title: History of Afghanistan

text: Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), headed by Hamid Gul at the time, was interested in a trans-national Islamic revolution which would cover Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. For this purpose the ISI masterminded an attack on Jalalabad in March 1989, for the Mujahideen to establish their own government in Afghanistan, but this failed in three months.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: With the crumbling of the Najibullah regime early in 1992, Afghanistan fell into further disarray and civil war. A U.N.-supported attempt to have the mujahideen parties and armies form a coalition government shattered. Mujahideen did not abide by the mutual pledges and Ahmad Shah Masood forces because of his proximity to Kabul captured the capital before Mujahideen Govt was established. So the elected prime minister and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, started war on his president and Massod force entrenched in Kabul. This ignited civil war, because the other mujahideen parties wouldn't settle for Hekmatyar ruling alone or sharing actual power with him. Within weeks, the still frail unity of the other mujahideen forces also evaporated, and six militias were fighting each other in and around Kabul.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: Sibghatuallah Mojaddedi was elected as Afghanistan's elected interim president for two months and then professor Burhanuddin Rabbani a well known Kabul university professor and the leader of Jamiat-e-Islami party of Mujahiddin who fought against Russians during the occupation was chosen by all of the Jahadi leaders except Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Professor Rabbani reigned as the official and elected president of Afghanistan by Shurai Mujahiddin Peshawer (Peshawer Mujahiddin Council) from 1992 until 2001 when he officially handed over the presidency post to Hamid Karzai the next US appointed interim president. During Rabbani's presidency some parts of the country including a few provinces in the north such as Mazar e-Sharif, Jawzjan, Faryab, Shuburghan and some parts of Baghlan provinces were ruled by general Abdul Rashid Dostum.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: During Rabbani's first five years illegal term before the emergence of the Taliban, the eastern and western provinces and some of the northern provinces such as Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, the main parts of Baghlan Province, and some parts of Kandahar and other southern provinces were under the control of the central government while the other parts of southern provinces did not obey him because of his Tajik ethnicity. During the 9 year presidency of Burhanuddin Rabani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was directed, funded and supplied by the Pakistani army. Afghanistan analyst Amin Saikal concludes in his book "Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival":


title: History of Afghanistan

text: There was no time for the interim government to create working government departments, police units or a system of justice and accountability. Saudi Arabia and Iran also armed and directed Afghan militias. A publication by the George Washington University describes:


title: History of Afghanistan

text: Meanwhile, the southern city of Kandahar was a centre of lawlessness, crime and atrocities fuelled by complex Pashtun tribal rivalries. In 1994, the Taliban (a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan) also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force, reportedly in opposition to the tyranny of the local governor. Mullah Omar started his movement with fewer than 50 armed madrassah students in his hometown of Kandahar. As Gulbuddin Hekmatyar remained unsuccessful in conquering Kabul, Pakistan started supporting the Taliban. Many analysts like Amin Saikal describe the Taliban as developing into a proxy force for Pakistan's regional interests. In 1994 the Taliban took power in several provinces in southern and central Afghanistan.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In 1995 the Hezb-i Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Iranian-backed Hezb-i Wahdat as well as Rashid Dostum's Junbish forces were defeated militarily in the capital Kabul by forces of the interim government under Massoud who subsequently tried to initiate a nationwide political process with the goal of national consolidation and democratic elections, also inviting the Taliban to join the process. The Taliban declined.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: The Taliban started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government under Ahmad Shah Massoud. Amnesty International, referring to the Taliban offensive, wrote in a 1995 report:


title: History of Afghanistan

text: On September 26, 1996, as the Taliban, with military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia, prepared for another major offensive, Massoud ordered a full retreat from Kabul. The Taliban seized Kabul on September 27, 1996, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. They imposed on the parts of Afghanistan under their control their political and judicial interpretation of Islam, issuing edicts forbidding women from working outside the home, attending school or leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said:


title: History of Afghanistan

text: After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on September 27, 1996, Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rashid Dostum, two former enemies, created the United Front (Northern Alliance) against the Taliban, who were preparing offensives against the remaining areas under the control of Massoud and Dostum. The United Front included beside the dominantly Tajik forces of Massoud and the Uzbek forces of Dostum, Hazara factions and Pashtun forces under the leadership of commanders such as Abdul Haq, Haji Abdul Qadir, Qari Baba or diplomat Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai. From the Taliban conquest in 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: According to a 55-page report by the United Nations, the Taliban, while trying to consolidate control over northern and western Afghanistan, committed systematic massacres against civilians. UN officials stated that there had been "15 massacres" between 1996 and 2001. They also said, that "[t]hese have been highly systematic and they all lead back to the [Taliban] Ministry of Defense or to Mullah Omar himself." The Taliban especially targeted people of Shia religious or Hazara ethnic background. Upon taking Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998, about 4,000 civilians were executed by the Taliban and many more reported torture. Among those killed in Mazari Sharif were several Iranian diplomats. Others were kidnapped by the Taliban, touching off a hostage crisis that nearly escalated to a full-scale war, with 150,000 Iranian soldiers massed on the Afghan border at one time. It was later admitted that the diplomats were killed by the Taliban, and their bodies were returned to Iran.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: The documents also reveal the role of Arab and Pakistani support troops in these killings. Osama Bin Laden's so-called 055 Brigade was responsible for mass-killings of Afghan civilians.<ref name="Ahmed Rashid/The Telegraph"></ref> The report by the United Nations quotes eyewitnesses in many villages describing Arab fighters carrying long knives used for slitting throats and skinning people.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf – then as Chief of Army Staff – was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and Bin Laden against the forces of Massoud. In total there were believed to be 28,000 Pakistani nationals fighting inside Afghanistan. 20,000 were regular Pakistani soldiers either from the Frontier Corps or army and an estimated 8,000 were militants recruited in madrassas filling regular Taliban ranks. The estimated 25,000 Taliban regular force thus comprised more than 8,000 Pakistani nationals. A 1998 document by the U.S. State Department confirms that "20–40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are Pakistani." The document further states that the parents of those Pakistani nationals "know nothing regarding their child's military involvement with the Taliban until their bodies are brought back to Pakistan." A further 3,000 fighter of the regular Taliban army were Arab and Central Asian militants. From 1996 to 2001 the Al Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became a state within the Taliban state. Bin Laden sent Arab recruits to join the fight against the United Front. Of roughly 45,000 Pakistani, Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers fighting against the forces of Massoud only 14,000 were Afghan.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: According to Human Rights Watch in 1997 Taliban soldiers were summarily executed in and around Mazar-i Sharif by Dostum's Junbish forces. Dostum was defeated by the Taliban in 1998 with the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif. Massoud remained the only leader of the United Front in Afghanistan.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In the areas under his control Ahmad Shah Massoud set up democratic institutions and signed the Women's Rights Charter. Human Rights Watch cites no human rights crimes for the forces under direct control of Massoud for the period from October 1996 until the assassination of Massoud in September 2001. As a consequence many civilians fled to the area of Ahmad Shah Massoud. National Geographic concluded in its documentary "Inside the Taliban":


title: History of Afghanistan

text: The Taliban repeatedly offered Massoud a position of power to make him stop his resistance. Massoud declined for he did not fight to obtain a position of power. He said in one interview:


title: History of Afghanistan

text: Massoud wanted to convince the Taliban to join a political process leading towards democratic elections in a foreseeable future. Massoud stated that:


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In early 2001 Massoud employed a new strategy of local military pressure and global political appeals. Resentment was increasingly gathering against Taliban rule from the bottom of Afghan society including the Pashtun areas. Massoud publicized their cause "popular consensus, general elections and democracy" worldwide. At the same time he was very wary not to revive the failed Kabul government of the early 1990s. Already in 1999 he started the training of police forces which he trained specifically to keep order and protect the civilian population in case the United Front would be successful.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In early 2001 Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan. He stated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: On 9 September 2001, Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated by two Arab suicide attackers inside Afghanistan. Two days later about 3,000 people became victims of the September 11 attacks in the United States, when Afghan-based Al-Qaeda suicide bombers hijacked planes and flew them into four targets in the Northeastern United States. Then US President George W. Bush accused Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the faces behind the attacks. When the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden to US authorities and to disband al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched in which teams of American and British special forces worked with commanders of the United Front (Northern Alliance) against the Taliban. At the same time the US-led forces were bombing Taliban and al-Qaeda targets everywhere inside Afghanistan with cruise missiles. These actions led to the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north followed by all the other cities, as the Taliban and al-Qaeda crossed over the porous Durand Line border into Pakistan. In December 2001, after the Taliban government was toppled and the new Afghan government under Hamid Karzai was formed, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was established by the UN Security Council to help assist the Karzai administration and provide basic security to the Afghan people. The majority of Afghans supported the American invasion of their country.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: While the Taliban began regrouping inside Pakistan, the rebuilding of war-torn Afghanistan kicked off in 2002 (see also War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)). The Afghan nation was able to build democratic structures over the years by the creation of an emergency loya jirga to set up the modern Afghan government, and some progress was made in key areas such as governance, economy, health, education, transport, and agriculture. NATO had been training the Afghan armed forces as well its national police. ISAF and Afghan troops led many offensives against the Taliban but failed to fully defeat them. By 2009, a Taliban-led shadow government began to form in many parts of the country complete with their own version of mediation court. After U.S. President Barack Obama announced the deployment of another 30,000 soldiers in 2010 for a period of two years, Der Spiegel published images of the US soldiers who killed unarmed Afghan civilians.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In 2009, the United States resettled 328 refugees from Afghanistan. Over five million Afghan refugees were repatriated in the last decade, including many who were forcefully deported from NATO countries. This large return of Afghans may have helped the nation's economy but the country still remains one of the poorest in the world due to the decades of war, lack of foreign investment, ongoing government corruption and the Pakistani-backed Taliban insurgency. The United States also accuses neighboring Iran of providing small level of support to the Taliban insurgents. According to a report by the United Nations, the Taliban and other militants were responsible for 76% of civilian casualties in 2009, 75% in 2010 and 80% in 2011.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In October 2008 U.S. Defense Secretary Gates had asserted that a political settlement with the Taliban was the endgame for the Afghanistan war. "There has to be ultimately – and I'll underscore ultimately – reconciliation as part of a political outcome to this," Gates stated. By 2010 peace efforts began. In early January, Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy to discuss peace terms. Regional commanders on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, and it took place in Dubai on January 8. It was the first such meeting between the UN and senior members of the Taliban. On 26 January 2010, at a major conference in London which brought together some 70 countries and organizations, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he intends to reach out to the Taliban leadership (including Mullah Omar, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar). Supported by NATO, Karzai called on the group's leadership to take part in a loya jirga meeting to initiate peace talks. These steps have resulted in an intensification of bombings, assassinations and ambushes. Some Afghan groups (including the former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh and opposition leader Dr. Abdullah Abdullah) believe that Karzai plans to appease the insurgents' senior leadership at the cost of the democratic constitution, the democratic process and progress in the field of human rights especially women's rights. Dr. Abdullah stated:


title: History of Afghanistan

text: Afghan President Hamid Karzai told world leaders during the London conference that he intends to reach out to the top echelons of the Taliban within a few weeks with a peace initiative. Karzai set the framework for dialogue with Taliban leaders when he called on the group's leadership to take part in a "loya jirga" – or large assembly of elders – to initiate peace talks. Karzai also asked for creation of a new peacemaking organization, to be called the National Council for Peace, Reconciliation and Reintegration. Karzai's top adviser on the reconciliation process with the insurgents said that the country must learn to forgive the Taliban. In March 2010, the Karzai government held preliminary talks with Hezb-i-Islami, who presented a plan which included the withdrawal of all foreign troops by the end of 2010. The Taliban declined to participate, saying "The Islamic Emirate has a clear position. We have said this many, many times. There will be no talks when there are foreign troops on Afghanistan's soil killing innocent Afghans on daily basis." In June 2010 the Afghan Peace Jirga 2010 took place. In September 2010 General David Petraeus commented on the progress of peace talks to date, stating, "The prospect for reconciliation with senior Taliban leaders certainly looms out there...and there have been approaches at (a) very senior level that hold some promise."


title: History of Afghanistan

text: After the May 2011 death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, many prominent Afghan figures began being assassinated, including Mohammed Daud Daud, Ahmad Wali Karzai, Jan Mohammad Khan, Ghulam Haider Hamidi, Burhanuddin Rabbani and others. Also in the same year, the Pakistani-Afghan border skirmishes intensified and many large scale attacks by the Pakistani-based Haqqani network took place across Afghanistan. This led to the United States warning Pakistan of a possible military action against the Haqqanis in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The U.S. blamed Pakistan's government, mainly Pakistani Army and its ISI spy network as the masterminds behind all of this.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, told Radio Pakistan that "The attack that took place in Kabul a few days ago, that was the work of the Haqqani network. There is evidence linking the Haqqani Network to the Pakistan government. This is something that must stop." Other top U.S. officials such as Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta made similar statements. On October 16, 2011, "Operation Knife Edge" was launched by NATO and Afghan forces against the Haqqani network in south-eastern Afghanistan. Afghan Defense Minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, explained that the operation will "help eliminate the insurgents before they struck in areas along the troubled frontier". In November 2011, NATO forces attacked Pakistani soldiers in the Pakistan border region. In 2014, Ashraf Ghani was elected to be the president of Afghanistan.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: In 2021, the United States forces and allies withdrew from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to intensify their insurgency. On 15 August 2021, as the Taliban entered Kabul, President Ghani fled to Tajikistan, and the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed. Anti-Taliban forces formed the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan and launched an uprising from the Panjshir Valley.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: On 7 September 2021 Taliban announced an interim government headed by Mohammad Hassan Akhund, although the government remained unrecognized internationally.


title: History of Afghanistan

text: Western countries have suspended most humanitarian aid to Afghanistan following the Taliban's takeover of the country in August 2021. The United States has frozen about $9 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank, blocking the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars held in U.S. bank accounts. In October 2021, more than half of Afghanistan's 39 million people faced an acute food shortage. On 11 November 2021, the "Human Rights Watch" reported that Afghanistan is facing widespread famine due to collapsed economy and broken banking system. The UN World Food Program has also issued multiple warnings of worsening food insecurity.


title: Josh Segarra

text: Josh Segarra (born June 3, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series "The Electric Company", "Sirens", and "Arrow" as well as for originating the role of Emilio Estefan in the musical "On Your Feet!". His other television credits include "Chicago P.D.", "The Other Two", and "Orange Is the New Black", while his other theatrical credits include the musicals "Lysistrata Jones" and "Dogfight".


title: Josh Segarra

text: Segarra was born on June 3, 1986, in Longwood, Florida. He is of Puerto Rican descent, and is fluent in Spanish. He learned to sing in his Pentecostal church but aspired to be a professional wrestler. Segarra is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.


title: Josh Segarra

text: From 2009 to 2011, Segarra portrayed a main role of Hector Ruiz on the PBS Kids Go television series "The Electric Company". He then originated the role of Mick in the musical "Lysistrata Jones". In May 2012, Segarra was announced as a cast member for the Off-Broadway world premiere of "Dogfight", a musical adaptation of the film of the same name, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and a book by Peter Duchan. The musical opened at the Tony Kiser Theater at Second Stage Theater on July 16, 2012.


title: Josh Segarra

text: Two years later, he recurred during the first season of the comedy television series "Sirens", after which he was promoted to a series regular during its second season. Segarra then began a recurring role on the NBC police procedural drama "Chicago P.D." He also appeared in the 2015 comedy film "Trainwreck". Segarra originated the role of Emilio Estefan in the musical "On Your Feet!", which opened at the Marquis Theater on Broadway on November 5, 2015. His final performance took place on July 10, 2016. Following his final appearance on "Chicago P.D." in May 2016, Segarra was cast as a series regular on the CW superhero television series "Arrow" for its fifth season. He portrayed the series' adaptation of the comic book character Adrian Chase. He then returned in a guest starring capacity during the series' sixth and eighth seasons.


title: Josh Segarra

text: Since January 2019, Segarra has been a recurring cast member on "The Other Two", a comedy television series on Comedy Central. In December, he recurred on "The Moodys" as Marco, a "commodities broker with exquisite phone skills." He also starred in the Netflix comedy series "AJ and the Queen", which premiered on January 10, 2020. That same year, Segarra appeared as a special agent during the third season of the crime drama series "FBI" and starred as a pastor in the musical film "Christmas on the square". He is set to portray Teddy Walker in the upcoming NBC comedy pilot "Night School", which is based on the 2018 film of the same name. In July 2021, he was cast in the Disney+ superhero series "".


title: Josh Segarra

text: Segarra married longtime girlfriend Brace Rice on October 17, 2014. The couple welcomed their first child, a son, on September 30, 2016, which was followed by the birth of their second child, a son, on January 8, 2020. He and his wife are both sports fans.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson (October 10, 1995 – January 10, 2013) was discovered inside a vertical rolled-up mat in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, United States, where he was a student. After a preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that Johnson's death was accidental, his family had a private pathologist conduct a second autopsy which concluded that he died from blunt force trauma. On October 31, 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that it would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against 38 individuals, stating that his death was a murder and that the respondents were participants in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide, which they claimed involved two sons of an FBI agent. That lawsuit was subsequently withdrawn. Georgia Judge Richard Porter ordered the Johnsons and their attorney to pay more than $292,000 in legal fees to the defendants, accusing them of fabricating evidence to support their claims.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson was discovered in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, found headfirst in the center of a vertical rolled-up wrestling mat. The body was discovered by fellow students who had climbed up to the top of a cluster of mats, each of which stood nearly tall and wide. An autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) stated that Johnson had died from positional asphyxia, and the case was ruled an accidental death by the Lowndes County investigators.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Authorities hypothesized that Johnson had fallen into the mat while looking for a shoe and died after being unable to get out. Three students at Lowndes High School told investigators that it was common for some students to store their shoes behind or under the rolled up mats, Johnson was not wearing shoes when he was found. A student at the school said that he shared a pair of Adidas shoes with Johnson, and that after gym class Johnson would always "go to the mats, jump up and toss the shoes inside the middle of the hole."


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Lt. Stryde Jones, who headed up the investigation for the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office, stated: "We never had credible information that indicated this was anything other than an accident." Johnson's family questioned this hypothesis. Unsatisfied with the result of the investigation, they hired an independent autopsy conducted by William R. Anderson with Forensic Dimensions in Heathrow, Florida, on June 15, 2013. Anderson claimed that his findings indicated traces of blunt force trauma to the right neck and soft tissues, and suggested the death was not accidental.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: After the opinion of the private pathologist was released, Johnson's family stated that they believed Johnson had been murdered. The family retained the services of attorney Benjamin Crump. On October 31, 2013, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. Crump's application to practice law in Georgia representing Johnson's parents was not ruled on, and he withdrew from representing the family and is no longer participating in the case.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Johnson's family filed a legal action to open a coroner's inquest into his death. When the judge in that case delayed a decision, pending the outcome of the U.S. Attorney's review, the family demanded that the governor of Georgia immediately authorize the inquiry instead. The family, together with the NAACP and other civil rights activists, then held a rally at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. The governor's office released a statement indicating that they would await the report of the U.S. Attorney.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: The independent autopsy found that some time after Johnson's body was recovered from the mat and had passed through a funeral home, it had been stuffed with newspapers. The funeral home that processed the body following the FBI's autopsy stated that they never received Johnson's internal organs from the coroner; the organs were said to have been "destroyed through natural process" and "discarded by the prosector before the body was sent back to Valdosta," according to the funeral home owner. That left a void, which the funeral home filled. The funeral home owner stated that it is standard practice to fill a void in this fashion, and that cotton or sawdust may also be employed for this purpose. Johnson's family filed a complaint with a regulatory body against the funeral home operator.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: A subsequent investigation by the Georgia Secretary of State's office found that the funeral home did not follow "best practice" and that other material was "more acceptable than newspaper." Nonetheless, the investigation cleared the funeral home of any wrongdoing. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State said that the investigation found that the funeral home "didn't violate any rules." The Johnson family subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against the funeral home, seeking monetary damages.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Johnson's family requested that his body be exhumed for a second time and was granted permission by Valdosta city officials. On June 22, 2018, Johnson's body was exhumed.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: In November 2013, 290 hours of surveillance tape from 35 cameras that covered the gym area were released to CNN following a court request. A forensic analyst enlisted by CNN found that tapes from two cameras are missing an hour and five minutes of footage, while another set was missing two hours and ten minutes of footage. Some of the apparent lapses in coverage were found to result from camera systems that were not synchronized with one another. Time stamps between some separate camera systems differed by as much as twenty minutes for the same time period, giving the impression of a gap for portions of the footage where no gap existed. Other missing footage was the result of the camera's motion-activated function not being triggered. Camera systems were motion-activated, using a change in light pixels to turn recordings on and off. The area where Johnson's body was discovered, where the gym mats were stored, was outside the range of all of the surveillance cameras.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Attorneys for the Johnson family expressed fears that the camera footage was edited as part of a cover-up. However, analysis of the camera systems by the "Valdosta Daily Times" purported to explain the anomalies, casting doubt on the theory of a cover-up. The president of the Valdosta-Lowndes County chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the former lead investigator for that chapter have stated that they believe the attorneys for the Johnsons have "not been entirely truthful in their statements" and that there was no cover-up in this case.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Johnson's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lowndes County Board of Education, its superintendent and the principal of Lowndes High School. The suit alleged that Johnson "was violently assaulted, severely injured, suffered great physical pain and mental anguish, and subjected to insult and loss of life" on January 10, 2013. While the lawsuit did not name the person or persons allegedly involved in the January 10 event, nor identify the race of alleged perpetrators, it implied a race-based dimension to the hypothetical assault. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were negligent and violated Johnson's constitutional right to equal protection based on race. It alleged that the defendants ignored reports that, previously, Johnson had been repeatedly attacked and harassed by a white student. It alleged that Johnson was attacked on a bus trip 14 months prior to his death. The lawsuit further alleged that another student, Brian Bell, "had a history of provoking and attacking" Johnson at school, stating that the provocations took place "in the presence of the coaching staff and employees" after his mother complained about previous attacks. The suit also alleged that school officials failed to "properly monitor the activities of students throughout all areas" of the campus and to "maintain a properly functioning video surveillance system."


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: In August 2014, a $5 million lawsuit against "Ebony" magazine was filed, after the magazine published a series of articles naming two students as possible suspects in Johnson's death. The magazine used pseudonyms but was otherwise accurate in descriptions of the boys, including the fact that their father was an FBI agent. The article used as a source an anonymous email to the sheriff's office. In their lawsuit, the parents of the accused boys assert that their sons were not involved in the death, are not considered suspects, and have been harassed as a result of the publication.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: In January 2015, Johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of DeKalb County against 38 individuals. Respondents include three of Johnson's classmates (two or three respondents are unnamed) and local, state, and federal officials: the school superintendent of Lowndes County, the Valdosta-Lowndes crime lab, the police chief of Valdosta, many sheriff's deputies, the city of Valdosta, the state medical examiner, the GBI and five of its agents, and one FBI agent. The lawsuit alleged that the FBI agent ordered his two sons and a classmate to attack Johnson, that his death was a murder, and that the respondents engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the homicide. Jim Elliott, the Lowndes County Attorney, stated that the allegations were "unfounded" and "baseless" and that any response would be made in court. All local Superior Court judges recused themselves from presiding over the case, preventing the lawsuit from being filed and heard in Lowndes County, citing their close proximity to the accused.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: Shortly before the lawsuit was filed, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore said in a statement that a federal investigation was still open and that "the investigation has proven more complicated and taken longer than originally anticipated." After Moore resigned in 2015, the case was transferred to the Northern District of Ohio under U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach. Shortly after receiving the case, Dettlebach also resigned. Despite these resignations, the Department of Justice investigation continued.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: In November 2015, the Department of Justice filed a motion in the civil case to intervene and stay the case. The U.S. Attorney said allowing evidence discovery in the civil suit to continue would have a "chilling effect" on the federal investigation, which had expanded into investigating possible obstruction and grand jury witness tampering. After the Justice Department's motion was denied, Johnson's parents dismissed their own wrongful death lawsuit, saying that they hoped to refile it after the conclusion of the federal investigation. They were subsequently sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and $1,000,000 in defamation damages.


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: On June 20, 2016, the Department of Justice announced that they would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death, stating, "After extensive investigation into this tragic event, federal investigators determined that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson's civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime." On August 10, 2017, Georgia Judge Richard Porter ruled that Johnson's family and their attorney had to pay more than $292,000 in legal fees to the dozens of respondents in their civil suit, writing "testimony shows that they had no evidence to support their claims that the [brothers] killed Johnson or that any of the other defendants engaged in a conspiracy to conceal the cause or manner of Johnson's death."


title: Death of Kendrick Johnson

text: On March 10, 2021, the case was officially reopened. However, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk stated that he would not be claiming there was something wrong with the original investigation or that the original investigation's conclusion of an accidental death was wrong. The sheriff also stated he does not consider the case to be a homicide. He further stated that two brothers, named in previous legal actions by the Johnsons, are not suspects. In January 2022, the second investigation was closed with no charges filed.


title: Death mask

text: A death mask is a likeness (typically in wax or plaster cast) of a person's face after their death, usually made by taking a cast or impression from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It is sometimes possible to identify portraits that have been painted from death masks because of the characteristic slight distortions of the features caused by the weight of the plaster during the making of the mould.


title: Death mask

text: The main purpose of the death mask from the Middle Ages until the 19th century was to serve as a model for sculptors in creating statues and busts of the deceased person. Not until the 1800s did such masks become valued for themselves.


title: Death mask

text: In other cultures a death mask may be a funeral mask, an image placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites, and normally buried with them. The best known of these are the masks used in ancient Egypt as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamun's mask, and those from Mycenaean Greece such as the Mask of Agamemnon.


title: Death mask

text: In some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals; the coffin portrait was an alternative. Mourning portraits were also painted, showing the subject lying in repose. During the 18th and 19th centuries masks were also used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was later replaced by post-mortem photography.


title: Death mask

text: In the cases of people whose faces were damaged by their death, it was common to take casts of their hands. An example of this occurred in the case of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Canadian statesman whose face was shattered by the bullet which was used to assassinate him in 1868.


title: Death mask

text: When taken from a living subject, such a cast is called a life mask. Proponents of phrenology used both death masks and life masks for pseudoscientific purposes.


title: Death mask

text: Masks of deceased people are part of traditions in many countries. The most important process of the funeral ceremony in ancient Egypt was the mummification of the body, which, after prayers and consecration, was put into a sarcophagus enameled and decorated with gold and gems. A special element of the rite was a sculpted mask, put on the face of the deceased. This mask was believed to strengthen the spirit of the mummy and guard the soul from evil spirits on its way to the afterworld. The best known mask is Tutankhamun's mask. Made of gold and gems, the mask conveys the highly stylized features of the ancient ruler. Such masks were not, however, made from casts of the features; rather, the mummification process itself preserved the features of the deceased.


title: Death mask

text: In 1876 the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered in Mycenae six graves, which he was confident belonged to kings and ancient Greek heroes—Agamemnon, Cassandra, Evrimdon and their associates. To his surprise, the skulls were covered with gold masks. It is now thought most unlikely that the masks actually belonged to Agamemnon and other heroes of the Homeric epics; in fact they are several centuries older.


title: Death mask

text: The lifelike character of Roman portrait sculptures has been attributed to the earlier Roman use of wax to preserve the features of deceased family members (the so-called "imagines maiorum"). The wax masks were subsequently reproduced in more durable stone.


title: Death mask

text: The use of masks in the ancestor cult is also attested in Etruria. Excavations of tombs in the area of the ancient city of Clusium (modern Chiusi, Tuscany) have yielded a number of sheet-bronze masks dating from the Etruscan late orientalizing period. In the 19th century it was thought that they were related to the Mycenaean examples, but whether they served as actual death masks cannot be proven. The most credited hypothesis holds that they were originally fixed to cinerary urns, to give them a human appearance. In Orientalising Clusium, the anthropomorphization of urns was a prevalent phenomenon that was strongly rooted in local religious beliefs.


title: Death mask

text: The Roman élites used during the funerals "death masks" which were in fact casts made during life. These masks were displayed, after one's death in his family's atrium as a sign of social and political prominence. This usage was already established by the 2nd century BC, and continued to be used into the 4th and perhaps as late as the 6th century AD.


title: Death mask

text: In the late Middle Ages, the masks were not interred with the deceased. Instead, they were used in funeral ceremonies and were later kept in libraries, museums, and universities. Death masks were taken not only of deceased royalty and nobility (Henry VIII, Sforza), but also of eminent people: composers, dramaturges, military and political leaders, philosophers, poets, and scientists, such as Dante Alighieri, Ludwig van Beethoven, Napoleon Bonaparte (whose death mask was taken on the island of Saint Helena), Filippo Brunelleschi, Frédéric Chopin, Oliver Cromwell (whose death mask is preserved at Warwick Castle), Joseph Haydn, John Keats, Franz Liszt, Blaise Pascal, Nikola Tesla (commissioned by his friend Hugo Gernsback and now displayed in the Nikola Tesla Museum), Torquato Tasso, and Voltaire. As in ancient Rome, death masks were often subsequently used in making marble sculpture portraits, busts, or engravings of the deceased.


title: Death mask

text: In Russia, the death mask tradition dates back to the times of Peter the Great, whose death mask was taken by Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Also well known are the death masks of Nicholas I, and Alexander I. Stalin's death mask is on display at the Stalin Museum in Gori, Georgia.


title: Death mask

text: One of the first real Ukrainian death masks was that of the poet Taras Shevchenko, taken by Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg in St. Petersburg, Russia.


title: Death mask

text: In early spring of 1860 and shortly before his death in April 1865, two life masks were created of President Abraham Lincoln.


title: Death mask

text: Death masks were increasingly used by scientists from the late 18th century onwards to record variations in human physiognomy. The life mask was also increasingly common at this time, taken from living people. Anthropologists used such masks to study physiognomic features in famous people and notorious criminals.


title: Death mask

text: Before the widespread availability of photography, the facial features of unidentified bodies were sometimes preserved by creating death masks so that relatives of the deceased could recognize them if they were seeking a missing person.


title: Death mask

text: One mask, known as "L'Inconnue de la Seine", recorded the face of an unidentified young girl who, around the age of 16, according to one man's story, had been found drowned in the Seine River at Paris, France around the late 1880s. A morgue worker made a cast of her face, saying "Her beauty was breathtaking, and showed few signs of distress at the time of passing. So bewitching that I knew beauty as such must be preserved." The cast was also compared to "Mona Lisa", and other famous paintings and sculptures. Copies of the mask were fashionable in Parisian Bohemian society, and the face of Resusci Anne, the world's first CPR training mannequin, introduced in 1960, was modeled after the mask.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell coined the term in their essay "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971). The hedonic treadmill viewpoint suggests that wealth does not increase the level of happiness.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Hedonic adaptation is a process or mechanism that reduces the affective impact of emotional events. Generally, hedonic adaptation involves a happiness "set point", whereby humans generally maintain a constant level of happiness throughout their lives, despite events that occur in their environment. The process of hedonic adaptation is often conceptualized as a treadmill, since no matter how hard one tries to gain an increase in happiness, one will remain in the same place.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Hedonic adaptation can occur in a variety of ways. Generally, the process involves cognitive changes, such as shifting values, goals, attention and interpretation of a situation. Further, neurochemical processes desensitize overstimulated hedonic pathways in the brain, which possibly prevents persistently high levels of intense positive or negative feelings. The process of adaptation can also occur through the tendency of humans to construct elaborate rationales for considering themselves deprived through a process social theorist Gregg Easterbrook calls "abundance denial".


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: "Hedonic treadmill" is a term coined by Brickman and Campbell in their article, "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971), describing the tendency of people to keep a fairly stable baseline level of happiness despite external events and fluctuations in demographic circumstances. The idea of relative happiness had been around for decades when in 1978 Brickman, et al., began to approach hedonic pleasure within the framework of Helson's adaptation level theory, which holds that perception of stimulation is dependent upon comparison of former stimulations. The hedonic treadmill functions similarly to most adaptations that serve to protect and enhance perception. In the case of hedonics, the sensitization or desensitization to circumstances or environment can redirect motivation. This reorientation functions to protect against complacency, but also to accept unchangeable circumstances, and redirect efforts towards more effective goals. Frederick and Lowenstein classify three types of processes in hedonic adaptation: shifting adaptation levels, desensitization, and sensitization. Shifting adaptation levels occurs when a person experiences a shift in what is perceived as a "neutral" stimulus, but maintains sensitivity to stimulus differences. For example, if Sam gets a raise he will initially be happier, and then habituate to the larger salary and return to his happiness set point. But he will still be pleased when he gets a holiday bonus. Desensitization decreases sensitivity in general, which reduces sensitivity to change. Those who have lived in war zones for extended periods of time may become desensitized to the destruction that happens on a daily basis, and be less affected by the occurrence of serious injuries or losses that may once have been shocking and upsetting. Sensitization is an increase of hedonic response from continuous exposure, such as the increased pleasure and selectivity of connoisseurs for wine, or food.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman were among the first to investigate the hedonic treadmill in their 1978 study, "Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?". Lottery winners and paraplegics were compared to a control group and as predicted, comparison (with past experiences and current communities) and habituation (to new circumstances) affected levels of happiness such that after the initial impact of the extremely positive or negative events, happiness levels typically went back to the average levels. This interview-based study, while not longitudinal, was the beginning of a now large body of work exploring the relativity of happiness.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Brickman and Campbell originally implied that everyone returns to the same neutral set point after a significantly emotional life event. In the literature review, "Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill, Revising the Adaptation Theory of Well-Being" (2006), Diener, Lucas, and Scollon concluded that people are not hedonically neutral, and that individuals have different set points which are at least partially heritable. They also concluded that individuals may have more than one happiness set point, such as a life satisfaction set point and a subjective well-being set point, and that because of this, one's level of happiness is not just one given set point but can vary within a given range. Diener and colleagues point to longitudinal and cross-sectional research to argue that happiness set point can change, and lastly that individuals vary in the rate and extent of adaptation they exhibit to change in circumstance.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: In a longitudinal study conducted by Mancini, Bonnano, and Clark, people showed individual differences in how they responded to significant life events, such as marriage, divorce and widowhood. They recognized that some individuals do experience substantial changes to their hedonic set point over time, though most others do not, and argue that happiness set point can be relatively stable throughout the course of an individual's life, but the life satisfaction and subjective well-being set points are more variable.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Similarly, the longitudinal study conducted by Fujita and Diener (2005) described the life satisfaction set point as a "soft baseline". This means that for most people, this baseline is similar to their happiness baseline. Typically, life satisfaction will hover around a set point for the majority of their lives and not change dramatically. However, for about a quarter of the population this set point is not stable, and does indeed move in response to a major life event.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Other longitudinal data has shown that subjective well-being set points do change over time, and that adaptation is not necessarily inevitable. In his archival data analysis, Lucas found evidence that it is possible for someone's subjective well-being set point to change drastically, such as in the case of individuals who acquire a severe, long term disability. However, as Diener, Lucas, and Scollon point out, the amount of fluctuation a person experiences around their set point is largely dependent on the individual's ability to adapt.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: After following over a thousand sets of twins for 10 years, Lykken and Tellegen (1996) concluded that almost 50% of our happiness levels are determined by genetics. Headey and Wearing (1989) suggested that our position on the spectrum of the stable personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience) accounts for how we experience and perceive life events, and indirectly contributes to our happiness levels. Research on happiness has spanned decades and crossed cultures in order to test the true limits of our hedonic set point.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: In large panel studies, divorce, death of a spouse, unemployment, disability, and similar events have been shown to change the long-term subjective well-being, even though some adaptation does occur and inborn factors affect this.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: In the aforementioned Brickman study (1978), researchers interviewed 22 lottery winners and 29 paraplegics to determine their change in happiness levels due to their given event (winning lottery or becoming paralyzed). The event in the case of lottery winners had taken place between one month and one and a half years before the study, and in the case of paraplegics between a month and a year. The group of lottery winners reported being similarly happy before and after the event, and expected to have a similar level of happiness in a couple of years. These findings show that having a large monetary gain had no effect on their baseline level of happiness, for both present and expected happiness in the future. They found that the paraplegics reported having a higher level of happiness in the past than the rest (due to a nostalgia effect), a lower level of happiness at the time of the study than the rest (although still above the middle point of the scale, that is, they reported being more happy than unhappy) and, surprisingly, they also expected to have similar levels of happiness than the rest in a couple of years. One must note that the paraplegics did have an initial decrease in life happiness, but the key to their findings is that they expected to eventually return to their baseline in time.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: In a newer study (2007), winning a medium-sized lottery prize had a lasting mental wellbeing effect of 1.4 GHQ points on Britons even two years after the event.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Some research suggests that resilience to suffering is partly due to a decreased fear response in the amygdala and increased levels of BDNF in the brain. New genetic research have found that changing a gene could increase intelligence and resilience to depressing and traumatizing events. This could have crucial benefits for those with anxiety and PTSD.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Recent research reveals certain types of brain training can increase brain size. The hippocampus volume can affect mood, hedonic setpoints, and some forms of memory. A smaller hippocampus has been linked to depression and dysthymia. Certain activities and environmental factors can reset the hedonic setpoint and also grow the hippocampus to an extent. London taxi drivers' hippocampi grow on the job, and the drivers have a better memory than those who did not become taxi drivers. In particular, the posterior hippocampus seemed to be the most important for enhanced mood and memory.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, and Diener (2003) researched changes in baseline level of well-being due to changes in marital status, the birth of first child, and the loss of employment. While they found that a negative life event can have a greater impact on a person's psychological state and happiness set point than a positive event, they concluded that people completely adapt, finally returning to their baseline level of well-being, after divorce, losing a spouse, the birth of a child, and for women losing their job. They did not find a return to baseline for marriage or for layoffs in men. This study also illustrated that the amount of adaptation depends on the individual.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Wildeman, Turney, and Schnittker (2014) studied the effects of imprisonment on one's baseline level of well-being. They researched how being in jail affects one's level of happiness both short term (while in prison) and long term (after being released). They found that being in prison has negative effects on one's baseline well-being; in other words one's baseline of happiness is lower in prison than when not in prison. Once people were released from prison, they were able to bounce back to their previous level of happiness.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Silver (1982) researched the effects of a traumatic accident on one's baseline level of happiness. Silver found that accident victims were able to return to a happiness set point after a period of time. For eight weeks, Silver followed accident victims who had sustained severe spinal cord injuries. About a week after their accident, Silver observed that the victims were experiencing much stronger negative emotions than positive ones. By the eighth and final week, the victims' positive emotions outweighed their negative ones. The results of this study suggest that regardless of whether the life event is significantly negative or positive, people will almost always return to their happiness baseline.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Fujita and Diener (2005) studied the stability of one's level of subjective well-being over time and found that for most people, there is a relatively small range in which their level of satisfaction varies. They asked a panel of 3,608 German residents to rate their current and overall satisfaction with life on a scale of 0–10, once a year for seventeen years. Only 25% of participants exhibited shifts in their level of life satisfaction over the course of the study, with just 9% of participants having experienced significant changes. They also found that those with a higher mean level of life satisfaction had more stable levels of life satisfaction than those with lower levels of satisfaction.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: The concept of the happiness set point (proposed by Sonja Lyubomirsky) can be applied in clinical psychology to help patients return to their hedonic set point when negative events happen. Determining when someone is mentally distant from their happiness set point and what events trigger those changes can be extremely helpful in treating conditions such as depression. When a change occurs, clinical psychologists work with patients to recover from the depressive spell and return to their hedonic set point more quickly. Because acts of kindness often promote long-term well-being, one treatment method is to provide patients with different altruistic activities that can help a person raise his or her hedonic set point. This can in turn be helpful in reducing reckless habits in the pursuit of well-being. Further, helping patients understand that long-term happiness is relatively stable throughout one's life can help to ease anxiety surrounding impactful events.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Hedonic adaptation is also relevant to resilience research. Resilience is a "class of phenomena characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk," meaning that resilience is largely the ability for one to remain at their hedonic setpoint while going through negative experiences. Psychologists have identified various factors that contribute to a person being resilient, such as positive attachment relationships (see Attachment Theory), positive self-perceptions, self-regulatory skills (see Emotional self-regulation), ties to prosocial organizations (see prosocial behavior), and a positive outlook on life.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: One critical point made regarding humans’ individual set point is to understand it may simply be a genetic tendency and not a completely determined criterion for happiness, and it can still be influenced. In a study on moderate to excessive drug intake on rats, Ahmed and Koob (1998) sought to demonstrate that the use of mind-altering drugs such as cocaine could change an individual's hedonic set point. Their findings suggest that drug usage and addiction lead to neurochemical adaptations whereby a person needs more of that substance to feel the same levels of pleasure. Thus, drug abuse can have lasting impacts on one's hedonic set point, both in terms of overall happiness and with regard to pleasure felt from drug usage.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Genetic roots of the hedonic set point are also disputed. Sosis (2014) has argued the "hedonic treadmill" interpretation of twin studies depends on dubious assumptions. Pairs of identical twins raised apart are not necessarily raised in substantially different environments. The similarities between twins (such as intelligence or beauty) may invoke similar reactions from the environment. Thus, we might see a notable similarity in happiness levels between twins even though there are no happiness genes governing affect levels.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Further, hedonic adaptation may be a more common phenomenon when dealing with positive events as opposed to negative ones. Negativity bias, where people tend to focus more on negative emotions than positive emotions, can be an obstacle in raising one's happiness set point. Negative emotions often require more attention and are generally remembered better, overshadowing any positive experiences that may even outnumber negative experiences. Given that negative events hold more psychological power than positive ones, it may be difficult to create lasting positive change.


title: Hedonic treadmill

text: Headey (2008) concluded that an internal locus of control and having "positive" personality traits (notably low neuroticism) are the two most significant factors affecting one's subjective well-being. Headey also found that adopting "non-zero sum" goals, those which enrich one's relationships with others and with society as a whole (i.e. family-oriented and altruistic goals), increase the level of subjective well-being. Conversely, attaching importance to zero-sum life goals (career success, wealth, and social status) will have a small but nevertheless statistically significant negative impact on people's overall subjective well-being (even though the size of a household's disposable income does have a small, positive impact on subjective well-being). Duration of one's education seems to have no direct bearing on life satisfaction. And, contradicting set point theory, Headey found no return to homeostasis after sustaining a disability or developing a chronic illness. These disabling events are permanent, and thus according to cognitive model of depression, may contribute to depressive thoughts and increase neuroticism (another factor found by Headey to diminish subjective well-being). Disability appears to be the single most important factor affecting human subjective well-being. The impact of disability on subjective well-being is almost twice as large as that of the second strongest factor affecting life satisfaction -— the personality trait of neuroticism.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: Serendipity is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Chelsom, written by Marc Klein, and starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. The film grossed $77.5 million on a $28 million budget.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: While Christmas shopping at Bloomingdale's in New York City, Jonathan Trager meets Sara Thomas when both try to buy the same pair of black cashmere gloves. Despite both being in relationships, a mutual attraction leads them to have dessert at a restaurant called Serendipity 3 where Sara explains that she lets fate's "little signals" determine many of her life decisions. After separating, they meet again when each returns to the restaurant to retrieve something they forgot. After ice skating, Jonathan convinces Sara to give him her number, but when the wind blows it out of his grasp, Sara thinks it is fate telling them to back off. After Jonathan disagrees, Sara decides to let fate reunite them: she has Jonathan write his number on a five dollar bill then uses it to buy breath mints and promises to sell her copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" in which she will write her name and number. As one last experiment, Sara tosses Jonathan one of the gloves, they board separate elevators in the Waldorf Astoria and agree that if they arrive on the same floor, they are meant to be together. They each pick the same floor, but Jonathan is delayed finding Sara, leading her to believe that the experiment failed. Disappointed, they separate.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: Years later, Jonathan is an ESPN producer engaged to Halley and Sara is a therapist living in San Francisco, engaged to internationally-renowned musician Lars. Jonathan runs across his cashmere glove, so he embarks on a search of the city with his best friend, Dean, to find Sara. Meanwhile, Sara, stressed by the wedding planning and Lars’ focus on an upcoming world tour, travels to New York with her best friend Eve to find Jonathan. After nearly crossing paths with Jonathan throughout the day, Eve and Sara have dessert at Serendipity where Eve convinces Sara to give up her search. As Eve leaves, she picks up the 5 dollar bill with Jonathan's number on it that was left as their change. They catch the same cab that Jonathan and Dean exited while searching for Sara. After finding that a bridal shop next to Serendipity now occupies the address of a roommate finder service Sara once used, Jonathan sees it as a sign that he should marry Halley.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: At the Waldorf Astoria, Eve and Sara encounter Halley headed to the wedding rehearsal. Halley invites Eve to join her since they were friends in college, but Sara declines. Outside their room, she finds an apologetic Lars.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: At the rehearsal, Jonathan’s distracted demeanor frustrates Halley. She tearfully pleads with him to focus on the wedding and he reassures her that his reservations have let go of him. Halley then gives him Sara's old book containing her phone number as a wedding gift. Jonathan and Dean get her address and fly to San Francisco. Once there, they see Sara's sister and her boyfriend having sex and assume it is Sara in a happy relationship. Dean helps Jonathan realize that he shouldn’t marry Halley while Sara decides to end her engagement to Lars.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: The next day, Sara finds the 5 dollar bill with Jonathan's number on it, having gotten hers and Eve's wallets mixed up. After getting his address and being told by the building superintendent of his wedding at the Waldorf, Sara hurries there and is relieved to find the ceremony has been cancelled.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: Dean reassures Jonathan that he did the right thing and vows to be more spontaneous in his own marriage, which has been on the rocks. Jonathan wanders to the same ice skating rink where he spent part of his evening with Sara ten years earlier and finds a leather jacket on a bench. As it begins to snow, he lays on his back in the middle of the rink with the jacket as a pillow and one of the pair of cashmere gloves on his chest. When the matching glove lands next to him, he sits up and finds Sara watching him, having come to claim her jacket. They introduce themselves and finally share a kiss.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: Later they celebrate their anniversary at Bloomingdale’s in front of the display of cashmere gloves where they met.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: "Serendipity" was shot in New Jersey, New York City, Ontario, and San Francisco, California in the summer of 2000. Following the 9/11 attacks, images of the World Trade Center towers were digitally removed from all skyline shots of New York City. Jennifer Aniston was offered the role of Sara Thomas but turned it down to avoid being type-cast in romantic comedies. Carla Gugino and Claire Forlani auditioned for role of Sara Thomas.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: "Serendipity" premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival. The film opened at #2 at the U.S. box office earning $13,309,241 in its opening weekend, behind "Training Day". With an estimated budget of $28 million, this was the first of Chelsom's films to turn a profit. After some of the biggest commercial failures of all time ("Town & Country"), "Serendipity" marked the first of several box-office successes for Chelsom, peaking in 2009 with "". The film grossed $50,294,317 in the domestic box office and $27,221,987 internationally for a worldwide total of $77,516,304.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: Based on reviews, the film holds approval rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of . The site's consensus states: "Light and charming, "Serendipity" could benefit from less contrivances." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Serendipity (film)

text: The soundtrack contains popular music by various artists, with one track from the musical score, composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, the other being Gaj's Latin alphabet.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Karadžić based his alphabet on the previous Slavonic-Serbian script, following the principle of "write as you speak and read as it is written", removing obsolete letters and letters representing iotified vowels, introducing from the Latin alphabet instead, and adding several consonant letters for sounds specific to Serbian phonology. During the same period, linguists led by Ljudevit Gaj adapted the Latin alphabet, in use in western South Slavic areas, using the same principles. As a result of this joint effort, Serbian Cyrillic and Gaj's Latin alphabets for Serbian-Croatian have a complete one-to-one congruence, with the Latin digraphs Lj, Nj, and Dž counting as single letters.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Karadžić's Cyrillic alphabet was officially adopted in Serbia in 1868, and was in exclusive use in the country up to the interwar period. Both alphabets were official in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Due to the shared cultural area, Gaj's Latin alphabet saw a gradual adoption in Serbia since, and both scripts are used to write modern standard Serbian. In Serbia, Cyrillic is seen as being more traditional, and has the official status (designated in the constitution as the "official script", compared to Latin's status of "script in official use" designated by a lower-level act, for national minorities). It is also an official script in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, along with Gaj's Latin.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Serbian Cyrillic is in official use in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although Bosnia "officially accept[s] both alphabets", the Latin script is almost always used in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas Cyrillic is in everyday use in Republika Srpska. The Serbian language in Croatia is officially recognized as a minority language; however, the use of Cyrillic in bilingual signs has sparked protests and vandalism.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Serbian Cyrillic is an important symbol of Serbian identity. In Serbia, official documents are printed in Cyrillic only even though, according to a 2014 survey, 47% of the Serbian population write in the Latin alphabet whereas 36% write in Cyrillic.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, along with the equivalent forms in the Serbian Latin alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) value for each letter. The letters do not have names, and consonants are normally pronounced as such when spelling is necessary (or followed by a short schwa, e.g. /fə/).:


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: According to tradition, Glagolitic was invented by the Byzantine Christian missionaries and brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 860s, amid the Christianization of the Slavs. Glagolitic alphabet appears to be older, predating the introduction of Christianity, only formalized by Cyril and expanded to cover non-Greek sounds. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script, developed around by Cyril's disciples, perhaps at the Preslav Literary School at the end of the 9th century.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: The earliest form of Cyrillic was the "ustav", based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. There was no distinction between capital and lowercase letters. The standard language was based on the Slavic dialect of Thessaloniki.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Part of the Serbian literary heritage of the Middle Ages are works such as Miroslav Gospel, Vukan Gospels, St. Sava's Nomocanon, Dušan's Code, Munich Serbian Psalter, and others. The first printed book in Serbian was the "Cetinje Octoechos" (1494).


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Vuk Stefanović Karadžić fled Serbia during the Serbian Revolution in 1813, to Vienna. There he met Jernej Kopitar, a linguist with interest in slavistics. Kopitar and Sava Mrkalj helped Vuk to reform Serbian and its orthography. He finalized the alphabet in 1818 with the "Serbian Dictionary".


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Karadžić reformed standard Serbian and standardised the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by following strict phonemic principles on the Johann Christoph Adelung' model and Jan Hus' Czech alphabet. Karadžić's reforms of standard Serbian modernised it and distanced it from Serbian and Russian Church Slavonic, instead bringing it closer to common folk speech, specifically, to the dialect of Eastern Herzegovina which he spoke. Karadžić was, together with Đuro Daničić, the main Serbian signatory to the Vienna Literary Agreement of 1850 which, encouraged by Austrian authorities, laid the foundation for Serbian, various forms of which are used by Serbs in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia today. Karadžić also translated the New Testament into Serbian, which was published in 1868.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: He wrote several books; "Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pesnarica" and "Pismenica serbskoga jezika" in 1814, and two more in 1815 and 1818, all with the alphabet still in progress. In his letters from 1815-1818 he used: Ю, Я, Ы and Ѳ. In his 1815 song book he dropped the Ѣ.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Orders issued on the 3 and 13 October 1914 banned the use of Serbian Cyrillic in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, limiting it for use in religious instruction. A decree was passed on January 3, 1915, that banned Serbian Cyrillic completely from public use. An imperial order in October 25, 1915, banned the use of Serbian Cyrillic in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, except "within the scope of Serbian Orthodox Church authorities".


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: In 1941, the Nazi puppet Independent State of Croatia banned the use of Cyrillic, having regulated it on 25 April 1941, and in June 1941 began eliminating "Eastern" (Serbian) words from Croatian, and shut down Serbian schools.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was used as a basis for the Macedonian alphabet with the work of Krste Misirkov and Venko Markovski.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: The Serbian Cyrillic script was one of the two official scripts used to write Serbo-Croatian in Yugoslavia since its establishment in 1918, the other being Gaj's Latin alphabet ("latinica").


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Serbian Cyrillic is no longer used in Croatia on national level, while in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro it remained an official script.


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Serbian Cyrillic does not use several letters encountered in other Slavic Cyrillic alphabets. It does not use hard sign () and soft sign (), but the aforementioned soft-sign ligatures instead. It does not have Russian/Belarusian , Ukrainian/Belarusian , the semi-vowels or , nor the iotated letters (Russian/Bulgarian ), (Ukrainian ), (), (Russian ) or (), which are instead written as two separate letters: . can also be used as a semi-vowel, in place of . The letter is not used. When necessary, it is transliterated as either , or .


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Serbian italic and cursive forms of lowercase letters , and (Russian Cyrillic alphabet) differ from those used in other Cyrillic alphabets: , and (Serbian Cyrillic alphabet). The regular (upright) shapes are generally standardized among languages and there are no officially recognized variations. That presents a challenge in Unicode modeling, as the glyphs differ only in italic versions, and historically non-italic letters have been used in the same code positions. Serbian professional typography uses fonts specially crafted for the language to overcome the problem, but texts printed from common computers contain East Slavic rather than Serbian italic glyphs. Cyrillic fonts from Adobe, Microsoft (Windows Vista and later) and a few other font houses include the Serbian variations (both regular and italic).


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: If the underlying font and Web technology provides support, the proper glyphs can be obtained by marking the text with appropriate language codes. Thus, in non-italic mode:


title: Serbian Cyrillic alphabet

text: Since Unicode unifies different glyphs in same characters, font support must be present to display the correct variant. Programs like Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice (currently under Linux only), and some others provide required OpenType support. Of course, font families like Fira, Noto, Overpass, PT Fonts, Liberation, Gentium, Open Sans, Lato, IBM Plex Serif, Croscore fonts, GNU FreeFont, DejaVu, Ubuntu, Microsoft "C*" fonts from Windows Vista and above must be used.


title: Patriotism

text: Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects. It encompasses a set of concepts closely related to nationalism, mostly civic nationalism and sometimes cultural nationalism.


title: Patriotism

text: Some manifestations of patriotism emphasize the "land" element in love for one's native land and use the symbolism of agriculture and the soil – compare "Blut und Boden".


title: Patriotism

text: An excess of patriotism in the defense of a nation is called chauvinism; another related term is "jingoism".


title: Patriotism

text: The English word 'Patriot' derived from "Compatriot," in the 1590s, from Middle French "Patriote" in the 15th century. The French word's "Compatriote" and "Patriote" originated directly from Late Latin Patriota "fellow-countryman" in the 6th century. From Greek Patriotes "fellow countryman," from Patrios "of one's fathers," Patris "fatherland." The term Patriot was "applied to barbarians who were perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive who had only a common Patris or fatherland." The original European meaning of Patriots applied to anyone who was a fellow countryman originated from that country regardless of the social-economic status.


title: Patriotism

text: The general notion of civic virtue and group dedication has been attested in culture globally throughout the historical period. For the Enlightenment thinkers of 18th-century Europe, loyalty to the state was chiefly considered in contrast to loyalty to the Church. It was argued that clerics should not be allowed to teach in public schools since their "patrie" was heaven, so that they could not inspire love of the homeland in their students. One of the most influential proponents of this classical notion of patriotism was Jean-Jacques Rousseau.


title: Patriotism

text: Enlightenment thinkers also criticized what they saw as the excess of patriotism. In 1774, Samuel Johnson published "The Patriot", a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made the famous statement, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." James Boswell, who reported this comment in his "Life of Johnson", does not provide context for the quote, and it has therefore been argued that Johnson was in fact attacking the false use of the term "patriotism" by contemporaries such as John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (the patriot-minister) and his supporters; Johnson spoke elsewhere in favor of what he considered "true" patriotism. However, there is no direct evidence to contradict the widely held belief that Johnson's famous remark was a criticism of patriotism itself.


title: Patriotism

text: Culture is often an integral aspect of patriotism. Many patriotic people take pride in sharing a distinct, common culture, believing it to be central to their national identity and unity. Many are devoted to the preservation of their traditional culture and encourage cultural assimilation. However, some of the more civic forms of patriotism tend to de-emphasize ethnic culture in favor of a shared political culture.


title: Patriotism

text: Patriotism may be strengthened by adherence to a national religion (a civil religion or even a theocracy). This is the opposite of the separation of church and state demanded by the Enlightenment thinkers who saw patriotism and faith as similar and opposed forces. Michael Billig and Jean Bethke Elshtain have both argued that the difference between patriotism and faith is difficult to discern and relies largely on the attitude of the one doing the labelling.


title: Patriotism

text: Christopher Heath Wellman, professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, describes that a popular view of the "patriotist" position is robust obligations to compatriots and only minimal samaritan responsibilities to foreigners. Wellman calls this position "patriotist" rather than "nationalist" to single out the members of territorial, political units rather than cultural groups.


title: Patriotism

text: George Orwell, in his influential essay "Notes on Nationalism" distinguished patriotism from the related concept of nationalism:


title: Patriotism

text: By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, "not" for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.


title: Patriotism

text: Voltaire stated that "It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind." Arthur Schopenhauer wrote in his "The World as Will and Representation" that “The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which a person can be proud”


title: Patriotism

text: Kōtoku Shūsui, a famous Japanese anarchist of the late 19th/early 20th century, devoted a large section of his widely read "Imperialism, Monster of the Twentieth Century" to a condemnation of patriotism. One of the many arguments is based on the Confucian value of empathy: "I am as convinced as Mencius that any man would rush without hesitation to rescue a child who was about to fall into a well... A human being moved by such selfless love and charity does not pause to think whether the child is a family member or a close relative. When he rescues the child from danger, he does not even ask himself whether the child is his own or belongs to another." Patriotism is used to dehumanize others who we would naturally have empathy for. He argues, "[P]atriotism is a discriminating and arbitrary sentiment confined to those who belong to a single nation state or live together within common national borders", a sentiment cultivated and used by militarists in their drive for war.


title: Patriotism

text: Marxists have taken various stances regarding patriotism. On one hand, Karl Marx famously stated that "The working men have no country" and that "the supremacy of the proletariat will cause them [national differences] to vanish still faster." The same view is promoted by present-day Trotskyists such as Alan Woods, who is "in favour of tearing down all frontiers and creating a socialist world commonwealth." On the other hand, Marxist-Leninists and Maoists are usually in favor of socialist patriotism based on the theory of socialism in one country.


title: Patriotism

text: In the European Union, thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas have advocated a "Euro-patriotism", but patriotism in Europe is usually directed at the nation-state and more often than not coincides with "Euroscepticism".


title: Patriotism

text: Several surveys have tried to measure patriotism for various reasons, such as the Correlates of War project which found some correlation between war propensity and patriotism. The results from different studies are time dependent. For example, patriotism in Germany before World War I ranked at or near the top, whereas today it ranks at or near the bottom of patriotism surveys.


title: Patriotism

text: Since 1981, the World Values Survey explores people's national values and beliefs and refer to the average answer "for high income residents" of a country to the question "Are you proud to be [insert nationality]?". It ranges from 1 (not proud) to 4 (very proud).


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Alfa Romeo Giulia (Type 952) is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo. It was unveiled in June 2015, with market launch scheduled for February 2016,<ref name="QR 08/15"></ref> and it is the first saloon offered by Alfa Romeo after the production of the 159 ended in 2011. The Giulia is also the first mass-market Alfa Romeo vehicle in over two decades to use a longitudinal rear-wheel drive platform, since the 75 which was discontinued in 1992. The Giulia was second in 2017 European Car of the Year voting and was named Motor Trend Car of the Year for 2018. In 2018, Giulia was awarded the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The car was designed at the Centro Stile Alfa Romeo, by a team headed by Marco Tencone and including Senior Exterior Designer, Andrea Loi. along with Interior Chief Designer Inna Kondakova and Senior Interior Designer Manuele Amprimo. The Giulia has been the subject of a long gestation and delayed launch dates, reportedly due to the design being sent back to the drawing board by Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the parent company of Alfa Romeo at the time.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The new Giulia was unveiled to the press at the Museo Storico Alfa Romeo in Arese, on 24 June 2015, at an event which involved only the top-of-the-range Quadrifoglio variant and a rendition of "Nessun dorma" by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. The occasion coincided with the company's 105th anniversary, and also saw the company debut a restyled logo for all future Alfa Romeo models. The Giulia was also presented under the new "La meccanica delle emozioni" slogan ("the mechanics of emotions" in Italian).


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Giulia is the first model in the company's relaunch plan, which involves a €5 billion investment for an eight car line-up and a worldwide sales target of 400,000 by 2018 — up from 74,000 in 2013.<ref name="wsj 24/06/15"></ref> It is underpinned by an all-new, longitudinal-engine, rear-wheel drive platform developed for Alfa Romeo — codenamed "Giorgio".


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: Development of the Giulia, along with development of the entire "Giorgio" project, has been overseen by the technical director of Ferrari, Philippe Krief.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Giulia uses a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, featuring an even 50% front and 50% rear weight distribution.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: Suspension is independent all-around, of the double wishbone type at the front and multilink at the rear.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: All Giulia models employ a carbon-fibre drive shaft made by Hitachi Automotive Systems, as well as aluminium alloy shock towers, suspension components, front wings and doors. All-wheel drive models will also be offered.<ref name="C&D 24/06/15"></ref>


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: Depending on trim level it has a 6.5-inch or 8.8-inch colour display; optional Sport, Performance and Luxury Packs are also available. The sport package includes sports steering wheel with added grip, aluminium inserts on the dashboard, centre console and door panels, and Xenon headlights. The luxury package offers premium leather upholstery and wood trim. The performance package includes mechanical limited-slip differential along with electronic suspension and paddle shifters on the steering column in the cars equipped with an automatic transmission.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The base Giulia, mid-level Super, and fully loaded Speciale are powered by a 2 litre gasoline engine, or the choice of 136 PS, 150 PS or 180 PS 2.2 litre turbo diesel engine. The base model comes with 16 inch alloys, the Super can be distinguished with 17 inch alloys and dual chrome exhaust tip for the diesel model. The Speciale has 18 inch alloys, black brake calipers, and leather sports seats from the Veloce. The Giulia has a drag coefficient of .


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Giulia Veloce was presented at the 2016 Paris International Motor Show held in October. The Veloce offers the choice of two engines: the 2.0-litre turbo petrol and the 2.2-litre diesel inline-4 engines, both equipped with an 8-speed automatic transmission and Alfa Q4 all-wheel drive system (rear-wheel-drive in the UK).


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Veloce has specific bumpers and a glossy black door trim; it has also various performance components like special rear extractor with double exhaust pipes and optional 5-spoke 19-inch alloy wheels (the 19-inch option is not available in the UK). On the interior, it has black, red or tan leather sport seats and a sports steering wheel with a suede grip, aluminium inserts on the dashboard, central tunnel, door panels and Xenon headlights.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The new four-cylinder petrol engine is rated at a maximum power output of at 5,250 rpm and a maximum torque of at 2,250 rpm. It has MultiAir electro-hydraulic valve activation system along with "2-in-1" " turbocharger system and direct injection with a 200-bar high pressure system. The diesel all aluminium straight-4 engine comes with MultiJet II technology and electrically operated variable geometry turbocharger.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Alfa Q4 all wheel drive system behaves like a rear-wheel drive vehicle: 100% of torque is distributed to the rear axle. As it reaches the wheel adherence limit, the system transfers up to 60% of the torque to the front axle. To ensure maximum speed of response in re-distributing torque, the system exploits a high mechanical over slippage (up to 2.5%) between the two axles, which translates into segment-beating vehicle control in terms of traction and directional stability on bends.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The top-of-the-line Giulia Quadrifoglio (Italian for "four-leaf clover") was the first model in the new Giulia range. It was unveiled at Italy in June 2015. It made its official international debut at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. The Quadrifoglio's main competitors are cars such as the Mercedes-AMG C63, BMW M3 and the Cadillac ATS-V.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Quadrifoglio is powered by an all-aluminium alloy, twin-turbocharged gasoline direct injection 90° V6 engine, with a single-cylinder displacement of just under half a litre, for a total of . This engine was developed exclusively for the Quadrifoglio by Ferrari technicians and is related to Ferrari's own twin-turbocharged F154 CB V8 engine, sharing the California T's bore x stroke of . The engine has a maximum power output of at 6,500 rpm, and of torque between 2,500 and 5,000 rpm. The turbochargers are single-scroll compressor IHI units integrated into the manifold, with water-charge air coolers. It has side-mounted direct fuel injection and the peak (absolute) turbo boost pressure reaches up to .


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: With the inclusion of cylinder deactivation (that can switch off a bank of three cylinders), this model achieves a fuel consumption of and emissions of 198 g/km, in the combined cycle.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: The Quadrifoglio weighs (DIN) and has a power-to-weight ratio of /PS. This is achieved courtesy of the Quadrifoglio sharing the other models' composite and light alloy construction, as well as featuring a roof and bonnet made of carbon fibre.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: From the front, the Quadrifoglio distinguishes itself from the rest of the range by a specific front bumper — with a carbon fibre splitter and enlarged air intakes for the twin intercoolers and for the brakes — and by a bonnet featuring two cooling outlets for the engine bay. On the sides, the front wings also have outlets to extract air from the wheel wells, and bear Quadrifoglio badges; the side skirts are specific to the model, as are the 19-inch alloy wheels. At the rear, a low-profile carbon fibre lip-spoiler is applied to the boot lid, and a rear diffuser makes up the lower half of the bumper, flanked by quadruple exhaust tips. Working in conjunction with the faired-in underside, the diffuser is fully functional in generating downforce — as at the front is the "Active Aero Splitter", which can vary its angle of attack by 10°, moved by electric motors. The manufacturer claims these active aero elements are the firsts in the Giulia's market segment and are able to generate up to of downforce at . The Giulia Quadrifoglio has a drag coefficient of .


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: Mechanically, this model is fitted with a torque vectoring rear differential able to send 100% of the torque to the left or right wheel,<ref name="carmagazine 10/07/15"></ref> and an 8-speed automatic transmission manufactured by ZF, with a six-speed manual transmission available as an option in European markets. The braking system uses carbon ceramic rotors, along with six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers and auxiliary rear calipers for the parking brake. The electronic stability control and the traditional brake booster are combined in a single electromechanical system.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: On the interior, the dashboard is part-trimmed in leather and carbon fibre and the engine start button is located on the multi-function steering wheel. In addition, the driver is offered Alfa Romeo's "DNA" dynamic control selector, which is placed on the centre console. Driving modes include "Dynamic", "Natural" and "Advanced Efficiency" modes (the last one uses cylinder deactivation for increased fuel economy), and "Race" (for high performance — with louder exhaust note and all electronic stability control systems turned off).


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: According to Alfa Romeo, the Giulia Quadrifoglio can accelerate from 0 to in 3.9 seconds and come to a standstill from that speed in 32 meters. The Quadrifoglio can attain a top speed of . This model also completed the Nürburgring's Nordschleife circuit in 7 minutes 39 seconds, a record for a saloon car. In September 2016 a new lap record for the automatic transmission version was published: 7 minutes, 32 seconds. "Car and Driver" magazine has recorded a standing quarter mile time of 11.9 seconds at and a 0 to acceleration time of 3.6 seconds. In "Motor Trend" Head 2 Head (Ep. 85) the Quadrifoglio won, over the BMW M3 Competition. In the same episode it was also rated better than Mercedes-AMG C63 and Cadillac ATS-V. The track test was performed at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. The Quadrifoglio was also previewed in The Grand Tour TV series in January 2017. It completed a lap of the show's test track only 1.1 seconds behind the new all-wheel-drive Honda NSX - both driven on a wet track - an excellent performance for a rear-wheel-drive car. The Quadrifoglio went around the Top Gear test track in 1:21.40.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: At the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, the Giulia Quadrifoglio NRING Edition was introduced. The NRING edition has carbon-ceramic brakes, Sparco carbon fibre seats, carbon fibre interior trim, a Mopar-branded gear shifter and Mopar floor mats. The car is differentiated on the exterior by 'NRING' badges as well as carbon fibre mirror caps and side skirts and an exposed carbon fibre roof. The equipment was upgraded to include adaptive cruise control and a premium sound system.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: At the 2019 Geneva Motor Show the Alfa Romeo Racing limited edition was introduced, which celebrates Alfa Romeo's legendary racing history and the entry of a new Italian driver in Formula 1 competition: Antonio Giovinazzi joining the "Alfa Romeo Racing" team together with the 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen. This special edition has exclusive paintwork, as a tribute to the Alfa Romeo Racing C38 Formula 1 car. It has also some stylistic details like some carbon fibre aerodynamic parts and an Akrapovič titanium exhaust system. The weight was reduced by about from the standard Quadrifoglio, followed by a technical tune-up by Alfa Romeo engineers that has resulted more torque and power, which now amounts to .


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: At the 2016 Paris Motor Show the Giulia's economic version called "AE" - Advanced Efficiency was unveiled. The AE was available with the Giulia and Giulia Super trim levels, it has diesel engine and an 8-speed automatic transmission. The fuel consumption combines to and just 99 g/km of emissions in the combined cycle. It has some specific technical solutions to achieve these values like implementation of a low-pressure EGR valve that improves engine efficiency, an air-water intercooler, a secondary engine cooling circuit in addition to the primary circuit, and specific gearbox ratios. The height of the car's body is lowered by , it has specifically designed alloy wheels and the drag coefficient has been reduced to 0.23 for less drag force. The Giulia "AE" Advanced Efficiency is fitted with specific 205/60 R16 tyres for reducing rolling resistance. It was discontinued beginning with 2019 model year.


title: Alfa Romeo Giulia (952)

text: In September 2018, the B-Tech Special Edition for Europe was announced which similar as Nero Edizione edition unveiled earlier for North American markets. The package adds a selection of visual and technological features to Giulia. Front grille, mirror caps and exhaust are finished in gloss black. Adaptive Cruise Control, an 8.8-inch infotainment system with sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as Bi-xenon headlights with washers are also the part of the package.