title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari stated that fans should also respect the norms of the host country and assured their privacy by adding "Reserve the room together, sleep together, this is something that's not in our concern... We are here to manage the tournament. Let's not go beyond, the individual personal things of fans".


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In May 2022 some hotels on FIFA's official list of recommended accommodations for the World Cup event were outright refusing to provide accommodations to same-sex couples. Other hotels on the list indicated they would accept reservations for same-sex couples as long as they hid their relationship in public. FIFA claimed that it would ensure that the hotels mentioned are once again made aware of the strict requirements in relation to welcoming guests in a non-discriminatory manner. During a press conference in Germany on May 20, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani stated that the LGBT visitors would be welcomed to the 2022 World Cup but they need to respect the nation's culture.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In September 2022, according to a report by "The Guardian", the FA (Football Association) has assured LGBT couples will not face arrest while holding hands or kissing in public in Qatar. The FA has declared that fans with rainbow flags will not face arrest as long as they do not "disrespect" the local culture and norms by draping flags over mosques in Qatar.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: An October 2022 report from Human Rights Watch alleges systemic police brutality against LGBT people in Qatar, based on eyewitness reports from 2019 to 2022.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: Transport for London banned Qatar from advertising on London's bus, cab and tube systems after an outcry over the ban on European teams participating in the World Cup in Qatar wearing armbands supporting LGBT+ rights. Subsequently, Qatar said it was reviewing its current and future investments in London.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In October 2022, the Australian men’s national team called for the host country to recognize same-sex marriage and improve migrant workers rights. Qatar's spokesperson responded by commending the "footballers (for) using their platforms to raise awareness for important matters,” and by stating no country is perfect, and every country has its challenges, also stating new laws and reform often takes time to bed in, including in Australia.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In 2016, an opinion piece that appeared in the outlet Doha News by a gay Qatari man under the pseudonym Majid Al-Qatari that described being gay in Qatar as "jarring" and spoke of the "irreparable damage to [his] mental health", was criticized for "allowing the topic of 'homosexuality' in Qatar to be discussed". It was met with extremely strong reactions.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In 2018, nine entire articles covering gay and transgender rights published from April to July, including a discussion of LGBT rights in Africa, criticism of the US military's transgender ban and a retrospective about a 1973 fire that killed 32 people at a New Orleans gay bar, were censored from the Doha edition of The New York Times International Edition. The Government Communications Office for the State of Qatar issued a statement pledging to investigate the matter.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In 2018, Tom Bosworth, an openly gay British race walker, said that he was ready to risk prison to defend LGBT rights in Qatar during the 2019 World Championships in Athletics. He finished seventh at the 2019 World Championships.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In June 2019, although the laws in Qatar still criminalise homosexuality, its international pubcaster Al Jazeera Media Network's AJ+ marked the month as LGBTQ Pride Month with a tweet about speaking to the cast of "Queer Eye" on LGBT issues. This led many online users to point out online the paradox that AJ+ discusses and encourages recognition of gay rights outside Qatar, while Qatar censors LGBT content.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In February 2020, Northwestern University in Qatar cancelled an event featuring Mashrou' Leila following anti-LGBT backlash.


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In December 2021 Nasser Al Khater, the CEO of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, said that "Nobody feels threatened here, nobody feels unsafe here" but added that " ... public display of affection is frowned upon, and that goes across the board – across the board. Qatar is a modest country ... They [gay people] will be coming to Qatar as fans of a football tournament. They can do whatever any other human being would do. What I'm saying is Qatar, from a public-display-of-affection factor, is conservative". The tournament organiser also welcomed Josh Cavallo, the world's only current openly gay top-flight professional footballer, at the World Cup. Cavallo had said that to know that the World Cup was being held " ... in a country that doesn't support gay people and puts us at risk of our own life, that does scare me and makes me re-evaluate – is my life more important than doing something really good in my career?".


title: LGBT rights in Qatar

text: In May 2022, Naser Mohamed, a physician based in the US, became the first Qatari to publicly come out as a gay man.


title: Wonder Twins

text: The Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna) are a fictional extraterrestrial twin brother and sister superhero duo who first appeared in Hanna-Barbera's American animated television series "The All-New Super Friends Hour". The pair can activate their superpowers by touching their rings and saying the phrase "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" Jayna can transform into any animal, and Zan can become water in any state. The pair also have a pet monkey, Gleek, who assists in their crime-fighting activities.


title: Wonder Twins

text: They subsequently appeared in comics based on the animated series and were later introduced into the main DC Comics Universe. They have since appeared in other media, including the animated series "Teen Titans Go!" and the live-action TV series "Smallville".


title: Wonder Twins

text: The duo made their debut in "The All-New Super Friends Hour" and then appeared in "The World's Greatest Super Friends", "Super Friends", and "". Zan (voiced by Michael Bell) and Jayna (voiced by Louise Williams from 1977-1983 and B. J. Ward in 1984) are siblings from the planet Exxor (also spelled Exor) who were being informally trained by the superheroes. Unlike their predecessors, Wendy Harris and Marvin White, this pair was able to participate in combat with abilities of their own.


title: Wonder Twins

text: Hanna-Barbera animator Darrell McNeil recalls the twins were created by Norman Maurer, the "Super Friends" series developer/story editor. They were originally called Dick and Jane, and their sidekick was Mighty Monkey, before finally becoming Zan, Jayna, and Gleek. The names "Zan" and "Jayna" derived from the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters Tarzan and his romantic interest Jane. According to McNeil: "Originally Zan (Dick) had 'Plastic Man' powers and Jayna (Jane) could transform into anything, not just animals, but they were scaled back to their present powers as it made the other Super Friends (even Superman) seem almost superfluous". Jayna's distinctive hairdo was based on that of an animation checker at Hanna-Barbera, while the pointed ears were inspired by the character Spock from the "Star Trek" franchise. The twins' personalities were heavily based on Donny and Marie Osmond, who were extremely popular at the time and had their own show on ABC as well.


title: Wonder Twins

text: The Wonder Twins were the most prominently featured characters in their first season on "Super Friends". However, by the final seasons, the twins were largely marginalized in favor of well established DC Comics teenage superheroes like Firestorm, and were wholly eliminated in the final season in favor of Cyborg.


title: Wonder Twins

text: The characters were introduced to comics in issue #7 of the "Super Friends" tie-in series (cover-dated October 1977, but published in July 1977), by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon. The "Super Friends" comic book provided considerably more details of the Wonder Twins' background and how they came to join the team than was provided in the television series. Because of the different production lag times between animation and comics, the first comic book appearance is chronologically before the first television appearance.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In the 1990s, they were introduced into the main DC Universe in "Extreme Justice" #9 (October 1995), by Ivan Velez, Jr. and Al Rio. The series rewrote and updated their origin story. Velez, an avowed die-hard fan of the Wonder Twins, intended to begin a revival of the characters, but was taken off the series after the first issue with the Wonder Twins. Though the twins remained with the series until its cancellation with #18, they were used only sparingly after Velez's departure. Following the cancellation of "Extreme Justice", the Wonder Twins showed up only sporadically in the DC Universe, with their last significant appearance being in 2003.


title: Wonder Twins

text: DC published a six-issue "Wonder Twins" miniseries in 2019, written by Mark Russell and drawn by Stephen Byrne. The series was a critical and commercial success, and was extended into a 12 issue maxi-series.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In November 2019, the first 6 issues of "Wonder Twins" were collected as a trade paper back, and released under the title "Wonder Twins - Activate". In the following August, the second six issues of the maxi-series are being released in another trade paper back titled "The Fall & Rise of the Wonder Twins".


title: Wonder Twins

text: Little background is provided for the Wonder Twins in the "Super Friends" cartoon, save that they are superheroes-in-training that are friends of the Super Friends and were born on November 6.


title: Wonder Twins

text: According to the 1977 "Super Friends" comic book by writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Ramona Fradon, Zan and Jayna are Exorian. The twins are metas, genetic throwbacks to an ancient race of Exorian shapeshifters. Their parents died when they were still babies during a plague, and, because of their origin, no Exorians want to adopt them. They are adopted by the owner of a Space Circus who only wants to use them as sideshow freaks. However, the circus' clown (or "laugh-maker") is a kind man and raises them. He also gives them Gleek as a pet. Eventually, as teens, the pair escapes the circus and hides on a planet where a space villain called Grax (an enemy of Superman) has established his headquarters. Spying on him, they learn that Grax is planning to destroy the Earth using hidden superbombs. The twins decide to travel to Earth and warn the Justice League, which is how they come to replace Wendy and Marvin (who were planning on retiring as heroes anyway) as their sidekicks. The heroes arrange for the kids to live with an old scientist named Professor Carter Nichols and they even take secret identities as Johan and Joanna Fleming. "Johan" and "Johanna" were supposedly transfer students from Esko, Sweden, disguised with blonde hair (Zan wore a wig, while Jayna used her powers to transform into a human to change her hair color and ear shape), to allow them to attend Gotham City High School.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In 1996, the twins were introduced into post-"Crisis" DC continuity in the series "Extreme Justice" as escaped slaves of an alien overlord. Unable to speak English, they inadvertently attack some civilians and the Justice League. During their fight with the JLA, Zan becomes an ice golem, a water monster, and a demonic-looking whirlpool, while Jayna becomes a griffin, a werewolf, and a sea serpent. The pair are later emancipated by the Justice League and join Captain Atom's team in issue #16 (May 1996). That same year, they appeared in the crossover storyline "Final Night" and in the series "Total Justice".


title: Wonder Twins

text: In a 2002–2003 storyline by Peter David and Todd Nauck in "Young Justice", they help avenge the murder of Empress' parents, wearing uniforms which resembled T-shirts and jeans. In late 2003, they appeared in the fourth issue of the Marvel-DC intercompany crossover miniseries "JLA/Avengers", which was written by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by George Pérez.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In 2007, they appeared in "Teen Titans" vol. 3 #70, and in 2011, and in "DCU: Legacies" #9, a story by Len Wein and Rob Leigh.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In "Smallville: Titans", a story arc in the series "Smallville season 11", Zan and Jayna are members of the team with Conner Kent/Superboy, Speedy, Blue Beetle and Miss Martian at Jay Garrick's school for the "gifted".


title: Wonder Twins

text: In the 2013 comic "Justice League 3000", the handlers of the new Justice League who work for Cadmus Labs were introduced named Teri and Terry, and nicknamed The Wonder Twins.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In "Superpowers", a 2017 backup series in "Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye", cartoonist Tom Scioli offers a slightly different version of the origin of the Wonder Twins, set on an alternate Earth.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In February 2019, the first issue of a 6-issue mini-series was released on Wonder Comics, titled "Wonder Twins". It was well received and did so well in sales that it was expanded to a 12-issue maxi-series. The Wonder Comics imprint is considered part of the current DCU, so this places the Wonder Twins in current DC continuity.


title: Wonder Twins

text: Later in September, the Wonder Twins had a cameo appearance in "Action Comics" #1015, which also guest starred new Wonder Comics hero Naomi.


title: Wonder Twins

text: Wonder Comics appeared in the crossover storyline that begins in "Young Justice" vol. 3 #12, which features Naomi and the Wonder Twins as guest stars.


title: Wonder Twins

text: The Wonder Twins' powers are activated when they touch each other and speak the phrase, "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" Physical contact is required. If the two are out of reach of each other, they are unable to activate their powers. As they are about to transform, they would each announce their intended form. "Shape of...", "Form of..."


title: Wonder Twins

text: Zan can transform into water at any state (solid, liquid, gas) and add to his mass by incorporating water in his immediate area. In the case of becoming solid ice, he can also become any form he chooses, from a humanoid ice giant to a cage for a criminal to complex machinery (such as a jet engine, as he did in the episode "Eruption"). In the episode "Pressure Point", he changes into a gelatinous form. In "Terror from the Phantom Zone", he was able to transform into liquid nitrogen. In addition, he can transform himself into atmospheric disturbances (usually very localized) involving water, such as a blizzard, a monsoon, waterspout or a typhoon, as he did in the episodes "The Water Beast", "The Beasts are Coming", and "Stowaways".


title: Wonder Twins

text: Jayna can transform into any animal, whether real, mythological, indigenous to Earth, or indigenous to some other planet like Exxor. Since she must vocalize her choice of form to assume, she must know the common name. As revealed in "The Mummy of Nazca", naming the wrong animal will cause her to assume the wrong animal's form. She has been known to take the form of anything from a mosquito to a whale, as in "The Water Beast" episode.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In the "Super Friends" comic book, their powers were shown to be more extensive. By transforming into an animal of Kryptonian origin, for instance, Jayna could gain both the creature's natural abilities and the super-powers that all Kryptonians possess under Earth-like conditions; she was even capable of overpowering Superman in the form of a Kryptonian animal. Similarly, Zan was able to transform into anything tangentially related to water or ice, including a frost giant in the "Demons of Exxor" episode.


title: Wonder Twins

text: In addition to their powers of transformation, the two share a telepathic link, enabling one to alert the other over a distance when in dire circumstances, as revealed in the episode "The Village of Lost Souls".


title: Wonder Twins

text: The Wonder Twins have a pet Space Monkey named Gleek, who has a useful prehensile tail and who can act as a conduit for the twins to activate their powers should they be out of reach. Gleek also serves as a courier when the twins need to travel: Jayna will typically transform into a large eagle, and Zan will transform into water, "jumping" into a bucket which Gleek will hold while being clutched by Jayna in her eagle form.


title: Wonder Twins

text: A rarely seen aspect of their powers is the ability to break mind control. On at least two occasions ("Pied Piper From Space" and "Circus of Horrors"), while the twins were under the influence of mind control, Gleek caused them to make contact and the activation of their powers freed them instantly from the mind control.


title: Wonder Twins

text: The "Teen Titans Go!" incarnations of the Wonder Twins appear in "Lego Dimensions". Additionally, "The Lego Batman Movie" incarnations make cameo appearances in the eponymous DLC pack.


title: Lac operon

text: The "lactose" operon ("lac" operon) is an operon required for the transport and metabolism of lactose in "E. coli" and many other enteric bacteria. Although glucose is the preferred carbon source for most bacteria, the "lac" operon allows for the effective digestion of lactose when glucose is not available through the activity of beta-galactosidase. Gene regulation of the "lac" operon was the first genetic regulatory mechanism to be understood clearly, so it has become a foremost example of prokaryotic gene regulation. It is often discussed in introductory molecular and cellular biology classes for this reason. This lactose metabolism system was used by François Jacob and Jacques Monod to determine how a biological cell knows which enzyme to synthesize. Their work on the "lac" operon won them the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1965.


title: Lac operon

text: Bacterial operons are polycistronic transcripts that are able to produce multiple proteins from one mRNA transcript. In this case, when lactose is required as a sugar source for the bacterium, the three genes of the "lac" operon can be expressed and their subsequent proteins translated: "lacZ", "lacY", and "lacA". The gene product of "lacZ" is β-galactosidase which cleaves lactose, a disaccharide, into glucose and galactose. "lacY" encodes Beta-galactoside permease, a membrane protein which becomes embedded in the cytoplasmic membrane to enable the cellular transport of lactose into the cell. Finally, "lacA" encodes Galactoside acetyltransferase.


title: Lac operon

text: It would be wasteful to produce enzymes when no lactose is available or if a preferable energy source such as glucose were available. The "lac" operon uses a two-part control mechanism to ensure that the cell expends energy producing the enzymes encoded by the "lac" operon only when necessary. In the absence of lactose, the "lac" repressor, "lacI," halts production of the enzymes encoded by the "lac" operon. The lac repressor is always expressed, unless a co-inducer binds to it. In other words, it is transcribed only in the presence of small co-inducer molecules. In the presence of glucose, the catabolite activator protein (CAP), required for production of the enzymes, remains inactive, and EIIA shuts down lactose permease to prevent transport of lactose into the cell. This dual control mechanism causes the sequential utilization of glucose and lactose in two distinct growth phases, known as diauxie.


title: Lac operon

text: In the case of Lac, wild type cells are Lac and are able to use lactose as a carbon and energy source, while Lac mutant derivatives cannot use lactose. The same three letters are typically used (lower-case, italicized) to label the genes involved in a particular phenotype, where each different gene is additionally distinguished by an extra letter. The "lac" genes encoding enzymes are "lacZ", "lacY", and "lacA". The fourth "lac" gene is "lacI", encoding the lactose repressor—"I" stands for "inducibility".


title: Lac operon

text: One may distinguish between "structural" genes encoding enzymes, and regulatory genes encoding proteins that affect gene expression. Current usage expands the phenotypic nomenclature to apply to proteins: thus, LacZ is the protein product of the "lacZ" gene, β-galactosidase. Various short sequences that are not genes also affect gene expression, including the "lac" promoter, "lac p", and the "lac" operator, "lac o". Although it is not strictly standard usage, mutations affecting "lac o" are referred to as "lac o", for historical reasons.


title: Lac operon

text: Specific control of the "lac" genes depends on the availability of the substrate lactose to the bacterium. The proteins are not produced by the bacterium when lactose is unavailable as a carbon source.


title: Lac operon

text: The "lac" genes are organized into an operon; that is, they are oriented in the same direction immediately adjacent on the chromosome and are co-transcribed into a single polycistronic mRNA molecule. Transcription of all genes starts with the binding of the enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP), a DNA-binding protein, which binds to a specific DNA binding site, the promoter, immediately upstream of the genes. Binding of RNA polymerase to the promoter is aided by the cAMP-bound catabolite activator protein (CAP, also known as the cAMP receptor protein). However, the "lacI" gene (regulatory gene for "lac" operon) produces a protein that blocks RNAP from binding to the operator of the operon. This protein can only be removed when allolactose binds to it, and inactivates it. The protein that is formed by the "lacI" gene is known as the lac repressor. The type of regulation that the "lac" operon undergoes is referred to as negative inducible, meaning that the gene is turned off by the regulatory factor ("lac" repressor) unless some molecule (lactose) is added. Because of the presence of the "lac" repressor protein, genetic engineers who replace the "lacZ" gene with another gene will have to grow the experimental bacteria on agar with lactose available on it. If they do not, the gene they are trying to express will not be expressed as the repressor protein is still blocking RNAP from binding to the promoter and transcribing the gene. Once the repressor is removed, RNAP then proceeds to transcribe all three genes ("lacZYA") into mRNA. Each of the three genes on the mRNA strand has its own Shine-Dalgarno sequence, so the genes are independently translated. The DNA sequence of the "E. coli" "lac" operon, the "lacZYA" mRNA, and the "lacI " genes are available from GenBank (view).


title: Lac operon

text: The first control mechanism is the regulatory response to lactose, which uses an intracellular "regulatory protein" called the "lactose repressor" to hinder production of β-galactosidase in the absence of lactose. The "lacI" gene coding for the repressor lies nearby the "lac" operon and is always expressed ("constitutive"). If lactose is missing from the growth medium, the repressor binds very tightly to a short DNA sequence just downstream of the promoter near the beginning of "lacZ" called the "lac operator". The repressor binding to the operator interferes with binding of RNAP to the promoter, and therefore mRNA encoding LacZ and LacY is only made at very low levels. When cells are grown in the presence of lactose, however, a lactose metabolite called allolactose, made from lactose by the product of the "lacZ" gene, binds to the repressor, causing an allosteric shift. Thus altered, the repressor is unable to bind to the operator, allowing RNAP to transcribe the "lac" genes and thereby leading to higher levels of the encoded proteins.


title: Lac operon

text: The second control mechanism is a response to glucose, which uses the catabolite activator protein (CAP) homodimer to greatly increase production of β-galactosidase in the absence of glucose. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is a signal molecule whose prevalence is inversely proportional to that of glucose. It binds to the CAP, which in turn allows the CAP to bind to the CAP binding site (a 16 bp DNA sequence upstream of the promoter on the left in the diagram below, about 60 bp upstream of the transcription start site), which assists the RNAP in binding to the DNA. In the absence of glucose, the cAMP concentration is high and binding of CAP-cAMP to the DNA significantly increases the production of β-galactosidase, enabling the cell to hydrolyse lactose and release galactose and glucose.


title: Lac operon

text: More recently inducer exclusion was shown to block expression of the "lac" operon when glucose is present. Glucose is transported into the cell by the PEP-dependent phosphotransferase system. The phosphate group of phosphoenolpyruvate is transferred via a phosphorylation cascade consisting of the general PTS (phosphotransferase system) proteins HPr and EIA and the glucose-specific PTS proteins EIIA and EIIB, the cytoplasmic domain of the EII glucose transporter. Transport of glucose is accompanied by its phosphorylation by EIIB, draining the phosphate group from the other PTS proteins, including EIIA. The unphosphorylated form of EIIA binds to the "lac" permease and prevents it from bringing lactose into the cell. Therefore, if both glucose and lactose are present, the transport of glucose blocks the transport of the inducer of the "lac" operon.


title: Lac operon

text: The lac repressor is a four-part protein, a tetramer, with identical subunits. Each subunit contains a helix-turn-helix (HTH) motif capable of binding to DNA. The operator site where repressor binds is a DNA sequence with inverted repeat symmetry. The two DNA half-sites of the operator together bind to two of the subunits of the repressor. Although the other two subunits of repressor are not doing anything in this model, this property was not understood for many years.


title: Lac operon

text: Eventually it was discovered that two additional operators are involved in "lac" regulation. One (O) lies about −90 bp upstream of O in the end of the "lacI" gene, and the other (O) is about +410 bp downstream of O in the early part of "lacZ". These two sites were not found in the early work because they have redundant functions and individual mutations do not affect repression very much. Single mutations to either O or O have only 2 to 3-fold effects. However, their importance is demonstrated by the fact that a double mutant defective in both O and O is dramatically de-repressed (by about 70-fold).


title: Lac operon

text: In the current model, "lac" repressor is bound simultaneously to both the main operator O and to either O or O. The intervening DNA loops out from the complex. The redundant nature of the two minor operators suggests that it is not a specific looped complex that is important. One idea is that the system works through tethering; if bound repressor releases from O momentarily, binding to a minor operator keeps it in the vicinity, so that it may rebind quickly. This would increase the affinity of repressor for O.


title: Lac operon

text: The repressor is an allosteric protein, i.e. it can assume either one of two slightly different shapes, which are in equilibrium with each other. In one form the repressor will bind to the operator DNA with high specificity, and in the other form it has lost its specificity. According to the classical model of induction, binding of the inducer, either allolactose or IPTG, to the repressor affects the distribution of repressor between the two shapes. Thus, repressor with inducer bound is stabilized in the non-DNA-binding conformation. However, this simple model cannot be the whole story, because repressor is bound quite stably to DNA, yet it is released rapidly by addition of inducer. Therefore, it seems clear that an inducer can also bind to the repressor when the repressor is already bound to DNA. It is still not entirely known what the exact mechanism of binding is.


title: Lac operon

text: Non-specific binding of the repressor to DNA plays a crucial role in the repression and induction of the Lac-operon. The specific binding site for the Lac-repressor protein is the operator. The non-specific interaction is mediated mainly by charge-charge interactions while binding to the operator is reinforced by hydrophobic interactions. Additionally, there is an abundance of non-specific DNA sequences to which the repressor can bind. Essentially, any sequence that is not the operator, is considered non-specific. Studies have shown, that without the presence of non-specific binding, induction (or unrepression) of the Lac-operon could not occur even with saturated levels of inducer. It had been demonstrated that, without non-specific binding, the basal level of induction is ten thousand times smaller than observed normally. This is because the non-specific DNA acts as sort of a "sink" for the repressor proteins, distracting them from the operator. The non-specific sequences decrease the amount of available repressor in the cell. This in turn reduces the amount of inducer required to unrepress the system.


title: Lac operon

text: A number of lactose derivatives or analogs have been described that are useful for work with the "lac" operon. These compounds are mainly substituted galactosides, where the glucose moiety of lactose is replaced by another chemical group.


title: Lac operon

text: The experimental microorganism used by François Jacob and Jacques Monod was the common laboratory bacterium, "E. coli", but many of the basic regulatory concepts that were discovered by Jacob and Monod are fundamental to cellular regulation in all organisms. The key idea is that proteins are not synthesized when they are not needed—"E. coli" conserves cellular resources and energy by not making the three Lac proteins when there is no need to metabolize lactose, such as when other sugars like glucose are available. The following section discusses how "E. coli" controls certain genes in response to metabolic needs.


title: Lac operon

text: During World War II, Monod was testing the effects of combinations of sugars as nutrient sources for "E. coli" and "B. subtilis". Monod was following up on similar studies that had been conducted by other scientists with bacteria and yeast. He found that bacteria grown with two different sugars often displayed two phases of growth. For example, if glucose and lactose were both provided, glucose was metabolized first (growth phase I, see Figure 2) and then lactose (growth phase II). Lactose was not metabolized during the first part of the diauxic growth curve because β-galactosidase was not made when both glucose and lactose were present in the medium. Monod named this phenomenon diauxie.


title: Lac operon

text: Monod then focused his attention on the induction of β-galactosidase formation that occurred when lactose was the sole sugar in the culture medium.


title: Lac operon

text: A conceptual breakthrough of Jacob and Monod was to recognize the distinction between regulatory substances and sites where they act to change gene expression. A former soldier, Jacob used the analogy of a bomber that would release its lethal cargo upon receipt of a special radio transmission or signal. A working system requires both a ground transmitter and a receiver in the airplane. Now, suppose that the usual transmitter is broken. This system can be made to work by introduction of a second, functional transmitter. In contrast, he said, consider a bomber with a defective receiver. The behavior of "this" bomber cannot be changed by introduction of a second, functional aeroplane.


title: Lac operon

text: To analyze regulatory mutants of the "lac" operon, Jacob developed a system by which a second copy of the "lac" genes ("lacI" with its promoter, and "lacZYA" with promoter and operator) could be introduced into a single cell. A culture of such bacteria, which are diploid for the "lac" genes but otherwise normal, is then tested for the regulatory phenotype. In particular, it is determined whether LacZ and LacY are made even in the absence of IPTG (due to the "lactose repressor" produced by the mutant gene being non-functional). This experiment, in which genes or gene clusters are tested pairwise, is called a "complementation test".


title: Lac operon

text: This test is illustrated in the figure ("lacA" is omitted for simplicity). First, certain haploid states are shown (i.e. the cell carries only a single copy of the "lac" genes). Panel (a) shows repression, (b) shows induction by IPTG, and (c) and (d) show the effect of a mutation to the "lacI" gene or to the operator, respectively. In panel (e) the complementation test for repressor is shown. If one copy of the "lac" genes carries a mutation in "lacI", but the second copy is wild type for "lacI", the resulting phenotype is normal—but lacZ is expressed when exposed to inducer IPTG. Mutations affecting repressor are said to be "recessive" to wild type (and that wild type is "dominant"), and this is explained by the fact that repressor is a small protein which can diffuse in the cell. The copy of the "lac" operon adjacent to the defective "lacI" gene is effectively shut off by protein produced from the second copy of "lacI".


title: Lac operon

text: If the same experiment is carried out using an operator mutation, a different result is obtained (panel (f)). The phenotype of a cell carrying one mutant and one wild type operator site is that LacZ and LacY are produced even in the absence of the inducer IPTG; because the damaged operator site, does not permit binding of the repressor to inhibit transcription of the structural genes. The operator mutation is dominant. When the operator site where repressor must bind is damaged by mutation, the presence of a second functional site in the same cell makes no difference to expression of genes controlled by the mutant site.


title: Lac operon

text: A more sophisticated version of this experiment uses "marked" operons to distinguish between the two copies of the "lac" genes and show that the unregulated structural gene(s) is(are) the one(s) next to the mutant operator (panel (g). For example, suppose that one copy is marked by a mutation inactivating "lacZ" so that it can only produce the LacY protein, while the second copy carries a mutation affecting "lacY" and can only produce LacZ. In this version, only the copy of the "lac" operon that is adjacent to the mutant operator is expressed without IPTG. We say that the operator mutation is "cis-dominant", it is dominant to wild type but affects only the copy of the operon which is immediately adjacent to it.


title: Lac operon

text: This explanation is misleading in an important sense, because it proceeds from a description of the experiment and then explains the results in terms of a model. But in fact, it is often true that the model comes first, and an experiment is fashioned specifically to test the model. Jacob and Monod first imagined that there must be a "site" in DNA with the properties of the operator, and then designed their complementation tests to show this.


title: Lac operon

text: The dominance of operator mutants also suggests a procedure to select them specifically. If regulatory mutants are selected from a culture of wild type using phenyl-Gal, as described above, operator mutations are rare compared to repressor mutants because the target-size is so small. But if instead we start with a strain which carries two copies of the whole "lac" region (that is diploid for "lac"), the repressor mutations (which still occur) are not recovered because complementation by the second, wild type "lacI" gene confers a wild type phenotype. In contrast, mutation of one copy of the operator confers a mutant phenotype because it is dominant to the second, wild type copy.


title: Lac operon

text: Explanation of diauxie depended on the characterization of additional mutations affecting the "lac" genes other than those explained by the classical model. Two other genes, "cya" and "crp", subsequently were identified that mapped far from "lac", and that, when mutated, result in a decreased level of expression in the "presence" of IPTG and even in strains of the bacterium lacking the repressor or operator. The discovery of cAMP in "E. coli" led to the demonstration that mutants defective the "cya" gene but not the "crp" gene could be restored to full activity by the addition of cAMP to the medium.


title: Lac operon

text: The "cya" gene encodes adenylate cyclase, which produces cAMP. In a "cya" mutant, the absence of cAMP makes the expression of the "lacZYA" genes more than ten times lower than normal. Addition of cAMP corrects the low Lac expression characteristic of "cya" mutants. The second gene, "crp", encodes a protein called catabolite activator protein (CAP) or cAMP receptor protein (CRP).


title: Lac operon

text: However the lactose metabolism enzymes are made in small quantities in the presence of both glucose and lactose (sometimes called leaky expression) due to the fact that the LacI repressor rapidly associates/dissociates from the DNA rather than tightly binding to it, which can allow time for RNAP to bind and transcribe mRNAs of "lacZYA". Leaky expression is necessary in order to allow for metabolism of some lactose after the glucose source is expended, but before "lac" expression is fully activated.


title: Lac operon

text: The delay between growth phases reflects the time needed to produce sufficient quantities of lactose-metabolizing enzymes. First, the CAP regulatory protein has to assemble on the "lac" promoter, resulting in an increase in the production of "lac" mRNA. More available copies of the "lac" mRNA results in the production (see translation) of significantly more copies of LacZ (β-galactosidase, for lactose metabolism) and LacY (lactose permease to transport lactose into the cell). After a delay needed to increase the level of the lactose metabolizing enzymes, the bacteria enter into a new rapid phase of cell growth.


title: Lac operon

text: Two puzzles of catabolite repression relate to how cAMP levels are coupled to the presence of glucose, and secondly, why the cells should even bother. After lactose is cleaved it actually forms glucose and galactose (easily converted to glucose). In metabolic terms, lactose is just as "good" a carbon and energy source as glucose. The cAMP level is related not to intracellular glucose concentration but to the rate of glucose transport, which influences the activity of adenylate cyclase. (In addition, glucose transport also leads to direct inhibition of the lactose permease.) As to why "E. coli" works this way, one can only speculate. All enteric bacteria ferment glucose, which suggests they encounter it frequently. It is possible that a small difference in efficiency of transport or metabolism of glucose v. lactose makes it advantageous for cells to regulate the "lac" operon in this way.


title: Lac operon

text: The "lac" gene and its derivatives are amenable to use as a reporter gene in a number of bacterial-based selection techniques such as two hybrid analysis, in which the successful binding of a transcriptional activator to a specific promoter sequence must be determined. In LB plates containing X-gal, the colour change from white colonies to a shade of blue corresponds to about 20–100 β-galactosidase units, while tetrazolium lactose and MacConkey lactose media have a range of 100–1000 units, being most sensitive in the high and low parts of this range respectively. Since MacConkey lactose and tetrazolium lactose media both rely on the products of lactose breakdown, they require the presence of both "lacZ" and "lacY" genes. The many "lac" fusion techniques which include only the "lacZ" gene are thus suited to X-gal plates or ONPG liquid broths.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: Mosiah Bikila Gilligan (born 19 February 1988) is a British stand-up comedian. He is known for his observational comedy. After several years of uploading comedy clips to social media, he found global success in 2017. He hosted "The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan" (2019) on Channel 4. He currently co-hosts "The Big Narstie Show" on Channel 4, and is a judge on "The Masked Singer UK" since the second series in 2020, and a judge on "The Masked Dancer UK" since 2021. In 2022 Gilligan took a break from "The Masked Dancer UK" due to work issues, and was replaced by Peter Crouch.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: Mosiah Bikila Gilligan was born on 19 February 1988 in Lambeth, London to British parents of Jamaican and St. Lucian descent. His mother was born in Wales while his father is from Brixton. His parents separated when he was 5, and he was raised by both parents while living in Camberwell, London. He began his interest in comedy whilst attending a performing arts school in Pimlico. Gilligan is an avid supporter of Arsenal F.C.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: Gilligan was working in retail, when he began uploading comedy videos on his social media accounts. His videos were popular and customers eventually began recognising him. His breakout moment came in 2017, when he was spotted by Canadian rapper Drake, who quoted some of Gilligan's comedy on his own Instagram account. His influences include Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock; he did his first lengthy show after watching a Chris Rock stand-up film.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: Gilligan currently co-hosts "The Big Narstie Show", which debuted 29 June 2018 on Channel 4, with rapper Big Narstie. Between them, they have been cited as some of the original purveyors of grime comedy. He paired up with Claudia Winkleman to compete on the 2018 edition of "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year" also on Channel 4, which they won.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: Gilligan hosts his own show, "The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan", which debuted 19 July 2019 on Channel 4. Later on in the year, his first comedy special on Netflix, "Mo Gilligan: Momentum", was released globally in 190 countries.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: Since June 2020, Gilligan has appeared on the second and third series of Celebrity Gogglebox, as well as the Stand Up to Cancer special of Gogglebox alongside comedian Babatunde Aleshe.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: On 19 August 2020, ITV announced Gilligan would become a panellist on the second series of "The Masked Singer UK", replacing Ken Jeong.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: In 2020, Gilligan produced the hour long documentary "Black, British, and Funny" for Black History Month. He examined the history of the Black comedy circuit, featuring pioneering stars like Angie Le Mar, Richard Blackwood, Danny 'Slim' Gray and Rudi Lickwood, and newer comedians including Kayode Ewumi and Michael Dapaah.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: On 4 March 2021, ITV announced Gilligan would become a panellist on the spin-off of "The Masked Singer UK, The Masked Dancer UK."


title: Mo Gilligan

text: In October 2022, Channel 4 broadcast "Mo Gilligan + Friends: The Black British Takeover", a standup special featuring Gilligan plus Eddie Kadi, Ola Labib, Slim, Thanyia Moore, Babatunde Aléshé and The Compozers, recorded at the O2 in December 2021.


title: Mo Gilligan

text: On 29 November 2022, Gilligan was confirmed as the host of the upcoming BBC One series called "That's My Jam".


title: The High Priestess

text: The High Priestess (II) is the second Major Arcana card in cartomantic Tarot decks. It is based on the 2nd trump of Tarot card packs. In the first Tarot pack with inscriptions, the 18th-century woodcut Tarot de Marseilles, this figure is crowned with the Papal tiara and labelled "La Papesse", the Popess, a possible reference to the legend of Pope Joan.


title: The High Priestess

text: In the creation of the Rider–Waite Tarot deck, the Popess of the playing card packs was changed into The High Priestess of cartomantic cards. She wears a crown similar to the one used by the goddess Hathor, and is depicted with Marian imagery. A. E. Waite, the co-creator of the Rider–Waite deck, speculated that the card was connected to the ancient cult of Astarte or Mary as a representation of the Mother goddess.


title: The High Priestess

text: This Tarot card was originally called "La Papesse", or "The Popess". Some of the cards directly linked the woman on the cards to the papacy by showing the woman wearing a "triregnum" or Papal Tiara. There are also some modern versions of the Tarot of Marseilles which include the keys to the kingdom that are a traditional symbol of the papacy. In Protestant post-reformation countries, Tarot cards in particular used images of the legendary Pope Joan, linking in to the mythology of how Joan, disguised as a man, was elected to the papacy and was only supposedly discovered to be a woman when she gave birth. However, Italian Catholics appear to only have seen the La Papesse as representing the Holy Mother Church in an allegorical form, with the Pope taking office becoming married to the Body of Christ, which Catholics refer to in the "feminine gender".


title: The High Priestess

text: In the Rider–Waite Tarot, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith, the Popess was changed into The High Priestess sitting between the pillars of Boaz and Jachin (which has a particular meaning to Freemasonry). She wears a crown similar to the Egyptian goddess Hathor and is depicted with the Marian imagery of a blue mantle and the moon at her feet. A. E. Waite, the co-creator of the Rider–Waite deck, dismissed the idea that the card originally depicted Pope Joan and speculated that it was instead connected to the ancient cult of Astarte.


title: The High Priestess

text: Other variants that came after Rider–Waite are the Virgin Mary, Isis, the metaphorical Bride of Christ or Holy Mother Church. In Swiss Troccas decks, she is called "Junon" ("Juno"), the Roman Queen of the Gods. The "Flemish Deck" by Vandenborre (c. 1750-1760) refers to this card as "Le Espagnol Capitano Eracasse" ("The Spanish Captain Fracasse"), after a version of Il Capitano, a character from "Commedia dell'Arte".


title: The High Priestess

text: "La Papessa" in the Visconti-Sforza Tarot has been identified as a depiction of Sister Manfreda, an Umiliata nun and a relative of the Visconti family who was elected Pope by the heretical Guglielmite sect of Lombardy. In "The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo", Gertrude Moakley writes:


title: The High Priestess

text: This identification has been supported by other Tarot historians, such as Michael Dummett in his book "The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards".


title: The High Priestess

text: In the Rider–Waite (aka Rider-Waite-Smith) deck, upon which many modern decks are based, The High Priestess is identified with the Shekhinah, the female indwelling presence of the divine. She wears plain blue robes and sits with her hands in her lap. She has a lunar crescent at her feet, "a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place" similar to the crown of the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor, but with the horns having a shape more like half-crescents, and a large cross on her breast, the balance between the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. The scroll in her hands, partly covered by her mantle, bears the letters TORA (meaning "divine law"), that symbolizes the memory we carry inside about the past, present and future, named Akasha. She is seated between the white and black pillars—'J' and 'B' for Jachin and Boaz—of the mystic Temple of Solomon. The veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palm leaves (male) and pomegranates (female), growing on a tree shaped like the tree of life.


title: The High Priestess

text: The motif that hangs behind the High Priestess’s throne, veiling whatever mysteries she guards, is suggested in the pattern of The Empress' gown. The two are sisters, one bringing life into the world, the other inviting the living to the esoteric mysteries. Further behind all of that is what seems to be a body of water, most probably the sea. The water flows through most of the cards of the Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot.


title: The High Priestess

text: According to A. E. Waite's 1910 book "Pictorial Key to the Tarot", the High Priestess card is associated with:


title: The High Priestess

text: Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.


title: The High Priestess

text: In the Tarot of Marseilles it is noticeable that she wears a blue cape and red robe, in contrast to The Pope, wearing a red cape and blue robe.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Thomas Michael Fletcher (born 17 July 1985) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, composer, author and vlogger. He is one of the lead vocalists and rhythm guitarist of English pop rock band McFly, in addition to being the group's founder. He originally auditioned for, and was accepted into the band Busted before losing out on the place after the record label decided the band should be a trio rather than a four-piece, but still carried on writing with the band.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In his 20-year career as a professional songwriter, Fletcher has penned 10 UK number one singles and 21 top-ten singles. He is credited as having written songs for One Direction, Busted, the Vamps and 5 Seconds of Summer.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, where, at the age of 13, he met Giovanna Falcone, whom he would later marry in 2012. He has a younger sister, Carrie Hope Fletcher, who is a musical theatre actress. When he was 10 years old, Fletcher starred as the main role in "Oliver!" at the London Palladium alongside Jim Dale as Fagin. He then went on to do a documentary about HIV for schools and starred in a commercial. In 1995, Fletcher made a small appearance in the video for the Mike + The Mechanics single "Over My Shoulder". When Fletcher was a schoolchild, he was schoolmates with Busted bassist Matt Willis.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: At a very young age, Fletcher began writing music commercially. He originally auditioned for band Busted, but lost out on the place to Charlie Simpson after the record label Island Records decided the band should be a trio rather than a four-piece; Fletcher states that he was in the band "for about 24 hours." This led to a job with the band's songwriting team, mainly because of the label's intrigue with his writing talents, Fletcher then got to know Busted band member James Bourne, which would then lead to a strong songwriting relationship between the two. He has since stated that it was Bourne who taught him "how to structure a pop hit".


title: Tom Fletcher

text: During the writing project for Busted's second album "A Present for Everyone", Fletcher was asked by the record label if he was available to film auditions for a new band, V. It was at this time that he and Danny Jones met for the first time; Jones went to the audition mistaking the band to be a Busted-esque band, rather than the conventional, all-singing, all-dancing, boy band for which they were intended. Impressed with Jones's style, Fletcher invited him to write with him and Bourne. When writing projects for Busted had come to an end, the two began collaborating for their own (as yet unnamed) band, and, eventually, moved into the InterContinental Hotel in London for two months to concentrate on writing together. During this time together Fletcher and Jones wrote most of their first album, "Room on the 3rd Floor". Bassist Dougie Poynter and drummer Harry Judd were subsequently recruited via a classified advertisement. Fletcher came up with the idea to name the band after Marty McFly, the main character from his favorite film "Back to the Future". McFly then rose to fame after Busted helped launch them by inviting them to be the opening act on their tour in March 2004.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In 2004, McFly made it into the "Guinness Book of World Records", beating the Beatles's record for "the youngest band to have a debut album go straight to number one". Fletcher has written the majority of McFly's songs with Jones and Poynter, with occasional contributions by Judd; Bourne has also assisted with songwriting on occasions. As of 15 November 2010, McFly have released five studio albums and two compilation albums. A greatest hits album entitled "" which includes a number of B-sides from earlier albums, original demos of well known tracks as well as three new singles, was released in November 2012. As well as being the founding member of McFly, Fletcher plays rhythm guitar, shares lead vocals with Danny Jones, and sometimes undertakes the role of ukulele player and pianist.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher has written or co-written 10 UK number-one singles: "Crashed the Wedding", "Who's David?", and "Thunderbirds" for Busted; and "Five Colours in Her Hair", "Obviously", "All About You," "I'll Be OK", "Please, Please", "Star Girl", and "Transylvania" for McFly. He co-wrote eight of the songs on "A Present for Everyone", as well as all but one ("Not Alone", written by Jones) of the tracks on McFly's debut album, "Room on the 3rd Floor". He is the primary writer on the majority of tracks on all five of the band's albums. Of McFly's four members, he has "the most songwriting credits and therefore the most money".


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher wrote "On a Rainbow", the official song of the 2012 Summer Olympics' mascots Wenlock and Mandeville. The song features vocals from him and his sister Carrie Hope Fletcher. He also wrote the song "I Want" for One Direction's debut album "Up All Night", and co-wrote (with Dougie Poynter and Danny Jones) "I Would" for their second album "Take Me Home" and "Don't Forget Where You Belong" for their third album "Midnight Memories". He has co-written several songs with James Bourne including "Chills in the Evening", recorded by V. He also co-wrote "High Hopes" along with all four members of the Vamps for their debut album, "Meet the Vamps". Fletcher is also credited as having co-written the 5 Seconds of Summer track "Try Hard". The song was originally released on YouTube on 1 June 2013, and in 2014 featured as a B-Side to their hit single "Don't Stop".


title: Tom Fletcher

text: He also cowrote the song "Own This Town" with the British band Chapter 13 for their "Britain's Got Talent" semi-final performance.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher released his first children's book in 2012. Co-written with band-mate Dougie Poynter, "The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas" sold more than 72,000 copies and became the most popular debut children's book of 2012. A follow up titled "The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet" was released on 29 August 2013.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher released his first solo novel, "The Christmasaurus", on 6 October 2016, about a young boy called William Trundle who goes on a magical adventure on Christmas Eve. On 6 October 2017, a musical version of the book, entitled "The Christmasaurus: Musical Edition", was released.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: On 21 March 2019, Fletcher released his second novel and released a Lead single from the soundtrack to "THE CREAKERS: THE MUSICAL EDITION " called "Don't Turn Out The Light" (featuring Chapter 13) from "Britain's Got Talent", along with a music video.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher released "The Christmasaurus and the Winter Witch" in October 2019, a sequel to his first solo novel "The Christmasaurus".


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In November 2020, a series of Fletcher's books appeared in McDonald's Happy Meals as activity packs, including stickers.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In 2008, Fletcher contributed to the short story anthology "Wow! 366". Fletcher and the other members of McFly released their memoir "Unsaid Things... Our Story" in the autumn of 2012.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In June 2011, Fletcher appeared on the ITV game show "The Cube" and became the third person to win £100,000. He gave the money to Comic Relief and BIRT. Later that year, he appeared as a gorilla for bandmate Dougie Poynter to ask five questions for the celebrity chest on episode 11 of "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!". He was also there to greet Poynter on the red carpet after he had won the series. In 2013, he took part in "All Star Family Fortunes" and "All Star Mr and Mrs". All four members of McFly played "Celebrity Deal or No Deal" for charity in 2012 as well. In November 2013, he appeared on "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" with Emma Willis. Fletcher has been a guest on "Celebrity Juice" a total of three times. In 2016, he was a judge on ITV's "Lorraine"s competition to find a new children's author.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher has a strong YouTube audience with just over 633,000 subscribers. He was a frequent vlogger, filming his daily life and his life while he was on tour with McFly.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Between September and November 2021 Fletcher was a contestant on the nineteenth series of "Strictly Come Dancing", partnered with professional dancer Amy Dowden. On 26 September it was announced that both had contracted COVID-19 and would not appear in the next episode. On 21 November they were the eighth couple to be eliminated from the contest, after a dance-off against Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: On 18 April 2011, Fletcher became engaged to his schoolmate and longtime girlfriend Giovanna Falcone. They were married on 12 May 2012. In January 2013, Fletcher uploaded a video to YouTube, titled "My Wedding Speech", in which he sang to the tunes of several of McFly's most successful songs during his speech: the video has received over 23 million views.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher's wife Giovanna is also a YouTube Vlogger and a bestselling-author. Her books, "Billy and Me", "You're the One That I Want", "Christmas with Billy and Me", "Dream a Little Dream", and "Dream a Little Christmas Dream" are published by Penguin's Michael Joseph. She also released a book in 2017 about motherhood titled, "Happy Mum, Happy Baby". She also blogs weekly for "Hello!" magazine.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: It was announced on Fletcher's YouTube channel on 29 October 2013 that the couple were expecting their first child, with a video titled, "We Have Some News...". At 7 pm on 13 March 2014, their son Buzz Michelangelo Fletcher was born. Fletcher announced on 3 September 2015, again on YouTube, that his wife Giovanna was expecting their second child, by means of a video entitled 'Player 2'. On 16 February 2016, their second son Buddy Bob Fletcher was born. During both pregnancies, Fletcher and his wife Giovanna took pictures every day throughout the nine months of pregnancy. They created another YouTube video, called "Bump to Buzz" to announce the arrival of their first son Buzz, which has over 15 million views. The second video announcing the birth of their second son was titled "Bump to Buddy", where they took pictures documenting their second pregnancy, together along with their son Buzz present. On 3 March 2018 it was announced that their third child was due in September, but Max Mario Fletcher, their third son (named after his grandfather), was born early on 24 August 2018.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: Fletcher's younger sister is Carrie Hope Fletcher, an actress, author, singer and YouTube vlogger. Carrie joined him to produce the 2012 Olympic Mascot song, "On a Rainbow". Carrie also joined as a part of the cast of "The Christmasaurus Live", a live production of Tom's debut children's novel of the same name. She played the part of Brenda Payne and sang two solo songs, "Thin Ice" and "I've Been a Good Girl".


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In McFly's autobiography "Unsaid Things", Fletcher discussed his diagnosis of bipolar disorder, which he has stated was a great influence over McFly's second album, "Wonderland". He has also described his struggles with his eating disorder, weight, and obsessive dieting.


title: Tom Fletcher

text: In June 2021, Fletcher and his wife apologised for using the government scheme to furlough an employee. Fletcher and wife Giovanna released a statement on social media clarifying that the money had been returned and admitted that "it was a huge error of judgement."


title: Ariete

text: The C1 Ariete () is the main battle tank of the Italian Army, developed by Consorzio Iveco Oto Melara (CIO), a consortium formed by IVECO and OTO Melara. The chassis and engine were produced by Iveco, while the turret and fire-control system were supplied by OTO Melara. The vehicle carries the latest optical and digital-imaging and fire-control systems, enabling it to fight day and night and to fire on the move. Six prototypes were developed by 1988, which were subject to intensive testing the following year during which the vehicles travelled a combined 16,000 km. Deliveries were first planned for 1993, but in fact took place in 1995 due to delays. Final delivery occurred 7 years later in August 2002.


title: Ariete

text: The tank has a conventional layout similar to other Western MBTs: a driver located at the front of the hull, the fighting compartment towards the middle, and the engine compartment in the rear of the hull.


title: Ariete

text: The Ariete's main armament is 120 mm smoothbore gun, designed by OTO Breda, similar to the Rheinmetall L/44. The gun fires most NATO-standard rounds of the same calibre. It carries 42 rounds, 15 ready rounds are stored vertically on the left side of the main gun breech. The 27 other are stowed in a hull rack to the left of the driver's station. The gun barrel has a thermal insulating sleeve and a fume extractor; it is fully stabilized in both azimuth and elevation by an electro-hydraulic drive system.


title: Ariete

text: Secondary armament consists of a 7.62 mm MG 42/59 coaxial machine gun operated by the tank gunner or commander and an additional 7.62 mm MG 42/59 configured as an anti-aircraft weapon operated by the main-gun loader from his hatch.


title: Ariete

text: The tank's advanced fire-control system, manufactured by Galileo Avionica, is designated OG14L3 TURMS, and includes day and night panoramic capability for the commander's SP-T-694 primary sight (developed collaboratively by SFIM/Galileo), a stabilized platform including a thermal gunner's sight and a laser rangefinder to increase accuracy and expedite target detection and targeting, and a digital fire-control computer, which is capable of measuring wind speed, humidity, and exterior weather conditions, combining them with the turret's angle of elevation, attitude, and the barrel's physical wear to increase accuracy. This computer is also a component of the tank's navigation system and allows for the exchange of tactical information between vehicles in a network. The Ariete has a "hunter-killer" capability in which the commander spots and designates targets for the gunner in a 360° field of vision around the vehicle without changing his position or having to open the turret hatch for visual identification of targets. The commander's sight also has a vertical traverse from −10° to +60° from the horizontal, which allows the tank to engage low-flying airborne threats—primarily helicopters. During night fighting, the commander and gunner both share the thermal sight which is able to resolve a 2.3×x2.3 m target from a distance of 1,500 m.


title: Ariete

text: The Ariete's armour is a steel and composite blend, the turret front shape is similar to the British Challenger 1 and the American M1 Abrams.


title: Ariete

text: The Ariete features two side-mounted, electronically fired GALIX 80mm grenade launchers. Each launcher consists of four 80 mm barrels which can be intermixed with either smoke or chaff grenades. The smoke grenades are capable of shrouding the tank from visual or thermal detection, while the chaff grenades disperse the tank's radar cross section. The tank is fully NBC protected.


title: Ariete

text: The Ariete is powered by a 25.8-litre turbo-charged Fiat-Iveco MTCA 12-cylinder diesel engine in a Vee configuration rated at 937 kilowatts (1,250 hp) at 2,300 rpm, with a maximum torque of 4,615 N·m at 1,600 rpm driving through a ZF LSG3000 automatic transmission, with four forward gears and two reverse, allowing for a top cruising speed of 65 km/h and a 0–32 km/h acceleration in 6 seconds. The computer-controlled transmission allows it to climb grades rated up to 60%, and can ford waterways of up to 1.25 m on-the-fly. The entire engine and transmission assembly can be replaced in under 1 hour.


title: Ariete

text: The Ariete's independent suspension system consists of 14 torsion bars with suspension arms, 10 hydraulic shock absorbers (installed on roadwheels numbers 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7), and 14 friction dampers.


title: Ariete

text: During the first years of adoption, the Ariete MBT showed some deficiencies regarding the powerplant. While the original V12 1,250 hp FIAT-Iveco MTCA (Modular Turbo-Charged Aftercooler) was a coupling of two of the V6 engines used by several Italian Army vehicles such as the Centauro tank destroyer and the Dardo IFV, it produced less power than the most advanced contemporary western designs. The Ariete's engine had to run at a high RPM to perform well, thus reducing the operating time between failures.


title: Ariete

text: Moreover, to retain a good power-to-weight ratio, the total weight of the tank had to be kept below 60 tonnes. The relatively light weight of the Ariete helped lower consumption and facilitated the transport and mobility of the MBT (especially over bridges). This was obtained partially at the expense of the thickness of the armour that, only partially compensated by the good ballistic shape of the vehicle, raised some doubt about its ability to survive in the harshest environments.


title: Ariete

text: As an improvement, Iveco developed a new version of the MTCA engine. The stroke was lengthened, increasing displacement to 30 litres, with a new common rail direct fuel injection system along a new double turbocharger, increasing power output to at 1,800 rpm (with an electronically reduced torque of 5,500 N·m, maintained from 1,100 to 1,800 rpm to reduce damage to the transmission) and further reducing fuel consumption. The new engine had to be adopted during the first general revision of the existing vehicles, but seems to have been blocked by technical and financial problems. As for the armour, Oto Melara developed two different sets (with different thickness levels, depending upon mission nature) of adjunctive armour, shown for the first time at Eurosatory 2002.


title: Ariete

text: In the early 2000s, the Italian Army was interested in developing a new version of Ariete (C2 Ariete or Ariete Mk. 2 designations were considered) which would enter service over the following years with the planned acquisition of 300 units. Budget limitations drastically reduced the number of improved Ariete (order reduced to 200) and eventually caused the subsequent cancellation of the program. The planned improvements were therefore to be applied to the C1 Ariete during the future major revisions.


title: Ariete

text: The Ariete AMV is a mid life update (Ammodernamento di Mezza Vita) of the Ariete for 125 units and includes:


title: Ariete

text: Each tank battalion fields three tank companies with thirteen Ariete each and two Ariete for the battalion commander and the deputy commander.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The university was named after its first principal, John Henry Brookes, who played a major role in the development of the institution.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University is spread across four campuses, with three primary sites based in and around Oxford and the fourth campus located in Swindon. Oxford Brookes University planned to demolish its Wheatley campus and build houses on the site; the local council refused planning permission, but Oxford Brookes appealed, and won in 2020. the Brookes Web site said that the institution had 16,900 students, 2,800 staff and over 190,000 alumni in over 177 countries. The university is divided into four faculties: Oxford Brookes Business School, Health and Life Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Technology, Design and Environment. Oxford Brookes University's partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) allows ACCA students to earn a BSc (Hons) in applied accounting with the submission of a research and analysis project work while taking their ACCA examinations. The university also has schools of architecture and law. Brookes is a member of the University Alliance mission group.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University started in 1865 as the Oxford School of Art, located in a single room on the ground floor of the Taylor Institution at St Giles', Oxford. In 1870 the School of Science was added and in 1891, under the administration of the City Council's Technical Instruction Committee, it was renamed the Oxford City Technical School, incorporating the School of Art, which remained distinct. Plans were made to relocate to the former Blue Coat School for Boys on St. Ebbes.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In 1934 the School of Art and the Technical School were merged and John Henry Brookes, head of the School of Art and vice-principal of the Technical School, was appointed the first principal of the merged institution. By 1950 the college had 4,000 students. A new campus was built on a site offered by the local Morrell brewing family. Renamed "Oxford College of Technology", it opened on the new site in 1956. Its first residence hall was established in 1960 and the college relocated to Headington in 1963.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In 1970, it became Oxford Polytechnic. In 1976, it took over the former Lady Spencer-Churchill College, which had been founded in Wheatley in August 1965. In 1992 it incorporated the Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy, the first school of occupational therapy in the UK. Later in 1992, following enactment of the Further and Higher Education Act, it became Oxford Brookes University, the only one of the new universities to be named after its founder. In 2000, it took over the site of Westminster College, Oxford, basing its education and theological activities on the site, although theology was withdrawn in 2015.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In October 2003, Oxford Brookes University became the first university in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Baroness Kennedy served as the university's chancellor from 1994 to 2001. In 2007, Graham Upton retired as vice-chancellor and his successor, Janet Beer, was inaugurated in September. In July 2008, Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, replaced Jon Snow as chancellor.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In March 2015, Alistair Fitt was inaugurated as vice-chancellor, replacing Janet Beer. In May 2022, Brookes Union released a letter stating the student body had filed a no confidence motion against Fitt Dame Katherine Grainger, a former British Olympic rower, replaced Shami Chakrabarti as chancellor. Grainger is Britain's most decorated female Olympic athlete and the first British woman to win medals at five successive games (Rio 2016, London 2012, Beijing in 2008, Athens in 2004 and Sydney in 2000). She was made a dame for her services to rowing and charity in the 2017 New Years Honours. In June 2020 Katherine Grainger stood down as chancellor. The position remains vacant.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In 2015, Oxford Brookes University celebrated its 150th anniversary. A range of events and activities took place, including celebrations recognising John Henry Brookes, the university's modern founder. The first founder's day was held in May 2016.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Headington campus is in a residential area of Oxford. The campus is made up of three sites; the main site on Gipsy Lane, home to a number of departments from across the university's four academic faculties and the £132m John Henry Brookes Building which opened in 2014. Across the road is the Headington Hill Hall site, home to the School of Arts and School of Law, and a short walk from main site is the Marston Road site a dedicated space for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences and home to subjects including nursing, midwifery and occupational therapy.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Located on the campus are the main halls of residence, including Crescent Hall, Cheney Student Village, Clive Booth Hall, Clive Booth non-en suite (formerly Morrell Hall) and Warneford Hall.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Wheatley campus is near Wheatley in the Oxfordshire countryside, seven miles south-east of the city centre. It is where information technology, mathematics and engineering are taught. The tall tower block can be seen from the A40 dual carriageway. The top four floors of the tower were initially closed in the early 2000s following the suicide of a student from the top. Five years later the rest of the tower was shut after asbestos was found and the building was deemed unsafe to house students. The campus is set for closure in the future, when the subjects taught at Wheatley are due to be moved to the Headington campus.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Harcourt Hill campus is situated on Harcourt Hill on Oxford's western perimeter, two and a half miles from the city centre. Education, philosophy, religion, theology, media and communication, and other subjects are taught here. It has two halls of residence: Harcourt Hill Hall and Westminster Hall. A regular devoted bus service links the campus to other campuses at Headington and Wheatley. It is also home to the university's leisure centre.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The campus was formerly the site of Westminster College, Oxford, an independent Methodist higher education institution which specialised in teacher training and theology. The campus was leased to Brookes by the Methodist Church, and Westminster College became the Westminster Institute of Education of Oxford Brookes University, located at the Harcourt Hill campus.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University opened its Swindon campus in August 2016. The university moved from the former Ferndale campus in Swindon to a new and larger campus situated to the west of the town centre at the Delta Business Park. The building is named the Joel Joffe Building after Lord Joel Joffe, long-time Swindon resident and former human-rights lawyer. Adult nursing, operating department practice (ODP) and a range of continuing professional development (CPD) courses are taught there. The campus features a 185-seat lecture theatre, library and social learning spaces, teaching rooms and three clinical skills suites. Oxford Brookes University partners with Swindon College as part of its Associate College Partnership to deliver foundation and degree courses, provides widening participation activity with local schools.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In recent years the university has seen major redevelopments including the opening of the £132 million John Henry Brookes Building, named after the university's spiritual leader, which opened on the Headington campus in 2014. It brings together the library and teaching spaces with student support services and the Students' Union (Brookes Union), who were formerly housed in the Helena Kennedy Centre on the Headington Hill site. The building has won multiple awards including a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) National Award; three RIBA regional awards; Oxford Preservation Trust Award and the Student Experience category of the 2014 Education Estates Awards.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In 2013 the redeveloped Abercrombie Building opened on the Headington campus, offering facilities for architecture students with design studios and collaborative learning spaces. In October 2014 it won the Architects' Journal Retrofit Award.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In January 2015 Oxford Brookes University announced a major estates investment for the next 10 years, with £13 million per year to be spent on redevelopment across all its campuses. This is to include additional building on the Headington and Harcourt campuses as well as a new campus in Swindon. Part of this investment will see all activity moved from the Wheatley campus by 2021/22. The Oxford Brookes Business School moved from the Wheatley campus to refurbished buildings at Headington campus in 2017 with other departments to move to new buildings on the Headington Hill site in 2020. Many of the planned transfers to Headington campus have been postponed due to Covid-19 and issues with budgets. The proposed new location for the School of Arts alongside Engineering remains vacant at this time


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The university's original redevelopment proposals were vigorously opposed by local residents in 2009 when presented to the local planning committee, with many undesirable aspects of the large student population in Oxford being discussed. However, the plans for the new building were eventually approved and building work began in 2010.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University was ranked among the world's top institutions in 16 subjects and four subject areas in the "QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017". In 2016, Brookes was listed as one of the world's top universities for its international outlook in the "Times Higher Education's (THE)" Top 200 international universities. Brookes has retained its top ten world ranking in the "QS Distance Online MBA Ranking 2017" for its MBA programme. The university has 10 National Teaching Fellowships from the Higher Education Authority and was among the top 25 in the UK for teaching quality in the "Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide" 2016. Brookes is ranked in the top 51-100 for Architecture and Business & Management Studies in the world by "QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019". It is also ranked in the top 10 for Hospitality & Leisure Management in the world by "QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019". In both 2018 and 2019, "QS World University Rankings" named it the only UK university on its list of Top 50 universities under 50 years old in the world. It is among the top 400 universities in the world, ranked 363rd by the "QS World University Rankings 2020".


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Hotcourses UK ranked Oxford Brookes University in the top 15 of the most culturally diverse institutions in the UK in July 2016.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In July 2016, Headington and Harcourt Hill campuses received a Green Flag Award for the quality of their green spaces for the fifth year in a row.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In 2016, Oxford Brookes University achieved an overall satisfaction rate of 87% in the National Student Survey (NSS) higher than the national average of 86%. The university also had 18 subject areas which received 90% or higher overall satisfaction.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University's School of Architecture is one of the largest in Britain and is consistently ranked in the top five schools in the UK and in the top 50 in the world. Brookes' School of Law is the 16th placed law school in the latest "Guardian Good University Guide" The law school is also ranked 28th out of 100 UK university law schools for the study of undergraduate law in "The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020". Moreover, law courses also are ranked in the top 150-200 bracket of the QS World University Subject Rankings. The university has been successful in national and international mooting competitions, in 2016 winning both the ESU Essex Court National Competition and the Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Mooting Competition, meaning the national Magna Carta moot - to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta - as a consequence will be between two Oxford Brookes University teams.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In the most recent Research Excellence Framework in 2014 (REF 2014) 94% of research was internationally recognised and 59% judged to be of 'world leading' quality or 'internationally excellent'. This led to a 41% increase in quality-related research funding compared to a 3% rise across the sector.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In October 2016 the university retained its HR Excellence in Research Award from the European Commission, recognising the university's commitment to supporting the personal, professional and career development of its research-active staff.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) in the School of the Built Environment was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize. CENDEP provides an academic setting for the study of cities, humanitarianism and refugees. Singer and activist Annie Lennox is patron of the Master's Course in Humanitarian and Development Practice.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Oxford Brookes Centre for Nutrition and Health is the UK's first research centre dedicated to functional foods. The centre was originally the Nutrition and Food Research Group at Oxford Brookes and was founded in 2004.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Department of Computing and Communication Technologies is internationally recognised for its research especially in the area of robotics, web technology, networking and software engineering. The department has a strong international student population in both its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The Oxford Brookes School of Technology is known for its automotive and motorsports technology/engineering courses leading to undergraduate BSc (Hons), BEng (Hons), MEng (Hons) and MSc degrees. Due to the close links between the school and several Formula 1 teams around Oxfordshire, the syllabus development for the undergraduate and post graduate courses are carried out in collaboration with F1 teams. Over the decade, the school has developed a niche for producing Formula 1 design and race engineers, who go on to build championship winning cars, participating in the FIA Formula 1 Championships. The school is also home and lead institution to Motorsport Knowledge Exchange which is a Government-funded small cooperative of institutions, involved in delivering motorsport education at a variety of levels from technician to post-graduate.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: In 2007, Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso sponsored 12 Spanish postgraduate students to study for an MSc in motorsport engineering or in race engine design within the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the university. The university has a teaching staff that includes Geoff Goddard, a former chief designer at Cosworth.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The School of Technology at Oxford Brookes University is one of the three core universities in Faraday Advance, a partnership in advanced materials for transportation that develops future materials and technology for low-pollution, high-efficiency, cost-effective transport.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes University's partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) allows ACCA students to earn a BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting with the submission of a research and analysis project work while taking their ACCA examinations.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The university has a partnership with the International Business School (Nemzetközi Üzleti Főiskola) based in Budapest (Hungary). IBS students can attend courses which, besides the Hungarian degree, also provide OBU BA degrees in different subjects, such as marketing and communications.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: The university has affiliations with Nilai University College in Malaysia. Affiliated subjects are computing, accounting and finance, business management, marketing management and hospitality management. All the subjects mentioned above are 3+0 programs.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: Oxford Brookes Students' Union is the students' union of the university. It is a member-led organisation and all students are automatically members. The union offers a range of services for students; it hosts a number of student societies, a safety bus service, an advice service, and a system of student representatives. In 2012, Oxford Brookes students' union was ranked amongst the worst in the country for student satisfaction, according to the National Student Survey (NSS), where only 34% of students claimed to be content with the students' union.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: There are currently 12 student halls four of which are on Headington campus, two on the Harcourt Hill campus, one on the Wheatley campus and three more halls around Headington. In addition, there are five privately operated halls of residence which are managed in partnership with the university by housing associations: Slade Park Student Apartments, Parade Green, Sinnet Court Student Apartments, Beech House Student Accommodation and Dorset House Student Apartments.


title: Oxford Brookes University

text: BrookesBus is a public bus service operated under contract by the Oxford Bus Company which operates between all Brookes campuses and student halls in Oxford. In 2014, Oxford Bus introduced a fleet of 20 new buses with flywheel energy storage on the BrookesBus service.


title: Goat Simulator

text: Goat Simulator is a third-person perspective action video game developed and published by Coffee Stain Studios. It was released for Microsoft Windows in April 2014, and ports for Linux and OS X were released in June 2014. Mobile versions for Android and iOS were released in September 2014. Versions for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One were released in April 2015, and for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in August 2015; these ports were developed by Double Eleven. A Nintendo Switch version containing the game and downloadable content was released in January 2019.


title: Goat Simulator

text: The game has been compared by the developer to skateboarding games, but where the player controls a goat aimed at doing as much damage as possible around an open world map, without any other larger goals. The game, initially developed as a joke prototype from an internal game jam and shown in an early alpha state in YouTube videos, was met with excitement and attention, prompting the studio to build the game into a releasable state while still retaining various non-breaking bugs and glitches to maintain the game's entertainment value.


title: Goat Simulator

text: The game received mixed reviews; some reviewers praised the title for providing a humorous sandbox interface to experiment with, while others criticized the game's reliance on social media to popularize what was otherwise a simple and buggy product.


title: Goat Simulator

text: "Goat Simulator" is an open-ended third-person perspective game in which the player controls a goat called Pilgor. The player is free to explore the game's world — a suburban setting — as a goat, and jump, run, bash things, and lick objects. Licking objects attaches the goat's tongue to the object and lets the player drag the object around until they let go. At any time, the player can let the goat drop into a ragdoll model, allowing the game's physics to take over, and another control makes the game run in slow-motion. A number of environmental features allow the player to manipulate the goat into stunts such as bouncing off trampolines or launching the goat into the air through large fans. The game features a scoring system similar to skateboarding games like "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater", whereby doing tricks or other actions earns points, while chaining such tricks together in sequence helps build a multiplier that applies to the total score of the tricks done in the sequence. Various in-game goals, such as achieving a certain height, completing flips, or destroying certain objects, are given to the player, but the player is not required to follow these instructions.


title: Goat Simulator

text: Small gold goat statues are hidden in the game's world. Mutators are progressively unlocked by obtaining the statues. Mutators are toggleable within the main menu of the game. Each adds a unique mechanic and/or appearance to the standard goat, such as changing the goat model to a demon goat, a giraffe, or an ostrich, or adding a jetpack to the goat that can be activated at any time. Various easter eggs are scattered about the sandbox, such as a castle where one can become the Queen of all Goats, or where the goat character gains a move similar to Sonic the Hedgehog's spin attack. The game's lead developer Armin Ibrisagic noted after release that the game's setting is a parody of the concept of Purgatory, having left references to Heaven and Hell that were later found by fans. Ibrisagic also noted the inclusion of some elements based on the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.


title: Goat Simulator

text: "Goat Simulator" started as a joke prototype from an internal one-month game jam held by Coffee Stain Studios in January 2014, after completing work for their game "Sanctum 2". The game was described by the lead developer Armin Ibrisagic as "an old school skating game, except instead of being a skater, you're a goat, and instead of doing tricks, you wreck stuff". The idea followed after originally pitching the game as a variation of "QWOP", where the player would control the individual limbs of the goat separately with various keyboard keys; this concept was rejected in favor of the more "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater"-type of gameplay the final game presents. Ibrisagic had focused on goats after jokingly trying to convince his coworkers that goats would achieve viral attention on the Internet in much the same way that cats presently do.


title: Goat Simulator

text: The prototype used Nvidia PhysX and an Apex physics engine with ragdoll physics for the goat and human models within Unreal Engine 3, a game engine they were familiar with from the "Sanctum" series. In-game assets were purchased from third-party vendors instead of developed in-house, such as the original goat model which the studio acquired for use for less than $20. The prototype was meant to be a parody of various other "weirdly successful" "Simulation" games presently available, such as "Euro Truck Simulator". Ibrisagic had no intention of this becoming a full title, instead only offering the prototype for him and other developers to learn the Unreal Engine alongside other developers that were developing prototypes in more earnest.


title: Goat Simulator

text: Footage of the game in its alpha state was posted to YouTube by Coffee Stain, where it received more than a million views in two days and a large response from fans requesting a full release of the game in part due to various glitches in the prototype's engine. The appeal of the video was also picked up by the agricultural magazine "Modern Farmer". Some journalists suggested that the title be developed into a full game even knowing it was meant as a joking title; GameSpot editor Danny O'Dwyer supported the full release of the game arguing that "games should be dumb once in a while".


title: Goat Simulator

text: The large positive response to the alpha footage convinced the studio to develop "Goat Simulator" as a full title to Steam, putting more people on the title. The team, having no plans for a full release, debated on whether to approach a large publisher to receive funding to help make the title into something like "Grand Theft Auto", but decided to stay with a small, inexpensive title that would be truer to the teaser video. Recognizing that the glitching was part of the game's appeal, Ibrisagic only sought to fix software bugs that might cause the game to crash, leaving in the other glitches and bugs associated with the physics engine as the results from these were "really hilarious". They limited themselves to a short development time of four weeks without significant management oversight as to set an urgent but realistic goal to bring the game to a playable state. Ibrisagic felt it was important for the game to be supported on Steam, but initially feared that Valve would not accept the quirky title. He instead found Valve to be welcoming of the title, including a joking response from the company that stated "[Valve's marketing manager DJ Powers] has started wearing a goat costume to work he’s so excited about this game". As part of its release, Coffee Stain added support for Steam Workshop which would let players modify the game, aware that players would likely create levels and scenarios that will glitch and crash the game for humorous results. While the physics engine allows for spectacular rendering of destruction of the game environment, which is a main feature of the game, Coffee Stain acknowledged the downside of this as "it would synchronise terribly in multiplayer". They estimated that adding multiplayer would remove "90 percent of the physics" and many other features, and left the game as a single player title at launch. The studio considered that it only spent a couple months to complete the Windows version, and opted to outsource versions for OS X and Linux, with Ryan Gordon handling the porting.


title: Goat Simulator

text: Coffee Stain Studios released "Goat Simulator" worldwide on 1 April 2014, aware that tying the date with April Fools' Day may raise doubts on the validity of the game. Those that pre-ordered the game through Coffee Stain's website received early access to the title three days ahead of release. The official release trailer for "Goat Simulator" is a loose parody of the "Dead Island" announcement trailer showing, among shots of the game, reversed slow-motion footage of the goat crashing through a building after being launched from an exploding gas station.


title: Goat Simulator

text: The studio released a free expansion and patch to the game on 3 June 2014, which in addition to fixing game-breaking issues, added new goat models, a new map to explore based on a seaside town with a carnival, more game-breaking issues, and local multiplayer for up to 4 players via split-screen. Ibrisagic believes that adding multiplayer support atop Steam Workshop support will allow creative users to develop new gameplay modes that will extend the title's playability. The patch also adds in additional controls that the player can use to make the goat perform various freestyle tricks comparable to those in "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater". The studio released a second free patch to the game on 20 November 2014 called "Goat MMO Simulator", which included a gamemode that parodied massive multiplayer online games like "World of Warcraft", while remaining a single player or local multiplayer experience.


title: Goat Simulator

text: A paid-content expansion titled "GoatZ" was released on 7 May 2015 as downloadable content for the game on personal computers and a stand-alone application for mobile devices. It was developed by Coffee Stain's partner studio Gone North Games. The expansion's content spoofs zombie-based survival games, such as "DayZ", and includes a new map and gameplay aspects such as fighting off zombies and crafting. The title itself plays off "DayZ" as well as a play on the Internet meme goatse.cx. In a cross-promotional "GoatBread" update with Bossa Studios' "I Am Bread" to be offered in late 2015, a free update to "Goat Simulator" will allow the players to select a piece of bread as their avatar, while "I Am Bread" will add in a "RAMpage" mode based on "Goat Simulator". Another add-on, the "Super Secret DLC" package part of a cross-promotion with Overkill Software's "Payday 2"; the "Payday"-inspired content for "Goat Simulator" included additional playable characters including a camel, flamingo, and a dolphin in a wheelchair, while "Goat Simulator" content will be added to "Payday 2". These were released in January 2016. "Goat Simulator" decorative content was added to "Rocket League" in a mid-2016 update. Another expansion, "Waste of Space", was again developed by Gone North Games and released on 26 May 2016. The expansion features a new map based on a space colony, and spoofs much of the recent science fiction media genre.


title: Goat Simulator

text: The OS X and Linux ports were released on 27 June 2014. Following the game's digital release, Koch Media agreed to distribute the game in UK and EU retail stores starting in May 2014. Similarly, Deep Silver approached Coffee Stain Studios to work out a deal to publish the title in North American retail markets starting in July 2014. At Microsoft's presentation at the 2014 Gamescom convention in August, "Goat Simulator" was announced as one of several titles to be coming to the Xbox One platform with the help of Double Eleven studios, and later confirmed to be also arriving for the Xbox 360, with both versions released on 17 April 2015. Koch Media also distributed a retail version of the Xbox One version, including all additional downloadable content, across Europe for release on 4 March 2016. Coffee Stain Studios also released ports for iOS and Android in September 2014. Each DLC is a separate app for iOS and Android, and each one (except "Goat Simulator: Payday") includes a mobile-exclusive map. PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions, also ported by Double Eleven, were released on 11 August 2015.


title: Goat Simulator

text: With the acquisition of Coffee Stain through THQ Nordic AB on 14 November 2018, it was announced that a Nintendo Switch version of "Goat Simulator" would be released. "Goat Simulator: The GOATY", which includes all expansions to date, was released on 23 January 2019.


title: Goat Simulator

text: "Goat Simulator" received "mixed" reviews upon release, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. "Goat Simulator" was named as an honorable mention for Excellence in Audio for the 2015 Independent Games Festival.