title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Photographic expeditions and geological surveys were undertaken for the duration of that summer, and constant radio communications were maintained with the outside world. After their first winter, their expeditions were resumed, and on November 28, 1929, the first flight to the South Pole and back was launched. Byrd, along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, flew the "Floyd Bennett" to the South Pole and back in 18 hours, 41 minutes. They had difficulty gaining enough altitude, and they had to dump empty gas tanks, as well as their emergency supplies, to achieve the altitude of the Polar Plateau, but they were ultimately successful.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: As a result of his achievement, Byrd was promoted to the rank of rear admiral by a special act of Congress on December 21, 1929. As he was only 41 years old at the time, this promotion made Byrd the youngest admiral in the history of the United States Navy. By way of comparison, none of his Annapolis classmates became admirals until 1942, after 30 years of commissioned service. He is one of only three persons, one being Admiral David Dixon Porter and the other being Arctic explorer Donald Baxter MacMillan, to have been promoted to the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy without having first held the rank of captain.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: After a further summer of exploration, the expedition returned to North America on June 18, 1930. Unlike the 1926 flight, this expedition was honored with the gold medal of the American Geographical Society. This was also seen in the film "With Byrd at the South Pole" (1930), which covered his trip there.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd, by then an internationally recognized, pioneering American polar explorer and aviator, served for a time as Honorary National President (1931–1935) of Pi Gamma Mu, the international honor society in the social sciences. He carried the society's flag during his first Antarctic expedition to dramatize the spirit of adventure into the unknown, characterizing both the natural and social sciences.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: To finance and gain both political and public support for his expeditions, Byrd actively cultivated relationships with many powerful individuals, including President Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Vincent Astor. As a token of his gratitude, Byrd named geographic features in the Antarctic after his supporters.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: On his second expedition in 1934, Byrd spent five winter months alone operating a meteorological station, Advance Base, from which he narrowly escaped with his life after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a poorly ventilated stove. Unusual radio transmissions from Byrd finally began to alarm the men at the base camp, who then attempted to go to Advance Base. The first two trips were failures due to darkness, snow, and mechanical troubles. Finally, Thomas Poulter, E. J. Demas, and Amory Waite arrived at Advance Base, where they found Byrd in poor physical health. The men remained at Advance Base until October 12. when an airplane from the base camp picked up Dr. Poulter and Byrd. The rest of the men returned to base camp with the tractor. This expedition is described by Byrd in his autobiography "Alone". It is also commemorated in a U.S. postage stamp issued at the time, and a considerable amount of mail using it was sent from Byrd's base at Little America.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: A CBS radio station, KFZ, was set up on the base camp ship, the "Bear of Oakland" and "The Adventures of Admiral Byrd" program was short-waved to Buenos Aires, then relayed to New York.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In late 1938, Byrd visited Hamburg, and was invited to participate in the 1938/1939 German "Neuschwabenland" Antarctic Expedition, but declined. (Although Germany was not at war with the United States at this time, Adolf Hitler had been serving as Führer of the German Reich since 1934, and invaded Poland the next year.)


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd's third expedition was the first one financed and conducted by the United States government. The project included extensive studies of geology, biology, meteorology, and exploration. The innovative Antarctic Snow Cruiser was brought with the expedition, but broke down shortly after arriving.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Within a few months, in March 1940, Byrd was recalled to active duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. The expedition continued in Antarctica without him until the last of its participants left Antarctica on March 22, 1941.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: As a senior officer in the United States Navy, Byrd was recalled on active duty on March 26, 1942, and served as the confidential advisor to Admiral Ernest J. King. From 1942 to 1945 he served on the South Pacific Island Base Inspection Board, which toured bases in the South Pacific in May and June 1942. The report submitted by the Board describes conditions found at each base and analyses, lessons learned in planning and equipping these bases. The report contains recommendations applicable to the individual bases and others designed to be helpful in the planning of future advanced bases. On 1 September 1943, in compliance with a series of letters from the President to the Secretary of the Navy, the Commander-in-Chief United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations ordered Byrd to assume direction of a survey and "investigation of certain islands in the East and South Pacific in connection with national defense and commercial air bases and routes." The members of the Special Navy Mission sailed from Balboa, Canal Zone, on USS Concord (CL-10), Captain Irving Reynold Chambers, commanding, in September 1943. A large explosion at sea on October 7, 1943 took the lives of 24 Concord crewmen, including the executive officer, Commander Rogers Elliott. Caused by ignition of gasoline fumes at the stern of the ship, the explosion threw some men overboard, while others were killed from concussion, burns, fractured skulls and broken necks. Several sailors died while trying to save their shipmates. The dead were buried at sea on October 8. On October 23, 1943, Byrd wrote a letter from Nuku Hiva (the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia) to Chambers, the ship's commanding officer, commending him and his crew "for the courage and efficiency" displayed following the explosion that made Byrd "feel proud to be an American. Great heroism was displayed, especially by the men who lost their lives rescuing the wounded." Byrd completed the Special Mission in December and participated in the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) in 1944-1945.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: On February 10, 1945, Byrd received the Order of Christopher Columbus from the government of the Dominican Republic. Byrd was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. He was released from active duty on October 1, 1945. In recognition of his service during World War II, Byrd received two awards of the Legion of Merit.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In 1946, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal appointed Byrd as officer in charge of Antarctic Developments Project. Byrd's fourth Antarctic expedition was code-named Operation Highjump. It was the largest Antarctic expedition to date and was expected to last 6–8 months.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The expedition was supported by a large naval force (designated Task Force 68), commanded by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen. Thirteen US Navy support ships (besides the flagship and the aircraft carrier ), six helicopters, six flying boats, two seaplane tenders, and 15 other aircraft were used. The total number of personnel involved was over 4,000.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The armada arrived in the Ross Sea on December 31, 1946, and made aerial explorations of an area half the size of the United States, recording 10 new mountain ranges. The major area covered was the eastern coastline of Antarctica from 150°E to the Greenwich meridian.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Admiral Byrd was interviewed by Lee van Atta of International News Service aboard the expedition's command ship USS "Mount Olympus", in which he discussed the lessons learned from the operation. The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947, edition of the Chilean newspaper "El Mercurio", and read in part:


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions. The admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles. This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. Talking about the recently completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States. The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In 1948, the U.S. Navy produced a documentary about Operation Highjump named "The Secret Land". The film shows live-action footage of the operation, along with a few re-enacted scenes. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: On December 8, 1954, Byrd appeared on the television show "Longines Chronoscope". He was interviewed by Larry LeSueur and Kenneth Crawford about his Antarctic voyages, and said that Antarctica, in the future, would become the most important place in the world for science.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: As part of the multinational collaboration for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) 1957–58, Byrd was appointed as officer in charge of the U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze I in 1955–56, which established permanent Antarctic bases at McMurdo Sound, the Bay of Whales, and the South Pole. This was Byrd's last trip to Antarctica, and marked the beginning of a permanent U.S. military presence in Antarctica. Byrd spent only one week in the Antarctic, and started his return to the United States on February 3, 1956.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Admiral Byrd died in his sleep of a heart ailment at the age of 68 on March 11, 1957, at his home at 7 Brimmer Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd was an active Freemason. He was raised (became a Master Mason) in Federal Lodge No. 1, Washington, DC, on March 19, 1921, and affiliated with Kane Lodge No. 454, New York City, September 18, 1928. He was a member of National Sojourners Chapter No. 3 at Washington. In 1930, Byrd was awarded a gold medal by Kane Lodge.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In 1931, Byrd became a compatriot of the Tennessee Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was assigned state membership number 605 and national membership number 50430. He received the society's War Service Medal for his service during the First World War.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: He was also a member of numerous other patriotic, scientific, and charitable organizations, including the Explorers Club, the American Legion, and the National Geographic Society.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: By the time he died, Byrd had amassed 22 citations and special commendations, nine of which were for bravery and two for extraordinary heroism in saving the lives of others. In addition, he received the Medal of Honor, the Silver Lifesaving Medal, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Navy Cross.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Admiral Byrd is the only person to have three ticker-tape parades in New York City (in 1926, 1927, and 1930) given in his honor.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd was one of only four American military officers in history entitled to wear a medal with his own image on it. The others were Admiral George Dewey, General John J. Pershing, and Admiral William T. Sampson. As Byrd's image is on both the first and second Byrd Antarctic Expedition Medals, he was the only American entitled to wear two medals with his own image on them.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: He was one of the recipients of the Langley Gold Medal, which is awarded by the Smithsonian Institution for outstanding achievement in aviation.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: He was the seventh recipient of the prestigious Hubbard Medal awarded by the National Geographic Society for his flight to the North Pole. Other recipients include Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen, and Charles Lindbergh.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd received numerous medals from nongovernmental organizations in honor of his achievements. These included the David Livingstone Centenary Medal of the American Geographical Society, the Loczy Medal of the Hungarian Geographical Society, the Vega Medal of the Swedish Geographical Society, and the Elisha Kent Kane Medal of the Philadelphia Geographical Society.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In 1927, the Boy Scouts of America made Byrd an Honorary Scout, a new category of scout created that same year. This distinction was given to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration, and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys ...".


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Also in 1927 the City of Richmond dedicated the Richard Evelyn Byrd Flying Field, now Richmond International Airport, in Henrico County, Virginia. Byrd's Fairchild FC-2W2, NX8006, "Stars And Stripes", is on display at the Virginia Aviation Museum located on the north side of the airport, on loan from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In 1929, Byrd received the Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America. Also in 1929, he received the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Lunar crater Byrd is named after him, as was the United States Navy dry cargo ship and the now decommissioned "Charles F. Adams"-class guided missile destroyer .


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: On March 31, 1934, during a regularly scheduled broadcast, Admiral Byrd was awarded the CBS Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Radio. Byrd's short-wave relay broadcasts, from his second Antarctic expedition, established a new chapter of communication history. Byrd was the sixth individual to receive this award.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The Institute of Polar Studies at the Ohio State University officially changed its name to the Byrd Polar Research Center (BPRC) on January 21, 1987, after it acquired Byrd's expeditionary records, personal papers, and other memorabilia in 1985 from the estate of Marie A. Byrd, the late wife of Admiral Byrd. His papers served as the nucleus for establishment of the BPRC Polar Archival Program in 1990. In 1958. the Richard Byrd library, part of the Fairfax County Public Library system opened in Springfield, Virginia.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Richard E. Byrd Elementary School, a Department of Defense school located in Negishi (Yokohama, Japan) opened on September 20, 1948. The name was changed to R.E. Byrd Elementary School on April 5, 1960.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Memorials to Byrd can be found in two cities in New Zealand (Wellington and Dunedin). Byrd used New Zealand as his departure point for several of his Antarctic expeditions.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The 50th anniversary of Byrd's first flight over the South Pole was commemorated in a set of two postage stamps by Australian Antarctic Territory in 1979, and a commemorative flag was designed.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The long-range short-wave voice transmissions from Byrd's Antarctic expedition in 1934 were named an IEEE Milestone in 2001.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Admiral Richard E. Byrd Middle School, located in Frederick County, Virginia, was opened in 2005, and is decorated with pictures and letters from Byrd's life and career.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd was inducted into the International Air and Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air and Space Museum in 1968.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Richard E. Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley, California, is named after Admiral Byrd. The school opened in its present location in 2008 after its original location was converted to Sun Valley High School.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Jacques Vallée in his book "Confrontations" mentions a "spurious story" about "'holes in the pole' allegedly found by Admiral Byrd", when he quotes Clint Chapin of the "Copper Medic" case as believing the UFOs came from inside the earth.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: In "Great Circle" by Maggie Shipstead, Byrd and the Little America bases are the final stop in Marian Graves' journey to circle the globe by flight over the North and South Poles.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Admiral Byrd was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the United States Navy. He is, probably, the only individual to receive the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Silver Life Saving Medal. He also was one of a very few individuals to receive all three Antarctic expedition medals issued for expeditions prior to the Second World War.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Note – The dates on the table below are the year the award was received and not necessarily the year of the actions the award recognizes.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd was posthumously eligible for the Antarctic Service Medal, established in 1960, for his participation in the Antarctic expeditions Operation Highjump (1946 to 1947) and Operation Deep Freeze (1955 to 1956).


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd also received numerous other awards from governmental and private entities in the United States.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Rank and organization: Commander, United States Navy. Born: October 25, 1888, Winchester, Va. Appointed from: Virginia.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: For distinguishing himself conspicuously by courage and intrepidity at the risk of his life, in demonstrating that it is possible for aircraft to travel in continuous flight from a now inhabited portion of the earth over the North Pole and return.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: Byrd, along with Machinist Floyd Bennett, was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Calvin Coolidge on March 5, 1927.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition I, in that on November 28, 1929 he took off in his "Floyd Bennett" from the Expedition's base at Little America, Antarctica and, after a flight made under the most difficult conditions he reached the South Pole on November 29, 1929. After flying some distance beyond this point he returned to his base at Little America. This hazardous flight was made under extreme conditions of cold, over ranges and plateaus extending nine to ten thousand feet above sea level and beyond probable rescue of personnel had a forced landing occurred. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, U.S.N, Retired, was in command of this flight, navigated the airplane, made the mandatory preparations for the flight, and through his untiring energy, superior leadership, and excellent judgment the flight was brought to a successful conclusion.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States, in demonstrating, by his courage and professional ability that heavier-than-air craft could in continuous flight travel to the North Pole and return.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting a Gold Star in lieu of a Second Award of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States as Commanding Officer of the U.S. Antarctic Service. Rear Admiral Byrd did much toward the difficult task of organizing the expedition, which was accomplished in one fourth of the time generally necessary for such undertakings. In spite of a short operating season, he established two Antarctic bases 1,500 miles apart, where valuable scientific and economic investigations are now being carried on. With the , he penetrated unknown and dangerous seas where important discoveries were made; in addition to which he made four noteworthy flights, resulting in the discovery of new mountain ranges, islands, more than a hundred thousand square miles of area, a peninsula and 700 miles of hitherto unknown stretches of the Antarctic coast. The operations of the Antarctic Service have been a credit to the Government of the United States. His qualities of leadership and unselfish devotion to duty are in accordance with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Legion of Merit to Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States while in command of a Special Navy Mission to the Pacific from August 27, 1943, to December 5, 1943, when thirty-three islands of the Pacific were surveyed or investigated for the purpose of recommending air base sites of value to the United States for its defense or for the development of post-war civil aviation. In this service Admiral Byrd exercised fine leadership in gaining the united effort of civilian, Army, and Navy experts. He displayed courage, initiative, vision, and a high order of ability in obtain data and in submitting reports which will be of great present and future value to the National Defense and to the Government of the United States in the post-war period.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting a Gold Star in lieu of a Second Award of the Legion of Merit to Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Confidential Advisor to the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations from March 26, 1942 to May 10, 1942, August 14, 1942 to August 26, 1943, and from December 6, 1943 to October 1, 1945. In the performance of his duty Rear Admiral Byrd served in the Navy Department and in various areas outside the continental limits of the United States, employed on special missions on the fighting fronts in Europe and the Pacific. In all assignments his thoroughness, attention to detail, keen discernment, professional judgment and zeal produced highly successful results. His wise counsel, sound advice and foresight in planning constituted a material contribution to the war effort and to the success of the United States Navy. The performance of duty of Rear Admiral Byrd was at all times in keeping with the highest traditions and reflected credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.


title: Richard E. Byrd

text: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (NSN: 0–7918), United States Navy, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight; in recognition of his courage, resourcefulness and skill as Commander of the expedition which flew the airplane "America" from New York City to France from June 29 to July 1, 1927, across the Atlantic Ocean under extremely adverse weather conditions which made a landing in Paris impossible; and finally for his discernment and courage in directing his plane to a landing at Ver sur Mer, France, without serious injury to his personnel, after a flight of 39 hours and 56 minutes.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Yoo Young-chul (; born 18 April 1970) is a South Korean serial killer, sex offender, and self-confessed cannibal. After he admitted to the murders of multiple people, mostly prostitutes and wealthy old women, the Seoul Central District Court convicted him of 20 murders, although one case was dismissed when it was identified as being committed by another serial killer, Jeong Nam-gyu. Yoo burned three and mutilated at least 11 of his victims, and admitted that he ate the livers of some of them. He committed his crimes between September 2003 to July 2004, and was apprehended on 15 July 2004. Yoo explained his motives in front of a TV camera saying "Women shouldn't be sluts, and the rich should know what they've done."


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Yoo was married in 1992 and had one son. Yoo was previously convicted 14 times for several different charges, and served a total of seven years in prison prior to his string of murders.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: From September to November 2003, Yoo killed several wealthy senior citizens by breaking into their houses and bludgeoning them with a hammer. To cover his tracks, Yoo made the scenes of his crime look like a robbery-homicide took place. However, no money was taken, which confused the police investigators. When the investigation started to intensify, Yoo switched to targeting female masseuses. In January 2004, Yoo was briefly arrested on a minor theft charge, but was released two days later.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Starting in March 2004, Yoo called sex workers to his residence in western Seoul and bludgeoned them after having sex with them. His victims were dismembered and mutilated to hinder their identification. They were buried in the mountains surrounding the city. Police recovered 11 bodies from the mountain behind Bongwon Temple after Yoo's arrest.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: During initial interrogations, Yoo confessed to killing 19 people. On July 18, 2004, he admitted to an additional murder: the killing of a 44-year-old male street vendor. Yoo eventually confessed to killing 26 individuals on July 19, 2004, several days after his arrest, although no details were given. The list of purported victims included several individuals that did not match his prior pattern of wealthy seniors or masseuses. Friends of two of the masseuse victims, whose bodies had been recovered, claimed they were not involved in massage therapy, meaning that Yoo could have other, unreported victims. Although the "Rainy Thursday" murderer was active contemporaneously starting in April 2004, stabbing multiple women late at night in southwest Seoul, police were unable to link Yoo to those murders.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Several days later, Yoo also confessed to killing a young woman (a worker in a clothing store) on 6 February 2004 in Imun-dong after he suspected her of being a sex worker. Yoo had approached her for questioning by pretending to be a police officer. Approximately a month after his arrest, Yoo confessed to eating the flesh of his victims, although no evidence to prove this was available.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Yoo was taken into custody on 15 July 2004 and confessed to murdering as many as 19 people initially, specifically targeting affluent senior citizens and masseuses. Yoo had raised suspicions by calling a massage parlor where several employees had recently gone missing after receiving similar phone calls, so the owner of the massage parlor, accompanied by several employees and a single police officer, went to the agreed-upon meeting place. The police officer left before Yoo arrived, and Yoo was apprehended by the employees of the massage parlor. Another police officer placed handcuffs on Yoo after he was detained by the massage parlor employees.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: While in custody, Yoo feigned epileptic symptoms and escaped from the police after his restraints were loosened. However, he was re-arrested twelve hours later. Yoo had attempted to escape after being arrested in 2002 for rape by faking an epileptic seizure.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: The mother of the Imun-dong murder victim rushed at Yoo with an umbrella when he was brought to the Prosecutor's office later in July, screaming that her daughter would still be alive if the police had captured him earlier. A policeman kicked the mother in the chest to subdue her, claiming that his hands were occupied in holding Yoo.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Based on the content of his apartment, searched after his arrest, there was some speculation that he patterned his killings after several movies, including "Public Enemy", "Very Bad Things", and "Normal Life". Yoo later confessed to being inspired by serial killer Jeong Du-yeong, who had murdered nine wealthy people in Busan from 1999 to 2000.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: On the killing of wealthy older people, prosecutors stated that he killed them out of a hostility that originated from his childhood poverty. Concerning Yoo's killing of women, prosecutors said his resentment stemmed from a lover who betrayed him, and he targeted women with similar jobs as his previous lover in a bid to retaliate. Yoo also told police he killed women because he hated them.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: A psychologist who assessed Yoo concluded that he was not mentally ill, but exhibited usual signs associated with anti-social disorder whereby a person creates their own belief system based on distrust of moral and social norms.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Police admitted they had little physical evidence linking Yoo to the murders. Yoo first appeared in court on 6 September 2004, refusing to defend himself, declaring his intention to boycott the remainder of the trial, and apologizing to the victims. Yoo boasted that he had no intention of stopping. When he was forced to return two weeks later, he lunged at the three presiding judges and recanted his confession for the February 2004 Imun-dong murder. He refused to appear at the next court session on 4 October 2004 after attempting suicide the night before. Yoo again disrupted a hearing three weeks later when he tried to attack a spectator who had cursed him, which ended with Yoo signing a statement that he would not cause further commotion.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: Prosecutors requested the death penalty, which Yoo thanked them for, and Yoo was sentenced to death on 13 December 2004 for 20 counts of murder (the count of murder for the woman in Imun-dong in February 2004 was thrown out). Prosecutors appealed the verdict to secure the 21st count of murder, but the lower court's sentence was upheld on 8 June 2005 by the Supreme Court.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: His case, which appalled South Koreans, has fueled the debate on capital punishment in South Korea. Although the death penalty is still permissible under law, it has not been carried out since 1997. It appeared capital punishment might be abolished prior to Yoo's arrest, but support for the death penalty has grown since learning of his crimes.


title: Yoo Young-chul

text: The Seoul Central District Court said: "Murders of as many as 20 people are unprecedented in the nation and a very serious crime. The death penalty is inevitable for you in light of the enormous pains inflicted on the families concerned and the entire society."


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The Supreme Leader of Iran () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Supreme Leader directs the executive system and judicial system of the Islamic theocratic government and is the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces. The Supreme Leader is the highest-ranking political and religious authority of Iran.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The armed forces, judiciary, state television, and other key government organisations such as Guardian Council and Expediency Discernment Council are subject to the Supreme Leader. According to the constitution, the Supreme Leader delineates the general policies of the Islamic Republic (article 110), supervising the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branches (article 57). The current lifetime officeholder, Ali Khamenei, has issued decrees and made the final decisions on the economy, the environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and other aspects of governance in Iran. Khamenei also makes the final decisions on the amount of transparency in elections, and has dismissed and reinstated presidential cabinet appointees. The Supreme Leader is legally considered "inviolable", with Iranians being routinely punished for questioning or insulting him.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The office was established by the Constitution of Iran in December 1979, pursuant to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's concept of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, and is a lifetime appointment. Originally the constitution required the Supreme Leader to be "Marja'-e taqlid", the highest-ranking cleric in the religious laws of Usuli Twelver Shia Islam. In 1989, however, the constitution was amended and simply asked for Islamic "scholarship" to allow the Supreme Leader to be a lower-ranking cleric. As the Guardian Jurist ("Vali-ye faqih"), the Supreme Leader, guides the country, protecting it from heresy and imperialist predations, and ensuring the laws of Islam are followed. The style "Supreme Leader" is commonly used as a sign of respect although the Constitution designates them simply as "Leader" (""). According to the constitution (Article 111), the Assembly of Experts is tasked with electing (following Ayatollah Khomeini), supervising, and dismissing the Supreme Leader. In practice, the Assembly has never been known to challenge or otherwise publicly oversee any of the Supreme Leader's decisions (all of its meetings and notes are strictly confidential). Members of the Assembly are chosen by bodies (the Guardian Council) whose members are appointed by the Supreme Leader or appointed by an individual (Chief Justice of Iran) appointed by the Supreme Leader.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: In its history, the Islamic Republic of Iran only has had two Supreme Leaders: Khomeini, who held the position from 1979 until his death in 1989 and Ali Khamenei, who has held the position for 30+ years since Khomeini's death.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The Persian term ' translates to the "Supreme Leader" in English. Although the Supreme Leader is officially called the "Supreme Leadership Authority" (, '), the Constitution of Iran also refers to the head of state as the "Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution" (, "").


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The Supreme Leader of Iran is elected by the Assembly of Experts (, ), which is also the only government body in charge of choosing and dismissing Supreme Leaders of Iran.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The Supreme Leader is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the head of the three branches of the state (the Judiciary, the Legislature, and the Executive).


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: Iran's regional policy is directly controlled by the office of the Supreme Leader with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' task limited to protocol and ceremonial occasions. All of Iran's ambassadors to Arab countries, for example, are chosen by the Quds Force, which directly reports to the Supreme Leader.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: According to the constitution, all Supreme Leaders (following Ayatollah Khomeini) are to be elected by the Assembly of Experts who are elected by Iranian voters to eight year terms.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: However, all candidates for membership at the Assembly of Experts (along with candidates for President and for the Majlis (parliament)) must have their candidacy approved by the Guardian Council (in 2016 166 candidates were approved by the Guardians out of 801 who applied to run for the office), whose members in turn, are half appointed unilaterally by the Supreme Leader and half subject to confirmation by the Majlis after being appointed by the head of the Iranian judiciary (Chief Justice of Iran), who is himself appointed by the Supreme Leader. Thereby, the Assembly has never questioned the Supreme Leader. There have been cases where incumbent Ali Khamenei publicly criticized members of the Assembly, resulting in their arrest and subsequent removal. There also have been cases where the Guardian Council repealed its ban on particular people after being directed to do so by Khamenei. The Supreme Leader is legally considered "inviolable", with Iranians being routinely punished for questioning or insulting him.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: In March 1979, shortly after Ruhollah Khomeini's return from exile and the overthrow of Iran's monarchy, a national referendum was held throughout Iran with the question "Islamic Republic, yes or no?". Although some groups objected to the wording and choice and boycotted the referendum, 98% of those voting voted "yes". Following this landslide victory, the constitution of Iran of 1906 was declared invalid and a new constitution for an Islamic state was created and ratified by referendum during the first week of December in 1979. According to Francis Fukuyama, the 1979 constitution is a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements" with much of it based on the ideas Khomeini presented in his published book "" ("Hukumat-e Islami"). In the work, Khomeini argued that government must be run in accordance with traditional Islamic "sharia", and for this to happen a leading Islamic jurist ("faqih") must provide political "guardianship" ("wilayat" or "velayat") over the people. The leading jurist were known as "Marja'."


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The Constitution stresses the importance of the clergy in government, with Article 4 stating that all civil, criminal, financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and all other statutes and regulations (must) be keeping with Islamic measures;…the Islamic legal scholars of the watch council (Shura yi Nigahban) will keep watch over this. and the importance of the Supreme Leader. Article 5 states


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: during the absence of the removed Twelfth Imam (may God hasten his reappearance) government and leadership of the community in the Islamic Republic of Iran belong to the rightful God fearing legal scholar (Faqih) who is recognized and acknowledged as the Islamic leader by the majority of the population.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: Article 107 in the constitution mentions Khomeini by name and praises him as the most learned and talented leader for emulation ("marja-i taqlid"). The responsibilities of the Supreme Leader are vaguely stated in the constitution, thus any 'violation' by the Supreme Leader would be dismissed almost immediately. As the rest of the clergy governed affairs on a daily basis, the Supreme Leader is capable of mandating a new decision as per the concept of Vilayat-e Faqih.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: Shortly before Khomeini's death a change was made in the constitution allowing a lower ranking Shia cleric to become Supreme Leader. Khomeini had a falling out with his successor Hussein-Ali Montazeri who disapproved of human rights abuses by the Islamic Republic such as the mass execution of political prisoners in late summer and early autumn 1988. Montazeri was demoted as a marja and Khomeini chose a new successor, a relatively low-ranking member of the clergy, Ali Khamene'i. However Article 109 stipulated that the leader be "a source of imitation" (Marja-e taqlid). Khomeini wrote a letter to the president of the Assembly for Revising the Constitution, which was in session at the time, making the necessary arrangements to designate Khamene'i as his successor, and Article 109 was revised accordingly. "Khomeini is supposed to have written a letter to the Chairman of the assembly of Leadership Experts on 29.4.89 in which he emphasised that he had always been of the opinion that the marja'iyat was not a requirement for the office of leader.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: The constitution of Iran combines concepts of both democracy and theocracy, theocracy in the form of Khomeini's concept of "vilayat-e faqih" (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), as expressed in the "Islamic Republic". According to Ayatollah Khomeini, the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist was not restricted to orphans or mental incompetents, but applied to everyone in absence of the twelfth Imam. Jurists were the only rightful political/governmental leaders because "God had commanded Islamic government" and "no one knew religion better than the ulama" (Islamic clergy). They alone would preserve "Islamic order" and keep everyone from deviating from "the just path of Islam". Prior to the revolution observant Shia Muslims selected their own leading faqih to emulate (known as a "Marja'-i taqlid") according to their own decision making. The "congregation rather than the hierarchy decided how prominent the ayatollah was" thus allowing the public to possibly limit the influence of the Faqih.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: After the revolution Shia Muslims (or at least Iranian Shia) were commanded to show allegiance to the current "vali-e faghih", Guardian Jurist or Supreme Leader. In this new system, the jurist oversaw all governmental affairs. The complete control exercised by the Faqih was not to be limited to the Iranian Revolution because the revolution and its Leader had international aspirations. As the constitution of the Islamic Republic states, it


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: intends to establish an ideal and model society on the basis of Islamic norms. ... the Constitution provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the Revolution at home and abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the Constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare the way for the formation of a single world community (in accordance with the Koranic verse `This your community is a single community, and I am your Lord, so worship Me` [21:92]), and to assure the continuation of the struggle for the liberation of all deprived and oppressed peoples in the world.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: According to author Seyyed Vali Nasr, Khomeini appealed to the masses, during the pre-1979 period, by referring to them as the oppressed and with charisma and political ability was tremendously successful. He became a very popular role model for Shiites and hoped for the Iranian Revolution to be the first step to a much larger Islamic revolution, transcending Shia Islam, in the same way that Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky wanted their revolution to be a world revolution, not just a Russian one.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: Iranian vice supreme leader role (Deputy Supreme leader) was incorporated into the authority of the supreme leader.


title: Supreme Leader of Iran

text: During the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, amid longstanding rumors of Khamenei's declining health, it was recommended to Khamenei to reestablish the office of deputy supreme leader to transition towards new leadership better.


title: Organic compound

text: In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The study of the properties, reactions, and syntheses of organic compounds comprise the discipline known as organic chemistry. For historical reasons, a few classes of carbon-containing compounds (e.g., carbonate salts and cyanide salts), along with a few other exceptions (e.g., carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide), are not classified as organic compounds and are considered inorganic. Other than those just named, little consensus exists among chemists on precisely which carbon-containing compounds are excluded, making any rigorous definition of an organic compound elusive.


title: Organic compound

text: Although organic compounds make up only a small percentage of Earth's crust, they are of central importance because all known life is based on organic compounds. Living things incorporate inorganic carbon compounds into organic compounds through a network of processes (the carbon cycle) that begins with the conversion of carbon dioxide and a hydrogen source like water into simple sugars and other organic molecules by autotrophic organisms using light (photosynthesis) or other sources of energy. Most synthetically-produced organic compounds are ultimately derived from petrochemicals consisting mainly of hydrocarbons, which are themselves formed from the high pressure and temperature degradation of organic matter underground over geological timescales. This ultimate derivation notwithstanding, organic compounds are no longer defined as compounds originating in living things, as they were historically.


title: Organic compound

text: In chemical nomenclature, an organyl group, frequently represented by the letter R, refers to any monovalent substituent whose open valence is on a carbon atom.


title: Organic compound

text: For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds, such as carbides, carbonates (excluding carbonate esters), simple oxides of carbon (for example, CO and CO), and cyanides are considered inorganic. Different forms (allotropes) of pure carbon, such as diamond, graphite, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes are also excluded because they are simple substances composed of only a single element and therefore are not generally considered to be chemical "compounds".


title: Organic compound

text: Vitalism was a widespread conception that substances found in organic nature are formed from the chemical elements by the action of a "vital force" or "life-force" ("vis vitalis") that only living organisms possess.


title: Organic compound

text: In the 1810s, Jöns Jacob Berzelius argued that a regulative force must exist within living bodies. Berzelius also contended that compounds could be distinguished by whether they required any organisms in their synthesis (organic compounds) or whether they did not (inorganic compounds). Vitalism taught that formation of these "organic" compounds were fundamentally different from the "inorganic" compounds that could be obtained from the elements by chemical manipulations in laboratories.


title: Organic compound

text: Vitalism survived for a short period after the formulation of modern ideas about the atomic theory and chemical elements. It first came under question in 1824, when Friedrich Wöhler synthesized oxalic acid, a compound known to occur only in living organisms, from cyanogen. A further experiment was Wöhler's 1828 synthesis of urea from the inorganic salts potassium cyanate and ammonium sulfate. Urea had long been considered an "organic" compound, as it was known to occur only in the urine of living organisms. Wöhler's experiments were followed by many others, in which increasingly complex "organic" substances were produced from "inorganic" ones without the involvement of any living organism, thus disproving vitalism.


title: Organic compound

text: Although vitalism has been discredited, scientific nomenclature retains the distinction between "organic" and "inorganic" compounds. The modern meaning of "organic compound" is any compound that contains a significant amount of carbon—even though many of the organic compounds known today have no connection to any substance found in living organisms. The term "carbogenic" has been proposed by E. J. Corey as a modern alternative to "organic", but this neologism remains relatively obscure.


title: Organic compound

text: The organic compound -isoleucine molecule presents some features typical of organic compounds: carbon–carbon bonds, carbon–hydrogen bonds, as well as covalent bonds from carbon to oxygen and to nitrogen.


title: Organic compound

text: As described in detail below, any definition of organic compound that uses simple, broadly-applicable criteria turns out to be unsatisfactory, to varying degrees. The modern, commonly accepted definition of organic compound essentially amounts to any carbon-containing compound, excluding several classes of substances traditionally considered 'inorganic'. However, the list of substances so excluded varies from author to author. Still, it is generally agreed upon that there are (at least) a few carbon-containing compounds that should not be considered organic. For instance, almost all authorities would require the exclusion of alloys that contain carbon, including steel (which contains cementite, FeC), as well as other metal and semimetal carbides (including "ionic" carbides, e.g, AlC and CaC and "covalent" carbides, e.g. BC and SiC, and graphite intercalation compounds, e.g. KC). Other compounds and materials that are considered 'inorganic' by most authorities include: metal carbonates, simple oxides (CO, CO, and arguably, CO), the allotropes of carbon, cyanide derivatives not containing an organic residue (e.g., KCN, (CN), BrCN, CNO, etc.), and heavier analogs thereof (e.g., CP 'cyaphide anion', CSe, COS; although CS 'carbon disulfide' is often classed as an "organic" solvent). Halides of carbon without hydrogen (e.g., CF and CClF), phosgene (COCl), carboranes, metal carbonyls (e.g., nickel carbonyl), mellitic anhydride (CO), and other exotic oxocarbons are also considered inorganic by some authorities.


title: Organic compound

text: Nickel carbonyl (Ni(CO)) and other metal carbonyls are often volatile liquids, like many organic compounds, yet they contain only carbon bonded to a transition metal and to oxygen, and are often prepared directly from metal and carbon monoxide. Nickel carbonyl is typically classified as an "organometallic compound" as it satisfies the broad definition that organometallic chemistry covers all compounds that contain at least one carbon to metal covalent bond; it is debatable whether organometallic compounds form a subset of organic compounds, however. For example, the evidence of covalent Fe-C bonding in cementite, a major component of steel, places it within this broad definition of organometallic, yet steel and other carbon-containing alloys are seldom regarded as organic compounds. Thus, it is unclear whether the definition of organometallic should be narrowed, whether these considerations imply that organometallic compounds are not necessarily organic, or both.


title: Organic compound

text: Metal complexes with organic ligands but no carbon-metal bonds (e.g., Cu(OAc)) are not considered organometallic; instead, they are classed as "metalorganic". Likewise, it is also unclear whether metalorganic compounds should automatically be considered organic.


title: Organic compound

text: The relatively narrow definition of organic compounds as those containing C-H bonds excludes compounds that are (historically and practically) considered organic. Neither urea nor oxalic acid are organic by this definition, yet they were two key compounds in the vitalism debate. The IUPAC Blue Book on organic nomenclature specifically mentions urea and oxalic acid. Other compounds lacking C-H bonds but traditionally considered organic include benzenehexol, mesoxalic acid, and carbon tetrachloride. Mellitic acid, which contains no C-H bonds, is considered a possible organic substance in Martian soil. Terrestrially, it, and its anhydride, mellitic anhydride, are associated with the mineral mellite (AlC(COO)·16HO).


title: Organic compound

text: A slightly broader definition of the organic compound includes all compounds bearing C-H or C-C bonds. This would still exclude urea. Moreover, this definition still leads to somewhat arbitrary divisions in sets of carbon-halogen compounds. For example, CF and CCl would be considered by this rule to be "inorganic", whereas CFH, CHCl, and CCl would be organic, though these compounds share many physical and chemical properties.


title: Organic compound

text: Organic compounds may be classified in a variety of ways. One major distinction is between natural and synthetic compounds. Organic compounds can also be classified or subdivided by the presence of heteroatoms, e.g., organometallic compounds, which feature bonds between carbon and a metal, and organophosphorus compounds, which feature bonds between carbon and a phosphorus.


title: Organic compound

text: Another distinction, based on the size of organic compounds, distinguishes between small molecules and polymers.


title: Organic compound

text: Natural compounds refer to those that are produced by plants or animals. Many of these are still extracted from natural sources because they would be more expensive to produce artificially. Examples include most sugars, some alkaloids and terpenoids, certain nutrients such as vitamin B, and, in general, those natural products with large or stereoisometrically complicated molecules present in reasonable concentrations in living organisms.


title: Organic compound

text: Further compounds of prime importance in biochemistry are antigens, carbohydrates, enzymes, hormones, lipids and fatty acids, neurotransmitters, nucleic acids, proteins, peptides and amino acids, lectins, vitamins, and fats and oils.


title: Organic compound

text: Compounds that are prepared by reaction of other compounds are known as "synthetic". They may be either compounds that are already found in plants/animals or those artificial compounds that do not occur naturally.


title: Organic compound

text: Most polymers (a category that includes all plastics and rubbers) are organic synthetic or semi-synthetic compounds.


title: Organic compound

text: Many organic compounds—two examples are ethanol and insulin—are manufactured industrially using organisms such as bacteria and yeast. Typically, the DNA of an organism is altered to express compounds not ordinarily produced by the organism. Many such biotechnology-engineered compounds did not previously exist in nature.


title: Organic compound

text: The main tools are proton and carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy, IR Spectroscopy, Mass spectrometry, UV/Vis Spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: Annapurna Pictures is an independent American media company founded by Megan Ellison in 2011, that specializes in film production, live theatre production, television through its Annapurna Television division, and video game publishing through its Annapurna Interactive division.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: Annapurna Pictures was founded in 2011 by Megan Ellison as a production and finance entity focusing on high-end auteur-driven cinema.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: After attending University of Southern California’s film school for two semesters, Ellison left in 2005 and traveled the world. Among her stops was Nepal, where she trekked on the Himalayan mountain Annapurna, for which her production company is named.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: By 2014 Annapurna had produced and/or financed the films "Lawless", "The Master", "Killing Them Softly", "Zero Dark Thirty", "Spring Breakers", "The Grandmaster", "Her", "Foxcatcher", and "American Hustle", and was starting production on "Joy", "Sausage Party", "Wiener-Dog", "20th Century Women", and "Everybody Wants Some!!".


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In December 2016, the company announced its new division, Annapurna Interactive, to produce, develop, and distribute video games with several active projects in development, planned for release in 2017.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In January 2017, the company announced they would begin distributing films, with their first being "Detroit" directed by Kathryn Bigelow, set for release on August 4, 2017. They later signed a multi-year distribution deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on March 27, in which MGM will distribute all of Annapurna's films in select international territories. On April 6, the company also announced an exclusive, multi-year output licensing agreement with Hulu.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In May 2017, Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna announced a three-year production deal to partner on at least three films a year, with Annapurna handling distribution and marketing. As part of the deal, Annapurna received the rights to Adam McKay's film "Vice" starring Christian Bale as Dick Cheney. It was also announced Annapurna would co-distribute "Brad's Status" through their MGM joint venture Mirror alongside Amazon Studios. In July, the company signed a multi-year U.S. home entertainment pact with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to oversee its home releases.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: Since Sony Pictures' contract to co-produce the "James Bond" series with MGM and Eon Productions expired with the release of "Spectre", Annapurna, along with five major studios – Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Sony itself – vied to win the rights to the next film as of April 2017. It was then announced that MGM had secured the domestic, digital and worldwide television rights to the film. Universal was announced as the international distributor of the film and holder of the rights for physical home entertainment distribution.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In October 2017, Annapurna and MGM announced the formation of a U.S. distribution joint venture in which each studio would release their films individually. This marked a return to domestic theatrical distribution for MGM and an expansion of Annapurna's distribution division, with MGM releasing approximately six to eight films per year on a limited basis and Annapurna releasing four to six films per year, in a combined slate of fourteen films. While the two companies are sharing costs for the joint venture's operations, Annapurna's distribution and marketing teams supported the MGM titles, which were distributed under the MGM banner while Annapurna-produced films continued to be distributed under its own banner. The two studios also launched Mirror, a releasing entity that pursues theatrical opportunities for additional third-party films. However, this partnership is not exclusive to all MGM films, as several of them continued to be released through existing studio partners, such as Warner Bros. and Paramount. The newly relaunched Orion Pictures and future worldwide distributor plans for the "James Bond" franchise, are also not included, which MGM announced on "a later date", May 24, 2018, to have been won by Universal Pictures.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In October 2018, Annapurna signed a music publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music, which administered the studio's film and TV compositions and scores.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In February 2019, Annapurna and MGM rebranded and expanded their U.S. distribution joint venture to release both MGM and Annapurna films under United Artists Releasing, with the distribution teams of Annapurna and Orion Pictures (whose films are added as well) joining the venture and former Screen Gems executive Pam Kunath joining as COO in addition to the heads of MGM and Annapurna joining the board of directors. The decision was made to coincide with the United Artists brand's 100th anniversary, and has plans to release 10–14 films a year through the new label, including the domestic release of "No Time to Die" (which marks a reunion between the UA brand and the James Bond franchise after two decades).


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: In December 2022, Annapurna launched its animation division with former Blue Sky Studios executives Robert Baird and Andrew Millstein leading the new studio. "Nimona" is set as its first release.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: Most of the films produced by the company have received widespread critical acclaim. In 2013 alone, "Her", "American Hustle" and "The Grandmaster" had a combined seventeen Academy Award nominations. Commercially, results have been mixed. Some films like "The Master", "Foxcatcher", "Joy", "Detroit" and "Vice", however, do not return their budget while ones such as "Zero Dark Thirty", "Sausage Party" and "American Hustle" have grossed more than $100 million, the latter grossing more than $250 million worldwide.


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: Annapurna Television is an television production company of Annapurna Pictures, launched on September 27, 2016, and was formerly headed by HBO executive Sue Naegle (with her label, Naegle Ink, now part of the division). In January 2017, it was reported that Annapurna Television would produce the Coen brothers' first TV project, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs".


title: Annapurna Pictures

text: Annapurna Interactive published its first video game "What Remains of Edith Finch" on April 25, 2017. "What Remains of Edith Finch" received "universal acclaim" on PC and "generally positive" reviews on PS4, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. The publisher has also provided funding and publication support for "The Artful Escape" by Beethoven & Dinosaur, "Ashen" by A44 and "Gorogoa" by Jason Roberts. Annapurna Interactive is also responsible for publishing Twelve Minutes, a point-and-click adventure game about a man stuck in a time-loop, released on August 19, 2021.


title: Charon

text: In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; ) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead. Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing their ashes. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon's mytheme are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices, or else the coins function as a viaticum for the soul's journey. In Virgil's epic poem, "Aeneid", the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river.


title: Charon

text: Some mortals, heroes, and demigods were said to have descended to the underworld and returned from it as living beings. This journey is known as catabasis, and those who undergo it may acquire partial or full immortality, either through persuasion or payment of another, more exceptional fee. To pay for his entry to Hades as a living mortal, Virgil's Aeneas gives Charon the Golden Bough.


title: Charon

text: The name Charon is most often explained as a proper noun from (), a poetic form of () 'of keen gaze', referring either to fierce, flashing, or feverish eyes, or to eyes of a bluish-gray color. The word may be a euphemism for death. Flashing eyes may indicate the anger or irascibility of Charon as he is often characterized in literature, but the etymology is not certain. The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus thought that the ferryman and his name had been imported from Egypt. Charon is first attested in the now fragmentary Greek epic poem "Minyas", which includes a description of a descent to the underworld and possibly dates back to the 6th century BC.


title: Charon

text: Charon is depicted in the art of ancient Greece. Attic funerary vases of the 5th and 4th centuries BC are often decorated with scenes of the dead boarding Charon's boat. On the earlier such vases, he looks like a rough, unkempt Athenian seaman dressed in reddish-brown, holding his ferryman's pole in his right hand and using his left hand to receive the deceased. Hermes sometimes stands by in his role as psychopomp. On later vases, Charon is given a more "kindly and refined" demeanor.


title: Charon

text: In the 1st century BC, the Roman poet Virgil describes Charon, manning his rust-colored skiff, in the course of Aeneas's descent to the underworld ("Aeneid", Book 6), after the Cumaean Sibyl has directed the hero to the golden bough that will allow him to return to the world of the living:


title: Charon

text:
There Charon stands, who rules the dreary coast –
A sordid god: down from his hairy chin
A length of beard descends, uncombed, unclean;
His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.


title: Charon

text: Other Latin authors also describe Charon, among them Seneca in his tragedy "Hercules Furens", where Charon is described in verses 762–777 as an old man clad in foul garb, with haggard cheeks and an unkempt beard, a fierce ferryman who guides his craft with a long pole. When the boatman tells Heracles to halt, the Greek hero uses his strength to gain passage, overpowering Charon with the boatman's own pole.


title: Charon

text: In the second century, Lucian employed Charon as a figure in his "Dialogues of the Dead", most notably in Parts 4 and 10 ("Hermes and Charon" and "Charon and Hermes").


title: Charon

text: In the 14th century, Dante Alighieri described Charon in his "Divine Comedy", drawing from Virgil's depiction in "Aeneid" 6. Charon is the first named mythological character Dante meets in the underworld, in Canto III of the "Inferno". Dante depicts him as having eyes of fire. Elsewhere, Charon appears as a mean-spirited and gaunt old man or as a winged demon wielding a double hammer, although Michelangelo's interpretation, influenced by Dante's depiction in the "Inferno", shows him with an oar over his shoulder, ready to beat those who delay (“batte col remo qualunque s'adagia”, "Inferno" 3, verse 111). In modern times, he is commonly depicted as a living skeleton in a cowl, much like the Grim Reaper. The French artist, Gustave Dore, depicted Charon in two of his illustrations for Dante's "Divine Comedy". The Flemish painter, Joachim Patinir, depicted Charon in his "Crossing the River Styx". And the Spanish painter, Jose Benlliure y Gil, portrayed Charon in his "La Barca de Caronte".


title: Charon

text: Most accounts, including Pausanias (10.28) and later Dante's "Inferno" (3.78), associate Charon with the swamps of the river Acheron. Ancient Greek literary sources – such as Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, Plato, and Callimachus – also place Charon on the Acheron. Roman poets, including Propertius, Ovid, and Statius, name the river as the Styx, perhaps following the geography of Virgil's underworld in the "Aeneid," where Charon is associated with both rivers.


title: Charon

text: The hadrosaurid "Charonosaurus" is named in Charon's honor because it was found along the banks of the Amur River in the Far East.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and finally as the PRI beginning in 1946.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The PNR was founded in 1929 by Plutarco Elías Calles, Mexico's paramount leader at the time and self-proclaimed (Supreme Chief) of the Mexican Revolution. The party was created with the intent of providing a political space in which all the surviving leaders and combatants of the Mexican Revolution could participate and to solve the severe political crisis caused by the assassination of President-elect Álvaro Obregón in 1928. Although Calles himself fell into political disgrace and was exiled in 1936, the party continued ruling Mexico until 2000, changing names twice until it became the PRI.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The PRI maintained absolute power over the country for most of the twentieth century: besides holding the Presidency of the Republic, until 1976 all members of the Senate belonged to the PRI, while all of the state governors were also from the PRI until 1989. Throughout the seven decades that the PRI governed Mexico, the party used a combination of corporatism, co-option and repression to hold power, while often resorting to electoral fraud. In particular, the presidential elections of 1940, 1952 and 1988 were characterized by massive irregularities and fraudulent practices denounced by both domestic and international observers. While during the early decades of PRI rule Mexico benefited from an economic boom which improved the quality of life of most people and guaranteed political and social stability, issues such as inequality, corruption and the lack of democracy and political freedoms cultivated growing opposition against the PRI, culminating in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in which the Army killed hundreds of unarmed student demonstrators. In addition, a series of economic crises beginning in the 1970s drastically lowered the living standards of the population.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Throughout its nine-decade existence, the party has featured a very wide array of ideologies (the one in use during any given period often determined by the President of the Republic at that time). During the 1980s the party went through reforms that shaped its current incarnation, with policies characterized as center-right, such as the privatization of state-run companies, closer relations with the Catholic Church, and embracing free-market capitalism. At the same time, many left-wing members of the party abandoned the PRI and founded the Party of the Democratic Revolution (, PRD) in 1989.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: In 1990, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa famously described Mexico under the PRI regime as being "the perfect dictatorship", stating: "I don't believe that there has been in Latin America any case of a system of dictatorship which has so efficiently recruited the intellectual milieu, bribing it with great subtlety. The perfect dictatorship is not communism, nor the USSR, nor Fidel Castro; the perfect dictatorship is Mexico. Because it is a camouflaged dictatorship." The phrase became popular in Mexico and internationally, until the PRI fell from power in 2000.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: After losing the presidency in the 2000 elections, the PRI held most of the state governments and performed strongly at local levels; nonetheless, in the 2006 presidential election the PRI's performance was the worst of its history up to that point, with its candidate Roberto Madrazo finishing in third place having failed to carry a single state. In spite of this defeat, the PRI continued to perform strongly at municipal and state levels. As a result, the PRI won the 2009 legislative election, and in 2012 it regained the presidency after winning the elections of that year with Enrique Peña Nieto as candidate. However, dissatisfaction with Peña Nieto's administration as a result of numerous corruption scandals and the government's inability to curb the crime rate led to the PRI and its nominee José Antonio Meade losing the elections in 2018, with a performance even worse than the 2006 low.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The adherents of the PRI are known in Mexico as "Priístas" and the party is nicknamed "El tricolor" (Tricolor) because of its use of the Mexican national colors of green, white and red as found on the Mexican flag.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The PRI is described by some scholars as a "state party", a term which captures its non-competitive history and character of the party itself, and the inextricable connection between the party and the Mexican nation-state for much of the 20th century.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: According to the "Statesman Journal", for more than seven decades, the PRI ran Mexico under an "autocratic, endemically corrupt, crony-ridden government". The elites of the PRI ruled the police and the judicial system, and justice was only available if purchased with bribes. During its time in power, the PRI became a symbol of corruption, repression, economic mismanagement, and electoral fraud; many educated Mexicans and urban dwellers worried that its return could signify a return to Mexico's past.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Although it is a full member of the Socialist International, the PRI is not considered a social democratic party in the traditional sense.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: At first glance, the PRI's name looks like a confusing oxymoron or paradox to speakers of English, for they normally associate the term "revolution" with the destruction of "institutions". As Rubén Gallo has explained, the Mexican concept of institutionalizing the Revolution simply refers to the corporatist nature of the party; that is, the PRI subsumed the "disruptive energy" of the Revolution (and thereby ensured its own longevity) by co-opting and incorporating its enemies into its bureaucratic government as new institutional sectors.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: There is a lexicon of terms used to describe people and practices of the PRI, that were fully operative until the 1990s. The most important was the "dedazo", with the finger ("dedo") of the president pointing to the PRI candidate for the presidency, meaning the president choosing his successor. Right up to the moment the president considered optimal, several pre-candidates would attempt to demonstrate their loyalty to the President and their high competence in their position, usually as high cabinet members. Until the 2000 election, the party had no direct input into the president's decision, although he could consult with constituencies. The president's decision was a closely kept secret, even from the victor.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The "destape" "(the unveiling)", that is, the announcement of the president's choice, would take place at the PRI's National Assembly (which would typically take place in November of the year previous to the elections), with losing pre-candidates learning only then themselves. Once the "destape" occurred, in general the members of the PRI would demonstrate their enthusiasm for the candidate and their loyalty to the party, known as the "cargada". But the "destape" was also a delicate moment, for party unity depended on the losers acceding to the president's choice without public rancor or dissent. When Miguel de la Madrid (1982–1988) chose Carlos Salinas de Gortari as the candidate in 1988, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo left the PRI to form a separate party, and Cárdenas challenged Salinas at the polls. The 1988 presidential election which followed is widely considered to have been fraudulent, and was confirmed as such by former president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado and an analysis by the "American Political Science Review".


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The term "alquimistas" ("alchemists") referred to PRI specialists in vote-rigging. To achieve a complete sweep of elections, the "carro completo" (“full car”), the party used the campaign mechanism of the "acarreo" (“hauling”), the practice of trucking PRI supporters to rallies to cheer the candidate and to polling places to vote for them in exchange for gifts of some kind. The party shifted the voting booth from one place to onother, making it difficult for people to cast their votes.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: When it was founded in 1929, the party structure created a means to control political power and to perpetuate it with regular elections validating the party's choice. Before the party was founded, political parties were not generally the means in which to achieve the presidency. The creation of the party in the wake of the assassination of revolutionary general, former president, and in 1928 president-elect Alvaro Obregón had laid bare the problem of presidential succession with no institutional structures. Obregón was one of three revolutionary generals from Sonora, with Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta, who were important for the post-revolutionary history of Mexico. Their collective and then internecine struggles for power in the decade after the end of the military phase of the Mexican Revolution had a direct impact on the formation of the party in 1929.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: In 1920, the Sonorans staged a coup against President Venustiano Carranza, the civilian First Chief of the Constitutionalist faction that had won the Mexican Revolution. Carranza had attempted to impose his own candidate for the presidency, Ignacio Bonillas. Bonillas had zero revolutionary credentials and no power base of his own, with the implication that Carranza intended to hold onto power after the end of his term. This would have been a violation of the no re-election principle of post-revolutionary Mexico, which had its origins in the 19th century. With the support of the revolutionary army, the Sonoran generals' Plan of Agua Prieta successfully challenged Carranza's attempt to perpetuate his power; Carranza was killed as he was fleeing the country. De la Huerta became interim president of Mexico and Obregón was elected president for a four-year term, 1920–1924.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: As Obregón's four-year term was ending, Calles made a bid for the presidency. De la Huerta, a fellow Sonoran, challenged Calles with a massive and bloody uprising, supported by other revolutionary generals opposed to Calles. The De la Huerta rebellion was crushed, but the outbreak of violence was only a few years after the apparent end of the Mexican Revolution, raising the specter of renewed violence. Calles succeeded Obregón in 1924, and shortly thereafter he began enforcing the restrictions on the Catholic Church in the year of 1917 Constitution, resulting in a huge rebellion by those opposed to such restrictions, known as the Cristero War (1926–29). The Cristero War was ongoing when elections were to be held.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Obregón sought to run again for the presidency in 1928 to succeed Calles, but because of the principle of no-re-election in the Mexican Constitution, the two Sonorans sought a loophole to allow the former president to run. The Constitution was amended to allow re-election if the terms were not-consecutive. With that change, Obregón ran in the 1928 election and won; but before his inauguration he was assassinated by a religious fanatic. Given that Calles had just served as president, even with the constitutional change to allow a form of re-election, he was ineligible to run. The founding of a national political party that had an existence beyond elections became the mechanism to control the power through peaceful means.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The party had two names before taking its third and current name, but its core has remained the same. It has been characterized as "in the 1960s as 'strongly dominant party', in the 1970s a 'pragmatic hegemonic state', and in the 1990s as a 'single party'". The close relationship between the PRI and the Mexican state has been examined by a number of scholars.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Even though the armed phase of the Mexican Revolution had ended in 1920, Mexico continued to encounter political unrest. A grave political crisis caused by the July 1928 assassination of president-elect Álvaro Obregón led to the founding on 4 March 1929 of the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR) by Plutarco Elías Calles, Mexico's president from 1924 to 1928. Emilio Portes Gil was interim president of Mexico from December 1928 until February 1929, while a political rather than military solution was sought for presidential succession.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The intent to found the party was to institutionalize the power of particular victors of Mexican Revolution. Calles was ineligible to run for president, since he had just completed a four-year term, because of the prohibition in the 1917 Constitution of re-election directly after serving a term as president. Calles sought to stop the violent struggle for power between the victorious factions of the Revolution, particularly around the presidential elections and to guarantee the peaceful transmission of power for members of the party. A conclave of revolutionary generals including Calles met to create a national party, forging together their various regional strongholds. They were not primarily concerned with ideology, but rather to hold power. Formally, the PNR was a political party, but it has been labeled a "confederation of caciques" ("political bosses").


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The new party-in-formation did not contain any labor elements. At the time, the strongest labor organization was the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) controlled by Luis N. Morones. CROM had a political wing, the Laborist Party. Calles went to the Laborist Party convention and addressed the membership in a conciliatory fashion, but Morones launched into a diatribe against Emilio Portes Gil, the interim president of Mexico, for disrespecting Morones personally. It was a political gaffe for Calles, and he withdrew from the organizing committee of the party, but he turned it to his advantage in the long run, appearing to be a referee or arbiter in the party, and impartial senior statesman.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The PNR incorporated other political parties under its umbrella, the "Partido Radical Tabasqueño", of Tomás Garrido Canabal; the Yucatán-based "Partido Socialists del Sureste", of Felipe Carrillo Puerto; and the "Partido Socialista Fronterizo" of Emilio Portes Gil, the current interim president. CROM's political arm, the Laborist Party, was not part of the coalition. The party developed a written set of principles and a platform that drew support from "agraristas" and workers in the Laborist Party. "The PNR is the instrument of political action by means of which Mexico's great campesino and worker masses fight to keep control of the public power in their hands, a control wrested from the landowning and privileged minorities through the great armed movement that began in 1910."


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: One possible presidential candidate for the PNR was Aarón Sáenz Garza, former governor of the state of Nuevo León, who was the brother-in-law of Calles's son, and was involved with Calles family businesses, but his political views were too far to the right of the PNR to be considered. Ideology trumped family connections. The choice fell to Pascual Ortiz Rubio, a revolutionary general who had been out the country, serving as Mexico's ambassador to Brazil, so had no political base in Mexico.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: When the 1929 Mexican general election was held, the first political test of the newly founded party. Calles made a speech in June 1929 saying that while the Revolution had produced achievements in the economic and social spheres that in the political sphere it was a failure. He called for a "struggle of ideas" that invited the formation of new parties. The PNR had as its candidate Pascual Ortiz Rubio, but running against him as the candidate for the Anti-Reelectionist Party was the high-profile former Secretary of Education, José Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos had considerable support among university students, the middle class, intellectuals, and some workers from Mexico's northeast. According to historian Enrique Krauze, the 1929 campaign saw the PNR's "initiation into the technology of electoral fraud, a 'science' that later became its highly refined speciality." Tactics included breaking up political meetings and insults, to the extreme of murder of Vasconcelos supporters. Ortiz Rubio won the election in a landslide, but the results would likely have been different were the election clean. The party did largely contain the political violence of former revolutionary generals.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: In the first years of the party's existence, the PNR was the only political machine in existence. During this period, known as "Maximato" (named after the title Calles gave himself as "Maximum Chief of the Revolution"), Calles remained the dominant leader of the country and Ortiz Rubio (1929–32) and Abelardo L. Rodríguez (1932-34), have been considered in practice subordinates of Calles.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Calles chose revolutionary general Lázaro Cárdenas as his successor. Cárdenas was originally from the southern state of Michoacan, but he joined the Revolution in the north, serving with Calles. The "Jefe Máximo" had no idea that Cárdenas would take his own path as he settled into the presidency. He had campaigned widely throughout the country, making a national reputation for himself and forming personal connections throughout the country outside the corridors of power. Calles had become increasingly conservative in his views, ending land reform for all practical purposes and cracking down on organized labor. Under Cárdenas, unions went on strike and were not suppressed by the government. As Cárdenas increasingly diverged in his thinking and practice from Calles, Calles sought to regain control. Cárdenas, however, had outmaneuvered Calles politically, gaining allies among labor unions and peasants as well as the Catholic Church. Calles had attempted to strictly enforce the anticlerical provisions of the Constitution, which led directly to conflict with the Catholic Church and its loyalists, so that in the conflict between the two generals, the Church sided with Cárdenas. Cárdenas had Calles arrested along with many of his allies, exiling the former president to the United States.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Cárdenas became perhaps Mexico's most popular 20th-century president, most renowned for the 1938 expropriating the oil interests of the United States and European petroleum companies in the run-up to World War II. That same year Cárdenas put his own stamp on the party, reorganizing it in 1938 as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: "Partido de la Revolución Mexicana", PRM) whose aim was to establish a democracy of workers and socialism. However, this was never achieved.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Cárdenas's intention was to establish the broad-based political alliances necessary for the party's long-term survival, as a national party with territorial presence in state and municipal governments, and organization of mass interest groups, via corporatism. The structure he established has remained intact. He created sectors of the party and structured them into mass organizations to represent different interest groups within the party, to protect the interests of workers and peasants.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The PRM had four sectors: labor, peasant ("campesino"), "popular", mainly teachers and civil servants; and the military. The labor section was organized via the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM); the peasant sector by the , (CNC); and the middle class sector by the Federation of Unions of Workers in Service to the State (FSTSE). The party incorporated the majority of Mexicans through their mass organizations, but absent from the structure for ideological reasons were two important groups, private business interests and adherents of the Catholic Church. Those two came together in 1939 to form the National Action Party, which grew to be the major opposition party, winning the presidency in 2000.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The most powerful labor union prior to the formation of the party was the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM), headed by Luis N. Morones, an ally of Obregón and Calles. A dissident within the CROM, Marxist Vicente Lombardo Toledano, formed a rival labor confederation, the CTM in 1936, which became the mass organization of labor within the PRM. Lombardo stepped down from the leadership of the CTM in 1941, after Cárdenas left the presidency. He was replaced by Fidel Velázquez, who remained head of the CTM until his death at age 97. Within the party structure and the government, labor has had a continuous, formalized, visual corporate role, but with Velazquez's death in 1997, organized labor has fractured.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Peasants were organized via the "Confederación Nacional Campesina" (CNC), or National Peasant Confederation, which Cárdenas saw as a force against landowners, but it became the vehicle for patron-client / state-campesino relationships. Whether the intention or not of Cárdenas, the CNC became a means to channel and control the peasantry.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The so-called "popular" sector of the party was organized via the "Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares" (CNOP), which was formed in 1943 to integrate sectors of the urban middle class into the party. Unlike the peasantry or labor, the popular sector was a more ill-defined segment, but it did include the large Federation of Unions of Civil Servants ("Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado" (FSTSE).


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: By incorporating the military into the PRM structure, Cárdenas's aim was to make it politically dependent on the party rather than allow it to be a separate group outside the party and potentially a politically interventionist force. Although some critics questioned the military's incorporation into the party, Cárdenas saw it as a way to assert civilian control. He is quoted as saying, “We did not put the Army in politics. It was already there. In fact it had been dominating the situation, and we did well to reduce its voice to one in four.” In general, the corporatist model is most often associated with fascism, whose rise in Germany and Italy in the 1930s coincided with Cárdenas's presidency.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: But Cárdenas was emphatically opposed to fascism; however, he created the PRM and organized the Mexican state on authoritarian lines. That reorganization can be seen as the enduring legacy of the Cárdenas presidency. Although the PRM was reorganized into the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1946, the basic structure was retained. Cárdenas's calculation that the military's incorporation into the PRM would undermine its power was essentially correct, since it disappeared as a separate sector of the party, but was absorbed into the “popular” sector. The organizational change in the PNR to the PRM, and later the PRM to the PRI, were "imposed by Mexican presidents without any discussion within the party."


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Cárdenas followed the pattern of Calles and Obregón before him, designating his choice in the upcoming elections; for Cárdenas this was Manuel Ávila Camacho. In the 1940 election, Ávila Camacho's main rival was former revolutionary general Juan Andreu Almazán, with PRM victory coming via fraud after a violent campaign period. Cárdenas is said to have secured the support of the CTM and the CNC for Ávila Camacho by personally guaranteeing their interests would be respected.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: In the final year of Ávila Camacho's term the party assembly decided on a new name, pushed by the circle of Miguel Alemán, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, pairing seemingly contradictory terms of "institutional" and "revolutionary."


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The party's name was changed in 1946, the final year of Manuel Ávila Camacho's term of office. The sectoral representation in the party continued for the workers, peasants, and the popular sector, but the military was no longer represented by its own sector. The Mexican president was at the apex of the political system with the PRI. To reach the top of the government, as the candidate and then president of the republic, the path was only through membership and leadership in the party and government service. Within the party, there were factions, the "técnicos", bureaucrats with specialized knowledge and training, especially with the economy, and "políticos", the seasoned politicians, many of whom had regional roots in state politics.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Miguel Alemán was the PRI's candidate in the 1946 elections, but he did not run unopposed. Alemán and his circle had hoped to abandon sectoral representation in the party and separate the party as an organism of the state, but there was considerable pushback from the labor sector and the CTM, which would have lost influence, along with the other sectors. The structure of the party remained sectoral, but the Alemanistas abandoned the goal that had been "the preparation of the people for the implementation of a workers' democracy and for the arrival of a socialist regime." The party slogan was changed from the PRM's "For a workers' democracy" ("Por una democracia de trabajadores") to the PRI's "Democracy and justice" ("Democracia y justicia").


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: In practice after Cárdenas left office, the party became more centrist, and his more radical agrarian policies were abandoned. With Lombardo Toledano's replacement as leader of the CTM, labor under the CTM's Fidel Velázquez became even more closely identified with the party. The more radical left of the labor movement, under Vicente Lombardo Toledano, split from the PRI, the Partido Popular. Although the party gave voice to workers' demands, since it was outside the umbrella of the PRI and lost power and influence. The leadership of component unions became advocates of PRI policy at the expense of the rank and file in exchange for political backing from the party and financial benefits. These "charro" ("cowboy") unions turned out the labor vote at election time, a guaranteed base of support for the party. During prosperous years, CTM could argue for benefits of the rank-and-file, such as higher wages, networking to provide jobs for union loyalists, and job security. The principle of no-reelection did not apply to the CTM, so that the party loyalist Velázquez provided decades of continuity even as the presidency changed every six years.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The PRI won every presidential election from 1929 to 1982, by well over 70 percent of the vote—margins that were usually obtained by massive electoral frauds. Toward the end of his term, the incumbent president in consultation with party leaders, selected the PRI's candidate in the next election in a procedure known as "the tap of the finger" (), which was integral in the continued success of the PRI towards the end of the 20th century. In essence, given the PRI's overwhelming dominance, and its control of the electoral apparatus, the president chose his successor. The PRI's dominance was near-absolute at all other levels as well. It held an overwhelming majority in the Chamber of Deputies, as well as every seat in the Senate and every state governorship.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: The political stability and economic prosperity in the late 1940s and the 1950s benefited the party, so that in general Mexicans did not object to the lack of real democracy.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Starting with the Alemán administration (1946–1952) until 1970, Mexico embarked on a sustained period of economic growth, dubbed the Mexican Miracle, fueled by import substitution and low inflation. From 1940 to 1970 GDP increased sixfold while the population only doubled, and peso-dollar parity was maintained at a stable exchange rate.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: Economic nationalist and protectionist policies implemented in the 1930s effectively closed off Mexico to foreign trade and speculation, so that the economy was fueled primarily by state investment and businesses were heavily reliant on government contracts. As a result of these policies, Mexico's capitalist impulses were channeled into massive industrial development and social welfare programs, which helped to urbanize the mostly-agrarian country, funded generous welfare subsidies for the working class, and fueled considerable advances in communication and transportation infrastructure. This period of commercial growth created a significant urban middle class of white-collar bureaucrats and office workers, and allowed high-ranking PRI officials to graft large personal fortunes through their control over state-funded programs. State monopoly over key industries like electricity and telecommunication allowed a small clique of businessmen to dominate their sectors of the economy by supplying government-owned companies with goods and commodities.


title: Institutional Revolutionary Party

text: A major impact of Mexico's economic growth was urban population growth, transforming the country from a largely rural one to urban. The middle class grew substantially. The overall population of Mexico grew substantially with a greater proportion being under the age of 16. These factors combined to decrease the pull of the past. The policies promoting industrial growth helped fuel the growth of Mexico's north as a center of economic dynamism, with the city of Monterrey becoming Mexico's second-largest.