title: Tim Jenkin

text: In December 1979, Jenkin, Lee and fellow inmate Alex Moumbaris broke out of Pretoria Central Prison using handmade keys to ten of the doors leading out of the prison, after several hair-raising moments when encountering unforeseen obstacles. Goldberg distracted the warden while the three made their escape. The street was deserted, but they still had to find their way out of South Africa, into Mozambique and to freedom. This had involved a great deal of planning but there were still many challenges in the execution, travelling via Angola, Zambia and Tanzania finally to London.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: Jenkin and Lee appeared at a press conference in Lusaka with Oliver Tambo on 2 January 1980 to tell their stories, before moving to London, where Jenkin worked as a research officer for the International Defence and Aid Fund. He and Lee went on a speaking tour in Sweden in the early 1980s.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: When living in Camden, still with the ANC, Jenkin devised a system for encrypted communication for the ANC to communicate with their agents. Messages were typed into a computer, encrypted and saved to audio cassette, then sent from a public callbox to an answering machine. The system was never cracked and helped the ANC coordinate in the run up to Nelson Mandela's release from prison.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: Jenkin returned to South Africa in 1991 to manage the ANC's communications network. He worked for the ANC Elections Briefing Unit from 1994 (the year of the first fully democratic elections in South Africa), before being appointed head of their Electronic Information Unit in Cape Town later that year. In 1997, he became a director of Unwembi Communications (Pty) Ltd.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: Around the turn of the millennium Jenkin co-founded the Community Exchange System, an internet-based moneyless exchange for local communities, comparable to LETS, writing the entirety of its software. A decade later Jenkin also created Clearing Central, a 2nd tier exchange for moneyless exchange between groups. In 2015 he went on a national tour in Australia organised by Karel Boele speaking about his escape and community currencies.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: In 1987 his book, "Escape from Pretoria", was published in London. A new edition was published in Johannesburg and London as "Inside Out : Escape from Pretoria Prison" in 2003. In 1995, Jenkin wrote a 6-part article series called "Talking to Vula: The Story of the Secret Underground Communications Network of Operation Vula". In 2013, the story of the prison escape was dramatised in the 7th episode of the 2nd season of "Breakout", a television series made by National Geographic TV channel dramatising real-life prison escapes. The video features excerpts from interviews with Jenkin, Lee, Moumbaris and Goldberg filmed in 2012, in between re-enacted scenes of the prison escape.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: In 2014 a documentary film called "The Vula Connection", about Jenkin and his part in the creation of an ingenious secret communication system that enabled Vula operatives to penetrate South Africa's borders in secret, ultimately smuggling messages to the imprisoned Nelson Mandela, was made by Marion Edmunds.


title: Tim Jenkin

text: In May 2017, it was announced that production would start on a film of Jenkin's book, produced by David Barron and starring Daniel Radcliffe as Jenkin and Ian Hart as Goldberg. Filming of "Escape from Pretoria" began in Adelaide, South Australia, in March and April 2019, with Daniel Webber joining the cast as Lee. Jenkin spent some time in Adelaide, advising Radcliffe on accent and other aspects of the film, as well as playing as an extra, playing a prisoner next to Radcliffe in the visiting room. The film was released on 6 March 2020, first in the UK and USA and then in the rest of the world. He also participated in a local parkrun, a hobby which he said stemmed back from his days of running to keep fit in prison.


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: Phyllanthus emblica, also known as emblic, emblic myrobalan, myrobalan, Indian gooseberry, Malacca tree, or amla, from the Sanskrit आमलकी (āmalakī), is a deciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. Its native range is tropical and southern Asia.


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: The tree is small to medium in size, reaching in height. The branchlets are not glabrous or finely pubescent, long, usually deciduous; the leaves are simple, subsessile and closely set along branchlets, light green, resembling pinnate leaves. The flowers are greenish-yellow. The fruit is nearly spherical, light greenish-yellow, quite smooth and hard on appearance, with six vertical stripes or furrows. The fruit is up to in diameter, and, while the fruit of wild plants weigh approximately , cultivated fruits average to


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: Ripening in autumn, the berries are harvested by hand after climbing to upper branches bearing the fruits. The taste of Indian emblic is sour, bitter and astringent, and it is quite fibrous.


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: In the Buddhist tradition there are many references to the fruit of the emblic myrobalan. In the Śatapañcāśatka, Buddha’s knowledge is described in a poetic simile: “O Bhagavan, the entire origination of all types of phenomena throughout time is within the range of your mind, like an ambalan fruit in the palm of your hand”.


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: Half an amalaka fruit was the final gift to the Buddhist sangha by the great Indian emperor Ashoka. This is illustrated in the Ashokavadana in the following verses: "A great donor, the lord of men, the eminent Maurya Ashoka, has gone from being lord of Jambudvipa [the continent] to being lord of half a myrobalan". In Theravada Buddhism, this plant is said to have been used as the tree for achieving enlightenment, or Bodhi, by the twenty first Buddha, named Phussa Buddha.


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: The amla fruit is eaten raw or cooked into various dishes, such as "dal" (a lentil preparation) and "amle ka murabbah", a sweet dish made by soaking the berries in sugar syrup until they are candied. It is traditionally consumed after meals.


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: In the Batak area of Sumatra, Indonesia, the inner bark is used to impart an astringent, bitter taste to the broth of a traditional fish soup known as "holat".


title: Phyllanthus emblica

text: These fruits contain high amounts of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and have a bitter taste that may derive from a high density of ellagitannins, such as emblicanin A (37%), emblicanin B (33%), punigluconin (12%), and pedunculagin (14%). Amla also contains punicafolin and phyllanemblinin A, phyllanemblin other polyphenols, such as flavonoids, kaempferol, ellagic acid, and gallic acid.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004) was an American man who was convicted and executed for the murder of his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas, on December 23, 1991. Since Willingham's 2004 execution, significant controversy has arisen over the legitimacy of the guilty verdict and the interpretation of the evidence that was used to convict him of arson and murder.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Willingham's case and the investigative techniques were criticized by a 2004 "Chicago Tribune" article. The case was discussed again in a 2009 investigative report in "The New Yorker". This coverage suggested that the arson evidence was misinterpreted. According to an August 2009 investigative report by an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, the original claims of arson were doubtful. The Corsicana Fire Department disputes the findings, stating that the report overlooked several key points in the record. The 2011 documentary, "", also explored the case.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: The case was complicated by allegations that Texas Governor, Rick Perry, impeded the investigation by replacing three of the nine Forensic Commission members to change the Commission's findings; Perry denies the allegations.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: On December 23, 1991, a fire destroyed the family home of Cameron Todd Willingham in Corsicana, Texas. Killed in the fire were Willingham's three daughters: two-year-old Amber Louise Kuykendall, and one-year-old twins, Karmen Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham. Willingham himself escaped the home with only minor burns. Stacy Kuykendall, Willingham's then-wife and the mother of his three daughters, was not home at the time of the fire. She was out shopping for Christmas presents at a thrift shop.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Prosecutors charged that Willingham set the fire and killed the children in an attempt to cover up the abuse of the children and wife . However, there was no evidence of child abuse. Kuykendall told prosecutors that he had never abused the children. "Our kids were spoiled rotten," she said, insisting he would never harm their children, but according to Kuykendall, she herself was abused by him.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: After the fire, the police investigation determined that the fire had been started using some form of a liquid accelerant. This evidence included a finding of char patterns in the floor in the shape of "puddles," a finding of multiple starting points of the fire, and a finding that the fire had burned "fast and hot," all considered to indicate a fire that had been ignited with the help of a liquid accelerant. The investigators also found charring under the aluminum front doorjamb, which they believed was a further indication of a liquid accelerant and tested positive for such an accelerant in the area of the front door. No clear motive was found, and Willingham's wife denied that the couple had been fighting prior to the night of the fire.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In addition to the arson evidence presented at the trial, a jailhouse informant named Johnny Webb testified at that time. His testimony has been criticized as contentious for several reasons. Webb claimed that Willingham confessed that he set the fire to hide an injury or death of one of the girls, which was caused by his wife. But none of the girls were found at the time of death to have physical injuries that were still distinguishable after the effects of the fire. Webb later told David Grann, a reporter for "The New Yorker" that he might have been mistaken. He said he was prescribed many medications at that point while being treated for bipolar disorder.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: At Willingham's trial, Webb offered an explanation for the individual, distinguishable burns found on Amber's forehead and arm. He said that Willingham confessed to burning her twice with a piece of "wadded up" paper in an effort to make it appear as though the children were "playing with fire."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Prosecutor John Jackson noted that Webb was considered unreliable, but he later supported an early release from prison for Webb. Webb later sent Jackson a "Motion to Recant Testimony," which declared, "Mr. Willingham is innocent of all charges." Willingham's attorneys were not notified. Webb later recanted his recantation. Webb later said, "The statute of limitations has run out on perjury, hasn't it?"


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Webb and Jackson consistently denied that Webb was offered a sentence reduction in return for his testimony against Willingham. Evidence of such a deal would have eliminated Webb's testimony. In February 2014, the "New York Times" reported that the Innocence Project investigators said that they had discovered a handwritten note in Webb's files indicating that just such a deal was in play.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: During the penalty phase of the trial, a prosecutor said that Willingham's tattoo of a skull and serpent fit the profile of a sociopath. Two medical experts confirmed the theory. A psychologist was asked to interpret Willingham's Iron Maiden poster. He said that a picture of a fist punching through a skull signified violence and death. He added that Willingham's Led Zeppelin poster of a fallen angel was "many times" an indicator of "cultive-type" activities.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Psychiatrist James Grigson, known by the moniker "Dr. Death" for his repeated testimony as an expert witness in which he recommended the death penalty, said that a man of Willingham's criminal history was an "extremely severe sociopath" and was incurable. Grigson had served as an expert witness for the prosecution in murder trials across the state of Texas. Prior to his death, he was expelled by the American Psychiatric Association and the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for unethical conduct. The APA said that Grigson had violated the organization's ethics code by


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: "arriving at a psychiatric diagnosis without first having examined the individuals in question, and for indicating, while testifying in court as an expert witness, that he could predict with 100 per cent certainty that the individuals would engage in future violent acts."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: The prosecution sought to establish that Willingham's conduct at the time of the fire and in the days afterward was suspicious. As the fire took hold, Willingham was driven out through the front door of his house, where he crouched down near the entrance. On seeing neighbor Diane Barbee, Willingham began to shout at her to call 911, shouting "My babies are in there!" At trial, Willingham's conduct at the scene was described as oscillating between collected and hysterical — at times screaming for assistance and at other times calmly pushing his car back from the flames that were engulfing his house. Willingham later explained that he removed the car out of concern that it could explode and worsen the house fire.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Eyewitnesses described Willingham as having "singed hair on his chest, eyelids, and head and had a two-inch burn injury on his right shoulder, but the prosecution highlighted the absence of any evidence of smoke inhalation. His wrists and hands were blackened with smoke. He was eventually transported to the hospital for treatment, in handcuffs."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: According to their sworn statements, both Brandice Barbee and Diane Barbee urged Willingham to return to the house to rescue his children. According to Brandice Barbee, "All I could see was smoke." According to Brandice, he refused, and moved his car away from the fire before returning to sit on a nearby lawn, "not once attempting to go inside to rescue his children." Once the fire had reached flashover and the fire department arrived, Willingham became far more agitated, to the point of being restrained by emergency services.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In the following days, Willingham returned to the house with some family and friends. Neighbors described this group as having an odd levity, which was seen to turn somber on the arrival of authorities. On returning to the scene of the fire with fireman Ron Franks, in an effort to recover personal property (which was described as a very usual request at trial), Willingham was visibly dismayed at being unable to find a dart set. At a local bar, where a fundraiser was held for the Willingham family, he placed an order for a replacement set, stating that "money was not a problem now."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: The prosecution claimed that Willingham may have been motivated by a desire to rid himself of unwanted children. The prosecutor claimed that the fire that killed the children was the third attempt by Willingham to kill them, and that he had attempted to abort each of his wife's two pregnancies by kicking her in order to cause miscarriages.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: But journalist David Grann reported that "...there is evidence that Willingham hit his wife, even when she was pregnant, but there were no police reports or medical evidence indicating that Willingham had tried to abort or kill his children." He wrote, "Willingham's wife insisted during the trial and under interrogation that Willingham had not physically abused the children." The testimony at trial of Johnny Webb, a jailhouse informant, suggested that Willingham had set the fire in order to cover up an injury or death of one of the children due to his wife's actions.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: The prosecutor also claimed that Willingham was a serial wife abuser, both physically and emotionally. Jackson claimed Willingham had abused animals and was a sociopath. However, those not associated with the case paint a different picture of Willingham. His former probation officer, Polly Goodin, said he had never demonstrated bizarre or sociopathic behavior and that "He was probably one of my favorite kids." Bebe Bridges, a former judge who was often on the "opposite side" of Willingham in the legal system, and who had sent him to jail for stealing, said that she could not imagine him killing his children. "He was polite, and he seemed to care," she said.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Willingham was charged with murder on January 8, 1992. During his trial in August 1992, he was offered a life term in exchange for a guilty plea, which he turned down, insisting he was innocent.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: At trial, the fire investigator Vasquez testified there were three points of origin for the fire, which indicated that the fire was "intentionally set by human hands." A sample of burned material near the doorway of the house tested positive for mineral spirits, indicating the presence of lighter fluid. Willingham had escaped the fire with bare feet and no burn marks. This was taken as evidence that the accelerant was poured by Willingham as he left the house. Several witnesses testified for the prosecution.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In 2009, John Jackson, the prosecutor at the trial, stated that burns suffered by Willingham were "so superficial as to suggest that the same were self-inflicted in an attempt to divert suspicion from himself." "The New Yorker" writer David Grann, however, said fire investigators who reviewed the case told him that "Willingham's first-degree and second-degree burns were consistent with being in a fire before the moment of 'flashover' — that is, when everything in a room suddenly ignites."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Commenting on the condition of the house, Jackson added, "any escape or rescue route from the burning house was blocked by a refrigerator, which had been pushed against the back door, requiring any person attempting an escape to run through the conflagration at the front of the house." There were two refrigerators in the Willingham house. Jimmie Hensley, a police detective, and Douglas Fogg, the assistant fire chief — who both investigated the fire — told "The New Yorker" author Grann that they had never believed that the fridge was part of the arson plot. "It didn't have [anything] to do with the fire," Fogg said.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Jackson contradicted Willingham's account by claiming blood gas analysis at Navarro Regional Hospital shortly after the fire revealed that Willingham had not inhaled any smoke. Willingham's statement and eyewitness accounts had detailed rescue attempts.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Consistent with typical Navarro County death penalty practice, Willingham was offered the opportunity to eliminate himself as a suspect by polygraph examination, which Willingham rejected, according to Jackson. Against the advice of his own counsel, Willingham declined a life sentence in exchange for his guilty plea. He insisted he would not admit to something he had not done, even if it meant sparing his life. During his trial, Willingham did not testify; the defense called only one witness, the Willinghams' babysitter, who stated that she believed that Willingham could not have killed his children.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Willingham had the Texas Department of Criminal Justice number 999041. While on death row, Willingham was initially incarcerated in the Ellis Unit, and later in the Polunsky Unit.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Willingham's case gained attention in December 2004, when Maurice Possley and Steve Mills of the "Chicago Tribune" published on poor investigative tactics. In 2009, an investigative report by David Grann in "The New Yorker" drew upon analysis by arson investigation experts and advances in fire science since the 1992 investigation; he suggested that the evidence for arson was unconvincing. He suggested that, had this information been available at the time of trial, it would have provided grounds for Willingham's acquittal. The 2011 documentary "" also explored the case.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Willingham maintained his innocence up until his death and spent years trying to appeal his conviction. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Willingham a writ of "habeas corpus" a month before his execution. Willingham was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004, at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. He was 36 years old.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In 2004, Gerald Hurst examined the arson evidence compiled by state deputy fire marshal Manuel Vasquez. Hurst individually discredited each piece of arson evidence, using publicly supported experiments backed by his re-creation of the elements in question, the most notable being the Lime Street fire, which created the unique 3-point burn patterns flashover.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: This left only the chemical testing for accelerant. The front porch was the only place where an accelerant was verified by laboratory tests, and a photograph taken of the house before the fire showed that a charcoal grill was there. Hurst speculated that it was likely that water sprayed by firefighters had spread the lighter fluid from the melted container. All twenty of the indications listed by Vasquez of an accelerant being used were rebutted by Hurst, who concluded there was "no evidence of arson" — the same conclusion reached by other fire investigators.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Hurst's report was sent to governor Rick Perry's office, as well as the Board of Pardons and Paroles along with Willingham's appeal for clemency. Neither responded to Willingham's appeals. In response to allegations that he allowed the execution of an innocent man, Perry was quoted as stating, "Willingham was a monster. He was a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn't have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that quite frankly you all aren't covering."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: But Hurst said, "The whole case was based on the purest form of junk science. There was no item of evidence that indicated arson." A spokeswoman for Governor Perry said he had weighed the "totality of the issues that led to (Willingham's) conviction." The spokeswoman added he was aware of a "claim of a reinterpretation of (the) arson testimony."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Since Willingham's execution, persistent questions have been raised as to the accuracy of the forensic evidence used in the conviction: specifically, whether it can be proven that an accelerant (such as the lighter fluid mentioned above) was used to start the fatal fire. Fire investigator Gerald L. Hurst reviewed the case documents, including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene. Hurst said in December 2004 that "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In June 2009, the State of Texas ordered a re-examination of the case. In August 2009, eighteen years after the fire and five years after Willingham's execution, a report conducted by Dr. Craig Beyler, hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to review the case, found that "a finding of arson could not be sustained." Beyler said key testimony from a fire marshal at Willingham's trial was "hardly consistent with a scientific mind-set and is more characteristic of mystics or psychics."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: The prosecutor, John Jackson, and the City of Corsicana have both released formal responses to the Beyler Report on the investigation of the fire that killed Willingham's three children at the behest of the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Both were sharply critical of Beyler. In a 2009 article discussing the reasons why Willingham was found guilty, Jackson recalled witness statements establishing that Willingham was overheard whispering to his deceased older daughter at the funeral home, "You're not the one who was supposed to die." Jackson stated that Willingham's comment was an indicator of guilt. In a rebuttal, Grann wrote,


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: "If the arson investigators had concluded that there was no scientific evidence that a crime had occurred — as the top fire investigators in the country have now determined — Willingham's words at the funeral would surely be viewed as a sign that he was tormented by the fact that he had survived without saving his children."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: An August 2009 "Chicago Tribune" investigative article concluded, "Over the past five years, the Willingham case has been reviewed by nine of the nation's top fire scientists — first for the "Tribune", then for the Innocence Project, and now for the commission. All concluded that the original investigators relied on outdated theories and folklore to justify the determination of arson. The only other evidence of significance against Willingham was twice-recanted testimony by another inmate, who testified that Willingham had confessed to him. Jailhouse informants are viewed with skepticism in the justice system, so much so that some jurisdictions have restrictions against their use."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: The Texas Forensic Science Commission was scheduled to discuss the report by Beyler at a meeting on October 2, 2009, but two days before the meeting, Texas Governor Rick Perry replaced the chair of the commission (Sam Bassett) and two other members (Alan Levy and Aliece Watts). The new chair, John Bradley, canceled the meeting, sparking accusations that Perry was interfering with the investigation and using it for his own political advantage.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In October 2009, the city of Corsicana released two affidavits that included statements from Ronnie Kuykendall, the former brother-in-law of Willingham, originally made in 2004. According to the affidavits, Willingham's ex-wife had told Ronnie that Willingham confessed to her that he had set the fire. On October 25, Stacy Kuykendall told the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" that during a final prison meeting just weeks before he was put to death, Willingham admitted setting the fire in response to Stacy's alleged threats of divorce the night before.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: Journalists familiar with the case noted that Stacy Kuykendall's statement explicitly contradicted previous comments, legal testimony, and numerous published interviews before and after the execution. This was also noted by Willingham's prosecutor, who said, "It's hard for me to make heads or tails of anything she said or didn't say." For example, earlier in 2009, Kuykendall supported her 2004 contradiction of her brother's affidavit (saying that there had been no confession) and had previously always maintained that things had been amicable between her and Willingham before the fire. In 2010, she declared, "Todd murdered Amber, Karmon, and Kameron. He burnt them. He admitted he burnt them to me, and he was convicted for his crime. That is the closest to justice that my daughters will ever get."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: A four-person panel of the Texas Forensic Science Commission investigating evidence of arson presented in the case acknowledged on July 23, 2010, that state and local arson investigators used "flawed science" in determining that the blaze had been deliberately set. It also found insufficient evidence to prove that state Deputy Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez and Corsicana Assistant Fire Chief Douglas Fogg were negligent or guilty of misconduct in their arson work.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In 2010, the Innocence Project filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, seeking a judgment of "official oppression." Judge Charlie Baird held an inquiry in September 2010 in Austin, but Lowell Thompson, the Navarro County DA, appeared at the hearing with a motion for Baird to recuse himself due to conflict of interest — Baird had once affirmed Willingham's conviction while sitting as a Criminal Appeals judge yet had also been recognized by an anti-death penalty group. When the recusal motion was denied, Thompson appealed to the Third Court of Appeals and had the proceedings stayed. (Thompson later received an award from the Texas District and County Attorneys Association for this motion and appeal.)


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: In 2014, the "Washington Post" reported that new evidence emerged indicating that Webb had said in taped interviews that he lied on the witness stand in exchange for a prosecutor's help obtaining a reduced prison term and financial support from a rich rancher. On March 3, 2015, the Texas State Bar filed a disciplinary action, "Commission for Lawyer Discipline v. Jackson", against Jackson for failing to disclose information on his deal with Webb. According to the complaint, "During a pretrial hearing on July 24, 1992, [Jackson] told the trial court that he had no evidence favorable to Willingham. That statement was false."


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: "", a 2011 documentary film covering the case and its aftermath, won the Louis Black Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival.


title: Cameron Todd Willingham

text: David Grann's investigative article in "The New Yorker" titled "Trial by Fire" (collected in "The Devil and Sherlock Holmes") was adapted into the 2018 film "Trial by Fire" directed by Edward Zwick starring Laura Dern and Jack O'Connell as Willingham.


Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPIA) is an international airport serving the twin cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India. The airport is located in Hansol, north of Ahmedabad. It is named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the 1st Deputy Prime Minister of India. The airport is the busiest and largest airport in the state of Gujarat.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport

text: In fiscal year 2021-22, it handled about 5.67 million passengers making it the seventh-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic in India. The airport serves as a focus city for GoAir. In 2015, the government started the procedure for the privatization of the airport. The new Dholera International Airport is being developed due to expansion constraints at the current airport.


text: It was awarded as “Most improved airport” in Asia-Pacific region by the Airports Council International for 2017.


text: The airport was set up in 1937, while international operations began on 26 January 1991. It was categorised as an International airport on 23 May 2000.


text: In March 2004, Ahmedabad gained a nonstop link to the United Kingdom, which is home to a large Gujarati community. Air India commenced a Boeing 747 service to London's Heathrow Airport, with Jet Airways joining a few years later. However, both carriers decided to withdraw their flights in 2008. Air India then began a route to Frankfurt, which lasted until the airline closed its hub in the German city in 2010.


text: In 2010, the new Terminal 2 was inaugurated for handling international passengers. A statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was also inaugurated at the airport. In 2015, the AAI invited proposals for privatization of Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Jaipur airports. Air India reinstated direct services to London the following year.


text: The airport currently consists of four terminals: domestic, international, an additional terminal for secondary traffic and a cargo terminal as well. The airport has 45 parking bays and both the international and domestic terminals have four aero-bridges each. The new terminal has been modelled based on Singapore Changi Airport.


text: The new terminal has a half-kilometre-long moving walkway, which connects the two terminals. Airports Authority of India (AAI) will construct a new technical block which will enhance the flight handling capacity and provide better control of flights.


text: As part of the airport modernisation process, the AAI announced that it would construct a new air traffic control (ATC) building that would include a new airport tower in height.


text: In December 2018, a new Plaza Premium lounge was opened at Terminal 1 (near Gate 4 on first floor), which caters for Priority Pass and other select bank cards as well as some business class passengers based on airline flown.


text: Terminal 2 was inaugurated on 5 July 2010 and opened for international flights on 15 September 2010. The terminal won the award for the best Steel Structure at the 2009 edition of the National Structural Steel Design and Construction Awards. The terminal has four aerobridges and 32 check-in counters. With the total floor area of approximately 41,000 sq. meters, this terminal will be able to accommodate around 1,600 passengers at any given time. In November 2018, a new Plaza Premium lounge was opened at the international departures area of Terminal 2, which caters for business class and first class passengers as well as passengers holding Priority Pass and other bank cards. The new apron area can cater for the parking of nine A-321 and four ATR-72 type of aircraft.


text: Terminal 3 will come up next to Terminal 1. This brand new terminal will be used solely for domestic flights. The foundation and construction work begun in early 2019, and this terminal will negate the need for the older Terminal 1.


text: The airport handled 51,637 tonnes of cargo, inclusive of gold and silver in 2013–14. Sixty percent of the cargo comes from domestic sources. In 2009, of land was leased for a period of seven years out by the AAI to Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation to set up a center for perishable cargo. However, due to a government policy that prevented third-party operations at airports run by the AAI, the CPC was not in use until July 2014, when the minister of state for civil aviation announced that the government had issued a No Objection Certificate for commencement of operations. In 2014, it was announced that the airport would be getting a dedicated cargo terminal which is expected to come up at Terminal 3.


title: Data model

text: A data model is an abstract model that organizes elements of data and standardizes how they relate to one another and to the properties of real-world entities. For instance, a data model may specify that the data element representing a car be composed of a number of other elements which, in turn, represent the color and size of the car and define its owner.


title: Data model

text: The term data model can refer to two distinct but closely related concepts. Sometimes it refers to an abstract formalization of the objects and relationships found in a particular application domain: for example the customers, products, and orders found in a manufacturing organization. At other times it refers to the set of concepts used in defining such formalizations: for example concepts such as entities, attributes, relations, or tables. So the "data model" of a banking application may be defined using the entity-relationship "data model". This article uses the term in both senses.


title: Data model

text: A data model explicitly determines the structure of data. Data models are typically specified by a data specialist, data librarian, or a digital humanities scholar in a data modeling notation. These notations are often represented in graphical form.


title: Data model

text: A data model can sometimes be referred to as a data structure, especially in the context of programming languages. Data models are often complemented by function models, especially in the context of enterprise models.


title: Data model

text: Managing large quantities of structured and unstructured data is a primary function of information systems. Data models describe the structure, manipulation, and integrity aspects of the data stored in data management systems such as relational databases. They may also describe data with a looser structure, such as word processing documents, email messages, pictures, digital audio, and video: XDM, for example, provides a data model for XML documents.


title: Data model

text: The main aim of data models is to support the development of information systems by providing the definition and format of data. According to West and Fowler (1999) "if this is done consistently across systems then compatibility of data can be achieved. If the same data structures are used to store and access data then different applications can share data. The results of this are indicated above. However, systems and interfaces often cost more than they should, to build, operate, and maintain. They may also constrain the business rather than support it. A major cause is that the quality of the data models implemented in systems and interfaces is poor".


title: Data model

text: The reason for these problems is a lack of standards that will ensure that data models will both meet business needs and be consistent.


title: Data model

text: A data model explicitly determines the structure of data. Typical applications of data models include database models, design of information systems, and enabling exchange of data. Usually, data models are specified in a data modeling language.[3]


title: Data model

text: The significance of this approach, according to ANSI, is that it allows the three perspectives to be relatively independent of each other. Storage technology can change without affecting either the logical or the conceptual model. The table/column structure can change without (necessarily) affecting the conceptual model. In each case, of course, the structures must remain consistent with the other model. The table/column structure may be different from a direct translation of the entity classes and attributes, but it must ultimately carry out the objectives of the conceptual entity class structure. Early phases of many software development projects emphasize the design of a conceptual data model. Such a design can be detailed into a logical data model. In later stages, this model may be translated into physical data model. However, it is also possible to implement a conceptual model directly.


title: Data model

text: One of the earliest pioneering works in modeling information systems was done by Young and Kent (1958), who argued for "a precise and abstract way of specifying the informational and time characteristics of a data processing problem". They wanted to create "a notation that should enable the analyst to organize the problem around any piece of hardware". Their work was the first effort to create an abstract specification and invariant basis for designing different alternative implementations using different hardware components. The next step in IS modeling was taken by CODASYL, an IT industry consortium formed in 1959, who essentially aimed at the same thing as Young and Kent: the development of "a proper structure for machine-independent problem definition language, at the system level of data processing". This led to the development of a specific IS information algebra.


title: Data model

text: In the 1960s data modeling gained more significance with the initiation of the management information system (MIS) concept. According to Leondes (2002), "during that time, the information system provided the data and information for management purposes. The first generation database system, called Integrated Data Store (IDS), was designed by Charles Bachman at General Electric. Two famous database models, the network data model and the hierarchical data model, were proposed during this period of time". Towards the end of the 1960s, Edgar F. Codd worked out his theories of data arrangement, and proposed the relational model for database management based on first-order predicate logic.


title: Data model

text: In the 1970s entity relationship modeling emerged as a new type of conceptual data modeling, originally formalized in 1976 by Peter Chen. Entity-relationship models were being used in the first stage of information system design during the requirements analysis to describe information needs or the type of information that is to be stored in a database. This technique can describe any ontology, i.e., an overview and classification of concepts and their relationships, for a certain area of interest.


title: Data model

text: In the 1970s G.M. Nijssen developed "Natural Language Information Analysis Method" (NIAM) method, and developed this in the 1980s in cooperation with Terry Halpin into Object-Role Modeling (ORM). However, it was Terry Halpin's 1989 PhD thesis that created the formal foundation on which Object-Role Modeling is based.


title: Data model

text: Bill Kent, in his 1978 book "Data and Reality," compared a data model to a map of a territory, emphasizing that in the real world, "highways are not painted red, rivers don't have county lines running down the middle, and you can't see contour lines on a mountain". In contrast to other researchers who tried to create models that were mathematically clean and elegant, Kent emphasized the essential messiness of the real world, and the task of the data modeler to create order out of chaos without excessively distorting the truth.


title: Data model

text: In the 1980s, according to Jan L. Harrington (2000), "the development of the object-oriented paradigm brought about a fundamental change in the way we look at data and the procedures that operate on data. Traditionally, data and procedures have been stored separately: the data and their relationship in a database, the procedures in an application program. Object orientation, however, combined an entity's procedure with its data."


title: Data model

text: During the early 1990s, three Dutch mathematicians Guido Bakema, Harm van der Lek, and JanPieter Zwart, continued the development on the work of G.M. Nijssen. They focused more on the communication part of the semantics. In 1997 they formalized the method Fully Communication Oriented Information Modeling FCO-IM.


title: Data model

text: A data structure diagram (DSD) is a diagram and data model used to describe conceptual data models by providing graphical notations which document entities and their relationships, and the constraints that bind them. The basic graphic elements of DSDs are boxes, representing entities, and arrows, representing relationships. Data structure diagrams are most useful for documenting complex data entities.


title: Data model

text: Data structure diagrams are an extension of the entity-relationship model (ER model). In DSDs, attributes are specified inside the entity boxes rather than outside of them, while relationships are drawn as boxes composed of attributes which specify the constraints that bind entities together. DSDs differ from the ER model in that the ER model focuses on the relationships between different entities, whereas DSDs focus on the relationships of the elements within an entity and enable users to fully see the links and relationships between each entity.


title: Data model

text: There are several styles for representing data structure diagrams, with the notable difference in the manner of defining cardinality. The choices are between arrow heads, inverted arrow heads (crow's feet), or numerical representation of the cardinality.


title: Data model

text: An entity-relationship model (ERM), sometimes referred to as an entity-relationship diagram (ERD), could be used to represent an abstract conceptual data model (or semantic data model or physical data model) used in software engineering to represent structured data. There are several notations used for ERMs. Like DSD's, attributes are specified inside the entity boxes rather than outside of them, while relationships are drawn as lines, with the relationship constraints as descriptions on the line. The E-R model, while robust, can become visually cumbersome when representing entities with several attributes.


title: Data model

text: There are several styles for representing data structure diagrams, with a notable difference in the manner of defining cardinality. The choices are between arrow heads, inverted arrow heads (crow's feet), or numerical representation of the cardinality.


title: Data model

text: A data model in Geographic information systems is a mathematical construct for representing geographic objects or surfaces as data. For example,


title: Data model

text: Generic data models are generalizations of conventional data models. They define standardized general relation types, together with the kinds of things that may be related by such a relation type. Generic data models are developed as an approach to solving some shortcomings of conventional data models. For example, different modelers usually produce different conventional data models of the same domain. This can lead to difficulty in bringing the models of different people together and is an obstacle for data exchange and data integration. Invariably, however, this difference is attributable to different levels of abstraction in the models and differences in the kinds of facts that can be instantiated (the semantic expression capabilities of the models). The modelers need to communicate and agree on certain elements that are to be rendered more concretely, in order to make the differences less significant.


title: Data model

text: A semantic data model in software engineering is a technique to define the meaning of data within the context of its interrelationships with other data. A semantic data model is an abstraction that defines how the stored symbols relate to the real world. A semantic data model is sometimes called a conceptual data model.


title: Data model

text: The logical data structure of a database management system (DBMS), whether hierarchical, network, or relational, cannot totally satisfy the requirements for a conceptual definition of data because it is limited in scope and biased toward the implementation strategy employed by the DBMS. Therefore, the need to define data from a conceptual view has led to the development of semantic data modeling techniques. That is, techniques to define the meaning of data within the context of its interrelationships with other data. As illustrated in the figure. The real world, in terms of resources, ideas, events, etc., are symbolically defined within physical data stores. A semantic data model is an abstraction that defines how the stored symbols relate to the real world. Thus, the model must be a true representation of the real world.


title: Data model

text: Data architecture is the design of data for use in defining the target state and the subsequent planning needed to hit the target state. It is usually one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture or solution architecture.


title: Data model

text: A data architecture describes the data structures used by a business and/or its applications. There are descriptions of data in storage and data in motion; descriptions of data stores, data groups, and data items; and mappings of those data artifacts to data qualities, applications, locations, etc.


title: Data model

text: Essential to realizing the target state, Data architecture describes how data is processed, stored, and utilized in a given system. It provides criteria for data processing operations that make it possible to design data flows and also control the flow of data in the system.


title: Data model

text: Data modeling in software engineering is the process of creating a data model by applying formal data model descriptions using data modeling techniques. Data modeling is a technique for defining business requirements for a database. It is sometimes called "database modeling" because a data model is eventually implemented in a database.


title: Data model

text: The figure illustrates the way data models are developed and used today. A conceptual data model is developed based on the data requirements for the application that is being developed, perhaps in the context of an activity model. The data model will normally consist of entity types, attributes, relationships, integrity rules, and the definitions of those objects. This is then used as the start point for interface or database design.


title: Data model

text: Another kind of data model describes how to organize data using a database management system or other data management technology. It describes, for example, relational tables and columns or object-oriented classes and attributes. Such a data model is sometimes referred to as the "physical data model", but in the original ANSI three schema architecture, it is called "logical". In that architecture, the physical model describes the storage media (cylinders, tracks, and tablespaces). Ideally, this model is derived from the more conceptual data model described above. It may differ, however, to account for constraints like processing capacity and usage patterns.


title: Data model

text: While "data analysis" is a common term for data modeling, the activity actually has more in common with the ideas and methods of "synthesis" (inferring general concepts from particular instances) than it does with "analysis" (identifying component concepts from more general ones). {"Presumably we call ourselves systems analysts because no one can say systems synthesists."} Data modeling strives to bring the data structures of interest together into a cohesive, inseparable, whole by eliminating unnecessary data redundancies and by relating data structures with relationships.


title: Data model

text: A different approach is to use adaptive systems such as artificial neural networks that can autonomously create implicit models of data.


title: Data model

text: A data structure is a way of storing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently. It is an organization of mathematical and logical concepts of data. Often a carefully chosen data structure will allow the most efficient algorithm to be used. The choice of the data structure often begins from the choice of an abstract data type.


title: Data model

text: A data model describes the structure of the data within a given domain and, by implication, the underlying structure of that domain itself. This means that a data model in fact specifies a dedicated "grammar" for a dedicated artificial language for that domain. A data model represents classes of entities (kinds of things) about which a company wishes to hold information, the attributes of that information, and relationships among those entities and (often implicit) relationships among those attributes. The model describes the organization of the data to some extent irrespective of how data might be represented in a computer system.


title: Data model

text: The entities represented by a data model can be the tangible entities, but models that include such concrete entity classes tend to change over time. Robust data models often identify abstractions of such entities. For example, a data model might include an entity class called "Person", representing all the people who interact with an organization. Such an abstract entity class is typically more appropriate than ones called "Vendor" or "Employee", which identify specific roles played by those people.


title: Data model

text: For example, in the relational model, the structural part is based on a modified concept of the mathematical relation; the integrity part is expressed in first-order logic and the manipulation part is expressed using the relational algebra, tuple calculus and domain calculus.


title: Data model

text: A data model instance is created by applying a data model theory. This is typically done to solve some business enterprise requirement. Business requirements are normally captured by a semantic logical data model. This is transformed into a physical data model instance from which is generated a physical database. For example, a data modeler may use a data modeling tool to create an entity-relationship model of the corporate data repository of some business enterprise. This model is transformed into a relational model, which in turn generates a relational database.


title: Data model

text: A data-flow diagram (DFD) is a graphical representation of the "flow" of data through an information system. It differs from the flowchart as it shows the "data" flow instead of the "control" flow of the program. A data-flow diagram can also be used for the visualization of data processing (structured design). Data-flow diagrams were invented by Larry Constantine, the original developer of structured design, based on Martin and Estrin's "data-flow graph" model of computation.


title: Data model

text: It is common practice to draw a context-level data-flow diagram first which shows the interaction between the system and outside entities. The DFD is designed to show how a system is divided into smaller portions and to highlight the flow of data between those parts. This context-level data-flow diagram is then "exploded" to show more detail of the system being modeled


title: Data model

text: An Information model is not a type of data model, but more or less an alternative model. Within the field of software engineering, both a data model and an information model can be abstract, formal representations of entity types that include their properties, relationships and the operations that can be performed on them. The entity types in the model may be kinds of real-world objects, such as devices in a network, or they may themselves be abstract, such as for the entities used in a billing system. Typically, they are used to model a constrained domain that can be described by a closed set of entity types, properties, relationships and operations.


title: Data model

text: According to Lee (1999) an information model is a representation of concepts, relationships, constraints, rules, and operations to specify data semantics for a chosen domain of discourse. It can provide sharable, stable, and organized structure of information requirements for the domain context. More in general the term "information model" is used for models of individual things, such as facilities, buildings, process plants, etc. In those cases the concept is specialised to Facility Information Model, Building Information Model, Plant Information Model, etc. Such an information model is an integration of a model of the facility with the data and documents about the facility.


title: Data model

text: An information model provides formalism to the description of a problem domain without constraining how that description is mapped to an actual implementation in software. There may be many mappings of the information model. Such mappings are called data models, irrespective of whether they are object models (e.g. using UML), entity relationship models or XML schemas.


title: Data model

text: An object model in computer science is a collection of objects or classes through which a program can examine and manipulate some specific parts of its world. In other words, the object-oriented interface to some service or system. Such an interface is said to be the "object model of" the represented service or system. For example, the Document Object Model (DOM) is a collection of objects that represent a page in a web browser, used by script programs to examine and dynamically change the page. There is a Microsoft Excel object model for controlling Microsoft Excel from another program, and the ASCOM Telescope Driver is an object model for controlling an astronomical telescope.


title: Data model

text: In computing the term "object model" has a distinct second meaning of the general properties of objects in a specific computer programming language, technology, notation or methodology that uses them. For example, the "Java object model", the "COM object model", or "the object model of OMT". Such object models are usually defined using concepts such as class, message, inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation. There is an extensive literature on formalized object models as a subset of the formal semantics of programming languages.


title: Data model

text: Object-Role Modeling (ORM) is a method for conceptual modeling, and can be used as a tool for information and rules analysis.


title: Data model

text: Object-Role Modeling is a fact-oriented method for performing systems analysis at the conceptual level. The quality of a database application depends critically on its design. To help ensure correctness, clarity, adaptability and productivity, information systems are best specified first at the conceptual level, using concepts and language that people can readily understand.


title: Data model

text: The conceptual design may include data, process and behavioral perspectives, and the actual DBMS used to implement the design might be based on one of many logical data models (relational, hierarchic, network, object-oriented, etc.).


title: Data model

text: The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of software engineering. It is a graphical language for visualizing, specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive system. The Unified Modeling Language offers a standard way to write a system's blueprints, including:


title: Grenade launcher

text: A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The most common type are man-portable, shoulder-fired weapons issued to individuals, although larger crew-served launchers are issued at higher levels of organisation by military forces.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Grenade launchers can either come in the form of standalone weapons (either single-shot or repeating) or attachments mounted to a parent firearm, usually a rifle. Larger crew-served automatic grenade launchers such as the Mk 19 are mounted on tripods or vehicles.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Some armored fighting vehicles also mount fixed arrays of short range, single-shot grenade launchers as a means of defense.


title: Grenade launcher

text: The earliest devices which could be referred to as grenade launchers were slings, which could be used to throw early "grenado" fuse bombs. The ancestors of modern ballistic grenade launchers, however, were simplistic muzzle-loading devices using a stake-like body to mount a short, large-bore gun barrel into which an explosive or incendiary device could be inserted; these were later refined into shoulder-fired blunderbuss-like firearms referred to as "hand mortars". These weapons were not highly regarded due to their unreliability, requiring the user to ignite a fuse on the projectile before firing and with a substantial risk of the explosive failing to leave the barrel; attempts to ignite the fuse on firing using the gunpowder charge resulted in weapons that would often force the fuse into the grenade and make it explode in the barrel.


title: Grenade launcher

text: During the First World War a number of novel crew-served launchers designed to increase the range of infantry hand grenades were developed, such as the Sauterelle crossbow and West Spring Gun and Leach Trench Catapult devices. None were particularly effective, and such devices were ultimately replaced by light mortar systems like the Stokes Mortar, while the task of increasing the range of infantry explosive projectiles was primarily taken by rifle grenades.


title: Grenade launcher

text: A late example of such a system was the Japanese Type 91 grenade, which could be used as a thrown hand grenade, or fitted with adaptors to either be fired as a rifle grenade or used as a projectile by the Type 89 grenade discharger, a light infantry mortar.


title: Grenade launcher

text: A new method of launching grenades was developed during the First World War and used throughout the Second World War. The principle was to use the soldier's standard rifle as an ersatz mortar, mounting a grenade (in many older cases an infantry hand grenade) fitted with a propelling charge, using an adaptor or socket on the weapon's muzzle or inside a mounted launching cup, and usually firing with the weapon's stock resting on the ground. For older rifle grenades, igniting the charge generally required loading the parent rifle with a special blank propellant cartridge, though modern rifle grenades can be fired using live rounds using "bullet trap" and "shoot through" systems.


title: Grenade launcher

text: The system has some advantages: since it does not have to fit in a weapon's breech, the warhead can be made larger and more powerful compared to that of a unitary grenade round, and the rifle's weight and handling characteristics are not affected as with underbarrel systems unless a grenade is actually mounted. While older systems required the soldier carry a separate adaptor or cup to attach to the rifle to make it ready to launch (such as the German Schiessbecher), later rifle grenades were often designed to attach to the standard factory-mounted flash hider of the parent rifle; for example, the NATO-standardised 22mm rifle grenade can be mounted to most post-WW2 Western military rifles without the need for an adaptor.


title: Grenade launcher

text: The disadvantage of this method is that when a soldier wants to launch a grenade, they must mount the grenade to the muzzle prior to each shot. If they are surprised by a close-range threat while preparing to fire the grenade, they have to reverse the procedure before they can respond with rifle fire. Due to the lack of a barrel, rifle grenades also tend to be more difficult to fire accurately compared to underbarrel or standalone designs.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Prior to the development of lightweight disposable anti-tank weapons such as the M72 LAW, large rifle grenades such as the ENERGA anti-tank rifle grenade were the preferred method for allowing infantry who were not part of dedicated anti-tank teams to engage vehicles. Rifle grenades have largely fallen out of favor since the 1970s, replaced in most of their traditional roles by dedicated grenade launchers, though there has been a recent resurgence in interest in such devices for special purposes.


title: Grenade launcher

text: The earliest examples of standalone grenade launchers in the modern sense were breech-loading riot guns designed to launch tear gas grenades and baton rounds, such as the Federal Riot Gun developed in the 1930s. One of the first examples of a dedicated breech-loading launcher for unitary explosive grenade rounds was the M79 grenade launcher, a result of the American Special Purpose Individual Weapon program (specifically the 40×46mm grenade round developed during Project NIBLICK, applying the German-developed high–low system to produce manageable recoil). The goal for the M79 was the production of a device with greater range than a rifle grenade but more portable than a mortar. Such single-shot devices were largely replaced in military service with underbarrel grenade launchers, removing the need for a dedicated grenadier with a special weapon. Many modern underbarrel grenade launchers can, however, also be used in standalone configurations with suitable accessories fitted; this is of particular preference for groups using submachine guns as their primary armament, since it is rarely practical to mount an underbarrel launcher on such a weapon. Single shot launchers are also still commonly used in riot control operations.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Heavier multi-shot grenade launchers like the ARWEN 37 are used as tear gas and smoke projectors in riot control, while military launchers like the Milkor MGL are used to provide heavy sustained firepower to infantry; most such devices, dating back to the Manville machine-projector, use a revolver-style cylinder, though a handful of pump-action weapons built like oversized shotguns, such as the China Lake grenade launcher and GM-94, also exist. Magazine-fed semi-automatic designs such as the Neopup PAW-20 and XM25 CDTE have also been created for military use, using smaller rounds (respectively 20 and 25mm) for purposes of practicality in terms of the size of the magazine, and reduced collateral damage compared to 40mm rounds.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Since grenade launchers require relatively low internal pressure and only a short barrel, a lightweight launcher can be mounted under the barrel of a traditional rifle; this type of device is referred to as an under-barrel grenade launcher (UBGL). This reduces the weight the soldier must carry by eliminating the grenade launcher's buttstock and makes the grenade launcher available for use at a moment's notice. Underbarrel 40mm grenade launchers generally have their own trigger group; to fire, one simply changes grips, disengages the safety, and pulls the trigger. In Western systems, the barrel slides forward or pivots to the side to allow reloading; most fire a 40×46mm grenade cartridge. Soviet/Russian launchers are instead loaded from the muzzle, with the cartridge casing affixed to the projectile in the style of a mortar shell. For aiming, underbarrel grenade launchers typically use a separate ladder, leaf, tangent or quadrant sight attached to the launcher or the rifle, either to one side of the handguard or on top of the handguard in between the iron sights. Modern launchers often have the option of mounting more sophisticated aiming systems, such as ballistic rangefinders and day / night sights.


title: Grenade launcher

text: As with the M79, the concept of mounting a dedicated grenade launcher to a service rifle has its roots in the Special Purpose Individual Weapon program; though the experimental Colt XM148 grenade launcher had been produced earlier, it had proved too problematic to adopt. One AAI submission for SPIW mounted a "simple" single-action, single-shot breech-loading underbarrel grenade launcher in lieu of the required semi-automatic multi-shot device. With refinement, this was adopted as the M203 grenade launcher in 1968. A variety of lengths of M203 are available along with numerous parts kits to fit it to various rifles aside from the AR15 pattern weapons it was designed for.


title: Grenade launcher

text: More modern Western grenade launchers address some of the shortcomings of the M203, such as the sliding breech limiting the weapon's ability to load outsize projectiles and the lack of factory-fitted sight mounts, with designs like FN Herstal's ELGM and Heckler & Koch's AG36 featuring a swing-out breech to provide better access, integral sight mounts, and built-in support for standalone conversion. A variant of the latter weapon, the M320 Grenade Launcher Module, was salvaged from the failed XM8 program and adopted in 2008 as the US military's replacement for the M203.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Soviet development of an underbarrel launcher for the AK rifle series began in 1966 and in 1978 produced the GP-25, a muzzle-loading device for the AK-74 rifle using a mortar-like grenade round which functions by venting its propellant through holes in the base; this is a variation of the high-low system used by Western rounds, with the base of the projectile acting as the high-pressure chamber and the launcher's barrel acting as the low-pressure chamber. Further developments led to the GP series of grenade launchers.


title: Grenade launcher

text: A number of experimental weapon systems have attempted to produce combination weapons which consist of a permanently attached grenade launcher and a carbine assault rifle, often with the rifle mounted underneath the launcher, most notably the XM29 OICW, but so far the only such weapon to reach full production is the S&T Daewoo K11, adopted in limited numbers by the South Korean military.


title: Grenade launcher

text: An "automatic grenade launcher" or "grenade machine gun" is a crew-served support weapon which fires explosive rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine. As most are heavy weapons, they are normally attached to a tripod or vehicle mounting, and as well as being used to provide heavy suppressing fire in the manner of a heavy machine gun, also have sufficient firepower to destroy vehicles and buildings. Examples include the Mk 19, AGS-17, and the HK GMG.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Automatic grenade launchers generally use a higher-velocity round than infantry weapons; NATO launchers use a 40×53mm grenade round rather than the 40×46mm round used by infantry. There are exceptions to this rule: the crank-operated Mk 18 Mod 0 grenade launcher, a unique example of an AGL which was not fully automatic, and the Mk 20 Mod 0 grenade launcher both used the 40×46mm round, and the Chinese Type 87 grenade launcher, a device intended to be employed like a general-purpose machine gun, uses the same 35×32mm low-velocity grenade round as the QLG91B underbarrel launcher for the QBZ-95 assault rifle.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Some armored fighting vehicles also mount fixed arrays of short range, single-shot grenade launchers as a means of defense. These devices usually fire smoke grenades to conceal the vehicle behind a smoke screen, though can also be loaded with chaff, flares, or anti-personnel grenades to repel infantry attacks. Vehicle-mounted smoke grenade launchers are also known as "smoke dischargers".


title: Grenade launcher

text: Most grenade launchers are flexible in terms of the types of ammunition they can employ. In military use, the primary ammunition type for a grenade launcher is fragmentation rounds, with the most common grenade round in use by NATO the 40 mm fragmentation grenade, which is effective against a wide range of targets, including infantry and lightly armored vehicles. The large size of the grenade projectile relative to a bullet also allows for payloads requiring a substantial mass of chemicals, such as flares, incendiary rounds, gas grenades and smoke grenades. Law enforcement users generally employ grenade launchers in riot control operations to project obscuring smoke or tear gas; less-lethal crowd control munitions such as baton and sponge rounds also exist for such use.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Lethal rounds are usually fitted with an inertial fuzing system which arms the warhead after it has rotated a set number of times, in order to prevent the user from harming themselves if a grenade encounters a nearby obstruction.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Western launchers are primarily either the 37 mm flare caliber intended for civilian and law enforcement use, or the larger military 40 mm caliber. This is intended to prevent civilian-legal flare projectors being used to fire lethal military ammunition, since lethal rounds are not manufactured in 37mm caliber. The reverse is not true; a full range of less-lethal ammunition is available in 40 mm caliber, and an increasing number of law enforcement launchers not intended for the civilian market are chambered for 40×46mm rounds.


title: Grenade launcher

text: Recently militaries have paid great attention to the development of "smart" grenade systems with integrated sighting systems, which can be used as point-detonating rounds as normal, or fuzed to detonate in mid-air at a preset distance to engage targets in cover with their fragments. This ammunition was first developed as High Explosive Air Burst (HEAB) as part of the Small Arms Master Plan (SAMP) projects: the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (20×28mm and 25×40mm low-velocity) and Advanced Crew Served Weapon (25×59mm high-velocity) projects. The low-velocity round was to have been used by the XM25 CDTE. Following the failure of the SAMP weapon programs, the United States developed 40mm grenades incorporating similar technology, including the 40×53mm MK285 Programmable Prefragmented High Explosive/Self-Destructible (PPHE/SD) round for the Mk 47 Striker AGL and more recently the SAGM round for 40×46mm underbarrel launchers, an airburst-only computerized grenade which does not require an integrated sighting system. Other countries have also produced grenades using similar technology, including South Korea for the S&T Daewoo K11, Australia during the Advanced Individual Combat Weapon program, and China for the ZH-05 grenade launcher module.


title: Grenade launcher

text: In the US, under the National Firearms Act of 1934, breech-loading firearms with a barrel diameter of greater than .50 inches and no practical sporting use are classified as Title II "destructive devices", with ownership heavily restricted and banned entirely in some states; in addition, each individual round of explosive ammunition for a grenade launcher is "also" classified as a destructive device and subject to the same restrictions. The state of California additionally considers rifles with integral rifle grenade launching devices as destructive devices in accordance with the definition of such in section 16460 of the California Penal Code. However, it is legal for civilians to own 37mm flare launchers which are not regulated as firearms some of which are designed to have a cosmetic appearance similar to a grenade launcher and certain types of ammunition, as the BATFE has ruled that unless such devices are possessed along with direct-fire ammunition such as pellet or beanbag rounds, they are not destructive devices. One result of this is that in American film productions, visually similar 37mm launchers are often substituted for 40mm weapons.


title: Grenade launcher

text: A "grenade launcher" or "grenade launcher mount" is usually included in the list of features defining an "assault weapon", though this is a legal definition which primarily affects firearms with flash hiders compatible with rifle grenades, since firearms that are designed specifically for launching explosive grenade rounds and their ammunition are already federally restricted as destructive devices. Several state assault weapon bans extend this to include under-barrel 37mm flare launchers on the list of banned features.


title: Timeshare

text: A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner of the same accommodation is allotted their period of time. Units may be sold as a partial ownership, lease, or "right to use", in which case the latter holds no claim to ownership of the property. The ownership of timeshare programs is varied, and has been changing over the decades.


title: Timeshare

text: The term "timeshare" was coined in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s, expanding on a vacation system that became popular after World War II. Vacation home sharing, also known as holiday home sharing, involved four European families that would purchase a vacation cottage jointly, each having exclusive use of the property for one of the four seasons. They rotated seasons each year, so each family enjoyed the prime seasons equally. This concept was mostly used by related families because joint ownership requires trust and no property manager was involved. However, not many families vacation for an entire season at a time; so the vacation home sharing properties were often vacant for long periods.


title: Timeshare

text: British businesses decided to go one step further and divide a resort room into 1/50th ownership, have two weeks each year for repairs and upgrades, and charge a maintenance fee to each owner. It took almost a decade for timeshares in Europe to evolve into a smoothly run, successful business venture.


title: Timeshare

text: The first timeshare in the United States was started in 1974 by Caribbean International Corporation (CIC), based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It offered what it called a 25-year "vacation license" rather than ownership. The company owned two other resorts the "vacation license holder" could alternate their vacation weeks with: one in St. Croix and one in St. Thomas; both in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands properties began their timeshare sales in 1973.


title: Timeshare

text: The contract was simple and straightforward: The company, CIC, promised to maintain and provide the specified accommodation type (a studio, one bedroom, or two bedroom unit) for use by the "license owner" for a period of 25 years (from 1974 to 1999, for example) in the specified season and number of weeks agreed upon, with only two extra charges: a $15.00 per diem (per night) rate, frozen at that cost for the life of the contract, and a $25.00 switching fee, should the licensee decide to use their time at one of the other resorts. The contract was based on the fact that the cost of the license, and the small per diem, compared with the projected increase in the cost of hotel rates over 25 years to over $100.00 per night, would save the license owner many vacation dollars over the span of the license agreement. Between 1974 and 1999, in the United States, inflation boosted the current cost of the per diem to $52.00, validating the cost savings assumption. The license owner was allowed to rent, or give their week away as a gift in any particular year. The only stipulation was that the $15.00 per diem must be paid every year whether the unit was occupied or not. This "must be paid yearly fee" would become the roots of what is known today as "maintenance fees", once the Florida Department of Real Estate became involved in regulating timeshares.


title: Timeshare

text: The timeshare concept in the United States caught the eye of many entrepreneurs due to the enormous profits to be made by selling the same room 52 times to 52 different owners at an average price in 1974–1976 of $3,500.00 per week. Shortly thereafter, the Florida Real Estate Commission stepped in, enacting legislation to regulate Florida timeshares, and make them fee simple ownership transactions. This meant that in addition to the price of the owner's vacation week, a maintenance fee and a homeowners association had to be initiated. This fee simple ownership also spawned timeshare location exchange companies, such as Interval International and RCI, so owners in any given area could exchange their week with owners in other areas.


title: Timeshare

text: Cancellations, or rescission, of the timeshare contract, remain the industry's biggest problems to date; the difficulty has been the subject of comedy in popular entertainment.


title: Timeshare

text: The industry is regulated in all countries where resorts are located. In Europe, it is regulated by European and by national legislation. In 1994, the European Communities adopted "The European Directive 94/47/EC of the European Parliament and Council on the protection of purchasers in respect of certain aspects of contracts relating to the purchase of the right to use immovable properties on a timeshare basis", which was subject to recent review, and resulted in the adoption on January 14, 2009, on European Directive 2008/122/EC.


title: Timeshare

text: On May 17, 2010, Mexico’s Ministry of Economy through the General Directorate of Standards established new regulations and requirements for developers of timeshare services. The new regulations are outlined in the Official Mexican Norm (NOM), which consists of a series of official standards and regulations applicable to diverse activities in Mexico. The following institutions were involved during the new standardization:


title: Timeshare

text: NOM is officially called: “NOM-029-SCFI-2010, Commercial Practices and Information Requirements for the Rendering of Timeshare Service". It established the following standards:


title: Timeshare

text: To make the new regulations applicable to any person or entity that provides timeshares, the definition of a timeshare service provider was substantially extended and clarified. If the timeshare provider does not follow the rules decreed in NOM, the consequences may be substantial, and may include financial penalties that can range from $50.00 to $200,000.00


title: Timeshare

text: Some developers, however, may limit which of these options are available at their respective properties.


title: Timeshare

text: Owners can elect to stay at their resort during the prescribed period, which varies depending on the nature of their ownership. In many resorts, they can rent out their week or give it as a gift to friends and family.


title: Timeshare

text: Used as the basis for attracting mass appeal to purchasing a timeshare, is the idea of owners exchanging their week, either independently or through exchange agencies. The two largest—often mentioned in media—are RCI and Interval International (II), which combined, have over 7,000 resorts. They have resort affiliate programs, and members can only exchange with affiliated resorts. It is most common for a resort to be affiliated with only one of the larger exchange agencies, although resorts with dual affiliations are not uncommon. The timeshare resort one purchases determines which of the exchange companies can be used to make exchanges. RCI and II charge a yearly membership fee, and additional fees for when they find an exchange for a requesting member, and bar members from renting weeks for which they already have exchanged.


title: Timeshare

text: Owners can also exchange their weeks or points through independent exchange companies. Owners can exchange without needing the resort to have a formal affiliation agreement with the companies, if the resort of ownership agrees to such arrangements in the original contract.


title: Timeshare

text: Due to the promise of exchange, timeshares often sell regardless of the location of their deeded resort. What is not often disclosed is the difference in trading power depending on the location, and season of the ownership. If a resort is in a prime vacation region, it will exchange extremely well depending on the season and week that is assigned to the particular unit trying to make an exchange. However, timeshares in highly desirable locations and high season time slots are the most expensive in the world, subject to demand typical of any heavily trafficked vacation area. An individual who owns a timeshare in the American desert community of Palm Springs, California in the middle of July or August will possess a much reduced ability to exchange time, because fewer come to a resort at a time when the temperatures are in excess of .


title: Timeshare

text: With deeded contracts the use of the resort is usually divided into week-long increments and are sold as real property via fractional ownership. As with any other piece of real estate, the owner may do whatever is desired: use the week, rent it, give it away, leave it to heirs, or sell the week to another prospective buyer. The owner is also liable for an equal portion of the real estate taxes, which usually are collected with condominium maintenance fees. The owner can potentially deduct some property-related expenses, such as real estate taxes from taxable income.


title: Timeshare

text: Deeded ownership can be as complex as outright property ownership in that the structure of deeds vary according to local property laws. Leasehold deeds are common and offer ownership for a fixed period of time after which the ownership reverts to the freeholder. Occasionally, leasehold deeds are offered in perpetuity, however many deeds do not convey ownership of the land, but merely the apartment or unit (housing) of the accommodation.


title: Timeshare

text: With right-to-use contracts, a purchaser has the right to use the property in accordance with the contract, but at some point the contract ends and all rights revert to the property owner. Thus, a right-to-use contract grants the right to use the resort for a specific number of years. In many countries there are severe limits on foreign property ownership; thus, this is a common method for developing resorts in countries such as Mexico. Care should be taken with this form of ownership as the right to use often takes the form of a "club membership" or the right to use the reservation system, where the reservation system is owned by a company not in the control of the owners. "The right to use may be lost with the demise of the controlling company", because a right to use purchaser's contract is "usually" only good with the current owner, and if that owner sells the property, the lease holder could be out of luck depending on the structure of the contract, and/or "current" laws in foreign venues.


title: Timeshare

text: The most common unit of sale is a fixed week; the resort will have a calendar enumerating the weeks roughly starting with the first calendar week of the year. An owner may own a deed to use a unit for a single specified week; for example, week 51 typically includes Christmas. An individual who owns Week 26 at a resort can use only that week in each year.


title: Timeshare

text: Sometimes units are sold as floating weeks, in which a contract specifies the number of weeks held by each owner and from which weeks the owner may select for his stay. An example of this may be a floating summer week, in which the owner may choose any single week during the summer. In such a situation, there is likely to be greater competition during weeks featuring holidays, while lesser competition is likely when schools are still in session. Some floating contracts exclude major holidays so they may be sold as fixed weeks.


title: Timeshare

text: Some are sold as rotating weeks, commonly referred to as "flex" weeks. In an attempt to give all owners a chance for the best weeks, the weeks are rotated forward or backward through the calendar, so in year 1 the owner may have use of week 25, then week 26 in year 2, and then week 27 in year 3. This method gives each owner a fair opportunity for prime weeks, but unlike its name, it is not flexible.


title: Timeshare

text: A variant form of real estate-based timeshare that combines features of deeded timeshare with right-to-use offerings was developed by Disney Vacation Club (DVC) in 1991. Purchasers of DVC timeshare interests, whom DVC calls "members" receive a deed conveying an undivided real property interest in a timeshare unit. Each DVC member's property interest is accompanied by an annual allotment of "vacation points" in proportion to the size of the property interest. DVC's vacation points system is marketed as "highly flexible" and may be used in different increments for vacation stays at DVC resorts in a variety of accommodations from studios to three-bedroom villas. DVC's vacation points can be exchanged for vacations worldwide in non-Disney resorts, or may be "banked" into or "borrowed" from future years.


title: Timeshare

text: DVC's deeded/vacation point structure, which has been used at all of its timeshare resorts, has been adopted by other large timeshare developers including the Hilton Grand Vacations Company, the Marriott Vacation Club, the Holiday Inn Club Vacations, the Hyatt Residence Club and Accor in France.


title: Timeshare

text: Resort-based points programs are also sold as deeded and as right to use. Points programs annually give the owner a number of points equal to the level of ownership. The owner in a points program can then use these points to make travel arrangements within the resort group. Many points programs are affiliated with large resort groups offering a large selection of options for destination. Many resort point programs provide flexibility from the traditional week stay. Resort point program members, such as WorldMark by Wyndham and Diamond Resorts International, may request from the entire available inventory of the resort group.


title: Timeshare

text: A points program member may often request fractional weeks as well as full or multiple week stays. The number of points required to stay at the resort in question will vary based on a points chart. The points chart will allow for factors such as:


title: Timeshare

text: Timeshare properties tend to be apartment style accommodations ranging in size from studio units (with room for two), to three and four bedroom units. These larger units can usually accommodate large families comfortably. Units normally include fully equipped kitchens with a dining area, dishwasher, televisions, DVD players, etc. It is not uncommon to have washers and dryers in the unit or accessible on the resort property. The kitchen area and amenities will reflect the size of the particular unit in question.


title: Timeshare

text: Units are usually listed by how many the unit will sleep and how many the unit will sleep privately. Traditionally, but not exclusively:


title: Timeshare

text: Sleep privately usually refers to the number of guests who will not have to walk through another guest's sleeping area to use a restroom. Timeshare resorts tend to be strict on the number of guests permitted per unit.


title: Timeshare

text: Unit size affects the cost and demand at any given resort. The same does not hold true comparing resorts in different locations. A one-bedroom unit in a desirable location may still be more expensive and in higher demand than a two-bedroom accommodation in a resort with less demand. An example of this may be a one-bedroom at a desirable beach resort compared to a two-bedroom unit at a resort located inland from the same beach.


title: Timeshare

text: Timeshare sales staffs often provide incentives, including free or deeply discounted hotel rooms, tickets, and gifts, for the prospective buyer to take a tour of the property.


title: Timeshare

text: The prospective buyers (or "prospects") are seated in a hospitality room with many tables and chairs to accommodate families. The prospects are assigned a tour guide, who may be a licensed real estate agent. Procedures vary from venue to venue. After a warm-up period and some coffee or snack, a podium speaker welcomes the prospects to the resort, and shows a promotional video.


title: Timeshare

text: The prospects are then invited to take a tour of the property. Depending on the resort's available inventory, the tour will include an accommodation that the tour guide or agent feels will best fit the prospect's family's needs. After the tour, the group returns to the hospitality room for a verbal sales presentation. During the presentation, they are handed the resort exchange book from RCI, Interval International, or whatever exchange company is associated with that particular resort property. The prospects are asked about the places they would like to visit if they were timeshare owners. The rest of the presentation is designed around the responses the prospective buyers give to that question.


title: Timeshare

text: If the guide is licensed, the prospect is quoted the retail price of the particular unit that best seemed to fit the prospective buyer's needs. If the tour guide is not a licensed agent, a licensed agent steps in to present the price. If the prospect replies with "no", or "I would like to think about it", the prospect will then be given a new incentive to buy. This incentive will usually be a discounted price that is only "good today" (which is untrue). If again, the reply is "no", or "I would like to think about it", the sales agent asks the prospect to please talk to one of the managers before the prospect leaves.


title: Timeshare

text: A sales manager, assistant manager or project director may be called to the table for "T.O.", for "takeover", to find an incentive, usually in the form of a smaller, less expensive unit, or a traded in unit from another owner. A common T.O. tactic is to claim that a lower price is exclusive to a specific buyer. If one incentive doesn't move a prospect to purchase, another will follow shortly, until the prospect has either purchased, convinced the sales crew that they are uninterested, or has left on their own.


title: Timeshare

text: Timeshare sales are often high pressure and fast moving. Some people sign a contract, then want to cancel it shortly thereafter.


title: Timeshare

text: U.S. Federal Trade Commission mandates a "cooling off period" that allows people to cancel some types of purchases without penalty within three days. Additionally, almost all U.S. states have laws that specifically govern cancellation of timeshare contracts. In Florida, a new timeshare owner can cancel the purchase within ten days. The law differs by jurisdiction as to whether out-of-state purchasers are subject to the rescission period of their state of residence, or the rescission period of the state where the timeshare purchase was made.


title: Timeshare

text: Another common practice is to have the prospective buyer sign a "cancellation waiver", using it as an excuse to lower the price of the timeshare in exchange for the buyer waiving cancellation rights (or paying a penalty, such as losing 10% of the purchase price, if the sale is cancelled). However, such a waiver is not legally enforceable anywhere in Mexico or the United States.


title: Timeshare

text: There are companies that specialize in timeshare cancellation, although some cancellation companies are suspected of fraud.


title: Timeshare

text: A resale value of a timeshare unit varies between the timeshare systems and properties. While it's possible for certain units in certain timeshare systems to appreciate in value over time, this is a rather rare event. Most properties in most timeshare systems are worth a fraction of the original price after the purchase, and often carry no value at all.


title: Timeshare

text: Deeds with severe restrictions on resale are typically given out for free. For example, upon resale of most Holiday Inn Club Vacations properties, the new owner can no longer use the allotted point value to make reservations at any HICV resort. They are limited to their home resort only, and booking window is shorter.


title: Timeshare

text: Deeds with no resale restrictions may carry some resale value, depending on the location, season, unit size, or the allotted points value. For example, large units in mountain resorts during ski season and large penthouse units in popular destinations will have some resale value. Likewise, small units in destinations saturated by timeshares, or with expensive maintenance fees compared to the value of offered points in their respective system, will have no resale value at all.


title: Timeshare

text: Most timeshare companies retain the right of first refusal for most of their properties. If that is a case, each owner is required to submit their purchase agreement contract to the developer and ask for a waiver. The developer may decide to exercise ROFR to purchase the subject property, thus refusing the sale to the original buyer. A transaction is typically exempted from ROFR if the purchaser is a direct family member.


title: Timeshare

text: Even though resales come at a fraction of original costs, developers are often reluctant to exercise the ROFR. Many sought-after deeds change hands uninterrupted. When a developer exercises the ROFR, they become the owner and must pay the same maintenance fees and property taxes to the resort's HOA, so they must maintain a healthy balance between inventory ready for sale and maintenance costs.


title: Timeshare

text: The United States Federal Trade Commission provides consumers with information regarding timeshare pricing and other related information. Also known as Universal Lease Programs (ULPs), timeshares are considered to be securities under the law.


title: Timeshare

text: Many timeshare owners complain about the annual maintenance fee (which includes property taxes) being too high.


title: Timeshare

text: Timeshare developers contend that pricing compared to staying at hotels in the long term is projected to be lower to the timeshare owner. However, a hotel guest does not have a monthly vacation mortgage payment, upfront cost, fixed schedule, maintenance fees, and preset vacation locations. Many owners also complain that the increasing cost of timeshares and accompanying maintenance and exchange fees are rising faster than hotel rates in the same areas.


title: Timeshare

text: The industry's reputation has been severely injured by the comparison of the timeshare salesman to the used car salesman, because of the sales pressure put on the prospective buyer to "buy today". "The discounted price I quoted you is only good if you buy today", is the industry standard's pitch to close the sale on the first visit to the resort. Many have left a timeshare tour complaining of being exhausted by the barrage of salespeople they had to deal with before they finally exited the tour. The term "TO", or "turn over" man, was coined in the land industry, and quickly evolved to the timeshare industry. Once the original tour guide or salesman gives the prospective buyer the pitch and price, the "TO" is sent in to drop the price and secure the down payment.


title: Timeshare

text: Exiting a timeshare without the cooperation of the developer is not easy, and often requires the assistance of a specialist. This specialist may be a broker who works both sides of the market, or an attorney who can litigate the contract. While some timeshare exit specialists are legitimate, the business is plagued by scammers who cold-call owners and solicit payment in advance for nonexistent services. The original buyer of a timeshare generally takes a substantial loss when a timeshare is successfully resold. In 2017, Spanish police arrested 35 people in connection with a fraudulent timeshare resale operation on the Costa del Sol that had taken an estimated £11m profit from 500 victims.


title: Isis (DC Comics)

text: Isis is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, as well as a separate Egyptian goddess also living in the DC Universe. The superhero character is modeled closely after the main character of "The Secrets of Isis", a live-action television program starring Joanna Cameron that served as the second half of "The Shazam!/Isis Hour". The television character, named Andrea Thomas, appeared in several late 1970s DC Comics publications.