title: Tommen Baratheon

text: During the wake of his deceased grandfather, Tommen is approached by Margaery, who shares a few close words with him and holds his hand briefly. All of this is observed by Cersei from afar. Tommen and Margaery later marry and consummate that same night, whereupon Margaery begins to manipulate Tommen to send Cersei back to Casterly Rock. When he does, Cersei immediately begins scheming to get rid of the Tyrells through the High Sparrow and Faith Militant by arranging them to arrest Loras Tyrell for his homosexuality and Margaery for her knowledge of this. However, Cersei's plan backfires and she is also arrested. Tommen falls into a depression, refusing to eat.


title: Tommen Baratheon

text: Tommen confines Cersei to the Red Keep after her release, in order to protect her from the Faith Militant. However, Tommen is eventually manipulated by the High Sparrow to forge an alliance with the Faith. He also abolishes trial by combat, replacing it with trial by seven septons. Rather than attend her trial, Cersei detonates a cache of wildfire beneath the Sept of Baelor, killing the High Sparrow and Margaery in the explosion. Tommen is barred in his quarters by Ser Gregor Clegane and witnesses the explosion from his window. After a servant informs him of Margaery's death, he commits suicide by jumping from the Red Keep. Cersei orders him cremated and claims his throne as monarch of the Seven Kingdoms.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-Methylmethcathinone, also known as 3-MMC and metaphedrone, is a designer drug from the substituted cathinone family. 3-MMC is closely related in structure to the more commonly known illicit drug mephedrone (4-MMC), and is also illegal in most countries that have banned mephedrone due to 3-MMC being a structural isomer of 4-MMC. However, 3-MMC has still appeared on the recreational drug market as an alternative to mephedrone, and was first identified being sold in Sweden in 2012.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: Unlike other legal highs 3-MMC was tested and characterized in large mammals, providing much more knowledge about it than is known about other synthetic cathinones. 3-MMC is a monoamine transporter substrate that potently inhibits norepinephrine uptake and displays more pronounced dopaminergic "vs." serotonergic activity.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-MMC was first encountered in Sweden in 2012, it was created as a designer drug following the control in many countries of the related compound mephedrone. It was sold as a research chemical, usually in powder form. There is no known or reported medical use of 3-MMC and it is being used for recreation. Some fatal intoxications have been reported although only a few involved 3-MMC only.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC) chemical name is 2-(methylamino)-1-(3-methylphenyl)propan-1-one) and is a cathinone derivative, which is a synthetic form of phenylethylamines. 3-MMC has a cathinone which is substituted with a methyl group at the 3 position which makes it a structural isomer of Mephedrone.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-MMC contains a chiral center at the C-2 carbon. Therefore two enantiomers exist, the R and S enantiomer. It is assumed that the S form is more potent due to its similarity to cathinone. But further research has to be done to confirm this.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: There are several ways to synthesize 3-MMC. One of ways to synthesize 3-MMC, which is adapted from Power et al, is to add ethyl magnesium bromide to 3-methylbenzaldehyde (I). The product (II) is then oxidized by pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC) on silica gel to the keton (III) and brominated with hydrobromic acid to yield the bromo ketone (IV). This bromo ketone is reacted with ethanolic methylamine to produce the 3-MMC free base (V), which can be converted to the hydrochloride salt (VI) by addition of ethereal hydrogen chloride (VI).


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: The most common form of 3-MMC is as a white crystalline powder or as white solid crystals. Sometimes however it is also sold as capsules filled with 3-MMC. There is no information available whether it is a racemate or enantiomerically pure.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: The studies of pharmacology are currently lacking but it was found 3-MMC just like 4-MMC inhibits norepinephrine (NET), serotonin (SERT) and dopamine (DAT) transporters. 3-MMC inhibits NET and DAT more potently than SERT which suggests that 3-MMC has stronger amphetamine-like stimulant properties compared to mephedrone.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-MMC strongly binds to serotonin 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors. In addition, 3-MMC binds weakly to the α1A and α2A adrenergic receptors.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: The metabolism pathway of 3-MMC is not yet fully known. From analysis of human pubic hair of a drug dealer it is known that 3-methylephedrine and 3-methylnorephedrine are metabolites of the drug. A possible metabolic pathway is β-keto-reduction followed by N-demethylation.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: Generally, 3-MMC is taken via inhalation, injection, insufflation or oral administration. Repeated use of 3-MMC in a single session, often via different routes, has also been seen. The dosages range from threshold, light, common, strong and heavy corresponding to 50 mg, 50–150 mg, 150–250 mg, 250–350 mg and 350+mg respectively. Most self-reported doses range from 50 to 150 mg or even up to 500 mg. Furthermore, most users report repeated usage in order to extend their euphoric experience often leading to 0.5g to 2g of 3-MMC consumed in one sitting or even within a few hours. The drug lasts from 4–6 hours with its peak being 2–3 hours long. In a questionnaire-based study of self-reported 3-MMC users in Slovenia, it was found that 88.8% of users insufflated the drug while 42.6% took it orally. The study did not find any instances of users injecting 3-MMC. Moreover, 26% of the users reported taking more than 1.5 g of 3-MMC in a single sitting and over 50% reported having consuming more than 0.5g in a single sitting.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: The desired effects of 3-MMC are stimulation, spontaneous bodily sensations, euphoria, enhancement of empathy, affection and sociability, happiness, awareness and an increased appreciation of music which are similar effects of other amphetamines and drugs of abuse. The adverse effects can range from stuttering, fatigue, verbosity, reduced level of consciousness, depression, aggression, delirium and confusion, double vision, difficulty in concentration, headaches, dehydration, hallucinations, fear to more serious effects such as hyponatremia, diaphoresis, seizures, hyperthermia and rhabdomyolysis.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: Very few cases of overdoses have been recorded in literature for concentrations between 249 and 1600 ng/mL for 3-MMC. Since the concentration range is quite high in the literature, defining the concentration at which impairment or fatality occurs is very difficult. No correlation between the measured concentration and the type of intoxication was found. The most likely cause for this is the chemical instability of the drug.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: In animals, 3-MMC has a rather high absorption rate with the peak concentration being achieved within 5 to 10 minutes after oral ingestion and a plasma half-life of 0.8 hours. The bioavailability was tested to be around 7% and 3-MMC levels dropped below detectable levels after 24 hours of oral ingestion. Moreover, 3-MMC caused a significant change in the feeding behaviour of animals often resulting in weight gain over time. Caution is needed when applying the data for human safety from the extrapolated animal data because of low sample size, lack of data and low dosage.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-MMC is currently being developed as a medicine by a publicly traded company MindMed Inc NASDAQ:MNMD based on a patent titled "Use of 3-methylmethcathinone"


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: 3-MMC was not banned by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) after a critical review.


title: 3-Methylmethcathinone

text: Effective 28 October 2021, 3-MMC has been scheduled under the Dutch Opium Law and is therefore illegal in the Netherlands.


title: Calum Von Moger

text: Calum Jose von Moger (born 9 June 1990) is an Australian actor and bodybuilder. He is best known for his portrayal of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2018 film "Bigger".


title: Calum Von Moger

text: On 6 May 2022, Calum autodefenestrated and sustained injuries requiring ICU treatment after jumping out an apartment window.


title: Calum Von Moger

text: On 26th May 2022 Calum pleaded guilty to possession of testosterone, cannabis, methamphetamine, and ice. Calum received a $500 fine from the Magistrate.


title: Calum Von Moger

text: In July 2022, Calum's younger brother attacked an elderly couple with a boomerang while high on methamphetamine, damaging their car.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Peter Wright (born 10 March 1970) is a Scottish professional darts player who plays in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), where he is currently ranked No. 2 in the world. Nicknamed "Snakebite", he is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and is a two-time and reigning world champion, having won the PDC World Darts Championship in 2020 and 2022. He is also a World Matchplay champion.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: When he was 24, Wright qualified for the first round of the 1995 BDO World Darts Championship, but then stopped playing darts professionally, working instead as a builder and tyre fitter while competing in local darts leagues. He resumed his professional darts career in his late 30s, playing his first full schedule of PDC events in 2008. He qualified for his first PDC World Darts Championship in 2010, entered the top 16 for the first time in 2013, and reached his first world final in 2014, where he was runner-up to Michael van Gerwen. He won his first major PDC title at the 2017 UK Open; as of January 2022, he has won seven major PDC titles. He has made one televised nine-dart finish, at the 2020 Premier League Darts.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Known for his flamboyant stage persona, Wright typically wears colourful attire, multicoloured Mohican hairstyles created by his hairdresser wife Joanne, and elaborate designs painted on his head. He is known for performing a sidestep dance before his matches to the song "Don't Stop the Party" by Pitbull.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Born in Livingston, Scotland, to a 16-year-old single mother, Wright moved to London with his mother when he was three years old because she feared that her sisters would take her child away from her. Although he has lived in England ever since, he chooses to represent Scotland in sports. He stated that he first became interested in darts through watching players such as Cliff Lazerenko, Jocky Wilson, and Eric Bristow on TV in the early 1980s. He received a set of darts for his 13th birthday, but since his mother could not afford a dartboard, he initially threw them at trees. After some practice, he was able to beat his stepfather and his stepfather's friends. Within a few years, he was regarded as one of the most promising young players in London.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright competed at the 1995 BDO World Darts Championship, losing 3–1 in the first round to eventual champion Richie Burnett. He did not pursue a professional career afterward; instead, he worked as a builder and tyre fitter while playing in local darts leagues. He competed in the 2005 UK Open, where he lost 5–4 in the third round to Dave Smith. After he and his wife Joanne watched the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts on TV in 2007, and Wright mentioned that he had beaten some of the players who were competing in the event, Joanne encouraged him to pursue professional success in the sport. He first played a full schedule of Professional Darts Corporation events in 2008, although he had little success, winning just £1,200 in prize money.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: 2009 proved to be a much better year for Wright as he made his PDC televised debut at the 2009 Las Vegas Desert Classic where he was defeated 6–3 by Colin Lloyd in the first round. His good form on the PDC Pro Tour, helped by a semi-final showing in the Las Vegas Players Championship, earned him qualification for the 2009 World Matchplay. Wright played Terry Jenkins in the first round and lost 10–4. Further quarter-final and semi-final runs followed in Players Championship events to qualify for his first PDC World Championship, where he lost 3–1 in sets to Michael van Gerwen in the opening round.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: In 2010, Wright also made his debut in the Players Championship Finals and lost in the first round 6–2 against Wes Newton. In April, he reached his first final on the PDC tour at the sixth UK Open Qualifier where he lost 6–2 to Phil Taylor. Wright was knocked out in the third round of the UK Open 9–7 by William O'Connor.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright won a match at the World Championship for the first time in 2011 by beating Co Stompé 3–1 and then saw off Paul Nicholson to face defending champion Phil Taylor in the third round. Wright lost 4–1 and averaged a very respectable 96.56. He enjoyed a good run at the UK Open which was ended in the last 16 by Mark Hylton and played in his second World Matchplay where Simon Whitlock beat him 10–7 in the first round. Wright's first quarter-final appearance in a major event came at the European Championship with victories over John Part and Gary Anderson, before losing again to Whitlock this time 10–6. His form continued by reaching the final of the 18th Players Championship of the year and a 6–2 loss to Anderson. Wright defeated Denis Ovens 6–4 in the opening round of the Players Championship Finals but lost 8–6 to Wes Newton in the subsequent round.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright was unable to repeat his 2011 run in the 2012 edition of the World Championship, as he lost 3–1 to Jelle Klaasen in the first round. Wright missed 11 consecutive darts at doubles in the first two sets of the match. Wright represented Scotland with Gary Anderson in the 2012 PDC World Cup of Darts and together they were beaten by South Africa in the second round, losing in a sudden-death leg. Wright defeated Andy Brown and former world champions John Part and Richie Burnett to reach the last 16 of the UK Open where he played Raymond van Barneveld. Wright led 8–6 and was on a 138 finish on his throw to advance to the quarter-finals and beat the Dutchman for the first time. He hit treble 20 with his first dart and then single 18 to leave 60, meaning single 20 with his last dart would have left double top for the win when he returned to the board. However, Wright hit another treble 20 to bust his score and went on to lose the match 9–8.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright won his first PDC ranking title in October 2012, at the 15th Players Championship of the year in Killarney, Ireland, where he beat Robert Thornton 6–1 in the final with a 107 average. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Wright was 17th on the Order of Merit, comfortably inside the top 32 who qualified for the Players Championship Finals. He beat Colin Lloyd and Wayne Jones, before losing to Kim Huybrechts 10–6 in the quarter-finals.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: At the 2013 World Championship Wright saw off Arron Monk 3–0 in the first round to set up a meeting with the second favourite for the tournament, Michael van Gerwen, who Wright described as "not good enough" before the match. Wright won the first two sets, but van Gerwen won 12 of the next 14 legs to triumph 4–2. In the eight UK Open Qualifiers during the early part of 2013, Wright was a losing quarter-finalist twice and a losing semi-finalist three times to be placed fourth on the Order of Merit. It was at the UK Open where Wright reached his first major PDC semi-final. He had impressive victories over Gaz Cousins (9–4), BDO number one Stephen Bunting (9–2), Steve West (9–4) and Adrian Lewis (10–6). He played Phil Taylor in the semis and was beaten 5–10, with Wright stating afterwards that he had played the player instead of the dart board and was tensing up and snatching darts. He set himself a goal of reaching the top 16 in the world rankings by the end of the year. Later in the month, Wright won his second career ranking title at the fifth Players Championship. He averaged an incredible 118.66 in beating Gary Anderson 6–0 in ten minutes in the quarter-finals and then saw off Kevin Painter 6–3 in the semis and Wes Newton 6–1 in the final. He lost 6–4 to Colin Lloyd in the first round of the European Championship and 13–3 to Michael van Gerwen in the second round of the World Matchplay. Wright reached the final of the German Darts Championship, but lost 6–2 to Dave Chisnall. He also lost to Chisnall in the final of the next event, the seventh Players Championship, having beaten van Gerwen 6–2 in the semi-finals. He picked up another appearance in a final at the tenth event but lost 6–3 to Raymond van Barneveld. At the World Grand Prix he lost 2–0 in sets to Wes Newton in the first round, but after the event he moved into the world's top 16 for the first time. This earned him a spot in the first staging of the Masters, a tournament exclusively for the top 16 on the Order of Merit, where he was defeated 6–2 by Van Gerwen in the opening round.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright advanced to the third round of the 2014 World Championship, where he faced Michael Smith who had knocked out Phil Taylor in the previous round. Wright produced his then highest televised averaged of 105.07 but at one point was 3–2 behind, before winning six of the next seven legs to reach the quarter-finals of the event for the first time in his career. He trailed 2–0 early on against Wes Newton but rallied to level with the match eventually going into a deciding set. Wright missed four match darts at two legs to none up but eventually edged the contest with a 121 finish on the bull to face Simon Whitlock in the semi-finals. He outplayed Whitlock from the start and maintained his high level by averaging over 100 for the second time in the event and win 6–2. Wright lost 12 of the first 14 legs in the final against number two seed Michael van Gerwen, before winning two unanswered sets and then missed one dart to trail just 4–3. He went on to be 6–2 behind and again won two sets in a row, but missed two chances to extend the match into a 12th set as he was beaten 7–4. The runner-up's cheque of £100,000 was the highest of his career at that point and he rose to world number seven. He was named the Most Improved Player and PDPA Player of the Year at the PDC's Annual Awards in January.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright's exploits earned him a place in the Premier League for the first time and he started the campaign very strongly with victories over the likes of Taylor (7–4), Adrian Lewis (7–1) and Whitlock (7–3) to be top of the table between weeks four and six. Despite three defeats in a row in the middle of the season, Wright was in the play-off places until week 13 and he then battled to a 6–6 draw with Taylor to ensure he would have a chance of progressing in the final round of league matches. However, after other results had not gone his way he was guaranteed to finish fifth in the table before he had played and he ended the season with a 7–5 defeat against Van Gerwen. Wright won his third title carrying ranking points of his career at the ninth Players Championship by beating Justin Pipe 6–2. At the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters, Wright eliminated Taylor 10–5 and Dave Chisnall 11–8 to reach the final, where Van Gerwen was once again the victor as he defeated Wright 11–7. Wright played in his second World Cup of Darts this year and first with Robert Thornton and they progressed to the quarter-finals where they played Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan and Michael Mansell. Wright lost his singles match 4–2 to Dolan, but Thornton saw off Mansell to send the tie into a deciding doubles game which Scotland lost 4–1. At the European Darts Open, Wright averaged 111.29 whilst beating Michael Smith 6–1 in the second round and he went on to reach the final where he won his first European Tour title by defeating Simon Whitlock 6–2. He also advanced to the final of the last Players Championship of the year, but lost 6–5 to Gary Anderson.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright had a largely trouble free passage into the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Championship as he dropped just one set in his opening three games. However, he was second best against Gary Anderson in a 5–1 defeat. A 9–1 victory over Raymond van Barneveld at the UK Open marked Wright's first ever win over the Dutchman with Wright going on to meet Phil Taylor in the quarter-finals. Wright won 10–6 after producing a match defining run to go from 5–4 behind to 9–5 ahead and broke down in tears in the post match interview. He recomposed himself to thrash Stephen Bunting 10–0 with an average of 105.10, over 20 points higher than his opponent's. However, a victory over a fifth world champion in the tournament proved a step too far as he couldn't quite reach the same heights in the final against Michael van Gerwen in an 11–5 defeat. A week later, Wright lost 6–5 to James Wade in the final of the second Players Championship event. On his return to Scotland, Wright recovered from 5–1 down to steal a point against Stephen Bunting in the Premier League, stretching his run to five matches unbeaten. However, four of those games were draws and Wright went into the ninth week of fixtures needing a win over Adrian Lewis to avoid being relegated from the competition, but he was beaten 7–4. Wright threw the first nine-dart finish of his career during his run to the final of the seventh Players Championship and won the title by defeating Wade 6–5 with an average of 110.14. He also won the 12th event by overcoming Jelle Klaasen 6–1 in the final. Wright and Anderson beat the Dutch duo of Van Gerwen and Van Barneveld in a doubles match in the semi-finals of the World Cup to ensure Scotland would reach their first final in the event. They played England's Taylor and Lewis and it went to the final singles game in which the winner of Wright against Lewis would win the title, with Lewis triumphing 4–1. In the inaugural Japan Darts Masters, Wright advanced to the final by edging past Van Gerwen 8–7 with a 141 finish. He was 7–2 down to Taylor, but then produced three ton-plus finishes during a five leg burst to level the match. However, Taylor was first to a double in the deciding leg to inflict Wright's fourth defeat in a televised final.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright reset his highest televised average to 108.13 whilst eliminating Kim Huybrechts 10–5 in the opening round of the World Matchplay. A pair of straight forward wins over Andrew Gilding and Gerwyn Price saw him reach the semi-finals of the event for the first time, but he lost 17–12 to Van Gerwen. Terry Jenkins defeated Wright 6–4 in the final of the 15th Players Championship. He led Kim Huybrechts 5–2 in the final of the European Darts Grand Prix, before losing four successive legs to be defeated 6–5, missing one championship dart in the process. Wright won his third Players Championship title of the year by edging Benito van de Pas 6–5 with all 11 legs going with the throw. He lost each of the first five legs to Van Gerwen in the semi-finals of the European Championship, but then pulled it back to 8–7 behind. However, Wright missed two darts at a single number to set up a double to level and went on to lose 11–7. The pair would meet once more in the final of the first World Series of Darts Finals and this time Wright lost the game's opening four legs, before moving 5–4 up. At 10–9 ahead and one leg away from the title, Wright hit a 180 to leave 90 only for Van Gerwen to take out 129 on the bull and, after Wright was unable to checkout 121 in the final leg, Van Gerwen finished 50 to complete an 11 dart leg and deny Wright his first televised title.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright did not drop a set in reaching the third round of the 2016 World Championship and survived one match dart from Dave Chisnall to win 4–3. He missed one dart against Adrian Lewis to reduce his deficit to 4–3 in the quarter-finals and lost 5–2. Wright reached the final of the UK Open for the second year in a row and just like 12 months previously he faced Michael van Gerwen. He stayed with Van Gerwen early on by only trailing 5–3 and missed a dart for a nine-dart finish, but Wright would ultimately lose 11–4. A week later Wright won the first Players Championship of 2016 by recovering from 5–3 down to Lewis to triumph 6–5. At the end of March, Wright reached the final of the German Darts Masters losing 6–4 to Van Gerwen.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright missed out on a Premier League finals spot by two points. A subsequent fallout on social media between Wright's wife Jo, Adrian Lewis and members of the management team of Gary Anderson led Wright to withdraw from the Scottish World Cup of Darts team, for whom he had represented in the previous years final, and was replaced by Robert Thornton.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright returned to PDC major televised action by reaching the quarter-finals of the World Matchplay after impressive 10–5 and 11–6 wins over Joe Cullen and Ian White respectively, before losing narrowly 16–14 to Lewis. He was edged out 6–5 by Van Gerwen in the final of the European Darts Open and the pair met in a European Tour final for the third time this year at the European Darts Grand Prix, with the world number one triumphing once again this time 6–2. Wright lost 2–0 to Brendan Dolan in the first round of the World Grand Prix, but reached the semi-finals of the European Championship and was ousted 11–8 by Mensur Suljović.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: From 10–8 up in the semi-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals, Phil Taylor missed a total of seven match darts as Wright sneaked through to his seventh televised final and second in a row in this event 11–10. Once again Van Gerwen waited and Wright rallied from 10–6 to trail 10–9, but then missed five chances to level the game and was beaten 11–9. It was a similar story at the Grand Slam as Wright went 5–0 up on Taylor in the quarter-finals and knocked him out 16–10, missing a dart at double 12 for a nine darter along the way. In the semi-finals he lost to Van Gerwen for the 16th time in a row as the Dutchman averaged 111.17 to Wright's 102.13 in a 16–10 win. However, Wright, who so often changes his darts, stated that he had found a set he would be finally be staying with. Another semi-final exit followed at the Players Championship Finals as Dave Chisnall beat him 11–8.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright averaged over 100 in each of his three matches at the 2017 World Championship leading up to a quarter-final meeting with James Wade in which he averaged even higher at 104.79. He closed out the match with a 134 finish to win 5–3 and move on to a semi-final against Gary Anderson. Wright battled to 3–3 having trailed 3–1, but lost nine of the final ten legs to be defeated 6–3. His current world ranking of three is the highest he has ever been. Wright won the first UK Open Qualifier of the year by beating Adrian Lewis 6–4 in the final and took the third event with a 6–5 win over Michael Smith in the final.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: He made it three wins out of six events by defeating James Wade 6–3 in the final of the last qualifier to top the UK Open rankings.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright produced the second highest televised three-dart average of all-time of 119.50 in a 7–2 victory over Lewis in the fifth week of the Premier League. At the end of the same week he played in the UK Open, where he was the bookmakers' pre-tournament favourite due to his strong form and the absence of an injured van Gerwen. He defeated James Richardson, Dave Chisnall, and Rob Cross in the first two days of the tournament. From the quarter-final stage he beat Raymond van Barneveld 10–8 (with an average of 110.88) and Daryl Gurney 11–5 to play in the final of the event for the third year in a row. Wright raced into a 7–2 lead over Gerwyn Price and held on to claim his first major title with an 11–6 win. Wright won the German Darts Championship by overcoming Van Gerwen 6–3 in the final. It was his first victory over the world number one in a final after Wright had lost 10 in a row. He also added the German Darts Open to his growing collection of tournament wins after edging out Benito van de Pas 6–5 in the final by taking out a 121 finish with his opponent waiting on seven. He quickly made it a hat-trick of European Tour tournament wins this year when he whitewashed Van Gerwen 6–0 in the final of the European Darts Grand Prix.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright came close to topping the Premier League table as he finished a point behind Van Gerwen. Nevertheless, he qualified for the play-offs for the first time and was 4–0 ahead of Taylor in the semi-finals. Wright still had to rely on Taylor missing darts at doubles including one to win the match and edged through 10–9. He also had a fast start in the final to be 7–2 up on Van Gerwen, before being pegged back to 8–8. At 10–9 Wright was one leg away from winning. He left 32 after nine darts, before missing six darts for the title. Wright still had the throw in the next leg, but Van Gerwen had a 12-dart leg to break and win 11–10. Despite this disappointment, two days later Wright won the 11th Players Championship by overcoming Daryl Gurney 6–3. Wright and Gary Anderson suffered a surprise first round 5–2 defeat to Singapore at the World Cup.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright reached the finals of the 2017 World Matchplay and the 2017 Grand Slam of Darts losing to Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen respectively. He won his first title on the World Series of Darts at the 2017 German Darts Masters, beating Taylor 11–4 in the final.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright had an early exit in the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship, losing to Jamie Lewis in the second round. He only finished 7th in the 2018 Premier League Darts, but turned his season round by reaching the final of the 2018 PDC World Cup of Darts, alongside Gary Anderson, losing to the Netherlands team.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright followed his World Cup final appearance with a semi-final place at the 2018 World Matchplay and a win at the 2018 Melbourne Darts Masters. He also reached the finals of the 2018 World Grand Prix and the 2018 Champions League of Darts, losing to Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson respectively.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright again exited the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship early, suffering a surprise 3–1 loss to Toni Alcinas in the second round. He finished the 2019 Premier League Darts season in 8th, only beating Raymond van Barneveld and contender Steve Lennon over the season. The Scotland team of Wright and Gary Anderson won the 2019 PDC World Cup of Darts, beating Ireland in the final. Wright subsequently won the 2019 German Darts Masters, beating Gabriel Clemens in the final.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright made the final of the 2019 Champions League of Darts, and at one point led the first-of-eleven match against Michael van Gerwen 10–7, but he missed three match darts and allowed Van Gerwen to win 11–10. Wright also made the final of the 2019 Grand Slam of Darts, losing 16–6 to reigning champion Gerwyn Price.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: At the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship Wright survived a match dart at bullseye to win a sudden-death leg against Noel Malicdem in the second round, before beating Seigo Asada and Jeffrey de Zwaan to reach the quarter-finals, where he triumphed 5–3 over Luke Humphries to reach the semi-final for the first time since the 2017 tournament. In a bad-tempered affair, Wright defeated Gerwyn Price 6–3 in the semi-final and defeated Michael van Gerwen 7–3 in the final to become the 2020 World Darts Champion. On 2 February Peter Wright beat Michael Smith 11–10 to win his first Masters title. In November, Wright won his 4th major by beating James Wade 11–4 in the final of the European Championship. Wright had a poor showing at the Grand Slam, failing to progress from the group stage after a 2–5 loss to Devon Petersen in his final match, later stating "When I lost to Devon I could have walked away from the sport quite easily." Wright had better luck the following week with a run to the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals making him just the third player in history (after Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor) to exceed £1,000,000 on the PDC Order of Merit.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright kicked off the defence of his world title by beating Steve West in his opening match of the 2021 PDC World Darts Championship, dressed in a Grinch costume. His reign as world champion came to an end in the third round, when he was defeated 4–3 by Gabriel Clemens.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: In July, Wright won the World Matchplay title for the first time with a dominance performance whereby he won all five of his matches by a minimum of six legs and averaged over 100 throughout. He defeated Danny Noppert, Joe Cullen, Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen and finally defending champion Dimitri van den Bergh. He followed this up with a second world cup win for Scotland, this time partnering John Henderson. A dry period including a first round loss to Rob Cross at the Grand Prix ended with a third Grand Slam of Darts final, beating Jose de Sousa, Fallon Sherrock and Michael Smith in the knockout rounds (the latter being a 16–12 win from 8–12 behind) before once again losing to Gerwyn Price. The following week, Wright won his first Players Championship Finals title, following comfortable wins over van Gerwen and Jonny Clayton with a deciding leg victory over Ryan Searle in the final. This completed Wright's set of reaching the final of every active PDC major and was his fifth win in two years.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright started his 2022 PDC World Darts Championship campaign with a convincing 3–0 win against Ryan Meikle, before fighting back from 2–0 down to defeat Damon Heta 4–2 in the third round. He next beat Ryan Searle 4–1, before coming back from 4–3 down to beat Callan Rydz in extra legs to make the semi-final. There he beat Gary Anderson 6–4 to reach the final for the third time in his career. Wright defeated Michael Smith 7–5 in the final to win his second world title. On the 7th of March, Wright became the PDC world number 1 for the first time, becoming the 11th player to do so and the oldest ever first time world number 1 at 51 years old. On 13 November, Peter's wife, Joanne, was rushed to hospital, following complications from surgery to remove her gallbladder and a hysterectomy.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Following the conclusion of the Grand Slam of Darts tournament, Wright withdrew from the Players Championship Finals, in order to be with his wife.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright announced that Jo was left in severe pain, suffered a collapsed lung, which was apparently caused by a slit in the bile duct, which was causing fluid to leak, and her health deteriorated, following the surgery.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: However, less than 2 days later, Wright announced on his Twitter page, that she had been taken into hospital again, and were awaiting to be admitted to a ward.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright has become known for his colourful Mohican hairstyle and extravagant clothing which change between every round of his tournaments. His hair takes two hours to complete and is done by his hairdresser wife Joanne and inspired by their daughter. He usually has a snake painted on to the side of his head which many believed was reference to his favourite drink, the snakebite, which is also Wright's nickname. However, he is actually called Snakebite due to his love of snakes, stating in an interview after his first World Championship win, "I just like snakes. I'm a bit like a snake – I'm a quiet person who likes to be left alone. If you keep poking me, I'll bite you," he said.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright equates his look to applying war paint before going into battle, as he is naturally shy away from the oche. In the past he has used specially designed darts which changed colour depending on the light. Wright is known to regularly try different sets of darts as he tweaks the weight, flights and stems. He did so between every round when he reached the 2014 World Championship final.


title: Peter Wright (darts player)

text: Wright performs a sidestep dance across the whole stage to Pitbull's "Don't Stop the Party" at the beginning of his matches. He regularly pauses on the third dart of leg winning doubles and moves away from the oche to encourage the crowd to make more noise upon his return. In a Premier League match he bent his knees to lower his height by about a foot to throw an exhibition dart. Such acts of showmanship have created negative reactions among his fellow professionals with world champions Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen calling it disrespectful. Wright has stated that his job is to entertain spectators and would continue playing in the same manner.


title: James Brooke

text: Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke was born and raised during the Company Raj of the British East India Company in India. After a few years of education in England, he served in the Bengal Army, was wounded, and resigned his commission. He then bought a ship and sailed out to the Malay Archipelago where, by helping to crush a rebellion, he became governor of Sarawak. He then vigorously suppressed piracy in the region and, in the ensuing turmoil, restored the Sultan of Brunei to his throne, for which the Sultan made Brooke the Rajah of Sarawak. He ruled until his death.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke was not without detractors and was criticised in the British Parliament and officially investigated in Singapore for his anti-piracy measures. He was, however, honoured and feted in London for his activities in Southeast Asia. The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was one of many visitors whose published work spoke of his hospitality and achievements.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke was born in Bandel, near Calcutta, Bengal, but baptised in Secrole, a suburb of Benares. His father, Thomas Brooke, was an English Judge in the Court of Appeal at Bareilly, British India; his mother, Anna Maria, born in Hertfordshire, was the daughter of Scottish peer Colonel William Stuart, 9th Lord Blantyre, and his mistress Harriott Teasdale. Brooke stayed at home in India until he was sent, aged 12, to England for a brief education at Norwich School from which he ran away. Some home tutoring followed in Bath before he returned to India in 1819 as an ensign in the Bengal Army of the British East India Company. He saw action in Assam during the First Anglo-Burmese War until seriously wounded in 1825, and was sent to England for recovery. In 1830, he arrived back in Madras but was too late to rejoin his unit, and resigned his commission. He remained on the ship he had travelled out in, the "Castle Huntley", and returned home via China.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke attempted to trade in the Far East, but was not successful. In 1835 he inherited £30,000 (£3M or US$3.7M in 2022 currency), which he used as capital to purchase a 142-ton schooner, "Royalist".


title: James Brooke

text: Setting sail for Borneo in 1838, he arrived in Kuching in August to find the settlement facing an uprising against the Sultan of Brunei. Greatly impressed with the Malay Archipelago, in Sarawak he met the sultan's uncle, Pangeran Muda Hashim, to whom he gave assistance in crushing the rebellion, thereby winning the gratitude of the Omar Ali Saifuddin II, the 23rd Sultan of Brunei, who in 1841 offered Brooke the governorship of Sarawak in return for his help.


title: James Brooke

text: Rajah Brooke was highly successful in suppressing the widespread piracy of the region. However, some Malay nobles in Brunei, unhappy over Brooke's measures against piracy, arranged for the murder of Muda Hashim and his followers. Brooke, with assistance from a unit of Britain's China Squadron, took over Brunei and restored its sultan to the throne.


title: James Brooke

text: In 1842, the Sultan ceded complete sovereignty of Sarawak to Brooke. He was granted the title of Rajah of Sarawak on 24 September 1841, although the official declaration was not made until 18 August 1842. Brooke's cousin Arthur Chichester Crookshank (1825–1891) joined his service on 1 March 1843 and was appointed a magistrate.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke began 1844 in anti-pirate operations with ships of the Royal Navy and the East India Company off NE Sumatra: on 12 February, he received a gunshot wound to his right arm and a spear cut to his eyebrow in their second engagement, at Murdu. Later in 1844 Brooke presented the island of Labuan to the British government. He was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Labuan in 1848.


title: James Brooke

text: During his reign, Brooke began to establish and cement his rule over Sarawak: reforming the administration, codifying laws and fighting piracy, which proved to be an ongoing issue throughout his rule. Brooke returned temporarily to England in 1847, where he was given the Freedom of the City of London, appointed British consul-general in Borneo and created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke pacified the native peoples, including the Dayaks, and suppressed headhunting and piracy. He had many Dayaks in his forces and said that only Dayaks can kill Dayaks.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke became the centre of controversy in 1851 when accusations against him of excessive use of force against the native people, under the guise of anti-piracy operations, ultimately led to the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry in Singapore in 1854. After investigation, the Commission dismissed the charges but the accusations continued to haunt him.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke wrote to Alfred Russel Wallace on leaving England in April 1853, "to assure Wallace that he would be very glad to see him at Sarawak." This was an invitation that helped Wallace decide on the Malay Archipelago for his next expedition, an expedition that lasted for eight years and established him as one of the foremost Victorian intellectuals and naturalists of the time. When Wallace arrived in Singapore in September 1854, he found Rajah Brooke "reluctantly preparing to give evidence to the special commission set up to investigate his controversial anti-piracy activities."


title: James Brooke

text: During his rule, Brooke suppressed an uprising by Liu Shan Bang in 1857 and faced threats from Sarawak warriors like Sharif Masahor and Rentap and managed to suppress them.


title: James Brooke

text: James Brooke was 'a great admirer' of the novels of Jane Austen, and would 'read them and re-read them', including aloud to his companions in Sarawak.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke was influenced by the success of previous British adventurers and the exploits of the British East India Company. His actions in Sarawak were directed at expanding the British Empire and the benefits of its rule, assisting the local people by fighting piracy and slavery, and securing his own personal wealth to further these activities. His own abilities, and those of his successors, provided Sarawak with excellent leadership and wealth generation during difficult times, and resulted in both fame and notoriety in some circles. His appointment as Rajah by the Sultan, and his subsequent knighthood, are evidence that his efforts were widely applauded in both Sarawak and British society.


title: James Brooke

text: Among his alleged relationships was one with Badruddin, a Sarawak prince, of whom he wrote, "my love for him was deeper than anyone I knew." This phrase led to some considering him to be either homosexual or bisexual. Later, in 1848, Brooke is alleged to have formed a relationship with 16‑year‑old Charles T. C. Grant, grandson of the seventh Earl of Elgin, who supposedly 'reciprocated'. Whether this relationship was purely a friendship or otherwise has not been fully revealed. One of Brooke's recent biographers wrote that during Brooke's final years in Burrator in Devon "there is little doubt ... he was carnally involved with the rough trade of Totnes." However, Barley does not note from where he garnered this opinion. Others have suggested Brooke was instead "homo-social" and simply preferred the social company of other men, disagreeing with assertions he was a homosexual.


title: James Brooke

text: Although Brooke died unmarried, he did acknowledge a son to his family in 1858. Neither the identity of the son's mother nor his birth date is clear. This son was brought up as Reuben George Walker in the Brighton household of Frances Walker (1841 and 1851 census, apparently born ca. 1836). By 1858 he was aware of his Brooke connection and by 1871 he is on the census at the parish of Plumtree, Nottinghamshire as "George Brooke", age "40", birthplace "Sarawak, Borneo". He married Martha Elizabeth Mowbray on 10 July 1862, and had seven children, three of whom survived infancy; the oldest was called James. George died travelling to Australia, in the wreck of the SS "British Admiral" on 23 May 1874. A memorial to this effect – giving a birthdate of 1834 – is in the churchyard at Plumtree.


title: James Brooke

text: It has also been mentioned by Francis William Douglas (1874–1953), the Acting Resident for Brunei and Labuan from November 1913 to January 1915 in his letter to the Foreign Office on 19 July 1915 that he heard from the Bruneian woman Pengiran Anak Hashima that Brooke was married, by Muslim rites, to her aunt Pengiran Anak Fatima, the daughter of Pengiran Anak Abdul Kadir and also the granddaughter of Sultan Muhammad Kanzul Alam, the 21st Sultan of Brunei. This marriage would not be valid in Europe. They had a daughter, who was interviewed by the then British Consul in 1864. Douglas also mentioned about this daughter on the same letter after he met a physician Dr Ogilvie quite recently who told him that he had met Brooke's already married Bruneian daughter in 1866.


title: James Brooke

text: Having no legitimate children, in 1861 he formally named Captain John Brooke Johnson Brooke, his sister's eldest son, as his successor. Two years later, the Rajah reacted to criticism by returning to the east: after a brief meeting in Singapore, John was deposed and banished from Sarawak. James increased the charges to treasonous conduct and later named John's younger brother, Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, as his successor.


title: James Brooke

text: Having suffered three strokes over the last ten years, Brooke died in Burrator, Dartmoor, Devonshire in England on 11 June 1868 and was buried at the graveyard of St Leonard's Church in Sheepstor.


title: James Brooke

text: Fictionalised accounts of Brooke's exploits in Sarawak include "Kalimantaan" by C. S. Godshalk and "The White Rajah" by Nicholas Monsarrat. Another book, also called "The White Rajah", by Tom Williams, was published by JMS Books in 2010. Brooke is also featured in "Flashman's Lady", the 6th book in George MacDonald Fraser's meticulously researched "The Flashman Papers" novels; and in "Sandokan: The Pirates of Malaysia" ("I pirati della Malesia"), the second novel in Emilio Salgari's Sandokan series.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke was also a model for the hero of Joseph Conrad's novel "Lord Jim", and he is briefly mentioned in Kipling's short story "The Man Who Would Be King".


title: James Brooke

text: In 1936, Errol Flynn intended to star in a film of Brooke's life called "The White Rajah" for Warner Bros., based on a script by Flynn himself. However, although the project was announced for filming, it was never made.


title: James Brooke

text: In September 2016, a film based on Brooke's life was to be made in Sarawak with the support of Abang Abdul Rahman Johari of the Government of Sarawak, with writer Rob Allyn and Sergei Bodrov as its director. The Brooke Heritage Trust, a non-profit organisation, was to serve as the film's technical advisors, with one of them being Jason Brooke, the current heir of the Brooke family. The film, titled "Edge of the World", was released in 2021.


title: James Brooke

text: In 1857, the native village of Newash in Grey County, Ontario, Canada, was renamed Brooke and the adjacent township was named Sarawak by William Coutts Keppel (known as Viscount Bury, later the 7th Earl of Albemarle) who was Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Canada. James Brooke was a close friend of Viscount Bury's uncle, Henry Keppel; they had met in 1843 while fighting pirates off the coast of Borneo. Townships to the northwest of Sarawak were named Keppel and Albemarle. In 2001, Sarawak and Keppel became part of the township of Georgian Bluffs; Albemarle joined the town of South Bruce Peninsula in 1999. Keppel-Sarawak School is located in Owen Sound, Ontario.


title: James Brooke

text: Brooke's Point, a major municipality on the island of Palawan, Philippines, is named after him. Both Brooke's Lighthouse and Brooke's Port, historical landmarks in Brooke's Point, are believed to have been constructed by Sir James Brooke. Today, owing to erosion and the constant movement of the tides, only a few stones can still be seen at the Port. The remnants of the original lighthouse tower are still visible, although the area is now occupied by a new lighthouse.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Pashmina (, ) refers to, depending on the source, a term for cashmere wool of the Changthangi cashmere goat, for fine Indian cashmere wool or a synonym for cashmere wool.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: The word "pashm" means "wool" in Persian, but in Kashmir, "pashm" referred to the raw unspun wool of domesticated Changthangi goats. In common parlance today, "pashmina" may refer either to the material or to the variant of the Kashmir shawl that is made from it. Both cashmere and pashmina come from the same goat but typical cashmere ranges from 12 to 21 microns in diameter, whereas "pashmina" can also refer to a cashmere and silk blend (70 % / 30 %) that has a typical fiber range from 12 to 16 microns.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Samples of wool fibres discovered from corroded copper artifacts from Harappa dating back to the Indus valley civilization are extremely fine and resemble Pashmina and Shatoosh. The material gained prominence through its use in the Kashmir shawl. In Mughal times, this was used as an indicator of rank and nobility. In 1526, Babur (1483–1530) founded the Mughal Empire in India, and established the practice of giving "khilat" (or "robes of honor", typically made of expensive fabric) to members of their "durbar" to indicate high service, great achievement, or royal favor. In his time, the Mughal "khilat" was a set of clothes, which could include a turban, long coat, gown, fitted jacket, sash, shawl, trousers, shirt, and scarf. One or all of these could be made of "pashmina" and embroidered in gold cloth. In 1568, Kashmir was conquered by Babur's grandson Akbar. In Akbar's time, a pair of "pashmina" shawls were an expected part of "khil'at" ceremonies. From the 16th to the early 20th centuries, the Safavid, Zand, and Qajar emperors of Iran also wore "pashmina" and gifted Kashmir shawls as "khilat" within their political and religious practices.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Pashmina blankets were also vital additions to a wealthy woman's dowry in India, Pakistan and Nepal. In nineteenth-century English writing, despite the fact that shawls were worn by men, Kashmiri shawls became coded as women's luxuries. They acquired the status of heirlooms, worn by a girl on her marriage and coming-of-age, and as heirlooms that women would inherit rather than purchase. Since English law restricted women's abilities to inherit land, the Kashmir shawl served as an item of high exchange value that a woman could carry. In France, the "pashmina" Kashmir shawl gained status as a fashion icon through Empress Joséphine's enthusiastic use. These shawls suited the French well, providing the needed warmth, while adding visual interest to white French gowns through the traditional teardrop "buta" pattern and discreet floral motifs. The shawl became a symbol of French bourgeois status from the Bourbon Restoration (1815–48) through the Second French Empire (1852–70). As a class marker, it fulfilled 19th century French tastes because it looked rich, had extensive ornamentation, artistic qualities, and was made of expensive raw materials.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Goats used for pashmina shed their winter coat every spring. One goat sheds approximately of the fibre. In the spring (the moulting season), the goats naturally shed their undercoat, which regrows in winter. This undercoat is collected by combing the goat, not by shearing, as in other fine wools. A traditional producer of pashmina wool in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas are a people known as the Changpa. These are a nomadic people and inhabit the Changthang plateau of Tibet, which has a minimum altitude of above sea level and a winter temperature which can drop to The Changpa rear sheep in these harsh climates for meat, and pashmina goats for wool.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Raw pashmina is exported to Kashmir. All steps, from combing (removing impurities and guard hair, and aligning fibers) and spinning, to weaving and finishing, are traditionally carried out by hand by specialized craftsmen and women. The major center of pashmina fabric production is in the old district of the city of Srinagar. The approximate time put into producing a single traditional pashmina stole (70x200cm) is 180 hours.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: China accounts for 70% of the world's cashmere production, Mongolia 20%, and the remaining 10% of production is in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, the United States, the Central Asian republics and elsewhere. Only a small percentage of this production is the ultra-fine cashmere known as pashmina.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Pashmina accessories are known for their softness and warmth. They are available in a range of sizes, from "scarf" to "wrap" or "stole"


title: Pashmina (material)

text: to full-sized shawl and in rare cases, "macho" . Pure pashmina is a rather gauzy, open weave, as the fibre cannot tolerate high tension. The most popular pashmina fabric is a 70% pashmina/30% silk blend, but 50/50 is also common. The 70/30 is tightly woven, has an elegant sheen and drapes nicely but is still quite soft and light-weight.


title: Pashmina (material)

text: A craze for pashmina shawls, known as "shahmina" in Kashmir, in the mid-1990s resulted in high demand for the raw material, so demand exceeded supply. When these shawls rose into fashion prominence during the era, they were marketed dubiously. In the consumer markets, pashmina shawls have been redefined as a shawl/wrap with cashmere and cashmere/silk, notwithstanding the actual meaning of pashmina. Some shawls marketed as pashmina shawls contain (sheep) wool, while other unscrupulous companies marketed artificial fabrics such as viscose and others as "pashmina" with deceptive marketing statements such as "authentic viscose pashmina".


title: Pashmina (material)

text: The word "pashmina" is not a labelling term recognized by law in the United States where it is considered another term for cashmere. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission:


title: Pashmina (material)

text: Some manufacturers use the term pashmina to describe an ultra fine cashmere fiber; others use the term to describe a blend of cashmere and silk. The FTC encourages manufacturers and sellers of products described as pashmina to explain to consumers, on a hangtag, for example, what they mean by the term.As with all other wool products, the fiber content of a shawl, scarf or other item marketed as pashmina must be accurately disclosed. For example, a blend of cashmere and silk might be labeled 50% Cashmere, 50% Silk or 70% Cashmere, 30% Silk, depending upon the actual cashmere and silk content. If the item contains only cashmere, it should be labeled 100% Pashmina or All Cashmere by the Wool Act or regulations.Kashmir in 1977


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh () is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Perak. Located by the Kinta River, it is nearly north of Kuala Lumpur and southeast of George Town in neighbouring Penang. , Ipoh had a population of 657,892, making it the fourth largest city in Malaysia by population.


title: Ipoh

text: Originally a village, Ipoh began to grow rapidly in the 1880s after huge deposits of tin were discovered within its vicinity. By 1895, it was the second largest town within the Federated Malay States, which also consisted of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. Ipoh was declared a city in 1988. However, following the depletion of its tin deposits and the collapse of tin prices in the 1970s, the city suffered decades of decline and neglect.


title: Ipoh

text: In recent years, Ipoh's popularity as an international tourist destination has been significantly boosted by efforts to conserve its British colonial-era architecture. The city is also well known for its cuisine and natural attractions, such as its limestone hills and caves within which Buddhist temples were built. In addition, Ipoh has managed to maintain its reputation as one of the cleanest cities in Malaysia and Asia in general.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh's location between Kuala Lumpur and George Town has made it a major land transportation hub within West Malaysia, with both the Malayan Railway's West Coast Line and the North-South Expressway cutting through the city. Aside from the land transportation links, Ipoh is also served by the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport.


title: Ipoh

text: The name Ipoh is derived from a local tree, "pohon epu", now more commonly known as "pokok ipoh". The sap of this plant is poisonous and was used by local indigenous people mixed with Strychnos latex to coat the tips of their blowpipe darts for hunting.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh grew out from the Malay village of Paloh along the banks of the Kinta River in the 1880s. Its geographic location in the rich tin-bearing valley of the Kinta River made it a natural centre of growth.


title: Ipoh

text: The Great Fire of Ipoh in 1892 destroyed over half the town, but also presented an opportunity to rebuild the town in a more orderly grid pattern. Ipoh was subsequently rebuilt in time for the second tin rush and grew rapidly as a result of the booming tin mining industry, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s.


title: Ipoh

text: A local Hakka miner, millionaire Yau Tet Shin, started developing a large tract of the town in the early 1930s, today known as the "New Town", from the eastern bank of the Kinta River to Greentown. In 1937, Ipoh was made the capital of Perak, replacing Taiping.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh was invaded by the Japanese on 15 December 1941. In March 1942, the Japanese Civil Administration or Perak Shu Seicho was set up at St. Michael's Institution. After the liberation of Malaya by British forces, Ipoh remained the capital of Perak as it does to this day.


title: Ipoh

text: The decline of the tin mining industry during the latter half of the 20th century caused the growth of Ipoh to stagnate. With the closure of the tin mines, its urban population was forced to seek employment in other cities within Malaysia. In spite of this, Ipoh remains one of the largest cities in Malaysia in terms of population, with tourism now a main driver of the city's economy.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh gained Municipal status in 1962, and in 1988 it was declared a city by the then Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh is in the state of Perak, which is in the central part of Peninsular Malaysia. The city is in the middle of the Kinta Valley, on the bank of the Kinta River and the confluence of the smaller rivers Sungai Pinji and Sungai Pari. The city is surrounded by limestone hills, which can be found around suburban areas to the northeast, east and southeast.


title: Ipoh

text: The Kledang mountain range stretches from the north to the west of the city. This range runs parallel to the Bintang mountain range with the Perak River running on its left bank and the Kinta River to its right. This range is interrupted to the north of Ipoh by a tributary of the Perak River called the Pelus River, which is sourced from the Titiwangsa mountain range, which runs to the east of Ipoh.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh has a tropical rainforest climate. Ipoh is more subject to the Intertropical Convergence Zone than the trade winds and very rarely has cyclones, therefore it can be described as having an equatorial climate. The city's temperature shows little variation throughout the year, the average temperature being . Ipoh sees high precipitation throughout the year with an average of of rain each month and averaging of rain per year. The wettest month is October when on average of rain falls. Ipoh's driest month is January which has of rainfall on average.


title: Ipoh

text: Limestone outcrops rise on the outskirts of Ipoh. There are many caves in these outcrops, some of which have cave temples built in them. The Sam Poh Tong Temple is a notable example, along with Kek Lok Tong ; Cavern of Utmost Happiness), which lies on the other side of the same outcrop. It is accessible through the Gunung Rapat housing area. Other cave temples in Ipoh include Ling Sen Tong, Nan Tian Tong, Kwan Yin Tong and Perak Tong.


title: Ipoh

text: Gua Tempurung, near Gopeng, south of Ipoh, is a show cave open to the public and popular among spelunkers. More than long, it is one of the longest caves in Peninsular Malaysia. Part of it has been developed with electric lighting and walkways, and there are tours of varying lengths and difficulty. A river passage runs about through the hill. There are five large chambers, and stalactites and stalagmites.


title: Ipoh

text: In its early history, Ipoh as a settlement was built around its mining industry, although inferior to that of Gopeng, some to the south. Ipoh was once one of the richest cities in Malaysia and South East Asia in the days when tin was its major product. During the 1980s, when tin prices collapsed, the economy of Ipoh was affected significantly. However, recently the city has experienced economic growth. The city of Ipoh also hosts some large multinational corporations. Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, a palm oil company among the top 15 biggest companies in Malaysia by revenue, has its headquarters in Ipoh. Batu Kawan Berhad, an investment company which is the biggest shareholder in Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, also has its headquarters in Malaysia. Ipoh houses the headquarters of Hovid Berhad, a pharmaceutical company which claims to be the first Malaysian company to introduce Malaysian generic drugs overseas. Old Town Berhad, which is a food and beverage public listed company specializing in white coffee, has its headquarters in Ipoh. There are other public listed companies in Ipoh such as Perak Transit Berhad, Tasek Cement Berhad, DKLS Industries Berhad, Wellcall Holding Berhad, Rubberex Berhad, and Perak Corp. Ipoh also hosts the Malaysian headquarters for some foreign multinational companies, including Finisar, Voith, ITL Asia Pacific and Sagami Manufacturers.


title: Ipoh

text: The Ipoh City Council governs the city. Datuk Rumaizi Baharin, appointed in April 2020, is the current mayor of Ipoh.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh is divided into two parliamentary constituencies: "Ipoh Barat" (Ipoh West) and "Ipoh Timur" (Ipoh East). The parliamentary seat for "Ipoh Barat" is held by Democratic Action Party (DAP) Representative M. Kulasegaran. The seat for "Ipoh Timur" is held by fellow DAP leader Su Keong Siong.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh remains one of Malaysia's largest cities. As of 2010, the municipal area of Ipoh has a population of 657,892. It ranks as the seventh most populous urban centre in Malaysia (2010).


title: Ipoh

text: The Old Town lies to the west of the Kinta River. It has a commercial district with many historical "shop-houses" centred around Leech Street; now Jalan Bandar Timah). Other notable features include:


title: Ipoh

text: The so-called New Town, to the east of the Kinta River, was developed by Yau Tet Shin around 1908. The New Town houses the Perak Medical University, Bangunan Sri Kinta, Ipoh Parade, Ipoh City Hall building. There are numerous shops, shopping malls, and hotels.


title: Ipoh

text: D. R. Seenivasagam Park (Coronation Park), located in the heart of Ipoh's New Town, is known for its scenery and recreational facilities. It comprises recreational fields, an artificial lake filled with fish, a nursery for potted plants and a children's traffic playground. The latest addition is the newly landscaped Japanese garden featuring a Japanese carp pond.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh has a significant food scene with many hawker centres and restaurants. It has dishes derived from Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisine. Ipoh is well known for its Kacang Putih. Various company located at Buntong manufacture Kacang Putih and export it to all part of Malaysia and Foreign countries.


title: Ipoh

text: "Sar Hor Fun" , a complete one-dish rice noodle meal with prawn, meat, fish, vegetables and a savoury sauce. Other well-known dishes from Ipoh include "Hor Hee" , flat white rice noodles served with fish cakes and/or fish balls; "Nga Choi Kai" , chicken with soy sauce and beansprouts topped with pepper; "Kai Shi Hor Fun" , rice noodles with chicken; "Hakka Mee" , yellow rice noodles served with mincemeat (pork) sauce; "Tau Fu Fa", soybean pudding; and Ipoh's well-known pastry "Heong Peng" , literally translated to "fragrant biscuit". The city is known in Malaysia for its Ipoh white coffee, in which the coffee beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine and the resulting coffee is served with condensed milk. Ipoh is also known for its fresh fruits such as pomelo, durian and seedless guava. Ipoh is the home of Ipoh nasi kandar or "Nasi Vanggey".


title: Ipoh

text: In recent years, Ipoh has seen an increase in international restaurants, bars and gastropubs which have become popular with locals and tourists.


title: Ipoh

text: There are several theme parks in Ipoh, including the Sunway Lost World of Tambun and Movies Animated Park Studios (MAPS) temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Ipoh

text: Ipoh has a sports complex known as Kompleks Sukan MBI or MBI Sports Complex. Among the facilities located within the complex is the Perak Stadium (), the home of Perak Football Association who play in the Malaysia Super League.


title: Ipoh

text: Golf courses in Ipoh include the Royal Perak Golf Club off Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (Tiger Lane), the Meru Golf Club in Jelapang, and Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Club en route to Batu Gajah.


title: Ipoh

text: Other sports venues include the Kilat Club in Pasir Pinji, Ipoh Field ("Padang Ipoh") in the Old Town, the Polo Grounds, and the Iskandar Polo Club in Ampang Baru.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: Kotigobba 3 is a 2021 Indian Kannada-language action thriller film directed by Shiva Karthik. The film features Sudeepa and Madonna Sebastian marking the latter's debut in Kannada cinema, in lead roles with Nawab Shah as the main antagonist along with Shraddha Das, Aftab Shivdasani and P. Ravi Shankar in prominent roles. It is a standalone sequel to the 2016 film "Kotigobba 2", with Sudeepa and Ravi Shankar reprising their roles from the previous film.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: The film was released in theatres on October 15, 2021 and became a commercial success at the box office.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: The plot follows the events after "Kotigobba 2". Satya/Shiva helps the cops bust some criminals where he steals their accounted black money and also runs an orphanage for the downtrodden people. A girl named Jaanu in his orphanage suffers from Brugada Syndrome, so they head to Warsaw for treatment. Satya meets Dr.Priya and through Jaanu, they become friends. In Warsaw, Devendra is a chairman of paramedics research and crime boss who wants to spread a virus and provide a cure to it at a high price to obtain profits. He had bought a "Crown Jewel" which is kept in the Aircraft Museum and would be delivered to him in a week.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: After consulting the doctor and scheduling a date for the operation, Satya and Jaanu visit the aircraft museum. After they are done visiting, A masked man "Ghost" carries out heist of the "Crown Jewel". The Chase occurs between Interpol officers and "Ghost" where the former escapes. Satya and Jaanu fly back to Bengaluru. Interpol Officers Sharath and Kangana began their investigation, they check the CCTV footage and the photo of the masked man Ghost is a doppelganger of Satya, and he is seen reciting a Sanskrit mantra during the heists and explosions were in a bid to distract Interpol. They head to Bangalore to investigate.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: Ex-ACP Kishore reveals about his and Satya's past. Devendra learns about Satya and assigns his top assassin Michael to finish him and bring the Jewel back, but Satya kills the henchman and Michael. Sharath and Kangana arrive and arrest Satya. They interrogate him where he fakingly accepts the blame and also lies that Kishore was the one who planned it. Priya is heartbroken to know about Satya's scams, where she takes Jaanu along with her to Poland for treatment. Sharath and his team take Satya and Kishore to Poland where they are taken to the prison from the airport.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: However, they escape and reach the hospital where Jaanu was admitted. Anantha Krishna, a surgeon tries to inject chloroform into Satya, but Satya injects him back and convinces Priya and Kishore about his innocence and also reveals Anantha Krishna's involvement in Ghost's criminal activities. He also brings the doctor's phone which receive a message from Ghost telling him to meet him at the pub. They reach the pub where they realize the errors. The Interpol arrives to arrest them, but Ghost distracts them and takes the gang to his hideout where they meet Dr.Anantha Krishna and Ghost. Dr.Anantha Krishna reveals that Ghost is actually Shiva and he is Satya's twin brother and Anantha Krishna is their uncle.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: Past: Shiva and Satya's mother Durga, who is the Commissioned Health Department officer (H.D.O), learns and objects Devendra's methods of spreading the virus and inventing medicines to cure them for profits. Durga is the one who taught the mantra to her children (which was used by Ghost/Shiva before). When both of them are born, Satya is healthy, but Shiva is wounded due to nerve damages, since he defended Satya in the womb from Devendra.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: Their father Prakash, who is abroad on a business trip arrives to take them. However, Anantha Krishna only gives Satya and he takes Shiva to an ashram and was cured, then Anantha Krishna took him to Poland for higher studies. After that when Shiva learns of the incident and decide to avenge their mother's death and also learn about Satya. He operated a plan to bring him to Poland to divulge the truth.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: Present: Devendra's son Jeet kidnaps Jaanu from the hospital, but Shiva planted a tracker in Jaanu's hospital bed. Satya saves Jaanu and destroys the oxygen tank in the ambulance, causing the ambulance to explode, killing Jeet. Shiva a.k.a Ghost are taken by the Interpol. However, they are kidnapped by Devendra's henchmen. Shiva reveals himself to Devendra and kills him and his associates where he pins the murders on Kishore, who gets arrested.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: The Interpol officers release Sathya as he is proved innocent and tells the media they are in search of Ghost. Shiva sold the "Crown Jewel" and used the money by selling it for the uncured patients, who were affected by Devendra's medicine. Satya and Jaanu return to the orphanage. Sharath and Kangana accept the fact that Shiva a.k.a Ghost is not a demon, but a saviour who killed the hidden demon for a definite purpose. Later, Shiva/Ghost resumes his vigilante activities in a far-off place.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: Filming for "Kotigobba 3" began in June 2018 in Belgrade. Lead actor Sudeepa rejoined the production in March 2019, after finishing his filming commitments for "Pailwaan". The female lead is Madonna Sebastian, marking her debut in Kannada cinema."Kotigobba 3" continued to have a start-stop filming schedule due to Sudeepa's other acting commitments such as the Telugu film "Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy", as well as his injury on the film's sets in Hyderabad in August 2019. Parts of the film were shot in other countries including Serbia, Malaysia, Thailand and Poland. The filming was completed in January 2020, after which shooting of song sequences was scheduled in Puducherry, Mumbai and Bangalore.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: The teaser trailer for the film was removed from YouTube in March 2020 because of a copyright infringement claim, and restored a few days later after recording company Anand Audio filed a return complaint. The film's 30 April 2020 release date was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on 14 October 2021 alongside dubbed versions in Telugu and Hindi with the former version titled "Kotikkadu 3". The release of the film was delayed for a day, to 15 October 2021, due to a tiff between the producers and financiers.


title: Kotigobba 3

text: The first track of the film, "Akashane Adarisuva", was released on 27 April 2020 and received more than one million views on YouTube within the first 3 hours 20 minutes.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, and was president of the American Philosophical Association. He is best known for his books "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" (1974), a libertarian answer to John Rawls' "A Theory of Justice" (1971), in which Nozick also presented his own theory of utopia as one in which people can freely choose the rules of the society they enter into, and "Philosophical Explanations" (1981), which included his counterfactual theory of knowledge. His other work involved ethics, decision theory, philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology. His final work before his death, "Invariances" (2001), introduced his theory of evolutionary cosmology, by which he argues invariances, and hence objectivity itself, emerged through evolution across possible worlds.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Nozick was born in Brooklyn to a family of Jewish descent. His mother was born Sophie Cohen, and his father was a Jew from a Russian shtetl who had been born with the name Cohen and who ran a small business.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Nozick attended the public schools in Brooklyn. He was then educated at Columbia University (A.B. 1959, "summa cum laude"), where he studied with Sidney Morgenbesser; Princeton University (PhD 1963) under Carl Hempel; and at Oxford University as a Fulbright Scholar (1963–1964). At one point, he joined the YPSL. In addition, at Columbia he founded the local chapter of the Student League for Industrial Democracy which in 1960 changed its name to Students for a Democratic Society.


title: Robert Nozick

text: After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1959, he married Barbara Fierer. They had two children, Emily and David. The Nozicks eventually divorced; Nozick later married the poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg. Nozick died in 2002 after a prolonged struggle with stomach cancer. He was interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


title: Robert Nozick

text: For "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" (1974) Nozick received a National Book Award in the category Philosophy and Religion.


title: Robert Nozick

text: There, Nozick argues that only a minimal state limited to the narrow functions of protection against "force, fraud, theft, and administering courts of law" could be justified, as any more extensive state would violate people's rights. For Nozick, a distribution of goods is just if brought about by free exchange among consenting adults from a "just" starting position, even if large inequalities subsequently emerge from the process.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Nozick challenged the partial conclusion of John Rawls's Second Principle of Justice of his "A Theory of Justice", that "social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are to be of greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society." "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" claims a heritage from John Locke's "Second Treatise on Government" and seeks to ground itself upon a natural law doctrine, but reaches some importantly different conclusions from Locke himself in several ways. Nozick appealed also to the Kantian idea that people should be treated as end in themselves (what he termed 'separatedness of persons'), not merely as a means to an end.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Most controversially, and unlike Locke and Kant, Nozick argued that consistent application of self-ownership and non-aggression principle would allow and regard as valid consensual or non-coercive enslavement contracts between adults. He rejected the notion of inalienable rights advanced by Locke and most contemporary capitalist-oriented libertarian academics, writing in "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" that the typical notion of a "free system" would allow adults to voluntarily enter into non-coercive slave contracts.


title: Robert Nozick

text: In "Philosophical Explanations" (1981), which received the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Nozick provided novel accounts of knowledge, free will, personal identity, the nature of value, and the meaning of life. He also put forward an epistemological system which attempted to deal with both the Gettier problem and those posed by skepticism. This highly influential argument eschewed justification as a necessary requirement for knowledge.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Nozick's third and fourth conditions are counterfactuals. He called this the "tracking theory" of knowledge. Nozick believed the counterfactual conditionals bring out an important aspect of our intuitive grasp of knowledge: For any given fact, the believer's method must reliably track the truth despite varying relevant conditions. In this way, Nozick's theory is similar to reliabilism. Due to certain counterexamples that could otherwise be raised against these counterfactual conditions, Nozick specified that:


title: Robert Nozick

text: A major criticism of Nozick's theory of knowledge is his rejection of the principle of deductive closure. This principle states that if S knows X and S knows that X implies Y, then S knows Y. Nozick's truth tracking conditions do not allow for the principle of deductive closure. Nozick believes that the truth tracking conditions are more fundamental to human intuition than the principle of deductive closure.


title: Robert Nozick

text: "The Examined Life" (1989), pitched to a broader public, explores love, death, faith, reality, and the meaning of life. According to Stephen Metcalf, Nozick expresses serious misgivings about capitalist libertarianism, going so far as to reject much of the foundations of the theory on the grounds that personal freedom can sometimes only be fully actualized via a collectivist politics and that wealth is at times justly redistributed via taxation to protect the freedom of the many from the potential tyranny of an overly selfish and powerful few. Nozick suggests that citizens who are opposed to wealth redistribution which fund programs they object to, should be able to opt out by supporting alternative government approved charities with an added 5% surcharge.


title: Robert Nozick

text: However, Jeff Riggenbach has noted that in an interview conducted in July 2001, he stated that he had never stopped self-identifying as a libertarian. Roderick Long reported that in his last book, "Invariances", "[Nozick] identified voluntary cooperation as the 'core principle' of ethics, maintaining that the duty not to interfere with another person's 'domain of choice' is '[a]ll that any society should (coercively) demand'; higher levels of ethics, involving positive benevolence, represent instead a 'personal ideal' that should be left to 'a person's own individual choice and development.' And that certainly sounds like an attempt to embrace libertarianism all over again. My own view is that Nozick's thinking about these matters evolved over time and that what he wrote at any given time was an accurate reflection of what he was thinking at that time." Furthermore, Julian Sanchez reported that "Nozick "always" thought of himself as a libertarian in a broad sense, right up to his final days, even as his views became somewhat less 'hardcore.'"


title: Robert Nozick

text: "The Nature of Rationality" (1993) presents a theory of practical reason that attempts to embellish notoriously spartan classical decision theory.


title: Robert Nozick

text: "Socratic Puzzles" (1997) is a collection of papers that range in topic from Ayn Rand and Austrian economics to animal rights. A thesis claims that "social ties are deeply interconnected with vital parts of Nozick's later philosophy", citing these two works as a development of "The Examined Life".


title: Robert Nozick

text: His last production, "Invariances" (2001), applies insights from physics and biology to questions of objectivity in such areas as the nature of necessity and moral value.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Nozick created the thought experiment of the "utility monster" to show that average utilitarianism could lead to a situation where the needs of the vast majority were sacrificed for one individual. He also wrote a version of what was essentially a previously known thought experiment, the experience machine, in an attempt to show that ethical hedonism was false. Nozick asked us to imagine that "superduper neuropsychologists" have figured out a way to stimulate a person's brain to induce pleasurable experiences. We would not be able to tell that these experiences were not real. He asks us, if we were given the choice, would we choose a machine-induced experience of a wonderful life over real life? Nozick says no, then asks whether we have reasons not to plug into the machine and concludes that since we desire to be really impressed by things and not just feel something pleasurable, it does not seem to be rational to plug in, hence ethical hedonism must be false.


title: Robert Nozick

text: Nozick was notable for the exploratory style of his philosophizing and for his methodological ecumenism. Often content to raise tantalizing philosophical possibilities and then leave judgment to the reader, Nozick was also notable for drawing from literature outside of philosophy (e.g., economics, physics, evolutionary biology).


title: Robert Nozick

text: In his 2001 work, "Invariances", Nozick introduces his theory of truth, in which he leans towards a deflationary theory of truth, but argues that objectivity arises through being invariant under various transformations. For instance, space-time is a significant objective fact because an interval involving both temporal and spatial separation is invariant, whereas no simpler interval involving only temporal or only spatial separation is invariant under Lorentz transformations. Nozick argues that invariances, and hence objectivity itself, emerged through a theory of evolutionary cosmology across possible worlds.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBS, BCBSA) is a federation, or supraorganization, of, in 2022, 34 independent and locally operated BCBSA companies that provide health insurance in the United States to more than 106 million people. It was formed in 1982 from the merger of its two namesake organizations: Blue Cross was founded in 1929 and became the Blue Cross Association in 1960, while Blue Shield emerged in 1939 and the Blue Shield Association was created in 1948.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Commonly called "The Blues" within the healthcare insurance industry, the organization has two offices, one in Chicago and one in Washington, D.C. The main office is in Chicago in the Illinois Center at 225 North Michigan Avenue. The BCBSA claims to control access to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield trademarks and names across the United States and in more than 170 other countries, which it then licenses to the affiliated companies for specific, exclusive geographic service areas. It has affiliated plans in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as licensees offering plans in several foreign countries; it also participates in the nationwide health insurance program for employees of the United States federal government. The BCBSA manages communications between its members and the operating policies required to be a licensee of the trademarks. This permits each BCBSA company to offer nationwide insurance coverage even though it operates only in its designated service area.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross and Blue Shield developed separately, with Blue Cross providing coverage for hospital services and Blue Shield covering physicians' services.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross is a name used by an association of health insurance plans throughout the United States. Its predecessor was developed by Justin Ford Kimball in 1929, while he was vice president of Baylor University's health care facilities in Dallas, Texas. The first plan guaranteed teachers 21 days of hospital care for $6 a year, and was later extended to other employee groups in Dallas, and then nationally. The American Hospital Association (AHA) adopted the Blue Cross symbol in 1939 as the emblem for plans meeting certain standards. In 1960, the AHA commission was superseded by the Blue Cross Association. Blue Cross severed its ties with the AHA in 1972.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Shield was developed by employers in lumber and mining camps of the Pacific Northwest to provide medical care by paying monthly fees to medical service bureaus composed of groups of physicians. In 1939, the first official Blue Shield plan was founded in California. In 1948, the symbol was informally adopted by nine plans called the Associated Medical Care Plan, and was later renamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In the 1960s, the U.S. government chose to partner with Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to administer Medicare.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In 1982, Blue Shield merged with The Blue Cross Association to form the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBS).


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Prior to 1986, organizations administering BCBS were tax exempt under 501(c)(4) as social welfare plans. However, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 revoked the exemption, because the plans sold commercial-type insurance. They became 501(m) organizations, subject to federal taxation, but entitled to "special tax benefits" under IRC 833.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In 1994, BCBS changed to allow its licensees to be for-profit corporations. During 2010, Health Care Service Corporation, the parent company of BCBS in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana and Illinois, nearly doubled its income to $1.09 billion in 2010, and began four years of billion-dollar profits. In the final spending bill for FY 2015 after much lobbying since 2010, nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans continue to have special tax breaks that were understood to be threatened by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies are licensees, independent of the association and traditionally of each other, offering insurance plans within defined regions under one or both of the association's brands. Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers offer some form of health insurance coverage in every U.S. state. They also act as administrators


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: The Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program (FEP) is a nationwide option under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) for U.S. federal government employees and retirees, and has been part of FEHB since FEHB's inception in 1960. FEP enrolls over half of the federal workforce, with over 5 million members, making it the largest insurer of federal employees and the largest single health plan group in the world.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: The association is headquartered in the Michigan Plaza complex in the Chicago Loop area of Chicago, Illinois.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) is a non-profit healthcare organization founded in 1939. BCBSAZ partners with non-profit "Discovery Triangle Development Corporation" to launch a Farm Express mobile market (formerly Fresh Express).


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Founded in 1948, Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield (ABCBS) is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and the largest healthcare provider in the state. It donated $1.98 million to The Walton College of Business toward founding its Robert L. Shoptaw Master of Healthcare Business Analytics Program. In August 2022, more than 12,000 members of Arkansas Blue Cross were affected by a ransomware attack on a former affiliate, North Highland Company, LLC.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross of Idaho and Regence BlueShield Idaho are separate companies and compete throughout the state. In 2019, Regence BlueShield Idaho announced a strategic alliance (not a merger) with Blue Cross North Carolina.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) was founded in 1942 by Sam Bartham, later becoming an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: BlueCross BlueShield of Louisiana is a tax-paying non-profit that was founded in 1934 in New Orleans. An independent licensee of the BCBSA, it is a privately held mutual company without shareholders, which is wholly owned by its policyholders.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBSMN) was founded in 1933, with 3,500 employees reported in 2022.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi (BCBSMS) was formed as a privately held company in 1954. In 1948, it was converted to a non-profit. In 1973, its name was changed from Mississippi Hospital and Medical Service to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, Inc., which, in 1996, was converted from a non-profit membership corporation to a mutual insurance company, with the name again changed, to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, A Mutual Insurance Company. During 2022, BCBS and University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) network entered conflict over who is to blame for an increasing lack of covered care in the state. Media reported that UMMC had paid close to $279,000 for digital advertising, commercials, and billboards to attack BCBS, which, in subsequent months, sued the hospital for defamation.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska was founded in 1939. On July 1, 2018, BCBS Nebraska formed GoodLife Partners Inc., a mutual holding company, to conduct its noninsurance businesses. The company retained the Blue Cross brand, converting from mutual ownership to a stock company wholly owned by GoodLife.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (Excellus BCBS, or Excellus) is a non-profit health insurance company headquartered in Rochester, New York. It is part of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Excellus BCBS is Upstate New York's largest nonprofit health plan.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In 2001, Excellus merged with Univera Healthcare, (formerly North AmeriCare), based in Buffalo. Univera retained its name and is separate from Excellus BCBS. Excellus was the target of a cyberattack in 2015, in which 10.5 million records were hacked, and cost the company 17.5 million dollars. The company's BlueCross BlueShield subsidiaries have been known as:


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: By September 2010, BCBS licensee Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced that it would refund $156 million to their policyholders following documented charges: they had been sued and fined for denying due medical treatments to their customers and for underpaying doctors. As of 2019 they were overseeing well over half of all payments for medical services in their state. BCBSNC invests in chronic and underlying condition research, telehealth and artificial intelligence (AI) for digital healthcare.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In 2019, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina agreed to enter into a partnership with Cambia Health, but cancelled the agreement later that year. Dr. Patrick H. Conway, who had served as CEO from 2017, was scheduled to become CEO of the merged company, replacing retiring Cambia CEO Mark Ganz, but resigned after a DWI arrest in June 2019, putting the merger on hold.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Though historically "Blue Cross" was used for hospital coverage while "Blue Shield" was used for medical coverage, today that split only exists for traditional health insurance plans in Pennsylvania. Two independent companies operate in central Pennsylvania, Highmark Blue Shield (Pittsburgh) and Capital Blue Cross (Central Pennsylvania). In southeastern Pennsylvania, Independence Blue Cross (Philadelphia) has a joint marketing agreement with Highmark Blue Shield (Pittsburgh) for their separate hospital and medical plans. However, Independence Blue Cross, like most of its sister Blue Cross Blue Shield companies, cover most of their customers under managed care plans such as HMOs and PPOs which provide hospital and medical care in one policy.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island was founded in 1939. The insurer is headquartered in Providence, at the 13-storey, $114 million Smith Hill office tower that it had built during 2008 to 2009: Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Headquarters.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: BlueCross BlueShield of the U.S. Virgin Islands is administered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Puerto Rico.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont was founded in 1980. In 2022, BCBS Vermont sued Teva Pharmaceuticals over its "years-long scheme to reap excessive profits" from sales of its multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, Copaxone.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: BlueCross BlueShield of Wyoming (BCBSWY) is a non-profit founded in 1945. In 2022, BCBSWY penned opposition to the Pharmacy benefit managers act enhancements (Wyoming Senate File 0036).


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: While only some members retain nonprofit status, the ones that do have been criticized for holding excessive amounts of cash or excessive executive compensation. For instance, the CEO of BCBS Michigan, Daniel Loepp, earned over 19 million USD in 2018, more than the CEO of Ford or Fiat Chrysler during the same year.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In 2014, BC/BS of Illinois (Health Care Service Corporation) was sued over its nonprofit status. The lawsuit was dismissed, with prejudice, and the dismissal ruling was upheld on appeal. Similar suits occurred with similar results in other states such as Oregon.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: Conversions into for-profit corporations typically results in distribution of some of the assets into a charitable foundation. When Blue Cross of California was converted, it initially had no distribution, but subsequently The California Endowment and California Health Care Foundation were endowed with $3.2 billion. Proceeds ranged from $3.2 billion (California) to $1.5 million (Nevada).


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: An exceptional case occurred in the Empire Blue Cross conversion, where the proceeds went to fund wage increases for union workers.


title: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

text: In 2022, the group of 34 companies that make up the BCBS Association settled an antitrust investigation by allowing competition among member companies under non-Blue names while retaining regional exclusivity for regional licenses.


title: Brent Barry

text: Brent Robert Barry (born December 31, 1971), also known by the nickname "Bones", is an American basketball executive, broadcaster and former player. He is the current vice president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs. The shooting guard played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning two league championships with the Spurs in 2005 and 2007, and also won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1996. He is the son of former NBA player Rick Barry.


title: Brent Barry

text: After retiring, Barry worked as a sports commentator for the "NBA on TNT" and was a studio host for the NBA TV show "NBA Gametime". In 2018, he returned to the Spurs as an executive. He is also a commentator of the NBA 2K series and has been a commentator since the release of "NBA 2K21".