title: Carol Vorderman

text: In 2014, Vorderman qualified for a private pilot's licence and announced that she planned to fly solo around the world. She named her plane "Mildred" after Mildred, Mrs Victor Bruce, a British record-breaking racing motorist, speedboat racer and aviator in the 1920s and 1930s, who Vorderman has described as "my heroine. She’s one of the most incredible women of the last century".


title: Carol Vorderman

text: On 20 November 2014, Vorderman accepted the appointment of ambassador to the Royal Air Force Air Cadets, saying: "I am truly honoured to be appointed as an ambassador for the RAF Air Cadets. I can't wait to meet the cadets, and the adult volunteer staff who give so much of their time to support them. The cadets themselves are a shining example of the best of British youngsters, standing with them on a parade square will be a great privilege."


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman assumed the rank of Honorary Group Captain for the duration of her appointment. She is the first female to be appointed Ambassador in the Royal Air Force Air Cadets' 75 year history after taking over from former ambassador Sir Chris Hoy.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman has also taken up learning the Welsh language and has been using the Say Something in Welsh online course. In early 2020, she said "I've been learning Welsh ... and I love it. It's taken me back to my roots".


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman is a Catholic. She was first married in 1985 at age 24 to Christopher Mather, a Royal Navy officer, but the marriage lasted only twelve months. Her second marriage was to management consultant Patrick King in 1990 at age 30. Vorderman had two children, Katie (b. 1992) and Cameron (b. 1997), with King; the couple separated in 2000.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: After meeting at a Christmas party in 1999, Vorderman and Des Kelly lived together in London from 2001, also using their other house in Glandore, West Cork, Ireland. After five years together, Vorderman and Kelly separated in December 2006, publicly announcing the amicable split in January 2007 and after a brief reconciliation in Bristol according to reports.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman shares her Bristol home with her two children. Vorderman lived with or very near to her mother all her life, until her mother’s death in 2017.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: On 6 June 2020, she complained in a number of UK newspapers of being harassed by photographers in the road outside her home.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to broadcasting" in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2000. She has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University in North Wales and, in 2000, received an Honorary Degree (MA) from the University of Bath.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman was voted UK Female Rear of the Year in 2011. In 2014, she became the first celebrity to win the award twice.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: In November 2021, Vorderman was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Institution of Engineering and Technology in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the engineering profession.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman has been critical of the Labour Party's education policies. In February 2009, it was announced that she was to head a task force established by the Conservative Party to look at the teaching of mathematics. David Cameron commented, "Carol has got a passion for maths. We have all seen that on "Countdown" with her brilliant mental arithmetic and she is going to lead this task force so we can get the answers right."


title: Carol Vorderman

text: In an appearance on "Question Time" in March 2010, Vorderman was critical of all three major parties for hypocrisy in taking donations from non-domiciled taxpayers.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman is a patron of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPA) (her older brother, Anton, was born with a cleft lip and palate). In 2005, she was the winner of "Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon". As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations ITV ran a series of the nation's favourite game shows featuring celebrities competing to become Gameshow Marathon winner and raise money for the charity of their choice. As series winner Vorderman won £30,000 for CLAPA and £30,000 for Big Money, a grand total of £60,000 for CLAPA. In November 2011 Carol also appeared in the music video for New Vorder's 'Carol O Carol' (playing herself) a song written by Jim Salveson in 1999 about his love for Carol Vorderman. The video is directed by Tim Cocker and was released on 28 November 2011 in aid of the charity CLAPA.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman appeared in a short film entitled 'Run for the future' which promotes prostate cancer awareness and a charity run held every year on the Bristol Downs to raise funds for the BUI prostate appeal. She has also taken part in the Great North Run on several occasions to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. This was in memory of Richard Whiteley's sister Helen, who died of the disease.


title: Carol Vorderman

text: Vorderman is an active supporter and advocate of the RAF Association charity, appearing at airshows and taking part in other fundraising events.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine or small bowel is an organ in the gastrointestinal tract where most of the absorption of nutrients from food takes place. It lies between the stomach and large intestine, and receives bile and pancreatic juice through the pancreatic duct to aid in digestion. The small intestine is about long and folds many times to fit in the abdomen. Although it is longer than the large intestine, it is called the small intestine because it is narrower in diameter.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine has three distinct regions – the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The duodenum, the shortest, is where preparation for absorption through small finger-like protrusions called villi begins. The jejunum is specialized for the absorption through its lining by enterocytes: small nutrient particles which have been previously digested by enzymes in the duodenum. The main function of the ileum is to absorb vitamin B, bile salts, and whatever products of digestion that were not absorbed by the jejunum.


title: Small intestine

text: The length of the small intestine can vary greatly, from as short as to as long as , also depending on the measuring technique used. The typical length in a living person is . The length depends both on how tall the person is and how the length is measured. Taller people generally have a longer small intestine and measurements are generally longer after death and when the bowel is empty.


title: Small intestine

text: It is approximately in diameter in newborns after 35 weeks of gestational age, and in diameter in adults. On abdominal X-rays, the small intestine is considered to be abnormally dilated when the diameter exceeds 3 cm. On CT scans, a diameter of over 2.5 cm is considered abnormally dilated. The surface area of the human small intestinal mucosa, due to enlargement caused by folds, villi and microvilli, averages .


title: Small intestine

text: The jejunum and ileum are suspended in the abdominal cavity by mesentery. The mesentery is part of the peritoneum. Arteries, veins, lymph vessels and nerves travel within the mesentery.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine receives a blood supply from the celiac trunk and the superior mesenteric artery. These are both branches of the aorta. The duodenum receives blood from the coeliac trunk via the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery and from the superior mesenteric artery via the inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery. These two arteries both have anterior and posterior branches that meet in the midline and anastomose. The jejunum and ileum receive blood from the superior mesenteric artery. Branches of the superior mesenteric artery form a series of arches within the mesentery known as arterial arcades, which may be several layers deep. Straight blood vessels known as vasa recta travel from the arcades closest to the ileum and jejunum to the organs themselves.


title: Small intestine

text: The three sections of the small intestine look similar to each other at a microscopic level, but there are some important differences. The parts of the intestine are as follows:


title: Small intestine

text: About 20,000 protein coding genes are expressed in human cells and 70% of these genes are expressed in the normal duodenum. Some 300 of these genes are more specifically expressed in the duodenum with very few genes expressed only in the small intestine. The corresponding specific proteins are expressed in glandular cells of the mucosa, such as fatty acid binding protein FABP6. Most of the more specifically expressed genes in the small intestine are also expressed in the duodenum, for example FABP2 and the DEFA6 protein expressed in secretory granules of Paneth cells.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine develops from the midgut of the primitive gut tube. By the fifth week of embryological life, the ileum begins to grow longer at a very fast rate, forming a U-shaped fold called the primary intestinal loop. The loop grows so fast in length that it outgrows the abdomen and protrudes through the umbilicus. By week 10, the loop retracts back into the abdomen. Between weeks six and ten the small intestine rotates anticlockwise, as viewed from the front of the embryo. It rotates a further 180 degrees after it has moved back into the abdomen. This process creates the twisted shape of the large intestine.


title: Small intestine

text: Food from the stomach is allowed into the duodenum through the pylorus by a muscle called the pyloric sphincter.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine is where most chemical digestion takes place. Many of the digestive enzymes that act in the small intestine are secreted by the pancreas and liver and enter the small intestine via the pancreatic duct. Pancreatic enzymes and bile from the gallbladder enter the small intestine in response to the hormone cholecystokinin, which is produced in the response to the presence of nutrients. Secretin, another hormone produced in the small intestine, causes additional effects on the pancreas, where it promotes the release of bicarbonate into the duodenum in order to neutralize the potentially harmful acid coming from the stomach.


title: Small intestine

text: The three major classes of nutrients that undergo digestion are proteins, lipids (fats) and carbohydrates:


title: Small intestine

text: Digested food is now able to pass into the blood vessels in the wall of the intestine through either diffusion or active transport. The small intestine is the site where most of the nutrients from ingested food are absorbed. The inner wall, or mucosa, of the small intestine, is lined with simple columnar epithelial tissue. Structurally, the mucosa is covered in wrinkles or flaps called circular folds, which are considered permanent features in the mucosa. They are distinct from rugae which are considered non-permanent or temporary allowing for distention and contraction. From the circular folds project microscopic finger-like pieces of tissue called villi (Latin for "shaggy hair"). The individual epithelial cells also have finger-like projections known as microvilli. The functions of the circular folds, the villi, and the microvilli are to increase the amount of surface area available for the absorption of nutrients, and to limit the loss of said nutrients to intestinal fauna.


title: Small intestine

text: Each villus has a network of capillaries and fine lymphatic vessels called lacteals close to its surface. The epithelial cells of the villi transport nutrients from the lumen of the intestine into these capillaries (amino acids and carbohydrates) and lacteals (lipids). The absorbed substances are transported via the blood vessels to different organs of the body where they are used to build complex substances such as the proteins required by our body. The material that remains undigested and unabsorbed passes into the large intestine.


title: Small intestine

text: Absorption of the majority of nutrients takes place in the jejunum, with the following notable exceptions:


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine supports the body's immune system. The presence of gut flora appears to contribute positively to the host's immune system.


title: Small intestine

text: Peyer's patches, located within the ileum of the small intestine, are an important part of the digestive tract's local immune system. They are part of the lymphatic system, and provide a site for antigens from potentially harmful bacteria or other microorganisms in the digestive tract to be sampled, and subsequently presented to the immune system.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine is a complex organ, and as such, there are a very large number of possible conditions that may affect the function of the small bowel. A few of them are listed below, some of which are common, with up to 10% of people being affected at some time in their lives, while others are vanishingly rare.


title: Small intestine

text: The small intestine is found in all tetrapods and also in teleosts, although its form and length vary enormously between species. In teleosts, it is relatively short, typically around one and a half times the length of the fish's body. It commonly has a number of "pyloric caeca", small pouch-like structures along its length that help to increase the overall surface area of the organ for digesting food. There is no ileocaecal valve in teleosts, with the boundary between the small intestine and the rectum being marked only by the end of the digestive epithelium.


title: Small intestine

text: In tetrapods, the ileocaecal valve is always present, opening into the colon. The length of the small intestine is typically longer in tetrapods than in teleosts, but is especially so in herbivores, as well as in mammals and birds, which have a higher metabolic rate than amphibians or reptiles. The lining of the small intestine includes microscopic folds to increase its surface area in all vertebrates, but only in mammals do these develop into true villi.


title: Small intestine

text: The boundaries between the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum are somewhat vague even in humans, and such distinctions are either ignored when discussing the anatomy of other animals, or are essentially arbitrary.


title: Small intestine

text: There is no small intestine as such in non-teleost fish, such as sharks, sturgeons, and lungfish. Instead, the digestive part of the gut forms a spiral intestine, connecting the stomach to the rectum. In this type of gut, the intestine itself is relatively straight but has a long fold running along the inner surface in a spiral fashion, sometimes for dozens of turns. This valve greatly increases both the surface area and the effective length of the intestine. The lining of the spiral intestine is similar to that of the small intestine in teleosts and non-mammalian tetrapods.


title: Small intestine

text: In lampreys, the spiral valve is extremely small, possibly because their diet requires little digestion. Hagfish have no spiral valve at all, with digestion occurring for almost the entire length of the intestine, which is not subdivided into different regions.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in the nitrogen cycle include fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. The majority of Earth's atmosphere (78%) is atmospheric nitrogen, making it the largest source of nitrogen. However, atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use, leading to a scarcity of usable nitrogen in many types of ecosystems.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The nitrogen cycle is of particular interest to ecologists because nitrogen availability can affect the rate of key ecosystem processes, including primary production and decomposition. Human activities such as fossil fuel combustion, use of artificial nitrogen fertilizers, and release of nitrogen in wastewater have dramatically altered the global nitrogen cycle. Human modification of the global nitrogen cycle can negatively affect the natural environment system and also human health.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Nitrogen is present in the environment in a wide variety of chemical forms including organic nitrogen, ammonium (), nitrite (), nitrate (), nitrous oxide (), nitric oxide (NO) or inorganic nitrogen gas (). Organic nitrogen may be in the form of a living organism, humus or in the intermediate products of organic matter decomposition. The processes in the nitrogen cycle is to transform nitrogen from one form to another. Many of those processes are carried out by microbes, either in their effort to harvest energy or to accumulate nitrogen in a form needed for their growth. For example, the nitrogenous wastes in animal urine are broken down by nitrifying bacteria in the soil to be used by plants. The diagram alongside shows how these processes fit together to form the nitrogen cycle.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The conversion of nitrogen gas () into nitrates and nitrites through atmospheric, industrial and biological processes is called nitrogen fixation.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Atmospheric nitrogen must be processed, or "fixed", into a usable form to be taken up by plants. Between 5 and 10 billion kg per year are fixed by lightning strikes, but most fixation is done by free-living or symbiotic bacteria known as diazotrophs. These bacteria have the nitrogenase enzyme that combines gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen to produce ammonia, which is converted by the bacteria into other organic compounds. Most biological nitrogen fixation occurs by the activity of Mo-nitrogenase, found in a wide variety of bacteria and some Archaea. Mo-nitrogenase is a complex two-component enzyme that has multiple metal-containing prosthetic groups. An example of free-living bacteria is "Azotobacter". Symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria such as "Rhizobium" usually live in the root nodules of legumes (such as peas, alfalfa, and locust trees). Here they form a mutualistic relationship with the plant, producing ammonia in exchange for carbohydrates. Because of this relationship, legumes will often increase the nitrogen content of nitrogen-poor soils. A few non-legumes can also form such symbioses. Today, about 30% of the total fixed nitrogen is produced industrially using the Haber-Bosch process, which uses high temperatures and pressures to convert nitrogen gas and a hydrogen source (natural gas or petroleum) into ammonia.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Plants can absorb nitrate or ammonium from the soil by their root hairs. If nitrate is absorbed, it is first reduced to nitrite ions and then ammonium ions for incorporation into amino acids, nucleic acids, and chlorophyll. In plants that have a symbiotic relationship with rhizobia, some nitrogen is assimilated in the form of ammonium ions directly from the nodules. It is now known that there is a more complex cycling of amino acids between "Rhizobia" bacteroids and plants. The plant provides amino acids to the bacteroids so ammonia assimilation is not required and the bacteroids pass amino acids (with the newly fixed nitrogen) back to the plant, thus forming an interdependent relationship. While many animals, fungi, and other heterotrophic organisms obtain nitrogen by ingestion of amino acids, nucleotides, and other small organic molecules, other heterotrophs (including many bacteria) are able to utilize inorganic compounds, such as ammonium as sole N sources. Utilization of various N sources is carefully regulated in all organisms.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: When a plant or animal dies or an animal expels waste, the initial form of nitrogen is organic. Bacteria or fungi convert the organic nitrogen within the remains back into ammonium (), a process called ammonification or mineralization. Enzymes involved are:


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The conversion of ammonium to nitrate is performed primarily by soil-living bacteria and other nitrifying bacteria. In the primary stage of nitrification, the oxidation of ammonium () is performed by bacteria such as the "Nitrosomonas" species, which converts ammonia to nitrites (). Other bacterial species such as "Nitrobacter", are responsible for the oxidation of the nitrites () into nitrates (). It is important for the ammonia () to be converted to nitrates or nitrites because ammonia gas is toxic to plants.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Due to their very high solubility and because soils are highly unable to retain anions, nitrates can enter groundwater. Elevated nitrate in groundwater is a concern for drinking water use because nitrate can interfere with blood-oxygen levels in infants and cause methemoglobinemia or blue-baby syndrome. Where groundwater recharges stream flow, nitrate-enriched groundwater can contribute to eutrophication, a process that leads to high algal population and growth, especially blue-green algal populations. While not directly toxic to fish life, like ammonia, nitrate can have indirect effects on fish if it contributes to this eutrophication. Nitrogen has contributed to severe eutrophication problems in some water bodies. Since 2006, the application of nitrogen fertilizer has been increasingly controlled in Britain and the United States. This is occurring along the same lines as control of phosphorus fertilizer, restriction of which is normally considered essential to the recovery of eutrophied waterbodies.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Denitrification is the reduction of nitrates back into nitrogen gas (), completing the nitrogen cycle. This process is performed by bacterial species such as "Pseudomonas" and "Paracoccus", under anaerobic conditions. They use the nitrate as an electron acceptor in the place of oxygen during respiration. These facultatively (meaning optionally) anaerobic bacteria can also live in aerobic conditions. Denitrification happens in anaerobic conditions e.g. waterlogged soils. The denitrifying bacteria use nitrates in the soil to carry out respiration and consequently produce nitrogen gas, which is inert and unavailable to plants. Denitrification occurs in free-living microorganisms as well as obligate symbionts of anaerobic ciliates.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), or nitrate/nitrite ammonification, is an anaerobic respiration process. Microbes which undertake DNRA oxidise organic matter and use nitrate as an electron acceptor, reducing it to nitrite, then ammonium (). Both denitrifying and nitrate ammonification bacteria will be competing for nitrate in the environment, although DNRA acts to conserve bioavailable nitrogen as soluble ammonium rather than producing dinitrogen gas.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: In this biological process, nitrite and ammonia are converted directly into molecular nitrogen () gas. This process makes up a major proportion of nitrogen conversion in the oceans. The balanced formula for this "anammox" chemical reaction is: (Δ"G"° = ).


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Though nitrogen fixation is the primary source of plant-available nitrogen in most ecosystems, in areas with nitrogen-rich bedrock, the breakdown of this rock also serves as a nitrogen source. Nitrate reduction is also part of the iron cycle, under anoxic conditions Fe(II) can donate an electron to and is oxidized to Fe(III) while is reduced to , and depending on the conditions and microbial species involved. The fecal plumes of cetaceans also act as a junction in the marine nitrogen cycle, concentrating nitrogen in the epipelagic zones of ocean environments before its dispersion through various marine layers, ultimately enhancing oceanic primary productivity.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The nitrogen cycle is an important process in the ocean as well. While the overall cycle is similar, there are different players and modes of transfer for nitrogen in the ocean. Nitrogen enters the water through the precipitation, runoff, or as from the atmosphere. Nitrogen cannot be utilized by phytoplankton as so it must undergo nitrogen fixation which is performed predominately by cyanobacteria. Without supplies of fixed nitrogen entering the marine cycle, the fixed nitrogen would be used up in about 2000 years. Phytoplankton need nitrogen in biologically available forms for the initial synthesis of organic matter. Ammonia and urea are released into the water by excretion from plankton. Nitrogen sources are removed from the euphotic zone by the downward movement of the organic matter. This can occur from sinking of phytoplankton, vertical mixing, or sinking of waste of vertical migrators. The sinking results in ammonia being introduced at lower depths below the euphotic zone. Bacteria are able to convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrate but they are inhibited by light so this must occur below the euphotic zone. Ammonification or Mineralization is performed by bacteria to convert organic nitrogen to ammonia. Nitrification can then occur to convert the ammonium to nitrite and nitrate. Nitrate can be returned to the euphotic zone by vertical mixing and upwelling where it can be taken up by phytoplankton to continue the cycle. can be returned to the atmosphere through denitrification.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Ammonium is thought to be the preferred source of fixed nitrogen for phytoplankton because its assimilation does not involve a redox reaction and therefore requires little energy. Nitrate requires a redox reaction for assimilation but is more abundant so most phytoplankton have adapted to have the enzymes necessary to undertake this reduction (nitrate reductase). There are a few notable and well-known exceptions that include most "Prochlorococcus" and some "Synechococcus" that can only take up nitrogen as ammonium.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The nutrients in the ocean are not uniformly distributed. Areas of upwelling provide supplies of nitrogen from below the euphotic zone. Coastal zones provide nitrogen from runoff and upwelling occurs readily along the coast. However, the rate at which nitrogen can be taken up by phytoplankton is decreased in oligotrophic waters year-round and temperate water in the summer resulting in lower primary production. The distribution of the different forms of nitrogen varies throughout the oceans as well.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Nitrate is depleted in near-surface water except in upwelling regions. Coastal upwelling regions usually have high nitrate and chlorophyll levels as a result of the increased production. However, there are regions of high surface nitrate but low chlorophyll that are referred to as HNLC (high nitrogen, low chlorophyll) regions. The best explanation for HNLC regions relates to iron scarcity in the ocean, which may play an important part in ocean dynamics and nutrient cycles. The input of iron varies by region and is delivered to the ocean by dust (from dust storms) and leached out of rocks. Iron is under consideration as the true limiting element to ecosystem productivity in the ocean.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Ammonium and nitrite show a maximum concentration at 50–80 m (lower end of the euphotic zone) with decreasing concentration below that depth. This distribution can be accounted for by the fact that nitrite and ammonium are intermediate species. They are both rapidly produced and consumed through the water column. The amount of ammonium in the ocean is about 3 orders of magnitude less than nitrate. Between ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate, nitrite has the fastest turnover rate. It can be produced during nitrate assimilation, nitrification, and denitrification; however, it is immediately consumed again.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Nitrogen entering the euphotic zone is referred to as new nitrogen because it is newly arrived from outside the productive layer. The new nitrogen can come from below the euphotic zone or from outside sources. Outside sources are upwelling from deep water and nitrogen fixation. If the organic matter is eaten, respired, delivered to the water as ammonia, and re-incorporated into organic matter by phytoplankton it is considered recycled/regenerated production.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: New production is an important component of the marine environment. One reason is that only continual input of new nitrogen can determine the total capacity of the ocean to produce a sustainable fish harvest. Harvesting fish from regenerated nitrogen areas will lead to a decrease in nitrogen and therefore a decrease in primary production. This will have a negative effect on the system. However, if fish are harvested from areas of new nitrogen the nitrogen will be replenished.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: As illustrated by the diagram on the right, additional carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean and reacts with water, carbonic acid is formed and broken down into both bicarbonate () and hydrogen () ions (gray arrow), which reduces bioavailable carbonate and decreases ocean pH (black arrow). This is likely to enhance nitrogen fixation by diazatrophs (gray arrow), which utilize ions to convert nitrogen into bioavailable forms such as ammonia () and ammonium ions (). However, as pH decreases, and more ammonia is converted to ammonium ions (gray arrow), there is less oxidation of ammonia to nitrite (NO), resulting in an overall decrease in nitrification and denitrification (black arrows). This in turn would lead to a further build up of fixed nitrogen in the ocean, with the potential consequence of eutrophication. Gray arrows represent an increase while black arrows represent a decrease in the associated process.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: As a result of extensive cultivation of legumes (particularly soy, alfalfa, and clover), growing use of the Haber–Bosch process in the creation of chemical fertilizers, and pollution emitted by vehicles and industrial plants, human beings have more than doubled the annual transfer of nitrogen into biologically available forms. In addition, humans have significantly contributed to the transfer of nitrogen trace gases from Earth to the atmosphere and from the land to aquatic systems. Human alterations to the global nitrogen cycle are most intense in developed countries and in Asia, where vehicle emissions and industrial agriculture are highest.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Generation of Nr, reactive nitrogen, has increased over 10 fold in the past century due to global industrialisation. This form of nitrogen follows a cascade through the biosphere via a variety of mechanisms, and is accumulating as the rate of its generation is greater than the rate of denitrification.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Nitrous oxide () has risen in the atmosphere as a result of agricultural fertilization, biomass burning, cattle and feedlots, and industrial sources. has deleterious effects in the stratosphere, where it breaks down and acts as a catalyst in the destruction of atmospheric ozone. Nitrous oxide is also a greenhouse gas and is currently the third largest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide and methane. While not as abundant in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it is, for an equivalent mass, nearly 300 times more potent in its ability to warm the planet.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Ammonia () in the atmosphere has tripled as the result of human activities. It is a reactant in the atmosphere, where it acts as an aerosol, decreasing air quality and clinging to water droplets, eventually resulting in nitric acid (HNO) that produces acid rain. Atmospheric ammonia and nitric acid also damage respiratory systems.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The very high temperature of lightning naturally produces small amounts of , , and , but high-temperature combustion has contributed to a 6- or 7-fold increase in the flux of to the atmosphere. Its production is a function of combustion temperature - the higher the temperature, the more is produced. Fossil fuel combustion is a primary contributor, but so are biofuels and even the burning of hydrogen. However, the rate that hydrogen is directly injected into the combustion chambers of internal combustion engines can be controlled to prevent the higher combustion temperatures that produce .


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Ammonia and nitrous oxides actively alter atmospheric chemistry. They are precursors of tropospheric (lower atmosphere) ozone production, which contributes to smog and acid rain, damages plants and increases nitrogen inputs to ecosystems. Ecosystem processes can increase with nitrogen fertilization, but anthropogenic input can also result in nitrogen saturation, which weakens productivity and can damage the health of plants, animals, fish, and humans.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Decreases in biodiversity can also result if higher nitrogen availability increases nitrogen-demanding grasses, causing a degradation of nitrogen-poor, species-diverse heathlands.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Increasing levels of nitrogen deposition are shown to have a number of negative effects on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Nitrogen gases and aerosols can be directly toxic to certain plant species, affecting the aboveground physiology and growth of plants near large point sources of nitrogen pollution. Changes to plant species may also occur, as accumulation of nitrogen compounds increase its availability in a given ecosystem, eventually changing the species composition, plant diversity, and nitrogen cycling. Ammonia and ammonium - two reduced forms of nitrogen - can be detrimental over time due to an increased toxicity toward sensitive species of plants, particularly those that are accustomed to using nitrate as their source of nitrogen, causing poor development of their roots and shoots. Increased nitrogen deposition also leads to soil acidification, which increases base cation leaching in the soil and amounts of aluminum and other potentially toxic metals, along with decreasing the amount of nitrification occurring and increasing plant-derived litter. Due to the ongoing changes caused by high nitrogen deposition, an environment's susceptibility to ecological stress and disturbance - such as pests and pathogens - may increase, thus making it less resilient to situations that otherwise would have little impact to its long-term vitality.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Additional risks posed by increased availability of inorganic nitrogen in aquatic ecosystems include water acidification; eutrophication of fresh and saltwater systems; and toxicity issues for animals, including humans. Eutrophication often leads to lower dissolved oxygen levels in the water column, including hypoxic and anoxic conditions, which can cause death of aquatic fauna. Relatively sessile benthos, or bottom-dwelling creatures, are particularly vulnerable because of their lack of mobility, though large fish kills are not uncommon. Oceanic dead zones near the mouth of the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico are a well-known example of algal bloom-induced hypoxia. The New York Adirondack Lakes, Catskills, Hudson Highlands, Rensselaer Plateau and parts of Long Island display the impact of nitric acid rain deposition, resulting in the killing of fish and many other aquatic species.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Ammonia () is highly toxic to fish and the level of ammonia discharged from wastewater treatment facilities must be closely monitored. To prevent fish deaths, nitrification via aeration prior to discharge is often desirable. Land application can be an attractive alternative to the aeration.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Leakage of Nr (reactive nitrogen) from human activities can cause nitrate accumulation in the natural water environment, which can create harmful impacts on human health. Excessive use of N-fertilizer in agriculture has been one of the major sources of nitrate pollution in groundwater and surface water. Due to its high solubility and low retention by soil, nitrate can easily escape from the subsoil layer to the groundwater, causing nitrate pollution. Some other non-point sources for nitrate pollution in groundwater are originated from livestock feeding, animal and human contamination and municipal and industrial waste. Since groundwater often serves as the primary domestic water supply, nitrate pollution can be extended from groundwater to surface and drinking water in the process of potable water production, especially for small community water supplies, where poorly regulated and unsanitary waters are used.


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: The WHO standard for drinking water is 50 mg L for short-term exposure, and for 3 mg L chronic effects. Once it enters the human body, nitrate can react with organic compounds through nitrosation reactions in the stomach to form nitrosamines and nitrosamides, which are involved in some types of cancers (e.g., oral cancer and gastric cancer).


title: Nitrogen cycle

text: Human activities have also dramatically altered the global nitrogen cycle via production of nitrogenous gases, associated with the global atmospheric nitrogen pollution. There are multiple sources of atmospheric reactive nitrogen (Nr) fluxes. Agricultural sources of reactive nitrogen can produce atmospheric emission of ammonia (), nitrogen oxides () and nitrous oxide (). Combustion processes in energy production, transportation and industry can also result in the formation of new reactive nitrogen via the emission of , an unintentional waste product. When those reactive nitrogens are released to the lower atmosphere, they can induce the formation of smog, particulate matter and aerosols, all of which are major contributors to adverse health effects on human health from air pollution. In the atmosphere, can be oxidized to nitric acid (), and it can further react with to form ammonium nitrate, which facilitates the formation of particular nitrate. Moreover, can react with other acid gases (sulfuric and hydrochloric acids) to form ammonium-containing particles, which are the precursors for the secondary organic aerosol particles in photochemical smog.


title: DShK

text: The DShK 1938 (Cyrillic: ДШК, for , "Degtyaryov-Shpagin large-calibre") is a Soviet heavy machine gun with a V-shaped butterfly trigger, firing the 12.7×108mm cartridge. The weapon was also used as a heavy infantry machine gun, where it was frequently deployed with a two-wheeled mounting and a single-sheet armour-plate shield. The DShK's name is derived from its original designer, Vasily Degtyaryov, and Georgi Shpagin, who later improved the cartridge feed mechanism. It is sometimes nicknamed Dushka (a dear or beloved person) in Russian-speaking countries, from the abbreviation. Alongside the American M2 Browning, the DShK is the only .50 caliber machine gun designed prior to World War II that remains in service to the present day.


title: DShK

text: Requiring a heavy machine gun similar to the M2 Browning, development of the DShK began in the Soviet Union in 1929 and the first design was finalised by Vasily Degtyaryov in 1931. The initial design used the same gas operation from the Degtyaryov machine gun, and used a 30 round drum magazine, but had a poor rate of fire. Georgy Shpagin revised the design by changing it to a belt-fed with a rotary-feed cylinder, and the new machine gun began production in 1938 as the DShK 1938.


title: DShK

text: During World War II, the DShK was used by the Red Army, with a total of 9,000 produced during the war. It was used mostly in anti-aircraft roles on vehicles such as the GAZ-AA truck, JS-2 tank, ISU-152 self-propelled artillery, and the T-40 amphibious tank. Similar to the PM M1910 Maxim, when deployed against infantry, the DShK was used with a two-wheeled trolley, with which the machine gun weighed a total of . After 1945, the DShK was exported widely to other countries in the Eastern Bloc.


title: DShK

text: In 1946, an improved variant was produced, with a revised muzzle and feeding system. Named the DShK 38/46 or DShK-M, over a million were produced from 1946-1980. The gun was also revised to become more reliable, and easier to manufacture. The new DShK was produced under license in Pakistan, Iran, Yugoslavia, Romania and Czechoslovakia. China produced their own variant of the design, designated the Type 54.


title: DShK

text: After World War II, DShKs were used widely by communist forces in Vietnam, starting with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. While not as powerful as anti-aircraft cannons, the DShK was easier to smuggle through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. DShKs were a major threat to American aircraft in the Vietnam War, and of the 7,500 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft lost during the war, most were destroyed by DShKs.


title: DShK

text: In June 1988, during The Troubles, a British Army Westland Lynx helicopter was hit 15 times by two Provisional IRA DShKs smuggled from Libya, and forced to crash-land near Cashel Lough Upper, south County Armagh.


title: DShK

text: Rebel forces utilized DShKs in the Syrian civil war, often mounting the gun on cars. In 2012, the Syrian government claimed to have destroyed 40 such technicals on a highway in Aleppo and six in Dael.


title: DShK

text: The DShK began to be partially replaced in the Soviet Union by the NSV machine gun in 1971, and the Kord machine gun in 1998. The DShK remains in service, although it is no longer produced.


title: DShK

text: The DShK is a belt-fed machine gun that uses a butterfly trigger. Firing the 12.7×108mm cartridge at 600 rounds per minute, it has an effective range of , and can penetrate up to 20 mm of armor up to a range of 500 m. The DShK has two "spider web" ring sights for use against aircraft. It is used by infantry on tripod mounts, and is deployed on tanks and armored vehicles for use against infantry and aircraft; nearly all Russian-designed tanks use the DShK.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: Richard Shannon Hoon (September 26, 1967 – October 21, 1995) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer of the band Blind Melon from 1990 until his death in 1995.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: Richard Shannon Hoon was born on September 26, 1967 in Lafayette, Indiana. He was raised in the nearby town of Dayton, Indiana with his older half-sister, Anna and older half-brother, Tim. His father, Dick Hoon, was a bricklayer and his mother, Nel Hoon, was a manager of a bar in Dayton.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: In high school, he played football, wrestled, and was a pole vaulter. Shannon's musical influences included the Grateful Dead, The Beatles, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan. After graduating from McCutcheon High School in 1985, Hoon joined a local glam metal band named Styff Kytten, which also featured guitarist Michael Kelsey. He took on the role of frontman and lead singer of the band. It was around this time that he wrote his first song and called it "Change". He was also a member of the Lafayette band Mank Rage, along with David Lank and Darren Mickler, during this time.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: In 1985, Hoon, 18, left Indiana for Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he met musicians Brad Smith and Rogers Stevens at a party. Smith and Stevens saw Hoon perform his song "Change" acoustically and invited Hoon to play with them. Christopher Thorn and Glen Graham were then brought into the fold, and by 1990 the five musicians decided to form Blind Melon. The band was possibly named for a term Smith's father used to describe the neighborhood stoners; or for Blind Melon Chitlin, a character from a Cheech & Chong album. In 1990, the new bandmates produced a four-song demo tape and subsequently signed a $500,000 recording contract with Capitol Records.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: In Los Angeles, Hoon befriended his sister Anna's high school friend Axl Rose. Rose invited Hoon to join him in the studio where his band Guns N' Roses were recording their albums "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II" (both released in 1991). Hoon sang backing vocals on several tracks, including "The Garden" and "Don't Cry". Rose also invited Hoon to appear in the video for "Don't Cry".


title: Shannon Hoon

text: In 1992, Blind Melon released their self-titled debut album produced by Pearl Jam producer Rick Parashar. Blind Melon began touring to promote the album, supporting and opening for acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N' Roses, and Soundgarden over the course of 1992–1993. In the summer of 1993, the video for the album track "No Rain" was released as a single and featured a young girl, played by Heather DeLoach, in a bee costume, tap dancing to unappreciative audiences. "Blind Melon" went multi-platinum.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: Hoon and Blind Melon spent the next two years touring. In 1993, Hoon was arrested for indecent exposure after he disrobed onstage and urinated on a fan at a show in Vancouver.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: In 1994, Blind Melon appeared at Woodstock '94 where Hoon, allegedly high on LSD, went onstage wearing his girlfriend's white dress.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: After taking a hiatus from touring, Blind Melon returned to the studio to record the album "Soup" in New Orleans. "Soup" was released in 1995.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: On July 11, 1995, Hoon and his girlfriend, Lisa Crouse, had a daughter named Nico Blue. Before the birth of his daughter, Hoon entered rehab again. In August, Blind Melon planned to tour to support their album "Soup", so Hoon allowed a drug counselor to accompany him on the road.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: After a disappointing performance at Numbers club in Houston on October 20, Hoon undertook an all-night drug binge. The next day, Blind Melon was scheduled to play a show in New Orleans at Tipitina's. The band's sound engineer, Lyle Eaves, went to the tour bus to awaken Hoon for a sound check, but Hoon was unresponsive. An ambulance arrived, and Hoon was pronounced dead at the scene, at the age of 28. His death was attributed to a cocaine overdose.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: Hoon was buried at Dayton Cemetery in Dayton, Indiana. His grave is inscribed with a line from Blind Melon's song "Change", the first song he wrote:


title: Shannon Hoon

text: On November 12, 1996, Blind Melon released their final album featuring Hoon, "Nico," as a tribute to him with all proceeds going to his daughter and to programs helping musicians deal with drug problems. The band also released a video called "Letters from a Porcupine" that was nominated for Best Long Form Music Video at the Grammy Awards on February 25, 1997.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: Blind Melon remained active for the next four years following Hoon's death. The remaining members had planned to continue the band in memory of him and held auditions for a singer; however, they never managed to find a permanent replacement, and Blind Melon officially disbanded in 1999. After years of refusing to perform together out of respect for Hoon, the surviving members reformed Blind Melon in 2006, with Travis Warren taking his place.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: On September 17, 2008, the book "A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon" by Greg Prato was published.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: On September 15, 2018, photos of Hoon's final performance with Blind Melon at the Numbers club in Houston on October 20, 1995, the day before he died, were released for the first time by fan Zak Joshua Rose, who took the pictures and claimed that he hung out with the band members except Hoon (who had disappeared) after the show.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: A documentary about Hoon titled "All I Can Say" (composed mostly of footage he shot on a handheld camera from 1990 to 1995) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2019, and was released on June 26, 2020 on online streaming platforms. Also, it was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 24, 2020. Hoon was co-credited as a "director" of the film.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: On November 1, 2021, author Greg Prato issued a follow-up book to "A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other", simply titled "Shannon", and featured all-new interviews with either people who knew Shannon or were admirers of his music.


title: Shannon Hoon

text: Since Hoon's death, various musical artists have mentioned him in song lyrics, including Dream Theater ("Just Let Me Breathe"), Sun Kil Moon ("Track Number 8"), and the Avett Brothers ("Smoke in Our Lights"), while others have written songs inspired by him, including Zakk Wylde ("Throwin' it All Away") and Econoline Crush ("Sparkle and Shine").


title: Shannon Hoon

text: A Scottish group, active from around 1998–2002, named themselves "The Sempiternal Hoon" in tribute to Shannon Hoon's influence on their sound.


title: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

text: The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup will be the ninth ICC Men's T20 World Cup, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament. It is scheduled to be played in June 2024 in the West Indies and the United States, and will be the first ICC World Cup tournament to feature matches played in the United States.


title: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

text: In November 2021, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup would be played in the West Indies and the United States. A joint bid was submitted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket following two years of preparation, forming part of a strategic partnership between the two associations.


title: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

text: In October 2022, it was reported that the ICC had stripped USA Cricket of its role as administrative co-host of the World Cup due to continued non-compliance with the ICC's financial protocols and concerns being raised over USA Cricket's financial position, including debts of approximately $650,000. This was not expected to impact the playing of matches in the country.


title: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

text: The 20 qualifying teams will be divided into four groups of five, from which the top two teams in each group advance to the Super 8 round. In this stage, the remaining teams will be split in two groups of four; the top two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stage, which will consist of two semi-finals and a final.


title: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

text: The top eight teams from the 2022 tournament, along with the two hosts, the West Indies and the United States, qualified automatically for the tournament. The remaining automatic qualification places (to give 12 teams in total) were taken by the best-ranked teams in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings, as of 14 November 2022, who had not already secured a place in the finals.


title: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

text: As the USA and West Indies did not finish in the top eight of the 2022 tournament, this meant the two highest-ranked unqualified teams from the ICC rankings advanced to the 2024 edition; had either host finished in the top eight, their slot would have been passed down to the next best-ranked unqualified teams as required. The eight remaining places will be filled via the ICC's regional qualifiers, comprising the top two teams from Africa, Asia, and Europe, along with one team each from the Americas and the East Asia-Pacific groups. In May 2022, the ICC confirmed the sub-regional qualification pathways for Europe, East Asia-Pacific, and Africa.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Great Divide, the Western Divide or simply the Continental Divide; ) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and (in northern North America) Arctic oceans (including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and Hudson Bay).


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Although there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Continental Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Beginning at the westernmost point of the Americas’ mainland (Cape Prince of Wales, just south of the Arctic Circle), the Continental Divide's geographic path runs through Arctic Alaska, where it reaches its more northerly point close to the U.S.-Canada border near the Beaufort Sea. The Divide zig-zags southwardly over Yukon, proceeds through the Northern British Columbia Interior via the Cassiar Mountains, Omineca Mountains and northern Nechako Plateau to Summit Lake, north of the city of Prince George and just south of the community of McLeod Lake. From there the Divide traverses the McGregor Plateau to the spine of the Rockies, following the crest of the Canadian Rockies southeast to the 120th meridian west, from there forming the boundary between southern British Columbia and southern Alberta.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: The Divide crosses into the United States in northwestern Montana, at the boundary between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park. In Canada, it forms the western boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park, and in the US bisects Glacier National Park. Further south, the Divide forms the backbone of the Rocky Mountain Front (Front Range) in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, heads south towards Helena and Butte, then west past the namesake community of Divide, Montana, through the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness to the Bitterroot Range, where it forms the eastern third of the state boundary between Idaho and Montana. The Divide crosses into Wyoming within Yellowstone National Park and continues southeast around the Great Divide Basin, through the Sierra Madre Range into Colorado where it reaches its highest point in North America at the summit of Grays Peak at . It crosses US Hwy 160 in southwestern Colorado at Wolf Creek Pass, where a line symbolizes the division. The Divide then proceeds south into western New Mexico, passing along the western boundary of the endorheic Plains of San Agustin. Although the Divide represents the height of land between watersheds, it does not always follow the highest ranges/peaks within each state or province.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: In Mexico, it passes through Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Querétaro, México, the Federal District, Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. In Central America, it continues through southern Guatemala, southwestern Honduras, western Nicaragua, western/southwestern Costa Rica, and southern Panama. The divide reaches its lowest natural point in Central America at the Isthmus of Rivas at in Nicaragua. In Panama, the Canal cuts through it at .


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: The Divide continues into South America, where it follows the peaks of the Andes Mountains, traversing western Colombia, central Ecuador, western and southwestern Peru, and eastern Chile (essentially conforming to the Chile-Bolivia and Chile-Argentina boundaries), southward to the southern end of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The Divide passes through the Punta Cancanan Pass in Peru at .


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: The Arctic Divide or Northern Divide in northern and western Canada separates the Arctic Ocean watershed from the Hudson Bay watershed. Another, mainly non-mountainous, divide, the Laurentian Divide (also sometimes called the Northern Divide), further separates the Hudson Bay-Arctic Ocean drainage region from the Atlantic watershed region. Secondary divides separate the watersheds that flow into the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River (ultimately into the Atlantic) from watersheds that flow to the Atlantic via the Missouri-Mississippi complex. Another secondary divide follows the Appalachian chain, which separates those streams and rivers that flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean from those that exit via the Mississippi River.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana, is the point where two of the principal continental divides in North America converge, the primary Continental Divide and the Northern or Laurentian Divide. From this point, waters flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic Ocean via Hudson Bay. Most geographers, geologists, meteorologists, and oceanographers consider this point the hydrological apex of North America, as Hudson Bay is generally considered part of the Arctic Ocean. For example, the International Hydrographic Organization (in its current unapproved working edition only of "Limits of Oceans and Seas") defines the Hudson Bay, with its outlet extending from 62.5 to 66.5 degrees north (just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle) as being part of the Arctic Ocean, specifically "Arctic Ocean Subdivision 9.11."


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: This hydrological apex of North America status of Triple Divide Peak is the main reason behind the designation of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park as the "Crown of the Continent" of North America. The summit of the peak is the world's only oceanic triple divide point. Discounting Antarctica and its ice sheets, only one other continent (Asia) borders three oceans, but the inward-draining Endorheic basin area of Central Asia from western China to the Aral and Caspian Seas is so vast that any Arctic and Indian Ocean tributaries are never within proximity of each other. Thus, North America's status of having a single location draining into three oceans is unique in the world.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Sources differ, however, on whether Hudson Bay, entirely south of the Arctic Circle, is part of the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean. Hudson Bay's water budget connects to the Atlantic more than to the Arctic Ocean. The channels to the north of Hudson Bay are largely cut off by Baffin Island from the Arctic, so much of the water that enters it mixes with the Atlantic to the east via Hudson Strait rather than north into the Arctic. The result is that most of the ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier eventually ends up as water in the Atlantic Ocean.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: If Hudson Bay is considered part of the Atlantic, then the "triple point" is at an unimportant-looking, permanently snow and ice covered hump on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, on the southern slope of Snow Dome at . The exact location of this potential triple point is somewhat indeterminate because the Columbia Icefield and the snow on top of it shifts from year to year. The snow that falls on it (about per year) does not actually flow downhill as water, but creeps downhill in the form of glacial ice. That ice flows down the Athabasca Glacier to the Arctic Ocean via the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers. Ice flowing west goes to the Pacific Ocean via Bryce Creek and the Bush and Columbia Rivers. Ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier goes via the North Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, and Nelson rivers into Hudson Bay.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: While Triple Divide Peak (or, alternatively, Snow Dome) is the world's only oceanic triple divide, there are secondary triple divide points wherever any two continental divides meet. North America has five major drainage systems: into the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans, plus Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Other sources such as the International Hydrographic Organization add a sixth: Canada's Northwest Passage basin. Using just the five, there are four secondary continental divides and three secondary triple points, the two mentioned previously and a third near Hibbing, Minnesota, where the Northern Divide intersects the Saint Lawrence Seaway divide. Since there is no true consensus on what a continental divide is, there is no real agreement on where the secondary triple points are located. However, the main Continental Divide described in this article is a far more distinctive geological feature than the others and its two main triple points are much more prominent.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) follows the Divide through the U.S. from the Mexico–US border to the Canada–US border. The trail itself is a corridor of pathways; that is, dedicated footpaths or back roads, either on or near the Continental Divide. A less-developed Canadian extension called the Great Divide Trail continues through five national parks and six provincial parks, ending at Kakwa Lake in east-central British Columbia.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Many endorheic regions in North and South America complicate the simple view of east or west, "ocean-bound" water flow. Several endorheic basins straddle or adjoin the Continental Divide, notably the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming, the Plains of San Agustin and the Animas Valley in New Mexico, the Guzmán Basin in New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico, and both the Bolsón de Mapimí and the Llanos el Salado in Mexico. Such basins can be, and routinely are, assigned to one side of the Divide or the other by their lowest perimeter pass; in other words, an assignment is made by determining how the drainage would occur if the basin were to be progressively filled with water until it overflowed. Large-scale maps, such as those on this page, often show double divide lines when endorheic basins are involved. However, the detailed USGS topographic maps of the United States generally show only the main Divide as determined by the overflow rule. Among other things, this eliminates the need to trace out the boundary for a basin that is very shallow and has a nebulous rim, such as the San Luis Closed Basin in Colorado and the basin of the lost streams of Idaho.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Another rare exception occurs when a stream near a divide splits and flows in both directions, or a lake straddling the divide overflows in both directions. Examples of these are, respectively, North Two Ocean Creek and Isa Lake, both located on the Continental Divide in Wyoming. The Panama Canal has this same feature, but is man-made. Both the Chagres and Gatun rivers flow into Gatun Lake, which empties to both oceans.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: Several small lakes along the Divide in the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia flow into both provinces and thus into both the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. An example is the "Committee's Punch Bowl", a small lake located in the Athabasca Pass.


title: Continental Divide of the Americas

text: The Alpine Club of Canada's Abbot Pass Hut sits directly astride the Divide in Abbot Pass on the boundary between Banff National Park and Yoho National Park, and thus rainwater falling on the eastern half of the roof flows via Lake Louise into Hudson Bay, while rain falling on the western half flows via Lake O'Hara into the Pacific Ocean.


title: Vanessa Ray

text: Vanessa Ray Liptak (born June 24, 1981) is an American actress. She is known for her role on "Pretty Little Liars" as Charlotte Drake; and also for her roles as Jenny on the legal drama series "Suits", Teri Ciccone on the soap opera "As the World Turns", Officer Eddie Janko-Reagan on long-running family-police drama "Blue Bloods", and Maggie "Rocker" Sheldon on "White Collar".


title: Vanessa Ray

text: Ray earned her Actors' Equity Association card while performing the role of Rusty and singing "Let's Hear It For the Boy" in the musical "Footloose". She played the role of Nemo in Robert and Kristin Lopez's "Finding Nemo: The Musical" at Orlando's Disney World. Ray played the character Olive Ostrovsky in the national tour of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". She joined the Broadway cast of "Hair" in its final year as Crissy, and sang the song "Frank Mills". She made her on-screen debut as Chris in the youth-oriented video short feature "The Sparky Chronicles: The Map." (2003)


title: Vanessa Ray

text: Between 2012 and 2017, Ray appeared as CeCe Drake, a "beyond-charismatic twenty-something blonde stylist at a boutique that has one heel in the present, one in the past", in the television series "Pretty Little Liars". Ray was announced to start filming again for PLL, and spoke about returning, saying, "It's so fun to do, and what a crazy character I get to play. She's sort of a sociopath. I think she's so weird because she's, like, 22 but hangs out with high-schoolers. It's like, 'Hey, girl! Get a life!'”


title: Vanessa Ray

text: In 2013, Ray joined the Season 4 cast of the CBS police procedural drama "Blue Bloods" as Officer Edit "Eddie" Janko, a role she has continued through the show's 12th season.


title: Vanessa Ray

text: Ray now lives and works between Los Angeles and New York City. She married actor Derek James Baynham on January 8, 2003. In 2007, the first season of the HGTV series "Marriage Under Construction" covered their purchase, renovation and eventual sale of a house in Toronto. The couple divorced in 2009.


title: Vanessa Ray

text: In March 2015, Ray announced on Instagram and Twitter that she was engaged to her boyfriend of six years, Landon Beard. On June 14, 2015, they married at the Condor's Nest Ranch in eastern San Diego County, California.


title: Satanic panic

text: The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of "Michelle Remembers", a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient (and future wife), Michelle Smith, which used the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make sweeping lurid claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations which afterwards arose throughout much of the United States involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. In its most extreme form, allegations involve a conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and powerful world elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifices, pornography, and prostitution, an allegation that returned to prominence in the form of QAnon.


title: Satanic panic

text: Nearly every aspect of the ritual abuse is controversial, including its definition, the source of the allegations and proof thereof, testimonies of alleged victims, and court cases involving the allegations and criminal investigations. The panic affected lawyers, therapists, and social workers who handled allegations of child sexual abuse. Allegations initially brought together widely dissimilar groups, including religious fundamentalists, police investigators, child advocates, therapists, and clients in psychotherapy. The term "satanic abuse" was more common early on; this later became "satanic ritual abuse" and further secularized into simply "ritual abuse". Over time, the accusations became more closely associated with dissociative identity disorder (then called multiple personality disorder) and anti-government conspiracy theories.


title: Satanic panic

text: Initial interest arose via the publicity campaign for Pazder's 1980 book "Michelle Remembers", and it was sustained and popularized throughout the decade by coverage of the McMartin preschool trial. Testimonials, symptom lists, rumors, and techniques to investigate or uncover memories of SRA were disseminated through professional, popular, and religious conferences, as well as through talk shows, sustaining and further spreading the moral panic throughout the United States and beyond. In some cases, allegations resulted in criminal trials with varying results; after seven years in court, the McMartin trial resulted in no convictions for any of the accused, while other cases resulted in lengthy sentences, some of which were later reversed. Scholarly interest in the topic slowly built, eventually resulting in the conclusion that the phenomenon was a moral panic, which, as one researcher put it in 2017, "involved hundreds of accusations that devil-worshipping paedophiles were operating America's white middle-class suburban daycare centers."


title: Satanic panic

text: Of the more than 12,000 documented accusations nationwide, investigating police were not able to substantiate any allegations of organized cult abuse.


title: Satanic panic

text: Allegations of horrific acts by outside groups—including cannibalism, child murder, torture, and incestuous orgies can place minorities in the role of the "Other," as well create a scapegoat for complex problems in times of social disruption. The SRA panic repeated many of the features of historical moral panics and conspiracy theories, such as the blood libel against Jews by Apion in the 30s CE, the wild rumors that led to the persecutions of early Christians in the Roman Empire, later allegations of Jewish rituals involving the killing of Christian babies and desecration of the Eucharist, and the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries. Torture and imprisonment were used by authority figures in order to coerce confessions from alleged Satanists, confessions that were later used to justify their executions. Records of these older allegations were linked by contemporary proponents in an effort to demonstrate that contemporary Satanic cults were part of an ancient conspiracy of evil, though ultimately no evidence of devil-worshiping cults existed in Europe at any time in its history.


title: Satanic panic

text: A more immediate precedent to the context of Satanic ritual abuse in the United States was McCarthyism in the 1950s. The underpinnings for the contemporary moral panic were found in a rise of five factors in the years leading up to the 1980s: the establishment of fundamentalist Christianity and the founding and political activism of the religious organization which was named the Moral Majority; the rise of the anti-cult movement which accused abusive cults of kidnapping and brainwashing children and teens; the appearance of the Church of Satan and other explicitly Satanist groups which added a kernel of truth to the existence of Satanic cults; the development of the social work or child protection field, and its struggle to have child sexual abuse recognized as a social problem and a serious crime; and the popularization of post-traumatic stress disorder, repressed memory, and the corresponding survivor movement.


title: Satanic panic

text: "Michelle Remembers", written by Canadians Michelle Smith and her husband, psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder, was published in 1980. Now discredited, the book was written in the form of an autobiography, presenting the first modern claim that child abuse was linked to Satanic rituals. Pazder was also responsible for coining the term "ritual abuse". "Michelle Remembers" provided a model for numerous allegations of SRA that ensued later in the same decade. On the basis of the book's success, Pazder developed a high media profile, gave lectures and training on SRA to law enforcement, and by September 1990 had acted as a consultant on more than 1,000 SRA cases, including the McMartin preschool trial. Prosecutors used "Michelle Remembers" as a guide when preparing cases against alleged Satanists. "Michelle Remembers", along with other accounts portrayed as survivor stories, are suspected to have influenced later allegations of SRA, and the book has been suggested as a causal factor in the later epidemic of SRA allegations.


title: Satanic panic

text: The early 1980s, during the implementation of mandatory reporting laws, saw a large increase in child protection investigations in America, Britain, and other developed countries, along with a heightened public awareness of child abuse. The investigation of incest allegations in California was also changed, with cases led by social workers who used leading and coercive interviewing techniques that had been avoided by police investigators. Such changes in the prosecution of cases of alleged incest resulted in an increase in confessions by fathers in exchange for plea bargains. Shortly thereafter, some children in child protection cases began making allegations of horrific physical and sexual abuse by caregivers within organized rituals, claiming sexual abuse in Satanic rituals and the use of Satanic symbols. These cases garnered the label "satanic ritual abuse" both in the media and among professionals. Childhood memories of similar abuse began to appear in the psychotherapy sessions of adults.


title: Satanic panic

text: In 1983, charges were laid in the McMartin preschool trial, a major case in California, which received attention throughout the United States and contained allegations of satanic ritual abuse. The case caused tremendous polarization in how to interpret the available evidence. Shortly afterward, more than 100 preschools across the country became the object of similar sensationalist allegations, which were eagerly and uncritically reported by the press. Throughout the McMartin trial, media coverage of the defendants (Peggy McMartin and Ray Buckey) was unrelentingly negative, focusing only on statements by the prosecution. Michelle Smith and other alleged survivors met with parents involved in the trial, and it is believed that they influenced testimony against the accused.


title: Satanic panic

text: Kee MacFarlane, a social worker employed by the Children's Institute International, developed a new way to interrogate children with anatomically correct dolls and used them in an effort to assist disclosures of abuse with the McMartin children. After asking the children to point to the places on the dolls where they had allegedly been touched and asking leading questions, MacFarlane diagnosed sexual abuse in virtually all the McMartin children. She coerced disclosures by using lengthy interviews that rewarded discussions of abuse and punished denials. The trial testimony that resulted from such methods was often contradictory and vague on all details except for the assertion that the abuse had occurred. Although the initial charges in the McMartin case featured allegations of Satanic abuse and a vast conspiracy, these features were dropped relatively early in the trial, and prosecution continued only for non-ritual allegations of child abuse against only two defendants. After three years of testimony, McMartin and Buckey were acquitted on 52 of 65 counts, and the jury was deadlocked on the remaining 13 charges against Buckey, with 11 of 13 jurors choosing not guilty. Buckey was re-charged and two years later released without conviction.


title: Satanic panic

text: In 1984, MacFarlane warned a congressional committee that children were being forced to engage in scatological behavior and watch bizarre rituals in which animals were being slaughtered. Shortly after, the United States Congress doubled its budget for child-protection programs. Psychiatrist Roland Summit delivered conferences in the wake of the McMartin trial and depicted the phenomenon as a conspiracy that involved anyone skeptical of the phenomenon. By 1986, social worker Carol Darling argued to a grand jury that the conspiracy reached the government. Her husband Brad Darling gave conference presentations about a Satanic conspiracy of great antiquity which he now believed was permeating American communities.


title: Satanic panic

text: In 1985, Patricia Pulling joined forces with psychiatrist Thomas Radecki, director of the National Coalition on Television Violence, to create B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons). Pulling and B.A.D.D. saw role-playing games generally and Dungeons & Dragons specifically as Satanic cult recruitment tools, inducing youth to suicide, murder, and Satanic ritual abuse. Other alleged recruitment tools included heavy metal music, educators, child care centers, and television. This information was shared at policing and public awareness seminars on crime and the occult, sometimes by active police officers. None of these allegations held up in analysis or in court. In fact, analysis of youth suicide over the period in question found that players of role-playing games actually had a much lower rate of suicide than the average.


title: Satanic panic

text: By the late 1980s, therapists or patients who believed someone had suffered from SRA could suggest solutions that included Christian psychotherapy, exorcism, and support groups whose members self-identified as "anti-Satanic warriors." Federal funding was increased for research on child abuse, with large portions of the funding allocated for research on child sexual abuse. Funding was also provided for conferences supporting the idea of SRA, adding a veneer of respectability to the idea as well as offering an opportunity for prosecutors to exchange advice on how to best secure convictions—with tactics including destruction of notes, refusing to tape interviews with children, and destroying or refusing to share evidence with the defense. Had proof been found, SRA would have represented the first occasion where an organized and secret criminal activity had been discovered by mental health professionals. In 1987, Geraldo Rivera produced a national television special on the alleged secret cults, claiming "Estimates are that there are over one million Satanists in [the United States and they are] linked in a highly organized, secretive network." Tapings of this and similar talk show episodes were subsequently used by religious fundamentalists, psychotherapists, social workers and police to promote the idea that a conspiracy of Satanic cults existed and these cults were committing serious crimes.


title: Satanic panic

text: In the 1990s, psychologist D. Corydon Hammond publicized a detailed theory of ritual abuse drawn from hypnotherapy sessions with his patients, alleging they were victims of a worldwide conspiracy of organized, secretive clandestine cells who used torture, mind control and ritual abuse to create alternate personalities that could be "activated" with code words; the victims were allegedly trained as assassins, prostitutes, drug traffickers, and child sex workers (to create child pornography). Hammond claimed his patients had revealed the conspiracy was masterminded by a Jewish doctor in Nazi Germany, but who now worked for the Central Intelligence Agency with a goal of worldwide domination by a Satanic cult. The cult was allegedly composed of respectable, powerful members of society who used the funds generated to further their agenda. Missing memories among the victims and absence of evidence was cited as evidence of the power and effectiveness of this cult in furthering its agenda. Hammond's claims gained considerable attention, due in part to his prominence in the field of hypnosis and psychotherapy.


title: Satanic panic

text: Satanic ritual abuse brought together several groups normally unlikely to associate, including psychotherapists, self-help groups, religious fundamentalists and law enforcement. Initial accusations were made in the context of the rising political power of conservative Christianity within the United States, and religious fundamentalists enthusiastically promoted rumors of SRA. Psychotherapists who were actively Christian advocated for the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID); soon after, accounts similar to "Michelle Remembers" began to appear, with some therapists believing the alter egos of some patients were the result of demonic possession. Protestantism was instrumental in starting, spreading, and maintaining rumors through sermons about the dangers of SRA, lectures by purported experts, and prayer sessions, including showings of the 1987 Geraldo Rivera television special. Secular proponents appeared, and child protection workers became significantly involved. Law enforcement trainers, many themselves strongly religious, became strong promoters of the claims and self-described "experts" on the topic. Their involvement in child sexual abuse cases produced more allegations of SRA, adding credibility to the phenomenon. As the explanations for SRA were distanced from evangelical Christianity and associated with "survivor" groups, the motivations ascribed to purported Satanists shifted from combating a religious nemesis, to mind control and abuse as an end to itself. Clinicians, psychotherapists and social workers documented clients with alleged histories of SRA, though the claims of therapists were unsubstantiated beyond the testimonies of their clients.


title: Satanic panic

text: In 1987, a list of "indicators" was published by Catherine Gould, featuring a broad array of vague symptoms that were ultimately common, non-specific and subjective, purported to be capable of diagnosing SRA in most young children. By the late 1980s, allegations began to appear throughout the world (including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia), in part enabled by English as a common international language and in the United Kingdom, assisted by Gould's list of indicators. Belief in SRA spread rapidly through the ranks of mental health professionals (despite an absence of evidence) through a variety of continuing education seminars, during which attendees were urged to believe in the reality of Satanic cults, their victims, and not to question the extreme and bizarre memories uncovered. Proof was provided in the form of unconnected bits of information such as pictures drawn by patients, heavy metal album covers, historical folklore about devil worshipers, and pictures of mutilated animals. During the seminars, patients provided testimonials of their experiences and presenters stressed that recovering memories was important for healing.


title: Satanic panic

text: Media coverage of SRA began to turn negative by 1987, and the "panic" ended between 1992 and 1995. The release of the HBO made-for-TV movie "" in 1995 re-cast Ray Buckey as a victim of overzealous prosecution rather than an abusive predator, and marked a watershed change in public perceptions of satanic ritual abuse accusations. In 1995, Geraldo Rivera issued an apology for his 1987 television special which had focused on the alleged cults. In 1996 astrophysicist and astrobiologist Carl Sagan devoted an entire chapter of his final book, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" to a critique of claims of recovered memories of UFO abductions and satanic ritual abuse, citing material from the newsletter of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. By 2003, allegations of ritual abuse were met with great skepticism, and belief in SRA was no longer considered mainstream in professional circles; although the sexual abuse of children was and is a real and serious problem, allegations of SRA were essentially false. Reasons for the collapse of the phenomenon include the failure of criminal prosecutions against alleged abusers, a growing number of scholars, officials and reporters questioning the reality of the accusations, and a variety of successful lawsuits against mental health professionals.


title: Satanic panic

text: Some feminist critics of the SRA diagnoses maintained that, in the course of attempting to purge society of evil, the panic of the 1980s and 1990s obscured actual child-abuse issues, a concern echoed by Gary Clapton . In England, the SRA panic diverted resources and attention away from proven abuse cases; this resulted in a "hierarchy" of abuse in which SRA was the most serious form, physical and sexual abuse being minimized and/or marginalized, and "mere" physical abuse no longer worthy of intervention. As criticism of SRA investigations increased, the focus by social workers on SRA resulted in a large loss of credibility to the profession. SRA, with its sensational narrative of many victims abused by many victimizers, ended up robbing the far-more-common and proven issue of incest against children of much of its societal significance. The National Center for Abuse and Neglect devised the term "religious abuse" to describe exorcism, poisoning, and drowning of children in non-satanic religious settings in order to avoid confusion with SRA.


title: Satanic panic

text: Some groups still believe there is credence to allegations of SRA and continue to discuss the topic. Publications by Cathy O'Brien claiming SRA were the result of government programs (specifically the Central Intelligence Agency's Project MKULTRA) to produce Manchurian candidate-style mind control in young children were picked up by conspiracy theorists, linking belief in SRA with claims of government conspiracies. In the 2007 book "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)", authors Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson cite an ongoing belief in the SRA phenomenon, despite a complete lack of evidence, as demonstration of confirmation bias in believers; it further points out that a lack of evidence is actually considered by believers in SRA as "additional" evidence, demonstrating "how clever and evil the cult leaders were: They were eating those babies, bones and all." A Salt Lake City therapist, Barbara Snow, was put on probation in 2008 for planting false memories of satanic abuse in patients. One notable client of hers was Teal Swan.


title: Satanic panic

text: The far-right conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon, which originated on 4chan in 2017, has adopted many of the tropes of SRA and Satanic Panic. Instead of daycare centers being the center of abuse, however, liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials are portrayed as a child-abusing cabal of Satanists.


title: Satanic panic

text: The term "satanic ritual abuse" is used to describe different behaviors, actions and allegations that lie between extremes of definitions. In 1988, a nationwide study of sexual abuse in US day care agencies, led by David Finkelhor, divided "ritual abuse" allegations into three categories—cult-based ritualism in which the abuse had a spiritual or social goal for the perpetrators, pseudo-ritualism in which the goal was sexual gratification and the rituals were used to frighten or intimidate victims, and psychopathological ritualism in which the rituals were due to mental disorders. Subsequent investigators have expanded on these definitions and also pointed to a fourth alleged type of Satanic ritual abuse, in which petty crimes with ambiguous meaning (such as graffiti or vandalism) generally committed by teenagers were attributed to the actions of Satanic cults.


title: Satanic panic

text: By the early 1990s, the phrase "Satanic ritual abuse" was featured in media coverage of ritualistic abuse but its use decreased among professionals in favor of more nuanced terms such as multi-dimensional child sex rings, ritual/ritualistic abuse, organized abuse or sadistic abuse, some of which acknowledged the complexity of abuse cases with multiple perpetrators and victims without projecting a religious framework onto perpetrators. The latter in particular failed to substantively improve on or replace "Satanic" abuse as it was never used to describe any rituals except the Satanic ones that were the core of SRA allegations. Abuse within the context of Christianity, Islam, or any other religions failed to enter the SRA discourse.


title: Satanic panic

text: Allegation of cult-based abuse is the most extreme scenario of SRA. During the initial period of interest starting in the early 1980s the term was used to describe a network of Satan-worshipping, secretive intergenerational cults that were supposedly part of a highly organized conspiracy engaged in criminal behaviors such as forced prostitution, drug distribution and pornography. These cults were also thought to sexually abuse and torture children in order to coerce them into a lifetime of Devil worship. Other allegations included bizarre sexual acts such as necrophilia, forced ingestion of semen, blood and feces, cannibalism, orgies, liturgical parody such as pseudosacramental use of feces and urine; infanticide, sacrificial abortions to eat fetuses and human sacrifice; satanic police officers who covered up evidence of SRA crimes and desecration of Christian graves. No evidence of any of these claims has ever been found; the proof presented by those who alleged the reality of cult-based abuse primarily consisted of the memories of adults recalling childhood abuse, the testimony of young children and extremely controversial confessions. The idea of a murderous Satanic conspiracy created a controversy dividing the professional child abuse community at the time, though no evidence has been found to support allegations of a large number of children being killed or abused in Satanic rituals. From a law enforcement perspective, an intergenerational conspiracy dedicated to ritual sacrifice whose members remain completely silent, make no mistakes and leave no physical evidence is unlikely; cases of what the media incorrectly perceived as actual cult sacrifices (such as the 1989 case of Adolfo Constanzo) have supported this idea.


title: Satanic panic

text: A third variation of ritual abuse involves non-religious ritual abuse in which the rituals were delusional or obsessive. There are incidents of extreme sadistic crimes that are committed by individuals, loosely organized families and possibly in some organized cults, some of which may be connected to Satanism, though this is more likely to be related to sex trafficking; though SRA may happen in families, extended families and localized groups, it is not believed to occur in large, organized groups.


title: Satanic panic

text: Investigators considered graffiti such as the pentagram to be evidence of a Satanic cult. Ambiguous crimes in which actual or erroneously believed symbols of Satanism appear have also been claimed as part of the SRA phenomenon, though in most cases the crimes cannot be linked to a specific belief system; minor crimes such as vandalism, trespassing and graffiti were often found to be the actions of teenagers who were acting out.


title: Satanic panic

text: There was never any consensus on what actually constituted Satanic ritual abuse. This lack of a single definition, as well as confusion between the meanings of the term "ritual" (religious versus psychological) allowed a wide range of allegations and evidence to be claimed as a demonstration of the reality of SRA allegations, irrespective of which "definition" the evidence supported. Acrimonious disagreements between groups who supported SRA allegations as authentic and those criticizing them as unsubstantiated resulted in an extremely polarized discussion with little middle ground. The lack of credible evidence for the more extreme interpretations often being seen as evidence of an effective conspiracy rather than an indication that the allegations are unfounded. The religious beliefs or atheism of the disputants have also resulted in different interpretations of evidence, and as well as accusations of those who reject the claims being "anti-child." Both believers and skeptics have developed networks to disseminate information on their respective positions. One of the central themes of the discussion among English child abuse professionals was the assertion that people should simply "believe the children," and that the testimony of children was sufficient proof, which ignored the fact that in many cases the testimony of children was interpreted by professionals rather than the children explicitly disclosing allegations of abuse. In some cases this was simultaneously presented with the idea that it did not matter if SRA actually existed, that the empirical truth of SRA was irrelevant, that the testimony of children was more important than that of doctors, social workers and the criminal justice system.


title: Satanic panic

text: The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect conducted a study led by University of California psychologist Gail Goodman, which found that among 12,000 accusations of satanic ritual abuse, there was no evidence for "a well-organized intergenerational satanic cult, who sexually molested and tortured children," although there was "convincing evidence of lone perpetrators or couples who say they are involved with Satan or use the claim to intimidate victims." One such case Goodman studied involved "grandparents [who] had black robes, candles, and Christ on an inverted crucifix—and the children had chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, in their throats," according to the report by a district attorney.


title: Satanic panic

text: The evidence for SRA was primarily in the form of testimonies from children who made allegations of SRA, and adults who claim to remember abuse during childhood, that may have been forgotten and recovered during therapy.


title: Satanic panic

text: With both children and adults, no corroborating evidence has been found for anything except pseudosatanism in which the satanic and ritual aspects were secondary to and used as a cover for sexual abuse. Despite this lack of objective evidence, and aided by the competing definitions of what SRA actually was, proponents claimed SRA was a real phenomenon throughout the peak and during the decline of the moral panic. Despite allegations appearing in the United States, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia, no material evidence has been found to corroborate allegations of organized cult-based abuse that practices human sacrifice and cannibalism. Though trauma specialists frequently claimed the allegations made by children and adults were the same, in reality the statements made by adults were more elaborate, severe, and featured more bizarre abuse. In 95 percent of the adults' cases, the memories of the abuse were recovered during psychotherapy.


title: Satanic panic

text: For several years, a conviction list assembled by the Believe the Children advocacy group was circulated as proof of the truth of satanic ritual abuse allegations, though the organization itself no longer exists and the list itself is "egregiously out of date."


title: Satanic panic

text: Two investigations were carried out to assess the evidence for SRA. In the United Kingdom, a government report produced no evidence of SRA, but several examples of false satanists faking rituals to frighten their victims. In the United States, evidence was reported but was based on a flawed methods with an overly liberal definition of a substantiated case.


title: Satanic panic

text: A British study published in 1996 found 62 cases of alleged ritual abuse reported to researchers by police, social and welfare agencies from the period of 1988 to 1991, representing a tiny proportion of extremely high-profile cases compared to the total number investigated by the agencies. Anthropologist Jean LaFontaine spent several years researching ritual abuse cases in Britain at the behest of the government, finding that all of the cases of alleged satanic ritual abuse that could be substantiated were cases where the perpetrators' goal was sexual gratification rather than religious worship. Producing several reports and the 1998 book "Speak of the Devil", after reviewing cases reported to police and children's protective services throughout the country LaFontaine concluded that the only rituals she uncovered were those invented by child abusers to frighten their victims or justify the sexual abuse. In addition, the sexual abuse occurred outside of the rituals, indicating the goal of the abuser was sexual gratification rather than ritualistic or religious. In cases involving satanic abuse, the satanic allegations by younger children were influenced by adults, and the concerns over the satanic aspects were found to be compelling due to cultural attraction of the concept, but distracting from the actual harm caused to the abuse victims.


title: Satanic panic

text: In more recent years, discredited allegations of SRA have been levelled against Jimmy Savile during the posthumous investigation into his sexual abuse of children, as well as against former Prime Minister Ted Heath (who was previously falsely accused of SRA during his lifetime).


title: Satanic panic

text: David Finkelhor completed an investigation of child sexual abuse in daycares in the United States, and published a report in 1988. The report found 270 cases of sexual abuse, of which 36 were classified as substantiated cases of ritual abuse. Mary de Young has pointed out that the report's definition of "substantiated" was overly liberal as it required only that one agency had decided that abuse had occurred, even if no action was taken, no arrests made, no operating licenses suspended. In addition, multiple agencies may have been involved in each case (including the FBI, local police, social services agencies and childhood protective services in many cases), with wide differences in suspicion and confirmation, often in disagreement with each other. Finkelhor, upon receiving a "confirmation," would collect information from whoever was willing or interested to provide it and did not independently investigate the cases, resulting in frequent errors in his conclusions. No data is provided beyond case studies and brief summaries. Three other cases considered corroborating by the public—the McMartin preschool trial, the Country Walk case and the murders in Matamoros, by Adolfo Constanzo—ultimately failed to support the existence of SRA. The primary witness in the Country Walk case repeatedly made, then withdrew accusations against her husband amid unusual and coercive inquiries by her lawyer and a psychologist. The Matamoros murders produced the bodies of 12 adults who were ritually sacrificed by a drug gang inspired by the film "The Believers", but did not involve children or sexual abuse. The McMartin case resulted in no convictions and was ultimately based on accusations by children with no proof beyond their coerced testimonies. A 1996 investigation of more than 12,000 allegations of satanic, ritual and religious abuse resulted in no cases that were considered factual or corroborated.