title: Piriformis syndrome

text: The most common etiology of piriformis syndrome is that resulting from a specific previous injury due to trauma. Large injuries include trauma to the buttocks while "micro traumas" result from small repeated bouts of stress on the piriformis muscle itself. To the extent that piriformis syndrome is the result of some type of trauma and not neuropathy, such secondary causes are considered preventable, especially those occurring in daily activities: according to this theory, periods of prolonged sitting, especially on hard surfaces, produce minor stress that can be relieved with bouts of standing. An individual's environment, including lifestyle factors and physical activity, determine susceptibility to trauma of any given type. Although empirical research findings on the subject have never been published, many believe that taking sensible precautions during high-impact sports and when working in physically demanding conditions may decrease the risk of experiencing piriformis syndrome, either by forestalling injury to the muscle itself or injury to the nerve root that causes it to spasm. In this vein, proper safety and padded equipment should be worn for protection during any type of regular, firm contact (i.e., American football, etc.). In the workplace, individuals are encouraged to make regular assessments of their surroundings and attempt to recognize those things in one's routine that might produce micro or macro traumas. No research has substantiated the effectiveness of any such routine, however, and participation in one may do nothing but heighten an individual's sense of worry over physical minutiae while have no effect in reducing the likeliness of experiencing or re-experiencing piriformis syndrome.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Other suggestions from some researchers and physical therapists have included prevention strategies include warming up before physical activity, practicing correct exercise form, stretching, and doing strength training, though these are often suggested for helping treat or prevent any physical injury and are not piriformis-specific in their approach As with any type of exercise, it is thought that warmups will decrease the risk of injury during flexion or rotation of the hip. Stretching increases range of motion, while strengthening hip adductors and abductors theoretically allows the piriformis to tolerate trauma more readily.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Immediate though temporary relief of piriformis syndrome can usually be brought about by injection of a local anaesthetic into the piriformis muscle. Symptomatic relief of muscle and nerve pain can also sometimes be obtained by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and/or muscle relaxants, though the use of such medication or even more powerful prescription medication for relief of sciatica is often assessed by patients to be largely ineffective at relieving pain. Conservative treatment usually begins with stretching exercises, myofascial release, massage, and avoidance of contributory activities such as running, bicycling, rowing, heavy lifting, etc. Some clinicians recommend formal physical therapy, including soft tissue mobilization, hip joint mobilization, teaching stretching techniques, and strengthening of the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and biceps femoris to reduce strain on the piriformis. More advanced physical therapy treatment can include pelvic-trochanter isometric stretching, hip abductor, external rotator and extensor strengthening exercises, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), and massage physiotherapy of the piriformis muscle region. One study of 14 people with what appeared to be piriformis syndrome indicated that rehabilitation programs that included physical therapy, low doses of muscle relaxants and pain relief medication were effective at alleviating most muscle and nerve pain caused by what the research subjects had been told was piriformis syndrome. However, as this study included very few individuals and did not have a control group not receiving treatment (both serious methodological flaws), it provides no insight as to whether the pain in the piriformis would have simply dissipated on its own without any treatment at all, and is therefore not only uninformative, it may actually be misleading. The injury is considered largely self-limiting and spontaneous recovery is usually on the order of a few days or a week to six weeks or longer if left untreated.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Most practitioners agree that spasm, strain, or pain in any muscle can often be treated by regular stretching exercise of that muscle, no matter the cause of the pain. Stretching is recommended every two to three waking hours. Anterior and posterior movement of the hip joint capsule may help optimize the patient's stretching capacity. The muscle can be manually stretched by applying pressure perpendicular to the long axis of the muscle and parallel to the surface of the buttocks until the muscle is relaxed. Another stretching exercise is to lie on the side opposite of the pain with the hip and knee of the upper leg flexed and adducted towards the ground while the torso is rotated so that the back of the upper shoulder touches the ground. Physical Therapists may suggest stretching exercises that will target the piriformis, but may also include the hamstrings and hip muscles in order to adequately reduce pain and increase range of motion. Patients with piriformis syndrome may also find relief from applications of ice which will help reduce inflammation and so may help limit pressure on the sciatic nerve. This treatment can be helpful when pain starts or immediately after an activity that is likely to cause pain. As the length of time progresses, heat may provide temporary relief from many types of muscle pain and will temporarily increase muscle flexibility.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Failure of conservative treatments such as stretching and strengthening of the piriformis muscle or a high level of immediate pain intensity may bring into consideration various therapeutic injections such as local anesthetics (e.g., lidocaine), anti-inflammatory drugs and/or corticosteroids, botulinum toxin (BTX, Botox), or a combination of the three, all of which have a well-documented effectiveness at relieving muscle-related pain. Injection technique is a significant issue since the piriformis is a very deep-seated muscle. A radiologist may assist in this clinical setting by injecting a small dose of medication containing a paralysing agent such as botulinum toxin under high-frequency ultrasound or CT control. This inactivates the piriformis muscle for 3 to 6 months, without resulting in leg weakness or impaired activity. Though the piriformis muscle becomes inactivated, the surrounding muscles quickly take over its role without any noticeable change in strength or gait. Such treatments may be more or less curative (with no return to pain), or may have limited timespans of effectiveness.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: For rare cases with unrelenting chronic pain, surgery may be recommended. Surgical release of the piriformis muscle is often effective. Minimal access surgery using newly reported techniques has also proven successful in a large-scale formal outcome published in 2005. As with injections, the deactivated/ excised muscle's role in leg movement is completely compensated for by surrounding hip muscles.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Failure of piriformis syndrome treatment may be secondary to an underlying internal obturator muscle injury.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Piriformis syndrome (PS) data is often confused with other conditions due to differences in definitions, survey methods and whether or not occupational groups or general population are surveyed. This causes a lack of group harmony about the diagnosis and treatment of PS, affecting its epidemiology. In a study, 0.33% of 1293 patients with low back pain cited an incident for PS. A separate study showed 6% of 750 patients with the same incidence. About 6–8% of low back pain occurrences were attributed to PS, though other reports concluded about 5–36%. In a survey conducted on the general population, 12.2–27% included a lifetime occurrence of PS, while 2.2–19.5% showed an annual occurrence. However further studies show that the proportion of the sciatica, in terms of PS, is about 0.1% in orthopaedic practice. This is more common in women with a ratio of 3 to 1 and most likely due to the wider quadriceps femoris muscle angle in the os coxae. Between the years of 1991–1994, PS was found to be 75% prevalent in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; 20% in other American urban centers; and 5% in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The common ages of occurrence happen between thirty and forty, and are scarcely found in patients younger than twenty; this has been known to affect all lifestyles.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Piriformis syndrome is often left undiagnosed and mistaken with other pains due to similar symptoms with back pain, quadriceps pain, lower leg pain, and buttock pain. These symptoms include tenderness, tingling and numbness initiating in low back and buttock area and then radiating down to the thigh and to the leg.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: A precise test for piriformis syndrome has not yet been developed and thus hard to diagnose this pain.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: Piriformis syndrome does not occur in children, and is mostly seen in women of age between thirty and forty. This is due to hormone changes throughout their life, especially during pregnancy, where muscles around the pelvis, including piriformis muscles, tense up to stabilize the area for birth.


title: Piriformis syndrome

text: In 2011, out of 263 patients between the ages of 45 to 84 treated for piriformis syndrome, 53.3% were female. Females are two times more likely to develop piriformis syndrome than males. Moreover, females had longer stay in hospital during 2011 due to high prevalence of the pain in females. The average cost of treatment was $29,070 for hospitalizing average 4 days.


title: Megachurch

text: A megachurch is a church with an unusually large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities, usually Protestant or Evangelical. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research defines a megachurch as any Protestant Christian church having 2,000 or more people in average weekend attendance. The megachurch is an organization type rather than a denomination.


title: Megachurch

text: The concept originated in the mid 19th century, with the first one established in London, England, in 1861. More emerged in the 20th century, especially in the United States, and expanded rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 21st century megachurches were widespread in the US and a growing phenomenon in several African countries, Australia and elsewhere. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, they became more untraditional, with most newer ones having stadium type seating.


title: Megachurch

text: The origins of the megachurch movement, with many local congregants who return on a weekly basis, can be traced to the 1800s. There were large churches earlier, but they were considerably rarer. The first evangelical megachurch, the Metropolitan Tabernacle with a 6,000-seat auditorium, was inaugurated in 1861 in London by Charles Spurgeon.


title: Megachurch

text: In the United States, in 1923, the Angelus Temple was inaugurated in 1923 with a 5,300-seat auditorium in Los Angeles by Aimee Semple McPherson.


title: Megachurch

text: Most of these churches build their building in the suburbs of large cities, near major roads and highways, to be visible to as many people as possible and easily accessible by car. Some install a large cross there with a view to evangelization and the edification of believers. A study by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research published in 2020 found that 70 percent of American megachurches had a multi-site network and an average of 7.6 services per weekend. The study also found that the majority of US megachurches are located in Florida, Texas, California and Georgia.


title: Megachurch

text: A megachurch has been defined by Hartford Institute for Religion Research (2006) and others as any Protestant Christian church which at least 2,000 attend in a weekend. The OED suggests that megachurches often include educational and social activities and are usually Protestant or Evangelical denominations.


title: Megachurch

text: Megachurches are found in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. The largest church auditorium, The Glory Dome, was inaugurated in 2018 with 100,000 seats, in Abuja, Nigeria.


title: Megachurch

text: In 2010, the Hartford Institute's database listed more than 1,300 such megachurches in the United States; according to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list had average attendance exceeding 10,000, with the highest recorded at 47,000 in average attendance. On one weekend in November 2015, around one in ten Protestant churchgoers in the US, or about 5 million people, attended service in a megachurch. 3,000 individual Catholic parishes have 2,000 or more attendants for an average Sunday Mass, but they are not called megachurches as that is a specifically Protestant term.


title: Megachurch

text: In 2007, five of the ten largest Protestant churches were in South Korea. The largest megachurch in the world by attendance is South Korea's Yoido Full Gospel Church, an Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) church, with more than 830,000 members as of 2007.


title: Megachurch

text: According to Australian scholar Hey (2011), "in Australia, almost all megachurch developments are Pentecostal, or charismatic and neo-Pentecostal offshoots".


title: Megachurch

text: One of the first megachurches in Australia was the Christian Outreach Centre (COC), now the International Network of Churches.


title: Megachurch

text: One of the most well-known megachurches in Australia is Hillsong Church, which originated in Sydney, New South Wales out of two Christian Life Centre churches and has since planted churches all around Australia and the world. Another significant Australian international Pentecostal network is the C3 Global Network, founded in 1980.


title: Megachurch

text: In 2005, Baptist Pastor Al Sharpton criticized megachurches for focusing on "bedroom morals", statements against same-sex marriage and abortion, by ignoring issues of social justice, such as the immorality of war and the erosion of affirmative action. Some megachurches have similarly been criticized for stating they are inclusive while maintaining a strong stance against gay marriage and do not allow sexually active gay members to fully participate in the church.


title: Megachurch

text: In 2018, American professor Scot McKnight of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary criticized nondenominational megachurches for the weak external accountability relationship of their leaders, by not being members of a Christian denomination, further exposing them to abuse of power. A study by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research published in 2020 found that 60% of American megachurches were members of a Christian denomination.


title: Megachurch

text: Some megachurches and their pastors have been accused by critics of promoting a "prosperity gospel", where the poor and vulnerable are encouraged to donate their money to the church rather than saving it, in the hopes that God will bless them with wealth. This in turn increases the wealth of the pastors, with some revealed to wear designer clothing during sermons and own luxury vehicles.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Einar Otto Wallin (born 21 November 1990) is a Swedish professional boxer. He held the WBA Continental heavyweight title in 2017 and won the European Union heavyweight title in 2018. As of October 2022, Wallin is ranked as the world's sixth-best active heavyweight by Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and ninth by ESPN.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin comes from a working-class family. His father and one of his brothers boxed, and he began boxing when he was 15. As an amateur, he won the Swedish championship for beginners in 2008. There were few heavyweights available to fight in Sweden, where professional boxing was banned until 2007, so Wallin would often fight whoever and whenever in order to stay active.


title: Otto Wallin

text: In 2009, Wallin won a bronze medal at the Swedish Youth National Championships in the heavyweight division, and won the Ruska Tournament in the super-heavyweight division. In 2010, Wallin won silver at the Swedish National Championships, and silver at the Haringey Box Cup, losing to Anthony Joshua on points in the final. He also won silver at the 2010 Ruska Tournament.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin lost to Joshua on points again in a Sweden–England dual match in Stockholm in January 2011. He then won bronze at the Swedish National Championships in February, silver at the Nordic Championships in March, gold at the Algirdas Socikas Tournament in May, gold at the Haringey Box Cup in June, and gold at the Riga Open Tournament in December.


title: Otto Wallin

text: In January 2012, Wallin defeated Frazer Clarke 32:11 in a Sweden–England dual match in Uppsala, which qualified him for the 2012 European Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament. Wallin won bronze at the Gee-Bee Tournament in March, losing to Magomed Omarov in the semi-finals. At the European Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament in April in Trabzon, Turkey, he was eliminated in the round of 16 by Mihai Nistor. Wallin finished with an amateur record of 34–12.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin turned professional at the age of 22, in 2013. He trained under Torsten Schmitz for six months in Berlin, Germany, then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he met former two-weight WBA world champion Joey Gamache, who became his trainer. Wallin followed Gamache to New York after Gamache left Denmark.


title: Otto Wallin

text: After racking up a 19–0 record and winning the WBA Continental heavyweight title, Wallin defeated Adrian Granat (15–1, 14 KOs) to win the vacant Swedish and EBU European Union heavyweight titles in April 2018. Wallin won by unanimous decision 117–111, 117–112, and 118–110. As a tall southpaw, he has also been a sparring partner for Anthony Joshua, Jarrell Miller and Adam Kownacki.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin then made his United States debut against Nick Kisner (21–4–1, 6 KOs) in April 2019, but the fight ended in a no contest after an accidental clash of heads opened a cut above Kisner's eye in the first round. He was set to fight BJ Flores (34–4–1, 21 KOs) in July, but Flores was ruled medically unfit to fight on the day of the scheduled bout.


title: Otto Wallin

text: On 14 September 2019, Wallin faced the former unified heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury (28–0–1, 20 KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Wallin lost the fight by unanimous decision, with the scorecards reading 116–112, 117–111, and 118–110. He opened up a large cut above Fury's right eye in the third round with a left hand, which affected Fury's vision for the rest of the fight. A ringside doctor examined the cut in the sixth and deemed Fury able to continue. The examination by the doctor seemed to motivate Fury, as he poured on the pressure afterwards, hurting Wallin repeatedly with solid shots. Despite fatiguing in the second half of the fight, Wallin came back in the twelfth and landed a strong left hand which seemed to trouble Fury. Commentators stated Wallin's performance had defied the odds despite the loss, as he came in as an over 10 to 1 underdog.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin was set to make his return to the ring against former WBA (Regular) heavyweight world champion Lucas Browne (29–2, 25 KOs) on 28 March 2020 at the Park Theater at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. The fight was scheduled for 10 rounds. On 26 February, Wallin was removed from the card due to a foot injury and was replaced by Apti Davtaev. He instead made his return against Travis Kauffman on 15 August 2020. Wallin dominated the fight, and Kauffman retired in the fifth round due to injury.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin's next fight was against former IBF and WBC title challenger Dominic Breazeale on the undercard of Adrien Broner vs. Jovanie Santiago on 20 February 2021. The Swede was in control the whole fight and regularly found the target with his straight left hand, causing swelling around Breazeale's right eye. Wallin won a comfortable unanimous decision victory with scores of 117–111, 118–110 and 116–112.


title: Otto Wallin

text: On 15 September 2021, it was reported that terms had been agreed between Wallin and the WBC interim heavyweight champion, Dillian Whyte, for a bout on 30 October at the O Arena in London, England. However, a mere ten days before the fight was scheduled to occur, it was reported that the fight had been called off due to Whyte allegedly suffering a shoulder injury.


title: Otto Wallin

text: Wallin was born in Sundsvall, Sweden, but has lived in New York City since 2017. Wallin's father died of a sudden heart attack shortly before the announcement of Wallin's fight with Tyson Fury. Wallin said his father, an amateur boxer and part-time trainer, motivated him to get into boxing, and hoped to use his father's death as extra motivation to upset the odds and defeat Fury, similar to Buster Douglas's losing his mother before fighting Mike Tyson. Despite ultimately losing the bout, Wallin's performance was praised. Fury said in his in-ring interview, "Big congratulations to Otto and I just wanna say rest in peace to his father. I know he would be very, very proud of his performance."


title: DHL Aviation

text: DHL Aviation is a division of DHL (owned by Deutsche Post) responsible for providing air transport capacity. It is not a single airline but a group of airlines that are either owned, co-owned or chartered by DHL Express.


title: DHL Aviation

text: In March 2021, DHL Aviation announced the relocation of one of its main hub operations from Bergamo to Milan Malpensa Airport, where it opened new logistics facilities.


title: Applied science

text: Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge obtained via conclusions from the method to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted with basic science, which is focused on advancing scientific theories and laws that explain and predict events in the natural world.


title: Applied science

text: Applied science can also apply formal science, such as statistics and probability theory, as in epidemiology. Genetic epidemiology is an applied science applying both biological and statistical methods.


title: Applied science

text: Applied research is the practical application of science. It accesses and uses accumulated theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques, for a specific state-, business-, or client-driven purpose. In contrast to engineering, applied research does not include analyses or optimization of business, economics, and costs. Applied research can be better understood in any area when contrasting it with, basic, or pure, research. Basic geography research strives to create new theories and methods that aid in the explanation of the processes that shape the spatial structure of physical or human environments. Rather, applied research utilizes the already existing geographical theories and methods to comprehend and address particular empirical issues.


title: Applied science

text: Applied research usually has specific commercial objectives related to products, procedures, or services. The comparison of pure research and applied research provides a basic framework and direction for businesses to follow.


title: Applied science

text: Applied research deals with solving practical problems and generally employs empirical methodologies. Because applied research resides in the messy real world, strict research protocols may need to be relaxed. For example, it may be impossible to use a random sample. Thus, transparency in the methodology is crucial. Implications for interpretation of results brought about by relaxing an otherwise strict canon of methodology should also be considered.


title: Applied science

text: Since applied research has a provisional close-to-the-problem and close-to-the-data orientation, it may also use a more provisional conceptual framework such as working hypotheses or pillar questions. The OECD's Frascati Manual describes applied research as one of the three forms of research, along with basic research & experimental development.


title: Applied science

text: Due to its practical focus, applied research information will be found in the literature associated with individual disciplines.


title: Applied science

text: Applied science works as a system that branches into other fields of work that go more in depth of the system. Applied research is a method of problem solving and also practical in areas of science such as its presence in applied psychology. Applied psychology uses human behavior to grab information to be able locate a main focus in an area that can contribute to finding a resolution. More specific, this study is applied in the area of criminal psychology. With the knowledge obtained of applied research, studies are conducted on criminals alongside their behavior to apprehend them. Moreover, the research extends to criminal investigations. Under this category, research methods demonstrate an understanding of the scientific method and social research designs used in criminological research. These reach more branches along the procedure towards the investigations, alongside laws, policy, and criminological theory.


title: Applied science

text: Engineering fields include thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, kinematics, electromagnetism, materials science, earth sciences, engineering physics. These fields are also within the scope of basic science.


title: Applied science

text: Medical sciences, for instance medical microbiology, pharmaceutical research and clinical virology, are applied sciences that apply biology and chemistry toward medicine. Pharmaceutical development would fall within the scope of engineering.


title: Applied science

text: In Canada, the Netherlands and other places the Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) is sometimes equivalent to the Bachelor of Engineering, and is classified as a professional degree. This is based on the age of the school where applied science used to include boiler making, surveying and engineering. There are also Bachelor of Applied Science degrees in Child Studies. The BASc tends to focus more on the application of the engineering sciences. In Australia and New Zealand, this degree is awarded in various fields of study and is considered a highly specialized professional degree.


title: Applied science

text: In the United Kingdom's educational system, Applied Science refers to a suite of "vocational" science qualifications that run alongside "traditional" General Certificate of Secondary Education or A-Level Sciences. Applied Science courses generally contain more coursework (also known as portfolio or internally assessed work) compared to their traditional counterparts. These are an evolution of the GNVQ qualifications that were offered up to 2005. These courses regularly come under scrutiny and are due for review following the Wolf Report 2011; however, their merits are argued elsewhere.


title: Applied science

text: In the United States, The College of William & Mary offers an undergraduate minor as well as Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in "applied science." Courses and research cover varied fields including neuroscience, optics, materials science and engineering, nondestructive testing, and nuclear magnetic resonance. University of Nebraska–Lincoln offers a Bachelor of Science in applied science, an online completion Bachelor of Science in applied science and a Master of Applied Science. Course work is centered on science, agriculture and natural resources with a wide range of options including ecology, food genetics, entrepreneurship, economics, policy, animal science and plant science. In New York City, the Bloomberg administration awarded the consortium of Cornell-Technion $100 million in City capital to construct the universities' proposed Applied Sciences campus on Roosevelt Island.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The Karunanidhi family are an Indian political family who have had considerable influence in the politics and cinema of Tamil Nadu. The most notable member of the family was M. Karunanidhi who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and was the DMK party leader from 1969 till 2018.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Karunanidhi's grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran has been the union cabinet minister for two terms, once as a Minister of Information and Technology and once as a Minister of Textiles. One of Karunanidhi's sons, M. K. Stalin, is the 7th and current chief minister of Tamil Nadu ,has been a five-time MLA in Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly and a one-time deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu; another son, M. K. Alagiri, wass the Minister of Chemicals in the central cabinet and also the co-ordinator for South Tamil Nadu for DMK. His daughter Kanimozhi is a Member of the Parliament in Lok Sabha. His grandnephew Kalanidhi Maran is the owner of the Sun Network, the second largest TV network in India and also Sun Pictures, a Tamil movie production company. The fourth generation of the family comprising Arivunithi, Dayanidhi Azhagiri, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Member of Legislative assembly and Arulnithi are involved in the Tamil cinema industry.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The large presence of Karunanidhi's family members both in the central government and state government has led to accusations of political nepotism. Two of the family members, Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran, had been charged by Central Bureau of Investigation for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum case. However, CBI failed to prove charges against the two, and the Delhi High Court acquitted both the accused.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The fourth generation of the family is accused of using political clout in their favour in the Tamil cinema industry.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 - 7 August 2018) was the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He has been the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder, C. N. Annadurai, in 1969, though the party had leading stalwarts in Nedunchezhian, E. V. K. Sampath, K. A. Mathiazhagan, Nanjil K. Manoharan and K. Anbazhagan, who were called "Aim perum Thalaivargal" meaning five great leaders. He has served as chief minister five times (1969–71, 1971–76, 1989–91, 1996–2001 and 2006–2011). He holds the record of winning his seat in every election in which he has participated in a political career spanning more than 60 years. He is also a playwright and screenwriter in Tamil cinema.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: He has four sons, namely M. K. Muthu, M. K. Alagiri, M. K. Stalin, and M. K. Tamilarasu and two daughters, Selvi and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi. M. K. Muthu, his eldest son, was born to Padmavathy, who died early. Azhagiri, Stalin, Selvi and Tamilarasu were born to Dayalu, while Kanimozhi is the only daughter from his third wife, Rajathi.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Murasoli Maran () (17 August 1934 – 23 November 2003) was an important leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party and the nephew of M. Karunanidhi. A Member of Parliament for 36 years, he was made a Union Minister in three separate central governments, in charge of Urban Development in the V.P. Singh government, Industry in the Gowda and Gujral governments, and finally Commerce and Industry under Vajpayee. Apart from being a politician, Maran was a journalist and scriptwriter for films too. He was the editor of the DMK party paper, Murasoli and hence got the title appended to his name.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: DMK has been accused by opponents, by some members of the party, and by other political observers of trying to promote nepotism and start a political dynasty along the lines of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Vaiko, who quit the DMK, has been the most vocal. Political observers say that Vaiko was sidelined as he was seen as a threat to M. K. Stalin and other family members.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Karunanidhi's nephew, the late Murasoli Maran, was a Union Minister; however, it has been pointed out that he was in politics long before Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister in 1969. He was arrested several times, including in the Anti-Hindi agitations in 1965. He was asked to contest the by-election for South Madras in 1967 and the nomination papers were signed by Rajaji, Annadurai and Mohammed Ismail (Quaid-e-Millath), demonstrating that his political career was not built entirely on his relation to Karunanidhi.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Many political opponents and DMK party senior leaders have been critical of the rise of M. K. Stalin in the party. But some of the party men have pointed out that Stalin has come up on his own. He has faced a lot of hardship since 1975, when he was jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and was beaten up in jail so brutally during the Emergency that a fellow DMK party prisoner died trying to save him. Stalin was an MLA in 1989 and 1996 when his father Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister, but he was not inducted into the Cabinet. He became Chennai's 44th mayor and its first directly elected mayor in 1996. It was only in his fourth term as MLA that he was made a Minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet and then in 2009 was made the Deputy Chief Minister.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Karunanidhi has been accused of helping Murasoli Maran's son Kalanidhi Maran, who runs Sun Network, India's second largest television network. According to Forbes, Kalanidhi is among India's richest 20, with $2.9 billion. Again commentators say that he raised himself into the position on his own merit and even Karunanidhi's sons have achieved nothing compared to him which has been a cause of friction between them. His channels have been the mouth organ of the DMK party (until recent time) and balanced the Jaya TV of the AIADMK.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Another son of Maran's, Dayanidhi Maran, is a former Union Minister for Communications and IT portfolio, not broadcasting ministry, which is responsible for TV networks. Dayanidhi Maran was withdrawn from the IT and Communications portfolio at Center (he was a Union Minister for IT and Communications) because Dinakaran survey poll controversy. He was later given the MP seat in the 2009 general elections from DMK party and subsequently became the Minister of Textiles in the union government.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The Dinakaran newspaper case was handed over to the CBI. But the District and Sessions court acquitted all the 17 accused in that case. So far, the case has not been appealed in a higher court to identify and punish the perpetrators of the crime.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: In 2006 May, Dinakaran, the newspaper run by Kalanidhi Maran ran into a controversy when it published the results of a series of opinion polls which showed M. K. Stalin having more approval (70%) than his elder brother M. K. Azhagiri (2%) as the political heir of Karunanidhi. It also showed others as 20%, possibly indicating Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi. The Madurai office of Dinakaran was fire bombed by supporters of Alagiri and three employees were killed The Sun TV office in Madurai was also attacked by the perpetrators. A day after the incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi came to Chennai for felicitating Karunanidhi for 50 years in legislative assembly. Dayanidhi Maran, who usually accompanies Karunanidhi on every function, discarded the event as a mark of protest. On 13 May, the DMK administrative committee empowered Karunanidhi to remove Dayanidhi from the party. This subsequently led to his resignation from the central ministry. Karunanidhi family started Kalaignar TV to counter Sun TV of the Marans that started focusing on opposition leaders who were vociferous on Alagiri and also covering the 2G Spectrum case on minister A Raja, the DMK minister replacing Dayanidhi in the Union IT ministry. There were several attempts of reconciliation by the Marans, with two public meeting, once during Stalin's birthday in March 2008 and other during May when Karunanidhi was discharged from a Chennai hospital having been treated for neck and back pain. But when the Marans went to greet Karunanidhi on his 85th birthday on 3 Jun 2008, they were made to wait for an hour before finally denying entry. The family later reconciled with the efforts of Selvi and M K Stalin. While the reason for reconciliation is not known, it was rumoured that the family reconciled to keep the third wife, Rajathi and her daughter Kanimozhi away from the family - that Kanimozhi was missing in the family reunion picture supported this argument.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The Sarkaria Commission was constituted in February 1976, soon after the DMK government was dismissed by the Indira Gandhi dispensation. It is said that Justice Sarkaria was so taken in by the ingenuity with which public funds were embezzled that he described it as “scientific corruption”. However, there appears to be no record in the public domain of him having used the term.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: As per the chargesheet filed by CBI, Kanimozhi has 20% stake in her family owned Kalaignar TV, her step-mother Dayalu owns 60% stake in the same channel. CBI alleges that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route to Kalaignar TV. According to CBI, Kanimozhi was in regular touch with A Raja regarding launching of Kalaignar TV channel and its other pending works. CBI alleges that A Raja was further pursuing the cause of Kalaignar TV not only for getting registration of the company from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but also for getting it in the DTH operator TATA Sky's bouquet.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The charges levelled against her are criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: She was taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 20 May 2011. and granted bail on 28 November 2011 after spending 188 days in judicial custody. As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: Dayanidhi Maran was forced to resign from his Textiles Ministry in the central government on account corruption charges levelled against him in the 2G spectrum case. Dayanidhi has been accused of criminal conspiracy by the CBI on charges under Prevention of Corruption Act. An FIR or formal complaint has been filed against Dayanidhi and his brother, Kalanithi Maran, the owner of Sun Network in Tamil Nadu. The homes and offices of the Marans in Delhi and Chennai were raided on 10 October 2011 in connection with the CBI's efforts to prove that when he was telecom minister, Dayanidhi misused his office to help an entrepreneur from Malaysia named T Ananda Krishnan to acquire one of India's biggest telecoms, Aircel. The CBI alleged that in return, Mr Ananda Krishnan invested more than Rs. 6 billion in Dayanidhi's brother Kalanidhi owned Sun Network.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: The issue of succession of party and the political leadership has always been oriented towards Azhagiri and Stalin, the brothers and apparent political heirs of Karunanidhi. The general council of 3 February 2012 fuelled heated debates on who should be the successor and finally lead to a conclusion of Karunanidhi remaining the head, putting the topic of succession to a temporary end. Azhagiri garners support from Southern Tamil Nadu, which is termed as his political stronghold. The 2011 assembly election drubbing put his power under scanner with the party losing most in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu. Stalin was seen as the natural heir after he was given the post of Mayor of Chennai Corporation during October 2001 and subsequently the Deputy Chief Minister post of Tamil Nadu government on 29 May 2009. The survey poll conducted by Dinakaran newspaper of the Marans created further feud in the family. In a wikileaks revealed cable sent on 9 July 2009, the then US counsel General Andrew T Simkin predicted that M K Azhagiri will contest with Stalin for power once his father leaves the scene, but will be finally prevailed by M K Stalin, who is more acceptable. It also touched upon Azhagiri's noteirty and pugnacious tactics for his alleged involvement in Ta Krittinan murder case, for which he was arrested in 2003 and also on the attack of Dinakaran newspaper office in 2007.


title: Karunanidhi family

text: There are allegations on a large set of family members of Karunanidhi entering into Tamil film distribution and production on account of political backup. "Karunanidhi has used his political might to thrust his entire family on Tamil cinema," said Thuglak editor Cho Ramaswamy, in one of the interviews that fuelled a retort from Karunanidhi, "If Prithvi Raj Kapoor’s family is in films till today, if Rajnikanth’s daughter can produce movies and his son-in-law Dhanush can act, what is wrong if my grandsons Kalanidhi, Udayanidhi, Dayanidhi, Arlunidhi and Arivunidihi are into film-making? It is just another conspiracy by the threaded class (Brahmins) because I work for the Dravidian community" after laying the foundation stone for a colony for film workers on 23 August 2010. The feeling of political might is supported by the production of films by family members starting ventures, leaving Sun Pictures during the DMK government during 2006-2011. The distributors also complained of level-playing field with the political clout involved in distribution of films.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Fly Away Home ( Flying Wild and Father Goose) is a 1996 family drama film directed by Carroll Ballard. The film stars Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels, and Dana Delany. "Fly Away Home" was released on September 13, 1996, by Columbia Pictures.


title: Fly Away Home

text: "Fly Away Home" dramatizes the actual experiences of Bill Lishman who, in 1986, started training Canada geese to follow his ultralight aircraft, and succeeded in leading their migration in 1993 through his program "Operation Migration". The film is also based on the experience of Dr. William J. L. Sladen, a British-born zoologist and adventurer, who aided Lishman with the migration.


title: Fly Away Home

text: After her mother Aliane dies in a car accident, 13-year-old Amy Alden is brought from New Zealand to Ontario, Canada, by her estranged father Thomas Alden, a sculptor and inventor, to live with him and his girlfriend Susan.


title: Fly Away Home

text: When a construction crew destroys a small wilderness area near the Alden home, Amy finds an abandoned nest of 16 goose eggs. Without Thomas, Susan, or her uncle David knowing, she takes the eggs and keeps them in a dresser in her father's old barn to incubate. When the eggs hatch, she is allowed to keep the goslings as pets. Thomas asks for help from local Animal Regulation officer Glen Seifert on how to care for the geese. Seifert comes over to the Alden house, and explains that the geese have imprinted on Amy as their mother. He explains that geese learn everything from their parents including migratory routes, but also warns Thomas that a private ordinance dictates that all domestic geese must have their wings pinioned (clipped) to render them flightless. He promptly tries to demonstrate the process with one of the goslings, which upsets Amy. Thomas throws Seifert off his property, only for Seifert to threaten the Aldens that if the birds start flying, he will have to confiscate them.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Thomas decides to use an ultralight aircraft he had been constructing to teach the birds to fly and show them their migratory routes, but quickly realizes the birds will only follow Amy. Aided by his friend Barry, Thomas teaches Amy how to fly an ultralight aircraft of her own. David knows someone running a bird sanctuary in North Carolina, and arranges for the geese to go to the sanctuary. The birds have to arrive before November 1, or the sanctuary will be torn down by developers who plan to turn it into a coastal housing development.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Amy and Thomas practice flying the aircraft, but Igor, the weakest of the geese, who has a limp, accidentally hits the front of Amy's aircraft and lands in an isolated forest. While the group goes off to search for the bird, Glen Seifert returns to the Alden farm and confiscates the other geese. The next day, the Aldens free the geese, and Amy leads them on their migration to North Carolina.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Making an emergency landing at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in western New York on the south shore of Lake Ontario, Amy and Thomas almost get arrested. They become national news, with residents cheering them on.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Thomas and Amy meet an old woman with a vendetta against goose shooting, and she invites them to stay the night at her house. That night Amy asks Thomas why he seldom visited her and her mother. From her mother, she knows that her parents were artists, who tend to be selfish, and that her mother left for both of their sakes. Thomas tells her that he was afraid and angry at himself for letting them leave, so he spent the next ten years buried in his work. He apologizes to Amy.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Thirty miles before reaching the bird sanctuary, Thomas's aircraft suffers a structural failure and crashes in a cornfield; having suffered a dislocated shoulder he tells Amy to finish the journey by herself. Thomas hitchhikes to the bird sanctuary. While waiting for the geese, Thomas, Susan, David, Barry, and many animal enthusiasts stand up to developers who are waiting to start the excavation of the site.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Amy eventually appears with the geese, much to the joy of the townspeople and Amy's family, and to the dismay of the developers. The townspeople and the Aldens celebrate their victory. During the end credits, a note reveals that all 16 geese - including Igor - return to the Aldens' farm on their own in the following spring.


title: Fly Away Home

text: To recreate the Alden home, principal photography took place in 1995, at two farms near Lindsay in southeastern Ontario. The township had also been the setting for "A Christmas Story" (1983), and later "A Cool Dry Place" (1998). The blacksmith shop constructed onsite for the filming of "The Last Buffalo" at Purple Hill, Ontario was re-used as part of the Alden homestead.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Two gliders were featured in the film: The UFM Easy Riser and the Cosmos Trike. The Easy Riser first appears as a foot-launched biplane hang glider. True to Lishman's real-life saga, modifications were made to improve the design including the addition of a motor and seat. Anna Paquin's character instead flies an A-frame Cosmos Trike with a mock goose head mounted to the noseplate of the airframe and a fabric wing covering painted to resemble feathers. The Cosmos Trike was reportedly chosen for its safety, superior engine power, and increased wing size (a feature that was needed to fly slow enough for the birds).


title: Fly Away Home

text: The four-day trip home for the geese that would take them to Lake Ontario, over the Appalachians to Pennsylvania, Maryland, finally settling on the North Carolina Shores, had principal photography actually filmed nearly entirely at Port Perry and Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Additional location shots were the city-fly-through in Toronto, Ontario, standing in for Baltimore, Maryland (CGI aircraft). At the conclusion of the production, Lishman led the 60 imprinted "actor-geese" in migration, to winter at the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center off the coast of Georgetown, South Carolina.


title: Fly Away Home

text: While in production, the film was at first titled "Flying Wild", but was changed to "Fly Away Home" just weeks before its release in movie theaters. The original trailer has the title "Flying Wild", and can be found on certain VHS copies of "Jumanji" from Columbia TriStar Home Video; the French version title ("L'Envolée sauvage") is the translated version of this title.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Director Carroll Ballard and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel previously collaborated on "The Black Stallion" and "Never Cry Wolf" with "Fly Away Home" being their third family film. Anna Paquin, who plays daughter to Jeff Daniels in "Fly Away Home", would later play a love interest in "The Squid and the Whale" (2005). Upon the release of the "Squid and the Whale", Jeff Daniels said that having had the previous experience made the filming a bit awkward for both of them.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Filmed on a modest budget, "Fly Away Home" returned US$25 million in the U.S. box office and US$31 million internationally.


title: Fly Away Home

text: Audiences and critics enjoyed the evocative, uplifting family-oriented film which also received critical acclaim. Roger Ebert noted: "There are individual shots here almost worth the price of admission...[including] a stunning shot in which the towers of Baltimore materialize from the mist, and office workers see the little girl and her geese flying past their windows." Janet Maslin from "The New York Times" was similarly effusive, "Mr. Ballard turns a potentially treacly children's film into an exhilarating 90's fable." Gene Shalit on the "Today Show" called the film "a must see movie".


title: Fly Away Home

text: The uplifting theme of the film was often cited; Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat stated, "The movie adds excitement and emotion, turning into a celebration of the creative ways human beings and animals can serve, assist, and love one another."


title: Fly Away Home

text: "Fly Away Home" received an 88% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's consensus states: "Well-acted and beautifully filmed, "Fly Away Home" offers heartwarming entertainment for moviegoers of all ages."


title: Fly Away Home

text: Caleb Deschanel's visuals received notice and resulted in Best Cinematography nominations for the 1996 Academy Awards and from the American Society of Cinematographers. Although unsuccessful in both competitions, "Fly Away Home" went on to win the 1997 Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics Choice Award as the Best Family Film, the 1997 Christopher Award (for family films), 1997 Young Artist Award in the category of Best Family Feature – Drama, and the 1997 Genesis Award for Feature Films. Anna Paquin was also nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress (the film was also nominated as Best Family Feature – Drama) and the 1997 YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama Film.


title: Fly Away Home

text: "Fly Away Home" was more successful on home video than in theaters. , the studio sold an estimated $32 million on video, receiving 75% of revenue. The film was originally released to VHS in December 1996. A DVD release in July 2002, included the exclusive featurette by Bill Lishman, "Operation Migration: Birds of a Feather", along with two documentaries: "The Ultra Geese" and the HBO special "Leading the Flock". The DVD also provided a link to Lishman's "Operation Migration" website. A companion CD audio recording of the music featured in the soundtrack was released in 1996. A Blu-ray edition of "Fly Away Home" was released on April 7, 2009.


title: £sd

text: £sd (occasionally written Lsd, spoken as "pounds, shillings and pence" or pronounced ) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the British Isles and hence in several countries of the British Empire and subsequently the Commonwealth. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations "librae", "solidi", and "denarii". In the United Kingdom, these were referred to as "pounds", "shillings", and "pence" ("pence" being the plural of "penny").


title: £sd

text: Although the names originated from popular coins in the classical Roman Empire, their definitions and the ratios between them were introduced and imposed across Western Europe by the Emperor Charlemagne. The £sd system was the standard across much of the European continent (France, Italy, Germany, etc.) for nearly a thousand years, until the decimalisations of the 18th and 19th centuries. As the United Kingdom remained one of the few countries retaining it into the 20th century, the system became particularly associated with Britain. It was King Offa of Mercia who adopted the Frankish silver standard of "librae, solidi" and "denarii" into Britain in the late 8th century, and the system was used in much of the British Commonwealth until the 1960s and 1970s, with Nigeria being the last to abandon it in the form of the Nigerian pound on 1 January 1973.


title: £sd

text: Under this system, there were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound. Although the standard ledger accounting system recorded only pounds, shillings and pence, actual minted coins could represent one, several or fractions of these units. The penny was subdivided into 4 farthings until 31 December 1960, when they ceased to be legal tender in the UK, and until 31 July 1969 there were also halfpennies ("ha'pennies") in circulation. The perceived advantage of such a system was its use in some aspects of mental arithmetic, as it afforded many factors and hence fractions of a pound such as tenths, eighths, sixths and even sevenths and ninths if the guinea (worth 21 shillings) was used. When dealing with items in dozens, multiplication and division are straightforward; for example, if a dozen eggs cost four shillings, then each egg was priced at fourpence. Basic addition, however, could be more difficult than using a decimal system.


title: £sd

text: As countries of the British Empire became independent, some abandoned the £sd system quickly, while others retained it almost as long as the UK itself. The United States of America adopted a decimal system in 1792, 10 years after independence from the British Empire, but retains many other aspects of the customary units for length and weight. Australia, for example, only changed to using a decimal currency on 14 February 1966, 35 years after independence. New Zealand followed suit on 10 July 1967. Still others, notably Ireland, decimalised only when the UK did. The UK abandoned the old penny on Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, when one pound sterling became divided into 100 new pence. This was a change from the system used in the earlier wave of decimalisations in Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and South Africa, in which the pound was replaced with a new major currency called either the "dollar" or the "rand". The British shilling was replaced by a 5 new pence coin worth one-twentieth of a pound.


title: £sd

text: For much of the 20th century, £sd was the monetary system of most of the Commonwealth countries, the major exceptions being Canada and India.


title: £sd

text: Historically, similar systems based on Roman coinage were used elsewhere; e.g., the division of the "livre tournois" in France and other pre-decimal currencies such as Spain, which had 20 maravedís to 1 real and 20 reals to 1 duro or 5 pesetas.


title: £sd

text: The classical Roman Empire originally used a decimal currency system based on the "as" whereby 1 "denarius" = 10 "as". The silver denarius was the common circulation coin, but accounting was in sestercii. Later Roman Emperors undertook multiple coinage reforms, redefining weights and coins' relative values and introducing new coins and new accounting systems for them. Since most reforms were not even completed before the next one began, the late Roman Empire had a veritable mess of multiple overlapping systems of weights and currencies.


title: £sd

text: Around the 780s, the Frankish emperor Charlemagne cut through the mess by creating a new uniform system. He defined the "libra" as a new measure of weight equivalent to around 489.6 grams (substantially larger than the old Roman pound of 328.9g), and ordered 240 silver units known as "denarii" to be struck from the new Carolingian pound of pure silver, each "denarius" containing 22.5 grains of silver. To help accounting, Charlemagne also decreed that the pound was divisible into 20 "solidii" each of 12 "denarii". Thus began the Carolingian monetary system (1"l". = 20"s". = 240"d".).


title: £sd

text: The new coinage and accounting system was imposed uniformly across the vast Carolingian Empire and also infiltrated countries on its periphery. In the late 8th century, King Offa of Mercia imported the system into Britain to facilitate transactions (notably "Peter's pence") with the Roman Catholic Church (which used the Carolingian coinage system). But it was not the sole system in Britain – the £sd system would have to compete for a while with the Viking "mark" accounting system, introduced into Danelaw regions. Although £sd ultimately prevailed in Britain, the "mark of account" system lingered on in North Sea trade and areas of Hanseatic influence through much of the Middle Ages.


title: £sd

text: Charlemagne's new monetary system prevailed across much of Western Europe including France (where the units were known as the "livre", "sous" and "denier"), Italy ("lira", "soldo" and "denaro"), the Holy Roman Empire ("pfund", "schilling" and "pfennig") and in England ("pound", "shilling" and "penny"). The English name "pound" is a Germanic adaptation of the Latin phrase 'a pound weight'. On the Iberian peninsula, the Kingdom of Aragon adopted the Carolingian monetary system (Catalan: "lliura", "sou" and "diners"), but those of Portugal and Castile (and subsequently Spain) retained the currency system inherited from al-Andalus.


title: £sd

text: During the early Middle Ages, only the denarius was issued as an actual coin; the libra and solidus were merely units of account. But over time, the silver resources were gradually exhausted and the coins became repeatedly debased by Medieval monarchs, prompting the minting of larger coins from the 13th century. It also led to specification of currencies by mint of origin in contracts and accounting (e.g. a "denier parisis", of the Paris mint, contained more actual silver than the very debased "denier tournois" of the Tours mint).


title: £sd

text: To facilitate larger transactions, gold coins began to be minted in western Europe around the same time. The French "franc", introduced in 1360, was the first coin anywhere to represent exactly £1 and the gold "sovereign", first minted in 1489, was the first English £1 coin.


title: £sd

text: Although the £sd system remained intact in ledger accounting, the variety of new coins of various multiples and qualities led to common expression of quantities in terms of number of coins (guineas, crowns, farthings, etc.) But they would all have to be converted into formal £sd units in accounts.


title: £sd

text: The £sd system continued in much of Western Europe for nearly a thousand years, until the "decimalisations" of the 18th and 19th centuries. The United States of America was among the first to drop the £sd system and adopt a decimal currency in 1792. In Europe, decimalisation of currency (as well as other weights and measures) began in Revolutionary France with the law of 1795 ("Loi du 18 germinal an III", 7 April 1795), replacing the £sd accounting system of the Ancien régime with a system of 1 franc = 10 decimes = 100 centimes. Decimalisation was carried by French armies to neighboring European countries during the Napoleonic wars. By the mid-19th century, most of continental Europe had decimalised, leaving the United Kingdom as the only major country to continue to maintain the £sd system.


title: £sd

text: Britain considered following the continental example. A parliamentary select committee was set up in 1821 to inquire into decimalisation, but ended up recommending retaining the £sd system. However, pressure groups were formed inside Britain advocating the adoption of decimalisation of the currency, and Parliament returned to the matter in the 1850s. Various decimalisation schemes were considered – the Pound-and-Mil scheme, the Farthing scheme, the Half-penny scheme, the Alb scheme, etc. – but all were determined to have deficiencies, and transition would be too difficult and expensive. The £sd system would be maintained in Britain until 1971.


title: £sd

text: All countries and territories that formerly used the £sd system have now decimalised their currency, with most decimalisations occurring after the Second World War. Malta decimalised its currency in 1972, while Nigeria decimalised in 1973. The British pound sterling and Irish pound were among the last to be decimalised, on 15 February 1971.


title: £sd

text: The following coins were not in common circulation in the UK at the time of decimalisation, though the ten shilling note and the pound note were.


title: £sd

text: The farthing, at penny, was never converted, as it ceased to be legal tender a decade prior to decimalisation. In 1971, a new penny would have been worth 9.6 farthings (making a farthing slightly more than 0.1 new pence). Similarly, the old halfpenny and the half-crown were not converted in the UK either, having been withdrawn previously.


title: £sd

text: United Kingdom pre-decimal banknotes are no longer legal tender, but are exchangeable for their face value (regardless of the possible greater worth if sold or auctioned) if they are taken directly (or posted) to the Bank of England. The last £sd coins to cease being legal tender in the UK after Decimal Day were the sixpence (withdrawn 1980), the shilling (withdrawn 1991) and the florin (withdrawn 1993). Commemorative crowns minted post decimalisation (worth either 25p or £5) are still legal tender, but are rarely, if ever, spent.


title: £sd

text: In Australia, , pre-decimal coins can still be found in circulation occasionally as 5, 10 and 20-cent coins.


title: £sd

text: The last £sd banknote to cease to be legal tender anywhere was the Isle of Man ten shilling note, which ceased to be legal tender there in 2013.


title: £sd

text: Computers and calculators sold pre-decimalisation – mostly in the 1960s – occasionally came with special support for the £sd system in the form of a fixed-point currency datatype. The IBM 1401 is one such machine; on Sterling models with sd support, it had a switch for selecting between IBM and BSI data layouts of £sd on its auxiliary console (see image). The ICT 1301 and the PL/I language also had £sd support.


title: £sd

text: There were several ways to represent amounts of money in writing and speech, with no formal convention; for example:


title: £sd

text: Halfpennies and farthings (quarter of a penny) were represented by the appropriate symbol ( for farthing, for halfpenny, or for three farthings) after the whole pence.


title: £sd

text: A convention frequently used in retail pricing was to list prices over one pound all in shillings, rather than in pounds and shillings; for example, £4-18-0 would be written as 98/– (£4.90 in decimal currency). This is still seen in shilling categories of Scottish beer, such as 90/– beer.


title: £sd

text: Sometimes, prices of luxury goods and furniture were expressed by merchants in guineas, although the guinea coin had not been struck since 1799. A guinea was 21 shillings (£1.05 in decimal currency). Professionals such as lawyers and physicians, art dealers, and some others stated their fees in guineas rather than pounds, while, for example, salaries were stated in pounds per annum. Historically, at some auctions, the purchaser would bid and pay in guineas but the seller would receive the same number of pounds; the commission was the same number of shillings. Tattersalls, the main auctioneer of racehorses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, continues this tradition of conducting auctions in guineas at its UK sales (in Ireland, auctions are conducted in euros). The vendor's commission is 5%. The word "guineas" is still found in the names of some British horse races, even though their prize funds are now fixed in pounds – such as the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.


title: £sd

text: A farthing or ha'penny bit was called a "mag" (slang for "chattering") because they were originally made from copper and made a ringing noise when dropped. The game of "penny pitching" (bouncing pennies against a wall to see how far they would rebound onto the pavement) was called "mag flying".


title: £sd

text: A threepenny bit (pronounced thrupney bit) was called a "Joey" (see "Fourpence" below); it was a silver or silver alloy coin from 1845 to 1937 and a 12-sided bronze coin from 1937 to 1971. It was known as a "tickey" in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. In Australia it was known as a tray (also spelt trey), or a tray bit, from the French "trois" meaning three.


title: £sd

text: A fourpenny bit was often known as a "groat", from the medieval four-penny silver coin of the same name. It was nicknamed a "Joey", from Joseph Hume, the Radical MP who championed its reintroduction. When the new threepence coin replaced the fourpence coin in circulation in 1845, it took over its nickname.


title: £sd

text: A sixpenny bit was a "tanner", derived from the Romany word "tano", meaning "small" (because it was smaller than a shilling). It was also called a "tester" or "testoon" from the teston, a French coin. In Australia it was called a "Zack".


title: £sd

text: One shilling was called a "bob" or "thin 'un" (because it was thinner than a sovereign coin). It is known in Australia as a "deener" possibly from 'Dinar' or 'Denarius'.


title: £sd

text: A two-shilling piece known as a florin (an early attempt at decimalisation, being ), was in everyday use. It was referred to as "two bob", a "two-shilling bit", or a "two-bob bit".


title: £sd

text: A two-shillings-and-sixpence piece, in use until the introduction of decimal currency, was known as "half a crown" or a "half crown". They were discontinued in 1971 as there was no need for a New Pence coin.


title: £sd

text: A ten-shilling note was sometimes known as "half a bar". It was first printed in 1914 by the Treasury during World War I to conserve silver. These early Treasury notes (especially the 1st and 2nd Series from 1914 to 1917) were nicknamed "Bradburys", from the prominent stylized signature of Sir John Bradbury, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury (1913–1919).


title: £sd

text: A pound was called a "nicker" or "quid". The term "quid" is said to originate from the Latin phrase quid pro quo. A pound coin, or sovereign, was called a "sov" or "thick 'un" (because it was thicker than a shilling). A pound note was called a "bar" or "sheet" (from its rectangular shape) or simply a "note" (e.g., "You owe me 50 notes").


title: £sd

text: The larger denomination notes (£5, £10, £20, £50, £100, £200, £500, and £1,000) printed from the 18th century to 1943 were called "white notes" because they were printed on lightweight white paper with the text in black ink.


title: £sd

text: The currency of knuts, sickles and galleons in the Harry Potter books is a parody of the £sd system, with 29 knuts to a sickle and 17 sickles to a galleon. It serves as the currency of the Wizarding World, while pounds are still used by Muggles, the non-magical people.


title: £sd

text: Lysergic acid diethylamide was sometimes called "pounds, shillings and pence" during the 1960s, because of the abbreviation LSD. The English rock group the Pretty Things released a 1966 single titled "£.s.d." that highlighted the double entendre. The Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment called the first field trial with LSD as a chemical weapon "Moneybags" as a pun.


title: £sd

text: The score of 26 at darts (one dart in each of the top three spaces) was sometimes called "half-a-crown" as late as the 1990s, though this did start to confuse the younger players. 26 is also referred to as "Breakfast", since 2/6 or half a crown was the standard cost for breakfast pre-decimalisation.


title: Atlas

text: Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature geopolitical, social, religious and economic statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it.


title: Atlas

text: The use of the word "atlas" in a geographical context dates from 1595 when the German-Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published ("Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe and the universe as created"). This title provides Mercator's definition of the word as a description of the creation and form of the whole universe, not simply as a collection of maps. The volume that was published posthumously one year after his death is a wide-ranging text but, as the editions evolved, it became simply a collection of maps and it is in that sense that the word was used from the middle of the 17th century. The neologism coined by Mercator was a mark of his respect for the Titan, Atlas, the "King of Mauretania", whom he considered to be the first great geographer.


title: Atlas

text: The first work that contained systematically arranged maps of uniform size representing the first modern atlas was prepared by Italian cartographer Pietro Coppo in the early 16th century; however, it was not published at that time, so it is conventionally not considered the first atlas. Rather, that title is awarded to the collection of maps by the Brabantian cartographer Abraham Ortelius printed in 1570.


title: Atlas

text: Atlases published nowadays are quite different from those published in the 16th–19th centuries. Unlike today, most atlases were not bound and ready for the customer to buy, but their possible components were shelved separately. The client could select the contents to their liking, and have the maps coloured/gilded or not. The atlas was then bound. Thus, early printed atlases with the same title page can be different in contents.


title: Atlas

text: A "travel atlas" is made for easy use during travel, and often has spiral bindings, so it may be folded flat (for example, Geographers' A–Z Map Company's A–Z atlases). It has maps at a large zoom so the maps can be reviewed easily. A travel atlas may also be referred to as a "road map".


title: Conakry

text: Conakry (; ; ; N’ko: ߞߐߣߊߞߙߌ߫, Fula: "Konaakiri" 𞤑𞤮𞤲𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤭𞤪𞤭) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973.


title: Conakry

text: The current population of Conakry is difficult to ascertain, although the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of African Affairs has estimated it at two million, accounting for one-sixth of the entire population of the country.


title: Conakry

text: Conakry was originally settled on the small Tombo Island and later spread to the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula, a stretch of land wide. The city was essentially founded after Britain ceded the island to France in 1887. In 1885 the two island villages of Conakry and Boubinet had fewer than 500 inhabitants. Conakry became the capital of French Guinea in 1904 and prospered as an export port, particularly after a railway (now closed) to Kankan opened up the interior of the country for the large-scale export of groundnut.


title: Conakry

text: In the decades after independence, the population of Conakry boomed, from 50,000 inhabitants in 1958 to 600,000 in 1980, to over two million today. Its small land area and relative isolation from the mainland, while an advantage to its colonial founders, has created an infrastructural burden since independence.


title: Conakry

text: In 1970 conflict between Portuguese forces and the PAIGC in neighbouring Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) spilled into the Republic of Guinea when a group of 350 Portuguese troops and Guinean loyalists landed near Conakry, attacked the city and freed 26 Portuguese prisoners of war held by the PAIGC before retreating, having failed to overthrow the government or kill the PAIGC leadership.


title: Conakry

text: According to human rights groups, 157 people died during the 2009 Guinea protest when the military junta opened fire against tens of thousands of protesters in the city on 28 September 2009.


title: Conakry

text: Originally situated on Tombo Island, one of the Îles de Los, it has since spread up the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula.


title: Conakry

text: According to Köppen climate classification, Conakry features a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification: "Am"). Conakry features a wet season and a dry season. Like most of West Africa, Conakry's dry season is dominated by the harmattan wind between December and April. As a result, almost no rain falls in the city during these months.


title: Conakry

text: Compared to most of West Africa, Conakry's wet season sees an extraordinary amount of rainfall, averaging more than in both July and August. As a result, Conakry's average annual rainfall totals nearly . However, the dry season is still dry, with January and February only receiving of rainfall on average. Sunshine is lower in the wet season than the dry season, with August receiving the least sunshine and March receiving the most.


title: Conakry

text: Conakry is a special city with a single region and prefecture government. The local government of the city was decentralized in 1991 between five municipal "communes" headed by a mayor. From the tip in the southwest, these are:


title: Conakry

text: The five urban communes make up the Conakry Region, one of the eight Regions of Guinea, which is headed by a governor. At the second-tier prefecture level, the city is designated as the Conakry Special Zone, though the prefecture and regional government are one and the same. At an estimated two million inhabitants, it is far and away the largest city in Guinea, making up almost a quarter of the nation's population and making it more than four times bigger than its nearest rival, Kankan.


title: Conakry

text: Conakry is Guinea's largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic centre. The city's economy revolves largely around the port, which has modern facilities for handling and storing cargo, through which alumina and bananas are shipped. Manufactures include food products and cement, metal manufactures, and fuel products.


title: Conakry

text: Periodic power and water cuts have been a daily burden for Conakry's residents since early 2002. Government and power company officials blame the drought of February 2001 for a failure of the hydro-electric supply to the capital, and a failure of aging machinery for the continuation of the crisis. Critics of the government cite mismanagement, corruption and the withdrawal of the power agency's French partner at the beginning of 2002. , much of the city has no traffic lighting in the overnight hours.


title: Conakry

text: Popular anger at shortages in Conakry was entwined with anti-government protests, strikes, and violence against the rule of President Lansana Conté and the successive prime ministers Cellou Dalein Diallo and Eugène Camara appointed to fill the post after the resignation of Prime Minister François Lonseny Fall in April 2004. Violence reached a peak in January–February 2007 in a general strike, which saw over one hundred deaths when the Army confronted protesters.


title: Conakry

text: Conakry is serviced by Conakry International Airport which has flights to several cities in West Africa and Europe.


title: Conakry

text: Important Islamic mosques in the city include the Grand Mosque of Conakry. There are also Christian churches and temples, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Conakry's Cathédrale Sainte-Marie, the Église Protestante Évangélique de Guinée (Alliance World Fellowship), and the Assemblies of God.


title: Bacillus

text: Bacillus (Latin "stick") is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum "Bacillota", with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of other so-shaped bacteria; and the plural "Bacilli" is the name of the class of bacteria to which this genus belongs. "Bacillus" species can be either obligate aerobes which are dependent on oxygen, or facultative anaerobes which can survive in the absence of oxygen. Cultured "Bacillus" species test positive for the enzyme catalase if oxygen has been used or is present.


title: Bacillus

text: "Bacillus" can reduce themselves to oval endospores and can remain in this dormant state for years. The endospore of one species from Morocco is reported to have survived being heated to 420 °C. Endospore formation is usually triggered by a lack of nutrients: the bacterium divides within its cell wall, and one side then engulfs the other. They are not true spores (i.e., not an offspring). Endospore formation originally defined the genus, but not all such species are closely related, and many species have been moved to other genera of the "Bacillota". Only one endospore is formed per cell. The spores are resistant to heat, cold, radiation, desiccation, and disinfectants. "Bacillus anthracis" needs oxygen to sporulate; this constraint has important consequences for epidemiology and control. In vivo, "B. anthracis" produces a polypeptide (polyglutamic acid) capsule that kills it from phagocytosis. The genera "Bacillus" and "Clostridium" constitute the family "Bacillaceae". Species are identified by using morphologic and biochemical criteria. Because the spores of many "Bacillus" species are resistant to heat, radiation, disinfectants, and desiccation, they are difficult to eliminate from medical and pharmaceutical materials and are a frequent cause of contamination. Not only are they resistant to heat, radiation, etc., but they are also resistant to chemicals such as antibiotics. This resistance allows them to survive for many years and especially in a controlled environment. "Bacillus" species are well known in the food industries as troublesome spoilage organisms.


title: Bacillus

text: Ubiquitous in nature, "Bacillus" includes symbiotic (sometimes referred to as endophytes) as well as independent species. Two parasitic pathogenic species are medically significant: "B. anthracis" causes anthrax; and "B. cereus" causes food poisoning.


title: Bacillus

text: Many species of "Bacillus" can produce copious amounts of enzymes, which are used in various industries, such as in the production of alpha amylase used in starch hydrolysis and the protease subtilisin used in detergents. "B. subtilis" is a valuable model for bacterial research.


title: Bacillus

text: Some "Bacillus" species can synthesize and secrete lipopeptides, in particular surfactins and mycosubtilins. "Bacillus" species are also found in marine sponges. Marine sponge associated "Bacillus subtilis" (strains WS1A and YBS29) can synthesize several antimicrobial peptides. These "Bacillus subtilis" strains can develop disease resistance in "Labeo rohita".


title: Bacillus

text: The cell wall of "Bacillus" is a structure on the outside of the cell that forms the second barrier between the bacterium and the environment, and at the same time maintains the rod shape and withstands the pressure generated by the cell's turgor. The cell wall is made of teichoic and teichuronic acids. "B. subtilis" is the first bacterium for which the role of an actin-like cytoskeleton in cell shape determination and peptidoglycan synthesis was identified and for which the entire set of peptidoglycan-synthesizing enzymes was localized. The role of the cytoskeleton in shape generation and maintenance is important.


title: Bacillus

text: "Bacillus" species are rod-shaped, endospore-forming aerobic or facultatively anaerobic, Gram-positive bacteria; in some species cultures may turn Gram-negative with age. The many species of the genus exhibit a wide range of physiologic abilities that allow them to live in every natural environment. Only one endospore is formed per cell. The spores are resistant to heat, cold, radiation, desiccation, and disinfectants.


title: Bacillus

text: The genus "Bacillus" was named in 1835 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, to contain rod-shaped (bacillus) bacteria. He had seven years earlier named the genus "Bacterium". "Bacillus" was later amended by Ferdinand Cohn to further describe them as spore-forming, Gram-positive, aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria. Like other genera associated with the early history of microbiology, such as "Pseudomonas" and "Vibrio", the 266 species of "Bacillus" are ubiquitous. The genus has a very large ribosomal 16S diversity.


title: Bacillus

text: Established methods for isolating "Bacillus" species for culture primarily involve suspension of sampled soil in distilled water, heat shock to kill off vegetative cells leaving primarily viable spores in the sample, and culturing on agar plates with further tests to confirm the identity of the cultured colonies. Additionally, colonies which exhibit characteristics typical of "Bacillus" bacteria can be selected from a culture of an environmental sample which has been significantly diluted following heat shock or hot air drying to select potential "Bacillus" bacteria for testing.


title: Bacillus

text: Cultured colonies are usually large, spreading, and irregularly shaped. Under the microscope, the "Bacillus" cells appear as rods, and a substantial portion of the cells usually contain oval endospores at one end, making them bulge.


title: Bacillus

text: S.I. Paul et al. (2021) isolated and identified multiple strains of "Bacillus" species (strains WS1A, YBS29, KSP163A, OA122, ISP161A, OI6, WS11, KSP151E, S8) from marine sponges of the Saint Martin's Island Area of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. Based on their study, colony, morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of "Bacillus" spp. are shown in the Table below.


title: Bacillus

text: Three proposals have been presented as representing the phylogeny of the genus "Bacillus". The first proposal, presented in 2003, is a "Bacillus"-specific study, with the most diversity covered using 16S and the ITS regions. It divides the genus into 10 groups. This includes the nested genera "Paenibacillus, Brevibacillus, Geobacillus, Marinibacillus" and "Virgibacillus".


title: Bacillus

text: The second proposal, presented in 2008, constructed a 16S (and 23S if available) tree of all validated species. The genus "Bacillus" contains a very large number of nested taxa and majorly in both 16S and 23S. It is paraphyletic to the Lactobacillales ("Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Listeria", etc.), due to "Bacillus coahuilensis" and others.


title: Bacillus

text: A third proposal, presented in 2010, was a gene concatenation study, and found results similar to the 2008 proposal, but with a much more limited number of species in terms of groups. (This scheme used "Listeria" as an outgroup, so in light of the ARB tree, it may be "inside-out").


title: Bacillus

text: One clade, formed by "Bacillus anthracis", "Bacillus cereus", "Bacillus mycoides", "Bacillus pseudomycoides", "Bacillus thuringiensis", and "Bacillus weihenstephanensis" under the 2011 classification standards, should be a single species (within 97% 16S identity), but due to medical reasons, they are considered separate species (an issue also present for four species of "Shigella" and "Escherichia coli").


title: Bacillus

text: A phylogenomic study of 1104 "Bacillus" proteomes was based on 114 core proteins and delineated the relationships among the various species, defined as "Bacillus" from the NCBI taxonomy. The various strains were clustered into species, based on Average Nucleotide identity (ANI) values, with a species cutoff of 95%.


title: Bacillus

text: "Bacillus" species are ubiquitous in nature, e.g. in soil. They can occur in extreme environments such as high pH ("B. alcalophilus"), high temperature ("B. thermophilus"), and high salt concentrations ("B. halodurans"). They also are very commonly found as endophytes in plants where they can play a critical role in their immune system, nutrient absorption and nitrogen fixing capabilities. "B. thuringiensis" produces a toxin that can kill insects and thus has been used as insecticide. "B. siamensis" has antimicrobial compounds that inhibit plant pathogens, such as the fungi "Rhizoctonia solani" and "Botrytis cinerea", and they promote plant growth by volatile emissions. Some species of "Bacillus" are naturally competent for DNA uptake by transformation.


title: Bacillus

text: Many "Bacillus" species are able to secrete large quantities of enzymes. "Bacillus amyloliquefaciens" is the source of a natural antibiotic protein barnase (a ribonuclease), alpha amylase used in starch hydrolysis, the protease subtilisin used with detergents, and the BamH1 restriction enzyme used in DNA research.


title: Bacillus

text: A portion of the "Bacillus thuringiensis" genome was incorporated into corn (and cotton) crops. The resulting GMOs are resistant to some insect pests. "Bacillus subtilis" (natto) is the key microbial participant in the ongoing production of the soya-based traditional natto fermentation, and some "Bacillus" species are on the Food and Drug Administration's GRAS (generally regarded as safe) list. The capacity of selected "Bacillus" strains to produce and secrete large quantities (20–25 g/L) of extracellular enzymes has placed them among the most important industrial enzyme producers. The ability of different species to ferment in the acid, neutral, and alkaline pH ranges, combined with the presence of thermophiles in the genus, has led to the development of a variety of new commercial enzyme products with the desired temperature, pH activity, and stability properties to address a variety of specific applications. Classical mutation and (or) selection techniques, together with advanced cloning and protein engineering strategies, have been exploited to develop these products. Efforts to produce and secrete high yields of foreign recombinant proteins in "Bacillus" hosts initially appeared to be hampered by the degradation of the products by the host proteases. Recent studies have revealed that the slow folding of heterologous proteins at the membrane-cell wall interface of Gram-positive bacteria renders them vulnerable to attack by wall-associated proteases. In addition, the presence of thiol-disulphide oxidoreductases in "B. subtilis" may be beneficial in the secretion of disulphide-bond-containing proteins. Such developments from our understanding of the complex protein translocation machinery of Gram-positive bacteria should allow the resolution of current secretion challenges and make "Bacillus" species preeminent hosts for heterologous protein production. "Bacillus" strains have also been developed and engineered as industrial producers of nucleotides, the vitamin riboflavin, the flavor agent ribose, and the supplement poly-gamma-glutamic acid. With the recent characterization of the genome of "B. subtilis" 168 and of some related strains, "Bacillus" species are poised to become the preferred hosts for the production of many new and improved products as we move through the genomic and proteomic era.


title: Bacillus

text: "Bacillus subtilis" is one of the best understood prokaryotes, in terms of molecular and cellular biology. Its superb genetic amenability and relatively large size have provided the powerful tools required to investigate a bacterium from all possible aspects. Recent improvements in fluorescent microscopy techniques have provided novel insight into the dynamic structure of a single cell organism. Research on "B. subtilis" has been at the forefront of bacterial molecular biology and cytology, and the organism is a model for differentiation, gene/protein regulation, and cell cycle events in bacteria.


title: Spencer Stone

text: Spencer John Stone (born August 13, 1992) is an American former United States Air Force staff sergeant. In August 2015, Stone, along with friends Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler and three other passengers, as well as an off-duty conductor, while travelling from Amsterdam on a high speed, Paris-bound train, disarmed and subdued a solitary, heavily armed Moroccan terrorist. Three days later, French President François Hollande awarded Stone, Sadler, and Skarlatos, as well as British citizen Chris Norman, the Legion of Honour. Stone was recognized by U.S. Ambassador to France Jane D. Hartley for "his actions in saving countless lives" and by U.S. President Barack Obama, with a ceremony held at The Pentagon to honor the trio. For his bravery, Stone was awarded the Airman's Medal and a Purple Heart.


title: Spencer Stone

text: On October 8, 2015, Stone was stabbed during a fight in Sacramento and was released from the hospital on October 15. He was promoted to senior airman in late October and then staff sergeant in November 2015. In 2018, he portrayed himself in the Clint Eastwood-directed film "" which was based on the 2016 book of the same name detailing his experiences with Skarlatos and Sadler.


title: Spencer Stone

text: Spencer John Stone was born on August 13, 1992, in Sacramento, California, to Brian Stone and Joyce Eskel. Stone has two siblings; an older brother Everett, who is a California Highway Patrolman in Redwood City, California and an older sister, Kelly. Growing up in Carmichael, California, Stone met his now-best friends Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler while attending the small K-12 Freedom Christian School in Fair Oaks, California, continuing their friendship into adulthood. All three men are described as sharing "a deeply religious background and a belief in service to their community" and identify themselves as Christians. His mom stated that he wanted to become a soldier, watching countless Navy SEAL videos with him. Stone later attended Del Campo High School where he played football, basketball, and other contact sports. Stone played basketball in junior year through to senior year. A teacher and coach said Stone was always looking out for family and friends: "His blue-collar attitude and how he cared about others, he would have been the one to step up rather than curl into a ball," and that, "He was always trying to pick up his teammates, giving them a high five."


title: Spencer Stone

text: On August 21, 2015, Stone and his childhood friends Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler were traveling together during a sightseeing vacation in Europe when they boarded Thalys train 9364 from Amsterdam bound for Paris via Brussels. Stone had been serving at the United States Air Force 65th Air Base Group and was on leave before returning home. A 25-year-old Moroccan man, Ayoub El-Khazzani, was in train car No. 12, armed with a fully automatic Draco short barrel carbine and carrying an additional nine 30-round magazines of ammunition. Several people tried to stop the gunman, but failed to do so. Sadler reported that they heard a gunshot and breaking glass behind them, seeing an employee sprint down the aisle away from a shirtless man bearing a carbine. Stone had been awakened by the sound of the shot and of the breaking glass, with Skarlatos telling Stone to go. Armenian-American teacher and musician Mark Moogalian had wrested the carbine from Ayoub El-Khazzani, the terrorist, but was grievously wounded, shot by a Luger pistol his assailant had retained, who then retrieved his carbine from the floor. After the Draco misfired, Stone rushed El-Khazzani, tackling the terrorist. While holding him on the floor, Stone was stabbed up in the neck and eyebrow and had his thumb nearly severed. Skarlatos picked up the assailant's rifle, beating him in the head with its muzzle. Skarlatos stated that "I was thinking about survival," and "[i]t was to survive and for everybody else on the train to make it." After the gunman was disarmed and subdued, and until he was relieved by French EMT's at the next stop, Stone provided continuing life-saving first aid to Moogalian, who had received a bullet through his back, chest and neck. Moogalian's wife, Isabelle Risacher-Moogalian, credited Stone for saving her husband's life. Stone was transferred to the central hospital in Lille, France, and underwent treatment in Germany, before returning home to California on September 3, 2015.


title: Spencer Stone

text: After the event, Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler received international attention for their actions in preventing the attack. French president François Hollande awarded Stone, his friends Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler, as well as British businessman Chris Norman, France's highest decoration, Knights of the Legion of Honour ("Chevaliers de la Légion d'honneur"). Hollande said the men "faced [off] with terror" and that they "gave us a lesson in courage, in will, and therefore in hope". French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised them for their bravery, as did then-British Prime Minister David Cameron.


title: Spencer Stone

text: The White House expressed gratitude for "courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including U.S. service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker..." U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned the three Americans, thanking them for their heroic actions. General Philip M. Breedlove of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, added his voice, calling the three Americans heroes for their actions which "clearly illustrate the courage and commitment our young men and women have all the time, whether they are on duty or on leave."


title: Spencer Stone

text: Kevin Johnson, mayor of Sacramento, California, held a parade to honor Skarlatos, Sadler, Stone, and the victims of the September 11 attacks. Stone was awarded a United States Air Force Airman's Medal and a Purple Heart at a ceremony held at The Pentagon. The Airman's Medal is infrequently awarded, and is only given for marked heroism outside of combat.


title: Spencer Stone

text: The trial of the terrorist and his three alleged accomplices went forward in November 2020. Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos were scheduled to testify, but Stone was hospitalized in France for undisclosed reasons and his testimony was delayed. Despite that, the prosecutors got the sentences they sought: El Khazzani, for attempted murders and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, received a life sentence, while the three accomplices who helped him to travel from Syria to France and armed him, Bilal Chatra, Rédouane El Amrani Ezzerrifi, and Mohamed Bakkali, received 27 years, 7 years, and 25 years, respectively. El Khazzani admitted that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed by French police in 2015, had masterminded the attack.


title: Spencer Stone

text: After high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and went on to become an aerospace medical services technician. Stone was initially assigned to the 60th Medical Operations Squadron pediatrics flight at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, as an intake clerk for children who needed to be treated, and trained at United States Forces Azores. João Santos, a trainer of Stone, said that he is "a really nice guy, polite, well-educated and very keen on learning." In October 2015, Stone was promoted to the rank of senior airman at Travis Air Force Base in California, due to the bold acts in France. Following this promotion, Stone was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant, effective November 1, 2016, by the order of United States Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III. Stone commented, saying "It is an honor to be promoted to staff sergeant, and I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to lead my fellow airmen," and that "I am ready for the growth and challenges that are ahead of me."


title: Spencer Stone

text: In January 2015, Stone attended the Airman Leadership School to become a non-commissioned officer. Stone announced he would be leaving the United States Air Force in November 2016 after having met with U.S. Ambassador to France Jane D. Hartley. He further piqued his interest in international relations. He plans on pursuing a degree in international relations at the University of California, Los Angeles or the University of Southern California.


title: Spencer Stone

text: Since his departure from the United States Air Force, Stone has made several public appearances. Honored at the Spike's annual 2016 Guys' Choice Awards, Stone and his friends Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler accepted the hero award on June 4, 2016, from actor Clint Eastwood, sharing a conversation with him backstage. "People try and ask us what's the coolest things we've done, but I can name 100. It's hard to categorize them," Stone said.


title: Spencer Stone

text: It was announced in January 2016 that Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler were working with international correspondent and author Jeffrey E. Stern on a memoir entitled "The 15:17 to Paris". It would feature the events of the 2015 Thalys train attack. A publicist for Perseus Books Group sensationalized their forthcoming memoir as "the gripping true story of a terrorist attack that would have killed more than 500 people if not for their actions, but it is also the story of three American boys, their friendship, and the values we hold dear." David Steinberger, president and chief executive officer of Perseus, said that he was "confident that this is going to be a film. It's extremely cinematic, and there's a lot of interest in the movie." He continued, "based on the material, that this was going to be an important book and one that readers were really going to respond to." The memoir was made available to the public on August 23, 2016, almost a year after the 2015 Thalys train attack. In the acknowledgements, Stone stated that he "give[s] all the credit to God" and made further acknowledgement of his family, friends, the United States Air Force, the citizens of Sacramento and the United States Armed Forces.