title: Kerry King

text: King's first experience with a guitar was when he was a child. Steve Huey of AllMusic has commented in his review for "Reign in Blood" that Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman's demented soloing often mimics the screams of the songs' victims. He also described his and Jeff Hanneman's guitar solos as "wildly chaotic". Thom Jurek, also of AllMusic, described his work on 2006's "Christ Illusion" as creating "an intensely harrowing and angular riff that changes from verse to verse, through the refrain and bridge, and comes back again."


title: Kerry King

text: King listed Venom, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath as his favorite bands during his teen years. He said once "Anybody who plays heavy music and doesn't cite Sabbath as an influence is lying, because that's where it all started." He cited Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing of Judas Priest as his biggest influences as a guitarist that inspire his style, tone, and gear. He mentioned Eddie Van Halen, Ted Nugent, Ronnie Montrose, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Randy Rhoads as other influences.


title: Kerry King

text: King has been twice divorced and has a daughter named Shyanne Kymberlee King with his first wife; his current wife is Ayesha King. He claims he has never done drugs, though he has said "I'm quite an experienced drinker".


title: Kerry King

text: Prior to 2020, King had lived in California for almost all of his life. He relocated to Phoenix, Arizona around 1987, and while living there, he was a neighbor of Judas Priest singer Rob Halford. By the early 2000s, King had moved back to Los Angeles, and he would later relocate to Riverside County, California. In April 2020, King and Ayesha bought one home in Las Vegas, Nevada; as of November 2021, however, the couple resides in New York City.


title: Kerry King

text: King is an antitheist. He is known to oppose and strongly criticise organized religion by expressing his views in his songwriting. In a 2006 interview with Blabbermouth.net, King expressed his anti-religious views: "I don't really have a life philosophy; my thing is just rebelling against pretty much organized religion. That is my main thing, because personally I think it's a crutch for people that are too weak to get through life on their own. I'm the kind of guy that says if I don't see it, then it doesn't work. And nobody can show me God." When asked by "Revolver Magazine" what superpower would he want if he was a supervillain, King replied "the ability to burst a church into flames by simply walking by it."


title: Kerry King

text: King is an avid snake collector who owns a reptile house and herpetology nursery called Psychotic Exotics.


title: Kerry King

text: King has stayed clear of politics, but stated in 2017 that he was "embarrassed about Trump's presidency," which he described as "divisive and polarizing."


title: Kerry King

text: King's body has grown increasingly tattooed over his career, with "Blender Magazine" once producing a tour of his body ink. King's abbreviation, KFK, was revealed to mean "Kerry Fuckin' King" in the January 2007 Issue of "Guitar World".


title: SungWon Cho

text: SungWon Cho ( ; ; born December 9, 1990), also known as ProZD, is an American voice actor and YouTuber. On his YouTube channel, Cho produces short skits, unboxing videos, and reviews of board games and snack foods. He is also known for playing Detective Joe Furuya in "Anime Crimes Division" and for his many voice acting roles, including FL4K from "Borderlands 3", Holst Sigiswald Goneril from "" and Ratatoskr from "God of War Ragnarök".


title: SungWon Cho

text: SungWon Cho was born to Korean parents in Minnesota on December 9, 1990, and later moved to DeWitt, Michigan. He started voice acting in high school when he voiced different characters on a friend's radio plays. He attended Michigan State University, where he frequently acted in live performances and graduated in 2012 with a degree in Media Information and Technology. In 2012, after graduating, he described himself as being "in a creative rut" and taught English as a second language to Korean immigrant students.


title: SungWon Cho

text: In October 2012, Cho began daily posting voice content to Tumblr, building an audience and eventually going viral with a video of him singing "Let It Go" from "Frozen" as Goofy. His first foray into professional voice acting occurred when voice director Deven Mack saw one of his YouTube videos and had him audition for "Apotheon", where he ended up securing the role of the main villain Zeus. He remained active on Vine until the 2016 announcement of their shutdown and was also a finalist for the 9th Shorty Awards for Vine of the Year. Cho shifted his focus to his YouTube channel, his audience following from Vine and having his work often appear on the frontpage of Reddit.


title: SungWon Cho

text: In 2017 Cho starred in his first live action role as the main character, Detective Joe Furuya, in Crunchyroll's "Anime Crimes Division", for which he was nominated for Best Acting in a Comedy for the 8th Streamy Awards. In mid-2018 Creative Artists Agency reached out and signed him coinciding with an already planned move to Los Angeles to continue his career as a voice actor. Soon after he was cast in the multi-ethnic Rooster Teeth series "" and told NewsWeek's Phillip Martinez, "Voice acting gives me a lot more freedom because I'm not limited by my physical appearance. I can voice all sorts all different sort of characters."


title: SungWon Cho

text: Cho's presence on YouTube grew throughout this time with his channel exceeding 3.75 million subscribers and most of his income between voice acting work coming from sponsorships and ad revenue. His videos are intentionally low-budget and often feature recurring universes with their own casts of characters, including an anime parody ("The Tomoko Chairem Anime Canon") and a role-playing game parody ("King Dragon"), through which he pokes fun at common gaming and anime cliches and tropes. He continued to expand these existing storylines that had originally started on Vine, as well as creating a Let's Play channel "Press Buttons n Talk" with his friend Alex Mankin. In 2019 Cho voiced the character FL4K in the popular video game "Borderlands 3". He has been a fan favorite in the anime community being a frequent guest at conventions and presenting for the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.


title: SungWon Cho

text: In October 2015, Cho became engaged to Anne Marie Salter, whom he had met through an online "Super Mario" fan fiction community. They were married on May 28, 2016. They have two cats named Effie and Sophie who are seen in Cho's videos at times.


title: SungWon Cho

text: He came up with the username "ProZD" in elementary school, and said that he would not disclose what it means as "it's so embarrassing that even my wife doesn't know." On April 26, 2022, Cho tweeted that he had finally revealed the meaning of the username to his wife after being together for fourteen years.


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Within Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger populations.


title: Sulawesi

text: The landmass of Sulawesi includes four peninsulas: the northern Minahasa Peninsula, the East Peninsula, the South Peninsula, and the Southeast Peninsula. Three gulfs separate these peninsulas: the Gulf of Tomini between the northern Minahasa and East peninsulas, the Tolo Gulf between the East and Southeast peninsulas, and the Bone Gulf between the South and Southeast peninsulas. The Strait of Makassar runs along the western side of the island and separates the island from Borneo.


title: Sulawesi

text: The name "Sulawesi" possibly comes from the words "sula" ("island") and "besi" ("iron") and may refer to the historical export of iron from the rich Lake Matano iron deposits. The name came into common use in English following Indonesian independence.


title: Sulawesi

text: The name "Celebes" was originally given to the island by Portuguese explorers. While its direct translation is unclear, it might be considered a Portuguese rendering of the native name "Sulawesi".


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi is the world's eleventh-largest island, covering an area of . The central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the island's peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road. The three bays that divide Sulawesi's peninsulas are, from north to south, the Tomini, the Tolo and the Boni. These separate the Minahassa or Northern Peninsula, the East Peninsula, the Southeast Peninsula and the South Peninsula.


title: Sulawesi

text: The Strait of Makassar runs along the western side of the island. The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, and by Flores and Timor to the south.


title: Sulawesi

text: The Selayar Islands make up a peninsula stretching southwards from Southwest Sulawesi into the Flores Sea are administratively part of Sulawesi. The Sangihe Islands and Talaud Islands stretch northward from the northeastern tip of Sulawesi, while Buton Island and its neighbors lie off its southeast peninsula, the Togian Islands are in the Gulf of Tomini, and Peleng Island and Banggai Islands form a cluster between Sulawesi and Maluku. All the above-mentioned islands and many smaller ones are administratively part of Sulawesi's six provinces.


title: Sulawesi

text: The island slopes up from the shores of the deep seas surrounding the island to a high, mostly non-volcanic, mountainous interior. Active volcanoes are found in the northern Minahassa Peninsula, stretching north to the Sangihe Islands. The northern peninsula contains several active volcanoes such as Mount Lokon, Mount Awu, Soputan and Karangetang.


title: Sulawesi

text: According to plate reconstructions, the island is believed to have been formed by the collision of terranes from the Asian Plate (forming the west and southwest) and from the Australian Plate (forming the southeast and Banggai), with island arcs previously in the Pacific (forming the north and east peninsulas). Because of its several tectonic origins, various faults scar the land and as a result the island is prone to earthquakes, including the deadly 2018 and 2021 quakes.


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi, in contrast to most of the other islands in the biogeographical region of Wallacea, is not truly oceanic, but a composite island at the centre of the Asia-Australia collision zone. Parts of the island were formerly attached to either the Asian or Australian continental margin and became separated from these areas by vicariant processes. In the west, the opening of the Makassar Strait separated West Sulawesi from Sundaland in the Eocene c. 45 Mya. In the east, the traditional view of collisions of multiple micro-continental fragments sliced from New Guinea with an active volcanic margin in West Sulawesi at different times since the Early Miocene c. 20 Mya has recently been replaced by the hypothesis that extensional fragmentation has followed a single Miocene collision of West Sulawesi with the Sula Spur, the western end of an ancient folded belt of Variscan origin in the Late Paleozoic.


title: Sulawesi

text: The oldest evidence for humans on Sulawesi are stone tools produced by archaic humans, dating from over 200,000 to 100,000 years ago, that were found at the Talepu site in southwestern Sulawesi.


title: Sulawesi

text: Before October 2014, the settlement of South Sulawesi by modern humans had been dated to c. 30,000 BC on the basis of radiocarbon dates obtained from rock shelters in Maros. No earlier evidence of human occupation had at that point been found, but the island almost certainly formed part of the land bridge used for the settlement of Australia and New Guinea by at least 40,000 BC. There is no evidence of "Homo erectus" having reached Sulawesi; crude stone tools first discovered in 1947 on the right bank of the Walanae River at Barru (now part of Bone Regency), which were thought to date to the Pleistocene on the basis of their association with vertebrate fossils, are now thought to date to perhaps 50,000 BC.


title: Sulawesi

text: Following Peter Bellwood's model of a southward migration of Austronesian-speaking farmers (AN), radiocarbon dates from caves in Maros suggest a date in the mid-second millennium BC for the arrival of a group from east Borneo speaking a Proto-South Sulawesi language (PSS). Initial settlement was probably around the mouth of the Sa'dan river, on the northwest coast of the peninsula, although the south coast has also been suggested.


title: Sulawesi

text: Subsequent migrations across the mountainous landscape resulted in the geographical isolation of PSS speakers and the evolution of their languages into the eight families of the South Sulawesi language group. If each group can be said to have a homeland, that of the Bugis – today the most numerous group – was around lakes Témpé and Sidénréng in the Walennaé depression. Here for some 2,000 years lived the linguistic group that would become the modern Bugis; the archaic name of this group (which is preserved in other local languages) was Ugiq. Despite the fact that today they are closely linked with the Makassarese, the closest linguistic neighbors of the Bugis are the Torajans.


title: Sulawesi

text: Pre-1200 Bugis society was most likely organized into chiefdoms. Some anthropologists have speculated these chiefdoms would have warred and, in times of peace, interbred. Further, they have speculated that personal security would have been negligible and head-hunting an established cultural practice. The political economy would have been a mixture of hunting and gathering and swidden or shifting agriculture. Speculative planting of wet rice may have taken place along the margins of the lakes and rivers.


title: Sulawesi

text: In Central Sulawesi, there are more than 400 granite megaliths, which various archaeological studies have dated to be from 3000 BC to AD 1300. They vary in size from a few centimeters to approximately . The original purpose of the megaliths is unknown. Approximately 30 of the megaliths represent human forms. Other megaliths are in form of large pots ("Kalamba") and stone plates ("Tutu'na").


title: Sulawesi

text: A burial of a woman associated with the hunter-gatherer Toalean culture dating to 7,000 years ago has yielded DNA that has provided rare insight into early migrations in and through the region.


title: Sulawesi

text: In October 2014, it was announced that cave paintings in Maros had been dated as being approximately 40,000 years old. One of a hand was 39,900 years old, which made it "the oldest hand stencil in the world". Dr. Maxime Aubert, of Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, said that was the minimum age for the outline in Pettakere Cave in Maros, and added: "Next to it is a pig that has a minimum age of 35,400 years old, and this is one of the oldest figurative depictions in the world, if not the oldest one."


title: Sulawesi

text: On 11 December 2019, a team of researchers led by Dr. Maxime Aubert announced the discovery of the oldest hunting scenes in prehistoric art in the world that is more than 44,000 years old from the limestone cave of Leang Bulu' Sipong 4. Archaeologists determined the age of the depiction of hunting a pig and buffalo thanks to the calcite 'popcorn', different isotope levels of radioactive uranium and thorium.


title: Sulawesi

text: In March 2020, two small stone 'plaquettes' were found by Griffith University archaeologists in the Leang Bulu Bettue cave, dated to a time between 26,000 and 14,000 years ago. While one of the stones contained an anoa (water buffalo) and what may be a flower, star, or eye, another depicted astronomic rays of light.


title: Sulawesi

text: In January 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of cave art that is at least 45,500 years old in a Leang Tedongnge cave. According to the journal "Science Advances", the cave painting of a warty pig is the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region. An adult male pig, measuring 136 cm x 54 cm and what is likely a Sulawesi or Celebes warty pig (Sus celebensis), was depicted with horn-like facial warts and two hand prints above its hindquarters. According to co-author Adam Brumm, there are two other pigs that are partly preserved and it appears the warty pig was observing a fight between the two other pigs.


title: Sulawesi

text: A bronze Amaravathi statue was discovered at Sikendeng, South Sulawesi near Karama river in 1921 which was dated to 2nd-7th century AD by Bosch (1933). In 1975, small locally made Buddhist statues from 10th-11th century were also discovered in Bontoharu, on the island of Selayar, South Sulawesi.


title: Sulawesi

text: Starting in the 13th century, access to prestige trade goods and to sources of iron started to alter long-standing cultural patterns and to permit ambitious individuals to build larger political units. It is not known why these two ingredients appeared together; one was perhaps the product of the other.


title: Sulawesi

text: In 1367, several identified polities located on the island were mentioned in the Javanese manuscript Nagarakretagama dated from the Majapahit period. Canto 14 mentioned polities including Gowa, Makassar, Luwu and Banggai. It seems that by the 14th century, polities in the island were connected in an archipelagic maritime trading network, centered in the Majapahit port in East Java. By 1400, a number of nascent agricultural principalities had arisen in the western Cenrana valley, as well as on the south coast and on the west coast near modern Parepare.


title: Sulawesi

text: The first Europeans to visit the island (which they believed to be an archipelago due to its contorted shape) were the Portuguese sailors Simão de Abreu in 1523, and Gomes de Sequeira (among others) in 1525, sent from the Moluccas in search of gold, which the islands had the reputation of producing. A Portuguese base was installed in Makassar in the first decades of the 16th century, lasting until 1665, when it was taken by the Dutch. The Dutch had arrived in Sulawesi in 1605 and were quickly followed by the English, who established a factory in Makassar. From 1660, the Dutch were at war with Gowa, the major Makassar west coast power. In 1669, Admiral Speelman forced the ruler, Sultan Hasanuddin, to sign the Treaty of Bongaya, which handed control of trade to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch were aided in their conquest by the Bugis warlord Arung Palakka, ruler of the Bugis kingdom of Bone. The Dutch built a fort at Ujung Pandang, while Arung Palakka became the regional overlord and Bone the dominant kingdom. Political and cultural development seems to have slowed as a result of the status quo.


title: Sulawesi

text: In 1905, the entire island became part of the Dutch state colony of the Netherlands East Indies until Japanese occupation in the Second World War. During the Indonesian National Revolution, the Dutch Captain 'Turk' Westerling led campaigns in which hundreds, maybe thousands died during the South Sulawesi Campaign. Following the transfer of sovereignty in December 1949, Sulawesi became part of the federal United States of Indonesia, which in 1950 became absorbed into the unitary Republic of Indonesia.


title: Sulawesi

text: The Portuguese were rumoured to have a fort in Parigi in 1555. The Kaili were an important group based in the Palu valley and related to the Toraja. Scholars relate that their control swayed under Ternate and Makassar, but this might have been a decision by the Dutch to give their vassals a chance to govern a difficult group. Padbruge commented that in the 1700s the Kaili population was significantly high and were a highly militant society. In the 1850s, a civil war erupted between the Kaili groups, including the Banawa, in which the Dutch colonial government decided to intervene.


title: Sulawesi

text: In the late 19th century the Sarasins journeyed through the Palu valley as part of a major initiative to bring the Kaili under Dutch rule. Some very surprising and interesting photographs were taken of shamans called Tadulako. Further Christian religious missions entered the area to make one of the most detailed ethnographic studies in the early 20th century. A Swede by the name of Walter Kaudern later studied much of the literature and produced a synthesis. Erskine Downs in the 1950s produced a summary of Kruyts and Andrianis work: "The religion of the Bare'e-Speaking Toradja of Central Celebes," which is invaluable for English-speaking researchers. One of the most recent publications is "When the bones are left," a study of the material culture of central Sulawesi, offering extensive analysis. Also worthy of study are the brilliant works of Monnig Atkinson on the Wana shamans who live in the Mori area.


title: Sulawesi

text: The 2000 census population of the provinces of Sulawesi was 14,946,488, about 7.25% of Indonesia's total population. By the 2010 Census the total had reached 17,371,782, and the 2020 Census produced a total of 19,896,951. The official estimate for mid 2021 was 20,076,987. The largest city on Sulawesi is Makassar.


title: Sulawesi

text: Islam is the majority religion in Sulawesi. The conversion of the lowlands of the south western peninsula (South Sulawesi) to Islam occurred in the early 17th century. The kingdom of Luwu in the Gulf of Bone was the first to accept Islam in February 1605; the Makassar kingdom of Goa-Talloq, centred on the modern-day city of Makassar, followed suit in September. However, the Gorontalo and the Mongondow peoples of the northern peninsula largely converted to Islam only in the 19th century. Most Muslims are Sunnis.


title: Sulawesi

text: Christians form a substantial minority on the island. According to the demographer Toby Alice Volkman, 17% of Sulawesi's population is Protestant and less than 2% is Roman Catholic. Christians are concentrated on the tip of the northern peninsula around the city of Manado, which is inhabited by the Minahasa, a predominantly Protestant people, and the northernmost Sangir and Talaud Islands. The Toraja people of Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi have largely converted to Christianity since Indonesia's independence. There are also substantial numbers of Christians around Lake Poso in Central Sulawesi, among the Pamona speaking peoples of Central Sulawesi, and near Mamasa.


title: Sulawesi

text: Though most people identify themselves as Muslims or Christians, they often subscribe to local beliefs and deities as well.


title: Sulawesi

text: Smaller communities of Buddhists and Hindus are also found on Sulawesi, usually among the Chinese, Balinese and Indian communities.


title: Sulawesi

text: The island was administered as one province between 1945 and 1960. In 1960 it was divided into two provinces - North and Central Sulawesi, and South and Southeast Sulawesi. In 1964 both of these were again divided, the former into North Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi, and the latter into South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi. Today, it is subdivided into six provinces: Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. Among these, the newest provinces are Gorontalo, established in 2000 from part of North Sulawesi, and West Sulawesi, established in 2004 from part of South Sulawesi.


title: Sulawesi

text: The largest cities on the island are the provincial capitals of Makassar, Manado, Palu, Kendari, and Gorontalo (the provincial capital of West Sulawesi - the town of Mamuju - is not a city); there are six other cities - Bitung, Palopo, Bau-Bau, Parepare, Kotamobagu and Tomohun.


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi is part of Wallacea, meaning that it has a mix of both Indomalayan and Australasian species that reached the island by crossing deep-water oceanic barriers. The flora includes one native eucalypt, "E. deglupta". There are 8 national parks on the island, of which 4 are mostly marine. The parks with the largest terrestrial area are Bogani Nani Wartabone with 2,871 km and Lore Lindu National Park with 2,290 km. Bunaken National Park, which protects a rich coral ecosystem, has been proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Sulawesi

text: Early in the Pleistocene, Sulawesi had a dwarf elephant and a dwarf form of "Stegodon", (an elephant relative, "S. sompoensis"); later both were replaced by larger forms. A giant suid, "Celebochoerus", was also formerly present. It is thought that many of the migrants to Sulawesi arrived via the Philippines, while Sulawesi in turn served as a way station for migrants to Flores. A Pleistocene faunal turnover is recognized, with the competitive displacement of several indigenous tarsiers by more recently arriving ones and of "Celebochoerus" by other medium-sized herbivores like the babirusa, anoa and Celebes warty pig.


title: Sulawesi

text: There are 127 known extant native mammalian species in Sulawesi. A large percentage, 62% (79 species) are endemic, meaning that they are found nowhere else in the world. The largest of these are the two species of anoa or dwarf buffalo. Other artiodactyl species inhabiting Sulawesi are the warty pig and the babirusas, which are aberrant pigs. The only native carnivoran is the Sulawesi palm civet (Asian palm and Malayan civets have been introduced). Primates present include a number of nocturnal tarsiers ("T. fuscus", Dian's, Gursky's, Jatna's, Wallace's, the Lariang and pygmy tarsiers) as well as diurnal macaques (Heck's, the booted, crested black, Gorontalo, moor, and Tonkean macaques). While most of Sulawesi's mammals are placental and have Asian relatives, several species of cuscus, arboreal marsupials of Australasian origin, are also present ("Ailurops ursinus" and "Strigocuscus celebensis", which are diurnal and nocturnal, respectively).


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi is home to a large number of endemic rodent genera. Murid rodent genera endemic to Sulawesi and immediately adjacent islands (such as the Togian Islands, Buton Island, and Muna Island) are "Bunomys", "Echiothrix", "Margaretamys", "Taeromys" and "Tateomys" as well as the single-species genera "Eropeplus", "Hyorhinomys", "Melasmothrix", "Paucidentomys", "Paruromys", "Sommeromys" and the semiaquatic "Waiomys". All nine sciurids are from three endemic genera, "Hyosciurus", "Prosciurillus" and "Rubrisciurus".


title: Sulawesi

text: While over 20 bat species are present on Sulawesi, only a portion of these are endemic: "Rhinolophus tatar", "Scotophilus celebensis" and the megabats "Acerodon celebensis", "Boneia bidens", "Dobsonia exoleta", "Harpyionycteris celebensis", "Neopteryx frosti", "Rousettus celebensis" and "Styloctenium wallacei".


title: Sulawesi

text: Several endemic shrews, the Sulawesi shrew, Sulawesi tiny shrew and the Sulawesi white-handed shrew, are found on the island.


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi has no gliding mammals, being situated between Borneo with its colugos and flying squirrels, and Halmahera with its sugar gliders.


title: Sulawesi

text: By contrast, Sulawesian bird species tend to be found on other nearby islands as well, such as Borneo; 31% of Sulawesi's birds are found nowhere else. One endemic (also found on small neighboring islands) is the largely ground-dwelling, chicken-sized maleo, a megapode which sometimes uses hot sand close to the island's volcanic vents to incubate its eggs. An international partnership of conservationists, donors, and local people have formed the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, in an effort to raise awareness and protect the nesting grounds of these birds on the central-eastern arm of the island. Other endemic birds include the flightless snoring rail, the fiery-browed starling, the Sulawesi masked owl, the Sulawesi myna, the satanic nightjar and the grosbeak starling. There are around 350 known bird species in Sulawesi.


title: Sulawesi

text: The larger reptiles of Sulawesi are not endemic and include reticulated and Burmese pythons, the Pacific ground boa, king cobras, water monitors, sailfin lizards, saltwater crocodiles and green sea turtles. An extinct giant tortoise, "Megalochelys atlas", was formerly present, but disappeared by 840,000 years ago, possibly because of the arrival of Homo erectus. Similarly, komodo dragons or similar lizards appear to have inhabited the island, being among its apex predators. The smaller snakes of Sulawesi include nonendemic forms such as the gliding species "Chrysopelea paradisi" and endemic forms such as "Calamaria boesemani", "Calamaria muelleri", "Calamaria nuchalis", "Cyclotyphlops", "Enhydris matannensis", "Ptyas dipsas", "Rabdion grovesi", "Tropidolaemus laticinctus" and "Typhlops conradi". Similarly, the smaller lizards of Sulawesi include nonendemic species such as "Bronchocela jubata", "Dibamus novaeguineae" and "Gekko smithii", as well as endemic species such as "Lipinia infralineolata" and "Gekko iskandari".


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi also harbours several species of freshwater chelonians, two of which are endemic. They include the "Forsten's tortoise" and the "Sulawesi forest turtle", both of which likely attribute their respective origins to the dispersal of the mainland Asian "elongated tortoise" and "Malayan flat-shelled turtle" from the then-exposed subcontinent of "Sundaland" during the "Pleistocene epoch".


title: Sulawesi

text: The remaining two species consist of the non-endemic "Malayan box turtle" of the Wallacean subspecies, and the "Asiatic softshell turtle".


title: Sulawesi

text: The amphibians of Sulawesi include the endemic frogs "Hylarana celebensis", "H. macrops", "H. mocquardi", "Ingerophrynus celebensis", "Limnonectes arathooni", "L. larvaepartus", "L. microtympanum", "Occidozyga celebensis", "O. semipalmata" and "O. tompotika" as well as the endemic "flying frogs" "Rhacophorus edentulus" and "R. georgii".


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi is home to more than 70 freshwater fish species, including more than 55 endemics. Among these are the genus "Nomorhamphus", a species flock of viviparous halfbeaks containing 12 species that only are found on Sulawesi (others are from the Philippines). In addition to "Nomorhamphus", the majority of Sulawesi's freshwater fish species are ricefishes, gobies ("Glossogobius" and "Mugilogobius") and Telmatherinid sail-fin silversides. The last family is almost entirely restricted to Sulawesi, especially the Malili Lake system, consisting of Matano and Towuti, and the small Lontoa (Wawantoa), Mahalona and Masapi. Another unusual endemic is "Lagusia micracanthus" from rivers in South Sulawesi, which is the sole member of its genus and among the smallest grunters. The gudgeon "Bostrychus microphthalmus" from the Maros Karst is the only described species of cave-adapted fish from Sulawesi, but an apparently undescribed species from the same region and genus also exists.


title: Sulawesi

text: Many species of "Caridina" freshwater shrimp and parathelphusid freshwater crabs ("Migmathelphusa", "Nautilothelphusa", "Parathelphusa", "Sundathelphusa" and "Syntripsa") are endemic to Sulawesi. Several of these species have become very popular in the aquarium hobby, and since most are restricted to a single lake system, they are potentially vulnerable to habitat loss and overexploitation. There are also several endemic cave-adapted shrimp and crabs, especially in the Maros Karst. This includes "Cancrocaeca xenomorpha", which has been called the "most highly cave-adapted species of crab known in the world".


title: Sulawesi

text: The genus "Tylomelania" of freshwater snails is also endemic to Sulawesi, with the majority of the species restricted to Lake Poso and the Malili Lake system.


title: Sulawesi

text: Sulawesi island was recently the subject of an Ecoregional Conservation Assessment, coordinated by The Nature Conservancy. Detailed reports about the vegetation of the island are available. The assessment produced a detailed and annotated list of 'conservation portfolio' sites. This information was widely distributed to local government agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Detailed conservation priorities have also been outlined in a recent publication.


title: Sulawesi

text: The lowland forests on the island have mostly been removed. Because of the relative geological youth of the island and its dramatic and sharp topography, the lowland areas are naturally limited in their extent. The past decade has seen dramatic conversion of this rare and endangered habitat. The island also possesses one of the largest outcrops of serpentine soil in the world, which support an unusual and large community of specialized plant species. Overall, the flora and fauna of this unique center of global biodiversity is very poorly documented and understood and remains critically threatened.


title: Sulawesi

text: The islands of Pepaya, Mas, and Raja islands, located in Sumalata Village – North Gorontalo Regency (about 30 km from Saronde Island), have been named a nature reserve since the Dutch colonial time in 1936. Four of the only seven species of sea turtles can be found in the islands, the world's best turtle habitat. They include penyu hijau ("Chelonia midas"), penyu sisik ("Eretmochelys imbricata"), penyu tempayan ("Caretta caretta") and penyu belimbing ("Dermochelys coriacea"). In 2011, the habitat was threatened by human activities such as illegal poaching and fish bombing activities; furthermore, many coral reefs, which represent a source of food for turtles, have been damaged.


title: Sulawesi

text: The largest environmental issue in Sulawesi is deforestation. In 2007, scientists found that 80 percent of Sulawesi's forest had been lost or degraded, especially centered in the lowlands and the mangroves. Forests have been felled for logging and large agricultural projects. Loss of forest has resulted in many of Sulawesi's endemic species becoming endangered. In addition, 99 percent of Sulawesi's wetlands have been lost or damaged.


title: Sulawesi

text: The island of Sulawesi has six national parks and nineteen nature reserves. In addition, Sulawesi has three marine protected areas. Many of Sulawesi's parks are threatened by logging, mining, and deforestation for agriculture.


title: Ts Madison

text: Ts Madison Hinton (born October 22, 1977), also known as Maddie, is an American reality television personality, actress, and LGBT activist. With the reality show "The Ts Madison Experience", she became the first black trans woman to star in and executive produce her own reality series. She has appeared in films such as "Zola" and "Bros" and has been a member of the regular judging panel on "RuPaul's Drag Race" since the show's fifteenth season following several previous appearances as a guest judge.


title: Ts Madison

text: Madison rose to fame in 2013 after going viral following the release of a Vine clip titled "New Weave 22 Inches". The video features her exposing her nude body. During this time, Madison was starring in adult films and running a successful production company. On the "LGBTQ&A" podcast, Madison said she started doing sex work after being fired from multiple jobs for being trans. "I was hell-bent on me not being broke anymore in life. Me not having to worry about where I'm going to live, how I'm going to pay my bills, because I came from that time of me having to really worry. And this was a place of security for me."


title: Ts Madison

text: After becoming a viral sensation, Madison signed a recording and media contract with Pink Money Records in 2014 and released her first single "Feeling My Fish" shortly after. In 2016, Madison released her debut album, "The New Supreme", and appeared with Ellis Miah and RuPaul on the song, "Drop". In 2021, she collaborated with Todrick Hall on the song, "DICK THIS BIG".


title: Ts Madison

text: Madison has had roles in the movie "Zola", and the upcoming romantic comedy, "The Perfect Find", on Netflix. Janicza Bravo, the director of "Zola", told "The New York Times" that she discovered Madison through her viral Vine video, watching it "maybe 20 times in a row...I became kind of obsessed with her." Madison appeared in "Bros", "the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio". According to "The Hollywood Reporter", the movie has a "historic all-LGBTQ principal cast".


title: Ts Madison

text: Madison has made multiple appearances as a guest judge on "RuPaul's Drag Race". In 2019, Silky Nutmeg Ganache played Madison in the Snatch Game episode of "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 11 and won the episode.


title: Ts Madison

text: In 2021, "The Ts Madison Experience" debuted on We TV, making Madison the first black trans woman to star in her own reality show. Madison was also an executive producer on the series. On February 2021, Madison shared on a Facebook panel her experiences and knowledge on erasure of Black trans love. In 2022, WE tv announced that "The Ts Madison Experience" had been renewed for a second season.


title: Ts Madison

text: Madison has guest starred a number of times on Nicki Minaj's "Queen Radio" show, which aired on Beats 1.


title: Ts Madison

text: Madison was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Transgender Erotica Awards hosted by Grooby, and received a standing ovation. In 2019, she was honored in the "Out magazine" Top 100 influential LGBT people. In 2022 she won the WOWIE Award for Best Viral Moment. In 2022, Madison and Dominique Morgan were chosen as the Grand Marshals of the NYC Pride Parade.


title: Enlil

text: Enlil, later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur. His cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk.


title: Enlil

text: Enlil plays a vital role in the Sumerian creation myth; he separates An (heaven) from Ki (earth), thus making the world habitable for humans. In the Sumerian flood myth, Enlil rewards Ziusudra with immortality for having survived the flood and, in the Babylonian flood myth, Enlil is the cause of the flood himself, having sent the flood to exterminate the human race, who made too much noise and prevented him from sleeping. The myth of "Enlil and Ninlil" is about Enlil's serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in various guises, resulting in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and the Underworld deities Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu. Enlil was regarded as the inventor of the mattock and the patron of agriculture. Enlil also features prominently in several myths involving his son Ninurta, including "Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies" and "Lugale".


title: Enlil

text: Enlil's name comes from ancient Sumerian EN (𒂗), meaning "lord" and LÍL (𒆤), the meaning of which is contentious, and which has sometimes been interpreted as meaning winds as a weather phenomenon (making Enlil a weather and sky god, "Lord Wind" or "Lord Storm"), or alternatively as signifying a spirit or phantom whose presence may be felt as stirring of the air, or possibly as representing a partial Semitic loanword rather than a Sumerian word at all. Enlil's name is not a genitive construction, suggesting that Enlil was seen as the personification of LÍL rather than merely the cause of LÍL.


title: Enlil

text: Piotr Steinkeller has written that the meaning of LÍL may not actually be a clue to a specific divine domain of Enlil's, whether storms, spirits, or otherwise, since Enlil may have been "a typical universal god [...] without any specific domain."


title: Enlil

text: Enlil was the patron god of the Sumerian city-state of Nippur and his main center of worship was the Ekur temple located there. The name of the temple literally means "Mountain House" in ancient Sumerian. The Ekur was believed to have been built and established by Enlil himself. It was believed to be the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth, meaning that it was seen as "a channel of communication between earth and heaven". A hymn written during the reign of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, describes the E-kur in great detail, stating that its gates were carved with scenes of Imdugud, a lesser deity sometimes shown as a giant bird, slaying a lion and an eagle snatching up a sinner.


title: Enlil

text: The Sumerians believed that the sole purpose of humanity's existence was to serve the gods. They thought that a god's statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself. As such, cult statues were given constant care and attention and a set of priests were assigned to tend to them. People worshipped Enlil by offering food and other human necessities to him. The food, which was ritually laid out before the god's cult statue in the form of a feast, was believed to be Enlil's daily meal, but, after the ritual, it would be distributed among his priests. These priests were also responsible for changing the cult statue's clothing.


title: Enlil

text: The Sumerians envisioned Enlil as a benevolent, fatherly deity, who watches over humanity and cares for their well-being. One Sumerian hymn describes Enlil as so glorious that even the other gods could not look upon him. The same hymn also states that, without Enlil, civilization could not exist. Enlil's epithets include titles such as "the Great Mountain" and "King of the Foreign Lands". Enlil is also sometimes described as a "raging storm", a "wild bull", and a "merchant". The Mesopotamians envisioned him as a creator, a father, a king, and the supreme lord of the universe. He was also known as "Nunamnir" and is referred to in at least one text as the "East Wind and North Wind".


title: Enlil

text: Kings regarded Enlil as a model ruler and sought to emulate his example. Enlil was said to be supremely just and intolerant towards evil. Rulers from all over Sumer would travel to Enlil's temple in Nippur to be legitimized. They would return Enlil's favor by devoting lands and precious objects to his temple as offerings. Nippur was the only Sumerian city-state that never built a palace; this was intended to symbolize the city's importance as the center of the cult of Enlil by showing that Enlil himself was the city's king. Even during the Babylonian Period, when Marduk had superseded Enlil as the supreme god, Babylonian kings still traveled to the holy city of Nippur to seek recognition of their right to rule.


title: Enlil

text: Enlil first rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC, when the importance of the god An began to wane. During this time period, Enlil and An are frequently invoked together in inscriptions. Enlil remained the supreme god in Mesopotamia throughout the Amorite Period, with Amorite monarchs proclaiming Enlil as the source of their legitimacy. Enlil's importance began to wane after the Babylonian king Hammurabi conquered Sumer. The Babylonians worshipped Enlil under the name "Elil" and the Hurrians syncretized him with their own god Kumarbi. In one Hurrian ritual, Enlil and Apantu are invoked as "the father and mother of Išḫara". Enlil is also invoked alongside Ninlil as a member of "the mighty and firmly established gods".


title: Enlil

text: During the Kassite Period ( 1592 BC – 1155 BC), Nippur briefly managed to regain influence in the region and Enlil rose to prominence once again. From around 1300 BC onwards, Enlil was syncretized with the Assyrian national god Aššur, who was the most important deity in the Assyrian pantheon. Then, in 1230 BC, the Elamites attacked Nippur and the city fell into decline, taking the cult of Enlil along with it. Approximately one hundred years later, Enlil's role as the head of the pantheon was given to Marduk, the national god of the Babylonians.


title: Enlil

text: Enlil was represented by the symbol of a horned cap, which consisted of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. Such crowns were an important symbol of divinity; gods had been shown wearing them ever since the third millennium BC. The horned cap remained consistent in form and meaning from the earliest days of Sumerian prehistory up until the time of the Persian conquest and beyond.


title: Enlil

text: The Sumerians had a complex numerological system, in which certain numbers were believed to hold special ritual significance. Within this system, Enlil was associated with the number fifty, which was considered sacred to him. Enlil was part of a triad of deities, which also included An and Enki. These three deities together were the embodiment of all the fixed stars in the night sky. An was identified with all the stars of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky. The path of Enlil's celestial orbit was a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole, but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points. Enlil was associated with the constellation Boötes.


title: Enlil

text: The main source of information about the Sumerian creation myth is the prologue to the epic poem "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld" (ETCSL 1.8.1.4), which briefly describes the process of creation: originally, there was only Nammu, the primeval sea. Then, Nammu gave birth to An, the sky, and Ki, the earth. An and Ki mated with each other, causing Ki to give birth to Enlil. Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky. Enlil marries his mother, Ki, and from this union all the plant and animal life on earth is produced.


title: Enlil

text: "Enlil and Ninlil" (ETCSL 1.2.1) is a nearly complete 152-line Sumerian poem describing the affair between Enlil and the goddess Ninlil. First, Ninlil's mother Nunbarshegunu instructs Ninlil to go bathe in the river. Ninlil goes to the river, where Enlil seduces her and impregnates her with their son, the moon-god Nanna. Because of this, Enlil is banished to Kur, the Sumerian underworld. Ninlil follows Enlil to the underworld, where he impersonates the "man of the gate". Ninlil demands to know where Enlil has gone, but Enlil, still impersonating the gatekeeper, refuses to answer. He then seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with Nergal, the god of death. The same scenario repeats, only this time Enlil instead impersonates the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river"; once again, he seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with the god Ninazu. Finally, Enlil impersonates the "man of the boat"; once again, he seduces Ninlil and impregnates her with Enbilulu, the "inspector of the canals".


title: Enlil

text: The story of Enlil's courtship with Ninlil is primarily a genealogical myth invented to explain the origins of the moon-god Nanna, as well as the various gods of the Underworld, but it is also, to some extent, a coming-of-age story describing Enlil and Ninlil's emergence from adolescence into adulthood. The story also explains Ninlil's role as Enlil's consort; in the poem, Ninlil declares, "As Enlil is your master, so am I also your mistress!" The story is also historically significant because, if the current interpretation of it is correct, it is the oldest known myth in which a god changes shape.


title: Enlil

text: In the Sumerian version of the flood story (ETCSL 1.7.4), the causes of the flood are unclear because the portion of the tablet recording the beginning of the story has been destroyed. Somehow, a mortal known as Ziusudra manages to survive the flood, likely through the help of the god Enki. The tablet begins in the middle of the description of the flood. The flood lasts for seven days and seven nights before it subsides. Then, Utu, the god of the Sun, emerges. Ziusudra opens a window in the side of the boat and falls down prostrate before the god. Next, he sacrifices an ox and a sheep in honor of Utu. At this point, the text breaks off again. When it picks back up, Enlil and An are in the midst of declaring Ziusudra immortal as an honor for having managed to survive the flood. The remaining portion of the tablet after this point is destroyed.


title: Enlil

text: In the later Akkadian version of the flood story, recorded in the "Epic of Gilgamesh", Enlil actually causes the flood, seeking to annihilate every living thing on earth because the humans, who are vastly overpopulated, make too much noise and prevent him from sleeping. In this version of the story, the hero is Utnapishtim, who is warned ahead of time by Ea, the Babylonian equivalent of Enki, that the flood is coming. The flood lasts for seven days; when it ends, Ishtar, who had mourned the destruction of humanity, promises Utnapishtim that Enlil will never cause a flood again. When Enlil sees that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he is outraged, but his son Ninurta speaks up in favor of humanity, arguing that, instead of causing floods, Enlil should simply ensure that humans never become overpopulated by reducing their numbers using wild animals and famines. Enlil goes into the boat; Utnapishtim and his wife bow before him. Enlil, now appeased, grants Utnapishtim immortality as a reward for his loyalty to the gods.


title: Enlil

text: A nearly complete 108-line poem from the Early Dynastic Period ( 2900 – 2350 BC) describes Enlil's invention of the mattock, a key agricultural pick, hoe, ax, or digging tool of the Sumerians. In the poem, Enlil conjures the mattock into existence and decrees its fate. The mattock is described as gloriously beautiful; it is made of pure gold and its head is carved from lapis lazuli. Enlil gives the tool over to the humans, who use it to build cities, subjugate their people, and pull up weeds. Enlil was believed to aid in the growth of plants.


title: Enlil

text: The Sumerian poem "Enlil Chooses the Farmer-God" (ETCSL 5.3.3) describes how Enlil, hoping "to establish abundance and prosperity", creates two gods Emesh and Enten, a shepherd and a farmer, respectively. The two gods argue and Emesh lays claim to Enten's position. They take the dispute before Enlil, who rules in favor of Enten; the two gods rejoice and reconcile.


title: Enlil

text: In the Sumerian poem "Lugale" (ETCSL 1.6.2), Enlil gives advice to his son, the god Ninurta, advising him on a strategy to slay the demon Asag. This advice is relayed to Ninurta by way of Sharur, his enchanted talking mace, which had been sent by Ninurta to the realm of the gods to seek counsel from Enlil directly.


title: Enlil

text: In the Old, Middle, and Late Babylonian myth of "Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies", the Anzû, a giant, monstrous bird, betrays Enlil and steals the Tablet of Destinies, a sacred clay tablet belonging to Enlil that grants him his authority, while Enlil is preparing for a bath. The rivers dry up and the gods are stripped of their powers. The gods send Adad, Gerra, and Shara to defeat the Anzû, but all of them fail. Finally, Ea proposes that the gods should send Ninurta, Enlil's son. Ninurta successfully defeats the Anzû and returns the Tablet of Destinies to his father. As a reward, Ninurta is a granted a prominent seat on the council of the gods.


title: Enlil

text: A badly damaged text from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 — 612 BC) describes Marduk leading his army of Anunnaki into the sacred city of Nippur and causing a disturbance. The disturbance causes a flood, which forces the resident gods of Nippur under the leadership of Enlil to take shelter in the Eshumesha temple to Ninurta. Enlil is enraged at Marduk's transgression and orders the gods of Eshumesha to take Marduk and the other Anunnaki as prisoners. The Anunnaki are captured, but Marduk appoints his front-runner Mushteshirhablim to lead a revolt against the gods of Eshumesha and sends his messenger Neretagmil to alert Nabu, the god of literacy. When the Eshumesha gods hear Nabu speak, they come out of their temple to search for him. Marduk defeats the Eshumesha gods and takes 360 of them as prisoners of war, including Enlil himself. Enlil protests that the Eshumesha gods are innocent, so Marduk puts them on trial before the Anunnaki. The text ends with a warning from Damkianna (another name for Ninhursag) to the gods and to humanity, pleading them not to repeat the war between the Anunnaki and the gods of Eshumesha.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: Wesley Tidjan Fofana (born 17 December 2000) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League club Chelsea and the France national under-21 team.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: Fofana was born in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. His father is Ivorian, whereas his mother is French. One of six children, he started playing football at the age of six playing for Repos Vitrolles.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: Fofana is Muslim. On 22 April 2021, he was substituted on the hour mark during Leicester's 3–0 win against West Bromwich Albion, while Fofana was daytime fasting for the month-long Islamic Ramadan. In the next match against Crystal Palace, the game was paused after the half-hour mark to allow Fofana and Cheikhou Kouyaté to have some fluids to break their Ramadan fast.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: Fofana showed his support for Palestine after winning the 2021 English FA Cup Final by waving a large Palestinian flag, along with fellow Leicester City teammate Hamza Choudhury, during their team celebrations that took place amidst the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian clashes in May 2021.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: Having been in the youth system since 2015, Fofana signed his first professional contract with Saint-Étienne on 15 May 2018. He made his debut for the club in a 3–0 league win over Nice on 18 May 2019.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: Fofana joined English Premier League club Leicester City on 2 October 2020, signing a five-year contract. The transfer fee paid to Saint-Étienne was reported as up to £36.5 million. On 15 May 2021, he played in the 2021 FA Cup Final, which Leicester won 1–0 for his first career honour in England. He and teammate Hamza Choudhury both celebrated draped in the flag of Palestine, during the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: On 21 May 2021, Fofana won Leicester City's Young Player of the Season award after being voted by the club's supporters.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: On 4 August 2021, during a pre-season friendly against Villarreal, Fofana suffered a broken leg following a challenge by Fer Niño.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: On 17 March 2022, Fofana played his first match since his injury, scoring in a 2–1 defeat to Stade Rennais in the UEFA Europa Conference League which secured Leicester's progress to the next round on a 3–2 aggregate score.


title: Wesley Fofana (footballer)

text: On 31 August 2022, Fofana joined English Premier League club Chelsea on a seven-year contract for a reported initial fee of £70 million, plus £5 million in add-ons. After signing for Chelsea, Fofana criticised his former club Leicester, accusing them of issuing "false and misleading comments" during his protracted transfer. On 3 September, he made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win against West Ham United in the Premier League. He scored his first goal for Chelsea on 5 October in a Champions League 3–0 win against AC Milan.


title: 2022–23 Ligue 1

text: The 2022–23 Ligue 1, also known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is the 85th season of the Ligue 1, France's premier football competition. It began on 5 August 2022 and will conclude on 4 June 2023.


title: 2022–23 Ligue 1

text: As the 2022 FIFA World Cup begins on 20 November, the last round before the break was held on 12–13 November. The league will subsequently resume on 27 December. Four clubs are to be relegated to Ligue 2 at the end of the season as the number of clubs will be reduced to 18 starting from the 2023–24 season. As a result, no play-offs will be held at the end of the season. This is the last season played with 20 teams.


title: 2022–23 Ligue 1

text: Toulouse (promoted after a two-year absence), Ajaccio (promoted to Ligue 1 after an eight-year absence), and AJ Auxerre (promoted after a ten-year absence) were promoted from the 2021–22 Ligue 2. Bordeaux (relegated after thirty years in the top flight), Metz (relegated after three years in the top flight) and Saint-Étienne (relegated after eighteen years in the top flight) were relegated to 2022–23 Ligue 2.


title: Tensor product

text: In mathematics, the tensor product formula_1 of two vector spaces and (over the same field) is a vector space to which is associated a bilinear map formula_2 that maps a pair formula_3 to an element of formula_1 denoted formula_5


title: Tensor product

text: An element of the form formula_6 is called the tensor product of and . An element of formula_1 is a tensor, and the tensor product of two vectors is sometimes called an "elementary tensor" or a "decomposable tensor". The elementary tensors span formula_1 in the sense that every element of formula_1 is a sum of elementary tensors. If bases are given for and , a basis of formula_1 is formed by all tensor products of a basis element of and a basis element of .


title: Tensor product

text: The tensor product of two vector spaces captures the properties of all bilinear maps in the sense that a bilinear map from formula_11 into another vector space factors uniquely through a linear map formula_12 (see Universal property).


title: Tensor product

text: Tensor products are used in many application areas, including physics and engineering. For example, in general relativity, the gravitational field is described through the metric tensor, which is a vector field of tensors, one at each point of the space-time manifold, and each belonging to the tensor product with itself of the cotangent space at the point.


title: Tensor product

text: The "tensor product" of two vector spaces is a vector space that is defined up to an isomorphism. There are several equivalent ways to define it. Most consist of defining explicitly a vector space that is called a tensor product, and, generally, the equivalence proof results almost immediately from the basic properties of the vector spaces that are so defined.


title: Tensor product

text: The tensor product can also be defined through a universal property; see , below. As for every universal property, all objects that satisfy the property are isomorphic through a unique isomorphism that is compatible with the universal property. When this definition is used, the other definitions may be viewed as constructions of objects satisfying the universal property and as proofs that there are objects satisfying the universal property, that is that tensor products exist.


title: Tensor product

text: The "tensor product" formula_1 of and is a vector space which has as a basis the set of all formula_16 with formula_17 and formula_18 This definition can be formalized in the following way (this formalization is rarely used in practice, as the preceding informal definition is generally sufficient): formula_1 is the set of the functions from the Cartesian product formula_20 to that have a finite number of nonzero values. The pointwise operations make formula_1 a vector space. The function that maps formula_22 to and the other elements of formula_20 to is denoted formula_24


title: Tensor product

text: The set formula_25 is straightforwardly a basis of formula_26 which is called the "tensor product" of the bases formula_13 and formula_14


title: Tensor product

text: The "tensor product of two vectors" is defined from their decomposition on the bases. More precisely, if


title: Tensor product

text: If arranged into a rectangular array, the coordinate vector of formula_31 is the outer product of the coordinate vectors of and . Therefore, the tensor product is a generalization of the outer product.


title: Tensor product

text: It is straightforward to verify that the map formula_32 is a bilinear map from formula_11 to formula_34


title: Tensor product

text: A limitation of this definition of the tensor product is that, if one changes bases, a different tensor product is defined. However, the decomposition on one basis of the elements of the other basis defines a canonical isomorphism between the two tensor products of vector spaces, which allows identifying them. Also, contrarily to the two following alternative definitions, this definition cannot be extended into a definition of the tensor product of modules over a ring.


title: Tensor product

text: One considers first a vector space that has the Cartesian product formula_11 as a basis. That is, the basis elements of are the pairs formula_36 with formula_37 and formula_38 To get such a vector space, one can define it as the vector space of the functions formula_39 that have a finite number of nonzero values, and identifying formula_36 with the function that takes the value on formula_36 and otherwise.


title: Tensor product

text: Let be the linear subspace of that is spanned by the relations that the tensor product must satisfy. More precisely is spanned by the elements of one of the forms


title: Tensor product

text: It is straightforward to prove that the result of this construction satisfies the universal property considered below. (A very similar construction can be used to define the tensor product of modules.)


title: Tensor product

text: In this section, the universal property satisfied by the tensor product is described. As for every universal property, two objects that satisfy the property are related by a unique isomorphism. It follows that this is a (non-constructive) way to define the tensor product of two vector spaces. In this context, the preceding constructions of tensor products may be viewed as proofs of existence of the tensor product so defined.


title: Tensor product

text: A consequence of this approach is that every property of the tensor product can be deduced from the universal property, and that, in practice, one may forget the method that has been used to prove its existence.


title: Tensor product

text: The "universal-property definition" of the tensor product of two vector spaces is the following (recall that a bilinear map is a function that is "separately" linear in each of its arguments):


title: Tensor product

text: Like the universal property above, the following characterization may also be used to determine whether or not a given vector space and given bilinear map form a tensor product.


title: Tensor product

text: For example, it follows immediately that if formula_59 and formula_60 are positive integers then formula_61 and the bilinear map formula_62 defined by sending formula_63 to formula_64 form a tensor product of formula_65 and formula_66 Often, this map formula_67 will be denoted by formula_68 so that formula_69 denotes this bilinear map's value at formula_70


title: Tensor product

text: As another example, suppose that formula_71 is the vector space of all complex-valued functions on a set formula_72 with addition and scalar multiplication defined pointwise (meaning that formula_73 is the map formula_74 and formula_75 is the map formula_76). Let formula_72 and formula_67 be any sets and for any formula_79 and formula_80 let formula_81 denote the function defined by formula_82


title: Tensor product

text: If formula_83 and formula_84 are vector subspaces then the vector subspace formula_85 of formula_86 together with the bilinear map


title: Tensor product

text: If and are vectors spaces of finite dimension, then formula_90 is finite-dimensional, and its dimension is the product of the dimensions of and .


title: Tensor product

text: This results from the fact that a basis of formula_90 is formed by taking all tensor products of a basis element of and a basis element of .


title: Tensor product

text: The tensor product is associative in the sense that, given three vector spaces formula_92 there is a canonical isomorphism


title: Tensor product

text: The tensor product of two vector spaces formula_96 and formula_97 is commutative in the sense that there is a canonical isomorphism


title: Tensor product

text: On the other hand, even when formula_101 the tensor product of vectors is not commutative; that is formula_102 in general.


title: Tensor product

text: More generally and as usual (see tensor algebra), let denote formula_105 the tensor product of copies of the vector space . For every permutation of the first positive integers, the map


title: Tensor product

text: In terms of category theory, this means that the tensor product is a bifunctor from the category of vector spaces to itself.


title: Tensor product

text: If and are both injective or surjective, then the same is true for all above defined linear maps. In particular, the tensor product with a vector space is an exact functor; this means that every exact sequence is mapped to an exact sequence (tensor products of modules do not transform injections into injections, but they are right exact functors).


title: Tensor product

text: By choosing bases of all vector spaces involved, the linear maps and can be represented by matrices. Then, depending on how the tensor formula_6 is vectorized, the matrix describing the tensor product formula_118 is the Kronecker product of the two matrices. For example, if , and above are all two-dimensional and bases have been fixed for all of them, and and are given by the matrices


title: Tensor product

text: The resultant rank is at most 4, and thus the resultant dimension is 4. Note that here denotes the tensor rank i.e. the number of requisite indices (while the matrix rank counts the number of degrees of freedom in the resulting array). Note formula_121


title: Tensor product

text: A dyadic product is the special case of the tensor product between two vectors of the same dimension.


title: Tensor product

text: Here formula_124 is the dual vector space (which consists of all linear maps from to the ground field ).


title: Tensor product

text: It is defined by grouping all occurring "factors" together: writing formula_126 for an element of and formula_127 for an element of the dual space,


title: Tensor product

text: Picking a basis of and the corresponding dual basis of formula_124 naturally induces a basis for formula_130 (this basis is described in the article on Kronecker products). In terms of these bases, the components of a (tensor) product of two (or more) tensors can be computed. For example, if and are two covariant tensors of orders and respectively (i.e. formula_131 and formula_132), then the components of their tensor product are given by


title: Tensor product

text: Thus, the components of the tensor product of two tensors are the ordinary product of the components of each tensor. Another example: let be a tensor of type with components formula_134 and let be a tensor of type formula_135 with components formula_136 Then


title: Tensor product

text: On the other hand, if formula_96 is , there is a canonical map in the other direction (called the coevaluation map)


title: Tensor product

text: where formula_147 is any basis of formula_148 and formula_149 is its dual basis. This map does not depend on the choice of basis.


title: Tensor product

text: The interplay of evaluation and coevaluation can be used to characterize finite-dimensional vector spaces without referring to bases.


title: Tensor product

text: The tensor product formula_150 may be naturally viewed as a module for the Lie algebra formula_151 by means of the diagonal action: for simplicity let us assume formula_152 then, for each formula_153


title: Tensor product

text: Under this isomorphism, every in formula_151 may be first viewed as an endomorphism of formula_161 and then viewed as an endomorphism of formula_162 In fact it is the adjoint representation of formula_162


title: Tensor product

text: Given two finite dimensional vector spaces , over the same field , denote the dual space of as , and the -vector space of all linear maps from to as . There is an isomorphism,


title: Tensor product

text: Its "inverse" can be defined using a basis formula_168 and its dual basis formula_169 as in the section "Evaluation map and tensor contraction" above:


title: Tensor product

text: which automatically gives the important fact that formula_172 forms a basis for formula_173 where formula_174 are bases of and .


title: Tensor product

text: Furthermore, given three vector spaces , , the tensor product is linked to the vector space of "all" linear maps, as follows:


title: Tensor product

text: The tensor product of two modules and over a "commutative" ring is defined in exactly the same way as the tensor product of vector spaces over a field:


title: Tensor product

text: where now formula_177 is the free -module generated by the cartesian product and is the -module generated by the same relations as above.


title: Tensor product

text: More generally, the tensor product can be defined even if the ring is non-commutative. In this case has to be a right--module and is a left--module, and instead of the last two relations above, the relation


title: Tensor product

text: The universal property also carries over, slightly modified: the map formula_179 defined by formula_180 is a middle linear map (referred to as "the canonical middle linear map".); that is, it satisfies:


title: Tensor product

text: The first two properties make a bilinear map of the abelian group formula_182 For any middle linear map formula_183 of formula_184 a unique group homomorphism of formula_185 satisfies formula_186 and this property determines formula_187 within group isomorphism. See the main article for details.


title: Tensor product

text: Let "A" be a right "R"-module and "B" be a left "R"-module. Then the tensor product of "A" and "B" is an abelian group defined by


title: Tensor product

text: where formula_189 is a free abelian group over formula_190 and G is the subgroup of formula_189 generated by relations


title: Tensor product

text: The universal property can be stated as follows. Let "G" be an abelian group with a map formula_193 that is bilinear, in the sense that


title: Tensor product

text: For vector spaces, the tensor product formula_1 is quickly computed since bases of of immediately determine a basis of formula_26 as was mentioned above. For modules over a general (commutative) ring, not every module is free. For example, is not a free abelian group (-module). The tensor product with is given by


title: Tensor product

text: More generally, given a presentation of some -module , that is, a number of generators formula_211 together with relations


title: Tensor product

text: Here formula_214 and the map formula_215 is determined by sending some formula_216 in the th copy of formula_217 to formula_218 (in formula_219). Colloquially, this may be rephrased by saying that a presentation of gives rise to a presentation of formula_220 This is referred to by saying that the tensor product is a right exact functor. It is not in general left exact, that is, given an injective map of -modules formula_221 the tensor product


title: Tensor product

text: is not usually injective. For example, tensoring the (injective) map given by multiplication with , with yields the zero map , which is not injective. Higher Tor functors measure the defect of the tensor product being not left exact. All higher Tor functors are assembled in the derived tensor product.


title: Tensor product

text: Let be a commutative ring. The tensor product of -modules applies, in particular, if and are -algebras. In this case, the tensor product formula_185 is an -algebra itself by putting


title: Tensor product

text: A particular example is when and are fields containing a common subfield . The tensor product of fields is closely related to Galois theory: if, say, , where is some irreducible polynomial with coefficients in , the tensor product can be calculated as


title: Tensor product

text: where now is interpreted as the same polynomial, but with its coefficients regarded as elements of . In the larger field , the polynomial may become reducible, which brings in Galois theory. For example, if is a Galois extension of , then


title: Tensor product

text: Square matrices formula_229 with entries in a field formula_230 represent linear maps of vector spaces, say formula_231 and thus linear maps formula_232 of projective spaces over formula_233 If formula_229 is nonsingular then formula_183 is well-defined everywhere, and the eigenvectors of formula_229 correspond to the fixed points of formula_237 The "eigenconfiguration" of formula_229 consists of formula_60 points in formula_240 provided formula_229 is generic and formula_230 is algebraically closed. The fixed points of nonlinear maps are the eigenvectors of tensors. Let formula_243 be a formula_244-dimensional tensor of format formula_245 with entries formula_246 lying in an algebraically closed field formula_230 of characteristic zero. Such a tensor formula_248 defines polynomial maps formula_249 and formula_250 with coordinates


title: Tensor product

text: Thus each of the formula_60 coordinates of formula_183 is a homogeneous polynomial formula_254 of degree formula_255 in formula_256 The eigenvectors of formula_229 are the solutions of the constraint


title: Tensor product

text: Hilbert spaces generalize finite-dimensional vector spaces to countably-infinite dimensions. The tensor product is still defined; it is the tensor product of Hilbert spaces.


title: Tensor product

text: When the basis for a vector space is no longer countable, then the appropriate axiomatic formalization for the vector space is that of a topological vector space. The tensor product is still defined, it is the topological tensor product.


title: Tensor product

text: Some vector spaces can be decomposed into direct sums of subspaces. In such cases, the tensor product of two spaces can be decomposed into sums of products of the subspaces (in analogy to the way that multiplication distributes over addition).


title: Tensor product

text: Vector spaces endowed with an additional multiplicative structure are called algebras. The tensor product of such algebras is described by the Littlewood–Richardson rule.


title: Tensor product

text: Given two multilinear forms formula_260 and formula_261 on a vector space formula_96 over the field formula_230 their tensor product is the multilinear form


title: Tensor product

text: This is a special case of the product of tensors if they are seen as multilinear maps (see also tensors as multilinear maps). Thus the components of the tensor product of multilinear forms can be computed by the Kronecker product.


title: Tensor product

text: It should be mentioned that, though called "tensor product", this is not a tensor product of graphs in the above sense; actually it is the category-theoretic product in the category of graphs and graph homomorphisms. However it is actually the Kronecker tensor product of the adjacency matrices of the graphs. Compare also the section Tensor product of linear maps above.


title: Tensor product

text: The most general setting for the tensor product is the monoidal category. It captures the algebraic essence of tensoring, without making any specific reference to what is being tensored. Thus, all tensor products can be expressed as an application of the monoidal category to some particular setting, acting on some particular objects.


title: Tensor product

text: A number of important subspaces of the tensor algebra can be constructed as quotients: these include the exterior algebra, the symmetric algebra, the Clifford algebra, the Weyl algebra, and the universal enveloping algebra in general.


title: Tensor product

text: The exterior algebra is constructed from the exterior product. Given a vector space , the exterior product formula_265 is defined as


title: Tensor product

text: Note that when the underlying field of does not have characteristic 2, then this definition is equivalent to


title: Tensor product

text: The image of formula_268 in the exterior product is usually denoted formula_269 and satisfies, by construction, formula_270 Similar constructions are possible for formula_271 ( factors), giving rise to formula_272 the th exterior power of . The latter notion is the basis of differential -forms.


title: Tensor product

text: That is, in the symmetric algebra two adjacent vectors (and therefore all of them) can be interchanged. The resulting objects are called symmetric tensors.


title: Tensor product

text: Array programming languages may have this pattern built in. For example, in APL the tensor product is expressed as codice_1 (for example codice_2 or codice_3). In J the tensor product is the dyadic form of codice_4 (for example codice_5 or codice_6).


title: Tensor product

text: Note that J's treatment also allows the representation of some tensor fields, as codice_7 and codice_8 may be functions instead of constants. This product of two functions is a derived function, and if codice_7 and codice_8 are differentiable, then codice_5 is differentiable.


title: Tensor product

text: However, these kinds of notation are not universally present in array languages. Other array languages may require explicit treatment of indices (for example, MATLAB), and/or may not support higher-order functions such as the Jacobian derivative (for example, Fortran/APL).


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Dow manufactures plastics, chemicals, and agricultural products. With a presence in about 160 countries, it employs about 54,000 people worldwide. Dow has been called the "chemical companies' chemical company," as its sales are to other industries rather than directly to end-use consumers. Dow is a member of the American Chemistry Council.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In 2015, Dow and fellow chemical company DuPont agreed to a corporate reorganization which involved the merger and split of Dow and DuPont into three different companies. The plan commenced in 2017, when Dow and DuPont merged to form DowDuPont, and finalized in April 2019, as the materials science division was spunoff from DowDuPont and took the name of the Dow Chemical Company.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Dow was founded in 1897 by chemist Herbert Henry Dow, who invented a new method of extracting the bromine that was trapped underground in brine at Midland, Michigan. Dow originally sold only bleach and potassium bromide, achieving a bleach output of 72 tons a day in 1902. Early in the company's history, a group of British manufacturers tried to drive Dow out of the bleach business by cutting prices. Dow survived by also cutting its prices and, although losing about $90,000 in income, began to diversify its product line. In 1905, German bromide producers began dumping bromides at low cost in the U.S. in an effort to prevent Dow from expanding its sales of bromides in Europe. Instead of competing directly for market share with the German producers, Dow bought the cheap German-made bromides and shipped them back to Europe. This undercut his German competitors. Even in its early history, Dow set a tradition of rapidly diversifying its product line. Within twenty years, Dow had become a major producer of agricultural chemicals, elemental chlorine, phenol and other dyestuffs, and magnesium metal.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: During World War I, Dow Chemical supplied many war materials the United States had previously imported from Germany. Dow produced magnesium for incendiary flares, monochlorobenzene and phenol for explosives, and bromine for medicines and tear gas. By 1918, 90 percent of Dow Chemical production was geared towards the war effort. At this time, Dow created the diamond logo that is still used by the company. After the war, Dow continued research in magnesium, and developed refined automobile pistons that produced more speed and better fuel efficiency. The Dowmetal pistons were used heavily in racing vehicles, and the 1921 winner of the Indianapolis 500 used the Dowmetal pistons in his vehicle.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In the 1930s, Dow began producing plastic resins, which would grow to become one of the corporation's major businesses. Its first plastic products were ethylcellulose, made in 1935, and polystyrene, made in 1937.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: From 1940 to 1941, Dow built its first plant in Freeport, Texas to produce magnesium extracted from seawater rather than underground brine. The Freeport plant is Dow's largest site – and the largest integrated chemical manufacturing site in the country. The site grew quickly – with power, chlorine, caustic soda and ethylene also soon in production. Growth of this business made Dow a strategic business during World War II, as magnesium became important to manufacture lightweight parts for aircraft. Based on 2002–2003 data, the Freeport plants produced 27 billion lbs of product – or 21% of Dow's global production. In 1942, Dow began its foreign expansion with the formation of Dow Chemical of Canada in Sarnia, Ontario to produce styrene for use in styrene-butadiene synthetic rubber. Also during the war, Dow and Corning began their joint venture, Dow Corning, to produce silicones for military and, later, civilian use.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: The "Ethyl-Dow Chemical Co." plant at "Kure's Beach" NC, the only plant on the East Coast producing bromine from seawater, was attacked by a German U-boat in 1942.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In the post-war era, Dow began expanding outside of North America, founding its first overseas subsidiary in Japan in 1952, and in several other nations soon thereafter. Based largely on its growing plastics business, Dow opened a consumer products division beginning with Saran wrap in 1953. Based on its growing chemicals and plastics businesses, Dow's sales exceeded $1 billion in 1964, $2 billion in 1971.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: From 1951 to 1975, Dow managed the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, Colorado. Rocky Flats was a nuclear weapons production facility that produced plutonium triggers for hydrogen bombs.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Contamination from fires and radioactive waste leakage plagued the facility under Dow's management. In 1957 a fire burned plutonium dust in the facility and sent radioactive particles into the atmosphere.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: The Department of Energy transferred management of the facility to Rockwell International in 1975. In 1990, nearby residents filed a class action lawsuit against Dow and Rockwell for environmental contamination of the area; the case was settled in 2017 for $375 million. According to the Appellate Court, the owners of the 12,000 properties in the class-action area had not proved that their properties were damaged or they had suffered bodily injury.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: The United States military dropped napalm bombs on North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Dow was one of several manufacturers who began producing the napalm B compound under government contract from 1965. After experiencing protests and negative publicity, the other suppliers discontinued manufacturing the product, leaving Dow as the sole provider. The company said that it carefully considered its position, and decided, as a matter of principle, "its first obligation was to the government". Despite a boycott of its products by anti-war groups and harassment of recruiters on some college campuses, Dow continued to manufacture napalm B until 1969. The US continued to drop napalm bombs on North Vietnam until 1973.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant containing dioxin, was also manufactured by Dow in New Plymouth, New Zealand, and Midland, Michigan, in the United States for use by the British military during the Malayan Emergency and the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. In 2005, a lawsuit was filed by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against Dow and Monsanto Co., which also supplied Agent Orange to the military. The lawsuit was dismissed. In 2012, Monsanto agreed to a $93 million settlement as a result of a case pursued by ex-Monsanto employees and citizens in the city of Nitro, WV. In 1949, a chemical plant in Nitro experienced an explosion that damaged a tank containing 2,4,5-T, one of the composites that is used in the production of Agent Orange. The settlement of the case included $9 million for the cleanup of affected homes in the area, and $84 million to cover the medical monitoring and treatment of people affected by the explosion, as well as legal costs for the claimants. No care has been given for the in state damage done by the Headquarters in Midland, Michigan, and they refuse to give the evidence to the community.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: A major manufacturer of silicone breast implants, Dow Corning (Dow Chemical's Joint Venture with Corning Inc.) was sued for personal damages caused by ruptured implants. On October 6, 2005, all such cases pending in the District Court against the company were dismissed. A number of large, independent reviews of the scientific literature, including the Institute of Medicine in the United States, have subsequently found that silicone breast implants do not cause breast cancers or any identifiable systemic disease.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Union Carbide became a subsidiary of Dow Chemical in 2001. The Bhopal disaster of 1984 occurred at a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide India Ltd., a subsidiary of Union Carbide, 17 years before Dow Chemical Co.'s acquisition. A gas cloud containing methyl isocyanate and other chemicals spread to the neighborhoods near the plant where more than half a million people were exposed to it. More than 27 years after the event, the actual number of fatalities is still unknown. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 3,000 died within weeks and another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: There are wide variations in the estimated number of individuals permanently disabled by the event. By one independent estimate, 40,000 individuals were left permanently disabled, maimed, or suffering from serious illness as a result of the disaster. A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Union Carbide was sued by the Government of India and agreed to an out-of-court settlement of US$470 million in 1989. In 2010 eight former executives of Union Carbide India Ltd. were found guilty of death by negligence. Activists sought to have Dow Chemical held responsible for the ongoing cleanup of the site, now under the control of the state government of Madhya Pradesh.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Until the late 1970s, Dow produced DBCP (1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane), a soil fumigant, and nematicide, sold under the names the Nemagon and Fumazone. Plantation workers who alleged that they became sterile or were stricken with other maladies subsequently sued both Dow and Dole in Latin American courts. The cases were marred by extensive fraud, including the falsification of test results and the recruitment of plaintiffs who had never worked at Dole plantations. While Nicaraguan courts awarded the plaintiffs over $600 million in damages, they have been unable to collect any payment from the companies. A group of plaintiffs then sued in the United States, and, on November 5, 2007, a Los Angeles jury awarded them $3.2 million. Dole and Dow vowed to appeal the decision. On April 23, 2009 a Los Angeles judge threw out two cases against Dole and Dow due to fraud and extortion by lawyers in Nicaragua recruiting fraudulent plaintiffs to make claims against the company. The ruling casts doubt on $2 billion in judgments in similar lawsuits.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In February 2013 a federal court rejected two tax shelter transactions entered into by Dow that created approximately $1 billion in tax deductions between 1993 and 2003. In the stated opinion, the Court termed the transactions "schemes that were designed to exploit perceived weaknesses in the tax code and not designed for legitimate business reasons". The schemes were created by Goldman Sachs and the law firm of King & Spalding, and involved creating a partnership that Dow operated out of its European headquarters in Switzerland. Dow stated that it had paid all tax assessments with interest. The case was a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service seeking a refund of the taxes paid. The case was appealed to the 5th Circuit court, where Dow's claims were again rejected. Dow has petitioned for an en banc hearing by the 5th Circuit, arguing that the decision was contrary to established case law.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Dow Chemical was implicated in a price-fixing scheme that inflated the cost of polyurethane for customers. The U.S. Justice Department closed an investigation in 2007, but a class-action lawsuit won at a jury trial in 2013. Dow settled the suit in 2016 for $835 million.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In the early 1990s, Dow embarked on a major structural reorganization. The former reporting hierarchy was geographically based, with the regional president reporting directly to the overall company president and CEO. The new organization combines the same businesses from different sites, irrespective of which region they belong (i.e. the vice president for Polystyrene is now in charge of these plants all over the world).


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: At the beginning of August 1999, Dow agreed to purchase Union Carbide Corp. (UCC) for $9.3 billion in stock. At the time, the combined company was the second largest chemical company, behind DuPont. This led to protests from some stockholders, who feared that Dow did not disclose potential liabilities related to the Bhopal disaster.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: William S. Stavropoulos served as president and chief executive officer of Dow from 1995 to 2000, then again from 2002 to 2004. He relinquished his board seat on April 1, 2006, having been a director since 1990 and chairman since 2000. During his first tenure, he led the purchase of UCC which proved controversial, as it was blamed for poor results under his successor as CEO Mike Parker. Parker was dismissed and Stavropoulos returned from retirement to lead Dow.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: On November 2, 2006, Dow and Izolan, the leading Russian producer of polyurethane systems, formed the joint venture Dow-Izolan and built a manufacturing facility in the city of Vladimir. Also in 2006, Dow formed the Business Process Service Center (BPSC).


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In December 2007, Dow announced a series of moves to revamp the company. A December 4 announcement revealed that Dow planned to exit the automotive sealers business in 2008 or 2009. Within several weeks, Dow also announced the formation of a joint venture, later named K-Dow, with Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. In exchange for $9.5 billion, the agreement included Dow selling 50-percent of its interest in five global businesses: polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonate plastics, and ethylenamines and ethanolamines. The agreement was terminated by PIC on December 28, 2008.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: On July 10, 2008, Dow agreed to purchase all of the common equity interest of Rohm and Haas Co. for $15.4 billion, which equated to $78 per share. The buyout was financed with equity investments of $3 billion by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and $1 billion by the Kuwait Investment Authority. The purpose of the deal was to move Dow Chemical further into specialty chemicals, which offer higher profit margins than the commodities market and are more difficult to enter for the competition. The purchase was criticized by many on Wall Street who believed Dow Chemical overpaid (about a 75 percent premium on the previous day's market capital) to acquire the company; however, the high bid was needed to ward off competing bids from BASF. The transaction to purchase the outstanding interest of Rohm and Haas was closed on April 1, 2009.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: On December 8, 2008, Dow announced that due to the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, it would accelerate job cuts resulting from its reorganization. The announced plan included closing 20 facilities, temporarily idling 180 plants, and eliminating 5,000 full-time jobs (about 11 percent of its work-force) and 6,000 contractor positions.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Citing the global recession that began in the latter half of 2008, the Kuwaiti government scuttled the K-Dow partnership on December 28, 2008. The collapse of the deal dealt a blow to Dow CEO Andrew Liveris' vision of restructuring the company to make it less cyclical. However, on January 6, 2009 Dow Chemical announced they were in talks with other parties who could be interested in a major joint venture with the company. Dow also announced they that it would be seeking to recover damages related to the failed joint venture from PIC.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: After the K-Dow deal collapsed, some speculated that the company would not complete the Rohm & Haas transaction, as the cash from the former transaction was expected to fund the latter. The deal was expected to be finalized in early 2009 and was to form one of the nation's largest specialty chemicals firms in the U.S. However, on January 26, 2009 the company informed Rohm and Haas that it would be unable to complete the transaction by the agreed upon deadline. Dow cited a deteriorated credit market and the collapse of the K-Dow Petrochemical deal as reasons for failing to timely close the merger. Around the same time, CEO Andrew Liveris said a first- time cut to the company's 97- year- old dividend policy was not "off the table". On February 12, 2009, the company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15/share, down from $0.42 the previous quarter. The cut represented the first time the company had diminished its investor payout in the dividend's 97-year history.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: The transaction to purchase the outstanding interest of Rohm and Haas closed on April 1, 2009. After negotiating the sale of preferred stock with Rohm and Hass' two largest stockholders and extending their one-year bridge loan an additional year, the company purchased Rohm and Haas for $15 billion ($78 a share) on March 9, 2009.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: On April 12, 2007, Dow dismissed two senior executives for "unauthorized discussions with third parties about the potential sale of the company". The two figures are executive vice president Romeo Kreinberg, and director and former CFO J. Pedro Reinhard. Dow claims they were secretly in contact with JPMorgan Chase; at the same time, a story surfaced in Britain's "Sunday Express" regarding a possible leveraged buyout of Dow. The two executives have since filed lawsuits claiming they were fired for being a threat to CEO Liveris, and that the allegations were concocted as a pretext. However, in June 2008 Dow Chemical and the litigants announced a settlement in which Kreinberg and Reinhard dropped their lawsuits and admitted taking part in discussions "which were not authorized by, nor disclosed to, Dow's board concerning a potential LBO" and acknowledged that it would have been appropriate to have informed the CEO and board of the talks.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In summer 2008, Dow sold its zoxamide business to Gowan Company. Included in the sale were the trademarks for a potato and grape fungicide called Gavel (fungicide). It is employed by potato growers to control early and late potato blight and to suppress tuber blight, and is also registered in Canada for control of downy mildew in grapes, except in British Columbia.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: In the fourth quarter of 2014, Dow announced new operating segments in response to its previously announced leadership changes. The company stated it would give further support to its end-market orientation and increase its alignment to Dow's key value chains – ethylene and propylene.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Several plants on the Gulf Coast of the US have been in development since 2013, as part of Dow's transition away from naphtha. Dow estimates the facilities will employ about 3000 people, and 5000 people during construction. The plants will manufacture materials for several of its growing segments, including hygiene and medical, transportation, electrical and telecommunications, packaging, consumer durables and sports and leisure.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: Dow's new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility in Freeport, Texas, was expected to come online in 2015, with a first 750000 tonne per year unit, while other units would become available in the future. An ethylene production facility was expected to start up in the first half of 2017.


title: Dow Chemical Company

text: On March 27, 2015, Dow and Olin Corporation announced that the boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Dow will separate a significant portion of its chlorine business and merge that new entity with Olin in a transaction that will create an industry leader, with revenues approaching $7 billion. Olin, the new partnership, became the largest chlorine producer in the world.