title: Flatworm

text: Early classification divided the flatworms in four groups: Turbellaria, Trematoda, Monogenea and Cestoda. This classification had long been recognized to be artificial, and in 1985, Ehlers proposed a phylogenetically more correct classification, where the massively polyphyletic "Turbellaria" was split into a dozen orders, and Trematoda, Monogenea and Cestoda were joined in the new order Neodermata. However, the classification presented here is the early, traditional, classification, as it still is the one used everywhere except in scientific articles.


title: Flatworm

text: These have about 4,500 species, are mostly free-living, and range from to in length. Most are predators or scavengers, and terrestrial species are mostly nocturnal and live in shaded, humid locations, such as leaf litter or rotting wood. However, some are symbiotes of other animals, such as crustaceans, and some are parasites. Free-living turbellarians are mostly black, brown or gray, but some larger ones are brightly colored. The Acoela and Nemertodermatida were traditionally regarded as turbellarians, but are now regarded as members of a separate phylum, the Acoelomorpha, or as two separate phyla. "Xenoturbella", a genus of very simple animals, has also been reclassified as a separate phylum.


title: Flatworm

text: Some turbellarians have a simple pharynx lined with cilia and generally feed by using cilia to sweep food particles and small prey into their mouths, which are usually in the middle of their undersides. Most other turbellarians have a pharynx that is eversible (can be extended by being turned inside-out), and the mouths of different species can be anywhere along the underside. The freshwater species "Microstomum caudatum" can open its mouth almost as wide as its body is long, to swallow prey about as large as itself.


title: Flatworm

text: Most turbellarians have pigment-cup ocelli ("little eyes"); one pair in most species, but two or even three pairs in others. A few large species have many eyes in clusters over the brain, mounted on tentacles, or spaced uniformly around the edge of the body. The ocelli can only distinguish the direction from which light is coming to enable the animals to avoid it. A few groups have statocysts - fluid-filled chambers containing a small, solid particle or, in a few groups, two. These statocysts are thought to function as balance and acceleration sensors, as they perform the same way in cnidarian medusae and in ctenophores. However, turbellarian statocysts have no sensory cilia, so the way they sense the movements and positions of solid particles is unknown. On the other hand, most have ciliated touch-sensor cells scattered over their bodies, especially on tentacles and around the edges. Specialized cells in pits or grooves on the head are most likely smell sensors.


title: Flatworm

text: Planarians, a subgroup of seriates, are famous for their ability to regenerate if divided by cuts across their bodies. Experiments show that (in fragments that do not already have a head) a new head grows most quickly on those fragments which were originally located closest to the original head. This suggests the growth of a head is controlled by a chemical whose concentration diminishes throughout the organism, from head to tail. Many turbellarians clone themselves by transverse or longitudinal division, whilst others, reproduce by budding.


title: Flatworm

text: The vast majority of turbellarians are hermaphrodites (they have both female and male reproductive cells) which fertilize eggs internally by copulation. Some of the larger aquatic species mate by penis fencing – a duel in which each tries to impregnate the other, and the loser adopts the female role of developing the eggs. In most species, "miniature adults" emerge when the eggs hatch, but a few large species produce plankton-like larvae.


title: Flatworm

text: These parasites' name refers to the cavities in their holdfasts (Greek τρῆμα, hole), which resemble suckers and anchor them within their hosts. The skin of all species is a syncitium, which is a layer of cells that shares a single external membrane. Trematodes are divided into two groups, Digenea and Aspidogastrea (also known as Aspodibothrea).


title: Flatworm

text: These are often called flukes, as most have flat rhomboid shapes like that of a flounder (Old English "flóc"). There are about 11,000 species, more than all other platyhelminthes combined, and second only to roundworms among parasites on metazoans. Adults usually have two holdfasts: a ring around the mouth and a larger sucker midway along what would be the underside in a free-living flatworm.


title: Flatworm

text: Although the name "Digeneans" means "two generations", most have very complex life cycles with up to seven stages, depending on what combinations of environments the early stages encounter – the most important factor being whether the eggs are deposited on land or in water. The intermediate stages transfer the parasites from one host to another. The definitive host in which adults develop is a land vertebrate; the earliest host of juvenile stages is usually a snail that may live on land or in water, whilst in many cases, a fish or arthropod is the second host. For example, the adjoining illustration shows the life cycle of the intestinal fluke "metagonimus", which hatches in the intestine of a snail, then moves to a fish where it penetrates the body and encysts in the flesh, then migrating to the small intestine of a land animal that eats the fish raw, finally generating eggs that are excreted and ingested by snails, thereby completing the cycle. A similar life cycle occurs with "Opisthorchis viverrini", which is found in South East Asia and can infect the liver of humans, causing Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). Schistosomes, which cause the devastating tropical disease bilharzia, also belong to this group.


title: Flatworm

text: Adults range between and in length. Individual adult digeneans are of a single sex, and in some species slender females live in enclosed grooves that run along the bodies of the males, partially emerging to lay eggs. In all species the adults have complex reproductive systems, capable of producing between 10,000 and 100,000 times as many eggs as a free-living flatworm. In addition, the intermediate stages that live in snails reproduce asexually.


title: Flatworm

text: Adults of different species infest different parts of the definitive host - for example the intestine, lungs, large blood vessels, and liver. The adults use a relatively large, muscular pharynx to ingest cells, cell fragments, mucus, body fluids or blood. In both the adult and snail-inhabiting stages, the external syncytium absorbs dissolved nutrients from the host. Adult digeneans can live without oxygen for long periods.


title: Flatworm

text: Members of this small group have either a single divided sucker or a row of suckers that cover the underside. They infest the guts of bony or cartilaginous fish, turtles, or the body cavities of marine and freshwater bivalves and gastropods. Their eggs produce ciliated swimming larvae, and the life cycle has one or two hosts.


title: Flatworm

text: These parasites attach themselves to their hosts by means of disks that bear crescent-shaped hooks. They are divided into the Monogenea and Cestoda groupings.


title: Flatworm

text: Of about 1,100 species of monogeneans, most are external parasites that require particular host species - mainly fish, but in some cases amphibians or aquatic reptiles. However, a few are internal parasites. Adult monogeneans have large attachment organs at the rear, known as haptors (Greek ἅπτειν, "haptein", means "catch"), which have suckers, clamps, and hooks. They often have flattened bodies. In some species, the pharynx secretes enzymes to digest the host's skin, allowing the parasite to feed on blood and cellular debris. Others graze externally on mucus and flakes of the hosts' skins. The name "Monogenea" is based on the fact that these parasites have only one nonlarval generation.


title: Flatworm

text: These are often called tapeworms because of their flat, slender but very long bodies – the name "cestode" is derived from the Latin word "cestus", which means "tape". The adults of all 3,400 cestode species are internal parasites.


title: Flatworm

text: Cestodes have no mouths or guts, and the syncitial skin absorbs nutrients – mainly carbohydrates and amino acids – from the host, and also disguises it chemically to avoid attacks by the host's immune system. Shortage of carbohydrates in the host's diet stunts the growth of parasites and may even kill them. Their metabolisms generally use simple but inefficient chemical processes, compensating for this inefficiency by consuming large amounts of food relative to their physical size.


title: Flatworm

text: In the majority of species, known as eucestodes ("true tapeworms"), the neck produces a chain of segments called proglottids via a process known as strobilation. As a result, the most mature proglottids are furthest from the scolex. Adults of "Taenia saginata", which infests humans, can form proglottid chains over long, although is more typical. Each proglottid has both male and female reproductive organs. If the host's gut contains two or more adults of the same cestode species they generally fertilize each other, however, proglottids of the same worm can fertilize each other and even themselves. When the eggs are fully developed, the proglottids separate and are excreted by the host. The eucestode life cycle is less complex than that of digeneans, but varies depending on the species. For example:


title: Flatworm

text: Members of the smaller group known as Cestodaria have no scolex, do not produce proglottids, and have body shapes similar to those of diageneans. Cestodarians parasitize fish and turtles.


title: Flatworm

text: The oldest confidently identified parasitic flatworm fossils are cestode eggs found in a Permian shark coprolite, but helminth hooks still attached to Devonian acanthodians and placoderms might also represent parasitic flatworms with simple life cycles. The oldest known free-living platyhelminth specimen is a fossil preserved in Eocene age Baltic amber and placed in the monotypic species "Micropalaeosoma balticus", whilst the oldest subfossil specimens are schistosome eggs discovered in ancient Egyptian mummies. The Platyhelminthes have very few synapomorphies - distinguishing features that all Platyhelminthes (but no other animals) exhibit. This makes it difficult to work out their relationships with other groups of animals, as well as the relationships between different groups that are described as members of the Platyhelminthes.


title: Flatworm

text: The "traditional" view before the 1990s was that Platyhelminthes formed the sister group to all the other bilaterians, which include, for instance, arthropods, molluscs, annelids and chordates. Since then, molecular phylogenetics, which aims to work out evolutionary "family trees" by comparing different organisms' biochemicals such as DNA, RNA and proteins, has radically changed scientists' view of evolutionary relationships between animals. Detailed morphological analyses of anatomical features in the mid-1980s, as well as molecular phylogenetics analyses since 2000 using different sections of DNA, agree that Acoelomorpha, consisting of Acoela (traditionally regarded as very simple "turbellarians") and Nemertodermatida (another small group previously classified as "turbellarians") are the sister group to all other bilaterians, including the rest of the Platyhelminthes. However, a 2007 study concluded that Acoela and Nemertodermatida were two distinct groups of bilaterians, although it agreed that both are more closely related to cnidarians (jellyfish, etc.) than other bilaterians are.


title: Flatworm

text: "Xenoturbella", a bilaterian whose only well-defined organ is a statocyst, was originally classified as a "primitive turbellarian". Later studies suggested it may instead be a deuterostome, but more detailed molecular phylogenetics have led to its classification as sister-group to the Acoelomorpha.


title: Flatworm

text: The Platyhelminthes excluding Acoelomorpha contain two main groups - Catenulida and Rhabditophora - both of which are generally agreed to be monophyletic (each contains all and only the descendants of an ancestor that is a member of the same group). Early molecular phylogenetics analyses of the Catenulida and Rhabditophora left uncertainties about whether these could be combined in a single monophyletic group; a study in 2008 concluded that they could, therefore Platyhelminthes could be redefined as Catenulida plus Rhabditophora, excluding the Acoelomorpha.


title: Flatworm

text: Other molecular phylogenetics analyses agree the redefined Platyhelminthes are most closely related to Gastrotricha, and both are part of a grouping known as Platyzoa. Platyzoa are generally agreed to be at least closely related to the Lophotrochozoa, a superphylum that includes molluscs and annelid worms. The majority view is that Platyzoa are part of Lophotrochozoa, but a significant minority of researchers regard Platyzoa as a sister group of Lophotrochozoa.


title: Flatworm

text: It has been agreed since 1985 that each of the wholly parasitic platyhelminth groups (Cestoda, Monogenea and Trematoda) is monophyletic, and that together these form a larger monophyletic grouping, the Neodermata, in which the adults of all members have syncytial skins. However, there is debate about whether the Cestoda and Monogenea can be combined as an intermediate monophyletic group, the Cercomeromorpha, within the Neodermata. It is generally agreed that the Neodermata are a sub-group a few levels down in the "family tree" of the Rhabditophora. Hence the traditional sub-phylum "Turbellaria" is paraphyletic, since it does not include the Neodermata although these are descendants of a sub-group of "turbellarians".


title: Flatworm

text: An outline of the origins of the parasitic life style has been proposed; epithelial feeding monopisthocotyleans on fish hosts are basal in the Neodermata and were the first shift to parasitism from free living ancestors. The next evolutionary step was a dietary change from epithelium to blood. The last common ancestor of Digenea + Cestoda was monogenean and most likely sanguinivorous.


title: Flatworm

text: The earliest known fossils confidently classified as tapeworms have been dated to , after being found in coprolites (fossilised faeces) from an elasmobranch. Putative older fossils include a ribbon-shaped, bilaterally symmetrical organism named "Rugosusivitta orthogonia" from the Early Cambrian of China, brownish bodies on the bedding planes reported from the Late Ordovician (Katian) Vauréal Formation (Canada) by Knaust & Desrochers (2019), tentatively interpreted as turbellarians (though the authors cautioned that they might ultimately turn out to be fossils of acoelomorphs or nemerteans) and circlets of fossil hooks preserved with placoderm and acanthodian fossils from the Devonian of Latvia, at least some of which might represent parasitic monogeneans.


title: Flatworm

text: Cestodes (tapeworms) and digeneans (flukes) cause diseases in humans and their livestock, whilst monogeneans can cause serious losses of stocks in fish farms. Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever, is the second-most devastating parasitic disease in tropical countries, behind malaria. The Carter Center estimated 200 million people in 74 countries are infected with the disease, and half the victims live in Africa. The condition has a low mortality rate, but usually presents as a chronic illness that can damage internal organs. It can impair the growth and cognitive development of children, increasing the risk of bladder cancer in adults. The disease is caused by several flukes of the genus "Schistosoma", which can bore through human skin; those most at risk use infected bodies of water for recreation or laundry.


title: Flatworm

text: In 2000, an estimated 45 million people were infected with the beef tapeworm "Taenia saginata" and 3 million with the pork tapeworm "Taenia solium". Infection of the digestive system by adult tapeworms causes abdominal symptoms that, whilst unpleasant, are seldom disabling or life-threatening. However, neurocysticercosis resulting from penetration of "T. solium" larvae into the central nervous system is the major cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide. In 2000, about 39 million people were infected with trematodes (flukes) that naturally parasitize fish and crustaceans, but can pass to humans who eat raw or lightly cooked seafood. Infection of humans by the broad fish tapeworm "Diphyllobothrium latum" occasionally causes vitamin B deficiency and, in severe cases, megaloblastic anemia.


title: Flatworm

text: The threat to humans in developed countries is rising as a result of social trends: the increase in organic farming, which uses manure and sewage sludge rather than artificial fertilizers, spreads parasites both directly and via the droppings of seagulls which feed on manure and sludge; the increasing popularity of raw or lightly cooked foods; imports of meat, seafood and salad vegetables from high-risk areas; and, as an underlying cause, reduced awareness of parasites compared with other public health issues such as pollution. In less-developed countries, inadequate sanitation and the use of human feces (night soil) as fertilizer or to enrich fish farm ponds continues to spread parasitic platyhelminths, whilst poorly designed water-supply and irrigation projects have provided additional channels for their spread. People in these countries usually cannot afford the cost of fuel required to cook food thoroughly enough to kill parasites. Controlling parasites that infect humans and livestock has become more difficult, as many species have become resistant to drugs that used to be effective, mainly for killing juveniles in meat. While poorer countries still struggle with unintentional infection, cases have been reported of intentional infection in the US by dieters who are desperate for rapid weight-loss.


title: Flatworm

text: There is concern in northwest Europe (including the British Isles) regarding the possible proliferation of the New Zealand planarian "Arthurdendyus triangulatus" and the Australian flatworm "Australoplana sanguinea", both of which prey on earthworms. "A. triangulatus" is thought to have reached Europe in containers of plants imported by botanical gardens.


title: Flatworm

text: In Hawaii, the planarian "Endeavouria septemlineata" has been used to control the imported giant African snail "Achatina fulica", which was displacing native snails; "Platydemus manokwari", another planarian, has been used for the same purpose in Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and Guam. Although "A. fulica" has declined sharply in Hawaii, there are doubts about how much "E. septemlineata" contributed to this decline. However, "P. manokwari" is given credit for severely reducing, and in places exterminating, "A. fulica" – achieving much greater success than most biological pest control programs, which generally aim for a low, stable population of the pest species. The ability of planarians to take different kinds of prey and to resist starvation may account for their ability to decimate "A. fulica". However, these planarians are a serious threat to native snails and should never be used for biological control.


title: Flatworm

text: A study in La Plata, Argentina, shows the potential for planarians such as "Girardia anceps", "Mesostoma ehrenbergii", and "Bothromesostoma evelinae" to reduce populations of the mosquito species "Aedes aegypti" and "Culex pipiens". The experiment showed that "G. anceps" in particular can prey on all instars of both mosquito species yet maintain a steady predation rate over time. The ability of these flatworms to live in artificial containers demonstrated the potential of placing these species in popular mosquito breeding sites, which would ideally reduce the amount of mosquito-borne disease.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Telephone numbers in China are organized according to the Chinese Telephone Code Plan. The numerical formats of landlines and mobile phones are different: landlines have area codes, whereas mobile phones do not. In major cities, landline numbers consist of a two-digit area code followed by an eight-digit inner number. In other places, landline numbers consist of a three-digit area code followed by a seven- or eight-digit internal number. The numbers of mobile phones consist of eleven digits.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: When one landline is used to dial another landline within the same area, it is not necessary to specify the area code. The target number must be prepended between different regions with the trunk prefix, which is 0.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Calling a mobile phone from a landline requires the addition of the "0" in front of the mobile phone number if they are not in the same area. Mobile to landline calls requires the "0" and the area code if the landline is not within the same place. Mobile to mobile calls does not require the "0" outside mainland China.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: The Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are not part of this numbering plan and use the country codes +852 and +853, respectively.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: In mainland China, mobile phone numbers have 11 digits in the format 1xx-XXXX-XXXX (except for 140–144, which are 13-digit IoT numbers), in which the first three digits (13x to 19x) designate the mobile phone service provider.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Before GSM, mobile phones had 6-digit (later upgraded to 7-digit) numbers starting with nine. They had the same numbering format as fixed-line telephones. Those numbers were eventually translated into 1390xx9xxx, where xx were local identifiers.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: The oldest China Mobile GSM numbers were ten digits long and started with 139 in 1994, the second oldest 138 in 1997, and 137, 136, 135 in 1999. The oldest China Unicom numbers started with 130 in 1995, the second oldest at 131 in 1998. Keeping the same number over time is somewhat associated with the stability and reliability of the owner. The 5th to the seventh digit sometimes relates to age and location.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: China's mobile phone numbers upgraded from 10-digit to 11-digit, with 0 added after 13x, and thus HLR code became 4-digit long to expand the capacity of the seriously fully crowded numbering plan.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: In 2006, 15x numbers were introduced.In late 2008, 18x and 14x (for data plans or IoT) were introduced. In late 2013, 17x were introduced. In 2017, 16x and 19x were introduced.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: In December 2016, each cell phone number was required to be consigned to a real name in mainland China.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: In November 2010, MIIT has started the trial mobile number portability service in Tianjin and Hainan, in 2012 the trial has extended to Jiangxi, Hubei and Yunan provinces. In 10 November 2019, all provinces started accepting MNP requests for all mobile providers, except for technical difficults, the MVNO phones, satellite phones and IoT phones.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: These are area codes for the municipalities of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, as well as several major cities with early access to telephones. These cities have upgraded to an 8-number system in the past decade.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: It's still unclear whether 26 will be provided or not, some local materials say that it's reserved for Taiwan (especially its capital Taipei), but currently they use +886. Some proposals from "planned independent cities" () to get rights to operate 026 were also unsuccessful.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: These are area codes for the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, and the provinces in Northeast China (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang). Additionally, numbers starting 400 are shared-pay (callers are charged local rate anywhere in the country) numbers .


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: These are area codes for the provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong (predominantly), Anhui, Zhejiang and Fujian.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: All area codes with prefix 6 were assigned in recent years. This prefix (+866) previously was reserved for Taiwan, which is now assigned (+886).


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Laiwu was using 634, now merged to Jinan's 531, former numbers are re-prefixxed as 5317 when merging.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: While most areas in Guangdong use the prefix 75x and 76x, some sites also use the prefix 6. The provincial capital Guangzhou uses code 20.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Chaoyang county-level city was using 661, now changed to 754 after splitted to Chaoyang and Chaonan districts and join Shantou.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: These are area codes for the central provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong (predominantly), Jiangxi, and the autonomous region of Guangxi.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: These are area codes for the provinces of Sichuan, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan (predominantly) and the autonomous region of Tibet.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: These are area codes for northwestern regions including the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai, as well as the autonomous regions of Ningxia and Xinjiang.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Starting from 2012 in Shenzhen, an implemented system upgrade to unify three emergency reporting services into one number, 110. A similar approach is being installed in more cities in China to make them more convenient.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: Dialing 112, 911, and 999 (outside Beijing without area code 010) plays a recording message about the correct emergency numbers in Chinese and English twice: "For police, dial 110. To report a fire, dial 119. For ambulance, dial 120. To report a traffic accident, dial 122." on China Mobile and China Unicom phones, NO SERVICES will be redirected. The error messages "Number does not exist" will be played on China Telecom phones, and NO SERVICES will be redirected. However, some local report said that in sometimes, only within Beijing, China Unicom landlines and mobile phones call 010-112 may be successful as reporting service for call failures.


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: (ex. 962288 in Shanghai – Shanghai foreigner assistant hotline, outside Shanghai people should dial 021-962288, or they will receive an error message or undesired service message)


title: Telephone numbers in China

text: The international access code from the PRC is 00. This must also be used for calls to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau from the Chinese mainland, together with their separate international codes, as follows:


title: Allium

text: Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants that includes hundreds of species, including the cultivated onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives. The generic name "Allium" is the Latin word for garlic, and the type species for the genus is "Allium sativum" which means "cultivated garlic".


title: Allium

text: Carl Linnaeus first described the genus "Allium" in 1753. Some sources refer to Greek ἀλέω (aleo, to avoid) by reason of the smell of garlic. Various "Allium" have been cultivated from the earliest times, and about a dozen species are economically important as crops, or garden vegetables, and an increasing number of species are important as ornamental plants.


title: Allium

text: The decision to include a species in the genus "Allium" is taxonomically difficult, and species boundaries are unclear. Estimates of the number of species are as low as 260, and as high as 979.


title: Allium

text: "Allium" species occur in temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere, except for a few species occurring in Chile (such as "A. juncifolium"), Brazil ("A. sellovianum"), and tropical Africa ("A. spathaceum"). They vary in height between 5 cm and 150 cm. The flowers form an umbel at the top of a leafless stalk. The bulbs vary in size between species, from small (around 2–3 mm in diameter) to rather large (8–10 cm). Some species (such as Welsh onion "A. fistulosum" and leeks ("A. ampeloprasum")) develop thickened leaf-bases rather than forming bulbs as such.


title: Allium

text: Plants of the genus "Allium" produce chemical compounds, mostly derived from cysteine sulfoxides, that give them a characteristic onion or garlic taste and odor. Many are used as food plants, though not all members of the genus are equally flavorful. In most cases, both bulb and leaves are edible. The characteristic "Allium" flavor depends on the sulfate content of the soil the plant grows in. In the rare occurrence of sulfur-free growth conditions, all "Allium" species completely lose their usual pungency.


title: Allium

text: In the APG III classification system, "Allium" is placed in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae (formerly the family Alliaceae). In some of the older classification systems, "Allium" was placed in Liliaceae. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown this circumscription of Liliaceae is not monophyletic.


title: Allium

text: "Allium" is one of about fifty-seven genera of flowering plants with more than 500 species. It is by far the largest genus in the Amaryllidaceae, and also in the Alliaceae in classification systems in which that family is recognized as separate.


title: Allium

text: The genus "Allium" (alliums) is characterised by herbaceous geophyte perennials with true bulbs, some of which are borne on rhizomes, and an onion or garlic odor and flavor.


title: Allium

text: The bulbs are solitary or clustered and tunicate and the plants are perennialized by the bulbs reforming annually from the base of the old bulbs, or are produced on the ends of rhizomes or, in a few species, at the ends of stolons. A small number of species have tuberous roots. The bulbs' outer coats are commonly brown or grey, with a smooth texture, and are fibrous, or with cellular reticulation. The inner coats of the bulbs are membranous.


title: Allium

text: Many alliums have basal leaves that commonly wither away from the tips downward before or while the plants flower, but some species have persistent foliage. Plants produce from one to 12 leaves, most species having linear, channeled or flat leaf blades. The leaf blades are straight or variously coiled, but some species have broad leaves, including "A. victorialis" and "A. tricoccum". The leaves are sessile, and very rarely narrowed into a petiole.


title: Allium

text: The flowers, which are produced on scapes are erect or in some species pendent, having six petal-like tepals produced in two whorls. The flowers have one style and six epipetalous stamens; the anthers and pollen can vary in color depending on the species. The ovaries are superior, and three-lobed with three locules.


title: Allium

text: The fruits are capsules that open longitudinally along the capsule wall between the partitions of the locule. The seeds are black, and have a rounded shape.


title: Allium

text: The terete or flattened flowering scapes are normally persistent. The inflorescences are umbels, in which the outside flowers bloom first and flowering progresses to the inside. Some species produce bulbils within the umbels, and in some species, such as "Allium paradoxum", the bulbils replace some or all the flowers. The umbels are subtended by noticeable spathe bracts, which are commonly fused and normally have around three veins.


title: Allium

text: Some bulbous alliums increase by forming little bulbs or "offsets" around the old one, as well as by seed. Several species can form many bulbils in the flowerhead; in the so-called "tree onion" or Egyptian onion ("A." × "proliferum") the bulbils are few, but large enough to be pickled.


title: Allium

text: Many of the species of "Allium" have been used as food items throughout their ranges. There are several poisonous species that are somewhat similar in appearance (e.g. in North America, death camas, "Toxicoscordion venenosum"), but none of these has the distinctive scent of onions or garlic.


title: Allium

text: With over 850 species "Allium" is the sole genus in the Allieae, one of four tribes of subfamily Allioideae (Amaryllidaceae). New species continue to be described and "Allium" is one of the largest monocotyledonous genera, but the precise taxonomy of "Allium" is poorly understood, with incorrect descriptions being widespread. The difficulties arise from the fact that the genus displays considerable polymorphism and has adapted to a wide variety of habitats. Furthermore, traditional classifications had been based on homoplasious characteristics (the independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages). However, the genus has been shown to be monophyletic, containing three major clades, although some proposed subgenera are not. Some progress is being made using molecular phylogenetic methods, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, including the 5.8S rDNA and the two spacers ITS1 and ITS2, is one of the more commonly used markers in the study of the differentiation of the "Allium" species.


title: Allium

text: "Allium" includes a number of taxonomic groupings previously considered separate genera ("Caloscordum" Herb., "Milula" Prain and "Nectaroscordum" Lindl.) "Allium spicatum" had been treated by many authors as "Milula spicata", the only species in the monospecific genus "Milula". In 2000, it was shown to be embedded in "Allium".


title: Allium

text: When Linnaeus formerly described the genus "Allium" in his "Species Plantarum" (1753), there were thirty species with this name. He placed "Allium" in a grouping he referred to as "Hexandria monogynia" (i.e. six stamens and one pistil) containing 51 genera in all.


title: Allium

text: Linnaeus originally grouped his 30 species into three alliances, "e.g." "Foliis caulinis planis". Since then, many attempts have been made to divide the growing number of recognised species into infrageneric subgroupings, initially as sections, and then as subgenera further divided into sections. For a brief history, see Li "et al." (2010) The modern era of phylogenetic analysis dates to 1996. In 2006 Friesen, Fritsch, and Blattner described a new classification with 15 subgenera, 56 sections, and about 780 species based on the nuclear ribosomal gene internal transcribed spacers. Some of the subgenera correspond to the once separate genera ("Caloscordum", "Milula", "Nectaroscordum") included in the Gilliesieae. The terminology has varied with some authors subdividing subgenera into Sections and others Alliances. The term Alliance has also been used for subgroupings within species, "e.g." "Allium nigrum", and for subsections.


title: Allium

text: Subsequent molecular phylogenetic studies have shown the 2006 classification is a considerable improvement over previous classifications, but some of its subgenera and sections are probably not monophyletic. Meanwhile, the number of new species continued to increase, reaching 800 by 2009, and the pace of discovery has not decreased. Detailed studies have focused on a number of subgenera, including "Amerallium". "Amerallium" is strongly supported as monophyletic. Subgenus "Melanocrommyum" has also been the subject of considerable study (see below), while work on subgenus "Allium" has focussed on section "Allium", including "Allium ampeloprasum", although sampling was not sufficient to test the monophyly of the section.


title: Allium

text: The major evolutionary lineages or lines correspond to the three major clades. Line one (the oldest) with three subgenera is predominantly bulbous, the second, with five subgenera and the third with seven subgenera contain both bulbous and rhizomatous taxa.


title: Allium

text: The three evolutionary lineages and 15 subgenera represent the classification scheme of Friesen "et al." (2006) and Li (2010). (number of sections/number of species)


title: Allium

text: Although this lineage consists of three subgenera, nearly all the species are attributed to subgenus "Amerallium", the third largest subgenus of "Allium". The lineage is considered to represent the most ancient line within "Allium", and to be the only lineage that is purely bulbous, the other two having both bulbous and rhizomatous taxa. Within the lineage "Amerallium" is a sister group to the other two subgenera ("Microscordum"+"Nectaroscordum").


title: Allium

text: Nearly all the species in this lineage of five subgenera are accounted for by subgenus "Melanocrommyum", which is most closely associated with subgenera "Vvedenskya" and "Porphyroprason", phylogenetically. These three genera are late-branching whereas the remaining two subgenera, "Caloscordum" and "Anguinum", are early branching.


title: Allium

text: The third evolutionary line contains the greatest number of sections (seven), and also the largest subgenus of the genus "Allium": subgenus "Allium", which includes the type species of the genus, "Allium sativum". This subgenus also contains the majority of the species in its lineage. Within the lineage, the phylogeny is complex. Two small subgenera, "Butomissa" and "Cyathophora" form a sister clade to the remaining five subgenera, with "Butomissa" as the first branching group. Amongst the remaining five subgenera, "Rhizirideum" forms a medium-sized subgenus that is the sister to the other four, larger, subgenera. This line may not be monophyletic.


title: Allium

text: The majority of "Allium" species are native to the Northern Hemisphere, being spread throughout the holarctic region, from dry subtropics to the boreal zone, predominantly in Asia. Of the latter, 138 species occur in China, about a sixth of all "Allium" species, representing five subgenera. A few species are native to Africa and Central and South America. A single known exception, "Allium dregeanum" occurs in the Southern Hemisphere (South Africa). There are two centres of diversity, a major one from the Mediterranean Basin to Central Asia and Pakistan, while a minor one is found in western North America. The genus is especially diverse in the eastern Mediterranean.


title: Allium

text: Species grow in various conditions from dry, well-drained mineral-based soils to moist, organic soils; most grow in sunny locations, but a number also grow in forests (e.g., "A. ursinum"), or even in swamps or water.


title: Allium

text: Various "Allium" species are used as food plants by the larvae of the leek moth and onion fly as well as some Lepidoptera including cabbage moth, common swift moth (recorded on garlic), garden dart moth, large yellow underwing moth, nutmeg moth, setaceous Hebrew character moth, turnip moth and "Schinia rosea", a moth that feeds exclusively on "Allium" species.


title: Allium

text: The genus Allium has very large variation between species in their genome size that is not accompanied by changes in ploidy level. This remarkable variation was noted in the discussion of the evolution of junk DNA and resulted in the Onion Test, a "reality check for anyone who thinks they have come up with a universal function for junk DNA". Genome sizes vary between 7.5 Gb in "A. schoenoprasum" and 30.9 Gb in "A. ursinum", both of which are diploid.


title: Allium

text: Many "Allium" species have been harvested through human history, but only about a dozen are still economically important today as crops or garden vegetables.


title: Allium

text: Many "Allium" species and hybrids are cultivated as ornamentals. These include "A. cristophii" and "A. giganteum", which are used as border plants for their ornamental flowers, and their "architectural" qualities. Several hybrids have been bred, or selected, with rich purple flowers. "A. hollandicum" 'Purple Sensation' is one of the most popular and has been given an Award of Garden Merit (H4). These ornamental onions produce spherical umbels on single stalks in spring and summer, in a wide variety of sizes and colours, ranging from white ("Allium" 'Mont Blanc'), blue ("A. caeruleum"), to yellow ("A. flavum") and purple ("A. giganteum"). By contrast, other species (such as invasive "A. triquetrum" and "A. ursinum") can become troublesome garden weeds.


title: Allium

text: The following cultivars, of uncertain or mixed parentage, have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:


title: Allium

text: The genus includes many economically important species. These include onions ("A. cepa"), French shallots ("A. oschaninii"), leeks ("A. ampeloprasum"), garlic ("A. sativum"), and herbs such as scallions (various "Allium" species) and chives ("A. schoenoprasum"). Some have been used as traditional medicines.


title: Allium

text: This genus also includes species that are abundantly gathered from the wild such as wild garlic ("Allium ursinum") and ramps ("Allium tricoccum").


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Brenda Fricker (born 17 February 1945) is an Irish actress, whose career has spanned six decades on stage and screen. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, earning the award for Best Supporting Actress for the biopic "My Left Foot" (1989). She also appeared in films such as "The Field" (1990), "" (1992), "So I Married An Axe Murderer" (1993), "Angels in the Outfield" (1994), "A Time to Kill" (1996), "Veronica Guerin" (2003), "Inside I'm Dancing" (2004) and "Albert Nobbs" (2011).


title: Brenda Fricker

text: In 2008 Fricker was honoured with the inaugural Maureen O'Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival. In 2020 "The Irish Times" ranked her 26th on its list of the greatest Irish film actors of all time.


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Fricker was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother, "Bina" (née Murphy), was a teacher at Stratford College, and her father, Desmond Frederick Fricker, served in the Department of Agriculture and as 'Fred Desmond' a broadcaster with RTÉ and a journalist for "The Irish Times".


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Before becoming an actress, Fricker was assistant to the art editor of the "Irish Times", with hopes of becoming a reporter. At age 19, she became an actress "by chance", her feature film career began with a small uncredited part in the 1964 film "Of Human Bondage", based on the 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. She also appeared in "Tolka Row", Ireland's first soap opera.


title: Brenda Fricker

text: One of Fricker's first TV roles was staff nurse Maloney in "Coronation Street", debuting on 10 January 1977. Brenda's character attended on the birth of Tracy Barlow on 24 January 1977's episode. Fricker came to wider public attention in the United Kingdom in another nursing role, as Megan Roach in the BBC One television drama series "Casualty". Fricker bowed out as Megan in December 1990, after playing the character in 65 episodes, because she believed her character had "started off with a wonderful sense of humour, [but] lost it all and all she ever seemed to do was push a trolley around and offer tea and sympathy". In February 1998 she appeared in two episodes, with Megan attending the wedding of her former colleagues Charlie Fairhead and Barbara 'Baz' Samuels. In 2007, she returned for a single episode for Red Nose Day. The episode was written by Richard Curtis. Fricker's final appearance as Megan was in August 2010, when the character took a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life.


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Fricker found international acclaim after she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 for her performance as Christy Brown's mother in "My Left Foot" (1989). In her acceptance speech, Brenda thanked Brown "just for being alive" and also dedicated the Oscar to Brown's


title: Brenda Fricker

text: mother, saying "anybody who gives birth 22 times deserves one of these". For her performance, Fricker was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award and she won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress as well. She rejoined "My Left Foot" writer and director Jim Sheridan to make the 1990 film "The Field", starring alongside Richard Harris as Maggie McCabe, the wife of Harris' "Bull" McCabe. She continued her television work during this period, starring in the Australian-produced short series "Brides of Christ" (1991) and the miniseries "Seekers" (1992) alongside Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson.


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Buoyed by her Oscar win, Fricker went on to appear in several high-profile Hollywood films, most notably 1992's "" as the Central Park Pigeon Lady. In 1993, she portrayed May Mackenzie, the "Weekly World News"-obsessed Scottish mother of Mike Myers' Charlie Mackenzie, in "So I Married an Axe Murderer", and then portrayed Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character's motherly caretaker Maggie in the 1994 family comedy "Angels in the Outfield". One of her last Hollywood film roles came with "A Time to Kill", as Ethel Twitty (loyal secretary to Matthew McConaughey's Jake Brigance), after which she has focused almost exclusively on film and television work in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. In 2003, she played Bernie Guerin, mother of Veronica Guerin (played by Cate Blanchett) in the film of the same name. She then played nurse Eileen in the film "Inside I'm Dancing". In 2007, she starred in "How About You" the film based on a short story about people living in a residential nursing home written by Maeve Binchy, playing Heather Nightangle. Other important roles were "Omagh" in 2004 as police Ombudsman Nuala O' Loan, as Graiine McFadden in the TV docudrama "No Tears" about the women treated with the blood product Anti D in the 1970s who had been contaminated with Hepatitis C, and as Aunt Maeve in "Durango" in 1999, based on the novel by John B. Keane.


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Fricker has appeared in "Closing the Ring", Richard Attenborough's post-World War II drama, also starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Mischa Barton. In 2012, a high-profile supporting role in "Albert Nobbs" earned Fricker an Irish Film Award nomination, and along with Olympia Dukakis she became half of the first pair of Oscar-winning actors to play a same-sex couple in "Cloudburst".


title: Brenda Fricker

text: In 2021 Fricker joined the cast of the TV adaptation of "Holding", based on the book of the same name by Graham Norton, marking her first major onscreen role in six years.


title: Brenda Fricker

text: Fricker currently lives in the Liberties, Dublin. She was previously married to director Barry Davies, until their divorce in 1988. She says that her loves include her pet dogs, drinking Guinness, reading poetry and playing snooker (she once stated that she had taken on the whole crew of "My Left Foot". "I played pool against 17 of them, and beat them all," Brenda said).


title: Brenda Fricker

text: In 2012, Fricker said "Of all the films I’ve made, only three do I remember where I felt I’d moved forward as an actress: "Cloudburst", "My Left Foot" and "The Field"."


title: Brenda Fricker

text: In 2008, Fricker was honoured with the inaugural Maureen O'Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival. In 2020, "The Irish Times" ranked her 26th on its list of the greatest Irish film actors of all time.


title: Spondylosis

text: Spondylosis is the degeneration of the vertebral column from any cause. In the more narrow sense it refers to spinal osteoarthritis, the age-related wear and tear of the spinal column, which is the most common cause of spondylosis. The degenerative process in osteoarthritis chiefly affects the vertebral bodies, the neural foramina and the facet joints (facet syndrome). If severe, it may cause pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots with subsequent sensory or motor disturbances, such as pain, paresthesia, imbalance, and muscle weakness in the limbs.


title: Spondylosis

text: When the space between two adjacent vertebrae narrows, compression of a nerve root emerging from the spinal cord may result in radiculopathy (sensory and motor disturbances, such as severe pain in the neck, shoulder, arm, back, or leg, accompanied by muscle weakness). Less commonly, direct pressure on the spinal cord (typically in the cervical spine) may result in myelopathy, characterized by global weakness, gait dysfunction, loss of balance, and loss of bowel or bladder control. The patient may experience shocks (paresthesia) in hands and legs because of nerve compression and lack of blood flow. If vertebrae of the neck are involved it is labelled cervical spondylosis. Lower back spondylosis is labeled lumbar spondylosis. The term is from Ancient Greek σπόνδυλος "spóndylos", "a vertebra", in plural "vertebrae – the backbone".


title: Spondylosis

text: A rare but severe complication of this disease is vertebrobasilar insufficiency. This is a result of the vertebral artery becoming occluded as it passes up in the transverse foramen. The spinal joints become stiff in cervical spondylosis. Thus the chondrocytes which maintain the disc become deprived of nutrition and die. Secondary osteophytes may cause stenosis for spinal nerves, manifesting as radiculopathy.


title: Spondylosis

text: Spondylosis is caused from years of constant abnormal pressure, caused by joint subluxation, stress induced by sports, acute and/or repetitive trauma, or poor posture, being placed on the vertebrae and the discs between them. The abnormal stress causes the body to form new bone in order to compensate for the new weight distribution. This abnormal weight bearing from bone displacement will cause spondylosis to occur. Poor postures and loss of the normal spinal curves can lead to spondylosis as well. Spondylosis can affect a person at any age; however, older people are more susceptible.


title: Spondylosis

text: Many of the treatments for cervical spondylosis have not been subjected to rigorous, controlled trials. Surgery is advocated for cervical radiculopathy in patients who have intractable pain, progressive symptoms, or weakness that fails to improve with conservative therapy. Surgical indications for cervical spondylosis with myelopathy (CSM) remain somewhat controversial, but "most clinicians recommend operative therapy over conservative therapy for moderate-to-severe myelopathy".


title: Spondylosis

text: Physical therapy may be effective for restoring range of motion, flexibility and core strengthening. Decompressive therapies (i.e., manual mobilization, mechanical traction) may also help alleviate pain. However, physical therapy and osteopathy cannot "cure" the degeneration, and some people view that strong compliance with postural modification is necessary to realize maximum benefit from decompression, adjustments and flexibility rehabilitation.


title: Spondylosis

text: Current surgical procedures used to treat spondylosis aim to alleviate the signs and symptoms of the disease by decreasing pressure in the spinal canal (decompression surgery) and/or by controlling spine movement (fusion surgery) but the evidence is limited in support of some aspects of these procedures.


title: Spondylosis

text: Decompression surgery: The vertebral column can be operated on from both an anterior and posterior approach. The approach varies depending on the site and cause of root compression. Commonly, osteophytes and portions of intervertebral disc are removed.


title: Spondylosis

text: Fusion surgery: Performed when there is evidence of spinal instability or mal-alignment. Use of instrumentation (such as pedicle screws) in fusion surgeries varies across studies.


title: Project Gemini

text: Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965 and 1966.


title: Project Gemini

text: Gemini's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon. In doing so, it allowed the United States to catch up and overcome the lead in human spaceflight capability the Soviet Union had obtained in the early years of the Space Race, by demonstrating: mission endurance up to just under 14 days, longer than the eight days required for a round trip to the Moon; methods of performing extra-vehicular activity (EVA) without tiring; and the orbital maneuvers necessary to achieve rendezvous and docking with another spacecraft. This left Apollo free to pursue its prime mission without spending time developing these techniques.


title: Project Gemini

text: All Gemini flights were launched from Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida. Their launch vehicle was the Gemini–Titan II, a modified Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Gemini was the first program to use the newly built Mission Control Center at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for flight control.


title: Project Gemini

text: The astronaut corps that supported Project Gemini included the "Mercury Seven", "The New Nine", and "The Fourteen". During the program, three astronauts died in air crashes during training, including both members of the prime crew for Gemini 9. This mission was flown by the backup crew.


title: Project Gemini

text: Gemini was robust enough that the United States Air Force planned to use it for the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program, which was later canceled. Gemini's chief designer, Jim Chamberlin, also made detailed plans for cislunar and lunar landing missions in late 1961. He believed Gemini spacecraft could fly in lunar operations before Project Apollo, and cost less. NASA's administration did not approve those plans. In 1969, McDonnell-Douglas proposed a "Big Gemini" that could have been used to shuttle up to 12 astronauts to the planned space stations in the Apollo Applications Project (AAP). The only AAP project funded was Skylab – which used existing spacecraft and hardware – thereby eliminating the need for Big Gemini.


title: Project Gemini

text: The constellation for which the project was named is commonly pronounced , the last syllable rhyming with "eye". However, staff of the Manned Spacecraft Center, including the astronauts, tended to pronounce the name , rhyming with "knee". NASA's public affairs office issued a statement in 1965 declaring "Jeh-mih-nee" the "official" pronunciation. Gus Grissom, acting as Houston capsule communicator when Ed White performed his spacewalk on Gemini 4, is heard on flight recordings pronouncing the spacecraft's call sign "Jeh-mih-nee 4", and the NASA pronunciation is used in the 2018 film "First Man".


title: Project Gemini

text: The Apollo program was conceived in early 1960 as a three-man spacecraft to follow Project Mercury. Jim Chamberlin, the head of engineering at the Space Task Group (STG), was assigned in February 1961 to start working on a bridge program between Mercury and Apollo. He presented two initial versions of a two-man spacecraft, then designated Mercury Mark II, at a NASA retreat at Wallops Island in March 1961. Scale models were shown in July 1961 at the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation's offices in St. Louis.


title: Project Gemini

text: After Apollo was chartered to land men on the Moon by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961, it became evident to NASA officials that a follow-on to the Mercury program was required to develop certain spaceflight capabilities in support of Apollo. NASA approved the two-man / two-vehicle program rechristened Project Gemini (Latin for "twins"), in reference to the third constellation of the Zodiac with its twin stars Castor and Pollux, on December 7, 1961. McDonnell Aircraft was contracted to build it on December 22, 1961. The program was publicly announced on January 3, 1962, with these major objectives:


title: Project Gemini

text: Chamberlin designed the Gemini capsule, which carried a crew of two. He was previously the chief aerodynamicist on Avro Canada's Avro Arrow fighter interceptor program. Chamberlin joined NASA along with 25 senior Avro engineers after cancellation of the Canadian Arrow program, and became head of the U.S. Space Task Group's engineering division in charge of Gemini. The prime contractor was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which was also the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule.


title: Project Gemini

text: Astronaut Gus Grissom was heavily involved in the development and design of the Gemini spacecraft. What other Mercury astronauts dubbed "Gusmobile" was so designed around Grissom's 5'6" body that, when NASA discovered in 1963 that 14 of 16 astronauts would not fit in the spacecraft, the interior had to be redesigned. Grissom wrote in his posthumous 1968 book "Gemini!" that the realization of Project Mercury's end and the unlikelihood of his having another flight in that program prompted him to focus all his efforts on the upcoming Gemini program.


title: Project Gemini

text: The Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, located in Houston, Texas, under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Dr. George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of NASA for Manned Space Flight, served as acting director of the Gemini program. William C. Schneider, Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight for Mission Operations served as mission director on all Gemini flights beginning with Gemini 6A.


title: Project Gemini

text: Guenter Wendt was a McDonnell engineer who supervised launch preparations for both the Mercury and Gemini programs and would go on to do the same when the Apollo program launched crews. His team was responsible for completion of the complex pad close-out procedures just prior to spacecraft launch, and he was the last person the astronauts would see prior to closing the hatch. The astronauts appreciated his taking absolute authority over, and responsibility for, the condition of the spacecraft and developed a good-humored rapport with him.


title: Project Gemini

text: NASA selected McDonnell Aircraft, which had been the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule, in 1961 to build the Gemini capsule, the first of which was delivered in 1963. The spacecraft was long and wide, with a launch weight varying from .


title: Project Gemini

text: The Gemini crew capsule (referred to as the Reentry Module) was essentially an enlarged version of the Mercury capsule. Unlike Mercury, the retrorockets, electrical power, propulsion systems, oxygen, and water were located in a detachable Adapter Module behind the Reentry Module. A major design improvement in Gemini was to locate all internal spacecraft systems in modular components, which could be independently tested and replaced when necessary, without removing or disturbing other already tested components.


title: Project Gemini

text: Many components in the capsule itself were reachable through their own small access doors. Unlike Mercury, Gemini used completely solid-state electronics, and its modular design made it easy to repair.


title: Project Gemini

text: Gemini's emergency launch escape system did not use an escape tower powered by a solid-fuel rocket, but instead used aircraft-style ejection seats. The tower was heavy and complicated, and NASA engineers reasoned that they could do away with it as the Titan II's hypergolic propellants would burn immediately on contact. A Titan II booster explosion had a smaller blast effect and flame than on the cryogenically fueled Atlas and Saturn. Ejection seats were sufficient to separate the astronauts from a malfunctioning launch vehicle. At higher altitudes, where the ejection seats could not be used, the astronauts would return to Earth inside the spacecraft, which would separate from the launch vehicle.


title: Project Gemini

text: The main proponent of using ejection seats was Chamberlin, who had never liked the Mercury escape tower and wished to use a simpler alternative that would also reduce weight. He reviewed several films of Atlas and Titan II ICBM failures, which he used to estimate the approximate size of a fireball produced by an exploding launch vehicle and from this he gauged that the Titan II would produce a much smaller explosion, thus the spacecraft could get away with ejection seats.


title: Project Gemini

text: Maxime Faget, the designer of the Mercury LES, was on the other hand less-than-enthusiastic about this setup. Aside from the possibility of the ejection seats seriously injuring the astronauts, they would also only be usable for about 40 seconds after liftoff, by which point the booster would be attaining Mach 1 speed and ejection would no longer be possible. He was also concerned about the astronauts being launched through the Titan's exhaust plume if they ejected in-flight and later added, "The best thing about Gemini was that they never had to make an escape."


title: Project Gemini

text: The Gemini ejection system was never tested with the Gemini cabin pressurized with pure oxygen, as it was prior to launch. In January 1967, the fatal Apollo 1 fire demonstrated that pressurizing a spacecraft with pure oxygen created an extremely dangerous fire hazard. In a 1997 oral history, astronaut Thomas P. Stafford commented on the Gemini 6 launch abort in December 1965, when he and command pilot Wally Schirra nearly ejected from the spacecraft:


title: Project Gemini

text: Gemini was the first astronaut-carrying spacecraft to include an onboard computer, the Gemini Guidance Computer, to facilitate management and control of mission maneuvers. This computer, sometimes called the Gemini Spacecraft On-Board Computer (OBC), was very similar to the Saturn Launch Vehicle Digital Computer. The Gemini Guidance Computer weighed . Its core memory had 4096 addresses, each containing a 39-bit word composed of three 13-bit "syllables". All numeric data was 26-bit two's-complement integers (sometimes used as fixed-point numbers), either stored in the first two syllables of a word or in the accumulator. Instructions (always with a 4-bit opcode and 9 bits of operand) could go in any syllable.


title: Project Gemini

text: Unlike Mercury, Gemini used in-flight radar and an artificial horizon, similar to those used in the aviation industry. Like Mercury, Gemini used a joystick to give the astronauts manual control of yaw, pitch, and roll. Gemini added control of the spacecraft's translation (forward, backward, up, down, and sideways) with a pair of T-shaped handles (one for each crew member). Translation control enabled rendezvous and docking, and crew control of the flight path. The same controller types were also used in the Apollo spacecraft.


title: Project Gemini

text: The original intention for Gemini was to land on solid ground instead of at sea, using a Rogallo wing rather than a parachute, with the crew seated upright controlling the forward motion of the craft. To facilitate this, the airfoil did not attach just to the nose of the craft, but to an additional attachment point for balance near the heat shield. This cord was covered by a strip of metal which ran between the twin hatches. This design was ultimately dropped, and parachutes were used to make a sea landing as in Mercury. The capsule was suspended at an angle closer to horizontal, so that a side of the heat shield contacted the water first. This eliminated the need for the landing bag cushion used in the Mercury capsule.


title: Project Gemini

text: The Retro module contained four solid-fuel TE-M-385 Star-13E retrorockets, each spherical in shape except for its rocket nozzle, which were structurally attached to two beams that reached across the diameter of the retro module, crossing at right angles in the center. Re-entry began with the retrorockets firing one at a time. Abort procedures at certain periods during lift-off would cause them to fire at the same time, thrusting the Descent module away from the Titan rocket.


title: Project Gemini

text: Gemini was equipped with an Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS), containing sixteen thrusters for translation control in all three perpendicular axes (forward/backward, left/right, up/down), in addition to attitude control (pitch, yaw, and roll angle orientation) as in Mercury. Translation control allowed changing orbital inclination and altitude, necessary to perform space rendezvous with other craft, and docking with the Agena Target Vehicle (ATV), with its own rocket engine which could be used to perform greater orbit changes.


title: Project Gemini

text: Early short-duration missions had their electrical power supplied by batteries; later endurance missions used the first fuel cells in crewed spacecraft.


title: Project Gemini

text: Gemini was in some regards more advanced than Apollo because the latter program began almost a year earlier. It became known as a "pilot's spacecraft" due to its assortment of jet fighter-like features, in no small part due to Gus Grissom's influence over the design, and it was at this point where the US crewed space program clearly began showing its superiority over that of the Soviet Union with long duration flight, rendezvous, and extravehicular capability. The Soviet Union during this period was developing the Soyuz spacecraft intended to take cosmonauts to the Moon, but political and technical problems began to get in the way, leading to the ultimate end of their crewed lunar program.


title: Project Gemini

text: The Titan II had debuted in 1962 as the Air Force's second-generation ICBM to replace the Atlas. By using hypergolic fuels, it could be stored longer and be easily readied for launch in addition to being a simpler design with fewer components, the only caveat being that the propellant mix (nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine) was extremely toxic compared to the Atlas's liquid oxygen/RP-1. However, the Titan had considerable difficulty being man-rated due to early problems with pogo oscillation. The launch vehicle used a radio guidance system that was unique to launches from Cape Kennedy.


title: Project Gemini

text: Deke Slayton, as director of flight crew operations, had primary responsibility for assigning crews for the Gemini program. Each flight had a primary crew and backup crew, and the backup crew would rotate to primary crew status three flights later. Slayton intended for first choice of mission commands to be given to the four remaining active astronauts of the Mercury Seven: Alan Shepard, Grissom, Cooper, and Schirra. (John Glenn had retired from NASA in January 1964 and Scott Carpenter, who was blamed by some in NASA management for the problematic reentry of "Aurora 7", was on leave to participate in the Navy's SEALAB project and was grounded from flight in July 1964 due to an arm injury sustained in a motorbike accident. Slayton himself continued to be grounded due to a heart problem.)


title: Project Gemini

text: Titles used for the left-hand (command) and right-hand seat crew positions were taken from the U.S. Air Force pilot ratings, "Command Pilot" and "Pilot". Sixteen astronauts flew on 10 crewed Gemini missions:


title: Project Gemini

text: In late 1963, Slayton selected Shepard and Stafford for Gemini 3, McDivitt and White for Gemini 4, and Schirra and Young for Gemini 5 (which was to be the first Agena rendezvous mission). The backup crew for Gemini 3 was Grissom and Borman, who were also slated for Gemini 6, to be the first long-duration mission. Finally Conrad and Lovell were assigned as the backup crew for Gemini 4.


title: Project Gemini

text: Delays in the production of the Agena Target Vehicle caused the first rearrangement of the crew rotation. The Schirra and Young mission was bumped to Gemini 6 and they became the backup crew for Shepard and Stafford. Grissom and Borman then had their long-duration mission assigned to Gemini 5.


title: Project Gemini

text: The second rearrangement occurred when Shepard developed Ménière's disease, an inner ear problem. Grissom was then moved to command Gemini 3. Slayton felt that Young was a better personality match with Grissom and switched Stafford and Young. Finally, Slayton tapped Cooper to command the long-duration Gemini 5. Again for reasons of compatibility, he moved Conrad from backup commander of Gemini 4 to pilot of Gemini 5, and Borman to backup command of Gemini 4. Finally he assigned Armstrong and Elliot See to be the backup crew for Gemini 5.


title: Project Gemini

text: The third rearrangement of crew assignment occurred when Slayton felt that See wasn't up to the physical demands of EVA on Gemini 8. He reassigned See to be the prime commander of Gemini 9 and put Scott as pilot of Gemini 8 and Charles Bassett as the pilot of Gemini 9.


title: Project Gemini

text: The fourth and final rearrangement of the Gemini crew assignment occurred after the deaths of See and Bassett when their trainer jet crashed, coincidentally into a McDonnell building which held their Gemini 9 capsule in St. Louis. The backup crew of Stafford and Cernan was then moved up to the new prime crew of Gemini 9A. Lovell and Aldrin were moved from being the backup crew of Gemini 10 to be the backup crew of Gemini 9. This cleared the way through the crew rotation for Lovell and Aldrin to become the prime crew of Gemini 12.


title: Project Gemini

text: Along with the deaths of Grissom, White, and Roger Chaffee in the fire of Apollo 1, this final arrangement helped determine the makeup of the first seven Apollo crews, and who would be in position for a chance to be the first to walk on the Moon.


title: Project Gemini

text: In 1964 and 1965, two Gemini missions were flown without crews to test systems and the heat shield. These were followed by 10 flights with crews in 1965 and 1966. All were launched by Titan II launch vehicles. Some highlights from the Gemini program:


title: Project Gemini

text: Rendezvous in orbit is not a straightforward maneuver. Should a spacecraft increase its speed to catch up with another, the result is that it goes into a higher and slower orbit and the distance thereby increases. The right procedure is to go to a lower orbit first and which increases relative speed, and then approach the target spacecraft from below and decrease orbital speed to meet it. To practice these maneuvers, special rendezvous and docking simulators were built for the astronauts.


title: Project Gemini

text: The Gemini-Titan II launch vehicle was adapted by NASA from the U.S. Air Force Titan II ICBM. (Similarly, the Mercury-Atlas launch vehicle had been adapted from the USAF Atlas missile.) The Gemini-Titan II rockets were assigned Air Force serial numbers, which were painted in four places on each Titan II (on opposite sides on each of the first and second stages). USAF crews maintained Launch Complex 19 and prepared and launched all of the Gemini-Titan II launch vehicles. Data and experience operating the Titans was of value to both the U.S. Air Force and NASA.


title: Project Gemini

text: The USAF serial numbers assigned to the Gemini-Titan launch vehicles are given in the tables above. Fifteen Titan IIs were ordered in 1962 so the serial is "62-12XXX", but only "12XXX" is painted on the Titan II. The order for the last three of the 15 launch vehicles was canceled on July 30, 1964, and they were never built. Serial numbers were, however, assigned to them prospectively: "12568" - GLV-13; "12569" - GLV-14; and "12570" - GLV-15.


title: Project Gemini

text: From 1962 to 1967, Gemini cost $1.3 billion in 1967 dollars ($ in ). In January 1969, a NASA report to the US Congress estimating the costs for Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (through the first crewed Moon landing) included $1.2834 billion for Gemini: $797.4 million for spacecraft, $409.8 million for launch vehicles, and $76.2 million for support.


title: Project Gemini

text: McDonnell Aircraft, the main contractor for Mercury and Gemini, was also one of the original bidders on the prime contract for Apollo, but lost out to North American Aviation. McDonnell later sought to extend the Gemini program by proposing a derivative which could be used to fly a cislunar mission and even achieve a crewed lunar landing earlier and at less cost than Apollo, but these proposals were rejected by NASA.


title: Project Gemini

text: A range of applications were considered for Advanced Gemini missions, including military flights, space station crew and logistics delivery, and lunar flights. The Lunar proposals ranged from reusing the docking systems developed for the Agena Target Vehicle on more powerful upper stages such as the Centaur, which could propel the spacecraft to the Moon, to complete modifications of the Gemini to enable it to land on the lunar surface. Its applications would have ranged from crewed lunar flybys before Apollo was ready, to providing emergency shelters or rescue for stranded Apollo crews, or even replacing the Apollo program.


title: Project Gemini

text: Some of the Advanced Gemini proposals used "off-the-shelf" Gemini spacecraft, unmodified from the original program, while others featured modifications to allow the spacecraft to carry more crew, dock with space stations, visit the Moon, and perform other mission objectives. Other modifications considered included the addition of wings or a parasail to the spacecraft, in order to enable it to make a horizontal landing.


title: Project Gemini

text: Big Gemini (or "Big G") was another proposal by McDonnell Douglas made in August 1969. It was intended to provide large-capacity, all-purpose access to space, including missions that ultimately used Apollo or the Space Shuttle.


title: Project Gemini

text: The study was performed to generate a preliminary definition of a logistic spacecraft derived from Gemini that would be used to resupply an orbiting space station. Land-landing at a preselected site and refurbishment and reuse were design requirements. Two baseline spacecraft were defined: a nine-man minimum modification version of the Gemini B called Min-Mod Big G and a 12-man advanced concept, having the same exterior geometry but with new, state-of-the-art subsystems, called Advanced Big G. Three launch vehicles-Saturn IB, Titan IIIM, and Saturn INT-20 (S-IC/S-IVB) were investigated for use with the spacecraft.


title: Project Gemini

text: The Air Force had an interest in the Gemini system, and decided to use its own modification of the spacecraft as the crew vehicle for the Manned Orbital Laboratory. To this end, the Gemini 2 spacecraft was refurbished and flown again atop a mockup of the MOL, sent into space by a Titan IIIC. This was the first time a spacecraft went into space twice.


title: Project Gemini

text: The USAF also had the notion of adapting the Gemini spacecraft for military applications, such as crude observation of the ground (no specialized reconnaissance camera could be carried) and practicing making rendezvous with suspicious satellites. This project was called Blue Gemini. The USAF did not like the fact that Gemini would have to be recovered by the US Navy, so they intended for Blue Gemini eventually to use the airfoil and land on three skids, carried over from the original design of Gemini.


title: Project Gemini

text: At first some within NASA welcomed sharing of the cost with the USAF, but it was later agreed that NASA was better off operating Gemini by itself. Blue Gemini was canceled in 1963 by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who decided the NASA Gemini flights could conduct necessary military experiments. MOL was canceled by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird in 1969, when it was determined that uncrewed spy satellites could perform the same functions much more cost-effectively.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Pool is a classification of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the , into which balls are deposited. Each specific pool game has its own name; some of the better-known include eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: The generic term pocket billiards is sometimes also used, and favored by some pool-industry bodies, but is technically a broader classification, including games such as snooker, Russian pyramid, and kaisa, which are not referred to as pool games.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: There are also hybrid games combining aspects of both pool and carom billiards, such as American four-ball billiards, bottle pool, cowboy pool, and English billiards.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: The etymology of "pool" is uncertain. The "Oxford English Dictionary" speculates that "pool" and other games with collective stakes is derived from the French "poule" (literally translated "hen"), in which the "poule" is the collected prize; alternatively it could derive from the verb "to pool" in the sense of combining objects or stakes. The oldest use of the word "pool" to describe a billiards-like game was made in 1797 in a Virginia newspaper. The OED defines it as generally "any of various types of billiards for two or more players" but goes on to note that the first specific meaning of "a game in which each player uses a cue ball of a distinctive colour to pocket the balls of the other player(s) in a certain order, the winner taking all the stakes submitted at the start of the contest" is now obsolete, and its other specific definitions are all for games that originate in the United States. In the British Empire for most of the nineteenth through early twentieth century, "pool" referred specifically to the game of life pool.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Although skittle pool is played on a pocketless carom billiards table, the term "pool" later stuck to all new games of pocket billiards as the sport gained in popularity in the United States, and so outside the cue sports industry, which has long favored the more formal term "pocket billiards", the common name for the sport has remained "pool". The "OxfordDictionaries.com" definition no longer even provides the obsolete meaning found in the print edition, and refers only to the typical game "using two sets [each] of seven coloured and numbered balls ... with one black ball and a white cue ball" on a table with pockets.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: With the exception of one-pocket, games typically called "pool" today are descended from two English games imported to the United States during the 19th century. The first was English billiards which became American four-ball billiards, essentially the same game but with an extra red to increase scoring opportunities. It was the most popular billiards game in the mid-19th century until dethroned by the carom game straight rail. American four-ball tournaments tried switching to carom tables in the 1870s but this did not save it from being doomed to obscurity, the last professional tournament was held in 1876. Cowboy pool is a surviving member of this group of games.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: The second and more influential game was pyramid pool. By 1850 a variant called fifteen-ball pool became popular. Both games were supplanted by continuous pool in 1888, the immediate forerunner of straight pool (1910). New games introduced at the turn of the 20th century include Kelly pool and eight-ball. The distinctive appearance of pool balls with their many colors and division between solid and striped balls came about by 1889. Prior to this, object balls were uniformly deep-red and differentiated only by numbers. English pyramid pool and life pool players were the first to adopt balls with different colors. The stripes were the last addition.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Under World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) official equipment specifications, pool balls have a diameter of and weigh from with a diameter of , plus or minus . Modern coin-operated pool tables generally use one of three methods to distinguish and return the cue ball to the front of the table while the numbered balls return to an inaccessible receptacle until paid for again: the cue ball is larger and heavier than the other balls, or denser and heavier, or has a magnetic core.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Modern cue sticks are generally long for pool while cues prior to 1980 were designed for straight pool and had an average length of . By comparison, carom billiards cues are generally shorter with larger tips, and snooker cues longer with smaller tips.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: These are games descended from the early 19th century games of pyramid pool and fifteen-ball pool which required balls to be racked due to the large number of them on the table. Of the other pyramid traditions of Continental Europe, only Russian pyramid survives. Snooker, originally known as snooker's pool, can be considered a member of this family. One-pocket initially did not require a rack, it was originally played with just three balls.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Rotation games require players to make legal contact with the lowest numbered ball on the table or a foul is called. The earliest rotation game, originally known as 61, started off as a variant of fifteen-ball pool during the mid-nineteenth century. The name "rotation" came from how the balls were placed around the table in its unracked offshoot Chicago. 61 has spawned many variations of its own such as American rotation, nine-ball, ten-ball, and Kelly pool. Of these, nine-ball is the most popular and the predominant professional game with ten-ball as the second-most prominent. There are many local and regional tours and tournaments that are contested with nine-ball. The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) publishes the world standardized rules. The European professional circuit has instituted rules changes to make it more difficult to achieve a legal break shot.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: The largest nine-ball tournaments are the US Open Nine-ball Championship and the WPA World Nine-ball Championship for men and women. A hotly contested event is the annual Mosconi Cup, which pits invitational European and U.S. teams against each other in one-on-one and nine-ball matches over a period of several days. The Mosconi Cup games are played under the more stringent European rules, as of 2007.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Also known as 14.1 continuous, this game originated as a slight modification of continuous pool, another offshoot of fifteen-ball pool. The shooter may attempt to shoot at any object ball on the table. The goal is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each object ball pocketed where no is made. A typical game might require a player to score 100 points to win. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 125 points. Straight pool is a "" game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: In the United States, the most commonly played pool game is eight-ball, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. The goal of eight-ball, which is played with a full rack of fifteen balls and the cue ball, is to claim a suit (commonly stripes or solids in the US, and reds or yellows in the UK), pocket all of them, then legally pocket the 8 ball, while denying one's opponent opportunities to do the same with their suit, and without sinking the 8 ball early by accident. In the United Kingdom the game is commonly played in pubs, and it is competitively played in leagues on both sides of the Atlantic. The most prestigious tournaments including the World Open are sponsored and sanctioned by the International Pool Tour. Rules vary widely from place to place (and between continents to such an extent that British-style eight-ball pool/blackball is properly regarded as a separate game in its own right). Pool halls in North America are increasingly settling upon the World Pool-Billiard Association International Standardized Rules. But tavern eight-ball (also known as ""), typically played on smaller, coin-operated tables and in a "winner keeps the table" manner, can differ significantly even between two venues in the same city. The growth of local, regional and national amateur leagues may alleviate this confusion eventually.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: One-pocket owes its origins to 18th century "cramp" (handicapped) games. It is a strategic game for two players in which each player is assigned one of the corner pockets on the table. This is the only pocket into which that player can legally pocket balls. The first player to pocket the majority of the balls (8) into their pocket wins the game. The game requires far more defensive strategy than offensive strategy, much unlike eight-ball, nine-ball, or straight pool. Most times, accomplished players choose to position balls near their pocket instead of trying to actually pocket them. This allows them to control the game by forcing their opponent to be on defense instead of taking a low percentage shot that could result in a loss of game. These low percentage shots are known as "flyers" by one-pocket aficionados.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Bank pool can be played with a full rack (can be a "long" game), but is more typically played with nine balls (frequently called "nine-ball bank"). The balls are racked in nine-ball formation, but in no particular order. The object of the game is simple: to be the first player to bank five balls in any order (eight balls when played with a full rack). Penalties and fouls are similar to one pocket in that the player committing the foul must spot a ball for each foul. This must be done before the incoming player shoots.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Artistic pool is the competitive discipline of trick shots inspired by its carom equivalent. Played on pool or snooker tables, players must complete a set number of shots of varying difficulty.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: Cowboy pool and bottle pool are games involving only a few balls which are placed at specific spots on the table. Elements of their games go back to the eighteenth century before balls needed to be racked. Bottle pool shares traits with pin billiards games such as Danish pin billiards. Cowboy pool is a descendant of English billiards. Kaisa is a similar game played with different equipment.


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: As a competitive sport, pool is governed internationally by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), which has multi-national, regional affiliates comprising the All Africa Pool Association (AAPA), Asian Pocket Billiard Union (APBU, including the Middle East), Billiard Congress of America (BCA, Canada and the US), Confederación Panamericana de Billar (CPB, Latin America and Caribbean), European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF, including Russia and the Near East), and Oceania Pocket Billiard Association (OPBA, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific islands).


title: Pool (cue sports)

text: The WPA represents pool in the World Confederation of Billiards Sports, which in turn represents all forms of cue sports (including carom billiards and snooker) in the International Olympic Committee.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since December 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of the 61st governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear was elected attorney general of Kentucky in 2015. As attorney general, he sued Governor Matt Bevin several times over issues such as pensions. He then challenged and defeated Bevin by 0.4% of the vote in the 2019 gubernatorial election. Beshear and Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman are Kentucky's only Democratic statewide elected officials.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear was born in Louisville, the son of Steve and Jane (Klingner) Beshear. He graduated from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky. His father, a lawyer and politician, was the governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear attended Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and graduated in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received a Juris Doctor in 2003.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In 2005, Beshear was hired by the law firm Stites & Harbison, at which his father was a partner. He represented the developers of the Bluegrass Pipeline, which would have transported natural gas liquid through Kentucky. The project was controversial; critics voiced environmental concerns and objections to the use of eminent domain for the pipeline. His father's office maintained that there was no conflict of interest with the son's representation. He also represented the Indian company UFLEX, which sought $20 million in tax breaks from his father's administration, drawing criticism from ethics watchdogs over a potential conflict of interest.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In November 2013, Beshear announced his candidacy in the 2015 election for Attorney General of Kentucky, to succeed Democrat Jack Conway, who could not run for reelection, due to term limits.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear defeated Republican Whitney Westerfield with 50.1% of the vote to Westerfield's 49.9%. The margin was approximately 2,000 votes.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear sued Governor Matt Bevin several times over what he argued was Bevin's abuse of executive powers during Beshear's tenure as attorney general and while he was campaigning against Bevin for governor. Beshear won some cases and lost others. In April 2016, he sued Bevin over his mid-cycle budget cuts to the state university system. The Kentucky Supreme Court issued a 5–2 ruling agreeing with Beshear that Bevin did not have the authority to make mid-cycle budget cuts without the Kentucky General Assembly's approval. Also in 2016, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously sided with Bevin when Beshear sued him on the grounds that Bevin lacked the authority to overhaul the University of Louisville's board of trustees. In 2017, the Kentucky Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit Beshear brought against Bevin, holding that Bevin had the power to temporarily reshape boards while the legislature is out of session; Bevin called Beshear's lawsuit a "shameful waste of taxpayer resources". In April 2018, Beshear successfully sued Bevin for signing Senate Bill 151, a controversial plan to reform teacher pensions, with the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling the bill unconstitutional. Bevin said Beshear "never sues on behalf of the people of Kentucky. He does it on behalf of his own political career".


title: Andy Beshear

text: Through October 2019, Beshear filed nine lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for their alleged involvement in fueling Kentucky's opioid epidemic.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear forwent a run for a second term as attorney general to run for governor against Bevin. He resigned from the attorney general's office on December 10, 2019, to be sworn in as governor. He was succeeded as attorney general by Daniel Cameron on December 17.


title: Andy Beshear

text: On July 9, 2018, Beshear declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Kentucky in the 2019 election. His running mate was Jacqueline Coleman, a nonprofit president, assistant principal, and former state house candidate. Beshear said he would make public education a priority. In May 2019, he won the Democratic nomination with 37.9% of the vote in a three-way contest.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear faced incumbent Governor Matt Bevin, the nation's least popular governor, in the November 5 general election. He defeated Bevin with 49.20% of the vote to Bevin's 48.83%. It was the closest Kentucky gubernatorial election ever by percentage, and the closest race of the 2019 gubernatorial election cycle.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Days later, Bevin had not yet conceded the race, claiming large-scale voting "irregularities" but not offering evidence. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes's office nevertheless declared Beshear the winner. On November 14, Bevin conceded the election after a recanvass was performed at his request that resulted in just a single change, an additional vote for a write-in candidate.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear defeated Bevin largely by winning the state's two most populous counties, Jefferson and Fayette (respectively home to Louisville and Lexington), by an overwhelming margin, taking over 65% of the vote in each. He also narrowly carried the historically heavily Republican suburban counties of Campbell and Kenton in Northern Kentucky, as well as several historically Democratic rural counties in Eastern Kentucky that had swung heavily Republican in recent elections.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear was inaugurated as governor on December 10, 2019. In his inaugural address, he called on Republicans, who had a supermajority in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly, to reach across the aisle and solve Kentucky's issues in a bipartisan way.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Upon taking office, Beshear replaced all 11 members of the Kentucky Board of Education before the end of their two-year terms. The firing of the board members fulfilled a campaign pledge, and was an unprecedented use of the governor's power to reorganize state boards while the legislature was not in session. Beshear's critics suggested that the appointments undermined the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, which sought to insulate the board from political influence; the Board had increasingly been the focus of political battles in the years preceding 2019.


title: Andy Beshear

text: On December 12, 2019, Beshear signed an executive order restoring voting rights to 180,315 Kentuckians, who he said were disproportionately African-American, who had been convicted of nonviolent felonies.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In April 2020, Beshear ordered Kentucky state troopers to record the license plate numbers of churchgoers who violated the state's COVID-19 stay-at-home order to attend in-person Easter Sunday church services. The order led to contentious debate.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In June 2020, Beshear promised to provide free health care to all African-American residents of Kentucky who need it, in an attempt to resolve health care inequities that came to light during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Andy Beshear

text: On November 18, 2020, as the state's COVID-19 cases continued to increase, Beshear ordered Kentucky's public and private schools to halt in-person learning on November 23, with in-person classes to resume in January 2021. This marked the first time Beshear ordered, rather than recommended, schools to cease in-person instruction. Danville Christian Academy, joined by Attorney General Daniel Cameron, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, claiming that Beshear's order violated the First Amendment by prohibiting religious organizations to educate children in accordance with their faith. A group of Republican U.S. senators supported the challenge. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Beshear's order.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In March 2021, Beshear vetoed all or part of 27 bills that the Kentucky legislature had passed. The legislature overrode his vetoes.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear's tenure in office has been marked by several natural disasters. In December 2021, Beshear led the emergency response to a tornado outbreak in western Kentucky, which devastated the town of Mayfield and killed more than 70 people, making it the deadliest in the state's history. In July 2022, torrential rain caused severe flooding across Kentucky's Appalachia region and led to the deaths of over 25 people; Beshear worked with the federal government to coordinate search and rescue missions as President Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to the state.


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear is a Democrat. With an overwhelmingly Republican Kentucky legislature, Stephen Voss, a political scientist at the University of Kentucky, observed: "The Republicans have a supermajority. If they can remain unified, they don't have to play ball with this governor at all."


title: Andy Beshear

text: Beshear supports legal access to abortion, and supported women's right to choose, per "Roe v. Wade". He has said that "women should be able make their own reproductive healthcare decisions", including abortion. One month after he took office as governor, his administration gave Planned Parenthood permission to provide abortions at its Louisville clinic, making it the second facility in Kentucky to offer abortions. In April 2020, Beshear vetoed a bill, widely described as anti-abortion, that would have allowed Attorney General Daniel Cameron to suspend abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic and exercise more power regulating clinics that offer abortions. He was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, and applauded by Planned Parenthood.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In 2021, Beshear allowed a born-alive bill to become law without his signature, requiring doctors to provide medical care for any infant born alive, including those born alive thanks to a failed abortion procedure. Abortion advocates criticize such laws as "shaming and ostracizing patients", and as unnecessary and politically motivated because current laws and medical ethics already require all infants to receive appropriate medical care.


title: Andy Beshear

text: On March 25, 2020, Beshear declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic. He encouraged business owners to require customers to wear face coverings while indoors. He also banned "mass gatherings" including protests but not normal gatherings at shopping malls and libraries; constitutional law professor Floyd Abrams and lawyer John Langford opined that Beshear's order was inappropriate as it violated public protests' special protected status under the First Amendment.


title: Andy Beshear

text: In August 2020, Beshear signed an executive order releasing inmates from prisons and jails in an effort to slow the virus's spread. The Kentucky Department of information and Technology Services Research and Statistics found that over 48% of the 1,704 inmates released committed a crime within a year of their release and that a third of those were felonies.