title: Karen McDougal

text: In early 2004, McDougal appeared in a photo spread in the Italian edition of "Vogue" with fellow Playmates, Pamela Anderson, Audra Lynn and Tishara Cousino. It was a tennis themed men's fashion spread shot in Las Vegas by photographer David LaChapelle. The spread contained her first published nudes since her contract with "Playboy" expired years earlier. She traveled to Japan to be one of the eye candies for the wrestling bout between Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (The Outsiders) at Yokohama, Japan in May 2004. McDougal also participated in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of "Playboy" throughout the year at Las Vegas, New York and Moscow with other Playmates past and present.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal appeared in the 2005 "Playmates at Play at the Playboy Mansion" swimsuit calendar as the calendar girl of July. The calendar was the inaugural "Playmates at Play" calendar and it was shot on the grounds of Playboy Mansion in 2004. It was "Playboy"'s first attempt at creating a non-nude swimsuit calendar featuring Playmates, similar in style with those from "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue". While all Playmates appeared in bikinis in the calendar, in the case of McDougal and Hiromi Oshima, the "bikinis" were actually only painted on using body paint.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In November 2006, McDougal was part of a trio of Playmates (along with Tina Marie Jordan and Katie Lohmann) that appeared in the "Celebrity Playmate Gift Guide" pictorial of "Splat", a magazine for paintball enthusiasts. The pictorial showcased new paintball products for the 2006 holiday season. McDougal has also appeared in various pin-up posters, calendars, magazine covers, advertising campaigns, promotional events, clothing, swimwear and lingerie catalogs following her success as Playmate of the Year.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal appeared in a series of sexy television commercials for XFL football league on NBC and UPN with the theme of "Cheerleaders". These edgy XFL commercials with implied nudity backfired and caused a controversy as they were deemed too risqué by the media, they were quietly withdrawn before the launch of 2001 XFL inaugural (and final) season; the footage was nonetheless repurposed later in the season as a publicity stunt for a halftime telecast.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In 2001, she co-starred with Lisa Dergan in "The Arena", a Roger Corman-produced, direct-to-video movie directed by Timur Bekmambetov. The entire production was shot in Russia. In her feature film debut, McDougal's character, Jessemina, is a slave girl who is forced into fighting as a female gladiator in an Ancient Roman colony by its corrupt governor. The role offered McDougal her first opportunity to act in a dramatic role and to demonstrate her physical abilities with the movie's sword fighting sequences. The movie, initially titled "Gladiatrix" was deemed to be a knockoff of "Gladiator". Although the movie was not well received, it has turned into a lesser known cult film.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal was one of 12 contestants in the search for the new host succeeding Brooke Burke for "Wild On!" in 2002 (known as "Wild Off!"). The contest took place at The Palms in Las Vegas. Each contestant was given a "wild" challenge to complete and McDougal's challenge was to dress up as Cleopatra and roam the casino at Caesars Palace in the arms of an actor dressed up as Julius Caesar for a day. She completed her challenge and was considered an early favorite by fellow contestants, but did not advance to the final round of five contestants. Cindy Taylor was the eventual winner of "Wild Off!".


title: Karen McDougal

text: After winning a local try out in Los Angeles, McDougal advanced to the 2004 "WWE Diva Search" special held at the Beacon Theatre in New York as one of 28 finalists. The special was televised live on Spike TV on July 15, 2004. McDougal, clad in a black bikini, survived two rounds of elimination during the program, only to be eliminated by the judges in the last round at the end, just prior to the selection of the final 10 contestants eligible for online voting.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal appeared as one of the interviewees in the April 9, 2006 episode of "E! True Hollywood Story", which focused on Hugh Hefner. She briefly described her experience at the Playboy Mansion when she was Miss December 1997. In mid-2006, McDougal appeared as a fitness model demonstrating all the exercises in a fitness training DVD with Hollywood celebrity fitness trainer Valerie Waters.


title: Karen McDougal

text: She has guest hosted TV programs ("Wild On!" on E!, "VIP Access" on Showtime), appeared in other TV programs (such as: "Lovespring International", "Anger Management", "The O'Reilly Factor", the Playmate edition of "Russian Roulette", etc.), movies (cameos in "Joe Dirt", "Charlie's Angels", "Grind", "The Girl Next Door" and "Raising Helen") and music videos with singer David Lee Roth.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In 2010, McDougal became one of the owners of Pharmore Alternatives, a company selling various health and wellness supplements. She attended the 2011 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in January 2011 to promote its products.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal's family members initially did not support her decision to pose for "Playboy". Eventually, they embraced the fact and her mother appeared in interview segments of her Playmate of the Year "Video Centerfold" as a sign of support. When she was Playmate of the Year of 1998, she had a healthy BMI of 19.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In 2004, she bought a pink custom-built motorcycle, and entered an "Easyriders" sponsored motorcycle competition in Pomona, California, where her motorcycle won the Best Radical Custom award. She also professes to be a chocoholic and junk food junkie, despite otherwise seeing herself as a "health nut". In her spare time, she exercises five days a week to stay in shape. She is an animal lover and owned two cats: Brittany and Brandy. McDougal has two tattoos, one is a tattoo of a cat on the second toe of her right foot to honor her cats, the other is that of a cross behind her right ear as a reminder of her spirituality.


title: Karen McDougal

text: As of 2007, McDougal lived in Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona. In March 2008, McDougal appeared in a topless pictorial and interview in Spanish magazine "Interviu" in which she discussed her then relationship with Bruce Willis.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal's family has a history of breast cancer, and McDougal, who had breast implants, is an advocate of breast cancer awareness. In January 2017, she had her breast implants removed after her health worsened.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In 2018, McDougal said she is registered to vote as a Republican. Although she is a swimsuit model, she is not a proficient swimmer because of her aquaphobia.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In November 2016, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that McDougal had told a friend that she had an affair with a married Donald Trump from 2006 to 2007, with various sources quoting that it had lasted from ten months to a year. It also reported that American Media, Inc. (AMI), the owner of the "National Enquirer", had paid McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story, but never published it. AMI stated to "The Wall Street Journal" that it had paid the amount to McDougal not "to kill damaging stories about" Trump, but for "exclusive life rights to any relationship she has had with a then-married man" and "two years' worth of her fitness columns and magazine covers". On June 20, 2016, Dylan Howard, chief content officer for AMI, interviewed McDougal for several hours at the offices of her lawyer. McDougal later met with investigative reporters from ABC News, which prompted AMI to offer to buy the rights to McDougal's story for $150,000 on August 5, 2016.


title: Karen McDougal

text: "The Wall Street Journal" published the story four days before the 2016 United States presidential election, in which Trump was the Republican Party nominee. Trump was endorsed by the "National Enquirer", and was friends with AMI CEO/Chairman David Pecker. Hope Hicks, speaking for the Trump campaign, denied the existence of an affair between Trump and McDougal, saying that the notion was "totally untrue."


title: Karen McDougal

text: In February 2018, with Trump already elected as president, "The New Yorker"s Ronan Farrow wrote about the affair and AMI's purchase of the story, largely corroborating the 2016 "Wall Street Journal" report, except that the affair had gone on for nine months. The story was based on McDougal's handwritten memoirs of the affair, which McDougal's friend passed to Farrow. McDougal confirmed to Farrow that she had written the memoirs. Farrow quotes the memoirs as stating that McDougal first met Trump in June 2006 at a party hosted by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. Trump kept in contact with McDougal, and they had sex on the first date. She said she met members of his family and he promised to buy her an apartment in New York. To avoid "paper trails", Trump had McDougal pay for flight and hotel expenses when she flew to meet him, then he reimbursed her. McDougal ended the affair in April 2007 because she felt guilty about sleeping with a married man; she was also offended by derogatory comments he made about her mother and a Black man who was dating a female acquaintance of his.


title: Karen McDougal

text: McDougal declined to discuss details of the alleged affair due to her agreement with AMI, but she told Farrow that she regretted signing that agreement, saying, "It took my rights away... I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. I'm afraid to even mention his name." Farrow also wrote that Pecker has a "favorite tactic" of buying "a story in order to bury it". AMI said it did not publish McDougal's story as it was not credible, and a spokesperson for the White House denied the affair.


title: Karen McDougal

text: On March 22, 2018, Anderson Cooper conducted an interview in which McDougal detailed the affair and apologized to Melania Trump. She said that Trump tried to give her money after they first had sex, that their relationship lasted 10 months, and that she visited Trump "many dozens of times".


title: Karen McDougal

text: In March 2018, McDougal filed a lawsuit against AMI in Los Angeles Superior Court, aiming to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement. On April 19, 2018, AMI settled with McDougal, which allowed her to speak about the alleged affair.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In July 2018, "The New York Times" reported that two months before the 2016 presidential election, Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had secretly recorded a conversation between him and Trump regarding paying McDougal. Rudy Giuliani, then representing Trump in a personal capacity, said that Trump did not know of the recording and gave two versions of the topic of conversation, saying first that the protagonists planned to pay McDougal directly, then saying that they planned to pay AMI for the rights to McDougal's story. This appeared to contradict a previous claim by Hicks days before the election, when she responded to "The Wall Street Journal" report about the payment by saying, "we have no knowledge of any of this".


title: Karen McDougal

text: On July 25, Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis released the recording to CNN, which played it on the air. Trump and Cohen can be heard discussing how to make a payment for "all of that info regarding our friend David," ostensibly referring to Pecker. Trump is also heard asking if "one-fifty" needed to be paid, which Cohen confirms. McDougal was reportedly paid $150,000 by AMI. Davis stated that Cohen "achieved independence" on July 2, 2018, and was ready to admit the truth at this point.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, admitting paying hush money of $130,000 and $150,000 "at the direction of a candidate for federal office" to two women who alleged affairs with that candidate, "with the purpose of influencing the election". The figures match payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and McDougal. Daniels also stated that she had had a 2006 affair with Trump. Trump responded to Cohen's claims by saying he only knew about the payments "later on", and that he paid back Cohen personally, not out of campaign funds. Pecker, Howard and Allen Weisselberg (chief financial officer of The Trump Organization) were reportedly granted witness immunity in exchange for their testimony regarding the payments.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In May 2019 the Southern District of New York was investigating the possible role of Trump and others regarding concealment of hush money payments.


title: Karen McDougal

text: In September 2019, it was reported the House Judiciary Committee was preparing to investigate Trump's alleged involvement in the 2016 hush-money payments to McDougal and Stormy Daniels.


title: Karen McDougal

text: On December 5, 2019, McDougal filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News. According to the suit, network anchor Tucker Carlson defamed McDougal by saying that she had personally extorted Trump for the hush money she received in 2016. McDougal denies this accusation. On September 24, 2020, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, dismissed the defamation lawsuit, writing that, "The statements are rhetorical hyperbole and opinion commentary intended to frame a political debate, and, as such, are not actionable as defamation". The judge added that the "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.'" Fox News released a statement the same day, stating that, "The decision is a victory not just for FOX News Media, but for all defenders of the First Amendment".


title: Karen McDougal

text: In June 2021, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) found that the "National Enquirer" violated U.S. election laws and the $150,000 paid by AMI to McDougal amounted to an illegal campaign contribution. AMI agreed to a fine of $187,500. Because the FEC was equally divided on party lines, it could not pursue further investigation into Trump, who accordingly will not be punished or be the subject of further inquiry by the FEC.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, "Gösta Berling's Saga", at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. Additionally, she was the first woman to be granted a membership in the Swedish Academy in 1914.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was born on 20 November 1858 at Mårbacka, Värmland, Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. Lagerlöf was the daughter of Erik Gustaf Lagerlöf, a lieutenant in the Royal Värmland Regiment, and Louise Lagerlöf ("née" Wallroth), whose father was a well-to-do merchant and a foundry owner (). Lagerlöf was the couple's fifth child out of six. She was born with a hip injury, which was caused by detachment in the hip joint. At the age of three and a half, a sickness left her lame in both legs, although she later recovered.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: She was a quiet, serious child with a deep love of reading. She wrote poetry but did not publish anything until later in life. Her grandmother helped raise her, often telling stories of fairytales and fantasy. Growing up, she was plain and slightly lame, and an account stated that the cross-country wanderings of Margarethe and Elisabet in "Gösta Berling's Saga" could be the author's compensatory fantasies. She received her schooling at home since the Volksschule compulsory education system was not fully developed yet. She studied English and French. After reading "Osceola" by Thomas Mayne Reid at the age of seven, she decided she would be a writer when she grew up.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: In 1868, at the age of 10, Selma began reading the Bible. At this time her father was very ill, and she hoped that God would heal him if she read the Bible from cover to cover. Her father lived for another 17 years. In this manner, Lagerlöf became accustomed to the language of Scripture.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: The sale of in 1884 had a serious impact on her development. Selma's father is said to have been an alcoholic, something she rarely discussed. Her father did not want Selma to continue her education or remain involved with the women's movement. Later in life, she would buy back her father's estate with the money she received for her Nobel Prize. Lagerlöf lived there for the rest of her life. She also completed her studies at the Royal Seminary to become a teacher the same year as her father died.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: Lagerlöf studied at the Högre lärarinneseminariet in Stockholm from 1882 to 1885. She worked as a country schoolteacher at a high school for girls in Landskrona from 1885 to 1895, while honing her story-telling skills, with particular focus on the legends she had learned as a child. She liked the teaching profession and appreciated her students. She had a talent for capturing the children's attention through telling them stories about the different countries about which they were studying or stories about Jesus and his disciples. During this period of her life, Selma lived with her aunt Lovisa Lagerlöf.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: Through her studies at the Royal Women's Superior Training Academy in Stockholm, Lagerlöf reacted against the realism of contemporary Swedish-language writers such as August Strindberg. She began her first novel, "Gösta Berling's Saga," while working as a teacher in Landskrona. Her first break as a writer came when she submitted the first chapters to a literary contest in the magazine" Idun", and won a publishing contract for the whole book. At first, her writing only received mild reviews from critics. Once a popular male critic, Georg Brandes, gave her positive reviews of the Danish translation, her popularity soared. She received financial support of Fredrika Limnell, who wished to enable her to concentrate on her writing.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: A visit in 1900 to the American Colony in Jerusalem became the inspiration for Lagerlöf's book by that name. The royal family and the Swedish Academy gave her substantial financial support to continue her passion. "Jerusalem" was also acclaimed by critics, who began comparing her to Homer and Shakespeare, so that she became a popular figure both in Sweden and abroad. By 1895, she gave up her teaching to devote herself to her writing. With the help of proceeds from "Gösta Berling's Saga" and a scholarship and grant, she made two journeys, which were largely instrumental in providing material for her next novel. With her close friend Sophie Elkan, she traveled to Italy, and she also traveled to Palestine and other parts of the East. In Italy, a legend of a Christ Child figure that had been replaced with a false version inspired Lagerlöf's novel ("The Miracles of the Antichrist"). Set in Sicily, the novel explores the interplay between Christian and socialist moral systems. However, most of Lagerlöf's stories were set in Värmland.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: In 1902, Lagerlöf was asked by the National Teachers' Association to write a geography book for children. She wrote ("The Wonderful Adventures of Nils"), a novel about a boy from the southernmost part of Sweden, who had been shrunk to the size of a thumb and who travelled on the back of a goose across the country. Lagerlöf mixed historical and geographical facts about the provinces of Sweden with the tale of the boy's adventures until he managed to return home and was restored to his normal size. The novel is one of Lagerlöf's most well-known books, and it has been translated into more than 30 languages.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: She moved in 1897 to Falun, and met Valborg Olander, who became her literary assistant and friend, but Elkan's jealousy of Olander was a complication in the relationship. Olander, a teacher, was also active in the growing women's suffrage movement in Sweden. Selma Lagerlöf herself was active as a speaker for the National Association for Women's Suffrage, which was beneficial for the organisation because of the great respect which surrounded Lagerlöf, and she spoke at the International Suffrage Congress in Stockholm in June 1911, where she gave the opening address, as well as at the victory party of the Swedish suffrage movement after women suffrage had been granted in May 1919.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: Selma Lagerlöf was a friend of the German-Jewish writer Nelly Sachs. Shortly before her death in 1940, Lagerlöf intervened with the Swedish royal family to secure the release of Sachs and Sachs' aged mother from Nazi Germany, on the last flight from Germany to Sweden, and their lifelong asylum in Stockholm.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: In 1894, she met the Swedish writer Sophie Elkan, who became her friend and companion. Over many years, Elkan and Lagerlöf critiqued each other's work. Lagerlöf wrote that Elkan strongly influenced her work and that she often disagreed sharply with the direction Lagerlöf wanted to take in her books. Selma's letters to Sophie were published in 1993, titled ('You Teach me to be Free'). Beginning in the 1900s, she also had a close relationship with Valborg Olander, who had some influence as a literary adviser, agent and secretary of sorts as well; their correspondence was published as ('A Proper Writer's Wife'). There appears to have been a strong rivalry between Elkan and Olander while both lived (Elkan died approximately twenty years before the other two women). Both relationships were close, emotional, exclusive and described in terms suggestive of love, the boundary between expressions of friendship and love being somewhat vague at the time. Still, it is primarily the surviving correspondence with Olander that contains passages implying decidedly erotic and physical passion, even though Lagerlöf took care to destroy many of the letters she found too risky. Homosexual relations between women were taboo as well as illegal in Sweden at the time, so none of the women involved ever revealed such a thing publicly.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: In 1919, Lagerlöf sold all the movie rights to all of her as-yet unpublished works to Swedish Cinema Theatre (), so over the years, many movie versions of her works were made. During the era of Swedish silent cinema, her works were used in film by Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller, and other Swedish film makers. Sjöström's retelling of Lagerlöf's tales about rural Swedish life, in which his camera recorded the detail of traditional village life and the Swedish landscape, provided the basis of some of the most poetic and memorable products of silent cinema. "Jerusalem" was adapted in 1996 into the internationally acclaimed film "Jerusalem".


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: On 10 December 1909, Selma Lagerlöf won the Nobel Prize "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination, and spiritual perception that characterize her writings", but the decision was preceded by harsh internal power struggle within the Swedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Prize in literature. During her acceptance speech, she remained humble and told a fantastic story of her father, as she 'visited him in heaven'. In the story, she asks her father for help with the debt she owes and her father explains the debt is from all the people who supported her throughout her career. In 1904, the academy had awarded her its great gold medal, and in 1914, she also became a member of the academy. For both the academy membership and her Nobel literature prize, she was the first woman to be so honored. She was awarded the Litteris et Artibus in 1909 and the Illis quorum in 1926. In 1991, she became the first woman to be depicted on a Swedish banknote, when the first 20-kronor note was released.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: In 1907, she received the degree of doctor of letters from Uppsala University. In 1928, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Greifswald's Faculty of Arts. At the start of World War II, she sent her Nobel Prize medal and gold medal from the Swedish Academy to the government of Finland to help raise money to fight the Soviet Union. The Finnish government was so touched that it raised the necessary money by other means and returned her medal to her.


title: Selma Lagerlöf

text: The popularity of Lagerlöf in the United States was due in part to Velma Swanston Howard, or V. S. Howard (1868–1937, a suffragette and Christian scientist) – who was an early believer in her appeal to Americans and who carefully translated many of her books.


title: Transplants (band)

text: The Transplants are an American punk rock/rap rock supergroup. They formed in 1999 when Tim Armstrong (of the bands Rancid and Operation Ivy) played his friend and roadie Rob Aston some beats he had made using Pro Tools and asked Aston if he would consider contributing lyrics. Initially, Armstrong played all the instruments himself, but as the project grew, he invited musician friends such as Matt Freeman (Rancid), Lars Frederiksen (Rancid), and Vic Ruggiero (The Slackers) to add to the sound. Before long, Armstrong and Aston decided to officially form a band, but to make things complete, they wanted a drummer, so Travis Barker from Blink-182 was asked to join in 2002.


title: Transplants (band)

text: After the release of their first album, Transplants briefly disbanded in 2003, due to all members being involved in their own projects, including Rancid and Blink-182. Then in 2004, they reunited to record their second album ("Haunted Cities") before going on hiatus again until 2010 when the band started to record new material. This new material was released as "In a Warzone" in 2013.


title: Transplants (band)

text: After two years of recording, Transplants released their debut album "Transplants" on Hellcat Records in October 2002. In the end, the album was recorded and mixed entirely in Armstrong's basement. Special guest vocalists included Eric Ozenne (The Nerve Agents), Davey Havok (AFI), Son Doobie (Funkdoobiest), Danny Diablo (Crown of Thornz, AKA Lord Ezec), Lars Frederiksen (Rancid) and Brody Dalle (The Distillers, ex-wife of Armstrong). Brody sings on the track "Weigh on My Mind", which Armstrong, at the time, described as "their song."


title: Transplants (band)

text: The singles "Diamonds and Guns" and "D.J. D.J." quickly became MTV favorites and earned the band critical and commercial success. "Diamonds and Guns" and its unmistakable piano hook played by co-producer Dave Carlock was featured in TV commercials for Garnier Fructis shampoo and Neutrogena, and both this and the song "Tall Cans in the Air" were featured on the soundtrack for the 2003 movie "Bulletproof Monk".


title: Transplants (band)

text: By 2003, the band had temporarily disbanded, while Barker worked on then-upcoming Blink-182 album, and Armstrong worked on Rancid's "Indestructible."


title: Transplants (band)

text: In 2004, during an extensive Rancid hiatus, Armstrong decided to bring Transplants back together. The band's second album, titled "Haunted Cities", was released in June 2005, just four months after Barker's former band Blink-182 announced their hiatus.


title: Transplants (band)

text: The album's first single, "Gangsters and Thugs" was a hit and the band began touring on the 2005 Warped Tour. After the Warped Tour, Transplants started to plan a large North American tour with Pennywise and wanted to release a second single. The band shot and released another video for the single "What I Can't Describe." The band released the Chopped and screwed version of "" on November 1, 2005.


title: Transplants (band)

text: Soon after the cancellation of the tour, two band members announced several more side projects that they would be embarking on during Transplants break. Barker revealed that he would be starting a tour with DJ AM and also a new band with Aston and DJ Paul Wall which would become Expensive Taste. Aston revealed that he was working on a solo album.


title: Transplants (band)

text: In an interview with Aston and Paul Wall on January 16, 2006 about their project, Expensive Taste, Aston stated "The Warped Tour had just ended and Transplants had just broken up". This led to some confusion over whether the band had officially broken up, or not. Despite the statement made by Aston about how the band had "broken up", frontman Tim Armstrong contradicted this statement on a MySpace bulletin. He stated: "In the upcoming years, I hope to make another Transplants album. I love recording with those guys".


title: Transplants (band)

text: From 2006 to 2009, Transplants had been "on hold", as all the members had continued working on their own projects. Armstrong was busy touring with Rancid promoting their new album, "Let the Dominoes Fall". He also released his solo album, "A Poet's Life", in 2007. Travis Barker worked on an album with a recently reformed Blink-182, who toured during the summer of 2009, and also formed a new band called Expensive Taste, along with Aston.


title: Transplants (band)

text: In January 2010, Barker announced on his Twitter account that Transplants were reunited and are in fact recording new material in 2010. The band announced that their new website will be posted in February 2011. It was also announced that the third album will be released on the band's original home at Hellcat Records.


title: Transplants (band)

text: Armstrong and Aston appeared as guests on Barker's first solo album "Give the Drummer Some" along with former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash on a Latin rock influenced song called "Saturday Night". The band performed the song live on "Conan" March 7, 2011, with Mix Master Mike on turntables, Elvis Cortez on guitar and Kevin Bivona on bass. Slash did not take part in the performance.


title: Transplants (band)

text: In an interview with 29-95 in April 2011, Barker has revealed that material for the Transplants album has been written since August 2010, and that 16 songs were already written by Armstrong, Aston and Barker for the album. He has also said that he expects around 30 songs to be written, with the best 12 to 15 making the cut.


title: Transplants (band)

text: On November 13, 2011, an announcement was made from the band's official Facebook page that they will be finishing up their new album in December. On November 29, Armstrong revealed that the album is slated for a spring 2012 release date, which will be followed by a new Rancid album in that summer.


title: Transplants (band)

text: On December 16, 2011, Aston posted a photo on Facebook revealing Kevin "Sweatshop" Bivona as the newest member.


title: Transplants (band)

text: After assorted announcements during 2012, the third album, titled "In a Warzone", was finally released June 25, 2013. The first single, "In a Warzone", came out April 2, 2013; a second single, "Come Around", was released the following week on April 9.


title: Transplants (band)

text: On February 28, 2014, it was revealed on the band's official Facebook page, that the band had begun writing and recording new material.


title: Transplants (band)

text: On April 28, 2015, Barker announced that Transplants were almost finished with the recording of several cover songs. He released a list with song titles including songs by bands like Circle Jerks, Unwritten Law, Cypress Hill, Minor Threat, Beastie Boys, House of Pain, and Sepultura. On January 19, 2017, Barker confirmed that Transplants would be releasing a covers album.


title: Transplants (band)

text: On June 6, 2017, the band posted "Friday the 13th. October 2017." on their Facebook page, which led to rumors this would be the date for the release of the announced record. On July 29, 2017, the band announced on their Facebook page that the new record would be released on October 13 2017 and it would be an EP named "Take Cover". The announcement was repeated on September 22. On October 6, 2017, Transplants announced the track list for "Take Cover". The EP would consist of 7 songs.


title: Cartoonito

text: Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks that target preschool-age children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small".


title: Cartoonito

text: As of 2022, Cartoonito-branded channels exist in the United Kingdom and Ireland (their original flagship service), Italy, and Latin America, while branded blocks currently air on Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Middle East, Turkey, the United States, Japan, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Oceania, as well as Boomerang in the Nordics, Portugal, Africa, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey.


title: Cartoonito

text: Cartoonito will launch in India and Pakistan in late 2022 on Cartoon Network India and Pakistan, as part of South Asia, the part of Asia.


title: Cartoonito

text: In 1996, Cartoon Network decided to create a Sunday morning block of preschool programs. The series featured "Big Bag", a live-action/puppet television program made by the Children's Television Workshop (known for "Sesame Street"), "Small World", a children's animated anthology show/variety show, and "Cave Kids" (a Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoon spin-off starring Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm).


title: Cartoonito

text: "Small World" aired in several countries (except Japan, China, and Korea) and syndicated many of their respective shows. "Cave Kids" only ran from September to November of that year. However, "Big Bag" ran until 1998, while Small World ran until c. 2002 before HBO's deal with Sesame Workshop.


title: Cartoonito

text: In 1997 (just the year after the merger of Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner), Warner Bros. Animation announced "Baby Looney Tunes", an original preschool series inspired by a line of pre-existing merchandise and had finished production by January 2001 with its pilot aired on 3 June of that year. Once the pilot proved a success, work on "Baby Looney Tunes" resumed, and it premiered on the Kids' WB block 28 July 2001. However, the series officially ran on Cartoon Network from 2002 to 2005, while continuing its original run international until 16 October 2006.


title: Cartoonito

text: In 2003, Cartoon Network's Indian counterpart introduced Tiny TV, a weekday morning block of acquired preschool cartoons such as "Bob the Builder", "Kipper", "Noddy", and "Oswald". By 2006, it had expanded to Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Each block carried its own lineup of programs, with only a few shared between feeds. Tiny TV was discontinued internationally in 2007, but was temporarily revived on POGO (a sister channel to Cartoon Network India) in 2010.


title: Cartoonito

text: Tickle-U was Cartoon Network's first attempt at an official weekday-morning preschool programming block, premiering on August 22, 2005, and aired from 9 to 11 a.m. ET/PT. Programs on the line-up included acquired shows such as two Teletoon/Treehouse TV series ("Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs" and "Gerald McBoing-Boing") and British shows ("Gordon the Garden Gnome", "Peppa Pig", "Little Robots", and "Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!"). Unlike their original counterparts, the British-acquired shows featured an American voice cast. The only original series was "Firehouse Tales", produced by Warner Bros. Animation.


title: Cartoonito

text: It featured domestic and foreign-imported series targeted at preschool-age children like its competitors Nick Jr. (on Nickelodeon) and Playhouse Disney (now Disney Junior on Disney Channel). The hosts were two animated CGI characters: a red butterfly-like creature named Pipoca (voiced by Ariel Winter) and a yellow rabbit-like creature named Henderson (voiced by Tom Kenny).


title: Cartoonito

text: The block came under fire by the CCFC, which criticized its marketing strategies. After Tickle-U closed on January 5, 2007, some of its programmings still aired on Cartoon Network until 2008 and as part of the schedule of the British variation of Cartoonito. The promos for the shows featured on the block had Tickle-U branding and the mascots of the block were all replaced by shots of the main view of the City of Townsville from "The Powerpuff Girls" (which was taken from Cartoon Network's on-air presentation from 2004–2007). It was the last attempt at a preschool programming block until Cartoonito in 2021 on both Cartoon Network and HBO Max.


title: Cartoonito

text: On 4 September 2006, Cartoon Network Too debuted a new programming block called Cartoonito, running from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily. The series featured in Cartoonito was acquired from countries worldwide and was available in both English and French. The block was later spun off into a separate channel on 24 May 2007, as Cartoonito expanded its broadcast hours by taking the whole daytime slot formerly given to Cartoon Network Too. In turn, Cartoon Network Too became a 24-hour channel replacing Toonami UK's former channel space. From September 2009 to March 2010, a morning Cartoonito block aired on Boomerang until its launch on Virgin Media.


title: Cartoonito

text: In May 2011, Turner Broadcasting System EMEA announced a rollout of the Cartoonito brand across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; under the arrangement, programming blocks would launch on Cartoon Network or Boomerang channels in that region.


title: Cartoonito

text: Cartoonito launched as a morning block on Cartoon Network Arabic in the Middle East on 4 September 2011, broadcasting seven days a week. Simultaneously, Cartoonito was also available in English in the Middle East via another morning block on the pan-European feed of Boomerang. Both blocks ended on 1 January 2014 (Boomerang) and on 1 April 2014 (Cartoon Network), but the Arabic Cartoon Network would reintroduce Cartoonito on 24 March 2019, now airing Sunday through Thursdays at 9:30 KSA Local Time.


title: Cartoonito

text: In Italy, Cartoonito was launched as a 24-hour channel on 22 August 2011. In Spain, Cartoonito was launched as a 24-hour channel on 1 September 2011 replacing the Spanish version of Boomerang, as part of Turner Broadcasting System EMEA plans to roll out the brand across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The move also increased Cartoonito's distribution to 125 million homes in 112 territories. On 30 June 2013, the channel was shut down alongside the Spanish feed of Cartoon Network.


title: Cartoonito

text: In France, Cartoonito was launched as a block on Boing on 5 September 2011. With low audiences and a reduction of its airtime in September 2012, it eventually retired from Boing on 5 July 2013.


title: Cartoonito

text: On 1 December 2012, Cartoonito launched in the Asia Pacific and the Philippines through SkyCable. Cartoonito is available as part of its Metropack and on an a la carte basis via Skycable Select. Cartoonito was replaced by Boomerang on 1 January 2015.


title: Cartoonito

text: After the announcement of "Batwheels" on 6 October 2020, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics president Tom Ascheim implied about plans for Cartoon Network to attract a preschool audience. On February 5, 2021, Tom Ascheim, president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics announced in an interview with "Kidscreen" that Cartoon Network would expand its offerings to include series aimed at family audiences, girls, and preschoolers. The latter audience would pit the network in competition with established preschool brands like Disney Junior, PBS Kids and Nick Jr. He would also announced the acquisition of the broadcast rights to the "Thomas & Friends" reboot series, "".


title: Cartoonito

text: On February 17, it was announced that WarnerMedia's international preschool brand Cartoonito would launch in the United States on Cartoon Network and streaming service HBO Max. Over 20 series were expected to be featured at its 2021 launch. A website for the block was launched in March 2021. Partnerships also encompassed acquired broadcasting rights to "", a reboot of the original "Thomas & Friends" series. The block officially launched on 13 September 2021, and initially ran for 8 hours (6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET/PT) on weekdays and 2 hours (6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. ET/PT) on weekends. It ultimately settled with 4–5 hours only on weekdays (starting at 7:00 a.m. ET/PT).


title: Cartoonito

text: In October 2021, Sky Brasil announced that Cartoonito would be launching in Brazil on 1 December 2021, replacing Boomerang. A few days later, the Argentine pay television service Telered announced the replacement of Boomerang to Cartoonito for the rest of Latin America on the same date.


title: Cartoonito

text: On 1 February 2022, the British and Irish Cartoonito channel adopted the worldwide rebrand. Additionally, starting on 1 March 2022, a weekday hour-long Cartoonito block aired from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on sister channel Cartoon Network. The block now runs from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on weekdays and does not air during the school holidays.


title: Cartoonito

text: On 5 June 2022, the Italian Cartoonito channel adopted the worldwide rebrand, officially retiring the old mascots along the way, making it one of the last Cartoonito-branded channels to retire Cartoonito's original CGI mascots, "The Cartoonitos".


title: Cartoonito

text: On 6 February 2022, Cartoonito MENA rebranded with a new look alongside. It's currently unconfirmed it this will expand across its sister service alongside Cartoon Network Africa.


title: Cartoonito

text: Beginning on 7 February 2022, the Cartoonito blocks on Cartoon Network Arabic and Cartoon Network Turkey adopted the rebrand.


title: Cartoonito

text: In Central and Eastern Europe, Germany, and the Netherlands, a morning Cartoonito block relaunched on Boomerang on 1 September 2022.


title: Cartoonito

text: In Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, Cartoonito relaunched as a programming block to TV Channel on 28 March 2022 on Cartoon Network. It offers a modern approach to preschool programming, built to support each child’s unique potential with its educational framework called "Humancentric Learning". It will also launch in South Asia in latter half of 2022.


title: Cartoonito

text: On 2 May 2022, Southeast Asia relaunched same by Cartoon Network for the sister channel Boomerang Asia.


title: Cartoonito

text: On 21 November 2022, Cartoonito has discontinued for the second time in Southeast Asia on Cartoon Network due to focus on regular programming and they will move to Boomerang Asia. Meanwhile, Cartoon Network Philippines will continue remain block on Cartoonito.


title: Cartoonito

text: From its initial launch, Cartoonito's original six CGI mascots included Cuba (a red cube), Lolly (a purple cylinder), Ringo (a green ring), Spike (a blue pyramid), Ting (a pink star), and Bubble (a yellow sphere). They were called "The Cartoonitos". Maria Darling voiced Cuba, Lolly, and Ringo, while Shelley Longworth voiced Spike, Ting, and Bubble in the UK. Initially, in the UK, Bubble, Spike and Ting spoke French and taught French phrases to viewers.


title: Cartoonito

text: The mascots were retired in the UK in February 2022, and later in Italy in June 2022, as they adopted the rebranding.


title: Cartoonito

text: As part of Cartoonito's global reintroduction, the original CGI mascots were retired in favor of four 2D-animated ones. The new mascots are Nito (a cyan square), Glob (a multi-colored glob-like figure), Wedge (a magenta triangle), and Itty (a pink circle).


title: Cartoonito

text: These characters were exclusive to the US and Latin American feeds in 2021, until the British and Italian feeds adopted them in 2022, thus making them official.


title: Laser safety

text: Laser radiation safety is the safe design, use and implementation of lasers to minimize the risk of laser accidents, especially those involving eye injuries. Since even relatively small amounts of laser light can lead to permanent eye injuries, the sale and usage of lasers is typically subject to government regulations.


title: Laser safety

text: Moderate and high-power lasers are potentially hazardous because they can burn the retina, or even the skin. To control the risk of injury, various specifications, for example 21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1040 in the US and IEC 60825 internationally, define "classes" of laser depending on their power and wavelength. These regulations impose upon manufacturers required safety measures, such as labeling lasers with specific warnings, and wearing laser safety goggles when operating lasers. Consensus standards, such as American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z136, provide users with control measures for laser hazards, as well as various tables helpful in calculating maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits and accessible exposures limits (AELs).


title: Laser safety

text: Thermal effects are the predominant cause of laser radiation injury, but photo-chemical effects can also be of concern for specific wavelengths of laser radiation. Even moderately powered lasers can cause injury to the eye. High power lasers can also burn the skin. Some lasers are so powerful that even the diffuse reflection from a surface can be hazardous to the eye.


title: Laser safety

text: The coherence and low divergence angle of laser light, aided by focusing from the lens of an eye, can cause laser radiation to be concentrated into an extremely small spot on the retina. A transient increase of only +10°C (+18°F) can destroy retinal photoreceptor cells. If the laser is sufficiently powerful, permanent damage can occur within a fraction of a second, which is faster than the blink of an eye. Sufficiently powerful lasers in the visible to near infrared range (400-1400 nm) will penetrate the eyeball and may cause heating of the retina, whereas exposure to laser radiation with wavelengths less than 400 nm or greater than 1400 nm are largely absorbed by the cornea and lens, leading to the development of cataracts or burn injuries.


title: Laser safety

text: Infrared lasers are particularly hazardous, since the body's protective glare aversion response, also referred to as the "blink reflex," is triggered only by visible light. For example, some people exposed to high power emitting invisible 1064 nm radiation may not feel pain or notice immediate damage to their eyesight. A pop or click noise emanating from the eyeball may be the only indication that retinal damage has occurred, i.e. the retina was heated to over resulting in localized explosive boiling accompanied by the immediate creation of a permanent blind spot.


title: Laser safety

text: Lasers can cause damage in biological tissues, both to the eye and to the skin, due to several mechanisms. Thermal damage, or burn, occurs when tissues are heated to the point where denaturation of proteins occurs. Another mechanism is photochemical damage, where light triggers chemical reactions in tissue. Photochemical damage occurs mostly with short-wavelength (blue and ultraviolet) light and can be accumulated over the course of hours. Laser pulses shorter than about 1 μs can cause a rapid rise in temperature, resulting in explosive boiling of water. The shock wave from the explosion can subsequently cause damage relatively far away from the point of impact. Ultrashort pulses can also exhibit self-focusing in the transparent parts of the eye, leading to an increase of the damage potential compared to longer pulses with the same energy. Photoionization proved to be the main mechanism of radiation damage at the use of titanium-sapphire laser.


title: Laser safety

text: The eye focuses visible and near-infrared light onto the retina. A laser beam can be focused to an intensity on the retina which may be up to 200,000 times higher than at the point where the laser beam enters the eye. Most of the light is absorbed by melanin pigments in the pigment epithelium just behind the photoreceptors, and causes burns in the retina. Ultraviolet light with wavelengths shorter than 400 nm tends to be absorbed by lens and 300 nm in the cornea, where it can produce injuries at relatively low powers due to photochemical damage. Infrared light mainly causes thermal damage to the retina at near-infrared wavelengths and to more frontal parts of the eye at longer wavelengths. The table below summarizes the various medical conditions caused by lasers at different wavelengths, not including injuries due to pulsed lasers.


title: Laser safety

text: The skin is usually much less sensitive to laser light than the eye, but excessive exposure to ultraviolet light from any source (laser or non-laser) can cause short- and long-term effects similar to sunburn, while visible and infrared wavelengths are mainly harmful due to thermal damage.


title: Laser safety

text: FAA researchers compiled a database of more than 400 reported incidents occurring between 1990 and 2004 in which pilots have been startled, distracted, temporarily blinded, or disoriented by laser exposure. This information led to an inquiry in the US Congress. Exposure to hand-held laser light under such circumstances may seem trivial given the brevity of exposure, the large distances involved and beam spread of up to several metres. However, laser exposure may create dangerous conditions such as flash blindness. If this occurs during a critical moment in aircraft operation, the aircraft may be endangered. In addition, some 18% to 35% of the population possess the autosomal dominant genetic trait, photic sneeze, that causes the affected individual to experience an involuntary sneezing fit when exposed to a sudden flash of light.


title: Laser safety

text: The "maximum permissible exposure" (MPE) is the highest power or energy density (in W/cm or J/cm) of a light source that is considered safe, i.e. that has a negligible probability for creating damage. It is usually about 10% of the dose that has a 50% chance of creating damage


title: Laser safety

text: under worst-case conditions. The MPE is measured at the cornea of the human eye or at the skin, for a given wavelength and exposure time.


title: Laser safety

text: A calculation of the MPE for ocular exposure takes into account the various ways light can act upon the eye. For example, deep-ultraviolet light causes accumulating damage, even at very low powers. Infrared light with a wavelength longer than about 1400 nm is absorbed by the transparent parts of the eye before it reaches the retina, which means that the MPE for these wavelengths is higher than for visible light. In addition to the wavelength and exposure time, the MPE takes into account the spatial distribution of the light (from a laser or otherwise). Collimated laser beams of visible and near-infrared light are especially dangerous at relatively low powers because the lens focuses the light onto a tiny spot on the retina. Light sources with a smaller degree of spatial coherence than a well-collimated laser beam, such as high-power LEDs, lead to a distribution of the light over a larger area on the retina. For such sources, the MPE is higher than for collimated laser beams. In the MPE calculation, the worst-case scenario is assumed, in which the eye lens focuses the light into the smallest possible spot size on the retina for the particular wavelength and the pupil is fully open. Although the MPE is specified as power or energy per unit surface, it is based on the power or energy that can pass through a fully open pupil (0.39 cm) for visible and near-infrared wavelengths. This is relevant for laser beams that have a cross-section smaller than 0.39 cm. The IEC-60825-1 and ANSI Z136.1 standards include methods of calculating MPEs.


title: Laser safety

text: In various jurisdictions, standards bodies, legislation, and government regulations define classes of laser according to the risks associated with them, and define required safety measures for people who may be exposed to those lasers.


title: Laser safety

text: In the European Community (EC), eye protection requirements are specified in European standard EN 207. In addition to EN 207, European standard EN 208 specifies requirements for goggles for use during beam alignment. These transmit a portion of the laser light, permitting the operator to see where the beam is, and do not provide complete protection against a direct laser beam hit. Finally, European standard EN 60825 specifies optical densities in extreme situations.


title: Laser safety

text: In the US, guidance for the use of protective eyewear, and other elements of safe laser use, is given in the ANSI Z136 series of standards. These consensus standards are intended for laser users, and full copies can be purchased directly from ANSI or the official Secretariat to the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) Z136 and Publisher of this series of ANSI standards, the Laser Institute of America. The standards are as follows:


title: Laser safety

text: Through 21 CFR 1040, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates laser products entering commerce and requires all class IIIb and class IV lasers offered in commerce in the US to have five standard safety features: a key switch, a safety interlock dongle, a power indicator, an aperture shutter, and an emission delay (normally two to three seconds). OEM lasers, designed to be parts of other components (such as DVD burners), are exempt from this requirement. Some non-portable lasers may not have a safety dongle or an emission delay, but have an emergency stop button and/or a remote switch.


title: Laser safety

text: Lasers have been classified by wavelength and power into four classes and a few subclasses since the early 1970s. The classifications categorize lasers according to their ability to produce damage in exposed people, from class 1 (no hazard during normal use) to class 4 (severe hazard for eyes and skin). There are two classification systems, the "old system" used before 2002, and the "revised system" being phased in since 2002. The latter reflects the greater knowledge of lasers that has been accumulated since the original classification system was devised, and permits certain types of lasers to be recognized as having a lower hazard than was implied by their placement in the original classification system. The revised system is part of the revised IEC 60825 standard. From 2007, the revised system is also incorporated into the US-oriented ANSI Laser Safety Standard (ANSI Z136.1). Since 2007, labeling according to the revised system is accepted by the FDA on laser products imported into the US. The old and revised systems can be distinguished by the 1M, 2M and 3R classes used only in the revised system and the 2A and 3A classes used only in the old system. Class numbers were designated using Roman numerals (I–IV) in the US under the old system and Arabic numerals (1–4) in the EU. The revised system uses Arabic numerals (1–4) in all jurisdictions.


title: Laser safety

text: The classification of a laser is based on the concept of "accessible emission limits" (AEL) that are defined for each laser class. This is usually a maximum power (in W) or energy (in J) that can be emitted in a specified wavelength range and exposure time that passes through a specified aperture stop at a specified distance. For infrared wavelengths above 4 μm, it is specified as a maximum power density (in W/m). It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to provide the correct classification of a laser, and to equip the laser with appropriate warning labels and safety measures as prescribed by the regulations. Safety measures used with the more powerful lasers include key-controlled operation, warning lights to indicate laser light emission, a beam stop or attenuator, and an electrical contact that the user can connect to an emergency stop or interlock.


title: Laser safety

text: Below, the main characteristics and requirements for the classification system as specified by the IEC 60825-1 standard are listed, along with typical required warning labels. Additionally, classes 2 and higher must have the triangular warning label shown here, and other labels are required in specific cases indicating laser emission, laser apertures, skin hazards, and invisible wavelengths. For classes I to IV, see the section old system further below.


title: Laser safety

text: A Class 1 laser is safe under all conditions of normal use. This means the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) cannot be exceeded when viewing a laser with the naked eye or with the aid of typical magnifying optics (e.g. telescope or microscope). To verify compliance, the standard specifies the aperture and distance corresponding to the naked eye, a typical telescope viewing a collimated beam, and a typical microscope viewing a divergent beam. It is important to realize that certain lasers classified as Class 1 may still pose a hazard when viewed with a telescope or microscope of sufficiently large aperture. For example, a high-power laser with a very large collimated beam or very highly divergent beam may be classified as Class 1 if the power that passes through the apertures defined in the standard is less than the AEL for Class 1; however, an unsafe power level may be collected by a magnifying optic with larger aperture. Often, devices such as optical drives will be considered class 1 if they fully contain the beam of a more powerful, higher-class laser, such that no light escapes under normal use.


title: Laser safety

text: A Class 1M laser is safe for all conditions of use except when passed through magnifying optics such as microscopes and telescopes. Class 1M lasers produce large-diameter beams, or beams that are divergent. The MPE for a Class 1M laser cannot normally be exceeded unless focusing or imaging optics are used to narrow the beam. If the beam is refocused, the hazard of Class 1M lasers may be increased and the product class may be changed. A laser can be classified as Class 1M if the power that can pass through the pupil of the naked eye is less than the AEL for Class 1, but the power that can be collected into the eye by typical magnifying optics (as defined in the standard) is higher than the AEL for Class 1 and lower than the AEL for Class 3B.


title: Laser safety

text: A Class 2 laser is considered to be safe because the blink reflex (glare aversion response to bright lights) will limit the exposure to no more than 0.25 seconds. It only applies to visible-light lasers (400–700 nm). Class 2 lasers are limited to 1 mW continuous wave, or more if the emission time is less than 0.25 seconds or if the light is not spatially coherent. Intentional suppression of the blink reflex could lead to eye injury. Some laser pointers and measuring instruments are class 2.


title: Laser safety

text: A Class 2M laser is safe because of the blink reflex if not viewed through optical instruments. As with class 1M, this applies to laser beams with a large diameter or large divergence, for which the amount of light passing through the pupil cannot exceed the limits for class 2.


title: Laser safety

text: A Class 3R laser is considered safe if handled carefully, with restricted beam viewing. With a class 3R laser, the MPE can be exceeded, but with a low risk of injury. Visible continuous lasers in Class 3R are limited to 5 mW. For other wavelengths and for pulsed lasers, other limits apply.


title: Laser safety

text: A Class 3B laser is hazardous if the eye is exposed directly, but diffuse reflections such as those from paper or other matte surfaces are not harmful. The AEL for continuous lasers in the wavelength range from 315 nm to far infrared is 0.5 W. For pulsed lasers between 400 and 700 nm, the limit is 30 mJ. Other limits apply to other wavelengths and to ultrashort pulsed lasers. Protective eyewear is typically required where direct viewing of a class 3B laser beam may occur. Class-3B lasers must be equipped with a key switch and a safety interlock. Class 3B lasers are used inside CD and DVD writers, although the writer unit itself is class 1 because the laser light cannot leave the unit.


title: Laser safety

text: Class 4 is the highest and most dangerous class of laser, including all lasers that exceed the Class 3B AEL. By definition, a class 4 laser can burn the skin, or cause devastating and permanent eye damage as a result of direct, diffuse or indirect beam viewing. These lasers may ignite combustible materials, and thus may represent a fire risk. These hazards may also apply to indirect or non-specular reflections of the beam, even from apparently matte surfaces meaning that great care must be taken to control the beam path. Class 4 lasers must be equipped with a key switch and a safety interlock. Most industrial, scientific, military, and medical lasers are in this category. Medical lasers can have divergent emissions and require awareness of nominal ocular hazard distance (NOHD) and nominal ocular hazard area (NOHA).


title: Laser safety

text: The safety classes in the "old system" of classification were established in the United States through consensus standards (ANSI Z136.1) and federal and state regulations. The international classification described in consensus standards such as IEC 825 (later IEC 60825) was based on the same concepts, but presented with designations slightly different from the US classification.


title: Laser safety

text: This classification system is only slightly altered from the original system developed in the early 1970s. It is still used by US laser product safety regulations. The laser powers mentioned are typical values. Classification is also dependent on the wavelength and on whether the laser is pulsed or continuous. For laser classes 1 to 4, see the section on the revised system above.


title: Laser safety

text: Inherently safe; no possibility of eye damage. This can be either because of a low output power (in which case eye damage is impossible even after hours of exposure), or due to an enclosure preventing user access to the laser beam during normal operation, such as in CD players or laser printers.


title: Laser safety

text: The blink reflex of the human eye (aversion response) will prevent eye damage, unless the person deliberately stares into the beam for an extended period. Output power may be up to 1 mW. This class includes only lasers that emit visible light. Some laser pointers are in this category.


title: Laser safety

text: A region in the low-power end of Class II where the laser requires in excess of 1000 seconds of continuous viewing to produce a burn to the retina. Commercial laser scanners are in this subclass.


title: Laser safety

text: Lasers in this class are mostly dangerous in combination with optical instruments which change the beam diameter or power density, though even without optical instrument enhancement, direct contact with the eye for over two minutes may cause serious damage to the retina. Output power does not exceed 5 mW. Beam power density may not exceed 2.5 mW/cm if the device is not labeled with a "caution" warning label, otherwise a "danger" warning label is required. Many laser sights for firearms and laser pointers commonly used for presentations are in this category.


title: Laser safety

text: Lasers in this class may cause damage if the beam enters the eye directly. This generally applies to lasers powered from 5–500 mW. Lasers in this category can cause permanent eye damage with exposures of 1/100 of a second or more, depending on the strength of the laser. A diffuse reflection is generally not hazardous, but specular reflections can be just as dangerous as direct exposures. Protective eyewear is recommended when direct beam viewing of Class IIIb lasers may occur. Lasers at the high power end of this class may also present a fire hazard and can lightly burn skin.


title: Laser safety

text: Lasers in this class have output powers of more than 500 mW in the beam and may cause severe, permanent damage to eye or skin without being focussed by optics of eye or instrumentation. Diffuse reflections of the laser beam can be hazardous to skin or eye within the "nominal hazard zone". (The "nominal hazard zone" is the area around a laser in which the applicable MPE is exceeded.) Many industrial, scientific, military and medical lasers are in this category.


title: Laser safety

text: The use of eye protection when operating lasers of classes 3B and 4 in a manner that may result in eye exposure above the MPE is required in the workplace by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.


title: Laser safety

text: Protective eyewear in the form of appropriately filtering optics can protect the eyes from the reflected or scattered laser light with a hazardous beam power, as well as from direct exposure to a laser beam. Eyewear must be selected for the specific type of laser, to block or attenuate in the appropriate wavelength range. For example, eyewear absorbing 532 nm typically has an orange appearance (although one should never rely solely on the lens color when selecting laser eye protection), transmitting wavelengths larger than 550 nm. Such eyewear would be useless as protection against a laser emitting at 800 nm. Furthermore, some lasers emit more than one wavelength of light, and this may be a particular problem with some less expensive frequency-doubled lasers, such as 532 nm "green laser pointers" which are commonly pumped by 808 nm infrared laser diodes, and also generate the fundamental 1064 nm laser beam which is used to produce the final 532 nm output. If the IR radiation is allowed into the beam, which happens in some green laser pointers, it will in general not be blocked by regular red or orange-colored protective eyewear designed for pure green or already IR-filtered beam. Special YAG laser and dual-frequency eyewear are available for work with frequency-doubled YAG and other IR lasers which have a visible beam, but it is more expensive, and IR-pumped green laser products do not always specify whether such extra protection is needed.


title: Laser safety

text: Eyewear is rated for optical density (OD), which is the base-10 logarithm of the attenuation factor by which the optical filter reduces beam power. For example, eyewear with OD 3 will reduce the beam power in the specified wavelength range by a factor of 1000. In addition to an optical density sufficient to reduce beam power to below the maximum permissible exposure (see above), laser eyewear used where direct beam exposure is possible should be able to withstand a direct hit from the laser beam without breaking. The protective specifications (wavelengths and optical densities) are usually printed on the goggles, generally near the top of the unit. In the European Community, manufacturers are required by European standard EN 207 to specify the maximum power rating rather than the optical density. Always wear safety goggles.


title: Laser safety

text: Interlocks are circuits that stop the laser beam if some condition is not met, such as if the laser casing or a room door is open. Class 3B and 4 lasers typically provide a connection for an external interlock circuit. Many lasers are considered class 1 only because the light is contained within an interlocked enclosure, like DVD drives or portable CD players.


title: Laser safety

text: Some systems have electronics that automatically shut down the laser under other conditions. For example, some fiber optic communication systems have circuits that automatically shut down transmission if a fiber is disconnected or broken.


title: Laser safety

text: In many jurisdictions, organizations that operate lasers are required to appoint a laser safety officer (LSO). The LSO is responsible for ensuring that safety regulations are followed by all other workers in the organization.


title: Laser safety

text: In the period from 1999 to 2016, increasing attention has been paid to the risks posed by so-called laser pointers and laser pens. Typically, the sale of laser pointers is restricted to either class 3A (<5 mW) or class 2 (<1 mW), depending on local regulations. For example, in the US, Canada and the UK, class 3A is the maximum permitted, unless a key actuated control or other safety features are provided. In Australia, class 2 is the maximum allowed class. However, because enforcement is often not very strict, laser pointers of class 2 and above are often available for sale even in countries where they are not allowed.


title: Laser safety

text: Van Norren et al. (1998) could not find a single example in the medical literature of a <1 mW class III laser causing eyesight damage. Mainster et al. (2003) provide one case, an 11-year-old child who temporarily damaged her eyesight by holding an approximately 5 mW red laser pointer close to the eye and staring into the beam for 10 seconds; she experienced scotoma (a blind spot) but fully recovered after three months. Luttrull & Hallisey (1999) describe a similar case, a 34-year-old male who stared into the beam of a class IIIa 5 mW red laser for 30 to 60 seconds, causing temporary central scotoma and visual field loss. His eyesight fully recovered within two days, at the time of his eye exam. An intravenous fundus fluorescein angiogram, a technique used by ophthalmologists to visualise the retina of the eye in fine detail, identified subtle discoloration of the fovea.


title: Laser safety

text: Thus, it appears that a brief 0.25-second exposure to a <5 mW laser such as found in red laser pointers does not pose a threat to eye health. On the other hand, there is a potential for injury if a person deliberately stares into a beam of a class IIIa laser a for few seconds or more at close range. Even if injury occurs, most people will fully recover their vision. Further experienced discomforts than these may be psychological rather than physical. With regard to green laser pointers the safe exposure time may be less, and with even higher powered lasers instant permanent damage should be expected. These conclusions must be qualified with recent theoretical observations that certain prescription medications may interact with some wavelengths of laser light, causing increased sensitivity (phototoxicity).


title: Laser safety

text: Beyond the question of physical injury to the eye from a laser pointer, several other undesirable effects are possible. These include short-lived flash blindness if the beam is encountered in darkened surroundings, as when driving at night. This may result in momentary loss of vehicular control. Lasers pointed at aircraft are a hazard to aviation. A police officer seeing a red dot on his chest may conclude that a sniper is targeting him and take aggressive action. In addition, the startle reflex exhibited by some exposed unexpectedly to laser light of this sort has been reported to have resulted in cases of self-injury or loss of control. For these and similar reasons, the US Food and Drug Administration has advised that laser pointers are not toys and should not be used by minors except under the direct supervision of an adult.


title: Laser safety

text: Fibre optic laser safety is characterised by the fact that in normal operation the light beam is inaccessible, so something has to be unplugged or broken for it to become accessible. The resultant exit beam is quite divergent, so eye safety is highly dependent on distance, and if a magnifying device is used.


title: Laser safety

text: In practice, accidental exposure to the large majority of installed systems is unlikely to have any health impact, since power levels are usually below 1 mW and the wavelength in the infra-red, e.g. Class 1. However, there are a few significant exceptions.


title: Laser safety

text: Most single mode/multi mode fiber systems actually use infra-red light, invisible to the human eye. In this case, there is no eye aversion response. A special case is systems operating at 670–1000 nm, where the beam may appear to be a dull red, even if the light beam is actually very intense. Technicians may also use red lasers for fault finding at around 628–670 nm. These can create a significant hazard if viewed incorrectly, particularly if they are abnormally high power. Such visible fault finders are usually classified as Class 2 up to 1 mW, and Class 2M up to 10 mW.


title: Laser safety

text: High power optical amplifiers are used in long distance systems. They use internal pump lasers with power levels up to a few watts, which is a major hazard. However, these power levels are contained within the amplifier module. Any system employing typical optical connectors (i.e. not expanded beam) cannot typically exceed about 100 mW, above which power level single mode connectors become unreliable, so if there is a single mode connector in the system, the design power level will always be below this level, even if no other details are known . An additional factor with these systems is that light around the 1550 nm wavelength band (common for optical amplifiers) is regarded as relatively low risk, since the eye fluids absorb the light before it is focused on the retina. This tends to reduce the overall risk factor of such systems.


title: Laser safety

text: Optical microscopes and magnifying devices also present unique safety challenges. If any optical power is present, and a simple magnifying device is used to examine the fiber end, then the user is no longer protected by beam divergence, since the entire beam may be imaged onto the eye. Therefore, simple magnifying devices should never be used in such situations. Optical connector inspection microscopes are available which incorporate blocking filters, thus greatly improving eye safety. The most recent such design also incorporates protection against red fault locating lasers.


title: Laser safety

text: While most of the danger of lasers comes from the beam itself, there are certain non-beam hazards that are often associated with use of laser systems. Many lasers are high voltage devices, typically 400 V upward for a small 5 mJ pulsed laser, and exceeding many kilovolts in higher powered lasers. This, coupled with high pressure water for cooling the laser and other associated electrical equipment, can create a greater hazard than the laser beam itself.


title: Laser safety

text: Electric equipment should generally be installed at least 250 mm (10 inches) above the floor to reduce electric risk in the case of flooding. Optical tables, lasers, and other equipment should be well grounded. Enclosure interlocks should be respected and special precautions taken during troubleshooting.


title: Laser safety

text: In addition to the electrical hazards, lasers may create chemical, mechanical, and other hazards specific to particular installations. Chemical hazards may include materials intrinsic to the laser, such as beryllium oxide in argon ion laser tubes, halogens in excimer lasers, organic dyes dissolved in toxic or flammable solvents in dye lasers, and heavy metal vapors and asbestos insulation in helium cadmium lasers. They may also include materials released during laser processing, such as metal fumes from cutting or surface treatments of metals or the complex mix of decomposition products produced in the high energy plasma of a laser cutting plastics.


title: Laser safety

text: Mechanical hazards may include moving parts in vacuum and pressure pumps; implosion or explosion of flashlamps, plasma tubes, water jackets, and gas handling equipment.


title: Laser safety

text: High temperatures and fire hazards may also result from the operation of high-powered Class IIIB or any Class IV Laser.


title: Laser safety

text: In commercial laser systems, hazard mitigations such as the presence of fusible plugs, thermal interrupters, and pressure relief valves reduce the hazard of, for example, a steam explosion arising from an obstructed water cooling jacket. Interlocks, shutters, and warning lights are often critical elements of modern commercial installations. In older lasers, experimental and hobby systems, and those removed from other equipment (OEM units) special care must be taken to anticipate and reduce the consequences of misuse as well as various failure modes.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Matthew Thomas Holliday (born January 15, 1980) is an American professional baseball coach and former left fielder who is the bench coach for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB from 2004 to 2018 for the Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, and New York Yankees. A World Series champion in 2011 with the Cardinals, Holliday played a key role in seven postseasons, including the Rockies' first-ever World Series appearance in 2007 and Cardinals' playoff success in the 2010s. His distinctions include a National League (NL) batting championship, the 2007 NL Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award (NLCS MVP), seven All-Star selections, and four Silver Slugger Awards. Other career accomplishments include 300 home runs, more than 2,000 hits, and batting over .300 eight times.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Colorado Rockies selected Holliday in the seventh round of the 1998 MLB draft from high school in Oklahoma, where he also starred as a highly touted quarterback prospect. He debuted in MLB in 2004, becoming the Rockies' starting left fielder and a middle of the lineup presence. In 2006, he became the 19th player ever to reach 195 hits, 30 home runs, 45 doubles, 115 runs and 110 runs batted in (RBI) in one season. The next season, he won the NL batting title, September National League Player of the Month honors and NLCS MVP as the Rockies won 21 of 22 games at the end of the regular season and in the playoffs en route to their first World Series appearance. In the first of four consecutive NLCS appearances starting in 2011, he batted .435 with a .652 slugging percentage in the 2011 NLCS on his way to winning his first World Series ring with the Cardinals. In 2014, he became just the fifth player in MLB history to amass nine consecutive seasons of at least 20 home runs, 30 doubles, 75 RBI and 80 runs scored each season.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In addition to his presence as a leader on the field, Holliday is active in charity work and assisting his teammates off the field. Thus, the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America has awarded him the Darryl Kile Good Guy Award. He is a frequent visitor to children's hospitals. From 2012 to 2016, Holliday co-sponsored a pledge drive for Greater St. Louis hospitals called "Homers for Health," which raised more than $3.7 million. Because of his hitting abilities and strength, he has sometimes been called the "Stillwater Stinger". His son, Jackson, was selected first overall in the 2022 MLB draft.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Matt Holliday was born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma. With easy athletic skill, he showed marked talent in baseball, football and basketball as a youth. He was also physically larger than most of his friends, so when they played games, they often modified the rules to offset his size advantage. In football, Holliday was required to play quarterback for both teams. In baseball, every three of his home runs were credited as one.


title: Matt Holliday

text: He spent much of his free time with his father, Tom Holliday, and brother, Josh, at the Oklahoma State University (OSU) baseball field and training complex, where his father was a coach. There, the Holliday boys learned about the fundamentals of the sport, voluntarily trained and practiced, and watched future major leaguers such as Robin Ventura play and develop. In addition, he played American Legion Baseball during the summer. In spite of the extensive time spent around the sport of baseball, Tom Holliday abstained from attempting to influence his sons on which sport or sports to concentrate.


title: Matt Holliday

text: At Stillwater High School, Holliday played both baseball and football. He was a quarterback while playing football. As a senior, he earned All-American honors in football and baseball and also earned his region's Gatorade Player of the Year award in both sports. He also competed for the 1997 USA Junior National Team. In his next-to-last football game for Stillwater, he helped bring the Pioneers back from a 42–21 deficit against Tulsa Union by throwing three touchdowns (TD) in the final six minutes of the game for a 43–42 score.


title: Matt Holliday

text: However, his high school football career ended with a 63–0 loss to Jenks in the state semifinal contest. His career passing totals included 6,211 yards and 68 TD. His 35 TD passes as a junior set a then-11 man state record. Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson reportedly once forecasted to Tom Holliday that his son "couldn't miss" as an NFL prospect. He was also rated the third-best quarterback prospect in the nation after graduating from Stillwater in 1998.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Numerous connections throughout college and professional baseball span Holliday's family ties. His father, Tom Holliday, has been the pitching coach for the Tigers of Auburn University, and former baseball head coach of OSU. Current Atlanta Braves MLB scout, Dave Holliday, is an uncle. His older brother, Josh, is currently the head baseball coach at OSU, and a former minor league player in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. A cousin, Heath Holliday, has also played baseball as a catcher for OSU.


title: Matt Holliday

text: With football recruiting overtures from colleges and universities all over the country—including OSU—Holliday instead chose professional baseball after graduating high school. The Rockies selected him in the seventh round of the 1998 Major League Baseball draft as a third baseman. Widespread concerns that he would choose football over baseball prevented him from being drafted earlier since he had already committed to OSU on paper to play football. Thus, Rockies scouting director Pat Daugherty signed him for an above-slot $840,000, the most money paid to any player in that round.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In Holliday's inaugural professional season, the Rockies assigned him to their Arizona League affiliate, who finished with a 42–14 record and won the league championship. He played 32 games and assembled 40 hits in 117 at bats for a .342 batting average, collected four doubles, a triple, five home runs and 23 runs batted in (RBI); his home run total placed third in the league. He played 1999 for the Asheville Tourists, batting .264 with 16 home runs and 76 runs scored. With the bases loaded, he was 3-for-9 with one grand slam and 11 RBI. At third base, Holliday turned in an .871 fielding percentage and 57 putouts.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday played for Salem in 2000 and 2001. For the 2000 season, he totaled 510 plate appearances, successfully collected 126 hits, 28 doubles, two triples, seven home runs, drove in 72 runs, and batted .274 with a .335 on-base percentage and .389 slugging percentage. He spent 112 games at third base, was charged with 32 errors in 300 total chances for a fielding percentage of .893, and turned 13 double plays. In 2001, the Rockies moved Holliday to the outfield. He was named the Carolina League Player of the Month for June, batting .324 with seven multi-hit games, three doubles, seven home runs, and 22 RBI. He played 72 games on the season after undergoing elbow surgery in July ended his season.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Rockies promoted Holliday to the Carolina Mudcats of the AA Southern League (SL) in 2002, where he was named a mid-season All-Star. He was named the league's Hitter of the Week on June 27, after collecting nine hits in 24 at bats with one home run and eight RBI. He won the same award on July 18, after scoring seven runs and driving in 10, and a career-best six RBI against Birmingham on July 14. Holliday ended the season with 128 hits in 463 at bats, 10 home runs, and 64 RBI, batting .276 with 79 runs scored and 16 stolen bases. He played for the Mesa Solar Sox of the off-season Arizona Fall League (AFL) in 2002 and 2003, batting .316 with four home runs, 21 RBI and 10 stolen bases in 35 total AFL games. Holliday remained at the AA level for the 2003 season as the everyday left fielder for the Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League, batting .253, 28 doubles, 72 RBI, 132 hits, 45 extra-base hits, and 206 total bases. His 15 outfield assists tied for second in the league. He earned a spot on the USA Baseball team in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Panama. They were eliminated from advancing to the 2004 Summer Olympics.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Rockies assigned Holliday to their Triple-A affiliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, at the outset of the 2004 season, intending for him to spend much of the season there. Injuries to outfielders Preston Wilson and Larry Walker expedited his progress to the Major Leagues after just six games with Colorado Springs. He made his major league debut in left field on April 16 at Busch Memorial Stadium against one of his future teams, the St. Louis Cardinals. Holliday went hitless in three at-bats. Two days after his debut, Holliday recorded his first career hit, a single, and then, RBI against the Cardinals' Woody Williams, doubling in Kit Pellow. Holliday's first career home run came against José Lima of the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 22. Five days later, he, Jeromy Burnitz, and Charles Johnson collaborated for back-to-back-to-back home runs against the Florida Marlins, the sixth such occasion in franchise history.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday's first career multi-home run game came against the Cincinnati Reds on May 18. Both home runs came as part of back-to-back home runs events with Burnitz, making them the first teammates in franchise history to hit back-to-back home runs twice in the same game, and the first teammate duo to do so since Mike Cameron and Bret Boone of the Seattle Mariners in 2002. His first MLB grand slam came against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on June 12, immediately tying a game in which the Rockies had faced a 5–1 deficit. For the month of June, he hit .357. The Rockies traded Walker to the Cardinals in August, clearing more outfield playing opportunities for Holliday. A sprained elbow while diving for a ball against the San Diego Padres on September 12 ended his season. His final batting line included a .290 batting average in 121 games, with 31 doubles, 14 home runs, 57 RBI, 65 runs scored, 48 extra-base hits, .349 on-base percentage, .488 slugging percentage, and 195 total bases. He finished in the top five among NL rookies in each of those categories. After the season, Holliday was named to both "Baseball America"'s All-Rookie Team and Topps' Major League Rookie All-Star Team, and finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year balloting.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In his second major league season, Holliday became the cleanup hitter behind franchise icon Todd Helton in the middle of the 2005 season. After 119 at bats into the season, Holliday hit his first home run against Noah Lowry of the San Francisco Giants on May 17. He hit his second career multi-homer game and first with three extra base hits against the Cardinals on June 2. He was placed on the disabled list (DL) with a right fractured pinky and returned to play on July 18. He earned his first NL Player of the Week award for July 25 to 31, after batting .444 with three home runs, eight RBI, an .852 slugging percentage and a league-leading 12 hits and 23 total bases.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In September, Holliday led the NL with 32 RBI, setting a Rockies record for that month. On September 20 against the Padres, he hit two home runs and tied a Rockies' single-game record with eight RBI in a Rockies 20–1 victory, the highest single-game RBI total in the NL in 2005 and second-highest in the major leagues. He ended the season with a seven-game hitting streak and reached base in each of the Rockies' final 22 games. Holliday totaled 125 games and improved in nearly all offensive categories from his rookie year, including 147 hits, 19 home runs, 87 RBI, 68 runs, 14 stolen bases, 242 total bases, 505 slugging percentage and .361 on-base percentage. His .307 batting average placed eighth in the NL. The club picked up his option for 2006, which was worth $500,000 ($ today), or about $100,000 ($ today) more than the average for a player with equivalent service time. He was selected as the Rockies Player of the Year.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday was selected to Team USA for the 2006 World Baseball Classic prior to the start of the MLB season. Despite batting just .255 through May 1, 2006, Holliday accumulated 24 RBI in 25 games. From May 1 until the end of the season – a span of 131 games – he collected 169 hits for a .339 batting average, the fourth-highest in the major leagues. He batted .404 from June 1–27, second in the NL in that period. An All-Star selection to the game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh for the first time in his career, Holliday was hitting .339 with 16 home runs and 56 RBI at the time of his selection. In the game, Holliday played right field for the first time as a major leaguer.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On September 19, 2006, Holliday hit the longest home run of 2006 in MLB against Matt Cain of the Giants. While the official distance was , HitTracker estimated it at . His grand slam and triple five days later against the Braves assisted the Rockies' comeback from a 7–0 deficit to a 9–8 final victory. He garnered his second NL Player of the Week for the week ending September 24, after hitting four homers, three doubles and a triple, helping propel the Rockies to win five of seven games. In 155 total games, Holliday batted .326 with 196 hits, 45 doubles, 34 home runs, 114 RBIs, 119 runs, 10 stolen bases, 353 total bases, .586 slugging percentage, and .387 on-base percentage. He became just the 19th player ever to meet or exceed 195 hits, 30 home runs, 45 doubles, 115 runs and 110 RBI in one season. He finished in the top five of the National League in batting average, hits, runs, extra base hits, total bases and slugging percentage. After the season, received his first Silver Slugger Award as an outfielder.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Continuing to evolve as a hitter, Holliday started the 2007 season as in the Rockies' lineup as the number five hitter, but changed to the third slot for the final five months of the season. He fashioned a new career-high 14-game hitting streak that spanned from April 17 to May 1. His two outfield assists on April 21 against San Diego in the sixth inning tied a club record for outfield assists in one inning. In the April 29 contest against the Braves, Holliday hit his first career walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th off Bob Wickman to provide a 9–7 victory. From May 22 to June 7, he established a new career-high 15 game hitting streak. In 87 first half games, Holliday totaled 30 doubles, 15 home runs, 69 RBI, 122 hits, a .341 average, and a .573 slugging percentage. NL players and coaches selected him in with 725 votes to play in the All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco for the second straight season. He also participated in the Home Run Derby.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday hit .361 (86-for-238) in the final 60 games of the season. For the week ending July 29, he earned National League Player of the Week honors as the Rockies won four of the six games, batting .364 with a .481 on-base percentage and four home runs, two doubles, and 10 RBI. From August 10 to 27, he strung together another new career-best 17-game hitting streak. In reaching base safely each game from July 22 to August 31 against the Diamondbacks, Holliday's feat of 36 consecutive games eclipsed a Rockies record which Helton and Walker previously shared, eventually ending at 38.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday gained his second NL Player of the Week selection of the season and fourth of his career on September 16, after hitting six home runs, driving in 11, batting .407 with a .500 on-base percentage, and leading the NL each with a 1.148 slugging percentage, 11 runs scored, and 31 total bases. In a 12-game span from September 9–20, he hit 11 home runs; only Alex Rodríguez matched that feat in 2007. One of the home runs was the 100th of his career and his 200th hit of the season, occurring on September 19 in a 9–8 victory over the Dodgers. His September totals included a .367 batting average, 29 runs scored, six doubles, 12 home runs, 30 RBI, and .796 slugging percentage, prompting MLB to award him NL Player of the Month honors as the Rockies won 13 of their 14 final scheduled games. He garnered copious attention for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award throughout the season, which increased even more that September.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Rockies and Padres finished the scheduled portion of their regular seasons tied for the NL wild card position with identical 89–73 records, for which MLB declared a one-game extension to the regular season to determine the wild-card winner. Holliday's triple in the bottom of the 13th inning off Padres closer Trevor Hoffman scored Troy Tulowitzki as the tying run. Holliday scored the winning run on Jamey Carroll's sacrifice fly in a bloody collision with catcher Michael Barrett, although controversy arose as to whether he touched home plate. Thus, the Rockies entered the playoffs for the first time in Holliday's career.


title: Matt Holliday

text: After hitting a career-best .340, Holliday won his first batting title. He played in 158 games and posted career-highs as the National League leader in hits (216), doubles (50), RBI (137), extra base hits (92), and total bases (386). Additionally, he placed third in each of runs scored (120), slugging percentage (.607) and OPS (1.012), and fourth in home runs (36) and adjusted OPS+ (150). The 63 walks were a new career-high at the time. He became just the fifth National Leaguer in the previous 59 years to lead the NL in both batting average and RBI, and only the 13th major league player in the previous 45 years with at least 200 hits and 50 doubles.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In the National League Division Series (NLDS) against the Phillies, Holliday homered twice as the Rockies swept. Colorado then advanced to the National League Championship Series (NLCS) to face the Diamondbacks and swept them in four games. Holliday batted .333 with two home runs and four RBI on his way to being named the NLCS MVP. Now having won 21 of 22 games, the Rockies earned their first-ever trip to the World Series where they opposed the Boston Red Sox. Holliday collected four hits in Game 2, but, after his fourth hit in the eighth inning with the Red Sox leading 2–1, closer Jonathan Papelbon immediately picked him off first base for the third out, and the Red Sox won by that same score. Boston eventually won the title by sweeping the Rockies, thus ending their season on a four-game losing streak.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Following the season, Holliday placed second in the MVP voting with 336 points to Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins with 363, in what was the closest result for the NL MVP since Atlanta Braves third baseman Terry Pendleton edged Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Barry Bonds by 15 points in 1991. Holliday was selected as the Rockies' Player of the Year for the second time and "The Sporting News" named him to their All-Star team. On December 14, Stillwater High School retired Holliday's high school jersey number 24. Businesses in Stillwater were asked to honor him that day by posting a "Welcome Home Matt Holliday" message on a marquee or window. The city council voted to change the name of the baseball field from Babcock Park to Matt Holliday Field and name the day "Matt Holliday, Stillwater's Major League Baseball Hero Day." Then-Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry also declared the day "Matt Holliday Day" throughout the state.


title: Matt Holliday

text: On January 18, 2008, Holliday signed a two-year, $23 million contract with the Rockies, covering his final two years of arbitration. The Rockies also offered a four-year, $72 million extension, with a club option for a fifth year at $12 million. The team viewed the contract extension with the two years covering arbitration as a singular deal worth approximately $107 million. In contrast, Holliday and his agent, Scott Boras, regarded the extension as an $84-million free agent contract undervalued compared to similar players. Therefore, negotiations stalled in spring training.


title: Matt Holliday

text: Holliday collected three hits and hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning against the Braves on April 7, giving the Rockies a 2–1 win. In a three-game sweep of Atlanta, he hit .462 (6-for-13), with a double, triple and home run, and six RBI. He earned the NL Player of the Week award for the period ending April 13 as the Rockies won four of six. Holliday led the NL with a .480 batting average and 10 RBI, while homering twice with an .880 slugging percentage and .519 on-base percentage. He hit the game-tying home run against New York Mets closer Billy Wagner in the bottom of the ninth inning on May 23, then the game-winning single off Aaron Heilman in the bottom of the 13th to drive in Jonathan Herrera. Two days later, the Rockies placed Holliday on the 15-day DL due to a strained left hamstring, and reactivated him on June 10.


title: Matt Holliday

text: The Rockies posted the largest comeback in team history in a nine-run deficit on July 4 against the Florida Marlins. After the Marlins led 13–4, Holliday provided two home runs, including a grand slam to reduce the Marlins' lead to 17–16 in an eventual 18–17 win. On July 6, Holliday was named a reserve outfielder for National League in the All-Star Game for the third consecutive year. He replaced Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano, who did not play due to injury, as the starter in right field, and hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth inning. For the month of July, he batted .370 with eight home runs and 24 RBI, .660 slugging percentage and 24 runs scored in 27 games. Holliday's August totals included 11 stolen bases and 30 runs scored in 28 games, six home runs, nine doubles and a .392 on-base percentage.


title: Matt Holliday

text: In 139 total games, he batted .321 with 173 hits, 25 home runs, 88 RBI, 107 runs, and 290 total bases. He led the club with 28 stolen bases while posting a .409 on-base percentage, both career highs, and won his third consecutive Silver Slugger Award. Defensively, Holliday was first in ultimate zone rating (.900), fourth in fielding percentage (.991), fifth in total chances (252) and fifth in putouts (240) among all MLB left fielders. His total chances and putouts came in approximately 100 fewer innings than those players ahead of him.