title: State Administration Council

text: In November 2022, the European Union instituted economic sanctions on the State Administration Council.


title: Group of Ten (economics)

text: The Group of Ten (G-10 or G10) refers to the group of countries that agreed to participate in the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), an agreement to provide the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with additional funds to increase its lending ability.


title: Group of Ten (economics)

text: The GAB was established in 1962, when the governments of eight International Monetary Fund (IMF) members—Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and the central banks of two others, Germany and Sweden, agreed to make resources available to the IMF with an additional $6 billion of their resources. The additional money was intended to allow the IMF to have increased lending resources.


title: Group of Ten (economics)

text: In 1964, the funds were used by the IMF to rescue the pound sterling. The G-10 grew in 1964 by the association of the eleventh member, Switzerland, then not a member of the IMF, but the name of the group remained the same.


title: Group of Ten (economics)

text: The GAB enables the IMF to borrow specified amounts of currencies from these eleven industrial countries (or their central banks), under certain circumstances. Specifically, a proposal for calls under the GAB may only be made when a proposal for the establishment of an activation period under the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) is not accepted by NAB participants, who number 38 countries, amongst which are the BRICS nations and Middle Eastern powers.


title: Group of Ten (economics)

text: The potential amount of credit available to the IMF under the GAB totals SDR 17bn (about $26bn), with an additional SDR 1.5bn available under an associated arrangement with Saudi Arabia. The GAB was established in 1962 and expanded in 1983 to SDR 17bn, from about SDR 6bn. It has been activated ten times, the last time in 1998. The GAB and the associated credit arrangement with Saudi Arabia have been renewed, without modifications, for a period of five years from December 26, 2013.


title: Group of Ten (economics)

text: The following international organizations are official observers of the activities of the G10: the BIS, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Luxembourg is an associate member.


title: MP 34

text: The MP34 ("Maschinenpistole 34", literally "Machine Pistol 34") is a submachine gun (SMG) that was manufactured by "Waffenfabrik Steyr" as Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 and used by the Austrian Army and Austrian Gendarmerie and subsequently by units of the German Army and the "Waffen SS", in World War II. An exceptionally well-made weapon, it was used by some forces well into the 1970s.


title: MP 34

text: The MP 34 was based on a design for the MP 19 by the Rheinmetall company based in Düsseldorf. The weapon is similar in design to the MP 18 Bergmann, which itself saw service towards the end of World War I.


title: MP 34

text: Restrictions on the manufacture of certain armaments within the 1919 Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from manufacturing certain types of weapons, such as light automatic firearms (designated as SMGs with barrels in excess of four inches (102 mm) and magazines holding more than eight rounds). To circumvent the treaty, Rheinmetall acquired the Swiss company "Waffenfabrik Solothurn" in 1929 and began secret production of a prototype. What was to become the MP 34 was originally designated ‘S1-100’ using the company's standard naming convention.


title: MP 34

text: Due to the Solothurn company being unsuited for mass production, Rheinmetall took a controlling interest in "Waffenfabrik Steyr", an established arms manufacturer in Austria. Weapons manufactured by Steyr were sold via the Zurich-based trade company "Steyr-Solothurn Waffen AG" to both the commercial and military markets.


title: MP 34

text: The MP 34 was manufactured from the very best materials available and finished to the highest possible standard. It was so well manufactured that it has often been nicknamed the "Rolls Royce of submachine guns". However, its production costs were extremely high as a consequence.


title: MP 34

text: The MP34 was a selective-fire weapon (single shot or full auto), firing in blowback mode with an open bolt. The return spring was located in the wooden stock and was linked to the bolt via a long push rod, attached via a pivot to the rear of the bolt. Easy access to the bolt and trigger assembly was via a hinged top cover which opened up and forward by depressing two release catches. This makes cleaning procedures very easy to perform.


title: MP 34

text: On the left-hand side of the stock was a sliding fire selector switch (marked by letters T and S). Initial production runs of the gun had a Schmeisser-style bolt-locking safety (similar to the MP40) in the form of hook-shaped cut which was used to engage the bolt handle when the bolt was cocked (which was notoriously unsafe). Later models included a manual safety on the top cover, just in front of the rear sight. This safety could lock the weapon in both a cocked or closed position.


title: MP 34

text: 32- or 20-round box magazines were fed in from the left side and the magazine housing was angled slightly forward to improve cartridge feeding to prevent jams. Additionally, the same magazine housing incorporated a magazine refilling feature. An empty magazine could be inserted from underneath and locked in place. From above stripper clips (of 8 rounds each) could be fed into the magazines.


title: MP 34

text: All MP34s were equipped with a wooden stock with a semi-pistol grip. The barrel was enclosed into a perforated cooling jacket, and had a bayonet-fixing lug on the right-hand side. Front (hooded) and rear rifle-type sights were fitted – the latter marked from 100 to 500 meters.


title: MP 34

text: In 1930, the Austrian police accepted the S1-100 as the Steyr MP30, chambered for then standard Austrian 9×23mm Steyr pistol rounds. The guns sold to South America, China and Japan were in 7.63x25 Mauser calibre.


title: MP 34

text: The Austrian Army adopted the Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 as the Steyr MP34, chambered for the powerful 9×25mm Mauser ammunition.


title: MP 34

text: With the 1938 Anschluss between Germany and Austria, the German Army acquired most of the available MP30s and MP34s. A number were then re-barrelled to chamber 9×19 ammunition and issued to German troops as the MP34(ö) – "Maschinenpistole 34 österreichisch" (literally "Machine-pistol 34, Austrian"). Production of the MP34 ceased in mid-1940, and manufacturing lines at Steyr moved over to the production of the MP40 – a much simpler designed weapon and far less expensive to produce than the MP34. As a substitute standard small arm, it had a relatively short combat service once quantities of the MP38 became available, though some MP34s were used by Waffen SS units in the early stages of the war in Poland and France. It was then allocated to security and reserve units, including military police and "Feldgendarmerie" detachments.


title: MP 34

text: In Greece, various police forces under the Ministry of Security, notably the mechanized police, were equipped with the S1-100 in 9×25mm Mauser caliber. In Yugoslavia, both the Partisans and the Chetniks used captured Solothurn MP34s carried by German and Croatian troops.


title: MP 34

text: Portugal bought in small quantities the .45 ACP version and was adopted as Pistola-metralhadora 11,43mm m/935. Portugal also purchased small quantities of the S1-100 in 7.65x21mm Luger calibre in 1938, and the weapon was adopted as the Pistola-metralhadora 7,65 mm m/938 Steyer submachine gun. In 1941 and 1942, larger numbers of 9mm MP34 guns were delivered to Portugal by Germany. In Portuguese service, the 9mm MP34 was known as the Pistola-metralhadora 9 mm m/942 Steyer. Many m/942 guns carry a Portuguese crest just forward of the safety mechanism in combination with "Waffenamt" (WaA) markings. The m/942 remained in service with Portuguese Army into the 1950s, and was used until the 1970s by paramilitary and security forces in Portugal's overseas African colonies during the Portuguese Colonial Wars.


title: Minnie's Bow-Toons

text: Minnie's Bow-Toons is an American animated children's television series. The series aired from 2011 to 2016 on Disney Junior, as a short-form series targeted at younger girls as well as the spin-off from "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". The series is based on the episode, "Minnie's Bow-tique", where Minnie opens her boutique filled with a variety of bows and bow-ties. This show introduces Cuckoo-Loca, a wind-up bird, and Minnie's twin nieces Millie and Melody Mouse into Disney's cartoons, starting with the episode "Trouble Times Two".


title: Minnie's Bow-Toons

text: A revival of the series, entitled Minnie's Bow-Toons: Party Palace Pals!, premiered on April 3, 2021, on the Disney Junior YouTube channel and on April 5 on Disney Junior, in the style of "Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures".


title: Minnie's Bow-Toons

text: After the events of the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" episode "Minnie's Bow-tique", this TV series is about the adventures of Minnie Mouse and her friend Daisy Duck as they run Minnie's Bow-tique, a specialty shop stocked only with colorful bows and bowties. Minnie ends all the Season 1 episodes saying, "There's no business like bow business!" In Season 3, Minnie, Daisy and Cuckoo Loca open a pet grooming salon adjacent to the Bow-tique. In Season 4, Minnie, Daisy and Cuckoo Loca go on international trips, visiting cities like London, Venice, and Tokyo. In Season 6, Minnie, Daisy and Cuckoo Loca start a new party planning business.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: Big Mouth Billy Bass is an animatronic singing prop, representing a largemouth bass, invented by Gemmy Industries on December 16, 1998; sold beginning January 1, 1999; and popular in the early 2000s.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: Gemmy (IPA : ) is an American novelty manufacturing company, best known for its animatronic and inflatable characters. It is currently headquartered in Coppell, Texas. Founded in 1984, the company originally began producing ballpoint pens. Gemmy eventually ventured into novelty manufacturing, and in 2000, it achieved marketing success with the Big Mouth Billy Bass. Following that success, the company began predominantly making animatronic figures focused on the Christmas and Halloween seasons. The company distributes product internationally, especially to the United Kingdom.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: The fish is made of latex rubber with an internal plastic mechanical skeleton. At first glance, the product appears to be a mounted game fish. The item was conceived by a Gemmy Industries product development vice president following his visit to a Bass Pro Shop. The mounted fish turns its head towards a person, wiggles its tail on the trophy plaque, and sings cover songs, such as "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (1988) by Bobby McFerrin; and "Take Me To The River" (1974) by Al Green. Green claims he received more royalties from Big Mouth Billy Bass than from any other recordings of the song.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: The singing mechanism was originally activated by a motion sensor and was designed to startle a passerby. Eventually, a button was added to activate it. There have been many variants of Big Mouth Billy Bass produced by Gemmy. These use different types of game fish and aquatic animals. Variants include: Travis the Singing Trout, Cool Catfish, Rocky The Singing Lobster, and Lucky The Lobster.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: The concept was later adapted into a large mounted deer head, known as "Buck – the Animated Trophy" (voiced by Clint Ford), as well as a medium-sized mounted bear head.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: On December 7, 1999, a special holiday version of the Big Mouth Billy Bass was released. The fish had a Santa hat on his head and a ribbon with a sleigh bell on his tail. An anniversary edition followed in 2014.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: In 2018, Gemmy Industries partnered with Amazon to create an Amazon Alexa-enabled version of the animatronic. This variant pairs with any Amazon Echo device through Bluetooth and will move its mouth when responding to Alexa commands. It also shakes its tail when playing music through Amazon Music but does not lip sync to songs. When not connected to an Alexa device, the fish sings an original song titled "Fishin' Time" when its red button is pushed.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: A remake of the original Big Mouth Billy Bass was released in 2021. This new version cut "Don't Worry Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin for Luke Bryan's 2015 "Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Every Day" in addition to the Talking Heads 1978 iteration of "Take Me to the River".


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: In late-2021, TikTok user Kevin Heckart hacked a Big Mouth Billy Bass to not only lip-sync to any voice track or song, but to also dance via head and tail movements to whatever song is played through any smart speaker connections. Heckart later made a similar hack to the Cool Catfish and Frankie the Fish by the same company along with Loftus International’s Tommy Trout as well as an orange Chinese Big Mouth Billy Bass 15th Anniversary Edition knockoff in mid-2022, all of them synced to an Amazon Alexa playing Nathan Evans's cover of The Wellerman.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: It was reported that Elizabeth II had a Big Mouth Billy Bass displayed on the grand piano of Balmoral Castle. The Netflix drama "The Crown" incorrectly depicts Prince Andrew giving it to her as a birthday present in 1997.


title: Big Mouth Billy Bass

text: The success of the Big Mouth Billy Bass has led to a number of pop culture appearances, including product placements. Some of the device's notable appearances include "The Simpsons", "Family Guy", "The Sopranos," "WALL-E, "and "The Act of Killing".


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: Dopaminergic pathways (dopamine pathways, dopaminergic projections) in the human brain are involved in both physiological and behavioral processes including movement, cognition, executive functions, reward, motivation, and neuroendocrine control. Each pathway is a set of projection neurons, consisting of individual dopaminergic neurons.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The four major dopaminergic pathways are the mesolimbic pathway, the mesocortical pathway, the nigrostriatal pathway, and the tuberoinfundibular pathway.The mesolimbic pathway and the mesocortical pathway form the mesocorticolimbic system. Two other dopaminergic pathways to be considered are the hypothalamospinal tract and the incertohypothalamic pathway.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), substance use disorders (addiction), and restless legs syndrome (RLS) can be attributed to dysfunction in specific dopaminergic pathways.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The dopamine neurons of the dopaminergic pathways synthesize and release the neurotransmitter dopamine. Enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase and dopa decarboxylase are required for dopamine synthesis. These enzymes are both produced in the cell bodies of dopamine neurons. Dopamine is stored in the cytoplasm and vesicles in axon terminals. Dopamine release from vesicles is triggered by action potential propagation-induced membrane depolarization. The axons of dopamine neurons extend the entire length of their designated pathway.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The mesocorticolimbic system (mesocorticolimbic circuit) refers to both the mesocortical and mesolimbic pathways. Both pathways originate at the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Through separate connections to the prefrontal cortex (mesocortical) and ventral striatum (mesolimbic), the mesocorticolimbic projection has a significant role in learning, motivation, reward, memory and movement. Dopamine receptor subtypes, D1 and D2 have been shown to have complementary functions in the mesocorticolimbic projection, facilitating learning in response to both positive and negative feedback. Both pathways of the mesocorticolimbic system are associated with ADHD, schizophrenia and addiction.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The mesocortical pathway projects from the ventral tegmental area to the prefrontal cortex (VTA → Prefrontal cortex). This pathway is involved in cognition and the regulation of executive functions (e.g., attention, working memory, inhibitory control, planning, etc.) Dysregulation of the neurons in this pathway has been connected to ADHD.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: Referred to as the reward pathway, mesolimbic pathway projects from the ventral tegmental area to the ventral striatum ( VTA → Ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle). When a reward is anticipated, the firing rate of dopamine neurons in the mesolimbic pathway increases. The mesolimbic pathway is involved with incentive salience, motivation, reinforcement learning, fear and other cognitive processes. In animal studies, depletion of dopamine in this pathway, or lesions at its site of origin, decrease the extent to which an animal is willing to go to obtain a reward (e.g., the number of lever presses for nicotine or time searching for food). Research is ongoing to determine the role of the mesolimbic pathway in the perception of pleasure.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The nigrostriatal pathway is involved in behaviors relating to movement and motivation. The transmission of dopaminergic neurons to the dorsal striatum particularly plays a role in reward and motivation while movement is influenced by the transmission of dopaminergic neurons to the substantia nigra. The nigrostriatal pathway is associated with conditions such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, ADHD, Schizophrenia, and Tourette's Syndrome. Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Tourette's Syndrome are conditions affected by motor functioning while schizophrenia and ADHD are affected by reward and motivation functioning. This pathway also regulates associated learning such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The tuberoinfundibular pathway transmits dopamine the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland. This pathway also regulates the secretion of prolactin from the pituitary gland, which is responsible for breast milk production in females. Hyperprolactinemia is an associated condition caused by an excessive amount of prolactin production that is common in pregnant women.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The dopaminergic pathways that project from the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) into the striatum (i.e., the nigrostriatal and mesolimbic pathways, respectively) form one component of a sequence of pathways known as the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop. The nigrostriatal component of the loop consists of the SNc, giving rise to both inhibitory and excitatory pathways that run from the striatum into the globus pallidus, before carrying on to the thalamus, or into the subthalamic nucleus before heading into the thalamus. The dopaminergic neurons in this circuit increase the magnitude of phasic firing in response to positive reward error, that is when the reward exceeds the expected reward. These neurons do not decrease phasic firing during a negative reward prediction (less reward than expected), leading to hypothesis that serotonergic, rather than dopaminergic neurons encode reward loss (source?). Dopamine phasic activity also increases during cues that signal negative events, however dopaminergic neuron stimulation still induces place preference, indicating its main role in evaluating a positive stimulus. From these findings, two hypotheses have developed, as to the role of the basal ganglia and nigrostiatal dopamine circuits in action selection. The first model suggests a "critic" which encodes value, and an actor which encodes responses to stimuli based on perceived value. However, the second model proposes that the actions do not originate in the basal ganglia, and instead originate in the cortex and are selected by the basal ganglia. This model proposes that the direct pathway controls appropriate behavior and the indirect suppresses actions not suitable for the situation. This model proposes that tonic dopaminergic firing increases the activity of the direct pathway, causing a bias towards executing actions faster.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: These models of the basal ganglia are thought to be relevant to the study of OCD, ADHD, Tourette syndrome, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and addiction. For example, Parkinson's disease is hypothesized to be a result of excessive inhibitory pathway activity, which explains the slow movement and cognitive deficits, while Tourettes is proposed to be a result of excessive excitatory activity resulting in the tics characteristic of Tourettes.


title: Dopaminergic pathways

text: The ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra pars compacta receive inputs from other neurotransmitters systems, including glutaminergic inputs, GABAergic inputs, cholinergic inputs, and inputs from other monoaminergic nuclei. The VTA contains 5-HT receptors that exert a biphasic effects on firing, with low doses of 5-HT receptor agonists eliciting an increase in firing rate, and higher doses suppressing activity. The 5-HT receptors expressed on dopaminergic neurons increase activity, while 5-HT receptors elicit a decrease in activity. The mesolimbic pathway, which projects from the VTA to the nucleus accumbens, is also regulated by muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. In particular, the activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M2 and muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M4 inhibits dopamine release, while muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1 activation increases dopamine release. GABAergic inputs from the striatum decrease dopaminergic neuronal activity, and glutaminergic inputs from many cortical and subcortical areas increase the firing rate of dopaminergic neurons. Endocannabinoids also appear to have a modulatory effect on dopamine release from neurons that project out of the VTA and SNc. Noradrenergic inputs deriving from the locus coeruleus have excitatory and inhibitory effects on the dopaminergic neurons that project out of the VTA and SNc. The excitatory orexinergic inputs to the VTA originate in the lateral hypothalamus and may regulate the baseline firing of VTA dopaminergic neurons.


title: Nawab of Pataudi

text: The term Nawab of Pataudi refers to the lineage of rulers of the former princely Pataudi State in Northern India. Pataudi was established in 1804 by the British East India Company, when Faiz Talab Khan, an Afghan Muslim Pashtun of the Barech tribe, who was made the first Nawab, aided them in their battle against the Maratha Empire, during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The family traces their origin to 16th century India, when their ancestors immigrated from present day Afghanistan to India during the period of the Lodi dynasty.


title: Nawab of Pataudi

text: The 8th Nawab of Pataudi, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, played first-class cricket for both England and India while his son, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the last Nawab, captained the Indian cricket team.


title: Nawab of Pataudi

text: Actor Saif Ali Khan and actress Soha Ali Khan are the children of the last Nawab of Pataudi, whereas actress Sara Ali Khan is the granddaughter of the last Nawab.


title: Axillary artery

text: In human anatomy, the axillary artery is a large blood vessel that conveys oxygenated blood to the lateral aspect of the thorax, the axilla (armpit) and the upper limb. Its origin is at the lateral margin of the first rib, before which it is called the subclavian artery.


title: Axillary artery

text: The axillary artery is often referred to as having three parts, with these divisions based on its location relative to the Pectoralis minor muscle, which is superficial to the artery.


title: Axillary artery

text: The axillary artery is accompanied by the axillary vein, which lies medial to the artery, along its length.


title: Axillary artery

text: In the axilla, the axillary artery is surrounded by the brachial plexus. The second part of the axillary artery is the reference for the locational descriptions of the cords in the brachial plexus. For example, the posterior cord of the brachial plexus is so named because it lies posterior to the second part of the artery.


title: Axillary artery

text: The axillary artery has several smaller branches. The branches can be remembered, in order, when traveling from the heart, with the mnemonics "Screw The Lawyers Save A Patient", "Summertime: The Lakers Schedule Another Parade", "Sixties Teens Love Sex And Pot", or "She Tastes Like Sweet Apple Pie." The origin of these branches is highly variable (e.g. the posterior and anterior circumflex arteries often have a common trunk). An arterial branch is named for its course, not its origin.


title: Axillary artery

text: The axillary artery can be safely clamped without endangering the arm, but only in a location proximal to the origin of the subscapular artery (and distal to the thyrocervical trunk of the subclavian artery). The anastomotic network surrounding the scapula provides an alternate path for collateral circulation to the arm from arteries including the dorsal scapular artery and suprascapular artery.


title: Axillary artery

text: The right axillary artery is often used as an arterial cannulation site in cardiac surgery, particularly for repair of aortic dissection and replacement of the ascending aorta and aortic arch.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) is a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in scattered subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. It closely resembles the Australian snubfin dolphin (of the same genus, "Orcaella"), which was not described as a separate species until 2005. It has a slate blue to a slate gray color. Although found in much of the riverine and marine zones of South and Southeast Asia, the only concentrated lagoon populations are found in Chilika Lake in Odisha, India and Songkhla Lake in southern Thailand.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: One of the earliest recorded descriptions of the Irrawaddy dolphin was by Sir Richard Owen in 1866 based on a specimen found in 1852, in the harbour of Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India. It is one of two species in its genus. It has sometimes been listed variously in a family containing just itself and in the Monodontidae and Delphinapteridae. Widespread agreement now exists to list it in the family Delphinidae.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The species name "brevirostris" comes from the Latin meaning short-beaked. It is very closely related to the Australian snubfin dolphin ("Orcaella heinsohni"). The two snubfin dolphins were only recognised as separate species in 2005 when a genetic analysis showed that the population found along the coast of northern Australia forms a second species in the genus "Orcaella". The "Orcaella" dolphins are close relatives of the oceanic dolphins in Globicephalinae subfamily.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphin's colour is grey to dark slate blue, paler underneath, without a distinctive pattern. The dorsal fin is small and rounded behind the middle of the back. The forehead is high and rounded; the beak is lacking. The front of its snout is blunt. The flippers are broad and rounded. The finless porpoise ("Neophocaena phocaenoides") is similar and has no back fin; the humpback dolphin ("Sousa chinensis") is larger, and has a longer beak and a larger dorsal fin.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: It ranges in weight from with a length of at full maturity. Maximum recorded length is of a male in Thailand.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphin is similar to the beluga in appearance, though most closely related to the killer whale. It has a large melon and a blunt, rounded head, and the beak is indistinct. Its dorsal fin, located about two-thirds posterior along the back, is short, blunt, and triangular. Dorsal fin shapes differ from one Irrawaddy dolphin to another. The flippers are long and broad. These dolphins are usually two-toned, with the back and sides being gray to bluish-gray and the belly lighter. Unlike any other dolphin, the Irrawaddy's U-shaped blowhole is on the left of the midline and opens towards the front of the dolphin. Its short beak appears very different from those of other dolphins, and its mouth is known for having 12-19 peg-like teeth on each side of the jaws.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Communication is carried out with clicks, creaks, and buzzes at a dominant frequency of about 60  kilohertz, which is thought to be used for echolocation. Bony fish and fish eggs, cephalopods, and crustaceans are taken as food. Observations of captive animals indicate food may be taken into the mouth by suction. Irrawaddy dolphins are capable of squirting streams of water that can reach up to ; this distinct behaviour has been known for herding fish into a general area for hunting. They do this sometimes while spyhopping and during feeding, apparently to expel water ingested during fish capture or possibly to herd fish. Some Irrawaddy dolphins kept in captivity have been trained to do spyhopping on command. The Irrawaddy dolphin is a slow swimmer, but swimming speeds of were reported when dolphins were being chased in a boat.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Irrawaddy dolphins are shy of boats, not known to bow-ride, and generally dive when alarmed. They are relatively slow moving but can sometimes be seen spyhopping and rolling to one side while waving a flipper and occasionally breaching. They are generally found in groups of 2-3 animals, though sometimes as many as 25 individuals have been known to congregate in deep pools. Groups of fewer than six individuals are most common, but sometimes up to 15 dolphins are seen together. Traveling and staying in groups not only enables Irrawaddy dolphins to hunt, but it also creates and maintains social bonds and allows copulation to occur.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: It surfaces in a rolling fashion and lifts its tail fluke clear of the water only for a deep dive. Deep dive times range from 30 to 150 seconds to 12 minutes. When 277 group dives were timed (time of disappearance of the last dolphin in the group to the emergence of the first dolphin in the group) in Laos, mean duration was 115.3  seconds with a range of 19  seconds to 7.18  minutes.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Interspecific competition has been observed when Irrawaddy dolphins were forced inshore and excluded by more specialized dolphins. When captive humpback dolphins ("Sousa chinensis") and Irrawaddy dolphins were held together, reportedly the Irrawaddy dolphins were frequently chased and confined to a small portion of the tank by the dominant humpbacks. In Chilika Lake, local fishers say when Irrawaddy dolphins and bottlenose dolphins meet in the outer channel, the former get frightened and are forced to return toward the lake.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: A female or male dolphin will attempt to pursue a mate for about a few minutes. They intertwine facing their bellies together and begin to copulate for 40 seconds. Once copulation has occurred, the dolphins will break away from each other and set off in different directions.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: These dolphins are thought to reach sexual maturity at seven to nine years. In the Northern Hemisphere, mating is reported from December to June. Its gestation period is 14 months; cows give birth to a single calf every two to three years. Length is about at birth. Birth weight is about . Weaning is after two years. Lifespan is about 30 years.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: There are plenty of food items that this dolphin feeds upon. They include fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. During foraging periods, herds of about 7 dolphins will circle around prey and trap their victim. These prey entrapments occur slightly below the water surface level.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Although sometimes called the Irrawaddy river dolphin, it is not a true river dolphin, but an oceanic dolphin that lives in brackish water near coasts, river mouths, and estuaries. It has established subpopulations in freshwater rivers, including the Ganges and the Mekong, as well as the Irrawaddy River from which it takes its name. Its range extends from the Bay of Bengal to New Guinea and the Philippines, although it does not appear to venture off shore. It is often seen in estuaries and bays in Borneo Island, with sightings from Sandakan in Sabah, Malaysia, to most parts of Brunei and Sarawak, Malaysia. A specimen was collected at Mahakam River in East Kalimantan.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Presence of the species in Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong's waters has been questioned as the reported sightings have been considered unreliable, and the easternmost of ranges along Eurasian continent is in Vietnam.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: No range-wide survey has been conducted for this vulnerable species; however, the worldwide population appears to be over 7,000. In India, Irawaddy dolphins are mostly found in Chilika Lake. Known subpopulations of Irrawaddy dolphins are found in eight places, listed here in order of population, including conservation status.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Irrawaddy dolphins have a mutualistic relationship of co-operative fishing with traditional fishers. Fishers in India recall when they would call out to the dolphins, by tapping a wooden key also known as a "lahai kway", against the sides of their boats, asking the Irrawaddys to drive fish into their nets. In Burma, in the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady River, Irrawaddy dolphins drive fish towards fishers using cast nets in response to acoustic signals from them. The fishermen attempt to gain the attention of the dolphins through various efforts such as using a cone-shaped wooden stick to drum the side of their canoes, striking their paddles to the surface of the water, jingling their nets, or making calls that sound turkey-like. A herd of dolphins that agrees to work alongside the fisherman will entrap a school of fish in a semicircle, guiding them towards the boat. In return, the dolphins are rewarded with some of the fishers' bycatch. Historically, Irrawaddy River fishers claimed particular dolphins were associated with individual fishing villages and chased fish into their nets. An 1879 report indicated legal claims were frequently brought into native courts by fishers to recover a share of the fish from the nets of a rival fisher that the plaintiff's dolphin was claimed to have helped fill.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Irrawaddy dolphins are more susceptible to human conflict than most other dolphins that live farther out in the ocean. Drowning in gillnets is the main threat to them throughout their range. Between 1995 and 2001, 38 deaths were reported and 74% died as a result of entanglement in gillnets with large mesh sizes. The majority of reported dolphin deaths in all subpopulations is due to accidental capture and drowning in gillnets and dragnets, and in the Philippines, bottom-set crabnets. In Burma, electrofishing, gold mining, and dam building are also serious and continuing threats. Though most fishers are sympathetic to the dolphins' plight, abandoning their traditional livelihood is difficult for them.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Another identified threat towards the Irrawaddy dolphins was noise pollution from high-speed vessels. This caused the dolphins to dive significantly longer than usual. The Irrawaddy dolphins always changed directions when they encountered these large vessels.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Laotians and Cambodians have a common belief that the Irrawaddy dolphins are reincarnations of their ancestors. Some even claim that the dolphins have saved drowning villagers and protected people from attacks by crocodiles. Their beliefs and experiences have led the people of Laos and Cambodia to live peacefully alongside one another for ages until recent years, when the technique of using explosives for fishing has emerged. The government of Laos has made use of such tactics illegal, but few regulations have been made in neighboring Cambodia, where explosives are sold in local markets and the practice of using fishnets has been abandoned. The practice of using explosives instead has become very popular and led to a steady decline of populations of fish, and especially the dolphins swimming in the area. Although Laotians may not use explosives, they do use nylon gillnets, which pose another large threat to the survival of the Irrawaddy. Some dolphins accidentally become entangled in the net. Poor fishermen refuse to cut and destroy their nets because it would result in too great of an economic loss to save one Irrawaddy dolphin.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In Laos, a dam across the Mekong River is planned. This could threaten the existence of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in downstream Cambodia. Laos's government decision is to forge the dam upstream of the core habitat of the Irrawaddy dolphins. This could precipitate the extinction of this specific species in the Mekong River. The dam builders' proposal is to use explosives to dig out the tons of rock. This will create strong sound waves that could possibly kill the Irrawaddy dolphins due to their highly sensitive hearing structures.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In several Asian countries, Irrawaddy dolphins have been captured and trained to perform in public aquaria. Their charismatic appearance and unique behaviors, including spitting water, spyhopping, and fluke-slapping, make them very popular for shows in dolphinaria. The commercial motivation for using this dolphin species is high because it can live in freshwater tanks and the high cost of marine aquarium systems is avoided. The region within and near the species' range has developed economically; theme parks, casinos, and other entertainment venues that include dolphin shows have increased.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Khmer and Vietnamese fishermen have regarded the "Orcaella" as a sacred animal. If caught in fishing nets, they release the dolphin from the rest of the catch. In contrast, Khmer-Islam fisherman kill them for food. This has led to the dolphin being reputed to recognize the local languages of the area and approach the Khmer-Islam with caution. In 2002, there were more than 80 dolphinariums in at least nine Asian countries.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Collateral deaths of dolphins due to blast fishing were once common in Vietnam and Thailand. In the past, the most direct threat was killing them for their oil.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The IUCN lists five of the seven subpopulations as endangered, primarily due to drowning in fish nets. For example, the Malampaya population, first discovered and described in 1986, at the time consisted of 77 individuals. Due to anthropogenic activities, this number dwindled to 47 dolphins in 2007. In the Mahakam River in Borneo, 73% of dolphin deaths are related to entanglement in gillnets, due to heavy fishing and boat traffic.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphins in Asia are increasingly threatened by tourist activity, such as large numbers of boats circulating the areas in which they live. The development of tours and boats has put a large strain on the dolphins.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Cutaneous nodules were found present in various vulnerable populations of Irrawaddy dolphins. A more precise estimate of the affected dolphins is six populations. Although the definite fate of this emergent disease is unknown, the species is at risk.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphin's proximity to developing communities makes the effort for conservation difficult. Entanglement in fishnets and degradation of habitats are the main threats to Irrawaddy dolphins. Conservation efforts are being made at international and national levels to alleviate these threats.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Protection from international trade is provided by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Enforcement, though, is the responsibility of individual countries. While some international trade for dolphinarium animals may have occurred, this is unlikely to have ever been a major threat to the species.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Some Irrawaddy dolphin populations are classified by the IUCN as critically endangered; in Lao PDR, Cambodia, Viet Nam (Mekong River sub-population), Indonesia (Mahakam River sub-population, Borneo), Myanmar (Ayeyarwady/Irrawaddy River sub-population), the Philippines (Malampaya Sound sub-population), and Thailand (Songkhla Lake sub-population). Irrawaddy dolphins in general however, are IUCN listed as an Endangered species, which applies throughout their whole range. In 2004, CITES transferred the Irrawaddy dolphin from Appendix II to Appendix I, which forbids all commercial trade in species that are threatened with extinction.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The UNEP-CMS Action Plan for the Conservation of Freshwater Populations of Irrawaddy dolphins notes that multiple-use protected areas will play a key role for conserving freshwater populations. Protected areas in fresh water could be a particularly effective conservation tool and can facilitate management, due to the fidelity of the species to relatively circumscribed areas. The Action Plan provides details on strategies for mitigating by-catch that includes:


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphin is listed on both Appendix I and Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). It is listed on Appendix I as this species has been categorized as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant proportion of their range and CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them, as well on Appendix II as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organized by tailored agreements.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The species is also covered by the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (MoU).


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Several national efforts are resulting in the reduction of threats to local Irrawaddy dolphin subpopulations:


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Portions of Irrawaddy dolphin habitat in the Sundarbans mangrove forest of Bangladesh are included within of three wildlife sanctuaries, which are part of the Sunderbans World Heritage Site. The Wildlife Conservation Society is working with the Bangladesh Ministry of Environment and Forests to create protected areas for the 6000 remaining dolphins


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Irrawaddy dolphins are fully protected as an endangered species under Cambodian fishery law. In 2005, The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) established the Cambodian Mekong Dolphin Conservation Project with support from government and local communities. The aim is to support the survival of the remaining population through targeted conservation activities, research, and education. In January 2012, the Cambodian Fisheries Administration, the Commission for Conservation and Development of Mekong River Dolphin Eco-tourism Zone, and WWF signed the Kratie Declaration on the Conservation of the Mekong River Irrawaddy Dolphin, an agreement binding them to work together, and setting out a roadmap for dolphin conservation in the Mekong River. On 24 August 2012, the Cambodian government announced that stretch of the Mekong River from eastern Kratie province to the border with Laos has been stated as limit fishing zone which uses floating houses, fishing cages and gill nets are disallowed, but simple fishing is allowed. This area is patrolled by a network of river guards, specifically to protect dolphins. Between January and February 2006, a dozen Irrawaddy dolphins were found dead. The discovery of 10 new baby dolphins on the coast of Cambodia was a relief and gave hope that the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins would make a comeback in population. Since the endangerment was evident, 66 guards have been posted on the coast of Cambodia to protect these dolphins, and only two deaths have been reported since these efforts. To make more efforts to keep these animals from going extinct, the use of fishing nets on the coast of Cambodia is banned, as well.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: The Irrawaddy dolphin (under the common name of snubfin dolphin, with the scientific name misspelled as "Oreaella brevezastris") is included the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, Schedule I, which bans their killing, transport and sale of products. A major restoration effort to open a new mouth between Chilika Lake and the Bay of Bengal in 2000 was successful in restoring the lake ecology and regulating the salinity gradient in the lake waters, which has resulted in increases in the population of Irrawaddy dolphin due to increase of prey species of fish, prawns, and crabs.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: A conservation program, entitled Conservation Foundation for the Protection of Rare Aquatic Species of Indonesia, focused on protecting the Irrawaddy dolphin population and their habitat, the Mahakam River. The program not only educates and surveys the public, but also monitors the dolphin population and their habitat. A prime example of this is the establishment of patrols in several villages.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Some major concern for the population in the Mekong River has arisen due to numerous threats. In the 1970s, many Irrawaddy dolphins were slaughtered for oil, and soon after, intensive fishing practices with explosives and gillnets began. As of now, the dolphins are protected in Cambodia and Laos Democratic Republic. Now, both explosive fishing and use of gillnets is restricted in many of the Irrawaddy dolphin's habitats. Canadian conservationist Ian Baird set up the Lao Community Fisheries and Dolphin Protection Project to study the Irrawaddy dolphins in the Laotian part of the Mekong. Part of this project compensated fishers for the loss of nets damaged to free entangled dolphins. This project was expanded to include Cambodia, after the majority of the dolphin population was determined to have been killed or migrated to Laos' southern neighbor. The Si Phan Don Wetlands Project has successfully encouraged river communities to set aside conservation zones and establish laws to regulate how and when fish are caught. In April, after a 200-kg Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead on the coast of Laos, the death toll for Irrawaddy dolphins is now five in 2015. Usually, Irrawaddy dolphins are found dead with bruises and scars on their body, being killed by illegal poaching, but this Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead because of old age. She is the oldest and largest Irrawaddy dolphin researchers have discovered. The dolphin was in length and most likely in her late 20s.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: Myanmar's Department of Fisheries took charge in December 2005, and instituted a protected region in a segment of the Ayeyarwady River between Mingun and Kyaukmyaung and created multiple provisions, as well. Protective measures in the area include mandatory release of entangled dolphins, prohibition of the catching or killing of dolphins and trade in whole or parts of them, and the prohibition of electrofishing and gillnets more than long, or spaced less than apart. Mercury poisoning and habitat loss from gold-mining dredging operations in the river have been eliminated


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In 2000, Malampaya Sound was proclaimed a protected seascape. This is the lowest possible prioritization given to a protected area. Malampaya Sound Ecological Studies Project was initiated by the WWF. With technical support provided by the project, the municipality of Taytay and the Malampaya park management developed fishery policies to minimize the threats to the Irrawaddy dolphin from bycatch capture. Gear studies and gear modification to conserve the dolphin species were implemented. The project was completed in 2007.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In 2007, the Coral Triangle Initiative, a new multilateral partnership to help safeguard the marine and coastal resources of the Coral Triangle, including the Irrawaddy dolphin subpopulation in Malampaya Sound, was launched. In 2006, a new population was discovered in Guimaras island in the Visayas. In 2015, another new population was discovered in Bago in Negros Occidental, part of Negros island in the Visayas.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In 2002, the Marine and Coastal Resources Department was assigned to protect rare aquatic animals such as dolphins, whales, and turtles in Thai territorial waters. To protect the dolphins, patrol vessels ensure boats stay at least away from dolphins and no chasing of or running through schools of dolphins occurs. Many fishermen on the Bang Pakong River, Prachinburi Province, have been persuaded by authorities to stop shrimp fishing in a certain area and 30 to 40 fishing boats have been modified so they can offer dolphin sightseeing tours.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: A total of 65 Irrawaddi dolphins has been found dead along the coast of Trat Province in the past three years. The local fishing industry is blamed for the deaths of the dolphins. In January 2013, over a dozen dead Irrawaddy dolphins were found on the coast of Thailand. These dolphins were said to be dead because of a lack of oxygen. Dolphins are mammals, and unlike other animals that live in the sea, they must come to the surface for air. Many of the dolphins are found dead in the water, and others were washed ashore, said to have been dead for a few days. Also, in the first week of February 2013, as many as four Irrawaddy dolphins were found dead. The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is studying artificial breeding options in 2022 to try to save the last herd of Irrawaddy dolphins in Songkhla Lake, which is on the verge of extinction after only 14 were found in the most recent survey. They also intend to list dolphins as a protected species, Thailand's highest level of animal protection.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In 2008, the Department of Forestry and Sarawak Forestry Cooperative in Sarawak established a protected area for Irrawaddy dolphins in Santubong and Damai (Kuching Wetland). Furthermore, they plan to establish more beaches in Miri as protected areas for them. The protection measures in the area include prohibition of catching or killing of dolphins and trade in whole or parts of them, and prohibiting the use of gillnets. The government may also start small- and medium-scale research of this species at Sarawak Malaysia University with sponsorship from Sarawak Shell.


title: Irrawaddy dolphin

text: In 2012 in Vietnam, a group of scientists took in four Irrawaddy dolphins and provided them with medical care to see how they would survive. However, they found this to be the first case they saw of Irrawaddy dolphins having bacterial infections. The bacterial infection, chorioamnionitis, is common in many marine animals, but when these few dolphins were taken in, the scientists discovered this same bacterial infection for the first time in this group of dolphins. This disease mostly affects animals that are pregnant because the infection occurs through the umbilical cord and goes into the maternal bloodstream. One of the dolphins was pregnant and before her death was found circling around the bottom of the pool and was found dead early the next morning. This bacterial infection affects many organs in the body of the animal.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Rio Grande is a 1950 American romantic Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. It is the third installment of Ford's "cavalry trilogy", following two RKO Pictures releases: "Fort Apache" (1948) and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949). Wayne plays the lead in all three films, as Captain Kirby York in "Fort Apache", then as Captain Nathan Brittles in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", and finally as a promoted Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke in "Rio Grande" (scripts and production billing spell the York[e] character's surname differently in "Fort Apache" and "Rio Grande"). "Rio Grande"'s supporting cast features Ben Johnson, Claude Jarman Jr., Harry Carey Jr., Chill Wills, J. Carrol Naish, Victor McLaglen, Grant Withers, the Western singing group the Sons of the Pioneers and Stan Jones.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (Wayne) is posted on the Texas frontier with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment to defend settlers against attacks by marauding Apaches. Colonel Yorke is under considerable pressure due to the Apaches using Mexico as a sanctuary from pursuit, and by a serious shortage of troops in his command. The action of the movie is set in the summer of 1879 ("fifteen years after the Shenandoah").


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he has not seen in 15 years), Trooper Jefferson Yorke (Claude Jarman Jr.), is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment. He had flunked out of West Point, but immediately enlisted as a private in the Army. In a private "father-son" meeting in the commanding officer's tent, Trooper Yorke informs his father that he does not expect, nor want, any special treatment because he is his son. He asks that he be treated like any other soldier—to which the colonel agrees. By his willingness to undergo any test and trial, Jeff is befriended by a pair of older recruits, Travis Tyree (Ben Johnson) (who is on the run from the law) and Daniel "Sandy" Boone (Harry Carey Jr.), who take him under their wings.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: With the arrival of Yorke's estranged wife, Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara), who has come to take the underage Yorke home by buying him out of his enlistment, further tension is added. During the Civil War, Yorke had been forced by circumstances to burn Bridesdale, his wife's plantation home in the Shenandoah Valley. Sergeant Major Quincannon (Victor McLaglen), who put the torch to Bridesdale, is still with Yorke and is a constant reminder to Kathleen of the episode. In a showdown with his mother, Jeff refuses her attempt to buy him out of the Army by reminding her that not only the commander's signature is required to discharge him, but his own is needed, as well, and he chooses to stay in the Army. The tension brought about in the struggle over their son's future (and possibly the attentions shown to her by Yorke's junior officers) rekindles the romance the couple once felt for each other.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: The Apaches attack the fort one night. Many of them are killed by the awakened troopers, but they succeed in freeing their leader, who had been captured at the start of the movie.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Two U.S. marshals from Texas arrive at the post with a warrant for Trooper Tyree's arrest on a manslaughter charge. Confined to the post hospital, with the connivance of the regimental surgeon (Chill Wills) and Sergeant Major Quincannon, he breaks jail, steals Colonel Yorke's horse, and goes on the run, intending to stay away until the marshals leave.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Yorke is visited by his former Civil War commander, Philip Sheridan (J. Carrol Naish), now Commanding General of the Military Division of the Missouri, the headquarters responsible for pacifying the Great Plains. Sheridan has decided to order Yorke to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico in pursuit of the Apaches and kill them all, an action with serious political implications, since it violates the sovereignty of another nation.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: If Yorke fails in his mission to destroy the Apache threat, he will have to face a court-martial. Sheridan, in quiet acknowledgment of what he is asking Yorke to risk, promises that if it comes to that, "the members of the court will be the men who rode down the Shenandoah with us" during the Civil War. Yorke accepts the assignment.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Yorke leads his men toward Mexico, only to learn that a wagonload of children from his fort, who were being taken to Ft. Bliss for safety – ironic in that the fort was named for a famous mathematician, William Wallace Smith Bliss, and it was failing mathematics that caused Jefferson Yorke to flunk out of West Point – has been captured by the Apaches. Tyree trails the Apaches to their hideout in Mexico, and then rejoins his regiment with the information and a plan to rescue the children. After permitting three troopers—Tyree, Boone, and Jeff—to infiltrate the ruined church in the Mexican village where the Apaches have taken the children, Yorke leads his regiment in an all-out attack. The cavalrymen rescue all of the children unharmed, though Colonel Yorke is wounded by an arrow that he orders Jeff to remove. He is taken back to the fort by his victorious troops, where Kathleen meets him and holds his hand as he is carried on a travois into the post.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: After Colonel Yorke recovers, Tyree, Boone, Jeff, Navajo Scout Son of Many Mules, and Corporal Bell are decorated. At the ceremony, when one of the Texas marshals reappears, Trooper Tyree is given a furlough to continue his run from the law, stealing General Sheridan's horse for the purpose. As the troops pass in review (with the regimental band playing "Dixie" at the General's request to please Mrs. Yorke), the movie closes.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: With the completion of "Wagon Master", Ford did not want to make another Western. Instead, he wanted to film the Ireland-set romantic comedy-drama film "The Quiet Man" with Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, but Herbert Yates, the studio president of Republic Pictures, insisted that Ford first make "Rio Grande" with the same pairing of Wayne and O'Hara because he thought the script of "The Quiet Man" was weak and that the story was of little general interest. Yates insisted that "Rio Grande" be made before "The Quiet Man", to offset the anticipated losses on that film. When "The Quiet Man" was eventually released in 1952, though, it vastly out performed "Rio Grande" by grossing $3.8 million in its first year and giving Yates and Republic Pictures one of the top-10 hits of the year.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: The script for "Rio Grande" was written by Irish-born screenwriter James Kevin McGuinness. It is based on a short story "Mission With No Record" by James Warner Bellah that appeared in "The Saturday Evening Post" on September 27, 1947. Parts of the story loosely resemble the expedition of the 4th Cavalry Regiment (United States) under Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie when they conducted a military campaign in Mexico in 1873.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: Former rodeo world champion Ben Johnson had played the leading role in John Ford's "Wagon Master", released seven months before "Rio Grande". Johnson would later win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show" in 1971.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: "Rio Grande" was the first of three films directed by Ford starring the pairing of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, followed by "The Quiet Man" in 1952 and "The Wings of Eagles" in 1957. Wayne and O'Hara also starred together in "McLintock!" (1963) and "Big Jake" (1971). "Rio Grande" marked the uncredited debut of 11-year-old Patrick Wayne, Wayne's second son.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: The film was shot entirely on location in Moab, Utah, during the extremely hot summer of 1950. Cast and crew struggled with the heat. Sets and stages had to be built in the difficult conditions, while actors were required to perform their scenes in heavy period costumes.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: The location shoot was a prime example of Ford's legendary efficiency—according to Ford scholar Tag Gallagher, "Rio Grande" was shot in just 32 days, with only 352 takes from 332 camera setups.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: The film contains folk songs led by the Sons of the Pioneers, one of whom is Ken Curtis (Ford's son-in-law and best known for his role as Festus Haggen on "Gunsmoke"). Bob Nolan had previously serenaded Charles Starrett, lead actor in "Rio Grande" directed by Sam Nelson in 1938.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: A review by "New York Times" described it as a "familiar story" that "travels a well-rutted road". It was also noted for its similarities to the 1935 epic-adventure film "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer". Praise was given, though, for the Western-style ballads sung by the Sons of the Pioneers.


title: Rio Grande (1950 film)

text: The film was recognized by the American Film Institute in 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Western film.


title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

text: The story is split between parallel narratives. The odd-numbered chapters take place in "Hard-Boiled Wonderland", although that phrase is not used anywhere in the text, only in page headers. The narrator is a , a human data processor and encryption system who has been trained to use his subconscious as an encryption key. The Calcutecs work for the quasi-governmental System, as opposed to the criminal who work for the Factory and who are generally fallen Calcutecs. The relationship between the two groups is simple: the System protects data while the Semiotecs steal it, although it is suggested that one man might be behind both. The narrator completes an assignment for a mysterious scientist, who is exploring "sound removal". He works in a laboratory hidden within an anachronistic version of Tokyo's sewer system. The narrator eventually learns that he only has a day and a half before his consciousness leaves the world he knows and delves forever into the world that has been created in his subconscious mind. According to the scientist, to the outside world this change will seem instantaneous, but in the Calcutec's mind, his time within this world will seem almost infinite.


text: The even-numbered chapters deal with a newcomer to "The End of the World", a strange, isolated Town, depicted in the frontispiece map as being surrounded by a perfect and impenetrable wall. The narrator is in the process of being accepted into the Town. His Shadow has been "cut off" and this Shadow lives in the "Shadow Grounds" where he is not expected to survive the winter. Residents of the Town are not allowed to have a shadow, and, it transpires, do not have a mind. The narrator is assigned quarters and a job as the current "Dreamreader": a process intended to remove the traces of mind from the Town. He goes to the Library every evening where, assisted by the Librarian, he learns to read dreams from the skulls of unicorns. These "beasts" passively accept their role, sent out of the Town at night to their enclosure, where many die of cold during the winter. It gradually becomes evident that this Town is the world inside the subconscious of Hard-Boiled Wonderland's narrator (the password he uses to control different aspects of his mind is even "end of the world"). The narrator grows to love the Librarian while he discovers the secrets of the Town, and although he plans to escape the Town with his Shadow, he later goes back on his word and allows his Shadow to escape the Town alone.


text: The two storylines converge, exploring concepts of consciousness, the subconscious or unconscious mind, and identity.


text: In the original Japanese, the narrator uses the more formal first-person pronoun to refer to himself in the Hard-Boiled Wonderland narrative and the more intimate in the End of the World narrative. Translator Alfred Birnbaum achieved a similar effect in English by writing the End of the World sections in the present tense.


text: Popular music and jazz figure prominently in many of Murakami's stories. The title "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" contains a reference to the 1962 pop hit "The End of the World," written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee and sung by Skeeter Davis. Davis's version reached No. 2 on both "Billboard"'s Hot 100 chart and "Billboard"'s Hot Country Songs chart. A cover version released in the US by Herman's Hermits in 1965 reached No. 1 in that country as the B-side of "I'm Henry VIII, I Am."


text: The reference to "The End of the World" is obvious in Japanese editions of the novel because an epigraph quotes from the lyrics and credits for the song are appended at the end. For some reason, however, neither epigraph nor credits are included in the English translation, which obscures the musical reference and has led one critic to mistakenly identify the song as originating with the Carpenters in the 1970s.


text: Given that lost love is one of Murakami's major themes and that Murakami likes to play metafictionally with such allusions (the credits at the end of the Japanese edition of the novel also contain a spurious reference to a book translated into Japanese by one "Makimura Hiraku" -- an anagram of Murakami's name), the removal of the explicit reference to the song is puzzling.


text: In both narratives, none of the characters are named. Each is instead referred to by occupation or a general description, such as "the Librarian" or "the Big Guy."


text: Murakami has often referred to his love of Western literature and particular admiration for hard-boiled pioneer Raymond Chandler. The Hard-Boiled Wonderland narrative owes much to American hard-boiled detective fiction, as well as to science fiction and cyberpunk, but the book does not belong in any of those categories.


text: The End of the World narrative has much in common with "The Castle" by Franz Kafka. Both deal with newcomers to strange villages who are both intrigued and horrified by the behavior of the villagers. The image of losing one's shadow when approaching the end of the world is found in Knut Hamsun's 1898 novel "Victoria". The same idea appeared earlier, in both the 1814 story of "Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" ("Peter Schlemihl's Remarkable Story") by Adelbert von Chamisso and the 1847 fairy-tale "The Shadow" by Hans Christian Andersen. The theme of the human brain storing encrypted data is found in William Gibson's 1981 short story "Johnny Mnemonic", but in interviews Murakami says this was not an influence. The theme of dream hacking is found in Roger Zelazny's 1966 novella "The Dream Master".


text: "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" was awarded the Tanizaki Prize in 1985. The novel has received critical acclaim both domestically and internationally, receiving praise from literary critics published in magazines such as "The Japan Times", "Publishers Weekly", and "Kirkus Reviews". It has been cited by filmmaker Rian Johnson as one of his favorite science fiction books and an influence on his 2012 film "Looper". Jay Rubin, who has translated many of Murakami's later works into English, said that "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is his favorite Murakami novel and that it "is just a shock after reading the black and white, autobiographical fiction that is such the norm in Japan." Murakami himself stated that "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" is his favorite among the books he wrote.


text: The End of the World narrative was one of the inspirations for Yoshitoshi Abe's "Haibane Renmei", originally produced as a manga and later adapted as an anime series. Both works feature a city that people are not allowed to leave, with a wall, a river, a library, and a clock tower.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: "Bodies" is a song by the Sex Pistols, from their 1977 album "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". The song tackles the subject of abortion with lyrics described as "some of the most uncompromising, gut-wrenching lyrics imaginable".


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: The lyrics contain very graphic imagery about a terminated foetus and feature a great deal of profanity for the time: the third and final verse begins with a couplet in which the word "fuck" is repeated five times in rapid succession.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: The song is mostly about a fan named Pauline, who was (as the song states) from Birmingham. She had been in a mental institution, where she apparently lived in a tree house in its garden. This was where the line 'Her name was Pauline, she lived in a tree' comes from. The institution was also where she seems to have been raped by one of the male nurses. When she was released, she travelled to London, where she became a punk rock fan. She had several abortions. According to John Lydon, she showed up once at his door wearing nothing but a clear plastic bag and holding an aborted foetus. This was re-iterated in the 2002 "Classic Albums" documentary when discussing "Bodies". In a 1977 interview, when asked about the backstory of the song, Lydon also claimed that she was arrested after entering a discotheque with the aborted foetus.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: According to Lydon's autobiography, she told Lydon about becoming pregnant and then having abortions and she described them in detail to him. This affected Lydon enough to write the song. Most of the band also had experiences with Pauline, but have spoken less about it.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: With its repeated mentions of "I'm not an animal," of "Mummy," and of a dying baby, the song has been interpreted as anti-abortion, music critic Robert Christgau contemporarily calling it "effectively anti-abortion, anti-woman, and anti-sex." In 2006, "National Review" magazine put the song at #8 on its list of the "50 Greatest Conservative Rock songs", due to its negative and unflinching description of abortion. Lydon himself, in a 2007 interview with "Spin Magazine", said "I don't think there's a clearer song about the pain of abortion. The juxtaposition of all those different psychic things in your head and all the confusion, the anger, the frustration, you have to capture in those words." In the BBC documentary series "Classic Albums" (2007) about The Sex Pistols' "Never Mind The Bollocks" album Lydon further said: "That song was hated and loathed. It's not anti-abortion, it's not pro-abortion. It's: 'Think about it. Don't be callous about a human being, but don't be limited about a thing as 'morals' either. Because it's immoral to bring a kid in this world and not give a toss about it.'"


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: Along with the later "Belsen Was a Gas," it is probably the most graphic and controversial Sex Pistols song in both its subject matter and style. A 2017 article in The Independent described the song as "a gurgling bloody depiction of an abortion replete with a volley of expletives from Rotten". Musically, it is also the fastest and heaviest song in the Sex Pistols canon — characterized by thudding drums, droning buzzsaw guitar, and shouted vocals.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: "Bodies" is one of two songs on "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" which original Pistols bassist Glen Matlock did not co-write. It is also one of only two songs on the album on which Sid Vicious actually plays bass, although his part was later overdubbed by Steve Jones, after Matlock refused to return to play the part. The song was, like all other Sex Pistols songs, credited to the entire band, though Vicious was in the hospital with hepatitis when the band finished it.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: The Sex Pistols' album "Filthy Lucre Live" - recorded at Finsbury Park, London on 23 June 1996, and released on 29 July that year - includes a performance of "Bodies." This same performance is a B-side on the "Pretty Vacant (live)" single, under the title "Buddies," and is a different mix from the track on the live album (the audience noise is mixed much higher, with John Lydon's vocal barely audible under the audience singing the first verse). "Buddies" is a bonus track on the Japanese edition of "Filthy Lucre Live."


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: In the film "Sid and Nancy" the title characters, played by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, sing the song for the siblings of Nancy Spungen to their delight and to the horror of their parents.


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: In 2005, a "barnyard" arrangement by Steve Jones and Scott Weiland was performed on Jones' radio show, with the use of the word "fuck" changed to "pluck".


title: Bodies (Sex Pistols song)

text: The song has been covered by Liam Gallagher, Veruca Salt, Velvet Revolver, Suede, The Almighty, Killing Joke, Sepultura, and Raimundos,


title: Bascinet

text: The bascinet – also bassinet, basinet, or bazineto – was a Medieval European open-faced combat helmet. It evolved from a type of iron or steel skullcap, but had a more pointed apex to the skull, and it extended downwards at the rear and sides to afford protection for the neck. A mail curtain (aventail or camail) was usually attached to the lower edge of the helmet to protect the throat, neck and shoulders. A visor (face guard) was often employed from c. 1330 to protect the exposed face. Early in the fifteenth century, the camail began to be replaced by a plate metal gorget, giving rise to the so-called "great bascinet".


title: Bascinet

text: The first recorded reference to a bascinet, or "bazineto", was in the Italian city of Padua in 1281, when it is described as being worn by infantry.


title: Bascinet

text: It is believed that the bascinet evolved from a simple iron skullcap, known as the cervelliere, which was worn with a mail coif, as either the sole form of head protection or beneath a great helm. The bascinet is differentiated from the cervelliere by having a higher, pointed skull. By about 1330 the bascinet had been extended lower down the sides and back of the head. Within the next 20 years it had extended to the base of the neck and covered the cheeks. The bascinet appeared quite suddenly in the later 13th century and some authorities see it as being influenced by Byzantine or Middle-Eastern Muslim helmets. The bascinet, without a visor, continued to be worn underneath larger "great helms" (also termed "heaumes").


title: Bascinet

text: Unlike the cervelliere, which was worn in conjunction with, often underneath, a complete hood of mail called the coif, early bascinets were typically worn with a neck and throat defence of mail that was attached to the lower edge of the helmet itself; this mail "curtain" was called a camail or aventail. The earliest camails were riveted directly to the edge of the helmet, however, beginning in the 1320s a detachable version replaced this type. The detachable aventail was attached to a leather band, which was in turn attached to the lower border of the bascinet by a series of staples called vervelles. Holes in the leather band were passed over the vervelles, and a waxed cord was passed through the holes in the vervelles to secure it.


title: Bascinet

text: The illustration to the left shows a bascinet with a type of detachable nasal (nose protector) called the bretache or "bretèche" made of sheet metal. The bretache was attached to the aventail at the chin, and it fastened to a hook or clamp on the brow of the helmet. According to Boeheim, this type of defence was prevalent in Germany, appearing around 1330 and fading from use around 1370. The bretache was also used in Italy; one of the first representations of it is on the equestrian statue of Cangrande I della Scala, who died in 1329. It is also shown on the tomb of Bernardino dei Barbanzoni in the Museo Lapidario Estense in Modena, executed c. 1345–50. An advantage of the bretache was that it could be worn under a great helm, but afforded some facial protection when the great helm was taken off. Use of the bretache preceded and overlapped with that of a new type of visor used with the bascinet, the "klappvisor" or ""klappvisier"".


title: Bascinet

text: The open-faced bascinet, even with the mail aventail, still left the exposed face vulnerable. However, from about 1330, the bascinet was often worn with a "face guard" or movable visor.


title: Bascinet

text: The "klappvisor" or "klappvisier" was a type of visor employed on bascinets from around 1330–1340; this type of visor was hinged at a single point in the centre of the brow of the helmet skull. It was particularly favoured in Germany, but was also used in northern Italy where it is shown in a Crucifixion painted in the chapter hall of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, c. 1367. Its use in Italy seems to have ceased around 1380, but continued in Germany into the 15th century. The klappvisor has been characterised as being intermediate between the bretache nasal and the side pivoting visor. Sources disagree on the nature of the "klappvisier". A minority, including De Vries and Smith, class all smaller visors, those that only cover the area of the face left exposed by the aventail, as "klappvisiers", regardless of the construction of their hinge mechanism. However, they agree that "klappvisiers", by their alternative definition of 'being of small size', preceded the larger forms of visor, which almost exclusively employed the double pivot, found in the latter part of the 14th century.


title: Bascinet

text: The side-pivot mount, which used two pivots – one on each side of the helmet, is shown in funerary monuments and other pictorial or sculptural sources of the 1340s. One of the early depictions of a doubly pivoted visor on a bascinet is the funerary monument of Sir Hugh Hastings (d. 1347) in St. Mary's Church, Elsing, Norfolk, England. The pivots were connected to the visor by means of hinges to compensate for any lack of parallelism between the pivots. The hinges usually had a removable pin holding them together, this allowed the visor to be completely detached from the helmet, if desired. The side-pivot system was commonly seen in Italian armours.


title: Bascinet

text: Whether of the "klappvisor" or double-pivot type, the visors of the first half of the 14th century tended to be of a relatively flat profile with little projection from the face. They had eye-slits surrounded by a flange to help deflect weapon points. From around 1380 the visor, by this time considerably larger than earlier forms, was drawn out into a conical point like a muzzle or a beak, and was given the names "hounskull" (from the German "hundsgugel" – "hound's hood") or "pig-faced" (in modern parlance). The protruding muzzle gave better protection to the face from blows by offering a deflecting surface. It also improved ventilation, as its greater surface area allowed it to have more holes for air to pass through.


title: Bascinet

text: From about 1410 the visor attached to bascinets lost its pointed "hounskull" shape, and became progressively more rounded. By 1435 it gave an "ape-like" profile to the helmet; by 1450 it formed a sector in the, by then, almost globular bascinet. Ventilation holes in the visor tended to become larger and more numerous.


title: Bascinet

text: Between c. 1390 and 1410 the bascinet had an exaggeratedly tall skull with an acutely pointed profile – sometimes so severe as to have a near-vertical back. Ten years later both the skull of the helmet and the hinged visor started to become less angular and more rounded. Almost globular forms became common by c. 1450. As part of the same process the helmet became more close-fitting, and narrowed to follow the contours of the neck.


title: Bascinet

text: Around 1350, during the reign of John II, French bascinets began to be fitted with a hinged chin- or jaw-piece (bevor (sense 2), ), upon which the visor would be able to rest. The visor and bevor that closed flush with each other thus provided better protection against incoming sword blows. This type of defence augmented the camail rather than replaced it.


title: Bascinet

text: The bascinet fitted with a camail was relatively heavy and most of the weight was supported directly by the head. Plate gorgets were introduced from c. 1400–1410, which replaced the camail and moved the weight of the throat and neck defences from the head to the shoulders. At the same time a plate covering the cheeks and lower face was introduced also called the "bavière" (contemporary usage was not precise). This "bavière" was directly attached by rivets to the skull of the bascinet. The combined skull and "bavière" could rotate within the upper part of the gorget, which overlapped them. A degree of freedom of movement was retained, but was probably less than had been the case with the mail camail.


title: Bascinet

text: In the view of Oakeshott the replacement of the camail by a plate gorget gave rise to the form of helmet known as the "great bascinet". However, many other scholars consider that the term should be reserved for bascinets where the skull, and baviere – if present, was fixed to the gorget, rendering the whole helmet immobile.


title: Bascinet

text: Early gorgets were wide, copying the shape of the earlier aventail, however, with the narrowing of the neck opening the gorget plates had to be hinged to allow the helmet to be put on. Early great bascinets had the skull of the helmet riveted to the rear gorget plate, however, some later great bascinets had the skull forged in a single piece with the rear gorget plate. The gorget was often strapped to both the breast and backplate of the cuirass. In this late form the head was relieved of the entire weight of the helmet, which rested on the shoulders; however, the helmet was rendered totally immobile and the head of the wearer had only limited abilities to move inside it. Though very strongly constructed, this type of helmet imposed limitations on the wearer's vision and agility.


title: Bascinet

text: Bascinets, other than great bascinets, could be worn beneath a great helm. However, only those without face protection, or those with the close fitting bretache, could be worn in this manner. The great helm afforded a high degree of protection, but at the cost of very restricted vision and agility. The lighter types of bascinet gave less protection but allowed greater freedom of movement and better vision. The practicality of a man-at-arms being able to take off a great helm during a battle, if he wanted to continue fighting wearing just a bascinet, is unclear. By the mid 14th century the great helm was probably largely relegated to tournament use. However, Henry V of England is reputed to have worn a great helm over a bascinet at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He was recorded as receiving a blow to the head during the battle, which damaged his helmet; the double protection afforded by wearing two helmets may have saved his life.


title: Bascinet

text: By the middle of the 14th century, most knights had discarded the great helm altogether in favor of a fully visored bascinet. The bascinet, both with and without a visor, was the most common helmet worn in Europe during most of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century, including during the Hundred Years' War. Contemporary illustrations show a majority of knights and men-at-arms wearing one of a few variants of the bascinet helmet. Indeed, so ubiquitous was the use of the helmet that "bascinet" became an alternative term for a man-at-arms. Though primarily associated with use by the "knightly" classes and other men-at-arms some infantry also made use of the lighter versions of this helmet. Regions where rich citizens were fielded as infantry, such as Italy, and other lands producing specialised professional infantry such as the English and Welsh longbowman probably saw the greatest use of bascinets by infantrymen.


title: Bascinet

text: The basic design of the earlier, conical version of the helmet was intended to direct blows from weapons downward and away from the skull and face of the wearer. Later versions of the bascinet, especially the great bascinet, were designed to maximise coverage and therefore protection. In achieving this they sacrificed the mobility and comfort of the wearer; thus, ironically, returning to the situation that the wearers of the cumbersome great helm experienced and that the early bascinets were designed to overcome. It is thought that poorer men-at-arms continued to employ lighter bascinets with mail camails long after the richest had adopted plate gorgets.


title: Bascinet

text: Soon after 1450 the "great bascinet" was rapidly discarded for field use, being replaced by the armet and sallet, which were lighter helmets allowing greater freedom of movement for the wearer. However, a version of the great bascinet, usually with a cage-like visor, remained in use for foot combat in tournaments into the 16th century.


title: Archana Gautam

text: Archana Gautam (born 1 September 1983) is an Indian politician, actress, model and beauty pageant title holder, who won Miss Bikini India 2018, represented India at Miss Cosmos World 2018 and won sub title of Most Talent 2018. In 2022, she appeared in Bigg Boss 16 as a contestant.


title: Archana Gautam

text: Gautam has been doing modelling appearances in print and television and advertising campaigns for various brands. She has made cameo appearances in films like "Great Grand Masti", "Haseena Parker" and "Baaraat Company". She had a cameo for item song in "Junction Varanasi". She has also shot for a music video with director Apoorva Lakhia for T-Series.


title: Archana Gautam

text: She was awarded the title of Miss Uttar Pradesh in 2014. She has won Miss Bikini India 2018 and represented India at Miss Bikini Universe 2018. Gautam also represented India in Miss Cosmos 2018 held at Malaysia and won the sub title Most Talent 2018.


title: Archana Gautam

text: She joined Indian National Congress in November 2021 and got a ticket from Hastinapur (Assembly constituency) for 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. She was among the 8 candidates from this constituency. She lost the seat to BJP candidate Dinesh Khatik who won 107587 votes, while Gautam received only 1,519 votes (0.66 percent of total votes).


title: Minjee Lee

text: Minjee Lee (born 27 May 1996) is an Australian professional golfer from Perth. She became the number one ranked amateur golfer in February 2014 after winning the Oates Victorian Open, remaining number one until turning professional in September 2014. On 25 July 2021, Lee won her first major championship, the Amundi Evian Championship. On 5 June 2022, she won her second major championship, the U.S. Women's Open.


title: Minjee Lee

text: In 2010, Lee became the youngest winner of the WA Amateur Open while still a year 9 student at Methodist Ladies' College, Perth. At the start of 2012, she was moved from MLC to Corpus Christi College, to be closer to her golf course at Royal Fremantle. She left Corpus Christi in 2013.


title: Minjee Lee

text: Lee was the winner of the 2012 U.S. Girls' Junior. She won the Australian Women's Amateur in 2013 and successfully defended the title in 2014.


title: Minjee Lee

text: Lee became the number one ranked amateur golfer on 26 February 2014 after winning the Oates Victorian Open on the ALPG Tour. She remained the number one ranked amateur golfer until she turned professional in September 2014 after leading the Australia team that won the Espirito Santo Trophy.


title: Minjee Lee

text: In 2016, she won the Lotte Championship in April, and the Blue Bay LPGA in October. Lee represented Australia in the women's golf competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, finishing in a tie for 7th.


title: Minjee Lee

text: In April 2018, she lost the LPGA Mediheal Championship in a playoff to Lydia Ko, then on 27 May 2018, won the LPGA Volvik Championship. Lee finished 2018 ranked second on the money list with $1,551,032 in earnings, finishing second in scoring average with 69.75 shots per round. She also became the first woman to win the Greg Norman Medal for being the best Australian professional golfer on the world stage.


title: Minjee Lee

text: On 28 April 2019, Lee won the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open, her fifth LPGA Tour victory. By late the following month, she had risen to number two in the Women's World Golf Rankings, but in her home country she still had such a low profile that she was described by "The Age" as the "Invisible Champion of Australia".


title: Minjee Lee

text: On 25 July 2021, Lee won her first major championship, the Amundi Evian Championship, by coming from seven strokes behind in the final round and defeating Lee Jeong-eun on the first playoff hole.


title: Minjee Lee

text: Lee qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and competed in the women's competition. She scored −4 across the four rounds and finished 29th, out of medal contention.


title: Minjee Lee

text: She won her seventh LPGA Tour event, the Cognizant Founders Cup, on 15 May 2022, beating Lexi Thompson by two strokes, 269 (19-under-par) to Thompson's 271. Her final round of 70 was the only one she did not have in the 60s. The start of the final round was delayed by an hour because of fog. She was ranked fifth in the world before her win, just behind fourth-ranked Atthaya Thitikul who finished the final round with a 63, good for a tie for eighth place at 13-under-par.


title: Minjee Lee

text: Her eighth LPGA Tour win, the U.S. Women's Open on 5 June 2022, earned her the largest payday to date in women's golf history, $1.8 million of the $10 million total purse. Lee won by four strokes over Mina Harigae, who received $1,080,000. This was the first occasion in a women's golf tournament where there were two prizes in excess of $1 million. Lee set a new record of 271, and led Harigae by three strokes after 54 holes.


title: Minjee Lee

text: On 15 November, she won the season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge and $1,000,000 for the 2022 LPGA Tour season. This challenge selects one hole in every participating event and designates it as the Aon Risk Reward hole for that week. The challenge rewards the player who has the best two scores from every participating event that a player competes in throughout the season, measured by the lowest average score to par on these holes.


title: Minjee Lee

text: Lee's parents, Soonam and Clara Lee, were both from Korea, and emigrated to Australia in the early 1990s. Lee's younger brother, Min Woo Lee, won the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur, making them the first brother/ sister pair to win the USGA's junior championships.


title: The Big Hit

text: The Big Hit is a 1998 American action comedy film directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Che-Kirk Wong, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christina Applegate, Bokeem Woodbine, Antonio Sabàto Jr., China Chow, Avery Brooks, Lainie Kazan, Elliott Gould, Sab Shimono and Lela Rochon.


title: The Big Hit

text: Melvin Smiley has a good life thanks to his talents as a contract-killer, but has a very working class mentality going about his life, in combination with his constant struggles to maintain two romantic relationships. One is with the demanding and demeaning Chantel, who does not accept his work, and the other with Pam, who knows nothing of his job. Melvin is somewhat of a pushover, trying to appease all of Chantel's demands, even her most expensive wishes, as well as rolling over whenever one of his co-workers takes credit for his achievements. Perhaps as a result of his helplessness in asserting himself, throughout the early scenes, Melvin is often seen drinking Maalox to relieve a developing stress-induced ulcer.


title: The Big Hit

text: Feeling underpaid for their work for mob boss Paris, the assassin team of Smiley, Cisco, Crunch, Vince and Gump take an independent job, kidnapping Keiko Nishi, the teenage daughter of local electronics magnate Jiro Nishi, for a hefty ransom. Unfortunately, the team does not realize that Nishi has recently gone bankrupt over his failed foray into films and furthermore, their boss Paris is the girl's godfather. Enlisted by the group to hold Keiko, Melvin has to hide the bound and gagged schoolgirl on his property, attempting to keep her presence hidden from Pam and her parents, who are coming for dinner.


title: The Big Hit

text: Melvin feels sorry for Keiko and relieves her from her bondage. In the ensuing hours they build up a rapport preparing dinner together, an act which leads into a love scene reminiscent of the pottery scene from "Ghost", but which is cut short when Keiko attempts to escape. Ordered by Paris to discover the kidnappers of his goddaughter, a panicked Cisco kills Gump, but not before coaxing him into also implicating Melvin for the kidnapping.


title: The Big Hit

text: A team of assassins crash Melvin's dinner with Pam's family, leading to a shootout during which Melvin realizes Pam was going to break up with him over pressure from her mother, a hardcore Jew who is severely against her being with Melvin, a Gentile. Melvin and Keiko's growing feelings for each other lead them to forming an awkward romance, and she and Melvin attempt to escape from the fiasco, pursued by Cisco. In the chaos, Melvin happens to run into Chantel and finally takes the opportunity to stand up to her and end their relationship.


title: The Big Hit

text: A fight ensues between Cisco and Melvin, culminating at a video store where the ever-honest Melvin stops to return an overdue tape of "King Kong Lives". Melvin kills Cisco by stabbing him in the chest, but not before Cisco arms an explosive device. Melvin leaves the building and is confronted by Keiko, her father and Paris. He re-enters the building, which explodes.


title: The Big Hit

text: Paris and Nishi, believing Melvin to be dead, call off the manhunt. Soon Melvin is revealed to have survived, sheltered from the blast by an enormous solid gold film stand-up made for the flop that destroyed Nishi's career. Melvin and Keiko are reunited and ride off together, while Nishi recoups his losses by making a film out of the story of his daughter's kidnapping.


title: The Big Hit

text: "The Big Hit" was shot for the relatively low budget of $13 million and was produced by film partners John Woo, Terence Chang, and Wesley Snipes.


title: The Big Hit

text: Jack Matthews commented in the "Los Angeles Times" that ""The Big Hit", which was brought to Wesley Snipes' production company by Hong Kong legend John Woo, attempts to take the East-West merger even further, and the result is an only fitfully funny comic mongrel."


title: The Big Hit

text: Remarked Roger Ebert, "I guess you could laugh at this. You would have to be seriously alienated from normal human values and be nursing a deep-seated anger against movies that make you think even a little, but you could laugh."


title: The Big Hit

text: "The New York Times"' Lawrence Van Gelder was equally scathing: "If "The Big Hit" had any valid claim to excellence, rest assured that its release would have been delayed till summer. That, experience shows, is the proper season for movies built on a foundation of lavish crime, carnage, comedy, chases, crashes and chicks. "The Big Hit" has all these elements, and none are top-of-the-line. The name of John Woo, the talented Hong Kong-school director of the hit "Face/Off", is plastered around "The Big Hit". But this bait should not deter the eye from the switch: Woo is an executive producer. The director of "The Big Hit" is Che-Kirk Wong, another Hong Kong veteran, making his North American debut. Insatiable moviegoers are advised to wait till this action-comedy, written by Ben Ramsey, thuds into video stores; tasteful moviegoers will avoid it altogether."


title: The Big Hit

text: And finally, Jeff Vice of the LDS Church-owned "Deseret News" remarked: "Every bit as as it is entertaining, this black comedy/thriller takes its plotting and dialogue cues from Tarantino (meaning there is rampant use of profanity) and its startling visual style from Woo, who served as the film's executive producer. Unfortunately, it's a very uneasy blending of the two styles, and as a result there as many awful moments as good ones—at least until the extremely unsatisfying and drawn-out conclusion, which blows things completely."


title: The Big Hit

text: In a retrospective review published in 2010, critic Leonard Maltin praised the film as a guilty pleasure, and said that "most critics despised "The Big Hit", and audiences didn't flock to see it, perhaps confused as to whether it was a comedy or an action movie ... and never dreaming it was a hybrid of the two." He also states, "it expands its ideas to such a ludicrous extreme that you can't take it seriously, and that's just what I like about it."


title: The Big Hit

text: It currently holds a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 reviews, with an average score of 5.14/10. The site consensus reads: ""The Big Hit" seeks to blend the best of Hong Kong and American action cinema, but ends up offering a muddled mush that mostly misses". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Stanford torus

text: The Stanford torus is a proposed NASA design for a space habitat capable of housing 10,000 to 140,000 permanent residents.


title: Stanford torus

text: The Stanford torus was proposed during the 1975 NASA Summer Study, conducted at Stanford University, with the purpose of exploring and speculating on designs for future space colonies (Gerard O'Neill later proposed his Island One or Bernal sphere as an alternative to the torus). "Stanford torus" refers only to this particular version of the design, as the concept of a ring-shaped rotating space station was previously proposed by Wernher von Braun and Herman Potočnik.


title: Stanford torus

text: It consists of a torus, or doughnut-shaped ring, that is 1.8 km in diameter (for the proposed 10,000 person habitat described in the 1975 Summer Study) and rotates once per minute to provide between 0.9g and 1.0g of artificial gravity on the inside of the outer ring via centrifugal force.


title: Stanford torus

text: Sunlight is provided to the interior of the torus by a system of mirrors, including a large non-rotating primary solar mirror.