title: Cam'ron

text: Cameron Ezike Giles (born February 4, 1976), better known by his stage name Cam'ron, is an American rapper, record executive, and actor from Harlem, New York City. Beginning his career in the mid-1990s as Killa Cam, Giles signed to Lance "Un" Rivera's Untertainment under the aegis of Epic and released his first two studio albums "Confessions of Fire" and "S.D.E. (Sports Drugs & Entertainment)" in 1998 and 2000 respectively; the former achieved gold status by the RIAA. After leaving Epic, Giles signed to Roc-A-Fella Records in 2001 and released his third studio album "Come Home with Me" the following year; it achieved platinum status by the RIAA, and also contained Cam'ron's highest-charting singles to date; "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma", which peaked at No. 4 and No. 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 respectively. His fourth studio album and final release on Roc-A-Fella, "Purple Haze" was released in 2004 to critical acclaim and commercial success, being certified gold by the RIAA.


title: Cam'ron

text: After separating his label, Diplomat Records from Roc-A-Fella in 2005 due to disagreements between himself and label-head Jay-Z, Cam'ron signed the label to a distribution deal with Asylum Records. In 2006, Cam'ron released his fifth studio album, "Killa Season", which contained a film of the same name, in which Cam'ron made his director-screenwriter debut and starred as the main character. In 2009, after taking a hiatus due to his mother's health, Cam'ron returned to music and released his sixth studio album "Crime Pays". It reached number 3 on the Billboard 200.


title: Cam'ron

text: Aside from his solo career, Cam'ron is the leader of the Diplomats (also known as Dipset), a group he formed in 1997 with his childhood friend Jim Jones and his cousin Freekey Zekey. He was also one half of the duo U.N. (Us Now), and a founding member of the Children of the Corn before they disbanded in 1997. Giles has also occasionally worked as an actor, starring in the Roc-A-Fella films "Paper Soldiers" and "Paid in Full" in 2002.


title: Cam'ron

text: Giles was born on February 4, 1976, and raised in East Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. He was raised by his mother, Fredericka Giles. He went to school at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, where he met his longtime friends Mase and Jim Jones. He was a promising basketball player alongside Mase, however, he was unable to take advantage of scholarship offers due to his poor academic standing. Instead, he enrolled in a college in Texas, without even graduating from high school, but soon dropped out and returned to Harlem where he began selling drugs before starting his rap career. Giles was eventually introduced to The Notorious B.I.G. through his childhood friend Mase. BIG introduced Giles to Lance Rivera, who signed him to his label, Untertainment.


title: Cam'ron

text: He began his musical career in the mid-1990s, rapping alongside Big L, Mase, and his cousin Bloodshed, in a group called Children of the Corn. After Bloodshed's death in a car accident on March 2, 1997, the group disbanded and the remaining members pursued solo careers.


title: Cam'ron

text: Two years before Big L's murder in 1999, Cam'ron was introduced to The Notorious B.I.G. by Mase who was signed to Bad Boy Records at the time. Biggie was so impressed by Cam'ron that he introduced him to his partner Lance "Un" Rivera who signed Cam'ron to his Untertainment label, distributed by Epic Records. His debut album, "Confessions of Fire", was released a year later in July 1998 and included singles such as "3-5-7" (which was also featured in the movie Woo), and "Horse and Carriage" featuring Mase, which reached the R&B Top Ten. The album achieved gold status and made the Top 10 of both the pop and R&B charts.


title: Cam'ron

text: In 2000, Cam'ron was working with music executive Tommy Mottola and released his second album "S.D.E. (Sports Drugs & Entertainment)" on Sony/Epic Records. With features from Destiny's Child, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones, N.O.R.E., and producer Digga, it included the relatively successful singles, "Let Me Know" and "What Means The World To You". The album reached Number 2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and Number 14 on the Billboard 200.


title: Cam'ron

text: After demanding a release from Sony/Epic Records, Cam'ron signed with his childhood friend and new manager Damon Dash to Roc-A-Fella Records in 2001, alongside artists such as Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Freeway and Memphis Bleek. A reported $4.5 million record deal was agreed upon with and Damon Dash and his Roc-A-Fella partners Kareem Biggs and Jay-Z in the form of a record advance. His third and most successful album "Come Home with Me" was released in 2002 featuring guests such as Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, and Memphis Bleek, and production from Just Blaze, Kanye West and The Heatmakerz. It included the hit singles "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma", which both featured the Diplomats newest member Juelz Santana. The album achieved platinum status and served as a stepping stone for Cam'ron's group the Diplomats to sign with Roc-A-Fella.


title: Cam'ron

text: In 2002, Cam'ron went on to appear in the Damon Dash produced film, "Paid in Full", in which he played one of three main characters alongside Mekhi Phifer and Wood Harris. In 2006 he started shooting his movie for his album titled "Killa Season"; the film would mark both Cam'ron's screenwriting and directorial debuts, as well as his return to acting. Killa Season was released to DVD on April 25, 2006, after a special two-day theatrical release.


title: Cam'ron

text: In March 2003, Cam'ron teamed up with his fellow Diplomats Members Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, and Freekey Zeeky to release the Diplomats' debut double disc album, "Diplomatic Immunity", under Roc-A-Fella/Diplomat Records, which was quickly certified gold by the RIAA. The album featured the lead single "Dipset Anthem", a remix to Cam'rons hit "Hey Ma", and the (street anthem) single "I Really Mean It", as well as featuring production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, and The Heatmakerz. A year later, the Diplomats released their second album, "Diplomatic Immunity 2".


title: Cam'ron

text: On December 7, 2004, Cam'ron's fourth studio album, "Purple Haze", was released on Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella Records. It featured collaborations with Kanye West, Jaheim, Twista, Juelz Santana, and various other artists and ultimately reached gold status. The album was also a critical success, being ranked 114th on Pitchfork Media's Top 200 Albums of the first decade of the 21st century List, and 10th on Rhapsody's Hip Hop's Best Albums Of The Decade List. However, after feeling that the album was poorly promoted and that his projects were not receiving enough attention, Cam'ron requested his release from Roc-A-Fella Records.


title: Cam'ron

text: On April 28, 2005, Cam'ron officially joined the Warner Music Group under the Asylum Records imprint. He began work on what would be his first project for the new label. Cam'ron's fifth studio album, titled "Killa Season", was released on May 16, 2006, featuring production from long-term collaborators The Heatmakerz, Charlmagne and Ty Fyffe, as well as others such as Alchemist and I.N.F.O. Along with the album, Cam'ron released his first film, in which he wrote, directed and starred in, also titled "Killa Season". Despite selling 112,000 units in the first week and debuting at number 2 on the charts, "Killa Season" failed to have the same sales strength as his two previous releases, but "Killa Season" became certified gold.


title: Cam'ron

text: After the release of "Killa Season" and his feud with 50 Cent in 2007, Cam'ron took a three-year hiatus from music after his mother suffered three strokes which left her paralyzed on her left side. He moved to Florida with her to set up her rehabilitation and therapy, and stayed there until she had fully recovered. Cam'ron's 2009 album, "Crime Pays" was released on Asylum/Diplomat Records, featuring the majority of the production handled by Skitzo and AraabMuzik. Although none of the singles from the album managed to chart, the album still reached number 3 on the Billboard 200 but only sold 150,000 units, making it the lowest selling album of his career. In 2009 Cam'ron formed a new label, Dipset West and new group the U.N.


title: Cam'ron

text: In late 2009–early 2010, Cam'ron released a series of mixtapes hosted by DJ Drama called "Boss of All Boses" which featured his new upcoming artist Vado. Cam'ron also released a collaboration album with his new group the U.N. which included himself and fellow Harlem rapper Vado titled "Heat in Here Vol. 1"; the first single off the album was "Speaking Tongues" which peaked at No. 82 on the U.S. R&B charts. Cam'ron announced that he would be releasing a joint album with rapper Vado called "Gunz n' Butta"; on April 19, 2011, the album was released on E1 Music. In 2013, Vado signed with We the Best Music Group after his personal friendship with Cam'ron eroded, although Vado maintained at the time that they still worked on a business level and had no animosity towards him. After three years Cam'ron and Jim Jones decided to mend their differences and start working together again for the third installment of the "Diplomatic Immunity" album along with fellow Diplomat members Juelz Santana and Freekey Zekey. Cam'ron announced that The Diplomat album's release would take place around Christmas 2010. The first promotional single featuring the reunited Diplomat members was titled "Salute"; it was produced by AraabMuzik and would later appear on Jim Jones album "Capo".


title: Cam'ron

text: In 2012 Cam'ron was featured on rapper/singer Wiz Khalifa's second studio album "O.N.I.F.C." on a song titled "The Bluff". Also In 2012 Cam'ron would be featured on rapper/singer Nicki Minaj's second studio album "" on a song titled "I Am Your Leader" along with rapper Rick Ross.


title: Cam'ron

text: In 2013 during an interview Cam'ron discussed his seventh upcoming studio album "Killa Season 2" stating that it will feature guest appearances from Dipset, T.I., Nicki Minaj, and Wiz Khalifa. On October 1, 2013, Cam'ron released his promotional mixtape for the album titled "Ghetto Heaven Vol 1".


title: Cam'ron

text: In January 2014, according to "Complex Magazine", Cam'ron and A-Trak were to team up for a collaborative EP to be titled "Federal Reserve" which would be executive-produced by Dame Dash and have featured appearances by Juelz Santana and Jim Jones. In May, they put out the first single from the album, titled "Dipsh*ts", featuring commentary from Dame Dash and Juelz Santana on the hook and an accompanying official video. On February 11, 2014, Cam'ron along with fashion designer Mark McNairy revealed their "Cape line" during New York fashion week. On October 20, 2014, via his Instagram Cam'ron revealed and released his "Ebola mask" stating on the caption "Ebola is no joking matter, so if u have to be safe, be fashionable". Cam'ron also has a fashion clothing line titled "Dipset USA" which is branded off his former label Diplomat Records. On July 1, 2014, Cam'ron released his "1st of the Month, Vol. 1" EP. On August 1, 2014, Cam'ron released his "1st of the Month, Vol. 2" EP, it included the single "So Bad" featuring Nicki Minaj. On September 1, 2014, Cam'ron released his "1st of the Month, Vol. 3" EP. On October 1, 2014, Cam'ron released his "1st of the Month, Vol. 4" EP. On November 1, 2014, Cam'ron released his "1st of the Month, Vol. 5" EP. On December 1, 2014, Cam'ron released his "1st of the Month, Vol. 6" EP. On December 11, 2014, Cam'ron announced that his next studio album will not be a sequel to his fifth album Killa Season but will be a sequel to his critically acclaimed fourth studio album "Purple Haze" titled "Purple Haze 2"; Cam'ron also announced that this would be his final album. On December 16, 2014, Cam'ron would release his compilation "1st of the Month: Box Set (Deluxe Edition)".


title: Cam'ron

text: On January 1, 2015, well known DJ Funkmaster Flex announced via his Instagram that he had spoken to fellow Diplomat members Cam'ron, Jim Jones and Juelz Santana about an upcoming Diplomat's mixtape which included fellow member Freekey Zeekey. He also confirmed and stated that he will be hosting the mixtape along with DJ's/Rappers/Producers DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz and DJ Mustard.


title: Cam'ron

text: In July 2016, he announced that he will release an album called Killa Pink and he promoted his line of signature the Reebok Flea 2's, and announced that the shoe will be released in combination with the album.


title: Cam'ron

text: In 2002, Cam'ron went on to appear in the Damon Dash produced film, "Paid in Full", in which he played one of three main characters alongside Mekhi Phifer and Wood Harris. In 2006, started shooting his movie for his album titled "Killa Season", the film would mark both Cam'ron's screenwriting and directorial debuts, as well as his return to acting. "Killa Season" was released to DVD on April 25, 2006, after a special two-day theatrical release.


title: Cam'ron

text: On February 11, 2014, Cam'ron, along with fashion designer Mark McNairy, revealed their "Cape line" during the New York fashion week. On October 20, 2014, via his Instagram, Cam'ron revealed and released his "Ebola mask", stating on the caption: "Ebola is no joking matter, so if u have to be safe, be fashionable". Cam'ron also has a fashion clothing line titled "Dipset USA" which is branded off his former label Diplomat Records.


title: Cam'ron

text: Although there had been rumors of a feud between the two emcees, Cam'ron went public first with a track on "Killa Season" called "You Gotta Love It (Jay-Z Diss)" featuring ex-Dipset member Max B. In the song, Cam'ron takes jabs at Jay-Z's age, his alleged "biting" (stealing) of lyrics, and his current girlfriend. He references Jay-Z using The Notorious B.I.G.'s rhymes, rapping "You ain't the only one with big wallets got it my shit's brolick but ya publishing should go to Miss Wallace." He then released another song "Swagger Jacker (Biter Not a Writer)" to highlight the many songs Jay-Z has borrowed lines from. In the next issue of XXL, Cam'ron explained the beef originated when Jay-Z became CEO and President of Roc-A-Fella Records. In 2010, Cam'ron stated he does not have any issues with Jay-Z anymore.


title: Cam'ron

text: In 2013, on "Pound Cake", a song by Drake, Jay-Z mentioned Cam'ron again by rapping (in the middle of a verse):


title: Cam'ron

text: On February 1, 2007, Cam'ron and 50 Cent had a live argument on "The Angie Martinez Show" on Hot 97 radio. 50 Cent commented that he felt Koch Entertainment was a "graveyard", meaning major record labels would not work with their artists. Cam'ron then ridiculed the record sales of G-Unit members Lloyd Banks and Mobb Deep by pointing out that Dipset member Jim Jones outsold both of their albums despite not being signed to a major label, and also went on to clarify that his group, The Diplomats, had a distribution deal from several labels. Both rappers released diss songs with videos on YouTube. 50 Cent released "Funeral Music", and suggested in the song that Cam'ron is no longer able to lead The Diplomats and that Jim Jones should take his place. Cam'ron responded with "Curtis" and "Curtis Pt. II", in which he makes fun of 50 Cent's appearance, calling him "a gorilla, with rabbit teeth". 50 Cent responded by releasing "Hold On" with Young Buck. Since 2009, the feud slowly died down, and they eventually reconciled in 2016.


title: Cam'ron

text: Cam'ron revealed in 2007 that he was no longer speaking to his fellow Diplomat members Juelz Santana and Jim Jones, leading to speculation that the group had officially broken up. However, despite admitting that he did not want to contact Jim Jones, he said that he had no hard feelings towards him. In an interview with Miss Info, Cam'ron said: "I still haven't spoken to Jim. But Jim ran with me for over 10 years, he worked hard, and I wish him the best of luck. Everybody thinks I'm mad at Jim. Why am I mad? I told people for years that Jimmy was gonna be a star. So it's better on my resume. I wish him the best." After three years of not speaking, Cam'ron and Jim Jones mended their differences in April 2010. In late 2011, both appeared together on Wolfgang Gartner's album "Weekend in America", on the track "Circus Freaks".


title: Cam'ron

text: On April 22, 2007, Cam'ron was interviewed on "60 Minutes" as part of a piece on the Stop Snitchin' movement. He also stated that he would "not help the police" try to locate the shooter saying he is "not a snitch" and helping the police would probably hurt his record sales. He stated in the interview, "Because with the type of business I'm in, it would definitely hurt my business. And the way that I was raised, I just don't do that. I was raised differently, not to tell... It's about business but it's still also a code of ethics" When asked by Anderson Cooper if he would tell the police if a serial killer was living next to him, Cam'ron replied "I would probably move" but would not inform the police.


title: Cam'ron

text: Cam'ron later issued an apology for his comments, calling them an "error in judgement": "Where I come from, once word gets out that you've cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence. That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I'm not saying its right, but its reality. And it's not unfounded. There's a harsh reality around violence and criminal justice in our inner cities." Cam'ron has had contact with the police in the past. According to The Smoking Gun, New York Police Department records indicate that Giles filed a report with police after he was assaulted at a park in Harlem in 1999.


title: Cam'ron

text: Both Cam'ron and Jim Jones took out their frustrations on former label-mate Kanye West in defense of former CEO Dame Dash (due to their longtime friendship dating back to growing up in Harlem) by releasing a song titled "Toast" rhyming over Kanye West's song "Runaway". The feud eventually ended, evidenced by Cam'ron, Jim Jones, and Kanye West collaborating on a song called "Christmas in Harlem".


title: Cam'ron

text: On October 23, 2005, Cam'ron was leaving a nightclub in Washington D.C., having performed the day before at Howard University. While stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of New York and New Jersey Avenue shortly after midnight, a passenger of a nearby car threatened Cam'ron to "give up" his 2006 Lamborghini. Cam'ron resisted, and the man then shot him. Cam'ron was struck at least once as he was holding the steering wheel, but he was able to drive, going the wrong way on streets and flashing his lights, until a fan drove him to Howard University Hospital. The gunman and passenger drove off, crashed into a parked car, and fled the scene. D.C. Metro Police recovered a cell phone from the scene of the crash, which they tried to use to trace the suspects. He stated that he does not know who shot him, although later, in the song "Gotta Love It" featuring Max B, Cam'ron claims that he saw the gunman throw up the Roc-A-Fella Records diamond hand signal before shots were fired.


title: Sporus

text: Little is known about Sporus' background except that he was a youth to whom Nero took a liking. He may have been a "puer delicatus", who were sometimes castrated to preserve their youthful qualities.


title: Sporus

text: The "puer delicatus" generally was a child-slave chosen by his master for his beauty and sexual attractiveness. Cassius Dio identifies Sporus as the child of a freedman.


title: Sporus

text: Nero's wife, Poppaea Sabina, died in 65 AD. This was supposedly in childbirth, although it was later rumored Nero kicked her to death. At the beginning of 66, Nero married Statilia Messalina. Later that year or in 67, he married Sporus, who was said to bear a remarkable resemblance to Poppaea.


title: Sporus

text: Nero had Sporus castrated, and during their marriage, Nero had Sporus appear in public as his wife wearing the regalia that was customary for Roman empresses. He then took Sporus to Greece and back to Rome, making Calvia Crispinilla serve as "mistress of the wardrobe" to Sporus, "epitropeia ten peri estheta". Nero had earlier married another freedman, Pythagoras, who had played the role of Nero's husband; now Sporus played the role of Nero's wife. Among other forms of address, Sporus was termed "Lady", "Empress", and "Mistress". Suetonius quotes one Roman who lived around this time who remarked that the world would have been better off if Nero's father Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had married someone more like the castrated boy.


title: Sporus

text: Suetonius places his account of the Nero–Sporus relationship in his scandalous accounts of Nero's sexual aberrations, between his raping a Vestal Virgin and committing incest with his mother. Some think Nero used his marriage to Sporus to assuage the guilt he felt for kicking his pregnant wife Poppaea to death. Dio Cassius, in a more detailed account, writes that Sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea and that Nero called Sporus by her name.


title: Sporus

text: Shortly before Nero's death, during the Calends festival, Sporus presented Nero with a ring bearing a gemstone depicting the Rape of Proserpina, in which the ruler of the underworld forces a young girl to become his bride. It was at the time considered one of the many bad omens of Nero's fall.


title: Sporus

text: Sporus was one of the four companions on the emperor's last journey in June 68, along with Epaphroditus, Neophytus, and Phaon. It was Sporus, and not his wife Messalina, to whom Nero turned as he began the ritual lamentations before taking his own life.


title: Sporus

text: Soon afterward, Sporus was taken to the care of the Praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus, who had persuaded the Praetorian Guard to desert Nero. Nymphidius treated Sporus as a wife and called him "Poppaea". Nymphidius tried to make himself emperor but was killed by his own guardsmen.


title: Sporus

text: In 69, Sporus became involved with Otho, the second of a rapid, violent succession of four emperors who vied for power during the chaos that followed Nero's death. (Otho had once been married to Poppaea, until Nero had forced their divorce.) Otho reigned for three months until his suicide after the Battle of Bedriacum. His victorious rival, Vitellius, intended to use Sporus as a victim in a public entertainment: a fatal "re-enactment" of the Rape of Proserpina at a gladiator show. Sporus avoided this public humiliation by committing suicide.


title: Sporus

text: In 1735, Alexander Pope wrote a satirical poem that mocked the courtier Lord Hervey, who had been accused of homosexuality a few years earlier. He scoffs at using so strong a weapon as satire upon a weak and effeminate target like Sporus, "that mere white curd of ass's milk", and in a famous line Pope poses the rhetorical question: "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"


title: Sporus

text: The fourth episode of Season 3 of the TV show "Succession" features Tom Wambsgans recounting the marriage of Nero and Sporus to Greg Hirsch. He once again refers to Greg as Sporus in the Season 3 finale.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger (born August 23, 1948) is an American motivational speaker and author who played college football at the University of Notre Dame. His early life and career at Notre Dame were the inspiration for the 1993 film "Rudy".


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Daniel Eugene Ruettiger (nicknamed "Rudy") was the third of fourteen children. He was born on August 23, 1948, in Joliet, Illinois, where he grew up with his German American family. Ruettiger did not excel scholastically, at least in part due to dyslexia. He attended Joliet Catholic High School, where he played for locally famous football coach Gordie Gillespie.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Ruettiger joined the United States Navy after high school, serving as a yeoman on a communications command ship for two years; then he worked in a power plant for two years. Ruettiger applied to Notre Dame and was rejected due to his low high school grades. He enrolled and attended nearby Holy Cross College, and after two years was accepted as a student at Notre Dame on his fourth try, in the fall of 1974. It was during his time studying at Holy Cross that Ruettiger discovered he had dyslexia.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Ruettiger harbored a dream to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, despite being undersized at and . Head coach Ara Parseghian encouraged walk-on players from the student body. For example, Notre Dame's 1969 starting center, Mike Oriard, was a walk-on who was eventually nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship and earned an NFL contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: After tremendous hard work, Ruettiger earned a place on the Notre Dame scout team, a squad that helps the varsity team practice for games. Merv Johnson was the coach who was instrumental in keeping Rudy on as a scout-team player.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: After the 1974 season, Notre Dame coach Parseghian stepped down and former Green Bay Packers coach Dan Devine was named head coach. In Ruettiger's last opportunity to play for Notre Dame at home, Devine put him into a game as defensive end against Georgia Tech on November 8, 1975. In the movie "Rudy", Devine is given a somewhat antagonistic role, not wanting Ruettiger to dress for his last game. In the real life scenario, however, it was Devine who came up with the idea to dress Ruettiger. In the final play of Ruettiger's senior season with the Fighting Irish, he recorded a sack, which is all his Notre Dame stat line has shown. Ruettiger actually played for three plays: a kickoff, an incomplete pass, and on the third play (the game's final play), he sacked Georgia Tech quarterback Rudy Allen. He was carried off the field by his teammates following the game, the first player in Notre Dame history to do so. Only one other player has received such an honor: Marc Edwards in 1995.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Ruettiger set up a successful maintenance company and also sold real estate. In 1986, he moved back to South Bend, Indiana and decided to sell his story to be made into a film. Ruettiger's story was told in the 1993 feature film "Rudy", which starred actor Sean Astin in the title role. The film was written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh, both of whom were involved in "Hoosiers". Ruettiger appeared in a cameo as a fan behind his father, played by Ned Beatty, during the final game scenes.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Ruettiger has said that the movie is "92% true." The players did not lay down their jerseys; rather, the team captain and one other player requested that he be allowed to play. Dan Devine is given a somewhat antagonistic role in the film, but Devine was actually one of Ruettiger's biggest motivators to return to the team. The groundskeeper named Fortune is a combination of three different people.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: In 2011, Ruettiger was charged with securities fraud in connection with his role as Chairman of Rudy Beverage, Inc. The government alleged a pump-and-dump scheme. A settlement of the case required Ruettiger to pay $382,866 in fines. In his 2011 book, “Rudy: My Story,” Ruettiger writes of his dealings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and settlement for alleged securities fraud, stating, “I fell into the same obvious trap the rest of the country had fallen into in all of those boom years,” and “I shouldn’t have been chasing the money.”


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: In 2017, at the age of 68, Ruettiger was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Highland, Utah.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: On October 14, 2005, Ruettiger was the master of ceremonies at a pep rally for Notre Dame Football. The Fighting Irish were about to play rival and then #1-ranked University of Southern California (USC) the following day and Head Coach Charlie Weis asked some Notre Dame legends, including Tim Brown and Joe Montana, to come back and speak at the rally. Ruettiger came out of the tunnel at Notre Dame Stadium to a loud ovation. Notre Dame ultimately lost the game.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: The inaugural 2007 College Football Rudy Award was held on January 8, 2008, at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. The College Football Rudy Award was created by the Rudy Foundation and honors Division I football players who demonstrate what Ruettiger refers to as the "Four Cs": character, courage, contribution, and commitment as a member of their team. A similar award for high school students was created in 2009. Trusted Sports and Ruettiger launched the High School Football "Rudy" Awards, which aim to uncover the "Rudy" on every high school football team in America. Inspired by the College Football Rudy Awards, three finalists were announced on February 3, 2010. The winner, Calob Leindecker of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, received a college scholarship totaling $10,000. Two runners-up, Kyle Weafer of Kansas and Justin Ray Duke of Texas each received $5,000 scholarships.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: In July 2009, Ruettiger was initiated into the Kappa Sigma fraternity at the Grand Conclave in San Antonio, Texas.


title: Rudy Ruettiger

text: Ruettiger received an honorary doctorate degree from Our Lady of Holy Cross College and Long Island University. He has been given key to the city at numerous cities across the nation along with special proclamations for his inspiration, commitment, and human spirit; one such proclamation from the Governor of Nevada announced an Official Rudy Award Day. He has been recognized by the Texas House of Representatives and the President of the United States George W. Bush and visited the White House.


title: Men in black

text: In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. The term is also frequently used to describe mysterious men working for unknown organizations, as well as various branches of government allegedly tasked with protecting secrets or performing other strange activities. The term is generic, used for any unusual, threatening, or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting. Several alleged encounters with the men in black have been reported by UFO researchers and enthusiasts. The "MIB" supposedly appeared throughout different moments in history.


title: Men in black

text: Stories about men in black inspired the semi-comic science-fiction "Men in Black" franchise, and an album by the Stranglers.


title: Men in black

text: Folklorist James R. Lewis compares accounts of men in black with tales of people encountering Lucifer, and speculates that they can be considered a kind of "psychological trauma".


title: Men in black

text: Men in black feature prominently in ufology, UFO folklore, and in fan fiction. In the 1950s and 1960s, ufologists adopted a conspiratorial mindset and began to fear they would be subject to organized intimidation in retaliation for discovering "the truth of the UFOs."


title: Men in black

text: In 1947, Harold Dahl claimed to have been warned not to talk about his alleged UFO sighting on Maury Island by a man in a dark suit. In the mid-1950s, ufologist Albert K. Bender claimed he was visited by men in dark suits who threatened and warned him not to continue investigating UFOs. Bender maintained that the men in black were secret government agents who had been given the task of suppressing evidence of UFOs. Ufologist John Keel claimed to have had encounters with MIB and referred to them as "demonic supernaturals" with "dark skin and/or 'exotic' facial features." According to ufologist Jerome Clark, reports of men in black represent "experiences" that "don't seem to have occurred in the world of consensus reality."


title: Men in black

text: Historian Aaron Gulyas wrote, "during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, UFO conspiracy theorists would incorporate the MIB into their increasingly complex and paranoid visions."


title: Men in black

text: Ufologist John Keel has argued that some MIB encounters can be explained as miscast entirely mundane events perpetuated through local folklore. In his 1975 book "The Mothman Prophecies", Keel describes a late night outing in 1967 rural West Virginia where he himself was taken for an MIB while searching for a phone to call a tow truck.


title: Men in black

text: In his article, "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker," John C. Sherwood claims that, in the late 1960s, at the age of 18, he cooperated when Gray Barker urged him to develop a hoax—which Barker subsequently published—about what Barker called "blackmen", three mysterious UFO inhabitants who silenced Sherwood's pseudonymous identity, "Dr. Richard H. Pratt."


title: Men in black

text: The 1976 Blue Öyster Cult song "E.T.I (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)," contains the line, "Three men in black said, 'Don't report this.'" Their 1983 song "Take Me Away," which is about the singer's desire to leave Earth with "good guy" aliens, has the line "The men in black, their lips are sealed."


title: Men in black

text: In 1979, British Punk Rock/New Wave rock band the Stranglers recorded a song entitled "Meninblack" for their album "The Raven", which was released that year. This was followed in 1981 with a concept album "The Gospel According to the Meninblack", which featured alien visitations to Earth.


title: Men in black

text: James T. Flocker's 1979 film "The Alien Encounters" included Men in Black whom harass a UFO investigator as portrayed by Augie Tribach.


title: Men in black

text: The 1984 film "The Brother from Another Planet" features two Men in Black who try to capture the alien hero. One of them is played by the film's Director, John Sayles.


title: Men in black

text: The 1997 science-fiction film "Men In Black", starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, was loosely based on "The Men in Black" comic book series created by Lowell Cunningham and Sandy Carruthers. Cunningham had the idea for the comic once a friend of his introduced him to the concept of government "men in black" upon seeing a black van riding the streets.


title: Sark

text: Sark (, ; Sercquiais: or ) is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population of about 500. Sark (including the nearby island of Brecqhou) has an area of . Little Sark is a peninsula joined by a natural but high and very narrow isthmus to the rest of Sark Island.


title: Sark

text: Sark is one of the few remaining places in the world where cars are banned from roads and only tractors, bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles are allowed. In 2011, Sark was designated as a Dark Sky Community and the first Dark Sky Island in the world.


title: Sark

text: Sark consists of two main parts, Greater Sark, located at about , and Little Sark to the south. They are connected by a narrow isthmus called La Coupée which is long and has a drop of on each side. Protective railings were added in 1900; before then, children would crawl across on their hands and knees to avoid being blown over the edge. A narrow concrete road covering the entirety of the isthmus was built in 1945 by German prisoners of war under the direction of the Royal Engineers. Due to its isolation, the inhabitants of Little Sark had their own distinct form of Sercquiais, the native Norman dialect of the island.


title: Sark

text: The highest point on Sark is above sea level. A windmill, dated 1571, is found there, the sails of which were removed during World War II. This high point is named "Le Moulin", after the windmill. The location is also the highest point in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Little Sark had a number of mines accessing a source of galena. At Port Gorey, the ruins of silver mines may be seen. Off the south end of Little Sark are the Venus Pool and the Adonis Pool, both natural swimming pools whose waters are refreshed at high tide.


title: Sark

text: The whole island is extensively penetrated at sea level by natural cave formations that provide unique habitats for many marine creatures, notably sea anemones, some of which are only safely accessible at low tide.


title: Sark

text: Sark is made up mainly of amphibolite and granite gneiss rocks, intruded by igneous magma sheets called quartz diorite. Recent (1990–2000) geological studies and rock age-dating by geologists from Oxford Brookes University shows that the gneisses probably formed around 620–600 million years ago during the Late Pre-Cambrian Age Cadomian Orogeny. The quartz diorite sheets were intruded during this Cadomian deformation and metamorphic event.


title: Sark

text: All the Sark rocks (and those of the nearby Channel Islands of Guernsey and Alderney) formed during geological activity in the continental crust above an ancient subduction zone. This geological setting would have been analogous to the modern-day subduction zone of the Pacific Ocean plate colliding and subducting beneath the North and South American continental plate.


title: Sark

text: Sark also exercises jurisdiction over the island of Brecqhou, only a few hundred feet west of Greater Sark. It is a private island, but it has recently been opened to some visitors. Since 1993, Brecqhou has been owned by David and Frederick Barclay, the brothers and co-owners of "The Daily Telegraph" until David Barclay's death in 2021. The brothers contested Sark's control over the island. The candidates endorsed by their various business interests on the island failed to win any seats in the elections held in 2008 and 2010.


title: Sark

text: "Sark" is probably first mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary ("Itinerarium Antonini Augusti", part II : "itinerarium maritimum") 3rd – 4th century AD together with the other main Channel Islands as "Sarnia", "Caesarea", "Barsa", "Silia" and "Andium", but it is unclear to which it refers. It has been suggested that "Silia" referred to "Sark". The earliest record to evoke possibly the name of "Sark" are the "Life of saint Samson" and the "Life of saint Magloire", bishops of Dol-de-Bretagne. They spell it "Sargia", with the neighbouring island "Bissargia", all the other documents are from the 11th to the 12th century and the forms are : "Serc, Serch, Sercum, Serco".


title: Sark

text: Richard Coates has suggested that in the absence of a Proto-Indo-European etymology it may be worthwhile looking for a Proto-Semitic source for the name. He proposes a comparison between the probable root of Sark, "*Sarg-", and Proto-Semitic "*śrq ""redden; rise (as of the sun); east", noting Sark's position as the easternmost island of the Guernsey group. His theory is based on the early medieval Latin records mentioning "Sargia", but many Islands more or less close to Sark have a Latin name ending with "-gia", such as "Angia" (Channel Island), Oye-Plage (Pas-de-Calais, "Ogia" 8th century) and Île-d'Yeu (Vendée, former "Augia"). Later records all mention "Serc-" and not "*Sark", that seem to result from a later anglicising of the /er/ group (compare French "merveille" > English "marvel"; French "Clerc" / English "clerk", "clark" cf. Clark). The traditional pronunciation of "Sark" in the native Norman language is "sèr" , with regular fall of final like "clerc" in French. Finally, no specialist ever identified any Proto-Semitic element in the French coastal toponymy, even on the French mediterranean side. René Lepelley suggests a Scandinavian etymology that would explain the regular and late records of the root "Serc-" in the documents, according to him, it could be Old Norse "serkr" "shirt". He compares with the name given to an island or a mountain by Vikings sailing from Norway to Greenland : "Hvítserkr" cf. Hvitserk, maybe Mount Forel, so Old Saxon "*Serki" or Old Norse "Serkr" > "Serc" could have been a descriptive landmark for Saxon or Scandinavian sailors. In addition Norman toponymy reveals a mixture of (Anglo-)Saxon and Old Norse (Old Danish) place name elements. The Old English form of "sark" "shirt" (related to Old Norse "serkr") is precisely "serċ, syrċ" > Middle English "serk", "serke", "sark" (through the Anglian variant).


title: Sark

text: In ancient times, Sark was almost certainly occupied by the Unelli, the Gallic tribe of the Cotentin Peninsula. These people were conquered by Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire about 56 BC in the Gallic Wars. About three decades later under Augustus, Gallia Celtica was subdivided into three parts, with this area a part of Gallia Lugdunensis, with its capital in Lugdunum, now Lyon. A later division was named "Lugdunensis secunda" ("Lyonnaise" 2nd). A Unelli town, now Coutances, was named "Constantia" in 298 by the Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus.


title: Sark

text: Around 430, the bishopric of Coutances (much later under the archbishopric of Rouen), was established in Coutances, having about the same limits as the "Lyonnaise" 2nd.


title: Sark

text: In 933, Sark was included in the Duchy of Normandy, based on the traditional boundaries of the "Lugdunensis secunda" and the archbishopric of Rouen. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the island was united with the Crown of England. In the thirteenth century, the French pirate Eustace the Monk, having served King John, used Sark as a base of operations.


title: Sark

text: During the Middle Ages, the island was populated by monastic communities. By the 16th century, however, the island was uninhabited and used by pirates as a refuge and base. In 1565, Helier de Carteret, Seigneur of St. Ouen in Jersey, received letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I granting him Sark as a fief in perpetuity on condition that he kept the island free of pirates and occupied by at least forty men who were of her English subjects or swore allegiance to the Crown. This he duly did, leasing 40 parcels of land (known as "Tenements") at a low rent to forty families, mostly from St. Ouen, on condition that a house be built and maintained on each parcel and that "the Tenant" provide one man, armed with a musket, for the defence of the island. The 40 tenements survive to this day, albeit with minor boundary changes. (In 2015, the 450 year anniversary of this event was commemorated with the construction of a modern henge monument, Sark Henge.) A subsequent attempt by the families to endow a constitution under a bailiff, as in Jersey, was stopped by the Guernsey authorities who resented any attempt to wrest Sark from their bailiwick.


title: Sark

text: In 1844, desperate for funds to continue the operation of the silver mine on the island, the incumbent Seigneur, Ernest le Pelley, obtained Crown permission to mortgage Sark's fief to local privateer John Allaire. After the company running the mine went bankrupt, le Pelley was unable to keep up the mortgage payments and, in 1849, his son Pierre Carey le Pelley, the new Seigneur, was forced to sell the fief to Marie Collings for a total of £1,383 (£6,000 less the sum borrowed and an accumulated interest of £616 and 13s).


title: Sark

text: During World War II, the island, along with the other Channel Islands, was occupied by German forces between 1940 and 1945. German military rule on Sark began on 4 July 1940, the day after the Guernsey "Kommandant" Major Albrecht Lanz and his interpreter and chief of staff Major Maas visited the island to inform the Dame and Seigneur (Sibyl and Robert Hathaway) of the new regime. British Commandos raided the island several times. Operation Basalt, during the night of 3–4 October 1942, captured a prisoner, and Hardtack 7 was a failed British landing in December 1943. Sark was finally liberated on 10 May 1945, a full day after Guernsey.


title: Sark

text: In late August 1990, an unemployed French nuclear physicist named André Gardes, armed with a semi-automatic weapon, attempted an invasion of Sark. The night Gardes arrived, he put up two posters declaring his intention to take over the island the following day at noon. The following day he started a solo foot patrol in front of the manor, in battle-dress, weapon in hand. While Gardes was sitting on a bench waiting for noon to arrive, the island's volunteer "connétable" approached the Frenchman and complimented him on the quality of his weapon. Gardes then proceeded to change the gun's magazine, at which point he was tackled to the ground, arrested, and given a seven-day sentence which he served in Guernsey. Gardes attempted to return the following year, but was intercepted in Guernsey.


title: Sark

text: Billionaire brothers David and Frederick Barclay had purchased an island within Sark's territorial waters in 1993 along with the hotels on the island. In the mid-1990s, the brothers petitioned the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, challenging Sark's inheritance law, which mandated their island be left to David's oldest son. The brothers wanted to will their estate equally to their four children. In 1999, women in Sark were given equal rights of property inheritance, mainly due to the brothers' influence.


title: Sark

text: Until 2008, Sark's parliament (Chief Pleas) was a single chamber consisting of 54 members, comprising the Seigneur, the Seneschal, 40 owners of the tenements and 12 elected deputies. A change to the system was advocated largely by the Barclay brothers. Their premise was that a change was necessary to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights, though it was suggested that their objection was more likely at odds with certain property tax requirements and primogeniture laws affecting their holdings. The old system was described as feudal and undemocratic because the tenants were entitled to sit in Chief Pleas as of right.


title: Sark

text: On 16 January 2008 and 21 February 2008, the Chief Pleas approved a law to reform Chief Pleas as a 30-member chamber, with 28 members elected in island-wide elections, one hereditary member (the Seigneur) and one member (the Seneschal) appointed for life. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom approved the Sark law reforms on 9 April 2008. The first elections under the new law were held in December 2008 and the new chamber first convened in January 2009.


title: Sark

text: Some Sark residents have complained that the new system is not democratic and have described the powers the new law granted to the Seneschal, an unelected member whose term the new law extended to the duration of his natural life, as imperial or dictatorial. The Court of Appeal had ruled his powers to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and his powers were subject to further legal challenges on these grounds.


title: Sark

text: In 2012 the BBC "Today" programme reported on local disquiet about the influence on the island of the Barclay brothers. "The New Yorker" magazine further illustrated the ongoing and escalating tensions between the Barclays and some of the longer-term residents. In 2017 "Private Eye" also reported on the situation, following the Barclays' decision to close their vineyard and a number of hotels and shops they own on Sark.


title: Sark

text: In January 2011, the International Dark-Sky Association designated Sark as Europe's first Dark Sky Community and the first Dark Sky Island in the world. This designation recognises that Sark is sufficiently clear of light pollution to allow naked-eye astronomy. Although Sark was aided in its achievement by its location, its historic ban on cars and the fact that there is no public lighting, it was also necessary for local residents to make adjustments, such as re-siting lights, to cut the light pollution.


title: Sark

text: The designation was made in January 2011, following an audit by the IDA in 2010. The award is significant in that Sark is the first island community to have achieved this; other Dark-Sky Places have, up to now, been mainly uninhabited areas, and IDA chairman Martin Morgan-Taylor commended Sark residents for their effort. After the designation was granted, Sark Astronomy Society worked to secure funds for an astronomical observatory on the island. In October 2015 Sark's observatory was officially opened by Marek Kukula, public astronomer from the Royal Observatory Greenwich.


title: Sark

text: Until the second half of the 2000s Sark was considered the last feudal state in Europe. Together with the other Channel Islands, it is the last remnant of the former Duchy of Normandy still belonging to the Crown. Sark belongs to the Crown in its own right and has an independent relationship with the Crown through the Lieutenant Governor in Guernsey. Formally, the Seigneur holds it as a fief from the Crown, reenfeoffing the landowners on the island with their respective parcels. The political consequences of this construction were abolished in recent years, particularly in the reform of the legislative body, Chief Pleas, which took place in 2008.


title: Sark

text: Although part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Sark is fiscally separate from the rest of the Bailiwick. Together with the islands of Alderney and Guernsey, Sark from time to time approves Bailiwick of Guernsey legislation, which, subject to the approval of all three legislatures, applies in the entire Bailiwick. Legislation cannot be made which applies on Sark without the approval of the Chief Pleas, although recently Chief Pleas has been delegating a number of ordinance-making powers to the States of Guernsey. Such powers are, however, in each case subject to dis-application, or repeal, by the Chief Pleas. By long standing custom, Sark's criminal law has been made by the States of Guernsey, and this custom was put on a statutory basis in Section 4 of the Reform (Sark) Law, 2008, by which Sark delegates criminal law making power to the States of Guernsey.


title: Sark

text: Sark has its own United Nations Standard Country or Area Code for Statistical Use (680). That code is used for statistical processing purposes by the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat. Sark has its own separate ISO issued Country Code even though it is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Previously it was represented by (GG).


title: Sark

text: Christopher Beaumont is the current and twenty-third Seigneur of Sark, having inherited the Seigneurie in 2016.


title: Sark

text: Before the constitutional reforms of 2008, the Seigneur (or Dame in the case of a woman holding the office) was the head of the government of the Isle of Sark. Many of the laws, particularly those related to inheritance and the rule of the Seigneur, had changed little since their promulgation in 1565 under Elizabeth I of England. For example, the Seigneur held the sole right to keep pigeons or an unspayed dog. The latter right was repealed in 2008.


title: Sark

text: Until 2013 the Seneschal of Sark was the head of the Chief Pleas. From 1583 and 1675 judicial functions were exercised by five elected jurats and a juge, but since 1675 the Seneschal has also been the judge of the island.


title: Sark

text: The Seneschal was historically appointed by the Seigneur, but nowadays there is an Appointment Committee consisting of the Seigneur and two other members appointed by the Seigneur.


title: Sark

text: In 2010, following the decision of the English Court of Appeal, the Chief Pleas decided to split the dual role of the Seneschal. Thus, since 2013 the Chief Pleas has elected its own President, who presides in almost all cases. The Seneschal now presides in Chief Pleas only during the election of the President.


title: Sark

text: Pursuant to the royal letters patent, the Seigneur was to keep the island inhabited by at least 40 armed men. Therefore, from his lands, 39 parcels or tenements, each sufficient for one family, were subdivided and granted to settlers, the "tenants". Later, some of these parcels were dismembered, and parts of the Seigneurial land were sold, creating more parcels.


title: Sark

text: Originally each head of a parcel-holding family had the right to vote in Chief Pleas, but in 1604 this right was restricted to the 39 original tenements required by the letters patent, the so-called 'Quarantaine Tenements' (: a group of forty). The newer parcels mostly did not have the obligation to bear arms. In 1611 the dismemberment of tenements was forbidden, but the order was not immediately followed.


title: Sark

text: In Sark, the word "tenant" is used (and often pronounced as in French) in the sense of "feudal landholder" rather than the common English meaning of "lessee". Originally, the word referred to any landowner, but today it is mostly used for a holder of one of the Tenements.


title: Sark

text: Chief Pleas (; Sercquiais: ') is the parliament of Sark. It consists of eighteen members ('), elected for a period of office of four years. In addition, the Seigneur and a speaker (who is elected by the ) are counted as members; but they have no right to vote. The periods of office are shifted, with the period of half the starting in the middle of the periods of the other half. Thus, every second year, nine are elected for the coming four years. The elections are held on the basis of a single multi-member Sark-wide constituency, with the nine candidates receiving most votes being elected. The ', the ' and the treasurer also attend but are not members; the treasurer may address Chief Pleas on matters of taxation and finance.


title: Sark

text: However, if there are not more willing candidates than the numbers of positions to fill (including any casual vacancies), then all candidates are declared elected, without any actual election necessary. This happened both in the 2014 and the 2016 elections to the Chief Pleas.


title: Sark

text: Until 2008, the Chief Pleas consisted of the tenants, and twelve deputies of the people as the only representation of the majority, an office introduced in 1922. The Seigneur and the Seneschal (who presided) were also members of Chief Pleas.


title: Sark

text: Since 2000, Chief Pleas was working on its own reform, responding to internal and international pressures. On 8 March 2006 by a vote of 25–15 Chief Pleas voted for a new legislature of the Seigneur, the Seneschal, fourteen elected landowners and fourteen elected non-landowners. But it was made plain by the British Lord Chancellor Jack Straw that this option was not on the table.


title: Sark

text: Offered two options for reform involving an elected legislature, one fully elected, one with a number of seats reserved for elected tenants, 56% of the inhabitants expressed a preference for a totally elected legislature. Following the poll, Chief Pleas voted on 4 October 2006 to replace the twelve deputies and forty tenants in Chief Pleas by 28 ' elected by universal adult suffrage. This decision was suspended in January 2007 when it was pointed out to Chief Pleas that the 56% versus 44% majority achieved in the opinion poll did not achieve the 60% majority required for the constitutional change. The decision was replaced by the proposal that Chief Pleas should consist of sixteen tenants and twelve ' both elected by universal adult suffrage from 2008 to 2012 and that a binding referendum should then decide whether this composition should be kept or replaced by 28 '. This proposal was rejected by the Privy Council and the 28 ' option was reinstated in February 2008 and accepted by Privy Council in April 2008.


title: Sark

text: In 2003, Chief Pleas voted to vary the long-standing ban on divorce in the island by extending to the Royal Court of Guernsey power to grant divorces.


title: Sark

text: In 2017, due to a lack of candidates standing for elections, the number of was reduced from 28 to 18, with nine elected every two years.


title: Sark

text: Bailiwick of Guernsey laws and United Kingdom Acts of Parliament can (the latter as in the case of all the other Channel Islands) be extended to Sark. Normally the consent of Chief Pleas is obtained for this, but the Supreme Court ruled in "R v Secretary of State for Justice" [2014] UKSC 54 that it need not be. Sark does not make its own criminal laws; the responsibility for making criminal law was assigned to the States of Guernsey by Section 4(3) of the Reform (Sark) Law 2008.


title: Sark

text: The Seneschal, Prevôt, and Greffier are chosen by the Seigneur, while the Treasurer, Constable and Vingtenier are elected by Chief Pleas.


title: Sark

text: Among the old laws of the Channel Islands is the old Norman custom of the "clameur de haro". Using this legal device, a person can obtain immediate cessation of any action he considers to be an infringement of his rights. At the scene, he must, in front of witnesses, recite the Lord's Prayer in French and cry out ""Haro, Haro, Haro! À mon aide mon Prince, on me fait tort!"" (""Haro, Haro, Haro! To my aid, my Prince! I am being wronged!""). It should then be registered with the Greffe Office within 24 hours. All actions against the person must then cease until the matter is heard by the Court. The last "clameur" recorded on Sark was raised in June 1970 to prevent the construction of a garden wall.


title: Sark

text: Since 2009 a resident of Sark has operated a weekly online newspaper called "The Sark Newspaper" (earlier: "The Sark Newsletter"). The publisher is a former longtime employee of the wealthy Barclay brothers, who own the small neighbouring island of Brecqhou. The publication has compared the local government of Sark "to fascist Germany in the 1930s". In 2014 over 50 residents of Sark filed complaints with the police about accusations made by the paper.


title: Sark

text: Since 2011 a quarterly magazine called "Sark Life", which promotes a positive view of the island and welcomes contributions, is published by the Sark-based publishing company "Small Island Publishing".


title: Sark

text: Sercquiais ("Sarkese", or sometimes called "Sark-French") is a dialect of the Norman language still spoken in 1998 by a few older inhabitants of the island. Its decline has been linked with the arrival of English-speaking miners in 1835, and increased tourism in more recent years.


title: Sark

text: Sark's economy depends primarily on tourism and financial services. Sark has no company registry and relies on Guernsey's financial services commission.


title: Sark

text: Sark is fiscally autonomous from Guernsey, and consequently has control over how it raises taxes. There are no taxes on income, capital gains or inheritances. There is also no VAT charged on goods and services, but import duties (Impôts) are charged on some goods brought onto the island at around 70–75% of Guernsey rates. However, the island does levy a Personal Capital Tax, a Property Tax, a Poll Tax ("Landing Tax") on visitors coming to the island, and a Property Transfer Tax (PTT) on residential properties when they are sold.


title: Sark

text: The island has its own tax assessor (in 2016, this remained Simon de Carteret), who collects the Property Tax, PTT, and the Personal Capital Tax (direct tax). Currently, the Personal Capital Tax ranges from a minimum of £450, to a maximum of £9,000 or 0.39% per annum (whichever is the lower). In 2014, there were 5 taxpayers who paid the maximum amount of £6,400 (PCT and Property Tax combined), and 6 who paid zero tax. Residents over the age of 69 do not pay the PCT. If a resident chooses not to declare the value of their personal assets, they can elect to pay a flat-rate under the Forfait method.


title: Sark

text: In 2006, Property Transfer Tax replaced the feudal "Treizième". This used to be calculated by dividing the purchase price of any of the 30 tenements or 40 freehold properties on Sark by 13. The proceeds from doing this were then paid directly to the Seigneur. When the Treizième was abolished, the Chief Pleas introduced an indexed-linked pension of £28,000 per year, payable to the Seigneur.


title: Sark

text: An individual is considered to be a resident for tax purposes if they have remained on the island for at least 90 days in any tax year.


title: Sark

text: Sark has no public company registry, and no company law. In January 2017, a private organisation called the "Sark Company Registry" was set up. The project was initially opposed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, but that opposition ended with nothing, since no law could prohibit private registration of companies. None of managers of the private registry or any company registered by them was ever sanctioned.


title: Sark

text: Sark has one school, the Sark School, which takes residents from the ages of 4 to 15. School is divided into 4 classes. Class 1 takes children from the ages of 4 to 7 (reception to year 2), class 2 caters for 7- to 9-year-olds (year 3 to year 4), class 3 has 9- to 14-year-olds (year 5 to year 9) and the older children attend class 4 (years 10 and 11). Pupils wishing to obtain a GCSE or A-level qualification often finish their education in Guernsey or in England. Since 2006, however, a limited number of GCSEs have been offered to pupils at Sark School.


title: Sark

text: The Isle of Sark Shipping Company operates small ferries from Sark to St Peter Port, Guernsey. The service takes 55 minutes for the crossing. A high-speed passenger ferry is operated in summer by the French company Manche Iles Express to Saint Helier, Jersey. A 12-passenger boat, the "Lady Maris II", operates regular services to Alderney.


title: Sark

text: The island is a car-free zone where the only vehicles allowed are horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, tractors, and battery-powered buggies for elderly or disabled people. Electric bicycles were deregulated in the 2019 Midsummer Chief Pleas with the ordinance coming in to force on 4 July 2019. Passengers and goods arriving by ferry from Guernsey are transported from the wharf by tractor-pulled vehicles.


title: Sark

text: There is no airport on Sark, and flight over Sark below 2400 ft is prohibited by the "Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Guernsey) Regulations 1985" (Guernsey 1985/21). The closest airports are Guernsey Airport and Jersey Airport. Sark lies directly in line of approach to the runway of Guernsey airport, however, and low-flying aircraft regularly fly over the island.


title: Sark

text: In common with the other Channel Islands, Sark is attached to the Anglican diocese of Canterbury. Catholics depend on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth in England.


title: Sark

text: Sark has an Anglican church (St Peter's, built 1820) and a Methodist church. John Wesley first proposed a mission to Sark in 1787. Jean de Quetteville of Jersey subsequently began preaching there, initially in a cottage at Le Clos à Geon and then at various houses around Sark. Preachers from Guernsey visited regularly, and in 1796, land was donated by Jean Vaudin, leader of the Methodist community in Sark, for the construction of a chapel, which Jean de Quetteville dedicated in 1797. In the mid-1800s there was a small Plymouth Brethren assembly. Its most notable member was the biblical scholar William Kelly (1821–1906). Kelly was then the tutor to the Seigneur's children.


title: Sark

text: Supported by the evidence of the names of the "tenements" of La Moinerie and La Moinerie de Haut, it is believed that the Seigneurie was constructed on the site of the monastery of Saint Magloire. Magloire had been Samson of Dol's successor as bishop of Dol, but retired and founded a monastery in Sark where he died in the late sixth century. According to the "vita" of Magloire, the monastery housed 62 monks and a school for the instruction of the sons of noble families from the Cotentin. Magloire's relics were venerated at the monastery until the mid-ninth century when Viking raids rendered Sark unsafe, and the monks departed for Jersey, taking the relics with them.


title: Sark

text: Despite Sark having its own legislative assembly, Guernsey has sole responsibility for matters of criminal law under the Sark (Reform) Law 2008. For matters of extreme law enforcement the island calls upon the States of Guernsey Police Service. Sark has a small police station and jail, with two (rarely used) cells available. The island has several police officers permanently stationed on it, the constable (senior officer), the vingtenier (deputy constable), two assistant constables (former constables), two custody officers (special constables) and several special constables. Sark also has access to police services in Guernsey through the designation of a member of the Guernsey Neighbourhood Policing Team as a dedicated point of contact for Sark constables.


title: Sark

text: A resident doctor provides healthcare on Sark, and is available to attend accidents and emergencies. The Sark Ambulance Service operates two tractor-drawn ambulances, and is able to treat casualties and transport them to the harbour for transfer onto the Guernsey marine ambulance launch, "Flying Christine III", operated by Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue Service. A small ambulance station houses the two ambulances.


title: Sark

text: Fire and rescue services are provided by an independent and volunteer service established in 1958. Originally named 'Sark Fire Brigade', it is now known as the Sark Fire and Rescue Service. The services operates two pump tenders and an all-purpose trailer; all three appliances are drawn by tractors owing to the ban on other motor vehicles on Sark. The original fire station was a large garage. Today the service operates from a large purpose-built fire station on La Chasse Marette.


title: Sark

text: Lifeboat services are provided by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution from the Guernsey lifeboat station, supported by the RNLI stations on Jersey and Alderney.


title: Sark

text: Participation in sport tends towards individual sports rather than team sports, but the population supports a cricket team, a rugby union team and a football team. Sark competes in the biennial Island Games in which the Sark football team has participated. The annual Sark to Jersey Rowing Race is contested by teams from both bailiwicks. Carl Hester, who was brought up in Sark, won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Individual and Team Dressage events. A Sark post box was painted gold to celebrate the event.


title: Sark

text: Although there is no record of literature about Sark in Sercquiais, Guernésiais and Jèrriais literature has included writing about Sark; for example by such authors as Edwin John Luce, Thomas Grut, George F. Le Feuvre, and Denys Corbet.


title: Sark

text: Maurice Leblanc's novel "L'Île aux Trente Cercueils" (translated in English as "The Secret of Sarek") features an island called Sarek, off the coast of Brittany, and bears obvious similarities to Sark. In the story, gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin rescues Véronique d'Hergemont from a local superstition requiring the death of thirty women to appease vengeful spirits.


title: Sark

text: Irish musician, composer and singer Enya's 2015 album "Dark Sky Island" was inspired by Sark's designation as the first 'dark sky island'. Certain songs on the album, the title track especially, explore the stars, skies and nature.


title: Genome

text: In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as regulatory sequences (see non-coding DNA), and often a substantial fraction of 'junk' DNA with no evident function. Almost all eukaryotes have mitochondria and a small mitochondrial genome. Algae and plants also contain chloroplasts with a chloroplast genome.


title: Genome

text: The study of the genome is called genomics. The genomes of many organisms have been sequenced and various regions have been annotated. The International Human Genome Project reported the sequence of the genome for "Homo sapiens" in 2004 The Human Genome Project, although the initial "finished" sequence was missing 8% of the genome consisting mostly of repetitive sequences.


title: Genome

text: With advancements in technology that could handle sequencing of the many repetitive sequences found in human DNA that were not fully uncovered by the original Human Genome Project study, scientists reported the first end-to-end human genome sequence in March, 2022.


title: Genome

text: The term "genome" was created in 1920 by Hans Winkler, professor of botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The Oxford Dictionary and the Online Etymology Dictionary suggest the name is a blend of the words "gene" and "chromosome". However, see omics for a more thorough discussion. A few related "-ome" words already existed, such as "biome" and "rhizome", forming a vocabulary into which "genome" fits systematically.


title: Genome

text: It's very difficult to come up with a precise definition of "genome." It usually refers to the DNA (or sometimes RNA) molecules that carry the genetic information in an organism but sometimes it is difficult to decide which molecules to include in the definition; for example, bacteria usually have one or two large DNA molecules (chromosomes) that contain all of the essential genetic material but they also contain smaller extrachromosomal plasmid molecules that carry important genetic information. The definition of 'genome' that's commonly used in the scientific literature is usually restricted to the large chromosomal DNA molecules in bacteria.


title: Genome

text: Eukaryotic genomes are even more difficult to define because almost all eukaryotic species contain nuclear chromosomes plus extra DNA molecules in the mitochondria. In addition, algae and plants have chloroplast DNA. Most textbooks make a distinction between the nuclear genome and the organelle (mitochondria and chloroplast) genomes so when they speak of, say, the human genome, they are only referring to the genetic material in the nucleus. This is the most common use of 'genome' in the scientific literature.


title: Genome

text: Most eukaryotes are diploid, meaning that there are two copies of each chromosome in the nucleus but the 'genome' refers to only one copy of each chromosome. Some eukaryotes have distinctive sex chromosomes such as the X and Y chromosomes of mammals so the technical definition of the genome must include both copies of the sex chromosomes. When referring to the standard reference genome of humans, for example, it consists of one copy of each of the 22 autosomes plus one X chromosome and one Y chromosome.


title: Genome

text: A genome sequence is the complete list of the nucleotides (A, C, G, and T for DNA genomes) that make up all the chromosomes of an individual or a species. Within a species, the vast majority of nucleotides are identical between individuals, but sequencing multiple individuals is necessary to understand the genetic diversity.


title: Genome

text: In 1976, Walter Fiers at the University of Ghent (Belgium) was the first to establish the complete nucleotide sequence of a viral RNA-genome (Bacteriophage MS2). The next year, Fred Sanger completed the first DNA-genome sequence: Phage Φ-X174, of 5386 base pairs. The first bacterial genome to be sequenced was that of Haemophilus influenzae, completed by a team at The Institute for Genomic Research in 1995. A few months later, the first eukaryotic genome was completed, with sequences of the 16 chromosomes of budding yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" published as the result of a European-led effort begun in the mid-1980s. The first genome sequence for an archaeon, "Methanococcus jannaschii", was completed in 1996, again by The Institute for Genomic Research.


title: Genome

text: The development of new technologies has made genome sequencing dramatically cheaper and easier, and the number of complete genome sequences is growing rapidly. The US National Institutes of Health maintains one of several comprehensive databases of genomic information. Among the thousands of completed genome sequencing projects include those for rice, a mouse, the plant "Arabidopsis thaliana", the puffer fish, and the bacteria E. coli. In December 2013, scientists first sequenced the entire "genome" of a Neanderthal, an extinct species of humans. The genome was extracted from the toe bone of a 130,000-year-old Neanderthal found in a Siberian cave.


title: Genome

text: New sequencing technologies, such as massive parallel sequencing have also opened up the prospect of personal genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool, as pioneered by Manteia Predictive Medicine. A major step toward that goal was the completion in 2007 of the full genome of James D. Watson, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA.


title: Genome

text: Whereas a genome sequence lists the order of every DNA base in a genome, a genome map identifies the landmarks. A genome map is less detailed than a genome sequence and aids in navigating around the genome. The Human Genome Project was organized to map and to sequence the human genome. A fundamental step in the project was the release of a detailed genomic map by Jean Weissenbach and his team at the Genoscope in Paris.


title: Genome

text: Reference genome sequences and maps continue to be updated, removing errors and clarifying regions of high allelic complexity. The decreasing cost of genomic mapping has permitted genealogical sites to offer it as a service, to the extent that one may submit one's genome to crowdsourced scientific endeavours such as DNA.LAND at the New York Genome Center, an example both of the economies of scale and of citizen science.


title: Genome

text: Viral genomes can be composed of either RNA or DNA. The genomes of RNA viruses can be either single-stranded RNA or double-stranded RNA, and may contain one or more separate RNA molecules (segments: monopartit or multipartit genome). DNA viruses can have either single-stranded or double-stranded genomes. Most DNA virus genomes are composed of a single, linear molecule of DNA, but some are made up of a circular DNA molecule.


title: Genome

text: Prokaryotes and eukaryotes have DNA genomes. Archaea and most bacteria have a single circular chromosome, however, some bacterial species have linear or multiple chromosomes. If the DNA is replicated faster than the bacterial cells divide, multiple copies of the chromosome can be present in a single cell, and if the cells divide faster than the DNA can be replicated, multiple replication of the chromosome is initiated before the division occurs, allowing daughter cells to inherit complete genomes and already partially replicated chromosomes. Most prokaryotes have very little repetitive DNA in their genomes. However, some symbiotic bacteria (e.g. "Serratia symbiotica") have reduced genomes and a high fraction of pseudogenes: only ~40% of their DNA encodes proteins.


title: Genome

text: Some bacteria have auxiliary genetic material, also part of their genome, which is carried in plasmids. For this, the word "genome" should not be used as a synonym of "chromosome".


title: Genome

text: Eukaryotic genomes are composed of one or more linear DNA chromosomes. The number of chromosomes varies widely from Jack jumper ants and an asexual nemotode, which each have only one pair, to a fern species that has 720 pairs. It is surprising the amount of DNA that eukaryotic genomes contain compared to other genomes. The amount is even more than what is necessary for DNA protein-coding and noncoding genes due to the fact that eukaryotic genomes show as much as 64,000-fold variation in their sizes. However, this special characteristic is caused by the presence of repetitive DNA, and transposable elements (TEs).


title: Genome

text: A typical human cell has two copies of each of 22 autosomes, one inherited from each parent, plus two sex chromosomes, making it diploid. Gametes, such as ova, sperm, spores, and pollen, are haploid, meaning they carry only one copy of each chromosome. In addition to the chromosomes in the nucleus, organelles such as the chloroplasts and mitochondria have their own DNA. Mitochondria are sometimes said to have their own genome often referred to as the "mitochondrial genome". The DNA found within the chloroplast may be referred to as the "plastome". Like the bacteria they originated from, mitochondria and chloroplasts have a circular chromosome.


title: Genome

text: Unlike prokaryotes where exon-intron organization of protein coding genes exists but is rather exceptional, eukaryotes generally have these features in their genes and their genomes contain variable amounts of repetitive DNA. In mammals and plants, the majority of the genome is composed of repetitive DNA. Genes in eukaryotic genomes can be annotated using FINDER.


title: Genome

text: DNA sequences that carry the instructions to make proteins are referred to as coding sequences. The proportion of the genome occupied by coding sequences varies widely. A larger genome does not necessarily contain more genes, and the proportion of non-repetitive DNA decreases along with increasing genome size in complex eukaryotes.


title: Genome

text: Noncoding sequences include introns, sequences for non-coding RNAs, regulatory regions, and repetitive DNA. Noncoding sequences make up 98% of the human genome. There are two categories of repetitive DNA in the genome: tandem repeats and interspersed repeats.


title: Genome

text: Short, non-coding sequences that are repeated head-to-tail are called tandem repeats. Microsatellites consisting of 2-5 basepair repeats, while minisatellite repeats are 30-35 bp. Tandem repeats make up about 4% of the human genome and 9% of the fruit fly genome. Tandem repeats can be functional. For example, telomeres are composed of the tandem repeat TTAGGG in mammals, and they play an important role in protecting the ends of the chromosome.


title: Genome

text: In other cases, expansions in the number of tandem repeats in exons or introns can cause disease. For example, the human gene huntingtin (Htt) typically contains 6–29 tandem repeats of the nucleotides CAG (encoding a polyglutamine tract). An expansion to over 36 repeats results in Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disease. Twenty human disorders are known to result from similar tandem repeat expansions in various genes. The mechanism by which proteins with expanded polygulatamine tracts cause death of neurons is not fully understood. One possibility is that the proteins fail to fold properly and avoid degradation, instead accumulating in aggregates that also sequester important transcription factors, thereby altering gene expression.


title: Genome

text: Tandem repeats are usually caused by slippage during replication, unequal crossing-over and gene conversion.


title: Genome

text: Transposable elements (TEs) are sequences of DNA with a defined structure that are able to change their location in the genome. TEs are categorized as either as a mechanism that replicates by copy-and-paste or as a mechanism that can be excised from the genome and inserted at a new location. In the human genome, there are three important classes of TEs that make up more than 45% of the human DNA; these classes are The long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs), The interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs), and endogenous retroviruses. These elements have a big potential to modify the genetic control in a host organism.


title: Genome

text: The movement of TEs is a driving force of genome evolution in eukaryotes because their insertion can disrupt gene functions, homologous recombination between TEs can produce duplications, and TE can shuffle exons and regulatory sequences to new locations.


title: Genome

text: Retrotransposons are found mostly in eukaryotes but not found in prokaryotes and retrotransposons form a large portion of genomes of many eukaryotes. Retrotransposon is a transposable element that transpose through an RNA intermediate. Retrotransposons are composed of DNA, but are transcribed into RNA for transposition, then the RNA transcript is copied back to DNA formation with the help of a specific enzyme called reverse transcriptase. Retrotransposons that carry reverse transcriptase in their gene can trigger its own transposition but the genes that lack the reverse transcriptase must use reverse transcriptase synthesized by another retrotransposon. Retrotransposons can be transcribed into RNA, which are then duplicated at another site into the genome. Retrotransposons can be divided into long terminal repeats (LTRs) and non-long terminal repeats (Non-LTRs).


title: Genome

text: Long terminal repeats (LTRs) are derived from ancient retroviral infections, so they encode proteins related to retroviral proteins including gag (structural proteins of the virus), pol (reverse transcriptase and integrase), pro (protease), and in some cases env (envelope) genes. These genes are flanked by long repeats at both 5' and 3' ends. It has been reported that LTRs consist of the largest fraction in most plant genome and might account for the huge variation in genome size.


title: Genome

text: Non-long terminal repeats (Non-LTRs) are classified as long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs), short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs), and Penelope-like elements (PLEs). In "Dictyostelium discoideum", there is another DIRS-like elements belong to Non-LTRs. Non-LTRs are widely spread in eukaryotic genomes.


title: Genome

text: Long interspersed elements (LINEs) encode genes for reverse transcriptase and endonuclease, making them autonomous transposable elements. The human genome has around 500,000 LINEs, taking around 17% of the genome.


title: Genome

text: Short interspersed elements (SINEs) are usually less than 500 base pairs and are non-autonomous, so they rely on the proteins encoded by LINEs for transposition. The Alu element is the most common SINE found in primates. It is about 350 base pairs and occupies about 11% of the human genome with around 1,500,000 copies.


title: Genome

text: DNA transposons encode a transposase enzyme between inverted terminal repeats. When expressed, the transposase recognizes the terminal inverted repeats that flank the transposon and catalyzes its excision and reinsertion in a new site. This cut-and-paste mechanism typically reinserts transposons near their original location (within 100kb). DNA transposons are found in bacteria and make up 3% of the human genome and 12% of the genome of the roundworm "C. elegans".


title: Genome

text: Genome size is the total number of the DNA base pairs in one copy of a haploid genome. Genome size varies widely across species. Invertebrates have small genomes, this is also correlated to a small number of transposable elements. Fish and Amphibians have intermediate-size genomes, and birds have relatively small genomes but it has been suggested that birds lost a substantial portion of their genomes during the phase of transition to flight.  Before this loss, DNA methylation allows the adequate expansion of the genome.


title: Genome

text: In humans, the nuclear genome comprises approximately 3.1 billion nucleotides of DNA, divided into 24 linear molecules, the shortest 45 000 000 nucleotides in length and the longest 248 000 000 nucleotides, each contained in a different chromosome. There is no clear and consistent correlation between morphological complexity and genome size in either prokaryotes or lower eukaryotes. Genome size is largely a function of the expansion and contraction of repetitive DNA elements.


title: Genome

text: Since genomes are very complex, one research strategy is to reduce the number of genes in a genome to the bare minimum and still have the organism in question survive. There is experimental work being done on minimal genomes for single cell organisms as well as minimal genomes for multi-cellular organisms (see developmental biology). The work is both "in vivo" and "in silico".


title: Genome

text: There are many enormous differences in size in genomes, specially mentioned before in the multicellular eukaryotic genomes. Much of this is due to the differing abundances of transposable elements, which evolve by creating new copies of themselves in the chromosomes. Eukaryote genomes often contain many thousands of copies of these elements, most of which have acquired mutations that make them defective.


title: Genome

text: Here is a table of some significant or representative genomes. See #See also for lists of sequenced genomes.


title: Genome

text: All the cells of an organism originate from a single cell, so they are expected to have identical genomes; however, in some cases, differences arise. Both the process of copying DNA during cell division and exposure to environmental mutagens can result in mutations in somatic cells. In some cases, such mutations lead to cancer because they cause cells to divide more quickly and invade surrounding tissues. In certain lymphocytes in the human immune system, V(D)J recombination generates different genomic sequences such that each cell produces a unique antibody or T cell receptors.


title: Genome

text: During meiosis, diploid cells divide twice to produce haploid germ cells. During this process, recombination results in a reshuffling of the genetic material from homologous chromosomes so each gamete has a unique genome.


title: Genome

text: Genome-wide reprogramming in mouse primordial germ cells involves epigenetic imprint erasure leading to totipotency. Reprogramming is facilitated by active DNA demethylation, a process that entails the DNA base excision repair pathway. This pathway is employed in the erasure of CpG methylation (5mC) in primordial germ cells. The erasure of 5mC occurs via its conversion to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) driven by high levels of the ten-eleven dioxygenase enzymes TET1 and TET2.


title: Genome

text: Genomes are more than the sum of an organism's genes and have traits that may be measured and studied without reference to the details of any particular genes and their products. Researchers compare traits such as karyotype (chromosome number), genome size, gene order, codon usage bias, and GC-content to determine what mechanisms could have produced the great variety of genomes that exist today (for recent overviews, see Brown 2002; Saccone and Pesole 2003; Benfey and Protopapas 2004; Gibson and Muse 2004; Reese 2004; Gregory 2005).


title: Genome

text: Duplications play a major role in shaping the genome. Duplication may range from extension of short tandem repeats, to duplication of a cluster of genes, and all the way to duplication of entire chromosomes or even entire genomes. Such duplications are probably fundamental to the creation of genetic novelty.


title: Genome

text: Horizontal gene transfer is invoked to explain how there is often an extreme similarity between small portions of the genomes of two organisms that are otherwise very distantly related. Horizontal gene transfer seems to be common among many microbes. Also, eukaryotic cells seem to have experienced a transfer of some genetic material from their chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes to their nuclear chromosomes. Recent empirical data suggest an important role of viruses and sub-viral RNA-networks to represent a main driving role to generate genetic novelty and natural genome editing.


title: Genome

text: Michael Crichton's 1990 novel "Jurassic Park" and the subsequent film tell the story of a billionaire who creates a theme park of cloned dinosaurs on a remote island, with disastrous outcomes. A geneticist extracts dinosaur DNA from the blood of ancient mosquitoes and fills in the gaps with DNA from modern species to create several species of dinosaurs. A chaos theorist is asked to give his expert opinion on the safety of engineering an ecosystem with the dinosaurs, and he repeatedly warns that the outcomes of the project will be unpredictable and ultimately uncontrollable. These warnings about the perils of using genomic information are a major theme of the book.


title: Genome

text: The 1997 film "Gattaca" is set in a futurist society where genomes of children are engineered to contain the most ideal combination of their parents' traits, and metrics such as risk of heart disease and predicted life expectancy are documented for each person based on their genome. People conceived outside of the eugenics program, known as "In-Valids" suffer discrimination and are relegated to menial occupations. The protagonist of the film is an In-Valid who works to defy the supposed genetic odds and achieve his dream of working as a space navigator. The film warns against a future where genomic information fuels prejudice and extreme class differences between those who can and can't afford genetically engineered children.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: Wolf Hall is a British television serial first broadcast on BBC Two in January 2015. The six-part series is an adaptation of two of Hilary Mantel's novels, "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies", a fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More, followed by Cromwell's success in freeing the king of his marriage to Anne Boleyn. "Wolf Hall" was first broadcast in April 2015 in the United States on PBS and in Australia on BBC First. It was reported in 2022 that a second series, covering the final novel in the trilogy, was in pre-production, with Mark Rylance and director Peter Kosminsky returning.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: The series was a critical success and received eight nominations at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards and three nominations at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, winning for Best Miniseries or Television Film.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: On 23 August 2012, BBC Two announced several new commissions, one of which was "Wolf Hall". According to "The Guardian" £7 million was to be spent on the adaptation. BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow said it was "very fortunate to have the rights" to the two novels and called "Wolf Hall" "a great contemporary novel".


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: Peter Kosminsky, the director of the series, said: "This is a first for me. But it is an intensely political piece. It is about the politics of despotism, and how you function around an absolute ruler. I have a sense that Hilary Mantel wanted that immediacy. ... When I saw Peter Straughan's script, only a first draft, I couldn't believe what I was reading. It was the best draft I had ever seen. He had managed to distil 1,000 pages of the novels into six hours, using prose so sensitively. He's a theatre writer by trade."


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: The drama series features 102 characters and Kosminsky began casting the other parts in October 2013. Although originally set to film in Belgium, most of the filming took place on location at some of the finest British medieval and Tudor houses and buildings: Berkeley Castle, Gloucester Cathedral and Horton Court in Gloucestershire, Penshurst Place in Kent, Broughton Castle and Chastleton House in Oxfordshire, Barrington Court, Cothay Manor and Montacute House in Somerset, St Donat's Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, and Great Chalfield Manor and Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. The series was filmed from May to July 2014. The series, which was made in association with Masterpiece Entertainment and Playground Entertainment, consists of six episodes and was broadcast on BBC Two in the UK from 21 January 2015.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: "The Guardian" speculated that the BBC's hiring of Kosminsky with Straughan showed they wanted "a darker and grittier take on British history" than more fanciful programmes such as "The Tudors" or "The White Queen". Mantel called Straughan's scripts a "miracle of elegant compression and I believe with such a strong team the original material can only be enhanced".


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: Kosminsky's decision to film many of the interior scenes by candlelight led to the actors bumping into things, and fearing they might catch fire.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: "Wolf Hall" was filmed in two locations in Kent: Dover Castle doubled for the Tower of London, and the Long Gallery, Tapestry Room, and Queen Elizabeth Room at Penshurst Place were used as specific rooms in Whitehall (York Place), which was Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII's residence. The Long Gallery doubled as Anne Boleyn's chamber. Some scenes were filmed at Stanway House in Gloucestershire.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: The series' executive producer, Colin Callender, stated in February 2015 that he hoped that the BBC would commission an extension of the series based on the final novel in Mantel's trilogy, "The Mirror and the Light", which was published in 2020. Callender said that lead performers Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis were "eager" to return.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: Critics have been "almost unanimous" in their praise of the series, with particular reference to the attention to period detail, the faithful adaptation of the source novels, Kosminsky's direction, and the performances of the leading cast members, particularly Rylance as Cromwell and Foy as Boleyn. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a 98% rating based on 41 reviews with an average rating of 8.45/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Beautifully filmed and brilliantly acted, Wolf Hall masterfully brings Hilary Mantel's award-winning novels to life." Sam Wollaston in "The Guardian" called it "sumptuous, intelligent, event television." Will Dean in "The Independent" felt that it did not compare favourably with the stage adaptation of the book, yet he predicted that it would "secure a devoted following." James Walton in "The Daily Telegraph" gave the first episode five stars out of five, commenting: "it’s hard to see how this one could have been done much better." Mick Adam Noya from the television review show Channel Crossing called Wolf Hall "the best show of 2015".


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: A few dissenting voices found some flaws. "The Daily Telegraph" alleged that there was a substantial drop in ratings between the first and second episodes, despite all the following episodes holding high and consistent ratings. Simon Schama stated concerns about how the series depicted historical figures. Emily Nussbaum of "The New Yorker" cited "small weaknesses", but wrote "the show’s deliberately paced six hours turn out to be riveting, precisely because they are committed, without apology or, often, much explanation, to the esotericism of their subject matter." Sophie Gilbert of "The Atlantic" wrote, "Magnificent...a tour de force."


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: The lighting design, which used historically accurate natural light sources (such as candlelight for evening scenes) prompted criticism from viewers who felt parts of the series appeared too dark.


title: Wolf Hall (TV series)

text: For the 5th Critics' Choice Television Awards, the series received four nominations: Best Limited Series, Mark Rylance for Best Actor, Jonathan Pryce for Best Supporting Actor, and Claire Foy for Best Supporting Actress.


title: 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état

text: The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was the result of a CIA covert operation code-named PBSuccess. It deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. It installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala.


title: 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état

text: The Guatemalan Revolution began in 1944, after a popular uprising toppled the military dictatorship of Jorge Ubico. Juan José Arévalo was elected president in Guatemala's first democratic election. He introduced a minimum wage and near-universal suffrage, and turned Guatemala into a democracy. Arévalo was succeeded in 1951 by Árbenz, who instituted land reforms which granted property to landless peasants. The Guatemalan Revolution was disliked by the United States federal government, which was predisposed during the Cold War to see it as communist. This perception grew after Árbenz had been elected and formally legalized the communist Guatemalan Party of Labour. The United Fruit Company (UFC), whose highly profitable business had been affected by the end to exploitative labor practices in Guatemala, engaged in an influential lobbying campaign to persuade the U.S. to overthrow the Guatemalan government. U.S. President Harry Truman authorized Operation PBFortune to topple Árbenz in 1952; although the operation was quickly aborted it was a precursor to PBSuccess.


title: 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état

text: Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected U.S. president in 1952, promising to take a harder line against communism; the links that his staff members John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles had to the UFC also predisposed them to act against the Guatemalan government. Additionally, the U.S. federal government drew exaggerated conclusions about the extent of communist influence among Árbenz's advisers. Eisenhower authorized the CIA to carry out Operation PBSuccess in August 1953. The CIA armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men led by Carlos Castillo Armas. The coup was preceded by U.S. efforts to criticize and isolate Guatemala internationally. Castillo Armas' force invaded Guatemala on 18 June 1954, backed by a heavy campaign of psychological warfare. This included a radio station which broadcast anti-government propaganda and a version of military events favorable to the rebellion, claiming to be genuine news, as well as air bombings of Guatemala City and a naval blockade. The invasion force fared poorly militarily, and most of its offensives were defeated. However, psychological warfare and the fear of a U.S. invasion intimidated the Guatemalan army, which eventually refused to fight. Árbenz briefly and unsuccessfully attempted to arm civilians to resist the invasion, before resigning on 27 June. Castillo Armas became president ten days later, following negotiations in San Salvador.