title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: He was born in a religious Chitraguptvanshi Kayastha family in Patna, Bihar. His father Thakur Prasad was a senior advocate at the Patna High Court and one of the leading founders of the Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. His sister Anuradha Prasad is the owner of BAG Films and Media Ltd, and the wife of Congress politician Rajeev Shukla.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad earned BA Hons, MA (Political Science) and LL.B degrees from Patna University. He became a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in 1969. Prasad participated in the student movement in Bihar led by Jayaprakash Narayan, and was imprisoned during the Emergency.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad has been practising at the Patna High Court (HC) since 1980. He was designated Senior Advocate at the Patna HC in 1999 and Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India in 2000. He was General Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties in Bihar.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad appeared in the Ram Janmabhoomi Ayodhya dispute representing "'Ram Lalla"', the deity, in the case. He defended Lal Krishna Advani in court when the latter was arrested in Bihar during his Rath Yatra in 1990. He was also the main lawyer arguing the PIL against former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam that led to the jailing of several politicians and officials, including Lalu Prasad.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad began his political career as a student leader under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s, organising protests against Indira Gandhi's government.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: A loyalist of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the beginning of his political career, Prasad was National Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, from 1991 to 1995. He became a Member of the BJP's National Executive Committee in 1995.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: In April 2000, Prasad was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament for the first time. Under Atal Bihari Vajpayee's premiership, Prasad served as Minister of State in the ministries of Coal (2001-2003), where he was responsible for accelerating the coal and mining reforms; Law and Justice (2002-2003); and Information and Broadcasting (2003-2004). As Minister of Information and Broadcasting, he introduced reforms in the radio, television and animation sectors which improved their quality and functioning.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad was appointed as a national spokesperson of the BJP in March 2006, and was later elevated to the post of its Chief National Spokesperson in 2007. In 2010, he became the party's general secretary.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha for a second term in April 2006 and for a third in April 2012. As an MP, he was part of various parliamentary committees, including a joint parliamentary committee to examine matters relating to allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum from 2011 to 2013.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: With the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's victory in the 2014 general election, Prasad rose to become part of the Narendra Modi Cabinet. He was appointed as Minister of Law and Justice and Minister for Communications and Information Technology on 27 May, 2014. He would go on to serve three terms as Law Minister: 27 May to 9 November, 2014; 5 July, 2016 to 25 May, 2019; and 30 May, 2019 to 7 July, 2021; a tenure of more than 5 years that was second only to that of Ashoke Sen. Prasad was Minister of Communications and IT till the ministry's bifurcation on 5 July, 2016 into a Ministry of Communications and a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, following which he took charge of the latter. He was on the job till 25 May, 2019, and again from 30 May, 2019 to 7 July, 2021. During the latter period, he also held the Communications portfolio.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: One of Prasad's first acts after becoming Law Minister in 2014 was introducing legislation for the National Judicial Appointments Commission, which sought to reform the collegium system by which judges select candidates to be appointed as new judges. The collegium system had been criticised as opaque. The law was unanimously passed in Parliament and ratified by more than 20 states. However, in 2015, the Supreme Court of India struck it down, arguing that the Law Minister's presence in the Appointments Commission would cripple judicial independence.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: The following year, the Law Ministry stalled many judges' appointments by objecting to various names recommended by the Supreme Court collegium. Prasad defended the executive in this faceoff with the judiciary by rolling out statistics showing an increased number of judges being appointed in the year 2016.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: A successful conclusion of the Ayodhya dispute was achieved by a Supreme Court judgement in 2019, during Prasad's tenure as Law Minister. The government also received a favourable judgement on the controversy over the purchase of Dassault Rafale fighter planes.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: On 22 August, 2017, the Supreme Court ruled the Muslim practice of instant divorce by uttering the word ""talaq"" thrice, called "talaq-e-biddat" or triple "talaq", as "arbitrary and unconstitutional", violating women's right to equality, and not integral to Islam. Following this landmark verdict, the NDA government tabled The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill in the Lok Sabha in December 2017, seeking to introduce a 3-year jail term for offenders. The opposition criticised the bill for attempting to criminalise a civil wrong, with Law Minister Prasad countering the charges. While the original bill lapsed due to lack of support in the Rajya Sabha, it was passed by both Houses of Parliament on reintroduction in 2019, becoming an Act after receiving Presidential assent on 1 August, 2019. The passage of the bill despite the ruling NDA not having a majority in the Rajya Sabha was seen as a victory for Prasad and the government.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: As Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Prasad spearheaded the NDA government's flagship Digital India programme. Prasad himself has highlighted the common service centre scheme under Digital India, providing digital delivery of services and creating employment, as the biggest achievement of the government in the digital technology sector. He has also pointed out the establishment of business processing and outsourcing units (BPOs) in far-flung areas and the growth of electronic manufacturing units in India as successful government efforts. The UK-based NGO Apolitical adjudged him as one of the top twenty leaders in the list of 100 most influential people in Digital Government in 2018.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: In 2018, Prasad was placed among the top twenty influential world leaders in digital technology and e-government, with his role in the Digital India programme and support for net neutrality.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: In October 2019, Prasad tried to defend the condition of the Indian economy by commenting that "the holiday of October 2 saw earning[s] of over Rs 120 crore by three movies – "War", "Joker" and "Sye Raa"", indicating that "[t]he economy is sound". He also claimed that an NSSO report on unemployment was false. The comment came on the back of industrial output figures released by the government showing how factory output had shrunk by 1.1% in August, recording the poorest performance in seven years. The World Bank had also pointed out the country's widening current account deficit and predicted a further slowdown in economic growth. After coming under sharp criticism from the opposition Congress and CPIM, Prasad withdrew the comment, stating it had been taken out of context.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: Prasad has openly supported the cause of net neutrality, insisting that internet access "is not negotiable" and “walled gardens cannot be allowed”. As Minister for Communications and IT, Prasad had denied Facebook permission for its Free Basics platform in India in 2016, saying it provided access to only a host of websites and services, while excluding the broader internet from its purview.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: On 25 February, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were notified, seeking to regulate social media intermediaries and to tackle misuse of social media. However, Prasad and his Ministry were soon drawn into a bitter spat with Big Tech companies, especially Twitter, over the implementation of these local laws. The tussle escalated as the government removed Twitter's legal protection in India as an "intermediary" on June 16 over its failure to comply with the new IT rules, while Twitter temporarily locked Prasad's official handle on its platform due to a copyright violation.


title: Ravi Shankar Prasad

text: On 3 February 1982, Prasad married Maya Shankar, who is a Historian and Professor of History at Patna University.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: Joe Millionaire is an American reality dating show that premiered on Fox in 2003. The first two seasons of the series followed a group of single women, competing for the affection of a bachelor who was falsely billed as being a millionaire. If the last remaining woman still accepted the love of the bachelor despite the ruse, the couple would also win a high-value prize.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The first season of "Joe Millionaire" premiered on January 6, 2003. The series was highly successful, with Fox promoting that its season finale (seen by an average of 34.6 million viewers) was the highest-rated entertainment program (excluding Super Bowl lead-out programs) aired on network television since 2000. Fox renewed the series for a second season, titled "The Next Joe Millionaire", which premiered as part of Fox's fall lineup later that year.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The second season was not as successful, with its season finale only drawing 9 million viewers, and Fox's head of entertainment Sandy Grushow admitting that the network got "greedy" in trying to repeat the show's "stunt". The format would remain dormant until November 2021, when Fox announced a revival entitled "Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer", which premiered on January 6, 2022. This version features two bachelors, one of whom is secretly a millionaire.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The women were not aware that the bachelor, Evan Marriott, was in fact a working-class construction worker. The Smoking Gun later discovered that Marriott had also been an underwear model. A theme throughout the first season was Marriott's attempt to ascertain which of the twenty contestants were sincere and which ones were simply seeking a wealthy mate. Season 1 was helmed by showrunner and co-executive producer Liz Bronstein, whose vision of the show as a spoof of "The Bachelor" and comedic send-up of reality shows was widely praised.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The show made a minor star out of Paul Hogan, the manservant whose role developed, in the words of the network, "into the glue that held the show together". Hogan was not actually the host of the program: Alex McLeod was the program's host, although she appeared only briefly on each episode for an estimated total of five minutes during the six-episode season.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: Runner-up Sarah Kozer received notoriety when the media reported during the course of the show that she had appeared in bondage videos while she was attending law school. A scene from the show implied that Kozer and Marriott engaged in a sex act while out for a walk together. Marriott and Kozer claim no sex acts occurred. In the VH1 program "VH1 News Presents: Reality TV Secrets Revealed" she alleges that her statement, "let's go somewhere quiet" was in fact spoken while she was receiving a back massage from another female contestant and that the producers dubbed it in during post-editing and added suggestive sound effects and subtitles. The show's editors corroborated this fact later in an interview for "Radar" magazine.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: Zora Andrich was the last woman to be chosen by Marriott, and they split a bonus prize of $1 million. Their relationship did not last.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: "Joe Millionaire" was filmed primarily at the Château de la Bourdaisière in the countryside of the commune of Montlouis-sur-Loire in the Indre-et-Loire département in France. Marriott is said to have made upwards of $2.5 million between Fox Networks payout, personal appearances, and commercials. In 2004, he hosted the less popular (GSN) Game Show Network show "Fake A Date". Marriott went back to contracting in Orange County, California, and started his own business.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The series was highly successful for Fox; the two-hour season finale was seen by at least 34.6 million viewers, which made it one of Fox's highest-rated entertainment programs to-date. Fox stated that, excluding Super Bowl lead-outs, it was the highest-rated entertainment program on television since the finale of "Survivor" in 2000.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The second installment, following the same premise, was set in Northern and Central Italy, primarily at the Villa Oliva in Tuscany. Marriott was replaced by 24-year-old David Smith from Midland, Texas, who, viewers were told, had earned only $11,000 the previous year as a cowboy on the rodeo circuit. Needing to find contestants who were unaware of the first show, the producers went to Europe and cast 14 English-speaking European women from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. During casting, the women were told by Fox casting agents that the show they were going to appear on would involve a group of European women interacting with American men on an island somewhere.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: There was also a new "hostess", a then-unknown Samantha Harris. The butler was, once again, played by Paul Hogan.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: However, the show's popularity dissolved very quickly; Fox's head of entertainment Sandy Grushow stated that "our instincts told us from the very beginning that "Joe Millionaire" was a one-time stunt and I think we got greedy." He added, "We tried to sneak it by the American public a second time and we got called on it."


title: Joe Millionaire

text: The show's climax occurred when one of the contestants, Linda Kazdová, from the Czech Republic, was brought back to the show after eliminating herself and was later selected by Smith as the winner. By that time, though, the show's popularity had irreversibly declined, and no more seasons were produced.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: Instead of sharing a million dollars, as Andrich and Marriott had in the first show, Smith was awarded a ranch in Texas, while Kazdova received $250,000. As with the first installment, the couple's post-show interaction was short-lived, as Smith and Kazdova were separated by distance shortly after the show aired.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: "The Next Joe Millionaire" drew less than 7 million viewers a week with a season finale attracting only 9 million viewers.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: In October 2021, Fox Alternative Entertainment announced that a reboot of the series produced by SallyAnn Salsano, "Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer", would premiere on January 6, 2022. "For Richer or Poorer" features women competing over two bachelors: one of the bachelors is a millionaire, but the women do not know which.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: This season of "Joe Millionaire" has two bachelors: Kurt F. Sowers and Steven McBee. Sowers is a 32-year-old construction manager and CEO from Charlotte, North Carolina and McBee is a 27-year-old farmer and CEO from Gallatin, Missouri. For this season, the butler and host is Martin Andrew.


title: Joe Millionaire

text: A short-lived British version called "Joe Millionaire UK" ran on E4 from November 27, 2003, until January 1, 2004, hosted by Rebecca De Young while the bachelor, in general, was Dominic Lijertwood.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias, also known as the knew-it-all-along phenomenon or creeping determinism, is the common tendency for people to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were. People often believe that after an event has occurred, they would have predicted or perhaps even would have known with a high degree of certainty what the outcome of the event would have been before the event occurred. Hindsight bias may cause distortions of memories of what was known or believed before an event occurred, and is a significant source of overconfidence regarding an individual's ability to predict the outcomes of future events. Examples of hindsight bias can be seen in the writings of historians describing outcomes of battles, physicians recalling clinical trials, and in judicial systems as individuals attribute responsibility on the basis of the supposed predictability of accidents.


title: Hindsight bias

text: The hindsight bias, although it was not yet named, was not a new concept when it emerged in psychological research in the 1970s. In fact, it had been indirectly described numerous times by historians, philosophers, and physicians. In 1973, Baruch Fischhoff attended a seminar where Paul E. Meehl stated an observation that clinicians often overestimate their ability to have foreseen the outcome of a particular case, as they claim to have known it all along. Baruch, a psychology graduate student at the time, saw an opportunity in psychological research to explain these observations.


title: Hindsight bias

text: In the early seventies, investigation of heuristics and biases was a large area of study in psychology, led by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Two heuristics identified by Tversky and Kahneman were of immediate importance in the development of the hindsight bias; these were the availability heuristic and the representativeness heuristic.


title: Hindsight bias

text: In an elaboration of these heuristics, Beyth and Fischhoff devised the first experiment directly testing the hindsight bias. They asked participants to judge the likelihood of several outcomes of US president Richard Nixon's upcoming visit to Beijing (then romanized as Peking) and Moscow. Some time after president Nixon's return, participants were asked to recall (or reconstruct) the probabilities they had assigned to each possible outcome, and their perceptions of the likelihood of each outcome was greater or overestimated for events that actually had occurred. This study is frequently referred to in definitions of the hindsight bias, and the title of the paper, "I knew it would happen," may have contributed to the hindsight bias being interchangeable with the phrase, "knew-it-all-along phenomenon."


title: Hindsight bias

text: In 1975, Fischhoff developed another method for investigating the hindsight bias, which was, at the time, referred to as the "creeping determinism hypothesis". This method involves giving participants a short story with four possible outcomes, one of which they are told is true, and are then asked to assign the likelihood of each particular outcome. Participants frequently assign a higher likelihood of occurrence to whichever outcome they have been told is true. Remaining relatively unmodified, this method is still used in psychological and behavioural experiments investigating aspects of the hindsight bias. Having evolved from the heuristics of Tversky and Kahneman into the creeping determinism hypothesis and finally into the hindsight bias as we now know it, the concept has many practical applications and is still at the forefront of research today. Recent studies involving the hindsight bias have investigated the effect age has on the bias, , and how it may affect banking and investment strategies.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias has been found to be more likely occur when the outcome of an event is negative rather than positive. This is a phenomenon consistent with the general tendency for people to pay more attention to negative outcomes of events than positive outcomes.


title: Hindsight bias

text: In addition, hindsight bias is affected by the severity of the negative outcome. In malpractice lawsuits, it has been found that the more severe a negative outcome is, the juror's hindsight bias is more dramatic. In a perfectly objective case, the verdict would be based on the physician's standard of care instead of the outcome of the treatment; however, studies show that cases ending in severe negative outcomes (such as death) result in a higher level of hindsight bias.


title: Hindsight bias

text: For example, in 1996, LaBine proposed a scenario where a psychiatric patient told a therapist that he was contemplating harming another individual. The therapist did not warn the other individual of the possible danger. Participants were each given one of three possible outcomes; the threatened individual either received no injuries, minor injuries, or serious injuries. Participants were then asked to determine if the doctor should be considered negligent. Participants in the "serious injuries" condition were not only more likely to rate the therapist as negligent but also rated the attack as more foreseeable. Participants in the no injuries and minor injury categories were more likely to see the therapist's actions as reasonable.


title: Hindsight bias

text: The role of surprise can help explain the malleability of hindsight bias. Surprise influences how the mind reconstructs pre-outcome predictions in three ways:


title: Hindsight bias

text: 1. Surprise is a direct metacognitive heuristic to estimate the distance between outcome and prediction.


title: Hindsight bias

text: 3. Surprise biases this process ( the malleability of hindsight bias) by enhancing the recall of surprise-congruent information and expectancy-based hypothesis testing.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Pezzo's sense-making model supports two contradicting ideas of a surprising outcome. The results can show a lesser hindsight bias or possibly a reversed effect, where the individual believes the outcome was not a possibility at all. The outcome can also lead to the hindsight bias being magnified to have a stronger effect. The sense-making process is triggered by an initial surprise. If the sense-making process does not complete and the sensory information is not detected or coded [by the individual], the sensation is experienced as a surprise and the hindsight bias has a gradual reduction. When the sense-making process is lacking, the phenomena of reversed hindsight bias is created. Without the sense-making process being present, there is no remnant of thought about the surprise. This can lead to a sensation of not believing the outcome as a possibility.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Along with the emotion of surprise, the personality traits of an individual affect hindsight bias. A new C model is an approach to figure out the bias and accuracy in human inferences because of their individual personality traits. This model integrates on accurate personality judgments and hindsight effects as a by-product of knowledge updating.


title: Hindsight bias

text: During the study, three processes showed potential to explain the occurrence of hindsight effects in personality judgments:


title: Hindsight bias

text: After two studies, it was clear that there were hindsight effects for each of the Big Five personality dimensions. Evidence was found that both the utilization of more valid cues and changes in cue perceptions of the individual, but not changes in the consistency with which cue knowledge is applied, account for the hindsight effects. During both of these studies, participants were presented with target pictures and were asked to judge each target's levels of the Big Five personality traits.


title: Hindsight bias

text: In a study of 75 participants, researchers tested 10 personalities about hindsight bias.  This study conducted three comparisons of hindsight estimation with foresight estimation (memory conditioning), hindsight estimation with forward estimation with other participants, and hindsight estimation with foresight estimation. The participants in these comparisons were all Demonstrated hindsight bias.  Personality measures cannot account for memory hindsight in multiple regression analysis. Hindsight in individual differences is present but must be accounted for in the full effect model.


title: Hindsight bias

text: It is more difficult to test for hindsight bias in children than adults due to the verbal methods used in experiments on adults are too complex for children to understand, let alone measure bias. Some experimental procedures have been created with visual identification to test children about their hindsight bias in a way they can grasp. Methods with visual images start by presenting a blurry image to the child that becomes clearer over time. In some conditions, the subjects know what the final object is and in others they do not. In cases where the subject knows what the object shape will become when the image is clear, they are asked to estimate the amount of time other participants of similar age will take to guess what the object is. Due to hindsight bias, the estimated times are often much lower than the actual times. This is because the participant is using their personal knowledge while making their estimate.


title: Hindsight bias

text: These types of studies show that children are also affected by hindsight bias. Adults and children with hindsight bias share the core cognitive constraint of being biased to one's own current knowledge when, at the same time, attempting to recall or reason about a more naïve cognitive state—regardless of whether the more naïve state is one's own earlier naïve state or someone else's. Children have a theory of mind, which is their mental state of reasoning. Hindsight bias is a fundamental problem in cognitive perspective-taking. After reviewing developmental literature on hindsight bias and other limitations [of perception], it was found that some of children's limitation in the theory of mind may stem from the same core component as hindsight bias does. This key factor brings forth underlying mechanisms. A developmental approach to [hindsight bias] is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the nature of hindsight bias in social cognition.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias also affects human communications. To test auditory hindsight bias, four experiments were completed.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Experiment one included plain words, in which low-pass filters were used to reduce the amplitude for sounds of consonants; thus making the words more degraded. In the naïve-identification task, participants were presented a warning tone before hearing the degraded words. In the hindsight estimation task, a warning tone was presented before the clear word followed by the degraded version of the word.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Experiment two included words with explicit warnings of the hindsight bias. It followed the same procedure as experiment one. However, the participants were informed and asked not to complete the same error.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Experiment three included full sentences of degraded words rather than individual words. Experiment four included less-degraded words in order to make the words easier to understand and identify to the participants.


title: Hindsight bias

text: By using these different techniques, this offered a different range of detection and also evaluated the ecological validity of the [experiment's] effect. In each experiment, the hindsight estimates of the percentage that their naïve peers can correctly identify the words, all exceed the actual percentages. Therefore, knowing the identities of words caused people to overestimate others' naïve ability to identify moderately to highly degraded spoken versions of those words. People who know the outcome of an event tend to overestimate their own prior knowledge or others' naïve knowledge of the event. As a result, speakersknowing what is being communicatedtend to overestimate the clarity of their message while listenershearing what they want to heartend to overestimate their understanding of ambiguous messages. This miscommunication stems from hindsight bias which then creates a feeling of inevitability. Overall, this auditory hindsight bias occurs despite people's effort to avoid it.


title: Hindsight bias

text: To understand how a person can so easily change the foundation of knowledge and belief for events after receiving new information, three cognitive models of hindsight bias have been reviewed.


title: Hindsight bias

text: SARA and RAFT focus on distortions or changes in a memory process, while CMT focuses on probability judgments of hindsight bias.


title: Hindsight bias

text: The SARA model, created by Rüdiger Pohl and associates, explains hindsight bias for descriptive information in memory and hypothetical situations. Memory design is when the participants make foresight judgements, and then recall them in hindsight. Hypothetical design is when participants make hindsight judgements as if they had not known the outcome. SARA assumes that people have a set of images to draw their memories from. They suffer from the hindsight bias due to of that set of images.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Basically, people only remember small, select amounts of information—and when asked to recall it later, use that biased image to support their own opinions about the situation. The set of images is originally processed in the brain when first experienced. When remembered, this image reactivates, and the mind can edit and alter the memory, which takes place in hindsight bias when new and correct information is presented, leading one to believe that this new information, when remembered at a later time, is the persons original memory. Due to this reactivation in the brain, there may be permanent changes to the existing memory trace. The new information acts as a memory anchor causing retrieval impairment.


title: Hindsight bias

text: The RAFT model explains hindsight bias with comparisons of objects. It uses knowledge-based probability then applies interpretations to those probabilities. When given two choices, a person recalls the information on both topics and makes assumptions based on how reasonable they find the information. An example case is someone comparing the size of two cities. If they know one city well (e.g. because it has a popular sporting team or through personal history) and know much less about the other, their mental cues for the more popular city increase. They then "take the best" option in their assessment of their own probabilities. For example, they recognize a city due to knowing of its sports team, and thus they assume that that city has the highest population. "Take the best" refers to a cue that is viewed as most valid and becomes support for the person's interpretations. RAFT is a by-product of adaptive learning. Feedback information updates a person's knowledge base. This can lead a person to be unable to retrieve the initial information, because the information cue has been replaced by a cue that they thought was more fitting. The "best" cue has been replaced, and the person only remembers the answer that is most likely and believes they thought this was the best point the whole time.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Both SARA and RAFT descriptions include a memory trace impairment or cognitive distortion that is caused by feedback of information and reconstruction of memory.


title: Hindsight bias

text: CMT is a non-formal theory based on work by many researchers to create a collaborative process model for hindsight bias that involves event outcomes. People try to make sense of an event that has not turned out how they expected by creating causal reasoning for the starting event conditions. This can give that person the idea that the event outcome was inevitable and there was nothing that could take place to prevent it from happening. CMT can be caused by a discrepancy between a person's expectation of the event and the reality of an outcome. They consciously want to make sense of what has happened and selectively retrieve memory that supports the current outcome. This causal attribution can be motivated by wanting to feel more positive about the outcome and possibly themselves.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias has similarities to other memory distortions, such as misinformation effect and false autobiographical memory. Misinformation effect occurs after an event is witnessed; new information received after the fact influences how the person remembers the event, and can be called post-event misinformation. This is an important issue with an eyewitness testimony. False autobiographical memory takes place when suggestions or additional outside information is provided to distort and change memory of events; this can also lead to false memory syndrome. At times this can lead to creation of new memories that are completely false and have not taken place.


title: Hindsight bias

text: All three of these memory distortions contain a three-stage procedure. The details of each procedure are different, but all three can result in some form of psychological manipulation and alteration of memory. Stage one is different between the three paradigms, although all involve an event, an event that has taken place (misinformation effect), an event that has not taken place (false autobiographical memory), and a judgment made by a person about an event that must be remembered (hindsight bias). Stage two consists of more information that is received by the person after the event has taken place. The new information given in hindsight bias is correct and presented upfront to the person, while the extra information for the other two memory distortions is wrong and presented in an indirect and possibly manipulative way. The third stage consists of recalling the starting information. The person must recall the original information with hindsight bias and misinformation effect, while a person that has a false autobiographical memory is expected to remember the incorrect information as a true memory.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Cavillo (2013) tested whether there is a relationship between the amount of time the people performing the experiment gave the participants to respond and the participant's level of bias when recalling their initial judgements. The results showed that there is in fact a relationship; the hindsight bias index was greater among the participants who were asked to respond more rapidly than among the participants who were allowed more time to respond.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Distortions of autobiographical memory produced by hindsight bias have also been used as a tool to study changes in students' beliefs about paranormal phenomena after taking a university level skepticism course. In a study by Kane (2010), students in Kane's skepticism class rated their level of belief in a variety of paranormal phenomena at both the beginning and at the end of the course. At the end of the course they also rated what they remembered their level of belief had been at the beginning of the course. The critical finding was that not only did students reduce their average level of belief in paranormal phenomena by the end of the course, they also falsely remembered the level of belief they held at the beginning of the course, recalling a much lower level of belief than what they had initially rated. It is the latter finding that is a reflection of the operation of hindsight bias.


title: Hindsight bias

text: To create a false autobiographical memory, the person must believe a memory that is not real. To seem real, the information must be influenced by their own personal judgments. There is no real episode of an event to remember, so this memory construction must be logical to that person's knowledge base. Hindsight bias and the misinformation effect recall a specific time and event; this is called an episodic memory process. These two memory distortions both use memory-based mechanisms that involve a memory trace that has been changed. Hippocampus activation takes place when an episodic memory is recalled. The memory is then available for alteration by new information. The person believes that the recalled information is the original memory trace, not an altered memory. This new memory is made from accurate information, and therefore the person does not have much motivation to admit that they were wrong originally by remembering the original memory. This can lead to motivated forgetting.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Following a negative outcome of a situation, people do not want to accept responsibility. Instead of accepting their role in the event, they might either view themselves as caught up in a situation that was unforeseeable with them therefore not being the culprits (this is referred to as defensive processing) or view the situation as inevitable with there therefore being nothing that could have been done to prevent it (this is retroactive pessimism). Defensive processing involves less hindsight bias, as they are playing ignorant of the event. Retroactive pessimism makes use of hindsight bias after a negative, unwanted outcome. Events in life can be hard to control or predict. It is no surprise that people want to view themselves in a more positive light and do not want to take responsibility for situations they could have altered. This leads to hindsight bias in the form of retroactive pessimism to inhibit upward counterfactual thinking, instead interpreting the outcome as succumbing to an inevitable fate.


title: Hindsight bias

text: This memory inhibition that prevents a person from recalling what really happened may lead to failure to accept mistakes, and therefore may make someone unable to learn and grow to prevent repeating the mistake. Hindsight bias can also lead to overconfidence in decisions without considering other options. Such people see themselves as persons who remember correctly, even though they are just forgetting that they were wrong. Avoiding responsibility is common among the human population. Examples are discussed below to show the regularity and severity of hindsight bias in society.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias has both positive and negative consequences. The bias also plays a role in the process of decision-making within the medical field.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Positive consequences of hindsight bias is an increase in one's confidence and performance, as long as the bias distortion is reasonable and does not create overconfidence. Another positive consequence is that one's self-assurance of their knowledge and decision-making, even if it ends up being a poor decision, can be beneficial to others; allowing others to experience new things or to learn from those who made the poor decisions.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias causes overconfidence in one's own performance relative to others. Hindsight bias decreases one's rational thinking because of when a person experiences strong emotions, which in turn decreases rational thinking. Another negative consequence of hindsight bias is the interference of one's ability to learn from experience, as a person is unable to look back on past decisions and learn from mistakes. A third consequence is a decrease in sensitivity toward a victim by the person who caused the wrongdoing. The person demoralizes the victim and does not allow for a correction of behaviors and actions.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias may lead to overconfidence and malpractice in regards to doctors. Hindsight bias and overconfidence is often attributed to the number of years of experience the doctor has. After a procedure, doctors may have a “knew it the whole time” attitude, when in reality they may not have actually known it. In an effort to avoid hindsight bias, doctors use a computer-based decision support system that help the doctor diagnose and treat their patients correctly and accurately.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias has also been found to affect judgments regarding the perception of visual stimuli, an effect referred to as the “I saw it all along” phenomenon. This effect has been demonstrated experimentally by presenting participants with initially very blurry images of celebrities. Participants then viewed the images as the images resolved to full clarity (Phase 1). Following Phase 1, participants predicted the level of blur at which a peer would be able to make an accurate identification of each celebrity. It was found that, now that the identity of the celebrities in each image was known, participants significantly overestimated the ease with which others would be able to identify the celebrities when the images were blurry.


title: Hindsight bias

text: The phenomenon of visual hindsight bias has important implications for a form of malpractice litigation that occurs in the field of radiology. Typically, in these cases, a radiologist is charged with having failed to detect the presence of an abnormality that was actually present in a radiology image. During litigation, a different radiologist – who now knows that the image contains an abnormality – is asked to judge how likely it would be for a naive radiologist to have detected the abnormality during the initial reading of the image. This kind of judgment directly parallels the judgments made in hindsight bias studies. Consistent with the hindsight bias literature, it has been found that abnormalities are, in fact, more easily detected in hindsight than foresight. In the absence of controls for hindsight bias, testifying radiologists may overestimate the ease with which the abnormality would have been detected in foresight.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Research suggests that people still exhibit the hindsight bias even when they are aware of it or possess the intention of eradicating it. There is no solution to eliminate hindsight bias in its totality, but only ways to reduce it. Some of these include considering alternative explanations or opening one's mind to different perspectives. The only observable way to decrease hindsight bias in testing is to have the participant think about how alternative hypotheses could be correct. As a result, the participant would doubt the correct hypothesis and report not having chosen it.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Given that researchers' attempts to eliminate hindsight bias have failed, some believe there is a possible combination of motivational and automatic processes in cognitive reconstruction. Incentive prompts participants to use more effort to recover even the weak memory traces. This idea supports the causal model theory and the use of sense-making to understand event outcomes.


title: Hindsight bias

text: A multinomial processing tree (MPT) model was used to identify processes underlying the phenomenon of hindsight bias (HB). A 2015 study extended HB by incorporating individual differences in cognitive function into estimates of core parameters of the model for older and younger adults the MPT model.  The findings suggest that (1) in the absence of outcome knowledge, better episodic memory is associated with higher recall, (2) Better episodic memory and inhibitory control and higher working memory abilities were associated with higher recall abilities in the presence of knowledge of the outcome, (3) Better inhibitory control is associated with less reconstruction bias. Despite a similar pattern of effects in young adults, cognitive covariates did not significantly predict the underlying HB process in this age group.  Overall, the findings of this study suggest that working memory capacity and inhibitory control contribute to individual differences in recall bias and reconstruction bias, respectively, especially in older adults.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Schizophrenia is an example of a disorder that directly affects the hindsight bias. Individuals with schizophrenia are more strongly affected by the hindsight bias than are individuals from the general public.


title: Hindsight bias

text: The hindsight bias effect is a paradigm that demonstrates how recently acquired knowledge influences the recollection of past information. Recently acquired knowledge has a strange but strong influence on schizophrenic individuals in relation to information previously learned. New information combined with rejection of memories can disconfirm behavior and delusional belief, which is typically found in patients with schizophrenia. This can cause faulty memory, which can lead to hindsight thinking and believing in knowing something they don't. Delusion-prone individuals with schizophrenia can falsely jump to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions can lead to hindsight, which strongly influences the delusional conviction in individuals with schizophrenia. In numerous studies, cognitive functional deficits in schizophrenic individuals impair their ability to represent and uphold contextual processing.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the re-experiencing and avoidance of trauma-related stressors, emotions, and memories from a past event or events that has cognitive dramatizing impact on an individual. PTSD can be attributed to the functional impairment of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) structure. Dysfunctions of cognitive processing of context and abnormalities that PTSD patients often have can affect hindsight thinking, such as in combat soldiers perceiving they could have altered outcomes of events in war. The PFC and dopamine systems are parts of the brain that can be responsible for the impairment in cognitive control processing of context information. The PFC is well known for controlling the thought process in hindsight bias that something will happen when it evidently does not. Brain impairment in certain brain regions can also affect the thought process of an individual who may engage in hindsight thinking.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Cognitive flashbacks and other associated features from a traumatic event can trigger severe stress and negative emotions such as unpardonable guilt. For example, studies were done on trauma-related guilt characteristics of war veterans with chronic PTSD. Although there has been limited research, significant data suggests that hindsight bias has an effect on war veterans' personal perception of wrongdoing, in terms of guilt and responsibility from traumatic events of war. They blame themselves, and, in hindsight, perceive that they could have prevented what happened.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Accidents are prone to happen in any human undertaking, but accidents occurring within the healthcare system seem more salient and severe because of their profound effect on the lives of those involved and sometimes result in the death of a patient. In the healthcare system, there are a number of methods in which specific cases of accidents that happened being reviewed by others who already know the outcome of the case. Those methods include morbidity and mortality conferences, autopsies, case analysis, medical malpractice claims analysis, staff interviews, and even patient observation. Hindsight bias has been shown to cause difficulties in measuring errors in these cases. Many of the errors are considered preventable after the fact, which clearly indicates the presence and the importance of a hindsight bias in this field. There are two sides in the debate in how these case reviews should be approached to best evaluate past cases: the error elimination strategy and the safety management strategy. The error elimination strategy aims to find the cause of errors, relying heavily on hindsight (therefore more subject to the hindsight bias). The safety management strategy relies less on hindsight (less subject to hindsight bias) and identifies possible constraints during the decision-making process of that case. However, it is not immune to error.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Hindsight bias results in being held to a higher standard in court. The defense is particularly susceptible to these effects since their actions are the ones being scrutinized by the jury. The hindsight bias causes defendants to be judged as capable of preventing the bad outcome. Although much stronger for the defendants, hindsight bias also affects the plaintiffs. In cases that there is an assumption of risk, hindsight bias may contribute to the jurors perceiving the event as riskier because of the poor outcome. That may lead the jury to feel that the plaintiff should have exercised greater caution in the situation. Both effects can be minimized if attorneys put the jury in a position of foresight, rather than hindsight, through the use of language and timelines. Judges and juries are likely to mistakenly view negative events as being more foreseeable than what it really was in the moment when they look at the situation after the fact in court. Encouraging people to explicitly think about the counterfactuals was an effective means of reducing the hindsight bias. In other words, people became less attached to the actual outcome and were more open to consider alternative lines of reasoning prior to the event. Judges involved in fraudulent transfer litigation cases were subject to the hindsight bias as well and result in an unfair advantage for the plaintiff, showing that jurors are not the only ones sensitive to the effects of the hindsight bias in the courtroom.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Since hindsight leads people to focus on information that is consistent with what happened while inconsistent information is ignored or regarded as less relevant, it is likely included in representations about the past as well. In a study of Wikipedia articles the latest article versions before the event (foresight article versions) were compared to two hindsight article versions: the first online after the event took place and another one eight weeks later. To be able to investigate various types of events, even including disasters (such as the nuclear disaster at Fukushima), for which foresight articles do not exist, the authors made use of articles about the structure that suffered damage in those instances (such as the article about the nuclear power plant of Fukushima). When analyzing to what extent the articles were suggestive of a particular event, they found only articles about disasters to be much more suggestive of the disaster in hindsight than in foresight, which indicated hindsight bias. For the remaining event categories, however, Wikipedia articles did not show any hindsight bias. In an attempt to compare individuals' and Wikipedia's hindsight bias more directly, another study came to the conclusion that Wikipedia articles are less susceptible to hindsight bias than individuals' representations.


title: Hindsight bias

text: Financial bubbles are often heavily biased with hindsight after they burst. After the world experienced the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and the Great Recession of 2008.  Many economists have made it clear that what seemed insignificant at the time was actually a harbinger of future financial collapse.  According to economist Richard Thaler, executives are prone to hindsight bias (more so than others). This includes entrepreneurs, who are also prone to hindsight bias. Notably, when asked if their startups will succeed, more than 75% of entrepreneurs with failed startups said they would. However, when asked again after their startup failed, only 58% said they believed their startup would be a success. Hindsight bias can also contribute to startup failure through biased performance evaluations and overentry into competition. Hindsight-biased performance evaluation is also related to inefficient delegation.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Manchester-by-the-Sea (also known simply as Manchester, its name prior to 1989) is a coastal town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is known for scenic beaches and vista points. According to the 2020 population census, the population is 5,395.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The town lies on the southern side of Cape Ann, at the point where the peninsula meets the mainland. The North Shore was populated by the Agawam people prior to European settlement, which began in 1629, about a decade after an epidemic killed much of the native people. Fishing was the major industry in the town almost from its incorporation in 1645, but in the mid-19th century it began to grow as a popular seaside resort community. The town has appeared, either by name or as a filming location, in a number of films and TV shows, notably the eponymous 2016 film "Manchester by the Sea".


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Native Americans inhabited what would become northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas. The area that would become Manchester was inhabited by Agawam people at the time of contact in the early 1600s, who were decimated by virgin soil epidemics especially in 1617–1619, after which fewer than 50 indigenous individuals are estimated to have survived within the modern bounds of Manchester.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Manchester was first settled by English colonists in 1629 and was officially incorporated in 1645. It was formed from territory taken from Salem (that portion since given to Beverly) and Gloucester. In 1700, Manchester selectmen paid three grandchildren of Agawam sachem Masconomet three pounds and nineteen shillings for the rights to the land.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The community thrived primarily as a fishing community for more than 200 years. Beginning in 1845, it started to attract summer residents from the Boston area after poet Richard Dana built a house in the town. Over the next fifty years, development of summer houses along the coastline established the community as Boston society's community of choice for summer residency. The trend continued with designs of houses by architects, such as "Sunny Waters", designed by John Hubbard Sturgis for his older brother, Russell, in 1862.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The best known of these "summer cottages" was Kragsyde, built on Smith's Point in 1883. Commissioned by George Nixon Black, the Peabody and Stearns-designed residence has been hailed as the zenith of the Shingle style substyle of the Queen Anne style of architecture. It was demolished in 1929.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: To prevent confusion with the nearby and much larger city of Manchester, New Hampshire, the name of the town was officially changed in 1989 following a close town meeting vote that year, where it passed by just two votes. This was ratified by an act of the state legislature passed on September 25, 1989. "Manchester by the Sea" was a familiar alternative town name since it was first used in 1877 by Boston publisher James T. Fields while attending an annual summer picnic of the "Manchester Elder Brethren" that still takes place today.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The name change was driven by Edward Corley, a longtime resident of Manchester. All town documents, and the town seal, now use the name "Manchester-by-the-Sea". As a result of some minor resident activism, so do the majority of public and private lists of Massachusetts cities and towns, including that of the state government.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 49.47%, is water. The town lies along the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay, which in turn leads to the Atlantic Ocean. There are seven beaches lining the coast, and several small islands dot the coast, the largest being Kettle Island and House Island.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Several small coves edge the coast, the largest being Manchester Harbor, which is fed by Sawmill Brook and other small bodies of water. There are several protected areas within town, including Cedar Swamp Conservation Area, Cheever Commons Conservation Area, Coolidge Reservation, Dexter Pond, Owl's Nest Nature Preservation Land, Powder House Hill Reservation, and Wyman Hill Conservation Area.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Manchester-by-the-Sea is bordered by Beverly and Wenham to the west, Hamilton to the northwest, Essex to the north, and Gloucester to the east. The town is located northeast of Salem and northeast of Boston.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Manchester-by-the-Sea lies along Massachusetts Route 128, the inner of two beltways around Greater Boston. Route 128 has two exits within town as it passes from Beverly to Gloucester, with a small portion crossing through the corner of Essex. Route 127 also passes from west to east through town, traveling through the center of town. There is no bus service directly into town, with service passing east via the Cape Ann Transportation Authority in Gloucester, and an MBTA bus route providing service to Beverly.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The town is served by a stop along the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail, providing service from Rockport along the North Shore to Boston's North Station. The nearest airport is the Beverly Municipal Airport, with the nearest national and international service at Boston's Logan International Airport.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 5,136 people, 2,147 households, and 1,444 families residing in the town. The population density was 562.7 people per square mile (217.3/km). The racial makeup of the town was 97.6% White, (5,012); 0.9% Asian, (46); 0.2% Native American, (10); 0.1% African American, (5); 0.1% from other races, and 1.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.5% (77) of the population. The median income for a household in the town was $95,243, and the median income for a family was $109,760. About 4.5% of families and 5.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and 3.7% of those age 65 or over.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The local newspaper, "The Manchester Cricket", has published weekly since 1888. The newspaper has been owned by just three families since it began. Within the Cricket, there is a special section dedicated to the neighboring town, Essex. This section is called "The Essex Echo". The town is also served by a regional newspaper, the "Gloucester Daily Times".


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: The Manchester By The Sea Police Department have been subject to controversy including sexual harassment by sworn officers including allegations "that officials had permitted a sexually hostile environment, and that Christopher Locke, an officer in the police department, made a secret recording of [a young woman], violating the state's wiretap law."


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Howard Lewis, who had been appointed as a reserve officer in 2008 and a full-time officer in 2010, had been assigned to the 12 to 8 a.m. shift and served as the department's primary firearms instructor when he was placed on administrative leave amid an internal affairs investigation on Dec. 15, according to Manchester-by-the-Sea Police Chief Edward Conley. An internal affairs investigation determined he stole a firearm from the police station and sold it to a pawn shop for $650.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: Manchester By The Sea Police Department Sergeant John "Jay" Swallow was sentenced to jail for the vicious beating of his wife and weapons charges. He engaged in a physical altercation while pointing a hand gun at both his wife and the family dog.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: from the town center is Singing Beach, so named because the sand comprising the beach squeaks when walked upon. The sand is an iridescent color when the sun sets. This beach is quite popular during summer months in particular, because it is easily accessible from Boston by a walk from the MBTA train station. Also located on this historic beach is the famous tourist attraction "Eaglehead", a rock composite that is the focal point of rock climbing and other recreation activities.


title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

text: It was also featured in a season of the TV series "This Old House", and was featured in a "Main Streets and Back Roads" episode of "Chronicle", a newsmagazine program in New England.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: Waltz with Bashir (, translit. Vals Im Bashir) is a 2008 Israeli adult animated war documentary drama film written, produced, and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman's search for lost memories of his experience as a soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. Subsequently, it received wide acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with particular praise given to its themes, animation, direction, story, and editing, and grossed over $11 million at the global box office. It won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film, the César Award for Best Foreign Film, and the International Documentary Association Award for Best Feature Documentary, and was nominated for many more, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: "Bashir" and the stop-motion "$9.99", both released in 2008, were the first Israeli feature-length animated films released theatrically since "Joseph the Dreamer" in 1962.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: In 2006, Ari Folman meets with Boaz, an old friend who tells Ari he is being haunted by a recurrent nightmare in which 26 rabidly angry dogs run toward his home through the streets of Tel Aviv, destroying everything in their way. Boaz explains that, during the 1982 Lebanon War, the other soldiers in his unit knew he would not be able to murder a human, so they gave him the job of killing the dogs when they infiltrated a village at night so the animals would not alert the villagers to their presence, and he vividly remembers each of the 26 dogs he killed. Ari is surprised to find that, although he had also fought in the conflict during his stint as an infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, he recalls nothing of his deployment. Troubled by this, later that night he has a vision of his younger self and two other soldiers bathing at night in the water just off the coast of Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city. He recognizes the vision as being connected to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, but he cannot remember enough to put this fragment in context.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: Early the next morning, Ari rushes off to see a childhood friend, who is a professional therapist. His friend advises him to seek out others who were in Beirut at the time of the massacre to gain a better understanding of what happened and, hopefully, revive his own memories. The friend further explains that, given the nature of human memory, the vision might not be an exact record of what actually occurred, though it certainly deals with matters of great importance to Ari's inner world.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: Ari interviews friends and other soldiers who fought in the war, as well as a psychologist specializing in PTSD and Israeli TV reporter Ron Ben-Yishai, who was in Beirut covering the war when the massacre took place. Eventually, Ari's memories start to come back into focus, and he remembers that he "was in the second or third ring" of soldiers involved in the massacre, as his unit fired flares into the sky at night in support of the Israeli-allied Lebanese Christian Phalange militia while they perpetrated the massacre. While he did not know what the militia was up to until after they were finished, he concludes that the holes in his memory were a defense mechanism, since his younger self had felt as responsible for the massacre as those who actually carried it out. The film ends with the animation dissolving into actual news footage of the aftermath of the massacre.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: Most of the interview subjects look very similar in real life and in the film, but two of Ari Folman's friends asked that he have an actor rerecord their interviews and have the animators not base the design of their character on their actual appearance.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The film takes its title from a scene in which Shmuel Frenkel, one of the interviewees and the commander of Folman's infantry unit at the time of the film's events, grabs a general purpose machine gun and "dances an insane waltz" (to the tune of Chopin's Waltz in C-sharp minor) amid heavy enemy fire on a Beirut street festooned with huge posters of Bashir Gemayel. The title also refers to Israel's short-lived political waltz with Bashir Gemayel as president of Lebanon.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The film took four years to complete. It is unusual, as it is a feature-length documentary that, excluding one short segment of archival news footage at the end, consists entirely of animation. Stylistically, it combines classical music, 1980s music, realistic graphics, and surrealistic scenes together with illustrations similar to comics.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The animation, with its dark hues representing the overall feel of the film, uses a unique style invented by Yoni Goodman at the Bridgit Folman Film Gang studio in Israel. The technique is often confused with rotoscoping, an animation style in which the drawings are done over live footage, but is actually a combination of Adobe Flash cutouts and classic animation. Each drawing was sliced into hundreds of pieces that were moved in relation to one another to create the illusion of movement. The film was first constructed as a 90-minute video using live-action footage shot in a sound studio, and then turned into storyboards and animatics. From there, 2,300 illustrations were drawn based on the storyboards, which were used to create the actual film scenes using Flash animation, classic animation, and 3D technologies.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The comics medium, in particular Joe Sacco, the novels "Catch-22", "The Adventures of Wesley Jackson", and "Slaughterhouse-Five", and painter Otto Dix, were mentioned by Folman and art director David Polonsky as influences on the film. The film itself was adapted into a graphic novel in 2009.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The score for the film was composed by minimalist electronic musician Max Richter, while the featured songs are by OMD ("Enola Gay"), PiL ("This is Not a Love Song"), Navadey Haukaf (נוודי האוכף, or "Good Morning Lebanon", which was written for the film), Haclique ("Incubator"), and Zeev Tene ("Beirut", which is a remake of the Cake song "I Bombed Korea"). Some reviewers view the music as playing an active role in the film, commentating on events, rather than simply accompanying them.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: "Waltz with Bashir" opened in five theaters in the United States on 25 December 2008, grossing $50,021 in its first weekend. By the end of its run, on 14 May 2009, it had grossed $2,283,849 at the domestic box office. Overseas, "Waltz" earned $8,842,000, for a worldwide total of $11,125,849.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "fresh" rating based on reviews from critics, for an average rating of ; the site's "critics consensus" states: "A wholly innovative, original, and vital history lesson, with pioneering animation, "Waltz With Bashir" delivers its message about the Middle East in a mesmerizing fashion." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 91/100 based on 33 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: "IndieWire" named the film the tenth best of the year, based on the site's annual survey of 100 film critics. Xan Brooks of "The Guardian" called it "an extraordinary, harrowing, provocative picture." The film was praised for "inventing a new cinematographic language" at the Tokyo Filmex festival. The World Socialist Web Site's David Walsh described it as a "painfully honest" anti-war film and "one of the most extraordinary and haunting films at the Toronto film festival." Despite the positive critical reception, the film was only moderately commercially successful in Israel itself.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: Several writers described the film as part of the Israeli "shooting and crying" tradition (where soldiers express remorse about their actions, but do not do anything concrete to remedy the situation), but Folman has disputed this.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The film is banned in some Arab countries (including Lebanon), with the harshest criticism in Lebanon, as the film depicts a vague and violent time in Lebanon's history. A movement of bloggers, among them the Lebanese Inner Circle and +961, have rebelled against the Lebanese government's ban of the film, and have managed to get the film seen by local Lebanese critics. In defiance of the government's request to ban it, the film was privately screened in Beirut in January 2009 in front of 90 people. Since then, many screenings have taken place, and unofficial copies of the film are also available in the country. Folman saw the screening as a source of great pride: "I was overwhelmed and excited. I wish I could have been there. I wish one day I'll be able to present the film myself in Beirut. For me, it will be the happiest day of my life."


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: It was also ranked #34 in "Empire" magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010, and #4 in Current TV's "50 Documentaries to See Before You Die" in 2011.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: "Waltz with Bashir" was the first animated film to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the second to be nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film (France's "Persepolis" was the first a year prior). It was also the first R-rated animated film to be considered for those honors. The film was the first Israeli winner of the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film since "The Policeman" (1971), and the first documentary to win the award. Although submitted for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, it failed to be nominated, and it became ineligible for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature when the Academy announced a new rule stating that only documentaries with a qualifying run in both New York and Los Angeles by 31 August could be nominated.


title: Waltz with Bashir

text: The film was included in the National Board of Review's list of the Top Five Foreign Films of 2008. It received nominations for Annie and BAFTA Awards for Best Animated Feature, but lost to "Kung Fu Panda" and "WALL-E", respectively. Folman won the WGA's Best Documentary Feature Screenplay award and the DGA's Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary award for his work on the film.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: Thunderstruck is a 2012 American sports comedy film directed by John Whitesell and starring professional NBA player Kevin Durant and Taylor Gray as well as Brandon T. Jackson, Doc Shaw and Jim Belushi. The plot follows a boy who magically gets Durant's basketball skills and the duo must figure out how to return them. It was released on August 24, 2012.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: Brian is a 16-year-old living in Oklahoma. Though he has tried out for the school basketball team, the Eagles, he has never made it, relegated to being water boy for the team. While practicing at home, Brian's sister makes a video of him injuring himself. She shows the video around school, and it is eventually seen by Connor, the star player of the basketball team. Brian takes a liking to Isabelle, a new girl at school, but is embarrassed when Connor shows the video of him to the whole school. In order to cheer him up, Brian's dad takes him to a Thunder game against the Detroit Pistons at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: At halftime, Brian is chosen to shoot a half-court shot which he misses and hits Rumble, the mascot in the process. Later on, he meets Kevin Durant and expresses his desire to play just like him. When Durant signs the special edition Oklahoma City Thunder basketball that Brian got to shoot the half-court shot with, a surge of energy causes Durant's talent to transfer to Brian when he hands it over. The Thunder lose the game, with Durant shooting 0–13 in the 2nd half.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: The next morning, Brian learns that Connor, who was at the game, recorded him missing the half-court shot and posted it online. Later that night he goes out to a carnival and sees Connor fail to hit shots to win a prize for the new girl, Isabelle. Connor challenges him to "do better", which Brian is able to do, winning a prize which he then gives to Isabelle. Meanwhile, Durant's performance declines at practices, but insists he's only in a slump.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: After making several impressive shots at home, Brian decides to try out for the Eagles again. The coach, impressed by Brian's new skill, has Brian replace Connor as the team captain, and they win several games. Durant's agent learns of Brian and realizes that he is the same kid who missed the half-court shot. He tracks him down and explains that he believes Brian stole Durant's talent. He arranges for Durant and Brian to practice together to try to reverse it, but all attempts fail.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: Shortly before the final game, Brian and Isabelle begin fighting about how Brian has changed. Eventually, Brian goes to apologize and, while watching the video of him missing the half-court shot at her house, realizes what has to be done to give Durant his talent back. He rides his bike all the way to Chesapeake Arena and finds Durant. He explains that he hit Rumble before the transfer, and theorized that was what had to happen to reverse it. Brian hits Rumble with exactly the same ball he used to shoot the half-court shot, and then repeats the conversation that he had with Durant at their first meeting. Durant gets his talent back, and the Thunder qualify for the playoffs.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: At the final game for the Eagles, Brian is nervous about playing because he no longer has the talent. Though he plays rather poorly, with help from the other team members, including Connor, he still manages to lead his team to a close game and taking the final shot himself, makes the game-winning shot which sends the Eagles to the state playoffs for the first time in 32 years. Brian, who is gradually getting better at basketball, is later seen playing with Durant.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: While shooting the film, Durant said that the hardest part was not the acting, but rather that he had to miss jump shots on purpose for the film, to indicate that he no longer had the ability to play basketball as well as he used to.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: "Thunderstruck" received a limited theatrical release in the United States. During its only weekend of release, the film grossed $587,211 from 250 theaters, finishing 25th for the weekend.


title: Thunderstruck (2012 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 4.38/10.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usually referred to by the initials of its German, French, and Italian names, either as SBB CFF FFS, or used separately. The Romansh version of its name, "Viafiers federalas svizras", is not officially used. The official English abbreviation is "SBB", instead of the English acronym such as "SFR", which stands for "Swiss Federal Railways" itself.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The company, founded in 1902, is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a government institution, but since 1999 it has been a special stock corporation whose shares are held by the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss cantons. It is currently the largest rail and transport company of Switzerland, and operates on most standard gauge lines of the Swiss network. It also heavily collaborates with most other transport companies of the country, such as the BLS, one of its main competitors, to provide fully integrated timetables with cyclic schedules.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: SBB was ranked first among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for its intensity of use, quality of service, and safety rating. While many rail operators in continental Europe have emphasised the building of high-speed rail, SBB has invested in the reliability and quality of service of its conventional rail network, on both national and regional scales. In addition to passenger rail, SBB operates cargo and freight rail service, through its subsidiary SBB Cargo, and has large real estate holdings in Switzerland.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Swiss Federal Railways is divided into three divisions and eight groups. The divisions manage the relevant operational businesses. These divisions are:


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: SBB's eight groups manage the company and support the operational business of the divisions with service and support functions. These groups are:


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The corporation is led in an entrepreneurial manner. A performance agreement between Swiss Federal Railways and the Swiss Confederation defines the requirements and is updated every four years. At the same time the compensation rates per train and track-kilometre are defined.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: A subsidiary, SBB GmbH, is responsible for passenger traffic in Germany. It operates the Wiesentalbahn and the Seehas services. Other subsidiaries are THURBO, RegionAlps, AlpTransit Gotthard AG, Cisalpino, and TiLo (the latter in conjunction with Italian authorities). Swiss Federal Railways hold significant shares of the Zentralbahn and Lyria SAS.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The "Stiftung Historisches Erbe der SBB" ("SBB Historic") was founded in 2002. This foundation takes care of historic rolling stock and runs a technical library in Bern, document and photographic archives, and the SBB poster collection.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The Swiss Federal Railways rail network is totally electrified. The metre gauge Brünigbahn was SBB's only non-standard gauge line, until it was out-sourced and merged with the Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn to form the Zentralbahn, in which SBB holds shares.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: In the 19th century, all Swiss railways were owned by private ventures. The economic and political interests of these companies led to lines being built in parallel and some companies went bankrupt in the resulting competition. On 20 February 1898 the Swiss people agreed in a referendum to the creation of a state-owned railway company.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Later that year, the Federal Assembly approved the purchase of Schweizerische Centralbahn (SCB) to operate trains on behalf of the federal government. The first train running on the account of the Swiss Confederation ran during the night of New Year's Eve 1900/New Year's Day 1901 from Zurich via Bern to Geneva, and received a ceremonial welcome upon arriving in Bern. SBB's management board was first formed in mid-1901, and added Schweizerische Nordostbahn (NOB) to the system on 1 January 1902. This date is now observed as the "official" birthday of SBB.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: On 1 January 1999 the Swiss Federal Railway has been excluded from the Federal Administration and became a fully state-owned (the federal state owns 100% of all shares) limited company regulated by public law ().


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: First class compartments were discontinued on 3 June 1956, and second and third class accommodation was reclassified as first and second class, respectively.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: In 1982 SBB introduced the "Taktfahrplan" ("clockface timetable"), with trains for certain destinations leaving every 60 minutes, greatly simplifying the timetable.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: On 12 December 2004 the first phase of Bahn2000, an ambitious programme to improve the company's services, was put into effect. The core element was the Zurich-Bern-Basel triangle, where travel times between the cities was reduced to under one hour, resulting in good connections from these stations for most trains. Some connections between cities got two trains in each direction per hour or more, and the S-Bahn services were intensified to four or more trains per hour. Because of these changes 90% of the timetable was changed, 12% more trains were scheduled and travel times generally improved. It was the greatest timetable change since the introduction of the Taktfahrplan.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: For this change to be possible, large parts of the infrastructure had to be modified and many stations were rebuilt, for instance the line from Ziegelbrücke to Sargans or Bern main station which got the "wave of Bern", a platform over the tracks to provide better access to the platforms and the city centre.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: On 22 June 2005 a short circuit on a long-distance power transmission line in central Switzerland led to a chain reaction. The entire Swiss railway network was out of service during rush hour and an estimated 200,000 people and 1,500 trains were stuck at stations or somewhere on the track. It turned out that the SBB power transmission network was overloaded and did not provide enough redundancy to tolerate the shutdown of the four cable Amsteg-Steinen power line due to construction work. So, the power grid was split in two parts, the northern half being overloaded and the southern half having a load reduction for the SBB power plants are situated in the southern part (the Alps), while most of the power is needed in the northern part (the Swiss plateau). The situation led to high voltage fluctuations and finally breakdown and emergency shutdown of the entire power supply.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: In the same year, the Swiss Federal Railways received the Wakker Prize, an award given out by the Swiss "Heimatschutz" (an institution aiming to preserve significant buildings), which is usually only granted to communes, for their extraordinary efforts. The Swiss Federal Railways have many listed buildings from well-known architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Santiago Calatrava, and Max Vogt.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: In May 2010, SBB's first integrated network control centre opened in Lausanne, to supervise all of SBB's network in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Another integrated control centre will be opened in Zurich.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: All trains and most buildings have been made non-smoking since the timetable change of 11 December 2005.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: By the end of 2006, the corporation was handed over from the long-term CEO Benedikt Weibel to his successor Andreas Meyer.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: On 13 January 2019, Bloomberg reported that SBB was in talks with German aviation company Lilium GmbH to create air taxis to carry customers from train stations to their final destination.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The Swiss Federal Railways clock designed by Hans Hilfiker has become a national icon. It is special in that it stops for just over a second at the end of each minute, to wait for a signal from the master clock which sets it going again — thus keeping all station clocks synchronised.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The clock owes its technology to the particular requirements of operating a railway. First, railway timetables do not list seconds; trains in Switzerland always leave the station on the full minute. Secondly, all the clocks at a railway station have to run synchronously in order to show reliable time for both passengers and railway personnel anywhere on or around the station.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The station clocks in Switzerland are synchronized by receiving an electrical impulse from a central master clock at each full minute, advancing the minute hand by one minute. The second hand is driven by an electrical motor independent of the master clock. It requires only about 58.5 seconds to circle the face, then the hand pauses briefly at the top of the clock. It starts a new rotation as soon as it receives the next minute impulse from the master clock. This movement is emulated in some of the licensed timepieces made by Mondaine.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Steam engines of the early days of the Swiss Federal Railways were, among others, the Ed 2x2/2, E 3/3, A 3/5, B 3/4 and C 5/6.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The first electric trial runs using single-phase alternating current were made in 1903 on the line Seebach – Wettingen together with the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), using the future Ce 4/4 locomotives ("Eva" and "Marianne"). The electrification of the network started 1919, motivated by the coal shortages during the First World War, and new electric locomotives were introduced: Ce 6/8 /Ce 6/8 "Crocodile" (1920–1926), Be 4/6 (1920), Be 4/7 (1921), Ae 3/6 (1921), Ae 3/6 (1924), Ae 3/6 (1925), Ae 4/7 (1927) and Ae 4/6 (1941). A shift of paradigms happened in 1946, when the age of modern bogie-based locomotives without trailing axles started with the Re 4/4 (1946), followed by the Ae 6/6 (1952), Re 4/4 /Re 4/4 (1964–1971), Re 6/6 (1972), Re 450 (1989) and Re 460/Re 465 "Lok 2000" (1992–1994).


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The delivery of the last Re 465 marked the end of the Swiss locomotive industries with the closure of the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works. The Swiss Federal Railways were split into three divisions: Passenger, Freight and Infrastructure, each with independent locomotive supply policies. Because the Passenger division got all modern Re 460s and opted for multiple unit trains, mainline locomotives were bought only by the Cargo division, namely Re 482 "Traxx F140 AC" (2002), Re 484 "Traxx F140 MS" (2004) and Re 474 "ES64 F4" (2004).


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The first multiple units originated from the Seetalbahn, which was formed in 1922. Larger series were uncommon until after 1950: Be 4/6 (1923), De 4/4 (1927), BDe 4/4 (1952), RBe 4/4 (1959), RBDe 560 "NPZ" (1984) and RABe 520 "GTW" (2002).


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: The first multiple unit trainsets were bought for the introduction of the Taktfahrplan on the line Zurich–Meilen–Rapperswil in 1967: RABDe 12/12 "Mirage" (1965) and RABDe 8/16 "Chiquita" (1976). Multiple unit trainsets started to prevail in the 1990s, especially for commuter traffic: RABDe 500 "ICN" (1999), RABe 523 (et al.) "FLIRT" (2004), RABe 514 "DTZ" (2006), and RABe 503 (2008). While locomotive-hauled trains are rarely seen in commuter traffic nowadays, they are still the usual in intercity traffic. In 2011, Stadler's RABe 511 were introduced in Zurich's S-Bahn and in 2012 was introduced as a Regional Express between Geneva and Romont and Geneva and Vevey and Bern and Biel.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Some of the most popular historic multiple unit trainsets are the Roten Pfeile ("Red Arrows") (RAe 2/4) and the "Churchill-Pfeil" (RAe 4/8). In international traffic the Trans-Europ-Express (TEE) diesel trainsets appeared in 1957, but were replaced by four-systems electric trainsets RAe TEE in 1961.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: On 12 May 2010, the Swiss Federal Railways announced its largest order of rolling stock; buying 59 double-deck EMUs (Twindexx) from Bombardier, plus an option for another 100 trainsets. The new trains were originally intended to be delivered starting in 2012, but due to several delays, deliveries began in 2017 and end by 2020.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: In addition, SBB has received and, as of 2016, is still in the process of delivering, New Pendolinos and has ordered 29 SMILEs, with an option for 92 more, expected to enter service in 2019.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: SBB uses three official languages: German, French, and Italian. The Romansh-speaking regions in the canton of Grisons of Switzerland is served mostly by the Rhaetian Railway. Trains are branded "SBB CFF FFS".


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Stations are named and signposted exclusively in the language of the locality. Stations of bilingual cities are named and signposted in both local languages (e.g. Biel/Bienne and Fribourg/Freiburg). The timetable only uses such official names regardless of the languages of the timetable.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Announcements in stations are usually made in local languages. However, in stations frequently used by foreigners (airports or tourism regions), in-station announcements are also made in English. On-board welcome announcements are made in all official languages of the regions served by that train, with the additional English ones onboard IC trains. Then the stops are announced in the pre-recorded local language of the town. For stations of bilingual cities, the language of announcement changes at the time of stop: when trains travelling from the French-speaking region to the German-speaking region via the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, announcements are made in French until arriving at Bienne, and then switch to German after departing from Biel. Upon arriving at big hubs, the train conductor takes the microphone to announce in all official languages of the regions served by that train (plus English onboard IC trains) that the train is arriving, if the train is on time or not, and next connections at the station.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: For instance, the main station in the German-speaking Zurich is signposted as Zürich HB (short for Zürich Hauptbahnhof) exclusively in German, while its French name (Zurich gare centrale), Italian name (Zurigo stazione centrale), and English name (Zurich Main Station) are used in websites and announcements in respective languages.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Since 2002 SBB has a melody. It corresponds to the acronyms SBB CFF FFS, transposed by means of the German notes "Es - B - B" (E-flat, B-flat, B-flat), "C - F - F" (C, F, F) and "F - F - Es" (F, F, E-flat). For the German acronym, as there is no "S" note, the "Es" was used. And for the last letter, it is the B flat/G flat chord that is played. The melody is played on a vibraphone.


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Regional trains are sometimes operated by another Swiss railways operator (for example, the Bern S-Bahn services operated by the BLS AG.)


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: SBB also operates international EuroCity and EuroNight trains while within Switzerland, while Deutsche Bahn operates InterCityExpress services to, from, and (a few services) within the country serving Swiss cities such as Interlaken, Bern, Basel, Zürich, and Chur. Under the name TGV Lyria the French railway company SNCF operates TGV connections to Switzerland. Lyria SAS, a company established under French law, is a subsidiary of the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF – French National Railway Company) which owns 74%, and the Chemins de Fer Fédéraux Suisses (CFF – Swiss Federal Railways) which owns 26%. TGV Lyria serves several Swiss cities including Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Zürich, Bern, and Interlaken. It also provides services to certain locations including Brig in the Valais especially during the winter season to provide a connection for tourists mainly visiting the south-eastern Swiss Alps. These connections are marketed under the name of "TGV Lyria des Neiges".


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Since 2018, the SBB uses numbers and distinct colors for all its InterCity (IC) and InterRegio (IR) lines (like a subway network) to ease connections. The IC, IR and RE (RegioExpress) lines (including alternative routes) are as follows:


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: Lines IR26 (since 2020), IR35 (since 2021), and IR46 (since 2020) are jointly operated with Südostbahn (SOB).


title: Swiss Federal Railways

text: SBB offers additional services for customers. SBB Digital promotes new digital services for customers. For example, SBB started a collaboration with Uber, with the recruiting matchmaking service, Jacando, and their own co-working space in Zurich. SBB has won CRM awards in Switzerland for their SBB Digital activities.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: John Luther Mercer (born 17 August 1981) is a British politician and former British Army officer who has served as Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs since October 2022, having previously served from July 2022 to September 2022. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans from July 2019 to April 2021. Mercer has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Plymouth Moor View since 2015. He is a member of the Conservative Party.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: In April 2021, after notifying the chief whip of his intention to resign his position as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, he was dismissed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In July 2022, he was appointed Minister for Veterans’ Affairs at the Cabinet Office – attending Cabinet – following Johnson's announcing his intention to resign as Leader of the Conservative Party. Mercer was dismissed from the position in September 2022 by Prime Minister Liz Truss. In October 2022, he was reappointed Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs by Truss’s successor Rishi Sunak.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: John Mercer was born in Dartford on 17 August 1981. The son of a banker and a nurse, he grew up in a strict Baptist family with seven siblings. Between 1995 and 2000, he was educated at Eastbourne College, a co-educational independent school in Eastbourne in East Sussex. After completing school, he worked as an intern in the City of London from 2000 to 2002.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: Mercer was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery after graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in June 2003 and was promoted to lieutenant in April 2005. Mercer passed the All Arms Commando Course and served mostly with 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery and 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. He served three tours in Afghanistan: as a liaison and training officer with Afghan forces; attached to a Special Forces unit; and as a co-ordinator of artillery and air strikes in support of ground operations. Mercer retired from military service in December 2013 with the rank of captain.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: In June 2017, two years after becoming an MP, Mercer published "We Were Warriors: One Soldier's Story of Brutal Combat", a memoir of his upbringing and army service, especially his time in Afghanistan.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: Mercer worked to help military veterans to obtain a veterans ID card before stepping down from the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence People and Veterans in April 2021.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: Mercer has said publicly that he had not been politically active in his younger years and the first time he voted was for himself when he first ran for office. He said that he entered politics with a view to improving the care of veterans and felt that he was a Conservative because he regarded a "massive welfare state that saps the ambition and drive of a younger generation" as a problem. After contacting ex-military Conservative MP Bob Stewart, he was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for Plymouth Moor View two months after leaving the army in February 2014.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: Mercer has said he was largely responsible for organising his own campaign "on the cheap". To raise funds, he worked on building sites and appeared in a Dove shower gel advertisement.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: He was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Moor View at the 2015 general election, defeating the incumbent Labour MP, Alison Seabeck. Mercer delivered his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 1 June 2015, stating his "main missions" in Parliament to be improving provision for mental health and support for war veterans. He has been critical of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: Mercer was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU referendum. He later said that the result to leave should be respected. Mercer was re-elected with an increased majority at the snap 2017 general election, and has focused on care for veterans.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: In July 2018 Mercer appeared in "Celebrity Hunted", a Channel 4 television programme where participants go on the run and images are released of them so people can try to track them down. While taking part in the programme he missed the meeting of the Health and Social Care Committee, of which he was a member, shortly before Parliament rose for the summer recess. Mercer defended his decision, stating that he had used his position to raise money for charity and had brought his parliamentary roles into filming.


title: Johnny Mercer (politician)

text: In October 2018, Mercer took on a second job working 20 hours a month as a consultant to Crucial Academy for a salary of £85,000 (equivalent to £350 per hour). Local Labour candidate Charlotte Holloway accused him of neglecting his constituency duties to earn a "staggering" amount of money. Mercer said the accusation "smacked of political jealousy". In April 2019 the BBC reported that his salary at Crucial Academy was funded by the marketing agent for the failed London Capital and Finance bond scheme, although Crucial Group later denied this.