title: Image scanner

text: Another category of document scanner is the document camera. Capturing images on document cameras differs from that of flatbed and Automatic document feeder (ADF) scanners in that there are no moving parts required to scan the object. Conventionally either the illumination/reflector rod inside the scanner must be moved over the document (such as for a flatbed scanner), or the document must be passed over the rod (such as for feeder scanners) in order to produce a scan of a whole image. Document cameras capture the whole document or object in one step, usually instantly. Typically, documents are placed on a flat surface, usually the office desk, underneath the capture area of the document camera. The process of whole-surface-at-once capturing has the benefit of increasing reaction time for the work flow of scanning. After being captured, the images are usually processed through software which may enhance the image and perform such tasks like automatically rotating, cropping and straightening them.


title: Image scanner

text: It is not required that the documents or objects being scanned make contact with the document camera, therefore increasing flexibility of the types of documents which are able to be scanned. Objects which have previously been difficult to scan on conventional scanners are now able to be done so with one device. This includes in particular documents which are of varying sizes and shapes, stapled, in folders or bent/crumpled which may get jammed in a feed scanner. Other objects include books, magazines, receipts, letters, tickets etc. No moving parts can also remove the need for maintenance, a consideration in the Total cost of ownership, which includes the continuing operational costs of scanners.


title: Image scanner

text: Increased reaction time whilst scanning also has benefits in the realm of context-scanning. ADF scanners, whilst very fast and very good at batch scanning, also require pre- and post- processing of the documents. Document cameras can be integrated directly into a Workflow or process, for example a teller at a bank. The document is scanned directly in the context of the customer, in which it is to be placed or used. Reaction time is an advantage in these situations. Document cameras usually also require a small amount of space and are often portable.


title: Image scanner

text: Whilst scanning with document cameras may have a quick reaction time, large amounts of batch scanning of even, unstapled documents is more efficient with an ADF scanner. There are challenges which face this kind of technology regarding external factors (such as lighting) which may have influence on the scan results. The way in which these issues are resolved strongly depends on the sophistication of the product and how it deals with these issues.


title: Image scanner

text: "Infrared cleaning" is a technique used to remove the effects of dust and scratches on images scanned from film; many modern scanners incorporate this feature. It works by scanning the film with infrared light; the dyes in typical color film emulsions are transparent to infrared light, but dust and scratches are not, and block infrared; scanner software can use the visible and infrared information to detect scratches and process the image to greatly reduce their visibility, considering their position, size, shape, and surroundings.


title: Image scanner

text: Scanner manufacturers usually have their own name attached to this technique. For example, Epson, Minolta, Nikon, Konica Minolta, Microtek, and others use Digital ICE, while Canon uses its own system FARE (Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement system). Plustek uses LaserSoft Imaging iSRD. Some independent software developers design infrared cleaning tools.


title: Image scanner

text: Flatbed scanners have been used as digital backs for large-format cameras to create high-resolution digital images of static subjects. A modified flatbed scanner has been used for documentation and quantification of thin layer chromatograms detected by fluorescence quenching on silica gel layers containing an ultraviolet (UV) indicator. 'ChromImage' is allegedly the first commercial flatbed scanner densitometer. It enables acquisition of TLC plate images and quantification of chromatograms by use of Galaxie-TLC software. Other than being turned into densitometers, flatbed scanners were also turned into colorimeters using different methods. Trichromatic Color Analyser is allegedly the first distributable system using a flatbed scanner as a tristimulus colorimetric device.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Better Nate Than Ever is a 2022 American musical comedy film written and directed by Tim Federle, based on his 2013 novel of the same name. Described as a coming-of-age story involving musical theater and Broadway, the story centers on the titular Nate Foster, played by Rueby Wood in his first film role. Lisa Kudrow, Aria Brooks and Joshua Bassett serve in supporting cast roles.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: "Better Nate Than Ever" had its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on March 15, 2022, and was released in the United States as a Disney+ original film on April 1. It received generally positive reviews from critics and received eight nominations at the 1st Children's and Family Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Fiction Special, Outstanding Lead Performance for Wood and Outstanding Supporting Performance for Kudrow.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Nate Foster is a 13-year-old boy who lives in Pittsburgh and is obsessed with being a Broadway star. His parents, Rex and Sherrie, are understanding while his older brother Anthony is put off by his odd behavior. At school, Nate is picked on and gets passed over major roles in a school play, but finds solace in his only friend Libby who supports him in his endeavors despite her own stage fright. She informs him that auditions are being held for a Broadway adaptation of "Lilo & Stitch", but Nate is unsure whether he can make it. As luck would have it, Nate's parents decide to get away for awhile. Anthony uses the opportunity to hang out with his friends while Nate feigns spending the night at Libby's house. Nate and Libby sneak away on a bus to New York City without telling anyone.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Nate and Libby locate where to audition, but are informed that they need a parent or guardian present. By chance, Nate's maternal aunt Heidi, a struggling actress, happens to be there to audition for "A Solitary Woman" and Nate passes her off as his guardian. While Heidi is happy to see Nate, she decides to do the responsible thing and call Sherrie to inform her sister of her son's whereabouts. Having lost Sherrie's phone number, Heidi is given Libby's number by Nate and is tricked by Nate, making her believe that he has his parents' approval. Nate goes into the audition, but when he tries to show off his knee dancing from "Fiddler on the Roof" he accidentally rips his pants and humiliates himself. Nate prepares to return to Pittsburgh with Libby, believing that he has failed, but learns he got a callback. Libby cannot bring herself to stay with Nate in New York and admits her feelings for him. Nate gently turns her down by informing her that he does not think of her that way. He stays for the callback which involves giving a monologue that impresses the casting directors.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Not having a place to stay, and needing to earn money, Nate discovers street performers and begins to sing, becoming a TikTok star overnight. He calls Libby, who responds positively to the news before going to the Museum of Natural History to find Heidi, who, while upset that Nate did not return home, gives him a place to stay. Heidi is revealed to have had a falling out with her sister in the past due to their clashing dreams. She nevertheless supports Nate's endeavors and hopes that he will make the audition. Back at home, Anthony discovers Nate's TikTok video and heads over to Libby's house to demand an explanation for what is happening. In the morning, Anthony and Libby arrive at Heidi's apartment in New York to pick Nate up. Nate tells Anthony that he is aware that he embarrasses him, but that he needs to go to the audition to achieve his dream. He escapes out a fire exit (something he has always wanted to do) while Heidi informs Libby about being an agent.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Nate arrives to audition for Stitch and feels embarrassed when the other auditioners laugh at him for reading all the characters' lines in the script instead of just Stitch's as originally required. He begins to sing "No One Gets Left Behind", but stumbles when Heidi, Anthony and Libby arrive and gives up. Anthony shouts that Nate does not embarrass him, which encourages Nate to continue singing and give a remarkable performance. Nate makes up with Anthony, who found his audition impressive. Nate also encourages Heidi to not give up on her dreams and to make up with Sherrie. On the drive back home, Anthony gets into show tunes and Libby accepts being Nate's platonic friend. The next day at school, Nate is called into the principal's office where his parents learned what happened and reveal that he successfully landed the part. The movie ends with Nate performing in the musical, with Anthony, Libby, Heidi, and his parents in the audience, with Sherrie and Heidi having reconciled, and Heidi getting the lead role in a solitary woman.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: In January 2021, The Walt Disney Company had an open casting-call for a film adaptation of "Better Nate Than Ever". By March of the same year, it was announced that the film had officially been green-lit, with production scheduled to take place in New York City. The project entered pre-production under the working title "Pittsburgh". Tim Federle, author of the original novel series on which the film is based, will serve as writer/director. Marc Platt and Adam Siegel will serve as producers, with Platt co-producing the film under his Marc Platt Productions banner with Walt Disney Pictures.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: In June 2021, Lisa Kudrow joined the cast as Nate's aunt Heidi. Primary characters Nate and Libby were also cast, albeit with as-of-yet unnamed actors in the roles. By August of the same year, Norbert Leo Butz joined the cast in a supporting role.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: On November 12, 2021, it was announced that Rueby Wood was cast as the main character, Nate Foster. In addition, Joshua Bassett and Aria Brooks were revealed to play Nate’s older brother, Anthony Foster and Libby, a fellow theater kid who sneaks off to New York City with Nate.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Federle said that adapting a book he wrote allowed him to make several changes while being faithful to the source material, such as expanding the roles of Libby and Anthony. Due to the film being a Disney production, he chose to change the musical Nate auditions for from a fictional version of the 1982 Steven Spielberg science fiction family film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" to a fictional musical version of the 2002 animated Disney film "Lilo & Stitch".


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Principal photography commenced in New York City, in June 2021. Some scenes were also filmed at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York that same month. Filming also took place in the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: "Better Nate Than Ever" had its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre on March 15, 2022, and was released exclusively on Disney+ on April 1, 2022.


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 47 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A modern musical with old-fashioned charm, "Better Nate Than Ever" hits heartwarming high notes with its joyous message of self-acceptance." Metacritic assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Better Nate Than Ever (film)

text: Courtney Howard of "Variety" wrote: "As far as sentiments go, the film’s heart is in the right place. It’s LGBT-positive in terms of representation and acts as a love letter to musical artistic expression." "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" stated: ""Better Nate Than Ever" is likely to serve as a charming celebration of young dreamers and how far they’ll go to find a community that fully accepts them." Petrana Radulovic of "Polygon" gave a positive review, calling it a "delight" that is "an ode to theater kids (and wannabe theater kids) everywhere." Amy Nicholson of "The New York Times" praised the performances of the actors and found the script creative, but stated that the movie does not engage explicitly enough with LGBT themes. Jennifer Green of "Common Sense Media" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote: ""Better Nate Than Ever" is a charming tween musical about celebrating differences and following your dreams based on Tim Federle's same-named book. [...] The film has positive messages about staying true to yourself and accepting friends and relatives for who they are, sometimes making personal sacrifices for their benefit." Nell Minow of "RogerEbert.com" gave the movie a 3,5 out of 4 stars rating, praised the performances of the cast, complimented the humor, and found the film manages to depict a positive render of musicals. "Screen Rant" reviewed the movie 3 out of 5, writing, ""Better Nate Than Ever" is full of charm, supportive friendships and familial relationships, and a passionate love of musical theater and these elements work together to create a lovely, entertaining viewing experience." Jason Struss of "Digital Trends" wrote: "In the slight but exhaustingly charming Disney+ original movie [...] "Better Nate Than Ever" is ultimately a throwaway movie, fine enough for kids and bearable for parents, and it isn’t particularly notable."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The Nayirah testimony was false testimony given before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a 15-year-old girl who was publicly identified at the time by her first name, Nayirah. The testimony was widely publicized, and was cited numerous times by United States senators and President George H. W. Bush in their rationale to support Kuwait in the Gulf War.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was Al-Ṣabaḥ () and that she was the daughter of Saud Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign, which was run by the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al-Sabah's testimony has come to be regarded as a classic example of modern atrocity propaganda.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In her testimony, Nayirah claimed that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, take the incubators, and leave the babies to die.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Her story was initially corroborated by Amnesty International, a British-based global NGO, which published several independent reports about the supposed killings and testimony from evacuees. Following the liberation of Kuwait, reporters were given access to the country. An ABC report found that "patients, including premature babies, did die, when many of Kuwait's nurses and doctors ... fled" but Iraqi troops "almost certainly had not stolen hospital incubators and left hundreds of Kuwaiti babies to die." Amnesty International USA reacted by issuing a correction, with executive director John Healey subsequently accusing the Bush administration of "opportunistic manipulation of the international human rights movement".


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Following the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, there were reports of widespread looting. On September 2, 1990, in a letter to the UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, Kuwait's UN representative, Mohammad A. Abulhasan, wrote:


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Further to those of our communications which are intended to inform you of the actions perpetrated by the Iraqi occupation authorities in Kuwait in contravention of all international laws, and on the basis of confirmed information provided to us by the Government of Kuwait, we wish to draw attention to a phenomenon which has no precedent in history, namely, the Iraqi occupation authorities' organized operation for the purpose of looting and plundering Kuwait. It is impossible to compare this operation to any similar incidents or to provide an exact account thereof because it is in effect an operation designed to achieve nothing less than the complete removal of Kuwait's assets, including property belonging to the State, to public and private institutions and to individuals, as well as the contents of houses, factories, stores, hospitals, academic institutes, schools, and universities ... What has occurred in Kuwait is the perpetration of an act of armed robbery by a State which has used its military, security and technical organs for that purpose.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In the letter, Abulhasan also noted that "theft of all equipment from private and public hospitals, including X-ray machines, scanners and pieces of laboratory equipment." The allegations of looting were also retold by evacuees who described "soldiers looting office buildings, schools and hospitals for air conditioners, computers, blackboards, desks, and even infant incubators and radiation equipment." Douglas Hurd, the British Secretary for foreign affairs surmised that "they are looting and destroying in a way which suggests that they may not expect to be there for very long."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The looting of incubators attracted media attention because of allegations that premature babies were being discarded or dying as a result. On September 5, Abdul Wahab Al-Fowzan, the Kuwaiti health minister-in-exile, stated at a press conference in Taif, Saudi Arabia "that Iraqi soldiers had seized virtually all of the country's hospitals and medical institutions after their invasion" and that "soldiers evicted patients and systematically looted the hospitals of high-tech equipment, ambulances, drugs and plasma" which resulted in the death of 22 premature babies. "The Washington Post" described the origin of the Kuwaiti baby story as follows:


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The Kuwaiti baby story originated with a letter from a senior Kuwaiti public health official that was smuggled out of the country by a European diplomat late last month, according to Hudah Bahar, an architect who received the letter here in London. It was supplemented by information gathered from fleeing Kuwaitis and other sources by Fawzia Sayegh, a Kuwaiti pediatrician living here.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The letter claimed that Iraqi soldiers ordered patients evicted from several hospitals and closed down critical units for treating cancer patients, dialysis patients and those suffering from diabetes. Bahar and Sayegh said the Iraqis hauled sophisticated equipment such as dialysis machines back to Baghdad, part of the haul of cash, gold, cars and jewelry that is said by Arab banking sources to exceed $2 billion. Among the equipment taken were the 22 infant incubator units, they said.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: "The Washington Post" also noted that it was unable to verify the accusations as Iraq did not permit access to the area and had quarantined diplomats.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 5, in another letter to the UN Secretary General, Abulhasan reiterated Fowzan's claims writing:


title: Nayirah testimony

text: We are informed by impeccable sources in Kuwait's health institutions that the Iraqi occupation authorities have carried out the following brutal crimes, which may be described as crimes against humanity:


title: Nayirah testimony

text: 2. The incubators in maternity hospitals used for children suffering from retarded growth (premature children) have been removed, causing the death of all the children who were under treatment.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The letter did not state how many babies had died. The allegations in the letter received widespread media coverage in the following days.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: That day, in an interview with released hostages on NPR's "All Things Considered", a hostage stated that Iraqi troops were "hitting children with the butts of the guns, taking infants out of incubators and taking the incubators." Reuters also reported they had been told "that Iraqi troops took premature babies out of incubators in Kuwait in order to steal the equipment."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 9, NPR reported that "in a ward for premature infants, soldiers had turned off the oxygen on incubators and packed the equipment for shipment to Iraq."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 17, Edward Gnehm Jr., the U.S. ambassador-designate to Kuwait, told reporters that Kuwaiti health officials told him 22 babies had died when Iraqi troops had stolen their incubators.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The "Los Angeles Times" reported that "refugees reported that incubators for premature babies were confiscated by Iraqi troops and the babies inside were piled on the floor and left to die." The "San Jose Mercury News" also reported the same allegation that day, adding that Western diplomats thought "this is the kind of thing that some people call genocide, and if people wanted to construe it as such, it could be cause for some kind of military intervention."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 25, "The Washington Post" reported that "Kuwait City's hospitals are being stripped of incubators."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The president of Citizens for a Free Kuwait wrote to Representative Gus Yatron stating of how he "recently learned that the Iraqi leader has ordered that maternity hospital incubators [in Kuwait], used for treating premature babies, be turned off, allowing these infants to die of exposure."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 29, in a meeting between Kuwaiti leader Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah and President George H. W. Bush, the exiled emir told the president that Iraqis were "going into hospitals, taking babies out of incubators and people off life-support machines to send the equipment back to Iraq." In his remarks following the discussion, Bush stated that "Iraqi aggression has ransacked and pillaged a once peaceful and secure country, its population assaulted, incarcerated, intimidated, and even murdered" and that "Iraq's leaders are trying to wipe an internationally recognized sovereign state, a member of the Arab League and the United Nations, off the face of the map."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 28, Kuwait's planning minister, Sulaiman Mutawa, reported that 12 babies had died as a result of incubator looting.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On September 30, "U.S. News & World Report" reported that it had obtained secret US government cables based on eyewitness accounts that revealed "shocking acts of brutality inflicted by the Iraqis against innocent citizens at Kuwaiti hospitals." The cables stated that on the sixth day of Iraqi invasion, Iraqi soldiers "entered the Adan Hospital in Fahaheel looking for hospital equipment to steal" and that "they unplugged the oxygen to the incubators supporting 22 premature babies and made off with the incubators", thus killing the 22 children.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: I thought General Scowcroft [Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs] put it very well after the Amir left here. And I am very much concerned, not just about the physical dismantling but of the brutality that has now been written on by Amnesty International confirming some of the tales told us by the Amir of brutality. It's just unbelievable, some of the things at least he reflected. I mean, people on a dialysis machine cut off, the machine sent to Baghdad; babies in incubators heaved out of the incubators and the incubators themselves sent to Baghdad. Now, I don't know how many of these tales can be authenticated, but I do know that when the Amir was here he was speaking from the heart. And after that came Amnesty International, who were debriefing many of the people at the border. And it's sickening.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The Citizens for a Free Kuwait was a public relations committee set up by the Kuwaiti embassy, described by "The Times News" as a "Washington, D.C.- based committee concerned Kuwaitis and Americans". Though the committee occupied embassy office space, they were to be working independently of the embassy.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In 1990, after being approached by a Kuwaiti expatriate in New York, Hill & Knowlton took on "Citizens for a Free Kuwait." The objective of the national campaign was to raise awareness in the United States about the dangers posed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to Kuwait.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Hill & Knowlton conducted a $1 million study to determine the best way to win support for strong action. H & K had the Wirthington Group conduct focus groups to determine the best strategy that would influence public opinion. The study found that an emphasis on atrocities, particularly the incubator story, was the most effective.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Hill & Knowlton is estimated to have been given as much as $12 million by the Kuwaitis for their public relations campaign.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The Congressional Human Rights Foundation is a non-governmental organization that investigates human rights abuse. It was headed by Democratic U.S. Representative Tom Lantos and Republican Representative John Porter and rented space in Hill & Knowlton's Washington headquarters at a $3000 reduced rate.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Some scholars claim the U.S. government and the White House knew nothing, others claim that the U.S. knew and was complicit. German historian stated:The work of the US advertising agency for the Kuwaiti carried the signature of the White House in a certain way. President Bush was briefed by Fuller on every single step. Whether he also gave his personal consent for the baby story, however, cannot be proven. What remains, however, is that close personal contacts existed between the US government and an agency that had demonstrably given birth to lies. The same agency was even directly employed by the US government in another context.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On October 10, 1990, Nayirah was the last to testify at the Caucus. In her oral testimony, which lasted 4 minutes, she stated:


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, my name is Nayirah and I just came out of Kuwait. My mother and I were in Kuwait on August 2nd for a peaceful summer holiday. My older sister had a baby on July 29th and we wanted to spend some time in Kuwait with her.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: I only pray that none of my 10th grade classmates had a summer vacation like I did. I may have wished sometimes that I can be an adult, that I could grow up quickly. What I saw happening to the children of Kuwait and to my country has changed my life forever, has changed the life of all Kuwaitis, young and old, mere children or more.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: My sister with my five-day-old nephew traveled across the desert to safety. There is no milk available for the baby in Kuwait. They barely escaped when their car was stuck in the desert sand and help came from Saudi Arabia.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: I stayed behind and wanted to do something for my country. The second week after invasion, I volunteered at the AlIdar (phonetic rendering) Hospital with 12 other women who wanted to help as well. I was the youngest volunteer. The "other" women were from 20 to 30 years old.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the children to die on the cold floor. It was horrifying. I could not help but think of my nephew who was born premature and might have died that day as well. After I left the hospital, some of my friends and I distributed flyers condemning the Iraqi invasion until we were warned we might be killed if the Iraqis saw us.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The Iraqis have destroyed everything in Kuwait. They stripped the supermarkets of food, the pharmacies of


title: Nayirah testimony

text: medicine, the factories of medical supplies, ransacked their houses and tortured neighbors and friends.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: I saw and talked to a friend of mine after his torture and release by the Iraqis. He is 22 but he looked as though he could have been an old man. The Iraqis dunked his head into a swimming pool until he almost drowned. They pulled out his fingernails and then played "[sic]" electric shocks to sensitive private parts of his body. He was lucky to survive.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: If an Iraqi soldier is found dead in the neighborhood, they burn to the ground all the houses in the general vicinity and would not let firefighters come until the only ash and rubble was left.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The Iraqis were making fun of President Bush and verbally and physically abusing my family and me on our way out of Kuwait. We only did so because life in Kuwait became unbearable. They have forced us to hide, burn or destroy everything identifying our country and our government.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: I want to emphasize that Kuwait is our mother and the Emir our father. We repeated this on the roofs of our houses in Kuwait until the Iraqis began shooting at us, and we shall repeat it again. I am glad I am 15, old enough to remember Kuwait before Saddam Hussein destroyed it and young enough to rebuild it


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Although Nayirah did not specify how many babies were in the incubators in her oral testimony, in the written testimony distributed by Hill and Knowlton, it read "While I was there I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where 15 babies were in incubators." The testimony was not given under oath.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Representative John Porter, co-chairman of the caucus, remarked that in his eight years of service on the caucus, he had never heard such "brutality and inhumanity and sadism." Nayirah's testimony was described as the most dramatic.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: It is unclear how much of Nayirah's testimony was coached. Though the firm was supposed to provide only stylistic help, it was reported that H&K "provided witnesses, wrote testimony, and coached the witnesses for effectiveness."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Nayirah's testimony was widely publicized. Hill & Knowlton, which had filmed the hearing, sent out a video news release to MediaLink, a firm which served about 700 television stations in the United States.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: That night, portions of the testimony aired on ABC's Nightline and NBC Nightly News reaching an estimated audience between 35 and 53 million Americans. Seven senators cited Nayirah's testimony in their speeches backing the use of force. President George Bush repeated the story at least ten times in the following weeks. Her testimony helped to stir American opinion in favor of participation in the Gulf War.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Iraq denied the allegations. On October 16, Iraqi information minister Latif Nassif al-Jassem told the Iraqi News Agency that "now you [Bush] are using what he [Sheikh Jaber] told you to make Congress ratify the budget which is in the red because of your policies" adding that "you, as the president of a superpower, have to weigh words carefully and not act as a clown who repeats what he is told."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In a visit to Kuwait on October 21, 1990, by journalists who were escorted by Iraqi information ministry officials, doctors at a Kuwaiti maternity facility denied the incubator allegations. In the visit, the Iraqi head of the Kuwaiti health department, Abdul-Rahman Mohammad al-Ugeily, said that "Baghdad had sent 1,000 doctors and other medical to staff to help run Kuwait's 14 hospitals and health centres following the invasion."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On March 15, 1991, John Martin, an ABC reporter, reported that "patients, including premature babies, did die, when many of Kuwait's nurses and doctors stopped working or fled the country" and discovered that Iraqi troops "almost certainly had not stolen hospital incubators and left hundreds of Kuwaiti babies to die."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On January 6, 1992, "The New York Times" published an op-ed piece by John MacArthur entitled "Remember Nayirah, Witness for Kuwait?" MacArthur discovered that Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the U.S., Saud Nasir al-Sabah. MacArthur noted that "the incubator story seriously distorted the American debate about whether to support military action" and questioned whether "their [Representatives Lantos and Porter] special relationship with Hill and Knowlton should prompt a Congressional investigation to find out if their actions merely constituted an obvious conflict of interest or, worse, if they knew who the tearful Nayirah really was in October 1990." The story earned MacArthur the Monthly Journalism Award from "The Washington Monthly" in April 1992, and the Mencken Award in 1993.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: On January 15, 1992, the CEO of Hill & Knowlton, Thomas E. Eidson, responded to the concerns raised by MacArthur in a letter to the editor to "The New York Times". Eidson stated that "at no time has this firm collaborated with anyone to produce knowingly deceptive testimony", asserting that the firm "had no reason to question her veracity when she testified following her escape from Kuwait." The letter explained that Nayirah's charge that Iraqi soldiers removed newborn babies from incubators was corroborated by Dr. Ibraheem Behbehani, head of the Red Crescent, before the United Nations Security Council, and that the media was not permitted back inside Kuwait "until after the liberation", so there was no way to verify the stories of refugees like her. Eidson concluded that "Nayirah's credibility should no more be questioned than if she had been a doctor or teacher" and the company's work with the Kuwaitis was consistent with firm's standards stating that "the public interest was fairly served."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In August 1992, Howard Paster replaced Robert K. Gray as the general manager of the Washington office in order to clean up the firm's image.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Critics contended that Hill & Knowlton had concocted a fake popular movement, Citizens for a Free Kuwait, and subsequently used questionable evidence and suspect witnesses to influence public opinion and policy in the United States and the UN.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Hill & Knowlton's actions taken on behalf of Citizens for a Free Kuwait, together with those of other major clients including Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the Church of Scientology, and an anti-abortion campaign by Catholic bishops raised ethical concerns among public relations professionals. The concerns, though not new, were more vigorous than previous ones due to the prominence of the issues.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: While Lantos was a close friend of Bush at the time, as well as a co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Foundation, he failed to notify Bush of his position within the Nayirah case, or of her true identity. In an interview, Lantos stated that he had concealed Nayirah's identity at the request of her father in order to protect her family and friends. Lantos denied any allegations of wrongdoing arguing that "The media happened to focus on her. If she hadn't testified, they would have focused on something else." Lantos also stated that:


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The notion that any of the witnesses brought to the caucus through the Kuwaiti Embassy would not be credible did not cross my mind. I have no basis for assuming that her story is not true, but the point goes beyond that. If one hypothesizes that the woman's story is fictitious from A to Z, that in no way diminishes the avalanche of human rights violations.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In a letter to the editor to "The New York Times" on Jan 27, 1992, entitled "Kuwaiti Gave Consistent Account of Atrocities", Tom Lantos responded to MacArthur's allegations. He wrote that "Mr. MacArthur's deceptive article serves only the cynics who seek to rewrite the history of the Persian Gulf war" noting "the article's sinister innuendo suggests that the girl was not even in Kuwait at the time of the Iraqi invasion, and that the whole gruesome incident was a diabolical plot by an American public relations firm." Lantos wrote that "the fact that Nayirah was the daughter of the Ambassador of Kuwait made her a more credible witness" and that "her relationship to the Ambassador and Government enhanced her credibility." He also noted that "her account was consistent with the information we received from other witnesses, with hundreds of other atrocity stories from Kuwait carried by media around the globe, and consistent with reports by independent human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, who also testified at our hearing and subsequently published accounts similar to Nayirah's." Lantos concluded that "given the countless cases of verified Iraqi human rights violations", it was "unnecessary and counterproductive to invent atrocities."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Lantos also rejected the allegations of a special relationship between the caucus and Hill & Knowlton, stating that "caucus activities are held without regard to whether these countries are represented by any law firm or public relations firm."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In a subsequent letter to "The New York Times", MacArthur pointed out that the testimony had been retracted.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The ambassador has stated that his daughter had witnessed the atrocities she described and that her presence in Kuwait could be verified by the United States Embassy in Kuwait. He also stated "If I wanted to lie, or if we wanted to lie, if we wanted to exaggerate, I wouldn't use my daughter to do so. I could easily buy other people to do it."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Pegado was the acting Vice President of Hill & Knowlton at the time of Nayirah's Testimony. It was later confirmed within the Kuwaitis investigation that Pegado was responsible for coaching Nayirah in what was proven to be her false testimony.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The campaign has been described by critics as corrupt, deceptive and unethical. Some charge that it was used to spread false or exaggerated tales of Iraqi atrocities.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In 1992, the human rights organization Middle East Watch, a division of Human Rights Watch, published the results of their investigation of the incubator story. Its director, Andrew Whitley, told the press, "While it is true that the Iraqis targeted hospitals, there is no truth to the charge which was central to the war propaganda effort that they stole incubators and callously removed babies allowing them to die on the floor. The stories were manufactured from germs of truth by people outside the country who should have known better." One investigator, Aziz Abu-Hamad, interviewed doctors in the hospital where Nayirah claimed she witnessed Iraqi soldiers pull 15 infants from incubators and leave them to die. "The Independent" reported, "The doctors told him the maternity ward had 25 to 30 incubators. None was taken by the Iraqis, and no babies were taken from them."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Amnesty International initially supported the story, but later issued a retraction. It stated that it "found no reliable evidence that Iraqi forces had caused the deaths of babies by removing them or ordering their removal from incubators."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Kuwaiti officials do not discuss the matter with the press. In order to respond to these charges, the Kuwaiti government hired Kroll Associates to undertake an independent investigation of the incubator story. The Kroll investigation lasted nine weeks and conducted over 250 interviews. The interviews with Nayirah revealed that her original testimony was wildly distorted at best; she told Kroll that she had actually seen only one baby outside its incubator for "no more than a moment." She also told Kroll that she was never a volunteer at the hospital and had in fact "only stopped by for a few minutes."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Following the end of the war, Reuters reported that Iraq returned "98 truckloads of medical equipment stolen from Kuwait, including two of the baby incubators". Abdul Rahim al-Zeid, an assistant under-secretary at the Kuwaiti Public Health Ministry, said that by returning the incubators the Iraqis had unwittingly provided proof that they took them. Kuwait's chief ambulance officer, Abdul Reda Abbas, stated that "We think the Iraqis might have returned the incubators by mistake."


title: Nayirah testimony

text: Following the revelation of Nayirah's identity, there was a public outrage that the information had been withheld.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: The content, presentation, distribution, effectiveness, and purpose of Nayirah's testimony have been the subject of multiple public relations studies.


title: Nayirah testimony

text: In his book, "Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse", Frans H. van Eemeren, stating that "visual messages which accompany verbal argumentation can be so drastic that rational argumentation becomes almost impossible", described Nayirah's story as an "argumentum ad misericordiam". In the paper "The Hill & Knowlton Cases: A Brief on the Controversy" by Susanne A. Roschwalb, the author noted that as H&K was a British firm, "what effect did British concerns -such as the possible collapse of its financial institutions, if the Kuwaiti currency, the dinar, became worthless -have on Hill & Knowlton's efforts?" Ted Rowse, in his article "Kuwaitgate — killing of Kuwaiti babies by Iraqi soldiers exaggerated" in "The Washington Monthly", noted that "Most reporters, having apparently been burned by Hill & Knowlton's handiwork in spreading the original Nayirah story without checking it out, seem to prefer to let the story fade away, passively falling, once again, for the company's public relations guile." John R. MacArthur, who authored "Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War", has noted that "at the time, it was the most sophisticated and expensive PR campaign ever run in the U.S. by a foreign government."


title: Muslin

text: Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured.


title: Muslin

text: Muslin of uncommonly delicate handspun yarn was handwoven in the Bengal region of South Asia and imported into Europe for much of the 17th and early 18th centuries.


title: Muslin

text: In 2013, the traditional art of weaving "Jamdani" muslin in Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.


title: Muslin

text: In 1298 CE, Marco Polo described the cloth in his book "The Travels". He said it was made in Mosul, Iraq. The 16th-century English traveller Ralph Fitch lauded the muslin he saw in Sonargaon. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Mughal Bengal emerged as the foremost muslin exporter in the world, with Mughal Dhaka as capital of the worldwide muslin trade. It became highly popular in 18th-century France and eventually spread across much of the Western world.


title: Muslin

text: Since all the processes were manual, manufacturing involved many artisans for yarn spinning and weaving activities, but the leading role lay with the material and weaving.


title: Muslin

text: Muslins were originally made of cotton only. These were very thin, transparent, delicate and feather light breathable fabrics. There could be 1000–1800 yarns in warp and weigh for . Some varieties of muslin were so thin that they could even pass through the aperture of a lady finger-ring.


title: Muslin

text: Gaius Petronius Arbiter (1st century AD Roman courtier and author of the "Satyricon") described the transparent nature of the muslin cloth as below:


title: Muslin

text: Certain delicate muslins were given poetic names such as "Baft Hawa" ("woven air"), "Shabnam" ("evening dew"), and "āb-i-ravān" ("flowing water"). The latter name refers to a fine and transparent variety of fine muslin from Dacca. The fabric's characteristics are summed up in its name.


title: Muslin

text: Muslin has several kinds of variations. Many of the below are mentioned in Ain-i-Akbari (16th-century detailed document)


title: Muslin

text: Mull is another kind of muslin. It is a soft, thin, and semitransparent material. The name is derived from Hindi which means "soft". Swiss mull is a type of which is finished with stiffening agents.


title: Muslin

text: During the period of Company rule, the East India Company imported British-produced cloth into the Indian subcontinent, but became unable to compete with the local muslin industry. The Company administration initiated several policies in an attempt to suppress the muslin industry, and muslin production subsequently experienced a period of decline. It has been alleged that in some instances Indian weavers were rounded up and their thumbs chopped off, although this has been refuted by historians as an misreading of a report by William Bolts from 1772. The quality, finesse and production volume of Bengali muslin declined as a result of these policies, continuing when India transitioned from Company rule to British Crown control.


title: Muslin

text: Because muslin is an inexpensive, unbleached cotton fabric available in different weights, it is often used as a backing or lining for quilts, and therefore can often be found in wide widths in the quilting sections of fabric stores.


title: Muslin

text: When sewing clothing, a dressmaker may test the fit of a garment by using muslin fabric to make a test-model before cutting pieces from more expensive fabric to make the final product, thereby avoiding potential costly mistakes. In the United States, these test-models are themselves sometimes referred to as "muslins,” the process is called "making a muslin," and "muslin" has become the generic term for any test- or fitting garment, regardless of the fabric it is made from.


title: Muslin

text: In Britain and Australia, the term for a test- or fitting garment used to be Toile. The word “toile,” from an Old French word for “cloth,” entered the English language around the 12th century. (Today, "toile" simply refers to any sheer fabric, which may be made, for example, from linen or cotton.)


title: Muslin

text: Muslin is the fabric wrapped around the items in barmbrack, a fruitcake traditionally eaten at Halloween in Ireland.


title: Muslin

text: Muslin is often the cloth of choice for theatre sets. It is used to mask the background of sets and to establish the mood or feel of different scenes. It receives paint well and, if treated properly, can be made translucent.


title: Muslin

text: It also holds dyes well. It is often used to create nighttime scenes because when dyed, it often gets a wavy look with the color varying slightly, such that it resembles a night sky. Muslin shrinks after it is painted or sprayed with water, which is desirable in some common techniques such as soft-covered flats.


title: Muslin

text: In video production, muslin is used as a cheap greenscreen or bluescreen, either pre-colored or painted with latex paint (diluted with water). It is commonly used as a background for the chroma key technique.


title: Muslin

text: Muslin is the most common backdrop material used by photographers for formal portrait backgrounds. These backdrops are usually painted, most often with an abstract mottled pattern.


title: Muslin

text: In the early days of silent film-making, and until the late 1910s, movie studios did not have the elaborate lights needed to illuminate indoor sets, so most interior scenes were sets built outdoors with large pieces of muslin hanging overhead to diffuse sunlight.


title: Muslin

text: Surgeons use muslin gauze in cerebrovascular neurosurgery to wrap around aneurysms or intracranial vessels at risk for bleeding. The thought is that the gauze reinforces the artery and helps prevent rupture. It is often used for aneurysms that, due to their size or shape, cannot be microsurgically clipped or coiled.


title: Muslin

text: In 2013, the traditional art of weaving "Jamdani" muslin in Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. In 2020, it was given Geographical indication status as a product of Bangladesh due to efforts of the government of Bangladesh, the fourth GI-certified product after Jamdani sarees, Hilsa fish, and Khirsapat mangoes.


title: Muslin

text: Muslin saree was woven in Bangladesh by a group of researchers under a government project. The research team has woven six muslin sarees in 2020. It is expecting to launch the muslin saree in the market in the next two years.


title: Studio apartment

text: A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat (UK), a self-contained apartment (Nigeria), efficiency apartment, bed-sitter (Kenya) or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment (rarely a condo) in which the normal functions of a number of rooms – often the living room, bedroom, and kitchen – are combined into a single room.


title: Studio apartment

text: The studio apartment is an apartment with a single room. They are also known as single-room dwelling places or studio flats. A studio apartment typically consists of one large room that serves as the combined living, dining, and bedroom. A variation, sometimes called an "alcove studio", may have a very small separate area; this wing or nook is off the main area, and can be used for dining or sleeping. The apartment's kitchen facilities may be located either in the central room or in a small separate area. The bathroom is usually in its own smaller room, while the toilet can be separated.


title: Studio apartment

text: A studio apartment differs from a bedsitter in the United Kingdom or single room occupancy (SRO) unit in the United States, in that an SRO does not usually contain a kitchen or bathroom. Bathroom facilities are shared with multiple units on the hall.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: The Glass House is a 2001 American psychological mystery thriller film directed by Daniel Sackheim and written by Wesley Strick. The film stars Leelee Sobieski, Diane Lane, Stellan Skarsgård, Bruce Dern, Kathy Baker, Trevor Morgan and Chris Noth.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: The film received generally negative reviews and was a box office bomb, grossing only $23 million on a $30 million production budget. The main reason cited for the financial failure of the film was the fact that the film was released 3 days after the September 11 attacks.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: Sixteen-year-old Ruby Baker and eleven-year-old brother Rhett lose their parents, David and Grace, in a car accident. Their will is not recent but, per its terms, the children are placed under the guardianship of family neighbors from years ago, the childless couple Dr. Erin Glass and Terry Glass, who live in a large glass house in Malibu.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: From early on, all is not well. The children have to share a room; they are no longer educated privately, and Rhett is allowed to play video games at all hours. Ruby is uncomfortable with Terry's sexual hints when they are alone, and later finds unlabeled pharmaceuticals and sees Erin injecting herself, although she claims it is for diabetes. Ruby tries to get the children's estate and trust fund lawyer Alvin Begleiter to accept her concerns, but visiting social worker Nancy Ryan is taken in by the couple's assurances.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: In the trash, Ruby discovers a postcard from their maternal Uncle Jack and a letter from a private school indicating the Glasses unregistered the children, pocketing the $30,000+ tuition. Ruby also discovers Terry is in debt to loan sharks, gradually realizing the Glasses are after the siblings' $4 million trust fund.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: Suspicious of her parents' deaths, Ruby discovers evidence of the Glasses' involvement from spotting a Saab similar to David's at Terry's shop, and reading an article stating Ruby's parents had been driving a BMW (later revealed to be registered to Terry's business). Moreover, Ruby is expelled from school because her essay, which Terry wrote for her as a favor, was plagiarized; Terry plans to send Ruby to a distant boarding school. After the loan sharks push him to pay off his debt, Terry tries to get money from the trustee, claiming it is to be used for the children's benefit. His request is denied and he is shown a copy of the un-registration letter from the school, previously faxed to the authority by Ruby, which alerts the trustee to doubt Terry's real purpose for the money.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: That same night, Ruby steals Terry's car keys, wakes Rhett and drives off in his Jaguar, attempting to escape, but because of a mudslide, the police stop her and demand to see her license. Terry and Erin appear, talking the police into letting the children go. Back home, Ruby attempts to run away again but they knock her down and drug her. Terry then tells Erin they must get rid of her. Erin is overcome by guilt; she is permanently stripped of her medical license, due to her drug abuse being discovered by her employer, Dr. Weiss. Erin commits suicide by overdose and the next morning, both Ruby and Terry are devastated to find her dead. Terry locks the kids in the basement and sabotages his Jaguar, expecting them to reattempt escape and to consequently perish. The loan sharks (alerted by Ruby posing as Erin) appear at the house, kill Begleiter (who has come to confront Terry, revealing his complicity), repossess Terry's Jaguar and Ferrari, and insist on taking a ride. Overhearing Terry begging them to take the Volvo instead of the Jaguar, Ruby stabs the Volvo's tires, forcing them to drive away in the Jaguar with Terry in it. The car goes over a ledge and crashes, seemingly killing a loan shark and Terry.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: Meanwhile, the children are picked up by a friendly cop. They pass the scene of the accident with the Ferrari and the kids see a body being covered up. Continuing on, he stops at the site of the other crash. Telling the children to stay in the car while he investigates, he finds the car and radios that there is one fatality. Terry knocks him out then, severely injured, he climbs to the road and staggers towards Ruby and Rhett, hiding a gun. Ruby gets into the driver's seat and, telling Rhett to put on his seatbelt, speeds into Terry, killing him.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: The kids are last seen placing flowers at their parents' grave with their Uncle Jack, who hugs them and says that things will get easier. Ruby says that they already have, and the three leave together to go home to Chicago.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: The film was released on VHS and DVD on January 2, 2002. A Blu-ray version of the film has yet to be released in the US. The film finally debuted on the Blu-ray format for the first time on October 22, 2021 in Germany in a Blu-ray / DVD combo pack by Just Bridge Entertainment. The original cut of the film was reported to be 180 minutes long, with 74 minutes of footage missing from the theatrical cut. Kip Pardue played Leelee Sobieski's love interest in the original cut, though all of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. Of all the deleted footage, only two scenes managed to survive. They are included on the DVD as deleted scenes (listed below):


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: There's also one scene in the trailer showing Ruby furiously ripping posters off her wall, which doesn't appear in the finished film or on home video.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: Because of the film's critical and financial failure, the studio had little interest in keeping unused footage and the missing 74 minutes of footage have since been considered lost.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: The film opened at number two in its opening weekend at the US box office, behind "Hardball", in which Diane Lane also stars. "The Glass House" grossed $18,150,259 domestically and $5,469,350 overseas, grossing a total of $23,619,609. The film's production budget was $30 million, resulting in a box-office bomb.


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that the film received positive reviews by 21% of the 86 surveyed critics. The average rating was 4.23/10, and the consensus is: "Due to obvious plot twists and foreshadowing, The Glass House fails to thrill. By the end, it degenerates into ludicrousness." Roger Ebert rated the film 2 out of 4 stars and criticized the film's script. Writing in "The New York Times", A. O. Scott called it unintentionally funny. Robert Koehler of "Variety" also called the film unintentionally funny and questioned why so many talented actors signed on to a poor script. Edward Guthmann, of the "San Francisco Chronicle", criticized the film's violence and the timing of the release, which coincided with the September 11 attacks (in fact, for many critics it was the first film they saw after returning to work). In a more positive review, "USA Today"s Claudia Puig rated the film two out of four stars, calling it "eerily engrossing."


title: The Glass House (2001 film)

text: A direct-to-video sequel, "Glass House: The Good Mother", was released in 2006. The film did not feature any of the original characters and did not take place in the same house.


title: Butch and femme

text: Butch and femme (; ; ) are terms used in the lesbian subculture to ascribe or acknowledge a masculine (butch) or feminine (femme) identity with its associated traits, behaviors, styles, self-perception, and so on. The terms were founded in lesbian communities in the twentieth century. This concept has been called a "way to organize sexual relationships and gender and sexual identity". Butch-femme culture is not the sole form of a lesbian dyadic system, as there are many women in butch–butch and femme–femme relationships.


title: Butch and femme

text: Both the expression of individual lesbians of butch and femme identities and the relationship of the lesbian community in general to the notion of butch and femme as an organizing principle for sexual relating varied over the course of the 20th century. Some lesbian feminists have argued that butch–femme is a replication of heterosexual relations, while other commentators argue that, while it resonates with heterosexual patterns of relating, butch–femme simultaneously challenges it. Research in the 1990s in the United States showed that "95% of lesbians are familiar with butch/femme codes and can rate themselves or others in terms of those codes, and yet the same percentage feels that butch/femme was 'unimportant in their lives.


title: Butch and femme

text: The word "femme" is taken from the French word for woman. The word "butch", meaning "masculine", may have been coined by abbreviating the word "butcher", as first noted in George Cassidy's nickname, "Butch Cassidy". However, the exact origin of the word is still unknown.


title: Butch and femme

text: Butch artist Daddy Rhon Drinkwater created a symbol of a black triangle intersecting a red circle to represent butch/femme "passion and love". The symbol was first used on their website "Butch-Femme.com" (the website is now defunct).


title: Butch and femme

text: There is debate about to whom the terms butch and femme can apply, and particularly whether transgender individuals can be identified in this way. For example, Jack Halberstam argues that transgender men cannot be considered butch, since it constitutes a conflation of maleness with butchness. He further argues that butch–femme is uniquely geared to work in lesbian relationships. Stereotypes and definitions of butch and femme vary greatly, even within tight-knit LGBT communities. Jewelle Gomez mused that butch and femme women in the earlier twentieth century may have been expressing their closeted transgender identity. Antipathy toward female butches and male femmes has been interpreted by some commentators as transphobia, although female butches and male femmes are not always transgender, and indeed some heterosexuals of both genders display these attributes.


title: Butch and femme

text: Scholars such as Judith Butler and Anne Fausto-Sterling suggest that butch and femme are not attempts to take up "traditional" gender roles. Instead, they argue that gender is socially and historically constructed, rather than essential, "natural", or biological. The femme lesbian historian Joan Nestle argues that femme and butch may be seen as distinct genders in and of themselves.


title: Butch and femme

text: "Butch" can be used as an adjective or a noun to describe an individual's gender performance. The term butch tends to denote a degree of masculinity displayed by a female individual beyond what would be considered typical of a tomboy. It is not uncommon for women with a butch appearance to face harassment or violence. A 1990s survey of butches showed that 50% were primarily attracted to femmes, while 25% reported being usually attracted to other butches. Feminist scholar Sally Rowena Munt described butches as "the recognizable public form of lesbianism" and an outlaw figure within lesbian culture. In the novel "Stone Butch Blues", author Leslie Feinberg explored the working-class roots in America and the concept of transmasculine and stone butches. A stone butch is a "top" who does not want to be touched during sex.


title: Butch and femme

text: BUTCH Voices, a national conference for "individuals who are masculine of center", including gender variant, was founded in 2008.


title: Butch and femme

text: Like the term "butch", femme can be used as an adjective or a noun. Femmes are not "read" as lesbians unless they are with a butch partner, because they conform to traditional standards of femininity. Because they do not express masculine qualities, femmes were particularly vexing to sexologists and psychoanalysts who wanted to argue that all lesbians wished to be men. Traditionally, the femme in a butch-femme couple was expected to act as a stereotypical feminine woman and provide emotional support for her butch partner. In the first half of the twentieth century, when butch-femme gender roles were constrained to the underground bar scene, femmes were considered invisible without a butch partner - that is, they could pass as straight because of their gender conformity. However, Joan Nestle asserts that femmes in a butch-femme couple make both the butch and the femme exceedingly visible. By daring to be publicly attracted to butch women, femmes reflected their own sexual difference and made the butch a known subject of desire.


title: Butch and femme

text: The separatist feminist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s forced butches and femmes underground, as radical lesbian feminists found lesbian gender roles to be a disappointing and oppressive replication of heterosexual lifestyle. However, the 1980s saw a resurgence of butch and femme gender roles. In this new configuration of butch and femme, it was acceptable, even desirable, to have femme-femme sexual and romantic pairings. Femmes gained value as their own lesbian gender, making it possible to exist separately from butches. For example, Susie Bright, the founder of "On Our Backs", the first lesbian sex periodical of its kind, identifies as femme. Beyond depictions in pornography, the neo-butch and neo-femme aesthetic in day-to-day life helped add a sense of visual identity to lesbians who had abandoned these roles in the name of political correctness.


title: Butch and femme

text: In "Negotiating Dyke Femininity", lesbian scholar Wendy Somerson, explains that women in the lesbian community who are more feminine and do not fit into the "butch" stereotype can pass as straight. She believes the link between appearance and gender performance and one's sexuality should be disrupted, because the way someone looks should not define their sexuality. In her article, Somerson also clearly talks about how within the lesbian community some are considered more masculine than others.


title: Butch and femme

text: Femmes still combat the invisibility their presentation creates and assert their sexuality through their femininity. The dismissal of femmes as illegitimate or invisible also happens within the LGBT community itself, which creates the push for femmes to self-advocate as an empowered identity not inherently tied to butches.


title: Butch and femme

text: The term "kiki" came into existence in the 1940s to describe a lesbian who did not identify as either butch or femme, and was used disparagingly.


title: Butch and femme

text: Labels have been tailored to be more descriptive of an individual's characteristics, such as "hard butch" "gym queen", "tomboy femme", and "soft stud". "Lipstick lesbians" are feminine lesbians. A butch woman may be described as a "dyke", "stone butch", "diesel dyke", "bulldyke", "bull bitch", or "bulldagger". A woman who likes to receive and not give sexually is called a "pillow queen", or a "pillow princess".


title: Butch and femme

text: A "stud" is a dominant lesbian. The term originated with the African-American lesbian community. They tend to be influenced by urban and hip-hop cultures. In the New York City lesbian community, a butch may identify herself as AG (aggressive) or as a stud. In 2005, filmmaker Daniel Peddle chronicled the lives of AGs in his documentary "The Aggressives", following six women who went to lengths like binding their breasts to pass as men. But Peddle says that today, very young lesbians of color in New York are creating a new, insular scene that is largely cut off from the rest of the gay and lesbian community: "A lot of it has to do with this kind of pressure to articulate and express your masculinity within the confines of the hip-hop paradigm." Black lesbian filmmaker Dee Rees represented the AG culture in her 2011 film "Pariah".


title: Butch and femme

text: There is also an emerging usage of the terms soft butch, "stem" (stud-femme), "futch" (feminine butch), or "chapstick lesbian" as terms for women who have characteristics of both butch and femme. Lesbians who are neither butch nor femme are called "androgynous" or "andros". The term boi is typically used by younger LGBT women. Defining the difference between a butch and a boi, one boi told a reporter: "that sense of play - that's a big difference from being a butch. To me, butch is like an adult...You're the man of the house." Comedian Elvira Kurt contributed the term "fellagirly" as a description for LGBT females who are not strictly either femme or butch, but a combination.


title: Butch and femme

text: Those who identify as butch and femme today often use the words to define their presentation and gender identity rather than strictly the role they play in a relationship, and that not all butches are attracted exclusively to femmes and not all femmes are exclusively attracted to butches, a departure from the historic norm. Besides the terms "butch" and "femme", there are a number of other terms used to describe the dress codes, the sexual behaviours, and/or the gender identities of the sexual subcultures who use them. The meanings of these terms vary and can evolve over time.


title: Butch and femme

text: Some members of the lesbian community eschew butch or femme classifications, believing that they are inadequate to describe an individual, or that labels are limiting in and of themselves.


title: Butch and femme

text: Prior to the middle of the 20th century in Western culture, homosexual societies were mostly underground or secret, making it difficult to determine how long butch and femme roles have been practiced by women.


title: Butch and femme

text: It is known that butch–femme dress codes date back at least to the beginning of the 20th century as photographs from 1900–1920 exist of butch–femme couples in the United States; they were at the time called "transvestites". However, according to the "Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Women", although upper-class women like Radclyffe Hall and her lover Una Troubridge lived together in unions that resembled butch–femme relationships, "The term butch/femme would have been categorically inconsequential, however, and incomprehensible to these women."


title: Butch and femme

text: Butch and femme lesbian genders were only starting to become apparent in the 1940s, since it started to become common to allow women to enter bars without men. In the 1940s in the U.S., most butch women had to wear conventionally feminine dress in order to hold down jobs, donning their starched shirts and ties only on weekends to go to bars or parties as "Saturday night" butches. Butches had to take a subtle approach to butchness in order to exist in society. They created outfits that were outwardly accepted by society, but allowed those who were butch to still present as more masculine than the norm- Alix Genter states that "butches wore long, pleated skirts with their man-tailored shirts, sometimes with a vest or coat on top" at Bay Ridge High school.


title: Butch and femme

text: The 1950s saw the rise of a new generation of butches who refused to live double lives and wore butch attire full-time, or as close to full-time as possible. This usually limited them to a few jobs, such as factory work and cab driving, that had no dress codes for women. Their increased visibility, combined with the anti-gay politics of the McCarthy era, led to an increase in violent attacks on gay and bisexual women, while at the same time the increasingly strong and defiant bar culture became more willing to respond with force. Although femmes also fought back, it became primarily the role of butches to defend against attacks and hold the bars as gay women's space. While in the '40s, the prevailing butch image was severe but gentle, it became increasingly tough and aggressive as violent confrontation became a fact of life. In 1992, a "groundbreaking" anthology about the butch-femme socialization that took place in working class bars of the 40s and 50s was published—"The Persistent Desire: A Femme–Butch Reader", edited by femme Joan Nestle.


title: Butch and femme

text: Although butch–femme wasn't the only organizing principle among lesbians in the mid-20th century, it was particularly prominent in the working-class lesbian bar culture of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, where butch–femme was the norm, while butch–butch and femme–femme relationships were taboo. Those who switched roles were called "ki-ki", a pejorative term, and they were often the butt of jokes. In the 1950s, in an early piece of lesbian studies, the gay rights campaigning organisation ONE, Inc. assigned Stella Rush to study "the butch/femme phenomenon" in gay bars. Rush reported that women held strong opinions, that "role distinctions needed to be sharply drawn," and that not being one or the other earned strong disapproval from both groups. It has been noted that, at least in part, kiki women were unwelcome where lesbians gathered because their apparent lack of understanding of the butch–femme dress code might indicate that they were policewomen.


title: Butch and femme

text: In contrast to ONE, Inc. studies, more conservative homophile organizations of the 1950s, such as the Daughters of Bilitis, discouraged butch-femme roles and identities. This was especially true in relation to the butch identity, as the organization held the belief that assimilation into heterosexual society was the goal of the homophile movement. Gender expressions outside of the norm prevented assimilation.


title: Butch and femme

text: In the 1970s, the development of lesbian feminism pushed butch-femme roles out of popularity. Lesbian separatists such as Sheila Jeffreys argued that all forms of masculinity, including masculine butch women, were negative and harmful to women. The group of radical lesbians often credited with sparking lesbian feminism, Radicalesbians, called butch culture "male-identified role-playing among lesbians". This encouraged the emergence of androgyny in lesbian feminist circles, with many women wearing clothing like T-shirts, jeans, flannels, and boots. This dress was very similar to butch dress, weakening a key identifier of butch lesbians.


title: Butch and femme

text: While butch-femme roles had previously been the primary way of identifying lesbians and quantifying lesbian relationships in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, lesbian feminist ideology had turned these roles into a "perversion of lesbian identity". Lesbian feminism was publicly represented though white feminism, and often excluded and alienated working class lesbians and lesbians of color. In these excluded communities, butch-femme roles persisted and grew throughout the 1970s. Despite the criticism from both middle-class lesbians and lesbian feminists, butch and femme roles reemerged in the 1980s and 1990s, but were no longer relegated to only working-class lesbians.


title: Butch and femme

text: In the 21st century, some writers and commentators began to describe a phenomenon in the lesbian community called "The Disappearing Butch." Some felt butches were disappearing because it had become easier for masculine women who might have previously identified as butch to have sex reassignment surgery and live as men. Others claimed the Disappearing Butch was the result of lesbian 'commodification' in the media, influenced by the viewing public's desire to see lesbians as "reproductions of Hollywood straight women". One writer noted that in the increased drive for LGBT 'normalization' and political acceptance, butch lesbians and effeminate gay men seemed to be disappearing. In the 21st century, some younger people were also beginning to eschew labels like 'butch' or even 'lesbian' and identify instead as queer.'


title: Butch and femme

text: However, others noted that butch women have gained increased visibility in the media, mentioning Ellen DeGeneres, frequently referred to as 'a soft butch', political commentator Rachel Maddow, once described as a 'butch fatale' and the character Big Boo in "Orange Is the New Black", played by butch comic and actress Lea de Laria.


title: Butch and femme

text: The 21st century also saw a re-examination of the meaning of 'femme', with the term being used in a broader and more politically charged way, particularly by women of color, and some critics challenging what is seen as its appropriation by heteronormative culture.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: Jaime Ray Newman (born April 2, 1978) is an American actress, producer and singer. She is known for starring as Kristina Cassadine in the soap opera "General Hospital", Mindy O'Dell in the drama series "Veronica Mars", Kat Gardener in the fantasy series "Eastwick", Lt. Laura Cadman in the science-fiction series "Stargate Atlantis", Tess Fontana in the science-fiction series "Eureka", Kat Petrova in the drama-thriller series "Red Widow", Sam Gordon in the comedy-drama series "Mind Games", Allison Roth in the crime drama series "Wicked City", and Sarah Lieberman in the Marvel series "The Punisher".


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: Along with her husband Guy Nattiv, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2019 for producing the drama "Skin" (2018).


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: Newman was born in Farmington Hills, Michigan, to Jewish parents, Marsha Jo and Raphael Newman. She has one sister, Beth Nicole, a global public relations director at J Brand. Newman started performing at age eleven in the debut of Israel Horovitz's play "A Rosen by Any Other Name". She worked consistently around Detroit, acting in many of the regional theaters. Newman received her elementary education at the Jewish Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, where she starred as Ado Annie Carnes in an eighth-grade play of "Oklahoma!"


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: After Hillel, Newman attended the private Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and spent her summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts where she won the Corson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting. While in high school at Cranbrook, she won first place in the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association, a statewide dramatic competition, for three years in a row. At age 16, Newman founded Apollo Theatre Productions, serving as both a producer and director. She graduated from Cranbrook in 1996. Newman then attended Boston University College of Fine Arts' theater conservatory for two years, before transferring to Northwestern University as an English and drama major.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: At Northwestern, she founded the Ignition Festival for Women in the Arts. Through that, she produced and acted in Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "How I Learned to Drive". While living in Chicago, she performed with her own jazz quartet. Newman moved to Los Angeles in September 2000. Her cousin is actor Ben Kurland.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: Newman first earned a living performing with her jazz quartet, and landed parts in several short films. She also made an appearance on "The Drew Carey Show". Soon after, she landed the role of Kristina Cassadine on the soap opera "General Hospital". While there, she continued with her music career, putting together her cover band, School Boy Crush. Newman and School Boy Crush played regularly at The Buffalo Club in Santa Monica, California; Moomba in West Hollywood; Nick's Martini Lounge; Café Cordiale; and at the Lux in Beverly Hills. The band covered a wide variety of music from funk and soul to R&B and blues. Most recently, they played the ESPN Awards party at The Highlands, the adjoining venue to the Kodak Theatre. Newman also landed a part in Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can", with a scene opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: In January 2003, Newman starred with David Schwimmer, Jonathan Silverman and Tom Everett Scott in the play "Turnaround", Roger Kumble's dark Hollywood satire. In October 2006, Newman began an eight-episode run in a recurring role in the critically acclaimed CW show "Veronica Mars". She also became a fan favorite with her appearance on "Stargate Atlantis" as Lt. Laura Cadman. Along with fellow "Stargate" actor Michael Shanks, she appeared in the Christmas 2006 television film "Under the Mistletoe". Other high-profile guest starring roles include "E-Ring", "Heroes", "Supernatural", "Related", "", "Medium", "NCIS", "Grimm", "", and "Castle".


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: In 2007, Newman starred in Neil LaBute's play "Fat Pig" at the Geffen Playhouse, and in 2008, starred in LaBute's play "Some Girl(s)", also at the Geffen. The following year, she appeared alongside Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price and Paul Gross in the 2009 television adaptation of "Eastwick" (based on the John Updike novel "The Witches of Eastwick"), playing Kat Gardener, a nurse and mother of five who discovers her magical powers. In 2010, she held major recurring roles on "Eureka" as Dr. Tess Fontana, and on "Drop Dead Diva" as Vanessa Hemmings. In January 2011, Newman played Cynthia Karslake in David Auburn's revival of "The New York Idea" by Langdon Elwyn Mitchell at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City. In 2013, she starred opposite James Van Der Beek, Kathy Baker and Chris Mulkey in the American stage premiere of the Australian play "The Gift" at the Geffen Playhouse.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: Newman starred with Radha Mitchell in ABC's 2013 midseason drama series "Red Widow". That same year, she starred in the independent psychological thriller film "Altered Minds". In May 2014, it was reported that she would guest star in an episode of TNT's comedy-drama "Franklin & Bash". Later, she was cast as series regular in another ABC series, "Mind Games", opposite Christian Slater and Steve Zahn. In August 2014, it was announced that Newman would recur on Amazon Studios' procedural drama "Bosch". In August 2015, she joined the main cast of ABC's crime drama series "Wicked City". In December 2015, Newman joined the fourth-season cast of "Bates Motel" as the major recurring character Rebecca Hamilton, a past love interest of Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell). She will star in Lech Majewski's fantasy film "Valley of the Gods", opposite Josh Hartnett and Charlotte Rampling.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: In August 2016, she was cast in the recurring role of Wildred Darnell on the fifth season of TNT's procedural drama series "Major Crimes". The following year, Newman began starring in the series regular role of Sarah Lieberman on Netflix's Marvel drama "The Punisher", a spin-off series featuring the character from "Daredevil". She then recurred as Irene McAllistair in the third season of the Syfy drama series "The Magicians". Newman had a recurring role as Linda Langer in the second season of Bravo's dark comedy series "Imposters". In 2018, she produced her first feature film, the biographical racial drama "Skin", directed by her husband Guy Nattiv. For her work, she received the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.


title: Jaime Ray Newman

text: Newman married Israeli writer and director Guy Nattiv in Tel Aviv, on April 2, 2012 (her 34th birthday). They have two daughters.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Gary Ivan Gordon (August 30, 1960 – October 3, 1993) was a master sergeant in the United States Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. At the time of his death, he was a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army's premier special operations unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force". Together with his comrade, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart, Gordon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Gary Gordon was born August 30, 1960, in Lincoln, Maine, and graduated from Mattanawcook Academy in 1978. On December 4 of that year, at age 18, he joined the U.S. Army. Trained as a combat engineer, Gordon became a Special Forces Engineer with the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group. In December 1986, he volunteered and was selected to join the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or Delta Force. As a Delta operator, Gordon eventually advanced to Team Sergeant.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Gordon was posted to Mogadishu, Somalia, with other Delta members in the summer of 1993 as part of Task Force Ranger. On October 3, 1993, Gordon was Sniper Team Leader during the Battle of Mogadishu (1993), which began as a joint-force mission to apprehend key advisers to Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. During the assault, Super Six One, one of the Army's Black Hawk helicopters providing insertion and air support to the assault team, was shot down and crashed in the city. A combat search and rescue team was dispatched to the first crash site to secure it and a short time later a second Black Hawk, Super Six Four, was shot down as well. Ranger forces on the ground were not able to assist the downed helicopter crew of the second crash site as they were already engaged in heavy combat with Aidid's militia while making their way to the first crash site.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Gordon and his Delta Force sniper teammates Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Sergeant First Class Brad Halling, who were providing sniper cover from the air, wanted to be dropped at the second crash site in order to protect the four critically wounded crew, despite the fact that large numbers of armed, hostile Somalis were converging on the area. Mission commanders denied Gordon's request, saying that the situation was already too dangerous for the three Delta snipers to effectively protect the Black Hawk crew from the ground. Command's position was that the snipers could be of more assistance by continuing to provide air cover. Gordon, however, concluded that there was no way the Black Hawk crew could survive on their own, and repeated his request twice until he finally received permission. Halling had assumed control of a minigun after a crew chief was injured and was not inserted with Shughart and Gordon.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Once on the ground, Gordon and Shughart, armed with only their personal weapons and sidearms, fought their way to the downed Black Hawk. By this time more Somalis were arriving, intent on either capturing or killing the American servicemen. When they reached Super Six Four, Gordon and Shughart extracted the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, co-pilot Ray Frank, and crew chiefs Bill Cleveland and Tommy Field from the aircraft, and established defensive positions around the crash site. Despite having inflicted heavy casualties on the Somalis, the two Delta snipers were outnumbered and outgunned. Their ammunition depleted, Gordon and Shughart were killed by Somali gunfire. It is believed that Gordon was the first to be killed. Shughart retrieved Gordon's CAR-15 and gave it to Durant to use. Shortly afterwards, Shughart was killed and Durant was taken alive. Immediately after the battle, the Somalis counted 25 of their own men dead with many more severely wounded. According to "America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics", Gordon's "half-naked body was dragged horrifically through the streets of Mogadishu".


title: Gary Gordon

text: There was some confusion in the aftermath of the action as to the final moments of the firefight. The official citation states that Shughart had been killed first but Mark Bowden, author of "", a book about the October 1993 battle, relates an account by Sergeant Paul R. Howe, another Delta operator fighting in the battle. Howe said that he heard Shughart call for help on the radio. Furthermore, Durant believed that the weapon handed to him was not the distinctive M14 used by Shughart but a CAR-15; Howe said that Gordon would never have given his own weapon to another soldier to use while he was still able to fight. In Durant's book, "In the Company of Heroes", he states that Gordon was on the left side of the Black Hawk, after both he and Shughart moved Durant to a safer location, and only heard Gordon say, "Damn, I'm hit." Durant acknowledged that he might have been wrong in his identification but was reluctant to push for the record to be changed since he was not sure.


title: Gary Gordon

text: After the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, United States Special Forces units were inserted into Afghanistan to assist the Northern Alliance forces in overthrowing the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists. Following an intense mountain battle known as Operation Anaconda in March 2002, U.S. troops complex found a GPS unit and pouch labeled "G. Gordon". Intelligence analysts believed at first this was Gordon's GPS unit that he purchased on the private market and used in Somalia. The Gordon family was notified immediately of the find before the information was released to the public. It ultimately turned out that it was not Gordon's GPS but one belonging to a helicopter pilot lost in an earlier fight during Operation Anaconda.


title: Gary Gordon

text: The U.S. Navy officially named a roll-on/roll-off ship in a ceremony at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, July 4, 1996, at Newport News, Virginia. Congressman John Murtha (D) of Pennsylvania, was the ceremony's principal speaker and Gordon's widow, Carmen Gordon, served as the ship's sponsor. "Gordon" was the second ship to undergo conversion from a commercial container vessel to a Large Medium Speed Roll On/Roll Off (LMSR) sealift ship and is operated by the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, Washington, D.C.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Gordon has been honored elsewhere as well. Gordon Elementary School in Linden Oaks, Harnett County, North Carolina, which opened in January 2009, was named in his honor. The school is near Fort Bragg, where Gordon was stationed before being deployed to Somalia. In the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, LA, the main mock city is named Shughart-Gordon.


title: Gary Gordon

text: On May 23, 1994, both Gordon and Shughart posthumously received the Medal of Honor in recognition for the actions they took and the sacrifices they made to help protect the lives of the crew of Super Six Four. They were the only soldiers participating in Operation Gothic Serpent to receive the military's highest honor, and the first Medal of Honor recipients since the Vietnam War. Their medals were presented to their widows Stephanie Shughart and Carmen Gordon by Bill Clinton in a ceremony at the White House.


title: Gary Gordon

text: Marko Kloos’ novel, "Lines of Departure" (2014), centers around a space fleet containing the military freighter "Gary I Gordon" and Gordon's heroic actions in Somalia are referenced.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The RT-2PM2 «Topol-M» (, NATO reporting name: SS-27 "Sickle B", other designations: SS-27 Mod 1, RS-12M1, RS-12M2, formerly incorrectly RT-2UTTKh) is one of the most recent intercontinental ballistic missiles to be deployed by Russia (see RS-24 sometimes classified as a Topol-M variant), and the first to be developed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was developed from the RT-2PM Topol mobile intercontinental ballistic missile.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: In its Russian designation РТ stands for "ракета твердотопливная", raketa tverdotoplivnaya ("solid fuel rocket"), while УТТХ – for "улучшенные тактико-технические характеристики", uluchshenniye taktiko-tekhnicheskie kharakteristiki ("improved tactical and technical characteristics"). "Topol" (тополь) in Russian means "white poplar". It is designed and produced exclusively by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, and built at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The Topol-M is a cold-launched, three-stage, solid-propellant, silo-based or road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile's length is 22,700 mm and the first stage has a body diameter of 1,900 mm. The mass at launch is 47,200 kg, including the 1,200 kg payload. Topol-M carries a single warhead with an 800 kiloton yield but the design is compatible with MIRV warheads. According to chief designer Yury Solomonov, the missile can carry four to six warheads along with decoys. Its minimum range is estimated to be 2,000 km and the maximum range 10,500 km. It has three solid rocket stages with inertial, autonomous flight control utilizing an onboard GLONASS receiver. It is claimed to have the highest accuracy of any Russian ICBM. The body of the rocket is made by winding carbon fiber.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The Topol-M may be deployed either inside a reinforced missile silo or from an APU launcher mounted on the MZKT-79221 "Universal" 16-wheeled transporter-erector-launcher. The designation for the silo-based Topol-M missile is believed to be RS-12M2, while the mobile version is RS-12M1.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The first stage has rocket motors developed by the Soyuz Federal Center for Dual-Use Technologies. These give the missile a much higher acceleration than other ICBM types. They enable the missile to accelerate to the speed of 7,320 m/s and to travel a flatter trajectory to distances of up to 10,000 km.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: As a solid propellant design, the missile can be maintained on alert for prolonged periods of time and can launch within minutes of being given the order.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The development of the missile began in the late 1980s as a response to the American Strategic Defense Initiative. Initially an evolutionary upgrade of the RT-2PM Topol, the missile was redesigned in 1992. The missile's principal designer was Yuri Solomonov, who would later oversee the development of the RSM-56 Bulava.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The first flight test took place on December 20, 1994, during which the missile, launched from Plesetsk, hit its target away. Two missiles were put on experimental combat duty in December 1997 at Tatishchevo. The fifth test flight on 22 October 1998 was unsuccessful as the missile exploded after being launched; the sixth test flight two months later was successful. The 104th Regiment of the Taman Missile Division, based in Saratov, introduced 10 missiles into service on 30 December 1998; another ten entered service with a second regiment in December 1999.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: Silo launcher Topol-M entered service by presidential decree on 13 July 2000, the third, fourth and fifth regiments entered service in 2000, 2003 and 2005. The last regiment was to arrive in 2012.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: On December 12, 2006, the first three mobile Topol-M missile systems entered duty with a missile unit stationed near the town of Teykovo.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: By the end of 2010 the Russian Strategic Missile Troops operated 70 Topol-M missile systems including 52 silo-based and 18 mobile systems. A further 8 missiles were to join the Forces by 2011–2012.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: According to Russia this missile and its derivatives, RS-24 Yars, RS-26 Rubezh and RSM-56 Bulava are designed to counter and evade current or planned United States missile defense system. It is said to be capable of making evasive maneuvers to avoid a kill by interceptors, and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: One of the Topol-M's most notable features is its short engine burn time following take-off, intended to minimize satellite detection of launches and thereby complicate both early warning and interception by missile defense systems during boost phase. The missile also has a relatively flat ballistic trajectory, complicating defense acquisition and interception.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: According to "The Washington Times", Russia has conducted a successful test of the evasive payload delivery system. The missile was launched on


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: 1 November 2005 from the Kapustin Yar facility. The warhead changed course after separating from the launcher, making it difficult to predict a re-entry trajectory.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: A new missile loosely based on Topol-M and equipped with multiple re-entry vehicles (MIRV) is called RS-24 Yars. In January 2009 Russian sources hinted that the production of the mobile Topol-M missile would be shutting down in 2009 and that the new MIRVed RS-24 version would replace it.


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: The Strategic Missile Troops are the only operator of the RT-2PM2 Topol-M. As of March 2020, 60 silo-based and 18 mobile RT-2PM2 Topol-M missiles are deployed with 2 rocket divisions:


title: RT-2PM2 Topol-M

text: It is believed that since 2010 no more RT-2PM2 Topol-M missiles have been purchased in favor of the newest RS-24 Yars.


title: Sun Salutation

text: Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar(a) or Salute to the Sun (), is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th century, though similar exercises were in use in India before that, for example among wrestlers. The basic sequence involves moving from a standing position into Downward and Upward Dog poses and then back to the standing position, but many variations are possible. The set of 12 asanas is dedicated to the Hindu solar deity, Surya. In some Indian traditions, the positions are each associated with a different mantra.


title: Sun Salutation

text: The precise origins of the Sun Salutation are uncertain, but the sequence was made popular in the early 20th century by Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Rajah of Aundh, and adopted into yoga by Krishnamacharya in the Mysore Palace, where the Sun Salutation classes, not then considered to be yoga, were held next door to his yogasala. Pioneering yoga teachers taught by Krishnamacharya, including Pattabhi Jois and B. K. S. Iyengar, taught transitions between asanas derived from the Sun Salutation to their pupils worldwide.


title: Sun Salutation

text: The name Surya Namaskar is from the Sanskrit सूर्य "Sūrya", "Sun" and नमस्कार "Namaskāra", "Greeting" or "Salute". Surya is the Hindu demigod of the sun. This identifies the Sun as the soul and source of all life. Chandra Namaskara is similarly from Sanskrit चन्द्र "Chandra", "Moon".


title: Sun Salutation

text: The origins of the Sun Salutation are vague; Indian tradition connects the 17th century saint Samarth Ramdas with Surya Namaskara exercises, without defining what movements were involved. In the 1920s, Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Rajah of Aundh, popularized and named the practice, describing it in his 1928 book "The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars". It has been asserted that Pant Pratinidhi invented it, but Pant stated that it was already a commonplace Marathi tradition.


title: Sun Salutation

text: Ancient but simpler Sun salutations such as Aditya Hridayam, described in the "Yuddha Kaanda" Canto 107 of the "Ramayana", are not related to the modern sequence. The anthropologist Joseph Alter states that the Sun Salutation was not recorded in any Haṭha yoga text before the 19th century. At that time, the Sun Salutation was not considered to be yoga, and its postures were not considered asanas; the pioneer of yoga as exercise, Yogendra, wrote criticising the "indiscriminate" mixing of sun salutation with yoga as the "ill-informed" were doing.