title: Wetting

text: The Young equation assumes a perfectly flat and rigid surface often referred to as an ideal surface. In many cases, surfaces are far from this ideal situation, and two are considered here: the case of rough surfaces and the case of smooth surfaces that are still real (finitely rigid). Even in a perfectly smooth surface, a drop will assume a wide spectrum of contact angles ranging from the so-called advancing contact angle, formula_21, to the so-called receding contact angle, formula_22. The equilibrium contact angle (formula_23) can be calculated from formula_21 and formula_22 as was shown by Tadmor as,


title: Wetting

text: The Young–Dupré equation (Thomas Young 1805; Anthanase Dupré and Paul Dupré 1869) dictates that neither γ nor γ can be larger than the sum of the other two surface energies. The consequence of this restriction is the prediction of complete wetting when γ > γ + γ and zero wetting when γ > γ + γ. The lack of a solution to the Young–Dupré equation is an indicator that there is no equilibrium configuration with a contact angle between 0 and 180° for those situations.


title: Wetting

text: When "S" > 0, the liquid wets the surface completely (complete wetting). When "S" < 0, partial wetting occurs.


title: Wetting

text: Combining the spreading parameter definition with the Young relation yields the Young–Dupré equation:


title: Wetting

text: For many surface/adsorbate configurations, surface energy data and experimental observations are unavailable. As wetting interactions are of great importance in various applications, it is often desired to predict and compare the wetting behavior of various material surfaces with particular crystallographic orientations, with relation to water or other adsorbates. This can be done from an atomistic perspective with tools including molecular dynamics and density functional theory. In the theoretical prediction of wetting by "ab initio" approaches such as DFT, ice is commonly substituted for water. This is because DFT calculations are generally conducted assuming conditions of zero thermal movement of atoms, essentially meaning the simulation is conducted at absolute zero. This simplification nevertheless yields results that are relevant for the adsorption of water under realistic conditions and the use of ice for the theoretical simulation of wetting is commonplace.


title: Wetting

text: Unlike ideal surfaces, real surfaces do not have perfect smoothness, rigidity, or chemical homogeneity. Such deviations from ideality result in phenomenon called contact angle hysteresis, which is defined as the difference between the advancing (θ) and receding (θ) contact angles


title: Wetting

text: When the contact angle is between the advancing and receding cases, the contact line is considered to be pinned and hysteretic behaviour can be observed, namely contact angle hysteresis. When these values are exceeded, the displacement of the contact line, such as the one in Figure 3, will take place by either expansion or retraction of the droplet. Figure 6 depicts the advancing and receding contact angles. The advancing contact angle is the maximum stable angle, whereas the receding contact angle is the minimum stable angle. Contact angle hysteresis occurs because many different thermodynamically stable contact angles are found on a nonideal solid. These varying thermodynamically stable contact angles are known as metastable states.


title: Wetting

text: Such motion of a phase boundary, involving advancing and receding contact angles, is known as dynamic wetting. The difference between dynamic and static wetting angles is proportional to the capillary number, formula_31, When a contact line advances, covering more of the surface with liquid, the contact angle is increased and is generally related to the velocity of the contact line. If the velocity of a contact line is increased without bound, the contact angle increases, and as it approaches 180°, the gas phase will become entrained in a thin layer between the liquid and solid. This is a kinetic nonequilibrium effect which results from the contact line moving at such a high speed that complete wetting cannot occur.


title: Wetting

text: A well-known departure from ideal conditions is when the surface of interest has a rough texture. The rough texture of a surface can fall into one of two categories: homogeneous or heterogeneous. A homogeneous wetting regime is where the liquid fills in the grooves of a rough surface. A heterogeneous wetting regime, though, is where the surface is a composite of two types of patches. An important example of such a composite surface is one composed of patches of both air and solid. Such surfaces have varied effects on the contact angles of wetting liquids. Cassie–Baxter and Wenzel are the two main models that attempt to describe the wetting of textured surfaces. However, these equations only apply when the drop size is sufficiently large compared with the surface roughness scale. When the droplet size is comparable to that of the underlying pillars, the effect of line tension should be considered.


title: Wetting

text: The Wenzel model (Robert N. Wenzel, 1936) describes the homogeneous wetting regime, as seen in Figure 7, and is defined by the following equation for the contact angle on a rough surface:


title: Wetting

text: where formula_33 is the apparent contact angle which corresponds to the stable equilibrium state (i.e. minimum free energy state for the system). The roughness ratio, r, is a measure of how surface roughness affects a homogeneous surface. The roughness ratio is defined as the ratio of true area of the solid surface to the apparent area.


title: Wetting

text: θ is the Young contact angle as defined for an ideal surface. Although Wenzel's equation demonstrates the contact angle of a rough surface is different from the intrinsic contact angle, it does not describe contact angle hysteresis.


title: Wetting

text: When dealing with a heterogeneous surface, the Wenzel model is not sufficient. A more complex model is needed to measure how the apparent contact angle changes when various materials are involved. This heterogeneous surface, like that seen in Figure 8, is explained using the Cassie–Baxter equation (Cassie's law):


title: Wetting

text: Here the "r" is the roughness ratio of the wet surface area and "f" is the fraction of solid surface area wet by the liquid. It is important to realize that when "f" = 1 and "r = r", the Cassie–Baxter equations becomes the Wenzel equation. On the other hand, when there are many different fractions of surface roughness, each fraction of the total surface area is denoted by formula_35.


title: Wetting

text: A summation of all formula_35 equals 1 or the total surface. Cassie–Baxter can also be recast in the following equation:


title: Wetting

text: Here formula_38 is the Cassie–Baxter surface tension between liquid and vapor, formula_39 is the solid vapor surface tension of every component, and formula_40 is the solid liquid surface tension of every component. A case that is worth mentioning is when the liquid drop is placed on the substrate and creates small air pockets underneath it. This case for a two-component system is denoted by:


title: Wetting

text: Here the key difference to notice is that there is no surface tension between the solid and the vapor for the second surface tension component. This is because of the assumption that the surface of air that is exposed is under the droplet and is the only other substrate in the system. Subsequently, the equation is then expressed as (1 – "f"). Therefore, the Cassie equation can be easily derived from the Cassie–Baxter equation. Experimental results regarding the surface properties of Wenzel versus Cassie–Baxter systems showed the effect of pinning for a Young angle of 180 to 90°, a region classified under the Cassie–Baxter model. This liquid/air composite system is largely hydrophobic. After that point, a sharp transition to the Wenzel regime was found where the drop wets the surface, but no further than the edges of the drop. Actually, the Young, Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter equations represent the transversality conditions of the variational problem of wetting.


title: Wetting

text: With the advent of high resolution imaging, researchers have started to obtain experimental data which have led them to question the assumptions of the Cassie–Baxter equation when calculating the apparent contact angle. These groups believe the apparent contact angle is largely dependent on the triple line. The triple line, which is in contact with the heterogeneous surface, cannot rest on the heterogeneous surface like the rest of the drop. In theory, it should follow the surface imperfection. This bending in the triple line is unfavorable and is not seen in real-world situations. A theory that preserves the Cassie–Baxter equation while at the same time explaining the presence of the minimized energy state of the triple line hinges on the idea of a precursor film. This film of submicrometer thickness advances ahead of the motion of the droplet and is found around the triple line. Furthermore, this precursor film allows the triple line to bend and take different conformations that were originally considered unfavorable. This precursor fluid has been observed using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) in surfaces with pores formed in the bulk. With the introduction of the precursor film concept, the triple line can follow energetically feasible conformations, thereby correctly explaining the Cassie–Baxter model.


title: Wetting

text: The intrinsic hydrophobicity of a surface can be enhanced by being textured with different length scales of roughness. The red rose takes advantage of this by using a hierarchy of micro- and nanostructures on each petal to provide sufficient roughness for superhydrophobicity. More specifically, each rose petal has a collection of micropapillae on the surface and each papilla, in turn, has many nanofolds. The term "petal effect" describes the fact that a water droplet on the surface of a rose petal is spherical in shape, but cannot roll off even if the petal is turned upside down. The water drops maintain their spherical shape due to the superhydrophobicity of the petal (contact angle of about 152.4°), but do not roll off because the petal surface has a high adhesive force with water.


title: Wetting

text: When comparing the "petal effect" to the "lotus effect", it is important to note some striking differences. The surface structure of the lotus leaf and the rose petal, as seen in Figure 9, can be used to explain the two different effects.


title: Wetting

text: The lotus leaf has a randomly rough surface and low contact angle hysteresis, which means the water droplet is not able to wet the microstructure spaces between the spikes. This allows air to remain inside the texture, causing a heterogeneous surface composed of both air and solid. As a result, the adhesive force between the water and the solid surface is extremely low, allowing the water to roll off easily (i.e. "self-cleaning" phenomenon).


title: Wetting

text: The rose petal's micro- and nanostructures are larger in scale than those of the lotus leaf, which allows the liquid film to impregnate the texture. However, as seen in Figure 9, the liquid can enter the larger-scale grooves, but it cannot enter into the smaller grooves. This is known as the Cassie impregnating wetting regime. Since the liquid can wet the larger-scale grooves, the adhesive force between the water and solid is very high. This explains why the water droplet will not fall off even if the petal is tilted at an angle or turned upside down. This effect will fail if the droplet has a volume larger than 10 µl because the balance between weight and surface tension is surpassed.


title: Wetting

text: In the Cassie–Baxter model, the drop sits on top of the textured surface with trapped air underneath. During the wetting transition from the Cassie state to the Wenzel state, the air pockets are no longer thermodynamically stable and liquid begins to nucleate from the middle of the drop, creating a "mushroom state" as seen in Figure 10. The penetration condition is given by:


title: Wetting

text: The penetration front propagates to minimize the surface energy until it reaches the edges of the drop, thus arriving at the Wenzel state. Since the solid can be considered an absorptive material due to its surface roughness, this phenomenon of spreading and imbibition is called hemiwicking. The contact angles at which spreading/imbibition occurs are between 0 and π/2.


title: Wetting

text: The Wenzel model is valid between θ and π/2. If the contact angle is less than Θ, the penetration front spreads beyond the drop and a liquid film forms over the surface. Figure 11 depicts the transition from the Wenzel state to the surface film state. The film smoothes the surface roughness and the Wenzel model no longer applies. In this state, the equilibrium condition and Young's relation yields:


title: Wetting

text: By fine-tuning the surface roughness, it is possible to achieve a transition between both superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic regions. Generally, the rougher the surface, the more hydrophobic it is.


title: Wetting

text: If a drop is placed on a smooth, horizontal surface, it is generally not in the equilibrium state. Hence, it spreads until an equilibrium contact radius is reached (partial wetting). While taking into account capillary, gravitational, and viscous contributions, the drop radius as a function of time can be expressed as


title: Wetting

text: For the complete wetting situation, the drop radius at any time during the spreading process is given by


title: Wetting

text: Many technological processes require control of liquid spreading over solid surfaces. When a drop is placed on a surface, it can completely wet, partially wet, or not wet the surface. By reducing the surface tension with surfactants, a nonwetting material can be made to become partially or completely wetting. The excess free energy (σ) of a drop on a solid surface is:


title: Wetting

text: Based on this equation, the excess free energy is minimized when γ decreases, γ decreases, or γ increases. Surfactants are absorbed onto the liquid–vapor, solid–liquid, and solid–vapor interfaces, which modify the wetting behavior of hydrophobic materials to reduce the free energy. When surfactants are absorbed onto a hydrophobic surface, the polar head groups face into the solution with the tail pointing outward. In more hydrophobic surfaces, surfactants may form a bilayer on the solid, causing it to become more hydrophilic. The dynamic drop radius can be characterized as the drop begins to spread. Thus, the contact angle changes based on the following equation:


title: Wetting

text: As the surfactants are absorbed, the solid–vapor surface tension increases and the edges of the drop become hydrophilic. As a result, the drop spreads.


title: Wetting

text: Ferrocene is a redox-active organometallic compound which can be incorporated into various monomers and used to make polymers which can be tethered onto a surface. Vinylferrocene (ferroceneylethene) can be prepared by a Wittig reaction and then polymerized to form polyvinylferrocene (PVFc), an analog of polystyrene. Another polymer which can be formed is poly( ferrocenecarboxylate), PFcMA. Both PVFc and PFcMA have been tethered onto silica wafers and the wettability measured when the polymer chains are uncharged and when the ferrocene moieties are oxidised to produce positively charged groups, as illustrated at right. The contact angle with water on the PFcMA-coated wafers was 70° smaller following oxidation, while in the case of PVFc the decrease was 30°, and the switching of wettability has been shown to be reversible. In the PFcMA case, the effect of longer chains with more ferrocene groups (and also greater molar mass) has been investigated, and it was found that longer chains produce significantly larger contact angle reductions.


title: Wetting

text: Rare earth oxides exhibit intrinsic hydrophobicity, and hence can be used in thermally stable heat exchangers and other applications involving high-temperature hydrophobicity. The presence of oxygen vacancies at surfaces of ceria or other rare earth oxides is instrumental in governing surface wettability. Adsorption of water at oxide surfaces can occur as molecular adsorption, in which HO molecules remain intact at the terminated surface, or as dissociative adsorption, in which OH and H are adsorbed separately at solid surfaces. The presence of oxygen vacancies is generally found to enhance hydrophobicity while promoting dissociative adsorption.


title: Chlorzoxazone

text: Chlorzoxazone (INN) is a centrally acting muscle relaxant used to treat muscle spasm and the resulting pain or discomfort. It can also be administered for acute pain in general and for tension headache (muscle contraction headache). It acts on the spinal cord by depressing reflexes. It is sold under the brand names Lorzone, Paraflex and Muscol and in combination form as Parafon Forte, a combination of chlorzoxazone and acetaminophen (paracetamol). Possible side effects include dizziness, lightheadedness, malaise, nausea, vomiting, and liver dysfunction. Used with acetaminophen it has added risk of hepatotoxicity.


title: Chlorzoxazone

text: Like metaxalone, its mechanism of action is still in question. It is believed that metaxalone works by altering serotonin levels and acting as a mild MAO inhibitor. The mechanism of action of chlorzoaxazone is thought to act on Gaba-A & B receptors and voltage-gated calcium channels to a degree. General central nervous system depression is the only currently accepted aspect to its medical benefits. Elucidation of the exact mechanism of action is ongoing but there is limited study due to the existence of more effective, safe muscle relaxants (ex. diazepam, cyclobenzaprine, tizanidine), greatly limiting the potential benefit of identifying novel compounds which share chlorzoxazone's mechanism of action.


title: SINCGARS

text: Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) is a Combat-net radio (CNR) used by U.S. and allied military forces. The CNR network is designed around three systems: SINCGARS, the high frequency (HF) radio, and the SC tactical satellite (TACSAT). Each system has different capabilities and transmission characteristics. SINCGARS is a family of user-owned and operated, very high frequency-frequency modulation (VHF-FM) CNRs. In the CNR network, the SINCGARS’ primary role is voice transmission for command and control (C2) between surface and airborne C2 assets. SINCGARS can transmit and receive secure data and facsimile transmissions through simple connections with various data terminal equipment.


title: SINCGARS

text: SINCGARS features provide communications interoperability for the Army, Marine, Navy, and Air Force, thus contributing to successful combat operations. It is also consistent with North Atlantic Treaty Organization interoperability requirements. The radios, which is handled by voice and data communications, are designed to be reliable, secure, and easily maintained. Vehicle-mount, backpack, airborne, and handheld form factors are available.


title: SINCGARS

text: Joint and combined operations require exchanging information, both voice and data, with other participating forces. The Single-Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) tactical radio has provided secure, low probability of intercept/electronic attack voice communications in the frequency hopping (FH) mode. Later enhancements provide for the exchange of secure data through the evolving Army and Marine Corps tactical Internets, enabling increased situational awareness and more expedient engagement of the enemy while reducing the probability of fratricide. In addition, the Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) is used by military forces to provide C2 data distribution, battlefield situation awareness, and position location services.


title: SINCGARS

text: The SINCGARS family has mostly replaced the Vietnam War-era synthesized single frequency radios (AN/PRC-77 and AN/VRC-12), although it can work with them. The airborne AN/ARC-201 radio is phasing out the older tactical air-to-ground radios (AN/ARC-114 and AN/ARC-131).


title: SINCGARS

text: The SINCGARS is designed on a modular basis to achieve maximum commonality among various ground, maritime, and airborne configurations. A common receiver transmitter (RT) is used in the ground configurations. The modular design also reduces the burden on the logistics system to provide repair parts.


title: SINCGARS

text: The SINCGARS can operate in either the SC or frequency hop (FH) mode, and stores both SC frequencies and FH loadsets. The system is compatible with all current U.S. and allied VHF-FM radios in the SC, non-secure mode. The SINCGARS operates on any of 2320 channels between 30 and 88 megahertz (MHz) with a channel separation of 25 kilohertz (kHz). It accepts either digital or analog inputs and superimposes the signal onto a radio frequency (RF) carrier wave. In FH mode, the input changes frequency about 100 times per second over portions of the tactical VHF-FM range. These continual changes in frequency hinder threat intercept and jamming units from locating or disrupting friendly communications. The SINCGARS provides data rates up to 16,000 bits per second. Enhanced data modes provide packet and RS-232 data. The enhanced data modes available with the System Improvement Program (SIP) and Advanced System Improvement Program (ASIP) radios also enable forward error correction (FEC), and increased speed, range, and accuracy of data transmissions.


title: SINCGARS

text: Most ground SINCGARS radios have the ability to control output power; however, most airborne SINCGARS radio sets are fixed power. Those RTs with power settings can vary transmission range from approximately 200 meters (660 feet) to 10 kilometers (km) (6.2 miles). Adding a power amplifier increases the line of sight (LOS) range to approximately 40 km (25 miles). (These ranges are for planning purposes only; terrain, weather, and antennae height have an effect on transmission range.) The variable output power level allows users to operate on the minimum power necessary to maintain reliable communications, thus lessening the electromagnetic signature given off by their radio sets. This ability is of particular importance at major command posts, which operate in multiple networks.


title: SINCGARS

text: SC CNR users outside the FH network can use a hailing method to request access to the network. When hailing a network, a user outside the network contacts the network control station (NCS) on the cue frequency. In the active FH mode, the SINCGARS radio gives audible and visual signals to the operator that an external subscriber wants to communicate with the FH network. The SINCGARS operator must change to the cue frequency to communicate with the outside radio system. The network can be set to a manual frequency for initial network activation. The manual frequency provides a common frequency for all members of the network to verify that the equipment is operational. During initial net activation, all operators in the net tune to the manual frequency. After communications are established, the net switches to the FH mode and the NCS transfers the hopping variables to the out stations.


title: SINCGARS

text: Over 570,000 radios have been purchased. There have been several system improvement programs, including the Integrated Communications Security (ICOM) models, which have provided integrated voice and data encryption, the Special Improvement Program (SIP) models, which add additional data modes, and the advanced SIP (ASIP) models, which are less than half the size and weight of ICOM and SIP models and provided enhanced FEC (forward error correction) data modes, RS-232 asynchronous data, packet data formats, and direct interfacing to Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR) devices providing radio level situational awareness capability.


title: SINCGARS

text: In 1992, the U.S. Air Force awarded a contract to replace the AN/ARC-188 for communications between Air Force aircraft and Army units.


title: Little John

text: Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. He is one of only a handful of consistently named characters who relate to Robin Hood and one of the two oldest Merry Men, alongside Much the Miller's Son. His name is an ironic reference to his giant frame, as he is usually portrayed in legend as a huge warrior – a master of the quarterstaff. In folklore, he fought Robin Hood on a tree bridge across a river on their first meeting.


title: Little John

text: The first known mention of Robin Hood and Little John is found in the Scotichronicon which includes a reference to "the famous murderer, Robin Hood, as well as Little John". The reference is found, in Latin, under year 1266. Little John appears in the earliest recorded Robin Hood ballads and stories, and in one of the earliest references to Robin Hood by Andrew of Wyntoun in 1420 and by Walter Bower in 1440. In the early tales, Little John is shown to be intelligent and highly capable. In "A Gest of Robyn Hode", he captures the sorrowful knight and, when Robin Hood decides to pay the knight's mortgage for him, accompanies him as a servant. In "Robin Hood's Death", he is the only one of the Merry Men that Robin takes with him. In the 15th-century ballad commonly called "Robin Hood and the Monk", Little John leaves in anger after a dispute with Robin. When Robin Hood is captured, it is Little John who plans his leader's rescue. In thanks, Robin offers Little John leadership of the band, but John refuses. Later depictions of Little John portray him as less cunning.


title: Little John

text: The earliest ballads do not feature an origin story for this character. According to a 17th-century ballad, he was at least seven feet tall and introduced when he tried to prevent Robin from crossing a narrow bridge, whereupon they fought with quarterstaves, and Robin was overcome. Despite having won the duel, John agreed to join his band and fight alongside him. From then on he was called Little John in whimsical reference to his size. This scene is almost always re-enacted in film and television versions of the story. In some modern film versions, Little John loses the duel to Robin.


title: Little John

text: Starting from the ballad tradition, Little John is commonly shown to be the only Merry Man present at Robin Hood's death.


title: Little John

text: Despite a lack of historical evidence for his existence, Little John is reputed to be buried in a churchyard in the village of Hathersage, Derbyshire. A modern tombstone marks the supposed location of his grave, which lies under an old yew tree. This grave was owned by the Nailor (Naylor) family, and sometimes some variation of "Nailer" is given as John's surname. In other versions of the legends, his name is given as John Little, losing the irony of his nickname.


title: Little John

text: According to local legend, Little John built himself a small cottage across the River Derwent from the family home. The site now has a 15th century Grade 2 listed ex-farmhouse and barn built on it, called Nether House at Offerton.


title: Little John

text: In Dublin, a local legend suggests that Little John visited the city in the 12th century and was hanged there.


title: Little John

text: Little John was a figure in the Robin Hood plays and games during the 15th to 17th centuries, particularly those held in Scotland.


title: Little John

text: Alan Hale, Sr. played the role of Little John in three movies. He first played Little John as a young squire in 1922's "Robin Hood" starring Douglas Fairbanks. He reprised the role opposite Errol Flynn's Robin in 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood". And finally, he played an older Little John opposite John Derek, as Robin's son, in "Rogues of Sherwood Forest" from 1951.


title: Little John

text: Other notable film and TV Little Johns include Archie Duncan in the 1950s TV series, Nicol Williamson in "Robin and Marian", James Robertson Justice in the 1952 Disney film "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men", Clive Mantle in the 1980s TV series "Robin of Sherwood", Bin Shimada as the voice of Little John in the anime series Robin Hood no Daibōken, Terrence Scammell as the voice of Little John in the animated series Young Robin Hood, Phil Harris as the voice of Little John the Bear in the 1973 Disney animated film "Robin Hood", David Morrissey in "Robin Hood" and Nick Brimble in "" – both in 1991, and Eric Allan Kramer in 1993's "".


title: Little John

text: Kevin Durand plays John in 2010's "Robin Hood". In this incarnation, he is a Scottish foot soldier in the Crusades who fights Robin over a lost bet, claiming he was cheating, then joins Robin, Will, and Alan when the king is killed.


title: Little John

text: In the BBC's "Robin Hood", Little John was played by Gordon Kennedy. John meets Robin when his band of outlaws steals from Robin's band. John also has a wife, Alice, and a son, both of whom believe he is dead until late in the first series. He dislikes Robin immediately but has a change of heart after Robin makes a stand to protect John's wife and son. When the sheriff attempts to interrogate the villagers of Loxley on Robin's whereabouts by cutting out their tongues, Robin surrenders just as they are threatening Alice, thus sparing her. While Robin is awaiting execution, John discreetly meets his son, who mentions how Robin helped him and his mother, and the rest of the village by feeding them all. This causes John to lead the others to Nottingham Castle to rescue Robin, after which John and Robin become good friends. John is the oldest of the outlaws and fights with a quarterstaff.


title: Little John

text: He was portrayed by Jason Burkart in the TV series "Once Upon a Time" and its spin-off "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland".


title: Little John

text: Jamie Foxx portrayed John in the 2018 movie "Robin Hood". In contrast to most versions of John, this version is officially known as 'Yahya'- which he says translates to 'John'- and is originally Muslim fighting against Robin when they meet in battle during the Crusades, with this first encounter resulting in Yahya's left hand being cut off. However, when he sees Robin try to save his son from being executed by Sir Gisborne, he stows away on a ship taking Robin back to England with the goal of helping Robin take up an opposing role to the Crusades. Despite the loss of his left hand making it impossible for him to use a bow, he is still a skilled enough fighter to intercept Robin's arrows with only his staff and soon adapts to the use of his metal-clad stump as another weapon in combat.


title: Little John

text: In the British television show "Fact or Fiction", episode 4, hosted by Tony Robinson, it is postulated that "Little John" is in actuality Reynolde Greenleaf from near Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire.


title: Blunt (cannabis)

text: A blunt is a cigar that has been hollowed out and filled with cannabis. It is rolled with the tobacco-leaf "wrap", usually from an inexpensive cigar, or any other wrap that isn’t a joint paper that has glue. A blunt is different from a joint, which uses rolling papers.


title: Blunt (cannabis)

text: The practice originated in cities such as New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Blunts take their name from Phillies Blunt brand cigars, although any commonly available inexpensive cigar or cigarillo may be used, depending on suitability and availability. Other common synonyms for a blunt include "El-P" or "L" (from the El Producto brand) and "Dutch" (from Dutch Masters). Backwoods, Swisher Sweets, White Owl and 4ks cigars/cigarillos are other popular brands for rolling blunts.


title: Blunt (cannabis)

text: In addition to using cheap cigars and cigarillos to smoke cannabis, cigar wraps or "blunt wraps" are also used.


title: Blunt (cannabis)

text: In the tobacco industry, a blunt is defined as a cigar that is wider than a cigarillo and not quite as wide as a Corona. A cigarillo that has been split and re-rolled with marijuana is still called a blunt in cannabis culture.


title: Blunt (cannabis)

text: Due to the tobacco content in the wrapper leaf, blunts carry with them the risks of tobacco use, including nicotine addiction.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Dhamma (; ) is a set of edicts that formed a policy of the 3rd Mauryan Emperor Ashoka The Great, who succeeded to the Mauryan throne in modern-day India around 269 B.C.E. Ashoka is considered one of the greatest kings of ancient India for his policies of public welfare.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The word "dhamma" is the Pāli form of the Sanskrit word "dharma". There have been attempts to define and find equivalent English words for it, such as "piety", "moral life" and "righteousness" or "duty" but scholars could not translate it into English because it was coined and used in a specific context. The word "Dharma" has multiple meanings in the literature and thought of ancient India. The best way to understand what Ashoka the great means by Dharma is to read his edicts, which were written to explain the principles of Dharma to the people of that time throughout the empire.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Dharma was not a particular religious faith or practice, or an arbitrary formulated royal policy. Dharma related to generalized norms of social behavior and activities; Ashoka the great tried to synthesize various social norms which were current in his time. It cannot be understood by assuming it is one of the various religions that existed at that time. To understand why and how Ashoka the great formulated Dharma and its meaning, one must understand the characteristics of the time in which he lived and to refer to Buddhist, Brahmanical and other texts where norms of social behavior are explained.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Some historians link Ashoka’s policy of Dhamma with Buddhism. According to V.A. Smith, Ashoka the great actually became a Buddhist monk for a short span of his life. V.A Smith believes that he was both a monk and a monarch at the same time. D.R. Bhandarkar claims that Ashoka the great was a Buddhist and his policy of dhamma was actually original Buddhism as preached by the Buddha. Radha Kumud Mookerji also formulates that as far as the personal religion of Ashoka is concerned, it may be taken as Buddhism. In recent decades, scholars such as Nayanjot Lahiri and Romila Thapar has argued that Ashoka's Dhamma stands apart from Buddhist ideas, even while being informed by them.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The Mauryan period saw a change in the economic structure of the society. The use of iron resulted in surplus production, and the economy changed from being a simple rural economy to a pattern of economy in which urban centres became important. It has been generally argued that the use of Northern Black Polished Ware pottery is an indicator of material prosperity in the period. The use of punch-marked silver coins and some other varieties of coins, the conscious intervention of the State to safeguard trade routes and the rise of urban centers point to a structural change in the economy, requiring adjustments in the society. The commercial classes had come to the forefront of society. The emergence of urban culture demanded a flexible social organization. The incorporation of tribes and peoples from the outlying areas into the social fabric also presented a problem.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The response of the Brahmanical social order, which was based on the fourfold varna division, was to make the caste system more rigid and deny a higher status to the commercial class. The rigidity of the Brahmanical class system sharpened the divisions within the society. The lower orders turned to various heterodox sects; this created social tensions. It was this situation which emperor Ashoka inherited when he ascended to the Mauryan throne.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The Brahmanical hold over society, assiduously built through the later Vedic period, was coming under increasing attack. The privileges of the priests, the rigidity of the caste system and the elaborate rituals were being questioned. The lower orders among the four castes began to favour new sects. The Vaishyas, who were technically included in the higher social category, were treated as inferior to both Brahmans and Kshatriya. The opposition of the commercial class to Brahmanism was to give a fillip to the other sects of the society. Buddhism began as schismatic movement from the mainstream outlook of Brahmanism. Its basic tenet was an emphasis on misery and advocacy of the Middle Path. It was a set of ethical principles. Buddhism opposed the dominance of the Brahmans and the concept of sacrifices and rituals. It thus appealed to lower social orders and to emerging social classes. The human approach to relations in society preached by Buddhism further attracted different sections to itself.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The Mahajanapada of sixth century B.C. marked the beginning of the state system in many parts of India. Only a small section of society came to have a monopoly of power, which they exercised over the rest of the society. There were "gana-samghas" in which the rulers were a group of hereditary Kshatriya or members of a clan. By the time Ashoka ascended the throne, the state system had grown very elaborate. It was characterized by:


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The complexity of the state system demanded an imaginative policy from the emperor which required minimal use of force in such a large empire having diverse forms of economy and religions. It could not have been controlled by an army alone. A more feasible alternative was the propagation of a policy that would work at an ideological level and engage all sections of the society. The policy of "Dharma" was such an endeavor.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Ashoka the great expounded his policy of "Dhamma" through his edicts. By engraving his views about "Dhamma" on these edicts, Ashoka tried to directly communicate with his subjects. These inscriptions were written in different years of his life. The inscriptions can be divided into two categories. A small group of inscriptions reveal that the king was a follower of Buddhism and were addresses to the Buddhist churchthe Sangha. These inscriptions are declarations of Ashoka's relationship with the Buddhist order. Inscriptions of the other category are known as the Major and Minor Rock Edicts, which were inscribed on rock surfaces. This larger group includes the Pillar Edicts inscribed on specially erected pillars.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: All the sites of Ashokan inscription were chosen carefully to ensure that they were accessible to large numbers of people. These edicts are proclamations to the public at large. They explain the idea of Dhamma. One must make a distinction between Ashoka's policy of Dhamma which stressed social responsibility and Ashoka's own commitment as a Buddhist. There has been a tendency in the past among historians to study the policy of Dhamma and Ashoka as Buddhist in the same context without making any distinction. An examination of the inscriptions suggests that Ashoka declared his personal association with a Buddhist order and on the other he tried to teach, through the policy of Dhamma, the importance of social responsibility and tolerance amongst different members of the society.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The policy of Dhamma was an earnest attempt at solving some of problems and tensions faced by a complex society. Ashoka's private empire were responsible for the formation of the policy. The immediate social environment in which Ashoka grew up influenced him in later years.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The Mauryan kings adopted an eclectic outlook. Chandragupta took recourse to Jainism in his later years and Bindusara favoured the Ājīvika. Ashoka adopted Buddhism in his personal life, though he never imposed Buddhism on his subjects.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: By the time Ashoka ascended the throne, the Mauryan imperial system had become complex, encompassing various cultures, beliefs and social and political patterns. Ashoka had to either maintain the structure by forcewhich would incur tremendous expensesor to define a set of social norms which would be acceptable to all social practices and religious beliefs. He was aware of the tensions which the heterodox sectsBuddhism, Jainism and Ajivikaismhad generated in society. They were all opposed to the domination of the Brahmans and had a growing number of supporters. But Brahmans continued to control society and hostility was inevitable. It was essential to bring about a climate of harmony and mutual trust. There were many areas within the empire where neither the Brahmanical system or the heterodox sects prevailed. Ashoka referred to the country of Yavanas, where neither Brahmanical nor Sramanical culture were in vogue. In many tribal areas, people were unfamiliar with Brahmanical or heterodox ideas. To make the empire survive and to bring some cohesion within the empire in the midst of this diversity, some common patterns of behaviour and common approaches to the society's problems were needed.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The principles of Dhamma were formulated to be acceptable to people belonging to different communities and following any religion. Dhamma was not given any formal definition or structure. It emphasized tolerance of people and the notion of showing consideration towards slaves and servants; there is stress on obedience to elders; generosity towards the needy, Brahmans and Sarmanas. Ashoka pleaded for tolerance of different religious sects in an attempt to create a sense of harmony. The policy of Dhamma also laid stress on non-violence, which was to be practiced by giving up war and conquests and also as a restraint on the killing of animals. However, Ashoka realized that a certain display of his political might may be necessary to keep the primitive forest-dwelling tribes in check.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The policy of Dhamma also included other welfare measures, like the planting of trees and digging of wells. Ashoka attacked ceremonies and sacrifices as meaningless. A group of officers known as Dhamma mahamattas were instituted to implement and publicize the various aspects of Dhamma.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Ashoka made them responsible for carrying his message to various sections of society, However, they gradually developed into a type of priesthood of Dhamma with great powers and soon began to interfere in politics.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: This is Ashoka's testament against war. It graphically depicts the tragedy of war and shows why he turned against it. It is a unique event in the annals of the ancient world because one does not knows of any other contemporary monarch who renounced war. Ashoka embarked on the policy of Dhamma after Kalinga war.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Ashoka's Dhamma was not simply a collection of high-sounding phrases. He consciously tried to adopt it as a matter of state policy; he declared that "all men and my children" and "whatever exertion I make, I strive only to discharge debt that I owe to all living creatures." It was a totally new and inspiring idea of kingship. In the Arthashastra, the king owed nothing to anyone. His only job was to rule the state efficiently.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Ashoka renounced war and conquest by violence and forbade the killing of many animals. Ashoka set an example of vegetarianism by almost stopping the consumption of meat in the royal household. Since he wanted to conquer the world through love and faith, he sent many missions to propagate Dhamma. Such missions were sent to far off places like Egypt, Greece and Sri Lanka. The propagation of Dhamma included many measures of people's welfare. Centers of the treatment of men and beasts founded inside and outside of empire. Shady groves, wells, orchards and rest houses were laid out. This kind of charity work was a radically different attitude from the king of the Arthashastra, who would not incur any expenses unless they brought more revenues in return.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Ashoka also prohibited useless sacrifices and certain forms of gatherings which led to waste, indiscipline and superstition. To implement these policies he recruited a new cadre of officers called Dhammamahamattas. Part of this group's duties was to see that people of various sects were treated fairly. They were especially asked to look after the welfare of prisoners. Many convictswho were kept in fetters after their sentence had expiredwere to be released. Those sentenced to death were to given grace for three days. Ashoka also started Dhamma yatras. He and his high officials were to tour the country propagating Dhamma and establishing direct contact with his subjects. Because of such attitudes and policies, modern writers like Kern called him "a monk in a king's garb."


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: The Ashokan policy of Dhamma has been the subject of controversy and debate amongst scholars; Some have said that Ashoka was a partisan Buddhist and have equated Dhamma with Buddhism. It has also been suggested that it was the original Buddhist thought that was being preached by Ashoka as Dhamma and later on certain theological additions were made to Buddhism. This kind of thinking is based on some Buddhist chronicles. It is believed that the Kalinga war was a dramatic turning point where out of remorse for the death and destruction of war, Ashoka decided to become Buddhist. The Buddhist records credit him with the propagation of Buddhism in India and abroad. As an emperor, Ashoka did not favour Buddhism at the expenses of other religions.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: According to Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Dhamma was not the policy of a heretic but a system of beliefs created out of different religious faiths.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: There has been some discussion among historians about the results Ashoka's propagation of Dhamma. Some historians believe that Ashoka's ban of sacrifices and the favour that he showed to Buddhism led to a Brahmanical reaction, which in turn led to the decline of Mauryan empire. Others believe that stopping of wars and the emphasis on non-violence crippled the military might of the empire, leading to its collapse after the death of Ashoka.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: According to Romila Thapar, Ashoka's Dhamma is a superb document of his essential humanity and an answer to the socio-political needs of the contemporaneous situation. It was not anti-Brahmanical because respect for the Brahmans and Sarmanas is an integral part of his Dhamma. His emphasis on non-violence did not blind him to the needs of the state. In fact, he envisioned bureaucrats as doing the work of ensuring ethical progress on the part of his subjects. Also, Ashoka warned the forest tribes that although he hates to use coercion, he may be required to resort to force if they continued to create trouble. By the time Ashoka stopped war, the entire Indian sub-continent was under his control. In the south he was on friendly terms with the Cholas and Pandyas. Sri Lanka was an admiring ally. Thus, Ashoka's decline of war came when his empire had reached its natural boundaries. The plea for tolerance was a wise course of action in an ethnically diverse, religiously varied, and class divided society. Ashoka's empire was a conglomerate of diverse groups; farmers, pastoral nomads and hunter-gatherers, there were Greeks, Kambojas, and Bhojas and hundreds of groups with different traditions. In this situation a plea for tolerance was needed. Ashoka tried to transcend the parochial cultural traditions with a board set of ethical principles.


title: Ashoka's policy of Dhamma

text: Ashoka's "Dhamma" could not survive him; as such it was a failure. However, he was not establishing a new religion but was trying to impress upon the society the need for ethical and moral principles.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The Roborovski hamster (Phodopus roborovskii), also known as the desert hamster, Robo dwarf hamster, or simply dwarf hamster, is the smallest of three species of hamster in the genus "Phodopus". It lives in the deserts of Central Asia, averaging under at birth and and during adulthood. Distinguishing characteristics of the Roborovskis are eyebrow-like white spots and the lack of any dorsal stripe (found on the other members of the genus "Phodopus"). The average lifespan for the Roborovski hamster is 2–3 years, though this is dependent on living conditions (extremes being four years in captivity and two in the wild). Roborovskis are known for their speed and have been said to run up to 6 miles a night.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Roborovski hamsters are found in desert regions, such as the basin of the lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan and regions of Tuva, Mongolia and Xinjiang in China. The hamsters inhabit areas of loose sand and sparse vegetation and are rarely found in areas of dense vegetation and solid clay substrates. They live at elevations of around – and although research has been carried out, no fossil record exists for this species. Their efficient use of water makes them particularly suited to the steppe and desert regions they inhabit. They dig and live in burrows with steep tunnels as deep as six feet underground. In the wild, Roborovski hamsters are crepuscular, being most active at dawn and dusk.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The Roborovski hamster has been found to be more common in the southern area of its distribution range, in areas such as Yulin, Shaanxi, China. It has been reported as a common sighting by locals in this city and in the sand dunes of the Ordos desert.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: They are omnivorous; they primarily eat grains, vegetables, fruit, and plants, but they will also eat meat and insects when present. Roborovski hamsters remain underground in winter and survive in that season by stockpiling some food in warmer weather and storing it in special food chambers within their burrow system.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The Roborovski hamster mainly feeds on seeds. In Tuva it primarily lives on the seed of the sand alyssum, Nitre Bush, Siberian peashrub, "Dracocephalum peregrinum", and milkvetch as well as sedges during the summer-months. Vegetative plant parts are not of significance.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: In Mongolia, insects like beetles, earwigs and crickets are part of its diet. According to Formosow the stock of several burrows indicate an almost insect-based diet. Also the consumption of snails has been reported.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: In Tuva, the share of animal food is marginal. Flint and Golowkin determined in 1958 and 1959 that nearly 100 percent of the cheek pouches' content consisted of plant food, whereas animal food was only found in 23 percent of the hamsters' pouches at all in 1958 and 32  percent in 1959.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The daily dietary intake of the Roborovski hamsters heavily depends on its body weight. Juveniles have higher intakes of food compared to their weight than adult hamsters. Based on its population structure, Wan et al. calculated an average food intake of ca. two gram plant seeds per day. They specify the functional relation between the daily food intake (N) and the body-weight (M) to be formula_1


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Russian expeditioner Lt. Vsevolod Roborovski first made note of these hamsters, discovering them on an expedition in July 1894, though they were not studied scientifically for the best part of another decade, until Konstantin A. Satunin made observations in 1903. The London Zoo imported them into the UK in the 1960s, but the first Roborovski hamsters studied in Britain were imported in the 1970s from Moscow Zoo. (None of them, however, bore offspring.) Continental European countries had more success in breeding some Roborovskis, however, and those currently in the UK are descendants of a batch imported from the Netherlands in 1990. They were imported to the US in 1998, though they are now commonly found in pet shops in several countries. In South Korea, they are almost as common as the winter-white Russian dwarf hamster.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The Roborovski hamster is distinguished from the Djungarian hamster ("Phodopus sungorus") and Campbell's dwarf hamster ("Phodopus campbelli") due to its smaller size, sandy coloration of fur and its lack of a dorsal stripe. When observed from behind, the neurocranium is rounded and does not appear to be as rectangular as "Phodopus campbelli" and "Phodopus sungorus". The cusps of the lower molars are directly opposite and not alternate, as seen in other members of the genus, and the incisive foramen of the Roborovski hamster is greater than in length and is shorter than the length of the upper tooth row, which is uncharacteristic of the other two members of the genus.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Only one is standardised in the UK as of 2018 as per UK National Hamster Council with 4 genes recognised and others still under dispute.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Breeding in captivity has also produced a darker variation of the naturally sandy-coloured agouti fur. According to Fox (2006) white faced and derived breeds are considered torture-breeding and therefore breeding them is forbidden by law in several European countries like Germany or Austria. The homozygous carrier of the gene variant causes neurological symptoms similar to the whirling disease, where the animal spins itself around until it dies of exhaustion.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The sex of a Roborovski is determined visually; female openings are very close together and may even look like a single opening, while male openings are further apart. Males usually have a visible scent gland near the navel above the two openings, appearing as a yellow stain in older animals.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The breeding season for the Roborovski hamster is between April and September. The gestation period is between 20 and 22 days, producing three to four litters. The litter size is between three and nine, with an average of six. Captive bred Roborovski do often breed all year round.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The offspring weigh – at birth. Upon being born, the offspring have no fur, the incisors and claws are visible, but the eyes, pinnae of the ear and digits are all sealed. After a period of three days, the whiskers become visible and after five days, the first dorsal hairs develop. The digits separate after six days and after eleven days, the body is completely formed. The young hamsters open their eyes by day 14.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Roborovski hamsters have become increasingly popular as pets in recent years, however, they are best suited to life as merely "observational" creatures, with limited interaction between them and humans, due to their increased activity levels that lead to a high stress predisposition and decreased ease of handling when compared to other domestic hamster species but they can be tamed with time .


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Although claimed to be hypoallergenic, Roborovski hamsters have been associated with the development of asthma in previously asymptomatic owners.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: In rare emergency situations, a shallow dish of warm water may be necessary to clean harmful substances from a hamster's fur; however, under normal circumstances, hamsters should never be bathed in water as, aside from being incredibly stressful, this can remove vital protective oils from their coat, which can be very dangerous and potentially fatal. Hamsters frequently groom themselves, and instead of water, a sand bath should be offered to help them stay clean and healthy.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Unlike other species of hamster (see 'Syrian hamster behavior'), Roborovski hamsters can sometimes be kept in same-sex pairs or small groups if raised together from a young age. A lone, or pair of Roborovski hamsters should be kept in a cage of minimum 50 x 100 cm, or the equivalent of 0.5 sq metres with at least 15–20 cm of substrate, so that they may exercise their natural urge to burrow. However, greater floor space and substrate depth is recommended for "all" species of hamsters, where ""bigger is always better"" . Additional levels do not count toward the base area. Aquariums and DIY-enclosures are commonly used amongst hamster enthusiasts, often preferred for their capability to hold greater amounts of substrate, wide availability, and cost, amongst various other reasons, over their more traditional wire-cage counterparts (See images for examples).


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Roborovski hamsters are very active, so a species-appropriate wheel is a necessity. Size is still debated, however the general consensus is that a wheel should be at least 16.5 cm (6.5 inches. Other sources recommend a minimum diameter of 20 cm(8 inches).


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Roborovski hamsters, like many rodents, will naturally avoid large open spaces, opting to stick close to the walls if forced to cross one, where they feel safest. Providing them with multiple hiding spots is vital. This can be achieved by placing branches, tunnels and various other hides in close arrangement.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Based on their natural diet, owners should feed hamster food containing mainly grains and small seeds. Animal protein should also be offered, in form of mealworms, grasshoppers or other insects. If you do not like to feed them alive, you can purchase dried insects. Some hamsters also accept seafood such as dried gammarus.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: To support their natural behaviour of foraging and stockpiling, feed should be scattered around the enclosure, hidden in several spots, or slightly buried beneath the substrate (Approximately 1tsp of food per hamster per day).


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Fresh water should be available at all times. A bowl is preferable to a bottle, as it encourages a more natural and comfortable drinking posture.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Hamsters' incisors never stop growing and they have a ‘self-sharpening’ system where the incisors grind against each other while gnawing, which wears the teeth down; so providing them with chew-toys is essential.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Nesting materials should be easily shreddable and digestible, such as "unscented" toilet paper, moss, hay or leaves.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Avoid materials that separate into thin strands when chewed (such as cotton wool or similar 'fluffy' bedding products), as entanglement or ingestion poses a serious health risk to hamsters. Softwood shavings (such as pine or cedar) are also unsuitable as they contain harmful chemicals which can damage a hamster's respiratory system. Conversely, hardwood shavings such as aspen are perfectly safe to use.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: To provide a means of cleaning itself and to help mimic its natural habitat, a large bowl of sand should be available at all times. sand bathing is a vital part of a hamster's daily routine and helps to keep their coat healthy and shiny by removing excess oils. The sand can be kept clean by sieving or washing out with water and drying. Children's play sand is a viable option for this, but be sure what happened to it (such as if you need to bake it).


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: Sand must be dust-free. Chinchilla sand is too dusty for hamsters and can cause respiratory problems. Bird sand is also not suitable, because it contains sharp elements such as shards of broken shell.


title: Roborovski dwarf hamster

text: The short film "Roborovski", about a hamster, co-written and -directed by Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Dev Patel, premiered at Flickerfest in Sydney in January 2020, and won several awards Antipodean Film Festival at Saint Tropez, France, in 2021.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: 60 Minutes is an Australian version of the United States television newsmagazine show "60 Minutes," airing since 1979 on Sunday nights on the Nine Network. A New Zealand version uses segments of the show. The program is one of five inducted into Australia’s television Logie Hall of Fame.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: The program was founded by veteran television producer Gerard Stone, who was appointed its inaugural executive producer in 1979 by media magnate Kerry Packer.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: Stone devised it to be an Australian version of CBS's US "Sixty Minutes" program and it featured well known reporters Ray Martin, Ian Leslie and George Negus. Its prominent early programs included a 1981 interview Negus conducted with UK leader Margaret Thatcher, during which the prime minister aggressively countered his questions. Negus asked Thatcher why people described her as <nowiki>"</nowiki>pig-headed<nowiki>"</nowiki> and the Prime Minister demanded he tell her who, when and where such comments were made.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: In 1982, Jana Wendt interviewed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and asked him why he had been so often described as a terrorist, a butcher, a gangster and a madman.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: In 2019, the program produced a report on the infiltration of organised crime into listed Australian casino firm Crown Resorts. It led to multiple state and federal inquiries, including the NSW Bergin Inquiry, that recommended Crown Resorts may be unfit to hold a casino licence.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: In March 2021, the Nine Network launched a one hour one story studio-based "60 Minutes" spin-off "Under Investigation" presented by Liz Hayes and produced by Gareth Harvey that features a panel of guests.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: "60 Minutes" has won numerous awards for broadcasting, including five Silver Logies, one Special Achievement Logie, and received nominations for a further six Logie awards. In 2018, "60 Minutes" was inducted into the TV Week Logie Hall of Fame. In 2019, its report on the organised crime infiltration of gaming giant "Crown Resorts" was awarded a Walkley Award and led to two Royal Commissions. In 2020, its program on political malfeasance, "The Faceless Man", was awarded a Walkley Award for best long format television reporting.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: In February 1988, "60 Minutes" collaborated with James Randi to create a fictional psychic called "Carlos", played by José Alvarez, for an elaborate investigation into how much free publicity a fraudulent medium could garner through the Australian media, and how such people could manipulate the gullibility of vulnerable people. However, during their investigation and successful attempt at convincing the Australian media that "Carlos" was a genuinely notable medium who had a strong following in America, other Channel 9 programs were caught out reporting on the fake "Carlos" who appeared on "Today" and "A Current Affair" and was featured on "Sunday" and "Nine News". An orchestrated incident where his assistant threw water on George Negus during a second appearance on "Today" garnered even more attention for "Carlos". When the sting was revealed on "60 Minutes", anger at the network was palpable and reports soon circulated about staff sackings as a result.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: In April 2016, Tara Brown and eight other people (including three other staff members of Nine, David Ballment, Stephen Rice, and Ben Williamson) were arrested on allegations of child abduction in Beirut. According to Lebanese authorities, "60 Minutes" allegedly paid $115,000 directly to the Child Abduction Recovery International Agency, despite claims that the exchange was made by the mother of the children. The abduction agency used has also been widely discredited, with fake recovery stories being posted on Facebook and their operators having been arrested all over the world. The recovery involved the team waiting in a parked car on the street and then snatching the children from their grandmother and nanny before driving away. "A Lebanese judicial source" told "The Guardian" that the group were to be charged with "armed abduction, purveying threats and physical harm" – crimes which carry sentences of twenty years' imprisonment with hard labour. The group were released from custody only after Nine paid a substantial money settlement to the father of the children the subject of the abduction attempt. This operation sparked wide debate about the ethics of the journalism being conducted.


title: 60 Minutes (Australian TV program)

text: In May 2019, a jury ruled that a "60 Minutes" story aired in 2015 about the 2011 Grantham floods defamed four members of the Wagner family, from Toowoomba, Queensland, by implying they were responsible for the 12 deaths that occurred during the disaster. In November, a court ordered Channel Nine to pay $2.4 million plus $63,000 in interest to the family. Nick Cater, a journalist featured in the program, was ordered to pay an additional $1.2 million in damages. Justice Peter Applegarth, who was in charge of the case, stated that while Cater had information contradicting the program's allegations, he did not include them in the story. Applegarth also concluded that Channel Nine failed to inform the Wagners of the allegations until after the program had been publicised, and when the family did send a statement to Nine, they did not include it in the program.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: The China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) () is the largest construction company in the world by revenue and the 8th largest general contractor in terms of overseas sales, as of 2020.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: While most of the assets of CSCEC were floated in the stock exchange as China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCECL), CSCEC retained some assets such as schools and hospitals, as well as the stake in China Construction International Corporation () which was not able to be transferred. Thus, CSCEC granted the listed company supervising rights.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: The CSCEC has numerous branches or subsidiaries. It is divided into five main divisions and twelve traditional core business areas, including eight Group's engineering offices and four Design Institutes, as well as its own national research laboratory. The main business units of the group are planning and design, project development, equipment leasing, trade, construction and facilities management.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: Its subsidiary and listed company, China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCECL) () (), was established in 2007. It was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2009 with its IPO price at RMB$4.18 per share. The shares closed at RMB$6.53, 56% higher than its IPO price, at the first trading day. It was the world's biggest IPO in 2009, raising the capital of US$7.3 billion.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: The CSCEC was founded in 1957 as a state company. Early on the country had an international profile building heavy industry and infrastructure in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The predecessor company opened its first overseas office in Kuwait in the late 1970s. The company broke from its regionally confined work pattern when it entered the U.S. market in 1985, opening an office in Atlanta. The U.S. subsidiary began by building housing developments with joint venture partners before undertaking its first sole development, Lantana Lakes, a 107-acre, $27 million complex of 42 homes, in 1987 in Jacksonville, Florida.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: In 2009, the company was blacklisted for six years by the World Bank for collusion in the bidding process for the Philippines National Roads Improvement and Management Project.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: With the encouragement of the Chinese government and financing assistance from the Export-Import Bank of China, CSCEC has taken increasingly bold steps as a builder and investor of overseas projects. In 2011, the going abroad trend hit a new high when Baha Mar Resorts, a $3.4 billion casino and resort built and partially owned by CSCEC, opened after "extremely aggressive" efforts by the company to link with the Bahamas developer that started the project. It was the largest construction project undertaken by a Chinese company outside of China.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: The China State Construction Engineering Corporation is also constructing the new Athletics and Football Stadium in Grenada.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: In 2020, after the coronavirus outbreak, CSCEC built two hospitals in Wuhan in the span of 10 to 12 days. The 1,000-bed Huoshenshan hospital was finished on February 3, while the 1,600-bed hospital Leishenshan was finished on February 5.


title: China State Construction Engineering

text: On 28 August 2020, the United States Department of Defense released the names of companies with ties to the People's Liberation Army operating directly or indirectly in the United States. China State Construction Group Co., Ltd. was included on the list. In November 2020, Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included China State Construction Group.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Max Horkheimer (; ; 14 February 1895 – 7 July 1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militarism, economic disruption, environmental crisis, and the poverty of mass culture using the philosophy of history as a framework. This became the foundation of critical theory. His most important works include "Eclipse of Reason" (1947), "Between Philosophy and Social Science" (1930–1938) and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, "Dialectic of Enlightenment" (1947). Through the Frankfurt School, Horkheimer planned, supported and made other significant works possible.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: On 14 February 1895, Horkheimer was born the only son of Moritz and Babetta Horkheimer. Horkheimer was born into a conservative, wealthy Orthodox Jewish family. His father was a successful businessman who owned several textile factories in the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart, where Max was born. Moritz expected his son to follow in his footsteps and own the family business.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Max was taken out of school in 1910 to work in the family business, where he eventually became a junior manager. During this period he would begin two relationships that would last for the rest of his life. First, he met Friedrich Pollock, who would later become a close academic colleague, and who would remain Max's closest friend. He also met Rose Riekher, his father's personal secretary. Eight years Max's senior, a Christian, and from a lower economic class, Riekher (whom Max called "Maidon") was not considered a suitable match by Moritz Horkheimer. Despite this, Max and Maidon would marry in 1926 and remain together until her death in 1969.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: In 1917, his manufacturing career ended and his chances of taking over his family business were interrupted when he was drafted into World War I. However, Horkheimer avoided service, being rejected on medical grounds.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: In the spring of 1919, after failing an army physical, Horkheimer enrolled at Munich University. While living in Munich, he was mistaken for the revolutionary playwright Ernst Toller and arrested and imprisoned.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: After being released, Horkheimer moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he studied philosophy and psychology under the respectable Hans Cornelius. There, he met Theodor Adorno, several years his junior, with whom he would strike a lasting friendship and a collaborative relationship. After an abortive attempt at writing a dissertation on gestalt psychology, Horkheimer, with Cornelius's direction, completed his doctorate in philosophy with a 78-page dissertation titled "The Antinomy of Teleological Judgment" ("Zur Antinomie der teleologischen Urteilskraft").


title: Max Horkheimer

text: In 1925, Horkheimer was habilitated with a dissertation entitled "Kant's Critique of Judgment as Mediation between Practical and Theoretical Philosophy" ("Über Kants Kritik der Urteilskraft als Bindeglied zwischen theoretischer und praktischer Philosophie"). Here, he met Friedrich Pollock, who would be his colleague at the Institute of Social Research. The following year, Max was appointed "Privatdozent." Shortly after, in 1926, Horkheimer married Rose Riekher.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: In 1926, Horkheimer was an "unsalaried lecturer in Frankfurt." Shortly after, in 1930, he was promoted to professor of philosophy at Frankfurt University. In the same year, when the Institute for Social Research's (now known as Frankfurt School of Critical Theory) directorship became vacant, after the departure of Carl Grünberg, Horkheimer was elected to the position "by means of an endowment from a wealthy businessman". The Institute had had its beginnings in a Marxist study group started by Felix Weil, a one-time student of political science at Frankfurt who used his inheritance to fund the group as a way to support his leftist academic aims. Pollock and Horkheimer were partners with Weil in the early activities of the institute.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Horkheimer worked to make the Institute a purely academic enterprise. As director, he changed Frankfurt from an orthodox Marxist school to a heterodox school for critical social research. The following year publication of the institute's "Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung" began, with Horkheimer as its editor.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Horkheimer intellectually reoriented the institute, proposing a programme of collective research aimed at specific social groups (specifically the working class) that would highlight the problem of the relationship of history and reason. The Institute focused on integrating the views of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. The Frankfurt School attempted this by systematically hitching together the different conceptual structures of historical materialism and psychoanalysis.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: During the time between Horkheimer's being named Professor of Social Philosophy and director of the Institute in 1930, the Nazis became the second largest party in the Reichstag. In the midst of the violence surrounding the Nazis' rise, Horkheimer and his associates began to prepare for the possibility of moving the Institute out of Germany. Horkheimer's "venia legendi" was revoked by the new Nazi government because of the Marxian nature of the institute's ideas as well as its prominent Jewish association. When Hitler was named the Chancellor in 1933, the institute was thus forced to close its location in Germany.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: He emigrated to Geneva, Switzerland and then to New York City the following year, where Horkheimer met with the president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, to discuss hosting the institute. To Horkheimer's surprise, the president agreed to host the Institute in exile as well as offer Horkheimer a building for the institute. In July 1934, Horkheimer accepted an offer from Columbia to relocate the institute to one of their buildings.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: In 1940, Horkheimer received American citizenship and moved to the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles, California, where his collaboration with Adorno would yield the "Dialectic of Enlightenment." In 1942, Horkheimer assumed the directorship of the Scientific Division of the American Jewish Committee. In this capacity, he helped launch and organize a series of five Studies in Prejudice, which were published in 1949 and 1950. The most important of these was the pioneering study in social psychology entitled "The Authoritarian Personality", itself a methodologically advanced reworking of some of the themes treated in a collective project produced by the Institute in its first years of exile, Studies in Authority and Family.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: In the years that followed, Horkheimer did not publish much, although he continued to edit "Studies in Philosophy and Social Science" as a continuation of the "Zeitschrift." In 1949, he returned to Frankfurt where the Institute for Social Research reopened in 1950. Between 1951 and 1953 Horkheimer was rector of the University of Frankfurt. In 1953, Horkheimer stepped down from director of the Institute and took on a smaller role in the institute, while Adorno became director.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Horkheimer continued to teach at the university until his retirement in the mid-1960s. In 1953, he was awarded the Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt, and was later named an honorary citizen of Frankfurt for life. He returned to the United States in 1954 and 1959 to lecture as a frequent visiting professor at the University of Chicago. In the late 1960s, Horkheimer supported Pope Paul VI's stand against artificial contraception, specifically the pill, arguing that it would lead to the end of romantic love.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: He remained an important figure until his death in Nuremberg in 1973. Max Horkheimer with the help of Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Leo Lowenthal, Otto Kirchheimer, Frederick Pollock and Neumann developed "Critical Theory". According to Larry Ray "Critical Theory" has "become one of the most influential social theories of the twentieth century".


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Horkheimer's work is marked by a concern to show the relation between affect (especially suffering) and concepts (understood as action-guiding expressions of reason). In that, he responded critically to what he saw as the one-sidedness of both neo-Kantianism (with its focus on concepts) and "Lebensphilosophie" (with its focus on expression and world-disclosure). He did not think that either was wrong, but he insisted that the insights of each school on its own could not adequately contribute to the repair of social problems. Horkheimer focused on the connections between social structures, networks/subcultures and individual realities and concluded that we are affected and shaped by the proliferation of products on the marketplace. It is also important to note that Horkheimer collaborated with Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Through critical theory, a social theory focusing on critiquing and changing society, Horkheimer "attempted to revitalize radical social, and cultural criticism" and discussed authoritarianism, militarism, economic disruption, environmental crisis and the poverty of mass culture. Horkheimer helped to create critical theory through a mix of radical and conservative lenses that stem from radical Marxism and end up in "pessimistic Jewish transcendentalism".


title: Max Horkheimer

text: He developed his critical theory by examining his own wealth while witnessing the juxtaposition of the bourgeois and the impoverished. This critical theory embraced the future possibilities of society and was preoccupied with forces which moved society toward rational institutions that would ensure a true, free, and just life. He was convinced of the need to "examine the entire material and spiritual culture of mankind" in order to transform society as a whole. Horkheimer sought to enable the working class to reclaim their power in order to resist the lure of fascism. Horkheimer stated himself that "the rationally organized society that regulates its own existence" was necessary along with a society that could "satisfy common needs". To satisfy these needs, it reached out for a total understanding of history and knowledge. Through this, critical theory develops a "critique of bourgeois society through which 'ideology critique' attempted to locate the 'utopian content' of dominant systems of thought". Above all, critical theory sought to develop a critical perspective in the discussion of all social practices.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: "Between Philosophy and Social Science" appeared between 1930 and 1938, during the time the Frankfurt school moved from Frankfurt to Geneva to Columbia University. It included: "Materialism and Morality", "The Present Situation of Moral Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research", "On the Problem of Truth", "Egoism and the Freedom Movement", "History and Psychology", "A New Concept of Ideology", "Remarks on Philosophical Anthropology", and "The Rationalism Debate in Contemporary Philosophy". It also included "The Present Situation of Social Philosophy and the Tasks for an Institute of Social Research", "Egoism and Freedom Movements" and "Beginnings of the Bourgeois Philosophy of History". The essays within "Between Philosophy and Social Science" were Horkheimer's attempts to "remove the individual from mass culture, a function for philosophy from the commodification of everything". Horkheimer was extremely invested in the individual. In one of his writings, he states, "When we speak of an individual as a historical entity, we mean not merely the space-time and the sense existence of a particular member of the human race, but in addition, his awareness of his own individuality as a conscious human being, including recognition of his own identity.".


title: Max Horkheimer

text: "The Present Situation of Social Philosophy and the Tasks for an Institute of Social Research" was not only included in this volume, but it was also used as Horkheimer's inaugural speech as director of the Frankfurt School. In this speech he related economic groups to the struggles and challenges of real life. Horkheimer often referenced human struggle and used this example in his speech because it was a topic he understood well.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: "Egoism and Freedom Movements" and "Beginnings of the Bourgeois Philosophy of History" are the longest of the essays. The first is an evaluation of Machiavelli, Hobbes and Vico; the latter discusses the bourgeois control. In Beginnings of the Bourgeois Philosophy of History, Horkheimer explained "what he learned from the bourgeois rise to power and what of the bourgeois he thought was worth preserving.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: The volume also looks at the individual as the "troubled center of philosophy." Horkheimer expressed that "there is no formula that defines the relationship among individuals, society and nature for all time". To understand the problem of the individual further, Horkheimer included two case studies on the individual: one on Montaigne and one on himself.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Horkheimer's book, "Eclipse of Reason", started in 1941 and published in 1947, is broken into five sections: Means and Ends, Conflicting Panaceas, The Revolt of Nature, The Rise and Decline of the Individual, and On the Concept of Philosophy. The "Eclipse of Reason" focuses on the concept of reason within the history of Western philosophy, which can only be fostered in an environment of free, critical thinking while also linking positivist and instrumental reason with the rise of fascism. He distinguishes between objective, subjective and instrumental reason, and states that we have moved from the former through the center and into the latter (though subjective and instrumental reason are closely connected). Objective reason deals with universal truths that dictate that an action is either right or wrong. It is a concrete concept and a force in the world that requires specific modes of behavior. The focus in the objective faculty of reason is on the ends, rather than the means. Subjective reason is an abstract concept of reason, and focuses primarily on means. Specifically, the reasonable nature of the purpose of action is irrelevant – the ends only serve the purpose of the subject (generally self-advancement or preservation). To be "reasonable" in this context is to be suited to a particular purpose, to be "good for something else". This aspect of reason is universally conforming, and easily furnishes ideology. In instrumental reason, the sole criterion of reason is its operational value or purposefulness, and with this, the idea of truth becomes contingent on mere subjective preference (hence the relation with subjective reason). Because subjective/instrumental reason rules, the ideals of a society, for example democratic ideals, become dependent on the "interests" of the people instead of being dependent on objective truths. Horkheimer writes, "Social power is today more than ever mediated by power over things. The more intense an individual's concern with power over things, the more will things dominate him, the more will he lack any genuine individual traits, and the more will his mind be transformed into an automation of formalized reason."


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Horkheimer acknowledges that objective reason has its roots in Reason ("Logos" in Greek) and concludes, "If by enlightenment and intellectual progress we mean the freeing of man from superstitious belief in evil forces, in demons and fairies, in blind fate – in short, the emancipation from fear – then denunciation of what is currently called reason is the greatest service we can render."


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno collaborated to publish "Dialectic of Enlightenment", which was originally published in 1944. The inspiration for this piece came from when Horkheimer and Adorno had to flee Germany, because of Hitler, and go to New York. They went to America and "absorbed the popular culture"; thinking that it was a form of totalitarianism. Nonetheless, Dialectic of Enlightenment's main argument was to serve as a wide-ranging critique of the "self-destruction of enlightenment". The work criticized popular culture as "the product of a culture industry whose goal was to stupefy the masses with endless mass produced copies of the same thing" (Lemert). Along with that, Horkheimer and Adorno had a few arguments; one being that these mass-produced products only appear to change over time. Horkheimer and Adorno stated that these products were so standardized in order to help consumers comprehend and appreciate the products with little attention given to them. They expressed, "the result is a constant reproduction of the same thing" (Adorno and Horkheimer, 1993 [1944]). However, they also explain how pseudo-individuality is encouraged among these products in order to keep the consumers coming back for more. They argue that small differences in products within the same area are acceptable.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: The similar patterns found in the content of popular culture (films, popular songs and radio) have the same central message; "it's all linked to "the necessity of obedience of the masses to the social hierarchy in place in advanced capitalist societies". These products appeal to the masses and encourage conformity to the consumers. In return, capitalism remains in power while buyers continue to consume from the industry. This is dangerous because the consumers' belief that the powers of technology are liberating, starts to increase. To support their claim, Horkheimer and Adorno, "proposed an antidote: not just thinking the relations of "things", but also, as an immediate second step, thinking "through" that thinking, self-reflexively." In other words, technology lacks self-reflexivity. Nonetheless, Horkheimer and Adorno believed that art was an exception, because it "is an open-ended system with no fixed rules"; thus, it could not be an object of the industry.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Perry Anderson sees Horkheimer's attempt to make the Institute purely academic as "symptomatic of a more universal process, the emergence of a 'Western Marxism' divorced from the working-class movement and dominated by academic philosophers and the 'product of defeat'" because of the isolation of the Russian Revolution. Rolf Wiggershaus, author of "The Frankfurt School" believed Horkheimer lacked the audacious theoretical construction produced by those like Marx and Lukács and that his main argument was that those living in misery had the right to material egoism. In his book, "Social Theory", Alex Callinicos claims that "Dialectic of Enlightenment" offers no systematic account of conception of rationality, but rather professes objective reason intransigently to an extent. Charles Lemert discusses in his book "Social Theory" that in writing "Dialectic of Enlightenment", Horkheimer and Adorno lack sufficient sympathy for the cultural plight of the average working person, unfair to criticize the tastes of ordinary people, and that popular culture does not really buttress social conformity and stabilize capitalism as much as the Frankfurt school thinks.


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Ingar Solty, in a February 2020 "Jacobin" magazine article, notes that the work of Horkheimer, Adorno, and the Frankfurt School as a whole is marked by "the vast historical defeats suffered by the interwar socialist movement." He notes, "Horkheimer and Adorno thus became increasingly pessimistic with regards to the working class's ability to overthrow capitalism ... Horkheimer did not conduct empirical research on capitalism and its crises ... the hierarchical nature of the international division of labor, the organization of internationalizing capitalism in a system of nation-states, the origins of imperialism and inter-imperial rivalries, or such ... For Horkheimer, the working class had been a revolutionary subject only in the abstract ... [it] was essentially an empty placeholder for the subject which would overthrow an economic and social system which they considered wrong. If it failed to live up to its expectations, then it could easily be replaced by another subject of revolution — or the conclusion that there was no way out (of capitalism)."


title: Max Horkheimer

text: Solty contextualizes Horkheimer's (and, by implication, the Frankfurt School's) "return from 'revolutionary optimism' to 'revolutionary pessimism'" by noting, "[m]any postwar radical leftists and anti-capitalists, especially those not organized in real workers’ parties, were disappointed revolutionaries. The German writer Alfred Andersch, who had been close to the KPD before 1933 and then withdrawn into “inner emigration,” called the West German postwar left a “homeless left.” The working classes’ betrayals seemed to continue after 1945. After the short-lived socialist revival, the Cold War and the internationalization of the New Deal as the Keynesian welfare state seemed to have completely absorbed what was left of revolutionary working-class spirit. This led many disappointed leftists to culture and ideology as levels of analyses which could explain this failure of the working class." Solty identifies Horkheimer's (and, implicitly, the Frankfurt School's) work as an important influence on that of Michel Foucault: "Ultimately, both Horkheimer and Foucault only considered the defense of remaining elements of freedom and the identification of “micro-powers” of domination a possibility, but changes in the macro-power structures were out of reach. In other words, a Left was born that was no longer oriented toward “counter-hegemony” (as per Antonio Gramsci), as a way of building toward power, but rather “anti-hegemony” (Horkheimer, Foucault, etc.), as John Sanbonmatsu put it in his critique of postmodernism."


title: Macross Plus

text: Both the OVA series and movie were released in Japan by Bandai Visual and in North America and Europe by Manga Entertainment. The Australian VHS version was released by Manga Entertainment and the DVD version by Madman Entertainment under sub-license from Manga Entertainment. It features several new mecha designs inspired by the original series.


title: Macross Plus

text: Three decades after the great war between the humans and the Zentradi, in January 2040, the U.N. government is developing new technologies to use in their transforming fighter aircraft by running tests on the colony planet "Eden". Military test pilots and former childhood friends, loose cannon Isamu Alva Dyson and the Zentradi mixed race Guld Goa Bowman, are selected to each pilot a new aircraft (Shinsei Industries' YF-19 & General Galaxy's YF-21) for Project Super Nova, to choose the newest successor to the VF-11 Thunderbolt variable fighter which is currently still in use by the U.N. Spacy military forces. Their own personal grudges end up disrupting the tests, and begin to wreak havoc on the program.


title: Macross Plus

text: Their rivalry heats up when a mutual friend, Myung Fang Lone, shows up. Myung was a childhood friend of both pilots, but the three of them had a falling out, and quickly grew apart. This is alluded to throughout the story, and evidence of the strained relationship between Myung and either of the two men is apparent, while their distaste for one another is obvious. When they meet again, they discover that Myung is now the producer of Sharon Apple, the hottest entertainer in the galaxy, who just happens to be an AI hologram. Unbeknownst to the public, the Sharon AI is incomplete and requires Myung to provide emotions during concerts.


title: Macross Plus

text: During a testing session, Guld and Isamu finally face off against each other – and an all-out fight begins as each tries to best the other. Despite being in the middle of a testing area, they quickly proceed to tear the surrounding area to shreds in their fight to gain superiority over the other. Having turned off their communications equipment, both pilots fight using the test aircraft in a series of stunning dog-fight maneuvers before going into battroid form and finishing the fight on the ground. In the process, an "accidental" gun pod discharge injures Isamu and he is taken to the hospital, where he awakens to Myung standing watch over him. After returning to duty, a military tribunal questions Guld about their fight in the test area, but ultimately the decision is left up to the Admiral in charge of the project. Chief Millard, the station commander of New Edwards Test Flight Facility, reluctantly tells both pilots that their mission and the project has been scrubbed by the U.N. Spacy High Command – due to the completion of a newer, and previously unknown aircraft, the Ghost X-9 (ゴースト X-9), an advanced stealth UCAV prototype which was secretly being produced on Earth while two other prototypes (YF-19 and YF-21) were simultaneously being tested for Project Super Nova in planet Eden. With the Ghost X-9 completed, testing on the YF-19 and YF-21 was halted indefinitely, since the higher-ups believe that the new unmanned fighter is superior in every way.


title: Macross Plus

text: Meanwhile, the AI Sharon Apple has developed a malevolent consciousness, due to an illegal bio-chip having been installed by lead scientist on the project, Marge Gueldoa. During her concert in the Atlantis Dome inside Earth's Macross City, Sharon quickly takes over both the Ghost X-9 and the SDF-1 Macross Fortress and hypnotizes her audience and the Macross' staff, while trapping Myung in the Macross itself.


title: Macross Plus

text: Wanting to prove that manned fighter units are a necessity and to prove his worth, Isamu and Yang (the YF-19's engineer) take the fighter jet and space-fold to Earth to beat the X-9 at its own game, while Guld gives chase in the YF-21. Sharon hacks into Earth's outer space defences, but both Isamu and Guld make it through. They then proceed to attack each other again, as they argue about childhood grudges. At the climax of the fight Guld, finally achieving a target lock, releases a large fury of missiles seemingly destroying the YF-19. As this happens, Guld is flooded by repressed memories. Now realizing it was truly his own jealous rage that had torn the friendship apart. Having saved himself and Yang by cutting engine throttle and gliding, the YF-19 then appears in the skies above Guld and the two old friends reconcile.


title: Macross Plus

text: When discovering that Myung's life is in danger, Isamu and Guld quickly go to her aid. While Isamu goes after Sharon, Guld fights the X-9 and ultimately destroys it by removing the gravitational safety limiters on his aircraft, and matching the X-9's velocity/maneuverability, which is much higher than normally possible due to it being computer-controlled and having no pilot, until he achieves a target lock and shoots the X-9 down. However, removing the limiters allows Guld to achieve accelerations exceeding human (even Zentradi-Human) limitations, which ultimately leads to his death, the g-forces generated by his piloting literally crushing him even as he crashes the YF-21 into the X-9, destroying it.


title: Macross Plus

text: While fighting the SDF-1 Macross, Sharon hypnotises Yang who shoots at Isamu but only hits his helmet. Isamu ejected Yang but then is hypnotized by Sharon's voice, and is left to crash to his death. At the last second, Myung's voice reaches him and brings him out back to consciousness. Dodging the Macross' fire, Isamu is able to destroy the central computer, effectively eliminating Sharon.


title: Macross Plus

text: The story ends as the sun rises over the Macross Fortress, with Myung waving to Isamu, who has survived the destruction of Sharon's computer.


title: Macross Plus

text: Eventually, the U.N. government banned all AI technology developments after the incident, and allowed the continuation of Project Super Nova.