title: Brahmagupta

text: The nature of squares:18.64. [Put down] twice the square-root of a given square by a multiplier and increased or diminished by an arbitrary [number]. The product of the first [pair], multiplied by the multiplier, with the product of the last [pair], is the last computed.18.65. The sum of the thunderbolt products is the first. The additive is equal to the product of the additives. The two square-roots, divided by the additive or the subtractive, are the additive "rupas".


title: Brahmagupta

text: Using his identity and the fact that if and are solutions to the equations and , respectively, then is a solution to , he was able to find integral solutions to Pell's equation through a series of equations of the form . Brahmagupta was not able to apply his solution uniformly for all possible values of , rather he was only able to show that if has an integer solution for = ±1, ±2, or ±4, then has a solution. The solution of the general Pell's equation would have to wait for Bhāskara II in .


title: Brahmagupta

text: Brahmagupta's most famous result in geometry is his formula for cyclic quadrilaterals. Given the lengths of the sides of any cyclic quadrilateral, Brahmagupta gave an approximate and an exact formula for the figure's area,


title: Brahmagupta

text: 12.21. The approximate area is the product of the halves of the sums of the sides and opposite sides of a triangle and a quadrilateral. The accurate [area] is the square root from the product of the halves of the sums of the sides diminished by [each] side of the quadrilateral.


title: Brahmagupta

text: So given the lengths , , and of a cyclic quadrilateral, the approximate area is while, letting , the exact area is


title: Brahmagupta

text: Although Brahmagupta does not explicitly state that these quadrilaterals are cyclic, it is apparent from his rules that this is the case. Heron's formula is a special case of this formula and it can be derived by setting one of the sides equal to zero.


title: Brahmagupta

text: Brahmagupta dedicated a substantial portion of his work to geometry. One theorem gives the lengths of the two segments a triangle's base is divided into by its altitude:


title: Brahmagupta

text: 12.22. The base decreased and increased by the difference between the squares of the sides divided by the base; when divided by two they are the true segments. The perpendicular [altitude] is the square-root from the square of a side diminished by the square of its segment.


title: Brahmagupta

text: He further gives a theorem on rational triangles. A triangle with rational sides , , and rational area is of the form:


title: Brahmagupta

text: 12.23. The square-root of the sum of the two products of the sides and opposite sides of a non-unequal quadrilateral is the diagonal. The square of the diagonal is diminished by the square of half the sum of the base and the top; the square-root is the perpendicular [altitudes].


title: Brahmagupta

text: So, in a "non-unequal" cyclic quadrilateral (that is, an isosceles trapezoid), the length of each diagonal is .


title: Brahmagupta

text: He continues to give formulas for the lengths and areas of geometric figures, such as the circumradius of an isosceles trapezoid and a scalene quadrilateral, and the lengths of diagonals in a scalene cyclic quadrilateral. This leads up to Brahmagupta's famous theorem,


title: Brahmagupta

text: 12.30–31. Imaging two triangles within [a cyclic quadrilateral] with unequal sides, the two diagonals are the two bases. Their two segments are separately the upper and lower segments [formed] at the intersection of the diagonals. The two [lower segments] of the two diagonals are two sides in a triangle; the base [of the quadrilateral is the base of the triangle]. Its perpendicular is the lower portion of the [central] perpendicular; the upper portion of the [central] perpendicular is half of the sum of the [sides] perpendiculars diminished by the lower [portion of the central perpendicular].


title: Brahmagupta

text: 12.40. The diameter and the square of the radius [each] multiplied by 3 are [respectively] the practical circumference and the area [of a circle]. The accurate [values] are the square-roots from the squares of those two multiplied by ten.


title: Brahmagupta

text: So Brahmagupta uses 3 as a "practical" value of , and formula_6 as an "accurate" value of , with an error less than 1%.


title: Brahmagupta

text: In some of the verses before verse 40, Brahmagupta gives constructions of various figures with arbitrary sides. He essentially manipulated right triangles to produce isosceles triangles, scalene triangles, rectangles, isosceles trapezoids, isosceles trapezoids with three equal sides, and a scalene cyclic quadrilateral.


title: Brahmagupta

text: After giving the value of pi, he deals with the geometry of plane figures and solids, such as finding volumes and surface areas (or empty spaces dug out of solids). He finds the volume of rectangular prisms, pyramids, and the frustum of a square pyramid. He further finds the average depth of a series of pits. For the volume of a frustum of a pyramid, he gives the "pragmatic" value as the depth times the square of the mean of the edges of the top and bottom faces, and he gives the "superficial" volume as the depth times their mean area.


title: Brahmagupta

text: In Chapter 2 of his "Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta", entitled "Planetary True Longitudes", Brahmagupta presents a sine table:


title: Brahmagupta

text: 2.2–5. The sines: The Progenitors, twins; Ursa Major, twins, the Vedas; the gods, fires, six; flavors, dice, the gods; the moon, five, the sky, the moon; the moon, arrows, suns [...]


title: Brahmagupta

text: Here Brahmagupta uses names of objects to represent the digits of place-value numerals, as was common with numerical data in Sanskrit treatises. Progenitors represents the 14 Progenitors ("Manu") in Indian cosmology or 14, "twins" means 2, "Ursa Major" represents the seven stars of Ursa Major or 7, "Vedas" refers to the 4 Vedas or 4, dice represents the number of sides of the traditional die or 6, and so on. This information can be translated into the list of sines, 214, 427, 638, 846, 1051, 1251, 1446, 1635, 1817, 1991, 2156, 2312, 2459, 2594, 2719, 2832, 2933, 3021, 3096, 3159, 3207, 3242, 3263, and 3270, with the radius being 3270 (this numbers represent formula_7 for formula_8).


title: Brahmagupta

text: In 665 Brahmagupta devised and used a special case of the Newton–Stirling interpolation formula of the second-order to interpolate


title: Brahmagupta

text: new values of the sine function from other values already tabulated. The formula gives an estimate for the value of a function at a value of its argument (with and ) when its value is already known at , and .


title: Brahmagupta

text: Brahmagupta in 628 first described gravity as an attractive force, using the term "]" to describe it:


title: Brahmagupta

text: The earth on all its sides is the same; all people on the earth stand upright, and all heavy things fall down to the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow ... If a thing wants to go deeper down than the earth, let it try. The earth is the only "low" thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth.


title: Brahmagupta

text: Brahmagupta directed a great deal of criticism towards the work of rival astronomers, and his "Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta" displays one of the earliest schisms among Indian mathematicians. The division was primarily about the application of mathematics to the physical world, rather than about the mathematics itself. In Brahmagupta's case, the disagreements stemmed largely from the choice of astronomical parameters and theories. Critiques of rival theories appear throughout the first ten astronomical chapters and the eleventh chapter is entirely devoted to criticism of these theories, although no criticisms appear in the twelfth and eighteenth chapters.


title: Brahmagupta

text: Some of the important contributions made by Brahmagupta in astronomy are his methods for calculating the position of heavenly bodies over time (ephemerides), their rising and setting, conjunctions, and the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses.


title: Brahmagupta

text: In chapter seven of his "Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta", entitled "Lunar Crescent", Brahmagupta rebuts the idea that the Moon is farther from the Earth than the Sun. He does this by explaining the illumination of the Moon by the Sun.


title: Brahmagupta

text: 1. If the moon were above the sun, how would the power of waxing and waning, etc., be produced from calculation of the longitude of the moon? The near half would always be bright.


title: Brahmagupta

text: 2. In the same way that the half seen by the sun of a pot standing in sunlight is bright, and the unseen half dark, so is [the illumination] of the moon [if it is] beneath the sun.


title: Brahmagupta

text: 3. The brightness is increased in the direction of the sun. At the end of a bright [i.e. waxing] half-month, the near half is bright and the far half dark. Hence, the elevation of the horns [of the crescent can be derived] from calculation. [...]


title: Brahmagupta

text: He explains that since the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun, the degree of the illuminated part of the Moon depends on the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon, and this can be computed from the size of the angle between the two bodies.


title: Brahmagupta

text: Further work exploring the longitudes of the planets, diurnal rotation, lunar and solar eclipses, risings and settings, the moon's crescent and conjunctions of the planets, are discussed in his treatise Khandakhadyaka.


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: Yeon Woo-jin (born Kim Bong-hwe on July 5, 1984) is a South Korean actor. He started in the entertainment industry as a model and gained recognition as an actor with his role in "Arang and the Magistrate" (2012) which earned him a nomination for Best New Actor. He expands his acting repertoire on leading roles in "Marriage, Not Dating" (2014), "Divorce Lawyer in Love" (2015), "Introverted Boss" (2017), "Queen for Seven Days" (2017) and "Judge vs. Judge" (2017).


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: Kim began his career as a fashion model at the 2007 Seoul Fashion Week and for jeans brand Evisu in 2008. He made his acting debut in the queer coming-of-age film "Just Friends?" in 2009 under the stage name Seo Ji-hoo. His management agency later changed his stage name to Yeon Woo-jin.


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: After playing a teacher in 2010 daily drama "All My Love", he started to gain recognition as the youngest brother in hit 2011 family drama "Ojakgyo Family". Then in his first lead role, Yeon's character falls in love with the daughter of his brother's murderer in the 4-episode Drama Special "Just an Ordinary Love Story".


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: In 2012, he was cast as a mysterious villain in the period fantasy-romance "Arang and the Magistrate". Yeon reunited with "Arang" director Kim Sang-ho in 2013, to again play the protagonist's rival in the gangster melodrama "When a Man Falls in Love".


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: This was followed by leading roles in two romantic comedy series: as a commitment-phobic plastic surgeon in "Marriage, Not Dating" (2014) and as a vengeful office manager-turned-attorney in "Divorce Lawyer in Love" (2015).


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: In 2017, he starred in the tvN romance comedy drama "Introverted Boss". He then starred in historical melodrama "Queen for Seven Days" as well as legal drama "Judge vs. Judge".


title: Yeon Woo-jin

text: In 2022, Yeon appeared in romantic drama film, "Serve the People" written and directed by Jang Cheol-soo opposite Ji An. The film based on the eponymous novel by Yan Lianke, drew wide attention and Yeon was praised for his performance as a model soldier. Later in March 2022, Yeon confirmed that on the 10th of Yeon Woo-jin's official Japanese website, an announcement was posted under the heading 'About the schedule of the 2022 visit to Japan event'. They held fan meetings in Tokyo on August 11 and Osaka on August 13.


title: Shelley Conn

text: Shelley Deborah Conn (born 21 September 1976) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Lady Mary Sharma in the hugely successful Netflix series "Bridgerton", as Isabella in the film "Love Sarah", as Dr Elizabeth Shannon in the Spielberg series "Terra Nova" and soon to be seen in Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens" and The Boys spin-off series "Gen V", both for Amazon Prime.


title: Shelley Conn

text: Conn was born in Barnet in north London to Anglo-Indian parents. She is of mixed heritage, which includes Portuguese, Burmese and Indian. She attended Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke and Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Conn trained at Bretton Hall. She was a student at Cranbourne School in Basingstoke.


title: Shelley Conn

text: After drama school, Conn had a series of small roles in various British films, before coming to prominence when she starred as Ashika Chandiramani in the BBC series "Party Animals". In 2001, she picked up the role of PC Miriam Da Silva in BBC1's "Mersey Beat" and an irregularly recurring role in "Casualty". In 2002, Conn made her West End theatre stage debut in three plays in December 2002, after transferring from Stratford-upon-Avon in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Jacobean Season at the Gielgud Theatre – "The Island Princess", "Eastward Ho!" and "The Roman Actor".


title: Shelley Conn

text: Conn has appeared television, film and theatre, with a series of leading roles in various small budget European as well as British films namely BBC character dramas such as "The Innocence Project," and occasional returns to the RSC. Conn joined Series Five of the popular BBC One series "Down to Earth" in 2004. In early 2008, Conn starred as Miranda Hill in "The Palace", as Jessica in "Mistresses" and as Neela Sahjani in "Trial & Retribution". In 2008 she appeared as Claire in "Dead Set". In 2010 she played Danni Prendiville in the TV series "Strike Back".


title: Shelley Conn

text: She was chosen by Steven Spielberg to be one of the leads in the $150 million TV series "Terra Nova", which premiered on 26 September 2011. In 2014, Conn appeared in a US TV series called "The Lottery".


title: Shelley Conn

text: In April 2021, it was announced that Conn would star as Mary Sharma in the second series of the Netflix romance period drama "Bridgerton" based on Julia Quinn's second novel in her "Bridgerton" series, "The Viscount Who Loved Me". The series was released in March 2022.


title: Shelley Conn

text: Conn lives in London. She ran in the 2006 London Marathon. Conn married her boyfriend of over a decade, actor Jonathan Kerrigan, in late 2011.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: The Aston Martin DB5 is a British grand tourer (GT) produced by Aston Martin and designed by Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. Originally produced from 1963 to 1965, the DB5 was an evolution of the final series of DB4.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: Although not the first in the "DB" series, the DB5 is the best-known cinematic "James Bond" car, first appearing in the "James Bond" film "Goldfinger" (1964). In 2013, the car featured on a "British Auto Legends" postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: The principal differences between the DB4 Series V and the DB5 are the all-aluminium engine, enlarged from 3.7 litres to 4.0 litres; a new robust ZF five-speed transmission (except for some of the very first DB5s); and three SU carburettors. This engine, producing , which propelled the car to , was available in the Vantage (high powered) version of the DB4 from March 1962. It became the standard Aston Martin power unit with the launch in September 1963 of the DB5.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: Standard equipment on the DB5 included reclining seats, wool pile carpets, electric windows, twin fuel tanks, chrome wire wheels, oil cooler, magnesium-alloy body built to Superleggera patent technique, full leather trim in the cabin and a fire extinguisher. All models had two doors and 2+2 seating configuration. The boot lids differed slightly between the DB4 mark 5 and the DB5.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: Like the DB4, the DB5 had a live rear axle. At the beginning, the original four-speed manual gearbox (with optional overdrive) was standard fitment, but it was soon dropped in favour of the ZF five-speed box. A three-speed Borg-Warner DG automatic transmission was also available. The automatic option was changed to the Borg-Warner Model 8 shortly before the DB6 replaced the DB5.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: The high-performance DB5 Vantage was introduced in 1964. It featured three Weber carburettors and revised camshaft profiles, which delivered greater top-end performance at the possible expense of driveability, as Webers are typically optimized for 'full-throttle' response. This engine produced at 5,500 rpm. 65 DB5 Vantage coupés were built.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: 123 convertible DB5s were produced (also with bodies by Touring), though they did not use the 'Volante' name until 1965. The convertible model was offered from 1963 to 1965. Originally only 19 of the 123 DB5 Convertibles made were left-hand drive. 12 cars were originally fitted with a factory Vantage engine, and at least one further convertible was subsequently factory-fitted with a DB6 specification Vantage engine. A rare factory option (fitted by Works Service prior to customer delivery) was a steel removable hard top.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: From October 1965 to October 1966, Aston Martin used the last 37 of the Aston Martin DB5 chassis to make another convertible model. These 37 cars were known as "Short Chassis" Volantes and were the first Aston Martins to carry the 'Volante' name. The "short" came from comparison with the subsequent DB6 which had a longer chassis, although when compared to the DB5 it was the same size. These cars differed from the DB5 convertible models in featuring DB6 split front and rear bumpers and Triumph TR4 rear lights, as also used on the DB6.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: A prototype DB5 shooting-brake was custom-built by the factory for David Brown, an avid hunter and dog owner, and a further 11 or 12 coupés were custom-modified for Aston Martin by independent coachbuilder Harold Radford. The tail lights used were Triumph units, and these were also adopted for the succeeding DB6. In August 2019 a DB5 sold for a record $1.765m (£1.456m), making it the most valuable Shooting Brake-bodied car of any marque sold at auction.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: The Aston Martin DB5 is well-known thanks to special effects expert John Stears, who modified a DB5 for use by James Bond in the 1964 film "Goldfinger". Although author Ian Fleming had placed Bond in a DB Mark III in the novel, Stears persuaded the company to make its DB5 prototype available.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: There were a total of four "Goldfinger" DB5s. Two of these were used in filming and two were used only for promotional purposes. The first filming car, DP/2161/1, was fitted with gadgets. This DB5 was the original prototype and was painted Dubonnet Red. Before it appeared in "Goldfinger", it was used in episode 2.17, "The Noble Sportsman," of "The Saint". This car, chassis number DP/216/1, was later stripped of its weaponry and gadgetry by Aston Martin and resold. It was then retrofitted by subsequent owners with non-original weaponry. It later appeared in the film "The Cannonball Run" (1981), in which it was driven by Roger Moore. Chassis DP/216/1 DB5 was stolen in 1997 from its last owner in Florida and was reported to be still missing in 2021. The second filming car, DB5/1486/R, was used for driving scenes and had no gadgets. After filming, gadgets were added and the car was used for promotion. It featured the pop-out gun barrels behind the front indicators, the bullet shield behind the rear window and a three-way revolving front number plate showing "LU 6789" or "4711-EA-62" or "BMT 216A." In 2010 RM Auctions sold this car for $4.6 million to Harry Yeaggy. The first publicity car, DB5/2017/R, was acquired by the Louwman Museum in The Hague. The second publicity car, DB5/2008/R, was auctioned by RM Sotheby's in August 2019 for $6.4 million to an unknown buyer. These two cars were displayed at the 1964 New York World's Fair to promote the film. The DB5 was described as "the most famous car in the world" and sales of the car subsequently increased.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: After "Goldfinger", the Aston Martin DB5 became closely associated with the James Bond franchise. The same car (registration BMT 216A) was used again in the next film, "Thunderball", a year later. The DB5 is considered to be the quintessential vehicle associated with the character and it has reappeared in subsequent Bond films.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: A different DB5 (registration BMT 214A) was used in the 1995 Bond film "GoldenEye", in which the car was Bond's personal vehicle and had no gadgets - although it did come equipped with a champagne cooler in the arm rest and a fax machine. Three different DB5s were used for filming. This same car briefly reappeared in the next film, "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997). It was set to make a cameo appearance in the Scotland-set scenes in "The World Is Not Enough" (1999), but most of these scenes were cut in the final edit. Another DB5 (registration 56526) appeared in "Casino Royale" (2006), this time owned by the villain, Alex Dimitrios. This car had Bahamian number plates and left-hand drive (where the previous British versions had been right-hand drive). In the film, Bond wins the car from Dimitrios after beating him in a card game.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: The "Goldeneye" DB5 was put on display at the London Film Museum in Covent Garden. Of the three cars used in the production, one car, DB5/2187/R, was filmed for the static ocean side shot. A second car, DB5/1885/R, was driven in the chase scene against a Ferrari in Monte Carlo. This car was sold at a Christie's auction in 2001 and entered the Guinness Book of Records that year after receiving the highest price paid for an item of Bond memorabilia. It appeared in the Bond exhibition at Beaulieu before moving to its new home in the London Film Museum. The third car, chassis number DB5/1484/R, was retained by the movie production company, Eon Productions, and appeared in later Bond movies.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: Another silver-birch DB5 with the original registration BMT 216A was used in the 23rd James Bond film, "Skyfall", at the time of the 50th anniversary of the release of the first James Bond film, "Dr. No", in 1962. The car is destroyed in the film's climactic finale. Two cars were used during filming, DB5/1484/R (first used for GoldenEye) and a second car DB5/2007/R. It is seen again in "Spectre" (2015), firstly in Q's underground workshop in various stages of rebuild, and at the film's ending, fully rebuilt, with Bond driving it away.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: In 2019, Aston Martin confirmed that the car would be featured in the next Bond film, "No Time to Die", to be released in October 2021. The plan was to build replicas and not use existing vehicles. Eight replica DB5 stunt cars were built for the movie. One of these was sold for £2.92 million at a charity auction in London in 2022.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: In 2020, as the next phase of the Continuation programme which had started in 2017 with the reborn DB4GT, Aston Martin began construction of 25 new DB5 "Goldfinger"-themed cars at the factory in Newport Pagnell, north Buckinghamshire, where the first DB5s were built. The cars were authentic reproductions of Bond's "Goldfinger" DB5 and were fitted with most of the spy gadgets seen in the film. Several of the gadgets were designed to be functional, including smoke screen, simulated oil slick delivery system, revolving number plates, and rear bullet shield.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: Wherever possible, Aston Martin used the same manufacturers as were used in the original 1963-65 production run. ZF Friedrichshafen, for example, supplied the transmission and Connolly Leather supplied the interiors. As in the 1960s, the aluminum body panels were hand-made and fitted by hand to a steel chassis. The engine was a 290bhp 4.0 litre inline six-cylinder with three SU carburettors, mated to a five-speed ZF manual transmission, and the cars were finished in the same Silver Birch colour scheme as the original. The "Goldfinger" DB5s were created in association with the producers of the James Bond films, EON Productions. It was intended that they would sell for about each. The first of the new cars rolled off the production line at the beginning of July 2020.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: With "Goldfinger", Corgi Toys began its decades-long relationship with the Bond franchise. They produced a model of the car which became the biggest selling toy of 1964. A detailed 1:24 scale plastic kit of the James Bond DB5 was produced by Airfix between 1966 and 1970.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: A highly detailed, 1:24 scale die-cast DB5 model with many working features was produced by the Danbury Mint in 2006 as a limited edition for "Casino Royale". In January 2011, a 1/8 scale model was released by part work magazine publisher GE Fabbri in the UK. Over 85 weekly parts, the model built into one of the biggest 007 scale models, with working gadgets and lights. In 2015 Hotwheels Elite released their Cult Classics Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5 in 1/18 and 1/43 scale, the 1/18 model featuring many of the gadgets from the original film.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: In July 2018, LEGO unveiled a 1:8 scale 1,290-piece DB5 construction set with front machine guns, hidden telephone, ejector seat, bullet shield, tyre shredders and the homing screen in the cockpit. In June 2022, The Lego Group announced that a construction set of James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 would be released in August 2022 as part of the Lego Speed Champions range.


title: Aston Martin DB5

text: In partnership with Aston Martin Lagonda, The Little Car Company in Bicester, UK, created 'Junior Edition', two-thirds scale, electric-powered replicas of the DB5 convertible, the DB5 Vantage and the "No Time to Die" DB5, which were priced between £35,000 and £90,000. The cars were built using 3D scans of the original.


title: Pathological lying

text: Pathological lying, also known as "mythomania" and "pseudologia fantastica", is a chronic behavior in which the person habitually or compulsively lies. These lies often serve no obvious purpose other than to paint oneself as a hero or victim, depending on the circumstance. Pathological lying has been defined as: "a persistent, pervasive, and often compulsive pattern of excessive lying behavior that leads to clinically significant impairment of functioning in social, occupational, or other areas; causes marked distress; poses a risk to the self or others; and occurs for longer than six months." Others have defined pathological lying as "falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime."


title: Pathological lying

text: It was first described in the medical literature in 1890 by G. Stanley Hall and in 1891 by . There is still much controversy in the fields of psychology and psychiatry about whether or not pathological lying is a unique disorder or merely a symptom of other disorders. A widely agreed-upon description of or diagnostic criteria for pathological lying behaviour does not exist, resulting in controversy regarding what it truly means to be a pathological liar. Theories to explain the root causes include stress, an attempt to shift a locus of control to an internal one, and issues relating to low self-esteem.


title: Pathological lying

text: Some psychiatrists distinguish compulsive from pathological lying, while others consider them equivalent; yet others deny the existence of compulsive lying altogether; this remains an area of considerable controversy.


title: Pathological lying

text: Pathological lying is listed in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", although only as a symptom of other disorders such as antisocial, narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders, not as a stand-alone diagnosis. The ICD-10 disorder Haltlose personality disorder is strongly tied to pathological lying.


title: Pathological lying

text: It has been shown through lie detector tests that PF ("pseudologia fantastica") patients exhibit arousal, stress, and guilt from their deception. This is different from psychopaths, who experience none of those reactions. People affected by antisocial disorder lie for external personal profit in the forms of money, sex, and power. PF is strictly internal. The difference between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and PF is that BPD patients desperately try to cope with their feeling of abandonment, mistreatment, or rejection by making empty threats of suicide or false accusations of abandonment. Pathological liars do not feel rejected; they have high levels of self-assurance that help them lie successfully. Unlike those with histrionic personality, pathological liars are more verbally dramatic than sexually flamboyant. Narcissists think they have achieved perfection and are unempathetic to others. PF patients do not show these anti-social behaviors; they often lie because they think their life is not interesting enough.


title: Pathological lying

text: The only diagnosis in the current system where purposeless, internally motivated deception is listed is factitious disorder. This diagnosis deals with people who lie about having physical or psychological disorders. However, research or testing must be done to confirm the individual does not in fact have a physical or other disorder. This may become troublesome due to the fact that medical records are sealed to the public. People with PF tend to lie about their identities and history. Because the symptoms do not match up, the individual may go undiagnosed. They could well be diagnosed under the catch-all rubric of unspecified personality disorder (UPD) (ICD-10 code F69) or perhaps even under ICD-10 code F68.8 "Other specified disorder of adult personality and behaviour" as this defines itself as "This category should be used for coding any specified disorder of adult personality and behaviour that cannot be classified under any one of the preceding headings".


title: Pathological lying

text: Lying is the act of both knowingly and intentionally or willfully making a false statement. Normal lies are defensive and are told to avoid the consequences of truth telling. They are often white lies that spare another's feelings, reflect a pro-social attitude, and make civilized human contact possible. Pathological lying can be described as an habituation of lying. It is when an individual consistently lies for no obvious personal gain.


title: Pathological lying

text: There are many consequences of being a pathological liar. Due to lack of trust, most pathological liars' relationships and friendships fail. If this continues to progress, lying could become so severe as to cause legal problems, including, but not limited to, fraud.


title: Pathological lying

text: The average age of onset is before adulthood. Individuals with the condition tend to have average verbal skills as opposed to performance abilities. Thirty percent of subjects had a chaotic home environment, where a parent or other family member had a mental disturbance. Its occurrence was found by the study to be equal in women and men. Forty percent of cases reported central nervous system abnormality such as epilepsy, abnormal EEG findings, ADHD, head trauma, or CNS infection.


title: Choose or Die

text: Choose or Die (formerly titled CURS>R) is a 2022 British horror thriller film directed by Toby Meakins in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Iola Evans, Asa Butterfield, Robert Englund and Eddie Marsan.


title: Choose or Die

text: Hal, a married man with a dysfunctional family who is a collector of retro video games, receives a copy of an interactive fiction computer game called CURS>R. Hal installs the game and starts to play, expecting it to be nothing more than a classic 1980s text-based adventure game. However, when the objects around him begin to interact with the game, he realises it is something more, and his family is harmed as a result.


title: Choose or Die

text: Three months later, college student Kayla is working as a cleaner to pay for her studies. She provides new and old technology to her computer-geek friend, Isaac, who in return helps her learn to code so that she can gain sufficient skills for her classes. Kayla's mother, Thea, has become a drug addict after the death of her son Ricky, and also suffers psychological and sexual abuse from her rent collector, Lance, who supplies her with drugs and forces her into prostitution in exchange for not being evicted from her apartment.


title: Choose or Die

text: One day while visiting Isaac after work, Kayla discovers the CURS>R game in his apartment, along with a phone number offering a $125,000 prize. She calls the number and receives a recorded message from the Terror Director telling her to complete the game and insert the number code at the end of it to win the money. Attracted by the offer, Kayla accepts the challenge, thinking it will be easy money, and arranges a deal with Isaac to share the prize. That night, Kayla starts playing the game in a café and discovers that it can interfere with reality in different ways—the game level ending with a waitress eating broken glass and dying. The next day, Kayla tries to stop the game by destroying the tape. She tells Isaac what happened, but he finds her story hard to believe.


title: Choose or Die

text: Later, while Kayla is working a graveyard shift, her mother calls her desperate for help. Kayla discovers that CURS>R has managed to escape to the net and is following her, forcing her to choose ways to save her mother from a giant rat. Thea eventually falls from her bedroom window and, severely injured, ends up in hospital. Later that night, Kayla goes to Isaac's apartment and together they try to discover the mystery behind the game. They find a sort of code in the sound of CURS>R, in an unknown language, and theorise it is what allows the game to interact with the real world. Together they manage to survive the night after the game exploits Kayla's trauma over the death of her brother, who drowned in a public pool. Isaac and Kayla hack the prize number to a storage facility where the game was created. In recording sessions of the making of CURS>R, they discover that the creator of the game, Beck, found a curse in different symbols and embedded the codes into the game to gain more benefits by using the suffering of gamers. When they discover the code needed, the game traps Isaac and forces Kayla to choose in order to save him, but ends up killing him.


title: Choose or Die

text: The game orders Kayla to "beat the boss" and gives her a set of coordinates to follow that lead her to Hal's house, now a cruel man who tortures his wife Laura and son Gabe. Hal explains that he never ended the game and after two levels it promised to leave them alone if he made more copies of it. The game then orders both Kayla and Hal to fight while reversing the pain that each experiences; i.e., if Hal is hurt, Kayla feels it and if Kayla is hurt, Hal feels it. An intense fight ensues, during which Hal is drowned and Kayla barely manages to survive. Kayla receives the game prize, which enables her to take total control of the curse. She uses this ability to kill Lance, which heals both herself and her mother. It is then revealed that the building in which Kayla worked is owned by Beck, who asks her who is next to suffer. Kayla answers that it will be only the ones who deserve to.


title: Choose or Die

text: Benjamin Lee of "The Guardian" awarded the film two stars out of five and wrote, "It's a film destined to live its days in the 'if you like' container."


title: Choose or Die

text: Josh Bell of "Comic Book Resources" gave the film a negative review, calling it "a disposable, forgettable modern horror movie that lacks the creativity and ingenuity of its rudimentary text-based inspirations." Brian Tallerico of "RogerEbert.com" awarded the film one and a half stars and wrote, ""Choose or Die" too often feels like it's making itself up as it goes along." Adam Graham of "The Detroit News" graded the film a "D" and called it a "cheap horror exercise that's forgotten before the end credits roll."


title: Choose or Die

text: Jude Dry of "IndieWire" graded the film a B+. Ryan Leston of "IGN" gave the film a mixed review and wrote, "But beneath this terror-filled glimpse of the '80s lies not much more than a bog-standard horror flick. The scares are soon replaced with a meandering plot that doesn't quite know what it's doing, held together with obscure twists that would only make sense in a low-budget retro text adventure. Asa Butterfield brings a solid performance alongside Evans, but there's little either of them can do to save "Choose or Die". Game over, man. Game over."


title: Choose or Die

text: Dennis Harvey of "Variety" gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Even the smallest feature-length film is a considerable logistical enterprise, so it's a bit flummoxing how little thought appears to have been put into "Choose or Die"."


title: Psilocybin decriminalization in the United States

text: The movement to decriminalize psilocybin in the United States began in the late 2010s, with Denver, Colorado becoming the first city to decriminalize psilocybin in May 2019. The cities of Oakland and Santa Cruz, California, followed suit and decriminalized psilocybin in June 2019 and January 2020, respectively. Washington, D.C. followed suit in November 2020, as did Somerville, Massachusetts in January 2021, and then neighboring Bay State town Cambridge, near Boston, and Northampton, in western Massachusetts, in February 2021 and March 2021, respectively. Seattle, Washington became the largest U.S. city on the growing list in October 2021.


text: Supporters of the movement have cited emerging research that indicates potential medical uses for the drug. Oregon voters passed the 2020 Oregon Ballot Measure 109, making it the first state to both decriminalize psilocybin and also legalize it for therapeutic use. Colorado followed with the 2022 Colorado Ballot Measure 122. The use, sale, and possession of psilocybin in the United States is illegal under federal law.


text: Psilocybin is a psychedelic drug produced naturally by psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as "magic mushrooms". In the United States, it is federally classified as a Schedule I controlled substance that has "no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." The drug was banned by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. In the 2015 case of "State of New Mexico vs David Ray Pratt", New Mexico's Court of Appeals found that if one grows psilocybin mushrooms for personal use, it is not considered "manufacturing of a controlled substance" under state law.


text: In February 2019, Troy Farah of "Wired" reported on two grassroots movements in Oregon and the city of Denver, Colorado, that were pushing for the decriminalization of psilocybin. Advocates for decriminalizing psilocybin have formed their movement based on the rapid legalization of cannabis in the United States. Decriminalization efforts have not included synthetic psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and MDMA. American author Michael Pollan, writing for "The New York Times", criticized the movement for being a premature push, "before the researchers have completed their work". He wrote, "We still have a lot to learn about the immense power and potential risk of these molecules, not to mention the consequences of unrestricted use." At the same time, he urged that ""no one should ever be arrested or go to jail for the possession or cultivation of any kind of mushroom."" Pollan acknowledged the low risks of the drug's use, but cited a survey that nearly eight percent of people needed psychiatric treatment after experiencing a bad trip. His end goal however is legalisation not only for therapeutic use: "I look forward to the day when psychedelic medicines like psilocybin, having proven their safety and efficacy in F.D.A.-approved trials, will take their legal place in society, not only in mental health care but in the lives of people dealing with garden-variety unhappiness or interested in spiritual exploration and personal growth."


text: In May 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act, with certain doctors suggesting that it allows terminally-ill patients to use psychedelics for treatment. In October 2018, the Food and Drug Administration granted psilocybin "breakthrough therapy" status for research. The drug was granted this status again in November 2019. Decriminalization advocates have cited research that suggests that the drug is non-addictive and causes a low amount of emergency visits when compared to other illegal drugs. Other research has indicated the potential beneficial use of psilocybin in treating treatment-resistant depression and nicotine dependence. Advocates have also claimed that decriminalization would lift law enforcement resources to focus on high-priority issues.


text: In May 2019, Denver, Colorado, became the first city in the United States to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms after an ordinance admitted to the ballot narrowly winning with 50.6% of the vote. The initiative did not actually legalize mushrooms, but prohibited Denver from spending any resources to prosecute people for their use or possession. The law applies to adults over the age of 21, and psilocybin remains illegal in Colorado.


text: The following month in June 2019, thirty individuals testified to the city council in Oakland, California, about their prior experiences with psilocybin. Following the testimonies, the city council unanimously voted to decriminalize the drug, along with peyote.


text: In January 2020, Santa Cruz, California, voted unanimously to decriminalize the adult possession and cultivation of psilocybin. Commercial sale of psilocybin is still illegal.


text: In September 2020, the City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, voted unanimously in favor of a resolution declaring the investigation or arrest of anyone for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with or possessing entheogenic plants or plant compounds to be the city's lowest law enforcement priority.


text: In November 2020, the state of Oregon became the first U.S. state to both decriminalize psilocybin and also legalize it for therapeutic use after the Ballot Measure 109 passed.


text: In November 2020, the District of Columbia passed initiative 81; the short title of the initiative was "the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020" and it came into effect on March 15, 2021. It decriminalizes psilocybin drugs, which are psychedelics including magic mushrooms, ayahuasca, and mescaline, making arrests for their possession or use the lowest priority for DC police.


text: In January 2021, Washtenaw County, Michigan followed suit. That same month, the City Council of Somerville, Massachusetts voted unanimously to decriminalize the possession of entheogenic plants, including psilocybin mushrooms and ibogaine.


text: In February 2021, after continuous outreach by Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, the City Council of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in March 2021, Northampton, Massachusetts followed.


text: In October 2021, the City Council of Seattle, Washington, and Arcata, California, voted unanimously to deprioritize enforcing entheogen prohibition.


text: On October 20, 2021, the City Council of Easthampton, Massachusetts, voted 7-0 on a non-binding resolution to support ending arrests for the growing of entheogenic plants and fungi, as well as to support decriminalization of the possession of most controlled substances.


text: On November 3, 2021, Detroit voters approved Proposal E, making Detroit the latest city to “decriminalize nature,” as supporters call it. Proposal E, a ballot initiative, passed with 61% of voters supporting a law that will, “to the fullest extent permitted under Michigan law,” make “the personal possession and therapeutic use of entheogenic plants by adults the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority.”


text: On December 20, 2021, the City of Port Townsend, WA, adopted a resolution requesting that "investigating, arrest, and prosecution of adults engaging in entheogen-related activities, included but not limited to... should be a City of Port Townsend low enforcement priority when done in a nonpublic place."


text: On September 7, 2022, San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a measure calling for the decriminalization of the use of entheogenic plants.


text: In March 2022, Colorado activists picked a psychedelic reform initiative (Propostion 122) out of three other similar initiatives and started a signature campaign to place the measure on the state's 2022 election ballot. By July 2022 the reform initiative made the Colorado ballot for the 2022 midterm elections. The ballot initiative was passed in November 2022 by over 50% of those who voted. It decriminalizes the possession, growing, and sharing of five psychedelics for personal use; these being: psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, and mescaline, for those aged 21-years-old and over. The initiative will also legalize "healing centers" that are licensed by the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies, where those aged 21 and over can buy, consume, and take psychedelics under supervision. This healing center programme is expected to begin in 2024. It would at first only include psilocybin but allows for the expansion of including DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline in 2026.


text: On May 26, 2020, an initiative in Oregon to legalize medical psilocybin and also decriminalize it statewide qualified to appear on the ballot in November. On November 3, 2020, both measures were approved by voters in Oregon.


text: A 2018 effort to decriminalize psilocybin in California failed to garner enough signatures. In February 2019, Iowa state lawmaker Jeff Shipley introduced two bills that would legalize medical psilocybin and remove the drug from the state's list of controlled substances. In June 2019, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation that would remove restrictions placed on researching the medical use of psilocybin. By November 2019, nearly 100 U.S. cities were reportedly considering measures to decriminalize psilocybin.


text: In January 2020, a Vermont state lawmaker, along with three other co-sponsors, introduced a bill to decriminalize psilocybin, peyote, ayahuasca, and kratom. On May 26, 2020, an initiative in Oregon to legalize medical psilocybin qualified to appear on the ballot in November. Another initiative in Oregon would decriminalize drug possession and expand treatment services. In May 2020, New York Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal introduced a decriminalization bill, citing ongoing medical research and successful efforts in Denver, Oakland, and Santa Cruz. In November 2020, New Jersey senator Nicholas Scutari added an amendment to a marijuana decriminalization bill that would decriminalize up to one ounce of psilocybin. In November 2020, California Senator Scott Wiener introduced a bill to decriminalize psychedelics such as psilocybin, ayahuasca, ibogaine, and LSD.


text: In April 2021, the bill has been approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee and the Health Committee, and in May 2021, it was cleared by the Senate Appropriations Committee and approved by the California Senate. In June 2021, the bill was approved by the Assembly Public Safety Committee, and in July 2021, it was cleared by the Assembly Health Committee. In December 2022, it was re-introduced in a slightly modified form as Senate Bill 58, and does not include MDMA or LSD, which were both included in the earlier attempt under SB519.


text: In September 2021, Michigan senators Jeff Irwin and Adam Hollier introduced SB631, which would create exemptions in the Michigan Health Code allowing personal and communal use, possession, cultivation, transportation and delivery of naturally occurring substances. It is also the first of "Decriminalize Nature" led efforts that would allow financial gain for services that utilize these substances. SB 631 currently sits in the Michigan Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.


text: On January 5, 2022, Washington State legislators proposed Senate Bill 5660 which would legalize psilocybin for “supported use” among adults over 21.


text: In January 2019, the Oregon Psilocybin Society and research firm DHM Research found that 47 percent of Oregon voters supported the legalization of medical psilocybin, while 46 percent opposed it. The percentage of voters in favor increased to 64 percent after key elements of the ballot were clarified to the poll's participants. In November 2020, a ballot measure to legalize medical psilocybin passed with 55.8% of voters in favor.


text: An October 2019 online poll conducted by research firm Green Horizons found that 38 percent of U.S. adults supported legalizing psilocybin "under at least some circumstances."


text: According to a survey in Washington D.C., done at the beginning of September 2020, voters support the initiative to decriminalize psychedelic plants and fungi. The number of voters in favor increased by nine percentage points since April 2020. A key factor, respondents reported, is that they have learned more about the legislation in question. While 60 percent of participants said they would vote “yes” for Initiative 81, 24 percent said they planned to vote “no,” and 16 percent remained undecided. In November 2020, on Election Day, 76 percent of voters in Washington D.C. voted in favor of the initiative.


text: Whereas the content above uses the term "decriminalized", in reality, most of the initiatives that are passed are about de-prioritizing policing, arrests, and prosecution. That is, possession is still treated as criminal, just de-prioritized for law enforcement action. The table below uses the terms "Deprioritized" and "Decriminalized" in order to be more technically correct.


title: Whataburger

text: Whataburger is an American regional fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in hamburgers. The company, founded by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton, opened its first restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1950. Family-owned by the Dobsons until 2019, the chain is now managed by a private equity firm along with the Dobson family still holding a small stake.


title: Whataburger

text: There are more than 670 stores in Texas and over 150 in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and the southern United States, of which 126 are franchised.


title: Whataburger

text: Whataburger was known for many years for its distinct A-framed orange-and-white-stripe-roofed buildings ( a maroon stripe is added in College Station). The first A-frame restaurant was built in Odessa, Texas, in 1961 and was the 24th Whataburger to open and was a historical landmark. The site was demolished in 2019 and a new building was built.


title: Whataburger

text: The company's focus is on ground beef burgers, and include the "Whataburger", the "Whataburger Jr.", the "Triple Meat Whataburger", the "Bacon & Cheese Whataburger", and the "Justaburger". Also available are non-beef options such as the "Whatachick'n". Breakfast is served during morning hours, including biscuits, pork sausage, bacon, and eggs.


title: Whataburger

text: In 1950, Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton were looking to open a hamburger restaurant. Dobson's goal was to "make a better burger that took two hands to hold and tasted so good that when you took a bite you would say 'What a burger!'" In June 1950, Dobson was granted the Whataburger trademark. In August of that year they opened their first location on Ayers Street in Corpus Christi, Texas, across from Del Mar College. The store sold burgers for 25 cents, and also sold drinks and chips.


title: Whataburger

text: In 1951, Burton and Dobson ended their partnership after arguments concerning Dobson's price raise of the burger from 25 to 30 cents. Burton settled with owning the Whataburger franchises in San Antonio, Texas. Months later, prices for burgers were raised to 35 cents. In 1952, Dobson opened a location in Kingsville, Texas, the first store outside of Corpus Christi. In 1953, Joe Andrews, Sr. became the first non-founder franchise owner with a location in Alice, Texas. In 1959, the first Whataburger restaurant outside Texas opened in Pensacola, Florida.


title: Whataburger

text: By 1960, there were stores operating across Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. Inspired by his love for flying, Dobson designed the orange and white striped A-frame store in Odessa, Texas, in 1961.


title: Whataburger

text: In 1962, the company added French fries and hot pies to its menu. In 1963, it expanded to Arizona and totaled 26 stores. In 1965, it estimated selling 15,000 burgers daily in the Texas Coastal Bend area. In 1967, the company commissioned the "Flying W" company logo, and the company had expanded to 40 restaurants in four states.


title: Whataburger

text: On April 11, 1967, Dobson and an associate died in an airplane crash, and Dobson's widow, Grace, took control of the business. In 1969, Grace became chairman of the board.


title: Whataburger

text: In 1971, the company opened its first drive-through store, and in 1972, it opened its 100th store. In 1974, the A-frame design was changed to a "Modern A-Frame" to accommodate drive-thrus and larger dining rooms.


title: Whataburger

text: In 1980, the company opened its 300th store. In 1982, three Corpus Christi stores began 24/7 service. In 1983, the company added Breakfast on a Bun, the Whatachick'n sandwich and breakfast taquitos to its menu. In 1987, it opened its 400th store, and also shut down operations in California.


title: Whataburger

text: In 1993, Harmon and Grace Dobson's son, Tom, became the CEO and President. The menu expanded, offering Whatameal packages, cookies and biscuits, and chicken strips. The company celebrated its 500th store opening in 1995, and was noted as the country's eighth-largest hamburger chain.


title: Whataburger

text: On May 6, 1999, the company opened "Whataburger by the Bay" on Shoreline Blvd in Corpus Christi. It is the largest Whataburger store at . The site includes a life-size bronze statue of Harmon Dobson.


title: Whataburger

text: A Whataburger facility, complete with familiar a-frame design and the company logo, appeared routinely in the popular animated TV series "King of the Hill".


title: Whataburger

text: On August 8, 2000, Whataburger celebrated its 50th anniversary with 575 operating stores. In 2001, during the 77th Texas Legislative Session, a bill was passed proclaiming Whataburger to be a Texas Treasure.


title: Whataburger

text: In 2003, it hired Austin-based advertising firm McGarrah Jessee, which created an advertising campaign featuring the gravelly voice of Ohio actor William Bassett. In 2007, the company achieved 700 stores in ten states with annual revenue of $1 billion.


title: Whataburger

text: In October 2011, the company changed its television ads from Bassett's voiceovers to "documentary-style ads employees and customers using their own words to describe what makes Whataburger special." By the end of the year, it had 728 stores operating in ten states. The Dobson family owned 611 stores, and the other "117 are owned and operated by about 25 franchisees."


title: Whataburger

text: On May 16, 2019 American City Business Journals reported that Whataburger confirmed it has hired Morgan Stanley for a possible sale of the company.


title: Whataburger

text: On June 14, 2019, the Dobson family sold its majority stake in the company to BDT Capital, a Chicago-based investment company. The companies cited long term expansion plans as one reason for the sale. Much of the current leadership will remain, but they will take on new roles within the company. Ed Nelson, currently serving as chief financial officer and controller, was promoted to president. The company said that Whataburger's headquarters will remain in San Antonio.


title: Whataburger

text: Beginning in 2021, the company expanded to the Midwest with locations around the Kansas City metropolitan area and the Wichita, Kansas metropolitan area, with multiple locations in between the cities. On January 5, 2022, the first of 8 locations in Middle Tennessee opened in Hermitage, ending a decades long absence in the Nashville area. Also in March 2022, Whataburger announced that eight locations will be opened in Metro Atlanta, Georgia in 2022 and 2023. On April 6, 2022, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Kennesaw, GA to welcome the first location, and another location in nearby Woodstock, GA is slated to open in late 2022, and six more locations in Cumming, Dawsonville, Athens, Buford, and Commerce, GA are planned for 2023. On July 25th, 2022, it was announced that two additional stores, one in Snellville, Ga., and one in Winder, Ga., will also open in 2023 in addition to the others announced.


title: Whataburger

text: Due to the success of selling Whataburger sauces at H-E-B since 2014, the company announced it will offer 1-pound packages of bacon at H-E-B and Central Market stores.


title: Whataburger

text: Whataburger sells its line of condiments in 14oz and 20oz squeeze bottles. It also sells jars of its picante sauce and salsa verde, as well as boxed pancake mix.


title: Whataburger

text: In 2009 the company moved from its long time base in Corpus Christi to a new headquarters at 300 Concord Plaza Drive, a building in San Antonio.


title: Whataburger

text: Previously the corporate headquarters were in Corpus Christi. With the regional offices' in Corpus Christi, Houston, Irving, and Phoenix.


title: Whataburger

text: After Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Coast in 2008, the company began considering moving its headquarters from Corpus Christi. On Friday November 21, 2008, the company announced it was permanently moving the headquarters to San Antonio, and that the current Corpus Christi office would remain open indefinitely to help ease the transition. The company chose to permanently relocate to San Antonio because of a larger talent pool for potential employees, increased protection from hurricanes, and office space that is considered to be cost-efficient.


title: Whataburger

text: By March 2009 the company purchased the Concord Plaza development from HDG Mansur. According to Whataburger officials, the company chose Concord Plaza due to proximity to neighborhoods and schools attractive to employees and proximity to San Antonio International Airport. Tesoro, which leased space in the development, was moving to another facility at the time Whataburger bought the building. The company planned to move 250 jobs in the corporate sector to San Antonio, with over 60% of the employees coming from Corpus Christi and the remainder hired locally.


title: Whataburger

text: Whataburger is sometimes confused with the What-A-Burger (hyphenated) chain of family-operated restaurants in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The first What-A-Burger store opened in 1950 by entrepreneur Jack Branch near Newport News, Virginia, at Newport News Circle (intersection of Jefferson Avenue and U.S. Route 258) in the former Warwick County. Branch's first location preceded the first Texas Whataburger restaurant slightly; the move took place after a modernization project involving the traffic circle. What-A-Burger and Whataburger were unaware of each other's existence several states apart until around 1970, when there was some correspondence. However, no legal actions took place until 2002–2003, when both companies sued each other over the alleged trademark infringement. The Court of Appeals, in 2004, eventually decided the Texas Whataburger had a legitimate trademark; but the Virginia chain did not harm the much larger Texas-based chain in any way or any reasonable public confusion: "There is no evidence — nor can we imagine any — that consumers are currently likely to be confused about whether the burgers served by Virginia W-A-B come from Texas or Virginia."


title: Whataburger

text: A second restaurant chain based in North Carolina, named What-A-Burger Drive-In, owned by Eb and Michael Bost, was not a party to the lawsuit, but under case law procedures, it would also retain its name. It visibly numbered their stores starting from #1 in Kannapolis, North Carolina, to #15 in Concord, North Carolina, six of which remain in operation .


title: Whataburger

text: Whataburger has sponsored a variety of music festivals. The company has also sponsored sports through the Whataburger Sports Complex in Kilgore, Texas, the Arizona Soccer Association, and David Starr Racing, among others.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard the Duck is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in "Adventure into Fear" #19 (cover-dated Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered anthropomorphic animal trapped on a human-dominated Earth. Echoing this, the most common tagline of his comics reads 'Trapped In a World He Never Made!'


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard's adventures are generally social satires, while a few are parodies of genre fiction with a metafictional awareness of the medium. The book is existentialist, and its main joke, according to Gerber, is that there is no joke: "... that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view." Gloria Katz, producer of the notorious, ill-fated 1986 movie adaptation of the comic, expressed a diametrically opposed opinion of the character, "It's a film about a duck from outer space ... It's not supposed to be an existential experience."


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard the Duck was portrayed by Ed Gale and voiced by Chip Zien in the critically and commercially unsuccessful 1986 self-titled film. Starting in 2014, the character, voiced by Seth Green, appeared in cameos in several Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, the Disney XD animated series "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2015–19) and "Ultimate Spider-Man" (2016; with Kevin Michael Richardson), and the Disney+ series "What If...?" (2021).


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard the Duck was created by writer Steve Gerber and penciler Val Mayerik in "Adventure into Fear" #19 (Dec. 1973) as a secondary character in that comic's "Man-Thing" feature. He graduated to his own backup feature in "Giant-Size Man-Thing" #4–5 (May and Aug. 1975), confronting such bizarre horror-parody characters as Garko the Man-Frog and Bessie the Hellcow, before acquiring his own comic book title with "Howard the Duck" #1 in 1976.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Gerber wrote 27 issues of the series (for the most part ditching the horror parodies), illustrated by a variety of artists, beginning with Frank Brunner. For Gerber, Howard was a flesh-and-blood duck and explained that "If Wile E. Coyote gets run over by a steamroller, the result is a pancake-flat coyote who can be expected to snap back to three dimensions within moments; if Howard gets run over by a steamroller, the result is blood on asphalt." Gene Colan became the regular penciller with issue #4. Gerber later said to Colan: "There really was almost a telepathic connection there. I would see something in my mind, and that is what you would draw! I've never had that experience with another artist before or since."


title: Howard the Duck

text: Sporting the slogan "Get Down, America!", the All-Night Party was a fictional political party that appeared in Gerber's "Howard the Duck" series during the U.S. Presidential campaign of 1976, and led to Howard the Duck allegedly receiving thousands of write-in votes in the actual election. Gerber addressed questions about the campaign in the letters column of the comic book and, as Mad Genius Associates, sold merchandise publicizing the campaign.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Marvel attempted a spin-off with a short-lived "Howard the Duck" newspaper comic strip from 1977 to 1978, at first written by Gerber and drawn by Colan and Mayerik, later written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Alan Kupperberg.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Gerber gained a degree of creative autonomy when he became the comic series' editor in addition to his usual writing duties. With issue #16, unable to meet the deadline for his regular script, Gerber substituted an entire issue of text pieces and illustrations satirizing his own difficulties as a writer.


title: Howard the Duck

text: The Walt Disney Company contacted Marvel in 1977 over concerns that the visual design of Howard infringed on their trademark for Donald Duck. Marvel agreed to a redesign of the character by Disney artists. A key feature of the redesign was that the character would wear pants.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In 1978, Gerber was removed from the newspaper strip and the comic-book series due to chronic problems with deadlines. His final issue of the comic-book series was #27 (September 1978). The series continued for four more issues with stories by Marv Wolfman, Mary Skrenes, Mark Evanier, and Bill Mantlo.


title: Howard the Duck

text: The final episode of the newspaper strip was published on October 29, 1978. Issue #31 (May 1979) of the comic-book series announced on its letters page that it would be the final issue of "Howard the Duck" as a color comic. Marvel then relaunched the series that year as a bimonthly black and white magazine, with scripts by Mantlo, art by Colan and Michael Golden and unrelated backup features by others. The magazine was canceled after nine issues.


title: Howard the Duck

text: On August 29, 1980, after learning of Marvel's efforts to license Howard for use in film and broadcast media, Steve Gerber filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Marvel corporate parent Cadence Industries and other parties, alleging that he was the sole owner of the character. This was one of the first highly publicized creator's rights cases in American comics, and attracted support from major industry figures, some of whom created homage/parody stories with Gerber to fund a lawsuit against Marvel; these included "Destroyer Duck" with Jack Kirby. The lawsuit was settled on September 24, 1982, with Gerber acknowledging that his work on the character was done as work-for-hire and that Marvel parent Cadence Industries owned "all right, title and interest" to Howard the Duck and the Howard material he had produced. On November 5, 1982, Judge David Kenyon approved the motion and dismissed the case.


title: Howard the Duck

text: The only new story featuring the character between 1981 and 1986 appeared in "Bizarre Adventures" #34 (1983) Scripted by Steven Grant, it featured a suicidal Howard being put through a parody of "It's a Wonderful Life".


title: Howard the Duck

text: The original comic book series reappeared with issue #32 (January 1986). It featured a story that had been written by Grant four years earlier. Steve Gerber had submitted a script for the issue, but withdrew it after it had been revised to conform to editorial guidelines. Issue #33 (October 1986), scripted by Christopher Stager, featured a parody of the film "Bride of Frankenstein". Howard co-creator Val Mayerik co-plotted the story and provided the art. It was released alongside an adaptation of the "Howard the Duck" feature film, which was published in "Marvel Super Special" #41 (November 1986) and a three-issue comic-book series.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Gerber returned to Howard in 1989 in "The Sensational She-Hulk" #14–17. The character was again living with Beverly Switzler, now working as a rent-a-ninja. How they got back together was never explained. Beverly was not involved in the story, in which She-Hulk takes Howard on a trip through several dimensions with a theoretical physicist from Empire State University.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Gerber's next story featuring Howard appeared in "Spider-Man Team-Up" #5 (December 1996), around the same time he was writing a "Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck" crossover for Image. He had the idea to create an unofficial crossover between the two issues, where the characters would meet momentarily in the shadows, but which would not affect either story. Soon after, Gerber discovered that Howard was scheduled to appear in "Ghost Rider" vol. 3, #81 (Jan. 1997) alongside Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, and issues of "Generation X," as well as the three issue "Daydreamers" miniseries by J.M. DeMatteis. Gerber was not pleased with this development, and changed the "unofficial crossover" somewhat.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In "Spider-Man Team-Up" #5, Spider-Man, Beverly and Howard meet the Elf with a Gun and two shadowy figures (presumed to be Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck) in a darkened warehouse, grab a disc, then leave shortly afterwards. But in the "Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck" crossover comic, Elf with a Gun creates thousands of clones of Howard and Beverly during a fierce battle. As Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck escape the warehouse, they reveal that they rescued the "real" Howard and Beverly, while Spider-Man left with two of the clones. Howard has his feathers dyed green, and is renamed "Leonard the Duck", and Beverly has her hair dyed black and is renamed "Rhonda Martini". Leonard later had a cameo appearance in "Savage Dragon" #41, and Leonard and Rhonda have a single-panel cameo when they meet Gerber's Nevada in Vertigo Comics' "Winter's Edge" #2.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In 2001, when Marvel launched its MAX imprint of "mature readers" comics, Gerber returned to write a six-issue "Howard the Duck" miniseries illustrated by Phil Winslade and Glenn Fabry. Featuring several familiar "Howard the Duck" characters, the series, like the original one, parodied a wide range of other comics and pop culture figures, but with considerably stronger language and sexual content than what would have been allowable 25 years earlier. The series has Doctor Bong causing Howard to go through multiple changes of form, principally into a mouse (as a parody of Mickey Mouse, in retaliation for the Disney-mandated redesign), and entering a chain of events parodying comics such as "Witchblade", "Preacher" and several others, with Howard ultimately having a conversation with God in Hell.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard had cameo appearances in "She-Hulk" (vol. 2) #9 in February 2005 and in "She-Hulk" vol. 3 #3/#100 in February 2006 (issue #3 was also the numbered as the 100th total issue of all the various She-Hulk series). In 2007, he returned in "Howard the Duck" vol. 4 #1-4, a miniseries by writer Ty Templeton and artist Juan Bobillo. This series was rated for ages 9 and up, though one issue was published with a "Marvel Zombies" tie-in cover with a parental advisory claim.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In November 2014, Marvel announced an ongoing series starting in March 2015 featuring Howard as a private investigator on Earth. The creative team consisted of writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Joe Quinones. "Howard the Duck" (vol. 5) ran for 5 issues before Marvel relaunched many of their existing titles with the All-New, All-Different Marvel line of comics. This led to a reboot produced by the same creative team starting with "Howard the Duck" (vol. 6) #1 in November 2015. This series included a two-part crossover with "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl". The 11th and last issue was released in October 2016.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard's first appearance in comics is when he is abruptly abducted from his home planet by an unseen force and randomly dropped into the Florida Everglades by the demon-lord Thog the Nether-Spawn. He meets the Man-Thing, who had been attacked by Korrek of Katharta, and the three of them are confronted by warriors of the Congress of Realities. He then meets Dakimh the Enchanter and Dakimh banishes the warriors and transports Howard, Man-Thing, and Korrek to his castle, where they are joined by Jennifer Kale. They then travel to the realm of Therea and destroy Thog the Nether-Spawn. Howard then accidentally falls off the inter-dimensional stepping stones that the group were traveling on and materializes in Cleveland, Ohio, where he battles Garko the Man-Frog. Howard is arrested at this time for disturbing the peace and is mistaken for a mutant during a strip search, but is released because the police fear he has mutant abilities. Howard also briefly encounters and kills a vampiric cow named Bessie the Hellcow.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard makes friends with an artists' model named Beverly Switzler and a bizarre series of encounters follow. He battles Pro-Rata, the cosmic accountant, then meets Spider-Man at the end of the battle. He battles Turnip-Man and the Kidney Lady, who would become a semi-recurring character over the years, then learns the fictional martial art of "Quack-Fu". Howard then encounters the Winky Man, who is actually the sleepwalking alter-ego of Beverly's artist friend, Paul Same, who would become a series regular and later become the pair's roommate. Howard also briefly becomes a wrestler.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard and Beverly hit the road, seeking shelter in a gothic mansion where they battle a girl named Patsy and her giant, animated-to-life gingerbread man. They eventually end up in New York City, where Howard is nominated for President of the United States by the All-Night Party and he later battles the Band of the Bland, alongside the Defenders. A doctored-photo scandal leads him to Canada where he defeats a supervillain, the Beaver, who caused the scandal. The Beaver falls to his death in a battle with Howard. Howard then suffers a nervous breakdown and flees Bev and their situation on a bus. Unfortunately, the bus' passengers are all believers in various weird cults, and try to interest Howard in them. His seatmates are Winda Wester and the Kidney Lady, a woman who believes that the soul of a person lives in their kidneys and attempts to stop anything she sees as "anti-kidney health." After the bus crashes, Howard and Winda are sent to a mental institution. There he meets Daimon Hellstrom, and is briefly possessed by Hellstrom's demonic soul, becoming the new Son of Satan. Beverly and Paul manage to get them both back to Cleveland. Later, while on the "S. S. Damned", a cruise ship returning from scenic Bagmom, Howard and Beverly are taken captive by Lester Verde. Verde had known Beverly in college and had a crush on her and had assumed the identity of the supervillain Doctor Bong, who illegally marries Beverly against her will and transforms Howard into a human.


title: Howard the Duck

text: After escaping back to New York and being restored to his natural form, Howard is hired as a dishwasher by Beverly's uncle, Lee Switzler. Howard is later reunited with Dakihm the Enchanter, the Man-Thing, Korrek and Jennifer Kale, and they all battle the demon Bzzk'Joh. Korrek pilots the ship the "Epoch Weasel" and drops Howard back off at Cleveland before he and their allies fly away. Howard finally meets up with the cruise ship that rescued Paul and Winda from Doctor Bong, and finds that Paul and Winda have befriended socialite Iris Raritan.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard is later kidnapped by the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime. Winda is abandoned by Paul and Iris and Paul is shot and left in a coma. After defeating the Circus of Crime, Howard is plagued by pessimistic dreams and goes his way alone, just as he had at the series' beginning.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Writer Bill Mantlo, beginning with issue #30, returned the series to its former status quo, bringing Beverly back into the picture and having her divorce Doctor Bong. Howard's creator Steve Gerber, who left the series after issue #27, originally intended for Beverly and Bong's marriage to be lasting and for Beverly to be written out of the series from that point on. Howard and Beverly's friend Paul, who had ended up in a coma after he had previously been shot by the Ringmaster, awakens from his coma and is released from the hospital. Beverly's uncle Lee brings everyone back to Cleveland and employs Howard as a cab driver, while Paul, back to being a somnambulist after his release from the hospital, becomes Winda's boyfriend. Howard dons a suit of "Iron Duck" armor made by Claude Starkowitz, a man who has delusions of being related to Tony Stark and dreams of being the personal armorer to Iron Man, and battles Doctor Bong in the final issue of the original 70s "Howard the Duck" series (issue #31). Howard later encounters Dracula and even once returns to Duckworld. At the end of the nine-issue magazine series, Howard leaves Beverly (at her request) and is later offered a genetically-constructed female duck mate, whom he does not take to.


title: Howard the Duck

text: On a later occasion, She-Hulk accidentally pulls Howard though a cosmic wormhole along with theoretical physicist Brent Wilcox and they are able to prevent other universes from crowding out Earth-616. During this time, Howard meets a character called the Critic, travels to a dimension known as the Baloneyverse and again battles a group called the Band of the Bland, whom he had previously battled with the Defenders.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In an encounter with Peter Parker and Ben Reilly (the then-current Spider-Man), Howard gets a rematch with the Circus of Crime and the Circus is defeated. During the fight, Howard and Beverly get stuck in a warehouse full of anthropomorphic ducks, briefly meeting the Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck. Parker and Reilly leave the warehouse believing that they have the correct versions of Howard and Beverly with them. However, in the Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck companion story that takes place simultaneously and that was written by Gerber, it is explained that the version of Howard and Beverly that left the warehouse with Parker and Reilly are simply clones taken by mistake and that the real Howard and Beverly actually left the scene with Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck.


title: Howard the Duck

text: The sorceress Jennifer Kale, in a weekly attempt to return Howard to his home world, inadvertently teleports Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy into her New York apartment. The disoriented dinosaur attempts to eat Howard, but spits him out when shot with Johnny Blaze's hellfire gun. Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy then rampage through the city before being subdued by Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch). Howard says that he relates to the pair being trapped in a world they never made before wandering off.


title: Howard the Duck

text: After a brief series of adventures with Generation X, Howard gets a job as a department store Santa Claus, which gets him dragged to the North Pole where the real Santa Claus has sold out to HYDRA. Howard goes through several dimensions, apparently through the power of Man-Thing, who can now talk but does not understand this new, unknown ability, and lands on a version of Duckworld where his parents are essentially Ward and June Cleaver, he has a sister named Princess, and he is regarded as a hero because his activities on Earth-616 were recognized by Duckworld's version of Reed Richards. This origin traces the source of these dimensions to be projections from Franklin's mind. Throughout the course of the adventure, Howard has a romance with Tana Nile, culminating in a kiss, after which he apologizes and tells her of his attachment to Beverly. When Franklin understands that he has shaped all of these worlds, the group finds themselves back in the Man-Thing's swamp. While Man-Thing becomes a self-appointed guardian to Franklin Richards, Howard goes off on his own and is captured by the Cult of Entropy, who wrap him in swaddling clothes. Although last seen in the swamp, Howard states that he was thrown into baggage and transported on a plane. The cult wants Howard because he has part of the Nexus of All Realities, which shattered during "Heroes Reborn", inside of him. Man-Thing then enters Howard's mouth, and Howard vomits him back out with the fragment, but Man-Thing is left desiccated and practically dead. Howard then encounters Namor, who thought he had slain Man-Thing, but Howard explains that he would not be lugging his friend's body around if that were the case. Howard sets the Man-Thing down in the water, and he revives during Howard's conversation with Namor. Once he sees that the Man-Thing is alive and well, he bids Namor farewell and says that he is returning to Cleveland.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Years later, back with Beverly, he undergoes further shapeshifting experiences after an accident at a chemical facility of Doctor Bong's. Beverly is hired by Bong's Globally Branded Content Corporation, which manufactures boy bands from protein vats based on the sexual arousal of a focus group of gay men. Attempting to destroy an escapee whom Beverly has taken in, Bong inadvertently knocks Howard into a vat, which changes him, unstably, into a rat. When Howard later showers, he changes his form multiple times before again permanently returning to the form of the giant rat. Verde then goes to the press and claims that his building was attacked by Osama el-Barka ("Osama the Duck" in Arabic). Howard and Beverly are sent back on the road after the junkyard office where they are living is destroyed by a S.W.A.T. team. Denied admittance to every possible shelter due to lack of funds, the pair and their dog find a sign for the Boarding House of Mystery, but are taken to the police station for questioning and strip searches by Suzy Pazuzu, with whom Beverly had attended high school. One of the officers on the case is the same beat cop who mistook Howard for a mutant many years before. Suzy is the inheritor of the doucheblade, which starts to take her over when she wears an enchanted bracelet. In a skirmish, the bracelet is caught by Howard causing him to be the wielder of the doucheblade. The doucheblade causes its holder to grow enormous bare breasts and armor in a parody of Witchblade, and, possessed by this, Howard kills the male lover of a businessman who works with Verde as he and Verde break into Suzy's house.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Arriving at the Boarding House of Mystery, Howard and Beverly encounter Cain and Abel, the latter with a rock stuck in his head that allows him only moments of lucidity. There, they are granted their every wish, including Howard's return to his true form, and Beverly never being poor again, and meet parodies of John Constantine, Wesley Dodds, the Endless, Spider Jerusalem, and Gerber's own Nevada (called Utah), all characters from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The downside to the House is that everyone staying there gets their every wish; so Che Guevara can have his revolution, but someone else can easily slaughter him. One tenant, a writer named Mr. Gommorah (a parody of Spider Jerusalem), later takes Beverly and Howard to be on the "Iprah" show with the topic "Why Women Give It to Men Who Don't Get It", guest starring Dr. Phlip.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Upon leaving the House of Mystery, Howard is once again transformed into an anthropomorphic mouse. It is revealed that Iprah has been merged with an experiment by the Angel Gabriel called Deuteronomy, intended to replace God, because God has been spending all his time in a bar in Hell since 1938. Deuteronomy is a creature half-id and half-superego, while Iprah is an all-ego promoter of self-indulgent pop psychology. Considering her dangerous, Gabriel sends the cherub Thrasher to resurrect Sigmund Freud, whose cigar blasts out half of Thrasher's brains (being immortal, this just makes him act drunk). Iprah destroys Freud, but Howard blasts her with the cigar, separating her from Deuteronomy. Puffing on the cigar, Howard disintegrates and arrives in Hell. He is eventually freed by Yah, a being who claims to be "God".


title: Howard the Duck

text: Sometime later, Howard attempts to register under the Superhero Registration Act during the superhero Civil War, but learns his socially disrupted life has created so many bureaucratic headaches that the government's official policy is that Howard does not exist. This lack of government oversight delights him: "For the rest of my life, no more parking tickets, or taxes, or jury duty. Heck, I couldn't even vote if I wanted to!" In this story, Howard says he was pressured to give up his cigars.


title: Howard the Duck

text: After he defeats the supervillain M.O.D.O.T.’s (Mobile Organism Designed Only for Talking) scheme to control the public through mass media, his attorney, Jennifer Walters, successfully restores his citizenship, including all relevant responsibilities.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard the Duck is briefly seen as part of the superpowered army gathered to battle invading Skrull forces. He is seen armed with a pistol and wearing a Skrull's hand around his neck. He is later seen kicking a Skrull during interrogation after the invasion. Brian Michael Bendis has commented when asked of Howard: "That character has shown up in six issues I've done, and I've never typed the words Howard the Duck."


title: Howard the Duck

text: In "Marvel Zombies 5", Howard the Duck of Earth-616 teams up with Machine Man to travel across the multiverse fighting zombies.


title: Howard the Duck

text: During the "Fear Itself" storyline, Howard forms a team called the Fearsome Four with She-Hulk, Frankenstein's Monster and Nighthawk to stop the Man-Thing when he goes on a rampage in Manhattan, due to the fear and chaos he senses on the citizens. They later discover a plot by Psycho-Man to use the Man-Thing's volatile empathy to create a weapon.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard and Beverly are brainwashed and forced to work for Save Our Offspring From Indecency (S.O.O.F.I.) as Cynical Duck and Swizzle. They promote S.O.O.F.I. at a public speech held for them by J. Jonah Jameson. Spider-Man later interrupts a S.O.O.F.I. indoctrination at the New York Public Library, and Beverly and the other S.O.O.F.I.s see Spidey as a semi-demonic figure and attack him. Spidey escapes with Howard and breaks his brainwashing when Beverly is threatened. Howard quickly explains S.O.O.F.I.'s goals to Spider-Man. As Spider-Man publicly announces his long-standing support for S.O.O.F.I., Howard confronts Bev as she stands beside the Supreme S.O.O.F.I. Howard is able to break through to Beverly, reminding her of their past together. The Supreme S.O.O.F.I. orders the S.O.O.F.I.s to throw the pair into the special Blanditron at Guantanamo Bay, but Beverly keeps them at bay with a whip. Spidey attacks the S.O.O.F.I.s and unmasks the Supreme S.O.O.F.I., while the others escape through their teleporter. Howard states that he believes S.O.O.F.I. will lay low for a while after such a defeat and he also hopes that the group's Florida Everglades base might lead them to meet up with the Man-Thing.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Because of his experience with zombie-infested worlds and his leadership of Machine Man, Howard is chosen as the leader of, as he dubs them, the Ducky Dozen. The team is composed of him, several Golden Age heroes, Dum-Dum Dugan, and Battlestar, who is also a veteran of a zombie incident. Upon entering Earth-12591, the Ducky Dozen fight hordes of zombie Nazis and Asgardians, but suffer grave losses as the team's members are either killed or zombified during the battle. After successfully accomplishing their mission, Howard, Dugan, Taxi Taylor and Battlestar are the only members to survive and return to Earth-616 along with the Riveter, the only survivor of Earth-12591's resistance team, the Suffragists.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard later teams up with his friend Doop to battle the Robo-Barbarians in Dimension ZZZ. They beat the horde back with nothing but a broken sword, a rubber chicken with nails in it and a gun that shoots bees.


title: Howard the Duck

text: After the death of Uatu the Watcher and the activation of the secrets buried in his eye, Howard discovers that he has the potential to be the most intelligent being in Duckworld. After evading a squirrel while driving, he is thrown flying from his vehicle but uses his intellect to calculate a way to land safely in a nearby dumpster.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard returns to his business as a private eye, working in the same building as She-Hulk, in Brooklyn. One of his first new clients is Jonathan Richards, who hires Howard to retrieve a necklace stolen by the Black Cat. With the help of Tara Tam, his new friend and assistant, Howard manages to recover the necklace. However, on his way to give it back to Richards, he finds himself kidnapped by the Collector and allied with the Guardians of the Galaxy to escape the villain, who was attempting to add Howard to his collection of rare space objects and entities. Upon returning to Earth, Howard is robbed by May Parker, Spider-Man's aunt, and later re-encounters the Ringmaster, who is revealed to have brainwashed the elderly into committing robberies. After recovering the necklace for a third time, Howard is approached by Richards in the middle of his fight against the Ringmaster and Richards reveals himself to be Talos the Untamed, who reveals that the necklace was part of a marginally powerful item known as the Abundant Glove. With help from Doctor Strange, Howard and Tara locate the final piece of the Abundant Glove, but are unable to put it back together when Talos grabs it and proceeds to use it to wreak havoc on the city. Talos is confronted by numerous heroes while Howard and Tara take cover. Howard is able to point out that Tara, who is revealed to possess shapeshifting powers similar to that of a Skrull, could help him defeat Talos. Tara used her powers to impersonate Skrull Emperor Kl'rt (the Super-Skrull), distracting Talos long enough for Howard to snatch the Abundant Glove from his hand. Talos is later apprehended by the Fantastic Four and everything returns to normal.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Afterwards, with the help of new arrival Gwenpool, Howard prevented HYDRA from infecting the world with a deadly virus. He also has a crossover event with "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl". Howard the Duck is shown to be living in the She-Hulk's apartment building when Patsy Walker moved out.


title: Howard the Duck

text: During the "Civil War II" storyline, Howard the Duck is among the building tenants that learn from Patsy Walker what happened to She-Hulk following the fight against Thanos.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard has no superhuman powers, but he is skilled in the martial art known as Quak-Fu, enough to defeat, or at least to hold his own against, far larger opponents. He has shown some degree of mystic talent in the past, to the point that Stephen Strange taught some spells to Howard and even offered to train him, but Howard declined.


title: Howard the Duck

text: On one occasion, Howard used a suit of powered armor known as the "Iron Duck" armor designed by Claude Starkowitz. Besides its property as body armor, the suit was equipped with foot-mounted leaping coils, a chest-mounted searchlight, and flamethrowers in both arms.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard the Duck is a three-foot-tall anthropomorphic duck. He generally wears a tie and shirt and is almost always found smoking a cigar. Originally, like many cartoon ducks, he wore no pants; Disney threatened legal action due to Howard's resemblance to Donald Duck, and Marvel redesigned that aspect of the character by writing into the script that Howard was the target of anti-nudity protests, and was forced to do business with "Wally Sidney", a failed cartoonist who made his fortune through a chain of conservative clothing retailers known as "Sidney World". Howard tries on various outfits, including ones akin to Donald Duck's sailor uniform and Uncle Scrooge's coat and top hat, before settling on his new attire of a business suit complete with trousers. Although Howard sulks that he has lost, Beverly reassures him that she does not want him to be a victim of a mob, and loves him no matter what he wears.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard has an irritable and cynical attitude towards the often bizarre events around him; he feels there is nothing special about him except that he is a duck, and though he has no goals other than seeking comfort and to be left alone, he is often dragged into dangerous adventures simply because he is visibly unusual. His series' tagline, "Trapped in a world he never made", played off the genre trappings of 1950s science fiction.


title: Howard the Duck

text: His near-constant companion and occasional girlfriend is former art model and Cleveland native Beverly Switzler. Like Howard, Beverly wants an ordinary life but is frequently singled out for her appearance, though as a beautiful woman rather than a duck. His other friends include Paul Same (a painter who briefly became a sleepwalking crime-fighter named the Winky Man), Winda Wester (a lisping ingénue with psychic powers), and country music singer Dreyfus Gultch. Howard has worked with Spider-Man and the Man-Thing on various occasions.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Howard found himself on Earth due to a shift in the "Cosmic Axis" from a world similar to Earth, but where there are "more ducks" and "apes don't talk." In the black-and-white "Howard the Duck" magazine series, writer Bill Mantlo theorized that Howard came from an extra-dimensional planet called Duckworld, a planet similar to Earth where ducks, not apes, had evolved to become the dominant species. In 2001, Gerber dismissed this idea, calling it "very pedestrian" and 'comic-booky' — in the worst sense of the term." Gerber stated that Howard came from an alternate Earth populated by a variety of anthropomorphic animals and not Duckworld. A panel in "Fear" #19, prior to Howard's introduction, depicts Howard or someone like him near an anthropomorphic mouse and an anthropomorphic dog, in a panel about hypothetical other dimensions. Gerber later depicted his character Destroyer Duck as existing in such a world.


title: Howard the Duck

text: His antagonists (who usually appear in a single story each) are often parodies of science fiction, fantasy, or horror characters, as well as frequent parodies of political figures and organizations. The chief recurring villain, Lester Verde, better known as Doctor Bong – modeled on Doctor Doom and writers Bob Greene and Lester Bangs – is a former tabloid reporter who has the power to "reorder reality" by smashing himself on the bell-shaped helmet on his head and his main goal is to marry Beverly. Beverly eventually agreed to marry him to save Howard from Bong's evil experimentation, but the two were divorced shortly thereafter. Doctor Bong would reappear in issues of "She-Hulk" and "Deadpool" in the mid-1990s. Other recurring villains include the Kidney Lady, an older woman who has been convinced by her former lover that the soul is in the kidneys and attacks anything she sees as a threat to them, and Reverend Jun Moon Yuc and his Yuccies, a parody of Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church ("Moonies"). Another important villain was the organization S.O.O.F.I. (Save Our Offspring From Indecency), whose leader was implied to be Anita Bryant, though she looked like an old, fat Elvis Presley with a smiley face/orange on her head.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Other Marvel Comics characters occasionally appeared with Howard, including Spider-Man, the Son of Satan and the Ringmaster. Omega the Unknown appeared to him in a dream, as did Spider-Man and the founding members of the rock group Kiss on other occasions.


title: Howard the Duck

text: Seemingly an autodidact, Howard at various times references Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Albert Camus (whose novel "The Stranger" Gerber considers the principal influence on the comic series), the Brontë sisters, and other figures of philosophical and political significance. In a parody of the Marvel comic character Shang-Chi, Howard was trained in the martial art of Quak-Fu. In the 2001 miniseries, as a mocking gesture toward Disney's mascot Mickey Mouse and as a reference to a previous lawsuit with the company over Howard's similarity to Donald Duck, Howard was turned into various other animals, but primarily appeared in the series as an anthropomorphic mouse.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In the Amalgam Comics universe, Howard the Duck is fused with Lobo to become Lobo the Duck. This character is featured in its own one-shot comic book which (like almost all of the other Amalgam Comics) "falsely" implied that the one-shot was a continuation of multiple other, pre-existing "Lobo The Duck" stories.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In the letters page of "Bat-Thing" #1, there was mention of a fictional upcoming 'special issue' featuring Howard the Mxyzptlk, presumably a merging of Howard with Mister Mxyzptlk.


title: Howard the Duck

text: An alternate version of Howard the Duck becomes infected with the zombie plague, and eats the brains of the alternate-Ash that is native to the zombie version of the Marvel Universe. He is swiftly slain by the Scarlet Witch and the original Ash Williams of the "Evil Dead" series.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In the Marvel Comics 2 universe, Howard is seen as a blindfold-wearing martial arts teacher, a reference harkening back to his mastery of "Quack Fu" in the original 1970s series.


title: Howard the Duck

text: On Earth-65 in the "Spider-Gwen" series, a human named Howard T. Duck is the President of the United States.


title: Howard the Duck

text: In a parody of the "Spider-Verse" event, Howard and Leo Fitz team up with a group of Howards from across the Multiverse who collectively call themselves the Legion of Howards. Their ranks include:


title: Howard the Duck

text: Lucasfilm and Universal Pictures produced the 1986 film "Howard the Duck", in which the eponymous character is voiced by Chip Zien and performed by an assortment of stunt actors in a duck suit ranging from Peter Baird, Ed Gale, Jordan Prentice, Tim Rose, Steve Sleap, Lisa Sturz, and Mary Wells. This version of Howard is brought to Cleveland by a laser spectroscope experiment gone awry and befriends rock singer Beverly Switzler.