title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: The franchise was founded in 1959 by Lamar Hunt after a failed attempt by Hunt to purchase an NFL franchise and relocate them to Texas. Hunt remained the team's owner until his death in 2006. The Hunt family kept ownership of the team following Lamar's death and Clark Hunt, Lamar's son, represents the family's interests. While Hunt's official title is CEO and Chairman of the Board, he represents the team at all owner meetings. In 2010, Hunt assumed role as CEO alongside his role as chairman of the board. According to "Forbes", the team entered the 2022 season valued at $3.7 billion ranking them 23rd among the 32 NFL teams.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: Owner Lamar Hunt served as the team's president from 1960 to 1976. Because of Lamar Hunt's contributions to the NFL, the AFC Championship trophy is named after him. He promoted general manager Jack Steadman to become the team's president in 1977. Steadman held the job until Carl Peterson was hired by Hunt in 1988 to replace him. Peterson resigned the title as team president in 2008. Denny Thum became the team's interim president following Peterson's departure and was officially given the full position in May 2009. Thum resigned from his position on September 14, 2010.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: Don Rossi served as the team's general manager for half of the 1960 season, resigning in November 1960. Jack Steadman assumed duties from Rossi and served in the position until 1976. Steadman was promoted to team president in 1976 and despite being relieved of those duties in 1988, he remained with the franchise until 2006 in various positions. Jim Schaaf took over for Steadman as general manager until being fired in December 1988. Carl Peterson was hired in 1988 to serve as the team's general manager, chief executive officer and team president. Peterson remained in the position for nineteen years until he announced his resignation from the team in 2008. Denny Thum served as interim general manager until January 13, 2009, when the Chiefs named New England Patriots executive Scott Pioli the team's new general manager.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: Pioli was released in early January after the hiring of Andy Reid, and was replaced by John Dorsey. Pioli's record as the Chief's general manager was 23–41.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: On June 22, 2017, the Chiefs fired Dorsey. They hired Brett Veach as the new general manager on July 10, 2017.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: Audacy, Inc.'s WDAF-FM (106.5) is the flagship station for "The Chiefs Football Radio Network". The network has affiliates across Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas, and national reach through desktop and mobile devices.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: On television, as is with other American Football Conference (AFC) teams, CBS (and thus, KCTV (channel 5)) broadcasts most of the team's games. If they are hosting a National Football Conference (NFC) team, the games air on Fox (WDAF-TV (channel 4)). Currently, NBC affiliate KSHB-TV (channel 41) serves as the team's official station for broadcasting surrounding team programming.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: The Chiefs boast one of the most loyal fan bases in the NFL. Kansas City is the sixth-smallest media market with an NFL team, but they have had the second-highest attendance average over the last decade. Studies by Bizjournals in 2006 gave the Chiefs high marks for consistently drawing capacity crowds in both good seasons and bad. The Chiefs averaged 77,300 fans per game from 1996 to 2006, second in the NFL behind the Washington Redskins. The franchise has an official fan club called Chiefs Kingdom which gives members opportunities to ticket priority benefits and VIP treatment.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: At the end of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before home games, many Chiefs fans intentionally yell out "CHIEFS!" rather than singing "brave" as the final word. This can also occasionally be heard in road games and even at sporting events for the nearby University of Kansas. In 1996, general manager Carl Peterson said "We all look forward, not only at Arrowhead, but on the road, too, to when we get to that stanza of the National Anthem... Our players love it." After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Chiefs fans refrained from doing so in honor of those who lost their lives in the tragedy and continued to do so for the remainder of the 2001 season. At the Chiefs' September 23, 2001, home game against the New York Giants, fans gave the opposing Giants a standing ovation.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: After every Chiefs touchdown at home games, fans chant while pointing in the direction of the visiting team and fans, "We're gonna beat the hell outta you...you...you, you, you, you!" over the song "Rock and Roll Part 2". The chant starts after the third "hey!" in the song. The original version of the song by Gary Glitter was previously used until the NFL banned his music from its facilities in 2006 following the British rocker's conviction on sexual abuse charges in Vietnam. A cover version of the song played by Tube Tops 2000 was used from 2006 until the 2015 season.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: The Chiefs' fan base has expanded across the world like many other NFL teams. However, there is a Twitter account dedicated to Chiefs fans in the UK and has been recognized by the Kansas City Chiefs and is their official UK fan page. They have many dedicated fans writing articles and interviewing players of the team such as Tamba Hali. Notable fans include Brad Pitt, Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Henry Cavill, David Koechner, Rob Riggle, Heidi Gardner, John Amos, Melissa Etheridge, and Eric Stonestreet.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: Arrowhead Stadium is also recognized by Guinness World Records as having the loudest outdoor stadium in the world. This was achieved on September 29, 2014, in a Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots when the crowd achieved a roar of 142.2 decibels which is comparable to standing from a jet engine, which even with short term exposure, can cause permanent damage.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: From various periods between 1963 and the 2008 season, trumpeter Tony DiPardo and The T.D. Pack Band played live music at every Chiefs home game. The band was known as The Zing Band when the team was located at Municipal Stadium. DiPardo was honored by head coach Hank Stram in 1969 with a Super Bowl ring for the team's victory in Super Bowl IV. When his health was declining, DiPardo took a leave of absence from the band from 1983 to 1988. DiPardo's daughter took over as bandleader in 1989, by which time DiPardo returned to the band by popular demand. For the 2009 season, due to renovations at Arrowhead Stadium, the band did not return to perform at the stadium.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: DiPardo died on January 27, 2011, at age 98. He had been hospitalized since December 2010 after suffering a brain aneurysm.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: For various reasons, the team has faced charges of racism and anti-Indigenous cultural appropriation and misuse of names, symbols, and practices. The name comes from the nickname of former Kansas City mayor Harold Roe Bartle, who nicknamed himself "Chief" as part of creating the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, a group affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America that uses fake Native American imagery, stories, and made-up ceremonies where its participants "play Indian." Over the life of the franchise the following have also been displayed: an arrowhead logo, fans' "tomahawk chop" gestures during games, a horse named Warpaint, the use of a large drum, and the wearing of face paint, headdresses, and other Native American symbols.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: Chiefs fans also carry on a tradition that began at Florida State University in the mid 1980s by using the Seminole WarChant as a rallying cry during key moments in their football games. Prior to each home game, a former Chiefs player or a famous Chiefs fan (such as NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer or rapper Tech N9ne), called the honorary drum leader, bangs on a drum with a large drum stick to start the Tomahawk chop.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: The Chiefs' and their fans use of American Indian imagery and stereotypes has been the source of controversy, as some decry usage of symbols like the "war drum," songs and spectacles like the "Tomahawk Chop," and stereotypical dress of fans in faux war paint and headdresses. In 2016, Native American groups asked the Kansas City Chiefs to stop doing the tomahawk chop. In the same year a similar request was made of Exeter Chiefs. The editorial board of the Kansas City Star newspaper called for the cessation of the "Tomahawk Chop" in late 2019, noting opposition from Native Americans and Tribes, and stating that the practice stereotypes and dehumanizes Native Americans.


title: Kansas City Chiefs

text: The Chiefs have escaped the more intense criticism of other teams, such as the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians who changed their names beginning with their 2022 seasons, for using Native American names and logos, however attention increased in 2020 in advance of their appearance in Super Bowl LIV. While there have been efforts to address other issues, such as fans wearing warpaint and headdresses, the tomahawk chop and the accompanying chant is defended, including by some local Native Americans. However, in a national survey, half of Native Americans said the "tomahawk chop" bothered or offended them, rising to 65% among those more engaged in Native traditions.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Hunters is an American conspiracy drama streaming television series created by David Weil. It premiered on February 21, 2020, on Amazon Prime Video. In August 2020, the series was renewed for a second and final season which is set to premiere on January 13, 2023.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The series' characters draw from a number of real Nazi hunters through the decades, but are not meant to be a specific representation of any of them. It follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City who discover that numerous escaped Nazi officers are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the United States. A parallel plot element is the discovery of Operation Paperclip, the U.S. government operation relocating German scientists (many of them Nazis) to the U.S.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: "Digital Spy" writer David Opie considered a show about Jewish heroes like "Hunters" important, due to the marginalization of the Jewish religion in the fictional superhero landscape. While there are many Jewish comic book heroes, including Scarlet Witch, Kitty Pryde, the Thing, and Harley Quinn, the Jewish aspect of their lives is almost always marginalized.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The Jewish David Weil noted "casual" forms of anti-semitism taking place throughout his life, such as jokes about "Jews in ovens" and swastikas sprayed on his high school. "Hunters" is also far from the first piece of media to involve protagonists hunting down Nazis, as those have included films like "The Odessa File" (1974), "Apt Pupil" (1998), "The Boys from Brazil" (1978), and "Marathon Man" (1976), as well as content regarding Nazi zombies.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Creator David Weil's inspiration for "Hunters" was bedtime stories of World War II experiences told by his grandmother Sarah, who was a survivor of the Auschwitz camp Birkenau; the stories had a long-lasting impact on David because they were about "great good vs. terrifying evil" and had themes of "hope, courage and survival," elements he also noticed in comic book superhero stories he would read. Additional reasons for creating the show were a "lack of Jewish superheroes" in film and television, citing examples of films about Nazi Germany like "Inglourious Basterds" (2009) and "Schindler's List" (1993) having non-Jewish protagonists, and a desire to expose "hidden truths" and to help those "who've always felt persecuted, who linger with trauma and injustice" in response to "rising anti-Semistism, racism, xenophobia."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Despite the attachment of "Get Out" director Jordan Peele and Weil having an "80-page bible" of the show written, most buyers were wary of the project and refused to purchase it; the creator suggested that it was due to the series' premise of "a diverse band of 'others' kind of rising up and trying to reclaim power in some way" not being typical in mainstream entertainment. Amazon Studios head Jen Salke bought the series. Nikki Toscano joined as producer for its ambitious concept: "I think that the juxtaposition of the 1970s New York City with the Holocaust, with some of the levity and the humour, was certainly a challenge for us to balance throughout. But it was a challenge that I thought was an obstacle worth trying to get over."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: On May 17, 2018, it was announced that Amazon Video had given the production a straight-to-series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. Weil was set to executive produce alongside Jordan Peele, Tom Lesinski, Jenna Santoianni, and Win Rosenfeld. Weil was also expected to write for the series as well. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Monkeypaw Productions and Sonar Entertainment. On August 7, 2018, it was announced that Nikki Toscano had joined the production as an executive producer and would also serve as co-showrunner alongside Weil. On August 3, 2020, Amazon renewed the series for a second and final season which is scheduled to be released on January 13, 2023.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: On December 13, 2018, it was reported that Logan Lerman was in talks for a lead role in the series, Jonah Heidelbaum. On January 10, 2019, it was reported that Al Pacino was finalizing a deal for a starring role in the series. On February 7, 2019, it was reported that Jerrika Hinton, Dylan Baker, Lena Olin, Greg Austin, Catherine Tate, Tiffany Boone, Saul Rubinek, and Carol Kane were in various stages of negotiations to join the cast of the series. Four days later, it was announced that Boone had officially joined the cast. Josh Radnor was cast in March. In April 2019, Kate Mulvany, James LeGros, Ebony Obsidian, Caleb Emery, Henry Hunter Hall and Jeannie Berlin joined the cast of the series, with Mulvany joining as a series regular. On April 5, 2021, Jennifer Jason Leigh was cast as a lead for the second season.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: It's been noted that while not all the Jewish characters on the show are played by Jewish actors and not all the hunters are Jews, all Jewish actors out of the main cast play Jewish characters. Outside the main cast, some Jewish actors have played Jewish characters (for example, actor Zack Schor, who mentioned his survivor grandparents as the reason why he was drawn to the role of the younger Meyer Offerman, a Polish Jew in a Nazi camp), while others have played non-Jews (such as Jewish actor Kenneth Tigar who plays a Nazi).


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The bowling scene was Austin's audition scene as well as the first sequence he filmed for the series, and a continuous shot where his character talks to the congressman before bowling a strike was done within one take.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: According to Weil, "the purpose of this show is an allegorical tale in many ways, to draw the parallels between the ’30s and ’40s in Europe and the ’70s in the States and especially today with the racism and anti-Semitism and xenophobia, the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: As David Weil put it, ""Hunters" is about a group of people who are so rarely portrayed as superheroes" and incorporates iconography to show the Jewish characters as superheroes that reclaim their power; an example is the use of yellow coloring on the costumes and weapons of the hunters as a way to reclaim the color of the yellow badge as the Jews'. Weil also went for a similar heroism in the prisoners in the Auschwitz camp flashbacks.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Genre-wise, "Hunters" is a mix of several styles: "a harrowing remembrance of the suffering of the Holocaust, a satisfying revenge fantasy, a sensational period piece, and a dark comedy," labeled "The Verge"s Joshua Rivera. Ben Travers of "IndieWire" categorized it as a black comedy thriller that's "extremely violent and extremely silly; it respects the drama inherent to any Holocaust story while still allowing fans to enjoy the fictionalized quest for vengeance. For every conversation about justice and vengeance, morality and responsibility, right and wrong, there's a fake ad about spotting Nazis or a dance sequence set to 'Staying Alive.'" Matthew Gilbert of "The Boston Globe" compared its comedy and look to the works of the Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino. Prahlad Srihari, a "Firstpost" critic, also used one of Tarantino's works to describe it as a combination of the director's film "Inglourious Basterds" (2009) and Steven Spielberg's "Munich" (2005). Several 1970s exploitation genres are imitated in the show, such as kung fu, grindhouse, Blaxploitation, Jewsploitation, and torture porn.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Fighting individuals who committed serious crimes with actions like violence is a common moral dilemma the titular hunters deal with; Rubinek explained that this was important, as the message of the Jewish folklore of the golem is that "monster which grows violent and protects the Jews, also turns violent inappropriately and has to be put down." Weil stated that the main question of the story is, "If you hunt monsters, do you risk becoming a monster yourself?" "Some of Hunters' biggest thematic questions revolve around whether ends justify means or if the pursuit of vengeance risks corrupting those who seek it," Rivera put it more specifically. For Jonah he's "pushed and pulled between asserting himself as a hunter and, if not empathizing with the hunted, believing there's a more humane way of holding them accountable. Is Jonah naive and soft for being appalled by the team's tactics? Or is he exercising better moral judgment because he's lived outside the dehumanizing conditions they faced?" wrote Travers.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Toscano explained that she and the writers, while not sympathizing with the Nazis, were trying to portray them as humans rather than caricatures, realizing there was a "spectrum of evil that we’re dealing with. There is one extreme [and then] there are other Nazis that have various explanations: ‘I was following orders; I was as kid'".


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: References to pop culture are used that relates to this moral conflict; for instance, in a conversation between Jonah and his two friends after seeing "Star Wars" (1977), Jonah jokingly hypothesizes Darth Vader is after the Jedi rebels because he was raised to believe they would "bomb his parents, behead his friends, kidnap all the hot Galactic chicks for lightsaber orgies. Vader doesn't get up every day looking to destroy the galaxy. He gets up every morning believing he needs to save it." Jonah's friends counter-respond that Vader is still a killer despite good intentions, and Jonah responds back by saying heroes like Batman and Superman are the same way.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: A chess board is also repeatedly used in the show's imagery (including in its intro) to present good vs. evil battles as a complicated game.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: To differentiate from most other shows with a historical context that, to Toscano and Weil, felt "like a history lesson," the two went for a "comic book" style, with a mix of shots with "poppy" colors and shots with de-saturated, "grounded" colors; Weil explained that this was meant to present a message that what "seems like comic book" ends up "scintillating[ly] real." Generally, sequences set in the 1970s have a flashier color palette, while scenes in the Auschwitz camps have more muted colors. Gomez-Rejon came up with the idea of using windows as panels for the show. According to Lerman, the main character works at a comic book shop and one of the stories' major themes are the moral differences between comic books and real-life; for instance, "you have to be bad" instead of a superhero to defeat villains, which is Pacino's view when he trains Jonah into becoming a hunter.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: As "Film Inquiry" describe "Hunters" variety of tones, "for every naturalistic colloquy, there's a bit of sparkle and levity by compiling specious footage (usually in the form of a television ad) involving the interracial and intergenerational crew of Nazi-fighters. (At one point in episode 3, Logan Lerman breaks out in a musical number.)"


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Upon the release of its first season, "Hunters" received polarizing reviews, with praise for its premise, messages, action sequences, and performances, but criticism for its story-telling, inconsistent tone, pacing, historical inaccuracies, and conclusion. A favorable review summarized the show as "audacious, tonally complex, not always in control of its message, visually arresting, and, particularly in its grim flashbacks to the brutalities and the courage in the death camps, moving," while one of its harshest detractors labeled it "uneven, awkward...often dull," and "sort of yucky."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The series has a 65% approval rating with 111 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.21/10 and the following critical consensus: "Propelled by a strong cast and even stronger sense of justice, Hunters' stylish first season doesn't always hit the mark, but when it does, it strikes pulpy paydirt." Metacritic gave the series a score of 54 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Most of the initial reviews were for the first five episodes.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The lack of development of the Hunters was a frequent criticism. Wrote Tom Long of "The Detroit News", "we’re introduced to our heroes — who inexplicably include an Asian man and black women — at which point we wait around to see their super-skills. Never happens. Five episodes in none of these people seem all that good at anything." Srihari criticized Biff Simpson not being the main antagonist instead of the Colonel, "who is more Cruella de Vil than exceptionally evil, despite the season-ending pay-off," while Rivera criticized the character of Jonah, feeling that all his conflicts, such as those in his personal life, are only to serve the story: "This makes all of his big moments feel like they occur in a vacuum — especially when he’s paired up with the other Hunters."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: A common praise was the cast, including for actors like Pacino, Kane and Rubinek and Olin. Travers praised the performers of the hunters, highlighting Rubinek and Kane, as well as Hinton, Baker, Olin, and the "affecting and fun" Pacino, but called Lerman and his character Jonah nothing more than an "audience stand-in" that "occasionally forgets to get off the couch and move around." Gilbert found Berlin's presence memorable and highlighted the restraint of Pacino: "He brings a lovely gentleness to the role, too, most evident in the fatherly attentions he gives to the confused, grieving, and newly mobilized Jonah. He sees generational wrath in the young man’s fury, and he fosters it." He also called Lerman "good enough if somewhat one-dimensional as Jonah."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The tone dissonance and mashing of styles turned off some reviewers. Wrote Gilbert, "the leaps from the kitschy shag-carpeted world of bell-bottoms to the spare cruelties of the camps, and from action comedy to human tragedy, are a lot." Verne Gay of "Newsday" opined that while "Hunters" was successful as a genre show, it was an "impossible balancing act" to make it both that and a "personal tribute" to those who died in the Nazi camps with its flashback sequences. Tom Long of "The Detroit News" wrote that, "Tonally it careens madly from sincere to silly, gory to glib," and when it came to its use of pastiche styles, "It’s as if someone took notes while watching a marathon of Quentin Tarantino movies, getting all the bits and pieces without understanding why they worked." "ArtsATL" was disgusted by the use of comic book references and cliches in a show with "the genocide of 6 million people in World War II" as one of its major themes.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Reviews debated "Hunters" revenge fantasy premise and Nazi subject matter, specifically, in "3AW" s words, "the oft-raised issue about exploiting one of the most horrific man-made events in history for our entertainment. Can the show be seen as an indirect tribute to the work of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal? Or is it just bad taste? Can it be both?" Gilbert was appreciative of the "bold" inclusion of "Nazis into a broad genre-tinged entertainment," as it's also "part of the origin story of Golden Age superhero comic books themselves," and suggested it would start conversation between viewers. Other critics, even those who were engaged with the content, unfavorably opined its premise and revenge message made it a B-grade series; Srihari, in particular, categorized it as "an exploitation film that has invaded an overlong comic book movie" and that "the violence brings together the victimiser and victimised in a punishing embrace." "Film Inquiry"s "Does that make it right? Of course not. Is it fun to watch? In all honesty, not really. It is, however, extremely aware and extremely responsive in how it tinkers with history by adding a fair amount of pathos."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: A positive review by Travers, who stated that the show's violence and "twisted moments" "allow[] for a fanciful level of wish fulfillment, as well as a compelling action narrative," claimed they led the serious themes to feel non-relevant. Long dismissed "Hunters" as "a wildly uneven, superficial, comic book-type treatment" of the "particularly sick and unfortunately still-relevant dynamic" of American Nazism, attributing the problem to the writing being "black-and-white" and filled with stereotypes.


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Srihari suggested that the series should've used "subtle and subversive" methods of dehumanizing Nazis, such as in the flashback scene where the Jewish prisoners play the Israeli folk song "Hava Nagila" instead of music by composer Richard Wagner as a Nazi officer commands them to. He also argued the comical torturing devices of the officers, such as the human chess board and the singing competition, "stops being disturbing after a while as the mayhem turns into monotony." Stover similarly opined that "the series wallows in its own jarring material to the point of lassitude."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Rivera named the show's straight-forward moments its best, such as the flashbacks in the fourth episode of a couple trying to escape the camp. Long was harsh on the flashbacks, however, suggesting that they're "supposed to provide motivation but often just looks like Jews being tortured in concentration camps." "The Mary Sue"s Sara Clements, although agreeing with the criticisms of the flashbacks, also stated that they are essential, as "they emphasize a simple fact: We must know and must not forget what happened during the Holocaust. Even when there are no survivors left to tell their stories, we must continue in their place."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: The series has received some criticism from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum due to inaccurate use of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The scene depicting prisoners being forced to participate in a game of human chess was called out as "dangerous foolishness and caricature". The museum was also concerned that the show "welcomes future deniers". Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Stephen D. Smith heavily criticized the show and concluded that "Amazon must not renew it for a second season."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: In a statement, series creator David Weil, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, responded to the criticism and spoke to wanting to tell a story about the Holocaust without borrowing from a specific survivor's real life or experience without their permission. He said, "It is true that Nazis perpetrated widespread and extreme acts of sadism and torture – and even incidents of cruel 'games' – against their victims. I simply did not want to depict those specific, real acts of trauma ... I did not want to misrepresent a real person or borrow from a specific moment in an actual person’s life. That was the responsibility that weighed on me every night and every morning for years, while writing, producing, and editing this show."


title: Hunters (2020 TV series)

text: Rubinek also responded to criticisms about the show's violence, explaining that it was warning the viewers about the negative consequences of revenge violence, not promoting it: "If the theme of the show was just violence – yes, maybe they'd have a point... But it's not just about that. It's about the consequences of it."


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. With molar masses of 22.99 and 35.45 g/mol respectively, 100 g of NaCl contains 39.34 g Na and 60.66 g Cl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of seawater and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms. In its edible form, salt (also known as "table salt") is commonly used as a condiment and food preservative. Large quantities of sodium chloride are used in many industrial processes, and it is a major source of sodium and chlorine compounds used as feedstocks for further chemical syntheses. Another major application of sodium chloride is de-icing of roadways in sub-freezing weather.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In addition to the familiar domestic uses of salt, more dominant applications of the approximately 250 million tonnes per year production (2008 data) include chemicals and de-icing.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Salt is used, directly or indirectly, in the production of many chemicals, which consume most of the world's production.


title: Sodium chloride

text: It is the starting point for the chloralkali process, the industrial process to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide, according to the chemical equation


title: Sodium chloride

text: This electrolysis is conducted in either a mercury cell, a diaphragm cell, or a membrane cell. Each of those uses a different method to separate the chlorine from the sodium hydroxide. Other technologies are under development due to the high energy consumption of the electrolysis, whereby small improvements in the efficiency can have large economic paybacks. Some applications of chlorine include PVC thermoplastics production, disinfectants, and solvents.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium hydroxide is extensively used in many different industries enabling production of paper, soap, and aluminium etc.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride is used in the Solvay process to produce sodium carbonate and calcium chloride. Sodium carbonate, in turn, is used to produce glass, sodium bicarbonate, and dyes, as well as a myriad of other chemicals. In the Mannheim process, sodium chloride is used for the production of sodium sulfate and hydrochloric acid.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride has an international standard that is created by ASTM International. The standard is named ASTM E534-13 and is the standard test methods for chemical analysis of sodium chloride. These methods listed provide procedures for analyzing sodium chloride to determine whether it is suitable for its intended use and application.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride is heavily used, so even relatively minor applications can consume massive quantities. In oil and gas exploration, salt is an important component of drilling fluids in well drilling. It is used to flocculate and increase the density of the drilling fluid to overcome high downwell gas pressures. Whenever a drill hits a salt formation, salt is added to the drilling fluid to saturate the solution in order to minimize the dissolution within the salt stratum. Salt is also used to increase the curing of concrete in cemented casings.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In textiles and dyeing, salt is used as a brine rinse to separate organic contaminants, to promote "salting out" of dyestuff precipitates, and to blend with concentrated dyes to standardize them. One of its main roles is to provide the positive ion charge to promote the absorption of negatively charged ions of dyes.


title: Sodium chloride

text: It is also used in processing aluminium, beryllium, copper, steel and vanadium. In the pulp and paper industry, salt is used to bleach wood pulp. It also is used to make sodium chlorate, which is added along with sulfuric acid and water to manufacture chlorine dioxide, an excellent oxygen-based bleaching chemical. The chlorine dioxide process, which originated in Germany after World War I, is becoming more popular because of environmental pressures to reduce or eliminate chlorinated bleaching compounds. In tanning and leather treatment, salt is added to animal hides to inhibit microbial activity on the underside of the hides and to attract moisture back into the hides.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In rubber manufacture, salt is used to make buna, neoprene and white rubber types. Salt brine and sulfuric acid are used to coagulate an emulsified latex made from chlorinated butadiene.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Salt also is added to secure the soil and to provide firmness to the foundation on which highways are built. The salt acts to minimize the effects of shifting caused in the subsurface by changes in humidity and traffic load.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride is sometimes used as a cheap and safe desiccant because of its hygroscopic properties, making salting an effective method of food preservation historically; the salt draws water out of bacteria through osmotic pressure, keeping it from reproducing, a major source of food spoilage. Even though more effective desiccants are available, few are safe for humans to ingest.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Hard water contains calcium and magnesium ions that interfere with action of soap and contribute to the buildup of a scale or film of alkaline mineral deposits in household and industrial equipment and pipes. Commercial and residential water-softening units use ion-exchange resins to remove ions that cause the hardness. These resins are generated and regenerated using sodium chloride.


title: Sodium chloride

text: The second major application of salt is for de-icing and anti-icing of roads, both in grit bins and spread by winter service vehicles. In anticipation of snowfall, roads are optimally "anti-iced" with brine (concentrated solution of salt in water), which prevents bonding between the snow-ice and the road surface. This procedure obviates the heavy use of salt after the snowfall. For de-icing, mixtures of brine and salt are used, sometimes with additional agents such as calcium chloride and/or magnesium chloride. The use of salt or brine becomes ineffective below .


title: Sodium chloride

text: Salt for de-icing in the United Kingdom predominantly comes from a single mine in Winsford in Cheshire. Prior to distribution it is mixed with <100 ppm of sodium ferrocyanide as an anti-caking agent, which enables rock salt to flow freely out of the gritting vehicles despite being stockpiled prior to use. In recent years this additive has also been used in table salt. Other additives had been used in road salt to reduce the total costs. For example, in the US, a byproduct carbohydrate solution from sugar-beet processing was mixed with rock salt and adhered to road surfaces about 40% better than loose rock salt alone. Because it stayed on the road longer, the treatment did not have to be repeated several times, saving time and money.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In the technical terms of physical chemistry, the minimum freezing point of a water-salt mixture is for 23.31 wt% of salt. Freezing near this concentration is however so slow that the eutectic point of can be reached with about 25 wt% of salt.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Road salt ends up in fresh-water bodies and could harm aquatic plants and animals by disrupting their osmoregulation ability. The omnipresence of salt poses a problem in any coastal coating application, as trapped salts cause great problems in adhesion. Naval authorities and ship builders monitor the salt concentrations on surfaces during construction. Maximal salt concentrations on surfaces are dependent on the authority and application. The IMO regulation is mostly used and sets salt levels to a maximum of 50 mg/m soluble salts measured as sodium chloride. These measurements are done by means of a Bresle test. Salinization (increasing salinity, aka "freshwater salinization syndrome") and subsequent increased metal leaching is an ongoing problem throughout North America and European fresh waterways.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In highway de-icing, salt has been associated with corrosion of bridge decks, motor vehicles, reinforcement bar and wire, and unprotected steel structures used in road construction. Surface runoff, vehicle spraying, and windblown actions also affect soil, roadside vegetation, and local surface water and groundwater supplies. Although evidence of environmental loading of salt has been found during peak usage, the spring rains and thaws usually dilute the concentrations of sodium in the area where salt was applied. A 2009 study found that approximately 70% of the road salt being applied in the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area is retained in the local watershed.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Some agencies are substituting beer, molasses, and beet juice instead of road salt. Airlines utilize more glycol and sugar rather than salt based solutions for de-icing.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Many microorganisms cannot live in a salty environment: water is drawn out of their cells by osmosis. For this reason salt is used to preserve some foods, such as bacon, fish, or cabbage.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Salt is added to food, either by the food producer or by the consumer, as a flavor enhancer, preservative, binder, fermentation-control additive, texture-control agent and color developer. The salt consumption in the food industry is subdivided, in descending order of consumption, into other food processing, meat packers, canning, baking, dairy and grain mill products. Salt is added to promote color development in bacon, ham and other processed meat products. As a preservative, salt inhibits the growth of bacteria. Salt acts as a binder in sausages to form a binding gel made up of meat, fat, and moisture. Salt also acts as a flavor enhancer and as a tenderizer.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In many dairy industries, salt is added to cheese as a color-, fermentation-, and texture-control agent. The dairy subsector includes companies that manufacture creamery butter, condensed and evaporated milk, frozen desserts, ice cream, natural and processed cheese, and specialty dairy products. In canning, salt is primarily added as a flavor enhancer and preservative. It also is used as a carrier for other ingredients, dehydrating agent, enzyme inhibitor and tenderizer. In baking, salt is added to control the rate of fermentation in bread dough. It also is used to strengthen the gluten (the elastic protein-water complex in certain doughs) and as a flavor enhancer, such as a topping on baked goods. The food-processing category also contains grain mill products. These products consist of milling flour and rice and manufacturing cereal breakfast food and blended or prepared flour. Salt is also used a seasoning agent, e.g. in potato chips, pretzels, cat and dog food.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride is used in veterinary medicine as emesis-causing agent. It is given as warm saturated solution. Emesis can also be caused by pharyngeal placement of small amount of plain salt or salt crystals.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride is used together with water as one of the primary solutions for intravenous therapy. Nasal spray often contains a saline solution.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Sodium chloride is the principal extinguishing agent in fire extinguishers (Met-L-X, Super D) used on combustible metal fires such as magnesium, potassium, sodium, and NaK alloys (Class D). Thermoplastic powder is added to the mixture, along with waterproofing (metal stearates) and anti-caking materials (tricalcium phosphate) to form the extinguishing agent. When it is applied to the fire, the salt acts like a heat sink, dissipating heat from the fire, and also forms an oxygen-excluding crust to smother the fire. The plastic additive melts and helps the crust maintain its integrity until the burning metal cools below its ignition temperature. This type of extinguisher was invented in the late 1940s as a cartridge-operated unit, although stored pressure versions are now popular. Common sizes are portable and wheeled.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Since at least medieval times, people have used salt as a cleansing agent rubbed on household surfaces. It is also used in many brands of shampoo, toothpaste and popularly to de-ice driveways and patches of ice.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Defect-free NaCl crystals have an optical transmittance of about 90% for infrared light, specifically between 200 nm and 20 µm. They were therefore used in optical components (windows and prisms) operating in that spectral range, where few non-absorbing alternatives exist and where requirements for absence of microscopic inhomogeneities are less strict than in the visible range. While inexpensive, NaCl crystals are soft and hygroscopic – when exposed to the ambient air, they gradually cover with "frost". This limits application of NaCl to dry environments, vacuum sealed assembly areas or for short-term uses such as prototyping. Nowadays materials like zinc selenide (ZnSe), which are stronger mechanically and are less sensitive to moisture, are used instead of NaCl for the infrared spectral range.


title: Sodium chloride

text: In solid sodium chloride, each ion is surrounded by six ions of the opposite charge as expected on electrostatic grounds. The surrounding ions are located at the vertices of a regular octahedron. In the language of close-packing, the larger chloride ions (167 pm in size) are arranged in a cubic array whereas the smaller sodium ions (116 pm) fill all the cubic gaps (octahedral voids) between them. This same basic structure is found in many other compounds and is commonly known as the halite or rock-salt crystal structure. It can be represented as a face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice with a two-atom basis or as two interpenetrating face centered cubic lattices. The first atom is located at each lattice point, and the second atom is located halfway between lattice points along the fcc unit cell edge.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Solid sodium chloride has a melting point of 801 °C. Thermal conductivity of sodium chloride as a function of temperature has a maximum of 2.03 W/(cm K) at and decreases to 0.069 at . It also decreases with doping.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Atomic-resolution real-time video imaging allows visualization of the initial stage of crystal nucleation of sodium chloride.


title: Sodium chloride

text: The attraction between the Na and Cl ions in the solid is so strong that only highly polar solvents like water dissolve NaCl well.


title: Sodium chloride

text: When dissolved in water, the sodium chloride framework disintegrates as the Na and Cl ions become surrounded by polar water molecules. These solutions consist of metal aquo complex with the formula [Na(HO)], with the Na–O distance of 250 pm. The chloride ions are also strongly solvated, each being surrounded by an average of six molecules of water. Solutions of sodium chloride have very different properties from pure water. The eutectic point is for 23.31% mass fraction of salt, and the boiling point of saturated salt solution is near . From cold solutions, salt crystallises as the dihydrate NaCl·2HO.


title: Sodium chloride

text: The pH of a sodium chloride solution remains ≈7 due to the extremely weak basicity of the Cl ion, which is the conjugate base of the strong acid HCl. In other words, NaCl has no effect on system pH in diluted solutions where the effects of ionic strength and activity coefficients are negligible.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Common salt has a 1:1 molar ratio of sodium and chlorine. In 2013, compounds of sodium and chloride of different stoichiometries have been discovered; five new compounds were predicted (e.g., NaCl, NaCl, NaCl, NaCl, and NaCl). The existence of some of them has been experimentally confirmed at high pressures: cubic and orthorhombic NaCl and two-dimensional metallic tetragonal NaCl. This indicates that compounds violating chemical intuition are possible, in simple systems under nonambient conditions.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Most of the world's salt is dissolved in the ocean. A lesser amount is found in the Earth's crust as the water-soluble mineral halite (rock salt), and a tiny amount exists as suspended sea salt particles in the atmosphere. These particles are the dominant cloud condensation nuclei far out at sea, which allow the formation of clouds in otherwise non-polluted air.


title: Sodium chloride

text: Salt is currently mass-produced by evaporation of seawater or brine from brine wells and salt lakes. Mining of rock salt is also a major source. China is the world's main supplier of salt. In 2017, world production was estimated at 280 million tonnes, the top five producers (in million tonnes) being China (68.0), United States (43.0), India (26.0), Germany (13.0), and Canada (13.0). Salt is also a byproduct of potassium mining.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has characterized it as "the nation's oldest major white supremacist prison gang and a national crime syndicate" while the Anti-Defamation League calls it the "oldest and most notorious racist prison gang in the United States". According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Aryan Brotherhood makes up an extremely low percentage of the entire US prison population but it is responsible for a disproportionately large number of prison murders.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The gang has focused on the economic activities which organized crime entities typically engage in, particularly drug trafficking, extortion, inmate prostitution, and murder-for-hire. The organization of its whites-only membership varies from prison to prison but it is generally hierarchical, headed by a twelve-man council which is topped by a three-man commission. The Aryan Brotherhood uses various terms, symbols, and images in order to identify itself, including shamrocks, swastikas, and other symbols. In order to join the Aryan Brotherhood, new members may swear a blood oath or take a pledge; acceptance into the Aryan Brotherhood is aided by a prospect's willingness to kill another inmate.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: Most prisons in the United States were racially segregated until the 1960s. As prisons began to desegregate, many inmates organized themselves into gangs along racial lines. The Aryan Brotherhood is believed to have been formed at San Quentin State Prison, but it may have been inspired by the Bluebird Gang. They decided to strike against the African-Americans who were forming their own militant group called the Black Guerrilla Family. In the early 1970s, the Aryan Brotherhood had a connection with Charles Manson and the Manson Family. Several members of the Manson Family were in prison at the time, and they attempted to join forces. However, the relationship did not last long as the Aryan Brotherhood considered Manson "too leftist", while members also took offense at the murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Aryan Brotherhood grew quickly in the California prison system and eventually started a race war in 1975 with the other prison gangs such as La Nuestra Familia, and Black Guerilla Family. As a result of the race war, California prison officials segregated the gangs to different prisons in California. When the Aryan Brotherhood was isolated in the Chino prison, they were able to continue to grow and develop their leadership hierarchy.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In 1981, Thomas Silverstein and Clayton Fountain were charged with the murder of a black inmate named Robert Chappelle in the United States Penitentiary, Marion, control unit. It was believed that Silverstein and Fountain strangled Chappelle in his cell. Silverstein and Fountain later killed Raymond Smith, a friend of Robert Chappelle. The two men stabbed Smith 67 times. Silverstein then started to plan killing a correctional officer. On October 22, 1983, gang members from the Aryan Brotherhood killed two correction officers at Marion. Silverstein killed an officer named Merle Clutts, stabbing him approximately 40 times. Several hours later, Fountain also killed an officer named Robert Hoffman. The tactics used were developed for a prior inmate murder; Silverstein used an improvised knife and handcuff key while being taken to the showers. He picked the lock, then attacked and killed Merle Clutts. Fountain used similar tactics to kill Robert Hoffman.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: By the 1990s, the Aryan Brotherhood had shifted its focus away from killing for strictly racial reasons and focused on organized crime such as drug trafficking, prostitution, and sanctioned murders. They took on organized crime-level power inside much of the United States' prison system, where they eventually accumulated greater power and influence than the American Mafia. This situation was personified when, after being assaulted by an African-American inmate while incarcerated in Marion Federal Penitentiary in 1996, Gambino crime family boss John Gotti allegedly asked the Aryan Brotherhood to murder his attacker. Gotti's attacker was immediately transferred to protective custody and the planned retaliation was abandoned.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In April 1993, members of the Aryan Brotherhood along with members of the Black Muslims and other gangs in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility initiated the Lucasville Prison Riot in Lucasville. The rioters took several officers hostage and killed nine inmates, then killed an officer. Their complaints included alleged abusive treatment and overcrowding, with Black Muslims also demanding an end to mandatory tuberculosis testing, which they said violated their faith.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In late 2002, 29 leaders of the gang were simultaneously rounded up from prisons all over the country and brought to trial under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The intention was to bring death sentences for at least 21 of them, in a manner similar to tactics used against organized crime. The case produced 30 convictions but none of the most powerful leaders received a death sentence. Sentencing occurred in March 2006 for three of the most powerful leaders of the gang, including Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham, who were indicted for numerous crimes, including murder, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and racketeering and for ordering killings and beatings from their cells. Bingham and Mills were convicted of murder and sent back to United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility Prison (ADX) in Florence, Colorado where they are serving life sentences without parole, escaping the death penalty.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: Prosecuting the gang has been difficult, because many members are already serving life sentences with no possibility of parole, so prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for 21 of those indicted but have dropped the death penalty on all but five defendants. By September 2006, the 19 indictees not eligible for the death penalty had pleaded guilty. The first of a series of trials involving four high level members ended in convictions in July 2006.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: On June 23, 2005, after a 20-month investigation, a federal strike force raided six houses in northeastern Ohio which belonged to members of the "Order of the Blood", a criminal organization which is controlled by the Aryan Brotherhood. 34 Aryan Brotherhood members or associates were arrested and warrants were issued for the arrests of ten more.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In November 2020, more than sixty individuals that were associated with the Aryan Brotherhood were arrested in a multi-agency operation that took place in California, Montana, and Nevada. Investigators saw evidence that Aryan Brotherhood members were operating outside of prisons and noticed connections between the gang and violent crimes, firearms trafficking, and drug trafficking. The government saw these offenses occurring on the West Coast, however, connections to the gang were made across the country, reaching as far as Alabama, all tied to the Aryan Brotherhood, eventually leading to the seizure of 80 pounds of methamphetamine, 5 pounds of heroin, and more than 25 firearms.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The initial motivation for the formation of the group in San Quentin in 1964 was self-protection against an existing black prison gang. The SPLC has said that, although they clearly have a white supremacist ideology, the major motivation is money, and they have occasionally set aside racist views, such as by allying themselves with Latin American gangs, in order to make a profit.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The SPLC, which monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States, has designated the Aryan Brotherhood as "...the nation's oldest major white supremacist prison gang and a national crime syndicate", and the "...largest and deadliest prison gang in the United States".


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: Daryl Johnson, leader of the Domestic Terrorist Analysis Team whose job it is to monitor the activity of right-wing militias and other domestic terrorist groups, said that white supremacist organizations in prisons are a "...radicalization threat", committing acts of violence inside prison, and then in the larger communities after release. Johnson named the Aryan Brotherhood, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, and the Aryan Circle as examples of white supremacist prison-based gangs which are radicalization threats.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In an investigation in California prisons which ended in 1989, the FBI characterized the Brotherhood as a "...violent, white supremacist group", and a 2008 DHS intelligence conference in Newport, Rhode Island divided violent domestic extremism into three types, and concluded that white supremacist groups like Aryan Brotherhood remained a threat and a cause for concern.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Aryan Brotherhood has members inside federal and state prisons, and outside on the streets. All members are white, and are either in prison or have been in prison. Joining is difficult. New members are on probation for a year, must swear a blood oath for life, and must commit a violent act to join the Brotherhood, such as killing a rival inmate, assaulting an officer or murdering an African American or Hispanic prisoner. Members are inculcated with various reading materials smuggled into prisons published by Aryan Nations, Militia of Montana, and other groups, as well as "Mein Kampf", "The Art of War", and Machiavelli's "The Prince". Early members liked the Western novels of Louis L'Amour, source of the organization's self-proclaimed "the Brand" moniker. Therefore, they perpetuated an admiration for the outlaw gunslingers of the American West. Members also have a fondness for medieval Vikings and the pirates of the Golden Age.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: Criminal activities inside prison walls include male prostitution, gambling, extortion, and drug trafficking, primarily involving methamphetamines. Outside prison, the AB engages in every kind of criminal enterprise, "...including murder-for-hire, armed robbery, gun running, methamphetamine manufacturing, heroin sales, counterfeiting, and identity theft", according to the SPLC.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: After its formation in California prisons in the mid-1960s, the Aryan Brotherhood had spread to most California prisons by 1975. After some of its leaders were sent to federal prisons, they took the opportunity to start organizing inside the federal prison system. This ended with the creation of two separate, but related organizations, the California Aryan Brotherhood, and the federal prison Aryan Brotherhood. As a former top leader said, "They're like two related but different crime families. They each have their [ruling] commission… but they're allies." By the late 1970s, these gangs had fewer than 100 members, but their membership grew rapidly as they absorbed other racist and skinhead groups, and today these gangs are estimated to have over 20,000 members in both the federal and state prison systems.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In its early days, the group had a one-man, one-vote system, but this broke down as a result of the group's rapid expansion, and it was replaced by the establishment of a hierarchical structure, headed by a 12-man council, and overseen by a three-member commission. The federal and state systems each had their own council and commission. Organization varies somewhat, from prison to prison. For example, in the Arizona prison system, members are known as "kindred" and organize into "families". A "council" controls the families. Kindred may recruit other members, known as "progeny", and serve as a mentor for the new recruits.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: A sort of internal banking or accounting system was instituted, which allowed them to "tax" criminal activity on the streets, and collect 20% on the proceeds, money which is then laundered and controlled by the commission.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: There is also a subgroup of the organization in Canada referred to as the Canadian Brotherhood or CB and its influence in the country was initially spurred on by the Aryan Nations. It is moderately active in organized crime and the Canadian prison system. But it is unknown by authorities if these two groups are officially linked together or not. However in 1991, one of their leading figures, Camey Nerland was sentenced to four years in prison after he pled guilty for killing a Native American.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Aryan Brotherhood is affiliated with a network of smaller peckerwood gangs, such as the Nazi Lowriders and Public Enemy No. 1, and the national hate-based organization Aryan Nations. The group also has an alliance with the Mexican Mafia ("La Eme"), as the two are mutual enemies of Black Guerrilla Family. Other rival gangs include the Black P. Stones, Bloods, Crips, D.C. Blacks, and Nuestra Familia.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Brotherhood has associated in criminal ventures with the Hells Angels. The gangs were also involved in a power struggle in the East Bay, which led to the killing of Hells Angels vice-president Michael O'Farrell on June 6, 1989.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: In 1992, the gang established ties with American Mafia crime, via boss John Gotti, who was sentenced to prison and contacted the Aryan Brotherhood for protection while he was in prison. Gotti also organized a business partnership which operated on the outside between his group and the Brotherhood and as a result of this business partnership, the group's power greatly expanded on the streets.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Aryan Brotherhood's communication and control has become so tight and efficient that they have been able to organize and direct major criminal enterprises on the outside, even from solitary confinement, much to the frustration of federal and state authorities.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The Aryan Brotherhood uses various symbols and images to identify members, and the organization, and spoken or written mottos and oaths to secure them.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: New members were branded with a tattoo, following the procedure in a prison novel popular among inmates. The image was either a green shamrock (also called, "the rock"), the letters "AB", or the number "666". "The brand" meant the inmate belonged to Aryan Brotherhood.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: Like most prison gangs, Aryan Brotherhood members mark themselves with distinctive tattoos. Designs commonly include the words "Aryan Brotherhood", "AB", "666", Nazi symbolism such as SS, sig runes, and swastikas, as well as shamrocks and Celtic iconography.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: Other means of identification of group membership were the "blood in, blood out" motto symbolizing life-long membership with no exit other than death, and "the pledge", an eight-line oath that each new member had to swear.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: According to the FBI, as of 1992, the gang made up less than 0.1% of the prison population but was responsible for between 1825% of murders in the federal prison system.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the Domestic Extremism Lexicon report in 2009 that defines different classifications of extremists. On the last entry of the 11-page report, it broke down the "white supremacist movement" into six categories: Neo-nazi, Ku Klux Klan, Christian Identity, racist skinhead, Nordic mysticism, and Aryan prison gangs.


title: Aryan Brotherhood

text: An analysis by "Slate" describes the Aryan prison gang classification as "...further outside the white supremacy mainstream", and describes them as largely independent of other white supremacist groups, although the lines blurred as time went on. The report also refers to them as "more flexible" than other white supremacist groups since "...their criminal goals usually take precedence over ideology."


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Yesterday is a 2019 romantic comedy film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, based on a story by Jack Barth and Curtis. Himesh Patel stars as struggling musician Jack Malik, who suddenly finds himself the only person who has ever heard of the Beatles and becomes famous after reintroducing their songs to the world. The film also stars Lily James, Joel Fry, Ed Sheeran, and Kate McKinnon. It gets its title from the 1965 Beatles song of the same name.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: "Yesterday" was announced in March 2018. Filming began the following month around England, particularly Norfolk and Halesworth in Suffolk. Photography also took place at Wembley Stadium, the Principality Stadium, and in Los Angeles. The filmmakers paid $10 million for the rights to use the Beatles' music; although none of the band members were involved, Boyle received approval for the project from them or their families.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: "Yesterday" had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2019, and was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in June 2019, by Universal Pictures. The film grossed $153 million worldwide against a production budget of $26 million. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the premise, performances, and musical sequences, but criticism for its familiarity and not exploring the concept further.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Jack Malik is a struggling singer-songwriter from Lowestoft who plays gigs to tiny crowds. His manager and childhood friend Ellie Appleton encourages him not to give up on his dreams. During a twelve-second global power outage, Jack is hit by a bus. After recovering, he sings the Beatles song "Yesterday" for his friends and discovers they have never heard of the Beatles. After searching for the Beatles on the internet and finding the band's records missing from his collection, Jack realizes that he is now in an alternative reality where the group never formed. He begins performing Beatles songs, passing them off as his own.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Ellie has Jack record a demo with Gavin, a local music producer. Following a performance on local television, Jack is invited by pop star Ed Sheeran to play as his opening act in Moscow. Ellie, a maths teacher who has parent-teacher conferences scheduled, declines to join him, so Jack's roadie friend Rocky travels with him instead. After the gig, Sheeran challenges Jack to a songwriting duel: after Jack plays "The Long and Winding Road", Sheeran graciously accepts defeat. In Los Angeles, Sheeran's ruthless manager Debra Hammer signs Jack to her label and engineers his rise to global fame.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: At Jack's going-away party before his move to L.A., Ellie confesses that she has always been in love with him. Jack starts recording an album at EastWest Studios but cannot remember the lyrics for "Eleanor Rigby." Hoping to trigger memories, Jack goes to the Beatles' hometown of Liverpool, visiting landmarks such as Strawberry Field, Penny Lane, and the grave of Eleanor Rigby. Ellie joins him in Liverpool, and they spend a drunken evening and kiss, but Ellie tells Jack she is not interested in a one-night stand. The next morning, Jack and Rocky pursue Ellie to the train station, where she congratulates Jack but tells him she cannot be a part of his celebrity life. Jack returns to Los Angeles heartbroken and desperate to have an everyday life again, while Ellie begins dating Gavin.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: The record label prepares to launch Jack's debut album but reject his title ideas named from Beatles albums and name it "One Man Only", pushing his talent. Jack persuades them to launch the album with a rooftop concert in Gorleston-on-Sea. Two people also transferred to the alternative reality during the power outage approach him backstage. They tell him they know he didn't write the songs, but thank him, having feared the Beatles' music was gone forever. They give him the address of John Lennon, who, having never formed The Beatles in this reality, has survived into old age, out of the public spotlight. John, who has lived a happy life with his wife, advises Jack to pursue the one he loves and always tell the truth.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Jack calls in a favour with Sheeran, who arranges for him to perform at Wembley Stadium. Jack confesses to the crowd that he plagiarized the music and loves Ellie, and has Rocky upload the songs free to the internet, sabotaging the record release and enraging Debra. Jack and Ellie marry and start a family, and Jack gives up stardom to become a music teacher.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: In addition, James Corden and Michael Kiwanuka appear as themselves, and Robert Carlyle makes an uncredited appearance as John Lennon.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: "Yesterday" began as a 2012 screenplay, "Cover Version," by the American writer Jack Barth. Barth had been struggling to sell screenplays for decades, and conceived the story when it occurred to him that if "Star Wars" had not been created and he conceived it, he would not be able to sell it. In Barth's script, a "meditation on professional disappointment", Jack did not find success with the Beatles songs.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: An early version of the screenplay was worked on by the British actor Mackenzie Crook, who intended to direct. Crook left to work on his television series "Detectorists." The script was passed to the production company Working Title. Years later, while working on clearance rights for the Beatles songs, a Working Title producer mentioned the screenplay to the British filmmaker Richard Curtis, who bought it and rewrote it as a romantic comedy. On Curtis's insistence, the screenplay is credited to Curtis and the story credited to Curtis and Barth.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Curtis told interviewers he did not read Barth's script, preferring to use the premise to write his own version. He told "Den of Geek": "I sometimes found when I worked with original material that it doesn't come from the heart. So I tried to write a whole film that meant something to me, rather than having too much extra information." However, according to Barth, the final film includes many elements of his screenplay, including John Lennon as a wizened fisherman and a joke about "Harry Potter". Curtis credited the "Harry" "Potter" joke to a suggestion from the American comedian Sarah Silverman, who is thanked in the credits.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Barth complained that Curtis had taken sole credit for the screenplay and damaged him financially. He felt that Curtis had changed the story to make Jack a successful songwriter as a reflection of Curtis's own career: "[Curtis] met Rowan Atkinson at Oxford, he came out of Oxford and immediately rode Rowan Atkinson to huge success in his early twenties. He's never been knocked out, as far as I know. Why "wouldn't" [Jack] become the most successful songwriter in the world?"


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: In March 2018, it was announced that Curtis and director Danny Boyle were working on a musical comedy set in the 1960s or 1970s following "a struggling musician who thinks he's the only person who can remember the Beatles", with Himesh Patel cast in the lead role. Boyle was convinced Patel was the right choice after listening to him perform the Beatles songs "Yesterday" and "Back in the U.S.S.R." during auditions. Boyle felt that Patel's voice had soul. Patel sang and performed guitar and piano himself.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Later in March 2018, Lily James and Kate McKinnon joined the cast. Boyle informed the surviving members and widows of the Beatles about the film and received a reply he described as "lovely" from Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. In April 2018, it was revealed that Ed Sheeran had joined the cast. Sheeran's role was originally intended for Coldplay singer Chris Martin, who turned it down. Sheeran said Harry Styles was also asked, which Boyle denied. Ana de Armas and Lamorne Morris joined later in April, followed by Sophia Di Martino, Joel Fry and Harry Michell in May.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Filming began on 21 April 2018, with production in the United Kingdom starting on 26 April 2018, with scenes filmed across East Anglia in Cantley, Halesworth, Dunwich, Shingle Street, Latitude Festival and Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. A casting call was issued for extras in overnight scenes shot immediately after Sheeran's four consecutive concerts at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in May 2018. A further 5,000 extras appeared in scenes at Gorleston-on-Sea Beach in Norfolk in June 2018. Wembley Stadium was also used to film a concert scene. Filming also took place in Liverpool, making use of Penny Lane, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Lime Street Station and the Queensway Tunnel.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: In February 2019, it was announced that the title of the film was "Yesterday". It is estimated to have cost around $10 million to get the rights for the Beatles' songs to be featured in the film, with the rights to their music being held by Apple Records and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Scenes with de Armas, who played another love interest for Jack, were cut as test audiences felt it made Jack less sympathetic. Ana de Armas appeared in some of the early promotional material before the final edit was made and this has since led to a $5m lawsuit in the US where two fans claim they were "duped into renting the [$3.99] movie because she [de Armas] was in the trailer".


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: The first official trailer of the film was released on 12 February 2019. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on 4 May 2019. A local screening of the film took place at the Gorleston Palace cinema on 21 June 2019. Universal spent $75.4 million promoting the film worldwide.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: "Yesterday" grossed $73.3million in the United States and Canada, and $80.4million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $153.7million, against a production budget of $26million. This includes over () grossed in the United Kingdom.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $10–15 million from 2,603 theatres in its opening weekend. The film made $6.1 million on its first day, including $1.25 million from Thursday night previews. It ended up slightly exceeding projections and debuting to $17 million, finishing third behind "Toy Story 4" and "Annabelle Comes Home". In its second weekend the film made $10.7 million, again finishing in third (behind "" and "Toy Story 4"), then grossed $6.8 million in its third weekend, falling to fifth. In other territories, the film opened to , including $2.8 million in the United Kingdom (where it finished second behind "Toy Story 4") and $2.5 million in Australia.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $45million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues. Universal officially took an $87.8 million loss on the film in 2019, which "Deadline" deduced would eventually result in a $26.5 million profit after TV and video sales (an estimated by early 2020) were taken into account.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: ""Yesterday" may fall short of fab, but the end result is still a sweetly charming fantasy with an intriguing—albeit somewhat under-explored—premise." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 87% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film four out of five stars, writing "although this film can be a bit hokey and uncertain on narrative development, the puppyish zest and fun summoned up by Curtis and Boyle carry it along." Robbie Collin also responded positively in his review for "The Daily Telegraph", saying the film "rallies in style for a beautifully judged and surprisingly moving finale, which owes a lot to Patel and James's chemistry." Owen Gleiberman of "Variety", meanwhile, was less enthusiastic, claiming the film had little soul and calling it a "rom-com wallpapered with the Beatles' greatness." Laura Snapes of "The Guardian" called "Yesterday" "the latest jukebox movie to put its women on mute."


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: Paul McCartney revealed in an interview with "Billboard" that he and his wife Nancy Shevell went to see the film in a cinema in The Hamptons and "loved it." Boyle also sent copies of the completed film to Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara, as well as George Harrison's widow Olivia, and received "lovely messages" from both parties. John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, also approved of the film's depiction of her husband.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: As remarked upon in the media, a number of other works have had a similar premise or theme involving parallel worlds or time travel. These include the 2011 French graphic novel "Yesterday" by David Blot and Jérémie Royer (the title, again, alluding to the Beatles song), the 2010–2012 Japanese manga by Tetsuo Fujii and Kaiji Kawaguchi, the 1990s British sitcom "Goodnight Sweetheart", the 2006 French film "Jean-Philippe", and Nick Milligan's 2013 novel "Enormity". Danny Boyle has said he was not aware of earlier works with similar premises when he read the script but had later become aware of a French film and British sitcom with a similar premise after the film's first trailer was revealed.


title: Yesterday (2019 film)

text: The film was also compared to "Blinded by the Light" (2019), a British comedy-drama produced around the same time about an aspiring British Asian writer inspired by the songs of Bruce Springsteen.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Notably, , 33 countries recognized same-sex marriage. By contrast, not counting non-state actors and extrajudicial killings, only two countries are believed to impose the death penalty on consensual same-sex sexual acts: Iran and Afghanistan. The death penalty is officially law, but generally not practiced, in Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia (in the autonomous state of Jubaland) and the United Arab Emirates. As well as, LGBT people face extrajudicial killings in the Russian region of Chechnya. Sudan rescinded its unenforced death penalty for anal sex (hetero- or homosexual) in 2020. Fifteen countries have stoning on the books as a penalty for adultery, which would include gay sex, but this is enforced by the legal authorities in Iran and Nigeria (in the northern third of the country).


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed its first resolution recognizing LGBT rights, following which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report documenting violations of the rights of LGBT people, including hate crimes, criminalization of homosexual activity, and discrimination. Following the issuance of the report, the United Nations urged all countries which had not yet done so to enact laws protecting basic LGBT rights.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: A 2022 study found that LGBT rights (as measured by ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Index) were correlated with less HIV/AIDS incidence among gay and bisexual men independently of risky sexual behavior.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Ayoni or non-vaginal sex of all types are punishable in the Arthashastra. Homosexual acts are, however, treated as a smaller offence punishable by a fine, while unlawful heterosexual sex carries much harsher punishment. The Dharmsastras, especially the later ones, prescribe against non-vaginal sex like the Vashistha Dharmasutra. The Yājñavalkya Smṛti prescribes fines for such acts including those with other men. Manusmriti prescribes light punishments for such acts. Vanita states that the verses about punishment for a sex between female and a maiden is due to its strong emphasis on a maiden's sexual purity.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: The ancient Law of Moses (the Torah) forbids men from lying with men (i.e., from having intercourse) in Leviticus 18 and gives a story of attempted homosexual rape in Genesis 19, in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, after which the cities were soon destroyed with "brimstone and fire, from the Lord" and the death penalty was prescribed to its inhabitants – and to Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt because she turned back to watch the cities' destruction. In Deuteronomy 22:5, cross-dressing is condemned as "abominable".


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: In Assyrian society, sex crimes were punished identically whether they were homosexual or heterosexual. An individual faced no punishment for penetrating someone of equal social class, a cult prostitute, or with someone whose gender roles were not considered solidly masculine. Such sexual relations were even seen as good fortune, with an Akkadian tablet, the "Šumma ālu", reading, "If a man copulates with his equal from the rear, he becomes the leader among his peers and brothers". However, homosexual relationships with fellow soldiers, slaves, royal attendants, or those where a social better was submissive or penetrated, were treated as bad omens.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Middle Assyrian Law Codes dating 1075 BC has a particularly harsh law for homosexuality in the military, which reads: "If a man have intercourse with his brother-in-arms, they shall turn him into a eunuch." A similar law code reads, "If a seignior lay with his neighbor, when they have prosecuted him (and) convicted him, they shall lie with him (and) turn him into a eunuch". This law code condemns a situation that involves homosexual rape. Any Assyrian male could visit a prostitute or lie with another male, just as long as false rumors or forced sex were not involved with another male.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: In ancient Rome, the bodies of citizen youths were strictly off-limits, and the "Lex Scantinia" imposed penalties on those who committed a sex crime "(stuprum)" against a freeborn male minor. Acceptable same-sex partners were males excluded from legal protections as citizens: slaves, male prostitutes, and the "infames", entertainers or others who might be technically free but whose lifestyles set them outside the law.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: A male citizen who willingly performed oral sex or received anal sex was disparaged, but there is only limited evidence of legal penalties against these men. In courtroom and political rhetoric, charges of effeminacy and passive sexual behaviors were directed particularly at "democratic" politicians "(populares)" such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Roman law addressed the rape of a male citizen as early as the 2nd century BC, when it was ruled that even a man who was "disreputable and questionable" had the same right as other citizens not to have his body subjected to forced sex. A law probably dating to the dictatorship of Julius Caesar defined rape as forced sex against "boy, woman, or anyone"; the rapist was subject to execution, a rare penalty in Roman law. A male classified as "infamis", such as a prostitute or actor, could not as a matter of law be raped, nor could a slave, who was legally classified as property; the slave's owner, however, could prosecute the rapist for property damage.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: In the Roman army of the Republic, sex among fellow soldiers violated the decorum against intercourse with citizens and was subject to harsh penalties, including death, as a violation of military discipline. The Greek historian Polybius (2nd century BC) lists deserters, thieves, perjurers, and "those who in youth have abused their persons" as subject to the "fustuarium", clubbing to death. Ancient sources are most concerned with the effects of sexual harassment by officers, but the young soldier who brought an accusation against his superior needed to show that he had not willingly taken the passive role or prostituted himself. Soldiers were free to have relations with their male slaves; the use of a fellow citizen-soldier's body was prohibited, not homosexual behaviors per se. By the late Republic and throughout the Imperial period, there is increasing evidence that men whose lifestyle marked them as "homosexual" in the modern sense served openly.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Although Roman law did not recognize marriage between men, and in general Romans regarded marriage as a heterosexual union with the primary purpose of producing children, in the early Imperial period some male couples were celebrating traditional marriage rites. Juvenal remarks with disapproval that his friends often attended such ceremonies. The emperor Nero had two marriages to men, once as the bride (with a freedman Pythagoras) and once as the groom. His consort Sporus appeared in public as Nero's wife wearing the regalia that was customary for the Roman empress.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: Apart from measures to protect the prerogatives of citizens, the prosecution of homosexuality as a general crime began in the 3rd century of the Christian era when male prostitution was banned by Philip the Arab. By the end of the 4th century, after the Roman Empire had come under Christian rule, passive homosexuality was punishable by burning. "Death by sword" was the punishment for a "man coupling like a woman" under the Theodosian Code. Under Justinian, all same-sex acts, passive or active, no matter who the partners, were declared contrary to nature and punishable by death.


title: LGBT rights by country or territory

text: The United Kingdom introduced anti-homosexuality laws throughout its colonies, particularly in the 19th century when the British Empire was at its peak. As of 2018, more than half of the 71 countries that criminalised homosexuality were former British colonies or protectorates.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: Development began in 1994, originally for the Super Famicom. After delays and technical difficulties from experimenting on several real-time rendering platforms, Square moved production to pre-rendered video, necessitating the huge capacity of the format and therefore departing Nintendo for the PlayStation. Veteran "Final Fantasy" staff returned, including series creator and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, director Yoshinori Kitase, and composer Nobuo Uematsu. The game is the first in the series to use full motion video and 3D computer graphics, superimposing real-time 3D character models over pre-rendered CGI backgrounds. "Final Fantasy VII" introduced more widespread science fiction elements and a more realistic presentation, while the gameplay systems remained largely similar to previous entries, with the addition of new elements such as Materia, Limit Breaks, and new minigames. The staff of more than 100 had a combined development and marketing budget of around .


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: Assisted by a large promotional campaign, "Final Fantasy VII" was a commercial success and received universal acclaim, selling more than copies worldwide. It is regarded as a landmark game and as one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made. It won numerous Game of the Year awards, and was acknowledged for boosting sales of the PlayStation and popularizing console role-playing games worldwide. Critics praised its graphics, gameplay, music, and story, although its original English localization received criticism. Its success has led to enhanced ports on various platforms, a multimedia sub-series called the "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII", and the ongoing multipart high-definition "Final Fantasy VII Remake", the first installment of which was released in 2020.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: The gameplay of "Final Fantasy VII" is mostly comparable to earlier "Final Fantasy" games and Japanese role-playing games. The game features three modes of play: the world map, the field, and the battle screen. At its grandest scale, players explore the entire world of "Final Fantasy VII" on a 3D world map. The world map is littered with representations of areas for the player to enter, including towns, environments, and ruins. Natural barriers—such as mountains, deserts, and bodies of water—block access by foot to some areas; as the game progresses, the player receives vehicles that help traverse these obstacles. Chocobos can be found in certain spots on the map, and if caught, can be ridden to areas inaccessible by foot or vehicle. In field mode, the player navigates fully scaled versions of the areas represented on the world map. For the first time in the series, this mode is represented in three-dimensional space. The player can explore the environment, talk with characters, advance the story, and initiate event games in this mode. Event games are short minigames that use special control functions and are often tied into the story. While in field mode, the player may also find shops and inns. Shops provide an opportunity to buy and sell items that can aid Cloud and his party, such as weapons, armor, and accessories. If the characters rest at an inn, their hit points and mana points will be restored, along with any abnormalities contracted during battles.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: At random intervals on the world map and in field mode, and at specific moments in the story, the game will enter the battle screen. This screen places the player characters on one side, the enemies on the other, and employs an "Active Time Battle" (ATB) system in which the characters exchange moves until one side is defeated. The damage (or healing) dealt by either side is quantified on screen. Characters have many statistics that determine their effectiveness in battle; for example, hit points determine how much damage they can take, and magic determines how much damage they can inflict with spells. Each character on the screen has a time gauge; when a character's gauge is full, the player can input a command for that character. The commands change as the game progresses, and are dependent on the characters in the player's party and their equipment. Commands may include attacking with a weapon, casting magic, using items, summoning monsters, and other actions that either damage the enemy or aid the player characters. "Final Fantasy VII" also features powerful, character-specific commands called Limit Breaks, which can be used only after a special gauge is charged by enemy attacks. After being attacked, characters may be afflicted by one or more abnormal "statuses", such as poison or paralysis. These statuses and their adverse effects can be removed by special items or abilities. When all the enemies are defeated, the battle ends and the player may be rewarded with money, items, and experience points. If the player is defeated, it is game over and the game must be restored to the last save point.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: When not in battle, the player can use the menu screen. On this screen, the player can review each character's status and statistics, use items and abilities, change equipment, save the game (when on the world map or at a save point), and manage orbs called Materia. The main method of customizing characters in "Final Fantasy VII", Materia may be added to equipment to provide characters with new magic spells, monsters to summon, commands, statistical upgrades, and other benefits. Materia levels up with their own experience point system and can be combined to create different effects.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: "Final Fantasy VII" takes place on a world referred to in-game as the "Planet", though it has been retroactively named "Gaia". The planet's lifeforce, called the Lifestream, is a flow of spiritual energy that gives life to everything on the Planet. Its processed form is known as "Mako". On a societal and technological level, the game has been defined as an industrial or post-industrial science fiction milieu. During "Final Fantasy VII", the Planet's Lifestream is being drained for energy by the Shinra Electric Power Company (神羅), a world-dominating megacorporation headquartered in the city of Midgar. Shinra's actions are weakening the Planet, threatening its existence and all life. Significant factions within the game include AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group seeking Shinra's downfall so the Planet can recover; the Turks, a covert branch of Shinra's security forces; SOLDIER, an elite Shinra fighting force created by enhancing humans with Mako; and the Cetra, also known as the Ancients, a near-extinct human tribe which maintains a strong connection to the Planet and the Lifestream.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: The central protagonist is Cloud Strife, an unsociable mercenary who claims to be a former 1st Class SOLDIER. Early on, he works with two members of AVALANCHE: Barret Wallace, its brazen but fatherly leader; and Tifa Lockhart, a shy yet nurturing martial artist and childhood friend of Cloud. On their journey, they meet Aerith Gainsborough, a carefree flower merchant and one of the last surviving Cetra; Red XIII, an intelligent quadruped from a tribe that protects the planet; Cait Sith, a fortune-telling robotic cat controlled by repentant Shinra staff member Reeve; and Cid Highwind, a pilot whose dream of being the first human in outer space was not realized. The group can also recruit Yuffie Kisaragi, a young ninja and skilled Materia thief; and Vincent Valentine, a former Turk, and victim of Shinra experiments. The game's main antagonists are Rufus Shinra, son of President Shinra and later leader of the Shinra Corporation; Sephiroth, a former SOLDIER who reappears several years after he was thought dead and seeks to harm the planet and become a god himself; and Jenova, a hostile extraterrestrial life-form imprisoned by the Cetra 2000 years before. A key character in Cloud's backstory is Zack Fair, a member of SOLDIER and Aerith's first love.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: AVALANCHE destroys a Shinra Mako reactor in Midgar; an attack on another reactor goes wrong, and Cloud falls into the city slums. There, he meets Aerith and protects her from Shinra. Meanwhile, Shinra finds AVALANCHE and collapses part of the upper city, killing most of AVALANCHE along with the slum population below. Aerith is also captured; as a Cetra, she can potentially reveal the "Promised Land", which Shinra believes is overflowing with exploitable Lifestream energy. Cloud, Barret, and Tifa rescue Aerith; during their escape from Midgar, they discover that Rufus' father has been murdered by Sephiroth, who was presumed dead five years earlier. The party pursues Sephiroth across the Planet, with now-President Rufus on their trail.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: The group begins to encounter Sephiroth during their journey, who continuously appears and disappears after taunting Cloud and sending Jenova-esque monsters after him. Finding him at a Cetra temple, Sephiroth reveals his intentions to use the Black Materia to summon "Meteor", a spell that will hit the Planet with a devastating impact. Sephiroth will absorb the Lifestream as it attempts to heal the wound, becoming a god-like being. The party retrieves the Black Materia, but Sephiroth manipulates Cloud into surrendering it. Aerith departs alone to stop Sephiroth, following him to an abandoned Cetra city. During Aerith's prayer to the Planet for help, Sephiroth attempts to force Cloud to kill her; failing, he kills her himself before fleeing, angering Cloud. The party then learns that Jenova is not a Cetra as once thought. Rather, it is a hostile alien lifeform whose remains were unearthed by Shinra scientists decades earlier; at Nibelheim, Jenova's cells were used to create Sephiroth.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: At the Northern Crater, the party learns that the "Sephiroths" they have encountered are Jenova clones created by the insane Shinra scientist Hojo. The party confront one particular Jenova clone as it is killing other clones to reunite Jenova's cells. After it is defeated it drops the Black Materia, but Cloud is again manipulated into delivering it to the real Sephiroth. Sephiroth then taunts Cloud by showing another SOLDIER in Cloud's place in his memories of Nibelheim, suggesting that Cloud is a failed Sephiroth clone. Sephiroth summons Meteor and seals the Crater with a magical barrier; Cloud falls into the Lifestream, the party is captured by Rufus, and several giant monsters known as Weapons emerge to defend the planet from harm.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: Escaping Shinra, the party discovers Cloud at an island hospital in a catatonic state from Mako poisoning; Tifa stays as his caretaker. When the island is attacked by a Weapon, the two fall into the Lifestream, where Tifa helps Cloud reconstruct his memories: a shy child during his time in Nibelheim, Cloud was blamed when a young Tifa injured herself trying to cross Mt. Nibel. Resolving to become stronger, Cloud leaves for Midgar to join SOLDIER but was never accepted into the organization; the SOLDIER in his memories was his friend Zack. At Nibelheim, Cloud surprised and wounded Sephiroth after the latter's mental breakdown, but Jenova preserved Sephiroth's life. Hojo experimented on Cloud and Zack for four years, injecting them with Jenova's cells and Mako; they escaped, but Zack did not survive. The combined trauma of these events triggered an identity crisis in Cloud; he constructed a false persona around Zack's stories and his own fantasies. Cloud accepts his past and reunites with the party, who learn that Aerith's prayer to the Planet had been successful: the Planet had attempted to summon Holy to prevent Meteor's impact, but is undermined by Sephiroth.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: Shinra fails to destroy Meteor but manages to defeat a Weapon and puncture Sephiroth's barrier around the Northern Crater with its Mako-powered superweapon, the Sister Ray. Hojo attempts to commandeer the superweapon to aid Sephiroth and reveals himself to be Sephiroth's biological father before he is slain by Cloud's party. The party descends to the Planet's core through the opening in the Northern Crater and defeats both Jenova and Sephiroth. The party escapes and Holy is summoned, which destroys Meteor with the help of the Lifestream. Five hundred years later, Red XIII is seen with two cubs looking out over the ruins of Midgar, which are now covered in greenery, showing the planet has healed.


title: Final Fantasy VII

text: Initial concept talks for "Final Fantasy VII" began in 1994 at "Final Fantasy" developer Square, following the completion of "Final Fantasy VI". As with the previous installment, series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi reduced his role to producer and granted others a more active role in development: these included Yoshinori Kitase, one of the directors of "Final Fantasy VI". The next installment was planned as a 2D game for the Super NES. After creating an early 2D prototype of it, the team postponed development to help finish "Chrono Trigger" for Super NES. The team resumed discussions for "Final Fantasy VII" in 1995.