title: Draught beer

text: Pressurised CO in the keg's headspace maintains carbonation in the beer. The CO pressure varies depending on the amount of CO already in the beer and the keg storage temperature. Occasionally the CO gas is blended with nitrogen gas. CO / nitrogen blends are used to allow a higher operating pressure in complex dispensing systems.


title: Draught beer

text: Nitrogen is used under high pressure when dispensing dry stouts (such as Guinness) and other creamy beers because it displaces CO to (artificially) form a rich tight head and a less carbonated taste. This makes the beer feel smooth on the palate and gives a foamy appearance. Premixed bottled gas for creamy beers is usually 75% nitrogen and 25% CO. This premixed gas which only works well with creamy beers is often referred to as Guinness Gas, Beer Gas, or Aligal (an Air Liquide brand name). Using "Beer Gas" with other beer styles can cause the last 5% to 10% of the beer in each keg to taste very flat and lifeless. In the UK, the term "keg beer" would imply the beer is pasteurised, in contrast to unpasteurised cask ale. Some of the newer microbreweries may offer a nitro keg stout which is filtered but not pasteurised.


title: Draught beer

text: Cask beer should be stored and served at a cellar temperature of . Once a cask is opened, it should be consumed within three days. Keg beer is given additional cooling just prior to being served either by flash coolers or a remote cooler in the cellar. This chills the beer to temperatures between .


title: Draught beer

text: The words "draft" and "draught" have been used as marketing terms to describe canned or bottled beers, implying that they taste and appear like beers from a cask or keg. Commercial brewers use this as a marketing tool although it is incorrect to call any beer not drawn from a cask or keg "draught". Two examples are Miller Genuine Draft, a pale lager which is produced using a cold filtering system, and Guinness stout in patented "Draught-flow" cans and bottles. Guinness is an example of beers that use a nitrogen widget to create a smooth beer with a dense head. Guinness has recently replaced the widget system from their bottled "draught" beer with a coating of cellulose fibres on the inside of the bottle. Statements indicate a new development in bottling technology that enables the mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide to be present in the beer without using a widget, making it according to Guinness "more drinkable" from the bottle.


title: Draught beer

text: In East Asian countries, such as China and Japan, the term "draft beer" () applied to canned or bottled beer indicates that the beer is not pasteurised (though it may be filtered), giving it a fresher taste but shorter shelf-life than conventional packaged beers.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Go is a 1999 American crime comedy film written by John August and directed by Doug Liman, with intertwining plots involving three sets of characters. The film stars William Fichtner, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Sarah Polley, and Scott Wolf and features Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer, Timothy Olyphant, Desmond Askew, Jane Krakowski, J. E. Freeman, and Melissa McCarthy in her film debut.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: The film underperformed at the box office, but was critically acclaimed. It has since become a cult classic.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Around Christmas, Ronna, working overtime at her supermarket job to avoid being evicted, is approached by Adam and Zack to buy 20 hits of ecstasy, which they had hoped to buy from her absent co-worker, Simon.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: After work, Ronna approaches Simon's dealer, Todd, for the pills. She is unable to pay the full amount so she leaves her friend Claire with Todd as collateral. Ronna meets with Adam and Zack but grows suspicious of Burke, a stranger accompanying them who presses her for the ecstasy. She flushes the drugs down the toilet and leaves, then steals over-the-counter pills to replace them, helped by Manny, who had covertly swallowed two of the ecstasy pills, unaware of their strength. Ronna gives 20 of the fake pills to Todd. She, Claire, and Manny then go to a rave where she sells the rest of the fake pills as ecstasy.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Todd realizes the pills are fake and pursues Ronna to the rave. Ronna flees, hiding the now incapacitated Manny in an alley and promising to return with her car. Todd confronts her with a gun in the parking lot when she is hit by a car that speeds away, leaving her motionless in a ditch.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: The story restarts from the perspective of Simon, who is on a trip to Las Vegas with Marcus, Tiny, and Singh. Simon crashes a wedding and has sex with two of the bridesmaids before they accidentally set their hotel room on fire. Simon and Marcus leave the hotel, stealing a Ferrari whose owner thinks Marcus is a parking valet.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: The two go to a strip club where Simon enrages the bouncer, Victor Jr., by groping one of the strippers. Simon shoots Victor Jr. in the arm with a gun that he found in the car. He and Marcus flee to the hotel, rousing Tiny and Singh. A car chase ensues and the four barely escape the bouncer and his father, Victor Sr., but Victor Sr. traces Todd's address from his credit card, which Simon had borrowed.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: The story changes perspective to Adam and Zack, actors in a soap opera who are in a relationship. Having been busted for drug possession, they are coerced into working for Burke, a police detective, to entrap their dealer. Adam is fitted with a wire. As Simon is absent, the two arrange to buy drugs from Ronna. When Ronna arrives later to make the deal, Zack secretly warns her so she flushes the drugs down the toilet and leaves.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: After the unsuccessful bust, Burke invites Adam and Zack to Christmas dinner, where they observe strange behavior from Burke and his wife, Irene. Over dinner Burke and Irene pitch a multi-level marketing company to Adam and Zack. Discussing their mutual infidelities, Adam and Zack realize they both cheated with the same person, Jimmy. They confront him at the rave, cutting a lock of his hair.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Leaving the rave they accidentally run over Ronna, panic, and drive away when they see Todd with a gun. Zack tries to reassure Adam that, even if Ronna had survived, Todd would have shot her. Adam realizes to his horror that he is still wearing his wire. Fearing they have been recorded, the two return to the scene to remove Ronna's body but discover she is just unconscious. They prop her up on a car, setting off its alarm, and watch from a distance as other partygoers call an ambulance.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: As morning breaks, Claire goes to a restaurant to meet up with Ronna and Manny, but encounters Todd instead. The two end up going to Todd's apartment building. While making out on the stairs they are confronted by the two Victors. Simon arrives, having hoped to hide for a few days. The ensuing scuffle is stopped by Claire, who refuses to witness a murder.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Simon agrees to be shot in the arm by Victor Jr. as Claire leaves in disgust. Meanwhile, Ronna wakes up in hospital and hobbles to the supermarket to start work. Realizing she left Manny at the rave, she and Claire return to the venue to find Manny pale and shaking in the alley. The three go to Ronna's car where Ronna muses that she can now pay her rent and Manny asks what their plans are for New Year's.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: John August originally wrote the portion of the story involving Ronna as a short film titled "X", inspired by the "Rock 'n' Roll Ralphs" grocery store on Sunset Boulevard. After friends asked about Simon's trip to Vegas, and what was going on with Adam and Zack, he wrote two more parts, accounting for the nature of the film.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: After viewing "Swingers", John August and the producers felt director Doug Liman would be the perfect fit, and Liman signed on soon thereafter. Polley, who resides in Canada, was offered the role directly, without auditioning. Olyphant was a late addition; he was about to shoot the film "Practical Magic" but was fired from his role and replaced by Aidan Quinn, enabling him to join the cast as Todd. He was called in to audition for Adam or Zack, but all agreed he was better as drug dealer Todd, the character he wanted to play.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: When "Go" was about to start shooting, its foreign financing fell through because the film lacked a "bankable white male star." Columbia Pictures stepped in and financed the film. As most of the plot takes place at night, August recalled being "outside in the dark from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. for 25 days" during filming.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: "Go" was released to critical acclaim. The film received a 91% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 74 critic reviews, with an average score of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With its sharp dialogue and raucous visuals, "Go" entertains at an exhilarating pace." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Many critics generally found "Go"s fast pace and light-hearted feel appealing. The film grossed $28.5 million worldwide against a $20 million budget. The film was released in the United Kingdom on September 3, 1999, and opened at #6.


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Because of its irreverent and frequently off topic dialogue, fast pace, rapidly changing point of view, and non chronological format, the film is generally categorized as one of many movies of varying quality that attempted to capture the style of Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". Leonard Maltin, who disliked the film, said that "Go" came off as a "junior "Pulp Fiction"."


title: Go (1999 film)

text: However, unlike many of the films in the subgenre, the comparisons were mostly favorable, with Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" stating that ""Go" is an entertaining, clever black comedy that takes place entirely in Tarantino-land... "Go" has energy and wit, and the performances are right for the material – especially Sarah Polley, who thinks fast and survives harrowing experiences, and Fichtner, the cop who is so remarkably open to new experiences."


title: Go (1999 film)

text: Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" praised the performances of Olyphant and Fichtner, as well as "Go"s energy and Liman's direction: "Artfully executed druggy flights of fancy include a hallucinatory macarena in a supermarket, a mind-reading black cat and a smart visual approximation of how it feels to be on the verge of throwing up. Here and elsewhere, Mr. Liman manipulates speed, light, editing and point of view vigorously and keeps the radio humming. He creates a film that lives up to the momentum of its title and doesn't really need much more."


title: Go (1999 film)

text: The film has endured as a cult classic, with critics continuing to review the film. In 2008, Joe Valdez of "The Distracted Globe" wrote, "Few titles have the finesse to sum up a movie as brilliantly as "Go", a drug fueled rollercoaster ride that alternates between dark comedy and light suspense with terrific verve. The film's appeal lies in its modest scale and the fact that it was made mostly by starving artist types. ...Nearly everyone involved in the production was a relative unknown or newcomer. With no pressure to supply an entertainment to the masses, the writer, director and most of the actors deliver the best work of their careers."


title: Go (1999 film)

text: In April 2014, Joe Reid of "The Atlantic" revisited "Go" on the 15th anniversary of its release. Reid noted that at the time it came out, it was seen as a "knock-off" of other 1990s films. "The split narrative style, complete with character title cards separating the film into thirds, put "Go" at the top of the list when it came to late '90s Tarantino influenced cinema. And then there was director Doug Liman, red hot off of the cult success of "Swingers", trading neo swing culture for X and raves. (Both films would give a healthy chunk of attention to Vegas, though.) The thing about "Go" that sets it apart, however, is that it's COMPLETELY FANTASTIC. Energetic and quotable and stylish and neither overly enamored with nor overly dismissive of the culture it's inhabiting."


title: Go (1999 film)

text: "The Simpsons" episode "Trilogy of Error" is, according to the writers' commentary, based on this film.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula is an American reality competition television series produced by Boulet Brothers Productions, hosted by the Boulet Brothers. The series originally aired on YouTube and has aired on Netflix in the United States, OUTtv in Canada, and Amazon Prime in the United Kingdom and Australia. Starting with season 4, the series moved to Shudder in all territories. The series will become a Shudder exclusive, with all seasons being hosted on the platform.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The series is created and hosted by the Boulet Brothers, who challenge a different set of eleven drag artists from around the world to compete in an underground style drag competition each season. The artists compete for the chance to win a cash prize and the crown of "Dragula - the World’s Next Drag Supermonster". The show celebrates underground and alternative drag art, and bases each episode's challenges on the four principles of the show - "Drag", "Filth", "Horror" and "Glamour".


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Competitors on the show are tasked week to week in a variety of challenges ranging from costume creation, special-effects makeup, live performance and acting abilities. Each episode a winner is chosen, and the contestants who end up on the bottom must face extreme "extermination challenges" which test them physically and psychologically to prove they have the punk spirit required by the judges to remain in the competition.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: "The Boulet Brothers Dragula" is created and produced by the Boulet Brothers, and their production company Boulet Brothers Productions. The reality show is loosely based on their club event and nightlife pageant of the same name.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The first season of "The Boulet Brothers Dragula" premiered on October 31, 2016 and aired as a seven episode pilot series on the YouTube channel Hey Qween!. Later that year, the show was picked up by Canadian network OutTV who ordered a full remastered and expanded version of Season 1, as well as a full second season of the show.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Season 2 premiered on October 31, 2017 and aired on Amazon Prime and WOW Presents in the United States. The season aired on Amazon Prime in the United Kingdom, OUTtv in Canada and SBS Viceland in Australia.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The series' third season premiered on Amazon Prime on August 27, 2019. "Dragula" became the first American reality television competition to feature a drag king after Landon Cider appeared as a contestant in Season 3. Beginning October 31, 2019, seasons 2 and 3 of the series moved to the American streaming service Netflix.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: On October 20, Dragula had a special episode called "Dragula: Resurrection", where the Boulet Brother's brought back seven past contestants to compete for a spot on season 4. This season had streamed on Shudder, and the winner was Saint from the third season of Dragula.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: On September 12, 2022 it was announced that an all-stars season titled "" would premiere on Shudder on October 25, 2022. The cast was announced on September 26, 2022 and features 10 contestants returning from the first four seasons of the main series: Abhora (Season 2), Astrud Aurelia (Season 4), Erika Klash (Season 2), Evah Destruction (Season 3), HoSo Terra Toma (Season 4), Kendra Onixxx (Season 2), Koco Caine (Season 4), Melissa Befierce (Season 1), Victoria Black (Season 2), and Yovska (Season 3). Kendra Onixxx and Victoria Black had also previously competed on the special "Dragula: Resurrection".


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Each episode opens with a scripted scene starring the Boulet Brothers that introduces the episode’s theme and challenge. The rest of the episode is filmed in a reality TV documentary format. The competitors are issued that week’s challenge, and must work among each other, work out their interpersonal issues and create their looks and performances for that week.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Both the competition and the show's scripted cinematic segments are noted for drawing inspiration from the horror genre. The show's influences include films ranging from ""Mad Max" and "Little Shop of Horrors", to folk horror and beach party films."


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Each episode features a main “Floor Show” where each of the competitors display their looks and performance on the main stage. The performances and looks are judged, and one competitor is chosen the winner while the two or more lowest scoring competitors are put up for “extermination”.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The show features "Extermination Challenges", fear-based physical and psychological tests created to push the competitors to “face their fears” in order to remain on the show. Past extermination challenges have included being buried alive in a coffin, being pierced with gauged needles, skydiving, eating cow intestines, and surviving an evening in an extreme haunted house. The competitor who fails the extermination challenge is "killed off" by the Boulet Brother's in a scripted scene at the end of each episode.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The Boulet Brothers serve as the primary judges on the show, and are the only regular judges on the panel. Each episode they are joined by a rotating cast of celebrity musicians, directors, writers and horror alumni including Henry Rollins, Milly Shapiro, Amanda Lepore, Bonnie Aarons, Felissa Rose, Danielle Harris, Rachel True, and Cig Nuetron. American horror film director Darren Stein and drag legend Peaches Christ are the only judges to have appeared in all four seasons of the show.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: A spin-off film titled "The Boulet Brothers' Dragula: Resurrection" was released on AMC Networks' Shudder on October 20, 2020. The film was written, co-directed, and produced by the Boulet Brothers. Digital Spy described it as "part-horror movie, part-documentary and part-reality competition". The film featured a competition between contestants from previous seasons of "Dragula", with the winner returning for the fourth season of "Dragula". The film's soundtrack includes music from Orville Peck and Kim Petras.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Since its original online airing, "Dragula" has received positive reviews, and was dubbed “Required Horror Viewing” by "Fangoria". The series has had consistently high viewership, and its fourth season was the most watched program on Shudder.


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: The show treats drag as a form of outsider art, and encourages different styles of drag which could be labelled "weird" or unconventional. Carly Maga of horror magazine "Rue Morgue" identified the rising popularity of "Dragula" as having a positive impact on drag as a whole, saying that the "rise of horror drag is keeping the art form true to its nonconformist origins."


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: "Vice" writer Jeff Leavell reviewed the series as being "loud, weird" and that it "pisses on heteronormativity". He also said that "Dragula" should not be thought of as "just a show about drag queens who love grotesque, hardcore queer performance art", and that "in its own way, it's encouraging us to stand united, whether you're a supermonster or not".


title: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula

text: Adam Zee of Wussy Magazine praised the series for its philosophy towards drag, exemplified by the Boulet Brothers' statement that "We are not here to judge your drag. Drag is art and art is subjective." Zee commented that:"While it seems simple, this simple idea is what truly distinguishes "The Boulet Brother's’ Dragula" from "RuPaul’s Drag Race" and most other reality competitions. The Boulets place significant value in the artistic merit and anti-establishment traditions of drag. They have directed their focus on drag artistry that is unpredictable, outlandish and disturbing rather than getting queens to conform to show business standards. The only molds contestants must fit into are challenge-based or the loose overarching tenets of Filth, Glamour and Horror. Even then, 2 out of 3 is usually good enough to get by.""Dragula" has also received favorable coverage for its inclusion of all genders and types of drag performers in the competition. It was the first televised U.S. show to feature a drag king and an AFAB drag artist. The film "Dragula Resurrection" was praised for foregrounding trans narratives in a "sensitive, understated" manner.


title: G. Suresh Kumar

text: G. Suresh Kumar is an Indian film producer and actor known for Poochakkorumookuthi and Araam Thamburan. He produces films under the banner Revathy Kalamandhir an Indian film production company based in Thiruvananthapuram which is founded in 1993 by him and he produced more than 32 Malayalam films under this banner.


title: G. Suresh Kumar

text: He completed his Bachelors in Commerce from Kerala University in Trivandrum. He married Menaka Suresh, an Indian actress who appeared in more than 125 films. They have two daughters named Keerthy Suresh, who is also an actress and honored with a National Awards in 2019 for the best actress, and Revathy Suresh who is an associate director to Priyadarsan.


title: G. Suresh Kumar

text: Kumar started his career in film as an assistant director with the Malayalam feature film named Thiranottam in 1978. By 1982, he started producing feature films under the banner Sooryodaya Creations. Then he produced about 32 Malayalam-language films under his current banner Revathy Kalaamandhir. Besides producing films, Suresh started his career in acting in 2015 and as of the year 2021 he appeared in 21 films as an actor. He is the President of Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce. He made an embarking role in the film as Kochi Raja.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Japanese pronouns (or Japanese deictic classifiers) are words in the Japanese language used to address or refer to present people or things, where present means people or things that can be pointed at. The position of things (far away, nearby) and their role in the current interaction (goods, addresser, addressee, bystander) are features of the meaning of those words. The use of pronouns, especially when referring to oneself and speaking in the first person, vary between gender, formality, dialect and region where Japanese is spoken.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: In contrast to present people and things, absent people and things can be referred to by naming; for example, by instantiating a class, "the house" (in a context where there is only one house) and presenting things in relation to the present, named and sui generis people or things can be "I'm going home", "I'm going to Hayao's place", "I'm going to the mayor's place", "I'm going to my mother's place" or "I'm going to my mother's friend's place". Functionally, deictic classifiers not only indicate that the referenced person or thing has a spatial position or an interactional role but also classify it to some extent. In addition, Japanese pronouns are restricted by a situation type (register): who is talking to whom about what and through which medium (spoken or written, staged or in private). In that sense, when a male is talking to his male friends, the pronoun set that is available to him is different from those available when a man of the same age talks to his wife and, vice versa, when a woman talks to her husband. These variations in pronoun availability are determined by the register.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: In linguistics, generativists and other structuralists suggest that the Japanese language does not have pronouns as such, since, unlike pronouns in most other languages that have them, these words are syntactically and morphologically identical to nouns. As functionalists point out, however, these words function as personal references, demonstratives, and reflexives, just as pronouns do in other languages.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Japanese has a large number of pronouns, differing in use by formality, gender, age, and relative social status of speaker and audience. Further, pronouns are an open class, with existing nouns being used as new pronouns with some frequency. This is ongoing; a recent example is , which is now used by some young men as a casual first-person pronoun.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Pronouns are used less frequently in the Japanese language than in many other languages, mainly because there is no grammatical requirement to include the subject in a sentence. That means that pronouns can seldom be translated from English to Japanese on a one-to-one basis.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: The common English personal pronouns, such as "I", "you", and "they", have no other meanings or connotations. However, most Japanese personal pronouns do. Consider for example two words corresponding to the English pronoun "I": 私 () also means "private" or "personal". 僕 () carries a masculine impression; it is typically used by males, especially those in their youth.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Japanese words that refer to other people are part of the encompassing system of honorific speech and should be understood within that context. Pronoun choice depends on the speaker's social status (as compared to the listener's) as well as the sentence's subjects and objects.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: The first-person pronouns (e.g., , 私) and second-person pronouns (e.g., , 貴方) are used in formal contexts (however the latter can be considered rude). In many sentences, pronouns that mean "I" and "you" are omitted in Japanese when the meaning is still clear.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: When it is required to state the topic of the sentence for clarity, the particle (は) is used, but it is not required when the topic can be inferred from context. Also, there are frequently used verbs that imply the subject and/or indirect object of the sentence in certain contexts: (くれる) means "give" in the sense that "somebody other than me gives something to me or to somebody very close to me." (あげる) also means "give", but in the sense that "someone gives something to someone other than me." This often makes pronouns unnecessary, as they can be inferred from context.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: In Japanese, a speaker may only directly express their own emotions, as they cannot know the true mental state of anyone else. Thus, in sentences comprising a single adjective (often those ending in ), it is often assumed that the speaker is the subject. For example, the adjective (寂しい) can represent a complete sentence that means "I am lonely." When speaking of another person's feelings or emotions, "sabishisō" (寂しそう) "seems lonely" would be used instead. Similarly, "neko ga hoshii" (猫が欲しい) "I want a cat," as opposed to "neko wo hoshigatte iru" (猫を欲しがっている) "seems to want a cat," when referring to others. Thus, the first-person pronoun is usually not used unless the speaker wants to put a special stress on the fact that they are referring to themselves or if it is necessary to make it clear.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: In some contexts, it may be considered uncouth to refer to the listener (second person) by a pronoun. If it is required to state the second person, the listener's surname, suffixed with or some other title (like "customer", "teacher", or "boss"), is generally used.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Gender differences in spoken Japanese also create another challenge, as men and women refer to themselves with different pronouns. Social standing also determines how people refer to themselves, as well as how they refer to other people.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Japanese first-person pronouns by speakers and situations according to Yuko Saegusa, "Concerning the First Personal Pronoun of Native Japanese Speakers" (2009)


title: Japanese pronouns

text: The list is incomplete, as there are numerous Japanese pronoun forms, which vary by region and dialect. This is a list of the most commonly used forms. "It" has no direct equivalent in Japanese (though in some contexts the demonstrative pronoun それ () is translatable as "it"). Also, Japanese does not generally inflect by case, so, I is equivalent to me.


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Demonstrative words, whether functioning as pronouns, adjectives or adverbs, fall into four groups. Words beginning with "ko-" indicate something close to the speaker (so-called "proximal" demonstratives). Those beginning with "so-" indicate separation from the speaker or closeness to the listener ("medial"), while those beginning with "a-" indicate greater distance ("distal"). Interrogative words, used in questions, begin with "do-".


title: Japanese pronouns

text: Japanese has only one word corresponding to reflexive pronouns such as "myself", "yourself", or "themselves" in English. The word means "one's self" and may be used for human beings or some animals. It is not used for cold-blooded animals or inanimate objects.


title: Cessna 310

text: The Cessna 310 is an American four-to-six-seat, low-wing, twin-engine monoplane produced by Cessna between 1954 and 1980. It was the first twin-engine aircraft that Cessna put into production after World War II.


title: Cessna 310

text: The 310 first flew on January 3, 1953, with deliveries starting in late 1954. The sleek modern lines of the new twin were backed up by innovative features such as engine exhaust thrust augmenter tubes and the storage of all fuel in tip tanks in early models. In 1964, the engine exhaust was changed to flow under the wing instead of the augmenter tubes, which were considered to be noisy.


title: Cessna 310

text: Typical of Cessna model naming conventions, a letter was added after the model number to identify changes to the original design over the years. The first significant upgrade to the 310 series was the 310C in 1959, which introduced more powerful Continental IO-470-D engines. In 1960 the 310D featured swept-back vertical tail surfaces. An extra cabin window was added with the 310F.


title: Cessna 310

text: The turbocharged 320 Skyknight was developed from the 310F. Equipped with TSIO-470-B engines and featuring an extra cabin window on each side, it was in production between 1961 and 1969 (the 320E was named the Executive Skyknight), when it was replaced by the similar Turbo 310.


title: Cessna 310

text: The 310G was certified in 1961 and introduced the canted wingtip fuel tanks found on the majority of the Cessna twin-engine product line, marketed as "stabila-tip" tanks by Cessna, because they were meant to aid stability in flight. A single side window replaced the rear two windows on the 310K (certified in late 1965), with optional three-blade propellers being introduced as well. Subsequent developments included the 310Q and turbocharged T310Q with a redesigned rear cabin featuring a skylight window, and the final 310R and T310R, identifiable by a lengthened nose containing a baggage compartment. Production ended in 1980.


title: Cessna 310

text: Over the years there were several modifications to the 310 to improve performance. Noted aircraft engineer Jack Riley produced two variants, The Riley Rocket 310 and the Riley Turbostream 310. Riley replaced the standard Continental engines with Lycoming TIO-540 engines. These turbocharged intercooled engines were installed with three-blade Hartzell propellers in a counter-rotating configuration to further increase performance and single-engine safety. At gross weight the aircraft had a weight to power ratio of per horsepower. This resulted in a cruising speed of at and a rate of climb.


title: Cessna 310

text: The Cessna 310 was a common charter aircraft for the many air taxi firms that sprang up in the general aviation boom that followed World War II. The advantages of the Cessna 310 over its contemporaries, such as the Piper PA-23, were its speed, operating costs and aftermarket modifications, such as the Robertson STOL kits that made it popular worldwide for its bush flying characteristics. It could use short runways, while at the same time carrying a large useful load of . or more, at speeds that were high for a twin engine piston aircraft.


title: Cessna 310

text: In 1957, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected the Cessna 310 for service as a light utility aircraft for transport and administrative support. The USAF purchased 160 unmodified 310A aircraft with the designation L-27A and unofficially nicknamed "Blue Canoe", later changed to U-3A in 1962. An additional 36 upgraded 310 designated L-27B (later U-3B) were delivered in 1960–61; these aircraft were essentially military 310Fs and as such equipped with the more powerful engines and can be identified by their extra cabin windows, longer nose and swept vertical fin. A USAF study after one year of operational service found the U-3A had direct operating costs of less than $12 an hour. The U-3 saw active service in a support role when the USAF deployed aircraft to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, where they were used on courier flights between air bases. Some USAF aircraft were later transferred to the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy and the type continued in United States military service into the mid-1970s.


title: Cessna 310

text: On December 19, 1992, Cuban defector Major Orestes Lorenzo Pérez returned to Cuba in a 1961 Cessna 310 to retrieve his wife and two sons. Flying without lights, at low speed and very low altitude to avoid Cuban radar, Pérez picked up his family by landing on the coastal highway of Varadero beach, Matanzas Province, east of Havana and managed a successful safe return to Marathon, Florida.


title: Cessna 310

text: The aircraft is popular with air charter companies and small feeder airlines, and is operated by private individuals and companies.


title: Cessna 310

text: , the US National Transportation Safety Board has recorded 1,787 incidents for Cessna 310s since 12 January 1964. Of these, 436 were fatal.


title: California State Assembly

text: The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.


title: California State Assembly

text: The Assembly consists of 80 members, with each member representing at least 465,000 people. Due to a combination of the state's large population and a legislature that has not been expanded since the ratification of the 1879 Constitution, the Assembly has the largest population-per-representative ratio of any state lower house and second largest of any legislative lower house in the United States after the federal House of Representatives.


title: California State Assembly

text: Members of the California State Assembly are generally referred to using the titles Assemblyman (for men), Assemblywoman (for women), or Assemblymember (gender-neutral). In the current legislative session, Democrats enjoy a three-fourths supermajority of 62 seats, while Republicans control a minority of 18 seats.


title: California State Assembly

text: The Speaker presides over the State Assembly in the chief leadership position, controlling the flow of legislation and committee assignments. The Speaker is nominated by the caucus of the majority party and elected by the full Assembly. Other leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses according to each party's strength in the chamber.


title: California State Assembly

text: The current Speaker is Democrat Anthony Rendon (63rd–Lakewood). The majority leader is Democrat Eloise Reyes (47th–Grand Terrace), while the minority leader is Republican James Gallagher (3rd–Yuba City).


title: California State Assembly

text: As a result of Proposition 140 in 1990 and Proposition 28 in 2012, members elected to the Legislature prior to 2012 are restricted by term limits to three two-year terms (six years), while those elected in or after 2012 are allowed to serve 12 years in the legislature in any combination of four-year State Senate or two-year State Assembly terms.


title: California State Assembly

text: Every two years, all 80 seats in the Assembly are subject to election. This is in contrast to the State Senate, in which only half of its 40 seats are subject to election every two years.


title: California State Assembly

text: The chamber's green tones are based on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The dais rests along a wall shaped like an "E", with its central projection housing the rostrum. Along the cornice appears a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and a Latin quotation: "legislatorum est justas leges condere" ("It is the duty of legislators to pass just laws"). Almost every decorating element is identical to the Senate Chamber.


title: California State Assembly

text: To run for the Assembly, a candidate must be a United States citizen and a registered voter in the district at the time nomination papers are issued, and may not have served three terms in the State Assembly since November 6, 1990. According to Article 4, Section 2(c) of the California Constitution, the candidate must have one year of residency in the legislative district and California residency for three years.


title: California State Assembly

text: The chief clerk of the Assembly, a position that has existed since the Assembly's creation, is responsible for many administrative duties. The chief clerk is the custodian of all Assembly bills and records and publishes the "Assembly Daily Journal", the minutes of floor sessions, as well as the "Assembly Daily File" (the Assembly agenda). The chief clerk is the Assembly's parliamentarian, and in this capacity gives advice to the presiding officer on matters of parliamentary procedure. The chief clerk is also responsible for engrossing and enrolling of measures, and the transmitting passed legislation to the governor.


title: California State Assembly

text: The Assembly also holds the position of chaplain, a position that has existed in both houses since the first legislative session back in 1850. Currently, the chaplain of the Assembly is Imam Mohammad Yasir Khan, the first chaplain historically that practices Islam.


title: California State Assembly

text: The position of sergeant-at-arms of the Assembly has existed since 1849; Samuel N. Houston was the first to hold this post, overseeing one deputy. The sergeant-at-arms is mostly tasked with law enforcement duties, but customarily also has a ceremonial and protocol role. Today, some fifty employees are part of the Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms Office.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Christian Vincent Siriano (born November 18, 1985) is an American fashion designer and member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). Siriano first gained attention after winning the fourth season of American design competition show "Project Runway" in 2007, becoming the series' youngest winner. He launched his namesake "Christian Siriano" collection in 2008, which brought in revenue of over $1.2 million by 2010 and was estimated to have reached $5 million by 2012.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano was born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland, where he spent a year at Broadneck Senior High School before transferring to Baltimore School for the Arts. The school allowed Siriano to choose fashion design as his course of study. He has one older sister, Shannon, who is a community builder and founder of Rebelle Con. They are of Italian and German descent.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano has said that his parents supported the arts and encouraged him and his sister to pursue creative fields. As a child, Siriano studied ballet, and on a March 2008 "Ellen" appearance, he described himself as a "musical theater kid who loved costumes". Siriano's interest in costume design inspired him to pursue a career in fashion. He began designing clothes at age thirteen, while working as a hair washer and styling assistant at Bubbles Salon in Annapolis, and eventually began sewing clothes for the salon's annual hair shows.


title: Christian Siriano

text: After being rejected by the Fashion Institute of Technology, Siriano chose to study abroad at American InterContinental University in London, England. Following the recommendation of a teacher during his senior year, he began interning at Vivienne Westwood, and later, at Alexander McQueen, whom Siriano has stated was his favorite designer. Siriano moved to New York City after graduating from college.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Before auditioning for "Project Runway", Siriano worked as a freelance make-up artist and made wedding gowns for private clients while also holding a brief intern position at Marc Jacobs. He decided to audition for the show after the suggestion of a friend's mother. During his time on the fourth season of "Project Runway", he won three challenges, the most of any contestant that season. Siriano advanced to the show's finals, and won a spot to show a twelve-piece final collection at New York Fashion Week. His collection was made up of Musketeer-inspired couture, featuring ruffles, feathers and headwear. During the finale, which aired on March 5, 2008, celebrity guest judge Victoria Beckham praised Siriano's collection as being a "breath of fresh air" and stated that she would be "honored to wear" any piece of his clothing. As the winner, he was awarded a fashion spread in "Elle" magazine, a 2008 Saturn Astra, and US$100,000 to start his own fashion label. He was the youngest designer to win the competition. Siriano returned to the show to mentor designers in seasons 17 (2019), 18 (2019) and 19 (2021).


title: Christian Siriano

text: In 2008, shortly before debuting his fashion line, Siriano began collaborating on several mass market retail collections. In April 2008, Siriano designed a fifteen piece collection for athleisure label Puma. On December 4, 2008, it was announced that Siriano had signed a deal to design a line of low-cost shoes and handbags for Payless ShoeSource for retail in Fall 2009.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano's eponymous fashion line, Christian Siriano, debuted at New York Fashion Week on September 13, 2008. His collection is retailed at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. In February 2009, Siriano teamed up with LG to create a fashion-themed phone, the LG Lotus (LX600). That April, "Women's Wear Daily" announced that Siriano had partnered with Victoria's Secret to retail his own makeup line, "Christian Siriano for VS Makeup". He also contributed limited-edition designs to Starbucks and O-Cel-O. In 2010, Siriano was named one of "Crain's" Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40, which reported that his line had brought in over $1.2 million in revenue .


title: Christian Siriano

text: In February 2011, Siriano launched a limited collection for catalog retailer Spiegel, named "Christian Siriano for Spiegel." Siriano was the first designer chosen for the catalog's designer collaborations line, "Signature Styles." Siriano's line at Payless expanded in 2011, when he signed on to release four collections for the chain annually, including a higher priced "Gold Collection." In 2012 the "New York Times" estimated his label's revenue at around $5 million. In September 2012, the first Christian Siriano flagship store was opened on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan's Nolita neighborhood. The store launch included celebrity guests like Heidi Klum, Allison Williams from HBO series "Girls", stylist Brad Goreski, and DJs The Misshapes.


title: Christian Siriano

text: In January 2013 Siriano launched a limited collection of affordable dresses, separates, and accessories for the Home Shopping Network, "Striking by Christian Siriano." Siriano was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in June 2013, after having been rejected in 2011.


title: Christian Siriano

text: In January 2014, Disney announced that Siriano would be designing costumes for fairy characters in the Disney animated film "The Pirate Fairy". Siriano stated that "Disney characters are everlasting and I'm so happy as a young designer to help create a bit of Disney history."


title: Christian Siriano

text: He celebrated the 10th anniversary of his fashion line in February 2018 with a runway show of his Fall 2018 collection. The New York City show featured a diverse set of models, including Ashley Graham, Selma Blair, and Danielle Brooks, and was attended by celebrities Cardi B, Meg Ryan, Laverne Cox, and Whoopi Goldberg.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano has designed multiple custom gowns for actor Billy Porter, including the black tuxedo gown worn by Porter to the 91st Academy Awards in 2019 and the rainbow gown worn by Porter to Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019.


title: Christian Siriano

text: In 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Siriano and his fashion team volunteered to sew face masks for medical professionals.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano began to receive pop culture attention during his time on "Project Runway", primarily for his asymmetrical upswept hairdo and his flamboyant attitude. Several of Siriano's catchphrases were parodied in the media by multiple blogs and television shows like "Saturday Night Live", on which Amy Poehler portrayed Siriano. On May 1, 2008, Siriano appeared as himself on season 2 episode 15 of "Ugly Betty", and designed some of the cast's costumes (including Amanda Tanen's blouse, which was sold in an auction on the internet). In June 2008, Siriano appeared in the music video for R&B artist Estelle's single "No Substitute Love."


title: Christian Siriano

text: In October 2009, Siriano released a book titled "Fierce Style: How To Be Your Most Fabulous Self." The book was co-written by Rennie Dyball and featured a foreword by Siriano's former "Runway" mentor Tim Gunn.


title: Christian Siriano

text: On April 5, 2010, Bravo aired a one-hour special entitled "Christian Siriano: Having a Moment" which followed Siriano as he prepared to debut his Spring 2010 collection at Fashion Week.


title: Christian Siriano

text: In August 2010, Siriano's name was used in a Craigslist scam. The scam involved a search for women interested in modeling for Siriano's line. Craigslist took down the fake listings, but another scam asking models for an application fee to work for Siriano soon appeared. Upon hearing the news, Siriano posted a warning on his social media accounts: "fyi girls i have never and do not ever look for models on craigslist or online. these photo shoots i'm hearing about are scams! be careful!"


title: Christian Siriano

text: In September 2011, Siriano's boyfriend Brad Walsh said that he hadn't heard Siriano use his "Project Runway" catchphrase "fierce" since 2008, and that fashion media were stubbornly refusing to take Siriano seriously because of the way he found fame.


title: Christian Siriano

text: In March 2008, Margaret Price, a columnist for "Bitch" magazine, wrote an editorial entitled, "Is Christian Siriano Making A Hot Mess of the Term 'Tranny'?", in which she stated that Siriano's use of the terms "tranny" and "hot tranny mess" were offensive to the transgender community and that by using the terms he was popularizing an "as-yet unclaimed slur." In a May 2008 interview with "Time Out New York", Siriano responded to a question about the lasting power of drag culture by stating, "If you think of heterosexuals, they have white-trash women and trailer parks, and we have drag queens and trannies. I don't know if I'm the one who can explain it. It's, like, drag queens are just there." The remark garnered criticism for its derogatory slang and its comparison of transsexuality and drag queen culture to "white-trash" and trailer parks. Siriano released an apology to GLAAD in which he stated, "I mean no disrespect to the transgender community and I never will." Of his comments in the article, Siriano said, "I wish that my words were not taken in that way. When I was speaking, some comments that I made were not used in the article." He further commented that he is "actively working to remove" the term "tranny" from his vocabulary.


title: Christian Siriano

text: In November 2011, Siriano's talent agency, DMA, filed a lawsuit against Siriano, claiming he violated an oral contract and neglected to pay over $53,000 in commission and fees owed to them from his partnership with Payless ShoeSource. Siriano's attorneys released a statement shortly after stating, "It is unfortunate that Designer's Management Agency ("DMA") has commenced a legal proceeding. Christian does not work with DMA and has no obligation to them. DMA concedes that it does not have a written contract. However, based upon an alleged oral contract, it incredibly seeks to obtain commissions in perpetuity. This legal action it has taken against the companies of Christian Siriano is without merit."


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano is openly gay and lives in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Siriano and singer-songwriter Brad Walsh became engaged on July 28, 2013. They exchanged engagement bracelets rather than rings. They were married on July 9, 2016, at their summer home in Danbury, Connecticut. On June 25, 2018, Walsh confirmed that he and Siriano had separated the previous month. As of March 2019, Siriano is in a relationship with Kyle Smith. Siriano and Walsh began divorce proceedings in April 2021.


title: Christian Siriano

text: Siriano has tattoos of a squid and an octopus on his right arm that he has said are "a tribute to Maryland and the sea life". However, Siriano later contradicted this statement by saying that his tattoos "mean nothing... Totally random."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The 2008 Sichuan earthquake (), also known as the Great Sichuan earthquake or Wenchuan earthquake, occurred at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Measuring at 8.0 . (7.9 ), the earthquake's epicenter was located west-northwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital, with a focal depth of . The earthquake ruptured the fault for over , with surface displacements of several meters. The earthquake was also felt as far away as both Beijing and Shanghai— away, respectively—where office buildings swayed with the tremor, as well as Bangkok, Thailand and Hanoi, Vietnam. Strong aftershocks, some exceeding 6 , continued to hit the area up to several months after the main shock, causing further casualties and damage. The earthquake also caused the largest number of geohazards ever recorded, including about 200,000 landslides and more than 800 quake lakes distributed over an area of .


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Over 69,000 people lost their lives in the quake, including 68,636 in Sichuan province. 374,176 were reported injured, with 18,222 listed as missing as of July 2008. The geohazards triggered by the earthquake are thought to be responsible for at least one third of the death toll. The earthquake left at least 4.8 million people homeless, though the number could be as high as 11 million. Approximately 15 million people lived in the affected area. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people, and the strongest in the country since the 1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake, which registered at 8.6 . It is the 18th deadliest earthquake of all time. On November 6, 2008, the central government announced that it would spend 1 trillion RMB (about US$146.5 billion) over the next three years to rebuild areas ravaged by the earthquake, as part of the Chinese economic stimulus program.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: According to a study by the China Earthquake Administration (CEA), the earthquake occurred along the Longmenshan Fault, a thrust structure along the border of the Indo-Australian Plate and Eurasian Plate. Seismic activities concentrated on its mid-fracture (known as Yingxiu-Beichuan fracture). The rupture lasted close to 120 seconds, with the majority of energy released in the first 80 seconds. Starting from Wenchuan, the rupture propagated at an average speed of , 49° toward north east, rupturing a total of about . Maximum displacement amounted to . The focus was deeper than .


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In a United States Geological Survey (USGS) study, preliminary rupture models of the earthquake indicated displacement of up to along a fault approximately long by deep. The earthquake generated deformations of the surface greater than and increased the stress (and probability of occurrence of future events) at the northeastern and southwestern ends of the fault. On May 20, USGS seismologist Tom Parsons warned that there is "high risk" of a major M>7 aftershock over the next couple weeks or months.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Japanese seismologist Yuji Yagi at the University of Tsukuba said that the earthquake occurred in more than 1 stage: "The 250-kilometre (155 mi) Longmenshan Fault tore in two sections, the first one ripping about 6.5 metres (7 yd) followed by a second one that sheared 3.5 metres (4 yd)." His data also showed that the earthquake lasted about two minutes and released 30 times the energy of the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 in Japan, which killed over 6,000 people. He pointed out that the shallowness of the epicenter and the density of population greatly increased the severity of the earthquake. Teruyuki Kato, a seismologist at the University of Tokyo, said that the seismic waves of the quake traveled a long distance without losing their power because of the firmness of the terrain in central China. According to reports from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, the earthquake tremors lasted for "about two or three minutes".


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The extent of the earthquake and after shock-affected areas lying north-east, along the Longmen Shan fault.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The Longmen Shan Fault System is situated in the eastern border of the Tibetan Plateau and contains several faults. This earthquake ruptured at least two imbricate structures in Longmen Shan Fault System, i.e. the Beichuan Fault and the Guanxian–Anxian Fault. In the epicentral area, the average slip in Beichuan Fault was about vertical, horizontal-parallel to the fault, and horizontal-perpendicular to the fault. In the area about northeast of the epicenter, the surface slip on Beichuan Fault was almost purely dextral strike-slip up to about , while the average slip in Guanxian–Anxian Fault was about vertical and horizontal.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: "The energy source of the Wenchuan earthquake and Longmenshan's southeast push came from the strike of the Indian Plate onto the Eurasian Plate and its northward push. The inter-plate relative motion caused large scale structural deformation inside the Asian continent, resulting in a thinning crust of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the uplift of its landscape and an eastward extrude. Near the Sichuan Basin, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's east-northward movement meets with strong resistance from the South China Block, causing a high degree of stress accumulation in the Longmenshan thrust formation. This finally caused a sudden dislocation in the Yingxiu-Beichuan fracture, leading to the violent earthquake of 8.0."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The earthquake occurred as the result of motion on a northeast striking reverse fault or thrust fault on the northwestern margin of the Sichuan Basin. The earthquake's epicenter and focal-mechanism are consistent with it having occurred as the result of movement on the Longmenshan Fault or a tectonically related fault. The earthquake reflects tectonic stresses resulting from the convergence of crustal material slowly moving from the high Tibetan Plateau, to the west, against strong crust underlying the Sichuan Basin and southeastern China.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On a continental scale, the seismicity of central and eastern Asia is a result of northward convergence of the Indian Plate against the Eurasian Plate with a velocity of about . The convergence of the two plates is broadly accommodated by the uplift of the Asian highlands and by the motion of crustal material to the east away from the uplifted Tibetan Plateau. The northwestern margin of the Sichuan Basin has previously experienced destructive earthquakes. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake of August 25, 1933, killed more than 9,300 people.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The earthquake occurred northwest of the city of Chengdu in eastern Sichuan province and over from Beijing, where it was also strongly felt. Earthquakes of this size have the potential to cause extensive damage and loss of life.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The epicenter was in the mountains of the Eastern Margin of Qing-Tibet Plateau at the northwest margin of the Sichuan Basin. The earthquake occurred as a result of motion on a northeast striking thrust fault that runs along the margin of the basin.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The seismicity of central and eastern Asia is caused by the northward movement of the India plate at a rate of and its collision with Eurasia, resulting in the uplift of the Himalaya and Tibetan plateaux and associated earthquake activity. This deformation also results in the extrusion of crustal material from the high Tibetan Plateaux in the west towards the Sichuan Basin and southeastern China. China frequently suffers large and deadly earthquakes. In August 1933, the magnitude 7.5 Diexi earthquake, about northeast of today's earthquake, destroyed the town of Diexi and surrounding villages, and caused many landslides, some of which dammed the rivers.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The map of earthquake intensity published by CEA after surveying of the affected area shows a maximum "liedu" of XI on the China Seismic Intensity Scale (CSIS), described as "very destructive" on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS) from which CSIS drew reference. (USGS, using the Modified Mercalli intensity scale (CC), also placed maximum intensity at XI, "extreme".) Two south-west-north-east stripes of liedu XI are centered around Yingxiu, Wenchuan (the town closest to the epicenter of the main quake) and Beichuan (the town repeatedly struck by strong aftershocks including one registering 6.1 on August 1, 2008), both in Sichuan Province, occupying a total of . The Yingxiu liedu-XI zone is about long and wide along Wenchuan–Dujiangyan–Pengzhou; the Beichuan liedu-XI zone is about long and wide along An County–Beichuan–Pingwu. The area with liedu X (comparable to X on EMS, "destructive" and X on MM, "disastrous") spans . The area affected by earthquakes exceeding liedu VI totals , occupying an oval long and wide, spanning three provinces and one autonomous region.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: QLARM (Quake Loss Alarms for Response and Mitigation) issues near-real-time estimates of fatalities and number of injured for earthquakes worldwide. Recent alerts can be found on the web page of the International Institute for Earth Simulation Foundation. Such an alert was issued 21 minutes after the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. It had at first been assigned M7.5, internationally. This initial underestimate of the magnitude is a known problem with earthquakes of M8 and larger. Based on the M7.5 information, QLARM distributed an email to about 300 recipients estimating that 1,000 to 4,000 fatalities had occurred. After learning that the earthquake may measure M8, QLARM distributed a revised estimate of 40,000 to 100,000 fatalities. This information was distributed within 100 minutes of the Wenchuan earthquake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The news and official reports of fatalities are often strongly misleading. After the Wenchuan earthquake, officials led the public to believe for more than a week that the fatalities numbered only a fraction of what they really were (Figure 1). At the very beginning, everyone expects the news reports to be an initial count that will grow, not however, after one week. After such a long time, the false news reports take on a reality in their own right and the theoretical loss calculations by experts are discarded.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Once the extent of the rupture of the Wenchuan earthquake became known, QLARM calculated a more detail picture of the losses. Figure 2 shows a map of the expected mean damage of the settlements affected by the Wenchuan earthquake on a scale of 5. The resistance to shaking of buildings in large cities is assumed to be stronger than in villages, therefore the damage and percentage of fatalities in large cities is less than in villages.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Between 64 and 104 major aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 4.0 to 6.1, were recorded within 72 hours of the main quake. According to Chinese official counts, "by 12:00 CST, November 6, 2008, there had been 42,719 total aftershocks, of which 246 ranged from 4.0 to 4.9 , 34 from 5.0 to 5.9 , and 8 from 6.0 to 6.4 ; the strongest aftershock measured 6.4 ." The latest aftershock exceeding M6 occurred on August 5, 2008.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The earthquake had a magnitude of 8.0 . and 7.9 . The epicenter was in Wenchuan County, Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, west/northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, with its main tremor occurring at 14:28:01.42 China Standard Time (06:28:01.42 UTC), on May 12, 2008, lasting for around two minutes; in the quake almost 80% of buildings were destroyed.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Office buildings in Shanghai's financial district, including the Jin Mao Tower and the Hong Kong New World Tower, were evacuated. A receptionist at the Tibet Hotel in Chengdu said things were "calm" after the hotel evacuated its guests. Meanwhile, workers at a Ford plant in Sichuan were evacuated for about 10 minutes. Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport was shut down, and the control tower and regional radar control evacuated. One SilkAir flight was diverted and landed in Kunming as a result. Cathay Pacific delayed both legs of its quadruple daily Hong Kong to London route due to this disruption in air traffic services. Chengdu Shuangliu Airport reopened later on the evening of May 12, offering limited service as the airport began to be used as a staging area for relief operations.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Reporters in Chengdu said they saw cracks on walls of some residential buildings in the downtown areas, but no buildings collapsed. Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the 2008 Summer Olympics. None of the Olympic venues were damaged. Meanwhile, a cargo train carrying 13 petrol tanks derailed in Hui County, Gansu, and caught on fire after the rail was distorted.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: All of the highways into Wenchuan, and others throughout the province, were damaged, resulting in delayed arrival of the rescue troops. In Beichuan County, 80% of the buildings collapsed according to Xinhua News. In the city of Shifang, the collapse of two chemical plants led to leakage of some 80 tons of liquid ammonia, with hundreds of people reported buried. In the city of Dujiangyan, south-east of the epicenter, a whole school collapsed with 900 students buried and fewer than 60 survived. The Juyuan Middle School, where many teenagers were buried, was excavated by civilians and cranes. Dujiangyan is home of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, an ancient water diversion project which is still in use and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The project's famous Fish Mouth was cracked but not severely damaged otherwise.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Both the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange suspended trading of companies based in southwestern China. Copper rose over speculations that production in southwestern China may be affected, and oil prices dropped over speculations that demand from China would fall.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Immediately after the earthquake event, mobile and terrestrial telecommunications were cut to the affected and surrounding area, with all internet capabilities cut to the Sichuan area too. Elements of telecommunications were restored by the government piece by piece over the next number of months as the situation in the Sichuan province gradually improved. Eventually, a handful of major news and media websites were made accessible online in the region, albeit with dramatically pared back webpages.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: China Mobile had more than 2,300 base stations suspended due to power disruption or severe telecommunication traffic congestion. Half of the wireless communications were lost in the Sichuan province. China Unicom's service in Wenchuan and four nearby counties was cut off, with more than 700 towers suspended.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Initially, officials were unable to contact the Wolong National Nature Reserve, home to around 280 giant pandas. However, the Foreign Ministry later said that a group of 31 British tourists visiting the Wolong Panda Reserve in the quake-hit area returned safe and uninjured to Chengdu. Nonetheless, the well-being of an even greater number of pandas in the neighbouring panda reserves remained unknown. Five security guards at the reserve were killed by the earthquake. Six pandas escaped after their enclosures were damaged. By May 20, two pandas at the reserve were found to be injured, while the search continued for another two adult pandas that went missing after the quake. By May 28, 2008, one panda was still missing. The missing panda was later found dead under the rubble of an enclosure. Nine-year-old Mao Mao, a mother of five at the breeding center, was discovered on June 9, her body crushed by a wall in her enclosure. Panda keepers and other workers placed her remains in a small wooden crate and buried her outside the breeding centre.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The Zipingpu Hydropower Plant located east of the epicenter was damaged. A recent inspection indicated that the damage was less severe than initially feared, and it remains structurally stable and safe. However, the Tulong reservoir upstream is in danger of collapse. About 2,000 troops have been allocated to Zipingpu, trying to release the pressure through spillway. In total, 391 dams, most of them small, were reported damaged by the quake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: According to Chinese state officials, the quake caused 69,180 known deaths including 68,636 in Sichuan province; 18,498 people are listed as missing, and 374,176 injured. This estimate includes 158 earthquake relief workers who were killed in landslides as they tried to repair roads.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: One rescue team reported only 2,300 survivors from the town of Yingxiu in Wenchuan County, out of a total population of about 9,000. 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed in Beichuan County, Sichuan alone; in the same location, 10,000 people were injured and 80% of the buildings were destroyed. The old county seat of Beichuan was abandoned and preserved as part of the Beichuan Earthquake Museum. Eight schools were toppled in Dujiangyan.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: A 56-year-old was killed in Dujiangyan during a rescue attempt on the Lingyanshan Ropeway, where due to the earthquake 11 tourists from Taiwan had been trapped inside cable cars since May 13. A 4-year-old boy named Zhu Shaowei () was also killed in Mianzhu when a house collapsed on him and another was reported missing.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Experts point out that the earthquake hit an area that has been largely neglected and untouched by China's economic rise. Health care is poor in inland areas such as Sichuan, highlighting the widening gap between prosperous urban dwellers and struggling rural people. Vice Minister of Health Gao Qiang told reporters in Beijing that the "public health care system in China is insufficient." The Vice Minister of Health also suggested that the government would pick up the costs of care to earthquake victims, many of whom have little or no insurance: "The government should be responsible for providing medical treatment to them," he said.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In terms of school casualties, thousands of school children died due to shoddy construction. In Mianyang City, seven schools collapsed, burying at least 1,700 people. At least 7,000 school buildings throughout the province collapsed. Another 700 students were buried in a school in Hanwang. At least 600 students and staff died at Juyuan Elementary School. Up to 1,300 children and teachers died at Beichuan Middle School. According to Tan Zuoren, 5,600 pupils were dead or missing from the 64 schools Tan investigated in the quake zone. Tan was detained after he published such a casualties number.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Tang Xuemei was in a school dormitory building during the earthquake. She was trapped for 28 hours before being rescued. Her left leg had to be amputated. She became a Paralympic sitting volleyball player and became Paralympic champion in 2012 winning the silver medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Details of school casualties had been under non-governmental investigation since December 2008 by volunteers including artist and architect Ai Weiwei, who had been constantly posting updates on his blog since March 2009. The official tally of students killed in the earthquake was not released until May 7, 2009, almost a year after the earthquake. According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, the earthquake killed 5,335 students and left another 546 children disabled. Some parents believe the real figure is twice that officially cited. The executive vice governor of Sichuan Wei Hong said the student death toll is 19,065. Mr. Wei noted the toll was incomplete as the officials were still tallying the final number. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Chinese government declared that parents who had lost their only children would get free treatment from fertility clinics to reverse vasectomies and tubal ligations conducted by family planning authorities.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The earthquake left at least 5 million people without housing, although the number could be as high as 11 million. Millions of livestock and a significant amount of agriculture were also destroyed, including 12.5 million animals, mainly birds. In the Sichuan province a million pigs died out of 60 million total. Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide reported official estimates of insurers' losses at US$1 billion from the earthquake; estimated total damage exceeded US$20 billion. It values Chengdu, at the time having an urban population of 4.5 million people, at around US$115 billion, with only a small portion covered by insurance.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Reginald DesRoches, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech, pointed out that the massive damage of properties and houses in the earthquake area was because China did not create an adequate seismic design code until after the devastating 1976 Tangshan earthquake. DesRoches said: "If the buildings were older and built prior to that 1976 earthquake, chances are they weren't built for adequate earthquake forces."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In the days following the disaster, an international reconnaissance team of engineers was dispatched to the region to make a detailed preliminary survey of damaged buildings. Their findings show a variety of reasons why many constructions failed to withstand the earthquake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: News reports indicate that the poorer, rural villages were hardest hit. Swaminathan Krishnan, assistant professor of civil engineering and geophysics at the California Institute of Technology said: "the earthquake occurred in the rural part of China. Presumably, many of the buildings were just "built;" they were not designed, so to speak." Swaminathan Krishnan further added: "There are very strong building codes in China, which take care of earthquake issues and seismic design issues. But many of these buildings presumably were quite old and probably were not built with any regulations overseeing them."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Strong aftershocks continued to strike even months after the main quake. On May 25, an aftershock of 6.0  (6.4  according to CEA) hit northeast of the original earthquake's epicenter, in Qingchuan County, Sichuan, causing eight deaths, 1,000 injuries, and destroying thousands of buildings. On May 27, two aftershocks, one 5.2  in Qingchuan County and one 5.7 in Ningqiang County, Shaanxi, led to the collapse of more than 420,000 homes and injured 63 people. The same area suffered two more aftershocks of 5.6 and 6.0  (5.8 and 5.5 , respectively, according to USGS) on July 23, resulting in 1 death, 6 serious injuries, the collapse of hundreds of homes and damaging kilometers of highways.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Pingwu County and Beichuan County, Sichuan, also northeast of Wenchuan and close to the epicenter of a 7.2  earthquake in 1976, suffered a 6.1  aftershock (5.7  according to USGS) on August 1; it caused 2 deaths, 345 injuries, the collapse of 707 homes, damage to over 1,000 homes, and blocked of country roads. As late as August 5, yet another aftershock of 6.1  (6.2  according to USGS) hit Qingchuan, Sichuan, causing 1 death, 32 injuries, telecommunication interruptions, and widespread hill slides blocking roads in the area including a national highway.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Executive vice governor Wei Hong confirmed on November 21, 2008, that more than 90,000 people in total were dead or missing in the earthquake. He stated that 200,000 homes had been rebuilt, and 685,000 were under reconstruction, but 1.94 million households were still without permanent shelter. 1,300 schools had been reconstructed, with initial relocation of 25 townships, including Beichuan and Wenchuan, two of the most devastated areas. The government spent $441 billion on relief and reconstruction efforts.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: General Secretary and President Hu Jintao announced that the disaster response would be rapid. Just 90 minutes after the earthquake, Premier Wen Jiabao, who has an academic background in geomechanics, flew to the earthquake area to oversee the rescue work. Soon afterward, the Ministry of Health stated that it had sent ten emergency medical teams to Wenchuan County. On the same day, the Chengdu Military Region Command dispatched 50,000 troops and armed police to help with disaster relief work in Wenchuan County. However, due to the rough terrain and close proximity of the quake's epicenter, the soldiers found it very difficult to get help to the rural regions of the province. Premier Wen ordered the People's Liberation Army by saying, "It is the people who have raised you. It's up to you to see what to do! Even if it means walking on foot, you must nonetheless walk in there anyways. (Chinese:是人民养育了你们, 你们自己看着办! 你们就是靠双腿走, 也要给我走进去)" However, PLA commander Guo Boxiong only listened to Jiang Zemin's order, neither Wen Jiabao's or Hu Jintao's. The first 72 critical rescue hours were wasted. "The New York Times" reported "the troops were unprepared to save lives in the first 72 hours, when thousands were buried under toppled masonry and every minute mattered."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The National Disaster Relief Commission initiated a "Level II emergency contingency plan", which covers the most serious class of natural disasters. The plan rose to Level I at 22:15 CST, May 12.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: An earthquake emergency relief team of 184 people (consisting of 12 people from the State Seismological Bureau, 150 from the Beijing Military Area Command, and 22 from the Armed Police General Hospital) left Beijing from Nanyuan Airport late May 12 in two military transport planes to travel to Wenchuan County.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Many rescue teams, including that of the Taipei Fire Department from Taiwan, were reported ready to join the rescue effort in Sichuan as early as Wednesday. However, the Red Cross Society of China said that (on May 13) "it was inconvenient currently due to the traffic problem to the hardest hit areas closest to the epicenter." The Red Cross Society of China also stated that the disaster areas need tents, medical supplies, drinking water and food; however it recommended donating cash instead of other items, as it had not been possible to reach roads that were completely damaged or places that were blocked off by landslides. Landslides continuously threatened the progress of a search and rescue group of 80 men, each carrying about 40 kg of relief supplies, from a motorized infantry brigade under commander Yang Wenyao, as they tried to reach the ethnically Tibetan village of Sier at a height of 4000 m above sea level in Pingwu county. The extreme terrain conditions precluded the use of helicopter evacuation, and over 300 of the Tibetan villagers were stranded in their demolished village for five days without food and water before the rescue group finally arrived to help the injured and stranded villagers down the mountain.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Persistent heavy rain and landslides in Wenchuan County and the nearby area badly affected rescue efforts. At the start of rescue operations on May 12, 20 helicopters were deployed for the delivery of food, water, and emergency aid, and also the evacuation of the injured and reconnaissance of quake-stricken areas. By 17:37 CST on May 13, a total of over 15,600 troops and militia reservists from the Chengdu Military Region had joined the rescue force in the heavily affected areas. A commander reported from Yingxiu Town, Wenchuan, that around 3,000 survivors were found, while the status of the other inhabitants (around 9,000) remained unclear. The 1,300 rescuers reached the epicenter, and 300 pioneer troops reached the seat of Wenchuan at about 23:30 CST. By 12:17 CST, May 14, 2008, communication in the seat of Wenchuan was partly revived. On the afternoon of May 14, 15 Special Operations Troops, along with relief supplies and communications gear, parachuted into inaccessible Mao County, northeast of Wenchuan.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: By May 15, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered the deployment of an additional 90 helicopters, of which 60 were to be provided by the PLAAF, and 30 were to be provided by the civil aviation industry, bringing the total number of aircraft deployed in relief operations by the air force, army, and civil aviation to over 150, resulting in the largest non-combat airlifting operation in People's Liberation Army history.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Beijing accepted the aid of the Tzu Chi Foundation from Taiwan late on May 13. Tzu Chi was the first force from outside the People's Republic of China to join the rescue effort. China stated it would gratefully accept international help to cope with the quake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: A direct chartered cargo flight was made by China Airlines from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport sending some 100 tons of relief supplies donated by the Tzu Chi Foundation and the Red Cross Society of Taiwan to the affected areas. Approval from mainland Chinese authorities was sought, and the chartered flight departed Taipei at 17:00 CST, May 15 and arrived in Chengdu by 20:30 CST. A rescue team from the Red Cross in Taiwan was also scheduled to depart Taipei on a Mandarin Airlines direct chartered flight to Chengdu at 15:00 CST on May 16.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Francis Marcus of the International Federation of the Red Cross praised the Chinese rescue effort as "swift and very efficient" in Beijing on Tuesday. But he added the scale of the disaster was such that "we can't expect that the government can do everything and handle every aspect of the needs". The "Economist" noted that China reacted to the disaster "rapidly and with uncharacteristic openness", contrasting it with Burma's secretive response to Cyclone Nargis, which devastated that country 10 days before the earthquake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On May 16, rescue groups from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Russia and Taiwan arrived to join the rescue effort. The United States shared some of its satellite images of the quake-stricken areas with Chinese authorities. During the weekend, the US sent into China two U.S. Air Force C-17's carrying supplies, which included tents and generators. Xinhua had reported a total of more than 100,000 Chinese troops, medics, and volunteers from other provinces that were involved in the rescue effort across 58 counties and cities in Sichuan.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The Internet was extensively used for passing information to aid rescue and recovery efforts. For example, the official news agency Xinhua set up an online rescue request center in order to find the blind spots of disaster recovery. After knowing that rescue helicopters had trouble landing into the epicenter area in Wenchuan, a student proposed a landing spot online and it was chosen as the first touchdown place for the helicopters. Volunteers also set up several websites to help store contact information for victims and evacuees. On May 31, a rescue helicopter carrying earthquake survivors and crew members crashed in fog and turbulence in Wenchuan county. No-one survived.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Rescue efforts performed by the Chinese government were praised by western media, especially in comparison with Myanmar's blockage of foreign aid during Cyclone Nargis, as well as China's previous performance during the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. China's openness during the media coverage of the Sichuan earthquake led a professor at the Peking University to say, "This is the first time [that] the Chinese media has lived up to international standards". "Los Angeles Times" praised China's media coverage of the quake of being "democratic".


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Rescue efforts also came from Jet Li's One Foundation which saw the martial arts actor Wu Jing assisting in the efforts.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In Tuanshan Village, Longmenshan Town, Pengzhou, the Strong-Willed Pig was rescued suffering only skin trauma after being buried under rubble for 36 days. The pig had survived off rainwater and charcoal, but lost 100 kg from its original 150 kg weight. The Jianchuan Museum bought the pig from its original owner and gave the pig a new home on the museum premises. The pig became famous nationwide as it "illustrated the spirit of never giving up."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: As a result of the earthquake and the many strong aftershocks, many rivers became blocked by large landslides, which resulted in the formation of "quake lakes" behind the blockages; these massive amounts of water were pooling up at a very high rate behind the natural landslide dams and it was feared that the blockages would eventually crumble under the weight of the ever-increasing water mass, potentially endangering the lives of millions of people living downstream. As of May 27, 2008, 34 lakes had formed due to earthquake debris blocking and damming rivers, and it was estimated that 28 of them were still of potential danger to the local people. Entire villages had to be evacuated because of the resultant flooding.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The most precarious of these quake-lakes was the one located in the extremely difficult terrain at Mount Tangjia in Beichuan County, Sichuan, accessible only by foot or air; an Mi-26T heavy lift helicopter belonging to the China Flying Dragon Special Aviation Company was used to bring heavy earthmoving tractors to the affected location. This operation was coupled with the work done by PLAAF Mi-17 helicopters bringing in PLA engineering corps, explosive specialists and other personnel to join 1,200 soldiers who arrived on site by foot. Five tons of fuel to operate the machinery was airlifted to the site, where a sluice was constructed to allow the safe discharge of the bottle-necked water. Downstream, more than 200,000 people were evacuated from Mianyang by June 1 in anticipation of the dam bursting.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The State Council declared a three-day period of national mourning for the quake victims starting from May 19, 2008; the PRC's National Flag and Regional Flags of Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions flown at half mast. It was the first time that a national mourning period had been declared for something other than the death of a state leader, and many have called it the biggest display of mourning since the death of Mao Zedong. At 14:28 CST on May 19, 2008, a week after the earthquake, the Chinese public held a moment of silence. People stood silent for three minutes while air defense, police and fire sirens, and the horns of vehicles, vessels and trains sounded. Cars and trucks on Beijing's roads also came to a halt. People spontaneously burst into cheering "Zhongguo jiayou!" (Let's go, China!) and "Sichuan jiayou" (Let's go, Sichuan!) afterwards.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The Ningbo Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic torch relay announced that the relay, scheduled to take place in Ningbo during national mourning, would be suspended for the duration of the mourning period. The route of the torch through the country was scaled down, and there was a minute of silence when the next leg started in city of Ruijin, Jiangxi on the Wednesday after the quake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Many websites converted their home page to black and white; Sina.com and Sohu, major internet portals, limited their homepages to news items and removed all advertisements. Chinese video sharing websites Youku and Tudou displayed a black background and placed multiple videos showing earthquake footage and news reports. The Chinese version of MSN, cn.msn.com, also displayed banner ads about the earthquake and the relief efforts. Other entertainment websites, including various gaming sites, such as the Chinese servers for "World of Warcraft", had shut down altogether, or had corresponding links to earthquake donations. After the moments of silence, in Tiananmen Square, crowds spontaneously burst out cheering various slogans, including "Long Live China". Casinos in Macau closed down.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: All Mainland Chinese television stations (along with some stations in Hong Kong and expatriate communities) cancelled all regularly-scheduled programming, displayed their logo in grayscale, and replaced their cancelled programmes with live earthquake footage from CCTV-1 for multiple days after the quake. Even pay television channels (such as Channel V) had their programmes suspended.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On the evening of May 18, CCTV-1 hosted a special four-hour program called "The Giving of Love" (), hosted by regulars from the CCTV New Year's Gala and round-the-clock coverage anchor Bai Yansong. It was attended by a wide range of entertainment, literary, business and political figures from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Donations of the evening totalled 1.5 billion Chinese Yuan (~US$208 million). Of the donations, CCTV gave the biggest corporate contribution at ¥50 million. Almost at the same time in Taiwan, a similarly themed programme was on air hosted by the sitting president Ma Ying-jeou.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In June, Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan, who donated $1.57 million to the victims, made a music video alongside other artists entitled "Promise"; the song was composed by Andy Lau. The Artistes 512 Fund Raising Campaign, an 8-hour fundraising marathon, was held on June 1 in Hong Kong; it was attended by some 200 Sinosphere musicians and celebrities. In Singapore, MediaCorp Channel 8 hosted a 'live' programme 让爱川流不息 to raise funds for the victims.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Although the Chinese government was initially praised for its response to the quake (especially in comparison to Myanmar's ruling military junta's blockade of aid during Cyclone Nargis), it then saw an erosion in confidence over the school construction scandal.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The central government estimates that over 7,000 inadequately engineered schoolrooms collapsed in the earthquake. Chinese citizens have since invented a catch phrase: "tofu-dregs schoolhouses" (), to mock both the quality and the quantity of these inferior constructions that killed so many school children. Due to the one-child policy, many families lost their only child when schools in the region collapsed during the earthquake. Consequently, Sichuan provincial and local officials have lifted the restriction for families whose only child was either killed or severely injured in the disaster. So-called "illegal children" under 18 years of age may be registered as legal replacements for their dead siblings; if the dead child was illegal, no further outstanding fines would apply. Reimbursement would not, however, be offered for fines that were already levied.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On May 29, 2008, government officials began inspecting the ruins of thousands of schools that collapsed, searching for clues about why they crumbled. Thousands of parents around the province have accused local officials and builders of cutting corners in school construction, citing that after the quake other nearby buildings were little damaged. In the aftermath of the quake, many local governments promised to formally investigate the school collapses, but as of July 17, 2008, across Sichuan, parents of children lost in collapsed schools complained they had yet to receive any reports. Local officials urged them not to protest but the parents demonstrated and demanded an investigation. Furthermore, censors discouraged stories of poorly built schools from being published in the media and there was an incident where police drove the protestors away.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In the China Digital Times an article reports a close analysis by an alleged Chinese construction engineer known online as "Book Blade" (), who stated:


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: "...because of our nation's particular brand of education, our children are fed 20 years of Marxist philosophy with Chinese characteristics—a philosophy that has nothing to say about saving lives...School construction is the worst. First, there’s not enough capital. Schools in poor areas have small budgets and, unlike schools in the cities, they can’t collect huge fees, so they’re pressed for money. With construction, add in exploitation by government officials, education officials, school managers, etc. and you can imagine what’s left over for the actual building of schools. When earthquake prevention standards are raised, government departments, major businesses, etc. will all appraise and reinforce their buildings. But these schools with their 70s-era buildings, no-one pays attention to them. Because of this, the older school buildings suffer from inadequate protection while the new buildings have been shoddily constructed."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On Children's Day, June 1, 2008, many parents went to the rubble of schools to mourn for their children. The surviving children, who were mostly living in relief centres, performed ceremonies marking the special day, but also acknowledging the earthquake.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Ye Zhiping, the principal of Sangzao Middle School in Sangzao, one of the largest in An County, has been credited with proactive action that spared the lives of all 2,323 pupils in attendance when the earthquake happened. During a three-year period that ended in 2007, he oversaw a major overhaul of his school. During that time he obtained more than 400,000 yuan (US$60,000) from the county education department, money used to widen and strengthen concrete pillars and the balcony railing of all four storeys of his school, as well as secure its concrete floors.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The AP reported that "The state-controlled media has largely ignored the issue, apparently under the propaganda bureau's instructions. Parents and volunteers who have questioned authorities have been detained and threatened."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Reuters reported in June that, to date, Chinese prosecutors have joined an official inquiry into ten collapsed schools during May's devastating earthquake to gain first-hand material of construction quality at the collapsed schools, launch preliminary inquiries and prepare for possible investigations into professional crime. It was also reported that safety checks were to be carried out at schools across China after last month's earthquake. No reports on the topic were eventually made public, however.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: "The New York Times" reported that "government officials in Beijing and Sichuan have said they are investigating the collapses. In an acknowledgment of the weakness of building codes in the countryside, the National Development and Reform Commission said on May 27 that it had drafted an amendment to improve construction standards for primary and middle schools in rural areas. Experts are reviewing the draft, the commission said." To limit protests, officials pushed parents to sign a document, which forbade them from holding protests, in exchange of money, but some who refused to sign were threatened. The payment amounts varied from school to school but were approximately the same. In Hanwang, parents were offered a package valued at US$8,800 in cash and a per-parent pension of nearly US$5,600. Furthermore, officials used other methods of silencing: riot police officers broke up protests by parents; the authorities set up cordons around the schools; and officials ordered the Chinese news media to stop reporting on school collapses.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Besides parents, Liu Shaokun (), a Sichuan school teacher, was detained on June 25, 2008, for "disseminating rumors and destroying social order" about the Sichuan earthquake. Liu's family was later told that he was being investigated on suspicion of the crime of inciting subversion. Liu had travelled to the Shifang, taken photos of collapsed school buildings, and put them online. He had also expressed his anger at "the shoddy tofu-dregs buildings" () in a media interview. He was ordered to serve one year of re-education through labor (RTL). According to the organization Human Rights in China, Liu has been released to serve his RTL sentence outside of the labor camp.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On May 15, 2008, Geoffery York of the Globeandmail.com reported that the shoddily constructed buildings are commonly called "tofu buildings" because builders cut corners by replacing steel rods with thin iron wires for concrete re-inforcement; using inferior grade cement, if any at all; and using fewer bricks than they should. One local was quoted in the article as saying that "the supervising agencies did not check to see if it met the national standards."


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: In January 2010, Hong Kong-based English newspaper "The Standard" reported that writer Tan Zuoren attempted to document shoddy construction that may have led to massive casualties in schools, was sentenced to in prison ostensibly for his writing an article in 2007 in support of the pro-democracy movement in 1989.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Because of the magnitude of the quake, and the media attention on China, foreign nations and organizations immediately responded to the disaster by offering condolences and assistance. On May 14, UNICEF reported that China formally requested the support of the international community to respond to the needs of affected families.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: By May 14, the Ministry of Civil Affairs stated that 10.7 billion yuan (approximately US$1.5 billion) had been donated by the Chinese public. Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, one of the country's most popular sports icons, gave $214,000 and $71,000 to the Red Cross Society of China. The association has also collected a total of $26 million in donations. Other multinational firms located in China have also announced large amounts of donations.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: The Red Cross Society of China flew 557 tents and 2,500 quilts valued at 788,000 yuan (US$113,000) to Wenchuan County. The Amity Foundation already began relief work in the region and has earmarked US$143,000 for disaster relief. The Sichuan Ministry of Civil Affairs said that they have provided 30,000 tents for those left homeless.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Central State-owned enterprises have accumulatively donated more than $48.6 million. China National Petroleum Corp and Sinopec donated 10 million yuan each to the disaster area.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: Following the earthquake, donations were made by people from all over mainland China, with booths set up in schools, at banks, and around gas stations. People also donated blood, resulting in according to Xinhua long line-ups in most major Chinese cities. Many donated through text messaging on mobile phones to accounts set up by China Unicom and China Mobile By May 16, the Chinese government had allocated a total of $772 million for earthquake relief so far, up sharply from $159 million from May 14.


title: 2008 Sichuan earthquake

text: On May 16 China stated it had also received $457 million in donated money and goods for rescue efforts so far, including $83 million from 19 countries and four international organizations. Saudi Arabia was the largest aid donor to China, providing close to €40,000,000 in financial assistance, and an additional €8,000,000 worth of relief materials.