title: Brandi Chastain

text: On July 10, 1999, at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick in the penalty shootout to give the United States the championship, and the win over China in the final game, Chastain celebrated by spontaneously whipping off her jersey and falling to her knees in a sports bra, her fists clenched, flexing her arms. Removing a jersey in celebration of a goal is so common in men's soccer that it has, at times, been cause for an automatic yellow card caution, according to the Laws of the Game. The image of her celebration was described in "The New York Times" as "most iconic photograph ever taken of a female athlete", and it has been considered one of the more famous photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory. Chastain described the celebration as "momentary insanity, nothing more, nothing less. I wasn't thinking about anything. I thought, 'This is the greatest moment of my life on the soccer field.'"


title: Brandi Chastain

text: The next year, FIFA made it a yellow card offense for men or women to celebrate by removing their jerseys.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: In 2019, her celebration was commemorated with a bronze statue by Brian Hanlon outside the stadium where it occurred.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: In the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 Final at Wembley, England striker Chloe Kelly celebrated her 110th-minute goal against Germany in the same way. Like Chastain, Kelly's goal was a match and tournament winner – in Kelly's case, securing not only the Lionesses' first ever major trophy but the first England senior team major trophy (men's or women's) since the men's team won the 1966 World Cup as hosts. Chastain acknowledged and congratulated Kelly, saying it put "a big smile on my face" and jokingly telling her to "enjoy the free rounds of pints and dinners for the rest of [her] life" from England fans. Chastain and Kelly later also swapped shirts after the United States' friendly against England at Wembley that October.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: Chastain has been featured on numerous television shows including "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Show with David Letterman", and "Good Morning America".


title: Brandi Chastain

text: In February 2001, Chastain appeared on an episode of "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and won with one dollar. The children's cancer research organization that she played for received $15,000. In 2007, Chastain appeared in the HBO documentary "." The 44-minute film, "Brandi Chastain: A Tribute to a Champion" was broadcast on Fox Soccer in December 2010 and focused on Chastain's testimonial game that occurred in October of the same year.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: Chastain appeared as Candy in the season 6 premiere of "Fresh Off the Boat", an episode which also included her World Cup winning goal in 1999.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: Following the 1999 World Cup, photos of Chastain's goal celebration were featured on the covers of "Sports Illustrated", "Time", and "Newsweek" as well as numerous newspapers around the world. In 2015, the "Sports Illustrated" cover was voted as the second most iconic cover in the history of the magazine. The same year, she posed nude except for soccer cleats and a strategically placed soccer ball for "Gear Magazine". In November 2008, she was featured in "Runner's World".


title: Brandi Chastain

text: In 2005, Chastain's book, "It's Not About the Bra: Play Hard, Play Fair, and Put the Fun Back Into Competitive Sports" () was published by HarperCollins.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: Following the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chastain signed a number of endorsement deals, including Nike.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: She was the official spokesperson for Pfizer's (legacy Wyeth) multivitamin product Centrum Ultra. In July 2016, she partnered with pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. to promote education and awareness about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In 1999, she was featured on the Wheaties box. She has appeared in television commercials for Nike, Bud Light, and Gatorade.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: Chastain has worked as a color commentator for soccer matches on two networks. She broadcast for NBC Sports during the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Her work with ABC/ESPN has included Major League Soccer matches and being part of a rotation of studio commentators for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.


title: Brandi Chastain

text: Chastain married Santa Clara Broncos head coach Jerry Smith on June 9, 1996. Their son, Jaden Chastain Smith, was born in June 2006. She is stepmother to Smith's older son, Cameron. In March 2016, Chastain announced that she would donate her brain after death for concussion research. On December 10, 2019, Chastain was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by governor Gavin Newsom.


title: Jane Badler

text: Jane Badler (born December 31, 1953) is an American-Australian actress and singer. She is known for her role as Diana, the main antagonist in NBC's science fiction series "V" between 1983 and 1985. Badler also appeared in ABC's version of "V" in 2011, again playing an alien named Diana, who this time is the mother of the series' chief antagonist, Anna. Badler has also become an established nightclub singer in Australia, where she lives, and has released three albums.


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her family is Jewish. Badler spent her teen years in Great Neck, New York, moving to Manchester, New Hampshire, when she was in high school. When Badler was 18, her father and brother were killed in a plane crash.


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler won the title Miss New Hampshire and competed at the 1973 Miss America Pageant. Subsequently, she enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, to study drama.


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler's first television role was Melinda Cramer Janssen on the American daytime soap opera "One Life to Live", which she played from 1977 to 1981 and again in 1983. During her run, she also appeared in a 1979 episode of the primetime series "Fantasy Island". Badler also starred on the daytime soap opera "The Doctors" as Natalie Bell from 1981 to 1982.


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler then won her most prominent role, that of the villainous alien Diana in the NBC sci-fi miniseries "V" (1983). She reprised the role in the sequel miniseries "V: The Final Battle" (1984) and again on "V: The Series", which ran for one season from 1984 to 1985.


title: Jane Badler

text: Following "V", Badler co-starred with José Ferrer in the made-for-TV supernatural thriller "Covenant". The following year she guest-starred as Meredith Braxton throughout the 1986–87 season of the CBS primetime soap opera "Falcon Crest". Her other guest appearances during the 1980s included "Riptide", "Hotel" and "Murder, She Wrote". In 1987, she played the role of Tania Winthrop in the short-lived action-adventure series "The Highwayman". She then traveled to Australia to play agent Shannon Reed in the 1980s revival of "", joining the series midway through its first season (replacing actress Terry Markwell, and her character of Casey Randall); then stayed with the series for its second season before it was cancelled in early 1990. After the series ended, Badler moved to Australia permanently and married businessman Stephen Hains. They have two sons, Sam and Harry. She later appeared in the role of Mrs Peacock on the Australian game show "Cluedo" from 1992 to 1993, and had a guest-starring role in "Snowy River: The McGregor Saga" in 1995.


title: Jane Badler

text: In March 2010, Badler was cast as the villainous Diana Marshall in the Australian soap opera "Neighbours". She had a four-month guest contract with the show.


title: Jane Badler

text: A remake of "V" premiered in late 2009, and although this version did not include the character of Diana, the series' executive producer, Scott Peters, suggested that Badler and other stars from the original version may be offered guest roles as new characters. In August 2010, it was announced that Badler would be joining the series as a new version of Diana, the mother of the Visitors' evil leader Anna (Morena Baccarin). Badler appeared in nine of the second season's ten episodes, commencing in January 2011. In the second-season finale, her character was killed by Anna, and ABC decided to not renew the series for a third season.


title: Jane Badler

text: In November 2020 Badler played Lauren Balmer in the horror film "Surrogate". The film will be released internationally in September 2022.


title: Jane Badler

text: Already an able singer when she competed in the Miss New Hampshire and Miss America Pageants, Badler forged a career in cabaret and on the stage in the 2005 Magnormos production of "archy & mehitabel", based on Don Marquis's books of poetry. She also appeared in "Sextet", "Big Hair in America", and with acclaimed Australian director Robert Chuter (who also directed two of her cabaret shows in 2000) she appeared in "The Singing Forest", "The Great Gatsby" and her one-woman show "Shakin' the Blues Away" in which she also sang. Other productions in which she appeared for Magnormos included a concert of the musical "Rebecca" and "OzMade Musicals".


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler released her debut album (backed by the Melbourne-based band Sir) on June 1, 2008. Titled "The Devil Has My Double", it is an autobiographical album which has been described as "a compulsive mix of fame, sex and solitude, set to a sweeping soundtrack of cold soul and passionate synthetics". As part of promotion for the album, she gave an extensive interview about her work to the Boxcutters podcast.


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler released her second album, "Tears Again," in 2011. She then teamed up with Australian musicians Matt Doll and Byron St John to co-write her third album, "Opus", which was released in September 2014.


title: Jane Badler

text: Badler married Australian businessman Stephen Hains in 1990. The couple met while she was filming "Mission Impossible" in Australia. Badler remained in Australia and the couple reside in Melbourne. They have two children.


title: Jane Badler

text: On January 7, 2020, Badler announced that her 27-year-old son, actor Harry Hains, died of a fentanyl overdose following a battle with “mental illness, chronic sleeping disorders, and addiction".


title: Collier County, Florida

text: Collier County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 375,752; an increase of 16.9% since the 2010 United States Census. Its county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from Everglades City in 1962.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: Collier County comprises the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers-Naples Combined Statistical Area.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: Archaeology at Platt Island in the Big Cypress National Preserve shows humans settled in what is now Collier County more than two thousand years ago. The Calusa people had an extensive presence in the area when Europeans arrived.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: The county was created in 1923 from Lee County. It was named for Barron Collier, a New York City advertising mogul and real estate developer who had moved to Southwest Florida and established himself as a prominent landowner. He agreed to build the Tamiami Trail for what was then Lee County (comprising today's Collier, Hendry, and Lee Counties) in exchange for favorable consideration with the state legislature to have a county named for him. After Collier County was named, Collier was quoted as saying: "When I first came here on holiday with Juliet, I never expected that I would buy a whole region of it, nor did I expect to pay for the new Tamiami Trail, or half the things I've done. But I really didn't expect to have a whole county named after me."


title: Collier County, Florida

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (13.3%) is water. It is the largest county in Florida by land area and fourth-largest by total area. Virtually the entire southeastern portion of the county lies within the Big Cypress National Preserve. The northernmost portion of Everglades National Park extends into the southern coastal part of the county. The total area of this county is nearly 1.5 times the size of Rhode Island, which is the smallest state, and is bigger than Rhode Island and Luxembourg combined.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 251,377 people, 102,973 households, and 71,257 families residing in the county. The population density was 124 people per square mile (48/km). There were 144,536 housing units at an average density of 71 per square mile (28/km).


title: Collier County, Florida

text: , 86.06% of the population was White, 4.54% was Black or African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.62% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 6.19% from other races, and 2.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino individuals (of any race) accounted for 19.61%. Languages spoken: 75.3% spoke English, 17.8% Spanish, 2.3% French Creole and 1.2% German as their first language.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: In 2000 there were 102,973 households, out of which 22.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.10% were married couples living together, 7.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.80% were non-families. 24.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.79.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: The county's population distribution by age was spread out but older than the U.S. as a whole, with 19.90% under the age of 18, 6.60% from 18 to 24, 24.60% from 25 to 44, 24.50% from 45 to 64, and 24.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44.1 years. For every 100 females there were 100.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.20 males.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: The median income for a household in the county was $48,289, and the median income for a family was $54,816. Males had a median income of $32,639 versus $26,371 for females. The per capita income for the county was $31,195. About 6.60% of families and 10.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.20% of those under age 18 and 4.30% of those age 65 or over.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: The county continues to experience significant growth and is becoming increasingly diverse. As of the 2010 census, the county's population had increased to 321,520, an increase of 27.9% over the 2000 census. , the United States Census estimates the county's population at 332,427, an increase of 3.4% since the 2010 census. As of the 2010 census, 83.85% of the population was non-Hispanic whites, 25.9% was Latino or Hispanic, 6.6% was African-American and 1.1% was Asian. As of the 2010 census, the greatest source of population growth in the county since the 2000 census came from the Latino or Hispanic population which grew from 49,296 (19.6% of the total population) to 83,177 (25.9% of the total population). In terms of ancestry, 37.9% were English, 9.9% were Irish, 9.1% were "American", 3.2% were Italian and 3.1% were German.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 375,752 people, 140,578 households, and 97,279 families residing in the county.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: The Collier County Public Library system consists of ten locations servicing the entire county. All locations offer public internet stations, printing, photocopying, free Wi-Fi, and 24/7 dropboxes for book and video returns.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: According to the Secretary of State's office, Republicans compose a majority of registered voters in Collier County. It is also one of the handful of counties where independents outnumber Democrats among registrants. The county is part of a long-established Republican stronghold in southwestern coastal Florida: the last Democrat to win the county being Adlai Stevenson II in 1952. The last Democratic Governor to carry the county was Reubin Askew in 1974 and the last Democratic Senator to do so was Bob Graham in 1992, six years later the county was one of four to back the Republican candidate, Charlie Crist.


title: Collier County, Florida

text: Collier is located in the center of Florida's invasive snake epidemic. A three-month effort at the beginning of 2016 netted over one ton of captured snakes, including a Florida record for largest male Burmese python, measuring 16 feet and weighing 140 pounds.


title: Adrian helmet

text: The Adrian helmet () was an influential design of combat helmet originally produced for the French Army during World War I. Its original version, the M15, was the first standard helmet of the French Army and was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare, and head wounds from the falling shrapnel generated by indirect fire became a frequent cause of battlefield casualties. Introduced in 1915, it was the first modern steel helmet and it served as the basic helmet of many armies well into the 1930s. Initially issued to infantry soldiers, in modified form they were also issued to cavalry and tank crews. A subsequent version, the M26, was used during World War II.


title: Adrian helmet

text: At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, soldiers in the French Army wore the standard kepi cap, which provided no protection against injury. The early stages of trench warfare proved that even basic protection of the head would result in a significantly lower mortality rate among front-line soldiers. By the beginning of 1915, a rudimentary steel skull-cap ("calotte métallique", "cervelière") was being issued to be worn under the kepi.


title: Adrian helmet

text: Consequently, the French staff ordered development of a metal helmet that could protect soldiers from the shrapnel of exploding artillery shells. Since soldiers in trenches were also vulnerable to shrapnel exploding above their heads, a deflector crest was added along the helmet's axis. Branch insignia in the form of a grenade for line infantry and cavalry, a bugle horn for chasseurs, crossed cannon for artillery, an anchor for colonial troops and a crescent for North African units was attached to the front. Contrary to common misconception, the M15 helmet was not designed to protect the wearer from direct impact by rifle or machine gun bullets. The resulting headgear was credited to Intendant-General Louis Auguste Adrian.


title: Adrian helmet

text: The helmet adopted by the army was made of mild steel and weighed only ), which made it lighter and less protective than the contemporary British Brodie helmet and the German "Stahlhelm." Orders were placed for the helmets in the spring of 1915, which started being issued by July. By September, all frontline troops in France were issued with the helmet. The helmet was surprisingly complex to produce with seventy stages involved in its production, not including those required to prepare the metal. The slot for the badges and the distinctive crest took additional time to manufacture, while also adding a hundred grams of weight. However, the helmet was deliberately designed this way to evoke the artistic style of the highly popular military artist Édouard Detaille, which helped raise the morale of the troops. Indeed French troops identified quite closely with their helmets. The helmet's light weight was also better suited to France's emphasis on mobility and was easier for soldiers to wear for extended periods. In addition to the helmet, a set of armored "epaulets" were also developed by Adrian and issued to defend against shrapnel and air-dropped darts, although they were not in common use.


title: Adrian helmet

text: From late 1915, a cloth cover for the helmet was issued, in khaki or light blue, to prevent reflection. However, it was found that if the helmet was pierced by shell splinters, pieces of dirty cloth were carried into the wound, which increased the risk of infection. Consequently, in mid-1916 an order was issued that the covers should be discarded. By the end of World War I, the Adrian had been issued to almost all infantry units fighting with the French Army. It was also used by some of the American divisions fighting in France, including the African-American 369th Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the Harlem Hellfighters, and the Polish forces of Haller's Blue Army. The French "Gendarmerie mobile" adopted a dark blue version in 1926, and continued to wear it into the 1960s, well after the regular army had discarded it.


title: Adrian helmet

text: In December 1915, Winston Churchill (later to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940–1945), while serving as a major with the British Army's Grenadier Guards, was presented with an Adrian helmet by the French General Émile Fayolle. He is seen wearing it in photographs and in a portrait painted by Sir John Lavery.


title: Adrian helmet

text: The helmet proved to be fairly effective against shrapnel and it was cheap and easy to manufacture. As a consequence, more than twenty million Adrian helmets were produced. They were widely adopted by other countries including Albania, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy (including license-built versions), Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Siam, Turkey, the United States, U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia, each of these states adding its own insignia to the front of the helmet.


title: Adrian helmet

text: However, because the new steel helmets offered little protection against bullets, they were reportedly often among the first pieces of equipment to be abandoned by soldiers on the battlefield. It was also discovered that the badge placed on the front of helmets impaired the strength of the helmet because of the two slots required. This perceived weakness made several armies remove their national insignia altogether. Early helmets were painted "horizon-blue" (light blue-grey) for French troops and khaki for colonial forces. Those made after 1935 are usually painted khaki, reflecting the French army movement to a more camouflaged uniform in the 1930s.


title: Adrian helmet

text: In 1926, the Adrian helmet was modified by being constructed of stronger steel and simplified by having the main part of the helmet stamped from one piece of metal, and therefore without the joining rim around the helmet that characterizes the M15. The large ventilation hole under the comb, which had been a weak point of the old design, was also replaced with a series of small holes. The M26 helmet continued in use with the French Army until after World War II, and was also used by the French police up to the 1970s. During the interwar period Belgium began to produce their own domestically made M26 Adrians and exported them around the globe. These helmets can be distinguished from their French counterparts, because they have a slightly different comb and a wider rim. In other countries the Adrian-type helmets were also in use with the fire-fighting units, railway guards or marine infantry (e.g. Japan's SNLF). Adrian helmets are still prized by collectors today. In 1940, Mexico began to produce M26 helmets locally after shipments from France stopped due to the German occupation. A crestless version was produced in small numbers as well.


title: Adrian helmet

text: A 2020 study found that the Adrian helmet outperformed the Advanced Combat Helmet, which was deployed almost a century later, in overhead blasts. It also surpassed the stahlhelm and Brodie helmets. The researchers believed the crest, a feature unique to the Adrian helmet, might be the cause.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1967, respectively. It gave its name to the British Leyland Motor Corporation, formed when it merged with British Motor Holdings in 1968, to become British Leyland after being nationalised. British Leyland later changed its name to simply BL, then in 1986 to Rover Group.


title: Leyland Motors

text: After the various vehicle manufacturing businesses of BL and its successors went defunct or were divested, the following marques survived: Jaguar and Land Rover, now built by Jaguar Land Rover owned by TATA Motors; MG, now built by MG Motor, and Mini, now built by BMW. The truck building operation survived largely intact as Leyland Trucks, a subsidiary of Paccar.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Leyland Motors has a long history dating from 1896, when the Sumner and Spurrier families founded the Lancashire Steam Motor Company in the town of Leyland in North West England. Their first products included steam powered lawn mowers. The company's first vehicle was a 1.5-ton-capacity steam powered van. This was followed by a number of undertype steam wagons using a vertical fire-tube boiler. By 1905 they had also begun to build petrol-engined wagons. The Lancashire Steam Motor Company was renamed Leyland Motors in 1907 when it took over Coulthards of Preston, who had been making steam wagons since 1897. They also built a second factory in the neighbouring town of Chorley which still remains today as the headquarters of the Lex Autolease and parts company.


title: Leyland Motors

text: In 1920, Leyland Motors produced the Leyland Eight luxury touring car, a development of which was driven by J.G. Parry-Thomas at Brooklands. Parry-Thomas was later killed in an attempt on the land speed record when the car overturned. Rumours that a chain drive broke were found to be incorrect when the car was disinterred late in the 20th century as the chains were intact. At the other extreme, they also produced the Trojan Utility Car in the Kingston upon Thames factory at Ham from 1922 to 1928.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Three generations of Spurriers controlled Leyland Motors from its foundation until the retirement of Henry Spurrier in 1964. Spurrier inherited control of Leyland Motors from his father in 1942, and successfully guided its growth during the postwar years. Whilst the Spurrier family were in control the company enjoyed excellent labour relations—reputedly never losing a day's production through industrial action.


title: Leyland Motors

text: During World War II, Leyland Motors, along with most vehicle manufacturers, was involved in war production. Leyland built the Cromwell tank at its works from 1943 as well as medium/large trucks such as the Hippo and Retriever.


title: Leyland Motors

text: In 1955, through an equity agreement, manufacture of commercial vehicles under licence from Leyland Motors commenced in Madras, India at the new Ashok factory. The products were branded as Ashok Leyland.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Donald Stokes, previously Sales Director, was appointed managing director of Leyland Motors Limited in September 1962. Originally a Leyland student apprentice he had grown up with the company. He became chairman in 1966. Chronologically, the 1960s growth of Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) was as follows:


title: Leyland Motors

text: In 1968 Leyland Motors merged with British Motor Holdings (BMH) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC). BMH, which was the product of an earlier merger between the British Motor Corporation, the Pressed Steel Company and Jaguar, brought with it more marques, including Daimler, Guy, BMC, Austin, MG and Morris. Leyland diesel engines were used in Finnish Sisu and Vanaja lorries and buses in 1960s.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The BLMC group was difficult to manage because of the many companies under its control, often making similar products. This, and other reasons, led to financial difficulties and in December 1974 British Leyland had to receive a guarantee from the British government.


title: Leyland Motors

text: In 1975, after the publication of the Ryder Report and the company's bankruptcy, BLMC was nationalised as British Leyland (BL) and split into four divisions with the bus and truck production becoming the Leyland Truck & Bus division within the Land Rover Leyland Group. This division was split into Leyland Bus and Leyland Trucks in 1981. Leyland Trucks depended on British sales as well as export markets, mainly Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth markets. The early 1980s were very hard, with export sales drying up in many places such as oil-dependent Nigeria. In 1986, BL changed its name to Rover Group, with its name being derived from the Rover brand that Leyland had bought in the 1960s, and would eventually gain prominence as BL gradually retired most of its marques. The equity stake in Ashok Leyland was controlled by Land Rover Leyland International Holdings, and sold in 1987. At this point, while building about 10,000 trucks per annum, Leyland was more and more depending on outside engines as production of their own 98-series was steadily declining. The 1986 closure of Bedford Vehicles' heavy truck plant further harmed Leyland, as they had been planning on selling axles and other components to the General Motors subsidiary.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The bus operations was sold in a management buyout to form Leyland Bus, and was subsequently bought by Volvo Buses in 1988, which discontinued most of its product range but adopted the Leyland Olympian. Volvo reengineered it as the first named Volvo Bus model, the Volvo Olympian, and aside from minor frame changes the major alterations were the fitment of Volvo axles, braking system, and controls. Both were the best selling double-deck bus chassis of their time.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Leyland name and logo continues as a recognised and respected marque across India, the wider subcontinent and parts of Africa in the form of Ashok Leyland. Part of the giant Hinduja Group, Ashok Leyland manufactures buses, trucks, defence vehicles and engines. The company is a leader in the heavy transportation sector within India and has an aggressive expansionary policy. In 1987 the London based Hinduja Group bought the Indian-based Ashok Leyland company. Today, Ashok-Leyland is pursuing a joint venture with Nissan, and through its acquisition of the Czech truck maker, Avia, is entering the European truck market directly. With its purchase of a 26% stake in UK-based bus manufacturer Optare in 2010, Ashok Leyland has taken a step closer to reconnecting with its British heritage, as Optare is a direct descendant of Leyland's UK bus-making division. On 21 December 2011, Ashok Leyland bought an additional 49% stake in Optare, bringing its total to 75%.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Historically, Leyland Motors was a major manufacturer of buses used in the United Kingdom and worldwide. It achieved a number of firsts or milestones that set trends for the bus industry. It was one of the first manufacturers to devise chassis designs for buses that were different from trucks, with a lower chassis level to help passengers board more easily. Its chief designer, John George Rackham, who had experience at the Yellow Coach Company in Chicago before returning to England, created the Titan and Tiger ranges in 1927 that revolutionised bus design. After 1945, Leyland created another milestone with the trend-setting Atlantean rear-engined double-decker bus design produced between 1956 and 1986.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The G-series cab was built in Bathgate and was available with several different names, such as Terrier, Clydesdale, and Reiver. After this cab was replaced the tooling was shipped to Turkey, where BMC's Turkish subsidiary built it as the "BMC Yavuz" and then as the "Fatih" (with Cummins engines) from 1986 until 1996.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Marathon was Leyland's answer to the booming "max cap" truck fad at the start of the 1970s. Imports such as the Volvo F88 and Scania 110/140 were selling very well in the UK thanks to the previously unheard of levels of driver comfort, reliability, quality and performance.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Leyland had insufficient money for development of a complete new vehicle at the time, so designers were instructed to utilise as many existing in-house components as possible. It was perceived at the time that the resulting model would be a stopgap until the new T45 range was ready for production toward the latter half of the 1970s.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The cab was a re-worked version of the "Ergomatic" tilt cab of 1965, heavily modified with different lower panels, raised height etc., and was available in day and sleeper cab form. Engines were decided from the outset to be in the higher power category to be competitive with rival vehicles. The only existing engine within the Leyland empire suitable for such an application (following the demise of the ill-fated fixed-head 500 series and AEC's underdeveloped and unreliable V8) was the AEC AV760 straight-six, which was turbocharged and designated as the TL12. Other engine options included a 200 bhp Leyland L11, as well as Cummins 10- and 14-litre engines at 250 and 330 bhp, respectively.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Production began in 1973, and various shortcomings were noted, including below-par heating and ventilation, and pronounced cab roll. However, road testers of the time were very impressed by the truck's power and performance. In 1977, the redesigned "Marathon 2" was launched, an updated and revised vehicle that attempted to address some of the previous criticisms of the earlier vehicle. Relatively few Marathons of all types were sold before production ended in 1979 with the introduction of the T45 "roadtrain" range of vehicles.


title: Leyland Motors

text: This was Leyland's answer to the Ford cargo in the non-HGV 7.5-ton truck sector. Launched in 1984, it utilised a Leyland 698 straight-six engine until 1986, when a 5.9 L Cummins was introduced. It was notable at the time for its low-level passenger side windscreen, featured as a safety aid to enable the driver to see the kerb, although this was removed on later models. The basic cab had a long service life, becoming later on the Leyland DAF 45.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Leyland Constructor was a 6x4, three axle wagon with gross weight up to 24 tonnes used as a tipper or on short haul distribution duties.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Leyland Roadtrain was a range of heavy goods vehicle tractor units manufactured by Leyland Trucks between 1980 and 1990. The nomenclature "T45" refers to the truck range as a whole and encompasses models such as the lightweight 7.5-ton Roadrunner, Freighter (fourwheel rigid truck), Constructor (multi-axle rigid tipper or mixer chassis – its chassis owing much to the outgoing Scammell 8-wheeler Routeman), and Cruiser (basic spec low weight tractor unit). The Roadtrain itself was a max weight model with distance work in mind.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The T45's cab is called the C40 and its design was a joint effort between Leyland, BRS and Ogle Design and was seen as the height of modernity when compared with its predecessors, the idea being to have one basic design to replace the various outgoing models (for example, the Bathgate built the G cab on the Terrier, the Ergomatic cabbed the Lynx, Beaver etc.). This did indeed make good economic sense; however, there has been speculation that Leyland did in fact alienate a number of customers who had traditionally purchased other marques from within the Leyland empire—Albion, AEC, Scammell, etcetera – who were now left with no alternative but to have a Leyland-branded vehicle or purchase from elsewhere. Some Constructors, with their Scammell-based chassis, were built with Scammell badging as well.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Throughout its production run, engine choices included the AEC-based TL12, a straight carry over from the preceding "stopgap" model Marathon range, The Rolls-Royce Eagle 265/300 and the Cummins 290 L10 and 14-litre 350 coupled to a Spicer or Eaton transmission, although all versions produced a distinctive whine from the propshaft knuckle joint when approaching . The TL12 engine was dropped early on in the production run, with most large fleet buyers choosing the Rolls-Royce engine.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Roadtrain was available in day- and sleeper-cabbed form, in high and low datum versions—this refers to the cab height—high datum versions were intended as long haul vehicles with higher mounted cabs and more internal space. 6x2 versions were built in high cab form only on a chassis that was basically that of the ageing Scammell trunker. The Constructor's chassis was entirely Routeman behind the cab, albeit with altered suspension and with the front chassis rails splayed wider apart to fit the new C40 cab.


title: Leyland Motors

text: In 1986, the high roofed Roadtrain interstate was introduced, a top of the range long distance truck with standing room inside.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Roadtrain was a common sight throughout most of the 1980s, with a great many of the major fleet users in the UK such as Tesco, Blue Circle Industries (unusually with high datum day cabs) and BRS running them. The firm of Swain's based in Rochester, Kent had a number of roadtrains in its fleet which enjoyed a comparatively long service life (until the late 1990s) before being replaced by the newer DAF 85. Sales were never quite satisfactory, however, with the vacation closure extended in 1986 to reduce unsold stock.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Production ended in 1990 with the sale of Leyland Trucks to Dutch firm DAF, although as a postscript DAF relaunched the model in low-datum form (it was already manufacturing the large DAF 95) as the DAF 80, using the Roadtrain cab with the DAF 330 ATi engine (quite ironic, given that this engine had its roots in the Leyland O.680). This model was produced for a relatively short time until 1993 with the launch of the brand new cabbed DAF 85.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Due partly to the cab's propensity to rust and also to the admittedly short life of commercial vehicles, any Roadtrain in commercial operation is now a very rare sight indeed. However, a small number remain in use throughout the country as towing-and-recovery vehicles.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The army made use of an 8x6 version of the Roadtrain as a hook loader until recently. This is known to the British Army as Medium Mobility Load System (MMLS) Demountable Rack Offload and Pickup System (DROPS), which has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan and is still in service, but has now been replaced by the MAN version. In this format the British Army purchased 1,440 vehicles plus a significant number of spare Roadtrain cabs, to allow for accident damage


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Leyland Landtrain was produced between 1980 and 1987, specifically for export markets. A bonneted design, it was built in the UK and exported in completed and kit form, the latter for local construction in Kenya and Nigeria.


title: Leyland Motors

text: The Leyland Comet was introduced in 1986, also designed for export markets mainly in the developing world. As such, it was a no-frills vehicle of a simple and sturdy design, with five- or six-speed transmissions rather than the multi-speed units used on European models. The cabin was a simplified all-steel version of that used by the Roadrunner, designed to enable local assembly. The three-axle version is called the Super Comet.


title: Leyland Motors

text: Leyland Motors produced a film in 1977 entitled "The Quality Connection" showing the importance of quality control. It featured well known actors including Frank Windsor, George A Cooper, David Suchet, Michael Robbins, Madeline Smith and Trevor Bannister.


title: Lenny (film)

text: Lenny is a 1974 American biographical drama film about the comedian Lenny Bruce, starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Julian Barry is based on his play of the same name.


title: Lenny (film)

text: The film jumps between various sections of Bruce's life, including scenes of when he was in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations. We watch as up-and-coming Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess," a stripper named Honey. With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe" act, but he cannot do it. Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction. Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in 1966.


title: Lenny (film)

text: Lenny opened at Cinema I in New York City on November 10, 1974, and grossed a house record $14,981 in its first day.


title: Lenny (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 27 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "Dustin Hoffman inhabits Lenny Bruce with nervy energy in Bob Fosse's richly stylized telling of the pioneering comedian's career and downfall." On Metacritic, it has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 9 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Lenny (film)

text: One of the less enthusiastic reviews came from Roger Ebert stating "Unless we go in convinced that Lenny Bruce was an important performer, the movie doesn't convince us."


title: Lenny (film)

text: In 2012, British film critic Mark Kermode put Hoffman's performance as Lenny Bruce at number eight in a top-ten video of Hoffman's best performances.


title: Lenny (film)

text: "Lenny" was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003, as a Region 1 widescreen DVD and by Twilight Time (under license from MGM and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) as a Region 1 widescreen Blu-ray Disc on February 10, 2015.


title: Badge Man

text: Badge Man is a name given to an unknown figure that is reputedly visible within the famous Mary Moorman photograph of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. Some researchers have theorized that this figure is a sniper firing a weapon at the President from the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza. Even though an alleged muzzle flash obscures much of the detail, the "Badge Man" has been described as a person wearing some kind of police uniform – the moniker itself derives from a bright spot on the chest, which is said to resemble a gleaming badge.


title: Badge Man

text: Speculation about the "Badge Man" figure helped create conspiracy theories regarding a plot made by members of the Dallas Police Department to kill President Kennedy. In response, abundant skeptics proposed numerous alternative interpretations of the image.


title: Badge Man

text: During the Presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza, Dallas resident Mary Moorman took a series of photographs with her Polaroid camera. Her nonprofessional photos captured images of all of the presidential limousine occupants, several other close witnesses (including Abraham Zapruder filming), two Dallas police motorcycle Presidential escorts, and much of the Plaza's grassy knoll. The "Badge Man" is reputedly visible in Moorman's fifth and most famous photo of the area, taken at the moment of the head shot that killed the President. This photo has been calculated to have been captured between Zapruder film frames 315 and 316, which was less than one-sixth of a second after President Kennedy was fatally shot in the head at frame 313.


title: Badge Man

text: In 1982, Gary Mack, the longtime curator and archivist for The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (the former Texas School Book Depository), was the first person to claim discovery of the "Badge Man" figure. In Mack's visual interpretation, a uniformed police officer can be seen standing behind the stockade fence, with his face obscured by a muzzle flash, but a small bright object is visible on his chest. Mack initially thought the figure looked like Gordon Arnold, a soldier who claimed to be on the grassy knoll with a movie camera.


title: Badge Man

text: The question of the "Badge Man" figure's existence helped perpetuate conspiracy theories that have alleged that members of the Dallas Police Department had killed Kennedy and simultaneously framed Lee Harvey Oswald.


title: Badge Man

text: In his initial observations, Mack was assisted by photographer and assassination researcher Jack White, who continued his experimentation with the Moorman photograph. In the mid-1980s, White put forward a new version, enhanced in contrast and brightness, which he claimed revealed the policeman figure in higher clarity.


title: Badge Man

text: White's research was shown and discussed in the 1988 documentary series "The Men Who Killed Kennedy". In it, a closeup of the enhanced "Badge Man" figure is repeated onscreen as a voice-over describes three shooters at Dealey Plaza, who are said to be in league with the Mafia. One of the three is described as standing in the "Badge Man"'s position, behind the stockade fence on the grassy knoll. The narration identifies this shooter as Lucien Sarti, a French national and alleged contract killer.


title: Badge Man

text: To the anatomical right (photo left) of the supposed "Badge Man" figure, some researchers claim there is a second person seen, the self-proclaimed witness Gordon Arnold, who claimed in 1978 that he was filming the motorcade while wearing his U.S. Army uniform when a shot passed close to his left ear.


title: Badge Man

text: The Moorman photograph was seen contemporaneously in world media through UPI, but the Warren Commission did not include it in the volumes of its 1964 report. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (1976–1978) sent a high-quality negative version of the Moorman photo to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for enlargement, enhancement, and analysis. The RIT report states that it found no evidence of human forms anywhere in the background, and the specific area behind the stockade fence was deemed to be so underexposed that it was impossible to glean any information from it.


title: Badge Man

text: Some researchers have claimed that the "Badge Man" image is sunlight reflecting off a glass bottle and not a human figure. Some photos and films taken immediately after the assassination do, in fact, show a bottle sitting on top of the retaining wall. Researcher and computer animator Dale Myers believes the measurements of the Grassy Knoll area give proof that the alleged figure would have been in an impossible position to fire a weapon at the motorcade, saying "if [the Badge Man were] truly a human being of average height and build, [he] was located 12–18 feet (3.7–5.5 m) behind the fence line and elevated 3–4 feet (0.91–1.2 m) above the ground."


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise.


title: CrossCountry

text: The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, incorporating elements of both the Central Trains and the Virgin CrossCountry franchises, ahead of its invitation to tender on October of that year. On 10 July 2007, the DfT announced that Arriva had been awarded the New Cross Country franchise. CrossCountry is one of only two franchised train operating companies that does not manage any stations, the other being Caledonian Sleeper. CrossCountry's services have been periodically disrupted by industrial action amongst its staff, often due to disputes over rostering and pay. While the franchise had been originally due to conclude on 31 March 2016, multiple subsequent agreements have been enacted; in October 2020, the DfT confirmed that the franchise has been extended for a further three years for a finish date of October 2023.


title: CrossCountry

text: At the commencement of operations, CrossCountry's rolling stock consisted of 34 four-car Class 220 "Voyagers" and 40 five-car and 4 four-car Class 221 "Super Voyagers" from Virgin CrossCountry as well as 11 two-car and 18 three-car Class 170 "Turbostars" from Central Trains. As per its franchise agreement, it obtained ten Class 43 power cars and forty Mark 3 carriages to operate on services that required greater seating capacity, while some Super Voyagers were transferred to Virgin West Coast. Overhauls of the Voyager & Super Voyager fleets were performed, the removal of the shop to fit more seating and storage being a prominent change; the Mark 3 carriages were also refurbished to provide suitable amenities for modern travellers. Both the Super Voyagers and Turbostar fleets have been extended where possible to provide more capacity.


title: CrossCountry

text: The company's network is centred around . It operates intercity and other long-distance passenger trains across Great Britain, but does not serve Greater London. It operates the UK's longest direct rail passenger service, from in the north-east of Scotland to in western Cornwall, which has a journey time of more than 13hours. While some services on the West Coast Main Line were promptly discontinued with the introduction of a new timetable on 9 December 2007, with some transferring over to both Virgin Trains West Coast and to First TransPennine Express, new services, such as a daily to service introduced during December 2008, were also implemented. CrossCountry has designated four stations as alternative changeover stations: , , and . Special services have been occasionally, run, such as between and in support of the Sailing at the 2012 Olympics & Paralympics.


title: CrossCountry

text: During June 2006, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced its intention to restructure a number of the existing railway franchises. As a result of these changes, a 'New Cross Country' franchise was produced, which incorporated the existing InterCity Cross Country franchise run by Virgin CrossCountry, while excluding those services ran on the West Coast Main Line (while the Birmingham to Scotland services were transferred to Virgin Trains West Coast and the Manchester to Scotland services transferring to First TransPennine Express). Several services from the Central Trains franchise were also to be added.


title: CrossCountry

text: In October 2006, the DfT issued the invitation to tender (ITT) to the four shortlisted bidders: Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Virgin Rail Group. On 10 July 2007, the DfT announced that Arriva had been awarded the New Cross Country franchise, and that the services operated by Virgin CrossCountry would be transferred to CrossCountry on 11 November 2007, along with the Cardiff to and Birmingham to services from Central Trains.


title: CrossCountry

text: After taking over the franchise, CrossCountry continued to operate the existing timetable including the West Coast Main Line services for four weeks. When the new timetable commenced on 9 December 2007 on 11 November 2007, the to and services were transferred to Virgin Trains West Coast while the to Edinburgh and Glasgow services transferred to First TransPennine Express.


title: CrossCountry

text: The ITT did not require retention of the services beyond after December 2008, so the services to both and soon ceased. As a result of these changes, all CrossCountry services now completely avoid Greater London.


title: CrossCountry

text: Starting in December 2008, a daily to service was introduced. From December 2010, a number of services from were extended from to Southampton. From May 2011, a number of services were extended from Edinburgh to Glasgow to replace East Coast services.


title: CrossCountry

text: By mid-2020, CrossCountry had considerably curtailed its services in response to the significant decline of passenger travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. From 15 June 2020, both passengers and staff on public transport in England, including CrossCountry services, were required to wear face coverings while travelling, and that anyone failing to do so would be liable to be refused travel or fined.


title: CrossCountry

text: While the franchise had been originally due to conclude on 31 March 2016, during August 2013, it was announced that it had been extended until December 2019. At one point, it had been expected that an ITT would be issued in October 2018 for the next franchise, however, during September 2018, it was announced that the competition had been cancelled so that the recommendations from a report into the franchise system could be incorporated. In July 2019, the Direct Award was further extended by one year, moving the expiry date back to October 2020. During September 2020, it was announced that the emergency agreements with train operating companies introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom were to be extended for 18months, and that all passenger rail franchising in Great Britain was abandoned. In October 2020, the DfT confirmed that the franchise has been extended for a further three years, putting the finishing date back to October 2023.


title: CrossCountry

text: During November and December 2017, CrossCountry on-board train managers and senior conductors affiliated with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) staged five 24-hour and two 48-hour strikes in an industrial dispute regarding staff rostering, in particular in relation to working on Sundays. While further strikes had been planned for January 2018, however, these were cancelled after CrossCountry and the RMT came to an agreement over staff working conditions on 11 January.


title: CrossCountry

text: Separate strike action was later threatened by the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) union later that month, with strikes planned for 26 January. These were in relation to CrossCountry staff being offered a 1% pay rise, compared to a 3.3% pay rise for staff at other Arriva-owned train operating companies. As a result of an agreement with CrossCountry to match their demands for an equal pay rise, the planned industrial action by the TSSA was cancelled.


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry is one of several train operators impacted by the 2022 United Kingdom railway strike, which is the first national rail strike in the UK for three decades. Its workers were amongst those who voted in favour of industrial action due to a dispute over pay and working conditions. CrossCountry was only capable of operating a very minimalist timetable on any of the planned dates for the strikes due to the number of staff involved.


title: CrossCountry

text: The company operates medium- and long-distance services that run outside of the London area. The network is centred at Birmingham New Street station. Services can be categorised into two types:


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry's official website does show a distinction between the two types of services (for example, each has a separate timetable booklet), but does not explicitly call them "Inter-City" and "Regional".


title: CrossCountry

text: These services combine to provide higher frequencies between Birmingham and the following major destinations:


title: CrossCountry

text: The Sunday service pattern is mostly similar to the weekday one, except that the hourly Birmingham - Nottingham services do not run while the other services do not start until late morning or early afternoon, and often have a slightly different stopping pattern.


title: CrossCountry

text: The above table shows the basic service pattern; however, a small number of these services are extended beyond their usual destination:


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry extended some of its services to for the Sailing at the 2012 Olympics & Paralympics. There were two services Monday to Saturday in each direction with one in each direction on Sundays. These ran express to Weymouth from Bournemouth. One train also operated a Weymouth to Bournemouth return journey, calling at and .


title: CrossCountry

text: During December 2016, CrossCountry published a consultation document for changes to the timetable proposed to be implemented in December 2017. These included:


title: CrossCountry

text: To allow these changes to take place, all CrossCountry services on some routes (which had a limited service) would be withdrawn and replaced with extra services run by other operators. These included:


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry does not manage any stations, although there are stations managed by other train operating companies at which it is the only operator: five stations (, , , and ) are managed by East Midlands Railway, while three stations (, and ) are managed by West Midlands Trains. At station, which has tracks and platforms at two levels, the high-level platforms are served only by CrossCountry, but the entire station is managed by West Midlands Trains, which serves the low-level platforms. Similarly, at , the low-level platforms are served only by CrossCountry, but the station is managed by Great Western Railway, which serves only the high-level platforms.


title: CrossCountry

text: To improve the travelling experience, CrossCountry has designated four stations as alternative changeover stations: these are Cheltenham Spa, Derby, Leamington Spa and Wolverhampton. Connection times can be shorter at these smaller stations. For example, passengers travelling from Cardiff to Edinburgh could change at Cheltenham – where both their trains use the same platform – instead of Birmingham New Street, a larger, more complex station.


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry services are operated using diesel trains only, since none of the routes it operates are fully electrified.


title: CrossCountry

text: CrossCountry inherited 34 four-car Class 220 "Voyagers" and 40 five-car and 4 four-car Class 221 "Super Voyagers" from Virgin CrossCountry as well as 11 two-car and 18 three-car Class 170 "Turbostars" from Central Trains.


title: CrossCountry

text: In December 2007 Class 221 "Super Voyagers" 221101 - 113 and 221142 - 144 were transferred to Virgin Trains West Coast with 221114 - 118 following in December 2008.


title: CrossCountry

text: A franchise commitment was the acquisition of ten Class 43 power cars and forty Mark 3 carriages. Midland Mainline had six Class 43 power cars and fourteen Mark 3 carriages that were off lease from November 2007 that were leased. The remaining four Class 43 power cars were ex Virgin CrossCountry examples in varying states of decay, while the carriages were five ex-Virgin CrossCountry Mark 3 carriages and twenty-one ex-Virgin Trains West Coast loco-hauled Mark 3B carriages. Most had been in store at Long Marston for a few years.


title: CrossCountry

text: After driver training the ex-Midland Mainline sets returned to service in May 2008 on Glasgow and Edinburgh to diagrams while the other Class 43 power cars were overhauled at Brush Traction including repowering with MTU engines and the Mark 3 carriages overhauled at Doncaster Works to a similar specification as GNER's "Mallard" refurbishments. Once these were completed, the ex-Midland Mainline examples were also overhauled.


title: CrossCountry

text: To operate services to and on summer Saturdays, two High Speed Trains were hired from National Express East Coast in 2008. High Speed Trains were hired from East Coast and East Midlands Trains on a number of occasions to operate services from Edinburgh Waverley to Plymouth when HSTs or Voyagers were unavailable.


title: CrossCountry

text: During 2008, the Class 170 "Turbostar" fleet was refurbished, during which the three-carriage units repainted at Marcroft Engineering, Stoke on Trent, the two-carriage units at EWS's Toton depot and the interiors renewed by Transys Projects, Clacton-on-Sea, including the fitting of first-class seating to the Class 170/5s and 170/6s.


title: CrossCountry

text: The tilt function on the Class 221 "Super Voyagers" was removed in 2008; tilting was not required on the parts of West Coast Main Line that CrossCountry serves. CrossCountry stated this change would improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs.


title: CrossCountry

text: Between 2008 and 2009, both the Class 220 "Voyagers" and Class 221 "Super Voyagers" underwent refurbishment at Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works. This work involved the removal of the shop, adding 25% extra luggage space and fourteen extra standard-class seats to the Class 220 "Voyagers" and 20% extra luggage space and sixteen extra standard-class seats to the Class 221 "Super Voyagers". Three years later, a refresh of the interiors was conducted, during which the standard-class seats were re-covered in the existing red and blue moquette and while the first class seats were finished with a maroon moquette. In summer 2014, CrossCountry began removing the quiet coach designation from such vehicles across its "Voyager" fleet, believing them to be outdated and to take up an excessive amount of space on a four-car unit; however, it did retain the quiet coaches on its five HST sets.


title: CrossCountry

text: During November 2017, as a part of CrossCountry's franchise extension, two former Virgin Trains Class 221 Super Voyager driving cars of unit 221144 were reactivated, having been stored at Central Rivers TMD for several years. Two of the existing five-car sets releasing a centre carriage that, when combined with the reactivated pair of driving cars, formed an additional four-car set to be formed.


title: CrossCountry

text: In 2021, six of the existing two-carriage Class 170s were lengthened. This happened as a result of East Midlands Railway only leasing the two-carriage driving vehicles of the West Midlands Railway 170/6 sets, hence six centre cars became available when they were replaced by West Midlands Trains for transfer to CrossCountry.


title: CrossCountry

text: It has been proposed that, around 2023, CrossCountry should operate all of the s cascaded from East Midlands Railway to provide extra capacity.


The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines that were to be on display for visitors from around the world. Brokers from the wine industry ranked the wines according to a château's reputation and trading price, which at that time was directly related to quality.


title: Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855

text: The wines were ranked in importance from first to fifth growths ("crus"). All of the red wines that made it on the list came from the Médoc region except for one: Château Haut-Brion from Graves. The white wines, then of much less importance than red wine, were limited to the sweet varieties of Sauternes and Barsac and were ranked only from superior first growth to second growth.


text: Within each category, the various châteaux are ranked in order of quality and only twice since the 1855 classification has there been a change: first when in 1856 Cantemerle was added as a fifth growth (having either been originally omitted by oversight or added as an afterthought, depending on which of the conflicting accounts is correct) and, more significantly, in 1973, when Château Mouton Rothschild was elevated from a second growth to a first growth vineyard after decades of intense lobbying by the powerful Philippe de Rothschild. A third, but less known "change", is the removal of Château Dubignon, a third growth from Margaux that was absorbed into the estate Château Malescot St. Exupéry.


text: A superficial change is that since 1855, when only five of the estates were styled with the word "château" in their name, most Bordeaux wine estates now use this nomenclature.


text: As a classification of châteaux, the actual vineyards owned by some wineries have expanded, shrunk and been divided without any reclassification, and considerable plots of valued "terroir" have changed ownership. Indeed, it is a peculiarity of Bordeaux that as long as a vineyard parcel lies within the boundaries of the wine commune, it is eligible to be used by any chateau, independent of the quality of the parcel itself.


text: Many wine critics have argued that the 1855 Classification became outdated and does not provide an accurate guide to the quality of the wines being made on each estate. Several proposals have been made for changes to the classification, and a bid for a revision was unsuccessfully attempted in 1960. Alexis Lichine, a member of the 1960 revision panel, launched a campaign to implement changes that lasted over thirty years, in the process publishing several editions of his own unofficial classification and the "Alexis Lichine's Guide to the Wines and Vineyards of France", in which he devoted a chapter to the subject. In support of his argument, Lichine cited the case of Chateau Lynch-Bages, the Pauillac Fifth Growth that, through good management and by patiently collecting the best parcels as they come on the market, makes wine that in his view are worthy of a much higher classification. Conversely, poor management can result in a significant decline in quality, as the example of Chateau Margaux shows—the wines it made in the 1960s and 1970s are widely regarded as far below what's expected of a First Growth. Other critics have followed a similar suit, including Robert Parker who published a top 100 Bordeaux estates in 1985 and "L'histoire de la vigne & du vin" () by Bernard and Henri Enjalbert in 1989, as well as efforts made by Clive Coates (MW) and David Peppercorn (MW). Ultimately nothing has come of them; the likely negative impact on prices for any downgraded châteaux and the 1855 establishment's political muscle are considered among the reasons.


text: In March 2009, the British wine exchange Liv-ex released The Liv-ex Bordeaux Classification, a modern re-calculation of the 1855 classification, with an aim to apply the original method to the contemporary economical context.


text: Many of the leading estates from the Médoc appellation that were not included in the 1855 classification are classified as "Cru Bourgeois", a classification system that has been updated on a regular basis since 1932, banned in 2007, but reinstated in 2010.


text: In French "Les Grands Crus classés en 1855". The estates are listed with their commune (village), and their AOC in parenthesis, if different from the commune. The 19th-century names appear as listed by the brokers on April 18, 1855, followed by the modern names, as the use of "second cru" for red wines and "deuxième cru" for white wines.


title: Diya (film)

text: Diya, previously known as "Karu" (), is a 2018 Indian horror film directed by A. L. Vijay and produced by Lyca Productions. The film is shot simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, the latter titled as Kanam (). It stars Sai Pallavi, Naga Shourya, and Veronika Arora. The music was composed by Sam CS, with editing done by Anthony and cinematography by Nirav Shah. Both the Tamil and Telugu versions were released on 27 April 2018.


title: Diya (film)

text: The plot revolves around Thulasi (Sai Pallavi) and Krishna (Naga Shourya). Thulasi gets pregnant because of Krishna at the age of 19, but their family decides to abort the child. After five years, they get married, but Thulasi is not very happy because of their past. Later, Krishna explains to let go of the past, and soon, she comes out of the pain and starts leading a happy life.


title: Diya (film)

text: The truth that is happening around Thulasi and Krishna is that their little unborn girl Diya (Veronika Arora) has always been with them all along invisibly. When Krishna's father (Nizhalgal Ravi) comes to meet Krishna at his new flat, Diya sees him and starts following him to his house. The next day, he is found dead in the water tank of their building. This is Diya's plan for revenge. Later, when Thulasi's mother (Rekha) comes to visit Krishna's father's funeral, Diya starts following her and kills her in an elevator in Krishna's construction site. As the death case is handled by Sub-Inspector Raghavan (RJ Balaji (in Tamil)) / SI Agni (Priyadarshi (in Telugu)), he comes to the conclusion that both of them are dead due to asphyxiation.


title: Diya (film)

text: When Krishna and Thulasi visit the hospital, they meet a doctor (Sujitha), who also happens to die in a car accident because of Diya. There rises a suspicion within the investigating team that whoever meets Thulasi and Krishna are dying due to the same reason. The police also found it suspicious that the doctor's car had child lock on when there was actually no child in the car. One day, Thulasi's uncle (Jayakumar J) comes to visit her. Thulasi looks at her family picture and suddenly realizes that the deaths surrounding them are happening for the same reason:when she was pregnant with Diya, she was forced by her mother, father-in-law, uncle, the doctor, and Krishna to abort the child. Realizing that her uncle may be the next to be killed, Thulasi calls him, but it is too late as a huge container falls on him, killing him. Thulasi thinks that Diya is with her and calls out her name, to which she responds by making the carousel doll move, making Thulasi realize that all the deaths are indeed because of her. She tries to tell this to Krishna and insists that she has to be with him always so that Diya will not kill him, but he does not believe these stories and takes her to a psychiatrist.


title: Diya (film)

text: One day, Krishna gets a call from the construction site and leaves without telling Thulasi. She panics and calls him, but he hangs up. When she reaches his site, she saves him just in time from a crane carrying a huge block that was about to hit him. Krishna still does not believe in Thulasi's suspicions and at a priest's suggestion to have a Pooja, they make arrangements, but Thulasi dreams about those people burning Diya and she is suffering in pain, so she sends the priests away. Meanwhile, Krishna meets the psychiatrist, who suggests that Krishna go somewhere alone and switch off his phone for two days, and Thulasi will finally stop panicking once he returns safe and sound.


title: Diya (film)

text: The next day, Krishna is gone, and Thulasi is worried and keeps searching for him. Diya takes this opportunity and tries to kill Krishna by making the walls of his room close in on each other to crush him to death. Meanwhile, Agni/Raghavan thinks that whatever Thulasi says is true and goes in search of her, but he finds that she met with an accident and is unconscious, so he takes her to the hospital, where they try to revive her heart. Thulasi's spirit sees Diya and stops her from killing Krishna. Krishna understands that Thulasi was right. The doctors are able to successfully revive Thulasi, and tears roll from her eyes and she is happy that she finally met Diya. The doctor then says that Thulasi is pregnant.


title: Diya (film)

text: In early April 2017, A. L. Vijay announced that he would be working on a film starring Sai Pallavi for Lyca Productions and that he would direct a script he had written "three and a half years ago". He had chosen to cast Sai Pallavi, after another project for Pramod Films, which would have been a Tamil remake of the Malayalam film "Charlie" (2015) with Madhavan, was suddenly shelved. After securing the actress's dates to shoot the film, Vijay finalised the technical crew to include his regular collaborators such as cinematographer Nirav Shah and editor Anthony. For Sai Pallavi, it became her first Tamil language film following a series of projects which she dropped out of, she was replaced in or was shelved. She had previously been cast and then replaced in Mani Ratnam's "Kaatru Veliyidai" (2017), while she opted out Vijay Chander's "Sketch" (2017). Likewise, earlier, her films "Charlie" and Rajiv Menon's "Saravam Thaala Maayam" were indefinitely postponed. The following month, Telugu actor Naga Shourya, was signed on to make his debut in Tamil films. Sam C.S. was roped as music director, working with Vijay for the first time replacing his usual music director, G. V. Prakash Kumar.


title: Diya (film)

text: The film was revealed to be completed by September 2017, with Sai Pallavi beginning her dubbing work. Vijay denied that the film was a horror film and stated that the film would explore the "story of a young mother and her four-year-old child", with Sai Pallavi portraying the mother. Still, the film is a horror story with Baby Veronika as the aborted daughter of Naga Shouraya and Sai Pallavi, who takes revenge on the demise of her.


title: Diya (film)

text: Ashameera Aiyappan of "The Indian Express" wasn't impressed with the story of the film and said that, "The story is predictable. There isn't much surprise beyond the first few minutes until the very end." but praised the music composer Sam CS and the lead actress Sai Pallavi about whom the critic said that Sai Pallavi, "makes a strong debut in Tamil with an incredibly subtle and measured performance." The critic gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5. Priyanka Sundar of "Hindustan Times" gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and said that, "Sai Pallavi's stunning performance cannot save this confusing film." Kirubhakar Purushothaman of "India Today" gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 saying that, "Director Vijay's recently released film comes across as a half-baked, confusing at times, bothering take on the whole issue of abortion." M Suganth of "The Times of India" praised the acting performance of Sai Pallavi, cinematography by Nirav Shah and music by Sam CS but wasn't impressed with the film and said that, "despite these strengths, Diya isn't compelling enough." The critic gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5.


title: Diya (film)

text: Regarding "Kanam", "The Times of India" stated that "One would expect 'Kanam' to be nothing less than a thriller that will keep you guessing and at the edge of your seat. However, it fails to live up to that expectation".


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Ernesto Frits Hoost (born 11 July 1965) is a Dutch retired kickboxer. A four-time K-1 World Champion, Hoost is considered to be one of the greatest kickboxers of all time. Debuting in 1993 at the K-1 World Grand Prix 1993, where he came just one win short of the world title, Hoost announced his retirement thirteen years later on 2 December 2006 after the K-1 World GP Final tournament in Tokyo Dome, Japan. Hoost holds notable victories over Peter Aerts (4x), Branko Cikatić, Mirko Cro Cop (3x), Jérôme Le Banner (3x), Andy Hug (3x), Ray Sefo (3x), Musashi (2x), Mike Bernardo, Francisco Filho (2x), Sam Greco, Stefan Leko (3x), Mark Hunt, Cyril Abidi, and Glaube Feitosa.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost was born in Heemskerk, North Holland to Surinamese parents. He played football for amateur club Hollandia until he was 15 years old, when he started training in kickboxing at the newly opened Sokudo Gym. In 1983, he had his first match against Wim Scharrenberg, which he won by knockout in the second round. From 1988, his career accelerated, winning several European and world titles in Savate and Muay Thai. He quit his job as a sports teacher for alternative punished youngsters to focus on his career as a professional fighter.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: In the K-1 Grand Prix '93, the inaugural K-1 World Grand Prix, Hoost defeated Peter Aerts by decision in the quarterfinals, knocked out Maurice Smith in the semifinals, and advanced to the tournament final where he was knocked out by Branko Cikatic. Hoost got another shot at a title on 19 December 1993, when he won the K-2 World Championship, knocking out Changpuek Kiatsongrit in four rounds. This was the only time the K-1 organisation held a K-2 tournament.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost reached the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals again in 1995, but lost to Peter Aerts by a four-round decision. He went on to win every fight the remainder of that year. In 1996, he lost at the K-1 World Grand Prix 1996 finals to Andy Hug by a five-round split decision. He finally became K-1 World Champion in 1997 when he beat Hug by a three-round unanimous decision.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost was unable to defend his title at the K-1 World Grand Prix 1998 tournament, being technically knocked out in the quarterfinals by Australian Sam Greco due to being unable to start the 3rd round after a cut above his left eye; he was mostly dominated in the fight by Greco.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: In 1999, Hoost won his second K-1 World Grand Prix title, beating Mirko Cro Cop by technical knockout in the third round. On 23 April 2000, Hoost avenged his loss to Greco when he beat him by a technical knockout.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost retained the K-1 World Grand Prix Championship title for third time in 2000 by defeating Ray Sefo. By then, many K-1 fans were hoping for a meeting between Hoost and Bob Sapp. Hoost returned to defend his crown in 2001 defeating Stefan Leko. However, he was forced to retire from the tournament due to an injured shin before the semi-finals.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: The highly anticipated fight with Bob Sapp came at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002 Final Elimination. Sapp won by technical knockout in the first round after the doctor stopped the match on cuts. Despite the loss he was again matched up with Sapp in the quarter finals of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2002. After trading knockdowns with Sapp in first round, Hoost lost again in a wild slugfest when referee Nobuaki Kakuda declared a KO while Hoost was still standing, but after the fight, Sapp turned out to have broken his hand and suffered four cracked ribs, and wasn't able to continue, allowing Hoost to replace him in the semi-finals. Hoost beat Ray Sefo in first round by TKO, after Sefo damaged his shin against Hoost's kneecap. Hoost proceeded to his fifth K-1 Finals, and was matched up against Jerome Le Banner. The fight was clearly in Le Banner's favour up until the third and final round when Le Banner injured his arm blocking Hoost's kick. Hoost aggressively attacked the arm again, forcing Le Banner down with only 94 seconds left in the match, winning by TKO and his fourth Grand Prix Championship. Le Banner suffered a severe compound fracture, putting him out of competition for over a year.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: In 2003, Hoost would continue his feud with Bob Sapp in another arena of combat sports, professional wrestling. At AJPW's 2nd WRESTLE-1 event held in the Tokyo Dome, Hoost would defeat Sapp after delivering a chair shot and slap to the back of the head which led to a schoolboy pin.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: In addition to his Grand Prix titles Ernesto Hoost fought a number of Super fights. In 2004 he was again in the K-1 World Grand Prix 2004 finals, in which he lost to the eventual Grand Prix champion Remy Bonjasky.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: In 2006, Hoost declared that he would fight his last tournament in K-1. In the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006, Hoost was defeated in the semi-finals by Semmy Schilt. An emotional Hoost was met with a standing ovation from the audience as he left the arena.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost is well known for training "Knees of Fury" fighters Paul Slowinski (whom he is currently still training). Under his guidance Slowinski has won the K-1 tournament 2007 in Amsterdam. He has also trained leg strikes, wrestling, and other skills with PRIDE Champion Fedor Emelianenko.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost was also present as a cornerman for UFC fighter Antoni Hardonk in Hardonk's UFC 85 bout with Eddie Sanchez, his UFC 92 win over Mike Wessel, and his UFC 97 loss to Cheick Kongo.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: In 2012, Hoost was invited by the Katana Fighting Series to be guest of honour at their Katana 6 'Rebellion' show.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Hoost made a comeback aged 48. In his first fight in over eight years, he scored two knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision victory over Thomas Stanley at "Hoost Cup: Legend" in Nagoya, Japan on 23 March 2014.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: He defeated Peter Aerts in their sixth meeting via unanimous decision on 19 October 2014 in Osaka to win the vacant WKO World Heavyweight Championship.


title: Ernesto Hoost

text: Ernesto Hoost is generally considered to be among the greatest strikers of all time. While he lacked the sheer physicality of other heavyweights, he was able to succeed through his superior speed, accuracy, devastating combinations, and tactical brilliance. His nickname "Mr. Perfect" stemmed from his ability to throw complex combinations with almost machine-like technical precision. Hoost's most feared strike was his signature low kick, which he utilized at the end of his combinations to cripple his opponent throughout the course of a match. He was able to finish top competition such as Ray Sefo, Mirko Cro Cop, and Igor Vovchanchyn through his use of the low kick. Hoost also enjoyed a strong countering game as well as having high defensive acumen. This allowed him to survive when more powerful fighters attempted to brawl, although this notably failed (twice) against the 350 pound Bob Sapp.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: The EM-2, also known as Rifle, No.9, Mk.1 or Janson rifle, was a British assault rifle. It was briefly adopted by British forces in 1951, but the decision was overturned very shortly thereafter by Winston Churchill's incoming government in an effort to secure NATO standardisation of small arms and ammunition. It was an innovative weapon with the compact bullpup layout, built-in carrying handle and an optical sight.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: The gun was designed to fire one of the first purpose-designed entirely new intermediate cartridges, designed to a 1945 requirement as a result of combat experience and German advances in weapons design during World War II. The round, the .280 British, was designed to replace the .303 round, which dated to the late 19th century. The EM-2 was intended to replace the Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles and various submachineguns, while the TADEN would replace the Bren gun and Vickers machine gun.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: As part of NATO standardization efforts, the United States claimed the .280 British round was too weak for use in rifles and machine guns, and instead favoured the much more powerful 7.62×51mm NATO round. A bullpup layout for a British service rifle was finally adopted some years later in form of the SA80 assault rifle, which remains in service today.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: The British Army entered World War II with infantry weapons based on the .303 British round, including the Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle, Vickers machine gun and the Bren gun. The .303 had been developed near the end of the 19th century, and had several problems when used in modern designs, notably, the rimmed cartridge design that made it more difficult to use in a magazine. Although the Army had intended to replace the .303 on several occasions dating from before World War I, these efforts were repeatedly put off due to one crisis after another. There had been some consideration of a less powerful cartridge just prior to the start of WWII, using a 7.92 mm bullet, but in the aftermath of the Dunkirk evacuation, any interest in this development ended.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: In the immediate post-war period, Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield began the development of a series of designs firing German rounds. Polish designer Roman Korsak was producing a new light machine gun firing the 7.92×57mm Mauser round using a mechanism similar to the FG 42 known as the EM-1, while Jeziorański was designing an infantry weapon firing the StG 44's 7.92×33mm Kurz, the EM-2. A second infantry weapon was developed by Metcalf, the EM-3, but was not successful.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: As the war ran down, in 1945 the Army formed the Small Arms Calibre Panel (SACP) to develop a new standard calibre for future weapons. Military intelligence suggested that it would be ten years before the Soviets would be ready for another major war, so the time frame for re-equipping was the mid-to-late 1950s. This gave the Panel ample time to test a number of options.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: Experience during the war led to demands for a smaller "intermediate" sized cartridge that would allow fully automatic fire from a rifle-sized weapon. The Army demanded a high degree of accuracy due to the emphasis on marksmanship, so the new round was designed to meet the performance of the .303 (7.7 mm) at but at the reduced range of . After testing a variety of designs, they selected a bullet of about calibre and long, with a mass of .


title: EM-2 rifle

text: With the release of the SACP reports, interest in the original series of EM weapons ended and a call for weapons based on the new round went out in September 1947. By this time, Korsak had left the original EM-1 program and Kazimierz Januszewski had replaced him and had adopted the anglicized name Stefan Kenneth Janson. Janson's new design was given the name EM-2, in spite of being more closely related to the original EM-1. A new EM-1 was developed by Stanley Thorpe while Eric Hall developed an EM-3. Perhaps due to the confusing re-use of the names, these weapons are often referred to by their designer's names, becoming the "Thorpe EM-1", "Janson EM-2" and "Hall EM-3". As if this were not confusing enough, code names were also assigned, the EM-1 "Cobra", EM-2 "Mamba", while the EM-3 did not proceed and did not receive a name, as was the case for an entry from Dennis Burney as the EM-4.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: Both the EM-1 and EM-2 were bullpup-style weapons; the magazine and chamber are placed behind the trigger and pistol grip, leading to a shorter overall length (by about 20%) and a better ratio between barrel length and weapon length. The overall length of the EM-2 is less than the US M14 in spite of its barrel being longer. Both EM-1 and EM-2 used 20-round magazines with "charger" reloads (the charger guide was later omitted from the magazines on EM2s), included the Universal Optical Sight (unit sight) due to the inability to add more traditional sights onto the rifle, had a carrying handle built into the top, could fire semi-automatic or fully automatic and the .280 (7 mm) round was accurate to about .


title: EM-2 rifle

text: The two designs were superficially similar but were internally very different in design and construction, with no parts in common other than sights. The EM-1 used thick steel plate pressings for simpler manufacture, a roller locked short recoil mechanism, and was somewhat heavier at about with an empty magazine. With uncommon flapper locking and a gas piston above the barrel, EM-2 was similar to Gewehr 43 in its mechanics, although it used a long stroke instead of a short stroke. A fifth design was commissioned from the BSA company, who built prototypes of a more conventional rifle using the same round, the BSA 28P.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: The EM-2 was eventually selected as the better design, and was adopted as the British Army's new rifle on 25 April 1951 as the "Rifle, Automatic, Calibre .280, Number 9", the designation by which it had been known in the War Office since the American weapons tests of 1950.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: In common with other 20th century British designs such as the P14 and SA80, the EM-2 was designed to achieve a high degree of accuracy due to the tradition of British Army emphasis on marksmanship.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: With the creation of NATO in 1949, there was a clear preference that NATO forces would have commonality of weapons and ammunition, so weapons designs had to meet with the approval of more than one government, and it was hoped, would be adopted by the organisation as a whole. It was at this point that the US put forth its own designs for NATO standardisation, using the 7.62×51mm NATO round in their prototype T25 and T44 rifles. Matters came to a head in 1951 in a shoot-off conducted at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, with the US claiming the British round was underpowered, and the British claiming the US round was too powerful to be used in a rifle in full-automatic mode. At the same trials the Belgian .280 FN FAL was also tested.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: A series of lengthy debates followed, which were finally settled in an unlikely fashion when Canada stated they would use the British .280 round, but only if the US did as well. It was clear this would never happen. Winston Churchill felt a NATO standard was more important than any qualities of the weapon itself and overturned the decision by the previous Labour Minister of Defence, Manny Shinwell, who had already announced an intention to move to the .280 and the EM-2. During this time, prototype EM-2s were built in several different calibres: Chambons built two for the 7×49mm "Second Optimum" cartridge and another two for the 7.62×51mm NATO. One of the Chambon prototypes was even rebuilt for the US .30-06 cartridge. RSAF-Enfield and BSA built 15 and 10 prototypes for the 7.62×51mm, respectively. Canadian Arsenals Limited also built 10 rifles for the 7×51mm "Compromise" cartridge.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: It was clear the EM-2 could not be easily adapted to the powerful 7.62×51mm NATO round , so the only realistic alternative was to adopt a licensed version of the FN FAL from Fabrique Nationale. Created by Dieudonné Saive, the FAL was itself a re-designed version of FN's own design for an intermediate cartridge rifle using the .280 round (the first prototypes had used the 7.92×33mm Kurz German round from the StG44). However, the FAL was more easily adaptable to handle the more powerful, longer round.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: It grew in weight and length as a consequence. Churchill had hoped that with the British Commonwealth and other NATO countries adopting the FN FAL the US Army would do so as well, however the US adopted the T44 (an updated version of the M1 Garand) as the M14, which had won US trials against a more radical experimental rifle, the T25.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: In time, the British position on intermediate cartridges was vindicated, the 7.62×51mm proving to be too powerful to be controllable in rifles using automatic mode, smaller cartridges being deemed necessary for that application. Due to combat experience in Vietnam in the mid-1960s, the US adopted the AR-15 as the M16. Chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO intermediate cartridge, the M16 replaced the M14 which had been adopted little more than a decade earlier.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: Some years afterwards, NATO also agreed to move to a smaller round more suitable for full-automatic fire and lighter weapons, ultimately adopting the 5.56×45mm. Prior to committing to the 5.56mm, the British Army conducted additional intermediate cartridge research.


title: EM-2 rifle

text: Around 1970, a pair of the original .280 EM-2 were re-barrelled for an experimental 6.25×43mm cartridge. However, the revival of the EM-2 was short-lived as the 6.25mm was dropped for an even smaller 4.85mm cartridge in a completely new rifle, the L64/65 which evolved into the 5.56mm SA80 currently used by the British Army. In spite of having a similar appearance due to its bullpup layout the SA80 is mechanically unrelated to the EM-2; rather it is essentially a bullpup adaptation of the AR-18/SAR-87. However, the concept of an "Infantry Personal Weapon" which led to the design of the EM-2 was reflected in the SA80 system.


title: Mother Gothel

text: Mother Gothel is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 50th animated feature film "Tangled "(2010). The character is voiced by actress and singer Donna Murphy in her voice acting debut; Murphy auditioned for the role spontaneously upon learning from her agent that Disney was auditioning actresses for the film's villainous role. Loosely based on Dame Gothel in the German fairy tale "Rapunzel", Mother Gothel is a vain old woman who hoards the strong healing powers of a magical gold flower to live for many, many years and remain perpetually young and beautiful. When the flower is harvested to heal the kingdom's ailing queen, its powers are inherited by the king and the queen's daughter Rapunzel, removing Gothel's access. With her life suddenly endangered, Gothel kidnaps the infant, imprisoning the princess in an isolated tower for eighteen years while posing as her mother to exploit her powers.


title: Mother Gothel

text: Inspired by Disney villainesses such as the Evil Queen and Lady Tremaine from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) and "Cinderella" (1950), respectively, Gothel was developed by directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard into a more original, complex villain than the witch upon whom she is based because the character is forced to rely solely on her wit, charisma and intelligence as opposed to sorcery to survive. The film's most difficult character to develop, Gothel's exotic appearance, whose beauty, dark curly hair and voluptuous figure were deliberately designed to serve as a foil to Rapunzel's, was inspired by the appearance of Murphy herself and American singer Cher.


title: Mother Gothel

text: Mother Gothel has been mostly well received by film critics, who enjoyed the character's humor, complexity, charisma and showmanship, dubbing her a scene stealer, while praising Murphy's performance enthusiastically. However, some critics argued that Gothel was too passive, dismissing her as a weaker, less intimidating Disney villainess than Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) and Cruella de Vil from "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961).


title: Mother Gothel

text: Walt Disney himself first attempted to adapt the fairy tale "Rapunzel" into a feature-length animated film during the 1940s. However, the filmmaker's efforts were never fully realized because the fairy tale was considered too "small". In 2008, co-directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard decided to enlarge the film's scale to transform it into a "big event" for it to be successful. Meanwhile, the character Mother Gothel was developed into a much more complex villain than the witch upon whom she is based, conceiving her as "a very lonely woman who really did not know how to have a relationship of any kind". Little else had been determined about the character at the time, who was simply described as "the type of woman who ... envisioned herself in the spotlight." A departure from traditional Disney Villains, Mother Gothel is not a witch or a sorceress. Because she lacks supernatural powers, the character is forced to rely solely on her wit, charm, intellect and charisma, a conscious decision made by Greno and Howard. However, in the Brothers Grimm's original fairy tale, Gothel is very much depicted as a typical witch-like character, an idea that was modified for the Disney film adaptation in favor of having Gothel's agelessness instead be "derive[d] ... from Rapunzel's hair."


title: Mother Gothel

text: Seeking inspiration for Gothel and Rapunzel's "bizarre" relationship, Greno and Howard conducted a series of interviews with several female Disney employees, asking them to list qualities in their mothers that "they found annoying and cloying or restricting", specifically "the things that their mothers would do that made them feel trapped or made them feel smothered" to make the villain appear more relatable. Gothel's "Mother Knows Best" line "Getting kind of chubby" was in fact borrowed from one of these interviews. Gothel embodies "the darker side" of overprotective parents; at the beginning of the film, Gothel and Rapunzel's relationship resembles more-so of "a pure mother-daughter relationship." Elaborating on Gothel's "unique mothering style", Howard explained to "Den of Geek" that the character" ""has to convince this smart girl that she is her mother ... whatever her motivations are." Citing Gothel as one of the film's most difficult characters to develop as a result of her complex relationship with Rapunzel, Greno explained to "Den of Geek":


title: Mother Gothel

text: The "St. Paul Pioneer Press "observed that Gothel represents "an update" of the traditional wicked stepmother, evolving into "the passive-aggressive stepmother" instead. In actress Donna Murphy's opinion, a "classic" villainess is "somebody who wants something with such intensity and such great need but comes to a place of not being bound by any kind of moral code or any sense of what's ethical", concluding that "They will do anything to get what they want". "The Austin Chronicle" observed that the directors' inclusion of Gothel as "an evil mother figure as a trigger for the storyline" remains one of the "classic hallmarks of Disney animation".


title: Mother Gothel

text: The directors admitted that they were not keen on hiring solely big-named, A-list celebrities or top-billed actors to voice the film's main characters. Howard explained that, to be cast, the actors simply had to have the "right voice" for the characters, preferring voice actors "who could ... bring a natural ease to those characters." Greno elaborated, "It was never about how big the star was ... It was always about ... who's best for the part". Film critic James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" observed that this decision echoed "Disney's approach during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when big name stars were often bypassed in favor of lesser known talents." An additional asset was that the actor be able to perform well both independently and collaboratively.


title: Mother Gothel

text: Mother Gothel is voiced by American actress and singer Donna Murphy, a Tony Award-winning Broadway actress who was informed about the casting call for "Tangled" by her agent. Having never voiced an animated character before, the actress decided to audition for the role of the film's villain based solely on the expectation that the unfamiliar experience would be "fun". Almost immediately, Murphy developed a strong liking towards Gothel because of the character's complexity. Known for her award-winning Broadway performances, Murphy prepared herself for her "Tangled "audition similar to the way in which the actress would have prepared for a Broadway audition. Refusing to rely solely on her voice, Murphy also provided Gothel with an additional background that "flush[ed] out the moments beyond what we see in the film." Although Greno and Howard had already held Murphy in high regard as "a spectacular singer", the actress was required to audition a song for the directors nonetheless, performing "Children Will Listen" from the musical "Into the Woods". Howard revealed in an interview that Murphy was ultimately chosen out of hundreds of actresses because she possessed "something extra"; the directors especially enjoyed the charisma and intelligence Murphy brought to the role.