title: Liposuction

text: There are many articles and references to liposuction as "cosmetic" and not reimbursed by medical insurance companies. Most of this information is outdated. If the documentation supports the liposuction for a medical reason (lipedema, lymphedema, lipomas) as reconstructive, and not investigational, experimental, or unproven, the claim is medically necessary and should be reimbursed. While most insurance companies may initially deny the claim, many can be won upon appeal if the documentation and patient's need supports the criteria for reconstructive surgery.


title: Liposuction

text: The techniques and terms listed below: tumescent, lymph-sparing, Tumescent Local Anesthesia (TLA), Water-Assisted Liposuction (WAL), Power-Assisted Liposuction (PAL), Laser-Assisted Liposuction (LAL) all apply to reconstructive, medically necessary liposuction.


title: Liposuction

text: In general, fat is removed via a cannula (a hollow tube) and aspirator (a suction device). Liposuction techniques can be categorized by the amount of fluid injected, and by the mechanism by which the cannula works. If the removed fat is used as filler for the face, lips, or breasts knowledge of the precise technique used to remove the fat is indicated. There are numerous types of liposuction. Some can be described as techniques or modalities. Often surgeons will use two or more of the different techniques below in the same session.


title: Liposuction

text: This is the most generic term for liposuction. In the CPT manual it is referred to as "suction-assisted lipectomy" and includes codes: 15876–15879.


title: Liposuction

text: This does not address a particular technique but the diameter of the cannula, a stainless steel tube which is inserted into subcutaneous fat through a small opening or incision in the skin. The outside diameter of micro-cannulas range from 1 mm to 3 mm.


title: Liposuction

text: This technique does not require a particular wand and is most often performed with either tumescent liposuction or WAL (below). It refers to the specific surgical technique, the skill of the surgeon, and the extensive training that is unique to removing lipedema fat. Because the scope is different for removal of lipedema fat versus cosmetic contouring, if lymph-sparing is not addressed in the surgical operative notes, a medical necessity review committee could determine that the procedure poses “a risk to the lymph system.”


title: Liposuction

text: This may be referenced either way above, but the technique is the same. This is an anesthesia technique recommended for lymph-sparing liposuction surgery. Tumescent Liposuction refers to the use of anesthesia during liposuction. The word “tumescent” means swollen and firm. By injecting a large volume of very dilute lidocaine (local anesthetic) and epinephrine (capillary constrictor) into subcutaneous fat, the targeted tissue becomes swollen and firm, or tumescent. This technique does not require a special or specific type of wand.


title: Liposuction

text: Referred to as "a vibrating cannula" in research studies, PAL uses a specific type of wand that creates an up and down, vibrating-like motion of the cannula to acquire greater fat removal. When compared to simple suction-assisted liposuction, PAL requires less energy for the surgeon to operate while also resulting in greater fat removal. It is commonly used for difficult, secondary, scarred areas, and when harvesting large volumes of fat for transfers to other areas.


title: Liposuction

text: Note that techniques can be combined; for instance one could refer to the procedure as "lymph-sparing, tumescent liposuction using a vibrating (PAL) microcannula to treat lipedema."


title: Liposuction

text: A specific technique and wand commonly used for patients who require lymph-sparing liposuction for lipedema. The lipedema fat is removed using a fan-shaped jet of water, which includes the anesthetic. In contrast to tumescent liposuction above, where the anesthetic solution is injected separately and beforehand, the WAL wand both injects the solution and suctions the fat. BodyJet is a Water-Assisted Liposuction system.


title: Liposuction

text: This rare and unique term for liposuction for lipedema is used in a specific paper by Campisi, "Fibro-Lipo-Lymph-Aspiration With a Lymph Vessel Sparing Procedure to Treat Advanced Lymphedema After Multiple Lymphatic-Venous Anastomoses: The Complete Treatment Protocol". This term emphasizes the uniqueness of the reconstructive procedure versus the cosmetic procedure. Everything about the surgical suction application via cannula is different from standard suction lipectomy. The goal of FLLA is to relieve symptoms such as pain, ameliorate disability, improve function and quality of life, and halt disease progression.


title: Liposuction

text: Only small blunt cannulas are used, great care is used to not injure lymphatic which are already abnormal and increased risk of injury. Only the longitudinal orientation of cannulas is used at critical junctures. Preoperatively critical lymphatic structures are scanned and marked. FLLA surgery is significantly more time-consuming than cosmetic surgery often requiring 4–5 hours per body part; much larger aspirate volume is removed versus cosmetic suction lipectomy.


title: Liposuction

text: The benefit to lymphatics function comes not only from the removal of subcutaneous adipose tissue, but also the all components of the loose connective tissue including removing fibrosis in the interstitial space.


title: Liposuction

text: Ultrasound-assisted liposuction techniques used in the 1980s and 1990s were associated with cases of tissue damage, usually from excessive exposure to ultrasound energy. Third-generation UAL devices address this problem by using pulsed energy delivery and a specialized probe that allows physicians to safely remove excess fat. UAL is beneficial in people with a particular skin tone, in liposuction of areas that are more difficult to remove fat, that include treatment of gynecomastia, or areas where secondary liposuction is being performed.


title: Liposuction

text: Referred to as Smart Lipo, this technique uses laser technology to coagulate and tighten the skin and boost collagen performance. Uses include "cankles", debulking surgery for elephantiasis nostras and lipedema.


title: Liposuction

text: Sold under the brand name of CoolSculpting, cryolipolyis is not a type of liposuction but rather a non-surgical fat reduction procedure that freezes fat cells; it is an FDA-approved, non-invasive procedure that uses the power of cooling to disrupt fat cells underneath the dermis. This freezing energy crystallizes and eventually kills targeted fat cells without harming the surrounding healthy tissue. The body's metabolic processes work to remove the dead fat cells. Coolsculpting is not recommended for those with lipedema, lymphedema or other conditions that affect the lymphatic system. The model Linda Evangelista reportedly was left unrecognisable after a Cryolipolyis procedure.


title: Liposuction

text: Radiofrequency-assisted Liposuction, also known as RFAL, is a new procedure that is being done by thermal energy to promote skin tightening and remove unwanted fat. In this technique, radio waves of specific frequency are used to melt fat.


title: Liposuction

text: Doctors disagree on the issues of scarring with not suturing versus resolution of the swelling allowed by leaving the wounds open to drain fluid. Suturing is more common with a large cannula. Since the incisions are small, and the amount of fluid that must drain out is large, some surgeons opt to leave the incisions open, while others suture them only partially, leaving space for the fluid to drain out.


title: Liposuction

text: Liposuction is considered very safe, though not all liposuction surgery is equal. Small volume liposuction (<1,000 cc) done awake is different from large volume liposuction (>5,000 cc, in some cases 10,000 cc) done with anesthesia and a hospital stay.


title: Liposuction

text: Suction-assisted lipectomy (aka liposuction) were identified from the Tracking Operations and Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons database maintained by The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The ASPS maintains a registry of plastic surgery cases called TOPS (Tracking Operations & Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons) which is the largest database of plastic surgery cases. The TOPS database is only voluntary, not available to the public, and does not follow cases long-term or get testimony and experience of patients, only from doctors who profit from doing liposuction.


title: Liposuction

text: Based on this database, no deaths were found in about 4,500 cases done by plastic surgeons. However, non-plastic surgeons are not included in this.


title: Liposuction

text: In the (Chow I., et al., 2015) study, sixty-nine of 4,534 patients (1.5 percent) meeting inclusion criteria experienced a postoperative complication. Their conclusion was that: Liposuction by board-certified plastic surgeons is safe, with a low risk of life-threatening complications. Traditional liposuction volume thresholds do not accurately convey individualized risk. The authors' risk assessment model demonstrates that volumes in excess of 100 ml per unit of body mass index confer an increased risk of complications.


title: Liposuction

text: There exists a spectrum of complications that may occur due to any liposuction. Risk is increased when treated areas cover a greater percentage of the body, incisions are numerous, a large amount of tissue is removed, and concurrent surgeries are done at the same time. To address safety issues, in 2009 the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) published "Evidence-Based Patient Safety Advisory: Liposuction".


title: Liposuction

text: This 17-page document addresses key safety issues and offers recommendations. In addition, the increase in tumescent and lymph-sparing techniques have had a positive impact on diminishing complications. In a 2009 paper, the author found from a series of 3,240 procedures, no deaths occurred, and no complications requiring hospitalization were experienced. In nine cases, complications developed that needed further action. The conclusion was that liposuction using exclusively Tumescent Local Anesthesia (TLA) is a proven safe procedure provided that the existing guidelines are meticulously followed.


title: Liposuction

text: Serious complications include deep vein thrombosis, organ perforation, bleeding, and infection. Death occurs in about one per ten thousand cases.


title: Liposuction

text: In 1977, Fischer and Fischer reviewed 245 cases with the planotome instrument for treating cellulite in the lateral trochanteric (hip-thigh) areas. There was a 4.9 per cent incidence of seromas, despite incision-wound suction catheters and compression dressings; 2.0 per cent of the cases presented pseudo-cyst formation that required removal of the capsule (cyst) through a wider incision (>) and the use of the panotome.


title: Liposuction

text: Relatively modern techniques for body contouring and removal of fat were first performed by a French surgeon, Charles Dujarier, but a 1926 case that resulted in the amputation of the leg of a French dancer due to excessive tissue removal and too-tight suturing set back interest in body contouring for decades.


title: Liposuction

text: Liposuction evolved from work in the late 1960s from surgeons in Europe using techniques to cut away fat, which were limited to regions without many blood vessels due to the amount of bleeding the technique caused. In the mid-1970s in Rome, Arpad and Giorgio Fischer created the technique of using a blunt cannula linked to suction; they used it only to remove fat on the outer thighs. Yves-Gérard Illouz and Fournier extended the Fischers' work to the whole body, which they were able to use by using different sized cannulae. Illouz later developed the "wet" technique in which the fat tissue was injected with saline and hyaluronidase, which helped dissolve tissue holding the fat, prior to suctioning. Lidocaine was also added as a local anesthetic. Fournier also advocated using compression after the operation, and travelled and lectured to spread the technique. The Europeans had performed the procedures under general anesthesia; in the 1980s American dermatologists pioneered techniques allowing only local anesthetics to be used. Jeffrey Klein published a method that became known as "tumescent" in which a large volume of very dilute lidocaine, along with epinephrine to help control bleeding via vasoconstriction, and sodium bicarbonate as a buffering agent.


title: Liposuction

text: In 2015 liposuction surpassed breast augmentation surgery as the most commonly performed cosmetic procedure in the US.


title: Bog body

text: A bog body is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified in a peat bog. Such bodies, sometimes known as bog people, are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between and the Second World War. The unifying factor of the bog bodies is that they have been found in peat and are partially preserved; however, the actual levels of preservation vary widely from perfectly preserved to mere skeletons.


title: Bog body

text: Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies often retain their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. Combined, highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen preserve but severely tan their skin. While the skin is well-preserved, the bones are generally not, due to the dissolution of the calcium phosphate of bone by the peat's acidity. The acidic conditions of these bogs allow for the preservation of materials such as skin, hair, nails, wool and leather which all contain the protein keratin.


title: Bog body

text: The oldest known bog body is the skeleton of Koelbjerg Man from Denmark, who has been dated to 8000 BCE, during the Mesolithic period. The oldest fleshed bog body is that of Cashel Man, who dates to 2000 BCE during the Bronze Age. The overwhelming majority of bog bodies – including examples such as Tollund Man, Grauballe Man and Lindow Man – date to the Iron Age and have been found in northwest Europe, particularly Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Poland, and Ireland. Such Iron Age bog bodies typically show a number of similarities, such as violent deaths and a lack of clothing, which has led archaeologists to believe that they were killed and deposited in the bogs as a part of a widespread cultural tradition of human sacrifice or executed as criminals. Bogs could have indeed been seen as liminal places positively connected to another world, which might welcome contaminating items otherwise dangerous to the living. More recent theories postulate that bog people were perceived as social outcasts or "witches", as legal hostages killed in anger over broken treaty arrangements, or as victims of an unusual death eventually buried in bogs according to traditional customs.


title: Bog body

text: The German scientist Alfred Dieck published a catalog of more than 1,850 bog bodies that he had counted between 1939 and 1986 but most were unverified by documents or archaeological finds; and a 2002 analysis of Dieck's work by German archaeologists concluded that much of his work was unreliable. Countering Dieck's findings of more than 1400 bog body discoveries, it seems that after a more recent study the number of bog body finds is closer to 122. The newest bog bodies are those of soldiers killed in the wetlands of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.


title: Bog body

text: The preservation of bog bodies in peat bogs is a natural phenomenon, and not the result of human mummification processes. It is caused by the unique physical and biochemical composition of the bogs. Different types of bogs can affect the mummification process differently: raised bogs best preserve the corpses, whereas fens and transitional bogs tend to preserve harder tissues such as the skeleton rather than the soft tissue.


title: Bog body

text: A limited number of bogs have the correct conditions for preservation of mammalian tissue. Most of these are located in colder climates near bodies of salt water. For example, in the area of Denmark where the Haraldskær Woman was recovered, salty air from the North Sea blows across the Jutland wetlands and provides an ideal environment for the growth of peat. As new peat replaces the old peat, the older material underneath rots and releases humic acid, also known as bog acid. The bog acids, with pH levels similar to vinegar, preserve human bodies in the same way as fruit is preserved by pickling. In addition, peat bogs form in areas lacking drainage and hence are characterized by almost completely anaerobic conditions. This environment, highly acidic and devoid of oxygen, denies the prevalent subsurface aerobic organisms any opportunity to initiate decomposition. Researchers discovered that preservation also requires that the body is placed in the bog during the winter or early spring when the water temperature is cold—i.e., less than 4 °C (40 °F). This allows bog acids to saturate the tissues before decay can begin. Bacteria are unable to grow rapidly enough for decomposition at temperatures under 4 °C.


title: Bog body

text: The bog chemical environment involves a completely saturated acidic environment, where considerable concentrations of organic acids, which contribute most to the low pH of bog waters, and aldehydes are present. Layers of sphagnum, which are compacted layers of irregular mosses and other peat debris, and peat assist in preserving the cadavers by enveloping the tissue in a cold immobilizing matrix, impeding water circulation and any oxygenation. An additional feature of anaerobic preservation by acidic bogs is the ability to conserve hair, clothing and leather items. Modern experimenters have been able to mimic bog conditions in the laboratory and successfully demonstrated the preservation process, albeit over shorter time frames than the 2,500 years that Haraldskær Woman's body has survived. Most of the bog bodies discovered showed some aspects of decay or else were not properly conserved. When such specimens are exposed to the normal atmosphere, they may begin to decompose rapidly. As a result, many specimens have been effectively destroyed. As of 1979, the number of specimens that have been preserved following discovery was 53.


title: Bog body

text: The oldest bog body that has been identified is the Koelbjerg Man from Denmark, who has been dated to 8000 BCE, during the Mesolithic period.


title: Bog body

text: Around 3900 BCE, agriculture was introduced to Denmark, either through cultural exchange or by migrating farmers, marking the beginning of the Neolithic in the region. It was during the early part of this Neolithic period that a number of human corpses that were interred in the area's peat bogs left evidence that there had been resistance to its introduction. A disproportionate number of the Early Neolithic bodies found in Danish bogs were aged between 16 and 20 at the time of their death and deposition, and suggestions have been put forward that they were either human sacrifices or criminals executed for their socially deviant behaviour. An example of a Bronze Age bog body is Cashel Man, from 2000 BCE.


title: Bog body

text: The vast majority of the bog bodies that have been discovered date from the Iron Age, a period of time when peat bogs covered a much larger area of northern Europe. Many of these Iron Age bodies bear a number of similarities, indicating a known cultural tradition of killing and depositing these people in a certain manner. These Pre-Roman Iron Age people lived in sedentary communities, built villages and their society was hierarchical. They were agriculturalists, raising animals in captivity as well as growing crops. In some parts of northern Europe, they also fished. Although independent of the Roman Empire, which dominated southern Europe at this time, the inhabitants traded with the Romans.


title: Bog body

text: For these people, the bogs held some sort of liminal significance, and indeed, they placed into them votive offerings intended for the Otherworld, often of neck-rings, wristlets or ankle-rings made of bronze or more rarely gold. The archaeologist P.V. Glob believed that these were "offerings to the gods of fertility and good fortune." It is therefore widely speculated that the Iron Age bog bodies were thrown into the bog for similar reasons, and that they were therefore examples of human sacrifice to the gods. Explicit reference to the practice of drowning slaves who had washed the cult image of Nerthus and were subsequently ritually drowned in Tacitus' "Germania", suggesting that the bog bodies were sacrificial victims may be contrasted with a separate account ("Germania" XII), in which victims of punitive execution were pinned in bogs using hurdles.


title: Bog body

text: Many bog bodies show signs of being stabbed, bludgeoned, hanged or strangled, or a combination of these methods. In some cases the individual had been beheaded. In the case of the Osterby Man found at Kohlmoor, near Osterby, Germany in 1948, the head had been deposited in the bog without its body.


title: Bog body

text: Usually, the corpses were naked, sometimes with some items of clothing with them, particularly headgear. The clothing is believed to have decomposed while in the bog for so long. In a number of cases, twigs, sticks or stones were placed on top of the body, sometimes in a cross formation, and at other times, forked sticks had been driven into the peat to hold the corpse down. According to the archaeologist P.V. Glob, "this probably indicates the wish to pin the dead man firmly into the bog." Some bodies show signs of torture, such as Old Croghan Man, who had deep cuts beneath his nipples.


title: Bog body

text: Some bog bodies, such as Tollund Man from Denmark, have been found with the rope used to strangle them still around their necks. Similarly to Tollund Man, Yde Girl, who was found in the Netherlands and was approximately 16 years old at her time of death, has a woolen rope with a sliding knot still tied around her neck. Yde Girl's remains showed evidence indicating that she had sustained trauma prior to her death. Aside from the rope preserved around her neck indicating strangulation, near her left clavicle there are marks indicating that she was also subjected to sharp force trauma. Yde Girl, and other bog bodies in Ireland, had the hair on one side of their heads closely cropped, although this could be due to one side of their head being exposed to oxygen for a longer period of time than the other. Some of the bog bodies seem consistently to have been members of the upper class: their fingernails are manicured, and tests on hair protein routinely record good nutrition. Strabo records that the Celts practiced auguries on the entrails of human victims: on some bog bodies, such as the Weerdinge Men found in the northern Netherlands, the entrails have been partly drawn out through incisions.


title: Bog body

text: Modern techniques of forensic analysis now suggest that some injuries, such as broken bones and crushed skulls, were not the result of torture, but rather due to the weight of the bog. For example, the fractured skull of Grauballe Man was at one time thought to have been caused by a blow to the head. However, a CT scan of Grauballe Man by Danish scientists determined his skull was fractured due to pressure from the bog long after his death.


title: Bog body

text: A number of skeletons found in Florida have been called "bog people". These skeletons are the remains of people buried in peat between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago, during the Early and Middle Archaic period in the Americas. The peat at the Florida sites is loosely consolidated and much wetter than in European bogs. As a result, the skeletons are well preserved, but skin and most internal organs have not been preserved. An exception is that preserved brains have been found in nearly 100 skulls at Windover Archaeological Site and in one of several burials at Little Salt Spring. Textiles were also preserved with some of the burials, the oldest known textiles in Florida. A 7,000-year-old presumed peat pond burial site, the Manasota Key Offshore archaeological Site, has been found under of water near Sarasota. Archaeologists believe that early Archaic Native Americans buried the bodies in a freshwater pond when the sea level was much lower. The peat in the ponds helped preserve the skeletons.


title: Bog body

text: Ever since the Iron Age, humans have used the bogs to harvest peat, a common fuel source. On various occasions throughout history, peat diggers have come across bog bodies. Records of such finds go back as far as the 17th century, and in 1640 a bog body was discovered at Schalkholz Fen in Holstein, Germany. This was possibly the first-ever such discovery recorded. The first more fully documented account of the discovery of a bog body was at a peat bog on Drumkeragh Mountain in County Down, Ireland; it was published by Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira, the wife of the local landowner. Such reports continued into the 18th century: for instance, a body was reportedly found on the Danish island of Fyn in 1773, whilst the Kibbelgaarn body was discovered in the Netherlands in 1791. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, when such bodies were discovered, they were often removed from the bogs and given a Christian burial on consecrated church ground in keeping with the religious beliefs of the community who found them, who often assumed that they were relatively modern.


title: Bog body

text: With the rise of antiquarianism in the 19th century, some people began to speculate that many of the bog bodies were not recent murder victims but were ancient in origin. In 1843, at Corselitze on Falster in Denmark, a bog body unusually buried with ornaments (seven glass beads and a bronze pin) was unearthed and subsequently given a Christian burial. By order of the Crown Prince Frederick, who was an antiquarian, the body was dug up again and sent to the National Museum of Denmark. According to the archaeologist P.V. Glob, it was "he, more than anyone else, [who] helped to arouse the wide interest in Danish antiquities" such as the bog bodies.


title: Bog body

text: After the Haraldskær Woman was unearthed in Denmark, she was exhibited as having been the legendary Queen Gunhild of the Early Mediaeval period. This view was disputed by the archaeologist J. J. A. Worsaae, who argued that the body was Iron Age in origin, like most bog bodies, and predated any historical persons by at least 500 years. The first bog body that was photographed was the Iron Age Rendswühren Man, discovered in 1871, at the Heidmoor Fen, near Kiel in Germany. His body was subsequently smoked as an early attempt at conservation and put on display in a museum.


title: Bog body

text: With the rise of modern archaeology in the early 20th century, archeologists began to excavate and investigate bog bodies more carefully and thoroughly.


title: Bog body

text: Until the mid-20th century, it was not readily apparent at the time of discovery whether a body had been buried in a bog for years, decades, or centuries. But, modern forensic and medical technologies (such as radiocarbon dating) have been developed that allow researchers to more closely determine the age of the burial, the person's age at death, and other details. Scientists have been able to study the skin of the bog bodies, reconstruct their appearance and even determine what their last meal was from their stomach contents since peat marsh preserves soft internal tissue. Radiocarbon dating is also common as it accurately gives the date of the find, most usually from the Iron Age. For example, Tollund man of Denmark, whose remains were recovered in 1950, has undergone radiocarbon analyses that place his death date to around the 3rd or 4th century.


title: Bog body

text: More modern analyses using stable isotope measurements have allowed scientists to study bone collagen collected from Tollund Man to determine his diet as being terrestrial-based. Their teeth also indicate their age at death and what type of food they ate throughout their lifetime. Dental caries, which are cavities within teeth, can direct archaeologist toward a persons diet prior to their death. Unlike erosion that the teeth may undergo due to decay, dental caries are typically sharp and well defined cavities that have a larger diameter than erosion that occurs after death. Significant rates of dental caries point to diets that are rich in carbohydrates and can lead archaeologists to differentiate between plant-based diets and protein-based diets (animal protein is non-cariogenic). Dental enamel defects known as hypoplasias can also be seen in the analysis of teeth and can point towards malnutrition as well as diseases. Ground-penetrating radar can be used in archaeological investigation to map features beneath the ground to reconstruct 3D visualizations. For bog bodies, ground-penetrating radar can be used to detect bodies and artifacts beneath the bog surface before cutting into the peat.


title: Bog body

text: Forensic facial reconstruction is one technique used in studying the bog bodies. Originally designed for identifying modern faces in crime investigations, this technique is a way of working out the facial features of a person by the shape of their skull. The face of one bog body, Yde Girl, was reconstructed in 1992 by forensic pathologist Richard Neave of Manchester University using CT scans of her head. Yde Girl and her modern reconstruction are displayed at the Drents Museum in Assen. Such reconstructions have also been made of the heads of Lindow Man (British Museum, London, United Kingdom), Grauballe Man, Girl of the Uchter Moor, Clonycavan Man, Roter Franz and Windeby I.


title: Bog body

text: Hundreds of bog bodies have been recovered and studied. The bodies have been most commonly found in the Northern European countries of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Ireland. In 1965, the German scientist Alfred Dieck catalogued more than 1,850 bog bodies, but later scholarship revealed that much of Dieck's work was erroneous, and an exact number of discovered bodies is unknown.


title: Bog body

text: Several bog bodies are notable for the high quality of their preservation and the substantial research by archaeologists and forensic scientists.


title: Blood diamond

text: Blood diamonds (also called conflict diamonds, brown diamonds, hot diamonds, or red diamonds) are diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the 20th–21st century civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau have been given the label. The term conflict resource refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources. Blood diamonds can also be smuggled by organized crime syndicates so that they could be sold on the black market.


title: Blood diamond

text: Philippe Le Billon describes the 'conflict resources' argument resting on the suggestion that the most valuable resources, if available to the weaker force in a conflict, can 'motivate' and serve to sustain it. Commodity prices on global markets, however, are not an adequate proxy for the economic value of a natural resource to participants in armed conflict. Critical factors include location, mode of production, and subsequent route to market. Gemstones are exceptionally light and small in relation to their value as observed by Richard Auty who presents the stark contrast – tens of thousands of times the price per kilogram – of diamonds compared to other resources and consequently how 'lootable' they are.


title: Blood diamond

text: Deep mining for gold, kimberlite diamonds or other minerals requires the operation and maintenance of a capital-intensive facility; alluvial deposits by contrast, can be exploited cheaply using artisan tools for however long the relevant land is secured. Alluvial diamonds are therefore more easily exploited by rebels. These differences between primary and secondary diamonds in resource diffusion and cost of extraction are the basis for Lujana et al.'s rejection of non-resource based claims for Botswana and Sierra Leone's different experience of stability and conflict, since both countries have extensive diamond resources but in different formations.


title: Blood diamond

text: Despite efforts to frustrate the sale of resources emerging from conflicts, a notable workaround is the agreement of what Michael Ross terms 'booty futures', citing examples mostly from the 1990s concerning diamonds and oil from conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. In these agreements, worth tens of millions of dollars, both rebels and government parties to conflict negotiate deals to realise value now from the prospect of resource exploitation in the future. This enables the presence of valuable natural resources to finance fighting for either side without being in production or even in the possession and control of said fighters. Natural resources still funding fighters who don't possess them he argues is particularly 'dangerous' because this finance is available to those otherwise losing, or even yet to initiate armed conflict, so can make new conflicts possible or have the effect of lengthening those where defeat may have come sooner.


title: Blood diamond

text: The different mode of production of kimberlite and alluvial diamonds explains why the presence of the latter in fought over areas fuels conflict in ways the former does not. The need to realise financial value from the resource, means that the availability of 'futures' contracts, and suitability for looting, are key to its influence. Gemstones and rare minerals are much better suited to this activity than heavier or otherwise less portable resources, however valuable those may be in times of peace.


title: Blood diamond

text: These findings have moved campaigners, policymakers and diplomats to devise regulatory interventions intended to prevent natural resources from funding continued fighting in the hope that this might hasten an end to those conflicts. In the twelve years that followed the end of the Cold War, resolutions imposing sanctions on resource exporters in ten different conflicts were passed at the Security Council of the United Nations.


title: Blood diamond

text: Reports estimated that as much as 21% of the total diamond production in the 1980s was being sold for illegal and unethical purposes and 19% was specifically "conflict" in nature. By 1999, the illegal diamond trade was estimated by the World Diamond Council to have been reduced to 4% of the world's diamond production. The World Diamond Council reported that by 2004 this percentage had fallen to approximately 1% and up to today the World Diamond Council refers to this illegal trade to be virtually eliminated, meaning that more than 99% of diamonds being sold have a legal background.


title: Blood diamond

text: Despite the UN Resolution, UNITA was able to continue to sell or trade some diamonds in order to finance its war effort. The UN set out to find how this remaining illicit trade was being conducted and appointed Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler to investigate. In 2000, he produced the Fowler Report, which named those countries, organizations and individuals involved in the trade. The report is credited with establishing the link between diamonds and third world conflicts, and led directly to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1295, as well as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Still, after the report was published in 2013 smugglers from these African countries were selling blood diamonds through channels less sophisticated such as social media posts. And rhinestones from Angola, produced by UNITA were being traded to Cameroon to get them a Cameroonian certificate naturalization to then be sold as legitimate.


title: Blood diamond

text: Ivory Coast began to develop a fledgling diamond mining industry in the early 1990s. A coup overthrew the government in 1999, starting a civil war. The country became a route for exporting diamonds from Liberia and war-torn Sierra Leone. Foreign investment begin to withdraw from Ivory Coast. To curtail the illegal trade, the nation stopped all diamond mining and the UN Security Council banned all exports of diamonds from Ivory Coast in December 2005. This ban lasted about ten years but it was later lifted in April 2014 when members of the UN council voted to suspend the sanction. The Kimberley process officials also notified in November 2013 that Ivory Coast was right producing artisanal diamonds.


title: Blood diamond

text: Despite UN sanctions, the illicit diamond trade still exists in Ivory Coast. Rough diamonds are exported out of the country to neighboring states and international trading centers through the northern Forces Nouvelles controlled section of the country, a group which is reported to be using these funds of chele to re-arm.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) has suffered numerous looting wars in the 1990s, but has been a member of the Kimberley Process since 2003 and now exports about 8% of the world's diamonds. , there is a warning concerning diamonds proceeding from this area since there have been multiple cases of fake Kimberley certificates accompanying the gems. One of De Beers most celebrated and priceless diamonds, the D-colour Millennium Star was discovered in the DRC and sold to De Beers, in open competition with other diamond buyers, between 1991 and 1992.


title: Blood diamond

text: From 1989 to 2003, Liberia was engaged in a civil war. In 2000, the UN accused Liberian president Charles G. Taylor of supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. In 2001, the United Nations applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade. In August 2003, Taylor stepped down as president and, after being exiled to Nigeria, faced trial in The Hague. On July 21, 2006, he pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity and war crimes, of which he was found guilty in April 2012. On May 30, 2012, he began a 50-year sentence in a high security prison in the United Kingdom.


title: Blood diamond

text: Around the time of the 1998 United States embassy bombings, al-Qaeda allegedly bought gems from Liberia as some of its other financial assets were frozen.


title: Blood diamond

text: Having regained peace, Liberia is attempting to construct a legitimate diamond mining industry. The UN has lifted sanctions and Liberia is now a member of the Kimberley Process.


title: Blood diamond

text: In December 2014 however, Liberian diamonds were reported to be partly produced using child labor according to the U.S. Department of Labor's "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor".


title: Blood diamond

text: The Sierra Leone Civil War started in 1991 and continued until 2002, costing at least 50,000 lives and causing local people to suffer killings, mutilation, rape, torture and abduction, mainly due to the brutal warfare waged by rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) claimed that they supported causes of justice and democracy in the beginning, but later on they started to control the villages and to prevent local people from voting for the new government by chopping off their limbs. Victims included children and infants. It created numerous examples of physical and psychological harm across Sierra Leone.


title: Blood diamond

text: Moreover, they also occupied the diamond mines in order to get access to funding and continued support of their actions. For example, during that time, RUF was mining up to $125 million of diamonds yearly. Since diamonds are used as a funding source, they also created opportunities for tax evasion and financial support of crime. Therefore, United Nations Security Council imposed diamond sanctions in 2000, which were then lifted in 2003. According to National Geographic News, all of these civil wars and conflicts created by rebel groups resulted in over four million deaths in the African population and injuries to over two million civilians. Another latest conflict diamond statistic from Statistic Brain, revealed that Sierra Leone has been listed as second highest in the production of conflict diamonds, which is shown as 1% of the world's production, after Angola, which produced 2.1% in 2016. 15% of Sierra Leone's diamond production are conflict diamonds. It shows that the production of conflict diamonds still exists in Sierra Leone.


title: Blood diamond

text: According to the 2005 Country Reports on Human Right Practices of Africa from the United States, serious human rights issues still exist in Sierra Leone, even though the 11-year civil conflict had officially ended by 2002. Sierra Leone remains in an unstable political situation, although the country has elected a new government. The huge consequences of blood diamonds still remains a mainstream issue in Sierra Leone. One of the biggest issues is people still being abused by the security forces, including rape and the use of excessive force on detainees, including teenagers. Child abuse and child labor are other serious issues which took place in Sierra Leone after the civil conflicts. As they need a huge number of workers, the security forces started kidnapping and forcing young adults to be their slaves; children were forced to join their army as soldiers, and women were raped. They even burned entire villages. Thousands of men, women, and children are used as slaves to collect diamonds, and they are forced to use their bare hands to dig in mud along river banks instead of digging with tools.


title: Blood diamond

text: Based on the report, The Truth About Diamonds: Conflict and Development from Global Witness, it mentioned that Sierra Leone is listed as second from the bottom of the United Nation Human Development Index. It also shows that Sierra Leone still makes slow progress, in 2016, in such different aspects as, for example, education, health, and human rights, since 1990, which is also the year that conflicts took place in Sierra Leone. It shows that it is a huge consequence of blood diamonds that it brought into Sierra Leone. Even though the war had ended in 2002 and the government tried to improve and adjust the cooperation of the diamond industry. Sierra Leone resulted in an increase of over US$140 million in 2005 and attempted a percentage return of export tax to diamond mining communities. However, it does not improve anythingthe money is not reaching the public and it has not provided benefit to anyone in the communities. For instance, the Kono district in Sierra Leone has been mined for 70 years, but they still have no basic facilities, like electricity and repairing of roads. Houses are destroyed because of the civil wars. It also examines the unethical issues of how rebel groups treat those locals. They used brainwashing of inexperienced young children and forced them to be child soldiers as they lost their personal freedom and rights under command that included violence and intimidation.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) was expelled from the Kimberley Process in 2004 because, despite having no official diamond mining industry, the country was exporting large quantities of diamonds, the origin of which it could not detail. It was also accused of falsifying certificates of origin. The Republic of the Congo was readmitted in 2007.


title: Blood diamond

text: Zimbabwe Diamonds are not considered conflict diamonds by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.


title: Blood diamond

text: In July 2010, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme agreed that diamonds from the country's disputed Marange Diamond Fields could be sold on the international market, after a report from the Scheme's monitor a month earlier described diamonds mined from the fields as conflict-free.


title: Blood diamond

text: Global Witness was one of the first organizations to pick up on the link between diamonds and conflicts in Africa in its 1998 report entitled "A Rough Trade". With the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173 in 1998, the United Nations identified the conflict diamond issue as a funding for war. The Fowler Report in 2000 detailed in depth how UNITA was financing its war activities, and in May 2000, led directly to the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1295 and the diamond producing countries of southern Africa meeting in Kimberley, South Africa to plan a method by which the trade in conflict diamonds could be halted, and buyers of diamonds could be assured that their diamonds have not contributed to violence. In this resolution the Security Council wrote:


title: Blood diamond

text: Welcomes the proposal that a meeting of experts be convened for the purpose of devising a system of controls to facilitate the implementation of the measures contained in Resolution 1173 (1998), including arrangements that would allow for increased transparency and accountability in the control of diamonds from their point of origin to the bourses, emphasizes that it is important that, in devising such controls, every effort be made to avoid inflicting collateral damage on the legitimate diamond trade, and welcomes the intention of the Republic of South Africa to host a relevant conference this year".


title: Blood diamond

text: On July 19, 2000, the World Diamond Congress at Antwerp adopted a resolution to strengthen the diamond industry's ability to block sales of conflict diamonds. The resolution called for an international certification system on the export and import of diamonds, legislation in all countries to accept only officially sealed packages of diamonds, for countries to impose criminal charges on anyone trafficking in conflict diamonds, and instituted a ban on any individual found trading in conflict diamonds from the diamond bourses of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses. The Kimberley Process was at the start led by South Africa and Canada as vice president and since then every year a new chair and vice chair country are elected to maintain the legitimacy of their practices. This system tracks diamonds from the mine to the market and regulates the policing surrounding the export, manufacture and sale of the products. Also in tourist countries like the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. All the Kimberley member states are not allowed to trade with non members. Before a gemstone is allowed through the airports to other countries, the Kimberley Certification must be presented by the gem's owner or obtained from a renowned attorney. The certificate should also be requested by the customer when the gems have reached a retail store to ensure its provenance.


title: Blood diamond

text: On January 17–18 of 2001, diamond industry figures convened and formed the new organization, the World Diamond Council. This new body set out to draft a new process, whereby all diamond rough could be certified as coming from a non-conflict source.


title: Blood diamond

text: The KPCS was given approval by the UN on March 13, 2002, and in November, after two years of negotiation between governments, diamond producers, and Non-Government organizations, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was created.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Kimberley Process attempted to curtail the flow of conflict diamonds, help stabilize fragile countries and support their development. As the Kimberley Process has made life harder for criminals, it has brought large volumes of diamonds onto the legal market that would not otherwise have made it there. This has increased the revenues of poor governments, and helped them to address their countries’ development challenges. For instance, around $125 million worth of diamonds were legally exported from Sierra Leone in 2006, compared to almost none at the end of the 1990s.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Kimberley Process has ultimately failed to stem the flow of blood diamonds, leading key proponents such as Global Witness to abandon the scheme. In addition, there is no guarantee that diamonds with a Kimberley Process Certification are in fact conflict-free. This is due to the nature of the corrupt government officials in the leading diamond producing countries. It is common for these officials to be bribed with $50 to $100 a day in exchange for paperwork declaring that blood diamonds are Kimberley Process Certified.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Kimberley system attempted to increase governments' transparency by forcing them to keep records of the diamonds they are exporting and importing and how much they are worth. In theory, this would show governments their finances so that they can be held accountable for how much they are spending for the benefit of the country's population. However non-compliance by countries such as Venezuela has led to the failure of accountability.


title: Blood diamond

text: The company Materialytics claims that it can trace the origin of virtually any diamond using Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. However, there is no way to know whether a diamond purchased online is blood free or not.


title: Blood diamond

text: On January 18, 2001, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13194 which prohibited the importation of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone into the United States in accordance with the UN resolutions. On May 22, 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13213 which banned rough diamond importation from Liberia into the United States. Liberia had been recognized by the United Nations as acting as a pipeline for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone.


title: Blood diamond

text: United States enacted the Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA) on April 25, 2003, implemented on July 29, 2003, by Executive Order 13312. The CDTA installed the legislation to implement the KPCS in law in the United States. The implementation of this legislation was key to the success of the KPCS, as the United States is the largest consumer of diamonds. The CDTA states: 'As the consumer of a majority of the world's supply of diamonds, the United States has an obligation to help sever the link between diamonds and conflict and press for implementation of an effective solution.


title: Blood diamond

text: The United States Department of State also maintains an office for a Special Adviser for Conflict Diamonds. As of October 14, 2015, the position is held by Ashley Orbach.


title: Blood diamond

text: During the 1990s, diamond-rich areas were discovered in Northern Canada. Canada is one of the key players in the diamond industry. Partnership Africa Canada was created in 1986 to help with the crisis in Africa. This organization is also part of the Diamond Development Initiative. The Diamond Development Initiative helps improve and regulate the legal diamond industry.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Kimberley Process was initiated in May 2000 by South Africa with Canada, a major supporter of instituting the scheme. Canada has now passed several laws that help stop the trade of conflict diamonds. The laws deal with the export and import of rough diamonds, and also how they are transferred. In December 2002, the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act was passed by the Canadian government. This law acts as a system that helps control the importing, exporting and transporting of rough diamonds through Canada. The Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act also states that the Kimberley Process is the minimum requirement of certifying rough diamonds and a certificate is also required for all shipments of diamonds. This certificate is called the Canadian Certificate, it gives permission for an officer to seize any shipment of diamonds that does not meet the requirements of the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act.


title: Blood diamond

text: The Government of the Northwest Territories of Canada (GNWT) also has a unique certification program. They offer a Government certificate on all diamonds that are mined, cut, and polished in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Canadian diamonds are tracked from the mine, through the refining process, to the retail jeweler with a unique diamond identification number (DIN) laser inscribed on the diamond's girdle. To obtain this certificate one must cut and polish the diamond in the NWT.


title: Blood diamond

text: Technical services have emerged that may act as a solution for tracking diamond movement across borders. A service was launched in July 2016 that allows managers to build systems using a blockchain database for tracking high-value or highly regulated items through a supply chain. Everledger is one using such a system to "record the movement of diamonds from mines to jewelry stores" and is one of the inaugural clients of a new blockchain-based tracking service from IBM.


title: Liberland

text: Liberland, also known as the Free Republic of Liberland, is a micronation in Southeast Europe claiming an uninhabited parcel of disputed land on the western bank of the Danube, between Croatia and Serbia (locally known as Gornja Siga). It was proclaimed on 13 April 2015 by the Czech right-libertarian politician and activist Vít Jedlička.


title: Liberland

text: The official website of Liberland states that the nation was created in the wake of the ongoing Croatia–Serbia border dispute. According to Jedlička, this dispute resulted in a plot of land west of the Danube that was not claimed by either side.


title: Liberland

text: The parcel of land in question is in area, roughly the same size as Gibraltar. It has been administered by Croatia since the Croatian War of Independence. Liberland has no diplomatic recognition from any recognized nation. The land lacks infrastructure and lies on the floodplain of the Danube.


title: Liberland

text: The dispute regarding the border along the Danube River valley first arose in 1947 but was left unresolved during the existence of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It became a contentious issue after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Serbia holds the opinion that the thalweg of the Danube valley and the centre line of the river represents the international border between the two countries. Croatia disagrees and claims that the international border lies along the boundaries of the cadastral municipalities located along the riverdeparting from the course at several pointsreflecting the course of the Danube which existed in the 19th century before meandering and hydraulic engineering works altered its course. As a result, Croatia claims a large part of the disputed area controlled by Serbia, while Serbia does not claim the much smaller parts controlled by Croatia.


title: Liberland

text: Jedlička says that the land he has claimed, known as "Gornja Siga" (meaning "upper tufa"), was not claimed by either side.


title: Liberland

text: The area is about , about the size of Gibraltar, and most of it is covered with forests. There are no residents. A journalist from the Czech newspaper "" who visited the area in April 2015 found a house that had been abandoned for about thirty years, according to people living in the vicinity. The access road was reported to be in a bad condition.


title: Liberland

text: The Danube, an international waterway with free access to the Black Sea for several landlocked nations, runs along the self-proclaimed territory.


title: Liberland

text: The flag raising in Gornja Siga was performed by Vít Jedlička and some of his associates on the same day the republic was proclaimed. Jedlička is a member of the Czech Party of Free Citizens, which bases its values on the classical liberal ideology.


title: Liberland

text: Jedlička stated that no nation claims the land as its own and he therefore could claim it using the "terra nullius" doctrine. The border, he argued, was defined in accordance with Croatian and Serbian border claims and did not interfere with any other state's sovereignty. Jedlička said in April 2015 that an official diplomatic note would be sent to both Croatia and Serbia, and later to all other states, with a formal request for international recognition.


title: Liberland

text: On 18 December 2015, Jedlička held an event at which he presented the first provisional government of Liberland and its ministers of finance, foreign affairs, interior and justice as well as two vice presidents.


title: Liberland

text: In May 2015, Vít Jedlička and his translator Sven Sambunjak were briefly detained by Croatian police after making an attempt to cross the border. Jedlička spent one night in detention and then was convicted and ordered to pay a fine for illegal crossing of the Croatian border but appealed the verdict. He claimed that there were at least three Liberland citizens inside the area, who came from Switzerland.


title: Liberland

text: Later that month, Vít Jedlička was detained again. Initially, reporters were able to enter the area with Jedlička but subsequently they were also denied entry, including journalists from the Serbian public broadcast service Radio Television of Vojvodina, and from the Bosnian newspaper "Dnevni avaz".


title: Liberland

text: The detained were from various countries, including the Republic of Ireland, Germany, Denmark, and the United States. Croatian police have continued detaining people, including those that entered the area by boat (via an international waterway). One of them, Danish activist Ulrik Grøssel Haagensen, was placed in house arrest for 5 days before being sentenced to 15 days of prison, triggering some protests in Denmark.


title: Liberland

text: In May 2016, several appeals court decisions from Croatia were published. The court upheld that the crossings from Croatia were illegal, but found the convictions for crossings from Serbia improper. The court said that the lower court committed "a fundamental breach of misdemeanour proceedings" and "essential procedural violations". It further ruled that "the facts were incorrectly and incompletely established [by the prosecutor] which could lead to misapplication of substantive law". A retrial was ordered in 6 of the 7 appeals. The lower court is required to determine the location of the border and the border crossing.


title: Liberland

text: Journalists have been uncertain as to how serious Jedlička is about his claims, with some calling it a publicity stunt.


title: Liberland

text: In an interview with "Parlamentní Listy" in April 2015, Jedlička claimed that he had received positive reactions for his initiative, mainly from his own party, the Party of Free Citizens, for which he was a regional chairman, but also from some members of the Civic Democratic Party and the Pirate Party.


title: Liberland

text: On 20 May 2015, Petr Mach, the leader of the Party of Free Citizens, expressed support for the creation of a state based on ideas of freedom, adding that the Party of Free Citizens wants the Czech Republic to become a similarly free country.


title: Liberland

text: Dominik Stroukal from the Czech-Slovak branch of the Ludwig von Mises Institute wrote: "The escapade succeeded for Vít. The whole world reports about Liberland with words like 'tax competition', 'libertarianism', etc."


title: Liberland

text: Goran Vojković, professor of law and columnist from the Croatian news portal "Index.hr", described Liberland as a "circus which threatens Croatian territory", and argued that there was a risk that Croatia's claim to control land on the other side of the Danube may be weakened by the attention that the Liberland project has drawn to the border dispute.


title: Liberland

text: In 2016, an article in Stratfor summarized the initiative as follows: "Liberland is a curious case because, in principle, none of the actors that could claim control over it seems interested in doing so. But this will probably remain a curiosity with negligible consequences at the international level. For the rest of the world's disputed territories, violence and diplomacy will remain the main tools to claim ownership."


title: Liberland

text: Legal experts in both Serbia and Croatia have said that, under international law, Jedlička lacks the right to claim the area, which is currently the subject of a dispute between the two nations. Croatia and Serbia have dismissed Jedlička's claims as frivolous, although the two countries have reacted in different ways. On 24 April 2015, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that while they consider the affair a trivial matter, the "new state" does not impinge upon the Serbian border, which is delineated by the Danube. Croatia, which currently administers the land in question, has stated that after international arbitration, it should be awarded to Croatia or Serbia, not to a third party.


title: Liberland

text: An article in the "Chicago Journal of International Law", the law review of the University of Chicago Law School, examined Liberland's claim to statehood in light of the criteria laid out by the Montevideo Convention. According to the author, "Croatia’s insistence that Liberland is part of Serbia could constitute a renunciation of Croatia’s legal rights to Liberland. Conversely, if the territory that Liberland claims as its own is Serbian, the Serbian government’s renunciation of its title to that land could also be a quitclaim that would transform the legal status of the land to "terra nullius". In both instances, the territory would belong to the first entityin this case Liberlandto claim it. However, because of the complicated history of the Croatian-Serbian border region, it may be difficult to ascertain who the land belongs to under international law."


title: Liberland

text: An article in the "Michigan Journal of International Law" argues that the United Nations should recognize Liberland.


title: Liberland

text: A government with ten to twenty members has been suggested for the administration of Liberland, to be elected by electronic voting. In an interview, Jedlička said he intended to operate on an open-border policy. The goal of the micronation, as claimed by its website, is to create "a society where righteous people can prosper with minimal state regulations and taxes". The founders are inspired by countries like Monaco and Liechtenstein.


title: Liberland

text: A draft version of a codified constitution has been published on liberland.org. and a list of laws to be included in the constitution. These documents describe Liberland as a country governed under a three-power system with executive, legislative and judicial sectors that seek to promote individual rights, including property rights, freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. It has also a list of criminal offences, which include "polluting environment", "public nuisance" in addition to crimes such as murder, manslaughter and theft. There are plans for an official cryptocurrency called the merit, although all other currencies would be allowed. There will be a maximum of 700 million merits.


title: Liberland

text: In an attempt to gain recognition at the UN, Liberland appointed 70 representatives in over 60 countries within a year of proclamation. As of February 2018, Liberland had recruited over 100 representatives in over 80 countries.


title: Liberland

text: There has been no diplomatic recognition of Liberland by any member of the United Nations. Jedlička has visited another unrecognized republic, Somaliland, a self-declared state that proclaimed its independence from Somalia in 1991, and discussed mutual recognition with them.


title: Kamadeva

text: Kama (, ), also known as Kamadeva and Manmatha, is the Hindu god of love and desire, often portrayed alongside his consort, Rati.


title: Kamadeva

text: The Atharva Veda regards Kamadeva as the wielder of the creative power of the universe, also describing him to have been "born at first, him neither the gods nor the fathers ever equalled". He is described to be attended by the celestial nymphs of Hindu mythology, the apsaras, depicted as a youthful deity of blue or red skin, decked with ornaments and flowers, armed with a bow of sugarcane and shooting arrows of flowers.


title: Kamadeva

text: His most popular legend is his story of incineration by Shiva's third eye while the latter was meditating, later embodied on earth as the eldest son of Krishna and his chief consort Rukmini, Pradyumna.


title: Kamadeva

text: The name "Kama-deva" () can be translated as 'god of love'. "Deva" means heavenly or divine, and refers to a deity in Hinduism. "Kama" () means "desire" or "longing", especially as in sensual or sexual love. The name is used in Rig Veda (RV 9, 113. 11). Kamadeva is a name of Vishnu in Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana (SB 5.18.15), and also Krishna as well as Shiva. "Kama" is also a name used for Agni (Atharva Veda 6.36.3).


title: Kamadeva

text: Kāmadeva is represented as a young, handsome man who wields a bow and arrows. His bow is made of sugarcane, and his arrows are decorated with five kinds of fragrant flowers. The five flowers are white lotus, Ashoka tree flowers, Mango tree flowers, Jasmine flowers and blue lotus flowers. The names of these flowers in Sanskrit in order are Aravinda, Ashoka, Choota, Navamallika, and Neelotpala. A terracotta murti of Kamadeva of great antiquity is housed in the Mathura Museum, UP, India.


title: Kamadeva

text: Some of the attributes of Kamadeva are: his companions are a cuckoo, a parrot, humming bees, the season of spring, and the gentle breeze. All these are symbols of spring season, when his festival is celebrated as Holi, Holika or Vasanta.


title: Kamadeva

text: Images and stories about Hindu god Kamadeva are traced to the verses of the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, although he is better known from the stories of the Puranas.


title: Kamadeva

text: According to Shiva Purana, Kamadeva is a son or a creation of Brahma. In other sources such as the Skanda Purana, Kamadeva is a brother of Prasuti; they are both the children of Shatarupa created by Brahma.He is also considered as son of Lakshmi and Vishnu .Later interpretations also consider him the son of Vishnu. According to Matsya Purana, Visnu-Krishna and Kamadeva have a historical relationship. In the Harivamsa, his mother is the goddess Lakshmi.


title: Kamadeva

text: Kamadeva is also mentioned in the 12th-century Javanese poem Smaradahana, a rendering of the myth of Kamadeva's burning by Shiva and fall from heaven to earth. Kama and his consort Rati are referenced as "Kamajaya" and "Kamarati" in Kakawin poetry and later Wayang narratives.


title: Kamadeva

text: Kamadeva was married to Ratī, the daughter of Daksha, created from his sweat. Rati is a minor character in many traditional dramas involving Kamadeva, and in some ways represents an attribute. The goddess Vasanta (spring), who also accompanies Kamadeva, emerges from a sigh of frustration. Kama often takes part in Puranic battles with his troops of soldiers.


title: Kamadeva

text: The story of the birth of Kamadeva has several variants in different Puranas. In the version of Mahabharata,Brahma: he is son of Devi Lakshmi and Vishnu. He is reborn as Pradyumna to Rukmini and Krishna, the incarnation of Lakshmi and Narayana. Kamadeva's consort Rati, whose very essence is desire, carries a discus and a lotus, and her arms are compared with lotus-stalks.


title: Kamadeva

text: One of the principal myths regarding Kama is that of his incineration by Shiva, the "Madana-bhasma" (Kama Dahana). It occurs in its most developed form in the Matsya Purana (verses 227-255) but is also repeated with variants in the Shaiva Purana and


title: Kamadeva

text: In the narrative, Indra and the gods are suffering at the hands of the demon Tarakasura who cannot be defeated except by Shiva's son. Brahma advises that Parvati should do sacred pooja with lord Shiva, since their offspring would be able to defeat Taraka. Indra assigns Kamadeva to break Shiva's meditation. To create a congenial atmosphere, Kamadeva (Madana) creates an untimely spring ("akāla-vasanta"). He evades Shiva's guard, Nandin, by taking the form of the fragrant southern breeze, and enters Shiva's abode.


title: Kamadeva

text: After he awakens Shiva with a flower arrow, Shiva, furious, opens his third eye, which incinerates Madana instantaneously and he is turned into ash. However, Shiva observes Parvati and asks her how he can help her. She enjoins him to resuscitate Madana, and Shiva agrees to let Madana live but in a disembodied form; hence Kamadeva is also called "Ananga" (an- = without; anga = body, "bodiless"), or "Atanu" ("a"- = without; "tanu" = body). The spirit of love embodied by Kama is now disseminated across the cosmos: afflicting humanity with the creation of a different atmosphere. Lord Shiva agrees with Mother Parvati's proposal and their pooja results the birth of Lord Karthikeya. Their son Kartikeya goes on to defeat Taraka.


title: Kamadeva

text: According to Garuda Purana, Pradyumna and Samba - the son's of Krishna, Sanat Kumara - the son of Brahma, Skanda - the son of Shiva, Sudarshana (the presiding deity of Sudarshana Chakra), and Bharata are all incarnations of Kama. The myth of Kamadeva's incineration is referenced in the "Matsya Purana" and "Bhagavata Purana" to reveal a relationship between


title: Kamadeva

text: Krishna and Kamadeva. In the narrative, Kama is reincarnated in the womb of Krishna's wife Rukmini as Pradyumna, after being burned to ashes by Shiva.


title: Kamadeva

text: The deity of Kamadeva along with his consort Rati is included in the pantheon of Vedic-Brahmanical deities such as Shiva and Parvati. In Hindu traditions for the marriage ceremony itself, the bride's feet are often painted with pictures of Suka, the parrot vahana of Kamadeva.


title: Kamadeva

text: The religious rituals addressed to him offer a means of purification and re-entry into the community. Devotion to Kamadeva keeps desire within the framework of the religious tradition. Kamadeva appears in many stories and becomes the object of devotional rituals for those seeking health, physical beauty, husbands, wives, and sons. In one story Kamadeva himself succumbs to desire, and must then worship his lover in order to be released from this passion and its curse.


title: Kamadeva

text: Holi is a Hindu festival, celebrated in the Indian subcontinent. It is sometimes called Madana-Mahotsava or Kama-Mahotsava. This festival is mentioned by Jaimini, in his early writings such as "Purvamimamsa-sutra", dated c.400 BC.


title: Kamadeva

text: The Ashoka tree is often planted near temples. The tree is said to be a symbol of love and is dedicated to Kamadeva.


title: Kamadeva

text: In the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, Krishna is identified as the original Kamadeva in Vrindavana. Kamadeva also incarnates as Krishna's son Shamba after being burned down by Shiva. Since he was begotten by Krishna himself, his qualities were similar to those of Krishna, such as his colour, appearance, and attributes. This Shamba is not considered identical with Vishnu's vyuha-manifestation called Shamba, but is an individual soul ("jiva-tattva") who, owing to his celestial powers, becomes an emanation of Vishnu's prowess.


title: Kamadeva

text: The Kamadeva that was incinerated is believed to be a celestial demigod capable of inducing love and lusty desires. He is distinguished from the spiritual Kamadeva. Here Krishna is the source of Kamadeva's inciting power, the ever-fresh transcendental god of love of Vrindavana, the origin of all forms of Kamadeva, yet above mundane love, who is worshiped with the Kama-Gayatri and Kama-Bija mantras.


title: Kamadeva

text: When Kamadeva is referenced as "smara" in "Bhāgavata Purāṇa" (book 10) in the context of the supramundane love between Krishna and the gopis (cowherd maidens), he is not the Deva who incites lusty feelings. The word "smara" rather refers to Krishna himself, who through the medium of his flute increases his influence on the devoted gopis. The symptoms of this "smarodayam" (lit. "arousal of desire") experienced by the gopis have been described in a commentary (by Vishvanatha Cakravarti) as follows: "First comes attraction expressed through the eyes, then intense attachment in the mind, then determination, loss of sleep, becoming emaciated, uninterested in external things, shamelessness, madness, becoming stunned, and death. These are the ten stages of Cupid’s effects." The beauty of Krishna's consort, Radha, is without equal in the universe, and her power constantly defeats the god of love, Kamadeva.


title: Kamadeva

text: While it is believed that there are no temples to Kamadeva, and no murtis (statues) of Kamadeva are sold for worship on the market, yet there is an ancient temple of Madan Kamdev in Baihata Chariali, Kamrup district in Assam. Madan is the brother of Kamadeva. The ruins of Madan Kamdev are scattered widely in a secluded place, covering 500 meters.


title: Kamadeva

text: Letitia Elizabeth Landon's descriptive poem "Manmadin, the Indian Cupid, floating down the Ganges" appeared in The Literary Gazette, 1822 ("Fragment in Rhyme VII.")


title: Next Irish general election

text: The next Irish general election to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas, will be held on or before March 2025, to elect between 171 and 181 TDs across Dáil constituencies of between 3 and 5 seats.


title: Next Irish general election

text: A Taoiseach with a mandate to form a government was not nominated by the current Dáil when it first met on 20 February 2020 after the 2020 general election.


title: Next Irish general election

text: Incumbent Leo Varadkar formally resigned as Taoiseach, but then continued to carry out duties, as a caretaker, pending the appointment of his successor. Negotiations concluded on 27 June 2020 with an agreement as to the appointment of Micheál Martin as Taoiseach in a three-way coalition government, consisting of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party. It was further agreed that Martin would resign as Taoiseach in December 2022, and that the same parties would then support the nomination of the leader of Fine Gael as Taoiseach, who would serve for the remainder of the 33rd Dáil. Per this agreement, Varadkar became Taoiseach again on 17 December 2022.


title: Next Irish general election

text: The current Dáil will ultimately be dissolved by the president on the advice of the then Taoiseach. This will trigger the next election.


title: Next Irish general election

text: The size of the Dáil will increase from 160 TDs at the next election. Current law requires the Constituency Commission to recommend a Dáil of 166 to 172 TDs. Under the Electoral Reform Act 2022, which is yet to be fully commenced, the Electoral Commission (a permanent body which would replace the Constituency Commission) would be required to recommend a size of the Dáil of between 171 and 181 TDs. This range reflects the growth in the population of the state, and the requirement of Article 16.6.2° of the Constitution of Ireland that there be one TD elected for no less than every 20,000 of the population and no more than every 30,000. The preliminary results of the 2022 census revealed a population of over 5.1 million, which would require a minimum Dáil size of 171 TDs. This would be the largest number in the history of the State, surpassing the previous number of 166 TDs from 1981 to 2016. The number of constituencies may also change, depending on the recommendations of the constituency review. Each constituency will return between three and five TDs, elected on the system of single transferable vote, in which voters rank candidates on their ballot papers.


title: Next Irish general election

text: When the ballot papers are counted, a quota is determined by dividing the number of valid votes by the number of seats, plus one. Any candidate receiving a number of votes exceeding the quota is elected. If fewer candidates reach the quota than the number of seats to be filled, the last-placed candidate is removed from the count and the second or subsequent preferences on those ballot papers are redistributed until a candidate is elected. If such a candidate now has more votes than the quota, their surplus is given to other candidates in order of ranking on the ballot papers. This is repeated until sufficient candidates have passed the quota to fill the available seats, or where a seat remains to be filled in a constituency and no candidate is capable of achieving a quota as there is nobody left to eliminate for a distribution then the highest place candidate without a quota is deemed elected at that point.


title: Next Irish general election

text: The outgoing Ceann Comhairle will be returned automatically unless they announce to the Dáil that they wish to retire as a TD.


title: Next Irish general election

text: The current Dáil must be dissolved no later than Wednesday 19 February 2025. This date is calculated from the provisions of Electoral Act 1992, Section 33, which states that the same Dáil shall not continue for a longer period than five years from the date of its first meeting. The writ for the election must be moved on the dissolution of the Dáil. The election must take place on a day 18 to 25 days (disregarding any excluded day) after the writs have been moved.


title: Next Irish general election

text: In the run-up to the election, various organisations are conducting opinion polls to gauge voting intentions. Results of such polls are displayed in this list.


title: Next Irish general election

text: The date range for these opinion polls is from the previous Irish general election, held on 8 February 2020, to the next election, which can be held no later than 20 February 2025.


title: Bionicle

text: Bionicle was a line of Lego construction toys, marketed primarily towards 8-to-16-year-olds. The line originally launched in 2001 as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series. Over the following decade, it became one of Lego's biggest-selling properties, turning into a franchise and playing a part in saving the company from its financial crisis of the late 1990s. Despite a planned twenty-year tenure, the theme was discontinued in 2010, but was rebooted in 2015 for a further two years.


title: Bionicle

text: Unlike previous Lego themes, Bionicle was accompanied by an original story told across a multimedia spectrum. It depicts the exploits of the Toa, heroic biomechanical beings with innate elemental abilities whose duty is to maintain peace throughout their universe. Bionicle's success prompted subsequent Lego themes to use similar story-telling methods.


title: Bionicle

text: After suffering a ten-year downturn in the 1990s, the Lego Group went forward with the belief that a theme with a storyline behind it would appeal to consumers. Their initial attempt was the space opera franchise "Star Wars", which became an instant success. However, the royalty payments to Lucasfilm marginalized Lego's profits, prompting them to conceive their own story-driven themes.


title: Bionicle

text: The concept for Bionicle originated in an idea by co-creator Christian Faber that was named Cybots, a line of humanoid action figures with attachable limbs and ball-and-socket joints. He recalled, "I was sitting with LEGO Technic and thought I would love to build a character instead of a car. I thought of this biological thing: The human body is built from small parts into a functional body just like a model. What if you got a box full of spare parts and built a living thing?". He pitched the idea to Lego, but it was initially implemented as Slizer/Throwbots in 1999 and RoboRiders in 2000.


title: Bionicle

text: A new project was then conceived that centred on a story-driven theme. The project was originally conceived as "BoneHeads of Voodoo Island" by Christian Faber and Lego employees Bob Thompson and Martin Riber Andersen from a brief by Erik Kramer that was sent to outside writers. One of the writers who received it was Alastair Swinnerton, who rewrote the concept and was later invited to pitch it to the Lego Group at their headquarters in Billund, Denmark. The revised concept was well received and Swinnerton was commissioned to expand his initial pitch into a full 'bible'. On his second visit to Billund, the project was given approval and entitled "Bionicle" at an internal Lego meeting (a portmanteau constructed from the words "biological chronicle", with reference to the word "bionics"). The names "BioKnights" and "Afterman" were also considered prior to the finalization of the brand.


title: Bionicle

text: To accompany the sets, Lego worked with Swinnerton and the creative agency Advance to create an elaborate story featuring extensive lore centering on half-organic, half-robotic characters and telling it across a vast multimedia spectrum including comic books, novels, games, movies and online content. The use of tropical environments and characters based on classical elements were carried over from Slizer/Throwbots and RoboRiders, as well as the Lego Technic building system featured in those sets. One particular element – the then-innovative 'ball-and-socket' system which created free joint movement – would feature heavily in Bionicle and be expanded upon in subsequent sets.


title: Bionicle

text: The first wave of Bionicle sets were initially launched in December 2000 in Europe and Australasia as a "test market" to predict how well the series would sell in North America. The official website, explaining the premise of Bionicle, also debuted around the same time. After a positive reception, Bionicle premiered in North America in mid-2001, where it generated massive success and earned the Lego Group £100 million in its first year. New sets were released every six months, ranging from buildable action figures to play sets and vehicles, and would gradually increase in size and flexibility with every new wave. Collectibles such as weapon ammo and the "Kanohi" masks that certain characters wore were also sold; some became rare and valuable and withheld secret codes that when entered onto the official Bionicle website, provided the user with "Kanoka Points" that enabled them to access exclusive membership material.


title: Bionicle

text: As Bionicle's popularity rose, it became one of Lego's most successful properties, accounting for nearly all of their financial turnover from the previous decade. Bionicle was named as the #1 Lego theme in 2003 and 2006 in terms of sales and popularity, with other Lego themes at the time failing to match profits generated by Bionicle. Its popularity led to high web traffic on its official website, averaging more than one million page views per month, and further kinds of merchandise such as clothes, toiletries and fast-food restaurant collectibles.


title: Bionicle

text: On November 24, 2009, Lego announced that production on new Bionicle sets would cease after a final wave was released in 2010. The decision was made due to recent low sales and a lack of new interest in the theme, possibly brought on by its decade-long backstory and lore. A successor theme, Hero Factory, was launched in 2010. It continued to use the building system introduced in Bionicle before evolving into the Character and Creature Building System (CCBS) that would later be carried over into other Lego sets and eventually Bionicle's 2015 reintroduction.


title: Bionicle

text: At his request, long-term Bionicle comic book writer and story contributor Greg Farshtey was given permission to continue the Bionicle storyline, with chapters for new serials arranged to be posted regularly on the website BionicleStory.com. However, Farshtey stopped posting new content in 2011 due to other commitments and the website was shut down in 2013, leaving a number of serials incomplete. Farshtey continues to play an active role in the Bionicle community and regularly contributes new story details via online forums and message boards.


title: Bionicle

text: Work on a reboot to Bionicle began in 2012. Matt Betteker, who was a junior designer on Hero Factory, was promoted to senior designer for the project. The theme's comeback was announced on September 19, 2014, with the first wave of sets and story details revealed at New York Comic Con on October 9. Dubbed "Generation 2" by fans, the new storyline features the same premise as the original, albeit with simplified lore and a smaller media platform.


title: Bionicle

text: The reboot launched in January 2015 to a mixed reception from toy critics and fans of the original Bionicle franchise, with the playability of the new sets and the inspiration taken from the theme's first toy wave being praised, but the simplified story and undeveloped characters receiving less positive feedback. Despite plans to release new Bionicle sets through to at least 2017, Lego discontinued the reboot in 2016, citing low sales.


title: Bionicle

text: Set in a time predating recorded history (described as "the time before time" in the narrative) in a science fantasy universe featuring a diversity of cyborgs, the main story depicts the exploits of the Toa, heroic beings with elemental powers whose sworn duty is to protect the Matoran, the prime populace of their world, and reawaken the Great Spirit Mata Nui, their god-like guardian who was forced into a coma by the actions of the evil Makuta.


title: Bionicle

text: The first story arc (2001–2003) takes place on the tropical island of Mata Nui, named after the Great Spirit, and deals with the arrival of the six Toa Mata (later transformed into the more powerful Toa Nuva) and their adventures in protecting the Matoran villagers from Makuta's minions. A heavy emphasis is placed on the Kanohi masks worn by the Toa, which supplement their elemental powers with abilities such as super-strength and super-speed. The second arc (2004–2005) acts as a prequel to the first, set on an island city called Metru Nui. It follows another group of Toa who would go on to become Turaga, the Matoran's elders, and explains how they all came to settle on Mata Nui island. The culminating third arc (2006–2008) sees a new team of Toa set out on a quest to find the Mask of Life, an artifact that can save the dying Mata Nui. A fourth arc (2009), originally envisioned as a soft reboot of the franchise, introduces the desert world of Bara Magna and its inhabitants. However, future storylines were scrapped after Lego cancelled Bionicle later that year and replaced with one that concluded the main narrative in 2010.


title: Bionicle

text: Characters such as the Toa and Matoran are typically divided into tribes based on six "primary" elements: fire, water, air, earth, stone, and ice. Less common "secondary" elements, such as light, gravity and lightning, began being introduced in 2003. The 2009 storyline, which features a different society, uses a similar grouping method for its Glatorian and Agori characters.


title: Bionicle

text: The whole saga was developed for a multimedia platform by a team of Lego employees led by Bob Thompson and spans animations, comic books, novels, console and online games, short stories, and a series of direct-to-DVD films – "" (2003), "" (2004), "" (2005) and "" (2009). The majority of comics and novels were written by Greg Farshtey, who also published a number of in-character blogs, serials, and podcasts that expanded the franchise lore. After the toyline was discontinued, publication of these serials continued through to 2011 before halting abruptly due to Farshtey's other commitments.


title: Bionicle

text: A reboot of the original story, the revival chronicles the adventures of six elemental Toa heroes who protect the bio-mechanical inhabitants of the mystical island of Okoto from Makuta and his minions. Characters are again divided into six elemental tribes: fire, water, jungle (changed from air for creative reasons), earth, stone and ice. The reboot's multimedia spectrum was scaled back in comparison to the first generation's – online animations, a series of books and graphics novels authored by Ryder Windham, and the animated Netflix series "Lego Bionicle: The Journey to One" (2016) detail the narrative. Greg Farshtey served as a creative consultant.


title: Bionicle

text: Initially, the idea of Bionicle faced resistance from company traditionalists as the Lego Group had no experience of marketing a story-based brand of their own. The "war-like" appearance of the characters also went against the company's values of creating sets without themes of modern warfare or violence. Lego reconciled on this statement by claiming that the theme was about "Good versus evil; "good hero warriors" designed to combat "evil enemy fighters" in a mythical universe, so children are not encouraged to fight each other".


title: Bionicle

text: The Bionicle franchise was well received over its venture and became one of the Lego Group's biggest-selling properties. At the time of its launch, one reviewer described the sets as "A good combination of assembly and action figure". and first-year sales of £100 million. Bionicle later received a Toy of the Year Award for Most Innovative Toy in 2001 from the Toy Industry Association.


title: Bionicle

text: Bionicle's rapid success had a major impact on the Lego Company. Stephanie Lawrence, the global director of licensing for Lego, stated "We've created an evergreen franchise to complement the many event-based properties on the children's market. An increasing number of category manufacturers want to tap into the power of the Bionicle universe, and the key for us now is to manage the excitement to stay true to the brand and the lifestyle of our core consumer."


title: Bionicle

text: Since its launch, toy critics have said that Bionicle has changed the way children think and play with Lego products by combining "The best of Lego building with the story telling and adventure of an action figure". Toy statistics have revealed that as of 2009, 85% of American boys aged 6–12 have heard of Bionicle while 45% own the sets.


title: Bionicle

text: In 2002, several Māori iwi (tribes) from New Zealand were angered by Lego's lack of respect for some of their words which were used to name certain characters, locations and objects in the Bionicle storyline. A letter of complaint was written, and the company agreed to change the names of certain story elements (e.g. the villagers originally known as "Tohunga" was changed to "Matoran") and met with an agreement with the Māori people to still use a small minority of their words.


title: Bionicle

text: In the story, the reason for certain name changes was dubbed as a Naming Ceremony for certain Matoran after doing heroic deeds (though the pronunciations remain the same), an example being the name change of 'Huki' to 'Hewkii'. Other names such as "Toa" meaning "Warrior", "Kanohi" meaning "Face" and "Kōpaka" meaning "Ice" were not changed.


title: Child prodigy

text: A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraordinarily talented in some field.


title: Child prodigy

text: The term Wunderkind (from German "Wunderkind"; literally "wonder child") is sometimes used as a synonym for child prodigy, particularly in media accounts. "Wunderkind" also is used to recognize those who achieve success and acclaim early in their adult careers.


title: Child prodigy

text: PET scans performed on several mathematics prodigies have suggested that they think in terms of long-term working memory (LTWM). This memory, specific to a field of expertise, is capable of holding relevant information for extended periods, usually hours. For example, experienced waiters have been found to hold the orders of up to twenty customers in their heads while they serve them, but perform only as well as an average person in number-sequence recognition. The PET scans also answer questions about which specific areas of the brain associate themselves with manipulating numbers.


title: Child prodigy

text: One subject never excelled as a child in mathematics, but he taught himself algorithms and tricks for calculatory speed, becoming capable of extremely complex mental math. His brain, compared to six other controls, was studied using the PET scan, revealing separate areas of his brain that he manipulated to solve the complex problems. Some of the areas that he and presumably prodigies use are brain sectors dealing in visual and spatial memory, as well as visual mental imagery. Other areas of the brain showed use by the subject, including a sector of the brain generally related to childlike "finger counting", probably used in his mind to relate numbers to the visual cortex.


title: Child prodigy

text: Noting that the cerebellum acts to streamline the speed and efficiency of all thought processes, Vandervert explained the abilities of prodigies in terms of the collaboration of working memory and the cognitive functions of the cerebellum. Citing extensive imaging evidence, Vandervert first proposed this approach in two publications which appeared in 2003. In addition to imaging evidence, Vandervert's approach is supported by the substantial award-winning studies of the cerebellum by Masao Ito.


title: Child prodigy

text: Vandervert provided extensive argument that, in the prodigy, the transition from visual-spatial working memory to other forms of thought (language, art, mathematics) is accelerated by the unique emotional disposition of the prodigy and the cognitive functions of the cerebellum. According to Vandervert, in the emotion-driven prodigy (commonly observed as a "rage to master") the cerebellum accelerates the streamlining of the efficiencies of working memory in its manipulation and decomposition/re-composition of visual-spatial content into language acquisition and into linguistic, mathematical, and artistic precocity.


title: Child prodigy

text: Essentially, Vandervert has argued that when a child is confronted with a challenging new situation, visual-spatial working memory and speech-related and other notational system-related working memory are decomposed and re-composed (fractionated) by the cerebellum and then "blended" in the cerebral cortex in an attempt to deal with the new situation. In child prodigies, Vandervert believes this blending process is "accelerated" due to their unique emotional sensitivities which result in high levels of repetitious focus on, in most cases, particular "rule-governed" knowledge domains. He has also argued that child prodigies first began to appear about 10,000 years ago when rule-governed knowledge had accumulated to a significant point, perhaps at the agricultural-religious settlements of Göbekli Tepe or Cyprus.


title: Child prodigy

text: Some researchers believe that prodigious talent tends to arise as a result of the innate talent of the child, and the energetic and emotional investment that the child ventures. Others believe that the environment plays the dominant role, many times in obvious ways. For example, László Polgár set out to raise his children to be chess players, and all three of his daughters went on to become world-class players (two of whom are grandmasters), emphasizing the potency a child's environment can have in determining the pursuits toward which a child's energy will be directed, and showing that an incredible amount of skill can be developed through suitable training.


title: Child prodigy

text: But on the other hand George Frideric Handel was an example of the natural talent ... "he had discovered such a strong propensity to music, that his father who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed. He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey'd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep". Despite his father's opposition, Handel became a skillful performer on the harpsichord and pipe organ.


title: Child prodigy

text: Prodigiousness in childhood is not always maintained into adulthood. Some researchers have found that gifted children fall behind due to lack of effort. Jim Taylor, professor at the University of San Francisco, theorizes that this is because gifted children experience success at an early age with little to no effort and may not develop a sense of ownership of success. Therefore, these children might not develop a connection between effort and outcome. Some children might also believe that they can succeed without effort in the future as well. Dr. Anders Ericcson, professor at Florida State University, researches expert performance in sports, music, mathematics, and other activities. His findings demonstrate that prodigiousness in childhood is not a strong indicator of later success. Rather, the number of hours devoted to the activity was a better indicator.


title: Child prodigy

text: Rosemary Callard-Szulgit and other educators have written extensively about the problem of perfectionism in bright children, calling it their "number one social-emotional trait". Gifted children often associate even slight imperfection with failure, so that they become fearful of effort, even in their personal lives, and in extreme cases end up virtually immobilized.


title: Raising Hope

text: Raising Hope is an American sitcom that aired from September 21, 2010, to April 4, 2014, on Fox. Following its first season, the show received two nominations at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Martha Plimpton was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and Cloris Leachman was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.


title: Raising Hope

text: The fourth season premiered Friday, November 15, 2013, at 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central with back-to-back episodes. On March 10, 2014, Fox canceled "Raising Hope", and the series finale aired April 4, 2014.


title: Raising Hope

text: James "Jimmy" Chance is a 23-year-old living in the quirky fictional town of Natesville, who impregnates a serial killer during a one-night stand. Earning custody of his unexpected daughter, Hope, after the mother is sentenced to death, Jimmy relies on his unorthodox but well-intentioned family for support in raising her.