title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Dessalines also believed in the tight regulation of foreign trade, which was essential for Haiti's sugar and coffee-based export economy. Like Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines encouraged merchants from Britain and the United States over those from France. For his administration, Dessalines needed literate and educated officials and managers. He placed in these positions well-educated Haitians, who were disproportionately from the light-skinned elite, as "gens de couleur" were most likely to have been educated.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: With victory secured and the brutal war concluded, Dessalines ordered the execution of all French people on the island. The ensuing massacre took place in 1804 during the first several months, and killings took place across the entire territory of Haiti. The death toll was estimated to be between 3,000 and 5,000 people of all ages and sexes.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Disaffected members of Dessalines's administration, including Alexandre Pétion and Henri Christophe, began a conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor. Dessalines was assassinated north of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, at Larnage (now known as Pont-Rouge), on 17 October 1806, on his way to fight the rebels. His body was dismembered and mutilated.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: His body was picked up by Marie-Sainte Dédé Bazile and buried in the Cimetière intérieur of Church Ste-Anne and a tomb was raised by Étienne Gérin's wife with the inscription: Ci-git Dessalines, mort à 48 ans (Here lays Dessalines, died at 48 years old). His body was later moved to Autel de la Patrie (Altar of the Fatherland) in Champs-de-Mars alongside Alexandre Pétion's body.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: The exact circumstances of Dessalines' death are uncertain. Some historians claim that he was killed at Pétion's house at Rue l'Enterrement, after a meeting to negotiate the power and the future of the young nation. Some reports say that he was arrested and was dealt a deadly blow to the head. Another report says he was ambushed and killed at first fire.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: Yet another account recalls a brutal attack on Dessalines by his men. It says he was shot at twice and hit once. Then his head was split open by a sabre's blow and he was finally stabbed three times with a dagger, with the crowd shouting "the tyrant is killed". The mob desecrated and disfigured Dessalines' remains, which were abandoned on Government Square. There was resistance to providing him with a proper burial, but Défilée (Dédée Bazile), a black woman from a humble background, took the mutilated body of the Emperor and buried it. A monument at the northern entrance of the Haitian capital marks the place where the Emperor was killed.


title: Jean-Jacques Dessalines

text: This assassination did not solve the tensions within the Haitian government. His murder left a power vacuum and civil war ensued. Pétion and Christophe temporarily partitioned Haiti between them, with Pétion controlling the South, where there were more gens de couleur libre.


title: Marion Jones

text: Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but was later stripped of her medals after admitting to steroid use.


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones was one of the most famous athletes to be linked to the BALCO scandal. The performance enhancing substance usage scandal covered more than 20 top level athletes, including Jones's ex-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, and 100 m sprinter Tim Montgomery, the father of Jones's first child.


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones has also played professional basketball in the WNBA, as point guard in the team of Tulsa Shock between 2010 and 2011.


title: Marion Jones

text: Marion Jones was born to George Jones and his wife, Marion, (originally from Belize) in Los Angeles, California. She holds dual citizenship with the United States and Belize. Her parents split when she was very young, and Jones's mother remarried a retired postal worker, Ira Toler, three years later. Toler became a stay-at-home dad to Jones and her older half-brother, Albert Kelly, until his sudden death in 1987. Jones turned to sports as an outlet for her grief: running, pickup basketball games, and anything else her brother Albert was doing athletically. By the age of 15, she was routinely dominating California high school athletics both on the track and the basketball court.


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones is also a 1997 graduate of the University of North Carolina (UNC). While there, she met and began dating one of the track coaches, shot putter C.J. Hunter. Hunter voluntarily resigned his position at UNC to comply with the requirements of university rules prohibiting coach-athlete dating. Jones and Hunter were married on October 3, 1998, and trained for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.


title: Marion Jones

text: In the run-up to the 2000 Olympics, Jones declared that she intended to win gold medals in all five of her competition events at Sydney. Jones's husband, C.J. Hunter, had withdrawn from the shot-put competition for a knee injury, though he was allowed to keep his coaching credentials and attend the games to support his wife. However, just hours after Marion Jones won her first of the planned five golds, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Hunter had failed four pre-Olympic drug tests, testing positive each time for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone. Hunter was immediately suspended from taking any role at the Sydney games, and he was ordered to surrender his on-field coaching credentials. At a press conference where Hunter broke down in tears, he denied taking any performance-enhancing drugs, much less the easily detected nandrolone (which showed up in all four tests in amounts over 1,000 times normal levels); Victor Conte of BALCO, who was regularly supplying "nutritional supplements" to athletes trained by Trevor Graham, blamed the test results on "an iron supplement" that contained nandrolone precursors and tied previous positive nandrolone tests from Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey and British sprinter Linford Christie to the same supplement. As late as 2004, Hunter was still denying the charges and attempting to gain access to the results to see if they could be analyzed further. Jones would later write in her autobiography, "Marion Jones: Life in the Fast Lane", that Hunter's positive drug tests hurt their marriage and her image as a drug-free athlete. The couple divorced in 2002.


title: Marion Jones

text: On June 28, 2003, Jones gave birth to a son, Tim Montgomery Jr, with then-boyfriend Tim Montgomery, a world-class sprinter himself. Because of her pregnancy, Jones missed the 2003 World Championships but spent a year preparing for the 2004 Olympics. Montgomery, who did not qualify for the 2004 Olympic Track and Field team for poor performance, was charged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), as part of the investigation into the BALCO doping scandal, with receiving and using banned performance-enhancing drugs. The USADA sought a four-year suspension for Montgomery. Montgomery fought the ban but lost the appeal on December 13, 2005, receiving a two-year ban from track and field competition; the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) also stripped Montgomery of all race results, records and medals, from March 31, 2001, onward. Montgomery later announced his retirement. The investigation into Montgomery's illegal substance use once more called into question Jones's own protests about not using steroids and never having been tested positive for steroids, especially in light of former trainer Trevor Graham's increasingly visible role in the BALCO case.


title: Marion Jones

text: On February 24, 2007, Jones married Barbadian sprinter and 2000 Olympic 100m bronze medalist Obadele Thompson. Their first child together, a son named Ahmir, was born in June 2007. She gave birth to daughter Eva-Marie on June 28, 2009.


title: Marion Jones

text: In 2010, Jones released a book, "On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed", published by Simon & Schuster.


title: Marion Jones

text: In high school, Jones won the CIF California State Meet in the 100 m sprint four years in a row, representing Rio Mesa the first two years and Thousand Oaks high school the last two. She was successfully defended by attorney Johnnie Cochran on charges of doping during her high school track career. She was selected the Gatorade Player of the Year for track and field three years in a row, once at Rio Mesa and twice at Thousand Oaks. Angela Burnham preceded her with the award at Rio Mesa, Kim Mortensen followed her with the award at Thousand Oaks. Those schools joined Jesuit High School (Sacramento) and Long Beach Polytechnic High School in having two athletes win the award. She was "Track and Field News" "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1991 and 1992. She was the third female athlete to achieve the title twice, immediately following Angela Burnham at Rio Mesa High School, who was the second to achieve the title twice.


title: Marion Jones

text: She was invited to participate in the 1992 Olympic trials, and, after her showing in the 200 meters finals, would have made the team as an alternate in the 4×100 meters relay, but she declined the invitation. After winning further statewide sprint titles, she accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina in basketball, where she helped the team win the NCAA championship in her freshman year. Jones "red shirted" her 1996 basketball season to concentrate on track. Jones lost her spot on the 1996 Olympic team because of an injury.


title: Marion Jones

text: She excelled at her first major international competition, winning the 100 m sprint at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, while finishing 10th in the long jump. At the 1999 World Championships, Jones attempted to win four titles, but injured herself in the 200 m after a gold in the 100 m and a long jump bronze.


title: Marion Jones

text: At the Sydney Olympics, Jones finished with three gold medals (100- and 200-meter sprint, and relay) and two bronze medals (long jump and relay). However, she was later stripped of these medals after admitting that she had used performance-enhancing drugs. Her ex-husband Hunter, an Olympic shot-putter and confessed steroid user, testified under oath that he had seen her inject drugs into her stomach in the Olympic Village in Sydney. Jones vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs until her confession in 2007.


title: Marion Jones

text: A dominant force in women's sprinting, Jones was upset in the 100 m sprint at the 2001 World Championships, as Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich-Block beat her for her first loss in the event in six years; Pintusevich-Block was one of the names revealed by Victor Conte during the BALCO scandals. Jones, however, did claim the gold in both the 200 m and 4x100 m relay.


title: Marion Jones

text: On her 2004 Olympics experience, Jones said "It's extremely disappointing, words can't put it into perspective." She came in fifth in the Long Jump and competed in the women's 4x100 m relay where the team swept past the competition in the preliminaries only to miss a baton pass and finish last in the final race. Jones promised that her latest defeat would not be the end of her Olympic efforts, and reasserted in May 2005 that winning a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics remained her "ultimate goal."


title: Marion Jones

text: May 2006 saw Jones run 11.06 at altitude but into a headwind in her season debut and beat Veronica Campbell and Lauryn Williams in subsequent 100 m events. By July 8, 2006, Jones appeared to be in top form; she won the 100 m sprint at Gaz de France with a time of 10.93 seconds. It was her fastest time in almost four years. Three days later, Jones once more improved on her seasonal best time at the Rome IIAF Golden League (10.91 seconds), but lost to Jamaica's Sherone Simpson, who clocked 10.87.


title: Marion Jones

text: In November 2009, Jones was working out for the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA. She had played basketball while in college at the University of North Carolina, where her team won the national championship in 1994. Her No. 20 jersey, honored by the school, hangs in Carmichael Auditorium. She had been selected in the 3rd round of the 2003 WNBA draft by the Phoenix Mercury. On March 10, 2010, the Tulsa Shock announced that Jones had signed to play with the team, making the professional minimum (about $35,000) in her first season. Jones made her debut on May 15, in the Shock's inaugural game at the BOK Center against the Minnesota Lynx. In 47 WNBA games, Jones averaged 2.6 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones appears in the 2003 film "Top Speed," along with other speed specialists such as racing driver Lucas Luhr, mountain biker Marla Streb, and Porsche Cayenne designer Stephen Murkett. Directed by Greg MacGillivray and shot in IMAX format, the film covers details from races to mistakes she made within her performances.


title: Marion Jones

text: Throughout most of her athletic career including two Olympiads and several championship meets, Jones had been accused, either outright or by implication, of taking performance-enhancing drugs. These accusations began in high school in the early 1990s, when she missed a random drug test and was consequently banned for four years from track and field competition. Jones claimed that she never received the letter notifying her of the required test; and attorney Johnnie Cochran successfully got the four-year ban overturned. Jones tended to train with both coaches and athletes who themselves were dogged by rumors and accusations surrounding performance-enhancing drugs. And until 2007, Jones denied—in almost every way possible and in almost any venue where the question arose—ever being involved with performance enhancers in any way. She frequently said that she had never tested positive for performance-enhancing substances; in her autobiography, she blamed the 2002 breakup of her marriage to C.J. Hunter in part on the fact that Hunter "had" tested positive for steroids four times before the 2000 Olympics, tainting her own drug-free image.


title: Marion Jones

text: On December 3, 2004, Victor Conte, the founder of BALCO, appeared in an interview with Martin Bashir on ABC's "20/20". In the interview, Conte told a national audience that he had personally given Jones four different illegal performance-enhancing drugs before, during, and after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In the course of investigative research, San Francisco based reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported Jones had received banned drugs from BALCO, citing documentary evidence and testimony from Jones's ex-husband C.J. Hunter, who claims to have seen Jones inject herself in the stomach with the steroids.


title: Marion Jones

text: According to Hunter's 2004 testimony before a federal grand jury, Jones's use of banned drugs began well before Sydney. Hunter told the investigators that Jones first obtained EPO (Erythropoietin) from Graham, who Hunter said had a Mexican connection for the drug. Later, Hunter said, Graham met Conte, who began providing the coach with BALCO "nutritional supplements", which were actually an experimental class of "designer" steroids said to be undetectable by any drug screening procedures available at the time. Graham then distributed the performance enhancers to Jones and other Sprint Capitol athletes. Still later, Hunter told federal agents, Jones began receiving drugs directly from Conte.


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones had never failed a drug test using the then-existing testing procedures, and insufficient evidence was found to bring charges regarding other untested performance-enhancing drugs.


title: Marion Jones

text: "The Washington Post", citing unidentified sources with knowledge of drug results from the USA Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, reported that on June 23, 2006, an "A" sample of Marion Jones's urine tested positive for Erythropoietin (EPO), a banned performance enhancer. Jones withdrew from the Weltklasse Golden League meet in Switzerland, citing "personal reasons", and once more denied using performance-enhancing drugs. She retained lawyer Howard Jacobs, who had represented many athletes in doping cases, including Tim Montgomery and cyclist Floyd Landis. On September 6, 2006, Jones's lawyers announced that her "B" sample had tested negative, which cleared her from the doping allegations.


title: Marion Jones

text: On October 5, 2007, Jones admitted to lying to federal agents under oath about her steroids use prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics and pleaded guilty at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (in White Plains). She confessed to Judge Kenneth M. Karas that she had made false statements regarding the BALCO and a check-fraud case. She was released on her own recognizance but was required to surrender both her U.S. and Belizean passports, pending sentencing in January. Although a maximum sentence of 5 years could be imposed, the prosecution recommended no more than six months as part of Jones's plea bargain.


title: Marion Jones

text: After her admission, Jones held a press conference on the same day, where she publicly admitted to using steroids before the Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, to various sports agencies, and to two grand juries. One was impaneled to investigate the BALCO "designer steroid" ring, and the other was impaneled to investigate a check fraud ring involving many of the same parties from the BALCO case. As a result of these admissions, Jones accepted a two-year suspension from track and field competition issued by USADA and announced her retirement from track and field. She broke down into tears during the press conference as she apologized for her actions, saying: "And so it is with a great amount of shame, that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust... and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let them down. I have let my country down. And I have let myself down."


title: Marion Jones

text: USADA stated that their sanction "also requires disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes". On January 11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to six months in jail. She began her sentence on March 7, 2008, and was released on September 5, 2008.


title: Marion Jones

text: In the BALCO case, she had denied to federal agents her use of the steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone, known as "The Clear", or "THG", from 1999, but claimed she was given the impression she was taking a flaxseed oil supplement for two years while coach Trevor Graham supplied her with the substance. In a published letter, Jones said she had used steroids until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. She said she lied when federal agents questioned her in 2003 because she panicked when they presented her with a sample of "The Clear".


title: Marion Jones

text: Peter Ueberroth, Chairman of the US Olympic Committee, reacted to the news of Jones's confession and guilty plea on perjury charges by issuing a statement calling on Jones to "immediately step forward and return the Olympic medals she won while competing in violation of the rules". Ueberroth added that her admission was "long overdue and underscores the shame and dishonor that are inherent with cheating." IAAF president Lamine Diack said in a statement: "Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history."


title: Marion Jones

text: On October 8, 2007, a source confirmed that Marion Jones surrendered her five medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics. On the same day, Ueberroth said that all the relay medals should be returned, and on April 10, 2008, the IOC voted to strip Jones' relay teammates of their medals as well, although this decision would successfully be appealed by seven of Jones' teammates and overturned in 2010.


title: Marion Jones

text: On December 12, 2007, the IOC formally stripped Jones of all five Olympic medals dating back to September 2000, and banned her from attending the 2008 Summer Olympics in any capacity. The IOC action also officially disqualified Jones from her fifth-place finish in the Long Jump at the 2004 Summer Olympics.


title: Marion Jones

text: On October 28, 2008, Jones was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and stated that she would have won gold at the Sydney Olympics without the drugs that led to her disgrace.


title: Marion Jones

text: Seven years after winning a women's record five Olympic track and field medals and receiving multimillion-dollar endorsement deals, Jones was broke. According to the Associated Press, Jones was heavily in debt and fighting off court judgments, according to court records reviewed by the "Los Angeles Times". In 2006, a bank foreclosed on her $2.5-million mansion near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Michael Jordan was a neighbor. She was also forced to sell two other properties, including her mother's house, to raise money. In her prime, Jones was one of track's first female sports millionaires, typically earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a race, plus at least another $1 million from race bonuses and endorsement deals.


title: Marion Jones

text: In July 2006, Jones was linked to a check-counterfeiting scheme that led to criminal charges against her coach and former boyfriend Montgomery. Documents showed that a $25,000 check made out to Jones was deposited in her bank account as part of the alleged multimillion-dollar scheme. Prosecutors alleged that funds were sent to Jones' track coach, 1976 Olympic gold medalist Steve Riddick, in Virginia, then funneled back to New York through a network of "friends, relatives and associates." Riddick was arrested in February on money-laundering charges. According to the indictment and subsequent documents filed with the court, the link to Jones was made through one of Riddick's business partners, Nathaniel Alexander.


title: Marion Jones

text: On October 5, 2007, Jones pleaded guilty to making false statements to IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky leading the ongoing BALCO investigation in California. Jones claimed she had never taken performance-enhancing drugs. "That was a lie, your honor," she said from the defense table. The federal government, through grand juries, had been investigating steroid abuse since 2003.


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones also pleaded guilty to making false statements about her knowledge of a check-cashing scheme to New York U.S. Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Erik Rosenblatt, who has been leading a broad financial investigation that has already convicted Montgomery, sports agent Charles Wells, and her coach, Steve Riddick.


title: Marion Jones

text: Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas that any sentence between probation and six months' imprisonment would be fair (with the maximum penalty being five years in prison); Karas responded by seeking advice as to whether he could go beyond the six-month sentence. Meanwhile, Jones's lawyers asked that her penalty be limited to probation and community service, arguing, in part, that she had been punished enough by apologizing publicly, retiring from track and field, and relinquishing her five Olympic medals.


title: Marion Jones

text: On January 11, 2008, Karas sentenced Jones to six months in jail for her involvement in the check fraud case and her use of performance-enhancing drugs. During the sentencing hearing, the judge admonished her, saying that she knew what she was doing and would be punished accordingly. "The offenses here are serious. They each involve lies made three years apart," Karas said, adding that Jones's actions were "not a one-off mistake...but a repetition in an attempt to break the law."


title: Marion Jones

text: Jones was ordered to surrender on March 15, 2008. She reported four days early, on March 11, at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell prison in Fort Worth and was assigned Federal Bureau of Prisons register no. 84868–054. She was released from prison on September 5, 2008.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: WrestleMania 22 was the 22nd annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on April 2, 2006, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: There were two main events which were the main matches for each brand. The main event of the show, which was the main match from the Raw brand, was John Cena versus Triple H for the WWE Championship, which Cena won after forcing Triple H to submit to the STFU. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was a Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship between champion Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton. Mysterio won the match and the World Heavyweight Championship after pinning Orton following a 619 and a West Coast Pop—during Mysterio's reign, the championship was simply called the World Championship due to Mysterio not being a heavyweight wrestler. Featured matches on the undercard included a No Holds Barred match between Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon, a Casket match between The Undertaker and Mark Henry, a WWE Women's Championship match between Mickie James and Trish Stratus, and an interpromotional Money in the Bank ladder match featuring six participants.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: WrestleMania 22 was the third WrestleMania to take place in the Chicago metropolitan area (following WrestleMania 2, and WrestleMania 13). Tickets sold out in under two minutes, grossing US$2.5 million for the event, making it the highest grossing one-day event at the Allstate Arena. More than 17,155 people from 16 countries and 43 states attended, with millions more watching in more than 90 countries. WrestleMania 22 also marked the last WrestleMania to be held in a traditional arena, as every subsequent edition, excluding WrestleMania 36, has been held in a stadium.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It has become the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". WrestleMania 22 was scheduled to be held on April 2, 2006, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. The event featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The main feud heading into WrestleMania on the Raw brand was between John Cena and Triple H over the WWE Championship. After failing to win the Royal Rumble match, Triple H participated in the 2006 Road to WrestleMania Tournament, where the winner would become the number-one contender to the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. In the final match of the tournament, held on the February 20 edition of "Raw", Triple H faced Rob Van Dam and Big Show in a Triple Threat match. Triple H won the match after pinning Van Dam following a Pedigree.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The Road to WrestleMania tournament to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 22 was held between February 6 and February 20, 2006. The tournament brackets were:


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The predominant feud on the SmackDown! brand was between Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton over the World Heavyweight Championship. Mysterio won the 2006 Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Orton, to earn a world championship match at WrestleMania. At No Way Out, Orton cheated to defeat Mysterio and win his WrestleMania 22 world championship match. Five days later, on the February 24 edition of "SmackDown!", SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long announced that the World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 22 would be a Triple Threat match involving Mysterio, Orton, and champion Angle.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Another primary feud from Raw was between Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon. On the December 26, 2005, edition of "Raw", McMahon and Michaels had words ending with McMahon threatening that he could screw Michaels just like he did Bret Hart anytime he wanted. During the following couple of weeks on "Raw", McMahon had inflicted some humiliation on Michaels. On the January 23 edition of "Raw" when it was between Michaels and Shelton Benjamin with McMahon declaring that if Michaels were to lose, he would also lose his spot in the Royal Rumble match. Michaels won the match and kept his spot in the Royal Rumble match but a few moments later, McMahon met Michaels backstage then stated that lady luck was on his side. He also said that he wanted to turn back the clock to the days of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll then he asked Michaels to join him but got turned down, however, and McMahon last stated that Michaels' luck would run out at the Royal Rumble. At the Royal Rumble, during the Royal Rumble match, McMahon distracted Michaels as his music started to play. During that time, Shane McMahon, who was not an official entrant in the match, eliminated Michaels after attacking him from behind. One month later, on the February 27 edition of "Raw", Shane hit Michaels with a steel chair and forced him to "kiss" Vince's ass, thus joining Vince's "Kiss My Ass Club."<ref name="2/27 Raw"></ref> Vince then announced that he and Michaels would face off against each other at WrestleMania. On "Raw" two weeks later, Vince forced Michaels to take a public drug test all due to Michaels being deceived and drugged by Vince's daughter, Stephanie McMahon on the March 6 edition of "Raw". During the test, however, Michaels threw his urine on both Vince and Shane.<ref name="3/06 Raw"></ref> Later that night, Michaels faced off against the Spirit Squad in a Steel Cage match. The Spirit Squad won the match by pinning Michaels after Shane interfered and slammed the cage door on Michaels. After the match, Shane continued attacking Michaels, causing him to bleed in the process, and executed a Coast 2 Coast. At "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXII", Michaels faced off against Shane in a Street Fight. Near the end of the match, Shane locked Michaels in the sharpshooter, and Vince ordered the match to end. Vince screwed Michaels, claiming he submitted to the move, and declared Shane the winner via submission. On the March 20 edition of "Raw", Vince announced that his match against Michaels at WrestleMania would now be a No Holds Barred match.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: One of the featured matches on the undercard was a Casket match between The Undertaker and Mark Henry. On the March 3 episode of "SmackDown!", Undertaker challenged Kurt Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship. During the match, after Undertaker executed a Tombstone piledriver, Henry came out and attacked Undertaker, causing the match to end via disqualification.<ref name="3/03 SD!"></ref> Undertaker won the match, but since a championship cannot change hands via countout or disqualification, he did not win the title. The following week, on "SmackDown!", Undertaker challenged Henry to a Casket match at WrestleMania. On the March 18 edition of "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXII", Henry, along with his manager Daivari, called out The Undertaker. Undertaker came out, accompanied by Druids carrying a casket, and the two started attacking each other. Shortly after, Undertaker performed a chokeslam, followed by a Tombstone piledriver, on Daivari on the casket.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: One of the main matches on the undercard was a singles match between Mickie James and Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship. James debuted in WWE on the October 10, 2005, episode of "Raw" coming to the aid of then Women's Champion Stratus from an attack from Victoria. She wrestled under the gimmick of Stratus' biggest fan. The two competed in tag team action together frequently where James was becoming extremely obsessed with Stratus. James became the number one contender for the Women's Championship on the December 12 episode of "Raw" by defeating Victoria in a match to determine who would face Stratus at New Year's Revolution. She was unable to win the title at New Year's Revolution. The storyline between James and Stratus developed into a lesbian angle after James initiated an intimate kiss with Stratus under the mistletoe and complimented on the size of her breasts. At the Royal Rumble James confessed to Stratus that she loved her. It finally became too much for Stratus as she then told James that they needed time apart. The two teamed together at "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXII" to defeat the team of Victoria and Candice Michelle. After the match, James honored Stratus' wish to have time apart, but later attempted to kiss her, and attacked Stratus after she refused.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The secondary Divas feud entering the event was between Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle. Torrie and Candice became villains when they were traded to the Raw roster on August 22, 2005, and later aligned with Victoria to form the stable known as Vince's Devils. On the February 27, 2006, edition of "Raw", Candice failed to defeat Trish Stratus in a match for Stratus' WWE Women's Championship, and slapped Torrie in a backstage segment after the match; showing signs of tension between the two. On the following week's edition of "Raw", the evil Candice unveiled her Playboy cover and then attempted to force Torrie to admit that her cover was hotter than both of Torrie's Playboy covers. When Torrie refused, Candice and Victoria both attacked her in the ring, resulting in a face turn from Torrie. It was later announced that Torrie and Candice would face each other in a Playboy Pillow Fight at WrestleMania 22.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Before the event went live on pay-per-view, an 18-man interpromotional battle royal was held. Viscera won by last eliminating Snitsky. Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams sang "America the Beautiful" before the show.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The opening match was for the World Tag Team Championship between champions Big Show and Kane and Carlito and Chris Masters. Kane executed a big boot on Masters that started with Masters trying to interrupt a choke slam, then chokeslammed Carlito to get the victory and retain the titles.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The second match was the Money in the Bank ladder match between Rob Van Dam, Shelton Benjamin, Ric Flair, Finlay, Bobby Lashley and Matt Hardy. In the end, Van Dam climbed the ladder but was stopped when Benjamin springboarded onto the ladder and the two fought. Hardy came out with a second ladder and joined the two. Van Dam pushed Hardy and Benjamin's ladder, sending them both smashing on the floor. Van Dam grabbed the briefcase and won the match.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Howard Finkel introduced the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2006: "Mean" Gene Okerlund, "Sensational" Sherri Martel, Tony Atlas, Verne Gagne, William "The Refrigerator" Perry and The Blackjacks (Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza) attended the event while Eddie Guerrero was represented by his wife Vickie Guerrero and Eddie's nephew Chavo Guerrero Jr. Bret Hart did not attend the event as he was not comfortable.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The third match was between John "Bradshaw" Layfield and Chris Benoit for the WWE United States Championship. During JBL's entrance, the entrance ramp was raised and JBL's limousine drove out from underneath. JBL attempted a Clothesline From Hell on Benoit, who avoided the move and applied in the Crippler Crossface. JBL countered and used the ropes for leverage to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The fourth match was a hardcore match between Edge and Mick Foley. In the end, Foley pulled out a table but Lita hit Foley in between the legs with a barbed wire bat and lit the table, allowing Edge to perform a Spear on Foley through the flaming table on the outside for the victory. Both wrestlers had abrasions and were covered in blood from the barbed wire bat and Foley's barbed wire sock; Edge went into shock after the match.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Next, Booker T and Sharmell faced The Boogeyman in a handicap match. During the match, Boogeyman kissed Sharmell with a mouth full of worms, causing her to flee to the back. Boogeyman executed a Falling Chokebomb on Booker for the victory.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The sixth match was a Divas match between Trish Stratus and Mickie James for the WWE Women's Championship. Mickie executed a Mick Kick on Trish to win the match and the WWE Women's Championship. Despite portraying a psychotic heel, Mickie James was audibly cheered by the crowd during the match.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Next, The Undertaker faced Mark Henry in a casket match. Undertaker took the advantage and executed a Last Ride on Henry. While Henry was out of the ring, Undertaker executed a suicide dive over the top rope. Undertaker then performed a Tombstone Piledriver on Henry and pushed him into the casket to win the match and improve his WrestleMania record to 14–0.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The eighth match was a No Holds Barred match between Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon. Michaels put McMahon on a table and put a trashcan over McMahon's head. Michaels then climbed on the top of a ladder and executed a diving elbow drop on McMahon through the table. Michaels then executed Sweet Chin Music on McMahon to win the match.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Next, Kurt Angle defended his World Heavyweight Championship against Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton in a Triple Threat match. During Mysterio's entrance, P.O.D. performed Mysterio's music entrance live. In the end, Mysterio performed a 619 on Orton followed by a West Coast Pop to win the title. After the match, Mysterio celebrated with Chavo and Vickie Guerrero.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The tenth match was a "Playboy" pillow fight between Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle. Wilson pulled Candice's dress and Candice later pulled Wilson's dress. The match ended with Wilson pinning Candice with a roll-up for the win.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: In the main event, John Cena defended his WWE Championship against Triple H. Triple H came out to the ring on a throne dressed as a Conan-type king, while Cena came out with a tommy gun and was accompanied by a group of "gangsters" (one of which was future WWE Champion and Chicago native CM Punk, who had recently signed with WWE and, at the time, was performing with Ohio Valley Wrestling,) in a 1940s Chicago-era vehicle. The match was evenly matched with both men getting the advantage over each other. Triple H tried a Pedigree, but Cena countered with an FU for a near-fall. Cena applied the STFU but Triple H reached the ropes. Triple H tried another Pedigree, but was countered into the STF again by Cena, to which Triple H submitted, meaning Cena retained the WWE Championship.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: WrestleMania 22 was largely praised by various wrestling publications and websites. Writing for Canadian Online Explorer's "Slam! Sports" vertical, Dale Plummer and Nick Tylwalk stated that "With more wrestling, fewer interviews, and more pageantry than the last several editions, this year's 'Mania had a "Big Time" feel to it." He rated the overall event 8 out of 10 stars, which was a higher rating than the previous year's event. The main event between Triple H and John Cena for the WWE Championship was rated 8.5 out of 10 stars, the Triple Threat Match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton was rated 8.5 out of 10 stars, the No Holds Barred match between Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon received a perfect 10 out of 10 stars, the Casket match between Mark Henry and The Undertaker was rated 7 out of 10 stars, the Hardcore match between Edge and Mick Foley was rated 8.5 out of 10 stars and the Money in the Bank ladder match was rated 7 out of 10 stars. Robert Leighty Jr of 411mania gave the event an overall score of 8.0 out of 10.0 commented on how "This is a pretty solid show as both title matches deliver in one aspect or another. Shawn tries to steal the show again, but Edge and Foley take that honor in a crazy-ass brawl. This was the last Mania held in an arena and it's a fun atmosphere because of the jacked-up crowd. Throw in another solid Money in the Bank Match, and a memorable Women's Title match, and you have a fun show all around!"


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Over the years, WrestleMania 22 became regarded as one of the better WrestleManias in its history. In their 2018 ranking of every WrestleMania from worst to best, Cultaholic placed WrestleMania 22 as the fifth best of all-time. In their YouTube video explaining their rankings, presenter Adam Pacitti stated that "fans who attended to this 'Mania were treated to a quadruple-header of wonderful matches," praising the main event between Triple H and Cena as well as the hardcore match between Edge and Foley, the Michaels beatdown of McMahon, and the WWE Women's Championship match between Mickie James and Trish Stratus ("the first good women's match in 'Mania history...intense, controversial, and, most importantly, entertaining"). John Canton of TJR Wrestling Reviews praised the entire event, and called Edge vs. Mick Foley the best match of the show. Till date Edge spearing Mick Foley into a flaming table remains one of the most iconic and memorable moments in pro wrestling history.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The next night on "Raw", Triple H said to John Cena that he lost at WrestleMania 22 because he underestimated the champ. Edge then came out and said to Triple H that he deserved another WWE Championship match because he defeated Mick Foley in a Hardcore match. Over the next few weeks, all three men faced each other in Handicap matches, which all three men won over the three-week period by pinning and making each other submit, respectively. It was then announced that the main event at Backlash would be a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship between Cena, Edge and Triple H. At Backlash, Cena won the match and retained the WWE Championship via pinfall on Triple H with a jackknife roll-up, but after the match, Triple H attacked Cena, Edge and the referee with a sledgehammer.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: After WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels continued to feud with Vince McMahon. At Backlash, Michaels teamed up with "God" to face Vince and Shane McMahon. At Backlash, Michaels suffered a loss when the Spirit Squad interfered on behalf of The McMahons. Triple H became involved in the feud as well, initially on Vince and Shane's side, but on May 22, 2006, he attacked the Spirit Squad after being ordered to the ring by McMahon to "finish off" Michaels. On the June 12, 2006, edition of "Raw", Vince announced that Triple H would face the Spirit Squad in a 5 on 1 Handicap Gauntlet match. Vince called Mitch out last, as throughout the match he had called out the other four members one-by-one, instead Mitch was thrown out from the curtain by Michaels. Michaels ran down the ramp and started attacking the Spirit Squad with Triple H, marking the return of D-Generation X (D-X). At Vengeance, D-X faced the Spirit Squad in a 5 on 2 Handicap match, which D-X won after both Michaels and Triple H pinned Kenny and Mikey, respectively.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Mickie James continued to feud with Trish Stratus. At Backlash, Stratus won the match by disqualification, legitimately dislocating her shoulder in the process. Due to regulations by the WWE, a title cannot change hands via disqualification. As a result, James was still champion. Whilst injured, Stratus still appeared on-screen and during the storyline, Beth Phoenix made her debut as Stratus' ally, claiming that James had wronged Phoenix in the past. She returned to the ring on the June 26 episode of "Raw", where she cleanly lost a Women's Championship match against James, thus ending the feud.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Rey Mysterio went on to feud with John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the May 5 edition of "SmackDown!", after Mysterio expressed his feelings about being World Heavyweight Champion, JBL came out and declared himself the number one contender.<ref name="WWE - 5/05 SmackDown!"></ref><ref name="OWW - 5/05 SmackDown!"></ref> Mysterio reacted by saying that he would fight anyone at any time. In turn, JBL announced that Mysterio would face off against Mark Henry later that night. Henry won the match via pinfall. The next week on "SmackDown!", JBL announced that Mysterio would take on The Great Khali. Khali won the match via pinfall.<ref name="WWE - 5/12 SmackDown!"></ref><ref name="OWW - 5/12 SmackDown!"></ref> At Judgment Day, Mysterio defeated JBL by pinfall after performing a Frog Splash. After the pay-per view, the feud ended between the two when JBL's rematch against Mysterio turned into his last match if he failed to win the World Championship.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The next night on "Raw", saw the debut of Umaga as he attacked Ric Flair. The two would go on to wrestle at Backlash.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: The Undertaker's feud with Mark Henry would come to an end after the two-faced off on "SmackDown!", only to be interrupted by the debuting The Great Khali who attacked The Undertaker.


title: WrestleMania 22

text: Rob Van Dam would announce that he would cash in his Money in the Bank against John Cena at ECW One Night Stand. Van Dam would go on to win the match capturing his first WWE Championship.


title: Touch Your Heart

text: Touch Your Heart () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Yoo In-na and Lee Dong-wook. It is based on the web novel of the same name, which was first published in 2016 on KakaoPage. It aired on tvN from February 6 to March 28, 2019.


title: Touch Your Heart

text: Top actress Oh Jin-shim (Yoo In-na), who goes by the stage name Oh Yoon-seo, has a scandal that damages her career, leaving her jobless for two years until she has a chance to earn a major role in an upcoming drama. However, in order to clear her name and secure success, she must first take a job working as a secretary to a lawyer named Kwon Jung-rok (Lee Dong-wook). Eventually, they fall in love and the following events form the crux of the story.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as one of the most senior ministers in the government and a Great Office of State, the incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: The office holder works alongside the other Foreign Office ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs. The performance of the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: The current foreign secretary is James Cleverly MP, appointed in the September 2022 cabinet reshuffle.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: Corresponding to what is generally known as a foreign minister in many other countries, the foreign secretary's remit includes:


title: Foreign Secretary

text: The official residence of the foreign secretary is 1 Carlton Gardens, in London. The foreign secretary also has the use of Chevening House, a country house in Kent, South East England and works out of the Foreign Office in Whitehall.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: The title secretary of state in the government of England dates back to the early 17th century. The position of secretary of state for foreign affairs was created in the British governmental reorganisation of 1782, in which the Northern and Southern Departments became the Foreign Office and Home Office respectively. The India Office which, like the Colonial Office and the Dominions Office, had been a constituent predecessor department of the Foreign Office, was closed down in 1947.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: Eventually, the position of secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs came into existence in 1968 with the merger of the functions of secretary of the state for foreign affairs and the secretary of state for Commonwealth affairs into a single department of state. Margaret Beckett, appointed in 2006 by Tony Blair, was the first woman to have held the post.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: The post of secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs was created in 2020 when position holder Dominic Raab absorbed the responsibilities of the secretary of state for international development.


title: Foreign Secretary

text: Post created through the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It covers approximately , about 11% of California's land area. The valley is bounded by the Coast Ranges to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley is a region known for its agricultural productivity: it provides more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States. More than of the valley are irrigated via reservoirs and canals. The valley hosts many cities, including the state capital Sacramento; as well as Redding, Chico, Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Fresno, Visalia, and Bakersfield.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley watershed comprises , or over a third of California. It consists of three main drainage systems: the Sacramento Valley in the north, which receives over of rain annually; the drier San Joaquin Valley in the south, and the Tulare Basin and its semi-arid desert climate at the southernmost end. The Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems drain their respective valleys and meet to form the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, a large expanse of interconnected canals, stream beds, sloughs, marshes and peat islands. The delta empties into the San Francisco Bay, and ultimately into the Pacific. The waters of the Tulare Basin essentially never reach the ocean (with the exception of Kings River waters diverted northward for irrigation), though they are connected by man-made canals to the San Joaquin.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The valley encompasses all or parts of 19 California counties: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Placer, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Shasta, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Yolo and Yuba.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Older names include "the Great Valley", a name still often seen in scientific references (notably Great Valley Sequence), as well as "Golden Empire", a booster name that is still referred to by some organizations (notably Golden Empire Transit, Golden Empire Council).


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The four main population centers in the Central Valley area are roughly equidistant from the next. From south to north, they are Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento and Redding. These four cities act as hubs for regional commerce and transportation.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: As of 2010, some 7.2 million people lived in the Central Valley; it was the fastest-growing region in California. It includes 12 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) and 1 Micropolitan Statistical Area (μSA). Below, they are listed by MSA and μSA population. The largest city is Fresno followed by the state capital Sacramento. The following metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas are listed from largest to smallest:


title: Central Valley (California)

text: After English and Spanish, Punjabi is the third most commonly spoken language in the Central Valley. The valley has the largest Sikh population in the nation.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The flatness of the valley floor contrasts with the rugged hills or gentle mountains that are typical of most of California's terrain. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction of the Farallon Plate into a trench farther offshore. The valley has no earthquake faults of its own but is surrounded by faults to the east and west.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The valley was enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges, with its original outlet into Monterey Bay. Faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay. Over the millennia, the valley filled with the sediments of these same ranges, as well as the rising Sierra Nevada to the east; that filling eventually created an extraordinary flatness just barely above sea level. Before California's flood control and aqueduct system was built, annual snow melt turned much of the valley into an inland sea.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The one notable exception to the flat valley floor is Sutter Buttes, the remnants of an extinct volcano just to the northwest of Yuba City.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Another significant geologic feature of the Central Valley lies hidden beneath the delta. The Stockton Arch is an upwarping of the crust beneath the valley sediments that extends southwest to northeast across the valley.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley lies within the California Trough physiographic section, which is part of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn is part of the Pacific Mountain System.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley was formerly a diverse expanse of grassland, containing areas of prairie, desert grassland (at the southern end), oak savanna, riparian forest, marsh, several types of seasonal vernal pools, and large lakes such as now-dry Tulare Lake (once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi), Buena Vista Lake and Kern Lake. However, much of the Central Valley environment has been altered by human activity, including the introduction of exotic plants, notably grasses. The valley's grasslands, wetlands, and riparian forests constitute the California Central Valley grasslands, a temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion. The foothill oak woodlands and chaparral that fringe the valley have been categorized as the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The dominant grass of the valley was "Nassella pulchra" mixed with other species, but today only 1% of the grassland in the valley is intact. Grassland flowers include California poppy ("Eschscholzia californica"), lupins, and purple owl's clover ("Castilleja exserta"), which can still be seen, especially in Antelope Valley in the Tehachapi Mountains. Riverside trees include willows, western sycamore ("Platanus racemosa"), box elder ("Acer negundo"), Fremont cottonwood ("Populus fremontii"), and the endemic valley oak ("Quercus lobata").


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley was once home to large populations of pronghorn antelope ("Antilocapra americana"), elk including the endemic tule elk subspecies ("Cervus elaphus nannodes"), mule deer ("Odocoileus hemionus"), California ground squirrels, gophers, mice, hare, rabbits and kangaroo rats, along with their predators including the San Joaquin kit fox (an endangered subspecies surviving on the San Joaquin Valley's hillsides). The valley's wetlands were an important habitat for wintering waterbirds and migrating birds of other kinds. Reptiles and amphibians of the valley include the endemic San Joaquin coachwhip snake ("Masticophis flagellum ruddocki"), blunt-nosed leopard lizard ("Gambelia sila"), Gilbert's skink ("Eumeces gilberti") and the western aquatic garter snake ("Thamnophis couchii"). Endemic invertebrates are present. The Central Valley is home to endemic fish species, including the Sacramento Pikeminnow, Sacramento Perch, Sacramento Blackfish, and Sacramento Splittail.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Great Valley Grasslands State Park preserves an example of the valley's habitat, while oak savanna habitats survive near Visalia. Areas of wetland and riverside woodland are found in the north, especially by the Sacramento River system, including the Nature Conservancy's Cosumnes River Preserve just south of Sacramento, Gray Lodge Wildlife Area, Butte Sink Wildlife Management Area, and other patches in the delta area. Remaining vernal pools include Pixley National Wildlife Refuge between Tulare, California, and Bakersfield and Jepson Prairie Preserve in the delta. Large blocks of desert scrubland exist in the southern San Joaquin Valley and the Carrizo Plain, just outside the valley, but offering a similar landscape.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: These patches of natural habitat are disconnected, which is particularly damaging for wildlife that is used to migrating along the rivers. Agriculture, grazing land, and the draining of lakes and rivers have radically altered valley habitats. Most of the grassland has been overtaken by new species; most vernal pools have been destroyed, leaving only those on the higher slopes; the marshland has been drained, and the riverbank woodlands have nearly all been affected.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The valley gives its name to Valley fever, which is primarily a disease of the lungs that is common in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is caused by the fungus "Coccidioides immitis", which grows in soils in areas of low rainfall, high summer temperatures, and moderate winter temperatures. These fungal spores become airborne when the soil is disturbed by winds, construction, or farming. This illness frequently takes weeks or months to resolve. Occasionally Valley Fever is life-threatening or even fatal.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Due to the agricultural industry's significant presence in the Valley, pesticide drift and leaching have become concerns. Residents risk contamination when living in proximity to application sites.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Air pollution is a growing problem that affects all of the citizens in the Central Valley. Some reasons of poor air pollution in the Central Valley are due to agriculture and its geographical features.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Since the Central Valley consists mostly of farming land, a wide, flat valley, the emissions from the soil that is used for growing produce are released into the air. The soil exudes nitrous oxide, an odorless and colorless gas that can be harmful when exposed to it for a long period of time, and incorporates itself into the ozone layer located at ground level. Production of nitrous oxide in California has shown that the addition of soil and fertilization can emit about 161,100 metric tons per year. Long term effects that nitrous oxide can have on a human being is loss of blood pressure, fainting, anemia, or lung cancer.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The physical geographical attributes can also contribute to the air pollution quality. The Central Valley is surrounded by mountain ranges which can capture the pollution coming from the agricultural farming, preventing it from dispersing from the other areas in California.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley is also expanding in the number of people that coincide in that area, so it increases the number of cars which can also contribute to the amount of emission that is in the air.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The northern Central Valley has a hot Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification "Csa"); the more southerly parts in rainshadow zones are dry enough to be Mediterranean steppe ("BShs", as around Fresno) or even low-latitude desert ("BWh", as in areas around Bakersfield). It is very hot and dry during the summer and cool and damp in winter when frequent ground fog known regionally as "tule fog" can obscure vision. Summer daytime temperatures frequently surpass , and common heat waves might bring temperatures exceeding . Mid-autumn to mid-spring is the "rainy season"—although during the late summer, southeasterly winds can bring tropical thunderstorms, mainly in the southern half of the San Joaquin Valley but occasionally to the Sacramento Valley. The northern half of the Central Valley receives greater precipitation than the semidesert southern half. Frost occurs at times in the fall months, but snow is extremely rare.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Tule fog is a thick ground fog that settles along the valley's length. Tule fog forms during the late fall and winter (California's rainy season), after the first significant rainfall. The official season is from November 1 to March 31. This phenomenon is named after the valley's tule grass wetlands ("tulares"). Auto collisions caused by the tule fog are the leading cause of weather-related casualties in California.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Two river systems drain and define the two parts of the Central Valley. The Sacramento River, along with its tributaries the Feather River and American River, flows southwards through the Sacramento Valley for about . In the San Joaquin Valley, the San Joaquin River flows roughly northwest for , picking up tributaries such as the Merced River, Tuolumne River, Stanislaus River and Mokelumne River. The Central Valley watershed encompasses over a third of California at , with 46 percent draining into the Sacramento River, 26 percent into the San Joaquin, and 27 percent into Tulare Lake.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: In the south part of the San Joaquin Valley, the alluvial fan of the Kings River and another from Coast Ranges streams have created a divide. The dry Tulare basin of the Central Valley receives flow from four major Sierra Nevada rivers, the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern. This basin, usually endorheic, formerly filled during snowmelt and spilled out into the San Joaquin River. Called Tulare Lake, it is usually dry because the rivers feeding it have been diverted for agricultural purposes.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Central Valley rivers converge in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a network of marshy channels, distributaries, and sloughs that wind around islands mainly used for agriculture. There the rivers merge with tidewater, and eventually reach the ocean after passing through Suisun Bay, San Pablo Bay, upper San Francisco Bay, and finally the Golden Gate. Many of the islands lie below sea level because of intensive agriculture, and face a high risk of flooding, which would allow salt water to rush back into the delta, especially when too little fresh water is flowing in from the Valley.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Sacramento River carries far more water than the San Joaquin, with an estimated of virgin annual runoff, as compared to the San Joaquin's approximately . Intensive agricultural and municipal water consumption decreased the rate of outflow to about for the Sacramento and for the San Joaquin. These figures vary widely from year to year. Over 25 million people, living in the valley and other regions of the state, rely on the water carried by these rivers.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Sierra Nevada runoff provides one of California's largest water resources. The Sacramento River is the second largest river to empty into the Pacific from the contiguous United States, behind only the Columbia River and greater than the Colorado River. Combined with the fertile and expansive area of the Central Valley's floor, the Central Valley is ideal for agriculture.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley is one of the United States' most productive growing regions. This is made possible by engineering the watercourses to prevent flooding during the spring snowmelt and drying up in the summer and autumn. Many dams, including Shasta Dam, Oroville Dam, Folsom Dam, New Melones Dam, Don Pedro Dam, Hetch Hetchy Dam, Friant Dam, Pine Flat Dam and Isabella Dam, were constructed on the rivers, with many of them being part of the Central Valley Project. These dams impact physical, economic, cultural, and ecological resources: for example, enabling the development of its vast agricultural resources but leading to the loss of the Chinook salmon.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Post-World War II demand for urban development, most notably the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles/Inland Empire/San Diego, required water resources. Moreover, agriculture in the southern Central Valley required far more water than was available locally. The Feather River in the Sacramento Valley was looked to as a water source, leading to the California State Water Project. This transports water to the southern San Joaquin Valley and urban areas south of the Tehachapi Mountains.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Runoff from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers is intercepted in the delta through a series of pumps that divert water into the California Aqueduct, which runs south along the length of the San Joaquin Valley. In parallel, pumps divert water into the Delta–Mendota Canal. The flow of the Sacramento River is further supplemented by a tunnel from the Trinity River (a tributary of the Klamath River, northwest of the Sacramento Valley) near Redding. Cities of the San Francisco Bay Area, also needing water, built aqueducts from the Mokelumne River and Tuolumne River that run east to west across the middle part of the Central Valley.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Most valley lowlands are prone to flooding, especially in the old Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Kern Lake rivers. The Kings, Kaweah, Tule and Kern rivers originally flowed into these seasonal lakes, which would expand each spring to flood large parts of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Farms, towns, and infrastructure in these lakebeds are protected with levee systems, while the risk of floods damaging properties increased greatly.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Great Flood of 1862 was the valley's worst flood in recorded history, flooding most of the valley and putting some places as much as 20 feet under water.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: In 2003, it was determined that Sacramento had both the least protection against and nearly the highest risk of flooding. Congress then granted a $220 million loan for upgrades in Sacramento County. Other counties in the valley that often face flooding are Yuba, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: California is a state that has experienced consistent on-and-off drought for many years. In 2012, there was a major drop in precipitation levels in the Central Valley which has caused an almost constant drought and low-level precipitation levels throughout the Northern California region. As of 2014, the highest levels of precipitation occur during December and January, and because of the climate of the Central Valley, rainfall is the most common form of precipitation.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: There is a very strong positive correlation between rainfall and slow-moving landslides in Northern California, especially in the Central Valley region. Changes in climate and precipitation levels have shown that consistent average rainfall has increased the number and intensity of landslides within the past 5–6 years. This information was shown in a study that focused on the behavior of these slow-moving landslides and how their nature changed with years of extreme average rainfall versus minimal average rainfall. In 2016, the average annual precipitation levels were lower because of a drought that was coming to an end at that time. The minimal rainfall in that year showed that 119 landslides had been moving. Comparatively, in 2017, there were very extreme levels of precipitation in the Central Valley, which cause 312 landslides to move that year. Slow-moving landslides are impacted even if the intensity of the rainfall is not as severe.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Consistent, moderately intense rainfall increases the saturation of water in the ground. This over-saturation is what causes the movement of a slow-moving landslide, rather than the more quick-moving and rigorous landslides that also occur in this region of California. Quick-moving landslides are caused by very intense rain, or sometimes earthquakes, that make a greater difference in the land in a shorter amount of time. According to a survey paper written in 1988 about a storm that occurred in 1982 in the Central Valley region, rainstorms that can cause that type of landslide to happen about every 5 years. Landslides to higher degrees, such as the ones that happened due to the 1982 storm, only occur every 20 to 100+ years. This intense storm in the San Francisco Bay area caused a lot of damage as a result of moving debris and landslides. They caused damage to the land and put people living in these areas that are susceptible to these disasters in great harm. The aftermath of this storm involved millions of dollars in retributions to restore the land and surrounding areas. It also led people to make greater efforts into planning around the danger of these landslides, as in how to manipulate the land to accommodate the consequences.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Out of the past twenty-two years, California has experienced significant drought conditions for thirteen years. From 2000 to 2018 was the second driest period that California has ever experienced. The driest three-year period ever in California was from 2012 to 2014. Three-quarters of the state of California is experiencing extreme drought conditions. There are also multiple types of droughts such as agricultural droughts, meteorological droughts, snow droughts, and hydrological droughts. All of these droughts affect California in different ways. Droughts can damage forests and can cause wildfires. Droughts cause forests to become dry which causes trees to die. Dead trees result in wildfires. The U.S. drought monitor is released every Thursday, showing which parts of the U.S. are in a drought. It started in 2000, and since then the longest duration of a drought in California lasted a total of 376 weeks. It started on December 11, 2011, and ended on March 5, 2019. The most intense period captured on the drought monitor was on the week of July 29, 2014. It showed that 58.41% of California's land was affected by a drought. In 2014–2015, farm-related losses in California totaled $5 billion and 20,000 farmers also lost their jobs.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Agriculture is the primary industry in most of the Central Valley. A notable exception is the Sacramento area, which hosts a large and stable workforce of government employees. Despite state hiring cutbacks and the closure of several military bases, Sacramento's economy has continued to expand and diversify and now more closely resembles that of the San Francisco Bay Area. Primary sources of population growth are Bay Area migrants seeking lower housing costs, augmented by immigration from Asia, Central America, Mexico, Ukraine, and the rest of the former Soviet Union.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The Central Valley is one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. More than 230 crops are grown there. On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation's agricultural output by value: US$43.5 billion in 2013. California's farms and ranches earned almost $50 billion in 2018. The valley's productivity relies on irrigation from surface water and badly depleted underground aquifers. About one-sixth of the US' irrigated land is in the Central Valley.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for produce throughout the United States, including tomatoes, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus. Six thousand almond growers produced more than in 2000, about 70 percent of the world's supply and nearly 100 percent of domestic production.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: Early farming was concentrated close to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where the water table was high year-round and water transport was readily available. Subsequent irrigation projects brought many more parts of the valley into productive use. The even larger California State Water Project was formed in the 1950s and construction continued over the following decades.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: In the 1960s, farm labor leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta organized Mexican American grape pickers into a union, the National Farmworkers Association (NFWA), to improve their working conditions. This organizing took place primarily in the Central Valley because of the extensive agriculture, especially in and around Delano.


title: Central Valley (California)

text: The state water project's Oroville Dam in the Sacramento Valley provides water and power for the California Aqueduct in the San Joaquin Valley. The aqueduct runs from Clifton Court Forebay in the Delta southwards across the Transverse Ranges. The Central Valley Project includes numerous facilities between Shasta Dam in the north and Bakersfield in the south. Pacific Gas and Electric, Western Area Power Administration, and Southern California Edison built an interconnected electric grid connecting the north and south ends of the Central Valley.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Emil Mihai Cioran (, ; 8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher, aphorist and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorisms. His works frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. In 1937, Cioran moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris, which became his permanent residence, wherein he lived in seclusion with his partner, Simone Boué, until his death in 1995.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran was born in Resinár, Szeben County, Kingdom of Hungary (today Rășinari, Sibiu County, Romania). His father, Emilian Cioran, was an Orthodox priest, and his mother, Elvira, was the head of the "Christian Women's League".


title: Emil Cioran

text: At 10, Cioran moved to Sibiu to attend school, and at 17, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Bucharest, where he met Eugène Ionesco and Mircea Eliade, who became his friends. Future Romanian philosopher Constantin Noica and future Romanian thinker Petre Țuțea became his closest academic colleagues; all three studied under Tudor Vianu and Nae Ionescu. Cioran, Eliade, and Țuțea became supporters of Ionescu's ideas, known as "."


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran had a good command of German, learning the language at an early age, and proceeded to read philosophy that was available in German, but not in Romanian. Notes from Cioran's adolescence indicated a study of Friedrich Nietzsche, Honoré de Balzac, Arthur Schopenhauer and Fyodor Dostoevsky, among others. He became an agnostic, taking as an axiom "the inconvenience of existence". While at the University, he was influenced by Georg Simmel, Ludwig Klages and Martin Heidegger, but also by the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov, whose contribution to Cioran's central system of thought was the belief that life is arbitrary. Cioran's graduation thesis was on Henri Bergson, whom he later rejected, claiming Bergson did not comprehend the tragedy of life.


title: Emil Cioran

text: From the age of 20, Cioran began to suffer from insomnia, a condition which he suffered from for the rest of his life, and permeated his writings. Cioran's decision to write about his experiences in his first book, "On the Heights of Despair", came from an episode of insomnia.


title: Emil Cioran

text: In 1933, he received a scholarship to the University of Berlin, where he studied Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Hegel, Edmund Husserl, Immanuel Kant, Georg Simmel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Here, he came into contact with Klages and Nicolai Hartmann. While in Berlin, he became interested in the policies of the Nazi regime, contributed a column to "Vremea" dealing with the topic (in which Cioran confessed that "there is no present-day politician that I see as more sympathetic and admirable than Hitler", while expressing his approval for the Night of the Long Knives—"what has humanity lost if the lives of a few imbeciles were taken"), and, in a letter written to Petru Comarnescu, described himself as "a Hitlerist". He held similar views about Italian fascism, welcoming victories in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, arguing that: "Fascism is a shock, without which Italy is a compromise comparable to today's Romania".


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran's first book, "On the Heights of Despair" (literally translated: "On the Summits of Despair"), was published in Romania in 1934. It was awarded the "Commission's Prize" and the "Young Writers Prize" for one of the best books written by an unpublished young writer. Regardless, Cioran later spoke negatively of it, saying "it is a very poorly written book, without any style."


title: Emil Cioran

text: Successively, "The Book of Delusions" (1935), "The Transfiguration of Romania" (1936) and "Tears and Saints" (1937) were also published in Romania. "Tears and Saints" was "incredibly poorly received", and after it was published, Cioran's mother wrote him asking him to retract the book because it was causing her public embarrassment.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Although Cioran was never a member of the group, it was during this time in Romania that he began taking an interest in the ideas put forth by the Iron Guard—a far right organization whose nationalist ideology he supported until the early years of World War II, despite allegedly disapproving of their violent methods. Cioran would later denounce fascism, describing it in 1970 as "the worst folly of my youth. If I am cured of one sickness, it is surely that one."


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran revised "The Transfiguration of Romania" heavily in its second edition released in the 1990s, eliminating numerous passages he considered extremist or "pretentious and stupid". In its original form, the book expressed sympathy for totalitarianism, a view which was also present in various articles Cioran wrote at the time, and which aimed to establish "urbanization and industrialization" as "the two obsessions of a rising people".


title: Emil Cioran

text: His early call for modernization was, however, hard to reconcile with the traditionalism of the Iron Guard. In 1934, he wrote, "I find that in Romania the sole fertile, creative, and invigorating nationalism can only be one which does not just dismiss tradition, but also denies and defeats it". Disapproval of what he viewed as specifically Romanian traits had been present in his works ("In any maxim, in any proverb, in any reflection, our people expresses the same shyness in front of life, the same hesitation and resignation... [...] Everyday Romanian [truisms] are dumbfounding."), which led to criticism from the far-right "Gândirea" (its editor, Nichifor Crainic, had called "The Transfiguration of Romania" "a bloody, merciless, massacre of today's Romania, without even [the fear] of matricide and sacrilege"), as well as from various Iron Guard papers.


title: Emil Cioran

text: After returning from Berlin in 1936, Cioran taught philosophy at the Andrei Șaguna High School in Brașov for a year. In 1937, he left for Paris with a scholarship from the French Institute branch in Bucharest, which was then prolonged until 1944. After a short stay in his home country (November 1940 – February 1941), Cioran never returned again. This last period in Romania was the one in which he exhibited a closer relationship with the Iron Guard, which by then had taken power ("see National Legionary State"). On 28 November, for the state-owned Romanian Radio, Cioran recorded a speech centered on the portrait of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, former leader of the movement, praising him and the Guard for, among other things, "having given Romanians a purpose".


title: Emil Cioran

text: He later renounced not only his support for the Iron Guard, but also their nationalist ideas, and frequently expressed regret and repentance for his emotional implication in it. For example, in a 1972 interview, he condemned it as "a complex of movements; more than this, a demented sect and a party", saying, "I found out then [...] what it means to be carried by the wave without the faintest trace of conviction. [...] I am now immune to it".


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran started writing "The Passionate Handbook" in 1940 and finished it by 1945. It was the last book he wrote in Romanian, though not the last to deal with pessimism and misanthropy through lyrical aphorisms. Cioran published books only in French thereafter. It was at this point that Cioran's apparent contempt for the Romanian people emerged. He told a friend that he "wanted to write a "Philosophy of Failure", with the subtitle "For the exclusive use of the Romanian People"". Furthermore, he described his move to Paris as "by far the most intelligent thing" he had ever done, and in "The Trouble with Being Born" he says, "In continual rebellion against my ancestry, I have spent my whole life wanting to be something else: Spanish, Russian, cannibal—anything, except what I was."


title: Emil Cioran

text: In 1942, Cioran met Simone Boué, another insomniac, who he lived with for the rest of his life. Cioran kept their relationship entirely private, and never spoke of his relationship with Boué in his writings or interviews.


title: Emil Cioran

text: In 1949, his first French book, "A Short History of Decay", was published by Gallimard and was awarded the "Prix Rivarol" in 1950 for the best book written by a non-French author. Throughout his career, Cioran refused most literary prizes awarded him.


title: Emil Cioran

text: The Latin Quarter of Paris became Cioran's permanent residence. He lived most of his life in seclusion, avoiding the public, but still maintained contact with numerous friends, including Mircea Eliade, Eugène Ionesco, Paul Celan, Samuel Beckett, Henri Michaux and Fernando Savater.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Professing a lack of interest in conventional philosophy in his early youth, Cioran dismissed abstract speculation in favor of personal reflection and passionate lyricism. "I invented nothing. I've been the one and only secretary of my own sensations", he later said.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Aphorisms make up a large portion of Cioran's bibliography, and some of his books, such as "The Trouble with Being Born", are composed entirely of aphorisms. Speaking about this decision, Cioran said:


title: Emil Cioran

text: Philosophical pessimism characterizes all of his works, which many critics trace back to events of his childhood (in 1935 his mother is reputed to have told him that if she had known he was going to be so unhappy she would have aborted him). However, Cioran's pessimism (in fact, his skepticism, even nihilism) remains both inexhaustible and, in its own particular manner, joyful; it is not the sort of pessimism which can be traced back to simple origins, single origins themselves being questionable. When Cioran's mother spoke to him of abortion, he confessed that it did not disturb him, but made an extraordinary impression which led to an insight about the nature of existence ("I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?" is what he later said in reference to the incident).


title: Emil Cioran

text: His works often depict an atmosphere of torment, a state that Cioran himself experienced, and came to be dominated by lyricism and, often, the expression of intense and even violent feeling. The books he wrote in Romanian especially display this latter characteristic. Preoccupied with the problems of death and suffering, he was attracted to the idea of suicide, believing it to be an idea that could help one go on living, an idea which he fully explored in "On the Heights of Despair". He revisits suicide in depth in "The New Gods", which contains a section of aphorisms devoted to the subject. The theme of human alienation, the most prominent existentialist theme, presented by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, is thus formulated, in 1932, by young Cioran: "Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?" in "On the Heights of Despair".


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran's works encompass many other themes as well: original sin, the tragic sense of history, the end of civilization, the refusal of consolation through faith, the obsession with the absolute, life as an expression of man's metaphysical exile, etc. He was a thinker passionate about history; widely reading the writers that were associated with the "Decadent movement". One of these writers was Oswald Spengler who influenced Cioran's political philosophy in that he offered Gnostic reflections on the destiny of man and civilization. According to Cioran, as long as man has kept in touch with his origins and hasn't cut himself off from himself, he has resisted decadence. Today, he is on his way to his own destruction through self-objectification, impeccable production and reproduction, excess of self-analysis and transparency, and artificial triumph.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Regarding God, Cioran has noted that "without Bach, God would be a complete second-rate figure" and that "Bach's music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe cannot be regarded as a complete failure". Cioran went on to say "Bach, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche are the only arguments against monotheism."


title: Emil Cioran

text: William H. Gass called Cioran's "The Temptation to Exist" "a philosophical romance on the modern themes of alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease".


title: Emil Cioran

text: Cioran became most famous while writing not in Romanian but French, a language with which he had struggled since his youth. During Cioran's lifetime, Saint-John Perse called him "the greatest French writer to honor our language since the death of Paul Valéry." Cioran's tone and usage in his adopted language were seldom as harsh as in Romanian (though his use of Romanian is said to be more original).


title: Emil Cioran

text: After the death of Cioran's long-term companion, Simone Boué, a collection of Cioran's manuscripts (over 30 notebooks) were found in the couple's apartment by a manager who tried to auction them in 2005. A decision taken by the Court of Appeal of Paris stopped the commercial sale of the collection. However, in March 2011, the Court of Appeal ruled that the seller was the legitimate owner of the manuscripts. The manuscripts were purchased by Romanian businessman George Brăiloiu for €405,000.


title: Emil Cioran

text: An aged Cioran is the main character in a play by Romanian dramatist-actor Matei Vișniec, "Mansardă la Paris cu vedere spre moarte" ("A Paris Loft with a View on Death"). The play, depicting an imaginary meeting between Vișniec and Cioran, was first brought to the stage in 2007, under the direction of Radu Afrim and with a cast of Romanian and Luxembourgian actors; Cioran was played by Constantin Cojocaru. Stagings were organized in the Romanian city of Sibiu and in the Luxembourg, at Esch-sur-Alzette (both Sibiu and Luxembourg City were the year's European Capital of Culture). In 2009, the Romanian Academy granted posthumous membership to Cioran.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Under the rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu, Cioran's works were banned. In 1974, Francoist Spain banned "The Evil Demiurge" for being "atheist, blasphemous, and anti-Christian", which Cioran considered "one of the greatest jokes in his absurd existence."


title: Emil Cioran

text: American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never named a song for Emil on their 2009 release Zones Without People.


title: Emil Cioran

text: Danish neofolk musician Kim Larsen re-enacted Cioran's choking arms photograph on the cover of the 2021 album Your Love Can't Hold This Wreath of Sorrow.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus Tursiops. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common bottlenose dolphin ("Tursiops truncatus") and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin ("Tursiops aduncus"). Others, like the Burrunan dolphin ("Tursiops (aduncus) australis"), may be alternately considered their own species or be subspecies of "T. aduncus". Bottlenose dolphins inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide, being found everywhere except for the Arctic and Antarctic Circle regions. Their name derives from the Latin "tursio" (dolphin) and "truncatus" for their characteristic truncated teeth.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Numerous investigations of bottlenose dolphin intelligence have been conducted, examining mimicry, use of artificial language, object categorization, and self-recognition. They can use tools (sponging; using marine sponges to forage for food sources they normally could not access) and transmit cultural knowledge from generation to generation, and their considerable intelligence has driven interaction with humans. Bottlenose dolphins gained popularity from aquarium shows and television programs such as "Flipper". They have also been trained by militaries to locate sea mines or detect and mark enemy divers. In some areas, they cooperate with local fishermen by driving fish into their nets and eating the fish that escape. Some encounters with humans are harmful to the dolphins: people hunt them for food, and dolphins are killed inadvertently as a bycatch of tuna fishing and by getting caught in crab traps.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Bottlenose dolphins have the third largest encephalization levels of any mammal on Earth (humans have the largest, followed by Northern Right whale dolphins), sharing close ratios with those of humans and other cetaceans, while being twice as high of other great apes. This more than likely contributes to their high intelligence and emotional intelligence.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Scientists have been long aware of the fact that the "Tursiops" dolphins might consist of more than one species, as there is extensive variation in color and morphology along its range. In the past, most studies used morphology to evaluate differences between and within species, but in the late 20th century, combining morphological and molecular genetics allowed much greater insight into this previously intractable problem. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, most researchers acknowledged the existence of two species: the common bottlenose dolphin ("T. truncatus"), found in coastal and oceanic habitats of most tropical to temperate oceans, and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin ("T. aduncus"), that lives in coastal waters around India, northern Australia, South China, the Red Sea, and the eastern coast of Africa.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: In 2011, a third distinct species was described, the Burrunan dolphin ("T. (aduncus) australis"), found in the Port Phillip and Gippsland Lakes areas of Victoria, Australia, after research showed it was distinct from "T. truncatus" and "T. aduncus", both in morphology and genetics. Also, evidence has been accumulating to validate the existence of a separate species, Lahille's bottlenose dolphin, "T. gephyreus", that occurs in coastal waters of Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. The Society for Marine Mammalogy's Committee on Taxonomy, presently recognizes only two species, "T. truncatus" and "T. aduncus", and two subspecies: the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin ("T. t. ponticus"), that lives in the Black Sea, and Lahille's bottlenose dolphin ("T. t. gephyreus"). Other sources also accept the Pacific bottlenose dolphin ("T. t. gillii" or "T. gillii"), that inhabits the Pacific, and has a black line from the eye to the forehead. The IUCN, on their Red List of endangered species, also recognises only two species of bottlenose dolphins. The American Society of Mammalogists also recognizes only two species; while acknowledging the studies describing "T. australis", it classifies it within "T. aduncus".


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Much of the discussion and doubts about its taxonomy is related to the existence of two ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins in many part of its distribution. The two ecotypes of the common bottlenose dolphin within the western North Atlantic are represented by the shallower water or coastal ecotype and the more offshore ecotype. Their ranges overlap, but they have been shown to be genetically distinct. They are not currently described, however, as separate species or subspecies. In general, genetic variation between populations is significant, even among nearby populations. As a result of this genetic variation, other distinct species currently considered to be populations of common bottlenose dolphin are possible.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Some recent genetic evidence suggests the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin belongs in the genus "Stenella", since it is more like the Atlantic spotted dolphin ("Stenella frontalis") than the common bottlenose dolphin. However, more recent studies indicate that this is a consequence of reticulate evolution (such as past hybridization between "Stenella" and ancestral "Tursiops") and incomplete lineage sorting, and thus support "T". "truncatus" and "T. aduncus" belonging to the same genus.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Bottlenose dolphins have been known to hybridize with other dolphin species. Hybrids with Risso's dolphin occur both in the wild and in captivity. The best known hybrid is the wholphin, a false killer whale-bottlenose dolphin hybrid. The wholphin is fertile, and two currently live at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii. The first was born in 1985 to a female bottlenose. Wholphins also exist in the wild. In captivity, a bottlenose dolphin and a rough-toothed dolphin hybridized. A common dolphin-bottlenose dolphin hybrid born in captivity lives at SeaWorld California. Other hybrids live in captivity around the world and in the wild, such as a bottlenose dolphin-Atlantic spotted dolphin hybrid.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Bottlenose dolphins appeared during the Miocene. Known fossil species include "Tursiops osennae" (late Miocene to early Pliocene) from the Piacenzian coastal mudstone, and "Tursiops miocaenus" (Miocene) from the Burdigalian marine sandstone, all in Italy.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: The bottlenose dolphin weighs an average of 300 kg (660 pounds), but can range from . It can reach a length of just over 4 meters (13 feet). Its color varies considerably, is usually dark gray on the back and lighter gray on the flanks, but it can be bluish-grey, brownish-grey, or even nearly black, and is often darker on the back from the rostrum to behind the dorsal fin. This is called countershading and is a form of camouflage. Older dolphins sometimes have a few spots.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Bottlenose dolphins can live for more than 40 years. Females typically live 5–10 years longer than males, with some females exceeding 60 years. This extreme age is rare and less than 2% of all Bottlenose dolphins will live longer than 60 years. Bottlenose dolphins can jump to a height of 6 metres (20 feet) in the air.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: Their elongated upper and lower jaws form what is called a rostrum, or snout, which gives the animal its common name. The real, functional nose is the blowhole on top of its head; the nasal septum is visible when the blowhole is open.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: The flukes (lobes of the tail) and dorsal fin are formed of dense connective tissue and do not contain bone or muscle. The dorsal fin usually shows phenotypic variations that help discriminate among populations. The animal propels itself by moving the flukes up and down. The pectoral flippers (at the sides of the body) are for steering; they contain bones homologous to the forelimbs of land mammals. A bottlenose dolphin discovered in Japan has two additional pectoral fins, or "hind legs", at the tail, about the size of a human's pair of hands. Scientists believe a mutation caused the ancient trait to reassert itself as a form of atavism.


title: Bottlenose dolphin

text: In colder waters, they have more body fat and blood, and are more suited to deeper diving. Typically, 18%–20% of their body weight is blubber. Most research in this area has been restricted to the North Atlantic Ocean. Bottlenose dolphins typically swim at , but are capable of bursts of up to . The higher speeds can only be sustained for a short time.