title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: The Teller–Ulam design was for many years considered one of the top nuclear secrets, and even today, it is not discussed in any detail by official publications with origins "behind the fence" of classification. The policy of the US Department of Energy (DOE) has always been not to acknowledge when "leaks" occur since doing such would acknowledge the accuracy of the supposed leaked information. Aside from images of the warhead casing but never of the "physics package" itself, most information in the public domain about the design is relegated to a few terse statements and the work of a few individual investigators.


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: Here is a short discussion of the events that led to the formation of the "public" models of the Teller–Ulam design, with some discussions as to their differences and disagreements with those principles outlined above.


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: The general principles of the "classical Super" design were public knowledge even before thermonuclear weapons were first tested. After Truman ordered the crash program to develop the hydrogen bomb in January 1950, the "Boston Daily Globe" published a cutaway description of a hypothetical hydrogen bomb with the caption "Artist's conception of how H-bomb might work using atomic bomb as a mere "trigger" to generate enough heat to set up the H-bomb's "thermonuclear fusion" process".


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: The fact that a large proportion of the yield of a thermonuclear device stems from the fission of a uranium 238 tamper (fission-fusion-fission principle) was revealed when the Castle Bravo test "ran away," producing a much higher yield than originally estimated and creating large amounts of nuclear fallout.


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: In 1972, the DOE declassified a statement that "The fact that in thermonuclear (TN) weapons, a fission 'primary' is used to trigger a TN reaction in thermonuclear fuel referred to as a 'secondary'", and in 1979, it added: "The fact that, in thermonuclear weapons, radiation from a fission explosive can be contained and used to transfer energy to compress and ignite a physically separate component containing thermonuclear fuel." To the latter sentence, it specified, "Any elaboration of this statement will be classified." (emphasis in original) The only statement that may pertain to the "sparkplug" was declassified in 1991: "Fact that fissile and/or fissionable materials are present in some secondaries, material unidentified, location unspecified, use unspecified, and weapons undesignated." In 1998, the DOE declassified the statement that "The fact that materials may be present in channels and the term 'channel filler,' with no elaboration," which may refer to the polystyrene foam (or an analogous substance). (DOE 2001, sect. V.C.)


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: Whether the statements vindicate some or all of the models presented above is up for interpretation, and official US government releases about the technical details of nuclear weapons have been purposely equivocating in the past (such as the Smyth Report). Other information, such as the types of fuel used in some of the early weapons, has been declassified, but precise technical information has not been.


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: Most of the current ideas of the Teller–Ulam design came into public awareness after the DOE attempted to censor a magazine article by the anti-weapons activist Howard Morland in 1979 on the "secret of the hydrogen bomb." In 1978, Morland had decided that discovering and exposing the "last remaining secret" would focus attention onto the arms race and allow citizens to feel empowered to question official statements on the importance of nuclear weapons and nuclear secrecy. Most of Morland's ideas about how the weapon worked were compiled from highly-accessible sources, the drawings that most inspired his approach came from the "Encyclopedia Americana". Morland also interviewed, often informally, many former Los Alamos scientists (including Teller and Ulam, though neither gave him any useful information), and used a variety of interpersonal strategies to encourage informational responses from them (such as by asking questions such as "Do they still use sparkplugs?" even if he was unaware what the latter term specifically referred to). (Morland 1981)


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: Morland eventually concluded that the "secret" was that the "primary" and "secondary" were kept separate and that radiation pressure from the "primary" compressed the "secondary" before igniting it. When an early draft of the article, to be published in "The Progressive" magazine, was sent to the DOE after it had fallen into the hands of a professor who was opposed to Morland's goal, the DOE requested that the article not be published and pressed for a temporary injunction. After a short court hearing in which the DOE argued that Morland's information was (1). likely derived from classified sources, (2). if not derived from classified sources, itself counted as "secret" information under the "born secret" clause of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, and (3). dangerous and would encourage nuclear proliferation, Morland and his lawyers disagreed on all points, but the injunction was granted, as the judge in the case thought that it was safer to grant the injunction and allow Morland, et al., to appeal, which they did in "United States v. The Progressive, et al." (1979).


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: Through a variety of more complicated circumstances, the DOE case began to wane, as it became clear that some of the data it attempted to claim as "secret" had been published in a students' encyclopedia a few years earlier. After another hydrogen bomb speculator, Chuck Hansen, had his own ideas about the "secret" (quite different from Morland's) published in a Wisconsin newspaper, the DOE claimed "The Progressive" case was moot, dropped its suit, and allowed the magazine to publish, which it did in November 1979. Morland had by then, however, changed his opinion of how the bomb worked to suggesting that a foam medium (the polystyrene) rather than radiation pressure was used to compress the "secondary" and that in the "secondary" was a "sparkplug" of fissile material as well. He published the changes, based in part on the proceedings of the appeals trial, as a short erratum in "The Progressive" a month later. In 1981, Morland published a book, "The secret that exploded", about his experience, describing in detail the train of thought which led him to his conclusions about the "secret."


title: History of the Teller–Ulam design

text: Because the DOE sought to censor Morland's work, one of the few times that it violated its usual approach of not acknowledging "secret" material that had been released, it is interpreted as being at least partially correct, but to what degree it lacks information or has incorrect information is not known with any great confidence. The difficulty which a number of nations had in developing the Teller–Ulam design (even when they understood the design, such as with the United Kingdom) makes it somewhat unlikely that the simple information alone is what provides the ability to manufacture thermonuclear weapons. Nevertheless, the ideas put forward by Morland in 1979 have been the basis for all current speculation on the Teller–Ulam design.


title: Earle Hyman

text: Earle Hyman (born George Earle Plummer; October 11, 1926 – November 17, 2017) was an American stage, television, and film actor. Hyman is known for his role on "ThunderCats" as the voice of Panthro and various other characters. He also appeared on "The Cosby Show" as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable. Singer Phyllis Hyman was his cousin.


title: Earle Hyman

text: Hyman was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, as George Earle Plummer according to the North Carolina Birth Index. He was of Native American ancestry. His parents, Zachariah Hyman and Maria Lilly Plummer seeking better educational opportunities, moved their family from the south to Brooklyn, New York in the late 1920s, where Hyman primarily grew up. Hyman knew at age 4 that he wanted to become an actor after performing a poem at a church play and was determined to become one after seeing a production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts"."The first play I ever saw was a present from my parents on my 13th birthday — Nazimova in "Ghosts" at Brighton Beach on the subway circuit — and I just freaked out."


title: Earle Hyman

text: He studied acting at HB Studio in New York City. He made his Broadway stage debut as a teenager in 1943 in "Run, Little Chillun", and later joined the American Negro Theater. The following year, Hyman began a two-year run playing the role of Rudolf on Broadway in "Anna Lucasta", starring Hilda Simms in the title role. He was a member of the American Shakespeare Theatre beginning with its first season in 1955, and played the role of Othello in the 1957 season.


title: Earle Hyman

text: In December 1958 he came to London to play the leading role in "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl", by Errol John, at the Royal Court.


title: Earle Hyman

text: In 1959 he again appeared in the West End, this time in the first London production of "A Raisin In the Sun" alongside Kim Hamilton. The show ran at the Adelphi Theatre and was directed again by Lloyd Richards. A life member of The Actors Studio, Hyman appeared throughout his career in productions in both the United States and Norway, where he also owned property. In 1965, he won a Theatre World Award and in 1988, he was awarded the St Olav's medal for his work in Norwegian theater.


title: Earle Hyman

text: In addition to his stage work, Hyman appeared in various television and film roles including adaptions of "Macbeth" (1968), "Julius Caesar" (1979), and "Coriolanus" (1979), and voiced Panthro on the animated television series "ThunderCats" (1985–1989). He played two roles (at different times) on television's "The Edge of Night".


title: Earle Hyman

text: One of his most well known roles, that of Russell Huxtable in "The Cosby Show", earned him an Emmy Award nomination in 1986. He played the father of lead character Cliff Huxtable, played by actor Bill Cosby, despite only being 11 years older than Cosby.


title: Earle Hyman

text: Hyman died at age 91 on November 17, 2017, at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey.


title: Earle Hyman

text: In June 2020, the Folger Shakespeare Library, a private research library in Washington D.C., acquired Hyman's personal items and memorabilia to be displayed as the Earle Hyman Collection. In personal correspondences Hyman wrote that he and Rolf Sirnes (1926–2004), a Norwegian seaman, had lived together for fifty years. Hyman described their relationship as a passionate friendship and wrote that Sirnes was his partner.


title: Earle Hyman

text: Earle Hyman learned to speak Norwegian through Sirnes, who was originally from Haugesund. In the 1990s, they lived in New York City.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The Black Angels are an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. Formed in May 2004, they took their name from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song." They have released six studio albums and one compilation album.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: In 2005, the Black Angels were featured on a dual-disc compilation album of psychedelic music called "Psychedelica Vol. 1" from Northern Star Records. This, along with the growing popularity of their MySpace page, gave the band a jump in popularity in the underground scene.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The group's debut LP, "Passover," released in 2006, was generally well received in the underground independent rock community and was noted for its dark tones and lyrical content. A review of "Passover" described them as "Walking in the shadows cast by Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce," invoking "dirges" reminiscent of the 13th Floor Elevators. "Passover" included a quote in the liner notes from Edvard Munch: ""Illness, insanity, and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life."" The band was featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 Kevin Bacon movie, "Death Sentence", on the second episode of FOX's "Fringe", and in the ninth episode of "Californication".


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: They released their second album "Directions to See a Ghost" in 2008. Songs from "Directions to See a Ghost" were also featured in The History Channel's 2009 documentary, "Manson". Their song "Young Men Dead" was featured on the March 17, 2010 episode of "UFC Primetime", "St. Pierre vs. Hardy," on Spike. "Young Men Dead" was also included on the soundtrack for the 2011 snowboard movie "The Art of Flight".


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: Festival appearances by the band during this time included Lollapalooza 2007, SXSW 2006 & 2008, and All Tomorrow's Parties 2008, among others. Touring partners included the blues rock band The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, Roky Erickson, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Queens of the Stone Age, The Raveonettes, Wolfmother, and The Horrors.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: Between October 28 and November 2, 2008, the band performed as Roky Erickson's backing band on the West Coast. The band featured on Unkle's May 2010 release, "Where Did the Night Fall", collaborating on a song called "Natural Selection."


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: On April 23–25, 2010, The Reverberation Appreciation Society and the Black Angels presented their third annual music-and-arts festival, Austin Psych Fest. Bands topping the 43-band bill included The Raveonettes, Pink Mountaintops, The Warlocks, The Gaslamp Killer, Warpaint, Night Beats, and Silver Apples.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The band's third album, "Phosphene Dream", was released on September 14, 2010. The group played the ATP New York 2010 Music Festival in Monticello, New York, in September 2010. On Record Store Day 2011 a 12" LP titled "Another Nice Pair" was released, a limited edition red LP containing the band's first two EPs. Of the total records pressed, 100 were randomly inserted with a print signed by Alex Maas, Stephanie Bailey, Christian Bland, Kyle Hunt, and Nate Ryan.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The 4th annual Austin Psych Fest ran from April 29 – May 1, 2011, and was held at the Seaholm Powerplant (the last event to be held inside the building) and featured Roky Erickson, Spectrum, Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group, Atlas Sound, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Prefuse 73 and A Place To Bury Strangers topping a lineup of 55 bands.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The band's fourth album, "Indigo Meadow", was released on April 2, 2013, and they embarked on a tour across the United States in May 2013 in support of the album.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: In February 2014, the Black Angels recorded a version of "Soul Kitchen" for "A Psych Tribute to the Doors", released by Cleopatra Records.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The 7th annual Austin Psych Fest was held during May 2–4, 2014 at Carson Creek Ranch next to the Colorado River and featured a rare Friday night performance from the legendary 1960s baroque pop band The Zombies, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre performing together on the same stage, the psychedelic folk band Quilt, the electronica duo Peaking Lights, Temples, Sleepy Sun, The War on Drugs, Loop, and an incendiary performance from Japanese drone rock band Acid Mothers Temple in which several instruments were lit on fire.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: In December 2014, the Black Angels released a split single, along with Sonic Jesus, called "Molly Moves My Generation."


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: The 8th annual Austin Psych Fest, now renamed Levitation, was held from May 8–10, 2015 at Carson Creek Ranch and featured an impressive lineup, including a rare 50th anniversary reunion of pioneering Texas psychedelic rock band The 13th Floor Elevators, The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, The Jesus and Mary Chain's 30th anniversary performance of "Psychocandy" in its entirety, Spiritualized, Primal Scream, and Earth. Melody's Echo Chamber and Rose Windows were scheduled to perform, but Rose Windows announced their breakup prior to the event and Melody's Echo Chamber had travel issues and had to cancel.


title: The Black Angels (band)

text: Besides the band's name, the Velvet Underground are also referred to in the band's logo, which incorporates a high-contrast negative image of the Velvet Underground's vocalist, Nico.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticket resale (also known as ticket scalping or ticket touting) is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of the tickets. Tickets sold through secondary sources may be sold for less or more than their face value depending on demand, which tends to vary as the event date approaches. When the supply of tickets for a given event available through authorized ticket sellers is depleted, the event is considered "sold out", generally increasing the market value for any tickets on offer through secondary sellers. Ticket resale is common in both sporting and musical events.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticket resale is a form of arbitrage that arises when the number demanded at the sale price exceeds the number supplied (that is, when event organizers charge less than the equilibrium prices for the tickets).


title: Ticket resale

text: During the 19th century, the term "scalper" was applied to railroad ticket brokers who sold tickets for lower rates.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticket re-sellers use several different means to secure premium and previously sold-out ticket inventories (potentially in large quantities) for events such as concerts or sporting events. Established re-sellers may operate within networks of ticket contacts, including season ticket holders, individual ticket re-sellers, and ticket brokers. They make a business out of getting customers hard-to-find and previously sold-out tickets that are no longer available through the official box office.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticket scalpers (or ticket touts in British English) work outside events, often showing up with unsold tickets from brokers' offices on a consignment basis or showing up without tickets and buying extra tickets from fans at or below face value on a speculative basis hoping to resell them at a profit. There are many full-time scalpers who are regulars at particular venues and may even have a pool of loyal buyers.


title: Ticket resale

text: One common concern with resale is with scam artists selling fake tickets to unsuspecting buyers. Another common practice is scalpers that sell tickets that have already been scanned at the venue gate since entry is typically allowed only when a ticket is scanned for the first time. Since the tickets were authentic, buyers do not have a way of telling if a ticket had been used or not.


title: Ticket resale

text: A concern when buying tickets on the street from a ticket scalper or via an online auction is that the tickets sold by ticket re-sellers may themselves be stolen or counterfeit. For many major sporting events, counterfeit tickets are auctioned off in the months leading up to the event. These criminals and their activities are not to be confused with legitimate ticket brokers and individuals who abide by the law to legally resell tickets on the secondary market.


title: Ticket resale

text: In 2009, Ticketmaster started adoption of a "paperless" restricted ticketing, in which tickets could not be resold. Under this system, customers prove their purchase by showing a credit card and ID. The measure was taken in response to ticket scalping and resale markup of tickets on secondary markets and adopted during Miley Cyrus (2009) World Wonder Tour, although Ticketmaster first experimented it with AC/DC's Black Ice World Tour (2008–10). Ticketmaster has since changed the name of the system to "Credit Card Entry". The system requires large groups to enter together with the person who purchased tickets. Some events have Ticket Transfer which allows the tickets to change ownership and allow for tickets to be transferred through Ticketmaster's proprietary systems. These cannot be later resold or transferred via ticket exchanges such as StubHub.


title: Ticket resale

text: Obtaining tickets through special presales has become more common. These presales often use unique codes specific to an artist's fan club or venue. The advent of presales has allowed more individuals to participate in reselling tickets outside of a brokers office.


title: Ticket resale

text: Although derivatives was a practice in use mostly in the 1980s, some ticket brokers offer tickets even before the tickets are officially available for sale. In such scenarios, those ticket re-sellers are actually selling forward contracts of those tickets. One example is a company called TicketReserve, which is making money by selling "options" on future sporting events. This is often possible if the reseller is a season ticket holder. Season ticket holders generally receive the same exact seat locations year after year thus they can enter a contract to deliver on tickets that they own the rights to, even if those tickets have not even been printed or sent to the original ticket holder.


title: Ticket resale

text: In recent years, fraudsters have started to use more complex methods by which they obtain tickets for resale on the secondary market. Similar to the technology used to snatch up rare shoes and sneakers, automated bot attacks have become a common way to acquire large numbers of tickets only to resell them for higher profits. What fraudsters will do is deploy thousands of bots from untraceable IP addresses in a brute force attack as soon as a venue or ticket seller first makes them available for sale. In 2017, one of the largest online ticket sellers Ticketmaster filed a lawsuit against Prestige Entertainment for their continued use of scalper bots despite paying $3.35 million to the New York Attorney General's Office just a year prior. Ticketmaster claimed that Prestige Entertainment was able to lock up 40% of available tickets for performances of the hit Broadway musical "Hamilton", as well as a majority of the tickets Ticketmaster had available for the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas in 2015. In an effort to curtail such behavior, Congress moved to pass the Better Online Tickets Sales Act of 2016, more commonly referred to as the BOTS act. The legislation was signed into law in December 2016 by then President Barack Obama. The BOTS act enforces several penalties and fines for parties found guilty of using bots or other technology for undermining online ticket seller systems with the hopes of selling them on the secondary ticket market.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticket brokers operate out of offices and use the internet and phone call centers to conduct their business. They are different from scalpers since they offer a consumer-facing storefront to return to if there is any problem with their transaction. The majority of transactions that occur are via credit card over the phone or internet. Some brokers host their own websites and interact directly with customers. These brokers are able to offer additional services such as hotel accommodation and airfare to events. Other brokers partner with online ticket exchanges. These sites act as marketplaces that allow users to purchase tickets from a large network of brokers. Some brokers offer advice on the best way to buy tickets starting with the box office and working with a broker if tickets aren't available through the box office.


title: Ticket resale

text: Online ticket brokering is the resale of tickets through a web-based ticket brokering service. Prices on ticket brokering websites are determined by demand, availability, and the ticket reseller. Tickets sold through an online ticket brokering service may or may not be authorized by the official seller. Generally, the majority of trading on ticket brokering websites concerns itself with tickets to live entertainment events whereby the primary officially licensed seller's supply has been exhausted and the event has been declared "sold-out". Critics of the industry compare the resale of tickets online to ‘ticket touting’, ‘scalping’ or a variety of other terms for the unofficial sale of tickets directly outside the venue of an event.


title: Ticket resale

text: The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the emergence of online ticket brokering as a lucrative business. U.S. corporate ticket reselling firm Ticketmaster developed a strong online presence and made several acquisitions to compete in the secondary markets. Securities analyst Joe Bonner, who tracks Ticketmaster's parent company New York-based IAC/InterActiveCorp, told USA Today: "You have to look at the secondary market as something that is a real threat to Ticketmaster. They missed the boat. StubHub has been around a few years now already. They weren't as proactive as they probably should have been." Ticketmaster launched fan to fan secondary ticket reselling site TicketExchange in November 2005. Ticketmaster acquired former rivals GetMeIn and TicketsNow, while eBay bought StubHub. In 2008, the Boston Red Sox chose Ace Ticket over StubHub to sell their tickets. There are also independently owned online ticket re-sellers such as viagogo and SeatMarket.


title: Ticket resale

text: For popular events with sold out tickets, re-sellers may sell the tickets at several times the face value. If re-sellers buy the tickets and the tickets are not then sold out, then they risk a loss. There may be individuals who wish to attend a popular event (and decide to sell their tickets later) and those that buy tickets in large quantities in order to resell their tickets for a profit. Some countries have restricted the unauthorized resale of tickets.


title: Ticket resale

text: According to Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch, many online ticket resellers use URLs that are similar to official box-office websites, sometimes implying via their texts or their pictures that they are official, use internet advertising to increase traffic to their website, and don't clearly state the real prices they charge for a ticket.


title: Ticket resale

text: It is controversial whether tickets are goods which can be privately resold. Typically private resale will contravene the original conditions of sale, but it's legally questionable whether the original conditions of sale are even enforceable, however, most venues declare that they have the right to refuse entry to anyone.


title: Ticket resale

text: Depending on the ticketing body's conditions of sale, tickets may be voided if they are resold for a profit. This is so with Ticketek tickets (Ticketek is an Australian-based ticketing company). Efforts to clamp down on ticket resale have included labeling tickets with the name or a photograph of the buyer, and banning people without tickets from the vicinity of the event to prevent the purchase of secondary market tickets.


title: Ticket resale

text: In Australia, the secondary ticket market has been put under much scrutiny in the past few years as ticket scalpers dominated the resale ticket market. Scalpers would purchase tickets in bulk from the promoter hoping that the tickets would sell out causing an increase in demand for tickets and thus an increase in the ticket price. This caused event promoters to put restrictions on the number of tickets that can be purchased in one transaction, which has greatly reduced unfair ticket pricing. After many complaints from the community and event promoters, the DFT (Department of Fair Trading) and CCAAC (Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council) conducted a survey discussing scalping issues and released The Ticket Scalping Issue Paper for NSW.


title: Ticket resale

text: Quebec put into law "Bill 25" in June 2012, making it illegal for ticket brokers to resell a ticket for more than the face value of the ticket without first obtaining permission from the ticket's original vendor. Brokers reselling tickets are required to inform consumers the tickets are being resold and must tell consumers the name of the ticket's original vendor and the original face value price. The penalty to violating the law includes fines of $1,000 to $2,000 for the first offense, and as much as $200,000 for repeated violations.


title: Ticket resale

text: In Ontario, re-selling the tickets above face value is prohibited by the Ticket Speculation Act and is punishable by a fine of $5,000 for an individual (including those buying the tickets above face) or $50,000 for a corporation.


title: Ticket resale

text: Effective July 1, 2015, in an effort to protect consumers from purchasing fraudulent tickets, Ontario created an exemption under the Ticket Speculation Act to:


title: Ticket resale

text: Following an announcement in 2016 that The Tragically Hip's lead singer Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the band held the Man Machine Poem Tour. Ticket re-sellers reportedly purchased two-thirds of all available tickets, to capitalize on public demand. As a result, in 2017, Ontario announced legislation to attempt to crack down on scalper bots.


title: Ticket resale

text: In the Republic of Ireland, there are at present no laws against ticket touting, and it is common at online outlets such as Premiertickets.ie or Needaticket.ie. In 2011, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, declined to pass a law against touting, saying it would just drive re-sellers to websites based abroad. Ticketmaster, Ireland's main ticket seller, runs a service called Seatwave which resells tickets, some at wildly inflated prices. However, selling tickets in a public place (e.g. outside a venue) is illegal under the Casual Trading Act, 1995 — in 2015 , an official of the Polish Football Association, spent the night in a cell after being arrested for selling tickets outside an Ireland–Poland football match.


title: Ticket resale

text: In Israel, in 2002, The Knesset put into effect the 67th amendment to the Israeli Penal Code, enacting Section 194a, which outlaws ticket scalping. The new section states that unlicensed persons reselling tickets at above face value will be subject to fines. The new addition to the penal code enabled police to fight the ticket scalping of sports and music events (especially those scalpers that bought massive numbers of tickets for the sole purpose of resale), which were causing much distress to the public and enabled scalpers to evade paying taxes, but since no law strictly outlawed the practice, could not be legally fought prior to the new law.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticket resale by scalpers above face value is legal in Sweden regardless of limitations imposed by event organizer.


title: Ticket resale

text: In the United Kingdom resale of football tickets is illegal under section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 unless the resale is authorized by the organizer of the match. Secondary ticketing market StubHub have signed partnership agreements with Sunderland and Everton for 2012/13 season, whilst competitor Viagogo hold partnerships with Chelsea and other clubs.


title: Ticket resale

text: Other than in the case of football tickets, there is no legal restriction against reselling tickets in the UK, although individual organisations (like Wimbledon) may prohibit it.


title: Ticket resale

text: In July 2016, several prominent music managers in the UK including Ian McAndrew, Harry Magee, Brian Message and Adam Tudhope came together to fund a new initiative called the FanFair Alliance, to work towards tackling the issue of 'industrial-scale online ticket touting'.


title: Ticket resale

text: In the United States, ticket resale is a $5 billion industry. Ticket resale on the premises of the event (including adjacent parking lots that are officially part of the facility) may be prohibited by law. These laws vary from state to state, and the majority of US states do not have laws in place to limit the value placed on the resale amount of event tickets or where and how these tickets should be sold. Ticket re-sellers may conduct business on nearby sidewalks, or advertise through newspaper ads or ticket brokers.


title: Ticket resale

text: Some US states and venues encourage a designated area for re-sellers to stand in, on, or near the premises, while other states and venues prohibit ticket resale altogether. Resale laws, policies, and practices are generally decided, practiced and governed at the local or even venue level in the US and such laws and or interpretations are not currently generalized at a national level.


title: Ticket resale

text: Another issue in the US is that since ticketing laws vary by state, many ticket re-sellers use a loophole and sell their tickets outside of the state of an event.


title: Ticket resale

text: Some promoters have ceased selling tickets in the traditional first-come-first-served manner, and require prospective ticket holders to enter a "ballot" — a competition with random winners — with the prize being the opportunity to purchase a small number of tickets. The ballots are intended to discourage re-selling by making it harder to purchase large numbers of tickets because being at the front of the queue does not guarantee the holder a ticket.


title: Ticket resale

text: Events that have sold tickets by ballot include the Big Day Out in 2007, the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert - Led Zeppelin reunion concert at The O Arena in 2007 - and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.


title: Ticket resale

text: A similar practice used among ticket re-sellers is to list an item as an online auction (such as eBay) - most commonly an innocuous item such as a collector's card - and give the tickets as a bonus to the winning bidder; thereby not actually selling tickets in order to circumvent ticket laws. This does not actually get around eBay's selling rules, as they effectively state that the goods that the buyer receives are what the seller is selling, including any free bonuses.


title: Ticket resale

text: Ticketmaster sells tickets in online auctions, which may bring the sale price of tickets closer to market prices. "The New York Times" reported that this could help the agency determine demand for a given event and more effectively compete with ticket re-sellers.


title: Ticket resale

text: Online auction sites like eBay only enforce state ticketing laws if either the buyer and/or seller resides in the state where the event is taking place. Otherwise, there is no resale limit for tickets.


title: Ticket resale

text: Glastonbury Festival, which sold out 137,500 tickets within less than two hours in 2007, introduced a system in the same year whereby tickets included photographic ID of the original buyer, to enforce non-exchangeability.


title: Ticket resale

text: For taping of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report", tickets were free. However, identification of ticket holders is checked when entering and while standing in line, and most notably when progressing from the entrance queue into the studio space. These measures serve effectively as a means of preventing those reserving these sought-after tickets from selling them for a cash value upon reservation.


title: Ticket resale

text: Some ticket sellers allow buyers to provide personal information in exchange for being allowed to buy tickets earlier.


title: Ticket resale

text: Though scalping is most commonly associated with ticket sales, the process of buying desirable commodities and selling them off for a higher rate has proven lucrative with other items, particularly electronic devices such as mobile phones, video game consoles, and computer hardware. In some cases, internet resellers have developed automated bots to purchase bulk quantities of newly-released items on e-commerce websites as soon as they become available. Customers have argued that this generates an unfair advantage for the scalpers, adding to an already controversial practice, and many sites have begun implementing anti-bot measures to combat such tactics.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Blank is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Behzad Khambata. The film stars Sunny Deol, Karan Kapadia, Karanvir Sharma and Ishita Dutta. It was jointly produced by Shrikant Bhasi, Nishant Pitti, & Pictures, Tony D'Souza, and Vishal Rana. The film follows a terrorist who plans to bomb Mumbai along with his compatriots. After meeting with an accident, he loses memory of his mission, but an investigating officer refuses to take his word for it, and plans to kill him in an encounter.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: "Blank" was Khambata's directorial debut, and was also Kapadia's acting debut. The principal photography for the film began in September 2018. The soundtrack was composed by Raghav Sachar, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, and Sonal Pradhaan, with lyrics written by Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Adeip Singh, Kumaar and Sonal Pradhaan, and released under the banner Zee Music Company. The film was theatrically released in India on 3 May 2019. "Blank" received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics, and has grossed over 12.15 crore in worldwide.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Hanif (Karan Kapadia), a member of the terrorist organisation Tehreer Al-Hind, arrives in Mumbai with his team to execute 24 bomb blasts, each by a terrorist. On the day of the attack, he is injured in a road accident and taken to the hospital. Upon realizing that a time bomb is attached to his body, the hospital staff notify SS Dewan (Sunny Deol), a member of the Anti-Terrorism Squad. The doctors find it impossible to remove the bomb from Hanif's body as it is connected directly to his heart.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Hanif regains consciousness but has developed retrograde amnesia following the accident. However, Dewan refuses to trust him and believes he is lying. Meanwhile, Husna (Ishita Dutta) and Rohit (Karanvir Sharma), Dewan's subordinates, arrest another terrorist named Farukh. Aruna Gupta, Dewan's superior, orders him to kill Hanif as the information they need can be obtained from Farukh. Dewan, accompanied by a squad, takes Hanif to an isolated place to kill him in an encounter.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Husna, who has recovered the bomb's blueprint from Hanif's house, realizes that Hanif's death will trigger the explosion of the other 24 bombs. When Hanif is about to be killed, a gang of terrorists attack the officers. The former escape following a car chase and take Hanif to a secret basement. Hanif meets Maqsood (Jameel Khan), his leader, who tells him that he his parents were murdered in communal riots. Dewan and his squad capture Hanif again and kills all other terrorists, including Maqsood. Hanif escapes.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: It is revealed that Husna was the mole in Dewan's squad who helped Hanif escape. Hanif and Husna are revealed to be siblings whose parents were murdered by Maqsood years ago in a communal riot. Hanif removes his chest bomb and throws it into a compartment on a train that housed all the suicide bombers, killing them. Hanif reveals to Dewan via phone that he had no memory loss and behaved so to use Dewan and kill Maqsood, who had killed his parents and turned him into a terrorist. Hanif hangs up and destroys the phone, and Dewan promises to catch Hanif and Husna for their betrayal.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: In September 2018, Behzad Khambata announced his directorial debut via a post on Facebook. The film was to be titled "Blank" and would star Sunny Deol and Karan Kapadia. Principal photography began shortly after the announcement. "Blank" is also the film debut of Kapadia, who is the nephew of actress Dimple Kapadia. Akshay Kumar, who is Kapadia's brother-in-law, features in a cameo appearance for a song. While filming a sequence that required Kapadia to be handcuffed, the keys to the cuffs were lost and Kapadia had to remain in the position for two hours.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: The film's soundtrack was composed by Raghav Sachar, Arko Pravo Mukherjee and Sonal Pradhaan, with lyrics written by Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Adeip Singh, Kumaar and Sonal Pradhaan, and released under the banner Zee Music Company.


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: In September 2018, a press release stated that "Blank" would be released in India on 11 January 2019. The release was then indefinitely postponed, and in March 2019, the release was announced to be on 3 May that year. According to the producer Vishal Rana, the release was first postponed as other films with similar themes as "" were to release around the same time. On 1 April, two teaser posters were released online. The film's trailer was released on 3 April 2019. "The Times of India" wrote, "This jaw-dropping trailer is nothing but one ride that will give an ample of adrenaline rush". Similarly, "The Indian Express" opined, "The crisply cut and edited trailer is high on action, thrill and some heavy dose of dialogues".


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Shortly before the film's release, Deol joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Rana maintained that the film was not being released in that time period for any political motive or to gain any publicity, and stated that it was a coincidence. Five days prior to its release, the film was selectively screened at locations across India for test audiences. Kapadia visited one such screening in Delhi for promoting the film. "Blank" was theatrically released in India on 3 May 2019. Other than "Blank", the only other Hindi release that day was the crime thriller "Setters".


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: "Blank" received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Devesh Sharma of "Filmfare" states, "Given its premise, the film had the potential to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller, if only the writing and execution could have been better". He criticised almost all aspects of production, but felt the "only redeeming aspect [was] the action". Writing for "The Hindu", Namrata Joshi opines, "Blank eventually doesn't rise above being a stilted "bad Muslim" narrative. It's yet another film that plays on Islamophobia and it does say a lot that it comes with the backing of the BJP candidate from Gurdaspur... and the Canadian journalist specialising in doing non-political interviews[.]" Devansh Sharma of "Firstpost" gave it two and a quarter stars out of five and felt the film had a "promising start", "[b]ut by the time the close-to-two-hour-long film ends, the urgency gives way to convolution". However, he felt Kapadia "proves to be an immensely watchable leading man, because of his unconventional intensity and the organic ability to pull off action sequences".


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Writing for Film Companion, Anupama Chopra appreciated the film's element of surprise but bemoaned the lack of a strong script for "an inherently intriguing idea", stating, "[E]ach time the suspense builds, the logic-free plot deflates it". She felt Kapadia's performance was restricted to being "poker-faced as the character demands but equally ferocious", while commenting that Deol's sequences "are the best part of the film". In a more negative review for Film Companion, Rahul Desai wrote, "Soapy craft and writing aside, the problem lies in the film's facile politics. Given its release in the midst of the country's Lok Sabha Elections, it's not surprising to see a star in service of a statement". Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it two and a half stars out of five, but approached the film more positively, writing, "Blank is well directed and performed and is based on the relatable events of terrorism. Sunny Deol's fans will love him in an action packed role after a long time". Priyanka Sinha Jha of News18 gave the same rating but wrote, "Despite Sunny Deol's presence, the film fails to pack in a punch".


title: Blank (2019 film)

text: Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film two stars out of five, writing, "All the spiffiness, sadly, stays on the surface, leaving Blank groping for purpose", and added, "The film is let down by a storyline that strains credulity". Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" rated it one and a half stars out of five and felt it "emphasizes its over-used thrust - Islamic ‘aatankwaad' threatening the unity and integrity of ‘akhand’ Bharat"; Gupta felt Kapadia performed well in the action sequences "but will need to work hard on emoting", while Deol was at his usual. Raja Sen of "Hindustan Times" wrote, "All the bad guys in this film have beards. Sunny Deol does not. He is a good guy, and therefore shortchanged in the facial hair department... Yep, this is that kind of film". Writing for "The Times of India", Rachit Gupta concurred, "The movie has flashes of promise but just as many, if not more, moments of amateur execution", and felt Khambata's "inexperience shows in many portions where the filmmaker's choices aren't top-notch".


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The Battle of Nanking (or Nanjing) was fought in early December 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army for control of Nanking (Nanjing), the capital of the Republic of China.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Following the outbreak of war between Japan and China in July 1937, the Japanese government at first attempted to contain the fighting and sought a negotiated settlement to the war. However, after victory in the Battle of Shanghai expansionists prevailed within the Japanese military and on December 1 a campaign to capture Nanking was officially authorized. The task of occupying Nanking was given to General Iwane Matsui, the commander of Japan's Central China Area Army, who believed that the capture of Nanking would force China to surrender and thus end the war. Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek ultimately decided to defend the city and appointed Tang Shengzhi to command the Nanking Garrison Force, a hastily assembled army of local conscripts and the remnants of the Chinese units who had fought in Shanghai.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Japanese soldiers marched from Shanghai to Nanking at a breakneck pace, rapidly defeating pockets of Chinese resistance. By December 9 they had reached the last line of defense, the Fukuo Line, behind which lay Nanking's fortified walls. On December 10 Matsui ordered an all-out attack on Nanking, and after less than two days of intense fighting Chiang decided to abandon the city. Before fleeing, Tang ordered his men to launch a concerted breakout of the Japanese siege, but by this time Nanking was largely surrounded and its defenses were at the breaking point. Most of Tang's units simply collapsed, their soldiers often casting off their weapons and uniforms in the streets in the hopes of hiding among the city's civilian population.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Following the capture of the city Japanese soldiers massacred Chinese prisoners of war, murdered civilians, and committed acts of looting and rape in an event known as the Nanking Massacre. Though Japan's military victory excited and emboldened them, the subsequent massacre tarnished their reputation in the eyes of the world. Contrary to Matsui's expectations, China did not surrender and the Second Sino-Japanese War continued for another eight years.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The conflict which would become known as the Second Sino-Japanese War started on July 7, 1937, with a skirmish at Marco Polo Bridge which escalated rapidly into a full-scale war in northern China between the armies of China and Japan. China, however, wanted to avoid a decisive confrontation in the north and so instead opened a second front by attacking Japanese units in Shanghai in central China. The Japanese responded by dispatching the Shanghai Expeditionary Army (SEA), commanded by General Iwane Matsui, to drive the Chinese Army from Shanghai. Intense fighting in Shanghai forced Japan's Army General Staff, which was in charge of military operations, to repeatedly reinforce the SEA, and finally on November 9 an entirely new army, the 10th Army commanded by Lieutenant General Heisuke Yanagawa, was also landed at Hangzhou Bay just south of Shanghai.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Although the arrival of the 10th Army succeeded at forcing the Chinese Army to retreat from Shanghai, the Japanese Army General Staff had decided to adopt a policy of non-expansion of hostilities with the aim of ending the war. On November 7 its "de facto" leader Deputy Chief of Staff Hayao Tada laid down an "operation restriction line" preventing its forces from leaving the vicinity of Shanghai, or more specifically from going west of the Chinese cities of Suzhou and Jiaxing. The city of Nanking is 300 kilometers (186 miles) west of Shanghai.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: However, a major rift of opinion existed between the Japanese government and its two field armies, the SEA and 10th Army, which as of November were both nominally under the control of the Central China Area Army led by SEA commander Matsui. Matsui made clear to his superiors even before he left for Shanghai that he wanted to march on Nanking. He was convinced that the conquest of the Chinese capital city of Nanking would provoke the fall of the entire Nationalist Government of China and thus hand Japan a quick and complete victory in its war on China. Yanagawa was likewise eager to conquer Nanking and both men chafed under the operation restriction line that had been imposed on them by the Army General Staff.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: On November 19 Yanagawa ordered his 10th Army to pursue retreating Chinese forces across the operation restriction line to Nanking, a flagrant act of insubordination. When Tada discovered this the next day he ordered Yanagawa to stop immediately, but was ignored. Matsui made some effort to restrain Yanagawa, but also told him that he could send some advance units beyond the line. In fact, Matsui was highly sympathetic with Yanagawa's actions and a few days later on November 22 Matsui issued an urgent telegram to the Army General Staff insisting that "To resolve this crisis in a prompt manner we need to take advantage of the enemy's present declining fortunes and conquer Nanking ... By staying behind the operation restriction line at this point we are not only letting our chance to advance slip by, but it is also having the effect of encouraging the enemy to replenish their fighting strength and recover their fighting spirit and there is a risk that it will become harder to completely break their will to make war."


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Meanwhile, as more and more Japanese units continued to slip past the operation restriction line, Tada was also coming under pressure from within the Army General Staff. Many of Tada's colleagues and subordinates, including the powerful Chief of the General Staff Operations Division Sadamu Shimomura, had come around to Matsui's viewpoint and wanted Tada to approve an attack on Nanking. On November 24 Tada finally relented and abolished the operation restriction line "owing to circumstances beyond our control", and then several days later he reluctantly approved the operation to capture Nanking. Tada flew to Shanghai in person on December 1 to deliver the order, though by then his own armies in the field were already well on their way to Nanking.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: On November 15, near the end of the Battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek convened a meeting of the Military Affairs Commission's Supreme National Defense Council to undertake strategic planning, including a decision on what to do in case of a Japanese attack on Nanking. Here Chiang insisted fervently on mounting a sustained defense of Nanking. Chiang argued, just as he had during the Battle of Shanghai, that China would be more likely to receive aid from the great powers, possibly at the ongoing Nine Power Treaty Conference, if it could prove on the battlefield its will and capacity to resist the Japanese. He also noted that holding onto Nanking would strengthen China's hand in peace talks which he wanted the German ambassador Oskar Trautmann to mediate.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Chiang ran into stiff opposition from his officers, including the powerful Chief of Staff of the Military Affairs Commission He Yingqin, the Deputy Chief of Staff Bai Chongxi, the head of the Fifth War Zone Li Zongren, and his German advisor Alexander von Falkenhausen. They argued that the Chinese Army needed more time to recover from its losses at Shanghai, and pointed out that Nanking was highly indefensible topographically. The mostly gently sloping terrain in front of Nanking would make it easy for the attackers to advance on the city, while the Yangtze River behind Nanking would cut off the defenders' retreat.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Chiang, however, had become increasingly agitated over the course of the Battle of Shanghai, even angrily declaring that he would stay behind in Nanking alone and command its defense personally. But just when Chiang believed himself completely isolated, General Tang Shengzhi, an ambitious senior member of the Military Affairs Commission, spoke out in defense of Chiang's position, although accounts vary on whether Tang vociferously jumped to Chiang's aid or only reluctantly did so. Seizing the opportunity Tang had given him, Chiang responded by organizing the Nanking Garrison Force on November 20 and officially making Tang its commander on November 25. The orders Tang received from Chiang on November 30 were to "defend the established defense lines at any cost and destroy the enemy’s besieging force".


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Though both men publicly declared that they would defend Nanking "to the last man", they were aware of their precarious situation. On the same day that the Garrison Force was established Chiang officially moved the capital of China from Nanking to Chongqing deep in China's interior. Further, both Chiang and Tang would at times give contradictory instructions to their subordinates on whether their mission was to defend Nanking to the death or merely delay the Japanese advance.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Following the Manchurian Incident of 1931, the Chinese government began a fast track national defense program with massive construction of primary and auxiliary air force bases around the capital of Nanking including Jurong Airbase, completed in 1934, from which to facilitate aerial defense as well as launching counter-strikes against enemy incursions; on 15 August 1937 the IJN launched the first of many heavy "schnellbomber" (fast bomber) raids against Jurong Airbase using the advanced G3Ms based upon Giulio Douhet's blitz-attack concept in an attempt to neutralize the Chinese Air Force fighters guarding the capital city, but was severely repulsed by the unexpected heavy resistance and performance of the Chinese fighter pilots stationed at Jurong, and suffering almost 50% loss rate.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: On November 20 the Chinese Army and teams of conscripted laborers began to hurriedly bolster Nanking's defenses both inside and outside the city. Nanking itself was surrounded by formidable stone walls stretching almost fifty kilometers (31 miles) around the entire city. The walls, which had been constructed hundreds of years earlier during the Ming Dynasty, rose up to twenty meters (65 feet) in height, were nine meters (30 feet) thick, and had been studded with machine gun emplacements. By December 6 all the gates into the city had been closed and then barricaded with an additional layer of sandbags and concrete six meters (20 feet) thick.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Outside the walls a series of semicircular defense lines were constructed in the path of the Japanese advance, most notably an outer one about sixteen kilometers (10 miles) from the city and an inner one directly outside the city known as the Fukuo Line, or multiple positions line. The Fukuo Line, a sprawling network of trenches, moats, barbed wire, mine fields, gun emplacements, and pillboxes, was to be the final defense line outside Nanking's city walls. There were also two key high points of land on the Fukuo Line, the peaks of Zijinshan to the northeast and the plateau of Yuhuatai to the south, where fortification was especially dense. In order to deny the Japanese invaders any shelter or supplies in this area, Tang adopted a strategy of scorched earth on December 7, ordering all homes and structures in the path of the Japanese within one to two kilometers (1.2 miles) of the city to be incinerated, as well as all homes and structures near roadways within sixteen kilometers (10 miles) of the city.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The defending army, the Nanking Garrison Force, was on paper a formidable army of thirteen divisions, including three elite German-trained divisions plus the super-elite Training Brigade, but in reality most of these units had trickled back to Nanking severely mauled from the fighting in Shanghai. By the time they reached Nanking they were physically exhausted, low on equipment, and badly depleted in total troop strength. In order to replenish some of these units, 16,000 young men and teenagers from Nanking and the rural villages surrounding it were speedily pressed into service as new recruits. An additional 14,000 fresh soldiers were brought in from Hankou to fill the ranks of the 2nd Army. However, due to the unexpected rapidity of the Japanese advance, most of the new conscripts received only rudimentary training on how to fire their guns on their way to or upon their arrival at the frontlines. No definitive statistics exist on how many soldiers the Nanking Garrison Force had managed to cobble together by the time of the battle, but among leading estimates are those of David Askew who says 73,790 to 81,500, those of Ikuhiko Hata who estimates 100,000, and those of Tokushi Kasahara who argues in favor of about 150,000.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: But during this period Japan's Navy Air Service was launching frequent air raids on the city, eventually totaling 50 raids according to the Navy's own records. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service had struck Nanking for the first time on August 15 with Mitsubishi G3M medium-heavy bombers, but suffered heavy losses in face of the aerial defense from Chinese Air Force Boeing P-26/281 Peashooter and Hawk II/Hawk III fighters based primarily at Jurong Airbase for the defense of Nanking. It wasn't until after the introduction of the advanced Mitsubishi A5M fighter did the Japanese begin to turn the tide in air-to-air combat, and proceed with bombing both military and civilian targets day and night with increasing impunity as the Chinese Air Force losses mounted through continuous attrition; the Chinese did not have the aircraft industry nor comprehensive training regimen to replace men and machines to contend against the ever-growing and ever-improving Japanese war machine. However, experienced veteran fighter pilots of the Chinese Air Force still proved a most dangerous adversary against Japanese air power; combat aces Col. Gao Zhihang, Maj. John Wong Pan-yang and whom were outnumbered by the superior A5Ms entering Nanking on October 12, famously shot down four A5M fighters that day including a double-kill by Col. Gao that included Shotai leader W.O. Torakuma. Tragically both Col. Gao and Capt. Liu were lost due to non-aerial combat incidents by the following month as they were preparing to receive improved fighter aircraft design in the Polikarpov I-16s. In the face of Japanese terror bombing and the ongoing advance of the Imperial Japanese Army, the large majority of Nanking's citizens fled the city, which by early December Nanking's population had dropped from its former total of more than one million to less than 500,000, a figure which included Chinese refugees from rural villages burned down by their own government's scorched earth policies. Most of those still in the city were very poor and had nowhere else to go. Foreign residents of Nanking were also repeatedly asked to leave the city which was becoming more and more chaotic under the strain of bombings, fires, looting by criminals, and electrical outages, but those few foreigners brave enough to stay behind strived to find a way to help the Chinese civilians who had been unable to leave. In late-November a group of them led by German citizen John Rabe established the Nanking Safety Zone in the center of the city, a self-proclaimed demilitarized zone where civilian refugees could congregate in order to hopefully escape the fighting. The safety zone was recognized by the Chinese government, and on December 8 Tang Shengzhi demanded that all civilians evacuate there.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Among those Chinese who did manage to escape Nanking were Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling, who had flown out of Nanking on a private plane just before the crack of dawn on December 7. The mayor of Nanking and most of the municipal government left the same day, entrusting management of the city to the Nanking Garrison Force.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: By the start of December, Japan's Central China Area Army had swollen in strength to over 160,000 men, though only about 50,000 of these would ultimately participate in the fighting. The plan of attack against Nanking was a pincer movement which the Japanese called "encirclement and annihilation". The two prongs of the Central China Area Army's pincer were the Shanghai Expeditionary Army (SEA) advancing on Nanking from its eastern side and the 10th Army advancing from its southern side. To the north and west of Nanking lay the Yangtze River, but the Japanese planned to plug this possible escape route as well both by dispatching a squadron of ships up the river and by deploying two special detachments to circle around behind the city. The Kunisaki Detachment was to cross the Yangtze in the south with the ultimate aim of occupying Pukou on the river bank west of Nanking while the Yamada Detachment was to be sent on the far north route with the ultimate aim of taking Mufushan just north of Nanking.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: General Matsui, along with the Army General Staff, envisaged making a slow and steady march on Nanking, but his subordinates refused to play along and instead raced eagerly with each other to be the first to get to the city. Soon all units were roaring to Nanking at the breakneck pace of up to forty kilometers (25 miles) per day. For instance, the 10th Army captured the key town of Guangde on November 30 three days before it was even supposed to start its planned advance, and the SEA captured Danyang on December 2 more than five days ahead of schedule. In order to achieve such speeds, the Japanese soldiers carried little with them except weaponry and ammunition. Because they were marching well ahead of most of their supply lines they had to purchase or loot their food from Chinese civilians along the way.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: During their advance the Japanese overcame initially light resistance from the already battered Chinese forces who were being pursued by the Japanese from Shanghai in a "running battle". Here the Japanese were aided by their complete air supremacy, their abundance of tanks, the improvised and hastily constructed nature of the Chinese defenses, and also by the Chinese strategy of concentrating their defending forces on small patches of relatively high ground which made them easy to outflank and surround.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: On December 5, Chiang Kai-shek paid a visit to a defensive encampment near Jurong to boost the morale of his men but was forced to retreat when the Imperial Japanese Army began their attack on the battlefield. On that day the rapidly moving forward contingents of the SEA occupied Jurong and then arrived at Chunhuazhen, a key point of Nanking's outer line of defense which would put Japanese artillery in range of the city. Here China's 51st Division flung its main force into the fighting and repeatedly repulsed Japanese attacks before cracking on December 8 when the main force of the SEA arrived. The SEA also took the fortress at Zhenjiang and the spa town of Tangshuizhen on that day. Meanwhile, on the south side of the same defense line, armored vehicles of Japan's 10th Army charged the Chinese position at Jiangjunshan and Niushoushan defended by China's 58th Division. Valiant Chinese soldiers armed with hammers jumped onto the vehicles and banged repeatedly on their roofs shouting "Get out of there!", but after darkness fell on the battlefield the 58th Division was finally overwhelmed on December 9 after suffering, according to its own records, 800 casualties.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: By December 9 Japan's forces had reached Nanking's last line of defense, the daunting Fukuo Line. At this point General Matsui had a "summons to surrender" drawn up which implored the Chinese to send military envoys to Nanking's Zhongshan Gate to discuss terms for the peaceful occupation of the city, and he then had a Mitsubishi Ki-21 scatter thousands of copies of the message over the city. On December 10 a group of Matsui's senior staff officers waited to see if the gate would be opened, but Tang Shengzhi had no intention of responding.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Later that day Tang proclaimed to his men that, "Our army has entered into the final battle to defend Nanking on the Fukuo Line. Each unit shall firmly defend its post with the resolve to either live or die with it. You're not allowed to retreat on your own, causing defense to collapse." The American journalist F. Tillman Durdin, who was reporting on site during the battle, saw one small group of Chinese soldiers set up a barricade, assemble in a solemn semicircle, and promise each other that they would die together where they stood.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: At 1:00 pm on December 10, General Matsui ordered all units to launch a full-scale attack on Nanking. That day the SEA assaulted China's super-elite Training Brigade on the peaks of Zijinshan, which dominate Nanking's northeast horizon. Clambering up the ridges of the mountain, the men of the SEA had to painstakingly wrest control of each Chinese encampment one by one in bloody infantry charges. Advancing along the south side of Zijinshan was no easier as General Matsui had forbidden his men from using artillery there due to his deep conviction that no damage should come to its two famous historical sites, Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Also on Nanking's eastern side but further south, other units of the SEA faced the difficult task of fording the large moat standing between them and three of the city gates, Zhongshan Gate, Guanghua Gate, and Tongji Gate, though the speed of Japan's earlier advance played in their favor as key Chinese units slated to be deployed here were not yet in position. That evening, Japanese engineers and artillerymen closing in on Guanghua Gate managed to blow a hole in the wall. A Japanese battalion launched a daring attack through the gap and planted a Japanese flag on a portion of the gate, but was immediately pinned down by a series of determined Chinese counterattacks. The Chinese brought up reinforcements, including tanks, and they poured down grenades and even flaming, gasoline-soaked lumber onto the Japanese battalion, which was only saved from annihilation by timely bursts of concentrated artillery fire from the rest of their division. The battalion succeeded in holding its position for the rest of the battle despite losing eighty of its eighty-eight men.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: At the same time Japan's 10th Army was storming Yuhuatai, a rugged plateau situated directly in front of Zhonghua Gate on Nanking's southern side. The 10th Army's progress was slow and casualties were heavy as Yuhuatai was built like a fortress of interlocking pillboxes and trenches manned by three Chinese divisions, including the German-trained 88th Division, though the Chinese were also apt to counterattack and some Japanese units were forced to spend more time defending than attacking. Close to every single man that the 88th Division had deployed on Yuhuatai was killed in action, including three of its four regimental commanders and both of its brigade commanders, but in the process the Japanese were made to suffer 2,240 casualties including 566 dead. Yuhuatai was finally overrun at noon on December 12.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Behind Yuhuatai the 88th Division had stationed its barely trained new recruits atop Nanking's Zhonghua Gate. The Japanese had already tried the previous night to infiltrate a "suicide squadron" bearing explosive picric acid up to this gate to blow a hole in it, but it got lost in the morning fog and failed to reach the wall. At noon on December 12 a team of just six Japanese soldiers made it across the moat in a small boat and succeeded in scaling the wall at Zhonghua Gate on a shaky bamboo ladder and raising the Japanese flag there. Five of them were killed by gunfire but the last man grabbed a Chinese machine gun and held the position singlehandedly. Soon after another Japanese team set a fire in front of the gate to create a smokescreen. By 5:00 pm more and more Japanese troops were crossing the moat and swarming Zhonghua Gate by fording makeshift bridges so rickety their engineers had to hold them aloft with their own bodies, and with the help of some well aimed Japanese artillery fire from atop Yuhuatai parts of the wall finally crumbled. Meanwhile, just west of Zhonghua Gate, other soldiers also of Japan's 10th Army had punched a hole through Chinese lines in the wetlands south of Shuixi Gate and were launching a violent drive on that gate with the support of a fleet of tanks.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: At the height of the battle Tang Shengzhi complained to Chiang that, "Our casualties are naturally heavy and we are fighting against metal with merely flesh and blood", but what the Chinese lacked in equipment they made up for in the sheer ferocity with which they fought, though this was partially due to strict orders that no man or unit was to retreat one step without permission. Over the course of the battle roughly 1,000 Chinese soldiers were shot dead by other members of their own army for attempting to retreat, and on Yuhuatai Japanese soldiers noticed that many Chinese pillboxes were chained from the outside to prevent their occupants from fleeing.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Nonetheless, the Japanese were gaining the upper hand over the hard-pressed and surrounded Chinese defenders. On December 12 the SEA captured Peak #2 of Zijinshan and from this vantage point unleashed a torrent of artillery fire at Zhongshan Gate where a large portion of the wall suddenly gave way. After sunset the fires that blazed out of control on Zijinshan were visible even from Zhonghua Gate in the south which was completely occupied by Japan's 10th Army on the night of December 12 to 13.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Unbeknownst to the Japanese however, Chiang had already ordered Tang to abandon the defense. In spite of his earlier talk about holding out in Nanking to the bitter end, Chiang telegraphed an order to Tang on December 11 to abandon the city. Tang prepared to do so the next day on December 12, but startled by Japan's intensified onslaught he made a frantic last-minute bid to conclude a temporary ceasefire with the Japanese through German citizens John Rabe and Eduard Sperling. Only when it became clear that the negotiations could not be completed in time did Tang finally finish drawing up a plan calling for all his units to launch a coordinated breakout of the Japanese encirclement. They were to commence the breakout under cover of darkness at 11:00 pm that night and then muster in Anhui. Just after 5:00 pm on December 12 Tang arranged for this plan to be transmitted to all units, and then he crossed the Yangtze River, escaping through the city of Pukou on the opposite bank of the river less than twenty-four hours before it was occupied by Japan's Kunisaki Detachment.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: By the time Tang slipped out of the city, however, the entire Nanking Garrison Force was rapidly disintegrating with some units in open flight. Furthermore, contact had already been lost with many units who thus never received Tang's message and continued to hold their positions as ordered, though even those that did receive it had little luck at slipping through the Japanese lines. China's 66th and 83rd Corps made a bid to evade the Japanese as planned through a gap to the east but immediately ran into their own minefield. After that they were attacked in flight by Japanese units and lost two divisional chiefs of staff in combat. Though the two corps had started the battle at least 11,000 men strong, only 600 of them escaped Nanking. Near dawn on December 13 a portion of China's 74th Corps was also annihilated in a bid to break through Japanese lines along the Yangtze River south of Nanking.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: One of the few units that did manage to get out of Nanking was China's 2nd Army led by Xu Yuanquan situated just north of Nanking. Though Xu never received Tang's order to abandon the defense, on the night of December 12 he had heard that Nanking had been captured and so decided to withdraw on his own accord. During the night he managed to evacuate most of his unit across the Yangtze River just before Japanese naval units blockaded the river.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: By contrast, a massive crowd of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians from the south side of Nanking, who were fleeing in panic and disarray from the advance of Japan's 10th Army on the same night, were prevented from reaching the harbor at Xiaguan by Chinese barrier troops who fired on the crowd for retreating without permission and managed to hold it back. At 9:00 pm a fleeing Chinese tank unit, which had also not received Tang's parting message, charged the barrier troops and burst through their blockade, only for the crowd to then find that there were hardly any boats remaining in the harbor. The crowd fought to clamber aboard what few craft were available, but these soon became so overloaded that they sank midway. The rest of the Chinese soldiers took to the Yangtze's rough and frigid waters en masse while clinging to logs and pieces of scrap lumber, though most were quickly swallowed up by the river. Furthermore, by this point the Japanese encirclement of Nanking was virtually complete and many who were attempting to brave the Yangtze soon found themselves being fired upon from both sides of the river. Others who saw this turned back to the city in despair.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Many of these tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers who could not escape the city responded by casting off their uniforms and weaponry, switching to civilian clothes often by stealing them from passersby, and then desperately seeking sanctuary in the Nanking Safety Zone by mingling with civilians. The American journalist F. Tillman Durdin "witnessed the wholesale undressing of an army that was almost comic". "Arms were discarded along with uniforms, and the streets became covered with guns, grenades, swords, knapsacks, coats, shoes and helmets ... In front of the Ministry of Communications and for two blocks further on, trucks, artillery, busses, staff cars, wagons, machine-guns, and small arms became piled up as in a junk yard."


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The fighting in Nanking did not end entirely on the night of December 12–13 when the Japanese Army took the remaining gates and entered the city. During their mopping-up operations in the city the Japanese continued for several more days to beat back sporadic resistance from Chinese stragglers. Though Mufushan, just north of Nanking, was taken by Japan's Yamada Detachment without much bloodshed on the morning of December 14, pockets of resistance outside Nanking persisted for several more days.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Meanwhile, the Japanese units on mopping-up duty in Nanking had decided that the former Chinese soldiers hiding in the city were a possible security risk and therefore carried out a thorough search of every building in Nanking and made frequent incursions into the Nanking Safety Zone in search of them. Japanese units attempted to distinguish former soldiers from civilians by checking if they had marks on their shoulders from wearing a backpack or carrying a rifle. However, the criteria used were often arbitrary as was the case with one Japanese company which apprehended all men with "shoe sores, callouses on the face, extremely good posture, and/or sharp-looking eyes" and for this reason many civilians were taken at the same time. What happened to the Chinese soldiers and civilians who were captured varied greatly from unit to unit, though many were summarily executed in an event that came to be known as the Nanking Massacre, which the foreign residents and journalists in Nanking made known internationally within days of the city's fall. The Japanese also committed random acts of murder, rape, looting, and arson during their occupation of Nanking. According to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanking and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000 while 20,000 women were raped, including infants and the elderly. Estimates for the total death toll of the Nanking Massacre vary widely.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The Japanese Army's mopping-up operations and the large-scale massacres that accompanied them were over by the afternoon of December 17 when General Matsui entered Nanking for the victory parade. By the end of December most Japanese soldiers had left Nanking, though units of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army stayed on to occupy the city. The Nanking Self-Government Committee, a new municipal authority formed from local Chinese collaborators, was inaugurated on January 1, 1938, but it was not until February 25 that all restrictions on the free movement of civilians into and out of the city were lifted.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: News of the massacre was tightly censored in Japan, where Nanking's capture provoked a frenzy of excitement among the citizenry. Mass celebrations of every sort, either spontaneous or government-sponsored, took place throughout the country, including a number of resplendent lantern parades which were still vividly remembered by onlookers several decades later. F. Tillman Durdin noted even before Nanking had fallen that "Events in the field have renewed the belief of the Japanese people in the invincibility of their arms."


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The conquest of Nanking had been quicker and easier than the Japanese had foreseen; they lost only 1,953 soldiers in battle, plus 4,994 wounded. Japan's casualties were undoubtedly dwarfed by those of China, though no precise figures exist on how many Chinese were killed in action. The Japanese claimed to have killed up to 84,000 enemies during the Nanking campaign whereas a contemporary Chinese source claimed that their army suffered 20,000 casualties. Masahiro Yamamoto noted that the Japanese usually inflated their opponent's body counts while the Chinese had reason to downplay the scale of their loss. Ikuhiko Hata estimates that 50,000 Chinese soldiers were killed in combat during the entire battle whereas Jay Taylor puts the number at 70,000 and states that proportionate to the size of the force committed, such losses were greater than those suffered in the devastating Battle of Shanghai. On the other hand, Chinese scholar Sun Zhaiwei estimates Chinese combat losses at 6,000 to 10,000 men.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: An official report of the Nationalist Government argued that an excess of untrained and inexperienced troops was a major cause of the defeat, but at the time Tang Shengzhi was made to bear much of the blame and later historians have also criticized him. Japanese historian Tokushi Kasahara, for instance, has characterized his battlefield leadership as incompetent, arguing that an orderly withdrawal from Nanking may have been possible if Tang had carried it out on December 11 or if he had not fled his post well in advance of most of his beleaguered units. However, Chiang's very decision to defend Nanking is also controversial. Masahiro Yamamoto believes that Chiang chose "almost entirely out of emotion" to fight a battle he knew he could only lose, and fellow historian Frederick Fu Liu concurs that the decision is often regarded as one of "the greatest strategical mistakes of the Sino-Japanese war". Still, the historian Jay Taylor notes that Chiang was convinced that to run from his capital city "without a serious fight ... would forever be regarded as a cowardly decision".


title: Battle of Nanking

text: In spite of its military accomplishment, Japan's international reputation was blackened by the Nanking Massacre, as well as by a series of international incidents that occurred during and after the battle. Most notable among them were the shelling by Japanese artillery of the British steamship "Ladybird" on the Yangtze River on December 12, and the sinking by Japanese aircraft of the American gunboat "Panay" not far downstream on the same day. The Allison Incident, the slapping of an American consul by a Japanese soldier, further increased tensions with the United States.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: Furthermore, the loss of Nanking did not force China to capitulate as Japan's leaders had predicted. Even so, buoyed by their victory, the Japanese government replaced the lenient terms for peace which they had relayed to the mediator Ambassador Trautmann prior to the battle with an extremely harsh set of demands that were ultimately rejected by China. On December 17 in a fiery speech entitled, "A Message to the People Upon Our Withdrawal from Nanking", Chiang Kai-shek defiantly declared that,


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The outcome of this war will not be decided at Nanking or in any other big city; it will be decided in the countryside of our vast country and by the inflexible will of our people ... In the end we will wear the enemy down. In time the enemy's military might will count for nothing. I can assure you that the final victory will be ours.


title: Battle of Nanking

text: The Second Sino-Japanese War was to drag on for another eight years and ultimately end with Japan's surrender in 1945.


title: 2022 Caribbean Premier League

text: The 2022 Caribbean Premier League (CPLT20) or CPL 10 or for sponsorship reasons, Hero CPL 2022 was the tenth season of the Caribbean Premier League, the domestic Twenty20 cricket league that was played in the West Indies. The tournament was held from 31 August, with the final played on 30 September 2022. A women's tournament was also held concurrent with the men's tournament. Saint Kitts and Nevis was named as one of the hosts, with Guyana hosting the playoffs. St Kitts & Nevis Patriots were the defending champions. In June 2022, A modified T10 tournament, called The 6ixty, between the six teams were announced to be scheduled to place between 24 and 28 August 2022 right before the actual tournament.


title: Sedation

text: Sedation is the reduction of irritability or agitation by administration of sedative drugs, generally to facilitate a medical procedure or diagnostic procedure. Examples of drugs which can be used for sedation include isoflurane, diethyl ether, propofol, etomidate, ketamine, pentobarbital, lorazepam and midazolam.


title: Sedation

text: Sedation is typically used in minor surgical procedures such as endoscopy, vasectomy, or dentistry and for reconstructive surgery, some cosmetic surgeries, removal of wisdom teeth, or for high-anxiety patients. Sedation methods in dentistry include inhalation sedation (using nitrous oxide), oral sedation, and intravenous (IV) sedation. Inhalation sedation is also sometimes referred to as "relative analgesia".


title: Sedation

text: Sedation is also used extensively in the intensive care unit so that patients who are being ventilated tolerate having an endotracheal tube in their trachea. It can also be used during a long term brain EEG to help patient relax.


title: Sedation

text: There are studies claiming that sedation accounts for 40 percent to 50 percent procedure-related complications. Airway obstruction, apnea


title: Sedation

text: and hypotension are not uncommon during sedation and require the presence of health professionals who are suitably trained to detect and manage these problems. Aside from the suppression of respiration, risks also include unintended levels of sedation, postoperative somnolence, aspiration, and adverse reactions to sedation medications. Complications could also include perforation, bleeding, and the stimulation of vasovagal reflexes. To avoid sedation risks, care providers conduct a thorough pre-sedation evaluation and this process includes pre-sedation history and physicals with emphasis on the determining characteristics that indicate potential risks to the patient and potential difficult airway management. This process can also reveal if the sedation period needs to be prolonged or additional therapeutic procedures are required.


title: Sedation

text: Sedation scales are used in medical situations in conjunction with a medical history in assessing the applicable degree of sedation in patients in order to avoid under-sedation (the patient risks experiencing pain or distress) and over-sedation (the patient risks side effects such as suppression of breathing, which might lead to death).


title: Sedation

text: Examples of sedation scales include MSAT (Minnesota Sedation Assessment Tool), UMSS (University of Michigan Sedation Scale), the Ramsay Scale (Ramsay, et al. 1974) and the RASS (Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale).


title: Sedation

text: In the United Kingdom, deep sedation is considered to be a part of the spectrum of general anesthesia, as opposed to conscious sedation.


title: Sedation

text: In addition to the aforementioned precautions, patients should be interviewed to determine if they have any other condition that may lead to complications while undergoing treatment. Any head, neck, or spinal cord injuries should be noted as well as any diagnosis of osteoporosis.


title: Sedation

text: The most common standard conscious sedation technique for adults is intravenous sedation using Midazolam. This requires a needle to be put into a vein to deliver the medication; this is known as an IV cannula.


title: Tisha Sterling

text: Patricia Ann "Tisha" Sterling (born December 10, 1944) is a retired American actress. She is the only daughter of actor Robert Sterling and actress Ann Sothern.


title: Tisha Sterling

text: Sterling started acting in the 1960s with an appearance on her mother's television series "The Ann Sothern Show". She later appeared in episodes of "The Donna Reed Show"; "The Long, Hot Summer"; "Bonanza"; "Batman" episodes 43 and 44 as Legs, the daughter of Ma Parker (played by Shelley Winters); "The Name of the Game"; ""; "Hawaii Five-O"; "Columbo" and "The New Adventures of Perry Mason". She appeared in the feature films "Village of the Giants" (1965), "Coogan's Bluff" (1968), and "Norwood" (1970).


title: Tisha Sterling

text: In 1987, Sterling played a younger version of her mother's character (in flashbacks) in "The Whales of August". Following that role, she appeared in two other films. Sterling made her last onscreen appearance in "Breakfast of Champions" (1999), opposite Bruce Willis. She has since retired from acting, and works as a florist in Ketchum, Idaho (where her mother lived for many years until her death in 2001) with her daughter, Heidi Bates Hogan. Sterling was married to Lal Baum (1937–1987), the great-grandson of author L. Frank Baum, from 1965 until 1970. Baum died of a brain tumor on July 21, 1987.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: Naraka: Bladepoint (Chinese: 永劫无间, pinyin: yǒngjiéwújiān) is an action-adventure battle royale game developed by 24 Entertainment and published by NetEase Games Montreal. It is a battle royale game where up to 60 players fight each other to be the last one standing. The game incorporates martial arts-inspired melee combat and features a rock-paper-scissors combat system. There are vast arsenals of melee and ranged weapons to choose from, as well as a grappling hook that can be used for both combat and traversal. In addition, each hero has unique skills and talents, allowing for customization to suit your play style. The game was released for Windows in August 2021 and was ported to Xbox Series X/S on June 23, 2022. Versions for Xbox One and PlayStation 5 are also in development. "Naraka: Bladepoint" has sold more than 6 million copies globally since its launch in August 2021.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: "Naraka: Bladepoint" sets its premise on "Morus Island" where heroes gather for battle. Players can queue up for either solo games or in trios and can choose from more than nine different characters, while each of those has two skills (F skill and Ultimate).


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: In solo mode, players play alone, while in trio mode, players start the game with two other members in the same team to compete in the game. After matching with enough players (maximum 60 players in one round), players choose characters with different skill set, called Heroes, to play. Finishing selecting heroes, players choose one spawn location on the map, and other teammates can choose to follow or spawn wherever they like. Once players are shown on the map, the team can search for weapons grapples, health or armors to equip them up. In the meantime, the team will have to pay attention to enemy squads showing up to avoid ambush.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: While players keep searching and fighting on the map, the safe zone in Naraka: Bladepoint will get smaller with a random center. However, players have time to prepare for the spreading of shadow corruption. There are multiple events in one round of the game, such as eliminating the targeted enemy, praying in front of a Buddhism, etc.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: When knocked down, players are able to get on their feet again if teammates come to rescue them in a short period of time; otherwise, they will die after being cairns. However, if it is before the first round of shadow corruption spreading, players can still get back on the map and fight again by using soul altars after their death.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: Naraka: Bladepoint currently has 13 playable characters, with the newest addition on January 19, 2022, of Wuchen.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: Among the seven characters, "Kurumi Tsuchimikado" is based on the Onmyoji archetype. Yoto Hime originates from another game made by NetEase Games, "Onmyoji Arena".


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: "Naraka: Bladepoint" is a battle royale which was partly influenced by "Devil May Cry" and "Sekiro". The game's producer had also included elements from the "" game franchise, which he had previously worked on. "Naraka: Bladepoint", along with many other titles, was officially announced during the Game Awards 2019 ceremony on December 12, 2019. From November 3 to 9, 2020, "Naraka: Bladepoint" had its steam server test in North America region to test its gameplay and performance. It was then announced that "Naraka: Bladepoint" was in development for consoles, with the game being shown running on a PlayStation 5 The mobile version is under development to provide the melee-focused combat gaming experience for mobile players globally.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: The game was released on Xbox Series X/S on June 23, 2022, with the game also being available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers at no additional charge. In September 2021, ThunderFire Universe X Studio was officially established, shifting its focus to overseas markets and console development. The first job was to accept the commission from NetEase Thunderfire Business Division and 24 Entertainment to develop the console version of the game. An Xbox One version is set to be released on December 22, 2022. Alongside the release date, a crossover event with "Nier" series was announced.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: The first official "Naraka: Bladepoint" tournament in Southeast Asia, Celestra Cup, started on September 9, 2021, ended season finale on December 12 and witnessed the first winner of SEA Naraka tournament.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: "Naraka: Bladepoint" received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. The game was nominated as Best Multiplayer Game 2021 of Golden Joystick Awards on October 19, 2021, which is the one of the oldest game awards globally.


title: Naraka: Bladepoint

text: The game hit over 120,000 concurrent players in its April Steam test. By November 9, 2021, the game has reached more than 6 million copies selling globally. It means that it had more than $250 million gross revenue by selling copies and in-game virtual collectibles.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: The Republic of South Africa is a unitary parliamentary democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly (the lower house of the South African Parliament) and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: Since the end of apartheid in 1994 the African National Congress (ANC) has dominated South Africa's politics. The ANC is the ruling party in the national legislature, as well as in eight of the nine provinces (Western Cape is governed by the Democratic Alliance). The ANC received 57.50% of the vote during the 2019 general election. It had received 62.9%


title: Politics of South Africa

text: of the popular vote in the 2011 municipal election. The main challenger to the ANC's rule is the Democratic Alliance, led by John Steenhuisen (previously by Mmusi Maimane), which received 20.77% of the vote in the 2019 election. Other major political parties represented in Parliament include the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Inkatha Freedom Party, which mainly represents Zulu voters. The formerly dominant New National Party, which both introduced and ended apartheid through its predecessor the National Party, disbanded in 2005 to merge with the ANC. Jacob Zuma served as President of South Africa since 9 May 2009 until his resignation in February 2018. Zuma was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa. The country's 2019 general election was held on 8 May.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: On 31 May 1910, the Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal and the Orange River Colony were united in one state called the Union of South Africa. The Union of South Africa adopted a system of governance based on the political system of the United Kingdom. The British monarch was the ceremonial head of state of South Africa and was represented by a Governor-General. Real political power lay in the hands of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The basic ideas of this system such as a three branch government and strong Parliament remain in force today.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: On 15 November 1926, the Balfour Declaration was adopted at the 1926 Imperial Conference. This document made the dominions of the British Empire including South Africa equal to each other and the United Kingdom. In practice, this made the Union of South Africa a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. The Union of South Africa became formally independent in 1931 when the Statute of Westminster was passed. It gave the Parliament of South Africa the power to make laws for South Africa without the approval of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: In 1948, the National Party of South Africa adopted a policy of institutional racial segregation called apartheid. People of colour, especially the majority black population, were deprived of the few rights they had. Racial classification and discrimination was used to distribute economic resources and control political power. The white population, particularly the Afrikaners, controlled the political system. Black people were disenfranchised in all provinces of South Africa.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: In 1961, South Africa became a Republic. The British monarch was replaced as head of state by a President elected by the minority of the population through elected representatives. In 1970, the Homeland Citizens Act was passed. It built on the system of reservations for the indigenous black African population to create a system of superficially independent black countries. Many Black people were deprived of their South African citizenship and instead became citizens of the Bantustan of their tribe. They were not recognized by a majority of the world's countries and the extent of their independent control over internal affairs was highly limited.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: The African National Congress (ANC) led the fight against this system of apartheid. After intense international pressure and domestic struggle, the De Klerk government repealed or relaxed many apartheid laws. After negotiations between the ANC, Inkatha Freedom Party, NP and other organizations, apartheid was formally abolished and the Interim Constitution was passed. The Bantustans were abolished and reintegrated into South Africa and their citizens regained South African citizenship.


title: Politics of South Africa

text: The Government of National Unity (GNU) established under the interim constitution ostensibly remained in effect until the 1999 national elections. The parties originally comprising the GNU – the African National Congress (ANC), the National Party (NP), and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – shared executive power. On 30 June 1996, the NP withdrew from the GNU to become part of the opposition.