title: Prajnaparamita

text: It is through seeing this Tathātā that one is said to have a vision of the Buddha (the Tathāgata), seeing this is called seeing the Buddha's Dharmakaya (Dharma body) which is a not his physical body, but none other than the true nature of dharmas.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Most modern Buddhist scholars such as Lamotte, Conze and Yin Shun have seen Śūnyatā (emptiness, voidness, hollowness) as "the" central theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras. Edward Conze writes:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: It is now the principal teaching of Prajñāpāramitā with regard to own-being that it is "empty." The Sanskrit term is "svabhāva-śūnya". This is a "tatpuruṣa" compound (one in which the last member is qualified by the first without losing its grammatical independence), in which svabhava may have the sense of any oblique case. The Mahayana understands it to mean that dharmas are empty of any own-being, i.e.,that they are not ultimate facts in their own right, but merely imagined and falsely discriminated, for each and every one of them is dependent on something other than itself. From a slightly different angle this means that dharmas, when viewed with perfected gnosis, reveal an own-being which is identical with emptiness, i.e in their own-being they are empty.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The Prajñāpāramitā sutras commonly use apophatic statements to express the nature of reality as seen by Prajñāpāramitā. A common trope in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is the negation of a previous statement in the form 'A is not A, therefore it is A', or more often negating only a part of the statement as in, "XY is a Y-less XY". Japanese Buddhologist, Hajime Nakamura, calls this negation the 'logic of not' ("na prthak"). An example from the Diamond Sutra of this use of negation is:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The rationale behind this form is the juxtaposition of conventional truth with ultimate truth as taught in the Buddhist two truths doctrine. The negation of conventional truth is supposed to expound the ultimate truth of the emptiness (Śūnyatā) of all reality - the idea that nothing has an ontological essence and all things are merely conceptual, without substance.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The Prajñāpāramitā sutras state that dharmas should not be conceptualized either as existent, nor as non existent, and use negation to highlight this: "in the way in which dharmas exist ("saṃvidyante"), just so do they not exist ("asaṃvidyante")".


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The Prajñāpāramitā sutras commonly state that all dharmas (phenomena), are in some way like an illusion ("māyā"), like a dream ("svapna") and like a mirage. The "Diamond Sutra" states:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Even the highest Buddhist goals like Buddhahood and Nirvana are to be seen in this way, thus the highest wisdom or prajña is a type of spiritual knowledge which sees all things as illusory. As Subhuti in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra states:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: This is connected to the impermanence and insubstantial nature of dharmas. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras give the simile of a magician ("māyākāra": 'illusion-maker') who, when seemingly killing his illusory persons by cutting off their heads, really kills nobody and compare it to the bringing of beings to awakening (by 'cutting off' the conceptualization of self view; Skt: "ātmadṛṣṭi chindati") and the fact that this is also ultimately like an illusion, because their aggregates "are neither bound nor released". The illusion then, is the conceptualization and mental fabrication of dharmas as existing or not existing, as arising or not arising. Prajñāpāramitā sees through this illusion, being empty of concepts and fabrications.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Perceiving dharmas and beings like an illusion ("māyādharmatā") is termed the "great armor" ("mahāsaṃnaha") of the Bodhisattva, who is also termed the 'illusory man' ("māyāpuruṣa").


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Paul Williams, another major theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is "the phenomenon of laudatory self reference—the lengthy praise of the sutra itself, the immense merits to be obtained from treating even a verse of it with reverence, and the nasty penalties which will accrue in accordance with karma to those who denigrate the scripture."


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Edward Conze, the Prajñāpāramitā sutras added much new doctrinal material in the later layers and the larger texts. Conze lists the later accretions as:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In Buddhist art, Prajñāpāramitā is often personified as a "bodhisattva-devi" (female bodhisattva) called Prajñāpāramitādevi.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Prajñāpāramitādevi is found in Himalayan art as well as in ancient Javanese art and in Cambodian art.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Mahayana Buddhism took root in ancient Java Sailendra court in the 8th century CE. The Mahayana reverence of female buddhist deity started with the cult of Tara enshrined in the 8th-century Kalasan temple in Central Java. Some of Prajnaparamita's important functions and attributes can be traced to those of the goddess Tara. Tara and Prajnaparamita are both referred to as mothers of all Buddhas, since Buddhas are born from wisdom. The Sailendra dynasty was also the ruling family of Srivijaya in Sumatra. During the reign of the third Pala king Devapala (815–854) in India, Srivijaya Maharaja Balaputra of Sailendras also constructed one of Nalanda's main monasteries in India itself. Thereafter manuscript editions of the "Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra" circulating in Sumatra and Java instigated the cult of the Goddess of Transcendent Wisdom.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In the 13th century, the tantric buddhism gained royal patronage of king Kertanegara of Singhasari, and thereafter some of Prajnaparamita statues were produced in the region, such as the Prajnaparamita of Singhasari in East Java and Prajnaparamita of Muaro Jambi Regency, Sumatra. Both of East Java and Jambi Prajnaparamitas bear resemblance in style as they were produced in same period; however, unfortunately, Prajnaparamita of Jambi is headless and was discovered in poor condition.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The statue of Prajnaparamita of East Java is probably the most famous depiction of the goddess of transcendental wisdom, and is considered the masterpiece of classical ancient Java Hindu-Buddhist art in Indonesia. It was discovered in the Cungkup Putri ruins near Singhasari temple, Malang, East Java. Today the beautiful and serene statue is displayed on 2nd floor Gedung Arca, National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta.


title: Apatow Productions

text: Apatow Productions (or The Apatow Company) is an American film and television production company founded by Judd Apatow in 1999.


title: Apatow Productions

text: The company's first television production was the comedy series "Freaks and Geeks" (1999–2000) and its first film production was the comedy film "" (2004). Frequent collaborators include Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: Andrew George McCabe (born March 18, 1968) is an American attorney who served as the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from February 2016 to March 2018 and as the acting Director of the FBI from May 9, 2017, to August 2, 2017. McCabe joined the FBI as a special agent in 1996 and served with the bureau's SWAT team. He became a supervisory special agent in 2003 and held management positions of increasing responsibility until he was appointed deputy director of the FBI in February 2016. McCabe became the acting Director of the FBI following James Comey's dismissal by then President Donald Trump, and served in that position until Trump's appointment of Christopher A. Wray. McCabe later departed from the FBI on poor terms with Trump. After leaving the Trump administration, McCabe has been a contributor at CNN since 2019.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on March 16, 2018, 26 hours before his scheduled retirement. Sessions announced that he based his decision on reports from the DOJ Inspector General and the FBI's disciplinary office saying that McCabe had improperly authorized releases of information to "The Wall Street Journal" about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation and had misled agents who questioned him about it on four occasions, three of which were under oath. McCabe disputed these charges and alleged that his firing was politically motivated. In September 2019, federal prosecutors recommended McCabe be indicted for actions relating to the leak, but the grand jury did not return an indictment. On February 14, 2020, the Justice Department informed McCabe's attorneys that it had declined to prosecute McCabe.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In August 2020, George Mason University announced McCabe would be joining the faculty of the Schar School of Policy and Government as distinguished visiting professor.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In October 2021, McCabe settled with the Justice Department a wrongful termination suit he had filed in August 2019. As part of the settlement, the government agreed to "rescind and vacate" McCabe's termination, correct its records "to reflect that Mr. McCabe was employed continuously by the FBI from July 1996 until he retired on March 19, 2018 as the FBI Deputy Director" in "good standing," restore his pension and other benefits, pay his legal fees and expunge any record of having been fired.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: McCabe was born in 1968. He graduated from The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1986. He graduated from Duke University in 1990 and obtained a J.D. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1993. He was also a brother of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. During law school he interned in the criminal division of the United States Department of Justice. Because of a hiring freeze, McCabe spent three years in a private law practice in Philadelphia before joining the FBI in 1996.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: McCabe began his FBI career in the New York Field Office in 1996. While there, he was on the SWAT team. In 2003, he began work as a supervisory special agent at the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force. Later, McCabe held management positions in the FBI Counterterrorism Division, the FBI National Security Branch and the FBI's Washington Field Office. In 2009, he served as the first director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, a program to research interrogation techniques that was created after the Department of Defense Directive 2310 ban of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques. McCabe was part of the investigation of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. McCabe secured the arrest of Ahmed Abu Khattala for suspected involvement in the 2012 Benghazi attack.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: FBI Director James Comey appointed McCabe as Deputy Director of the FBI on January 29, 2016, and he assumed those duties on February 1, 2016.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into whether the Trump campaign was collaborating with the Russian government. Both Comey and McCabe were briefed on the Investigation. After Trump was elected, he was also briefed on the investigation.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In March 2018, it was reported that, upon receiving a referral from Congress in 2017, McCabe had authorized a criminal investigation into whether Sessions had lied to Congress in 2017 about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak; the investigation was later closed.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On May 9, 2017, McCabe became acting director of the FBI after Trump dismissed Comey as director. In the absence of a Senate-confirmed director, the deputy director automatically becomes acting director. Statute allows the president to choose an interim FBI director (acting director) outside of the standard order of succession. That process began on May 10, 2017, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein interviewed four candidates to serve as interim FBI director. Sessions said that McCabe was "also under consideration". Shortly after Trump fired Comey, McCabe visited the White House for an introductory meeting in the Oval Office with the president, during which time Trump reportedly asked him for whom he had voted in the 2016 election. However, no interim director was named, and McCabe remained as acting director. Christopher A. Wray was ultimately nominated as the new director on June 7, 2017, and confirmed on August 1, 2017, at which point McCabe reverted to his position as deputy director.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In a February 2019 interview with Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes" McCabe said that in the days after Comey was fired, he ordered the probe of possible obstruction of justice by Trump, taking action to protect the Russian-interference investigation from successors who might terminate it, because he or Robert Mueller could be removed from their positions. He said "I wanted to make sure that our case was on solid ground and if somebody came in behind me and closed it and tried to walk away from it, they would not be able to do that without creating a record of why they made that decision." McCabe also had concerns about whether Trump "had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests" causing "the highest levels of American law enforcement [to try] to figure out what to do with the president", including the possibility of advocating vice presidential and Cabinet use of the 25th Amendment to have Trump suspended from office, and ultimately removed by Congress. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who had previously been reported but denied having discussed such matters with his colleagues, denied McCabe's assertion as "inaccurate and factually incorrect". McCabe's revelation prompted Senate Judiciary Chairman, Chuck Grassley, to promise investigation of the claims.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: "The Wall Street Journal" published on October 23–4, 2016, regarding an investigation of the Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, suggesting that McCabe had a potential conflict of interest caused by donations to his wife's campaign as a Democrat for the Virginia State Senate. On October 24, 2016, the "Wall Street Journal" reporter emailed an FBI official following up on McCabe's involvement in the FBI's investigation of the Clinton Foundation, which had begun in 2015. Four FBI field offices — New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Little Rock — were pursuing the investigation, with some field agents advocating that it be aggressively continued, while some supervisors and prosecutors believed there was insufficient evidence and that the investigation was too expansive. In July 2016, McCabe decided that the New York FBI office would continue investigating, with assistance from Little Rock. "The Wall Street Journal" reported that a senior Justice Department official called McCabe to express his disagreement with this decision, with McCabe reportedly asking, "Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?" to which the unnamed official replied, "Of course not." The contents of this phone call was included in the follow-up article that was published on October 30, 2016. Although the existence of the FBI's investigation in the Clinton Foundation had been leaked, the FBI up until that point had not officially confirmed the investigation.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In January 2017, the inspector general of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee investigated McCabe over concerns that he should have recused himself from the investigation of the Clinton email scandal. The investigation ceased one year later, in January 2018, with the release of FBI documents showing that McCabe had followed FBI protocol regarding potential conflicts of interest. In 2015, before his wife, Jill McCabe, ran for political office in Virginia, McCabe had notified the FBI about her plans and consulted with the FBI about how he would avoid a conflict of interest. McCabe did not oversee the Clinton email server probe while his wife was running for office, and he was excluded from FBI investigations into public corruption cases in Virginia. According to "USA Today", "the internal documents, published on the FBI's website, support what the bureau has asserted previously: that McCabe had no conflicts when he assumed oversight of the Clinton investigation. His role began in February 2016, following his appointment as deputy director and three months after his wife lost her bid for a state Senate seat." However, starting in July 2017 while McCabe was the acting director, Trump repeatedly attacked McCabe in Twitter comments, suggesting that Sessions should dismiss McCabe because of the potential conflicts being investigated, and taunting McCabe about "racing the clock" until his retirement.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In May 2017, an investigation by the FBI Inspection Division into the leaks regarding the investigation in the Clinton Foundation was expanded to include the leak of the contents of the phone call that was published on October 30, 2016. McCabe was interviewed twice by the Inspection Division, in May and August 2017, and the conflicting information in those interviews, led the OIG to open an investigation in late August 2017. This was a separate investigation from the ongoing one for conflict of interest.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In January, 2018, the Nunes memo, which alleges improper activities in seeking a warrant to surveil former Trump associate Carter Page, was prepared by the House Intelligence Committee. It asserted that McCabe "testified before the [House Intelligence] Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier", a document many Trump supporters insist is completely false. However, McCabe's testimony was in classified session and no public transcript is available to confirm the Nunes memo assertion; disclosing contents of the classified testimony would be unlawful. Democratic representative Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the Nunes memo "seriously mischaracterizes the testimony of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe." The Nunes memo also asserts that a text message from Peter Strzok discusses "a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an 'insurance' policy against President Trump's election". However, "The Wall Street Journal" reported on December 18, 2017, that Strzok associates said the "insurance policy" meant the FBI continuing its investigation into possible collusion between Trump and Russians, in case Trump won the election.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: By January 2018, it was also reported that Sessions had been pressuring Wray to fire McCabe. However, Wray refused and reportedly threatened to resign if McCabe was removed.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In February 2018, the OIG finished its second investigation into the FBI leaks. The result of the investigation was: "As detailed in this report, the OIG found that then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe lacked candor, including under oath, on multiple occasions in connection with describing his role in connection with a disclosure to the WSJ, and that this conduct violated FBI Offense Codes 2.5 and 2.6. The OIG also concluded that McCabe’s disclosure of the existence of an ongoing investigation in the manner described in this report violated the FBI’s and the Department’s media policy and constituted misconduct." The report was not publicly released for another two months, but on March 1, 2018 "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post", stated the report concluded that McCabe was "responsible for approving an improper media disclosure", relating to the October 2016 "Wall Street Journal" article that reported on disagreements between the FBI and Justice Department over an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In regards to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the Justice Department Inspector General report published on December 9, 2019, did not find McCabe engaged in politically biased actions against Trump. After the report was published, McCabe said being accused of treason and being subject to years of personal attacks from Trump was "quite honestly terrifying", particularly as Trump had insinuated the proper punishment should be the death penalty.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: It was reported in July 2022 that after their firings, McCabe and James Comey had both been selected to undergo rare, exhaustive tax audits that the Internal Revenue Service says are supposed to be random.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: After meeting with Wray concerning the pending OIG report on the 2016 leaks and a possible demotion, McCabe announced on January 29, 2018, that he was stepping down as deputy director, effective immediately. He then went on paid leave until his scheduled retirement date of March 18, 2018, his 50th birthday, at which point he would be eligible for a retirement pension. McCabe did not lose his entire pension.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On March 14, 2018, it was reported the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility, citing the inspector general's conclusions, had recommended that McCabe be fired, although McCabe had been notified of the recommendation on March 8. According to Office of Personnel Management regulations, McCabe was entitled to a 30-day notice prior to dismissal, but that period could have been shortened to seven days if there is reasonable cause to believe an imprisonable crime was committed. Sessions announced at 10 p.m. on March 16, 2018, that he was taking the recommendation and firing McCabe, eight days after he had been notified of the recommendation to fire him. He cited the inspector general's report, which had not yet been publicly released, saying that "Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor including under oath on multiple occasions." McCabe told "The New York Times", "The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong. This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness." It was unclear if Sessions knew at the time he fired McCabe that McCabe had authorized the criminal investigation of him in 2017. McCabe was dismissed less than two days before he would have collected a full early pension for his FBI career. He may have to wait until age 57–62 to begin collecting pension benefits. Trump immediately celebrated on Twitter, saying "Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI A great day for Democracy."


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On March 17, Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin offered McCabe a security post in his congressional office. With McCabe short by two days of work for a federal agency to receive his benefits, Pocan said that "Andrew McCabe's firing makes it clear that President Trump is doing everything he can to discredit the FBI and undermine the Special Counsel's investigation" and described his job offer as a "legitimate offer to work on election security". Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton was also reported to be considering offering McCabe a position in his office.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On March 21, 2018, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray stated that McCabe's firing was not politically influenced but done "by the book". Also on March 21, immediately after McCabe's firing, a parallel situation was noted and reported: that just as Jeff Sessions had fired McCabe for lacking "candor", McCabe had, nearly a year previous to his own firing, authorized a criminal investigation into "whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives".<ref name="Levine_3/21/2018"></ref>


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On March 29, 2018, McCabe opened up a GoFundMe site to collect money for the legal costs arising from defending himself from the various investigations. The site raised $213,000 in five hours, and by the time it was shut down on April 2, 2019, had raised more than $538,000.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On April 13, the OIG report was released to Congress and obtained by the Associated Press, which then published it. McCabe issued a response to the report, disputing its conclusions. The report found that McCabe lied to or misled federal investigators at least four times, with three of these instances occurring while he was under oath. The report also stated that his approval of disclosures to the media was within his power, but was a policy violation because it was done "in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership". McCabe's lawyer Michael R. Bromwich responded that the investigation and report had been politicized by pressure from Trump, and announced that McCabe intended to sue the Trump administration and senior officials for "wrongful termination, defamation, Constitutional violations and more". McCabe filed suit in August 2019. In September 2020, federal district court judge Randy Moss denied a Justice Department motion to dismiss the suit, allowing the case to proceed to the discovery phase.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On March 19, 2018, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the FBI requesting documents related to McCabe's termination. The FBI said it would post the documents on its website, but failed to do so. Instead, beginning in July 2018, the Justice Department brought the case before a grand jury attempting to indict McCabe for his actions outlined in the OIG report released in April, 2018. False statements made during the course of internal DOJ investigations (administrative investigations) are typically punished by administrative discipline, rather than criminal prosecutions, and McCabe's attorneys asserted he was being singled out. The grand jury apparently declined to indict McCabe, and in September 2019 former DOJ inspector general Michael Bromwich, representing McCabe, wrote a letter to Jessie Liu, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, stating "It is clear that no indictment has been returned" by the grand jury, based on press reports and a discussion he had had with the prosecutors involved in the case, Joseph Cooney and Molly Gaston. Such an outcome would be highly unusual, as grand juries return indictments for nearly all cases brought to them. Consequently, a failure to secure a grand jury indictment—which may require only a simple majority decision based solely on evidence presented by the government—could prove embarrassing to the DOJ, as it suggests the government's case could not win a unanimous trial jury verdict. McCabe's attorneys asserted the DOJ should drop the investigation if the grand jury did not return an indictment. "The New York Times" reported that two prosecutors on the case had recently left the DOJ, which is unusual in a case nearing an indictment, with one of the attorneys expressing reservations about the merits of the DOJ case. The "Times" also noted political undertones of the case, as McCabe had authorized the investigation into whether Trump had obstructed justice, and as a result he had become a frequent target of Trump's ire. McCabe filed a wrongful termination suit against the DOJ in August 2019, asserting his firing was intended to remove officials who had been deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In August 2019, McCabe filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Department of Justice, saying his firing, which took effect only hours before his scheduled retirement, was the result of Trump's improper political interference. His suit says he is "entitled to his full law enforcement pension and all other benefits, privileges, and rights currently being withheld". Also in August 2019, McCabe was hired by CNN as contributor, drawing criticism from media critics and conservatives.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In early 2019, Attorney General William Barr assigned prosecutor John Durham to conduct an inquiry into the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. On September 30, 2019, it was reported that Durham had offered McCabe a plea deal that McCabe had rejected. McCabe and his attorneys denied having been offered the plea deal. In a court proceeding the same day, Federal Judge Reggie B. Walton heard arguments stemming from a July 30, 2018 lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington because the FBI had been unresponsive to its March Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The DOJ had requested an exemption from FOIA because "records or information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." Walton told federal prosecutors that they needed to either file charges against McCabe or drop the investigation, saying "This is just dragging too long." Walton gave prosecutors a November 15, 2019 deadline to file charges, saying he would order the release of the documents after that date if no charges had been filed. In a November 14, 2019 hearing, Walton excoriated prosecutors, suggesting they were stalling a decision whether to charge McCabe by using a "smoke screen" to deceive the court and continue the hold on the release of the documents, which he released.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In December 2019, Trump nominated the DOJ official with oversight on the case, Liu, to serve as an undersecretary in the Treasury Department. The following month, Liu determined there was insufficient evidence to indict McCabe, and on February 1, 2020, she was transferred to the Treasury Department to await her confirmation, as Barr replaced her with his close advisor Timothy Shea. Hearings for the confirmation were scheduled to begin on February 14. On February 11, Trump abruptly withdrew her nomination, and she resigned from the government the next day. On February 14, 2020, the DOJ advised McCabe's attorneys that he would not be prosecuted. Later that day, The Hill said: "(S)ome have questioned whether the decision Friday to drop possible charges is an attempt to quell controversy surrounding the Justice Department's recommended sentencing for longtime Trump aide Roger Stone, which was reduced after complaints by the president." The Hill also quoted McCabe himself saying: “I don’t think I’ll ever be free of this President and his maniacal rage that he’s directed towards me and my wife since October of 2016 for absolutely no reason whatsoever."-In a February 15, 2020 tweet, Trump stated: "IG RECOMMENDED MCCABE’S FIRING" The OIG made no such recommendation, having stated at the end of its report: "The OIG is issuing this report to the FBI for such action that it deems to be appropriate."


title: Andrew McCabe

text: On October 14, 2021, the Justice Department reversed Mr. McCabe's firing, settling a lawsuit he filed asserting he was dismissed for political reasons. Under the terms of the settlement, the government agreed to "rescind and vacate" McCabe's removal and correct its records to reflect that McCabe retired in good standing on March 19, 2018, as deputy director, and to pay his pension as well as $200,000 in missed pension payments. The government also agreed to pay more than $500,000 in legal fees McCabe had incurred and expunge any record of his being fired from FBI personnel records. On October 27, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland testified about McCabe's lawsuit at an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, stating that the DOJ lawyers defending the case "concluded that they needed to settle the case because of a likelihood of loss on the merits."


title: Andrew McCabe

text: In July 2022, "The New York Times" reported that both McCabe and Comey had been selected for the most invasive type of IRS audit after they had been fired from the FBI. The odds of anyone being selected for such an audit are very low, and the odds of the two top former FBI officials both being selected by chance were minuscule. The matter was referred to a Treasury Department inspector general on the day after the report. An investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) concluded that the audits were in fact randomly selected and not political retribution.


title: Andrew McCabe

text: McCabe is married to Jill McCabe, a physician specializing in pediatrics, who was the Democratic candidate for Virginia's 13th Senate District in 2015. They have two children, a son and a daughter. He is a triathlete who biked to work from his home in Ashburn, Virginia.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Detroit City FC (DCFC) is an American professional soccer club based in Detroit, Michigan, that competes in the USL Championship. The club played in the National Premier Soccer League from 2012 to 2019 and the National Independent Soccer Association in 2020 and 2021. Detroit City plays its home matches at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, an enclave of Detroit. The club is managed by Trevor James, a former Ipswich Town F.C. player who later was an assistant coach and scout under Bobby Robson.


title: Detroit City FC

text: The team's nickname is "Le Rouge", derived from Detroit's French roots and the River Rouge that flows through Detroit and many of its suburbs. As well as fielding a men's professional team, Detroit City also fields a women's senior side in the USL W League, a development academy, and various youth teams throughout Metro Detroit.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Detroit City FC was started by a group of five Detroit residents who wanted a club of their own that would promote the city and help build community through soccer. In their first season in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), Detroit City FC finished second in the five team Great Lakes Conference of the Midwest Region. Le Rouge went on to lose 2–1 to AFC Cleveland in the Great Lakes Conference Semi-finals, ending their season with a 5–2–5 record. In December 2012, it was announced that head coach Kylie Stannard and associate coach Cale Wassermann would not be returning for a second season with the team due to other obligations. The following month, Ben Pirmann took over as head coach and Adil Salmoni was hired as associate head coach.


title: Detroit City FC

text: In 2013, Detroit City finished first in the Great Lakes Conference of the Midwest Region and was ranked #1 in the NPSL following an undefeated regular season and a Rust Belt Derby Championship. After beating rival AFC Cleveland for the third time that season in the semi-finals 3–1, DCFC lost to the Erie Admirals, ending the season with a 12–1–1 record.


title: Detroit City FC

text: The club went 8–3–3 in all competitions in 2014 and finished in second place in a newly aligned Great Lakes West Conference of the Midwest Region of the National Premier Soccer League, which is one of two fourth-division soccer leagues in the United States. Detroit City FC made its Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup debut on May 7, losing to RWB Adria in penalty kicks after a 2–2 draw. In the NPSL regular season, the club claimed the Rust Belt Derby trophy for its second-straight year. Additionally, the team extended its home winning streak to 15 games, with its last home loss being in July 2013. In attendance, the club reached its Cass Tech record of 3,884 supporters for its 3–1 win against the Michigan Stars on July 11, 2015.


title: Detroit City FC

text: The 2016 pre-season began with the Keyworth investment drive, which raised $741,250 for restorations and renovations on Keyworth Stadium. On March 10, Detroit City began roster announcements confirming the return of the 2015 Black Arrow MVP Dave Edwardson. Detroit City played its first home game in Keyworth on May 20, 2016, drawing 1–1 against AFC Ann Arbor in front of a then-record 7,410 supporters. Detroit City also saw success in the US Open Cup beating the Michigan Bucks on penalties before falling to Louisville City FC, a professional USL side, also on penalties. The 2016 NPSL season proved less successful, failing to make it to the play-offs and finishing with a 4–4–4 record. In August 2016, Detroit City confirmed Ben Pirmann would return for a fifth season with the club.


title: Detroit City FC

text: After the launch of the 2017 season tickets, the club announced from Belfast that the club would face off against Glentoran F.C. in May to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Detroit Cougars. Glentoran FC played in the United Soccer Association as the Detroit Cougars in the 1967 season when they went 3–6–3. Detroit City also had an international friendly against Venezia FC that they won 2–0. Despite starting the 2017 NPSL campaign with two points from three games, Detroit City went on a nine-game winning streak to finish second over-all in the Great Lakes Conference. The post-season included three wins, including a 3–2 win over first place Ann Arbor to win the Midwest Championship. Detroit ended its season in the NPSL national semi-finals with a loss on penalties against Midland-Odessa FC, from Texas, in front of a record crowd of 7,533.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Early in 2018, original founder Ben Steffans left the ownership group and was replaced by Mike Lasinski and Joe Richert, who was not outwardly announced or involved with running the club. Following the conclusion of the 2018 season, the club opened the Detroit City Fieldhouse in Detroit, Michigan. The Fieldhouse included a "clubhouse" bar as well as two indoor soccer fields for fans and the local residents of Detroit. It also houses the club's front office and training facilities. It was also announced that head coach, Ben Pirmann, was stepping down to join Memphis 901 FC as an assistant coach. His successor, Trevor James, was announced January 4, 2019.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Detroit City finished first in the Midwest-Great Lakes conference for the 2019 season and was knocked out in the region finals by Cleveland SC on penalties. On August 15, 2019, the National Independent Soccer Association announced that Detroit City FC would join the NISA for the 2020 season. On September 28, 2019, Detroit City FC announced that they would be adding a women's side in 2020, participating in United Women's Soccer (UWS). In the inaugural NPSL Members Cup, Detroit City came in first with an overall record of 8–1–1.


title: Detroit City FC

text: The 2020 seasons were complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NISA 2019–20 Spring season was canceled after Detroit City had only played a single match and the 2020 UWS season was canceled in the months before kickoff. On June 19, 2020, Detroit City announced that they would host a UWS Stadium Showcase at the end of July. In the showcase, the Detroit City women would compete against Lansing United, Midwest United, and Livonia FC. Detroit won their first-ever home match 2–1 against Lansing, but lost to Midwest United 1–3 in the final. NISA announced on July 1, 2020, of an Independent Cup involving 15 teams in 4 regions. Detroit City FC would compete in the Great Lakes Division with former NPSL rivals FC Buffalo and Cleveland SC.


title: Detroit City FC

text: On July 30, 2020, the front office announced the sale of non-share "units" to fans and the public at large, allowing fan investment in the club, while the newly created Board of Managers would remain in control of decisions through Class A Membership. Originally announced to run through November 20, more than 2,000 supporters pledged over $1,000,000 in five days, putting the club at the limit for investment. On November 13, 2021, it was announced that Detroit City would join the USL Championship for the 2022 season, becoming the third NISA team to join the league after Miami FC and Oakland Roots SC.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Since its beginning in 2012, Detroit City FC has been dedicated to supporting the city of Detroit and building community through its own partnerships and philanthropic missions, as noted in the club's motto, "Passion for our city. Passion for the game."


title: Detroit City FC

text: The club operates the Detroit City Futbol League, a recreational, community-driven adult soccer league in the summer. In 2014, the team announced its first fall recreational adult league, Soktoberfest. Detroit City FC also works with Think Detroit PAL to operate free youth soccer clinics and provide free admission to Detroit PAL participants.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Each season, one regular-season home game is dedicated as a fundraiser for a Detroit-area charity. On May 26, 2013, the club's match against Zanesville Athletic benefited the Wounded Warrior Project and Hooligans for Heroes, a nonprofit started by members of the Northern Guard Supporters. On June 6, 2014, the club became the first American sports team to wear a uniform in support of LGBTQ inclusion in a regulation match. Le Rouge dedicated the June 6 match versus Erie Admirals S.C. to inclusivity in sports, auctioning off the commemorative jerseys to benefit the Ruth Ellis Center, a Highland Park, MI., shelter for at-risk, runaway and homeless LGBTQ youth. For the 2015 season, City donned their alternate kits to support Think Detroit PAL, auctioning the game-worn kits to support youth league soccer in the city. On June 9, 2016, it was announced that the June 25 game against Dayton Dynamo would be their annual charity match, supporting Freedom House Detroit, a non-profit supporting refugees seeking asylum in the United States and Canada.


title: Detroit City FC

text: In 2014, the club announced its partnership with United Way of Southeastern Michigan to support its "Michigan No Kid Hungry" initiative and promote healthy lifestyles for youth in Detroit. On September 7, 2014, City hosted its inaugural Detroit Public Schools Showcase, which featured a friendly match for City followed by a regulation match between Cass Tech High School and Detroit Renaissance High School, with proceeds from the night going toward the boys soccer programs. The club has strong ties with Cass Tech High School, investing thousands of dollars into improving the Cass Tech field, a benefit to both the soccer and football programs. City also presented the Cass Tech girls soccer program with new uniforms early in the 2014 season.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Detroit City has several supporter groups, with the largest and most notable being the Northern Guard Supporters. The supporter culture among all groups is very politically left-leaning. Banners and flags supporting various traditionally left-wing causes/issues can be seen throughout the stadium. Supporters support various social causes in the community such as LGBTQ+ issues, access to water resources, as well as other causes.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Prior to the break-up of the NPSL Midwest-Great Lakes conference, supporters of Detroit City FC, FC Buffalo, and AFC Cleveland formed the 'Rust Belt Derby'. The winner of the Derby was based on the head-to-head record of the clubs during regular season NPSL matches. These were typically high pressure games and particular fan favorites, especially by Detroit City FC supporter groups who have been known to greatly antagonize DCFC's opponents. Cleveland won the inaugural Rust Belt Derby on June 23, 2012, following a 1–1 draw with Detroit. Detroit City FC would come back and win the 2013 Rust Belt Derby trophy after beating FC Buffalo 2–1. The 2014 trophy went to Detroit on goal differential after all three teams finished with a win and a loss in Derby play, and Detroit would win again in 2015 after a 1–1 draw in the FC Buffalo-AFC Cleveland Derby match that Buffalo needed to win by more than a goal to take the trophy. The last Derby was in 2016 after the Great Lakes conference was split into East and West. FC Buffalo and Detroit City FC contested the derby without AFC Cleveland through home and away friendlies.


title: Detroit City FC

text: AFC Ann Arbor was another rival of Detroit City prior to the two clubs leaving the NPSL and joining the USL League Two and NISA respectively. The history and proximity of the two cities cause their clashes to be important to supporters. In 2017, Ann Arbor won the Midwest Conference Regular Season title over City, who finished in second. Both teams qualified for the NPSL playoffs. The two teams faced each other again in the playoffs, with the Midwest Region title on the line. City defeated 10-man Ann Arbor 3–2 to ensure their passage into the NPSL Semifinals.


title: Detroit City FC

text: A cross-league rivalry has developed with the Flint City Bucks (formerly the Michigan Bucks), the other major 4th Division team in Metro-Detroit. The two faced off in the Opening Round of the U.S. Open Cup in 2015, 2016, and 2018, with the Bucks winning the first meeting 3–0 and City taking the second two meetings in penalties (0–0, 4–3 PK) in 2016 and (1–1, 5–4 PK) in 2018. The two sides met for a friendly on May 4, 2019. Flint City won the match 1–0.


title: Detroit City FC

text: With the announcement of a women's team joining the United Women's Soccer in 2020, Detroit City would be rejoining previous rivals AFC Ann Arbor and Lansing United.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Detroit City FC home kits are predominantly a dark shade of red or maroon, referred to as "rouge" as a reference to the club's nickname. Away kits are most often white, though champagne kits have also been worn, most recently in 2021. In 2019 Detroit issued its first set of third kits, which were black. Starting in 2013 and each season afterwards, the club releases an extra kit design as a "charity kit". These kits are then auctioned off at the end of a specified match to raise funds for a local Detroit charity. In 2020 there was no charity kit given the much shorter schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Detroit City FC

text: At the conclusion of each season fans get to vote for the team's most valuable players, the Black Arrow Award. The title of the trophy is taken from the nickname of Gil Heron, a Jamaican born footballer who lived in Detroit and who later became the first-ever black player for Celtic F.C.


title: Detroit City FC

text: Starting in 2016, after the move to Keyworth, Detroit City began a yearly tradition to invite at least one international club for a friendly per year. This excludes Windsor TFC, which is based just miles away in neighboring Windsor and has been played yearly since the club's first season. These invitations are often extended to a club that has a similar ethos to Detroit City, or holds historical significance to the city of Detroit. The 2018 match against Serie A side Frosinone Calcio set a new club attendance record of 7,887. In 2019, after announcing that the club was to play Lobos BUAP of Mexico, Lobos faced financial trouble and was replaced both in the Liga MX and the friendly with FC Juárez.


title: Lee Mead

text: Lee Stephen Mead (born 14 July 1981) is an English musical theatre, television actor and occasional singer, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" through the BBC TV casting show "Any Dream Will Do". As well as subsequent West End roles in "Wicked, " and The West End Men, Mead has pursued a music career, releasing four solo albums and undertaking concert tours in the UK and Japan.


title: Lee Mead

text: In 2014, he joined the cast of the BBC One drama "Casualty", playing the role of Ben 'Lofty' Chiltern, while continuing to tour the UK with his band between filming commitments. He returned to the stage in May 2016 as Caractacus Potts in the UK Tour of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In 2017, he returned to the role of Lofty, but in Casualty's sister series, the BBC One drama "Holby City".


title: Lee Mead

text: On 9 November 2019 Lee sang Morning Has Broken at the Annual Remembrance Day celebration service at the Royal Albert Hall.


title: Lee Mead

text: After studying at performing arts college, Mead gained his first professional stage experience in cabaret as a cruise ship singer on the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry and then in a summer season at Bridlington Spa Theatre. He moved into musical theatre in 2004, playing both Levi and the Pharaoh in the UK touring production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Following Joseph, Mead performed in the UK tours of "Tommy" (ensemble and first cover Tommy) and "Miss Saigon" (ensemble and first cover Chris) before joining the West End production of "Phantom of the Opera" as an ensemble player and understudy for the role of Raoul.


title: Lee Mead

text: While performing in "The Phantom of the Opera", Mead auditioned for the BBC series "Any Dream Will Do", hoping to win a six-month contract playing Joseph in the 2007 West End revival of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". From 10,000 initial auditionees, Mead was selected as one of the final 12 potential 'Josephs' who performed live on TV every Saturday night to win the public's vote.


title: Lee Mead

text: Immediately after he won the final, a single featuring Mead, with fellow "Any Dream Will Do" finalists Lewis Bradley and Keith Jack, was released in aid of the BBC's annual Children In Need charity appeal. The single, featuring "Any Dream Will Do" (performed by Mead) and "Close Every Door" (performed by all three finalists) reached number 2 in the official UK singles chart.


title: Lee Mead

text: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" opened in the West End on 17 July 2007 to generally good reviews: "Lee Mead... turns out to be both talented and enthusiastic... what distinguishes him is an attractive singing voice and, coming from beneath hair that owes more to Uncle Esau than father Jacob, lots of affable charisma... last night's audience seemed enchanted" wrote Benedict Nightingale in "The Times".


title: Lee Mead

text: "Mead is in excellent form vocally" wrote The Stage's Lisa Martland. His performance of "Close Every Door", "encapsulating both tenderness and defiance", was a highlight for her.


title: Lee Mead

text: Following his run as Joseph in the West End, Mead took a short course at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City before taking on his first major play in a UK tour of "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime". The play, which was adapted by Trevor Baxter in the style of a tongue-in-cheek Victorian melodrama from a short story by Oscar Wilde, opened at the Theatre Royal Windsor on 12 January 2010 and finished at the Theatre Royal Bath on 24 April 2010. Mead led the cast playing the title role alongside established performers including Gary Wilmot, Kate O'Mara, David Ross and Derren Nesbitt.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead went on to appear in the role of Fiyero in the London production of Wicked, from 10 May 2010 to 5 February 2011 opposite Rachel Tucker as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch Of the West and Louise Dearman as Galinda, the Good Witch. Mead was nominated for the "Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Takeover in a Role" for this role.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead then took over the role of Emmett in "Legally Blonde" in the West End from 20 June to 8 October 2011. He made his television acting debut in August 2011, guest starring in an episode of "Casualty" on BBC One as newly employed teaching assistant Harry Timms He also appeared in the second series of the science fiction drama, Bedlam, in the episode entitled "Jude" playing Scott, the brother of the title character, on Sky Living in June 2012. In December 2012, he starred in his first pantomime as the title character "Jack" in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton alongside Julian Clary and Nigel Havers.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead returned to the West End in May 2013, starring in The West End Men in concert at the Vaudeville Theatre alongside Matt Willis, Glenn Carter, Stephen Rahman-Hughes and David Thaxton. In December 2013, he starred in his second pantomime as "Robin" in "Robin Hood" at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth.


title: Lee Mead

text: On 1 March 2014, he made his first appearance as Ben "Lofty" Chiltern in the BBC drama series "Casualty". Mead was nominated as "Favourite Newcomer" in the 2014 TV Times Awards and shortlisted as "Newcomer" in the "2015 National Television Awards" for this role. Alongside "Casualty", Mead is continuing to tour the UK with his band, starred in his third pantomime as "Prince Charming" in "Cinderella" at the New Theatre, Cardiff in December 2014 and stars in his fourth as "Aladdin" in "Aladdin" at the Hippodrome, Birmingham in December 2015.


title: Lee Mead

text: In 2016, Mead left "Casualty" to join the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" UK Tour as "Caractacus Potts" and ended the year playing "Prince Charming" in "Cinderella" at the London Palladium. In 2017 he joined the cast of "Holby City", reprising his "Casualty" role. He remained as a series regular until his final episode aired on 17 December 2019.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead undertook his first solo concert in his home town of Southend in May 2010 and continued to tour the UK and Ireland during 2010 and 2011 with his own band. A second tour, "The Love Tour", followed in February 2012 to coincide with the release of his third album, "Love Songs". In the summer of 2012, Mead joined forces with Stephen Rahman-Hughes and Matt Rawle to tour as the West End Men, supported by special guest, Kerry Ellis. A further short tour with the West End Men followed in November 2012 with Ramin Karimloo replacing Matt Rawle in the line-up. Mead also starred in a month-long run of the West End Men from May to June 2013 at the Vaudeville Theatre in London.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead completed further UK solo tours in the autumn of 2013 and in 2014 then in 2015, announced a new collaboration with Stephen Rahman-Hughes to form duo, Steve and Lee, their show "Both Sides Now" debuted in October of that year. Mead's new "Some Enchanted Evening" tour kicked off in July 2015, followed by the launch of his new album of the same name in February 2016, which is marked by a series of intimate London gigs with further UK-wide tour dates announced for March and October 2016. In November 2016, he joined other West End stars for two "Broadway in Concert" dates and a further "Both Sides Now" show with Stephen Rahman-Hughes. Mead has announced a monthly "Up Front and Centre" residency at London's Pheasantry throughout 2017, the first of its kind for the Chelsea cabaret venue.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead was born in Southend-on-Sea to Joan (née Horning) and Stephen Mead. He has a younger brother, Casey Michael Mead, who is four years his junior.


title: Lee Mead

text: In November 2007, Mead began dating "Any Dream Will Do" judge Denise van Outen. The couple married on 25 April 2009 and their daughter was born on 1 May 2010. In July 2013, the couple released a joint statement stating that they had separated.


title: Lee Mead

text: Mead is the patron and active supporter of Equal People Performing Arts, a charity based in Rayleigh, Essex that makes the performing arts available to all, and brings together disabled and non-disabled children and young adults to socialise and perform.


title: Lee Mead

text: He also was ambassador of Vodafone's 2008 Cut It Out Campaign in 2008 which aimed to reduce bullying. The campaign worked alongside the West End stage production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Children were invited to design their own 'dreamcoat' and the winning entries were then worn on stage by Mead during Anti-Bullying week.


title: History of opium in China

text: The history of opium in China began with the use of opium for medicinal purposes during the 7th century. In the 17th century the practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smoking spread from Southeast Asia, creating a far greater demand.


title: History of opium in China

text: Imports of opium into China stood at 200 chests annually in 1729, when the first anti-opium edict was promulgated. By the time Chinese authorities reissued the prohibition in starker terms in 1799, the figure had leaped; 4,500 chests were imported in the year 1800. The decade of the 1830s witnessed a rapid rise in opium trade, and by 1838, just before the First Opium War, it had climbed to 40,000 chests. The rise continued on after the Treaty of Nanking (1842) that concluded the war. By 1858 annual imports had risen to 70,000 chests (), approximately equivalent to global production of opium for the decade surrounding the year 2000.


title: History of opium in China

text: By the late 19th century Chinese domestic opium production challenged and then surpassed imports. The 20th century opened with effective campaigns to suppress domestic farming, and in 1907 the British government signed a treaty to eliminate imports. The fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, however, led to a resurgence in domestic production. The Nationalist Government, provincial governments, the revolutionary bases of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the British colonial government of Hong Kong all depended on opium taxes as major sources of revenue, as did the Japanese occupation governments during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). After 1949, both the respective governments of the People's Republic of China on the mainland and of the Republic of China on Taiwan claimed to have successfully suppressed the widespread growth and use of opium. In fact, opium products were still in production in Xinjiang and Northeast China.


title: History of opium in China

text: Historical accounts suggest that opium first arrived in China during the Tang dynasty (618907) as part of the merchandise of Arab traders. Later on, Song Dynasty (9601279) poet and pharmacologist Su Dongpo recorded the use of opium as a medicinal herb: "Daoists often persuade you to drink the "jisu" water, but even a child can prepare the "yingsu" soup."


title: History of opium in China

text: Initially used by medical practitioners to control bodily fluid and preserve "qi" or vital force, during the Ming dynasty (13681644), the drug also functioned as an aphrodisiac or "chunyao" () as Xu Boling records in his mid-fifteenth century "Yingjing Juan":


title: History of opium in China

text: It is mainly used to treat masculinity, strengthen sperm, and regain vigour. It enhances the art of alchemists, sex and court ladies. Frequent use helps to cure the chronic diarrhea that causes the loss of energy ... Its price equals that of gold.


title: History of opium in China

text: Ming rulers obtained opium via the tributary system, when it was known as "wuxiang" () or "black spice". The Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty record gifts to successive Ming emperors of up to of "wuxiang" amongst tribute from the Kingdom of Siam, which also included frankincense, costus root, pepper, ivory, rhino horn and peacock feathers.


title: History of opium in China

text: First listed as a taxable commodity in 1589, opium remained legal until the end of Ming dynasty, 1637.


title: History of opium in China

text: In the 16th century the Portuguese became aware of the lucrative medicinal and recreational trade of opium into China, and from their factories across Asia chose to supply the Canton System, to satisfy both the medicinal and the recreational use of the drug. By 1729 the Yongzheng Emperor had criminalised the new recreational smoking of opium in his empire.


title: History of opium in China

text: Following the 1764 Battle of Buxar, the British East India Company (EIC) became the rulers of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. The EIC gained control of tax collection, along with the opium monopoly of the defeated Mughal Empire. The East India Company Act, 1793 formally established this monopoly. The EIC was £28 million in debt as a result of the Indian war, and found it difficult to raise silver to pay for Chinese tea that it sold to the British market, which had to be paid for in silver.


title: History of opium in China

text: To address the issue, the EIC began auctions of opium in Calcutta to raise revenues. Since importation of opium into China was banned by Chinese law, the EIC established an indirect trading scheme relying partially on legal markets and also leveraging illicit ones. British merchants would first buy tea in Canton (Guangzhou) on credit. They would pay their debts by selling opium at auction in Calcutta. This opium was then transported to the Chinese coast aboard British ships, where it was sold to native merchants who would sell it in China. According to 19th Century sinologist Edward Parker, there were four types of opium smuggled into China from India: "kung pan t'ou" (公班土, "gongban tu" or "Patna"); "Pak t'ou" (白土, "bai tu" or "Malwa"); Persian, "Kem fa t'ou" (金花土, "jinhua tu") and the "smaller "kong pan"", which was of a "dearer sort", i.e. more expensive. A description of the cargo aboard at Lintin in July 1833 distinguished between "new" and "old" Patna, "new" and "old" Benares, and Malwa; the accounting also specifies the number of chests of each type, and the price per chest. The "chests" contained small balls of opium that had originated in the Indian provinces of Bengal and Madras.


title: History of opium in China

text: In 1797 the EIC further tightened its grip on the opium trade by enforcing direct trade between opium farmers and the British, and ending the role of Bengali purchasing agents. British exports of opium to China grew from an estimated in 1730 to in 1773 shipped in over two thousand chests. The Jiaqing Emperor issued a decree banning imports of the drug in 1799. While China had trade relations with Britain, in order to balance financial books between the two Britain sold China opium from India which added to availability of opium in China's society. By 1804 the trade deficit had turned into a surplus, leading to seven million silver dollars going to India between 1806 and 1809. Meanwhile, Americans entered the opium trade with less expensive but inferior Turkish opium and by 1810 had around 10% of the trade in Canton. The EIC opium processed in Patna and Benares was supplemented in the 1820s with opium from Malwa in the non-British controlled part of India. Competition drove prices down, but production was stepped up.


title: History of opium in China

text: Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the Forbidden City. Indeed, he flouts the law!


title: History of opium in China

text: However, recently the purchasers, eaters, and consumers of opium have become numerous. Deceitful merchants buy and sell it to gain profit...If we confine our search for opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We should also order the general commandant of the police and police- censors at the five gates to prohibit opium and to search for it at all gates. If they capture any violators, they should immediately punish them and should destroy the opium at once. As to Kwangtung (Guangdong) and Fukien (Fujian), the provinces from which opium comes, we order their viceroys, governors, and superintendents of the maritime customs to conduct a thorough search for opium, and cut off its supply.


title: History of opium in China

text: The decree had little effect. By Qianlong’s time opium had become a mainstream recreation among scholars and officials, and by the 1830s the practice had become widespread in cities. The increase in popularity was a result of both social and economic shifts between the Ming and the Qing dynasties in which there was a boost in commercialization, consumerism, and urbanization of opium within the general public. “Opium,” says one recent scholar, became “leisurely, urban, cultured and a status symbol” as an evidence of wealth, leisure, and culture. The Qing government, far away in Beijing, was unable to halt opium smuggling in the southern provinces. A porous Chinese border and rampant local demand facilitated the trade. By 1838 there were millions of Chinese opium users--opium was the main pain killer in a pre-aspirin age. They were less reliable workers and the silver they sent abroad was hurting the economy. More and more Chinese were smoking British opium as a recreational drug. But for many, what started as recreation soon became a punishing addiction: many people who stopped ingesting opium suffered chills, nausea, and cramps, and sometimes died from withdrawal. Once addicted, people would often do almost anything to continue to get access to the drug. Therefore the Daoguang Emperor demanded action. Officials at the court who advocated legalizing and taxing the trade were defeated by those who advocated suppressing it. The Emperor sent the leader of the hard line faction, Special Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu, to Canton, where he quickly arrested Chinese opium dealers and summarily demanded that foreign firms turn over their stocks with no compensation. When they refused, Lin stopped trade altogether and placed the foreign residents under virtual siege in their factories, eventually forcing the merchants to surrender their opium. Lin destroyed the confiscated opium, a total of some 1,000 long tons (1,016 t), a process which took 23 days.


title: History of opium in China

text: China's crackdown on the use of opium clashed with Britain, which advocated for free trade as British merchants were the source of trading opium into China. In compensation for the opium destroyed by Commissioner Lin, British traders demanded compensation from their home government. This put pressure on India from China as the overwhelming demand for opium was straining as the fixed supply simply no longer reached demands. However, British authorities believed that the Chinese were responsible for payment and sent expeditionary forces from India, which defeated the Qing army and navy in a series of battles and brought China to the negotiating table. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking not only opened the way for further opium trade, but ceded the territory of Hong Kong, unilaterally fixed Chinese tariffs at a low rate, gave Britain most favored nation status and permitted them diplomatic representation. Three million dollars in compensation for debts that the Hong merchants in Canton owed British merchants for the destroyed opium was also to be paid under Article V.


title: History of opium in China

text: Despite the new ports available for trade under the Treaty of Nanking, by 1854 Britain's imports from China had reached nine times their exports to the country. At the same time British imperial finances came under further pressure from the expense of administering the burgeoning colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore in addition to India. Only the latter's opium could balance the deficit. Along with various complaints about the treatment of British merchants in Chinese ports and the Qing government's refusal to accept further foreign ambassadors, the relatively minor "Arrow Incident" provided the pretext the British needed to expand their opium trade in China.


title: History of opium in China

text: The "Arrow" was a merchant lorcha with an expired British registration that the Qing authorities seized for alleged salt smuggling. British authorities complained to the Governor-general of Liangguang, Ye Mingchen, that the seizure breached Article IX of the 1843 Treaty of the Bogue with regard to extraterritoriality. Matters quickly escalated and led to the Second Opium War, sometimes referred to as the "Arrow War" or the "Second Anglo-Chinese War", which broke out in 1856. A number of clashes followed until the war ended with the signature of the Treaty of Tientsin in 1860. Although the new treaty did not expressly legalise opium, it opened a further five ports to trade and for the first time allowed foreign traders access to the vast hinterland of China beyond the coast.


title: History of opium in China

text: The treaties with the British soon led to similar arrangements with the United States and France. These later became known as the Unequal Treaties, while the Opium Wars, according to Chinese historians, represented the start of China's "Century of humiliation".


title: History of opium in China

text: The opium trade faced intense enmity from the later British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. As a member of Parliament, Gladstone called it "most infamous and atrocious" referring to the opium trade between China and British India in particular. Gladstone was fiercely against both of the Opium Wars and ardently opposed to the British trade in opium to China. He lambasted it as "Palmerston's Opium War" and said that he felt "in dread of the judgments of God upon England for our national iniquity towards China" in May 1840. Gladstone criticized it as "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace,". His hostility to opium stemmed from the effects of opium brought upon his sister Helen. Due to the First Opium war brought on by Palmerston, there was initial reluctance to join the government of Peel on part of Gladstone before 1841.


title: History of opium in China

text: Once the turmoil caused by the mid-century Taiping Rebellion died down, the economy came to depend on opium to play several roles. Merchants found the substance useful as a substitute for cash, as it was readily accepted in the interior provinces such as Sichuan and Yunnan while the drug weighed less than the equivalent amount of copper. Since poppies could be grown in almost any soil or weather, cultivation quickly spread. Local officials could then meet their tax quotas by relying on poppy growers even in areas where other crops had not recovered. Although the government continued to require suppression, local officials often merely went through the motions both because of bribery and because they wanted to avoid antagonizing local farmers who depended on this lucrative crop. One official complained that when people heard a government inspector was coming, they would merely pull up a few poppy stalks to spread by the side of the road to give the appearance of complying. A provincial governor observed that opium, once regarded as a poison, was now treated in the same way as tea or rice. In the Qing dynasty all aspects of society had been affected by opium by the 1800s. Recreational use of opium expanded to all areas of China from the urban inland to the rural county sides. It also filtered down from the urban elites and middle class to the lower, working class citizens. By the 1880s, even governors who had initially suppressed opium smoking and poppy production now depended on opium taxes. The historian Jonathan Spence notes that the harm opium caused has long been clear, but that in a stagnating economy, opium supplied fluid capital and created new sources of taxes. Smugglers, poor farmers, coolies, retail merchants and officials all depended on opium for their livelihood. In the last decade of the dynasty, however, a focused moral outrage overcame these vested interests.


title: History of opium in China

text: When the Qing government launched new opium suppression campaigns after 1901, the opposition no longer came from the British, whose sales had suffered greatly from domestic competition in any case, but from Chinese farmers who would be wiped out by the loss of their most profitable crop-derivative. Further opposition to the government moves came from wholesalers and retailers as well as from the millions of opium users, many of whom came from influential families. The government persevered, creating further dissent amongst the people, and at the same time promoted cooperation with international anti-narcotic agencies. Nevertheless, despite the imposition of new blanket import duties under the 1902 Mackay Treaty, Indian opium remained exempt and taxable at 110 "taels" per chest with the treaty stating "there was no intention of interfering with China's right to tax native opium".


title: History of opium in China

text: The International Opium Commission observed that opium smoking was a fashionable, even refined pastime, especially among the young, yet many in society condemned the habit. At this time the act of opium smoking was prevalent among students, soldiers, urban middle class, and wealthier peasants. One of the most influential groups was the sex industry that dominated the scene as the combination of both opium smoking and sex was the favoured pastime. In 1907 Great Britain signed a treaty agreeing to gradually eliminate opium exports to China over the next decade while China agreed to eliminate domestic production over that period. Estimates of domestic production fell from in 1906 to in 1911.


title: History of opium in China

text: The combination of foreign and domestic efforts proved largely successful, but the fall of the Qing government in 1911 effectively meant the end of the anti-opium campaign. Local and provincial governments quickly turned back to opium as a source of revenue, and foreign governments no longer felt obliged to continue their efforts to eliminate the trade.


title: History of opium in China

text: In the northern provinces of Ningxia and Suiyuan in China, Chinese Muslim General Ma Fuxiang both prohibited and engaged in the opium trade. It was hoped that Ma Fuxiang would have improved the situation, since Chinese Muslims were well known for opposition to smoking opium. Ma Fuxiang officially prohibited opium and made it illegal in Ningxia, but the Guominjun reversed his policy; by 1933, people from every level of society were abusing the drug, and Ningxia was left in destitution. In 1923, an officer of the Bank of China from Baotou found out that Ma Fuxiang was assisting the drug trade in opium which helped finance his military expenses. He earned $2 million from taxing those sales in 1923. General Ma had been using the bank, a branch of the Government of China's exchequer, to arrange for silver currency to be transported to Baotou to use it to sponsor the trade.


title: History of opium in China

text: The Nationalist Government under General Chiang Kai Shek during the Nanjing Decade (1928- 1937) followed contradictory opium policies. Chiang himself was morally opposed to opium use, but other government ministers saw opium as a source of much needed revenue. The government first attempted to reform the people into proper citizens to conform to the modern standards, then raised the official price, which discouraged a certain number of people, then sometimes shot the recidivists (strangely about one per county). Chiang also turned to the Green Gang mob boss Du Yuesheng to head the Shanghai Opium Suppression Bureau. Remarked one American diplomat, "the real motive appears to be to increase revenues by drawing within the orbit of the Opium Suppression Bureau the opium traffic in the Settlement and French Concessions." Prohibition, that is, was a guise to extend the government opium monopoly. "Suppression" officials talked openly of their duty to realize more opium revenue for the government.


title: History of opium in China

text: During the Second Sino-Japanese War, to raise funds, the CCP in the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region cultivated and taxed opium (alias "特货", lit 'special good') production and dealing, selling to Japanese-occupied and Kuomintang provinces. According to Jonathan Marshall, Chongqing also regard opium as a key commodity in the smuggling from KMT controlled zone including Sichuan and Yunnan to Japanese occupied zone for compensating urgent government expeditions and military costing during protracted war era. To raise necessary revenue, Chongqing also permitted Shanghai Green Gang leader Du Yuesheng possessing many connections with Japanese controlled territory to manage opium smuggling business. Du's operation was under general Taili who took charge of anti-smuggling bureau’s supervision.


title: History of opium in China

text: The Mao Zedong government is generally credited with eradicating both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using unrestrained repression and social reform. Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops. Remaining opium production shifted south of the Chinese border into the Golden Triangle region. The remnant opium trade primarily served Southeast Asia, but spread to American soldiers during the Vietnam War, with 20 percent of soldiers regarding themselves as addicted during the peak of the epidemic in 1971. In 2003, China was estimated to have four million regular drug users and one million registered drug addicts.


title: Islam in Canada

text: Islam is a minority religion in Canada. Muslims have lived in Canada since 1871 and the first mosque was established in 1938. Most Canadian Muslims are Sunni, while a significant minority are Shia and Ahmadiyya. There are a number of Islamic organizations and seminaries ("madrasas"). Opinion polls show most Muslims feel "very proud" to be Canadians, and majority are religious and attend mosque at least once a week. The majority of Canadian Muslims live in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.


title: Islam in Canada

text: The population of Muslims in Canada is 4.9% as of 2021 up from 3.2% as of 2011. In the Greater Toronto Area, 10% of the population is Muslim, up from 7.7% in 2011, and in Greater Montreal, 8.7% of the population is Muslim, up from 6% in 2011.


title: Islam in Canada

text: Four years after Canada's founding in 1867, the 1871 Canadian Census found 13 European Muslims among the population. The first Muslim organization in Canada was registered by immigrants from greater Syria living in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1934. The first Canadian mosque was constructed in Edmonton in 1938 when there were approximately 700 European Muslims in the country. The building is now part of the museum at Fort Edmonton Park. The years after World War II saw a small increase in the Muslim population. However, Muslims were still a distinct minority. It was only after the removal of European immigration preferences in the late 1960s and early 1970s that Muslims began to arrive in significant numbers.


title: Islam in Canada

text: Bosniaks and Albanian Muslims were the founders of Jami Mosque, the first mosque in Toronto in 1968, whose readjustment into masjid (originally an old Catholic school building) occurred on June 23, 1973. The mosque was readjusted for the Bosniaks, with the support of the local Christians. Later, with the action of University of Toronto professor Qadeer Baig, it was purchased by Asian Muslims, while Albanians and Bosniaks later founded the Albanian Muslim Society and "Bosanska džamija" (Bosnian Mosque) respectively. The oldest mosque in Toronto, with the oldest minaret in Ontario built in Osmanic style is in Etobicoke, part of the Bosnian Islamic Centre.


title: Islam in Canada

text: The first Madrasa (Islamic seminary) in North America, Al-Rashid Islamic Institute was established in Cornwall, Ontario in 1983 to teach Hafiz and Ulama and focuses on the traditional Hanafi school of thought. The Seminary was established by Mazhar Alam, originally from Bihar, India, under the direction of his teacher the leading Indian Tablighi scholar Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi. Due to its proximity to the US border city of Massena the school has historically had a high percentage of American students. Their most prominent graduate, Muhammad Alshareef completed his Hifz in the early 1990s then went on to form the AlMaghrib Institute.


title: Islam in Canada

text: As with immigrants in general, Muslim immigrants have come to Canada for a variety of reasons. These include higher education, security, employment, and family reunification. Others have come for religious and political freedom, and safety and security, leaving behind civil wars, persecution, and other forms of civil and ethnic strife. In the 1980s, Canada became an important place of refuge for those fleeing the Lebanese Civil War. The 1990s saw Somali Muslims arrive in the wake of the Somali Civil War as well as Bosniaks fleeing the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. However Canada has yet to receive any significant numbers of Iraqis fleeing the Iraqi War. But in general almost every Muslim country in the world has sent immigrants to Canada – from Pakistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania to Yemen and Bangladesh.


title: Islam in Canada

text: According to the Canadian Census of 1971 there were 33,000 Muslims in Canada. In the 1970s large-scale non-European immigration to Canada began. This was reflected in the growth of the Muslim community in Canada. In 1981, the Census listed 98,000 Muslims. The 1991 Census indicated 253,265 Muslims.


title: Islam in Canada

text: By 2001, the Islamic community in Canada had grown to more than 579,000. In the same year, the fertility rate for Muslims in Canada was higher than the rate for other Canadians (an average of 2.4 children per woman for Muslims in 2001, compared with 1.6 children per woman for other populations in Canada).


title: Islam in Canada

text: Population estimates for the Census 2006 pointed to a figure of 800,000. As of May 2013, Muslims account for 3.2% of the total population, with a total of over a million, and Islam has become the fastest growing religion in Canada.


title: Islam in Canada

text: In the contemporary era, there are halal restaurants across Canada, including over 1000 in the Greater Toronto Area.


title: Islam in Canada

text: One of the first Islamic internet radio stations, Canadian Islamic Broadcasting Network, was started in 2019.


title: Islam in Canada

text: According to the 2011 National Household Survey, there were 424,925 Muslims living in the Greater Toronto Area equalling 7.7% of the total metropolitan population, of which the Muslim community consists of persons of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Iranian and Egyptian/Arab descent. Greater Montreal's Muslim community was 221,040 in 2011 or nearly 6% of the total metropolitan population which includes a highly diverse Muslim population from Western/Southern Europe, Caribbean, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Canada's national capital Ottawa hosts many Lebanese, South Asian and Somali Muslims, where the Muslim community numbered approximately 65,880 or 5.5% in 2011. In addition to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, nearly every major Canadian metropolitan area has a Muslim community, including Vancouver (73,215), where more than a third are of Iranian descent, Calgary (58,310), Edmonton (46,125), Windsor (15,575), Winnipeg (11,265), and Halifax (7,540). In recent years, there has been rapid population growth in Calgary and Edmonton because of the booming economy.


title: Islam in Canada

text: Major Canadian cities have local Muslim organizations that deal mainly with issues pertaining to their home city, but that support national associations. Most Muslim organizations on the national level are umbrella groups and coordination bodies. Student-led initiatives are generally well supported and successful, including annual events such as MuslimFest and the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference, the largest Islamic event in Canada.


title: Islam in Canada

text: The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has about 50 Local Chapters scattered across Canada, mainly in southern Ontario. The community has good relations with the government and helps in humanitarian causes. Baitun Nur is the largest mosque in Canada.


title: Islam in Canada

text: In May 2009, the Toronto Unity Mosque / el-Tawhid Juma Circle was founded by Laury Silvers, a University of Toronto religious studies scholar, alongside Muslim gay-rights activists El-Farouk Khaki and Troy Jackson. Unity Mosque/ETJC is a gender-equal, LGBT+ affirming, mosque.


title: Islam in Canada

text: As the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of religious expression, Canadian Muslims face no official religious discrimination but have been victims of many hate crimes which have been increasingly going up. Learn more about Islamophobia in Canada.


title: Islam in Canada

text: Under Section 2(a) of the Charter, the wearing of a "hijab" is permitted in schools and places of work, although Quebec has ruled that medical faculties are not required to accommodate Muslim women who wish to be served by female employees. Religious holidays and dietary restrictions are also respected, but outside major urban areas it may be difficult to find halal food. It is also often difficult to observe Islamic rules against usury. Some Muslims in some parts of Canada have asked to have family dispute courts to oversee small family cases but were faced with rigorous opposition from both within the Muslim community (both conservative and liberal), and by non-Muslim groups.


title: Islam in Canada

text: In 2011, the Harper government attempted to ban the niqab during citizenship ceremonies. In 2015, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against the ban, and the Supreme Court turned down the government's appeal.


title: Islam in Canada

text: There are several organizations working to support the Canadian Muslim community by representing their causes and voices, and channeling the efforts of Muslims for the greater good of Canadians as well as people struggling in other parts of the world. Some are listed below:


title: Islam in Canada

text: On December 12, 2011, the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration issued a decree banning the "niqab" or any other face-covering garments for women swearing their oath of citizenship; the "hijab" was not affected. This edict was later overturned by a Court of Appeal on the grounds of being unlawful.


title: Islam in Canada

text: In 2017 the Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Services of Canada and Canadian Islamic Trust Foundation were stripped of their status as charities by the government of Canada after an investigation revealed links to a foreign militant group. Both the stripped associations shared their postal address in Mississauga with ISNA Canada.


title: Islam in Canada

text: In 2018, the Ottawa Islamic Centre and Assalam Mosque was stripped of its charity status by the Canadian government because many of its guest speakers were misogynistic, homophobic, racist and promoted violence. The Canada Revenue Agency also raised concerns that radicalized individuals had attended the mosque, one of whom was imprisoned for having attempted to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.


title: Islam in Canada

text: In a 2016 Environics poll, 83% of Muslims were "very proud" to be Canadian, compared with 73% of non-Muslim Canadians who said the same thing. Canadian Muslims reported "Canada's freedom and democracy" as the greatest source of pride, and "multiculturalism and diversity" as the second greatest. 94% of Canadian Muslims reported a "strong" or "very strong" sense of belonging to Canada. 78% of Canadian Muslims attend mosque at least once a week. 73% of women wear some sort of head-covering in public (58% wear the hijab, 13% wear the chador and 2% wear the niqab). Both pride in being Canadian and having a strong sense of belonging had increased in Canadian Muslims as compared to a 2006 survey. Mosque attendance and wearing a head covering in public had also increased since the 2006 survey.


title: Islam in Canada

text: A 2016 survey found that 36% of Canadian Muslims (47% of those aged 18–34) agreed that homosexuality should be generally accepted by society, while 43% disagreed. Older Muslims (55%) and those with the lowest incomes (56%) were more likely to disagree. The acceptance of homosexuality was higher among the Muslims born in Canada(52%) and South Africa (42%) than Muslims born in Pakistan (0%), Middle east(0%) and Africa (0%)


title: Islam in Canada

text: According to the surveys conducted by the Angus Reid Institute (ARI), 24% of the Canadians had a favorable opinion of Islam in 2013 which increased to 34% in the 2016 survey and in Quebec, it increased from 16% in 2013 to 32% in 2016.


title: Islam in Canada

text: The Liberal Party (45%) voters and New Democratic Party voters (42%) have more favourable opinion on Muslims, than compared to Conservative Party voters (24%).


title: Islam in Canada

text: A majority (75%) of the Canadians strongly support Muslim women wearing Hijab in Public. However, the wearing of full face and body covering niqab and burka is strongly opposed. Only three-in-ten Canadians are supportive of it.


title: Bathymetry

text: Bathymetry (; ) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors ("seabed topography"), lake floors, or river floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The first recorded evidence of water depth measurements are from Ancient Egypt over 3000 years ago. Bathymetric (or hydrographic) charts are typically produced to support safety of surface or sub-surface navigation, and usually show seafloor relief or terrain as contour lines (called depth contours or isobaths) and selected depths ("soundings"), and typically also provide surface navigational information. Bathymetric maps (a more general term where navigational safety is not a concern) may also use a Digital Terrain Model and artificial illumination techniques to illustrate the depths being portrayed. The global bathymetry is sometimes combined with topography data to yield a global relief model. Paleobathymetry is the study of past underwater depths.


title: Bathymetry

text: Originally, bathymetry involved the measurement of ocean depth through depth sounding. Early techniques used pre-measured heavy rope or cable lowered over a ship's side. This technique measures the depth only a singular point at a time, and is therefore inefficient. It is also subject to movements of the ship and currents moving the line out of true and therefore is not accurate.


title: Bathymetry

text: The data used to make bathymetric maps today typically comes from an echosounder (sonar) mounted beneath or over the side of a boat, "pinging" a beam of sound downward at the seafloor or from remote sensing LIDAR or LADAR systems. The amount of time it takes for the sound or light to travel through the water, bounce off the seafloor, and return to the sounder informs the equipment of the distance to the seafloor. LIDAR/LADAR surveys are usually conducted by airborne systems.


title: Bathymetry

text: Starting in the early 1930s, single-beam sounders were used to make bathymetry maps. Today, multibeam echosounders (MBES) are typically used, which use hundreds of very narrow adjacent beams (typically 256) arranged in a fan-like swath of typically 90 to 170 degrees across. The tightly packed array of narrow individual beams provides very high angular resolution and accuracy. In general, a wide swath, which is depth dependent, allows a boat to map more seafloor in less time than a single-beam echosounder by making fewer passes. The beams update many times per second (typically 0.1–50 Hz depending on water depth), allowing faster boat speed while maintaining 100% coverage of the seafloor. Attitude sensors allow for the correction of the boat's roll and pitch on the ocean surface, and a gyrocompass provides accurate heading information to correct for vessel yaw. (Most modern MBES systems use an integrated motion-sensor and position system that measures yaw as well as the other dynamics and position.) A boat-mounted Global Positioning System (GPS) (or other Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)) positions the soundings with respect to the surface of the earth. Sound speed profiles (speed of sound in water as a function of depth) of the water column correct for refraction or "ray-bending" of the sound waves owing to non-uniform water column characteristics such as temperature, conductivity, and pressure. A computer system processes all the data, correcting for all of the above factors as well as for the angle of each individual beam. The resulting sounding measurements are then processed either manually, semi-automatically or automatically (in limited circumstances) to produce a map of the area. a number of different outputs are generated, including a sub-set of the original measurements that satisfy some conditions (e.g., most representative likely soundings, shallowest in a region, etc.) or integrated Digital Terrain Models (DTM) (e.g., a regular or irregular grid of points connected into a surface). Historically, selection of measurements was more common in hydrographic applications while DTM construction was used for engineering surveys, geology, flow modeling, etc. Since ca. 2003–2005, DTMs have become more accepted in hydrographic practice.


title: Bathymetry

text: Satellites are also used to measure bathymetry. Satellite radar maps deep-sea topography by detecting the subtle variations in sea level caused by the gravitational pull of undersea mountains, ridges, and other masses. On average, sea level is higher over mountains and ridges than over abyssal plains and trenches.


title: Bathymetry

text: In the United States the United States Army Corps of Engineers performs or commissions most surveys of navigable inland waterways, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) performs the same role for ocean waterways. Coastal bathymetry data is available from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), which is now merged into National Centers for Environmental Information. Bathymetric data is usually referenced to tidal vertical datums. For deep-water bathymetry, this is typically Mean Sea Level (MSL), but most data used for nautical charting is referenced to Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) in American surveys, and Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) in other countries. Many other datums are used in practice, depending on the locality and tidal regime.


title: Bathymetry

text: Occupations or careers related to bathymetry include the study of oceans and rocks and minerals on the ocean floor, and the study of underwater earthquakes or volcanoes. The taking and analysis of bathymetric measurements is one of the core areas of modern hydrography, and a fundamental component in ensuring the safe transport of goods worldwide.


title: Bathymetry

text: The earliest known depth measurements were made about 1800 BCE by Egyptians by probing with a pole. Later a weighted line was used, with depths marked off at intervals. This process was known as sounding. Both these methods were limited by being spot depths, taken at a point, and could easily miss significant variations in the immediate vicinity. Accuracy was also affected by water movement–current could swing the weight from the vertical and both depth and position would be affected. This was a laborious and time-consuming process and was strongly affected by weather and sea conditions.


title: Bathymetry

text: Greater depths could be measured using weighted wires deployed and recovered by powered winches. The wires had less drag and were less affected by current, did not stretch as much, and were strong enough to support their own weight to considerable depths. The winches allowed faster deployment and recovery, necessary when the depths measured were of several kilometers.


title: Bathymetry

text: Wire drag surveys were started in the early 20th century and continued to be used until the 1990s due to reliability and accuracy. This procedure involved towing a cable by two boats, supported by floats and weighted to keep a constant depth The wire would snag on obstacles shallower than the cable depth. This was very useful for finding navigational hazards which could be missed by soundings, but was limited to relatively shallow depths.


title: Bathymetry

text: Single-beam echo sounders were used from the 1920s-1930s to measure the distance of the seafloor directly below a vessel at relatively close intervals along the line of travel. By running roughly parallel lines, data points could be collected at better resolution, but this method still left gaps between the data points, particularly between the lines.


title: Bathymetry

text: Sidescan sonar was developed in the 1950s to 1970s and could be used to create an image of the bottom, but the technology lacked the capacity for direct depth measurement across the width of the scan. The development of multibeam systems made it possible to obtain depth information across the width of the sonar swath, to higher resolutions, and with precise position and attitude data for the transducers, made it possible to get multiple high resolution soundings from a single pass.


title: Bathymetry

text: The US Naval Oceanographic Office developed a classified version of multibeam technology in the 1960s. NOAA obtained an unclassified commercial version in the late 1970s and established protocols and standards. Data acquired with multibeam sonar have vastly increased understanding of the seafloor.


title: Bathymetry

text: The U.S. Landsat satellites of the 1970s and later the European Sentinel satellites, have provided new ways to find bathymetric information, which can be derived from satellite images. These methods include making use of the different depths to which different frequencies of light penetrate the water. When water is clear and the seafloor is sufficiently reflective, depth can be estimated by measuring the amount of reflectance observed by a satellite and then modeling how far the light should penetrate in the known conditions. The Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) on NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) is a photon-counting lidar that uses the return time of laser light pulses from the Earth's surface to calculate altitude of the surface. ICESat-2 measurements can be combined with ship-based sonar data to fill in gaps and improve precision of maps of shallow water.


title: It's Dark and Hell Is Hot

text: It's Dark and Hell Is Hot is the debut album by American rapper DMX. It was released on May 12, 1998, by Def Jam Recordings and Ruff Ryders. It was supported by four singles—"Get at Me Dog", "Stop Being Greedy", "Ruff Ryders Anthem" and "How's It Goin' Down", in order of release—and their accompanying music videos.


title: It's Dark and Hell Is Hot

text: It primarily includes production from Dame Grease (13 tracks) and PK (8 tracks), in addition to production from Irv Gotti and Lil Rob (2 tracks), Younglord (1 track; add.), and Swizz Beatz (1 track). The album is widely considered a classic among hip hop fans and critics.


title: It's Dark and Hell Is Hot

text: "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot" was met with positive reviews from music critics. AllMusic commented that "Unlike so many other hardcore rappers who are more rhetorical than physical, DMX commands an aggressive aura without even speaking a word." Leading hip-hop magazine "The Source" described the album as "a mind-gripping opus that fully encompasses the appeal of one of rap's newest sensations."