Group, 155 AAES staff and management had the opportunity for ongoing employment.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Aircraft Spares and Services is a company that serves the aviation community by selling aircraft spares as well as maintenance work for airplanes such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, British Aerospace, Douglas aircraft and Fokker types, with offices in Sylmar, California, Hayes, Hillingdon, the United Kingdom, Melbourne, Australia and Istanbul, Turkey. Ansett Aircraft Spares and Services also has a logistics division.


title: Ansett Australia

text: Ansett Aviation is a Helicopter training flight school, with operations in Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. While run by a member of the Ansett family, it is not connected to the defunct national airline. It is run by the grandson of Sir Reginald Ansett, Will Richards. Originally called Marine Helicopter Charters, Richards later changed the name to continue the family legacy. It is the only Ansett Air related business run still run by a member of the Ansett family. It uses the old logo of the airline, from the 1970s. The company was started by Richards in 2003.


title: Ansett Australia

text: While similarly named, the company is not connected to Ansett Aviation Training. It has the intellectual property rights to use the original Ansett Logo, through the family. This operation only flies helicopters, including pilot training The company has taken over some traditional flights originally operated by flying boats on the Queensland coast.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Ascending cholangitis, also known as acute cholangitis or simply cholangitis, is inflammation of the bile duct, usually caused by bacteria ascending from its junction with the duodenum (first part of the small intestine). It tends to occur if the bile duct is already partially obstructed by gallstones.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Cholangitis can be life-threatening, and is regarded as a medical emergency. Characteristic symptoms include yellow discoloration of the skin or whites of the eyes, fever, abdominal pain, and in severe cases, low blood pressure and confusion. Initial treatment is with intravenous fluids and antibiotics, but there is often an underlying problem (such as gallstones or narrowing in the bile duct) for which further tests and treatments may be necessary, usually in the form of endoscopy to relieve obstruction of the bile duct. The word is from Greek "chol"-, bile + "ang"-, vessel + -"itis", inflammation.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: A person with cholangitis may complain of abdominal pain (particularly in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen), fever, rigors (uncontrollable shaking) and a feeling of uneasiness (malaise). Some may report jaundice (yellow discoloration of the skin and the whites of the eyes).


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Physical examination findings typically include jaundice and right upper quadrant tenderness. Charcot's triad is a set of three common findings in cholangitis: abdominal pain, jaundice, and fever. This was assumed in the past to be present in 50–70% of cases, although more recently the frequency has been reported as 15–20%. Reynolds' pentad includes the findings of Charcot's triad with the presence of septic shock and mental confusion. This combination of symptoms indicates worsening of the condition and the development of sepsis, and is seen less commonly still.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: In the elderly, the presentation may be atypical; they may directly collapse due to sepsis without first showing typical features. Those with an indwelling stent in the bile duct (see below) may not develop jaundice.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Bile duct obstruction, which is usually present in acute cholangitis, is generally due to gallstones. 10–30% of cases, however, are due to other causes such as benign stricturing (narrowing of the bile duct without an underlying tumor), postoperative damage or an altered structure of the bile ducts such as narrowing at the site of an anastomosis (surgical connection), various tumors (cancer of the bile duct, gallbladder cancer, cancer of the ampulla of Vater, pancreatic cancer, cancer of the duodenum), anaerobic organisms such as Clostridium and Bacteroides (especially in the elderly and those who have undergone previous surgery of the biliary system).


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Parasites which may infect the liver and bile ducts may cause cholangitis; these include the roundworm "Ascaris lumbricoides" and the liver flukes "Clonorchis sinensis", "Opisthorchis viverrini" and "Opisthorchis felineus". In people with AIDS, a large number of opportunistic organisms has been known to cause "AIDS cholangiopathy", but the risk has rapidly diminished since the introduction of effective AIDS treatment. Cholangitis may also complicate medical procedures involving the bile duct, especially ERCP. To prevent this, it is recommended that those undergoing ERCP for any indication receive prophylactic (preventative) antibiotics.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: The presence of a permanent biliary stent (e.g. in pancreatic cancer) slightly increases the risk of cholangitis, but stents of this type are often needed to keep the bile duct patent under outside pressure.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Bile is produced by the liver, and serves to eliminate cholesterol and bilirubin from the body, as well as emulsifying of fats to make them more soluble in water and aid in their digestion. Bile is formed in the liver by hepatocytes (liver cells) and excreted into the common hepatic duct. Part of the bile is stored in the gall bladder because of back pressure (exerted by the sphincter of Oddi), and may be released at the time of digestion. The gallbladder also concentrates the bile by absorbing water and dissolved salts from it. All bile reaches the duodenum (first part of the small intestine) through the common bile duct and the ampulla of Vater. The sphincter of Oddi, located at the junction of the ampulla of Vater and the duodenum, is a circular muscle that controls the release of both bile and pancreatic secretions into the digestive tract.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: The biliary tree is normally relatively free of bacteria because of certain protective mechanisms. The sphincter of Oddi acts as a mechanical barrier. The biliary system normally has low pressure (8 to 12 cmHO) and allows bile to flow freely through. The continuous forward flow of the bile in the duct flushes bacteria, if present, into the duodenum, and does not allow the establishment of an infection. The constitution of bile—bile salts and immunoglobulin secreted by the epithelium of the bile duct also has a protective role.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Bacterial contamination alone in absence of obstruction does not usually result in cholangitis. However increased pressure within the biliary system (above 20 cmHO) resulting from obstruction in the bile duct widens spaces between the cells lining the duct, bringing bacterially contaminated bile in contact with the blood stream. It also adversely affects the function of Kupffer cells, which are specialized macrophage cells that assist in preventing bacteria from entering the biliary system. Finally, increased biliary pressure decreases production of IgA immunoglobulins in the bile. This results in bacteremia (bacteria in the blood stream) and gives rise to the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) comprising fever (often with rigors), tachycardia, increased respiratory rate and increased white blood cell count; SIRS in the presence of suspected or confirmed infection is called sepsis. Biliary obstruction itself disadvantages the immune system and impairs its capability to fight infection, by impairing the function of certain immune system cells (neutrophil granulocytes) and modifying the levels of immune hormones (cytokines).


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: In ascending cholangitis, it is assumed that organisms migrate backwards up the bile duct as a result of partial obstruction and decreased function of the sphincter of Oddi. Other theories about the origin of the bacteria, such as through the portal vein or transmigration from the colon, are considered less likely.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Routine blood tests show features of acute inflammation (raised white blood cell count and elevated C-reactive protein level), and usually abnormal liver function tests (LFTs). In most cases the LFTs will be consistent with obstruction: raised bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase. In the early stages, however, pressure on the liver cells may be the main feature and the tests will resemble those in hepatitis, with elevations in alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Blood cultures are often performed in people with fever and evidence of acute infection. These yield the bacteria causing the infection in 36% of cases, usually after 24–48 hours of incubation. Bile, too, may be sent for culture during ERCP (see below). The most common bacteria linked to ascending cholangitis are gram-negative bacilli: "Escherichia coli" (25–50%), Klebsiella (15–20%) and Enterobacter (5–10%). Of the gram-positive cocci, Enterococcus causes 10–20%.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Given that ascending cholangitis usually occurs in the setting of bile duct obstruction, various forms of medical imaging may be employed to identify the site and nature of this obstruction. The first investigation is usually ultrasound, as this is the most easily available. Ultrasound may show dilation of the bile duct and identifies 38% of bile duct stones; it is relatively poor at identifying stones farther down the bile duct. Ultrasound can help distinguish between cholangitis and cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder), which has similar symptoms to cholangitis but appears differently on ultrasound. A better test is magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), which uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); this has a comparable sensitivity to ERCP. Smaller stones, however, can still be missed on MRCP depending on the quality of the hospital's facilities.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: The gold standard test for biliary obstruction is still endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). This involves the use of endoscopy (passing a tube through the mouth into the esophagus, stomach and thence to the duodenum) to pass a small cannula into the bile duct. At that point, radiocontrast is injected to opacify the duct, and X-rays are taken to get a visual impression of the biliary system. On the endoscopic image of the ampulla, one can sometimes see a protuberant ampulla from an impacted gallstone in the common bile duct or the frank extrusion of pus from the common bile duct orifice. On the X-ray images (known as cholangiograms), gallstones are visible as non-opacified areas in the contour of the duct. For diagnostic purposes, ERCP has now generally been replaced by MRCP. ERCP is only used first-line in critically ill patients in whom delay for diagnostic tests is not acceptable; however, if the index of suspicion for cholangitis is high, an ERCP is typically done to achieve drainage of the obstructed common bile duct.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: If other causes rather than gallstones are suspected (such as a tumor), computed tomography and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) may be performed to identify the nature of the obstruction. EUS may be used to obtain biopsy (tissue sample) of suspicious masses. EUS may also replace diagnostic ERCP for stone disease, although this depends on local availability.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Cholangitis requires admission to hospital. Intravenous fluids are administered, especially if the blood pressure is low, and antibiotics are commenced. Empirical treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics is usually necessary until it is known for certain which pathogen is causing the infection, and to which antibiotics it is sensitive. Combinations of penicillins and aminoglycosides are widely used, although ciprofloxacin has been shown to be effective in most cases, and may be preferred to aminoglycosides because of fewer side effects. Metronidazole is often added to specifically treat the anaerobic pathogens, especially in those who are very ill or at risk of anaerobic infections. Antibiotics are continued for 7–10 days. Drugs that increase the blood pressure (vasopressors) may also be required to counter the low blood pressure.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: The definitive treatment for cholangitis is relief of the underlying biliary obstruction. This is usually deferred until 24–48 hours after admission, when the patient is stable and has shown some improvement with antibiotics, but may need to happen as an emergency in case of ongoing deterioration despite adequate treatment, or if antibiotics are not effective in reducing the signs of infection (which happens in 15% of cases).


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is the most common approach in unblocking the bile duct. This involves endoscopy (passing a fiberoptic tube through the stomach into the duodenum), identification of the ampulla of Vater and insertion of a small tube into the bile duct. A sphincterotomy (making a cut in the sphincter of Oddi) is typically done to ease the flow of bile from the duct and to allow insertion of instruments to extract gallstones that are obstructing the common bile duct; alternatively or additionally, the common bile duct orifice can be dilated with a balloon. Stones may be removed either by direct suction or by using various instruments, including balloons and baskets to trawl the bile duct in order to pull stones into the duodenum. Obstructions that are caused by larger stones may require the use of an instrument known as a mechanical lithotriptor in order to crush the stone prior to removal. Obstructing stones that are too large to be removed or broken mechanically by ERCP may be managed by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. This technique uses acoustic shock waves administered outside the body to break down the stones. An alternative technique to remove very large obstructing stones is electrohydraulic lithotripsy, where a small endoscope known as a cholangioscope is inserted by ERCP to directly visualize the stone. A probe uses electricity to generate shock waves that break down the obstructing stone. Rarely, surgical exploration of the common bile duct (termed choledochotomy), which can be performed with laparoscopy, is required to remove the stone.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Narrowed areas may be bridged by a stent, a hollow tube that keeps the duct open. Removable plastic stents are used in uncomplicated gallstone disease, while permanent self-expanding metal stents with a longer lifespan are used if the obstruction is due to pressure from a tumor such as pancreatic cancer. A nasobiliary drain may be left behind; this is a plastic tube that passes from the bile duct through the stomach and the nose and allows continuous drainage of bile into a receptible. It is similar to a nasogastric tube, but passes into the common bile duct directly, and allows for serial x-ray cholangiograms to be done to identify the improvement of the obstruction. The decision on which of the aforementioned treatments to apply is generally based on the severity of the obstruction, findings on other imaging studies, and whether the patient has improved with antibiotic treatment. Certain treatments may be unsafe if blood clotting is impaired, as the risk of bleeding (especially from sphincterotomy) is increased in the use of medication such as clopidogrel (which inhibits platelet aggregation) or if the prothrombin time is significantly prolonged. For a prolonged prothrombin time, vitamin K or fresh frozen plasma may be administered to reduce bleeding risk.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: In cases where a person is too ill to tolerate endoscopy or when a retrograde endoscopic approach fails to access the obstruction, a percutaneous transhepatic cholangiogram (PTC) may be performed to evaluate the biliary system for placement of a percutaneous biliary drain (PBD). This is often necessary in the case of a proximal stricture or a bilioenteric anastomosis (a surgical connection between the bile duct and small bowel, such as the duodenum or jejunum). Once access across the stricture is obtained, balloon dilation can be performed and stones can be swept forward into the duodenum. Due to potential complications of percutaneous biliary drain placement and the necessity of regular drain maintenance, a retrograde approach via ERCP remains first-line therapy.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Not all gallstones implicated in ascending cholangitis actually originate from the gallbladder, but cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder) is generally recommended in people who have been treated for cholangitis due to gallstone disease. This is typically delayed until all symptoms have resolved and ERCP or MRCP have confirmed that the bile duct is clear of gallstones. Those who do not undergo cholecystectomy have an increased risk of recurrent biliary pain, jaundice, further episodes of cholangitis, and need for further ERCP or cholecystostomy; the risk of death is also significantly increased.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Acute cholangitis carries a significant risk of death, the leading cause being irreversible shock with multiple organ failure (a possible complication of severe infections). Improvements in diagnosis and treatment have led to a reduction in mortality: before 1980, the mortality rate was greater than 50%, but after 1980 it was 10–30%. Patients with signs of multiple organ failure are likely to die unless they undergo early biliary drainage and treatment with systemic antibiotics. Other causes of death following severe cholangitis include heart failure and pneumonia.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Risk factors indicating an increased risk of death include older age, female gender, a history of liver cirrhosis, biliary narrowing due to cancer, acute kidney injury and the presence of liver abscesses. Complications following severe cholangitis include kidney failure, respiratory failure (inability of the respiratory system to oxygenate blood and/or eliminate carbon dioxide), abnormal heart rhythms, wound infection, pneumonia, gastrointestinal bleeding and myocardial ischemia (lack of blood flow to the heart, leading to heart attacks).


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: In the Western world, about 15% of all people have gallstones in their gallbladder but the majority are unaware of this and have no symptoms. Over ten years, 15–26% will have one or more episodes of biliary colic (abdominal pain due to the passage of gallstones through the bile duct into the digestive tract), and 2–3% will develop complications of obstruction: acute pancreatitis, cholecystitis or acute cholangitis. Prevalence of gallstone disease increases with age and body mass index (a marker of obesity). However, the risk is also increased in those who lose weight rapidly (e.g. after weight loss surgery) due to alterations in the composition of the bile that makes it prone to form stones. Gallstones are slightly more common in women than in men, and pregnancy increases the risk further.


title: Ascending cholangitis

text: Dr Jean-Martin Charcot, working at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, France, is credited with early reports of cholangitis, as well as his eponymous triad, in 1877. He referred to the condition as "hepatic fever" ("fièvre hépatique"). Dr Benedict M. Reynolds, an American surgeon, reignited interest in the condition in his 1959 report with colleague Dr Everett L. Dargan, and formulated the pentad that carries his name. It remained a condition generally treated by surgeons, with exploration of the bile duct and excision of gallstones, until the ascendancy of ERCP in 1968. ERCP is generally performed by internal medicine or gastroenterology specialists. In 1992 it was shown that ERCP was generally safer than surgical intervention in ascending cholangitis.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Homer Adolph Plessy (born Homère Patris Plessy; 1862 or March 17, 1863 – March 1, 1925) was an American shoemaker and activist, best known as the plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision "Plessy v. Ferguson". He staged an act of civil disobedience to challenge one of Louisiana's racial segregation laws and bring a test case to force the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation laws. The Court decided against Plessy. The resulting "separate but equal" legal doctrine determined that state-mandated segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as long as the facilities provided for both black and white people were putatively "equal". The legal precedent set by "Plessy v. Ferguson" lasted into the mid-20th century, until a series of landmark Supreme Court decisions concerning segregation, beginning with "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Plessy was born a free person of color in a family of French-speaking Louisiana Creole people. Growing up during the Reconstruction era, Plessy lived in a society in which black children attended integrated schools, black men could vote, and interracial marriage was legal. However, many of those civil rights were eroded following the withdrawal of U.S. federal troops from the former Confederate States of America in 1877. In the 1880s, Plessy became involved in political activism, and in 1892, the civil rights group Comité des Citoyens recruited him for an act of civil disobedience to challenge Louisiana's Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodations for black and white people on railroads. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a ticket for a "whites only" first-class train coach, boarded the train, and was arrested by a private detective hired by the group. Judge John Howard Ferguson ruled against Plessy in a state criminal district court, upholding the law on the grounds that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroads within its borders. Plessy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case four years later in 1896 and ruled 7–1 in favor of Louisiana, establishing the "separate but equal" doctrine as a legal basis for the Jim Crow laws which remained in effect into the 1950s and 1960s.


title: Homer Plessy

text: There is some dispute over Plessy's date of birth. He may have been born in 1862, or he may have been born under the name Homère Patris Plessy on March 17, 1863. He was the second of two children in a French-speaking Creole family in New Orleans, Louisiana. Later documents give his name as Homer Adolph Plessy or Homère Adolphe Plessy. His father, a carpenter named Joseph Adolphe Plessy, and his mother, a seamstress named Rosa Debergue, were both mixed-race free people of color. Homer's paternal grandfather, Germain Plessy was a white Frenchman born in Bordeaux circa 1777. Germain Plessy lived in the French Saint-Domingue colony, before moving to New Orleans during the 1790s as part of a group of thousands of expatriates who fled the Haitian Revolution. Under the plaçage system practiced in French Caribbean colonies, Germain Plessy later lived in a civil union with Catherine Mathieu, a free woman of color of French and African ancestry, and they had eight children. According to pre-Civil War records, Homer's maternal grandparents were both of African descent or mixed race. Many of Homer's ancestors and relatives were property-owning tradesmen, including blacksmiths, carpenters, and shoemakers.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Joseph Adolphe Plessy died in 1869. Two years later in 1871, Homer's mother married Victor M. Dupart, a clerk for the U.S. Postal Service who supplemented his income by working as a shoemaker. Dupart had six children from a previous marriage; in addition to bringing Homer and his sister Ida to the marriage, Plessy's mother had one child with Dupart. Plessy's stepfather was politically engaged, having paid poll taxes in 1869 and 1870 in order to vote. He also joined the Unification Movement of 1873, a civil rights movement promoting political equality, racial unity, and an end to discrimination in Reconstruction-era Louisiana.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Plessy grew up in a society in which black people had gained unprecedented civil rights in Louisiana. Beginning in 1868, all black men could vote if they paid a poll tax. The state implemented a racially integrated school system in 1869. The state legislature legalized interracial marriage in 1870. And more than 200 black men held elected offices at the state and local levels in the 1870s. However, many of those gains eroded following the withdrawal of U.S. federal troops from the former Confederacy in 1877. When white Democrats returned to power in the late 1870s, they began to defund public education for black people and the Louisiana Constitution of 1879 ended integrated schools.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Plessy followed his stepfather and became both a shoemaker and a political activist. During the 1880s, he worked at Patricio Brito's shoe-making business in New Orleans's French Quarter. He married nineteen-year-old Louise Bordenave at St. Augustine Church in 1888; Brito served as a witness. In 1889, he and his wife moved to Faubourg Tremé, a racially integrated middle-class neighborhood of New Orleans at the time, and he registered to vote in the Sixth Ward's Third Precinct.


title: Homer Plessy

text: His political involvement began in the post-Reconstruction 1880s. In 1887, he served as vice-president of the fifty-person Justice, Protective, Educational, and Social Club, a group dedicated to reforming public education in New Orleans. Not only had Louisiana abolished racially integrated schools in 1879, but many of the public schools in New Orleans were unable to stay open in the 1880s due to a lack of funding. In response, the organization published a pamphlet declaring its intention to collect and build a community library and appealing to the Louisiana state government for "our fair share of public education" with safeguards against "fraud and manipulation, thereby insuring [sic] good teachers, a full term and all necessary articles for the maintenance of schools, which at this moment we have not."


title: Homer Plessy

text: In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodation for black and white people on railroads, including separate railway cars. A group of 18 prominent black, creole of color, and white creole New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) to challenge the law. Many staff members of "The New Orleans Crusader", a black Republican newspaper, were among the group's members, including publisher Louis A. Martinet, writer Rodolphe Desdunes, and managing editor L. J. Joubert, who served as president of the Justice, Protective, Educational, and Social Club at the same time Plessy was Vice President.


title: Homer Plessy

text: The group contacted attorney and civil rights advocate Albion W. Tourgée, who agreed to help them bring a test case to court in order to force the judiciary to determine the constitutionality of Jim Crow laws. In his correspondence with Martinet, Tourgée suggested finding a plaintiff who had "not more than one-eight colored blood" and could pass as white. The attorney hoped that by selecting a person of ambiguous racial identity, he might exploit the Louisiana legislature's failure to define race and to force the court to consider the inconclusiveness of scientific evidence on definitive racial categories. In court, he later argued that a man of one-eighth African ancestry may not even know to which race he belongs, so a railroad employee would be even less qualified to "decide the question of race" and determine in what car a mixed-race individual ought to sit.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Tourgée also suggested finding a female plaintiff, because he believed the courts might be more sympathetic to a woman being ejected from a railroad car. However, the Comité des Citoyens instead recruited musician Daniel Desdunes, the son of group member Rodolphe Desdunes. Martinet contacted several railroad companies to inform them of the group's intentions. The railroads overwhelmingly opposed the Separate Car Act because it raised their operating costs by forcing them to use additional cars that might only be at half capacity. Some companies enforced the law, while others did not. Martinet eventually enlisted the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company to participate in the group's plan. On February 24, 1892, Daniel Desdunes purchased a first-class ticket on a train bound for Mobile, Alabama. After he sat in a "whites only" car, the conductor stopped the train, and a private detective hired by the Comité des Citoyens arrested Desdunes. The prosecution dropped their case against Desdunes in May 1892, however, after the Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled that the Separate Car Act did not apply to interstate railroad trips.


title: Homer Plessy

text: In order to bring their test case to court, the Comité des Citoyens had to stage another incident on a train trip entirely within Louisiana state lines. They recruited Plessy, who may have been a friend of Rodolphe Desdunes, to be the plaintiff. Martinet contacted the East Louisiana Railroad, one of the companies that opposed the law, and declared their intentions to stage an act of civil disobedience. He also hired the services of private detective Chris C. Cain to arrest Plessy and ensure that he was charged with violating the Separate Car Act and not with a misdemeanor such as disturbing the peace.


title: Homer Plessy

text: On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad running between the Press Street Depot in New Orleans and Covington, Louisiana, an approximately 30-mile journey that would have taken two hours. He sat in the "whites only" passenger car. When conductor J. J. Dowling came to collect Plessy's ticket, he told Plessy to leave the "whites only" car. Plessy refused. The conductor stopped the train, walked back to the depot, and returned with Detective Cain. Cain and other passengers forcibly removed Plessy from the train. Cain then arrested Plessy and took him to the Orleans Parish jail. The Comité des Citoyens arrived at the jail, arranged for him to be released, and paid his $500 bond the following day by offering up a committee member's house as collateral.


title: Homer Plessy

text: On October 28, 1892, Plessy was arraigned before Judge John Howard Ferguson in the Orleans Parish criminal district court. He was represented by New Orleans lawyer James Walker, who submitted a plea challenging the jurisdiction of trial court by claiming that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution, which provided for equal protection under the law and "impermissibly clothed train officers with the authority and duty to assign passengers on the basis of race and with the authority to refuse service." Walker's plea deliberately did not specify if Plessy was black or white. On November 18, Ferguson overruled Walker's petition, stating that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies while they operated within state boundaries. Four days later, Walker petitioned the Louisiana Supreme Court for a writ of prohibition to stop the trial.


title: Homer Plessy

text: In December 1892, the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed Ferguson's ruling, and denied Walker's subsequent request for a rehearing. In speaking for the court's decision that Ferguson's judgment did not violate the 14th Amendment, Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Charles Erasmus Fenner cited a number of precedents, including two key cases from Northern states. The Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled in 1849—before the 14th amendment—that segregated schools were constitutional. In answering the charge that segregation perpetuated racial prejudice, the Massachusetts court stated: "This prejudice, if it exists, is not created by law, and probably cannot be changed by law." The law itself was repealed five years later, but the precedent stood.


title: Homer Plessy

text: On January 5, 1893, Walker applied for a writ of error, which the United States Supreme Court accepted. Tourgée would represent Plessy before the Supreme Court and enlisted the aid of former Solicitor General Samuel F. Phillips as co-counsel. The case first appeared on the docket in January 1893, but Tourgée wrote to the Comité des Citoyens voicing his concerns that they would lose. In the three years since the Comité des Citoyens first organized, the court's makeup had changed under the administration of President Benjamin Harrison and had taken on a more segregationist tilt. He hoped that unsympathetic justices would change their minds with time or retire, writing in one letter: "The Court has always been the foe of liberty until forced to move on by public opinion." In the 1890s, a case could take several years to appear before reaching the Supreme Court, and Plessy's lawyers hoped to delay until close to the 1896 United States presidential election, in the hopes the election might influence the outcome in their favor. However, the court called the case in spring 1896, and the oral arguments of "Plessy v. Ferguson" were held on April 13. Tourgée argued that the State of Louisiana had violated the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment that stated, "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, and property without due process of law." He also argued that segregation laws inherently implied that black people were inferior, and therefore stigmatized them with a second-class status that violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, which reads: "nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."


title: Homer Plessy

text: On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court issued a 7–1 decision against Plessy that upheld the constitutionality of Louisiana's train car segregation laws. Justice Henry Billings Brown delivered the majority opinion, first dismissing any claim that the Louisiana law violated the Thirteenth Amendment, which, in the majority's opinion, did no more than ensure that black Americans had the basic level of legal equality needed to abolish slavery. Next, the Court considered whether the law violated the Equal Protection Clause, concluding that although the Fourteenth Amendment was meant to guarantee legal equality of all races in America, it was not intended to prevent social or other types of discrimination.


title: Homer Plessy

text: The Court also rejected Tourgée's argument that segregation laws marked black Americans with "a badge of inferiority," and said that racial prejudice could not be overcome by legislation.


title: Homer Plessy

text: Brown's opinion ended with a note on the subject of Plessy's racial identity under the law. He wrote that while the question of whether Plessy was legally black or white may have bearing on the outcome of the criminal case, legal definitions of racial categories were an issue of state law not before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ultimately, Brown deferred to Louisiana law to determine whether Plessy was legally black or white.


title: Homer Plessy

text: After the Supreme Court ruling, Plessy's criminal trial went ahead in Ferguson's court in Louisiana on February 11, 1897. He pleaded guilty of violating the Separate Car Act, which carried a punishment of a $25 fine or twenty days in jail. He opted to pay the fine. The Comité des Citoyens disbanded shortly after the trial's end. The shoemaking profession declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to large-scale industrial production, so Plessy later took jobs as a laborer, warehouseman, clerk, and insurance premium collected for the black-owned People's Life Insurance Company. He died on March 1, 1925. His obituary read: "Homer Plessy — on Sunday, March 1, 1925, at 5:10 a.m. beloved husband of Louise Bordenave." He was buried in the Debergue-Blanco family tomb in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana.


title: Homer Plessy

text: The "Separate but Equal" doctrine, enshrined by the "Plessy" ruling, remained valid until 1954 when it was overturned by the Supreme Court decision in "Brown v. Board of Education," and later completely outlawed by the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though the "Plessy" case did not involve education, it formed the legal basis of separate school systems for the following fifty-eight years.


title: Homer Plessy

text: On February 10, 2009, Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of the players on both sides of the Supreme Court case, appeared together on TV station WLTV in New Orleans. They announced the formation of the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation for Education, Preservation and Outreach. The foundation will work to create new ways to teach the history of civil rights through film, art, and public programs designed to create an understanding of this historic case and its effect on the American conscience.


title: Homer Plessy

text: On February 12, 2009, the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation of New Orleans honored the successes of the civil rights movement by taking part in the placing of a historical marker at the corner of Press and Royal Streets, the site of Homer Plessy's arrest in New Orleans in 1892. A portion of Press Street was renamed after Plessy in 2018.


title: Homer Plessy

text: On January 5, 2022, Plessy was pardoned by John Bel Edwards, Governor of Louisiana, posthumously relieving Plessy of the conviction.


title: Homer Plessy

text: There is no known photograph of Homer Plessy, though a photograph of P. B. S. Pinchback, a former governor of Louisiana and fellow member of the Comité des Citoyens, has been mislabeled as his.


title: 1V-LSD

text: 1V-LSD or 1-valeryl--lysergic acid diethylamide is a psychotropic substance and a research chemical with psychedelic effects. 1V-LSD is an artificial derivative of natural lysergic acid, which occurs in ergot alkaloids, as well as being an analogue of LSD.


title: 1V-LSD

text: 1V-LSD has been sold online until an amendment to the German NpSG was enforced in 2022 which controls 1P-LSD and now 1cP-LSD, 1V-LSD and several other lysergamides.


title: 1V-LSD

text: As demonstrated with other N-acylated derivatives of LSD, 1V-LSD is believed to serve as a prodrug for LSD but may also act as a weak partial agonist at the 5-HT2A receptor.


title: 1V-LSD

text: A Head-twitch response assay in mice found that 1V-LSD has a similar potency to 1P-LSD and 1cP-LSD, with behavioral effects also closely resembling these structural analogs.


title: 1V-LSD

text: 1V-LSD is the condensation product of valeric acid (pentanoic acid) and LSD, where the valeroyl group is substituted on the NH position of the indole moiety.


title: 1V-LSD

text: Ehrlich's reagent is used to identify the presence of an indole moiety; the chemical backbone of the lysergamide and ergoline molecules. However, as with other N-acylated lysergamides, 1V-LSD reacts very slowly to Ehrlich reagent and may not give reliable results if the reagent isn't fresh.


title: 1V-LSD

text: Since March 2nd 2022, 1V-LSD has been under investigation in Sweden and may therefore soon become controlled.


title: 1V-LSD

text: 1V-LSD was placed under legal control in South Korea in July 2022 on a temporary but renewable basis.


title: Cauda equina

text: The cauda equina () is a bundle of spinal nerves and spinal nerve rootlets, consisting of the second through fifth lumbar nerve pairs, the first through fifth sacral nerve pairs, and the coccygeal nerve, all of which arise from the lumbar enlargement and the conus medullaris of the spinal cord. The cauda equina occupies the lumbar cistern, a subarachnoid space inferior to the conus medullaris. The nerves that compose the cauda equina innervate the pelvic organs and lower limbs to include motor innervation of the hips, knees, ankles, feet, internal anal sphincter and external anal sphincter. In addition, the cauda equina extends to sensory innervation of the perineum and, partially, parasympathetic innervation of the bladder.


title: Cauda equina

text: In humans, the spinal cord stops growing in infancy and the end of the spinal cord is about the level of the third lumbar vertebra, or L3, at birth. Because the bones of the vertebral column continue to grow, by about 12 months of age, the end of the cord reaches its permanent position at the level of L1 or L2 (closer to the head). However, due to normal anatomical variations, the final cord end position may occur anywhere from T12 twelfth thoracic vertebra (T12) to L3. Individual spinal nerve roots arise from the cord as they get closer to the head, but as the differential growth occurs, the top end of the nerve stays attached to the spinal cord while the lower end of the nerve exits the spinal column at its proper level. This results in a "bundle"-like structure of nerve fibers that extends caudally from the end of the spinal cord, gradually declining in number further down as individual pairs leave the spinal column.


title: Cauda equina

text: The cauda equina exists within the lumbar cistern, a gap between the arachnoid membrane and the pia matter of the spinal cord, called the subarachnoid space. Cerebrospinal fluid also exists within this space. Because the spinal cord terminates at level L1/L2, lumbar puncture (or colloquially, "spinal tap") is performed from the lumbar cistern between two vertebrae at level L3/L4, or L4/L5, where there is no risk of accidental injury to the spinal cord, when a sample of CSF is needed for clinical purposes.


title: Cauda equina

text: Cauda equina syndrome, a rare disorder affecting the bundle of nerve roots (cauda equina) at the lower (lumbar) end of the spinal cord, is a surgical emergency. Cauda equina syndrome occurs when the nerve roots in the lumbar spine are compressed, disrupting sensation and movement. Nerve roots that control the function of the bladder and bowel are especially vulnerable to damage. It can lead to permanent paralysis, impaired bladder and/or bowel control, loss of sexual sensation, and other problems if left untreated. Even with immediate treatment, some patients may not recover complete function.


title: Cauda equina

text: Cauda equina syndrome most commonly results from a massive disc herniation in the lumbar region. A disc herniation occurs when one of the soft flexible discs that functions as an elastic shock absorber between the bones of the spinal column displaces from its normal position. The herniation occurs after the disc begins to break down with aging and can be precipitated by stress or a mechanical problem in the spine. The result is that the softer, center portion of the disc pushes out and causes pressure on the nerve roots in the lumbar spine. Other causes include spinal lesions and tumors, spinal infections or inflammation, lumbar spinal stenosis, trauma to the lower back, birth abnormalities, spinal arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), spinal hemorrhages (subarachnoid, subdural, epidural), narrowing of the spinal canal, postoperative lumbar spine surgery complications or spinal anesthesia.


title: Cauda equina

text: The cauda equina was named after its resemblance to a horse's tail () by the French anatomist Andreas Lazarius (André du Laurens) in the 17th century.


title: Double act

text: A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases for the artists' entire careers. Double acts perform on the stage, television and film.


title: Double act

text: The format is particularly popular in the UK where successful acts have included Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (Cook’s deadpan delivery contrasted with Moore’s buffoonery), Morecambe and Wise and "The Two Ronnies". The tradition is also present in the US with acts like Wheeler and Woolsey, Abbott and Costello, Gallagher and Shean, Burns and Allen, and Lyons and Yosco. The British-American comedy double act Laurel and Hardy has been described as the most popular in the world.


title: Double act

text: Humor is often derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin, and profession but drastically different in terms of personality or behavior; each one serves as a foil to the other. One member of the duo—the "straight man", "feed", "dead wood", or stooge—is often portrayed as reasonable and serious, while the other one—the funny man, "banana man", or comic—is portrayed as funny, less educated or less intelligent, silly, or unorthodox. When the audience identifies primarily with one character, the other is often referred to as a comic foil. The term "feed" comes from the way a straight man sets up jokes and then "feeds" them to his partner.


title: Double act

text: Despite the names often given to the roles, the straight man is not always humorless, nor is it always the comic who provides the act's humor. Sometimes the straight man gets laughs through sarcastic reactions to the comic's antics, such as Stewart Lee's deadpan, reasoned reactions to Richard Herring's ridiculous antics in their pairing. When the straight man serves no specific comic purpose, but acts as a device to make the comic look good, he is known as a stooge. Sometimes considered a derogatory term, "stooge" began to fall out of use by the 1930s with The Three Stooges. Most often the humor in a double act comes from the way the two personalities play off of each other, rather than from the individual players. In many successful acts the roles are interchangeable.


title: Double act

text: The model for the modern double act began in the British music halls and the American vaudeville scene of the late 19th century. Here, the straight man was needed to repeat the lines of the comic because audiences were noisy. A dynamic soon developed in which the straight man was a more integral part of the act, setting up jokes for the comic to deliver a punch line. Popular draws included acts like George Burns and Gracie Allen (who initially operated with Burns as the comic but quickly switched roles when Gracie's greater appeal was recognized), Abbott and Costello, Flanagan and Allen, Gallagher and Shean, Smith and Dale, and Lyons and Yosco. The dynamic evolved, with Abbott and Costello using a modern and recognizable formula in routines such as Who's on First? in the 1930s and Flanagan and Allen using "cross talking".


title: Double act

text: Though vaudeville lasted into the 1930s, its popularity waned because of the rise of motion pictures. Some failed to survive the transition to movies and disappeared. By the 1920s, double acts were beginning to attract worldwide fame more readily through the silent era. The comedy was not derived from "cross-talk" or clever verbal exchanges, but through slapstick routines and the actions of the characters.


title: Double act

text: The first double act to gain worldwide fame through film was the Danish duo Ole & Axel, who made their first film together in 1921. The latter half of the same decade introduced to the world the inimitable team of Laurel and Hardy. The pair had never worked together on stage (they did as of 1940), though both had worked in vaudeville—Stan Laurel with Charlie Chaplin as part of Fred Karno's Army and Oliver Hardy as a singer. Laurel could loosely be described as the comic, though the pair were one of the first not to fit the mold in the way that many double acts do, with both taking a fairly equal share of the laughs. The pair first worked together as a double act in the 1927 film "Duck Soup". The first Laurel and Hardy film was called "Putting Pants on Philip" though their familiar characters had not yet been established. The first film they both appeared in was "Lucky Dog" in 1917. Laurel and Hardy adapted well to silent films, both being skilled at slapstick, and their nonverbal interplay with each other and the audience became famous—Laurel's cry and Hardy's downtrodden glances to the camera whenever something went wrong—and were carried over to their later talkies. They were one of the few silent acts who made a successful transition to spoken word pictures in the 1930s, showing themselves to be equally adept at verbal wordplay.


title: Double act

text: In 1940 was the release of Laurel and Hardy's "Saps at Sea", their final film for long-term producer and collaborator Hal Roach. Later their popularity declined. In 1940s America the double act remained a cinema draw, developing into the "buddy movie" genre, with Abbott and Costello making the transition from stage to screen and the first of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's "Road to..." series in 1940. Further acts followed. For example, the first pairing of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis occurred in 1946. About the same time The Bickersons became popular on radio. Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner started their 2000 Year Old Man recordings and subsequent television appearances in 1961. The genre has continued to exist in cinema while making a successful transition to radio and later TV via The Smothers Brothers and "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In".


title: Double act

text: In Britain, double acts were confined to theatres and radio until the late 1950s, when double acts such as Morecambe and Wise and Mike and Bernie Winters slowly began the transition to TV on variety shows such as "Sunday Night at the London Palladium". These acts came into their own in the mid- to late-1960s. When Morecambe and Wise teamed up with writer Eddie Braben, they began to redefine what was meant by a double act, with Wise, the straight man, being developed into a comic character in his own right. They provided the link between music hall and modern comedy for double acts. As the two leading double acts of the day, Morecambe and Wise and the Winters brothers enjoyed a playful rivalry—the Winters mocked the slight edge Morecambe and Wise had over them in popularity, while Morecambe, when asked what he and Wise would have been if not comedians, replied ""Mike and Bernie Winters"".


title: Double act

text: A series of black-and-white films based on Don Camillo and Peppone characters created by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi were made between 1952 and 1965. These were French-Italian coproductions, and starred Fernandel as the Italian priest Don Camillo and Gino Cervi as Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi, the Communist Mayor of their rural town. The titles are: "The Little World of Don Camillo" (1952), "The Return of Don Camillo" (1953), "Don Camillo's Last Round" (1955), "" (1961), and "Don Camillo in Moscow" (1965). The movies were a huge commercial success in their native countries. In 1952, "Little World of Don Camillo" became the highest-grossing film in both Italy and France, while "The Return of Don Camillo" was the second most popular film of 1953 at the Italian and French box office.


title: Double act

text: Franco and Ciccio were a comedy duo formed by Italian actors Franco Franchi (1928–1992) and Ciccio Ingrassia (1922–2003), particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Their collaboration began in 1954 in the theater field, and ended with Franchi's death in 1992. The two made their cinema debuts in 1960 with the film "Appuntamento a Ischia". They remained active until 1984 when their last film together, "Kaos", was shot, although there were some interruptions in 1973 and from 1975 to 1980. Together, they appeared in 112 films. They acted in films certainly made in a short time and with few means, such as those shot with director Marcello Ciorciolini, sometimes even making a dozen films in a year, often without a real script and where they often improvised on the set. Also are the 13 films directed by Lucio Fulci, who was the architect of the reversal of their typical roles by making Ciccio the serious one, the sidekick, and Franco the comic one. They also worked with important directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Taviani brothers. Considered at the time as protagonists of B movie, they were subsequently reevaluated by critics for their comedy and creative abilities, becoming the subject of study. The huge success with the public is evidenced by the box office earnings, which in the 1960s, represented 10% of the annual earnings in Italy.


title: Double act

text: Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the traditional formula was shunned by The Two Ronnies, who completely dispensed with the need for a straight man, and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, two Oxbridge-educated comedians who used the double act to deliver satire and edgy comedy.


title: Double act

text: Internationally the most popular double act of the 1970s was the Italian duo Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. The team had already made three straight westerns together during the 1960s but turned their act towards slapstick in their fourth ("They Call Me Trinity", 1970), with massive success.


title: Double act

text: Light entertainment in Britain in the 1970s was dominated by Morecambe and Wise, who enjoyed impressive ratings, especially on their Christmas specials. Although Mike and Bernie Winters's popularity declined, The Two Ronnies' success grew while Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sporadically produced acclaimed work, in particular, their controversial recordings as Derek and Clive from 1976 to 1978.


title: Double act

text: The mid-to-late 1970s saw a resurgence in American double acts. "Blazing Saddles" (1974) featured a memorable performance by Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman (who later teamed up again in Brooks's 1981 follow-up "History of the World, Part I"). "Saturday Night Live", first broadcast in 1975, provided an outlet for comedians to appear in sketches as double acts and continues to do so. It was here that Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi honed their characters The Blues Brothers, who were soon pulled to fame in the 1980 buddy movie of the same name. Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor also embarked on a string of successful buddy films in the 1970s. Cheech & Chong also gained massive popularity during this time.


title: Double act

text: Occasionally, the straight-man/funny-man dynamic appeared in unexpected contexts between characters not normally thought of as comics. This often appeared in the James T. Kirk (William Shatner)/Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) relationship in several episodes of the original "Star Trek" series.


title: Double act

text: Morecambe and Wise had dominated British light entertainment throughout the 1970s, but their presence waned in the early 1980s. When Morecambe died moments after finishing a solo show in 1984 (his last words were 'I'm glad that's over'), the best-loved double act in British comedy came to an end, and several new acts emerged. The two distinct groups could not have been more different.


title: Double act

text: In the wake of "Not the Nine O'Clock News", "The Young Ones" and the breakthrough onto television of 'alternative comedy' came French and Saunders; Fry and Laurie; Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson; Hale and Pace; and Smith and Jones. These edgier comics were brasher and crude—comedy's answer to punk rock. They developed the satire and vulgarity of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore rather than the more gentle humour of Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. In fact, Smith and Jones showed blatant disregard for their predecessors, openly mocking the Two Ronnies (this may have been a factor in Ronnie Barker's decision to retire from comedy in the late 1980s.)


title: Double act

text: The early 1990s saw comedy become "the new rock and roll" in Britain and this was inherent in the work of Newman and Baddiel and Punt and Dennis on "The Mary Whitehouse Experience". Newman and Baddiel, in particular, symbolized this rock and roll attitude by playing the biggest ever British comedy gig at Wembley Arena. With this came tension. Newman and Baddiel fell out with Punt and Dennis, not wishing to share screen time with them, and then with each other. David Baddiel went on to form another successful double act with Frank Skinner.


title: Double act

text: The 1990s also saw the introduction of one of comedy's strangest yet most successful double acts in Reeves and Mortimer. They at the same time deconstructed light entertainment and paid homage to many of the classic double acts (Vic Reeves would even do an Eric Morecambe impression on "Vic Reeves Big Night Out"). They simultaneously used very bizarre, idiosyncratic humour and traditional double act staples (in later years they became increasingly reliant on violent slapstick).


title: Double act

text: Another double act that emerged in the mid to late 1990s was Lee & Herring, who combined a classic clash of personalities (downbeat and rational Lee contrasting with energetic, childish Herring) with very ironic, often satirical humour.


title: Double act

text: Also appearing in the latter half of the decade were Adam and Joe, whose low-budget, self-produced Channel 4 series "The Adam and Joe Show" was a very sharp combination of TV and movie parodies and satirical looks at various elements of youth culture.


title: Double act

text: Indian cinema also had its share of the double act, with Tamil cinema comedians Goundamani and Senthil teaming up for several films throughout the decade, similarly Kota Srinivasa Rao and Babu Mohan in Telugu Cinema.


title: Double act

text: In Sri Lanka cinema, the famous double act is found with comedians Bandu Samarasinghe and Tennison Cooray where they pioneered Sri Lankan commercial film industry in the 2000s.


title: Double act

text: Mitchell and Webb are another successful double act from the 2000s onwards, having multiple sketch shows on both radio and TV as well as starring in the award-winning sitcom Peep Show.


title: Double act

text: Most of the most successful double acts in the early 2000s take their inspiration from the odder strain of double-act comedy spearheaded by Reeves and Mortimer. Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who had previously worked with Reeves and Mortimer, also took inspiration from the Two Ronnies. The Mighty Boosh also played with the formula but essentially remained traditional at their roots. Another popular current light entertainment/presenting comedy act is Ant & Dec, who are a very basic yet effective example of a double act.


title: Double act

text: In early 2012, comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele appeared in a sketch comedy TV show titled Key & Peele airing on Comedy Central.


title: Double act

text: Many modern-day YouTube channels follow this format. Some examples include Smosh, Dan and Phil, the Game Grumps, and Rhett and Link of the YouTube channel Good Mythical Morning,


title: Double act

text: In its British form, the two actors would usually be composed of a "straight man" or "feed" and a "comic", the purpose of the feed is to set up jokes for the comic. This would rely heavily on comic timing.


title: Double act

text: Morecambe and Wise are arguably the quintessential British double act. They followed the traditional formula with Eric Morecambe as the comic and Ernie Wise as the feed. Other British acts such as The Two Ronnies, Hale and Pace, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, Reeves and Mortimer, French and Saunders, Mitchell and Webb, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, Fry and Laurie, Lee and Herring, Armstrong and Miller, Peacock and Gamble, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost the role of "comic" and "straight man" are less obvious, largely interchangeable or dispensed with altogether. More obvious British examples of the comic-feed dynamic are Cannon and Ball, Little and Large or the children's entertainers The Chuckle Brothers, where the straight man acted largely as a humourless set up for the comic.


title: Double act

text: Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were perhaps the first double act to go against the grain as turned their double act into a complex analysis of their relationship. In many of the sketches (especially the Pete and Dud exchanges) Cook played the domineering know-it-all (who knows nothing) and Moore the put-upon dimwit (who also knows nothing).


title: Double act

text: This dominance was accentuated by the difference in height between the two, and the speed of Cook's mind, which meant that he could ad lib and force Moore to corpse in a Pete and Dud dialogue, leaving him helpless to respond. As the partnership progressed into the often-improvised Derek and Clive dialogues, these light-hearted attempts to make Moore laugh became, as a result of Cook's growing insecurity and alcoholism, aggressive attacks on the defenseless Moore. Carrying the tradition of going against the grain of traditional double acts, when the partnership dissolved in the late 1970s, it was Cook whose career stalled due to boredom, alcoholism and lack of ambition, while Moore went on to become one of Hollywood's most unlikely leading men.


title: Double act

text: The double act has become a popular theme in British sitcoms. One of the earliest examples of this was the relationship between Tony Hancock and Sid James in the Galton and Simpson series "Hancock's Half Hour". James played a down-to-earth character while Hancock was pompous and had delusions of grandeur, and the comedy was derived from the two playing off each other's characteristics.


title: Double act

text: A common trend in sitcoms is to place the double act in a situation where they are forced together through uncontrollable circumstance. In another Galton and Simpson production, "Steptoe and Son", a son, with great ambition, was forced to live with his elderly, manipulative father as a rag and bone man. The comedy derives from the way the characters interact in their tempestuous relationship. The series also has more heart-rending moments as the son despairs at his inability to escape his needy, selfish, grasping father.


title: Double act

text: "Porridge" saw "an habitual criminal", Fletcher (played by Ronnie Barker, already famous for his comedy partnership with Ronnie Corbett) and a young, naive, first-time prisoner, Lennie Godber. The two would bicker but endured a relationship of mutual respect. Barker also formed a partnership with David Jason in Open All Hours, with Jason playing Granville while Barker played Albert Arkwright. Many don't see this as a comedy duo, but the straight-man element coupled with Barker's funny-man antics on the show are still compressed into the script.


title: Double act

text: Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson combined their success in sitcoms ("The Young Ones") and as a double act (The Dangerous Brothers) in 1991 when they created "Bottom". Their characters are a pair of sad, pathetic losers forced together by their mutual hopelessness. However, unlike earlier examples of such, the characters in "Bottom" absolutely hate each other, exacerbating their despair. This often leads to slapstick violence, such as hitting each other with frying pans. Mayall and Edmonson have said "Bottom" aimed to be more than just a series of toilet gags—it was meant to be a cruder cousin to plays like "Waiting for Godot" about the pointlessness of life.


title: Double act

text: Other popular double acts in British sitcoms include complex relationships involving status and superiority themes: in "Dad's Army", the social climbing envy of Captain George Mainwaring, to his right-hand man (Sergeant Arthur Wilson) who is of higher status than him; and in Red Dwarf, the working class everyman Dave Lister to the middle class but socially-awkward Arnold Rimmer. However, the most prominent double act is that of an intelligent person and his inferior sidekick, such as Basil and Manuel of "Fawlty Towers", Blackadder and Baldrick of "Blackadder", or Ted and Father Dougal of the Irish sitcom "Father Ted".


title: Double act

text: In recent years, double acts as sitcoms appear to have gone full circle, as illustrated by the cult success of "The Mighty Boosh". For the relationship between the two main characters this series uses a formula very similar to that between Sid and Tony in "Hancock's Half Hour" – that of a pompous character whose best friend can see right through him and brings him back down to Earth. A similar dynamic is used in "Peep Show" in which the characters of Mitchell and Webb were adapted for the sitcom formula. In this case both characters suffer from pomposity. The difference between the pair is the laidback, cool arrogance (yet stupidity) of Jeremy and the intellectual arrogance (yet social-awkwardness) of Mark.


title: Double act

text: In the United States and Canada, the tradition was more popular in the earlier part of the 20th century with vaudeville-derived acts such as Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Wheeler & Woolsey, and Lyons and Yosco and continuing into the television age with Martin and Lewis, Kenan & Kel, Bob and Ray, the Smothers Brothers, Wayne and Shuster, Allen and Rossi, Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber, Rowan and Martin, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, the Wayans Brothers, Troy and Abed from "Community" and Shawn and Gus in "Psych". The series "I Love Lucy" was known for its double acts, and Lucille Ball served as foil to both her husband Desi Arnaz and to Vivian Vance. Vance could also serve as foil to William Frawley when the situation required. Vance and Ball would again serve as a double act in their next series "The Lucy Show".


title: Double act

text: More recently, the model has been largely supplanted by that of the "buddy movie" genre, which has introduced several notable comedy partnerships not formally billed as a single "act" in the traditional manner. The earliest example of such a team may have been Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; later examples include Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, David Spade and Chris Farley and child stars Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Based on the gag-man/straight-man concept, "Stoner" duos like Cheech and Chong, Jay & Silent Bob, and Harold and Kumar have also proven quite popular with audiences.


title: Double act

text: The double act format can also be used in presenting noncomedic information in an entertaining manner, such as Savage/Hyneman pair of the Discovery Channel's "MythBusters" (which Savage stated was unintentional when they began the series but naturally grew into a double act as the result of their own conflicting personalities). From 2006 to 2010, Apple used the double-act formula successfully in its popular series of "I'm a Mac/And I'm a PC" ads with John Hodgman and Justin Long.


title: Double act

text: In Italy the tradition was more popular in the late part of the 20th century with Battaglia & Miseferi, Cochi e Renato, Ficarra e Picone, Fichi d'India, Gigi e Andrea, Katia & Valeria, Lillo & Greg, Pio e Amedeo, and Ric e Gian. Cochi e Renato were childhood friends, and they grew accustomed to perform together in front of an audience of friends and relatives. Their professional debut took place in 1965 in the small cabaret club Cab 64 in Milan, where they performed along with Lino Toffolo and Bruno Lauzi. They were also joined by Enzo Jannacci and Felice Andreasi with whom they formed the comedy ensemble Motore, who had a good success in Milan. The couple became first known in the late 1960s thanks to the RAI innovative variety shows "Quelli della domenica" (1968) and "È domenica, ma senza impegno" (1969). Characterized by a peculiar comic verve, filled with paradoxical and surreal moods, their popularity increased in the early 1970s with the variety show "Il poeta e il contadino" and with the participation with the musical show "Canzonissima". The couple began to crack in 1974, when Renato started devoting himself to a full-time film career. After a long separation, Cochi e Renato reunited in 2000s for a series of television and stage projects. Cochi e Renato were also very active as singer-songwriters (often with the collaboration of Enzo Jannacci), and they had several commercial hits; their most successful song is "E la vita la vita", which reached the first place at the Italian charts in 1974.


title: Double act

text: Ric e Gian met in an avanspettacolo at the Teatro Maffei in Turin, where Ric worked as a dancer and Gian was the sidekick of the actor Mario Ferrero. They then decided to performing together as "Jerry e Fabio" and worked in various theaters, nights and cabarets in Northern Italy as well as at the Crazy Horse in Paris. Noted by film producer Angelo Rizzoli, they renamed themselves Ric e Gian in 1962 and made their film debut in "Ischia operazione amore" (1966). Starting from the late 1960s, the couple gained popularity thanks to their participation in several prime time RAI variety shows. In the mid-1970s they focused on theatre, and between late 1970s and early 1980s their popularity revamped thanks to a number of Antenna 3 and Fininvest television shows they took part in. In 1987 the couple split to pursue some solo projects, before briefly reuniting between 2002 and 2006 for a number of stage shows and plays.


title: Double act

text: Gigi e Andrea started performing together in small theaters, cabarets and hostelries in Bologna in the second half of the 1970s. They debuted in 1978 on the Rai 1 variety show "Io e la Befana". The year before they had appeared for the first time on TV in "A modo mio", directed by Memo Remigi. In the 1980s, the couple starred and co-starred in several comedy films which were usually badly received by critics but of commercial success. The same period, their presence on the small screen also became more intense, especially on Fininvest variety shows and television films. In the 1990s, having reached a more than respectable success, the couple split in order to pursue solo projects.


title: Double act

text: Ficarra e Picone started in 1993 along with Salvatore Borrello as a comedy trio, performing together on stage as "Chiamata Urbana Urgente". In 1998, the two remaining members began to use their surnames: Ficarra & Picone. In 2000, Ficarra e Picone made their film debut with "Ask Me If I'm Happy" by Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, and two years later they made the first film as main actors, "Nati stanchi". On 25 April 2005, Ficarra and Picone were the TV anchor-men four episodes of "Striscia la notizia" to which they collaborated from 27 March 2006 up to 5 December 2020. In 2007 they debuted as directors alongside Gianbattista Avellino with the film "Il 7 e l'8", for which they were nominated to David di Donatello for Best New Director and to Silver Ribbon in the same category. Also in 2007 they were featured as comic characters in the story "Zio Paperone e il rapimento teatrale" (trad. "Uncle Scrooge and the Theatrical Kidnapping"), published in the issue 2678 of "Topolino".


title: Double act

text: In China, xiangsheng (also known as crosstalk) is a traditional comedic performance usually in the form of a dialogue between two performers.


title: Double act

text: In Japan the manzai tradition parallels that of the double although it is more formulaic. Here there is a distinguished straight man ("tsukkomi") and funny man ("boke") and the humor consists of quick slapstick jokes, comical stories and social misunderstandings.


title: Double act

text: In Germany Tünnes and Schäl (since 1803/1850s), two Cologne puppet theater characters, fit to the concept of fool and straight man.


title: Double act

text: During WWII Tran and Helle appeared in a number of short films to deter Germans from actions detrimental to Germany's war effort or security.


title: Double act

text: Between 1950 and 1980, the most popular comedy duo of East Germany, Herricht & Preil, ran a very successful double act, with Hans-Joachim Preil as the straight man and Rolf Herricht as the comic.


title: Double act

text: Double acts who do not use the "Straight Man/Funny Man" dynamic or whose roles are interchangeable – as well as notable examples:


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: The 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash was the destruction of the second production Tupolev Tu-144 at Goussainville, Val-d'Oise, France, which killed all six crew members and eight people on the The crash, at the Paris Air Show on Sunday, 3 June damaged the development program of the Tupolev Tu-144.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: One theory is that a French Mirage jet sent to photograph the aircraft without the knowledge of the Soviet crew caused the pilots to take evasive maneuvers, resulting in the Another theory is that in a rivalry with the Anglo-French Concorde, the pilots attempted a maneuver that was beyond the capabilities of


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: The aircraft involved was Tupolev Tu-144S СССР-77102, manufacturer's serial number 01–2, the second production Tu-144. The aircraft had first flown on 29 March 1972. This aircraft had been modified compared to the initial prototype to include landing gear that retracted into the nacelles, and retractable canards. The pilot was Mikhail Kozlov, and the co-pilot was Valery M. Molchanov. Also on board were G. N. Bazhenov, the flight navigator, V. N. Benderov, deputy chief designer and engineer major-general, B. A. Pervukhin, senior engineer, and A. I. Dralin, flight engineer. The crash occurred in front of 250,000 people, including designer Alexei Tupolev, toward the end of the show.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: During the show, there was a "fierce competition between the Anglo-French Concorde and the Russian Tu-144". The Soviet pilot, Mikhail Kozlov, had bragged that he would outperform the Concorde. "Just wait until you see us fly," he was quoted as saying. "Then you'll see something." On the final day of the show, the Concorde, which was not yet in production, performed its demonstration flight first. Its performance was later described as being unexciting, and it has been theorized that Kozlov was determined to show how much better his aircraft was.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: Once in flight, the aircraft made what appeared to be a landing approach, with the landing gear out and the "moustache" canards extended, but then with all four engines at full power, climbed rapidly. Possibly stalling below , the aircraft pitched over and went into a steep dive. Trying to pull out of the subsequent dive with the engines again at full power, the Tu-144 broke up in mid-air, possibly due to overstressing the airframe. The left wing came away first, and then the aircraft disintegrated and crashed, destroying 15 houses, and killing all six people on board the Tu-144 and eight more on the ground. Three children were among those killed, and 60 people received severe injuries.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: Following the crash, Marcel Dassault called for the 1975 Paris Air Show to be held at Istres, which is situated in open country north west of Marseille.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: The crash reduced the enthusiasm of Aeroflot for the Tu-144. Restrictions on the Tu-144 following the Paris Air Show crash meant that it only saw limited service during 1977 and 1978, and it was finally withdrawn following another crash in May 1978. The Tu-144's rival, the Concorde, went on to serve with British Airways and Air France for 30 years afterwards, being finally withdrawn from service in 2003 due to low passenger numbers following the crash of Flight 4590, rising service costs and the slump in the aviation industry following the September 11 attacks.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: The accident was investigated by the DTCE, part of the French military, which was responsible for accidents involving prototype aircraft in France. The wreckage was recovered to a hangar at Le Bourget, with some of it being flown by an Antonov An-22 to the Soviet Union.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: One theory is that the Tu-144 maneuvered to avoid a French Mirage chase plane that was attempting to photograph its unique canards, which were advanced for the time, and that the French and Soviet governments colluded with each other to cover up such details. The flight of the Mirage was denied in the original French report of the incident, perhaps because it was engaged in industrial espionage. More recent reports have admitted the existence of the Mirage (and the fact that the Soviet crew were not told about the Mirage's flight) though not its role in the crash. However, the official press release did state: "though the inquiry established that there was no real risk of collision between the two aircraft, the Soviet pilot was likely to have been surprised." Howard Moon, author of "Soviet SST: The Techno-Politics Of The Tupolev-144", stresses that last-minute changes to the flight schedule would have disoriented the pilots in a cockpit with notably poor sightlines. He also cites an eyewitness who claims the co-pilot had agreed to take a camera with him, which he may have been operating at the time of the evasive maneuver. The initial approach may have been an attempted landing on the wrong runway, which occurred due to a last-minute shortening of the Tu-144's display.


title: 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash

text: An important contributing factor could be that control surfaces deflection had been de-restricted before the flight, perhaps to allow a more impressive demonstration, giving way for a bug of the electronics flight controls which deflected the elevons 10 degrees down after the retraction of the canards, causing the sudden dive.