title: House of Commons of Canada

text: As a Westminster democracy, the Government of Canada, or more specifically the -in-Council, exercising the executive power on behalf of the prime minister and Cabinet, enjoys a complementary relationship with the House of Commons—similar to the UK model, and in contrast to the US model of separation of powers. Though it does not formally elect the prime minister, the House of Commons indirectly controls who becomes prime minister. By convention, the prime minister is answerable to and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Thus, whenever the office of prime minister falls vacant, the governor general has the duty of appointing the person most likely to command the support of the House—normally the leader of the largest party in the lower house, although the system allows a coalition of two or more parties. This has not happened in the Canadian federal parliament but has occurred in Canadian provinces. The leader of the second-largest party (or in the case of a coalition, the largest party out of government) usually becomes the leader of the Official Opposition. Moreover, the prime minister is, by unwritten convention, a member of the House of Commons, rather than of the Senate. Only two prime ministers governed from the Senate: Sir John Abbott (1891–1892) and Sir Mackenzie Bowell (1894–1896). Both men got the job following the death of a prime minister and did not contest elections.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: The prime minister may only stay in office as long as he or she retains the confidence of the House of Commons. The lower house may indicate its lack of support for the government by rejecting a motion of confidence, or by passing a motion of no confidence. Important bills that form a part of the government's agenda are generally considered matters of confidence, as is any taxation or spending bill and the annual budget. When a government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, the prime minister is obliged to either resign or request the governor general to dissolve parliament, thereby precipitating a general election. The governor general may theoretically refuse to dissolve parliament, thereby forcing the prime minister to resign. The last instance of a governor general refusing to grant a dissolution was in 1926.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: Except when compelled to request a dissolution by an adverse vote on a confidence issue, the prime minister is allowed to choose the timing of dissolutions, and consequently the timing of general elections. The time chosen reflects political considerations, and is generally most opportune for the prime minister's party. However, no parliamentary term can last for more than five years from the first sitting of Parliament; a dissolution is automatic upon the expiry of this period. Normally, Parliaments do not last for full five-year terms; prime ministers typically ask for dissolutions after about three or four years. In 2006, the Harper government introduced a bill to set fixed election dates every four years, although snap elections are still permitted. The bill was approved by Parliament and has now become law.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: Whatever the reasonthe expiry of parliament's five-year term, the choice of the prime minister, or a government defeat in the House of Commonsa dissolution is followed by general elections. If the prime minister's party retains its majority in the House of Commons, then the prime minister may remain in power. On the other hand, if their party has lost its majority, the prime minister may resign or may attempt to stay in power by winning support from members of other parties. A prime minister may resign even if he or she is not defeated at the polls (for example, for personal health reasons); in such a case, the new leader of the outgoing prime minister's party becomes prime minister.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: The House of Commons scrutinizes the ministers of the Crown through "Question Period", a daily forty-five-minute period during which members have the opportunity to ask questions of the prime minister and other Cabinet ministers. Questions must relate to the responding minister's official government activities, not to their activities as a party leader or as a private Member of Parliament. Members may also question committee chairmen on the work of their respective committees. Members of each party are entitled to the number of questions proportional to the party caucus' strength in the house. In addition to questions asked orally during Question Period, Members of Parliament may also make inquiries in writing.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: In times where there is a majority government, the House of Commons' scrutiny of the government is weak. Since elections use the first-past-the-post electoral system, the governing party tends to enjoy a large majority in the Commons; there is often limited need to compromise with other parties. (Minority governments, however, are not uncommon.) Modern Canadian political parties are so tightly organized that they leave relatively little room for free action by their MPs. In many cases, MPs may be expelled from their parties for voting against the instructions of party leaders. As well, the major parties require candidates' nominations to be signed by party leaders, thus giving the leaders the power to, effectively, end a politician's career. Thus, defeats of majority governments on issues of confidence are very rare. Paul Martin's Liberal minority government lost a vote of no confidence in 2005; the last time this had occurred was in 1979, when Joe Clark's Progressive Conservative minority government was defeated after a term of just six months.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: The current and original Canadian House of Commons chamber was influenced by the British House of Commons rectangular layout and that of the original St. Stephen's Chapel in the Palace of Westminster. The difference from the British layout is with the use of individual chairs and tables for members, absent in the British Commons' design.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: With the exception of the legislatures in Nunavut (circular seating), the Northwest Territories (circular seating), and Manitoba (U-shaped seating), all other Canadian provincial legislatures share the common design of the Canadian House of Commons.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: The Department of Public Works and Government Services undertook work during the 41st Parliament to determine how the seating arrangement could be modified to accommodate the additional 30 seats added in the 2015 election. Ultimately, new "theatre" seats were designed, with five seats in a row at one desk, the seats pulling down for use. Such seat sets now form almost the entire length of the last two rows on each side of the chamber.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: The current chamber is currently undergoing an estimated decade-long restoration and renovation, which began in December 2018. Parliamentarians have relocated to the courtyard of the 159-year-old West Block which also underwent seven years of renovations and repairs to get ready for the move. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the closing of the Centre Block on December 12, 2018. The final sittings of both the House of Commons and the Senate in Centre Block took place on December 13, 2018.


title: House of Commons of Canada

text: Off Parliament Hill MPs have some offices at Justice Building or Confederation Building down Wellington Street near the Supreme Court of Canada.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing raid in human history. of central Tokyo were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless. In comparison, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki resulted in the immediate death of between 39,000 and 80,000 people.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The US first mounted a seaborne, small-scale air raid on Tokyo (the "Doolittle Raid") in April 1942. Strategic bombing and urban area bombing began in 1944 after the long-range B-29 Superfortress bomber entered service, first deployed from China and thereafter the Mariana Islands. B-29 raids from those islands began on 17 November 1944, and lasted until 15 August 1945, the day of Japanese surrender.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: Over 50% of Tokyo's industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods; firebombing cut the whole city's output in half. Some modern post-war analysts have called the raid a war crime due to the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the ensuing mass loss of civilian life.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The first raid on Tokyo was the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942, when sixteen B-25 Mitchells were launched from to attack targets including Yokohama and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China. The raid was retaliation against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid did little damage to Japan's war capability but was a significant propaganda victory for the United States. Launched at longer range than planned when the task force encountered a Japanese picket boat, all of the attacking aircraft either crashed or ditched short of the airfields designated for landing. One aircraft landed in the neutral Soviet Union where the crew was interned, but then smuggled over the border into Iran on 11 May 1943. Two crews were captured by the Japanese in occupied China. Three crewmen from these groups were later executed.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B-29 Superfortress strategic bomber, which had an operational range of and was capable of attacking at high altitude above , where enemy defenses were very weak. Almost 90% of the bombs dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this type of bomber. Once Allied ground forces had captured islands sufficiently close to Japan, airfields were built on those islands (particularly Saipan and Tinian) and B-29s could reach Japan for bombing missions.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The initial raids were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force operating out of mainland China in Operation Matterhorn under XX Bomber Command, but these could not reach Tokyo. Operations from the Northern Mariana Islands commenced in November 1944 after the XXI Bomber Command was activated there. The high-altitude bombing attacks using general-purpose bombs were observed to be ineffective by USAAF leaders due to high winds—later discovered to be the jet stream—which carried the bombs off target. Between May and September 1943, bombing trials were conducted on the Japanese Village set-piece target, located at the Dugway Proving Grounds. These trials demonstrated the effectiveness of incendiary bombs against wood-and-paper buildings, and resulted in Curtis LeMay's ordering the bombers to change tactics to utilize these munitions against Japan.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The first such raid was against Kobe on 4 February 1945. Tokyo was hit by incendiaries on 25 February 1945 when 174 B-29s flew a high altitude raid during daylight hours and destroyed around (2.6 km) of the snow-covered city, using 453.7 tons of mostly incendiaries with some fragmentation bombs. After this raid, LeMay ordered the B-29 bombers to attack again but at a relatively low altitude of and at night, because Japan's anti-aircraft artillery defenses were weakest in this altitude range, and the fighter defenses were ineffective at night. LeMay ordered all defensive guns but the tail gun removed from the B-29s so that the aircraft would be lighter and use less fuel.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: On the night of 9–10 March 1945, 334 B-29s took off to raid with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo. The bombs were mostly the E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bomblets at an altitude of . The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground; in either case they ignited 3–5 seconds later, throwing out a jet of flaming napalm globs. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries were also dropped: the M-47 was a jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In the first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city's fire defenses. The first B-29s to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo's densely populated working class district near the docks in both Koto and Chūō city wards on the water; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, which would have been classified as a firestorm but for prevailing winds gusting at . Approximately of the city were destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died. A grand total of 282 of the 339 B-29s launched for "Meetinghouse" made it to the target, 27 of which were lost due to being shot down by Japanese air defenses, mechanical failure, or being caught in updrafts caused by the fires.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9 March 1945 was the single deadliest air raid of World War II, greater than Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki as single events.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: Damage to Tokyo's heavy industry was slight until firebombing destroyed much of the light industry that was used as an integral source for small machine parts and time-intensive processes. Firebombing also killed or made homeless many workers who had taken part in the war industry. Over 50% of Tokyo's industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods; firebombing cut the whole city's output in half. The destruction and damage were especially severe in the eastern areas of the city. The districts bombed were home to 1.2 million people. Tokyo police recorded 267,171 buildings destroyed, which left more than one million people homeless.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: Emperor Hirohito's tour of the destroyed areas of Tokyo in March 1945 was the beginning of his personal involvement in the peace process, culminating in Japan's surrender six months later.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The US Strategic Bombing Survey later estimated that nearly 88,000 people died in this one raid, 41,000 were injured, and over a million residents lost their homes. The Tokyo Fire Department estimated a higher toll: 97,000 killed and 125,000 wounded. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department established a figure of 83,793 dead and 40,918 wounded and 286,358 buildings and homes destroyed. Historian Richard Rhodes put deaths at over 100,000, injuries at a million and homeless residents at a million. These casualty and damage figures could be low; Mark Selden wrote in "Japan Focus":


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: In his 1968 book, reprinted in 1990, historian Gabriel Kolko cited a figure of 125,000 deaths. Elise K. Tipton, professor of Japan studies, arrived at a rough range of 75,000 to 200,000 deaths. Donald L. Miller, citing Knox Burger, stated that there were "at least 100,000" Japanese deaths and "about one million" injured.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: The entire bombing campaign against Japan killed more than 300,000 people and injured an additional 400,000, mostly civilians.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: After the war, Tokyo struggled to rebuild. In 1945 and 1946, the city received a share of the national reconstruction budget roughly proportional to its amount of bombing damage (26.6%), but in successive years Tokyo saw its share dwindle. By 1949, Tokyo was given only 10.9% of the budget; at the same time there was runaway inflation devaluing the money. Occupation authorities such as Joseph Dodge stepped in and drastically cut back on Japanese government rebuilding programs, focusing instead on simply improving roads and transportation. Tokyo did not experience fast economic growth until the 1950s.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: Between 1948 and 1951 the ashes of 105,400 people killed in the attacks on Tokyo were interred in Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward. A memorial to the raids was opened in the park in March 2001. The park has a list of names of people who died of the Bombing, which is made based on the applications from bereaved families and it has 81,273 names as of March 2020. Bereaved families can submit application to have the names of victims written in the list to the government of Tokyo.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: After the war, Japanese author Katsumoto Saotome, a survivor of 10 March 1945 firebombing, helped start a library about the raid in Koto Ward called the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. The library contains documents and literature about the raid plus survivor accounts collected by Saotome and the Association to Record the Tokyo Air Raid.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: In 2013, during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's second term, Abe's cabinet stated that the raids were "incompatible with humanitarianism, which is one of the foundations of international law", but also noted that it is difficult to argue that the raids were illegal under the international laws of the time.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: In 2007, 112 members of the Association for the Bereaved Families of the Victims of the Tokyo Air Raids brought a class action against the Japanese government, demanding an apology and 1.232 billion yen in compensation. Their suit charged that the Japanese government invited the raid by failing to end the war earlier, and then failed to help the civilian victims of the raids while providing considerable support to former military personnel and their families. The plaintiffs' case was dismissed at the first judgement in December 2009, and their appeal was rejected. The plaintiffs then appealed to the Supreme Court, which rejected their case in May 2013.


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: 16–17 February 1945: carrier-based aircraft, including dive bombers, escorted by Hellcat fighters attacked Tokyo. Over two days, over 1,500 American planes and hundreds of Japanese planes were in the air. "By the end of 17 February, more than five hundred Japanese planes, both on the ground and in the air, had been lost, and Japan's aircraft works had been badly hit. The Americans lost eighty planes."


title: Bombing of Tokyo

text: 18 August 1945: The last U.S. air combat casualty of World War II occurred during mission 230 A-8, when two Consolidated B-32 Dominators of the 386th Bomb Squadron, 312th Bomb Group, launched from Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, for a photo reconnaissance run over Tokyo, Japan. Both bombers were attacked by several Japanese fighters of both the 302nd Naval Air Group at Atsugi and the Yokosuka Air Group that made 10 gunnery passes. Japanese IJNAS aces Sadamu Komachi and Saburō Sakai were part of this attack. The B-32 piloted by 1st Lt. John R. Anderson, was hit at 20,000 feet; cannon fire knocked out the number two (port inner) engine, and three crew were injured, including Sgt. Anthony J. Marchione, 19, of the 20th Reconnaissance Squadron, who took a 20 mm hit to the chest and died 30 minutes later. Tail gunner Sgt. John Houston destroyed one attacker. The lead bomber, Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, "42-108532", "Hobo Queen II", piloted by 1st Lt. James Klein, was not seriously damaged but the second Consolidated B-32-35-CF Dominator, "42-108578", lost an engine, had the upper turret knocked out of action, and partially lost rudder control. Both bombers landed at Yontan Airfield just past ~1800 hrs. having survived the last air combat of the Pacific war. The following day, propellers were removed from Japanese aircraft as part of the surrender agreement. Marchione was buried on Okinawa on 19 August, his body being returned to his Pottstown, Pennsylvania home on 18 March 1949. He was interred in St. Aloysius Old Cemetery with full military honors. "Hobo Queen II" was dismantled at Yonton Airfield following a 9 September nosegear collapse and damage during lifting. B-32, "42-108578", was scrapped at Kingman, Arizona after the war.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: James Roday Rodriguez (born James David Rodriguez, April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He is best known for starring on the USA Network series "Psych" as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn Spencer. He currently stars in "A Million Little Things," which debuted in 2018.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, as James David Rodriguez. He attended Taft High School in San Antonio. His father, Jaime "Jim" Rodriguez, is of Mexican descent, and his mother, Deborah Collins, is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Rodriguez's father is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and used to be the regional catering manager of Taco Cabana.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: At New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing, Rodriguez studied theatre and earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. At the age of 22, he selected the professional name James Roday. In a July 2020 interview, Rodriguez explained the decision was mainly driven by producers and casting directors feeling his Caucasian appearance clashed with his Spanish-Latino family name. The characters he read for up until that point either were not written with a Latino background or required a non-white "Mexican" appearance. In order to book his first job, he legally changed his middle name, David, to Roday (from an Anton Chekhov play), and omitted Rodriguez from his screen name. In the same interview, he stated regret that he "sold out my heritage in about 15 seconds" and announced that going forward he was going to use his full legal name of James Roday Rodriguez.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez started his acting career starring in various theatrical productions, including "Three Sisters", "A Respectable Wedding" and "Severity's Mistress". He took on leading roles in "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" and "Extinction" which he produced with his theatre company Red Dog Squadron, for which he also directed the play "Greedy" and wrote and directed the one-act play "Sustenance." His most recent foray onto the stage was in December 2016, when he starred in the New York production of "White Rabbit Red Rabbit" by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: His big screen debut was in the 1999 film "Coming Soon" alongside Ryan Reynolds and fellow debutant Ashton Kutcher. Other early film credits include the 2003 film "Rolling Kansas" and the 2005 film adaptation of "The Dukes Of Hazzard". Behind the scenes, he and writing partners Todd Harthan and James DeMonaco wrote the screenplay for the 2006 film "Skinwalkers". The team also worked on a script for the film adaptation of the video game "Driver."


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez's television credits include starring roles in 2001's "First Years" and NBC's "Miss Match" in 2003. His big break came on July 7, 2006, with the series premiere of USA Network's original series "Psych". Airing following the season premiere of USA's other comedic success, "Monk", it was the highest-rated scripted basic cable TV show premiere of 2006. "Psych" ran for eight seasons until 2014.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: After "Psych" ended, Rodriguez starred in various pilots and independent films, most notably "Pushing Dead" by independent filmmaker Tom E. Brown which accumulated a slew of awards at film festivals all over the country. At the same time, he began focusing on his work behind the camera as a director, writer and producer. Rodriguez has since directed episodes for "Battle Creek", "Rush Hour", "Rosewood", "Blood Drive" and "The Resident" and developed, wrote, and directed the pilots "Shoot The Moon" for USA and "Quest For Truth" for E!.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez directed his first feature film, "Gravy," in 2013, written by him and Todd Harthan. He co-wrote (once again with Todd Harthan) and directed his second film "Treehouse" as part of Hulu's monthly horror movie anthology "Into The Dark," which aired in March 2019.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: In 2017, Rodriguez returned to his most famous role as he starred in and served as executive producer on "", which he also co-wrote with "Psych"s series creator Steve Franks, aired in December 2017. A sequel, "" was officially announced on February 14, 2019. It was filmed in Vancouver in March and April of that year and debuted July 15, 2020 on NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock. "Lassie Come Home" was the first project that featured his full legal name, James Roday Rodriguez.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez is currently starring as Gary Mendez on ABC's dramedy "A Million Little Things." The fourth season premiered on September 22, 2021.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez reprised his role as Shawn Spencer once again in "", which was filmed in June 2021. He is also the co-writer and co-executive producer. It was released on Peacock on November 18, 2021.


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez will also be lending his voice in the upcoming animated feature "Night of the Animated Dead," an adaptation of George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead".


title: James Roday Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez is the co-artistic director of the Red Dog Squadron, a Los Angeles theater company he co-founded with Brad Raider. In 2012, Rodriguez and Black Dahlia artistic director Matt Shakman bought the El Centro Theatre and started a long process of renovations with the intent of reopening it under its original name "Circle Theatre." In a newsletter from August 2018, Raider and Rodriguez announced that they had to resell the theatre in early 2018.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: My Sister's Keeper is a 2009 American drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva, Jason Patric, and Alec Baldwin. Based on Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel of the same name, on June 26, 2009, the film was released to cinemas in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: Conceived via in vitro fertilization, 11-year old Anna Fitzgerald was born as a savior sister for her 15-year-old sister, Kate, who has acute promyelocytic leukemia, as neither her parents, firefighter Brian and lawyer Sara, nor younger brother Jesse are a genetic match. Beginning with the harvest of her umbilical cord at birth, Anna has donated compatible blood and stem cells to Kate, and her life is one of hospitalizations, growth hormone injections, opioid painkillers, sleeping pills, bleeding, and infections. Sara has no qualms over using Anna's body to treat Kate's, and fully believes she is doing so willingly, while Brian is closer to Anna and has his own misgivings.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: After Kate goes into kidney failure, Anna – with Jesse's help – approaches attorney Campbell Alexander, and tells him she wishes to sue for medical emancipation, on the basis that she will be required to donate one of hers, and that having just a single kidney will severely restrict her quality of life. Campbell, whose covert epilepsy lends him sympathy to her predicament, decides to take her case pro bono and, representing Anna as her guardian "ad litem", he files a suit for partial termination of parental rights. This immediately causes a rift between Anna and Sara, and Brian moves Anna into his fire station to separate them.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: Flashbacks detail Kate and Anna's close relationship and how Kate's illness has affected Jesse, who has run away from his summer camp. Kate meets a fellow cancer patient, Taylor, and they begin dating. They slow-dance at the hospital's prom for teen patients and later have sex. A few days later, Kate is upset to have not seen Taylor since. Learning that Taylor has died, she attempts suicide by overdosing on painkillers but Anna stops her. Kate expresses hope that after she dies she will see Taylor.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: After Sara is unable to get the suit thrown out, Anna's case proceeds to trial. Shortly before the hearing, Kate requests to go to the beach one last time. Brian obtains permission and discharges her from the hospital for the day. Sara demands that Kate be returned to the hospital, but Brian refuses and threatens to divorce Sara if she does not join them. They enjoy one final family outing.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: At the hearing, Jesse witnesses Sara's aggressive cross-examination of Anna on the stand, and finally having had enough, he forces Anna to reveal that she is in fact acting under Kate's wishes, and not her own. While Anna had genuinely wanted to donate her kidney, Kate – having endured 11 years of her own and her family's suffering – had asked her to refuse. Sara is forced to acknowledge that Kate has been trying to tell her for a long time, that she is ready to die. Kate dies in her sleep later that day with her mother by her side.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: After Kate's death, Campbell reports that Anna has won the case. Now reconciled, the family moves on with their lives. Sara, who gave up practicing law to look after Kate, returns to work, Brian retires from firefighting and counsels troubled youths, and Jesse enters college. Anna reveals that every year on Kate's birthday, they go to Montana, which was her "most favorite place in the world". She concludes that she was not born merely to save her sister, she was born because she had a sister, and that their relationship continues even in death.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: Upon the original creation of the film adaptation, sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning were cast to play Kate and Anna respectively. However, when Dakota heard that she would be required to shave her head for the role, she dropped out of the film as then did Elle. The two sisters were replaced, with Abigail Breslin taking on the lead role as Anna Fitzgerald and Sofia Vassilieva on the role of Kate Fitzgerald. Jodi Picoult said in interview she regretted letting Cassavetes direct the film, as he changed its ending from her novel.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: "My Sister's Keeper" received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 48% of reviews for the film were positive, based on 138 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""My Sister's Keeper" gets fine performances from its adult and child actors, but the director's heavy-handed approach turns a worthy emotional subject into an overly melodramatic tearjerker." Another aggregate review site Metacritic reported 51% positive reviews based on 28 reviews.


title: My Sister's Keeper (film)

text: In its opening weekend, it placed fifth with a total of $12,442,212, behind "", "The Proposal" (second weekend), "The Hangover" (fourth weekend), and "Up" (fifth weekend). The film left theatres on October 8, 2009, with a domestic total of $49,200,230 with a further $46,459,927 from foreign markets. It has grossed $95,660,157 worldwide.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death the previous night, Charles Whitman, a Marine veteran, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, and then opened fire indiscriminately on people on the surrounding campus and streets. Over the next 96 minutes he shot and killed 15 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 other people. The incident ended when two policemen and a civilian reached Whitman and fatally shot him. At the time, the attack was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history, being surpassed 18 years later by the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: It has been suggested that Whitman's violent impulses, with which he had been struggling for several years, were caused by a tumor found in the white matter above his amygdala upon autopsy.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Charles Whitman, aged 25, was studying architectural engineering. In 1961, Whitman was admitted to the University of Texas at Austin on a scholarship from the Naval Enlisted Science Education Program. While at UT, Whitman met and married his wife, Kathleen. Whitman struggled with gambling and bad grades, and he lost his scholarship in 1963.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: In the months prior to the attack, Whitman had sought professional help for "overwhelming, violent impulses", including fantasies about shooting people from the tower. An autopsy revealed a hypothalamic tumor.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Whitman stabbed his mother, Margaret Elizabeth Whitman, to death at 12:30 a.m. on August 1, 1966. He then stabbed his wife Kathleen Leissner Whitman to death, at 3:00 a.m. on the same day. In a note typed just hours prior to the murders, he professed his love for both women, saying he had killed them to spare them future humiliation and suffering.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Later that morning, Whitman rented a hand truck and cashed $250 () worth of bad checks at a bank. He then drove to a hardware store, where he purchased a .30 caliber Universal M1 carbine, two additional ammunition magazines, and eight boxes of ammunition, telling the cashier he planned to hunt wild hogs. At a gun shop he purchased four more carbine magazines, six additional boxes of ammunition, and a can of gun cleaning solvent. At Sears he purchased a Sears Model 60 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun before returning home.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Whitman then packed into his footlocker a Remington 700 6-mm bolt-action hunting rifle, a .35-caliber pump rifle, the M1 carbine, a 9-mm Luger pistol, a Galesi-Brescia .25-caliber pistol, a Smith & Wesson M19 .357 Magnum revolver, the shotgun, of which he had sawn off the barrel and buttstock, as well as more than 700 rounds of ammunition. He also packed food, coffee, vitamins, Dexedrine, Excedrin, earplugs, jugs of water, matches, lighter fluid, rope, binoculars, a machete, three knives, a transistor radio, toilet paper, a razor, and a bottle of deodorant. He put khaki coveralls on over his shirt and jeans.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: At approximately 11:25 a.m., Whitman reached the University of Texas at Austin, where he showed false research assistant identification to obtain a parking permit. Whitman wheeled his equipment toward the Main Building of the University.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Entering the Main Building, Whitman found the elevator did not work. An employee named Vera Palmer activated it for him; Whitman thanked Palmer, stating, "Thank you ma'am", before repeatedly saying: "You don't know how happy that makes me."


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Exiting the elevator on the 27th floor, he hauled the dolly and equipment up a flight of stairs to a hallway, from which another flight led to the rooms skirted by the observation deck. There he encountered receptionist Edna Townsley.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Some mistook the sound of shots for the noise from a nearby construction site, or thought that persons falling to the ground were part of a theater group or an anti-war protest. One victim recalled that as she lay bleeding a passerby reprimanded her and told her to "Get up."


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Among those who grasped the situation, many risked their lives to take the wounded to safety. Ambulances from local funeral homes and an armored car were used to reach the wounded.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Four minutes after Whitman began shooting from the tower, a history professor was the first to telephone the Austin Police Department, at 11:52 am. Patrolman Billy Speed, one of the first officers to arrive, took refuge with a colleague behind a columned stone wall. Whitman shot through the six-inch space between the columns of the wall and killed Speed.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Officer Houston McCoy, 26, heard of the shooting on his radio. As he looked for a way into the tower, a student offered to help, saying he had a rifle at home. McCoy drove the student to his home to retrieve the rifle.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Allen Crum, a 40-year-old retired Air Force tail gunner, was a manager at the University Book Store Co-Op. Across the street he saw 17-year-old Aleck Hernandez being dragged and went to break up what he thought was a fight. Learning Hernandez had been shot, and hearing more shots, Crum rerouted street traffic out of harm's way. Unable to make his way back to the store safely, he then made his way to the tower, where he offered to help the police. Inside the tower, he accompanied Department of Public Safety Agent Dub Cowan and Austin Police Officer Jerry Day up the elevator; Cowan provided Crum with a rifle.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Around noon, Officer Ramiro "Ray" Martinez was off duty at home when he heard about the attack on the news. Having called the police station, he was instructed to go to the campus and direct traffic. Once there, he found other officers already doing that, so he went to the tower.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: He assumed he would find a team of officers there, but when he reached the 27th floor, he found only Cowan, Crum, and Day.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Officers attempting to reach the tower were forced to move slowly and take cover often, but a small group of officers including Houston McCoy began making their way to the tower via underground maintenance tunnels.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Officers and several civilians provided suppressive fire from the ground with small weapons and hunting rifles, forcing Whitman to stay low and fire through storm drains at the foot of the observation deck's wall. A police sharpshooter in a small plane was driven back by Whitman's return fire but continued to circle at a distance, seeking to distract Whitman and further limit his freedom to choose targets.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Martinez, Crum, and Day searched the 27th floor, where they found M. J. Gabour; Day removed him. As they started up to the stairs to the observation deck, Crum asked "Are we playing for keeps?", Martinez responded, "You’re damn right we’re playing for keeps", to which Crum replied, "Well you better deputize me".


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Beneath the stairwell leading to the reception area, Martinez found Marguerite Lamport, Mark Gabour, Mary Gabour, and Mike Gabour. Mike Gabour gestured to the observation deck, saying: "He's out there".


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Martinez reached the observation deck first. He told Crum to remain at the door. McCoy and Day reached the observation deck a few minutes later. Crum thought he heard footsteps and fired his rifle, distracting Whitman.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Around 1:24 pm, while Whitman was looking south for the source of the rifle shot, Martinez and McCoy rounded the northeastern corner of the observation deck. Martinez jumped out and fired, hitting Whitman several times. McCoy leaped out while Martinez was firing and saw Whitman's head looking over the light ballast, McCoy fired at the top of the ballast, hitting Whitman between the eyes with several pellets, killing Whitman instantly. McCoy fired again, hitting Whitman on his left side. Martinez grabbed McCoy's shotgun, ran to Whitman's prone body, and fired a direct shotgun blast into the deceased Whitman's left arm. In the immediate aftermath, Martinez was nearly shot himself by those on the ground, who did not yet realize that Whitman was dead.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: Following the shootings, the tower observation deck was closed. The various bullet holes were repaired and the tower was reopened in 1968. It was closed again in 1975 following four suicides. After a stainless steel lattice and other security features were installed, it was again reopened in 1999, but only to by-appointment guided tours, and all visitors are screened by metal detectors.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: There was no campus police presence at the time. After the shooting, there was widespread acknowledgement that security measures in place were inadequate to address campus-wide issues on this scale.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: As a result of outcry following the shooting, progress toward a cohesive campus police force began shortly thereafter. In 1967, Senator A.M. Aiken proposed Senate Bill 162, which was “an act providing for the protection, safety and welfare of students and employees … and for the policing of the buildings and grounds of the State institutions of higher education of this State.”  In 1968, The University of Texas System Police Academy graduated its first class of commissioned officers. Current UT police officers undergo a variety of training programs designed to help them prepare to combat threats on campus if the Austin Police Department or the SWAT team are unavailable.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: In 2006, a Memorial Garden was dedicated to those who died or were otherwise affected. A monument listing the names of the victims was added in 2016 on the shootings' fiftieth anniversary. The tower's clock was stopped for 24 hours beginning at 11:48 a.m.


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: In 2008, the following names of persons who helped stop Whitman were added to a plaque on an Austin police precinct building:


title: University of Texas tower shooting

text: In 2014, Claire Wilson's stillborn son received a tombstone in Austin Memorial Park Cemetery, after his grave was rediscovered by Gary Lavergne. Adorned with a single crucifix, it reads "Baby Boy Wilson / August 1, 1966".


title: Running

text: Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of gravity vaults over the stance leg or legs in an inverted pendulum fashion. A feature of a running body from the viewpoint of spring-mass mechanics is that changes in kinetic and potential energy within a stride occur simultaneously, with energy storage accomplished by springy tendons and passive muscle elasticity. The term running can refer to any of a variety of speeds ranging from jogging to sprinting.


title: Running

text: It is assumed that the ancestors of humankind developed the ability to run for long distances about 2.6 million years ago, probably in order to hunt animals. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas. Records of competitive racing date back to the Tailteann Games in Ireland between 632 BCE and 1171 BCE, while the first recorded Olympic Games took place in 776 BCE. Running has been described as the world's most accessible sport.


title: Running

text: It is thought that human running evolved at least four and a half million years ago out of the ability of the ape-like Australopithecus, an early ancestor of humans, to walk upright on two legs.


title: Running

text: Early humans most likely developed into endurance runners from the practice of persistence hunting of animals, the activity of following and chasing until a prey is too exhausted to flee, succumbing to "chase myopathy" (Sears 2001), and that human features such as the nuchal ligament, abundant sweat glands, the Achilles tendons, big knee joints and muscular glutei maximi, were changes caused by this type of activity (Bramble & Lieberman 2004, et al.). The theory as first proposed used comparative physiological evidence and the natural habits of animals when running, indicating the likelihood of this activity as a successful hunting method. Further evidence from observation of modern-day hunting practice also indicated this likelihood (Carrier et al. 1984).


title: Running

text: Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas such as Greece, Egypt, Asia, and the East African Rift in Africa. The Tailteann Games, an Irish sporting festival in honor of the goddess Tailtiu, dates back to 1829 BCE, and is one of the earliest records of competitive running. The origins of the Olympics and Marathon running are shrouded by myth and legend, though the first recorded games took place in 776 BCE. Running in Ancient Greece can be traced back to these games of 776 BCE.


title: Running

text: Running gait can be divided into two phases in regard to the lower extremity: stance and swing. These can be further divided into absorption, propulsion, initial swing and terminal swing. Due to the continuous nature of running gait, no certain point is assumed to be the beginning. However, for simplicity, it will be assumed that absorption and footstrike mark the beginning of the running cycle in a body already in motion.


title: Running

text: Footstrike occurs when a plantar portion of the foot makes initial contact with the ground. Common footstrike types include forefoot, midfoot and heel strike types. These are characterized by initial contact of the ball of the foot, ball and heel of the foot simultaneously and heel of the foot respectively. During this time the hip joint is undergoing extension from being in maximal flexion from the previous swing phase. For proper force absorption, the knee joint should be flexed upon footstrike and the ankle should be slightly in front of the body. Footstrike begins the absorption phase as forces from initial contact are attenuated throughout the lower extremity. Absorption of forces continues as the body moves from footstrike to midstance due to vertical propulsion from the toe-off during a previous gait cycle.


title: Running

text: Midstance is defined as the time at which the lower extremity limb of focus is in knee flexion directly underneath the trunk, pelvis and hips. It is at this point that propulsion begins to occur as the hips undergo hip extension, the knee joint undergoes extension and the ankle undergoes plantar flexion. Propulsion continues until the leg is extended behind the body and toe off occurs. This involves maximal hip extension, knee extension and plantar flexion for the subject, resulting in the body being pushed forward from this motion and the ankle/foot leaves the ground as initial swing begins.


title: Running

text: Most recent research, particularly regarding the footstrike debate, has focused solely on the absorption phases for injury identification and prevention purposes. The propulsion phase of running involves the movement beginning at midstance until toe off. From a full stride length model however, components of the terminal swing and footstrike can aid in propulsion.


title: Running

text: Set up for propulsion begins at the end of terminal swing as the hip joint flexes, creating the maximal range of motion for the hip extensors to accelerate through and produce force. As the hip extensors change from reciporatory inhibitors to primary muscle movers, the lower extremity is brought back toward the ground, although aided greatly by the stretch reflex and gravity. Footstrike and absorption phases occur next with two types of outcomes. This phase can be only a continuation of momentum from the stretch reflex reaction to hip flexion, gravity and light hip extension with a heel strike, which does little to provide force absorption through the ankle joint. With a mid/forefoot strike, loading of the gastro-soleus complex from shock absorption will serve to aid in plantar flexion from midstance to toe-off.


title: Running

text: As the lower extremity enters midstance, true propulsion begins. The hip extensors continue contracting along with help from the acceleration of gravity and the stretch reflex left over from maximal hip flexion during the terminal swing phase. Hip extension pulls the ground underneath the body, thereby pulling the runner forward. During midstance, the knee should be in some degree of knee flexion due to elastic loading from the absorption and footstrike phases to preserve forward momentum. The ankle joint is in dorsiflexion at this point underneath the body, either elastically loaded from a mid/forefoot strike or preparing for stand-alone concentric plantar flexion.


title: Running

text: All three joints perform the final propulsive movements during toe-off. The plantar flexors plantar flex, pushing off from the ground and returning from dorsiflexion in midstance. This can either occur by releasing the elastic load from an earlier mid/forefoot strike or concentrically contracting from a heel strike. With a forefoot strike, both the ankle and knee joints will release their stored elastic energy from the footstrike/absorption phase. The quadriceps group/knee extensors go into full knee extension, pushing the body off of the ground. At the same time, the knee flexors and stretch reflex pull the knee back into flexion, adding to a pulling motion on the ground and beginning the initial swing phase. The hip extensors extend to maximum, adding the forces pulling and pushing off of the ground. The movement and momentum generated by the hip extensors also contributes to knee flexion and the beginning of the initial swing phase.


title: Running

text: Initial swing is the response of both stretch reflexes and concentric movements to the propulsion movements of the body. Hip flexion and knee flexion occur beginning the return of the limb to the starting position and setting up for another footstrike. Initial swing ends at midswing, when the limb is again directly underneath the trunk, pelvis and hip with the knee joint flexed and hip flexion continuing. Terminal swing then begins as hip flexion continues to the point of activation of the stretch reflex of the hip extensors. The knee begins to extend slightly as it swings to the anterior portion of the body. The foot then makes contact with the ground with footstrike, completing the running cycle of one side of the lower extremity.


title: Running

text: Each limb of the lower extremity works opposite to the other. When one side is in toe-off/propulsion, the other hand is in the swing/recovery phase preparing for footstrike. Following toe-off and the beginning of the initial swing of one side, there is a flight phase where neither extremity is in contact with the ground due to the opposite side finishing terminal swing. As the footstrike of the one hand occurs, initial swing continues. The opposing limbs meet with one in midstance and midswing, beginning the propulsion and terminal swing phases.


title: Running

text: Upper extremity function serves mainly in providing balance in conjunction with the opposing side of the lower extremity. The movement of each leg is paired with the opposite arm which serves to counterbalance the body, particularly during the stance phase. The arms move most effectively (as seen in elite athletes) with the elbow joint at an approximately 90 degrees or less, the hands swinging from the hips up to mid chest level with the opposite leg, the Humerus moving from being parallel with the trunk to approximately 45 degrees shoulder extension (never passing the trunk in flexion) and with as little movement in the transverse plane as possible. The trunk also rotates in conjunction with arm swing. It mainly serves as a balance point from which the limbs are anchored. Thus trunk motion should remain mostly stable with little motion except for slight rotation as excessive movement would contribute to transverse motion and wasted energy.


title: Running

text: Recent research into various forms of running has focused on the differences, in the potential injury risks and shock absorption capabilities between heel and mid/forefoot footstrikes. It has been shown that heel striking is generally associated with higher rates of injury and impact due to inefficient shock absorption and inefficient biomechanical compensations for these forces. This is due to forces from a heel strike traveling through bones for shock absorption rather than being absorbed by muscles. Since bones cannot disperse forces easily, the forces are transmitted to other parts of the body, including ligaments, joints and bones in the rest of the lower extremity all the way up to the lower back. This causes the body to use abnormal compensatory motions in an attempt to avoid serious bone injuries. These compensations include internal rotation of the tibia, knee and hip joints. Excessive amounts of compensation over time have been linked to higher risk of injuries in those joints as well as the muscles involved in those motions. Conversely, a mid/forefoot strike has been associated with greater efficiency and lower injury risk due to the triceps surae being used as a lever system to absorb forces with the muscles eccentrically rather than through the bone. Landing with a mid/forefoot strike has also been shown to not only properly attenuate shock but allows the triceps surae to aid in propulsion via reflexive plantarflexion after stretching to absorb ground contact forces. Thus a mid/forefoot strike may aid in propulsion.


title: Running

text: However, even among elite athletes there are variations in self selected footstrike types. This is especially true in longer distance events, where there is a prevalence of heel strikers. There does tend however to be a greater percentage of mid/forefoot striking runners in the elite fields, particularly in the faster racers and the winning individuals or groups. While one could attribute the faster speeds of elite runners compared to recreational runners with similar footstrikes to physiological differences, the hip and joints have been left out of the equation for proper propulsion. This brings up the question as to how heel striking elite distance runners are able to keep up such high paces with a supposedly inefficient and injurious foot strike technique.


title: Running

text: Biomechanical factors associated with elite runners include increased hip function, use and stride length over recreational runners. An increase in running speeds causes increased ground reaction forces and elite distance runners must compensate for this to maintain their pace over long distances.


title: Running

text: These forces are attenuated through increased stride length via increased hip flexion and extension through decreased ground contact time and more force being used in propulsion. With increased propulsion in the horizontal plane, less impact occurs from decreased force in the vertical plane. Increased hip flexion allows for increased use of the hip extensors through midstance and toe-off, allowing for more force production.


title: Running

text: The difference even between world-class and national-level 1500-m runners has been associated with more efficient hip joint function. The increase in velocity likely comes from the increased range of motion in hip flexion and extension, allowing for greater acceleration and velocity. The hip extensors and hip extension have been linked to more powerful knee extension during toe-off, which contributes to propulsion.


title: Running

text: Stride length must be properly increased with some degree of knee flexion maintained through the terminal swing phases, as excessive knee extension during this phase along with footstrike has been associated with higher impact forces due to braking and an increased prevalence of heel striking. Elite runners tend to exhibit some degree of knee flexion at footstrike and midstance, which first serves to eccentrically absorb impact forces in the quadriceps muscle group. Secondly it allows for the knee joint to concentrically contract and provides major aid in propulsion during toe-off as the quadriceps group is capable of produce large amounts of force.


title: Running

text: Recreational runners have been shown to increase stride length through increased knee extension rather than increased hip flexion as exhibited by elite runners, which serves instead to provide an intense braking motion with each step and decrease the rate and efficiency of knee extension during toe-off, slowing down speed. Knee extension however contributes to additional stride length and propulsion during toe-off and is seen more frequently in elite runners as well.


title: Running

text: Leaning forward places a runner's center of mass on the front part of the foot, which avoids landing on the heel and facilitates the use of the spring mechanism of the foot. It also makes it easier for the runner to avoid landing the foot in front of the center of mass and the resultant braking effect. While upright posture is essential, a runner should maintain a relaxed frame and use their core to keep posture upright and stable. This helps prevent injury as long as the body is neither rigid nor tense. The most common running mistakes are tilting the chin up and scrunching shoulders.


title: Running

text: Exercise physiologists have found that the stride rates are extremely consistent across professional runners, between 185 and 200 steps per minute. The main difference between long- and short-distance runners is the length of stride rather than the rate of stride.


title: Running

text: During running, the speed at which the runner moves may be calculated by multiplying the cadence (steps per minute) by the stride length. Running is often measured in terms of pace, expressed in units of minutes per mile or minutes per kilometer (the inverse of speed, in mph or km/h).


title: Running

text: Some coaches advocate training at a combination of specific paces related to one's fitness in order to stimulate various physiological improvements.


title: Running

text: Different types of stride are necessary for different types of running. When sprinting, runners stay on their toes bringing their legs up, using shorter and faster strides. Long-distance runners tend to have more relaxed strides that vary.


title: Running

text: While there exists the potential for injury while running (just as there is in any sport), there are many benefits. Some of these benefits include potential weight loss, improved cardiovascular and respiratory health (reducing the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases), improved cardiovascular fitness, reduced total blood cholesterol, strengthening of bones (and potentially increased bone density), possible strengthening of the immune system and an improved self-esteem and emotional state. Running, like all forms of regular exercise, can effectively slow or reverse the effects of aging. Even people who have already experienced a heart attack are 20% less likely to develop serious heart problems if more engaged in running or any type of aerobic activity.


title: Running

text: Although an optimal amount of vigorous aerobic exercise such as running might bring benefits related to lower cardiovascular disease and life extension, an excessive dose (e.g., marathons) might have an opposite effect associated with cardiotoxicity.


title: Running

text: Running can assist people in losing weight, staying in shape and improving body composition. Research suggests that the person of average weight will burn approximately 100 calories per mile run. Running increases one's metabolism, even after running; one will continue to burn an increased level of calories for a short time after the run. Different speeds and distances are appropriate for different individual health and fitness levels. For new runners, it takes time to get into shape. The key is consistency and a slow increase in speed and distance. While running, it is best to pay attention to how one's body feels. If a runner is gasping for breath or feels exhausted while running, it may be beneficial to slow down or try a shorter distance for a few weeks. If a runner feels that the pace or distance is no longer challenging, then the runner may want to speed up or run farther.


title: Running

text: Running can also have psychological benefits, as many participants in the sport report feeling an elated, euphoric state, often referred to as a "runner's high". Running is frequently recommended as therapy for people with clinical depression and people coping with addiction. A possible benefit may be the enjoyment of nature and scenery, which also improves psychological well-being (see Ecopsychology § Practical benefits).


title: Running

text: In animal models, running has been shown to increase the number of newly created neurons within the brain. This finding could have significant implications in aging as well as learning and memory. A recent study published in "Cell Metabolism" has also linked running with improved memory and learning skills.


title: Running

text: Running is an effective way to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and tension. It helps people who struggle with seasonal affective disorder by running outside when it is sunny and warm. Running can improve mental alertness and also improves sleep. Both research and clinical experience have shown that exercise can be a treatment for serious depression and anxiety even some physicians prescribe exercise to most of their patients. Running can have a longer lasting effect than anti-depressants.


title: Running

text: Many injuries are associated with running because of its high-impact nature. Change in running volume may lead to development of patellofemoral pain syndrome, iliotibial band syndrome, patellar tendinopathy, plica syndrome, and medial tibial stress syndrome. Change in running pace may cause Achilles Tendinitis, gastrocnemius injuries, and plantar fasciitis. Repetitive stress on the same tissues without enough time for recovery or running with improper form can lead to many of the above. Runners generally attempt to minimize these injuries by warming up before exercise, focusing on proper running form, performing strength training exercises, eating a well balanced diet, allowing time for recovery, and "icing" (applying ice to sore muscles or taking an ice bath).


title: Running

text: Some runners may experience injuries when running on concrete surfaces. The problem with running on concrete is that the body adjusts to this flat surface running, and some of the muscles will become weaker, along with the added impact of running on a harder surface. Therefore, it can be beneficial to change terrain occasionally – such as trail, beach, or grass running. This is more unstable ground and allows the legs to strengthen different muscles. Runners should be wary of twisting their ankles on such terrain. Running downhill also increases knee stress and should, therefore, be avoided. Reducing the frequency and duration can also prevent injury.


title: Running

text: Barefoot running has been promoted as a means of reducing running related injuries, but this remains controversial and a majority of professionals advocate the wearing of appropriate shoes as the best method for avoiding injury. However, a study in 2013 concluded that wearing neutral shoes is not associated with increased injuries.


title: Running

text: Another common, running-related injury is chafing, caused by repetitive rubbing of one piece of skin against another, or against an article of clothing. One common location for chafe to occur is the runner's upper thighs. The skin feels coarse and develops a rash-like look. A variety of deodorants and special anti-chafing creams are available to treat such problems. Chafe is also likely to occur on the nipple. There are a variety of home remedies that runners use to deal with chafing while running such as band-aids and using grease to reduce friction. Prevention is key which is why form fitting clothes are important.


title: Running

text: An iliotibial band is a muscle and tendon that is attached to the hip and runs the length of the thigh to attach to the upper part of the tibia, and the band is what helps the knee to bend. This is an injury that is located at the knee and shows symptoms of swelling outside the knee. Iliotibial band syndrome is also known as "runner's knee" or "jogger's knee" because it can be caused by jogging or running. Once pain or swelling is noticeable it is important to put ice on it immediately and it is recommended to rest the knee for better healing. Most knee injuries can be treated by light activity and much rest for the knee. In more serious cases, arthroscopy is the most common to help repair ligaments but severe situations reconstructive surgery would be needed. A survey was taken in 2011 with knee injuries being 22.7% of the most common injuries.


title: Running

text: A more known injury is medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) which is the accurate name for shin splints. This is caused during running when the muscle is being overused along the front of the lower leg with symptoms that affect 2 to 6 inches of the muscle. Shin Splints have sharp, splinter-like pain, that is typically X-rayed by doctors but is not necessary for shin splints to be diagnosed. To help prevent shin splints it is commonly known to stretch before and after a workout session, and also avoid heavy equipment especially during the first couple of workout sessions. Also to help prevent shin splints don't increase the intensity of a workout more than 10% a week. To treat shin splints it is important to rest with the least amount of impact on your legs and apply ice to the area. A survey showed that shin splints make up 12.7% of the most common injuries in running, with blisters being the top percentage at 30.9%.


title: Running

text: Running is both a competition and a type of training for sports that have running or endurance components. As a sport, it is split into events divided by distance and sometimes includes permutations such as the obstacles in steeplechase and hurdles. Running races are contests to determine which of the competitors is able to run a certain distance in the shortest time. Today, competitive running events make up the core of the sport of athletics. Events are usually grouped into several classes, each requiring substantially different athletic strengths and involving different tactics, training methods, and types of competitors.


title: Running

text: Running competitions have probably existed for most of humanity's history and were a key part of the ancient Olympic Games as well as the modern Olympics. The activity of running went through a period of widespread popularity in the United States during the running boom of the 1970s. Over the next two decades, as many as 25 million Americans were doing some form of running or jogging – accounting for roughly one tenth of the population. Today, road racing is a popular sport among non-professional athletes, who included over 7.7 million people in America alone in 2002.


title: Running

text: Footspeed, or sprint speed, is the maximum speed at which a human can run. It is affected by many factors, varies greatly throughout the population, and is important in athletics and many sports.


title: Running

text: The fastest human footspeed on record is 44.7 km/h (12.4 m/s, 27.8 mph), seen during a 100-meter sprint (average speed between the 60th and the 80th meter) by Usain Bolt.


title: Running

text: Track running events are individual or relay events with athletes racing over specified distances on an oval running track. The events are categorized as sprints, middle and long-distance, and hurdling.


title: Running

text: Road running takes place on a measured course over an established road (as opposed to track and cross country running). These events normally range from distances of 5 kilometers to longer distances such as half marathons and marathons, and they may involve scores of runners or wheelchair entrants.


title: Running

text: Cross country running takes place over the open or rough terrain. The courses used for these events may include grass, mud, woodlands, hills, flat ground and water. It is a popular participatory sport and is one of the events which, along with track and field, road running, and racewalking, makes up the umbrella sport of athletics.


title: Running

text: The majority of popular races do not incorporate a significant change in elevation as a key component of a course. There are several, disparate variations that feature significant inclines or declines. These fall into two main groups.


title: Running

text: The naturalistic group is based on outdoor racing over geographical features. Among these are the cross country-related sports of fell running (a tradition associated with Northern Europe) and trail running (mainly ultramarathon distances), the running/climbing combination of skyrunning (organised by the International Skyrunning Federation with races across North America, Europe and East Asia) and the mainly trail- and road-centred mountain running (governed by the World Mountain Running Association and based mainly in Europe).


title: Running

text: The second variety of vertical running is based on human structures, such as stairs and man-made slopes. The foremost type of this is tower running, which sees athletes compete indoors, running up steps within very tall structures such as the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building.


title: Running

text: Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event – the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other. There are three sprinting events which are currently held at the Olympics and outdoor World Championships: the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 400 metres. These events have their roots in races of imperial measurements which were later altered to metric: the 100 m evolved from the 100-yard dash, the 200 m distances came from the furlong (or 1/8 of a mile), and the 400 m was the successor to the 440-yard dash or quarter-mile race.


title: Running

text: At the professional level, sprinters begin the race by assuming a crouching position in the starting blocks before leaning forward and gradually moving into an upright position as the contest progresses and momentum is gained. Athletes remain in the same lane on the running track throughout all sprinting events, with the sole exception of the 400 m indoors. Races up to 100 m are largely focused upon acceleration to an athlete's maximum speed. All sprints beyond this distance increasingly incorporate an element of endurance. Human physiology dictates that a runner's near-top speed cannot be maintained for more than thirty seconds or so as lactic acid builds up, and leg muscles begin to be deprived of oxygen.


title: Running

text: The 60 metres is a common indoor event and it an indoor world championship event. Other less-common events include the 50 metres, 55 metres, 300 metres and 500 metres which are used in some high and collegiate competitions in the United States. The 150 metres, is rarely competed: Pietro Mennea set a world best in 1983, Olympic champions Michael Johnson and Donovan Bailey went head-to-head over the distance in 1997, and Usain Bolt improved Mennea's record in 2009.


title: Running

text: Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 880-yard run, or half-mile, was the forebear to the 800 m distance and it has its roots in competitions in the United Kingdom in the 1830s. The 1500 m came about as a result of running three laps of a 500 m track, which was commonplace in continental Europe in the 1900s.


title: Running

text: Examples of longer-distance running events are long-distance track races, half marathons, marathons, ultramarathons, and multiday races.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The Thing is a 2011 American science fiction horror film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., written by Eric Heisserer, and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Eric Christian Olsen. It is a direct prequel to the 1982 film of the same name by John Carpenter, which was an adaptation of the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell. It tells the story of a team of scientists on a Norwegian Antarctic research station who discover a parasitic alien buried deep in the ice, realizing too late that it is still alive.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: "The Thing" premiered on October 10, 2011, and was released on October 14, 2011. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $31.5 million against a $38 million budget, with mixed reviews from critics.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: In the winter of 1982, an alien spacecraft and a nearby alien body are discovered buried in Antarctic ice by members of the Norwegian research station "Thule". American paleontologist Kate Lloyd is recruited by Dr. Sander Halvorson and assistant Adam Finch to investigate. They fly to Thule in a helicopter with pilots Sam Carter and Derek Jameson, and crewman Griggs. They meet station chief Edvard Wolner, along with his team of Juliette, Karl, Jonas, Henrik, Colin, Peder, Lars, and Lars' dog.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The body is excavated in a block of ice and returned to the Thule Station. During a party, Jameson sees the alien burst from the ice block. Searching for the alien, the team finds Lars' dog dead. The alien drags Henrik into itself, spattering blood on Olav. The group kills the alien with a flamethrower. An autopsy finds that the alien's cells were copying Henrik's. Olav falls ill.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: As Carter, Jameson, and Griggs are taking off in the helicopter to take Olav to a medical facility, Griggs transforms into a monstrous creature and attacks Olav causing the helicopter to crash in the mountains. Kate discovers dental fillings in a bloodied shower and tells the team that the alien can assimilate and imitate its victims and that it is now living among them. Edvard orders the team to drive to the closest base; however, Juliette and Kate want to prevent anyone from leaving. Juliette lures Kate into an abandoned room before transforming and attacking her. Kate escapes and the Juliette-Thing kills Karl. Lars kills the Juliette-Thing with a flamethrower and the team resolves to quarantine themselves until the threat is eliminated.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: That night, Carter and Jameson stagger back from the crashed helicopter. Suspected to be alien, they are imprisoned in isolation. As the alien does not assimilate inorganic material, Kate proposes everyone be checked for dental fillings. The test implicates Sander, Edvard, Adam, and Colin, who have no fillings.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: Lars is abducted while going to fetch Carter and Jameson for testing. Carter and Jameson break into the main building, shooting Peder dead and puncturing his flamethrower tank, causing an explosion and knocking Edvard unconscious. When brought to the main room, Edvard violently transforms, infects Jonas and Jameson, and gruesomely assimilates Adam. Kate burns Jonas and Jameson before they can fully transform, then she and Carter pursue the Thing, which assimilates Sander.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The Sander-Thing drives off into the night in a snowcat pursued by Kate and Carter. The spacecraft suddenly activates, separating them. Kate falls into the ship and confronts the monstrous Sander. She kills him with a grenade which shuts down the ship's engines. Kate finds Carter and notices he is missing his earring. Carter indicates the wrong ear so Kate burns the Carter-Thing and moves to the second snowcat before driving away, presumably headed for the Russian station.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The next morning, Thule's helicopter and pilot Matias return. Matias views the ruined station and the husk of the Edvard-Adam-Thing with horror. Colin has committed suicide, and Lars demands at gunpoint that Matias show his teeth. Lars' dog, thought dead, emerges and runs away. Realizing that the dog is a Thing, Lars orders Matias to give chase in the helicopter.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: After creating the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, producers Marc Abraham and Eric Newman began to look through the Universal Studios library to find new properties to work on. Upon finding John Carpenter's 1982 film "The Thing", the two convinced Universal to create a prequel instead of a remake, as they felt that remaking Carpenter's film would be like "paint(ing) a moustache on the "Mona Lisa"". Eric Newman explained; "I'd be the first to say no one should ever try to do "Jaws" again and I certainly wouldn't want to see anyone remake "The Exorcist"... And we really felt the same way about "The Thing". It's a great film. But once we realized there was a new story to tell, with the same characters and the same world, but from a very different point of view, we took it as a challenge. It's the story about the guys who are just ghosts in Carpenter's movie – they're already dead. But having Universal give us a chance to tell their story was irresistible."


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: In early 2009, "Variety" reported the launch of a project to film a prequel—possibly following MacReady's brother during the events leading up to the opening moments of the 1982 film—with Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. as director and Ronald D. Moore as writer. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. became involved in the project when his first planned feature film, a sequel to the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, a zombie film taking place in Las Vegas written and produced by Zack Snyder, who directed the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, and co-produced by Abraham and Newman, called "Army of the Dead", was cancelled by the studio three months before production began. Needing to start all over again, he asked his agent to see if there was a "The Thing" project in development, since "Alien" and "The Thing" are his favorite films. As a fan of Carpenter's film, he was interested in the project because, being European himself, he had always wondered what happened at the Norwegian camp. In March 2009, Moore described his script as a "companion piece" to Carpenter's film and "not a remake." "We're telling the story of the Norwegian camp that found the Thing before the Kurt Russell group did", he said. Eric Heisserer was later hired to do a complete rewrite of Moore's script. Heisserer explained that in writing the script, it was necessary for him to research all the information that was revealed about the Norwegian camp from the first film, down to the smallest details, so that it could be incorporated into the prequel in order to create a consistent backstory. The decision was made to name the film the same title as the first film, because the producers felt adding a "colon title" such as "" had felt less reverential. In April 2010, it was revealed that Scott Frank had been hired to work uncredited on new dialogue for the film.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. explained that he created the film not to simply be a horror film, but to also focus largely on the human drama with the interaction between characters, as the first film had. The director felt that horror films worked better when time was spent to explore the characters' emotional journeys, allowing the audience to care about them. Mary Elizabeth Winstead insisted that the film would not feature any romantic or sexual elements with her character, as it would be inappropriate considering the tone of the film. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje said that the film would try to recreate the feeling of paranoia and distrust that the first film had, where the characters can't tell who has been infected by the alien. The filmmakers drew additional inspiration for the film from the original novel "Who Goes There?", in making the characters in the film educated scientists as opposed to "blue collar" workers. However, the filmmakers drew no influence from the events of "The Thing" video game. The director also drew additional inspiration from the film "Alien" in creating the film, particularly in regard to casting a female lead, and in the way the alien creatures are filmed by not showing too much of them. Matthijs van Heijningen also cited the films of director Roman Polanski as influence, such as his work on "Rosemary's Baby". Actual Norwegian and Danish actors were cast in the film to play the Norwegian characters, and the director allowed the actors to improvise elements different from what was scripted when they felt it was appropriate, such as a scene where the characters sing a Norwegian folk song called "Sámiid ædnan". Many scenes involving characters speaking Norwegian were subtitled, and the language barrier between them and the English speaking characters is exploited to add to the film's feeling of paranoia. Director Matthijs van Heijningen said that the film would show the alien creature in its "pure form", as it was discovered in its ship by the Norwegians; however, it is not revealed whether this is the creature's original form or the form of another creature it had assimilated. Addressing rumors stating that John Carpenter wished to have a cameo appearance in the film, Carpenter himself corrected these in an interview for the fan site "Outpost 31", in August 2012. "[Those] rumors are not true", Carpenter stated in the interview.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The film was shot in the anamorphic format on 35mm film, as the director dislikes the look of films shot digitally. The director chose not to fast cut the film, instead opting for a slower pace, hoping to build a sense of impending dread. The prequel was filmed in Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port Lands on March 22, 2010 and ended on June 28, 2010. On set, the director had a laptop computer which contained "a million" screen captures of the Carpenter film, which he used as a point of reference to keep the Norwegian camp visually consistent with the first film. Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. of Amalgamated Dynamics created the practical creature effects for the film. In addition to creating the effects for the human-Thing transformations, Gillis, Woodruff and their team had the challenge of coming up with the look of the alien in the ice block unearthed by the Norwegians. While it was initially only intended to be shown as a silhouette, the director liked their designs and encouraged them to fully create the creature, which was realised by creating a monster suit that Tom Woodruff wore. The effects team opted to use cable-operated animatronics over more complex hydraulic controls, as they felt they gave a more "organic feel". In order to emulate the creature effects of the first film, Heisserer revealed that traditional practical effects would be used on the creatures whenever possible. The film's computer-generated imagery was created by Image Engine, the effects house who worked on Neill Blomkamp's 2009 film "District 9". Computer Graphics were used to digitally create extensions on some of the practical animatronic effects, as well as for digital matte paintings and set extensions. Alec Gillis stated that the advancement of animatronic technology since 1982 combined with digital effects allowed the effects team to expand upon the possible creature conceptions. Matthijs van Heijningen preferred to use practical effects over computer imagery, as he believed actors give better performances when they have something physical to react to. Speaking about the practical effects, he stated that acting with physical props "is much better than working with tennis balls [as markers]". However, in post-release interviews, Alec Gillis revealed that while Amalgamated Dynamics creature designs for the film remained intact, most of their practical effects ended up being digitally replaced in post-production. The creation of Gillis's all-practical-effects independent horror film "Harbinger Down" was partially in response to this. Stunt men covered in fire-retardant gel were used in scenes when characters are set on fire. The original Ennio Morricone score was reflected in the film's score, but it was initially reported that Morricone did not score the film, nor was his music from the 1982 version used.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The interior of the crashed alien spacecraft was created by production designer Sean Haworth. To design the ship, Haworth had to recreate what little was shown of the spacecraft in the Carpenter film, then "fill the gaps" for what was not originally shown. Haworth and a team of approximately twelve others then created the inside of the ship as a several story-high interior set constructed mostly out of a combination of foam, plaster, fiberglass, and plywood. The ship was designed specifically to look as if it were not made to accommodate humans, but rather alien creatures of different size and shape who could walk on any surface. A section of the craft called the "pod room" was designed to imply the alien creatures manning it had collected specimens of different alien species from around the universe for a zoological expedition.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: While the film was originally set for release in April, Universal Pictures changed the date to October 14, 2011, to allow time for reshoots. The intention of the reshoots was to "enhance existing sequences or to make crystal clear a few story beats or to add punctuation marks to the film's feeling of dread." On his Facebook page, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. claimed that the reshoots of the film included making an entirely different ending, referring to the original cut as the "Pilot Version" and the new cut as the "Tetris Version". In the original ending, Kate was to discover the original pilots of the spaceship which had all been killed by The Thing, which was an escaped specimen they had collected from another planet, implying that the ship was crashed in an attempt to kill the monster. "I liked that idea because it would be the Norwegian camp in space. Kate sees the pod room and one pod being broken, giving her the clues what happened. What didn't work was that she wanted to find Sander and stop the ship from taking off and still solve the mystery in the ship. These two energies were in conflict."


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The film was premiered in New York City on October 10, 2011, and was released on October 14, 2011 in the United States.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: "The Thing" grossed $8,493,665 over the opening weekend and ended up third on the box office chart. It was distributed to 2,996 theaters and spent a total of one week on the top 10 chart, before dropping down to the 16th position in its second week. It concluded its domestic run with a total of $16,928,670. Its box office collections were called "an outright disappointment" by Box Office Mojo, who goes on to say "[the film] was naturally at a disadvantage: a vague "thing" doesn't give prospective audiences much to latch on to. It was therefore left up to fans of the original, who are already familiar with the concept, to turn out in strong numbers." The film grossed $14,576,617 in foreign countries, bringing the total worldwide box-office gross to $31,505,287.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 34% based on 174 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It serves the bare serviceable minimum for a horror flick, but "The Thing" is all boo-scares and a slave to the far superior John Carpenter version." According to Metacritic, which assigned it a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 based on 31 critics, the film received "mixed or average reviews". In CinemaScore polls users gave the film a "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film a rating of 3 out of 4, saying "While I wish van Heijningen's "Thing" weren't quite so in lust with the '82 model, it works because it respects that basic premise; and it exhibits a little patience, doling out its ickiest, nastiest moments in ways that make them stick". Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com called it a "Loving prequel to a horror classic", saying "It's full of chills and thrills and isolated Antarctic atmosphere and terrific Hieronymus Bosch creature effects, and if it winks genially at the plot twists of Carpenter's film, it never feels even a little like some kind of inside joke." James Berardinelli gave it three stars out of four, saying that it "offers a similar overall experience" to the 1982 film, but "without replicating styles and situations". Christopher Orr of "The Atlantic" wrote that the narrative choices open to a prequel "exist on a spectrum from the unsurprising to the unfaithful", but van Heijningen "has managed this balancing act about as well as could be hoped" and although the line between homage and apery is a fine one, "in our age of steady knockoffs, retreads, and loosely branded money grabs, "The Thing" stands out as a competent entertainment, capably executed if not particularly inspired." Josh Bell of "Las Vegas Weekly" rated the film three out of five stars and wrote, "Winstead makes for an appealing protagonist, and Kate is portrayed as competent without being thrust into some unlikely action-hero role."


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: Kathleen Murphy of MSN Movies rated it two-and-a-half out of five stars, calling it "a subpar slasher movie tricked out with tired 'Ten Little Indians' tropes and rip-offs from both Carpenter and the Christian Nyby-Howard Hawks' 1951 version of the chilling tale that started it all, John W. Campbell Jr.'s "Who Goes There?"". Jim Vejvoda of IGN Movies also rated the film two-and-a-half out of five, saying, "This incarnation of "The Thing" is much like the creature it depicts: An insidious, defective mimic of the real, er, thing. It's not an entirely lost cause, but it is a needless one." Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, the same rating he gave the 1982 film. In Patrick Sauriol of Coming Attractions' review, he states, "Stack it up against John Carpenter's version and it looks less shiny, but let's face it, if you're that kind of Thing fan you're going to go see the new movie anyway. Try and judge today's Thing on its own merits." A brief review in "Fangoria" refers to the film as "Matthijs van Heijningen's prequel that proves modern CGI is no match for old-school makeup FX".


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The film was nominated for two awards at the 38th Saturn Awards, but lost to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "", respectively.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: "The Thing" was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 31, 2012 in the US. As of 2013, the film earned an additional $10,436,405 through Blu-ray and DVD sales.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The music composed for the film by Marco Beltrami was released on October 11, 2011. The soundtrack was released under the label Varèse Sarabande.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: AllMusic rated the album 3.5/5 saying, "Composer Marco Beltrami's appropriately tense and brooding score for director Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr.'s 2011 [prequel to] "The Thing" dutifully echoes Ennio Morricone's stark score for the original version, which in its own way echoed the soundtrack work of that film's director, John Carpenter."


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: On September 21, 2011, Dark Horse Comics released a three-part digital-only prequel comic, called "The Thing: The Northman Nightmare", over a weekly basis. Taking place in Greenland, it follows a group of stranded Norsemen who must deal with the shape-shifting creature within a desolate village. The three-issue tale was written by Steve Niles, drawn by Patric Reynolds and colored by Dave Stewart.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: The film was made into a maze at both Universal Studios Hollywood's and Universal Orlando Resort's 2011 Halloween Horror Nights events, having the subtitle "Assimilation" at Hollywood's version.


title: The Thing (2011 film)

text: In 2015, Aidan Cosky started a Change.org petition to release the "pilot version," which was promoted by Dread Central even though the petition closed due to a lack of followers. In 2020, the following social media hashtags: "#ReleaseThePilotVersion" and "#ReleaseTheStudioADIcut" were started in response to "Zack Snyder's Justice League" and the released BTS footage from Studio ADI on YouTube, while Bloody Disgusting and NerdBot published articles and YouTube videos calling it one of the most anticipated director's cut in horror movies.


title: Ivan Milat

text: Ivan Robert Marko Milat (27 December 1944 – 27 October 2019) was an Australian serial killer who was convicted in the backpacker murders in 1996. Commonly known as the Backpacker Murderer, Milat captured, assaulted, robbed and murdered two men and five women in New South Wales between 1989 and 1992. His modus operandi was to approach hitchhikers along the Hume Highway under the guise of providing them transport to areas of southern New South Wales, then take his victims into the Belanglo State Forest where he would incapacitate and murder them.


title: Ivan Milat

text: Ivan Milat was the son of a Croatian emigrant and labourer, Stjepan Marko "Steven" Milat (1902–1983), and an Australian, Margaret Elizabeth Piddleston (1920–2001), who married when she was 16. Milat was the fifth of their 14 children, and the growing family first lived in the Bossley Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, before relocating to Liverpool. Many of the ten Milat boys were well known to local police, and Milat displayed antisocial behaviour at a young age, leading to a stint in a residential school at age 13.


title: Ivan Milat

text: By age 17 Milat was in a juvenile detention centre for theft, and at age 19 he was involved in a shop break-in. In 1964 he was sentenced to 18 months for a break and enter, and a month after release he was arrested for driving a stolen car and sentenced to two years' hard labour. In September 1967, aged 22, he was sentenced to three years for theft.


title: Ivan Milat

text: In April 1971, Milat was charged with the abduction of two 18-year-old hitchhikers, one of whom he raped. While awaiting trial, he was involved in a string of robberies with some of his brothers before faking his suicide and fleeing to New Zealand for a year. He was rearrested in 1974, but the robbery and kidnap cases against him failed at trial with the help of the Milats' family lawyer, John Marsden. Milat took on a job as a truck driver in 1975, and by the time of his arrest he had worked on and off for the Roads & Traffic Authority for twenty years.


title: Ivan Milat

text: By the time of the initial discoveries in the Belanglo State Forest, several backpackers had been reported missing. One case involved a young Victorian couple from Frankston, Deborah Everist (19) and James Gibson (19), who had been missing since leaving Sydney for ConFest, near Albury, on 30 December 1989. Another related to Simone Schmidl (21), from Germany, who had been missing since leaving Sydney for Melbourne on 20 January 1991. Similarly, a German couple, Gabor Neugebauer (21) and Anja Habschied (20), had disappeared after leaving a Kings Cross hostel for Mildura on 26 December 1991. Another involved missing British backpackers Caroline Clarke (21) and Joanne Walters (22), who were last seen in Kings Cross on 18 April 1992.


title: Ivan Milat

text: On 19 September 1992, two runners discovered a concealed corpse while orienteering in the Belanglo State Forest. The following morning, police discovered a second body from the first. Police quickly confirmed, via dental records, that the bodies were those of Clarke and Walters. A search of the area failed to uncover any of the other missing backpackers.


title: Ivan Milat

text: In October 1993, however, a local man searching for firewood discovered bones in a particularly remote section of the forest. He returned with police to the scene where two bodies were quickly discovered and later identified as Gibson and Everist. The presence of Gibson's body in Belanglo puzzled investigators as his camera and backpack had previously been discovered at Galston Gorge, over to the north.


title: Ivan Milat

text: On 1 November 1993, a skeleton was found in a clearing along a fire trail in the forest during a police sweep. It was later identified as that of Schmidl. Clothing found at the scene was not Schmidl's, but matched that of another missing backpacker, Habschied. On 4 November 1993, the bodies of Habschied and Neugebauer were then found on a nearby fire trail in shallow graves apart.


title: Ivan Milat

text: Examination of the remains showed evidence that some of the victims had been tortured and did not die instantly from their injuries. In response, on 14 October 1993, Task Force Air, containing more than 20 detectives and analysts, was set up by the NSW Police.


title: Ivan Milat

text: On 5 November 1993, the NSW government increased the reward in relation to the killings to $500,000. After developing their profile of the killer, the police faced an enormous volume of data from numerous sources. Investigators applied link analysis technology and, as a result, the list of suspects was narrowed from a short list of 230 to an even shorter list of 32. Speculation arose that the crimes were the work of several killers, given that most of the victims had been attacked while as pairs, had been killed in different ways, and buried separately.