title: Battle of Worcester

text: But the Royalists were mistaken in supposing that the enemy was unaware. Everything had been foreseen both by Cromwell and by the Council of State in Westminster. The latter had called out the greater part of the militia on 7 August. Lieutenant-General Charles Fleetwood began to draw together the midland contingents at Banbury. The London trained-bands turned out for field service no fewer than 14,000 strong. Every suspected Royalist was closely watched, and the magazines of arms in the country-houses of the gentry were for the most part removed into the strong places. On his part Cromwell had quietly made his preparations. Perth passed into his hands on 2 August and he brought back his army to Leith by 5 August. Thence he dispatched Lieutenant-General John Lambert with a cavalry corps to harass the invaders. Major-General Thomas Harrison was already at Newcastle picking the best of the county mounted-troops to add to his own regulars. On 9 August, Charles was at Kendal, Lambert hovering in his rear, and Harrison marching swiftly to bar his way at the Mersey. Thomas Fairfax emerged for a moment from his retirement to organize the Yorkshire levies, and the best of these as well as of the Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire militias were directed upon Warrington, which Harrison reached on 15 August, a few hours in front of Charles's advanced guard. Lambert too, slipping round the left flank of the enemy, joined Harrison, and the English fell back (16 August), slowly and without letting themselves be drawn into a fight, along the London road.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Cromwell meanwhile, leaving George Monck with the least efficient regiments to carry on the war in Scotland, had reached the river Tyne in seven days, and thence, marching 20 miles a day in extreme heat with the country people carrying their arms and equipment, the regulars entered Ferrybridge on 19 August, at which date Lambert, Harrison and the north-western militia were about Congleton. It seemed probable that a great battle would take place between Lichfield and Coventry on or just after 25 August and that Cromwell, Harrison, Lambert and Fleetwood would all take part in it. But the scene and the date of the denouement were changed by the enemy's movements. Shortly after leaving Warrington the young king had resolved to abandon the direct march on London and to make for the Severn valley, where his father had found the most constant and the most numerous adherents in the first war, and which had been the centre of gravity of the English Royalist movement of 1648. Sir Edward Massey, formerly the Parliamentary governor of Gloucester, was now with Charles, and it was hoped that he would induce his fellow Presbyterians to take arms. The military quality of the Welsh border Royalists was well proved, that of the Gloucestershire Presbyterians not less so, and, in basing himself on Gloucester and Worcester as his father had done on Oxford, Charles II hoped, naturally, to deal with the Independent faction minority of the English people more effectually than Charles I had earlier dealt with the majority of the people of England who had supported the Parliamentary cause. But even the pure Royalism which now ruled in the invading army could not alter the fact that it was a foreign, Scottish, army, and it was not merely an Independent faction but all England that united against it.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Charles arrived at Worcester on 22 August and spent five days in resting the troops, preparing for further operations, and gathering and arming the few recruits who came in. The delay was to prove fatal; it was a necessity of the case foreseen and accepted when the march to Worcester had been decided upon, and had the other course, that of marching on London via Lichfield, been taken the battle would have been fought three days earlier with the same result. Worcester itself had no particular claim to being loyal to the King. Throughout the First Civil War it had taken the pragmatic position of declaring loyalty to whichever side had been in occupation. The epithet 'Faithful City' arose out of a cynical (and unsuccessful) claim at the Restoration for compensation from the new king.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Cromwell, the lord general, had during his march south thrown out successively two flying columns under Colonel Robert Lilburne to deal with the Lancashire Royalists under the Earl of Derby. Lilburne entirely routed a Lancashire detachment of the enemy on their way to join the main Royalist army at the Battle of Wigan Lane on 25 August and as affairs turned out Cromwell merely shifted the area of his concentration two marches to the south-west, to Evesham. Early on 28 August, Lambert's brigade made a surprise crossing of the Severn at Upton, 6 miles below Worcester. In the action which followed Massey was severely wounded and he and his men were forced to retreat northwards along the west bank of the Severn towards the river Teme and Worcester. Fleetwood followed Lambert with reinforcements and orders to advance north towards the Teme. This western envelopment severed the Royalists lines of communications to Wales and the western counties of England. The Royalists were now only 16,000 strong with no hope of significant reinforcements and disheartened by the apathy with which they had been received in districts formerly all their own. Cromwell, for the only time in his military career, had a two-to-one numerical superiority.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: On 30 August Cromwell delayed the start of the battle to give time for two pontoon bridges to be constructed, one over the Severn and the other over the Teme, close to their confluence. The delay allowed Cromwell to launch his attack on 3 September, one year to the day since his victory at the Battle of Dunbar.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Cromwell took his measures deliberately. Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge, north of Worcester and on the enemy's line of retreat. Fleetwood was to force his way across the Teme and attack St John's, the western suburb of Worcester. While Lambert commanded the eastern flank of the army which would advance and encircle the eastern walls of Worcester, Cromwell would lead the attack on the southern ramparts of the city.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: The assault started on the morning of 3 September and initially the initiative lay with the Parliamentarians. Fleetwood forced the passage of the Teme over the pontoon bridges against Royalists under the command of Major General Montgomery. Colonel Richard Deane's initial attempts to cross the Powick Bridge (where Prince Rupert of the Rhine had won the Battle of Powick Bridge, his first victory, in 1642) failed against stubborn resistance by the Royalists (many of whom were Scottish Highlanders) commanded by Colonel Keith. By force of arms and numbers, the Royalist army was pushed backward by the New Model Army with Cromwell on the eastern bank of the Severn and Fleetwood on the western sweeping in a semicircle long up toward Worcester.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: The Royalists contested every hedgerow around Powick meadows. This stubborn resistance on the west bank of the Severn north of the Teme was becoming a serious problem for the Parliamentarians, so Cromwell led Parliamentary reinforcements from the eastern side of the town over the Severn pontoon bridge to aid Fleetwood. Charles II, from his vantage point on top of Worcester cathedral's tower, realised that an opportunity existed to attack the now-exposed eastern flank of the Parliamentary army. As the defenders on the Western side of the city retreated in good order into the city (although during this manoeuvre Keith was captured and Montgomery was badly wounded), Charles ordered two sorties to attack the Parliamentary forces east of the city. The north-eastern sortie through St. Martin's Gate was commanded by the Duke of Hamilton and attacked the Parliamentary lines at Perry Wood. The south-eastern one through Sidbury Gate was led by Charles II and attacked Red Hill. The Royalist cavalry under the command of David Leslie that was gathered on Pitchcroft meadow on the northern side of the city did not receive orders to aid the sorties and Leslie chose not to do so under his own initiative. Cromwell seeing the difficulty that his east flank was under rushed back over the Severn pontoon bridge with three brigades of troops to reinforce the flank.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Although they were pushed back, the Parliamentarians under Lambert were too numerous and experienced to be defeated by such a move. For an hour, the Parliamentarians retreated before the unexpected attack. However, following their reinforcement by Cromwell's three brigades, they reversed the situation and drove the Royalists back toward the city. The Royalist retreat turned into a rout in which Parliamentarian and Royalist forces intermingled and skirmished up to and into the city. The Royalist position became untenable when the Essex militia stormed and captured Fort Royal, (a redoubt on a small hill to the south-east of Worcester overlooking the Sidbury gate), turning the Royalist guns to fire on Worcester.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Once in the city, Charles II removed his armour and found a fresh mount; he attempted to rally his troops but it was to no avail. A desperate Royalist cavalry charge down Sidbury Street and High Street, led by the Earl of Cleveland and Major Careless amongst others, allowed King Charles to escape the city by St. Martin's Gate. This cavalry force was composed of the few Midland English Royalists who had rallied to Charles II, and largely consisted of Lord Talbot's troop of horse.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: The defences of the city were stormed from three different directions as darkness came on, regulars and militia fighting with equal gallantry. Most of the few thousands of the Royalists who escaped during the night were easily captured by Lilburne and Mercer, or by the militia which watched every road in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Even the country people brought in scores of prisoners, for the Royalist officers and men alike, stunned by the suddenness of the disaster, offered no resistance.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: About 3,000 men were killed during the battle and a further 10,000 were taken prisoner at Worcester or soon afterwards. The Earl of Derby was executed, while the other English prisoners were conscripted into the New Model Army and sent to Ireland. Around 8,000 Scottish prisoners were deported to New England, Bermuda, and the West Indies to work for landowners as indentured labourers, or else to work on fen drainage. Around 1,200 "Scotch prisoners" were taken to London; many died from disease and starvation at Tothill Fields and other makeshift prison camps. Parliamentary casualties numbered in the low hundreds.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Charles II's escape included various incidents, including one of his hiding from a Parliamentarian patrol in an oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House. He reached the south coast of England, and at Shoreham found transport to take him to safety in France.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: In announcing the Worcester victory of the day earlier, Cromwell's 4 September despatch to William Lenthall, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has become famous: "The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy". Hence, Cromwell thought the victory was the greatest of all the favours, or mercies, given to him by God. The expression "crowning mercy" is frequently linked to the battle as it heralded the end of the English Civil War by completely destroying the last major Royalist army.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: The Parliamentary militia were sent home within a week. Cromwell, who had ridiculed "such stuff" six months ago, knew them better now. "Your new raised forces", he wrote to the Rump Parliament, "did perform singular good service, for which they deserve a very high estimation and acknowledgement". The New England preacher Hugh Peters gave the militia a rousing farewell sermon "when their wives and children should ask them where they had been and what news, they should say they had been at Worcester, where England's sorrows began, and where they were happily ended", referring to the first clash of the Royalist and Parliamentarian Armies at the Battle of Powick Bridge on 23 September 1642, almost exactly nine years before.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Prior to the battle King Charles II contracted the Worcester Clothiers Company to outfit his army with uniforms but was unable to pay the £453.3s bill. In June 2008 Charles, Prince of Wales paid off the 357-year-old debt (less the interest, which would have amounted to around £47,500.)


title: Battle of Worcester

text: Cromwell's plan of battle divided his army into three parts, each part having a specific target: Colonel Robert Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge on the enemy's line of retreat. Lambert and Fleetwood were to force their way across the Teme and attack St John's, the western suburb of Worcester. Cromwell himself and the main army were to attack the town itself.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: This plan was executed, and was the prototype of the Battle of Sedan. Worcester resembled Sedan in much more than outward form. Both were fought by "nations in arms", by citizen soldiers who had their hearts in the struggle, and could be trusted not only to fight their hardest but to march their best. Only with such troops would a general dare to place a deep river between the two halves of his army or to send away detachments beforehand to reap the fruits of victory, in certain anticipation of winning the victory with the remainder. The result was, in brief, one of those rare victories in which a pursuit is superfluous.


title: Battle of Worcester

text: In early April 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited Fort Royal Hill at the battlefield at Worcester. John Adams wrote that he was "deeply moved" but disappointed at the locals' lack of knowledge of the battle, and gave the townspeople an "impromptu lecture":


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink is a commuter rail system in Southern California, serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties, as well as to Oceanside in San Diego County. The core commuter rail network consists of seven lines and 62 stations operating on of rail network. In addition, Metrolink also operates the Arrow hybrid rail (light rail with some features similar to commuter rail) line in San Bernardino County, under a contract with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, integrating another four stations to its network.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink connects with Los Angeles County's Metro Rail and Metro Busway systems, San Diego County's Coaster commuter rail and Sprinter hybrid rail services, and with Amtrak's "Pacific Surfliner", "Coast Starlight", "Southwest Chief", "Sunset Limited", and "Texas Eagle" intercity rail services. Metrolink owns several hundred miles of rail; however, it also shares some track with freight trains.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The system, founded in 1991 as the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) and adopting "Metrolink" as its moniker, started operation in 1992. Average weekday ridership was 42,928 as of 2017. It is operated by Amtrak under contract with the SCRRA.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: In addition to suburban communities and cities, Metrolink also serves several points of interest such as Downtown Los Angeles, Burbank, Hollywood Burbank Airport, California State University, Los Angeles, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, and the San Clemente Pier. Special service has also been extended to the Pomona Fairplex, the Ventura County Fairgrounds, and the Auto Club Speedway for certain events.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink's fare structure is based on a flat fee for boarding the train and an additional cost for distance with fares being calculated in 25-cent increments between stations.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink tickets are valid fare for most connecting buses and trains; certain Metrolink tickets are valid on certain Amtrak routes.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Fare increases normally occur annually in July, to coincide with increased fuel and labor expenses, and have generally averaged between 3.5% and 5% per year (although restructuring caused a larger jump in rates). The oil price increases since 2003 are partly to blame for consistently increasing fares, as Metrolink trains are powered by diesel fuel.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: In late 2018, Metrolink announced that San Bernardino Line ticket prices would be reduced by 25% at least through 2019 in an attempt to increase ridership. Similar discounts have been introduced to other lines since 2016.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Inter-city rail service around Los Angeles persisted through the formation of Amtrak in 1971, however rail operations suitable for commuters remained elusive throughout the 1980s. CalTrain was a short lived service, lasting only a few months and running on one line. The Orange County Transportation Commission initiated the Amtrak-operated "Orange County Commuter" in early 1990, running between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano, but a more comprehensive approach was deemed necessary. Senate Bill 1402 was signed into law on May 25, 1990, which directed local transportation authorities to establish a regional plan for commuter rail by the year's end.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: In October 1990, the member agencies of the SCRRA had announced the purchase of track, maintenance yards, and stations and other property from Southern Pacific for $450 million in 1990 ($ adjusted for inflation). The rights to use Los Angeles Union Station were purchased from Union Pacific, the station's owner at the time, for $17 million in the same year ($ adjusted for inflation) (Union Station has since been purchased by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority). Freight operations would continue on some corridors under coordination with passenger services. The Joint Powers Authority was formally founded in 1991.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Services commenced on October 26, 1992, under contracted operation by Amtrak with the Ventura, Santa Clarita (later renamed Antelope Valley), and San Bernardino lines. In 1993, service was expanded to include the Riverside Line and the following year the Orange County Line was conveyed from Amtrak branding to Metrolink. The Inland Empire-Orange County Line opened in 1995, and more trains on the Orange County service were funded. The 91 Line opened in 2002.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: From July 2004, Metrolink fares were changed from zone based to one based on distance. In 2005, a five-year operational contract was awarded to Connex Railroad/Veolia Transport. That same year, the Orange County Transportation Authority approved a plan to increase frequencies to 76 trains daily on the Orange County and Inland Empire-Orange County Lines by 2009, and funding for increased Metrolink service was included in the renewal of the Measure M sales tax for transportation approved by voters in November 2006. A proposed station in Yorba Linda was canceled after the city rejected it due to local opposition on March 16, 2004.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: In July 2008, it was announced that ridership had risen 16% over the previous year. Following the 2008 Chatsworth train collision in which 25 people died and 135 were injured a number of safety measures were taken; in the fall of 2009, inward-facing video cameras were installed in locomotives in order to ensure that staff were complying with regulations, in particular a ban on use of mobile phones. In 2010, the first of 117 energy absorbing passenger carriages (which lessen the toll on passengers in the case of an accident) were received by the operator. Amtrak regained the contract to operate Metrolink beginning in July 2010. Average weekday ridership for the fourth quarter of 2009 was 38,400.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: In 2010, to save money in the face of funding cuts, the Metrolink board voted to reduce mid-day service on the Inland Empire–Orange County Line, as well as weekend service on both the Orange County and Inland Empire–Orange County lines.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Average weekday ridership was 41,000 during May 2011. A survey found that 90% of users during a typical weekday in 2009 would have previously driven alone or carpooled and that the system replaced an estimated 25,000 vehicle trips. During a weekend closure of Interstate 405 in July 2011, the system recorded its highest-ever weekend ridership of 20,000 boardings which was 50% higher than the same weekend in 2010 and 10% higher than the previous weekend ridership record which occurred during U2 360° Tour in June 2011. Ridership continued to rise in 2012 (up 2%), when average weekday ridership reached 42,265. Although 2013 annual boardings were almost 12.07 million, ridership dropped to 11.74 million by fall 2014 which was contrary to projections. Blaming the decrease on the worst recession since World War II, Metrolink said it found itself caught between cutting service and boosting fares, both of which would likely further decrease ridership.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) extended the 91 Line southeast to Perris, using the existing San Jacinto Branch Line, which it purchased in 1993. Initial plans were for construction/renovation of the line to begin in 2012, but these were delayed by a lawsuit filed by homeowners in the affected area, who challenged the RCTC's environmental report. The lawsuit was settled in late July 2013. Construction on the $248.3 million extension began in October 2013; service was originally planned to begin in December 2015, and then in February 2016. In mid-February 2016, the extension's opening was planned in March of that year. The extension officially opened in June 2016.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: On April 4, 2022, Metrolink added 26 trains to the schedule, with trains being added to all lines. Metrolink and Amtrak also entered into a code-sharing agreement on the Ventura County Line, with Pacific Surfliner trains A761, A770, A777, and A784 accepting valid Metrolink tickets between stations served by the Ventura County Line and Ventura station. Metrolink also announced that Metrolink service to Ventura station on the Ventura County Line is planned.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The Arrow rail line, formerly known as the Redlands Passenger Rail Project, opened on October 24, 2022. The eastward rail extension from San Bernardino to Redlands was planned by the San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG). The association considered whether to extend commuter rail along the corridor or to install either bus rapid transit or light rail lines, but in December 2015, SANBAG officials said they planned to extend Metrolink service only to the San Bernardino Transit Center and use diesel multiple units operated by Omnitrans in lieu of Metrolink locomotive-hauled coaches on the rest of the route. In late 2019, Metrolink assumed the operating rights and carried out construction after Omnitrans was dismissed due to restructuring of that organization. Groundbreaking for Arrow's construction took place on July 19, 2019.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: 218 people were killed in Metrolink train incidents from 1993 to 2008, the majority of these being pedestrians killed on the tracks, whilst 39 were as a result of three train collisions. Since 2008, just one person onboard Metrolink trains has died, a locomotive engineer killed in Oxnard when a truck was left on a crossing.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Two people died and 22 were seriously injured on April 23, 2002, when a BNSF freight train collided head-on with a Metrolink train in Placentia, near the Atwood Junction, at the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and Richfield Road. Both trains were on the same east–west track moving toward one another. The Metrolink had the right-of-way; it was supposed to switch to a southbound track. The BNSF train was supposed to slow and stop just before the switch while the Metrolink passed, but the crew missed a signal one and a half miles back warning them to slow down. By the time the crew saw the red "stop" signal at the switch and the Metrolink train, they were going too fast to avoid a collision. Although there was speculation that the signals alerting the BNSF to slow and stop had malfunctioned, an investigation later concluded that it was human error by the crew that caused the accident. Over 260 passengers were injured and 3 people including a BNSF employee were killed.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Eleven people were killed (including an off-duty sheriff's deputy and a train conductor) and over 100 people were injured, about 40 seriously on January 26, 2005, when a Metrolink passenger train collided with a vehicle parked on the tracks, which then jackknifed and struck a stationary freight locomotive and a Metrolink train moving in the opposite direction. The man who parked the vehicle on the tracks, Juan Manuel Alvarez, was apprehended and charged with 11 counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, including murder by train wrecking. On June 26, 2008, Alvarez was convicted on the 11 murder counts and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Twenty-five people were killed and 135 injured when a Metrolink commuter train carrying 222 persons collided head on with a Union Pacific freight train, toppling one of the passenger cars and the locomotive onto its side in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles. Along with the 135 people who were injured, 81 were transported to local hospitals in serious or critical condition. The velocity of the trains caused the Metrolink locomotive to telescope into the first passenger car.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Thirty people were injured when southbound Metrolink Ventura County Line train 102 (East Ventura to LA Union Station) crashed into a truck that was stopped on the tracks at the Rice Avenue crossing near Oxnard at about 5:40 am on February 24, 2015. One person, the train's engineer, later died of his injuries. The driver, who had left the truck before the crash, was located by the police and taken into custody. The train consisted of a Hyundai-Rotem "guardian fleet" cab car in the lead, a Bombardier Bi-level "bike car" coach, two Hyundai-Rotem "guardian fleet" coach cars and an EMD F59PH locomotive. After this accident, Metrolink leased 40 diesel freight locomotives from BNSF, to be placed into service as temporary cab cars while they investigated problems with their Hyundai-Rotem cars. On July 8, 2016, the Metrolink board approved a $1.5 million plan to repair the plows on the Hyundai Rotem cab cars. Once the repairs were completed, the cars returned to service and the leased BNSF locomotives were returned.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink has grown in popularity, and there are a number of planned extensions of the system and new stations. Station parking capacity has also been strained.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: On April 26, 2018, Metrolink was awarded $1.175 billion from the California State Transportation Agency in order to dramatically increase train service along its existing lines and for the expansion of the Metrolink station in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics. These funds will be used to essentially convert most of Metrolink's lines into an inter-city rail instead of a commuter rail service.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: During the initial years of operation of the California High-Speed Rail between Merced and Burbank, projected to commence in 2022 (but since repeatedly delayed to 2033), passengers would use Metrolink for travel between Burbank and downtown Los Angeles. An alternative plan would have track-sharing to Union Station but this would require electrification for that portion of the line. This alternate plan would provide a "one-seat ride" at the start of service between the Central Valley and downtown, or even Orange County.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: A new Metrolink station in Placentia, which will serve the 91/Perris Valley Line's north Orange County passengers, has completed its final design phase, save for issues related to the parking needed to accompany the station. Construction on the $24 million Placentia station began in 2018, and was scheduled to open in 2024, but now is on hold pending further negotiations with BNSF.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: On November 9, 2022, Metrolink broke ground on the Burbank Junction speed improvement project. The project will realign and replace the mainline track and siding between Burbank Boulevard and Magnolia Boulevard. The project will shorten trip lengths on the Antelope Valley Line trains, Ventura County Line trains, Pacific Surfliner trains, and Coast Starlight trains by one and a half minutes and will permit trains to operate with 30-minute headways in both directions, massively improving service frequencies along the corridors. The location of the tracks will be slightly realigned in order to accommodate a new pedestrian overcrossing. The project was delayed by almost one year, with the project initially scheduled to break ground in the winter of 2021 and was expected to be completed in the winter of 2022. The current expected completion date is the Summer of 2023.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has proposed adding commuter rail service along the Harbor Subdivision corridor offering services to Inglewood, Los Angeles International Airport, the South Bay, the Port of Los Angeles, and/or the Port of Long Beach. A decision was made to not include Metrolink nor Light rail or bus service but to convert a majority of the line into a multi-purpose bike path, cutting off any rail connection from Union Station to LAX.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: In 2008, lobbyists pushed for a rail line to Temecula in southwestern Riverside County via the 91 Line's La Sierra station. While this proposed line could follow the route of an abandoned freight line, it would require significant funding, as freight service ceased almost 30 years ago. Despite this, the Riverside County Transportation Commission's 2008 Commuter Rail Feasibility Study still lists this route as one possibility being considered. Expansion to Hemet has also been discussed, with two stations planned.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The cities of the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, Indio, and Coachella) have requested commuter rail service from Los Angeles and Orange County, but the Union Pacific Railroad opposes further passenger service on its tracks. Nonetheless, in 1999, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments was investigating the possibility of two daily round trips via the 91 Line from Los Angeles's Union Station through Fullerton and Riverside to stations in Palm Springs and Indio (with a possible stop near Palm Desert), possibly through a partnership with Amtrak. This extension would likewise require significant money for infrastructure improvements: at least $500 million, according to the California State Rail Plan of 2005. Nonetheless, in 2013 Caltrans conducted a feasibility study of a Coachella Valley service and RCTC has resolved to pursue establishing one. By 2020, plans for the Coachella Valley–San Gorgonio Pass Rail Corridor Service had evolved to an Amtrak-operated service.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Expansion to Kern County has been discussed in a 2012 Kern County Council of Governments report. The expansion proposed is to extend the Antelope Valley line from Lancaster to Rosamond, along the Rosamond Corridor to service Edwards Air Force Base.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The Santa Paula Branch Line was acquired by the Ventura County Transportation Commission in 1995. The railway, a former portion of the Southern Pacific Coast Line, connects the city of Ventura to Santa Clarita paralleling California State Route 126. Fillmore and Western Railway operates excursion service over a section of the line, though plans exist to rehabilitate tracks for Metrolink service. A study from 1991 estimated a cost between $70 million to $90 million to rebuild the line.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: As of December 1, 2022 Orange County Transportation Authority has laid a third track south of the Interstate 5 overpass in Irvine leading into the future site of the Orange County maintenance facility. The facility will serve as an additional site to service Metrolink and Amtrak trains on a parcel of land owned by the Orange County Transportation Authority just north of Irvine Station. The project will receive funding from California's SCORE Transit Intercity Rail Capital Program. The project also includes an extension to Ridge Valley, a road north of the parcel where the project will occur.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The SCRRA is a joint powers authority governed by five county-level agencies that fund the Metrolink service: the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Orange County Transportation Authority, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, and the Ventura County Transportation Commission.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Each agency appoints members to the Metrolink board of directors. Los Angeles gets four seats on the board, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties each get two seats, and Ventura County gets one seat. There are also three non-voting, e"x-officio" members from the Southern California Association of Governments, the San Diego Association of Governments, and the state of California.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink is headquartered at the Wilshire Grand Center alongside the Southern California Association of Governments. Metrolink had previously operated out of the Metro Headquarters Building from 2011 until 2018, when Metro needed more space in their building. Before 2011, Metrolink's headquarters were in the MCI Center, where they occupied around of space.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Law enforcement service systemwide is handled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's Transit Services Bureau.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Metrolink operates several maintenance facilities across its service area. Its Keller Yard Central Maintenance Facility (CMF) is located on the east bank of the Los Angeles River near the intersection of the 5 and 110 Freeways, just south of the location of the former Southern Pacific Taylor Yard. The facility is operated by Metrolink's equipment maintenance contractor: Bombardier Transportation. The Eastern Maintenance Facility is located in San Bernardino. Metrolink trains are also serviced at Coaster's Stuart Mesa Facility, which is located between San Clemente Pier and Oceanside at the southwest end of Camp Pendleton. This yard is owned by the North County Transit District.


title: Metrolink (California)

text: The core Metrolink fleet consists of 52 locomotives (EMD F125, EMD F59PH, and MPI MP36PH-3C), 137 active Bombardier Bi-level Coaches (Sentinel Fleet), and 137 Hyundai Rotem Bi-level cars (Guardian Fleet).


title: Metrolink (California)

text: Until recently, most Metrolink-owned units were painted in a white livery with blue stripes that was introduced in the late 1990s as a replacement for a similar scheme that had been in use since the agency's launch. Beginning in 2007, the agency began the process of switching to a new blue and green "ribbons" design; the Guardian Fleet and EMD F125 locomotives already arrive from the factory in the new colors.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Little Earthquakes is the debut solo album by the American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, featuring the singles "Silent All These Years", "China", "Winter" and "Crucify". After Atlantic Records rejected the first version of the album, Amos began working on a second version with her then-boyfriend Eric Rosse. The album was first released in the UK on January 6, 1992, where it peaked at number 14 in the charts.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: It was well received by critics and listeners. In the US, the album reached the top 60 of the "Billboard" 200. It is frequently regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time; it was voted number 73 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" 3rd Edition (2000) and ranked number 233 on "Rolling Stone"'s 500 greatest albums of all time.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Following the dissolution of her synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, Amos composed 12 songs, recorded them at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles with Davitt Sigerson producing, and in June 1990 submitted them for copyright.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Amos approached Atlantic Records in December 1990 with a 10-track demo tape, some being newer songs but mostly ones from June. The track listing consisted of "Russia" (later to become "Take to the Sky"), "Mary", "Crucify", "Happy Phantom", "Leather", "Winter", "Sweet Dreams", "Song for Eric", "Learn to Fly" and "Flying Dutchman". Atlantic was unhappy with the songs, and in response Amos and her then boyfriend Eric Rosse recorded some new songs, including "Girl", "Precious Things", "Tear in Your Hand", "Mother" and "Little Earthquakes". The song "Take Me with You" was recorded during these sessions, but not released until 2006 (with re-recorded vocals.) This session was recorded on a limited budget in Rosse's home studio, using his 3M 24-track analog tape machine and a Yamaha CP-80 piano. Amos and Rosse also went to Stag Studios to use a Yamaha grand piano. Satisfied with these recordings, Atlantic determined that the album "Little Earthquakes" would have 13 tracks, removing "Learn to Fly" and adding four from the December recording session.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Amos moved to London to work with Ian Stanley (formerly of Tears for Fears); Atlantic thought Amos would have an easier time of achieving success in the United Kingdom, because of that market's appreciation for eccentric performers. Here she recorded what would become two of her early singles. "Me and a Gun" was the last song written for the album, while "China" was an early track, originally titled "Distance", that she wrote in 1987.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: The second final version of the album was accepted by the record company. However, this was still revised before the final release; a 13-track promo cassette shows that the song "Little Earthquakes" was to appear after "Happy Phantom" on side one, with side two closing with "Flying Dutchman". The latter track was presumably dropped due to the physical restraints of the vinyl LP format.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Atlantic's European counterpart, East West, promoted the record extensively. Amos spent much of 1991 performing in small bars and clubs in London and playing for music executives and journalists, often in her own apartment. The "Me and a Gun" EP containing four tracks was released in October 1991, receiving considerable critical attention. The single was re-issued the following month with "Silent All These Years" as the lead composition, and it became her first chart entry at UK number 51 following Single of the Week support from BBC Radio 1 and a TV debut on the high-rated chat show of Jonathan Ross on Channel 4. The back cover of the album contains pictures of "Phallus impudicus" mushrooms, also known as stinkhorns.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: When the album was finally released in the UK in January 1992, it reached number 14 and remained on the Top 75 charts (UK Albums Chart) for 23 weeks. A month later, it was released in the United States to breakthrough critical success and also announced itself as a chart mainstay, despite peaking outside the Top 50 on the "Billboard" 200. The accompanying singles (along with "Me and a Gun" and "Silent All These Years") were "China" (January 1992 UK), "Winter" (March 1992 UK/November 1992 US) and "Crucify" (May 1992 US/June 1992 UK), the US EP version of which featured covers of songs by artists including The Rolling Stones and Nirvana.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Reviews of the album were generally positive. Josef Woodward of "Rolling Stone" wrote that "Amos shares common ground with artfolk songstresses like Kate Bush and Jane Siberry" and described her "quivery vibrato-laden holler – akin to Siouxsie Sioux's". The song "Leather" was pictured as a "Kurt Weill-meets-Queen cabaret act". He described the album as "an often pretty, subtly progressive song cycle that reflects darkly on sexual alienation and personal struggles", and that by the end of the album "we feel as though we've been through some peculiar therapy session, half-cleansed and half-stirred. That artful paradox is part of what makes "Little Earthquakes" a gripping debut." His original rating of three and a half stars out of five in the 1992 print version of the magazine was later rounded up to four stars out of five on "Rolling Stone"s website. Jean Rosenbluth of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that few had "progressed from the silly to the sublime as quickly or smoothly as Amos" and praised "Little Earthquakes" as "a quixotic, compelling record that mixes the smart sensuality of Kate Bush with the provocative impenetrability of Mary Margaret O'Hara." Among negative assessments, Stephanie Zacharek of "Entertainment Weekly" felt that Amos's songs "are too self-consciously weird" to be enjoyable, while "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau only expressed praise for the song "Me and a Gun", disregarding the rest as lesser versions of Kate Bush.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: In the United Kingdom, where Amos was first promoted, the album was also warmly received. Jon Wilde of "Melody Maker" stated that Amos "possesses a rare ability to explore a multiplicity of emotions and a broad range of perspectives within the same song", describing the album's songs as "cerebral soul music for the kind of people who mean to read TE Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" on their holiday but end up spending all their time exchanging bodily fluids with strangers." "Q"s John Aizlewood wrote that "Guilt, misery and failed relationships thread their way through "Little Earthquakes" with occasional detours for childhood traumas transformed into adult inadequacies" and praised Amos' lyrics, concluding: ""Little Earthquakes" is disturbing, funny and sexy by turns. Amos does all this with the unmistakable stamp of a potentially great songwriter. Where on earth can she go from here?" Roger Morton of "NME", however, was more reserved, writing that "it isn't easy getting to grips with Tori" and calling "Little Earthquakes" "a sprawling, confusing journey through the gunk of a woman's soul ... Sometimes it's magical and sometimes it's sickly and overwrought."


title: Little Earthquakes

text: In 1998, "Q" readers voted "Little Earthquakes" the 66th greatest album of all time, and in 2002 the same magazine named it the fourth Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist. In a retrospective review of the album, AllMusic critic Steve Huey stated that with "Little Earthquakes", Amos "carved the template for the female singer/songwriter movement of the '90s" and that while "her subsequent albums were often very strong, Amos would never bare her soul quite so directly (or comprehensibly) as she did here, nor with such consistently focused results." "Slant Magazine"s Sal Cinquemani cited it as Amos's most focused and accessible recording, which "almost immediately sparked cult interest in the singer, and has, over time, undoubtedly become a soundtrack (at least in part) to the lives of many anguished teens and adults." "Little Earthquakes" was included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".


title: Little Earthquakes

text: In 2000 it was voted number 73 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums". In 2020 "Rolling Stone" ranked the album at number 233 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.


title: Little Earthquakes

text: Reviewing the 2015 remastered edition of the album, J.C. Maçek III of "Spectrum Culture" wrote: "With its lack of standard rock and pop clichés of the day and reliance on acoustic piano and an excellent (if unconventional) voice, "Little Earthquakes" sounds as unique today as it did in 1992." "Rolling Stone"s Jessica Machado stated that "nearly 25 years later, the album's emotional highs and lows seem even more impressive for a debut." "Mojo"s Jenny Bulley praised "Little Earthquakes" as a "remarkable, idiosyncratic" debut revealing "a singular creative force from the outset", while "PopMatters"s Alex Ramon stated that it "immediately demonstrates her ability to go right to the heart of an emotional experience and powerfully communicate it through a variety of musical styles." Barry Walters of "Pitchfork" cited "Little Earthquakes" and its follow-up "Under the Pink" as Amos' "milestones" and wrote that "the legacy of these milestones linger over today's underground", citing a number of acts who "all wear their sensitivities as strengths as she did."


title: Little Earthquakes

text: In a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter, singer Justin Timberlake expressed his immense admiration for "Little Earthquakes". Timberlake said, "That album changed my life. So [expletive] good."


title: Little Earthquakes

text: In 2015, "Little Earthquakes" received a deluxe edition which including a bonus disc consisting of B-sides and previously unreleased live tracks. Additionally, in 2022, a graphic novelization of the album's songs and its B-sides was released.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Salvation Mountain is a hillside visionary environment created by local resident Leonard Knight (1931–2014) in the California Desert area of Imperial County, north of Calipatria, northeast of Niland, near the Slab City squatter/art commune, and several miles from the Salton Sea.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: The artwork is made of adobe bricks, discarded tires and windows, automobile parts and thousands of gallons of paint. It encompasses numerous murals and areas painted with Christian sayings and Bible verses, though its philosophy was built around the Sinner's Prayer.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: The Folk Art Society of America declared it "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection" in the year 2000. In an address to the United States Congress on May 15, 2002, California Senator Barbara Boxer described it as "a unique and visionary sculpture... a national treasure... profoundly strange and beautifully accessible, and worthy of the international acclaim it receives".


title: Salvation Mountain

text: In December 2011, the 80-year-old Knight was placed in a long-term care facility in El Cajon for dementia. Leonard Knight died on February 10, 2014, in El Cajon. He was able to visit Salvation Mountain for the last time in May 2013; the visit was recorded by KPBS (TV).


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Concern was raised in 2012 for the future of the site, which requires constant upkeep due to the harsh desert environment. Many visitors were donating paint to the project, and a group of volunteers worked to protect and maintain the site. In February 2011, a public charity, Salvation Mountain, Inc., was established to support the project. In 2013, the Annenberg Foundation donated $32,000 to Salvation Mountain Inc. for materials and equipment to "improve security and strengthen operations". A 2014 article stated that Salvation Mountain Inc. was operated by the nine volunteer members of its board.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Knight was born on November 1, 1931, outside Burlington, Vermont, and had served in the Korean War. In the 1970s, Knight had the idea to paint the Sinner's Prayer on a hot air balloon – reading "GOD IS LOVE" in bright red on a white fabric. He built one out of patchwork materials & a stove, but it would not fly. By 1984, Knight had discovered Slab City – a transient & retiree commune – and decided to leave a 'small monument' out of concrete and paint. Over five years, the project grew.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: The current Salvation Mountain is actually the second construction to occupy the site; Knight began the first Salvation Mountain in 1984. A rainstorm caused a crack in 1989 which caused it to collapse. Knight was not discouraged; he rather saw it as God's way of letting him know the Mountain was not safe. He began work on the current Salvation Mountain "with more smarts" – such as better materials and engineering, including adobe mixed with straw. After completion, the "mountain" was several stories high and was about a hundred yards wide.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: In 1998, Knight wanted to expand the mountain. He gathered ideas from the Navajo who settled in the area around Salvation Mountain. Their pueblitos inspired Knight and he then began forming the Hogan. It is a dome-like structure made of adobe and straw that insulates from heat. Knight intended to live in it, though he always preferred to live in a shack on the back of his truck, and did so for 27 years. For a long period, he had help with the project from a friend, Bill Ammon ("Builder Bill"), of Slab City.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Knight was known for giving free tours to every visitor at Salvation Mountain. An article about Leonard Knight stated that he was a "visionary American folk artist" whose message was "unconditional love to humankind". Knight "arrived accidentally ... [but] immediately recognized an opportunity to continue his large-scale gospel message. He made a mountain with his bare hands. Leonard built Salvation Mountain".


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Knight also began another formation, what he liked to call "the museum". It is modeled after the semi-inflated hot air balloon Knight tried to create before Salvation Mountain; the balloon is now on view at the American Visionary Art Museum. The museum is a semi-dome structure in the mountain that contains several small items given to him by friends and visitors. Each item has a significance and, more often than not, visitors seek out Salvation Mountain to pray and leave an item at the mountain as symbolism of giving themselves to God. The museum is held up by adobe and straw, but also by car parts and a tangle of trees that twist within the dome and reach through the top.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Over the last ten years of his life, Knight planned to repaint the mountain twice a year to ensure that the paint layer would be very thick. He was unable to continue this because of an injury sustained in 2011. Afterwards, a public charity, Salvation Mountain, Inc., was established to continue this maintenance, and , still operates.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: Leonard Knight was featured in Sean Penn's "Into the Wild", released in 2007. Knight died in 2014. An obituary of Knight stated that he "spent almost 30 years building the colorful mountain in the Imperial Valley desert, just outside of Niland, Calif. Built out of adobe and donated paint, Knight worked on the mountain all day, every day. He even slept at the mountain's base in the back of a pick-up truck, with no electricity or running water. He bathed in the nearby natural hot springs."


title: Salvation Mountain

text: A "National Geographic" article published after Knight's death provided this insight into the creator of Salvation Mountain."A visionary ... Leonard worked beyond our concept of time, slowly and methodically without ever wandering from his path. His sole purpose in this endeavor was to spread the message that 'God is Love'. He shared this with everyone who came to the mountain ..."The work still stands as a 50 ft-tall piece of religious folk art, and for Slab City, "an unofficial centrepiece for the community and [cementing] the area's anarchic creative identity", according to a 2020 report.


title: Salvation Mountain

text: In July 1994, Imperial County hired a toxic waste specialist to test the soils around Salvation Mountain, with results showing high levels of lead toxicity. Knight and his supporters gathered signatures for a second test to be done by an independent party of his choosing. That test came back negative, supporting Knight's claim that he used non-toxic paints and that there were no toxins in the soil. However Knight's claim of using latex paint is still concerning. The Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center cites latex paint as, “Highly toxic to the environment. It harms fish and wildlife, and contaminates the food chain if poured down a storm drain. It can also pollute groundwater if dumped on the ground.”


title: American eel

text: The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. Freshwater eels are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. The American eel has a slender, snake-like body that is covered with a mucus layer, which makes the eel appear to be naked and slimy despite the presence of minute scales. A long dorsal fin runs from the middle of the back and is continuous with a similar ventral fin. Pelvic fins are absent, and relatively small pectoral fins can be found near the midline, followed by the head and gill covers. Variations exist in coloration, from olive green, brown shading to greenish-yellow and light gray or white on the belly. Eels from clear water are often lighter than those from dark, tannic acid streams.


title: American eel

text: The eel lives in fresh water and estuaries and only leaves these habitats to enter the Atlantic Ocean to make its spawning migration to the Sargasso Sea. Spawning takes place far offshore, where the eggs hatch. The female can lay up to 4 million buoyant eggs and dies after egg-laying. After the eggs hatch and the early-stage larvae develop into leptocephali, the young eels move toward North America, where they metamorphose into glass eels and enter freshwater systems where they grow as yellow eels until they begin to mature.


title: American eel

text: The American eel is found along the Atlantic coast including Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson River and as far north as the Saint Lawrence River region. It is also present in the river systems of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in some areas further south. Like all anguillid eels, American eels hunt predominantly at night, and during the day they hide in mud, sand, or gravel very close to shore, at depths of roughly 5 to 6 feet. They feed on crustaceans, aquatic insects, small insects, and probably any aquatic organisms that they can find and eat.


title: American eel

text: American eels are economically important in various areas along the East Coast as bait for fishing for sport fishes such as the striped bass, or as a food fish in some areas. Their recruitment stages, the glass eels, are also caught and sold for use in aquaculture, although this is now restricted in most areas.


title: American eel

text: Eels were once an abundant species in rivers, and were an important fishery for aboriginal people. The construction of hydroelectric dams has blocked their migrations and locally extirpated eels in many watersheds. For example, in Canada, the vast numbers of eels in the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers have dwindled.


title: American eel

text: The American eel "Anguilla rostrata" was first described in 1817 by Lesueur. "Anguilla" is Latin for eel, and "rostrata" is a Latin word that can mean either "beaked or curved" or "long nose". , .


title: American eel

text: American eels can grow to in length and to in weight. Females are generally larger than males, lighter in color, with smaller eyes and higher fins. The body is elongate and snake-like. Its dorsal and anal fins are confluent with the rudimentary caudal fin. It lacks ventral fins but pectoral fins are present. The lateral line is well-developed and complete. The head is long and conical, with rather small, well-developed eyes. The mouth is terminal with jaws that are not particularly elongated. The teeth are small, pectinate or setiform in several series on the jaws and the vomer. Minute teeth also present on the pharyngeal bones, forming a patch on the upper pharyngeals. Tongue present with thick lips that are attached by a frenum in front. Nostrils are superior and well separated. Gill openings are partly below pectoral fins, relatively well-developed and well separated from one another. Inner gill slits are wide.


title: American eel

text: The scales are small, rudimentary, cycloid, relatively well embedded below the epidermis and therefore often difficult to see without magnification. The scales are not arranged in overlapping rows as they often are in other fish species but are rather irregular, in some places distributed like "parquet flooring". In general, one row of scales lies at right angle to the next, although the rows immediately above and below the lateral line lie at an angle of approximately 45°. Unlike other bony fishes, the first scales do not develop immediately after the larval stage but appear much later on.


title: American eel

text: Several morphological features distinguish the American eel from other eel species. Tesch (1977) described three morphological characteristics which persist through all stages from larvae to maturing eels: the total number of vertebrae (mean 107.2), the number of myomeres (mean 108.2), and the distance between the origin of the dorsal fin to the anus (mean 9.1% of total length).


title: American eel

text: The distribution of the American eel encompasses all accessible freshwater (streams and lakes), estuaries and coastal marine waters across a latitudinal range of 5 to 62 N. Their natural range includes the eastern North Atlantic Ocean coastline from Venezuela to Greenland and including Iceland. Inland, this species extends into the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River and its tributaries as far upstream as Minnesota and Wisconsin


title: American eel

text: Nonindigenous occurrences of this species in the United States were recorded from Lake Mead on the Colorado River and on the Arizona border. It was stocked on a few occasions in Sacramento and San Francisco bay, California, in the late 1800s. No apparent evidence of survival on these occasions was noted. It was also stocked and unintentionally introduced in various states, including Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, . Stockings of this species also occurred in Utah in the late 1800s, but soon disappeared.


title: American eel

text: Eels are bottom dwellers. They hide in burrows, tubes, snags, masses of plants, other types of shelters. They are found in a variety of habitats including streams, rivers, and muddy or silt-bottomed lakes during their freshwater stage, as well as oceanic waters, coastal bays and estuaries. Individuals during the continental stage occasionally migrate between fresh, salt and brackish water habitats and have varying degrees of residence time in each. During winter, eels burrow under the mud and enter a state of torpor (or complete inactivity) at temperatures below 5 °C. although they may occasionally be active during this period. Temperature requirements are suggested to be flexible. It has been found that American eels during elver stage can survive temperature as low as −0.8 °C. Barila and Stauffer (1980) reported a final mean temperature preference at 16.7 °C. Karlsson et al. (1984) disagreed with this interpretation and found the final temperature preference of 17.4 ± 2.0 °C with a 95% confidence interval.


title: American eel

text: Seasonal patterns described by Fletcher and Anderson (1972) generalize annual movements from freshwater to estuaries and coastal bays to feed during spring, then either a return during the fall to overwinter (juvenile and immature adults), or a southward migration to the spawning grounds (silver eels Continental phase eels appear highly plastic in habitat use. Eels are extremely mobile and may access habitats that appear unavailable to them, using small watercourses or moving through wet grasses. Small eels (<100 mm total length) are able to climb and may succeed in passing over vertical barriers. Habitat availability may be reduced by factors such as habitat deterioration, barriers to upstream migration (larger eels), and barriers (i.e. turbines) to downstream migration that can result in mortality.


title: American eel

text: The American eel's complex life history begins far offshore in the Sargasso Sea in a semelparous and panmictic reproduction. In 1926 Marie Poland Fish described the collection of eggs that she observed hatch into eels, which she expanded in her taxonomic description of the larval egg development. From there, young eels drift with ocean currents and then migrate inland into streams, rivers and lakes. This journey may take many years to complete with some eels travelling as far as 6,000 kilometers. After reaching these freshwater bodies they feed and mature for approximately 10 to 25 years before migrating back to the Sargasso Sea in order to complete their life cycle.


title: American eel

text: The eggs hatch within a week of deposition in the Sargasso Sea. McCleave et al. (1987) suggested that hatching peaks in February and may continue until April. Wang and Tzeng (2000) proposed, on the basis of otolith back-calculations, that hatching occurs from March to October and peaks in August. However, Cieri and McCleave (2000) argued that these back-calculated spawning dates do not match collection evidence and may be explained by resorption. Fecundity for many eels is between about 0.5 to 4.0 million eggs, with larger individuals releasing as many as 8.5 million eggs. The diameter of egg is about 1.1 mm. Fertilization is external, and adult eels are presumed to die after spawning. None has been reported to migrate up rivers.


title: American eel

text: The leptocephalus is the larval form, a stage strikingly different from the adult form the eels will grow into. Leptocephali are transparent with a small pointed head and large teeth and are frequently described "leaf-like". The laterally compressed larvae are passively transported west and north to the coastal waters on the eastern coast of North America, by the surface currents of the Gulf Stream system, a journey that will last between 7 and 12 months. Vertical distribution is usually restricted to the upper 350 m of the ocean. Growth has been evaluated at about 0.21 to 0.38 mm per day.


title: American eel

text: As they enter the continental shelf, leptocephali metamorphose into glass eels (juveniles), which are transparent and possess the typical elongate and serpentine eel shape. The term glass eel refers to all developmental stages between the end of metamorphosis and full pigmentation. Metamorphosis occurs when leptocephali are about 55 to 65 mm long. Mean age at this metamorphosis has been evaluated at 200 days and estuarine arrival at 255 days; giving 55 days between glass eel metamorphosis and estuarine arrival. Young eels use selective tidal stream transport to move up estuaries. As they enter coastal waters, the animals essentially transform from a pelagic oceanic organism to a benthic continental organism.


title: American eel

text: Glass eels become progressively pigmented as they approach the shore; these eels are termed elvers. The melanic pigmentation process occurs when the young eels are in coastal waters. At this phase of the life cycle, the eel is still sexually undifferentiated. The elver stage lasts about three to twelve months. Elvers that enter fresh water may spend much of this period migrating upstream. Elver influx is linked to increased temperature and reduced flow early in the migration season, and to tidal cycle influence later on.


title: American eel

text: This is the sexually immature adult stage of American eel. They begin to develop a yellow color and a creamy or yellowish belly. In this phase, the eels are still mainly nocturnal. Those remained in estuarine environment continue to go through their life cycle more quickly than those traveled into freshwater. Those in freshwater, however, tend to live longer and attain much larger sizes. Sexual differentiation occurs during the yellow stage and appears to be strongly influenced by environmental conditions. Krueger and Oliveira (1999) suggested that density was the primary environmental factor influencing the sex ratio of eels in a river, with high densities promoting the production of males. From life history traits of four rivers of Maine, Oliveira and McCleave (2000) evaluated that sexual differentiation was completed by 270 mm total length.


title: American eel

text: As the maturation process proceeds, the yellow eel metamorphoses into a silver eel. The silvering metamorphosis results in morphological and physiological modifications that prepare the animal to migrate back to the Sargasso Sea. The eel acquires a greyish colour with a whitish or cream coloration ventrally. The digestive tract degenerates, the pectoral fins enlarge to improve swimming capacity, eye diameter expands and visual pigments in the retina adapt to the oceanic environment, the integument thickens, percentage of somatic lipids increases to supply energy for migrating and spawning, gonadosomatic index and oocyte diameter increase, gonadotropin hormone (GTH-II) production increases, and osmoregulatory physiology changes.


title: American eel

text: Eels are nocturnal and most of their feeding therefore occurs at night. Having a keen sense of smell, eels most likely depend on scent to find food. The American eel is a generalist species which colonizes a wide range of habitats. Their diet is therefore extremely diverse and includes most of the aquatic animals sharing the same environment.


title: American eel

text: Little is known about the food habits of leptocephali. Recent studies on other eel species (Otake et al. 1993; Mochioka and Iwamizu 1996) suggest that leptocephali do not feed on zooplankton but rather consume detrital particles such as marine snow and fecal pellets or particles such as discarded houses of larvacean tunicates.


title: American eel

text: Based on laboratory experiments on European glass eels, Lecomte-Finiger (1983) reported that they were morphologically and physiologically unable to feed. However, Tesch (1977) found that elvers at a later stage of pigmentation, stage VIA4, were feeding. Stomach examination of elvers caught during their upstream migration in the Petite Trinité River on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence revealed that elvers fed primarily on insect larvae.


title: American eel

text: The yellow eel is essentially a nocturnal benthic omnivore. Prey includes fishes, molluscs, bivalves, crustaceans, insect larvae, surface-dwelling insects, worms, frogs and plants. The eel prefers small prey animals which can easily be attacked. Food type varies with body size. Stomachs of eels less than 40 cm and captured in streams contained mainly aquatic insect larvae, whereas larger eels fed predominantly on fishes and crayfishes. Insect abundance decreased in larger eels. The eel diet adapts to seasonal changes and the immediate environment. Feeding activity decreases or stops during the winter, and food intake ceases as eels physiologically prepare for the spawning migration.


title: American eel

text: Little information about predation on eels has been published. It was reported that elvers and small yellow eels are prey of largemouth bass and striped bass, although they were not a major parts of these predators' diet. Leptocephali, glass eels, elvers, and small yellow eels are likely to be eaten by various predatory fishes. Older eels are also known to eat incoming glass eels. They also fall prey to other species of eels, bald eagles, gulls, as well as other fish-eating birds. American eels also make up the entirety of the diet of adult rainbow snakes, lending the species one of their common names; eel moccasin.


title: American eel

text: In the 1970s, the annual North Atlantic harvest averaged 125,418 kg, with an average value of $84,000. In 1977, the eel landings from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts were about 79,700, 2,700, and 143,300 kg, valued at $263,000, $5,000, and $170,000, respectively (US Department of Commerce 1984)


title: American eel

text: During the 1980s and early 1990s, the American eel was one of the top three species in commercial value to Ontario's fishing industry. At its peak, the eel harvest was valued at $600,000 and, in some years, eel accounted for almost half of the value of the entire commercial fish harvest from Lake Ontario. The commercial catch of American eel has declined from approximately 223,000 kilograms (kg) in the early 1980s to 11,000 kg in 2002.


title: American eel

text: According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the American eel is at very high risk of extinction in the wild.


title: American eel

text: Substantial decline in numbers and fishery landings of American eels over their range in eastern Canada and the US was noted, raising concerns over the status of this species. The number of juvenile eels in the Lake Ontario area decreased from 935,000 in 1985 to about 8,000 in 1993 and was approaching zero levels in 2001. Rapid declines were also recorded in Virginia, as well as in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in Canada.


title: American eel

text: Because of its complex life cycle, the species face a broad range of threats, some of which are specific to certain growth stage. Being catadromous, the eels' reproductivity success depends heavily on free downstream passage for spawning migration. It also depends on the availability of diverse habitats for growth and maturation.


title: American eel

text: Sex ratio in the population can also be affected because males and females tend to utilize different habitats. Impacts on certain regions may greatly impact the number of either sex.


title: American eel

text: Despite being able to live in a wide range of temperatures and different levels of salinity, American eels are very sensitive to low dissolved oxygen level, which is typically found below dams. Contaminations of heavy metals, dioxins, chlordane, and polychlorinated biphenyls as well as pollutants from nonpoint source can bioaccumulate within the fat tissues of the eels, causing dangerous toxicity and reduced productivity. This problem is exacerbated due to the high fat content of eels.


title: American eel

text: Construction of dams and other irrigation facilities seriously decreases habitat availability and diversity for the eels. Dredging can affect migration, population distribution and prey availability. Overfishing or excessive harvesting of juveniles can also negatively impact local populations.


title: American eel

text: Other natural threats come from interspecific competition with exotic species like the flathead catfish ("Pylodictis olivaris") and blue catfish ("Ictalurus furcatus)", pathogens and parasites, and changes in oceanographic conditions that can alter currents—this potentially changes larval transport and migration of juveniles back to freshwater streams.


title: American eel

text: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed the status of the American eel both in 2007 and in 2015, finding both times that Endangered Species Act protection for the American eel is not warranted.


title: American eel

text: The Canadian province of Ontario has cancelled the commercial fishing quota since 2004. Eel sport fishery has been closed. Efforts have been made to improve the passage in which eels migrate across the hydroelectric dams on St. Lawrence River.


title: American eel

text: In 2010, Greenpeace International has added the American eel to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries."


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: Majid Al Futtaim () is an Emirati holding company based in Dubai. As of 2015, it owned and operated shopping malls, retail, and leisure establishments in the Middle East and North Africa with operations in 13 countries including UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Pakistan, Iraq, Armenia, Iran (through Hyperstar, a Carrefour subsidiary company), and Georgia. The group was established by Majid Al Futtaim in 1992 and manages three major operating subsidiaries: Majid Al Futtaim Properties, Majid Al Futtaim Retail, and Majid Al Futtaim Ventures.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In December 2018, group founder, Majid Al Futtaim was conferred the Royal Commendation Order by the Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said al Said.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In September 2022, the company was listed by Forbes in the Middle East's Top 100 Arab Family Businesses, ranking sixth.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: Majid Al Futtaim Properties develops, owns and manages shopping malls and hotels throughout the MENA region. The hotels business unit focuses on the development and asset management of hotels connected to or close to the company's shopping malls and within its master-planned communities. It owned and operated twelve hotels as of 2015. In 2017, Majid Al Futtaim Properties reported a profit of 2.19 billion dirhams ($596.25 million), down 7% on 2016.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: MAF aims at creating fully integrated communities which integrate Majid Al Futtaim’s residential, commercial, retail, leisure and entertainment facilities.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: They partnered with the french Franchise Carrefour in 1995 In June 2017, MAF announced it bought 26 Géant hypermarkets in the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait. MAF acquired the Géant franchise from BMA International. In February 2018, Egyptians Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and the National Service Project of the Armed Forces signed a cooperation protocol with Majid Al-Futtaim in the aim to establish 100 Carrefour retail stores in different governorates of Egypt. In December 2018, Majid Al Futtaim announced their plans to rebrand of Hyperstar to Carrefour across Pakistan. A new Carrefour is expected to open in the Mall of Defence in Lahore in early 2019.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: The company introduced the world's first sail-through supermarket "Bites and More by the Shore", in December 2018. The supermarket operates off the coast of Dubai in order to cater to customers on yachts, boats and jet skis. In January 2019, Majid Al Futtaim Retail signs a contract with Nshama, a UAE-based developer of master-planned communities, to open a new 8,000 sq ft Carrefour Hypermarket in Town Square Dubai.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In January 2019, speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Alain Bejjani (CEO) announced the group’s intention to introduce a Saudi-only workforce in the Carrefour supermarkets across the country. The same year, MAF launched its Retail Business School, which focuses on programmes for employees running its Carrefour operations. Majid al Futtaim currently operates 90 hypermarkets and 120 supermarkets in 15 countries.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In the first half of 2018, Majid Al Futtaim Retail launched its largest regional distribution center in Dubai’s National Industries Park. At an investment of over US$80m, the facility can handle up to 100,000 orders per day.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: The company has invested heavily in data analysis and digital capabilities as well as relevant companies and start-ups that serve multiples channels. In December 2017, it launched a School of Analytics and Technology, along with A², its Advanced Analytics Centre of Excellence. The same year, its company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Smart Dubai to help improve the emirate’s data analytics capabilities.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In 2017, Majid Al Futtaim moved into the Home furnishing market with a franchise deal with homeware brand Maisons du Monde.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: Majid Al Futtaim Ventures is a group of companies that offer amenities such as cinemas, leisure and entertainment, financial services, fashion and healthcare and JVs in facility management and food and beverages. Majid Al Futtaim Ventures is a unit of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: Majid Al Futtaim Leisure and Entertainment operates Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort with 22,500 square meters of indoor ski area at the Mall of the Emirates, as well as 18 "Magic Planet" family entertainment centres. In addition, Magic Planet operates a facility within City Centre Mirdif, a temperature controlled indoor and outdoor water park, and the first Lego store in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: The firm has 318 cinema screens in various Middle Eastern countries. Its cinemas in the Mall of the Emirates are considered as the flagship venture with 24 screens – including an IMAX with Laser, VOX 4DX auditorium, a luxury cinema experience called “ThEATre by Rhodes” (collaboration with Michelin Star Chef Gary Rhodes OBE) and VOX Kids. The 100,000sq ft venue became the largest complex in the Middle East after its re-launch in September 28, 2015.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In May 2018, VOX Cinemas opened the first four-screen multiplex in Saudi Arabia, at the company’s new entertainment complex in Riyadh Park, two weeks after the first public cinema screening in Saudi Arabia for 35 years.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: At the end of 2019, VOX Cinemas, part of the Majid Al Futtaim Entertainment group, expects to open a multi-screen venue at the Wafi Mall in Dubai. In January 2019, VOX cinemas opens its doors in Jeddah at the Red Sea Mall.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: After decades of cinema ban, Cameron Mitchell, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Cinemas, said that MAF is contributing to the Saudi Vision 2030, and the group announces in January 2019 VOX's rollout of 300 new screens in the Kingdom within 18 months as part of a $4 billion investment plan.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: In 2013, the group established a joint venture agreement with Gourmet Gulf, a food and beverage retail company. Majid Al Futtaim now co-owns the development and franchise rights to food brands such as Dalloyau, California Pizza Kitchen, YO! Sushi, Texas de Brazil, in more than 20 food and beverage outlets in the region.


title: Majid Al Futtaim Group

text: Previously "MAF Dalkia" (a partnership between Majid Al Futtaim Ventures and Dalkia). In 2015, MAF Dalkia Middle East rebranded its identity under the name of ‘Enova’, (a joint venture company between Majid Al Futtaim and Veolia).


title: Chocolate (South Korean TV series)

text: Chocolate () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Yoon Kye-sang, Ha Ji-won, Jang Seung-jo, Teo Yoo and Min Jin-woong. Produced by JYP Pictures, it aired on JTBC from November 29, 2019 to January 18, 2020.


title: Chocolate (South Korean TV series)

text: The story of a man who became a neurosurgeon though he dreamt of becoming a cook, and a woman who became a cook because of him.


title: Chocolate (South Korean TV series)

text: "Chocolate" marks screenwriter Lee Kyung-hee and director Lee Hyung-min's first collaboration in 15 years, after having worked together on the critically acclaimed television series "I'm Sorry, I Love You" (2004).


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: In the "Black Clover" anime adaptation, he is voiced by Gakuto Kajiwara in Japanese and Dallas Reid in English. Asta was originally the subject of mixed responses due to his characterization coming across as archetype and the tone used by Kajiwara. However, he was still received positively by critics for his determination and relationships with other characters in the series.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: Asta was originally created as Asta Staria in the 2014 one-shot in Jump NEXT! His name comes from a flower that is derived from the Greek word that means "star". Asta's personality is inspired by his creator Yūki Tabata's. Gakuto Kajiwara, his Japanese voice actor, describes him as "pulling the people around him into his life, but in a positive way. His enthusiasm, strong will, and his desire to never give up end up moving the hearts of those around him. Even if no one ever wanted to acknowledge it, people would end up wanting to see him and acknowledge him because of his determination and strong will, and he just kept flipping how people felt about him. I don't think this just applies in the story. I think as readers of the manga, he gives us the same kind of power. I think just by seeing him, we're able to find hope and energy in our own daily lives."


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: Asta is first seen in "Black Clover" as a baby left at Hage church with Yuno. He was born without any magic in the Clover Kingdom, where all its citizens are mages. Despite this disability, he aspires to become the Wizard King to end the discrimination within the country. After saving Yuno from a thief as children, the two boys make a promise to become rivals in becoming the Wizard King. At the annual grimoire ceremony for fifteen-year olds in the kingdom, Asta is not chosen by a grimoire. When Yuno is attacked by the thief Revchi for his four-leaf clover grimoire, Asta tries to stop Revchi but is beaten and learns that he has no magic at all. Nearly despairing, Yuno's acknowledgement of Asta as his rival gives him the motivation to keep fighting. He is then chosen by a five-leaf grimoire, from which he can wield a giant sword with the power of anti-magic. Asta defeats Revchi and reaffirms his promise to compete with Yuno to become the Wizard King. At the magic knight selection exam, Asta earns the respect of Yami Sukehiro and is recruited into the Black Bulls, the worst magic knights squad, with fellow newcomer Noelle Silva.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: Now a magic knight, Asta completes missions assigned to him. He is assigned to explore a dungeon, where he reunites with Yuno and his group and must deal with a group from the neighboring Diamond Kingdom. There, he acquires a second anti-magic sword and eventually defeats the Diamond mage Mars with Yuno. Afterwards, at the knight-promotion ceremony he is looked down upon by the higher-born magic knights. After Noelle is humiliated by her siblings, Asta asserts that he will attain merit and become the Wizard King to silence them all. He later helps against the invasion of the Royal Capital by the Eye of the Midnight Sun. While on a break from missions a village, he encounters members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun who are abducting children. There, his captain Yami comes for help and teaches Asta how to sense ki. The other magic knight captains come as reinforcements, and the Eye of the Midnight Sun's leader Licht and the Third Eye escape.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: On the Black Bulls' mission to retrieve a magic stone from the Underwater Temple, Asta encounters Third Eye member Vetto, who crushes and curses Asta's arms with forbidden magic. After a grueling battle, he and the other Black Bulls defeat Vetto. Asta's arms are unable to be healed, with the possibility that he may be unable to wield his swords again. Nearly falling into a depression, he asserts that he will defy fate if he has to, to achieve his dream. His squadmate Vanessa Enoteca goes to the Forest of Witches and pleads with the Witch Queen to heal Asta. After she does so, he goes on to help defeat Third Eye member Fana and Diamond soldier Ladros, using his new Black form from the Witch Queen using her blood magic to increase the anti-magic circulation in his body. However, the Witch Queen uses her magic to command Asta to kill his friends, which is stopped by Vanessa using her Red Thread of Fate. The queen admits defeat, giving Asta and the others a magic stone. He later learns to better control his Black form during training at a volcano.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: At the Royal Knights exam, Asta confronts Langris Vaude, who nearly kills his half-brother and Asta's squadmate Finral Roulacase. In the semi-finals match, Asta defeats Langris with their crystals destroyed at the same time and the match ending in a draw. Asta is recruited into the Royal Knights squad. When the elves are reincarnated, Asta and Yuno fight the revived Licht. During the fight, Licht reclaims one of his swords with Asta taking a sword from Licht that allows him to remove the elf soul from their host body before the duo are defeated. Asta helps defeat and dispel the souls of reincarnated elves throughout the kingdom. At the Shadow Palace, Asta brings Patry out of his despair after the true mastermind of the elf massacre is revealed to be the devil Zagred, convincing him to atone for his misdeeds and help defeat their common enemy. With the help of Yuno, Yami, and Secre, Asta destroys the devil's heart. In the aftermath, Asta and Secre are made scapegoats by the kingdom's Magic Parliament for the elf reincarnation. Through a decree, Asta is put under the Black Bulls' custody and assigned to investigate devils. Their investigations lead the magic knights to ally with the Heart Kingdom against the Spade Kingdom, with Asta training for six months.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: To compensate for having no magic, since childhood Asta has intensely trained his body to have incredible physical strength. This strength allows him to wield the heavy anti-magic swords, which allow him to cancel out magic. The Demon-Slayer Sword is able to enlarge using anti-magic and reflect back spells. The Demon-Dweller Sword can unleash flying anti-magic slashes and absorb other magic to release as beams. The Demon-Destroyer Sword has a "causality break" effect that nullifies the effects of magic on an object. His "Black Asta" form allows him to use larger amounts of anti-magic for a limited period of time. He is taught by his captain Yami how to sense "ki", detecting life force to react and attack faster.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: Asta had consistently ranked first in the yearly Japanese "Black Clover" popularity polls, placing first in the second poll with 3,064 votes and in the fourth poll with 4,296 votes. In the fifth poll, he placed second with 67,695 votes. Asta and Yami's fight with Dante was also listed as the sixth best anime fight from 2021 by Crunchyroll. From the album "Trip at Knight", the song "Demon Time" by American rappers Trippie Redd and Ski Mask the Slump God references Asta.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: Early responses to Asta's character were mixed. In his review of Volume 1, Leroy Douresseaux of "ComicBookBin" stated Asta's "scrappy determination and his willingness to learn about new people, places, and things make him an attractive character. I think many readers can identify with Asta, who has nothing and comes from nothing, but does not accept his limitations." Anime News Network found Asta as an underdog archetype similarly based by Izuku Midoriya from "My Hero Academia" and Naruto Uzumaki from "Naruto" with his Japanese voice actor using a tone that comes across as annoying to the audience. His early portrayal also noted similarities with the narrative of "One Piece" and "Fairy Tail" due to having similar goals and that he has a tendency to yell several times. IGN also compared his story with Izuku Midoriya and wanted the narrative to be more unique as a result. He also found Kajiwara's performance as annoying based on his tendency to yell. Another reviewer from the same site also felt that was the Japanese actor was so unbearable that the English portrayal of the character by Dallas Reid being more tolerable as a result.


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: Henry Ma of "Ka Leo O Hawaii" praised Asta's unique powers, courageous nature, and relationships with the diverse cast of the story. Writing for Anime News Network, Rachel Trujillo noted Asta's mentorship relationship with Yami Sukehiro and overcoming his trials and tribulations as highlights of the series. Reviewing Volume 26 of the manga, LaNeysha Campbell praised Asta and Yami's team up against Dante because "the moment makes a touching and impactful statement about Yami and Asta's relationship as mentor and mentee. Even though the panels of the moment use very little dialogue, it still manages to say a lot about how special the bond they share is." Alex Osborn of IGN noted that Asta's personality could be obnoxious, but stated "his diligent and heartfelt pursuit to achieve his dreams is something that I can get behind." Daniel Dockery of Crunchyroll praised how Asta will "always keep pushing and working and trying and yelling."


title: Asta (Black Clover)

text: "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama praised the character, stating "I really liked what I saw in "Black Clover". The author has a great sense of impact and the protagonist is very charismatic."


title: Homo economicus

text: The term Homo economicus, or economic man, is the portrayal of humans as agents who are consistently rational and narrowly self-interested, and who pursue their subjectively defined ends optimally. It is a word play on "Homo sapiens", used in some economic theories and in pedagogy.


title: Homo economicus

text: In game theory, "Homo economicus" is often modelled through the assumption of perfect rationality. It assumes that agents always act in a way that maximize utility as a consumer and profit as a producer, and are capable of arbitrarily complex deductions towards that end. They will always be capable of thinking through all possible outcomes and choosing that course of action which will result in the best possible result.


title: Homo economicus

text: The rationality implied in "Homo economicus" does not restrict what sort of preferences are admissible. Only naive applications of the "Homo economicus" model assume that agents know what is best for their long-term physical and mental health. For example, an agent's utility function could be linked to the perceived utility of other agents (such as one's husband or children), making "Homo economicus" compatible with other models such as "Homo reciprocans," which emphasizes human cooperation.


title: Homo economicus

text: As a theory on human conduct, it contrasts to the concepts of behavioral economics, which examines cognitive biases and other irrationalities, and to bounded rationality, which assumes that practical elements such as cognitive and time limitations restrict the rationality of agents.


title: Homo economicus

text: The term "economic man" was used for the first time in the late nineteenth century by critics of John Stuart Mill's work on political economy. Below is a passage from Mill's work that critics referred to:


title: Homo economicus

text: [Political economy] does not treat the whole of man's nature as modified by the social state, nor of the whole conduct of man in society. It is concerned with him solely as a being who desires to possess wealth, and who is capable of judging the comparative efficacy of means for obtaining that end.


title: Homo economicus

text: Later in the same work, Mill stated that he was proposing "an arbitrary definition of man, as a being who inevitably does that by which he may obtain the greatest amount of necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries, with the smallest quantity of labour and physical self-denial with which they can be obtained."


title: Homo economicus

text: Adam Smith, in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", had claimed that individuals have sympathy for the well-being of others. On the other hand, in "The Wealth of Nations", Smith wrote:


title: Homo economicus

text: It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.


title: Homo economicus

text: This comment seems to suggest a sort of rational, self-interested, labor-averse individual. However, in Book V, Chapter I, Smith argues, "The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become." Smith not only excoriates division of labor and "Homo economicus" but even prefigures Marx's theory of alienation of labor. Thus, his opening paragraph sets up the standard conception of work specialization only to shatter it later on.


title: Homo economicus

text: The early role of Homo Economicus within neoclassical theory was summarised to include a general objective of discovering laws and principles to accelerate further growth within the national economy and the welfare of ordinary citizens. These laws and principles were determined by two governing factors, natural and social. It had been found to be the foundation of neoclassical theory of the firm which assumed that individual agents would act rationally amongst other rational individuals. In which Adam Smith explains that the actions of those that are rational and self-interested under homo economicus promotes the general good overall which was understood as the efficient allocation of material wealth. However, social scientists had doubted the actual importance of income and wealth to overall happiness in societies.


title: Homo economicus

text: The term had initially been used to criticise the nature of the economic agent that Smith and Mill had illustrated heavily in their writings. It had been stated that from an analytical perspective, Mill’s contribution to the development of Homo Economicus was one of great importance where he was able to define the political economy with differing aspects of production and the distribution of wealth. However, Adam Smith had been the first to demonstrate that under appropriate policies and an economic system that national prosperity could occur due to the selfishness of individuals.


title: Homo economicus

text: Economists in the late 19th century—such as Francis Edgeworth, William Stanley Jevons, Léon Walras, and Vilfredo Pareto—built mathematical models on these economic assumptions. In the 20th century, the rational choice theory of Lionel Robbins came to dominate mainstream economics. The term "economic man" then took on a more specific meaning: a person who acted rationally on complete knowledge out of self-interest and the desire for wealth.


title: Homo economicus

text: "Homo economicus" is a term used for an approximation or model of "Homo sapiens" that acts to obtain the highest possible well-being for themself given available information about opportunities and other constraints, both natural and institutional, on their ability to achieve their predetermined goals. This approach has been formalized in certain social sciences models, particularly in economics.


title: Homo economicus

text: "Homo economicus" is seen as "rational" in the sense that well-being as defined by the utility function is optimized given perceived opportunities. That is, the individual seeks to attain very specific and predetermined goals to the greatest extent with the least possible cost. Note that this kind of "rationality" does not say that the individual's actual goals are "rational" in some larger ethical, social, or human sense, only that they try to attain them at minimal cost. Only naïve applications of the "Homo economicus" model assume that this hypothetical individual knows what is best for their long-term physical and mental health and can be relied upon to always make the right decision for themself. See rational choice theory and rational expectations for further discussion; the article on rationality widens the discussion.


title: Homo economicus

text: As in social science, these assumptions are at best approximations. The term is often used derogatorily in academic literature, perhaps most commonly by sociologists, many of whom tend to prefer structural explanations to ones based on rational action by individuals.


title: Homo economicus

text: The use of the Latin form "Homo economicus" is certainly long established; Persky traces it back to Pareto (1906) but notes that it may be older. The English term "economic man" can be found even earlier, in John Kells Ingram's "A History of Political Economy" (1888). The "Oxford English Dictionary (O.E.D.)" cites the use of "Homo oeconomicus" by C. S. Devas in his 1883 work "The Groundwork of Economics" in reference to Mill's writings, as one of a number of phrases that imitate the scientific name for the human species:


title: Homo economicus

text: Note that such forms should logically keep the capital for the "genus" name—"i.e.," "Homo economicus" rather than "homo economicus." Actual usage is inconsistent.


title: Homo economicus

text: Amartya Sen has argued there are grave pitfalls in assuming that rationality is limited to selfish rationality. Economics should build into its assumptions the notion that people can give credible commitments to a course of conduct. He demonstrates the absurdity with the narrowness of the assumptions by some economists with the following example of two strangers meeting on a street.


title: Homo economicus

text: Consequently, the "Homo economicus" assumptions have been criticized not only by economists on the basis of logical arguments, but also on empirical grounds by cross-cultural comparison. Economic anthropologists such as Marshall Sahlins, Karl Polanyi, Marcel Mauss and Maurice Godelier have demonstrated that in traditional societies, choices people make regarding production and exchange of goods follow patterns of reciprocity which differ sharply from what the "Homo economicus" model postulates. Such systems have been termed gift economy rather than market economy. Criticisms of the "Homo economicus" model put forward from the standpoint of ethics usually refer to this traditional ethic of kinship-based reciprocity that held together traditional societies. Philosophers Amartya Sen and Axel Honneth are noted for their criticisms of the normative assumptions made by the self-interested utility function.