title: Nissan 300ZX

text: In Japan, the 300ZX continued until August 2000. The Japanese Domestic Market was offered a number of variants unavailable to the international market such as the "Version S" (Spec Model), “Version R” (Ready Model) and Slicktop Twin Turbo (the most expensive trim option only available in Version S guise).


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: Version S was a base grade specification that includes all necessary road trim and items as standard, such as stereo and A/C. It could be ordered with various options separately. Options were available separately by order only, and include:


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: Available only on 2+2 LWB 4-Seater with the only major options being in N/A or Twin Turbo configuration, with automatic or manual transmissions, this trim came with preset options from the factory at a reduced (combined) cost, giving customers a “ready” model by which to order if they didn’t feel like ordering options one by one. This presented buyers with an easier choice selection and a “base model” car by which to settle for.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: The aforementioned facelift of late 1998 featured a new front fascia, tail lights, optional Xenon HID headlights, optional rear spoiler, optional BBS mesh wheels, orange rear corner lights and an instrument cluster with white dials as well as other minor changes.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: Early model Z32s (made pre-1994) and sold in Japan did not have Exhaust Gas Recirculation systems nor Air Injection Valve systems. All JDM Z32s used a front rebar system made out of fiberglass rather than steel (like their American Market counterparts), and also had different exhaust systems with lighter weight Catalytic Converters (with only one set on the JDM Twin Turbo model vs. two sets on the USDM Twin Turbo models). Given the lack of these regulatory items, JDM Z32s often weighed 100+lbs (45+kg) less than their American specification counterparts.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: The Z32 chassis underwent some changes during its production run between 1989 and 2000 (Japan) and 1990 to 1996 (US). The Z32’s extended model year sales in 1990 reached 39,290 units.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: Nissan aired a commercial during Super Bowl XXIV in 1990 advertising the new Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. The 60-second commercial was directed by Ridley Scott and only aired once. Executives at Nissan pulled the commercial after the initial airing when they became concerned the commercial would promote street racing since the commercial features the 300ZX being faster than a sport bike, a Formula One car and a fighter jet.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: Another memorable 300ZX commercial is "Toys" from 1996. Inspired by the film "Toy Story", the commercial is set to Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" and depicts a G. I. Joe-like action figure coming to life, getting behind the wheel of a red 300ZX radio-controlled car and picking up a Barbie-like doll for a date, stealing her away from her husband, who resembles Ken. They then drive around the feet of Mr K, a caricature of former Nissan executive Yutaka Katayama acted by Dale Ishimoto, who smiles as he watches them go by. Toy manufacturer Mattel filed a lawsuit against Nissan in 1997, claiming the ad's use of dolls that resemble G. I. Joe, Barbie and Ken amounted to "trademark and copyright infringement" and caused "irreparable injury to Mattel's name, business reputation and goodwill." Mattel sought unspecified damages and an injunction that would pull the ad off the air. Nissan defended the ad, claiming that the dolls were named "Roxanne", "Nick" and "Tad" and that they were modeled after celebrities. Mattel and Nissan eventually settled the lawsuit out of court and observers noted that the lawsuit ultimately just gave Nissan and the advertisement further exposure and publicity.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: The 300ZX was campaigned during 1984 and 1985 in showroom stock racing. The car scored a Trans Am win in 1986 at Lime Rock by Paul Newman for Bob Sharp Racing. This would be the only Trans Am win by a 300ZX.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: From 1985 to 1987, the Electramotive-developed GTP ZX-Turbo was raced in the IMSA GT Championship's GTP class and also the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, badged as a Fairlady Z, using a Lola T810 chassis and a VG30ET engine. Following development through 1987, the car would become dominant in IMSA GT in 1988. Additional factory endorsement, combined with a new chassis, transmission and more reliable Goodyear tires contributed to the team's success. The SOHC VG30ET was making upwards of , with a power band that extended from 4,000 to 9,000 rpm on a single turbo.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: From 1990 to 1995, Steve Millen drove the twin turbo 300ZX for Clayton Cunningham Racing. The car dominated the IMSA in its GTO, then later GTS categories due to its newly designed chassis and engine. Millen would rank as the #1 Factory Driver for Nissan for 7 years and earn two IMSA GTS Driving Championships and two IMSA GTS Manufacturer's Championships. The biggest triumph for the Z32 racecar was the victory in the 1994 24 Hours of Daytona. In the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 300ZX ranked first in the GTS-1 class and 5th overall. In an attempt to level the playing field in the GTS-1 class by reducing the allowable horsepower, the IMSA declared the twin turbo VG engine ineligible for the 1995 season. The 1995 GTS 300ZX car would debut with the V8 Nissan VH engine at Daytona and would place first in the GTS-1 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and Moosehead Grand Prix in Halifax.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: The JUN-BLITZ Bonneville Z32 holds the E/BMS class land speed record of 260.87 mph (419.84 km/h) set at the 1995 Bonneville Speed Trial. The vehicle was built as a partnership between JUN Auto and BLITZ. In 1990, JUN's first Z32 went 210.78 mph (339.2 km/h) at their Yatabe test course and hit 231.78 mph (373 km/h) after some tuning at Bonneville.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: From the year it was introduced, the Z32 has also won many comparison tests against similar sports cars such as the Mitsubishi 3000GT/Dodge Stealth, Mazda RX-7, Chevrolet Corvette, Toyota Supra, Dodge Viper, and the Porsche 968.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: In Australia, the 1990 to 1995 Nissan 300ZX was assessed in the Used Car Safety Ratings brochure as providing "average" protection for its occupants in the event of a crash.


title: Nissan 300ZX

text: In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the 1991-1993 300ZX 3 out of 5 stars in front driver collision crash test ratings.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Chocolat () is a 2000 film, based on the 1999 novel "Chocolat" by the English author, Joanne Harris, directed by Lasse Hallström. Adapted by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, "Chocolat" tells the story of Vianne Rocher, played by Juliette Binoche, who arrives in the fictional French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the beginning of Lent with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk. She opens a small chocolaterie. Soon, she and her chocolate influence the lives of the townspeople of this repressed French community in different and interesting ways.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: The film began a limited release in the United States on December 22, 2000, and went on general release on January 19, 2001. Critics gave the drama positive reviews and a number of accolades, praising its acting performances, its screenplay, and Rachel Portman's score. It received five nominations at the 73rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Binoche won the European Film Award for Best Actress for her performance, while Dench was awarded a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2001.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Vianne and her six-year-old daughter, Anouk, drift across Europe following the north wind like her mother before her. In 1959, they arrive in a quiet, French village overseen by village mayor the Comte de Reynaud at the start of the 40 days of Lent. Vianne opens a chocolate shop.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Although not fitting in well with the townspeople, Vianne begins to make headway with some of the villagers to come to her shop. Reynaud, who will not admit his wife left him, speaks out against Vianne for tempting the people during Lent.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Armande, Vianne's elderly landlady, is one of Vianne's first allies. Her daughter Caroline will not let her see her grandson Luc as she is a "bad influence". Vianne arranges for him and his grandmother to meet in the chocolaterie, where they bond. After finding out about their secret meetings, Caroline reveals her mother is diabetic, but Armande continues to eat the chocolate regardless.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Vianne develops a friendship with Josephine, who is being physically abused by her husband Serge, who runs the local café. Through their friendship, Josephine finds the courage to leave Serge after a beating, moving in with Vianne and Anouk. As she works at the chocolate shop and learns the craft, her confidence slowly increases. Simultaneously, under Reynaud's instruction, Serge attempts to make amends for his abusiveness, eventually asking Josephine to come back to him, but she refuses. Later that night, a drunken Serge breaks into the chocolaterie, attacking both women, but Josephine knocks him out.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: As the rivalry between Vianne and Reynaud intensifies, a band of river Romani camp near the village. Although most of the town objects to their presence, Vianne embraces them, and a mutual attraction develops between her and the leader Roux. They hold a birthday party for Armande with villagers and Romani on Roux's boat. When Caroline sees Luc dancing with his grandmother, she begins to accept that Armande's influence in her son's life may be positive. Luc takes Armande home after the party, while Josephine and Anouk fall asleep on a boat. Roux and Vianne make love. Serge sets fire to the boat while Josephine and Anouk sleep. They escape unharmed, but Vianne is shaken. Armande dies in her home with Luc discovering her, devastating both him and his mother. After the fire, Roux packs up and leaves with his group.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Reynaud initially believes the fire was divine intervention until Serge confesses to starting it, saying he thought it was what he wanted. Horrified, Reynaud orders him to leave the village and not to come back.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: With the return of the north wind, Vianne decides she cannot win against Reynaud, and decides to move on. Anouk, now attached to the town, refuses to go, and during a scuffle, the urn containing Vianne's mother's ashes breaks, scattering them over the floor. While recovering the ashes, Vianne sees the townspeople and the positive influence she's had on their lives, making chocolate for the festival she planned for Easter Sunday. Vianne decides to stay.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Despite shifting sentiment in the town, Reynaud remains staunch in his abstinence. On the Saturday evening before Easter, Reynaud sees Caroline, to whom he is attracted, leaving the chocolaterie and is devastated. He breaks into Vianne's shop that night, smashing the special window display for the Easter festival. After a morsel of chocolate falls on his lip, he devours much of the chocolate in the window before collapsing in tears and falling asleep. The next morning, Vianne wakes him and gives him a drink to help him. Reynaud apologizes for his behavior. The town's young priest Père Henri gives a sermon emphasizing the importance of humanity over divinity.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: The narrator, a grown-up Anouk, reveals that the sermon and festival are a success. Reynaud and Caroline start a relationship half a year later. Josephine takes over Serge's café, renaming it Café Armande. The north wind returns, but this time Vianne throws her mother's ashes out into the wind. Anouk concludes the story: Roux returns in the summer to be with Vianne and Anouk.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Filming took place between May and August 2000 in the medieval village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in the region of Burgundy and on the Rue De L'ancienne Poste in Beynac-et-Cazenac in Dordogne. The river scenes were filmed at Fonthill Lake at Fonthill Bishop in Wiltshire and interior scenes at Shepperton Studios, England.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: "Chocolat" grossed US$152,699,946 worldwide, on a production budget of US$25 million. It was not successful in France.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: The film received a mixture of reviews from critics with some critics dismissive of the film's tone. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 62% of 117 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.99/10. The website's critical consensus states, ""Chocolat" is a charmingly light-hearted fable with a lovely performance by Binoche". On Metacritic, which uses a normalized rating system, the film holds a 64/100 rating, based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: "Chicago Tribune" critic Michael Wilmington called "Chocolat" "a delightful confection, a cream-filled (and slightly nutty) bon-bon of a [...] tantalizing, delectable and randy movie of melting eroticism and toothsome humor." He felt that the film "is a feast of fine actors – and every one of them is a joy to watch." Similarly, Peter Travers from "Rolling Stone" declared the project "a sinfully scrumptious bonbon [...] "Chocolat" may be slight, but don't discount Hallstrom's artful finesse [...] Except for some indigestible whimsy "Chocolat" is yummy." Roger Ebert, writing for the "Chicago Sun-Times", gave the film three out of four stars. He found the film was "charming and whimsical, and Binoche reigns as a serene and wise goddess." "New York Post"s Lou Lumenick called "Chocolat" "the soothing cinematic equivalent of a warm cup of decadently rich cocoa," led by "melt-in-your-mouth performances" from Binoche, Molina and Dench.


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: In his review for "Variety", Lael Loewenstein found that "Hallstrom couldn't have asked for a better cast to embody those themes; likewise, his production team has done an exquisite job of giving life to Robert Nelson Jacobs’ taut script. "Chocolat" [...] is a richly textured comic fable that blends Old World wisdom with a winking, timely commentary on the assumed moral superiority of the political right." Mick LaSalle of the "Los Angeles Times" remarked that the film was "as delectable as its title, but for all its sensuality it is ultimately concerned with the spirit." He noted that "Chocolat" "is a work of artistry and craftsmanship at the highest level, sophisticated in its conception and execution, yet possessed of wide appeal." "The New York Times" critic Elvis Mitchell found the film "extraordinarily well cast" and wrote: "This crowd-pleaser is the feature-film version of milk chocolate: an art house movie for people who don't like art house movies."


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Lisa Schwarzbaum, writing for "Entertainment Weekly", graded the film with a 'B−' rating, summarizing it "as agreeably sweet as advertised, with a particularly yummy performance by Juliette Binoche," while Jay Carr from "The Boston Globe" found that the film "may not be deep, but it certainly is lip-smacking." Mike Clark of "USA Today" was more cutting in his review, saying that there are "never enough goodies to keep the two-hour running time from seeming like three." In another negative review, Dennis Lim from "The Village Voice" criticized the film for its "condescending, self-congratulatory attack on provincial sanctimony." He called "Chocolat" an "airy, pseudo-folkloric gibberish at best."


title: Chocolat (2000 film)

text: Following the criticisms, Harvey Weinstein challenged the "USA Today" critic, Andy Seiler, to choose a venue where the film was showing to try to prove to him that audiences liked it even if not all critics did. After the screening in Washington D.C., Weinstein asked the audience for their feedback and no one said anything negative.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions and sub-jurisdictions exemplifies bureaucracy, but so does any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, e.g. hospitals, academic entities, business firms, professional societies, social clubs, etc.


title: Bureaucracy

text: There are two key dilemmas in bureaucracy. The first dilemma revolves around whether bureaucrats should be autonomous or directly accountable to their political masters. The second dilemma revolves around bureaucrats' behavior strictly following the law or whether they have leeway to determine appropriate solutions for varied circumstances.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Various commentators have argued for the necessity of bureaucracies in modern society. The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) argued that bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which human activity can be organized and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies are necessary to maintain order, to maximize efficiency, and to eliminate favoritism. On the other hand, Weber also saw unfettered bureaucracy as a threat to individual freedom, with the potential of trapping individuals in an impersonal "iron cage" of rule-based, rational control.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The term "bureaucracy" originated in the French language: it combines the French word "bureau" – desk or office – with the Greek word κράτος ("kratos") – rule or political power. The French economist Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759) coined the word in the mid-18th century. Gournay never wrote the term down but a letter from a contemporary later quoted him:


title: Bureaucracy

text: The first known English-language use dates to 1818 with Irish novelist Lady Morgan referring to the apparatus used by the British to subjugate their Irish colony as "the Bureaucratie, or office tyranny, by which Ireland has so long been governed." By the mid-19th century the word appeared in a more neutral sense, referring to a system of public administration in which offices were held by unelected career officials. In this context "bureaucracy" was seen as a distinct form of management, often subservient to a monarchy. In the 1920s the German sociologist Max Weber expanded the definition to include any system of administration conducted by trained professionals according to fixed rules. Weber saw bureaucracy as a relatively positive development; however, by 1944 the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises opined in the context of his experience in the Nazi regime that the term bureaucracy was "always applied with an opprobrious connotation", and by 1957 the American sociologist Robert Merton suggested that the term "bureaucrat" had become an "epithet, a "Schimpfwort"" in some circumstances.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The word "bureaucracy" is also used in politics and government with a disapproving tone to disparage official rules that make it difficult to do things. In workplaces, the word is used very often to blame complicated rules, processes, and written work that make it hard to get something done. Socio-bureaucracy would then refer to certain social influences that may affect the function of a society.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Bureaucracy in a political theory is mainly a centralized form of management and tends to be differentiated from adhocracy, in which management tends more to decentralization.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Although the term "bureaucracy" first originated in the mid-18th century, organized and consistent administrative systems existed much earlier. The development of writing ( 3500 BC) and the use of documents was critical to the administration of this system, and the first definitive emergence of bureaucracy occurred in ancient Sumer, where an emergent class of scribes used clay tablets to administer the harvest and to allocate its spoils. Ancient Egypt also had a hereditary class of scribes that administered the civil-service bureaucracy.


title: Bureaucracy

text: In China, when the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) unified China under the Legalist system, the emperor assigned administration to dedicated officials rather than nobility, ending feudalism in China, replacing it with a centralized, bureaucratic government. The form of government created by the first emperor and his advisors was used by later dynasties to structure their own government. Under this system, the government thrived, as talented individuals could be more easily identified in the transformed society. The Han dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) established a complicated bureaucracy based on the teachings of Confucius, who emphasized the importance of ritual in a family, in relationships, and in politics. With each subsequent dynasty, the bureaucracy evolved. In 165 BC, Emperor Wen introduced the first method of recruitment to civil service through examinations, while


title: Bureaucracy

text: Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC), cemented the ideology of Confucius into mainstream governance installed a system of recommendation and nomination in government service known as "xiaolian", and a national academy whereby officials would select candidates to take part in an examination of the Confucian classics, from which Emperor Wu would select officials.


title: Bureaucracy

text: In the Sui dynasty (581–618) and the subsequent Tang dynasty (618–907) the "shi" class would begin to present itself by means of the fully standardized civil service examination system, of partial recruitment of those who passed standard exams and earned an official degree. Yet recruitment by recommendations to office was still prominent in both dynasties. It was not until the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the recruitment of those who passed the exams and earned degrees was given greater emphasis and significantly expanded. During the Song dynasty (960–1279) the bureaucracy became meritocratic. Following the Song reforms, competitive examinations took place to determine which candidates qualified to hold given positions.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The imperial examination system lasted until 1905, six years before the Qing dynasty collapsed, marking the end of China's traditional bureaucratic system.


title: Bureaucracy

text: A hierarchy of regional proconsuls and their deputies administered the Roman Empire. The reforms of Diocletian (Emperor from 284 to 305) doubled the number of administrative districts and led to a large-scale expansion of Roman bureaucracy. The early Christian author Lactantius ( 250 – 325) claimed that Diocletian's reforms led to widespread economic stagnation, since "the provinces were divided into minute portions, and many presidents and a multitude of inferior officers lay heavy on each territory." After the Empire split, the Byzantine Empire developed a notoriously complicated administrative hierarchy, and in the 20th century the term "Byzantine" came to refer to any complex bureaucratic structure.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The government of the Ashanti Empire is built upon a sophisticated bureaucracy in Kumasi, with separate ministries which saw to the handling of state affairs. Ashanti's Foreign Office was based in Kumasi. Despite the small size of the office, it allowed the state to pursue complex negotiations with foreign powers. The Office was divided into departments that handled Ashanti relations separately with the British, French, Dutch, and Arabs. Scholars of Ashanti history, such as Larry Yarak and Ivor Wilkes, disagree over the power of this sophisticated bureaucracy in comparison to the Asantehene. However, both scholars agree that it was a sign of a highly developed government with a complex system of checks and balances.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Instead of the inefficient and often corrupt system of tax farming that prevailed in absolutist states such as France, the Exchequer was able to exert control over the entire system of tax revenue and government expenditure. By the late 18th century, the ratio of fiscal bureaucracy to population in Britain was approximately 1 in 1300, almost four times larger than the second most heavily bureaucratized nation, France. Thomas Taylor Meadows, Britain's consul in Guangzhou, argued in his "Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China" (1847) that "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only," and that the British must reform their civil service by making the institution meritocratic. Influenced by the ancient Chinese imperial examination, the Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854 recommended that recruitment should be on the basis of merit determined through competitive examination, candidates should have a solid general education to enable inter-departmental transfers, and promotion should be through achievement rather than "preferment, patronage, or purchase". This led to implementation of Her Majesty's Civil Service as a systematic, meritocratic civil service bureaucracy.


title: Bureaucracy

text: In the British civil service, just as it was in China, entrance to the civil service was usually based on a general education in ancient classics, which similarly gave bureaucrats greater prestige. The Cambridge-Oxford ideal of the civil service was identical to the Confucian ideal of a general education in world affairs through humanism. (Well into the 20th century, Classics, Literature, History and Language remained heavily favoured in British civil service examinations. In the period of 1925–1935, 67 percent of British civil service entrants consisted of such graduates.) Like the Chinese model's consideration of personal values, the British model also took personal physique and character into account.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Like the British, the development of French bureaucracy was influenced by the Chinese system. Under Louis XIV of France, the old nobility had neither power nor political influence, their only privilege being exemption from taxes. The dissatisfied noblemen complained about this "unnatural" state of affairs, and discovered similarities between absolute monarchy and bureaucratic despotism. With the translation of Confucian texts during the Enlightenment, the concept of a meritocracy reached intellectuals in the West, who saw it as an alternative to the traditional "ancien regime" of Europe. Western perception of China even in the 18th century admired the Chinese bureaucratic system as favourable over European governments for its seeming meritocracy; Voltaire claimed that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and François Quesnay advocated an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The governments of China, Egypt, Peru and Empress Catherine II were regarded as models of Enlightened Despotism, admired by such figures as Diderot, D'Alembert and Voltaire.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Napoleonic France adopted this meritocracy system and soon saw a rapid and dramatic expansion of government, accompanied by the rise of the French civil service and its complex systems of bureaucracy. This phenomenon became known as "bureaumania". In the early 19th century, Napoleon attempted to reform the bureaucracies of France and other territories under his control by the imposition of the standardized Napoleonic Code. But paradoxically, that led to even further growth of the bureaucracy.


title: Bureaucracy

text: French civil service examinations adopted in the late 19th century were also heavily based on general cultural studies. These features have been likened to the earlier Chinese model.


title: Bureaucracy

text: By the mid-19th century, bureaucratic forms of administration were firmly in place across the industrialized world. Thinkers like John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx began to theorize about the economic functions and power-structures of bureaucracy in contemporary life. Max Weber was the first to endorse bureaucracy as a necessary feature of modernity, and by the late 19th century bureaucratic forms had begun their spread from government to other large-scale institutions.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Within capitalist systems, informal bureaucratic structures began to appear in the form of corporate power hierarchies, as detailed in mid-century works like "The Organization Man" and "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit". Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations, a powerful class of bureaucratic administrators termed "nomenklatura" governed nearly all aspects of public life.


title: Bureaucracy

text: The 1980s brought a backlash against perceptions of "big government" and the associated bureaucracy. Politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan gained power by promising to eliminate government regulatory bureaucracies, which they saw as overbearing, and return economic production to a more purely capitalistic mode, which they saw as more efficient. In the business world, managers like Jack Welch gained fortune and renown by eliminating bureaucratic structures inside corporations. Still, in the modern world, most organized institutions rely on bureaucratic systems to manage information, process records, and administer complex systems, although the decline of paperwork and the widespread use of electronic databases is transforming the way bureaucracies function.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Karl Marx theorized about the role and function of bureaucracy in his "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right", published in 1843. In "Philosophy of Right", Hegel had supported the role of specialized officials in public administration, although he never used the term "bureaucracy" himself. By contrast, Marx was opposed to bureaucracy. Marx posited that while corporate and government bureaucracy seem to operate in opposition, in actuality they mutually rely on one another to exist. He wrote that "The Corporation is civil society's attempt to become state; but the bureaucracy is the state which has really made itself into civil society."


title: Bureaucracy

text: Writing in the early 1860s, political scientist John Stuart Mill theorized that successful monarchies were essentially bureaucracies, and found evidence of their existence in Imperial China, the Russian Empire, and the regimes of Europe. Mill referred to bureaucracy as a distinct form of government, separate from representative democracy. He believed bureaucracies had certain advantages, most importantly the accumulation of experience in those who actually conduct the affairs. Nevertheless, he believed this form of governance compared poorly to representative government, as it relied on appointment rather than direct election. Mill wrote that ultimately the bureaucracy stifles the mind, and that "a bureaucracy always tends to become a pedantocracy."


title: Bureaucracy

text: The German sociologist Max Weber was the first to formally study bureaucracy and his works led to the popularization of this term. In his essay "Bureaucracy", published in his magnum opus "Economy and Society", Weber described many ideal-typical forms of public administration, government, and business. His ideal-typical bureaucracy, whether public or private, is characterized by:


title: Bureaucracy

text: Weber listed several preconditions for the emergence of bureaucracy, including an increase in the amount of space and population being administered, an increase in the complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a monetary economy requiring a more efficient administrative system. Development of communication and transportation technologies make more efficient administration possible, and democratization and rationalization of culture results in demands for equal treatment.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Although he was not necessarily an admirer of bureaucracy, Weber saw bureaucratization as the most efficient and rational way of organizing human activity and therefore as the key to rational-legal authority, indispensable to the modern world. Furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing rationalization of Western society. Weber also saw bureaucracy, however, as a threat to individual freedoms, and the ongoing bureaucratization as leading to a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing rationalization of human life traps individuals in a soulless "iron cage" of bureaucratic, rule-based, rational control. Weber's critical study of the bureaucratization of society became one of the most enduring parts of his work. Many aspects of modern public administration are based on his work, and a classic, hierarchically organized civil service of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service" or "Weberian bureaucracy". It is debated among social scientists whether Weberian bureaucracy contributes to economic growth.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Writing as an academic while a professor at Bryn Mawr College, Woodrow Wilson's essay "The Study of Administration" argued for bureaucracy as a professional cadre, devoid of allegiance to fleeting politics. Wilson advocated a bureaucracy that "...is a part of political life only as the methods of the counting house are a part of the life of society; only as machinery is part of the manufactured product. But it is, at the same time, raised very far above the dull level of mere technical detail by the fact that through its greater principles it is directly connected with the lasting maxims of political wisdom, the permanent truths of political progress."


title: Bureaucracy

text: Wilson did not advocate a replacement of rule by the governed, he simply advised that, "Administrative questions are not political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices". This essay became a foundation for the study of public administration in America.


title: Bureaucracy

text: In his 1944 work "Bureaucracy", the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises compared bureaucratic management to profit management. Profit management, he argued, is the most effective method of organization when the services rendered may be checked by economic calculation of profit and loss. When, however, the service in question can not be subjected to economic calculation, bureaucratic management is necessary. He did not oppose universally bureaucratic management; on the contrary, he argued that bureaucracy is an indispensable method for social organization, for it is the only method by which the law can be made supreme, and is the protector of the individual against despotic arbitrariness. Using the example of the Catholic Church, he pointed out that bureaucracy is only appropriate for an organization whose code of conduct is not subject to change. He then went on to argue that complaints about bureaucratization usually refer not to the criticism of the bureaucratic methods themselves, but to "the intrusion of bureaucracy into all spheres of human life." Mises saw bureaucratic processes at work in both the private and public spheres; however, he believed that bureaucratization in the private sphere could only occur as a consequence of government interference. According to him, "What must be realized is only that the strait jacket of bureaucratic organization paralyzes the individual's initiative, while within the capitalist market society an innovator still has a chance to succeed. The former makes for stagnation and preservation of inveterate methods, the latter makes for progress and improvement."


title: Bureaucracy

text: American sociologist Robert K. Merton expanded on Weber's theories of bureaucracy in his work "Social Theory and Social Structure", published in 1957. While Merton agreed with certain aspects of Weber's analysis, he also noted the dysfunctional aspects of bureaucracy, which he attributed to a "trained incapacity" resulting from "over conformity". He believed that bureaucrats are more likely to defend their own entrenched interests than to act to benefit the organization as a whole but that pride in their craft makes them resistant to changes in established routines. Merton stated that bureaucrats emphasize formality over interpersonal relationships, and have been trained to ignore the special circumstances of particular cases, causing them to come across as "arrogant" and "haughty".


title: Bureaucracy

text: In his book "A General Theory of Bureaucracy", first published in 1976, Dr. Elliott Jaques describes the discovery of a universal and uniform underlying structure of managerial or work levels in the bureaucratic hierarchy for any type of employment systems.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Elliott Jaques argues and presents evidence that for the bureaucracy to provide a valuable contribution to the open society some of the following conditions must be met:


title: Bureaucracy

text: The definition of effective bureaucratic hierarchy by Elliott Jaques is of importance not only to sociology but to social psychology, social anthropology, economics, politics, and social philosophy. They also have a practical application in business and administrative studies.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Like every modern state, a liberal democracy is highly bureaucratized, with numerous sizable organizations filled with career civil servants. Some of those bureaucracies have a substantial amount of influence to preserve the current political system because they are primarily focused on defending the country and the state from threats from both within and beyond. Since these institutions frequently operate independently and are mostly shielded from politics, they frequently have no affiliation with any particular political party or group. For instance, loyal British civil officials work for both the Conservative and Labor parties. However, on occasion a group might seize control of a bureaucratic state, as the Nazis did in Germany in the 1930s.


title: Bureaucracy

text: Although numerous ideals associated with democracy, such as equality, participation, and individuality, are in stark contrast to those associated with modern bureaucracy, specifically hierarchy, specialization, and impersonality, political theorists did not recognize bureaucracy as a threat to democracy. Yet democratic theorists still have not developed a sufficient solution to the problem bureaucratic authority poses to democratic government.


title: Bureaucracy

text: One answer to this problem is to say that bureaucracy has no place at all in a real democracy. Theorists who adopt this perspective typically understand that they must demonstrate that bureaucracy does not necessarily occur in every contemporary society, only in those they perceive to be non-democratic. Because their democracy was resistant to bureaucracy, nineteenth-century British writers frequently referred to it as the "Continental nuisance."


title: Bureaucracy

text: According to Marx and other socialist thinkers, the most advanced bureaucracies were those in France and Germany. However, they argued that bureaucracy was a symptom of the bourgeois state and would vanish along with capitalism, which gave rise to the bourgeois state. Though clearly not the democracies Marx had in mind, socialist societies ended up being more bureaucratic than the governments they replaced. Similarly, after capitalist economies developed the administrative systems required to support their extensive welfare states, the idea that bureaucracy exclusively exists in socialist governments could scarcely be maintained.


title: Shooting guard

text: The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard, is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's main objective is to score points for their team and steal the ball on defense. Some teams ask their shooting guards to bring up the ball as well; these players are known colloquially as combo guards. A player who can switch between playing shooting guard and small forward is known as a swingman. In the NBA, shooting guards usually range from to while in the WNBA, shooting guards tend to be between and .


title: Shooting guard

text: "The Basketball Handbook" by Lee Rose describes a shooting guard as a player whose primary role is to score points. As the name suggests, most shooting guards are good long-range shooters, typically averaging 35–40 percent from three-point range. Many shooting guards are also strong and athletic, and have the ability to get inside the paint and drive to the basket.


title: Shooting guard

text: Typically, shooting guards are taller than point guards. Height at the position varies; many bigger shooting guards also play small forward. Shooting guards should be good ball handlers and be able to pass reasonably well, though passing is not their main priority. Since good shooting guards may attract double-teams, they are frequently the team's back-up ball handlers to the point guard and typically get a fair number of assists.


title: Shooting guard

text: Shooting guards must be able to score in various ways, especially late in a close game when defenses are tighter. They need to have a good free throw percentage too, to be reliable in close games and to discourage opposing players from fouling. Because of the high level of offensive skills shooting guards need, they are often a team's primary scoring option, and sometimes the offense is built around them.


title: Shooting guard

text: In the NBA, there are some shooting guards referred to as "3 and D" players. The term 3 and D implies that the player is a good 3 point shooter who can also play solid (sometimes elite) defense. The 3 and D player has become very important as the game sways to be perimeter oriented.


title: Shooting guard

text: Good shooting guards can often play point guard to a certain extent. It is usually accepted that point guards should have the ball in their hands at most times in the game, but sometimes the shooting guard has a significant enough influence on the team where they handle the ball extremely often, to the point where the point guard may be reduced to a backup ball handler or . Notable shooting guards include Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Manu Ginobili, James Harden, Klay Thompson, Clyde Drexler, Jerry West, George Gervin, Vince Carter and Allen Iverson.


title: Shooting guard

text: It is important for a shooting guard to develop skills in defense, passing and strength in addition to shooting ability. This position displays the most movement offensively when trying to get a open shot, along with keeping things under control on the defensive end.


title: Shooting guard

text: Understanding that this position is shaped around the shooting ability of the athlete, many eternal abilities implemented into the player will overall help construct the potential the athlete possesses. External abilities would consist of strong ball handling, a sharp mind, and the development of a high basketball intelligence.


title: Shooting guard

text: Shooting guards are often used as the secondary ball handler to help eliminate pressure of the 1 guard.


title: Monica Raymund

text: Monica Maria Raymund (born July 26, 1986) is an American actress, known for her roles as Maria "Ria" Torres in the Fox crime drama "Lie to Me" (2009–2011), Dana Lodge in the CBS legal drama "The Good Wife" (2011–2012), Gabriela Dawson in the NBC drama "Chicago Fire" (2012–2019) and Jackie Quińones in the Starz crime drama "Hightown" (2020–present).


title: Monica Raymund

text: Raymund was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, to Steve Raymund, the board chairman and retired CEO of Tech Data Corp., a Clearwater-based distributor of computer components and software, and Sonia (née Lara), a community volunteer and co-founder of the Soulful Arts Dance Academy in St. Petersburg. Her father is of German and Eastern European Jewish descent. Her mother is Dominican. Raymund was raised Jewish, celebrated a bat mitzvah and attended a Reform Judaism temple. Her paternal grandfather was businessman and philanthropist Edward C. Raymund. Raymund's younger brother, Will, was a graduate of Berklee College of Music, and a sound and lighting engineer and music promoter. He died in August 2015.


title: Monica Raymund

text: In high school, she participated in the "Broadway Theater Project" in Tampa and was a founding member of The Performing Arts Project at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem."


title: Monica Raymund

text: Raymund graduated from Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2004, and from the Juilliard School in New York City in 2008.


title: Monica Raymund

text: Reportedly, Raymund performed in "Cymbeline" directed by Richard Feldman, "The Diviners" (directed by Jonathan Bernstein), and "Animal Farm" (directed by Trazana Beverley) all at the Juilliard School.


title: Monica Raymund

text: Raymund also appeared in her native St. Petersburg, Florida, in the LiveArts Peninsula Foundation's original production of "Manhattan Casino" (directed by Bob Devin Jones) where she originated the leading role of Althea Dunbar and "Webb's City: The Musical" (music & lyrics by Lee Ahlin, written and directed by William Leavengood)." Raymund "is a three-year alumna of Ann Reinking's Broadway Theater Project, where she has been a featured performer."


title: Monica Raymund

text: Raymund has also "worked with playwright José Rivera on "Boleros for the Disenchanted" at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston" in 2008. In April 2008, she appeared the NBC legal drama "", in season 9 episode 17 titled "" in the opening scene as a strip search prank call victim. From 2009 to 2011, she starred in the Fox crime drama "Lie to Me", where she played Maria "Ria" Torres, a human lie detector who is a "natural", meaning she has no formal training in detecting lies or the emotions of others. She was using crutches because of a knee injury when she auditioned for this role.


title: Monica Raymund

text: From 2011 until 2012, Raymund had a recurring role in the third season of the CBS legal drama "The Good Wife", where she played Dana Lodge, an assistant states attorney.


title: Monica Raymund

text: In 2012, Raymund began starring in the NBC drama "Chicago Fire". She played Gabriela Dawson, the paramedic in charge and a firefighter candidate. On May 15, 2018, Raymund confirmed that she was leaving the show after six seasons. She briefly appeared on the show in the seventh-season premiere "A Closer Eye". In November 2019, she returned to the show in the eighth-season episode "Best Friend Magic".


title: Monica Raymund

text: Raymund has also directed several episodes of television, an episode of "", an episode of Dick Wolf's "FBI", and an episode of "Chicago P.D."


title: Monica Raymund

text: On June 11, 2011, Raymund married writer Neil Patrick Stewart. They separated in early 2013 and divorced in 2014.


title: Monica Raymund

text: Raymund is an ardent supporter of LGBT rights. In February 2014, she came out publicly as bisexual for the first time via Twitter. On September 16, 2015, Raymund announced via Twitter that she had begun dating camerawoman, cinematographer and producer Tari Segal.


title: Transsexual

text: Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment therapies, such as hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery) to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.


title: Transsexual

text: The term "transsexual" is a subset of "transgender", but some transsexual people reject the label of "transgender". A medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria can be made if a person experiences marked and persistent incongruence between their experienced their personal sense of their own and their assigned sex.


title: Transsexual

text: Understanding of transsexuality has changed very quickly in the 21st century. Many 20th century medical beliefs and practices around transsexuality are now considered deeply outdated. It was once classified as a mental disorder and subject to extensive gatekeeping by the medical establishment, and remains so in much of the world.


title: Transsexual

text: Transsexual has had different meanings throughout time. In modern usage, it refers to "a person who desires to or who has modified their body to transition from one gender or sex to another through the use of medical technologies such as hormones or surgeries." It is considered an antiquated term, and is sometimes pejorative. The general shift is to instead use the term "transgender" or the abbreviated form "trans", but due to its historical usage, transsexual remains in the modern vernacular. In understanding the subject, it is noted that there is a difference between gender and sex. Gender is defined as a "set of social, cultural, and linguistic norms that can be attributed to someone’s identity, expression, or role as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or nonbinary." Sex is defined as being "assigned at birth by medical professionals based on the appearance of genitalia, and related assumptions about chromosomal makeup, gender identity, expressions, and roles emerge over the life span, sometimes changing over time."


title: Transsexual

text: Norman Haire reported that in 1921 Dora R of Germany began a surgical transition, under the care of Magnus Hirschfeld, which ended in 1930 with a successful genital reassignment surgery (GRS). In 1930, Hirschfeld supervised the second genital reassignment surgery to be reported in detail in a peer-reviewed journal, that of Lili Elbe of Denmark. In 1923, Hirschfeld introduced the (German) term "Transsexualismus", after which David Oliver Cauldwell introduced "transsexualism" and "transsexual" to English in 1949 and 1950.


title: Transsexual

text: Cauldwell appears to be the first to use the term to refer to those who desired a change of physiological sex. In 1969, Harry Benjamin claimed to have been the first to use the term "transsexual" in a public lecture, which he gave in December 1953. Benjamin went on to popularize the term in his 1966 book, "The Transsexual Phenomenon", in which he described transsexual people on a scale (later called the "Benjamin scale") of three levels of intensity: "Transsexual (nonsurgical)", "Transsexual (moderate intensity)", and "Transsexual (high intensity)". In his book, Benjamin described "true" transsexualism as the following:


title: Transsexual

text: The term "transgender" was coined by John Oliven in 1965. By the 1990s, "transsexual" had come to be considered a subset of the umbrella term "transgender". The term "transgender" is now more common, and many transgender people prefer the designation "transgender" and reject "transsexual". Some people who pursue medical assistance (for example, sex reassignment surgery) to change their sexual characteristics to match their gender identity prefer the designation "transsexual" and reject "transgender". One perspective offered by transsexual people who reject a transgender label for that of "transsexed" is that, for people who have gone through sexual reassignment surgery, their anatomical sex has been altered, whilst their gender remains constant.


title: Transsexual

text: Historically, one reason some people preferred "transsexual" to "transgender" is that the medical community in the 1950s through the 1980s encouraged a distinction between the terms that would only allow the former access to medical treatment. Other self-identified transsexual people state that those who do not seek sex reassignment surgery (SRS) are fundamentally different from those who do, and that the two have different concerns, but this view is controversial, and others argue that merely having some medical procedures does not have such far-reaching consequences as to put those who have them and those who have not (e.g. because they cannot afford them) into such distinctive categories. Some have objected to the term "transsexual" on the basis that it describes a condition related to gender identity rather than sexuality. For example, Christine Jorgensen, the first person widely known to have sex reassignment surgery (in this case, male-to-female), rejected "transsexual" and instead identified herself in newsprint as "trans-gender", on this basis.


title: Transsexual

text: The trans community has generally taken issue with the term transsexual because it over-medicalizes the trans experience, and focuses too much on diagnosis. The term transgender emerged in part in an attempt to break the "medical monopoly" on transitioning that transsexual implied.


title: Transsexual

text: GLAAD's media reference guide offers the following distinction on the use of "transsexual":An older term that originated in the medical and psychological communities. As the gay and lesbian community rejected homosexual and replaced it with gay and lesbian, the transgender community rejected transsexual and replaced it with transgender. Some people within the trans community may still call themselves transsexual. Do not use transsexual to describe a person unless it is a word they use to describe themself. If the subject of your news article uses the word transsexual to describe themself, use it as an adjective: transsexual woman or transsexual man.


title: Transsexual

text: The word "transsexual" is most often used as an adjective rather than a noun – a "transsexual person" rather than simply "a transsexual". , use of the noun form (e.g. referring to people as "transsexuals") is often deprecated by those in the transsexual community. Like other trans people, transsexual people prefer to be referred to by the gender pronouns and terms associated with their gender identity. For example, a trans man is a person who was assigned the female sex at birth on the basis of his genitals, but despite that assignment, identifies as a man and is transitioning or has transitioned to a male gender role; in the case of a "transsexual" man, he furthermore has or will have a masculine body. Transsexual people are sometimes referred to with directional terms, such as "female-to-male" for a transsexual man, abbreviated to "F2M", "FTM", and "F to M", or "male-to-female" for a transsexual woman, abbreviated "M2F", "MTF" and "M to F".


title: Transsexual

text: Individuals who have undergone and completed sex reassignment surgery are sometimes referred to as "transsexed" individuals; however, the term "transsexed" is not to be confused with the term "transsexual", which can also refer to individuals who have not yet undergone SRS, and whose anatomical sex (still) does not match their psychological sense of personal gender identity.


title: Transsexual

text: The terms "gender dysphoria" and "gender identity disorder" were not used until the 1970s, when Laub and Fisk published several works on transsexualism using these terms. "Transsexualism" was replaced in the DSM-IV by "gender identity disorder in adolescents and adults".


title: Transsexual

text: Male-to-female transsexualism has sometimes been called "Harry Benjamin's syndrome" after the endocrinologist who pioneered the study of dysphoria. As the present-day medical study of gender variance is much broader than Benjamin's early description, there is greater understanding of its aspects, and use of the term "Harry Benjamin's syndrome" has been criticized for delegitimizing gender-variant people with different experiences.


title: Transsexual

text: Since the middle of the 20th century, "homosexual transsexual" and related terms were used to label individuals' sexual orientation based on their birth sex. Many sources criticize this choice of wording as confusing, "heterosexist", "archaic", and demeaning because it labels people by sex assigned at birth instead of their gender identity. Sexologist John Bancroft also recently expressed regret for having used this terminology, which was standard when he used it, to refer to transsexual women. He says that he now tries to choose his words more sensitively. Sexologist Charles Allen Moser is likewise critical of the terminology. Sociomedical scientist Rebecca Jordan-Young challenges researchers like Simon LeVay, J. Michael Bailey, and Martin Lalumiere, who she says "have completely failed to appreciate the implications of alternative ways of framing sexual orientation."


title: Transsexual

text: The terms "androphilia" and "gynephilia" to describe a person's sexual orientation without reference to their gender identity were proposed and popularized by psychologist Ron Langevin in the 1980s. The similar specifiers "attracted to men", "attracted to women", "attracted to both" or "attracted to neither" were used in the DSM-IV.


title: Transsexual

text: Many transsexual people choose the language of how they refer to their sexual orientation based on their gender identity, not their birth assigned sex.


title: Transsexual

text: Several terms are in common use, especially within the community itself relating to the surgical or operative status of someone who is transsexual, depending on whether they have already had sex reassignment surgery (SRS), have not had SRS but still intend to, or do not intend to have SRS. They are, post-op, pre-op, and non-op, respectively.


title: Transsexual

text: A pre-operative transsexual person, or simply pre-op for short, is someone who intends to have SRS at some point, but has not yet had it.


title: Transsexual

text: A non-operative transsexual person, or non-op, is someone who has not had SRS, and does not intend to have it in the future. There can be various reasons for this, from personal to financial. Having SRS is not a requirement of being transsexual. Evolutionary biologist and trans woman Julia Serano criticizes the societal preoccupation with SRS as phallocentric, objectifying of transsexuals, and an invasion of privacy.


title: Transsexual

text: Transgender people are known to have existed since ancient times. A wide range of societies had traditional third gender roles, or otherwise accepted trans people in some form. However, a precise history is difficult because the modern concept of being transgender, and gender in general, did not develop until the mid-1900s. Historical understandings are thus inherently filtered through modern principles, and were largely viewed through a medical lens until the late 1900s.


title: Transsexual

text: Benjamin suggested that moderate intensity male to female transsexual people may benefit from estrogen medication as a "substitute for or preliminary to operation." Some people have had sex reassignment surgery (SRS) but do not meet the above definition of transsexual. Other people do not desire SRS although they meet the other elements of Benjamin's definition of a "true transsexual". Transsexuality was included for the first time in the DSM-III in 1980 and again in the DSM-III-R in 1987, where it was located under "Disorders Usually First Evident in Infancy, Childhood or Adolescence".


title: Transsexual

text: Beyond Benjamin's work, which focused on male-to-female (MTF) transsexual people, there are cases of the female to male transsexual, for whom genital surgery may not be practical. Benjamin gave certifying letters to his MTF transsexual patients that stated "Their anatomical sex, that is to say, the body, is male. Their psychological sex, that is to say, the mind, is female." Starting in 1968 Benjamin abandoned his early terminology and adopted that of "gender identity."


title: Transsexual

text: Transsexualism no longer is classified as a mental disorder in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and many transsexual people had recommended this removal, arguing that at least some mental health professionals are being insensitive by labelling transsexualism as a "disease" rather than as an inborn trait, as many transsexuals believe it to be. Now, instead, it is classified as a sexual health condition; this classification continues to enable healthcare systems to provide healthcare needs related to gender. The eleventh edition was released in June 2018. The previous version, ICD-10, had incorporated "transsexualism", "dual role transvestism," and "gender identity disorder of childhood" into its gender identity disorder category. It defined transsexualism as "[a] desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex, usually accompanied by a sense of discomfort with, or inappropriateness of, one's anatomic sex, and a wish to have surgery and hormonal treatment to make one's body as congruent as possible with one's preferred sex." ICD-11 renamed Transexualism as Gender incongruence of adolescence or adulthood (), and Gender identity disorder of childhood was renamed Gender incongruence of childhood ().


title: Transsexual

text: HA60 of the ICD-11 reads:Gender Incongruence of Adolescence and Adulthood is characterised by a marked and persistent incongruence between an individual´s experienced gender and the assigned sex, which often leads to a desire to ‘transition’, in order to live and be accepted as a person of the experienced gender, through hormonal treatment, surgery or other health care services to make the individual´s body align, as much as desired and to the extent possible, with the experienced gender. The diagnosis cannot be assigned prior the onset of puberty. [<nowiki> applies before puberty] Gender variant behaviour and preferences alone are not a basis for assigning the diagnosis.</nowiki>Historically, transsexualism has also been included in the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM). With the DSM-5, transsexualism was removed as a diagnosis, and a diagnosis of gender dysphoria was created in its place. This change was made to reflect the consensus view by members of the APA that transsexuality is not in and of itself a disorder and that transsexual people should not be stigmatized unnecessarily. By including a diagnosis for gender dysphoria, transsexual people are still able to access medical care through the process of transition.


title: Transsexual

text: The current diagnosis for transsexual people who present themselves for medical treatment is gender dysphoria (leaving out those who have sexual identity disorders without gender concerns). According to the "Standards of care" formulated by WPATH, formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, this diagnostic label is often necessary to obtain sex reassignment therapy with health insurance coverage, and the designation of gender identity disorders as mental disorders is not a license for stigmatization or for the deprivation of gender patients' civil rights.


title: Transsexual

text: Historically, formal efforts by the medical community to provide transsexual healthcare were extremely focused on transsexual women, with little thought for transsexual men. Julia Serano suggests that effemimania (the idea that male femininity is more psychopathological than female masculinity) was the driving factor. She sees this as a kind of transmisogyny (hatred of trans women as an extension of sexism). This effimimania conflates male homosexuality, MTF transsexuality, and feminine gender expression, while treating them all as a disease. She points to the medical community's long love of now outdated theories such as autogynephilia.


title: Transsexual

text: Individuals make different choices regarding sex reassignment therapy, which may include hormones, minor to extensive surgery, social changes, and psychological interventions. The extent of medical intervention is a highly personal decision: there is no one-size-fits-all solution.


title: Transsexual

text: Transsexual individuals frequently opt for masculinizing or feminizing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to modify secondary sex characteristics.


title: Transsexual

text: "Sex reassignment therapy" (SRT) is an umbrella term for all medical treatments related to sex reassignment of both transgender and intersex people. Sex reassignment surgery (such as orchiectomy) alters primary sex characteristics, including chest surgery such as top surgery or breast augmentation, or, in the case of trans women, a trachea shave, facial feminization surgery or permanent hair removal.


title: Transsexual

text: To obtain sex reassignment therapy, transsexual people are generally required to undergo a psychological evaluation and receive a diagnosis of gender identity disorder in accordance with the Standards of Care (SOC) as published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. This assessment is usually accompanied by counseling on issues of adjustment to the desired gender role, effects and risks of medical treatments, and sometimes also by psychological therapy. The SOC are intended as guidelines, not inflexible rules, and are intended to ensure that clients are properly informed and in sound psychological health, and to discourage people from transitioning based on unrealistic expectations.


title: Transsexual

text: After an initial psychological evaluation, trans men and trans women may begin medical treatment, starting with hormone replacement therapy or hormone blockers. In these cases, people who change their gender are usually required to live as members of their target gender for at least one year prior to genital surgery, gaining real-life experience, which is sometimes called the "real-life test" (RLT). Transsexual individuals may undergo some, all, or none of the medical procedures available, depending on personal feelings, health, income, and other considerations. Some people posit that transsexualism is a physical condition, not a psychological issue, and assert that sex reassignment therapy should be given on request. (Brown 103)


title: Transsexual

text: Like other trans people, transsexual people may refer to themselves as trans men or trans women. Transsexual people desire to establish a permanent gender role as a member of the gender with which they identify, and many transsexual people pursue medical interventions as part of the process of expressing their gender. The entire process of switching from one physical sex and social gender presentation to another is often referred to as transitioning, and usually takes several years. Transsexual people who transition usually change their social gender roles, legal names and legal sex designation.


title: Transsexual

text: Not all transsexual people undergo a physical transition. Some have obstacles or concerns preventing them from doing so, such as the expense of surgery, the risk of medical complications, or medical conditions which make the use of hormones or surgery dangerous. Others may not identify strongly with another binary gender role. Still others may find balance at a midpoint during the process, regardless of whether or not they are binary-identified. Many transsexual people, including binary-identified transsexual people, do not undergo genital surgery, because they are comfortable with their own genitals, or because they are concerned about nerve damage and the potential loss of sexual pleasure, including orgasm. This is especially so in the case of trans men, many of whom are dissatisfied with the current state of phalloplasty, which is typically very expensive, not covered by health insurance, and commonly does not achieve desired results. For example, not only does phalloplasty not result in a completely natural erection, it may not allow for an erection at all, and its results commonly lack penile sexual sensitivity; in other cases, however, phalloplasty results are satisfying for trans men. By contrast, metoidioplasty, which is more popular, is significantly less expensive and has far better sexual results.


title: Transsexual

text: Transsexual people can be heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual; many choose the language of how they refer to their sexual orientation based on their gender identity, not their birth assigned sex.


title: Transsexual

text: Psychological techniques that attempt to alter gender identity to one considered appropriate for the person's assigned sex, aka conversion therapy, are ineffective. The widely recognized Standards of Care note that sometimes the only reasonable and effective course of treatment for transsexual people is to go through sex reassignment therapy.


title: Transsexual

text: The need for treatment of transsexual people is emphasized by the high rate of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and various addictions, as well as a higher suicide rate among untreated transsexual people than in the general population. These problems are alleviated by a change of gender role and/or physical characteristics.


title: Transsexual

text: Many transgender and transsexual activists, and many caregivers, note that these problems are not usually related to the gender identity issues themselves, but the social and cultural responses to gender-variant individuals. Some transsexual people reject the counseling that is recommended by the Standards of Care because they do not consider their gender identity to be a cause of psychological problems.


title: Transsexual

text: Brown and Rounsley noted that "some transsexual people acquiesce to legal and medical expectations in order to gain rights granted through the medical/psychological hierarchy." Legal needs, such as a change of sex on legal documents, and medical needs, such as sex reassignment surgery, are usually difficult to obtain without a doctor or therapist's approval. Because of this, some transsexual people feel coerced into affirming outdated concepts of gender to overcome simple legal and medical hurdles.


title: Transsexual

text: People who undergo sex reassignment surgery can develop regret for the procedure later in life, largely predicted by a lack of support from family or peers, with data from the 1990s suggesting a rate of 3.8%. In a 2001 study of 232 MTF patients who underwent GRS, none of the patients reported complete regret and only 6% reported partial or occasional regrets. A 2009 review of Medline literature suggests the total rate of patients expressing feelings of doubt or regret is estimated to be as high as 8%.


title: Transsexual

text: A 2010 meta-study, based on 28 previous long-term studies of transsexual men and women, found that the overall psychological functioning of transsexual people after transition was similar to that of the general population and significantly better than that of untreated transsexual people.


title: Transsexual

text: Estimates of the prevalence of transsexual people are highly dependent on the specific case definitions used in the studies, with prevalence rates varying by orders of magnitude. In the United States, the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-V 2013) gives the following estimates: "For natal adult males [MTF], prevalence ranges from 0.005% to 0.014%, and for natal females [FTM], from 0.002% to 0.003%." It states, however, that these are likely underestimates since the figures are based on referrals to specialty clinics.


title: Transsexual

text: The Amsterdam Gender Dysphoria Clinic over four decades has treated roughly 95% of Dutch transsexual clients, and it suggests (1997) a prevalence of 1:10,000 among assigned males and 1:30,000 among assigned females.


title: Transsexual

text: Olyslager and Conway presented a paper at the WPATH 20th International Symposium (2007) arguing that the data from their own and other studies actually imply much higher prevalence, with minimum lower bounds of 1:4,500 male-to-female transsexual people and 1:8,000 female-to-male transsexual people for a number of countries worldwide. They estimate the number of post-op women in the US to be 32,000 and obtain a figure of 1:2500 male-to-female transsexual people. They further compare the annual instances of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and male birth in the U.S. to obtain a figure of 1:1000 MTF transsexual people and suggest a prevalence of 1:500 extrapolated from the rising rates of SRS in the US and a "common sense" estimate of the number of undiagnosed transsexual people. Olyslager and Conway also argue that the US population of assigned males having already undergone reassignment surgery by the top three US SRS surgeons alone is enough to account for the entire transsexual population implied by the 1:10,000 prevalence number, yet this excludes all other US SRS surgeons, surgeons in countries such as Thailand, Canada, and others, and the high proportion of transsexual people who have not yet sought treatment, suggesting that a prevalence of 1:10,000 is too low.


title: Transsexual

text: A 2008 study of the number of New Zealand passport holders who changed the sex on their passport estimated that 1:3,639 birth-assigned males and 1:22,714 birth-assigned females were transsexual.


title: Transsexual

text: A 2008 presentation at the LGBT Health Summit in Bristol, UK, showed that the prevalence of transsexual people in the UK was increasing (14% per year) and that the mean age of transition was rising.


title: Transsexual

text: Though no direct studies on the prevalence of gender identity disorder (GID) have been done, a variety of clinical papers published in the past 20 years provide estimates ranging from 1:7,400 to 1:42,000 in assigned males and 1:30,040 to 1:104,000 in assigned females.


title: Transsexual

text: In 2015, the National Center for Transgender Equality conducted a National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Of the 27,715 transgender and genderqueer people who took the survey, 35% identified as "non-binary", 33% identified as transgender women, 29% identified as transgender men, and 3% said that "crossdresser" best described their gender identity.


title: Transsexual

text: A 2016 systematic review and meta-analysis of "how various definitions of transgender affect prevalence estimates" in 27 studies found a meta-prevalence (mP) estimates per 100,000 population of 9.2 (95% CI = 4.9–13.6), equal to 1:11,000 for surgical or hormonal gender affirmation therapy and 6.8 (95% CI = 4.6–9.1), equal to 1:15,000 for transgender-related medical condition diagnoses. Of studies assessing self-reported transgender identity, prevalence was 355 (95% CI = 144–566), equal to 1 in 282. However, a single outlier study would have influenced the result to 871 (95% CI = 519–1,224), equal to 1 in 115; this study was removed. "Significant heterogeneity was observed in most analyses."


title: Transsexual

text: A number of Native American and First Nations cultures have traditional social and ceremonial roles for individuals who do not fit into the usual roles for males and females in that culture. These roles can vary widely between tribes, because gender roles, when they exist at all, also vary considerably among different Native cultures. However, a modern, pan-Indian status known as Two-Spirit has emerged among LGBT Natives in recent years.


title: Transsexual

text: Laws regarding changes to the legal status of transsexual people are different from country to country. Some jurisdictions allow an individual to change their name, and sometimes, their legal gender, to reflect their gender identity. Within the US, some states allow amendments or complete replacement of the original birth certificates. Some states seal earlier records against all but court orders in order to protect the transsexual person's privacy.


title: Transsexual

text: In many places, it is not possible to change birth records or other legal designations of sex, although changes are occurring. Estelle Asmodelle’s book documented her struggle to change the Australian birth certificate and passport laws, although there are other individuals who have been instrumental in changing laws and thus attaining more acceptance for transsexual people in general.


title: Transsexual

text: Medical treatment for transsexual and transgender people is available in most Western countries. However, transsexual and transgender people challenge the "normative" gender roles of many cultures and often face considerable hatred and prejudice. The film "Boys Don't Cry" chronicles the case of Brandon Teena, a transsexual man who was raped and murdered after his status was discovered. In 1999 Brandon was memoralised in the first Transgender Day of Remembrance. The Transgeder Day of Rembrance is observed annually on November 20 by members of the transgender community and LGBT+ organisations across the world.


title: Transsexual

text: Jurisdictions allowing changes to birth records generally allow trans people to marry members of the opposite sex to their gender identity and to adopt children. Jurisdictions which prohibit same sex marriage often require pre-transition marriages to be ended before they will issue an amended birth certificate.


title: Transsexual

text: Health-practitioner manuals, professional journalistic style guides, and LGBT advocacy groups advise the adoption by others of the name and pronouns identified by the person in question, including present references to the transgender or transsexual person's past. Family members and friends who may be confused about pronoun usage or the definitions of sex are commonly instructed in proper pronoun usage, either by the transsexual person or by professionals or other persons familiar with pronoun usage as it relates to transsexual people. Sometimes transsexual people have to correct their friends and family members many times before they begin to use the transsexual person's desired pronouns consistently. According to Julia Serano, deliberate mis-gendering of transsexual people is "an arrogant attempt to belittle and humiliate trans people."


title: Transsexual

text: Both "transsexualism" and "gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments" are specifically excluded from coverage under the Americans with Disabilities Act Section 12211. Gender dysphoria is not excluded.


title: Transsexual

text: Openly transsexual people can have difficulty maintaining employment. Most find it necessary to remain employed during transition in order to cover the costs of living and transition. However, employment discrimination against trans people is rampant and many of them are fired when they come out or are involuntarily outed at work. Transsexual people must decide whether to transition on-the-job, or to find a new job when they make their social transition. Other stresses that transsexual people face in the workplace are being fearful of coworkers negatively responding to their transition, and losing job experience under a previous name—even deciding which rest room to use can prove challenging. Finding employment can be especially challenging for those in mid-transition.


title: Transsexual

text: Laws regarding name and gender changes in many countries make it difficult for transsexual people to conceal their trans status from their employers. Because the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care requires one-year of real life experience prior to SRS, some feel this creates a Catch-22 situation which makes it difficult for trans people to remain employed or obtain SRS.


title: Transsexual

text: In many countries, laws provide protection from workplace discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression, including masculine women and feminine men. An increasing number of companies are including "gender identity and expression" in their non-discrimination policies. Often these laws and policies do not cover all situations and are not strictly enforced. California's anti-discrimination laws protect transsexual persons in the workplace and specifically prohibit employers from terminating or refusing to hire a person based on their transsexuality. The European Union provides employment protection as part of gender discrimination protections following the European Court of Justice decisions in "P v S and Cornwall County Council".


title: Transsexual

text: In the United States National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 44% of respondents reported not getting a job they applied for because of being transgender. 36% of trans women reported losing a job due to discrimination compared to 19% of trans men. 54% of trans women and 50% of trans men report having been harassed in the workplace. Transgender people who have been fired due to bias are more than 34 times likely than members of the general population to attempt suicide.


title: Transsexual

text: Many transsexual men and women choose to live completely as members of their gender without disclosing details of their birth-assigned sex. This approach is sometimes called "stealth." Stealth transsexuals choose not to disclose their past for numerous reasons, including fear of discrimination and fear of physical violence. There are examples of people having been denied medical treatment upon discovery of their trans status, whether it was revealed by the patient or inadvertently discovered by the doctors.


title: Transsexual

text: Before transsexual people were depicted in popular movies and television shows, Aleshia Brevard—a transsexual woman whose surgery took place in 1962—was actively working as an actress and model in Hollywood and New York throughout the 1960s and '70s. Aleshia never portrayed a transsexual person, though she appeared in eight Hollywood-produced films, on most of the popular variety shows of the day, including "The Dean Martin Show", and was a regular on "The Red Skelton Show" and "One Life to Live" before returning to university to teach drama and acting.


title: Transsexual

text: Since 2004, with the goal of crowning the top transsexual of the world, a beauty pageant by the name of "The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest" was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The pageant accepted pre-operation and post-operation trans women, but required proof of their gender at birth. The winner of the 2004 pageant was a woman named Mimi Marks.


title: Transsexual

text: Jenna Talackova, the 23-year-old woman who forced Donald Trump and his Miss Universe Canada pageant to end its ban on transgender contestants, competed in the pageant on May 19, 2012, in Toronto. On January 12, 2013, Kylan Arianna Wenzel was the first transgender woman allowed to compete in a Miss Universe Organization pageant since Donald Trump changed the rules to allow women like Wenzel to enter officially. Wenzel was the first transgender woman to compete in a Miss Universe Organization pageant since officials disqualified 23-year-old Miss Canada Jenna Talackova the previous year after learning she was transgender.


title: Hennessy

text: Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy (), is a French producer of cognac, which has its headquarters in Cognac, France.


title: Hennessy

text: It is one of the "big four" cognac houses, along with Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin, who together make around 85% of the world's cognac. Hennessy sells approximately 70 million bottles of its cognacs per year, making it the world's largest cognac producer, and in 2017 its sales represented around 60% of the US cognac market. As well as distilling cognac "eaux-de-vie" itself, the company also acts as a "negociant".


title: Hennessy

text: The brand is owned by Moët Hennessy, which is in turn owned by LVMH (66%) and Diageo (34%), who act as a non-controlling shareholder. Hennessy pioneered several industry-standard practices in the world of cognac, and its association with luxury has made it a regular point of reference in popular culture, especially in hip hop.


title: Hennessy

text: The Hennessy cognac distillery was founded by Irish Jacobite military officer Richard Hennessy in 1765, who had served in the army of Louis XV. He retired to the Cognac region, and began distilling and exporting brandies, first to the United Kingdom and his native Ireland, closely followed by the United States. In 1813 Richard Hennessy's son James Hennessy gave the company its trading name, Jas Hennessy & Co. He was also responsible for choosing Jean Fillioux as the house's Master Blender. A member of the Fillioux family has occupied the role ever since, a relationship that has lasted eight generations and more than 250 years.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy became the world's leading exporter of brandy in the 1840s, a status it has never lost. By 1860, it represented one out of every four bottles of cognac sold internationally. Hennessy also instituted several of the conventions now used across the cognac industry. It was one of the first marques to sell bottles rather than casks of cognac, a process that helped it survive the Great French Wine Blight in the mid-nineteenth century. It was also the first cognac house to use star ratings, and the gradings V.S.O.P. and XO, which are today used by most other cognac producers.


title: Hennessy

text: The V.S.O.P. designation was first applied in 1817, when the Prince Regent (later King George IV) of Britain asked Hennessy to create a "very superior old pale" cognac, a description that had previously been applied to sherries. Maurice Hennessy, the grandson of Richard Hennessy, then introduced a star-based classification of cognac qualities in 1865 (a system simultaneously adopted by Hennessy's competitor Martell), which remained the industry standard of cognac age designation until the 1960s. Maurice Hennessy also created the XO ("extra old") designation in 1870, for cognacs which had undergone prolonged cask maturation.


title: Hennessy

text: In 1944 Kilian Hennessy, a fifth-generation direct descendant of Richard Hennessy, began assisting his cousin Maurice Hennessy in running the business. Killian Hennessy had intended to be a banker, but instead went on to position Hennessy as an international brand, travelling to Ireland, the United States and Asia to promote the brand. He first visited China in 1946, and the nation has since become the world's second-largest cognac market. In 1947, Hennessy's business relationship with Martell also came to a close, after the death of Maurice Firino-Martell.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy has also become a key part of major luxury conglomerates. In 1971 Killian Hennessy spearheaded the company's merger with Moët et Chandon, to create Moët Hennessy. Moët Hennessy then announced a merger with Louis Vuitton in 1987, creating the world's largest luxury brand conglomerate, Louis Vuitton • Moët-Hennessy or LVMH.


title: Hennessy

text: In 1988, a management crisis led to the group's takeover by Bernard Arnault, owner of the haute couture house Christian Dior, with the support of the Guinness brewery group. The so-called "LVMH affair" was so controversial in France that French President François Mitterrand referenced it in a televised address.


title: Hennessy

text: Kilian Hennessy remained on the company's advisory board until his death in 2010 at the age of 103. An eighth generation representative of the Hennessy dynasty, Maurice-Richard Hennessy, acts as one of the brand's global ambassadors. He had originally trained as a farmer before entering the family business.


title: Hennessy

text: From 2018 onward, Hennessy experienced production shortages caused in part by increased demand, bottle shortages, and frosts.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy holds the largest collection of cognac "eaux-de-vie" in the world, with more than 470,000 casks in its cellars. Through a process of blending and maturation of varying lengths, it makes several distinct gradings of cognac. As well as its V.S and V.S.O.P. gradings, which make up the majority of its sales, Hennessy is known for expensive specialist cognacs, some of which are still blended by the Fillioux family.


title: Hennessy

text: Limited editions of Hennessy can contain more than one hundred different "eaux-de-vie," some of which can be centuries old; they are traditionally accompanied with luxurious trimmings such as custom-made boxes and hand-blown carafes. A bottle of Richard Hennessy, for example, is priced at around USD$7,000, and comes in a Baccarat crystal decanter with matching glasses, a fusil, and a tray, all designed by the architect Daniel Libeskind.


title: Hennessy

text: Since 2009, Hennessy has released a number of collectible editions to mark anniversaries, special occasions, or collaborations with artists, designers and organisations, such as the NBA. It has collaborated with Zhang Enli, Les Twins, Refik Anadol, Kaws and Marc Newson among others.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy is also used as an ingredient in cocktails and mixed drinks, and is commonly served in nightclubs and bars. The company has launched a number of new products aimed at this on-premises market, including Pure White, Hennessy Black and Fine de Cognac, and promoted them accordingly. The rapper Nas has acted as a brand ambassador for the brand.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy has a substantial consumer base among African Americans, who drink the majority of the cognac consumed in the United States. Accordingly, the brand has also marketed itself with initiatives around black entrepreneurship and Black History Month.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy has a long-standing relationship with African American culture, especially hip hop. It has been described as "synonymous with rap music and African Americans, who are the brand’s major consumers and advocates". While music, especially the 1992 2Pac song "Hennessy" has been credited with popularising the drink, some historians have pointed to a much older relationship, which began when African American servicemen encountered cognac in France during World War I and World War II.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy has actively pursued this consumer group for decades. It targeted minority audiences as early as the 1950s, when it placed advertisements in African American magazines like "Ebony" and "Jet", used African American models, and hired African American employees. By some estimates more than two thirds of Hennessy sold in the United States is consumed by African Americans. It is sometimes referred to as "Henny".


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy appears frequently in the lyrics of popular music, and by one estimate the words "Hennessy" or "cognac" are referenced in more than 1,000 songs.


title: Hennessy

text: Some notable examples include "KC Tea" (2010) by Tech N9ne, "Hennessey" (1992) by 2Pac, "Hennesey n Buddah" (2000) by Snoop Dogg, "Hennessy" (2021) by Kodoku , "Love Scars" (2017) by Trippie Redd, "We Be Burnin'" (2005) by Sean Paul, "Boombayah" by K-pop group Blackpink, "The Humpty Dance" (1990) by Digital Underground, "Pass Me Da Green" by Master P (1997), "Moodz" by Blackbear, "Red Bull & Hennessy" by Jenny Lewis, "6 Inch" by Beyoncé, "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx, "Henny & Gingerale" by Mayer Hawthorne, "Whistle" by D-Block Europe, "Better Now<nowiki>" and "</nowiki>Rockstar (ft. 21 Savage)" by Post Malone. The cognac is referenced in the chorus of the Drake single "One Dance" (2016), which reached #1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The Rap duo Mobb Deep also wear Hennessy jerseys in their music video for their 1995 single "Shook Ones (Part II)".


title: Hennessy

text: In a 2019 interview with the "South China Morning Post", Maurice-Richard Hennessy said that “the word ‘Hennessy’ goes well in a song", and disclosed that he had met several rap artists, who he thought were "nice people". He told the paper that "they often come from poor backgrounds and ask me about recommendations, how to drink it, how it’s made.”


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy is the drink of choice for Blues musician Del Paxton in the movie "That Thing You Do!" In the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", Bond, rescued by a St. Bernard in Switzerland, curtly dismisses the dog and tells him to bring five star Hennessy.


title: Hennessy

text: At the 2009 VMAs interruption, Kanye West was reportedly intoxicated after drinking Hennessy and other various alcoholic drinks before his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy sponsors the New Irish Writing competition in the "Irish Independent", and the associated annual Hennessy Literary Award, that has launched such Irish writers as Joseph O'Connor, Dermot Bolger, Colm Ó Clúbhán, Patrick McCabe, Colum McCann, Frank McGuinness, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton, Dermot Healy and Neil Jordan.


title: Hennessy

text: Hennessy was the favourite drink of Kim Jong-il, former Supreme Leader of North Korea. Hennessy once reported that Kim spent over $700,000 a year on Paradis cognac.


title: Private equity

text: In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a type of ownership of assets (financial equity) and is a class of assets (debt securities and equity securities), which function as modes of financial management for operating private companies that are not publicly traded in a stock exchange.


title: Private equity

text: Private-equity capital is invested into a target company either by an investment management company (private equity firm), or by a venture capital fund, or by an angel investor; each category of investor has specific financial goals, management preferences, and investment strategies for profiting from their investments. Each category of investor provides working capital to the target company to finance the expansion of the company with the development of new products and services, the restructuring of operations, management, and formal control and ownership of the company.


title: Private equity

text: As a financial product, the private-equity fund is a type of "private capital" for financing a long-term investment strategy in an illiquid business enterprise. Since the 1980s, the financial press describe "private equity fund" investment as the superficial rebranding of investment management companies who specialized in the leveraged buyout of financially weak companies.


title: Private equity

text: Leveraged buyout, LBO, or Buyout refers to a strategy of making equity investments as part of a transaction in which a company, business unit, or business assets is acquired from the current shareholders typically with the use of financial leverage. The companies involved in these transactions are typically mature and generate operating cash flows.


title: Private equity

text: Private-equity firms view target companies as either Platform companies, which have sufficient scale and a successful business model to act as a stand-alone entity, or as add-on / tuck-in / bolt-on acquisitions, which would include companies with insufficient scale or other deficits.


title: Private equity

text: Leveraged buyouts involve a financial sponsor agreeing to an acquisition without itself committing all the capital required for the acquisition. To do this, the financial sponsor will raise acquisition debt, which looks to the cash flows of the acquisition target to make interest and principal payments. Acquisition debt in an LBO is often non-recourse to the financial sponsor and has no claim on other investments managed by the financial sponsor. Therefore, an LBO transaction's financial structure is particularly attractive to a fund's limited partners, allowing them the benefits of leverage, but limiting the degree of recourse of that leverage. This kind of financing structure leverage benefits an LBO's financial sponsor in two ways: (1) the investor only needs to provide a fraction of the capital for the acquisition, and (2) the returns to the investor will be enhanced, as long as the return on assets exceeds the cost of the debt.


title: Private equity

text: As a percentage of the purchase price for a leverage buyout target, the amount of debt used to finance a transaction varies according to the financial condition and history of the acquisition target, market conditions, the willingness of lenders to extend credit (both to the LBO's financial sponsors and the company to be acquired) as well as the interest costs and the ability of the company to cover those costs. Historically the debt portion of a LBO will range from 60%–90% of the purchase price. Between 2000–2005 debt averaged between 59.4% and 67.9% of total purchase price for LBOs in the United States.


title: Private equity

text: A private-equity fund, ABC Capital II, borrows $9bn from a bank (or other lender). To this, it adds $2bn of "equity" – money from its own partners and from "limited partners". With this $11bn, it buys all the shares of an underperforming company, XYZ Industrial (after "due diligence", i.e. checking the books). It replaces the senior management in XYZ Industrial, with others who set out to streamline it. The workforce is reduced, some assets are sold off, etc. The objective is to increase the valuation of the company for an early sale.


title: Private equity

text: The stock market is experiencing a bull market, and XYZ Industrial is sold two years after the buy-out for $13bn, yielding a profit of $2bn. The original loan can now be paid off with interest of, say, $0.5bn. The remaining profit of $1.5bn is shared among the partners. Taxation of such gains is at the capital gains tax rates, which in the United States are lower than ordinary income tax rates.


title: Private equity

text: Note that part of that profit results from turning the company around, and part results from the general increase in share prices in a buoyant stock market, the latter often being the greater component.


title: Private equity

text: Growth capital refers to equity investments, most often minority investments, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new markets or finance a major acquisition without a change of control of the business.