title: Mervyn Peake

text: In 2000, the BBC and WGBH Boston co-produced a lavish miniseries, titled "Gormenghast", based on the first two books of the series. It starred Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Steerpike, Neve McIntosh as Fuchsia, June Brown as Nannie Slagg, Ian Richardson as Lord Groan, Christopher Lee as Flay, Richard Griffiths as Swelter, Warren Mitchell as Barquentine, Celia Imrie as Countess Gertrude, Lynsey Baxter and Zoë Wanamaker as the twins Cora and Clarice, and John Sessions as Dr Prunesquallor. The supporting cast included Olga Sosnovska, Stephen Fry and Eric Sykes, and the series is also notable as the last screen performance by comedy legend Spike Milligan (as the Headmaster).


title: Mervyn Peake

text: A 30-minute TV short film "A Boy in Darkness" (also made in 2000 and adapted from Peake's novella) was the first production from the BBC Drama Lab. It was set in a "virtual" computer-generated world created by young computer game designers, and starred Jack Ryder (from "EastEnders") as Titus, with Terry Jones ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") narrating.


title: Mervyn Peake

text: Irmin Schmidt, founder of seminal German Krautrock group Can, wrote an opera called "Gormenghast", based on the novels; it was first performed in Wuppertal, Germany, in November 1998. A number of early songs by New Zealand rock group Split Enz were inspired by Peake's work. The song "The Drowning Man", by British band The Cure, is inspired by events in "Gormenghast", and the song "Lady Fuchsia" by another British band, Strawbs, is also based on events in the novels.


title: Mervyn Peake

text: Peake's play "The Cave", which dates from the mid-1950s, was given a first public reading at the Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell (London) in 2009, and had its world premiere in the same theatre, directed by Aaron Paterson, on 19 October 2010.


title: Mervyn Peake

text: In 2011 Brian Sibley adapted the story again, this time as six one-hour episodes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as the Classic Serial starting on 10 July 2011. The serial was titled "The History of Titus Groan" and adapted all three novels written by Mervyn Peake and the recently discovered concluding volume, "Titus Awakes", completed by his widow, Maeve Gilmore. It starred Luke Treadaway as Titus, David Warner as the Artist and Carl Prekopp as Steerpike. It also starred Paul Rhys, Miranda Richardson, James Fleet, Tamsin Greig, Fenella Woolgar, Adrian Scarborough and Mark Benton among others.


title: Mervyn Peake

text: Sting owned the film rights to the "Gormenghast" novels for a brief period in the 1980s, during which he discussed the possibility of adapting the novels into a series of concept albums, but he abandoned the idea after declaring the Radio 4 audio drama as ideal. As of 2015, author Neil Gaiman was in talks to adapt the novels for the big screen.


title: Jack Twist

text: Jack Twist is a fictional character of the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and of the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name directed by Ang Lee, where he is portrayed by American actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Jack's story is depicted by the complex sexual and romantic relationship he has with Ennis Del Mar in the American West from 1963 to 1983.


title: Jack Twist

text: Gyllenhaal received a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.


title: Jack Twist

text: In an interview about her work, and "Brokeback Mountain" in particular, author Proulx stated Jack Twist is a "confused Wyoming ranch kid" who finds himself in a personal sexual situation he did not foresee, nor can understand. She said both men were "beguiled by the cowboy myth", and Jack "settles on rodeo as an expression of the Western ideal. It more or less works for him until he becomes a tractor salesman." Jack is also more romantic than Ennis, being the one who pursues the relationship and insists that they should live together officially. He is open about his desires and discontents, which is also shown in the novella, when he tries to open his wife Lureen's eyes about their son's dyslexia even though he knows that he has no say in the matter, since she holds the money in the family.


title: Jack Twist

text: One mystery surrounding Jack Twist (as well as Ennis Del Mar) is his sexual orientation. He has a sexual and emotional relationship with Lureen, but he still shows more sexual desire towards men in general than Ennis, who has no relations with men other than Jack. Jack sleeps with other men, including male prostitutes. While meeting Ennis in the mountains for the very last time, Jack says he is having an extramarital relationship with a woman; however, it is likely that the woman, the "ranch foreman's wife", is actually the ranch foreman himself, as in a previous scene, he invites Jack to a cabin to "do a little fishing and drink some whisky ...". In a later scene, Jack's father mentions to Ennis that Jack had revealed a plan before he died to come up with a male friend to the family ranch and live there.


title: Jack Twist

text: Some film critics suggest Jack is bisexual rather than strictly homosexual. Sex researcher Fritz Klein stated he felt Jack to be more "toward the gay side of bisexuality." Gyllenhaal himself took the opinion that Ennis and Jack were heterosexual men who "develop this love, this bond", also saying in a "Details" interview: "I approached the story believing that these are actually two straight guys who fall in love." The film's producer, James Schamus, and LGBT non-fiction author Eric Marcus, opined that the characters were both gay.


title: Jack Twist

text: Novelist Brent Hartinger analyzed some of the discussion about the sexual orientations of the characters, writing for AfterElton.com. Hartinger personally "felt it inconceivable" that the characters could be considered bisexual and not gay because the film consistently showed their dissatisfaction with their heterosexual partners and deep emotional and physical fulfillment with one another. Hartinger added that Del Mar insists on anal sex with his wife, and Twist seeks out other males for sex outside of his marriage when Del Mar is not available. Hartinger puts down efforts to describe the characters as bisexual to a mixture of bisexuals who misunderstand "what it means to be gay" and some who rightfully feel starved of media representations of bisexuality. For Hartinger, the actors' opinions of "straight guys who just happened to fall in love" seems to come more from Gyllenhaal and Ledger's acting method rather than an assessment of the text. Hartinger ended the discussion with a quotation from Proulx, on the subject of her short story, to illuminate the ways in which different people interpret the sexualities of the main characters:


title: Jack Twist

text: Jack is born in about 1943 or 1944, and grows up in Lightning Flat, in the northeastern corner of Wyoming. At some point, he drops out of high school. While on a 1963 shepherding job on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming, rodeo cowboy Jack meets and falls in love with ranch hand Ennis Del Mar (portrayed in the film by Heath Ledger).


title: Jack Twist

text: When the two 19-year-old men first begin work on Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is stationed at the base camp while Jack watches after the sheep higher on the mountain. They initially meet only for meals at the base camp, where they gradually become friends. After a time they switch roles, with Jack taking over duties at base camp and Ennis tending the flock. One night, after the two share a bottle of whiskey, Ennis decides to remain at the base camp overnight instead of returning up the mountain. He shivers noticeably in the cold weather, and Jack suggests he come in the tent to get warm. Ennis is at first reluctant to even sleep in the same tent as Jack, but later that night the men share a brief, intense sexual encounter. Over the remainder of the summer their sexual and emotional relationship deepens further.


title: Jack Twist

text: After the job is finished the two part ways. Jack tries to get the same job again at Brokeback Mountain, but his former employer, having seen him and Ennis in a sexual encounter, refuses to rehire him. Jack then moves to Texas, where he meets and eventually marries rodeo princess Lureen Newsome (portrayed in the film by Anne Hathaway) and has a son, Bobby, with her.


title: Jack Twist

text: Four years after they separate from each other, Jack sends a postcard to Ennis, asking if he wants to meet him while he passes through the area. The men reunite, and their passion immediately rekindles. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch. Ennis resists, fearing that they will be killed if their relationship is put out in the open. Ennis and Jack settle for infrequent meetings on camping trips in the mountains.


title: Jack Twist

text: As the years pass, Ennis' marriage eventually ends in divorce, causing Jack to hope that this will allow him and Ennis to live together. But Ennis continues to refuse to move away from his children, and remains uncomfortable about men living together. On another trip with Ennis in the mountains, in 1983, Jack discovers that in order to keep his job, Ennis cannot meet with Jack again before November. Ennis and Jack's frustrations finally erupt into a bitter argument and a struggle that becomes a desperate embrace. The two men part, upset and angry with each other.


title: Jack Twist

text: Months later, a postcard Ennis sent to Jack about meeting in November, has returned to the post office, stamped "deceased". In a strained telephone conversation, Lureen tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident while changing a tire; Ennis, however, suspects that he was murdered by men who discovered his secret life. Lureen tells Ennis that Jack wished to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain, and suggests that he contact Jack's parents.


title: Jack Twist

text: Ennis visits Jack's parents in Lightning Flat, Wyoming and offers to take Jack's ashes to Brokeback Mountain. Jack's father refuses, insisting that Jack's remains be buried in the family plot. Jack's mother is more welcoming, and allows Ennis to see Jack's boyhood bedroom. While in the room, Ennis discovers two old shirts hidden in the back of the closet. The shirts, hung one inside the other on the same hanger, are the ones the two men were wearing on their last day on Brokeback Mountain in 1963. Ennis takes the now rolled-up shirts with him; Jack's mother silently offers him a paper sack to put them in.


title: Jack Twist

text: At the end of the story, Ennis opens his own closet to reveal that he has hung the two shirts reversed, with his plaid shirt hugging Jack's blue shirt. They hang inside the door beneath a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. Ennis carefully fastens the top button of Jack's shirt. With tears in his eyes, Ennis mutters, "Jack, I "swear" ...".


title: Fabio Ochoa Vásquez

text: Fabio Ochoa Vásquez (born May 2, 1957) is a former leading member of the Medellín cocaine trafficking cartel, along with his older brothers Juan David and Jorge Luis. His role briefly made him a billionaire. After serving a brief prison term in Colombia, he was arrested and extradited to the US in 1999 and is serving a 30-year term in US federal prison.


title: Fabio Ochoa Vásquez

text: The youngest of the three Ochoa brothers, Ochoa Vásquez lived in Miami, Florida during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was alleged to have handled thousands of pounds of cocaine. He was indicted by the US government for the first time in 1984, and was allegedly involved in the February 19, 1986 murder of Barry Seal, an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In 1987, he and his brothers were included in the Forbes Magazine list of global billionaires, and remained on the list until 1992. The New York Times reported that during this period he was considered the "chief executive" of the family business.


title: Fabio Ochoa Vásquez

text: In 1991, Ochoa Vásquez and his brothers turned themselves in to Colombian authorities, hoping to avoid "open war" with the government through a plea deal. They served short terms together in Colombia, and were released by 1996. At the time, Colombia and the US did not have an extradition treaty, and the brothers secured a promise that they would not be extradited in the future as part of the plea deal.


title: Fabio Ochoa Vásquez

text: After release, he was arrested again in 1999, and accused of contributing knowledge and receiving payments for cocaine shipments. Despite a lobbying and press campaign, he was extradited to the United States in September 2001, and convicted in 2003 of trafficking, conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in the U.S. He was sentenced to 30 years in a U.S. federal prison. He is now in federal prison in Jesup, GA.


title: Fabio Ochoa Vásquez

text: After his imprisonment, the Colombian government seized properties worth several million US dollars from him, including several farms and businesses. On May 1, 2020, U.S. federal prosecutors objected to a bid for Ochoa Vásquez to be released five years before the completion of his 30 year prison sentence.


title: Silver lining (idiom)

text: A silver lining is a metaphor for optimism in vernacular English, which means a negative occurrence may have a positive aspect to it.


title: Silver lining (idiom)

text: John Milton coined the phrase 'silver lining' in his poem Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:


title: Silver lining (idiom)

text: It is a metaphor comparing the silvery, shining edges of a cloud backlit by the Sun or the Moon to an unseen silver lining for the back of the cloud.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Guitar Hero World Tour (initially referred to as Guitar Hero IV or Guitar Hero IV: World Tour) is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the "Guitar Hero" series. The game was launched in North America in October 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of "World Tour" for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X was later released by Aspyr.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: While the game continues to feature the use of a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of rock music, "Guitar Hero World Tour" is the first game in the "Guitar Hero" series to feature drum and microphone controllers for percussion and vocal parts. This is in many ways similar to the competing "Rock Band" series of games. The game allows users to create new songs through the "Music Studio" mode, which can then be uploaded and shared through a service known as "GHTunes".


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "World Tour" received generally positive reviews, with critics responding positively to the quality of the instrument controllers, the customization abilities, and improvements in the game's difficulty compared with the previous "".


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "Guitar Hero World Tour" builds on the gameplay from previous "Guitar Hero" games, in which players attempt to simulate the playing of rock music using special guitar-shaped controllers. "World Tour" expands beyond the core guitar-based gameplay by introducing the ability to play drums and sing vocals, and supports the ability for up to four players to play together in a virtual band through these different instruments. Successfully hitting notes increases the player's or band's score, as well as increase the "Rock Meter" that represents the song's performance. Missed notes are not scored and negatively affect the Rock Meter. If the Rock Meter drops too low, the song ends prematurely, with the virtual audience booing the band off stage. Completing a consecutive series of notes successfully will increase a scoring multiplier for that player up to 4x. This multiplier is doubled when the player activates star power. Similar to "Rock Band", the band shares a common score, scoring multiplier and band performance meter while each player has their own performance metric; the band also shares the same "Star Power" meter, though any player may activate it at any time. A player that performs poorly and reduces their performance meter to zero can still continue to play, but they drain the overall performance meter for the band, requiring the other players to make up for this. Successfully completing a song garners a three to five-star rating based on the accumulated score, and rewards such as in-game money that can be used to buy new guitars and outfits for characters.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The guitar interface remains relatively unchanged in "World Tour". As with previous "Guitar Hero" titles, the guitar and bass player must hold down the correct fret button(s) on the controller while strumming in time with the notes as they scroll on-screen. One addition to the guitar gameplay is the ability to play notes while holding a sustained note. Additionally, the bass guitar player is required to play notes representing an open E string, which is shown on-screen as a solid line across their note track. To play these notes, the bass guitar player strums the controller without pressing any fret button keys. The drum interface is similar to the guitar's interface, with each on-screen note track equivalent to a colored drum head on the controller, with the bass drum indicated by a line across the note track. The drum player only needs to hit the correct drum pads simultaneously to the note gems to successfully play their track. There are also marked sections indicating drum fills wherein the player may play any notes they wish in a 'solo' to gain points. The vocal track requires the player to match the pitch of the notes in a manner similar to "Karaoke Revolution" to be successful. Special sections of each player's note track are marked with glowing notes, which, if completed successfully, builds up Star Power. Once enough Star Power is accumulated, it can be released via various means to double the band's current score multiplier. For guitar and bass, this is done by lifting the guitar controller vertically or (though not in bass) by pressing a button on the guitar face; for drums, by striking both cymbal pads on the controller at the same time; for vocals, by tapping the microphone or making a similarly quick sound. Star Power's use has been modified over previous "Guitar Hero" entries in that Star Power can now be accumulated even when Star Power is in use by successfully completing additional Star Power phrases, which extends the Star Power's duration.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: In addition to the standard four difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert) for each song and instrument, a new Beginner level has been added in "World Tour". This difficulty is aimed for younger and unskilled players; notes are generally simple straight lines in time with bass drum beats, and allowing any or no fret button to be held while the note is strummed (for lead and bass guitar), any drum to be hit (for drums), or any sound to be made (for vocals).


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The primary single-player game mode is Career mode, which can be played on the lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or vocals. Career mode has been slightly altered from previous "Guitar Hero" games. After creating a band, selecting or creating an avatar, and then selecting an instrument, the player is then presented with one of several gigs containing two to five songs each. Most gigs end with an encore song that is not revealed until the other songs are completed. Two of the lead guitar gigs feature "boss challenges" with Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent; these boss challenges, featuring original songs by Wylde and Nugent, are different from ""s boss battle, removing the focus on attack power-ups and instead featuring a call-and-response mechanic similar to the existing Face-Off mode. The gigs are arranged by difficulty based on the selected instrument. The player is awarded in-game money for each song completed, and completing each gig can also award additional money for meeting certain criteria, such as never letting the Rock Meter drop below a certain level or playing the first several notes of a song perfectly. Completing a gig can also unlock one or more gigs with more difficult songs to complete. Additional awards, such as customization items, are also awarded for completing gigs. The player's accumulated earnings across any of the single player Career Modes are tracked and used to rank the player's overall performance level.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Band Career mode is similar to the solo Career mode, with the game songs presented as several gigs to be completed. A band must have at least two players to proceed. The second player may be either a local player or one over the network. Players may be at different levels of progression in the game, but still gain benefits for successfully completing songs when playing together. The in-game interface features vocals along the top of the screen, and three tracks underneath, for bass, drums, and guitar; only tracks for active players are shown. Full four-player bands can compete with other bands online in a Battle of the Bands mode.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Both single players and bands can play a setlist of up to six songs in Quickplay mode, still earning in-game money rewards for their performances. Existing competitive modes from the series, including the Battle Mode from "Guitar Hero III", are also present in the game.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The Wii version of the game features a special "Mii Freestyle" mode that allows players to use their Miis as their characters as they improvise songs via the guitar and drum controllers or using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Players are able to use the Create-a-Rocker mode which is based on the Create-a-Skater mode in Neversoft's "Tony Hawk" series and the advanced character creation scheme from the "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" series. Players can change their character's poise, clothing, tattoos, makeup, and age. Selected characters from previous "Guitar Hero" games are available as templates for creating a rocker. Previous games featured Gibson Guitars, but as a result of a lawsuit with Gibson Guitars, branded guitars are not featured; instead, the player can create a customized guitar from various components, such as bodies, fretboards, and headstocks. The player's in-game drum set and microphone can also be similarly customized. The 14 starting characters of the game can be customized too; however, their customization is limited to clothing and accessories only. Activision had formed partnerships with several instrument equipment manufactures to be featured in the game, including Ampeg, Audio-Technica, EMG Pickups, Ernie Ball, Evans Drumheads, Guitar Center, Krank Amplification, Mackie, Marshall, Orange County Drum & Percussion, Pork Pie Percussion, Regal Tip, Sabian, Vox and Zildjian.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: In addition to the computer- and player-controlled characters, avatars of notable musicians are featured in the game, either with motion capture or the licensing of their image for their character. Such playable artists include Hayley Williams of Paramore, Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, the Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan, Sting, Ted Nugent, and Travis Barker.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: New venues in the game include virtual recreations of real arenas, such as Ozzfest, Amoeba Music, Live Nation's House of Blues, Sunset Strip and the San Francisco Giants' stadium, AT&T Park. One venue showcases the trademark art style of Tool and was developed in collaboration with the band. "World Tour" is the first Activision game on the PlayStation 3 to support dynamic in-game advertising provided by IGA Worldwide; similar advertising for the Xbox 360 version is provided by Massive Incorporated.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: RedOctane developed a new guitar controller for "World Tour". The unit is approximately 25% larger than previous controllers, making it closer to the size of a real guitar. The new controller includes a longer whammy bar and places the Star Power button directly below the strum bar, improving the access of these features. The strum bar itself was made quieter and longer. The neck of the guitar is detachable, similar to the Gibson Les Paul controller for "Guitar Hero III", but the connector has been hardened to avoid connection issues experienced with the previous unit. The neck of the guitar features a touch-sensitive pad just toward the body end from the normal five fret buttons. The player can use either the fret buttons or the touch pad to play regular notes. The pad also allows the player to play notes via tapping or via "tap strumming" similar to the slap bass method for bass guitar, and to alter the pitch of sustained notes. Guitar tracks feature notes connected by a semi-transparent purple line, (except for the Wii and PlayStation 2 version, in which semi-transparent gems replace this purple line) called "Slider Gems"; the player can play these notes by sliding their fingers up and down the touch pad or by tapping the fret buttons without strumming. The touchpad can also be used for sustained and staccato notes in the music studio feature while recording guitar, and is used for finer control over loops when recording other instruments.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "World Tour" features a wireless six-piece drum kit, with a bass drum pedal and five velocity-sensitive drum pads, which Activision has stated provide the "most realistic drum experience ever in a video game". Generally, the pads represent the snare drum (red), the tom-tom drum (blue), the floor tom (green), the hi-hat cymbal (yellow), and the crash cymbal (orange), however, they can be used for other percussion instruments depending on the song. The bass drum is represented by a purple, horizontal line on the highway, which players must use the drum pedal to hit. The drum kit was designed with help from John Devacka, the developer of "MTV Drumscape", and developed key patents used for most modern music games that are now owned by Activision. Special note gems on the drum track, representing accent notes, are "armored", requiring the player to strike the corresponding drum head harder in order to break the armor and score more points. During song creation, the velocity sensitivity feature of the drum pad allows players to alter the sounds made by the drums. The drum set also has a MIDI input port in the back, allowing users to connect a compatible MIDI drum kit to play in the game. The Wii version of the drum controller includes a slot for the Wii Remote to fit into, enabling it to become wireless, much like the guitar controller introduced for the Wii version of "Guitar Hero III".


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The official microphone used for vocals uses a USB connection. For other consoles, such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a headset can also be used as an alternative, but has proven to be less reliable as it tends not to pick up the audio from the player. When playing vocals, a standard game controller, or Wii Remote on the Wii version, is necessary in order to navigate menus, select difficulties and pause. The microphone can also be used as a standard recording device when connected to a casual PC USB port. The computer recognizes the device as a Logitech Recording Device.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Logitech and Activision announced that the former company would produce "premium" instruments to be released later in 2008.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "World Tour" works with older "Guitar Hero" guitar controllers. Activision stated during their E3 2008 press conference that Xbox 360 users would be able to use the existing "Rock Band" instrument controllers as well as other third party controllers in "Guitar Hero World Tour"; "Rock Band" instruments for the PlayStation 3 are not guaranteed to work in "World Tour", though Sony is attempting to help make these units compatible. All "Rock Band" original Harmonix instruments for PlayStation 2 work with "World Tour". According to issue 027 of the UK's "Official PlayStation Magazine", all "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" PS3 controllers are cross-compatible with all games (except for "Guitar Hero: World Tour" drums on "Rock Band", however some require patching, which is done automatically when connected to the internet). Wired Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 instruments also work on the PlayStation 2 versions of "World Tour", as well as later "Guitar Hero" games.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Console makers have helped to ensure instrument compatibility between current and upcoming guitar and band games. Both Sony and Microsoft announced that instruments for "World Tour", "Rock Band 2", and Konami's "Rock Revolution" would work between all three games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Wii version of the game only supports guitar controllers from previous Guitar Hero games, and "no compatibility with any other peripherals".


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "World Tour" adjusts the tracks in the game to account for the instrument controller being used. For example, sections of the lead guitar track that are designed to be played on the new "World Tour" controller's touchpad can be played by tapping the frets on older controllers without strumming. When using "Rock Band"s drum controller, which has one fewer percussion pad than the "World Tour" unit and lacks velocity sensitivity, two of the lanes on the "World Tour" drum board merge, reducing the note track to four drum pads and bass pedal, and no armored notes are presented.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The fourth major entry to the "Guitar Hero" series, at the time named "Guitar Hero IV", was officially announced upon the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007. "We couldn't have done it without Red Octane's support." says the Guitar Hero Team. The game's new name, "Guitar Hero World Tour", was officially announced by Activision in May 2008.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Activision and RedOctane had previously registered for trademarks on ""Guitar Villain"", ""Drum Villain"", ""Keyboard Hero"", ""Drum Hero"" and ""Band Hero"". Analysts speculated that future "Guitar Hero" would need to include additional instrument peripherals in order to compete against former "Guitar Hero" developer Harmonixs "Rock Band". Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick and early previews of the game revealed that "Guitar Hero IV" would branch out into other instruments and vocals.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: According to the "Game Informer" preview, the addition of drum functionality came from work initially done towards the "Drum Hero" title. This work was later folded into the "Guitar Hero" series after Neversoft was chosen as developer of the series. Neversoft's Allen Flores stated that with the addition of the existing drum gameplay, the development of "World Tour" took under a year, starting development immediately after the release of "Guitar Hero III". The drum instrument controller was designed to be more realistic, with input from Chad Smith (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (of The Police) and Travis Barker (of Blink-182), all of whom requested the elevated cymbal pads. The ability to open-strum the guitar was a feature that was planned for "Guitar Hero III" but was removed before release, finding that it was too difficult on the guitar tracks. However, they built this feature in from the start of "World Tour" development for the bass guitar tracks.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Bright describes the development of the note track for a given song once it has been licensed for the game as a parallel effort, a process that they have found to be more efficient than their previous work on the "Tony Hawk" games. Once the song was mixed for use by the development team, a "tempo map" was created by one developer; this map denotes the beats in the music which then can be used by the rest of the development team. Once the tempo map was complete, the song was then distributed to the various teams, such as the specific instrument teams or to the animators, to complete the song. Note-for-note tracking from the song was then performed, and in some cases, changes were made to account for sections that cannot be replicated on the game controllers; the final track represented the note track for the Expert difficulty of the song. Note tracks were then reduced and adjusted to create the note tracks for the lower difficulties in the game. A difficulty assessment was made using the final note tracks to determine where the songs were to be placed in the soundtrack progression. The difficulty model is based on that from "", which was adjusted from the "Guitar Hero III" model after the team received negative feedback from players regarding a "brick wall" in the difficulty progression in that game.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The song list for "World Tour" started as the list of songs that Neversoft wanted to include in "Guitar Hero III", but had failed to get into the game or as downloadable content; the list was eventually expanded to over 500 songs. The song list was then prioritized based on what the team thought would be best in the game, and then going after the music that would take the longest time to license, as was the case for the Jimi Hendrix songs. While songs were selected to make sure that guitar, bass, and drums all had great parts, they also opted for songs that would be strong for one single instrument as to make the game still appealing for those playing the single player modes. Some songs were also suggested through the licensing efforts by Activision for inclusion in the game. Flores stated that the inclusion of caricatures of recording artists in the game was either due to the team seeking that specific artist for the game, or the artist approaching the development team and requesting to be part of it. The band Tool, which hasn't licensed its music since 1996, allowed for the inclusion of three of its songs in "World Tour" as long they were involved with the artwork and tracking of the songs for the game, leading to the creation of the art-like Tool venue.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Bright noted that they had support for "epic drum solos", in which the band animation would focus on the drummer, but removed this feature from the game's final release due to its complexity. They also had to remove the "Jam Over" mode planned for the game's music creation section that would have allowed players to start with one of the game's songs and play over it on their instruments; this feature was removed in order to keep the final product polished and on-time.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The custom song creation feature was inspired by the current "hacking environment" that has arisen from the first two "Guitar Hero" games, where players would create new tracks and share them with others.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Hands-On Mobile has secured the worldwide rights to create a mobile phone version of the game to be released later in 2008. A version of the game has been rated by the ESRB for Microsoft Windows computers, though Activision has not officially confirmed this version.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: A PC version of Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed by Intel on February 27, 2009 and displayed at CeBIT on March 3–8, 2009 in Hannover, Germany.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "World Tour" is available in several bundle packages, as well as the stand-alone game. In addition to a game bundle that includes a wireless guitar for each platform, the game can be bought in one of two bundles that include the guitar, drums, and microphone controller. The second bundle, only available through RedOctane's store, also includes a T-shirt, keychain, and a recharging kit. Players in the United Kingdom who pre-order the full band bundle also received a second guitar controller for bass players. The bass guitar is the Les Paul guitar, the same model as bundled with "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock". During the Christmas season of 2008, Some retailers, such as Target, sold in-store a dual guitar bundle which included two identical wireless Les Paul styled guitars from previous game versions and did not include the new guitar with the tapping area.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Activision created a series of television advertisements directed by Brett Ratner based on the famous scene from "Risky Business" where Tom Cruise dances to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" in a shirt and underwear, each featuring a different set of celebrities lip synching to the lyrics while using the new instrument controllers. The first ad included athletes Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, Alex Rodriguez, and Michael Phelps. Another ad spot featured model Heidi Klum; two versions of Klum's ad exist, one a "director's cut" where she is wearing less clothing. A subsequent commercial featuring model Marisa Miller was banned from airing as too racy.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: A YouTube viral video entitled "Bike Hero" showed what appeared to be a teenager riding a bike along a route marked with symbols similar in appearance to the in-game note tracks with LED lights on the handlebars blinking in time to the notes to the song "Prisoner of Society" by The Living End. The video was later determined to be the work of a viral marketing company Droga5 in cooperation with Activision to promote the "Guitar Hero" games. The viral advertisement was considered a success, with about 3.5 million views since its release.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: All of the 86 songs in the game are master recordings, a first for the series. Project director Brian Bright claims that they have "a pretty even split between the '80s, '90s, and classic rock" with a "good amount of emerging bands". Some of the songs from the disc are exportable to both "Guitar Hero 5" and "Band Hero" for a small fee, with music licensing rights limiting which songs can be exported.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "Guitar Hero World Tour" allows players to create their own songs through the "Music Studio" and share them with others through the Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection internet capabilities. The Studio is similar to Apples GarageBand software. The player can create the tracks for each song by playing it in real or slowed time, with the game quantizing offbeat notes to the nearest beat as set by the player, or tracks can be constructed one note at a time. The notes played by the user are the default "Expert" difficulty track, and the lower difficulty versions are generated by the game.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Players can create the tracks for lead, rhythm, and bass guitars and for drums, selecting from a number of different sounds and kits for each instrument. Distortion and other effects can be added to these tracks through Line 6 amplifiers in the "GHMix" mode. Players cannot record vocals directly, but can create a hum-along vocal line in the Studio. PlayStation 3 users with MIDI-compatible computers are also able to connect their computer to the console and use it for song composition; a similar feature is sought for Xbox 360 owners. Eurogamer reported that a crew at Activision was able to successfully create a "perfectly respectable cover" version of the first verse of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Custom songs can be uploaded to the "GH Tunes" service, allowing other players to rate songs and search and download songs by these ratings. A Showcase service provides some of the best user works alongside new songs from popular artists for players to download. Players can only upload five songs to the service at the start, but players that have highly rated songs gain the ability to upload more. Bright stated that uploaded songs would be actively monitored, and that covers of copyrighted songs would be removed from the service while also taking down any other requests made by copyright owners. The PlayStation 2 version of the game features custom song creation, but does not support the uploading service.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: In addition to custom songs, players of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions were able to download new licensed songs for the game. However, on March 31, 2014 Activision removed this content from being downloadable and there is no evidence it will become available again.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: This is the first game in the "Guitar Hero" series that supported download functionality on the Wii. Wii users are able to store downloaded songs on either the Wii's internal memory or on an SD Card in a "Rock Archive," and then were able to add songs to playlists from this. When playing tracks stored on an SD Card, each song was automatically copied to a "content cache" on the Wii's flash memory for play and then deleted after the song is finished. This required about 200 free memory blocks on the Wii.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Neversoft and Activision expressed intentions to release downloadable content more frequently, but this has yet to materialize since the game was released in 2008. Downloadable content was available through the in-game store and includes full album downloads and more regular releases compared to "Guitar Hero III". Most existing downloadable content for "Guitar Hero III" is not playable in "World Tour", due to the lack of having tracks for all four instruments for the latter game. However, with the release of Metallicas "Death Magnetic", the developers were able to prepare the tracks in "Guitar Hero III" to have the required portions needed for "World Tour", and thus these tracks are forward-compatible. Activision has also stated that they are considering a monthly subscription service to deliver downloadable content to users for future games. Most of the downloadable content (152 of 158 songs as of early August 2009) is exportable to both "Guitar Hero 5" and "Band Hero", updated to include new features introduced in those games. However, "Guitar Hero 5" downloadable content is not playable in "World Tour".


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Users encountered several technical issues with the instrument controllers upon release of the game. Most often cited was the drum controller failing to register drum hits by the player. Some users have also found that, despite the assurance of instrument compatibility, the PlayStation 3 "World Tour" drum kit does not work with "Rock Band 2", however the 1.1 patch for Rock Band 2 on PS3 has fixed this issue. Users have also noted that the wireless guitar strum bar may fail after a few hours of playing. Activision has acknowledged that drum sets from earlier manufacturing processes may be prone to these errors, and have set up several support threads on their "Guitar Hero" forums to address the issue and assist users in equipment replacement.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "Guitar Hero World Tour" has received generally positive reviews from critics, many making comparisons between it and the "Rock Band" series. 1UP noted that while "World Tour" is not as good a "party game" as "Rock Band", the game still provides "great peripherals and fun-to-play music" and delivers what the player should expect. GameTrailers stated that "another viable challenger has stepped onto the stage." IGN's review was lukewarm, noting that "A number of things it tries to accomplish were already done better in Rock Band", but stated that the game would be a good "stepping point" for the next iteration of the series.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: While reviewers were satisfied with the single player modes of the game, the Band tour mode was considered weaker than "Rock Band"s Tour mode. The interface for a full band, despite being similar to "Rock Band", was found to be confusing, making it difficult to determine if a fellow bandmember was about to fail or identifying how much Star Power the band had accumulated. The Band tour was found to be little different from the single player modes, and lacked the additional incentives and challenges that "Rock Band" had. The note charts and the game's difficulty curve were found to be significantly easier than the more punishing ones in "Guitar Hero III". Critics did observe poor note charting, stating that some of the song charts "simply don't match the music" and that "you'll be asked to hit notes where there are none, or not hit notes that are there." The soundtrack was generally praised for containing all master recordings. However, critics found that the setlist contains very few standout hits, and that the inclusion of a number of foreign-language and difficult-to-recognize songs weakened the overall list. Reviews also commented on the number of songs that overlapped with "Rock Band 2"s set list.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: Reviews of the instrument peripherals for "World Tour" were mixed. The new touchpad on the guitar controller was found to be imprecise to make it difficult to use during difficult song sections and would sometimes fail to register taps or slides; some of these issues were attributed to initial manufacturing problems. The drum kit has been praised for the ease of setup, the drum pad layout, and the response of the drums, though the lack of a means to fix the location of bass drum pedal was seen as a drawback when compared to the "Rock Band" drum kit.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The music creation feature of the game, while seen as a useful addition to the game, was found to be difficult to use, suffered from on-screen lag that could interfere with song creation, and the quality of the resulting songs were compared to ring tones for cell phones. The character customization in "World Tour" was generally seen as an improvement over the limitations of "Rock Band". However, reviewers noted that the use of the real-life celebrities against the cartoon-like visuals, along with the emphasis on the band and not individual players, made their presence "anachronistic".


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: The Wii version received additional praise from reviewers, mostly from the changes in the Wii operation to accommodate the game's Music Store and online play features. The Mii Freestyle Mode was also found to be a good addition, allowing the game to be accessible for younger players. "IGN" noted that most of the credit for the Wii version is due to Vicarious Visions, as that "the only real aspects that hold the game back from being truly amazing overall are - oddly enough - the ones implemented by Neversoft's core design". It was awarded Best Music/Rhythm Game on the Wii by "IGN" in its 2008 video game awards. "IGN" also nominated it for several other Wii-specific awards, including Best Family Game, Best Online Multiplayer Game, and Game of the Year. In 2009, "Official Nintendo Magazine" remarked "It rocks!", placing the game 42nd on a list of greatest Nintendo games.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "World Tour" sold more than 534,000 units during its first week of release, less than half of the sales of "Guitar Hero III" during the same period, with the Wii version selling the most with 183,000 units. During the month of November 2008, 978,000 units were sold, with 475,000 being for the Wii platform. The Wii version was the fifth best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States, selling in excess of 850,000 copies. The PlayStation 2 version was the 17th best-selling game and best-selling PlayStation 2 game of the same month in that region. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions did not rank, but ranked the sixth and fifth best-selling games respectively for their respective systems. "World Tour" sold 3.4 million copies across all platforms in North America during 2008. Full band bundles represented 41% of all unit sales of "World Tour" through January 2009, equating to 61% of the game's revenue, while 35% of unit sales and 27% of total revenues came from the guitar and game bundle. In a March 2011 list, the NPG Group placed "World Tour" as the 7th highest-grossing game in the United States since 1995.


title: Guitar Hero World Tour

text: "Guitar Hero World Tour: Definitive Edition" is a community-made mod of the PC version of "World Tour". It not only contains every song from the base game, but also additional practice speeds, and a customizable highway. Players can also add songs from previous "Guitar Hero" games as well as new characters. The mod is still in active development and has been continuously updated since its launch in 2021.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: Sepideh Moafi (born September 18, 1985) is an Iranian-American actress and singer. Moafi is best known for her role as Gigi Ghorbani in "" and Loretta in "The Deuce". Moafi has also starred in Notorious, Falling Water and The Killing of Two Lovers.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: Moafi was born on September 18, 1985, in a refugee camp in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. Prior to her birth, her parents fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution. After two years in Turkey and then Germany, where Moafi's parents sought political asylum and claimed refugee status, Moafi's family were granted visas to move to the United States.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: During her childhood years, she studied opera and was later pulled into musical theatre and jazz. Moafi started singing at 15 years old and within a year had a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated in 2007. Moafi attended the University of California Irvine to study acting where she later graduated with an MFA in 2013.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2013, Moafi had her first on-screen credit in a guest-starring role as Aaliya Zaki in the tenth episode of season four of CBS's Blue Bloods.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2015, Moafi landed what would be her breakout role, a recurring role as Loretta in HBO's The Deuce, an American drama television series created by David Simon and George Pelecanos set during the 1970s and 1980s and explored the stories of sex-workers in New York. Before filming the pilot, Simon met Moafi for a coffee date and explained to Moafi what The Deuce was going to be about and what her character's arc, Loretta, on the show was going to be. While her character on The Deuce had been planned early on, Moafi subsequently landed a lead role in Notorious (a show which was to be filmed in Los Angeles) after meeting with Simon and before the pilot of The Deuce was filmed. Moafi wrote a letter to the executive producers of The Deuce, Simon, Pelecanos and Nina Kostroff Noble hoping that they would still let her be a part of The Deuce despite her regular gig on Notorious. The executive producers on The Deuce let Moafi continue to be a part of their show and worked around her schedule as the Deuce was mainly filmed in New York. However, as a result, Loretta's arc could not be fulfilled as initially planned and had to go a different direction because of Moafi's scheduling conflicts and she was only in three episodes in the first season of The Deuce. The pilot of the Deuce was shot in 2015 and the first season was shot a year later.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2016, Moafi starred as Megan Byrd on ABC's Notorious. The show is based on real-life criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos and "Larry King Live" news producer Wendy Walker. Moafi's character is a junior producer and booker on the fictional number one cable news show "Louise Herrick Live" and her character is considered to be the number-two to Julia George, played by Piper Perabo. While the show originally landed a 13-episode first season, ABC cut the first season to 10 episodes and the show was cancelled by ABC after one season.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: After Notorious was cancelled, Moafi continued to appear in her recurring role as Loretta on The Deuce, and her character was made a series regular in season 3, the final season. Moafi's character on The Deuce was initially a sex-worker working on the streets of New York and later became an anti-pornography activist, which was one of the main reasons Moafi wanted to continue to be a part of The Deuce despite her scheduling conflicts. To prepare for her role as Loretta, Moafi did research into the history of New York by reading books such as pimp and sex workers' memoirs and studied vintage porn to help her understanding of the historical context that the show was set in. Moafi has stated that The Deuce has changed and influenced her relationship and view of the porn industry after the stories portrayed in the show.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: While shooting the second season of The Deuce, Moafi starred in the role of Dahna in a musical off-Broadway "One Thousand Nights and One Day" which opened on April 15, 2018. Moafi has stated that her career ""started out in opera and then theater"" and considers opera to ""forever be a part of [her] artistic identity"".


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2018, Moafi was cast as a series regular on and starred as Alexis Simms in season 2 of Falling Water. Season 2 of Falling Water premiered in January 2018. Moafi's character was introduced as the new partner of NYPD detective Taka (played by Will Yun Lee) who later discovers the supernatural world in the show. In May 2018, USA Network announced the series' cancellation after its second season.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2019, Moafi was cast as Gigi Ghorbani on Showtime's , a reboot of the early 2000s lesbian classic, The L Word. Generation Q premiered on December 8, 2019. At the beginning of season 1 of Generation Q, Moafi's character was introduced as the ex-wife of Natalie "Nat" Bailey (played by Stephanie Allynne) who is currently dating Alice Pieszecki (played by Leisha Hailey), a character that originated in The L Word. Her character was well-received by fans and quickly became a fan-favorite among the new cast. In season 1, her character Gigi was involved in a "throuple"/polyamorous relationship with Alice and Nat. In season 2, her character further explored romantic relationships with Bette Porter (played by Jennifer Beals) and Dani Núñez (played by Arienne Mandi).


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2020, Moafi starred alongside Clayne Crawford in The Killing of Two Lovers, an American drama film written, directed, produced and edited by Robert Machoian. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020, and the film was released on May 14, 2021. The film tells the separation between the parents of four children in which Moafi plays Niki, the wife of Clayne Crawford's David.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In April 2021, Moafi was cast in the AppleTV+ American crime drama limited series Black Bird. Produced by Dennis Lehane, Moafi stars alongside Taron Egerton, Paul Walter Hauser and Greg Kinnear. Production for the series began in New Orleans in April 2021 and is based on the novel "" by James Keene and Hillel Levin. Moafi plays FBI agent Lauren McCauley in the true crime drama, an FBI agent who approaches protagonist Jimmy Keene about the Larry Hall operation. Moafi attended the premiere event on Wednesday June 29, 2022, at the Regency Bruin Theater in Los Angeles, California"." The six-episode limited series premiered globally on Friday, July 8, 2022 on Apple TV+.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In November 2021, Moafi was cast as "Hour" in the FX limited series "Class of '09" along side Brian J. Smith, Jake McDorman, Brooke Smith, joining previously announced leads Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara. The eight-part series produced by FX Productions revolves around a group of FBI agents who graduated from Quantico in 2009 and are reunited following the death of a mutual friend. The series is executive produced by Tom Rob Smith, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. "Class of '09" is scheduled to premiere Monday August 5, 2022 and will be aired exclusively on FX on Hulu.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2019, Moafi penned a first person essay which explains her experience as a refugee and why she feels that she has to help people in similar situations.


title: Sepideh Moafi

text: In 2021, Moafi was a special guest on "Girls Write Now", a writing and mentoring organisation for girls and gender-expansive teens. Moafi hosted a program titled ""Belonging: From Refugee to Hollywood"" as part of the Summer Salon series in February 2021.""


title: DoTerra

text: doTerra (styled dōTERRA) is a multi-level marketing company based in Pleasant Grove, Utah that sells essential oils and other related products. doTerra was founded in 2008 by former executives of Young Living and others. The company's products are sold through independent distributors called Wellness Advocates, using a multi-level marketing model to sell its products. Individuals receive commissions based on their own sales and the sales of others in their organization.


title: DoTerra

text: The company and its representatives have repeatedly come under fire for misleading claims that their products could help prevent or cure diseases such as cancer, autism, Ebola and more recently, COVID-19, even being the target of a warning from the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission. The assertion that aromatherapy can have curative properties beyond relaxation is not supported by the company.


title: DoTerra

text: The company was established in April 2008 by David Stirling, Emily Wright, David Hill, Corey B. Lindley, Gregory P. Cook, Robert J. Young, and Mark A. Wolfert. Stirling, Wright, and Hill were former executives of Young Living, a company that also sells essential oils via multi-level marketing. Its name is inspired by the Latin phrase for "gift of the Earth." The company initially launched with 25 single oils and ten oil blends.


title: DoTerra

text: In August 2013, Young Living filed suit against doTerra for theft of trade secrets, alleging that the company had re-created their production process illegally. During the lawsuit between the two companies, Young Living produced an analysis of doTerra products that suggested the company was using synthetic chemicals in their "organic" products. Testimony was given that the oils, which were tested by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, did not match any oils sold by doTerra. As of 2013, doTerra reported having about 450 corporate employees, 350 at the Utah headquarters, and 100 at offices in Taiwan, Japan, Europe, and Australia. Later, the company announced that it would build a new headquarters in Pleasant Grove, Utah. In 2014, the company was selling over 150 products such as supplements, personal care items, and essential oils.


title: DoTerra

text: In October 2014, the Fourth District Court dismissed the claims made against doTerra; the companies also settled lawsuits regarding faked lab tests, false advertising, and theft of trade secrets and withdrew their negative claims in relation to the purity of each other's products.


title: DoTerra

text: In 2015, the number of "Wellness Advocates" joining the company grew by more than 120 percent. By year-end 2015, the company claimed that it had generated more than $1 billion in sales. In April 2016, doTerra sent letters to distributors advising them that a breach in a system where personal information was stored had occurred in March 2016. Personal information potentially acquired in the breach included: names, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, debit and credit card numbers, usernames, and passwords. The company explained that a third-party vendor was at fault. To compensate, the company offered 24 months of credit monitoring through AllClear, a credit monitoring company.


title: DoTerra

text: As of 2017, doTerra reported having approximately 1,650 corporate employees and over 3 million Wellness Advocates across 100 countries.


title: DoTerra

text: In July 2018, the court ruled that Young Living acted in bad faith and had misled the court, thus the judge ordered Young Living to cover doTerra's attorney costs.


title: DoTerra

text: In 2021, doTerra recalled 1.3 million bottles of its oils due to the lack of child resistant packaging.


title: DoTerra

text: In April 2022, doTerra entered into a $5 million agreement with the University of Mississippi to research essential oils. As of May 2022, doTerra had 4,461 employees according to a spokesperson.


title: DoTerra

text: On September 22, 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an FDA Warning Letter to doTerra for its distributors marketing products as possible treatments or cures for Ebola, cancer, autism, and other conditions in violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Federal agents conducted an investigation of doTerra's files.


title: DoTerra

text: Some distributors have promoted the company's products for air purification and protecting against the health effects of smoke from the fires. It was alleged in 2018 that some distributors had offered personal stories to customers claiming that their child had benefited from essential oils.


title: DoTerra

text: In 2020, some doTerra distributors attempted to benefit from public concern regarding COVID-19 by claiming that the company's products have immune boosting properties, despite no scientific evidence to support such claims. The Federal Trade Commission warned the company it must stop making such unfounded health claims and exaggerated earnings by its distributors.


title: DoTerra

text: The doTerra Healing Hands Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established by doTerra in 2012. In 2016, the foundation partnered with the non-profit organization Choice Humanitarian to send staff and distributors to Nepal and Guatemala to install vented brick stoves for families.


title: DoTerra

text: In 2017, the doTerra Healing Hands organization began collecting donations from its distributors in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to cover the costs of providing relief packs containing samples of the company's products to evacuees in Dallas. In October 2017, "Pacific Standard" reported that after collecting donations, doTerra did not deliver the shipments, allegedly due to weather conditions, and described the incident as "a modern example of malfeasance masquerading as altruism—a type of scam often found in multi-level marketing organizations." In an update to their report in March 2018, "Pacific Standard" noted that doTerra did eventually send shipments of doTerra hygiene packs to residents in Houston.


title: DoTerra

text: In 2018, the company purchased $7.3 million of land in the Kealakekua Mountain Reserve to source its sandalwood on Hawaii's Big Island. doTerra announced a 10-year plan to use dead sandalwood for its essential oil production while keeping 75 percent of the land forested. It built a nursery on the reserve to grow saplings and protect from tree-killing species. doTerra has planted 300,000 native trees and claims it will plant more than 1 million by 2030.


Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat is the 12th season of the MTV reality game show, "The Challenge" (at the time known as "Real World/Road Rules Challenge").


title: Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat

text: "Fresh Meat" is a season that made history on "The Challenge" by being the first season to include previously unknown contestants as part of the cast. Previous to "Fresh Meat", all seasons functioned solely by the program's trademark: strictly using contestants that were previously cast on past seasons of "The Real World" or "Road Rules".


text: Filmed in Australia, "Fresh Meat" featured two-player teams; each team had an alumnus of "The Real World" or "Road Rules" partnered with a newcomer to the "Challenge" (collectively known as the "Fresh Meat"). This is the first edition of the "Fresh Meat" series, with "" following in 2010. A launch special aired May 22, 2006, a week before the season premiere.


text: Prior to the season, each of the 12 newcomers (referred to as "Fresh Meat") participates in a series of challenges to test their skills. Each alumnus selects one of the rookies of the opposite sex to be their partner for the entire season, using the stats from the pre-season challenges.


text: In odd-numbered episodes, teams participate in a challenge. (Challenges are sometimes called "missions.") The winner of the challenge has immunity from going into Exile, and selects one team to go into Exile. They also get the chance to pick the order in the next challenge. The remaining teams get together to vote for the other Exile team; the winning team and their pick for the Exile are not present during the process. Each individual gets a vote, and voting is not secret. The team with the most votes is picked to go into Exile.


text: In even-numbered episodes, teams participate in another challenge. If one of the two teams picked for Exile wins the challenge (sometimes referred to on the show as winning the "pardon"), they can select another team to go into Exile in their place, however, they cannot pick the team that won the previous challenge as that team has immunity. They also receive a prize and will get to pick the order in the next challenge. The challenge of this episode is followed by the Exile.


text: Exile is a race between two teams. Unlike the elimination games of other seasons of "The Challenge", the remaining teams do not watch the battle between the two Exile teams. The Exile teams run a course and whoever crosses the finish line first stays, while the other team goes home. Along the way, there are two optional puzzle stations where, if the puzzle is solved correctly, they will get a prize that will benefit them in the race (such as dropping their bags or taking minutes off their total time.) To make matters more difficult, each member will be carrying bags equal to the weight of the luggage they brought to the Challenge.


text: A car picks them up and they are taken, blindfolded, to the race course. Once the car stops, they must jump out and go on with the race. Both team members must cross the finish line, but it doesn't matter who carries what bags.


text: Initially, the final challenge was to consist of four teams, with first-place winning $250,000, second place $30,000, third place $20,000 and fourth place winning nothing. However, due to the medical disqualification of Team Coral & Evan, host T. J. Lavin explained to each team in Episode 11 that the final challenge would consist of three teams, with all finalists winning money.


text: Each of the 12 Fresh Meat cast members participated in a multi-challenge obstacle course, testing their strength, stamina, and mental ability.


text: Exile is a race between two teams with a start and a finish, and two puzzles in between. The puzzles are optional and can be skipped by the teams, however, teams "must" grab their flag at each puzzle before proceeding. Puzzles that are completed may result in a reward significant to the remainder of the race. Couples will be carrying bags that, when combined, equal the amount of luggage each cast member brought with them to the Challenge. Couples must carry the bags at all times, unless a reward allows them to drop them.


text: There are three different Exile courses on this season: Beach, Forest, and Cliffside. Each Exile contains a start, a finish, and two puzzles; however, the terrain of the course may affect a team's performance. Teams that participated on each course are as follows:


text: The reunion special, "Well Done: The Fresh Meat Reunion", was aired on September 11, 2006, and was hosted by Susie Castillo. It was revealed on the reunion show that Casey spent her $10,000 on breast implants, and Wes said he spent his on Johanna. Kenny spent his $15,000 on a wrestling ring.


text: In October 2011, Starkman and Santucci were named in a lawsuit filed by fellow castmember Tonya Cooley, in which Cooley claimed that she was raped with a toothbrush while passed out from heavy drinking, during filming of of "The Real World/Road Rules Challenge". The case was settled out of court on October 24, 2012. The details of the settlement have not been made public. Since then, Starkman got married and welcomed his first son.


text: Casey Cooper and Ryan Kehoe were flown out to Argentina with the initial cast of "" to serve as alternates although both were sent home after not being used. Both Cooper and Kehoe were ultimately cast on of "The Challenge: All Stars". Shortly after her appearance on the reality competition series, Cooper announced her pregnancy, and married husband Kyle Toups on December 7, 2021.


text: During the filming of "Fresh Meat", Diem Brown secretly revealed to her partner Derrick Kosinski and Aviv Melmed that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. During the "Fresh Meat" reunion show in 2006, MTV donated $5,000 to her then-charity organization "liveforthechallenge". In June 2012, after six years of remission, she announced that she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time. Shortly after successful completion of chemotherapy in February 2013, she competed in "". However, one year later, while filming her eighth (and final) challenge, "" in Panama, she collapsed on set and was immediately air-lifted to a New York-area hospital, where she was subsequently diagnosed with cancer for a third time, though she kept it hidden for two months prior to filming. Brown died on November 14, 2014, at the age of 34.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibilities of the states in addressing pollution and providing assistance to states to do so, including funding for publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment; and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The Clean Water Act was one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws. Its laws and regulations are primarily administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in coordination with state governments, though some of its provisions, such as those involving filling or dredging, are administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its implementing regulations are codified at 40 C.F.R. Subchapters D, N, and O (Parts 100-140, 401-471, and 501-503).


title: Clean Water Act

text: Technically, the name of the law is the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The first FWPCA was enacted in 1948, but took on its modern form when completely rewritten in 1972 in an act entitled the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. Major changes have subsequently been introduced via amendatory legislation including the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act (WQA) of 1987.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The Clean Water Act does not directly address groundwater contamination. Groundwater protection provisions are included in the Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Superfund act.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Contamination of drinking water supplies can not only occur in the source water but also in the distribution system. Sources of water contamination include naturally occurring chemicals and minerals (arsenic, radon, uranium), local land use practices (fertilizers, pesticides, concentrated feeding operations), manufacturing processes, and sewer overflows or wastewater releases. Some examples of health implications of water contamination are gastrointestinal illness, reproductive problems, and neurological disorders. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people whose immune systems are compromised because of AIDS, chemotherapy, or transplant medications, may be especially susceptible to illness from some contaminants.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Gastrointestinal disorders include such conditions as constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, perianal abscesses, anal fistulas, perianal infections, diverticular diseases, colitis, colon polyps and cancer. In general, children and the elderly are at highest risk for gastrointestinal disease. In a study investigating the association between drinking water quality and gastrointestinal illness in the elderly of Philadelphia, scientists found water quality 9 to 11 days before the visit was negatively associated with hospital admissions for gastrointestinal illness, with an interquartile range increase in turbidity being associated with a 9% increase


title: Clean Water Act

text: . The association was stronger in those over 75 than in the population aged 65–74. This example is a small reflection of residents of the United States remain at risk of waterborne gastrointestinal illness under current water treatment practices.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Reproductive problems refer to any illness of the reproductive system. New research by Brunel University and the University of Exeter strengthens the relationship between water pollution and rising male fertility problems. Study identified a group of chemicals that act as anti-androgens in polluted water, which inhibits the function of the male hormone, testosterone, reducing male fertility.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Neurological disorders are diseases of the brain, spine and the nerves that connect them. The new study of more than 700 people in California's Central Valley found that those who likely consumed contaminated private well water had a higher rate of Parkinson's. The risk was 90 percent higher for those who had private wells near fields sprayed with widely used insecticides. Unlike water supplies in large cities, private wells are mostly unregulated and are not monitored for contaminants. Many of them exist at shallow depths of less than 20 yards, and some of the crop chemicals used to kill pests and weeds can flow into ground water. Therefore, private wells are likely to contain pesticides, which can attack developing brains (womb or infancy), leading to neurological diseases later in life. A study led by UCLA epidemiology professor Beate Ritz suggests that "people with Parkinson’s were more likely to have consumed private well water, and had consumed it on average 4.3 years longer than those who did not have the disease."


title: Clean Water Act

text: All waters with a "significant nexus" to "navigable waters" are covered under the CWA; however, the phrase "significant nexus" remains open to judicial interpretation and considerable controversy. The 1972 statute frequently uses the term "navigable waters" but also defines the term as "waters of the United States, including the territorial seas." Some regulations interpreting the 1972 law have included water features such as intermittent streams, playa lakes, prairie potholes, sloughs and wetlands as "waters of the United States." In 2006, in "Rapanos v. United States", a plurality of the US Supreme Court held that the term "waters of the United States" "includes only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water 'forming geographic features' that are described in ordinary parlance as 'streams[,]... oceans, rivers, [and] lakes.'" Since "Rapanos", the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have attempted to define protected waters in the context of "Rapanos" through the 2015 Clean Water Rule, but this has been highly controversial.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The CWA introduced the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), a permit system for regulating point sources of pollution. Point sources include:


title: Clean Water Act

text: Point sources may not discharge pollutants to surface waters without an NPDES permit. The system is managed by EPA in partnership with state environmental agencies. EPA has authorized 47 states to issue permits directly to the discharging facilities. The CWA also allows tribes to issue permits, but no tribes have been authorized by EPA. In the remaining states and territories, the permits are issued by an EPA regional office. (See Titles III and IV.)


title: Clean Water Act

text: In legislation prior to 1972, Congress had authorized states to develop water quality standards, which would limit discharges from facilities based on the characteristics of individual water bodies. However, those standards were to be developed only for interstate waters, and the science to support that process (i.e. data, methodology) was in the early stages of development. That system was not effective, and there was no permit system in place to enforce the requirements. In the 1972 CWA, Congress added the permit system and a requirement for technology-based effluent limitations.


title: Clean Water Act

text: In the 2020 Supreme Court case "County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund", the Court also validated that some discharges may not be point sources, but are the "functional equivalent of a direct discharge" to navigable waters, such as in this case, the injection of wastewater into groundwater injection wells. As of the time of the case's decision, this was not an area the EPA has established regulations for, and the Court instructed the EPA to work with the courts to define such functional equivalents. The Court wrote that this would likely depend most on the distance the pollutants traveled and time to reach navigable waters, with consideration for the material that the pollutants traveled through, any physical or chemical interaction of the pollutants with components in the ground, and how much of the pollutant makes it to the navigable water. In July 2021, following the Supreme Court decision, the Hawaii District Court determined that the Maui County sewage treatment plant's groundwater injection of sewage was the "functional equivalent of a direct discharge" and required the plant to obtain an NPDES permit.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The 1972 CWA created a new requirement for technology-based standards for point source discharges. EPA develops those standards for categories of dischargers, based on the performance of pollution control technologies without regard to the conditions of a particular receiving water body. The intent of Congress was to create a "level playing field" by establishing a basic national discharge standard for all facilities within a category, using a "Best Available Technology." The standard becomes the minimum regulatory requirement in a permit. If the national standard is not sufficiently protective at a particular location, then water quality standards may be employed, and the permit authority (state or EPA) will include water quality-based effluent limitations in the permit.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The 1972 act authorized continued use of the water quality-based approach, but in coordination with the technology-based standards. After application of technology-based standards to a permit, if water quality is still impaired for the particular water body, then the permit agency may add water quality-based limitations to that permit. The additional limitations are to be more stringent than the technology-based limitations and would require the permittee to install additional controls. Water quality standards consist of four basic elements: 1) Designated uses; 2) Water quality criteria; 3) Antidegradation policy and 4) General policies.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The water quality standards regulations require states and federally recognized tribes/nations to specify appropriate uses for water bodies in their jurisdiction. Identification of appropriate water uses takes into consideration the usage and value of public water supply, protection of fish, wildlife, recreational waters, agricultural, industrial and navigational water ways. Suitability of a water body is examined by states and tribes/nations usages based on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. States and tribes/nations also examine geographical settings, scenic qualities and economic considerations to determine fitness of designated uses for water bodies. If those standards indicate designated uses to be less than those currently attained, states or tribes are required to revise standards to reflect the uses that are actually being attained. For any body of water with designated uses that do not include "fishable/swimmable" target use that is identified in section 101(a)(2) of CWA, a "Use Attainability Analysis" must be conducted. Every three years, such bodies of water must be re-examined to verify if new information is available that demand a revision of the standard. If new information is available that specify “fishable/swimmable” uses can be attained, the use must be designated.


title: Clean Water Act

text: States and federally recognized Indigenous Nations protect their designated areas by adopting water quality criteria that the EPA publishes under CWA section 304(a), modifying the criteria to reflect site-specific conditions or adopting criteria based on other scientifically defensible methods. Water quality criteria can be numeric criteria that toxicity causes are known for protection against pollutants. A narrative criterion is water quality criteria which serves as a basis for limiting the toxicity of waste discharges to aquatic species. A biological criterion is based on the aquatic community which describes the number and types of species in a water body. A nutrient criterion solely protects against nutrient over enrichment, and a sediment criterion describes conditions of contaminated and uncontaminated sediments in order to avoid undesirable effects.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The water quality regulations include an anti-degradation policy that requires states and tribes to establish a three-tiered anti-degradation program. Anti-degradation procedures identify steps and questions that need to be addressed when specific activities affect water quality. "Tier 1" requirements are applicable to all surface waters. These requirements maintain and protect current uses and the water quality conditions to support existing uses. Current uses are identified by showing that fishing, swimming, and other water uses have occurred and are suitable since November 28, 1975. "Tier 2" requirements maintains and protects water bodies with existing conditions that are better to support "fishable/swimmable" uses pursuant to CWA section 101(a)(2). "Tier 3" requirements maintain and protect water quality in "outstanding national resource waters" (ONRWs), which are the highest quality waters in the US with ecological significance.


title: Clean Water Act

text: States and Native American tribes also adopt general policies pertaining to water quality standards that are subject to review and approval by the EPA. Those provisions on water quality standards include mixing zones, variance, and low flow policies. Mixing zone policy is defined area surrounding a point source discharge where sewage is diluted by water. Methodology of mixing zone procedure determines the location, size, shape and quality of mixing zones. Variance policy temporarily relax water quality standard and are alternatives to removing a designated use. States and tribes may include variance as part of their water quality standard. Variance is subject to public review every three years and warrant development towards improvement of water quality. The "Low Flow" policy pertains to states and tribes water quality standards that identify procedures applied to determining critical low flow conditions.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Most NPDES permittees are required to collect samples of their wastewater and analyze the samples using test methods specified in their permits. EPA publishes analytical methods that are used by the permittees. The procedures identify chemical compounds and microbiological components of wastewater, as required by the act. Some of the chemical compound test procedures include the chemical detection of trace elements such as cancer-causing metals. Some microbiological test procedures use microbial source tracking (MST) techniques to calculate and identify biological and chemical trends that may support new regulatory limits on pollutants.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Congress exempted some water pollution sources from the point source definition in the 1972 CWA and was unclear on the status of some other sources. Such sources were therefore considered to be nonpoint sources that were not subject to the permit program.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Agricultural stormwater discharges and irrigation return flows were specifically exempted from permit requirements. Congress, however, provided support for research, technical and financial assistance programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve runoff management practices on farms. "See" Natural Resources Conservation Service.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Stormwater runoff from industrial sources, municipal storm drains, and other sources were not specifically addressed in the 1972 law. EPA had declined to include urban runoff and industrial stormwater discharges in its initial implementation of the NPDES program, and subsequently the agency was sued by an environmental group. In 1977, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that stormwater discharges must be covered by the permit program.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Research conducted starting in the late 1970s and 1980s indicated that stormwater runoff was a significant cause of water quality impairment in many parts of the US. In the early 1980s, the EPA conducted the Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP) to document the extent of the urban stormwater problem. The agency began to develop regulations for stormwater permit coverage but encountered resistance from industry and municipalities, and there were additional rounds of litigation. The litigation was pending when Congress considered further amendments to the CWA in 1986.


title: Clean Water Act

text: In the Water Quality Act of 1987, Congress responded to the stormwater problem by defining industrial stormwater dischargers and municipal separate storm sewer systems (often called "MS4") as point sources, and requiring them to obtain NPDES permits, by specific deadlines. The permit exemption for agricultural discharges continued, but Congress created several programs and grants, including a demonstration grant program at the EPA to expand the research and development of non point controls and management practices.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Congress created a major public works financing program for municipal sewage treatment in the 1972 CWA. A system of grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment plants was authorized and funded in Title II. In the initial program, the federal portion of each grant was up to 75 percent of a facility's capital cost, with the remainder financed by the state. In subsequent amendments Congress reduced the federal proportion of the grants and in the 1987 WQA transitioned to a revolving loan program in Title VI. Industrial and other private facilities are required to finance their own treatment improvements on the "polluter pays" principle.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Congress passed the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 (WIFIA) to provide an expanded credit program for water and wastewater infrastructure projects, with broader eligibility criteria than the previously-authorized revolving fund unter CWA Title VI. Pursuant to WIFIA, EPA established its Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center in 2015 to help local governments and municipal utilities design innovative financing mechanisms, including public–private partnerships. Congress amended the WIFIA program in 2015, 2016 and 2018.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Title I includes a "Declaration of Goals and Policy" and various grant authorizations for research programs and pollution control programs. Some of the programs authorized by the 1972 law are ongoing (e.g. section 104 research programs, section 106 pollution control programs, section 117 Chesapeake Bay Program) while other programs no longer receive funds from Congress and have been discontinued.


title: Clean Water Act

text: To assist municipalities in building or expanding sewage treatment plants, also known as publicly owned treatment works (POTW), Title II established a system of construction grants. The 1972 CWA provided that federal funds would support 75% of project costs, with state and local funds providing the remaining 25%. In 1981 Congress reduced the federal funding proportion for most grants to 55%.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The construction grant program was replaced by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund in the 1987 WQA ("see" Title VI), although some local utilities continued to receive "special purpose project grants" directly from Congress, through a budgetary procedure known as "earmarking."


title: Clean Water Act

text: Under the 1972 act EPA began to issue technology-based standards for municipal and industrial sources.


title: Clean Water Act

text: As of 2020 the effluent guidelines and categorical pretreatment standards regulations have been published for 59 categories and apply to approximately 40,000 facilities that discharge directly to the nation's waters, 129,000 facilities that discharge to POTWs, and construction sites. These regulations are responsible for preventing the discharge of almost 700 billion pounds of pollutants each year. EPA has updated some categories since their initial promulgation and has added new categories.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The secondary treatment standards for POTWs and the effluent guidelines are implemented through NPDES permits. (See Title IV.) The categorical pretreatment standards are typically implemented by POTWs through permits that they issue to their industrial users.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The CWA requires states to monitor their water bodies and establish Water Quality Standards for them. Water Quality Standards (WQS) are risk-based requirements which set site-specific allowable pollutant levels for individual water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. States set WQS by designating uses for the water body (e.g., recreation, water supply, aquatic life, agriculture) and applying water quality criteria (numeric pollutant concentrations and narrative requirements) to protect the designated uses. An antidegradation policy is also issued by each state to maintain and protect existing uses and high quality waters.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Water bodies that do not meet applicable water quality standards with technology-based controls alone are placed on the section 303(d) list of water bodies not meeting standards. Water bodies on the 303(d) list require development of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet WQS. The TMDL is determined after study of the specific properties of the water body and the pollutant sources that contribute to the non-compliant status. Generally, the TMDL determines load based on a Waste Load Allocation (WLA), Load Allocation (LA), and Margin of Safety (MOS) Once the TMDL assessment is completed and the maximum pollutant loading capacity defined, an implementation plan is developed that outlines the measures needed to reduce pollutant loading to the non-compliant water body, and bring it into compliance. Over 60,000 TMDLs are proposed or in development for U.S. waters in the next decade and a half.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Following the issuance of a TMDL for a water body, implementation of the requirements involves modification to NPDES permits for facilities discharging to the water body to meet the WLA allocated to the water body (see Title IV). The development of WQS and TMDL is a complex process, both scientifically and legally, and it is a resource-intensive process for state agencies.


title: Clean Water Act

text: More than half of U.S. stream and river miles continue to violate water quality standards. Surveys of lakes, ponds and reservoirs indicated that about 70 percent were impaired (measured on a surface area basis), and a little more than 70 percent of the nation's coastlines, and 90 percent of the surveyed ocean and near coastal areas were also impaired.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The primary mode of informing the quality of water of rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, estuaries, coastal waters and wetlands of the U.S. is through the "National Water Quality Inventory Report." Water quality assessments are conducted pursuant to water quality standards adopted by states and other jurisdictions (territories, interstate commissions and tribes). The report is conveyed to Congress as a means to inform Congress and the public of compliance with quality standards established by states, territories and tribes. The assessments identify water quality problems within the states and jurisdictions, list the impaired and threatened water bodies, and identify non-point sources that contribute to poor water quality. Every two years states must submit reports that describe water quality conditions to EPA with a complete inquiry of social and economic costs and benefits of achieving goals of the Act.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Under section 309, EPA can issue administrative orders against violators, and seek civil or criminal penalties when necessary.


title: Clean Water Act

text: States that are authorized by EPA to administer the NPDES program must have authority to enforce permit requirements under their respective state laws.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Section 316 requires standards for thermal pollution discharges, as well as standards for cooling water intake structures (e.g., fish screens). These standards are applicable to power plants and other industrial facilities.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The 1987 amendments created the Nonpoint Source Management Program under CWA section 319. This program provides grants to states, territories and Indian tribes to support demonstration projects, technology transfer, education, training, technical assistance and related activities designed to reduce nonpoint source pollution. Grant funding for the program averaged $210 million annually for Fiscal Years 2004 through 2008.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Congress amended the CWA in 1996 to require development of Uniform National Discharge Standards ("UNDS") for military vessels. EPA and the Department of Defense published standards in 2017 and 2020.


title: Clean Water Act

text: States are required to certify that discharges authorized by federal permits will not violate the state's water quality standards.


title: Clean Water Act

text: The NPDES permits program is authorized by CWA section 402. The initial permits issued in the 1970s and early 1980s focused on POTWs and industrial wastewater—typically "process" wastewater and cooling water where applicable, and in some cases, industrial stormwater. The 1987 WQA expanded the program to cover stormwater discharges explicitly, both from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) and industrial sources. The MS4 NPDES permits require regulated municipalities to use Best Management Practices to reduce pollutants to the "Maximum Extent Practicable." MS4s serve over 80% of the US population and provide drainage for 4% of the land area.


title: Clean Water Act

text: POTWs with combined sewers are required to comply with the national "Combined Sewer Overflow Control Policy," published by EPA in 1994. The policy requires municipalities to make improvements to reduce or eliminate overflow-related pollution problems. About 860 communities in the US have combined sewer systems, serving about 40 million people.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Non-stormwater permits typically include numeric effluent limitations for specific pollutants. A numeric limitation quantifies the maximum pollutant load or concentration allowed in the discharge, e.g., 30 mg/L of biochemical oxygen demand. Exceeding a numeric limitation constitutes a violation of the permit, and the discharger is subject to fines as laid out in section 309. Facilities must periodically monitor their effluent (i.e., collect and analyze wastewater samples), and submit Discharge Monitoring Reports to the appropriate agency, to demonstrate compliance. Stormwater permits typically require facilities to prepare a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and implement best management practices, but do not specify numeric effluent limits and may not include regular monitoring requirements. Some permits cover both stormwater and non-stormwater discharges. NPDES permits must be reissued every five years. Permit agencies (EPA, states, tribes) must provide notice to the public of pending permits and provide an opportunity for public comment.


title: Clean Water Act

text: In 2012, EPA estimated that there are over 500,000 stormwater permittees. This number includes permanent facilities such as municipal (POTW, MS4) and industrial plants; and construction sites, which are temporary stormwater dischargers.


title: Clean Water Act

text: Section 404 requires that a discharger of dredged or fill material obtain a permit, unless the activity is eligible for an exemption. Essentially, all discharges affecting the bottom elevation of a jurisdictional water body require a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). These permits are an essential part of protecting streams and wetlands, which are often filled by land developers. Wetlands are vital to the ecosystem in filtering streams and rivers and providing habitat for wildlife.


title: Clean Water Act

text: There are two main types of wetlands permits: general permits and individual permits. General permits change periodically and cover broad categories of activities, and require the permittee to comply with all stated conditions. General permits (such as the "Nationwide Permits") are issued for fill activities that will result in minimal adverse effects to the environment. Individual permits are utilized for actions that are not addressed by a general permit, or that do not meet the conditions of a General Permit. In addition, individual permits typically require more analysis than do the general permits, and usually require much more time to prepare the application and to process the permit.


title: Clean Water Act

text: When the USACE processes an application for an Individual Permit, it must issue a public notice describing the proposed action described in the permit application. Although the Corps District Engineer makes the decision to grant a permit, the EPA Administrator may veto a permit if it is not reasonable. Before making such a decision, however, EPA must consult with the USACE. A USACE permit typically expires after five years.