title: Petersburg, Virginia

text: The majority-black population has continued to support primarily Democratic Party candidates since the national party's support for the civil rights movement and federal legislation in the mid-1960s. The independent city is represented by Joseph Preston in the state House of Delegates (63rd District) and Rosalyn R. Dance in the State Senate (16th District). Both Preston and Dance are Democrats. Six of the City Council representatives are confirmed Democrats, including the mayor and vice-mayor. All the local constitutional officers are also Democrats.


title: Petersburg, Virginia

text: The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Petersburg has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.


title: Virial theorem

text: In mechanics, the virial theorem provides a general equation that relates the average over time of the total kinetic energy of a stable system of discrete particles, bound by potential forces, with that of the total potential energy of the system. Mathematically, the theorem states


title: Virial theorem

text: where is the total kinetic energy of the particles, represents the force on the th particle, which is located at position , and angle brackets represent the average over time of the enclosed quantity. The word virial for the right-hand side of the equation derives from "vis", the Latin word for "force" or "energy", and was given its technical definition by Rudolf Clausius in 1870.


title: Virial theorem

text: The significance of the virial theorem is that it allows the average total kinetic energy to be calculated even for very complicated systems that defy an exact solution, such as those considered in statistical mechanics; this average total kinetic energy is related to the temperature of the system by the equipartition theorem. However, the virial theorem does not depend on the notion of temperature and holds even for systems that are not in thermal equilibrium. The virial theorem has been generalized in various ways, most notably to a tensor form.


title: Virial theorem

text: If the force between any two particles of the system results from a potential energy that is proportional to some power of the interparticle distance , the virial theorem takes the simple form


title: Virial theorem

text: Thus, twice the average total kinetic energy equals times the average total potential energy . Whereas represents the potential energy between two particles of distance , represents the total potential energy of the system, i.e., the sum of the potential energy over all pairs of particles in the system. A common example of such a system is a star held together by its own gravity, where equals −1.


title: Virial theorem

text: In 1870, Rudolf Clausius delivered the lecture "On a Mechanical Theorem Applicable to Heat" to the Association for Natural and Medical Sciences of the Lower Rhine, following a 20-year study of thermodynamics. The lecture stated that the mean vis viva of the system is equal to its virial, or that the average kinetic energy is equal to the average potential energy. The virial theorem can be obtained directly from Lagrange's identity as applied in classical gravitational dynamics, the original form of which was included in Lagrange's "Essay on the Problem of Three Bodies" published in 1772. Karl Jacobi's generalization of the identity to "N" bodies and to the present form of Laplace's identity closely resembles the classical virial theorem. However, the interpretations leading to the development of the equations were very different, since at the time of development, statistical dynamics had not yet unified the separate studies of thermodynamics and classical dynamics. The theorem was later utilized, popularized, generalized and further developed by James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh, Henri Poincaré, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Enrico Fermi, Paul Ledoux, Richard Bader and Eugene Parker. Fritz Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to deduce the existence of unseen matter, which is now called dark matter. Richard Bader showed the charge distribution of a total system can be partitioned into its kinetic and potential energies that obey the virial theorem. As another example of its many applications, the virial theorem has been used to derive the Chandrasekhar limit for the stability of white dwarf stars.


title: Virial theorem

text: Consider particles with equal mass , acted upon by mutually attractive forces. Suppose the particles are at diametrically opposite points of a circular orbit with radius . The velocities are and , which are normal to forces and . The respective magnitudes are fixed at and . The average kinetic energy of the system is


title: Virial theorem

text: Taking center of mass as the origin, the particles have positions and with fixed magnitude . The attractive forces act in opposite directions as positions, so . Applying the centripetal force formula results in:


title: Virial theorem

text: as required. Note: If the origin is displaced then we'd obtain the same result. This is because the dot product of the displacement with equal and opposite forces , results in net cancellation.


title: Virial theorem

text: Although the virial theorem depends on averaging the total kinetic and potential energies, the presentation here postpones the averaging to the last step.


title: Virial theorem

text: For a collection of point particles, the scalar moment of inertia about the origin is defined by the equation


title: Virial theorem

text: where and represent the mass and position of the th particle. is the position vector magnitude. The scalar is defined by the equation


title: Virial theorem

text: where is the momentum vector of the th particle. Assuming that the masses are constant, is one-half the time derivative of this moment of inertia


title: Virial theorem

text: where is the mass of the th particle, is the net force on that particle, and is the total kinetic energy of the system according to the velocity of each particle


title: Virial theorem

text: Since no particle acts on itself (i.e., for ), we split the sum in terms below and above this diagonal and we add them together in pairs:


title: Virial theorem

text: It often happens that the forces can be derived from a potential energy that is a function only of the distance between the point particles and . Since the force is the negative gradient of the potential energy, we have in this case


title: Virial theorem

text: which is equal and opposite to , the force applied by particle on particle , as may be confirmed by explicit calculation. Hence,


title: Virial theorem

text: In a common special case, the potential energy between two particles is proportional to a power of their distance


title: Virial theorem

text: where the coefficient and the exponent are constants. In such cases, the virial is given by the equation


title: Virial theorem

text: There are many reasons why the average of the time derivative might vanish, . One often-cited reason applies to stably-bound systems, that is to say systems that hang together forever and whose parameters are finite. In that case, velocities and coordinates of the particles of the system have upper and lower limits so that , is bounded between two extremes, and , and the average goes to zero in the limit of infinite :


title: Virial theorem

text: Even if the average of the time derivative of is only approximately zero, the virial theorem holds to the same degree of approximation.


title: Virial theorem

text: For gravitational attraction, equals −1 and the average kinetic energy equals half of the average negative potential energy


title: Virial theorem

text: A simple application of the virial theorem concerns galaxy clusters. If a region of space is unusually full of galaxies, it is safe to assume that they have been together for a long time, and the virial theorem can be applied. Doppler effect measurements give lower bounds for their relative velocities, and the virial theorem gives a lower bound for the total mass of the cluster, including any dark matter.


title: Virial theorem

text: If the ergodic hypothesis holds for the system under consideration, the averaging need not be taken over time; an ensemble average can also be taken, with equivalent results.


title: Virial theorem

text: Although originally derived for classical mechanics, the virial theorem also holds for quantum mechanics, as first shown by Fock using the Ehrenfest theorem.


title: Virial theorem

text: where formula_32 is the kinetic energy. The left-hand side of this equation is just , according to the Heisenberg equation of motion. The expectation value of this time derivative vanishes in a stationary state, leading to the quantum virial theorem,


title: Virial theorem

text: In the field of quantum mechanics, there exists another form of the virial theorem, applicable to localized solutions to the stationary nonlinear Schrödinger equation or Klein–Gordon equation, is Pokhozhaev's identity, also known as Derrick's theorem.


title: Virial theorem

text: For a single particle in special relativity, it is not the case that . Instead, it is true that , where is the Lorentz factor


title: Virial theorem

text: Thus, under the conditions described in earlier sections (including Newton's third law of motion, , despite relativity), the time average for particles with a power law potential is


title: Virial theorem

text: In particular, the ratio of kinetic energy to potential energy is no longer fixed, but necessarily falls into an interval:


title: Virial theorem

text: Lord Rayleigh published a generalization of the virial theorem in 1903. Henri Poincaré proved and applied a form of the virial theorem in 1911 to the problem of formation of the Solar System from a proto-stellar cloud (then known as cosmogony). A variational form of the virial theorem was developed in 1945 by Ledoux. A tensor form of the virial theorem was developed by Parker, Chandrasekhar and Fermi. The following generalization of the virial theorem has been established by Pollard in 1964 for the case of the inverse square law:


title: Virial theorem

text: where is the moment of inertia, is the momentum density of the electromagnetic field, is the kinetic energy of the "fluid", is the random "thermal" energy of the particles, and are the electric and magnetic energy content of the volume considered. Finally, is the fluid-pressure tensor expressed in the local moving coordinate system


title: Virial theorem

text: A plasmoid is a finite configuration of magnetic fields and plasma. With the virial theorem it is easy to see that any such configuration will expand if not contained by external forces. In a finite configuration without pressure-bearing walls or magnetic coils, the surface integral will vanish. Since all the other terms on the right hand side are positive, the acceleration of the moment of inertia will also be positive. It is also easy to estimate the expansion time . If a total mass is confined within a radius , then the moment of inertia is roughly , and the left hand side of the virial theorem is . The terms on the right hand side add up to about , where is the larger of the plasma pressure or the magnetic pressure. Equating these two terms and solving for , we find


title: Virial theorem

text: where is the speed of the ion acoustic wave (or the Alfvén wave, if the magnetic pressure is higher than the plasma pressure). Thus the lifetime of a plasmoid is expected to be on the order of the acoustic (or Alfvén) transit time.


title: Virial theorem

text: In case when in the physical system the pressure field, the electromagnetic and gravitational fields are taken into account, as well as the field of particles’ acceleration, the virial theorem is written in the relativistic form as follows:


title: Virial theorem

text: where the value exceeds the kinetic energy of the particles by a factor equal to the Lorentz factor of the particles at the center of the system. Under normal conditions we can assume that , then we can see that in the virial theorem the kinetic energy is related to the potential energy not by the coefficient , but rather by the coefficient close to 0.6. The difference from the classical case arises due to considering the pressure field and the field of particles’ acceleration inside the system, while the derivative of the scalar is not equal to zero and should be considered as the material derivative.


title: Virial theorem

text: An analysis of the integral theorem of generalized virial makes it possible to find, on the basis of field theory, a formula for the root-mean-square speed of typical particles of a system without using the notion of temperature:


title: Virial theorem

text: where formula_53 is the speed of light, formula_54 is the acceleration field constant, formula_55 is the mass density of particles, formula_56 is the current radius.


title: Virial theorem

text: Unlike the virial theorem for particles, for the electromagnetic field the virial theorem is written as follows:


title: Virial theorem

text: where the energy formula_58 considered as the kinetic field energy associated with four-current formula_59, and


title: Virial theorem

text: The virial theorem is frequently applied in astrophysics, especially relating the gravitational potential energy of a system to its kinetic or thermal energy. Some common virial relations are


title: Virial theorem

text: for a mass , radius , velocity , and temperature . The constants are Newton's constant , the Boltzmann constant , and proton mass . Note that these relations are only approximate, and often the leading numerical factors (e.g. or ) are neglected entirely.


title: Virial theorem

text: In astronomy, the mass and size of a galaxy (or general overdensity) is often defined in terms of the "virial mass" and "virial radius" respectively. Because galaxies and overdensities in continuous fluids can be highly extended (even to infinity in some models, such as an isothermal sphere), it can be hard to define specific, finite measures of their mass and size. The virial theorem, and related concepts, provide an often convenient means by which to quantify these properties.


title: Virial theorem

text: In galaxy dynamics, the mass of a galaxy is often inferred by measuring the rotation velocity of its gas and stars, assuming circular Keplerian orbits. Using the virial theorem, the velocity dispersion can be used in a similar way. Taking the kinetic energy (per particle) of the system as , and the potential energy (per particle) as we can write


title: Virial theorem

text: Here formula_63 is the radius at which the velocity dispersion is being measured, and is the mass within that radius. The virial mass and radius are generally defined for the radius at which the velocity dispersion is a maximum, i.e.


title: Virial theorem

text: As numerous approximations have been made, in addition to the approximate nature of these definitions, order-unity proportionality constants are often omitted (as in the above equations). These relations are thus only accurate in an order of magnitude sense, or when used self-consistently.


title: Virial theorem

text: An alternate definition of the virial mass and radius is often used in cosmology where it is used to refer to the radius of a sphere, centered on a galaxy or a galaxy cluster, within which virial equilibrium holds. Since this radius is difficult to determine observationally, it is often approximated as the radius within which the average density is greater, by a specified factor, than the critical density


title: Virial theorem

text: where is the Hubble parameter and is the gravitational constant. A common choice for the factor is 200, which corresponds roughly to the typical over-density in spherical top-hat collapse (see Virial mass), in which case the virial radius is approximated as


title: Virial theorem

text: The virial theorem is applicable to the cores of stars, by establishing a relation between gravitational potential energy and thermal kinetic energy (i.e. temperature). As stars on the main sequence convert hydrogen into helium in their cores, the mean molecular weight of the core increases and it must contract to maintain enough pressure to support its own weight. This contraction decreases its potential energy and, the virial theorem states, increases its thermal energy. The core temperature increases even as energy is lost, effectively a negative specific heat. This continues beyond the main sequence, unless the core becomes degenerate since that causes the pressure to become independent of temperature and the virial relation with equals −1 no longer holds.


title: John Roselli

text: John "Handsome Johnny" Roselli (born Filippo Sacco; July 4, 1905 – August 7, 1976), sometimes spelled Rosselli, was an influential mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped that organization control Hollywood and the Las Vegas Strip. In the early 1960s, Roselli was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro.


title: John Roselli

text: Roselli was born Filippo Sacco on July 4, 1905, in Esperia, Lazio, Italy. His father, Vincenzo Sacco, had moved to the United States first, followed by Filippo at the age of 6, who had immigrated with his mother, Mariantonia Pascale Sacco to Boston, Massachusetts. His father died in 1918.


title: John Roselli

text: In 1922, Sacco was arrested on narcotics charges in Massachusetts. He first fled to New York for three months, before moving on to Chicago, where he changed his name from Filippo Sacco to John Roselli.


title: John Roselli

text: Roselli moved to Los Angeles in 1924, pleading guilty to bootlegging that same year. Roselli began his California criminal career working for small-time bootleggers, becoming the top truck driver for Tony Cornero. Eventually, Roselli was promoted to working closely with the Cornero brothers in securing the liquor imports into Southern California. He was especially important in bribing and securing the loyalty of Orange County officials, opening up their ports for the gang's use. In 1926, Tony Cornero fled to Canada, escaping a 2-year bootlegging sentence. As a result of the gang's dissolution, Roselli went independent. He became further involved in several LA area vice rackets, especially prostitution and gambling.


title: John Roselli

text: Roselli first met Al Capone in 1927, on a trip to Chicago to attend the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney Boxing match. Capone was holding a party that night at his headquarters, Metropole Hotel, where Johnny was able to briefly meet him and the Chicago Outfit's inner circle. Roselli next met with Capone at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. In 1928, Capone invited Roselli to Chicago, this time offering him a role in his organization. Roselli was tasked with working with the Los Angeles crime family, to keep an eye on Capone's investments and facilitate cooperation between the LA and Chicago organizations. The LA branch of the mafia was at the time under the leadership of Joseph Ardizzone, and Roselli worked closely with Ardizonne's underboss Jack Dragna.


title: John Roselli

text: During this time, Roselli was involved with Los Angeles' offshore gambling racket. He led the mob's hostile takeover of the "Monfalcone" gambling ship. Roselli's underworld activities sometimes had to be put on hold while he dealt with long bouts of tuberculosis.


title: John Roselli

text: Roselli became close friends with film producer Bryan Foy, who brought Roselli into the movie business as a producer with Foy's small production company, Eagle Lion Studios, where Roselli is credited on a number of early gangster movies as a producer. Roselli was also close friends with Columbia Pictures co-founder Harry Cohn.


title: John Roselli

text: In 1931, LA Mafia boss Joseph Ardizzone survived two assassination attempts and declared he would retire. Instead, he disappeared in October 1931 and Jack Dragna took his place as Don.


title: John Roselli

text: In July 1933, Frank L. Shaw began his term as the Los Angeles mayor. He put in place a heinously corrupt administration where the city's underworld paid regular bribes directly to city hall. Roselli was able to use his position in LA's mafia and deep knowledge of the city's underworld to make himself the liaison between the mayor's office and the various gangs and individuals who sent regular payoffs to city hall. This favored position with the city government helped to position Jack Dragna's organization as the preeminent criminal organization in Los Angeles under the Shaw administration.


title: John Roselli

text: During this period Rosselli's lawyer was Frank DeSimone; secretly a mob member, DeSimone became the L.A. mob boss when Jack Dragna died in 1956.


title: John Roselli

text: In 1942, Roselli was indicted on federal labor racketeering charges, along with George Brown, former president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union, and Willie Bioff, labor racketeer and former pimp. Later in 1942, Roselli enlisted in the United States Army where he served for three years before receiving an undesirable discharge. It was while in the service that Roselli was convicted of the extortion scheme to extort money from Hollywood figures, in 1943, serving a prison sentence until his release in 1947.


title: John Roselli

text: In the mid-1950s, Roselli shifted his focus away from Hollywood and toward the fast-growing and highly profitable gambling mecca, Las Vegas, Nevada. By 1956, Roselli had become the Chicago and Los Angeles mob's chief representative in Las Vegas. His job was to ensure that the Chicago mob bosses received their share of the burgeoning casino revenues through "skimming". However, according to the Los Angeles office of the FBI, Roselli was employed as a movie producer at Monogram Studios.


title: John Roselli

text: After the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, Fidel Castro closed down the casinos that the Mob operated in Cuba, and attempted to drive the mobsters out of the country. This made Roselli, Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana and Tampa boss Santo Trafficante amenable to the idea of killing Castro.


title: John Roselli

text: According to the Family Jewels documents released in 2007, members of the American mafia were involved in CIA attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The documents showed that, in September 1960, the CIA recruited Robert Maheu, an ex-FBI agent and aide to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, to approach Roselli under the pretense of representing international corporations that wanted Castro dead due to lost gambling interests. Roselli introduced Maheu to mobster leaders Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante Jr. Supplied with six poison pills from the CIA, Giancana and Trafficante tried unsuccessfully to have people place the poison in Castro's food. Further attempts were canceled soon thereafter due to the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.


title: John Roselli

text: In 1963, singer Frank Sinatra sponsored Roselli for membership in the exclusive Los Angeles Friar's Club. Soon after his acceptance, Roselli discovered an elaborate card-cheating operation run by one of his Las Vegas friends, Maurice Friedman, and asked for his cut. The card cheating was finally discovered in July 1967 by FBI agents tailing Roselli. Scores of wealthy men, including millionaire Harry Karl, the husband of actress Debbie Reynolds, and actor Zeppo Marx, were bilked out of millions of dollars. Grant B. Cooper represented some of the defendants in the case, including Roselli. Roselli was eventually convicted and fined $55,000. During the trial, secret grand jury transcripts were discovered on the defense attorney's table. Cooper eventually pleaded guilty to contempt for possessing the documents.


title: John Roselli

text: In the 1960s, Immigration and Naturalization Service had also tried to deport Roselli, although were unsuccessful.


title: John Roselli

text: On June 24 and September 22, 1975, Roselli testified before the 1975 U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCIA) led by Idaho Senator Frank Church about the CIA plan to kill Castro, Operation Mongoose. Shortly before Roselli testified, an unknown person shot and killed Giancana in the basement of his Illinois home. This happened just days before Giancana was to testify before the committee. Giancana's murder supposedly prompted Roselli to permanently leave Los Angeles and Las Vegas for Miami, Florida.


title: John Roselli

text: On April 23, 1976, Roselli was called before the committee to testify about a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy. Three months after his first round of testimony on the Kennedy assassination, the Committee wanted to recall Roselli. However, at this point, he had been missing since July 28. On August 3, Senator Howard Baker, a member of the new SSCIA, requested that the FBI investigate Roselli's disappearance.


title: John Roselli

text: On August 7, 1976, ten days after his disappearance, Roselli's decomposing body was found by a fisherman in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfoundling Bay near Miami, Florida.


title: John Roselli

text: After Roselli's death, journalists Jack Anderson and Les Whitten published an editorial stating that Roselli had told associates that individuals he had recruited to kill Castro had been turned by the Cuban leader to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.


title: John Roselli

text: Bill Bonanno, the son of Cosa Nostra mafia boss Joseph Bonanno, claimed in his 1999 memoir, "Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story", that he had discussed the assassination of Kennedy with Roselli and implicated him as the primary hitman in a conspiracy instigated by the mob. According to Bonanno, Roselli fired at Kennedy from a storm drain on Elm Street. In 2006, the Discovery Channel aired an hour-long television documentary entitled "Conspiracy Files:JFK". Based on information in the book "Ultimate Sacrifice" by Lamar Waldron, the program asserted that Roselli was responsible for framing Abraham Bolden who was arrested the day before he was to appear before the Warren Commission. In 2010, "Playboy" magazine published an article by Hillel Levin in which Roselli was also implicated in the assassination by Robert "Tosh" Plumlee and James Files, an inmate within the Illinois Department of Corrections.


title: John Roselli

text: In the CBS television drama "Vegas", the character from the Chicago Mob Johnny Rizzo, portrayed by Michael Wiseman, is loosely based on Johnny Roselli, as when Rizzo is introduced. Rizzo is in the Vegas black book and is not allowed to be in any casino. When Sheriff Ralph Lamb catches Rizzo in one, he demands that Rizzo leave. Rizzo, known for his temper, gets into a fight, and is easily subdued by Lamb. This is based on an actual event involving the real Sheriff Lamb and Roselli.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Acer saccharum, the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the primary source of maple syrup and for its brightly colored fall foliage. It may also be known as "rock maple", "sugar tree", "birds-eye maple", "sweet maple", "curly maple", or "hard maple", particularly when referring to the wood.


title: Acer saccharum

text: "Acer saccharum" is a deciduous tree normally reaching heights of , and exceptionally up to . A 10-year-old tree is typically about tall. As with most trees, forest-grown sugar maples form a much taller trunk and narrower canopy than open-growth ones.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The leaves are deciduous, up to long and wide, palmate, with five lobes and borne in opposite pairs. The basal lobes are relatively small, while the upper lobes are larger and deeply notched. In contrast with the angular notching of the silver maple, however, the notches tend to be rounded at their interior. The fall color is often spectacular, ranging from bright yellow on some trees through orange to fluorescent red-orange on others. Sugar maples also have a tendency to color unevenly in fall. In some trees, all colors above can be seen at the same time. They also share a tendency with red maples for certain parts of a mature tree to change color weeks ahead of or behind the remainder of the tree. The leaf buds are pointy and brown-colored. The recent year's growth twigs are green, and turn dark brown.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The flowers are in panicles of five to ten together, yellow-green and without petals; flowering occurs in early spring after 30–55 growing degree days. The sugar maple will generally begin flowering when it is between 10 and 200 years old. The fruit is a pair of samaras (winged seeds). The seeds are globose, in diameter, the wing long. The seeds fall from the tree in autumn, where they must be exposed to 45 days of temperatures below to break their coating down. Germination of "A. saccharum" is slow, not taking place until the following spring when the soil has warmed and all frost danger is past.


title: Acer saccharum

text: It is closely related to the black maple, which is sometimes included in this species, but sometimes separated as "Acer nigrum". The western American bigtooth maple ("Acer grandidentatum") is also treated as a variety or subspecies of sugar maple by some botanists.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The sugar maple can be confused with the Norway maple, which is not native to America but is commonly planted in cities and suburbs, and they are not closely related within the genus. The sugar maple is most easily identified by clear sap in the leaf petiole (the Norway maple has white sap), brown, sharp-tipped buds (the Norway maple has blunt, green or reddish-purple buds), and shaggy bark on older trees (the Norway maple bark has small grooves). Also, the leaf lobes of the sugar maple have a more triangular shape, in contrast to the squarish lobes of the Norway maple.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Although many people think a red sugar maple leaf is featured on the flag of Canada, the official maple leaf does not belong to any particular maple species; although it perhaps most closely resembles a sugar maple leaf of all the maple species in Canada, the leaf on the flag was specially designed to be as identifiable as possible on a flag waving in the wind without regard to whether it resembled a particular species' foliage.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The sugar maple is an extremely important species to the ecology of many forests in the northern United States and Canada. Pure stands are common, and it is a major component of the northern and Midwestern U.S. hardwood forests. Due to its need for cold winters, sugar maple is mostly found north of the 42nd parallel in USDA growing zones 3–5. It is less common in the southern part of its range (USDA Zone 6) where summers are hot and humid; there sugar maple is confined to ravines and moist flatlands. In the east, from Maryland southward, it is limited to the Appalachians. In the west, Tennessee represents the southern limit of its range and Missouri its southwestern limit. Collection of sap for sugar is also not possible in the southern part of sugar maple's range as winter temperatures do not become cold enough.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The minimum seed-bearing age of sugar maple is about 30 years. The tree is long-lived, typically 200 years and occasionally as much as 300.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Sugar maple is native to areas with cooler climates and requires a hard freeze each winter for proper dormancy. In northern parts of its range, January temperatures average about and July temperatures about ; in southern parts, January temperatures average about and July temperatures average almost . Seed germination also requires extremely low temperatures, the optimal being just slightly above freezing, and no other known tree species has this property. Germination of sugar maple seed in temperatures above is rare to nonexistent.


title: Acer saccharum

text: "Acer saccharum" is among the most shade tolerant of large deciduous trees. Its shade tolerance is exceeded only by the striped maple, a smaller tree. Like other maples, its shade tolerance is manifested in its ability to germinate and persist under a closed canopy as an understory plant, and respond with rapid growth to the increased light formed by a gap in the canopy. Sugar maple can tolerate virtually any soil type short of pure sand, but does not tolerate xeric or swampy conditions.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Sugar maples are deeper-rooted than most maples and engage in hydraulic lift, drawing water from lower soil layers and exuding that water into upper, drier soil layers. This not only benefits the tree itself, but also many other plants growing around it.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Human influences have contributed to the decline of the sugar maple in many regions. Its role as a species of mature forests has led it to be replaced by more opportunistic species in areas where forests are cut over. The sugar maple also exhibits a greater susceptibility to pollution than other species of maple. Acid rain and soil acidification are some of the primary contributing factors to maple decline. Also, the increased use of salt over the last several decades on streets and roads for deicing purposes has decimated the sugar maple's role as a street tree. The mushroom "Pholiota squarrosoides" is known to decay the logs of the tree.


title: Acer saccharum

text: In some parts of New England, particularly near urbanized areas, the sugar maple is being displaced by the Norway maple. The Norway maple is also highly shade tolerant, but is considerably more tolerant of urban conditions, resulting in the sugar maple's replacement in those areas. In addition, Norway maple produces much larger crops of seeds, allowing it to out-compete native species.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The sugar maple is one of the most important Canadian trees, being, with the black maple, the major source of sap for making maple syrup. Other maple species can be used as a sap source for maple syrup, but some have lower sugar content and/or produce more cloudy syrup than these two. In maple syrup production from "Acer saccharum", the sap is extracted from the trees using a tap placed into a hole drilled through the phloem, just inside the bark. The collected sap is then boiled. As the sap boils, the water evaporates and the syrup is left behind. Forty gallons of maple sap produces 1 gallon of syrup. In the southern part of their range, sugar maples produce little sap; syrup production is dependent on the tree growing in cooler climates.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The seeds can be soaked, and—with their wings removed—boiled, seasoned, and roasted to make them edible. The young leaves and inner bark can be eaten raw or cooked.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The sapwood can be white, and smaller logs may have a higher proportion of this desirable wood. Bowling alleys and bowling pins are both commonly manufactured from sugar maple. Trees with wavy woodgrain, which can occur in curly, quilted, and "birdseye maple" forms, are especially valued. Maple is also the wood used for basketball courts, including the floors used by the NBA, and it is a popular wood for baseball bats, along with white ash. In recent years, because white ash has become threatened by emerald ash borer, sugar maple wood has increasingly displaced it for baseball bat production. It is also widely used in the manufacture of musical instruments, such as the members of the violin family (sides and back), guitars (neck), grand pianos (rim), and drum shells. It is also often used in the manufacture of sporting goods.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Canadian maple, often referred to as "Canadian hardrock maple", is prized for pool cues, especially the shafts. Some production-line cues will use lower-quality maple wood with cosmetic issues, such as "sugar marks", which are most often light brown discolorations caused by sap in the wood. The best shaft wood has a very consistent grain, with no marks or discoloration. Sugar marks usually do not affect how the cue plays, but are not as high quality as those without it. The wood is also used in skateboards, gunstocks, and flooring for its strength. Canadian hardrock maple is also used in the manufacture of electric guitar necks due to its high torsional stability and the bright, crisp resonant tone it produces. If the grain is curly, with flame or quilt patterns, it is usually reserved for more expensive instruments. In high-end guitars this wood is sometimes Torrefied to cook out the Lignin resins, allowing the greater stability to climate & environmental changes, and to enhance its tonal characteristics as the instrument's resonance is more evenly distributed across the cellulose structure of the wood without the lignin.


title: Acer saccharum

text: Sugar maple was a favorite street and park tree during the 19th century because it was easy to propagate and transplant, is fairly fast-growing, and has beautiful fall color. As noted above, however, it proved too delicate to continue in that role after the rise of automobile-induced pollution and was replaced by Norway maple and other hardier species. It is intolerant of road salt.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The shade and the shallow, fibrous roots may interfere with grass growing under the trees. Deep, well-drained loam is the best rooting medium, although sugar maples can grow well on sandy soil which has a good buildup of humus. Light (or loose) clay soils are also well known to support sugar maple growth. Poorly drained areas are unsuitable, and the species is especially short-lived on flood-prone clay flats. Its salt tolerance is low and it is very sensitive to boron. The species is also subject to defoliation when there are dense populations of larvae of Lepidoptera species like the rosy maple moth ("Dryocampa rubicunda").


title: Acer saccharum

text: The Mohegan use the inner bark as a cough remedy, and the sap as a sweetening agent, and to make maple syrup following the introduction of metal cookware by Europeans.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The national champion for "Acer saccharum" is located in Charlemont, Massachusetts. In 2007, the year it was submitted, it had a circumference of at above the ground's surface, and thus a diameter at breast height of about . At that time the tree was tall with an average crown spread of . Using the scoring system of circumference in inches plus height in feet plus 25% of crown spread in feet resulted in a total number of 368 points at the National Register of Big Trees. A tree in Lyme, Connecticut, measured in 2012, had a circumference of , or an average diameter at breast height of about . This tree had been tall with a crown spread of , counting for a total number of 364 points.


title: Acer saccharum

text: The sugar maple is the state tree of the US states of New York, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: Michael Edward Novogratz (born November 26, 1964) is an American investor, formerly of the investment firm Fortress Investment Group. He is currently CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners which focuses on investments in cryptocurrency.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: Raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Novogratz is the third of seven children of West Point football lineman and 1958 Knute Rockne Award (best lineman) winner Robert, Sr. He attended Fort Hunt High School. Novogratz was state of Virginia high school wrestling runner-up before serving as Princeton Wrestling captain. Novogratz was first team All-Ivy League in both 1986 () and 1987 (). He qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wrestling championships in both 1986 and 1987 (both at ). Novogratz earned his A.B. in economics. At the 1987 NCAA wrestling championships, he made it to the round of 16 in the winners bracket and was eliminated from the consolation bracket in the round of 12.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: After a stint in the New Jersey National Guard that included service as a helicopter pilot, Novogratz began his career with Goldman Sachs in 1989. On April 1, 1989, he joined the firm as a short-term bond (money market) salesman. Novogratz lived in Asia from 1992 to 1999. He took a salesman position for Goldman in Tokyo in 1992, and eventually Jon Corzine sent him to Hong Kong to run a trading desk for the firm. He was elected partner at Goldman in 1998. Among the positions that he held at Goldman were president of Goldman Sachs Latin America and the head of fixed income, currencies and commodities risk in Asia. Novogratz claims his departure from Goldman, a year after the firm went public, was due to the consequences of "partying like a rockstar".


title: Michael Novogratz

text: In March 2002, Novogratz joined Fortress Investments in time to join Wesley Edens, Robert Kauffman, Randal Nardone and Peter Briger, Jr. in taking the company public through its February 9, 2007, initial public offering. During the IPO, the company sold an 8% share to the public for $600 million. Before assuming his roles at Fortress as principal and director of Fortress Credit Corporation in 2006, he served as Co-Chief Information Officer of Macro Funds at Fortress Investment Group LLC. Although the Fortress' domain included both hedge funds and private-equity investments, Novogratz and his fellow Princetonian Briger ran the hedge funds. Although the stock price had risen to $35 at its IPO, by December 3, 2008, it dipped to as low as $1.87 after withdrawals from Novogratz' Drawbridge Global Macro fund were shut off. Fortress folded after Novogratz and his colleagues lost hundreds of millions betting on the Swiss franc and Brazilian assets.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, a cryptocurrency investment firm. Originally scheduled to start his Galaxy Digital Assets Fund on December 15, 2017, he shelved plans because he "didn't like market conditions."


title: Michael Novogratz

text: Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. is one of the few cryptocurrency companies required to publish financial results. In the first nine months of 2018, the company lost $136 million in cryptocurrency trading. In 2017, Galaxy Digital contributed to an $80 million funding round for technology company Bitfury.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: Galaxy losses widened to 554 million in Q2 of 2022 following a 182 million dollar loss for the past year.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: He stated in 2017 that 20% of his net worth was in Bitcoin and Ethereum. He says he made $250 million from crypto currency from 2016-2017. At a 2022 cryptocurrency conference, Novogratz boasted that he was "only guy in the world that’s got both a Bitcoin tattoo and a Luna tattoo". A few weeks later, UST(the algorithmic Terra Luna stable coin), which claimed that it was pegged to the US Dollar, lost nearly all of its value.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: New York Governor David Paterson appointed Novogratz to sit on the Hudson River Park Trust's board of directors in 2010. He serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets. Novogratz is the chairman and founder of Beat the Streets, a non-profit organization which fosters the sport of wrestling in New York City public schools. He also serves on the board of the Acumen Fund, NYU Langone Medical Center, Princeton Varsity Club, Boards of Creative Alternatives of New York, PAX, the School for Strings, and The Jazz Foundation of America. He founded and serves as the chairman of the board of the School for Strings. He is also the honorary chairman of USA Wrestling Foundation and the chairman of The Friends of the Hudson River Park. In October 2015, Novogratz retired from Fortress Investments.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: In 2006, he bought Robert De Niro's $12.25 million duplex in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. When he moved into De Niro's former residence, Mickey Rourke moved into Novogratz' former Meatpacking district residence. He and his wife Dora "Sukey" Caceres have four children. They also own a home in Amagansett, outside New York City.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: He has been a booster for the U.S. National Wrestling Team and an official spokesman for USA Wrestling. He was named the 2010 USA Wrestling Man of the Year and an Outstanding American by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007. When the International Olympic Committee cut Olympic Wrestling from the 2020 Summer Games, he campaigned for the sport's return.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: In September 2007, Novogratz was listed at #317 on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.5 billion. He was ranked 962 on the March 2008 Forbes list of world billionaires with a net worth of $1.2 billion. The same year, he became a member of Kappa Beta Phi, a Wall Street "secret society" made up of wealthy financial executives. By 2012, after the decline of Fortress' stock price, his net worth had shrunk to $500 million. He supports Democratic political interests. He is also Governing Board Chair of The Bail Project.


title: Michael Novogratz

text: His sister Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, while his brother Robert Novogratz is a designer who has been profiled in the Bravo television series "9 by Design". Another brother John Novogratz is a senior managing partner at Millennium Partners.


title: Golden apple

text: The golden apple is an element that appears in various national and ethnic folk legends or fairy tales. Recurring themes depict a hero (for example Hercules or Făt-Frumos) retrieving the golden apples hidden or stolen by a monstrous antagonist. Gold apples also appear on the Silver Branch of the Otherworld in Irish mythology.


title: Golden apple

text: A huntress named Atalanta who raced against a suitor named Melanion, also known as Hippomenes. Melanion used golden apples to distract Atalanta so that he could win the race.


title: Golden apple

text: Though abandoned by her father as an infant, Atalanta became a skilled hunter and received acclaim for her role in the hunt for the Calydonian boar. Her father claimed her as his daughter and wished to marry her off. However, Atalanta was reluctant to marry due to a prophecy that marriage would be her downfall. Because of her beauty, she gained a number of suitors and finally agreed to marry, but under the condition that her suitor was obligated to beat her in a footrace. Competitors who failed to beat her would be put to death. As Atalanta could run extremely fast, all her suitors died. Realizing that Atalanta could not be defeated in a fair race, Melanion prayed to Aphrodite for help. The goddess gave him three golden apples and told him to drop them one at a time to distract Atalanta. Sure enough, she quit running long enough to retrieve each golden apple. It took all three apples and all of his speed, but Melanion finally succeeded, winning the race and Atalanta's hand.


title: Golden apple

text: Eventually they had a son Parthenopaios, who was one of the Seven against Thebes. Their marriage ended in misfortune when they were transformed into lions (which the Greeks believed were unable to mate with their own species, only with leopards) for offending Zeus by having an affair in one of his shrines.


title: Golden apple

text: Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited for her troublesome nature, and upon turning up uninvited, she threw a golden apple into the ceremony, with an inscription that read: "ΤΗΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΗΙ" (, Modern Greek: τη καλλίστη "ti kallisti"; "for/to the most beautiful" – cf. Callisto). Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They brought the matter before Zeus. Not wanting to get involved, Zeus assigned the task to Paris of Troy. Paris had demonstrated his exemplary fairness previously when he awarded a prize unhesitatingly to Ares after the god, in bull form, had bested his own prize bull.


title: Golden apple

text: Zeus gave the apple to Hermes and told him to deliver it to Paris and tell him that the goddesses would accept his decision without argument. As each goddess wanted to receive the apple, they each stripped off their own clothing and appeared naked before Paris. Each of the goddesses also offered Paris a gift as a bribe in return for the apple; Hera offered to make him the king of Europe and Asia Minor, Athena offered him wisdom and skill in battle, and Aphrodite offered to give to him the love of the world's most beautiful woman, Helen of Sparta, who was already married to King Menelaus. Paris chose Helen, a decision that caused the Trojan war, and ultimately the destruction of both Paris and his city, Troy.


title: Golden apple

text: Hera's sacred tree, given to her as gift from Zeus, grows apples made entirely of gold. The dragon Ladon was sent to guard it from anyone who might try to steal the apples.


title: Golden apple

text: The role of the Golden Apple is far more minor and less specific in Irish lore, mostly because it is an element of the Silver Branch, or "Silver Bough", symbol that is connected to the Celtic Otherworld.


title: Golden apple

text: The silver branch with golden apples is owned by the Irish sea deity and Otherworld guardian Manannán mac Lir in the tale "Echtra Cormaic". But these "apples" are actually "balls of red gold" hanging on a musical branch according to variant texts, and hardly fruits at all. The Dictionary of the Irish Language concurs, by defining the "apples" in this instance as "musical balls", not "fruits".


title: Golden apple

text: There has been offered for comparison "silver branch of the sacred apple-tree bearing blossoms" encountered by Bran mac Febail in the narrative "The Voyage of Bran", though golden apple fruits are not evident in this telling. This branch came from "Emain", construed to mean Emain Ablach associated with Manannán mac Lir by later commentators, though not recognized as anything other than Emain Macha of the Ulstermen in Eleanor Hull's monograph on the silver branch.


title: Golden apple

text: In the "Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann" version of the quest of Tuirenn's sons (Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba), the éric items demanded by Lugh Lamhfada included the Golden Apples of Hesperides. It is said to taste of honey, have curative powers, and not diminish though they are eaten. They could also be cast and perform tasks at will, and return to their owners.


title: Golden apple

text: In Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen", the golden apples have their own leitmotif. It is first sung by Fafner, when he explains to his brother Fasolt why they must take Freia away from the gods.


title: Golden apple

text: In Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird (1910) which is based upon an amalgam of Russian folk-legends, the hero Prince Ivan enters a garden where he witnesses 13 young Princesses' playing with Golden Apples which grow there. (Tableaux VII Scherzo. Jeux des princesses avec les pommes d'or / The Princesses' Game with the Golden Apples).


title: Golden apple

text: The Augusta, Lady Gregory play called "The Golden Apple: A Play for Kiltartan Children" is a fable in the invented Kiltartan dialect based on Irish mythology and folklore.


title: Golden apple

text: "The Golden Apples" is the name of Southern writer, Eudora Welty's, fourth short story collection, published in 1949. The stories are interrelated and center around the citizens of the fictional town of Morgana, Mississippi.


title: Golden apple

text: A golden apple plays a crucial role in the climax of David Mitchell's sixth novel "The Bone Clocks", published by Random House in 2014.


title: Golden apple

text: The contemporary religion Discordianism draws upon the Golden Apple of the goddess Eris, also known as the "Apple of Discord", which Eris used to set off the conflict among the goddesses of Olympus that led to the Trojan War because she was not invited to a party (the so-called "Original Snub". Emblazoned upon the apple is the word ""Kallisti"" ("to the fairest"). The golden apple can be seen as a metaphor for a practical joke meant to cause cognitive dissonance in the target.


title: Golden apple

text: Michael Hübner has suggested that the fruit of the Argan tree, endemic to the Sous Valley in present-day Morocco, may be the golden apples of the Hesperides. Arguing that the location matches most closely the description given in classical texts of Atlantis and the garden of the Hesperides, he notes that the ripe fruits look like small golden apples and have an aroma like baked apples. He equates the fruit, the seeds of which produce Argan oil, with Plato's account of Atlantean fruits "which afford liquid and solid food and unguents", and proposes that the trees' almost reptilian-scale like bark and thorns may have inspired the mythical guardian dragon of the golden apples, Ladon.


title: Golden apple

text: In many languages, the orange is referred to as a "golden apple". For example, the Greek "χρυσομηλιά," and Latin "pomum aurantium" both literally describe oranges as "golden apples". Other languages, like German, Finnish, Hebrew, and Russian, have more complex etymologies for the word "orange" that can be traced back to the same idea.


title: Golden apple

text: In later years it was thought that the "golden apples" of myth might have actually been oranges, a fruit unknown to Europe and the Mediterranean before the Middle Ages. Under this assumption, the Greek botanical name chosen for all citrus species was "Hesperidoeidē" (Ἑσπεριδοειδῆ, "hesperidoids"). It was also used by Carl Linnaeus, who gave the name Hesperides to an order containing the genus Citrus, in allusion to the golden apples of the Hesperides, and is preserved in the term Hesperidium for the fruits of citrus and some other plants.


title: Golden apple

text: One reason why oranges might be considered to be "magical" in so many stories is because they bear flowers and fruit at the same time, unlike other fruit.


title: Golden apple

text: Frequently , the term "golden apple" is used to refer to the quince, a fruit originating in the Middle East.


title: Golden apple

text: The tomato, unknown to the ancient world of the Greeks, is known as the "pomodoro" in Italian, meaning "golden apple" (from "pomo d'oro").


title: Golden apple

text: Golden apples are also items that are featured in video games such as "Minecraft", "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon" and "Hello Neighbor". In the TV-series "Animated Tales of the World", the episode "The Tree with the Golden Apples" revolves around the golden apple-tree on an island. An old man asks three brothers to sail to the island and whoever brings him a golden apple gets his daughter's hand in marriage.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The Big Breakfast is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4. Originally presented by Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, the show was latterly presented by Mo Gilligan and AJ Odudu.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The programme was distinctive for broadcasting live from a real house (which had been lock-keepers' cottages), commonly referred to as "The Big Breakfast House", or more simply, "The House", located on Fish Island, in Bow in east London. The original house on Fish Island in Bow has since been sold.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The show was a mix of news, weather, interviews, audience phone-ins and general features, with a light tone which was in competition with the maturer GMTV and BBC Breakfast programmes.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "The Big Breakfast" was launched on 28 September 1992 to replace "The Channel Four Daily", which was Channel 4's unsuccessful first foray into the breakfast television market. The "Daily", launched at huge expense, had focussed on current affairs and news bulletins alongside bitesized magazine shows, a quiz show segment and a daily cartoon slot. This format had failed to attract enough viewers, so Channel 4 opted to change direction and work towards a lighter style concentrating mainly on entertainment and humour with news bulletins restricted to brief summaries every 20 minutes.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The first two presenters were Chris Evans (from 1992 to 1994) and Gaby Roslin (1992 to 1996). At its height in 1993, viewing figures reached around two million per edition, and it was the highest rated UK breakfast television programme. Along with Evans and Roslin, Bob Geldof presented a short-lived political interview slot. His wife Paula Yates interviewed people whilst lying on a bed, and the puppet characters Zig and Zag created morning mayhem in the bathroom with Evans in a slot called 'The Crunch'.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: As part of his contract with "The Big Breakfast", Evans was committed to developing a new show for Channel 4. "Don't Forget Your Toothbrush" began in early 1994, and Evans cut his involvement with "The Big Breakfast" to three days a week, Tuesday to Thursday. Former "Neighbours" actor Mark Little replaced Evans on Mondays and Fridays. When Evans left the show later that year, Little continued Thursdays, and Fridays while Paul Ross took over Mondays to Wednesdays. Richard Orford replaced Ross around Easter 1995 but was quickly dropped and exchanged with "Down Your Doorstep" presenter Keith Chegwin. In July 1995, the show reverted to using just one male presenter (Mark Little) throughout the week. Chegwin would cover for Little when he was on tour as a comedian or on holiday.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Roslin continued full-time until she made way for Zoe Ball in 1996. Audience figures dropped a little after Evans left, and a little further after Roslin departed. Mark Little left the programme in July 1996, following press reports that he and Ball had fallen out. Little was replaced by Keith Chegwin, who himself exited the programme in August 1996, just ahead of a relaunch. To stem the sliding viewing figures, the Big Breakfast house was refurbished at a cost of £2 million. New presenters Rick Adams and Sharron Davies were brought in but viewing figures fell dramatically. Davies left the programme in early 1997, to be replaced by Denise van Outen. Van Outen had initially been brought in as part of the September 1996 relaunch as a weather presenter, before being given a role based at the house as the phone room presenter and holiday relief for Davies. In June 1997, Johnny Vaughan covered for Adams for a fortnight alongside Van Outen, the pair forging a successful on-screen partnership. Adams left the programme shortly afterwards and, in September 1997, the Vaughan and Van Outen partnership was made permanent. Audience figures stabilised and the duo fronted the programme together until Van Outen's departure on 1 January 1999. (A New Year's Day pre-record). Kelly Brook was installed as Vaughan's new co-presenter despite an internet campaign for the role to be awarded to Liza Tarbuck, who had successfully covered for Van Outen in the summer of 1998. However, Brook struggled in the role and left the programme in early summer 1999. Liza Tarbuck, having again covered the co-presenter role alongside Vaughan prior to Brook's departure, was made permanent at the end of August 1999. She left the following summer and, following Vaughan's annual one-month summer break, Denise van Outen returned to co-host in September 2000 for Vaughan's final four months on the programme. Vaughan and Van Outen's final "Big Breakfast" was on 12 January 2001.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The programme relaunched with a new logo and updated theme on Monday 22 January 2001. The house had also been redecorated in more muted colours, echoing the ill-fated 1996 revamp. The programme moved to a line up of three main presenters, Paul Tonkinson, Amanda Byram and Donna Air. However, Tonkinson was dropped from the programme at the end of March 2001 and Air left not long after. Richard Bacon and Byram remained as main presenters, the programme having reverted to two main presenters once more. The living room, which had been repainted a dark red as part of the revamp, was changed to a bright yellow and pink design, while the main presenter chairs were also reinstalled in front of the living room's French windows. They replaced the bright green sofa which had also been brought in as part of the revamp. The new logo was replaced with one more closely resembling the traditional "Big Breakfast" logo, albeit utilising a slightly different font. Mike McClean was given a role on the programme, as Down Your Doorstep presenter and cover for Bacon, most regularly on Fridays when Bacon would reprise his former Down Your Doorstep role alongside Johnny Vegas.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: In December 2001 it was announced that "The Big Breakfast" was to be axed the following March. In the programme's final months, former cover presenter Lisa Rogers was given a role as an extra presenter while Zig and Zag returned for the final six weeks in their former slot, The Crunch, for which a new bathroom set was installed in the house. The final "Big Breakfast" aired on 29 March 2002 and included a retrospective that included contributions from Evans, Roslin, Vaughan and Van Outen. Both Evans and Vaughan declared the cancelling of the show a bad idea, but the show ended with a tribute from the Prince of Wales before the last ever Friday song.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: When the show finished, the house reverted to a private residence, now known as The Cottage. After renovation following a fire, it has also been used for a few television shows, including the one-off special edition of The Big Breakfast which aired in 2021.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Mark Lamarr, Keith Chegwin, Paul Ross, Richard Orford, Richard Bacon and Mike McClean were "down your doorstep" outside broadcasters, often turning up live and unannounced at an unsuspecting viewer's house, while rooms within the Lock Keeper's Houses featured the puppets Zig and Zag and video games guru Ben the Boffin.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The show's style, with hand-held cameras moving around all of the set, meant that many of the crew members could be seen on screen. This led to them getting nicknames, such as 'Sturdy Girl', who was regularly asked to shake her head so that her hair would be hurled around whilst music played and the camera zoomed in and out. 'The Carpet Monster' was revealed in the "Doctor Who" Special to have been an extra, playing a deadly clown, in the Seventh Doctor story "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy".


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Between 1992 and 2000, during most nationally recognised UK school holiday periods, "The Big Breakfast" would run beyond its typical 9am finish to provide continuity into and out of unrelated shows aimed primarily towards children. This would last throughout the morning, usually until around midday. Although typically presented to the viewer as simply a programme on Channel 4, most of "The Bigger Breakfast" is perhaps better classified as an informal style of in-vision continuity.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The strand also acted as an umbrella brand for the programming which it linked to, by use of "Big Breakfast" style break-bumpers and Digital On-Screen Graphics. The expanded format always featured the regular content of The Big Breakfast from 7am to 9am. The first run of "The Bigger Breakfast" during the summer of 1997 was titled as such all the way from its 7am start, presented throughout by Richard Orford and Denise Van Outen. Future editions would see slight separations made from the 7am to 9am content, by way of this portion of the show being branded and scheduled as" The Big Breakfast", with all content after 9am taking on the expanded Bigger Breakfast name. After a while, a further distinction was made by using a different set of presenters from that of "The Big Breakfast". Presenters of "The Bigger Breakfast" included Josie D'Arby, Ben Shephard, Melanie Sykes and Dermot O'Leary.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Programming was primarily composed of reruns of Channel 4 shows and US imports. The line-up changed frequently. The list below is of some of series featured on "The Big Breakfast and the Bigger Breakfast" over the years:


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "The Bigger Breakfast" was discontinued after Christmas holidays in 2000. The block of programming provided within "The Bigger Breakfast" was retained, with Channel 4's youth strand T4 taking over the continuity role.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Snap Cackle Pop, a regular and recurring feature throughout the history of "The Big Breakfast", was briefly retitled as simply Snap, in 1997. As well as continuing as a short, daily entertainment news feature within "The Big Breakfast", "Snap" also became a show in its own right. Airing once weekly at 6.00pm on Channel 4, the half hour show was a light hearted round-up of recent news stories concerning popular entertainment in the UK.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Presented by Denise Van Outen, the show was intentionally recognisable as being closely related to "The Big Breakfast", from which it originated and continued to be part of. "Snap" contained a number of elements synonymous with "The Big Breakfast", such as using the very same boudoir set and on-the-bed interviewing of guests. However, care was generally taken not to alienate viewers who were not so familiar with "The Big Breakfast".


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Three months after first appearing, Chris Evans, Gaby Roslin and Paula Yates hosted a live edition of the show, seeing in the new year of 1993. Zsa Zsa Gabor featured as a special guest.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: On 1 January 2000, "The Big Breakfast" aired an extended New Year's Day edition entitled "The Biggest Breakfast Ever", celebrating the arrival of the year 2000. Written by John Mann and Ged Parsons and broadcasting from 12:30 a.m. to just past 9:00 a.m., the special featured various retrospective features and the competition "Owe? No You Don't!"—where contestants competed in classic "Big Breakfast" games (concluding with the new game "Wonga") for a chance to have their debts paid off.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: In January 2021, members of "The Big Breakfast" production team launched a podcast in which they discussed their experiences working on the series.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: On 26 May 2022 it was confirmed that the series would return part time for four Saturdays in a two and a half hour slot from 13 August 2022, with Gilligan and Odudu again returning to host from a new house revealed to be in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Denise van Outen returned as a guest to "hand over the reins" of the show to the two new presenters.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Before most advertisement breaks a clip from an upcoming TV show or movie would be shown, a question being asked by one of the hosts about it; the answer would be revealed after the advert break, along with details of the show or film. This feature would result in the production team chorusing "Don't phone, it's just for fun!" which was a Chris Evans creation, initially used on his radio shows before he shot to fame on "The Big Breakfast".


title: The Big Breakfast

text: A phone-in feature encouraging viewers to provide humorous answers throughout the morning to a pertinent (or occasionally inane) question. At one point it was accompanied by a fanfare, apparently played on the trumpet by "little Ted" beneath the camera (in fact a member of the team waving a toy trumpet in shot). One morning's question was "What should the BBC do to improve "EastEnders"?", and one viewer suggested adding Barbara Windsor to the cast; this actually occurred shortly afterwards.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "Your indispensable guide to a "better" life!", this feature appeared during the early years of the show; in it celebrities would give various simple but useful hints for such issues as cleaning or keeping food fresh.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "Streaky Bacon" became a regular feature, in which Richard Bacon would get a member of the public out of their house to 'streak' along their street wearing nothing but bacon-covered underwear in order to win their weight in bacon from their local butcher.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "Vital Statistics" was another common feature, particularly in the Johnny Vaughan era. These would often relate to a news story, a guest or a topic they had discussed, such as "Doctor Who" on their Doctor Who Special.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: A key feature for the first five years was the "On the Bed" interview. Paula Yates (the then wife of Bob Geldof, whose company produced the show), and later Paul O'Grady (as Lily Savage) and Vanessa Feltz assumed the role of interviewer. One of the most infamous on-air moments was Paula Yates' open flirting during an interview with Michael Hutchence as a prelude to their affair.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: A repeating feature in the Vaughan and van Outen era, in which an erratically filmed, speeded-up video clip of a line of tea cups was shown to a call-in viewer. Vaughan, dressed as an Anglican vicar, and van Outen, dressed as a nun replete with false teeth and an inferiority complex, then explained the rules. The caller guessed the number of tea cups shown in the video lead in, with Vaughan responding "More tea, vicar" if the number is too low; "Less tea, vicar" if too high. If the contestant guessed the correct number within the time limit, a prize was awarded.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The inventor of the wind-up radio, Trevor Baylis, would join Johnny Vaughan in the shed to discuss innovative new products. Vaughan tended to make fun of Baylis for being older.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: A Jenga-style game, followed by various shouting and anarchy, with fans and the Wonga Lawyer. The show famously went over 27 minutes for a game once, with the "Millennium Big Breakfast" actually being commissioned with extra time for Wonga.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "The Big Breakfast" used to give out "wonga money" to people when they won money because they didn't want to give it to them on the show. They would give the real thing to them later.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Each Friday the two main presenters and the whole crew would gather in the hallway for The Friday Song. The song would look back at events that happened on the show each week


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Unusually for a live British TV show at the time of its creation, "The Big Breakfast" was broadcast entirely from a real house. Located alongside the River Lea, in east London, the property became informally known as 'The Big Breakfast House'. Filming would frequently take place within the large grounds of the property and the closely surrounding area. The cottages are in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Built in 1947, the property originally comprised three cottages which housed the lock keepers, toll takers, and navigation operators of the Old Ford Locks in Bow. By the time of purchase by the programme-makers, Planet24, in 1992, the property had become Grade II listed and had remained unused for around 20 years. Extensive renovation work saw the transformation of the three cottages into one large three-bedroom property, specifically fitted for use as a TV studio. The exterior character of the property was largely unchanged. During the first four years of the show, the given address for the house was number 2, Lock Keepers' Cottages, Old Ford Lock, London E3 2NN. The '2' was later dropped.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: In 1996, due to the declining popularity of "The Big Breakfast", the house was transformed in an art deco-style makeover. The original brickwork was virtually entirely covered over with a smooth rendered finish, painted white. Two large balconies now adorned the front and rear. The only untouched exterior features recognisable from the show's original styling were the four brick chimneys and the roof. The legality of this extensive makeover could be questioned as having broken the rules of its Grade II listed status. The work carried out is purported to have cost around £2million, largely funded by its sale to the show's broadcaster, Channel Four Television.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Structurally, the house largely remained in this style for the remainder of the series. The only notable structural alterations were the removal of the front balcony, the partial removal of the balcony to the rear and minor alterations to the styling of the doors and windows.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: However, the character of the house was altered through several artistic makeovers to both the interior and exterior. The exterior was painted bright yellow, later a light brown similar in shade to the original brickwork, followed by a faux red brickwork effect which was painted onto the render. The latter style became the final look of the house, during the show's final three-and-a-half years.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: In November 2002, seven-and-a-half months after "The Big Breakfast" was axed, a fire destroyed a significant proportion of the first floor of the cottages. A large part of the roof was also destroyed in the blaze. The fire was suspicious as there was no gas or electrical supply to the building.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: Since the fire, extensive work has taken place to restore the house and it is now used as a family home. The house was bought for little more than half the original asking price of £1 million at £550,000. The house was slashed in value because of the fire of November 2002.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The house has now been fully renovated, but some of the well-recognised aspects of the house from its use during the run of "The Big Breakfast" remain.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The newly renovated house features in the BBC Two show "Neneh and Andi Dish It Up", BBC Three's "Singing With the Enemy", "Too Fat To Toddle" on ITV1, and the one-off revival of "The Big Breakfast" on Channel 4.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The cottages are located about 200 metres from the site of the main stadium used in the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2005, the cottages became part of a compulsory purchase order for the Games, giving rise to speculation that the building may be demolished. However, the cottages and gardens remain unchanged.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: The house made a cameo appearance in a Channel 4 ident shown in the lead-up to the channel's coverage of the Paralympics in August 2012.


title: The Big Breakfast

text: "The Big Breakfast"'s return on 13 August 2022 has been confirmed to be from a new house, leaving the original Lock Keepers Cottages behind for the first time in the show’ history. The new house is located in Potters Bar. Filming takes place on The Villa mansion, a seven-bedroom cottage set in ten acres of countryside.


title: Deathlok

text: Deathlok (also referred to as Deathlok the Demolisher) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in "Astonishing Tales" #25 (Aug. 1974), created by Rich Buckler. At least three subsequent Marvel characters have used the "Deathlok" identity since then. A recurring theme among these characters is that a dead human has been reanimated with cybernetic technology. "Deathlok technology" has also been used thematically by Marvel writers in other stories.


title: Deathlok

text: The character has also appeared on television in animation and live action, with J. August Richards portraying a variation in the television series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."


title: Deathlok

text: Although initially announced as the new lead feature for Marvel's "Worlds Unknown" comic, under the title "Cyborg", the first Deathlok series ran in "Astonishing Tales" #25–28, 30–36 (cover-dated Aug. 1974–July 1976). This initial version of the character, Luther Manning, later guest-starred with Spider-Man in "Marvel Team-Up" #46 (June 1976), and the story from the cancelled "Astonishing Tales" comics was finished in "Marvel Spotlight" #33 (April 1977). Deathlok subsequently appeared with the Thing, a member of the superhero team the Fantastic Four, in "Marvel Two-in-One" #27 and 54. The Luther Manning Deathlok then appeared in "Captain America" #286–288 (Oct.-Dec. 1983).


title: Deathlok

text: A new Deathlok, Michael Collins, debuted in the miniseries "Deathlok" #1–4 (July–Oct. 1990, reprinted as "Deathlok Special" #1–4 the following year). This second Deathlok went on to a 34-issue series cover-dated July 1991 to April 1994, plus two summer "Annual"s in 1992 and 1993. The third Deathlok, S.H.I.E.L.D. espionage agent Jack Truman, debuted in an 11-issue miniseries (Sept. 1999–June 2000). Deathlok has also appeared in four issues of the miniseries "Beyond!", and Michael Collins, in human form and not as Deathlok, appeared in "Fantastic Four" #544–545 (May–June 2007). Multiple unnamed Deathlok units appear in "Black Panther" vol. 4 #1–6. Possessing no human sentience, they were automatons created from corpses of soldiers killed in Iraq.


title: Deathlok

text: A new Deathlok named Henry Hayes debuted during the "Original Sin" event from Nathan Edmondson and Mike Perkins. While the character was considered to be an adaptation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe portrayal of Deathlok, Mike Petersen, Edmondson stated that the coincidences were just "happy similarities" and that ultimately they tried to go for a total original concept. This Deathlok has his own ongoing series that began in October 2014.


title: Deathlok

text: Colonel Luther Manning is an American soldier from Detroit, Michigan, who, after being fatally injured, is reanimated in a post-apocalyptic future (originally given the date of 1990) only to discover that what remains of his dead body has been turned into the experimental Deathlok cyborg by Simon Ryker. He verbally communicates with his symbiotic computer, to which he refers as the abbreviated "'Puter". He escapes from Ryker's control, although he dreams he has regained his humanity. He battles the evil corporate and military regimes that have taken over the United States, while simultaneously struggling not to lose his humanity. He battles Simon Ryker and the first War-Wolf, and encounters his wife and son for the first time after becoming a cyborg. He battles Simon Ryker's Super-Tank, and then begins a hunt for a "cyborg doctor". He battles Simon Ryker as the Savior Machine, and his mind is ultimately transferred into a Luther Manning clone. He battles mutants alongside a time-traveling Spider-Man. He begins working for the CIA, encounters Godwulf for the first time, and is then finally sent back in time to the modern era.


title: Deathlok

text: Deathlok battles the Devil-Slayer, but then battles demons alongside Devil-Slayer. He later becomes controlled by Mentallo and the Fixer and is sent to assassinate the President, but is stopped by the Thing and Nick Fury. After his capture he becomes catatonic, and is taken to England for treatment by the Thing. He is cured by Louis Kort, and Nick Fury takes him into custody. Deathlok is rebuilt by Roxxon as a robot and sent to sabotage Project Pegasus. The robot battles the Thing and Quasar, and self-destructs. The real Deathlok, now working for the Brand Corporation, battles Captain America and a time-traveling Luther Manning clone. Alongside Captain America, Godwulf, and the Redeemers, he battles Hellinger. Some time later, the "mainstream timeline" Luther Manning begins dreaming that he is Deathlok. He is charged with temporal energy by Timestream. Timestream recruits this "mainstream" human Manning. Deathlok, Timestream, and Manning battled the Collins Deathlok, Siege, and Godwulf. The Manning Deathlok eventually returns to his own time and overthrows the megalomaniac who had taken over the country. Manning remains in his near-future alternate reality, searching for a purpose in life and unable to disconnect himself from the machine bonded to him.


title: Deathlok

text: Eventually, Manning travels to the mainstream Marvel Universe and encounters Daredevil and the Kingpin. He lives a life of solitude until being apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D., from which he is later kidnapped by the supervillain the Owl and, immobilized, put up for auction as a weapon. Before a sale can be completed, he is stolen by the crime lord the Hood and sent on a kamikaze decoy run.


title: Deathlok

text: Kelly first appeared as Deathlok in "Marvel Comics Presents" #62. This version of Deathlok was originally controlled by Kelly until its systems determined that Kelly's brain function was detrimental to its completion of the "First Run" program. The Deathlok unit then completed its mission. Kelly's brain was removed from the cyborg and disposed of. One of Ryker's assistants took the brain presumably for use in the SIEGE unit. This version was made for the United States Army by the CIA's Deathlok-program co-head, Harlan Ryker, after studying Luther Manning's cyborg body. The Kelly Deathlok later became known as Siege.


title: Deathlok

text: Professor Michael Collins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a pacifist working for the Roxxon cybernetics corporation Cybertek. Upon discovery of the Deathlok program, he was shot with a sedative by Harlan Ryker and his brain was transplanted into the body of the John Kelly Deathlok cyborg. The machine was used against rebels fighting against Roxxon's influence in the fictional South American country of Estrella. Collins regained his consciousness during that mission and stopped the cyborg programming that would have killed a small child.


title: Deathlok

text: Although his brain was intended to serve only as a medium for the robot's programming, he was able to assert his will over it (installing a "no-killing parameter" into its programming). The computer is fully willing to listen to Collins, though he must take care to present his orders in a way that helps fulfill the mission and keep people from dying. The computer is fully capable of understanding distinct concepts, such as bluffing, as when Collins is forced to pretend to take a hostage. Later he met Jesus Badalamente and also battles Mainframe. Collins learns that his human body was still alive, and encounters Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. Harlan Ryker hides Collins's human body. Collins aids Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. in preventing a nuclear strike on the United States. With the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Misty Knight, Deathlok later battles Mechadoom. He meets the Punisher, and battles Silvermane. After that, he teams up with Spider-Man and several other heroes to stop the Sinister Six. He next meets Moses Magnum. Collins finally reveals his existence as a cyborg to his family. Collins then begins to search for his human body. During this time he fought the Sleepwalker, and helps Silver Sable retrieve a purloined Statue of Liberty. He assists a makeshift team of other heroes in the "Maximum Carnage" incident, protecting the people of New York from a mass-murdering group of supervillains.


title: Deathlok

text: During the events of the miniseries "Beyond!", the cosmic being the Stranger (pretending to be the Beyonder) transported Collins to an alien planet, where he was forced to live for years until being rescued with the aid of several other heroes. However, his rescue required the sacrifice of Greg Willis, the superhero known as Gravity. As an act of gratitude, Collins arranged Gravity's funeral. When Willis' body was later stolen by the cosmic entity known as Epoch, Collins enlisted the aid of the Fantastic Four in retrieving it.


title: Deathlok

text: Jack Truman was an agent of the international espionage outfit S.H.I.E.L.D. who was transformed into a cyborg to battle the Red Skull. Through telepathic means, he eventually swapped his mind into the body of another former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Larry Young. Young is being considered as a "potential recruit" for the Initiative program.


title: Deathlok

text: During the "Dark Reign" storyline, a H.A.M.M.E.R. strike force consisting of corpses animated with crude bionics was sent to capture a super-soldier research center known as "The World". These models acted like traditional zombies, craving brains. Their mission was unsuccessful and as a result, the research group which produced them, called "Project: Deathlok", was scrapped.


title: Deathlok

text: Wolverine's rogue ops team joins an alternate future Deathlok-Prime – now free from its homicidal human host's brain – to face down invaders from a different possible future where X-Force, and all other superheroes, have been turned into "Deathloks" controlled by worldly authorities with popular support, which produces a crime-free utopia for everyone else. Deathlok appeared later as a guest speaker for one of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning's classes. Deathlok revealed the potential futures of the students present and the probabilities of them occurring. Notably, Deathlok refused to comment on Genesis' future, revealing to him in private that only he can choose his fate.


title: Deathlok

text: In the "Avengers Arena" series as part of the "Marvel NOW!" event, a female teenage version of Deathlok dubbed Death Locket is introduced. She is revealed to be Rebecca Ryker, the daughter of Harlan Ryker. After being maimed in an explosion that killed her mother and brother, Rebecca was rebuilt using the Deathlok technology that her father developed. Arcade later kidnaps her alongside the students of the Avengers Academy and Braddock Academy and forces them to fight other teenage superhumans in his latest version of Murderworld.


title: Deathlok

text: A new Deathlok debuted during the "Original Sin" storyline. Henry Hayes worked at Doctors Without Borders. During his duty, he lost a leg in a suicide bomber attack in Kandahar (or was brainwashed into thinking he did). Henry was taken care of by the company Biotek, who provided him with a composite fiber prosthesis. Upon being placed under mind-control, Henry Hayes became Deathlok, where he was used as an assassin, a soldier, a killer, a fighter, and an operative. He had participated in at least one armed conflict alongside organized troops, and assassinated countless people even in populated areas. He was even once close to being captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. when a mission went bad in Russia. Henry Hayes was often memory-wiped and did not remember his assignments. While at MTA Metro-North station, he tried to engage discussion with another leg amputee and advised him to contact Biotek, as his own prosthesis (plastic ones, as it was the only kind his pension afforded him) forced the man to use crutches. This man left, seemingly displeased with the discussion. Immediately afterward, he met Seth Horne, an off-duty S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was present when the Eye of the Watcher exploded, releasing a blast of energy which revealed deep secrets to anyone in its radius. To Horne, it revealed Hayes' true story. This level 4 agent wanted to congratulate him, stating that S.H.I.E.L.D. would wish to have him in their ranks. As Henry Hayes really did not know what Horne was talking about, he threatened to call the authorities, forcing the agent to leave after a last congratulations. Immediately, Henry Hayes was ordered to kill him as the announcement board of the station indicated the words "Whiskey David", triggering Henry Hayes' Deathlok persona. After following Seth Horne into the restroom, Deathlok quickly executed him, left, took some medications, and returned to his civilian life heading to the train to join his daughter Aria.


title: Deathlok

text: In the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." comic book, Jemma Simmons (based on the character from the TV show of the same name) became the newest Deathlok, though she has yet to actually take the name. She becomes one after getting infected with an unknown substance contained within a "targeted DNA bomb" that begins to deteriorate her condition, which also placed her in a coma. With the help of Henry Hayes and Bobbi Morse, she is transformed into a Deathlok, which successfully saves her life.


title: Deathlok

text: During the "Iron Man 2020" event, Force Works encounters a group of Deathloks on the island of Lingares who overwhelm and capture them. Quake states to the soldiers that the dead that captured them are Deathloks. With Quake translating, War Machine, U.S. Agent, and Mockingbird learned that someone called the "Scientist" showed up claiming to help them where he made Deathloks from the fallen countrymen to help deal with a giant. Unfortunately, something went wrong. It is soon discovered that the giant attacking Lingares is Ultimo who attacks both sides. As Quake, U.S. Agent, and Mockingbird get the prisoners to safety, War Machine fights off his paralysis and starts fighting the Deathloks trying to experiment on him. War Machine is then saved by someone he recognizes who is in need of his services. Moments later, War Machine arrives with his armor, U.S. Agent's shield, and the equipment of Quake and Mockingbird as he fights off the Deathloks. The rest of Force Works discover that War Machine's rescuer is MODOK Superior. It is then revealed that MODOK Superior created these Deathloks in order to help gain control of Ultimo which transforms him into Ulti-MODOK. Once the bearded Deathlok with the central processing unit is beheaded, James Rhodes briefly turns himself into a Deathlok to control the other Deathloks who follow Ulti-MODOK into the lava-filled chasm that Quake briefly opened.


title: Deathlok

text: Col. Luther Manning's body was rebuilt into a cyborg body by Harlan Ryker. Deathlok's mechanical, cybernetic physiology granted him several superhuman powers including superhuman strength, stamina, agility, reflexes, and a computer augmented brain. The right arm and left half of his face are armored cybernetic implants. He wears a woven metal-mesh body suit of considerable durability. Deathlok also carried a helium-neon laser pistol designed by the U.S. Army of his time, and a throwing dagger. Manning was a military academy graduate, and a brilliant military strategist. He is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, and proficient with knives, daggers, handguns, and laser pistols. He was later captured and upgraded by Earth-616's S.H.I.E.L.D. and given jet boots that allowed him to leap at great heights and his other abilities were perhaps enhanced to greater levels.


title: Deathlok

text: Michael Collins' human brain was transplanted into a cyborg body by a group of scientists at Cybertek. His cyborg body grants him the same powers as Manning, only with much greater strength, speed, and resistance to injury. He possesses a broad spectrum of visual and auditory powers. Deathlok has the ability to interface with virtually any computer system. He is also able to project his consciousness and sensory projections directly into the Net, making him capable of directly hacking computer systems far more efficiently than a traditional hacker. His body can also target (nearly infallibly) multiple objects and track them. He could scan the entire electromagnetic spectrum. He has learned to use internal nano-bots to repair and alter both his organic and inorganic parts, enabling him to appear as either a humanoid cyborg, or completely human. He also has a very sophisticated A.I., capable of quickly making complex strategies and evaluating their chance of success. If requested, the A.I. can take control of the body to perform these operations. Collins himself possesses no combat skills, but under computer-guided combat routines, he is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant with an extensive database of combat techniques and strategies.


title: Deathlok

text: Collins is an excellent computer programmer with an advanced degree in computer science and prosthetics, and helped construct the Deathlok body, along with other Cybertek scientists including William Hansen, Ben Jacobs, Stanley Cross, Dr. Hu, and Jim Dworman. After becoming Deathlok, Collins later modified his own systems. Like Manning, Collins wears a woven metal-mesh body suit of considerable durability. He carries a plasma pistol which draws its energy from his internal power source. Thus, the weapon can only be fired if in contact with the outlets in Deathlok's hand. Deathlok also possesses a collapsible plasma rifle capable of greater firepower with the same limitations, a supply of fragmentation plasma grenades, and a molybdenum steel knife. He wears a wrist bracelet that allows Deathlok to override similar cybernetic operating systems, and an adamantium/vibranium alloy shock dampening helmet. He sometimes uses a refitted Cybertek Dragonfly fighter with a range of several hundred miles.


title: Deathlok

text: In "Ultimate Spider-Man" #70 (Feb. 2005), the Ultimates fight a person they refer to as Luther Manning, who looks like Deathlok and whom Spider-Man describes as a "half-robot half-zombie guy". The superheroes take him into custody.


title: Deathlok

text: In "X-Factor" #231 (Apr. 2012), in a version of reality where Wanda Maximoff declared "no more humans" instead of "no more mutants", Tony Stark is attacked by a mostly-cyborg version of Steve Rogers, who refers to himself as "Deathlok".


title: Deathlok

text: In the "Amalgam Universe", Jason Todd was a young S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit with a bright future, who was personally mentored by Director Bruce Wayne and Moonwing. Despite his reckless nature, Dick chose Jason as his successor when he temporarily left S.H.I.E.L.D. to attend college. As Moonwing, he made a careless mistake, which resulted in a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's death, causing him to be dismissed from S.H.I.E.L.D. Jason became furious and blamed his mentors. He was then caught in an explosion when the villain Hyena detonated a bomb intended to kill Bruce and Dark Claw. Despite his body never being recovered, S.H.I.E.L.D. presumed he was dead, but he survived and his body was recovered by HYDRA, who replaced his damaged body parts with robotic parts, transforming him into Deathlok. He then participated in a coup to help Madame Cat overthrow the Supreme Leader of Hydra, Lex Luthor a.k.a. Green Skull. Afterward, he swore allegiance to her. Later, when S.H.I.E.L.D. agents launched an attack on HYDRA's base, Deathlok was sent to confront them, where he spotted his former mentor, Moonwing, and attacked him from behind. He then revealed that he's been waiting a long time to kill both Dick and Logan. He then unmasked Moonwing and accused him and Logan of abandoning him. He then began strangling Dick, but before he could kill him Colonel Nick Fury and Sergeant Joe Rock commandeered an aircraft and shot Deathlok several times in the back. Despite feeling sorry for Jason, Dick left Jason to die again so he could continue the attack on the HYDRA base.


title: Deathlok

text: Featured in the "Weapon X" comic, the Roxxon-controlled future known as Earth-10511 where James Barnes is transformed into a Deathlok known as "General".


title: Deathlok

text: In the early 1990s, a Deathlok film was at the script stage, with Randall Frakes as the screenwriter. Paramount Pictures bought the film rights in 2001, and hired Lee Tamahori to direct. Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner were assigned as writers, while Avi Arad and Steven Paul would produce. In 2004, Paul McGuigan was being considered to replace Tamahori, while David Self provided rewrites. McGuigan later revealed that he was involved, but Marvel Studios put the film on a hiatus. He also praised Self's screenplay and that he envisioned Robert Downey Jr. for the lead role.


title: SAS Institute

text: SAS Institute (or SAS, pronounced "sass") is an American multinational developer of analytics software based in Cary, North Carolina. SAS develops and markets a suite of analytics software (also called SAS), which helps access, manage, analyze and report on data to aid in decision-making. The company is the world's largest privately held software business and its software is used by most of the Fortune 500.


title: SAS Institute

text: SAS Institute started as a project at North Carolina State University to create a statistical analysis system (hence the proper name, Statistical Analysis System) that was originally used primarily by agricultural departments at universities in the late 1960s. It became an independent, private business led by current CEO James Goodnight and three other project leaders from the university in 1976. SAS grew from $10 million in revenues in 1980 to $1.1 billion by 2000. In 1998 a larger proportion of these revenues were spent on research and development than at most other software companies; in 1997 these were more than double the industry average.


title: SAS Institute

text: The Statistical Analysis System (SAS) began as a project at North Carolina State University's agricultural department. It was originally led by Anthony James Barr in 1966, then joined by NCSU graduate student James Goodnight in 1967 and John Sall in 1973. In the early 1970s, the software was primarily leased to other agricultural departments in order to analyze the effect soil, weather and seed varieties had on crop yields. The project was funded by the National Institutes of Health and later by a coalition of university statistics programs called the University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations.


title: SAS Institute

text: By 1976 the software had 100 customers and 300 people attended the first SAS user conference in Kissimmee, Florida, that year. Goodnight, Barr, Sall and another early participant, Jane Helwig, founded SAS Institute Inc. as a private company on July 1, 1976, in offices across the street from the university. Barr and Helwig later sold their interest in the company.


title: SAS Institute

text: SAS' tradition of polling users for suggestions to improve the software through the SASWare Ballot was adopted during its first year of operation. Many of the company's employee perks, such as fresh fruit, reasonable work hours and free M&M's every Wednesday became part of the company's practices that first year. In the late 1970s, the company established its first marketing department.


title: SAS Institute

text: SAS started building its current headquarters in a forested area of Cary, North Carolina in 1980. Later that year it started providing on-site daycare in order to keep an employee who was planning on being a stay-at-home mom. By 1984, SAS had begun building a fitness center, medical center, on-site cafe and other facilities. It had also developed some of its other benefits programs. SAS became known as a good place to work and was frequently recognized by national magazines like "BusinessWeek", "Working Mother" and "Fortune" for its work environment.