title: Peristalsis

text: Peristalsis ( , ) is a radially symmetrical contraction and relaxation of muscles that propagate in a wave down a tube, in an anterograde direction. Peristalsis is progression of coordinated contraction of involuntary circular muscles, which is preceded by a simultaneous contraction of the longitudinal muscle and relaxation of the circular muscle in the lining of the gut.


title: Peristalsis

text: In much of a digestive tract such as the human gastrointestinal tract, smooth muscle tissue contracts in sequence to produce a peristaltic wave, which propels a ball of food (called a bolus before being transformed into chyme in the stomach) along the tract. The peristaltic movement comprises relaxation of circular smooth muscles, then their contraction behind the chewed material to keep it from moving backward, then longitudinal contraction to push it forward.


title: Peristalsis

text: Earthworms use a similar mechanism to drive their locomotion, and some modern machinery imitate this design.


title: Peristalsis

text: The word comes from New Latin and is derived from the Greek "peristellein", "to wrap around," from "peri"-, "around" + "stellein", "draw in, bring together; set in order".


title: Peristalsis

text: Peristalsis is generally directed caudal, that is, towards the anus. This sense of direction might be attributable to the polarisation of the myenteric plexus. Because of the reliance of the peristaltic reflex on the myenteric plexus, it is also referred to as the myenteric reflex.


title: Peristalsis

text: The food bolus causes a stretch of the gut smooth muscle that causes serotonin to be secreted to sensory neurons, which then get activated. These sensory neurons, in turn, activate neurons of the myenteric plexus, which then proceed to split into two cholinergic pathways: a retrograde and an anterograde. Activated neurons of the retrograde pathway release substance P and acetylcholine to contract the smooth muscle behind the bolus. The activated neurons of the anterograde pathway instead release nitric oxide and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide to relax the smooth muscle caudal to the bolus. This allows the food bolus to effectively be pushed forward along the digestive tract.


title: Peristalsis

text: After food is chewed into a bolus, it is swallowed and moved through the esophagus. Smooth muscles contract behind the bolus to prevent it from being squeezed back into the mouth. Then rhythmic, unidirectional waves of contractions work to rapidly force the food into the stomach. The migrating motor complex (MMC) helps trigger peristaltic waves. This process works in one direction only, and its sole esophageal function is to move food from the mouth into the stomach (the MMC also functions to clear out remaining food in the stomach to the small bowel and remaining particles in the small bowel into the colon).


title: Peristalsis

text: During vomiting, the propulsion of food up the esophagus and out the mouth comes from the contraction of the abdominal muscles; peristalsis does not reverse in the esophagus.


title: Peristalsis

text: When a peristaltic wave reaches at the end of the esophagus, the cardiac sphincter (gastroesophageal sphincter) opens, allowing the passage of bolus into the stomach. The gastroesophageal sphincter normally remains closed and does not allow the stomach's food contents to move back. The churning movements of the stomach's thick muscular wall blend the food thoroughly with the acidic gastric juice, producing a mixture called the chyme. The muscularis layer of the stomach is thickest and maximum peristalsis occurs here. After short intervals, the pyloric sphincter keeps on opening and closing so the chyme is fed into the intestine in installments.


title: Peristalsis

text: Once processed and digested by the stomach, the semifluid chyme is passed through the pyloric sphincter into the small intestine. Once past the stomach, a typical peristaltic wave lasts only a few seconds, traveling at only a few centimeters per second. Its primary purpose is to mix the chyme in the intestine rather than to move it forward in the intestine. Through this process of mixing and continued digestion and absorption of nutrients, the chyme gradually works its way through the small intestine to the large intestine.


title: Peristalsis

text: In contrast to peristalsis, segmentation contractions result in that churning and mixing without pushing materials further down the digestive tract.


title: Peristalsis

text: Although the large intestine has peristalsis of the type that the small intestine uses, it is not the primary propulsion. Instead, general contractions called mass action contractions occur one to three times per day in the large intestine, propelling the chyme (now feces) toward the rectum. Mass movements often tend to be triggered by meals, as the presence of chyme in the stomach and duodenum prompts them (gastrocolic reflex). Minimum peristalsis is found in the rectum part of the large intestine as a result of the thinnest muscularis layer.


title: Peristalsis

text: The human lymphatic system has no central pump. Instead, lymph circulates through peristalsis in the lymph capillaries as well as valves in the capillaries, compression during contraction of adjacent skeletal muscle, and arterial pulsation.


title: Peristalsis

text: During ejaculation, the smooth muscle in the walls of the vas deferens contracts reflexively in peristalsis, propelling sperm from the testicles to the urethra.


title: Peristalsis

text: The earthworm is a limbless annelid worm with a hydrostatic skeleton that moves by peristalsis. Its hydrostatic skeleton consists of a fluid-filled body cavity surrounded by an extensible body wall. The worm moves by radially constricting the anterior portion of its body, increasing length via hydrostatic pressure. This constricted region propagates posteriorly along the worm's body. As a result, each segment is extended forward, then relaxes and re-contacts the substrate, with hair-like setae preventing backward slipping. Various other invertebrates, such as caterpillars and millipedes, also move by peristalsis.


title: Peristalsis

text: A peristaltic pump is a positive-displacement pump in which a motor pinches advancing portions of a flexible tube to propel a fluid within the tube. The pump isolates the fluid from the machinery, which is important if the fluid is abrasive or must remain sterile.


title: Northern Canada

text: Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This area covers about 48 per cent of Canada's total land area, but has less than 1 per cent of Canada's population.


title: Northern Canada

text: The terms "northern Canada" or "the North" may be used in contrast with "the far north", which may refer to the Canadian Arctic, the portion of Canada that lies north of the Arctic Circle, east of Alaska and west of Greenland. However, in many other uses the two areas are treated as a single unit.


title: Northern Canada

text: As a social rather than political region, the Canadian North is often subdivided into two distinct regions based on climate, the "near north" and the "far north". The different climates of these two regions result in vastly different vegetation, and therefore very different economies, settlement patterns, and histories.


title: Northern Canada

text: The "near north" or sub-Arctic is mostly synonymous with the Canadian boreal forest, a large area of evergreen-dominated forests with a subarctic climate. This area has traditionally been home to the Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic, that is the First Nations, who were hunters of moose, freshwater fishers and trappers. This region was heavily involved in the North American fur trade during its peak importance, and is home to many Métis people who originated in that trade. The area was mostly part of Rupert's Land under the nominal control of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1670 to 1869 who regarded Rupert's Land as their proprietary colony.


title: Northern Canada

text: In 1670, King Charles II of England in his grant creating the proprietary colony Rupert's Land defined its frontiers as all the lands adjudging Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay or rivers flowing into Hudson Bay, in theory giving control of much of what is now Canada to the HBC. Under the royal charter of 2 May 1670, the HBC received the theoretical control of making up 40% of what is now Canada. Despite its claim that Rupert's Land was a proprietary colony, the HBC only controlled the areas around its forts (trading post) on the shores of James Bay and Hudson Bay, and never sought to impose political control on the First Nations peoples, whose co-operation was needed for the fur trade. For its first century, the HBC never ventured inland, being content to have the First Nations peoples come to its forts to trade fur for European goods. The HBC only started to move inland in the late 18th century to assert its claim to Rupert's Land in response to rival fur traders coming out of Montreal who were hurting profits by going directly to the First Nations.


title: Northern Canada

text: The HBC's claim to Rupert's Land, which, as the company was the de facto administrator, included the North-Western Territory, was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869. After buying Rupert's Land, Canada renamed the area it had purchased the Northwest Territories. Shortly thereafter the government made a series of treaties with the local First Nations regarding land title. This opened the region to non-Native settlement, as well as to forestry, mining, and oil and gas drilling. In 1896, gold was discovered in the Yukon, leading to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896-1899 and the first substantial white settlements were made in the near north. To deal with the increased settlement in the Klondike, the Yukon Territory was created in 1898.


title: Northern Canada

text: Today several million people live in the near north, around 15% of the Canadian total. Large parts of the near north are not part of Canada's territories, but rather are the northern parts of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, meaning they have very different political histories as minority regions within larger units. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canada reduced the size of the Northwest Territory by carving out new provinces out of it such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba together with the new territory of the Yukon while transferring other parts of the Northwest Territory to Ontario and Quebec.


title: Northern Canada

text: The "far north" is synonymous with the areas north of the tree line: the Barren Grounds and tundra. This area is home to the various sub-groups of the Inuit, a people unrelated to other Indigenous peoples in Canada. These are people who have traditionally relied mostly on hunting marine mammals and caribou, mainly barren-ground caribou, as well as fish and migratory birds. The Inuit lived in groups that pursued a hunter-gather lifestyle, with a basic governmental system in which power was exercised by the local headman, a person acknowledged to be the best hunter, and the angakkuq, sometimes called shamans. This area was somewhat involved in the fur trade, but was more influenced by the whaling industry. Britain maintained a claim to the far north as part of the British Arctic Territories, and in 1880 transferred its claim to Canada, who included the far north into the Northwest Territories.


title: Northern Canada

text: The Inuit were not aware of the existence of the British Arctic territory claim nor were they aware for some time afterwards that under international law their territories had just been included in Canada. It was not until 1920 when detachments of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) started being sent into the far north to enforce Canadian law that Canadian sovereignty over the region became effective. This area was not part of the early 20th century treaty process and aboriginal title to the land has been acknowledged by the Canadian government with the creation of autonomous territories instead of the Indian reserves of further south.


title: Northern Canada

text: In 1982 a referendum was held to decide on splitting the Northwest Territories. This was followed by the 1992 Nunavut creation referendum with the majority of the people in far north voting to leave the Northwest Territories, leading to the new territory of Nunavut being created in 1999. Very few non-Indigenous people have settled in these areas, and the residents of the far north represent less than 1% of Canada's total population.


title: Northern Canada

text: The far north is also often broken into the west and eastern parts and sometimes a central part. The eastern Arctic which means the self-governing territory of Nunavut (much of which is in the true Arctic, being north of the Arctic Circle), sometimes excluding Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk; Nunavik, an autonomous part of the province of Quebec; Nunatsiavut, an autonomous part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador; and perhaps a few parts of the Hudson Bay coast of Ontario and Manitoba. The western Arctic is the northernmost portion of the Northwest Territories (roughly Inuvik Region) and a small part of Yukon, together called the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and sometimes includes Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk. The central Arctic covers the pre-division Kitikmeot Region, Northwest Territories.


title: Northern Canada

text: Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude, extending all the way north to the North Pole: all islands in the Arctic Archipelago and Herschel, off the Yukon coast, form part of the region, are Canadian territory and the territorial waters claimed by Canada surround these islands. Views of territorial claims in this region are complicated by disagreements on legal principles. Canada and the Soviet Union/Russia have long claimed that their territory extends according to the sector principle to the North Pole. The United States does not accept the sector principle and does not make a sector claim based on its Alaskan Arctic coast. Claims that undersea geographic features are extensions of a country's continental shelf are also used to support claims; for example the Denmark/Greenland claim on territory to the North Pole, some of which is disputed by Canada.


title: Northern Canada

text: Foreign ships, both civilian and military, are allowed the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of a littoral state subject to conditions in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The right of innocent passage is not allowed, however, in internal waters, which are enclosed bodies of water or waters landward of a chain of islands. Disagreements about the sector principle or extension of territory to the North Pole and about the definition of internal waters in the Arctic lie behind differences in territorial claims in the Arctic. This claim is recognized by most countries with some exceptions, including the United States; Denmark, Russia, and Norway have made claims similar to those of Canada in the Arctic and are opposed by the European Union and the United States. This is especially important with the Northwest Passage. Canada asserts control of this passage as part of the Canadian Internal Waters because it is within of Canadian islands; the United States claims that it is in international waters. Today ice and freezing temperatures make this a minor issue, but climate change may make the passage more accessible to shipping, something that concerns the Canadian government and inhabitants of the environmentally sensitive region.


title: Northern Canada

text: While the largest part of the Arctic is composed of permanent ice and the Canadian Arctic tundra north of the tree line, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: the Innuitian Mountains, associated with the Arctic Cordillera mountain system, are geologically distinct from the Arctic Region (which consists largely of lowlands). The Arctic and Hudson Bay Lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often considered part of the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geological area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible.


title: Northern Canada

text: The Arctic watershed (or drainage basin) drains northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia, most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as well as parts of Yukon into the Arctic Ocean, including the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay. With the exception of the Mackenzie River, Canada's longest river, this watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity. The Peace and Athabasca rivers along with Great Bear and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed within Canada), are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie so that it thereby drains the vast majority of the Arctic watershed.


title: Northern Canada

text: Under the Köppen climate classification, much of mainland Northern Canada has a subarctic climate, with a tundra climate in most of the Arctic Archipelago and on the northern coasts, and an Ice cap climate in some parts of the Arctic Cordillera. For more than half of the year, much of Northern Canada is snow and ice-covered, with some limited moderation by the relatively warmer waters in coastal areas with temperatures generally remaining below the freezing mark from October to May. During the coldest three months, mean monthly temperatures range from in the southern sections to in the northern sections although temperatures can go down to . Owing to the dry cold air prevalent throughout most of the region, snowfall is often light in nature. During the short summers, much of Northern Canada is snow free, except for the Arctic Cordillera which remains covered with snow and ice throughout the year. In the summer months, temperatures average below and may occasionally exceed . Most of the rainfall accumulated occurs in the summer months, ranging from in the northernmost islands to at the southern end of Baffin Island.


title: Northern Canada

text: Using the political definition of the three northern territories, the north, with an area of , makes up 39.3% of Canada.


title: Northern Canada

text: Although vast, the entire region is very sparsely populated. As of 2021, only about 118,160 people lived there compared to 36,991,981 in the rest of Canada.


title: Northern Canada

text: The population density for Northern Canada is ( for Yukon, for the NWT and for Nunavut) compared to for Canada.


title: Northern Canada

text: It is heavily endowed with natural resources and in most cases they are very expensive to extract and situated in fragile environmental areas. Though GDP per person is higher than elsewhere in Canada, the region remains relatively poor, mostly because of the extremely high cost of most consumer goods, and the region is heavily subsidised by the government of Canada.


title: Northern Canada

text: As of 2016, 53.3% of the population of the three territories (23.3% in Yukon, 50.7% in the NWT and 85.9% in Nunavut) is Indigenous, Inuit, First Nations or Métis. The Inuit are the largest group of Indigenous peoples in Northern Canada, and 53.0% of all Canada's Inuit live in Northern Canada, with Nunavut accounting for 46.4%. The region also contains several groups of First Nations, who are mainly Dene with the Chipewyan making up the largest sub-group. The three territories each have a greater proportion of Aboriginal inhabitants than any of Canada's provinces. There are also many more recent immigrants from around the world; of the territories, Yukon has the largest percentage of non-Aboriginal inhabitants, while Nunavut the smallest.


title: Northern Canada

text: Although it has not been on the same scale, some towns and cities have experienced population increases not seen for several decades before. Yellowknife has become the centre of diamond production for Canada (which has become one of the top three countries for diamonds).


title: Northern Canada

text: In the 2006 Canadian Census, the three territories posted a combined population of over 100,000 people for the first time in Canadian history.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Highlander II: The Quickening is a 1991 science fiction film directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Christopher Lambert, Virginia Madsen, Michael Ironside and Sean Connery. It is the second installment in the "Highlander" film series, and sequel of the 1986 fantasy film "Highlander". Set in the year 2024, the plot concerns Connor MacLeod, who regains his youth and immortal abilities and must free Earth from the Shield, an artificial ozone layer that has fallen under the control of a corrupt corporation. The film was shot almost entirely in Argentina before and after the country's economy crashed; as the local economy experienced hyperinflation, the film's investors and completion bond company took direct control of production and final edit, removing director Mulcahy and his creative influence while changing parts of the story. The resulting film contradicts the established canon of "Highlander", in depicting immortals as aliens, featuring the inexplicable resurrection of Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, and altering the concept of the "Quickening".


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: It received universally negative reviews from critics and fans of the series, with many considering it to be one of the . It was universally panned for its retcons, large plot holes, poorly developed characters, confusing story structure, an abundance of subplots, and bad editing. The original theatrical edition was released on 12 April 1991 in the United Kingdom (in an eight-minute longer cut) and 1 November 1991 in the United States, and was also a box-office bomb grossing $16 million in the US on a production budget of $34 million.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: In 1995, an alternate director's cut called the "Renegade Version" was released to home video that attempted to address the many story problems, such as removing all mention of Zeist and the idea that immortals are aliens. This was followed by a "Special Edition" DVD release in 2004, which was largely the same cut as the "Renegade Version" but with some altered special effects. The sequel "" follows the events of the first film, in the process contradicting and completely ignoring the events and revelations of "Highlander II".


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: In the fifteenth century, on the planet Zeist, a rebellion is formed against the corrupt leadership of General Katana. Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, a wise sorcerer, chooses Connor MacLeod to lead the rebels. Using the Quickening, Ramírez creates a bond between him and MacLeod that is stronger than death. Katana and his troops then attack, crushing the rebellion.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Ramírez and MacLeod are put on trial by priests, who sentence them and other criminals to exile on Earth where they will be immortal. Locked into ageless lives, they will fight each other until there is only one left. The survivor will win the Prize: a choice to either remain on Earth as a mortal or return to Zeist, their past crimes forgiven.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: In 1985, MacLeod wins the Prize. He becomes mortal and marries mortal woman Brenda Wyatt. By August 1994, the ozone layer is fading and will be completely gone in a matter of months. Millions, including Brenda, perish from unfiltered solar radiation. Before dying, Brenda makes McLeod promise to solve this ecological disaster. By 1999, MacLeod supervises a scientific team headed by Dr. Allan Neyman which creates an electromagnetic shield to protect the Earth from radiation. The shield saves humanity, but condemns it to no longer seeing the sky, the stars or sunlight, as well as a constantly high temperature and high humidity. Unable to see the sky for decades, many begin to suffer from depression and loss of hope, and society declines into violence, greed, and crime. Many even grow to hate MacLeod, saying he ruined the world.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: By 2024, the shield is under the control of The Shield Corporation (TSC) and chief executive David Blake, who impose heavy fees on countries for continued protection from solar radiation. Louise Marcus, a former employee of TSC, is a member of an activist group that believes the ozone layer has healed and that the shield is no longer needed. She believes TSC is keeping this secret to remain gaining a profit.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Now a frail old man, MacLeod lives a solitary life. Suddenly, he starts remembering Ramírez and his past on Zeist. Meanwhile, on Zeist, the still-living General Katana considers that MacLeod may still choose to return. Unwilling to take that chance, Katana sends two henchmen, Corda and Reno, to kill him. Noticing his regenerative power start coming back, MacLeod realizes that there are other immortals on Earth again.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Marcus finds MacLeod and asks for his help in taking down the shield. He declines, saying he is old and does not approve of terrorism. Corda and Reno attack MacLeod, who reluctantly fights back. After decapitating Corda, MacLeod absorbs his power, regaining the youth and vitality he had before winning the Prize. He kills Reno and instinctively summons Ramírez back to life.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Ramírez materializes alive and well where he had died, in Glencoe, Scotland. Drawn to MacLeod's location, he pawns his earring to buy a new sword, a new suit of clothes and a plane ticket to New York. Meanwhile, General Katana arrives on Earth, determined to kill MacLeod himself. He briefly confronts MacLeod on holy ground (where they are forbidden to fight), taunting him before leaving. After Ramírez finds MacLeod and Louise, the three make a plan to take down the shield.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Deducing that MacLeod will target the shield, Katana allies himself with David Blake. When it is discovered that he has told MacLeod there is proof the ozone layer is healed, Neyman is killed. MacLeod, Ramírez, and Louise break into TSC. Using his magic, Ramírez sacrifices his life to save MacLeod from a trap. Blake is killed and MacLeod has one final battle with Katana. After winning, MacLeod releases all the immortal energy in his body and succeeds in disabling the shield. Louise Marcus, along with many people on Earth, sees the stars and sky for the first time in her life.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: In the UK theatrical release, a scene shows MacLeod and Louise journeying above the Shield to confirm the ozone layer has repaired itself. It also shows MacLeod returning to Zeist after destroying the Shield, accompanied by Louise (this has been dubbed by fans as the "fairy tale ending").


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Connor MacLeod and the other immortals are human beings born with the Quickening, an energy that makes them almost invincible. MacLeod and sorcerer Ramírez are both immortals and inhabitants of a society on Earth that predates recorded history, during a time when magic and advanced technology co-exist. This society is ruled by the dictator General Katana, another immortal. He is opposed by a group of revolutionaries that includes MacLeod and Ramírez. Ramírez declares MacLeod their new leader and uses ancient magic to bond their souls together. When MacLeod and Ramírez are captured by Katana's forces, the priests and Chief Justice overseeing the case decide to exile them and other immortal criminals to various points of Earth's future, long after their society falls and is forgotten. If one of these immortals is able to kill all the others, they will win the Prize - full amnesty for their crimes and a choice: return to their true home in the distant past or remain in the future, living as a mortal. Before they are separated, Ramírez promises that the bond between their souls means they will always find each other, even after death.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Ramírez is reborn in Ancient Egypt and becomes a cunning but moral warrior. MacLeod is reborn as a Scottish Highlander in the 16th century, apparently not remembering his previous life. After discovering his immortality, McLeod is found by Ramírez who trains him to fight. Centuries later in New York, MacLeod wins the Prize, and becomes mortal. Since he never fully declares whether or not he chooses to remain or return, MacLeod still has the possibility of returning to the distant past. The Prize gives him the ability to know the thoughts and dreams of all people on Earth—including scientists whom he can help understand each other. MacLeod then marries Brenda Wyatt, who dies in 1994 from solar radiation poisoning after Earth's ozone layer is destroyed. Before dying, Brenda makes MacLeod swear to use the Prize and save Earth from this ecological catastrophe. He becomes involved in the creation of the Shield and protective of its use, until he is told the ozone layer is healed. He later confirms this by journeying above the Shield with Louise.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: The rest of the story that takes place in 2024 is largely similar to the original theatrical version, with flashbacks rearranged, additional scenes, and some scenes having minor changes. By 2024, MacLeod experiences flashbacks of his original life in the distant past and his war with Katana. Katana does not wish to risk that MacLeod may one day return home from the future, so he transports two immortal assassins to 2024. When they both die, MacLeod absorbs their Quickening energies, regaining his youth and immortality. At the end, MacLeod releases his Quickening energy to destroy the Shield, and it is strongly implied that this makes him mortal again. He then embraces Louise and the two vanish in a burst of light that rises into the sky, indicating they have journeyed back to MacLeod's home in the distant past.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Although the film originally began after the success of the original, Davis/Panzer Productions presold most of the rights of the Highlander sequel to Vestron Inc. for $18 million, namely in five foreign territories, such as the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Australia, Japan and Benelux, while Vestron would handle French home video distribution, Filmauro gained Italian rights to the project, Highlight Communications gained German rights to the film, Nea Kinisi for the Greece market and Lusomondo for the Portugal market, and the producers concluded other presells were available for the Argentina, Peru and Bolivia markets, and in the U.S., set to be released by New Century/Vista Film Co., which was intended for the summer of 1988, but it was landed in development hell.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: The sets of "Highlander II" have been compared to those of Ridley Scott, particularly those of "Blade Runner". Lambert and Ironside both suffered injuries during the filming, according to the "St. Petersburg Times": "Lambert chipped one of Ironside's teeth during a fight scene, while Ironside inadvertently chopped off part of Lambert's finger during a swordfight scene. Both men recovered from their injuries, but Ironside said precision thrusts and parries were impossible when wielding a 22-pound broadsword."


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: John C. McGinley made his character's voice as deep as possible in an effort to sound like Orson Welles. He has since admitted that this was a bad idea.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: According to the documentary "Highlander II: Seduced by Argentina", the film's apparent poor performance is partially a result of the bonding company's interference with the work of the director, Russell Mulcahy. Mulcahy reportedly hated the final product so much he walked out of the film's world premiere, reportedly doing so after viewing its first 15 minutes. For similar reasons, Christopher Lambert threatened to walk out of the project when it was nearing fruition. However, due to contractual obligations, he did not.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: The film's investors and completion bond company took direct control of production and final edit, removing director Mulcahy and his creative influence while changing parts of the story. The resulting film contradicts the established canon of "Highlander" regarding the nature of immortals and MacLeod's past, such as depicting immortals as aliens from the planet Zeist rather than human-born with energy connecting them to nature and making them unable to die unless beheaded. MacLeod's former mentor Ramírez, killed in the first film, is inexplicably resurrected and now depicted as an alien sorcerer. While the first film used the word "Quickening" to refer to the energy that gives an immortal their power, "Highlander II" uses the term to refer to a magical force Ramírez uses to bond his soul to MacLeod's, allowing him to return from death when the Highlander needs him.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: A once lost alternate ending, commonly known as "The Fairytale Ending", was shown only in some European theaters and has never been shown in any of the American cuts. The ending shows Connor magically returning to planet Zeist, taking Louise along with him, while Ramírez’s voice is heard in the background. An early version of this ending is shown on the "Special Edition". It also includes footage of Virginia Madsen as Louise Marcus speaking to Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod. Madsen is on location while Lambert is suspended by wires in front of a blue screen. After a brief exchange where Connor asks Louise to come with him, the theatrical ending is shown where the two embrace in front of a field of stars, then transform into light streaks and fly off into space.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: "Highlander II: The Quickening" was released in the UK on 12 April 1991 with a runtime of 100 minutes. This version was distributed by Entertainment Film Distributors and ran 8 minutes longer than the US cut.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: As well as a very different scene order this version included additional footage not seen in the later US Theatrical release; including a flashback to the death of Connor's previous wife Brenda, a sequence of Connor and Louise going above the shield, and the alternate "Fairytale Ending" mentioned above.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Despite this longer version running in UK theatres, all home video releases in the country to date have been of the shorter 91-minute US Theatrical Release (running 86 minutes due to PAL speedup). This includes the rental VHS (EVV 1203), retail VHS (EVS 1072), laserdisc (PLFEB 37011), and DVD (EDV 9119).


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: "Highlander II: The Quickening" was released in the United States on 1 November 1991 with a runtime of 91 minutes, distributed by InterStar Releasing. This version was edited down by the bond company, with many scenes rearranged throughout. Despite the many cuts made to this version the bond company also added two new scenes that further fleshed out the villain, General Katana. These scenes include; Katana taunting Connor in his Zeist prison cell, and Connor and Katana meeting at the grave of Connor's dead wife, Brenda.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: This version was released many times in the US, including on VHS, laserdisc, and Video8. All DVD and Blu-Ray releases of the film in the United States have been of the longer "Renegade" and "Special Edition" versions.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: In the United States, the theatrical cut was released on VHS on 13 May 1992 by Columbia TriStar Home Video, and was reissued on 13 April 1994 by Hemdale Home Video.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: In 1995, Mulcahy made a director's cut version known as the "Renegade Version," which became the main version of the film available as the original theatrical cut did not have enough demand to warrant further production for home media. As a result, many fans in later years were only able to find the "Renegade Version" for viewing rather than the original theatrical release. The "Renegade Version" was reconstructed largely from existing material; certain scenes were removed and others added back in and entire sequences of events were changed. All references to the Immortals being aliens from another planet called Zeist were eliminated. New sequences include a battle between MacLeod and Katana atop a moving vehicle after they escape the security facility, and MacLeod and Louise climb through a mountain tunnel to emerge above the Shield to confirm that the radiation levels are back to normal (a scene previously only seen in the UK cut). The new version removes a major continuity gaffe from the theatrical version, which had merged two separate sword fights between MacLeod and Katana into one longer climactic battle. The director's cut version restores them to two separate battles, although it never shows how or when Connor reacquired his katana.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Producers Panzer and Davis revisited "Highlander II" once again in 2004. Dubbed the "Special Edition", this cut was nearly identical to the "Renegade Version", but with a few alterations, such as the introduction of new CGI special effects throughout the film, including a now-blue shield as originally intended, and a small piece of voice-over work by Lambert. As the original cut of the film is no longer distributed, many fans in later years have only had the "Regenade Version" and "Special Edition" available to watch.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Reviewing the 2004 "Special Edition" DVD, David Ryan of DVD Verdict gave it a score of 69 out of 100 and said that "[this] is the best version of this film that [the producers] can make with the material they have on hand. It's still not a particularly good film—but it's "infinitely" superior to the original version... What was once a horrible, horrible film has become downright tolerable, and actually somewhat entertaining at times."


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: The film was released months later in the US on 1 November 1991, and opened at #3, grossing $5.3 million in 960 theaters in the opening weekend. It grossed a total of $15.6 million in the US.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: "Highlander II: The Quickening" received critically negative reviews from critics, and is considered one of the worst films ever made. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rare approval rating of 0% based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 2.7/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "There should have been only one." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 31 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Common criticisms included the lack of motivation for the characters, the new and seemingly incongruent origin for the Immortals, the resurrection of Ramírez, and apparent contradictions in the film's internal logic.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film a score of 0.5 stars (out of four), saying: ""Highlander II: The Quickening" is the most hilariously incomprehensible movie I've seen in many a long day—a movie almost awesome in its badness. Wherever science fiction fans gather, in decades and generations to come, this film will be remembered in hushed tones as one of the immortal low points of the genre … If there is a planet somewhere whose civilization is based on the worst movies of all time, "Highlander 2: The Quickening" deserves a sacred place among their most treasured artifacts." Ebert also mocked the Quickening, saying it looked like a person standing in a puddle had touched another person who had just stuck his finger into a light socket.


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Alex Carter of Den of Geek wrote: «I started writing this to try and shed a different light on this unappreciated classic, but I can't. I really can't. "Highlander II" is awful. It's not even "so bad it's good" territory, it skips right past that into the "so awful you can't look away for fear you'll both be killed" territory. And amazingly, it manages to not only be contender for worst film in the world, but it also runs the entire franchise into the ground and retcons the first film into oblivion in the space of 15 minutes ... For decades, this was the punchline for every bad movie joke, the bad sequel to end all bad sequels. This is a film that wishes it could be as good as "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians".» Giving the film a score of 2 out of 10, IGN's review of the "Highlander 2: Renegade Version" said: "How bad is this movie? Well, imagine if Ed Wood were alive today, and someone gave him a multi-million dollar budget. See his imagination running rampant, bringing in aliens from outer space with immensely powerful firearms, immortals who bring each other back to life by calling out their names, epic duels on flying skateboards, and a blatant disregard for anything logical or previously established—now you are starting to get closer to the vision of "Highlander II"."


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Awarding the film one star out of five, Christopher Null of FilmCritic.com said, ""Highlander" has become a bit of a joke, and here's where the joke started... Incomprehensible doesn't even begin to explain it. This movie is the equivalent of the 'Hey, look over there!' gag. You look, and the guy you wanted to beat up has run away and hid."


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film a mixed review: "It makes clearer much that was so vague in the original; it even jokes about how confusing its premise is. In short, audiences who made the first film successful enough to warrant a second will be getting a bit more for their money."


title: Highlander II: The Quickening

text: David Nusair of "Reel Film Reviews" gave the film two stars out of four, saying: "It's hard to imagine "Highlander II" appealing to non-fans of the first film, as the film barely captures the sense of "fun" that was so prevalent in the original. With its complicated storyline and dreary visuals, it occasionally feels more perfunctory than anything else—though, to be fair, it's nowhere near as bad as it's been made out to be over the years."


title: Chanté Moore

text: Chanté Torrane Moore (born February 17, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, television personality, and author. Rising to fame in the early 1990s, Moore established herself as an R&B singer.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Her debut studio album "Precious" was released in 1992. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on November 14, 1994, in the United States, spawning such R&B hits as "Love's Taken Over" and "It's Alright". Released in 1994, her second album, "A Love Supreme", did not achieve the same success as her debut album.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 1999, her third album, "This Moment Is Mine", was released. The album included "Chanté's Got a Man", her first top 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and No. 2 on the R&B chart, which became her signature song and her best charting song to date. She then released three more solo studio albums, "Exposed" (2000) "Love the Woman" (2008), "Moore Is More" (2013) and two collaborative albums "Things That Lovers Do" (2003), "Uncovered/Covered" (2006), both with Kenny Lattimore.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Aside from her success in music, Moore became a television personality in 2013, being involved in TV One's reality series "" for three seasons before it was cancelled.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Born to Christian Evangelist parents, Moore grew up singing in the church and was heavily influenced by the music of George Duke and Lee Ritenour. She was a beauty pageant contestant and model when, at age twenty-two, she was discovered by MCA Records executive Louil Silas.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Moore was signed to Silas' MCA-distributed imprint Silas Records. She had previously been signed to Warner Bros Records by Benny Medina at the age of 19, recording a whole album before being dropped. In 1991, a song "Candlelight and You" featuring Moore's vocals with R&B singer Keith Washington was featured on the House Party 2 soundtrack, and she immediately began recording her solo debut album.


title: Chanté Moore

text: On September 29, 1992, Silas Records and MCA Records released Moore's debut album, "Precious". The album featured production from Simon Law, Bebe Winans, George Duke, among others, and peaked at number one-hundred and one on the U.S. "Billboard" 200 albums chart. The first single, "Love's Taken Over" peaked at number eighty-six and number thirteen on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and R&B Singles charts, respectively. The album's second single, It's Alright failed to make impact on the Billboard Hot 100, however, peaking at number thirteen on the R&B charts. More singles from Precious were released in 1993, including "As If We Never Met" and "Who Do I Turn To?". The album was certified gold by the RIAA on November 14, 1994.


title: Chanté Moore

text: On November 15, 1994, Moore released her second album "A Love Supreme" which peaked at sixty-four on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart. Moore was one of the co-executive producers of the album and co-wrote eight of its songs, along with Fred Moultrie. The album's first single, "Old School Lovin'", peaked at number nineteen on the R&B chart, marking her third top 20 R&B song. Three more songs were released from the album: "This Time" (1994), "I'm What You Need" (1995) and "Free/Sail On" (1995). In 1995, Moore appeared on the soundtrack to the hit film "Waiting to Exhale" and featured on five tracks, performing a solo on "Wey U," and adding backing vocals on the hit single, "Count On Me."


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 1999, she released her third album "This Moment Is Mine", which was led by her biggest single to date, "Chanté's Got a Man", written for then-husband Kadeem Hardison. It peaked at number ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and number two on the R&B chart and was certified gold. It was followed-up by the single "I See You in a Different Light" with JoJo Hailey of Jodeci and included as the theme for the film "For the Love of the Game" starring Kevin Costner.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Following her divorce from Hardison, Moore worked with a different set of collaborators for the more contemporary R&B album "Exposed", which followed in 2000 and included the singles "Straight Up" (produced by Jermaine Dupri) and "Bitter" for which the latter's video continued the saga of the R. Kelly and The Isley Brothers "Mr. Big" story.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 2002, Moore had the distinction of winning a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Single for the song "Contagious", featuring The Isley Brothers and R. Kelly. The song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.


title: Chanté Moore

text: A year after marrying R&B singer Kenny Lattimore, the two signed as a duet act to Arista Records and released a duet cover album titled "Things That Lovers Do" in 2003. The album was promoted with a stageplay named after the album and a music video for the single "You Don't Have to Cry", which shows a prominently pregnant Moore on screen with Lattimore.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In fall 2006, Moore issued a follow-up to "Things That Lovers Do", another album of duets with her then-husband Kenny Lattimore; a double-CD of gospel and R&B love songs titled "Uncovered/Covered". The set was led off by dual singles, the Bryan-Michael Cox-produced "Figure It Out", and "Make Me Like the Moon", a gospel ballad co-written by Lattimore and Moore and produced by Fred Hammond. "Uncovered/Covered" was released via LaFace/Verity/Zomba Music Group on October 10, 2006.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 2007, Moore starred in the stageplay "By Any Means Necessary", along with Dave Hollister, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Shar Jackson, and Danielle Mone Truitt.


title: Chanté Moore

text: During the recording of her duet album with Lattimore, she signed a new solo recording contract with Peak Records, a subsidiary of Concord Music Group.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Moore released her fifth solo album "Love the Woman" on June 17, 2008. The album's lead single "Ain't Supposed to Be This Way" impacted radio on May 12, 2008.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 2009, Moore set some dates for a "Love the Woman" tour, with performances in Los Angeles, and Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, she starred with James Pickens, Jr. (of "Grey's Anatomy"), Vickie Winans, Loretta Devine, Reginald VelJohnson, Rocky Carroll and Kenny Lattimore in a live stage production of Otis Sallid's "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel" at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in May 2009.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In July 2011, it was announced that she would be the TV host for an upcoming women's fitness reality series sponsored by SportyGirl Fitness. The following year, Moore performed at the 2012 BET Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in a tribute to the late singer Donna Summer.


title: Chanté Moore

text: On January 1, 2013, Moore signed a new record deal with Shanachie Entertainment. She released her sixth studio solo album "Moore Is More" on July 30, 2013 which was preceded by the single "Talking in My Sleep".


title: Chanté Moore

text: In early 2013, it was announced that Moore had joined the cast of the reality TV show "" with Kelly Price, Dawn Robinson (of En Vogue), Michel'le, Lil' Mo and Claudette Ortiz. They filmed the series throughout the year, and it premiered/aired during the summer. A second season was filmed in 2014.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In March 2014, it was announced that Moore would start a limited run in Vegas on March 24 in the Bally's Las Vegas legendary show "Jubilee!", after Terry Ellis (of En Vogue) had completed her run. The show was directed by Frank Gatson Jr. and also starred Grammy-nominated singer Luke James. The second season of "R&B Divas: Los Angeles" premiered in July 2014, and Moore released a digital single, "I Know, Right?", later that month.


title: Chanté Moore

text: She released her self-help book "Will I Marry Me?" in August 2014. Moore's manager, Cheryl Cobb Debrosse, began producing an adaptation of "Will I Marry Me?" into a one-woman show in 2015. That same year, Moore announced work on a new solo album which would include new material in addition to a few remakes of her songs, due to the experience of her one-woman show. The third (and final) season of "R&B Divas: Los Angeles" premiered on February 11, 2015.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 2016, she premiered a new track titled "Ghetto Love" featuring Kurupt on Donnie Simpson's radio show. Later in July, she appeared on the radio show to premiere her new single "Put It On Fate" of which she filmed a music video on July 13.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In January 2017, she announced a new single "Real One", released on February 3, 2017. It is the lead single off her album "The Rise of the Phoenix". The song proved to be her most successful single in seventeen years, peaking at #10 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart and at #39 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Additionally, it was announced she would star in the stage play "Married But Single Too" set to premiere off-Broadway in February. In February, it was announced her seventh studio album "The Rise of the Phoenix" would be delayed to March, and then April the following month. On March 20, she premiered the music video for her single "Real One", which was directed by GVisuals. On June 26, Moore announced "The Rise of the Phoenix" would be released on September 9. On August 7, 2017, Moore released a promotional video announcing the album would be available to pre-order on August 11, along with revealing the cover art. She then released her second single, "Something to Remember", along with a music video. The following day the album's track list was announced. The album premiered on streaming services on September 8., while the digital release date was rescheduled to September 29 and the physical release for October 20.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Additionally, she released her first full-length Christmas album titled "Christmas Back to You" in November 2017.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In September 2021, Moore released the single "Right One", which she co-wrote alongside Eric and Jovan Dawkins.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In her 2014 autobiographical self-help book, "Will I Marry Me?", she publicly revealed this marriage (and subsequent divorce), stating that the two had dated in sixth grade. Moore also shared that the friend was her first kiss at the age of 13.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Speaking of this time in her life, during an UNSUNG interview, she said: "After being in a couple of relationships that weren't so great, I was a little shy about love, so I thought, I'll outsmart love this time; I'll marry my friend." After falling out of love with her husband in 1993, Moore met actor Kadeem Hardison. Filing for divorce, she then dated Kadeem. Moore's mother died on her brother's birthday on January 25, 1995.


title: Chanté Moore

text: In 1996, she and Kadeem welcomed a daughter named Sophia Hardison. The pair secretly married in 1997 and divorced in 2000.


title: Chanté Moore

text: Moore married singer Kenny Lattimore in a private ceremony in Jamaica on New Year's Day in 2002. Their son was born in 2003. On July 27, 2011, in a statement on her Facebook page, Moore announced that she and Kenny had divorced. Her older brother Kelvin Gomillion (born January 25, 1961) died on August 18, 2013.


title: Chanté Moore

text: On October 26, 2021, Moore announced her engagement to former BET Executive, Stephen G. Hill. The couple wed in Los Cabos, Mexico on October 22, 2022.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Milan Škriniar (born 11 February 1995) is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Inter Milan and captains the Slovakia national team.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Škriniar began his career in the youth structures of FK Žiar nad Hronom before joining the youth setup of MŠK Žilina at age 12. He made his official Slovak Super Liga debut for the first team on 27 March 2012 aged 17 years and 49 days, in a match against ViOn Zlaté Moravce. On 23 November 2012 he scored his first goal in the Slovak Super Liga against ViOn during a 4–1 victory.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Škriniar was sent on loan for half a season to ViOn Zlaté Moravce in February 2013, in order to gain more first-team experience.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: On 29 January 2016, Sampdoria announced the signing of Milan Škriniar on a four-and-half year contract. He made his debut in a 2–1 home victory over Lazio in late April. During the next season Škriniar played a key role for Marco Giampaolo's Blucerchiati, finishing the campaign as the youngest defender to have made at least 35 appearances in Serie A.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: On 7 July 2017, Škriniar completed a transfer to fellow Serie A side Inter Milan signing a five-year contract. The club paid a reported fee around €20 million and also included the striker Gianluca Caprari. The transfer made Škriniar the most expensive Slovak player of all time. He was presented four days later and received squad number 37, stating: "It's amazing to think that in 18 months I've gone from the Slovakian league to playing for a club like Inter."


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Škriniar made his competitive debut for the club on 20 August in the opening matchday of 2017–18 Serie A versus Fiorentina as Inter won 3–0 at San Siro. He scored his first Serie A goal later on 16 September against Crotone, the opener in the 82nd minute with a right-footed shot in an eventual 2–0 away win to keep Inter's winning streak. His second of the campaign came in matchday 10 against his former side Sampdoria on 24 October, netting again the opener as Inter won 3–2.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Škriniar was distinguished for his performances in the first part of the season, being one of the best players of the squad. He continued with his great performances even in the second part of the season, which proved clinical for the team, which returned to UEFA Champions League after six years. He concluded the season by playing in all 38 matches in league, receiving only two yellow cards.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: In the 2018–19 season, Škriniar made his debut in the UEFA Champions League on 18 September in the opening group stage match against Tottenham Hotspur, playing full-90 minutes in a 2–1 comeback win at San Siro. On 2 November 2019, in a Serie A match against Bologna which ended in a 2–1 away win, Škriniar made his 100th appearance in all competitions for Inter, all of them as starter.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: On 3 November 2021, Škriniar scored his first UEFA Champions League goal in a 3–1 away win against Sheriff Tiraspol.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Škriniar represented various Slovak youth teams, and made his debut for the Slovakia senior squad in a friendly 3–1 win over Georgia on 27 May 2016. By the end of the year, he was a part of a number of different games and became a notable part of the squad in the 2018 World Cup qualification, usually playing as a defensive midfielder.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: After the international retirement of Ján Ďurica in November 2017, Škriniar took his place as a centre-back partner to Martin Škrtel in the national team, even directing Slovak defence in Škrtel's absences (for example in a double fixture against Netherlands and Morocco despite his relatively young age, compared to experienced side-backs Peter Pekarík and Tomáš Hubočan).


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Following the international retirement of national team captain Marek Hamšík, Škriniar was appointed the captain of the team in June 2022. National team coach Štefan Tarkovič highlighted Škriniar's leadership qualities during the announcement.


title: Milan Škriniar

text: Škriniar has been described as a defender who is "a strong tackler who is quick to make clearances". A natural centre-back, he can also be deployed as a defensive midfielder where he also produced outstanding performances with under-21 side. His former youth manager said of him: He [Škriniar] has always been the leader on and off the pitch. He has been described in the media as the successor to former Liverpool icon Martin Škrtel in Slovakia's defensive line. He has also drawn praise from several Italian pundits for his positional sense, as well as his ability in the air, and in one on one situations. When linked with a transfer to PSG in June 2022, L'Équipe highlighted Škriniar's high pass and long pass accuracy, his complexity and low injury proneness and imposing figure.


title: Bond credit rating

text: In investment, the bond credit rating represents the credit worthiness of corporate or government bonds. It is not the same as an individual's credit score. The ratings are published by credit rating agencies and used by investment professionals to assess the likelihood the debt will be repaid.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Credit rating is a highly concentrated industry with the "Big Three" credit rating agencies – Fitch Ratings, Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P) – controlling approximately 95% of the ratings business.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Credit rating agencies registered as such with the SEC are "nationally recognized statistical rating organizations". The following firms are currently registered as NRSROs: A.M. Best Company, Inc.; DBRS Ltd.; Egan-Jones Rating Company; Fitch, Inc.; HR Ratings; Japan Credit Rating Agency; Kroll Bond Rating Agency; Moody's Investors Service, Inc.; Rating and Investment Information, Inc.; Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC; and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Under the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act, an NRSRO may be registered with respect to up to five classes of credit ratings: (1) financial institutions, brokers, or dealers; (2) insurance companies; (3) corporate issuers; (4) issuers of asset-backed securities; and (5) issuers of government securities, municipal securities, or securities issued by a foreign government.


title: Bond credit rating

text: In Asia, the regulated and recognized credit rating agencies in the domestic markets are – in China: China Chengxin International (CCXI), China Lianhe Credit Rating (Lianhe Ratings), New Century Zixin Assessment Investment Service, Pengyuan Credit Rating; in Japan: Rating and Investment Information (R&I); in India: ICRA (ICRA), Credit Analysis and Research (CARE) and CRISIL.


title: Bond credit rating

text: The credit rating is a financial indicator to potential investors of debt securities such as bonds. These are assigned by credit rating agencies such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch, which publish code designations (such as AAA, B, CC) to express their assessment of the risk quality of a bond. Moody's assigns bond credit ratings of Aaa, Aa, A, Baa, Ba, B, Caa, Ca, C, as well as WR and NR for 'withdrawn' and 'not rated' respectively. Standard & Poor's and Fitch assign bond credit ratings of AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C, D. Currently there are only two companies in the United States with an AAA credit rating:Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. These individual codes are grouped into broader classes described as "investment grade" or not, or in numbered tiers from high to low.


title: Bond credit rating

text: In addition to the rating codes, agencies typically supplement the current assessment with indications of the chances for future upgrades or downgrades over the medium term. For example, Moody's designates an "Outlook" for a given rating as Positive (POS, likely to upgrade), Negative (NEG, likely to downgrade), Stable (STA, likely to remain unchanged), or Developing (DEV, contingent on some future event).


title: Bond credit rating

text: A bond is considered investment grade or IG if its credit rating is BBB− or higher by Fitch Ratings or S&P, or Baa3 or higher by Moody's, the so-called "Big Three" credit rating agencies. Generally they are bonds that are judged by the rating agency as likely enough to meet payment obligations that banks are allowed to invest in them.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Ratings play a critical role in determining how much companies and other entities that issue debt, including sovereign governments, have to pay to access credit markets, i.e., the amount of interest they pay on their issued debt. The threshold between investment-grade and speculative-grade ratings has important market implications for issuers' borrowing costs.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Bonds that are not rated as investment-grade bonds are known as high yield bonds or more derisively as junk bonds.


title: Bond credit rating

text: The risks associated with investment-grade bonds (or investment-grade corporate debt) are considered significantly higher than those associated with first-class government bonds. The difference between rates for first-class government bonds and investment-grade bonds is called investment-grade spread. The range of this spread is an indicator of the market's belief in the stability of the economy. The higher these investment-grade spreads (or risk premiums) are, the weaker the economy is considered.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Until the early 1970s, bond credit ratings agencies were paid for their work by investors who wanted impartial information on the credit worthiness of securities issuers and their particular offerings. Starting in the early 1970s, the "Big Three" ratings agencies (S&P, Moody's, and Fitch) began to receive payment for their work by the securities issuers for whom they issue those ratings, which has led to charges that these ratings agencies can no longer always be impartial when issuing ratings for those securities issuers. Securities issuers have been accused of "shopping" for the best ratings from these three ratings agencies, in order to attract investors, until at least one of the agencies delivers favorable ratings. This arrangement has been cited as one of the primary causes of the subprime mortgage crisis (which began in 2007), when some securities, particularly mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) rated highly by the credit ratings agencies, and thus heavily invested in by many organizations and individuals, were rapidly and vastly devalued due to defaults, and fear of defaults, on some of the individual components of those securities, such as home loans and credit card accounts. Other countries are beginning to mull the creation of domestic credit ratings agencies to challenge the dominance of the "Big Three", for example in Russia, where the ACRA was founded in 2016.


title: Bond credit rating

text: Municipal bonds are instruments issued by local, state, or federal governments in the United States. Until April–May 2010, Moody's and Fitch were rating municipal bonds on the separate naming/classification system which mirrored the tiers for corporate bonds. S&P abolished its dual rating system in 2000.


title: Bond credit rating

text: The historical default rate for municipal bonds is lower than that of corporate bonds. A potential misuse of historic default statistics is to assume that historical average default rates represent the "probability of default" of debt in a particular rating category. However, [...] default rates can vary significantly from one year to the next and the observed rate for any given year can vary significantly from the average.


title: Bond credit rating

text: AAA is the highest credit rating that any of the major credit rating agencies can give to an issuer's bonds.


title: Bond credit rating

text: AAA-rated bonds have a high credit rating because their issuers are able to meet their financial obligations with ease and have the lowest risk of default.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (January 6, 1882 – November 16, 1961) was an American politician who served as the 43rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a three-time House speaker, former House majority leader, two-time House minority leader, and a 24-term congressman, representing Texas's 4th congressional district as a Democrat from 1913 to 1961. He holds the record for the longest tenure as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving for over 17 years (among his three separate stints).


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Born in Roane County, Tennessee, Rayburn moved with his family to Windom, Texas, in 1887. After a period as a school teacher, Rayburn won election to the Texas House of Representatives and graduated from the University of Texas School of Law. He won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1912 and continually won re-election until his death in 1961, serving 25 terms all told. Rayburn was a protégé of John Nance Garner and a mentor to Lyndon B. Johnson.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn was elected House Majority Leader in 1937 and was elevated to the position of Speaker of the House after the death of William B. Bankhead. He led the House Democrats from 1940 to 1961, and served as Speaker of the House from 1940 to 1947, 1949 to 1953, and 1955 to 1961. Rayburn also served twice as House Minority Leader (1947 to 1949 and 1953 to 1955) during periods of Republican House control. He preferred to work quietly in the background and successfully used his power of persuasion and charisma to get his bills passed due to having to navigate the post-Joseph Cannon era when each individual committee chairman had immense power in the House.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Along with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Rayburn refused to sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto and helped shepherd the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, the first civil rights bills passed by the U.S. Congress since the Reconstruction Era (1863–1877). Rayburn was also influential in the construction of U.S. Route 66. He served as Speaker until his death in 1961, and was succeeded by John W. McCormack. He is the most recent Speaker of the House to die in office.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn was born in Roane County, Tennessee, on January 6, 1882. He was the son of Martha Clementine (Waller) and William Marion Rayburn, a former Confederate cavalryman. The Rayburn family descended from Ulster Scots immigrants who emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1750. In 1887, the Rayburn family moved to a 40-acre cotton farm near Windom, Texas. Rayburn grew up in poverty as he, his nine siblings, and his parents all participated in running the farm. Toiling in the fields made Rayburn determined to get a good education and help the poor and downtrodden.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn went to co-educational East Texas Normal College (now Texas A&M University–Commerce) in Commerce in 1900 with $25 (around $750 in 2020) that his father saved up to help take care of his first few months of college expenses. To help cover tuition and room and board, Rayburn rang the school bell to signal the end of classes and swept out Commerce's public school buildings, earning $3 a month. Rayburn obtained his teaching credentials before completing his bachelor of science degree, and earned additional income by teaching in the public school of Greenwood, a small community in Hopkins County. He graduated in 1903 in a class of 13 (9 men and 4 women) and taught school for two years.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In 1906, at the age of 24, Rayburn won by a narrow 163 vote margin an election to the 34th district of the Texas House of Representatives. While serving in the legislature, he studied at the University of Texas School of Law, and he was admitted to the bar in 1908. As a representative, Rayburn helped pass laws that made textbooks more widely available to Texas schoolchildren, established the State Board of Health alongside the Texas State Department of Health, and created the Texas Department of Agriculture. Due to his power of persuasion when he was a very young legislator for four years on January 10, 1911, at 29 years of age, Rayburn became the youngest Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives in history. He defeated Clarence E. Gilmore 70 to 63 in the speaker election. Texas speakers from the beginning of statehood until Rayburn's tenure were mostly ceremonial and powerless, similar to the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. Under Texas state law the office actually had immense powers but the previous speakers never exercised them due to deference to party bosses. Upon election as Speaker, Rayburn requested the appointment of a special committee to determine "the duties and rights of the speaker". This became the first ever codification of the speaker's power. He helped pass numerous legislation as Speaker such as shorter working hours for women, child labor laws, and appropriations for a Confederate widows home and a tuberculosis sanitarium. Many decades later Rayburn rated his service as Texas House Speaker as the most enjoyable period in his long political career. He said, "that job had real power-that's what a man wants-but power's no good unless you have the guts to use it."


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Due to a series of lucky events for Rayburn, the House district of his home county of Fannin County, the fourth district, was open for him to run. Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey was rocked by allegations of corruption and bribery involving oil companies so he announced his resignation effective January 1913. The longtime incumbent representative of the fourth district, Choice B. Randell, ran for Bailey's open senate seat in the July 1912 primary election and lost. Rayburn won election to the House of Representatives in 1912 after a bruising Democratic primary where he won by only 490 votes. He won the general election afterwards and became a Representative. He entered Congress in 1913 at the beginning of Woodrow Wilson's presidency and served in office for almost 49 years (more than 24 terms), until the beginning of John F. Kennedy's presidency.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn was a protégé of then-Representative John Nance Garner. Despite Rayburn's freshman status, in 1913, Garner helped him become a member of the powerful House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, which handled legislation pertaining to commerce, bridges, coal, oil, communication, motion pictures, securities exchanges, holding companies and the Coast Guard. Rayburn learned how to make deals and how to deal with adversity during his first two decades in the House. While he was a young representative he introduced and helped pass numerous anti-trust and railroad-related legislation such as the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 and the Esch–Cummins Transportation Act (The Railway Stock and Bond Bill that was originally introduced in 1914 was the first ever major legislation that was crafted and proposed by Rayburn. In 1920 it finally became law in the Esch-Cummins Act).


title: Sam Rayburn

text: As a signal of things to come for Rayburn, after only eight years in the House he was elected to be House Democratic Caucus Chairman. He served as Chairman from 1921 to 1923. At only age 39 when he was elected Chairman he was the youngest person ever elected to that position. During the 1920s, Rayburn kept a low profile due to the Republican dominance of Congress and the Presidency under Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. Rayburn's biggest contribution in this decade was to help create the U.S. Highway System in 1926, the first major victory of his lifelong dream to make paved roads available for all Americans.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn worked as Garner's campaign manager during the 1932 presidential election and released Garner's delegates to vote for Roosevelt after a deal was made to make Garner the vice-presidential nominee.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: From 1931 to 1937, Rayburn was Chairman of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. Due to his position and influence on this committee he helped pass landmark New Deal bills such as the Truth in Securities Act, the bills that established the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, the Public Utilities Holding Company Act, the Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, and the Rural Electrification Act.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn was a big supporter of projects that helped make life easier for farmers and rural Americans like dams and farm-to-market roads. His role in creating new lakes such as Lake Texoma and changing old rural dirt roads into fully paved roads ensured lifelong support from his congressional district constituents. The dams in rural America controlled rivers from flooding and also generated electricity. The Flood Control Act of 1936 combined with the Rural Electrification Act helped to bring electricity to 90% of rural America by 1959, compared to only 3% in the early 1930s. In 1943-44, Rayburn helped to establish in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Louisiana the Southwestern Power Administration, which became a "mini-Tennessee Valley Authority" in the region. The main difference from the TVA was the SWPA only involved federal dams constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He also helped pass laws that established the Soil Conservation Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps. These two agencies were primarily engaged in water and soil erosion control due to the negative effects of farming in America that led to catastrophes like the Dust Bowl.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: On September 16, 1940, at the age of 58, and while serving as House Majority Leader, Rayburn became Speaker of the House upon the sudden death of Speaker William Bankhead. Rayburn's ascension to the speakership was surprisingly rapid; that including Bankhead, the three Speakers prior to Rayburn died in office within six years. (Henry Thomas Rainey died in 1934 and Jo Byrns in 1936.)


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn's first major crisis after assuming the speakership was World War II. In the decade prior to the war, the United States was isolationist and decided to not participate in the war when war broke out in 1937 in Asia and 1939 in Europe. Rayburn helped pass the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. This act allowed the U.S. to distribute food, oil, and materiel to the United Kingdom, China, and the Soviet Union. In August 1941, he helped pass the Service Extension Act of 1941. In 1940, a 12-month peacetime draft was instituted by the government to prepare for possible war. The isolationists in the House wanted to not get involved in the war though and wanted to let the peacetime draft expire after 12 months in 1941. After Rayburn talked to all representatives who were anti-draft and tried to persuade them to change their minds, the bill was passed by a vote of 203–202, a one-vote margin. If this bill had been defeated, the U.S. Army stood to lose about two-thirds of its strength and three-fourths of the officer corps due to the end of the draft.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In early 1942, top Roosevelt officials approached Rayburn and asked him to work discreetly with Congress to gain funding for the production of an atomic bomb. Later that year, Rayburn secured $1.6 billion to fund the Manhattan Project, the code name for the secret project that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. This secret operation was done with most of the President's own cabinet and even vice presidents as well as all members of Congress except a handful not knowing about the atomic bomb. Only Rayburn, the Senate Majority Leader, and five other congressmen were aware of this operation. Rayburn had to hide the Manhattan Project through fake names and other deceptive means in appropriation bills until the bombs were used in 1945.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In 1946, the Republicans swept the Democrats in the midterm elections, winning both the House and Senate. The Democrats lost 54 seats in the House. Rayburn felt that because he lost in such an overwhelming manner he should step down as House Democratic Leader and not be the Minority Leader in the upcoming congress (this would have likely ended in an early retirement for him before the end of the 1940s). He endorsed the northern Democrat John W. McCormack for Minority Leader, but there was a "draft Rayburn" movement initiated by President Truman, McCormack himself, and all the northern and southern Democrats. To all of the Democrats without Rayburn as their leader the Democratic Party would have been torn apart by inter-factionalism between northern and southern Democrats and liberal and conservative Democrats. Many people in Washington were then aware of how important Speaker Rayburn was to hold the Democratic Party together. Rayburn accepted the Minority Leader position and remained the House Democratic Leader for the rest of his life. To show how much they appreciated Rayburn to stay in office as House Democratic Leader, 142 House Democrats and 50 House Republicans surprised Rayburn with a special gift, a 1947 Cadillac. The House Speaker was provided a government-funded vehicle and the representatives felt bad that now Minority Leader Rayburn would have no car in Washington. Rayburn had a strict personal rule to never accept gifts more than $25 to avoid being bribed. The congressmembers circumvented this rule by combining their single $25 checks together to pay for the car. Rayburn returned all 50 Republican representatives' checks (to avoid a conflict of interest) but graciously thanked them for their gesture.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In 1947–48, Rayburn as Minority Leader helped pass the Marshall Plan and the aid package that supported the Truman Doctrine that supported non-communist European countries and helped to stop the spread of communism. He also had to deal with the southern Democrats' (Dixiecrats') reaction to President Truman's call for very swift civil rights legislation. The committees were dominated by very powerful southern Democrats who were pro-segregation so these civil rights bills were dead on arrival. Rayburn had to be the moderate between the conservatives and liberals as well as the northern and southern Democrats so he rebuffed Truman's extremely fast civil rights bills but also rejected the southern Democrats' calls for a pro-segregation candidate to run in place of Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Rayburn was against a swift poll tax repeal and other fast-track civil rights legislation but also ordered the pro-segregation Democrats to run as a third-party due to his fears that the northern Democrats would boycott the election and help the Republicans win the election. Rayburn was a staunch supporter of Truman and was for a gradual civil rights legislation rollout that wouldn't be too fast and immediate due to the fears of the backlash by southern Democrats. In 1949, after his successful efforts to win back the House, Senate, and Truman's re-election he became Speaker again and supported a repeal of the Texas poll tax. He said that a repeal of the poll tax in Texas would aid the United States in its battle with the Soviet Union for the world's hearts and minds.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: From 1949 to 1953, Rayburn was Speaker again. He supported Truman's Fair Deal but the Conservative Coalition of conservative Republicans and conservative Democrats blocked the Fair Deal legislation from being passed. During his second tenure as Speaker he focused mostly on passing anti-Soviet legislation and getting House support for Truman and the military in the Korean War. By 1952 the Korean War bogged down and Truman's popularity crashed. He chose not to run for re-election as a result and the Republicans won the House, Senate, and presidency.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn's second time as Minority Leader coincided with President Eisenhower's first two years of his presidency. McCarthyism was in full swing so both parties were trying their best to portray themselves as anti-communist. The Communist Control Act of 1954 and the continuing defense of South Korea and Taiwan and South Vietnam were supported by Rayburn and most Democrats. Rayburn and the Democrats won back the House and Senate in the 1954 elections.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn's third and final tenure as Speaker from 1955 to 1961 was one of the greatest moments of his career. His protégé Senator Lyndon B. Johnson became Majority Leader mostly thanks to Rayburn maneuvering the Senate leadership and making deals to make sure Johnson became Senate Democratic Leader. The trio of Rayburn, Eisenhower, and Johnson worked together well and passed numerous landmark bills such as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act that established the Interstate Highway System, the National Aeronautics and Space Act that established NASA, the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 that established the FAA, the National Defense Education Act, the Colorado River Storage Project Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which were the first civil rights acts passed since Reconstruction.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In 1958–59, Rayburn helped admit Alaska and Hawaii into the United States as the 49th and 50th states. Rayburn heavily fought for Alaska after realizing that then-Democratic Alaska would counter then-Republican Hawaii in the Senate and Electoral College. In 1961, Rayburn wanted to pass more civil rights legislation along with President Kennedy but the powerful House Rules Committee was dominated by a conservative coalition of Democrats and Republicans who rejected any socially liberal legislation. Rayburn sought to end the impasse by changing House rules to add three spots (two majority and one minority) to the committee. Rayburn defended his plan in a rare speech on the House floor. "I think this House should be allowed on great measures to work its will and it cannot work its will if the Committee on Rules is so constituted as not to allow the House to pass on those things." In a 217–212 vote, Rayburn and the Democratic leadership won a narrow but significant victory.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Himself a protégé of Vice President of the United States John Nance Garner, Rayburn was a close friend and mentor of Lyndon B. Johnson and knew Johnson's father, Sam, from their days in the Texas Legislature. Rayburn was instrumental to Lyndon Johnson's ascent to power, particularly his rapid rise to the position of Minority Leader. Johnson had been in the Senate for a mere four years when he assumed the role. Johnson also owed his subsequent elevation to Majority Leader to Rayburn. Like Johnson, Rayburn did not sign the Southern Manifesto.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: As Speaker of the House, Rayburn forged close friendships and partnerships with legislatures of emerging independent countries and democracies on the continent of Africa, especially Nigeria, a rising political power on that continent. Rayburn was a good friend of Jaja Wachuku, the first indigenous Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, from 1959 to 1960.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Although many Texas legislators were on the payroll of public service corporations, Rayburn refused to be. As he recounted in a speech during his congressional campaign:


title: Sam Rayburn

text: When I became a member of the law firm of Steger, Thurmond and Rayburn, Messrs. Thurmond and Steger were representing the Santa Fe Railroad Company, receiving pay monthly. When the first check came after I entered the firm, Mr. Thurmond brought to my desk one-third of the amount of the check, explaining what it was for. I said to him that I was a member of the Legislature, representing the people of Fannin County, and that my experience had taught me that men who represent the people should be as far removed as possible from concerns whose interests he was liable to be called on to legislate concerning, and that on that ground I would not accept a dollar of the railroad's money, though I was legally entitled to it. I never did take a dollar of it. I have been guided by the principle in all my dealings.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: This practice of refusing to accept fees from clients with interests before the legislature was "virtually unheard-of" at the time. Later, while serving in Congress, a wealthy oil man had a very expensive horse delivered to Rayburn's farm in Bonham. No one apparently knew the oil man delivered the horse except him, Rayburn, and a Rayburn staffer. Rayburn returned the horse.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: H.G. Dulaney, an aide to Rayburn and later the director of the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum, said that after speaking in Texas on one occasion Rayburn learned his driver had been given an envelope with money inside from the sponsor of the speech. He said Rayburn made the driver turn around and return the money. Author Robert Caro said, "No one could buy him. Lobbyists could not buy him so much as a meal. Not even the taxpayer could buy him a meal. He refused not only fees but travel expenses for out-of-town speeches; hosts who . . . attempted to press checks upon him quickly realized they had made a mistake. . . . Rayburn would say, 'I'm not for sale' - and then he would walk away without a backward glance."


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In shaping legislation, Rayburn preferred working quietly in the background to being in the public spotlight. As Speaker, he won a reputation for fairness and integrity. In his years in Congress, Rayburn always insisted on paying his own expenses, even going so far as to pay for his own travel expenses when inspecting the Panama Canal when his committee was considering legislation concerning it, rather than exercising his right to have the government pay for it. After he died his estate was valued at just under $300,000, which was mostly land he owned, and the amount of cash he had in various checking accounts was just over $26,000.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn was well known among his colleagues for his after business hours "Board of Education" meetings in hideaway offices in the House. During these off-the-record sessions, the speaker and powerful committee chairmen would gather for poker, bourbon, and a frank discussion of politics. Rayburn alone determined who received an invitation to these gatherings; to be invited to even one was a high honor. On April 12, 1945, Vice President Harry Truman, a regular attendee since his Senate days, had just arrived at the "Board of Education" when he received a phone call telling him to immediately come to the White House, where he learned that Franklin D. Roosevelt was dead and he was now President of the United States.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn coined the term "Sun Belt" while strongly supporting the construction of Route 66. It originally ran south from Chicago, through Oklahoma, and then turned westward from Texas to New Mexico and Arizona before ending at the beach in Santa Monica, California. Arguing in favor of the project, he stated famously that America absolutely must connect "the Frost Belt with the Sun Belt".


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn also had a knack for dressing to suit his occasion. While in Washington, D.C., he would sport expensive suits, starched shirts, and perfectly shined shoes. However, while back in his poorer district in Texas, Rayburn would wear simple shirts, blue jeans, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats. Several politicians have imitated this pattern, including Ronald Reagan's example of clearing brush when at home in California, while wearing fine suits in Washington.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: The phrase "A jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one" is attributed to Rayburn.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: His home in Texas, now known as the Sam Rayburn House Museum, was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1957, Rayburn dedicated the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum in Bonham in the style of a presidential library to preserve his memory, library collection, honors, and mementos.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn married once, to Metze Jones (1901–1982), sister of Texas Congressman and Rayburn friend Marvin Jones. He had corresponded with her for nine years, and at the time of the wedding Rayburn was 45 and Jones was 26. Their 1927 marriage ended after only a few months; biographers D. B. Hardeman and Donald C. Bacon guessed that Rayburn's work schedule and long bachelorhood, combined with the couple's differing views on alcohol, contributed to the rift. The court's divorce file in Bonham, Texas, has never been located, and Rayburn avoided speaking of his brief marriage. In 2014, the Associated Press reported the existence of a letter Rayburn wrote to Metze after her father died in June 1926.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In 2016, the "Plano Star Courier" published a story about an article in the October 2016 issue of Southwestern Historical Quarterly (a scholarly journal published by the Texas State Historical Association) profiling Sam Rayburn's "lady friend" who was a woman named Margaret Fallon (Peggy) Palmer, the widow of former U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, and her close relationship with Rayburn.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: In 1956, Rayburn was baptized by Elder H. G. Ball in the Primitive Baptist Church, also known as Old Line Baptist or Hard Shell Baptist Church.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: One of his greatest, most painful regrets was that he did not have a son, or as he was quoted as saying in "", Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, "a towheaded boy to take fishing".


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn died of pancreatic cancer in 1961 at the age of 79 and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. His funeral in Bonham, Texas was a large spectacle attended by numerous VIPs, most notably President John F. Kennedy, former presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, and vice president (and future president) Lyndon B. Johnson. Hundreds of members of Congress and numerous other dignitaries attended the funeral. President Kennedy was an honorary pallbearer. By the time of his death, he had served as Speaker for nearly twice as long as any of his predecessors.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Rayburn was a descendant of George Waller, a Revolutionary War militia officer from Henry County, Virginia, and was an honorary president of the Colonel George Waller Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.


title: Sam Rayburn

text: Pat Hingle played Rayburn in the 1987 made-for-television movie "". James Gammon played him in the 1995 HBO movie "Truman".


title: Chitosan

text: Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide composed of randomly distributed β-(1→4)-linked -glucosamine (deacetylated unit) and "N"-acetyl--glucosamine (acetylated unit). It is made by treating the chitin shells of shrimp and other crustaceans with an alkaline substance, such as sodium hydroxide.


title: Chitosan

text: Chitosan has a number of commercial and possible biomedical uses. It can be used in agriculture as a seed treatment and biopesticide, helping plants to fight off fungal infections. In winemaking, it can be used as a fining agent, also helping to prevent spoilage. In industry, it can be used in a self-healing polyurethane paint coating. In medicine, it is useful in bandages to reduce bleeding and as an antibacterial agent; it can also be used to help deliver drugs through the skin.


title: Chitosan

text: Chitosan is produced commercially by deacetylation of chitin, which is the structural element in the exoskeleton of crustaceans (such as crabs and shrimp) and cell walls of fungi. The degree of deacetylation (%DD) can be determined by NMR spectroscopy, and the DD PERCENTAGE in commercial chitosans ranges from 60 to 100%. On average, the molecular weight of commercially produced chitosan is 3800–20,000 daltons. A common method for obtaining chitosan is the deacetylation of chitin using sodium hydroxide in excess as a reagent and water as a solvent. The reaction follows first-order kinetics though it occurs in two steps; the activation energy barrier for the first stage is estimated at 48.8 kJ·mol at 25–120 °C and is higher than the barrier to the second stage.


title: Chitosan

text: The amino group in chitosan has a p"K" value of ~6.5, which leads to significant protonation in neutral solution, increasing with increased acidity (decreased pH) and the %DA-value. This makes chitosan water-soluble and a bioadhesive which readily binds to negatively charged surfaces such as mucosal membranes. The free amine groups on chitosan chains can make crosslinked polymeric networks with dicarboxylic acids to improve chitosan's mechanical properties. Chitosan enhances the transport of polar drugs across epithelial surfaces, and is biocompatible and biodegradable. However, it is not approved by the FDA for drug delivery. Purified quantities of chitosans are available for biomedical applications.


title: Chitosan

text: The agricultural and horticultural uses for chitosan, primarily for plant defense and yield increase, are based on how this glucosamine polymer influences the biochemistry and molecular biology of the plant cell. The cellular targets are the plasma membrane and nuclear chromatin. Subsequent changes occur in cell membranes, chromatin, DNA, calcium, MAP kinase, oxidative burst, reactive oxygen species, callose pathogenesis-related (PR) genes, and phytoalexins.


title: Chitosan

text: In agriculture, chitosan is typically used as a natural seed treatment and plant growth enhancer, and as an ecologically friendly biopesticide substance that boosts the innate ability of plants to defend themselves against fungal infections. The natural biocontrol active ingredients, chitin/chitosan, are found in the shells of crustaceans, such as lobsters, crabs, and shrimp, and many other organisms, including insects and fungi. It is one of the most abundant biodegradable materials in the world.


title: Chitosan

text: Degraded molecules of chitin/chitosan exist in soil and water. Chitosan applications for plants and crops are regulated in the USA by the EPA, and the USDA National Organic Program regulates its use on organic certified farms and crops. EPA-approved, biodegradable chitosan products are allowed for use outdoors and indoors on plants and crops grown commercially and by consumers.


title: Chitosan

text: In the European Union and United Kingdom, chitosan is registered as a "basic substance" for use as a biological fungicide and bactericide on a wide range of crops. As such, concentrated chitosan solutions can be sold as basic substances to farmers for disease control on both conventional and organic farms.


title: Chitosan

text: The natural biocontrol ability of chitosan should not be confused with the effects of fertilizers or pesticides upon plants or the environment. Chitosan active biopesticides represent a new tier of cost-effective biological control of crops for agriculture and horticulture. The biocontrol mode of action of chitosan elicits natural innate defense responses within plant to resist insects, pathogens, and soil-borne diseases when applied to foliage or the soil. Chitosan increases photosynthesis, promotes and enhances plant growth, stimulates nutrient uptake, increases germination and sprouting, and boosts plant vigor. When used as a seed treatment or seed coating on cotton, corn, seed potatoes, soybeans, sugar beets, tomatoes, wheat, and many other seeds, it elicits an innate immunity response in developing roots which destroys parasitic cyst nematodes without harming beneficial nematodes and organisms.


title: Chitosan

text: Agricultural applications of chitosan can reduce environmental stress due to drought and soil deficiencies, strengthen seed vitality, improve stand quality, increase yields, and reduce fruit decay of vegetables, fruits and citrus crops . Horticultural application of chitosan increases blooms and extends the life of cut flowers and Christmas trees. The US Forest Service has conducted research on chitosan to control pathogens in pine trees and increase resin pitch outflow which resists pine beetle infestation.