title: Horten H.XVIII

text: The Horten H.XVIII was a proposed German World War II intercontinental bomber, designed by the Horten brothers. The unbuilt H.XVIII represented, in many respects, a scaled-up version of the Horten Ho 229, a prototype jet fighter. The H.XVIII was one of many proposed designs for an "Amerikabomber", and would have carried sufficient fuel for transatlantic flights.


title: Horten H.XVIII

text: In recent years, software modelling has suggested that the stealth and speed of the Hortens' flying wing jet designs would have made interception, prior to bombing, difficult and unlikely.


title: Horten H.XVIII

text: The ability of bomber crews, in an aircraft such as the Horten H.XVIII, to attack targets in North America, might have been hampered by existing and emerging Allied air defence strategies and technologies, such as:


title: Horten H.XVIII

text: The A model of the H.XVIII was a long, smooth blended wing body. Its six turbojet engines were buried deep in the wing and the exhausts centered on the trailing end. Resembling the Horten Ho 229 flying wing fighter there were many odd features that distinguished this aircraft; the jettisonable landing gear and the wing made of wood and carbon based glue, are but two. The aircraft was first proposed for the Amerika Bomber project and was personally reviewed by Hermann Göring: after review, the Horten brothers (with deep dissatisfaction) were forced to share design and construction of the aircraft with Junkers and Messerschmitt engineers, who wanted to add a single rudder fin as well as suggesting underwing pods to house the engines and landing gear.


title: Horten H.XVIII

text: The B model of the H.XVIIIB was generally the same as the A model, except the four (down from six) engines and four-wheel retractable landing gear were now housed in underwing pods, and the three-man crew housed under a bubble canopy. The aircraft was to be built in huge concrete hangars and operate off long runways with construction due to start in autumn 1945, but the end of the war came with no progress made. Defensive armament was considered unnecessary due to the expected high performance.


title: Horten H.XVIII

text: The C model of the H.XVIII was based on the airframe of the H.XVIIIA with a huge tail. It had an MG 151 turret set in the middle rear of the wing and with six BMW 003 turbojets slung under the wings; this was designed by Messerschmitt and Junkers engineers. It is uncertain if this overall design was directly developed by the Horten brothers or their manufacturer, as there is little surviving evidence of this proposed version. It was eventually rejected by the Horten brothers, as it was not a major improvement over the Ho XVIIIA.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: The IPCRESS File is Len Deighton's first spy novel, published in 1962. The story involves Cold War brainwashing, includes scenes in Lebanon and on an atoll for a United States atomic weapon test, as well as information about Joe One, the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb. The story was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman, directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine; and a 2022 TV series, starring Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: The novel takes the form of the unnamed protagonist's personal report to the Minister of Defence, thus becoming the 'IPCRESS File' of the title. Events begin soon after the protagonist's transfer from military intelligence to WOOC(P), a small civilian intelligence agency reporting directly to the British Cabinet, where he works under the command of a man named Dalby. An intelligence broker code-named "Jay" is suspected to be behind a series of kidnappings of British VIPs with the intention of selling them to the Soviets, and the protagonist is assigned to meet Jay to secure the release of "Raven", a high-ranking scientist. While trying to meet Jay at a Soho strip club to negotiate Raven's release, the protagonist discovers Raven's unconscious body in a back room but is unsuccessful in trying to rescue him.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: WOOC(P) learns that Raven is to be transferred to the Soviets in Beirut, and a rescue mission is organised. The protagonist is assigned as a lookout and kills the occupants of a car which suddenly arrives on the scene, believing them to be operatives working for Jay; they instead turn out to be members of the US ONI. The operation is otherwise a success and Raven is recovered, but investigation into Jay continues. A break appears when Housemartin, one of Jay's high-ranking operatives, is arrested in Shoreditch, but the protagonist and another operative arrive at the police station only to discover that Housemartin has been murdered in his cell. Information from the arrest enables WOOC(P) and the police to storm one of Jay's safe-houses, but it has been abandoned.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: A military statistician, Carswell, and his assistant Murray, are assigned to WOOC(P) to attempt to find a statistical link between the disappearances of the scientists and to help with the administration of the department, the protagonist is assigned an assistant, Jean Tonnesen, a beautiful young woman towards whom he begins to develop romantic feelings.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: Dalby reveals intelligence suggesting that Jay's operations will interfere with an American neutron bomb test in the Pacific. He, Jean and the protagonist are sent to the test site as British observers and while there the protagonist learns from an old friend in the CIA that the Americans suspect him of being a double-agent due to the deaths of the US operatives. Jean reveals that Dalby has been visiting an abandoned Japanese bunker on the island and while following Dalby to the scene the protagonist is present when the site is sabotaged, setting back the bomb test and killing a military police officer. The protagonist is arrested by the Americans and interrogated, before apparently being transferred to Hungary on suspicion of being a Soviet agent. There he is drugged and subjected to psychological and physical torture, and nearly cracks before eventually managing to escape—only to discover that he is in fact in London. The protagonist takes refuge with Charlie Cavendish, the father of a friend killed during the Second World War, and attempts to reestablish contact with WOOC(P) without being arrested. Charlie is killed by Jay's operatives, forcing the protagonist on the run; he approaches Dalby at his home, but discovers Dalby with Jay, Murray and another of Jay's operatives—confirming the protagonist's suspicions that Dalby is in fact the traitor.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: The protagonist is discovered by Murray, who turns-out to be an undercover operative from military intelligence also investigating Dalby. The protagonist escapes, but is captured and taken to meet Jay—he has, however, allowed military intelligence to follow them, and Jay and Dalby are arrested by Colonel Ross. The protagonist reveals to Jean that Jay and Dalby were using a process called "Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned REflex with Stress" (IPCRESS) to brainwash the VIPs into loyalty to the Soviet Union. The links that Carswell had discovered were in fact indicators of the personality traits that Jay had used to determine which VIPs would easily succumb to the process. Colonel Ross’ earlier attempt to sell information to the protagonist had been a test of his loyalty. The novel ends with the protagonist concluding his report to the Minister, revealing that Jay has turned and begun working for the British, while Dalby has ostensibly died in a car accident.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: In 1992 Deighton said that the inspiration to write the novel came from his real-life neighbour Anna Wolkoff, a White Russian émigrée who collaborated with a cipher clerk from the American embassy to spy for Germany in World War II. Deighton's mother cooked for Wolkoff's dinner parties and he said that he "vividly" remembered when British MI5 agents came to arrest her: "The experience was a major factor in my decision to write a spy story at my first attempt at fiction." The plot involves mind control, the acronym IPCRESS of the title standing for "Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under Stress". The brainwashing is similar to a shock technique called psychic driving pioneered by Donald Ewen Cameron in the 1950s, originally on unwitting mental hospital patients, which was used and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency's secret MKULTRA program in Canada.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: Deighton's protagonist is nameless; this is maintained through all the sequels (although later in the series called "Charles"). Early in the novel we learn that he worked for Military Intelligence for three years before joining his present agency – WOOC(P) – as a civilian employee. WOOC(P) is described as "one of the smallest and most important of the Intelligence Units". (It is never stated exactly what the initials stand for, although his previous boss refers to it as Provisional.)


title: The IPCRESS File

text: WOOC(P) is a small department and the nameless hero has a great deal of autonomy. He is also quite paranoid, keeping an "escape package" containing money, a false passport and other documents circulating in the mail. Once a week he picks up the package from an accommodation address, a seedy London shop, and re-mails it to that address in a fresh envelope. He is also a gourmet who enjoys good food. Cooking features frequently in both the film and the novel; Deighton himself is an accomplished cook.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In "The IPCRESS File" these take the form of each chapter being headed with a quote from a horoscope, which relates to the action in the chapter, though vaguely, as in most horoscopes.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: The front cover, by Deighton's friend Raymond Hawkey, has been described as "the template for the covers of all subsequent airport novels".


title: The IPCRESS File

text: A film adaptation starring Michael Caine was released in 1965 and produced by the James Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman, assisted by several prominent members of the Bond production family. The film medium made it difficult to maintain the anonymity of Deighton's hero, who acquired the name Harry Palmer.


title: The IPCRESS File

text: The character's name was chosen by Caine, who was having lunch with Harry Saltzman. They were trying to think of a name for the protagonist, and agreed that a boring name would best suit the protagonist's persona. Saltzman asked what would be the most boring name they could think of and Caine suggested the name Harry, then immediately apologised to Saltzman. However, Saltzman saw the funny side and pointed out that his real first name was actually Herschel, not Harry, so Saltzman was satisfied with it. The inspiration for the surname came from a boy called Palmer whom Caine knew at school. Caine described Palmer as: "the most boring boy I'd ever met".


title: The IPCRESS File

text: The given name "Harry" actually occurs in a short sequence in the book where the nameless hero is greeted by someone saying "Hello, Harry." This causes him to think, "Now my name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been."


title: Freud (TV series)

text: Freud is an Austrian-German crime television series re-imagining the life of a young Sigmund Freud. The series produced 8 episodes which were first aired on ORF 15 March 2020 then released on Netflix on 23 March 2020.


title: Freud (TV series)

text: The story tells of a fictional criminal case in Vienna in 1886, which marked the start of a major conspiracy.


title: Freud (TV series)

text: Sigmund Freud (Robert Finster) is a 30-year-old neurologist fascinated by hypnotherapy, discovered during a recent study trip to France in the well-known clinic of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, a fervent advocate of the psychic nature of hysteria. Despite the support of his mentor Josef Breuer (Merab Ninidze), Freud's innovative theories are met with rejection by Theodor Meynert, the director of the psychiatric hospital where he works, and by his colleagues, including Leopold von Schönfeld, Meynert's protégé.


title: Freud (TV series)

text: Sigmund is persuaded by his friend Arthur Schnitzler (Noah Saavedra) to participate in a party organised by Countess Sophia von Szápáry (Anja Kling) under the pretext of expanding the circle of influential acquaintances. During the party, the countess together with her husband, Viktor von Szápáry (Philipp Hochmair), will stage a séance revolving around the figure of the Hungarian medium Fleur Salomé (Ella Rumpf).


title: Freud (TV series)

text: From that moment, Sigmund will find himself in the midst of murders, conspiracies, revenges and supernatural facts that he will have to solve by resorting to his new knowledge and the help of his housekeeper Leonore and war-traumatised police inspector Alfred Kiss (Georg Friedrich).


title: Freud (TV series)

text: Filming took place in 2019, from January 8 to May 21, entirely in Prague, Czech Republic. The production consulted with Vienna-based psychoanalyst and hypnotherapist Juan José Rios.


title: Freud (TV series)

text: Over 400,000 viewers tuned in when the show premiered on the Austrian channel ORF in early March 2020.


title: Freud (TV series)

text: The first season of "Freud" holds a 50% rating at critical aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Writing for "The Guardian", Adrian Horton likened "Freud" to "other absurd revisions of famous stories" like "". "The Daily Beast" writer Nick Schager made the same comparison, writing that the series' "marrying truth with paranormal nonsense proves reasonably enlivening".


title: Freud (TV series)

text: "Freud" has been nominated for two Romy Awards, in the categories of "Best TV Series" and "Best Production, TV Fiction".


title: Freud (TV series)

text: Moreover, many psychological terms and concepts that Freud uses in the series (set in 1886) has been introduced by him only later:


title: Benny Mardones

text: Ruben Armand "Benny" Mardones (November 9, 1946 – June 29, 2020) was an American pop/rock singer and songwriter who was best known for his hit single "Into the Night", which hit the top 20 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart twice, in 1980 (#11) and again in 1989 (#20).


title: Benny Mardones

text: Benny Mardones was born on November 9, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, Ruben Sr., who was originally from Santiago, Chile, left the family when Benny was an infant and returned to Chile. Mardones had a sister, two half-brothers, and two half-sisters who live in Chile.


title: Benny Mardones

text: Mardones grew up in Savage, Maryland, and graduated from Howard High School in Ellicott City, Maryland in 1964. He joined the U.S. Navy after high school and served in the Vietnam War. After his discharge, he moved to New York City to pursue his singing and songwriting career, and composed several songs with writing partner Alan Miles.


title: Benny Mardones

text: Mardones began his career as a songwriter, writing songs for people like Brenda Lee and Chubby Checker. He demoed the songs he wrote, and Tommy Mottola suggested that he record his own songs; from that point he wrote and recorded over 100 songs. Mardones's band was called the Hurricanes.


title: Benny Mardones

text: Mardones co-wrote the 1980 soft rock hit "Into the Night" with Robert Tepper. The track was featured on his second album "Never Run, Never Hide", and peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum. Its success catapulted Mardones into the limelight, but he spiraled into substance abuse that resulted in his being dropped by his label Polydor Records. Though he eventually overcame his addiction, Mardones produced no other hits during his career.


title: Benny Mardones

text: In a TV interview on KTLA a while before his death, Mardones recalled how the song was inspired by a conversation between him and co-author Robert Tepper, after seeing a 16-year-old neighbour take Benny's dog for a walk. In the real life scene, there was no romantic link. (YouTube video)


title: Benny Mardones

text: "Into the Night" charted a second time in 1989 when Phoenix, Arizona radio station KZZP ran a segment titled "Where Are They Now?", and Scott Shannon, then-program director for Pirate Radio in Los Angeles, added "Into the Night" to its playlist. Other stations across the country followed suit and "Into the Night" was a hit once more, peaking at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Curb Records signed Mardones and he recorded "Into the Night '89", The track appeared on his self-titled release that year.


title: Benny Mardones

text: On October 4, 2011, Mardones married his third wife, Jane Braemer, who was originally from Denmark. Together, they resided in Menifee, California. Mardones had a son, Michael (born 1985), from a previous marriage.


title: Benny Mardones

text: Mardones was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2000, but continued to tour and perform until the mid-2010s. In July 2018, he underwent deep brain stimulation to reduce his motor symptoms, but complications from multiple surgeries resulted in coordination issues that led to repeated falls and hip injuries. He died at age 73 from complications of the disease on June 29, 2020.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Jay Francis Spearing (born 25 November 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool, where he is also a coach at their academy.


title: Jay Spearing

text: He started his career with Liverpool as a youth-team player in 1997. He remained at Anfield for sixteen years before leaving, in 2013, for Bolton Wanderers. After four years at Bolton, he joined Blackpool, newly promoted to League One, in 2017, initially until the end of the 2017–18 season. He made the move permanent the following summer and remained at the club until 2020, before joining Tranmere Rovers for two years before his semi-retirement and movement in to coaching.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Raised in Wallasey, Merseyside, Spearing was the captain of the Liverpool Under 18s that won the FA Youth Cup in 2007. He featured the previous season in the final against Manchester City, but missed the majority of the season due to a broken leg. He was promoted to Melwood in the summer of 2007 to train with the Liverpool first team after impressing in the club's Academy. He had been involved with his boyhood club since he was seven years old. He was voted the best player in the Torneo di Renate, a competition for under-20 sides, competing against clubs such as Milan and Parma. He was also part of the Reserve side that won the Premier Reserve League in the 2007–08 season.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Spearing made his competitive first-team debut on 9 December 2008, coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 UEFA Champions League win against PSV. Spearing also appeared in the Reds' 4–0 win over Real Madrid in the second round of the Champions League.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 31 March 2009, Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez announced that he would be offering Spearing a new contract, alongside fellow home-grown youngster Stephen Darby. On 6 July 2009, Spearing agreed to a new three-year contract with Liverpool.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 22 March 2010, Liverpool confirmed Spearing would join Championship club Leicester City on loan until the end of the 2009–10 season, linking up with former Liverpool reserve teammate Jack Hobbs. His debut came two days later, starting in "the Foxes" 2–1 Championship loss to Reading. His last game for Leicester was on 12 May in the Championship Play-off semi-final, with Leicester winning 3–2, but it wasn't enough to reach the final as they lost on a penalty shootout. He made nine appearances for Leicester and scored his only goal for the club in the 4–1 home win against Watford.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Spearing was included in Liverpool's 21-man squad for the 2010–11 Premier League season. He started and played the full 90 minutes in the opening leg of Liverpool's UEFA Europa League qualifier against Macedonian side FK Rabotnički, and came on as a substitute at Anfield in the second leg. On 16 September, he again played the full 90 minutes in the Reds' opening group game against Steaua București, his first-ever start at Anfield, setting up David N'Gog for the fourth and final goal as Liverpool won 4–1. On 22 September, he was involved in Liverpool's League Cup third-round exit to League Two side Northampton Town; Liverpool lost 4–2 on penalties after a 2–2 draw. On 21 October, he played the full 90 minutes in Liverpool's third group-stage tie, a 0–0 draw with a Napoli side featuring former Liverpool left-back Andrea Dossena.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Spearing was an unused substitute in Liverpool's 1–0 Premier League win against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium on 31 October. He came on in the 90th minute of Liverpool's 2–0 victory over Chelsea on 7 November 2010, instantly making an impact by playing a through ball to assist a Maxi Rodríguez effort.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 20 November, it was reported that Spearing had broken his ankle in training and would be out for up to six weeks. He made his first appearance of 2011 against Everton on 16 January. In the post-match interview, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish praised the young midfielder and joked that Steven Gerrard may never get into the first team again. On 20 March, Spearing started another league game, away to Sunderland. Spearing won a penalty, which was converted by Dirk Kuyt to put Liverpool 1–0 up.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Spearing then went on the secure a first-team berth with the absence of Steven Gerrard and out-of-favour Christian Poulsen. For the remainder of the Premier League season, he formed a midfield partnership with Lucas. Against Arsenal on 17 April, Spearing gave away a 98th-minute penalty, which Robin van Persie converted to make the game 1–0. The match finished 1–1. Despite this, Spearing won the man-of-the-match award from Sky Sports and was praised after the game for his determination, work-rate and battling performance. He received the journalists' man-of-the-match award on the official Liverpool website three times during the season.


title: Jay Spearing

text: In May 2011, the club announced that he had extended his contract, and he was included in England under-21s provisional 40-man squad for the 2011 Summer U21 European Championship, with fellow Liverpool player Andy Carroll.


title: Jay Spearing

text: For the 2011–12 season, Spearing wore the number 20, with his old number 26 being registered to new arrival Charlie Adam. Spearing immediately fell down the pecking order in Liverpool's midfield after the arrival of midfielders Adam, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing. On 20 July 2011, it was widely reported that Spearing would consider an option to move to Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan, but the club rejected their approach, stating that Spearing was in their plans. Spearing later dismissed the rumour saying he was willing to fight for his place in the starting eleven.


title: Jay Spearing

text: He made his first start of the season against Exeter City in the League Cup on 24 August 2011. The result ended in a 3–1 victory for Liverpool.


title: Jay Spearing

text: He was sent off for the first time in his professional career during Liverpool's 1–0 loss to Fulham on 5 December.


title: Jay Spearing

text: In May 2012, Spearing was in the starting eleven for the FA Cup Final, in which Liverpool lost to Chelsea.


title: Jay Spearing

text: New Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers described Spearing as a "very good player with great qualities" who has "the soul of the club in his heart". He started the first competitive game of the season in the UEFA Europa League qualifier against Belarusian club Gomel, playing the full 90 minutes, and made a substitute appearance in the return leg at Anfield. His final appearance of the season for Liverpool came as a start in the 1–0 victory against Hearts in a Europa League qualifier on 23 August 2012.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 31 August 2012, Spearing joined Championship side Bolton Wanderers on a season-long loan deal. His debut came a day later in Bolton's 3–1 defeat against Hull City. He scored his first goal for Bolton on 20 October as the club beat Bristol City 3–2, in which he scored Bolton's second goal, an equaliser. On 25 April 2013, Spearing was named the Bolton Wanderers Supporters Association (BWSA) Player of the Season. This was followed on 20 May with his being named the club's Player of the Season.


title: Jay Spearing

text: At the conclusion of Bolton's season in the Championship, Spearing returned to Anfield. Although he did not feature in any of the club's remaining fixtures, he was present in the guard of honour for the retiring Jamie Carragher in the last game of the 2012–13 Premier League against Queens Park Rangers.


title: Jay Spearing

text: In July 2013, a £1.75 million bid was submitted by Championship side Blackburn Rovers for Spearing, which Liverpool rejected. Notwithstanding, Blackburn failed to agree terms with Spearing, and the deal fell through.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Spearing featured in Liverpool's first pre-season friendly of the summer against Preston North End and was also included in the squad for the club's summer tour. In August 2013, Spearing was told by Liverpool that he was free to leave the club, with Liverpool entering talks with Bolton for a possible transfer back to the Reebok Stadium.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 8 August 2013, it was announced that a deal was struck between Liverpool and Bolton subject to a medical on the same afternoon. It was confirmed on 9 August that Spearing had agreed a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee and he made his debut the following day in the 1–1 home draw against Reading. The Manchester Evening News described this debut as "a man-of-the-match performance".


title: Jay Spearing

text: In September 2013, Spearing was handed the captaincy at Bolton whenever incumbent Zat Knight found himself out of the starting XI, although he retained the armband when Knight returned to the team with both in the starting lineup. On 26 July 2014, the club confirmed that Spearing would succeed Knight as captain.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 8 August 2015, Spearing was sent off with a second booking in the opening match of the 2015–16 Championship season against Derby County. Spearing's goal on the opening day of the 2016–17 season against Sheffield United won August's Goal of the Month award.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 8 July 2017 the club confirmed that Spearing had left after failing to agree terms on a new contract.


title: Jay Spearing

text: A clause in his contract whilst at Bolton stipulated that if he played more than 22 Championship matches each season, they would have to pay Liverpool £100,000. This is why he played only 21 in 2014–15 and 22 in 2015–16 as Bolton couldn't afford to pay the clauses and lead to him being loaned out the first time, and dropped from the squad the second time. This seemingly didn't apply to League One.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 30 January 2015, Spearing was loaned to fellow Championship club Blackburn Rovers until the end of the season.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 4 October 2017, Spearing joined Blackpool until the end of the season. He scored his first goals for Blackpool when he scored twice in a 3–2 win over Bradford City on 8 September 2018. He made the move permanent in the summer.


title: Jay Spearing

text: Spearing left Blackpool at the end of the 2019–20 season, after three years, having failed to agree terms on a new contract.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 5 August 2020, Spearing signed a two-year deal with his hometown club Tranmere Rovers. He was named Player of the Season for the 2020–2021 season. Spearing was released at the end of the 2021–22 season.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 17 June 2022, in addition to his Under-18s coaching role, Spearing was registered as a player for the Under-21s team as an over-aged player.


title: Jay Spearing

text: He made his second professional debut for Liverpool on 20 September 2022, appearing for Liverpool's Under-21s side against Rochdale in the EFL Trophy.


title: Jay Spearing

text: On 17 June 2022, Spearing returned to Liverpool to become a coach for the Under-18s team, and would continue his career as a player as he was also registered as an over-age player for the Liverpool U21.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi family of "Nawabs" until 1955. The "Nawabs" left a rich architectural legacy, and Bahawalpur is now known for its monuments dating from that period. The city lies at the edge of the Cholistan Desert, and serves as the gateway to the nearby Lal Suhanra National Park.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur State was home to various ancient societies. The Bahawalpur region was part of Multan province of Mughal Empire in recent history. It contains ruins from the Indus Valley civilisation, as well as ancient Buddhist sites such as the nearby Patan minara. British archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham identified the Bahawalpur region as home of the Yaudheya kingdoms of the "Mahābhārata". Prior to the establishment of Bahawalpur, the region's major city was the holy city of Uch Sharif – a regional metropolitan centre between the 12th and 17th centuries that is renowned for its collection of historic shrines dedicated to Muslim mystics from the 12–15th centuries built in the region's vernacular style.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur was established in 1748 by Nawab Bahawal Khan I, after he migrated to the region around Uch from Shikarpur, Sindh. Bahawalpur replaced Derawar as the clan's capital city. The city initially flourished as a trading post on trade routes between Afghanistan and central India.


title: Bahawalpur

text: In 1785, the Durrani commander Sirdar Khan attacked Bahawalpur city and destroyed many of its buildings on behalf of Mian Abdul Nabi Kalhora of Sindh. Bahawalpur's ruling family, along with nobles from nearby Uch, were forced to take refuge in the Derawar Fort, where they successfully repulsed further attacks. The attacking Durrani force accepted 60,000 rupees as "nazrana" or tribute, though Bahawal Khan later had to seek refuge in the Rajput states as the Afghan Durranis occupied Derawar Fort. Bahawal Khan returned to conquer the fort by way of Uch, and re-established control of Bahawalpur.


title: Bahawalpur

text: The princely state of Bahawalpur was founded in 1802 by Nawab Mohammad Bahawal Khan II after the break-up of the Durrani Empire, and was based in the city.


title: Bahawalpur

text: In 1807, Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire laid siege to the fort in Multan, prompting refugees to seek safety in Bahawalpur in the wake of his marauding forces that began to attack the countryside around Multan. Ranjit Singh eventually withdrew the siege, and gave the Nawab of Bahawalpur some gifts as the Sikh forces retreated.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahalwapur offered an outpost of stability in the wake of crumbling Mughal rule and the declining power of Khorasan's monarchy. The city became a refuge for prominent families from affected regions and also saw an influx of religious scholars escaping the consolidation of Sikh power in Punjab.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Fearing an invasion from the Sikh Empire, Nawab Mohammad Bahawal Khan III signed a treaty with the British on 22 February 1833, guaranteeing the independence of the "Nawab" and the autonomy of Bahawalpur as a princely state. The treaty guaranteed the British a friendly southern frontier during their invasion of the Sikh Empire.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Trade routes had shifted away from Bahawalpur by the 1830s, and British visitors to the city noted several empty shops in the city's bazaar. The population at this time was estimated to be 20,000, and was noted to be made up primarily of Hindus. Also in 1833, the Sutlej and Indus Rivers were opened to navigation, allowing goods to reach Bahawalpur. By 1845, newly opened trade routes to Delhi re-established Bahawalpur as a commercial centre. The city was known in the late 19th century as a centre for the production of silk goods, "lungis", and cotton goods. The city's silk was noted to be of higher quality than silk works from Benares or Amritsar.


title: Bahawalpur

text: An 1866 crisis over succession to the Bahawalpur throne markedly increased British influence in the princely state. Bahawalpur was constituted as a municipality in 1874. Bahalwapur's Nawab celebrated the Golden Jubillee of Queen Victoria in 1887 in a state function at the Noor Mahal palace. In 1901, the population of the city was 18,546.


title: Bahawalpur

text: At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Bahawalpur's Nawab was the first ruler of a princely state to offer his full support and resources of the state towards the crown's war efforts.


title: Bahawalpur

text: British Princely states were given the option to join either Pakistan or India upon British withdrawal from the Sub-Continent in August 1947. The city and the princely state of Bahawalpur acceded to Pakistan on October 7, 1947, under Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V Bahadur. Following independence, the city's minority Hindu and Sikh communities migrated to India "en masse", while Muslim refugees from India settled in the city and the surrounding region.


title: Bahawalpur

text: There are 6 tehsils in District Bahawalpur, with 109 union councils, 714 villages, and 5 municipal committees.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur lies some 117m above sea level. The climate is dry. Over the year, there is virtually no rainfall in Bahawalpur. According to the Köppen-Geiger system, it is classified as BWh. The average annual temperature is 25.7 °C | 78.3 °F. The rainfall is around 143 mm | 5.6 inch per year.


title: Bahawalpur

text: The main crops for which Bahawalpur is recognised are cotton, sugarcane, wheat, sunflower seeds, rape/mustard seed and rice. Bahawalpur mangoes, citrus, dates and guavas are some of the fruits exported out of the country. Vegetables include onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes and carrots. Being an expanding industrial city, the government has revolutionised and liberalised various markets allowing the caustic soda, cotton ginning and pressing, flour mills, fruit juices, general engineering, iron and steel re-rolling mills, looms, oil mills, poultry feed, sugar, textile spinning, textile weaving, vegetable ghee and cooking oil industries to flourish. Sheep and cattle are raised for export of wool and hides.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur is famous for its carpets, embroidery, and pottery. The Punjab government has set up a Craft Development Centre from where handicrafts can be purchased. These handicrafts are mostly manufactured in the Cholistan area. Following is the list of some of the mementos manufactured in the city:


title: Bahawalpur

text: According to the 2017 Census of Pakistan, the city's population was recorded as having risen to 762,111 from 408,395 in 1998.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur emerged as a centre of "Chishti" Sufism following the establishment of a "khanqa" by Noor Muhammad Muharvi in the mid-18th century. Most residents are Muslims with a small minority being Hindus and Christians. There are about 2000 Christian families with one church, St. Dominic's Church built in 1962 by the Government of Punjab (the Dominican Convent School for girls and St. Dominican's Middle School for Boys were also built under the same project). Father Zafar Iqbal was the first Parish priest of the church until his death on February 19, 2009.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur was announced as one of six cities in Punjab whose security would be improved by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority. 5.6 billion Rupees were allocated for the project, for the city to be modeled along the lines of the Lahore Safe City project in which 8,000 CCTV cameras were installed throughout the city at a cost of 12 billion rupees to record and send images to the Integrated Command and Control Centres.


title: Bahawalpur

text: The Bahawalpur Museum, established in 1976, is a museum of archaeology, art, heritage, modern history, and religion. It comes under the control of the Bahawalpur district government. The current director of the museum is Hussain Ahmed Madni. It has eight galleries:


title: Bahawalpur

text: The Bahawalpur Zoo, established in 1942, is a 25-acre (10 ha) zoological garden. It is managed by the Government of Pakistan.


title: Bahawalpur

text: The zoo has occasionally bred and supplied wild cats, such as Asiatic lions and Bengal tigers, to other zoos in the country. It also has an aquarium and zoological museum with stuffed birds, reptiles, and mammals. The Bahawalpur Zoo is the fourth biggest zoo in Pakistan, after Lahore Zoo, Karachi Zoo and Islamabad Zoo.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Lal Suhanra is a national park in Pakistan. The park itself is situated some 35 kilometres east of Bahawalpur. It is one of South Asia's largest national parks and is a UNESCO declared Biosphere Reserve. Lal Sohanra is notable for the diversity of its landscape, which includes desert, forest, and wetland ecosystems.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawalpur's Sadiq Egerton College was founded in 1886. The first university, Islamia University was founded as "Jamia Abbasia" in 1925. The city's Quaid-e-Azam Medical College was founded in 1971. The District has an overall literacy rate of 48% with a total of 1662 schools and 24 colleges.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Pakistan's longest national highway, N-5, also passes through the city, connecting Bahawalpur to Karachi and Lahore.


title: Bahawalpur

text: The railway connects Bahawalpur with the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Jhang, Rahim Yar Khan, Nawabshah, Attock, Sibi, Khanewal, Gujrat, Rohri, Jacobabad, and Nowshera.


title: Bahawalpur

text: Bahawal Stadium or (formerly) The Bahawalpur Dring Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the city. It hosted a sole international match, a test match between Pakistan and India on the 15th and 18 January 1955. Motiullah hockey stadium is in the Bahawal Stadium and is used for various national and international hockey tournaments in the country. Aside from the cricket ground, it has a gym and a pool facility for citizens. There are also tennis courts, under the administration of the Bahawalpur Tennis Club, and a 2-kilometre jogging track around the football ground.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Loudermilk was an American comedy-drama television series created by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort that premiered on October 17, 2017 on the AT&T Audience Network. The series stars Ron Livingston, Will Sasso, Laura Mennell, Anja Savcic, Mat Fraser, Toby Levins, and Mark Brandon. In December 2018, it was announced that Audience had renewed the series for a third season. In April 2020, the series was left without a home after the network ceased operations.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Amazon subsequently acquired the rights to stream the series, and the previously unaired third season was released on Amazon Prime Video in some countries, such as Canada, in December 2020. The series made its U.S. debut in March 2021, while the third season was added the following month.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Further seasons have been conceptualized by the creators, but are as-yet unproduced, as a sponsoring (not just distribution) network is being sought.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Sam Loudermilk, a former music critic and recovering alcoholic, is a substance abuse counselor and support group leader who regularly doles out clever but acid-tongued critiques to his clients, his friends, and any random person he interacts with. Loudermilk, who does not have his life together in the way one might expect of a counselor, is somewhat nicer to the few people close to him, including his best friend and (usually) sober sponsor, Ben Burns, and his sponsee and unplanned roommate, the young Claire Wilkes.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: "Loudermilk" originally premiered on AT&T's Audience Network. Its first season debuted in 2017. On April 12, 2018, Audience renewed the series for a second season, which it premiered on October 16, 2018. On December 5, 2018, it was announced that Audience had renewed the series for a third season, but the network ceased operations in May 2020, prior to the third season's scheduled airing.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Amazon Prime Video, who was already carrying the series in some countries outside the U.S., premiered the third season in those countries on December 31, 2020. Amazon acquired the U.S. streaming rights for the show and made the first two seasons available there on March 12, 2021. On April 27, 2021, the third season received its U.S. premiere on Prime.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Although, in the wake of the Audience Network shutdown, the cast was released from any contractual obligations to produce further episodes, co-creator Peter Farrelly has stated that "everybody wants to come back and do Season 4", and that a production network is being sought. While Amazon is distributing the existing seasons, to date they have not taken on a production role for further seasons. In total, Farrelly has envisioned seven seasons' worth of plotlines and character arcs.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the first season an approval rating of 92% based on reviews from 12 critics, with an average rating of 7.12 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states:


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: Loudermilk's timely premise and sharp writing lay a solid foundation for a strong central performance from Ron Livingston, perfectly cast in this endearing dark comedy about a rock critic turned recovering alcoholic.


title: Loudermilk (TV series)

text: The series is distributed by Sony Pictures TV; and in Canada, Germany, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S., it airs on Amazon Prime Video.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1482, until it was partitioned after the Dutch revolt.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: Present-day North Brabant ("Noord-Brabant") was ceded to the Generality Lands of the Dutch Republic according to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, while the reduced duchy remained part of the Habsburg Netherlands until it was conquered by French Revolutionary forces in 1794, which was recognized by treaty in 1797. Today all the duchy's former territories, apart from exclaves, are in Belgium except for the Dutch province of North Brabant.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The Duchy of Brabant (adjective: "Brabantian" or "Brabantine") was historically divided into four parts, each with its own capital. The four capitals were Leuven, Brussels, Antwerp and 's-Hertogenbosch. Before 's-Hertogenbosch was founded, Tienen was the fourth capital.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp; the Brussels-Capital Region; and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant. Its four chief cities were Brussels, Antwerp, Leuven and 's-Hertogenbosch.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The modern flag of Belgium takes its colors from Brabant's coat of arms: "Sable a lion or armed and langued gules" (a gold lion on a black field with red claws and tongue).


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: Probably first used by Count Lambert I of Louvain (ruled 1003–1015), the lion is documented in a 1306 town's seal of Kerpen, together with the red lion of Limburg. Up to the present, the Brabantian lion features as the primary heraldic charge on the coats of arms of both Flemish and Walloon Brabant, and of the Dutch province of North Brabant.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The region's name is first recorded as the Carolingian shire "pagus Bracbatensis", located between the rivers Scheldt and Dijle, from "braec" "marshy" and "bant" "region". Upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun it was part of Lotharingia within short-lived Middle Francia, and was ceded to East Francia according to the 880 Treaty of Ribemont.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: In earlier Roman times, the Nervii, a Belgic tribe, lived in the same area. They were incorporated into the Roman province of Belgica, and considered to have both Celtic and Germanic cultural links. At the end of the Roman period the region was conquered by the Germanic Franks.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: In 959 the East Frankish king Otto I of Germany elevated Count Godfrey of Jülich to the rank of duke of Lower Lorraine. In 962 the duchy became an integral part of the Holy Roman Empire, where Godfrey's successors of the ducal Ardennes-Verdun dynasty also ruled over the "Gau" of Brabant. Here, the counts of Leuven rose to power, when about 1000 Count Lambert I the Bearded married Gerberga, the daughter of Duke Charles of Lower Lorraine, and acquired the County of Brussels. About 1024 southernmost Brabant fell to Count Reginar V of Mons ("Bergen", later Hainaut), and Imperial lands up to the Schelde river in the west came under the rule of the French Counts Baldwin V of Flanders by 1059. Upon the death of Count Palatine Herman II of Lotharingia in 1085, Emperor Henry IV assigned his fief between the Dender and Zenne rivers as the Landgraviate of Brabant to Count Henry III of Leuven and Brussels.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: About one hundred years later, in 1183/1184, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa formally established the Duchy of Brabant and created the hereditary title of duke of Brabant in favour of Henry I of Brabant, son of Count Godfrey III of Leuven. Although the original county was still quite small - and limited to the territory between the Dender and Zenne rivers, situated to the west of Brussels - from the 13th century onwards its name came to apply to the entire territory under control of the dukes.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: In 1190, after the death of Godfrey III, Henry I also became Duke of Lower Lotharingia. By that time the title had lost most of its territorial authority. According to protocol, all his successors were thereafter called Dukes of Brabant and Lower Lotharingia (often called Duke of Lothier).


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: After the Battle of Worringen in 1288, the dukes of Brabant also acquired the Duchy of Limburg and the lands of Overmaas (trans-Meuse). In 1354 Duke John III of Brabant granted a Joyous Entry (charter of liberty) to the subjects of Brabant.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: In 1430 the Duchies of Lower Lotharingia, Brabant and Limburg were inherited by Philip the Good of Burgundy and became part of the Burgundian Netherlands.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: In 1477 the Duchy of Brabant became part of the House of Habsburg as part of the dowry of Mary of Burgundy. At that time the Duchy extended from Luttre, south of Nivelles to 's Hertogenbosch, with Leuven as the capital city. The subsequent history of Brabant is part of the history of the Habsburg Seventeen Provinces.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) brought the northern parts (essentially the present Dutch province of North Brabant) under military control of the northern insurgents. After the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the United Provinces' independence was confirmed and northern Brabant was formally ceded to the United Provinces as Staats-Brabant, a federally governed territory and part of the Dutch Republic.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The southern part remained in Spanish Habsburg hands as a part of the Southern Netherlands. It was transferred to the Austrian branch of the Habsburg monarchy in 1714. Brabant was included in the unrecognised United States of Belgium, which existed from January to December 1790 during short-lived revolt against Emperor Joseph II, until imperial troops regained the Austrian Netherlands for Leopold II who had succeeded his brother.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: The area was overrun during the French Revolution in 1794, and formally annexed by France in 1795. The duchy of Brabant was dissolved and the territory was reorganised in the "départements" of Deux-Nèthes (present province of Antwerp) and Dyle (the later province of Brabant).


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: After the defeat of Bonaparte in 1815, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created at the Congress of Vienna. The three old provinces were restored as North Brabant, Antwerp and South Brabant. The latter two became part of modern Belgium when it was created in 1830, South Brabant becoming simply Brabant province.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: Brabant had fortified walled cities and unwalled cities. The unwalled cities did not have the right to construct walls. Trade was allowed in the walled areas and usually this right resulted in a larger population and the development of major villages and later cities. The unwalled cities also had the right to hold markets, which they held on large market squares. This distinguishes them from surrounding villages that were not allowed to hold markets and did not possess market squares. Being unwalled also meant that some of these places suffered heavily in war and during the Dutch Revolt.


title: Duchy of Brabant

text: Note: the city of Mechelen formed an independent state along with the Land of Heist-op-den-Berg and Gestel. Willemstad, Geertruidenberg and Klundert were part of the County of Holland.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The and its twin the are sedans sold in Japan from 2001 to 2021 by Toyota. The sedans are designated as a compact car by Japanese dimension regulations and the exterior dimensions do not change with periodic updates. Unlike Toyota's other vehicles, the Premio and Allion are not exported, and are exclusively sold in Japan only. Size and pricing-wise, the E210 Corolla, introduced to the Japanese market in 2018 succeeds the Premio and Allion.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The Premio is the successor of the Corona which first appeared in 1957. The Corona EXiV, a four-door hardtop sedan that appeared in 1989, was replaced by the Progrès, which was also briefly available with the Premio until 2007. The Premio is exclusive to "Toyopet Store" dealerships, as a smaller companion to the Mark X.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The Allion replaced the Carina, a model that first appeared in 1970. The Carina ED, a four-door hardtop sedan that appeared in 1985, was replaced by the Brevis, which was briefly available with the Allion until 2007. The Allion is exclusive to "Toyota Store" dealerships, as a smaller companion to the Crown.


title: Toyota Premio

text: Both cars are related to the Avensis, which is an imported five-door liftback from Europe, available at all Japanese dealership locations. The Camry, which is the largest car exclusive to "Toyota Corolla Store" locations, is slightly larger, and based on appearance packages, offers the same luxury or performance features found in the Premio or Allion. The name "Premio" is a play on words for "premium", while "Allion" is created based on the phrase "all-in-one".


title: Toyota Premio

text: Mechanically, they are identical to the Avensis which is exported new internationally as well as sold in Japan. The Premio/Allion are only offered as 4-door sedans, while the Avensis is available only as a five-door liftback. The first generation Premio is an upscale, luxurious sedan in comparison to the Allion, which has a more youthful, sporting nature. Wood trim and chrome accents give the Premio an elegant look while the Allion is considered to be a sporty or executive type car.


title: Toyota Premio

text: Appearance modification options made for the first generation Allion are not made or marketed for the Premio. The second generation cars share the interior appearances and optional equipment, with exterior visual differences. Three options packages are offered with the three different engines offered, coupled with the choice of front- or four-wheel drive, thereby giving Japanese buyers options as to which annual road tax obligation they are willing to pay.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The first generation Premio and Allion were launched on 25 December 2001. The Premio sedan has a more elegant approach in comparison to the Allion, which has an emphasis towards younger buyers. The Premio and Allion share the same engines and interior. The Allion can be specced with front spoilers and rear mounted trunk wings, as well as ground effect body parts to enhance the vehicles appearance which are specially designed and sold by Toyota. The Allion also features rear tilting seats (similar to front seats). The Allion continues the Toyota tradition by being made in taxi usage, driving school and law enforcement versions.


title: Toyota Premio

text: On 20 December 2004, the Premio received a modest restyle with the introduction of LED tail lights. The Allion also received an update at the same time.


title: Toyota Premio

text: Both cars were offered with three engine sizes; 1.5-, 1.8- and 2.0-liter. The 2.0-liter model received a CVT; the smaller engines were each fitted with a four-speed torque converter automatic transmission.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The second generation Premio and Allion were introduced on 4 June 2007, with Toyota continuing to offer appearance modifications at local dealerships. These cars continued to fill the gap between the Corolla and Camry. G-BOOK was on the list of optional features. The Premio gained the inclusion of a LED in the rear light cluster. Other changes included the smart entry and start system, a rear-view monitor in color, and a hard disk navigation system compatible with the G-Book mX telematics service.


title: Toyota Premio

text: Four-wheel drive was offered on vehicles equipped with the 1.8-liter "2ZR-FE" engine. A 2.0-liter valvematic "3ZR-FAE" engine was made available in January 2008, cutting the emission by 75 percent from the level required by the 2005 Japanese emission standards, and also achieving 20 percent better fuel economy than required by the 2010 fuel consumption standards. The transmission was a Super CVT-i. The 2.0-liter engine option was discontinued in July 2020.


title: Toyota Premio

text: Fuel consumption figures for the 1.5-liter models were improved to , and the 1.8-liter models were improved to , both types now fitted with CVT. From 2 October 2009, fuel consumption for the 1.5-liter models was further improved to by improvements to the engine, transmission and alternator control.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The Premio and Allion were revised on 20 April 2010 with more aggressive and sharper looking headlights and twin LED tail lights with the interior remaining somewhat same.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The 1.8-liter engine was changed from the "2ZR-FE" to the Valvematic "2ZR-FAE", improving fuel consumption to . In June 2010, fuel consumption for the 1.5-liter models was improved to by improvements to engine and transmission control.


title: Toyota Premio

text: Toyota revised the Premio and Allion again on 13 June 2016 with a facelift. At the same time, "bi-beam" LED headlights and the collision avoidance system called "Toyota Safety Sense C" were introduced, adopting a styling influence from the larger, more prestigious S210 series Crown.


title: Toyota Premio

text: On 1 December 2020, Toyota announced that the Premio and Allion would be discontinued from March 2021. This marked the end of the Corona lineage that was first introduced in 1957.


title: Toyota Premio

text: The Allion nameplate is also used as the long-wheelbase version of the E210 series Corolla for the Chinese market. Introduced at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2020, the Chinese-market Allion (, originally "傲澜" (); the change was made because the latter name may sound offensive to Teochew dialect speakers) was developed by the FAW Toyota joint venture. The wheelbase is stretched to or longer than the standard Corolla, while its body length is stretched to . Larger dimensions meant the Allion slots between the Corolla and the Avalon which is called the "A+ class sedan" segment in China.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace, Inc. is a global technology company listed on the NYSE that provides a software intelligence platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Dynatrace technologies are used to monitor and optimize application performance, software development and security practices, IT infrastructure, and user experience for businesses and government agencies throughout the world.


title: Dynatrace

text: The Dynatrace Software Intelligence Platform uses a proprietary form of AI called Davis to discover, map, and monitor applications, microservices, container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes, and IT infrastructure running in multicloud, hybrid-cloud, and hyperscale network environments. The platform also provides automated problem remediation. The Dynatrace platform provides observability of the full solution stack in order to simplify the complexity of cloud native computing and accelerate an organization's digital transformation and cloud migration.


title: Dynatrace

text: The Dynatrace Software Intelligence Platform uses AI to provide infrastructure monitoring, applications and microservices monitoring, application security, digital experience, business analytics, and cloud automation capabilities. Dynatrace also provides a Software Intelligence Hub that publishes integrations with more than 620 technologies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Java, Prometheus.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace provides multicloud observability to both SaaS and managed service deployment models, in partnership with service providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, among others.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace invests in building DevOps and SRE automation and contributes developments to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), including the contribution of Keptn, and open-source pluggable control plane for cloud-native application lifecycle orchestration. Dynatrace is a key contributor and investor in open-source community activities around observability and performance. Examples include W3C Trace Context, of which Dynatrace is a founding member and co-chair; OpenTelemetry; and OpenFeature. Other open-source technologies Dynatrace contributes to include MONACO, Barista, and Dynahist.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace was founded by Bernd Greifeneder on February 2, 2005 in Linz, Austria as dynaTrace Software GmbH, and was acquired by Compuware in 2011. In 2014, the private equity firm Thoma Bravo took the company private, and the Compuware APM group was renamed Dynatrace. Dynatrace established the Digital Performance Management category in late 2014.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace headquarters is located in Waltham, Massachusetts, with research and development labs based in various locations across Austria, Estonia, Poland, Spain, and the United States. Dynatrace also hosts 60 further offices globally, including Australia, Brazil, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.


title: Dynatrace

text: Keynote Systems: In 2015, Dynatrace was merged with Keynote Systems, the rival provider of Application Performance Management (APM) services, which private equity firm Thoma Bravo had also acquired. Keynote, founded in 1995, had been an early provider of Internet performance metrics, including its "Keynote perspective" product in 1996, the Business 40 Internet Performance Index in 1997, and its Streaming Perspective product in 2000.


title: Dynatrace

text: Matrix.net (Matrix Information and Directory Services, Xaffire): Among the Keynote acquisitions which were eventually merged into Dynatrace were Xaffire Inc., whose Austin business unit Keynote acquired in December 2003, and which itself had emerged from the combination of Alignment Software Inc. with Matrix NetSystems, also known as Matrix.net and Matrix Information and Directory Services Inc. Matrix, operated by early Internet pioneer John Quarterman, was well-known for its Internet host censuses and its statistical maps and "weather reports" of the Internet.


title: Dynatrace

text: SpectX: On September 14, 2021, Dynatrace completed the acquisition of high-speed parsing and query analytics company, SpectX.


title: Dynatrace

text: In 2022 Dynatrace was awarded with 3 major awards, best place to work at 2022, best global culture 2022, best company outlook 2022.


title: Dynatrace

text: In 2022, Gartner again named Dynatrace a Leader in its 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for APM and Observability.


title: Dynatrace

text: In 2021, Gartner named Dynatrace a Leader in "2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant APM report" for the 11th consecutive time. Gartner also scored Dynatrace highest in five of six use cases in the "2021 Gartner" "Critical Capabilities for APM" report.


title: Dynatrace

text: GigaOm recognized Dynatrace as a "Leader" and "Outperformer" in the 2021 GigaOm Radar for AIOps solutions.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace named a Customers' Choice in the September 2021 Gartner Peer Insights 'Voice of the Customer': Application Performance Monitoring report.


title: Dynatrace

text: Dynatrace named a Leader in cloud-native observability in the 2021 ISG Provider Lens – Container Services & Solutions Report.


title: Dynatrace

text: The AI Breakthrough Awards™ recognized Dynatrace as the best overall AI-based analytics company for business intelligence and analytics.


title: Dynatrace

text: Constellation Shortlist™ named Dynatrace as one of the top seven companies in their "Shortlist for Digital Performance Management".


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR; ), doing business as the Bank of Russia (), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. The predecessor of the bank can be traced back to the State Bank of the Russian Empire founded in 1860.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The bank is headquartered on Neglinnaya Street in Moscow. Its functions are described in the Constitution of Russia (Article 75) and in federal law.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The decision to create a State Bank of the Russian Empire was made by Emperor Peter III in May 1762, which was modeled on Bank of England and would have the right to issue bank notes. However, due to the coup on 28 June 1762 and the murder of the Czar, the project was not implemented. The outbreak in 1768 of the Russian-Turkish War and deficit of the state budget forced Catherine II, in turn, refer to the idea of issuing a paper money, and in December 1768 she formed the State Assignation Bank, which existed until 1818 and was replaced by the State Commercial Bank, but the first central banking body in Russia was established on as The State Bank (GosBank) of the Russian Empire () which was formed on the base of the State Commercial Bank by "ukaz" of Emperor Alexander II. This ukaz also ratified the statutes of the bank. According to the statutes, it was a state-owned bank, intended for short-term credit of trade and industry.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: In early 1917 the bank had eleven branches, 133 permanent and five temporary offices and 42 agencies. On 7 November 1917 the Russian State Bank was disestablished and replaced by The People's Bank which existed until the establishment of the Soviet Gosbank.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) was established 13 July 1990 as a result of the transformation of the Russian Republican Bank of the State Bank of the USSR. It was accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. On 2 December 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR passed the Law on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia), according to which the Bank of Russia has become a legal entity, the main bank of the RSFSR and was accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. In June 1991, the charter was adopted by the Bank of Russia. On 20 December 1991 the State Bank of the USSR was abolished and all its assets, liabilities and property in the RSFSR were transferred to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia), which was then renamed to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia). Since 1992, the Bank of Russia began to buy and sell foreign currency on the foreign exchange market created by it, establish and publish the official exchange rates of foreign currencies against the ruble.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: According to the constitution, it is an independent entity, with the primary responsibility of protecting the stability of the national currency, the ruble.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: Before 1 September 2013, it was the main regulator of the Russian banking industry, responsible for banking licenses, rules of banking operations and accounting standards, serving as a lender of last resort for credit organizations. After pointed date functions and powers of CBR were significantly expanded and the central bank received the status of a mega-regulator of all financial markets of Russia.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: It holds the exclusive right to issue ruble banknotes and coins through the Moscow and St. Petersburg mints, the


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: Goznak mint. The central bank issues commemorative coins made of precious and non-precious metals as well as investment ones made of precious metals, which are distributed inside and outside the country. In 2010, in honor of its 150th anniversary it issued a 5-kilo commemorative gold coin Alexander II.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: Under Russian law, half of the bank's profit must be channeled into the government's federal budget. The Central Bank of Russia is a member of the BIS.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The Bank of Russia owns as well 100% stake in Russian National Reinsurance Company (RNRC), biggest national reinsurance company. RNRC was established in July 2016 for prevention possible problems with abroad reinsurance of large risks under International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis, like constructing the Crimean Bridge.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: A key prospective witness in improper financial affairs was Lyubov Tarasova () who was a senior auditor for the Central Bank of Russia and worked for the "Unicom" () auditing firm which had been established on 20 August 1991 and was responsible for "checking the correctness of the documentation and the essence of business transactions that are in doubt" (), but was stabbed to death in her apartment in Moscow on 15-16 October 1997.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: In 2017, within the framework of a joint anti-phishing project of the Bank of Russia and search engine Yandex, a special check mark (a green circle with a tick and 'Реестр ЦБ РФ' (Bank of Russia Register) text box) appeared in the search results, informing the consumer that the website is really owned by a legally registered company licensed by the Bank of Russia.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The President of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank is the head of the central banking system of the Russian Federation. The Head is chosen by the President of Russia; and serves for four-year-terms after appointment. A Head may be appointed for several consecutive terms (Sergey Ignatyev was the Governor of the Central Bank for 11 years, and he was appointed three times, in the longest serving term in post-soviet Russia).


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: The Central Bank of Russia holds directly significant participatory interests in a number of Russian companies:


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: Additionally, the Bank of Russia held earlier interests in some other Russian organizations. In particular, after the liquidation of Gosbank (State Bank of the USSR), the CBR beneficially acquired complete or controlling interests in five so-called "Russian Foreign Banks" (until 1991 – "Soviet Foreign Banks"):


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: All of them were members of the USSR Vneshekonombank system and were transferred to the CBR in 1992 by the Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Russia. For over five years – 2000 to 2005 – all stocks of the Russian Foreign Banks were being purchased from the Bank of Russia by VTB Bank.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: As part of the financial support to credit institutions, the Bank of Russia invests in them through the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund and acquires (on a temporary and indirect basis) shares in the equity of such banks. The first project of this kind was Otkritie FC Bank, in summer 2017.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: In December 2014, amidst falling global oil prices, Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, capital flight, and fears of recession, the bank had increased the one-week minimum auction repo rate up by 6.5 points to 17 percent.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: This caused a run on the ruble, and on 29 January, the bank decreased the rate by two points to 15 percent.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: In January 2015, the head of monetary policy, Ksenia Yudayeva, a proponent of strict anti-inflation policy, was replaced by Dmitry Tulin, who is "seen as more acceptable to bankers, who have called for lower interest rates".


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: In response to the 2021-2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis, multiple countries imposed economic sanctions against Russian banks. On 22 February 2022, US president Joe Biden announced restrictions of activities by US citizens involved with the Bank of Russia and others. In March, the Bank of International Settlements suspended the Bank of Russia. In March 2022, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation blocked Russian securities from the Bank of Russia and Russia's finance ministry.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: At the end of May 2022, three months into the invasion of Ukraine, the central bank cut interest rates in an effort to prop up the increasingly isolated Russian economy, suffering shortages and supply chain issues. The inflation rate rose to 17.8 percent in April. Also the ruble reached its strongest level against the U.S. dollar in four years, hurting exports.


title: Central Bank of Russia

text: Sanctions also included asset freezes on the Russian Central Bank, which holds $630 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, to prevent it from offsetting the impact of sanctions. On 5 May 2022, President of the European Council Charles Michel said: "I am absolutely convinced that this is extremely important not only to freeze assets but also to make possible to confiscate it, to make it available for the rebuilding" of Ukraine.


title: Back (TV series)

text: Back is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It was filmed and is set in and around Stroud, Gloucestershire. The Channel 4 series was created by Simon Blackwell, and its first series was broadcast from 6 September – 11 October 2017.


title: Back (TV series)

text: A second series of six episodes was announced in November 2017; filming was scheduled to begin in October 2019. On 19 September 2020, Webb announced that the second series' shooting had concluded. Series two began airing on 21 January 2021. The series premiered on Sundance Now in December 2017 before premiering on Sundance TV in the US in September 2018. The second season premiered on 31 March 2021 on sister network IFC in the US a week later after it premiered in full on Sundance Now on March 24.


title: Back (TV series)

text: After the death of his father, Laurie, 42-year-old Stephen is set to take over the family business, the John Barleycorn pub, in Stroud, Gloucestershire. His plans are interrupted when Andrew, a former foster child briefly raised by Stephen's parents, returns to his life eager to renew his relationship with the family. While Andrew quickly charms the rest of Stephen's family – including his mother Ellen, sister Cass, and uncle Geoff – Stephen resents Andrew and views him as "a glib, dangerous sociopath who's about to steal his family, his business and his life". Andrew fondly remembers the time he spent living with the family as happy, whereas Stephen remembers the same time as miserable.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: The Red Bull Racing RB16 and RB16B are Formula One racing cars designed and constructed by Red Bull Racing to compete during the 2020 and 2021 Formula One World Championships, respectively. They were powered by Honda's RA620H (2020) and RA621H (2021) power units, being the second and third Red Bull to use the Japanese manufacturer's engines. The drivers for 2020 were Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon, both of whom were retained by the team for a fifth and second season respectively, with Sergio Pérez taking Albon's place for 2021. Albon became the team's test and reserve driver for the 2021 season. The RB16 was planned to make its competitive debut at the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, but this was delayed when the race was cancelled and the next three events in Bahrain, Vietnam and China were postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The RB16 made its debut at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, while the RB16B made its debut at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: The pandemic prompted the delay of technical regulations that had been planned for introduction in . Under an agreement between teams and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, 2020-specification cars—including the RB16—saw their lifespan extended to compete in 2021, with Red Bull producing an updated chassis called the RB16B, which used Honda's upgraded RA621H power unit.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: With largely unchanged technical regulations for the 2020 season, the RB16 was based on its predecessor the RB15. The RB16 featured a narrower nose with two additional inlets at its front, as well as a redesigned barge-board area and smaller side-pod inlets. The car also featured a large 'cape' element below the nose, bodywork that was popularised by Mercedes in but that Red Bull had not yet adopted. Parts of the rear suspension were raised, and the rear wing featured two supporting pillars compared to its predecessor's one. The team also redesigned the front multi-link suspension of the car, with team principal Christian Horner stating that the intention was to improve the performance of the car in low-speed corners.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: Red Bull used its development tokens to change the shape of the gearbox casing, allowing it to rearrange the rear suspension and significantly increase rear downforce.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: Due to difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Honda had initially decided to postpone the introduction of its all-new power unit design to the 2022 season. However, following a reassessment of the situation after its decision to leave the sport at the end of the 2021 season, it decided to bring the new design forward by a year to 2021 in a bid to try to beat Mercedes and win the championship in its final official season, although it would only have six months to complete the design before pre-season testing with a risk of significant reliability issues if it encountered problems.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: The RA621H was Honda's biggest change since 2017, as it used the same basic concept between 2017 and 2020, though it did not feature a new engine layout like in 2017. Some features of the RA621H include a notably more compact camshaft layout that is placed lower, a different valve angle and shorter cylinder bore spacing compared to the previous season's RA620H. These changes altered the shape of the combustion chamber and the airflow on the camshaft and created a significantly smaller engine with a lower centre of gravity. Honda believed that the engine is even smaller than the "size zero" design it initially used with McLaren when it returned to the sport in 2015, while having significantly improved performance. Other features of the RA621H include a way to increase the power output of the internal combustion engine without decreasing the MGU-K's output, modifications to the turbine and compressor as well as new plating on the cylinder block from the company's Kumamoto motorcycle mass production facility to improve durability.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: At the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix, the livery of the RB16B and drivers' overalls were red and white, inspired by the livery with which Honda won their first Formula One race, the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. The colouring was originally to be used at Honda's home race, the Japanese Grand Prix, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: Verstappen and Albon started second and fourth on the grid respectively for the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, however both cars would go on to retire with electrical failures during the race. Despite being reasonably competitive in the hands of Verstappen who scored several podiums including a victory at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, the car was generally no match for the combination of Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes F1 W11 as Mercedes retained the Constructors' title and Hamilton the Drivers'. Albon struggled to find good form and was outperformed by his teammate, scoring two podium finishes to Verstappen's 11 including 2 wins. The team ended the year on a high, with Verstappen scoring a dominant victory in Abu Dhabi, the first time Red Bull won at the circuit since 2013. Albon also ended the year on a high, being able to pressure Mercedes and prevent them from trying an alternate strategy, finishing fourth. Overall, the team finished second in the constructors championship, with Verstappen and Albon finishing third and seventh, respectively.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen finished second and Pérez fifth. During qualifying Verstappen achieved 1st and Pérez 11th. Again Verstappen outperformed his teammate throughout the season, getting 10 wins and 18 podiums, while Pérez got one win and 5 podiums. Verstappen fought for the championship with Lewis Hamilton all season long, winning it on the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after a last-minute restart, caused by a crash from Nicholas Latifi. Peréz finished fourth in the championship, after being as high as third. Even with Verstappen's success in the Drivers' Championship, Red Bull still finished second in the Constructors' Championship, again behind Mercedes by 28 points.


title: Red Bull Racing RB16

text: Overall, the RB16 and RB16B competed in 39 races, winning 13 (success rate of 33.33%). The RB16B became the first non-Mercedes car to win any championship since 2013, Honda became the first Japanese and Asian engine supplier world champions of the turbo-hybrid era, and became one of two championship cars with the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 (Red Bull won drivers, and Mercedes won constructors).


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) was a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 1979 to 2003. It sanctioned the PPG Indy Car World Series from 1979 until dissolving after the 2003 season.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: CART was founded in 1979 by United States Auto Club (USAC) Championship Division team owners who disagreed with the direction and leadership of USAC, with the then-novel idea of car owners sanctioning and promoting their own series collectively instead of relying on a neutral body to do so. Through the 1980s, the Indy Car World Series became the pre-eminent open-wheel auto racing series in North America, featuring street circuits, road courses, and oval track racing. CART drivers continued to compete at the USAC-sanctioned Indianapolis 500.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Even as the series prospered, concerns about costs, competitiveness, and revenue sharing began to create opposition to CART's organizational structure. Attempts at reform, which saw the company rebranded as IndyCar in 1992 and a compromise board formed, failed. In 1996, an open wheel "split" saw the newly created Indy Racing League (IRL) take full control over the Indianapolis 500 and start a competing oval-based open-wheel series. CART ceased using the IndyCar name but continued its series without participating in the Indianapolis 500.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: The "split" saw a dramatic fall in general interest for open wheel racing in the United States, which was compounded by the growing popularity of NASCAR, creating a downward trend in sponsorship and attendance at some tracks. After a series of setbacks in the early 2000s saw the departure of major racing teams and engine manufacturers to the IRL, CART went bankrupt at the end of the 2003 season.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In 2004, a trio of team owners acquired the assets of the series from bankruptcy, renaming it the Champ Car World Series. Continuing financial difficulties caused Champ Car to file for bankruptcy before its planned 2008 season; its assets and history were merged into the IRL's IndyCar Series, reuniting both series of American open-wheel racing.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Champ Cars (before 1997, advertised as IndyCars) were single-seat, open-wheel racing cars, with mid-mounted engines. Champ cars had sculpted undersides to create ground effects and prominent wings to create downforce. The cars would use different aerodynamic kits depending on whether they were racing on an oval or a road-course.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Teams typically purchased chassis constructed by independent suppliers such as Lola, Swift, Reynard, and March, with some owners, such as Dan Gurney and Roger Penske, constructing their own. The series exclusively used Goodyear tires until 1995, when Firestone entered, creating a spirited competition between the brands. Firestone ultimately became the exclusive supplier in 2000, with their parent company Bridgestone taking over the role in 2003.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Champ Cars used turbocharged engines that ran on methanol fuel. Cosworth (branded as Ford-Cosworth), Ilmor (branded as Chevrolet), and Buick engines were common until the mid-1990s, which saw Mercedes-Benz take over as Ilmor's branding and Honda and Toyota enter factory efforts. Engines were typically leased from manufacturers, who conducted research and development during the racing season; one engine could easily dominate competition in the first part of the season and then fall behind. The exclusive availability of more advanced versions of engines to certain teams in the early-1990s became a major source of contention within the organization, and manufacturers fiercely resisted proposals to have engines simply be purchased by teams. In 2003, after the withdrawal of Honda and Toyota, CART purchased a series of identical 2.65L V-8 turbocharged Cosworth engines and leased them to teams under Ford branding.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Champ Cars were visually similar, and often compared to, the higher budget and more technical Formula 1 cars, which also featured wings, mid-engines, and an open-wheel design. Due to their use on ovals, Champ Cars weighed more and were more substantial in size, were slower to accelerate but were higher in top speed. Sometimes they had more powerful engines depending on the formulas and regulations of the season (although F1 cars in the mid-80s could regularly be double the power in qualifying set up). Both series tended to downplay comparisons for commercial reasons, but 2002 saw a rare occurrence in both series running the same track (Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal) within a month of each other. Former Chip Ganassi Racing driver Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole position for the Formula One race with a lap time of 1'12.836, with the slowest being Alex Yoong's 1'17.34; Several weeks later, Cristiano da Matta won pole position in a Champ Car race with a lap time of 1'18.959.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In 1905 the AAA established a national driving championship and became the first sanctioning body for auto racing in the United States. The AAA ceased sanctioning auto racing in the general outrage over motor racing safety that followed the 1955 Le Mans disaster. In response, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony Hulman formed the United States Auto Club (USAC) to take over the sanctioning of what was called "championship" auto racing, or open wheel racing, whose biggest event was the annual Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. USAC sanctioned the championship exclusively until 1978, and was the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's recognized American authority with regard to open wheel racing.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Competitors in the championship circuit, coalescing around Dan Gurney, began to become critical of USAC's sanctioning though the 1970s. Notable incidents included the loss of a lucrative sponsorship by Marlboro in 1971 after USAC failed to enforce the brand's exclusivity at events, the existence of dirt tracks, purses that teams said would result in a loss in money even if the team made the podium, and a lack of modern promotion for the non-Indianapolis events in the series.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In early 1978, Gurney wrote what came to be known as the "Gurney White Paper", the blueprint for an organization called Championship Auto Racing Teams. Gurney took his inspiration from the improvements Bernie Ecclestone had forced on Formula One with his creation of the Formula One Constructors Association. The White Paper called for the owners to form CART as an advocacy group to promote USAC's national championship. The group would also work to negotiate television rights, sponsorship agreements, and race purses, and ideally hold seats on USAC's governing body. In 1978, the last season that USAC was sole sanctioning body for Championship racing, their 18 race schedule had 4 road course races and 14 oval track races.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: On April 23, 1978, eight top USAC officials died in an airplane crash, creating an organizational vacuum that severely hampered the 1978 season. In November 1978 Gurney, joined by other leading team owners including Roger Penske and Pat Patrick, took their requests to USAC's Board, but the proposal was rejected, leading to the creation of a new stand-alone series. The first CART race was held on 11 March 1979, with the Sports Car Club of America sanctioning the series.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: USAC initially tried to ban all CART drivers from the 1979 Indianapolis 500, informing CART teams by telegram during their event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, until CART succeeded in obtaining an injunction to allow its cars to qualify. Of the 20 races held in 1979, 13 were part of the 1979 CART Championship. An attempt by USAC and CART to jointly sanction races in 1980 as the Championship Racing League saw USAC withdraw after 5 races, and by the end of 1981 the only USAC sanctioned asphalt championship race was the Indianapolis 500.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: By 1982, the CART PPG Indy Car World Series was unilaterally recognized as the American national championship in open wheel racing. In 1983, USAC agreed to allow CART to add the Indy 500 to its schedule and have drivers be awarded points in the CART championship in return for retaining the authority to sanction the 500. Beginning with a schedule mainly based on oval speedways like its USAC predecessor, the series began to move into prominent North American road racing circuits such as Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Laguna Seca, replacing the declining Can-Am series. Many racing stars, including Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, and Danny Sullivan found success in CART, which by the mid-1980s moved into sanctioning street races, taking over the Detroit Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of Long Beach from Formula One, and expanding to Toronto and Cleveland. CART founded the first full-time driver safety team that traveled with the series, instead of depending on local staff provided by promoters.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: For the first time, open-wheel racing outside of Indianapolis had developed a stable schedule, enabling more generous sponsorship and television opportunities for the owners. Despite the corresponding increases in attendance, TV revenue, and purses, CART's egalitarian governing structure created its own headaches. CART owners were incredibly diverse: For example, owners such as Carl Haas and Roger Penske owned speedways and had generous contracts with tire, chassis, and engine manufactures, while other teams simply purchased older cars and ran the races they could afford to attend. The diversity of interests led to annual fights and accusations of real and apparent conflicts of interest with regard to rules, sponsorship, driver safety, track selection, and other matters.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In 1988, CART joined ACCUS, allowing foreign drivers to compete without risking their FIA superlicenses. This, combined with former F1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi's series title in 1989, attracted drivers from South America and Europe to join what had previously been a mostly American dominated series. A growing contingent of international drivers helped make the series a valuable television property for growing sports cable networks worldwide. CART would host its first race outside North America, in Surfer's Paradise, Australia, in 1991.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: As the larger teams and engine and chassis manufactures competed for victories, costs were rapidly increasing, pricing out smaller teams. Tony George, by 1989 the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), and others viewed foreign drivers and street circuits as discouraging predominantly American USAC sprint racing talent, such as Jeff Gordon, from competing in IndyCar. NASCAR, which ran predominantly on ovals, was gaining in popularity in IndyCar's traditional Midwestern US market.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: CART was regularly accused of only serving the interests of team owners, especially the richest ones, and not of the sport as a whole. CART owners believed that the teams, who took the most risks, paid the drivers, and expended the most cash, should control the general direction of the sport. CART owners also resented George, and felt that his close relationship with USAC meant he could jeopardize the series' involvement in the Indianapolis 500 on a whim. Debate continued for a number of years over the proper oversight mechanism for the sport, with IMS resisting any revenue sharing or control over Indianapolis and owners not wanting to give too much power to track promoters. In an attempt to address these concerns, in 1992, CART rebranded as IndyCar, and later in 1992 formed a compromise board with owners electing five members with voting rights, with the IndyCar CEO (representing the other owners) and George (representing IMS) having non-voting seats.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: 1993 would see British driver Nigel Mansell, the 1992 F1 Driver's Champion, switch to IndyCar and beat Fittipaldi for the championship. The new board collapsed at the end of the season after a series of controversial decisions, mainly shutting out Japanese manufacturers, cancelling a planned race at Brands Hatch in the United Kingdom, and keeping the schedule exactly the same, that were seen as driven by conflicts of interest of George and the five owners elected to the new board.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In March 1994, George announced his resignation from the IndyCar board. That year, Team Penske introduced a Mercedes-Benz engine specifically designed for the 1994 Indianapolis 500 that exploited a rule difference between the USAC and IndyCar, dominating the race and prompting fears that costs would continue to grow out of control. In July, IMS announced the founding of the Indy Racing League, which would be cost controlled and race solely on American ovals and be sanctioned by USAC.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: After the 1995 Indianapolis 500 saw driver complaints about USAC's oversight, George announced that for the 1996 Indianapolis 500 the top 25 drivers in IRL points would be guaranteed a spot in the race, leaving only eight of the 33 grid positions available to others. This was known as the "25/8 Rule," and was unprecedented, as the 500 had traditionally always put every spot up for open qualification. CART declared they had been locked out of the event and would no longer race at Indianapolis, while George declared that CART was boycotting. To placate sponsors who contractually required the accommodation of large contingents to attend Indianapolis, CART created a rival showcase event, the U.S. 500, at Michigan International Speedway on the same day as the Indy 500 in 1996. In March, Indianapolis Motor Speedway attempted to terminate CART's license to their "IndyCar" trademark in Federal Court.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: The lead-up to Memorial Day 1996 saw a public relations war, pitting the owners and drivers of CART against George and IMS, which included Indianapolis legends like the Unser and Andretti families publicly criticizing the new rules and labeling the race with less experienced drivers as unsafe.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: The 1996 Indianapolis 500 did see a series of accidents, with a quarter of the race run under caution before Buddy Lazier won his first race. The US 500, starting halfway through the Indy 500, had a disastrous start with a twelve-car crash, delaying the race for an hour. Jimmy Vasser, who won by 11 seconds, quipped "Who needs milk?" while exiting his car for the podium, referring to the tradition of the Indy 500 winner drinking milk. Both at the time and in retrospect, the weekend was seen as a fiasco that began a serious decline in open-wheel racing, with both the Indy 500 and other Indycar events seeing drastic decline in prominence, TV viewership, and attendance.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: After a number of competing lawsuits, CART agreed to revert to their formal initialism following the 1996 season, on the condition that the IRL would not use the name before the end of the 2002 season. CART began promoting its vehicles as "champ cars," a term that had previously been used by USAC's championship division.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In the early years after the launch of the IRL in 1996, CART was in a far stronger position: It held most of the prestigious races, sponsorship money, most of the "name" drivers and teams, and was the preferred series for manufacturers due to the IRL's ban on engine leases. IRL's primary asset was Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its 500. 1996 and 1997 saw generally well regarding racing with stars such as Jimmy Vasser, rookie sensation Alex Zanardi, and Michael Andretti leading the points standings, while the IRL experienced growing pains, including a rain-soaked 1997 Indianapolis 500, off-putting engine sounds from their new normally-aspirated engines, and the abandonment of USAC sanctioning due to incompetence.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: CART, in further contrast to IMS's sole ownership of the IRL, opted to proceed with a public stock offering, selling on the NASDAQ as stock symbol MPH. The offering raised US$100 million by selling 35% of the company. While this allowed CART to have sufficient cash reserves to expand and purchase the Indy Lights series, commentators suggested it was short-sighted to subject the notoriously secretive and fluctuating finances of the auto racing industry to public trading requirements.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Efforts, led mostly by engine manufacturers, to pressure CART and the IRL to at least adopt uniform engine standards were met with a cold refusal from the IRL, which started to carve a niche in the motorsports landscape by leveraging close relationships with the new NASCAR spec ovals being built, with the series' substantial losses being underwritten by the other revenue streams of IMS.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: Despite the split, CART saw its annual revenues increase from $38,000,000 in 1995 to $68,800,000 by 1999, street races remained lucrative, and teams were able to make some gains on sponsorship revenues. The success was uneven, as the series' traditional oval races in Michigan and Nazareth began to see dramatic attendance declines, which CART blamed on substandard marketing. Television ratings and revenue were anemic, with the series receiving $5,000,000 annually for the entirety of its television package, less than the rate for some individual NASCAR races. While CART's stock was generally considered healthy, investors noted that the company's valuation tended to fluctuate with the perceived success or failure of IRL merger talks.


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: CART's championship battle in 1999 between young stars Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti was overshadowed by the deaths of drivers Gonzalo Rodríguez and Greg Moore within two months of each other. Moore's death at the 1999 Marlboro 500 especially raised serious concerns about safety in the 500 mile races conducted in Fontana and Michigan that saw Champ Cars average speeds of near .


title: Championship Auto Racing Teams

text: In 2000, after years of frustration building behind the scenes, CART owners forced Andrew Craig to resign as CEO, and popular driver/owner Bobby Rahal stepped in as his interim replacement. Seeing the continued success of street racing and the decline of the series' oval dates, the board announced an intention of moving away from traditional venues toward overseas ovals and more street races to generate sanctioning fees, to the frustration of some of the traditional owners and United States based sponsors.